Magi Saga 2: Shadows of Darkness (14 page)

The Assassin moved and came to her feet, slower than before, her left arm limp. Amanda’s Magical sight allowed her to see the broken bones in the Assassins arm now that her Aegis had been destroyed. She also had some broken ribs and internal bleeding, but as Amanda watched, she could see that they were already starting to heal.

Amanda threw her sword to the ground, while her second mind used her magic to pull the swords from her opponent’s hands, followed by the tactical webbing and belt system that held her other weapons to her body. The belts ripped open and fell to the floor as Amanda stepped forward and threw a powerful right hook at her that knocked her backwards.

The Assassin tried to defend herself from Amanda, but in her weakened state the effort proved fruitless, and after a few moments and a number of punches later, the Assassin lay unconscious on the floor at Amanda’s feet. Blood dripped from her fists as she stood over her fallen opponent.

‘Amanda,’ said Liz from across the room.

Amanda turned and looked at Liz and Maya. Liz knelt on the floor, her cheeks glistened in the light from the tears she had shed while Maya knelt at Yoh’s side.

‘He’s gone,’ Liz said.

Amanda let out a breath, her shoulders slumped and she looked down at the floor.

‘Shite,’ she said under her breath. ‘And there’s nothing you can do?’

Liz shook her head, sadness in her eyes.

‘We tried, she’s stabbed him so many times in the chest. It would have taken Magic to heal him.’

Amanda turned to the Assassin then.

‘Damn it,’ she shouted and kicked the unconscious Assassin at her feet in pure frustration.

‘And we can’t bring him back can we?’ Liz asked.

‘Honestly, I’m not sure. I might be powerful enough, but I’m not familiar enough with Arcadian law on what’s considered Necromancy or not. He’s been hurt pretty bad. I… I don’t know.’

‘Where’s Gentle Water? He’d know.’

‘Paris, I think. I’m not sure. It would probably too late by the time we got anyone here’

‘I have an alternative,’ said Maya.

Amanda turned to the Scion. She didn’t know Maya all that well, she mostly saw her with Yoh when they came here. They had spoken a few times and actually got on really well. She mostly came here with Yoh who she seemed very close too. So she knew that Maya must be hurting just as much, probably more than she was over his.

‘Go on,’ Amanda said.

‘I’m a Scion, I can turn others into Scions by sharing my blood with them. I know I can bring him back from this with my blood. But, he would then be a Scion like me.’

‘I don’t know.’ Amanda said. That sounded like a somewhat radical step to take. But this was not your everyday situation. Their friend Yoh lay here dead, killed by this unconscious Assassin at her feet.

Messing about with Magic and Death, bringing people back from the dead, it played with the natural order of things. And the Arcadians called that Necromancy. She knew they took a pretty hard line on this and if you were caught dabbling in it, you were banded Nomad and hunted down. She knew it had been one of the primary reasons over the centuries that some people had defected from the Arcadians to join the ranks of the Nomads willingly when they had lost friends and had not been able to use their magic to bring them back from the dead.

Becoming a Nomad had lots of other connotations that went along with it though, so she would not be walking down that path.

Liz stood up and walked over to Amanda. She looked just as conflicted by this as Amanda felt. These were some pretty heavy choices to lay on young people’s shoulders. She didn’t want Liz to feel responsible for this at seventeen years old. But then, Amanda would only be twenty-one in July this year.

‘I’m not sure about this Amanda,’ she said. ‘Can we not get Gentle Water here, or a message to him quick enough to find out what we can do?’

‘Maybe, I have no idea. He’s on a mission for the Legacy so probably not. He warned me he would be out of touch for a few days.’

‘Anyone else we can ask?’

‘It all takes time, we have a minute or two to do this and convincing Arcadians to come to a Nomad city is difficult enough at the best of times.’ Amanda said.

‘Time is short Amanda.’ Said Maya.

Amanda tried to organise her thoughts, she needed to make a choice and her mind felt in a mess from the stress of this.

Technically she might be powerful enough to bring Yoh back, but she had never done this before, meaning it might not work or take time to do. Also, there was a fairly good chance this would be considered Necromancy in the eyes of some Arcadians at least.

She had no time to find other Magi and consult with them about whether this would be Necromancy or not, and getting someone more powerful than her here would take time, time they did not have.

Which left them with Maya. She claimed she could turn him into a Scion. From everything Amanda knew about Scions, she believed this to be true, but, she felt sure that she had been told that the change doesn’t always work, that sometimes it fails, killing the victim.

But as Yoh had already died…

Amanda turned to Maya.

‘Do it.’

‘Really?’ said Liz, as Maya went to work, biting her own wrist and dripping her blood into Yoh’s wounds.

‘We have no other choice. I’m not risking being branded a Nomad for using Necromancy, and we don’t have time to hunt for help.’

‘But he’ll be a Scion!’

‘He’ll be alive, if he survives the transformation.’

‘What? So this might kill him?’

‘He’s dead anyway Liz. We’re giving him the chance at another life.’

They both looked over at Maya, who stopped dripping her blood into Yoh’s stab wounds and pulled away from him. She stood up and walked away.

‘Now we wait,’ Maya said.

‘How long?’ said Liz.

Yoh’s body bucked and jerked suddenly, his movements those of someone in agony as Maya’s blood went to work.

‘Not long,’ said Maya.

Amanda watched Yoh, fascinated by his transformation. They could see the Essentia around him doing some strange things. It moved about him in odd waves and patterns as his body reacted to the blood.

And then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. The Essentia around him calmed and went still, like Yoh’s body.

The Magical Energy that Amanda could see as a thin golden mist didn’t flow through him, like it did with a living creature, which meant that Yoh had died.

