Mage Dissolution

by Christopher George

  Before I left, I leaned in and kissed Mum on the cheek. She flinched as my lips touched her flesh. I reached into my pocket and placed an object on the table beside her glass. It was the large diamond that Victor had created. Mum didn’t appear to notice. It would do her more good than it would do me, should she find a way to sell it. I’d carried this thing around most of Europe and pretty much all of Asia. It seemed appropriate to leave it here. I’d have no need for it anyway. Once Allie tracked me down I’d have no need for anything.

  You can’t live in the past and my future was very quickly running out. I wasn’t scared by the prospect of the end. In fact I can’t say that the idea didn’t have some appeal. I just wanted all this over. I should never have come back. I should have done as Renee had begged me to do and just disappeared into the unknown – leave everything behind. Renee had been right. That would have been the smart thing to do.

  I wasn’t sure what to do from here, so I went to the last place a man should go when they’re suffering a mortality crisis. I went to a bar. The local pub hadn’t changed much since I had last been here. Still filled with the usual riff raff doing the usual things. I ordered a beer and sat at the bar and tried not to think about what to do next.

  This proved to be no small task. Fortunately the bar was crowded and noisy so there was plenty to occupy my attention. A TV was playing a selection of music videos. I don’t get the music these days, but then again I guess I have actually very little in common with the rest of my generation.

  “Authorities are still inquiring into the disturbance that took place today at Melbourne University.” The TV blared expectantly over the noise. Someone must have changed the channel.

  “Turn that off,” one the bar jocks called.

  “No, I want to watch this,” was the reply. I agreed with the first guy. Turn it off.

  “Fourteen Injured and four dead, including three police officers. No one seems to have any idea what occurred,” the announcer continued as the vision flicked to aerial shots of our fight. They’d filmed it! I was able to make out Allie and me as we fought across the park. Fortunately at this distance it was impossible to make out our faces. We were moving too fast for the camera to frame us properly.

  Between the wreckage of the cars and the collateral damage to the park, Allie and I had managed to make that place look like a war zone. I flinched as I saw the impact that had broken a rift in the ground beneath me. It looked all the more impressive from an aerial view. It was funny but the impact looked all the more devastating when you couldn’t see the Mana threads causing the damage. It looked more random and definitely more savage.

  “That’s gotta be fake!” one of the crowd called.

  “Naw man, this is Channel 10, they wouldn’t report it if it wasn’t true,” came the reply. “Besides it’s on all the channels.”

  It took me several seconds to realise that the crowd had grown silent as they watched the coverage with varied expressions of disbelief and fear.

  “The police would like anyone with more information about this tragic event to come forward.” The reporter finished with her glossy smile. The news report was replaced by a series of advertisements. The silence remained for several minutes until eventually one of the sceptics called bullshit again.

  “It’s got to be some kind of marketing campaign for a movie. Cars don’t just throw themselves at people.”

  “It’s obviously fake!” another voice said. The TV channels are just in on it.”

  “I’d pay to see that movie,” someone added, “looks awesome.”

  This was followed by a series of snickers from the crowd. It really is amazing at how quickly the human mind will leap to the most logical conclusion. Once someone had suggested a rational idea the tension in the room dissipated and the noise started up again.

  I ordered another drink. It seemed that no matter where I went the consequences of my actions would follow me. I wasn’t worried about some bar flies in a local pub. What worried me was that one of our kind would see the report and trouble would follow. There would be those amongst my kind that would recognise me from the blurred images displayed on the TV screen. It’s possible that this time I had gone too far.

  * * * * * *

  I was on my third drink before I realised that I was being watched. I didn’t recognise the man doing the surveillance, but I could tell from his furtive glances that he recognised me. He seemed to be struggling with something, I could see him arguing silently with himself and wringing his hands together beneath the table.

  I wondered briefly if I should approach him, but decided that I didn’t care enough to investigate further. If and when he came to me, I’d deal with it.

  About ten minutes later he made his way across the crowded bar and up to my seat. He was walking like he was walking to his death; his left hand shook slightly. It took him several seconds to work up the courage to speak.

  “Do you want something?” I grunted irritably, without turning around. I could see him well enough through the reflection on the mirror behind the bar.

  “No, no,” he stammered quickly. I thought he was about to flee. He had visibly flinched when I spoke.

  “You’re... him… aren’t you?” He eventually got out.

  I turned around to face him. He went white as he finally got a good look at me.

  “Holy shit, it is you,” he whispered.

  “Do I know you?”

  “No, well, yes. We met a few years ago, right here in fact.”

  This raised an eyebrow. I didn’t exactly frequent this bar much. I’d only just turned eighteen when I had killed Vin and had to go on the run. In fact there was only one person that I’d actually met in this bar...

  I went cold. There had been a man whom I had met here. My friend, Tony and I had challenged him to a game of pool and I had used my powers to cheat. When it came time to pay he had threatened to bash my brains in with a tyre iron.

  He had assumed that I was young and impressionable and hadn’t expected me to stand up for myself. The unfortunate outcome was that not only did I stand up for myself, I lost control of my powers and seriously hurt him. He was older and greyer, but it was definitely the same man standing before me.

