Mage Dissolution Read online

  I found my way to a small dining room. There were about a dozen people already in there. Renee pushed a jar of cereal in my direction as I took a seat.

  “Glad to see you’re up and about.”

  “Where are we?”

  “My grandmother’s house,” she replied flippantly as if this weren’t amongst the most dangerous place I could be.

  I had met Renee’s paternal grandmother only once – Victor had introduced me to her in Singapore. She had seemed nice enough, if a little distant. The only problem was that she was the current Primea and the official leader of our kind. Great, this meant that I was probably in the only place on earth with a larger Mage to human ratio. Furthermore it was almost assured that someone here would recognise me. I did have a death sentence on my head after all.

  “Where is your father?” I asked nervously, if this was going to get unpleasant I was sure that Marcus would be able to get me out of here.

  “I’m not sure. He’s been busy for the past few days.”

  “How long was I asleep for?”

  “About a week.” Renee shrugged with a grin. “You looked like you were pretty tired.”

  I snickered a little at that.

  “What is this place? Why so many people?”

  “I suppose you could call it a school of sorts. One of the duties of the Primea is instruction.”

  “So everyone in here is of our ki— “ I began, going to say the word “kind” but quickly switched to “Mage” instead. I was no longer of their kind.

  “Mostly,” Renee replied softly, “it’s okay though, most people wouldn’t recognise you now.”

  “I recognise you though,” a third voice cut in as they pulled out a chair to join us.

  My head snapped around to see who had invited themselves into our conversation. He was the last person I had expected to see here. He was a former enemy turned friend – Master Gabriel Tychus. We had fought briefly when I had been working for Victor – a fight that I had proved the stronger. I’d met the guy several times since then, but it had always been a little awkward, neither of us could seem to forget that the other had been an enemy. This distrust aside I quite liked the man. Although powerful, he was much more relaxed and easy going than the other Masters that I’d had the displeasure to associate with.

  “Glad to see you on your feet.” He said in way of greeting.

  “Master Tychus,” I bowed my head.

  “Please, call me Gabe,” he waved me off, “I never much like the whole Master title thing. That was always Whittlesea’s thing.”

  Tychus spun the chair around and straddled it. You wouldn’t know it to look at him, but he was probably the third most powerful Mage that I’d encountered behind, Master Victor and Marcus.

  “I was sorry to hear about your burn out,” Tychus murmured softly. “Bad news, always unfortunate when it happens. Usually only happens to apprentices. Can’t imagine how that feels now.”

  “Feels great, thanks for asking,” I grunted dryly.

  Tychus laughed amicably, “Okay, that was stupid.”

  I nodded in agreement.

  “What are you going to do now?” Tychus asked.

  Renee coughed into her breakfast and flashed Tychus a warning look.

  Tychus just laughed the look off with a wave and whistle, “She’s certainly protective of you.”

  “I have no idea what I’m going to do now.” I replied bitterly. “I hadn’t exactly prepared for this.”

  “Yeah,” Tychus nodded, “damn shame none the less. You were quite promising there for a while.”

  “Promising? How?”

  “Thought you might be the one to actually do it there for a while,” Tychus continued.

  “Do what?”

  “Kill the Big Man. Knock the old kraut down.” Tychus made a throat slashing motion with his finger. It was obvious to whom he had been referring – Master Victor. “A lot of us were secretly rooting for you.”

  “Can’t be done.” I said sourly, “trust me I know.”

  “Where there’s a will there’s a way.”

  “Someone else will have to find a way now.”

  “Never know.” Tychus smiled as he got to his feet. “Burn outs aren’t always permanent. I’ll catch you later – we’ll talk when your nursemaid ain’t glaring at me. ”

  This condition isn’t permanent? I turned to Renee. She was staring with annoyance at Tychus’s retreating form.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I said softly.

  “It’s not a given. Some apprentices do recover – it’s true, but more often than not the powers never return. Or if they do they’re greatly weakened.”

  “But it happens,” I pressed.

  “Yes it does!” Renee said sharply. “But I wouldn’t hold out on it.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because I wanted you out of this! You were out of control! It’s better this way. Better where I can keep you safe.”

  “What?” I stormed, getting to my feet.

  “Sit down! You’re making a scene!

  “You had lost control,” she said, keeping her voice down. “You were throwing yourself against my grandfather again and again. You were taking risk after risk without cause or concern for the consequences. For crying out loud you were going to torture Hugo in Berlin! That’s not you! That’s not the man I fell in love with!

  “I couldn’t bear to see you become the monster you had to be,” she whispered. “I wanted the boy who blushed when I talked about my breasts the first time we met. The man I know you are meant to be!”

  “That man died with the boy when I was forced to kill Vin.” I shot back as I sat down. Vin had been the first person I had ever had to kill, he’d been another Mage who had sought my death. It hadn’t exactly worked out as he had expected.

  “No he didn’t.” Renee whispered, “I could see him still in that small country town I rescued you from. I saw him when you chose to stand against my grandfather to rescue your cousin. You were determined but you hadn’t let it consume you.”

