Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling (34 page)

Amanda waited by the window while Alicia headed off to find the keys, and looked out over the playground. Having found out that there really was such a thing as Magic, she didn’t want to dismiss Alicia’s suspicions too easily, she knew enough by now to know that it would be all too easy for someone to stumble across something they really shouldn’t do and end up in a whole world of shit.

But, she didn’t really need their room keys to find out what she needed to know, so while Alicia was gone, she took the time alone to have a look into the four teenager’s minds and see what she could see.

Right away, as she reached out with her mind to touch theirs, she could sense no Magic at all from them, so they weren’t latent Magi. But that didn’t mean they hadn’t found something which might be, so she plunged deeper into Scott’s mind and sifted quickly through this surface thoughts and most prominent recent memories, and quickly found nothing much to worry about. She couldn’t read his deepest memories, but she was advanced enough now to push slightly past his surface thoughts and touch upon recent and prominent memories. She followed this up by delving into each of the others minds and found each of them to be in the same situation. They dabbled in what they thought to be the occult or witchcraft, but was in fact nothing but a bunch of nonsense wrapped up to look like something magical and forbidden. There were no malevolent thoughts there at all and seemed like very balanced kids really.

They had no connection to anything magical, there was no build-up of Essentia around them to link them to anything Magical such as an Artefact, and they were quite harmless, in a Magical sense.

She also noticed, while she was inside Jakes mind, that Alicia had been right about him, he did fancy her, had done for a little while now since she had become an assistant in a few of his classes. Well, she hoped that Jake would move on from this rather helpless crush as he was never going to get anything from it.

That was until she saw that it might actually be helping him, the others were more into these things then he was, but Jakes crush on Alicia was acting as a sort of moral compass and it fought against the influence of his peers, his mind swinging between more Christian views or more Pagan views.

In time, Alicia returned with the keys and all though the next lesson Amanda made a big show of hunting through the students rooms looking for anything incriminating. But apart from finding a few items of pentagram encrusted jewellery and more black clothing than she thought possible, she found nothing that merited attention.

Amanda took some time to assure Alicia that these were just kids exploring the world around them and they were not involved in anything dangerous. She also encouraged her to give Jake more attention as he might benefit from her guidance.

Eventually, satisfied that all seemed well, Alicia walked Amanda back to the lobby of the School and gave her a big hug, much to the horror of the receptionist.

‘Don’t take so long to come back next time. You know you’re always welcome to come and visit me. It’s been great to see you again,’ Alicia said.

‘And you Ali, I’ve missed you. I promise to try and visit more often. Take care of yourself okay. I’ll see about getting you a phone number or something soon so you can call me if need be.’

Amanda had discarded her Mobile phone shortly after Georgina’s death as there was no one she wanted to speak to and there was no phone in the cottage. Since becoming a Magi, she saw less and less need for a Phone, she knew she would get one again sometime, but not yet.

‘That would be great Mandy. See you soon.’

Amanda walked out of the building and away along the path, waving back to Alicia a little way down, it had been a good day, and she hoped she would see her friend again soon.

Once she was out of view of the School, she veered off the path and into a copse of trees nearby to find Gentle Water meditating under an Oak. He opened one eye as she approached.

‘All done?’ He asked her.

‘Yes thank you, it was nice.’

‘Then we shall return.’

Suddenly they were no longer there, the sound of a pop, as air rushed into the places they had been standing a moment before, was the only fanfare that signalled their departure.

The artefact seems to have been hollow after all. Stephan broke it while studying it a little while ago, he says it was an accident, which I know will be true, the boy would never intentionally brake such an artefact. I wonder if I was a little harsh on him with my punishment, but I think we did the right thing.

I have no idea what, if anything, was inside the stone slab, Stephan says there was nothing inside it, but I’m not sure that I believe him.

It shames me to say, but I did have a look round his room, just to see if he had hidden anything from me. But I couldn’t find anything.

I need to do a more in depth study of this thing really, maybe that will give me the answers I need.

- Richard Lockwood’s notes, Stephan’s father.

Help

London

Mid July

Stephan sat hunched over his desk in his room and put the finishing touches to the markings he had copied onto the sheet of paper from the golden book that lay open next to him.

He was trying to be as careful as possible and to make sure he copied it as closely as he could, he was worried about making a mistake, but he couldn’t take too long over it, he needed to get a move on soon.

With a few more scribbles of his pen he sat back and examined his work next to the real thing and felt satisfied that he had copied it as closely as he could. He had chosen to copy a page of the text, but to divide it over two sheets of paper. Each page in the gold book he and his friends had found in the stone slab after Liz had dropped it on the floor had been covered in text, half in a wedge shaped Cuneiform text, the other in a swirling sinuous script, separated by either a simple line or more elaborate markings depending on the page.

It had fascinated Stephan and his friends for weeks, and despite doing the best research they felt they had ever done, they simply could not decipher either text. They knew they had limited resources and their hunting for a cipher wasn’t helped by them trying to keep it hidden and not let other people see it.

