Magi Legend

by Andrew Dobell

  She had no way of knowing if that was true or not or where Shaitan had obtained the information, and honestly, as fascinating as it was, it wasn’t high on her list of priorities.

  For now, she needed to know more about Yasmin and what she was planning. She seemed to be gathering Artifacts—items of power that would grant her greater Magical powers.

  Amanda considered that as she worked her Magic and transferred herself through the Null Realm and back into the building in Saudi Arabia in the Material Realm.

  Shaitan could be right, it might be that she was looking to tackle the Archons and steal their power, pushing her strength and power above Amanda’s own. One thing she did know for sure was that Yasmin did not like her and wanted her dead, and this might be how she was planning on seeing it through.

  She needed to know more about Lilith, too. If the story was true, how had she managed to kill an Archon?

  There was one obvious person she knew to ask. With a thought, she summoned the local Essentia to her and worked her Flux Magic, Porting herself out.

  - Somewhere in the Middle East

  Lillia scrambled back from the sarcophagus in terror and disbelief at what she’d just done.

  She looked up to see Sandy and Bryn also backing away from the tomb and the thuds coming from inside it. What was in there?

  Sandy looked back at her, her eyes full of fear and hatred.

  “I’m sorry,” Lillia said. “I... I don’t know what happened. I… It makes no sense, I wouldn’t do that. I’m sorry,” she pleaded, willing the woman to believe her.

  With another thump from inside the sarcophagus, Sandy looked away.

  The next thud was louder, and then with a crunch, the lid broke, sliding off the top of the stone coffin in two parts. Something moved inside the burial vessel, and then slowly rose up. The form was humanoid, with a head and shoulders, arms, too. It looked at them. Those eyes weren’t human, though, or if they were once upon a time, they weren’t any longer.

  One word echoed in Lillia’s mind as she looked upon the horror before them.

  “Lyka…”

  Breakthrough

  The Vatican, Rome

  Tommaso hit return on the keyboard and waited as the little bar on the screen progressed across until it hit 100% and announced that the file was saved into the Inquisitorial Archives.

  Another done, he thought. Looking to his left, he lifted the report from the top of the pile before placing it onto the stack next to it, flipping it upside down as he did so.

  He eyed the next report he’d need to enter into the system and sighed. It was another handwritten one, and just like so many others, it looked at least partially illegible.

  He sighed and sat back in his chair, raising his arms and stretching them, arching his back as he did so. Data entry was one of the more tedious aspects of his day job, but he’d shown aptitude in computer sciences and less ability at the physical side of things, so here he was. He did get to conduct interviews, and he’d even been able to visit some of the front-line Inquisitors in a few places around Europe.

  It wasn’t a bad job to have, and if it helped fight some of the horrific creatures he’d heard tell of, then it was worth it.

  He yawned as he stretched again.

  “Tommaso?” said a feminine voice from close by. His eyes snapped open, and he looked up into the face of Assunta.

  “Oh, sorry, ma’am, I was just…”

  “I’m not interested,” she said, waving away his excuses. Assunta was one of the aids to the Grand High Inquisitor, Mary Damask. He’d seen her and the other aid, Augusto around a few times, and he’d seen Mary from afar, but he’d never spoken to her.

  From what he’d seen of her, Assunta was a keen and driven woman. She wore her more formal Inquisitorial uniform today with its clean lines and long skirt and her dark hair was up in a bun. She was carrying a cardboard manila folder, which she whipped out from under her arm and placed on the table before him. She flipped it open and pointed to it.

  “You did this?” she asked.

  Tommaso blinked. Was she accusing him of something? Had he done something wrong? Suddenly, he felt on edge and for a moment, could only stare up at her, wondering if he was about to be reprimanded.

  The sound of her tapping her finger on the report finally drew his attention down though, and he looked at what she was pointing at.

  Her finger pointed to his name, printed on the report in easy to read capitals right beneath his signature. Well, he thought, there was no denying that this was his report. Assunta pulled her hand away, allowing him to scan up the page and after a moment, he remembered what this report was all about. He’d been on one of his trips through Europe talking to other Inquisitors, and he’d ended up being summoned to speak to some nuns about a recent event that they’d wanted to report.

  He raised his eyebrows. He remembered it clearly and felt reasonably sure that he’d done nothing wrong. There was no reason to try and cover his ass, so he decided to tell the truth.

  Looking back up at Assunta, he nodded. “Yes, I took that report. I remember it well. I had been…”

  “Ah, ah, ah. Save it. You need to come with me,” she said.

  “Oh, er, okay. Let me just let my team leader…”

  “He’s coming with me,” Assunta called out.

  Tommaso looked up and saw that his team leader was standing nearby. He looked over at Assunta before glancing at Tommaso for a second. He nodded once to Assunta. “That’s fine,” he said.

  Assunta nodded. “Follow me,” she said as she turned and strode away from his desk. “Bring the folder,” she said over her shoulder. Tommaso picked it up and hurried across the room between the desks of the other data entry analysts as they worked on their own reports. Some of them looked up, their eyes flicking between Assunta and him, their expressions ranging from curiosity to looks that seemed to say that he was in for it.

