Ah, Liz thought, a fan. Amanda had become something of a well-known Magus over the past few months with tales of her exploits being told through the Magi run online forums. Much of it was embellished and blown out of all proportion, but her name and her adventures had been talked about and spread far and wide.
As a side effect, those in Amanda’s Coven, her close associates were also within that spotlight, and it wasn’t the first time that a Magus she had never met before had walked up to her and known her name and more.
She wasn’t sure she liked it, but, she had little control over it.
‘Well, thank you, it’s nice to meet you too. I used to live here so, just visiting. Reminiscing I suppose,’ she said, smiling.
‘Oh great, I didn’t know you were British. I just saw that you guys were in New York and assumed…’
‘Yeah, I’ve had that before. We’re from all over really, Amanda’s Irish you know.’
‘I think I’d heard that somewhere, but then, lots of yanks call themselves Irish don’t they?’
‘Yeah well, they’re just proud of their heritage I suppose,’ Liz said.
‘Oh I wish I could introduce you to my Coven, Anna would love to meet you. You don’t have any spare time do you?’
Liz looked at him, thoughts of her recent ordeal with the Legion running through her mind. She needed some sort of proof of who they were, and she knew just how to get it. ‘What’s your name, your full name, and Coven name?’
‘Richard Goddard, with the Britannic Guardians Coven,’ he answered.
‘Gimme a moment,’ she said, and backed away from Richard a short distance and sent a pulse through her Link with Shaun. It took only a moment and suddenly the Mental Link with Shaun back in New York opened up.
‘Liz, always a pleasure, what can I do for you?’ she heard in her head.
‘Hi Shaun,’ she replied, sending her thoughts through the Link. ‘I need you to check something for me. I’ve met some Magi here. Do you have a record of a Britannic Guardians Coven with a member called Richard?’
‘One moment,’ he said as the link went quiet. He was no doubt hunting through the online forums and computer databases that he had been compiling in the basement of Amanda’s Coven House to find the answer that Liz was after. She looked back at Richard who stood nearby, clearly curious to know what her answer would be. ‘Okay, got it. Yeah, he’s legit, Richard Goddard, the Coven leader is Anna, there’s also Jenna, Callie and Rory. The Britannic Guardians? Wow, how pretentious is that name? Anyway yeah, they’re on the Council’s records from what I can tell. They seem friendly. I’m not getting any red flags. I even have a photo of a few of them, this is Richard,’ he said, and the image of Richard’s face appeared in her mind’s eye along with Shaun’s mental message.
‘Okay great, thanks Shaun,’ she said.
‘Any time Blondie,’ he said and closed the Link.
She looked back at Richard, still smiling from Shaun’s Blondie comment. ‘Hey, so yeah, I can spare a little time, let’s go and meet your Coven,’ she said.
‘Checking up on me where you?’ he asked.
‘Yeah, sorry, but I don’t know you from Adam so…’
‘It’s okay, I get it,’ he smiled at her.
‘Okay, cool,’ she smiled.
‘So um, I’ve heard a lot about what happened on that Island, can I ask you a few questions?’
Liz did her best to answer his questions as they walked through the streets away from Stephens’s house. Even with her initial apprehension, she was actually glad of the distraction, the thoughts of her friends and their untimely deaths was all getting a little oppressive and frankly, that’s wasn’t why she was here. She didn’t want to get all depressed and upset. She had hoped to find some perspective on things, but so far, hadn’t found too much of it.
The house that Richard eventually turned into was a three storey detached affair, a period house with plenty of ornate decorations that had been darkened and muted with time and erosion. Surrounded by hedges, they had plenty of privacy, and the whole place seemed like a good place for a Coven to set up shop.
‘Nice place you have here,’ Liz commented.
‘Yeah, it does the job I suppose. Come on, I know Anna will be keen to meet you, and Jenna,’ he said with genuine excitement in his voice.
She followed him in, noting the fairly average Aegis around the house which parted to let them through before he opened the front door.
