by Logan Byrne
“As it should be, young one. I knew putting you two together would be the right choice, for many reasons. He has a certain drive and tenacity that complement you well. I think he also brings out a fun side to your more serious one,” he said.
“He definitely goofs off a lot, but he also knows how to be serious. I talk a lot to him and Britta. I really lucked out meeting them in the camp,” I said.
“I think they are the ones who lucked out, Lexa. You’re the kind of friend who only comes around once in a lifetime, and I’m sure that your friends thank the heavens every single day to have you in their lives,” he said, handing me a cup of tea.
Mirian was the type of man to have small teacups and saucers with little pink flowers on them, which made me smile. He was one of the most powerful mages in the magical realm, and yet he had dainty little teacups, saucers, and doilies. People surprise you sometimes.
“Well, thank you for the tea, and thank you for another amazing session. I think we’re making great progress,” I said, packing up my things.
“It was a pleasure, once again. Remember to keep up your training, it might save your life one day,” he said, opening the door.
Given my upcoming plans, which he might not be too happy about if I told him about them, I might just need to make sure I saved my life. Things were about to get very hectic.
14
It was difficult for M.A.G.I.C. to keep mortal police at bay when we had an investigation in their realm, but we made it work. All I knew was that higher up government officials knew of our existence and made sure that local police didn’t interfere. They thought we were just another branch of government, an agency, doing some kind of work in the crime scene, but little did they know we weren’t anything like that.
I felt on edge working in the mortal realm, like I couldn’t be myself, but I thought it was worse for someone like Charlie than for me as a witch. Back in our realm, he could shift forms and nobody would bat an eye. Here, peoples’ minds would melt and it would be a huge disaster that would have to be cleaned up extensively by our people. God forbid any physical evidence showed up, either. It would be on the front page of every tabloid across the world. I could see the headlines now.
“What do you sense, anything?” Charlie asked as we walked through the club before the mortals took over.
“No, not much. I just don’t understand how they got people out of here so easily. We had the place surrounded so well, even the outside exits. There has to be somewhere else they were accessing,” I said.
“Is there a basement of some kind? Maybe they had a secret exit, because you’re right, there’s no way they just went out any of the doors or windows without us knowing about it,” he said.
“I’m not sure, I didn’t even think of a basement. There have to be stairs somewhere,” I said, walking down the hall. Charlie and I searched and searched, not seeing any sets of stairs that led down past the first floor. It was peculiar; a bunch of vampires and babies disappeared as if they were never here. How was it possible?
“Lexa, what’s this?” Charlie asked, running his fingers across the wall.
“What is it?” I asked, walking up and catching a glimpse of something on the wall.
“It’s like there are cracks in the wall, seams maybe,” Charlie said, before pushing on them with all his might. Dust fell from the top of the opening, but it moved back, revealing a narrow hall hidden within the wall. That would’ve answered the question of where the people went.
“But this one doesn’t seem like it was opened. The dust would’ve already fallen, wouldn’t it?” Charlie asked.
“Maybe this one wasn’t accessed. There have to be multiple passages that connect? Maybe, anyway,” I said, pulling out my wand. “Candelae.”
“Are we going?” he asked, before notifying one of the officers.
Cobwebs clung to the corners of the walls as the hallway twisted and turned, until we came across a ladder, rusted and wet, set into a hole. “Ladies first,” Charlie said, laughing nervously.
I grabbed it, holding my wand in my mouth, before going down a story and stepping off into a puddle. “What’s this?” he asked, as he came down.
“I think it’s a sewer access point,” I said, lifting my wand up as a small stream of light bubbled outwards from the tip, illuminating the otherwise pitch-black tunnel. “But why is it connected to this building, and where does it lead?”
“I think we should call for backup,” Charlie said, looking around.
“Come on, Charlie, be brave. We’re auditors, the best M.A.G.I.C. has. We can handle this. It’s not like there’s anybody down here,” I said.
“Famous last words,” Charlie mumbled, before we set off down the tunnel.
There was an eerie feeling down here, like something or someone was watching us. I kept my eyes peeled, Charlie shifting just his eyes to try to see better in the dark, being a cat and all, but neither of us saw anything. We soon hit the end of the tunnel, which stopped at an old wooden door with rusted metal rivets.
“Should we open it?” I asked, noticing a circular metal handle hanging from the middle of the door.
“What if we don’t like what’s on the other side?” Charlie asked.
“That will probably be the case, but you have to admit you have a strange sense of curiosity right now, because I do, and you and I are usually in sync with these types of things,” I said.
“Let’s just get it over with,” he said, putting his palm to his forehead and shaking his head.
I swiped my wand across the door, the latch opening, before I pushed on the wooden bit and swung it open. “It doesn’t feel right in here,” I said, as we walked into the room.
“Ignitus,” I incanted. The torches in the room came to life, crackling with flames as the cobwebs and dust covering them quickly burnt off.
“Yeah, it does feel a little creepy,” he said.
“No, not creepy—well, it is a little. I just feel…off. This place feels like somewhere I’ve been before, like I know this place,” I said, looking around. “I know I’ve never been here, though. I’m sure of it. I think I would remember someplace like this.”
