For a moment, Amanda stood in a kind of shock and had to actually stifle a snicker. She’d met Vampires before, hell, her daughter was one, but whenever they acted like they usually did in the movies, part of her couldn’t help but find it mildly amusing. In truth, it was both comical and quite unnerving at the same time, and it didn’t happen often. To the best of her knowledge, Maya had never hissed at anyone.
“Well, hello to you, too,” Amanda said.
“Get away. Don’t come any closer, I’ll kill him,” the Vampire threatened.
“Is that right,” Amanda said, not feeling very charitable towards the Scion.
“I’m warning you,” the Vampire said.
“Oh, well, if you’re warning me, then I’d better take notice, right?”
“What? Who the hell do you think you are?”
“I’m the one who’s going to stop this madness,” she replied, and took a step towards the woman, drawing up towards the doorway into their room.
“One more step,” the Vampire warned her.
Amanda took another, slow step forward, noticing the worried look on the man’s face. “And you’ll what?”
The Vampire tensed, but never managed to do whatever it had planned to, as Amanda Ported the man into a nearby alleyway.
“Arrgh, damn you,” the Vampire cursed, giving Amanda an accusing stare. “Magussss,” she hissed and charged at Amanda.
With her claws out wide and her teeth bared, the Vampire charged. Amanda sent a wave of Kinetic energy sideways into the Vampire, knocking her into the wall. She grunted with pain and hissed again.
“Ah, ah, ah, we’ll have less of that,” Amanda scolded and brought more Essentia to bear. A bright bolt of lightning whipped out of her hand and smashed into the Vampire with an almighty bang. The flare of light faded and the dim room came back into view. The Vampire lay slumped against the wall, her skin blackened and crispy from the powerful bolt of lightning.
Amanda could see right away that she was dead. Properly dead this time, not just undead.
Moments later, she heard a few bangs and noises of movement coming from below her.
~Everything okay down there?~ Amanda sent to Stephen through their Link.
~Yes, indeed,~ Stephen answered. ~The noise you made brought them out of hiding, I’ve dealt with them now, though.~
~Excellent. I have a few more rooms to check up here.~
~Same for me. Meet you back at the door shortly,~ Stephen replied.
~Will do,~ Amanda answered as she stepped out of the room and looked down the corridor. Without warning, a furry-looking humanoid fell into the hallway covered in deep, painful-looking wounds that oozed blood. The figure didn’t move, but more sounds were coming from ahead—crashes, bangs, yells, and footsteps—all the distinctive sounds of a fight.
Amanda strode up the hall, checking the side rooms on the way but saw nothing else before she reached the body. She looked right into the room the now-dead Werewolf had come from.
Inside, a slim woman with very short-cropped blonde hair wearing dark, strange-looking clothing lifted a large, powerful Werewolf off the floor by his neck and slammed him into the wall. Essentia flared from the woman, and the Werewolf’s head was suddenly crushed into a small, bloody mess.
The blonde let go of the Scion’s neck and stepped back, letting the body crumple to the floor.
Amanda recognised her. She’d seen her before, but it took her a moment to place the face. The young lady looked up at Amanda, but her expression was blank.
Suddenly it clicked. She was in Constantinople and had appeared when Amanda had been fighting Horlack.
“Crystal?” Amanda asked, feeling sure she’d heard the man she’d fought refer to her by that name.
“Amanda. The confidant of Weavers,” Crystal answered in greeting.
Surprised, Amanda raised her eyebrows at the comment. Was she under surveillance again? she wondered.
“So, what’s a Sentinel doing here?” Amanda asked. Two could play that game, she thought.
Crystal smiled. “Touché. I see you’ve been doing some research of your own.”
“Constantinople wasn’t the first time I’d encountered your kind,” Amanda said, feeling wary of this clearly powerful Magus.
“Was it not? Hmm. Well, if you know who we are, you might know why I’m here, so, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.”
“I hear rumours of your mission,” Amanda commented. “And, given the circumstances, I suppose it’s understandable.”
