Mage Dissolution

by Christopher George

  I wasn’t going to let that happen. I’ve fought dozens of battles in various states of pain and injury and knew how to accommodate for weakness. Allie, skilled though she was, just wasn’t in the same calibre as me.

  Finally I managed to sweep her threads from her and knock her down. Her shield fizzled as she hit the ground, it was up again in seconds, but it was weak – too weak. It was barely able to keep the heat at bay, let alone another attack. I loomed over her.

  “This ends, now,” I rumbled. “You’re beaten! Submit!”

  Allie stared up at me defiantly, but I could tell in her eyes that she knew she was defeated. This was probably a good thing too, because I didn’t have that much left in me.

  “Then kill me,” she hissed.

  “I’m not going to kill you!” I snarled, “I never wanted that!”

  “Grandfather said you would! He said you would take your revenge for your dad!”

  Grandfather? She was calling Victor grandfather now? The offense of that title from her lips sent waves of rage through me. Victor would pay for this. He had taken my only sister and turned her against me. I would find a way to end him for this.

  “He’s not your grandfather!”

  We had to shout to be heard over the noise from the fire. The building was only moments from coming down upon us.

  Allie didn’t reply, she looked at me with her eyes hardened and her mouth set into a tight grimace. It was obvious from her stance that she had expected a coup de grace to come at any moment and was surprised when it didn’t. I could have ended it, I could have ended it easily, but she was my sister. The only one I had.

  “Devon…” she called.

  “What?”

  “Goodbye.”

  Before I could react Allie lanced out with everything she had. It wasn’t a very well formed thread, but it was powerful. It was built of nothing more than sheer will and hatred and it hit the column next to me and brought it smashing down. Her final act had been to kill both of us, or at least I was sure that was her intention.

  As the roof came down upon us my shield flared up in response. I saw Allie crawling from the wreckage. She hadn’t been too far from the edge of the building and thus had avoided the worst of the roof that had crushed down upon us. Unfortunately I was not so lucky.

  I had been standing right next to the column when it had fallen down upon me. The column had been made of a strong oak wood and the damned thing was heavy. It pinned me down as the rest of the roof collapsed. The weight smashed against my shield and I thought for a second that it was going to give. I threw every reserve I had into holding the shield together as the building slowly but inexorably crushed me.

  Allie didn’t look back as she made her escape. She used her powers to blow out what remained of the wall and escape into the cold night air. I didn’t see her go, but I’m sure she would have gathered what remained of her powers and teleported to safety.

  I would have liked to have done the same, but unfortunately most of my strength was being used to prevent myself from being turned into a fine red mist by the combined weight of the column and building rubble. My shield was glowing red as I poured every ounce of power I had left into it. I was using every trick that I knew to enhance my shield and it still wasn’t enough.

  The collapsed beam pressed into my stomach and my shield could do nothing more than prevent me from being crushed. Even worse my shield, now optimised for strength, wasn’t coping so well with the heat. Scalding waves of heat burned my left side as the fire burned closer.

  It took me several minutes before I was able to gather the necessary reserves of power and summon a thread to pull me from the mess of fallen beams and roof. The cavity made by my body removed from the pile led to further rubble falling from the ceiling and more ash and smoke being kicked up. Once the smoke had cleared I was greeted by the sight that the whole left side of the building appeared to have fallen in on itself. I realised then just what a miracle it had been that I hadn’t been immediately crushed in the collapse.

  I staggered several steps and coughed as my mouth took in a lungful of smoke. Obviously my shield wasn’t able to adequately protect me any longer. I had no idea how I’d survived this long, but I wasn’t about to have it all end by passing out from smoke inhalation. I pulled my shirt over my nose and mouth and staggered out of the burning wreckage.

  A fit of coughing brought bright lights to my eyes and I thought that I’d keep coughing until I choked. I crawled more than staggered from the bar with my shield fading fast. The sight of the streetlights outside was a relief and brought a resolve that allowed me to take the necessary last steps before collapsing outside on the cold hard concrete of the car park.

  Several people rushed towards me and I felt someone gently roll me onto my side and place an air mask over my face. It could have been the rush of fresh air or it simply could have been a reaction from the adrenaline rushing through my body, but a wave of dizziness washed over me. I could hear voices arguing over me but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I think it was an argument over my apparent lack of serious burns. It certainly felt like I had burns, my skin was blistering in the cold night air, but the paramedics didn’t look too concerned.

  My shoulder had also stopped aching as much too. The impact mustn’t have been as hard as I had originally thought. I weakly rolled my shoulder joint and cringed a little as it twinged in complaint. It hurt, but my collarbone certainly wasn’t broken. That was a good thing at least.

  My vision blurred and I thought I was about to pass out, but just when I thought the darkness was about to close in, my vision cleared and brought the world into stark clarity. I was lying on a gurney. Someone had placed a run into my arm and I could see a bag of something being held on a pole above my head.

