Magi Legend

by Andrew Dobell

  “You’re going to take the initiative, then?” Raven asked.

  “You’re damn right I am, but I don’t want to think about that too much today. Today is about celebrating the successful completion of our mission.”

  They all raised their glasses and toasted their success.

  In some way, it was kind of bittersweet that it was all finally coming to an end. As much as there had been a significant risk that things might have gone wrong these past few years, all this cloak and dagger work had been fun. She’d miss knowing what was going to happen, and she wasn’t looking forward to seeing what Yasmin would do once she was aware of the situation, but she still had time. She’d been careful to make sure that Yasmin didn’t know the exact date that she travelled back in time, and she certainly wouldn’t be the one to come out and tell her. But there were things she needed to do, some of them might be fairly public things, and when she finally did take the initiative in the fight against Yasmin, it would quickly become abundantly clear that the gloves were off.

  Eventually, her friends left the Arkady, but Amanda asked Trevelyan to stay behind. They’d been here for a while, chatting, drinking, enjoying each other’s company, and it was well into the following day on the Earth below, the terminator between night and day having long since passed by.

  “You wanted to speak to me?” Trevelyan asked as he walked over.

  “I did. Thank you for yesterday, I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  “It’s what friends are for? Although having the Weaver show up and scare Forrest Ward like that was a stroke of genius.”

  “I wish I knew that was going to happen, but the Weaver keeps his own counsel on when he shows up.”

  “Of course he does.”

  So I’m afraid I have another favour to ask of you. One last task to end this.”

  “Of course, you need only ask,” he replied with a warm smile.

  “The Inquisition is on the atoll at the Time Device, you need to ask Amanda and Yoh to go there and stop them. Feel free to embellish it however you like and make it seem like this came from you, of course, but this will be the catalyst that triggers the Weaver to step in.”

  “Then consider it done.”

  “Thank you, Trevelyan. You’ve been amazing, so you have.”

  “Always a pleasure,” he said, smiling at her, before Porting away from the ship.

  Amanda sighed. That was it. It was over, there was nothing more she could do. She walked out onto the rear exterior deck and leaned against the handrail, looking down at the Earth far below. Reaching out with her will, she adjusted the course of the ship, getting it to turn about and head west towards the atoll. She wanted to see the exact moment when the Weaver took her away, and besides, Yoh would likely need a little help getting off the island.

  1519 AD – Canis, Moon of Sirius Alpha

  “The first recruits,” Astrid said.

  Amanda smiled as she looked down at the small group of men and women standing in formation below. They were positively dwarfed by the huge hanger that surrounded them, but they had to start somewhere.

  General Malax stood before them, no longer looking like the scruffy drunk they had found in a bar on Sirius Alpha.

  “Hopefully, the first of many for you,” Amanda replied.

  “I have full confidence in you,” Rane added from the other side of Astrid.

  “Me, too,” Amanda agreed. “Those Nomads won’t know what’s hit them.”

  Everything’s Cyclical

  The Atoll

  Floating a few thousand feet above the atoll, Amanda used her keen vision and a little Magic to zoom in and watch the events on the beach.

  She’d been here before, not too long ago, to watch the strange bolt of energy that had marked her with her curious tattoo. She left the scene none-the-wiser for seeing it, though. She still had no idea what it had been or where it had come from.

  The island had settled into its new formation following the nuclear blast that had happened there, with the central island, surrounded by a ring of tiny islands that formed the edge of the crater. The sea within the ring was a luscious aqua blue and sea life was slowly returning to it. Her younger-self and the Legacy had been careful to remove all radioactive fallout that had resulted from the explosion.

  As she watched, there was a brief flare of Essentia as her younger-self and Yoh appeared on the beach. They started to run towards the source of the Temporal Magic that was coming from the Time Device, only for her younger-self to suddenly disappear as the Weaver took her.

  Yoh skidded to a stop and looked around, confused as to where she’d gone. Amanda smiled, finding his confusion somewhat sweet, but she didn’t want to leave him hanging there for too long.

  With little more than a thought, Amanda brought the Arkady around and down, through the thin cloud cover to the island. She cancelled the stealth Magic that hid the ship, Ported herself onto the bow and looked down.

  After another moment or two, Yoh looked up and saw the ship floating down out of the sky. His Aegis flared as he pumped Essentia into it until he saw her standing on the front of the ship.

  His face was something of a picture, and she couldn’t help smiling at the look of shock that crossed his features. With a quick working, she sent a Link Pulse through to his mind, which he opened quickly.

  “Amanda? Is that you?”

  “Hey. What’s the craic?”

  “But, what is this? Where did you go to? You’ve changed your clothes… …and this ship…?”

  “Okay, hold your horses. I’ll explain everything, but I have something to do first,” she said as the Arkady slowly dropped into the water, it’s body shifting and transforming to look more like a nautical vessel as Amanda Ported from the ship to the beach, appearing beside Yoh.

  “The Inquisitors?” Yoh asked. “What do we do about them?”

  “I’ll deal with them, you wait here, please,” she said with a smile.

  “Oh, okay. If you say so.”

