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Magi Legend

Page 9

by Andrew Dobell


  “Shall we run through some Magic?”

  “Sure,” Amanda said brightly, turning to her mentor. They did this most days now, running through some of the more common effects that she would be using, getting them to be second nature to her.

  Suddenly, without warning, Gentle Water unleashed a minor bolt of Essentia at her. It wouldn’t seriously hurt her, but they could sting like crazy, and she knew he did it for a reason. One of the most basic workings of Magic was the ability to create a shield. The Magi referred to them as an Aegis, and they were basically hardened Essentia that a Magus would surround herself with to protect her from Magical attack. Out of everything she’d learnt, this one effect could save her life more than anything else, or so Gentle Water had been keen to drill into her. He’d taken to throwing Essentia bolts at her at entirely random moments, such as over breakfast, or when they were watching TV. It felt like a game at times, but Amanda knew its true and life-saving purpose.

  Gentle Water’s bolt of Magical energy harmlessly hit Amanda’s Aegis that had been in place since waking up and dissipated quickly.

  “Excellent. Now, Link with me,” he said.

  Concentrating again, Amanda wished a connection to Gentle Water into existence, linking her mind to his. He accepted it, creating the Link. With another thought, she sent a pulse of thought along the Link, effectively letting him know she was trying to contact him. He smiled and opened the Link.

  ~Thank you, Amanda,~ he sent to her through the Link. ~Now, fetch me my coffee mug from the Cottage.~

  “Sure thing,” she replied aloud, concentrating again on being in the cottage rather than here. The Essentia around her swirled and rushed into her, and with a flash of light behind her eyes, she found herself in the kitchen of the cottage. She spotted her Mentor’s mug, picked it up, and Ported back to him, appearing in the same spot she’d stood two seconds before, except she was holding his mug.

  Gentle Water smiled. “Excellent work.”

  “Hold on,” she said, and worked her Magic again, Porting the mug back to the cottage without her. It disappeared from her hand with a thwip.

  “Impressive, most impressive.”

  Amanda smiled. “Thank you, Darth Vader.”

  Gentle Water frowned in confusion.

  “Forget it,” Amanda said, waving away his unvoiced question.

  He shrugged. “Okay, that enough for now.”

  “Okay,” she answered and turned back to the vista before her. “I think I’ll just sit here awhile and enjoy the view. It sounds like my life is about to get a good deal more complicated in the weeks to come.”

  - Excerpt from an Interview with a top Nephilim Model.

  It sounds like Nephilim has really changed your life.

  It has. Since joining the Nephilim Modelling Agency, my life has become like something you read about in fashion magazines. I travel the world and meet some of the most fabulous people ever. It’s great.

  We saw you out with (Censored) the other night in Milan. Anything going on?

  Oh, you know, we met at a party and hooked up for a wild night out. He’s great, you know. Nothing like the media likes to portray him. He’s filming another action film right now. He says he’ll try to get me a part.

  Really? Wow, You’re really living the high life.

  I really am. I mean, I grew up with nothing, absolutely nothing. We had no money, no new clothes, not even any makeup! Can you imagine me with no make-up on?

  Do you see your family?

  No, and I don’t care to. They’ve brought me nothing but misery. Now, I have everything I could ever want—designer clothes, fast cars, anything.

  Drugs?

  Look, you have to fit in, you have to do what everyone else is doing. So what if there’s some smack on offer at these parties? It helps you to have a good time, get over it.

  Angel

  Syndicate Island

  “Excellent. Good work, Angel,” Isha said to her from where he sat behind his desk. Isha was a youngish Indian man, somewhat attractive, and also Angel’s manager. She hated him and his condescending attitude towards her. She desperately wanted to lash out and crack his head open on that ostentatious desk of his, but she didn’t. Instead, she just smiled. Not that he could see it; he wasn’t even looking at her.

  “Thank you, sir,” she said. “Is there anything else?”

  “Just the usual cataloguing of the new Scion recruits. I’ll send the files over to your office shortly,” he said, waving his hand about impatiently, dismissing her.

  Angel nodded, although she wondered why she bothered and made her way out of the office. She scowled at him through the windows as she walked by, wanting to reach out with her Magic and hurt him, but she resisted, as she always did.

  He wasn’t worth blowing this mission over, and if she started to throw her Magic around too much, he’d begin to suspect that she wasn’t who she was supposed to be. It annoyed her, but she was making inroads with others who would better serve her needs anyway.

  Stepping out of Isha’s office, she walked along the corridor, noting the occasional admiring glances from some of the other people she passed, making a mental note of who was looking at her in case they might be useful to her later on. On her left, the wall of the corridor ended to be replaced with floor to ceiling plexiglass windows, giving her a magnificent view of the west side of the tropical island the complex was based on.

  The Syndicate compound was massive, dominating this small privately-owned island that was conveniently not on any maps, and also well away from any shipping lanes. The weather out there was hot and humid, like most days, but the air-conditioned interior of the Syndicate complex kept the employees at a constant comfortable temperature.

