Alpha Arcana: Alpha Arcana, #1

By Will Farrar

What if you woke up one morning and your entire world had transformed itself? How would you and your family adapt? How would society rebuild itself or would it? The year was 2004 when the Cataclysm disabled every man made electronic and mechanical device and replaced them with magic and enchantments. This is a story about a Georgian family, the Farthars, ten years after the Cataclysm. They and families like them have learned to adapt to this new wondrous world. Not only has magic returned, but also the creatures of legend and folklore have appeared to prey on mankind. The Farthars had adapted to these too, using their magical abilities, but nothing could prepare them for the interdimensional creatures invading their world. The family realizes that they must stop these monsters before they destroy everything that the Farthars hold dear, and in the process, find their destiny. It is a tale about family, loyalty, betrayal, and forgiveness. It is also about humanity’s amazing ability to adapt to a new hostile environment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Will Farrar
• Release date: Jan 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310866968

Book preview

I.

Gideon Farthar watched proudly, as his daughter worked her hands and murmured incantations.  Her aura glowed bright lavender around her thin body and short dark hair. Her brown eyes sparkled. She wore a pink elaborate robe that revealed her station as a Witch and a tiara.  Even after all of this time, she never outgrew her dream of being a princess.  She never went anywhere without her tiara.

The small auditorium only housed fifty to a hundred people, but it was standing room only as the entire community came to watch his daughter, Zoe.  She had built the structure herself.  Not surprisingly, it resembled a small pink castle; complete with stained glass windows portraying fairies, unicorns, and princesses.  Each corner of the building was a circular tower.  The entrance was a drawbridge.  The inside held a small stage with the self folding seats designed after the seats in an old movie theater in front of it.  Her new abilities allowed her to create anything provided, she explained, that she figured out the right equations and incantations.

Once her ritual was over, she raised her hands, and multicolored illusions made of light appeared above the audience's heads accompanied by music that she wrote herself.  Then she sang, and there wasn't a dry eye among the spectators including Gideon, who made no effort to hide his tears of joy.  Music was her light during the dark years, as she called it.

When the song was finished, she immediately began another one, smiling at the cheers from the audience.  Until ten years ago, Zoe had been diagnosed with autism.  For the first seventeen years of her life, she had been trapped in her own mind.  Then the Cataclysm happened.  Suddenly, she had been freed.  It was as if she had awakened from a long slumber like one of her fairy tales and was given almost godlike powers.  At first the neighbors were afraid of her.  More so than having a mentally disabled child living near their own children, but that soon abated.

She devoted her new found abilities to music and making people smile.  She was what she had always been, kind and possessed of a special kind of strength that few understood.  Others like her, who changed, ended up being powerful overlords or used as weapons by opportunists looking for conquest, but not Zoe.  Her motives and morals were infallible, something that her father had instilled in her.

The Cataclysm awoke things in many people, including Gideon.  His new found abilities dubbed him a war mage, according to Zoe.  He had always been an angry man.  He wasn't abusive to his wife, Shauna, or Zoe.  He wasn't a violent man, per say, but there was this burning rage inside of him that he struggled to control.  Much like Zoe, he felt that there was another side of him that was trapped inside.  When the change came, he found that his anger had been reduced considerably.  He was now a master at close combat and strategy.  A skill that came in handy at a time when raiding parties and would-be conquerors attempting to ransack their small town of New Augusta became common place.  It was savage times that they lived in now, but it was a simpler time.  He liked it, even though, occasionally he did miss television and he also caught himself reaching in his pocket for his cell phone to text Shauna.  Those things were now gone. 

The Cataclysm destroyed everything invented by men and replaced them with magic and enchantments.  Those who hadn't adapted didn't survive.  Governments fell from their high perches.  With no machines to produce more of them, guns and ammo became rare items.  Swords, axes, spears, and bows with arrows along with other low tech weapons replaced them.  Gideon used to love to read fantasy novels that took place in worlds full of swords, magic, and mythical creatures.  Now, he was living in one of those worlds.  Best of all, he and his family belonged and thrived within it.

