Magi Legend

by Andrew Dobell

  “Ah, they’re no bother. No harm done, really.”

  “Good. I’m glad to see you’re in high spirits,” he said.

  “I am. I’m grand, thank you. Things are going well. New York is great.”

  “You seem really happy with Maria as well.”

  “She’s lovely, yes. Very happy, thank you.”

  “I’m just happy you’ve found someone.”

  “You don’t seem phased that she’s a… well, a she,” Amanda said.

  “Why would I be? It’s no comment on me, and frankly, who you sleep with is your business and is no reflection on any other part of your life. Providing you’re happy, and it’s what you both want, who cares? Anyone who judges you based on who you love has their priorities backwards as far as I’m concerned, Amanda-san.”

  Amanda hugged him again, grabbing him around his waist and pulling him to her. “Thank you.”

  “Dō itashimashite, you’re welcome,” he said.

  She pulled away from him again and leant her hip against the railing next to the window.

  “What about everything else? I heard you’ve had a bit of an issue with the Disciples of the Cross recently,” he said.

  “The Inquisition? A little, yeah, and there was an odd thing that happened the other day. The Witch Finder General came to New York His trip was leaked to a few of the covens in the city who attacked them and he ended up dead.”

  “The General? That is concerning. Any idea what happened?”

  “I suspect it was a power play, something internal within the Inquisition. I think someone wanted him dead.”

  “Any idea who?” Yoh asked.

  “Only my own speculation. I’ve only really dealt with one member of the Grand Inquisitors, but I wouldn’t put it past her at all. I have no proof, of course.”

  “These things usually become clearer as time goes on.”

  Amanda smiled, he was right. She just hoped she’d find out sooner rather than later.

  Circulating back through the party, Amanda exchanged more pleasantries with her guests as they congregated in groups or took in the view from different angles.

  Amanda was walking around the floor once more when a side door opened and she saw Trevelyan standing just inside the Porting room. He stepped out and smiled at her.

  “Good evening, Amanda. Thank you for the invitation. Sorry I’m a little late,” he said. “I wanted to get here earlier, but Council business rarely fits around my social calendar.”

  “No bother, thanks for coming.”

  “My pleasure. I wanted to see you anyway, firstly to say thank you for your efforts in Los Angeles. I know it didn’t go exactly to plan, but I think you did well, all things considered,” he said.

  Amanda flushed slightly at the compliment, but also felt a sense of sadness and regret at the loss of life on that mission. “It could have gone better,” she said.

  “Maybe. But you handled Nefertiti well and got the result you needed. The cost might have been higher than you anticipated, but to do nothing would have cost us much more. So, thank you.”

  Amanda smiled and nodded, keen to move on.

  “So, I also need to speak to you for a short time. Do you have a few minutes?” Trevelyan asked.

  “Sure, what can I do for you?” she asked, seeing no reason she couldn’t take a few minutes away from the party. She’d already circulated through all the guests she’d wanted to speak with and had started to relax a little more and not feel quite like she was on parade so much.

  “I’d like to show you something, and talk somewhere a little more private and protected, if that’s alright with you?” he asked.

  “By all means, where did you have in mind?”

  “Have you ever been to the Council base before?”

  “No, I’ve not yet had the pleasure,” she said. She quickly Linked with Maria, Yoh, and Liz and sent them a quick message about what she was doing before she focussed on the here and now once more. “Lead the way,” she said.

  “Follow me, then,” he said, indicating the Porting room. “I opened one of our Portals in here,” he said as they walked into the room. There wasn’t anything visible to the naked eye that any mortal could see, but to Amanda’s Magical senses, some powerful Flux Magic burnt away in the corner, waiting for a Magus to step into it and call it to action.

  “Walk with me,” Trevelyan said, and Amanda moved in step with the Master Magus. She felt his Magic reach out and connect with the Portal’s Essentia. As they touched it, the Portal flared into life and opened like a flower, its magical protections pulling away to allow them safe passage.

