“Amanda!” Liz shouted in vain.
Liz felt helpless, she could only watch as this powerful force pummelled Amanda to the ground as if it was trying to kill her.
She could see some of her friends had a similar reaction, looking on in both horror and fascination at what was happening. She saw and felt Maria try to work some Magic, but the winds that flew out from this energy just blew the Magic away, like a strong wind would do to smoke.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. The last of the energy bolt flowed into Amanda’s body as everything fell into relative silence again.
All around them, things continued as they were—the new lagoon continued to fill up with seawater while the winds made the palms trees sway lazily.
Liz looked around at her friends and back at her mentor, wondering what she should do. Steam rose from Amanda’s back, obscuring Liz’s view, but she could see with her Magical sight that Amanda had survived, that her heartbeat remained strong and vital.
Liz sighed with relief.
“Amanda,” she called, but her mentor didn’t move. Liz looked about her again and slowly came to her feet. Gentle Water and Maria were reasonably close by, looking at Amanda and at each other, unsure of what they’d just witnessed.
“Do you think it’s… safe?” Liz asked.
“I think so,” said Maria. “But I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
“Any ideas what it could have been?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, I think,” Maria said.
Liz nodded and started to walk over the sand and approach where Amanda lay. As she drew near, the steam steadily rising from Amanda’s back started to fade. What Liz saw made her catch her breath as Amanda began to stir.
***
I must have passed out briefly, thought Amanda as she woke up with her face in the sand; its gritty, salty taste filled her mouth. She could make out voices, someone was calling her name. Might that be Liz? She coughed and tried to move. She felt stiff and ached all over as if she’d just spent an entire day in the gym working on every part of her body.
Then, she felt the burning pain as her mind suddenly registered the sensation that her brain seemed to have been hiding from her. She pulled herself up to her knees, pushing up with her hands and grunting from the feeling of fire that covered her back. The skin on her entire back and upper arms felt taught and tender like she’d been sunburnt. She remembered the bolt of energy that had hit her and while that explained the pain, she wondered what on earth it had been and why it had hit her.
She sat back on her feet, kneeling on the sand as Liz and Maria appeared in her field of view, followed by Gentle Water just behind them. She had to blink a few times to bring her vision back into focus so she could see them properly.
“Amanda. Amanda, are you alright?” Liz asked.
“I’m grand. A little groggy, and I feel like I’ve been burnt to shite, but I’m good. Is everyone okay? What happened?”
“We’re fine, Mandy,” Maria said. “But take it easy, we have no idea what just happened to you.”
“What do you mean?” Amanda answered.
“Um, best you look for yourself,” Liz answered and pointed to Amanda’s upper arm.
Amanda looked down and had two surprises as she did so. Firstly, she realised she was topless. Her vest top had been burnt off leaving her chest exposed to the world. She quickly put her arms across her bosom, and immediately noticed the strange flowing black tattoo-like markings on both of her upper arms.
They wrapped around her arm, about halfway between her shoulder and her elbow on both sides and flowed up over her shoulders and onto her back. She couldn’t see much, but it looked like it grew into a huge design all over her back. She could see parts of it spilling around her ribs to the sides of her breasts and over her hips as well.
“What in the bleeding hell?” she exclaimed as she pulled on her Magic and created another set of senses that she used to look at her back more clearly. The tattoo covered her whole back, from shoulder to shoulder, up to her hairline on the back of her neck and down to her hips and the top of her bum. It was a flowing tribal design of black lines that circled about each other creating spirals and graceful points. In the centre of it, though, surrounded by the tribal pattern and covering about half of her back, were several circles that interlocked which looked like some kind of Magical summoning circles. These circles were filled with curious-looking runes, like writing, but in a language she’d never seen before.
She cancelled the Magical effect and paused suddenly, concentrating. She felt different. Somehow, more connected to the ebb and flow of Essentia and as she pulled at the threads of Magical energy again, she found she could direct it more easily. It responded to her and did her bidding as it had never done before. She looked at her hands, forgetting her nudity for a moment, fascinated with the ease at which Essentia flowed about them with hardly a thought at all. “What’s happened to me?” she whispered.
“What is it?” Gentle Water asked.
“I’ve…I mean, I think I’m more powerful. I can pull this Essentia about like it’s nothing… and... I think I’ve gone up a rank in skill as well.”
“From Knight to Sage?” Gentle Water questioned her.
Amanda looked up. “Yes, I think so,” she replied, seeing Maya, Yoh, Orion, and Xain gingerly approaching her.
She sensed the quick Magical effect that Gentle Water used, knowing he’d just changed his perception.
“Your aura’s changed, too,” he said.
“How?” Amanda asked as she watched Liz and Maria look at her with the same effect Gentle Water had just used and saw their expressions change, looking surprised and confused in equal measure.
“Your Aura has a mottled effect of both a golden and a deep violet colour, the colours of a newborn and of someone on the edge of death. The colours of life and death.”
She saw realisation pass over Maria’s face, but Amanda still felt confused, as did Liz from the looks of things.
