Magi Legend

by Andrew Dobell

  Apart from that, though, the meeting went well. There had been no further issues or incursions by Arcadian Magi since the report that his mentor, Nymira had given him recently. The event had gone unnoticed by Lucian and his people it was so subtle, but it seemed like the Inquisition had heard about it and sent in one of their men to check it out. Apparently, someone had been attacked in an alleyway by a rogue Scion. Unfortunately for the Scion, that person had gone through their Epiphany during the attack and blown the stupid fuckin’ monster to hell. Serves the fucker right, he thought, brushing a stray dreadlock out of his eyes. According to Nymira’s sources in the Vatican, the girl had skipped town.

  Just as well, really, he thought. He couldn’t be bothered with inducting someone into the Nomads right now, he was just too busy with other things and didn’t want to deal with some mewling whelp who would probably dislike the way he worked.

  Whatever. He didn’t give a fuck. He had operations to coordinate, product to shift, supply lines to manage, and a nightclub to run.

  Sometimes, he wondered if he hadn’t taken on more than even he could handle, but he was the ‘King of New York’, so it came with the territory.

  Lucian reached the corridor that led to his private quarters and strode down it.

  “What does that mon think he doin’, saying stupid shit like dat? Me got too much shit to be dealing wit these days without a batty hole like him fucking tings up all da time,” he complained, his strong Jamaican accent colouring his words.

  Raal didn’t answer, but that was fine with Lucian; he was just venting anyway. He needed to have a rant to get things off his chest so he could concentrate on the night ahead.

  The club, which was a few floors above where they were right now, had opened and people were already drinking and dancing. Lucian didn’t usually get involved with the details of managing The Pit, leaving that to his Riven subordinates instead, but he always liked to have a general overview of how things were going.

  Reaching the door to his private quarters, Lucian walked in followed by Raal, who closed the door behind him. The place was dark and unlit for the most part.

  An awareness that someone wanted to talk to him through one of his mental Links blossomed to life in his mind. Lucian, like most Magi, had established Mental Links with all of his coven, even Ekua, so that they could communicate telepathically with each other over great distances. Once a Link had been made, you need only send out a request to the person you wanted to speak to, and provided they accepted the Link, you could talk using only your thoughts. Such Links didn’t allow either Magi to bypass the others’ Aegis with their magic, though, so it didn’t compromise either Magi’s defences to have a Link with someone.

  The Link request was from Aneurin Maddox, the most computer savvy of Lucian’s coven. ~Whaa gwaan?~ Lucian asked through the Link.

  ~We have an Aegis breach. Someone just punched a hole in it without breaking a sweat,~ Maddox replied, stress and worry evident across the link.

  ~When did this happen?~ Lucian asked.

  ~A few moments ago. I’m with Lex. We’re trying to hunt them down now,~ Maddox explained.

  “Lucian, it’s such a pleasure to see you again,” someone said.

  Lucian turned to look in the direction of the sensuous feminine voice as Raal reached for a light switch.

  Lucian didn’t need to see, however. The voice was one he’d heard before and knew well. The illumination from the light in the kitchenette that Raal had turned on only confirmed it.

  Yasmin’s slender form stood in the dusky light of the living space. She lowered herself onto his sofa and crossed her lithe legs, as she looked at him from beneath her long, dark, wavy hair, shot through with an occasional purple streak.

  ~Cancel the alert, I have it under control,~ Lucian sent through the Link before closing it and silencing Maddox’s protests. Lucian didn’t want to have to deal with anyone else right now; not with a potentially hostile Arch Magus sitting on his sofa. This wasn’t the first time he’d met Yasmin and of course, he, like most Nomads, knew the stories of her. The situation was precarious, he didn’t want to appear weak and yet, he certainly didn’t want to piss Yasmin off. That would be a death sentence for him. Just have to let it play out, he thought.

  “The pleasure is all mine,” Lucian said. “How can I help you tonight?”

