Urban Legend - EBOOK

Old Times
New York

“Atticus Argent, a fully paid-up member of the Arcadians, working directly for the Council,” Silvana said as she dropped into the soft embrace of my New York apartment’s sofa and crossed her legs. “Never thought I’d see the day that you fully sell out.”
“Piss off,” I replied good-naturedly. She was verbally prodding me with her comments, trying to get a rise out of me for shits and giggles. Typical Silvana.
“Oooh, he bites back,” she answered, her voice taking on a sing-song quality as she flicked her platinum blonde hair away from her face. “Glad to see you’ve not lost your edge.”
I gave her a look that was hopefully somewhat incredulous and then rolled my eyes. “You know all this already. You came to Enceladus with me.”
“I know, but it’s just too much fun, and you’re so easy to bait. Besides, you love it, really.”
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“Oh? But you enjoy working for the Arcadians, though, right?”
She had me there, and she knew it. I’d mentioned before to her that I was enjoying myself working with them and their Arcanum organization. It was nothing like the last time I was taken into the Arcadian’s so-called caring arms and kept under what amounted to house arrest in DC. No, this time, I had much more freedom, and it was like I was some kind of freelance operator or investigator for them, and frankly, that suited me just fine. The grifting game had long since lost its shine for me, and I found making deals with the Nomads increasingly distasteful, to the point that I was basically out of the game, apart from the occasional black market deal, as favours for friends.
And then that last deal went bad, and I was once more marched before the Magi Council to be sentenced. At least Victoria had been there to pull me from the fire at the last moment. Things could have been much worse for me, and as it turned out, I seemed to have some skill when it came to these missions for the Council.
So yeah, Silvana was right, I actually did enjoy working for them, and I didn’t really see any reason to be embarrassed about that, unlike Silvana.
“Actually, I do, yeah. It’s been… fun, I guess.”
“I’m not sure Malik would approve,” Silvana said, plucking a lock of hair from where it hung beside her face and twirling it between her fingers. She didn’t look at me as she made her comment. She was on thin ice with those words, and she knew it.
“And you think he’d approve of you joining up with the Nomads, do you?” I asked, hitting that same ice with a club.
“Hmm,” she grumbled. Malik might not have been a fan of the Arcadians, be he wasn’t a supporter of the Nomads, either, preferring to forge his own path.
“He’s dead anyway,” I mused, “or gone insane without his Magic in some Arcadian cell somewhere.” It wasn’t a fate that I liked to think about, but working with the Arcadians these last few months did make me question my opinions about what had happened to him. Malik might not have actually taken sides, but he certainly did more deals with independents and Nomads, than with Arcadians. So it wasn’t a surprise that they might take a disliking to that. I’d followed a similar path in recent years and had fallen foul of the same issues.
Over the last few weeks, in the fight against the Nomads, I’d come to realise there really wasn’t any room for half measures. The Nomads had to be stamped out without mercy, and anyone who supported them had to be fair game, otherwise evil would flourish. They were like a particularly persistent weed that would grow and bloom from the tiniest remnant if you didn’t eradicate it entirely.
“Just like you,” Silvana said, referring to my brush with the justice of the Arcadian Council.
“I came close,” I admitted. “Too close.”
Silvana sighed and seemed to sink back into herself as she stared out the window at the New York skyline, the last dying rays of the sun playing across her features.
I’d missed her in recent years and regretted not seeing her as much as I should have. I wanted to rectify that going forward. My head swam back to those years before the Arcadians had taken Malik, and we were free agents, trading in the shadows and slipping between the cracks. We’d been a thing for a while back then, lovers, enjoying one another as we lived in the margins of society, on the edge, always at risk. Those had been heady days, filled with shady deals and danger, highs and lows, sex and alcohol.
Fun.
But that was a long time ago, before Silvana escaped the claws of the Arcadians—unlike Malik and I—and joined the Nomads. They’d courted her for years leading up to that point. They’d seen the value she could bring to them, they’d seen her skill and intelligence, and they wanted it for themselves.
“Why did you join the Nomads, Sil?”
She turned and gave me a look. “Wow, not beating around the bush, are you?”
“Sorry, I just… I wondered why you chose that route?”
Now it was her turn to shrug. “I wonder that myself, sometimes,” she said, looking away. “It didn’t seem such a bad thing at the time. These were people I’d run deals for, hung out with, laughed with. They knew what they were doing, though, and when the Arcadians came calling, they offered me the one thing I needed. Protection.”
“They’re good at doing that.”
