Magi Legend

by Andrew Dobell

  She moved a couple of steps further along and saw that one of the windows on the rear of the house had been smashed and the window opened.

  More disturbingly, with her magical sight, she could see a hole slowly closing in the Aegis surrounding the house. She almost hadn’t seen it, the Magic that had created it, and that now faded away before her eyes, had been both powerful and subtle.

  Her stomach sank, and a deep-rooted fear took hold in her gut. It felt like her world stopped. She felt frozen in place, unable to act for fear of what might happen. Whoever, or whatever had hurt Yoh, was inside the house.

  A scream from the back of the house broke the spell that fear had cast over Amanda, snapping her back to reality. That sounded like Liz, she thought, before Porting back into the utility room

  The first thing she saw was a figure crouching over Yoh pulling an ornate dagger from his body with a jerk of her arm.

  The figure, dressed in an all-black catsuit had a powerful Aegis surrounding her. It suppressed any magical signatures, making it difficult to get a read on her. After seeing her ability to tunnel through the house’s Aegis, Amanda had to assume she was a powerful Magi.

  On the far side of the room Liz lay crumpled against the wall, alive, but clearly hurt. The attacker looked over at Liz and got up from her position over Yoh, holding out the bloody dagger before her.

  “Hey!” Amanda shouted.

  The assassin paused and partially turned her head so she could see Amanda and Liz at the same time.

  Amanda didn’t waste any time, she needed this killer away from Liz before she hurt her, too. With a force of will born from anger and fear, she blasted the assassin with a kinetic blast. She flew sideways across the room, away from Liz. The assassin may have an Aegis, but she could still get knocked off her feet.

  The assassin slammed into the wall several feet above the floor and landed with a bone-crunching thump.

  She rolled with the fall and barely a second later, was up on her feet and moving to attack Amanda with the dagger in hand. She swung at Amanda and Amanda reacted without thought, using her forearm against her attacker’s forearm to fend off the knife, only to be greeted with an electrical shock that made her yelp.

  The assassin’s attacks rained down without let up or pause. Amanda tried to defend herself, getting electrocuted each time she fended off another blow.

  Amanda’s second mind went to work and pulled on reality. Working her Magic, she modified the shield she already had in place so it would repel and disperse electrical attacks. A moment later, the shocks were gone, and she redoubled her efforts.

  Amanda focused, looking for openings in the assassin’s defence. Within moments, she found one and turned the tide of the fight. Amanda went on the offensive, catching the hand with the dagger and twisting it. Grunting, the assassin dropped the dagger to the floor with a metallic clatter.

  Claws extended from the assassin’s fingers as she came at Amanda again. Each nail was over an inch long and quite deadly-looking as they raked across Amanda’s stomach. Using Amanda’s natural response to pull away, the assassin twisted out of her hold and pirouetted away, only to turn back to face Amanda with her arm raised. A gun on her wrist fired and something tiny shot past Amanda and then froze in mid-air.

  The pellet flared with Essentia, and a second later a powerful gravity well appeared around it, crushing it. The room shook as the Magic grew. Within a few moments, the contents of the entire room would be pulled and crushed into that one invisible point of space.

  Amanda’s second mind worked frantically to counter the Magic, unravelling it as fast as it grew.

  Meanwhile, the assassin pulled the two swords free from where they were secured across her back. Amanda couldn’t see the assassin’s face under the stealth suit, but she could have sworn that the killer smiled at her.

  She ran at Amanda, lashing out with her katanas. Amanda dodged away from the blades. They missed her by inches, but that was enough.

  She tumbled and ducked away from the slashes, the women moving in unison, like a carefully choreographed dance routine. The ebb and flow of the fight moved about the room as the pair flipped and spun around each other.

  ***

  With the attacker occupied with Mandy, Liz moved back to Yoh’s side and held his hand in hers. His breath came in short, ragged gasps that put her on edge.