Zoe finished her last song, and the audience applauded for the final time while she thanked them for coming and wished them a good night.  Gideon stayed behind as the townspeople exited the auditorium.  Several of them stopped to compliment him on Zoe's performance as they left.

When the last one left, Zoe smiled sweetly at her father as she stepped to the edge of the stage and held out her arms for Gideon to help her down.  She took his arm and allowed him to lead her out of the auditorium.  You were daydreaming, again, Daddy, during my performance.  I saw that you were here, but your eyes said that you were far away. Bad Daddy, she teased as she playfully slapped his hand.

I can't help it if your music moves me too far off places, he said with a wink.

She rolled her eyes as he ran his hand along his long salt and pepper hair and scratched his little goatee.  He cut his green eyes at her to see her reaction, trying to hide the mischievous expression on his face.  You're full of it, Daddy.  Where did you go? she asked.

Just remembering how things have changed since ten years ago, he said.

That again?  That is ancient history.  You shouldn't waste time thinking about that stuff.  It's all gone now, she said, patting his arm as if to reassure him.

I agree, but when you reach my age, you have a tendency to remember the old times whether they are good or bad.  I know that you and your friends have been looking into the cause of the Cataclysm.  Any luck?  Zoe and several of the other witches and wizards of like minds from different settlements had discovered that they could speak to other magic users from all over the world by scrying in a pool of water.  Gideon didn't exactly understand the specifics of it, but from what he gathered, it was the equivalent of social networking.

Actually, yes, she said with a proud grin.  From what we can figure out, somewhere in Central Europe, an archeologist or explorer of some kind discovered Pandora's Box and opened it.  This caused a kind of explosion.  We have theorized that maybe it wasn't evil that was released when it was opened, but maybe it was magic, and it tore open the veil between our world and the world of magical creatures.  It is as good an idea as any, I suppose.  My question is who trapped the magic inside the box and why?  That is what we are working on now.

He nodded as he took this all in.  He had always thought that it was an explosion or global accident that caused it.  The changes had been so swift that most people were too busy adapting to their new environment to think about how it happened, until now.  Not that the knowledge would change anything.  It was a puzzle for those who loved mysteries or older people who believed that things would somehow go back to the way they were.  Gideon and his family had no desire to see the return of science dominating the world again.  That world had restrained them from becoming the people that they were meant to be.  One thought had occurred to him though.  What if God, or the being claiming to be the Christian God, or his followers had somehow trapped magic in the box so that the world would have no choice but to follow their religion?  Then they said that the contents of the box was evil to keep people away from it, he said to Zoe.

Zoe frowned and looked into space for a couple of moments, deep in thought.  You know, I can't believe any of us hadn't thought of that.  I will communicate with my friends when we get home and spread the word.  Thank you, Daddy.  Maybe I should run these things by you more often? You got a knack for figuring these things out.  I forget that sometimes.

Father and daughter strolled, arm and arm, down the main street of New Augusta.  It was growing dark.  So the small shops and residences were closing their doors and windows for the night.  Harry, the town blacksmith waved as he closed the door to his shop.  In the old days, Harry was a welder who made replicas of swords and axes from ancient times as a hobby.  Now, he made a living making real weapons for Gideon and their militia.  Most of the buildings were made of wood or adobe.  Harry's was made of stone, a gift from Zoe.  Most of the town's residents were refugees from the once prosperous cities of Georgia.  The sudden changes had caused so much chaos from the riots to gangs claiming territories.  Add that to new supernatural predators preying on the populace, and the cities became war zones with no agency being able to reclaim control.  This resulted in many families joining together and moving away from the cities and into the wooded countryside.