“Offering just what you need, when you need it most? Yeah, they are. Very good.” She took a long breath. “I was on the run, jumping at shadows, thinking that the same people who’d taken you and Malik would appear at any moment and take me too. I didn’t know what had happened to you and Malik for ages. You could have been dead for all I knew, and I couldn’t risk trying to contact you, so I didn’t have much choice.”
“I guess not.”
“There’s no guessing about it. It’s true. They could give me what I wanted… What I needed. I was lost without my mentor, adrift, and they saw that. I was vulnerable, and they exploited that.”
~I know how that feels,~ Greymalkin said, speaking from her perch on the arm of a nearby chair.
“I bet,” I agreed.
“So you understand then,” Silvana said.
I looked up, about to answer, but she was looking at Greymalkin. I frowned.
~More than you know,~ Greymalkin answered, looking back at Silvana.
“Wait,” I stammered, looking between Silvana and Greymalkin in shock. “You can hear her?” I asked Silvana.
“Yeah…” Silvana’s face suddenly registered what was happening. “Oh, shit. Grey, you’re talking to me too?”
“I didn’t know you could do that,” I added, shocked.
~Really?~ The black cat gave me a look and tilted her head to one side. ~I can talk to who I want, you know.~
“I know…” I said. “Well, I guessed. I mean, you talk to me, but I thought you only spoke to me and no one else.”
~I’ve spoken to many people, but I understand what you’re referring to, and that goes back to what I was just saying, about not having a mentor, although, in my case, that would be my…~ Greymalkin seemed to shudder, as if the next word caused her physical pain. ~…Master.~
“Why?” I asked, curious and fascinated by this sudden turn in events and wondering why Greymalkin had chosen this moment to speak to someone other than myself. I knew she was capable, but Greymalkin was laconic at the best of times. She was a shadow cat of few words, and as far as I had been aware, she only used those words to speak to me.
~My first mentor, Dragos Radu, the man who summoned me to the Material Realm. He made it a condition of my position as his familiar, and he enforced it with an iron fist.~
“He sounds like a lovely man.” I made sure to put plenty of sarcasm into my voice.
~I was with him for a long time, so it just became a thing, that I only spoke to whoever I was familiar to, like you.~
“So it’s not a Magical or physical thing?” I wanted to be sure that there wasn’t something wrong, or that she was under some kind of Magical restriction.
~No, nothing like that. I was just keeping to myself, I suppose.~
I gave Silvana a look, and she raised an eyebrow at me. That look made my heart flutter, and my breath caught.
Shit, what was wrong with me? Was I turning into some kind of Jane Austin character, fainting at the slightest thing?
And yet, I couldn’t help myself. Silvana was attractive, and I was still drawn to her, even now, many years after our dalliance had ended. Was it the hint of danger and the forbidden, because she used to be a Nomad too? What would the Council think if I went down that path? I looked away and grimaced.
Probably best not to find out. Besides, Silvana might not be interested in me anymore.
“Do you miss him?” she asked.
I looked across at her, knowing instinctually who she was talking about—Malik, our former mentor. “Yeah, I guess so. I have fond memories of my time with him and you.” Was that too much? I noticed a flicker of something that appeared on her face for the briefest of moments before it was gone again.
“Me too. I hope he didn’t suffer.”
“I doubt it.” I felt sure. “The Arcadians might be strict, but they’re not cruel.”
“Unlike the Nomads…” Silvana added. There was bitterness in her voice.
“That’s why you left, right?” I remembered her telling me that she’d never really felt like a true Nomad. She followed along, she could kill when needed, but the Nomads couldn’t corrupt her, not really. That level of evil just wasn’t her, no matter what.
“Yeah,” she confirmed. “I’m not a Nomad. Never have been, not really. But I don’t know if I’m an Arcadian, either.”
“According to Arcadian tradition, if you’re not a Nomad, you’re Arcadian by default, no matter what you might think you are.”
“That’s some god-level arrogance, you know,” Silvana commented.
“Oh, I know, But I understand why they say it.”
“So I’m an Arcadian now, like your pious friend.” She was referring to Adina, who was on the other side of my mirror Portal, in London with Perry. The thought of that gun-toting nun and a Vampire enjoying an evening alone together amused me to no end. Adina was not a fan of Perry or Silvana. A former Nomad and an actual Vampire. They were, according to the teachings of their Order, unholy and irredeemable. And yet, there they were, sharing a London flat and probably enjoying an evening slumped before the TV.
It was alright for some.
“You’re not quite like Adina,” I answered.
~No one is quite like Adina,~ Greymalkin added, putting voice to my thoughts. I laughed.
“She’s been good for you, though,” Silvana said.
