The Legacy had been created for her to lead, but over the centuries leading up to today, she’d always kept the Legacy at arm’s length, preferring to do her own thing and let the Legacy do theirs. She liked the Legacy and wanted to have a close relationship with them, but she thought that she really needed a coven of her own.
She wondered how it might work, given that people like Gentle Water and Raven were, technically, part of the Legacy. Would they want to stay with the Legacy or move over to her coven? Also, who did she want in her coven?
If this was going to be her thing, her baby so to speak, she wanted it to be right. She wanted the right people in it.
Liz was an obvious choice, and given that she was Amanda’s apprentice, it made sense that Liz would formally join her coven. She’d ask Gentle Water and see what he said. There would be a place for him if he wanted it, but their relationship was different now. She was no longer his apprentice, so he might choose to stay with the Legacy.
Shaun, Vanessa, Matt, and Howie were all a given, as far as she was concerned. She wanted them with her. They’d been a part of her life so far, so it only made sense that they stay with her.
She wondered what Maria would do. Again, Amanda would offer her a place in her coven, but Maria was something of a free spirit anyway, so she guessed that she would likely choose to stay as she was, as a kind of loose member of the Legacy. She had her own interests to look after anyway.
Maya was also only kind of loosely associated with the Legacy and was also one to do as she wanted. But she was also Amanda’s daughter, and she would always be welcome.
She wondered about offering Sabine and maybe—depending on how things worked out—Mercy places in the coven, too.
She sighed. It was early days, and she needed to think things through a little more. Besides, she would need a name for it, and she was frankly at a loss where that was concerned.
Well, she thought, she still had plenty of time. As she made her way down the stairs, she saw Liz standing at the front door, pulling on her jacket.
“Morning,” Amanda said as she reached the hallway.
“Hey, how are you this morning?” Liz asked.
“I’m grand, what’s the craic?” she asked, pointing to Liz’s jacket.
“Oh, I’m just going to spend the morning with Celest and help out at the Sanctuary. How’s Mercy? She settled in okay? I heard you talking.”
Amanda glanced up the stairs before looking back at Liz. “She seems fine, all things considered.”
“Sure. Well, there’s plenty of people here she can talk to about losing friends, I guess.”
“To be sure,” Amanda said quietly.
“That’s for you,” Liz said, waving towards a box on the floor by the door.
“Thanks,” Amanda said, glancing at the package before saying her goodbyes to Liz as she left the house.
The general ambient Magic that she naturally emitted as an Arch Magus gave her an immediate impression of what was inside the package without really thinking about it too hard. She picked it up and wandered round to her modest office. Stepping inside, she opened the box and pulled out the items it held.
As she suspected, it was the two VR helmets she’d ordered. Following her first trip into the virtual world, Matt had taken her in a few more times over the past few weeks, and she was really starting to enjoy it.
She had noticed though, that as good as the rigs they currently had were, they had a few shortcomings. Matt had mentioned a few times that he was looking to get one of the Black Widow Rigs he’d seen on the DWeb forums which were made by a coven of Magi in San Francisco, but they were difficult to get ahold of.
Saying nothing, Amanda had paid the coven a visit and secured two of them to be delivered. They were beautifully designed, with sleek lines and a contrasting, matte and gloss black finish with red detailing.
Placing the items on her desk, she reached out with her mind and examined their Magical signature. A Magus had clearly enchanted them, something that all the best rigs seemed to have done to them to make them as immersive as possible. She stood for a good few minutes, studying the Magic radiating from them, looking to find out what they did and how they did it. After a little while, she had a good idea of the effects that the rigs had cast on them, and not only that, but saw plenty of ways she could improve upon it. The Magus who’d enchanted them was good, but he wasn’t an Arch Master.
Working carefully, Amanda reached out once more with her mind and started to pull on the veil of Essentia that surrounded her and the items, pushing the effects cast on the rigs even further and hopefully creating one of the best rigs available.
