Magi Saga 2: Shadows of Darkness (4 page)

You certainly didn’t tell master Magi to fuck off, not without knowing that such flippancy might just get you killed.

Lucian stood still, watching Yasmin, wondering if he had taken his last breath on this Earth, and hoping that she would be lenient.

‘You have just been informed that a small group of Arcadian Magi have arrived in New York. Amanda, Gentle Water and Elizabeth.’ Yasmin rose from her seat, as she spoke, and started to walk steadily towards Lucian, ‘Knowing how you have dealt with Arcadians that have come to New York before, I am here to tell you that if you hurt them, if you so much as scratch Amanda, or tell Nymira I was here, I will kill you, slowly and painfully and I will take great pleasure in it.’ Yasmin reached Lucian, standing practically toe to toe with him, her nose inches from his. ‘Do you understand?’

Lucian gave one slow nod to her, watching her carefully the whole time.

Yasmin stayed where she stood for a moment, before taking a step back from him.

‘Good. Then we understand each other.’

Lucian looked at her, finding her slight smile as she spoke that last sentence an odd looking thing on her face, like it didn’t belong there.

The ramifications of what Yasmin had just said started to sink in, and the bottom of his stomach began to fall away. This would cause problems.

Normally he would go after Arcadian Magi in his territory without hesitation. He’d come down on them hard, attacking and killing them. He took no prisoners in this, it was all about shock and awe. But now, that had been removed in one fell swoop. If he couldn’t hurt them, how could he get rid of them?

Sure, he could ignore Yasmin and do as he usually did, and risk her wrath, it might be that Nymira could protect him, for a short while, but he felt sure that Yasmin would get him at some point, after all, she stood not three foot from him right now. He also knew that Nymira would not take kindly to being forced into a confrontation with Yasmin. He knew Nymira to be powerful, but could she be strong enough to best Yasmin? He didn’t know, and he didn’t want to find out.

It wouldn’t do to have two Arch Magi after his head.

Stepping away from the Arch Magus, he thought about her words. She had been a little vague about who he could and could not hurt. In one sentence saying any of them, and in another mentioning just Amanda. So which was it? And what about any Mortals or other people associated with them?

Thinking of his Coven now, he thought about Ekua who would jump on this change of heart in a second, seeing any leniency towards these Arcadians as a sign of weakness. Maybe he’d even try to take control of the Coven away from Lucian, use this as an opportunity to make his power play, something that he had tried before and would likely try again when the chance presented itself.

Telling Ekua about Yasmin was out of the question, if word about that got back to Nymira he would be in trouble again. Nymira might not have anything against Yasmin personally, but like any powerful Magus, she wouldn’t take kindly to Yasmin muscling in on her territory. This might then lead to any number of problems that didn’t end well for Lucian. She’d ask questions such as, why didn’t he ignore Yasmin? Why didn’t he fight her? Why had he had dealings with her before and not told his master? All of which had the same answer, he valued his life and his position. He also believed in himself and felt sure he could navigate his way through this without Nymira’s help.

More clarification on what he could and could not do would be nice though, so he turned back to Yasmin, only to find his quarters empty. Yasmin had gone.

Annoyed, he cursed to himself, he would just have to interpret her words to him as best he could.

Also, he’d need to act fast and work quickly to get things in place to misdirect Ekua. After a moment’s thought, he used his mental connection with Raal, Lex and Aneurin to summon them to his quarters, asking them to approach quietly and not alert Ekua to their little meeting.

Within a few minutes his three Coven mates sat before him on his sofas and waited for him to speak. Lucian sat forward, his elbows on his knees and stared at the floor while he gathered his thoughts.

‘We have a problem,’ he said, without looking up.

‘Go on, said Lex, anticipation in her voice.

‘I’m sure you all remember Yasmin’s little visit a couple of years ago?’ he said, and looked up to see their reactions to his statement, all of them cautiously intrigued.

‘Do I ever!’ Said Lex, remembering her little encounter with her.

Raal grunted in consternation.

‘Well, she’s back. She just met with me, here after the meeting. I didn’t get chance to contact Nymira, and now I don’t think I can as it seems like Amanda and her friends are under Yasmin’s protection.’

‘What?’ Lex asked, surprised.

‘But they’re Arcadian’s.’ Aneurin stated, almost spitting out the statement in hatred. ‘Why the fuckin’ hell would she do that?’

