Star Magi: A Space Opera Fantasy Adventure (Star Magi Saga Book 1)

by Andrew Dobell

  With a final burst of energy, a figure appeared out of thin air. One moment there was nothing, the next moment, a woman stood amidst the grass.

  The energy died and the air calmed as the young woman looked around her, checking her surroundings before focusing on the building on the opposite side of the road.

  There had been a certain amount of risk Porting this close to the house, but Amanda wanted to get in here quickly to try and take her target by surprise. She had no idea if this would work, but she would soon find out.

  Amanda concentrated for a moment and, using the link that she and all Magi had to Essentia, she imposed her will and desire on the hidden energy. She wanted to see into the Magical spectrum and see the invisible world that no ordinary human could.

  It was a simple working of Magic for her and barely needed a moment’s thought for her to enact. The view before her suddenly filled with glowing golden light. All around her there was a thin golden mist that was barely there at all and only really grew more distinct when she focused on it.

  That was Essentia — the mystical energy that was in everything. If it existed, it had Essentia within it. She could see static Essentia in the asphalt of the road and the metal of the barrier. She could also see it moving through the trees and grass, the movement of the energy through the plants, imparting life to them.

  Essentia was life — it fuelled life — but it also powered her Magic and the Magic of the Magus that lived in the house across from her.

  Right away, she could see the bubble of hardened Essentia around the house, glowing like a golden orb. This shield, this Aegis, matched a similar one that surrounded her own body, hugging close to her skin. It was one of the most basic and earliest effects that a young Magus learnt, because it could save your life.

  The Aegis around the house meant Amanda could not simply Port into the house — the shield prevented that — and it would need to be destroyed for Amanda to gain entry into the building.

  She looked around her once more, checking to see if there might be any early morning activity around here, but the road was quiet, and there wasn’t anyone about. As she looked around, the steady breeze picked at her long, bright burgundy-red hair, forcing her to pull it out of her face with her fingers as she started to walk down to the barrier beside the road. The breeze was cool, but it would be a warm day here in Los Angeles. The city lay sprawled before her, beyond the house that looked over it from its high perch in the Hollywood Hills.

  The smog from the thousands of cars in the city gave the view a hazy quality, turning the landscape grey as it receded to the horizon beyond the coast.

  She’d visited L.A. before, but didn’t much like it as a city. She much preferred her hometown of New York City.

  Why was it whenever she came here she was hunting dark Magi, or Nomads, as the dark Magi called themselves? Those who walked the dark path.

  They had been the ever-present thorn in the side of Magi like herself throughout their long history, and Amanda had fought and killed her fair share of these necromancers. Today's target would just be one more to add to the list.

  Amanda hopped up to the top of the barrier before dropping to the other side, landing in the dry dirt by the side of the road in her sneakers.

  She wore a simple white camisole top with fitted, boot-cut jeans, and although she could feel the cool early morning breeze, her Magic kept her warm. She looked left and right, checking the road before she started to make her way over towards the property and its front gate.

  As she walked, she called on her connection to Essentia once more, but this would be a much bigger, much stronger casting as she drew in the local Essentia to her, hoovering it up, sucking it in and holding it ready.

  There were two main ways to destroy an Aegis. The slow way was to pick at it, using your Magic to slowly and carefully pull it apart and draw energy away from it. It was slow going, but it was subtle.

  Amanda didn’t need to be subtle, but she did want to be quick. Which meant she’d use the other method today. Essentia Strikes.

  She’d hit it with as much Essentia as she could, as hard as she could, and try to break it down by force.

  Before she did that, though, she needed to make sure her target couldn’t just Port out of there, escaping her. So, as she held the Essentia within her, ready to strike, she worked her Magic again and conjured another, slightly larger Aegis around the one that was already around the house, making sure it extended around herself as well.

  Her precautions in place, she threw the Essentia she held within her at the inner Aegis, hitting it with strike after strike, making the shield flare with invisible light as her Magic hammered the Aegis before her. After a few seconds, the Aegis cracked, and then collapsed, dissipating into a haze of golden mist in her Aetheric Sight.

