Magi Legend

by Andrew Dobell

  Bramble stepped up beside her and looked out over the landscape.

  “Tartarus,” she said, her voice flat.

  “Okay, but what’s that?” Amanda asked, pointing to the other huge fortress that stood beside Tartarus.

  This second structure was a mix of grey and tan, and looked less ornate and not as foreboding as Tartarus did. Looking at it through her Aetheric Sight, she could see the remains of some seriously powerful Aegises that had enveloped both Tartarus and the fortress, but they’d been severely damaged. She could also see blooms of Essentia and flashes of light towards the far side of the fortress.

  “That is the Fortress of the Ebon Mark, and that’s why we don’t come here.”

  “We?” Amanda asked her.

  “Me, the Fae, the Abyssals, anyone who calls the Aetheric home. You don’t go near the fortress, not if you value your life.”

  Amanda frowned at her, and then at the fortress as more Essentia flared from within its walls. “Who lives there?”

  “We call them the Marked Ones. There are other names for them, too, but they are powerful, and they protect Tartarus, allowing no one near it.”

  “Well, I have no choice,” Amanda said, looking back at the fortress. As she watched, the flashes of Essentia stopped, but she got the feeling that there was a lot of activity still. After a moment, Essentia bloomed again, and an Aegis snapped back into the place over just the fortress, but not Tartarus.

  “Come on, let’s get closer. Can I Port us there?”

  “I don’t want to get too close,” Bramble said.

  Amanda turned to her friend and offered her a smile. “I won’t let them hurt you. But if you need to go, I won’t stop you. I’m sure I can find my way out,” she said.

  Bramble looked back towards the glow of fires burning in the demonic hellscape they had left behind, and then at the foreboding fortress ahead, weighing up her options before she looked up with a sigh. “Okay, I’ll come with you,” she said. “Work your Magic.”

  Amanda nodded and focused her Magic on standing just outside the gates of Tartarus.

  The air snapped, there was a rush of Essentia and a worse than usual feeling of dislocation as they teleported. They appeared closer to Tartarus, but not where Amanda had intended.

  Amanda knew right away that someone had intercepted them and diverted them here, to the edge of the Aegis on the far side of the fortress from Tartarus.

  Making sure her Aegis was ready and encircling them both, Amanda looked around.

  Essentia flared all around them, as twenty people snapped into existence, surrounding them. Bramble grabbed Amanda and clung to her trembling like the last leaf to fall on a late autumn day. The newcomers moved closer, their postures threatening, their Essentia stirring. They looked human and were dressed in an array of black robes. In her Aetheric Sight, they all glowed brightly. They were Magi, and clearly powerful.

  “Hi, guys, just passing through. Don’t want to cause any trouble,” Amanda said as she flushed more energy into her Aegis.

  “A likely story,” one of the men said.

  “Wait,” said a voice from nearby.

  Everyone surrounding Amanda and Bramble turned towards the voice. Amanda looked over and saw one of their numbers pull back her hood as she approached. She had short-cropped, peroxide-blonde hair and an impish face. She regarded Amanda with a neutral expression and cocked her head to one side.

  “Amanda?” the figure asked.

  It took her a moment, but then it suddenly hit her. She’d only met this woman twice, and only one of those times had they really spoken.

  “Crystal?” Amanda asked, her voice cautious.

  “What are you…?” Crystal started to say, before she looked back towards the fortress and Tartarus, and then back to Amanda. “Are you…?”

  “I’m here for Yasmin, she’s heading for Tartarus and the Archons,” Amanda explained.

  Crystal nodded. “I understand. Stand down,” she said to the people around her. “Amanda is not our enemy this day. Port to the entrance of Tartarus, make sure it’s secure,” she ordered, and within seconds, all but two of the others Ported away.

  “So, this is the Sentinels’ hideout? The Fortress of the Ebon Mark?” Amanda asked.

  “Welcome,” Crystal said, her voice a little flat, and looked down at the Fae. “Friend of yours?”

