By the time she reached the clearing, she hadn’t really come to any sort of conclusion about what she should do and had still been turning it over in her mind as she crossed the grass towards where Gentle Water sat meditating. She wasn’t really concentrating on him or the world around her, instead she twisted a length of grass about her fingers and walked in a bit of a daze caused by her thoughts on the floating pencil.
When she looked up she saw that Gentle Water sat meditating in his Lotus Position. But it looked weird, the proportions were off. He looked like he was sat much further back, but he seemed bigger, or maybe closer to her, she stared for a good moment or two, and then the scene before her suddenly made sense.
She felt her legs go very weak beneath her and dropped to the grass, with a slight dull pain in her bum from hitting the ground so suddenly.
She stared up at her friend, jaw slack and her eyes wide from the shock of the impossible feat before her. There he sat, her friend and teacher, meditating and hovering two feet in the air.
For a moment, she just sat there, Gentle Water apparently oblivious to her presence, and she just gawked up at him. Her mind went blank and all thoughts of the pencil were gone, blown away by this revelation. Although she wasn’t sure what it might be a revelation of exactly. One thing was for sure, it seemed to be a day for floating stuff.
As she watched, slowly he sank back to the ground in front of her and relaxed. Opening his eyes, Gentle Water gazed serenely at Amanda, a kind and warm expression on his face. She turned over in her mind what she had just seen, thinking it through. It could be a trick, she’d seen levitating tricks before on TV, but this seemed different, it seemed so much more real.
‘Sorry for the shock, it is time you know,’ he said.
Amanda felt bewildered, and for a second it didn’t register what he had said, then as she digested it, she answered him.
‘I’m sorry, but, knew what? In fact, wait a minute, were you floating just then.’
‘It is time you know truth. Truth of you, and of world.’
Amanda backed up a bit on the grass. ‘Whoa there, wait a feckin’ moment, what are you going on about? No, on second thoughts, answer my question, you were hovering just then, weren’t you?’ She stood up, pointing her finger at him. ‘Don’t deny it, I saw ye. I’m not seeing things here am I? I’m no ejit, and don’t change the subject.’
‘Calm your thoughts Amanda, yes, you are right, I can levitate, and I did it for you to see.’
‘What? You wanted me to see it? This is madness.’
‘Please, calm yourself. I explain. It is…complicated.’
‘You can feckin’ say that again.’ Amanda felt like she stood in a whirl wind. Her whole world was being slowly tipped upside down as suddenly the laws of nature didn’t apply any more. It seemed crazy, what on earth was going on here, with things levitating and hovering with total disregard for gravity and the laws of physics. Her thoughts where all over the place as Gentle Water guided her to a rug and gently sat her down and gave her a bottle of water. She took a sip and looked over at her friend, who now sat opposite her waiting for her to relax.
Amanda closed her eyes and calmed herself down. Sweeping the chaotic mess of questions with no answers from her mind she forced herself to take a few deep breaths and let her cares wash away. After a few moments, she opened her eyes and looked at Gentle Water. ‘Okay, grand, I accept what I saw, I accept that it seemed real, and that’s all I need to know about that for the moment. You said I need to know the truth, what truth?’ She figured the floating pencil could wait, for the moment.
He smiled, ‘Thank you Amanda. I will try to explain. If you have question, please ask.’
‘I will,’ she replied. She sat there, tensed up, ready for a bomb shell to hit her.
‘Amanda. You are Magi,’ he said, pronouncing it with a hard G so it sounded similar to “Ma-Guy”. He paused for a moment, letting it hang in the air for a second.
Amanda looked at him confused, she’d never heard that word before in her life and had no idea what it meant. She frowned at him, ‘Excuse me?’ she said.
‘You are Magi, ah Magic user, Mage, Magician, ah Wizard, or Witch, or Warlock. It has many names, but they mean same thing, you can use Magic.’
‘Magic,’ Amanda said flatly, sounding unimpressed.
‘Magic. Not card tricks, not sawing woman in half, and no rabbits out of hats, but real Magic. Magic that can make me float, let me read people’s minds, shoot lightning from my hand. Anything, if you are powerful enough.’
