Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling

by Andrew Dobell

  ‘Hopefully,’ but Liz wasn’t really convincing herself let alone anyone else.

  Soon enough they were on Stephan’s street and a short distance later they had turned into the drive of the huge house and were walking up the gravel path.

  Stephan lived in the nice area of town, his parents had money, flashy cars and a big house. Liz and Fran weren’t really jealous, but they knew Stephan had things better than they did in their little flat where they lived with their mother. It was all their mum could afford since their father left years ago. She worked all hours god sent to pay the bills and keep the girls in clothes, as well as fed and watered, which meant they hardly saw their mum, and whenever they did, she was exhausted.

  They often made the dinners and the other meals, either because their mother was at work or because she’d been too tired to do it. They had learnt to fend for themselves over the years, and make the best of what they had, which wasn’t much.

  Ben seemed a little better off than the Twins were, his parents were still together, but they lived in a council terrace house only a few streets away from Stephan’s, but it may as well be in a different country for all the similarity it had to Stephan’s house. Ben lived on the proverbial, ‘wrong side of the tracks’, in a council estate that had big problems with crime and delinquency. There was always a burnt out car somewhere around, the streets were ruled by the tribal gangs that roamed about them at night and the police sirens were never far off from being heard.

  Every town had its bad areas, the places where you didn’t go walking at night if you valued the contents of your wallet, and it was surprising just how close they often were to the wealthier areas of town, sometimes just separated by a main road. Those from the nicer part of town sometimes joked that the inbred hillbillies from the council estate didn’t know how to cross the main road yet, otherwise they would have invaded the nice part of town already.

  The flat the twins lived in wasn’t in either the good area or the bad area that Steph and Ben lived in respectively, but it lay on the edge of the town centre, where on a Friday and Saturday night they would often go to bed to the sounds of drunken revellers staggering along the streets singing and shouting at the top of their voices or throwing up in your door step, leaving a nice surprise for you when you stepped outside bare foot to put the bin out.

  These differences in living accommodation never seemed to come up, they all might be from very different families and different parts of town, but it had never been a problem. In fact they seemed to have plenty in common; the facts of their own personal circumstances seemed to pass by the wayside.

  The Twins reached the door and Fran pressed the door bell, seconds later Stephan let them in and told them that Ben had already arrived.

  ‘So how long are your parents gone for Steph?’ Fran asked after greeting him with a kiss.

  ‘The rest of the day, they don’t get back until this evening.’

  It was late morning, which meant they had at least six hours to themselves to do what they wished.

  ‘Do you not have any chores to do today?’ Fran replied.

  ‘No, I did them all already. The rest of the day is all mine.’

  ‘Cool, so what’s the plan?’

  Steph led them through to the main living room and sat down. Liz and Fran said hi to Ben as they went through, Liz sitting close to him.

  ‘Well, as I see it, we have lots of books with spells and chants we can do over the artefact, any of which might have an effect. I say we set up some kind of altar here,’ he said, pointing to the middle of the floor, ‘and get started. What do you think?’

  Fran Liz and Ben all looked at one another and nodded their assent.

  ‘Okay then, let’s get started. Fran, come up stairs with me and help me with a few things, meanwhile, could you two move the furniture in here to the edges of the room?’ he said to Liz and Ben.

  Liz nodded, as did Ben. ‘Sure matey,’ he said.

  Fran and Steph left the room and headed upstairs leaving Liz and Ben in the lounge. They stood up and started to move things about a bit, pushing chairs up against the walls, being careful not to mark or break anything as they did so.

  ‘So, how have you been then? Not seen you for a couple of days,’ Ben said.

  Liz often wanted to talk to Ben, but she found it difficult to say anything at first, she always found it easier if Ben started talking before her. Liz liked Ben, ever since that first time they met when Steph and Fran met up for their first ‘date’ and both Ben and Liz had been brought along as a sort of chaperone, she had taken a bit of a fancy to him.

