Magi Legend

by Andrew Dobell

  Her anger was no longer focused on Shaun and what he’d done. He seemed reasonable and probably had little choice in the role he had played in recent events. Lucian, however, was a dangerous and unstable man. He had crossed a line by kidnapping Liz, and Amanda was determined to make him pay.

  “Gladly.” Shaun smiled his toothy grin and handed her a cell phone. “My number is on it. Call me when you need me again.” The phone beeped suddenly in her hand. “And that’s the address of the mansion in Columbia I’ve just texted to you.”

  “Thank you. I’ll be in touch,” Amanda said, before Porting away a heartbeat later.

  - From “A history of the Dark Nomads”, by Trevelyan.

  The legends of Yasmin seem endless. If you believed them all, you’d think that she alone caused all of the major incidents you have heard of throughout history.

  According to some, she is behind the fake moon landings, JFK, and worse. But the fact is that Magi rarely cause these events, they sometimes get caught up in them, but they rarely cause them.

  With that said, we do have reliable eyewitness testimony that places Yasmin at a few well known moments in history, such as the Fire of London. Did she cause it? I suppose we’ll never truly know, but I’m not surprised to hear of a Nomad taking advantage of an unfortunate situation such as that.

  For instance, we do have photographs of Yasmin that place her in the Nazi death camps of World War II, wearing an SS Uniform.

  Death on such a grand scale will always attract Nomads like moths to a flame.

  One Woman Army

  Columbia

  Amanda appeared on the street of the affluent gated housing estate on the edge of Medellin, Columbia. The sun had set hours ago, but the air was still warm.

  The houses around her were all large, opulent affairs. Here, the wealthy and privileged shut themselves away from the poverty and gang violence in the city streets—violence that some of them probably funded or helped create. She doubted her target was the only criminal figurehead living here, amongst the legitimate business owners and the trust fund crowd. Part of her loved the idea of a one-woman crusade, travelling around the world, righting wrongs, exacting retribution against those who preyed upon the weak. She could be a Magi Superhero.

  It would no doubt remain merely a fantasy, though. Operating that openly would, at the very least, be frowned upon by the Magi Council.

  For today, though, she had her eyes on only one target. The house on the other side of the road.

  The whitewashed home sat in a beautifully landscaped garden, surrounded by cruel-looking black railings over six feet high, topped with keen-looking spikes. She could already see a fresh, but weak Aegis surrounding one wing of the enormous house, leaving the rest of the building unprotected.

  Amanda’s sharp, Magically-enhanced eyesight cut through the darkness, allowing her to see as clear as day. She could make out several men walking the grounds, mainly close to the house, although there were a few at the gate as well.

  Cameras were everywhere. She could see the electricity flowing along the powerlines feeding the electronics that watched the perimeter and the outside of the house. She assumed they probably had motion detectors as well.

  She took a breath, psyching herself up for the fight ahead. Coming to New York and facing off against Lucian had tested her confidence, both in herself and her Magic. She’d doubted herself a few times, but things were different now. She couldn’t hide away any longer. She had to step up and stand up for what she believed in and help her friends.

  Coming here was a rash choice she guessed, but Liz needed her, and whether she felt totally confident in doing this or not, she had to try.

  Liz would do the same for her, and time was of the essence.

  Using her Multitasking she managed to split her mind into three and began quietly building an Aegis around the whole compound. It wasn’t that powerful, but it would stop any Magic entering or leaving the grounds, and she’d know if it was broken by anything. As that grew, she began to work in other elements, cutting off the phone lines and the mobile signal, cutting off the people inside from the outside. Finally, she also added in a one-way sound dampener. She didn’t want the fighting that was sure to follow to attract the authorities.

  As she walked up the street toward the gate, she put the finishing touches on this shield and brought the strength of the Aegis up to, and then beyond, the power of the Aegis the Nomads had erected.

