The Magekiller

by Orlando A. Sanchez

  “What you’re saying is that you’re unarmed.”

  I made a conscious choice not to antagonize the mage who was a few seconds from erasing me from existence.

  “I’m a little out-gunned, yes,” I said. “But if I don’t do this, we’re going to see much more than a Tenebrous and hybrid ogre-rummer things roaming the city, killing mages.”

  “You’re a technomancer, not a mage. This situation is beyond you.”

  “If Tigris is involved, it’s exactly where I need to be.”

  “Division 13 has a habit of setting events in motion that it can’t control,” TK said, her tone holding an edge. “There have been several instances where my associates and I have had to intervene because your organization has ‘felt the need’ to get involved.”

  “If Tigris is involved in producing this new strain of Redrum, I can guarantee you this is much bigger than your group, or any of the Councils in this city. Division 13 needs to be involved.”

  “If they are behind the Redrum,” TK said. “We will deal with it. There is nothing that connects the Redrum with the Tenebrous and this summoner.”

  “There is, actually,” I said, picking my next words carefully. “Redrum was initially a D13 project named Belladonna.”

  “Why doesn’t this surprise me?” TK said. “Let me guess. Artificially create the abilities of a vampire without any of the side-effects?”

  “It worked at first,” I said. “At least that’s what the initial reports say. Then something went wrong.”

  “The subjects developed blood-lust,” TK said. “Cognitive functions decreased, and violent inclinations increased exponentially. Antidotes of the drug were ineffective, and further strains only created more dangerous versions of these creatures.”

  “How did you—?” I asked, for a moment forgetting who I was speaking to. “Never mind. When Delilah defected, some of the more potent strains of Belladonna went missing with her.”

  “To sell to the highest bidder,” TK said.

  “Something like that,” I said. “She didn’t expect the highest bidder to flood the streets with it as Redrum.”

  “She didn’t care is more like it,” TK said. “The magical connection?”

  “An exile named Haran left the Wordweavers several years ago. Division 13 thinks he was the one that helped in the creation of Redrum by transforming the original strain of Belladonna.”

  “A strong Wordweaver could summon a Tenebrous and create the hybrids,” TK said, pensively. “You think this Haran is working with Tigris? Or is he acting on his own?”

  “That’s why I was coming to see you,” I said. “I don’t know the magical aspect of this. I have no idea what it takes to summon a Tenebrous or create hybrids. But I know Delilah and how a group like Tigris operates.”

  “Because Division 13 is similar?”

  I nodded. “Tigris dwarfs Division 13,” I answered. “They’re better funded, with more people strategically situated worldwide, and have greater firepower, but fundamentally they’re the same.”

  “And now dabbling in magic.”

  “If they are behind this Tenebrous, I’d say more than dabbling,” I said. “It looks like a major shift.”

  “A shift Division 13 is trying to prevent out of self-preservation?”

  “Division 13 exists to safeguard against magic getting out of control across the globe,” I said. “We try to prevent the disasters before they happen. If Tigris starts using magical weapons and creatures, we are all in trouble.”

  “You can’t police magic or magic-users,” TK said. “I should know.”

  “What about all the Councils and groups? Isn’t that what you’re all trying to do—police magic?”

  “We are magic-users, Ronin,” she said, her voice laced with steel. “We understand the complexity of the energies we wield. Where Tigris and Division 13 see weapons of destruction, we understand that the energy you call magic can be used in a multitude of ways.”

  “So you let magic-users do whatever they want because they can’t be policed?”

  “Of course not,” she said. “But acting as a deterrent and controlling a population are very distinct things.”

  “Well I need to deter Tigris from unleashing this new strain of Redrum drug on the city and the world.”

  “The same drug Division 13 is responsible for?” TK asked. “Why are you acting alone?”

  “What do you mean alone?”

  “Let me rephrase. Why aren’t there squads of Division 13 personnel filling the streets?” TK asked. “Why are you here alone, with your ineffective gun and runed blade? More importantly, why are you designated rogue, but still acting as a Division 13 operative?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Simplify it for me.”

  I should have expected her to know what was really going on. Honor warned me.

  “I stepped away from Division 13 because it gives me latitude to act.”

  “Except you aren’t really rogue,” she said. “You want Tigris to believe you are.”

  “Yes,” I said. “The upside is that will allow me to approach Delilah and Tigris. The downside is—”

  “Everyone in Division 13 thinks you’re rogue and will hunt you down.”

  “Even my padawan,” I said. “I thought I trained him better than that.”

  “Maybe you did. What would you do in his position?”

  “Bring me down hard and fast,” I said, thinking about Delilah. “Rogue operatives destroy the organization from within like a cancer.”

  “Then he’s doing exactly what he’s supposed to do.” She held out her hand. “Your blade, please.”

  I unsheathed Sliver and handed it to her.

  “This was a gift from Honor.”

  “I know,” she said, examining Sliver. “His energy signature permeates the construction.”

  “It was somewhat effective against the hybrid,” I said, looking at the blade. “I was even able to cut it.”

