Ruby Mage
Copyright © 2020 Dan Raxor.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
ASIN: B08PBB5LY5
Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously.
Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination.
CHAPTER 1
Montana Badlands - July 2021
My chisel slammed into the hard rock, uncovering a sparkling surprise that was an anomaly. A boisterous cheer of joy alerted my sister of my find.
“Whaddya got, Trevor?” Lidia asked, walking over.
I fought my urge to tease her. Lidia came to the badlands wearing sandals, spandex volleyball shorts, and a top that could fit our pre-teen sister.
Archeology was a fairly mixed field of the sexes, and generally, students were the fit adventuring type. Lidia saw one photo from my digging team, all in gear for long field excursions, and this is what she wore. Honestly, I hadn’t expected her to join me on the dig site when I offered.
The badlands were a stark contrast to what she was used to. Lidia was a city girl; a reclusive editor for a minor publishing house, though she didn’t dress like one. She traveled to Montana with one thing in mind — and it wasn’t shiny trinkets or dinosaur bones. I didn’t fault her motives and there certainly were worse people to have on a dig.
The brutal, dry heat left me gulping water. I tugged a cloth off my belt, pouring water over the hand towel before wiping it across my grimy forehead and bristly cheeks. With a sigh of relief, I wrapped the cool cloth around my neck.
Instead of answering my sister, I showed her my latest mysterious gem.
“Uh… Trevor, hate to burst your bubble, but that’s a simple rock,” Lidia said in a sassy tone.
“You’re saying this looks like an ordinary stone?” I asked. “Do you at least see a ruby shape?”
She had to be mistaken.
To me, the gem was a sucking void of blackness, dazzling sparkles of shine reflecting off the surfaces to create a vortex illusion. The shape was that generally defined by the shape of a ruby.
She gazed at me as if I were a loon. “There’s no shine, and it appears to be a throwing stone. You know, the kind you skip on the lake.”
Not to me they weren’t. The mystery fueled me forward to find more.
“You uncover anything?” I asked.
“Sheesh, I can’t uncover any more without going indecent.” We both chuckled, sharing warm smiles. While seeing my sister half naked was odd. I didn’t want to make her angry. “I keep bending over but those hunks over there are ignoring me. You’d think the sexy book worm would bring the boys to the yard,” Lidia said, causing me to roll my eyes.
“They’re here to work… just work,” I paused, smiling at her.
My sister was a bit desperate, but this was her vacation. I could feel the desire for excitement oozing off her. While I wanted to pound away at rocks, she wanted to pound—
“Trevor! Come look,” Kirk shouted from around the cliff’s bend.
“Be cool,” my sister whispered to me.
I snickered. “They’re you know, just normal people, and I’m one of them. I fit in here.” I set my tools down. With animated hands I said, “Somehow.”
Growing up had been awkward. I’d always been a man’s man, sorta. The isolated in the woods while hunting type. Still was a limited talker and a doer.
Where my sister was comfortable flaunting her figure, hitting on men, and casually taking what she wanted, I wasn’t when it came to girls.
My outfit was a prime example of our differences. It was practical for starters. I wore jeans, a long-sleeved thick shirt, and a big brimming adventurer’s hat to protect me from the scorching sun. My attire carried sweat stains, grime, and stitched rips from wear. My hair was buzz cut, and my armpits smelled sour.
Being a guy’s guy in my generation was fine, and even normal, but I really was an introvert, and preferred my studies to parties or exploratory dating.
Beverly, one of my fellow students and part of the ‘it crowd’, had made me feel welcome. A few months ago when she asked me for coffee, I went eagerly. I must have said something awkward or had a booger hanging out of my nose, because I never got asked for an intimate setting again. However, she was always friendly after; including me in conversations or discoveries.
Beverly was beside Dirk going over his exciting discovery that was a molar of some herbivore. The find would garner attention, likely requiring a professor or thorough scanning to identify.
Now that we were up close, and with the digging at a rest, Kirk and Garret were laser focused on my big sister.
After asking them about my gem, and hearing it was just a plain rock, I snuck away unnoticed. Lidia was asking for tips on how to chisel the hard rock in a sultry tone.
Ugh. I rolled my eyes, feeling embarrassed, but moving on.
There were still hours left in the day that I wanted to exploit. These tiny gems motivated me. The fact they were stones to others was something I couldn’t explain. They interested me enough to ignore Kirk flirting with my sister. My peripheral caught Beverly looking jealous, and suddenly I figured out who Kirk’s secret late night bunk buddy was.
I sighed, letting the situation only help me focus more on my odd find. What was this stone that the others thought was normal?
With the sun at its zenith, my mind drifted into my habitable safe space while chipping away. Thoughts of a cozy cabin, a warm fire, and a good book.
Hours went by in a blink. I only found three more mystery stones, bringing my total to four. My mind was zoned out studying the rock when Garret arrived, his voice pulling me from my inspection.