  She looked up as the assassin drew two curved Japanese swords from her back and attacked Amanda, who was also using her own Magic to counter a growing effect behind her. Small objects, dust and other lightweight items started to levitate and move towards a spot in space where gravity suddenly grew in strength.

  Liz knew she could help. Amanda had taught her how to unravel Magic only recently as she progressed from Apprentice to Adept in rank.

  She raised her right hand and extended it out towards the gravity well to help focus her will, while concentrating on pulling the Essentia back and away from the effect. The Magic in the gravity well was strong and complex, but between her and Amanda, they began to make progress. The Magic stopped increasing and began to lessen as Liz did her best to remain focused.

  A movement to her right caught her eye. Maya entered the room with a look of surprise on her face, which swiftly changed to horror when she saw Yoh on the ground.

  Maya ran over to them, her black skirt flaring out behind her before she skidded to a stop and went down on her knees.

  “Is he okay? What happened?” she asked.

  Liz grunted in her effort to keep fighting the gravity well. “He’s… been stabbed. By her,” she managed, her tone condemning the assassin.

  Maya nodded. “You focus on your magic, I’ve got Yoh.”

  Relieved, Liz redoubled her efforts. With a grunt and yell, she helped Amanda rip the last of the Essentia from the gravity well.

  The ball of crushed objects dropped to the floor with a thud. Amanda nodded at her in approval, after dodging another of the assassin's attacks. Liz smiled back before turning back to Yoh and Maya.

  Maya leaned in and tried to listen to Yoh’s breathing. Liz felt helpless. She didn’t have the Magical ability to heal people yet. She could only hope Amanda would survive the fight and be able to save him.

  Maya moved her head away from Yoh’s face.

  “God damn it!” she cursed. She turned him easily onto his back so she could check his airway, her Vampire strength making light work of moving him.

  “Crap,” she whispered. Liz could see why. Blood covered Yoh’s face and seeped from his mouth. His airway would be filled with it, too. But it didn’t stop Maya, who covered his mouth with hers and breathed into him twice, filling his lungs with air before she used her fingers to find the right place on his chest, put one hand over the other, and started chest compressions.

  ***

  Dodging the swings of the two swords, Amanda felt the gravity well behind her fade to nothing. With Liz’s help, they’d killed the effect, and likely saved the house and everyone in it.

  Amanda nodded once to Liz as she turned both minds back towards the assassin. Her twin blades had slashed against Amanda’s Aegis a few too many times now, leaving it in a weakened state. Cursing, she delivered a kick to the assassin’s chest, sending her flying into the far wall. In the seconds of breathing space that gave her, she dumped as much Essentia back into her defences as possible.

  The assassin fell, rolled, and in just a couple of seconds, stood before her once more.

  Amanda screamed at the figure in black. Using one mind to send a knife of Magical energy into the Aegis that surrounded the assassin, cracking it, she used her other mind to reach out and Port a katana of her own from the weapons rack upstairs into her hand.

  The assassin cocked her head to one side as if to say, “Really?” before lunging forward again.

  Amanda countered the attack, their swords clashing, the sound of ringing metal echoing through the room. On the offensive now, Amanda’s second mind reached out to the washing machine, too
k hold of it in a telekinetic grasp, and threw it across the room. The assassin didn’t see it coming. The heavy metal appliance hit the attacker full force and crushed her against the wall.

  The machine dropped to the floor and shifted sideways out of the way before Amanda let it go. The woman collapsed to the floor as well, groaning in pain. Using both of her minds, Amanda ripped the Aegis from her opponent, leaving her defenceless.

  The assassin climbed unsteadily to her feet, slower than before, her left arm limp. Now that the assassin’s Aegis was gone, Amanda’s Aetheric Sight allowed her to see the broken bones in the woman’s arm. She also had a few broken ribs and some internal bleeding, but as Amanda watched, she could see them healing. The woman wasn’t a Magus, though. She was a Riven, and all her Magic came from enchanted items.

