Heart's Darkness

by H D A Roberts

  I took the scenic route and came upon a small square near one of the university's more exclusive clubs, the Harrington Club (not exclusive as in Magic, exclusive as in money).

  It was quite well appointed, with marble benches and a small water feature, there was a Willow tree at the centre, its branches drooping and it leaves on the turn.

  "What do you want?" said a scared male voice from under that tree.

  The voice sounded familiar. I cast Mage Sight and nearly swore.

  There were two Magicians under the tree, along with a young man; the kid who'd hit me in the chops with the door. He was backed up against the tree trunk flanked by the two women, his escape cut off. He was still wearing the suit, but his tie was at half mast.

  The Magicians were young women, about nineteen, tall and thin. I did notice that there was something rather peculiar about their Wells, though; almost like the energy wasn't entirely theirs, if that makes sense. Very odd, but Magic was Magic. They were Adepts, which were not especially powerful on their best day, and laughably weak compared to a Sorcerer, much less me. But against a regular person, they could be lethal if they chose. Both were dark haired, wearing a lot of black, with silver piercings in ears and noses. One wore fishnets, the other a long skirt, both had black nails.

  "Why you, of course, Sweetie," replied the girl on the left, her voice a throaty chuckle, "noble blood is a rare commodity, and the rest of you isn't so bad either."

  She was flickering with power; Air Magic. I saw electricity coiling around her hands. The other was quiet, but her eyes were sinister and haunted; she was eyeing up the guy in a way that was not pleasant.

  "I have an appointment," the young man said, his voice breaking into a squeak as he took a step forward. A gust of air blew him back against the tree and his lips began to tremble.

  "Now, now, don't be so hasty, it's not going to hurt too much... the first time," Electric Girl said.

  Oh, crap. Why couldn't I ever walk in on fun things? It's always got to be stuff like this...

  "Is there a problem here?" I asked quietly, pushing through the branches of the tree, a set of shields cast and ready.

  The girls spun quickly, I felt the other prepare Flesh Magic.

  "Oh, thank God," the boy said, relaxing a little.

  "Push off," Electric Girl snapped at me, "We're busy."

  "Hardly my problem," I said, staring them down, "Now, I ask again, do we have a problem?"

  "Oh yes," Electric Girl said, "I rather think we do."

  She threw lightning. Not a lot, it would have been enough to knock me on my arse and render me unconscious, but it wouldn't have done any permanent damage. Naturally the attack just smacked into my shields, without even taking off a layer.

  "Not your evening, girls," I said politely.

  "Come on Patty, we can take hi-" the Flesh-Adept started to say... before I tossed a Sleep-Hex into her and she dropped like a sack of Goth-potatoes.

  "Final warning," I said.

  Patty swallowed hard and let go of her accumulated energy.

  "We were just messing around," she said, a note of fear in her voice.

  "That sort of messing around is why Pureborn burned us at the stake," I replied coldly, Patty started trembling.

  I really had to watch my tone; I was terrifying people almost by default. Tethys said it was my body language combined with a kind of quiet menace, particularly when I was angry. She said she found it attractive, but then she was peculiar.

  "It goes without saying that if I should find you doing anything like this again, there will be consequences?" I continued.

  She nodded, unwilling to meet my eyes.

  "Good. Then take your friend and go. Before I change my mind."

  Patty nodded and gestured, her first attempt to call her Will failed and she had to try again before she could float the other girl away. I made sure they were out of sight before turning back to their victim.

  "You alright?" I asked, making an effort to lighten my tone.

  "Yeah, yes, fine," he said, wiping sweat off his forehead with a silk handkerchief, "Thank you, I was a little scared there."

  "No problem. I'd steer clear of that lot if I were you. Intimidation only works until the threat's out of sight."

  "Don't need to tell me twice!" he said with a grin. He stepped forward and offered his hand, "Tom Watford."

  "Mathew Graves," I said, shaking it.

  "I take it you're a Magician?" he asked politely.

  I nodded.

