Accidental Wizard

by Stefan Lear

  Paul slipped into an attack stance, ready to punish his father again. “That’s not all I know, Mr. Logan. Let me show you.” Paul closed his eyes and stretched his will to the air, condensing it. He brought his arms down swiftly to his side, palms down. A dense patch of fog came crashing down and pinned his dad to the ground. “What do you think about that, Mr. Logan? Does the son you abandoned make you proud now?” Scorn laced the question.

  The scorn was not lost on its recipient.

  Paul raised his hands, releasing his dad from the dense air that pinned him to the ground. “I taught myself that one.”

  Paul’s father stood up slowly. He wasn’t injured, but he didn’t want to make any moves that Paul considered hostile. He had to act like he would around a wounded animal.

  “That’s impressive. You’re not even thirty yet, and you’re using powers that take most people seven or eight decades to master. I always knew you were special, Paul. I always knew you would be powerful, but you surpass even my expectations of you.”

  Paul just stood there listening to him. He was sure he was being played, he just had to anticipate how he was being fooled.

  “Look, I know you’re mad at me. I’d be mad too if my father did to me what I did to you. I might even try to kill him. But I need you to know that you and your mother and I were once a very happy family. I want to explain how it all went wrong. None of this is your fault, Paul.”

  “And it’s not your fault? Who made the decision to wipe my memory and leave?” Paul was vehement. Years of hate and recent betrayal sprang forward.

  “You’re right, it was all my decision to do. But if I hadn’t made my choices, there’s a distinct possibility that you wouldn’t be alive. Your mother had become someone I didn’t recognize. She was willing to do whatever she needed to consolidate and keep the power she had acquired. You don’t know how much your mother changed after she joined The Restoration. I didn’t recognize her. Physically she was the same woman I fell in love with, but the woman inside that I loved was gone. I feared for your innocence, for your safety. I didn’t want my loving child to become what your mother became. You can’t understand until you have a child of your own the need to keep them safe at all costs, even at the cost of your own life.”

  “Just don’t expect to be forgiven any time in this decade or the next,” Paul told his dad.

  “Ah, so you are thinking about forgiving me, then.” Mr. Logan smirked. “Since you’re not calling me dad anymore, let’s make it a little less formal. My name is Chase. That will make it less tedious for you when you’re addressing me. Just call me Chase.”

  Paul wasn’t amused in the least. “I assume you know the way out?” With that he walked away into the forest, intent on returning to his little SRO where life was much less complicated.

  Chapter 13

  Paul was on the trolley care headed back home. He had spent the day volunteering at the dayroom. It was pretty easy work today. All had done is play three dvd movies for the homeless and make sure that no one slept while the movies were playing. Easy stuff that they really enjoyed. It was appreciated by the homeless, and they had so little to be thankful for. It was a hard life they lived, and he enjoyed making it more joyful.

  He got off the trolley at 12th and Alder and began walking home. He noticed two men at the bus stop where he had exited the trolley. Both of them were watching him. He smiled at them, but got only stoicism in return. As he rounded the corner onto Alder he glanced over his shoulder and noticed they were no longer there.

  Something wasn’t sitting right, and his spidey sense was going off. Paul kept walking toward his apartment. Every since his dad had reappeared things had been different. He had been on edge. He was instantly suspicious whenever a stranger stared at him longer than social etiquette said they should. It was making him tense, and he didn’t really like it. Still, he kept going to work and volunteering. He didn’t care for working, but really enjoyed volunteering to help the homeless population. Paul smiled to himself. He had saved a number of the homeless when he killed that barghest and not a one of them knew it. That was ok, too.

  He got to the corner of 13th and Alder and crossed to his apartment building. He walked toward the front door, and two men and a woman appeared from around the corner. They were chatting among themselves and laughing. Paul reached into his pants and pulled out the key to the building. The woman asked from behind him if he had a light she could get from Paul. Paul turned to tell her he didn’t smoke. The last thing he remembered was a hand pressing a cloth over his mouth.

  PAUL WOKE UP GROGGY. His vision was fuzzy around the edges but getting clearer. He was in a huge bedroom. He was on a canopy bed, there was a fireplace and a bar. He guessed that one of the doors in the room led to a bathroom: there were three of them. The floor was some kind of marble, and the walls were paneled in what looked like zebra wood. He didn’t particularly care for zebra wood, but it was durable and elegant if done right.

  He was still in his shorts and t-shirt, but laid out on a chair was a change of clothes. They looked like they might fit.

  He opened the door on his left. It was an overgrown bathroom. Three of his apartments would fit inside. He closed the door and went to the next door. He pulled it open and found a closet that could have been an anterior room in a mansion. The racks were lined with suits and shirts. On racks below that were a collection of shoes all polished and shiny. He closed that door and went to the last door. He opened it and stepped through into a large library. Books on shelves lined three of the walls. A fireplace adorned the remaining wall, and tow sofas faced each other near the fireplace. He looked at some of the book titles. Classic literature was heavily represented, but modern literature also was present. It might take a couple of decades to read each and every book on the shelves.

