It was undoubtedly a mystical-looking thing, but there was a mundanity to it that had made Liz doubt just how magical it might be.
Lifting herself up, Liz sat on the sofa and enjoyed the comfort of the plush furnishing. She always liked coming to Stephen’s house. His parents were well off, and they lived in a large, gated property in an affluent part of town. It made her kind of dread going home to their two-bedroom apartment with their mum. It wasn’t like she could criticise their mother, though. Bringing up two girls on her own was tough. She worked hard at her two jobs to bring home the money to keep them going. The downside of that was that they hardly saw her, so they had to learn to be reasonably self-sufficient. These days, they usually washed their own clothes and made their own meals. They wanted to lighten the load for their mum as much as they could so that when she got home she didn’t need to do much and could relax.
As Liz sat there, lost in her own little world, Ben got up off the floor and sat beside her. She turned and smiled at him and gave him a quick kiss. They’d just started dating, and it was still early days, but she was enjoying the ride nonetheless.
Fran had been pushing for her and Ben to get together for a while now, but Liz had felt nervous. She’d never had a boyfriend before and wasn’t sure what to do or how it should go. Fran had shared her own experiences, of course. She’d already had several boyfriends and had been offering advice to Liz since she’d finally said yes to Ben.
“Well, that was a great big waste of time,” Ben whispered to Liz, keeping his voice low so as not to be overheard by the other two.
“Not really. It just means we know what doesn’t work. There’s bound to be lots of other things we can try,” she said with a smile. Ben, out of all of them, was the least interested in magical stuff. He went along with it and knew that it sometimes worked, but it seemed to make him nervous, like he was afraid of it. He was more interested in the latest Sci-Fi film or comic book, an interest he shared with Stephen, more than the girls. Liz had read a few of his comics now, though, and sat through a few films. She enjoyed them, but like her sister, she was more focused on the occult side of things.
“I suppose,” Ben said, sitting back.
Liz smiled and shook her head slightly before looking up at Stephen and Fran. “So, do we have time for anything else?”
Stephen checked the clock. “Hmm, probably not. I think we should get packed up and then we can have a hunt online to see if we can find anything else out. I don’t want my folks walking in on us doing this.”
Everyone nodded. Stephen then set everyone to a job like putting stuff away, or taking some of the occult items and moving them back up to Stephen’s room.
Liz finished her errands quickly and returned to the living room where Stephen was picking up the last few things, leaving only the stone slab on the floor. He looked over at Liz, then down at the tablet, and then back up at Liz.
“Do you think you can mov… No, actually, it’s okay.”
“Move the tablet back?” Liz asked.
“Well, yeah, but it’s heavy. Are you sure you can manage it?”
“Sure,” Liz said with a smile.
“Okay, I’ll be back in a moment if you find it a struggle,” he said and left the room. Liz reached down and started to lift it, only to find the thing was much heavier than she had thought it would be. She lowered herself down, got a better grip on it, and tried again. She couldn’t help but gaze at it and marvel at some of the carvings—it was incredibly intricate.
She started to walk towards the study in the next room but quickly realised she didn’t have the hold on it she thought she had. Shifting her hand, she attempted to get a better grip, only for one of the protuberances in the carvings to dig into her hand. She yelped as the artifact slipped from her hands and watched in horror as it dropped to the floor.
It felt like the world had suddenly slowed down as she watched it fall, twisting in the air as it went.
“Shit,” she hissed.
With a bang that reverberated through the house, the tablet hit the floor flat. Liz stared down at it, her eyes wide with shock. There was a huge crack that ran right across the middle of the item, splitting it in two.
She’d broken it.
As she stared down, horror turned to regret, and tears welled up in her eyes, blurring her vision.
“What was that?” Stephen said, appearing at the living room door.
Liz looked up at him, feeling terrible. “I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t,” he asked.
“Yeah, I did…”
“You dropped it? Oh, God no. Where is it?”
Liz found she could only stand there and cringe as Stephen began to panic. She pointed down to the floor. A chair was hiding the mess from Stephen’s view. She wanted nothing more than the earth to swallow her up and end her humiliation.
“How could you…Fucking hell, my Dad’s going to kill me,” he ranted.
“I’m sorry, it was a mistake,” she said. “It was too heavy and it was digging into my hands,” she tried to explain as she looked down at the palms of her hands. She could barely make out any details at all, though, through the tears streaming down her face.
Stephen moved up and looked down at the smashed artifact. “Damn it, it’s really messed up,” he said crouching over it.
Fran appeared at the door. “What happened?” she asked and stepped up to Liz, hugging her close when she saw the broken artifact. “It’s okay.”
“I couldn’t hold it,” Liz whimpered.
“That’s alright, we’ll figure it out. Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m okay,” she said. “Stephen, I’m really sorry…” she said, but Stephen waved his hand and shushed her.
“Err…” Liz stammered, not sure what to make of his reaction. “What?”
“There’s something here,” Stephen stated.
“Where?” Fran asked.
