by Ryan Attard
Amaymon pointed at the bottle. “Did something happen?”
Abi shot him a dark look. “It’s still a work in progress,” she pouted. “After managing that telekinetic pull on the stop sign, I kept trying to fine-tune that power. Seems I can only pull it off when I’m in real danger.” Her expression brightened. “But hey, I snuck up on Erik. That’s got to earn me some points.”
“He ain’t exactly the most focused person right now,” replied the demon.
Abi looked at me. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah,” I said, waving her off. “Just a bit of therapy.”
“Erik has just shared his background with us,” interjected Sun Tzu.
“Oh,” she said. “I wanted to hear that.”
“I’m sorry, Abi, but once was hard enough,” I said.
“Oh,” she said, partially crestfallen. But her mood brightened up. “Don’t worry about it, the cat will fill me in.”
Amaymon winked at her. “Sure, I will, babe,” he said with a sleazy tone. “In whichever way you want.”
Even I felt my stomach turn. But Abi calmly looked at him and reached behind her.
“Hey, kitty, how would you like a stick up your ass?” she said. A little golden rod in her hand expanded until it reached two feet in length. I let out a low whistle.
“Got the king, huh?” I said. I extracted Djinn and tapped the rod. “Yep, real gold,” I commented. Abi waved around her new toy and pointed it at my familiar.
“If I hear one ‘rod’ joke out of you, I’m caving your skull in.”
Amaymon smiled and raised his hands in mock innocence.
“According to the fable Journey to the West,” said Sun Tzu, “the Monkey King was a master of transformation with more than seventy different shapes. That appears to be the main ability of your weapon, Abigale. For now, at least.”
The rod shrunk back to fit in her palm. “Yeah,” she said. “I can play around with length for now, but I’m psyched to figure out what else it can do.”
The Asian man smiled at her energy and enthusiasm. “And I am sure you will, with sufficient practice.”
“Yeah, we got a lot of training left ahead of us,” I said. Although, in comparison, hers would be easier than mine. She wouldn’t have to relearn everything from scratch. Sometimes, it pays to know nothing and be open to learning new stuff.
I remember the basic lessons of magic that Mephisto had taught us. In a strange twist of fate, neither I, nor my apprentice, were bound by such strict methods. For us, it was all about intention, which is the true key of any spell. Having our own personal channels meant we could bypass all the catalysts and incantations. True, it did require more concentration and unwavering focus on our part, but that’s exactly why we needed the practice.
I glanced at Abi and wondered. Her mind was her catalyst; as long as she willed it she had the potential to do anything. That was one scary power to have. Thank the stars there weren’t many evil hybrids around or I’d be in some deep shit.
On the other hand, my own magic wasn’t anything to scoff at. If Amaymon and Tzu were right, I had power over the blueprints of life.
That was utterly terrifying and awesome.
Perhaps there was a reason why she was my student. A unique wizard teaching a unique apprentice. Fate does, indeed, work in mysterious ways.
Abi toyed with her new weapon, which had shrunk down to the size of a small chopstick. “I wonder how to carry this thing. Does it magically appear in my hands whenever I need it?”
“Yes, but it is far quicker and more practical to just carry it on your person,” replied Sun Tzu patiently. “The original Sun Wo Kung used to carry the staff as a toothpick, placing it behind his ear or between his teeth,” he suggested helpfully. Abi’s face twisted slightly.
“Ew. Put him in my mouth? Bleh.”
A grin pulled on my lips, and I tried my best to stifle the laugh I knew was about to burst forward. For a succubus, she was really naïve about perverted innuendoes. She saw me and realized her mistake.
“That was wrong, wasn’t it?” she said in a tone of self-defeat. I nodded and kept smiling. She rolled her eyes at me and pulled her hair back. After some twisting, the little length of gold was skewering the knot, holding her hair in place. She looked happy with herself.
She looked well, my apprentice. She had defeated her first major challenge, obtained a weapon which would aid her for the rest of her life, and proved to me that she was no longer just another girl. She had become a wizard, or rather, a witch. Whatever the title, she had grown so much in these last months. I’d never thought I would take on a student. I felt I wasn’t ready, or worthy, to teach anyone anything. That’s why I let Amaymon teach her the majority of what she knew. I still had unfinished business with Tenzin, which I had put off for years. I suppose now, after having made the thing public, I was supposed to feel better. But I didn’t.
I still had one last thing to do.
One last piece of business to resolve everything and move on.
“Are you going somewhere?” she asked as I rose from my seat.
“Yeah. Just remembered something I gotta do.”
I looked at each of them in turn. Sun Tzu nodded, understanding my intention. Amaymon dismissed me with his yellow eyes.
“Okay, I’ll come with you,” she said.
I held my hand up. “Nah, I gotta do this alone. Personal stuff.”
She gave me a quizzical look, but said nothing. In fact, she raised her eyebrows and backed up.
“Amaymon, you stay here and make sure she gets back okay,” I ordered the familiar.