They might be being a little too careful, but they thought it best to keep it hidden for the time being and just keep it to themselves. The book looked very valuable and they really didn’t want anyone taking an undue interest in it.

But as they reached the end of the second month of fruitless searching they had soon come to a realisation that they were getting nowhere fast. They couldn’t even narrow down the time period of the writings, they knew was old, very old, but nothing else.

Finally they had sat down one evening in defeat and talked over their options and their next move.

They needed help, they couldn’t do this on their own, which meant showing it to someone, or showing the text at least, so they thought that the best thing for them to do was to copy the text down by hand, which Stephan had volunteered for, partly because the book stayed with him for the time being which meant he could work on it by himself.

Once this had been decided, they talked long and hard about who they would show the text too, and in the end they narrowed it down to two places, the place in Camden they had used before and Mr Travers at The Magicians Hat in Soho. Mr Travers had always been friendly towards them though so they chose to go there first. The four of them had taken to visiting the shop often after it had been recommended by another obscure bookshop, and the four of them had found the Hat to be fascinating and Mr Travers to be a friendly old gent.

He seemed trustworthy and if anyone might know anything about this, or could find out what this writing was, it would be him.

So the choice was made, but there seemed to be little free time for the four of them to get together and they wanted this done as soon as possible and with as little suspicion as possible, so Stephan offered to head into the city by himself the next day.

Fran wasn’t happy with Stephan for doing this, but he had pointed out to her that there was nothing to worry about, he had been into London often enough on his own in the past, he didn’t quite understand what the difference was today.

Neither, it seemed, did Fran, so she had reluctantly agreed to it. The book would stay here at his parents and he would take in the sheets of paper, the two sets of text written on separate pages, into the heart of London and see what Edwin Travers thought of this enigma.

Stephan had been up late copying the text down as carefully as possible, but ended up needing to finish off that very morning which he had just managed to do, and now he held that sheet of paper and felt satisfied with the results.

‘Stephan, are you still heading into London today?.’ His mother called up the stairs.

‘Yes Mom. I’ll be off soon.’

He had been grounded for the breaking of the stone slab, but not for very long, and his father ended up rather liking the idea of the broken artefact so he had got let off early in the end.

His parents never knew that it had been Liz who had broken it, Stephan had taken the blame, he thought of it as taking one for the team. Liz had been very grateful to him, but had felt guilty that she and the others were not being honest to his parents about this. Fran had said to him the other day however that she had talked her sister round and made her see reason with this, the deed was done and forgotten by now so it would be pointless to bring it up again. Fran’s talk must have worked because Liz seemed to have cheered up and forgotten about the accident.

Stephan packed the sheets of paper into his bag and readied himself for the trip into London. It was going to be a hot day today, so he wore a pair of tan knee length shorts, a tee-shirt and carried his rucksack on his back. Checking his hair one last time in the mirror, he figured he was ready and headed out his bedroom door.

Stephan went down stairs and pulled on his trainers, looking for his mother as he did so, he found her in the kitchen.

‘I’m going now mom.’

‘Oh, okay.’ His mother came out of the kitchen and walked up to him as he finished adjusting his second trainer. ‘Have you got everything? Money? A bottle of water?’

‘Yes mom, I’m all set.’

‘Where did you say you were going? To that comic shop again?’

‘Forbidden Planet?’

‘That’s the one.’

‘Okay, well you be careful all right, and don’t be back late. You’ll be back around early afternoon right?’

‘That’s right mom. I won’t be long.’

‘You’re sure you’ve got everything you need? I could make you a sandwich and a packed lunch if you like. It’s no trouble.’

‘No, thanks mom, that’s alright, I’ll buy a bagel or something somewhere.’

‘Oh that won’t be enough for you, look, it’ll take two seconds.’

‘No mom, seriously, I’m fine, I don’t want a packed lunch.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘One hundred percent.’

‘Well, alright then.’ She glanced at the clock. ‘You’d better get going.’

Stephan looked incredulously at his mother before turning to go.

‘Do I get a kiss?’ she asked him.

Stephan stopped and sighed, then turned round quickly and presented himself to his mother for her to plant a kiss on his cheek, which she quickly did and then opened the door for him.

‘See you later then, love you.’

‘See ya.’ He smiled to his mom as he left the house and headed into the street. He knew, deep down, that he was lucky to have two parents that still loved each other and still loved him and just wanted the best for him and to keep him safe, but right at that moment, all he was thinking about was how much his mom fussed over him. It could be annoying at times, especially when he just wanted to get on and do stuff.

He picked up the pace a bit and checked his watch as he walked down the street. There were plenty of trains that headed south along the Northern Line from High Barnet into London, but he wanted to get to the shop as quickly as possible as he had no idea how long he might be there for.

