Mage Dissolution

by Christopher George

  “Allie, wait!” I called out, but I wasn’t sure that she had even heard me over her fury. She swung her thread back with another primal shriek and if I hadn’t blocked it would have smashed my shield into pieces. I hadn’t counter attacked yet, I just didn’t want to hurt her. She obviously had no such restrictions.

  All reason and all conscious thought had left her. I could see she was intent on only one goal – my complete destruction. I stood amazed as she looped a thread through a car and lifted it easily from the ground to pummel me. My shield was barely able to absorb the concussive force of a car hammering against me again and again. The weight of the car added extra power to her strike. My shield sparked as the impact of the car glanced off me and the shock sent me reeling. I wouldn’t be able to absorb this kind of punishment for very long.

  I stumbled and was forced to focus on keeping my footing. If I fell and she brought the car down on me I’d be finished. Unfortunately after another glancing blow I tripped and fell over a tiled area. Allie immediately took the opportunity to bring the car smashing down on top of me.

  The sight of a two tonne car barrelling down onto you is one that tends to stick in your memory. I threw everything I had into my shield in the attempt to be able to at least survive the inevitable crater that her strike would create. The noise the collision made upon impact was stunning and sent ringing through my ears. The car, which was mostly wreckage at this stage, collided with my shield with stupendous force but the shield held! I was amazed, but it held!

  I didn’t have time to celebrate this fact that as I was just recovering when a second car came out of nowhere and smashed at me from my left side. This one was much heavier. It was one of those stupid four-wheel drive land rovers that city dwellers buy to prove that they have no Idea of what is an appropriate car to drive in the city.

  The impact sent me flying across the pavement. I’d just regained my footing when the first wreck of a car collided with my shield again. I couldn’t have defended myself even if I’d had the opportunity to try. I didn’t even try – I simply attempted to throw myself out of the way. I almost made it too. Due to the angle of my leap both cars glanced off my shield rather than hitting me head on and smashed into the ground in front of me. The tiles shattered like wafers and exploded into tiny shards of gravel. A large rumbling echoed throughout the park as the ground beneath me churned under the impact.

  Allie didn’t let up in her attack and both cars were heading back towards me now. The first car looked more like a floating wreck of car parts as most of the external panels had been torn from the husk. The second car fared a little better and mostly resembled its original construction. How both cars hadn’t exploded yet was beyond me. If this were a movie the car would have exploded into flames at the moment of first impact and then both car alarms would have gone off.

  I was prepared for her follow up strike and deflected her shot causing it to hit the ground. Hers was an unusual way of fighting that I hadn’t encountered before. By using a crushingly heavy object Allie had forced me onto the back foot and I was unable to go on the offensive. It was quite effective. I would have to remember this.

  The second impact caused more rumbling beneath my feet. The park looked relatively stable to me, but I was beginning to have my doubts. Was there an underground complex beneath the park?

  Allie would have struck at me a third time, but unfortunately for her she was interrupted by a large crunching noise as the ground literally disappeared under my feet. I fell several metres and then slid along a large slice of concrete that had been unearthed beneath me.

  I slid on my back with only rock and dirt for my companions until a savage thump indicated that I’d reached the bottom.

  I couldn’t see much as the air was filled with debris and dirt. If I hadn’t had a shield around me I probably would be choking on the cloud of dust that surrounded me. I reached down and was able to determine that I’d landed on something metal and I was surrounded by broken glass. I think a car had broken my fall.

  Sweeping the rubble away I concluded that I had indeed landed on a car, a red commodore by the looks of things. I’d sheered straight through the windscreen. Inside I could vaguely make out red leather seats. This seemed like an odd choice for interior upholstery. The bigger question was what the hell was a car doing down here anyway? Now that the dust had settled a little I noticed with some degree of alarm that I was in the worst possible place I could be. I’d fallen into a car park! I can’t be in a car park! People try to kill me in car parks!

  The fight had created a rift about ten metres in width in the roof above me. I suspected from the amount of debris that I may have dropped through two levels of car park. The only good thing about this was that the fall had created a forced interlude to the fight.

  I used my powers to telekinetically leap through the rift and into the air. Allie had obviously been expecting this as she launched a thread at me. I was able to avoid this though, by leaping higher. I timed my jump to land just in front of her.

  “Okay Allie, Enough crap!” I snarled as I landed, “You’re coming with me.”

  “No, I’m not!” she hissed defiantly. “If you’re going to kill me, you’re going to have to do it here in front of all these people!”

  I glanced around nervously. I hadn’t realised until Allie had pointed it out just how many people had gathered around the scene. Three ambulances had arrived on as well as numerous police cars. A small team of police officers had mustered at the perimeter with guns aimed at us.

  “I’m not going to kill you,” I murmured. “Allie, please.”

  “My name isn’t Allie anymore,” she snarled, “its Alisha! Allie was a child and that child is dead!”