‘I don’t know mon, I have no idea why that Mambo would want to protect them, and she didn’t give me any chance to question her either. So now all I can use to get them to leave is some fuckin’ harsh language.’

‘Fuck me,’ said Lex, sitting back in her chair. ‘Ekua can’t find this out.’

‘They were my first thoughts. The same goes for Nymira, we have to keep this to ourselves.’

‘Understood,’ she said, and looked at Aneurin, who nodded in agreement. ‘So what’s the plan? What do we do first?’

‘First I need to speak with that fuckweasel Shaun and have him find Amanda and set up some round the clock monitoring of her and her friends.’

‘And what about us?’

‘Keep a low profile and just keep doing what you’re doing. I’m sure we’ll be off to find these Arcadians soon enough.

The entire Pit club had been built underground, even the top floor sat in the basement of a fairly empty and run down tenement block, accessed from a door on street level.

Each public level beyond that had been named after one of the seven deadly sins. Starting with Sloth as the first level under the tenement block, this floor only had the entrance kiosk, security and coat check, before you descended into the club proper.

Then came Gluttony, where you found the clubs first bar area, as well as the clubs kitchens and dining area. Below that came Greed, where a small casino area could be found. Next came Lust where visitors could relax in one of the chill out zones, get intimate in a private cushioned alcove or get a Lap Dance from one of the resident dancers. These first three main floors in the club had a rectangular shape, and at one end of this rectangle floor, a gallery surrounded a square opening of maybe fifteen meters across, where you could look over the balcony and see down to the main dance floor known as Wrath on the level below Lust.

VIP visitors could then descend once more to Pride, where the small VIP Dancefloor could be found, or go one more floor down to Envy, the VIP Lounge and Bar.

Wide easy stairs linked all the floors, and those who walked on them found they didn’t tire as much as they might otherwise have done elsewhere walking up seven flights of stairs. For the lazy however, there were three pairs of lifts between Wrath and Gluttony. Each pair set into three of the four walls of the club.

Beneath the VIP Lounge were the private areas used by the Harbingers Coven, including meeting rooms and private quarters for Luican and each Coven member. Passage ways and stair cases and ladders led off deeper and wider into the network of hidden tunnels and spaces deep beneath New York from the Coven’s living area. Since the earliest settlers on Manhattan Island, dark and dangerous things had made their homes here, deep underground. Scions and Magi and worse always followed the crowds, and Manhattan had been no different. As the city expanded and the subways were built, the hidden city beneath the streets grew.

Below the Coven’s main living areas, two individuals made their home. Bull lived down here inside the main complex of the Club, in dark rooms and passage ways with his Scion Dogs. Shaun, a Coven member and Scion, kept his lair away from the Club’s main structure, preferring to have some separation from the Coven he did a lot of work for. You could still walk between the Club and Shaun’s Lair, through access passages and Subway tunnels though.

Lucian only came down here occasionally, usually preferring to send Lex unless the matter required his personal attention. Shaun had proved himself to be trust worthy so far and also very useful. Like Aneurin, Shaun had an affinity for technology, but Shaun’s skills were far and above Aneurins.

Shaun had always been a hacker, a malcontent who hated authority and government, but also something of a conspiracy theorist, and through his investigations into the shadows of the world, he came to the attention of his creator who turned him into the Scion he is today.

Lucian passed through a series of dark corridors barely lit at all in parts. Water dripped and pooled on the floor while rats and insects skittered and crawled in the darkness and silence of this subterranean world.

But Lucian didn’t need eyes to see down here, his Magic showed him everything he needed to see, even through the ever present Shades that he wore everywhere.

After a few minutes, he reached a thick iron door, pitted and rusted like something from a world war two submarine.

Lucian’s Magic turned the wheel in the center of the door, it spun easily and clanged as the bolts slid home. With a metallic squeal the door swung open, spilling light into the darkness of the corridor Lucian stood in.

Warm electric bulbs glowed inside, throwing splashes of orange light and cooler shadows all around the large room.

Shaun lived in a forgotten subway access platform, complete with a section of curved track opposite the door Lucian stood within, with a rusted old train car sat next to the platform, ready to disappear into the darkness of the tunnel ahead of it.

Between this train and Lucian, on the platform itself, sat Shaun’s living area. To Lucian’s left there were tables and notice boards pinned to the walls where monitors and computer towers sat amongst snaking cables humming away to themselves.

To the right were the beds, kitchenette and other detritus of life, as Shaun lived here with two assistants, two initiated humans, Gary and Vanessa who helped Shaun with his work for Lucian.

