Angel blinked. That had been a powerful and rousing speech, aimed perfectly at the people who stood before her, and she could see the dedication in their eyes to Mr Black and his cause.
Echo stepped forward now to address the troops, nodding to Mr Black as she did so.
“I’m sorry we have had to keep things from you until the last moment, the nature of this mission is such that the utmost secrecy was required. We’re currently over the Pacific Ocean, and somewhere ahead of us and below us is an Ohio Class nuclear submarine, owned by the United States. Inside that sub is our target—the warheads it contains. Our mission is to storm the sub and take control of those warheads. Our fight is not with the Riven men and women aboard that sub, your job is to capture, not kill. Of course, should you be under threat, use your best judgement and do what you need to do. I have here a file for each of you giving you your individual missions, as well as all the details you will need on the submarine itself and its occupants. You have two hours before we Port down to the sub, use them well,” she said.
She then handed a folder to each soldier and left them to organise themselves. Mr Black, Echo, and Isha then moved away from the men, with Angel following suit. Echo then turned to them, handing them a folder each. “You’re to give support throughout, use your gifts and help us secure the payload,” she said. Angel nodded.
“What’s the plan once we have the warheads?” Angel asked. She had no idea if Echo would fill in the gaps, but it felt like the kind of question she should ask.
“We’ll be headed to an island that we own, where we will unload the warheads we need and enact the ritual. We will infuse the warheads with Essentia, creating Essentia nukes. It will take all three of us to do this. The Scroll has the ability to weaken the Null Realm and pull things through from the Abyss. With the Orb’s ability to enhance the strength and power of the Magi who possess it and the Scroll, we plan to push the Essentia nukes into the Abyss and destroy the Archons.”
Outwardly, Angel kept her face neutral and nodded, but so much of what Echo said didn’t really add up. The Orb’s main power did seem to be that it enhanced the Magic of whoever possessed it, whether it would enhance the Magic of the Scroll, however, was another question. The Lazarus Scroll seemed to be a more diverse item, with a range of effects attributed to it. But passing into the Abyss did not seem to be one of them. It could pull things out, under the right conditions, as had been evidenced by Dust bringing Horlack back from the Abyss, but given the desperation of many Nomads to make the Magnus Transitus, the Great Crossing into the Abyss to meet their masters, if the Scroll could do that, she felt sure more would know about it. Things didn’t add up. It seemed to her that Mr Black and Echo were looking at the known effects, and then, almost randomly, trying to put things together to try and make them work as they wanted them to. Also, the Abyss was known to be at least as vast as the Earth, and most likely bigger by at least double. How could they guarantee to get the nukes to dread Tartarus where the Archons slept?
This plan stunk of desperation, and Angel had significate reservations about it. Who knew, maybe Mr Black and Echo were right, but she doubted it.
She couldn’t voice these opinions, though, it would give her away, and she needed to remain close, but she just had to prod at this a bit.
“Are you sure this will work?” Angel asked.
“It’s a long shot, we know that, but we feel it’s a worthwhile risk, and we’re taking safeguards,” Echo explained.
“What kind of safeguards?” Isha asked. Angel felt a sense of relief that Isha had asked the question, she didn’t want to be the only one questioning things.
“That, I cannot divulge at this point, but you will see soon enough,” Echo said.
Angel sat back and nodded her satisfaction at Echo’s answers, although she felt anything but, and opened her folder. Isha sat next to her and did the same.
“This is exciting, right?” Isha whispered to her.
“It certainly is,” she answered, feigning interest. That was one word for it, she thought, another would be idiotic or maybe suicidal.
Angel spent most of the next two hours in silence, looking through the documents, swapping the occasional comment with Isha, but mostly she sat waiting, itching to see how this would play out.
She also knew she needed to contact Yasmin the first chance she got, but she needed to be away from Echo and Isha to do that, so it would need to wait for now.
At the end of the two hours, Angel stood with the team in the centre of the plane as Echo concentrated, working her Magic and looking at the submarine beneath them. The aircraft flew in a circle, banking around the location of the sub as directed by Echo, and as Angel watched, Echo’s Magic unfurled.
“Now,” she said. With a series of snaps, small groups of their strike force disappeared over the next three seconds until Angel found herself wrapped in Echo’s Magic and being Ported to the sub, as well. She appeared in a corridor between two groups of Mr Black’s forces, who were shouting at the submarine’s crew. Remembering her directions and the map, she set off down the corridor. There wasn’t much for her to do. They thought she was an Apprentice-level Magus, so her mission was of little consequence, which suited her just fine. She walked along the cramped corridor, ducking through bulkheads and passing empty rooms already cleared by the group ahead of her.
As she moved, she could hear gunfire in other parts of the sub where the resistance appeared to be more concentrated, but as Mr Black’s forces swept the boat, the opposition died away and the crew were steadily herded into a handful of rooms away from vital areas, such as the officers’ berthing and dry storage.
