Mage Dissolution

by Christopher George

  “What and announce our presence to every Mage in the building?”

  “How many Mages do you think are in here?”

  “I don’t know,” she snapped, “I’d much rather make as little disruption as possible.”

  “Like smashing that fire door on the roof?”

  “I don’t want to create a disturbance big enough to bring him back here.” Renee retorted angrily.

  She didn’t need to elaborate on who “him” was – her grandfather, Victor. I felt differently: I relished the chance to face him, but I wasn’t going to have that argument with her now.

  Renee squinted at me, her features twisted in indecision. My face had obviously given me away. I was a terrible poker player.

  “You’re not going to do anything stupid here are you?”

  “No,” I assured her quickly,” well, no more stupid than usual, I guess.”

  Renee rolled her eyes at me.

  It didn’t take too long to get to the right exit. We had to break it down to get into the building. I assumed that we were setting off alarms all over the place, but I didn’t want to mention that fact to Renee.

  I smashed in the door and sent it flying across the room. The sudden violence of my attack would have caught anyone lurking behind the door by surprise. A door hitting someone full speed in the face is usually the best kind of distraction. To my surprise however there was no one there. I had expected another swat team like before, but I was looking at an empty office block.

  I glanced nervously at Renee, “Are you sure this is the right level?”

  Renee nodded grimly. We fanned out and entered the office block. The office was divided into smaller cubicles, which made it hard to see. People could be lurking just below the divider level. I wasn’t worried about the swat team, they wouldn’t be able to penetrate my shield. Well, no, that wasn’t exactly true. The flash bang they had used earlier had done a very effective job of neutralising me. I’d have to be more careful. I was getting careless and like before it would be my undoing. I consciously strengthened my shield around me. I could tell Renee was feeling a little worried too as her expression had taken on a mild form of annoyance, which I knew to be her only outward sign of fear.

  “It should be just through those double doors.” Renee whispered as she gestured towards the far side of the room.

  “Tell me again why we didn’t just Scry in and see if he’s here?” I whispered sarcastically.

  “You know why.” Renee snapped caustically.

  I did. The Scry spell could possibly give away our position and we didn’t really know how many people we were facing here. It was best to have surprise on our side. I didn’t particularly want to be jumped by more Mages.

  By the time I’d reached the end of the cubicles I was beginning to feel really nervous about the whole endeavour. I nodded briefly to Renee before I smashed open the door that led into a small corridor. Small chunks of wood imbedded themselves into the wall on the far side of the door. The release of energy helped somewhat with my nerves.

  There was no one on the other side. This was getting frustrating. Renee gestured towards the far end of the corridor at another set of doors.

  “It’s too quiet,” Renee whispered as she moved forward, “I don’t like it.”

  “It’s late, all the people have gone home.”

  Renee gave me a look that indicted just how much of a stupid statement that was. I shrugged and grinned sheepishly at her.

  Renee smacked open the last door that I presumed led into the main office. The office was empty. Renee glanced around the room in disbelief.

  “Shit,” I cursed loudly.

  “Not what you were expecting?” a voice called in crisp English from behind us. I wasn’t sure how someone had gotten behind us, but they were clearly standing in the corridor that we had just passed through.

  I turned around slowly. It was a single man standing at the end of the corridor. He was right this wasn’t what I expected. I’d expected armed guards and swat teams. This guy didn’t seem to be much of a threat, but this could just be the calm before the storm.

  “It seems we were expected,” I said grimly as I let the Mana run down my arms in preparation for an attack.

  The man didn’t seem alarmed by this move. Was it possible that he couldn’t’ see the Mana? He didn’t appear to be a Mage, at least as far as I couldn’t see any Mana on his skin. However I wasn’t going to make that mistake and lower my guard.

  “Of course you were expected,” the man continued, “you’re not a subtle man Mr Wills.”

