Magician
Chapter 9

Copyright© 2014 by QM

The next few years were pretty hectic, mostly involved in move and counter move by members representing the Council versus those on the side of the Coalition. I realise the conflict, such as it was, will look odd to anyone used to the normal human methods of armies and nations, but Mages do not operate on that kind of scale. Indeed, there are only somewhere in the region of 100,000 Mages on the planet, there would have been more given our longevity but some have chosen to live elsewhere on empty worlds. The assassination of key members of either side had reduced the numbers somewhat. Also it was rare for our gift to breed true; the chances of two Mages having a gifted child were slightly higher than the norm, but only just. A lot of research was being done as to the why and wherefore of the talent manifesting itself, but nothing definite was being pointed to as a major factor, other than angered frustration, which sadly did not work on the children of ages, or at least not too often. Not that female Mages have many children, when you have control of your reproductive cycle and time most definitely was on your side, well, the inevitable was often put off till Mr Right was to be found. Which generally meant relationships were transient, sexual (as in friends with benefits) and not guaranteed to be long term, though a lot of the female Mages practice a form of share and share alike with their partner with the senior or primary partner choosing amongst friends as to who also shared the relationship. The preponderance of female Mages to males made relationships a lot different than it would in the normal world. That's not to say there weren't lifelong partnerships, just they tended to be the exception, not the rule.

We believe the Coalitions attempts to set up a breeding programme using anti-magic collars to enslave any female Mages who took their fancy to have been a deliberate attempt to try and breed as many potential Mages as possible. It was the sort of thing which seemed to appeal to them, though the fallout from our revealing the camp was still causing them no end of trouble and a lot of their lower levels whilst not flocking to the Council's side, were definitely becoming neutrals.

Most new Mages were therefore the sons and daughters of normal people and we caught a good few before they could kill themselves, but not the majority. Being a Mage or rather becoming one is just sheer bloody dangerous.

It was at the end of 1966 that I collected the last part of thirteen for my Null shield amulet. Morgana had spoken to the Council (don't ask, I had no idea at this time how she did it or even called them) and taken our first Dvergar craftsman to look over a world where humanity had never developed and the highest life form was some sort of cave bear, well it was at the top of the land based food chain anyway. Agreement was made and he and his tribe along with several other tribes plus a good few individuals from the rest numbering in the region of around ten thousand souls migrated to this world. Those that were left were apparently the 'Faere believers', those who thought one day the Sidhe would come back to claim them. Faith truly can cause some warped views and I just hoped they'd never meet up with the Sidhe again as I doubt they'd enjoy the experience one bit.

The first thing I did with the parts of the amulet was to duplicate them several times in all their complexity. Once something has been made, provided we have the materials to reproduce it, we can do it relatively quickly. It's making something new and complex from scratch that's really hard, though several chats with Ketty on the Over-master world had alerted me to a source of complex pattern making of micro-glyphs and sigils from the way they manufactured their computer chips that would be worth investigating in a few years' time.

After that I took one of the duplicated samples and levitated them into the forming jig so as not to mar their surfaces, once precisely aligned I used the jig to clamp them and sent a small series of electrical charges through the forms to allow the horizontal symbols to bind with the vertical ones throughout the forming amulet and then condensed the gravity over the jig to fuse all the plates into one whole.

Unclamping the jig I took the amulet out and examined it minutely for flaws in the strata and not finding any I repeated this for the other two remaining samples and retested.

I then took the assembled amulets to a tailors dummy situated in a field out near Reading and set their parameters to Mount Erebus in Antarctica switched one on and unleashed a bolt of hellfire at it. Hellfire is just superheated plasma directed by a Mage using gravity to compress the air and electricity as the targeting system as well as the ionising agent, the superheated plasma created was then used as the weapon. Essentially we use our mind to ground the target and unleash hell. It's easy enough to deflect if you spot it coming and have the measure of your opponent, but a powerful enough Mage will force it home against an inexperienced one 99 times out of 100.

The results were spectacular, the amulet easily dispersed the magic holding the hellfire and the transference sigils built into the amulet directed the plasma to Mount Erebus, a close inspection showed me it wasn't even warm. I tried various other spells upon it, each one closing to within about a foot of the dummy before being absorbed and redirected. The only disappointments were that like micro Null, its time was limited to about 30 minutes, possibly less depending on the power of the Mage attempting to overcome it, also with area effect spells, where the effects of magic rather than magic itself affected the dummy. Still I thought, it was a good start.

