Chapter Five

Questions and Unexpected Answers

Joe and Fred could barely finish their first bowl of stew whereas, Rocssanna and William finished two, and Sky, on the other hand, was on her third and thinking about a fourth serving of stew. She looked to the others watching her eat and banished the thought not wanting to look gluttonous. She was now conscious of how she may have looked while eating and blushed at the thought. Sky noticed her spoon still looked like a spoon and smiled. She was not used to the utensils staying straight while she ate.” Mommy, the spoon looks the same as when I started!” She said showing the spoon to her mother. Rocssanna looked at the spoon it was slightly bent, it nowhere near as distorted as her spoons used to get. Joe ached to see the spoon, and she proudly passed it over to him for inspection. Joe reached for the spoon with an outstretched arm. He was not expecting the simple utensil to weigh as much as it did and almost dropped it. He brought it closer to see tiny marks and nicks in the surface. The spoon was a little bent; he thought briefly of bending it straight but stopped with a grin. “Here Fred, look at this spoon, I’ve never seen one like it anywhere!” Fred had seen Joe’s mistake and took it knowing it was heavy, Fred also saw the marks and the slight bend. Fred being the perfectionist he was, he tried to straighten it with one hand so Sky wouldn’t see that she had indeed bent it. After the first failed attempt, he gave up the pertinence of hiding the fact it was bent and tried to straighten it with two hands. With great effort, he did it. Flushed faced he handed the spoon back to Sky. “Thanks, Mr. Fred, Mommy usually fixes them for me. I usually make them worse, and we end up throwing them for recycling. It’s not as bad as before I got the new type of utensils. Before that, I used to eat the head of the spoon or fork quite often. Now they get bent and twisted there are even chunks missing sometimes. If you want Mr. Joe Mommy can fix your suit for you now?”

With a chuckle, Joe answered her. “That’s okay sweetie I can fix the suit with magic. I want to thank you and your parents for dinner. I’ve never had food quite like it before. I’m looking forward to later if my guess is correct”.

“You and your parents are coming with us into space?” Fred told a now beaming Sky.

“Mommy, daddy is that true are we going into space with Mr. Fred and Mr. Joe.” Sky was in front in two quick steps. “Is flying in space fun Mr. Fred. I’ve always dreamed of flying through space doing magic. Now I can fly through space and pretend with everyone magic is real”. Sky said finishing her sentence with an ear-popping squeal

William looked to Rocssanna and smiled. “You would be correct on that assumption. We would be asked to leave after Sky’s display of magical abilities and the fact there’s no point hiding anymore here. We would have moved on sometime soon anyway. That’s why I could drag the house into a pocket space; I made it that way, mobile.” William decided to drop the joke no one laughs the first or second time. The third time would make himself feel worse if no one laughed and he had to explain the old joke.

"Alright now for a question and answer session. Fred and I are overflowing with curiosity about the three of you.” Just as Joe was going to ask his first question Sky yawned and her head drooped down almost hitting the table. Rocssanna looked to Sky and seen she was having a hard time staying awake. Joe to realize she should have slept long ago with the stress she went through. Any full mage would Not have been awake for long after’ receiving the first tome of magic, she went through ten and was hooked up to the ships magic generator for over half an hour. Rocssanna was about to ask if Sky could skip any questions for now. Joe had beaten her to it. “I think a certain angel needs some sleep I’m could make up a bunk for her if you want. Fred could still ask some questions while I’m getting her tucked in. We are on a listening network while with guests on the ship." Rocssanna looked to William and shook her head “NO!” She turned to Joe. “Point Sky and me in the right direction where she can sleep, Sky has some nightwear to change into before bed. Plus, William and I are telepathically connected so we can hear and answer questions directed to either one of us. So, point the way so I can get our precious little daughter to bed."

Fred lift his wrist to show a wrist tablet, pressed some buttons and said something about a kind of illumination spell and a ball of light appeared. “This is a special light and has a bit of my intelligence in it. Just ask it where you want to go like you would a person, as for a name call it light. When you’re done with it say lights out.” Sky saw the light and smiled with half closed eyes. “I can make light too.” With a small gesture, like flicking something off her finger a small blue ball of light the size of her fist appeared twice as bright as Fred’s. Rocssanna chided Sky for showing off and waved her hand to dispel it. Then she asked Fred’s light to guide them to the sleeping quarters, passing the med-bay to get Sky’s sleepwear and other clothes.

