‘I think I’ve always known I’d end up as a Nun. Maybe I entered it a little earlier then I thought I would, but it’s a life that appeals to me.’
‘And they’re happy to let in people so young?’
‘They’re a little nervous about it, but there’s a two and a half year induction period so there’s plenty of time to change my mind.’
‘Two and a half years?’
‘That’s right, I’ve done my six months Postulancy and now I’m doing my two years as a Novitiate. If I come to the end of that and I still want to do it, then I take my vows.’ She spoke with enthusiasm about this part of her life, she clearly loved it.
‘And what do your parents think about it?’
Alicia’s tone darkened a touch. ‘Well, you know them, they weren’t sure about it, but they understand that I had a calling from God and that I believe this is what he wants me to do.’
‘Are you sure about that Ali?’
‘I’m certain, I can feel it, it just feels right for me.’
‘So you’re going to be a Nun, here, and teach?’
‘That’s what I’d like, to be able to give something back and to educate the next generation. It feels good,’ she was all smiles again.
‘Any particular subject?’
‘I’m not sure yet, I’m assisting the other teachers and I’ll make my mind up soon.’
‘So I’m guessing there’s been no boy’s on the scene at all?’
‘Amanda! No, absolutely not. I’m not into all that,’ she said, shocked.
‘Not even a sneaky snog behind the bike sheds before you started being a nun?’ Amanda coxed
‘Well, er…’ Alicia’s face was a mask of guilt suddenly.
‘Oh you did! Who was it? Come on, tell me.’
‘It was Ralph, do you remember him?’ she said sheepishly.
‘O’Connell? That Ralph?’ One of the geeks from school, in Amanda’s opinion, someone she could see Alicia going for.
‘That’s him. We’d become sort of friends after you left, he was very sweet to me and I felt I could talk to him,’ Alicia’s face was serene with the memory.
‘Looks like you did more than talk you dirty slapper!’ Amanda joked, all smiles.
Alicia gave Amanda knowing smile and flushed red. She took a deep breath before she continued.
‘Well, it was one weekend, and we were talking in the field, sat by a tree and, I don’t know, it felt right at the time.’
‘Who made the first move?’ It felt good to gossip once more, Gentle Water wasn’t the type to talk like this.
‘Oh, he did. I could never do that.’
‘And how was it?’
‘Weird, but nice I suppose, until he tried to put his tongue in my mouth,’ Alicia screwed up her face in distaste.
Amanda giggled. ‘So, what did you do?’
‘I panicked, I didn’t know what he was trying to do so I pushed him off, spat out his spit because it tasted funny and walked off.’
Amanda laughed, ‘Did anything else happen?’
‘No, I think some girls saw it or found out about it and made fun of him, we didn’t really speak after that. There was no one else after Ralph.’ Her tone was serene, was there sadness in there too?
Amanda and Alicia walked on, chatting about their lives and reminiscing over memories and Amanda loved every moment of it. Alicia had been a true friend to her as a child during her time here and it was good to finally catch up.
But it was all so very different now, and she didn’t feel as close to Alicia as she once had. Both of them had drifted apart over the years and gone in very different directions, and the fact that the direction Amanda had taken meant she had to lie to Alicia about what she did and what had happened to her didn’t help the situation.
They made their way back to the building and headed back to the Staff Room where a waiting Nun walked over to them.
‘Amanda I take it?’ she asked.
‘That’s right,’ Amanda replied.
‘Oh I’m so glad you’re still here, The Reverend Mother would love to see you. Would you mind?’
‘Of course not,’ Amanda smiled, she had hoped she could see Emmanuel.
And the Nun went on to lead Amanda and Alicia through the building and upstairs to an office that was outside of the Convent. This was the Mother superiors public office where she met people from outside.
Within moments they were shown in through the old oak door and into the office which was wood panelled and tastefully appointed.
From around the edge of the desk, the familiar figure of Emmanuel Page, the Reverend Mother, or Mother Superior, approached Amanda. She was in her late fifties and had aged badly, looking older then she was. Her face was heavily lined, the years where etched clearly upon a face that had once been pretty. Emmanuel loved her flock, and always wanted to help and look after people. Amanda had been given Emmanuel’s surname when she had been taken in by the sisters of St Mary’s, as they didn’t know her name when she had been left on their doorstep as an infant.
‘Amanda, it’s so nice to see you again.’
Amanda walked over and hugged Emmanuel gently before pulling away, ‘and you sister. I’d hoped that you might still be here.’
‘Oh, I’ll be here for a good few years yet my young lady.’
‘Look, I really wanted to tell you, to say how sorry I am for having run away like I did. It was something I had to do and I know it must have caused you some pain, but I had to do it. I don’t expect you to understand. But I do hope that you can forgive me.
‘Amanda, forgiving is what our faith is all about. I forgave you a long time ago, and you look like you have done alright for yourself. You have nothing to apologise for young lady. Now, let’s put all that behind us shall we? Take a seat.’
