Chapter 66

1997 saw much of my training reach a peak, in that the gains I had achieved went into a period of consolidation. Morgana assured me that the plateau that I had achieved was common to those Mages studying higher magic and indeed she thought it a necessary phase where a Mage in training could explore many of the minor bands in the quantum layers without being distracted by the next big thing. I was still forbidden to play about with tachyons, save under direct supervision, although I was aware that Simon had set up a group to observe key events in history to see just exactly what had happened. This was hampered slightly by the Higher Powers in that they blocked access to certain historical events, mostly to do with religion. All it really meant was that we could not observe Jesus, Buddha or Mohammed and others as well as some of the events associated with their lives and the aftermaths. Why? We did not know for sure and we certainly weren’t overcome with suicidal tendencies enough to ask.

The most interesting event for me was investigating why a Korean Airline plane crashed on Guam as the Seers working for the Magical Control Committee had detected a malign influence being exerted in the area. This had brought down the plane as well as causing several of the passengers listed to disappear. Mage Liang had sent a team to investigate, only for the team to disappear too. This was enough to send alarm bells ringing in the Council and so Mage Thea and I had been sent out with a second team assembled by Mage Liang to assist if possible.

Getting out into the field with Thea was a first for me. Yes, we’d worked together, but we’d never been alone together, always there had been other Mages with us. Naturally I was hoping to get some details of how Thea had taught Róisín some pretty neat offensive tricks as well as hoping to get past what I can only describe as a ‘difficult’ phase Thea and I were going through.

Essentially conversations between Thea and I had become increasingly difficult, despite a good start (I thought). Conversations not work related were stilted and Thea would more often than not avoid me in any social situation. Róisín and Abi were no help at all, other than the odd cryptic hint that the problem stemmed from me being too focussed on work. Yet on this, I was coming to the belief that the problem was actually with Thea, as every attempt I’d made to engage her in any sort of non-work related activities had simply foundered on the fact that the woman wouldn’t even look me in the eye when I made the effort.

Naturally I had a suspicion that something else was going on, but, the few Mages that I felt I could talk to assured me that Thea did not have a problem with me or working with me, which left me confused and resigned to the situation.

Mage Liang welcomed us both profusely in his Peking office and went over what had been discovered before his team had gone missing without trace.

“All we know is that something affected the pilot causing him to bring down the aircraft into the side of a hill. We’ve allowed the mundane authorities to come to the conclusion that it was a technical difficulty, even adjusted the logs and memories of a few to cover this,” he explained.

“Any local ‘legends’ we ought to know about?” Thea asked.

“Nothing particularly nasty,” Liang admitted. “Usual bunch of magical creatures, but no variant human genomes that we’re aware of, nor have the Seers ever indicated anything unusual happening in Guam. We don’t even have an office there. There’s a weird tale about a young girl becoming a mermaid, but it’s just a folk tale as far as I’m aware.”

“You appear to have covered all the bases, Mage Liang,” Thea confirmed. “I doubt we’d have done anything different. There’s nothing to account for anything that might have affected your team.”

“As soon as they failed to report, we had a response team in the area they’d been known to be operating in, but they found not a trace,” Liang replied.

“Yes, your reports were very clear on this,” Thea mused. “The Seer gestalt could not identify anything either, simply that it was malign.”

“Well, I’ve assembled a new team of some of my most experienced Mages to assist you on this, most you’ll know having been passed through your office to gain more experience in Council matters,” Liang added.

“Thank you, Mage Liang. That’s most appreciated. We’ll port to the island and meet them and get their feelings on the matter. Hopefully they’ll have made a little progress in this mystery,” Thea replied as she opened a portal to Guam.

The team Mage Liang had assembled was quite a mix of nationalities, mostly East Asians, but a couple of Aussies and a Kiwi too. All were pleased to see us and most I recognised having been seconded to the Enforcement Office or having trained with me when Morgana had us preparing to remove the Coalition from Russia.

“Anything new?” Thea asked after the formal greetings had been given.

“I’m afraid not, Mage Thea. There’s no trace of our team, nor any clues as to what had our Seers so stirred up,” Mage Malou replied for all of them.

“Nor have there been any such incidents in the past,” Mage Aroha added.