  “Very well, then he died when my father died,” I said.

  “People die! It’s how you live that matters,” Renee pleaded, “surely he wouldn’t have wanted that life for you.”

  “He’s dead!” I snapped. “What he wanted doesn’t matter any longer!”

  “Of course it matters. It’s all that matters now.”

  “I’m not going to discuss this with you any longer. He’s dead and somehow I’m going to take my revenge on the one who took his life. I promise you that.”

  “I hope you never recover from this burn out,” she said sadly, “I don’t think I could bear to see the person you’ll have to become to do that.”

  “You’d better hope I never do recover my powers,” I whispered ominously as I stood up to leave.

  I suddenly wasn’t hungry anymore.

  * * * * * *

  The burn out wasn’t always permanent. This brought me some glimmer of hope. It was slim, but it was better than nothing. I returned to my room in fury. How dare Renee keep this from me? How dare she presume to say what was best for me? She should have told me! I deserved to know!

  I was nothing without the Mana! What other skills did I have to fall back on? Nothing! The moment I discovered the Mana the rest of my skills atrophied. This was a conscious decision on my part as I could envision no future where the Mana wasn’t a part of my life. I was a fool.

  This realisation did little to help me now though. All I could do was simply wait and hope that one day I would see the tell-tale spark of Mana as it flared across my flesh and know that my powers had returned. Until that day I had no idea what I was going to do.

  Tracking down Victor and having my revenge would be impossible. Or would it? If I could sneak up on him unbeknownst. He would never expect an attack from a norm. He might not even recognise me without my powers. It was possible. I could take a job as a security guard or something at one of his firms. I knew of seve
ral firms that he owned where I could possibly set my trap.

  I would wait and bide my time, until he showed himself and then put a bullet in the back of his brain. If I was quick and managed to fire before he raised his shield, it was possible. Then I would have my revenge.

  This didn’t of course help me with my cousin. I hadn’t taken the time to process the lies that Victor had told me. Allie had killed my father? Preposterous! Victor was a master of deceit and this was merely another twist of the knife. Not content in the knowledge that my former Master had killed my father, Victor had sought to lay the blame on my cousin.

  Was she even my cousin? Was Victor lying about that also? It was hard to say. My gut instinct said he was telling the truth, but my brain was saying that it was impossible. There is no way that she is my half-sister, that this was another of Victors lies.

  The look in my father’s dying eyes as he was trying to tell me something kept coming back to me. He had been so insistent. Was it merely the delusion caused by drugs and impending death? I didn’t think so.

  “Tell her… please…” My father’s last words haunted me as they went round and round in my head. Was it possible that he was trying to tell me that I had a sister? I hadn’t been present for all of his dying words. Maybe I’d missed something important. I was being beaten half to death myself at the time.

  The more I thought about it the more I came to the conclusion that only one person could answer this question – Allie herself.

  A knock at the door distracted me from my thoughts. Probably Renee coming to tell me again how wonderful this whole thing was. I didn’t want to hear it. When I opened the door however I was surprised to see a small Asian girl. She seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place where I’d met her before.

  Her eyes narrowed as she scanned my face. Then her face twisted in anger. “It IS you!” she hissed as she took a step back. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I had no doubt that she was summoning Mana. I took several steps back from the door and contemplated slamming it, but realised it would make no difference.

  “Do... do I know you?” I stammered. This woman hated me? Why did she hate me? I can’t recall having done anything that would provoke this kind of venomous reaction.

  “No!” she snapped, “but I know you!”

  I wished I could see her Mana signature, it was hard to recognise a Mage without it. The pattern and flow of the Mana across the body was a big give away. I tried to mentally picture her, but for some reason the only thing I kept coming back to was Singapore. No, wait. It wasn’t just Singapore that she reminded me of; it was the Occursus in Singapore. She had been there. Once I realised that the rest came easily.

  “You were guarding the Primea in Singapore,” I ventured tentatively, unsure if I was about to be struck down in telekinetically assisted rage.

  “That’s my job you idiot!”

  “Have I offended you in some way?” I asked as delicately as I could. I didn’t like this. Didn’t like it one bit. If I had my powers there’s no way this shrimp of a girl would be talking to me like this.

  “Only that you killed my husband.”

  ‘’I’m sorry I—”

  “My name is May Chen. Aaron was my husband. You killed him!”

  Aaron had a wife? I didn’t know that. He didn’t seem old enough. I suppose he was in his mid-twenties. Now that I came to think on it, Aaron had said that he was married when I had first met Aaron in Singapore. He had gone by the name Degs at the time and he had helped me get safely to Renee’s grandfather. The reality of the situation was however that Renee’s grandfather wasn’t the haven of safety that he had assumed. I tried to break away and Degs was sent after me.

  “I didn’t kill Degs,” I said softly. “I fought him, but I didn’t kill him.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Your husband was shot by a man named Winters who worked for Victor.”

  “He was killed by a norm?” she sneered. “You’re lying! You must have been involved somehow!”

  “Why would I lie?”