  Stepping into the roiling energy, Amanda felt it surge over her like a wave, refreshing and exhilarating as the Magical power surged within her. Anyone watching would have just seen the two figures disappear with a shimmer in the air, like ripples on the surface of water.

  With a brief flash of Magical energy, Amanda found herself standing in what appeared to be a stone room without windows or furnishings. Behind them, a circle of Essentia held the image of the Porting room in the World Trade Center, while ahead of them was a simple door.

  Through her Aetheric Sight, Amanda could tell this wasn’t stone at all, though. This room appeared to be made from Magical energy and Mana, the solidified form of Essentia that only really appeared in the Material Realm at Poolings, where ley lines crossed. She also had no idea where she was. Her Aetheric Senses that could usually pinpoint her location on Earth failed her utterly.

  “Where are we?” Amanda asked.

  Trevelyan smiled. “Don’t worry. This is part of the security and defences that the Council has in place to protect against infiltration by Nomads and such. We’re in a Null Realm.”

  “Null Realm? I’ve heard of those. Remind me what they are exactly?” Amanda asked.

  “The Material World and the Spirit World are separated by a barrier we call Acheron that cannot be crossed and keeps the Archons in the Abyss. Although Acheron cannot be crossed, it can serve as a realm unto itself for those powerful enough to be able to carve out space within it. These Magical spaces are called Null Realms. They’re not tied to any geographical place on Earth and can be accessed from anywhere around the globe. The Null Realm is expressly controlled by the creator of the Realm and those he links to it. They’re often used as secret and very secure hideouts.”

  “That’s right; I knew I’d heard of them before. I need to get one of those.”

  Trevelyan smiled. “In this case, rather than using it as a realm, the Council uses it as a security barrier. In a moment, we’ll be asked to drop our Aegises to allow the Magi security team to check on us before they open that door and let us through.”

  Sure enough, a voice sounded in the room suddenly and asked them to remove their Aegises. Amanda obliged and felt Magic passing over her, identifying her. Moments later, security seemed satisfied and she heard the click of the lock on the door ahead of her.

  “I guess they’re happy?” she said.

  “Apparently so,” Trevelyan smiled.

  “What was to stop me from just smashing through that door, though?”

  Trevelyan smiled. “Because it’s more than just a door, it’s a Portal that’s designed to look like a door which is controlled by the security team. You wouldn’t get through if they didn’t want you to.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  He walked forward, opened the door, and stepped aside so she could pass. She thanked him and walked into a large vaulted room. The whole place looked like something that had been built in the Middle Ages, only on a much grander scale. It appeared she stood within some kind of castle made from huge chunks of grey stone. The room they were in was roughly circular and over fifty meters across with a high domed ceiling. Before them, in the centre of the floor, a fountain burbled away with a short-walled pond surrounding an urn that water cascaded down the sides of.

  Beyond the fountain, two sets of curved stairs led up to archways leading deeper into the building, whil
e further arches on this level revealed corridors that snaked off into the depths of the complex.

  Behind her, Trevelyan stepped through the door from the Null Realm and shut it behind him. It appeared to be one of several doors, all of the same type, although a few of them were bigger double doors.

  “Welcome to Ultima Thule, the Council’s Coven House,” Trevelyan said. “Follow me.”

  Trevelyan walked to the left, over the beautiful mosaic floor, and headed towards one of the corridors. Amanda quickly caught him up and fell into step beside him.

  “This is amazing. Where are we, where is this building based? It’s huge,” Amanda said. Her sense of location had snapped back into place, but she wasn’t sure she believed what she was feeling.

  “It is, and the answer to your question will become clear in just a moment. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, and it’s easier if I just show you,” he said.

