Magi Legend

by Andrew Dobell

  She guessed that if she were a Riven working here and fights were happening with people getting killed, she too would be quick to resign and leave.

  Even a great job wasn’t worth dying over.

  “You look a little short-staffed,” Amanda commented.

  “No shit,” Echo answered, and Amanda got the distinct impression that she didn’t want to talk about it. Not with her, anyway.

  Amanda nodded and decided not to pursue it any further.

  Walking deeper into the building and going up a level using a wide set of stairs, Echo led her into a suite of private rooms, and then finally into another room that had a more medical feel to it.

  Mr Black’s body was still huge and deformed, and Amanda still wasn’t clear on how he’d come to be that way. When she’d first met him, he was a short, stooped old man using a stick to help him walk, but after the events on the atoll, he had disappeared.

  The first time she had seen him since then was very recently during the fight with Yasmin. She had been shocked to see him then, but seeing him laid out here on seven trolleys standing side-by-side to create a bed wide enough for him, really brought home to her just how big he was. He was hooked up to an EKG machine that was beeping softly in the background as it monitored his heart rate. He was alive, her Magical sight confirmed that, but unconscious.

  She guessed he was maybe ten feet tall, but he was thick, too. His bulging arms were layered in muscle while his deformed face looked melted and ugly. He didn’t seem to even have a nose any more. She found it difficult to look at him, he was so alien-looking.

  Echo turned to her where she stood in the doorway. “Shocking to see him like this, isn’t it?”

  “There’s something about seeing him in a normal, human-sized room that is disconcerting, yes,” she admitted.

  “Well, here he is. If you can help him, now would be the time,” Echo said. Amanda could hear the disbelief and challenge in Echo’s words and knew she thought this was ridiculous. Honestly, Amanda had no idea if it was going to work, but if there was anyone who might be able to help him, it would be Sophia.

  “Very well,” she said, and reached back into her mind, calling on her mother for help. ~Can he be revived?~

  ~Of course, but not by your Magic alone,~ Sophia answered. ~Would you like my help?~

  ~Yes, please.~

  ~Very well, work your Magic, direct it as you wish, I will make it happen.~

  Amanda opened her eyes, which she realised she’d closed during her brief chat with Sophia, and concentrated.

  Her Essentia surged, and she felt the boost in power right away. It wasn’t just her power, though, that was different. The whole feel and flavour of her Magic seemed changed as she reached out for Mr Black and willed him to be healed. As she watched, she could see the Aeon’s Magic working, bringing him back from the brink. As it healed him, she knew she wanted to do more for him than just treat his wounds.

  His body was no longer his anymore and hadn’t been for a long time.

  After time travelling to save his family, the Weaver had aged his body fifty years as punishment.

  She believed he’d served his time, though. As the healing worked, Amanda added in the intent to change him from this hulking behemoth, back into a twenty-year-old man. She wanted to give him his life back.

  As she watched and her Magic rippled through him, she saw his body start to shrink, and sure enough, in a matter of moments, he was looking very much like the man she’d seen during her time travel.

  He was a young man, with the mind of a forty-year-old, but that wasn’t all. As she finished up her Magic and she looked at him again in greater detail, she noticed that the Orb’s Magic had not left him entirely. His body, even after she had returned it to that of a young man, was different.

  His body was strong and powerful, and she could sense that there was something Magical within him. He was healed now, though, so she withdrew, pulling her Magic back.

  The moment her Magic had left him, an Aegis sprang up around him, generated from the Magical energy within him. He wasn’t a Magus, though. She was sure of that. He was something different. Something new.

  With his Aegis in place, Mr Black’s eyes flickered open. He blinked a few times and looked around.

  “Echo, Amanda, ugh, where am I?” he muttered as he sat up and looked around the room.

  “Dad! It’s okay, you’re on the island,” Echo said, rushing to his side. “Are you okay? How do you feel?”

  “I… Well, I feel great, actually,” he said as he looked down at his hands. He turned them over a couple of times before he looked up at Echo again. “Get me a mirror.”