  Amanda threw her sword to the ground as the assassin tried to stand. Her Magic ripped the blades from her opponent’s hands, followed by her tactical webbing and belt system. Amanda stepped forward and threw a right hook at the assassin that knocked her back against the wall.

  Amanda hit her again and she dropped to the floor, unconscious. Blood dripped from Amanda’s fist as she stood over her fallen opponent.

  “Amanda,” said Liz from across the room.

  Amanda turned and looked at Liz and Maya. Maya knelt at Yoh’s side while Liz sat back on her haunches a foot away, her cheeks glistening in the light from the tears she’d shed.

  “He’s gone,” Liz whispered.

  Amanda let out a breath and her shoulders slumped. “Shite,” she said under her breath. “I was too late.”

  “We tried to save him, but she stabbed him so many times. It would have taken Magic to heal him.”

  Amanda turned to the assassin then.

  “Damn it,” she shouted, kicking the unconscious woman out of pure frustration.

  “Can we bring him back?” Liz asked.

  “I don’t know. I might be powerful enough, but I’m not sure if Arcadian law would consider it Necromancy or not. I… I don’t know.”

  “Where’s Gentle Water? He’d know.”

  “Paris, I think. I’m not sure. It would probably be too late by the time we got anyone here.”

  “There is an alternative,” said Maya.

  Amanda turned to the Scion. She didn’t know Maya all that well. They’d spoken a few times and actually got on really well, but the other woman mostly came here with Yoh. They were close and with a pang, Amanda realized that Maya was hurting just as much, if not more, than she herself.

  “Go on,” Amanda said.

  “I’m a Scion, I can turn others into Scions by sharing my blood with them. I know I can bring him back but he’d be a Scion like me.”

  “You mean, a Vampire?”

  Maya nodded.

  “I… I don’t know,” Amanda said, unsure what she should do. Maya’s suggestion sounded like a somewhat radical step to take. But then, this was not your average situation.

  The idea of bringing people back from the dead played with the natural order of things. The Arcadians called that Necromancy and she knew they took a pretty hard line on that sort of thing. If you were caught dabbling in it, you were branded a Nomad and hunted down. She’d been taught that it was one of the primary reasons that some people defected from the Arcadians to join the Nomads over the centuries.

  Becoming a Nomad had lots of other connotations that went along with it, though, so she would not be walking down that path.

  Liz stood up and walked over to Amanda. She looked just as conflicted as Amanda felt. It was a pretty heavy choice to lay on their young shoulders. She didn’t want Liz to feel responsible for this at seventeen years old. But then, Amanda would only be twenty-one in July this year.

  “I’m not sure about this, Amanda,” she said. “Can’t we get Gentle Water here or a message to him quick enough to find out what we can do?”

  “Maybe. I have no idea. He’s on a mission for the Legacy and he warned me he’d be out of touch for a few days. Let me try,” she said, and concentrated, reaching out through the Link to her mentor. The seconds passed, but there was no answer. She shook her head in defeat.

  “Damnit, isn’t there anyone else we can ask?”

  “It all takes time. We have a minute or two to do this and convincing Arcadians to come to a Nomad city is difficult enough at the best of times,” Amanda replied.

  “Time is short, Amanda,” Maya reminded her.

  Amanda tried to organise her thoughts, she needed to make a choice, but her mind was scattered in the face of such a weighty decision.

  Technically, she might be powerful enough to bring Yoh back, but she’d never done it before, which meant it might not work or it might take too much time. Time, Yoh didn’t have. Then there were the Arcadians and the whole Necromancy thing. She didn’t have time to find another Magi who she could ask.

  Which left them with Maya. She claimed she could turn him into a Scion. From everything Amanda knew about Scions, she believed this to be true, but she seemed to remember being told it didn’t always work. Then again, Yoh was already dead…

  Amanda turned to Maya.

  “Do it.”

  “Really?” Liz asked, incredulous.

  Wasting no time, Maya went to work, biting her own wrist and dripping her blood into Yoh’s wounds and mouth.