  She really hadn’t expected to, and back just before that first date Liz had really resented her sister getting so close to someone else, especially some boy. Fran had been apologetic, and had really wanted her to like Steph, but Liz wasn’t really listening and when she heard about the date, which at first had been planned as just Fran and Steph, Liz had ended up shouting at her sister, saying things she ended up regretting and having to apologise for.

  Liz going along with her sister was Fran’s way of trying to smooth things over while still doing what she wanted to do. Fran obviously cared about what Liz thought and wanted Liz to like Steph, but Liz was having none of it and before that date she was convinced she was going to hate Stephan, especially with a name as pretentious as that.

  But things didn’t quite go as planned, and when she met Ben, she quickly forgot the anger she had felt towards her sister. Liz had liked Ben for a long time now, and she felt sure Ben liked her too, but Liz was shy, and despite Fran’s help, Liz and Ben had not really made much of a go of things yet. But Ben didn’t seem to mind, he seemed to like taking things slowly, and so they found they got along quite well, even though their conversations were often stymied by Liz’s timidity.

  ‘I’ve been well,’ Liz replied to Ben’s question, ‘How about you?’

  ‘Yeah, I’ve been cool. You know.’

  Liz nodded as together they pushed a chair up against the wall.

  ‘What do you think about doing this thing today?’ Ben asked.

  Liz looked sheepish for a moment, before answering. ‘I’m a little scared about it to tell you the truth.’

  ‘Yeah, me too,’ Ben replied. ‘It’s a creepy looking thing ain’t it.’

  Liz nodded vigorously.

  ‘We’ll be okay though, nothing really bad can happen can it. It’s just a few funny sounding words and stuff, its good fun, but it’s not major evil hoodoo.’

  Liz smiled, she nodded again, with much less conviction this time, but in her head she really wasn’t so sure. She felt that this thing really would end up getting them into trouble if they weren’t careful.

  The chairs were now at the edges of the room which left a large space in the middle.

  ‘There, we’re all done and ready I reckon,’ Ben said.

  ‘Good work, give us a hand with these will you?’ Said Steph from the hall carrying some heavy looking books.

  Ben and Liz helped with some of the books and other accoutrements, Liz sat to one side while Fran and Steph set about making a small makeshift Alter out of a pile of books and a velvet sheet placed over the top. They then placed a few candles round it and readied a few books which contained the relevant incantations.

  ‘Right, we’re ready. Ben, come and help me with the Artefact,’ Steph said, and they quickly disappeared.

  Fran turned to Liz when they were out of the room. ‘Are you okay?’ She asked.

  ‘Yeah, I’m fine. A little worried perhaps, but nothing to be concerned about.’

  ‘As long as you’re sure.’

  ‘Yeah, I’m sure. Ben’s a little worried though. He told me.’

  ‘Really?’

  Liz nodded.

  ‘So how are you two getting on then? Have you asked him out or anything?’

  Liz flushed bright red and shook her head while her eyes dropped to the floor in embarrassment.

  ‘Oh Liz. Don’t worry, I’m sure he
’ll ask you out one day soon,’ she said with concern.

  Liz made a non-committal gesture with her head and shoulders.

  There was movement then as the two guys re-entered the room, Steph carrying the Slab while Ben helped him out. A few tense seconds later and they had set the Artefact down on the Altar and Stephan breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘There, all ready,’ he said. ‘Shall we get on then?’ He asked before he turned to the nearest book.

  Over the course of the next few hours, the foursome tried everything they could think of to do to try and get some kind of effect out of the stone slab.

  They had books filled with chants and spells that they worked their way through, calling out to the powers that be to give them some kind of sign that there was Magic in this thing somewhere.

  They called to the elements and the watchtowers, they asked the gods and their servants and the powers of nature all around them. They pricked their fingers with the dagger Stephan had bought a few months ago from the local new age shop and dripped blood into a cup, using it to make a potion that they used to try and get a reaction out the stone when they dripped some of it onto one corner.

  They tried Yoga and mind control and even Christian chants, but nothing had happened, no lights, no movement, no pyrotechnics of any kind, and all they had to show for their efforts were sore bums, stiff legs and several bouts of pins and needles.