“I’m sure it’s just a creepy feeling. There probably isn’t much to it,” Charlie said. “Although, this is weird.”
He walked towards the middle of the room, where there was an altar, or at least something that looked like one. It was ceremonial in nature, that much was clear, but what purpose did it serve? It had some runes on it, but that seemed normal for ancient pieces of magic like this. After all, runes were the most ancient type of magic out there, which was another reason why Kiren was so dangerous. Ancient magic was usually stronger than modern magic, but much, much harder to manage and master. Those who wielded it usually could do things modern witches and wizards couldn’t.
“I think we should get out of here and go back to the club,” Charlie said, since the room wasn’t producing anything else.
“I agree. I can’t shake this feeling, and I can’t say I want to feel it any longer,” I said, before swiping my wand and extinguishing the flames. We shut the door, latching it closed again, before making our way back to the ladder. Charlie went up, and I turned around one last time, looking at the room in the distance. I knew I’d been there before, I was sure of it. If not, my mind was playing immense tricks on me right now.
•••
“Mirian?” I asked later that night, as I knocked on his office door.
“Lexa, come in. Is there something on your mind?” he asked, peering up from his book as he sat at his desk.
“Actually, yes, there is,” I said, coming inside and closing his door. “Charlie and I went back to the club today, to search for more evidence, and we found something strange that has been sitting poorly with me all day.”
“I’m all ears,” he said, putting a bookmark in his book and sitting back in his chair.
“When we kept thinking about how the vampires got away from us, we thought maybe th
ere was a basement, or even secret tunnels and passages that they could’ve employed to not be seen. After all, they definitely didn’t go out the doors or windows without our people noticing,” I said.
“I agree with you there. We had the entire place covered from top to bottom,” he said.
“When we searched, Charlie found a hidden hallway within a wall on the first floor. It looked like it hadn’t been opened in a while, dust fell from above as we opened the door and we were sure it would’ve fallen already had the vampires used it for their escape, but we searched it anyway. It led us underground, maybe a story, maybe a little bit more, with a long hallway that ended at a room with a wooden door. The wood looked like it was at least a century old. There were rivets and metal bands on the door,” I said, hoping to describe everything to jog my memory and give him more details to go by.
“Go on,” he said, his fingers interlaced in his lap.
“When we went inside, I felt weird, like I’d been there before. It didn’t feel particularly pleasant, either, like I’d felt pain or misery there,” I said.
“Was there anything in the room? Could you describe it?” he asked.
“Well, there were torches aligned on the walls, which I lit. They hadn’t been lit in a long time, with a lot of dust and cobwebs littered across them. The room itself wasn’t huge, maybe a couple times larger than your office here, but there was what I believe to be an altar in the middle of the room. It had runes on it,” I said.
“Was it like a shrine? Sometimes in the ancient world they used to pray to different spirits or gods to help them,” he said. “It was especially common within the magical realm, even though it was quite young back then.”
“No, it didn’t seem like a shrine to a god or anything like that. It seemed, I don’t know how to say it, sacrificial in a way,” I said.
“There were human sacrifices, unfortunately, back in the days of the rune mages and magic. They believed that if they sacrificed a magical creature with magical blood to the gods, they would then be imbued with the magical powers of said sacrificed person,” he said.
“Is that why, you know who, is that why he wants somebody with that special gift?” I asked.
“That’s likely one of the reasons, yes. Maybe he believes that he can receive the special powers himself, or maybe he just wants to use the person. I don’t think I will ever know the reasoning unless I asked, but unfortunately for us I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Do you believe you were sacrificed there before?” he asked.
“How could that have happened?” I asked, confused.
“Did you not say you felt a spirit inside you? Maybe what you felt wasn’t you feeling that pain or discomfort, but one of them, or several of them, pushing their feelings and past experiences through onto you when you were in the space. Maybe it was simply their anxiety, or maybe they were warning you in some way,” he said.
“Do you think that’s possible? Do you think it’s possible for them to do that? To directly contact me like that?” I asked.
“I think anything is possible, Lexa. I didn’t think it was possible for this to be a spirit, but it seems like it is. And if it is, then it could easily try to communicate with you in one way or another. Take this,” he said, walking to his bookshelf. He opened an old and slightly weathered oak box, taking out something before walking over and handing it to me.
“What is it?” I asked, taking hold of a small brown piece of wood.
“It’s a type of drug,” he said.
“Mirian!” I said, shocked he would have something like this.
“Relax, it’s not that kind of drug. I thought you knew me better than that. It’s been used in tribes across the world to take them on spirit paths and trips. If what is inside you is a spirit, then I think this can help you communicate with it or experience and see what it has experienced and seen. Who knows, maybe you’ll be able to talk to whoever was pushing through to you earlier today,” he said, his arms crossed.
“Thank you, again, for helping me through this. You’re always a lifesaver,” I said, putting the wood in my pocket.
“It’s my pleasure, Lexa. Please, report to me once you take it. I want to know how it went,” he said.