The inside was also well appointed with lush carpets and plenty of old-fashioned ornaments and side tables.
‘Anna?’ Richard called out.
‘Through here,’ called out a female voice from a side room.
Richard led them through to where a woman in her late twenties, maybe early thirties in appearance anyway, stood waiting for them. But Liz knew as well as anybody that with the Magi, appearances can be very deceptive when many of them were basically immortal.
The woman, who must be this Anna, Richard was talking about, looked a little surprised to see Liz walk in. She raised her eyebrows and looked back at Richard, clearly waiting for an explanation.
‘Anna, this is Liz, Liz Fox. She’s part of Amanda-Jane Page’s Coven in New York,’ Richard explained.
‘Oh, oh that Liz!’ she said.
‘That’s right, she’s in London, and I just bumped into her, I can’t believe it. After hearing so much about her and her Mentor, it’s amazing right?’
Anna smiled and stepped forward, offering her hand. ‘Liz, welcome to our Coven House. You’ll have to excuse Richard, he and Jenna hear a lot of what’s going on in the Magi world through the web and, well, they got quite into the stories of your mentor recently. I hope you can forgive his enthusiasm, he’s harmless really.’
‘Of course,’ Liz smiled, feeling much more at ease with Anna. She had a much calmer nature from what Liz could see and had a professional attitude to her. She wore a pencil skirt and tights with a silk shirt, looking more like a business woman than a Magus.
‘Hay, I’m right here you know,’ Richard said. ‘I’m sorry. I’m just a little excited is all. It’s not often you meet a celebrity.’
‘Hardly,’ Liz corrected him.
‘Hey, I’m going to find Jenna, I bet…’ he said, stopping suddenly and pulling out his phone as it buzzed once in his pocket. He looked at the screen and frowned, his whole demeanour changing suddenly.
‘Everything okay?’ Anna asked.
‘Yeah, sorry, it’s just my sister, Ellie. She needs some help with something. Sorry, I gotta dash. Introduce Liz to Jenna for me will ya. Sorry, Liz, I’ll be back soon if you’re hanging around. Thanks for not running a mile when I collared you on the street.’
‘No problem,’ Liz said. ‘Hope your sister’s okay.’
‘Thanks,’ he said and ducked out the room.
Liz looked back at Anna with a self-conscious smile, suddenly feeling very much like a third wheel.
‘Well, that was short and sweet,’ Anna said.
‘Hope it’s nothing serious, with his sister I mean,’ Liz said.
‘I doubt it; she’s often calling and getting him to do stuff. She seems a little needy to me. Anyway, as you’re here, how about I give you the guided tour?’
‘Sure, why not,’ Liz smiled.
Underpass
Dammit, Richard thought as he closed the house door behind him. Perfect timing by his sister once again, she always called or messaged him at the worst possible moment.
He couldn’t believe his luck when he spotted Liz on that street. He’d done a double take when he saw her. He’d seen photos of her and Amanda online on the Dark Web, the Magi run forum where he got most of his information about the goings on in the Magi world. He’d read the stories of Amanda on there, but sorting out the truth from the fiction was not always easy. He’d heard of the events on the Island, the explosion and how she became the chosen one.
He wasn’t sure how much of that he believed of course, but from that poi
nt onwards Magi were posting about their own encounters with Amanda and Liz and Gentle Water.
There were very few celebrities within that Magi world. The closest they got were usually the more well-known Masters and Arch Masters and those on the Magi Council. You’d hear about some others from time to time, but not really on a consistent basis.
There had been that Actress, Melissa Gemelle-Rowe. He’d seen her in a few films starring alongside some well-known Riven Actors. She’d done well for herself. Well, until she died that is. There were all sorts of stories about that as well. It happened in New York, so there were those sceptics who thought that Amanda was implicated in it somehow. He didn’t believe them. He just didn’t see Amanda and Liz as people who would go about murdering innocents. Not Arcadian Magi anyway.
