Magician Goes Rogue
- 2 years ago
- 21
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Sunday morning, after doing about a half hour of exercise, I got out the willow burl I had cut off the tree Saturday and put it in the wooden-jawed vise. Taking a medium-size gouge and a mallet, I began carving it into a small bowl or noggin. I didn't worry about making it round; I just followed the natural contour of the burl. It was going to be the replacement for my ritual cup. Because I was making it from material I had collected from nature myself, my spells should thereafter be somewhat more efficient and powerful.
It didn't take long to make an adequate hollow in the wood. I replaced the gouge with a smaller one and smoothed out the rough cuts. Then I replaced it again and smoothed some more. By the time Mom called me for brunch, I was in the process of giving the interior of the bowl a rough sanding. I had decided to leave the bark on the outside; I liked the rugged appearance.
As we were eating, Mary said to me, "Kirsten invited me over to go ice skating at the school with her and Pam. Did you want to come along?"
"Nah, no thanks. I'd sooner take some tweezers and yank out my nose hairs."
"Chicken."
"Bawk, bawk, bawk. Have fun."
"Band practice is at one, right?"
"Yep. Try not to break anything you use for music." We helped clean up and then Mary took her skates and left on her bike.
Before it was time to practice, I had really wanted to perform the location spell in another place, which would allow me triangulate the rough position of where the goat had been sacrificed. Unfortunately, my assistant had just gone ice-skating, and I couldn't think of any place with the requisite privacy to work the spell that wasn't also out in the cold. Going into trance under conditions such that freezing to death was a real possibility simply wasn't something to do alone. Familiars are useful for such situations, thought Ursus.
Do you think we could find one?I don't know anything specific yet about the spirit realm of this node, so I haven't any idea. That said, I'm not ready to go looking for a new familiar. I hope to someday be reunited with my old one.
Can we scry for her?
We can, hypothetically, but we don't yet have the strength, control, or the tools needed to scry across nodes, so it wouldn't actually work.
Could we try scrying the local spirit realm, just for practice?
Getting a bit addicted, are we?
I admit that I find magic the ultimate coolity.
Coolity? I think you just made up that word.
Perhaps. What about scrying?
Practice is good, and we might learn something about the local metaphorical dimensions. Be aware, though, that scrying metaphorical space is inherently more dangerous than scrying physical space. We're more likely to run into something that both takes offense and can do something about it.
I'm still game, if you are. Arthur, what about you?
I'm in, if you both are.
All right, thought Ursus. The same rules apply as last time, but even more so. You two better let me be in charge.
We set up, used the guitar to gather manna, and cast and purified the circle. Instead of the old cup I had borrowed from the kitchen, we used our new willow noggin, even though it wasn't yet finished, to hold the purification water. We gathered more manna with the guitar, put a drop of blood into the scrying water, and began deepening our trance while staring into the pie pan.
I lost track of time, and visions began to form. They were inchoate at first, but I eventually began seeing--and sometimes hearing, feeling, and smelling--things that made sense. I saw a forest that was greener than anything on earth. I saw a rocky desert with a line of humanoid figures walking across it. Although they were wearing long robes, I say humanoid, because they were taller and skinnier than a line of humans could be. They were chained together at their ankles.
I saw something that I originally took to be a bird, but then it came closer and I discerned a long tail. Then it came even closer and landed upon a crag. It was a dragon. The vision drew in even closer and I knew that he knew that we were watching him. He winked, and I felt Ursus relax. Greetings, sky brother, Ursus thought at him. The dragon nodded his head once in acknowledgement, and our vision shifted.
We saw a great many things, some that made no sense, and many that were boring--just landscapes or seascapes. Once we saw a sea serpent for a few moments.
Suddenly, a new vision felt much closer, more immediate. It was the back of a young woman, brunette. She was naked and bent over a chair. A man was taking her from behind. We were seeing the vision from his point of view. An angry feeling enveloped us, and the man said, "Get out of my head!"
The scene shifted, and our concentration almost broke, but Ursus managed to maintain our hold on manna. He picked up a toothpick and dropped it into the scrying water. "Where, where, where," he began to chant while trying to re-envision what we had just seen. Arthur and I soon joined our efforts to his.
For a moment, the vision formed again, and the toothpick quit drifting and pointed in a fixed direction. Ursus marked the spot on the pan with his finger--the toothpick was pointing in the same direction as the location of the goat sacrifice--and then ended the spell.
I was aroused and embarrassed about it. Don't worry about that, thought Ursus. We are in a pubescent eleven-year-old body. It gets aroused with a shift in the wind.
Don't worry about it? thought Arthur. Old man, I'm going to go take care of it. We hastily broke the circle, thanked the powers, snuffed the candle, and pretty much ran upstairs into the small bathroom.
After a certain tension had been relieved and we were again in the basement, Ursus thought, as we cleaned up the ritual area, I take it you both felt the change during that last vision?
It felt much closer than the visions from the metaphorical dimensions, I said. I can't explain it any more precisely than that.
Indeed, I'm almost sure it was nearby, and I strongly suspect that we again saw the same man who sacrificed the goat. It's not absolutely certain, but it's the way to bet.
He knew we were there, thought Arthur. And he didn't like it one bit.
Yes, we seem to have discovered someone else with genuine magical ability. As for being angry with us, wouldn't you be?
Of course, no one wants to be spied on at a time like that.
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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Dombarovskiy was dour, flat and hostile. Our emergence or rather the Craebh Ruadh's emergence from their portal caused the mental equivalent of mayhem to a large group of Mages we could feel scanning the area. Both Morgana and I had gone into mindcloak before stepping through the portal getting a few startled looks from the warriors and were being ignored by the Coalition Mages who were now beginning some form of attack. The Craebh Ruadh had other ideas of course and immediately hared off at...
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?”...