Magician Goes Rogue
- 2 years ago
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That night as I lay in bed with Harvey sprawled across my feet, I reverted to my worrywart self. What if Mom and Dad won't let me get a guitar?
Why wouldn't they? Ursus thought in reply.
I recalled the event of about a year before. I had told Mom and Dad that I wanted to learn the guitar. They asked me if I would promise to practice every day. They told me that the strings would cut into my fingers. Their reaction struck me as strangely intense, and I received the impression that they didn't want me to learn it. I was confused and hurt, and I dropped the notion after that and tried to convince myself that I didn't really want to play. But I did.
Ursus shared in the memories as they were recalled. Hmmm, he thought, that is puzzling. They don't have any religious objections. They both like music. Frankly, I'm as baffled as you are. Perhaps it was just a matter of logistics. Your father works long hours. Your mother cares for five children. Maybe they didn't want the hassle of getting you to lessons unless you really were committed to learning. It could be that they accidentally scared you off while trying to gauge how serious you were.
Do you think they will try to stop me?
Based on your memories and what I have seen so far, they seem like decent folks. I doubt if they would try to prevent you from getting a guitar. They might not cooperate with the idea, but the mental collective of which we currently consist is a human being with free will and resources of its own. We'll get a guitar.
Now, we are a growing boy, and it's time to get to sleep. Ursus began his relaxation ritual, and it soon had its intended effect.
Thursday I woke up feeling even better than I had on Wednesday. I'd again had a lot of dreams and had accumulated new memories. It was clear that Ursus's mental dump was primarily happening while I slept. I divided a thousand years by ten hours per night and came up with a lot. The memories were coming in at a faster rate than they were originally lived, but I could tell the process was going to take a long time.
I did the morning bathroom rituals then wandered out to the kitchen. Mom was sitting at the end of the table with a cup of coffee in a death grip. I knew that it was grocery day. "Mom," I said, "pick me up some plain cornflakes, please."
"What, are you getting tired of sugar-frosted chocolate lumps with marshmallows?"
"It's starting to taste too sweet. If the cornflakes aren't sweet enough on their own, I'll just add a little sugar from the bowl."
She looked at me. "That happened to me, too. As I got older, stuff started to taste sweeter. There are things that I liked as a kid that make me feel sick, now. You must be getting old."
"What does that mean for you?"
"Smartass." She smiled when she said it.
I usually read the comics in the morning, so no one paid much attention when I started to read the rest of the paper, too. At about a quarter to nine, I looked up and saw it was shaping up to be a nice day in November, traditionally a gray and depressing month in Michigana. "Mom, can I ride my bike to school today?"
"Why would you want to do that?"
"I'm still a little weak from lying in bed for so long; a bike ride would get me some exercise. Besides, it looks really nice out there."
"How will you carry your books?"
"I'll put them in my backpack." I had an old canvas knapsack from the surplus store.
"What about Sean?" Whereas Mom didn't have a formal agreement to bring Sean back and forth from school, if she saw him on the way, she gave him a ride.
"I'll call him right now and see if he wants to ride his bike, too."
"Fine," she said in the ambiguous tone of voice that irked me. I never could figure out why she did it. It left a person wondering if she really did think it was fine, or if she thought it was a terrible idea but was reluctantly going along with it.
I started to open my mouth to say something when Ursus thought, Shut up!
What?
You made a reasonable argument and got what you wanted. It's not your problem to try to figure out if she is happy about it or not. You asked permission. You were polite. You received the permission. Just can it. She's a mother, so she worries about all kinds of things, and there isn't much you can do about it. Go call Sean.
Sean thought it was a fine idea. I got my pack and started to go downstairs to collect my school stuff when Mary asked Mom, "May I ride my bike, too? I can strap my books to the rack on back." Mary turned to me, "You don't mind if I come along, do you?"
"It's fine with me," I said. Mary looked hopefully at Mom.
"Fine, go," she said.
As Mary was getting up from the table, Rich began to say, "Can I-" when Mom cut him off and said, "No you'll ride in with me."
