The Box Omnibus #1 (The Box, The Journal, The Sword)

by Gaudet, Christina G.

  I must have grabbed it. But why would I have? My magic flows to my hand to seal the cut. I watch it travel up my arm beneath my skin with fascination. How does it move? It’s as though it has a life of its own.

  A life inside me. How uncomfortable. I need it out. I need to pull it from my veins. Bleed it out of me. But the moment I reach for the glass, my body rebels against me and stops inches from the sharp edge.

  Tsk tsk tsk. Can’t be damaging myself. A waste of magic to be constantly fixing accidents. I need all I can get if I’m going to succeed.

  Succeed. At what?

  There’s an image somewhere in my mind. Hard to find among the black, but I know it’s there. A girl. Pretty. Young. And so vulnerable.

  Loraine.

  I have to help her. She’s been taken by The Sword. They’re going to use her for experiments as they’ve been using other sleeping sorceresses. I need to protect her. I can’t fail again.

  Finding her is the problem. Other wizards are easy. The city stinks of their magic. The scent of a sleeping sorceress is impossible to separate from the thousands of other magic-less humans in this world. If she were awake, her magic would call to me, taunt me. Just as Lou’s does.

  Lou.

  I’d seen her. Hadn’t I? She’d been so close. Too close.

  Panic rips through me as images of her face and blood and fear and magic all mix in my mind. I hadn’t…I couldn’t have… Why can’t I remember?

  My fist smashes into the closest wall and a blast of magic follows the blow. A crack snakes up the side of the building, spreading from my fist and causing the entire building to shift. I shove more magic out through my arm to seal the crack as quickly as I made it.

  The release of power forces the darkness away from the thoughts of Lou, and I remember. She’s all right. I attacked her, but she’d been able to defend herself. Barely. But she isn’t hurt.

  I should never have gotten so close. Sin was right to keep us apart. My childish desire to see her nearly cost her life.

  But what I don’t understand is what The Sword was doing there. Were they watching her? Following her? Or was it me they were after?

  The darkness claws at my mind, trying to consume it entirely once more. Fighting it is pointless, and only ever ends with me losing what little control over my body I have. Last time I tried to fight the darkness I ended up with missing time. Hours, days, weeks. I have no idea. And I don’t know what damage I caused during the period either.

  To avoid the loss of control and memory I need to work with the magic rather than against it. Although I know this to be true, I also can’t let the darkness corrupt my memory of Lou. I tuck her image, along with Loraine’s, tight within the last untainted bubble of consciousness I have within myself.

  And I let the darkness swallow the rest.

  Wizards. Five at least. I can taste their magic. Sweet and sour wrapped in a light layer of agony. They’re not far. With a boost of magic I could reach them in minutes. No. I can’t waste my magic. Walking without the boost will be fast enough. I’ll reach them by sunrise. No wasted magic. No being noticed.

  Walking is easy. Safe. I can give over most control of my body to the darkness when I’m walking. And I can rest. It’s the closest to sleep I get anymore.

  Waking is more difficult. The darkness has crept up around me a little more as I rested. I have to use all of my inner strength to pull myself out and regain some sense of what’s happening around me.

  I’ve reached them. The building is at least thirty stories high, and they’re near the top. I don’t like the idea of entering without seeing them first. This could be a trap. Walking in without any solid information is foolish.

  And yet, that’s exactly what I do. I’m more powerful right now than five or ten of them. There’s no way I will be defeated easily. Walk in swinging and their magic will be mine.

  Information too. I need to find Loraine.

  They will tell me. When their lives are in my hands, they’ll tell me anything. And then I can swallow their magic and be more powerful than anyone within The Sword. More powerful than headmaster Victor.

  I shove the door to the building open and stroll through with more confidence than I’ve felt in my life. More than I think I should have in this situation. A solitary man sits behind a desk in the first room I enter. There’s little else in the large open space beyond a couple of plants for decoration. His chubby arms cross when he sees me and he sits up a little straighter.

  “Can I help you?” he asks.

  I ignore him and head for a door marked ‘stairs.’ He stands up, his hand going to something at his hip.

  “You need permission to go up there,” he says. “Everyone needs to sign in. And you’ve got to let me know where you’re headed.”

  I shove the door open to the stairwell and take them two at a time. I need to move fast. The people of this world have ways of communicating with each other over great distances which don’t require magic. I’d prefer if I reached the wizards before he warned them of my arrival. I start climbing faster.

  He follows me, puffing harder with each step until he gives up and starts to communicate with someone through his phone.

  They know I’m here. I still have two floors to go, but I can feel them scuttling around like mice who sense a cat. The man from the desk stopped shouting at me, though I can’t recall when. Where he’s gone, I’m not sure either.

  A couple of the wizards disappear. Not killed and not leaving by some other stairway in the building. Simply vanished. They must have teleported. The amount of magic needed to complete such a large spell would drain the average wizard dry. No one would choose to use so much magic unless it was life or death. Or if they were sure they could get more magic right away.

  If they have a source, I need to know what it is. I can use it for myself. Become more powerful than ever.

