Influence (21 page)

‘What then?’
she said.

‘You lied
to me Lizzie. It’s okay if you don’t like me like I like you, but to use me
like that, humiliate me and then just disappear, it’s cruel is what it is.’ He
stood there, waiting for a response fists on hips. Lizzie’s cheeks flushed red,
she had no idea what to say to him, what words could possibly make things
right.

‘Look,
again I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘but if you think about it I never actually lied to
you, you just sort of made some assumptions, and I just sort of… Void, wait.’ That
had been the wrong thing to say, she cursed herself as Void turned and walked
off. She went after him, trying to keep her voice down. ‘Void come on, please,’
he traipsed on in an almighty strop. ‘Oh don’t be such a bloody child Frank,’
yelled Lizzie, coming to a halt, refusing to chase him any further. He stopped
and turned, he marched back to her, his face bright with rage. He was about to
launch into a how dare you speech when Lizzie planted her hands on the back of
his neck and pulled him in, kissing him. There was a momentary resistance and
then he was kissing her back. There was no deceit in her kiss, another surprise
to her. She moved her hands down to his back as he wrapped his arms around her
shoulders. They remained in an embrace when the kiss ended. She took hold of
the lapels of his jacket and pressed her forehead into his chest. He kissed the
top of her head and held her there.

‘Shall we
get a coffee? Somewhere quiet. There’s a lot I need to tell you,’ she said. He
looked down at her, he smiled and shook his head realising he had just been
manipulated, but there was no complaint.

‘I know a
place,’ he said. ‘Come on.’ he took her hand and led her to a small café a
short distance away, they said very little on the way.

The café
was small and quaint, boasting the best cream scones in Oxford. It was half
full of mostly older couples sitting in wicker chairs at small round tables. A
glorious smell of home baking filled the place. They ordered at the counter and
sat at a table at the very back, giving a good deal of privacy.

‘I need to
ask you something, before we get into anything else,’ said Lizzie.

‘Alright,’
said Void, leaning in, ‘go ahead.’

‘Did you
know Robert Adams? Or perhaps, Robe Adams?’

‘Never
heard of him, should I know who that is?’ Lizzie studied his reaction, he was
either an excellent liar or he was telling her the truth.

‘Can I
trust you?’

‘Of course
you can trust me, I mean have I been anything but open with you? Far too bloody
open in fact. What’s going on Lizzie? Tell me.’ Lizzie paused trying to
formulate her thoughts.

‘Okay, did
you hear about the kid who was murdered in Banbury recently?’ Void nodded.
‘Well he was my friend, and somehow he’s also wrapped up in all this Council
stuff.’ She produced the minutes from her bag and laid it out in front of him
pointing out Robe’s name.’

‘How the
hell did you get hold of this?’

‘Probably
best you don’t know,’ she said. Void took the paper and examined it.

‘Alright,
well this R. Adams here is before my time with the Council, I honestly didn’t
know him.’

‘I believe
you, but I’m convinced his death is connected to the Council. I think all that
devil worship and Sully being the Curate and some mention of scrolls, all have
something to do with what happened to my friend. And I intend to prove it.’

‘Sully? Doctor
Sullivan? Look Lizzie, I think you got this all wrong. I can see how that night
in the Library would have freaked you out if nobody had told you about what we
do before hand, but shit, devil worship? Is that what you think? and Sully having
a hand in the death of your friend? Lizzie, that’s just nuts. God, I can’t
believe I took you there that night. I guess I just wanted it to be true, that
you had been invited to join, how did you get hold of that symbol anyway? Wait,
better I don’t know right?’

‘Probably.’

‘And how do
you know Dr Sullivan? I’m guessing you do since you know him as Sully.’

‘He’s the
Philosophy teacher at my school.’

‘Your
school?’ Void’s chair screeched as he pushed himself back from the table. ‘Oh
shit, how old are you?’

‘Relax,
I’ll be eighteen in a few weeks, I just finished school.’ Void pulled his chair
back, realising a few of the other patrons were now staring. He lowered his
voice.