“Best go and have a look at where the missing team were last reported, though I doubt we’ll find anything you missed,” Thea replied.

As it was daylight we got into a few cabs and headed out to Nimitz Hill where the plane had crashed and where the investigating team had vanished.

“Can’t sense a thing, Mage Thea,” I said once we’d got out of the taxi.

“Not the only one, John. Believe me this hill has been scanned down to its roots by more skilled Mages than you or I,” Thea admitted.

“That’s it, Mage Thea. I can’t even sense any magical activity and there ought to be some,” I said.

“Hmmm! Seems Morgana was right to insist on you coming along, John,” Thea chuckled. “We’ve all been looking for something, not the absence of something.”

“Not Null,” I said.

“No. It would show up on a scan. This is more a nothingness, an absence of power, rather than an absorption of it,” Thea admitted. “I suggest caution. We’ll cover the ground on the hill, however no using our powers to communicate, use these,” she ordered, pulling several walkie-talkies out of a pocket dimension. “You all used them in Rwanda. Use the same protocols here and keep in touch.”

“Yes, Mage Thea,” they responded and set off in teams of two to cover the hill and hopefully discover some secrets.

“Mage Thea, a question?” I asked politely as we headed onto the hill.

“Yes, John?”

“Whilst it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that we may find something here, I rather doubt it will be the missing Mage team as there’s simply not enough room to lose them here, it’s not much of a hill after all,” I stated.

“I agree, John, but that’s no reason not to look anyway,” she replied.

“Just that the absence of magic may well mask what, if anything, is really going on,” I added.

“Oh, most certainly, John. Which is why we’re here actually having a look in the hope that our eyes might see what our minds cannot,” Thea chuckled.

“Agreed, though I do not think it was wise to split our teams, after all, we’ve already lost a team of four,” I noted.

“Are you questioning my judgement, John?” Thea asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No, Mage Thea. Just wondering what you hope to achieve,” I replied carefully.

“I’m aware of the danger of splitting the team. However, whatever took down four competent Mages without causing any warning cries for help might also not have an issue with ten of us. That said if one team gets into trouble, the rest of us will either rush to their aid, or if things are bad observe and report,” Thea explained at length.

“Right. Hope it works,” I chuckled.

“Me too, John, me too,” Thea replied with a smile before calling out for a radio check.

The other four teams all responded and reported back nothing of any note, save the total absence of any magic in the area.

“Weird, it’s like walking through thick fog.” Thea remarked.

“Just hope it doesn’t cause any issues with the air crash investigators,” I replied.

“Mage Liang pulled some strings. They’re working today in a warehouse on the parts they recovered,” Thea explained.

“This is team four. We’re under attack!” the radio crackled.

“Team four respond. Under attack by whom or what?” Thea requested as we turned along with the other teams and started running up the hill to where team four were supposed to be.

There was no reply, which struck me as particularly ominous, nor was there any sign of team four when we and the other panting teams reached the area.

“Mages Lin and Adelaide, move down to the road and summon help,” Thea ordered. “The rest of you close search of the area, be very careful, draw your weapons.”

I carefully looked around looking for any signs of a struggle. The only noticeable things were a few flattened plants, but no tracks or signs of a struggle.

“John, anything?”

“No, Mage Thea. But I’m going to do a circuit of the area to see what, if anything, I can find,” I replied.

“Not too far, John. Try and remain in sight,” Thea acknowledged.

I circled around the area looking for anything out of place, all seemed in order, if anything in too much order. It was then that I noticed my footprints were vanishing after a couple of steps only to reappear if I stepped back. I could still see Thea and the other Mages, so I knew it wasn’t a full weave, but someone, or something was clearly doing a hell of a job of concealment as well as putting out a massive if undetectable magic dampening field.

“We’re being watched,” I said to Thea as I returned to her side.

“By whom or what? I wonder,” she replied as I reached into my pocket to pull out a box of micronull.

For all I’d invented micronull, it wasn’t actually a null field as such. It was simply attracted to the energies a Mage would use when casting and would burn itself out when interacting with the energy as it wasn’t tapped to a destination as such. I’d once been taken to task by Mage Thomas over the name used, but in the end he was forced to agree that the inventor got to name it. It did need to be kept in a magic free environment hence the box, but was blasted out in a circle by an aerosol effect, getting far enough away from the user before it affected them.