It took her thirty minutes to fine-tune her work, but she soon finished and felt satisfied with the results. The rigs positively hummed with Magical energy and would give them the most realistic and immersive experience yet.
Happy with her work, she placed the rigs back in the box and carried it downstairs into the basement. She found Matt in the operations centre, talking to Vanessa and Shaun. They all looked up and smiled as she walked in.
“Lovely box you have there,” Matt said.
Amanda caught the innuendo in the comment and smiled. “Funny fecker, hey?” she smiled.
“I like to think so,” Matt quipped back at her.
Amanda rolled her eyes and placed the box down on a nearby desk. “Well, when you’ve finished commenting on my box, you can come and have a look inside it,” she purred, choosing to run with it.
“Now there’s an offer I can’t refuse,” Matt answered, smiling as he stood and walked over. He peered inside the package and Amanda watched his eyes register a look of pleasant surprise. “Ooooh, now, that is nice,” he said, reaching in and lifting one of the rigs out of it.
“Awww, it’s a Black Widow,” he said, his eyes fairly glazing over with awe.
“You like it?”
“Like it? I love it. This is awesome. Did you get this?”
“I got it for you, but it’s no mere standard Widow. I’ve had it upgraded.”
“Upgraded?”
“I enhanced it. It should give you the most immersive VR experience possible,” she said.
“Excellent,” Matt replied, grinning from ear to ear.
Amanda smiled. Matt might be in his forties, but when it came to VR, he was like some geeking-out child, and Amanda found it quite cute to watch.
As Matt turned the rig over in his hands, looking at its various features with Vanessa, Shaun walked over.
“I hear the Tyranny Effect disbanded,” he said.
“Yeah. The Inquisition attacked them, killed two of their number. Two others decided to leave New York, while Mercy came back here to live with us for a while.”
“I’m guessing this is Mary Damask’s doing?”
“Looks that way to me. Fits her M.O. too.”
“She has a real thing for you at the moment,” Shaun commented.
“I killed Vito, or well, Liz did, and I’ve foiled her plans ever since. I’m not her most favourite person in the world.”
“So, you have the current leader of the Inquisition on a personal crusade against you. That takes some doing.”
Amanda chuckled to herself. “It wasn’t intentional. They just kept getting in my way, and Mary won’t leave well enough alone.”
“One day she’s going to hit you where it hurts, you know.”
“And when that day comes, I’ll deal with her,” Amanda said.
“And when that day comes, I’ll thank my lucky stars that I’m not her,” Shaun commented.
Amanda smiled as a pulse of Essentia alerted her to a Link request. It was from Tabitha. Amanda opened the Link.
~Tabitha, how can I help you this morning?~ Amanda asked telepathically.
~Come to the Darkside, to our apartment, the Aegis is down…~ she said and closed the Link.
Amanda raised her eyebrows in surprise. That was rather abrupt, she thought. Even though Tabitha hadn’t said much, and it was her me
ntal voice rather than her actual voice, Amanda could hear plenty of emotion in her tone.
Tabitha was scared and in emotional distress. Whatever it might be, it was serious.
“Sorry,” she said, turning to Shaun. “Duty calls.” She tapped the side of her head to illustrate the point.
Shaun nodded. “Go ahead, it doesn’t look like we’re going anywhere now anyway,” he answered waving in Matt’s direction.
With a rush of energy and a snap of air, Amanda Ported from where she’d been standing in Shaun’s office and appeared in the main living area of Toni and Tabitha’s apartment in the bell tower of the Darkside Night Club across town. The former church had been extensively renovated into one of the best nightclubs in the city before Toni and Tabitha had taken up residence there.
Tabitha had been right, the Aegis that normally surrounded the apartment was gone, which was the second clue, after Tabitha’s voice, that something was amiss.
Amanda wasn’t sure she’d want to live above a nightclub, but there really was no accounting for taste. Besides, she liked these girls.