All three of the occupants sat near the computers, Gary and Vanessa were both tapping and clicking away on their respective workstations while Shaun sat back in his chair, deep in thought, his eyes on the door to see who would be coming to visit.

Shaun had been one of the less lucky Scions as the change into a creature of the night had deformed him, giving him a white and waxy palour, warts and poor skin and a ridge of bone that started in the middle of his forehead and passed over the top of his head all the way down his back. He also had no hair on him what so ever.

On seeing Lucian, Shaun raised his eyebrows a fraction. Lucian caught the tiny movement, giving away Shaun’s slight surprise at this visit.

Lucian stepped through the doorway into the room and moved across the platform towards the front of the train car, beckoning Shaun to follow with a slight movement of his head.

‘Hey, back to work.’ Shaun said, noticing that his two assistant has stopped working and were looking at their visitor. They both quickly returned to their computers as Shaun stood and moved to follow Lucian, eventually coming to a stop standing next to him at the platform edge.

‘What can I do for you sir?’ asked Shaun, not quite knowing why Lucian would be down here.

In hushed tones, Lucian said, ‘I have a job for you Shaun, something you need to keep between you, me and your two assistants. No one else is to know, for now. Okay?’

‘Of course sir, what can I do for you?’ Shaun asked, curiosity in his voice.

‘It’s a surveillance job. Nothing too strenuous.’ Lucian then passed Shaun a manila folder. ‘Everything you need is in there, you need to find them, inform me the moment you discover where they are and monitor them, that’s all, I can give you further instructions later.’

Shaun took the folder and nodded at Lucian.

‘Thank you, I’ll get right on it.’

- Chat between Blind Eagle and Chronos on the DWeb Message Boards.

Chronos: Thanks for responding, you have access to the Liberties Children Mainframe?

Blind Eagle: I do. What’s the pay?

Chronos: Cash or info, your choice.

Blind Eagle: Cash, $10,000, up front.

Chronos: No deal. $2,000 upfront, balance on delivery.

Blind Eagle: Deal.

Chronos: Payment Details?

…

- Redacted –

…

Blind Eagle: Got it, thanks. What do you want to know?

Chronos: You had a visitor to the Coven House recently. Goes by the name of Amanda-Jane Page. We need anything the Liberties Children have on her.

Blind Eagle: I’ll see what I can find. I’ll message you later.

The Jade Palace
New York
May 8th

Amanda bounced down the stairs to where Yoh waited for her near the front door. She pulled on a light jacket over her strappy white vest top and ripped low rise, boot cut skinny jeans and sneakers as she descended to his level, pulling her hair from the back of the jacket she had just put on.

‘So, we’re ready then?’ She asked.

‘Just about’ he smiled back. She liked his smile, his whole face lit up when he smiled, which he didn’t seem to do a lot of, but she liked it when he did. She thought he looked really rather handsome, especially when he seemed happy.

‘What about GW and Liz?’ She asked.

‘We’re here,’ said Gentle Water from behind her, she turned to see him and Liz walk from the living space just off the hallway, both already wearing coats ready for the outside air of New York in May.

It wasn’t usually very cold in May, but there had been a bit of a turn in the weather these past few days. Not that the cold really bothered any of them, their Magic took care of that, but it would look odd for them to walk about in summer clothes when everyone else had dressed for the weather.

‘Excellent, so we’re ready, let’s head on out!’ Amanda said.

‘Are we walking all the way there?’ Asked Liz.

‘Just so you can start to get your bearings, yes,’ Yoh replied, ‘but we won’t walk out this front door, we’ll Port to the other side of the junction, just as a precaution.’

‘Do you think someone’s watching this place?’ Liz asked, concern in her voice.

‘I’d say that’s unlikely, but when it comes to the Nomads, and Lucian-kun in particular, it pays to be careful.’ Yoh replied.

‘To be sure, where were you thinking?’ Amanda asked.

Amanda could feel the small working of Magic that stirred from Yoh and reached out to Amanda and the others.

Liz had not yet reached a level of magical ability that allowed her to teleport, so it would be down to Gentle Water to take her, as he was currently the only one of them that could Port other people as well as himself.

She often marveled at the things she could do now, from throwing lightning bolts or fire balls, to teleportation to mind reading and conjuration, all things that seemed fairly normal to her now, but just a year or two ago would have seemed really freaky. The world was a strange place, and seemed to be getting weirder every day.