  Echo conjured one into her hand. He took it and looked at his reflection. “Oh my God, I’m young again.”

  “You’re welcome,” Amanda said.

  He turned to look at her. “You did this?”

  “Sort of,” she said, smiling.

  “Yes, she did,” Echo confirmed. “Thank you, Amanda. Thank you so much.”

  “This is incredible, how did you?” Mr Black asked. “What about the Weaver?”

  Amanda smiled. “The Weaver and me, we’re tight now. He won’t mind.”

  “This is incredible. I don’t know how to thank you,” he said, looking back in the mirror, his eyes wide and twinkling with happiness. Seeing his obvious joy at his young appearance pleased Amanda to no end.

  “Your appreciation and thanks are more than enough,” she said.

  “Did you come here just to do this?” he asked.

  “That was part of the reason for my visit,” Amanda answered.

  “And the other part?”

  “Well,” she said, taking a breath. “I came to tell you that I met my mother recently.”

  “Your mother? You mean, Sophia? She’s alive?”

  “I guess you could say that.”

  “Alright. Great. Are you going to elaborate?”

  “I can, but it’s kind of trippy,” she said.

  “Isn’t everything, where the Magi are concerned?”

  “Yes, indeed, even more so with me, it seems. Okay, well, my mother isn’t a Magus. In fact, she isn’t even human. She comes from a race of beings called Aeons that live between universes. She has visited Earth a few times over the millennia, and on one of those visits, she took the human form that you met the night before your time travel. So, you were right, you did get her pregnant and I am your daughter.”

  He gave Amanda a strange look for a moment and then inclined his head slightly. “So, are you human?”

  “Part. I’m also part Aeon,” she answered. It was strange to say it out loud, and honestly, she didn’t know exactly what it meant to be part Aeon. Sophia hadn’t been terribly clear on that point, but maybe she’d find out one day.

  “Wow,” Mr Black said.

  “Yeah, that was my first reaction, too. For now, I can channel Sophia’s power, and it was her power which allowed me to help you and return you to your younger-self.”

  “And I am very grateful for it,” he said. “Thank Sophia for me, too.”

  “I will,” she said. “So, what are you going to do now?”

  Shuffling to the side of the huge bed he’d been sitting in the middle of, he looked up at her. “Honestly, I don’t know. I’ll figure something out.”

  “I’m sure you will,” she said with a smile. “Look, I’m kind of dealing with something myself right now, so I have to be going, but can I come and see you again sometime?”

  He dropped down off the bed and stood before her. “Of course, anytime.”

  “Thank you,” Amanda said, sensing a new side to him and a slightly brighter, maybe more optimistic tone to his voice. “Can I Link with you?”

  “Absolutely,” he answered.

  She reached out, and offered the Mental Link to him, which he accepted, causing the Link between them to flare into life. “Thanks. I’ll get going.”

  “Dominic,” he said.

  “Sorry?”

&n
bsp; “My name, it’s Dominic. Dominic Black.”

  “Ah, okay. Thank you,” she said with a smile. She’d always thought that calling him Mr Black was a fairly odd thing to do, but she’d never really thought about it too much. It seemed that he was someone who liked his privacy and cultivated a mysterious identity around himself, and his name was a part of that. It was nice to know that he did actually have a name, though.

  “Anytime.”

  Within moments, she’d walked out of the building, a feeling of happiness and satisfaction filling her up, knowing she’d helped him and by doing so, strengthened their relationship. She did still wonder what he might do going forward, though. It seemed to her that the Syndicate, his organisation, had finally fallen apart after everything it had been through. He was still a wealthy man, though, so he could do pretty much anything he wanted.

  She’d follow up on him soon and see what he was getting up to. In the meantime, she had a Nomad to deal with. Working her Magic, she Ported herself back to New York and appeared in the main room to see Shaun sitting before his bank of workstations with Trevelyan, Stephen, Maria, Maya, and several others stood behind him.

  Most of the people there sensed her arrival and looked around.