"Aw."
Mary and I headed off. On our way to collect Sean, Ursus thought, You know, this is a good idea.
It is a great day.
Yes, but more than that, the main reason you're pudgy is that you don't get enough exercise.
I was about to think, Bite me, old man; but I tried to suppress it. Suppressing it didn't work, and Ursus "heard" me anyway.
I'm just trying to look after our best interests. If everything works out, we will be living in this body for a long, long time.
At that point, the Arthur part of my brain spoke up: What's going to happen to me? He sounded scared.
What do you mean?
Am I going to just disappear?
Ursus became totally serious. Arthur, I'm very sorry for what I did--am doing--to you. I didn't even take your rights into consideration. All I thought about was a way to keep living. But to answer your question, no, I don't think you will disappear. I think the two of us are going to keep growing together into a new personality that happens to remember two childhoods and two sets of parents, but I also think that an Arthur part and an Ursus part will always remain facets of that personality.
I was pretty quiet when Sean came out and greeted us. We rode in almost silently, enjoying what might be the last blue sky for weeks.
We actually arrived a minute or so before Mom. After locking up our bikes, Mary headed to the grade-five wing while Sean and I went over to stand beside Al. I noticed that Kirsten Kennedy was back. I'd had a bit of a crush on her at least since grade four, but I tended suppress it, because I knew how Al felt about her. Nevertheless, I found her especially fascinating that morning.
She was probably the best looking girl in grade six. She had wavy auburn hair, green eyes, high cheekbones, a dimple in her chin, a heart-shaped face, and an adorable spray of freckles across her cheeks and nose. Normally, she wore glasses, which gave her a somewhat intellectual look. As I mentioned earlier, she was already starting to show womanly curves. From her head to her feet, she was elegantly proportioned.
But it wasn't her physical beauty that held me transfixed. After all, we had gone to the same school since kindergarten, and I had seen her regularly for years. The insight with which Ursus was supplying me, though, forced me to look at her with new eyes. She was one of the best students in grade six--one of the brains who had assembled in Mr. Dean's class. From hearing her read the occasional essay aloud, I knew that she could write. She even once had rendered in rhymed couplets a report on the House of Tribunes. Kirsten played the piano, the flute, and had recently started learning the saxophone. Beauty, brains, and talent--a killer combination if there ever was one, and on top of it all, she had a good-natured disposition. Even her voice had a pleasant timbre. I felt a nervous sickness to my stomach.
Shit, Ursus thought. I'm turning into a pervert.
"Hey!" Kirsten said in a mock-stern tone. "Who are you staring at?"
Arthur's first instinct was to look away, mumble something, and then flee. Ursus, however, seized control and saved the situation, "Forgive me, lady," I said. "I was smitten." I removed an imaginary hat and made a sweeping bow. The kids who saw what happened laughed in a good humored rather than mocking way. Kirsten smiled and blushed. Her friend Pam hugged Kirsten's arm and briefly rested her head on Kirsten's shoulder in that way girls do.
I was saved by Miss Gorse unlocking the door to the grade-six wing. Kirsten looked at me a moment before she turned to go inside. I could hear my heart beat. Al looked at me, too, searchingly. Oops. We went in without saying anything, though.
I spent the next month at Morgana's Manse in the secret library that despite having been living there previously for twenty years during my apprenticeship I hadn't even guessed at its existence. I think Morgana hides it in a pocket dimension and the door is only visible to those she wants it to be seen by. Mind you until I started advanced magic I wasn't even aware of pocket dimensions despite the fact that Morgana used them constantly around me to produce objects from seemingly thin air....
The following day after treating Róisín to a West End show and a meal I set off to the world called Kurukshetra and then onto Loegria. Even to this day, Loegria is a secret world, not many Mages know of it, even on the Council of the Wise, even fewer how to get there. It is essentially the only world we've discovered where the native people cannot do magic. Nor are we sure as to how its people got there in the first place, all other worlds with people on were former Sidhe worlds where...
