Mage Dissolution

by Christopher George

  Worrying about it wasn’t going to help me, but there was very little else to do in this room. It would have been nice if he’d left me a book or something. Hell even a deck of cards would have been nice. It had been some time since I’d last played solitaire, but I was sure once I figured out how it was dealt out I could remember the rules.

  I pulled up a mangled office chair that had been thrown into the corner and tried my best to make myself comfortable on it.

  I must have nodded off as the next thing I knew I was jolted awake by a loud explosion of sound rocketing through the room. I jumped to my feet. I recognised that noise. Someone was teleporting into the room.

  I quickly slipped the screwdriver up into the sleeve of my jacket. I knew it would be no good, but it made me feel a little better to have it resting against my wrist.

  “Hello?” I called out.

  “Hello Outcast!” a voice sneered back. I recognised that voice. It wasn’t Victor. It was May Chen. I couldn’t decide if that was better or worse.

  Victor was more powerful, but he didn’t seem to want to harm me. May had claimed on several occasions that she was going to kill me. No, this was definitely worse I concluded grimly. I was going to die in this room. I just knew it.

  It seemed like such a waste, after everything I had been through, to go out like this – it seemed almost ironic. I turned towards the sound of May’s voice.

  “You’re here to answer for your crimes,” she announced.

  “What crimes?” I scoffed, “the Primea never pronounced judgement.”

  “She was going to!” May hissed.

  “But she didn’t! Let’s not pretend this is anything, but what it is. This is you taking revenge for your husband.”

  “No! This is an execution of an outcast from our order.”

  “I’m not a member of your order anymore,” I reminded her.

  “Doesn’t matter, you need to pay for your crimes.”

  “Like the death of your husband?”

  “Like that.”

  “I didn’t kill your husband.”

  “You were his friend, then you turned on him and joined his enemies.”

  “No! Listen!” I begged, “I didn’t turn on Degs, Victor ordered him to come after me.”

  I could tell that this wasn’t going to do any good. May was slowly working herself up into a state where she could do this. It would take her some time, but I had no doubt that she would strike me down, and when she did the small screwdriver in my pocket would be no defence. My goose was as good as cooked.

  “He trusted you! He helped you!” she said, almost on the verge of tears, “and you let him die! Why did you do that? Why? Make me understand!”

  The hair began to rise on the back of my neck. May was drawing upon Mana. It would happen soon.

  “Why? Why did you live and he have to be the one who died?” She sobbed as she stepped towards me. I took several steps back, even though it was useless. There was nowhere else to go.

  “May! Don’t do this,” I whispered, “you’re not a murderer!”

  “This isn’t murder,” May hissed, “this is an execution!”

  “No, no it’s not!” It was going to happen soon.

  “Devon Wills!” May announced, her voice taking on an official tone, “for your crimes against the order, I sentence you to death. Do you have any last words?”

  “This is murder May!” I said. As far as last words go they lacked a certain something, but I couldn’t really think of anything better.

  “Very well,” May finished, “I will now deliver the sentence. Kneel down and receive your judgment!”

  “I’m not going to kneel down before you!” I grunted angrily, “If you’re going to kill me you’re going to have to do it without that nicety. You’re going to have to murder me while I’m standing before you.”

  The hairs on the back of my neck were going crazy. I wasn’t sure how much Mana she was generating, but my senses were going wild. I needed to do something and I needed to do it now. I took a deep breath and readied myself to leap forward. If I took her by surprise, it’s possible that she didn’t have a shield raised, my little screwdriver might just allow me to end this. Who was I kidding? But I didn’t have any other choice. I leapt forward.

  That leap probably saved my life. The thread that was going to end my life, clipped me on the side rather than hitting me full on. The impact still sent me reeling and sliding off away from her. It may have been the shock of the strike or maybe my nerves were just playing havoc with me, but I swear I saw the thread for a few seconds as it arced away from me.

  May screamed in frustration and tried to bring the thread around again, but I was on my feet and moving.

  “Stand still!” she shrieked as the thread passed over my head. I’d gotten lucky, I’d managed to dodge a thread without being able to see it. So far I’d done better than I had thought. It didn’t matter much though – she almost certainly had a shield up now. Again it may have been my vision playing tricks, but I thought I make out a faint distortion surrounding her where her shield would be.

  The distraction proved to be detrimental as May brought the thread around and hit me square in the chest. I felt a crunch and pain lanced through me. The impact knocked me back off my feet and sent me sliding across the floor.

  I tried to get to my feet, but the pain in my chest was too much. She’d definitely broken some of my ribs, I’d felt this pain before. It took me several tries before I was able to pull myself roughly onto my knees. The pain was excruciating, but I’d learnt to deal with pain. I wasn’t going to simply roll over and let her finish this.

  May closed in and readied herself. I could see it in her eyes and the sharp grimace of her lips. I was going to die. I briefly wondered if it would hurt, if I would feel it, or would it be quick and I’d simply just find myself in the darkness. I sighed deeply, ignoring the pain in my chest and awaited the strike that would finish me.