  “You know who I am?” I replied readying myself for a strike. If I could keep him talking he’d never see it coming.

  “Oh yes,” he replied disarmingly, “and Miss Whittlesea, we weren’t sure if you would come. This makes it a bonus for us of course. Your grandfather would much like to be reunited with you.”

  “Well, I don’t want to be reunited with him,” Renee snapped, biting off each word. I could see the Mana flow along her arms too. She obviously had the same idea as I had. It never ceased to amaze me how alike we were. I smiled grimly as I turned my attention back to our conversationalist.

  The more I thought about this situation the more wrong it seemed. He was just standing there looking way too unconcerned, and yet he knew who we were. He had to know what we were capable of. He should be looking at least a little worried. Between Renee and me, we were powerful enough to easily pull this building down around his ears.

  And yet he was just standing there – not moving. He wasn’t even moving a little bit. He wasn’t even breathing, or at least he didn’t appear to be. Was it possible that he was a Drone?

  I’d encountered them before. They were dead men that had been re-animated by dark sorcery. I had seen a drone take a full clip of rifle fire straight in the chest and be unfazed by it.

  They would make perfect soldiers. Unfortunately they hadn’t been that effective against Victor. Marcus had used them in a direct assault against him and Victor had simply assumed control of the Drones and turned them against their former Master. Marcus was lucky to have escaped with his life.

  No, this definitely wasn’t a Drone. For one – Drones don’t talk and this person was clearly talking, or at least seemed to be. Actually, something was wrong there too. His lips weren’t quite lining up with his words. It was like watching a movie where the voice track was out of synch with the film. It was close, but it wasn’t quite right. There was only one explanation – illusion!

  It must have been a bad one at that for me to have seen through it so easily. If I had cast this illusion I wouldn’t have been so careless with the details. That at least explained how we’d walked straight past him without seeing anything untoward. An illusion had cloaked the whole area. It was possible that I was surrounded by armed troops and wouldn’t see them. This was unlikely however as due to the nature of the illusion they wouldn’t be able to see each other either. No, it was probably only one person or a small group hidden at the far end of the corridor.

  I smiled grimly and let the Mana slide from my arms. A direct attack wouldn’t help me here. I’d have to try to be clever about this. I hated that – clever just wasn’t my forte.

  “Where is the accountant then?” I snarled, as if I had just lost my temper.

  “He is far from your reach, Mr Wills” The man responded evenly. He didn’t appear to be cowed by my apparent temper.

  “Nowhere is out of my reach,” I snapped.

  “Even now he is boarding a plane that will take him to safety.” The voice continued. It sounded amused as if stating a fact beyond my control.

  Bingo! He’d just played his hand. I nodded to Renee, who answered with a grin. She closed her eyes and I could see her Scry arching out from her body. There weren’t that many airports in Berlin. It wouldn’t be that hard for Renee to locate him.

  “That’s all very well and good for him,” I grunted, “it doesn’t save you though.”

  “If you
were going to attack me, you would have already done so by now,” the voice responded quickly. Too quickly – as if he was trying to persuade me of the fact rather than simply state it.

  “You might be right,” I replied thoughtfully as I allowed the Mana to build into my palms, then sent a pulse of energy barrelling down the corridor. As I expected it hit the illusion field about a metre or so past the door we had used.

  When it hit the illusion field the true nature of the pulse became apparent. It had taken me some time to figure out how to use this technique, but I had mastered it some time ago. Its effect was a curious one – it unravelled Mana Threads or fields. It was a Mana disruption pulse.

  I had been struck by one of these previously and I knew just how much it hurt. Had the pulse hit my opponent he would have found himself without the ability to summon Mana and in no small amount of discomfort. Fortunately for my opponent the pulse flew past him. Unfortunately for him as it passed it unravelled the illusion field surrounding him. As the field came tumbling down around him it revealed where he had actually been standing. His illusionary counterpart disappeared in a haze of Mana, revealing a smaller man at the far end of the corridor.