“Meaning?” Amanda pressed.
“It’s the prophecy. The Prophecy of Helene. It’s you,” Maria said.
Amanda covered her nakedness, feeling exposed again. She didn’t like this talk of prophecy. It put her on edge, made her the centre of attention, and made her feel like people expected something from her. She stood up and, with a quick working of Magic, conjured a brand new fitted crop top on her body.
“We’ll talk about this later,” she said, wanting to change the subject. She looked about her, ignoring the looks of concern on her friend’s faces and realised she still couldn’t see Mr Black, Roxanne, or Echo. “Has anyone seen Mr Black?” she asked.
***
Angel stood on a rock as the sea surged past her into the new lagoon with the small island in the middle where the time device and the Arcadians were. A new atoll had been created by the nuclear blast, the circle of islands formed by the raised ridge of the crater. In the centre of the new lagoon on the small island there, the Magi Angel had wanted to kill, had managed to survive the nuclear blast.
Angel felt cheated, but having just watched the strange energy that had flowed into Amanda and marked her, Angel didn’t feel too bad. At least, some interesting information had come out of this that she could use. She could hear the voices of the Arcadians as they talked to Amanda, discussing the prophecy. There would be plenty of people who would be interested to hear of this bit of news, and she would be sure to let them know.
With a smile, she worked her Magic and Ported from the island.
- Nowhere
Alicia laughed hysterically as she swung the dagger again and again. Blood from the corpse flew with every strike, and as she calmed down and looked down at the remains, she noted with fascination that you really couldn’t tell who this had been just an hour earlier.
These past few days, Yasmin had given her a couple of new playthings every day, asking only that she amuse Yasmin. Alicia knew what that meant, and she had co
me to enjoy what she did. As long as her mistress was happy, she was happy.
Today’s had been a beautiful teenage boy, innocent and scared, and Alicia had made sure to string this out to give her mistress as much amusement as she could. These shows of loyalty always had to come to an end eventually, and Alicia wanted to end it on a high note, so she really went for it, going a little crazy as she hacked this boy into tiny pieces.
She turned her naked body, covered in blood that dripped to the floor and tasted salty in her mouth, towards her mistress, who sat nearby with a huge grin on her face.
“You’ve done well, Alicia, I’m proud of you,” Yasmin said.
Epilogue 1
Reawakening
The Atoll, Pacific Ocean
The sun slowly sank towards the horizon, looking like it might extinguish itself by dropping into the vast ocean surrounding the small island on the edge of the new atoll.
Yellow and orange light spread over the sky, creating a beautiful panorama that would make an artist weep.
The small island had only been formed for a day. It was small and unassuming and only one of many that made up the ring of small islands that encircled the new lagoon created by the nuclear blast that morning.
Devoid of any indigenous life for the time being, nothing should have moved, but as the orange light that filled the sky slowly turned red, the earth on the island shifted, and a form rose from the ground.
It sat up at first, looking around. Seeing something half-buried next to it, it reached down and picked it up.
The huge thing stood, raising itself up to stand on its two huge legs and looked out to sea, and then down at the figure it held in its arms.
“Echo,” it said in a deep rumbling voice, addressing the unmoving, but still alive girl it held in its arms. Echo didn’t move, but it knew she was alive. The thing looked about itself once more.
“Roxanne?” it said, its voice a little louder this time.
“Yes, sir?” came the reply. It sounded odd and reverberated about its ribs. The thing looked down to see a face on the left side of its chest, just below its collar bone. Its whole body had been transformed, mutated. No longer was he an aged old man, now he had been changed, enhanced. He felt like he maybe stood about double the height he had before, but his skin looked terrible. Like some kind of infected mutant. He could feel Roxanne’s thoughts as part of his own and knew he’d somehow been fused with her. She’d been melted into him to become a part of him, but something else caught his attention when he looked down. Right there in the centre of his chest, buried in his flesh and ribs, glowed the green Orb. It throbbed and pulsated with his heartbeat and filled his body with power. He could feel the energy that flowed into him, the strength that it gave him, and he knew he’d been reborn.
Emotions churned inside him. He felt elated that he’d somehow survived the nuclear explosion, but he also felt rage and injustice at his failure to destroy the Archons. He thought of the reason for his failure. He thought of Amanda, his daughter, and then looked down at Echo.
She was more of a daughter to him than Amanda was. He could feel the rage inside him. He’d always had that drive, that anger, but it had grown along with his body and become something strong and powerful that he could no longer ignore. Thinking of Amanda now, at how she had failed to understand his mission, at how she’d stood against him, fought his men, and defeated him only made his rage grow.
He tried to keep it under control, to moderate it, but he was past that now, and the anger washed through him like a torrent of energy as he breathed harder and harder before he had to let it out and he roared to the heavens.
His inhuman voice carried over the sea and could be heard on all parts of the atoll. As he reined in his emotions he thought only of how he could hurt those who had wronged him. He heard voices then, from the small island behind him in the centre of the lagoon. Turning to look, he noticed a smallish ship that had probably been there for a while.