“Oh?” I wasn’t quite sure what she meant by that, but she was probably right. Silvana was usually right when it came to commenting on my choices and life, although the choices she made for herself often left something to be desired. She was her own worst enemy in many ways.
But weren’t we all like that when it came to our own lives. We were just too close to it all and couldn’t see the wood for the trees.
“You needed a straight-arrow like her to set you on the right path.”
I gave her an incredulous look.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, that’s rich coming from me,” she said, and shook her head. “But now I have you and a few others who can do the same for me too.”
“I’m glad you recognised that.”
“Took me long enough,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“You got there in the end,” I reassured her. “That’s more than some.”
She smiled to herself and looked up at me from beneath her eyebrows. “Thanks for the motivational pep talk.”
“Do you think I should be on stage, helping people? Like some kind of motivational guru?” I was teasing.
“Oh, god no. Don’t ever do that, no way.”
“Spoilsport.”
I relaxed back into the soft seat, letting my gaze wander around my apartment, pleased that we got to have this time alone and talk. I glanced at Greymalkin. Well, mostly alone, but Greymalkin and Brandt—my intelligent Magical weapon, currently in the form of a ring on my right hand—didn’t count as far as I was concerned. They were with me everywhere I went, and it was easy to forget they were even there. Both were happy to keep to themselves most of the time and didn’t usually annoy me.
“Have you heard anything from the Council about what we found out?”
“About the Nomads?” I clarified.
“Yeah. Do they know what they’re up to? What all the black market deals are about? And the attacks on other Nomad covens?”
“No, nothing,” I answered truthfully. The rumours and reports of Nomad activity continued to come in, and I heard them often when I was at the Arcanum facility, or through my contacts within the black market. They were hard at work on something, but I hadn’t found anything new. Instead, the Arcanum and Council had kept me busy dealing with other, smaller issues that they felt I could deal with. “I’ve been hunting down the remnants of the Inquisition.”
“I’ve heard of them, the Knights Errant, right?”
“That’s what they call themselves,” I confirmed. “We had one who had an artefact that could tell him when someone was about to go through their Epiphany. He was killing these fledgeling Magi as they manifested their powers until we stopped him.”
“Good job, that sounds messed up.”
“It was certainly one of my more complicated cases,” I confirmed. “But, it’s kept me busy and out of trouble, and I kind of enjoy the work.”
“That’s good.”
“What about you? How are you finding New York?”
“I feel safe here, for the most part, which I like. Especially with Rose and Thorne helping me out.”
I recalled the two former Nomads who were under Amanda’s protection and were helping Silvana. “That’s good to know. Have you seen Amanda around much?” This was New York, after all, Amanda’s hometown.
“No. I suppose I could. I have a number I can call, but I’ve not had reason to use it yet. Besides, I’d rather deal with things myself than rely on others.”
I could understand that.
“Why, do you like her?” Silvana asked, a cheeky smile on her face.
“No,” I replied, honestly. Like most Magi of a certain ability, Amanda was an attractive person. The ability to Magically manipulate our own bodies and change our appearance was often too tempting to resist. Why not remove that spot or those moles? Why not give ourselves a little nip and tuck here and there? But as beautiful as she might be, I didn’t think she was really my type of person. I preferred those with a little more edge to them.
“Liar,” Silvana said.
“I’m not lying.”
“Of course you’re not.” She smirked, and I knew she was just playing with me.
I gave my head a shake as a Magical pulse flared at the edge of my perception, alerting me. I froze as I concentrated on it, and realised it had come through the Portal from London. The Aegis on my London flat had been compromised or possibly destroyed altogether.
“What’s up?” Silvana asked, all mirth gone from her face as she realised something was wrong.
“I don’t know, I think…”
The Portal in the large mirror attached to the wall flared with Magic. I could sense it, and so could Silvana and Greymalkin.
“What’s going on?” Silvana asked.
The surface of the mirror rippled and then bulged before a huge foot stepped through. The foot wasn’t human.
The beast-like leg was covered in damp, black, leather-like skin that had an oil-slick, rainbow reflection to it, and I knew right away what was about to appear.
The Fomorian stepped out of the Portal. Its huge mass was almost too big for the mirror, and yet it passed through without too much issue. The tentacles on its back whipped around as a deep throaty rumble sounded from its throat. A moment later, three more human figures followed the Fomorian, a woman and two men. They were Magi and probably Nomads, given the glow of Essentia within them, and their association with a Fomorian. But I hesitated all the same, unsure and surprised.
“Lisette?” Silvana sounded as shocked as I felt, but she seemed to recognise the woman.
“Silvana,” the female Nomad answered, as Magic flared and she conjured an Aegis around the room. “Finally.”