“Inside the tablet, there’s something hidden in there. Come here, have a look,” he suggested, his voice full of wonder.
Frowning at the change of tone in Stephen’s voice, Liz moved around and had a look down at the artifact as Stephen pulled on one end of the broken tablet. The top half slid away easily to reveal something metallic inside. It looked like it was made out of gold. A fresh wave of awe washed over Liz as she realized that whatever this was, had been entombed inside the tablet this whole time.
“Oh, my God,” Fran said in amazement. “Liz, you found something.”
“What is it?” Ben asked.
“I have no idea,” Stephen said, taking hold of the golden item and pulling it. It slid out of the tablet smoothly. Moving it over to a nearby table, Stephen placed it down to get a better look at it. Liz eyed it as well and came to several conclusions right away. The first one being that it looked like a book. But a book made out of gold.
It looked like the main bulk of the object consisted of numerous golden pages, held together on one side by three golden rings that fed through holes on the sheets of metal.
Placed centrally on the cover was a large red gemstone. A ruby, maybe? Around it were intricately carved patterns and designs as well as several strange runes.
Stephen fingered the corner of the cover page and lifted it up.
“Careful,” Fran whispered.
“Don’t worry,” Stephen said as he lifted the page. The action of the book was smooth and just as easy to open as turning the page of a paper book. Inside, each side of each page was divided into two columns and filled with text. There were clearly two different languages written here, and Liz wondered if this might be just two versions of the same text. The first language style was known as Cuneiform and was wedge-shaped, but she’d never seen the other one before. It was a sinuous swirling text, which had a kind of beauty to it.
As Stephen flicked through, it was clear that each page was basically the same layout, with no pictures or illustrations.
“This looks like it’s worth a lot of money, dude,” Ben
whispered.
“What do we do with it?” Fran asked.
“I want to study it,” Stephen answered her, still fascinated with the book. “I’ll hide it from my parents; they don’t need to know about it.”
“What about the tablet?” Liz asked.
“Don’t worry, I’ll…” he paused, and looked back at the mess on the floor, and then looked over at the cat which was still curled up on a seat a short distance away. “We could make it look like the cat knocked it off or something,” he said.
“Great idea,” Fran said.
“I’ll just hide the book first,” Stephen said, closing it carefully.
“I’m really sorry, Stephen,” Liz said as he picked up the golden book.
“Don’t apologise. If you hadn’t dropped it, we would never have found this. So, we’re cool, okay?”
Liz smiled, feeling a little better.
- A passage from an unknown diary.
Poor Raven, he was beside himself today, knowing he was about to meet her. I think he finds it all a little too much. I know I find it confusing and I’m the one to blame!
Legacy
Paris, France
As the flash of light faded from her eyes, the noise and smells of the city assaulted Amanda’s senses. They were stood in a back alleyway in Paris, surrounded by dirt and dumpsters filled with bin bags. The stench of rotting food was quite intense and a brief wave of nausea passed over her. She held it together though, and pinched her nose, looking around to make sure she wasn’t getting dirty by brushing up against something. She wore a fitted grey turtleneck sweater, a short, pleated, black and white tartan skirt, tights, and tall, black-velvet boots, which so far had avoided the grime in the alleyway.
“What is it about Magi and alleyways?” she said, her voice sounding all nasally due to the grip she had on her nose. “We’re always in them.”
Gentle Water smiled at her but didn’t answer.
She knew the answer to the question just as well as he did. They were a necessary evil when you wanted to Port around a city. You needed somewhere to appear that was out of sight.
“Are we close, GW?” Amanda asked.
“Yes, we are,” Gentle Water answered. He used to frown when she shortened his name or used a nickname, but he seemed to be getting used to it.
He led the way along the alley, past more boxes and black bin bags filled with garbage, and stepped out onto the bustling Parisian street. Cars honked their horns as they fought their way along, while cyclists weaved between the vehicles. People were everywhere, walking in every direction, going about their business.
Going from the calm environment of the Irish countryside to a busy urban street came with a certain amount of culture shock.
“Feck me, it’s busy,” she said, enjoying the view. The whole scene reminded Amanda of her time in New York, and part of her longed to return there sometime. Now that she was a Magus, she wanted to go back and not have to worry about how she would live. She wouldn’t be fighting for scraps anymore. She could buy any house or apartment she liked and finally enjoy the city.
For now, she had other things to think about, though.
“There is Legacy House,” Gentle Water said, pointing to a building across the street. The large three-story house was box-like, with a pitched roof and surrounded by a tall brick wall. This city wasn’t like New York, the buildings only went up a few stories, so they didn’t need to worry so much about privacy. As they approached, Amanda started to feel the Essentia that was at work here and looked at the scene with her Aetheric Sight. The building glowed brightly and was clearly well protected. Powerful Aegises enveloped the whole house and garden, and no doubt had an entire range of effects built-in. This was a well-protected coven house, which made sense given the status of the coven it was home to.
“Are they expecting us?” Amanda asked.
“Of course. They know we here already,” he said.
