“What the…” Liz said as she looked back at Amanda, concentrating hard on making sure she wasn’t imagining things. But sure enough, her Anima Mundi was still there.
She looked at Maria. “I see it. Her Anima. So, you can bring her back?”
“I’ve tried, several times actually, but my Magic does nothing. It’s like she’s there, but not…”
“What does that mean?” Liz asked.
“I don’t know, but you were insisting earlier that she wasn’t dead, or that maybe she could be brought back. I’m wondering if you might be right. If we can figure out what’s going on and how to do it.”
“Okay, please take the lead on this. Use whatever and whoever you need to figure it out. If we can save her, then that needs to be a priority.”
“Sounds good. So, what’s our next move? We can’t just stay in orbit forever, and if I’m to do this, I’m going to need help.”
“I don’t know,” Liz said, feeling genuinely unsure what her next step should be. “Let’s get everyone up to the bridge and we can figure it out together.”
Maria nodded.
As she looked at her mentor, she realised her feelings had changed. Where moments before there had been grief and loss and a growing sense of acceptance that she was gone, there was now a feeling of hope that this might not be the end for her. With a final glance at Amanda, Liz led her out of the cooler.
Liz led Maria through the ship and sent out a ship-wide pulse of Essentia through their shared Link, followed by a message for everyone to meet back on the main deck, mainly to save Gentle Water from having to navigate the stairs up to the bridge.
Two minutes later, everyone was ready and waiting.
“Okay, how are we all doing?” Liz asked.
There was a general murmur of everyone saying they were alright, which was about all she could expect, she guessed. No one here was likely to say they were really happy or anything, so she was pleased to get a generally affirmative reply.
“Mercy, how’s the ship looking?” she asked.
“Looks good to me,” she answered, glancing at Tabitha and Sabine who nodded their agreement. “I don’t really know how this thing works, but we searched the ship as well, and all seems to be in order.”
“Excellent,” she said, then addressed the whole group. “Okay, I have two things to talk to you about. The first thing is that something strange is going on with Amanda’s body, in a good way, though. Maria has noticed that unlike Stella and the others, Amanda’s Anima is still connected to her body. Not only that, it still seems vital and shows none of the usual atrophy that a soul usually goes through when it dies. Maria has tried to resuscitate her, but so far, nothing. Maria will be looking into this for me, and if she needs your help, please do whatever you can to aid her.”
“You mean, she’s not dead?” Howie asked.
“Technically, she is, as far as her physical life signs go, but what I’m saying is, there’s still hope. We’re not sure what’s going on, but this is promising.”
She let that last statement hang in the air and listened to the murmurs around the room for a moment, then she raised her hand to get their attention again. The room fell silent.
“But first, we need to figure out what we’re going to do next. What’s our next move?”
“We’re not staying here?” Tabitha asked.
“I don’t think that’s wise, and I’m also sure it’s not what Amanda would want.”
“I think the Magi Council needs to know what happened,” Maria said. “Plus, they’re an obvious place to go for help with Amanda.”
“I agree,” Gentle Water added.
A general murmuring of agreement spread through the group.
Liz nodded. “Okay then, so we go to Ultima Thule,” she surmised.
“Alright. Maria, can you Port Shaun and Vanessa back to New York? They’ll be monitoring the situation on Earth and seeing what they can achieve on the ground,” she asked.
“Of course,” Maria said.
Liz looked over at Shaun, who smiled back at her and nodded his thanks.
“Good luck,” Liz said to him.
“We’ll be waiting for you,” Shaun answered.
Liz smiled, patting him on the shoulder before she headed up through the ship, followed by Mercy, Tabitha, and Sabine.
Walking onto the bridge and seeing the chair where Amanda usually sat gave Liz pause for a moment. She didn’t feel that it was right for her to sit there, and as she looked, even with the renewed hope that they might be able to bring Amanda back, she felt the steady rise of emotion from her loss. She fought it back down again and took a deep breath.
“You okay? Tabitha asked, stepping up to her. She was the one she knew the best out of the three. They’d spent some time together and chatted over the past year or so. Tabitha was nice, if a little freaky to look at. Her yellow cat-like eyes were both fascinating and a little creepy, but Tabitha herself was as friendly as they came. She was clearly grieving, having lost her lover, Toni and her friend, Melissa, but she appeared to be coping.
Everyone had lost someone. The life of a Magus was a dangerous one, and you didn’t survive long as a Magus without losing someone to the war with the Nomads.
It was inevitable.
But there was no time to dwell on such things now. She needed to put her grief to one side for the moment and come back to it later.
“I’m okay,” she answered Tabitha and put on the most convincing smile she could. Although, she wasn’t sure it looked entirely genuine. “Right, let’s get this ship moving,” she said, and reached out with her mind, hunting for the ship’s core, the same way that Amanda had shown her once before.
She soon found it and it accepted her authority, Linking with her.
As she felt that connection solidify between herself and the ship, she found she could access the ship’s systems and control them. With a simple command, she brought up the navigation holo in front of them and laid in a course to Enceladus, the icy moon of Saturn.
