by Ryan Attard
She fidgeted in her seat. “Do you remember when Mephisto once mentioned laws for the magical world?”
I nodded.
“At the time, I thought it was only a set of command rules, like a code of ethics, to keep us from spiraling into chaos. But I was wrong. There exists a council of ten wizards who have set rules in place. They roam the plane, always vigilant.”
Gil visibly shuddered.
“They are called the Grigori, a council of ten wizards, each powerful enough to level a city if they so wished. These are the people who set the standards for magic users as well as the limitations. They created these laws and summarily deal with anyone who refuses to toe the line. No one knows what these rules are, or how far their limitations go. I suspect their laws only apply to the most dangerous corners of magic. Public knowledge may inspire certain lunatics to vie for the attention of the Grigori by attaining such power. But I do know of one rule: the existence of the Grigori must never be revealed.”
She smiled. “That is, unless it is by a member of the Grigori themselves.”
My eyes widened. “So, you’re a member of this council now?”
“Not quite,” she replied. “More of an honorary member. Our ancestor, who led the assault on Hell, was one such member. All the Heads of Household, even our father, held an honorary position amongst the council. It was the Grigori who set the rule that Warlocks are not to alter other planes of existence. Some time ago, a council member extended me the offer of honorary membership. But unlike our ancestors, I intend to become a full-fledged member.”
“Awesome,” I said sarcastically. “You wanna join a team of super executioners. Good luck.”
“These are the wizards who control and regulate all others. They are the sculptors of continents and puppeteers of civilizations.” There was a twinkle was in her eye. “I want to be the most powerful I can be without resorting to the unscrupulous methods of our father and those before him.”
“Huh. Yeah, like that can happen,” I said sarcastically.
“It can and it will,” she replied vehemently. “Because I will it so.”
“Look at you, already got the attitude of a… what was it?” I said mockingly.
“Sculptor of continents and puppeteer of civilizations,” Amaymon supplied.
“What he said.”
“I don’t have to justify my actions to you, Erik,” she replied coolly. “But you are missing the point.”
“Yeah? And what would that be?”
“I mentioned that a Grigori member personally contacted me. Doesn’t that strike you as strange? I mean, sure, an invitation of such merit is not something to be done over the phone, but they do have messengers and errand boys,” she said.
“Get to the point, Gil.”
“The point is, brother,” she said, “that your actions with Dad and Crowley and all this ‘save the innocent’ drivel has put you on their radar. The council member was here because of you. It was only out of courtesy and luck that he stopped by the mansion first.”
“Really? How is that lucky?”
“Because I accepted the invitation,” she replied with glee. “This entire area is officially under my jurisdiction now, including you. Which means, if you mess up, the Grigori will come after my head before coming after yours.”
“So, what am I supposed to do, ask for your permission before doing something?” I asked as my temper started rising.
Here she goes, trying to control my life. Well, I wasn’t having any of it.
“I don’t care about any of this crap, Gil. I’m gonna do my thing. If the Grigori have a problem with that, let ‘em come.”
Gil rose to leave. “Even if it means endangering your sister?”
“I know you, Gil,” I replied. “You’re smart—smarter than anyone I know. I’m sure you can cover your ass.”
She smiled. “Thank you. I will not interfere unless I have to. And remember, this conversation never happened.”
“Grigori who?” I said as I walked her to the door.
She turned towards me. “You know, you make one good Warlock, Erik. Pity we are in this situation.”
“Yeah, pity,” I replied. “But you’re wrong on one thing, Gil. I’m no Warlock.”
“Oh?”
“I’m just a guy with a glowing sword and a Ghostbusters act,” I replied. “Say hi to Satan for me.”
I shut the door in her face and smiled.
Erik, one; Gil, zero.
It felt good to be a badass.
Chapter 44
Now
I settled the glass back down. It was completely empty. There were still a couple of shots left in the bottle, but they did not call out to me.
“After that, it’s pretty much history,” I said. “Amaymon and I took cases, helping out wherever we could. Then, nearly a year ago, Jehudiel showed up and told us about Abi. I found out about the Sins and the angels warring against them. This is the prologue of a war between Heaven and Hell, and my sister chose the Heaven side.”
“Do you intend to make the same choice as Gil?” Sun Tzu asked.
“You mean, do I intend take sides?” I asked. “No. My side is this one, Earth. If the tables were turned, and Heaven was the one who wanted to conquer, then I’d kick their feathery asses just the same.”
Sun Tzu said nothing but nodded. There was no judgment in his eyes; only respect.
And there it was, my life story, finished.
A myriad of feelings went through me, and something like a panic attack threatened to overtake me. I was so distracted by the whole thing that I didn’t feel Abi sneaking up behind me.
“Guess who?” she said as I felt her hands on my shoulder.
My hand was already on Djinn’s handle but the sound of her voice saved her from getting stabbed. I turned around, ready to reprimand her, and saw nothing. I felt her hand on my shoulder, the heat coming from her body, and heard the sound of her breathing, stifling a giggling, but I couldn’t see her.