Crystal sighed. “All this double talk and skirting around the issue is tiresome. While I did not like that you killed Ariston, I understand he brought that on himself. He was brash and attacked you without provocation. He deserved what he got. I also, personally, appreciate the work you have done over the years. Your goal of protecting humanity aligns with our mission quite well, and I’m not in the habit of killing people who help us complete our task.”
“Thank you,” Amanda said, feeling a little more relaxed by her words.
“However, we’re not your friends, and we’re watching you,” Crystal added, the warning clear in her tone.
“I’d expect nothing less,” Amanda replied.
Crystal nodded, and Ported away, leaving Amanda alone again.
~Everything calm up there?~ Stephen asked through their Link.
~Everything’s fine,~ Amanda smiled to herself.
1302 AD – Near Earth Orbit
“Kade is a Nomad,” Cyrac answered. “He’s part of the Corpus Nomadica, the largest group of Nomads that serve the Crux. We’ve had a long-running rivalry, and he usually does whatever he can to annoy and infuriate me, and disrupt whatever mission or plan we’re embarking on. I’m sure he’d quite like to kill me, as well.”
“Sounds like some Nomads I know,” Amanda sympathised.
“I’m sure we all know Nomads like that,” Israel joined in. “So, what do you think?”
“Of what? All this?”
Israel nodded.
“It’s amazing,” Amanda exclaimed. “I knew that the Magi had explored space, at least, a bit anyway, but I had no idea the extent of it. It’s awesome.”
Tinder Box
1666 AD
Amanda stepped out of her Null Realm and appeared in the entrance lobby of the Legacy House in Paris. Hearing the sound of talking nearby, she walked through to the front room where she found the entire Legacy Coven, including Israel and Aaron.
With them was Godfrey Belrose, a former knight of the Crusades, the alchemist Niccolò, and his partner Romany Grey. The final person in the room was the huge Gargoyle Scion, Balor. He stood in the corner and smiled at Amanda as she walked in. He’d finally appeared on the doorstep of the Legacy House two hundred years ago, wanting to reconnect with Amanda and join Legacy. Amanda made sure he was welcomed with open arms. Since then, he’d become a valuable coven member. Everyone here knew Amanda’s full history, including the time travel. The Legacy was set up to help her, after all, and membership of the group was not an easy thing to attain. Ultimately, Israel gave Amanda the final say on whether someone was allowed to join or not.
There had been some concern over Balor, with him being a Scion, but Amanda was quick to remind them of her daughter, Maya, and asked them to trust him as they did her, which they did.
Maya was a member of the Legacy as well, although she didn’t take much of an active role in the coven. She preferred to live the high life in the royal courts of France, as well as being a part of the Vampire Community, which remained separate from Magi society.
“Good evening, what’s the craic?” she asked, curious to know why they’d called on her so close to midnight. They were used to most of her Irish slang by now, even though her accent had mellowed over the centuries as she’d travelled around the globe and beyond.
“Amanda, thanks for coming,” Israel greeted her. “Sorry to disturb you.”
“Ah, it’s no bother, really. What’s up?”
“W
e’ve just heard from the Albion,” Israel answered, referring to the English coven led by Trevelyan. While they might be friends in the modern-day, she had yet to meet him since time travelling. “Some of their members were ambushed and kidnapped by Yasmin and her Black Knights Coven. They have no idea where they are and have asked for our help.”
“I hope you said yes,” Amanda said, feeling a little cold. She adjusted the temperature of the air close to her and took a step towards the open fire in the nearby fireplace.
“Of course,” Israel said, “but we’re unsure where to start looking. Do you have any insight?”
“Insight? Hmm, I’m not sure. So were the Magi kidnapped in England?”
“That’s right, London,” Aaron answered her. “You know Yasmin better than anyone, do you think she would stay in the city?”