‘Your
friend, was he at school with you?’ Lizzie nodded.

‘Then what
on earth would he be doing with the Council?’

‘Actually
that’s one part of this whole thing that doesn’t surprise me. Robe, my friend,
was pretty special, he could read God knows how many dead languages so I can
understand why Sully would want him. Tell me then, what is all this Esoteric
Council stuff all about?’ asked Lizzie. Void looked up, seeing the waitress
bringing their coffees. He waited for her to leave before answering.

‘First up,
and you need to understand this, it has nothing whatsoever to do with devil
worship, you need to put that out of your head straight away. It’s hard to know
where to start, although I guess it’s easier now that you’ve seen a
demonstration first hand.

Magic, in
all its aspects – Black and White, Wicca, Druidry, Voodoo, whatever you want to
call it, all form around a similar phenomena - the affect and control of
natural forces. The council’s purpose is not that of a cult or a thinly veiled
sex club for bored aristocrats, as so many magical sects turn out to be. Our
directive is to investigate, quantify and record this phenomena. The practice
of magic has been so vilified over the centuries that the proper study of it
has always been a dangerous and primitive pursuit. Even now in the nineties we
still have to proceed with caution, and of course, secrecy. Can you imagine the
scandal if any of this got out?

It’s very
much like studying any natural science except that normally you have an
enormous amount of data and discoveries to work from. With magic we are almost
starting from scratch. Most of the important texts on the subject have been
destroyed by the church down the years, but the Bodleian Library still has some
of the finest surviving volumes and scrolls so it makes the best possible base
to put a proper study of magic into practice.

‘So you
don’t worship the Devil?’

‘Of course
not, said Void, disgusted. ‘Satanism, devil worship and demonology are all
avenues of magic we strictly avoid. It is the single overriding rule in
everything that we do. I was sceptical about all of it in the beginning, that
any of it would turn out to be true, that it would work, but I feel very
differently now, and I can tell you that the pursuit of these darker elements
of magic is extremely dangerous. There are times when we examine and work from
new volumes or scrolls without knowing exactly what they pertain to and… well
bad stuff can happen. There are things that want to get out and there are ways
to let them, so part of what we do is to identify dangerous rites and put them
away in safe places.’

‘Is that
why you cover the mirrors before you start?’

‘Actually
yes, how could you possibly know that?’

‘Lucky
guess,’ said Lizzie. ‘So what sort of things do you do with the council? And
what’s with that secret little group of yours?’

‘We gather
together in our separate little group away from the Council to practice what
we’ve learned at the Council meetings. We keep our gatherings to ourselves. The
Curate doesn’t know anything about it. He’s very conscious of the importance of
discretion and safety, so the Council only meets every other month or so, which
is fine, I can understand it, but come on, you can’t show someone this amazing stuff
and expect him to sit on his hands for two months. I mean it’s the most
incredible thing I’ve ever seen. Can you imagine? Magic, real, true to life
magic.’ Void’s enthusiasm was overwhelming, goose bumps rose on Lizzie’s arms
as he struggled to keep his voice low. ‘There is so much we’ve already learned,’
he continued, ‘but there’s so much we don’t yet know, we’re making new
discoveries all the time. There are also so many variables with this thing that
a proper scientific study is difficult.

‘You can’t
be the first ones to try though? And what do you mean by variables?’ asked
Lizzie.

‘Far from
it, there are records going back to the dawn of civilisation, but those records
that did survive the church’s torches don’t give an awful lot away. There are
all sorts of inconsistencies from reading through them too. From what we can
see through history the natural forces that govern the effectiveness of rites,
or spells, whatever you want to call them, ebb and flow like the ocean. We
don’t know why but at certain periods magical influence is so much stronger
than other times. During the middle ages there were periods where magical
practice was rife and there are testimonies of massively powerful effects,
however there are long dormant periods where nothing seems to work. In the
1920s and 1970s there seems to have been brief surges of potent magical influence,
and then there’s right now.’ Lizzie put her finger to her lips, to indicate Void’s
voice was carrying way too far as his excitement began to get the better of him.

