Authors: Andrew Ball
"He is," Rachel said. "Mundane history only records his non-magical dealings.
Unlike the emperor, Vlad shared his
knowledge with his allies. He was
eventually betrayed—transported to Hell.
Following his demise, his power base
fractured, and the dark arts exploded all
throughout Eastern Europe and the Ottoman
Empire. At its height, about a hundred years
after he was gone, a woman named Lady
Bathory had created a secret empire strong
enough to threaten the civilized world."
"But we’re not living under the reign of
Emperor Bathory now."
"The magicians of the time established a
second part to the pact made with the
demons, allowing them to summon them to
our world to fight back. A special prison
was built in the Hell, around the core of the
demon king’s seal, in order to hold Vlad,
along with the rest of the mages sentenced to
that punishment."
"At least I don’t need trips to the blood
bank." Daniel sipped his juice. "So we won
the war."
She nodded. "The knowledge spread too
fast to destroy every single scrap, so from
then on, anyone found practicing the
forbidden magic has been sentenced to
eternal imprisonment on the plane in which
the Hell is located. The demons use the
prison for many of their own, too. For them
it’s like a sick form of entertainment. It’s not
really something the head families talk about,
but Eleanor told me it’s like a zoo, now. An
insane asylum, a maximum security prison,
and a freakish sort of carnival all rolled into
one. It’s
the
fate worse than death.
Something horrifying enough to keep people
from even thinking about trying dark magic
ever again." She leaned back into her chair.
"So, that’s why you can’t fight anymore. If
you’re caught…"
"Thanks for telling me all that." He
looked at her. "I’ll cut back on nightly trips.
But when those domes fall, I’m not letting
you go out there alone."
Rachel smoothed her fingers over his
hand. Her skin was soft. "…are you alright?"
she asked.
"…Jack…" Daniel tried to keep it
together. From the worry in Rachel’s eyes,
he wasn’t sure if he was doing a good job.
"He murdered three women. My roommate,
Jack. It’s ridiculous. I don’t know what to
think about him."
Rachel took his hand in both hers. "I’ve
been a part of this world all my life," she
said. "If you want to talk about anything, I’m
here."
"I don’t have the words to tell you how
much that means to me." Daniel looked at the
table, then back at her. "Now I understand
why your relationship with Eleanor is so
complex. You’ve had responsibilities
beyond what I could appreciate."
"You didn’t know."
"What’s the Ivory Dawn, exactly?"
"The organization of magicians that
rules the United States."
"Do we seriously have a secret magic
aristocracy?"
"Something like that," she said.
"America’s our territory, where our law and
tradition is respected, but that only applies to
magicians. We have hidden connections in
the highest levels of mundane government. A
few important people are aware of us. We
have a non-interference treaty."
"Mundane government…meaning normal
people government?"
"Yes."
"What’s your role?"
"All magicians can trace their magical
lineage," Rachel said. "The Astors, and many of the world’s most powerful families, have
blood links back to the mage that created the
Hell. You saw Eleanor’s magic yourself. It’s
a variant of the original magic that
specializes in seals and binding
enchantments."
"Shit. I guess I got lucky."
"Yeah," Rachel said. "You did. Do you
see why I’m worried?"
"…I guess I do."
Rachel cleared her throat. "My family,
the Ashworths, are their main branch family.
We’ve served them for generations. I’m
Eleanor’s attendant, something like a
chambermaid, and her bodyguard. We
support them, and they protect us. The
President of the Dawn, Eleanor’s father, is
extremely influential in world affairs."
Daniel exhaled out his nose. "Jeeze. I
was joking around with the guy and I didn’t
even know it."
"That’s how it is."
"Let’s go back to my room," Daniel
said. "I want to sit there, and I want to hold
you until my arms fall off. Is that ok?"
"What about class?"
"What about it?"
"Guess I can skip a day. Since it’s the
end of the world and all."
"Speaking of, what’s the prognosis on
the whole world situation?" Daniel asked.
"The last report I heard," she said,
"about 545 million people have disappeared
worldwide."
"Holy shit," Daniel hissed.
"I know."
"What are we doing about this?"
"What is there to do?" Rachel asked.
"Fight better. Try harder. It’s all we can do."
"…why hasn’t everything collapsed?"
Daniel asked. "That’s what…seven percent
of the earth’s population? Forgotten?"
"The losses are concentrated in areas
without much magical organization. Africa.
Some parts of Asia. Islands." She looked
away. "We’ve prioritized big cities,
government and economic centers. So,
mostly, things have held together."
"The important people," Daniel said.
"Of course."
"It wasn’t my decision."
"Sorry. That wasn’t directed at you."
"…I know. I just…" She wiped at her
eyes. "…it feels so inevitable. Every day,
every night is the same thing. We haven’t
attacked. There’s nothing to attack. We just
defend, take a hit, and move on."
"At this rate, there won’t be anything
left."
"I know," she whispered. "We even
opened up the pact with demons again. The
Ivory Dawn hasn’t used them yet, but we’re
taking heavy casualties. It’s only a matter of
time." She gripped his hands. "If you can
hold out a while, you might become
valuable. They’ll want to use you. It’s not
much, but it’s better than getting sent to Hell.
No one comes back from there. Ever."
"So I have to lay low until things get so
bad they have no choice but to accept me,"
he muttered. "Three cheers for Daniel."
