War Magi Page 4

  “Void’s here. She wants to see you,” he said. “Anyway, catch you later.” And with that, he turned and walked out of the cottage with a smile.

  Jinx watched him go and then turned to smile back at Amanda.

  “Is he okay?” Amanda asked.

  “He is physically fine, but his elevated heart rate suggests he might have been a little flustered by the topic of conversation.”

  Amanda nodded. “I noticed. Alright, tell Void I’ll be out in a moment, I just need to freshen up.”

  “I shall relay the message,” Jinx answered.

  “Thanks,” Amanda said as Jinx turned and walked out of the cottage, leaving Amanda to consider what she’d just seen in Matt. She’d spent a lot of time with him before the dragon attack on New York. Mainly online in the Magi VR realm known as the Hypernet while they had been dealing with some issues in there. She’d worn her red dress fairly often while she’d been online in that virtual reality space as a homage the woman in the red dress from the Matrix.

  She loved those films.

  She’d caught admiring glances from Matt a few times in the past and thought nothing of it, but this was the first time he’d gotten a little flustered over it. Maybe it was just seeing her in the red dress outside of the Hypernet, or perhaps it was something more?

  Did he like her? And, not just like, but was he attracted to her? She shrugged to herself as she walked out of the living space and into the bathroom before disrobing and getting in the shower.

  The warm water running through her hair and hammering on her shoulders was heaven for the few minutes she allowed herself to enjoy it before quickly washing and getting out.

  She could do this all very quickly with Magic, and sometimes she did, but whenever possible, there was something kind of meditative about going through the ritual and doing it the normal way.

  A few minutes later, she was dressed in her usual white and grey bodysuit and boots and walking out her front door with her bright red hair still a little wet. She tied it up in a ponytail as she walked outside, quickly spotting Void a short distance away. She smiled as she approached the powerful Magus.

  “Morning,” Amanda greeted her brightly.

  “Greetings, Amanda. You are well, I take it?”

  “Very well, yes. Feeling grateful that I have such close, supportive friends,” she replied.

  Void appeared as she usually did, as a nude human female that seemed to be made entirely out of soft chrome, giving her a mirror-like appearance that reflected everything around her, such as the green grass she stood on and Amanda herself. Void’s eyes glowed blue as she looked at Amanda, her long hair flowing out behind her as if it were under water.

  “Indeed,” Void replied.

  “Is this a social visit?” Amanda asked.

  The chrome woman smiled. “You’ve travelled beyond the universe again, I see,” Void stated.

  “I do that most days,” Amanda smiled.

  Void gave her a look that asked her to be serious for a little while, so Amanda nodded, letting the smile fade from her face.

  “I have, yes. I was pulled back into BOB’s Bar again. My second visit to that little anomaly. Met some interesting people again.”

  “Mmmm,” Void answered, looking out over the view before them. They were standing about fifteen meters from the cottage, still a good way up the hill that gave them a sweeping view of the rolling landscape of hills that was Amanda’s private realm. “I’m not sure what BOB’s playing at, but you seem unhurt from the experience.”

  Amanda shrugged. “As long as he stays out there somewhere, I don’t see it as an issue.”

  “I guess not. Thanks again for helping me with the Reaver problem, by the way. They were becoming somewhat troublesome.”

  “No problem. It’s been fun getting to visit these other universes and to make some new friends.”

  “Good. I am glad you are finding it useful.”

  “This is not why you stopped by, though, is it?” Amanda asked.

  “No. I’ve been watching you and your development as a Magus, so, I just wanted to congratulate you on your new understanding. That was some impressive work at the Ignion System.”

  Amanda smiled. “I thought that might be why you stopped by.”

  “I am impressed.”

  “Well, it was your teaching that did it,” Amanda explained. “I just remembered your words, and something just kind of fell into place. All of a sudden, it was obvious to me.”

  Void nodded. “That’s usually how it happens. You reach that new level of understanding, and what had seemed so alien before, suddenly becomes obvious and natural.”

  “And you wonder why you just didn’t get it before.”

  “That’s right. But still, the speed at which you’re picking all this up is impressive.”

  Amanda shrugged. “Magic has always felt natural to me. I don’t feel like I’m picking it up very quickly; it just feels like a natural progression.”

  “Everyone has a different normal,” Void suggested.

  “I suppose so…”

  “We talked before about what I call the Quantum Point. The way everything is connected and how distance is something of an illusion,” Void said.

  “You’re talking about the fourth dimension,” Amanda stated.

  “That’s part of it. Look here,” Void said, and raised her hand. In her palm, a geometric shape made from a series of lines and vertices faded into view. Void had shown this to Amanda before. It was a tesseract, but it looked different to how she’d seen it before. Now, with her new understanding, it didn’t look like a strangely warped cube within a cube with linking diagonal lines. Now all the lines were at right angles, and yet the sides were connected, something that was impossible in three dimensions, and yet, she could see it.

  “Wow, yes I see it. It looks different.”

  “You’re seeing beyond, Amanda. You’re beginning to understand more about our universe, and the dimensions beyond the three the Riven know so well.” Void lowered her hand, letting the hypercube fade from view.