  “You should have been able to eliminate it,” she answered, running a finger over the runes. “I’m surprised Honor gave you this, considering your apparent lack of commitment. He must believe you have potential.”

  “Lack of commitment?”

  “When you faced this creature, which weapon did you reach for first?” TK asked. “This”—she held up Sliver—“or your gun?”

  “Sliver, the blade,” I said, pointing at it.

  “I can only assume your gun was damaged or destroyed,” she said. “Am I correct?”

  “Yes,” I admitted. “Thorn, my gun, had been destroyed by that time.”

  “And you defaulted to your device to deal with the creature,” she said. “That, and your dizzying intellect.”

  “It was a regular ogre by this time, but yes, my techbrace has full defensive capabilities,” I said, surprised she would know my reactions. “Wasn’t as effective as I wanted.”

 

 

  “You couldn’t dispatch a regular ogre with this blade?” TK asked. “Really?”

  “You say ‘regular ogre’ like they’re pushovers,” I said insulted. “Have you seen ogres? They aren’t exactly lightweights.”

  “Yes,” she answered. “I’ve faced regular ogres, and a few creatures considered irregular.”

  “Well I’m not a heavy-hitter like you or the other mages,” I said. “I’m a technomancer. First part of that word is tech. We’re like the nerds of the magic community. I don’t do the finger wiggling, or create orbs of insane power. I use items that work against magic to keep myself alive.”

  “That is your difficulty,” TK said, gesturing over Sliver. “You see energy and these items as things to be used. You still don’t understand this blade, or magic.”

  Honor’s words came back to me: When you learn to understand it, you will have something better than any gun.

  “All I need that blade to do is cut, same way when I point Thorn and pull th
e trigger I need it to shoot,” I said. “I don’t need to ‘bond’ or ‘communicate’ with my weapons. I like them just the way they are…inanimate tools of destruction.”

  “Yet you speak to a device attached to your arm,” she said, pointing at my techbrace. “I’m certain you know every feature of your techbrace. What it can and can’t do. Its limits, how to exceed them, and what would and can destroy it.”

  “Yes,” I said. “But that’s different. Cait, my techbrace, is programmed to assist me. She is a piece of hardware operated by sophisticated software.”

  “She?” TK asked, touching several of the blue runes on the blade. “It’s the same. This blade is just a piece of hardware. The software in this case, is you.”

  “I don’t use magic.”

  “Energy is energy,” TK said, as the runes on Sliver increased in intensity. “Do you know how mages manipulate energy?”

  “You wiggle your fingers a certain way, say some special ancient words you’ve memorized, and form orbs of power?”

  She stared at me for a second. “Are you sure you managed to escape the vehicle before the explosion?”

  “Guessing that’s ‘no’ on the basic fundamentals of magic?”

  “How do you use your techbrace?” she asked. “Do you press some buttons, give it commands, and suddenly it functions?”

  Her words made me realize how silly I sounded. “No. Techbrace and user must be in tune, in alignment. No two people can use the same brace. Each one is designed specifically for the intended wearer.”

  “Exactly,” she said, and released Sliver. It floated over to me. “Energy and frequency. You must vibrate at the correct frequency in order to manipulate the energy you desire. Everything vibrates at a specific frequency…everything.”

  I held out my hand and caught Sliver. A jolt of energy shot up my arm.

  “What did you do?” I asked, looking at the blade. The runes had lost their glow. “I felt that.”

  I sheathed Sliver and flexed my hand a few times. It was the sensation of pins and needles times ten.

  “I merely adjusted the frequency to help you understand.”

  “Is my blade going to start talking?” I asked warily. “Because that’s a deal-breaker for me.”

  “If it does,” TK answered. “You have bigger issues than I imagine. Tell me how you plan to deter Tigris and this summoner.”

  FOURTEEN

  “That might work,” TK said, after I explained my plan. “But in order to stop a summoner of this caliber, especially a Wordweaver, you need a runic armature of negation.”

  “A runic what?”

  “It’s a special cage or room created for erasures and stripping of abilities.”

  “Great, can you make one of these armature cages? A handy travel size would be perfect.”

  “I can’t create one that powerful, not without a few mages to assist, and not in time,” TK said. “You are stopping a summoner that can call up a Tenebrous and is possibly manipulating creatures and turning them into hybrids. That requires a special armature.”

  “That’s why I came to see you,” I said. “I figured you would either know where I could find one, or be able to create one.”

  “There is one room,” she said. “It hasn’t been used in some time because of the danger, but I believe this situation outweighs the risk involved.”

  I learned early on to ask mages several questions. These questions were designed to ascertain how much devastation I was walking into, what were my odds of escaping said devastation, and was the aforementioned devastation going to come back and bite me in the ass.

  “Risk? What risks? Specifics, please.”

  “The Stone Armature was used during the last war to strip enemy mages of their abilities. Much of that power lies latent in the armature itself. There is a small chance that energy can leak out.”

  “I don’t want to sound like I’m nitpicking,” I said. “But I know magespeak when I hear it. So if you don’t mind, where is this Stone Armature located?”

  “Astor Hall.”