  “This is Bramble, she’s with me,” Amanda introduced her. The Fae looked up, clearly nervous.

  “Very well,” Crystal said.

  “Yasmin attacked the fortress, didn’t she,” Amanda said, her comment more a statement than anything else.

  “She did, and she just Ported out.”

  “Did she?” Amanda said, her voice suspicious. “Look, I need to get into Tartarus.”

  “Why?” Crystal asked, her tone genuinely curious.

  “Yasmin, she wants their power, she plans on killing one or more of them,” Amanda said. As she spoke, Essentia flared briefly around Crystal’s head as she received a Link message. Her eyes focused on the middle distance, Crystal frowned. As she waited, Amanda sensed a series of Essentia flares from the direction of Tartarus.

  “It seems you may be right,” Crystal said before she turned to the two Magi standing with her. “Go inside, gather as many people as you can and follow us into Tartarus,” she said. The two Sentinels Ported away as Crystal turned to Amanda. “Okay, you want to find Yasmin, let’s go.”

  “Trouble?” Amanda asked.

  Crystal gave her a meaningful look before her Magic flared and reached out for Amanda.

  She let Crystal do it, not sensing any duplicity from her, but was ready with Magic of her own in any case. They appeared on the other side of the fortress, right at the main entrance of Tartarus, its enormous arching Portal looming over them, but the doors themselves had been blasted to bits. Around them, bodies lay burnt or ripped apart on the ground, dressed in the same robes as the Sentinels she had just seen. In fact, it was probably the same group. Crystal looked down at them, and then up at Tartarus, a frown creasing her forehead. Amanda looked up at the prison. It was a blight on the landscape. The imposing, obsidian building looked like something out of a dark fantasy novel.I It had an aura about it, a feeling of deep corruption and decay that seemed to seep into everything around it. The bodies strewn around them only reinforced the idea that Yasmin needed to be stopped, and quickly.

  “She’s inside,” Crystal said.

  “God damn it, this is taking too long,” Amanda cursed, and worked her Magic to Port to the other side of the door, only for her Essentia to fizzle out, repelled by whatever Magic enveloped the Archon’s Prison.

  Amanda looked over at Crystal. “No Porting?”

  “No,” Crystal confirmed. “Not in the prison itself, the Demiurge made sure of that.”

  There was that name again. The Demiurge. But that was a problem for another time. “We need to get in, come on,” Amanda said and strode off towards the door. Bramble and Crystal followed. “The Demiurge, that’s the second time I’ve heard that name today,” Amanda said as she went.

  “He created the Sentinels to guard the Archons.”

  “And protect humanity?” Amanda asked.

  “That, too,” Crystal said. “But we might fail in that task today.”

  “How long until your reinforcements get here?” Amanda asked.

  “Yasmin’s attack caused much chaos and she’s killed…too many.” Crystal sighed. “Short answer, I don’t know, but I hope, soon.” Entering the colossal building, Amanda found that they were standing in a large room with corridors leading off in all directions, but only one of those directions had a broken door. It didn’t take a genius to work out which way Yasmin had gone, so Amanda didn’t hesitate.

  “So, you’ve lived here, in the Abyss, this whole time?” Amanda asked.

  “These structures were once in the Material Realm, thousands of years ago. The Demiurge brought them here, into the Aetheric. He imprisoned the Archons in Tar
tarus and brought us here as Sentinels. We’ve been here ever since.”

  “So, your main job is watching the prison?” Amanda asked.

  “Crystal nodded. “That and protecting humanity from the Magi and their Magic and allowing humankind to develop on its own without outside influence.”

  Amanda nodded. She heard tales of this many times already, but it was good to have it confirmed.

  “You said that Yasmin wants the Archons’ power for herself?” Crystal asked after a few moments. “How does she think she’s going to accomplish that?”

  “She’s gathered three powerful Artifacts. The Libre Nox Noctis, which gave her the method to cross into the Abyss…”

  “Ah, Shaitan strikes again. It’s been an age since he was here,” Crystal commented.

  “You know him?”