  “Awesome, so, what does this mean?”

  “Well, for one thing, it likely means you can Port much further now, and if you use this Quantum Realm to effectively drop out of your universe entirely, I suspect you will be able to Port distances you wouldn’t think possible.”

  “I shall have to give that a try,” Amanda commented.

  “Indeed, but remember, there is always more to learn, and there is always someone out there more powerful than you.”

  “Yeah, I’ve come to that realisation as well.”

  Void smiled. “I shall take my leave now, but I will be around should you need me.”

  “Thanks,” Amanda replied gratefully as she watched Void’s body almost fold in on itself, transforming into a mirror-like fractal before disappearing entirely.

  With Void gone, Amanda remained where she was, looking out over the landscape of her realm and watching as one of the three Void Dragons from Sol Prime soared lazily through the sky before diving towards the mountains.

  It was peaceful here. Quiet and relaxing. It was somewhere that was truly hers, and a place she could come to escape the politics and fighting that seemed to fill the other areas of her life.

  Speaking with Gentle Water and Maria about her concern’s regarding the Nexus, and her impact on it, had been a nice release, but her worries were not banished. She was still concerned for the Nexus, and its future.

  She still wondered if she’d done the right thing, coming out here to chase the Archons and trying to unite the Nexus against them.

  But the Archons seemed to be nowhere in sight. They’d left the Earth behind and disappeared into the void. She wondered if the Magi of the Nexus were right? Maybe the Crux really were no threat to the Nexus. The Nexus had beaten them once before, so maybe they’d fight them off again? Maybe her coming out here and leading the Terran group as it joined the Nexus was not needed. The Nexus might have been a bickering collection of aristocratic families, with some simmering dislike of each other, but maybe they would have joined together to fight the Crux and Archons if and when they came calling.

  Instead, she’d come out here, and along with Trevelyan, insisted on joining the Nexus in an effort to unite the group further and convince them of the validity of their claims about the Archons and Crux. But in the process of doing that, the Nexus was now fighting amongst itself even more.

  Had she handled this wrong? Maybe they should have waited for the first Crux attack, and then thrown the weight of the Earth’s Magi behind the Nexus.

  Amanda sighed and closed her eyes. The truth was, she didn’t know if she’d done the right thing. She felt fairly sure that all her friends would say she had, but there was likely some confirmation bias going on there.

  Of course, her friends would support her; they were her friends, after all. But things had progressed way beyond all that now. Outright battles had now been fought with people dying for one side or the other. There was no going back and trying to change it, and who’s to say that making such a change wouldn’t make things worse, anyway?

  Amanda thought back to one of the stranger events of her life that happened a couple of years ago when the Weaver took her back in time.

  As if super-luminal travel and multiverse theory wasn’t enough to give her a headache, there was also the thorny issues of time travel.

  All Magi, through use of their Magic, were capable of manipulating time, and many routinely did in a few different ways that didn’t cause any problems. Magi could speed up for slow down time for themselves for short periods, such as making themselves faster during a fight, so everyone around them was moving slower, allowing them to dodge more effectively. Jumping forward in time was also not generally an issue, and there were Magi who apparently had done just that. But these manipulations of the time stream didn’t cause a paradox.

  No, the one use that most Magi generally avoided at all costs was going back in time. You could change the present and cause all kinds of issues. But it wasn’t just the potential for a paradox that stopped Magi from travelling back; it was also the existence of the Weaver.

  Amanda wasn’t sure of who or what the Weaver was exactly, but his purpose was well known amongst Magi, especially Nomads who the Weaver seemed to have less tolerance for.

  The Weaver was the guardian of the timeline, and if any Magi abused their power to change the timeline, the Weaver would often turn up to stop them before it happened, or if that Magus was unrepentant, kill them or remove them from the timeline entirely so they had never existed, or so the rumours went.

  Amanda’s own experience with the Weaver was a little strange and seemed to be unique to her. The Weaver also seemed to be close to her mother, the Aeon Sophia, but she was unsure of the significance of that.

  But two years ago, the Weaver had appeared to her and transported her back in time to the year 750AD to help him foil the plans of the Inquisition, who were attempting to stop her father from a mission the Weaver had sent him on.

  The mission had been successful, but the Weaver had then left Amanda there and forbidden her from travelling forward in time to return home.

  At first, she’d wondered if it had been a death sentence, but in fact, looking back at it now, Amanda wondered if it had been a part of a larger plan, perhaps between Sophia and the Weaver to make her more powerful.

  Amanda was effectively immortal, or very long-lived, like most Magi, and survived through the centuries until she eventually returned to the modern day a much more powerful Magi because of the time she’d had to learn and develop her Magical skill.

  This, of course, led to the confusing situation of Amanda having been born about two decades ago, but also having lived for over a thousand years.

  She didn’t get into this much with people. It wasn’t important and was usually just too confusing to explain. But having had this personal experience of time travel, the idea of going back and changing things given recent events did occur to her, but she also knew that this was almost certainly not a good idea. The Weaver might have been friendly to her so far, but she doubted it would put up with her using her abilities to abuse the timeline in such a way.