  “We have no other choice. I’m not going to risk being branded a Nomad for using Necromancy, and we don’t have time to hunt for help.”

  “But he’ll be a Scion!”

  “He’ll be alive, if he survives the transformation.”

  “What? So this might kill him?”

  “He’s dead anyway, Liz. We’re giving him another chance at life.”

  They both looked over at Maya, who stopped dripping her blood into Yoh’s mouth before pulling away from him. She stood up and stepped back.

  “Now, we wait,” Maya said.

  “How long?” Liz asked.

  Yoh’s body bucked and jerked suddenly, his movements those of someone in agony.

  “Not long,” said Maya. “My blood is doing its job.”

  Amanda watched Yoh, fascinated by the transformation. They could see the Essentia around him doing strange things—moving in odd waves and patterns—as his body reacted.

  And then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. The Essentia around him calmed and went still, like Yoh’s body.

  The Magical energy that Amanda could see as a thin golden mist didn’t flow through him as it did with a living creature, which meant that Yoh had died. Again.

  Amanda felt deflated. His body’s movement had brought her false hope it seemed, meaning today would be remembered as the day that Yoh had died.

  “It didn’t work, did it?” Liz stated.

  “I don’t think so, Liz. I’m sorry,” Amanda said, reaching out and pulling Liz in next to her, hugging her.

  Amanda looked at Maya, who continued to watch Yoh, as if she expected him to move. Amanda felt sorry for her. She’d tried to help, but it hadn’t worked out.

  Yoh sat up, blinking.

  Amanda jumped back at the sudden movement.

  Yoh groaned and held a hand to his chest. Amanda and Liz ran to his side and eased him up into a sitting position.

  “Take it easy.”

  “Amanda-san, what happened?”

  He pulled his hand away from his chest, looking at the thick, wet blood that covered it.

  “Where is she?” he asked, scanning the room.

  “Over there,” Maya said, pointing to where the assassin lay on the floor.

  “Ugh, help me up,” he said.

  Amanda and Liz helped him.

  “She’s unconscious,” Amanda informed him.

  Yoh looked at her.

  “Did you… do this?” he asked.

  “I did.”

  “Dozo,” Yoh said, thanking her, “and remind me not to get on your bad side.”

  Yoh walked a couple of steps and bent down to pick up the dag
ger on the floor. It was ornately carved, and even drenched in blood, it had a beauty all its own.

  “Are you sure you should be walking about?” Amanda asked.

  “I’m feeling better already. What did you do to me? Things seem, different.”

  “You died, Yoh. You were dead by the time I subdued her. We didn’t have many options.”

  Yoh looked Amanda in the eyes, raising his eyebrows slightly.

  “What did you do?”

  “Maya offered to turn you into a Scion. You were dead anyway, this way you had a chance.”

  Yoh sighed and looked away.

  “Damnit. That explains a lot. I… My Magic seems different. I’m not sure about my connection to it.”

  “It could still be there, but it will take time to get used to things again,” Maya said.

  “And it might be gone,” Yoh answered.

  “Indeed,” confirmed Maya.

  “That’s a sickner,” Amanda said in commiseration. “I didn’t know what to do. I’m sorry.”

  Yoh turned back to her.

  “Don’t worry. You did what you thought was right. At least I’m alive, after a fashion.”

  He was right, his body remained technically dead. With her Magic, Amanda couldn’t detect a heartbeat and the local Essentia didn’t flow through him like it would a living being. It also didn’t flow through Maya, in much the same way.

  “So, I’m a vampire,” Yoh said.

  “That’s right,” Maya replied. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do.”

  “It’s okay. Thank you, Maya. I know that couldn’t have been easy.”

  Maya nodded.

  Amanda hadn’t considered the connotations that surrounded a change into one of these creatures. Yoh would have a lot to deal with now and had a lot to learn, too. As a vampire, she guessed that meant he would need to drink blood to survive. The thought turned her stomach.

  Yoh stepped over to the prone figure of the assassin.