Magi Legend

by Andrew Dobell

  “What are you doing, weakling?” Horlack demanded. With his massive left hand, Horlack shoved Dust towards the old man.

  Dust shouted in protest, but Horlack had been too quick and too strong.

  All hell broke loose as the men with guns opened fire. Essentia flared as Magic was called on in response to Horlack’s movement. Angel, however, just watched. In fact, Amanda noticed the Magical signature which surrounded her seemed much weaker than when Angel had attacked her on the train. What was she up to?

  Horlack leapt away, bounding over the side of the platform and disappearing from view as Dust died quickly and painfully under the onslaught of Magic and gunfire.

  “I’m going after Horlack,” Maya called to Amanda. “Don’t let them cause any more trouble, and if you can get the Scroll, go for it, but don’t get yourself killed,” Maya said as she sped off, running down the catwalk towards where Horlack had disappeared.

  Amanda looked back to the scene below and watched as the old man walked up to the body of the now-dead Magus and bent to pick something up. It looked like a rolled-up piece of paper, but it throbbed with Magical power that Amanda could feel from her perch on the catwalk.

  The Lazarus Scroll. Amanda rose from her crouched position, looked right and knew what she must do. She ran silently along the catwalk and then jumped into mid-air, further and higher than any normal human could ever do. She used one foot to bound from a pipe to the top of a huge tank, and then leapt into the air, dropping down between the old man’s group and the door they had appeared through.

  She landed in a crouch with a loud echoing bang which dented the metal beneath her feet. Rising up to a standing position, she looked at the surprised faces of the group before her.

  ***

  Maya ran around more machinery and suddenly found herself standing before Horlack, who skidded to a stop and looked down at Maya, his huge dark eyes wide in surprise.

  Horlack’s transformation into a Scion had permanently changed his body into a massive beast. He was easily over twelve feet tall, covered in patchy black hair, with massive talons on his hands and at the end of his dog-shaped legs.

  His head, although huge in its own right, looked tiny on his massive shoulders and didn’t look remotely human anymore. He sported a bat-like nose and ears, while huge tusks spouted from his mouth, dripping with saliva. The horrific look was finished off by a long, cancerous-looking horn which erupted from his forehead and ended in a wicked point.

  “Maya!” he boomed. “What a pleasure. Is your mother here?”

  “Horlack,” Maya said, ignoring the question. “You’re back.”

  The thing stood tall before her. “Was there any doubt?”

  “I thought maybe your encounter in New York…”

  “Never. I was merely thrown into the Abyss. Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” he boomed, his voice loud and powerful.

  “Indeed.”

  He lowered himself down, bringing his face closer to her level. “But now that I’m back, and a little more like my old self, maybe you would consider…”

  “This again?”

  “It’s always been you, Maya, you know that,” he said, his voice suddenly softer and filled with emotion.

  Maya placed her hands on her hips, looking up at the monster before her. “A lot would need to change before I could ever consider you as anything other than a savage killer. Your vendetta against Amanda, for instance, would need to end.”

  Horlack’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Maya. “I’m listening.”

  ***

  Half a second after turning their heads in surprise at the sound of Amanda’s landing, the men all came to their senses and spun round to point their guns at her.

  Simultaneously, the woman in leather stepped in front of the old man, pulling on the local Essentia as she moved.

  Amanda drew Essentia to her, strengthening her Aegis, and getting ready to deflect bullets and the woman’s Magic. Her split Multitasking mind raced, getting ready for the fight that was about to erupt.

  “Wait,” called the old man from behind the Magi woman, his hand pulling on her sleeve as he stepped forward. His gaze locked onto Amanda, his eyes wide, mouth open, and a look of utter incredulity on his face.

  “Sir?” the woman asked.

  “Stand down,” he said, as he stepped forward. “Continue with the plan. Echo, you wait there,” he said, speaking to the woman and pointing to a spot behind him. Echo stayed put, but everyone else began filing out, including Angel, who shot her a knowing look as she left.

  The old man looked back at Amanda and paused for a moment.

