Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling

by Andrew Dobell

  Liz smiled too, happy that her sister was having a moment of joy.

  Amanda smiled, before looking back towards her two Magi companions. She had felt excitement back at the mansion as they had tracked this train and the kidnappers down. But now the feeling changed, they were onboard the train, probably just a few carriages away from a group of people who would likely try to kill them. Things were getting a little more serious.

  ‘Any Magi in that group of Inquisitors will have felt that,’ said Raven. ‘They’ll send someone to check it out, standard procedure.’

  ‘Okay so,’ Amanda said, ‘that means we have very little time to lose.’

  Vito looked on as Mary, sitting across from him, the golden book open on the table before her, traced her fingers over the carved text. Her bob of dark hair hung about her face as she studied the book closely, she hadn’t spoken to Vito for a good ten minutes now. Vito took this as a good sign and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

  The boy had been no trouble at all during the entire journey since Vito first took the book from him in Paris. He sat tied to the chair a short distance away, staring at his feet.

  Vito relaxed into his chair again and closed his eyes. This had been a rewarding but exhausting hunt with the past few days being really quite dangerous, Vito couldn’t wait to be back in Rome and take a few days off, if Mary would let him.

  He was more than a little surprised to find Mary waiting for them in the Train Station in Paris after he had retrieved the book. He knew she was quite a hands-on Grand Inquisitor, unlike most of them who pretty much stayed within the walls of the Vatican. Mary was an exception to the rule, in more ways than one being the only female Grand Inquisitor, and often went out into the field with her Knights, but this was the first time she had joined up with Vito, and he found it a little disconcerting.

  As he sat there and ruminated over things, he felt a burst of dark energy not too far away wash over him.

  He sat up and, holding his cross on the chain about his neck, focused his divine soul. The flare of energy faded, but it had been there a moment ago. He looked to his left and saw that Mary had stopped reading the book and was also concentrating.

  ‘You felt that too?’ he asked her.

  ‘By His grace, yes,’ she said, and closed the book. She stood up and concentrated for a second more before she turned to the group of Crusader Knights that were with them, a mix of hers and Vito’s. ‘You three, go and check out the other carriages. We have company.’

  Vito could see that a few of the Knights had picked up on the energy burst themselves, they were members of God’s chosen few, working their way up the ranks to full Inquisitor status. Mary had picked three of the ones with the Gift of God out from the group and sent them up through the train to check things out. They were in the rear most carriage, so there was only one way they could come at them from, which was but a minor comfort.

  Vito didn’t feel quite so happy or home free any more.

  In first class, Yasmin sat with her knees crossed at the dining table, sipping on her vintage champagne. Leaning back in the chair in her dark suit with its plunging neckline and graceful cut, her dark hair swept back from her beautiful but severe face. Nate, sitting opposite her thought she looked like she was enjoying the ride so far, he felt tense though, he wanted nothing more than to charge down that central isle and unleash hell.

  Nate also knew she would be punishing him later on for failing to get the Artefact from a weakling Arcadian Magi such a Raven, this probably wasn't helping his mood. Yasmin no doubt knew this and he felt sure that she had been making him sit here on purpose, making him squirm, knowing he wanted to redeem himself in her eyes.

  It hadn’t taken much to figure out the location of the Artefact. The resources of Yasmin's Coven, the Dark Knights, were vast. The confrontation in Paris between the Inquisitors and Raven wasn’t very subtle, and from there it had been all too easy to track where the Artefact went.

  He knew she would be making her attack on the end carriage soon enough, but she had wanted to enjoy the hospitality of the first class restaurant car first. So she sipped quietly on her drink and enjoyed the views, ignoring Nate.

  Nate suddenly sensed the bloom of Essentia halfway between them and the Inquisitors car.

  Nate looked up, and Yasmin smiled to herself.