The ship confirmed the order and the course appeared on the holo. She issued the command to embark, and the ship turned smoothly away from Earth, pointing to a distant point of light before boosting into the void.
- The Arkady.
Matt walked towards the back of the ship with Howie keeping pace beside him. “I tell you, man, I’ll never get used to this Magical stuff. It’s crazy.”
“I hear you, brother,” Howie answered. He seemed as caught up in his thoughts as Matt felt. As one of the few normal humans in the group, he had quickly struck up a friendship with Howie, and to a lesser extent, Vanessa.
Shaun had asked if he wanted to go with them back to Earth, but after a little thought, Matt had chosen to stay on the ship. He wanted to stay close to Amanda, and with the discovery of her soul still being inside her, he felt sure he’d made the right choice.
“Do you think they’ll be able to bring her back?” Matt asked as they reached the back of the ship.
Howie didn’t answer right away, and when Matt looked up he saw a couple of tears falling slowly over his ebony cheek.
“I don’t know, man. I just don’t know.”
Matt put his hand on Howie’s shoulder. “She’ll be alright. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Amanda, it’s that she’s full of surprises.”
An Old Friend
Between
White.
Everything was white.
There were no features anywhere, just a bright clear white.
At first, there’d been nothing—no light, no sound, no anything—but that had come and gone. She didn’t know how long ago that had been. She just knew that it had and that it was gone now.
Replaced by the white.
Endless white.
Was she floating? Standing? Sitting? Was she anywhere?
She didn’t know.
Feeling came back next. A sense of self. A sense of being in a body.
She raised her hands. Well, that’s
what she wanted to do. She wasn’t sure if it would work or even if she had hands, but she tried.
Two fair-skinned, slender hands on the ends of a pair of arms rose into view. She turned them over and back again. She closed her fingers and opened them.
They were hers, it seemed. That was good.
She looked down, not knowing if she would see a body.
But there it was.
It looked like hers. She was naked, but that seemed natural.
She remembered something about her hair and reached up, feeling her long straight hair streaming out from her head. She pulled some of it forward over her shoulder.
Red.
Stark and bright against the white all around her.
She was a redhead.
Where was she? What was her name?
Where had she been before this?
Everything was hazy, indistinct, like a barely remembered dream that slipped further away every time she tried to grasp it.
Was this the beginning for her? Was this where her life started? Had she even been alive before this?
No, she felt sure she had been. She felt that there had been something before this. Something rough, gritty. Something painful.
She didn’t like that idea. This was much better. Here, she felt safe. Here, she was protected.
She felt something underfoot. Something hard and unyielding. Looking, she saw her toes touch something and pressed her foot down. This was the ground.
She put her other foot down and suddenly she was standing. She was upright, and it felt good.
She wiggled her toes and splayed them. It felt real.
Bending down, she touched the ground with her hands, pressed her palms down onto it. This felt right. This felt normal.
Something made a noise.
She looked up but couldn’t see anything. What was that? She wasn’t afraid. She didn’t feel like she was in danger. There was only curiosity.
She stood up and looked around, but everything was white. There were no markings. Nothing to show where the floor ended. There was just endless white nothing.
She heard it again. Something like a voice. Something calling to her.
“Hello?” she said and jumped at the suddenness of her voice.
She could speak.
This surprised and thrilled her, and she couldn’t help the smile that spread over her face. She needed to do it again.
“Hello, is someone there?” she asked feeling jubilant.
“Amanda?” said the voice. It was like hers, soft and warm.
Was that her name? Amanda? It felt right. It felt like hers.
“I… I think that’s me,” she said.
A shadow grew in the white haze before her and coalesced from a blur to a sharp, distinct shape until a figure stepped out of the whiteness.
“Amanda,” the woman said. She’s pretty, Amanda thought and felt sure she knew her. She pondered that for a second and a name popped into her head.
“Georgina?”
“Amanda,” she answered.
Amanda smiled. She remembered her. She remembered her life in New York. She remembered her friend. Their friendship. It had been so long ago. She wasn’t sure how long, but she knew it was an age ago.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to show you a friendly face,” Georgina said.
“Where am I?” Amanda asked, looking around at the featureless white.
“That’s difficult to explain. You’re between places, I suppose.”
“Between?”
“It’s not the best description, I know, but I’m not sure myself, really.”
“Have you been here long?”
“Time is different here. So, I don’t know.”
Amanda remembered seeing her friend fade away and die as that hideous disease stole Georgina away from her. On instinct, Amanda reached out and took Georgina’s hand.
“I miss you,” Amanda admitted.
Her friend smiled back at her. “I’ve always been with you, Amanda. I’ve been watching you. I’m so proud of what you’ve become, and what you’ve done. You’ve come so far. You’ve done amazing things that I could never have dreamed of. My life was so small compared to yours.”
“Your life was important to me,” Amanda said.
Georgina smiled. “Thank you.”
“I knew you’d want me to live my life, to grasp the opportunities that were given to me and to run with it.”