  May took a deep breath. I could see her eyes steel over – it was coming. Then it didn’t. May’s eyes widened in shock and she took several steps back.

  “No, no no!” she repeated like a mantra, “no!”

  What the hell was she going on about? The Mana in her body reacted frantically to her state and her shield wavered. The thread that she had been going to use to end my life backed off as she readied to defend herself.

  I glanced around, who else had arrived? Had Tychus or Renee arrived to rescue me? If so their timing was amazing. I hadn’t heard the noise of their teleportation, but that could easily be explained away.

  Then I realised what had happened and just how wrong I had been. I could see her thread! I could see her Mana! In the stress of the situation I hadn’t realised it, but I was seeing Mana! I glanced down at my chest and saw with hysterical joy the pulse of the Mana on my own flesh.

  “NO!” May snarled as her thread arced down.

  Time seemed to slow down for me as I sought to raise a shield. Pain lanced through my body from my wrists and deep down into my core. My whole body twisted in agony as I sought to draw upon my power. A primal explosion of power erupted from me as the magic finally took me. I wasn’t able to raise a shield – nothing so elegant. It was simply an explosion of telekinetic energy that burst from me like a thunderclap. Everything surrounding me was thrown away. The blast hit May and impacted against her shield sending her stumbling backwards.

  In the inferno of pain released in the explosion the pain from my ribs didn’t seem so bad anymore. I took a step up and got back onto my feet. May rose in fury too sending a thread arcing towards me. I sent a thread of my own to block it.

  The thread was slow and weak, far below my norm, but it was sufficient to deflect May’s strike. A flood of endorphins swam into my body as the euphoria of Mana use overtook me. May’s next strike went wild and I took the opportunity to raise a shield. I had no doubts about the shield – it would not survive more than one direct hit, but it felt good to have something protect
ing me, shielding me. I no longer felt vulnerable and weak. I was in control and I was getting stronger, I could feel it.

  May charged towards me in fury and her thread lashed against me. I was able to hold my own, but just barely. May wasn’t the most powerful Mage I’d ever encountered, but she bristled with energy. The Mana burst from her like wild fire and hammered against my defences again and again. She had been well trained and would have been a challenge to my previous power level. She was stronger than I was, but was unbalanced and emotional. I was weaker, but had greater motivation. No, the outcome wasn’t assured at all.

  I stumbled backwards under the weight of her onslaught and then responded with a strike of my own. It landed impotently against her shield, but the impact caused her to take several steps back in shock. She hadn’t expected to get hit; I went on the offensive.

  With each step forward my thread got stronger. I hammered against her again and again. With each strike the Mana flared in me to a new level. The shield pulsed around me as the energy flowed from me. The Mana came quicker now and I was able to reinforce my weakened shield. I howled in joy as the shield surrounded me in my precious Mana.

  A wild thread hammered the locker bay into a misshapen wreck and a second brought the ducts down from the roof. May was in full retreat now only barely able to keep up with the speed and ferocity of my attack.

  With each step my power increased tenfold. The Mana literally sizzled from me in a fiery hue of power. The Mana responded to me quicker than before and with more power. It was intoxicating. I turned on May in fury and hammered my power down upon her, her thread was cast aside in the ferocity of my attack and her core laid bare.

  May’s eyes widened in fear as I stood over her, with a contemptuous flick of my wrist I shattered her shield and brought her to her knees. She looked up at me resolute, her face twisted in hatred and grief. There was nothing more she could do, she was now over matched and she knew it.

  “Kill me!” she snarled, “Kill me the way you killed my husband and be done with this!”

  “I’m not going to kill you,” I intoned darkly, “I never wanted that.”

  “This doesn’t change anything,” she hissed, “I’m going to keep coming for you. You should kill me!”

  May shuddered as I raised my hand, she obviously thought that I was about to change my mind and end her. Her look changed to confusion as the awareness spell swept across the room. The spell burst from my fingers like a supernova and easily consumed the room. I wasn’t sure just how large I had made the effect, but it served my purposes.

  It didn’t take too long before I heard the explosions of two people teleporting into the room. I didn’t have to turn to see who they were. May sighed in defeat and hung her head as Renee and Tychus approached from behind me.

  “Take her some place safe,” I growled to Tychus.

  “What am I going to do with her? Tychus shrugged back.

  “I don’t know,” I sighed, “just take her away.”

  “Maybe we should finish this,” Tychus murmured, “She did start it.”

  “No!” Both Renee and I said in unison.

  “Just asking,” Tychus grunted, “I doubt she’s going to stop coming after you.”

  “I’ll deal with it as it becomes a problem.”

  Both Renee and Tychus gave me a look of disapproval but said nothing. My head was beginning to throb painfully. This was normally a sign that I’d over indulged in Mana use, but after the last few days the pain was a delightful reminder that things were back to normal.

  * * * * * *

  “I’ve got May locked away in a store room,” Tychus announced gruffly, “I hit her with a disrupt spell, she’s not going anywhere for a while.”

  We had teleported out of the basement and were holed up on the top level of the building that I was supposed to take the helicopter from.

