Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling

by Andrew Dobell

  It was early afternoon when Gentle Water returned to her side after leaving her to it to practice his Martial Arts on the other side of the clearing. The grass was still a little damp and the sky, although bright, was overcast and grey.

  ‘Now you are ready to focus energy into attack called Essentia Strike. The Strike is most powerful against living things, it is very painful, and causes a lot of damage. Most Magi will have an Aegis to defend against it, but Essentia Strike can be used to overload Aegis. Come, I show you.

  Amanda nodded and followed Gentle Water a little way off towards a nearby tree. He stood next to it and turned to address Amanda.

  I will use Strike against this tree to show you its power. I might add extra effect in too. Okay, stand back.’

  Amanda did so, stepping off to one side to get a better vantage point and watch her Teacher at work. She concentrated a little and the golden glow of Essentia came into view around her, and as she watched, she could see the local Essence get drawn into Gentle Waters arm and fist, it was sucked into him and his arm gained a soft pulsating glow as Amanda watched. She was vaguely aware that he was also working some other kind of Magic, but she didn’t pay too much attention to it.

  Gentle Water then entered into an attacking stance and tensed up as he drew back his fist, sucking in air through his teeth as he psyched himself up for the attack. With an ear piercing yell he thrust his balled fist forward and seemed to focus on hitting something on the other side of the tree. There was a loud wooden smashing and cracking sound as his fist struck the trunk, splinters of wood and bark, large and small, all of them jagged edged, exploded out from the point of impact as Gentle Waters fist passed through the trunk. At the same time as he hit the trunk, the glow in his arm flared brightly as the energy flowed from his arm into the tree as he released the stored Essentia. The sudden burst of energy and excitement dissipated just as suddenly as it had begun and the wooden splinters landed all about his feet. He stood there holding his stance at the end of his punch for a moment before straightening up and gently exhaling.

  Amanda’s jaw had dropped, her mouth open in shock at the huge gouge that was bitten out the side of the tree trunk, bark hung limply and sap dripped from the ragged edges as she looked.

  ‘Feck me, that’s amazing,’ she marvelled.

  Gentle Water stole a look at his fist and flexed the fingers, there didn’t seem to be a scratch on him. ‘It is just example, but it show you what Essentia Strike can do. I will fix tree later,’ he was saying, and he went on to say other things as he stepped away from the tree thinking Amanda would follow him.

  But Amanda had not moved and was still looking at the chunk of missing tree. That was easily the most impressive thing she had seen in a while, and she was in awe of the idea of being able to summon all that power. She looked down at her own fist and then back at the tree trunk and had a crazy idea. It didn’t look all that difficult to do, in fact it looked fairly straight forward. She could do that easily, and she stepped up to the tree.

  It was a spur of the moment action brought on by the confusion and adrenalin rush of what she had just seen, and later on she supposed she can’t have been thinking straight as she couldn’t remember her reasoning at the time and how she came to the conclusion that she could make this work. But that was over thinking it, because there wasn’t much of a thought process involved, it was a spur of the moment action that was over in a second. She simply didn’t think.

  She stepped forward, drew in the Essence that was around her into her arm, and then punched the tree, above the place where Gentle Water had hit it, and slammed her fist into the bark as hard as she could, fully expecting the explosion of wood and her fist to pass through the trunk unharmed.

  The Essentia in her arm was released, and there was a slight dint in the bark which she noticed much later on, but her hand had been brought to a sudden stop by the trunk. This stopping of her punch was accompanied by the sickening, stomach churning sound of several of the bones in her hand breaking with a loud layered cracking noise.

  Amanda stood silent for a beat, her eyes went wide with shock and a look of utter horror fell over her face, a beat later, the pain shot up through her hand and arm, while tears welled in her eyes.

  She pulled back from the tree and looked down at her hand as the scream grew in her throat.