  I leave the stairwell to another room with a single desk. This one is made from an odd reflective material, similar to metal, but different than any material used in my world for building. The floors are polished to shine, and the glassed in offices behind the front desk are all as overly bright and shining as this first room.

  A woman leaps from her seat the moment I barge through the door and says, “Can I help you? Do you have an appointment?”

  “Leave.”

  She hesitates long enough to get a proper look at me, including the sword at my hip, and then she nods once. She steps around her desk and leaves through a sliding mirrored door across from her desk.

  I focus on the glass door standing between the wizards and me. I don’t waste time trying to open it. It will probably be locked. Instead, I gather just a speck of magic and flick it onto the center of the door. The magic begins to vibrate, faster and faster. The glass shatters, falling to the floor in tiny shards.

  I step through the space and look around. At least ten people, none of them have magic. They’ve leapt from their desks at my entrance and stare at me as though afraid to move in case it provokes me into action. I draw my sword. A woman screams.

  “Leave.” I barely recognize the sinister version of my voice.

  Most of the people need no more encouragement. They stream by, keeping to the walls as far from me as they can, and race for the exit. Two stay. Not wizards, though I can smell a touch of magic on them. They must be defenders of The Sword. They dedicate their lives to protecting and serving wizards in hopes of getting a few scraps of magic as reward.

  Killing them is unnecessary. But it could be fun.

  No. I can’t. I won’t let myself.

  The magic I grab is difficult to control as it tries to turn every spell into something more deadly. When I manage to shape the magic into a sleeping spell, I toss it at them quickly before it can develop into something else. The two men drop. And I move past. No checking to see if they’re okay. I can’t. I’ve exhausted what little conscience I have left in the minor battle over my magic. The darkness is completely in control now.
<
br />   All I can do is watch and hope no other defenseless people get in my way.

  The wizards are behind one more door. This one is wooden and I can feel the magic flowing through the grains to create something meant to keep out just about anyone.

  But I’m not anyone.

  The door splinters in an instant, and I walk through. Three swords are directed at my throat and chest. What fun.

  My blade clashes against each in turn. They aren’t bad fighters. Normally, they would have been able to beat me individually let alone as a unified force such as they are. But things are different now. I’ve become so much better than them.

  Killing them is too easy. It’s more fun to drag it out a bit. Let them think they’re winning. I dodge and parry and work up a bit of a sweat.

  Pain.

  Not much, but enough to bring me out of my ever thickening fog. One of their swords managed to slip through my guard and cut into both my shirt and thick leather vest. Blood trickles down my side, falling to the floor in small droplets.

  One of them lunges at me from the side, hoping to catch me while I’m distracted by the cut. I lean back to allow his blade to pass only inches from my chest. His motion forward is his undoing as I catch hold of him and use his body to shield against an attack from in front of me. I force his weight forward, further onto the blade running through him and onto the surprised wizard who made the kill.

  My attention is already on the third wizard. His swings are calculated and careful. He never moves his blade an inch more than necessary. An excellent strategy for such a tight spot. Shame he was paying more attention to my sword than my magic. His eyes widen as my spell wraps around him, tightening until he can no longer move, and then I toss him. One wall of the room is windows, or it was, before they shatter from his weight and my magic. His body falls to the sidewalk many feet below.

  The final wizard still struggles to free his blade from his friend when I press the tip of my sword to his throat.

  “Where is my sister?” My voice is shaky. Not from fear, but from anger. The darkness in me is furious at myself for letting two wizards die without taking their magic. The small part of me not tainted, on the other hand, feels stronger for taking charge like I did. I press the sword a little harder against his throat and revel in the fact I can control myself enough not to kill him outright. “Where is Loraine?”

  His eyes widen at her name and for the first time since coming to this world, I know I’m finally getting close.

  The initial surprise he showed quickly turns to amusement. He’s so bold as to laugh outright, despite his dead companions and the blade at his throat.

  “You must be Aldric.”

  My turn to be surprised. The only reason I don’t take a step back from him is because the darkness takes a hold of my body and forces me to stay put. I can no longer talk and I know soon I’ll no longer be able to hold back the blade. The darkness uses my body to laugh at my weakness.

  “He knew you’d come,” the wizard continues, oblivious to my inner struggle. “He’s been waiting for you.”

  “Who?” The darkness allows me to ask.

  “Fitzroy.”

  The darkness laughs again, this time enjoying my horror at hearing the name. My best friend and the only person the true me would enjoy cutting to shreds. Slowly and painfully. He betrayed me, and Loraine paid the price.

  “I can take you to him,” the wizard says. “He’d be happy to see you. And so would Loraine.”

  My sword slices into his skin deep enough to draw blood. It’s the darkness’ way of reminding me who’s in control.

  “If you kill me, you’ll never find him.”

  He attempts to use his own magic to harden his skin beneath the sword to something a normal blade couldn’t cut. Unfortunately for him, this isn’t a normal blade. It cuts deeper, and once again the darkness laughs, both at my frustration and his agony.

  I need him. He knows where Loraine is.

