Magi Legend

by Andrew Dobell

  Orphanage

  Donegal, Ireland

  It was a lovely, balmy day as Amanda walked up the driveway and approached the collection of buildings that loomed up in front of her. They were made from old black stone with green moss and lichen threading its way through the brickwork. The place looked like it used to be some kind of stately home, but the sign out front declared it to be the St Mary’s Convent School and Orphanage of Donegal.

  Amanda paused for a moment and just looked up at it. She had a lot of memories of this building, but returning to it after leaving at seventeen, after so much had happened to her, felt strange. She’d only really been away for a little over two years, but it seemed like a lifetime. The place felt different now. It was part of her past, not her future, but she couldn’t leave for Paris without at least paying a visit. She felt like she needed some kind of closure on this chapter of her life, and she was also hoping that Alicia was still here.

  That, of course, would be a long shot, but at the very least, she might be able to find out where Alicia had gone. Had she found a home somewhere, maybe? A family to take her in? Or perhaps she’d joined the convent. She’d said a few times over the years that she wanted to join the ranks of the sisters.

  Whatever direction Alicia had taken, Amanda hoped to find out today.

  Walking into the front entrance of the school Amanda found herself in the reception area. She’d seen it several times before, but it had not been a room she’d visited often.

  Filled with well-cared-for seating, tables with magazines upon them, and pictures hanging from the wood-panelled walls, they clearly wanted to impress anyone who came here. The room gave the place a stately elegance and instilled a sense of history to the school, which had been here for quite a long time.

  To her left, sitting behind a dark wooden desk was a woman in a beige cardigan buttoned all the way up, the collar of her white blouse folded over the top of the neckline.

  She peered at Amanda over the rim of her glasses, which were perched on the end of her nose.

  Amanda walked towards her and noted how the woman quite obviously looked her up and down with a disapproving sneer.

  Amanda wore fitted, ripped jeans along with a white top with a smiling pumpkin stretched over her chest. She finished the look off with a denim jacket and a pair of sneakers.

  The receptionist probably thought she looked scruffy, but Amanda didn’t care. She felt comfortable, and that was way more important than what some self-righteous woman thought of her.

  “Can I help you, dear? Are you lost?”

  “I’m not lost. I was in the area and wanted to come and visit,” she said casually.

  “Well, I don’t know what you think this place is, but you can’t just waltz in here for a visit,” she replied, her tone condescending.

  “Sorry, I know, but I used to be a pupil here. I was an Orphan, and I… I moved out a couple of years ago,” Amanda explained.

  “Oh, so, one of our success stories,” the woman said, her tone warming up a touch.

  Amanda smiled. “I guess so.”

  “Well, this is a working school, so you can’t just go wandering around. I don’t know if there would be anyone available to come and see you, but take a seat, and I’ll see what I can do.”

  Amanda thanked her, walked away from the desk, wandering between the furniture. After a moment, she spotted some annual school photos framed on the wall. She remembered posing for these each year with the entire pupil population of the school. They were always a welcome break from maths or whatever. Walking over, she noted the years on them and found the last one she would have been included in and started hunting for herself.

  It didn’t take long. She stood out from the crowd with her red hair. It took her a little longer to find the dark-haired Alicia, but she did soon enough and smiled at the memory. Hearing some movement behind her, she looked over to see a young man had walked in and approached the receptionist. They talked and looked in her direction. Amanda smiled and waved, which seemed to annoy the receptionist.

  The young man started to head over to her. Amanda smiled, he was a good-looking guy, and she enjoyed watching him move. Part of her was quite tempted to flirt with him. It had been a while since she’d been with a man, and to be honest, although she was far from being a virgin anymore, she didn’t really count any of her sexual encounters to date as anything meaningful. In fact, she usually just did her best to forget them.

  As he approached, she caught his eye and held the look for a long moment, only for him to walk into the corner of a chair and hurt his leg. She smiled to herself. Slick, she thought.

