Black Dawn

by Andrew Dobell

Within the ice, Angel could clearly make out the shape of a humanoid figure. It was a least a foot or two deeper into the ice, which made details difficult to make out, but something was there, and it looked huge, maybe twice the height of a typical man?

  ‘Is that…?’ Blake said.

  ‘My guess is that this is the Magus who used this Artefact to destroy that first Archon, and they were buried here along with it. Is it dead?’ Mr black said to Isha.

  ‘As far as I can tell, yes,’ Isha said in his Indian accent.

  ‘Thank you, Andreas, this place if full of surprises. Now, let’s move on shall we?’

  ‘Of course sir,’ Andreas said, and activated the robot arm. Using a remote control he manoeuvred the arm into place and extended the grabbing hand down into a ten-inch wide shaft that extended deep into the ice.

  ‘We didn’t want to disturb the… thing in the ice, so we chose to retrieve the item with as little disruption to the thing as possible,’ Andreas explained.

  As they watched, Andreas performed some careful movements of the arm and after a number of tense seconds, the sound of something being torn from the ice could be heard and the arm then started to retract. After a number of seconds, the hand came into view, and within it was the Orb.

  A dull green in colour, it looked to be made from coiling snakes wrapping around each other to make the sphere. The carvings looked incredibly intricate and detailed. Even as an Art piece, it would have value.

  Mr Black stepped forward and offered his hand, while Andreas operated the arm and brought the hand around to just above Mr Blacks, where the hand opened and dropped the Orb into his palm.

  Angel watched all this in fascination and could feel the Magical energy that expanded out from this object and pressed in against her own Magic. This thing was powerful. As Mr Black held it in his hand, the Orb started to glow green, the light coming from within. He turned back to face the group, holding the Orb reverently in his hand, a look of rapture on his face.

  ‘Finally, it’s mine,’ he said to himself as he gazed at the tennis ball sized item.

  ‘Well done sir,’ Roxane offered, ‘that’s a huge achievement, you should be proud.’

  ‘Thank you Miss Carter, but our journey has only just begun, we have much to do.’

  ‘Of course, very good sir. Shall we escort you out?’

  ‘Yes, I wish to return to the surface. I need to check up on my plans.’

  Angel watched them go, she walked after them, but slowly, keeping her distance. Things had kicked up a gear with Mr Black and he now had a plan to try and kill the Archons.

  Could he do it? Could he kill the Archons? Angel didn’t know, but she didn’t like the idea. She needed to get in touch with Yasmin and let her know about these latest developments.

  - Nowhere

  Alicia thought she might be going mad. What was real anymore? What had her life become? Every day was torture, pain, turmoil and her mind felt like it might explode from the mess of rampant thoughts that tore through her brain at a rate that scared her.

  Now her tormentor, her torturer held her lovingly in her arms and caressed her face like a mother holding a baby.

  ‘You’re mine Alicia, you do know that don’t you. No one else’s, you’re mine to protect and love. Only I can do that for you. No one else.’

  Around them, scattered broken on the floor were the bodies of three men, three large men who had somehow found their way in here and had used her as their plaything and had done horrific things to her until Yasmin discovered them and saved her from them. She couldn’t look at the lifeless bodies about her, she couldn’t handle it. She just wanted it to end.

  Maybe Yasmin would help her?

  The L.A. Gambit

  New York

  Nov 23rd

  Amanda looked up at the large black church that had been converted into a Nightclub for as long as she could remember. Its gothic spires thrusting into the midday sky like daggers. Known as The Dark Side of the Moon, or just The Dark Side for short, the building held many memories for Amanda. Howie, the man who had befriended her and helped her stop sleeping rough had been working here for as long as she’d known him as both a Bouncer on the door and then later running security as a whole.

  Now, it belonged to new owners. Toni and Tabitha had bought it out so it was their Club now. This was the first time she had visited since their acquisition of the business, and from the outside, nothing much had changed.

