The minutes blended into hours and time lost all meaning. The dim light never changed, she had no idea of the time or where she might be.
Some indeterminate time later, the sound of a footstep close by made her open her eyes and look up.
Yasmin stood above her, and as she looked at her tormentor, fear grew within her, making her feel physically sick.
A smirk grew on Yasmin’s lips as she showed her latest torture implement.
Alicia dry-retched at the thought of what was to come.
Orb
Antarctic
Angel stood in the control room of the Antarctic dig she had been helping to oversee for the past six months. The weather had improved, and although it wasn’t too bright outside today, it did mean that the choppers could fly.
She stood not too far from Blake, an Initiated, who basically ran the dig for Mr Black, as they both watched the helicopter outside gently alight onto the camp’s landing pad.
Angel had been assigned here to keep an eye on things from a Magical perspective. The Syndicate believed Angel to be little more than an Apprentice level Magi, just as she had planned, and they wanted her to make sure nothing Magical escaped their notice. She was to keep an eye out for traps and to make sure everything ran smoothly.
She hated it, living amongst the mortals and pretending to be a weak apprentice, but she knew she had little choice. Yasmin had sent her here to keep an eye on Mr Black’s activities, so that’s what she did. As it turned out, she’d only been here for three months before she had been rotated off and given a break that allowed her to get away and pursue her own interests before she was brought back two months later.
The time away had been put to good use, returning to her company in Milan and making sure everything was running as it should with her coven before she had to return to the snowy wastes.
The dig had progressed slowly, but without incident and now they were at their goal, and Mr Black had insisted that he should be here for it. He wanted to be the one to hold the artifact before anyone else.
So the dig had been halted while they waited for a clear day.
Angel wore a grey woollen hat, a thick grey jumper, grey gloves, insulated black leggings, and furry grey boots above layers of thermal clothing beneath. She saw no reason to not look good, even in the freezing cold here at the arse end of the world.
Outside, the helicopter door slid open, and several people climbed out, one of which needed help. They walked through the cold wind and up the steps to the control room entrance. They had to pass through an anteroom that kept the cold at bay before they entered the main room. They all wore dark extreme cold-weather gear and looked very official. Angel had a good view of their guests as they closed the outer door and shook the snow from their coats before opening the inner door. The computer system that controlled the building only allowed one door to be open at a time to preserve the heat.
Angel knew some of the people in the group. She’d either seen them around the Syndicate compound or she knew them by reputation. Mr Black had two prominent aids with him; one of them was a board member, the other she knew to be a Magus.
Two security guys entered the room first, double-checked it, and only when they were sure it was safe did they allow Mr Black through.
Mr Black looked old. He was about five feet tall due to his hunched back, had wispy silvery hair around the back and sides of his head, and walked with a walking stick. True to his name, he wore all black clothing, including a long black overcoat. He moved at a reasonably quick pace for a ninety-year-old man and came to a stop in front of Blake. Roxane Carter, board member and his most trusted aid stood behind him, as did Isha Darzi, who as far as Angel knew, was the most powerful Magus that Mr Black employed.
Blake performed a small bow and greeted Mr Black.
“Sir, it’s a pleasure to have you here, finally,” Blake said. He stood just in front of Angel, as she watched and took everything in. She concentrated hard on keeping her effect on the local Essentia under control, just in case Isha noticed anything to give away her true ability.
“I have been watching your progress closely, Mr Preston, and I have been most impressed. I believe you are ready to extract the artifact?”
“That is correct, sir. We have been waiting for your arrival before continuing any further.”
“And you must be Angel,” Mr Black said, speaking to her now. “I don’t believe we’ve met in person before. I’m grateful for your efforts.”
Angel smiled and nodded. “My pleasure, sir,” she said.
“Your work and commitment has not gone unnoticed,” he said, addressing both Blake and Angel. “Now, we have much to discuss. Do we have a place where I may sit?”
“Of course, sir. Through here. We have a meeting room ready,” Blake said gesturing to an adjoining room they’d prepared earlier in the day.
“Come through, then, Blake. Thank you once again, Angel,” Mr Black said and started to walk into the next room.
“Is Angel not allowed to come in as well?” Blake asked.
Angel watched as Mr Black turned and looked back at Blake, and then at her. She felt keen to be in the room and to listen to what was discussed as it would all be of interest to Yasmin, but she hadn’t expected to be allowed into the meeting. Instead, she’d planned on enhancing her hearing and listening in from the outside, something she might have been able to get away with if she were careful to avoid Isha’s notice. It would all depend on what countermeasures they put into place.
But Blake’s unexpected question had given her a glimmer of hope that she might be allowed inside.
“Do you vouch for her, Mr Preston?” Mr Black asked.
Blake glanced at Angel, who remained neutral.
He turned back to Mr Black. “I do. I trust her.”
Fool, she thought. Her face remained neutral, but inside, she smiled to herself.
“Very well, she may come in,” he said as he led the way into the room and sat at the nearest end of the table.
