Black Dawn

by Andrew Dobell

  The rest of the day went fairly quickly after Royston left. Amanda tried to convince Gentle Water to go after the Ball, claiming that Royston would never know, but he refused and shortly after Royston left, Gentle Water Ported away as well.

  Most of the arranging of the Ball had been left to the Arcanum, the autonomous organisation of Initiated Mortals, those who knew about Magic but couldn’t use it, who looked after the meeting of their two cultures on behalf of the Magi Council. They had booked the Observation Deck at the top of the World Trade Center and had carefully made sure that there would be no one there who would freak out if they saw something Magical. All it usually took was money and a few favours, and just sometimes a bit of Magic to grease the wheels, although the Arcanum always tried to do things without resorting to calling in one of their resident Magi.

  Amanda had received regular updates about the progress of the arrangements, and everything seemed to be on track for a great night with plenty of guests. The only thing Amanda didn’t know at this point was what she would be wearing because she had left that up to Maria, and as the time had now come for her to get ready, she’d started to feel a little nervous about what the more daring Maria might have procured for her.

  She’d had a shower now and as she wrapped herself up in her white robe, she stepped out into her room to find Maria waiting for her.

  ‘Feeling refreshed?’ Maria said.

  ‘Much better, thank you.’

  ‘Would you like to see the dress?’

  Amanda glanced at the time, there wasn’t much time left really for her to get herself ready so if she didn’t like what Maria had chosen, she’d have to go rifling through her outfits to find something, either that or conjure something from scratch. ‘Sure, why not. I have to say, though, I’m feeling a little nervous about this.’

  ‘Don’t be nervous. It is a little daring though and it might show a little more of you than you’re used to, but I know you will look simply stunning in it,’ Maria said as she reached into a large flat box on the bed and lifted the dress out of it.

  It was long and red with wide straps over the shoulders, and actually, apart from a fairly high slit that would sit on the side of her right leg, and a low plunging back, it actually covered her up rather well. But that wasn’t the daring part. She could see now as she moved around the dress that the fabric it was made from, was not only quite thin, it also looked quite sheer. When the dress was held before the window or a light, you could see through it.

  However, the dress also had some quite lovely Scrollwork detailing sewn onto it in a few strategic places that would cover up her modesty.

  Amanda eyed the dress feeling a little torn. She liked it, she actually liked it, which felt like a huge relief, it looked stunning and the delicate detailing looked beautiful. She just wasn’t sure about it being so sheer. She felt fairly certain that she would need to be totally nude beneath it, no underwear on at all to really sell it.

  ‘So, what do you think?’ Maria said.

  ‘I like it, I do, and you’re right, it’s a little more daring than I’m used to. But I think I need to try it on before I make my final decision.’

  ‘Then please, because I’d love to see you in it.’

  Amanda took the dress and changed into it, slipping it over her head. It felt surprisingly soft and very light like she wasn’t wearing anything at all.

  ‘Oooh, it does feel nice.’ She said as she turned to a mirror to look at herself, smoothing it out and making sure it fell just right. She turned from side to side, and then looked at her back over her shoulder. She looked closely, but as she did so, her confidence grew as she realised that you actually couldn’t see anything through the dress at all. The detailing worked to cover her in all the right places and she really did feel great.

  She turned back to Maria with a smile, to find her holding up a pair of shoes to go with the dress. They were red and had straps that would wrap about her legs to just beneath her knees. They also looked wonderful.

  ‘And?’ Maria said. ‘What’s the verdict?’

  ‘I love it, I’ll wear it for you with pleasure, and I love those shoes. Wow. Thank you.’ She hugged Maria and gave her a lingering kiss.

  She removed the dress and finished getting ready before finally putting it back on with the shoes as well and looked at herself in the mirror.

  She’d gone with a simple half-up hairdo, nothing too fancy, and with everything in place and a gorgeous little clutch bag to go with the outfit, she turned to Maria, who now stood there in her long green satin dress that shimmered in the light. The top half fitted to her body and showed off her curves while the layered skirt had a few slits up the front to show glimpses of her legs.

