THE MAGICIAN

 

Beneath the city, there is a city beneath it, home to half demons and half human creatures composed of warlocks, reptilians and gargoyles. Damian, Clara and Loise Osborne went to collect certain information from a gargoyle named Darren, only to find out the news they were longing for was a set up for more chaos.

THE MAGICIAN

CHAPTER SIX: A DUEL OF WANDS AND BLOOD

New York, New York

The subway was the city’s underbelly — a living, breathing labyrinth that rumbled beneath New York’s glittering skin. Down there, time felt slower, heavier, as if the weight of millions of footsteps had pressed the years into the tiles themselves.

Damian, Clara and Loise Osborne were on the hunt for Trigon. His acolytes were the Dark Order, had secretly set him free and was now roaming the Earth without the Magic Order knowing…

They ascended the cracked concrete steps, a familiar gust of warm, stale air rising to greeted them carrying the scent of rust and rainwater, the tang of electricity and the musk of vermin. Rats could be seen dashing back and forth. The sound of the subway trains swooshed by them with a deafening sound.

At last, they emerged to civilization. The people of New York were seen moving helter skelter, the crowd immense, everyone seemed to have a divine purpose. White collar men carrying their briefcases with a forcefully tied tie across their necks heading to their mundane nine to five jobs.

Pigeons flew above them circling like vultures. A slight drizzle engulfed them only for the crowds’ underbellies to give rise to the warm sun. Time seemed to move fast above the underground subway. Street vendors were selling all sorts of cheap savory meals from hot dogs to falafels, the smell-exquisite and pristine.

A man with tattered clothes approached them asking for some change. He muttered to himself, it seemed futile for his cries were a form of dead prayers. His voice swallowed by the echo of distant rails. Construction workers working more than eighty hours a week were seen erecting sky scrapers while some were having a break having sandwiches with fizzy drinks.

The walls were grimy, lined with faded posters and graffiti — declarations of love, defiance, and loneliness. Each mark told a story no one cared to read anymore. Rats scurried along the tracks, fearless as kings of their dark domain, while puddles shimmered with oily rainbows beneath the dim fluorescent light.

Loise hailed a cab as the street gave way to the main roads…

She looked at her reflection from the driver’s car and she stopped suddenly.

“We are being followed” she said laconically.

Damian shocked looked behind and would see know no sign of suspicious activity.

“By whom-?” he asked childly

“Quick no time” she answered motioning Clara and Damian to get in the cab with her.

“The docks” said Loise as the taxi driver sped off.

The Indian taxi driver pulled down the window, his ethnic music blaring from the car’s speakers. New York was alive. Its people pulsating with fervor. 

Moments later

The docks stretched like steel veins along the great river’s edge, pulsing with the restless life of the city. Rusted cranes loomed against the bruised clear sky, like huge sentinels watching and deciding their fate. 

The scent of salt, diesel and sweat clung to the air like an unwashed cologne dry and musky. The river reflected the slow hum of the city, its infidelities, its harshness and its flow of constant change. The world was harsh here, Loise could feel a bad taste in her mouth of aluminum and ash. 

Sea gulls hovered above them like vultures looking for prey. They got out of the taxi and a warm smell of fish and guts rented the air like a strong perfume. Barges and other small ships drifted aimlessly near the harbor between piers, their horns resonating deep within their souls loud and submissive.

Outside the warehouse four men in black robes appeared.

They walked mystically as if floating through the air, a black mist hovering around them. Loise and Damian got out their wands. The four brothers an evil sub group of the Dark Order that challenged the fraternity in every away. They were disbanded from the Magic Order hundreds of years ago for their treasonous acts of war and now they have found their way to New York after their release of their master, Trigon.

“Abra cadabra” hissed Loise, her voice cutting deep like sharpened steel. She raised her wand high, a lightning bolt fired from the wands pointy end only to be blocked by a magical forcefield, its surface covered with dark runes. Weakening her instantly.

“Quick get Damian to safety, I will hold them off!” said Loise sharply to Clara.

One of the four brothers wearing a dark robe covering his disfigured face approached them slowly. With his hands raised he released a huge fire ball that aimed towards Damian. 

“Defensa Frostas!” Loise cried, her voice echoing across the magical spell, casting a glacial shield that burst from her wand, form a crystalline barrier around Damian and Clara. Her wand flaring up with jagged ice spikes and almost shattering beneath the heavy weight of the spell.

“No! I can help!” Damian shouted across the harbor as Clara shoved him out of harm’s way.

Clara stopped at her steps, transfixed, her clothes seemed to fall off as if melting away. Her pale skin turned to a fiery red skin.

“I summon the demons of Limbo” she said in a dark tone with a huge bass. 

Suddenly, black wings appeared from her back that stretched over six feet tall, leathery and docile with black feathers. A magic sword woven on her right arm that glowed yellow like the sun with an infernal fire surrounding it.

“Who dares challenge the Dark child” said Clara her voice demonic and sinister.

On her head were horns that were obsidian black with hooves that matched her dark antler-like horns. She muttered something in an ancient language like a verse from a bible. A portal opened up from where the four brothers stood. A mirage of demon like creatures appeared from the fiery portals seizing two of the four brothers.

They ripped them apart like a boneless creature, the sound of shattered bones could be heard from the docks as they screamed and writhed in pain. The demons tore them apart one by one. His companion armed with a scythe slashed aimlessly at the vile creatures’ blood and gore was eminent, as the brothers were occupied Loise retreated quickly and opened a portal.

“Trigon will be free and roam the Earth. And this world will be ours!” said one of the acolytes adorned in a dark red robe screaming for his life as the demons with their sharp razor teeth devoured his flesh until he was no more. 

“What was that?!” asked Damian completely petrified.

Clara transformed back to her human body instantly and remained quiet like a monk. They entered the portal impetuously and ended up in a desert like plane full of sand and dunes. The suns scorching their skin. Damian bewildered and completely gob smacked breathed heavily as if drowning.

“Where are we?” he asked

“I believe the Sahara dessert we must visit the ancient one. Make haste Trigon is coming…” said Loise.