He would also be suitably close to Forbidden Planet, to which he would make a flying visit to pick up a few comics so he looked like he had spent all his time there.

The Northern Line branched into two line as it passed through central London before meeting up again on the other side, and he needed to be on the branch that stopped at Tottenham Court Road so he could wander from there into Soho and find the shop. He had looked up the timetable for the trains the night before and knew the times of the trains going through the Charing Cross Branch that had the Tottenham Court Road station on it, and if he were quick, he would just catch the next train in just before ten o’clock.

The sky was a gorgeous blue with just a few wisps of cloud in the sky above him and the sun had already begun to warm up the streets. It would probably get up to twenty four degrees today, and it would be much warmer than that on the tube.

The streets were busy with people going about their day, men and women in their business suits with their bags and brief cases in their hands, each and every one of them looking like they were dreading the day ahead.

Before long, he had reached the machine, inserted his money and collected his ticket before hurrying through the crowds, passing through the barriers and then finally making it to the platform, only to find he had a few minutes wait anyway.

Moments later, the train pulled to a stop in front of him with a wail of its brakes that scattered the pigeons that had been nodding about the platform and lines.

Although the Northern Line could be considered an underground line, this station was very much like many of the stations outside of central London and was over ground. Several stops down the line though and it descended into the tunnels that threaded through the capital’s underbelly.

Stephan stepped aboard the train, found himself a seat and settled in for the journey into London. It was fairly tedious, as usual, the train moving through suburb after suburb, stopping at each station on the line where people would embark and disembark, but the train slowly filled up as it moved closer to the city, more people getting on then getting off.

As the train moved into central London, passing though Kentish Town, Camden Town and Euston, more and more people pushed onto the carriage until finally, the train pulled into Tottenham Court Road Tube Station and rumbled to a stop. Stephan filed off the train like everyone else and just went with the crowd down the platform following the yellow sign’s displaying “Way Out,” in bold lettering.

Moving off the platform he reached the escalator and lazily let it ferry him up to the basement level where the barriers were, before ascending the stairs up to where Oxford Street and Tottenham Court road crossed.

The street was packed with people, jostling about and trying to reach their own destinations while the cars and black cabs inched their way along the cities arteries, sounding their horns at unwary pedestrians.

Stephan looked about and quickly orientated himself as to which of the several exits he had come out of and which way Soho might be. He quickly made sense of the madness and started off down Tottenham Court Road, south away from Oxford Street, and immediately the crowds thinned a little.

There were a number of bookshops down here as well as the occasional adult shop that spilled out from the liberal Soho district. But Stephan didn’t have interest in either, he only wanted to find The Magicians Hat, so he began to retrace the path that he and the others had taken several times before.

It felt like a mini quest, as if, if they took another route to the shop, it might not be there, as it had that magical quality to it that made it feel just a little bit ephemeral.

Stephan soon took a right off the main road and headed into Soho and the grid like maze of this area of the city. Soho seemed different to the rest of London, it tended to be much more liberal and had a reputation of being London’s Red Light District, but actually just had more of a friendly bohemian feel that welcomed anyone with any taste. There were lots of places for people in same sex relationships to hang out and go clubbing and there were more than your fair share of galleries and artistic melting pots.

Stephan passed girls holding hands with girls and men getting a little bit too familiar with other men for Stephan’s tastes, The clothing worn here looked a little wilder then the norm, and Stephan walked past Goths, Metal Heads and Emo’s, all wearing their own particular styles of clothing, each distinct and original.

Stephan continued on through the streets, passing the myriad small shops and businesses that made their home here, amongst them were plenty of bookshops, some of them catering specifically to artistic, adult or mystical tastes, many of the latter Stephan had already visited, and found that most stocked the usual trinkets.

The Hat seemed different though, and he just hoped that Mr Travers would be able to help him.

A couple of streets away and the numbers of people out and about lessened before Stephan turned into a covered alleyway that led to other hidden roads and side streets, and after a couple of turns where it seemed like you were somewhere else other than Soho, he turned a final corner and there he found The Magicians Hat. Tucked away in the back alleys of Soho, well off the beaten track and more than a little difficult to find, if you didn’t know where you were going.

The shop had a small front, being little more than fifteen feet wide, a large bay window displayed its wares from behind the wire mesh in front of it. The paint had started peeling and the posters on the door were bleached a coffee coloured tan, the inks in them going an off green or blue as they lost their colour.

He could see a few lights inside and the “open” sign faced out in the door window, so he approached the shop, the sounds of the city distant and only a couple of people passing through the alleyway, ignoring the wondrous shop just across the street from them.

On opening the door the bell rang pleasantly just above Stephan’s head. A familiar sound that Stephan had come to love, and he thought that too few shops seemed to have one of these bells anymore.

A little way into the shop, beyond low bookcases you could look over and the numerous stacks of books scattered about the room, an elderly gentleman in a shirt and cardigan looked up over his glasses at Stephan from where he sat at a high desk.