Magi Legend

by Andrew Dobell

  She’d made a promise to Georgina the day they’d buried her that she would keep going, that she would live the best life she could, for both of them, and she hoped that by doing so, she would make her friend proud of her.

  Her subsequent discovery of Magic had initially made her question her choices, and despair at the thought that she could have saved her friend.

  Gentle Water had helped with that, and after the events on the train, Amanda knew that her promise to Georgina was even more relevant now, than it had ever been. She didn’t want to just sit by and do nothing anymore.

  After seeing her use Magic on the train, Amanda and some of the Legacy Magi had taken a closer look at Liz. It turned out she was a latent, untrained Magus. Her sister had probably been one as well. Amanda had decided right away that she would train her. She would be Liz’s mentor and hoped that the process of learning Magic would aid in the grieving and healing process, too.

  It was still very early days, but she was already confident she was seeing some progress.

  She had since learned that the woman who had killed Fran and Stephen was Mary Damask, one of the Inquisition’s Conclave of High Inquisitors, the leaders of the Inquisition. She was a dedicated and ruthless individual. Amanda did not like the sound of her at all.

  As she enjoyed the sunshine, she looked back towards the house to see Liz wandering around the garden, lost in thought, kicking a stone, and enjoying some time to herself. Amanda had been careful not to crowd her, but to be there for her when she needed company.

  Essentia flared close by, as Amanda had expected, and Gentle Water appeared out of thin air just outside the fence, which also marked the outer edge of the cottage’s Aegis that Amanda had been working on.

  “Morning,” Amanda greeted her friend.

  “Hello, Amanda,” he said, before noticing Liz off in the distance. Liz looked up once and waved before returning to her thoughts. “How is she?”

  “She’s fine. It’s still very raw for her, so it will take a while, but I’m confident she’ll get there. I’ve not seen you much these past few weeks. Is everything okay?”

  “Everything is… Grand, as you say.”

  Amanda smiled. “Happy days. Are you coming back to stay with us for a bit?”

  “Yes, if you happy to have me,” he said.

  “Liz needs to get used to other people being around, so I think it’s a good idea.” Amanda nodded before she turned back to him. “So, that was a bleedin’ full-on introduction to the world of the Magi.”

  “Sorry?”

  “The train. Shite got crazy there for a moment,” she clarified.

  Gentle Water nodded. “It was crazy time, yes. Sorry.”

  “No, don’t apologise. I don’t regret being a part of it. Our intentions were honourable and we did our best. If Fran and Liz had stayed back and listened to us, maybe things would have been different, to be sure, but what’s done is done.”

  “Indeed, very wise,” Gentle Water agreed.

  Amanda nodded. She remembered his teachings on Time Magic and the mysterious Weavers—beings who patrolled the timeline and stopped careless Magi from damaging it. She did not fancy disappearing without a trace for doing something silly.

  “Exactly, all we can do is move forward and make the best of it. So, what’s next on the agenda for a young Magus such as me, GW?” she asked with a smile.

  Her mentor joined in her smile. “More than you could ever imagine.”

  Epilogue

  Crystal walked gingerly through the doors of the prison fortress, pushing them open a little wider with both hands. Beyond those enormous black doors, veiled in shadow, waited the vaulted entrance hall. The darkness within was compounded by the walls of black, glass-like brick that glistened in the weak light. Around the walls, corridors snaked off into the murky depths. But Crystal’s attention was focused on a mound on the floor up ahead.

  Using her Aetheric Sight to pierce the darkness, she felt sure she was alone in here, with only the corpse of her friend in the room with her.

  Sweeping her gaze left and right, she approached the remains nervously. She’d been inside the fortress many times to monitor the inmates the prison held. But entering the building was not without risk.

  While the Archons did sleep most of the time, when they did wake, they wandered the halls of Tartarus freely.

  Many of Crystal’s friends and subordinates had died over the years at the hands of these monsters, despite the Archons’ Magic being suppressed, and it looked like they had killed once more. She knew why they did it. She knew what they ate and the power that a Magi’s Anima gave them.

  But Crystal’s mission gave her and her group little choice. They had to monitor these creatures and keep them from meddling too much. It was a balancing act. One that occasionally went wrong.

  Crystal reached the body and looked down. It was Warden Drust. He’d been a young Magus and probably not fully prepared to deal with an awake Archon. But none of them should have been awake. They watched them, monitored them, and tried to keep their less experienced members out when one of the Archons was awake. Clearly, they’d got it wrong.

  She sighed, mourning the loss of life of another from their ranks.

  There were so few of them now.

  “If it’s any consolation, he died well,” said a soft but dangerous, feminine voice.

  Crystal looked up and spotted the figure in the shadows, leaning against the pillar. Crystal knew who this was. The swell of her breasts under her cloak, and the smear of blood on her red lips just visible beneath the tattered hood, only confirming what she already knew.

  “Not really,” Crystal answered. “Why, Lilitu? What are you planning this time?”

  The Archon only smiled and receded into the shadows.

  Angry, Crystal lifted the body in her arms and marched back out the door. Warden Valen was waiting outside for her, a look of concern on his face. He deflated even more on seeing the body in her arms.