  He wasn’t surprised or worried, he had expected them to come. The Legacy could never have just let the Artefact and the boy be taken by the Disciples of the Cross, and it also occurred to him that this could be another reason that Yasmin had chosen to wait before making her move, to see who else would turn up.

  Nate couldn't help but have a quick look around behind him briefly, just in case there happened to be a Legacy Magi sneaking up on him at that moment. He felt a little jumpy since returning empty handed, for which he knew there would consequences.

  Still she sat there though, in no rush to confront the Inquisitors yet it seemed. She would let the Arcadians make the first move.

  A few cars back from Yasmin, closer to the Inquisitors car but still within first class, Angel also felt the Essentia burst, and realised she had company on this train. She looked out the window, the train wasn’t as far along as she wanted it to be before she tried for the Artefact, her arrangements would need to be changed it seemed.

  She didn’t know why she felt a little annoyed by this, to those with the resources; the Inquisition wasn’t difficult to track. She had half expected company on this ride from some of the other parties interested in the book anyway.

  Gentle Water looked down through the centre of the carriages and concentrated. Amanda could see the Essentia swirl about him and followed suit, sending out her senses to see if she could pick anything up. She surprised herself by sensing three nexuses of Essentia moving up through the train. These were Magi, and she could feel the Essentia rippling about them as they tried to pick out Magi from the people about them. The strength of the Magic they used seemed quite weak, they weren’t very competent Magi by her guess, but three apprentices could be difficult to deal with.

  ‘There are three of them coming this way, they are few carriages away still, but they are Magi.’

  ‘I sensed them too,’ Amanda said.

  ‘Well done,’ he smiled. ‘I suggest you take girls to the next carriage,’ he said to Raven, ‘You can go too Amanda.’

  ‘God love ye, but no way, I’m not letting you do this alone. Raven can look after the girls by himself so he can, I’m staying with you.’

  ‘But there are three of them…’

  ‘My point exactly, there’s three of them, so you’ll need my help.’

  Gentle Water looked at her for a moment, and no doubt saw that she wasn’t going to change her mind about this. ‘All right then, you three go through there and sit down, the train looks fairly empty, so you find seat.’

  Raven took the twins into the next carriage away from the Inquisitors and sat them down, disappearing from view behind the chairs as Amanda watched.

  ‘So, what’s the plan?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘I go through into there,’ he indicated the carriage going the other way, towards the incoming Inquisitors, ‘sit down and try to hide my Magical nature. You hide in here.'

  'We flank them.' Amanda said excitedly.

  'Yes, we subdue them in here. We hide them in toilet.’

  ‘Won’t anyone see us attacking these men?’ she asked.

  ‘I make illusion around doors to hide what we do. Remember, this must be quick, nothing fancy, just knock them out.’

  Amanda nodded, feeling a little nervous about this plan now. Sparing was one thing, at least you knew you weren’t going to be seriously hurt when you pretended to fight with someone. This was very different.

  She knew she could do it, she knew she could fight, but this fight would be real, and would be the first test of her new skills. It had felt like the right thing to do when she had offered to assist Gentle Water with these three guys, but now, although she woul
dn’t chicken out, she didn’t feel quite so confident of her choice.

  ‘You are sure you can do this?’

  Amanda took a calming breath and centred herself, ‘I can, I’m ready.’

  ‘Then hide behind there and try to mask your Magical signature as best you can.’

  She nodded and slipped round the corner next to the door, out of sight from anyone looking down the central isle. Gentle Water stepped into the next seating area of the car, the sliding door opening and closing for him with a hiss.

  Amanda leant with her back to the wall and focussed herself, she reached out with her will and calmed the Essentia around her, smoothing out the ripples and eddies her presence created. She also concentrated on strengthening her Aegis, enhancing her Force shield and absorbing some of the local Essentia into herself, storing it to use in her attacks.

  She did each of these things slowly and carefully, taking care not to create too much disturbance within the local Essentia, and when it was done, she calmed herself once more and made the energy about her as still as she could.

