Mage Dissolution Read online

  I tried to send out a Scry thread but it took me several tries before I was could summon the necessary strength. I was just about to attempt to teleport when the spell fizzled and my left side exploded in pain. The bastard had hit me with a disrupt spell. Already I could feel my side go numb and the remaining Mana in my body go nuts. There was no way I’d be able to escape now. I fell to the ground and turned to face him as he walked towards me. I wasn’t sure what he hit me with next I just saw a burst of Mana and then I blacked out before he got to me. I suppose that was a small mercy – If I was lucky I wouldn’t wake up.

  * * * * * *

  I wasn’t lucky. When I came around I was restrained on a medical gurney in a familiar room. I was in the damned operating theatre. A bolt of fear shot through my body.

  Randall was standing mute and immobile on the far side of the room. I glanced carefully at him looking for any sign of the insanity that had gripped him before but he seemed perfectly placid now, just like the other Drones that I’d seen Marcus that had made. Victor had obviously reasserted his control over him.

  I tried to draw upon my powers but felt the familiar numbing ache down my arm that let me know that I was still being messed up by the disrupt spell. I couldn’t say how long it would be until I was back to normal but for the moment I was helpless.

  I strained against the bonds, but for leather straps that were about three times my age they had been well preserved. I couldn’t see Victor but I knew that he wouldn’t be far. He wouldn’t take the chance that I’d regain my powers and be able to escape. Whatever he had planned for me wouldn’t be long in coming.

  It seemed about twenty minutes before the door opened and Victor stomped in. He had a strange expression on his face as he surveyed the room. He gestured towards Randall who came over and gripped both sides of my head and forced my head back down onto the cushion with his talon-like fingers.

  “I never thought I’d stand in this room again.” He said conversationally as he moved over to the head of the table. He appeared to be having trouble walking and I could see that he’d changed his shirt. He was now wearing what appeared to be an army officer’s uniform. There was a swastika on the collar. This didn’t help him look any less intimidating.

  He placed a strap over my forehead, restricting my movement.

  “You have joined a very select group today.” Victor continued in his conversational tone. “There are few people who can say that they have bested me. Not even your friend Marcus can make that claim, you should consider yourself honoured.”

  I gritted my teeth. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of conversing with him. Whatever he planned for me he could do without my input.

  “I should add though, everyone else in that group is already dead.” He finished ominously. “I had planned to simply kill you, but I’ve had a change of heart. It would be a waste to kill you, and you know how I despise waste.”

  “Whatever you’re going to do, just do it.” I grunted, hoping I sounded more sure of myself than I felt.

  “All in good time Master Wills,” Victor continued, brushing some hair from my brow. “You should consider this my final lesson to you.” I didn’t answer, I just gritted my teeth and wished he’d get this over and done with.

  “I would normally make you forget the procedure, but in this case I want you to know what I’ve done and that you’re powerless to prevent it. I think that’s a suitable reward for your efforts today.”

  Victor’s eyes loomed into me as he stood over me. I vainly tried to summon some Mana, but it just wouldn’t cooperate. I needed to try something, anything to get out of this.

  “No, no... you won’t be able to generate Mana just yet,” Victor chuckled as he moved around to my side.

  Victor flourished his hand like a bad stage magician and drew forth a Mana thread. It was small, only about thirty centimetres in length. It was horrendously complex – there was no way in a million years that I’d be able to figure out what the hell it was doing.

  “What you’re looking at is a compulsion thread.”

  I shivered slightly as confusion hit me. I was supposed to be immune to these now, Marcus had apparently taught me how to defend myself against them. This wasn’t making sense – Victor wouldn’t be doing this if he knew I was immune and he definitely knew I’d shaken off the last compulsion he had placed over me.

  “Now, I know what you’re thinking, that you’re immune.” Victor chuckled. I’d forgotten how good Victor was at being able to discern what I was thinking. I didn’t know if this was caused by sorcery or if he was just an excellent judge of character. My fear must have been quite plain to see on my face.

  “The fact is, you’re not immune as such, you’re just highly resistant,” Victor whispered, “and I for one am quite interested to learn how resistant. This will not be pleasant.”

  I tried to remain calm, but my mind was awash with doubts and fears. Renee had once told me she was terrified of being confronted by her grandfather. I now understood why.

  “As you probably know, your brain is made up of electrical impulses and signals. Everything you are, everything you remember is simply nothing more than motor neurons firing wildly in the void of your mind.

  “Everything you see is nothing more than an interpretation of electrical signals as it passes across your brain. In a very real way there is no external reality.”

  “You should just kill me.” I snapped, “You killed the father, why not the son?”

  Victor looked perplexed, “I did not kill your father.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “No,” Victor pressed, “you’re mistaken. Your father was already dying by the time I got to him.”

  “You admit you were there then!” I snarled as I strained against my bonds.

  “Yes, I was there, but I wasn’t responsible.”

  “I don’t believe you!” I hissed.

  “Your sister was the one who struck your father down.” Victor’s words were cold.

  “I don’t have a sister!”

