Mage Catalyst

by George, Christopher

  I nodded and watched as Renee calmly took several steps back and flicked her palm in my direction sending a powerful mana thread in my direction. I couldn’t help but to flinch as the impact slammed against my shield. True to my predictions the field held, but the impact forced me to take several steps backwards.

  “Good enough.” Renee smiled as she approached. “You’ll need to watch your speed though. You’re raising your shield far too slowly for it to be of much use if you’re taken by surprise.”

  It was hard to argue with that.

  “I must admit.” She continued. “That shielding isn’t really my preferred use of this theory. I much prefer invisibility.”

  “That did look pretty cool,” I said.

  “It is.” She replied simply. “Do you think you’re ready to try something different? Maybe test that speed of yours a little?”

  “What did you have in mind?”

  “Okay, stand forward with your shield down. I’m going to punch you in the face and if you can’t get the shield up in time, you’re going to get whacked,” Renee announced.

  “This is because I made you fall down earlier isn’t it?” I smirked.

  “You got it.” Renee winked.

  “Why does everyone I know want to punch me in the face?” I groaned.

  “Just your charming personality,” Renee grinned.

  “You do realise that if I do get the shield up in time you’ll probably break your wrist?”

  “I hadn’t considered that,” Renee agreed ruefully.

  “Thus, the student becomes the master?” I murmured cheekily.

  “Oh? Is that so?” Renee replied in mock outrage, “Then defend yourself master!”

  She was still smirking as she launched a mana thread at me, catching me off guard. I was barely able to get the mana field up in time as her first thread belted into the side of my shield. The impact knocked me over, sweeping my feet out from under me as I slid across the rooftop. I rallied quickly, jumping back to my feet and rushing at her. Renee was merciless, and with a quick sideways slash she swept my knees out from underneath me again and brought me crashing back down onto my back.

  “Don’t get too cocky.” Renee smirked.

  This had all happened before I could even consider launching a counter attack.

  “Okay, okay,” I protested, getting the point. I was seriously outclassed here. Renee was still grinning at me as she walked over to me and offered me her hand.

  I gratefully took her hand and felt the electricity of her touch as I always did. I let her pull me to my feet. With a quick pull I found myself in her arms as she wrapped her body around mine and leaned in to kiss me. I wanted nothing more but something made me pull away. This was wrong, I scolded myself. I was with Tina now. I couldn’t kiss Renee like this. As much as I wanted to kiss her I couldn’t, and I really, really wanted to. Renee immediately tensed up and I felt her question before it came.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I have a girlfriend now,” I whispered back, wishing I didn’t. “It wouldn’t be right.”

  I saw a multitude of expressions cross her face. It was the look of hurt rejection that surprised me the most. The expression flicked across her face and was just as quickly replaced by cynical detachment and then finally a look of friendly affection.

  Renee delicately extracted herself from my arms with a cheeky grin on her face.

  “So? Lil’ Twitch is getting some now then, eh?” she teased in her usual impish fashion. She laughed as I flinched at her accusation and then ruefully grinned back.

  “Can we still be friends?”

  “Of course.” Renee smiled and leaned forward to kiss me on the cheek. “For what it’s worth, I appreciate the honesty. Besides,” she said, “you’re still far too young for me. I’d ruin you for other women.”

  “Can I have your phone number at least? It’d be easier than setting off a mana charge and freaking out the city every time I want to talk to you.”

  “Sheesh, you know where I live, what more do you want?” Renee laughed.

  “Hey! There are a lot of apartments in that building block. I can’t remember who lives where.”

  “Fine,” she grumbled with mock gruffness. “Get out your phone.”

  I rummaged through my pockets pulling out several phones. I was having trouble determining in the dark exactly which one was mine.

  “How many phones do you have?” Renee asked with a quizzical expression as the mobile phones played hide and seek in my coat pockets.

  “Long story,” I replied as I finally found mine and programmed in her number.

  “Well, I should really get going,” Renee announced. “Keep practicing that shield spell. If you get good enough you’ll find yourself using it without realising it when you’re in danger. It’s quite useful.”

  I promised her I would.

  “How are you going to get down?” Renee asked.

  “Same way I got up,” I replied. “You?”

  “I’ll just teleport home,” Renee replied dryly, as if this wasn’t a big deal.

  “Teleport?”

  “I don’t do it that often, it’s really difficult.” Renee shrugged. “My grandfather showed me how to do it last time he was here. I can show you one day when you’re a bit better with fields.”

  “Definitely.”

  “Night, Twitch.” She smiled and gave me a casual salute.

  “Good night Renee.” I really wanted to kiss her but forced myself to smile casually.

  I watched as she closed her eyes and concentrated, sending forth that strange mana thread over to her apartment and then with a clap of thunderous noise and a slight rush of air she was gone. I took a more traditional route back to Dad’s, by jumping off the roof.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Ello. You ring Golden Dragon Restaurant. You order now?”

  “Wrong number,” I replied dryly, hanging up. Somehow I was less than surprised. I couldn’t help chuckling as I realised that Sarah would now have a new restaurant to try out. She quite liked the Italian restaurant that Renee had used in her last prank number.