  And I need his magic to become stronger. His death means nothing.

  He will lead us to more wizards. More wizards mean more magic.

  The sword dips down and my opposite hand reaches up to grab the wizard’s face. My magic oozes from my fingertips and through his skin. It easily passes through the magical defenses he tries to place in front of me and dives directly into his memories. Images of Loraine alive and, more miraculously, awake are pulled from his mind and shoved into mine. The images fade almost as soon as they enter my mind, absorbed by the darkness.

  A location finally is drawn from his thoughts. Another place like this one, though much more strongly protected. A place where defenders of The Sword gather and give information to wizards.

  The moment the location is inside my mind, my sword lifts once more. This time there is no taunting. My hand releases his face and he falls into a puddle of both his and his friends’ blood.

  Chapter Seven

  Once again I can feel wizards’ magic, but I can’t see them. While the new location is not as tall as the previous one, standing only two stories this time, the only windows are around the front entrance. I can’t see anything past them beyond a large desk. No other doors. No easy access into the rest of the building.

  The darkness grows impatient as I spend a few minutes to watch the area from afar. I want to have an idea how many wizards I might have to deal with once I’m inside, but the darkness doesn’t care. It wants to keep moving. Keep killing. It moves me forward close enough anyone inside will have surely felt my presence. No one comes out to attack me. I don’t know if I should be relieved or worried.

  I circle the building once to search for any spells placed to stop me from entering, and then again to find the easiest way inside.

  A door at the back. No handle on the outside, though there is a place for a key. Of course I don’t have a key, but I don’t need one. I have magic.

  Although convincing the darkness to move cautiously is difficult, I manage to control my actions enough to be able to watch my surroundings. No one around. I’m safe, for now.

  I place my hand over the key hole and use my magic to fill it with enough pressure to force the locking mechanism to snap into place. Nice and tidy. No one will notice the door is broken unless they try to unlock it themselves. And another sign I have more control over things than I thought. The darkness would never be bothered to be so subtle.

  The hall I’ve entered is long and follows the back wall of the building both left and right. Several closed doors line the wall opposite the entrance I came through. Each has a plaque with a name pasted on the wood. Offices, just like the ones the instructors of The University have. At the end of the hall in each direction are corners. I can’t see past them, but I’m sure they both lead deeper into the building.

  I take a moment to feel for the wizards I sensed outside and then head left. I’m not entirely sure it’s the best direction, but the darkness is too impatient to spend any more time trying to make an informed decision.

  Everywhere I turn there are more locked doors. No other building in this world has been as secure as the one I’m sneaking through now. And it’s not only physical locks. I’ve felt more than one spell since entering the place.

  The wizards aren’t running wild like at the last building. This time, they’re calm and patient. I can feel them waiting for me to come to them.

  Not a good sign, but even if I was able to stop myself from moving forward, I wouldn’t. As dangerous as the situation might be, there’s still a chance I might be able to find and save Loraine. If my stolen memories are true, then she’s been woken up somehow and she’s in more danger than I could ever have imagined.

  I reach another door, seemingly the same as the dozens of others I passed since entering the building, but the difference becomes clear as I approach. The wizards I’ve been looking for are behind this door.

  Before I can burst through and start swinging wildly, I reason with the darkness.

  This is probably a trap. Blindly ru
nning into it would be a mistake and would cost a great deal of magic. It’s better to proceed cautiously. Peek through the door and see what we’re up against.

  The darkness remains quiet, though I can tell it doesn’t like leaving things to me.

  I force the lock open, just as I did the first, but I only open the door enough to be able to peek through the crack.

  Ten, no, closer to twenty wizards fill the open area. I find Fitzroy instantly. It’s almost as though he wants me to see him.

  He holds something in his hand up to his ear as he talks. “I understand…No…No. My people will handle it…They will be found…Of course, sir.” He shows no surprise as his eyes shift to me. “You will be the first to know if I find him.”

  He drops his hand from his face and I see it’s a phone he’s been talking into. Who he was talking to doesn’t matter. He slips the phone into his pocket and smiles.

  “Welcome, Aldric,” he says. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  No point in staying behind the door. I step out and get a proper look around the room. Mixes of wizards and magic-less people wearing uniforms stand in groups around the room. Most pay no attention to me as I enter, though a uniformed woman’s eyebrows twist together in a mix of annoyance and anger when she sees where I’ve come from.

  And then I see her. She looks exactly as the stolen memory showed me. Her long blonde hair is left loose to fall over her shoulders and frame her face, and she wears a short patterned dress, common in this world. But most importantly, there’s recognition behind her gaze. She’s no longer an empty shell.

  I want to run to her, snatch her up and get us both as far from these people as possible, but I don’t. Not bothered with the emotions of seeing my sister alive for the first time in years, the darkness has noticed what I otherwise wouldn’t have. A band of magic flows between Loraine to Fitzroy, linking the two together more than any physical connection ever could. If I tried to take her more than a few feet away, even to the other side of this building, it would be as deadly for her as if I took her head, but left the rest of her body.