  “Of course. He was problematic for us,” Crystal answered vaguely.

  “Well, he’s dead now, Yasmin killed him, but his work lives on in the Libre. Yasmin also has the Lazarus Scroll and Lilith Orb.”

  “We saw the Orb when Yasmin attacked the fortress, but I did not know she had the Scroll as well.”

  “You know of these Artifacts, then?” Amanda asked.

  “We know of many such items and confiscate them when we can. Some of the more powerful ones can be troublesome to keep hold of. They seem to have a life of their own.”

  Amanda nodded as they reached another room at the end of a hallway with more doors leading off from it. All the stone inside the prison was a glossy black, kind of like glass, and the corridors were dimly lit.

  “Do you know your way around?”

  “We do, but we don’t come inside often. The Archons sleep most of the time, but sometimes one of them wakes up and wanders the building. They cannot leave, but…”

  “Sentinels have died by their hand?” Amanda asked.

  “More than I care to think about,” Crystal said.

  “The Archons might be walking these corridors?” Bramble asked.

  “Looks that way,” Amanda said.

  “That is not unlikely,” Crystal said.

  “I’m not sure I want to be in here anymore,” Bramble said.

  “We won’t be much longer,” Amanda reassured her. “Which way?”

  “Up there,” Crystal said, pointing up a flight of stairs. “It looks out over the central courtyard.”

  Amanda followed her up and out onto a balcony that looked out over an octagonal area below, paved in black and grey slabs arranged in a geometric pattern. As she looked down, Amanda froze, and so did Crystal. Standing in the centre of the courtyard was Yasmin, dressed in only the black skin-tight outfit she favoured. She stood motionless apart from her head, which moved slightly as seven figures closed in on her. Each wore a ragged robe and arrayed themselves around her in a horseshoe-shaped formation. Intense power radiated from each of them, glowing brighter than any Magi had ever done in her Aetheric Sight. Their attention was fixed intently on Yasmin.

  “What the…” Amanda whispered. They were a good distance away from them, but on pure instinct, she kept her voice low.

  “They’re awake,” Crystal exclaimed in shock. “All of the Archons are awake, this never happens. Did she do this?” Crystal asked in a hushed whisper.

  “I would assume the two are related,” Amanda muttered.

  It was difficult to make out which of the Archons was which, but as she watched, she started to narrow it down.

  She thought she spotted one that seemed more feminine than the others and was about Yasmin’s size, which Amanda thought was probably Lilitu, the mother of Vampires, but her hood was up, so it was difficult to be sure.

  The biggest of them all stood easily about twice Yasmin’s height and had huge, bat-like wings and massive horns, leading her to believe that was probably the one known as Oni, the Fallen Angel. Two of the more human-sized ones had their hoods down, and both had deformed hairless faces. She wasn’t sure which ones they were.

  Of the other three, two were huge and bulky. One of them was covered in horns and spikes, which made Amanda think he was Enkidu, the beast and father of Were-creatures. The other one had two massive prehensile tentacles sprouting from his back. She guessed that one might be Leviathan.

  The last one was bigger than Lilitu, at around seven feet tall, or maybe a little bigger, and Amanda could make out a skull-like face beneath his rotten hood. She guessed that might be Samael, the Reaper. If she was right, then the two hairless ones were Tiamat and Naga.

  Samael moved closer to Yasmin.

  “Why do you rouse us from our slumber, child?” the Archon asked, the jaw of the skull-like face moving as he did so. His huge cloak extended to the floor, where it faded into a mist that rolled out from the Archon, making it look like it was gliding rather than walking.

  “I admit,” Yasmin answered, “I’m less than impressed.”

  “Allow me to ch-” Samael began, before Essentia, massive amounts of it, more than Amanda had ever seen used by a single Magus, rushed out of Yasmin and tore at the Archon. It was then that Amanda realised that the Archons, all of them, didn’t have any Aegises in place, their defences were down. Did the Demiurges enchantments here stop them from using such magic?

  Amanda sensed something, like the atmosphere was suddenly filled with tension, like a rubber band stretched to its limit, or a balloon that was being squeezed to the point of bursting.