  We were both very aware that we had an audience. A policeman was tentatively making his way towards us with his gun raised. He wasn’t mucking about. Allie and I both glanced in his direction but neither of us were concerned. He couldn’t hurt us. He was simply the first of many. I could see that there was a crowd quickly forming around us of police and emergency teams.

  “Get down on the ground!” the cop called, “Now!”

  “Allie,” I pleaded.

  “Stop calling me that!” she snarled, the Mana flaring across her shield in response.

  The cop called for us to hit the ground again, both of us ignored him. A gunshot bounced off the shield surrounding my head. The bastard had shot me.

  “I’ll deal with you in a second!” I snarled at the cop as I turned to face Allie again.

  Allie had used the distraction to strike at me again, her thread looped around and struck in full in the chest sending me tumbling across the ground. I got to my feet in rage and bolted towards her. This would end now! I would take her by force and make her listen to me!

  I’m not sure how many cops shot me as I ran across the park. I’m not even sure that I heard the shots. The bullets ricocheted off my shield. I swung a thread at Allie and sent a second arcing out towards the police officer who had fired first. I intentionally aimed low taking his feet out from under him. I don’t think he was seriously hurt, but he didn’t get back up. I doubted he was dead though.

  Allie easily blocked my attack and launched into an attack of her own. She had been well trained. Her attacks were short, sharp and effective. It was obvious however that she hadn’t sparred as often as I had. My instincts were better.

  Power wise she was my match. This was astounding! I had never met someone who could meet me head to head in that area. Even Marcus and Victor didn’t attempt that, they use less power but a more effective thread to match me. They gained strength through skill rather than strength through sheer force.

  Fighting against Allie was like two bulls going head to head in a narrow alley. They couldn’t attack from the side and so they simply collided face to face. The impacts sent shockwaves rippling through the threads as our strikes collided. The gunshots hit us both as we fought, but both of us sent out stray threads to thin the ranks of the polic
e. It didn’t take too long before they fell back to the relative safety of the car line and left Allie and I to it. Unhindered Allie and I increased our assault on each other.

  It took me a good few minutes before I realised the truth. I wasn’t going to be able to overpower her. I could either kill her, or fall before her. Those were my options and neither option was appealing. I wasn’t sure what was going through Allie’s mind. Was she too enraged to think clearly about what was going to happen after this fight? Or was it that she simply didn’t care?

  The problem was that I did care. I had no intention of killing Allie. However I also knew from experience just how powerful the desire for revenge could be and I knew the white hot rage that can be induced as you watched your loved ones struck down.

  I hadn’t meant for the boy to be seriously hurt and in truth I didn’t know if he had survived our encounter. His body was no longer on the ground where it had fallen. I assumed that it was currently in an ambulance heading for the hospital. I took this as a good sign, then again perhaps not. Allie would not stop her assault and would not stop to listen. There was nothing I could do now. I could not physically overpower her and I couldn’t reason with her. This left only one viable solution – escape.

  The trick was going to be to be able to escape without getting my molecules spread across a kilometre radius. That would take some doing. I wouldn’t dare try to teleport whilst in the middle of combat and I couldn’t incapacitate Allie long enough to make my escape.

  In the end I used the rift that she had made into the car park below us. I launched an aggressive assault against my cousin and then leapt into the hole while she went on the defensive. The irony of fleeing into a car park for safety was not lost on me. The moment my feet touched the car park ground I sent out my Scry thread . I didn’t care where it went, any solid ground away from the conflict would do. I knew that she would follow me so I put to good use the trick that I had learned from May in Paris.

  The shading spell went off as soon as I began to teleport. Due to the static thrown up by the spell I couldn’t see what Allie was up to. No doubt she had been preparing herself to descend into the car park. Once I had completed the first teleport, I teleported again, this time to my latest hotel room.

  I needed time to think on how best to proceed. It might have been best had I simply admitted defeat and return to try to find Renee, but I wasn’t prepared to admit that yet. I’m a fool sometimes, I really am. No, I can turn this around. Behold – the eternal optimist.

  * * * * * *

  My encounter with Allie kept going over and over in my head. The fact of the matter was that I had acted rashly and had mishandled things. This revelation didn’t make it any easier to cope with. Who had that other guy been? He obviously hadn’t been a bodyguard. He wouldn’t have fallen so easily if he had been. That shield had been so badly constructed I was prepared to believe that he had been an apprentice. Why hadn’t I seen that earlier? If he wasn’t a bodyguard who was he? A friend? A classmate? Given Allie’s reaction he was possibly even a boyfriend. Although of course Allie was far too young for that.

  No, no she wasn’t I reflected bitterly. She was eighteen. It was entirely possible that I had just killed her lover. The thought sent chills down my spine. She would never forgive me now. I had just killed my sister’s lover.

  That was the other thing that was haunting me. I was almost ready to believe that she was my sister. She certainly thought it was true. There was only one person who could confirm or deny this. There was only one person who was there, who could confirm my father’s infidelity and Allie’s parentage. Only one person I trusted enough to believe her unconditionally. My mother.