Activating the trigger I blasted a jet of the particles straight at the area where my footprints were concealed causing a cry of outrage and a flickering as twelve concealing screens went down and an attack upon us began.

We all immediately opened fire with our hand weapons, only to realise that whatever was attacking us was immune to the effects. I still couldn’t quite make out what was attacking us, but it looked rather like a headless human form and clearly semi-magical in nature. All of us had now drawn our bladed weapons and proceeded to attempt to defend ourselves as we backed our way down towards the road where we had sent Mages Lin and Adelaide. Whilst our swords seemed to have a limited effect on the attackers, they were at least enough to keep them at bay until without warning the ground simply faded beneath our feet and we sank into the earth and out of consciousness.

I awoke with an intense headache and realised I was suspended by my feet from the roof of what appeared to be a natural cavern by what looked to me like some form of gum. Whatever it was, I could not free myself from it and I could not use magic as the dampening field still worked. Looking around I could see several of our party suspended in a similar manner including Mages Lin and Adelaide.

“So much for calling for the cavalry,” I croaked out.

“Indeed, John,” came a reply from Thea, whom I could not see and presumed was behind me.

“Any idea of who or what?” I asked at large.

“Duendes, I think,” came the reply of Mage Lin.

“What are Duendes?” Thea asked.

“A sort of dwarf people, normally they leave mankind alone these days, but they can be a handful if angered,” Lin explained. “Didn’t know there was a colony of them here though.”

“Someone must be goading them or controlling them,” Thea stated.

“Perhaps the Mananiti,” Lin replied. “A kind of Daemonette, as this has all the hallmarks of offended creatures calling on their gods.”

“Perhaps, but that isn’t going to help us escape,” Thea muttered. “Wonder what happened to the last team?”

“Don’t think it was anything good,” I said finally as I gazed at a set of human bones, all of which appeared to have been gnawed on.

There was a scuttling sound from the darker area of the cavern and several shapes came forward brandishing spears and looking distinctly hostile.

“Greetings,” Thea finally said after clearing her throat.

There was no reply, the leading creature simply aimed what appeared to be a sceptre at one of the team, Mage Fe, and she fell to the floor with a sickening crunch followed by some short lived desperate screams as the creatures threw themselves on her ripping her flesh off with their teeth and devouring it hungrily.

All I could do was watch in horror hearing the sounds of Mage Thea (and possibly a few others being violently sick at the sight of one of our own being eaten alive. Again and again Mages fell to the floor as the creatures tore them apart for food and sport.

“There will be a reckoning for this!” I stated calmly if menacingly to the creature with the sceptre.

“Our magic is more powerful than yours,” the creature slurred through pointed teeth.

“You think you can threaten Mages and survive?” I replied coldly.

“Our gods will protect us!” the creature said dismissively before pointing the sceptre at another Mage behind me for his fellow creatures to fall upon.

“John, I think we’re going to die here,” Thea said, fear making her voice tremble.

“Perhaps, but where there’s life...” I said.

“Perhaps,” Thea replied. “But if it does happen I want you to know that I love you.”

“You love me?” I said a little confused.

“Since we met and you vouched for me before Mage Morgana,” Thea replied.

“I thought you didn’t like me?” I said wondering how I’d missed knowing how she felt.

“No, I just couldn’t allow myself to get too close and Róisín said to wait until your training got easier, though it never seemed to,” she said wryly.

“We’ll talk more of this, should we escape,” I said as another Mage fell to the floor to be feasted upon.

The dampening field that the gods of the creatures were using was inhibiting all my magic, but I was determined to find a way to escape. There was no way I could activate any sort of Null as Null required a burst of energy to initiate it. The creatures had also removed our bladed weapons so there was nothing around me to grab if I fell. My chance however came as the creatures fell upon Mage Lin as she fell to the floor and the top of its spear came within reach. Grapping the shaft I pulled hard tearing myself away from the roof and using the shaft to right myself as I fell. Taking the now free spear I used it to jab at the creature with the sceptre, making it squeal as the point tore through the rags it was wearing and causing it to drop the sceptre. The other creatures had stopped their feasting and were now bearing down on me and I hurled the spear at the leading one and dived to grab the sceptre.