by Logan Byrne
“We can’t just leave it, Mirian. I feel very strongly about this,” I said, challenging him and his authority for what felt like the first time.
“I will think about it. I can’t promise you two anything, though. I’ll have to assess the value of this target in comparison with where we would be infiltrating,” Mirian said.
“Come on, Lexa, let’s let Mirian think. Besides, we have sparring with Blake and Britta and I know Britta will fire off stronger spells at us if we’re late,” Charlie said, nudging me.
“Promise me you’ll think about it?” I asked, as we walked towards the door.
“I give you my word,” Mirian replied.
“Where have you two been? You’re ten minutes late!” Blake shouted when we walked into the sparring room. We’d reserved it once a week since we started at the precinct, using it as a chance to hone our skills and improve in combat. We figured that we all trusted one another to not actually try to harm one another, and besides, we needed the combat experience if we were to ever get promoted higher up the chain.
“What do you guys want to go for this time?” Britta asked, standing at the control panel on the side of the room.
“How about basic barriers?” Charlie asked, stretching.
“You got it,” Britta said, before tapping some buttons. Parts of the floor opened up in the center and around us, with barriers both large and small rising from the floor. This was a pretty basic attempt at sparring, with the barriers substituting for real world shields that we could hide behind between attacks. They could represent hallways, dumpsters, walls, or anything else you could physically fit your body behind or under.
“Ready?” I asked, stepping up next to Charlie, as Britta and Blake stood on the far side of the room.
“Ready,” Blake shouted back.
Britta started the simulation, the countdown computer turning on above us. “Three…two…one…commence simulation.”
Charlie shifted immediately, running to a medium-sized barrier before I slid into another near him. A bolt of energy from Britta flew past my left shoulder, narrowly missing me, as I felt the air from its power brush my hair back. “Not holding back?” I yelled.
“You were late,” she replied, and I looked over to see Charlie nodding at me. He was always right. “Come out and fight me, I’m not hiding.”
I gripped my wand tighter before looking slyly out the side. A bolt came almost instantly, hitting the side of the barrier and causing me to shoot myself back. “This is going to be fun,” I whispered, as Charlie slunk down on all fours with his ears back.
“Arma Maximus,” I shouted, springing up and swiping my wand from side to side. Britta’s bolts hit my shield, bubbling off and making the shield ripple like a rock dropped in a pond.
“Charlie, go,” I said, firing back through my shield. Britta ducked behind her barrier, my bolts having the upper hand now, as I looked around for Blake, who I couldn’t get eyes on.
“I don’t know where he is,” Charlie said, moving in closer and sniffing the air.
All of the sudden, without any warning, I saw Blake’s red werewolf eyes coming at me as he flew through the air. Charlie roared, jumping up to meet him in mid-air as he took him down so I could focus on Britta. I heard Blake’s roars and Charlie’s hisses as they swiped at one another, no claws used obviously, though a serious case of testosterone flowing between them.
Neither of them wanted to lose this spar, acting like brothers who couldn’t bear to let the other have the moment of winning, as they jostled around and flipped over one another left and right. While my attention was too focused on them, Britta stood up. I turned to her in slow motion as I saw her mouthing a spell. A bright purple bolt came my way, hitting my shield and shattering it in a stunning explosion that left sparkling shards of glitter shooting in every direction.
“Pacificate!” she yelled, a bolt flying past me as I fell to the ground from the earlier explosion of my shield. I shook my head, shaking the cobwebs out, before slinking down and moving closer to the next row of barriers.
“I know you’re out there, Lexa! Come on, this isn’t hide-and-seek, this is a spar. Fight me!” she yelled, becoming more and more aggressive as the minutes passed.
I had every intention of fighting her back, but not like this. I was a tactician, using my skills as a thief in moments and scenarios like this. When I had to steal something, or get out of a place, or even away from people, I had to play it like a game. Not a fun game, but a game of survival where if I didn’t think intelligently I would lose my life. There was no difference here, and I knew closing the gap on Britta would be her weakness.
The truth was that I was good at hand-to-hand combat, especially against a witch who relied too heavily on her wand instead of her fists. I never used to have a wand, and that was my advantage. I knew it would work, it just had to.
“She’s over here!” Blake yelled, trying to scrape for her before Charlie grabbed his waistband with his mouth and pulled him back, leaving claw marks in the floor.
“Procurus rock,” I said to a pebble on the ground not far from me. I grabbed it, tossing it on the other side of the room, my head poking to the side and seeing Britta’s attention drawn that way. I had her where I wanted her.
I inched closer as Britta slowly moved away, her wand pointed at the barrier where I’d tossed the rock. She thought I’d slipped up, giving away my location, but it was all the opposite, my love. I was coming for her, and she didn’t even know what her fate was about to entail.
“Come out, Lexa! I mean it!” she yelled. I could sense the apprehension in her voice, my disappearance almost too much for her psyche. Britta was a witch of action, who did better with range between her and her target. Don’t get me wrong, she was an amazing witch, probably better than me by a long shot, but she wasn’t comfortable with anything I was about to throw her way.