  “Hello, Paul Logan.” A man stood behind him. His clothing was an understated classic cut. It had probably been hand tailored. He had entered through the door on the other side of the room. “Madame Logan requests your presence. I have been sent to escort you to her.”

  “Let’s go,” Paul replied, and swept his arm forward, signaling for the man to lead the way. The man turned and walked away, expecting that Paul would follow. Paul was tempted to stay where he was, but was sure that Madame Logan would only find that to be amusing. But follow him Paul did.

  The man made two left turns, each time at the end of a long hallway. In the last hallway he opened the door that lay at the end and motioned for Paul to enter. Paul crossed the threshold cautiously, not sure what to expect. In a completely while room a woman sat in a white leather chair behind a white desk. The woman was speaking on a phone. Paul couldn’t make out who it was, so he couldn’t be sure it was his mother.

  Whoever sat at the desk paused their conversation on the phone, extending the receiver away from their head. The chair swiveled and the woman sitting in the chair hung up the phone. Sitting there was a woman that in every way resembled the woman he remembered being stabbed by his father. He was still incredulous, but after the events of the last week or so, his first inclination was to be cautious.

  The woman smiled at him. “My goodness, Paul. What a handsome man you’ve grown up to be. I only imagined when you were a child how good looking you would be. Let me look at you.”

  “Are you really my mother? You look like her, but are you really her?” Paul had difficulty grasping the reality that the mother his mind kept seeing as dead was standing right in front of him. She had the same smile her remembered, she moved the same way.

  The woman moved from behind the desk and walked closer to him. “Of course I’m your mother. Who else would I be? I’ve been searching for you since your dad ran out and took you with him. I haven’t seen you in almost fifteen years now.” She moved toward him and threw her arms around this neck.“

  Paul was caught off guard by the sudden affection of this woman. He wasn’t sure what to do, so he did nothing. He stood there and allowed her to hug him. At least for
the first couple of minutes he did. Then when he started feeling uncomfortable he spoke up. “Excuse me.”

  The woman released him and stood directly in front of him. “I’m sorry. This must be quite the difficult situation for you.”

  “Oh, no problem. I was wondering if I could ask you some questions. That’s all.”

  “Of course you can. What would you like to know?”

  “What is The Restoration?”

  Slightly taken back her son’s bluntness, she paused before answering. “The Restoration used to be a what. Now it’s a who. I’m The Restoration. The largest conglomerate in the the world. I run it all from this office. It used to be a company, but now I own and manage it. I answer to myself. There is no authority higher than me. I tell countries when to fight and who to fight.”

  “Mr. Logan, your ex, said that you were seduced by The Restoration, that you began to change. He says you became ruthless and vicious, and he took me and hid me to protect me from you.”

  “Chase was always so dramatic. If I were ruthless, don’t you think I would have had him killed for what he did? For stealing my precious child from me and making it next to impossible for me to find you? If I were vicious I would have turned Chase into a post-op transexual without the benefit of surgery. All I have ever wanted was to see my baby boy again.”

  Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

  “Of course it does. Now that I’ve found you there’s no way I’m going to part with you again. I’ve furnished a room for you here. Why don’t you move in and we can be together again. I’ll even show you how to run The Restoration.”

  “I might like that. Can I think about it tonight? Have a chance to talk with my friends in the apartment building? If I’m going to move in here, I’d like a chance to spend a little time before I leave them.”

  “Of course you can, Paul. Don’t give it a second thought. I’ll have my assistant take you home.”

  “Thanks. How do I contact you?”

  Paul’s mother reached out and took a piece of paper off the desk. “This is my business card. Just call when you’re ready to come back.”

  “I will. Thanks.” Paul reached out towards his mother, Mrs. Diane Logan, and gave her a hug. She was for thrown off by the gesture and didn’t immediately return the hug. “I’ll see myself out.” With that he walked through the office door. He stopped just a couple of steps down the hall and strained to hear what happened inside the office.

  “Yes I’m sure. I have him now. Start the next phase. And send someone to kill his father. He has no use now.”

  Paul turned and kept walking down the hall. As he rounded the first corner Mrs. Logan’s assistant almost collided with him. “There you are.”

  “Here I am, bro. Ready to take me home?”

  “Of course, sir.”

  “Lets get a move on. I have a pizza waiting for me at home. It’s a supreme with jalapeños on it. Have you ever had jalapeños on your pizza?”

  “No sir, Mr. Logan, I can’t say that I have.”

  “You’ll have to try it some time. Now that I’m gonna be moving in you’ll get plenty chances to partake of the mighty heat bombs.”

  “Wonderful, sir.”

  Chapter 14

  Paul rushed off the elevator and into his apartment. He pulled open the drawer he kept his pizza cutter in and rummaged around. There it was, the coin Magnus had given him. He put it between thumb and finger and rubbed it furiously. Once again he was surrounded by blue light, and once again he was in Magnus’s study. Magnus had a shotgun leveled at him. As soon as Magnus knew who it was, he lowered the barrel and set the gun on the table.

  “Sorry about that. Now that The Reformation knows you’re alive and know where you live, I can’t be too sure if they sacked your apartment and found my beacon or not. What do you want?”

