The look of intense concentration on his face was a good sign. He was taking this seriously. These techniques might very well one day save his life. My ability to summon Mana quicker than my foe had brought an end to my enemies more than once.
I had taken this next particular exercise from a series of spell books I had recovered when I raided Marcus’s house. I suppose I wanted to preserve something of our art even as I hunted down and killed its practitioners. I would use these books to train Justin.
Justin sat cross-legged on the floor with his hands outstretched on each side of him. Small threads lanced out in erratic motions to catch the falling items and thrust them back into the air. I could see from the look of intense concentration that he was in a losing battle. I heard a muffled curse and a clanging noise from behind me that indicated a bookend had hit the ground, followed in quick succession with four other crashes as the rest of the items quickly followed suit.
“Try again,” I ordered without looking up.
“Sir,” Justin’s voice murmured. “Something’s wrong.”
I glanced up at the boy and cursed as I saw the Mana on his arms attempting to form rudimentary protection. His skills weren’t advanced enough to form the shield field yet, but if they were he would have been throwing everything he had into a shield around him. That was the problem – he had nothing left for the exercise.
I sighed as I glanced down at the shield surrounding me. The Mana had recognised a threat. I cursed myself. I had let my attention wane and was about to pay the price.
“Stay here,” I muttered as I pulled the Mana around me to rise. Now that I was paying attention I could feel the threat too. Someone had managed to sneak up on me, but who knew that I was here? Whoever it was, they had to be a mage – no one else would illicit such a response.
“Stay hidden.” I pondered briefly if I should take the boy with me where he could be protected, but I rejected the idea. It was unlikely the boy was the target. He would be safer in hiding. And I would be stronger if I didn’t have to protect him.
I pulled open the door to the cottage and saw the familiar Mana-soaked aura of a mage on the other side of the road. It was too dark to make out who it was at this distance, but the Mana signature looked familiar. That was to be expected though – there weren’t that many of us left.
I walked out onto the street. The intruder just watched and waited as I approached. They didn’t seem to show any concern, although they held a powerful shield, almost as powerful as mine. They waited patiently as I crept forward, but I could see from the flickers in the pattern of their shield that they weren’t as calm as they appeared. Their shield fluctuated as Mana constantly sought to renew itself. They were worried – no, worse: they were scared.
“State your intention,” I called out as I fought back the urge to simply strike them down. I wouldn’t have even hesitated three days ago. They would already be dead.
“I’m seeking information,” a female voice replied. “No more.”
The accent was strange and her grasp on English was a little off – like a second language. Her voice was familiar, but I couldn’t place where I’d heard it before.
“What information?” I asked as I readied myself for a trap. Perhaps she wasn’t the only one here. Perhaps I was being lured into a false sense of security. It was possible. I’d seen battles go sour when one mage assumed they were in control when in fact they weren’t.
“I’m looking for Gabriel Tychus,” the intruder called back.
A shiver tore through my shield as I suddenly recognised the voice. I immediately threw everything I had into my shield. I had met this woman before, and she had almost killed me. She had once sworn that she would kill me. She thought I had killed her husband. She had tried to exact revenge, but failed. Although I had spared her, she was sure to be still seeking my life. I had assumed she had died in the wars. I’d lost contact with her during the war, but clearly she had survived. Her name was May Chen, and I was now sure that this wouldn’t end without a fight. I should have struck first – it was too late now.
“I’m not looking for a fight, Devon,” May said, although I noticed she’d reinforced her shield, probably in reaction to my shield unconsciously being strengthened too.
“I know that he was with you,” May continued. “I followed your Mana signature from LA. I want to know where he is.”
“How did you find me?” I asked, trying to buying time some time to think.
“Mana residue,” May replied curtly.
I had of course heard of it, but it was awfully difficult to detect. I had never developed the necessary acumen to make much use of it. After more than a few seconds, any residue left behind was next to incomprehensible. It was theoretically possible that May had followed me from the teleport threads I had left behind. I wouldn’t have believed it had any other mage made the claim, but May had been the principle enforcer of the Primea. She had tracked down rogue mages and brought them to justice. She might be telling the truth, but I doubted it. It had been a long time in mana terms since Gabriel had died.
“I know you saw him,” May called out, “and then I lost him. I followed him here. Where is he?”
Shit. Gabriel’s body had burned up, leaving no evidence of his death other than a high Mana residue, which could be mistakenly attributed to the fight that took place at the same site. I could of course lie and say that he simply teleported away, but such deception was beneath me and easy to prove incorrect anyway. May had tracked me from the site of the fight through to the camp in LA and then to here. She wouldn’t have missed a second thread from Gabriel teleporting out.
“You’re lying,” I called out. “You can’t track Mana residue after such a long time.”
“He’s here, I know it!” May hissed.
“He’s dead,” I said. I expected May to immediately strike me down. At first I thought she hadn’t heard me, but then her shoulders slumped in defeat.
“How?”
“Does it matter?”
“You killed him?” May still seemed curiously calm.
“Yes,” I admitted, “but not intentionally.”
“There was a fight,” May prompted. “I found the body of one of our kind. I assumed that Gabriel escaped. I was surprised to find you. I thought you were dead.”
