Infinities' Edge

by Andrew Dobell

  Was there really something to this Prophecy?

  ‘Chosen one?’ Liz said from close by.

  Amanda turned to face her smiling, but Liz had a look of concern and incredulity on her as she looked at her mentor.

  ‘Oh, don’t worry about that, we just had a bit of an encounter with Nymira.’

  ‘Really? The Voodoo Queen who wants you dead?’ Liz said.

  ‘That’s the one,’ and I can finally confirm that yes, she does want me dead,’ Amanda said.

  ‘Are you alright?’

  ‘We’re fine. We had to escape through the Abyss, but we’re good,’ Amanda said.

  Liz looked over at Howie, sat nearby, staring into the middle distance and clearly terrified. ‘I think some of you are better than others…’ Liz said.

  Amanda followed her gaze, and the weight of what she had just done started to settle on her shoulder. Howie’s life, his view on the world around him had been shattered and shown for the lie it had always been. Amanda took a deep breath. This would take some time.

  - The Syndicate Island

  With a long low grinding crunch, the cargo ship ran aground just off the beach of this hidden Island as the sky darkened and evening approached. Lilith steadied herself as the ship came to a halt and the sounds of the waves hitting the beach filled her ears.

  She turned and looked at the man who stood at the helm. She had him under her complete control and hadn’t allowed him to move for days. Fear filled his eyes as he looked at her, and rightfully so. With a minor working of Magic, she spun his head around 180 degrees. Even from this distance, she could hear the sickening crack of bone as her Magic did its work.

  She let him go then and watched him drop to the floor, paralysed, struggling for breath through his ruined throat, but still alive. He’d die soon enough, though, so Lilith dropped off the edge of the boat into the shallow water and walked up onto the beach. She’d been here before, the Island where she hoped to find Mr Black. But now, she would wait.

  Hostile take over

  The Syndicate Island

  Jan 13th

  With a series of whip-snaps of quickly displaced air, where a moment ago there had been only carefully maintained gravel, suddenly there stood seven people, appearing out of thin air.

  Angel glanced to either side of her, making sure everyone had appeared and then looked around them at the tropical environment. It was early evening on the Island, the sun was setting to the west and cast a golden glow over the heavens. Before them lit up by lights both inside and out, sat the main syndicate building, a squat modern affair with glass walls and landscaped grounds. They all stood on the main gravel path outside the front of it, and everything seemed quiet. She could only see two people outside, a pair of security guards out front of the building itself up ahead, stood chatting idly and not taking too much notice of the world around them.

  Angel had worked here for a few years, firstly for herself and then for Yasmin as an undercover agent, doing her best to find out what Mr Black was really up to.

  She’d made contacts, seduced several of the employee’s and slowly made herself more and more valuable to them until Mr Black had finally taken notice of her.

  Things had changed, though, Mr Black had been caught in the Nuclear Blast on the Atoll, and had not been seen since. Most likely he’d been vaporised by the explosion, leaving his organisation and empire free for the taking.

  His best people, his most elite guards and most powerful Scions and Magi had been on the Atoll with him, leaving a skeleton crew of operational personnel, the board of directors and an accompanying security team here to run the place.

  Feeling energised, Angel walked forward.

  ‘Let’s get this done,’ she said to her Coven. ‘You all know what to do, and no killing unless you absolutely have too.’

  ‘Her Coven mates nodded, agreeing with her, before several of them Ported to other parts of the island complex to cover all the exits. Angel continued on with the dark haired Gabrielle and Uziel at her side.

  As they neared the building, the two men noticed their approach and stepped forward. The lead man peered at them through the darkness.

  ‘Are you okay guys?’ he said, not suspecting anything was amiss.

  ‘We’re fine,’ she said, smiling.

  ‘Aaah, it’s Angel, isn’t it? I thought you were on the mission?’

  ‘I was, but it failed, and now I’m back.’

  ‘That’s great, where’s Mr Black? And the rest of the team?’ he asked.

  Angel walked up to him. ‘They won’t be returning, only I survived, I’m here to take on the position of Director,’ she said, curious to see what his reaction might be.

  ‘What? What do you mean?’ he said.

  His friend, however, was clearly more suspicious, and quickly raised his semi-automatic Machine gun, pointing it at Angel. ‘Get fucked,’ he said.

  ‘Jake, calm down, we don’t know what happened,’ the first guy said.

  ‘Sure I do, this bitch here is taking the piss. She probably killed Mr Black and Roxanne.’

  ‘That’s a little dramatic don’t you think? Angel has worked here for years, right? We have no idea what’s going on.’

  ‘I don’t believe a word of it, we need to take them in for questioning’ he said, and turned to address Angel, Gabrielle and Uziel. ‘Get on the ground and put your hands on your heads, NOW!’ he shouted.

  Angel frowned at him, she didn’t like being shouted at, least of all by a Riven Mortal. Anger rose up within her and she just couldn’t help herself. With a flare of blueish white Magic, the belligerent security guards body suddenly pulled itself apart, as clothes and skin and bone ripped away from where he had been stood and dropped to the floor in a wet bloody heap.