  I knew he was referring to Allie, as he’d mentioned this theory before, but I refused to even give the idea any credence. There was no way that Allie was the one responsible. He was lying. Of course he was lying!

  “Don’t be stupid boy; of course you have a sister. The odds of you both being Mages without being related are astronomical.”

  “She’s not my sister,” I repeated.

  “Half-sister at least.”

  Could he be right? My father’s eyes as he lay dying came back to me. I hadn’t been able to be there physically, but I was able to Scry to be with him when he passed. He had gone on about apologising to someone – a girl. He could have been talking about Allie? I had assumed at the time he was apologising for being unable to protect her. Could it have been more? Could Victor be telling the truth? Could she actually be my sister?

  The more I thought about it, the more I didn’t want to believe it was true, but the more it made a strange kind of sense. Mum and Dad had broken up shortly before Allie had been born. Allie’s parents were less than vocal on their feelings about my father. It was obvious that they had taken Mum’s side in the divorce. I had never thought to question why? What if he was Allie’s father? What if?

  “Okay, so she may be my sister?” I grunted sourly, “That doesn’t mean that she’s responsible for Dad.”

  “She struck him down in anger as she was unable to control her powers adequately. In many ways that’s your doing. You brought her to power. You left her with just enough knowledge to be dangerous. You are responsible for that at least.”

  Victor’s words cut into me like a knife. He was right, and I knew it.

  “I wanted to keep her safe and away from you!”.

  “I was the one person who could train her properly. Had you turned her over to me first we could have avoided this whole situation. Your father would still be alive.”

  “No!” I cried as I pulled against the bonds again. The leather crea
ked loudly and Victor gestured to Randall to hold me down. Randall’s clamp like hands closed over my wrists and forced my arms down. How had he gotten so strong? He hadn’t been this strong when we had last fought.

  “You’re lying!” I screamed in inert rage. “I’ll fucking kill you! I’m going to fucking tear you apart so bad it will take you a fucking year to regrow!”

  “Believe what you want,” Victor waved me off, “In a few minutes it won’t matter.”

  Victor didn’t seem concerned at all at my rant. It was as if my anger simply didn’t matter to him. I gritted my teeth as I strained against Randall, I knew it wouldn’t make a difference, but I had to do something. I wasn’t going to submit to this without a fight.

  Victor walked back to the head of the table and I had to tilt my head to face him as far as the straps would allow me. He appeared to be ready to do whatever he was planning to do. I could see the Mana working its way down his arms and into his fingers.

  “The brain is an exceptional creation.” He announced. “It allows its owner to rationalise any number of contradictions. Any manner of hypocrisy is made acceptable through the way your brain processes memories and external input.”

  Great, I was in for another lecture. Why didn’t he just kill me outside? Victor reached down and placed his fingers against my forehead, with his forefinger and little finger against each of my temples.

  “The ability to manipulate this external input is simplicity itself,” he continued. “The brain processes unfortunately are much more difficult.”

  I could see the Mana building in his hand literally centimetres from my face. I had no idea what he was doing, but it looked complex.

  “Fortunately I don’t have to manipulate those, I simply introduce an idea.” He finished as he removed his fingers from my flesh. I saw the thread build in his fingers and felt a jerk as Victor’s thread arched down and rested gently on my forehead.

  It didn’t hurt as such, though I felt a weight upon my forehead. This was impossible – I shouldn’t be feeling any weight from the thread. It was far too lightweight for it to have produced such a sensation.

  “It took me many years to master this. The active mind will actually support any new concept introduced once properly stimulated. I simply need to deactivate the part of the brain that rejects the new stimulus.”

  I felt sharp pain behind my eyes and saw a bright flash of light in front of my face as Victor continued his work. He made a slight grunting motion and the pain lanced through my head once again.

  “You have become most resilient,” he commented sourly, “still, we seem to have plenty of time.”

  I don’t know how many times he tried it must have been a dozen or so before I felt a crack in my head followed by immediate relief as the pain went away. I glanced frantically from side to side as Victor nodded approvingly.

  “Now you are in a receptive state,” he said softly, “we shall begin. And once we are finished you yourself will complete the work. Cognitive dissonance will ensure that the idea takes hold and you become a willing advocate of the process.”

  “Cognitive dissonance is the ability for the mind to deal with two opposing concepts and find a rational that explains the two.” He explained with a dark smile as if educating an exceedingly stupid student.

  “It’s quite clever really, I simply implant the compulsion into your mind and your brain rationalises it and will in fact support and defend it with every fibre of your being.”

  “I’m going to kill you,” I whispered softly.

  “You can’t, I thought we established that.” Victor chuckled.

  “I’ll find a way.”

  “I’m really quite curious as to what will happen here,” Victor continued. “You’ll be unable to understand why you’re supporting your decision but will continue to do so against your direct will. In fact the harder you struggle to deny the compulsion the more you will be compelled by it – all with the knowledge that the compulsion exists and memory of its implanting.”

  “Somehow, someday I’m going to find you and end you.” I whispered again.