I could hear Charlie and Blake still rolling around on the other side of the room before I moved into the open, behind Britta, and stood up straight. I walked slowly, making sure my shoes didn’t squeak or slide on the floor, as she started to back up. I smiled, and she turned around, her eyes widening as wide as a witch’s eyes could, before she started to raise her wand.
I knocked it out of her hands with mine, the sound of the wooden wand hitting the hard floor and rolling a sweet serenade to my senses. I got close, grabbing her, before pushing my leg behind her knees, taking her down to the ground. I didn’t let her slam too hard, before pointing my wand right against her throat while she gulped, looking like she’d just witnessed and escaped certain death.
“I win,” I said, smiling.
“How…how did you?” she stuttered, trying to make sense of what I’d done.
“Patience,” I said, before pulling away my wand, extending my hand, and helping her up. “I scouted the area, knowing your weaknesses, and attempted an attack on your mind.”
“I’m still so shocked, and confused, and I don’t even know what else,” she said, the cracks in her voice showing her discontent with my strategy.
“You’re a great witch, Britta, the best I know, but you lack any real hand-to-hand combat skills, or even close-range wand skills. You could’ve easily shot me back when you pointed your wand straight at me, but you panicked, instead letting the shock and fear of me being right there strangle your words before I took you down. You need to keep your head on a swivel, and keep yourself aware of your surroundings at all times. I only snuck up on you because you never looked back, you only looked where you thought I would be,” I said, picking up her wand and handing it to her.
“I see your point. If I’d paid more attention to what was behind me, instead of having tunnel vision to where I heard a noise, I might not have been taken by such surprise,” she said, nodding. I was getting through to her, and I only gave her these lessons out of love and respect for the friend, roommate, and witch she was.
We looked over, seeing Charlie and Blake still wrestling, neither of the
m giving up or giving the other the satisfaction of thinking they won the encounter. “Do you want to go get some hot chocolate in the cafeteria? I don’t think these boys are going to stop anytime soon,” I asked, laughing a little as I watched them.
I didn’t know who I wanted to win. Part of me wanted my boyfriend to win, and the other wanted my partner to, since I counted on him in the field and all that. It would be nice to know that I could always count on him to take down a werewolf if it came to it, though I supposed neither of them were using their fangs or claws, which they would in the field.
“What about the boys? Shouldn’t we stop them?” Britta asked, starting to move forward.
“No,” I said, grabbing her and stopping her in her tracks. “Let’s just let them go at it until they tire themselves out. Besides, we could use some girl time together, just you and me,” I said, smiling.
“Agreed,” Britta said.
We linked arms and walked to the door, laughing and looking back at them wrestling before we left for the cafeteria. Those boys, they were something else.
13
The smell of that same gross incense filled the hallway of Mirian’s apartment building as I walked up to his door. I could hear classical music playing inside. I knocked three times on the door, hoping he would hear me over his humming to the violins.
“Good evening, Lexa,” he said after opening the door.
“Good evening, thank you for having me,” I replied, walking inside.
Mirian had been helping me every now and then with my control of the mark and trying to learn more about it. It was helpful, having such a powerful mage in the resistance and one so well read that finding out more information about what all of this meant was never that hard. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it myself without him there to guide me.
“Did anybody follow you or see you come here tonight?” he asked.
“Nope, just like the other nights. I don’t know why they would, anyway,” I replied.
“You can never be too careful in this line of work. If people found out you were coming here, they would start to ask questions, and we cannot have them doing that. If people were to find out about your gift, they would kidnap you and attempt to use it for their own power and gain,” he said.
“Well, the joke would be on them then, wouldn’t it? Considering I don’t even have full control over my powers yet,” I said, chuckling.
“You will soon enough. Do you think the witches and wizards who have had this mark before you gained control of it even within their first few years of finding out about their powers? No, they definitely did not, and you aren’t the exception. It could take decades to properly master this level of raw power,” he said.
“Decades? Yay me,” I said, rolling my eyes. I couldn’t imagine being this frustrated for even a few more months, let alone years or decades. I liked to learn and move fast, never spending ages trying to do the same thing over and over again. Having this mark had its potential, but my lack of control wasn’t boding well for my self-esteem or patience level.
“Have you been doing your breathing and meditation exercises?” he asked, sitting down on a large pillow in the center of the room, his coffee table pushed out of the way.
“I do them, but probably not as often as I should,” I said, taking my seat across from him.
“Well, you will have to work on that, but for now at least you are doing something. Our first step will be calming our breathing and gaining our center of gravity,” he said, before placing his hands in his lap palms up.
I did the same, crossing my legs over one another, before closing my eyes and clearing my throat. “Relax, Lexa, and let your mind drift off to a place of wonder. Take a deep breath in through your nose, and exhale out of your mouth.”
I did as he said, each and every breath a refreshing flow of relaxation as I felt the stressors of my life and job melt away. I took a breath and saw Kiren disappear; another breath came and went, as did the thought of the gala; another one got rid of the raid we did the other night. Having Mirian guide me always did wonders for me. Maybe I should start to come over a little more often. It might allow me to gain control of this power faster.