  “What do you want?” I said cautiously.

  If he was seeking revenge it was not going to go well for him. Previously when I had thought I had killed him I had felt guilty for my loss of control. I would feel no such guilt should I be forced to kill him now.

  “I thought I dreamed you,” the man whispered, “My boy said that I had been hit by a car.”

  He’d had his apprentice with him that night. Tony had instructed the boy to say that he’d been hit by a car in the car park. That hadn’t been the case though; he’d been hit by a poorly constructed Mana thread wielded by a boy who should have known better.

  “I knew though,” the man continued, “I knew. I remembered you. I see them eyes of yours at night some time.”

  “So what do you want?” I muttered darkly.

  “I needed to know. I was starting to think that perhaps I was crazy, but it’s true. I saw you. If you’re real, then those eyes are real,” he reasoned.

  What the hell do I do about this? Do I kill him now to preserve my secret? Is that what I’m supposed to do? Both Marcus and Victor would probably advise me yes, but I didn’t want to do that. The man must have spotted the look of consideration on my face.

  “I won’t keep you,” he said hastily, backing away from the bar, “I just needed to know… I needed to know.”

  I watched him depart hurriedly. It was probably safe to just let him go. Who was he going to tell? No one would believe him anyway.

  A chill passed over the back of my neck as I watched him leave. I had to check the urge to throw a shield around myself. If I didn’t know better I would have attributed that chill to Mana use in the area. What the hell? Was it possible that he was a Mage?

  I had used Mana to bring him down, was it possible that this had
triggered his capabilities? No – the odds of that were so astronomical that it defied belief. Fewer than one in one-hundred-thousand people have the capability to become a Mage and maybe one in ten of those ever develops full-blown Mana manipulation capabilities.

  It wasn’t until the door to the bar blew in, sending patrons scrambling for cover that I figured out just what had triggered the feeling of the threat. It hadn’t been the man, I had been stupid for even entertaining the idea. I had felt a Scry thread passing over me. Someone had been searching for me and they had just found me.

  The shockwave of the blast washed over me and sent a ringing through my ears. Instantly a shield sprang up around me to shelter me from the blast but no such protection had been afforded to the people beside me. They were thrown aside like drift wood in the path of a tornado. The thread hit one of the bars in full force and smashed a stack of glasses into shards, covering the floor and patrons in broken glass.

  The bar room exploded into flame and I saw through the smoke my most tragic failure. She walked through the wreckage as a goddess would through a burning temple. Her face hard as stone. I saw death in her eyes and knew it to be my own. Allie had come for me.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Allie didn’t say anything, she stood amongst the wreckage that she had created and stared at me, waiting for my move. Time seemed to move in slow motion as I watched as the surviving patrons of the bar struggle to get up and run for it. Allie ignored them, focussing her deadly gaze upon me. I carefully stood up. A cold feeling ran down the back of my spine.

  “I don’t want this,” I called out to her. I knew it would be useless to talk her down. I had seen that look in another young Mage’s face before and I knew just how futile it would have been to try to talk me out of getting my revenge. But I had to try.

  “You killed him!” she snarled.

  “I know.” I whispered. My hushed voice sounded strangely loud in this inferno of a room.

  “I’m going to kill you now,” Allie announced.

  I nodded as I prepared myself for her assault. This would be a vicious fight, there was a good chance that I would not survive it.

  Allie began her attack predictably with a thread straight to me as she charged across the barroom floor. Her face was twisted into a mask of anger, loss and rage. I almost considered letting her strike me down, but unfortunately the Mana had other ideas. With a savage crackle of sparks Allie’s thread struck ineffectually against my shield.

  All I could see in her face was the little girl that had been so eager to open presents on Christmas morning, the girl who had giggled with delight when she had been presented with a kitten. But the little girl that I had once known had been forever destroyed and I feared that I was the one responsible for her loss.

  I took several steps back as the impacts struck me, my shield wavered dangerously but still held. Furious that her attacks had been repelled, Allie increased her assault. I couldn’t do that again, I would be forced to defend myself.

  “I don’t want to do this!” I repeated as one of her threads passed overhead.

  “I don’t care!” Allie shrieked, “I hate you!”

  As I deflected her attack I glanced at my sister, in the light of the fire now raging through the room. The inferno had now reached the roof and smouldering pieces of insulation and roof tile were falling down on us. Allie’s eyes glowed in the fire of her Mana. Her irises glittered in the darkness of her face as she stared her hatred like daggers into me. Her stranger’s face was harsh and her eyes were cold. I wondered if these were the eyes that my father had seen when he had been struck down or were they of a new devil created by my own hand.

  “I’m not going to fight you,” I announced.

  Allie’s next strike knocked out one of the supporting beams for the roof and brought a fair degree of the roof down upon me. My shield absorbed most of the fall, but I was forced to throw myself away from the rest by scrambling over the bar.

  Ash was falling from the ceiling between us and it didn’t look like there was much left to hold the roof up. Should that come down we’d have a hard time surviving. I’d already had to modulate my shield twice to reflect the heat of the burning building.