The Farthars were a part of a group of five families who left Augusta and settled in a wilderness that was thirty miles west of the city.  Together, they built the first homes and farms of New Augusta.  After some time, more families followed from all races and creeds.  With Gideon training the young men in the art of combat, warfare and, Zoe's extraordinary abilities, the town was well protected from the outside world, and ruled by a council who was elected every four years.  It was determined from the start than no one man should rule the town.  The town was well governed and protected, but that didn't keep the majority of the citizens from locking themselves up when the sun went down.  Old fears were hard to break.

They continued to walk down the little dirt road, enjoying the night air.  Gideon had always preferred the night over the day.  He could never explain why, except that it seemed quieter to him.  Soon, they came to their own home.  Despite Zoe's strong suggestions to build yet another castle to live in, Gideon and Shauna had convinced their daughter that a large cobblestone house would be a better choice.  Zoe grudgingly complied and with her abilities and the help of her faerie and animal friends in the forest, it was built in a day.  It had been quite a sight to behold as Zoe and her friends put it together.  The entire town, including Gideon and Shauna, watched in awe.  It was, literally, a scene from a fairy tale.  Zoe had offered to do the same for the other families but, at that time, the people were still a little leery of having a girl with almost godlike powers living among them.  Her pure heart had won them over in the end.

They entered their house to find Shauna working on a large painting in the living room.  Magical orbs of light lit the room.  The smell of cooked chicken and vegetables permeated the entire house.  The changes that appeared in Shauna, after the Cataclysm, were more subtle than with Gideon and Zoe.  Shauna had always wanted to be a great artist and had struggled to be so, most of her life.  Now, whatever she imagined, she could draw, paint, or sculpt with her nimble hands.  The entire house was decorated with her paintings and sculptures.  Cooking was also a talent of hers, but she had always been blessed with that.  Gideon was also skilled in the culinary arts.  It was his profession before the Cataclysm.

She looked up from her painting, and smiled.  Her long light brown hair was speckled with paint, and her glasses never seemed to be able to stay upon her nose.  Pushing them back to cover her blue eyes was one of those actions that Gideon found adorable.  She stood and moved towards them to greet them.  She lovingly kissed her husband and hugged Zoe.  How was the concert? she said.

It went perfectly, Mom.  There were no mess ups with my spells, and the audience loved it.  I wish you had come, said Zoe, pushing out her bottom lip to give the appearance of pouting.  Shauna was not Zoe's mother.  Gideon's first wife had abandoned him, Zoe, and her younger brother, Jason. When Gideon had finally, met his true soul mate in Shauna, Jason had become rebellious and almost uncontrollable.  Zoe, always the loving and loyal daughter, and who loved Shauna almost as much as she loved her father tried to help her brother come to terms with the situation, but there was nothing that could be done.  Now, Jason was gone, and it was just the three of them.  Although Gideon still sometimes missed his son, the household was much more peaceful.

I know, Sweetheart, but I needed to finish my preparations for my show.  I promise that I will be at your next one, okay? said Shauna with a reassuring smile.

Okay, I need to go talk to my colleagues now.  Daddy has come up with the most brilliant idea and I have to tell everybody, Zoe said as she turned and walked to the door underneath the stairs that led to the bedrooms. 

With the destruction of the people's dependency on electronic entertainment such as TV and the internet, they were forced to revert to more traditional methods.  Concerts, art shows, plays, reading, and writing were their only sources of escape from the outside world now.  An occupation that both Zoe and Shauna were delighted to take upon themselves.  Meanwhile Gideon was the sheriff/leader of the little militia.  He thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment that the women he loved provided, but he was perfectly happy with his role as the protector of the community.

There was a time when they all sat down to eat dinner in the living room and watched TV.  Each of them in their own little world, never speaking to the other.  Technology isolated people from each other more than they realized.  What use was it to be able to speak or see someone from across the world, when you never noticed the person next to you?  Now, they sat at the dining room table, surrounded by Shauna's paintings of magical creatures and humans eating together.  They discussed each other's days, their dreams and thoughts, and their plans for the week.  All of the closeness that was told about in modern stories, but was thought to be fiction, was alive and well.  The world was still a dangerous place but, in some ways, it was a better place.