  “How are yeh? I’m Will,” he said when he finally approached her, offering his hand.

  “Will you?” Amanda joked.

  “Um…” he said, unsure how he should answer.

  Amanda smiled and shook his hand. “Sorry. Hi, I’m Amanda, nice to meet you.”

  “So, I hear you’re a former pupil here?” he asked.

  “An orphan, yes. I was in the area and thought I’d pop by, so I did. I lived here for seventeen years,” she said.

  “That’s quite a while. So, you have a family now?”

  “I suppose so. It’s been a rocky ride, but I found my way,” she said, catching him giving her an admiring glance. She smiled. Dragging him to the nearest broom cupboard for a quickie was an inviting thought, but she was here to see some old friends, not to have a quick ride with the first attractive man she laid eyes on.

  “That’s great. So, did you want to see anyone specifically?”

  “Well, I’d like to go and see Emmanuelle Page and say hello, but that’s over in the convent, so, I was just interested in remembering the way things were and seeing some familiar faces,” she said.

  “Well, we can’t just go wandering about the school, but we could head over to the staff room and get a drink. Maybe you’ll see someone there.”

  “Sounds good,” Amanda smiled, and followed him out of the reception, along a few corridors, and into the staffroom. Will led her over to the coffee machine and poured her a drink. It wasn’t very hot and it tasted a little bitter, but this was a teacher staff room, so she didn’t complain.

  “Is that you, Amanda?” said a man behind her. Turning around, she looked up into the kindly face of her old geography teacher, perhaps her favourite teacher.

  The faculty was comprised of both teachers and nuns. The sisters taught religious studies and served as spiritual leaders while the regular staff filled in the gaps in the sister's knowledge, teaching the more specialised subjects.

  Amanda never really liked any of the classes she had with the nuns, instead, always preferring the outside staff, with Mr Croft being her favourite.

  “Mr Croft,” she said with a smile. “I was hoping to see you.”

  “How come you’re back here? Did you not have enough of us?”

  “I was in the area and wanted to come say hi,” she said.

  “In the area? You’ve been gone for over a year.”

  “Yeah, I know, I do be thinking of you every day though, to be sure.”

  “So, don’t hold out on me, did you get to New York?” he asked.

  Amanda couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face. “I did, it was amazing.” She had no plans to tell him the truth of what had happened in New York. Instead, she stuck to telling him how wonderful she thought it was. She waxed lyrical for a while about the more fun aspects of New York and enjoyed the smile on Mr Croft’s face.

  They chatted and smiled for a while until she noticed someone walk in wearing a grey nun’s coif, grey cardigan, skirt, tights, and very sensible shoes. She didn’t look up at Amanda, but Amanda knew right away who she was.

  Excusing herself from Mr Croft, she wandered over and came up next to the young woman, her heart fluttering with nerves.

  “Alicia?” Amanda asked nervously.

  The young woman looked up, and it took her about a second to realise who she was looking at.
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  “Oh, my goodness, Amanda. Is it you?” she asked.

  Amanda smiled at her old friend. “It is,” she said and quickly pulled her in for a hug. They embraced for a long moment before Alicia pulled away, tears streaming down her face. Amanda had started to tear up as well and sniffed them back. “Don’t you get me started.”

  “I’m sorry, I just... I had no idea you were coming,” Alicia said. “You just disappeared. Mandy. Oh, my gosh, it’s great to see you. What are you doing here?”

  Amanda sniffed. “Just visiting, for old times’ sake, really.”

  “How long are you staying for?”

  “I have a couple of hours, I think,” she said.

  Alicia steeled herself and sniffed back her own tears. “Okay, bear with me one moment, I’ll get cover for my shifts,” she said and disappeared off.

  ***

  “I still can’t believe you actually made it to New York,” Alicia said. “People were looking for you for days. You have no idea what chaos you caused.”

  “I’m sorry, I am, but I had to do it. I was dying here. I needed to see the world,” Amanda explained.

