by Andur
Most mages don't have the ability to influence their outer appearance. That's something our doctors achieve with various treatments. Without them you simply age slowly. Since an immigrant like Markus didn't have access to our treatments it means that he has to be really old. Somewhere between five hundred and six hundred years?
After putting on my cloak I leave the bedroom. “There is a meeting I have to attend to, but since when do I have a ranking in fighting power?”
“It's just something like a personal list of us faceless. It contains the most dangerous entities within our jurisdiction. It's good to know the people whom you have to keep an eye on.” Ed explains. “So I'll be searching for the fleeing blood-mage. Just stay careful.” He disconnects and leaves me to my thoughts.
Since I am already awake I decide to use the time to walk slowly to my office a few blocks down the street. Once I am there I quickly take a look at the information which Ed sent me. The faceless found him by following the links between him and the middleman to my secretary.
Markus Ledoux was ordered to leave the immigrant quarters after he was positively tested for blood magic. Then he went on a rampage to escape imprisonment and further interrogation. The first faceless who fell to him was taken out by surprise.
Markus attacked him out of nowhere after agreeing to follow him. On his escape he encountered two more faceless who caught up to him. Those two got completely overpowered in a magical duel. What strikes me as strange is that he was reading from something like a spellbook. No, calling it a spellbook goes too far. The thing in his hands was just a set of loose and really old parchments.
I send Ed a short text message in which I ask him about the pages in more detail. Reading or speaking during an incantation is nothing more than a help to form the necessary energy pattern.
Does that guy have some really old magic at hand? A grimoire?
My thoughts are interrupted by the arrival of Galia and our two guests from Earth. I gesture for them to take a seat. “I hope you are having a nice stay.”
Roderik Waldheim and his assistant Kandy Frinil take their seats across from me. “We had a few nice days, taking a look at the city and your culture.”
“Yes, but I still find it hard to wrap my head around the historic side of all this. The other day we also got to see a real fight between two of your citizens. They mangled each other like maniacs! Throwing magic and spells around.” Kandy informs me.
I shrug my shoulders. “Magic is giving us the ability to heal a lot faster, so we are a little less biased towards injuries. If two people have a problem with each other they can duke it out as long as they don't cross the line.”
“So what's crossing the line? It looked to me like they were crossing the line.” Roderik asks with raised eyebrows.
“Deprivation of freedom, mugging, torture, taking it out on someone who is definitely weaker than you. As long as they don't kill each other or cause a permanent problem it's okay.” I explain. “Think of what you saw that day as a regular bar fight. That's why we gave you the guides. That reminds me. Do you want to visit a party of mine in a few weeks?”
Galia claps her hands together. “Oh, that's actually a nice idea. Gideon is going to announce his marriage contract with his girlfriend. You said that you want to know more about our culture.”
The assistant turns her attention from Galia to me. “You are going to marry? I thought you aren't religious.”
“It's not exactly a marriage in a religious sense. We simply vow that we will look out for each other and take care of our offspring together. The one who breaks the contract has to face legal jurisdiction. It's mainly to protect eventual children until they are grown up.” I explain.
“And once they are grown up?” Kandy asks.
“Then the contract is fulfilled and may be cancelled if we don't feel like staying together any longer. It's not expected that people with our long lifespans stay with each other until the end of time.” I clear my desk from some documents while going on with my explanation.
“There is also this drug-incident all over the news. Galia already explained it to us and we got one of these scanners, but is the situation really that dangerous.” Roderik changes the topic.
I nod. “We managed to almost completely remove such influences from our society. I already explained that we are very lenient in regards to what someone does to himself. But that drug practically takes away ones freedom. There is no way we can overlook that. It's too dangerous.”
We continue our discussion about the implications and potential results for Earth. Apparently our drug dealer kept a relatively low profile while he was on the planet. Maybe he would have done so on Aether too, but the accident ended his plans and made the authorities aware of him. There is also the point that Earth's medical knowledge wouldn't even recognize the drug as a dependence causing substance. They wouldn't know what to look for.
Another call by Ed makes me drop my friendly demeanour from one moment to the next. “There was an attack on your house.”
“What!?” I call out, leaping to my feet and startling my visitors. Ignoring all safety regulations I activate a teleportation spell and take a part of my office table with me.
Arriving at my home I find Cyla arguing with Ed and my grandmother. She has a bruise on her face and her hands are covered with blood. There is a big hole in my house where we once had a window.
“Cyla! Are you okay. You aren't hurt, right?” I approach fast, but Cyla raises her hand to show me that it isn't her blood.
“I am fine, but they abducted Amia. We've to find her!” She says with an angry voice. “Five people broke into the house. I was in the kitchen at that moment, so Amia answered the door. They took her and the rest tried to get more captives, but we managed to fight them off. While I and Melan had our hands full with two of them the other three overwhelmed Amia and carried her away.”
“That might actually turn out to be a hard task. They had a teleporter with them to escape. They could be anywhere on Aether.” Ed mumbles to himself.