Amanda sat there a little dumbfounded, one eyebrow raised as she listened to what Gentle Water was saying and enjoying his soft Chinese accent. “Lightning from my hands” he’d said, almost as if he’d known. But no, it was banjaxed, utterly crazy, and yet, something rang true here, something sounded right, like a jigsaw piece in her mind moving slowly into place, but it had a way to go yet.
‘Are you ok?’ Gentle Water asked.
‘Yeah, I’m ok. But Magic? Magic! Now this is madness so it is.’
‘Is it? Thank about it, Amanda. You have just made Pencil float.’
‘Feck?’ She answered, ‘I didn’t tell you that.’
Gentle Water smiled at his apprentice. ‘No, you did not. You did not need to tell me. I can read your mind and I can see over great distances.’
‘This is ridiculous,’ Amanda cried, trying to dismiss it
‘Then how do you explain the hovering pencil, or hovering teacher, or lightening you threw from your hands in New York alleyway?’
‘How do you…no, it’s a trick, it’s…not real.’
Gentle Water didn’t reply right away, he seemed to be thinking things through for a second as Amanda watched.
‘Then explain this, my apprentice,’ he said, and flicked his hands up to either side of his head, fingers pointed up, and on the end of each one there appeared a candle flame. Amanda felt her eyes widen in slight shock as she watched while her stomach did a back flip.
‘Or this,’ her teacher said again, and flicked one arm through a gesture in front of him, the candle flames gone, but now his whole right arm had caught fire. He held it there clearly unaffected by the heat Amanda could feel that it generated.
‘Now, let me show you many things,’ he said as the fire went out, then he looked deep into her eyes, and without moving his lips, she heard his voice in her mind quite clearly say, ‘I think you will be impressed Amanda.’
The sensation of suddenly not being on the ground felt odd. She had lifted several feet off the ground, but nothing pulled her up, or held her aloft. Her first instinct was to struggle as she panicked that she would fall. Her legs cycled, her arms went straight out to balance herself, even though she didn’t need to. After a moment, she regained control of herself as she realised she didn’t need to do these things, Gentle Waters Magic held her securely in place.
Looking down, she saw her mentor rise from the ground a few meters below and float up to her, when he reached her, he simply said, ‘Watch.’
Gentle Water turned and floated slightly to one side and gestured to the clearing. Suddenly, some grass rose from the ground, leaves fell from the trees and collapsed into a shape on the floor, it was done in a matter of seconds, before they changed into metal and plastic to form a car. Then it changed shape, becoming a Motor Bike, then a table and chairs, and then suddenly collapsing into about fifty footballs which bounced around. Seconds later Amanda noticed she was returning slowly to the ground, when she landed, she quickly picked up a football to check she wasn’t dreaming. The ball seemed real.. The football suddenly shifted in her hands grew soft and fluffy and before she realised what had happened, she found herself holding a chicken which struggled in her grasp.
Amanda yelped and dropped it, when it hit the ground, it exploded into hundreds of white butterflies which fluttered away around her.
Amanda looked up at her mentor, knowing a look of wonder and shock must be etched upon her face. Gentle Water j
ust smiled, and suddenly it felt like her stomach had been left behind while a fleeting feeling of weightlessness passed over her. The change had been almost instantaneous, they were no longer in Ireland, but instead they were stood on the rooftop of Edinburgh Castle, the city spread out around them from their high vantage point. Amanda stepped over to the parapet and took hold of it. Solid cold stone beneath her fingers, it was real.
The scene shifted again, and this time they were in an empty pod on the London eye, shielded from the wind she felt on the castle roof a moment ago. From here she overlooked the Thames and the Houses of Parliament, a view she had never seen before. Seconds later they were in Paris, then Berlin, Rome, Monte Carlo, Madrid, Cardiff and finally back to the clearing. In each place they stayed for no longer then a few seconds, long enough for Amanda to know they were actually there and that it wasn’t an hallucination.
She dropped to the floor, her breathing had sped up and she felt out of breath, she could feel her heart hammering away in her chest as her mind raced to make sense of what had just happened.
‘How you feel?’ Gentle Water asked.
‘I’m…I’m not sure. I…it was…I can’t…’
Gentle Water knelt down before her and put his hand on her shoulder, ‘It is lot to take in, I know, but I leave you in no doubt about reality of Magic.’