  Still, it wasn’t like this was a complete dead end. I now knew where she lived in Carlton. I didn’t know which flat, but that wouldn’t take mana to find out.

  I hadn’t had a chance to drop the additional phones and wallets to the police station last night, so I took the opportunity in the morning. It was a strange feeling walking into the Melbourne City Police Station attempting to return property that had been stolen at knife point.

  The police man at the desk looked a little bored as I approached and in a dull voice intoned, “How can I help you?”

  “Yeah, hi, um, I found these in a trash bin on Latrobe Street and I wanted to turn them in.”

  He perked up a little as I dropped the phones and wallets on the desk.

  “Where did you say you found them?” he asked as he began his inspection.

  “In a bin,” I repeated, a little confused. I hadn’t been prepared to be interrogated on that part.

  “That’s a little odd, there’s still money in these,” he commented as he placed the items into a zip lock bag. “Can we get your personal details for our records?”

  “Sure,” I nodded.

  I filled in the paperwork and passed it through to the cop on the other side of the desk. He looked quickly over them and nodded.

  “Thanks,” the cop mumbled, “you may be contacted if there are any problems.”

  I returned to Dad’s after I left the police station. I had ducked out early before Dad had gotten up concluding that he’d assume I’d gone out to get supplies for breakfast. I stopped in at the supermarket to get some bacon, eggs and the other stuff for our morning ritual. I’d just walked in the front door of the apartment when Dad grumpily emerged from his bedroom.

  “You were gone awhile” Dad said as I dumped the shopping on the bench. He’d obviously already been awake for some time.

  “Yeah, the line at the s
upermarket was hell,” I said. I didn’t much relish the thought of explaining to him that I’d been to the police station. Fortunately he let it go at that.

  “Right, so what do you have planned for the day?”

  I knew that when Dad asked that, it meant he’d have to go into work.

  “An essay for English,” I replied.

  He nodded but didn’t say anything as I began to cook breakfast.

  “So when are you going to tell me about how you got that black eye?” asked Dad.

  I tenderly probed the bruising under my eye. It had gotten worse overnight.

  “Yeah, had a little disagreement with someone.” I chuckled, trying to play the incident down.

  “Problems at school?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “No, it’s all under control,” I confirmed, not wanting to go into more detail.

  “As long as you’re sure,” Dad said.

  “Yeah, I’m sure, everything’s fine,” I lied with more confidence than I actually felt.

  “Does your mother know?” Dad asked sternly.

  “Sure,” I said. The last thing I wanted was another discussion between my parents about me. Dad didn’t pursue the subject and we lapsed into a stilted silence.

  I texted Tina on the weekend – out of duty more than anything – and the conversation was stilted and awkward. She had asked me about my Friday night and I had lied about having an early night. I didn’t want her to see the black eye on Monday, but there was nothing for it. I don’t know what she was thinking of me right now anyway.

  My thoughts of Tina inevitably led me back to thoughts of Renee. It was strange how that happened. It shouldn’t be happening. I was haunted by the look of rejection on Renee’s face when she had moved to kiss me. What the hell did that mean? In a million years I doubted I’d ever understand women.

  I wanted to go and try to find her flat today, but I wasn’t sure she would see me or what her response would be. In the end I determined that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea. I should probably just finish my homework.

  Although I really wanted to see her again, a number of excuses raged through my head as to why it wasn’t a good idea. I’m such a coward sometimes.

  * * * *

  School that week took a decidedly frantic turn as our mid-year exams began the following week and the pressure was on to try and cram as much knowledge into our heads as possible. It was even starting to affect me and I normally didn’t pay too much attention to exam pressures. I normally didn’t even care about good grades. The last good grade that I had received was in primary school.

  My attention to my studies was probably due to my relationship with Tina. For Tina getting good results was a necessity due to her strict parents. I guess I was trying to keep pace with her and several teachers noted the increased attention to my studies. I don’t think the extra study was helping much as I didn’t feel any smarter. I privately wondered why people went to the effort, but I kept this musing to myself.

  “How does it feel to be the guy who got punched in the face?” Mark sneered as he walked past us in the halls before my morning class.

  “At least Devon didn’t run away from a guy who just got punched in the face,” Tony called back, which had the effect of causing Mark to shut the hell up for the rest of the day. That alone was almost worth the punch to the face, I reflected with some mirth – but only just.

  “Thanks man, that’s very helpful.” I grinned sarcastically as we both watched Mark storm off. “How’s the study going? I’ve actually finished the English assignment,” I said, almost proudly, eager to change the subject. “Where are you up to?”

  “Don’t ask.” Tony sighed. “I guess we’re just not cut out to be academics.”

  That was nice of Tony. I knew his grades were fine – they always had been. Tony had an annoying ability to get fantastic grades without putting in much effort.

  “No, I guess not,” I concluded with mock sorrow. “So what are we cut out to be?”

  “Dole bludgers?” Tony replied glibly.