  “I just came from my Mom’s office. She’s sending people to kill her ex, Chase. If you have a way to warn him, do it.”

  “Thanks. I’ll be right back.” Magnus opened a portal and moved toward it. “Stay here, Paul.” The portal closed behind him. Paul sat down in the same chair Magnus had put him in after being attacked by the barghest. Things had changed so much since Marie had died. There wasn’t much about his life that this whole business with The Restoration hadn’t touched. He refused to let them take away his dad before he had a chance to torture him emotionally. Besides, the man was his dad even if he had screwed up his memories and his life. He could forgive him later.

  Magnuson and Chase walked though a portal into the office as Paul finished his thought. “That was quick, Magnuson.”

  “Your dad always likes to hang out at the seediest bars in town. It wasn’t hard to find him.”

  “Paul, how do you know that someone is being sent to kill me?”

  “I heard mom say it on the phone. She tried to move me in immediately. I figured it was to keep an eye on me. But I’m not so sure now. She told me that she decides what countries go to war with each other, and I figure that someone that has no problem starting wars and killing innocent people can’t be trusted. She puts on a good act, though. She almost had me fooled.”

  Chase squeezed his shoulder. “I’m glad you were able to see through her, Paul.”

  “Yeah, that makes two of us.”

  “So how are we going to handle this, gentlemen?” Chase looked from Paul to Magnuson. “Any suggestions.”

  “How about we do the last thing she would expect for us to do,” Magnuson stated. “Attack her office. Destroy her and The Restoration.”

  “If we destroy her, don’t we destroy The Restoration?”

  Chase looked at him. “What do you mean?”

  “When I was there she said she is The Restoration.”

  “That certainly makes it easier for us,” Magnuson said. “Is everyone ready? There’s going to be resistance the minute we arrive.”

  “Let’s do it,” Chase said.

  THE SECURITY GUARD behind the information desk looked up when the blue from Magnuson’s portal flashed into the middle of the lobby. The guard picked up the phone, dialed #66, and spoke into the phone. “Emergency breach. Lock all doors. Engage all wards. Breach in the lobby.” The guard hung up the phone and unholstered his gun. He aimed directly at the center of the portal and fired. The bullet passed through and shattered the glass wall.

  Magnus, Chase, and Paul all exited the portal at the same time. Chase was in the center, Magnuson ran to the left, and Paul ran to the right. The guard was disoriented long enough for Chase to throw a dagger into his neck. It struck the man’s artery and he went down in a pool of blood gushing from the an artery.

  Magnuson and Paul stood opposite each other on both sides of the hallway leading to the elevators. The elevators hissed open. Paul had already drawn his will to him and only waited to release it. They both waited for someone to step out. What came barreling out was quite different that what they had expected. From each elevator came a barghest charging directly at them.

  Both Magnuson and Paul released their wills at the same time. The front two barghests that led the charge were knocked off their feet but the two barghest behind them weren’t affected at all. They maintained their charge. They jumped at the humans, intending to rip their throats out. Both Magnuson and Paul shielded themselves using magic. The barghests bounced off of the shields and landed in the lobby.

  Chase reached the fallen barghest and withdrew his sword. It was polished and the steel glowed blue. He swung the blade down and lodged it in the neck of one of the beasts. It squealed in agony.

  In the chaos no one had seen the stairway doors open or the men that streamed through the door. Each man was armed with an automatic weapon and a shield. When the last man streamed through the door, the front row of men knelt and raised their shield in front of them. The four men in the back row raised their weapons and began firing.

  One bullet hit Paul in his left shoulder, raising a scream of pain from his throat. Magnuson immediately ducked behind the
wall he had used as cover when the elevators first opened.

  Paul glance where Chase had wounded the barghest and there he was on the floor, holes in his jacket and blooms of blood spreading love his clothes.

  “Dad,” Paul screamed. Magnuson heard the scream and looked at what Paul was staring at.

  “Paul! Paul,” Magnuson screamed. Paul turned to look at him. “Fire,” he said, and pointed at the armed guards.

  Paul nodded at Magnuson. He took up position, aimed, and gathered his fury. He pointed the fire at he wall opposite him, hoping to make it impossible to see past the flames. The firing at the end of the hall stopped as the stormtroopers raised their shield to guard against the flames.

  Paul looked over his shoulder and saw Magnuson carrying his dad through a portal. He stopped the flames and ran to the portal. He stepped through half a second before it closed.

  “THAT DIDN’T GO WELL,” Magnuson said as they stepped through the portal. He laid Chase down on on top of the table in the center of the room. He took off Chase’s coat and looked. There were four bullet holes. Two were in the heart area, one was through a lung most likely, and the other had lodged in Chase’s arm. “You’re losing too much blood, my friend. I don’t have enough time to operate and close the wounds. There are two bullets in your heart. I think one of them hit an artery.”

  “What are you saying?” Paul looked at Magnuson with panic in his eyes. “He can’t die. I haven’t had a chance to...”

  “Paul. Look at me.” Paul turned to chase. “You’ve always been my son. There will always be a part of me that lives on in you. Remember, that wan’t your Mom that you met,” Chase coughed up blood. “Give me your hand.”