  ‘Wow, you look stunning too,’ Amanda said.

  Maria smiled, ‘Thank you, we’ll be the belle’s of the ball,’ she joked.

  Amanda walked over to her and pulled her in for a kiss before separating but keeping their foreheads touching, they smiled at each other. ‘I’m excited for tonight, I want to have a really great time.’

  ‘You will, I’m sure, shall we go and find the others?’

  They both went to meet up with Liz, Raven, Shaun and Vanessa downstairs, who all looked amazing to her in their finery. Liz had a gorgeous slinky white dress on, Vanessa wore a black mini dress showing off her legs in a pair of very high heels. Both the guys wore suits with a tailored cut that did wonders for them. Shaun looked very prim and proper, his Magical Item hiding his Vampiric features and giving him perfect skin and slicked back short dark hair. Raven’s hair had been tied back, while he chose to keep his suit more casual without a tie and the top couple of buttons undone. Amanda still fancied him and enjoyed the glimpse of the top of his chest beneath his shirt.

  He smiled at Amanda as she walked over to the group. ‘Looking great Mandy,’ he said.

  ‘Yeah, wow, that’s a little daring,’ said Liz.

  ‘Well maybe, but I love it. Besides, you can’t see anything,’ she said, winking at Maria.

  ‘Well you look awesome, you’ll make quite the impression I think,’ she said as she gave Amanda a hug.

  ‘Are we ready?’ Maria said. Everyone nodded or said yes and Maria worked her Magic, Porting them out of the house with a satisfying whip-pop of air.

  - Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, Tonopah, Arizona.

  Dust stood on top of one of the structures inside the central Containment building of the Plant. The noise here felt a little deafening, but Dust didn’t care. Around him, metal pipes and catwalks snaked along and around the Reactor and other parts of this complicated building. The whole site had been put on lockdown shortly after his arrival, as he swept through the buildings, killing or capturing the workers there on a whim.

  Now, on a large flat metal section of the reactor core, he’d daubed a summoning circle on the floor, written in the dried blood of his victims, some of which lay in a pile to his left. Before him, thirteen workers from around the site, chosen at random, kneeled before him, inside the circle. Some of them were silent, others wept and begged for their lives, but none of them wanted to be there.

  His Magic surged, pulling in the energy from the Pooling created by the crossing of the two lay lines, strengthening the Aegis he’d erected around the circle. He pulled the Lazarus Scroll from his pocket and unrolled it, clearing his throat as he did so.

  He found the passage he wanted and started to read it aloud in the language of the Archons. A green glowing mist started to appear and swirl about the circle, causing a few of the mortals within to panic or hyperventilate.

  Green lightning flashed within the circle, and suddenly the bodies of the thirteen people within were torn apart by an invisible force, covering the floor in their flesh and blood.

  ‘Come to me Horlack, return to our world once more,’ called Dust.

  Ball of Destiny

  One World Trade Center, New York

  Nov 29th

  Amanda, appeared in a smallish side room
on the one hundred and second floor of One World Trade Center, next to Maria, Liz, Raven, Shaun and Vanessa. The room appeared empty and had been the one part of the observation deck not protected by a powerful Aegis. It had been created for tonight’s event, to give any Magi who wanted to Port here a place to appear.

  A door led out of the room into the main observation deck of this level which basically ran around the entire building. There were already had a good number of people here who stood talking or looking out over the cityscape below, while waiters circulated with trays of canapés.

  ‘Wow,’ Liz said.

  Amanda watched as Liz stepped out of the Porting room and looked out of the windows at the cityscape beyond. ‘That’s awesome,’ Liz said. She quickly skipped over to the closest windows and looked out over the city. ‘Amanda, come and have a look,’ she said, beckoning Amanda over.