  “Oh, okay.” Amanda followed along beside him, getting the feeling that he wanted to talk once they’d reached their destination. The corridor they entered had a much lower ceiling than the room they’d been in, but the ceiling must still have been nearly ten meters high with its Gothic arches. Sconces burned on the walls at regular intervals, giving off plenty of soft light that illuminated the rugs and paintings that decorated the hallway. Some were portraits, others depicted scenes from history that Amanda didn’t recognise.

  The corridor had been bending gently to the right, and before long, Trevelyan walked up to a door on the left and stopped before it, his hands on the ring of steel that hung from the massive oak door and served as a handle.

  “Shall we?” he said.

  “Please.” She nodded and watched as Trevelyan opened the bolt on the door and pushed the double doors open wide.

  The room was another large one and seemed to be a kind of balcony. Massive Gothic arches acted as glassless windows encircling the crescent-shaped floor and giving a stunning view of the vista beyond.

  Amanda thought that if Liz had been amazed by the view from the top of the World Trade Center, she would be stunned to silence by this one.

  The castle sat within a freezing white landscape of ice and snow, of a kind that Amanda had never seen before. Huge chunks of ice jutted into the sky while deep ravines stretched off into the distance, creating an utterly wild and alien landscape. Behind her, stretching up for hundreds of meters with its Gothic spires and flying buttresses, the castle appeared to have erupted from the ice.

  But the true wonder of the view lie before her, hanging in the night sky, surrounded by a starfield so bright that she could clearly make out the misty Milky Way.

  Saturn. The ringed planet hung in the sky, huge and imposing, but beautiful and awe-inspiring at the same time.

  She had no idea how long she stood there staring at it, but it felt like forever. It was only when her tongue started to feel a bit dry because she had her mouth hanging open for so long, did she shake her head and come around a bit. She looked back at Trevelyan, who’d been admiring the view as well. But he smiled upon seeing her expression. Did she look that shocked?

  “Is that…?” Amanda asked.

  “Yes, that’s Saturn. We’re on one of its moons. Enceladus, to be precise.”

  Amanda tried to voice something, anything. Her mouth moved, but nothing came out. She just couldn’t vocalise the thoughts she had in her head. The idea that they were this far from Earth seemed utterly insane.

  “It’s okay. It’s a lot to take in. Come, there’re a few seats over here. Let’s just sit for a moment, shall we?”

  Amanda just nodded and followed Trevelyan to the benches that stood close to the edge of the balcony and sat down.

  For maybe five or ten minutes, she just sat there and marvelled at the view and slowly came to terms with where she was and what she was seeing. This close to the colossal gas giant, she could make out the clouds as they moved over the surface of Saturn, and even some detail in the rings.

  “So, how long has this been here?” she asked.

  “The Council has maintained a base of operations that has always been called Ultima Thule ever since the formation of the Council, but it’s been located in various places until we built this over a thousand years ago.”

  “It’s amazing. I had no idea… I mean, Gentle Water told me that there were Magi in space, but this is beyond anything I’d ever expected. Can Magi Port here?”

  “It takes a powerful Magus to Port this far, but it is possible to do, as well as to travel in space. We don’t have much contact with them, but there is a vast community of Magi spreading across the Orion Arm of the Galaxy. They’re known as the Nexus and are made up of families of Magi called Dynasties. But they leave the Magi of Earth alone for the most part. So yes, there are Magi out here, but they usually travel around on Aether Ships because the distances are so vast.”

  Amanda turned to look at Trevelyan. “Why are you showing me this?”

  Trevelyan smiled briefly. “How did things pan out in L.A., Amanda?”

  His reply of a question to her question threw her for a moment, but she figured he would be going somewhere with this. “It went well. We found the Nomads who were targeting the covens there. The group was led by a man called Shaitan, and we were confronted by a Magus called Nefertiti, who seemed to want to protect him. She killed his coven mates and promised that it wouldn’t happen again. I’m guessing she took Shaitan with her.”

