The Book of the Magi

by Billy Spencer

  “Well you see, not every demon chooses to follow the evil. The familiars that the exorcist had chosen were ones that loved humans to be honest. Just because someone of something is a demon doesn't mean they had ill will in their heart. They lose their way once, but some try to be better. They become familiar and responded with their master’s emotions and state of mind. The stronger the emotion and clearer the mind, the more powerful the familiar is. Although if you doubt yourself, the familiar would pretty much not take you seriously,” Jessica said to Lucuris letting out a lighthearted laugh.

  “That sounds pretty awesome Jess. I mean I know it sounds silly but that would've been fun to be able to see that...if demons and magic truly existed,” Lucuris said lowering the book, then began to sit down to rest his legs.

  Jessica kneeled down next to Lucuris, her smile disappeared and turned serious. “What do you mean truly existed? Demons and angels have been here for as long as man has been on this planet, you just haven’t seen them. Magic is also part of their realm, whether it be a certain angel you know or some you never heard of, they are all part of the same system. This is why we’re all here. Why all of us are here together. Don’t you understand Lucuris, Abigail didn’t bring you here just because it would be fun. She brought you here because she knew you were like us. Soon the time will come for us, mankind to fight back,” Jessica said as her face grew less serious, and her cheeks grew red, as she felt embarrassed by dropping all that information’s on Lucuris at once. “Sorry, I probably should've let your sister tell you instead of throwing it out on the table. But I’m glad you are here, and hope you can help us, and I’m glad to have you as a friend,” Jessica said as she smiled and started to get up from the floor and walk away to where Oracle was.

  Lucuris’s mind went in all directions at the information Jessica gave to him. He knew it sounded silly to believe such things exist, but he believed her. She spoke with such a serious tone and looked as if this situation was life or death. All he could think of was that magic had to do with demons and angels, but a battle seemed to be on the way.

  Abigail finished speaking to Nick, and she came back to Lucuris, seeming a bit tensed as her arms were crossed across her chest, she did not smile, nor frown, her face was expressionless. “I guess Jessica already told you. I know it seems stupid, and you must think we’re crazy, but Lucur-,”

  “Abigail, stop! I’m not like that, I don’t think it’s stupid at all sis,” Lucuris said to Abigail as he started to shake a bit.

  Abigail looked speechless; she never saw her brother frustrated. His body was trembling, like he was afraid of something, but trying to be brave. “What’s wrong Luc, is something bothering you?” Abigail said, placing her hand on Lucuris’s shoulder, with a concerned look on her face.

  Lucuris still couldn’t believe all of it, his world felt like it was coming down. He tried to speak, but it felt like there was a heavy ball inside his throat that would not come out. The world he knew as a kid and growing up was not the true world. It was a veil of lies, and he was just another one of the world’s puppets. Everyone here knew but him, and that made him sad, and kind of angry, mostly because Abigail knew about the true world. He didn’t know why it bothered him so much, but he was angry at Abigail, at his own sister, he felt betrayed. She had hidden these facts about the world they live in, but for how long? “It’s nothing…I’m leaving, going home. I just need some time to think,” Lucuris said with as he turned and began to storm off towards the darkness to find his way out of the cave. He tried to keep the tears from coming, but he couldn’t help it, he was hurting. He felt alone again, and it sucked that even his own sister left him alone in the dark.

  Abigail stormed off behind Lucuris, trying to catch up with him, she followed his footsteps in the darkness, and found him at the entrance of the cave, and he was on his hands and knees, his clothes were wet and dirty from the mud on the ground. The rain poured down on Lucuris’s body, as if he was being baptized as drops of water hit his face. He slammed both fists into the muddy ground, screaming for the world to hear him. Abigail’s tears began to flow from her face, the tears were ones of sorrow. “Lucuris! I’m sorry, for everything. I didn’t want to hide this from you,” Abigail said as she ran to Lucuris and kneeled down trying to hold him, but he didn’t want to be held, by anyone at all, he pushed her away with one arm.

  “Why...WHY the hell not. Because I’m your brother? You think I’m weak? Why don’t you trust me, am I that pathetic that you think I wasn’t even worth the time for you to explain to me?” Lucuris said as he looked up at Abigail.

  “nonono, NOT at all. You out of anyone in this world is worth everything. I wanted to tell you dammit, I just didn’t know how. I wanted to show you...so you can join me Luc. Please, I’m sorry,” Abigail begged as she collapsed to the floor crawling towards Lucuris apologizing over and over again.

  “Just what the hell are you being angry about,” Nick said as he came rushing out of the cave and picking Lucuris up from his shirt. “You’re angry at your fucking sister. For what? Because she didn’t tell you something. Please, you disgust me, self-loathing, playing the victim. What kind of person are you,” Nick said as his voice started to roar, and his body started to heat up.

  Nick then threw Lucuris back down to the floor as if he was nothing more but a piece of garbage. Lucuris felt ashamed at the way he acted towards his sister, how he took his anger and hurt out on her. “I’m sorry Abigail. I don’t know what happened... I just didn’t like feeling like I was in the dark. This is all new to me, and I just can’t understand what’s happening,” Lucuris said as he stood up from the floor trying to wipe the mud off from his jeans. He looked at Nick and was angrier with him for the way he treated him.