  Amanda’s hand looked a mess, it’s not often you get to see your own bones sprouting from your body at impossible angles, and this was the first time Amanda had ever seen her bones. They had ripped through her flesh and skin and jutted out of the top of her hand and down though her palm, deep crimson sticky blood welled up and flowed over her hand and fingers, dripping to the grass. She could also see that lots of her bones were out of joint as well as broken, her knuckles were in odd places and not where they should be.

  Her hand felt burning hot, the pain lanced up into her head as she stared incredulously at the mess at the end of her arm. The scream came then, like a force of nature, unstoppable, it rose out of her body and sounded over the clearing for the entire world to hear. Her legs gave way beneath her and the land tipped as she dropped to the floor, her scream having now turned to pained sobbing.

  Gentle Water was there then, holding her in his arms and telling her it’s all going to be alright, but she could barely hear him, the pain was blotting out everything else as her mind tried to deal with the intense pain. She felt woozy and hot, the blood drained from her face as she went white and began feeling dizzy. She was vaguely aware of Gentle Water holding her arm with one hand and holding his other hand over her shattered fist. That’s when the world went black and she slipped into oblivion.

  She awoke feeling warm and dry and in the cosy softness of her bed. She felt happy but for a moment didn’t quite know how she got there. Then she suddenly remembered her hand and sat upright in her bed and held out her hand in front of her. No visible bones, no blood and no pain. She held it in front of her face and flipped it over and over a few times, she could move it as well, she flexed it, balling her fist and opening it wide again. The only indication of the injury was a very minor dull achy stiffness that was so feint that it barely registered at all.

  Suddenly she was aware of Gentle Water as he sat next to her bed in the chair. He looked at her and smiled.

  ‘How do you feel?’ He asked.

  ‘Err, grand I guess. I feel fine.’ She flexed her hand once more as if to prove it to herself. ‘I’m a little disorientated, but I don’t have any pain anymore.’ She didn’t have any pain anywhere she realized, all her aches and scrapes she had been sporting also seemed to have gone, including the welt from his Essentia strike on her arm.

  ‘Good, I fixed your hand with Magic. You feint from pain, for best I think.’

  ‘You fixed my hand with Magic?’

  Gentle Water nodded, ‘You were out for twenty minutes.’

  ‘And how did you get me back here?’

  ‘Magic.’ He winked at her as he spoke.

  Amanda looked at her hand again and marvelled at it, there was no scarring, no sign of the damage she had done at all. ‘I’m sorry I messed up.’

  Gentle Water shook his head. ‘No, do not worry. I should have explained, I used some other Magic with my Essentia Strike. It is my fault too.’

  Amanda smiled. ‘So, you used Magic to heal me?’

  ‘Yes, you will learn it soon. So don’t hurt yourself until then, okay?’

  ‘Don’t worry, I have no intention of doing so. I don’t quite know why I did that. I just did it on impulse. I’m sorry, I’m an Ejit.’

  Gentle Water nodded. ‘Do not worry, rest, we will continue when you are better.’

  ‘So, can you heal anything with Magic?’

  ‘If the Magi is powerful enough, yes.’

  ‘So if someone dies you can bring them back from the dead?’

  Gentle Water pulled a face at the thought which had just passed through his mind before answering. ‘Necromancy.’

  ‘Nec
romancy?’ Amanda repeated, questioning her mentor.

  ‘Nomad Magic, very dangerous. If you use Magic to play with death, you use Necromancy. Those who use Necromancy are considered Nomads, and are cast out of Arcadians, some Magi kill those who use Necromancy. It is better not to play with death at all.’

  ‘Oh, so if someone had just died, you wouldn’t bring them back, you know, resuscitate them?’

  ‘If someone has just passed, seconds or just a few minutes ago, most Magi would not question it, usually. The real problems come when you bring someone back who’s been dead days, weeks or years. But, only powerful Magi can do this, I have not reached that level yet. Best advice? If you not sure, don’t do it.’

