Mr Black had wanted the Lazarus Scroll for himself. She had nothing else to go on, but that name had connotations if you knew the Bible. Lazarus had been the man that Jesus had raised from the dead. So, did that mean that the Scroll could do that, too?
Why would Mr Black want such an Artifact? Who did he want to raise from the dead?
Could it be her mother? Was she dead? Her stomach ached and her head pounded from the possibilities.
She suddenly remembered the knowing look that Angel had given her as she’d walked out of the reactor core. What had she been doing there? Angel was a powerful Magi, as Amanda knew all too well. She was also clearly masking her Magical signature to present a much weaker Magi profile to infiltrate and deceive. She couldn’t fool Amanda, though. She knew how strong Angel was, which meant the ruse must be for Mr Black’s benefit.
Did Angel want the Scroll or could there be a bigger plan at work there?
One thing was for sure, she didn’t have all the facts or all the pieces, so she would need to dig deeper.
But that wasn’t all. Horlack, the monster who wanted to kill her, had returned from the dead. Every time she thought she got a handle on things, they got flipped upside down and she had to start all over again.
Amanda heard movement and saw Maria step out onto the rooftop. She stopped when she saw that Amanda had noticed her.
“Hey, are you okay? Everything all right?”
Amanda sniffed and suddenly felt quite emotional as tears welled up in her eyes. She blinked, and they fell down her cheeks.
A moment later, Maria was beside her. She took Amanda’s hands in hers. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s alright. What’s happened?”
“I went with Maya on a mission to find an Artifact, but we weren’t the first ones there.” She went on to explain the confrontation she’d witnessed. Horlack’s appearance, the group of Magi who’d confronted the Nomad, and eventually, the conversation she’d had with Mr Black. “He said he was my father. He knew how old I was, said he recognised my mother in me and that we looked very much alike.”
“Anyone could say that Amanda, anyone, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess your age,” Maria said.
“But he knew I didn’t know my father, he knew that. He was speaking the truth, I just… I know it. I just know it,” she said.
“You’re sure?”
“As sure as I can be. I need to find him. I need to know who he is.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do. We can get Shaun on it; get him to see what he can find out about this Mr Black.”
Amanda smiled. “Thank you for understanding.”
“If it’s important to you, it’s important to me,” Maria said, smiling up at her.
Maria kissed her then, before pulling her in for a hug.
“Hey, girls?” Vanessa said from the doorway. “Royston’s here. They’re looking at the man you brought in. You might wanna…”
“We’ll be right down,” Amanda answered, separating from Maria, wiping her eyes, and sniffing back more tears.
Moments later, they appeared in the basement, having Ported down to save time. Shaun, Liz, Vanessa, and Maya stood with Royston close to the table, with Maya telling him what had happened at the power plant. Amanda listened and waited for Maya to finish. She spoke rather vaguely about her encounter with Horlack, saying only that he got away.
“Horlack?” Liz asked. “Wasn’t that the one who attacked you and..?”
“The same,” Amanda replied. She’d have to ask Maya more about that later. Royston turned to her then.
“So, this guy appeared out of nowhere?” he said.
“Using the same Spirit Magic that I saw Shaitan using,” Amanda said.
“Meaning, he came through from the Abyss,” he finished, frowning and considering this. He turned then and looked at the motionless figure and removed the glove from the man’s right hand. “As I thought,” he said as he turned the man’s hand over so his palm faced up.
Amanda stepped forward. “What did you think?” Amanda looked down and saw a black brand of a single dot, surrounded by seven tiny flames in a circle tattooed on the man’s palm. “What’s that mark mean?”
“It means he’s a Sentinel.”
“A Sentinel? What the bleedin’ hell’s a Sentinel?” Amanda asked. It sounded like it would be just one more enemy to add to the ever-growing list
“Honestly, we’re not really sure. They’re a group of Magi that seem unrelated to the Arcadians, Nomads, or the Inquisition. They’re outside our little war and take no part in it. What we do know, is that they occasionally show up when things get a little too public and do their best to protect humanity. They’re on the right side of things, but they take a very hard line and have frequently killed Arcadians as well as Nomads,” Royston explained.
“So, we’re on the same side, then?” Amanda extrapolated.
“Technically, but they would insist otherwise, I believe.”
“So, how’s he passing through Acheron into the Abyss?” Maria asked.
“I’m not exactly sure, but you can see that his tattoo seems to have a Spirit Magic aspect to it,” Royston said.
Amanda shifted her vision into the Magical spectrum and looked closer at the mark. Royston appeared to be right as she noted the subtle Astral Magic that seemed to emanate from it.
“Hmm, well, I’d quite like to talk to him then,” she said and loosened her Magical grip on the Sentinel.
The man leapt up and off the table, making Amanda and those closest to him jump in shock. Aegises flared into life around the room as the man came to his feet behind the table and looked around, saving a special scowl for Amanda, no doubt due to the fight they’d been in at the power plant.