  “Give me the Scroll,” Amanda said, feeling weirded out by the old guy. She wasn’t sure what was going on or what else she should say.

  “My god. You look just like her. It’s uncanny,” he said, his voice full of wonder. “I mean, I always thought… I always kind of knew, but... it’s you, isn’t it?”

  “Excuse me?” Amanda answered. He spoke like he knew her, but she felt sure she’d never met him before.

  “You’re what? Twenty-one years old now? Yes, that fits. What’s your name, child?”

  “I’m not sure that’s any of your business.”

  “Of course, you don’t know, do you? Did you know your mother?”

  “What the hell?” Amanda said, surprised and shocked by the strangeness and rudeness of his question. “Who are you?”

  “If I’m right, I’m your father,” he said as he looked at her in fascination.

  The world around her nearly fell apart as she took in those words. Everything else seemed a secondary concern as she tried to process what he’d just said. Could this true? She looked at the man again and felt disbelief wash over her. “My arse ye are,” she said in an almost automatic response, denying his accusation.

  “You look just like your mother, the resemblance is uncanny. Your hair, your eyes, your nose, even your Irish accent is similar. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were her.”

  “I can assure you, I’m not,” she said. “I think I’d remember you.”

  “But of course, and that was more than twenty years ago. Shortly before you were born. It all fits.”

  Doubt filled her mind. Was he telling the truth? Did this man know her mother, and could he really be her father? There was something about him, something compelling. “You… you’re saying you knew my mother?”

  “And you don’t?” he asked.

  “I’m an orphan,” she said. It almost felt like her heart had stopped. She felt short of breath and had a desperate need to know more, to know who she was and who her parents were.

  The man considered that for a moment, surprise quickly ceding to acceptance. “I suppose that makes sense,” he said. “What’s your name?”

  “A… Amanda, Amanda-Jane. Who… who was she? What was her name?” she asked, suddenly desperate for answers.

  “Mr Black!” shouted a voice from the nearby doorway that led onto the platform. Amanda looked around, following the gaze of the old man to the mercenary who had shouted for him. “Everything’s in place, we’re ready,” the man barked.

  “Time’s up, Amanda. Let’s do this again sometime,” Mr Black said, his voice all business now as Echo’s Magic whipped about them and Ported them away before Amanda could bring herself to react.

  “W… wait,” she said. The brief revelations from the old man, Mr Black, had disarmed her completely, giving her no chance to counter Echo’s Magic and stop them from Porting away.

  Amanda stood on the platform amongst bodies and spilt blood, feeling like she had been given half an answer and then had been left hanging. She desperately wanted those answers.

  He’d said he was her father. He looked in his eighties or nineties, so he must have been in his sixties when he’d gotten her mother pregnant, which seemed a little old. Who was this man, and what kind of name was Mr Black, anyway? It all felt so strange, and yet, something about him, the way he spoke and the little det
ails he knew about her age, could it be? Could he be her father?

  A claxon shrieked with an ear-splitting siren that made her clamp her hands to her ears. She swore and used her Magic to take the edge off the noise as she looked about her. The siren had snapped her out of her reverie. She needed to find Maya.

  PLEASE EVACUATE THE BUILDING, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

  The voice boomed over the speakers installed in the containment building. What had Mr Black’s men done? She used her Magical sight and quickly picked out the sudden and fast build-up of heat in the core. She got a strong sinking feeling in her gut. This was not good. She needed to try and stop whatever was happening to cause the alert. Amanda knew nothing of nuclear power, though. She had no idea how reactor cores worked. The best thing would be for her to find Maya and get out of the building as fast as they could.

  “MAYA!” she shouted, but heard nothing back. She concentrated and sent a Link request to her telepathically. It was quickly accepted.

  ~I’m here, I’m fine. I’m coming to you,~ Amanda heard in her head. She felt a rush of relief at Maya’s reply. She was alive. Magic flared behind her and she whipped around to see a man in a strange dark outfit that looked like a mix of Japanese ninja and American Special Forces, but without the weapons. He also wore a mask that left only his eyes visible.