“Not with me. We just have to follow her signal. But I don't get why they would want to abduct Amia.” I quickly access the network and order a small program of mine to display the whereabouts of the people who are affiliated to me.
“What do you mean.” Melan asks astounded.
I pull a small screen from my robe and order it to display my little tracking program. “I've put a tracker on Amia. Just in case.”
“You know that such a thing is illegal?” Ed asks, taking a look at the screen which shows Amia's position inside the city.
“Why are there so many dots at our mansion, the government building and Rhiannon's workplace?” Melan asks with a hushed voice.
I quickly give the command to display only Amia's tracking device. “I don't know what you are talking about.”
Cyla takes the screen from me and accesses my program. “Melan, Hedeon, Cyla, Rhiannon, ... you also have Ed!”
“What!?” Ed starts touching himself, searching for the bug. “I am overlooking many things, Gideon. But this could get you into real trouble.”
“It was just a basic precaution against cases like these. Can we simply overlook this and get it over with?” I ask.
That's when I get a call from an unknown number. I take it to inform the nuisance who is calling me that it's highly inconvenient at the moment. “Yes, Gideon Alvar, Governor of Aether. I've no time for you at the moment.”
“But I think you have the time. Here is Markus.” A voice answers me over the connection. “And I think I may have someone important to you.”
“Not really-” My answer is interrupted by Cyla's slap to my cheek, so I decide to re-evaluate my answer. “Of course you have someone -very- important to me. I want her back!”
“If you want your girlfriend back you've to ready a ship for me and my followers. We'll meet you at the docks in five hours. I warn you, I've control over the family members of several influential people.” The connecti
on is closed without further ado.
“Idiot. He abducted the wrong one.” I grimace at the thought that it could have been Cyla. “They are inside a warehouse of the agricultural department. Probably Markus is hiding himself there with a few bonded people.”
“Give me just a few minutes! I'll assemble a suitable attack force. We need a lot more fighting power if it's true that he controls several innocent people. Otherwise we can't subdue them without killing.” Ed runs off to give commands to his subordinates.
“We can't?” Wouldn't it be much easier if we simply kill them? I am no expert in blood-magic, but the whole bonding stuff sounds like the best strategy is to first kill off all the master's minions to rob him of his power pool.
Melan crosses her arms in front of her chest. “No! We can't kill off innocents who are controlled against their will.”
I try to reason. “But they are aiding him.”
“There is a difference between freely given assistance and being forced like a slave.” Cyla replies.
I give up and wait with them for Ed to assemble his people. It took him a while, but finally we've twenty faceless and ten battle sprites at our disposal. The plan is to teleport ourselves directly above the warehouse with Amia inside. Then we'll breach it from all sides at once and use maximum force to subdue everyone inside.
It's a rash and hasty plan, but in the current situation we are hoping that Markus isn't expecting a full force counter attack that fast. I also don't believe that negotiating with such a man does us any good.
Melan, Cyla and I form a triangle around the faceless. I perform a gravity spell to lift all of us a few metres above the ground, then all three of us start working on a teleportation spell to translocate the entire group to the warehouse.
53. ~Repercussions.~
“
Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, is a medieval Practical Kabbalah grimoire, primarily written in Hebrew and Aramaic, but surviving also in Latin translation, as Liber Razielis Archangeli, in a 13th-century manuscript produced under Alfonso X.
Upon further examination of the book it was found out that its runic alphabet was most likely the first diagram for techno-magic, its symbols highly resembling modern circuit boards.
”
-Mages and their influences on the normals
Sol, Aether
Gideon
We appear right above the warehouse and Ed's men spread out immediately, searching for entrances. The warehouse itself is surrounded by fields, being located in the agricultural part of the city. Ed's men aren't picky in their choices. Windows and the roof's trapdoor serve as entrances as well as doors. But most of them are creative enough to avoid the obvious offered breaching points and blow their own way inside.
I stay back and wait and with Melan and Cyla while hovering above the warehouse. Ed gave me access to the private network of his battle sprites. This way I can observe the attack from their point of view and go in as soon as Markus is found.
The first few moments of the attack go as planned. Surprised people inside the warehouse are overwhelmed and taken down as they are encountered.
The battle sprite from which I am observing the operations rushes along the ceiling, launching gas grenades with tear gas in all directions and firing its stun gun at targets of opportunity.
Markus managed to woo over twenty people. I am not sure if they are just addicted or genuinely bonded to him.
It's when the first faceless breach the central part of the building that everything goes to hell. My battle sprite reaches the centre of the building and gets its camera eyes on a bloody pentagram on the floor. It's riddled with mad and senseless symbols with Amia lying in the middle.
A man whom I assume to be Markus is standing above her with a glass in his hand. The glass is filled with blood and he looks a little surprised.
But he quickly overcomes his initial shock and pushes his hand into the glass. Then he points his bloody fingers at the battle sprite.
