Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling

by Andrew Dobell

  ‘What’s going on?’ crackled a female voice over the intercom. It was Lex Nona, Raal could see her on one of the camera’s in the VIP lounge. She was looking straight into the camera nearest her with her finger pressed to her ear piece as she asked the question.

  ‘We’ve got a breach, a Magi, they’re in the club,’ Raal answered.

  ‘Who is it?’

  ‘No idea, they’re shielding themselves from us.’

  ‘Crap. Do you need any help in there?’

  ‘No, stay where you are, keep an eye out, we’ve got it covered from this end.’

  The air seemed to stretch taught once more, latent energy building up, trying to resist the power straining against it. It lasted for barely a second before they felt the Essentia snap for a third time.

  ‘Holy fuck,’ cried Raal.

  ‘Got ‘em. Here look,’ Maddox said, pointing at a screen showing the corridor leading to the VIP lounge on sub level seven, one floor above them. The black clad figure passed through the doors at the end of the corridor, doors which had been sealed by an Aegis, the Magical barrier that this intruder had just pulverised and popped like a soap bubble.

  The intruder looked female, her figure just a black void in the shape of a comely young woman, her pale features framed by a mane of long black hair. She strode into the VIP lounge on the floor above Raal like she owned the place.

  Raal felt the surge of Essentia as she called on her Magic again, and the entire room full of people, everyone in the VIP lounge, dropped suddenly to the floor. The Music in the Lounge also stopped as the DJ fell onto his decks. The Magical attack left one person, Lex Nona, stood there, her own personal Aegis having saved her from the effects of the Magical attack.

  ‘Oh shit, it’s you,’ Lex said as she saw Yasmin from across the room, her voice ringing with alarm through the intercom. Maddox boosted the gain to hear the Womans reply, but Raal didn’t need to hear the answer to know who it was. Yasmin was well known in Nomad circles and she had paid visits to Lucian before. Raal watched the screen as the confrontation unfolded.

  Yasmin smiled and continued to walk towards Lex. ‘Yes, it’s me. Lex is it? I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure before.’ Yasmin’s voice could be heard clearly in the security room, the equipment in the club was state of the art.

  Lex looked confused as to what she should do, and just stood there.

  ‘It’s polite to answer when spoken to my dear,’ Yasmin purred.

  ‘I’m sorry, yes, it’s good to meet you. I mean, ahem, an honour. So, um, how can I help you?’

  ‘Drop your Aegis please,’ Yasmin answered, in quite a matter of fact tone. Raal winced; he knew Lex had little choice here.

  ‘Excuse me?’ Lex answered.

  The force of energy that flooded from Yasmin and threw Lex against the far wall was intense; Raal could feel it quite keenly. Lex’s Aegis flared and crackled with energy on the screen as Yasmin’s Magic slammed home, before pinning her to the wall, a few feet from the floor. Lex’s Aegis continued to ripple with golden threads of energy that sparked and hissed.

  Yasmin walked towards Lex. ‘Don’t question me girl, do as I say or I pull down your Aegis myself and rip your brain out to find the information I need.’

  Lex, gritting her teeth in pain, relented and the golden energy that had been there, surrounding Lex, protecting her and struggling against Yasmin’s Magic, died and disappeared. Raal felt the surge of Essentia from Yasmin and knew what she was doing. Raal concentrated and Ported from the room to the floor below.

  Two levels down from the VIP lounge in a large room, lit with half-light and furnished in a modern style with black leather chairs and couches, glass and steel tables and light grey walls, Raal appeared from nowhere. Lucian stood nearby, shirt off and in deep concentration. He’d obviously felt the magical disturbances of the past couple of minutes and looked concerned. Two female voices called to Lucian from an adjoining room partitioned off with frosted sliding glass doors and walls.

  ‘Lucian, come back to bed, we’ve barely gotten started with you.’

  ‘Yeah, come on, you can’t leave us hanging like this when we’re so horny.’

  Lucian ignored them and turned to face Raal. Lucian was African American with dark ebony skin that gleamed in the light, his hair was a mass of snake like dreadlocks and even in this dim light he wore a pair of sunglasses.