  "A good one, apparently, you handled those two like they were nothing!"

  I shrugged off the compliment.

  "They're just kids," I said, "I doubt they'd actually have done you harm, if that's any comfort. Might have messed with you a little."

  "What makes you say that?" he asked; he seemed genuinely curious.

  "If they were the harming sort, the one with the lightning would have hit me harder; she threw an attack hard enough to knock me out, and no more, like a Taser shot."

  "Can you do that?" he asked.

  "Sure. But it's a bit flashy for my taste. Come on, those outfits looked almost uniform-like, and I'd hate to think they have a coven within shouting distance."

  "Coven?" he asked, gulping audibly, "Should I be worried?"

  "I don't think so. I think they're probably a bit scared now, they'll probably behave."

  "Shame they were a bit psycho, they were so fit."

  I snorted, "And coral snakes are pretty, but that doesn't mean you should let one nibble on you."

  He barked out a laugh and clapped me on the back (which hurt. He wasn't a weakling, that was for sure...).

  "So, what are you in for?" he asked, "I assume some sort of witchy-thing?"

  I gave him a glare, which affected him not at all, and answered his question before asking him much the same thing. It turned out that he was in the business school and already had a very pleasant job lined up at his father's company. He was supposed to be going to Cambridge, but his father bribed the wrong fellow, and now he was stuck in Stonebridge.

  "Stonebridge isn't so bad," I offered.

  "If you're a Magician. This isn't even day one, and I've already been accosted!"

  "Fair enough. Next time, just run. The element of surprise is far more effective that you think, and Magicians don't tend to be overly physical creatures-"

  "Oh, I don't know, some of you seem to get by," said a familiar girly voice from behind us.

  I spun, calling Shadows. My heart started hammering immediately, even as my brain tried to tell me that if she'd wanted a fight, she'd already have broken my fool neck.

  "Get behind me," I hissed at Tom, and he darted to obey, stepping over my Shadows very carefully as I stared down Margaret, the Demigoddess.

  She was leaning casually up against a tree, dressed in jeans and a jacket. She looked entirely unruffled and wasn't obviously armed, but that meant nothing. After what I'd seen her do, I was confident that if she decided to do me an injury, her hands would do just fine, if I was unprepared.

  "Friend of yours?" Tom asked.

  "Recently banished her boyfriend. So, unlikely."

  "Banished?"

  "Later," I said, "What do you want, Margaret?"

  "Maggie, please, all my lovers call me Maggie."

  That made me pause, as you might imagine.

  "Care to run that one by me again?"

  She smiled, it wasn't a look that made me feel secure, "We fought, Warlock, you and I. Strength against strength, Will against Will, giving our all to the battle, tell me there's not something intimate about that? Something that draws us together, almost like an embrace."

  "First, don't call me Warlock, it's offensive. Second, I wasn't giving it my all. If I had, you'd be dead and in tiny little pieces all over the side of that hill. You weren't an effort for me. I gave you less attention than I'd give to a particularly large spider. Just be thankful I wasn't in the mood to start pulling off legs."

  All crap, j
ust so you know. I may not be fond of spiders, but I don't pull limbs off things. I was just going for enough intimidation to get her away from me.

  She laughed.

  It wasn't the reaction I was going for.

  "You think I came here without looking into you? Besides, I can see you, right down to your core. There isn't so much as a drop of blood on you anywhere. You haven't taken a life, not one. You talk a good game, but you are a gentle man. Don't worry, I'll help you get over that."

  "Don't confuse not killing with gentility," I said dangerously, "I don't kill because my enemies can't suffer if they're dead."

  Not entirely untrue, but also a terrible lie. I will not kill. Not ever, not for anything. I didn't have the right.

  She just kept smiling.

  "Whatever you say, Milord," she said. Damn, she knew that, too?

  "You're a lord?" Tom asked.

  "That's your takeaway from all of that?"

  "No, I have other questions," he said reasonably, "That was just the one that stuck."