  It was another cold day in New York, winter approached and it would only get colder before it got warmer again. Amanda, like most Magi, could use her Magic to keep herself warm and protected from the cold, but it would always be a good idea to try and blend in with the crowds rather than walk about in a summer dress in the middle of winter. Amanda wore her typical Jeans and trainers but wore a denim jacket buttoned up with her hands buried deep in its pockets.

  She walked up to the side door of the club and knocked. Within moments locks turned and the door opened to reveal her good friend Howie stood in the doorway.

  Amanda smiled at him, she’d seen him a few months ago on her last social visit to the club and they were now getting on well again. Before she became a Magus and lived with Howie, he had taken the discovery of her working as a prostitute to earn money and pay him something to live with him quite poorly and he’d asked her to leave. These days that was all water under the bridge and they seemed to get on well.

  ‘Mandy, great to see you, what are you doing here?’

  ‘And you, ya big ejit’ she said and went in for a hug, which he returned with gusto. ‘I’m meeting with Toni and Tabitha.’

  ‘Aaah, so you’re the guest they’re expecting. I had no idea you knew them.’

  ‘Small world,’ she said with a smile.

  ‘It certainly is, come in,’ he answered and ushered her inside. He led her out from behind the bar where the side door was located and into the Club proper. Seeing the club quiet and well-lit seemed odd to her. It looked a lot messier than it looked at night, and she watched the cleaners going about their jobs as she followed Howie towards the VIP area.

  A set of circular stairs in the corner near the front entrance, cordoned off by barriers to keep the undesirables out led upstairs. She had never visited the VIP area before, she’d only ever seen the people up there from the floor below as they watched the dance floor from the balcony.

  Each floor in the club had a name. The basement, Amanda’s usual haunt was called The Crypt, the main level had the moniker The Tomb, while the VIP level had been named The Tower.

  They walked through a seating area and past the Pool tables, it all looked very nice up here. Eventually, Howie led her to a door with a “Staff Only” sign on it. He knocked and waited for a beat before a voice called out from within.

  ‘Come in,’ said the female voice that Amanda recognised.

  Howie opened the door to see Tabitha sorting some papers on the small desk in there. This looked like some kind of room for a secretary.

  ‘Miss Tabitha, your guest is here,’ Howie said.

  ‘Amanda, good to see you. Are you well?’

  ‘Aye, I’m bang on so I am.’

  Tabitha looked a little confused by Amanda’s answer, ‘Good, I have no idea what you just said, but I take it you’re well.’

  ‘Heh. Yes, I’m well.’

  ‘Come in, come in, take a seat in there,’ she said and gestured into the next room that looked like an office. Tabitha dismissed Howie and shut the door as Amanda took her seat. ‘So, you wanted to see us?’ Tabitha said.

  ‘That’s right. Are the others around?’

  Moments later Amanda sat in the same office with Toni, Tabitha and Melissa, and waited for them to settle before she spoke.

  ‘So, I’ve spoken with Victoria this morning, and predictably she’s run into problems trying to arrange an appropriate response to the Nomads in Los Angles. The Magi Legion are being their usual selves and are both blocking Victoria’s suggestion that they should co
ntact the Council for aid, and are also getting Victoria bogged down in negotiations about the force they should send into Los Angeles. Basically, they’re throwing their weight around and being difficult.’

  ‘I’m not surprised,’ said Tabitha, ‘they never really liked us, they disliked that the Liberties Children and the Coven of Angels worked well together. Between us, we could usually overrule the Legion and get things done. With the Angels gone, however, I’m really not surprised that the Legion are doing their best to make themselves heard. I’d wager that they will be trying to get a Coven sympathetic to them to take over where the Angels used to be.’

  ‘So what does this mean?’ Said Melissa.

  ‘It means we’re fucked,’ Toni said.

  ‘Well, maybe not,’ said Amanda. ‘Despite the Legion not wanting to involve the Magi Council in this, they are quite aware of the situation in L.A. and feel a response of some kind is needed. So Trevelyan has asked me to look into it. Victoria knows about this and has said that she would be happy to assign some Magi to help us if we keep a low profile. Providing the Legion doesn’t know about it, we’ll be fine.’