  My opponent was easily in his late forties. He was hunched over and if the Mana pattern sliding across his flesh were to be believed he was quite powerful. I couldn’t quite validate how I knew this, but I guessed that he was the Master of the three whom I had fought earlier.

  “Very clever, Mr Wills,” he said, showing the first sign of fear since our conversation had begun, “I hadn’t expected that.”

  It was obvious from his placement that he had expected a Mana thread against the illusion where he could counter and take me down easily.

  “I had hoped to avoid any unnecessary violence,” the Mage continued, “but I can see you’re going to be stubborn about this.”

  Now that I could see him I could assess his power. He was powerful. This wasn’t going to be easy. It would have been nice if the disrupt pulse had hit him. I glanced nervously at Renee, but she was still Scrying, looking for our wayward aircraft. She wasn’t going to be any help.

  My opponent raised his hands and smiled as he stepped forward, Mana flowing down his arms towards his wrists. As the Mana reached his wrists they began to glow into a flickering blue spark. Within seconds small sparks of electricity jumped from finger to finger and across the palm of his hand. Soon small currents of electricity were jumping between his hands as he threw sparks from one hand to the other.

  Electricity – I had no idea if my shield would protect me from that. No one had ever tried to electrocute me before. There was a good chance that it would, but I wasn’t sure and I didn’t think right now was a good time to test it out.

  My opponent obviously picked up on my indecision as he smiled broadly and began to lurch forward, cackling softly to himself.

  “It’s such a simple spell,” he smirked, “and yet the applications are numerous.”

  He was covered in at least a dozen currents of electrical sparks now. They roamed across his body and jumped between arcs, creating a sparking flickering entity of electricity bearing down on me. It was amazing that he wasn’t being affected by it; he must have taken some precaution against electrocuting himself. I couldn’t see through the buzz to see if he had a shield around him, but I assumed it was there.

  “Sparks will burn through a shield in no time,” the figure intoned, “even one as powerful as yours.”

  He had closed about the half the distance between us and it wouldn’t be long before he would be in range to throw one of those sparks in my direction. My lips twisted in indecision, I could engage him with a telekinetic thread, but I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be. Besides, I needed to keep him at a distance to protect Renee while she was Scrying.

  “It’s quite debilitating, being hit with one of these babies, ” he said as he threw a spark at me. It fizzled out before it reached me, he obviously wasn’t close enough, he was simply playing with me, flinging sparks at me for affect. I had no choice now; I’d have to engage.

  I smiled darkly as a thought took me. I did have other options, it was risky, but it was worth a shot. I raised my hand and gestured towards the roof. My gesture seemed to confuse him as he took a quick step back as if expecting an attack. I summoned the Mana to me and sent a burst of flame from my fingertips and hit the roof and leaving a visible scorch mark on the ceiling. I didn’t particularly like using flame, but I had become very proficient at the spell.

  “If you’re intending to intimidate me, you’ll find that I’m not so easily scared by pitiful displays of power.” He cackled as I sent several more volleys of flame at the ceiling.

  His laughter stopped as he finally realised what I was doing. I hadn’t been aiming indiscriminately at the roof; I’d been aiming at the fire detector. An ear-piercing alarm echoed throughout the floor as a small torrent of water cascaded over us. For me it was quite refreshing as the water poured across my shield, but I hadn’t surrounded myself with arcs of electricity. The currents of electricity intensified across his body as the water showered down across him.

  He jerked suddenly as the electricity reacted with the water. I heard a loud crackling noise that I come to associate with a shield failing. My opponent jerked again and this time called out in pain. His calls quickly turned to shrieks as he fell to the ground.

  His body eventually jerked to a standstill, broken only by the occasional leg twitch. I didn’t stop to inspect him, but I could tell from his Mana pattern that he was still alive, but I didn’t know for how long. Small tendrils of smoke were coming off him at an alarming rate.

