Magi Odyssey Page 3

  But that would all be later on. Amanda rose from her bed and pulled on the rest of her robes. Her room, much like the rooms of the many other monks in this temple, was sparse, with few personal items and nothing of luxury in here at all. The monks lived a frugal life, only taking what they needed to live each day.

  Founded and run by Magi, the temple had some similarities to other temples and monasteries in Tibet, but it was also quite different and unique. The main feature that Amanda loved about living here, though, was that she felt separated from the world of the Magi.

  If she really were to live through to the modern day, then she knew she would need to limit her impact on the world around her.

  She might be reasonably powerful now, but in years to come, she would only ever grow in Magical skill and rank. So, what if a Master level Nomad took a disliking to her and then went after her younger self back in the modern day when she wouldn’t be able to defend herself?

  Thinking about these things made her head hurt, though, as she knew her own past, she knew what she had experienced, and the idea that her action now could affect her history, which was actually in the future, was mind-boggling.

  The best thing, she thought, was to keep to herself. At least, for now.

  That being said, she’d been taught some history growing up, and although she never really enjoyed the subject, there were people she’d heard of, people who were legends in the modern day that she would love to meet first hand.

  Keeping to herself these past few years was something she needed to do, but she didn’t really want to stay here for a thousand years. That would be mind-numbingly boring.

  She’d find a way of travelling and seeing the world without engaging in the Magi community too much. She doubted she’d be able to avoid them entirely, but if she could keep her impact on the Magi world low, that would probably be beneficial.

  All in good time, though. For now, she had some training to do. Amanda left her room and made her way outside, enjoying the crisp, clean air of the mountains. Monks in robes walked back and forth, going about their business. Those she caught the eye of greeted her briefly before passing her by as she made her way through the grounds to her usual practice area.

  Perched on the side of the mountain, the whole structure was on many different levels with steps leading up and down throughout the complex. There were no handrails here, and some of the many courtyards and ledges ended in sheer drops that could be lethal to the unwary.

  There was a large open courtyard towards the bottom of the temple close to the main gates, where most of the other practitioners of the art would go to run-through their training, either alone or in groups.

  Pan Mei waited for her in her usual spot with another, younger monk, standing close by.

  When she had first met Pan Mei, she had been in her thirties. She wasn’t a Magus, though, and as the years had passed, she had aged a lot. Seeing her teacher grow old like that was alarming, but served to only reinforce the idea in Amanda’s head that she would be around for a good long while yet.

  Some Magi aged at the same rate as any normal human, and some were fully immortal it seemed, but the largest group were long-lived, although not really ageless. They aged slowly and gradually, living for hundreds of years or longer, and Amanda had already known of Magi that fitted into each of these groups. Her own mentor, for example, Gentle Water, was not long lived at all and aged as a typical human would.

  These days, Pan Mei didn’t teach Amanda by example anymore. Instead, she observed and commented, and used Amanda as someone who could be used to fight younger, less experienced monks in order to teach them.

  When Amanda had arrived at the temple, she had already been a skilled fighter, but Pan Mei had taken her beyond what she had already learnt and pushed her harder than ever before.

  These days, it wasn’t really about learning new skills. Instead, it was more about refining what she had already learnt, perfecting the moves. Every time she thought she’d finally mastered it, Pan seemed to notice and pick one or more things out that she could work on.

  Pan had told her that you never really mastered an art such as this, not really. However, the comments were much less frequent now than they were in years gone by.

  ‘Good morning to you,’ Amanda said, speaking in Tibetan.

  Pan bowed, and Amanda did the same. ‘Good morning, Amanda,’ she said, stepping up to her and leaving the other pupil a short distance behind. ‘I trust you slept well?’

  ‘I did, thank you,’ she said. As well as can be expected, though, given the hard bed, she thought. She was used to it now, but she hardly ever just laid in bed. She could have just conjured a mattress, it would have been easy to do, but that would have defeated the purpose of what she was doing here. ‘Am I training with Tenzin again today?’ she asked, glancing up at the young man behind Pan.