  Yasmin spread her arms over the back of the couch. “Oh, it’s quite simple, really. Just lower your Aegis and let me have a look inside that head of yours.”

  “Excuse me?” Lucian asked, not quite sure if he’d heard her right.

  “I’m not going to repeat myself, Lucian,” she stated, her voice flat and even.

  To his right, Raal moved. Lucian’s apprentice drew his double-ended sword in a threatening motion. “He will do no such thing,” Raal spat in anger.

  “And who is this?” Yasmin asked Lucian, pointing casually at his coven mate.

  “Raal,” Lucian said in a low warning tone to his apprentice. But Raal ignored him.

  “I’ll show you who I am,” Raal said, and sprinted forward, slashing his blade through the air before him.

  Yasmin lifted a finger. The Essentia she shifted was intense and suddenly Raal flew backwards across the room, slamming into the back wall a good four feet above the ground and stayed there.

  “You must learn to control your attack dogs, Lucian,” Yasmin advised. “Now, what’s it to be? Comply willingly, or make me do it by force. Either way is fine,” she told him.

  Lucian closed his eyes. He knew he had no choice. She could kill him in a second if she liked, and frankly he wanted to live another day, so with a sigh he cancelled his Aegis. “Go ahead,” he offered.

  Essentia flared. Suddenly, the whole world turned white and his mind was flooded with intense pain. It felt like an intense migraine that made his head feel like it was going to explode.

  He had no idea how long it went on or what Yasmin was doing in his head. The screaming pain seemed to last forever and rendered him utterly incapacitated.

  Then it ended as quickly as it had begun and Lucian found himself on his knees in the middle of his living space. Yasmin was gone, and Raal lay crumpled on the floor, alive but unconscious. The last remnants of the pain in his head faded away, leaving only a throbbing migraine.

  He still had no idea what Yasmin had been looking for, but as long as she didn’t return for another go, he couldn’t care less. He did not want to go through that again.

  - Notes from a speech by Louisa Hunt, Magi Scholar from the Ordo Obscura coven.

  The barrier stopping us from crossing into the Aetheric Realm is as strong as it ever was. It seems the Earth’s spirit world will be forever barred to the Magi after being so cruelly taken from us by the Archons.

  Of course, the Nomads and other Magi continue to taunt us with stories of those who have made the crossing, but we in the Ordo Obscura will need to see some concrete proof before we agree that anyone has managed to do the impossible.

  One story that continues to raise its ugly head is that of Shaitan, the Nomad who is most famous for apparently crossing into the Abyss and returning, although, where is he now? No one knows. I personally think it’s more likely it’s a hoax and he never even existed.

  We may be called Arcadians, but I have my doubts we will ever return to the fields of Arcadia.

  Body and Spirit

  Donegal, Ireland

  “I must say, Amanda, I impressed with progress. You come long way in very short time. You already strong in Magic when I meet you, but you learn in months what takes others years. You officially rank of Knight now,” Gentle Water said.

  Amanda couldn’t help the smile that played over her face. She wasn’t quite sure how to handle the compliments other than to thank him, but to know she’d come so far in what was apparently an impressively quick time was thrilling.

  Gentle Water had talked about the ranks of Magi before. Apparently, you started off as an Apprentice, before moving onto being
an Adept, then a Knight, a Sage, a Master, and then finally an Arch Master. Gentle Water had explained there were very few Arch Masters, and they were incredibly powerful and old. He’d also said that reaching the rank of Master was pretty much impossible inside of an average human lifespan, only those Magi who were long-lived or immortal could attain such ranks.

  Needless to say, Amanda wasn’t thinking that far ahead anyway, she was having fun at her current level, and Gentle Water was still teaching her new things and showing her what she could actually do with her Magic.

  “I couldn’t have done it without you, though,” Amanda said warmly to her mentor. They were sitting inside the cottage close to the warm fire. It was morning, and the cottage was still heating up. She’d heard Gentle Water moving about the place, so she’d climbed out of bed and curled up with a mug of cocoa in one of the chairs in the living room in front of a roaring fire. Gentle Water sat in another chair a few feet away, sipping his own drink.