No, to him, Amanda and her Coven were different somehow, and they were appearing all over the place on the Dark Web now. They generated a lot of interest. It didn’t hurt that Amanda was quite a good looking girl as well. Not something that was very unusual for a Magi of course. Richard shook his head. Get your mind out of the gutter, he thought with a smile. He continued on through the streets as night fell.
It wasn’t long before he felt pretty sure that he was being followed. He noticed that the same three people, all of them wearing hoodies and looking more than a little delinquent had been behind him for a while now. He opened up the Magical spectrum to his vision and put a set of senses looking behind him to watch these three youths. He didn’t see anything Magical about them for the moment, be he know as well as most Magi that you could conceal your Magical signature from casual view. So he wasn’t ruling that out at all yet.
The best thing would be to start taking some silly routes, do some switchbacks and see if they followed.
He was walking alongside a very busy main road now and spotted an underpass coming up. He didn’t like the idea of using it but figured he’d get through there quick and double back for a while on the other side of the road to see what they did.
At the last moment, he ducked right and jogged down into the underpass, down a slope that led to the tunnel that went beneath the road. He paused at the entrance to the tunnel, looking along its dark interior to see if there was any potential danger down there.
He saw nothing, just a deserted tunnel and looked back up the slope to the path above in time to see the three hooded thugs run to the top and point down at him.
Shit, they were after him. Suddenly the underpass didn’t feel like quite such a good idea anymore. There was another upwards slope going the other direction to the thugs that would keep him on this side of the road, but keep him running away from his pursuers.
He turned to run back up to the path away from the hoodies only to turn and see a woman in long black floaty clothes stood there with a scarily long, evil-looking dagger in her right hand. She smiled at him from beneath her long black hair, her ruby lips standing in stark contrast to her pale skin.
His automatic reaction was to pump Essentia into his own Aegis, strengthening his shield in anticipation of the attack that was sure to come.
Essentia surged around the girl and with a gesture of her free hand a battering ram of kinetic energy slammed into him, knocking him sideways and into the tunnel wall.
Pain shot through his back and arm as he tumbled to the floor with a shout.
Who the hell were these guys? If he had to guess, he’d say a Nomad group, but he was fairly sure they had a good idea of which Nomad Covens are active in the area, and these guys didn’t ring any bells. He certainly didn’t recognise them anyway.
Richard scrambled to his feet as he looked behind him to see the goth girl and the three hoodies rounding the corner together. He noted that the hoodies were no longer hiding their Magical signature now, their Aegises flaring into full life as they approached him.
Richard ran at a full sprint, amending his Aegis to give himself a force shield as well. It wasn’t a strong one, and his Aegis had been damaged from the kinetic blast the girl had delivered to him.
He’d barely taken a step when he sensed Magic flaring up behind him once more, as daggers of Essentia hammered into his Aegis from at least three of the Magi following him. His Aegis flared and fizzled at the Magical attacks as it tried to resist. It would be tight. He had no idea if he’d make the end of the tunnel before they broke through his Aegis, but if he could just get far enough away from them…
He glanced back, they were walking.
Why were they only walking? He’d be away from them in a matter of…
His foot hit a raised concrete slab that hadn’t been raised a second before, and suddenly he didn’t have a foot beneath him.
Richard dropped to the floor hard, hitting his head on the ground and skidding to a stop.
‘Urgh,’ he groaned, perfect, just what he needed. It took him a couple of seconds to gather his thoughts again and remember where he was and what he was doing, but when he looked back down the tunnel to the four Magi bearing down on him, the reality of the situation came flooding back to him. He needed time, time to get out of here and lose these guys, so he did the first thing that came into his head, raising his hand and channelling Essentia through himself again into a wide kinetic shove, mimicking the effect that the girl had delivered to him not thirty seconds ago.
All four of them got caught up in the wave and were blown off their feet. They flew backwards and landed in a heap with shouts and yells of pain.