  Pan nodded. ‘You are. Come, join us,’ she said and led Amanda over.

  She’d been used as a surrogate for Pan, given her age, for a while now, and enjoyed training these younger monks. She’d sparred with Tenzin plenty of times already, and waited while Pan spoke with Tenzin, giving him instructions and telling him what he needed to do. Eventually, they faced off and started to spar, with Pan stopping the action every so often to offer advice to Tenzin. They practised moves, kicks, and blocks, with Amanda alternately playing the attacker or defender, depending on what Pan was trying to teach to Tenzin.

  This went on for a while, until later that morning when Amanda noticed that Master Hau Cheng was standing nearby under a tree, watching them. He smiled at her when he saw that Amanda had seen him. A little while later, Pan stopped the training and thanked Tenzin, giving him some things to practice before the next session.

  Amanda said goodbye to Tenzin as he left before Hau walked over to them both.

  ‘Impressive,’ Hau said. ‘You have come a long way since you first arrived here. You are surely one of our best students,’ Hau said.

  ‘Thank you, Master,’ Amanda said, feeling a little embarrassed by his compliments. It wasn’t often that Hau said things like this.

  ‘I agree, you are the best student I have ever trained,’ Pan said. ‘You should be very proud.’

  ‘Amanda smiled. ‘I’m humbled that you think of me so highly.’

  ‘As you know, when a student reaches a level of achievement, we bestow upon them a new name, a temple name, and it is time for yours,’ Hau said.

  ‘Thank you, Master,’ Amanda said.

  ‘It is with great pleasure that I name you, Graceful Phoenix,’ Hau said.

  Amanda smiled and bowed low, feeling thrilled that they would honour her with such a name.

  Halfway through the bow, she suddenly hesitated, before slowly returning to standing fully upright as the realisation of what this meant dawned on her.

  She remembered Gentle Water telling her the name of his mentor way back when he was training her in the Irish countryside. He’d called his mentor, Graceful Phoenix.

  Did that mean that she had trained him? Was she her own mentor’s mentor? The coincidence was too high for it not to be the case. She knew that each of these names was usually unique to the person who had been given the name, or, at least, only used on one living person at a time.

  Once again, this time travel thing boggled her mind as the meaning of her being called this washed over her.

  ‘Are you alright, Amanda,’ Hau asked.

  She realised she was probably looking somewhat shocked, and quickly brought her face under control and smiled at Hau. ‘Yes, yes, everything’s alright,’ she said with a smile. ‘I am honoured that you have given me this name, thank you, and I gratefully accept it.’

  The two monks smiled and bowed to her, apparently happy with this answer.

  ***

  Amanda walked along the deserted mountain path, holding her robe tight to her body to help ward off the cold. She could banish it entirely with a thought, but sometimes she needed to feel that biting air as it whipped about her.

  So, she was Graceful Phoenix. She was Gentle Water’s mentor. She smiled to herself. It meant that Gentle Water knew her history, knew her past. He’d probably been sent to find and train her, knowing that he would, in fact, be teaching himself for all intents and purposes.

  She wondered who else knew. Who else was aware that her younger self would one day travel back in time? Did Gentle Water know? Did Royston? Raven? Israel? Maria? Maybe Trevelyan, too?

  She smiled to herself as she looked out over the vista before her, soaking up the view and laughing at the friendly deception of her friends.

  So, she would be Gentle Waters’ mentor, she thought. Crazy.

  ‘Probably,’ said a voice behind her.

  Everything had gone silent all of a sudden. The bushes had stopped moving. A bird in the sky hung there motionless, and powerful Temporal Magic filled the air around her. She turned to face the voice, knowing what she would see, and sure enough, there it was. The Weaver hung in the air, its black body a hole in reality while the under-lit humanoid face gazed out from the void.