My point of view is disconnected and a blast of blazing energy bursts out of the warehouse, taking a part of it with it. I myself am a little shocked at this display of power. Markus is packing a serious punch.
Switching to another point of view I decide that it's time to intervene. By gaining the exact position of Markus from another sprite I try to teleport myself in a way that severs his head from his body.
But my spell doesn't work. The coordinates keep shifting away from Markus until I realize that the raw power within him causes an interference phenomenon.
That leaves me with no other choice but to go in and risk my own neck. I teleport and appear right behind Markus. Reinforcing my own body with magic I ram my left hand right into his body where his heart should be. My hand pushes completely through, exiting through his chest. Having accomplished that I pull forth a surge of energy to electrocute my opponent.
Cyla appears right next to Amia and the strange feeling of prickling feeling of a thousand needles runs all over my body. Then Cyla teleports once more, taking Amia with her and the strange feeling is gone.
“Noooo!” Markus screams in rage. “You interrupted the ritual.” His body goes into convulsions as I pour more electricity into his body.
It looks well until my opponent's twitching body suddenly turns around, pulling me with him. His elbow impacts my temple and I am flung away, tumbling and breaking through the warehouse's wall.
Vaguely I notice that Markus is jumping after me. So I use a force-spell to divert his path, sending him off course.
My head and my body hurt like hell, but I try to stay focused and use a part of my power to activate a healing spell while I search for the warehouse's power-line. I just dealt a lethal blow to my opponent. At least it should have been lethal. If I use too much of my power inefficiently I may not win this. Healing is one of the traits at which I am no expert.
Markus points his fingers at me, but I already know what I've to expect. His energy beam sears through empty space and I reappear to his left.
Not losing any time I blast him with a thunder bolt and jump to the side as another surge of power turns the field under me to smouldering lava. It carves a deep trench into the ground and I don't fail to notice the excavated power-line which was revealed by the attack.
Markus doesn't even flinch upon being electrocuted with a few thousand volts and I watch in fascination as the wound in his chest starts closing. Regeneration? If that isn't an unfair cheat I don't know what else to say.
Then he rushes forward in an explosion of speed. I realize in dismay that my body can't keep up with my accelerated mind. But just before Markus reaches me he is suddenly accelerated downwards and belly-flops into the field under us.
From the corners of my vision I realize that Melan and Cyla joined in and increased the gravity in an area between me and Markus. When he decided to return the fight to close combat he jumped right into the affected area.
But despite the increased gravity Markus gets up, compressing the dirt under him even further. His hand reaches once more for me and I ready myself to teleport away.
Just when he is about to fire Cyla appears right in front of me and I open my mouth to scream, reaching forward to teleport her with me.
The beam of energy blazes towards us, but bends away upon reaching Cyla's outstretched hands. The energy curves around us and back towards Markus. Black orbs of nothingness appear around Cyla and I realize what she must've done. She created such a strong gravitational effect to even bend space while locating the effect to a limited room.
My hand touches her just as my left foot comes close to one of the orbs and I notice an unhealthy cracking sound. Then I connect to her.
~Pull back! You are overdoing it!~
~I can't. He tried to kill you.~
~You'll kill us both or at least yourself if you overuse your power any further. I could've teleported away, you are overreacting.~
~I didn't think!~
~I'll teleport us away, but you've to drop the gravity m
agic at the same time.~
~I'll try.~
With a huge effort I teleport us away from the rippling effect of Cyla's artificial singularities. Though I am not really sure if they actually are singularities.
Both of us appear in the field further towards the damaged warehouse and I erect a shield to protect us from the randomly sheering and splitting beams of energy which are created by the combination of Cyla's spell becoming uncontrolled and our opponent's energy beam.
I reach for Cyla's mind and realize that she is completely powered out. Returning that spell on Markus used up all her energy. “Stay down.” I get up and apply a very draining healing spell to my broken leg. The bone snaps back into place and mends. It's a dirty job and will have to be looked at by a real doctor, but the spell is good for emergency repairs.
A body appears from the cloud of smoke and ash where Cyla hit Markus with his own redirected energy blast. At least he didn't take his own magic very well. He is a walking, charred corpse, stumbling forward. But as I watch the burned pieces of his body start falling off, revealing smooth and new skin.
He has the parchments from the video in his hands and is reading from it, completely ignoring his surroundings.
I start running and reach out for the power-line which was unearthed by one of Markus's energy blasts. Then I drink in the power, hurling myself further forward at Markus who is still in the process of healing himself.
Both of us go to the ground and roll through the dirt while I run my energies through his body. As I do so he is doing the same with his pool of power. The fight turns into a mere struggle for power and energy. Converting, manipulating, stealing, using only the raw basics of invoking magic.
It isn't even using magic, just manipulating energies.
His fist impacts my chin, but I barely notice it and retreat to my own reality, treating my body like a tool. Everything is fine as long as the electrical pattern which makes up my consciousness isn't hurt or damaged.