Richard jumped up and ran the few more meters to the end of the tunnel only to be punched in the face with a fist that felt like concrete as he rounded the corner.
He felt the crack of his nose just as much as he heard it. The pain was intense as he staggered back, holding his hands up to his face, his warm blood dripping freely onto his palms while his vision swam for a few dizzying seconds.
Backing up to just inside the tunnel, he put his back to the wall and squinted forward through the tears that had welled up in his eyes.
A man stood there in old looking clothing with a well-worn long coat on him. He had short cropped hair and took a slow step towards him.
‘Richard isn’t it?’ the man said.
Richard frowned at the man. How did he know his name? Who was this Magus? These questions and more flooded through his mind, but they weren’t important, so he brushed them aside. He didn’t have time for such idiotic thoughts. His life was clearly in danger, so he did his best to concentrate and pull more Essentia to him to fuel his next effect.
Gathering the Magical energy to him, Richard forsook any finesse at all and just threw it at the man, hoping to at least destroy his defences. The energy washed over the probable Nomad, damaging his Aegis, but nowhere near enough.
The Nomad returned the favour and sent a hammer blow of Essentia at Richard. The effect was a good deal more focused and powerful than Richards weak attempt. It wasn’t surprising really, though. The intense pain affected his concentration and basically ruined any chance of a coherent Magical effect.
This Nomad’s effect was joined by similar workings of Magic from the other four Magi who had now approached him once again.
Richard Aegis lasted all of three seconds under that onslaught before it cracked and then disintegrated to nothing.
The man who stood before him threw another slam of kinetic force at Richard, ramming him back into the wall once more. Richard hissed and groaned under the power of the attack before slumping down, sliding his back down the wall in defeat and waiting to see what they did to him.
The man walked up and then crouched down before him.
‘How… why me? How do you know me?’ Richard croaked, spitting blood as he spoke.
The man smiled and then held up a blood-splattered phone with a pink flowery case that Richard immediately recognised.
‘Ellie didn’t put up much of a fight you know. She died like the pathetic Riven weakling she is… on her knees,’ he said.
Richard groaned as his heart leapt into his throat and his
stomach fell. He’d killed Ellie? No, not Ellie, anything but Ellie. More tears welled up in his eyes at the feeling of loss and hopelessness. He loved his sister. He’d basically helped raise her when their mum had left them. Their dad wasn’t the most loving of people. He tried, but he was never that great at being a parent.
But now, if what this man was saying was true, she was dead, killed by this monster. Rage and anger suddenly rose up with him, deep and powerful and primal. Richard launched himself at this man intending to claw his eyes out and bite his ear off.
The punch was swift, controlled and powerful. It knocked Richards head back against the wall with a strength that felt like it might have bruised his brain.
The world tilted and swam as his vision darkened.
‘Fucking Arcadians,’ he heard the man say as he fell into oblivion.
Abandoned
Liz took a sip of tea from the cup she held in her hand and relished the refreshing taste of good old English tea. There was nothing really like it, and it had been a long time since she had enjoyed a cup. The stuff you got in the US was never quite the same, and they were far too obsessed with their coffees and lattes and mochaccino-thingys. Nope, you really couldn’t beat a nice hot steaming cup of tea. She even had a saucer to put her cup on. It was wondrous really.
‘Oooh, that’s lovely, thank you,’ she said.
‘No problem, don’t the Americans have tea?’ Anna asked.
‘They do, but it’s not quite the same, you know. I don’t know, it’s difficult to explain really. Nothing quite tastes as good as this. Maybe it’s the water or something?’
Anna nodded and took a sip from her own cup.
‘It’s a lovely place you have here,’ Liz said. Anna had shown Liz around a good chunk of the house, including the whole of the ground floor. They had a nice set up here.
‘Thank you. We do what we can to make it homely and not too much like a fortress.’
Uprising: The Magi Saga (Tales of the Magi Saga Book 1) Page 3