  "Quiet, Mortal, higher beings are talking," Maggie said to Tom.

  He subsided, cowering behind me, actually. Not that I could blame him. If there was a convenient back, I'd have done the same.

  "What are you after?" I asked her.

  "Why you, of course. You won me, after all. You accepted my surrender."

  "You're not quite sane, are you?" I replied.

  "Easy, Graves, she looks dangerous!" Tom hissed from behind me.

  "Oh, she very definitely is. Just not to me."

  "Oh, the arrogance of the Archon," Maggie said with a chuckle.

  "What's that now?" Tom said.

  "Oh, thanks very much," I said to the woman with a glare, "I was keeping that to myself!"

  "I won't tell anyone, if that helps," Tom offered quietly.

  "That's decent of you."

  "Least I can do really," he replied.

  "And it's not arrogance if it's true, then it's just pride," I said to Maggie, damn but carrying on two conversations like that was getting to be a strain.

  "Pride goeth before a fall, Warlock."

  "I'll give you one more warning about the Warlock thing, and then I'm taking things personally," I said with a glare.

  "I was forged of blood and iron, Warlock, your little stares don't intimidate me."

  "I don't doubt that," I replied, "but my Shadows should give you a little pause."

  She smiled again, looking me over.

  "Let me see your eyes, your true eyes," she said.

  "No."

  "Why? Why shouldn't I see them?"

  "I'm going to save you a lot of pain, alright? I am in a foul mood, I find the very idea of the organisation you represent abhorrent, and I have found that my temper is not as well controlled as it used to be. Adding that information to the whole 'Archon' thing, how much further would you like to push your luck tonight?"

  "All the way," she whispered, her eyes dancing with interest.

  "If that's what you want..."

  "Oh, yes it is," she said, moving towards me.

  And then she fell to the ground, out like a light.

  The Illusion of me standing in front of Tom vanished and I stepped out from behind my glamour. I'd gotten in behind her while we were chatting and dropped a Sleep Hex into her head as she advanced.

  "What just happened?" Tom asked, a little shocked.

  "My favourite trick," I said with a smirk, "See what I mean about surprise?"

  "Oh yes," he said, looking down at the girl, "She's not... I mean you didn't..."

  He mimed slitting a throat.

  "What?" I asked, "Oh! No, she's sleeping, not dead!"

  I called my Will and shoved her up into the lower branches of the tree she'd been leaning against, where she'd be out for an hour or so.

  "So, you're an Archon?" he said, "Shadow, I'm guessing?"

  I nodded.

  "Are you just going to leave her there?"

  "Have to. Technically speaking, I committed a Magical assault. And I suppose she does deserve this one pass. I did blow up her boyfriend."

  "Won't she just track you down again?"

  "Maybe. Cross that bridge, I guess."

  "I would have expected an Archon to be taller," he said as we carried on our way.

  "Sorry."

  "Not your fault, I suppose," he said magnanimously, "Does that happen often? Women dropping out of the sky and offering themselves to you?"

  "Not what she was offering."

  "Sure sounded like it was," he said, nudging my ribs.

  I concentrated and an image of the half-breed Cherub appeared in front of us, making Tom jump.

  "This was her ex. Still think she's inclined to trade that in for me?"

  He snorted and shrugged. We carried on.

  "Girls are crazy, you never know," he said, smirking.

  We made it back to Naiad, and as he hit the corridor, I kid you not, girls appeared. And not just from our floor, all of them, as far as I could tell. I grinned and left him to it. The walk back had been filled with his questions about Magic and Archons. I'd answered them, and he didn't seem terrified at the end. He really did seem like a decent sort; he even reminded me of Des before he went insane, nice but a little lacking in higher thinking. Not exactly dim, just absent of deep thought.

  I slid into my room and sat on my bed, kicking my shoes into the corner.

  I should have known that crazy woman would be back eventually. Maybe I should have put an Asimov in her head while I had the chance? I could have, I normally would have, but I had trouble shaking the idea that she wasn't evil. There wasn't a drop of blood in her aura... nothing to make me think that she'd done something nasty. But then she'd been with the Champions at the Red Carpet; she would certainly have helped the others when they stormed the place. That made her my enemy.

