Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling (20 page)

Amanda would sit and watch Gentle Water cast a spell and be utterly fascinated as the Essentia all about him reacted to his Magic.

Magic seemed to have all sorts of effects on the surrounding Essentia. Most commonly there was a glittering and glowing of the mist around you when you pulled on Essentia and used your Magic, like a reacting magnesium strip. This also seemed to sometimes cause swirls and eddies around the Magi in the local, mist like Essentia, the stronger the Magic, the stronger the eddies. Also, if the Magi’s was casting Magic that would affect something at a short distance, there was a swirling and glowing about the casting Magi which shot out almost instantaneously in a streak of glittering Essentia to effect the target. The only exception to this being Teleportation that created an effect around the Magus both where they were, and where they appeared, but with no visible link between the two.

As Gentle Water tested her Aegis defences, this is exactly what was happening as she gazed out into the glowing Essentia, twinkling and swirling around her, outside her Aegis, and also around Gentle Water as he cast the effect.

Gentle Water seemed to be very pleased with her progress as she learnt these Magical staples and even seemed a little bewildered by how quick she was picking it up. He often said she was a natural, gifted with a natural ability to use Magic, but Amanda didn’t know if this was just flattery from Gentle Water as she didn’t have a scale to measure it against. Instead she put it down to Gentle Water himself, saying he was just a great teacher and much better at being a mentor then even he suspected he might be. He explained things clearly and in a manner she could easily understand and it seemed to pay off as she picked it up almost as quick as he could teach it to her. She also suspected the Pooling of Essentia in the Clearing had a part to play, although she didn’t know how much, it could be a huge part, or having no effect at all.

She found working Magic a touch harder beyond the clearing, but not too difficult, however, that could be because she had usually already done the hard work in the clearing, learning the basics and how it works, taking it outside the Pooling was easier once you knew what you were doing.

In recent weeks Gentle Water then moved on from the basics of Magic and started to teach her the theory of higher Magic. He said that she was now of sufficient ability to move beyond the Initiate level workings and to learn the beginnings of Adept Magic.

As she continued to practice the Perception Magic she had been learning Gentle Water slowly introduced her into thinking a little bigger, and started by introducing her into reading peoples thoughts. It started with simple tasks such as Amanda trying to read single words from Gentle Waters mind, at first with him sat before her and facing her. Then he began to face away, then she did as well, so neither of them could see each other while she continued to pluck thoughts from his mind.

Soon those thoughts turned to sentences and more complex thoughts and feeling and images, and by now they were able to hold entire conversations in silence as they read each other’s active minds.

As yet she couldn’t go digging about inside Gentle Waters mind, all she could do was read the thoughts he was thinking right there and then. It was like reading one of those boards with the red LED’s that scrolled messages across them. But it also had a TV attached so that images could flash up on the screen too.

Gentle Water had been quick to tell Amanda not to use this Magic too much or to spy on the thoughts of others too often. Listening into the thoughts of people you met had a way of making a Magi jaded and disillusioned with the Human race as your worst fears are confirmed. He explained further saying, how would you feel knowing I’m hearing every little thought you ever think, all those doubts, and fears, all those guilty little passing thoughts and feelings that are yours and no one else’s? They’re private and part of you but don’t define you, and they might make the people who know you run for the hills if they could hear them. Amanda had thought about that for a moment and initially thought he was being silly, but as the day passed, and she kept noticing the occasional passing thought she had that meant nothing to her but occurred to her all the same, and then wondered what people might think if they could hear these thoughts, it was only then that Amanda realised just what Gentle Water had been talking about.

Although useful, it wasn’t something to be used all the time, as you could all too easily judge someone far too quickly based on a few passing and ultimately inconsequential thoughts.

As she watched a documentary on the TV one night she was aware that watching it wasn’t totally unlike reading some one’s mind, there were the images and the voice over as well that explained things, which would be thoughts and feelings when reading a mind. It tickled her to think that reading David Attenborough’s mind would be like watching one of his Wildlife documentaries, complete with authentic commentary.

This latest part of her Magical training had also been the most recent. It was Monday and she had watched the TV last night and come to that particular conclusion about mind reading then. Something she couldn’t do against her opponent at the moment because he had his own Aegis erected about him to deflect any Magic she might try.

But this didn’t stop her from using Magic altogether, and as Amanda moved about in this deadly dance she was carefully reading the threads of fate and seeing where her opponent would be moving too next. It was clear that he had been doing the same which had led to this current stalemate.

Sometimes when she fought like this, she couldn’t help but think back to New York and Howie. She had first learnt to fight under Howie’s tutelage and insistence, but there were times when she also thought she would like to find Howie and give him a punch.

She had been lucky to meet Howie when she did, several weeks after arriving in Manhattan after leaving the Orphanage in Ireland, when living on the streets was starting to take its toll.

Amanda had been sleeping rough almost since arriving in New York, spending the first few nights in a cockroach infested dump of a hotel, until her money ran dry, and then she was on the streets. The other homeless guys didn’t seem to like the new girl on the street, and Amanda found herself hounded from one sleeping spot to another. All the good ones were taken. As the nights passed, she had started to regret moving here, the cold, the wind and the rain was mind numbing. She had never been so hungry.

Finding the empty covered entrance to the apartment block had been a god send, and for the first time in weeks, she had a night relatively sheltered from the elements.

Over the next few nights she had noticed one of the residents was taking slightly more interest in her then the others who passed her. A tall and powerful looking black guy, a couple of times he had paused for a moment to look down at her. When she had opened her eyes and looked back, both times he had pretended not to have been looking and headed inside.