Amanda felt deflated. The bodies movement had brought her false hope it seemed, meaning today would be remembered as the day that Yoh had died.

‘It didn’t work did it,’ Liz stated.

‘I don’t think so Liz. I’m sorry,’ said Amanda.

Amanda reached out and pulled Liz in next to her, hugging her.

‘It’s ok,’ she said.

Amanda looked at Maya, who continued to watch Yoh, almost expecting him to move. Amanda felt sorry for her. She’d tried to help but it hadn’t worked out.

Yoh sat up, blinking.

Amanda jumped at the shock of the sudden movement.

Yoh groaned and held his chest in pain. Amanda and Liz ran to his side and helped him sit up.

‘Yoh, are you alright? Don’t move so suddenly. Take it easy.’

‘Amanda-Chan, What, urgh, happened.’

He pulled his hand away from his chest, looking at the thick wet blood that covered it.

He looked up and around the room.

‘Where is she?’ he asked.

Maya pointed to one side of the room where the Assassin lay on the floor.

‘Over there,’ Amanda said.

‘Ugh, help me up,’ he asked.

Amanda and Liz did so. Amanda finding it easier due to her bodies enhanced strength.

‘It’s ok. She’s unconscious,’ Amanda said.

Yoh looked at her.

‘Did you… do this?’ he asked.

‘I did.’

‘Dozo,’ Yoh said, thanking her, ‘and remind me not to get on your bad side.’

Yoh walked a couple of steps and bent down to pick up the dagger on the floor. The whole thing had been ornately carved and even doused in blood, it had a beauty all its own. It also glowed in Amanda’s Magical sight with the powerful energy within it.

‘Are you sure you should be walking about?’ Amanda said.

‘I’m feeling better already. What did you do to me? Things seem, different.’

‘You died Yoh. You were dead by the time I subdued her. We didn’t have many options.’

Yoh looked Amanda in the eyes, raising his eyebrows slightly.

‘What did you do?’

‘Maya offered to turn you into a Scion. You were dead anyway, this way you had a chance of life.’

Yoh sighed and looked away.

‘That explains a lot. I… My magic seems, different. I’m not sure about my connection to it.’

‘It could still be there, but it will take time to get used to things again,’ Maya said.

‘And it might be gone,’ Yoh answered.

‘Indeed,’ confirmed Maya.

‘Awww, that’s a sickner,’ Amanda said in commiseration. ‘I didn’t know what to do. I’m sorry.’

Yoh turned back to her.

‘Don’t worry. You did what you thought was right. And, I am alive at least, after a fashion.’

Amanda knew what he referred to. His body, remained technically dead. With her Magic, she could detect no heart beat at all, and the local Essentia did not flow through him like it would with a living being. It also didn’t flow through Maya in much the same way.

‘You mean, you’re a Scion,’ she said.

‘Yes, I’m a Vampire,’ said Yoh. ‘Like Maya.’

Amanda hadn’t considered what type of Scion Yoh would become, and the connotations that surrounded a change into one of these creatures. Yoh would have a lot to deal with now, and had a lot to learn too. As a vampire, she guessed that meant he would need to drink blood to survive. The thought of which turned her stomach.

Yoh stepped forward towards the prone figure of the Assassin and stood over her.

‘What are you going to do,’ Amanda asked. She wasn’t too sure of Yoh’s motives or what he might do to the Assassin. In Amanda’s eyes, the Assassin would have killed Yoh and Liz without a second thought, so she’d basically given up her right to life. But thinking such a thing and then seeing it carried out before you would be a very different thing, if that is what Yoh had on his mind.

‘What I should have done a long time ago.’ His voice remained flat, unemotional as he spoke. Then in one smooth motion, he crouched down over the body, one foot either side, and placed his hand over the mouth of the woman. He raised the dagger and brought it down hard, plunging the blade into her skull with a cracking sound that made Amanda feel a little sick.

The body jerked once, before dropping limp once more.

‘Bleedin’ hell,’ Amanda said, covering her mouth and turning away.

‘Oh God,’ said Liz, and backed off away from Yoh. Maya remained unfazed by the killing and continued to watch.

He removed the dagger and pulled the hood from the Assassins face before standing up, dropping the dagger to the floor.

Seeing the Assassins face for the first time, she looked Japanese with long black hair and apart from the stab wound at the top of her forehead, she looked pretty.

Her catsuit also changed from pure black to a black and white design of stylised black Lotus flowers on a white background as the Magic that held the effect in place faded.

‘Who was she? Anyone you know.’

‘Yes. This is The Black Lotus, her real name is Kimi Takahashi, and she was my sister.’

Amanda felt her eyebrows rise almost involuntarily. That had not been the answer she had expected. Yoh had just killed his own sister by stabbing her in the head.

‘I take it you didn’t get along.’ Amanda said incredulously.

‘That would be an understatement. I escaped my family, and Kimi here, many years ago. They have never forgiven me and have hunted me ever since. You don’t leave my father’s organisation and live, even if you’re family.’

‘That’s fecked up.’

‘Indeed it is. But the question remains. How did she find me?’

Immediately Amanda’s heart sank, and she knew for sure how this had happened.

‘Lucian,’ said Amanda and Yoh in unison, looking at each other.’

‘Has to be,’ she said. ‘He knows where I live, I presume he either knows or at least suspects you and I have some contact, and although he won’t hurt me directly, he no doubt thinks he can hurt me by hurting those I care about.’

‘Makes sense,’ Yoh said.

‘But he didn’t do anything to me the other day on the pier,’ said Liz.

‘True. But I was with you, and you came here to New York with me. Maybe you’re safe too?’

‘I however have been a thorn in Lucian’s side for a long time,’ said Yoh.

‘How did he know about her though?’ Amanda said, pointing at Yoh’s sister.