I still hadn't a clue where Morgana's manse was, though I was beginning to suspect it wasn't a regular world, or not one that any Mage could simply run across via a scan, it also wasn't in a pocket dimension either. That I could get there was due to Morgana having placed the co-ordinates into my mind during my apprentice days, not that I could read them, I simply thought about it and then ported, it was a clever trick and one which I worried over mentally every so often, determined to...
It was a subdued group who met back at Morgana's Manse, we'd come so close to exposing a traitor to humanity on the Council. "I'm sorry." I said. "I shouldn't have started questioning him in such an exposed place." "Not your fault, John," Morgana said. "Whoever sent that spell knew exactly what they were doing, it was precise and sufficiently low powered so as not to illuminate the caster to our vision. I'd like to know who it was and how they knew that Johannes would fail...
The following day Morgana called a meeting of her senior staff, people she'd trusted with her life over the centuries she'd been a Mage and who had earned her trust time and time again. Also in attendance were their apprentices and journeymen, who included myself, Róisín and Abigail. Morgana went over the events of the previous day including the injuries to Mage Theo and described accurately the men and Mages who were involved on the other side. She also mentioned the summoning, though not...
The following day the Coalition Mages were invited to watch the interrogation of a prisoner outside a Null field. The prisoner himself refused to even speak and the Coalition were allowed to check his mental shields to confirm just how tough they were. "Have any been breached yet?" asked Mage Elymas. "No," said Mage Vera. "As you can tell from various cues in his mental state and behaviour it is only a matter of time however." "So I can read from his surface mental agitation," said...
It didn't take us too long to get back to where Arch and the Department forces were hunkered down behind a series of barricades. "John, you mad bugger, welcome to the party," he greeted me with a massive grin on his face. "Good work with Johannes and Ímar, though I do recall telling you to be bloody careful." "Was down to my team in the end," I replied. "They took them down; I just got them close enough to do it." "Nearly killed yourself again," said Arch. "You're going to...
The following day a very tired looking Morgana called a meeting of the Department and all its Sections to thank them for all the hard work they'd put in in dealing with the incursion and to honour our fallen. She also announced that former Council member Heinrich had been declared outlaw by both Council and Coalition for his crimes of kidnapping, torture, rape and murder of children. After that she called a meeting of the Section heads including Arch as the head of her counter Coalition...
The next few months were spent in feverish preparation and long hours as the various Bureaus of the Council trained their frontline staff to meet and defeat any incursion based on the known powers of the Nephilim. The Council seemed to be concerning itself with trying to break the mindblocks of the Mages of the Nephilim but also including Ímar Ua Donnubáin. We received no progress reports as the Council itself seemed to have withdrawn into isolation, leaving the various Bureaus to simply get...
Morgana, Arch and the rest of the team, including Róisín and myself, ported back to the Department and we went off to file our reports for Mage Thomas before he had a chance to have a stern word with us. Thomas was perhaps the most gentle soul I'd ever met save only in one respect, he expected that the paperwork got done and woe betide you if you didn't do it. Personally I'd rather have a dressing down from Morgana than face Mage Thomas and one of his lectures on the proper way to file a...
We were met by Rowenna when we got back to the medical wing. "Thank goodness you two are alright!" she exclaimed. "We didn't know anything until an armed column turned up to defend us. Which was nice but a tad unnecessary." We explained what had happened and mentioned Ketty getting a Mage as an aide to keep an eye on her personal security. "I know just the person," said Rowenna. "I can get journeywoman Irena to do it. She's been trying to find some task to make herself useful, she...
"We have a new diplomatic mission, John," Morgana told me a few days later. "Can't be any worse than seeking out a higher power and asking them questions," I replied jokingly. Morgana simply raised an eyebrow. "Oh hell, what now, my Mage?" I asked. "I've been tasked to liaise with representatives of the Æsir government to see if there is any more aid we can give them with their Nephilim incursion," Morgana said. "I thought 'officially' we weren't giving them any aid?" I...