“Of course, I definitely will,” I said. I walked out of his room and back towards mine, both excited and nervous to experience my first, well, drug. I was just hoping it wouldn’t make me go absolutely bonkers and tear the place apart. I’d seen some weird things since I started working here, and they all involved drugs.
•••
I sat in my room later that night, in the chair at my desk, as Britta slept peacefully, letting out little sputters of snores like she did every night. The piece of wood sat on my desk, a small desktop lamp heating the immediate area, the metal back hot to the touch. I looked back at Britta, making sure she was still asleep, before settling in my chair and picking up the item Mirian gave me.
“It’ll be okay,” I said to myself, as I put it up to my lips. I inhaled deeply, letting it all out, unaware of what was going to happen to me once I put the drug in my mouth. I was afraid the worst would happen, but it would be okay. Mirian wouldn’t give this to me if it would harm me.
I put it in my mouth, the bitter taste of the wood and the sap inside flooding my taste buds before I started to gently chew. It became softer, not fully malleable, but the fibers expanded and a surge of sap, or whatever was inside, hit my taste buds and I felt it take effect immediately. I closed my eyes, starting my meditation, the piece of wood sitting on my tongue while I felt my consciousness transcend the room and enter a forest.
I didn’t seem to be anywhere near New York City, and not even in a forest or garden that I’d been in before for my missions. There were pink cherry blossom trees and ponds with koi fish and lotus flowers slowly drifting about. The grass was manicured, and a small breeze pushed through the trees, brushing against my cheek. I smiled, the aura feeling peaceful and serene, before I saw a woman. She was Japanese, her hair as dark as the night, with fair skin and red lips.
“Welcome, Lexa,” she said, floating over to me.
“Where am I?” I asked, looking around. “Am I dead?”
“No,” she said, chuckling a little. “You are not dead, you are just in a place where the dead reside. Well, some of the dead, mainly those who have possessed what it is you hold deep within yourself.”
“You’re talking about the mark, aren’t you?” I asked.
“I am, my dear. Come, let’s talk,” she said. “I’m sure you have many questions regarding what it means to bear the mark.”
“I do. I don’t feel like I know much about it, and nobody in my life can really tell me much besides what’s in history books. That information, though, is little as well as few and far between,” I said.
“The mark is neither a man nor a woman, but it is a spirit. It is a spirit that picks a new host once the current one dies, which is how you were blessed with it,” she said.
“I sure don’t feel blessed. It has seemed to cause me a lot of problems,” I said bluntly.
“That’s because you haven’t experienced what it means to bear the mark, as well as what its power can do for you,” she said.
“Well, did you have a sociopathic dictator trying to take the mark from you in order to enslave the magical and mortal realms?” I asked.
“No, I cannot say that I personally had that happen, but everybody who bears the mark faces some kind of obstacle along their journey through the mortal plane. Mine was a secret society of nobility who wanted to use my blood to live forever because they believed my magic would allow them to do so,” she said, as we walked over a curved bridge.
“I’m sorry, that sounds rough. I’m just at a loss about what I should be doing. I don’t get why I of all people even have this thing,” I said.
“You have the mark because it chose you,” she said, smiling.
“But why? Why would it choose me out of everybody in the world it could’ve chosen?
It has to be random, doesn’t it?” I asked. To me, that was the only way to make sense of this thing. If she told me yes, the mark was random, and when a person died it found a newborn baby or something, I would believe it. It was hard for me to believe it chose somebody based on other acts or merits.
“I’m afraid not. The mark chooses only that person it finds worthy and pure of heart. That’s why you were chosen, because you were a pure-of-heart witch who it knew it could trust to do right by the common person and help preserve humanity,” she said.
“That’s kind of a tall order, don’t you think? To be bestowed that kind of immense pressure without ever even asking me if I wanted to have it. Maybe I was happy before all this happened,” I said.
“Oh Lexa, I know you weren’t, though,” she said, putting her hand on my shoulder. “For as long as you have been on this Earth, I have been with you as well, the same as with all the other mark-bearers. I’ve felt your pain, your heartache, as well as your passion and determination to change your world for the better. That’s the reason why you were chosen.”
“Damn me for caring,” I said, shaking my head.
“Your caring is your best quality, I do believe. I must go now, but I believe there is another here who wishes to speak with you,” she said.
“But wait, can’t we talk longer? There’s a lot you could teach me. What if I don’t see you again?” I asked hurriedly, my pulse picking up.
“Whenever you need me, all you must do is look deep within yourself, and I will be there, waiting,” she said, before fading away.
“No! Wait!” I shouted as the garden started to fall in on itself.
I ducked, guarding my head and neck, as reality itself collapsed and shifted around me. A new scene unfolded, with a man this time, standing on top of a hill as blue magic swirled around his hands while he incanted. He was an older man of about seventy, with a long white beard, and his robes reminded me of Mirian.
Below there was destruction everywhere, the ground tilled up as flaming carcasses and carts lay strewn about. There was a war being fought, and it looked like the man’s side was winning, but nobody seemed bothered by me being there. It was almost as if I weren’t there. I walked towards him. “What are you doing?” I asked, as I joined him atop the hill.