Amanda nodded, agreeing that she probably did know Yasmin better than they did, although, that wasn’t saying much. Yasmin didn’t seem to let anyone get very close to her, and she doubted that many of the members of her own coven, the Black Knights, really knew Yasmin very well, either.
“Umm,” Amanda said, looking away from the other Magi as she tried to think where Yasmin might go. London did seem to be the obvious place, she thought as she looked into the fireplace. Given her unique position of being someone who had travelled back in time, she had knowledge and experience that the others in this room didn’t have. “I’m not sure.”
“You’re from the future, is there anything that happens in 1666 that might hold a clue?”
“1666,” Amanda mused. What happened in 1666 in England? She thought back to her history lessons in school and tried to think of the year as she picked up a poker from beside the fireplace and prodded at the logs.
There was something about that date, something that played at the edges of her thoughts as she tried to recollect something that might help them.
She felt sure something had happened in 1666, something important, something… As she stared into the fire, deep in thought, one of the logs cracked, popped, and fell off the woodpile. Amanda nudged it back in before it could start a fire, and suddenly she remembered.
The Great Fire of London. That had happened in 1666.
“No,” she whispered to herself. “That couldn’t have been caused by… Could it?”
“Who could have caused what?” Israel asked.
A small part of her just couldn’t believe it, but a much larger part felt very differently. It just felt right for some reason. She tried to recall some of the details of the fire. She remembered it started in a bakery, but where? She screwed up her face in concentration as she tried to recall the details. And then it came to her. Pudding Lane. The fire had started in Pudding Lane.
“I know where she is,” Amanda stated, convinced that this was right.
“You do?” Israel asked.
“Are you sure?” Aaron said.
“Pretty sure,” she said, feeling confident, but still with a healthy level of scepticism about the whole thing.
“How come?”
Amanda sighed. “I can’t say, but if this night goes the way I think it will, then…”
“Then what?”
“Then it will be remembered for a long time to come. Right, we need to move. I’m going to Port over to London, who’s coming?”
Everyone stood up or stepped forward, their faces set with determination.
Amanda nodded and smiled. “Okay then.” Concentrating, she worked her Magic and sent her senses over to London, where they appeared in one of the many thin, winding cobbled streets. Quickly, she reached into the mind of the nearest person she could find and hunted to see if the man knew where Pudding Lane was.
He didn’t, so Amanda moved on, jumping from person to person, running a quick hunt through each mind, looking for the knowledge she needed. It took her several attempts to find someone, but eventually, she did. The location of the infamous street blossomed within her mind as she drew those thoughts from a woman.
With that knowledge set in her head, Amanda shifted her senses and moved them east to Pudding Lane.
Like the previous streets she’d seen, this one was covered with cobbles and flagstones, and was barely wide enough for a single cart. Above her, the five, six, and seven-story tenements encroached onto the street as each level above the first jutted out further and further until, in places, the top floors nearly touched.
Now that she looked, it was painfully obvious to her how much of a fire hazard these wooden buildings were. Amanda moved her senses around, looking at the street with her Aetheric senses, searching for any hint of Yasmin. Within moments she’d spotted the infamous bakery of Thomas Farriner, the place that was widely accepted as the origin of the fire.
Amanda swung her senses around, hunting for something, anything that might give Yasmin away. There was nothing obvious, but she kept hunting. Looking up at the top story of a building on the opposite side of the street to the bakery, Amanda noticed something was a little off. There was a distinct lack of Essentia around that top floor. It was subtle and well hidden, easily missed by someone searching the whole city. She only caught it because she was so close. Shifting her senses up through the air, it grew clearer as she got closer. The entire top floor of the building was surrounded by an Aegis. It wasn’t terribly powerful, but it didn’t need to be. Instead, it was subtle and skilfully woven, designed only to hide the Magic happening within from casual viewing.
As she examined the Aegis, she realised she recognised the signature of the Magic.
It was Yasmin.
“Got them,” she said, opening her eyes again in the Paris mansion.
“You found them?” Israel asked.