  “Which one was it this time?” he asked her.

  “Lilitu, she drank his blood.”

  “Damn. Do we know why they do this?”

  Crystal looked up at the Warden, another of the younger guardsmen who was probably unaware of the details. “She’ll have consumed his Anima and used the power it gave her to contact a Nomad. We can only guess at their plans and schemes though.”

  “Their plans?

  Crystal nodded. “They’re planning something. Something big, I’m sure of it.”

  “Like what?” he asked as they walked between Tartarus and the Fortress of the Ebon Mark.

  “What do all prisoners dream of and plan?”

  The Warden seemed to understand and nodded. “Escape.”

  “God forbid, they ever succeed,” Crystal replied, her mind troubled as she thought of the possibilities.

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  MAGI RISING

  The MAGI SAGA

  Book 2

  Prologue

  Haiti

  Dark stone walls echoed the chants sung by ten figures kneeling on the rough stone in the center of a cavern. They knelt around an elaborately drawn circle which consisted of three concentric rings marked by runes and symbols.

  The ten males and females had their heads shaved, their exposed skin was covered in fresh scars, welts, and bruises. They wore only rags—the remnants of their clothes, ripped and ruined.

  Held in a Magical embrace, helpless to resist, they sang in perfect unity, chanting their call into the void. They were merely puppets, controlled by Arch Master Nymira, the Voodoo Queen. Lucian’s master and mentor.

  Lucian and Nymira stood outside the circle in deep concentration, using their combined Magical strength to force their Magic into and through the Null Realm, pulling it, stretching it, and doing their best to weaken it between here and the Abyss.

  They
didn’t do this very often, but Lucian always got a thrill from rituals such as these. He concentrated hard, using his power over Essentia to push at the powerful barrier.

  All Magi knew it could never be broken. If Nymira couldn’t pass through the Null Realm into the Abyss, then surely no one could.

  Of course, there were rumours of Nomads who had made the Magnus Transitus, the Great Crossing, into the Abyss. Legends of skilled or powerful Magi who had found a way to pass into the Abyss and meet humanities once and future lords, but Lucian had never met any and frankly doubted the stories held any weight.

  While it might be too strong to break, that didn’t mean the Null Realm couldn’t be thinned or weakened.

  As Lucian and Nymira pushed and thinned the barrier, they could feel his approach. Lucian and Nymira opened their eyes at the same time, ready to receive him.

  On the other side of the barrier, hidden from sight, but close and all about them, their ultimate master drew near. They could feel the massive power and weight of personality as something monstrous pushed back, forcing itself against the barrier that kept Archons from our world.

  Lucian stared into the circle, watching intently as he felt the Archon’s shadow pass over his mind. The power of this being felt immense, almost like he was being smothered by this vast but insubstantial thing.

  Above the circle, floating in mid-air, appeared a speck of black mist. Slowly, it grew and stretched out, reaching for the floor, and up, filling the space inside the circle with a shape made from black smoke. Bigger than a man, it roiled about like some mad miniature storm.

  Opposite him, Nymira gazed at the growing form of the Archon’s Avatar with similar awe. As awesome as this was, Lucian knew this wasn’t actually the Archon they could see. It was merely an Avatar, a magical construct created by the Archon to communicate and interact with them.

  Before him, the song of the kneeling supplicant changed pitch, becoming discordant and broken.

  As they watched, out of the darkness at the centre of the amorphous form, a skull-like face appeared, glaring at them.

  The heads of the ten kneeling supplicants burst, exploding like balloons under too much pressure, showering gore over Lucian and Nymira.

  Lucian thought he might know a fraction of how these ten dead Riven might feel, as the weight of this Archon’s presence settled about him.

  “Speak”, the thing said in a low, deep, rumbling voice like two huge boulders grinding together. The voice of the Archon felt like it penetrated everything. It felt like it went right into his brain, bypassing his ears entirely.

  Lucian bowed his head to his ultimate master.

  ***

  Later that night, Lucian sat outside on the roof of a building looking out over Haiti. He felt justified and righteous in his chosen path, knowing that powers such as the Archon Samael were behind them.

  How the Arcadian Magi could ever hope to stand against them was beyond him. But they did, even in the face of such overwhelming odds.

  Lucian was looking forward to getting back to New York City. He disliked leaving his Coven for too long, even to pay homage to his master Nymira. He knew some of those in his Coven were always looking for a weakness, something to use or take advantage of to wrest control away from him.

  He would rather die than let that happen, but it was difficult to stop something when you weren’t actually there to stop it.

  Still, when Nymira called, he knew he had to answer. There was no way around it.

  As part of the summons, Lucian had informed her of the various operations he had running, moving drugs from one place to another, often to well-connected dealers who could supply wide areas of the city. One such shipment happened to be travelling across France in the next few hours. With France being Legacy territory, he knew the risk of such an operation. The Legacy would be looking for Nomad activity, and if they had discovered Lucian’s plan, it would put the operation in jeopardy.

  Only time would tell.

  Chase

  The Legacy Mansion, France

  “Let’s burn some rubber!” whooped Xain.