  Amanda nodded, there was so much to take in.

  He got up and left the room leaving Amanda alone, she dropped back to the pillow and lay on her side, holding her hand up before her face. Magic never failed to amaze her.

  As she lay there, she thought back to her first few weeks with Howie once more, how much she appreciated the warmth and kindness he showed her.

  He didn’t earn a lot as the Head Bouncer at the Dark Side of the Moon Nightclub he worked at, but he still went out and bought a whole load of clothes from some charity shops for her. Amanda didn’t have any money, so she helped out in whatever way she could, cooking and cleaning and acting like a kind of live-in maid.

  Howie was a Biker, and she often sat and chatted to him as he worked on his Honda Fire Blade. His enthusiasm about his bike was infectious, and she still held a liking for bikes even now. She had loved going out with him on the bike, speeding along the freeways, the wind in her hair, it was exhilarating just to remember it.

  A few weeks into living with Howie, Amanda begun to suspect that he was harbouring more than just feelings of friendship for her, but Amanda didn’t feel the same. Howie didn’t say a word to her about it, but Amanda thought it was pretty clear. She just wanted to be friends though, nothing more, so she just did what she could to keep things on a friendship level between them.

  Howie worked most nights at the club, so he started to take her along with him so she got out of the apartment a bit. She was very much underage being fifteen, nearly sixteen, but she went in before the club opened and the staff quickly got to know her. She enjoyed the nights at the club, she met lots of interesting people and made a few new acquaintances.

  In fact, it had been on one such night at the club that she had met Georgina for the first time.

  Amanda flexed her Magically healed hand once more before her, she wondered what Georgina would have made of all this

  The light covering of winter snow that had fallen during the night crunched satisfyingly underfoot as she approached the village that morning at a speedy jog. Her black silhouette stood out as she ran through a world covered in its white winter blanket. It was the first snow of the winter and it felt freezing cold.

  Amanda loved the snow, she loved the sound it made as you walked through it and it compacted under foot. She loved the way it made even the most mundane things in the world look wonderfully picturesque and beautiful. The Blue Stack Mountains looked stunning in the snow, everywhere you turned there were picture postcard moments out here in the Irish countryside.

  Christmas had come and gone and been a lovely quiet affair in the cottage with a roaring log fire, stockings hung on the fire place, warm hot chocolate, and a few gifts between friends. Amanda had managed to get hold of some Calligraphy tools and a few bits of clothing for Gentle Water while he had bought her some ornaments for the house, and a beautiful long Cheongsam Chinese style dress that fitted her perfectly. It was white with gold edging and black bamboo patterning on it. Amanda loved it and promised to wear it as soon as she could find a suitable occasion. She tried it on and did a little fashion show for Gentle Water which seemed to make his day. He also had managed to get her some bits of jewellery to go with the dress.

  Their meal had been hearty and filling, and done to perfection, with a little aid from their magic to get it just right. The rest of the day they had played a few games, sat and talked about nothing in particular and watched a few choice programs on the television.

  It had been a lovely quiet day, they both enjoyed it and the time off from the training. They had chosen to take a little break over the holiday period and enjoy themselves. The thing was though that neither of them saw their training as work anyway, it was something they loved doing and on these days off, they occasionally found themselves feeling quite board and thinking they might sneak in a little training here and there.

  Recently Amanda’s training had focused on the area of Magic that was apparently referred to as Flux, but was basically the moving of things through Magic, something she had been doing a little of before she knew it was Magic she was using, all be it subconsciously.

  Gentle Water had given her the basics of the theory of Flux and then over the next few months she had been practicing it both under Gentle Waters tuition and alone whenever she got the chance. She had already noticed that as the Magic got more powerful and advanced, the longer it would take to learn it.

  Over the past few months Amanda had learnt some other tricks that Magi did to make their lives a little easier, Gentle Water had been up to one of these tricks already.