  “No.” I shook my head vigorously. “Do you know how much work those guys have to do now to keep the payments coming in? It would be almost easier just to get a job.”

  “So you’re basically saying that we’re too lazy to lie about working?”

  “Yep,” I concluded with a grin.

  “That’s practically Zen.”

  “I thought you’d like it.” I grinned as we moved towards our lockers.

  I watched with some degree of caution as Mark stormed past us and out of the locker bay. I hurriedly moved to one side to allow him passage past. I didn’t particularly want to annoy Mark any further. I didn’t really know how best to handle him right now.

  The shielding spell that Renee had taught me was all very well and good. I just couldn’t really see how it offered me any long-term solution. I wanted Mark humbled and humiliated to the point that he’d leave me alone. This was the only way to deal with this kind of bully. The problem was that I had no idea how to do it without giving myself away and doing something magical that would be very hard to hide. I hadn’t even considered that I might be able to resolve this without using my powers.

  School was its usual monotonous drone for the remainder of the day. The only ray of hope in my otherwise grey and hopeless world was that Sarah had announced that her parents had allowed her to have a party after the exams. I was really looking forward to it. Sarah didn’t throw too many parties but when she did they were always fun. Sarah had a large pool in her backyard, but it would probably be too cold to use at this time of year. There had been several pool parties over the summer and I’d had quite a good time at each of them. I’d cleared the event with Dad so he wasn’t expecting me until the following morning. I planned to get drunk and crash at Sarah’s. Tina had also announced that her parents had grudgingly let her go too – but not to stay the night. All in all it was looking to be a good night.

  It had been some time since I’d let my hair down and with everything else going on in my life I was really looking forward to letting off some steam. Fortunately, the rest of the week went by pretty quickly. I had gotten the best mark I had ever received in English class for the essay too. Saunders had written “Well done, Devon” but then proceeded to tear it to pieces of course. Still, I think he liked it. I got a D+, and considering all the marks taken off, that was a damn good result.

  I had shown Tina the essay and she had liked it. “The thoughts are there,” she had told me, “you’re just expressing them really clumsily.”

  Tina had obviously decided that I couldn’t be trusted with my own studies and had had insisted that we study together at my place. To be fair she was probably right – if she hadn’t insisted I doubted I’d be studying right now.

  “You’re not even trying!” Tina exclaimed, throwing her book down.

  “It’s hard!” I disagreed. “I can’t focus.”

  “I don’t see how I can explain it any other way,” Tina stated impatiently, tapping her finger on the section of text that we’d just gone over.

  “I’m just not motivated enough,” I sighed.

  Tina nodded darkly.

  “You could motivate me?” I grinned. “You know, make a game of it.”

  “What? Strip-studying?” Tina laughed back. “I don’t see it taking off.”

  “Hah!” I chuckled. “I was only after a kiss, but nice joke!”

  “What joke?” she smiled, looking a little confused.

  “Not seeing strip-studying taking off,” I prompted.

  “Oh, that was unintentional,” she stated, adjusting her glasses in a businesslike fashion.

  “Now, where did we land on that kiss?” I pursued with a smile.

  “Not until you at least finish the chapter,” Tina scolded with a smile.

  “Okay, now I’m motivated,” I concluded dryly.

  “Shut up and study!” Tina grinned as she leaned forward to plant a tender kiss on the end of my nose b
efore sitting back down and resuming study.

  “This can’t be good for your studies,” I argued. “I must be slowing you down.”

  “You won’t be if you’ll just be quiet for ten minutes!” Tina shot back.

  “My mouth is sealed, milady,” I uttered solemnly, attempting to focus back on my work. This worked for a little while.

  * * * *

  I didn’t end up going to Dad’s the following weekend. I had originally intended to but had gotten side tracked by all the studying that I was supposed to be doing. It’s time-consuming work pretending to be busy. It takes even more effort than the actual studying would have been in the first place. I’d come to the conclusion that it didn’t make much difference if I studied or not. There was no way I’d need all this pointless knowledge that we were cramming into our heads. In truth I was getting a little annoyed at the way everyone was acting about these tests. These exams surely can’t be as important as everyone was treating them.

  I was an exception anyway. If Renee’s grandfather was to be believed, only one in a multitude had the skills I possessed. If that didn’t exclude me from having to participate in certain mundane activities such as study then I don’t know what does. The exams when they arrived were as anti-climactic as I’d feared they would be. We were hustled into the main gym where they had set up row upon row of tables and chairs. Mr Saunders was monitoring the exam and had given a stern lecture about how we were not to bring any notes or electronic devices into the exam. We were assigned seating and I was seated next to Sarah, which made me feel a little better.

  Flicking briefly through the exam paper I was struck again by the single overwhelming thought. What good was any of this going to do me? There was nothing in here that was even remotely practical for everyday use.

  I struggled through the three hour-long session. Mr Saunders spent his time marching up and down the rows of tables with his hand clasped behind him like a commandant of a prisoner of war camp. He’d occasionally loom over an unfortunate student, peering down at them.