The 13th Mage (10 page)

As soon as she opened the door
to let him in
she knew he had no idea what was going on.
He looked pale and drawn, his eyes tired and confused as they had been that first time he had walked through her door.

“Okay, tell me what is going on, why did you send me that girl and who the hell is Sean,” he began in a stern voice but she took him in her arms and held him, stroking his head like the young child he used to be.

“My dear boy,” she said holding his face by the chin and looking into his eyes, “a cup of tea, I think will do the trick,” she added taking his hand.

He breathed in and allowed her to lead him to the kitchen.
Yes, too old for milk and biscuits
this time
. Too old for this sort of nonsense, he thought, but there were some things Aeoife always did and this was one of them.

He sat down at the large kitchen table and she placed the hot golden liquid in front of him, “drink up,” she said and started sipping her own tea.
“You have made yourself look very young, is it for any particular reason?”

“You told me to be young for the test the Keeper would do, I thought there would be some sort of physical trial involved.”

“I meant around fifty o
r forty at most.
But you don’t look a day
over
twenty.”

“Twenty. Yes, well, I lost track of time, I was busy.”

“Doing your mind exercises I suppose.
Those meditative states where you Elders do your thing.”

Owen took a sip of his tea; it had milk and honey in it.
He hadn’t had tea with milk and honey for at least a hundred years.

Time walked by, leaving them be for a while.
Owen finished his tea and looked at the old, dear woman who was the only mother he ever knew. He was angry and he was sure she had something to do with it.

“Aeoife.”

“Yes?”

“Tell me about Jennifer, tell me about Sean.”

“Ah yes, Sean. I wondered when you’d find out about him.
I wanted to tell you, you know, but it is forbidden.”

He felt a shell starting to surround them, an empty space that could not be crossed. He stood up, but she signaled him to be quiet and sit down.

The Other, he thought and she nodded.
The shell clicked into place and Aeoife sighed deeply.

“It’s the protection against the Other,” he said looking at the blackness around him, “I didn’t know witches could do it, how did you manage it?
Just sitting there?
It was you
,
wasn’t it?”

“Yes, Owen, it was me.”

A microscopic layer of empty space, where no matter existed, surrounded them, thus no communication was possible.
They were now completely invisible in all dimensions and to all beings.

“Have you ever wondered, Owen, how we came to be different to other humans?”

“Well, it’s a leap of evolution, the genetic mix is…”

“No,” she said stopping him in mid-sentence, “it’s not that at all.
We are not a leap of evolution.
We are hybrids.”

“A mix of races?”

There was no easy way to tell someone where he or she came from, especially when that place was now considered the enemy.
Aeoife did
n’t know how Owen would take it. H
e had always been a rather presumptuous boy.

Originally the gap between the
Old Ones
world, as mages called it, was quite large and both worlds were completely ignorant of the
other’s existence.
Then
an
Old One
opened a door in the time and space dimension, making travel between planets easy and quick.

Mythology about them h
ad changed dramatically over
millennia, at first they were called Gods,
and
then
,
as humans watched them fight and kill each other for power
,
they were called Devils. Angels, Elves, Fairies, Giants, now the most popular explanation was Aliens.

But there was nothing Alien about the Other.
They had occupied Earth for as long as Mages could recall.

The
Old Ones
were technologically superior, but the price they paid on the way was devastating, they destroyed their world and their genetic pool.

Having restored their planet they now took genetic material from humans to be able to restore their race.
There were those who believed humans were the first hybrids, the first step to make a semi compatible genetic pattern.
That the other had infused simple life forms with their more complex genetic material, making humans.
The second step being those
creatures
known as mages.

“We are the lucky ones, the deal is an ancient one, if twins are born then one of them is allowed to stay on Earth and be fostered by one of us, to be taught the ancient ways and bring Light to the world.
If only one baby is born then they take it. You are the lucky twin Owen.”

“No, I don’t believe it.
It can’t be true.
I would have… the Elders would know about this.”

“Some Elders do know about this, but they make sure none of the others find out.
It serves them well not to have everyone poking into the Other’s ways and the use of their technology.”

He took the information in and for a while simply savored it.

“Sean,” he finally said.

“Yes, he was not so lucky.
He is kept in the Other’s world, I am not so sure what they do to them, my guess is that they keep them as a sort of energy source or for genetic harvesting, but I can’t really say.
Those who have escaped don’t normally last long on Earth
. O
thers disappear so as not to be found by them.
We try to find our twin; everyone who has ever found out the truth will try and find their twin... I have a twin; her name is not to be mentioned.
She no longer dwells with the Other.”

“How did she escape?”

“I am not at liberty to say how they are
able to leave the Other’s realm. T
hat is something you have to find out for yourself.”