  Samael worked his own Magic, but it wasn’t enough. Yasmin’s washed his defences away and gripped the Archon’s body in her Magic.

  Green mist flowed from Yasmin, rushing out of her and enveloping the Archon where it glowed briefly, before retreating back into Yasmin, leaving a blackened husk where Samael had been.

  The tension in the air snapped, and an intense, destructive pulse of Magic rushed out from Samael’s corpse. Yasmin and the Archons were sent sprawling. The building rocked and stone cracked as the wave of Essentia blasted through the room. It hit Amanda like a battering ram and threw her against the wall with a crunch as the wave rushed out into the Aetheric Realm beyond, rocking the landscape.

  Amanda dropped to the floor, sliding down the wall as Essentia crackled all over her, sparking and firing wildly.

  “What the hell was that?”

  - BBC News Report

  “Apologies for that brief break in our broadcast, but this just in. As our systems are rebooting, we’re getting reports that there has been a global power outage. Lights, electronics, computers, everything seems to have been briefly shut down.”

  - CNN News Report

  “So, you’re saying you think this could have been caused by a solar flare?”

  “For something to cause a simultaneous power outage like this, literally everywhere, it would need to be something like a solar flare, yes. Nothing else could generate an EMP burst of that magnitude.”

  “EMP? An Electro Magnetic Pulse? But, wouldn’t that fry electronics everywhere?”

  - In a suburban basement somewhere.

  “Yes!” the man known only as Sphinx to the users of the Dark Web VR space said, as the lights in the basement came back on. He stabbed the button on his custom-made computer and waited for it to load up. At first, he couldn’t get online, it was as if the internet had ceased to exist, but sure enough, a few minutes later, it was back and he was back online. He immediately went to log back into the Dark Web, but something was wrong, something was different. He couldn’t even find the DWeb. What was going on?

  His phone buzzed, and a message popped up on the bottom right of his screen from one of his friends. “Dude, the DWeb’s crashed, and it looks like it’s been deleted.”

  - Ultima Thule, Enceladus, Saturn.

  Trevelyan opened the Link. It was Louisa Hunt from the Ordo Obscura Coven in the French Alps.

  “Louisa, what can I do for you?” he asked.

  “Somethings happened, something big, I think… Look, try something for me, can you try crossing over into the Aetheric Realm?”

>   “What? Why would I do something like that?”

  “Please, just try it,” she pleaded.

  “Not until you tell me why.”

  “Trevelyan, the barrier, it’s gone.”

  Released

  Tartarus, The Deep Abyss

  Amanda looked over at Crystal. Like her, the Sentinel was crumpled on the floor, shaking her head, and looking just as confused as Amanda felt.

  For a moment, Amanda just sat there, trying to make sense of what had just happened, but the sounds of lightning snaps and explosions brought her right back to reality as she remembered where she was, and what was just over the edge of the balcony.

  Amanda jumped to her feet and ran to the wall. Looking down into the courtyard, she saw Yasmin getting up and Magic flowing out of her. Only half of the Archons were there, and as she watched, over the next couple of seconds, the three who remained, also Ported out under Yasmin’s Magical assault, leaving the Nomad standing alone.

  Yasmin’s Magical attacks ceased, and she paused for a moment, looking around. She walked over to the blackened corpse of Samael that lay on the ground. She kicked the body with her foot and let out a snort of laughter.

  Slowly, she raised her hand and held it over the corpse, palm down. With another quick surge of Essentia, the remains flew apart, disintegrating and floating away on the breeze. Yasmin let the ash-like particles swirl around her, seemingly enjoying it.

  Amanda heard movement behind her and turned to see Crystal and Bramble getting to their feet.

  For the first time in a long, long time, Amanda felt afraid of Yasmin and stared hard at Crystal, letting out a hushed, “Sssshhh,” at her, urging her to be quiet.

  Crystal looked up and froze in place on seeing her reaction. She looked around her and mouthed the word, “What?”