We approached the scene of the Nephilim incursion very carefully. The Æsir warned us that Nephilim scouts used a type of long range magically enhanced rifle to target any they saw approaching the front. "How much land have they taken?" I enquired of Vanir Torsenn who was our escort to the incursion. Over 800 square rôst, a rôst is roughly one of your miles," he said. "Only Nephilim appear to be alive in there as they kill anyone they find, even babes in arms." "Barbarians!" I...
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My first task was to take the three very nervous looking lady Mages along to Morgana's lounge. "Relax, you are under serious protection here," I said as we advanced into the room. "I know, it's just that Elymas is incredibly powerful and not someone who is easily stopped," Mary responded. "He will be doing very well to break through here and the effort required would leave him wide open to my counterattack," Morgana said as she entered the room with Seer Simone and Mage...
"Let me get this straight," I pondered. "Rasputin is probably alive and is holding the souls of Mary, Ceridwen and Alcina for some reason or other?" "It's as good an explanation until we get more facts on our hands, John," Bryce replied. "Well, if he's as dangerous as all seem to think, why hasn't there been some other form of corroboration that your Russian friends would have known about?" I asked. "Depends on what he's been doing and whether our guides would have had it...
"That was rather too easy," Julia noted. "You'd expect something a little more ... robust than a few dryad derivatives." "Distraction," said Bryce. "The exits have now been sealed and rather effectively too, I can no longer sense the surface." "Whatever sense you're using, it isn't one a Mage would use as I can sense the way we came and the surface of Moscow too," I replied, seeing nods off the rest of the Mages there including Rasputin. "I rather suspect a demonic influence...
The next couple of years were busy but uneventful from my strictly personal view, although I did finally manage to figure out how Morgana fixed the coordinates of her Manor in my head so that I couldn't recognise or read them. It was quite simple in principle in that the pattern or matrix was hidden within a generic memory and thinking of the 'Manor' activated it from the visual context. No, Morgana would not tell me how she did it, that apparently was my next challenge and was proving to...
Other than a little catching up with Ketty before her busy schedule took over there was nothing to keep us at her political office. Dorry and her two aides escorted us back down through the building and I noted how carefully they were protecting her. Most Mages inexperienced or not tended to shield themselves against both physical or energy attacks and that's what they were doing, one projecting a field that prevented high speed projectiles, the other high energy wavelengths and particles....
The following day Róisín and I joined two of the MAGES team, journeywomen Ekaterina and Liliya, along with Mage Brianna and took a driverless taxi to the Troianovan northern maglev station. I kind of knew from my studies the previous night what a maglev was but this was my first view of the actual thing. To my mind it was classic science fiction of the Flash Gordon era in a bullet-like missile tube of approximately 100 metres in length, resting (for want of a better word) on a trestle as...
Looking back over this journal it seems odd, much of what I do and how I live simply hasn’t been mentioned. It’s all dramatic deeds and political machinations within the Departments and Bureaus. Yet life for me is fairly predictable when I’m not doing anything direct for my Mage and/or the Council. I still lived with Róisín in London, although now we sort of had a full time lodger in apprentice (soon to be journeywoman) Seer Abigail who, despite officially living with Arch and Jemima, had...
It was in 1991, three years after Apprentice Seer Abigail became a journeywoman Seer, that Morgana decided that the extra training given to the various Bureaus had reached its peak and the time had arrived to take the fight to the Coalition on its own territory. Plans had been made and laid to move our teams in, using the specialised Seer driven portals which the Coalition could not detect, to protect the various members of the Supreme Soviet and other vital adjuncts to the Soviet Union in...
Once the Council’s deliberations had finished, I was led back by Arch and Morgana to her office along with Róisín, Thea and Mage Rowenna. Rowenna immediately began to scan me muttering a series of curses in tones of utter disgust. “Weeks,” she finally announced. “At least three, possibly more, the damage is extensive and pervasive.” “I feel fine, a little weak, but mostly fine,” I added. “John, you’re anything but, you won’t even be able to use your regeneration regimen to fix the damage...