  ‘Weaver,’ Amanda said.

  ‘You potentially could live through back to the modern day, but your destiny is not set, your path not predetermined. You still can die,’ said the deep, strange voice of the Weaver.

  ‘You don’t want to make life too easy, do you?’ Amanda said.

  ‘I won’t intervene to save your life should you put yourself in that situation,’ the Weaver said.

  ‘But... won’t that cause a paradox?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘The time stream is a complex thing, and such a discrepancy would not necessarily mean the end of all things,’ the Weaver answered her, as enigmatically as ever.

  Amanda smiled at the non-answer that the e
ntity had given her. She got the feeling he, if such a being could even have a gender, wanted to say more, but couldn’t, for some reason. She chose not to pursue it and merely nodded back to the powerful being before her. She didn’t really know what to believe, but the gist of it was clear. It was a warning that although she might not grow old, she could still be killed, she could still die before the modern age.

  ‘I understand,’ Amanda said.

  The Weaver twisted its mouth up in a slight smile before it appeared to collapse in on itself, shrinking to a pinprick of black light before winking out of existence at the same moment that time restarted.

  The bird flew past behind her, calling out over the peaks of the mountains.

  The Weaver had given her only the information that she needed, and nothing else, and she felt as certain as she could be that it would never give her more information than she needed.

  He, she, it, whatever it was, at least seemed to be on her side, so that was something.

  Stepping off the path, Amanda walked up to the cliff edge and looked back down to the complex of buildings below her, the temple’s red rooftops standing out in sharp relief against the rocky backdrop. She’d spent nearly thirty years here, and as she took in the view below her, she wondered if her time here was nearing its end. She felt much more confident in herself now, much more settled in this era, and ready to explore the world around her.

  There was so much to see, so much to do, and so many people to meet. She’d loved her time here with the Monks of the Red Temple, learning more about the Art of the Phoenix, but there were other people she could learn from as well.

  She liked the idea of travelling around, finding masters of other fighting styles and learning from them, adding their knowledge to her own and getting a more rounded knowledge of martial arts. She’d always loved learning the art of self-defence. She enjoyed the exercise and the feeling of empowerment it gave her. Plus, she could find Riven masters and avoid the Magi. It would give her something to focus on as she continued to live through the centuries.

  Not today, though. Today, she would enjoy the mountains.

  989AD- Japan

  The wind caught the pink blossoms of the nearby tree, making them flutter down past her, to the floor of the well-kept courtyard. She watched as her latest mentor, Izumi Kimura, a Japanese swordswoman, stepped out onto the grass with her, looking at her from beneath her long black hair, holding her sheathed katana in her hand.

  Since her time in the Red Temple, Amanda had travelled widely through China, Thailand, and Mongolia, finding masters of the various fighting styles of the east and learning from them.

  ‘Are you just going to stand there, daydreaming, westerner?’ Izumi asked as she drew her blade in one smooth motion.

  Amanda looked back at her teacher and eased her own sword from its scabbard before standing en-guard.

  ‘Today is the day I best you, Izumi,’ Amanda said with a smile. Izumi was a Riven with no knowledge of Magic, so Amanda didn’t use hers during her training. That would be cheating, but it also meant that she was on more of an even footing with her teachers, and they would often beat her during her early lessons.

  But failure and defeat were a part of learning.

  Amanda rushed in, swinging her sword.

  The Apprentice

  1142AD

  Amanda swept the last of the dust out through the back door of the house before closing it against the cool air and turning to look at her work.

  She smiled to herself and shook her head in slight exasperation. The things she did in the pursuit of learning all she could about the fighting styles of the world. She wondered what would happen when she found her next teacher after this one.

  Seconds after putting the broom down, the front door to the house opened and her current teacher, Eric Paget, walked in, trailing more mud and dirt in from the outside. Amanda shook her head again and rolled her eyes, planting her hands on her hips. Eric spotted her and looked down at the mess he’d brought in with him.

