Coming face to face with Lucian had been something of a step up from that.
‘So, we’d been talking about Time Magic earlier.’ She said.
‘Yeah. It sounds great. So I could, when I get strong enough, go back in time and save my sister?’
‘In theory, you can. In practice…’
‘No?’ Liz asked.
‘Almost certainly no. That would change the time line and cause a paradox. The old, if I go back and kill my father before he has me, then I won’t be born, but if I’m not born then I can’t kill my father, and so on.’
‘Aaah yes, I’ve heard of this. I think the boys talked about it once.’ Amanda knew she was referring to Stephan and Ben when she said the boys. Her way of talking about them without saying their names, it helped keep the grief at bay.
‘Also, there’s the small problem of the Weavers.’
‘The who in the what now?’ Liz asked.
‘The Weavers. They police the timeline. Little is known about them other than their name and that when Magi get too cocky with Time Magic, they show up and that Magus disappears. It doesn’t seem to make any difference how powerful the Magus is. Novice or Arch Magi, everyone’s fair game’
‘They’re not Magi or Scions then?’
‘To be sure, no one knows what they are. You just be sure to use Time Magic sparingly and carefully. Anything to do with going forward, or with our current time seems generally ok, but going back in time… you do that at your own risk.’
‘Ah, ok. Now that you’ve scared the bejeezus out of me I doubt I’ll be using that Magic any time soon.’
‘Speeding up time, slowing it down. Pausing it or looking back or forward through time is all good. I haven’t heard of anyone bringing a Weaver down on them by doing any of those things.’
Liz nodded and they both sat back again, Amanda resting her head on the wall behind her. She felt curious about the boy that Liz seemed interested in and wanted to ask some questions about him. She smiled to herself, wondering if this might be how mothers felt when their children started to go out and meet boys, or girls for that matter.
‘So, how long have you known Jason for then?’ She finally asked.
‘Hah. I knew you wanted to ask me about him. I knew this was coming.’
Amanda smiled. ‘Sorry, I’m just, protective of you I guess. I want to make sure you’re ok.’ Amanda said.
‘Yes mum!’ Liz answered.
‘Sorry.’
‘It’s ok. I understand. But to answer your question, just a few days. I’ve seen him in the Palace since I arrived, but he only started to talk to me a few days ago.’
‘And he’s nice? Do you like him?’
‘I do, yes. He’s…’
The room suddenly seemed to tip and skew but didn’t, shadows seemed to twist and suddenly nothing felt real. Magic, powerful magic had just been used close by. Very close by.
Amanda darted from the bench and started to run across the Gym, a few steps off the bench she Ported two floors down into the reception area at the front of the house. She stopped and listened with her enhanced senses.
Movement and noise from the back of the house, then a sudden loud bang that echoed from a backroom and made her blood run cold. If she was right, someone was now in the house.
Before she had even Ported downstairs she had used her magic to set her mind to Multitasking, now her secondary mind checked her Aegis, and then started pulling in Essentia, preparing for the potential fight ahead.
She could hear Liz running down the stairs above her as she turned and ran towards the rear of the house through the corridor, using her hands to keep her from hitting the walls as she careered round corners at speed approaching the sound. She felt sure the bang had been the back door, slammed open by something. She knew Yoh had been due here any time and he always used the back door. He even had his own key so that they didn’t need to keep opening it for him, but Amanda knew the usual sounds of his entrance, and she knew this sounded nothing like it. Something was wrong. Could it be Lucian again? They’d not seen him since her encounter on the pier. Is that what he’d meant by his little speech? Is this how he’d hurt her?
A couple of seconds later she reached the door to the utility room and burst through it. She’d heard groaning in the last few steps before reaching the door, groans that sounded like Yoh, and like he might be in some kind of pain.
Her suspicions were only confirmed by the scene before her, where Yoh laid on his side, half through the door from the alleyway behind the house. Deep crimson stained his grey jacket and seeped onto the floor beneath him.
Amanda gasped, shocked by what she saw, and paused in the doorway.
Then Yoh moved, a painful grimace on his face as he looked to see who had entered the room. At least he was alive she thought.
‘Ugh, don’t…’ He struggled. ‘Be careful.’ He managed before the pain caused him to curl up with gritted teeth.
Taking in what he had just said, and reading between the lines meant that danger would still be close by. Whoever had done this, must be close and might want to finish the job. Amanda’s Magical sight took in the room, everything looked as it should do. The Aegis around the house that covered the door looked intact with Yoh safely inside it. The room looked otherwise untouched, the other door to the room, opposite her own, stood closed. She stepped down the two steps from the door, looking about her carefully. Apart from around Yoh himself, the Essentia here seemed untouched, undisturbed by anything. She looked back at Yoh, her confidence growing.
Something on his chest glowed with a serious amount of Essentia, and as she looked, she could see the flow of magical energy through his body, the flow that kept people alive, had been disrupted. It seemed to move in fits and starts, almost juddering through him rather than flowing cleanly.
Liz reached the doorway behind Amanda with a drum beat of footsteps. Amanda held her hand up, one finger extended to get Liz to slow down and take a moment. She paused for a second before cautiously stepping into the room. She stifled a scream, covering her mouth with her hand when she saw Yoh’s crumpled form on the floor.
