Magi Legend

by Andrew Dobell

  “No need, I’m here,” Amanda said.

  “You gonna come quietly now, missy?” Forrest said.

  “Maybe, but, what if I refuse to come at all?” Amanda asked.

  “Well, we do have some insurance, just in case of that eventuality.”

  “Oh, really? You care to elaborate, or is that an empty threat?” Amanda asked.

  Forrest smiled at her, pulled his smartphone from his pocket and started tapping it, taking his time and making her wait. After apparently finding what he wanted, he held the screen up towards her from where he stood at the bottom of her stoop.

  Amanda frowned at the screen, finding it tough to see what was happening in the sunlight, but a video was playing on the screen, and as she watched, she suddenly recognised the man who was tied to a chair. It was Howie, and he carried a few cuts and bruises on his face.

  “Like I said, insurance,” he said quietly, as anger and frustration bubbled up inside of Amanda.

  “If you hurt him at all…” Amanda started to say.

  “You’ll do what?”

  Amanda didn’t have an answer to that and merely frowned back at him.

  “I thought so. Now, are you going to come quietly?”

  “We’re coming, too,” Gentle Water said.

  Amanda looked behind her, seeing Gentle Water and Liz stepping out onto the top of the stoop, their hands up.

  “No, you don’t need them, it’s just me you want,” Amanda said quickly, approaching Forest with her wrists held out to him.

  “I’ll be the judge of that,” Forrest replied and beckoned over a team of men holding guns. They looked like Feds but with Amanda’s Magical sight she spotted a few Magical items on them, meaning they were likely Initiated from the Legion Coven.

  “It’s okay, Amanda, we do this together,” Gentle Water said.

  “Liz?” Amanda asked.

  “I’m fine, you’re not doing this alone, Mandy,” Liz said. “I mean, come on, what’s the worst that can happen?”

  “Drop your shields,” Forrest ordered.

  Amanda looked over at him, but knew she had little choice, and complied with his request, with Gentle Water and Liz following suit.

  The Initiated ran up to them and quickly started to cuff their hands.

  “Okay, let’s load them up,” Forrest said and led them to a nearby Federal van where they were hustled aboard.

  Looking back, Amanda caught a glimpse of armed men moving up the steps and into her house. She wondered if they’d grab Shaun and Vanessa too as the doors slammed shut blocking her view.

  As the van started to move, Forrest used his Magic and Ported the group, leaving the van empty a moment later.

  - The Arkady, Aetheric Craft, in Geosynchronous Medium Earth Orbit.

  Maya lowered herself onto the soft cushioned seat and looked over at the woman sitting opposite. The woman sat back, relaxed with Samhain’s huge furry head on her lap. She petted the huge Sabre-toothed cat, scratching behind his ears.

  “I take it this isn’t a social call,” the woman said.

  “Amanda has been taken into custody by the Legion,” Maya explained.

  “I know. Don’t worry, everything is in hand, so it is,” she said.

  Hostage

  Amarillo, Texas

  Amanda stood in a small room about four meters square with a rough concrete floor and walls. She still had her hands tied behind her back and stood opposite Forrest, who regarded her with a loathsome stare. Three Riven stood behind Forest, massive arms crossed over their muscled chests.

  She and her friends had been Ported into a nearby room before being frog-marched out, along a dirty corridor, and separated into their own rooms. She’d already heard the occasional yelp from Liz and was worried for her friends’ safety. They shouldn’t have come. This wasn’t their fight.

  “Not so high and mighty now, are we, missy?”

  “What are you doing, Forrest?” Amanda asked him.

  He smiled at her. “I’m going to ruin you. You’re going to rue the day you came to the great US of A. And don’t you think of trying anything, and I mean, any-thing.” He drew out that last word to add emphasis.

  “Just remember…” he said as he walked over to an old TV set mounted high up on the wall and pressed a button making its screen flicker into life. “…you or your friends try anything, and this fucker right here, will suffer for it. You got that, missy?”