Amanda nodded, feeling utterly numbed by the experience.
Magic, it seemed, was real, really real. Everything Amanda knew of the world had just come crashing down around her, and that made her feel incredibly vulnerable, like a new-born child who knew nothing about life. She looked up at her Mentor as he continued to hold her, his face was serene, calm, caring.
She sighed to herself and looked down at the rug they were sat upon, focusing on the weave and the pattern, feeling the coarse threads beneath her fingers.
Slowly she calmed down, her thoughts ordered themselves and she took a grip on reality once more. Gentle Water seemed to sense her thoughts and moved a short distance away to give her some space.
As she sat there, thoughts and questions started to form in her mind. If magic existed, and Magi, there must be much more she didn’t know about. She looked up at Gentle Water, who now sat a few feet away on the rug.
‘You have questions,’ he said.
Amanda nodded.
‘Then ask.’
‘So, Magic is real, and those who, um, use it are called Magi?’
Gentle Water nodded once, slowly to her.
‘And you say I’m a Magi?’
Her mentor nodded once again.’
‘So, can you tell me a little more? I mean, what else is there out there which I don’t know about?’
‘I not tell you everything now, it is too much, you need time. So I will just tell you basics for now, which will be enough.’
‘Okay,’ Amanda said.
‘First, obviously, Magic is real, but it only be worked by those who by chance, have connection to it. You are born with connection, it not something anyone learn. But even if you born with connection, you still need to learn it. We are sure there are people in world who have connection and don’t know about Magic. But even if you know nothing of Magic, this connection to Essentia often manifests in day to day life of potential Magi, they often very lucky people who seem to nearly always do well. If you are born with connection, usually you will have Epiphany, moment of enlightenment where you realise your potential and use Magic for first time.’
A couple of pieces of the puzzle suddenly fell into place. The alleyway, her first use of Magic during the attack by that, thing, and suddenly, the thought of the monster didn’t seem quite so mad any more. Were monsters real she wondered? Also, some of her lucky breaks made sense, such as her successful escape from the orphanage and jumping ship to New York, or her finding Howie or the one friendly and gentle Pimp in Manhattan.
‘With good fortune, experienced Magi find new Magi and train him or her in Magic,’ Gentle Water continued. ‘Hopefully teacher be like me, and not one of other groups.’
‘Groups? So, there are lots of Magi in the world?’
‘Estimate about fifteen thousand, with three groups, Arcadians, Nomads and Inquisition. I am Arcadian, which is biggest group.’
‘I take it you’re the good guys?’ Amanda said.
‘We think so, but others think differently. Nomads are next biggest, they serve and worship, dark gods. They cause pain and suffering, believing themselves above the Riven who deserve to be only slaves, if lucky.’
‘The Riven?’ Amanda asked.
‘People who cannot use Magic, non-Magi, also called Mundanes or Mortals. Riven means separated, as in separated from Magic. Next is the Inquisition, these Magi believe their power come from God, that it is divine energy, not Magic. Inquisition numbers small, but are part of Vatican, so have huge recourses. They are called Disciples of the Cross, formed two thousand years ago by their founder, the Disciple Peter.
‘Arcadians and Nomads are far older, here since before ancient Egypt, many thousands of years, and always at war. Inquisition says Arcadians and Nomads are same, and fights both.’
‘Right, hang on, this is getting complicated already. So, there’s Magi and Magic in the world, and there’s three main groups, the Arcadians, Nomads and the Inquisition,’ said Amanda, thinking things through.
‘Correct,’ Gentle Water answered.
‘The Nomads are the real bad guys, and they worship some gods did you say?’
‘Dark and evil gods, but I tell you more about them later.’
Amanda thought for a second before asking, ‘Do the Arcadians believe in a god?’
Gentle Water smiled at his apprentice, ‘No, we do not, usually. Also, do not confuse Christian god with Nomad gods. Nomad Gods, the Archons, are just very powerful creatures who use Magic at level way above Magi. They didn’t create the Earth, but they very real, not like Christians fiction.’
‘Fiction?’ Amanda said, raising her eyebrows.
‘Magi can live for long time, so, when you know Magi who alive before the Christian god was invented, belief in their god becomes difficult.’