  “Mandy, come here,” Maria said waving her over.

  “Yasmin’s made her move,” Liz added.

  “What’s she doing?” Amanda asked.

  “She’s attacked the Vatican,” Liz explained.

  “I’ve had messages from several informants who’ve confirmed sightings of members of the Black Knights and Yasmin herself,” Shaun said.

  “She’s gone after the Inquisition?” Amanda muttered under her breath. “They don’t stand a chance.”

  “Good,” Liz said, a note of spite in her voice.

  “Perhaps,” nodded Amanda. “But there are lots of innocent people there, too, and I don’t want them to suffer. I’m going, who’s with me?”

  - The Vatican, Rome, Italy.

  Assunta swung her blade and finally brought it down into the Hell-spawn's shoulder with a flare of blessed energy from the Lord that burnt the Vampire, causing it to scream in agony.

  “Die, Demon,” Assunta said as she ripped the blade from the beast.

  Augusto was behind her and engaged in a similar fight. She heard him grunt and was about to turn and help him when she sensed more of Satan’s Magic and a woman in a deep, ragged cloak appeared.

  She had a somewhat inhuman appearance to her with out-of-proportion features and two parallel vertical scars that ran down through where her wide eyes were.

  “Ah, a Witch,” Assunta said, and silently prayed for more of God’s power to imbue her sword. She felt the Godly energy flow through the blade in her hands as she ran towards the Witch, brandishing the sword high, ready to bring righteous justice to the abomination.

  She sensed Magic from the Witch, and felt sudden horrible pain blossom over her entire body, only to feel herself stumble, and then blackness.

  Assunta felt no more.

  Basilica

  The Vatican, Rome

  Essentia rushed through her as she Ported partway around the world and appeared in Rome. She, along with a good number of the Sigil and others from Shaun’s base under New York, found themselves standing on the roof of Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

  A warm breeze rushed past her as soon as she appeared, but it felt a little too warm to be the natural air temperature. She looked to her right, south of the domed Basilica to the building that Amanda knew the Inquisition was based in. It was aflame with gouts of bright orange fire licking from some of the windows and smoke pouring into the sky high above.

  Sirens could be heard nearby, while shouts and screams came from below as the tourists ran every which way and the authorities tried to get a handle on what was happening.

  Yasmin wasn’t messing about. This was a very public attack and a lot of innocents would die if she wasn’t stopped.

  Amanda could sense Magic flaring in the Inquisition building, suggesting the attack was still ongoing, and as she considered her next move, she felt another burst of Essentia below her in the Basilica itself.

  The latest flare felt familiar, though, and had a power to it that was powerful and unmistakable. Unless she was very much mistaken, Yasmin was in the Basilica.

  Part of her was tempted to just take everyone right to her, but she wasn’t keen on letting civilian authorities into the Inquisitorial building where they might run into some of the less savoury aspects of the Magi world, such as rampaging Werewolves, Vampires, or Nomads.

  Amanda turned and looked to Trevelyan as everyone took in the scene.

  “Trevelyan, take Liz, Maya, Tabitha, Celest, and Mercy over to the Inquisition building and check it out. Emergency services will be in there shortly, and I don’t want them attacked by Scions. Sweep it and then come back to me, okay?”

  “No problem,” Trevelyan said, and Essentia flared as he Ported himself and the others from the rooftop.

  Amanda turned to Stephen, Maria, and Sabine. “You’re with me,” she said.

  “Okay,” Maria answered, and Sabine nodded her understanding.

  “Let’s go.” Working her Magic, she Ported them into the building. The air snapped, and she found herself standing inside the nave of the Basilica, facing the large dark gold Papal altar in front of them.

  Amanda realised she’d never actually been in here before, and couldn’t resist a quick look around the impressive building. It was huge. The walls were a mix of stone and gold, interspersed with statues and paintings. It was a very impressive sight, but she pulled her eyes away from the beauty of it and noticed the beginnings of a confrontation up ahead.

  As Amanda strode forward she saw that there were two distinct groups of people.