Amanda sat down opposite the Reverend Mother and before long she was answering the same questions she had been asked by several other people and using the same answers with the same gusto and excitement that she had done earlier on.
Emmanuel had looked after Amanda and helped to educate her outside of the usual school hours. She was never quite a proper mother to Amanda, but it was about as close as she came to it, even though Emmanuel had always kept Amanda somewhat at arm’s length, not wanting her to become too attached to the Nun’s here.
Once again, although Amanda held Emmanuel in high regard and she had very fond memories of her, the events over the last three years had changed things so much that she felt disconnected to this part of her life, almost like it was someone else’s life.
The time flew by and she had soon said her goodbyes to the Reverend Mother who told Amanda to return whenever she felt like it, and Amanda walked through the corridors of the school once more with Alicia.
It was lunch hour and the children were all out in the playground and the corridors were relatively clear.
They stopped at a window ledge and looked out over the figures of the children beneath them, and as Amanda leant there, she could feel Alicia struggling with something internally, wrestling with some thought, so Amanda thought she would take the initiative.
‘Spit it out,’ she said, not wanting to read her old friends mind.
Alicia looked at Amanda with a look of slight shock.
‘I can tell you want to say something or ask something, so just ask it. I won’t be offended. Go on.’
‘Okay, well, I was wondering if you still had an interest in the odd and obscure still, you know, the occult?’
Amanda raised her eyebrows, it was a little out of left field, but she now understood why Alicia had struggled with it.
‘Yes Alicia, I suppose I do. What gave it away.’
‘Your top.’
Amanda looked down at the print on her sleeveless top, a cartoon pumpkin with an evil face on it, beneath it, it had the words, “I love Halloween”
‘Oh, I see. That transparent am I?’
Alicia smiled.
‘Well, go on then, why do you a
sk?’ Amanda said.
‘Well, I’m a little concerned by the four students down there,’ and Alicia gestured to four people stood over to one side of the yard.
Amanda saw them right away as they stood out from the other students like a sore thumb. They were about sixteen or seventeen and were all wearing casual black goth looking clothing which marked them out as being in the Sixth Form.
The first guy, who Alicia called Scott, had long black hair tied back in a ponytail and wore a black leather jacket over a grey tee shirt and had on old looking jeans with a chain dangling from one side. His boots were heavy and black.
The second one Alicia pointed out she called Christina, she had long dyed black straight hair and wore and long black velvet coat over a longer black dress of silk and lace. Her dark eye liner stood in stark contrast to her white face.
The third guy she called Tomo, the biggest built of the three guys, wearing a bulky leather jacket with chains and clasps all over it on top of a simple white vest with dirty jeans and huge jack boots. He was bald and already had some tattoos on his head as well as several piercings. He looked the scariest of the four.
The final one Alicia pointed out was Jake, who had been the one who had attracted her interest in the group, she explained. He used to be a high flying student, straight A’s, but since he had fallen in with this new group of friends, his grades were slipping and he seemed less interested in studying. Alicia also mentioned she thought he might have a little crush on her.
Jake looked athletic with short cropped blonde hair wearing a tee-shirt and jeans, he appeared to be the least Goth of the four.
‘So what seems to be the trouble. They look like a bunch of kids to me, nothing for you to be worried about.’
‘Perhaps, they work hard and are very friendly, but I’ve heard a few of the things they have spoken about and they have been caught with a Ouija Board before now. I’m just worried that they might be getting involved in something dangerous, Devil worship maybe, and was wondering if you could find out a little more for me?’
‘Well, I don’t know what I can do for you Ali, but I will try to help you as much as I can. Where should I start, I can’t really just go up to them and ask them can I.’
‘I can get you the keys to their dorm rooms and you can check them over the next lesson when they’ll be empty. How does that sound?’
‘Okay grand, sounds like a plan.’
Amanda waited by the window while Alicia headed off to find the keys, and looked out over the playground. Having found out that there really was such a thing as Magic, she didn’t want to dismiss Alicia’s suspicions too easily, she knew enough by now to know that it would be all too easy for someone to stumble across something they really shouldn’t do and end up in a whole world of shit.
But, she didn’t really need their room keys to find out what she needed to know, so while Alicia was gone, she took the time alone to have a look into the four teenager’s minds and see what she could see.
Right away, as she reached out with her mind to touch theirs, she could sense no Magic at all from them, so they weren’t latent Magi. But that didn’t mean they hadn’t found something which might be, so she plunged deeper into Scott’s mind and sifted quickly through this surface thoughts and most prominent recent memories, and quickly found nothing much to worry about. She couldn’t read his deepest memories, but she was advanced enough now to push slightly past his surface thoughts and touch upon recent and prominent memories. She followed this up by delving into each of the others minds and found each of them to be in the same situation. They dabbled in what they thought to be the occult or witchcraft, but was in fact nothing but a bunch of nonsense wrapped up to look like something magical and forbidden. There were no malevolent thoughts there at all and seemed like very balanced kids really.