  Coffee had been made a few times already, but their latest cups sat next to them cold and only partially drunk, they had made numerous trips to the bathroom throughout their time here.

  They sat round the now rather pathetic looking Altar in silence after finishing their last idea for something to try, and now they all felt tired, annoyed and more than a little let down. Their hopes had been high, but they had long since been dashed on the rocks of failure.

  Stephan sat cross legged with crossed arms and looked just generally cross to Liz as she looked over her friends and sister. Fran lay on her front, her head in her hands looking board while twirling a lock of hair round her finger and Ben sat with his back against a chair front, head back on the seat.

  ‘Arse!’

  It was Stephan, he had taken to swearing at the stone slab this past hour, perhaps in the hope of getting a reaction out of it thought Liz.

  ‘Arse, arse, arse.’

  Liz looked up at Stephan, her eyebrow raised in slight amusement.

  ‘Big fat smelly arses!’

  ‘Well, that’s it. We’ve tried everything…’ Fran said.

  ‘Feckin’ Arse.’

  ‘…and nothing seems to work,’ Fran finished.

  ‘I thought we might have had something with that Potion,’ Ben offered. ‘That’s a potent spell that one.’

  ‘Yup, but as with everything else, it did diddley squat didn’t it,’ Fran replied.

  Ben brought his head forward off the chair and addressed Stephan. ‘So fearless leader, what’s next?’

  Stephan looked up at Ben, his golden hair looking bedraggled and lank after the fruitless work they had been doing all afternoon. He shrugged bad temperedly and grunted something that sounded like ‘I dunno,’ but Liz couldn’t be sure

  ‘Well, what time are your parents back?’ Ben pursued.

  Stephan stuck his bottom lip out and begrudgingly moved his head to look at the clock. ‘Not for a few hours yet.’

  ‘Okay, well I propose we get ourselves a pizza. I think we’ve earned it, what do you reckon?’ Ben suggested.

  Stephan nodded, Fran also agreed, and when Ben looked at Liz, she smiled and nodded her assent as well. She felt hungry and a few slices of pizza would go down a treat right now.

  ‘We’d better clean this up then hey Steph,’ said Ben, gesturing at the occult instruments laid out before him.

  ‘Yeah, I suppose so,’ Stephan said, and picked up a bunch of books and handed them to Ben before picking a few up himself. ‘Would one of you take that blasted thing back into the office?’ he said back to the twins.

  Looking for a way to help Liz thought she might do this, so she excitedly offered and picked up the stone. It was much heavier then she thought it would be, but she braced herself and finally lifted it up from the altar. ‘There, no worries, I’ll have it back in a jiffy,’ she said, and started across the room.

  Steph and Ben stood at the other door in the living room and were talking with Fran before they headed upstairs as Liz headed to the office, but within a few steps Liz became aware that this slab of stone was much heavier then she had ever given it credit for and as she reached the doorway out the room, she winced as she knew she couldn’t hold on any more, and it fell from her grasp.

  It had been only a couple of feet to the floor, but it felt like a mile as she watched the artefact fall, seemingly in slow motion.

  She jerked her feet out from under it and let out a little yelp a fraction of a second before it hit, while her stomach did a back flip inside her.

  There was an almighty smash of stone as the thing hit the ground and settled there, although Liz’s eyes were tightly closed, she could feel the eyes of her friends on her like hot coals as she stood there, elbows tucked in, hands raised, shoulders hunched and a grimace on her face.

  She opened one eye and looked at each of her friends, they stood about eight foot away from her with chairs between them and Liz, meaning they couldn’t see what the effect of the fall had been on the slab, their faces identical expressions of shock, their mouths O’s, their eyes wide. Liz waited for the inevitable rant from Stephan while she glanced down at the slab.

  ‘Oh my god, what have you done? Oh shit, shit, shit, please don’t tell me it’s broken, please. Oh god, you stupid…little…ungh!’ He raged, not wanting to call Liz names, but unable to say nothing, Stephan vented. ‘Oh fuck, oh shit, I should have moved it myself.’ He put the books down and started over towards Liz continuing his rant. But Liz hadn’t been aware of any of this, because she had seen something which had made all other sounds disappear as her mind took in what she was seeing.