‘Freak’, Amanda muttered irritably under her breath, and hoped he would not make trouble for her.

On her fifth night on the stoop a raging storm kept her firmly awake. She had been thoroughly soaked in the run here and now sat shivering in the shadows looking at the sheets of rain cascading down before her. A figure ran in from the rain and shook off the water on the stoop, Amanda shrank down, keeping a low profile and averted her eyes. In her peripheral vision the figure started to head inside but stopped halfway, he hesitated a moment and seemed to be about to head inside again before coming out of the doorway and taking a step towards Amanda. Her eyes flicked up and saw the black guy again, she tensed, she didn’t want a confrontation but she felt ready for one if it went that way.

‘Um, er, I’m sorry but I couldn’t help noticing you,’ he said, his voice deep and strong. ‘But I was, er, wondering if…’

‘No I won’t bloody move on you feckin’ freak! Have you seen the rain tonight? It’s Lashin’ down. You can call the feckin’ police for all I care, but I ain’t shiftin!’

The guy backed off at her outburst and raised his hands in supplication. He seemed shocked at her anger.

‘Whoa there girl! I wasn’t going ask you to move on. I…, well, I thought you looked like you could use a cup of hot chocolate or something.’ He then gestured into the apartment and seemed to be waiting for another outburst.

Amanda had been overwhelmed. She had experienced nothing but hardship, and hatred from people so far and was at the end of her tether. This offer of a warm drink hit her right in her heart and in seconds tears where flooding down her cheeks. The man looked utterly lost, he didn’t seem to know what to do and just stood there, she thought he looked like he wanted to reach out and tell her it was ok but seemed afraid to do so.

Amanda had choked back a laugh and stood up with her shoulder bag and wiped away her tears.

‘Well, okay, but don’t you be tryin’ anything funny alright? I’ve got a knife,’ she’d threatened. She did have a knife, something she made sure she had after she had been grabbed by some scary man one night in the subway as she tried to catch some sleep. She had woken up to his pawing hands all over her, she had panicked, kicked him and ran. She’d felt so shaken from the experience that she made sure she got herself a weapon the next day.

‘No, don’t worry, you’ll be safe with me,’ he had replied.

At any other time in her life, Amanda would have refused such an offer, but not tonight.

The man ushered her inside.

The man had taken her upstairs and introduced himself as Howie, short for Howard Galton. He showed her up into his apartment and had given her a towel to dry herself off with while he made her the Hot Drink, so before long both of them were sat on his couch and he was asking her where she came from and how she ended up on the street. Amanda had been a long time now without really speaking to anyone, so she needed someone to off load onto and Amanda took this opportunity and spouted the whole story to this friendly stranger. Three mugs of Hot Chocolate later plus several tearful moments and Amanda had told him everything, Howie had listened and asked questions and had taken an interest in everything she had said, he commented that he loved her Irish accent and had been wondering over the past week why such a pretty girl was sleeping rough, it hadn’t seemed right to him.

A few times Amanda had wondered if she had done the right thing, heading into a stranger’s house was not really the brightest thing to do and under normal circumstances she probably never would have done it. Only later had she realised how desperate she had become, anyone could have made the offer and she might have taken them up on it and ended up dead by the end of the night, but Howie was warm and friendly and when he offered her the couch for the night, as she sat there yawning and looking very sleepy, she had said yes immediately.

The next day she awoke after having the best night’s sleep she had had so far in New York, the Apartment felt warm and she could hear breakfast being made in the kitchenette. The two helpings of hot cooked food were pure heaven, and after the meal the two of them had got to talking once again. Howie told Amanda how that when he was a kid, a stranger, a man, had taken a chance on him and offered him a friendship, he had become a sort of mentor to Howie, had taught him a trade and kept him off the streets. Howie had not fallen into the trap of Gang membership his brothers had, and instead became a productive member of society because of someone taking a chance on him. Howie said to Amanda he would do the same for her, he was willing to take a chance on her and help her out. He said to her that if she wanted to, she could stay in his apartment for a time while she got herself sorted out. It wasn’t an indefinite offer and it wasn’t a ticket for her to laze around the place doing nothing, but he sympathised with Amanda’s plight and wanted to help.

Again Amanda felt overwhelmed by his kindness and dissolved into tears, she accepted his offer and never looked back.

They were good memories, made all the more sour by how their friendship had ended.

Back in the here and now, as she fought her attacker, she was about to deflect another strike from him when she got a sudden feeling of apprehension about stopping this particular blow, but it was such a split second of thought that she did it anyway and when the blow hit her forearm it felt like she had been hit in the arm with an electrified cattle prod as a feeling of intense pain shot through her from the point where the attack hit her. Her Aegis shattered at the same time, the magical nature of that attack overloading it.

She faltered, jerking her hand away with a yelp of pain, but tried to recover and lashed out with her other hand. But she wasn’t concentrating and it was a sloppy move, her opponent caught her fist, he pulled and twisted it in movements that seemed to blur together, and before she knew what was going on, she lay on her back in cool dew covered long grass that quickly soaked through her leggings and long sleeved top.

It was late October, the weather had long ago turned much cooler as the Autumn grew stronger all about them. Some of the leaves had turned brown and dropped from the trees, the colour and vibrancy of the summer was fading quickly, replaced by the browns and oranges of fall. The mornings were calm, mist shrouded affairs, grey and quiet as the milky mist rose from the damp valley floor. Recently they had awoken to grey windows and no view as the morning mist had boiled up and blanketed the cottage making it seem like the outside world had disappeared altogether. They went about collecting logs and having a roaring fire some evenings rather than the central heating and would hold warm cups of hot chocolate in both hands while wrapped in warming jumpers.