  “I know,” Alicia answered. “I knew you wouldn’t stay. It was only a matter of time.”

  “You seem to have done okay for yourself, though. I see you’re joining the convent,” she stated, pointing up to her headdress.

  “It’s my calling. Just like New York was yours.”

  “Are you enjoying it?”

  “Yeah, it’s great. I’ve done my six months postulancy, and I’m partway through my two years as a novitiate, so, it’s a fairly long process.”

  “As long as you’re happy, then that’s okay by me,” Amanda answered with a grin.

  “I knew you’d think it was strange. You never did like the nuns very much, did you?”

  Amanda shook her head with a thin smile. Alicia was right about that. She found them to be incredibly infuriating and small-minded, but then, her life was just on a very different course than Alicia’s was. The pair of them headed outside and walked around the grounds, talking, remembering their time together in the school growing up, and laughing. It was like nothing had changed, and yet, so much had. Amanda’s life was so very different now and looking at her friend, she knew she would probably not see much of her after this. The world of the Magi was a dangerous one, and she did not want to expose Alicia to it.

  Alicia took her to see the Mother Superior, who greeted her warmly and asked how she was. She always had a cordial relationship with Emmanuel, but they’d never been close. She’d been brought up by several nuns during her life, but she never really saw any of them as her mother. Some of them weren’t incredibly affectionate, and Amanda often had the feeling that she was more of an annoyance than anything else. Although, that could have been her projecting her insecurities onto them.

  Later, they sat in an empty classroom overlooking the central recreation area. It was break time, and the courtyard below was swarming with kids from the senior school. Alicia walked over and looked out the window that Amanda sat next to.

  “Actually, you were always into that weird stuff, weren’t you? Didn’t the sisters catch you with an Ouija board once?”

  Amanda smiled and nodded. “They did, yeah, that was grand. The looks on their faces were classic. Why do you ask?”

  “I’ve got these four pupils in my class and they worry me. You can see them down there in the black clothing.”

  Amanda saw them right away. They were maybe seventeen or eighteen years old, which put them in the school’s Sixth Form, so they didn’t have to wear the uniform. There were rules about what they could and couldn’t wear, but some kids were always pushing things. Amanda smiled. They were goths or emos, or whatever the term for them was these days. But they all wore black or dark coloured clothing and stood out from the crowd.

  “The one with the long hair, he’s Scott, his girlfriend is Christina,” she said. Scott wore a black leather jacket and jeans with chains hanging from them, while Christina favoured a long black dress and an equally as long velvet coat, both of which complemented her white skin and black eyeliner.

  Alicia continued to point out Tomo, who also wore a large leather jacket with clasps all over it, jeans, and huge jackboots, while the last of the four, Jake, was the least alternative of them, in just jeans and t-shirt.

  “They’re only goths, Alicia, nothing to worry about,” she said.

  “Maybe. But Jake used to be a straight-A student until he got caught up with them, and I’ve already caught them with a Ouija board, so…” She looked at Amanda and then away. “I know, I’m worrying over nothing.”

  Amanda agreed, she did think it was nothing, but to be safe, she used her Aetheric Sight and took a look at them in the Magical spectrum. There were no concentrations of Essentia around them at all, and they were certainly not Magi, who were usually easy to spot.

  She looked back up to Alicia. “What do you want me to do?”

  “They’ll be in my class next, so they’ll be busy. Take my skeleton key and just check out their rooms for me. You know what to look for better than I do.”

  Amanda smiled. It was somewhat ridiculous, but she wanted to be there for her friend, so she agreed.

  It turned out she was right.

  There was nothing in the rooms for Alicia to be worried about, Magical or otherwise. They were merely into some alternative culture and music. Out of the three of them, Christina seemed to be the one who was most into witchcraft, but it was all harmless stuff and had nothing to do with real Magic.