  “No, you’re not.” Victor replied, “You’re going to kill Marcus.”

  What? My mind was screaming in outrage? I had no intention of killing Marcus, but funnily enough I couldn’t seem to voice my concerns. Thoughts kept passing through my mind that this seemed like a perfectly logical thing to do.

  “You will return back to Marcus as quickly as you can. When he is at his most vulnerable you will kill him. You see, you gave me the idea. If you can best me – then you can surely best him.”

  The idea rolled through my consciousness like a shockwave. Yes! It would solve all my problems. Once Marcus was out of the way I would be able to continue my quest to recover Allie without his interference. He had been the one that had been slowing me down and delaying me. He had it coming to him, really.

  “No! That’s not right! I will not be used like this!” My subconscious screamed, but it was a distant voice in the void of my mind. It was easy to ignore. I gritted my teeth as the compulsion took hold. Once I destroyed Marcus this would all make sense. No! That wasn’t right either. I will NOT become an instrument of another’s will! Victor made a clucking sound as he moved around to examine the thread.

  “Interesting, very interesting. You might end up in psychosis. I hadn’t considered that. That would be disappointing.

  “Oh, well,” he shrugged, “either you go insane, you kill Marcus, or he kills you – either way. I am content.”

  I glared at Victor as he finished his work. A strange buzzing sensation settled over me. It felt like someone had thrown cotton wool around my head. Everything sounded distant and distorted.

  “In a few hours you should be able to remove yourself from your bonds, I’ll leave the Drone here as company.” Victor gestured towards Randall.

  He turned and left the room. The glow spell fizzled out long before I regained use of my powers.

  * * * * * *

  The darkness was like a cloak thrown over my eyes. Randall’s presence in the room didn’t help much with my nerves. Nor did the pounding headache from excessive Mana use, and the frantic sense of frustration over my inactivity and inability to get to Marcus.

  After what seemed like an eternity, but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, my eyes adjusted. I could vaguely make out an unmoving shape standing in the darkness. I couldn’t see any details, just the dull throb of the Mana as it passed across the flesh of his withered and broken frame.

  Knowing that Randall was there and knowing what he had been like before Victor had regained control of him was wreaking havoc on my nerves. Would he revert back to his previous state before I regained my powers? He could beat me to a pulp and there wasn’t a damned thing I would be able to do about it.

  After an hour or so the numbness of the disruption spell faded and the Mana began to regulate properly throughout my body.

  I set off a glow spell and a telekinetic thread to unhook myself from the table. Randall was still standing there staring off into space completely unfazed by anything I was doing.

  It was kind of creepy actually. I kept a wide gap between us as I left the room. The vaguely thought about locking the door on my way out, but quickly realised there wasn’t much point. The wooden door wouldn’t survive long against his attempts to break free.

  I’d had plenty of time in the dark to think about what Victor had told me about Allie. I wasn’t quite ready to believe him yet, I’d need to talk to her myself for that. The idea that she was my sister kept taunting me and riddling me with guilt.

  I knew with a certainty that I couldn’t define that Victor was lying to me. I just couldn’t figure out how or why. I rejected outright that Allie was responsible for Dad’s death. I clung to my original theory that Dad had tried to prevent Victor from taking Allie, but Victor’s words kept coming back to me.

  I was the one who had initially taught Allie. I knew just how easy it was to lose control
over your powers when you were learning. I was a testament to that fact; my own training hadn’t exactly gone to plan. Was it possible that I was the one ultimately responsible for my father’s death?

  It was fortunate that I didn’t have a lot of time to ponder this as the compulsion that Victor had placed upon me kept me moving. I made my way out from the infirmary and out onto the parade ground. I had to recast the glow spells as I made my way through the complex as my previous ones had long fizzled out.

  I felt bad about my promise to come back for Karl, but Victor’s orders were pounding my head by this stage. With each step I took they seemed to become more demanding. I needed to meet up with Renee and Marcus, wherever they were. But before that there was something I needed to recover.

  I stormed into the main building and through the Nazi control room and into Victor’s old office. With each step the voices in my head screamed that this was an unnecessary waste of time and that I should be trying to track down Marcus. It wasn’t easy to ignore Victor’s voice, but I managed to do so with the thought that I would need these books to lure Marcus into a false sense of ease that would allow me to strike him down.

  It was strange, even though I knew I was lying. My original intentions for recovering the books had nothing to do with Marcus. Once I had voiced my intentions the voices seemed to accept the lie and I found that I was even finding reasons why this was in fact a good idea.

  I grabbed a backpack that had been left in one of the storage rooms and threw the five Necromancy books into it. I also quickly selected several other books that looked interesting. There wasn’t much time to make an informed choice, but I grabbed several volumes that I hadn’t heard of before. I’d be able to get a chance to review them properly once I had killed Marcus.

  I lingered in the complex for as long as I was able. In truth I didn’t particularly want to make the trek back through the snow and wilderness just yet. I had expended more Mana in the past few hours than I had in quite some time and my temples were throbbing painfully already. I knew that if I kept this up for much longer I would be doing myself some serious damage.