“Lidia is something else. Not a digger, that’s for sure,” Garret said cautiously.
Digger was the term we archeology students gave ourselves. During summer break this mission into the badlands was not for extra credit or points with the professor. It was merely us doing what we loved before our thesis year. Garret was fidgeting nervously, an unusual trait for him.
“Lidia is a real treasure, worth far more than these stones or fossils,” I replied. He hesitated again. “What do you want?”
“I was sent over by Kirk,” Garret said, rubbing the back of his suntanned neck.
“Not following.”
“We want to go for a round at the ‘grease pit’, as you call it,” Garret said with a grunt.
Ah, yes. The local biker bar.
Montana was not a refined place.
While I could easily sit on a bar stool downing a dollar beer in a plastic cup, I preferred an aged whiskey served to me in a lounge.
Vain? Maybe, but we all have our quirks.
It didn’t take much to deduce I was being invited as the tag-along.
“Pass, Garret,” I said, glaring him with lethal intent. “Anything happens to her and you’ll go to sleep one night... and never wake up again.”
“And if she ends up in my bed, or Kirk’s room?”
I rolled my eyes. “Her safety is my concern. She can hump you both for all I care. Drama free is the only way for me. Have fun though, I mean it. It’s her vacation, and you're my co-workers.”
“Friends, Trevor. I’d like to think we're friends.”
“Eh, at times maybe. Sorry, I’m being a dick. There is a discovery here… I just know it. Keep my sister safe and have fun. So help me if she gets hurt,” I said with what I hoped was a warning in my voice.
My boots crunched over the grit. I trekked for my jeep, plastering a fake smile on my face, and waving goodbye to the team.
I flicked my jeep on, roaring the engine to drown out the requests to get me to tag along. As I sped off, the image of the happy group shrinking in my rear-view helped me let go of my angst.
There was something far more pressing. I needed to figure out what the hell these stones were, because to me, they were almost magical.
CHAPTER 2
Montana Badlands - Summer 2022
My thesis was a roaring success. I decided to cover Pompeii pottery preservation and interior preserves. Basically, what was in the jars when the volcano went off, and how uncovering those artifacts was a boon to understanding the past.
Yeah, it was about as fun to write about as it was to research. My university life was less about crossing that finish line with a degree than about fulfilling my parents’ dream for me. I know, harsh to say, but the truth.
Digging was my passion. Spoiler here. There is almost no money in digging.
So…
What did I do with my degree?
Did I apply to the seven global job openings to compete with the thirty four graduates just from my class?
No, no I did not.
Those gems. It all came back to those gems that I showed everyone, and no one noticed them like me.
It drove me nuts that they lost their allure, converting into plain stone over the months after finding them. The brightest one shone for half a year before going dim. So many unanswered questions that I lost countless nights of sleep over.
Why!? The question hounded me.
I wasted enough hours following every internet link out there to trigger an FBI alert. They’d probably think I was crazy, and maybe I was.
Except, I wasn’t a quitter. Never had been, never would be.
Which is why I became a Makoshika state park ranger. That’s right, I obtained an expensive degree to do menial work.
Being outdoors was nice. The warm weather was great while I collected litter, handled overfilled garbage cans, and got berated by out of state tourists not wanting to pay a fee for admissions.
All for $19.80 an hour.
Yeah, for real, being a park ranger paid pretty decently and sure beat a cubicle. There was a dorm option for me to summer in, but I rented an upper bedroom suit above a bar.
The problem was everyone in Montana seemed to be a frequent drinker, meaning there were bars literally on every corner of mild civilization.
Yeah, dad pitched a fit about his money going to waste and mom said I always had good judgement. I assured them things would improve going forward and that university was a stepping stone. I made up some bullshit to buy me some time.
This whole thing revolved around my determination to find answers.
So there I was, on my weekend off, rounding the bend to the dig site where big sis stole the spotlight over a year ago. The sun was rising, the plant life in full bloom, and the clay colorations were coming to life with those early rays.
There was an unmatched serenity here as I crunched over the gritty rubble in my hiking boots. I loved the way the sun blasted the dried out terrain into seven hundred shades of brown, red, and gray.
A steep cliff, twenty feet high, rose to my left. The picking wall was prime for seeing what secrets she held and yes, I considered the wall a female the same way others called a boat a she. This sexy lady was primed for my attention. My fingers ran over the jutting crags of clay, feeling every bump of the coarse material.
This part of the park was peaceful, quiet, and perfect for a morning of digging. A glance up into the skyline confirmed what the weather predicted, a warm, cloud free, sunny day.
When I arrived at the same spot I stood a year ago, I pulled the pouch of plain stones out of my cargo pocket.
A solid week of ranger orientation, five days of menial labor, and I was finally here. I let out a soothing sigh, kneeling against the loose clay.
When I dumped the stones out, they danced over the dirt. Unfortunately, they remained remarkably boring.