They had no connection to anything magical, there was no build-up of Essentia around them to link them to anything Magical such as an Artefact, and they were quite harmless, in a Magical sense.
She also noticed, while she was inside Jakes mind, that Alicia had been right about him, he did fancy her, had done for a little while now since she had become an assistant in a few of his classes. Well, she hoped that Jake would move on from this rather helpless crush as he was never going to get anything from it.
That was until she saw that it might actually be helping him, the others were more into these things then he was, but Jakes crush on Alicia was acting as a sort of moral compass and it fought against the influence of his peers, his mind swinging between more Christian views or more Pagan views.
In time, Alicia returned with the keys and all though the next lesson Amanda made a big show of hunting through the students rooms looking for anything incriminating. But apart from finding a few items of pentagram encrusted jewellery and more black clothing than she thought possible, she found nothing that merited attention.
Amanda took some time to assure Alicia that these were just kids exploring the world around them and they were not involved in anything dangerous. She also encouraged her to give Jake more attention as he might benefit from her guidance.
Eventually, satisfied that all seemed well, Alicia walked Amanda back to the lobby of the School and gave her a big hug, much to the horror of the receptionist.
‘Don’t take so long to come back next time. You know you’re always welcome to come and visit me. It’s been great to see you again,’ Alicia said.
‘And you Ali, I’ve missed you. I promise to try and visit more often. Take care of yourself okay. I’ll see about getting you a phone number or something soon so you can call me if need be.’
Amanda had discarded her Mobile phone shortly after Georgina’s death as there was no one she wanted to speak to and there was no phone in the cottage. Since becoming a Magi, she saw less and less need for a Phone, she knew she would get one again sometime, but not yet.
‘That would be great Mandy. See you soon.’
Amanda walked out of the building and away along the path, waving back to Alicia a little way down, it had been a good day, and she hoped she would see her friend again soon.
Once she was out of view of the School, she veered off the path and into a copse of trees nearby to find Gentle Water meditating under an Oak. He opened one eye as she approached.
‘All done?’ He asked her.
‘Yes thank you, it was nice.’
‘Then we shall return.’
Suddenly they were no longer there, the sound of a pop, as air rushed into the places they had been standing a moment before, was the only fanfare that signalled their departure.
The artefact seems to have been hollow after all. Stephan broke it while studying it a little while ago, he says it was an accident, which I know will be true, the boy would never intentionally brake such an artefact. I wonder if I was a little harsh on him with my punishment, but I think we did the right thing.
I have no idea what, if anything, was inside the stone slab, Stephan says there was nothing inside it, but I’m not sure that I believe him.
It shames me to say, but I did have a look round his room, just to see if he had hidden anything from me. But I couldn’t find anything.
I need to do a more in depth study of this thing really, maybe that will give me the answers I need.
- Richard Lockwood’s notes, Stephan’s father.
Help
London
Mid July
Stephan sat hunched over his desk in his room and put the finishing touches to the markings he had copied onto the sheet of paper from the golden book that lay open next to him.
He was trying to be as careful as possible and to make sure he copied it as closely as he could, he was worried about making a mistake, but he couldn’t take too long over it, he needed to get a move on soon.
With a few more scribbles of his pen he sat back and examined his work next to the real thing and felt satisfied that he had copied it as closely as he could. He had chosen to copy a page of the text, but
to divide it over two sheets of paper. Each page in the gold book he and his friends had found in the stone slab after Liz had dropped it on the floor had been covered in text, half in a wedge shaped Cuneiform text, the other in a swirling sinuous script, separated by either a simple line or more elaborate markings depending on the page.
It had fascinated Stephan and his friends for weeks, and despite doing the best research they felt they had ever done, they simply could not decipher either text. They knew they had limited resources and their hunting for a cipher wasn’t helped by them trying to keep it hidden and not let other people see it.
They might be being a little too careful, but they thought it best to keep it hidden for the time being and just keep it to themselves. The book looked very valuable and they really didn’t want anyone taking an undue interest in it.
But as they reached the end of the second month of fruitless searching they had soon come to a realisation that they were getting nowhere fast. They couldn’t even narrow down the time period of the writings, they knew was old, very old, but nothing else.
Finally they had sat down one evening in defeat and talked over their options and their next move.
They needed help, they couldn’t do this on their own, which meant showing it to someone, or showing the text at least, so they thought that the best thing for them to do was to copy the text down by hand, which Stephan had volunteered for, partly because the book stayed with him for the time being which meant he could work on it by himself.
Once this had been decided, they talked long and hard about who they would show the text too, and in the end they narrowed it down to two places, the place in Camden they had used before and Mr Travers at The Magicians Hat in Soho. Mr Travers had always been friendly towards them though so they chose to go there first. The four of them had taken to visiting the shop often after it had been recommended by another obscure bookshop, and the four of them had found the Hat to be fascinating and Mr Travers to be a friendly old gent.
He seemed trustworthy and if anyone might know anything about this, or could find out what this writing was, it would be him.
Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling Page 29