"You don’t have to sit around," Rachel
said. "I’ll help you practice."
"Good morning," came Eleanor’s voice.
She strode in with a plate of food. Her dress
and hair were as impeccable as ever. Daniel
saw her noble aura in a new light. She might
have been a stuck-up rich bitch, but she was
as much royalty as anything he’d ever known.
It made it a little easier to excuse her
behavior. A little.
"We were just leaving," Rachel said.
"Oh, don’t mind me then. I’ll read the
news." Eleanor plunked her plate down and
extracted her tablet computer from her bag.
"We have calculus in twenty minutes. Are
you up to something?"
"I’m skipping," Rachel said.
Eleanor looked at her for a moment. "I
understand." She turned to Daniel. "I heard from Rachel that you and your roommate had
an argument."
"…we did. Haven’t seen him since last
night, but I guess he has early class too. It
wasn’t that big of a deal."
"I see. I hope things work out."
Eleanor’s honest concern would take
some getting used to. He shut his eyes and
nodded. "Thanks."
Daniel and Rachel went back to his
room. Daniel put water on and made them
hot chocolate. They snuggled into his bed
with thick mugs and stayed there.
****
Over the next several days, Jack
officially went missing. Daniel didn’t have
to try hard to act distraught about it. The
police didn’t turn up anything. There was
nothing to turn up.
He was able to learn a single physical
sigil from Rachel. It was tricky. Normally,
mages concentrated their power through a
sigil almost as if the spell was a set of
memorized instructions, but Daniel didn’t do
that. He pushed his power around intuitively.
Rachel was baffled by how he did that. Still,
though Daniel’s magic was more Klide than
human, Xik had been able make a sigil, so he
should as well.
With practice, Daniel was able to make
rudimentary progress. By focusing his power
not on a part of his body, but directly under
his feet, he could create a sort of thick
platform of air to stand on. By creating them
one after another, he could make a pseudo-
staircase, walking into the sky. It didn’t look
anything like the crisp symbols and lines of
her golem spell; his were more like
indistinct, glowing orbs, almost as if he had
little jets on his shoes.
With a wall available where he wanted
it, his mobility increased exponentially. He
could run one way, create a platform, stop,
and bounce off in a new direction. The same
part of his enchantment that protected him
from friction worked to reduce the impact on
his body. He could even move in midair,
pushing off the sigil as often as he wanted.
The life of a living pinball was hectic, but
had a lot of potential.
She found it disconcerting how his
magic was always hidden from her senses.
She asked him about it a hundred times, but
despite his best efforts at explaining, she
wasn’t able to replicate the way he could
hide his presence. It was unique to the
contract magic.
At the same time, Daniel was magically
incontinent when it came to anything beyond
simple physical-boosting magic. Rachel
could actually speed and strengthen herself
without trouble. That was handy in a pinch,
but she preferred her golems for the fact she
didn’t have to put herself directly in harm’s
way.
Despite his limitations, Daniel gained
valuable insight into how magic worked.
Sigils were like programs that could be
controlled or modified. The magician formed
the sigil, which itself could be a challenge
depending on the spell, then pressed their
power into it. Physical enchantments, like
his, just used the magician’s body as the
sigil.
It was hard to stop himself from
shadowing Rachel out in the city. She was
never alone, though—she always worked
with Eleanor and other magicians in the
Ivory Dawn. He spent his sleepless nights
outside the city limits, perfecting his new
talent.
More than a month had passed since the
last time-pausing dome. It wouldn’t be long
until the Vorid struck again. Daniel spent all
the time he could with Rachel, trying to suck
in her essence. After Jack’s attack, it all
seemed as delicate as a snowflake.
They had a quiet Halloween. Jack had
been excited about it—he’d even had his
costume ready. Daniel couldn’t stomach the
idea of going to a party without him. He took
Rachel on a date and spent the evening with
her.
Eleanor was quiet about their closeness,
almost to the point of avoiding them
intentionally. Considering she had the
sensitivity of a potato, Daniel started to
suspect that he really had made a difference.
He wondered what she would think if she
knew he was a contractor.
****
The siege came a week into November,
just after midnight.
They were in Daniel’s room, watching a
movie on his computer. The sharp tear in
reality vibrated in his bones. They both
stiffened, exchanged a glance. Daniel
crawled out and rooted for the box of armor
under the bed.
"Danny, I thought we talked about this."
"I want to be ready. Just in case of an
emergency."
"…liar."
Daniel’s hand paused on his helmet. He
exhaled. "The last time it was off-schedule,
it was bad. This one took even longer. Just in
case, ok?"
Rachel sighed. "I have to get to Eleanor.
Don’t move around too much. You’re
supposed to be frozen with everything else."
He hugged her and gave her a kiss on the
forehead. "Be careful." Rachel hugged him
back, then dashed out of the room. Daniel
finished strapping on his armor, then laid on
the bed.
A second later, the curtain of grey
nothing hit the ground. His room was
enveloped in colorless silence. The movie
was frozen on the screen.
His scrying range had increased with his
powers, just as Xik had said all that time
ago. He could see the entire dorm quite
clearly. He observed the bright flecks that
were Rachel and Eleanor meet, then leave.
Other members of the Dawn followed at
their heels, the black suits that always trailed
Eleanor.
It was tough to scry further, but he could
feel the flashes of power all around the city.