  She could easily make out five men, all of them carrying submachine guns quite openly over their suits. She could see one of the men fiddling with his walky-talky and getting angry with it as she started to cross the street and walk directly towards the main gate.

  As she drew nearer, a couple of the men noticed her and alerted the whole crew, a pair of them broke off from the group and approached the gate while the others spread out behind them.

  Amanda had no desire to talk to these guys, this was a business trip, and there wouldn’t be any small talk.

  She called on her Magic and with judicious use of some kinetic energy, the two front gates flew off their hinges as if hit by a speeding truck, directly into the men behind them. The two closest guards hit the ground bloodied and useless, another man took a blow to the face from one of the flying gates and dropped, squeezing off a few rounds from his gun before falling unconscious.

  The other two men dodged the gates and wasted no time in opening fire. Their guns had no enchantments on them, though. The shots bounced harmlessly off of Amanda’s Aegis with a slight crackle of Magical energy, which Amanda ignored as she broke into a sprint.

  She closed in on the closest guard, moving faster than he could follow, and punching him in the gut. The force of it winded him, doubling him over. She kneed him in the face, crushing his nose in an explosion of blood.

  The second man adjusted his aim and fired—the shots pinging off Amanda’s shield. A few of them struck the guard Amanda had attacked, killing him. She turned her attention to the last guard and leapt at him. She spun and kicked him in the face. His jaw snapped as he fell. Teeth bounced off the concrete as he hit the driveway and stopped moving.

  Amanda scanned the grounds. She still wore the same dark outfit of a fitted top and smart skirt that came to just above the knee. The skirt now sported a small rip up one side from her acrobatics. She grabbed each side of the tear and pulled, ripping the skirt all that way up to her hip, giving her full and free movement of her legs.

  Walking towards the house, her heeled boots clicked on the driveway and her bright red ponytail flared out behind her as she pulled off her coat and flung it away.

  As she advanced, she set one of her minds to breaking the Aegis that covered the east wing of the building. She hammered it with Essentia in one spot, looking to break through.

  As she neared the house, a couple more guys ran out of the shadows, not noticing Amanda until they were too close. The nearest guy skidded to a stop, seeing her at the last moment. He tried to bring his gun to bear but never got there.

  Amanda moved quickly, disarming the man and breaking a couple of his fingers on his right hand as she took his gun. She threw it away and put his arm into a lock.

  She held the man between her and the second guard as he approached. He aimed at her, holding the submachine gun high to sight along the barrel. Amanda moved, jumping and kicking the gun from his hands, and sending it flying into the darkness.

  The sudden movement and spinning motion proved too much for the shoulder and elbow joints of the man she held, which broke and dislocated with a couple of sickening pops. The man fell to his knees in agony, holding his arm.

  Turning to the second man, who had pulled his pistol, she took hold of his hands and twisted. She forced him to pull the trigger and shoot himself in the leg three times. As he screamed. She ripped the gun from his hands as he fell to his good knee. Flipping the gun, she hit him on the side of the head with it, knocking him out cold before sliding the barrel on the automatic and taking it ap
art.

  Behind her, the man with the ruined arm huffed. She spun on the spot and kicked the side of his head with her black suede boot, moments before he raised his sidearm to shoot her. He fell and went quiet.

  She followed the path where the two men had appeared and went up three steps bordered by bushes. She emerged onto a lit marble patio with a front door framed by columns of white stone.

  Two men waited on either side of the door. One knelt, the other stood, their high powered MP5s trained on Amanda. They didn’t waste any time and opened fire. The Weapons sprayed her with bullets that ricocheted off her shield, leaving her unharmed, but destroying the foliage and plant pots beside her.

  Their weapons ran dry with a clicking noise.

  “My turn,” Amanda said. With a quick tug on Essentia, both men were slammed into the wall behind them and dropped to the porch where they lay inert.

  As a general rule, Amanda tried to avoid killing whenever she could. The thought of ending someone’s life was not an idea she relished. But when it came to the Nomads, the horrific stuff they did, you were usually saving the lives of others by taking that final action.