‘Magi can live for that long?’ Amanda asked, shocked.
‘Longer,’ Gentle Water said, ‘if grow powerful enough. Some, like myself, have normal mortal life, some very long lived and some are Immortal.’
‘Wow,’ Amanda said, in awe of the thought of it. She sat back and thought for a moment, this was incredible, if it was all true. Suddenly she thought of something, and looked back at Gentle Water. ‘Hang on, now, if we’re this powerful and long lived, how come we hide? Why don’t we just rule the world? The, what did you call them, the Riven, the Mundanes, they couldn’t stop us.’
‘I’m sure Nomads would love to rule world, and I sure there will be Arcadian Magi who think same thing. But, most don’t want burden of rule, and history tells us what Mortals would do if they know about us.’
Amanda frowned, ‘Ah now, no it doesn’t, when have Magi ever been hunted…’ She paused for a moment, as a thought occurred to her.
Gentle Water smiled and nodded, ‘Now you know.’
‘You mean the Witch Hunts, the Inquisition?’
‘Yes. If Riven know of us, they hunt us down, perhaps helped by Inquisition, as before. Magi still only human, we can die, we are not invincible.’
‘So the world is oblivious to our presence at the moment, but what if one saw some Magi doing Magic?’
‘It happen, probably a lot. But, the Riven tend to ignore, shut out or explain away things they don’t understand, like Magic. Even if it right in front of them.’
‘So Mundanes have never discovered anything to do with Magic?’
‘Actually, they have. Magic is fuelled by Essentia. An energy that fuels life and Magic and I think you have seen it. A glowing mist hanging in air?’
‘Yes! I have, it’s gold coloured.’
‘Every Magi sees different colour, to me it is jade green, to you it is gold.’
‘Essentia. Yes, sort of, let me explain. In dark ages, in alchemical science it was called Aether or Ether. Aristotle had it as fifth element with earth, air, fire and water. A Hindu would call it Akasha, Hindu gods use it to create elements. In Plato’s Platonic Solids this fifth element, Ather or Quintessence, is a Dodecahedron. In Astrophysics it is Dark Matter or Quintessence. Quinta Essentia, the fifth element.’
‘Heh, so Bruce Willis was right,’ Amanda said to herself.
‘Sorry?’ Gentle Water asked, a little confused.
‘Nothing,’ said Amanda, dismissing it.
‘There is much more for you to discover yet.’
‘Oh, I’m sure. So, who taught you Magic then?’
‘My mentor, Graceful Pheonix, she taught me both Magic and her own Martial Art form called Art of Pheonix, which I teach you.’
‘And, can I meet your mentor?’ Amanda asked.
‘One day, you will.’
‘Ok, cool. Um…there’s one more thing I’d like to know about if you don’t mind.’
‘Please, ask,’ said Gentle Water.
‘Well, I was attacked recently, in New York, by a… thing. I have no idea what it was, but it wasn’t human. I think I killed it…with lightening…’ She turned her hands over before her, remembering the feeling of all that energy.
‘Ah yes. Well, technically it was human, but one that has been changed. That was Scion by the name of Horlack.’
‘A Scion?’ Amanda asked.
‘Yes, creatures created by Magic. The first ones were created by the Archons, Millennia ago, but they can pass their “gift” on to others by themselves. They usually serve same masters as Nomads and are often bitter, twisted and evil creatures. But a few are different and a very small number are considered friends of the Arcadians.’
‘So the one that attacked me was called Horlack?’
‘Yes. An ancient Scion, very powerful. We are glad he is gone.’
Amanda smiled, ‘My pleasure.’
The earliest known record of Yasmin the Dark comes from the legend of Red Yasmin in northern Italy around 900 years ago. An eyewitness reported seeing Yasmin, a known local girl of about 13 years, walk through the town in the dead of night, covered head to toe in blood. She was never seen again after that, but her parents and three brothers were found mutilated in their family home, their chests cut open and their hearts ripped out. A set of bloody footprints, clearly those of a child, led out of the house and into the night. It was said that Yasmin was beaten and abused as a child, and the villagers distrusted the family due to their violent ways, many locals thought they had received their just deserts. The hearts of Yasmin’s family were never found.
Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling Page 12