‘Would you be happy to Link with me?’ Yoh asked.

Yoh referred to the low level Psychic ability of Linking minds, where two or more Magi allowed their minds to have a sympathetic connection, meaning that in the future, either party would be able to quickly contact the other, even over great distances. It worked very much like a phone call in that you could ignore a Magi who might be trying to contact you through the Link you had created with them, you didn’t automatically grant them access to your mind, but it bypassed the need for the sending Magi to find the persons mind first that you wished to contact as you were already linked.

You just thought of the person you wanted to speak to, and reached out with your Magic, if they were happy to speak with you at that moment, then you could talk.

They all answered in the affirmative and a couple of seconds later they all had a real time view of an alleyway on the other side of the junction in their minds eye that Yoh shared with them. He had been psychically checking the area out to make sure it remained empty.

‘Shall we?’ Yoh asked.

Amanda nodded, Gentle Water took Liz’s hand and all four of them disappeared from the hallway in a suddenly flurry of popping noises as the air rushed in to fill the voids that their bodies had left behind.

At the same instant, all four of them appeared in the alleyway on the other side of the four way junction, and the sounds and smells of the city filled their senses.

Cars revved their engines, Taxi’s blasted their horns and the general sounds of the city felt deafening to them for a moment compared to the silence of the house.

Amanda looked about her, they had all Ported safely over and stood between two buildings with refuse bags and huge bins on casters dotted up the passageway.

No one had seen them, and they were a short walk from the street where people went about their business.

‘This way,’ said Yoh, and led them out to the street.

At the end of the alleyway Amanda spied her house on the other side of the street, a short way up the road.

Soon they were on their way and following Yoh along the sidewalk, walking the handful of blocks to Yoh’s place, which she knew to be called The Jade Palace. This, according to Yoh, functioned as a Restaurant, Spa and Gym, as well as a living space for Yoh and another Magi called Stella.

Yoh walked ahead of Amanda with Gentle Water and they seemed to be talking casually, with Yoh doing most of the speaking

Amanda walked beside Liz who had taken hold of Amanda’s arm and stayed close. She looked about her in apparent awe of the city they were in, something Amanda could relate too, even though she had lived here for a few years already before she became a Magus. New York always left an impression on new visitors.

While Liz walked along taking in the sights of the city all around her, Amanda admired a different view, and despite trying to look elsewhere, she just couldn’t help but enjoy the shape and form of Yoh’s bum.

She couldn’t see much of it beneath the suit he wore, but she could see just enough to hold her interest.

A couple of times she missed the start of a sentence that Liz had just said to her as she had once again become lost in wondering what Yoh might look like without his suit on.

She tore her gaze away again and looked over the other side of the street, past the traffic and gazed at nothing, anything, something. She didn’t care what it was, she just didn’t want to get caught staring at Yoh’s arse.

But what an arse it was!

No, not again, she thought, this was scandalous. She needed to think of something other than having a firm hold of that rear with both hands while she lay beneath him …

‘When do you think Lucian might turn up?’

Liz’s question broke through her day dream, snapping her back into reality and away from the fantasy she had been indulging herself in.

‘Sorry what?’ She asked.

‘Lucian, he’s not appeared yet, but he must know we’re here, surely.’

Amanda furrowed her brow in response.

‘I’d ideally like to think that he had no idea we were here, but I think realistically, he must know. He’s a competent Nomad from everything I have heard, so I would suspect there must be at least one informant within the Initiated in that Washington Coven House, probably more. We’ve been here what? A few hours? I would expect that he would know we’re here by now.’

‘I don’t feel very safe on these streets. I keep expecting to be jumped at any moment.’

Amanda looked around her at the people going about their daily lives, ignoring the Magi in their midst. Might there be an Initiated amongst them, secretly watching them, monitoring their movements and reporting back to Lucian about where they were headed?

It was certainly possible, and the thought of that possibility darkened her mood a touch as they approached the Jade Palace.

After another couple of blocks of uneventful walking, Yoh came to a stop beside a magazine kiosk on the sidewalk. He picked up a magazine and pretended to look in it as he turned to his companions.

‘The Jade Palace is on the other side of the street a short distance up, can you see it?’ Yoh Asked.

Amanda Liz and Gentle Water looked up the street to see the square fronted two story beige building that proclaimed itself to be The Jade Palace from the sign out front.

It looked big from what she could see, and busy from the number of people sat out front on the tables and chairs there.