  Amanda strode forward through the gate, across the small front yard, and up to the front door. She kicked it, landing the flat of her foot right in the centre. The door flew off its hinges and clattered into the hallway.

  A flicker of surprise crossed Amanda’s features. She sometimes forgot her own magically enhanced strength, but then, she had kind of expected the door to have been reinforced slightly. Maybe she was giving her target too much credit.

  Or maybe she was a little tenser that she had thought she was.

  She’d been hunting this particular Nomad for a little while now, but so far, she’d had little in the way of luck. Maybe today would be different. The tip-off that had come through the Council’s contacts was a good one.

  Working her Magic again, Amanda used an effect known as Multitasking, which split her mind into many smaller shards, each a fully functioning mind that could work magic independently to the others while working together as a hive-mind towards a common goal.

  Amanda stalked into the house, checking the rooms that led off the sparsely decorated corridor on either side, but saw no one. In fact, she saw very little of anything. There was almost no furniture, no pictures on the walls, no personal touches in the building at all. It was as if it was barely lived in.

  Moving towards the back of the house, she walked into a large open plan room that spanned the entire width of the building. The back wall was floor to ceiling windows, giving a spectacular view out over the City of Angels beyond. Like the other rooms she had seen, this one was just as empty. Two chairs in the middle of the room and a barely used kitchen to her right.

  But Amanda wasn’t taking much notice of these details. Instead, she stared at the woman at the back of the room who sat in a metal chair at a modern table, her legs crossed, looking out through the windows beside her. She lifted a flute of wine and sipped it before placing it carefully back on the table.

  She wore a long black silk dressing gown, loosely tied at her waist, revealing a black lace lingerie set complete with silk stockings and high heels. Her long blonde hair fell loosely over her shoulders as she turned her head, her sapphire eyes looking Amanda up and down before she spoke.

  ‘Well, at least one of us dressed for the occasion,’ she smirked. ‘Welcome, Amanda, to my humble abode. I wondered when you might finally track me down,’ the woman said, looking back out at the view. Her voice was like the silk of her dressing gown, soft and luxurious, but with a hint of darkness to it.

  ‘Anastasia,’ Amanda replied in greeting, keeping her voice low and measured as her eyes flicked back and forth, watching for any sneak attack. She wasn’t sure what she was doing dressed like that, but she decided it was best not to ask.

  ‘You know, we’ve never really talked, you and I, have we?’ Anastasia commented, glancing back at Amanda. She was a beautiful woman with strong cheekbones, deep red lips, and sky-blue eyes that smiled at her mischievously.

  ‘What’s to talk about, really?’ Amanda asked. ‘You’re a sadistic killer of innocents and serve the Archons; I doubt we have much in common.’ Just like herself, Amanda could see that Anastasia was surrounded by a personal Aegis, like a second skin that glowed with Essentia.
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br />   ‘The Archons? Well, I suppose that’s where Yasmin did teach me a thing or two. Why serve them when I can exploit them? Hmmm? At least, Yasmin got that right. Thanks for killing her, by the way; made it much easier for me to forge my own path.’

  ‘A path that ends here, today, Anastasia. You escaped me last time, but you’re not getting away again.’

  Anastasia laughed and stood up, her dressing gown falling off her shoulder to reveal even more of her underwear. Amanda made a face at the sight, which Anastasia noticed.

  ‘Like what you see?’ Anastasia asked, her smile wicked and suggestive.

  ‘Really? Was that your best attempt to seduce or distract me?’

  ‘Actually, no,’ Anastasia smiled. ‘Believe it or not, this isn’t for you, you just caught me at an inopportune moment, but you know, you learn to roll with the punches, so to speak.’

  ‘Interesting choice of words.’

  ‘I guess so,’ Anastasia giggled.

  Essentia flared from Anastasia as she unleashed a flurry of Magical attacks. Essentia Strikes shot across the room and hammered into Amanda’s Aegis while a few bolts of lightning snapped and exploded into her.