  I was still in the car park and had a yellow card wrapped around my neck. I had no idea what that meant. There were two paramedics nearby but they seemed more interested in the person on one of the other gurneys.

  I supposed I could just get up and walk away without drawing too much attention to myself. A hand on my shoulder disabused me of this notion. A police officer was standing behind me and he didn’t look like he was going anywhere.

  He called over one of the paramedics.

  “He’s awake.”.

  “So it seems,” the paramedic responded, “I’m not sure that changes anything though.”

  The paramedic came over. He took a blood pressure test and checked my eyes. He asked me basic questions for which I gave fake answers. I didn’t particularly want them knowing my real name.

  “He seems fine,” The cop continued.

  I wished they’d just get this over and done with. Being ferried from the site in an ambulance would be an ideal way of getting out of here. I was worried about Allie returning to ensure that she had finished the job. I had no wish to engage in a third encounter with her right now.

  I had used the suppression technique to dull my powers, this would hide the visible aspect of my powers and make me seem normal to our kind. It would only work through a Scry spell, as if they saw me directly they would know me for what I was. It was possible that I might be physically recognised, but unlikely.

  The cop and the paramedic seemed to be engaged in a not so subtle argument over who could take me. I think the cop wanted me for questioning, but at this point I didn’t care who took me as long as they got me out of there. Eventually the paramedic relented, due to the fact that he could find no serious injury and that I genuinely seemed fine. I could tell it was bugging him though. People don’t just emerge from burning buildings without a scratch on them. He made the cop sign a waiver anyway, but I think that was more about being antagonistic towards the police than any serious concern for my health.

  * * * * * *

  I’d never seen the inside of a police car before. It wasn’t as interesting as I’d always thought it would be.

  I was a little annoyed that they put handcuffs on me. It wasn’t about the i
nconvenience – it was about taking liberties. I didn’t appreciate it. It took me all of about three seconds to get out of them, but that wasn’t the point. I left them on the seat next to me, snapped cleanly in two.

  I wasn’t quite sure where we were going. I had assumed that they would have taken me to the local police station, but we weren’t heading in the right direction.

  “Where am I?” I queried as they pulled into a car park.

  They didn’t answer; instead they exited the car. The cop glanced down at the empty handcuffs as he opened the door, and then back to me with a grimace on his face.

  “Get out,” he said in a deep voice. I wasn’t sure if this was his normal voice or he was attempting to sound intimidating. I complied, but more out of actual curiosity than compliance. I could escape here at any point. My powers had returned sufficiently in the car trip that I felt I was now up to at least a small teleport jump. I was about to teleport away when I came to the realisation that no one would think to look for me in a police station. It was for now the perfect hiding place.

  The cops turned me around and shoved me against the hood of the car with my arms behind me. I grinned slightly as they tried to place the handcuffs back on me. The one trying to cuff me cursed and threw them on the ground as he realised they were useless. A second set was quickly produced and these were placed on me. They weren’t gentle about it either. I think I may have pissed them off.

  They led me through a small double door at the back of the police station and into a long corridor. I glanced about as I passed through. I’d never really seen the insides of a police station, but it looked pretty mundane. It was mostly offices and desks. Obviously I wasn’t moving fast enough for the cops as they grabbed me by the arm and propelled me forward.

  They led me into a small cell and unceremoniously threw me inside. The sound of the lock clinking on the gate as the door slammed shut echoed throughout the room. The click was almost louder than the sound of the door closing. I wondered if that was the point. If the click was a psychological trigger to the incarcerated that this was serious. It didn’t matter much to me though.

  They hadn’t even bothered to take the handcuffs off. The location of the cuffs behind my back presented a little bit more of a difficulty, but soon they joined the first pair. This time however I’d managed to extricate myself without breaking them.

  Once I was free I grabbed the cuffs from the floor where they had fallen and used them to link the door to the cell bars, preventing the door from opening. Now that I was secure, I grabbed a blanket and curled up on the bed. If they were going to make me wait, I’d use the time well – I was exhausted. Unfortunately they didn’t give me enough time to fall asleep. This really was inconsiderate. I wondered who I should complain to.

  The sound of metal clinking on metal and a loud curse drew my attention and made me glance at the cop standing by the door. It was one of the cops that had brought me here. He was glowering at the handcuffs locking the door shut as he fumbled around for the key. I could have told him that it would be useless. I’d broken the mechanism once I’d secured it to the door.

  After several attempts he obviously came to the same conclusion and snarled at me. It was more a grunt of frustration than any real word, but it certainly would have contained some choice language had it contained words.

  I grinned despite myself. I couldn’t have stopped myself for all the world. I was going to have some fun with this. I waited until the cop had gone to get something to cut through the handcuffs and then I teleported into the empty cell on the far side of the room. The noise was extraordinarily loud in the cramped cell, but no one came to investigate. They were probably too busy looking for a set of bolt cutters or something.