Yoh moved again, raising his arm and pointing through the door.
‘Outside...’ He gasped.
Amanda nodded, choosing to stay quiet, but Yoh didn’t notice. Her fists clenched, she edged towards the door, but could see little from where she stood. So she pulled on the threads of Essentia and worked a little Magic, sending a second set of senses outside. She couldn’t see anyone from her vantage point just outside the door, but she needed to be sure.
‘One moment,’ she said to both of her Coven mates, and Ported outside, appearing in the alleyway a short distance up from the door. She stood at the corner of the house so she could see both stretches of the passage way on both sides of the house.
They seemed to be clear of anything untoward. She could see Yoh’s feet poking out of the door to her right a short distance up the alleyway, but nothing else. She went to move back towards Yoh, only for something to glint in the meagre light of the alley to her left, catching her eye. Stepping back, she looked harder, and noticed glass on the floor. That was odd.
She moved a couple of steps further along and noticed that one of the windows on the rear of the house had been smashed and the window opened.
More disturbingly, with her magical sight, she could see a slowly closing hole in the Aegis surrounding the house. She almost hadn’t seen it, the Magic that had created it and that now faded away before her eyes had been both powerful and subtle.
Her stomach sank and a deep rooted fear took hold of her gut at seeing this, and it felt like her world stopped. She felt frozen in place, unable to act for fear of what might happen. Someone, or something, whatever had hurt Yoh, had entered the house.
Liz stood just inside the doorway to the utility room, watching as Amanda disappeared in a flare of Essentia as she teleported outside. She had used her magic to allow her to see the otherwise hidden magical energy,
Essentia, before she had reached the room. She watched for a second now as the Essentia where Amanda had stood just a half second before, swirled and eddied for a moment, disturbed by her Magic, before settling back into the thin mist it usually existed as.
Looking around the room, with its cupboards, sink, washing machine and other bits and bobs that pretty much stood unused, she felt pretty sure she and Yoh were the only ones in here.
This room had barely been used as anything other than a back entrance for Yoh and Maya since they moved in. There had been little need for a Washing machine when Magic could clean your clothes for you quicker and better than a washing machine ever could.
She suddenly remembered that Maya would be in the house somewhere as well, Liz had seen her earlier when she had arrived. Had Maya heard the commotion?
Her confidence growing, Liz walked across the room and crouched down next to Yoh. She could see something glowing with Essentia on his chest, but Yoh’s arms and hands hid it from view. Putting a hand on his shoulder and lowering her head to get close to him she could hear his ragged, gasping breath as he fought for air.
‘Yoh, are you OK? Can you hear me?’ She said quietly, almost afraid that someone would hear her.
Yoh shifted, moving his hands, revealing the handle of a dagger extending from his chest where it had been plunged into him.
Liz’s eyes opened wide in shock.
‘Holy crap.’ She said.
Something moved behind Yoh so Liz looked up straight into the face of a person dressed all in black barely two foot from her.
For a moment, Liz didn’t move, comprehension taking a moment to rear its head. Could this be Yoh’s attacker?
Liz started to stand as she realised the danger she could be in, not quite knowing what she would do.
Like lightning the figure moved before Liz had even finished the thought, the attackers kick to her chest sending her flying into the shelving a couple of meters behind her. She screamed as she took the hit from the Assassin, only for it to be cut short when her back hit the furniture behind her.
A scream from the other stretch of alleyway broke Amanda from her reverie and snapped her back into reality. There could be no doubt. That sounded like Liz.
With a thought, she Ported back into the utility room, appearing with a whip snap of air as a figure crouching over Yoh pulled an ornate dagger from his body with a jerk of her arm.
She wore an all back form fitting cat suit with weapons and pouches strapped to her., including two curved Japanese Katana swords strapped to her back. A powerful Aegis surrounded her, hiding any magical signatures making it difficult to get a reading on her. Amanda had to assume she would be a powerful Magi, the ability to tunnel through the House’ Aegis told her that much.
Amanda stood behind and to one side of the Assassin, half a dozen meters away while Liz leant back against a wall, a little out of arms reach for the attacker who stopped stabbing Yoh, looked up at Liz and started to come to a stand, clearly ready to attack.
‘Hey!’ Amanda shouted.
The Assassin paused and partially turned her head so she could see Amanda and Liz almost at the same time.
Amanda didn’t waste any time, she needed this killer away from Liz before she hurt her too. With a force of will born from anger and fear, she blasted the Assassin with a strong kinetic blast, sideways across the room, away from Liz. The Assassin may have an Aegis, but she could still get knocked off her feet.
The Assassin slammed into the wall a good few feet above the floor and landed with a bone crunching thump.
Amanda watched as the killer rolled with the fall and barely a second later was up on her feet and moving to attack her with the dagger in her hand. She swung for Amanda, who reacted without thought and used her forearm against her attackers forearm to fend off the knife, only to be greeted with an electrical shock that made her yelp.
Attacks rained in with no let up or pause, forcing Amanda to defend herself and get electrocuted each time she fended off another blow.