  Amanda walked around the small dorm room, being careful not to disturb anything, and used her Aetheric Sight to give the room a sweep, just in case there was anything magical. But she saw nothing with any kind of Magical residue. Like the other rooms, Christina’s was covered with posters of goth and heavy metal bands, as well as similarly themed film posters. A perennial favourite, The Crow, made an appearance in more than one of the dorms, with Brandon Lee staring out at Amanda with that brooding look of his.

  Amanda sat on the bed and found herself filled with memories of her time here. She’d had a similar room to this one when she’d been here in the later years, and seeing Christina’s room brought all those memories back.

  As the end of Alicia’s lesson drew near, Amanda made sure nothing had been moved and left the room, locking it behind her.

  Amanda met Alicia later on in the reception area, sitting before the fireplace, which someone had now lit. The warmth of the flames was making Amanda feel very cosy, and she was looking forward to returning to the cottage soon.

  “So, there’s nothing for me to worry about?” Alicia asked.

  “Nothing at all, but if you do find anything that concerns you, I mean, really concerns you, then please get in touch. You have my number; you can call anytime, okay?”

  Alicia smiled. “Thank you. I know I worry too much, but I just want to help my pupils get the best start in life.”

  “I know,” Amanda said. “And I know the kids won’t see it, at least not yet, but they will understand it one day.”

  “I hope so, and don’t you worry, I’ll get a message to you if I discover anything that worries me,” she said.

  Amanda smiled. “Good. Now, I’m afraid I have to get going, but please do keep in touch, won’t you?”

  “I will,” Alicia said.

  With a warm smile, Amanda leaned in to give her friend a hug goodbye.

  Alicia walked her out of the building and waved to her as Amanda set off along the driveway.

  Part way along, once she was out of sight of the building, she turned into the trees and walked up into the woods. Coming to a stop, she looked around her. Feeling confident she was alone, she pulled on the threads of Essentia. She’d only Ported a few times by herself and she was still getting used to it, but even though it felt a little strange, it thrilled her even more.

  Essentia surged, and with a snap of shifting air, she was gone.

  - Diar
y of Ethel Peters, Howie’s neighbour.

  I got a good look at her today, and I’m sure it was the tramp from the stoop outside. It looks like Howard has taken her in. I noticed she was sleeping at the entrance to the building a few days ago. She always gave me a slightly scared look, but we can’t have homeless people cluttering up the place, which was why I mentioned it at the last residents’ association meeting. I think Howard was there that night as well. The chairman said he’d do something, but what can he do now that Howard’s letting her live with him?

  She’s a pretty girl, lovely long red hair. She looks a lot better now that she’s cleaned herself up a bit, but I don’t like the idea of her living next door to me. I’ll mention it to the chairman when I see him next. See if anything can be done.

  Broken

  London, England

  Liz sat back with a sigh, leaning against the sofa allowing the blood to circulate back into her legs. She’d been sat on them for the past hour, going through any and all rituals they could find to try and tap into the magic that they believed the stone tablet held, but so far nothing had worked, and they’d just finished their final ritual.

  “Well,” said Fran, sitting beside Liz on the floor, “that’s it. That’s everything we know.”

  “Damn it, I felt sure something would work,” Stephen exclaimed.

  “It might not actually be magical, you know,” Fran suggested.

  “Sure, you might be right, but it’s still disappointing. I was convinced there was something special about this thing.”

  “Well, if there is, it’s a little beyond us, I think,” Fran suggested. She turned to look at her sister. “You okay?”

  Liz nodded. She was fine. She’d just been catching her breath and watching them try to figure out what they might have been doing wrong. Ben sat on her other side, also looking a little dejected and bored.

  They were in the front room of Stephen’s house while his parents were out for the day, which it made for the perfect opportunity to test a few of their theories on the tablet. This was the first time that Liz had really had a chance to look at it properly. The artifact had been kept in Stephen’s house—in his Dad’s office for safekeeping—and although she’d seen it a couple of times before, those had only been very brief encounters. Today, they’d all finally been able to get a good long look at it.