  ‘Wha gwan?, Lucian asked in his Haitian drawl of an accent.

  ‘We’ve got an intruder, it’s Yasmin, she’ll be here any moment.’

  ‘She’s already here,’ came Yasmin’s voice from the shadows as she stepped into the light.

  Raal spun round, ‘Fuck.’

  ‘Lucian, it’s good to see you again,’ Yasmin chimed.

  ‘And you Baal Yasmin, always a pleasure.’

  Raal pulled his knife, he didn’t like this at all. Yasmin glanced down at the polished blade for a moment before looking back at Lucian.

  ‘Tell your over enthusiastic lap dog to stand down before you find yourself down one coven member Lucian. I won’t ask twice.’

  ‘Stand down Raal, this is not the fight for you,’ Lucian said quickly.

  Raal grimaced, he most certainly didn’t want to fight Yasmin, she was more powerful than him by several orders of magnitude. Such a fight would only go one way, but Lucian also happened to be Raal’s mentor, so he felt it to be his duty to protect Lucian.

  ‘So, why you come to my home, Baal? What can I do for you?’ Lucian asked using the Nomad honorific for a Superior, his Caribbean accent drawing out the ‘aa’ sound.

  Raal could feel a build-up of Essentia coming from Lucian, his master was fuelling his Aegis, raising his defences. Just as he registered this, Essentia flared from Yasmin, a spike of energy that hammered at Lucian’s shield. As she did this, a yellow light flared just in front of Lucian, flowing over his Aegis where her Magic clashed against it. Then as his Aegis fell before the greater power of Yasmin, the light shattered into fingers of electrical looking energy that flickered and danced briefly round his body.

  Lucian jerked and cried out something unintelligible. The glass partition next to him shattered but held in place, spider web cracks snaking across its surface while the shadows around Lucian and Raal shifted, the strong magic warping the fabric of reality. As Raal watched, Yamsin’s Magic reached into Lucian’s mind, as if hunting for something.

  ‘What? What are you doing?’ Raal cried, and went for his knife again as Lucian went limp as he started to float a few inches off the floor, but an invisible force slammed Raal sideways, lifting him off his feet and pinned him to the wall two foot off the ground on the far side of the room.

  Yasmin eyed him from where she stood looking utterly relaxed, she had warned him once, he supposed he had that coming.

  As he watched from where he struggled against the wall, Yasmin looked back at Lucian and wandered lazily forward to where he stood, his face contorted in pain as he tried to resist Yasmin’s considerable power.

  The two young girls in the bedroom had been watching in horror as the events unfolded around them, they now screamed as Yasmin came into view from behind the semi frosted glass. Raal felt Yasmins magic envelope the two young women in the next room, and then, a moment later, the screams stopped.

  Turning her attention back to Lucian, Yasmin seemed to concentrate for a moment, before a slight smile played over her lustrous red lips. Then there was a sudden surge of Essentia as Yasmin ported away in a snap.

  Lucian fell to his knees and Raal landed awkwardly as he dropped too. Raal was soon at his Mentor’s side, helping him up.

  ‘Is she gone?’ Lucian said, straightening his shades.

  ‘I think so, I’ll get Lex to give the place a once over.’

  Lucian stood up and shook his head. He walked over to his bed and looked at the two dead girls. Their eyes were red with burst blood vessels and pointed in different directions while blood trickled down from their eyes, ears and noses.


  ‘Well shit bitch, what you have to go do that for?. I damn well hope you got everything you wanted.’

  The figure looked down upon the alleyway, standing in the same place she had done roughly one month ago when she had watched Amanda walk along the street below only to be attacked by the Scion Horlack.

  Now she waited for another visitor, one she knew would be here any time now.

  A few weeks ago she had watched Vito as he had investigated the alleyway for the Disciples of the Cross. He’d poked and probed, but he’d found little of interest and went on to more conventional lines of enquiry.

  Tonight’s visitor would be different; this one was no novice, far from it. So she stood in the shadows of the water tower and waited

  She didn’t wait long.