  Amanda’s Aegis held firm, though, taking the damage in its stride, but the attack knocked her back, causing her to grab the door frame to keep from falling through it.

  ‘Cheap shot, Ana,’ Amanda commented before she hit Anastasia with a blast of kinetic energy of her own that slammed into the Nomad like an invisible battering ram, sending her flying back against the glass with a grunt.

  Amanda leapt forward and crossed the room in a single jump while she unleashed a barrage of Essentia attacks against her, making Anastasia’s Aegis flare and spark as it resisted her Magic.

  ‘Ugh, you think you can kill me?’ Anastasia asked as she leant back against the now cracked glass wall, her feet spread wide to keep herself from falling.

  ‘I don’t know. Let’s find out, shall we? Let’s see how you roll with his one.’ Amanda replied as she reached her and hit Anastasia with a powerful right cross. Her fist was laced with Essentia that she channelled into Anastasia’s Aegis. The force of the punch sent Anastasia spinning to the floor, where she landed with a crunch and grunt.

  Amanda watched Anastasia spit blood onto the laminated floor.

  ‘Does it make you feel good to hurt me?’ Anastasia asked.

  ‘Really? You’re trying to make me feel bad for this? You’re the ones who kill innocents, sacrificing them to your masters in return for more power. You’re the ones who sew corruption in mortal institutions, encourage crime, pain, and suffering. You’re the ones who support wars and genocide the world over, and you’re trying to make me feel bad for a punch?’

  ‘When you remind me of all the wonderful things I’ve done like that, I feel so proud. You’re going to make me cry, Amanda.’

  ‘You really are scum,’ she said when a burst of Essentia hit the outer Aegis she had conjured around the outside of the house, destroying her shield in short order. It hadn’t been a powerful Aegis, but even so, it spoke to the strength and skill of whoever had taken it out.

  ‘Aaah, just in time,’ Anastasia muttered.

  There was a whip-snap of displaced air as another figure appeared in the room a short distance away, making Amanda look up. The figure was vaguely feminine in form, but her skin was grey and alien looking. She had long tentacles for hair and a cruel look on her face as she stared at the scene before her. The newcomer was easily around nine-feet-tall and to Amanda, looked like something out of an Alien film.

  Amanda took a step back. She knew this creature. She was dangerous and allied with Anastasia.

  ‘Nice of you to join us, Lyka,’ Anastasia said.

  ‘This is not your fight,’ Amanda said to Lyka, watching her closely. She’d seen her only once before, but only very briefly. Amanda knew Lyka more by reputation than anything else. She was an ancient being, a Scion, woken from millennia of slumber only recently, and from that moment until now, she’d single-handedly killed over a hundred Magi.

  ‘Is it not?’ Lyka asked, cocking her head sideways as she looked at Amanda. A furious cocktail of Essentia and kinetic energy shot out of Lyka and hit her like a wrecking ball. Amanda was launched backwards through the air until she smashed into the kitchen cupboards, breaking the door on one of them.

  Amanda’s head swam as she felt herself start to lose consciousness and looked up. Lyka turned and began to advance upon her, only for Anastasia to stand up and grab Lyka by the arm. ‘No, we have to go. This can wait; there will be other times,’ she said.

  Lyka nodded once without taking her eyes off Amanda. ‘Until next time,’ Lyka said before the air around them snapped and they were gone. The threat gone, Amanda relaxed and felt herself slip into unconsciousness.

  She found herself in an endless white void, falling through it at incredible speed But the feeling faded quickly and she lowered her feet, finding a floor somewhere beneath her, although it was difficult to make out in this endless white.

  For a moment, she was confused, but a feeling of love and compassion filled her, calming her before a voice behind her spoke.

  ‘Amanda,’ said the female voice. She turned to see Georgina, her friend from before she was a Magus and living in New York, standing and holding a plate with a baked vanilla cheesecake on it. ‘I brought your favourite.’

  Amanda smiled. Georgina was dead, had been for a few years now, but somehow, it didn’t feel wrong. Instead, it felt very right.