Morgana took receipt of the amulets the following day to hand over to the Council for further testing, examining the work minutely with her mind and attempting to trace the various symbols within to no effect, part of the construct was deliberately designed to be opaque to intensive probing. Future amulets could also be pre-set to individuals too, so stealing one locked to another Mage to use for yourself was not an option.

"This is incredible, John," she said. "An amulet of last resort and a potential ward breaker too."

"It has its limitations," I said. "You can't use magic when it's activated, so bullets or other physical weapons will kill you, but it will allow a chance to escape or evade or even get close enough to get physical ourselves, for as long as it lasts anyway, handling so much power causes the substrates to break down eventually, but I'd need a very strong Mage to test for that."

Morgana nodded. "Yes, it's no panacea in our war, but it gives us an advantage if used under the right conditions."

"I'm still trying to work towards a directed Null beam," I said. "But that's proving a lot trickier."

"I'd tell you that that was impossible," said a smiling Morgana holding up the amulet. "Except I'd have said this was impossible too."

I nodded and left it with her, I'm sure she'd do some testing herself, well, I certainly would if given a new toy to play with...

"Are you off to Edinburgh now?" Morgana asked?

"Yes, new apprentice to meet and greet," I replied.

"Very well, see you when you return, John," she dismissed me with a smile.

After leaving Morgana's office I set off on tackling one of the bread and butter jobs that the Department deals with, that of visiting a new apprentice and his Mage, mostly to put a face to a name, but also to make sure that they knew the rules. I had not met Mage Benjamin before, he was one of the many Mages who moved around from country to country, rather than give the appearance of aging and had recently settled in Edinburgh only for a new Mage to develop right on his doorstep.

It was a long journey north by train, but eventually I arrived that evening at the home of Mage Benjamin in the Fountainbridge area of the City. He had of course been notified of a visit from the Department, though any Mage who acquires an apprentice can more or less assume a visit from the Council's representative from the local office, in this case the Department for Investigative Studies.

Benjamin himself greeted me at the door and invited me in.

"Thanks for coming," he said warmly. "Callum's through here and still at the stage of missing his family, though he knows why he has to remain anonymous. Personally I think he'd rather it would all just go away at the moment."

"Took me a number of years too," I said. "Though Morgana's Manse was not somewhere I could get back to my family from."

"I have considered doing something like that," Benjamin said. "But unfortunately I have a few obligations I feel I must attend to before then."

"Your work at the University?" I asked.

"Yes," he grimaced. "I gave my word to teach for a few years and for all I could make them forget, I don't like doing that, sets a bad example."

"Any other Mages interested?" I asked.

"Again, I found him so feel obliged to do this," Benjamin said.

I found myself rather liking Benjamin, though I was worried that he was biting off far more than he could chew. I know how hard it is to train a Mage, at least to the level where they aren't in any danger of drifting off in a cloud of fiery atoms, I'd seen Morgana struggle with me after all.

"Let's see Callum then," I said "And I'll ensure he knows what's going to happen."

Benjamin led me down a hallway to a room at the back where I found myself facing a very nervous young man.

"You must be apprentice Mage Callum then," I said with a smile. "I'm John; I represent the Department for Investigative Studies, which is the Council of the Wise's investigatory and enforcement arm in Europe. I'm just here to make sure you understand what you've let yourself in for."

"Pleased to meet you, Mage John," said Callum politely.

"I'm a journeyman Mage," I said with a smile. "I'm busy paying off my debt of training, still got another 69 years before I'm a Mage."

"Wow," was all Callum could say.

"Living a long youthful life is one of the perks," I said.

I went through what the rules and obligations were, telling Callum that Mage Benjamin was responsible for his welfare in so far as for the first twenty years he'd train, feed, clothe and house him along with a small allowance. After that Callum would work either in the normal or magical world and pay back the debt he owed Benjamin whilst also still being trained and supported until after a further one hundred years Callum would be a fully qualified Mage and entirely self-supporting.

"But what jobs do Mages do?" asked Callum.

"Well, Benjamin here teaches at the university," I said. "Though within the magical community he's renowned for his work on crystal lattice imagery and memory. Much of what he does is used by Mages to record a holographic image with sound of their experiments or in the case of my Department we record instances of protocol breaches."

"We won't know where your talents will take you for a number of years yet, Callum," said Benjamin. "But you'll have to study hard; magic can be dangerous until you have a good grasp of what you're doing."

"But I can't read or write," Callum said miserably. "I tried but the letters just get all jumbled."