  “What now?” Amanda said as she eyed the man. She recognised the fading Spiritual Magic he used and felt reasonably sure he’d just crossed from the Abyss into the material world.

  Up until this month, she, like everyone else in the Magi community, believed that crossing into the Abyss was impossible. Now she’d met a total of four people in one month who could do it, including apparently, this mysterious man. It didn’t look like Shaitan. Could it be another of his apprentices?

  The man dropped into a fighting stance. Amanda clenched her fists and readied her Magic, as a powerful blast of Kinetic energy hit her like a speeding train. She flew back into a large metal pipe, causing it to dent from the impact.

  Amanda grunted. That had hurt. Bracing herself, she leapt towards the man as steam blasted from the ruptured pipe behind her.

  In mid-air, her Magic flared. Lightning, fire, and an invisible force smashed into him and his Aegis fluoresced.

  She landed, rolled, and in a blur of motion attacked with a kick. His head snapped sideways as the kick hit his Aegis like a Magical hammer blow.

  She followed it with a punch, which he blocked. But still, her attack threw more Essentia against his Aegis, weakening it further while her extra minds did the same with Essentia Strikes.

  As they traded punches and kicks, Amanda noticed a series of small explosions as steam burst from nearby pipes.

  Was this a meltdown? If only she knew more about how power plants like this worked and if only she didn’t have to fight this stranger.

  “Do we have to do this?” she shouted as she ducked his next strike and blocked his kick before delivering one of her own to his sternum. “We have to get out of here and stop the meltdown.”

  As she watched, the man got his balance and merely frowned before rushing her again and continuing his attack.

  “God damn it, listen to me,” she shouted. He ignored her and kept up the assault. Suddenly, she saw Maya rushing up behind him, unnoticed for the moment. Amanda pressed her attack, keeping his attention on her while she gathered her Magic.

  Maya held her hands out wide, her fingers splayed with her keen-looking talons extended from her fingers. She leapt and landed behind him, slashing across his back, making his body arch in pain. Amanda unleashed another powerful Kinetic and Essentia filled attack that hammered him to the floor, dropping his Aegis, and knocking him out in one fell swoop.

  Around her, the whole place seemed to be descending into chaos. Steam blasted from pipes, klaxons sounded, and fires flared into life amidst the loud and ominous sounding noises that echoed from within the machinery around her.

  “We’re leaving,” Amanda cried and gathered her Magic, Porting herself, Maya, and her mysterious attacker outside the domed containment building.

  Maya looked over at Amanda. “You have to stop the meltdown,” she said.

  “To be sure, happy to, but how do I do that?” she answered.

  “It’s overheating, it needs to be cooled down,” Maya said.

  Amanda looked back at the building a few hundred feet away with her Aetheric Sight. She could see the heat building inside, so she concentrated, pulled on the Essentia around her, and focused her power on the core, lowering the temperature inside it.

  It didn’t take her long, but the concentration required was intense. Minutes later, she slowly eased off her Magic as she felt the reactor stabilize as its natural cooling processes took over.

  Happy that the immediate danger had been averted, she stumbled back and dropped to the ground, sitting next to the unconscious body of her attacker, close to where Maya crouched down, looking at the clothing of the man.

  “Jaysus, that was intense,” she gasped. She looked at Maya in the darkness of the desert night. Maya seemed a little confused by the man before them. “Any ideas?” Amanda asked.

  “Nothing I’d bet my estate on. Well done, by the way, that was impressive.”

  “Thanks.” Amanda blushed. “We could do with getting an Arcanum clean-up team out here, so we could. There’s way too much evidence of Magic.”

  “We can do that at your house. Are we taking tall, dark, and unconscious with us?”

  “Sure, sure, let’s find out who ye man is. What do you say, shall we go?”

  “Go for it,” Maya said.

  Amanda looked Maya in the eyes then. “Thank you,” she said.

  “That’s okay, happy to jump in and help,” Maya replied.