  ‘Oh, sorry. Had you just swept up? Good girl.’

  Amanda gritted her teeth slightly but made little outward show of her dislike of his sexist attitude. She often had to remind herself that she wasn’t living in modern cosmopolitan New York anymore and behaviour like this was a lot more common, and in many places, accepted.

  She wouldn’t roll over and do whatever a tutor wanted, though, as there were always others out there who could teach her just as well. Eric had started off being a little too familiar with her when she first started learning with him, but Amanda quickly put an end to that, making sure he knew she just wasn’t interested in him in that way. She was here because Eric was one of the most skilled fighters she’d seen in France so far. He was someone she wanted to learn from, but that meant she would need to put up with his misogynistic view of women. Frankly, she was surprised he had agreed to teach her at all given her gender, and yet, he had, and she was happy to put up with his comments and views for the time being.

  Of course, he’d put her straight to work when he wasn’t teaching her. Cooking, cleaning, and general housekeeping. But she didn’t mind too much; it would only be until she’d learnt what she needed from him, and then she’d disappear.

  ‘That’s alright, I’ll clean that up,’ she said, walking over and taking his coat.

  ‘Thank you, what would I do without you, hey?’

  ‘I do not know,’ she said, although the thought that he would end up living in a complete mess passed through her mind. She placed the coat in its usual spot and grabbed the broom again. It was the work of two minutes as Eric moved to the table and unrolled a few sheets of parchment and looked over them.

  ‘Raynaud has struck again,’ he said.

  ‘Oh, really?’ Amanda said. ‘Where this time?’

  ‘Two villages over to the east. He killed a few people there, him and his apprentice,’ he said.

  ‘Damn,’ Amanda cursed. ‘We really need to find out where he is,’ she said.

  Eric smiled at her. ‘Well, I think I know,’ he said.

  ‘You do?’ she asked.

  ‘I got some information back from a Coven north of here that they heard of some disappearances in a forest not too far from them. I did some digging and there used to be a family that lived there, but they’ve not been heard of for a while. Looking at the map of attacks and encounters with Raynaud, it’s fairly central, so I think I might be onto something. It’s the best lead I’ve had so far anyway,’ he said.

  ‘Sounds good,’ Amanda said. ‘So, are we going to head up there and have a look?’

  ‘Are you sure you’re up to it? This is going to be dangerous. No place for a woman.’

  Inside, unseen or heard by Eric, she screamed in frustration at his comment. She wanted to slap him, and yet, she wouldn’t. He was still teaching her, and until she’d learnt all she could from him, she would put up with his ignorance.

  ‘I’m sure. Besides, Raynaud has an apprentice we’ve not seen yet, so, you might need some backup.’

  Eric nodded thoughtfully. ‘Well, yes, you’re right, he does. I think she’s an adept, too, like you,’ he said.

  Amanda nodded. If only he knew how powerful she really was, she thought to herself. ‘That fits with what I’ve heard, too.’

  ‘Alright, that’s settled then. Get your things and we’ll head out.’

  Amanda nodded with a smile and moved to find another layer of clothing before making herself ready. She wasn’t wearing the most practical of outfits, with her long skirts down to her ankles, but she knew that Eric preferred her like this and nearly didn’t take her on as an apprentice when they’d first met because she’d been wearing trousers rather than skirts.

  She hoped she wouldn’t be doing too much fighting in this, she thought to herself.

  ‘Don’t forget your Aegis, will you?’ he said.

  ‘Of course not,’ Amanda said, having deliberately waited for him to notice that it wasn’t active and ask her to put it in place. She pulled on the local threads of Essentia as gently as she could, hiding her full power and ability from Eric’s keen Magical senses. It was all a mask, a way of keeping a low profile when she did meet Magi, and she had grown to be quite good at it.