“Really, you know that?”
“No Magus get this close to Legacy House without them knowing,” he said.
“Of course, makes sense,” Amanda mused to herself. She followed him across the street, keeping pace with her mentor as he led her up to a small door-sized metal gate. Without hesitating, Gentle Water reached for the latch and opened it without issue. Amanda could see the waves and ripples of Essentia cascading over him and then parting to allow him entry. Amanda followed and could feel the energy play over her, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Once again, the Essentia seemed to welcome her, allowing her to pass through the Aegises and into the garden.
On this side of the gate, the noise of the city faded to almost nothing, and the weather seemed more pleasant as well. The energy and kineticism of Paris fell away to be replaced with a calm peacefulness as they walked up the garden path.
The front door was wooden with big iron hinges and was painted a deep, strong blood-red. Looking up at the house, Amanda made out three floors above her, and the whole place almost pulsed with powerful Magic.
Amanda paused, feeling a little overwhelmed and slightly scared. Gentle Water stepped up beside her.
“Are you okay?”
Amanda smiled. “I am. I’m just a little, well, nervous, I suppose. I’ve only really met one Magus before.”
“You met Inquisitor at airport,” he corrected her.
“Yeah, okay, fair play to yeh, but I didn’t know who he was, so that doesn’t count.”
“Everyone here friends, you be okay,” he reassured her.
Amanda took a breath and pushed the nervous feeling away. She wanted to enjoy this moment. She’d learnt so much since becoming a Magus, but now she was taking her first steps into this world from her isolation in Ireland. She’d learnt the theory, now it was time for the practical lesson.
But despite learning so much, as she stood on that threshold, she knew she still had so much more to find out.
Amanda forced herself forward and stepped up to the door. She noticed that there was something metallic inlaid into the wood at about head height and took a closer look at it. Made from a lattice of steel, it was about the size of a football, circular, and in the shape of a serpent eating its own tail.
“Erm, what’s that?” Amanda asked.
“That is ouroboros. It symbol meaning cyclicality, unity, or infinity. It also Legacy logo,” he said.
“It’s a bit ugly, is what it is,” Amanda said, wrinkling her nose up at it. Disregarding it, she reached up and took hold of the metal ring that was held in the mouth of a metal lion’s head on the door, and knocked.
The report from the knocker was loud and as she finished, she stepped back to wait. Moments later, the door opened and a rather handsome man stood in the entrance. He was tall with long black hair, a regal expression on his face, and a powerful nose. His swarthy skin had a roughness to it that suggested years out in the wilderness. He wore simple baggy combat trousers, boots, a vest top, and little else.
The man smiled right away, radiating warmth. “Gentle Water, whassup, Chebon? How you doing?”
“I am well, Raven. It too long since I see you,” her mentor answered.
“Too right, it has,” he smiled and looked over at Amanda. “And you must be Amanda?”
She smiled. She liked him already. He clearly worked out. The muscles on his arms were well defined, and he had a lean look to him, like a coiled spring ready to leap into action. “Nice to meet you,” she said, offering her hand.
Raven took it and lifted it to his mouth. He kissed her hand with a smile. “The pleasure is all mine, Miss Page,” he answered, his gaze lingering on her for a moment. Then he let her go and stepped back. “Come in, come in, you must be eager to see the place, Amanda. I bet Gentle Water has been telling you all about it.”
Amanda smiled at the subtle dig at Gentle Water’s usual laconic nature. He often didn’t speak much, preferring to keep quiet when talking wasn’t needed.
“He’s told me a bit, yes, but I am keen to ha
ve a look around,” she said.
“Then, by all means, go, have a look. I’m sure Gentle Water can show you the place. And when you’ve finished, come back to Royston’s office. He’d like to meet you too.”
Amanda nodded. She’d heard of Royston. He was the Legacy’s current coven leader, something which rotated every few years.
Raven left them to it, so Amanda turned back to Gentle Water and smiled. “He’s nice.” Gentle Water had told her of some of the people she was likely to meet at the Legacy House, including Royston, Raven, and others. As far as she was aware, Raven was a few hundred years old and had grown up as a Native American back when they were known as Red Indians by the frontiersmen of the old west. She hoped she’d see him again today.
“Shall we look around house?” he asked.
Amanda smiled, nodded, and followed her mentor’s lead into the room to the left of the door they came in. They found themselves in a large, well-appointed living space. It looked like some lavish mansion with wooden Art Nouveau chairs and tables, amazing oil paintings in gilded frames adorned the walls, and polished, delicate-looking ornaments stood regally on top of side tables. Amanda spotted a fish tank off to her right and wandered over. She came to an abrupt stop a short distance from it as she noticed there was a miniature blue whale in it, breaching, and then splashing back down.
“What?” Amanda said to herself in wonderment. She got closer and saw dolphins and sharks and all manner of sea creatures in there, swimming back and forth. “Jaysus, this is fecking crazy,” she muttered.
“Magic,” Gentle Water said from close by.
“Is there more stuff like that in here?” she asked.
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