  Amanda twisted the handle of her modified Fire Blade motorbike, gunning the engine. She smiled at Xain’s enthusiasm as the rear wheel on her bike spun, kicking up dust and smoke as it screamed for the open road.

  “We’re on the express elevator to Hell, going down,” Amanda replied, quoting one of her favourite films as Xain’s energy got her heart pumping. She let off the brake and the tyre gripped the concrete, shooting her forward towards the far wall of the underground garage only a few metres away. Pyrotechnics fizzled in her Aetheric sight, lighting up the room as Amanda barrelled through the Portal, followed closely by Xain.

  After a second of dislocation and dizziness, Amanda shot out of the Portal, her bike bouncing and fishtailing as it hit the road on the other side. Holding on tight Amanda corrected the bike before giving it some power. They were heading toward a bridge on a slip road that passed over an elevated AutoRoute just ahead.

  Taking a moment to absorb her surroundings, Amanda found herself under the open sky of western France near the Swiss border in an area surrounded by rocky hills and cliffs. The AutoRoute snaked through the landscape, alongside cliffs, through tunnels, and along elevated sections held high in the air by concrete pillars. The AutoRoute below wasn’t too busy, but there were still enough people on the road that it could be a problem if things got really messy.

  ~The Nomads should be approaching your position now,~ Ekkehardt Möller informed them through the mental link that connected her and Xain to the others involved in the operation.

  Amanda looked to her left at the oncoming traffic and spotted the Nomad coven right away. They were close and would pass under the road Amanda and Xain were on in the next few seconds.

  ~I see them,~ Amanda answered as they rode up onto the bridge.

  The Nomad convoy consisted of several motorbikes that encircled a white van and a grey 4x4. Amanda thought she counted about five bikes of varying shapes and sizes. The whole group seemed to have little concern for the rules of the road, and as she watched, the bikes bullied a car out of the way, narrowly avoiding a crash before racing under the bridge.

  ~Moving to engage,~ Amanda stated, looking over at Xain. Although his face was hidden under the matte-black motorbike helmet, through her Aetheric Sight, she could see he was looking at her. She nodded. He nodded back, and they both headed for the side of the bridge. A swift working of Magic and the barrier on the right-hand side of the road became liquid. It splashed to the tarmac, where it fused solid, creating a small ramp in the gap big enough for a bike to fit through. Taking the lead, Amanda launched her bike through the opening, dropping from one elevated highway to the one below.

  Amanda’s bike bounced as it landed and settled onto the road. Xain landed right behind her.

  “Whoop!” Xain yelled as he gunned his engine. ~Come on, Red, let’s go to work.~

  Moments later, they were gaining on the backmarkers of the Nomad coven.

  ~We’re dealing with the civilian traffic. We’ll try to make the road as clear as possible for you,~ Möller informed them.

  Amanda glanced behind her and saw the civilian cars had started to back off as the Legacy Magi back in Paris began working their Magic. As she passed under an electronic sign, she noticed it had changed to a warning about a crash up ahead. Amanda smiled to herself and returned her focus to the Nomads in front of them.

  ~Incoming,~ called Möller over the link.

  That’s when Balor struck. Magically hidden from view, Amanda watched as an amorphous shape swooped down from above and slammed into the side of the rear-most biker. Balor, bike, and rider all disappeared over the side of the highway with a bang.

  ~That’ll sting in the morning,~ Xain commented as he pulled his sword from its scabbard on his back.

  As they approached the two rearmost bikers Amanda checked her Aegis and the other Magical effects she held ready for the fight. Amanda flipped up her
visor as she came alongside her chosen target and smiled sweetly at him.

  “Hi,” she greeted him.

  Confused, the biker glanced back to where his teammate had been moments before. Amanda swerved towards him and landed a sudden and fearsome punch across his face. Her Essentia-laced fist manifested as a web of golden fire that, for a second, passed through the head of the man. His bike wobbled as he tried to hold on, the front wheel weaving dangerously.

  Closing the gap again, Amanda kicked out, her foot striking the front fork of the bike. Her enhanced kick was strong enough to buckle metal, and the bike went down, the front wheel bent sideways.

  She watched as Xain’s target tumbled from his bike seconds after hers.

  Their attack had alerted the convoy to their presence. A man in the leading 4x4 barked orders from his window to the remaining two bikers who slowed and dropped back to Amanda and Xain.

  ~Orion is inbound,~ Möller said over the link.

  Up ahead, in front of the convoy, a red 4x4 swerved wildly onto the road from an adjoining track before it righted itself. Amanda saw Orion lean out of the passenger window with a semi-automatic and open fire on the Nomad’s off-road vehicle. The men in the Nomad’s grey 4x4 leant out of their windows and returned fire.

  Ahead, the last two bikers braked, brandishing guns.

  Amanda re-checked her Aegis and dumped a little more Essentia into the shield. Better safe than sorry, she thought. She didn’t fancy getting shot.

  The biker closest to her fired while Amanda weaved her bike, doing her best to dodge the gunfire. Several hit home. They had been Magically enhanced, but they still ricocheted off her shield. Beside her, Xain used his sword, swiping it before him at blinding speed to knock the bullets from the air.