Magi Legend

by Andrew Dobell

  It turned out to be little more than a collection of odd bits and bobs from cooking implements to chairs, tables, handmade ornaments, and books.

  She’d inspected the books, but there wasn’t any residual Magic to be found. Dejected, they’d returned, and Amanda had taken up her perch beside Alicia.

  “I’m more than a little worried, I have no idea what that thing is inside her or what it’s doing to her.”

  “We here for you, Amanda, we do anything we can. You know that.”

  “I know, you’ve already done so much. I don’t tell ye often enough how much I appreciate everything you’ve done for me,” she said.

  “Thank you, but, no need thanks. You my apprentice, I always help you.”

  “How long do you think she will be unconscious?”

  “There is no way to know. She fights a battle deep inside her mind. A battle she must fight alone. The outcome will be clear soon enough.”

  “I just hate this waiting, not knowing what’s going on.”

  “She know you here. Trust in that and in her strength, and she will prevail,” he said.

  Amanda nodded. Her mentor’s wisdom always helped her in times of stress. She didn’t know what she would do without him. He’d been there after Georgina’s death back in Ireland, and through his gentle guidance, he’d pulled her through the grief of that loss.

  He’d been there for her every day since then, as a mentor, a friend, and in some respects, a surrogate father. The nuns in the orphanage had to some extent, played the role of mothers, but she’d never had a true father figure. Not that she felt she had suffered because of it, but it felt good to have someone like Gentle Water, who she trusted with her life and who she knew would be there for her in the darkest times.

  She did wonder who her parents were sometimes, though. Why had they chosen to leave her on the steps of the orphanage? What had been going on in their lives that led them to make that choice? She’d never considered looking for her real parents, not really. Not in any seriousness. It just didn’t play on her mind at all. She felt content with the friends she already had.

  Alicia remained motionless, looking serene and almost at peace, on the bed before her. Her body standing in contrast to the chaos of her mind. Looking back at Gentle Water, Amanda realised that she’d filled him in on what had happened to her, but hadn’t asked about his trip.

  “How was your visit to Paris?” she asked.

  “Good. Thank you. There is not much to say. It was diplomatic mission for Legacy Coven. All very boring. Where is Liz?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve not seen her. She’s probably out somewhere,” Amanda guessed. “She’s being a dirty stop-out.”

  Gentle Water eyed her for a moment, probably pondering the turn of phrase she had used.

  “If you say so,” he said finally.

  “Urgh,” moaned Alicia from the bed.

  Amanda jumped up and looked down at her friend. “Alicia, are you alright? Don’t move,” Amanda said.

  “Amanda, where am I?”

  “My place, you’re safe. Keep still, how do you feel?”

  Alicia tried to sit up, but struggled to do much more than lift her head a few inches from the pillow before dropping back down again, breathing heavily from the effort.

  “Relax, rest. You’re in good hands here,” Amanda said softly, taking her friend’s hand in hers.

  “I’m… tired,” Alicia gasped.

  “Then rest. There’s no need for you to do anything.” Amanda said, wishing she could do more. “Do you remember what happened?”

  “Not much. Just bright lights and then darkness and a really odd dream.”

  “Dream?” Amanda asked.

  “To be sure, a dream of… smothering. It was dark and I felt like I was fighting something slippery, something…” Alicia shivered suddenly. “I... I can’t really remember much else. Just the students… oh, my word, the students! Are they okay?” Alicia asked, suddenly animated and trying to sit up all over again.

  Amanda gently pushed her back down.

  “They’re fine, I made sure of it. They got back to the school safely, there’s no need to worry.”

  Alicia relaxed back onto the bed.

  “Thank you, Mandy… thank you…” she said, her voice trailing off as she slipped back into sleep.

  Amanda let out a heavy breath and then stood up straight.

  “She seemed… okay,” Gentle Water said.

  “Hmmm,” Amanda said, her tone noncommittal. “We’ll see.”

  The doorbell rang.

  Amanda looked over at Gentle Water, her eyebrow raised.