  ‘Baked vanilla cheesecake? Oooh, lovely,’ Amanda said, turning to see a table off to one side with another figure sitting at it. ‘Mother?’

  ‘My child, it’s lovely to see you. Please, come, sit,’ she said.

  Her mother looked eerily similar to Amanda, but there was a light inside her, making her almost luminous. There were two spare chairs at the table, which Amanda and Georgina moved to and settled themselves into before Georgina started to cut up the cheesecake.

  ‘How are you, my dear? Sorry it’s been so long,’ her mother said with a smile that was filled with compassion.

  ‘That’s okay,’ Amanda said with a smile. ‘It’s just great to see you again. It’s been months.’

  ‘I know, but that couldn’t be helped. Circumstances… They don’t always allow me to see you,’ she said as Georgina carefully placed a slice of baked cheesecake down on the pristine white plate set before Amanda. It wobbled invitingly. Amanda picked up her spoon and carved the end off, looking forward to that sweet vanilla flavour.

  Georgina used to make these for them both when they had nights off. She remembered sitting with her friend, watching films deep into the night, enjoying a slice or two, or three of cheesecake, laughing like there was no tomorrow.

  Until it took her.

  Amanda shook her head and pushed that last thought away. She didn’t want to remember losing her friend to that disease, not now.

  Quickly, Amanda spooned the corner of cake into her mouth and savoured its soft, sweet taste.

  ‘That’s lovely, Georgie,’ Amanda complimented her friend.

  ‘Thanks, Red,’ Georgina answered.

  ‘Change is coming…’ Sophia, her mother said.

  ‘Change?’ Amanda asked, placing another corner of cheesecake into her mouth.

  Her mother nodded. ‘Change is always difficult, traumatic sometimes, but you cannot stop it.’

  ‘What kind of change?’

  ‘Change that will take you far away.’

  ‘Far away? But I can’t, I need to find the Archons. I promised you I’d find them.’

  ‘I know,’ she said with a loving smile. ‘Trust me, you will, you will find them.’

  That last word stretched out into a long echo as she found herself rising back to consciousness, half sitting in a cupboard.

  She sighed. ‘Good job, Amanda,’ she said to herself. ‘Excellent work.’

  With a small grunt of effort, she got back to her feet and scanned the r
oom. It was a bit of a mess now, their fight having disrupted the clean, sparse look Anastasia had been going for.

  She could vaguely remember some kind of dream or something she had just experienced, but most of it was unclear as if it were just out of reach, but a few words did stay with her.

  Change. Change was coming; change that would take her far away. She wasn’t sure what that meant, so she mentally put it to one side. She’d come back to it later.

  Thinking back through the fight, it was obvious now that Anastasia had been stalling for time by engaging her in conversation, she thought. Seeing that the alliance between Lyka and Anastasia was still alive and well was something of a surprise. When Lyka had backed Anastasia’s break from Yasmin and her Coven, Amanda had assumed that it was temporary. An alliance of convenience that allowed Anastasia to leave Yasmin behind in a show of strength, but maybe this was something new?

  The pair of them Porting away like that also suggested they were planning something. Amanda wondered what it could be.

  Having fought Nomads like her for as long as she had, she knew they wouldn’t be up to anything good. She would have to look into this, she thought.

  With a sigh and a shrug to herself, Amanda concentrated and called on her Magic, focusing on her intent to be elsewhere. Essentia flared. There was a flash of light behind her eyes and a sudden feeling of dislocation as the air snapped about her.

  A fraction of a second later, she found herself standing in her basement, back in New York. It was a large space, taking up a good portion of the footprint of her house, and served mainly as a garage. To her left was the main door that led to a ramp up to the street. Parked just before it, her Honda Fireblade motorcycle sat waiting for her to take it for a spin.

  She loved her bike. Getting on it and speeding down the road was one of the things she liked to do the most. The wind rushing through her hair was one of those joyous things that gave her a feeling of freedom unlike almost anything else.

  She needed to go for a ride again sometime soon, she thought.