“And you did. You did grasp them.”
“I tried…” she said, as a feeling of what had happened to her bloomed into focus. She started to remember her life, and her last moments. She remembered the fight. She remembered Yasmin and seeing that dagger explode from her chest.
Her hand shot up to where the wound had been as she remembered it, almost feeling the pain once more. But it wasn’t there. She was unhurt, but... was she alive?
She looked up at her friend.
“You’re ready,” Georgina pronounced.
“Ready?”
“To meet her.”
“Meet who?”
“You’ll see,” she answered, taking a step back and beginning to fade away.
“Don’t leave me,” Amanda said.
“I can’t stay.”
“But... I miss you.”
“I miss you, too, but my time is limited, and you have so much to learn.”
“Will I ever get to see you again?” Amanda asked as Georgina’s fingers began to slip from her grasp.
Georgina smiled. “I’m always with you…” she answered as she faded from view, leaving only the whiteness behind.
“I… I love you…” Amanda called out, but there was no answer.
- The Arkady
“Wow,” Matt exclaimed. “So, you’ve known Amanda since before she was a Magus.”
“That’s right,” Howie said. He was sitting beside Matt on one of the sofas at the back of the ship on the rear open deck.
“You’ve probably actually known her the longest out of everyone here, then,” Matt said.
Howie shrugged. “I guess. Although, with all this time travel stuff, I guess it depends on your point of view. I certainly knew Amanda the earliest in her life out of everyone on this ship.”
“Actually, I’m not so sure of that. I met her when she was a baby,” Matt said. “The day of her birth, in fact.”
“Ah, shit, yeah, you did. Man, that’s messed up. I would have run a mile if some girl I’d never met before suddenly wanted me to help her give birth in a foreign country. Yeah, you got me beat there, man.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
“Nah, I was happy to meet her once she was all grown up.”
“Babies not your thing?”
“Hell, man, I don’t know. I’m still young, I’ve got time. I ain’t in no rush.”
“Well, I’m not as young as you, but I sympathise. I just don’t think I’m ready for all that.”
“I don’t think Amanda is either. She’s happy being a free spirit.”
“Was. She was happy.” Matt corrected him as the mood turned sombre.
“She didn’t deserve to die,” Howie said, the deep ache of loss panging in his chest.
“Few do.”
“Do you think they can bring her back?”
“As I said, the Magi are full of surprises, so, who knows? Maybe?”
Ultima Thule
Enceladus, Saturn
Liz slowed the Arkady as it entered Saturn’s system of moons. The colossal gas giant was a brilliant creamy orange with its spectacular rings catching the light of the sun. The white, icy moon of Enceladus grew before them until it was the biggest thing in the front viewport as the ship rolled, putting the underside of its hull towards the approaching surface.
“This is incredible,” Tabitha exclaimed, watching with fascination as the ship moved towards the moon.
Mercy and Sabine also agreed.
“I’ve been here once before,” Liz said, “but I don’t
think I’ll ever take sights like this for granted.”
“Absolutely not,” Mercy added.
The ship dropped through the thin atmosphere, the details of its landscape coming into view as the ship zipped down towards the comparatively small castle that stood on its surface in the southern polar region. Nearby, the moon’s plumes of water vapour and other particulates fountained up into the black void of space to fall back to the surface as snow, or be captured by Saturn’s gravity, creating the Jovian’s E-Ring.
The rough surface of the moon raced by below as the ship slowed and the spires of Ultima Thule, the Magi Council’s seat of power, rose into view.
A Link blossomed into life in Liz’s mind.
~Welcome Back. Is this Liz?~ Trevelyan asked.
~Hi, yes, it is,~ she answered, trying to keep her voice calm, but she felt sure that some emotion leaked through.
~Is everything okay?~ he asked.
~Not really,~ Liz answered, doing her best to keep her voice even. ~I’ll tell you when we land, but it’s not good news.~
~Very well,~ Trevelyan answered, and Liz felt the location of where she should land flow through the Link. She followed the directions and brought the ship down onto the landing pad. The Arkady alighted smoothly, making Liz smile for a moment, pleased she was able to handle the ship.
“So, this is Ultima Thule?” Tabitha asked. “It’s amazing. I mean, I’d heard of it, but seeing it is something else.”
Liz smiled for a moment, her companions’ wonder amusing her. “Come on, let’s head outside,” she said and led the three women down to the main deck.
“Okay, we’re here,” Liz announced. “I’m going to head inside and speak with Trevelyan, and whoever else is here. You’re all welcome to come if you want,” she said.
Looking around, nearly everyone was nodding and muttering sounds of agreement that they would go with her.
“I stay here, if that okay?” Gentle Water asked.
“I’ll stay with him,” Maya added.
“That’s fine, call me if you need anything,” Liz said, to which Maya nodded.
“Okay, let’s go.” Liz led the way down to the main loading ramp and walked down it to see Trevelyan and Stephen Bathory waiting for them. Trevelyan smiled at them, but as he looked, she saw his grin fade.
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