  Lucuris could feel his blood rising, as he clenched one hand into a fist, and tried to hold back his anger back, but he couldn’t resist himself. Nick provoked him with the few words he said to Lucuris. “You think you’re so tough, you’re nothing more but a little boy yourself Nick. Just because you don’t know me does not give you the right to treat me like shit,” Lucuris said while charging towards Nick and aiming his fist towards nicks face, landing swiftly onto his cheek bone. The impact was so hard, and so full of raw emotions as Lucuris put all his anger, and frustration into that one hit that it knocked Nick to the ground.

  “I was wondering when you were gonna do that. Took you long enough, feel better now asswipe?” Nick said as he got up and turned towards Lucuris and gave him a small smirk.

  Abigail was worried as she just stood there and watched the whole ordeal unfolded, she always knew Nick as a never back down kind of guy. But she saw now that what he did was wonderful, he didn’t want to hurt Lucuris but give him an outlet to let out all of his frustrations, and she looked at Nick in a different way and felt as if there was more to this tough looking guy.

  Abigail looked back to Lucuris and noticed he was smiling now; she knew she could only explain to him what exactly was going on. “Luc, I think I should explain to you, everything that is happening, that will happen. We need you, and you have to know before you decide,” Abigail said as she grabbed Lucuris’s hand and began to walk back in the cave as nick followed. She knew that this could change everything that her brother believed in, but she always knew that it could also bring about different possibilities. She felt a bit ashamed deceiving Lucuris the way she did, she always left him alone at the house due to her work, or friends, but she never told him the full truth. Now was the time she felt that everything should be put out on the table, no more secrets.

  The three of them continued through the cave until they returned to the room where Jessica, and oracle remained. Both of them were too busy researching different books to pay attention to what happened the last few minutes. Abigail led Lucuris to one side of the room so she and he could have a private conversation. “This is not a club bro. What oracle said is true, we are a team, not any ordinary team you see, but a team of exorcist,” Abigail said while reach
ing inside her chest and pulling out a necklace, which had a shape of a green dragon which glimmered in the light. “This is my familiar, his name is Zee, and he comes forth in my time of need. He’s my friend who helps me in battles, we each have our own familiar’s Luc,” Abigail said as she looked at her necklace and smiled.

  “So, Zee huh. I mean how are you able to summon him, or her. I mean you can’t say something like I call forth zee of the underworld!” Lucuris said out loud while smiling at his sister.

  “No, nothing silly like that. We are exorcist not really summoners. How about I show you instead,” Abigail said with a smirk on her face.

  At that moment her eyes trailed away for Lucuris and onto her necklace that she was holding in her hand. She took out a small pouch from her back pocket and opened it up. She poured what looked like powder onto the floor in front of her. “We use this powder to help us summon our familiars. As long as the marking is on a surface, we are able to bring them from the other dimension. The dimension where they reside in,” Abigail said as she made a circle with the powder and started to write different symbols within it using her fingers. “The symbols are words in an ancient language, to help zee find its way to us. It chants out to my familiar in these ancient words to call it forth, to be summoned to us.,” She said as she took one of her hands and placed it in her mouth, biting down hard close to where her thumb was until all Abigail and Lucuris could see was blood drip from her hand.

  “Hey, Abigail, are you ok, why did you do that. You made yourself bleed. Let me go get you something to stop it,” Lucuris said while trying to find a towel or something to cover Abigail’s hand. He fumbled around the books and was beginning to tear out pages and give to his sister, when all of a sudden Abigail stopped him. She didn’t want the bleeding to stop, and he saw how serious she looked, and how the wound she inflicted onto herself was not affecting her at all.

  “I don’t need anything Luc, I have to do this. Exorcist who obtain a familiar can only summon it from the other dimension if they use their own blood and place it within the ritual circle, to complete the process,” Abigail said and she hovered her hand on top of the circle, and let her blood drip down from her hand and splash onto the floor.

  The blood started to move around the circle and began filling the words, and started to shake the ground a little, trying to get something to come out. Then Abigail took her necklace with the engraving of a dragon on it and placed it in the middle of the circle. The blood flew from the ancient symbols and started to crawl towards the engraving and began filling it, and as soon as it filled it all the way through the middle of the circle started to crack and a red light broke through it, and started to rumble even more that the lights in the room began to flicker.

  Lucuris looked worried, he did not know what was going on, and started to look at the room frantically, he felt a sense of fear flow through his body, but also excited at the same time ,curious as to what was trying to come out of the crack in the ground. He looked around the room at Nick, Jessica, and Oracle and just saw them calm as ever continuing what they were doing before. Like nothing unusual was happening.

  Lucuris looked at Abigail and saw she was focused on the circle, she did not take her eyes off of it, not even blinking. “Ab-Abigail I’m scared. What’s going on, is there an earthquake happening,” Lucuris said while trying to walk his way closer to his sister. He saw that she wasn’t paying attention to him, and he felt he could pass out any second. “Abigail answer me!” He screamed trying to shake his sister from her trance.