  Few people really deserved to have their lives ended, but when it came to the Nomads, the Arcadians were the only ones who could do the job. They were the last defence against the rising darkness. Royston and Gentle Water had assured her that the killing of Nomads and their covens, including the Initiated humans who served them, had been officially sanctioned by the Magi Council. Not that this really made things any better, so Amanda always tried to subdue her foes whenever possible, keeping her conscience as clean as she could.

  She hoped she could complete this mission with as little killing as she could, but it wouldn’t be the first time she’d taken a life during her time as a Magus.

  Satisfied that these two were no longer a threat, she made for the entrance and purely for dramatic effect, used her Magic once again to blow the doors off their hinges. They flew inside and clattered into the hallway, breaking a couple of ornate vases as they went.

  As she walked into the large vestibule with its pair of curved staircases leading up to the second floor, Amanda immediately felt Magic ahead. Looking up, she noticed two Magi stood at the top of the stairs, one on each flight, both of them carrying enchanted automatic weapons. At that moment, a squad of security guards ran into the room on the ground floor. They raised their guns and opened fire without a word of warning.

  Amanda broke left, sprinting, she jumped high and fast. Shifting her personal gravity with a subtle working of Magic, she landed on the wall and set off again. Plaster and stone exploded all around her as she ran towards the Nomad on the left-hand stairwell. The man wore beige trousers, an open black shirt showing off his chest hair and chewed on a cigar as he gritted his teeth and fired his weapon.

  “Come to daddy, you bitch. I’m gonna show you how we do things here in Columbia,” he raged, but Amanda ignored it.

  She leapt from the wall. Bullets, both Magical and not, slammed into her Aegis. Spinning and kicking him across the face, he fell back against the bannister. She lashed out again, kicking the gun from his hands. His Aegis sparked at being hit but held firm.

  The gunfire from the guards and Magus faltered as she got in close to the Nomad. She noticed the guards begin to move, attempting to get another angle on her.

  Amanda swung for him again, but with a cruel grin on his face, the Nomad blocked it, their Aegises flaring as they fought. She backhanded him with her other fist, wiping the smile from his face and sending the cigar flying from his moustached mouth.

  Moving too quick for him, she punched him in his gut, releasing a powerful Essentia strike that pummelled his Aegis. The Magical shield faltered but held, barely. She used the same hand to grab his neck, their Aegises flaring wildly as she then jumped up the stairs to the balcony at the top, carrying him with her.

  She landed with her knee on his chest as his Aegis finally disintegrated and his ribs cracked audibly.

  A movement to her right caught her attention as the other Nomad approached. She was a swarthy young woman with long dark hair, skin-tight jeans, heels, and an over-bust corset. She reached the top of the stairs and fired, scattering bullets at Amanda.

  Amanda flipped from the downed Nomad, somersaulting and cartwheeling around in an arc like an Olympic gymnast, only faster, before boosting from the floor in front of her attacker. Amanda’s boot connected with the woman’s jaw as she leapt up. Essentia hammered the Nomad’s Aegis as the pair flew up over the balcony. Amanda lashed out with her Magic. She hit the falling Nomad with a kinetic blast that slammed her to the floor below and ripped her Aegis apart.

  Amanda landed next to her with a final punch that broke several bones in the Nomad’s skull.

  The small squad of guards had split up ascending both flights of stairs to help their employers. They stopped and looked down at Amanda, many of them looking at her with a mixture of fear and awe.

  Some of them opened fire, others backed off.

  Standing up, ignoring the gunfire directed at her, she sent out a wave of neuro-disruptive Magic and knocked the Riven guards out cold.

  The gunfire stopped, and a silence fell over the house as Amanda caught her breath, the rise and fall of her chest slowing.

  Looking down at the broken woman at her feet, she kicked her in anger and frustration. Amanda then brushed off some dust from her skirt and noticed a couple of ladders in her black tights. Deciding there was nothing for it, she sighed and headed deeper into the house, towards the east wing and the Aegis that protected it.