  Amanda winked at him, and with a brief working of Magic, floated up into the sky and over the trees towards the massive rock in the centre of the island that housed the device. Already Multitasking her mind, Amanda sent a set of senses into the device to see the small group of Crusaders she’d defeated in 750AD stumble out of the Portal and into the room, looking a little worse for wear.

  Mary Damask was there, as well as four other Inquisitors, who were now attending to the four Crusaders who’d just returned from their failed mission. Only Mary and one of the other Inquisitors appeared to be Magi, and only Mary had any sort of noticeable power level.

  Amanda turned her attention to the Inquisitor team that sat or stood outside the device, waiting for orders or hoping to hear about the mission. They were all Initiated Riven, and apart from a few Magical weapons such as Essentia-charged swords, they were mostly mundane. Amanda sent out a low-level pulse of Magic designed to disrupt their neural activity and knock them out. She watched them all fall to the ground.

  The Time Device was hardened against this kind of Magic though, so she knew everyone inside of it would still be conscious.

  Imposing her will on the local Essentia again, she reached into the device with her Magic and took hold of the seven Riven, Porting them outside before knocking them unconscious as well, while she slowly floated down from the sky. While she was still a good ten feet off the ground, Mary ran outside, followed by the other female Magus. Mary came up short as she emerged and saw Amanda floating down amongst the sea of unconscious Crusaders and Inquisitors littered across the sand.

  “Amanda!” Mary growled.

  “Mary,” Amanda answered. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.”

  “You killed them all?” Mary accused her, looking at the unmoving bodies.

  “Not quite, they’re merely taking a little nap. If you’ll bear with me one moment though, I have something to attend to,” Amanda said, working her Magic and reaching out to the rock and Time Devic
e inside it. She conjured a small, but powerful gravity well inside the device. As she watched, the machine and the rock it was embedded in collapsed in on themselves with a deafening crack. For a moment, a huge ball of floating rock crunched and cracked, until she cancelled the effect and the debris fell to the floor in a pile of rubble.

  Amanda suddenly remembered the way the Inquisitor’s time bubble disappeared in a somewhat chaotic way back in 750AD after throwing them back through it. She guessed she knew why the bubble disappeared the way it had now.

  Mary and the other Magus watched in slack-jawed wonder as Amanda worked her Magic. With the Device destroyed, they turned back to Amanda with concern on their faces.

  “Don’t worry, I have no intention of hurting you, unless you insist, of course,” Amanda said.

  “What do you want, Witch?” Mary asked.

  “Witch? Well, I guess I am, I suppose.”

  “Don’t play games with me.”

  “Why not? It’s fun. You take everything so seriously.”

  “This is serious. You’re a threat, a danger to the flock, to God’s chosen.”

  “You know, I’m really not, but I’m getting a little bored of the semantics here. You’re like a stuck record, you know that?”

  “I’ll be the judge of who’s a threat or not. You have caused too much pain and suffering already with your antics. It falls to us to take you to task,” Mary snapped.

  “You know, I really think you have me mixed up with someone else because that doesn’t sound like me at all. But I really don’t want to stand here all day arguing with you about this stuff. I have other things I want to do, so, you’ll have to excuse me, but-” she said, and threw as much Essentia as she could at the Inquisitors. The second Inquisitor’s Shield fell quickly, but Mary’s resisted for a little longer. Knocking out the younger Magus, Amanda concentrated on Mary alone, who reached down to the body of the nearest Crusader and drew his sword before she charged Amanda.

  Adding a quick Kinetic strike to her attack, Amanda knocked Mary sprawling. She fell and rolled prone as Amanda threw more Essentia stikes at her. She watched as Mary’s Aegis faltered and finally collapsed.

  Reaching in with little in the way of resistance, she knocked Mary out as well.

  Fighting Inquisitors was always interesting. They seemed to dislike using their Magic and always seemed hamstrung by their belief that the Magic they were using was a miracle or a gift from God not to be squandered.

  She had, of course, stood against a few who were not quite like that and were freer with their use of Magic, but they weren’t common. Looking around at the unconscious bodies, it felt like they weren’t really prepared for this mission, or, at least, they weren’t prepared for an attack by a Magus. She wondered how things were for Mary at the moment, and how this mission fit into her world and the goals of the Disciples of the Cross.

  She made a mental note to look into things a little more and see what the situation was inside the Vatican.

  There was one more thing to do now that she’d ended the threat of a paradox. Reaching out, she started to Port the bodies of the Inquisitors to the other side of the world to a secluded beach she had picked out on the coast of Italy, not too far from Rome. They all appeared there safely and would soon wake up to find themselves close to home.

  It was the work of a few moments and was soon completed.

  Looking around at the now-empty ground, she smiled to herself.

  It was done.

  Over.

  Finished.

  The circle had been closed and from here on out, she no longer needed to worry about any paradoxes or messing up the timeline. She could also stop hiding from the Magi community and tell her friends the truth.

  It was like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She felt like jumping around or shouting in relief…

  In fact, fuck it, she thought and screamed at the top of her lungs. It was a whoop of joy, a yell of pure pleasure, and she couldn’t help the huge grin that spread across her face.