“What the-”
She appeared suddenly, making me jump in my seat. The damn redhead was laughing her head off.
“Not cute,” I said as I tried, and failed, to maintain some dignity.
“You should have seen your face,” she said in between laughs.
“So, what do you think?” she asked once her laughing fit ceased. “I learned a couple of tricks.”
“Yeah? Like what?” I asked.
“I’m part succubus, right?” she answered. “Which means I can play around with minds and make them all foggy and lusty. But because I’m a hybrid and can also use magic, I can take that a step further. I can create illusions, mess with senses, send messages, read personalities and,” she said with glee, “check this out.”
She pointed at the table and concentrated. One of the bottles levitated a quarter of an inch before wobbling and pathetically toppling over.
Amaymon pointed at the bottle. “Did something happen?”
Abi shot him a dark look. “It’s still a work in progress,” she pouted. “After managing that telekinetic pull on the stop sign, I kept trying to fine-tune that power. Seems I can only pull it off when I’m in real danger.” Her expression brightened. “But hey, I snuck up on Erik. That’s got to earn me some points.”
“He ain’t exactly the most focused person right now,” replied the demon.
Abi looked at me. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah,” I said, waving her off. “Just a bit of therapy.”
“Erik just shared his background with us,” Sun Tzu interjected.
“Oh,” she said. “I wanted to hear that.”
“I’m sorry, Abi, but once was hard enough,” I said.
“Oh,” she said, partially crestfallen. Then her mood brightened up. “Don’t worry about it, the cat will fill me in.”
Amaymon winked at her. “Sure, I will, babe,” he said with a sleazy tone. “In whichever way you want.”
I felt my stomach turn, but Abi calmly looked at hi
m and reached behind her.
“Hey, kitty, how would you like a stick up your ass?” she said. A little golden rod in her hand expanded until it reached two feet in length.
I let out a low whistle.
“Got the king, huh?” I said.
I extracted Djinn and tapped the rod. “Yep, real gold,” I commented.
Abi waved around her new toy and pointed it at my familiar. “If I hear one ‘rod’ joke out of you, I’m caving your skull in.”
Amaymon smiled and raised his hands in mock innocence.
“According to the fable Journey to the West,” Sun Tzu said, “the Monkey King was a master of transformation with more than seventy different shapes. That appears to be the main ability of your weapon, Abigail. For now, at least.”
The rod shrunk back to fit in her palm. “Yeah,” she said. “I can play around with length for now, but I’m psyched to figure out what else it can do.”
The Asian man smiled at her energy and enthusiasm. “And I am sure you will, with sufficient practice.”
“Yeah, we got a lot of training left ahead of us,” I said. Although, in comparison, hers would be easier than mine. She wouldn’t have to relearn everything from scratch. Sometimes, it pays to know nothing and be open to learning new stuff.
I still remembered the basic lessons of magic that Mephisto had taught us. In a strange twist of fate, neither I, nor my apprentice, were bound by such strict methods. For us, it was all about intention, which is the true key to any spell. Having our own personal channels meant we could bypass all the catalysts and incantations. True, it did require more concentration and unwavering focus on our part, but that was exactly why we needed the practice.
I glanced at Abi and wondered. Her mind was her catalyst; as long as she willed it she had the potential to do anything. That was one scary power to have. Thank the stars there weren’t many evil hybrids around or I’d be in some deep shit.
On the other hand, my own magic wasn’t anything to scoff at. If Amaymon and Sun Tzu were right, I had power over the blueprints of life.
That was utterly terrifying and awesome.
Perhaps there was a reason why she was my student—a unique wizard teaching a unique apprentice. Fate does, indeed, work in mysterious ways.
Abi toyed with her new weapon, which had shrunk down to the size of a small chopstick. “I wonder how to carry this thing. Does it magically appear in my hands whenever I need it?”
“Yes, but it is far quicker and more practical to just carry it on your person,” Sun Tzu replied patiently. “The original Sun Wo Kung used to carry the staff as a toothpick, placing it behind his ear or between his teeth.”
Abi’s face twisted slightly. “Ew. Put him in my mouth? Bleh.”
I felt myself grinning, and I tried my best to stifle a laugh. For a succubus, she was really naïve about perverted innuendoes.
She saw me and realized her mistake. “That came out wrong,” she said in a tone of self-defeat.
I nodded and kept smiling. She rolled her eyes at me and pulled her hair back. After some twisting, the little length of gold was skewering the knot, holding her hair in place. She looked happy with herself.
She looked well, my apprentice. She had just defeated her first major challenge, obtained a weapon which would aid her for the rest of her life, and proved to me that she was no longer just another girl. She had become a wizard, or rather, a witch. Whatever the title, she had grown so much in these last months. I’d never thought I would take on a student. I felt I wasn’t ready, or worthy, to teach anyone anything. That was why I let Amaymon teach her the majority of what she knew. I still had unfinished business with Tenzin, which I had put off for years. I suppose now, after having made the thing public, I was supposed to feel better.
But I didn’t.
I still had one last thing to do, one last piece of business to resolve everything and move on.