Everyone else took their seats and waited for Mr Black to speak. Angel was always amazed at what a little money could buy you in terms of loyalty, although she suspected he had other tricks up his sleeve as most Magi were not swayed by offers of money. She wondered what secrets Mr Black knew about Isha that kept him loyal, or maybe Isha just owed a huge debt to Mr Black. She had no idea, but maybe one day she would find out.
Angel sat cross-legged at the table and waited with the others as Mr Black settled himself in.
“Thank you so much for all you have done for me down here in the cold. Today is a momentous day and will see the beginning of a long-planned idea, come to fruition. As you know, you have been digging here to reach a Magical artifact buried deep in the ice. I’m sure you’re aware by now that this object is an Orb about the size of a tennis ball, but what you don’t know is what this artifact is capable of.”
Mr Black looked at Angel. “I’m sure you’ve seen the Magical signature that this Orb gives off and how powerful it is?”
Angel just nodded, listening closely.
“It is an ancient artifact. Its origins are, as far as I can determine, unknown, but the legends speak of it being used to kill an Archon in pre-history.”
Angel kept a neutral face and glanced around the room, looking for reactions. Most people were blank-faced, but a few expressed their surprise upon hearing this.
Angel had heard the legends. That once, long ago, when the Archons ruled the Earth, one of their number was killed by a Magus using a powerful Magical artifact. The fate of both the Magus in question and the artifact had been debated for millennia. Could this really be the same artifact?
Mr Black had paused for effect, to let his words sink in, but Angel felt curious, so she raised her hand. Mr Black saw it and turned to her.
“Yes, Miss Alergeri, you have a question?”
“Apologies for my ignorance, but what’s an Archon?” she asked. Angel knew exactly what an Archon was, she owed her allegiance to one of th
em, like most of the Nomads around the world. But did Mr Black know what they were?
“No apologies required, Miss,” he said.
Angel noticed Isha looking at her, but ignored it and kept her Magic in check.
“The Archons, my dear,” he continued, “are creatures of vast power. Millennia ago, before recorded history, they ruled the Earth with an iron grip. They created the creatures you call Scions—the Vampires, Were-creatures, and the other monsters of this world. They reside now within the Spirit World and control the Nomads while they plan their return to Earth. They may be ancient creatures, and they may reside within another dimension, but they are still causing pain and death today. I desire to stop this, to bring them down, and to kill them.”
Angel nodded and was sure to listen to him with an expression of wonder and fear. It seemed to her that Mr Black had done his research well and perhaps knew as much as most Nomads did of their dread masters.
Much like most Nomads, Angel had aligned herself with one of the seven Archons. Each of these ancient and hoary creatures had a known personality and temperament. Most Nomads aligned themselves with the Archon who best suited their own outlook on life and the world, someone they would serve willingly and happily.
Angel swore her allegiance to Lilitu the Beautiful, the Night Demon and the mother of Succubi. She had created the Vampire-Scion bloodline.
The others, Tiamat the Dragon, Enkidu the Savage, Leviathan the Monstrous, Naga the Cunning, Oni the Demon, and finally, Samael the Reaper, did not suit Angel’s seductive ways. She wondered how much Mr Black knew of these beings, these gods. Now wasn’t the time to delve too deep, though. She didn’t want to draw too much attention to herself.
“And this artifact will do this?” Blake asked, much to Angel’s relief, taking Isha’s attention off of her.
“This Orb is one part of my plan, yes. I desire to end the rule of these Archons, and this Orb is the first part of my plan, but things are coming together quickly now. The other elements are beginning to line up. Soon, my plan will come to fruition and I can finish the work which was started by that Magus a millennia ago.”
“If I can be of service, I would be honoured to help you,” Blake said.
“And I as well,” Angel agreed, not wanting to miss out on what was going on.
“Very well, you both might come in quite useful. Now, enough about that. I wish to finally hold my destiny in my hand,” Mr Black said standing up carefully. “Take me to the Orb.”
Angel pulled on her extreme cold-weather gear and followed Mr Black out, over the snow and ice to the entrance of the ice citadel. Tents covered the start of the excavation, hiding it from view while members of the dig team stood outside and watched their employer hobble inside.
Once inside the tents, they could make out the large hole in the ice, easily big enough for anyone to walk through unimpeded. Mats covered the floor of the tunnel to stop workers from slipping as they descended through the ice at a slight downward angle. Isha and one of the security guards took point, while two aids helped Mr Black along over the uneven ground.
Angel had been into these caves many times now, and actually kind of enjoyed coming down here. The ice glistened in the artificial light of the lamps and torches they carried, creating beautiful glistening patterns over the walls. She’d done what she could to entertain herself during the long months she had to stay here, all the while trying to be careful not to draw any undue attention to herself.
She’d seduced a few of the guards, took long walks out in the ice fields where she could use her Magic to protect herself from the cold unnoticed, she’d even found a Russian base that she had taken to terrorising from time to time.
Wandering through these caves had been one such distraction she had indulged in as the dig team worked to locate the artifact. They had made a few wrong turns during the process, which left dead-end tunnels that snaked off into the darkness.