  “Did Liz forget her key?” Amanda asked walking out the room with Gentle Water not too far behind. Heading downstairs, Amanda walked to the door, looking into the other rooms as she went. From what she could tell, only herself and Gentle Water were in the house. Raven must have gone out.

  “It’s not like you to forget your key, Liz,” Amanda called out as she approached the door. She automatically sent out her senses to check who had rung the bell, a habit she’d made a point of getting into since her encounter with Lucian on this very spot. It came as something of a surprise to see Yasmin standing there, looking straight into the Magical senses Amanda had just placed outside the door.

  Amanda froze, stopping mid-walk just a foot from the door. She sent a lightning-quick thought to Gentle Water to warn him. Just a single word. ~Yasmin.~

  The message brought Gentle Water to a sudden stop, as well. He looked over at Amanda, a look of surprise and fear on his face.

  “Hello, Amanda,” Yasmin said, still looking straight into Amanda’s second set of senses. “I came here to talk. I have something to tell you. I wish you no harm.”

  Amanda didn’t answer. She just listened to Yasmin’s voice, biting her lower lip as she thought.

  Yasmin the Dark. One of the most infamous Nomads of all time now stood a few feet from her on her doorstep. Yasmin was wearing a skin-tight black catsuit and had a wet sheen to it that glistened in the city lights. From her shoulders, down her back, and around her legs inky black smoke fell languidly about her, as if moving in slow motion. Her sharp features and well-defined cheekbones stood out proudly, giving her face a cruel countenance, framed by the waves of dark hair that hung about her head like a lion’s mane.

  Amanda couldn’t help but admire her. Yasmin looked stunning. Powerful, dangerous, not to be underestimated, but stunningly attractive all the same. And yet, no one on the street paid her the slightest bit of attention. A Magical effect, no doubt.

  “I know you’re there, Amanda.”

  Amanda shifted on the spot, unsure of her next move. Yasmin, by all accounts, had reached the rank of Arch Magus, the highest level that a Magi could become. By that point, one wielded almost godlike powers, so it seemed odd that she would be standing on Amanda’s doorstep like this. But only because ringing a doorbell seemed like such an ordinary thing, below the notice of such a powerful being. But here she stood, just a few feet away, on the other side of a door that, compared to the power that Yasmin could bring to bear, might as well have been tissue paper.

  “What do you want?” Amanda called through the door, finally. Realising that keeping silent wasn’t actually doing them any favours.

  “As I said, I have information. Now please, open this door so that I may come in and we can talk. It’s only polite.”

  “What guarantee do I have that you won’t…” Amanda mulled over her choice of words for a second. “Break my trust,” she said in the end.

  “None. But you have two choices. Either open the door and let me pass through this Aegis, or I rip down your Aegis, destroying the weeks-worth of work and walk in anyway, a little more pissed off then I am right now.”

  Amanda raised her eyebrows at Yasmin’s candid answer. She hadn’t expected that, but Yasmin made excellent points, and Amanda had no desire to annoy an Arch Magus, or to have to rebuild the house’s Aegis.

  She reached for the d
oor and opened it, while her mind sent out the signal to the Aegis to let Yasmin through.

  Yasmin stood in the doorway, hands behind her back, feet apart in a commanding pose. She looked down at Amanda, then across to Gentle Water and back. She smiled, but the emotion behind it remained inscrutable.

  She stepped inside, the smoky cape dissipating to nothing behind her as she walked into the foyer, her heels clicking on the hard tiles as she moved.

  “Lovely place you have here, Amanda. You must feel right at home.”

  “I do,” she said curtly, not really wanting to get into a conversation with this infamous Nomad. “You said you had information for me?”

  “Not you, too,” she sighed, “No one ever wants to indulge in a little pointless conversation, it’s always right down to business. Such a shame.”

  “I... um…”

  “Of course, I understand why,” she continued conversationally. “My reputation precedes me, and judging from your body language you’re no doubt feeling a little threatened by my presence.” Yasmin continued to look around the hallway and into the adjoining rooms, talking in an offhanded and light-hearted way. “A perfectly reasonable reaction. You want to get this over with and for me to be on my merry way. Is that right?” Yasmin sounded almost pedantic during her little outburst.