‘Lovely,’ said Amanda. ‘Are we not walking in the front door?’

‘No, too risky, we’ll Port to the side entrance and go in that way,’ Yoh answered.

‘Sure,’ Amanda said, and looked at her two companions who also agreed.

‘Hai, when I say, follow me, don’t hesitate.’

Moments passed and Amanda could sense the small working of Magic coming from Yoh, but only because he happened to be stood right next to her. She knew that he had shielded the working from casual detection, and anyone not right next to him would not have noticed the working.

Seconds passed and after a moment more, he put down the magazine and turned to walk off.

‘Follow me.’ He said as he turned.

Amanda followed Yoh into a nearby coffee shop and walked with him towards the back of it. The ambient Magic of the group worked in their favour. They did not want to be seen, meaning they slipped through the shop and through a Staff Only door at the back unnoticed. 

A short walk along a corridor, past the break room where someone sat watching television and ignored them before they finally passed through a rear door into another alleyway.

‘More alleyways?’ Amanda asked.

‘Occupational hazard for Magi here in the city.’ Yoh shrugged. ‘We’re Porting here.’ He said, sending the location details to the group.

‘Let’s go then, I’m not a huge fan of alleyways.’ Amanda said. New York alleyways had a horrible tendency to remind her about the attack a couple of years ago by the Scion Horlack that had turned her into a Magus and killed her good friend Stuart, so the less time she spent in them the better.

That said, she knew one day soon she would want to return to the site of the attack, and try to make some kind of peace with it.

Seconds later they were stood close to the side entrance of what Amanda presumed to be the Jade Palace, and in fact her Magical senses were attuned enough that she knew where she had appeared in relation to where she had been stood moments ago, her Magic, un-interfered with, would mean she would never be lost.

Looking about her she couldn’t sense any Magic here at all, Yoh had done a great job of hiding any magical signature that might be on the building and give away his location to Lucian’s Coven.

‘In we go.’ He said, and walked over to the door and opened it without problem. Amanda had watched carefully and noticed the very small flare of Essentia as Yoh had touched the door handle. Some kind of Magical lock, just as Amanda had expected.

They all walked into a small entrance area as Yoh closed the door behind them.

‘Welcome to the Jade Palace. I’ll give you the dime tour and introduce you to a couple of people as we go. Firstly we’ll have a look round the public areas on the ground floor.’

Yoh proceeded to show the trio around the ground floor of the building, walking them through the softly lit corridors and showing them the Spa area with its treatment rooms, a small pool, Jacuzzi, sauna and more. Liz and Amanda both loved the idea of spending a day or more here and making use of the facilities that the building had, something that Yoh made clear would be always open to them whenever they needed it.

After that he walked them through the restaurant that seemed to be gearing up for the midday rush, the tables were already filling up. The smells of cooking food in here made Amanda’s tummy grumble, she would need to get something to eat soon.

Then after this he showed them the private members only Gym on the other side to the spar area where several people in fitness clothes were working out.

The building itself seemed to have a square footprint, and in the center of it sat a square shaped open air Japanese rock garden. 

The restaurant took up the front of the building with its dining area and kitchen. As you walked in, on the left side of the building you could find the Spa, while on the right you found the Gym. These made up three sides of the square, and each of them had windows that looked out onto the garden in the centre of the building.

Yoh led them out through a glass door into the Zen garden with its winding paths, raked gravel areas and carefully arranged rocks and pruned plants.

The whole building had an air of calm and relaxation about it, especially here in the garden, which seemed very serene and quiet.

Small water features burbled away as they admired the garden around them.

Amanda noticed movement on the other side of the garden then and saw a beautiful young black lady with long silver hair wearing a business suit and pencil skirt and carrying a leather folder of some kind. She smiled at Yoh and approached the group. As she drew level with Yoh, they stopped and bowed to each other.

‘I’d like you to meet Stella, my business partner and Apprentice,’ he said to the group, ‘to the best of my knowledge, we’re the only two Magi who have managed to live here under Lucian’s nose for several years now.’

‘It’s lovely to meet you all,’ Stella said, ‘Yoh has told me all about you, you’re very brave choosing to set up here in New York. I do wish you all the luck in the world, and don’t underestimate Lucian, he’s a tricky character.’

‘Oh, to be sure, we won’t, and thank you.’

‘A pleasure, I’ll catch up with you soon, I have some work to do. Enjoy the tour.’

With that she walked away into the building.