After walking through a few corridors, they entered into a large cavern that had only been partially filled with ice. Ahead, a mechanical lift had been installed, that dropped into the ice, leading to the artifact. They all squeezed into the elevator car and rode it down through the layers of ice.
At the bottom, they returned to walking the passages once more, the acoustics of the tunnels and the ice walls creating some curious echoes in the darkness until they saw light up ahead.
Approaching the glow, Angel saw several work lights were trained on the end of the tunnel and a man who Angel recognised to be the dig team’s leader waited for them. She’d never gotten this far down before. The security was always tight and the power of the artifact, or a spell cast upon it always confused her attempts to scry down here.
“Welcome, sir. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Andreas, and I have been leading the dig here.”
“Good to meet you, Andreas. I believe we are ready to extract the artifact?” Mr Black said.
“That is correct, sir. We will be using this robotic arm to reach in and pull out the artifact. But first, I wanted to show you something.”
Before Mr Black could object, Andreas had reached down and flicked a switch. A light that had been embedded in the ice just above ground level turned on, illuminating the wall of ice in front of them from within.
Angel blinked at the thing she saw in the ice, illuminated by the light beneath it, and from the reactions all about her, she wasn’t the only one who felt more than a little surprised by what they could see.
Within the ice, Angel could clearly make out the shape of a humanoid figure. It was at least a foot or two deep into the ice, which made details difficult to make out, but something was there, and it looked huge, maybe twice the height of a typical man.
“Is that…?” Blake asked, trailing off.
“My guess is that this is the Magus who used this artifact to destroy the first Archon, and he was buried here along with it,” Mr Black said as he studied the creature. “Is it dead?” he asked as an afterthought.
“As far as I can tell, yes,” Isha said in his Indian accent.
“Thank you, Isha, and you too Andreas for showing me this. This place is full of surprises. Now, let’s move on, shall we?”
“Of course, sir,” Andreas said and activated the robot arm. Using a remote control, he manoeuvred the arm into place and extended the grabbing hand down into a ten-inch wide shaft that extended deep into the ice.
“We didn’t want to disturb the… thing in the ice, so we chose to retrieve the item with as little disruption to it as possible,” Andreas explained over the low whine of the machine.
As they watched, Andreas performed some careful movements of the arm, and after several tense seconds, the sound of something being torn from the ice could be heard and the arm started to retract. Moments later, the hand came into view, and within it was the Orb.
A dull green in colour, it looked to be made from coiling snakes wrapped around each other to make the sphere. The carvings appeared incredibly intricate and detailed. Even as an art piece, it would have value.
Mr Black stepped forward and raised his hand, palm up. Andreas operated the arm and brought the Orb around, opened the metal hand, and dropped the Orb into his palm.
Angel watched all this in fascination and could feel the Magical energy that expanded out from the object and pressed in against her own Magic. This thing was powerful. As Mr Black held it in his hand, the Orb started to glow green, the light coming from within. He turned back to face the group, holding the Orb reverently in his hand, a look of rapture on his face.
“Finally, it’s mine,” he said to himself as he gazed at the tennis ball-sized item, his face cast eerily in green light.
“Well done, sir,” Roxane offered. “That’s a huge achievement; you should be proud.”
“Thank you, Miss Carter, but our journey has only just begun. We have much to do.”
“Of course, very good, sir. Shall we escort you out?”
“Yes, I wish to return to the surf
ace. I need to check on the rest of my plans.”
Angel watched them go. She walked after them, but slowly, keeping her distance. Things had kicked up a gear with Mr Black, and he now had a plan and supposedly the means to kill the Archons.
Could he do it? Could he kill the Archons? Angel didn’t know. She was sceptical, but artifacts were a tricky business. One thing she did know was, she didn’t like the idea. She needed to get in touch with Yasmin and tell her about this latest development.
- Nowhere
Alicia thought she might be going mad. What was real anymore? What had her life become? Every day was torture, pain, turmoil, and her mind felt like it might explode from the mess of rampant thoughts that tore through her brain at a rate that scared her.
Her tormentor, her torturer, held her lovingly in her arms and caressed her face like a mother holding a baby.
“You’re mine, Alicia. You do know that, don’t you? No one else’s, you’re mine to protect and love. Only I can do that for you. No one else.”
Around them, scattered broken on the floor, were the bodies of three men. Three large men who had somehow found their way in here and had done horrific things to her until Yasmin had returned and saved her from them. She couldn’t look at the lifeless bodies about her. She couldn’t handle it. She just wanted it to end.
Maybe Yasmin would help her?
The L.A. Gambit
New York
Amanda looked up at the large black church that had been converted into a nightclub for as long as she could remember. Its gothic spires thrust into the midday sky like daggers. Known as The Dark Side of the Moon, or just The Dark Side for short, the building held many memories for Amanda. Not least of which were her recollections of Howie who had taken her in from the streets. He’d been working security here for as long as she’d known him. And then there was Georgina, who she first met here, and had become her best friend for those early years in the city.
Now, it belonged to new owners. Toni and Tabitha had recently bought it. This was the first time she’d visited since their acquisition of the business, and from the outside, nothing much had changed.
Magi Legend Page 51