  The slab had landed flat, and a great crack had cut across the stone breaking it in two while loose chippings had scattered about.

  Seconds later Stephan had arrived right next to Liz and was ranting right up until he looked down too, and then he stopped dead in his tracks as well.

  Ben and Fran looked on, bewildered by Liz and Stephan’s sudden silence, but their own curiosity got the better of them and with a glance at each other, they quickly hurried over and peered over the nearest chair to the slab, their jaws dropping only a second later.

  The four of them weren’t looking at the stone and the ugly crack that had rent it right across the middle, instead they were looking at the thing which they could now see had been inside the slab and had been revealed by its breaking.

  The gold glinted in the light from between the two halves of stone, tantalizingly peeking out at them while the four pairs of eyes looked on.

  Stephan crouched down on one knee and looked closer, but Liz couldn’t move, the shock of dropping the slab mixed with the surprise of what had been inside it, especially the glinting gold had frozen her solid. It felt like almost too much to take in, but she stood there and watched as Stephan began to reach for it.

  ‘Careful,’ blurted Liz.

  Stephan looked up, surprised by her outburst.

  ‘You…you never know, it might be dangerous.’

  ‘I think its fine Liz,’ he replied, and took one half of the stone slab and pulled it away from the other.

  With a wobble, the thing inside of the slab dropped out onto the wood.

  It appeared to be gold, pressed gold, and looked ancient. Rectangular in shape like the stone is had been within, it appeared to be made up of pages, flat thick gold pages of metal that were bound by golden rings on one side. On the top surface there were embossed carvings of runes in some incredibly ancient language.

  Stephan gently picked it up, the other three looking on as he held it up and with one hand,
tested lifting one of the sheets of metal. It lifted and pivoted on the rings binding it to the whole.

  ‘It’s a book,’ he said in a low almost whisper of a voice.

  He carried it from the dropped stone and sat down on a nearby chair. With one hand he held the book while with the other he took the velvet Altar cover and draped it over his knees, laying the book on top.

  Nearby Liz looked on, glancing back at the stone slab where it lay forgotten and then back to the wonder they had found inside.

  ‘Liz, you’re amazing,’ said Stephan, never taking his eyes off the golden book.

  Liz shrugged, too shocked to do anything else, and looked on as Stephan turned another page and looked carefully at the script on the second leaf.

  ‘Do you recognise it?’ Fran asked.

  ‘Well, it’s bizarre, half of each page is taken up with text that is Cuneiform in style, which suggests Ancient Sumerian, Mesopotamian, or Acadian, something like that.

  ‘What’s Cuneiform mean?’ Ben asked.

  ‘It’s one of the earliest types of writing, it means wedge shaped,’ Fran muttered.

  ‘Oh, of course,’ Ben raised his eye brows at Liz as he commented sarcastically.

  ‘But look at the text on this side, it’s like nothing else I’ve ever seen. It’s all curvy and intricate.’

  ‘But can you read it?’ Fran asked.

  ‘No idea, we’d have to find a way to translate it.’ Stephan had still not looked up, engrossed in the golden wonder he now held.

  ‘But is it Magical?’ Ben asked.

  Stephan raised his eyebrows now, thinking about his answer. ‘I hope so, I mean, I think so, given some of these symbols.’

  Silence fell over the room for a few moments as Stephan turned over each page carefully, until he came to the end. He looked off into the middle distance, his friends watched and waited.

  Liz still felt more than a little bewildered. She had only wanted to help and thought she could handle the slab given how Stephan had been moving it around so easily. But she hadn’t walked far before it dropped, and the pure horror she had felt as it slipped from her grasp had been stifling. Her stomach had dropped and she had felt very sick, but the shocks weren’t over. When she had seen the golden thing inside it, it had felt like the world had tipped and gone more than a little mad right then and there.