  He didn’t know what this was all about, but he felt sure he wasn’t in any trouble. He remembered the trip quite clearly and nothing untoward had happened. Some of his friends were a little freer with their trips, taking liberties and indulging in luxuries, but Tommaso generally avoided doing such things. That kind of behaviour usually caught up with you eventually.

  Assunta led him out into the corridor and down the long hallway until they turned left and went up one of the flights of stairs. He’d been upstairs a few times and knew that the higher-ranking officials within the Disciples of the Cross had their offices up there. There were also conference rooms and operations rooms, and as they climbed, he wondered where she was taking him.

  Assunta didn’t look back, she just strode forward, apparently assuming that he would keep up with her. She nodded to the occasional person she passed but otherwise, she was all business. He opened his mouth to ask her a question but found his voice wouldn’t come. He couldn’t find the right words. A couple more flights of stairs and they were walking along another richly decorated corridor. The floor was covered in plush carpet, and there were statues and other decorations placed carefully around the hall. This was a much nicer part of the building than the more utilitarian hallways he was used to a few floors below.

  Assunta turned right partway along the corridor and walked through a set of doors that were already open, and into a secretary’s office. The young man behind the desk looked up at Assunta.

  “Is she available?” Assunta asked.

  The man looked at his screen, clicked a few times on his mouse, and nodded. “She is, yes,” he said. “You can go in.”

  Assunta nodded and walked over to another pair of double doors, just as ornate as the rest of the wood-panelled room and opened one of them. She stepped confidently through before looking back and waving him forward. He was about to see someone important, that was for sure, so he took a deep breath and walked into the room beyond.

  The chamber was huge. He guessed it was an office, but it was the grandest office he’d ever seen. The ceiling was at least
two stories high, with tall windows at the far end which flooded the room with light. On either side, the walls were decorated with beautiful panelling and hung with huge paintings depicting scenes from the bible or showing portraits of some of the more distinguished personalities from the history of the Church and the Inquisition.

  At the far end of the room, across the deep-red, plush carpet was a huge desk with a figure sitting behind it. Tommaso recognised Mary Damask right away and paused just inside the door as shock washed over him. He was about to speak to the Grand High Inquisitor and he had no idea why.

  He gulped once, and then carried on across the room, quickly catching up with Assunta and falling into step behind her. She walked up to the desk, stopping a couple of meters away from it, and waited for Mary to look up.

  Tommaso stopped beside her and waited. Inquisitor Damask was, ironically, looking over a report, not too dissimilar to what he dealt with every day, and for a moment, he felt connected to her. She had to look over the poor handwriting of her fellow inquisitors and try to decipher what they’d written, just as he did. True, she probably did other things, such as take meetings and such, but a small part of him rejoiced at the small connection he shared with her.

  Tommaso looked over at Assunta, and then back to Mary. Mary seemed to be ignoring them, and Assunta just stood there, waiting. Tommaso looked around as they waited for some kind of acknowledgement, which didn’t seem to be forthcoming.

  After what seemed like forever, Assunta let out a stifled cough. Was she attempting to get the Grand High Inquisitor’s attention?

  “I know you’re there, Miss Belloni,” Mary said, her voice deadpan. “I am, however, somewhat busy.”

  “I have something that I think you’ll be interested in,” Assunta said.

  Mary’s pen stopped moving and she looked up at Assunta for the first time. She glanced once at Tommaso. He gave her a smile. She didn’t react and looked back to Assunta. “Really…” she said, her face stony. It didn’t sound like a question.

  “If I can just have a few minutes of your time, I think you will be interested in this report.”

  “I have a hundred reports of my own to go through,” Mary answered.

  “None, I think, that you will find as interesting as this one.”

  Mary sighed and sat back in her chair. “Okay, let’s have it,” she said and waved to the chairs arrayed before her desk.

  Assunta sat down and indicated that Tommaso should join her. He nodded and sat down carefully in the seat next to her. The chair was wooden, carved in a decorative Art Nuevo style with soft fabric cushions built into it. He almost felt like he was desecrating the thing by sitting on it and settled himself into the chair as gently as he could.

  “I happened across a report today that caught my eye. I knew you’d be interested in it, so I found the man who filed it so you could hear it first-hand. I think you will find it most illuminating.”

  “I hope so,” Mary said, a note of warning in her voice.

  Tommaso swallowed. He hoped the report was as interesting to Mary as Assunta seemed to think it would be. He wouldn’t want to be anywhere near Mary Demask if she lost her temper.

  Assunta looked over at him and smiled. “Go ahead,” she said.

  Tommaso nodded to Assunta and cleared his throat. “Um, so I was on one of my travels on behalf of my department and I was called to a convent. The Mother Superior there had a report she wanted filing with the Vatican. The report concerned some children in the convent school. They were teenagers, and they are apparently involved in some, erm, activities that are frowned upon.”

  “How do you mean?” Mary asked.

  “Oh, well, you know. They used a Ouija board and dabbled in some witchcraft. I thought it would be the usual rebellious teenager stuff, but the Mother Superior was also concerned about one of her novitiate who had gone missing at the same time. So, I interviewed the children, and it turned out that according to them, they’d successfully summoned a Demon, who had then possessed this young nun.”