After dinner, Zoe cast a spell that caused the dishes, soap, and dish towels to come to life and clean the dining room and kitchen.  It was the only spell that Shauna allowed Zoe to cast to assist her Mom.  Her stepmother preferred to do things herself in most cases, but doing the dishes was something she really hated.  It was a wondrous sight to see when Zoe had come up with the idea a few years ago from one of her favorite fantasy movies, but now, it was a common occurrence.

They left the dining room, each going to their own areas of the house.  Gideon went out to the back of the house where he kept wooden combat dummies to practice on.  Believe it or not, fighting and pretending to kill the combat dummies using various weapons and martial art styles was his way of unwinding before bed.  Shauna continued to work on her paintings in the living room, and Zoe experimented with magic and other arcane things in the basement.  Although she was considered a master of her craft, she maintained that there was always more to learn.  Another new trait that didn't exist before was her hunger for knowledge.

It seemed that it was going to be an average night in the Farthar house where Zoe would stay up half the night with her spells, and Gideon and Shauna would eventually meet in their bedroom to hold each other until they fell asleep or perhaps make love.  Unfortunately, this wasn't meant to be.

Zoe walked out of the double stained glass back doors and stepped into her father's training area.  She waited a moment to watch him do what she called his Dance of Death because, to her, that was what it appeared that he was doing.  He was dancing to a tune that only he could hear, performing martial arts moves in one fluid motion.  Before, he was a very resolute man who hid an inner sorrow that only she could see.  Now, he seemed strong and confident.  The sorrow was still there, but it was a very minor part of him.  She liked the man that her father had become much better.

Daddy? she said.  She hated to interrupt him, but, she felt that it was necessary, given the circumstances.

He stopped and looked at her, sweat dripping from his brow.  Yes, Monkey? he said, using the nickname that he had given her when she was a baby.  He often gave nicknames as a sign of affection to those he was fond of.  Shauna's nickname was Squirrel because, he said, she had a habit of being fidgety.

Jason has appeared in my fountain.  He wants to speak to you, she said with dread in her voice.  A conversation with her little brother was rarely a joyful occasion for anyone in their little family.

Gideon sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.  It was his signal that he was about to do something that he didn't want to do.  Without a word, he walked past Zoe and entered the house.  Zoe followed.  He turned his head towards her as he moved through the kitchen and to the door under the stairwell.  Go and get Shauna, he said to her as he opened the door.

Yes, Daddy, she said, solemnly, and walked away.

The door opened to another staircase that led down.  This was where Zoe did her experiments, underground and away from the general populace.  After a few explosions in her bedroom that damaged the house and scared the pants off of her father, he persuaded her make this place and practice her spells here.  It was safer and more secluded.  Not all of the forces that she played with were made of pretty lights and music.  Her intentions for using the darker side of the arcane were never sinister.  She wanted to know all that there was including the less savory and dangerous.  It was a quest for knowledge to advance her level of magic.  Her parents knew this, but the citizens of their small town would not.  So it was their family secret.  Gideon also understood the strategic implications in it for the defense of the town.  Until the time came, if it ever did, they would continue to keep up appearances and allow everyone to believe that Gideon was the only formidable one.  No one ever wanted to burn a great warrior at the stake for protecting the community.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and waited for his wife and daughter.  The large room was essentially a large brick cellar with a few tiny slits for windows for air circulation.  The walls and floor were mostly bare of furniture and decorations.  There were a couple of light orbs hovering on both sides of each wall.  A small altar with a candle, a dagger, and a bowl with various herbs and such was within it.  Next to the altar was a fountain that ran water from some unknown water source.  It stood about three feet tall and resembled the average bird bath with a stream of water shooting out of the middle of the pool of water.  It was Zoe's source of communicating with the outside world.  He tried not to look at the fountain as he waited.  He was this exceptional warrior that was practically unbeatable, but he couldn't face his own son alone.