  “You know, I met with Toni, Tabitha, and Melissa recently, before they went to L.A. with you. Their coven mate, Jonas, was a part of the Council, but he died that night during the attack on their House. Melissa died on the mission with you, didn’t she?”

  “She did. Toni and Tabitha aren’t here… I mean, at the party tonight. It’s a bit soon for them, I think.”

  “Of course, but you took on that Nomad, and you avenged their deaths, that’s impressive. I applaud you for taking on such a powerful Nomad, but you should be careful, especially where Shaitan is concerned. Rumour is, he can pass into the Abyss at will.”

  “It’s not a rumour. It’s true, I’ve bleedin’ seen it,” she said.

  “Then, maybe you can understand why I urge caution in dealing with him.”

  “Of course, without a spiritual component to an Aegis, he can ignore it and appear right inside of it. That’s dangerous.”

  “It is. You should also know it is rumoured that he’s set this knowledge down in a book known as the Libre Nox Noctis. We have no idea where this book is. We’re hunting for it right now, because the power contained within its pages could be dangerous in the wrong hands.”

  “I understand,” she replied.

  Trevelyan looked at her then and seemed to be contemplating something. Then he looked away from her and stood up and walked over to the balcony.

  Amanda looked out at the view of Saturn once more. It had already moved its position as Enceladus went about its orbit.

  She shifted her senses into the Magical spectrum and observed the enormous Magical energies at work. She could feel the artificial gravity and air that the Magic produced as well as a colossal glamour effect that hid the structure from the sight of any passing space probes. There were many other effects at work here, all hugely powerful and all of them protecting the structure and its inhabitants from the harsh environment outside.

  Trevelyan turned to her. “Come with me, Amanda. There’s something I think you should see.”

  She stood up and followed Trevelyan out of the room and back into the corridor. He waited for her and spoke once she’d caught up.

  “We should Port there. Are you ready?”

  “Of course,” she said, not resisting his Magic as the view of the huge vaulted corridor changed to a much smaller, homier one as they Ported. It was about three meters wide with carpet, tables with ornaments on them, and a few visible doors further along. They stood outside a door, which Trevelyan opened. It creaked as it moved on its hinges.

  He walked inside, and Amanda
followed him into a room fifteen meters across and less deep. A few electrical lights hung from the ceiling, giving off a dim illumination. The room had been carpeted and contained several glass-covered display cabinets and shelves, all of which looked like they belonged in a stately home.

  Dotted about the room were glass-topped podiums and cases which contained books or scrolls or other written works. Trevelyan walked over to one and looked down at it.

  Amanda had paused inside the door. It was tranquil in here and she felt the weight of history in the treasures on display. The books on the shelves and the delicate manuscripts within the cases all looked to be hundreds of years old.

  “Wow, what are all these?” she asked.

  “We’ve been gathering and preserving these documents for centuries. They’re invaluable.”

  She walked over to the nearest one and looked inside. The document looked old and the writing, although in English, would take some deciphering. A modern, printed document beside it translated the original text and offered commentary, which Amanda read with interest.

  This scroll formalised the naming of the Magi by the Magi Senate about two thousand years ago. When the Senate had been formed, and Magi from all over the globe joined, there came a need for a single word to refer to them, as every culture used their own term. So, a bastardised version of the word “Magi” was chosen. It was spelled the same but pronounced “Mah-Guy” rather than “Mei-Jai”. This had been based on the hard G of the Greek word “goés”, pronounced “Go-Ace”, meaning sorcerer or conjurer, and also the hard G of the singular, Magus.

  And so, the Magi had been born.

  “Come, look at this one,” Trevelyan suggested.

  She walked over and stood next to him. She looked down at the old-looking scroll within the glass case. Again, she was unable to read the scroll itself. Instead, she focused on the plain English translation beside it.

  THE PROPHECY OF HELENE

  Many years from now, a time will come when the Archons will return.

  Guided by the Red Witch, they will return to Earth.