Owen’s lips tightened.
Forbidden knowledge, it was so typical of mages to keep secrets from each other, “find out for yourself,” seemed to be their favorite sentence. He had used it more than once himself.

The Other, he thought, the
Old Ones
held more than one key to his dilemma, but Owen had looked into their world himself, it seemed basic, backward.
The thought of anything worthwhile coming out of there seemed ridiculous.

“Do you know what the
Staff
is Owen?”

“The Holder Of Power and Knowledge.”

“Yes, but do you know what it really is?”

He was silent.
He had never thought beyond holding the
Staff
.
To become the most powerful being on earth, the most knowledgeable.

“Is that the test?” he asked, “to find out what the
Staff
really is?”

“No, the test was much simpler than that and you have already passed it,” she said patti
ng his hand, “the Staff is a
device stolen from the Other.
A group of mages combining their power could activate it.
But it can only be used by
thirteen
people at any one time, and the power generated by
thirteen
mages is not enough to activate it, yet. But if at least one of them was more O
ld One
than human, they would then have full use of its power.
We believe the Shadow are working on putting together a group who can do this,
thirteen
mages with enough power to activate the
Staff
to its full potential.
They call themselves The
Thirteen, not very original, but an effective name
.”

Owen was looking at the hand Aeoife had patted, then held it up before she started talking again, “hold on just one moment Aeoife.
Sorry to interrupt your discourse but did you just say I have passed the test?”

Aeoife smiled, “yes, of course you have, I always knew you would.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?
When did I pass it? Can I ask what the test was?”

“Of course you may ask.
I was wondering when you would ask.”

Owen looked at her in disbelief.

“Very well, seeing as you won’t ask me directly I shouldn’t really tell you but as I know you well enough to understand your unspoken questions I will take that murderous look
on your face
to be the question.
The test was one of developing a certain capacity which is the key to defeat The
Thirteen
.
You have a special link to the
Thirteenth mage. We could say
you
are
members of the same family.
You have developed this capacity and we hope you will be at the right time and space to use it.
When the time comes of course.
And the space.”

Owen sat back.
Aeoife was sounding more like an elder than a witch, people having special links and time and space as different entities, there was something very off about that, it made him nervous.

“This special capacity, what exactly is it?”

“Oh that, well, it’s the ability to feel unconditional love,” she said beaming with pride and holding his hands in hers.

He could feel her motherly pride overpowering him.

“Oh, I see,” he said, rather disappointedly.
Unconditional love, the witches thought unconditional love could defeat the Shadow.
He had to laugh.
To think that for a moment he
had thought Aeoife was turning E
lder.

“If the
Staff
is so important, how come you let the Elders have it, why don’t you take it yourself? Why don’t the
Old Ones
take it back?”
He said, getting back to more important matters.

“The
Old Ones
are not particularly interested in what happens to humanity as a whole, as long as they can keep taking what they need the rest is irrelevant.
As to the Council of Elders it has existed for longer than I care to remember, it’s joined by exactly the type of mage who would want to use the
Staff
for his or her own selfish reasons.
So it was covered in a Mantle of Truth.
Whoever touches it, holds it, is given the knowledge of how to hold it forever, it gives them power and superiority over their fellow mages. So far no Elder has decided to share that power with others.”

Owen sat back as he digested the new information, it was quite ingenious.

“What exactly can the
Staff
do?”

“It allows fr
ee travel in time and space. S
ome say it can separate the Known Worlds.
But what is of importance here is that it can also be used to dissolve the very essence of what keeps us on Earth, our bodies in all planes of existence, whether we are mortal or immortal.”

“The
Staff
is a weapon of destruction?”

“That very muc
h depends on your point of view. T
he Shadow workers believe it is the only way to liberate our spirits from Earth which they believe is now a prison.
The Other, they believe, have placed a kind of barrier around the world so as to keep harvesting from us, not allowing us to advance and evolve at a normal rate but keeping us at the very basic level of evolution.
But by not having any bodies, the Shadow believe our essence will be free to roam the universe in search of other worlds in which to evolve free from the Other.”

“But that would mean the end of humanity, the end of the Earth as we know it. Yet if what the Shadow think is true then what they are trying to do is commendable.
Mind you, I have never known the Shadow to work for anything but their own survival, which makes me think that if the earth was a prison as they claim, then all they want is the key to the gate. ”

Aeoife nodded.

He knew she wanted him to take a stand, and the wrong stand would mean something nasty to his immediate future, but he would give anything to be one of the
Thirteen
mages in charge of such technology.

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“You are Jennifer’s and her child’s mage foster father.”

“Yes.”

“Your job is to protect them.”