  Amanda felt the rage boiling up inside of her as she saw the true face of this bigoted idiot for the first time. She’d been fooled by him at the Council meeting where he’d actually been quite friendly, but she now realised that was little more than an act to sucker her in.

  As she watched the screen one of the captors in the video held up a copy of today’s New York Times with the date clearly visible on it, and then their watch, which showed the video had been filmed about half an hour ago.

  Amanda nodded. She wasn’t sure if there was much she could really do, anyway. Forrest was a powerful Magus, a Master, as far as she knew, and any Magic she used ran the risk of being detected. Plus, there was an Aegis around this room, which she would need to breach and that would be easily detected. Howie could literally be anywhere in the world. It made sense that he would be local, but truly, he could be anywhere.

  She didn’t like the look of this room or her predicament, but she still hoped that she was doing the right thing and that sooner or later Forrest would take her before the Council and plead his case. She would, of course, give her version of events and would hope the Council sided with her. In the meantime, she consoled herself that she’d at least done the right.

  The desire to break her bonds and kick the living crap out of these idiots was strong, but that wouldn’t help her case. Besides, she kind of wanted to see how this played out. She wanted to see what Forrest knew and how he would try to discredit her. She just needed to hold out for long enough.

  “Okay, strip her down,” he ordered his men.

  Amanda raised her eyebrows a touch, but honestly wasn’t all that surprised. As she watched, the two closest men pulled out knives And went to work cutting away her clothes. Pushing her into a chair they left her in only her knickers.

  She looked up at Forrest with a sneer. “Enjoying the view?” she asked.

  “Mmmm. Nothing I ain’t seen before, if you get my drift,” he taunted her.

  Amanda narrowed her eyes, but inside she felt sick. The implication was clear enough. He had evidence of her afternoon with Yasmin. She supposed he could mean something else, something less damning, but she felt that was unlikely. Everything he’d said and the timing of the raid on her house, gave her the impression he knew what she’d done.

  “Tie her up,” he said and watched as the two men who had stripped her secured her ankles to the legs of the chair with cable ties. Her hands were still cuffed behind her back.

  “What are you doing, Forrest? Why don’t you just take me before the Council if you have such damning evidence of what you think I’ve been doing?”

  “All in good time. The evidence I have is enough to get you branded a Nomad, that’s for sure, but I want more than that, and you’re going to give it to me.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yes, really,” he said. As she watched, a flicker of Magic bloomed from his mind. Suddenly, Amanda heard the sounds of a struggle coming from another room, followed by what sounded like a punch hitting home, then a short, sharp scream from Liz.

  Then she heard it again, and again. Each time she flinched. The sound of Liz being hurt like that clawed at the inside of her mind like nails on a chalkboard. Liz didn’t deserve to be treated like this, she’d done nothing wrong. With the sound of each punch, she hated this man more and more. She wanted to kill this monster right now.

  “Goddammit, stop it, what do you want to know?”

  The yelps from Liz stopped as Forrest leant in. “We know you’ve had dealings with undesirables. We know you’ve met and fraternised with Nom
ads. So admit it, you’re a traitor, aren’t you? You’re working with Yasmin and the Nomads. You’re working against the Council and the American Council specifically.”

  “Absolutely not,” she said.

  “But you have met with Yasmin and been intimate with her, isn’t that right?”

  “Prove it,” Amanda said.

  Forrest reached into his inside pocket and pulled out a glossy sheet of photo paper with an image printed on it. He held it up for her to see. There she was, on the hotel bed, naked and on all fours, her tattooed back on display with Yasmin’s face buried in her crotch. The photo was shot through the window, no doubt by one of the Legion’s Magi. There were probably a lot more images from where that one had come from.

  She felt herself flush with embarrassment, her cheeks and chest turning crimson as she scowled up at Forrest.