  “Well…” Amanda answered, agreeing without actually saying so.

  Yasmin stepped up to her, coming in close and invading her personal space, her voice low and measured, threatening almost. “Of course, it is. But I am not here to hurt you. I have no desire to see you come to harm. I’m here to help,” she said quietly, her face mere inches from Amanda’s.

  Amanda looked up and met Yasmin’s gaze, having pointedly avoided it so far. “And what exactly are you here to help us with?”

  Yasmin smiled, her eyes glittered with mischief in reaction to Amanda’s retort. She seemed to be enjoying the verbal sparring.

  “There it is,” she said in a happier tone. “There is a little fire in you. I like it.”

  Amanda took a step back, putting some space between them and raised her chin a bit. She could feel the intense power and Magical energy that radiated from Yasmin, and yet, she didn’t feel like she was in any immediate danger. Her confidence growing, she relaxed a little.

  “I’m pleased for you,” Amanda said, a little sarcasm creeping into her voice.

  Yasmin smiled. “Of course, I’m stalling. Okay, let’s get down to business. Lucian has gotten somewhat more ambitious and has kidnapped your apprentice, Elizabeth Fox.”

  “What!?” Amanda exclaimed, her confidence suddenly smashed to bits with a single sentence. “When, where?”

  “The details of her capture are unimportant. Suffice to say, she’s no longer in New York.”

  Amanda turned away and immediately sent out a link to Liz. Her mind reached out and tried to talk with her apprentice, but she found nothing. She couldn’t sense her in any way, which most likely meant she would be hidden behind an Aegis somewhere or she was too far away from Amanda’s Magic to reach her.

  Amanda glanced back at Yasmin, who stood a short distance away, her hands clasped behind her back again, and smiling, clearly enjoying the moment.

  Thinking for a second, she reached out and Ported a small but valuable item from Liz’s room, into her hand before reaching out once more and trying to sense her location, hoping that an item with a greater attachment to Liz might bolster her Magic.

  She was annoyed, but not surprised, to find she still got nothing. As a last-ditch effort, she tried to call Liz’s phone. But that failed too. She stabbed the button to end the call and forced herself to take a breath and calm down. Her hand shook with both rage and fear, and she found it difficult to catch her breath as thoughts about what she would do to Lucian raced through her mind. This was it, he’d gone too far now.

  She stopped and looked into the middle distance, her mind racing. Then a thought occurred to her.

  Amanda turned back to Yasmin.

  “You know where she is, don’t you?”

  “I have a vague idea, but I didn’t follow it up. Not for me to do, you know. But I do know someone who does know where she is. Which leads me quite nicely to the next bit of information I have for you. Your house is under surveillance,” purred Yasmin with an air of triumph.

  “I thought as much, by whom?” Amanda asked, this new bit of information side-tracking her anger over Liz for a moment.

  “He’s a Scion. His name is Shaun Murray, and he’s in…” Yasmin walked over to a nearby window and pointed out of it, “…that apartment, right now. He works for Lucian as an information gatherer and knows intimate details of Lucian’s operation. He’s also harbouring something of a grudge against Lucian right now. I’m sure he would be more than willing to switch sides.”

  Amanda looked out at the apartment window, her keen eyesight able to pick out the faint hint of camera lenses in the darkness of the apartment.

  She eyed the window a moment longer, gripping the windowsill in anger before turning to look at Yasmin, who had wandered over to the front door.

  Moving away from the window, Amanda stepped over to Yasmin, a question suddenly popping into her head that had been troubling her since arriving in New York.

  “I have a quick question.”

  “Oh? Do continue.”

  “Did you tell Lucian not to attack us?”

  Yasmin smiled.

  Amanda studied that wickedly seductive smile and knew Yasmin had been behind it. For some reason, she had told Lucian not to kill her, or maybe even not to hurt her.

  “May I ask why?” Amanda asked, hoping that the lithe woman in black might give up some small bit of information.

