Authors: Christopher George
* * * *
The ticket machine clicked with a dull thud as my ticket was returned to me. I moved through the security check and onto the train station platform. It was dark by the time I left Renee's and although I had vague plans of staying the night there, Renee didn't think it was good idea given the circumstances.
She’d seen Vin stalking her during the day and guessed that he probably knew where she lived. She didn’t think it was a good idea to antagonise him by staying the night. I think I was a little obvious in my disappointment, but Renee was firm with me. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I fumbled for it and brought it to my ear. I was a little out of breath as I answered it as I’d had to run as I thought my train was about to leave the station.
“Hello, Renee?”
“Where are you?” she demanded down the line, in way of greeting.
“I’m at the train station.”
“Have you seen Vin?”
“No, why?” I replied. I glanced nervously about the abandoned station. It was pretty dark and there were several other people on the train and platform, but I’d have never missed the tell-tale evidence of a mana circle. Vin wasn’t here.
“Can you see any small particles of mana in the air?” Renee demanded, ignoring my question.
I glanced around frantically. I couldn't see anything unusual about the place.
“It'll be very hard to see,” Renee continued urgently. “Look for reflections of light out of the corner of your eye where there shouldn’t be any. It’s kind of like when a light reflects off a mirror.”
“Maybe,” I reflected as a flash of light caught my vision.
“Okay,” Renee said. She sounded calm but it was obvious from her tone that she was more than a little concerned.
“Yeah, I’m definitely seeing something funny going on,” I continued. The flickering became more and more obvious to me now that I had noticed it.
“Right, set off an awareness blast now!” Renee hissed down the line.
“I can’t, there are people here,” I disagreed.
“Then do it quietly! It won’t need to be that big, just do it now!” Renee retorted.
“What will this prove?”
“I think you’re being watched,” Renee replied darkly.
“Does it matter?”
“Of course it fucking matters,” Renee snapped, finally losing her patience. “Don’t be stupid!”
I didn’t argue the point any further. I simply moved to a seat where my hand motions couldn’t be seen and set off a small blast. To my amazement the small amount of mana I used covered the entire carriage, most of the two on either side and a good portion of the station platform.
“Did you do it?” Renee nervously asked.
“Yeah,” I replied as I looked around.
I could see an arc of mana curving onto the station platform where I had been catching the twinkling lights. It was like no mana thread that I’d ever seen before. The mana particles were wound loosely around a central core but weren’t really attached to it. I had no idea how it was maintaining its stability.
This was something far beyond my abilities.
“What do you see?” Renee interrupted my observation.
“It looks like a mana thread on the station. It’s kind of, I dunno, more loosely built,” I replied.
Renee cursed down the line.
“What is it?”
“Scrying,” Renee replied. “Where does the thread appear to be going?”
“I don’t know,” I replied nervously. “Up out of the station.”
“What direction?” Renee almost snarled down the line.
“I don’t know.”
“Guess.”
“North Melbourne?” I guessed, trying to estimate where the thread headed.
“Right,” Renee replied determinedly. “Stay put – call me if you see anything.”
Renee hung up. I stood and watched the mana thread for a good five minutes before eventually an announcement came on indicating that the train was about to finally leave the station.
I watched owlishly as the door to the train closed with a small hiss and the train gently rocked itself into motion. I quickly looked around the carriage, taking note of each occupant. There was a little old lady with a young man who I could only assume was her son.
There were also a few guys in the corner who were obviously a little worse for drink. The last occupant of the carriage was a weary man in a rumpled suit who was staring forcefully out the window ignoring everything else around him. I breathed a sigh of relief as the train left the confines of my awareness spell and left the station.
Renee rang as I passed the first station to check in. She hadn’t been able to locate Vin, but noticed that the thread of mana had stopped. I promised Renee I’d call if anything unusual happened and quietly slipped my phone back into my pocket and positioned myself near the aisle just in case I needed to make a quick getaway.
The train dipped into the subway and it wasn’t long before the motion of the train sent me into a light doze. It couldn’t be called sleep, but I certainly wasn’t alert either. I had meant to stay alert, but given the time it was difficult. Besides, I doubted that anything would happen anyway.
We passed several more stations, taking us out of the underground loop. No-one had gotten into my carriage from any of the city stations. This wasn’t that surprising given the hour and pretty soon the train was making its way out of the city and into the suburbs.
I was on the home stretch now.
A whooshing noise followed by a door slamming brought my attention back into the carriage. I wasn't overly concerned by the noise but it had startled me. It was just someone moving between carriages. It was unusual, but hardly noteworthy. It was only when I noticed exactly who had entered the carriage that I sat bolt upright in my chair.
Vin was sauntering down the aisle of the carriage on his way to me. Fortunately he'd entered from the opposite side of the carriage and was thus immediately visible. I wouldn't have liked to have thought of my reaction should he suddenly have appeared from behind me. It certainly wouldn't have been conducive to the healthy state of my underwear.
I vaguely contemplated ringing Renee but quickly discarded that idea. It would be obvious that I was calling for help and I wasn't ready to admit yet that I needed it. The second reason was that Vin was too close. He'd hear everything said and I didn't like the idea of that either. I decided to play it cool and wait and see what happened. Probably not the best plan in hindsight.
Vin had a smug grin on his face as he reached the row of chairs I was occupying and he threw himself into the chair opposite me. He lazily stretched his legs forward to rest them on the chair opposite. This forced me to scoot down the row of chairs further towards the window.
He’d blocked me in.
“I don't think we've met,” Vin grunted after several seconds of silence.
“Just briefly,” I replied, not making eye contact.
“Hardly formally introduced though. Renee was quite rude in that department especially considering that we're such old friends.” He smirked as if making a joke.