  “This is all very interesting, but I fail to see how this warrants my attention,” Mary said to Assunta. “Kids messing about with witchcraft and telling tall tales is an everyday occurrence.”

  “It is, but please, just a moment more,” Assunta urged Mary. Tommaso was a little surprised by the way Assunta spoke to the Grand High Inquisitor and looked at her with concern, but she turned to him and smiled. “Please, continue. What else did the children say happened at the summoning?”

  Tommaso glanced at Assunta and then Mary before taking a breath and finding the confidence to continue. “Well, they said that another woman was there and that she somehow stopped everything, and she could do things. Like, Magical things,” he said.

  Assunta nodded. “And what did she look like?”

  “Well, she had red hair and was wearing jeans…”

  “Red hair?” Mary asked, suddenly seeming much more interested as she looked right at him.

  “That’s what they said.”

  “Well, that’s certainly interesting, and where did this happen?”

  “Ireland. Donegal, actually.”

  “Huh,” Mary said, pondering this new information. After a few uncomfortable seconds, Mary turned her attention back to Assunta. “Well, it is interesting, but I have other reports of her activities from around the world, so I’m not sure what you were hoping to achieve by bringing him here to tell me in person. This could have been relayed to me in a message or email.”

  Tommaso had seen the flicker of interest in Mary’s eyes at the mention of the redhead and dug deep to find reserves of confidence as he spoke up and interrupted the Inquisitor. “But, High Inquisitor, there’s more.”

  Mary turned to look at him, her eyes narrowed at the interruption, but then she nodded. “Please, go on.”

  “So, the Mother Superior was with me when the children told me about the events surrounding the summoning, and she seemed a little agitated. She went on to tell me that they had a similar, although less serious problem a few years before when one of the orphans they had on-site had also been caught using a Ouija board. The reason it concerned the Mother Superior was that the description of the woman, the redhead, matched that of the former orphan. This former student and orphan was named Amanda, and she had run away from the orphanage a few years prior.”

  “Amanda…” Mary whispered.

  “That’s right,” Tommaso said and scanned through the report on his knee to find her full name. “There, that’s it, her name was Amanda-Jane Page.”

  Mary sat back in her chair, a huge smile growing on her lips as she seemed to think on this for a moment. She looked back at Tommaso after a moment. “Which orphanage was this?”

  “Saint Mary’s Orphanage and Convent School of Donegal. The Mother Superior is Emmanuelle Page.”

  “Emmanuelle Page. Of course, it is,” she whispered.

  “Yes, it seems that this girl, Amanda, was abandoned on the doorstep of the convent and was brought up by the nuns until she ran away. They’re not really sure where she went, though.”

  “I know where she went,” Mary said with a smile, looking into the middle distance. “She went to New York and ended up working the streets as a whore, until that night…”

  “Which night?” Tommaso asked.

  Mary snapped out of whatever reverie she was in and seemed to remember that she wasn’t alone. For a moment, it was as if she wondered who he was. Then she stood up and offered him her hand. “Good work, Inquisitor,” she said. Tommaso stood on reflex and quickly took her hand in his and shook it.

  Her grip was like iron.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “You tell no one of this, is that understood?” she asked.

  “Of course,” Tommaso said with a smile, bowing slightly.

  “Assunta, see him out, please,” Mary said. “Oh, and I’ll take that report.”

  Tommaso passed it over to her as Assunta waved him out. He smiled. He wasn’t su
re what he had done, but it had clearly pleased the Grand High Inquisitor.

  “Good work, Tommaso,” Mary called out. “Assunta, see to it that he’s promoted. Whatever he wants to do.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Assunta answered and guided him out.

  Tommaso smiled and looked over at Assunta. “Anything?” he asked, as endless possibilities filled his head.

  “That’s what she said,” Assunta answered as she closed the door to Mary’s office.

  -Somewhere in the Middle East

  Lillia stared at the dark figure standing in the sarcophagus, transfixed by the incredible sight.

  From inside the sarcophagus and around the alien figure’s waist and legs long, writhing tentacles snaked over each other, spilling over the side of the sarcophagus, slithering closer, and finally rising up around her and the others, encircling them, binding them, trapping them.

  Lillia knew this was the end. Her nightmare had come true, and there was little escaping this… thing.

  The creature, Lyka moved like lightning as it burst from its coffin and tore into them.

  Lillia knew a few brief moments of pain and terror as she felt her body being ripped into. Her limbs bent in places they shouldn’t while her skin was torn open, turning her insides to outsides, and then darkness took her.

  She knew nothing after that.

  Answers

  London, England

  “Amanda, lovely to see you again, my dear,” Trevelyan said with a smile as he gave her a hug. She was standing in the quiet reception area that was a front for the Albion Coven, with its wood-panelled walls and leather chairs.

  She loved the style of the place, it was so British.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure?” Trevelyan asked.

  “I have some questions regarding Magi history and thought you might be one of the best people to ask,” she explained with a smile.

  “Well, I’ll certainly do my best to help you,” he said. “Would you like to come through?”