“That was Glave that you found,” I said. “Had I not intervened, Gabriel would have killed him.”
“Where is his body?” May prompted.
“I burned it.”
May’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. The beautiful thing about people who want to kill is that they seldom bother to hide their emotions. They wear their suspicions plainly on their faces. She didn’t trust me and I didn’t blame her.
“No, he’s here!” May repeated. “You’re lying to me!”
“How did you track me?”
“GPS,” May finally admitted softly. She didn’t look happy at the confession.
Shit, I hadn’t even considered that. I had taken Gabriel’s phone after he had died. I had all but forgotten about it. Now that May had drawn attention to it, I could feel its weight in my pocket. I pulled out his phone slowly and showed it to May.
“Then he’s dead?” May whispered calmly.
This was wrong. Something was definitely out of place here. May wasn’t acting as I would have expected from her. That was dangerous. I glanced around again – expecting a trap. I half contemplated sending off an Awareness blast to flush out any others who may be waiting in hiding.
May must have sensed my distraction, because the moment I redirected my power towards an Awareness blast, she attacked. It was brutal, quick and efficient. A thread tore from her small frame and destroyed my shield in seconds, then a trio of disrupt pulses hit me squarely in the chest. I gasped in pain as each disrupt thread tore through my system like a virus. It was over in seconds.
As the Mana in my body was affected, the Mana frame that kept me standing dissipated, and as my support structure was removed I fell to
the ground, dropping the phone as the effect passed over me. I gritted my teeth as I sought to bring what little Mana I could still control to bear. With wrought iron control I brought a shield up, but by this stage May was already standing over me. It wouldn’t take her long to finish me. I cursed myself as I tried to regain control of my powers. I should have struck first. It was ironic, really: the first mage I met after determining I was going to stop killing my kind was the one who would kill me.
I could see the indecision on her face as she glanced at me, trying to decide if I was finished. She had obviously presumed that three pulses would be enough to completely incapacitate my ability to draw Mana – she was wrong. That isn’t to say that I wasn’t in pain - the disrupt pulse was doing a wonderful job of messing with my nervous system. The disrupt effect pulsed through my body with reckless abandon, sending jolts of pain across my chest and side where I had been hit. I tried to clamber away, to push myself from her, but without the Mana I was having trouble controlling my legs.
This was over, and she now knew it.
May reached down and grabbed me by the chin, her shielded fingers crackling with power against my shielded face. She sent a pulse through her hand and into my shield, immediately frying it and bringing it down. I could raise it again, but that wouldn’t buy me more than a few more seconds.
She leaned in and brought her face next to my ear. “I’ve dreamed of this moment.”
I tried to summon the power to teleport out of there. Unfortunately, that was out of my capabilities right then. The disrupt effect caused the Mana in my body to go haywire, and without control I’d be in serious trouble. If I lost focus mid-teleport, I’d scatter my molecules across a wide space between here and wherever I was trying to go.
“You can’t imagine how long I’ve wanted this. I thought it was something that would never happen. I’d heard you were dead, but you’re not. You couldn’t be, because I hadn’t killed you.”
She seemed to be building herself up to something. I could see the conflict in her eyes. Something wasn’t right and it was playing upon her.
“If you’re going to do it, May, do it now,” I grunted.
“So ready to die?” May taunted as she telekinetically wrapped a thread around my throat and brought me into the air. “In every way I’ve thought of this, it was never this easy,” May snarled. “Defeating you as a broken thing isn’t what I wanted. It brings me no pleasure – I wanted to defeat you in your strength.”
“This is all you’re going to get,” I chortled as her thread cut off my airway. I wasn’t going to beg for my life. May thought she was avenging the death of her husband, and for all I knew probably Gabriel’s too. She wasn’t going to listen.
“Do it already!” I gasped as bright lights began flashing in my head.
“Something isn’t right,” she whispered. “Something’s wrong. This was too easy. This is—”
May didn’t get a chance to finish. There was a strangled shout from the house as a small figure barrelled out from the doorway. Several highly ineffective threads were launched at May, which cascaded uselessly against her shield.
“Leave him alone!” Justin howled as he rushed forward.
May dropped me to deal with the new threat as several more of Justin’s threads harmlessly bounced off her shield without even causing a ripple. I drew myself to my feet. It had been some time since I had relied on muscle alone to hold my weight. I was surprised they were able to accomplish the task. They could – but barely, and it hurt.
“Wait,” I called as I threw myself between them, shuddering as my legs protested in agony at this unusual treatment. May could strike him down as easily as she could have finished me off. She didn’t seem inclined to do so though; she stared at Justin in amazement and amusement.
“Leave the kid alone,” I grunted. “He’s not part of this.”
“I have no intention of harming the child,” May muttered contemptuously. “I’m not a murderer.”
She almost spat her accusation at me. Once I would have denied her. I hadn’t murdered her husband; I’d been there when he died, but I wasn’t the one responsible. Her husband and been betrayed by Winters, who had shot him in cold blood from behind to enact his revenge on me. Given that I had gone on to kill Winters, there really was no one else who could bear the brunt of her vengeance.