Joe could not believe his eyes; she can cast a spell with no words, very few high-class mages could do that and would die before teaching it to anyone but family if they had extreme talent. She’ll need training of some sort before long — training for what she can do and shouldn’t do with magic.

“So, William where to start? How about what species are you?” Joe asked hoping not to sound racist.

William gave it a thought and answered them. We’re Titans from the outer fringes of the known galaxy. We are the last ones as far as we know of on this side.”

“You can’t be Titans they were known to be over sixty metres (196 ft.) tall, you’re not even close to two metres (6 ft.). You’re not even that tall for humans, what kind of Titans are you? On top of that, you can do magic, and everyone knows Titans can do no magic at all”. Joe had no idea who the two people he was talking too.

“We were in the last great mage wars; we were on the mage’s side and were outcaste by our race. Soon after the war, we were hated for being Titans. Before we were hunted down and harassed, we came to the centre hub of magic in the galaxy. On the planet twelve arch mages linked and micronized us. That’s why we are so strong, and our bodies are so dense. But Sky is a little different from us. At the time, we had no idea Rocssanna was with child. Titan females can stop menstruation at will, just before the war started she must have just gotten pregnant. Sky would have been a little over four to eight metres (13-26 ft.) long just a tiny thing. “

Joe’s jaws dropped. “That could only mean you two are the giants among men. I heard about you two in history the two Titans who won us the war.” Joe remembered Titans could nullify magic at will, but not use it. “So how can Sky and you use magic? “

William paused a moment and gave it some thought and gave away the fact it was two people considering the question by shaking and nodding his head. “When we were micronized our bodies condensed what little magic we had, was now useable and built up. When we’re at our normal size I think the magic; we had just allowed us to be Titans. I don’t think Titans could be Titans without magic helping to move our colossal bodies and allow us to do the things we could do. Now that I think about it most of the magic we create is stored where ever the rest of our bodies are. They're either in a different time or dimension. For all, we know it’s in a pocket space inside our bodies. The archmage who micronized us never told us, even after we asked. I believe if we to revert to our original size we would lose our ability to use magic. As for Sky, she’s unlike us in many ways”. William was not sure how much to tell these men. They still had secrets they promised to keep from and of the mages planet. They had just met and couldn’t trust them yet, Rocssanna felt the same way. She still urged him to continue with the story and to leave out everything they promised to keep secret. “On the planet, we were micronized on were a kind of multi-dimensional plants, Octopus that can give off magic. The plants were semi-sentient many were inside Rocssanna’s lower abdomen when she was micronized. I, we thought the plants just went into another dimension at the time. Now we think as Sky, like a fetus and the plants shrunk they must have merged, and about four or more of the strange plants and Sky became one being. Not much is known about the plants except they can produce a lot of magic when linked to a mage, but to a human body, they’re just as big or bigger. When linked, they are mainly in our dimension. We now think the rapid growing Sky drew the curious plants in and they sought to merge with her. The plants resembled something like an octopus with the head of primates. The plants were somehow connecting themselves to her trying to see what she was. Being connected they could not break free they must have merged with her rather than harm the new life; they became one. So, Sky could be five or more beings in one, able to produce a tremendous amount of magic. On top of the magic, they gave her an even denser body than our own. Due to her extremely dense body she can store a vast amount of magic too. When we were micronized we just got smaller and denser; somehow the mages reduced our weight as well. “Rocssanna entered the room and waited for the conversation to dwindle as they noticed her, before speaking.

“Thanks for not pressing Sky for answers. She was so tired I had to carry her once we were out of sight. She puts on a brave face but she still just a young girl. She was out like a light when her head hit the pillow.” She didn’t need to tell William the fact she said Goodnight to her father because she knew he was there too in a sense.