  “Be seeing you, Amanda,” Yasmin said, and disappeared, Porting from the hallway with a snap.

  Amanda stared at the spot Yasmin had been standing, before walking over and closing the door behind their departing guest. She might not have actually given Amanda much information verbally, but it did seem that she had some kind of vested interest in Amanda, a reason to keep her alive. As useful to know as this was, the why of it would have been more interesting. She put that to one side for now, though, she had much more pressing matters. She needed to find Liz, and as her thoughts settled on this issue once more, the anger and frustration also started to return. She turned to Gentle Water.

  “Go, I will watch Alicia,” he said without her needing to say anything.

  “You’re sure?”

  “I am sure.”

  “Thank you,” she said, before concentrating and placing her senses in the apartment to make sure she wasn’t Porting into trouble. A second later, she appeared in the main room of the apartment.

  Two people were in the room with her, a woman who sat at the computer desk, her arms crossed on the desktop, and her head resting on those arms. Across the way, a man dressed in all black paced up and down the room. The man’s disfigured face marked him as a Scion, as did his magical signature. Amanda could see no heartbeat and his body, although up and moving about, would be considered medically dead.

  She’d seen this before in Maya, and also more recently in Yoh, who were both Vampire Scions. She guessed this would be Shaun.

  The Vampire stopped pacing almost immediately and looked up at Amanda, caution on his face. She stared at him, not trusting herself to start the conversation lest she start shouting at him.

  “Well, I knew we wouldn’t remain undetected forever. Welcome, Amanda. I’m Shaun, and this is Vanessa.”

  Vanessa sat up with a start at Shaun’s voice and jumped again when she saw Amanda standing just a few feet from her.

  “Holy shit, you’re here!” Vanessa exclaimed.

  “You know who I am?” Amanda asked. It seemed like Shaun wanted to talk, so she indulged him.

  “Hell yeah,” Vanessa answered.

  “You’re Amanda-Jane Page,” the Scion said. “You’re a Magus from Ireland originally, and you live with Gentle Water and Elizabeth F
ox—your mentor and your apprentice, respectively. Yes, we know who you are. We’ve been watching your house for a couple of weeks now.”

  “Which means that ye know why I’m here,” she said.

  “My guess, either to kill us or to ask for our help. I’m hoping for the latter, ideally.”

  Amanda walked around the room a little bit as she talked, taking in their surroundings. The place looked like a bomb had hit it. There were food wrappers everywhere, crumbs crushed into the carpet, and half-finished drinks dotted about the place. Walking helped her control her anger, gave her something to focus on that wasn’t violence.

  “You work for Lucian?” Amanda continued.

  “I do, as well as others, occasionally.”

  “And you have intimate knowledge of his operation,” she asked, keeping her voice as level as she could.

  “That’s correct.”

  “How’s that arrangement working out for you?” she asked, stopping in the middle of the room to look at him.

  “We are... in a period of review,” he said, guardedly.

  “Well, I require your services, and would appreciate it if you would work for me,” Amanda said through gritted teeth as she forced herself to complete her circuit around the small space.

  Shaun looked at Vanessa, who shrugged, and then back at Amanda.

  “What do you want to know?”

  A smile played over Amanda’s mouth. That seemed easier than it had any right to be. What had Lucian done to Shaun that would cause him to turn his back on their partnership so quickly?

  “Lucian has kidnapped Liz, and I have been reliably informed that you know where she is,” Amanda stated, her anger at Shaun subsiding slightly.

  Shaun nodded. “I think I do.” He walked over to a nearby computer. A few mouse clicks and keyboard taps later and he pointed to the screen. “She’ll be in there.”

  Amanda stepped closer to the screen and watched as Shaun zoomed in and out of the map, showing a satellite view of a palatial mansion in the heart of Columbia.

  “And Lucian, where does he hide?”

  “The Pit Club, in Harlem. I can get you in, avoiding his protections,” Shaun offered.

  “Really? Then I will be back for that later. In the meantime, I think you should pack up,” she said, gesturing to the camera gear still trained on her house.