Pulling a mini pick off my belt, I dug some dirt into a pile, covering the stones, and hoping this would revert them to their former glory… Nope.
I shuffled to the wall, still on my knees, and dug a hole. I stuck a single stone in. Nothing.
“What!?” I exclaimed.
Yeah, a guy can talk to himself and not be crazy. Mom said it was perfectly normal… others were still on the fence.
“I don’t get it,” I muttered, refusing to shout. “I thought a god would drop down, explaining I was the next badass superman. That's right, I watch those movies and love them.”
I shook my clenched fist at the sky in mock anger.
“Then I knew something special or magical would happen. Maybe my dream would unlock a new realm with a purgatory guide. A ghost would tell me I'm really an oracle or psychic,” I said, spinning around, all by my lonesome.
“Oh, can’t forget the theory I was going to present a ruby shaped gem to a bikini babe with legs up to the sky and who happened to be a divine pole sucker. Nope… Instead I was baffled, stymied, and denied my dues.”
A bird judged me from the top of the cliff. I sighed, giving up on my pleading for divine answers. I left the stone in its divot, not letting my rambling truly kill my focus.
I laid out a thick canvas of cowhide over the rough ground. My trusty bucket had all the tools that would stab me if they were in my belt.
A big mining pick that was sacrilege on most dig sites was my first tool. I was gem hunting, not seeking fossils.
With a grunting heave I smashed into a section of wall that was roughly where I’d been digging last year. Clods of clay went flying, causing me to flinch as specks hit my face.
“Right, eye protection. Last thing I need is a safety violation,” I said, smirking at my own words.
Going to work on the wall was a mix of stress, relief, and anxiety.
I was allowed to feel perturbed by the fact I carried around mysterious gems for a year to no avail.
At some point, I had convinced myself I had a heatstroke; my mind was adjusting to what it saw on a continual basis because I damaged it.
There really was no other rational explanation. Of course, my self-doubt twisting into fears of being crazy came to a crashing halt when I swung again.
A fist-sized section of wall crashed down, eroding the clay above it with sprinklings of debris trickling down.
Good, that could have gone worse!
There was a pop that triggered a crackling rumble so intense, I bent my knees to balance myself.
Uh oh.
There was a tension war between the weight up high and the support down low. A snap echoed loud enough for my ears rang.
What the hell was that?!
I stepped back, deciding I was nowhere near far enough, and ran for distance. The section of cliff I had been working on peeled off; as if an iceberg were shedding a sleeve of ice.
When that portion of Montana came crashing down there was a resounding boom, a wave of air washed over me, and a thick cloud of billowing dust blanketed the area.
I stood there in dismay at what had just transpired. I wanted to point at the new kid beside me and blame them, but there was only me, and the big pickaxe in my hand.
When my hacking abated, I muttered, “Good thing I wore my safety goggles.”
I let out a guffaw at my own ridiculous words.
Was it normal to laugh at your own jokes or an epic fart only you heard? Yes, yes it was.
I hesitantly trekked over the fallen debris, each step exceedingly careful. After the brisk morning air whisked away the thick cloud of dust, I was shocked.
What I saw was unnerving. A whole section of sparkling rubies was showcased on the exposed cliff face. Each one had dazzling displays with that central black hole of a vortex.
There were dozens and dozens of them sporadically glistening in the sun. My jaw dropped.
Walking over the fallen section of rock revealed more gems at my feet. When I was certain there were no further collapses coming, I hurried to the point where my previous stones were covered.
For whatever reason they still haunted me.
I hastily shifted rubble, trying to locate the old gems that I sought. Five minutes of searching resulted in me finding the original stones.
They were still plain, but their shapes were back to what a person would think of an ruby. I snatched the largest one out of the pile, racing for a different gem chest high on the wall.
Not that I was in a hurry, but the year of wanting to figure out answers had me feeling this was urgent.
I touched the old plain ruby to the exposed shining ruby and-
A blast of blackness shot out in a firework type eruption. The very fabric of sunlight itself was soaked into this blackness.
I…
I struggled to comprehend. My breathing increased until I found my calm, forcing it under control. The gem I held in my hand had converted from plain stone to a black vortex in its core with dazzling illuminations of purple.
For the first time since holding these stones, I was ecstatic.
There were no questions lingering, no doubt, and certainly no pessimism. A feeling of cloud nine radiated through me.
With a shout of joy I jumped into the air with a fist pump of self-congratulations.
Normally, a euphoric revelation was a wondrous feeling.
One tiny problem.
My amazement at the moment had distracted me. Glancing around, I realized I was no longer in Montana.
Shit.
CHAPTER 3
Location Unknown - Date Unknown
An echo resounded through a long hall. I found myself beside two marvelously crafted wooden doors with intricate designs.
The end of the hallway glowed with a radiant brightness that hurt to peer into.
A black void hovered over my palm; the gem was sucking up light as it spewed purple.
Looking around, I noticed there were only two ways to go. There was a door ahead, and the door behind.