Rocssanna took a seat next to William and let out a sigh. “Not that long after our micronization we found we had very limited magic maybe one of the Octopus merged with us. One mage could sense a person’s magical strength and capacity to hold magic. He told me that I held a great amount of magic and I was getting stronger by the day. I could do no more magic than Willy. He insisted it was there and needed to access it before it came out itself, uncontrolled. I had no luck accessing my hidden well of magic for weeks. It wasn’t till we tried linking that we found the problem of accessing my magic. During the link, he felt a small physical connection to another life form, not any organ but living like a parasite off my body. He said he felt it somewhere in my lower abdomen. Once he said it out loud we all knew what it meant; I was pregnant.” Joe and Fred looked puzzled not knowing how to ask how you could not know you were pregnant. “I see by the look in your faces that how could I not know? As Titans, our gestation period is ten or more years, give or take a year. I had stopped my menstrual cycle before it stopped naturally. It was not uncommon for a Titan female to find out after six years she was pregnant. We didn’t show till eight or nine years. The last year or two is when Titans start to show and only a slight bulge. Sky started to show after two months after being micronized, and I looked like a pregnant human on the fourth month, just under the fifth year we think she was born. It was the fastest Titan gestation in history, half of the usual time, and I had a way bigger belly to scale than a normal Titan”. Joe could not believe Rocssanna, a ten to eleven-year gestation.

Joe decided to ask a few questions. “So, what was the name of the planet you were micronized on?”

William answered well sort of answer. “That was a secret we were sworn to keep. Don’t bother asking about the names of the mages who shrunk us down. We can’t tell you that either.”

Fred was thinking of a question. “Since you can do magic and Sky is just filled with it why are you not training her or having a mage or sorceress train her “?

William looked to Rocssy, and she took up the call to the stage. “The mage who linked with me linked with the still-forming Sky and drained away almost all the magic she held. It took a long time, and he put most in talismans. He said we would have to drain the magic frequently on the planet. He told us other planets have little or no magic you can go to.

“We were told giving birth to the baby on that planet would not be advised. We would be used as test subjects to further the advancement of magic. Sky would not have a normal childhood by any standards had she remained on the planet.” Rocssanna said with a forlorn look. “The way they treat strong mages was pure elitism. She would have been most likely corrupted as a spoiled brat. She would have had nothing but favouritism once she left our sight and later used in all kinds of test. Who knows what a childlike Sky could do if she cared for only herself”.

Fred found it very interesting that they would have to move from a planet full of mages who could have trained her. “How come the magical releases started to happen in the last three years? Was there something to trigger a magic increase in her body? Even though Fred asked the question, but Joe also anticipated the answer.

William got a guilty look on his face. “That would be kind of my fault. Sky had a stone that was drawing off most of the magic as her body made it and drew it in. We kept it on Sky’s back so she wouldn’t crush it by mistake. I thought she would like it as a neckless, which she did for two days. Right till the day she thought to polish the gemstone. Who would think a six-year-old could crush a blue diamond in her fingers.” William left out that it was part of a set. He had no idea what the Arch-Mage did with the magical power he got from his gemstone. With that much power, it was hard to say. Since getting here, there’s been no contact with him or his daughter. There is a saying the more the power, the easier to become corrupt.

“If Sky crushed something like that it should have been one big explosion, what happened. I’m surprised half the planet didn’t blow up by seeing what she could do with what she has let alone six years’ worth of magic build up in the gem. So, I guess you nullified the magic with your Titan abilities or something to that effect?” Joe was curious too about the magic in the gem; he and Fred were almost holding their breath for the answer.

Between William and Rocssanna there was another conversation going on. “Willy, should we tell him about the other gem the Arch-Mage had?” Rocssy asked of William in mind speech.

“I don’t think it will hurt to tell them; it will be easier to explain why there’s still a planet here or at least life still on it. “William answered

“Well, we didn’t mention the fact that there was a gem linked with the one Sky had. The other one was the one that held the magic that was drained off. It was supposed to be bottomless but at times she still overflowed with magic. She was walking home on the mainland when she tripped and made a trench on the side of the road almost a kilometre long. Luckily people thought it was a ditch someone dug a little too deep and too close to the road. They left it thereafter filling in half because it was super straight. We moved shortly after that in case she tripped crossing the road or caused some other unexplainable damage.” Rocssanna was smiling in the mirth of the memory.

Fred asked about the other times she lost control when it started to overflow. “When was the next time she overflowed and popped.”