“Good, now that we have our breathing in sync, we will begin the next phase of our meditation. I want you to picture a meadow, and you are standing in it. The meadow is filled with green—green plants with yellow flowers attached to the ends. Butterflies are fluttering about and a small stream is flowing nearby, and you hear every drop of the water splashing against the riverbed rocks that line the path,” he said, as I hit my deepest point of relaxation.
I could see myself standing there, a gentle breeze flowing through the valley and brushing my cheek. I smelled the air, crisp like a mountainside meadow in Switzerland, as a blue butterfly fluttered around me and kissed my nose. I smiled, laughing a little, before extending my finger for it to land.
I couldn’t help but look around in amazement, wishing this were real. I was there, but I knew I was meditating, and I was really sitting in an old apartment with red brick walls.
“Now that you are settled, I want you to picture your power inside you. Imagine it outside your body, floating beside you, a gaseous blur of blue looking back at you,” he said.
I saw it separate from my body, the blue gas flowing yet cohesive, as it just floated there looking at me. It didn’t have a face, or even a body, but it felt alive somehow, like it was part of me. It felt like a spirit, and I could feel voices inside it. They weren’t scary or frightening, and they weren’t calling out like ghosts trapped between planes. They were like ancestors, though we weren’t related at all, at least not by blood. I realized they were the people, the witches and wizards, who possessed this mark before me. They were there for me, but I had never felt their presence before this meditation session.
I reached out to them, my hand going into the gas, and I felt them touch me back as my hand tingled a little. I smiled, feeling their love and guidance, before the gas wrapped around my arm and slowly pushed its way back into my body. It didn’t hurt, the opposite really, and I breathed in deeply while it did so.
I thought the mark had always been a part of me, even when I didn’t know I had powers. I thought it must have lain dormant all those years, maybe waiting for its chance or opportunity to come out and expose itself to me and to Mirian. Maybe it was alive, and it knew he would be the one who could help me learn about it and control it. Maybe it even sought him out, taking control of the physical universe in ways I didn’t think I would ever understand. There were a lot of maybes when it came to the mark, and I wanted to learn about them all.
“I’m done,” I said, opening my eyes, taking Mirian by surprise.
“Already?” he asked, putting his palms on his knees. “I think we should keep going.”
“I think I learned more about the mark from that session than I did with all our other sessions before. I think it’s trying to talk to me, or communicate with me. Either way, I know that it knows I’m aware of its existence,” I said.
“You could’ve found a less confusing way to say it, but what makes you think that?” he asked.
“I think it is alive, and that it that found me when I was born, or maybe even before I was born. It’s a spirit, I’m sure of it,” I said.
“A spirit, you say? That would be quite interesting indeed. So you think the mark isn’t something that just happens to a witch or wizard? You think it chooses people?” he asked.
“I’m not sure about that last part, if it chooses people, but it’s not just something anybody can receive. I think you’re born with it. I could see them, Mirian, I could see all the people before me. I touched them, their souls, and it felt calming, like I was hugging my grandmother again,” I said.
“Fascinating. Did you speak with them?” he asked.
“Not verbally, no. I feel like I spoke with them, but through touch? If that’s even a thing. I believe now that I’ll learn more about them the mo
re often I meditate. I want to see if they can tell me what this all means. What is the mark, exactly, and what can I do with it to help humanity? Did they choose me, or was it a coincidence of being born or coming of age? Do they know about Kiren, or is it all happenstance that I of all people have this? There’s so much to know, and so much to ask,” I said, smiling.
For the first time in a while, I was really happy about the mark and what it meant for me and my future. The spirits had to know that I was trying to take Kiren down. Maybe that was why it chose me; maybe it knew the future and my destiny long before I was even born. Maybe they knew before Kiren was even born. Either way, I thought it was too strange to just be a coincidence. It had to be fate.
“I’ll put a kettle on,” Mirian said, standing up and walking into the kitchen. “I’ve noticed you with Blake,” he added over his shoulder.
“Oh?” I asked, wiping my sweaty palms against my pants. “What do you mean?”
“I know you two are together. Is that going well?” he asked.
“Are you asking because you’re my boss?” I asked.
“No,” he said, laughing. “Here I’m not your boss, I’m your friend. Well, I take my job with you more as a fatherly guardian type role, not just a friend, but I ask because I care about you and your life.”
“Oh, well, it’s going about as good as it can, I guess. It’s not exactly easy, having a relationship with somebody while in this position at M.A.G.I.C. I don’t know how anybody there has a successful relationship, especially if the other person doesn’t already work there,” I said.
“It can be quite difficult to balance work and a home life, especially when you are an auditor. That sort of responsibility to your career can take its toll on any relationship, but it seems like you two are doing quite well given the circumstances,” he said.
“I suppose only time will tell how things go, but I like the spot we’re in,” I said.
“And Charlie is a good partner?” he asked.
“The best, by a long shot. I trust him with my life, and he knows I would never let anything happen to him,” I said.