  The next couple of rooms were devoid of people but well-appointed with expensive-looking furniture and decorative ornaments. The spoils of war, perhaps?

  She emerged into a corridor that led to a large wooden door and the edge of the Aegis she’d been working to break through since she’d arrived. The Aegis looked weak from her constant attacks. Summoning all her strength, Amanda released a final spike of Essentia at the Aegis. The whole thing faltered and then failed, dissipating back into the surrounding ambient Essentia as she approached the door.

  Catching her breath, she placed her senses beyond the door, seeing a dusky room with just a couple of tiny windows high up on the walls. The paint was peeling, the few chairs and tables were worn and heavily used, and there were clear signs of a struggle with debris scattered across the floor.

  The sole occupant of the room was a young, powerfully-built woman who sat in a large, heavy-duty cage. Her legs were tucked in tight to her body, her head down, and her jaw-length black hair was a greasy mess. She wore rags and her skin showcased multiple bruises.

  Amanda frowned, wondering if she was seeing things. This all felt very odd.

  Beyond the cage, another door led deeper into the east wing, and with the first Aegis down, she could now see a second Aegis shielding everything beyond it. Amanda sighed. They were playing games with her, and she got the distinct feeling that when she walked through that door she would be walking into a trap.

  Using her Magical vision, she looked at the caged woman again and realized she was a Scion. This just got better by the minute.

  There was nothing else for it, though. She had to go through the second Aegis to find Liz, so she turned the handle and opened the door, walking into the room beyond.

  She paused again and cancelled her second set of senses. A musky, unpleasant smell hung in the air, a mixture of rotting food and wet dog that made Amanda curl up her nose. Looking over at the cage, the young woman had lifted her head and was staring intently her.

  Glancing around the silent room, she noted the knives, whips, and other strange implements of torture on a nearby table. Looking at the woman again, Amanda could see the signs of torture in the scarring on her arms and legs.

  Amanda walked carefully over to the cage and crouched down next to it.

  “Hey, how are ye? I’m Amanda and I’d like to help,” she said softly.

  The woman just looked at her
, her eyes wide with a mix of fear and confusion.

  “Okay, so, I’m gonna let you out, you’re free to go, so ye are. Do ye understand? I’m setting ye free.”

  The girl just narrowed her eyes at Amanda. Amanda didn’t want to use her Magic on her. As a Scion, the girl would recognise it and might not take kindly to it.

  The lock to this cage consisted of three large metal bars that were levered into holes in the door by a simple mechanical control about six feet away from the cage, which itself had a padlock on it. Amanda used her Magic to dissolve the padlock, and then moved the lever to the open position. The bolts withdrew from the door with a loud metallic groan.

  Amanda looked over at the girl. She hadn’t moved and looked as wary as before.

  “You’re free now,” Amanda said, but the girl remained still.

  Amanda walked over to the cage and pulled the latch open. With that, the door inched open by itself and swung wide.

  Amanda smiled at the girl and gestured that she could leave.

  “There ye go, you’re free.”

  The girl looked around and then back at Amanda.

  Over the last couple of years, Amanda had used her Magic to enhance her body, which meant she could move faster and was stronger, with better reactions and abilities than almost any Riven human. But when the girl moved, her speed caught Amanda utterly off guard. She leapt from the cage, slamming into Amanda and knocking her back several feet before landing on top of her. Their Aegises flared as they came into contact, rippling with light and energy.

  Amanda caught both of the girl’s wrists in her hands and watched as the nails on those hands grew into claws at least an inch long. The girl made a guttural roaring sound at Amanda, her mouth filling with huge dog-like teeth that grew from her existing ones. Spit and drool dribbled from her gaping maw as the girl’s body grew in size and hair sprouted all over her skin. Her already muscled arms and torso expanded, as her wrists did the same in Amanda’s hands.