  My palms were sweaty as I stood before the door. I clenched my fingers several times before I was able to finally draw the courage to rap my knuckles against the doorframe.

  It was late. It had taken quite a while for me to work up the nerve to come here. I heard the click of the security chain sliding into place, then the door opened slightly.

  “Who’s there?” A voice whispered through the gap. It had been a long time since I had heard that voice.

  “Hi, Mum. It’s me.”

  At first there was no response. I wasn’t sure if she was even going to open the door. Nothing happened for several seconds then the door closed and the chain was released. The door slowly opened and my mother gestured for me to enter.

  She didn’t say anything as I walked into the corridor towards the lounge room. Everything was just as I remembered it. It was like I had just walked into my house after school. I could almost see my best friends Tony and Sarah lounging on the couch, laughing at some stupid joke I had made. It was so real it hurt.

  Mum asked if I wanted anything to drink. I declined. The cat glanced at me before yawning and rolling over. He was looking a little greyer around the edges and a little more mottled than I remembered, but he was still essentially the same kitten that I had gotten on my 14th birthday.

  “You’re back,” she stated as she settled herself into her chair. There was a half-finished glass of scotch on the table beside her.

  “Yeah,” I nodded lamely. There didn’t seem to be much else to say.

  “Why?”

  “I need to ask you a question,” I started hesitantly.

  “Ask your question, then go.” she said. “It’s late.”

  Mum and I had never really gotten over the first time I had had to flee the country. I had visited her briefly the last time I had been in Melbourne and it hadn’t gone well. She was still refusing to even look at me properly.

  “Is Allie my sister?” I asked softly. “Did my father have an affair?”

  She sighed softly and took a sip of her drink. She turned to face me, her eyes piercing me with her judging expression. I wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but it was obvious that she hadn’t found it.

  “I don’t know,” she said eventually.

  She was lying. I could see it in her face. She knew but just didn’t want to tell me.

  “Mum. It’s important.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “I want the truth. Is Allie my sister?”

  “Yes.” The words came out so softly, yet they sounded so loud to my ears. In one word my mother had confirmed my worst fears. Allie was my sister and she had killed my father. She had killed my father because she had been unable to control her powers. She had been unable to control her powers because I had failed her. Victor was right – this was my fault.

  I had been the cause of all of this. Every decision I had made, no matter how right they had seemed at the time had led to this.

  “How did you find out?” Mum whispered as she pulled another sip from her glass. A chunk of ice clinked in her drink.

  “She told me.” I replied casually.

  “He wasn’t a bad man, your father. He had his weaknesses like everyone does. I’m sure in his way he was able to justify it, but I could never forgive him.”

  “No, I don’t imagine you could.”

  “To his credit, he never sought my forgiveness,” Mum said quietly, “and never sought to hide his shame in lies.”

  “Allie’s mother chose to raise Allie without knowing her father. It might have been better had she never known, especially now. It’s sad that she’ll never get a chance to know her true father.”

  My mother couldn’t have been more right, but of course she didn’t know that. It was sad but for reasons far beyond a daughter never knowing her father. My father’s death had hit me hard, I couldn’t imagine what that and the added guilt would have done to Allie.

  “Do you have what you need now? Is there anything more I can do for you?” It wasn’t a genuine offer.

  This was obviously an unpleasant topic for my mother. I had no idea how she was coping with his death. I hadn’t exactly been around after he had died. I knew that she had attended his funeral, but I knew little more than that. I hadn’t exactly been in the best mental state myself.

>   I had attended the funeral under the cloak of an invisibility spell. I couldn’t reveal myself to the world. I was wanted by the police for questioning in relation to my fight with Aaron Chen. There had been police in attendance, presumably waiting for me. My apparent lack of attendance had led to an argument between me and my friend Tony. He had been close with my father. My last words with Tony hadn’t been good ones. It seemed that no matter where I turned I was souring my relationships with friends and family. Soon there would be no one left.

  “No,” I said softly in answer to her question. I had everything I needed.

  There was no point in trying for reconciliation. I had hurt Mum too badly when I had left the last time. She hadn’t known the reason of course, couldn’t know the reason. It was better that she remain out of it. It was perhaps better that she should curse me rather than mourn me – that emotion might be easier for her to deal with, especially with what was about to happen.

  I’ve never claimed to be able to predict the future, I had enough trouble figuring out what was going on with the present, but I could see trouble when I saw it. I’d seen it enough to recognise it. If Allie’s boyfriend had died from my strike there would be nothing that would stop her from hunting for me. I knew this for fact. She would be like me – if someone struck Renee down I would move heaven and earth for vengeance. It would be better that when that judgment come that I be nowhere near anyone I loved.

  “I’ll go.” I sighed as I got to my feet. I scratched the cat playfully around the ear, avoided it’s half-hearted attempted to remove three of my fingers and left.

  Mum didn’t get up to see me out. It was strange leaving the home of my childhood like this, knowing that in all likelihood I would not be returning. This place that had played such an important part of my childhood was forever closed to me now.