  The first guard watched this happen and started to back away as he struggled to keep control of his stomach that clearly wanted to purge itself. He heaved, retching and collapsed onto the nearby grass verge, finally being violently sick and struggling to keep control of himself.

  She reached out with her Magic once more and pressed into his mind, and with a quick twist of Magic, knocked him unconscious. He collapsed onto the grass.

  ‘Are we finished?’ Uziel asked.

  ‘Patience Uziel, I’m going to enjoy this,’ she said. She wasn’t too annoyed at Uziel for his comment, but she would not be rushed in this affair, she had worked here as a lowly employee for several years. She hated most of the people here and their elevated idea of their own self-worth. She had seduced several of the chauvinistic men who made up the majority of the managers and aides to the board, even one board member towards the end, all of which she had gratified sexually in one way or another. Sex was her weapon, and she always made sure to appear as if she were enjoying it, but each of those acts had been carefully thought out and planned so that she could get closer to her goal through non-Magical means, remaining hidden from the capable Magi that Mr Black had in his organisation. As it had turned out, that was a very wise choice. Echo Black had remained hidden from her throughout her entire mission within the organisation, and Echo was a very powerful and clever Magus.

  But she and Mr Black were gone now, and she wanted nothing more than to demonstrate her power to the men, and the occasional woman, who she had seduced along the way. Her true colours were on display today.

  The team here worked early in the morning and after a few hours break in the early afternoon, during the hottest part of the day, returned to work mid-afternoon and worked into the evening, and as she approached the main entrance into the building, she could see the employees inside, sitting at their computers and going about their business. This main central hub had an open plan aspect to it, with everyone working in cubicles while meeting rooms and the Managers offices were placed around the edges of the space. At the back, a huge board room could be seen, with the entire board of directors inside in the middle of a meeting.

  Angel shoved the double doors open with her Magic, opening them wid
e and allowing her to walk in, flanked by her Coven mates. She shut the doors behind her and used her Magic to fuse them shut, keeping everyone inside. Her other Coven mates were entering through the two other wings of the complex and would be ushering the people there, through into the central area. Most of the people left here to run the organisation would be in this main central part, the wings were for the now absent Magi and Scions along with a few of the more senior directors. Angel’s office had been inside on of these wings which were not so open plan.

  Some of those workers closest to Angel as she walked in stopped what they were doing and looked in her direction. She paid them no mind however, her target was the board room at the back and the Directors in there, but she wanted everyone to see her, to be aware of what she was doing. Porting straight into the room would not have built the same level of anticipation.

  Angel strode along the main path through the room, right through the middle of the workspaces set out here. Whispers and rumours spread quickly as she walked. She could hear her name being mentioned as those that knew her recognised her. Halfway through the room, one of the higher up managers, a man named Lawton Davis caught wind of her approach and stood up a little way ahead. He had been one of the men she had been working on, engaging in some office sex from time to time to garner favour. However, as she had gained favour further up the chain, she had used Lawton less and less. He frowned at her as he saw her striding through the building.

  He moved closer to the main walkway as she approached him. She didn’t really acknowledge him, but she felt sure that wouldn’t stop him.

  ‘Angel, where have you been? Come here, I think we need to have a talk. And who are these two?’ he said.

  Angel looked at him, finding his tone distasteful and disrespectful. She didn’t pause in her walk, but as she strode forward, she made a twisting movement with her hand as she worked her Magic. The sound of several snapping bones inside of Lawton’s body and his terrifying scream made those closest to him cringe and shrink back as his body twisted into a very unnatural shape, before falling to the floor in a howl of pain that barely sounded human.

  People screamed and shouted, some of them surged away from Angel, or from Lawton, others came forward, curiosity getting the better of them. Chaos erupted from the calm of the working day as Angel reached the doorway of the board room and slammed it open with a kick of Magical energy.

  Angel walked inside while Gabrielle and Uziel guarded the door. She closed the door behind her with another working of Magic and stepped up to the table.

  ‘Gentlemen, Ladies, it’s a pleasure to see you all,’ she said.

  ‘Angel,’ said Grant Connelly, the board member who she had come to know intimately. ‘Can we help you?’

  ‘What’s the meaning of this?’ Said another.

  ‘Who are you?’

  ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘What the hell?’ said someone else. The exclamations blended together as they all talked over each other, but all of them were surprised at the interruption.

  ‘Quiet!’ she said, in a voice that she made sure could be heard clearly. As they fell silent, she started to walk along the edge of the room, around the side of the long table. ‘Mr Black is dead, by my hand.’

  ‘What?’ someone said. A couple of others spoke up too, but their comments quickly died away upon seeing Angel stop and frown at the group.

  ‘Angel,’ Grant said again. ‘What’s going on, what’s the meaning of this?’

  ‘I’m taking over,’ she said. ‘The Syndicate is mine.’