With his enhanced sight, he could make out movement on the ship and beach. It looked like a military boat, and as he moved over the island to get a better look, he noticed another, much larger naval frigate that had been hidden behind the rocks of his small island. The soldiers were being picked up. Maybe they had a boat he could use to get back to the mainland.
Epilogue 2
Taking stock
New York
Amanda sat on her sofa, her bare feet up on the seat as she leaned back into Maria. She sat behind her with her right arm around Amanda’s body, her left tracing gentle lines over her skin, following the lines of the tattoo.
After the chaos of the last few days, sitting here relaxing with someone she loved and not having to answer questions or deal with people felt amazing. She leant her head to her right, enjoying the softness of the sofa against her head and the gentle touch of Maria’s fingers.
Back on the island, after the energy had hit her and burnt the tattoo onto her back, the pain had soon subsided to a dull ache, and then became just a tightness of her skin, before that went too.
They’d known they had a lot to do, but they also knew their time on the Island was limited. There would almost certainly be military aircraft on the way. Working quickly, they’d made sure they cleaned up the radiation from the bomb, scrubbing the land, sea, and air of the lethal contamination before releasing the Shield they had created to protect themselves.
Following that, they needed to deal with the other people on the island, and after some discussion, they felt it best to put the word out to the US military that their sailors would need to be picked up. They quickly contacted Shaun, who confirmed that an aircraft was on its way, so they redoubled their efforts.
The Initiated, Scions, and Magi who had worked for Mr Black had been Ported to a place where the Magi Council could deal with them. As for Mr Black himself, the brief hunt they conducted for him turned up nothing, but they were pushed for time. He had not been inside the Aegis during the explosion, and Amanda feared the worst. At the time, it had slipped her mind, but she had since remembered that Mr Black had also used the green Orb he had found at the Antarctic dig and realised she’d never found any sign of it. Had Mr Black had it? Maybe he’d hidden it somewhere, which could in turn, mean that the item had been destroyed in the blast as well. Although, Amanda had her doubts about that.
Finally, before they left, Amanda realised she had misplaced the key to the device and the Lazarus Scroll, even though she knew she had them a short time earlier, just before the energy blast.
They had hunted for them, but without any luck, and Amanda remembered the words of Mr Black, that the Scroll had a mind of its own and would disappear all by itself. She wondered if that had happened here. She’d kept both items in the same pocket, would that have had an influence? Did the energy blast have anything to do with it? She had no idea.
They left the island moments before the first military planes were on the scene and were back in New York in no time.
Since then, Gentle Water had spoken with her about the prophecy, almost insisting that Amanda try to cross into the Abyss, but Amanda felt tired and apologised to Gentle Water, saying she would speak to him soon, but that she just needed some time to herself.
Today, after a fitful night’s rest, Maria had come over. Other than a few pleasantries they hardly spoke before getting a drink and sitting in the living room. Amanda felt no pressure from Maria. She seemed to know that Amanda needed to think. Questions and fuss could wait.
They’d sat for over an hour now as Amanda thought about what Mr Black had said about her mother, Sofia and how she had been working in a manner very similar to what Amanda had done on the streets of New York a couple of years ago. She wondered why Sofia had abandoned her at that orphanage, what reason would she have to do that? It sounded like she would have been a single mother. Mr Black, at least at the time, had no interest in her upbringing, and who knew what other pressures she would have had.
Could she have been a Magi as wel
l? She didn’t have much to go on other than a name, Sofia, and a report written online by someone going by the name of Edge.
She would have to do some digging.
She also knew she would have to spend some time with Gentle Water soon and test out if what this Prophecy said about her was true or not.
Glancing at the table, lying next to a crumb-covered plate that she’d eaten a slice of baked Vanilla cheesecake off of, she noticed the leaflet she’d placed there that she’d fished out of the usual junk mail. It seemed to be an announcement of the reopening of the Pit Club.
It was under new management, apparently. As Lucian’s former home, she felt unsure about this and vowed to pay the club a visit soon.
But not right now. For now, she just wanted to enjoy the quiet and the presence of someone who cared for her. She would return to the chaos of the Magi world soon enough.
MAGI EDGE
The Magi Saga
Book 4
Prologue
Minsk, Belarus
The air whipped by as Liz dropped the forty feet from the rooftop. Her hair flew out behind her in golden waves as she left her stomach behind. With a sickening crack, she landed on the shoulders of one of the German gunrunners who had scattered to the winds at the start of their attack. He dropped to the ground and went limp. A quick glance confirmed he still lived but was suffering from several broken bones.
Gunfire peppered the ground around her and ricocheted off of her Aegis with pops and whines. Liz ducked behind a nearby truck. She looked up and watched Rebecca move around one of the Russian vehicles opposite her in a smooth crouched hustle. Rebecca held her enchanted MP5 9mm submachine gun with silencer up and ready. Rounding the van, Rebecca let off a controlled three-round burst at the first man she saw, two to the chest and one to the head, dropping him.
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