Amanda blinked away the flash of light behind her eyes and looked out on a scene of utter carnage. There was blood everywhere. Two dead bodies, both of which she recognised, lay on the floor, ripped apart by Magic.
Tabitha sat curled up on a nearby sofa, looking up at Amanda, her bright yellow eyes wide with fear. Amanda looked at her, and then back down at the two bodies. One was Toni, which Amanda expected, but the other one was Melissa. Amanda looked at the mess of gore and bone and internal organs with a frown.
Melissa had already been dead. She’d been gone for months, how was she…? Amanda looked at Tabitha again, and then down at Toni, remembering the fight with Yasmin at her house and the loss of the Lazarus Scroll.
Looking back at Tabitha and seeing the broken girl looking back at her, she sighed, feeling terribly sorry for her, but also somewhat exasperated by what had no doubt happened.
Being careful to avoid the worst of the mess, she walked over and perched on the edge of the sofa next to Tabitha.
“You used the Scroll, didn’t you.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement, and Tabitha just nodded. “Shite,” Amanda cursed quietly to herself. “What happened?”
“Toni insisted. She wanted to bring Melissa back. So did I, I guess. I helped her do it, but it was the Scroll. She got it during that fight at your place. She just picked it up, you know?”
“I guessed as much,” Amanda confirmed and worked a little Magic to conjure two sheets that fell gently over the bodies on the floor, hiding them from view.
“It worked. You know, the Scroll. It worked. It brought Melissa back. She was, well, basically the same person. It was great. We were planning on leaving, going to live somewhere far away, just the three of us…”
“What went wrong? What happened?”
Tabitha looked up at her, and it was as if a shadow fell over her face as she thought about it.
“Yasmin,” Tabitha said.
“Yasmin was here?”
“She took the Scroll.”
“Feck,” Amanda cursed. “You saw her?”
“No, I wasn’t here, only Toni and Melissa were and she attacked them, killed them…”
“How do you know?”
“We have cameras,” Tabitha said and reached over to the laptop that was beside her. She lifted the top and the screen came to life to show paused images from four cameras, two of which were in the room where they currently sat. She tapped play and the images started to move.
The short video was horrific to watch as Yasmin suddenly appeared in the room where Melissa and Toni were sitting. Melissa charged at Yasmin, but she was torn apart in a matter of seconds, leaving Toni looking terrified.
“What do you want?” Toni asked on the video.
“You know what I want,” Yasmin replied. “You took what is rightfully mine, and I want it back.”
“I… I don’t…” Toni started to reply, only for Toni to suddenly go into a spasm and hold her head as she screamed.
“Ah, there it is,” Yasmin said, the Scroll suddenly appearing in her hand. Yasmin looked at it with a smile and turned back to Toni.
“No, please, don’t kill me. I’ll do anything, I’ll do whatever you want. Just, please, don’t kill me,” Toni sobbed.
“I doubt very much that you are of any use to me,” Yasmin said.
“I erm, Amanda, I know about her, and Victoria, I’ve met her. No? Um, Shaitan? Have you heard of him? Trevelyan? I could…”
“Shaitan?” Yasmin asked, suddenly interested. “What do you know about Shaitan?”
Toni blinked and seemed to be thinking about it before she spoke. “I’ll tell you if you’ll let me live.”
Yasmin took a step forward. “You’ll tell me right now, or I’ll rip it from your head.”
“Okay, sure. Look, I just know that he was the one who was killing the covens in Los Angeles, attacked them with his two, um, friends? Until Amanda stopped him.”
“Amanda stopped him?” she asked, a note of genuine curiosity in her voice.
Toni adjusted herself on her seat in the video. She was clearly terrified, but she seemed to know that she’d somehow managed to capture Yasmin’s attention. She glanced around as she spoke, possibly looking for a way out of her situation.