  Maya probably thought she was only talking about the fight, but Amanda actually meant it about way more than that. If Maya hadn’t chosen to take her, she might have never met Mr Black nor would she have had the chance to find out who her birthparents were.

  She realised she actually quite liked Maya, she got on really well and easily with her, and they seemed to just slot together as if they’d known each other for years.

  Amanda smiled and pulled on the threads of Essentia again, Porting them home.

  The inward rush of air kicked up the dusty sands of the desert in a small cloud as they disappeared.

  - Nowhere

  Alicia fell to the floor of her room, blood leaking from uncountable cuts all over her body. Pain filled her mind, but she felt at peace for she knew she deserved it. Above her, Nate, Yasmin’s apprentice, spat at her. He stood there topless, his entire well-muscled body covered in blasphemous tattoos depicting the Gods, Prophets, and Saints of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and more being raped and tortured by demons.

  Earlier today, she’d spoken out of turn, asking something of her mistress without having been given permission to speak first. She’d known it was wrong the minute she’d done it, but she sometimes forgot herself, reverting to her old and incorrect ways. She knew she would be punished. Sometimes Yasmin did it, sometimes Nate, sometimes Kez, or someone else.

  She’d improved, though, and the punishments were less frequent now, making Yasmin happier.

  Later on, with her injuries nearly healed, Yasmin came to visit and hugged her close, kissing her and whispering words of love into her ears.

  Home again

  Greenwich Village, New York

  In the basement of her house, Amanda stood next to a long table with her mysterious attacker laid out on it, unconscious. To Amanda’s left, Maya leant on the edge of the table and looked down at the man.

  “Sorry you didn’t get your Scroll,” Amanda said.

  “It’s not a problem. There will be other times, other opportunities. Just be glad we got out of there with our lives,” Maya said, without looking up. “Anyway, it should be me apologising to you for dragging you out there and nearly getting you killed.”

  “Heh,” Amanda
said. “It’s no bother, nothing like a bit of a clatter from time to time to get the blood pumping.” She looked down at the man on the table and took a breath. She was keeping him subdued with her Magic, so he wouldn’t wake up until they wanted him too. But her mind wasn’t focused on who this man was. Her mind was elsewhere, thinking about Mr Black’s words to her.

  She needed some time to think.

  “Look, I just need a moment, I’ll be back soon,” she said and left Maya in the garage just as Shaun stepped out of his office and looked over at the body.

  “What’s that doing in here?” he asked her.

  “Maya will fill you in, and don’t forget to inform the Arcanum,” she said as she ascended the stairs.

  Without really thinking about where she was heading, she walked through the house, heading up through the levels, and eventually stepping out onto the roof of the building.

  Whenever she needed time to think or just to get away, she usually came out here. As the morning sun started to peek above the horizon, splashing an orange glow over the glass of the surrounding buildings, she sat on the edge of the roof and let the wind catch her hair, enjoying the feel of the cool winter air.

  She’d never thought much about her parents. They had never been there for any part of her life, and although she occasionally wondered who they might be, it had never been a large part of her time growing up. She knew that some of the other orphans had thought about it a lot. It had been a huge missing part of their lives like they were an unfinished jigsaw puzzle that would never be complete until they found that one missing piece.

  Amanda had never felt like that. She’d just accepted her situation and never questioned it. The nuns were her parents, the other children were her siblings, and the orphanage had been her home.

  Even as an adult she hadn’t wondered about them, especially not since becoming a Magus. She had way too many other things going on for her to be worrying about something so obscure.

  But today, something had changed. Meeting Mr Black and the tantalising glimpse he’d given her of her parentage and her origins had ignited something inside of her. Suddenly, she’d discovered that she did have a part of her puzzle unfinished. She wasn’t as complete as she’d thought she was, and now she had a chance to learn more about her past, who her parents were, and why they left her at the orphanage. Whoever this Mr Black was, he seemed to be involved in the supernatural somehow, with at least three Magi working for him. Had her mother been involved as well? Might she have been a Magus? She found she suddenly needed to know more. She needed to know where she came from.