  At that moment when Lucuris was shaking Abigail the light stopped showing from the crack in the circle, and the lights stopped flickering, and a black mist started to come out, and hover above the circle. And then it started to form, the wings were small and wide, the emerald green scales sparkled as the light was shone on them. The body of the creature was not so large, and the face held fangs as sharp as knives, with horns on top left-hand side of its head, pointing backwards. The beast wasn’t as big as Lucuris suspected; it was quite small in fact. Normally when people think of dragons, they think of these monstrous huge scale man eating beings. Dragons which can fly across villages and cities and set them asunder. This dragon though was as big as a small dog. And though its first appearance it looked very ferocious coming out from the ground and being formed, but instead was quite different. When the dragon looked at Lucuris it looked like it was smiling at him and was quite happy looking. Mostly because Abigail was there next to it, holding it in her arms and petting it on the top of its head.

  “So whatcha think Luc? Too much for you? Don’t worry he won't bite you, well not unless he’s hungry. This is Zee by the way my familiar, and friend,” Abigail said holding her Dragon in her arms smiling at Lucuris.

  “Uh-uh well he is quite puny looking,” Lucuris said rubbing the top of his head.

  Zee looked quite annoyed at what Lucuris said and fumes started coming for its nostrils. The dragon then bit Lucuris on his arm lightly.

  “Ow, hey what the crap was that for,” Lucuris said looking puzzled at Zee.

  Abigail gave Zee a little pat on his head smiling at him. The dragon started to nuzzle close to Abigail. “You told him he was puny jerk. A Course he’s going to bite you. I mean he may not be big, but he is still powerful. Plus, you kind of deserved it for insulting him.” Abigail said laughing loudly.

  Nick and Jessica started to walk towards Lucuris and Abigail. Both of them carrying certain books in both their hands. “Guys we got to run down more stuff with Lucuris,” Nick said handing Lucuris books from his hand.

  “The workings of a Magi, wait what is this?” Lucuris asked Nick while skimming through the book.

  “Your sis told us what you dreamed of. You were having not just any normal dream, or nightmare, but it seemed you were having a vision or memory,” Nick said while looking around the room seeing that everyone else were talking to each other about other stuff.

  Lucuris continued to look through the book, to see what it held, until he stopped and dropped the book completely with a shocked look on his face he held both hands to his face trembling in fear, trying to grasp what he saw within those pages. “Th-That man, well not that man, but those clothes! That outfit. In my dream I saw someone dressed like that. I even carved out a figure that resembled who I saw. What in the world is going on? Why is it in this book, did Abigail do this as some sick joke?” Lucuris asked Nick trying to calm his nerves, he sat on the floor and grabbed the book and put it to the side of him.

  “This is no Joke Lucuris, your dreams are more reality than you want to believe. The figure you saw and cloths he or she wore were those of the Order. The order of The Magi’s, and that specific individual in the book was a Black Mage,” Nick said as he knelt down to Lucuris so to be at eye level, giving Lucuris a stern look, and reaching out towards Lucuris to grab the book he dropped.

  “Wait, Black Mages, what is that? I mean I played as one in a game before, and would read about them occasionally in fantasy books, but are you serious, this is all real?” Lucuris said while slowly getting up, but still shaken from what he saw. To him this was all ridiculous, fantasy coming into reality, and demons coming into his world? It sounded absurd to him.

  “What you learned about them was true. These creators of those works you enjoyed also had a vision but to them, it was just inspiration. To us though we knew better, that magic exist in our world, and demons also,” Nick said while standing back up and looking at Lucuris. He saw that Abigail’s brother was Nervous, he seemed on edge, and Nick felt that he would not be able to handle the truth of everything. He didn’t want to break Lucuris’s mind, grasping everything about the unusual and trying to believe it was something Nick use to think as being moronic. “Look I can understand if you think this is stupid. If you want to leave, I won’t hold it against you. I may of not liked you at first, but after what Abigail told me about you, and why she had chosen you, I can understand why she felt you were truly meant for this, again th
ough your choice, not mine,” Nick said as he extended his hand and waited for Lucuris to extend his for a handshake. To show Lucuris that he is not alone in this world, that he doesn’t think his dreams were crazy, and that they were all in this together.

  Lucuris looked relieved, that Nick was trying to explain everything to him. He felt that his dreams were starting to make sense. “Abigail believes in me Nick, and I won’t fail her. She is my sister, and I will stick by her side no matter what. If you are all her friends, then I shall do whatever it takes to help you all,” Lucuris said with a smile as he grabbed Nicks hand and pulled him towards him, leaving Nick surprise. “Thanks, for being my sisters’ friend,” He said softly in Nicks ear.

  Jessica looked at Lucuris with excitement, she felt glad that he was going to be part of their team. “Thanks, Lucy, for joining us! I soooooo can’t wait to show you all the cool stuff we have!” Jessica said throwing her arms around Lucuris. Hugging him tightly.