  Allie attacked again, spinning and sending a thread my way, I easily dodged the thread but was caught unawares went she launched a volley of flame straight at me. My shield easily absorbed the impact of the flame.

  It’s actually rather ineffective to fight with flame in a Mage fight. There’s a reason why we usually fight with Telekinesis. Flame is just too easily absorbed by our shields. Unfortunately I wasn’t Allie’s target. The alcohol rack behind me was. Her blast shattered dozens of bottles and set them on fire. Allie was certainly determined to bring this place down.

  The subsequent explosion showered me in broken glass and alcohol, which then, just to add injury to insult, burst into flame across the surface of my shield. What the hell? Hiding behind the bar wasn’t a very safe place to be and yet it’s the first place that the hero jumps behind when there’s some kind of fight scene in a bar. Is there nothing accurate in action movies?

  The end result of Allie’s attack was that a good portion of the left side of my shield was now on fire. I could feel the heat through the shield and had to modulate it again to prevent being scalded. I knew that the flame wouldn’t last that long once the alcohol had been consumed, but it was rather disconcerting being on fire. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.

  I flicked my arm twice to attempt to dislodge the flame but this only had the unfortunate effect of setting one of the miraculously untouched bar towels on fire as droplets of flame flicked from my wrist to the alcohol soaked towel.

  Allie didn’t let up her attack. Several threads impacted against me as I struggled to remove myself from the inferno that was now the bar. The threads knocked the wind out of me and sent me tumbling back into that raging inferno.

  I grunted as I pulled myself back to my feet. I was pretty sure most of the surface of my shield was now on fire. It was certainly obscuring my vision enough so at least my head was. I winced as my side complained at the assault. Allie’s last hit must have been harder than the others. Then I realised what had happened. I’d modulated my shield to protect myself more from the fire than a physical strike and her last hit and gotten through my shield.

  The shield had been some protection, which was why my shoulder hadn’t been shattered into a thousand pieces. I’d have to be careful now, I didn’t dare risk changing the shield as burning to death didn’t seem like a pleasant way to go either, but I wouldn’t be able to absorb too many more direct strikes. Newly motivated, I blocked Allie’s next three strikes and went on the offensive. If she was busy defending herself she couldn’t attack.

  Leaping out through the fire I struck at Allie again and again, keeping her off balance and on the defensive. It was the same tactic I had used with Victor, get up close and personal, keep them focused on the defence and not able to attack.

  While it had worked on Victor, it didn’t work on Allie. She simply let her shield absorb the strikes and countered. Her strike went straight through my shield and smashed into my shoulder again. Why was it always the same shoulder? I should have been grateful though, if her strike were a little higher and she would have taken my head off at the neck.

  My shoulder throbbed painfully as I knocked Allie’s threads aside and took her feet out from under her. My rage at being struck fuelled my fury and made me strong. Allie struck out as she pulled herself into a tight flip and landed on top of one of the pool tables on the far side of the room.

  My shoulder hurt terribly, it was possible that she’d even broken my collar-bone. She lashed out at me from across the room, but at this distance it was easy to avoid her threads. I wasn’t going to play that game, I moved closer. Wrapping two threads around several of the pool tables I launched them in her direction, but she was able to spin out of the way. The pool tables smashed against the far wall, knocking out several of the main su
pports for the building.

  This building was going to come down. The longer we kept fighting here the more likely it was that it was going to collapse with us inside it. The only problem was that Allie wasn’t going to let me get away and she had no sense of self-preservation to escape herself. This was going to come down to a race to see who could win this fight before the inferno took us both out.

  Smoke and ash filled the room as more and more of the building caught alight. The fire that had previously been contained to the entryway and main bar had been renewed by the fire that Allie had started behind the bar. Thick smoke obscured everything. The only reason that we were still standing and not coughing our lungs out was that the shields around us were acting as impromptu air masks.

  It was impossible to see anything clearly in the building. I had no idea where the closest window was, let alone the door. We could see each other though. The flare of our Mana signatures and shields was clearly visible through the smoke as we moved against each other. The crackle of wood burning and the impact of two Mana threads echoed throughout the room as we fought. There could be no hiding from each other in this fight.

  Allie flipped over a burning column and smacked a Mana thread towards my head, I rolled under it and shot a return thread towards her, but unfortunately it went wide as Allie was able to somehow alter her flight to slide under it. She landed with grace and came out swinging, our two threads collided with sparks and we moved around.

  Like two cats facing off against each other we circled, each trying to get the upper hand. We ignored the burning building around us and the ash and smoke that covered everything. Our shields flared as the waves of both hit them.

  Allie struck again and again but was unable to land a solid blow. I could see the frustration on her face; I was just too good at being able to predict where her strike was going to come from. I was the survivor of far more Mage battles than her, so although we were matched in power, I was still her superior.

  That would change in time though, my shoulder ached and the slightest movement sent waves of pain radiating throughout my side. I was unable to use my arm on that side properly, which gave me a huge disadvantage. Eventually I would make a mistake and she would have me.