  Now she listened, waiting for the Inquisitors to come into the carriage. As she waited, the door hissed open suddenly, and she tensed up. She looked right, waiting to see if it was her quarry, when a middle aged woman walked past her and through to the next car.

  Amanda relaxed and thought she best take a peek to see if she could see the Inquisitors, she didn’t want to attack any old aged pensioners. She could use her Magic, but thought it less risky to just look round the edge of the wall she stood behind.

  Moving to take a look, she inched her head outwards, careful to reveal as little as possible of herself as she did so. She looked through the clear Perspex panel on the door and down the aisle, where she could clearly see three guys, wearing black combats, tee shirts and jackets, walking slowly up the car, looking about them as they did so. Amanda could see the Essentia rippling out from them as they came, scanning for a tell-tale sign of a Magi. Right next to the door nearest herself, sitting in an aisle seat, sat Gentle Water, and as she looked, she saw there were no disturbances within the Essentia around him. He looked like a Mundane.

  She watched for a little while longer, until the three of them were getting quite close to the door and she knew they would be the next ones through it, and then she ducked back.

  Seconds later the sliding door opened and she could hear the sure footed steady steps of the Inquisitors boots on cheap carpet.

  ‘No one in that one, right, next car,’ one of them muttered to himself.

  It was them, and they had missed Gentle Water. As she heard the door hiss closed and the first of them came into view beside her, she knew it was time.

  The next few seconds were a blur to her, they passed so quickly that it finished before she knew what it was she was doing..

  She had turned her head to look at the leading guy, he had looked back at her and that’s when she had moved. She went purely for a subduing hit, wanting to knock him out and nothing else. Her strike smashed through his weak Aegis and hit home hard on his temple, some of the Essentia in her body flooding out through the strike to disrupt his thoughts, and it worked. The man can’t have known what had hit him as he fell to the floor like a dead weight, out cold.

  Amanda caught a glimpse of a similar quick series of movements where Gentle Water, who had followed the inquisitors through the door, hit the man at the rear of the group while the middle one looked on at Amanda in bewilderment.

  ‘What the…’ he said, before Amanda moved to repeat her attack, doing the same to the second as she’d done to the first, ready for her he parried her attack, his arm up and blocking her attack to his head, but her punch still broke through his Aegis, shattering it, and her Essentia still delivering a stinging blow to his arm.

  He yelped while Amanda, unphased by his block, went for his groin with her foot, the kick doubling him over and giving her all the time in the world and a wide open space to slam her powerful fist hard into the side of his skull. The final man hit the ground with a thud, and the entrance area went quite again.

  Gentle Water stood near her, the rear most man subdued at his feet. ‘Quickly, we hide them in here?’ He said, indicating the cubical next to them.

  Amanda had long since used her Magic to permanently enhance her strength and speed, making her quicker and stronger, although she looked no different than she did normally. Her muscles weren’t bigger or more defined as the extra strength had been created Magically. This enhanced physicality made moving these bodies much easier, and within moments, they had hidden the bodies and locked the doors with a quick Magical telekinetic pull on the lock.

  The excitement over with for the time being, Raven and the girls came back through. Raven had no doubt been scrying the fight they had just had and seen everything.

  ‘Nicely handled you two, but that’s only scratching the surface I think.’

  ‘Agreed, we need to move quickly, these three men will be missed,’ said Gentle Water.

  ‘Okay, let’s get to the Inquisition’s Car shall we?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘Indeed,’ Raven said, so they started to make their way down the carriages towards the end of the train where Amanda could sense the Aegis hiding the Magical essence of the end car.

  ‘GW, do you have a plan at all?’ Amanda asked Gentle Water who was leading the way.

  ‘No, I am just making this up as I go.’

  Amanda smiled, ‘How very Indiana Jones of you,’ she said.