  Smiling, she walked over and stood next to her Apprentice and looked out over the night-time view. The excitement of her apprentice at seeing this view gave Amanda a warm feeling of pride and a kind of sisterly love she had for Liz. Night had already fallen and the city had been lit up by thousands of lights that shone like stars in the darkness. Buildings were lit up from within by an orange glow while the white and red lights of cars on the streets below moved through the caverns of the city like rivers, giving it life and energy. The huge vista looked breathtaking and she could easily have stood and stared at the view for the whole night.

  ‘It’s beautiful,’ Amanda agreed. She felt a hand at her arm then and turned to see Maria smiling at her.

  ‘I think there're people who want to see you,’ she said.

  ‘Of course. Come and find me if you need me Liz, and get yourself a drink,’ she said before turning to Maria and walking towards the people before her.

  She recognised most of the people in here, including members of the Legacy Coven, Victoria and Kelly from the Liberties Children, several covens who had moved to New York recently and she even spotted Celest in the crowd.

  Victoria approached her first, smiling as she walked up to her and complimenting her on her outfit with a kiss on either cheek.

  ‘This is a great party, Amanda. Well done,’ Victoria said.

  ‘Thank the Arcanum, not me,’ she said.

  ‘Of course. Just a word of warning, there’s a few members of the Magi Legion here, most will leave you alone, but you might have a run in with them if you give them chance.’

  ‘That’s fine, I’m a big girl, I think I can handle them,’ Amanda said.

  Victoria smiled, ‘I have little doubt of that,’ she said.

  Amanda continued to move about the room and exchange pleasantries with the people she met. A representative of the Arcanum approached to ask if everything was as she wanted, while a little later, Celest gave her a big bear hug and seemed to be very happy in New York.

  Then a brown haired girl approached and smiled at Amanda.

  ‘Hi, I’m Louisa Hunt, I’m from the Ordo Obscura Coven from Europe,’ she said.

  Amanda recognised her name, and the name of her Coven, as far as Amanda knew, she was some kind of scholar who had written a good number of books on the history of the Magi.

  ‘Nice to meet you, I’m sure I’ve seen your name on a few books before.’

  ‘You probably have,’ she smiled. ‘Um, do you have a moment for some questions?’ she said.

  ‘I have a moment, and if I can answer your questions, I will, Amanda answered.’

  ‘I’d like to know a little more about the death of Lucian if you could shed any light on it for me. No one seems to know what really happened, but I’ve heard rumours that you might know something?’

  Amanda smiled, the woman was fishing for answers, and maybe she hoped Amanda would bite, but Lucian’s death was being kept a secret for the time being and Amanda had no desire to break that silence. She didn’t want everyone to know that she had been the one to kill him, not yet at least. ‘Thank you for coming to me, I really appreciate that, but I’m afraid I know about as much as you do about this.’

  ‘So you weren’t in the city at the time of his death?’

  ‘Have you spoken with Trevelyan at all? He knows much more about this than I do and I’m sure he’d answer your questions.’ Amanda hated not being honest about this, but she knew it was for the best. Best for her and best for the city, she didn’t want to give Nymira a reason to come here, or any Nomad a reason really, she had enough on her plate for the time being.

  ‘I haven’t spoken to him about it, is he here?’ she asked.

  ‘I’ve not seen him, if I do, I’ll send him over,’ she said before making her excuses and heading into the crowd, not really wanting to talk about that subject any further.

  Suddenly a figure stepped out in front of her, facing her and very purposely wanting to get all up in her face. She didn’t recognise the girl at all, but she eyed Amanda with an expression that did not suggest that this would be a friendly chat.

  ‘Um, hi, can I help you?’ Amanda said.

  ‘I doubt it. I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about and sorry to say, but you aren’t all that.’

  The rudeness of the girl brought Amanda up short for a moment, not really knowing what she could say in return. She had big blonde hair and a tiny black dress on that didn’t leave much to the imagination. She spotted a skinny man with a scruffy suit and a mullet haircut behind the girl, watching the confrontation.