‘It’s
powerful now?’ she whispered.

‘Very. We
are tapping into something huge Lizzie, even small incantations are showing
consistent and tangible results. So much of magical practice is about subtle
influence over nature and people, and almost impossible to measure. For example
some incantations are designed to alter our perceptions, instil love or fear or
just subtly influence someone’s behaviour. One night we made Kara forget where
she lived, you couldn’t tell whether or not it had worked until she headed home
and ended up walking the streets for hours, it was hilarious. But some things
are far less subtle.’

‘Like the
candle thing you mean?’ said Lizzie, the memory coming to her in a shiver.

‘Exactly,
and that’s the other thing, the other variable, people. Some people have a natural
affinity for magic. Like you Lizzie,’ Lizzie snorted into her coffee.

‘Like me?
How do you mean?’

‘The Agni
ritual we performed is something we do quite often as it usually has visual
results, so it’s fun to do. It’s a simple fire ritual and usually the candles
intensify a little, but nothing, absolutely nothing like when you were there.
And when we all stopped, you were still going, you were carrying the ritual on
your own with the candles roaring, it was amazing I didn’t think it would even
be possible for one person to do that. I could see in your face that you were
connected to, well whatever it is behind all this stuff, we all feel it when we
get together but I’ve never seen it channelled like that before. I think you’re
a natural conduit.’

‘I felt… something,’
said Lizzie recalling the warmth, this connection as he called it. ‘I got such
a fright Void, I opened my eyes and I suddenly realised I was in the middle of
some evil spell with fire all round me.’ Lizzie shook her head, suddenly
realising the absurdity of the conversation. ‘Look’, she said. ‘I have to be
honest, I’m just not sure I buy into all of this.’ Void started to protest, but
Lizzie raised her had to stop him. ‘I know what I saw in the library that
night, and it’s hard to argue, trust me I’ve turned this over and over in my
mind so many times. But you’re talking about magic for crying out loud.’

‘There are
plenty of evil spells Lizzie, but I promise you, that’s not what we’re
interested in, and I can completely understand your scepticism, I was exactly
the same.’ Void rubbed his chin, trying to think of some way to convince her.
‘Wait,’ he said, an idea manifesting. ‘I’ll show you. Do you have a pen?’ Void
reached into his pocket for the change the waitress had given him while Lizzie
fished a biro from her bag. He took a silver coin and placed into the centre of
his palm, and drew neatly around it, then he drew two straight lines through
the circle making a cross with the intersection in the middle of the circle and
the lines extended out beyond it. Between these extended points he carefully
drew four small glyphs before placing the coin back in the centre of his palm
covering the circle exactly. Lizzie watched with interest and peered over her
shoulder to make sure they were not observed. ‘Are we clear?’ asked Void.
Lizzie nodded. He closed his eyes and began muttering in a tiny voice. Lizzie watched
dubiously as the coin just lay where he had placed it, but then it flinched.
Small tremors at first, but quickly the coin jumped and twitched before landing
on its edge and it started to spin. Void opened his eyes and smiled at Lizzie’s
open jawed stare. The coin continued to spin on its own without slowing. ‘You
see,’ he said ‘it’s not evil, it’s 10p.’ A smash of crockery from the other end
of the room made Void snap his hand shut over the whirring coin, but it was
nothing but a clumsy waitress. ‘You would be amazed,’ he continued, ‘just what
you can achieve with the right words in the right order with the right
conviction.’

‘I
understand why this would appeal to you,’ said Lizzie, reaching over and taking
Void’s hands in a gesture intended to soften her next words. ‘It
is
amazing, creepy, but amazing. And I believe that you’re involved for the right
reasons and some of your friends too, but I’m sorry Void I really do believe
Sully is somehow involved in my friend’s death.’