"Dyslexia," said Benjamin. "Don't worry, I've already sorted that out for you."

"Impressive, Mage Benjamin," I said.

"A gift of mine," he said. "Drove Mage Rowenna mad when I couldn't explain how I do it."

"Been there, done that," I said with a smile and then explained the 'fountain of youth' treatment.

"Oh my," Benjamin chuckled. "She'll have loved that."

We chatted for a while after that before I bade them farewell and made my way back to Waverley Station in the heart of Edinburgh.

I hadn't gone too far when I realised I was being followed, not that I could see anyone, I just knew as all my magical senses were shrieking at me to get out of there. I picked up the pace a little hoping to shake off whoever it was, though to no avail, nor could I contact anyone telepathically, that too was being blocked along with teleportation, not that I would try that assuming whoever was stalking me was as powerful as I suspected. I could now detect a massive aversion spell coming into being around the area I was in; I was pretty much on my own. Looking frantically about me all I could see was a red telephone box and I ran to it, not that I was planning on making a call, I just was hoping to find something to assist me. The receiver was, of course, dead, nor could I activate it or see anything obvious to help me, until, glancing down, I had an idea.

I stepped out of the box and waited, running was no longer an option and an eerie fog now surrounded the area I stood in, hands in pockets whistling nonchalantly.

Several dark figures stood surrounding me, though they stayed in the fog, no faces showing.

"So you're the boy Merlin fears?" came a cold voice as a tall oriental man stepped into the circle where I stood.

"You seem to have the better of me," I said. "Do I know you?"

"I suppose you know of me, though we've never met," he said. "Zhang Jue, at your very brief service."

"Ah, the Yellow Turban Mage," I said. "One of the Coalition's big hitters."

"Its biggest hitter when I take you down," he said.

"If," I said with a whimsical smile.

He frowned, that was the only warning I got and I used a minor spell to blast out some of the Null dust I'd developed in an arc around me towards the shadowy figures circling me before racing directly towards Zhang Jue. He sent a stream of hellfire straight at me but fortunately did not expect my displacement charm or the Null dust and although it did brush against me and hurt like hell it didn't kill me. It was then I pulled my sock that I'd filled with the pennies from the phone box from my pocket and hit him for all I was worth on the side of his head. It worked and he went down as did all the spells he'd cast owing to his shock and the disruption to his senses and grabbing him I used my teleport charm to take us out of the area whilst his associates tried to cast in a seething storm of red hot particles. We landed in my London flat with a massive crash and I sent out a frantic call to Morgana whilst landing Zhang Jue another good blow to the head as he dazedly tried to pull himself together. It was however Arch, not Morgana who ported into my flat and swiftly summed up the situation.

"Oh fuck! I'll get some anti-cast manacles, John, whilst you see if you can hold him."

"They're in the drawer over there," I said pointing and landed another blow on Zhang Jue with the sock full of pennies.

Arch grabbed them and I struggled to get them onto Zhang Jue whilst Arch frantically cast a series of anti-teleport spells to prevent anyone not known to us getting near the flat.

Finally, we both sat on the floor either side of Zhang Jue, grinning like maniacs.

"You never cease to amaze me John," Arch finally said. "All the time training with Mage Morgana and instead of using magic you take down a Coalition High Mage with a sock full of pennies."

"Well, I couldn't find a half brick," I grinned and shrugged my shoulders, then winced as my burnt skin flared into agony.

"Hold on," said Arch and cast his version of the healing spell.

"Will the manacles hold someone that powerful?" I asked, finally feeling a bit more human.

"Yes, we test them on ourselves," said Arch as Morgana ported in.

"Oh my God! It is Zhang Jue," cried Morgana. "How?"

"He wanted to boast, rub my face in my own helplessness," I said. "It let me get close enough to hit him with something he didn't expect." And I held up my sock full of pennies.

"He still caught you a good one with the hellfire, John," said Arch.

"Yes, but I suspect he wanted to try and make it last, rather than just blot me out, plus the displacement charm and the Null dust came up trumps again," I said. "Though I wish I could somehow get the effect to last longer than a half second."

Zhang Jue had meanwhile roused himself and tried to cast only to stare in disbelief at the manacles.

"Bù!" he cried, in Chinese, I presumed. "Bù, bù, bù!"

"I'd like to know just how he knew that I'd be up in Edinburgh though, I've had no other indications I was being watched," I mused.

Morgana and Arch shared a look, but made no comment.