  Feeling lighter than air, she walked down to the beach, almost skipping with joy. She saw Yoh coming towards her.

  “Are you okay? I heard a yell.”

  She giggled. “To be sure, everything’s just grand my friend, just grand.”

  “Oh, well, good,” he said, giving her a curious look.

  “Are you okay?” Amanda asked.

  “Of course. It’s just that, you seem… different, somehow. I’m not sure how, but, yeah. I can’t put my finger on it. Has something happened? Where did you disappear to?”

  Amanda snickered. “Well, yes, I think I probably am a little different. Look, I have a lot to tell you. You and Liz, actually, but I can give you some basic details now.”

  “Oh, okay. But are you sure everything is okay, Amanda-san?”

  “For the first time in a long time, yes, everything is wonderful. Come on, walk with me, we’ll have a paddle,” Amanda suggested as she pulled off her sneakers and socks. Yoh followed suit, leaving his shoes with Amanda’s on a nearby rock as they walked arm in arm into the surf and started to wander slowly along the edge of the beach.

  “Now, some of what I’m about to tell you might seem a little incredible, but it’s the truth,” she said as they walked, the wind picking at her hair as the seawater lapped gently around her feet.

  Epilogue

  Where had Amanda gone? Liz thought as she wandered through the house. She’d been here a short time ago with Yoh, but now she was nowhere to be found.

  She wandered through to the back and into the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of water. She took a few sips, enjoying the cool life-giving liquid. She was aching a little from her ordeal with the Magi Legion. Something she was still reeling from. The idea that Arcadian Magi, people who should be on their side in the war against the Nomads, could do this to them still shocked her. She wondered if she needed a break from New York. She’d been thinking about visiting London sometime soon and visiting some of her old haunts. It had been a while.

  She finished her drink and went back through to the front hall. It was clear that she was home alone for the moment, so she figured she might as well relax for a bit in her room. As she neared the front door, a sudden bang sounded from it, as if it had been hit from the outside.

  She looked up, confused for a moment until she felt the energy from the Aegis that surrounded the house intrude on her senses. It was like it was flaring up or something. There was an intense pressure building up in the Aegis.

  Liz felt sure she knew what it was and pumped Essentia into her own personal Aegis as she backed off from the door, wondering what was about to make an entrance. Then the Aegis fell, shattering and disintegrating to nothing.

  The door smashed open with a force that took it off its hinges. Splinters flew as Liz raised an arm to protect herself.

  Outside, a dark figure stood in a long, hooded cape. She strode purposefully into the house, showing off bare legs covered in polished animal bones that had been wrapped around them. Once inside the door, the figure threw her cloak over her shoulders and pulled down the hood.

  The woman beneath was dark-skinned with dreadlocks, and a face painted like a skull with bone-white paint and the occasional red embellishment.

  She actually wore very little clothing other than a loincloth made from finger bones and an animal skull on her crotch. She accented this with other bones and ivory, such as ribs and tusks, which had been tied to her body in various places, almost like armour.

  Liz recognised her right away, even though she’d never actually met the woman before. Her name was Nymira, the Voodoo Queen, and she was one of the most powerful Nomads on the planet.

  Liz stepped back as a gut-wrenching fear took hold of her body, but Nymira just strode on in, heading right for her.

  “Come here, little flower,” the Nomad said, and Magic flared. A Kinetic blast rammed into her from behind, knocking her back towards the invader.

  Stumbling as her Aegi
s flared, Liz caught her balance and fuelled her Aegis, boosting its power. Nymira’s Magic reached out, lifted her up off the ground and slammed her into the wall. Her Aegis cushioned the blow, but it still hurt.

  She wanted to get out of here as quickly as she could, but before Liz could attempt to Port away, a new Aegis sprang up around the house with them both inside it.

  She cursed under her breath.

  “You’re not getting away that easily,” Nymira threatened her.

  Liz frowned but stayed silent. She didn’t want to give the Nomad the pleasure of engaging with her.

  “Not the talkative type? Well, we’ll have to see about that,” she said as Liz sensed Essentia building up around the Nomad.

  Nymira lowered her chin and smiled. “Now, little one, I have one question for you. Think carefully before answering, mind, as it will affect how I treat you. But my question is simple. Where is Amanda?”

  MAGI DESCENT

  The Magi Saga

  Book 6

  Prologue

  The Visitor

  2238 years ago

  Tartarus, The Aetheric Realm

  Lilitu rounded the corner and stopped at the top of the broad stairwell, looking down at the scene below. Samael stood partway down the steps, talking to a curious-looking Magus at the foot of the steps. The pair was deep in conversation, and seemed to have been for a while. The Magus stared up at her fellow Archon in wide-eyed wonder, his mind clearly fractured by what he’d endured to get here.

  Few Magi had ever managed the crossing into the Abyss over the millennia, and fewer still returned to tell of it.

  She wondered what they were about.

  Tiredness fogged her usually keen mind. Their loathsome father’s Magic kept them docile and weak, but she’d fed recently on one of their jailers, so she could fight it off for a while yet.