“She was about five when she threw a temper tantrum. It was with luck that it was our house when it happened. Our house was built for extra strong beings, so the floors had dents and not holes punched through them by her tiny feet. Her magic when I nullified its’ nature was just like wind. I have no idea what the spell was, but it blew out all the windows and doors. Some of our stuff flew out the openings it looked like a poorly organized lawn sale.” William told Joe and Fred, leaving out the fact that most of Rocssanna’s lingerie was spread out all over a tree as if decorated with the naughty undergarments. He smiled at that part of the memory. But didn’t say anything, although a voice in his head dared him to, as a threat.

Joe was surprised that a house that strong would have such weak windows and doors. “I guess the windows and doors were pretty weak for them all to be blown out. What would it take to knock out a window or door?

William paused for a bit, pondering the answer and doing some rough calculations in his head. I guess about ninety kilograms (198 pounds) of high grade explosive. That might have the same effect on the doors and windows as the blast Sky made. I doubt either one of you hitting a door with a car could knock it off its hinges.” William said as another comparison.

Fred turned to Joe and smiled. “They’re the ones of the legends, the giants among men. Being weak is not used in any reference to them.” Turning back to William and Rocssanna was there any other cases of the magic overflowing. I hope I do not sound eager for tales of your misfortune, I just never heard of so much magic before. It’s like hearing a fairy tale or like a mage that was trying to brag. “

“There were other times just not as interesting, we were usually there and by then could feel the effects happening before the magic took form and dispelled them into small gusts of wind,” Rocssanna said shrugging her shoulder.

William shook his head. “Dear, we’re Titans a small wind to us could be gale force winds to any other race. There were no more incidences where there was any great damage, till today that is. “

“Well there’s another question, do you have any enemies that would be following you to the planet?” Joe asked them, getting ready to tell them about the space ships in orbit around the planet. “I was wondering because there’s another problem on the rise. One is a pirate ship; we think it’s the Bright Whites, wanted through the known galaxy. The other ship we know little about and is not of this dimension.” Joe looked to Fred to see he was alright with telling them about the alien space ship. A nod was the only answer he needed. “We were watching your daughters’ magical battle, not knowing who or how many mages battled. Fred noticed a hole in the fabric of space drawing in the spent magic. We closed the hole just as your daughter made a final blast of powerful magic. That magic was swallowed up also. The space ships are still there and waiting for something. We think it’s your Sky their after, and I recommend her not to be left alone in the case of the alien space ship tries something. As for the pirate's ship, they will wait for us and try and raid our ship. They’re probably thinking about learn more about what happened and deciding what to do then.”

Rocssanna was worried about Fred and Joe and their safety. “Will you be in any danger from either ship? We can survive just about anything thrown at us. Will you have a magical battle on your hands”? She asked the two men, then looking to Sky. “I’m sure Sky will want to help you out with the battle if you show her a magic spell or two she’ll be able to use even more magic safely. Ever since her first magic outlet, she has been releasing more magic every time, it almost doubles whenever it happens.”

Joe and Fred looked at each other in shock. How could they let their child fight a battle at nine years old? “I can’t let her fight in a space ship that would be insane. Anyway, we are more than capable of handling most ships four times our size. This ship is four times bigger inside than the outside; in fact, it’s much like how your bodies are.” Fred stated as a matter of fact.

William smiled shaking his head to Fred’s comment. “Our previous bodies were just over seventy metres (236 ft.) tall. Our bodies were twice as dense that of any other beings.” Fred got a slightly spaced look thinking about the physics to make that possible. He decided he didn’t need to know.

Joe got up and asked the couple. “Do you want to join us on the bridge to watch our ascent?”

William was the one to answer.” Since taking on a human size, we feel it necessary to rest for a while. Our bodies need no rest, but our minds do. Could you give us maybe four hours of rest that would be most enjoyable with our long day?”

Fred nodded to Joe.” See them to their new room for their stay with us”. Before they could ask he spoke again. “I’ll put them in the room next to Sky, so they can check on her when they feel the need to. “

Rocssanna smiled at Joe and one to Fred. “I know the way would you like us to take the room on the right or left of Sky?”

Joe shrugged his shoulders, “Either one is fine with Fred and me. The A. will inform us I which room you’ve taken after you’ve entered one; all the rooms in the guest quarters are the same.”