“You once spared my life.” May murmured quietly, “and so I’m going to do the same.”
“Why? What changed?”
“I’m not going to kill you in front of the kid.”
“So what happens now?”
“I don’t know,” May admitted. “But we should go inside and seek shelter. It’s not safe to be out in the open.”
“Not safe?” I prompted.
May didn’t answer. Instead she took several steps backwards, sighed deeply and lowered her shield. She was vulnerable. I could see the Mana on her flesh almost screaming its protest. Her neck and shoulders were rigid as she forced herself to contain her Mana.
“He’s hunting us through the Mana,” she continued as she took another step forward. I could strike her down now and there would be nothing she could do to stop me.
“Who?”
“You know who.” May’s lips curled in disdain.
“Bullshit! No one’s heard from Victor in six years,” I snapped, then immediately stopped as my mind caught up with my mouth. We had received reports that Killian Voll and Gregory Tibus had both been reported dead. Who had killed them? Voll, in particular, was a powerful mage. He wouldn’t have fallen to just anyone, but he could easily have been overcome by Victor. So that meant what? Victor was cleaning the table? Taking out anyone who had shown themselves? Had he finally chosen to end the war? It seemed likely. I wondered what had prompted a change in tactics amongst my enemies. It was possible that they were reacting to being hunted down and killed by Victor.
“We should go, we’ve expended too much power here anyway,” May said. “I know a safe place.”
“I’m not going to be able to teleport for quite some time,” I said as I gestured to my shattered Mana signature.
“Then we’ll wait,” May finished as she picked up Gabriel’s phone.
* * * * * *
It was rather surreal sitting in the cottage lounge room with a woman who had twice tried to kill me. I could tell from the way that Justin’s eyes never left her that he didn’t trust her either.
She was dressed in much the same way as me, in faded and torn military fatigues. But she looked like she’d been in the field for far longer than I. Her face was criss-crossed with scars and burns.
“You really shouldn’t be carrying this with you,” May murmured as she turned Gabriel’s phone over in her hand.
“I didn’t think about it,” I replied casually as I rose to my feet. The disrupt effect was still playing havoc with my nervous system and it felt better to stretch it out. It wasn’t exactly the kind of thing that you could just walk off, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try.
“No, most of our kind don’t,” May responded. “Gabriel wanted a way to keep in contact without any chance of being intercepted or bringing unwanted attention onto us.”
“Unwanted attention?”
“We’re being hunted.”
I never got a chance to ask her about that as a wave from the disrupt effect that had hit me earlier surged again through my body. The effect hit the Mana structure surrounding me and caused it to fail. As my support was knocked out, I staggered and would have fallen, but fortunately my muscles were able to take the strain. I staggered and limped back over to the recliner. It took me several minutes to reapply the Mana and rebuild the construct.
May stared at me silently during the whole process. I could see her trying to assess me; she would be able to easily see what I was doing, but I could see from the look of confusion on her face she was mystified as to why it was necessary.
“You’re not what I expected,” May murmured finally.
&nbs
p; “No?” I replied curiously. “What did you expect?”
“I don’t know,” May mused. “Something like you used to be – full of surety and fire.”
I laughed. “I was never sure of myself.”
“You know what I mean,” May argued. “You were so full of yourself - you weren’t going to let anyone get in your way. Even when you were declared outcast, it didn’t stop you. I assumed you were dead simply because you weren’t more visible in the world.”
“That changed when Victor broke my back,” I grunted.
“So that’s what happened.”
I nodded briefly. “Yeah. I tried to take him down. I failed. I was very lucky to survive.”
May raised an eyebrow. “You really are. Victor believes that he killed you.”
“You were with Victor?”
May shook her head. “Gabriel was for a time. He told me when he warned me about Victor.”
“Warned you?”
“Yeah, I was on Victor’s target list – still am I suppose,” May reflected sadly. “I was working with Killian Voll. Victor has been killing us off one by one.”
I raised an eyebrow. I hadn’t expected that. May had been working with the mages that I’d spent the last six years tracking down. It was funny the way things work out.
“How did that happen? Last I heard you were working for the Primea.”
May’s eyes flared for a second and her jaw set defiantly. “You really don’t know how bad it was at first – particularly for those close to the Primea,” May said. “Marcus declared himself Primea; he didn’t have the support, but we swore him in anyway. Better to have someone in power than a vacuum. Or at least, that’s what we figured. We were wrong.” May sighed wistfully. “His first order was to declare Victor an outcast for poisoning his mother. This caused chaos.”
I had suspected as much. Victor’s Nazi ties had prevented him from taking the Primeaship during the last round of elections. The posting was supposed to go to the most powerful among us, which would have been Victor; however, that would have led to a war as no one was comfortable with a Nazi in a position of power. Instead, Victor had opted to retire and throw his support behind another candidate. One that he assumed he could control. At least, I assumed that had been his plan. This had all happened about forty years before my birth so I couldn’t be sure of the exact details. When I had first met the Primea, she had been old and sick - from what I had heard she had never been that well to begin with. Perhaps that had been Victor’s plan all along – to become the power behind the throne.
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