  Essentia flared several meters into the alleyway, invisible to the Mundane eye, but to a Magi, it was as clear as day. She couldn’t hear it, but there would have been a small whip crack sound that accompanied the sudden appearance of the black clad figure.

  Shadowy black energy flared around her like a living cape as she walked along the alley, stopping as she reached the site of the attack by Horlack.

  She knew that Yasmin had just arrived here from visiting with Lucian, no doubt checking to see if the cities resident Nomad knew anything about Amanda’s Epiphany in the alleyway below.

  She could no doubt feel the energies that pervaded the area, the emotions of fear and fury as well as the disturbed energy from the violent epiphany of a Magi.

  Moments later Essentia flared once more as Yasmin worked her Magic, the Magical energy surged about, rushing in and away from Yasmin as it fluoresced.

  The figure recognised the Magic, she could feel the nature of the spell being wrought, and knew that Yasmin could see the scene of Amanda being attacked by Horlack. Looking back in time, Yasmin could see the events playing themselves out before her, confirming that it was indeed Amanda that had been here that night.

  The figure winced slightly as she watched Yasmin use Time Magic, just in case it brought a Weaver, but the Nomad seemed to get away with it.

  Yasmin’s feelings leaked into the surroundings, a feeling of shock followed swiftly by acceptance and determination.

  No doubt Yasmin would be putting two and two together as she watched this, she would be linking the dig in Egypt with information from her informants and finally all that information to this event and Horlack himself.

  Yasmin cut the spell, the Essentia dissipated, the glow faded and its movement slowed, the flow of Essentia returning to a semblance of normality.

  The figure knew that Yasmin had been waiting for this day for a long time. She knew what this meant to her, how important it was. Amanda was now a Magi, she’d had her Epiphany which meant things were finally starting to happen. The event which Yasmin had waited so long for, had happened, which in turn meant that Yasmin’s plans would now start to progress, and eventually reach fruition.

  The figure watched as Yasmin turned and looked at the wall and the burn mark etched upon it. Yasmin reached up and touched the wall, and quickly pulled her hand away.

  The figure knew very well what Yasmin had felt, which made the figure smile to herself. She watched as Yasmin took one final look around, before Essentia flared once more and rushed into the spot where Yasmin had stood a second before. Yasmin had ported away, leaving the alleyway empty once more.

  The figure loosened the tight control she’d kept over the Essentia around her for the past few minutes, control that had masked her presence from Yasmin, something very few Magi could successfully do. Satisfied with what she had seen tonight, the figure smiled, a second later there was a sudden snap of air, and the figure was gone too.

  “Subject continued to wail and scream, Brother Macías was unable to bring forth any further details from the Warlock. We deemed it necessary to use more coercive tactics, and applied the use of the devices. The subject then began to talk. I asked the name of the Witch who we had observed as having been there with him that night, but again he protested, saying he would rather die. He went on to say she would find him and make him suffer. We applied the devices again, and in time he offered us the name of Yasmin the Dark. Despite further applications of the devices, we could get nothing further from him and he was placed in his cell. The following morning, Francis was dead, what little remained of him was splattered up one wall. The duty guard heard nothing all night and no one had been granted entry.“

  Transcript from Witch trial of Francis Chastain

  France, 1448

  Hunted

  Manhattan

  Early September

  Jade looked back over her shoulder and caught a glimpse of him again, half a block back, walking steadily, following her. She’d been rushing down the last few streets, passing along several blocks but he still managed to keep up with her. She felt really freaked out by this idiot. He’d been snooping about her and the girls for the last week or so now, harassing Renee first, but talking to Naomi and Jenny as well. He seemed really interested in her friends, Stuart and AJ.

  She dodged round a few more people, walking as quickly as she could, or as quickly as her stupid heels allowed her too.

  He’d been harassing her again today, trying to talk to her and driving her John’s away. She’d threatened him a few times, told him to get lost in no uncertain terms. He’d cost her business, and that never went down well with any working girl.