  “Thank you. You would have done well with any mentor, Amanda, but it is honour to have you as apprentice,” he said.

  “So, what’s the plan for today, then?” Amanda asked, taking a sip from the mug she held in both hands.

  “Later, we go for walk. There is place local to here that I show you, but before, I want talk to you about body Magic,” he explained.

  “Oh, okay,” Amanda replied.

  “Remember I heal you before, yes?” he said.

  “Of course,” Amanda answered.

  “That just using magic to make body back to original state, but Magic can do more. Magic can enhance, transform beyond anything imaginable. From simple spot and blemish removal to making body stronger, faster, tougher. Maybe have vision of cat or eagle or both? Can transform into other people. Man, woman, anyone, even animal, or anything you imagine,” he said.

  Amanda’s eyebrows had risen halfway up her forehead as he’d spoken. She couldn’t help but imagine the possibilities. The limit of Magic it seemed, once she was of a rank high enough to do these things, was literally her imagination. It was like wish fulfilment. She could potentially have anything. She’d learnt some time ago that Magi had little use for a job or other ways of acquiring money when, with a quick working of Magic, she could conjure as much cash as she needed. But then, why would she need money when she could conjure anything she wanted from thin air, anyway?

  Amanda was still getting used to this profound mental shift in what she could actually do.

  Thinking through what Gentle Water had said, though, she thought it would be fun to spend a day as a man sometime, or perhaps as an eagle soaring over the Earth. She could experience all kinds of wondrous things.

  As she absent-mindedly rubbed her face, her finger played across a spot on her face, and Gentle Waters words suddenly resonated through her mind.

  “So, I could spend a moment in the mirror each morning and remove spots and things?”

  Gentle Water nodded. “You can, yes, but if you enhance appearance, be careful, it easy to take too far, and look quite strange. It happen many time before.”

  Images she’d seen in the tabloids of plastic surgeries gone wrong flashed through her mind, and she understood right away the pitfalls of such Magic.

  “I understand,” she said, finishing her drink. “Let me go and get ready, a walk sounds like just what I need.”

  She was soon looking at her skin in the harsh, unforgiving light of the bathroom mirror and studying her face. There were several blemishes she wanted to get rid of, not least of which was the unsightly spot that sat on her chin, all red and angry. Calming herself, Amanda concentrated and started to will Essentia to bend to her desire and as she watched, the spot faded away to nothing.

  Reaching up, Amanda touched her face where the blemish had once been, and sure enough, it was gone.

  “Hah, crazy,” she said to herself.

  She couldn’t help but smile at this wonderful revelation as she got herself into the shower.

  She was soon dressed and back out in the main cottage where Gentle Water was waiting for her.

  “Are you ready for walk?” he asked.

  “Of course,” she said, following him out of the house as he started to make his way north rather than east towards the forest.

  “So, with all the Magi able to change and enhance their bodies and appearance, are any of them fat or ugly?” she asked. It was something that had occurred to her in the shower—most Magi, she guessed, would look young and at least reasonably good looking, if not outright beauties. Surely, no Magi would live their life as a morbidly obese person if they could just make it disappear with a thought?

  Gentle Water smiled. “Hmm. Most are attractive.” He shrugged.

  “Okay, figures,” Amanda said, even more curious to meet other Magi and to see what they looked like.

  Continuing on, they were soon over the hill and moving through the Irish countryside, keeping their distance from the occasional house or cottage they could see.

  “So, in few days, I take you to my coven, The Legacy, in Paris,” Gentle Water said to her in a conversational tone.

  “What? Paris? Oh, wow, excellent,” she said. “I’ve never been to Paris before.”

  “I’m sure you will have good time,” he said.

  “You bet,” Amanda answered. Gentle Water had spoken to her about his coven before. She knew they were based in Paris and were involved in supporting smaller covens across Europe from those who would harm humanity. She’d wanted to go there sooner, but Gentle Water had said that she was better off learning her craft here, somewhere familiar to her so that she could concentrate better and focus on her learning before becoming distracted by the bright lights of the city and the new experiences that the Legacy would offer her.