“Are you going somewhere?” she asked as I rose from my seat.
“Yeah. Just remembered something I gotta do.”
I looked at each of them in turn. Sun Tzu nodded, understanding my intention. Amaymon dismissed me with his yellow eyes.
“Okay, I’ll come with you,” she said.
I held up my hand. “Nah, I gotta do this alone. Personal stuff.”
She gave me a quizzical look but said nothing. In fact, she raised her eyebrows and backed up.
“Amaymon, you stay here and make sure she gets back okay,” I ordered the familiar.
“Hey, I don’t need a babysitter,” Abi shot back.
“It’s not babysitting. I just need someone to make sure he doesn’t burn the place down while he’s alone,” I explained.
She gave me a look.
I really needed to come up with some better excuses.
“He’s got a story to tell you,” I said. She still said nothing, but her expression softened.
“Yay, I get the girl,” Amaymon yelped. He jumped off the chair, morphed into a cat and leapt onto her.
“Hey, watch it. You’re not as light as you think you are,” she said, trying not to drop the feline dangling from her chest.
Amaymon adjusted himself as she cradled him. “Never, ever, comment about my weight,” he said.
I smiled at the scene, spun, and left.
Chapter 45
The drive home was an empty experience. No radio, no music—just me and an open window. I was so immersed in my thoughts that I barely heard the other cars.
You’d think that after three bottles I shouldn’t be driving.
Get off my case.
I’ve walked away from gunshots, stab wounds, impalement, dismemberment, and being thrown off a hospital building, of all places. And that was just this year. When you had healing powers like mine, alcohol wasn’t really an issue.
Without Amaymon to greet me with a prank or just some good old-fashioned sarcasm, my office was strangely peaceful. It was no longer the dump I had gotten all those years ago, and Abi went out of her way to pretty it up. But the sound of silence remained unchanged throughout all these years. This place was exactly like me. We had changed, but deep down, there were still some issues yet unresolved.
Time to deal with some skeletons, I thought.
I walked over to my basement door and descended a narrow set of steps into a small room full of junk. Mostly it was just the cat that came down here and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a stash of Playboys hidden behind the beakers and test tubes. I hadn’t used the potion tables down here in years, and mostly kept the stuff out of nostalgia or for Abi’s sake.
At the far end of the basement stood a single aluminum shelf piled with books and other junk. I reached inside a tupperware box full of trinkets and felt around. My fingers clamped around a black-lacquered box and opened it. For the first time in years, I held the good luck charm Tenzin had left me.
I stared at the burnt symbol. When it met my magic, the shelf moved to the right, bumping gently against the wall. It exposed a barren section of the wall with a large painted circle and the kanji for ‘gate’ inscribed in the middle.
A prayer, written in kanji, surrounded the circle, the characters providing an air of esotericism.
I channeled magic from the talisman to the symbol on the wall. I had constructed this mechanism with the talisman acting as a key but I had never tested it before. I just couldn’t face it.
A portal of light appeared inside the circle, and I stepped in.
I went through the portal to a grassy plane. The smell of fresh grass and the gentle wind brought back memories.
The pocket universe was much, much smaller, with only a field and a hill remaining, but it was still a paradise. Over the years the tiny shard that remained of this place, the minute amount of energy Tenzin had left me, grew like a seedling, slowly feeding off the energy I poured into it. My office was akin to a magic incubator, perfect for something like this.
Something glinted in the sun at the top of the hill, and I mad
e my way up. At the topmost point was a five foot rectangular block of crystal, its sides angled to catch the light —a monument I made in Tenzin’s honor. It was a very tough process to crystallize that much stone but the end result was perfect.
Transparent, jagged around the edges, and always full of light—just like Tenzin.
I knelt respectfully in front of his monument and muttered the prayer he had taught me all those years ago.
There was no holding back the tears. I cried over his tombstone until I felt empty inside. All the grief, all the times I had missed him or wished he were there to guide me. I poured out all my emotions in one fell swoop. I needed him against the Sins. I needed him because he was a decent guy, and the world needed more of his kind.
I needed him because he loved me like a father and I loved him back like a son.
But I had to let go. I had to move on. I came here to conclude, not remain stuck in the gray swampy middle. A conclusion but not an end.
Never an end.
I stood.
“Thank you,” I said.
I was never more sincere or more heartfelt in my life. I bent down and kissed the crystal. Light shimmered inside it. It was alive, the whole place was.
“I’ll make you proud,” I promised. My head dipped in a slight bow and I swallowed the lump in my throat.
Despite the crying, I did feel better. I felt lighter and ready. With renewed spirit, I found the inner strength to turn and walk away from the tombstone and all the way down to the grassy field.
I exited the portal and willed it shut. The aluminum shelf slid back in place.
My cell phone vibrated inside my coat pocket and I fished it out.
“Yeah?” I said as I looked at the symbol burnt on the talisman. I felt something like inner peace in the depths of my soul.
A familiar voice crackled from the other end.
“Hello, brother.”
LOST ONES
Book 3 of
The Legacy Series
RYAN ATTARD