  ‘And what makes you think you can do that?’ Grant said.

  She didn’t want to waste much more time with Grant, so she pulled on her Magic once more, sending its effects towards Grant.

  The Magic hit him hard and flung him from his seat and into the back wall half crushing him in the process, a huge splat of blood appearing behind him as he hit home. His body stayed there for a moment, before dropping to the floor as a bloody mess.

  ‘This does,’ she said, and let her gaze pass over the rest of the board. A few of them had shouted and screamed at her attack, backing away from the remains of the body. But they all looked up at Angel in terror.

  ‘Anyone else care to argue the point?’ she said.

  - The Ocean.

  Clancy looked out to sea, night had just fallen and through the gaps in the clouds, he could make out the pinpoints of light in the heavens. The boat moved slowly, riding the waves as best it could. They had a long trip ahead of them, and his passenger seemed keen to get to where he wanted to go. There was no island on any map that he could find at that grid reference, but his passenger had paid him well, very well. So who was he to argue?

  The night air had a chill to it tonight, so he went back inside and made his way to the main hold and stepped inside. The room sat in almost complete darkness, but he could make out the huge and deformed form of his passenger sat in the corner in the shadows. In the center of the room, laid out on a table, the figure of a black-haired girl, and a good looking one at that, wearing some clothes that looked totally the wrong size for her, remained unmoving.

  Clancy looked back over to the figure in the corner.

  ‘We’re in international waters now, thought you’d like to know,’ he said.

  The passenger said nothing, so Clancy chose to back out of the room and leave the pair of them alone.

  Coming to terms

  New York

  Jan 13th

  Amanda crossed the street, walking next to Howie approaching his apartment block. Looking up, Amanda realised she had not seen this building in what seemed like an age. The last time she had been here was before she had become a Magus before she had left New York and her life had changed so completely. Looking at it now, that old life seemed like some kind of distant memory, almost as if it wasn’t her life at all, but someone else’s.

  She’d found this place originally when she had been sleeping rough as a teenager on first arriving in the city. She’d been desperate for a place to sleep but found it difficult to find anywhere even remotely safe that she didn’t get moved on from almost straight away. This was the first place she had spent more than one night in, but she hadn’t been sleeping there long before Howie spoke to her and made that fateful offer of a place to stay.

  He’d been a true gentleman to her throughout her time staying with him, and for that, she had always felt very grateful.

  He had introduced her to many of the things she still had an interest in today. He loved bikes and had been forever tinkering with his Honda, something which had rubbed off on her, creating a love for bikes and biking within her as well. Even today, she loved going out on her modified Fireblade and hitting the streets.

  He had also been the one to get her to do some self-defence classes, which over time had transformed into full on training in Martial Arts, something which continued as she became a Magus.

  Howie had been a huge influence on her, and she had always felt bad about letting him down by working the streets with Georgina.

  But that had all been a long time ago and it seemed like they were well beyond that now. Certainly, with the events of today, their relationship had taken another big step forward as Howie took his first steps into Amanda’s world.

  After getting back home in the afternoon after their escape from the Nightclub, Amanda had spent the rest of the day in conversation with Howie, explaining what he had seen, who she was, what magic was and answering all his questions. He’d stayed at her house all afternoon, fascinated by what she told him and deeply curious about this crazy new world he had stepped into.

  To his credit, once he had calmed down after the initial shock of the attack and the trip to the Abyss, he had taken it all pretty well. She had even demonstrated a few bits of Magic for him and shown him what she could do.

  He’d been very curious about her history and asked a lot of questions about how she had become a Magus and about her training in Ireland.

  Amanda
didn’t see the need to hold anything back. There was nothing about the world of the Magi and her story that she felt he shouldn’t know. He had been a true friend to her in those early days and she felt like she kind of owed him that at the very least.

  Spending this time with him had been very cathartic for her and she felt she had really and finally started to put the guilt of her past actions with regards to him to bed. She felt like the debt had been paid finally, and as she had walked along the New York streets with him, taking him back to his apartment, she felt much more at peace with him and her relationship with him. She found she really enjoyed his company as well and if she were honest with herself, she knew she actually kind of fancied him a bit.

  Every time she found herself eyeing him up and enjoying just looking at him, she heard the words of Maria echo in her head about enjoying life and finding someone else apart from her to be with.

  She wasn’t sure how Howie felt, though, and really did not want to go poking about inside his head in what would feel like a huge breach of trust to her. Instead, she would have to do things the old-fashioned way and read his body language and almost feel her way in the dark.

  During the few moments she’d had alone during the rest of the afternoon, Amanda found herself thinking about the events of the past few days. Of the meeting with the Council and how Forrest had agreed that she did seem to be this Chosen one. She thought about her new found power and ability to pass into the Abyss and how it had saved the lives of her friends from the clutches of the Nomad Nymira.

  She also thought about the visits from some of the local Magi, such as the Knights of Newark the other day who seemed fascinated by the Prophecy, and as she thought about these things, she found her opinion of all this shifting a little bit.