A New Master by Jeremy Scherer
“What a day,” Thomas said as he collapsed onto the couch. “Tell me about it,”Jake breathed, exhausted as well. Just as Thomas opened his mouth, Jake added “I didn’t mean literally.” Thomas stopped for a second, then scowled. They both had been through hell in the last week, but somehow Jake still hadn’t lost his ability to get under Thomas’s skin. “Odd Jobs” is what their new master had called their tasks; mostly mundane chores which were made easier or more efficient with Magick. Their master employed mutes as well, to do the truly menial errands, but still these jobs had been far below their status. Thomas turned to his roommate still wearing his scowl. “Who does he think he is?” He was livid; in his years of apprenticeship the only time he’d been expected to do these kinds of things was when he had first awakened. Now, after nearly a decade, he was cleaning, washing, lifting, moving, and basically wasting his time again. “He is your master, and he has his reasons.” The voice came from nowhere, yet resonated through the room. Thomas’s eyes went wide. “I see a week of the basics has not helped you remember them all,” continued the voice. “Pity. I was rather hoping the next mission would have been a cooperative effort between my apprentices, however, since you obviously need more time refreshing yourself on not only respect but also basic privacy shields, Jake will be handling this alone.” Now both of the young men went pale. Thomas knew he was in for another week of near-physical-labor, and Jake had no idea what he was in for, just that it was supposed to be a two-man job. “Jacob, see me in my study.” The voice snapped off, not like an intercom, more like a sudden lack of presence. Jake turned to Thomas, quickly recovering and about to gloat, and saw Thomas’s head slump forward in despair. He decided that, maybe, this wound did not need salting. He stood instead, turning to the door Thomas had entered moments ago. “thelnali lanath, sum’ya’thinara shen ahames,” came Thomas’s voice from behind Jake. Jake only nodded; “Good luck, remember your training” was their cabals traditional parting when leaving for a mission, and it required no response.
The walk from their apartment to the master’s study wasn’t long, but it did afford time to think. He and Thomas had both been placed under the tutelage of their new master at the behest of their cabal’s leader; a Magi equivalent of foreignexchange, though neither knew what the exchange entailed save for moving from their established pecking order to a week’s worth of hell. They both specialized in Forces Magick, though Jake leaned toward the Electric spectrum while Thomas relied heavily on raw Fire. As Jake reached for the door handle, he wondered if that duality was the reason they were both here now, and why... “I wanted you both to be part of this job,” the door was already swinging open by the time his hand neared the knob. It was ancient, carved from wood that was likely older than his Codex, bearing a face that seemed to twist into a grin as it moved away from him. “But I can’t have someone that arrogant, or that absentminded, acting on my behalf. You’ve shown much more control in your work, Jacob, a steady, studied approach to the tasks you’ve been given. You should hope that’s been enough. Your task is on the desk, see to it.” Jake saw no one in the room, felt no presence, but saw the table, and the folder. He strode forward, retrieved the folder, and was nearly out the door before the words “Do not fail me” sounded from the back of the room. His foot faltered slightly, but his gait went uninterrupted. The door closed behind him as he exited, as he expected, and he continued to move to one of the empty rooms in the manor. “Infiltrate, retrieve tome, return,” Jake muttered to himself. The folder contained only these 4 words, the title of a book, and an address. He thought for a moment, re-read the address, and began walking back to the apartment, taking out his phone and looking up the location. Jake was studying the map and data by the time he opened the door to their rooms. He quickly went to his room and removed the case of inscriptions he kept on his shelf, selected a few he thought may come in hand and attuned them before putting his codex into its back-holster. He’d found this technique the most versatile for himself; the book was close enough to his body to allow undeterred energy flow, concealed from mutes, and quickly accessible if necessary. He took a cab to the address; it was close enough that he could have traveled via less mundane means, but he decided it would be smarter to save his
energy. Upon his arrival, he was glad he did; the building wasn’t a fortress, but it wasn’t far off. He decided that the smarter approach would be a service entrance, or a window, or basically anything other than the door with two guards and a security camera. As he walked toward the side of the building, he focused his Will and Spoke “sehimi” while motioning gracefully with a clawed hand. He felt an abrupt charge of energy from the book on his back and sensed himself fading into the surroundings, not technically invisible, but nothing, not even cameras, would notice his presence. He’d need to re-attune Crypsis again before he could use it, though. He found a back-entrance along with a keypad up a ramp from a dumpster. Checking briefly for cameras, he put his hand to the keypad and murmured “agtok,” feeling the power gently flow from his codex, through him, and into the panel. His camouflage faded and the door clicked open, a faint smell of fried circuitry coming from the hallway on the other side as the two cameras trained on the door experienced simultaneous technical difficulty. His years studying the spell allowed him to utilize the energy in a much more controlled fashion; he could feel the Electric Arc still ready in his Codex. He wasn’t sure how much time he had, but he was sure that any security members watching would recognize simultaneous access to the door and disruption of signal from the two cameras as “Suspicious,” so he quickly drew his Codex from its place against his back and pulled a spell he had very little experience with. He studied it carefully, and spoke clearly “hatomsa me-sa” while drawing a downward arc with his first two fingers extended. It was not the intention of the spell to be used as a locator, but his plan appeared to be working as the incantation twisted in his hand and the top of the spell pointed at a far wall. Caution was forfeit at this point, so Jake moved quickly, keeping his Codex in hand, attempting to navigate via the Augery spell in his hand. “I need to learn how to make it recognize hallways...” he thought as he backtracked for the second time. Soon he found the room he’d been looking for; he’d expected the book to be amongst other rare books, but he was glad to have brought a cheat device. There were hundreds of archaic tomes here, and without a guide he’d be searching for hours. Instead, he located his objective in seconds. He reached for the book but