  Gentle Water looked back at her with a confused expression on his face, he clearly didn’t get the reference.

  Amanda giggled and rolled her eyes, ‘Never mind.’

  I don’t know if I agree with sending Amanda out like this, it’s going to be a dangerous mission, it should not be her first. But what do I know, she says it has to be this way and that young Amanda must go. So there we go, decision made. End of story.

  I’m sure she’ll be fine, everyone says I worry too much.

  They’re probably right.

  - Diary of Royston Kendrick

  Siege

  The French Countryside

  Moments later

  They were one more carriage away now, one more car with a few passengers in it and then it and then came the Inquisitors Carriage. They’d stopped in the vestibule just before this final carriage to discuss what they were going to do.

  ‘That Aegis is not strong, can you see it?’ Gentle Water asked.

  Amanda was having a good look at it herself, she could see it as a layer of solidified Essentia surrounding the final car, and as she concentrated, she thought she could feel its strength and how much punishment it would take to disable it. She’d created a few Aegises’ in her time now, and she was starting to get to know just how powerful they were, and this one seemed almost like a token effect, put in place to stop casual scrying, to act as an alarm, but little else.

  ‘Yeah, I think we could force that thing down pretty easily, so what’s the plan?‘

  ‘We head to next carriage, Raven, you stay here with girls, I want you close, but your first priority is the girls. Once it safe we call for you.’

  ‘Sounds good to me,’ said Raven.

  ‘You’ll save Stephan, won’t you?’ Fran said to Amanda and Gentle Water.’

  ‘We will do our very best, I promise you that,’ Amanda replied with a reassuring smile.

  They moved out of the vestibule and through this final carriage, towards the far end, close to the Inquisitors Car, Raven found a table seat and sat down with the girls.

  ‘Good luck you two, we’re right here if you need help,’ Raven said.

  Gentle Water nodded before following Amanda out of the seating area.

  This area was much like the other Vestibules, two end sections of two cars linked by an open flexible join which snaked and flexed as the train moved. The pair moved through the flexible join towards the door into the main part of the final carriage. Amanda felt tense, the Essentia stored inside her roil
ed about and it almost felt like it might start sparking off her fists any moment now.

  As they approached this final door, a swing door rather than a sliding one, they noticed a sign on it saying 'No Entry, closed for refurbishment, also the window of the door had been blacked out and as Magi, they could both feel the barrier that barred their Magic from the next car. It felt like being stood close to an electrical substation and the feeling of energy and power you got from that.

  Gentle Water came up beside Amanda and the two looked at one another. ‘Ready?’ Amanda said quietly, in case their voices carried into the Inquisitors car.

  He nodded in reply and held out his hand.

  Amanda took hold of it and together they started to draw in as much Essentia as they could on top of her reserves she kept ready for the fight to come. Drawing it in like a sponge and feeling the rush of energy that thrummed inside her body in a similar way that incredibly loud music vibrates and resonate inside your rib cage felt exhilarating.

  She could feel Gentle Water doing the same, and within a few moments, she felt like she was about pop from the pressure.

  ‘On three,’ Gentle Water said. ‘One, two three!’

  Amanda pulled the cork on the pent up energy, but funnelled it and channelled it, blasting it out at the Aegis before them. As she watched, she could feel the Aegis being overloaded, forced beyond its capabilities, when suddenly, there was a snap in their air, a feeling more than a sound, and the Aegis fell.

  Gentle Water let go of Amanda’s hand and kicked the door before them, slamming it open, breaking the lock. The door swung wide and her mentor bolted through the entrance into the next car.

  Amanda felt more than a little shocked by the energy her mentor displayed, but before she had time to ruminate on it, two men dressed in clothing similar to the three Inquisitors they had dealt with earlier, jumped out the carriage, each with a large and keen looking sword held in their grasp.

  Amanda stepped back into the vestibule and dropped into a fighting stance, OK, she thought, here we go!