  “Why… am I wet?” A disgruntled voice called from behind me.

  I turned to see a very soggy Renee, glaring daggers at me. Her hair was plastered to her head and water was dripping down the side of her face and down the curve of her neck.

  “It seemed quicker,” I shrugged. “Did you get the location?”

  Renee nodded quickly, “Yeah, before I was rudely interrupted with a sudden shower.”

  “Where is it?”

  “It’s in the air.”

  “Ah.” That was more difficult. Teleporting onto a moving object was a challenge I’d never tried before. It would be interesting, especially teleporting onto something travelling at that speed. I didn’t know exactly how far planes flew, but I knew it would be fast.

  “That’ll be fun,” I nodded dryly.

  “Let’s go then!” Renee grinned.

  “Ladies first.” I replied with a bow.

  “Very gentlemanly of you”.

  “Not really, I don’t know where I’m going,” I grinned cheekily.

  “Fair enough,” Renee smiled as she closed her eyes and summoned her Mana.

  * * * * * *

  I followed Renee’s Scry thread high into the Berlin skyline. We approached the plane at top speed and zoomed down behind it. It looked like a military craft, one of those cargo planes that you see in the movies.

  I forced my thread to pierce through the iron shell of the aircraft and into the cabin. I flexed my fingers as I began the technique that would allow me to teleport. I needed to calm myself. If I fucked this up, I’d find myself free falling down out of German airspace, or worse.

  Not only did I need to move myself the distance required, I’d also have to control the speed at which I was travelling when I appeared. I was stationary now, if I arrived stationary on the plane, I’d probably end up smeared across the back of the aircraft.

  The trick with teleportation was visualization. You had to completely focus yourself into the new location. You had to convert yourself into Mana and then send yourself along the Scry thread to your destination. This wasn’t easy as the body doesn’t like being converted into Mana.

  It’s like a little death, the body doesn’t know what’s happening and unconsciously thinks that it’s the end, so it fights you on it. The cellular decay caused by the reaction isn’t painful, but the anticipation i
s frightening. You never know for sure if you’re going to appear where you want to.

  I glanced to my left and saw Renee lurch forward as she materialised; she’d obviously under compensated the speed. She fell to her knees but quickly recovered. I took a mental note of this – more speed. It almost looked like a perfect landing, but I had seen her stumble. She would be fuming at her mishap. I grinned wryly; it was my turn. I had yet to see if I would fare any better.

  I breathed in. The process begins as a tingling, kind of like when your leg goes to sleep. It’s not painful, but it’s definitely uncomfortable. The loss of sensation across your extremities is alarming, but can be ignored. There is then a sensation of speed as you travel along the Scry thread. It only takes a few seconds, but it feels much longer. It’s strange that when you’re travelling along the Scry thread you still have the sensation of movement. Even though it’s not possible I always swear I can feel the air rush past my face and through my hair, but in that state you have no senses to register this sensation, nor hair, nor face. This has always confused me.

  The arrival is always the worst part – it begins with a slight moment of paralysis as the body’s cellular structure rebuilds itself. The body goes into shock for several seconds as nerve endings scream in protest and the stomach churns and nausea rises in your chest. Then just as suddenly as it begins it stops, ending with the same pins and needles that you feel before departure.

  When I first began teleporting a sickly feeling would remain in my stomach for the remainder of the day, but the more I utilised the technique the less ill I felt. I never found out if it had to do with my skill at teleportation or if my body simply became accustomed to the abuse.

  I breathed out. The tingling stopped and my feet fell to the ground. I was immediately thrown back into some crates; I’d used way too much speed. Physics is a harsh bitch.

  My shield sprang around me almost instantly and probably saved my life. I hit the crates at full speed, reducing them to splinters. Without my shield I would have probably broken my back. I had no wish to be a paraplegic for the rest of my life because of a stupid miscalculation.