Eventually, Angel found herself standing on the sub’s bridge with Mr Black, Echo, and Isha. Nearby, a couple of Mr Black’s troops flanked the captain of the ship.
“I don’t care who you are, you won’t get away with this,” the captain spat with hate and bile in his voice.
“Captain Reed, I appreciate your viewpoint and how stressful this must be for you, but I assure you, I will get away with it. In fact, I already have. The boat is mine and you are powerless to do anything.”
As the others focused on the captain, Angel’s keen senses picked up on the approach of an armed sailor in the corridor behind her. Casually, she positioned herself where she needed to be, and as he burst into the room, roaring his defiance at the invaders, she moved like lightning. Disarming the man, she brought him to his knees with his arm locked behind him.
Angel looked up to see Mr Black, Echo, and Isha staring at her, looking somewhat surprised.
“Thank you, Angel,” Mr Black said, nodding his approval before returning his attention to the captain. It had been a calculated move. No Magic had been involved and she had potentially just saved Mr Black from injury. She hoped it would engender a little more trust in her. Echo’s gaze lingered on her a touch longer than everyone else's, though. Did she suspect something? Angel smiled at Echo, who nodded back to her and returned to the matter at hand.
The sub was theirs now, and they were soon underway to the island, wherever that might be. Angel wasn’t privy to any further events on the bridge. Instead, she and Isha were tasked with infusing seven of the warheads with as much Essentia as possible in the time allotted. The work soon became boring and she found herself counting the hours until something interesting happened.
***
Angel stood on the hot tropical beach of an isolated atoll somewhere in the middle of the Pacific. Keeping such a place private and off the maps created by corporations such as Google would be one hell of a task, but it seemed like Mr Black had done the impossible.
The circle of sandy islands surrounding the bright blue lagoon were a mini-paradise with palm trees, endless sapphire seas, and azure skies. Angel thought they must be near the equator, given the intense heat of the noonday sun and the burning sand beneath her bare feet. Anchored in the lagoon, creating a black eyesore in the middle of this heavenly setting, sat the submarine. Half-subm
erged, with several of its missile tubes open, Mr Black’s soldiers were extracting the warheads they needed for the ritual.
Nearby, Mr Black had his coat off and his shirt-sleeves rolled halfway up his liver-spotted arms, watching Echo and Isha supervise the operation.
More of Mr Black’s forces had been waiting on the Island, including more Magi, Scions, and Mr Black’s personal assistant, Roxanne.
Ideally, it would have been easier to Port the warheads over to the beach from the sub, but that had proved to be impossible due to an energy field that emanated from this island in the atoll. She’d only seen this kind of effect once before in person, and that had been around the Golden Book on the train where she’d encountered Amanda.
Something must be generating the field, so as Mr Black and Echo walked along with the first of the nukes, Angel followed, heading towards the huge rock that jutted out of the center of the island like a mini mountain. Upon reaching the base of the rock, the bulk of it towering above her, she watched as Echo brushed away the vines and undergrowth, revealing an intricate chrome door that shimmered in the light. There was a hint of something Magical beyond this door, but it was difficult to make out. Angel watched as Mr Black lifted a key on a chain from around his neck and used it to unlock the door.
With the press of a button and a hiss of air, the door sank back into the rock before sliding up and out of the way. As it opened, Angel could physically feel the powerful Magic that crashed out of the doorway and washed over her.
Angel recognised that Magic right away and instantly felt nervous.
Time Magic.
As everyone else stepped through the doorway, carrying the warhead, Angel paused. Angel wasn’t keen on anything to do with Temporal Magic. The Weavers were the ultimate source of her fear. They were merciless in their hunt for those who violated the timeline, with a particular hate for Nomads.
Through the door, Angel could see hidden lights had come on and filled the space with a diffuse glow while Mr Black, Echo, Isha, and Roxanne looked around. Gingerly, feeling more nervous than she had in a long time, Angel stepped through the doorway, the metal feeling cool and refreshing against her feet. She found herself in a large room shaped like a cheese wheel. In the centre of the room, a circular raised dais about four meters across dominated the space. The room itself must have been maybe eight or nine meters wide and made entirely out of polished metal. The walls, floor, and ceiling were covered in holes and apertures cut into the metal that displayed some of the inner workings of the device. The incredibly powerful Time Magic she could feel emanated from it.
Mr Black stood at the far side of the raised dais and watched everyone as they entered. He seemed mildly amused by their reactions but waited for everyone to take it all in. As everyone’s attention drifted back to him, he smiled.
“As some of you have no doubt guessed, this is a Magical item we now stand within. A very specific one. This is my Time Device. A Time Machine, if you will. But a very special one.”
Angel had thought as much when she’d first felt that wash of Magic pass over her. If Mr Black’s madness had ever been in doubt, this must surely cement it for most Magi. He might as well have called it a Weaver Magnet, Angel thought. What was this man thinking using such a thing, and why on earth would he risk everything for a way to travel through time? Beyond that, were the questions of who built it for him and why?