He loved Jason, but he didn't like him.  At fifteen, he was already a problem.  Like most teenagers, when puberty hit, he became rebellious, but with Jason, it seemed different.  No amount of restriction or punishment seemed to faze him.  It was as if the boy was being insolent and failing in school for the sheer enjoyment of upsetting Gideon.  The awful things that he would do to his sister to humiliate her would seem to give him a twisted sort of pleasure.  At the time, Zoe couldn't defend herself, she could only cry as her brother laughed at her with everyone else. 

After the Cataclysm, Jason found that unlike his father, sister, and stepmother, he was exactly the same as he had always been.  He was just a hateful and mean spirited kid with a high I.Q.  Incidentally, his I.Q. was the reason that his failing grades upset Gideon so much.  When his family developed their new abilities, and he didn't receive anything, it only fueled his unfounded hatred for them all.

Although, not everyone was born to magic, like Zoe, all were capable of learning and casting it.  Jason dedicated himself to learning through watching Zoe practice.  It was the first time that he had tried to do anything that was constructive.  Gideon would have been proud if he wasn't suspicious of his son's motives.  Of course, Jason's motives hadn't changed, but he had enough sense to realize that he needed to level the playing field.  Zoe was no longer easy prey. 

Soon, he learned to scry and find people in Zoe's fountain.  Although, she had never tried to contact him or Zoe after she left, he found his mother.  He contacted her, and she confirmed what he had suspected and accused his father of.  Everything that was said about his mother was a lie, and she had always wanted him with her.  She told Jason what he wanted to hear; that everything that his father had told him about her was untrue.  She never did the things that she did to their family, and she never wanted to leave them.  She denied what she had done when he was a mere baby.  She knew that she could manipulate him into her way of thinking and win him over because he had no memory of the past.  The words of those who remembered would not sway him.

When he confronted Gideon about it, his father denied his accusations and maintained the truth.  To this day, Jason believes that his father lied to him, hated him, and only loved Zoe, his pride and joy.  It was a delusion, of course.  In the old days, therapy might have helped him through his issues, but therapists were in short supply these days.  Also, Gideon wasn't sure that there was a way to change his son.

Two years ago, his mother had found a way to New Augusta from Texas by horse and carriage.  Rather than telling his family that he was leaving, Jason snuck away in the night.  Catrina, his mother, had convinced him that this was a better plan because she was afraid of what the potentially dangerous Zoe and Gideon would do if she came for him and asked to take him.  Catrina had a tendency to be delusional as well.  More evidence that crazy was hereditary.

Gideon searched for him for days until Zoe found him in Texas using her fountain.  Gideon then knew what happened.  He stopped searching and attempted to move on despite his broken heart.  A couple of months later, Jason contacted him through the fountain for the purpose of antagonizing his father further.  Every communication since then was more of the same.  This was why Gideon needed Zoe and Shauna when he spoke to his son.  An enraged Gideon was a dangerous thing.  He was a much calmer person now, but Jason seemed to know exactly what buttons to push.  Zoe and Shauna kept him calm.  So he waited.

He heard footsteps from the top of the stairs.  No doubt, Zoe had to persuade her stepmother to follow her.  Shauna disliked these occasions even more than Gideon.  When his wife reached the bottom of the stairs, she tried to smile at him reassuringly, but he could see the dread in her blue eyes.  She ran her hand through her silky light brown hair and grabbed his hand as they turned to the fountain.

Reveal, Zoe commanded the fountain as she wrapped herself around her father's other arm.  The water in the fountain gurgled and then the reflections within it blurred.  When it cleared, an image of Jason appeared before them.  He had his father's green eyes and dark hair.  As a child, he looked exactly like Gideon, but as he grew older, his appearance changed and resembled his mother.  Now, at twenty five years old, he looked like a slightly altered version of Catrina.

Father, Sister, Stepmother, Jason said in greeting.  Using their connections to him in a patronizing tone was his new way of politely revealing his contempt for them, and that he was, somehow, above