“I’m as sure as I can be without breaking down the Aegis I’m looking at, but I’d prefer for us to be in position before we do that. Are we ready?”
“Absolutely,” Balor replied.
“Indeed,” Israel added.
“We’re Porting to a rooftop, be ready,” Amanda said and worked her Magic, bolstering her Aegis and Multitasking her mind before reaching out to Port the group.
They appeared on the rooftop of an adjacent building. She dropped slightly onto the sloping roof, but landed easily, as did the others.
If she were right, Yasmin would likely have detected that, which meant there was little time to mess around with any half measures. Amanda set all her many Multitasking minds to the single purpose of destroying the Aegis before her, bombarding it with Essentia. The other Magi joined her, throwing a withering attack at the protective Aegis. It fell within moments. Reaching out again, Amanda blasted a hole in the roof, collapsing a whole section of it to reveal the interior beneath.
Amanda stepped forward and dropped inside, followed swiftly by the other members of the Legacy. The entire top floor of the building had been knocked through into a single open-plan space. Stairs led down off to her left, and dirty windows showed the street outside.
Yasmin stood at the far end of the room, looking at Amanda with one eyebrow raised. Around the room stood several other Magi and Scions, most of whom Amanda had never seen before.
“Really, Amanda, your timing is terrible as always,” Yasmin said. She stood beside a circle that had been drawn on the floor in blood. Knelt within the circle were several Magi, probably waiting to be sacrificed
“Oh, I disagree. Looks to me like I arrived at just the right time,” Amanda said. “Again,” she added with a knowing look.
Yasmin rolled her eyes. “Oh, dear God, am I going to have to listen to you harping on about that every time we meet?”
“No,” Amanda said lightly.
“What is this?” said a huge, demonic-looking man with dark red skin, huge bat-like wings, and wicked-looking horns jutting from his forehead. “Are we going to allow these Arcadians to disrupt our ceremony?”
“Hey, quiet down over there,” Amanda said to the hulking Scion. “The grown-ups are talking.”
The creature turned to her and took a
step forward. “Mock me at your peril, Witch,” he rumbled. “I am Ba’al Moloch, and you would do well not to anger me.”
“Do you want to have a word?” Amanda said to Yasmin, jabbing her thumb at the Scion.
Yasmin looked at her for a moment, before finally speaking. “Kill them,” she said and started to move away from the summoning circle, apparently giving up on it.
The Scion, Ba’al roared and was suddenly engulfed in a flame of his own creation. He really was embodying this whole Demon thing.
“Figures,” Amanda said to herself. So, this was how the Fire of London was started, by a Scion who could set himself on fire.
Ba’al took several steps towards her before leaping, but he was caught in mid-air by Balor who slammed into him and knocked him to the floor. Chaos erupted. The Nomads in the room attacked Amanda and her friends, throwing Essentia, lightning, and fire around the room. Anything big and heavy that they could move with their minds was also fair game.
Essentia smashed into her Aegis from her right, but Amanda only had eyes for Yasmin, and strode across the room, looking for her. Yasmin was talking to another Nomad, a woman in dark, slightly worn-looking robes with a hood. Amanda concentrated and Ported across the room.
“Hi,” she said, appearing close to Yasmin, before grabbing her by the throat and slamming her up against the wall. “What the feck are you doing?”
“Amanda, why, it’s lovely to see you,” she replied as their two Aegises sparked and popped where they touched.
“Shut up.”
“My Baal? Should I…?” the robed Magus next to Amanda asked. She was a strange woman, Amanda noticed, with an odd-shaped face that looked both deformed, and yet, oddly attractive, like a doll.
“Try it,” Amanda warned her.
“No, Kez, there’s no need. Amanda won’t hurt me, will you?” Yasmin taunted.
“I won’t kill you,” Amanda clarified.
“Close enough,” Yasmin shrugged as the fight continued behind them. “And as for what I’m doing here, well, nothing that really concerns you, but it’s quite normal behaviour for an up and coming Nomad like me.”
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