“You don’t need to know the details of how it works or what it does,” Mr Black said. “The important thing for us today is that the Magical shielding in here is so powerful, you could detonate a full complement of Nukes from that sub in here, stand right outside the closed door, and it wouldn’t affect you in the least. Because of this, and because I have no desire to harm anyone other than the Archons, we will enact the ritual inside this device, so that, should the ritual fail, we will be protected.”
“So, we’re not using the Time Device to travel in time?” Isha asked. He also looked a little wide-eyed and worried by the device he stood within.
“No. The device has only been used once before, and it will not be used again after this.”
He’d already used it? Angel thought, incredulous. Angel wanted nothing more than to reach inside Mr Black’s mind to discover the secret of this device and why he’d used it before, but she couldn’t. At least, not yet. Maybe another time.
“So, we’re just using it for protection?” Isha asked.
“Correct,” Mr Black replied.
Angel felt relieved.
“Now, if there are no further questions, we must move quickly to get the remaining nukes inside.”
***
Hours had passed, but finally, Angel found a moment to slip away. She managed to get outside the Magic dampening effect that the Time Device created and instantly Ported away in as discrete a manner as possible, preferring to be as far away from Echo and Isha as she could realistically be in order to speak with Yasmin. She appeared on the deserted beach of another island and opened the Link to Yasmin. Moments passed, but eventually, Yasmin opened the connection in her mind.
~My Baal, I have news for you,~ Angel sent.
- An Overview of the Archons, by Louisa Hunt.
The Archons. No one is really sure what they are or who they once were, and very few, if any, are alive today who have actually encountered one. Millennia ago, they left the material world that they had ruled over as gods, disappeared into the Aetheric Realm, and a barrier was put in place to bar entry into the Spirit World.
No one knows if they went willingly, or if they were forced or tricked into their imprisonment within the fortress known as Tartarus deep within the Aetheric Realm.
Before they left, the area of the Aetheric Realm that Tartarus is in had been known as Arcadia, but the corrupting influence of the Archons has twisted the once beautiful Spirit World into a hellish landscape filled with monstrous creatures.
Most scholars of Nomadic history believe the evidence points to the Archons being forced or tricked into their imprisonment, as they seem to want to continue their corruption of humanity and direct their followers, the Nomads, to corrupt and kill as many Riven mortals as possible.
The Prophecy of Helene also seems to confirm that they wish to return to the world of man one day.
Here’s a brief rundown of the seven known Archons:
Lilitu - the Beautiful, the Night Demon, the Mother of Succubi. She spawned the Vampire bloodline of Scions.
Tiamat - the Dragon, the Shaper of Life, the Dweller in the Deep. She spawned the bloodline of Scions we know as Chthonic Old Ones.
Enkidu - the Savage, the Beast of the Wastes. He spawned the Were-creature bloodline of Scions.
Leviathan - the Monstrous, the Twisted, the Coiled. She spawned a bloodline of Sea Monsters and Merfolk.
Naga - the Cunning, the Snake, the Hidden Death. He spawned a bloodline of Ethereal Creatures, similar to ghosts.
Oni - the Demon, the Fallen Angel. He spawned a bloodline of Demonic Creatures.
Samael - the Reaper, Charon, the Angel of Death. He spawned a bloodline of Zombies, Liches, and other undead creatures.
Dark Information
The Jade Palace, New York
Amanda sat at the table with her mentor, Gentle Water inside the bar area of The Jade Palace. It was early morning and she held her hot chocolate in both hands, enjoying the heat of the mug as it warmed her fingers. The steam from the chocolaty beverage wafted up to her nose, filling her senses with the lovely sweet smell of cocoa.
She sat sideways to the table with her knees crossed. Across from her, Gentle Water sat facing the table, his back straight, a cup of green tea on the table before him.
“I still not know what Mr Black wants with the Orb and Lazarus Scroll,” Gentle Water said. “The whole situation is very concerning. Has Shaun found anything yet?”
“No, he’s scouring the Dark Web for information, but this man seems to be a ghost, so he is. There’s no record of him anywhere. It’s as if he’s neve
r existed. Did you or Royston discover anything through your contacts?”
“I am afraid not. Everyone we ask know nothing. It is as you say, he is ghost. And he also say, he your father?”
“He did. Crazy, eh?” Amanda replied, the weight of her unanswered questions pulling her shoulders forward. “It’s… incredibly frustrating. I mean, who is he, why did he abandon me, and what is he trying to do now? Have I got a Nomad sympathiser as a father? I just want to know what the hell is going on, so I do.”
“I understand. Sorry you feel like this,” Gentle Water said.
“It’s no bother. There’s nothing you can do, not really.”
“I wish I could help more.”
“I don’t think there’s anything anyone can do, really. Only this Mr Black can answer my questions. But… as you want to help, I do have something I want to ask you about,” she said, uncrossing her legs and turning to the table to face her mentor.
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