  I sighed. I wasn't solving that problem today. I slapped a movie on my laptop and settled in with my sandwich, leafing through a textbook between bites. The sounds from outside had increased for the last hour, and soon music started blaring.

  I frowned and cast a Muffling Spell, which cut it out nicely.

  Still heard the door get knocked on two hours later, though.

  "Yep?" I said, the door opened and Tom staggered in.

  "You have to hide me, those women are animals!" he said, slamming the door behind him.

  I laughed, taking in his appearance. There was lipstick on his collar, neck, cheeks and shirt, which was pulled open to his navel. His jacket was torn and his belt wouldn't hold up his trousers. He was missing one shoe, and he didn't have socks on.

  "What the hell happened to you?" I asked, barely containing another laugh. He looked like he'd been mauled by a tigress (or two... or six).

  "Well, one of them, Harriet, I think her name was, asked me back to her room, and I thought fine, why not? She's attractive! But when I got there, there were four more of them, and then there was touching and everyone was naked, and now I have some bites and pulls in some places where I shouldn't have either, and the rest heard, and now they want in too, and they won't take no for an answer!"

  "You poor thing," I said without sympathy.

  "I don't know what to do! I can't physically carry on, Graves! The first lot nearly killed me! I didn't even take part in most of it!"

  "Do you want this stopped permanently, or just for tonight?" I asked, trying to resist the urge to throttle him for complaining about having too much female attention...

  "Just tonight," he said after a minute, blushing terribly.

  "Then all you need to do is tell any girl you come across that you're tired, and you want to be your best for her. Then just set an appointment."

  "Oh, that's good!" he said, darting out the door again.

  Lucky bastard. Nice fellow, but I rather had to hate him for that, just a little bit...

  Chapter 5

  And, naturally, I couldn't get rid of him after that. He woke me up at seven the following mor
ning with suggestions of breakfast. I responded with creative swearing that would have frightened a smarter man, but which only seemed to make him even more chipper. In the end I got up so I wouldn't have to Curse him (it was a close-run thing).

  "I heard about this great breakfast spot ten minutes from campus," he said as we walked down the stairs, ahead of any pursuing women, "I heard they do wonders with tofu."

  Mustn't punch him, mustn't punch him...

  "If you're dragging me out of my nice warm bed at this ungodly hour, then we're going to my breakfast place," I said, pulling my jacket a bit tighter about my person.

  "Are they organic?" he asked dubiously.

  I turned a glare on him and he grinned.

  Maccaby's Diner was one of those businesses Tethys had her fingers in. And as far as I knew, there wasn't a single healthy thing on the menu (except maybe the lettuce they put in the burgers). I once heard a tourist ask if there was a house salad, and all the regular customers laughed so hard, he started to cry.

  The space was long and thin, with booths along one side, opposite a counter, with windows on the bottom end, facing Wallingford Park, not too far from the University's Western border.

  "My God," Tom said as he perused the menu, "I feel like I'm getting artery plaque just reading this."

  "One more comment like that, and I'll revoke your Man-Card," I replied.

  He snorted and kept reading, nodding appreciatively.

  "My mother never let me eat in places like this," he said conspiratorially, "I always had to eat healthy."

  "Live a little. That's what university's for, isn't it? Look who I'm talking to, you've already made good use of your time."

  "My everything hurts after that," he muttered.

  "I would hit you if you weren't so much stronger than me."

  He smirked and put down his menu, "So, what's there to do in Stonebridge? I know nothing about this town."

  "There's a bit of everything. What are you into?"

  "Girls, mostly, and drinking, and did I mention girls?" he asked, with a bit of a leer at the waitress.

  The kid was nothing if not a credit to our gender.

  "Anything else?"

  "Sports, I'll play anything, or watch anything. Games of chance are always fun, preferably high stakes."