“Yeah, she and Celest, they, well, I’m not sure, they found him and stopped him. I could find out more for you, if you like? I know Amanda quite well, you know.”
“Do you,” Yasmin said, but it wasn’t a question, and Amanda could see that she had all the information she wanted from Toni.
“Oh, yes, I’ll go and find her right away for you. It would be my pleasure,” she said as she stood up, making her way towards the door. Toni’s body went into another spasm, her head thrown back as her body shook like crazy before it suddenly ripped apart as if it had been tied to ten different monster trucks which had all accelerated away from her in different directions.
Toni’s remains dropped to the floor.
Half a second later, Yasmin disappeared from the screen.
“When was this?” Amanda asked. Yasmin would not come talk to her to find out what had happened to Shaitan, but she didn’t need to. Celest had been mentioned, and that final spasm that Toni had suffered before Yasmin’s Magic had ripped her apart was probably Yasmin invading her mind to find out if she knew where Celest was.
Amanda turned to Tabitha. “Did Toni know where Celest was?”
“She’s volunteering at that women’s refuge, the Sanctuary, right?”
“Right, did Toni know that?”
“I think so,” Tabitha answered.
“Go to my place and stay there. I’ll be back later,” Amanda said.
“What now? What about…” she said, waving towards the two bodies.
“Talk to Gentle Water, he’ll sort it. I have to find Celest,” Amanda said, summoning her Magic.
- Somewhere in the Middle East
Lillia followed the team into the room, picking her way over the dusty skeletons that littered the floor. She did her best to try and avoid the bones and only stand on the stone floor, but every few steps, she heard another bone crack and break underfoot.
She cringed every time she did it. The thought of breaking someone’s arm or leg sent shivers through her body.
The rest of the team were fascinated by the contents of the chamber, pointing at things and talking in hushed tones.
It was funny, in a way. Everything down here was dead, and this was not a church as they knew it, but still, they spoke quietly, whispering to each other.
Lillia spotted a more open area up ahead and moved over to it, only breaking two femurs, a couple of ribs, and a radius in the process before she was out of the field of long-dead corpses. She sighed and stepped into the clear area. That was only half the job, though. She’d have to make her way back through the same mess to get out.
She wished she’d stayed outside the room no
w.
Why had she come in here? This was the scary room that she’d dreamt about, where she’d been attacked and… Well, it didn’t bear thinking about, she thought as she wandered around the open area.
CLICK.
Lillia looked down to see that the slab her right foot was on had dropped about an inch down. “What the…?” she whispered.
A rumble of rock echoed through the room, and just to her right, she saw a section of floor lower on a pivot and drop away, coming to rest as a slope, leading to a dark passage below.
Lillia stood transfixed, her eyes wide with fear and surprise. “I didn’t mean to do that…”
Kennedy stepped up to her side and looked down the slope. “Looks like this adventure isn’t over yet.”
No Sanctuary
Manhattan, New York
Liz followed Celest out of the building and into the small garden at the back. It was one of two outdoor spaces at the Sanctuary that the residents could use, the main one being the central courtyard. The garden at the back was usually quieter and was more often used by staff than residents.
“Thanks for coming,” Celest said with a smile. Liz looked up at the huge woman and felt like a weak and feeble stick next to her. Celest was close to seven feet tall and built like a bodybuilder. Her biceps were nearly as wide as Liz’s waist and lined with veins. She was an incredible and impressive-looking woman, if a little scary, too.
The staff here loved her, it seemed. In a building where many of the patients were former victims of violent abuse, and where occasionally, those abusers would show up and cause trouble, Celest had turned out to be a very effective deterrent. Many of the patients had been a little intimidated when they first met her, but they soon either saw her in action or heard stories from others about her exploits. Liz had listened to Celest relate some of these tales during her visits to Amanda’s house, and after she’d expressed an interest in helping, she’d heard them again from the management who had interviewed her.
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