Most people know about the massacre in Rwanda. There were roughly 800,000 deaths, mostly Tutsi though some moderate Hutu’s, taking place during a 100-day crisis in 1994. Many to this day do not understand why the U.N. and other world powers stood idly by whilst it happened. Most do not know what really happened and why the Council of the Wise had to act to keep ordinary people, including many aid agencies, out of the war zone. Military intervention was simply not possible because Earth...
The warded camp had been set up by Mage Amehlo’s people and was already filling up with Mages when we arrived. Other portals were also being set up to allow transfer of the people from Clan Juwes and the Zeilona Gora Lycana. The nosferatu naturally set themselves up as our night guard, it being their favoured environment and if there were problems with their feeding, we never got to hear of it. Word had also reached us from Mage Ludmilla that Jacob’s people had assembled and were ready to...
“Well, they were quicker off the mark than I’d like,” Morgana began our morning meeting on the second day of the mission. “Sacrificial pawns, Mage Morgana,” Marja replied. “Indeed,” added Nell. “They were basically the dregs of their units with a sub-standard Mage to guide them. The inclusion of a woman also suggests that their manpower is reaching some limits.” “I agree with Nell,” replied Jerhz. “Azuran women tend to be kept in seclusion so as not to be exposed to danger. It stems from...
“I’m impressed,” Morgana began when we had all assembled for an early afternoon meeting. “But now the real ‘fun’ begins. The Nephilim are pushing a mass of troops towards us and we expect to be fully engaged from noon tomorrow.” “Do you have a place to confront them?” Marja asked. “Yes. The slopes of Mont Gatete, where we’ll have a few advantages of seeing them approach and hopefully deal them a blow that they’ll struggle to recover from,” Morgana replied. “They could conceivably call in...
“Sir, there’s movement to our front,” Lochias Gindo announced to us as Jerhz and Mergna led the newly surrendered Nephilim away. “Finally figured we know they’re there and are trying to roll over us before the bulk of our forces can be arrayed,” Arch posited. “We could take and occupy the positions those Nephilim were holding,” I said. “Better than what we have now and it looks like we can reach them before they’ll notice us,” Arch replied. “OK, let’s go.” All of us, including Seer...
The damage to the camp had all but been repaired when we arrived via the portal and we all scattered with Arch’s approval to shower, feed and rest up whilst he waited for Morgana to return and begin planning our next operation. I did ensure Róisín made it to the healers section and they gave her an all clear after a deep scan. After that we wandered with Abi towards where Adok was remonstrating with some of the wolves over where they’d gone wrong. “He’s coming on a bit strong,” I said in an...
Before Morgana stepped forward to meet the Sidhe delegation she first gave the three women in our party the ability to understand what any member of the Sidhe or Nephilim said; then she also protected each one by placing on them a small Null ward that would shield their minds to any mental probe. “Please direct any comments to me as only I will do the speaking other than being announced by John if the old forms are to be observed,” Morgana requested politely. “Yes, Mage Morgana,” they all...
Morgana called together all those who had been in the battle and gave them her personal thanks for the efforts they had made to stem this incursion. “Our losses were not as bad as I’d expected,” she stated. “But, that does not make the hurt and anguish I feel for each life lost any less. Nine wolves of the Zielona Gora Lycana, six Nosferatu of the Clan Juwes, two Loegrians and thirty two Mages were lost to stem this evil tide, yet stop it we did. Earth armies would be handing out medals for...
The following morning a whole bunch of Mages set off in a series of taxis to the centre for higher learning and a meeting with Artello the senior neuro-technologist who had researched and produced our brainwave frequency changer. To give him credit he hardly seemed fazed at all about the number of people who turned up to view his ‘machine’ in its final form. Also there were Ketty and Niras as well as Dorry and Olmer, with the younger couple getting odd looks due to their tanned skin. “Here...