I didn't comment. I could tell I was being baited.
A stilted silence ensued and I could feel Vin's eyes dragging across me attempting to find any weakness. It was like he was tearing me apart and inspecting the pieces, looking for defects.
I had no intention of giving him any further opportunities.
I was seconds away from throwing a shield around myself and making a run for it. The rational part of my mind insisted that this would do no good however an irrational part of my mind was screaming at me to get the hell out of there.
“Quiet type, aren't you?” Vin continued in his mocking drawl.
“Yeah, I guess,” I replied. “Don't really have much to say.”
“I guess it seems that Renee's rudeness rubs off on her students.”
I winced slightly at the way that Vin cut off the word ‘
students
’, but didn't reply.
“Is Renee a good teacher, do you think?” he continued conversationally.
“Good enough,” I grunted.
“How good would you say?” he pressed.
“She's the only mana teacher I’ve known, so I'm not really in a position to judge now, am I?” I replied, letting my voice get a little cutting.
“Really? That’s interesting.” Vin smiled. His tone gave me the indication that I’d just said something that I shouldn't have.
His eyes were almost glowing in the reflected light from the window, giving his face an almost skeletal mask across his features.
“You're certainly committed to the story, I’ll give you that,” Vin continued.
Again, I didn't reply.
“Your attitude is starting to verge on the insulting,” Vin stated, his voice becoming cold and hostile.
“Look, what do you want from me?” I snapped.
His eyebrow rose slightly at my response but I had no idea what he was thinking. His expression certainly didn’t change.
“I'm not sure what I want from you. I probably want nothing,” Vin continued, smirking at my response. “I’m trying to figure out if you're in my way or not.”
“Let’s just assume that I'm not, and you can go back to where ever you came from,” I replied dryly.
Vin snorted with amusement
“You've got balls, kid – I’ll give you that.”
I ignored the backhanded compliment and kept a watchful eye on Vin as he stared back at me. His mouth was still curled into that mocking sneer of his. Nothing was said for what appeared to be several stations. I looked at him – he looked back.
I couldn’t take it any longer.
“Look, we both know you're not going to do anything here with all these witnesses about,” I snapped, gesturing towards the other people in the carriage behind us, “so just fuck off.”
His face dropped at the shock, but quickly resumed its usual smirk as he leaned forward and got to his feet. At first I thought he was going to attack me. If he had chosen to do so I would not have had time to defend myself. It was fortunate though that he walked several rows up the carriage to address the rest of the carriage.
“My friend and I need this carriage – please leave!” He ordered in a clear authoritative voice.
There was a stunned silence in the carriage as his words sunk in. The little old lady and her son swiftly got to their feet and were assisted into the next carriage by the business man. All three of them must have assumed that it wasn't worth the effort of arguing. I couldn't see Vin's face but from the way that all three kept looking fearfully at him I could see he'd definitely made an impression.
“Who're you to make us?” one of the drunks called from the other end of the carriage as he rose to his feet unsteadily.
“I've asked nicely,” Vin replied in his sing song tone and holding his arms out each side of him.
“So what? It's a free country!” the drunk called back, egged on by his friends. I could see that Vin was readying himself for something. This wasn’t going to be pleasant.
I vaguely thought about attacking Vin at this point whilst his attention was diverted, but I again decided against it.
“You've really got to hand it to Australians…” Vin called out to the drunks.
Vin didn’t bother to finish his sentence and we never got to find out what exactly he was handing to Australians. Without missing a beat, a mana thread erupted from his already outstretched hand and smashed into the security camera on the roof. I could see the mana thread but all the drunks would have seen was the camera suddenly implode in on itself without any obvious cause.
Each drunk reacted in a different way. The leader appeared to find this funny and notably snickered as if this were the funniest thing in the world. Both of his offsiders however went noticeably white.
One of them looked like he was on the verge of running. He was obviously the smartest of the lot or he was simply the most sober. With another wave of Vin’s hand, the second and last camera in the carriage shattered and a third swipe smashed the window directly behind the drunks, showering them with glass. I quickly activated a shield around myself anticipating an attack, but one never came. Vin glanced back to see what I’d done but kept his attention firmly focused on the drunks.
I scooted over the back of the seat into the entry way of the carriage near one of the doors.
“I asked nicely,” Vin repeated. “So, you leave – that's the way it works… isn’t it?”
Two of the drunks made a quick dash for the doorway behind them, pulling their spokesperson along with them. The leader appeared to finally get the idea, as his eyes were as wide as saucers as he was dragged away.
To his credit, he didn’t appear to be struggling that much.
“Well, we appear to be alone now,” Vin observed as he swung around gracefully to face me. The mana threads were still looped around his hands.
“You've made your point,” I murmured sullenly.
“No, I don't think I have,” he contradicted.
“I don't believe that you're a student,” he continued. “In fact, I think if I provoke you enough the truth will come out.”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” I snapped, playing for time waiting for the next train station to come up. I had decided to make a run for it at the next station. Worst comes to worst, I could throw myself out the doors and into the relative safety of the station. Hopefully the station would be busy or something as surely Vin wouldn't continue his attack on a crowded train station platform. Well, probably not anyway.
I anticipated the attack when it came. I had noticed before that he had struck at the drunks before he'd finished speaking. So it came as no great surprise when the thread uncurled itself from around his fists and lashed in my direction.
I let the shield take the impact and winced as it noticeably buckled. It wouldn't be a wise idea to do that again.
“After all,” Vin snarled, “out of Renee and myself – I was always the stronger.”
I wasn’t going to give him a chance to strike again, and with a sharp intake of breath I struck with everything I had. It was a good solid mana thread and it lashed out from my hand with pin-point accuracy at its target.