  “Now, after seeing this, and what you’re willing to do with a Nomad like Yasmin, it makes me ask questions. It makes me wonder, just what else you’ve done with her. Sure, this is a bit of fun you’ve had, but how deep does it go? How compromised are you? Because seeing this makes me worry about my safety, frankly.”

  “It goes no deeper. It was a mistake. I was manipulated.”

  “I just don’t believe you, though, Amanda.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to because there’s nothing more to tell,” she said.

  “I need to be sure of that,” he said smiling and punched her in the face. The force of the attack made her head spin and nearly tipped her chair over.

  Amanda gave her head a quick shake and turned back to face Forrest, only for him to hit her again. Blinking away the pain, she spat some blood onto the floor before looking back up at him.

  Forrest removed his coat. “I’m in no rush We can go at this all day. We have plenty of time,” he said as she heard more yells, grunts, and screams from her friends in the adjacent cells.

  - Leonardo Da Vinci Airport, Rome.

  Mary walked up the ramp of the massive cargo plane, one of several owned by the Disciples.

  Her handpicked team of Crusader Knights, along with Assunta, sat inside and watched as she walked in.

  “This will be a momentous day for God’s Chosen few. You all know what we’re going to do, and the potential sacrifice you might make.”

  “Yes, Inquisitor,” they all said in unison.

  “Good, then let’s go,” Mary said, a hungry smile on her face.

  Interrogation

  Somewhere in Texas

  “Oooh eee, lookit you, darlin. Now ain’t you a sight for sore eyes?”

  Amanda looked up at the owner of the strong Texas drawl. Forrest had left the room some time ago leaving her to listen to the sounds of her two coven mates being beaten up and questioned. But the noises from Liz’s cell had stopped and after the sound of a door opening and closing, this mulleted red neck Magus with missing teeth had come into her room.

  “Ya know, I’ve been working that little peach next door like you wouldn’t believe! She’s so purdy, you know, with them little titties of hers. Mmm mm, yes sir-ee. I sure do wanna dip my wand into that little honey pot. But you, you are somethin’ else, girl.”

  He walked up to her, the smell of chewing tobacco filling her nose as he got close and ran his rough fingers down the side of her cheek before grabbing her jaw.

  “You got that there damsel in distress look goin’ on with the mascara and shit running down those cheeks o’ yours. And just look at those titties! Wow wee. I ain’t seen titties that big in a long time. You know what I’m saying, boys?” he said to the other three men in the room.

  “They are mighty fine, boss,” one of them agreed.

  The Magus smiled down at her. He reached down with his free hand and started to paw at her breasts, kneading them with his fingers.

  “I do like a nice natural titty, feels good in the hand, ya know? Don’t you agree, dyke?”

  He addressed her, but Amanda chose to remain stoic. He could touch her as much as he liked, she didn’t care, it meant nothing, and she would make sure he got his just desserts in due course. She would be sure to remember his face.

  The man stood up, letting go of her as he moved.

  “They feel good, Waylon, sir?” said one of the guards.

  “Shut your mouth you fuckin’ idiot,” he said and punctuated his sentence with a backhanded hit across Amanda’s face.

  She looked back up at Waylon. With gritted teeth, she did her best to remain calm and resist the urge to escape and break his face. The image of Howie on the television just behind him sobered her up more than anything else could ever do.

  The sound of the door being unlocked made Amanda look over. Swinging open the door, Forrest stepped back into the room again and looked down at her.

  “Welcome to the party,” Amanda said through blood-stained lips.

  Forrest regarded her with contempt, before looking back up at Waylon. “Any luck at all?”

  “Naw, she’s a tough one, I’ll give her that,” Waylon replied.

  “Go and give Liz another working over, I’m gonna try something else,” he said and watched Waylon walk out the room, locking the door behind him.

  With Waylon gone, Forrest turned back to Amanda and put his hands in his pockets. He waited there for a little while. After a few seconds, Amanda looked up at him. She was tired and in pain and just wanted this to stop, but wasn’t sure how she could do it and not put Howie’s life in danger. She thought she’d chosen to do the right thing by turning herself in. But she wasn’t one hundred percent sure that Forrest was ever going to take her before the Council. The way she and her friends were being treated suggested that they’d never intended to do this by the book.