  She soon reached her office door and walked inside, seeing the new pile of files on her desk right away. Isha wasn’t hanging around, it seemed.

  Angel sighed. She knew it was a means to an end, but there were times when working undercover was a real drag.

  She moved around her office, dropped into her cool, comfortable office chair and crossed her legs. These files weren’t needed right away, so she could do the work anytime she wanted. She’d entered enough of these to know they were not a top priority.

  Grabbing the computer mouse, she unlocked the screen with her password and checked the latest data mining program for results. She’d gotten a few more passwords out of it, which would give her access to a few more files that she shouldn’t be able to see. She had a quick scan through them, but there was nothing about them that suggested that this data might give her any additional clues as to the whereabouts of the Lazarus Scroll.

  Angel pressed her lips together in consternation and checked her private emails. She noticed the coded message from her coven right away and opened the email up to have a look at it.

  From what she could understand from the code, it seemed that her coven had heard about a new artifact that both the Inquisition and Yasmin were hunting down. She wasn’t much interested in what the Inquisition was after. They were always chasing after shadows, but Yasmin was a different matter altogether. If she was hunting something, then this would be a significant find. Yasmin didn’t hunt down trivial artifacts.

  Angel sat back and stretched one leg out, rotating her foot to stretch it as she thought this through. It had been a while since she’d been in direct contact with her coven, so it would be worth taking a trip back to Milan to make sure everything was running okay at Nephilim and to make sure her coven was behaving themselves. Plus, she felt like she needed a break anyway.

  But that meant she needed to get a leave of absence approved, and she would need to use a plane. She hated the idea of sitting for hours on a flight when she was perfectly capable of Porting to Italy from here, but she needed to maintain her persona as an Apprentice Magi. She didn’t want to raise any suspicions at this stage of her infiltration.

  So, she thought through the people she was cultivating, and the only one that sprung to mind was Ian.


  “Well,” she said to herself. “Let's go pull some strings.” Rising from her chair, she checked herself over in her mirror before leaving the office.

  Angel was of average height with long blonde hair that fell over her shoulders. She was a businesswoman, both in her investigation of the Syndicate and in her usual life back in Milan running Nephilim Industries.

  She’d taken what she’d wanted from other businesses and organisations before, and usually it was a quick, judicious working of Magic, and she was done.

  The Syndicate was different though, and required a more subtle touch. Magi and Scions were everywhere within this shadowy group, and her cover as an apprentice Magus meant that there was little she could do Magically. If they suspected that she was a Sage-ranked Magus, her mission would be over.

  But Angel considered herself a resourceful woman and was not above using her feminine wiles to get what she wanted. Seducing the Riven members of this group was child’s play, especially with a little Magical nudge here and there.

  Besides, people were weak, hormone-filled animals and it didn’t take much to get them to give in to their more basic desires. All it took was a little push, and suddenly they were doing something that they knew they shouldn’t and knew would get them into trouble. Her short, hip-hugging pencil skirt and thin, fitted blouse were more than enough to get most men, and a surprising amount of women, to give in to their desires.

  Besides, it was fun.

  She enjoyed choosing the cutest co-workers in the most advantageous positions, seducing them, and then blackmailing them to get what she wanted. She got to have some fun and move forward in her mission, all at the same time.

  She used these little indiscretions wisely, recording them when she could so she could blackmail the target later. She had a few lower-level managers in her pocket already who were more than willing to do as she asked.

  Ian was a new one and the highest up the chain she had dared go so far. She doubted she’d need to go any higher for now. He was only one step below the board of directors, and most of them routinely carried Magical items on them to protect themselves. She’d find one she could tempt at some point, but she’d need to avoid the Magi and Scions and keep to the Riven board members.

  For now though, Ian would do.

  She thought about what she could do and then smiled as a cheeky idea sprung to mind.

  Ian’s office wasn’t far and was closer to the executive boardrooms. Setting off, she smiled at the few people she saw, until she reached the room Ian was in and knocked on the door that led directly into his office, ignoring the secretary’s side room that was attached to it.

  “Come in,” he called. “It’s open.”

  Angel opened the door and stood in the doorway, her hands behind her back.

  “Good morning, Ian,” she purred.

  “Angel,” he exclaimed, flushing slightly. “It’s good to see you. How may I help you today?” He sounded nervous, but she couldn’t blame him really.

  “Oh, I need a favour,” she said. “Nothing huge, but it needs approval from senior management.”

  “Oh, well, depends on what it is, really,” he said, starting to regain his composure as he slipped back into his business voice.

  With a quick thought, and working of Magic so minor and subtle that few would detect it, certainly not a Riven like Ian, she turned on the camera she had previously hidden in here and set it recording.

  “Well, let me try and convince you,” she said and flicked her hand out. Angel’s underwear, which she had removed back in her office, flew through the air to land perfectly on the desk before him.

  His eyes widened like plates as he looked down at the lacy black and purple panties.

  “Aaaah…” he croaked.

  “Sir, your ten-thirty just arrived,” said the voice of his secretary through his phone. Ian cursed to himself and grabbed Angel’s underwear off his desk as he looked up at her, clearly in a state of confusion as to what to do next.