  She had first noticed something when Gentle Water kept turning up with Cash to pay for his share of the bills every now and then. This hadn’t seemed odd when he was living away from her, but now he was here in the cottage, Amanda had finally taken notice. He didn’t seem to be keeping anything a secret and had never said anything about where he got it, so one day, after the latest deposit, she asked him where he was getting his money from.

  Gentle Water just smiled at her and said, ‘Where do you think I get money from?’ in his usual casual tone.

  Amanda looked blank for a moment, and then it clicked, and she smiled back. She suddenly understood that he was conjuring it from thin air, and with that a world of possibilities opened up before her. Suddenly she didn’t need to earn money, she could make it appear out of thin air once she was practiced enough.

  As Amanda continued to think about this over the next few days she began coming to all sorts of conclusions about the ease of life as a Magi. They didn’t need to pay any bills or worry about money at all. Their houses could be Magically powered, and there was always another Twenty in their pockets once you knew how to conjure them. Amanda marvelled at these thoughts, it was astounding, and she knew her life would be much easier in the future, in this respect anyway.

  She was half absorbed in these thoughts as the lane she was running down curved to the left and she saw the cottages and houses of the village come into view, their tiled or thatched roofs jutting out above hedge rows and trees. Amanda still liked to go for a morning run most days, sometimes just round the valley, other times she would head into town to pick up whatever supplies they needed or were short on.

  Smoke rose from the chimney stacks atop the gables of some of the houses where warm hearth fires burnt within. Amanda knew the residents would be lovely and warm, looking out at the bright white morning and wondering if they could get away with not going out today at all.

  No doubt if they saw Amanda run past, wearing her close fitting thermal leggings and long sleeved top with gloves, her red hair tied back to keep it out of her face and white mist puffing from her mouth as she went, they would think she was some kind of mad woman for going for a run on a day like this, but the reality was that Amanda felt very warm, the energy she burnt while running kept her temperature up. If anything, the experience felt quite invigorating.

  Amanda had returned to the warmth of the cottage about half an hour ago and Gentle Water had a mug of hot coffee waiting once she had jumped out of a hot shower. She now sat in the living area with Gentle Water in front of the fire.

  ‘Gentle Water, you were telling me the other day how the Nomads and Arcadians are divided up into groups called Covens. I was wondering, what’s the name of the Cove
n you are part of?’

  Gentle Water smiled at Amanda, ‘The Coven I belong to is called the Legacy, The Legacy is old and respected Magi House. The Arcadian Magi are governed by a Magi Council, the twelve Coven’s who founded the Council after fall of Magi Senate in Rome were named Magi Houses and have great standing in Arcadian society. The Legacy is based in Paris and has about thirty members, but it does fluctuate. Its Members are scattered all over world, not just in Paris, although they do return to Paris for meetings. Now I think it is time for some Magic. I would like to show you how magic can affect living organisms.’

  Gentle Water sat with both feet planted firmly to the floor in front of him, he looked stiff and uncomfortable sat there, but Amanda knew he was at ease. Amanda however sat with her feet tucked in beside her, almost curled up, her hands cupped the warm half full mug in the way a squirrel holds a nut. She felt warm and contented, but knew they would be heading up to the clearing a little later for another bout of Martial Arts training, which she was looking forward to, it was just the biting cold wind she wasn’t so keen on.

  ‘Living organisms, sounds interesting.’

  ‘It is, you will learn things like healing. Adepts can heal cuts, bruises and common colds. Eventually you will be able to fix bones, and cure illness. It is very useful.’

  ‘Great, no more Flu for me.’

  ‘That not all, you can also enhance your body with this, anything is possible eventually. You could give yourself lots of arms, change sex, turn into animal and more. But at first, you will learn how to do small cosmetic changes, and a little later, anything that a mundane human body can achieve, meaning you can be fitter, stronger, more attractive, but not anything supernatural, not yet.’