"I can think of several answers," I said carefully. "None of which I'm happy about."

"Understandable," said Arch as he contacted a team from the Security Section of the Department to take Zhang Jue away.

"We know Merlin has a death mark set on you, John," said Morgana.

"I know," I said. "That's why I'm always cautious when travelling, preferring to use non-magical means. But this was a deliberate set up, not a random spotting, only a very few people knew it would be me travelling up to see Mage Benjamin, nor did he or his new apprentice know it would be me."

Morgana and Arch were looking increasingly unhappy, though again said nothing.

"So unless Mage Benjamin has contacts within the Coalition, something he hasn't been noted for in the past, or Callum is a lot more than he seems, then the leak, if it is a leak, would seem to stem from the Department itself," I finished coldly.

"I know Benjamin very well indeed," said Morgana. "His master was Mage Roxanne, head of our Security Section; I helped train him long before I found you. He's no traitor, the Coalition killed his life partner in Belgrade nearly a century ago, he doesn't involve himself with Council matters, but he hates the Coalition to his very core. That and he'd know if Callum were not the real deal, it's happened before where the Coalition has tried to slip an assassin close to a Mage by pretending to be recently latent."

I nodded. "Best check if he's OK; there were several Coalition Mages in his area just under an hour ago."

Benjamin was OK, though disturbed as his house's defences had all kicked in when Zhang Jue had started casting in the area.

"Guess I'll have to move again," he mentally commented, after finding out why. "If they were following John, then they must have a pretty good idea where I am."

A random thought hit me. "Mage Benjamin, a question?" I politely asked.

"Yes, John?" he answered.

"Does your gift with dyslexia apply to other brain conditions?" I asked.

"Depends," he answered. "So long as the problem isn't major physical trauma I have had some success."

Morgana's eyebrows rose. "You're thinking of the Gulag women, John?"

"Yes, my Mage," I replied to Morgana.

"I suspect Rowenna might be in touch with you over a problem we ran into a while ago involving hostages and a device to limit Mage functions," I replied to Benjamin.

"If I can help I will," he replied. "It will be good to speak to Rowenna again."

We broke the connection.

"You've just made his day," said Morgana with a smile. "Benjamin has carried a torch for Rowenna for over three decades or so now."

"Does Rowenna know?" I asked.

"Doubt it," said Arch. "She's as focussed as you were when Róisín all but had to kill you before you realised she liked you."

"You're never going to let me forget that are you?" I asked in general.

"Good gosh, no," said Morgana grinning broadly. "Some tales are just too good not to share."

The team to take Zhang Jue turned up at this moment and led him outside to the shielded van and the holding facility.

"So where does that leave me over the attempt on my life?" I finally asked after they'd left.

Arch and Morgana glanced at each other again; clearly not happy with my conclusions, then it hit me.

"You're communicating with each other and someone else aren't you?" I stated. "I've noticed it before, you're not using regular telepathy either, I can't 'hear' you, but I do know when you're doing it as a sort of background effect."

"I think you might just have to up John's training," Said Arch with a smile. "He's been nibbling at the edges of the Iso-depth layers for a while."

"I think you're right, Arch," said Morgana. "Though I can't recall any Mage at his age or level of training having the ability to know when layered quantum strata were in use."

"You mean there are levels above and below what I can use?" I asked.

"Yes, along with side to side and depth too," said Morgana. "Think of yourself as only working in one dimension, then discovering that there were at least three others as well."

"Power," I said. "That's where the power spells come from. No wonder I couldn't seem to increase my ability there."

"It's a minor aspect of it," said Arch. "It's also bloody dangerous too; it's why you got into trouble over that healing spell with Róisín. You tapped into what we call iso-depth bands to restore her energies. You have a natural talent there, I don't believe it to be luck, but you could have torn her apart."

"Most Mages cannot handle all the higher aspects of it," said Morgana. "Even those who do require a lot of training and they are few in number. The Coalition minor Mages learn power spells by rote, they don't actually understand what they are doing and can't get the full effect from them, it's just a means to an end for the Coalition, we suspect they lose a good few in the training of its use too. As for our Mages, well, not all are told about this during or after their training, sometimes not for years, sometimes never. We always wait for them to discover aspects of it for themselves, then it's a decision of the Council itself and normally not undertaken lightly, even the ones who are allowed to progress further tend to be very reluctant to do so, one mistake and unlike normal magic you don't just take yourself out, you might take the room out."