  “So what happened?” Renee asked, looking critically at Tychus. “How did she manage to grab Devon?”

  “She teleported him,” Tychus said.

  “I guessed that,” she said dryly.

  “Then hit the whole roof with a shading spell. By the time I got out of range she was long gone. I had no way of tracking her.’ He turned to me, “If you hadn’t set off that awareness blast I never would have found you.”

  “Effective trick,” I said.

  “She was one of the Primea’s key operatives,” he said sourly, “I should have expected it.”

  “Primea’s operatives?” I queried.

  “Used to hunt down and negate rogue Mages,” Tychus explained.

  “Why wasn’t she sent after me earlier?”

  “The Primea wouldn’t allow it.”

  It was becoming increasingly clear that there was one hell of a lot of internal politics going on and the Primea hadn’t remained as impartial as she should have been. She obviously had been supporting her son in some of his goals, or at least attempting to thwart Victor’s.

  “The question still remains, what are we going to do with her?” Renee said.

  “Nothing,” I replied, “we’re going to let her go.”

  “Let her go?” Both Renee and Tychus were incredulous.

  “Sure, why not?”

  “Because she tried to kill you?” Tychus replied sarcastically.

  “…and she now knows that she can’t.” I finished.

  “That’s beside the point,” Renee said, “She’s not going to stop coming after you.”

  “She can’t hurt me.”

  “That’s not the point either!” Renee snapped, “…and not necessarily true!”

  “So... what do we do? Kill her?”.

  “No, of course not!”

  “Then what? Keep her imprisoned for the rest of her life? Ask her nicely not to kill me please?”

  Renee didn’t answer. My sarcasm obviously wasn’t appreciated; I’d pay for that later. But clearly she couldn’t think of a better solution.

  “That’s a conversation for another day,” Tychus said firmly. “Now we need to determine what we’re going to do next.”

  “Do about what?” Renee asked.

  “About the Primeacy. With the position now likely to be open soon we’re going to have a war on our hands.”

  Renee nodded. “We’re going to need to move fast. My grandfather is probably already rallying his votes.”

  “How does this work? Who votes? How do they vote?” I normally didn’t pay attention to politics, in truth I really didn’t care who the Primea was, provided that it wasn’t Victor. But he was the most likely candidate now that Marcus had disappeared.

  “Only the senior Masters vote,” Renee said.

  “And who determines who a Master is?”

  “We don’t have a rigid structure around that,” Tychus said, “You’re a Master if no one is willing to stand against the claim.”

  “So I could claim to be a Master and vote for myself?”

  “Probably,” Renee said. “What’s your point? You thinking of running?

  “You can’t,” said Tychus, “you’re an outcast.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m not planning on running,” I grinned, “Renee is.”

  “What?” It’s not often I get the honour of seeing Renee stumped. “Why me?”

  “Because you’re a more moderate choice,” Tychus cut in excitedly. “As much as I admire Marcus, there are those that would not follow him because of his talk about revealing ourselves to the norms.”

  “I’m not a Master.” Renee said. “My studies have all but atrophied.”

  “That’s not the point, neither Marcus nor Victor would challenge that point and you would draw votes from Victor’s camp.”

  “Forget it!” she said angrily, “I’m not doing it!”

  “Then we have no choice,” Tychus announced ominously.

  “Once my father comes back, he can sort this out.”

  “Where is Marcus?” I asked. Victor had thought that I had killed him. I had been pretty sure that hadn’t bee
n the case.

  “I don’t know,” Tychus said.

  “I know.” Renee said softly. “He let everyone believe that he had fallen to you, but he actually had something else in mind. I’m assuming it had to do with those books you gave him. He called them a game changer.”

  The books on Necromancy. That didn’t bode well, I’d intended to use those books to expose Victor for the murdering megalomaniac that he was, not for Marcus to disappear with them. I didn’t trust Marcus enough to hope that he had the noblest of intentions with them.

  “We need him back,” Tychus grunted, stating the obvious.

  As much as it pained me to admit it, Marcus did have a plan for how to deal with Victor and was probably the most capable among us of standing against him. I had no wish to stand against Victor again until I could counter the magic that was sustaining him. Last time we had fought he had been secure in the knowledge of his superiority, should I face him now he would strike me down and strike me down quickly.

  “So what do we do?” Renee asked.

  “We wait,” Tychus said.

  “For what?”

  “The Primea to die,” he stated darkly.

  “Very well,” I nodded, “I’m going to go to Melbourne.”

  “Melbourne?” Tychus snorted. “What the hell is in Melbourne?”

  “My cousin. I can use this situation to my advantage and pull my cousin away from Victor, while he is distracted.”

  “We could use you here,” Tychus murmured.

  “I’m an outcast,” I reminded him, “I can’t do anything here. I return with my powers and my head is on the block.”

  Tychus wasn’t happy, but he couldn’t exactly fault me either. I was right. If any of the others saw that I had regained my powers they would be clamouring for my death. I had no part in the order any longer. He eventually stopped arguing and returned to take charge at the Manor whilst the Primea was incapacitated.

  And for the first time in a long while I contemplated my future.

  * * * * * *