  He scared her though, there had been something really creepy about him from the first time she met him, she couldn’t be sure what it was, but she knew she didn’t like it and didn’t want to meet him alone. She always felt more confident with her girlfriends to back her up.

  She’d finished her nights work about half an hour ago and ten minutes into her walk home she’d spotted him behind her. She’d had a feeling someone had been watching her and seeing him there following her just confirmed her suspicions.

  So she’d sped up, tried to get away, but somehow just hadn’t quite managed to shake him.

  Home was quite close now, just a few more blocks, but she wanted to lose him before then. She didn’t want him hammering on her door. She redoubled her pace and got to the street corner just ahead as quickly as she could, nearly tripping herself up as she went. Just as she reached the corner she had a really strange feeling pass over her. She grabbed the nearby wall and steadied herself as her balance failed her for a brief moment, the world feeling like it suddenly tipped sideways and that the concrete wall beside her might collapse like flimsy paper.

  It lasted for only one brief moment before everything felt normal once more. Remembering her predicament again she looked back up the street, but the man had gone.

  A few people milled around, going about their business, but the stalker had disappeared. She checked the other side of the street, and then turned in a circle, looking all about her trying to find him, but he’d disappeared.

  Jade frowned, she didn’t like this one little bit but maybe he’d just given up. Maybe he’d realised it wasn’t worth the effort. Who knew? One thing was for sure though, even though she wasn’t totally convinced he’d disappeared, a feeling of relief started to grow inside of her.

  She looked around once more, before continuing on her way, still with a lingering, but slowly lessoning doubt.

  She chose to take a somewhat roundabout route these next few blocks, passing through some switch backs and loops just to be sure she’d lost him.

  She couldn’t see him anywhere though, he’d gone.

  She had no idea why he would be so interested in Stuart and AJ, he’d died and she’d left on the same night, leaving them high and dry.

  She had no idea what had happened, why Stuart had been killed and why AJ had disappeared that night. Georgina had left a few weeks before due to her illness, and she knew that AJ had not taken it well at all. She’d been devastated by what had happened to her best friend.

  Jade didn’t know AJ well, they’d chatted from time to time and s
he always liked her. She’d always been friendly and kind to her and any friend of Georgina’s was a friend of hers.

  There had always been a camaraderie between them, feeling like they were in this together. Supporting each other. They all had their friends, those they got on better with, but they were all under Stuarts protection and which meant they all felt a kind of kinship, and a sense of loyalty. You stuck up for your own and helped protect each other. AJ had always been close with Georgina and to a lesser extent, Stuart. AJ had not really befriended her and the others to the same extent. They knew each other to say hi and chat too, but they didn’t see each other away from their patch.

  The night of Stuarts death, everything had changed. Life had been tough these past six months. They’d had it good for a few years, the last couple before Stuarts death had been some of the best they’d ever had. They’d not had any trouble from the police or the other Pimps or anything. It almost felt like AJ had been a lucky charm of some sort, keeping them out of trouble.

  The death of Stuart had brought the Police snooping around and asking questions and generally making their usual patch pretty much unworkable.

  They didn’t want to stay there anyway, that alleyway where Stuart had died had a really creepy vibe to it.

  As far as she could tell, the Police thought there had been some kind of collapse, that the building had been weakened in that area and Stuart had been caught in the debris.

  No one knew if AJ had been in the alleyway with him, no one had seen anything else, only that Amanda had disappeared only moments before.

  Naomi wondered if AJ had done it, if she’d killed him or something? Maybe Stuart had been less than a gentleman towards her? But Jade couldn’t agree with that. She felt sure that AJ would never do anything like that.

  She’d thought that AJ might follow Georgina over to Europe, where ever she’d gone too. She’d been somewhat anxious these past few weeks. No one liked doing this, no one liked working the streets, anyone that said otherwise was a liar, but she felt that AJ had been even more skittish since Georgie had left, almost as if she’d been desperate to get away. AJ had always tried to see the good in what they did, always tried to be optimistic about it, she’d loved that about her, the girls almost boundless zest for life had been kind of infectious.