  It didn’t take too long before three cops arrived with the aforementioned bolt cutters. They took one look into my empty cell and cursed loudly. They really weren’t having a good day about this.

  “Over here,” I grunted, which caused all three cops to spin around. They looked like they were about ready to kill me.

  One of them savagely opened the door and the other two stormed into the cell. I took the precaution of placing a shield around me in the event that they actually seriously threatened violence, but they managed to contain themselves. The first cop looked like he was having trouble doing it though, I didn’t much blame him. I certainly knew how to rile people up when I wanted to.

  I was led from the cell into a small room in the office area. On the far side of the room was a large mirror, which I assumed was a two-way mirror. I’d seen these rooms before in the movies.

  One of the cops gestured towards a chair on the facing the window. As the door was slammed behind me, I moved to the chair with its back to the window. After about ten minutes the door opened a new cop entered the room.

  I assumed he was a cop. He wasn’t wearing a uniform, but he did have that same gruff demeanour that cops seem to develop. He glanced at me in the wrong seat and a hint of a smile crossed his face. He shrugged, took the other seat and placed a manila folder on the table.

  “Mr Devon Wills isn’t it?” he began. I nodded, didn’t seem to be much point in lying.

  “That wasn’t the name you gave the paramedics though.”

  “No, I used my maiden name,” I murmured dryly.

  He didn’t seem overly impressed with that answer.

  “This is serious, Mr Wills.” I chose not to answer to that.

  He opened the manila folder. Inside the folder were several pieces of paper, which I assumed were police reports, and several photos.

  It was difficult to see from the angle, but the one on top had obviously been taken by one of the security cameras at the shopping centre where I had fought and killed Vin. I thought I could make out Vin in the background. It was hard to know for sure though, the photo wasn’t that great a quality.

  “This was taken about four years ago,” The cop flicked the photo around, “during an incident at the Glen Waverley Shopping centre. The damage to the centre was extraordinary.”

  “How does this involve me?”

  “Let’s not play that game, Mister Wills.” The Cop smiled dangerously as he laid out the rest of the photos. It was like a photo album of my greatest hits. There were numerous photos from the shopping centre and then some from Southern Cross station where I had been involved in a rather brutal fight with Aaron in front of most of the Victorian police force. I wasn’t surprised that they had photos from that incident.

  “You represent a very real threat to society, Mr Wills, and we want to know how. Everywhere you go property damage and deaths seem to follow you.”

  When I didn’t comment the cop continued.

  “We’ve attributed at least eight fatalities to you. This alone would be enough to put you away for good.”

  If he thought the threat of incarceration would be enough to cow me – it wasn’t.

  “Why am I here?”

  “You’re here because we want answers!”

  Okay, that had been the wrong question to ask. That had just allowed him to play the TV show cop. If he’d slammed his fist down on the table as he said it he would have nailed the role perfectly. Amateur.

  In fact the whole setup was like something from a TV show. I was only surprised that they hadn’t tried to play bad cop, good cop with me. I should probably wait for that though, I was sure the good cop would be along shortly.

  “Is there any chance of getting some food?” I queried as my stomach grumbled. It had been some time since my last meal. I couldn’t exactly remember when or what that had been, but it had been too long ago for my stomach

  “In a minute,” the cop grunted as he flicked through the folder. Eventually he found what he was looking for. It was a picture of Vin.

  “Who is this man?”

  “His name is not important,” I shrugged, “He’s dead.”

  “We know. We recovered his body, but that just raised further questions.”

  “His name was Vince
nt Lester.”

  “Nationality?”

  “I don’t actually know, I didn’t know him very well.”

  “You just killed him huh?”

  I didn’t comment. I had no wish to be recorded on camera admitting to a murder. It had been a fair fight, more than fair actually – if anything it had been slanted in Vin’s favour. It had been only luck and Vin’s arrogance that had allowed me to win.

  “Where did we land on that food?”

  “I said in a minute!” the cop snapped as he looked for another photo. This one was of Renee.

  “Who is this girl?”

  “That, I’m not going to tell you.”

  “So you’re withholding information from a police investigation?”

  “Obviously.”

  “You’re aware that there are stiff penalties for doing so.”

  “You’re not in a position to penalise me for anything,” I said finally losing patience. Why was I putting up with this? I could be out of here in a second with only a confused face and a burst of air to announce my exit.

  “You could face prison time.”

  “Yes, you said that.”

  A buzzing noise came from his pocket. He pulled out his phone and glanced at it. His face screwed up in disgust as he read the message, then he got up to leave.

  “Don’t go anywhere,” he grunted as he left the room.

  He had meant it sarcastically, but I was happy to comply. Well, mostly happy – I’d need to get some food. There must be something in the police station to eat. I used a Scry thread to go looking.

  It didn’t take me long to go find what I was looking for. By the time the cop returned a packet of donuts was sitting on the table in front of me. They weren’t very good, but in my hungry state they were really hitting the spot and had the additional bonus of giving me a sugar hit. His face fell as he saw the donuts.