"Assuming you're lucky," said Arch grimly. "Mage Adam, back in 1906, was working on some multi-layered wards when he was staying in San Francisco. Damn fool, instead of raising them one at a time tried to raise them all at once. He lost control of it and set off the San Andreas Fault under the sea near the city leaving at least 3,000 dead and almost a half a million people made homeless. Adam was the last non-Coalition Mage to have been executed by Council decree."

"Some though, have a natural talent for it," said Morgana. "I suspected you might when you survived Merlin's attack on you in Nuremburg."

"I never could figure out how he did it," I said.

"John, there was no way you could have survived the complete overload of all electrical impulses in your body, even your brain would have shut down. Yet somehow you did," said Morgana. "I believe you were already tapping unknowingly into the iso-depth bands in which the attack was made which was all that enabled your survival and disconcerted Merlin totally."

"It just froze all my muscles; I assumed he'd interfered with motor neurone activity, though I never could find out how he did it undetected by me in my studies," I mused.

"The reason you couldn't defend or even detect how it was made is because it came out of a higher plane of magic you were not at that time equipped mentally to handle or detect even though your subconscious managed to kick in a survival instinct you weren't aware of. Even now I'm going to have to be very careful about training you in its use," Morgana stated. "However, Arch and I have managed to get Council approval to train you, mostly due to your work on micro Null and also because you were showing signs of detecting its use anyway."

"One thing though, John," said Arch. "You are not permitted to discuss iso-depth layers, layered quantum strata and higher plane magic with anyone not a fully qualified Mage on a Council approved list, this specifically includes Róisín. She's not ready yet, though I suspect like you she'll find her way to it eventually, she's a lot more attuned to the sensitivities of certain magical fields than you in a lot of areas."

"I'll allow you access to the secure library at my Manse," said Morgana. "Do not under any circumstances remove any of the books from there and as Arch said you may not discuss this with anyone not an approved Mage and I'd specifically ask that you do not do so without my express permission even then."

"Yes, my Mage," I answered formally.

"Good," she said. "Now as to the problem we have with someone informing the Coalition as to your whereabouts. Yes, you're right, somewhere in the Department there's a leak and I've been trying to track it down for over two and a half decades now with no clue as to who or how. It was obvious from the moment we went into that vault in Nuremburg and found Merlin waiting. I was expecting Coalition guards, but Merlin himself would normally avoid me like the plague. We're too well matched for the outcome to be anything other than a matter of chance. I also doubt any others of the Coalition would have been happy to stand in his place; I tend to get very angry when they openly confront me and have in the past taken others of their High Mages down very hard indeed. I can only think that he hoped somehow to use the spear to defeat us, though it doesn't really work on individuals, still Merlin may have thought it would tip the odds in his favour"

"So why only Merlin?" I asked.

"I'd have detected more than one Mage," said Morgana. "As it is, Merlin had to use some fairly serious wards to hide his presence as it were. I'd have seen through the aspects of their cloaks of most other Mages with a little effort."

"Most, but not all," said Arch. "You take far too many risks, my lovely friend."

"For far too many years we were on the defensive, always losing ground," Morgana said. "Now look, a few calculated risks and all of a sudden the Coalition is on the back foot and their core support has been shaken. They're having to react to us for a change, we aren't winning, but we've stopped them for the first time in a long time."

"That's true," said Arch. "But they'll never give up, still it's nice that their core support has taken a hit. I know a few Mages who, for all they support the Council, are sympathetic to some of the Coalitions aims."

"That's always been part of the problem," said Morgana. "Once Mages lived openly in society, now because of organised religion we hide or face persecution in some places."

I listened quietly to Morgana and Arch, they so very rarely spoke openly of the problems Mages faced, both from society and the Coalition.

"That still does not give us the right to dominate or rule them," said Arch. "Sooner or later they'd use science to counter our magic and they'd hunt us down."

"Tell that to the Coalition," snorted Morgana. "You're preaching to the choir here. Anyway, John, in between trying not to kill yourself and blow up a massive chunk of this planet in the process, as well as your work on micro-Null, I want you to also start investigating the source of the leak in the Department. I'll give you access to the full files on every case where I think there has been a case of a compromised outcome and feel free to request other files as well if you see a correlation. I want this very low key and off the record, John. I realise that you and the meaning of the word discreet have been strangers in the past but I don't want the Department set against itself by rumours or false allegations. Do not however presume innocence or guilt, start with an open mind and look into all factors both magical and mundane."

"Yes, my Mage," I replied formally.

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