“So, what’s the final count?” Mama asked Ivan, the morning after the mysterious attacks which had plagued tribe.
Ivan had parked the van in the empty parking lot outside of a bowling alley. He had been around the city all night, keeping the van in motion to make Mama a moving target. By the time the first scattered, confused reports of attacks started to reach him by cell phone and CB, it had already almost been over.
“A census takes time,” Ivan said. “Some groups that have not reported in yet may simply be in hiding.
“Preliminary estimate?”
“At least ten percent.”
“Ten percent,” Mama echoed. She felt the need to sit down, before realizing that she was. “In one night.”
“Decimation,” Ivan said.
Mama nodded.
“Whoever did this was smart,” she said. “They knew how to flush us out in the open and knew where we’d make our camps, or knew how to find us quickly. They had magic, too. Strong magic. It’s just a good thing that each of the groups that were targeted had at least one witch or shaman with them. We lucked out there.”
“Yes,” Ivan said. “About that.”
Mama said nothing, but waited for him to speak.
“You say ‘each group’ that was attacked had magic,” Ivan said. “Could you not also say ‘only groups with magic’ were attacked?”
“Then you think they were targeted,” Mama said.
Ivan shook his head.
“You attribute the survivors’ good fortune to our magic-users,” Ivan said. “They could have done more damage by going after the groups that didn’t have such resources, if they had the choice.”
“No,” Mama said, shaking her head. “Drop this line of thinking.”
“They were vulnerable,” Ivan said. “Because of the magic. It makes things… softer. Less predictable. We’d be better off without it.”
“War’s coming,” Mama said. “We have to stand together. We need magic. We need whatever help we can get.”
“We’ve been attacked. War is not coming,” Ivan said. “It is already here.”
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“War were declared!”
Hooray for Tribe; my absolute favorite story.
My favourite too. It’s almost maddening that the stories are so short, though I know that’s part of the concept. The world of Tribe is by far the most interesting to me of all AE’s series.
AE, I love your concept of magic in this series. Its one of the most original ideas of the concept of magic I’ve seen. Every time you have a post with magic in it I love seeing how you develop the idea further
dunndunndunnn! sound the submagical siren thingamajiggys, war is here!
Ooooooh. Teh shiny.
*glee*
I check today and it’s effectively a triple update day ^.^
Tribe continues to be my favorite read from the four stories! Now… Wonder if the3seas is up…
Thanks for the hard work you do AE. It’s a pleasure reading.
I find Tales of MU the most interesting world, to be honest, but Tribe’s is much more intriguing, perhaps because there are so many mysteries left in it of the magical nature. Sure, MU is magical, but most of its mysteries are those of the behavioral sort.
I, too, find myself wishing it were longer after most updates, but then it wouldn’t be “fantasy in miniature.” Maybe that is part of the attraction – that it comes in bite size sections each day, rather than some gargantuan saga that is over as soon as you finish it – but I think I’d be just as intrigued if it happened to be a gargantuan saga instead of a serial. AE’s writing becomes more of an everyday habit than a leisurely past time, a surefire recipe for addiction if ever there was one. I wouldn’t say it diminishes the enjoyment of the story, but I wouldn’t say that it necessarily enhances it, either.
Yeh – Ivan’s back! My favourite charactor.
what makes this so enjoyable for me is that there are exactly 333 words in each chapter. That’s fascinating. But what floors me even more is the fact that every single story is gripping. The shortness of the sets makes me come back for more. The intrigue (sp?), the drama, the terrific characters… I love it all.
ToMU: Great story. Deals more with personality.
The Three Seas: Interesting so far. Not far enough in to tell if I’ll be addicted but it looks promising.
Void Dogs: Just long enough to have gotten me hooked. Incoporates my two favorite things: Science Fiction and Magic as Magic.
Tribes: Fascinating idea with the 333 word stories. The continual cliff-hanger nature makes me want more more more!
Hey, guys. Sorry for the no updates. I am havin’ a week and a half here. I’ll pick up Tribe on Monday, with a coda for Arc 3 and then go into Arc 4.
Oh bummer. Well, have a nice weekend, in that case.
How come Ivan gets all the good lines.
Sorry, guys… tax season has caught me less prepared than I thought I was. Details on a placeholder at Tales of MU. I’ll get back to this tomorrow. Ivan’s in charge of reminding me.
Oh man!
I only stopped in to check ToMu, decide to check out this “Tribe” thingy…
next thing I know the clock’s moved forward, and I find myself wishing it updated daily!
AE, I think you’re due another vist from the Universal Auditors, you’ve exceeded your awesome quota again!
bad Ivan…
Sorry for the multiple delays in continuing this. I’ve kept trying to write another end chapter for this arc and was never satisfied, and I’ve finally decided that this is because this is the natural ending point right here.
This is my favorite arc so far. Stephen and Michael are my favorite characters even though I want to slap them and tell them to shut the deuce up sometimes but yeah, Arc 3 is the best thus far. Let’s see what Arc 4 has in store . . .