“Hey, I don’t need a babysitter,” replied Abi sternly.
“It’s not for babysitting. I just need someone to make sure he doesn’t burn the place down while he’s alone,” I explained. She gave me a look.
I really needed to get some better excuses.
“He’s got a story to tell you,” I said. She still said nothing, but her expression softened.
“Yay, I get the girl,” yelped Amaymon. He jumped off the chair, morphed into a cat and leapt onto her.
“Hey, watch it. You’re not as light as you think you are,” she said, trying not to drop the feline dangling from her chest.
Amaymon adjusted himself as she cradled him.
“Never, ever, comment about my weight,” he said.
I smiled at the scene, spun, and left.
45
The drive home was an empty experience. No radio, no music - just me and an open window. I was so immersed in my thoughts that I barely heard the other cars. You’d think that after three bottles I shouldn’t be driving.
Get off my case.
I’ve walked away from gunshots, stab wounds, impalement, dismemberment, and being thrown off the top of a hospital, of all places. And that was just this year. When you got healing powers like mine, alcohol isn’t really an issue.
Without Amaymon to greet me with a prank or just some good, old-fashioned sarcasm, my office was strangely peaceful. It was no longer the dump I had gotten all those years ago, and Abi went out of her way to pretty it up. But the sound of silence remained unchanged throughout all these years. This place was exactly like me. We had changed, but deep down, there were still some issues yet unresolved.
Time to deal with some skeletons, I thought.
I walked over to my basement door and descended a narrow set of steps into a small room full of junk. Mostly it was just the cat that came down here and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a stash of Playboys hidden behind the beakers and test tubes. I hadn’t used the potion tables down here in years, and mostly kept the stuff out of nostalgia or for Abi’s sake.
At the far end of the basement stood a single aluminum shelf piled with books and other junk. I reached inside a tupperware box full of trinkets and felt around. My fingers clamped around a black-lacquered box and opened it. For the first time in years, I held the good luck charm Tenzin had left me.
I stared at the
burned symbol. When it met my magic, the shelf moved to the right, bumping gently against the wall. It exposed a barren section of the wall with a large painted circle and the kanji for ‘gate’ inscribed in the middle. A prayer, written in kanji, surrounded the circle, the characters providing an air of esotericism. I channeled magic from the talisman to the symbol on the wall. I had constructed this mechanism with the talisman acting as a key but I had never tested it before. I just couldn’t face it.
A portal of light appeared inside the circle, and I stepped in.
I went through the portal to a grassy plane. The smell of fresh grass and the gentle wind brought back memories.
The pocket universe was much, much smaller, with only a field and a hill remaining, but it was still a paradise. Over the years the tiny shard that remained of this place, the minute amount of energy Tenzin had left me, grew like a seedling, slowly feeding off of the energy I poured into it. My office was akin to a magic incubator, perfect for something like this.
Something glinted in the sun at the top of the hill, and I made my way up. At the topmost point was a five foot rectangular block of crystal, its sides angled to catch the light - a monument I made in Tenzin’s honor. It was a very tough process to crystallize that much stone, but the end result was perfect.
Transparent, jagged around the edges, and always full of light – just like Tenzin.
I knelt respectfully in front of his monument and muttered the prayer he had taught me.
There was no holding back the tears. I cried over his tombstone until I felt empty inside. All the grief, all the times I had missed him, or wished he were there to guide me. I poured out all my emotions in one fell swoop. I needed him against the Sins. I needed him because he was a decent guy, and the world needed more of his kind.
I needed him because he loved me like a father and I loved him back like a son.
But I had to let go. I had to move on. I came here to conclude, not remain stuck in the gray swampy middle. A conclusion but not an end.
Never an end.
I stood.
“Thank you,” I said. I was never more sincere or more heartfelt in my life. I bent down and kissed the crystal. Light shimmered inside it. It was alive, the whole place was.
“I’ll make you proud,” I promised. My head dipped into a slight bow and I swallowed the lump in my throat.
Despite the crying, I did feel better. I felt lighter and ready. With renewed spirit, I found the inner strength to turn and walk away from the tombstone and all the way down to the grassy field.
I exited the portal and willed it shut. The aluminum shelf slid back in place.
My cell phone vibrated inside my coat pocket and I fished it out.
“Yeah?” I said as I looked at the symbol burned on the talisman. I felt something like inner peace in the depths of my soul.
A familiar voice crackled at the other end.
“Hello, brother.”
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Book 1: Firstborn
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ryan Attard is the author of the Legacy series, The Pandora Chronicles and, as of recently, Evil Plan Inc. When not tormenting his protagonists or ruling over his imaginary worlds, Ryan can be found within the confines of his house on an island far, far away, either geeking out about the latest book or manga chapter he read, or a television show he just finished watching.
He can also be found spewing his opinions and telling terrible jokes on his weekly podcast, The Lurking Voice podcast, which can be found through his website (although if you are easily offended you should definitely not listen).
He is also the kind of person who writes about himself in the third person.
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Table of Contents
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