  “Because you’re a fucking coward!” May shrieked, raising her hands in anger. It may have been my imagination, but I could almost make out the blue halo of Mana particles surrounding her fingers.

  “Is there a problem here?” A voice cut in from behind May. I was ashamed to admit but I was actually quite glad to see the familiar shape of Tychus coming down the corridor at high speed. I hated that.

  “No, no problem,” May snarled turning to face the new comer, “I’m going to execute the outcast.”

  “No, you’re not. That’s already been decided.”

  In any other circumstances it would have been incredibly funny. May measured somewhere up near Tychus’s sternum, yet the small woman was holding her own against the far larger man. Eventually she obviously realised that arguing with Tychus wasn’t going to achieve anything and she turned to me.

  “I’m going to kill you one day outcast. I don’t know when, but you can count on it,” she snarled, then turned on her heel and stormed off down the corridor. “One day Outcast! One day!”

  “I think you’ve made an impression there.” Tychus said dryly. “Did you kill her husband?”

  “No.”

  “Most people seem to think that you did.”

  “I didn’t”

  “You were the only one around.”

  “I didn’t,” I repeated more firmly. “If I’d killed him I wouldn’t have used a bullet.”

  “Fair point,” Tychus conceded, “I’ve always wondered though, I had thought you two were friends.”

  “We were.”

  “What happened?”

  “What do you think? I realised what Victor was and Aaron didn’t.”

  Tychus nodded sombrely. “Whittlesea can be like that. He can be charming and influential when he needs to be – even without his compulsions.”

  I didn’t bother answering.

  “It’s a good thing that I happened to be by.” Tychus grinned.

  “Let’s not fool each other,” I sighed wearily, “I’m sure Marcus asked you to keep an eye on me.”

  “You’re not as dumb as you look. If you’re not doing anything this evening, I thought I’d invite you out.”

  “Out? Where?”

  “There’s a bar I know. Pretty good, for a French place. ”

  “I’m not sure I’m up for hanging out at a bar.”

  “Sure, brood in your room. At least until May comes back to kill you. I’ll be at the bar.”

  “You make an excellent point.” I said wryly.

  * * * * * *

  “I’ve never much liked French wine.” Tychus said as he swirled the glass in front of him. The bar that Tychus had chosen was actually more of a club. It was quiet and it was discreet. We had been here for about three hours so far with Tychus talking about everything other than the weather.

  “Okay,” I sighed, “get on with it.”

  “Get on with what?” Tychus raised an eyebrow.

  “Whatever it is that you wanted to say to me without anyone else knowing we talked.”

  Tychus grinned at me from behind his glass. He leaned back into the couch and flicked the edge of his glass a finger.

  “Ever wonder why both Marcus and Victor are so hell bent on recruiting you to their causes?”

  “No,” I grunted, “I haven’t thought about it.”

  “You should have. Both you and your cousin are amongst the most potentially powerful members of our kind.

  “Well at least up until recently,” he finished, tipping his glass in my direction.

  “So each side wants the strongest Mages to support them? I’m not seeing the point.” I grunted, ignoring the gesture.

  “It’s not about support, it’s about controlling the gene pool.”

  I raised an eyebrow. I hadn’t expected that.

  “Each generation our kind gets the potential for more power, more control over the Mana. Assuming they don’t burn themselves out. Each
generation is more powerful than the last.”

  “Right? Is that so?”

  “Added to the fact that the age of enlightenment and science did much to dispel the archaic ideas that surrounded our kind. It did much to remove the rituals and the bullshit from our art. The last hundred years or so has seen a dramatic increase in our understanding of Mana and how it can be used. We can do things now that would have humbled our predecessors.”

  “I’m assuming you’re going to get to the point sometime soon.”

  “It means that our children are more powerful than we are, and thanks to our learning, are better able to utilise their powers.”

  “Sounds like a natural evolution. I’m not seeing the problem.”

  “The problem is that our growth was held in check for hundreds of years and that kept us weak and well within the abilities of the rest of society to control us.”

  “Sure,” I nodded.

  “This is no longer the case.”

  “Let’s assume that I agree with that. Why is that a problem?”

  “Use your brains boy. If you wanted to destroy a city, was there anyone other than another Mage who could have stopped you?”

  “A whole city? That’s a big ask,” I mused, “but I suppose… eventually… maybe.”

  “Now think like a terrorist. Only you’re a terrorist that can only be stopped with overwhelming force. Force that would do more collateral damage than is acceptable and you’re totally unrelenting unless your demands are met.”

  “You’re saying we’re dangerous?” The statement seems a little redundant.

  “It’s more than we’re just dangerous – it’s that we’re a ticking time bomb. Every generation is more powerful than the last. In every generation there is the potential for one of us with a messiah complex to attempt to overthrow everything and setup themselves up as an emperor.”

  “Maybe we should. We couldn’t do a worse job than the norms are doing. It might even be better for them in the long run.”

  “Ahh, now you’ve reached the crux of the matter. Both Victor and Marcus believe that civilisation needs to be protected, but both had vastly different ideas of how this should be done.