  “The Astor Hall in the New York Public Library?”

  “Is there another room in the city entirely constructed of marble?”

  “The entire room is marble?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Melchior Astor, a mage and one of the founders of the Ten, was the primary influence in its construction. He wasn’t as well known as his siblings.”

  “I’ve never heard of a Melchior Astor.”

  “Precisely the way he likes it.”

  “Likes as in present tense?”

  She gave me a look that said focus on the matter at hand.

  “Sorry, you were saying?”

  “You need to bring the summoner there if you’re going to have a chance at stopping him. The marble is ancient, and the power within is runically woven into the stone.”

  “How much power is contained in the armature?” I asked. “You mention it was used during the war.”

  “The Stone Armature was used to erase war criminals and only eradicated magic in organic containers,” TK said matter-of-factly.

  “Organic containers?” I asked uncertain. “You mean people?”

  “Not all organic containers are people, but yes, people too. Your blade and weapon will not suffer long-term damage if you manage to activate it.”

  “And if I do manage this how much power are we talking here potentially?”

  “It’s hard to say with certainty,” she said. “Probably enough to level the city.”

  “Enough to level the city?”

  “Several times over,” she said with a nod. “Yes, that would be my closest estimate.”

  I paused, and stared at her. This was the frightening aspect of dealing with mages. They discussed wholesale destruction the same way most people discussed the weather.

  “When you say some of the power may leak out, what exactly does that mean in non-mage terms?”

  “What do you mean?” TK asked. “My statement is clear. There is a small chance of power leakage.”

  “Yes, but does that mean the building explodes, I explode, the armature explodes?”

  “It means exactly what I said, you may sense some power leak out of the armature,” she answered. “Am I not being clear?”

  “That’s about as clear as mud,” I said with a sigh. “Do they train mages to speak this way?”

  “Which way? What are you talking about?”

  “Never mind,” I said, knowing I wasn’t going to get a clearer answer. “How do I use this armature? Is there a switch, a button, or some kind of panel I need to use?”

  “One thing you need to know about using the armature: a mage can be undone by force of will or lack of belief, but the cage will only function in the presence of the greatest thief.”

  “The greatest thief?” I asked, incredulously. “Those are the instructions? Are you serious?”

  “I’ve never used it, but every mage is taught that passage from early on in our studies,” TK answered. “If you want to use the armature you’ll have to figure it out.”

  “I think I’ll just put a few negation rounds in this summoner and call it a day,” I said with a shake of my head. “Runed rounds don’t require instructions.”

  “Tell me about Ellis Island,” she said, throwing me off-balance. “Which Council will head there?”

  “The Light Council will head there first, disable the defenses, and locate certain artifacts of power that were missing. Until now, that is.”

  “Artifacts which were planted there by you?”

  “Yes. With the defenses of the island down, they will conduct a thorough investigation which will bring in several other groups to ascertain authenticity and origin.”

  “A smoke screen and bait, clever,” she said with a nod.

  “Most of it was Honor’s idea, but yes, it’s clever and removes them from the board for a short time.”

  “You’re hoping these artifacts attract Tigris?”

  “Speci
fically Delilah and the Death Widows, but Tigris—yes.”

  “The Light Council on Ellis requires some kind of Division 13 oversight, correct?”

  “Yes, Division 13 will get called in on the official channel to provide oversight and containment,” I said. “In addition, they will oversee the Council activities to prevent any fallout from the artifacts discovered.”

  “You mean prevent theft of the artifacts of power,” TK said. “Which is always a temptation.”

  “That temptation is ever-present,” I said. “Division 13 still remembers the Osiris Incident.”

  “Indeed,” TK said. “This activity on Ellis will allow you to pursue your suspect unhindered.”

  “More importantly, it lets my suspect think he isn’t being pursued.”

  “Prey unaware of a predator is just another name for victim,” TK said with a smile.

  “Someone summoned a Tenebrous,” I said. “I hate leaving the Warden to face it alone, but I have to deal with the larger threat.”

  “He’s not alone,” TK said. “I can’t be involved, but I may be able to provide some assistance.”

  “You do realize Warden Bags are dangerous?”

  It was her turn to be surprised, though she hid it well.

  “The Warden is facing a potpourri of pain. The bag will help him be better equipped, especially if your plan to stop Haran fails.”

  “If my plan fails then the entire world will be at risk,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t see what one Night Warden with a bag is going to prevent.”

  “I could say the same thing about a lone operative going against an entire organization.”

  “Touché,” I said.

  “The devil is in the details,” she said, “while you worry about the world, someone has to worry about the city and keeping the streets safe.”

  “Night Wardens?”

  “Precisely. To do that, I will make sure he is properly equipped and pays the cost.”

  “What is the cost?”

  The temperature of the catacombs dropped noticeably, causing me to immediately regret the question. TK narrowed her eyes at me.

  “Are you volunteering to pay the cost for him?”

  “No,” I said, quickly. “Forget I asked.”

  TK nodded. “Forgotten. My understanding is you have enough of a debt to pay. Don’t you have a transporter to…transport?”