stopped short, glancing at his surroundings briefly before looking up. “Wow, really?” he impulsively said out loud. Above him, like a prop from an old cartoon, hung a cage suspended by chains at each of its four corners. He glanced at the stand on which the volume lay and shook his head. “No way,” he was beyond the point of internal monologue. He replaced the consumed Augury spell, placed his Codex back into its holster, and visualized a small rock, roughly the weight he assumed the book was, then made a fist and muttered “this is some real Indiana Jones shit... padez.” As the rock materialized, he pulled the book off the pedestal and let the stone replace it, noting the small square of stone that ever-so-slightly moved up in the transition. He hoped that he wouldn’t need that Pillar in the next few minutes. He stepped quickly back, but the cage just hung. Part of him really wanted to Mage Hand Fling the stone and see if the cage dropped, but he’d wasted enough time. The book went into the backpack, Jake turned to leave, and the security guard yelled “Freeze!” Jake turned slowly to see the guard holding a pistol and standing with a wide-legged stance. “What?” called out Jake, much louder than necessary. The guard’s eyes, previously drawn tight with concentration and seriousness, opened slightly at the question. He’d had people bolt and run, dive to the ground, and even turn and open fire, but no one ever misheard “Freeze.” “Don’t move!” The guard’s hands laxed for a second as he adjusted his grip on the gun. By this time, Jake had a perfect view of the slide and chamber of the weapon. “Oh, I thought you said giteka.” The power surged from the codex, through Jake’s outreached hand as it arced down, and through the air, turning the pistol into a solid chunk of ice. Jake now did what the guard originally expected and began to run, while the guard did what Jake expected and dropped the freezing piece of iron to the ground. This time the front door was actually the smartest route; the display room he had come from was very close to the entrance, but he was sure it wouldn’t be as easy as coming in was. He focused down hard and called out “yegtu,” quickly drawing the downward-triangle of a defense. He knew that his codex could stop bullets, but assuming the book he had liberated was Magickal, it might be guarded by something requiring a Force Field.
He rounded the corner toward the dual doors of the entryway and was greeted with... nothing. The guards which had been there were now gone, and the way was clear. Jake, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, bolted for the door. Then he saw the guard, barricaded behind a desk, drawing a bead on him. He realized the door was a trap; it would be locked from both sides, and he was suddenly glad he hadn’t wasted the spell on the rock. “Aygatag!” The glass shattered as he ran through it, his hand briefly touching the glass with it’s upraised finger before it had a chance to begin falling. Anyone watching would have seen a man dive through the glass, shattering it with his body, and yelling out in pain. They’d then be surprised to see the man keep on running, as if the glass didn’t exist. The shots they’d hear following after him would be enough to convince them that there were interesting things to be seen elsewhere as well. Jake made it a few blocks away without incident, then Spoke “shrigi” and felt himself leave the concrete. The spell required a bit more focus, and he thought back to the first time he’d flown. Well, at least the first time in this awakening. The lights below him stretched away now as they had then, and the same rapid breeze began pushing his hair back as he accelerated. He appreciated the night for the cover it offered for Mage Flight, and was home in minutes as the Magi flies. The door to the study opened for him again, the door knobs grin welcoming him in. “Back so soon, Jacob? I sensed the book as soon as you landed. Have you read it?” This was the first time Jake had been asked to speak to his new master, and he wasn’t completely prepared for it. “No, sir. I brought it here as soon as I recovered it. Master.” He added the last after a moment’s pause. “Then you do still have some learning to do; never pass an opportunity to learn, Jacob. You received no explicit instruction NOT to read the contents of the book. Take it. I expected Thomas to demand to read it, you both to realize what it contained, and then to fight to the death over it; I guess this saves me an apprentice. Go now, study.” Jake felt his feet turn and his body exit the room on their own volition, the same as just hours ago. He was still entirely in his own power, but not in really present. “He intended for us to try to kill each other? What could be in the book that is so powerful, so important...” He opened the cover of “The Gathering of
Pieces” to discover the true title of the work, “The Collected Findings of the Fathers of Physics.” The first page was a description of an incantation Jake had never heard of, a modification of a Flame Form that allowed the user to be utterly untargetable. The next several pages focused heavily on Heat and Fire, but the second chapter dug in deep on Electric tactics. He was no longer surprised it was worth killing for, but now wondered why his master had allowed him to keep it. “This will be a very interesting apprenticeship indeed,” he thought as he paged through the book, looking for a place to settle in private and soak up this newfound power.