Astral Magic flared out from him and from his tattoo as he tried to slip into the Abyss, but Amanda had added an Astral Magic element to the building’s Aegis, and it stopped the Sentinel from Porting away.
“Hey, hey,” Amanda called out. “No need to panic, we don’t want to hurt you.”
The man took no notice of her and looked around the room. He seemed like he might be considering fighting his way out.
“No, no, no. Calm down, we don’t want to hurt you, please,” she pleaded.
He didn’t seem to be listening to her, though, and after a moment of indecision, he bit something.
The moment he did, a small shockwave of Magical energy flooded his body, passing over him as he suddenly dropped to the floor. With her Magical sight still on, she could clearly see that he’d literally just dropped dead. His life force had been ripped from his body as his physical form became abruptly inert. His heart stopped, his synapses and nerves stopped firing, everything just died and he hit for floor hard.
“Brutal,” Amanda said in shock and awe.
Liz gasped while a few others offered their own expletives on seeing the man take his life so suddenly.
Royston walked over to him and crouched down, checking his vitals and looking once more at his palm. “His tattoo’s gone,” he remarked.
Amanda walked over and looked for herself. Royston was right; the black brand on the palm of his hand had disappeared as if it had never been there.
“He killed himself?” Amanda said. “Why’d he do that?”
“From the few encounters I’ve read about, the group seems highly ritualised, very strict, and very secretive. We think they’ve been instructed to kill themselves rather than risk capture, and I think what we’ve seen here today pretty much confirms that theory.”
The sound of footsteps from the back of the room caught Amanda’s attention, making her and the others turn and look.
Gentle Water stood halfway down the stairs, looking over the scene before him.
“Did I interrupt something?” he asked.
- The Sentinels, a discussion. By Louisa Hunt
There have been reports of the Sentinels throughout the recorded history of the Magi. They always appear out of nowhere using Astral Magic, possibly mean
ing they can pass into the Abyss. They’re highly trained and often very powerful Magi. They appear to have no loyalty to the Arcadians or the Nomads or anyone else, fighting and killing any Magi or Scion regardless of affiliation. The one motivating factor we can gather from their actions is that they wish to protect humanity from anything Magical.
They clash more often with the Nomads than with us, as we’re essentially on the same side. But when the actions of Arcadians get too public or involve too many Riven, they have no issues with killing us, also.
Within this book, we will examine some of the most well-known and most infamous encounters with the Sentinels to see what light can be shed on this mysterious and secretive organisation.
Cold Trail
New York
“Sounds like you’ve been busy. Shame we not discover more about this Sentinel. We be more careful next time,” Gentle Water said.
“It was stupid of me. I’d heard the stories of them killing themselves, I should have checked more thoroughly,” Royston admitted.
“Knowing of stories or rumours is one thing, it’s a very different thing when they’re right in front of you, so it is,” Amanda said.
They’d all retreated across the garage and into Shaun’s Ops room where a large conference table had been set up. Amanda felt tired from the mission to the desert, but she wanted to hear what Gentle Water had to say about his mission to the South Pole. Also, she wanted to speak to him anyway about Trevelyan’s revelation about the Prophecy.
She eyed him from across the table, wondering what he knew. Had he kept it from her? She looked back down to her lap where she’d been absentmindedly playing with the threads on the edge of one of the holes in her skinny jeans. What was she thinking, she chastised herself? Gentle Water was the most loyal and kindest person she’d ever known in her entire life, why was she thinking horrible things about him now?
Life as a Magus seemed to be a constant struggle against those who wanted to do her harm. It was like being in a warzone or being undercover in enemy territory. The only difference being that her hostile environment just so happened to be everywhere and hidden from plain view. It’s not paranoia if they’re really out to kill you, she supposed. Still, she needed to remember who her friends were and not allow anything to come between them.
“Don’t keep us in suspense any longer, Gentle Water. Did you find anything in the Antarctic?” Royston asked.
“Yes. The leads you gave, led to camp hidden well away from Riven base, with what must have been very tight security,” he said.
“Must have been?” Royston asked.
“Yes. The base was still there, but they starting to dismantle it,” Gentle Water replied.
“Okay, go on,” Royston said.
“I observed, before infiltrating base and asking questions of security man. The base is part of large dig. They hunt for powerful Magic Artifact in ice.”
Amanda enjoyed listening to Gentle Water’s soft Chinese accent and the way he left out the occasional joining word. Her mentor had always been laconic at the best of times; only speaking when he needed to, but that just meant that what he did say always mattered. He went on to explain the site and its location before what looked like a temple entrance and the strange Magic that lay scattered about the site.
“So, did the guard you interrogated give you any further information? Like who this dig was for and what they found there?” Royston asked.
“They found Magic Artifact, the guard not sure what it was, just heard rumours. But dig funded by man called Mr Black…”
“What?” Amanda blurted out, her head snapping up. “Did you say Mr Black?”
“Yes, why?”