  ‘So, are we going?’ Toni said, with hope in her eyes.

  Amanda sat forward, her tone more serious now. ‘I’m going, I’d like you to come as well, but I’m not forcing you. This could be dangerous. If you come, you do so at your own risk.’

  With a sudden whip crack of fast moving air being displaced, four women appeared out of nowhere in the driveway to what was once a very nice looking mansion in the Hollywood Hills. However, the police tape and the boarded up windows took some of the sheen off the place now.

  Amanda looked up at the house surrounded by bushes and trees, this had once been a very upmarket property to live in.

  ‘Very nice,’ Amanda said.

  ‘It used to be,’ Melissa answered.

  Amanda dropped her vision into the Magical spectrum and noted that the Magic that had once been in effect here had been almost entirely swept away.

  ‘What’s the plan?’ Tabitha asked Amanda.

  ‘Well, we have a few hours to kill before the Magi from DC get here, so I wanted to have a look around this house and take in a little of the city since I’m here. The real investigation will begin later.’

  ‘You’re going in there?’ Toni asked.

  ‘You don’t have too, you know where to meet me later, I’ll see you then if you want to do your own thing?’

  Toni looked at the other two girls, ‘I don’t really want to go in there again.’

  ‘That’s fair enough, I want to stay close, though, so how about we wait around back for you Amanda?’ said Tabitha.

  ‘Sounds good,’ she said as she sent a set of senses into the building to find a good place to Port too.

  ‘That okay with you Toni?’ Tabitha asked.

  Toni sighed, and then nodded her head, ‘Sure.’

  With that, Amanda willed herself into the house and appeared inside the main entrance hall of the house. The place had been ripped apart, burnt, and utterly ransacked. The fight that had happened here had been intense. The current stillness of the house felt a little creepy, probably due to the knowledge that there had been a lot of violent deaths in here. As Amanda moved, stepping on loose floorboards and other debris that moved or dislodged something as she shifted her weight, the sounds they made felt incredibly loud in such a quiet building. It felt almost sacrilegious to make such noise as if she might disturb the dead. Amanda’s first line of investigation was to attempt to have a look back through the sands of time and see if she could see anything. Predictably the period of the attack appeared hazy and indistinct, the powerful Magical forces at work here and the protections and Aegises at play threw off her scrying attempt enough that it was going to be fairly useless to keep trying.

  Instead, she started to walk about the house and opened up her mind and feelings to the Magic all about her, trying to get a feel for what had happened here. After a little while, she felt that she had a fairly good idea of the kind of magic that had been at play here, and the reason why the girls thought this was some kind of new Magic. It wasn’t of course. Like Maria had told her, it was just something that was hardly used, for a couple of reasons.

  The Nomads here had been using Astral or Spirit Magic, and a lot of it. For thousands of years Spirit Magic had been of limited use, to the point of some Mentors not even teaching their Apprentices about it because they didn’t see the point apart from in a few specific circumstances, or they believed it to be just plain dangerous.

  But Gentle Water had taught Amanda quite a bit about Astral Magic, meaning she recognised the tell-tale signs of it right away.

  Astral Magic allowed a Magus to access or control elements from either the Abyss or from Sheol.

  The Abyss, or the Spirit World, had been barred from the Magi for millennia. When the Archons passed into that realm before recorded history, the Abyss was forever more barred to the Magi. The Magi could no longer enter into the Abyss or effect it with their Magic. They could no longer summon Spirits to their aid either.

  Sheol, or the Realm of the Dead, where your soul goes to when you die, has never been barred to the Magi. But the stigma of Necromancy meant that few Arcadians wanted to travel there. The fear of being branded a Nomad being enough for most Arcadians to avoid using Astral altogether, and even to stop teaching it.