  He might still do the right thing, but this kind of torture was not what she had thought would happen. She felt terrible for Liz and Gentle Water, who had chosen to come with her and were no doubt suffering as much, if not more, than she was.

  The Legion had been clever kidnapping Howie and using him as leverage to keep her in line. With everything that had happened recently, she just didn’t want to risk putting any other innocents in harm’s way, least of all Howie. So, the only thing she could do was sit here, weather the storm, and hope that an opportunity would present itself.

  “We tried to do things the easy way,” Forrest began. “But your continued resistance to admitting your guilt means I need to take things into my own hands,” he said as Magic flowed from his mind into hers.

  She felt the intrusion right away, as Forrest pushed into her memories. He wasn’t being subtle about it, either. The pain that flared up in her brain was intense. It felt like the sudden blossoming of a powerful migraine right at the front of her head that started to grow and push into her skull. She sat back in her chair and gritted her teeth trying to resist him. Pushing him back and away, she appeared to be having a greater level of success than she’d thought she might.

  “Ugh, stop resisting. This will go much smoother if you just let me look for what I want.”

  But Amanda was of a different opinion and knew only too well the damage Forest could do if he were left to rummage through her mind unchecked.

  As she resisted another stab of his Magic trying to enter her mind, there came a sudden and sharp banging on the door.

  With a curse, Forrest withdrew and opened the door. Someone leant close to him and whispered. “We have a problem.”

  Despite the visitor’s best attempts to speak quietly, she could hear him quite easily with her powerful hearing.

  “What is it?” Forrest asked.

  “He’s been taken.”

  “Who has?” Forrest asked, the impatience in his voice growing.

  “The hostage. Howard. He’s gone. Ported out by someone, no idea who, but they were powerful.”

  “What?” Forrest barked, anger turning his face red.

  The moment she heard Howie’s name, she took immediate advantage of Forrest’s distraction and pulled in the Essentia she neede
d. She’d had enough of these barbaric methods of torture masquerading as legitimate interrogations. To her mind, Forrest had gone too far and lost all legitimacy as an agent of the Council. Whether he had really planned to take her before the Council or not was irrelevant now, he’d overstepped and Amanda had had enough.

  She immediately started to Multitask, splitting her mind into several parts and setting them to work. She weakened her bonds and started to build up her Aegis as quickly as she could.

  Sensing the Magic, Forrest turned, a look of horror on his face.

  Her face angled down, Amanda merely smiled at him. “My turn.”

  That’s when the back wall of the cell block suddenly ripped itself free in a show of intense Magical power. Sunlight flooded in nearly blinding those inside, as the room’s Aegis shattered.

  There’d been no indication of Magical use outside of what Amanda was doing until the wall moved, but now the signatures of several powerful Magi were as clear as day to any Magus close by.

  Amanda stood and conjured a pair of jeans, sneakers and a white vest top on her body. Covered up, she turned to look at the hole where the wall used to be. The guards in the room had cowered away from the destruction at the rear of the cell, but everyone looked on in awe as eight Magi and Scions approached from outside.

  Amanda recognised most of them right away, with the familiar form of Trevelyan leading the way, striding towards Amanda and Forrest. Behind him, Israel Roth, Stephan Bathory, and Count Saint-Germain from the Council floated down from the air to follow Trevelyan in. A white-haired woman Amanda felt she had seen before, but couldn’t name was with them, as was Yoh, Maya, and Maria.

  Yoh, Maya, and Israel moved out of sight for a moment, gathering up Liz and Gentle Water, while Trevelyan, Stephen, Saint-Germain, and the white-haired woman walked into Amanda’s cell.

  Trevelyan winked at Amanda as he walked past her towards Forrest, who was both flustered and furious, but was clearly trying to keep himself calm and collected.