As a group we went around the corner into the corridor where the prison guards had Mage Clara pinned and restrained. Also in the corridor was the beheaded corpse of Johannes Trithemius who appeared to have not gone onto the next life without a tremendous struggle, admittedly to no avail. Despite being heavily shackled as well as what appeared to be sedated by the guard medical Mage judging by the syringe lying next to her, Clara was still struggling as well as swearing vilely at all of us...
It took almost three days before the full Council as well as their aides could be assembled due to ongoing work by its members as well as trying to get the various Bureau heads away from their necessary tasks. During this time we returned Artello to Loegria and received a promise from him to provide us with a mark II version of the frequency changer which would cope somewhat better with the mental frequency of a Seer. There was also a delay as Mage Vera was brought back to full health. Yet,...
Routine as ever settled over my life once the excitement of Kurukshetra and the frequency altering device had settled. My studies carried on apace and I finally succeeded in creating a portal without the need for a framework. I also found the time to study up on crystal lattice memory storage and learned how to create a very simple storage crystal, though nothing like the complexity of the ones Mage Benjamin produced. I was also now studying the creation of magical artifices or devices which...
1996 brought about some major changes for the Council; the end of the cold war had given way to the beginnings of the war on terror, though at the current state of affairs everyone was still slightly euphoric in the sense that the two main contenders in the cold war were now no longer planning on unleashing nuclear warfare on each other. The Coalition however had other plans and were upping the ante in the Shia/Sunni civil war within Islam which had been an ongoing niggle since Djadjamahnk...
We had just turned back to the van when there was a startled screech and a wave of water flowing over our shoes and boots. Turning quickly I immediately, along with the rest of the male Theurgists, did an about face as a sprawled, naked and clearly incandescently angry Morgana lay spluttering from whence she’d been grabbed, presumably in the middle of a bath. “John!” “Yes, my Mage?” I gulped. “Greatcoat, now!” “Yes, my Mage,” I replied and struggled out of my M40 green woollen German...
Morgana was very aware of what was going on around her despite the attempts by Gilles to overwhelm her defences before she’d had a chance to get herself into what she considered the ‘zone’ where she could concentrate fully on taking Gilles down ... or vice versa, if he was a lot stronger than she believed. She felt a great deal of satisfaction as John took out the three High Mages, although she wasn’t too sure about the one he shot, it wasn’t as if proximity would have aided that one in...
It was decided by the Council that at this time we were going to expand our operations in the outer realms. We already had a small team there who were based near the stream I’d drunk from which, due to the wild magic pervasive on Azurana, had a displacement effect which meant you could not be detected save by anyone else who had drank from it. Nor did the water have an effect in our world; it lost its efficacy within minutes if it was removed from the source. Jerhz, Mergna, Telqua and Hinnit...
“I think we’re going to try, at least to see if we can get information as to why the Nephilim are doing this,” I replied with a chuckle. “Correct, John,” Morgana replied. “Commander Hinnit, are any of your units nearby?” “I can have a sanctum of Caddiysh here in about 3 kilobeats, however you Mages will have to deal with the Malakha,” Hinnit replied. “How many in a sanctum?” Julia asked. “About 40 Caddiysh,” Telqua replied as Hinnit had already set off at a fast trot. “A platoon then,”...
1997 saw much of my training reach a peak, in that the gains I had achieved went into a period of consolidation. Morgana assured me that the plateau that I had achieved was common to those Mages studying higher magic and indeed she thought it a necessary phase where a Mage in training could explore many of the minor bands in the quantum layers without being distracted by the next big thing. I was still forbidden to play about with tachyons, save under direct supervision, although I was aware...
Morgana was not best pleased when we reported in and had to explain the loss of twelve Mages, nor in her examination of us did she spare us from any form of criticism for even a minor mistake. In short it was a typical Morgana dressing down, the only effect of which was to make me resolve to try harder next time. “Despite the losses, you both performed well as a team,” Morgana finally finished. “As a reward, I believe it’s time for Thea to be introduced to Loegria.” “Are you sure, my Mage?”...