  Angel closed and locked the door behind her. The secretary was in the adjoining room, and couldn’t see what was happening. Angel smiled at him and whispered. “Cancel it.”

  She saw him shift about in his seat uncomfortably, unsure what he should do.

  “Unless you want your wife to see that footage I showed you,” she said.

  Ian stabbed the intercom on his phone. “Something’s, um, come up. Get him to come back later. I’ll need to have some time undisturbed in here,” he said, and then cut off the link before his secretary could protest. He looked up, slightly angry at her now.

  “Don’t be like that,” she purred. “I’m going to make this worth your while, believe me,” she said as she reached the adjoining door to his secretary’s office and turned the lock.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Making sure we’re not disturbed,” she said.

  “Why?”

  “I need authorised time off and a plane to Europe. Today.”

  “And why would I do that?” he asked.

  Angel undid a button on her shirt. “You know why.”

  Ian sighed. “I could get into trouble over this.”

  “No, you won’t. You’re going to authorise that flight for me, and then… Well, we’ll see, won’t we.”

  She could see the cogs turning in his head, and as she pulled her shirt open further, revealing part of her bra, she could see his interest in her, and his arousal, grow. He was flushing a little too.

  “Alright, hold on,” he answered, and tapped away on his computer. Angel walked around his desk and watched him approve her request.

  She smiled at him. “Thank you.”

  “So, how will you make this worth my while?” he asked.

  She gave him a wicked grin. “How about I swallow?”

  Ian gulped, blinking at the thought. “Yeah, alright, that would work.”

  ***

  Her phone pinged as Angel strode along the corridor, away from Ian’s office having left him satisfied, but wanting more. The new file she’d recorded and saved to the cloud was another useful nail in his coffin, as well. Seducing these idiots wasn’t the most efficient way for her to get what she wanted, but it did mean she could move about amongst the Magi within the Syndicate, unseen, and that was invaluable.

  Checking her phone, the message alerted her that her plane was ready and waiting for her, so she made her way through the complex and out towards the private airstrip that the Syndicate maintained.

  The money that the Syndicate controlled was incredible. They ran multinationals around the world and could influence governments and private corporations anywhere. All of it under the direction of the founder of the Syndicate, Mr Black.

  Angel still wasn’t exactly sure what the purpose of the Syndicate was, but they employed Riven, Magi, and Scion alike, building their empire and their control. One day she hoped to find out the truth, but until then, she’d keep building her power base and her library of blackmail material.

  The flight to Italy was long and tedious, and just so much slower than Porting.

  The moment she was clear of the plane, however, she Ported from the airport and appeared in her office in Milan. The room was exactly as she’d left it. She sat in her chair and enjoyed its familiar feel. If felt good to release the grip she kept on her Magic when she was on the Syndicate island. Keeping up the ruse of her being a mere Apprentice when she was nearing the level of Master was a lot of work. If she was finally able to find and lay her hands on the Lazarus Scroll, though, and discover what the Syndicate was involved in, then perhaps it would be worth it.

  In her mind, the presence of someone wanting to open a Link with her suddenly made itself known. It was her coven mate.

  ~You’re back. May I come in?~

  ~Of course,~ Angel answered.

  Magic flared, and suddenly a girl of about six or seven years of age in a cute pink dress with flowers on it appeared in her office.

  “Cherub,” Angel s
miled. “You sensed my return.”

  “Always, my Baal. I take it my report on the activities of Yasmin took your interest?” she asked in her sing-song voice.

  Angel only smiled.

  “Then I’ll be happy to fill you in on the details we know. Our contact has informed us that Yasmin as made a rare trip to personally handle something that’s come to light. He’s still looking into it, but we know that it’s linked to an artifact that the Vatican is chasing. We suspect that Yasmin is after the same thing. So, if Yasmin is handling this personally, I think we can assume this could be big.”

  “Do we know anything about what the artifact is?”

  “Apparently, Yasmin had organised a dig in the Egyptian desert overseen by one of her younger apprentices, Amy Bergman. It seems that they not only found the artifact, but also woke something up which killed the entire dig team, Amy as well. The artifact is some kind of large stone slab and is now in the hands of a British family somewhere in London. It may be that Yasmin merely wants her property back, given that it was stolen from her dig, but I think there’s more to it than that.”

  “An unknown artifact in London?” Angel said, thinking. “Well, there are only a few places in that city a Riven could take such an item if they wanted it identified.”

  - An old Diary entry of Emmanuelle Page, Mother Superior of St Mary’s Orphanage

  She’s been gone for a week now, and there’s no trace of her at all. The full extent of her planning has come to light, including the money she took from my office and the food from the kitchens. This wasn’t some random teenage impulse; this was planned well in advance. We put the word out the moment we knew she’d left the premises and filed a missing person report with the Garda shortly after that, but she’s long gone by now. She could be anywhere in the world if she were smart enough, and if I know Amanda as well as I think I do, then I doubt she’ll be in Ireland anymore, and I have no idea if I will ever see her again.

 

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