  No, at this late juncture, there was only one thing for her to do, and that was to keep going and push forward. She knew what she wanted to achieve, and she would do her best to make it happen.

  The night is always darkest just before the dawn, she thought, remembering a quote from The Dark Knight.

  Maybe Batman had a point, she thought with a laugh.

  ~Amanda?~

  ~Trevelyan,~ Amanda greeted her friend, replying through the Mental Link.

  ~We’re about to begin the first official meeting of the Terran Foundation. I’d like to have you here for it,~ he said.

  Amanda smiled. ~Of course, I’ll be right there,~ Amanda answered, smiling to herself. Amanda focused on her desire to be at the Nexus Spire on Axia, the planet that orbited Proxima Centauri. Essentia surged and rushed through her to fulfil her wishes, punching back through into her universe from the Quantum Realm. She noted that Void did seem to be right as this travel into and out of the universe did seem slightly easier now. She guessed this was just another part of her new level of understanding, as Void had explained.

  She appeared in the clean, sparse offices of what had up until very recently been the Foundation Senate. Deep corruption and infiltration by the dynasties into the Senate had led to their recent downfall and the unification of the Terran Alliance and the Foundation to create the Terran Foundation. Amanda stood on the soft carpet just outside a large meeting room. She’d been here before. Elden’s office was a short distance away and there were plenty of meeting spaces around here, but Trevelyan had kindly sent along the location of the meeting through the Link he’d shared with her, allowing her to follow it and Port in as close as she just had.

  There were countless defences and Aegises in place around the Spire, all of which Amanda was able to bypass through the use of the Quantum Realm.

  The doors to the office were open, and Trevelyan stood just inside them. He smiled as he caught sight of her and walked over. “Amanda, glad you could make it.”

  Amanda pulled him in for a brief hug. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she answered.

  “Good, we’re about to start. Come, come in,” he said, and led her into the room.

  Amanda counted fifteen other people in here, most of whom she either knew or had seen during her time out here interacting with Elden and the Foundation.

  Of those she knew well was Trevelyan, the head of the Earth Magi Council, Ylena, Rane and Dasha Ormond, mother, with daughter and son respectively, who controlled the Sol Prime station and helped to protect Earth from the Nexus’ influence.

  There was also Astrid and Malax from the Wraiths and Kristi from the Arcanum. And finally, last but not least, there was Maya, Amanda’s own daughter. These people had all be a part of the Terran Alliance and were joined by representatives from the Foundation side of this union, including Elden Tempus, former Chair of the Foundation and Tira, who was a part of the Silent Order, or SO, the espionage agency of the Foundation.

  She didn’t know the other five members of the Foundation that were sitting in here, but she’d met them before, and they all seemed like nice enough people.

  She quickly greeted Rane, Maya, and Astrid with hugs and moved towards her seat as others did likewise.

  “Glad you could make it,” Elden said as he passed by.

  “My pleasure, it’s good to be here. This is a momentous day.”

  Everyone moved to sit, and Elden began the meeting, calling the room to order and greeting everyone.

  “Welcome, and thank you all for coming to this first, inaugural meeting of the Terran Foundation. I think we’ve agreed to call this group the Senate, correct?”

  There was a general murmur of agreement from the table.

  “Okay, good, that’s settled, then. I’d also like to bring a motion to the table that Trevelyan and I have discussed, and that is to invite our guest here, Amanda-Jane Page, to join the Senate.

  “Hmm?” Amanda asked, feeling a little surprised.

  “We’d like to formally offer you a position on this senate council,” Trevelyan explained.

  “Oh, well, that’s very kind of you, but honestly, it’s fine, I’m just happy to help out…”

  “Mother…” Maya said.

  “Mandy, you’re an integral part of this group,” Rane added.

  “After what you did in the Ignion System, I think it’s only right that you join us on this,” Astrid said.

  Amanda sat back and took a deep breath. She could see where this was going and knew that her friend would keep pushing for her to join.

  She had considered it, but her recent doubts about the effects she’d had on the Nexus had held her back from formerly standing. Now, though, it seemed like her friends were going to help her make that final choice.

  “Alright, fine, I’ll join, okay?” Amanda said, raising her hands to stop any further comments.

  “Thank you,” Elden said, smiling and inclining his head to her.

  Amanda gave him a thin smile and raised her eyebrows as if to tell him that she didn’t really seem to have much choice in the matter.

  “Now, with that small matter out of the way, I think we need to turn our attention to the next obvious hurdle. We need to announce this new alliance to the Nexus Council.”

  “This is not going to be well received,” Nadira Tempus said, voicing what probably everyone at the table knew to be true. “But protocol is clear on the matter, we need to bring this to the attention of the Council at the earliest opportunity.”

  “How poorly do think this might be received?” Amanda asked.

  “Based on previous actions like this, not very well at all,” Adryel Tempus answered her. She knew he was one of the older members of the Tempus Dynasty.

  “Do you think it might fracture the Nexus?” Amanda pressed.

  Everyone around the table looked at each other. Some were shrugging, and most didn’t seem to know for sure what would happen.