  She understood, but she’d been aching to go and meet more Magi for months now.

  “Royston tell me that there will be party, or ball in Paris that you can go to,” he said.

  “A ball? Like a cocktail party?”

  “Correct.”

  “Well then, I’ll need a suitable dress,” she mused. She guessed she would be able to go shopping in Paris for that, though, so she wasn’t too worried. Instead, she was just thrilled and excited that she would finally get to see more of the world. She felt sure that another reason why Gentle Water was keeping her here was to protect her. By staying in rural Donegal, they could remain relatively hidden and not get involved in any trouble.

  As they crested the next hill, Amanda found herself looking down into a lush, verdant valley, at the bottom of which was an ancient stone circle that seemed entirely untouched by modern hands.

  It was an impressive sight, but there was more going on here, too. Amanda could feel a surge in the local Essentia here, like a rushing of power that had started to ripple through her as she’d climbed the hill.

  With a quick and simple thought, Amanda pushed her vision into the Magical spectrum, and suddenly the vista before her changed. Not too far away, to her left, was a fast-moving current of Essentia surging through the air and rushing past her, off over the top of the standing stones where another river of energy, the same as the one closest to her, crossed its path. Where they intersected directly above the stone circle, the Essentia glowed with a strength and brightness she could practically feel. Looking closer, she could see the golden glowing Essentia here starting to stick together and drip like lava from the rivers of energy to collect in a pool, right where the stone circle was.

  “What is this place?” Amanda asked.

  “The Essentia streams are ley lines, rivers of Magical energy that go all around world. Where they cross, becomes Pooling. Reservoirs of Essentia. Magic is easier here, and barrier to Abyss, thinner.”

  Gentle Water’s teachings had covered the basics of the Spirit World or the Aetheric Realm as it was more properly called, as opposed to the Material Realm which they were in now. The Aetheric Realm was separated from the material world by a barrier called Acheron, or more commonly, the Null
Realm. Millennia ago, the Magi were able to cross that barrier and visit the land in the Aetheric Realm, which the Magi had once called Arcadia, but it was cut off from the Magi by the Archons when they retreated to their fortress to sleep away the centuries. The formerly beautiful Arcadia was slowly corrupted and transformed by the Archons’ continued presence and turned into a hellish landscape known as the Abyss.

  Few had ever seen it, let alone visited, but the stories of people making the crossing were many. The closest a Magi could get to the Aetheric Realm now was to make small realms, Null Realms within the barrier of Acheron itself, but they were difficult to make and harder to maintain.

  The only other alternate realm that she’d learnt about was Sheol or the Land of the Dead. Where you went when you died. Or, more accurately, where your Anima or life force went. She hadn’t learnt much about that place but did occasionally wonder if Georgina and Stuart might be there. For now, the loss of her friends was still too raw, but maybe one day she would take a look there.

  “It’s amazing,” she said, looking out at the surging forces of Magic and feeling their life-giving properties. Being so close to the ley line was a thrilling experience.

  “It seems like the world has doubled or tripled in size these last few months,” she said. “There’s so much that I’d love to explore.”

  “One day, maybe. Also, there is outer space,” he said, pointing up.

  Amanda blinked. “You mean, there are Magi in space?” she asked, slowly looking up into the azure sky.

  “Indeed. They are the Nexus. Magi have been out there for thousands of years,” he said.

  “Wow,” Amanda said. “I’d love to go there too.”

  “One day. But one thing at time. Let us stay here on ground for time being, yes?”

  Amanda took a breath and let it out slowly. Gentle Water was right. She was getting way ahead of herself here. The idea of visiting other realms and deep space was a lovely ambition to have, but her home was here, and she was only really just learning of the endless potential of the magical world around her. Taking things slowly, one step at a time, and staying grounded at least for the time being, was probably a wise idea.