Amanda let out a laboured breath and looked into the middle distance. This couldn’t be a coincidence. Meeting Mr Black mere hours ago in Arizona and then this report from Gentle Water.
She’d left out the part about meeting Mr Black at the power plant. Despite her certainty that this Mr Black was being truthful, she still had her doubts, and it was all just a little too close to home for her liking. But between the plant and this dig in the Antarctic, it was clear that something was going on. She needed to be honest with her friends.
She looked up at Maria who sat next to her. She nodded, encouraging Amanda to let everyone know what had happened.
She looked up at the expectant faces around the table and took a breath before speaking again. “The group of people at the power plant, who were after the Lazarus Scroll and who confronted Horlack and the Nomad, Dust were led by a man called Mr Black,” she said. This set her friends around the table muttering and looking at one another.
“Mr Black? You’re sure,” Royston asked.
“And…?” Maria said to Amanda, urging her to go on. Maria’s single word silenced everyone and they looked back to Amanda.
“And… And he claimed he was my father.”
“Your father? Your real father?” Liz asked looking shocked.
“That’s what he said.”
“And you believed him?” Liz asked, incredulous.
“I did. I mean, I do. I believe he was telling the truth, or at least, he believed he was telling the truth.”
“You’re an orphan, though, right?” Vanessa asked.
“That’s right, abandoned at an Irish orphanage as a baby. I never knew my parents,” Amanda answered.
“This is concerning,” Royston spoke up. “So, you say he has apparently acquired a Magical item from the dig in the Antarctic,” Royston said to Gentle Water, who nodded. “And he also got hold of the Lazarus Scroll in Arizona?” he asked Amanda and Maya.
Amanda glanced at Maya, and they both nodded.
“Tell me more of what you saw, Amanda,” Royston asked.
“A group of maybe fifteen well-trained and well-armed men, along with at least three Magi accompanied Mr Black.”
“And Mr Black himself was not a Magus?” Royston asked.
“From what I could tell, no, but he did seem to carry plenty of Magical items on him.”
“The three Magi, what about them?” Royston asked.
“Oh, yes, I forgot to mention. I knew one of the Magi with Mr Black, so I did. It was Angel, ye blonde one who attacked me on the train in France.” She could see that this sparked Gentle Water and Liz’s interest, since they’d been on the train with her. “I didn’t recognise the other two. The brunette woman was bleedin’ powerful, though.”
“Rank?” Royston asked.
“Easily a Sage, or Master maybe, based on what I experienced.”
“So Angel is working for Mr Black?” Liz asked, her tone curious.
“That’s the strange thing, she must have been hiding her Magical signature because she appeared much weaker to my Magical sight,” Amanda said.
“She’s infiltrating them,” Royston concluded. “So, she wants the item for herself, then.”
“Who knows, she’s a sneaky one,” Amanda said.
“Agreed. We can’t make assumptions about Angel’s motives, but she’s clearly working her own angle on this. Suffice it to say, I don’t like this at all. This Initiated mortal, who we know nothing about, but who seems to know a hell of a lot about Magic and about us, is collecting up Magical items from around the world very quickly. I don’t know about all of you, but I have a bad feeling about this.”
Amanda had to agree. This all sounded very, very bad, and her link to this made things just that little bit more personal. Was this really her father doing this, and what did he want with these items, other than more power? He’d successfully kept himself hidden away from the Magi world, gathered loyal Magi and who knows what else to his banner, and hunted down some of the most potent Magical items in the world. He clearly wanted something, but what was it?
One thing was for sure, she wanted to know, and she wanted to find him as quickly as she could.
“Did you go down into the dig? Did you see anything in there of interest?” Amanda asked.
“I did not go into the tunn
els, no,” Gentle Water answered her.
“Then, I want to go back there. I want to see for myself what ye man dug up from that poxy ice.”
“Are you sure you want to do this, Amanda? You’re not too close to it, are you?” Royston asked.
“Are ye questioning my judgement because Mr Black might be my father?”
“I have to ask the question, Amanda,” he said.
She knew he had to. If this man turned out to be killing Arcadians for whatever reason, she needed to keep her head clear and not let her emotions cloud her judgement so she could do what must be done. She desperately wanted to know who this man was and the truth about her parentage, but if worst came to the worst she would be expected to do whatever it took to stop him. Could she do it? Honestly, she didn’t know, and until the moment came to make such a choice, she doubted she could answer that question with any honesty.
“I want to do it. I need to know more about who he is. But don’t worry, I’ll do my job if it comes to it,” she said.
Could she, though? Could she actually kill him if it came to that, knowing that he could potentially be her father? That was the critical thing, though, wasn’t it? It was all maybes and possibilities, just his word and nothing else to go on. He could be lying, he could have found out enough about her to throw her off the scent.
Unlikely, though, as he had no idea that she would be there, and even she didn’t know about the power plant crisis until Maya invited her on the mission.
No, everything pointed to him being truthful. Otherwise, how would he have recognised her?
Magi Legend Page 62