  She looked back at the girl and smiled, taking a breath. ‘Well, it’s lovely to meet you too, and that’s such a nice outfit, very classy, you’ve left so much to the imagination, well done,’ she said, her sarcasm bubbling up to take control of her mouth once again.

  The girl looked a touch confused and glanced down at her dress before looking back up at Amanda. ‘Are you trying to be clever?’

  ‘Aaah no. Not me. You look manky so you do, that’s Irish for gorgeous by the way,’ she lied.

  The girl opened her mouth to say something, but it seemed to escape her at the last moment, so she gave a slight shake of her head as if to banish whatever train of thought she’d ventured down and looked back up at Amanda.

  ‘Look, you might have the power here in New York for the time being, but we’ll be watching you.’

  ‘I don’t want power, I’m not the queen of this city.’

  ‘Say what you like, I know your kind,’ she said, pointing at Amanda’s face before she turned and walked away past the man she’d been with saying, ‘Come on Waylon, let’s find the others.’

  Waylon looked at Amanda as his girl walked off.

  ‘You’re a lucky man, she’s pure haunty that one,’ she said to him, again using Irish slang to confuse him. He turned and walked away and Amanda couldn’t help but giggle to herself. She’d already guessed they were members of the Magi legion, no doubt wanting to look big and clever in front of their Coven.

  She’d spied the Legion across the room a few times now, occasionally catching one or two of them giving her a look of daggers from where they stood. She wasn’t sure they were even enjoying themselves. They looked like they were just brooding in the corner for most of the time.

  She spied Yoh standing by himself next to the windows and enjoying the view, so she wandered over next to him. ‘How are ye?’ she said.

  ‘Good evening, I’m well Amanda-san,’ he said and put his arm around her for a hug. She returned the gesture and gave him a kiss on the cheek. ‘And you?’

  ‘Very well. Thank you for coming.’

  ‘My pleasure, I would not miss this.’

  They separated and Amanda smiled as she looked over the view of the city. For every person who seemed to have a problem with her, there were always more who didn’t, and she felt very lucky to have such great friends who would support her.

  ‘I hope Reagan didn’t just ruin your night,’ Yoh said.

  ‘That’s her name, is it? I wondered which member of the Legion I was speaking too,’ Amanda said.

 
‘Hai, Reagan and her partner Waylon, not the brightest of people and occasionally something of an embarrassment for Forest and Stella Ward, the Leaders of that House.’

  ‘Aaah, they’re no bother. No harm done really.’

  ‘Good. I’m glad to see you’re in high spirits,’ he said.

  ‘I am. I’m grand thank you. Things are going well. New York is great.’

  ‘You seem really happy with Maria as well.’

  ‘She’s lovely, yes, very happy thank you.’

  ‘I’m just happy you have found someone you can be with.’

  ‘You don’t seem phased that she’s a… well, a she,’ Amanda said.

  ‘Why would I be? It’s no comment on me and frankly, who you sleep with is your business and is no reflection on any other part of your life. Providing you’re happy and it’s what you both want, who cares? Anyone who judges you based on who you love has their priorities backwards as far as I’m concerned Amanda-san.’

  ‘Amanda hugged him again, grabbing him around his waist and pulling him to her, ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Dō itashimashite, you’re welcome,’ he said.

  She pulled away from him again and leant her hip against the railing next to the window.

  ‘What about everything else? I heard you have had a bit of an issue with the Disciples of the Cross recently,’ he said.

  ‘The Inquisition? A little yes, and there was an odd thing that happened the other day. The Witch Finder General came to New York, but his trip here was leaked to a few of the Covens in the city who attacked and he ended up dead.’

  ‘That’s a little concerning, any idea what happened?’

  ‘I suspect it was a power play, maybe something internal within the Inquisition. Maybe someone wanted him dead to put someone else in charge of the organisation.’

  ‘Any ideas on who?’ Yoh asked.

  ‘Only my own speculations, I’ve only really dealt with one member of the Grand Inquisitors, and I wouldn’t put it past her at all. But I have no proof.’

  ‘These things usually become clearer as time goes on.’