  They were moving from left to right, with Yasmin, Kez, and a couple of Black Knights she was less familiar with approaching or following another group on the right. With her Aetheric Sight, she knew right away that nearly everyone here was a Magus, apart from a couple of the people in the right-hand group.

  Those guys were clearly a part of the Church with their priestly clothing, and they seemed to be gathering around one man in particular. He was old and a little stooped, but he glowed brightly with Essentia, marking him as powerful. He also seemed to be keen to face Yasmin as the others in his group were practically pulling him away from her.

  “You have no right to be here, Witch!” the old man shouted. “Do you think you can best me? The Glory of God will protect me,” he said in Italian with a Middle Eastern accent.

  “Let’s test that out, shall we, Peter?” Yasmin taunted.

  Peter? Amanda frowned in disbelief. She knew the stories that Simon Peter, the Apostle of Christ was the founder of the Inquisition and was still alive, but she supposed part of her just didn’t believe it. And yet, here he was. The legends were true it seemed.

  Yasmin sent a wave of Magical energy out over the group and sent several of those trying to protect the old man sprawling, but Peter’s Aegis held firm.

  The old man glanced at his fallen allies and then back at Yasmin. Amanda felt sure she spotted a degree of worry crossing his face. “Who are you?” Peter asked.

  “The end of your world,” Yasmin said.

  “Don’t be so dramatic,” Amanda called out, wanting to make her presence felt.

  Yasmin’s head flicked around to look at her, a look of surprise on her face that swiftly turned to annoyance.

  “Amanda, welcome to the party,” Yasmin called out before she glanced at Kez. “Keep her away.” Yasmin looked back at Amanda with pure hatred before she returned her attention to Peter. “Now, where were we?”

  Kez worked her Magic, and an Aegis snapped up around everyone but Yasmin, Peter, and his retinue.

  “Huh,” Amanda grunted, her eyes glancing at the dome of Essentia that now surrounded them.

  As she watched, Yasmin approached Peter like a cat stalking her prey, building her Essentia
as she went. The Inquisitors, Crusaders, and members of the clergy rushed to defend Peter, only for Yasmin to rip into them with her Magic, tearing them apart with little more than a thought.

  Magic hit Amanda like a battering ram as Essentia Strikes and bolts of energy lanced out at her, striking her Aegis and making her stumble back a step.

  Amanda looked at Kez, who was working more Magic, readying another attack, but Amanda beat her to it. With her mind already enchanted with Multitasking, she sent a series of Essentia Strikes at Kez, lashing out at her with a Magical energy barrage and trying her best to smash through the Nomad’s Aegis.

  ***

  Essentia surged around Liz. A flash of lightning exploded from her hand and smashed into a Crusader Knight, crashing him into the wall and killing him. She walked over and picked up his dropped blade that was glowing with Essentia and felt its weight.

  ~How we doing, guys?~ Liz asked through the Link she had with the others in the building.

  ~This place is a mess,~ Mercy answered.

  ~Yasmin’s coven sure did a number on it,~ Tabitha added.

  Liz had to agree. There were dead bodies everywhere. Mainly Inquisitors, Crusaders, and the admin staff of the organisation. There were so many dead, Liz wondered if this was the death knell for the Inquisition. She wasn’t sure how they’d be able to recover from this.

  ~Just clear it of anything incriminating. We don’t want the Riven authorities finding any Werewolf corpses in here,~ Trevelyan said.

  ~Sure thing,~ Liz answered. The others also answered in the affirmative.

  She moved on up the next set of stairs into a more ornately decorated floor of the building that was just as gutted as the rest. As she walked onto the landing, she found she had to pick her way over the dead bodies. There were just so many, and yet, Liz felt little in the way of remorse for them. The Inquisition had been the cause of so much pain for her that seeing it so thoroughly ruined came as something of a relief.

  To her right, Liz spotted a man crouched on the floor. He wasn’t a Magus or Scion, and he didn’t have anything Magical on him. He was a Riven, and as Liz approached, she heard him sobbing.