Amanda’s second mind went to work and pulled on reality once more, working her Magic and modifying the Force Shield she already had in place to repel and disperse Electrical attacks. A moment later, the shocks were gone and she knew she could defend herself fully once more.
Amanda focused and used her skill at the Phoenix Martial Art looking for openings, and within moments found one and turned the tide of the fight. Suddenly Amanda went on the offensive, caught the hand with the dagger and with a twist, it dropped to the floor with a metallic clatter.
The Assassin, no doubt frustrated by the loss of her weapon attacked again, with her hand this time as she raked her fingers across Amanda’s stomach while twisting out of the hold.
Claws had extended from the Assassins fingers, each over an inch long and quite deadly looking. Amanda couldn’t be certain, because she knew that it wasn’t a stretch for a reasonably powerful Magi to grow claws, but she suspected that this Assassin was no Magi. She suspected she might be a Scion instead.
The Assassin pirouetted away and turned to face Amanda with her arm raised. A gun on her wrist fired as she turned on Amanda, and something tiny shot past her and landed behind her.
The pellet flared with Essentia and a second later a powerful Gravity Well appeared above where it landed. The room seemed to shake as the magic grew, and in a few moments, the contents of the entire room would be pulled and crushed into that one invisible point of space.
Amanda’s second mind worked frantically to counter the Magic, unravelling it as fast as it grew.
Meanwhile, before her the Assassin turned away, pulled the two swords from her back and looked over her shoulder at Amanda.
She couldn’t see her face under the full body stealth suit, but Amanda could swear that the Assassin smiled at her.
She ran at Amanda, flipped and lashed out with the Katana, while Amanda reacted by dodging away from the blades and keeping herself untouched.
She tumbled and ducked away from the blows, the pair of them moving in unison, like a carefully choreographed dance routine. The ebb and flow of the fight moved about the room, Amanda being forced to use her Magical abilities that allowed her to run over the walls and defy gravity.
With the attacker now occupied by Mandy, Liz moved back to Yoh’s side and held his hand in hers. She could hear his breathing, it came now in short ragged gasps that put Liz on edge, scared to death that they would suddenly stop.
She looked up as the Assassin drew the two curved Japanese swords from her back and attacked Amanda again, who seemed to be using her Magic to counter a growing effect behind her. Small objects, dust and other light weight things had started to levitate and move towards a spot in space where gravity suddenly grew in strength. A Gravity Well of some kind.
Liz had been working hard recently, growing in her magical abilities and starting to push from the bottom, Apprentice level of magical ability, to the next level, where she would be known as an Adept. She had only just learned her first skill at this level recently that Amanda called Unravel, which allowed Liz to counter the Magic of others and slowly break down an Aegis.
Liz knew that with her new ability she would be able to help Amanda, so she raised her right hand and extended it out towards the Gravity Well while concentrating on pulling the Essentia back and away from the effect.
She didn’t need to raise her hand, she knew that, but she did it anyway, it helped her concentrate on what she needed to do.
After a few seconds the Gravity Well dissipated and Liz could stop using her Magic.
During a gap in the fight after driving the Assassin back, Amanda glanced at Liz and nodded in thanks for the help she gave her.
Movement to her right caught her eye and she saw Maya enter the room with a look of surprise on her face, which swiftly changed to horror when she saw a bloodied Yoh on the ground.
Maya ran over to them, her black skirt flaring out behind her as she ran and skidded to a stop.
�
�Is he ok Liz? What happened?’
‘He’s been stabbed. By her,’ she said, with hate in her voice as she looked at the Assassin.
Maya crouched down and tried to listen to Yoh’s breathing. Liz looked on, tears streaming down her face as she felt helpless. She didn’t have the Magical ability to heal people yet, and could only hope Amanda would survive this fight and be able to save him.
Maya moved her head away from Yoh’s face.
‘God damn it!’ she said, and started to try and give Yoh CPR. She turned him onto his back easily, Maya’s enhanced strength making light work of moving him into the recovery position before she checked his airway.
‘Crap,’ she whispered. Liz could see why. Blood covered Yoh’s face and seeped from his mouth. His airway would be filled with it too. But it didn’t seem to stop Maya who covered his mouth with hers and breathed into him twice, filling his lungs with air before she used her fingers to find the right place on his chest, put one hand in the other and started chest compressions.
Dodging the swings of the two swords, Amanda felt the Gravity Well behind her fade to nothing as her second mind, with the help of Liz, finally pulled the effect apart.
With both minds being so incredibly busy for those few moments, things had seemed very stressful for a short time. On the one hand she had to pull apart an effect that could potentially rip the house apart, and on the other hand, trying not to die a violent death at the hands of this very skilled Assassin.
With each strike that connected, which had been a few now, the Magic in the swords had been gradually wearing down her Aegis. At this moment, it only barely held together at all. One or two more hits from the swords and she would be in some serious trouble. But with the Gravity Well gone, that all changed. Amanda wasted no time in turning her second minds attention to the attacker and with a powerful kick and a blast of Essentia, flung her into the wall.
Magi Saga 2: Shadows of Darkness Page 13