  Walking through this house Amanda could feel the Astral Magic that had been at work here. These Nomads used it a lot. A few more passes through the house and it became clear that little else could be found here, so she Ported outside and found the girls at the back of the garden stood against the railing that looked down the hill and over the city in the distance.

  ‘Anything?’ Tabitha asked.

  ‘Not much, they covered their tracks well so they did. The only thing I did find is that the Magic they used, the Magic you said you have never seen before was Astral Magic, Spirit Magic,’ Amanda said.

  ‘Really? I thought that was useless?’ Said Toni.

  ‘Or dangerous,’ said Tabitha.

  ‘It’s both to be sure. But you said that one of them used that Magic to disappear and reappear, is that right?’

  ‘I… yeah, I think so, that’s what I saw, I’m sure of it.’ Toni said.

  ‘Well, that could be an issue,’ Amanda said.

  Amanda sat at an outside table of a coffee shop in downtown LA and watched the world pass her by. The city felt warm and even though it was getting towards the middle of winter, it felt very pleasant out here in California. It made a nice change to the cold of New York.

  Thinking back to her walk around the Coven House an hour ago Amanda couldn’t help but feel a little worried by her findings. If what the girls said was true and it had indeed been spirit Magic that had been used by the Nomads to basically Port out and back in, that meant one thing. These Nomads had discovered the Holy Grail of the Magical world, how to pass into the Abyss and bypass the barrier that had barred the Abyss from the Magi for millennia.

  Within Nomad circles this had become known as the Magnus Transitus, the Great Crossing, the quest that most Nomads dreamt about. Of travelling into the Abyss to finally meet their masters, the Archons, in person in the hope of limitless power.

  Had these Nomads actually achieved it? If so, it could be problematic for the Arcadians if these Nomads chose to share their wisdom, the infighting amongst the Nomads being the one thing that might work against that happening.

  Amanda took another sip of her coffee and nearly spat it out all over her legs when she suddenly recognised someone on the other side of the street.

  She quickly placed her mug down and conjured a generous tip for the waitress before getting up and approaching the side of the road.

  Was it her?

  She used her Magic to zoom in and get a better look at her and to have a peek into the Essentia. Within moments she knew without a shadow of a doubt who it was.

  A second later the young woman on the
other side of the street stopped and then looked about her, locking eyes with Amanda a couple of seconds later. It took another second or two for the girl to recognise Amanda and smile back at her.

  A few moments later they approached each other on the same side of the street.

  ‘Celest, wow, it’s a pleasure to see you again, you look grand,’ Amanda said. Celest wore black lycra shorts, a gym top, biker boots, a denim jacket and carried a sports bag on her shoulder which she dropped to the floor when she reached Amanda.

  ‘You don’t look so bad either,’ Celest said.

  ‘Thanks a million. How come you’re in L.A?’

  ‘No reason, just passing through really. I’m not sure where I’m headed. How about you? I thought you were in New York? You’re a long way from home.’

  Amanda smiled, ‘I’m here on business.’

  ‘More Nomads?’

  ‘Aren’t there always?’

  ‘You want some help? I could do with a workout,’ Celest offered.

  Amanda paused and blinked. Did she want help? They were going to be going up against a powerful enemy who could potentially kill them. She gave it half a seconds thought before she replied. ‘Yes, that would be grand.’

  The Liberties Children delegation had come here quietly and covertly, only really Victoria and this group knew anything about this mission at all, and they wanted to keep it that way. The location of the safe house ended up being a currently disused old warehouse in one of the cities industrial centers, surrounded by other places of business that were currently shut for the night.

  Several tables dotted the floor, some had papers on them, others had weapons, and one had a powerful computer. Amanda spoke with. John Easton, the Coven leader for the squad of Magi that Victoria had sent.

  ‘Spirit Magic?’ John said.

  ‘That’s what it appears to be. The Angels Coven house felt like it was filled with it. These Nomads know how to use it and use it well. I also have reason to suspect that they can pass into the Abyss at will. You need to be careful, things could get pretty crazy if these guys show up.’