Coeus?

“

The earliest known written magical incantations come from ancient Mesopotamia, where they have been found inscribed on cuneiform clay tablets excavated by archaeologists from the city of Uruk and dated to between the 5th and 4th centuries BCE.

”

-Mages and their influences on the normals

***Sol, Aether***

***Gideon***

I groggily open my eyes, trying to assert what's going on. My view is still blurry from sleep. Then I realize that the alarm which woke me up isn't an alarm at all, but a call from Ed.

I shove my sleeping girlfriend off of me and sit up, taking the call. “Ed, what's going on. Couldn't you have called me when I am in my office.”

“We've found the blood-mage, but he escaped. I just wanted to warn you to be extra careful.” Ed answers.

“What do you mean he escaped? Can't you track him down easily.” I get up and reach for a set of clothes. How the hell did an untrained mage from Earth escape a faceless?

“He is strong. Very strong. He killed three of my enforcers and managed to hide himself. I think he may be one of the really old ones. That's why I already informed one of the elders to get to the station. Zibil Firestorm will arrive here shortly.”

I raise an eyebrow. “What the heck? What did this guy do to impress you to the point of calling an elder for help?”

“Oh, nothing special really. He just walked over my enforcers like they are children. There is a recording of the entire scene. His name is Markus Ledoux. He looks like he is somewhere in his fifties which makes him really old since he came from Earth. I've sent his data to your office.” Ed's voice sounds more than a little angry. “I just wanted to ask if you could try to help if we find him again. Your fighting power is amongst the highest on Aether.”

Most mages don't have the ability to influence their outer appearance. That's something our doctors achieve with various treatments. Without them you simply age slowly. Since an immigrant like Markus didn't have access to our treatments it means that he has to be really old. Somewhere between five hundred and six hundred years?

After putting on my cloak I leave the bedroom. “There is a meeting I have to attend to, but since when do I have a ranking in fighting power?”

“It's just something like a personal list of us faceless. It contains the most dangerous entities within our jurisdiction. It's good to know the people whom you have to keep an eye on.” Ed explains. “So I'll be searching for the fleeing blood-mage. Just stay careful.” He disconnects and leaves me to my thoughts.

Since I am already awake I decide to use the time to walk slowly to my office a few blocks down the street. Once I am there I quickly take a look at the information which Ed sent me. The faceless found him by following the links between him and the middleman to my secretary.

Markus Ledoux was ordered to leave the immigrant quarters after he was positively tested for blood magic. Then he went on a rampage to escape imprisonment and further interrogation. The first faceless who fell to him was taken out by surprise.

Markus attacked him out of nowhere after agreeing to follow him. On his escape he encountered two more faceless who caught up to him. Those two got completely overpowered in a magical duel. What strikes me as strange is that he was reading from something like a spellbook. No, calling it a spellbook goes too far. The thing in his hands was just a set of loose and really old parchments.

I send Ed a short text message in which I ask him about the pages in more detail. Reading or speaking during an incantation is nothing more than a help to form the necessary energy pattern.

Does that guy have some really old magic at hand? A grimoire?

My thoughts are interrupted by the arrival of Galia and our two guests from Earth. I gesture for them to take a seat. “I hope you are having a nice stay.”

Roderik Waldheim and his assistant Kandy Frinil take their seats across from me. “We had a few nice days, taking a look at the city and your culture.”

“Yes, but I still find it hard to wrap my head around the historic side of all this. The other day we also got to see a real fight between two of your citizens. They mangled each other like maniacs! Throwing magic and spells around.” Kandy informs me.

I shrug my shoulders. “Magic is giving us the ability to heal a lot faster, so we are a little less biased towards injuries. If two people have a problem with each other they can duke it out as long as they don't cross the line.”

“So what's crossing the line? It looked to me like they were crossing the line.” Roderik asks with raised eyebrows.

“Deprivation of freedom, mugging, torture, taking it out on someone who is definitely weaker than you. As long as they don't kill each other or cause a permanent problem it's okay.” I explain. “Think of what you saw that day as a regular bar fight. That's why we gave you the guides. That reminds me. Do you want to visit a party of mine in a few weeks?”

Galia claps her hands together. “Oh, that's actually a nice idea. Gideon is going to announce his marriage contract with his girlfriend. You said that you want to know more about our culture.”

The assistant turns her attention from Galia to me. “You are going to marry? I thought you aren't religious.”

“It's not exactly a marriage in a religious sense. We simply vow that we will look out for each other and take care of our offspring together. The one who breaks the contract has to face legal jurisdiction. It's mainly to protect eventual children until they are grown up.” I explain.

“And once they are grown up?” Kandy asks.

“Then the contract is fulfilled and may be cancelled if we don't feel like staying together any longer. It's not expected that people with our long lifespans stay with each other until the end of time.” I clear my desk from some documents while going on with my explanation.

“There is also this drug-incident all over the news. Galia already explained it to us and we got one of these scanners, but is the situation really that dangerous.” Roderik changes the topic.

I nod. “We managed to almost completely remove such influences from our society. I already explained that we are very lenient in regards to what someone does to himself. But that drug practically takes away ones freedom. There is no way we can overlook that. It's too dangerous.”

We continue our discussion about the implications and potential results for Earth. Apparently our drug dealer kept a relatively low profile while he was on the planet. Maybe he would have done so on Aether too, but the accident ended his plans and made the authorities aware of him. There is also the point that Earth's medical knowledge wouldn't even recognize the drug as a dependence causing substance. They wouldn't know what to look for.

Another call by Ed makes me drop my friendly demeanour from one moment to the next. “There was an attack on your house.”

“What!?” I call out, leaping to my feet and startling my visitors. Ignoring all safety regulations I activate a teleportation spell and take a part of my office table with me.

Arriving at my home I find Cyla arguing with Ed and my grandmother. She has a bruise on her face and her hands are covered with blood. There is a big hole in my house where we once had a window.

“Cyla! Are you okay. You aren't hurt, right?” I approach fast, but Cyla raises her hand to show me that it isn't her blood.

“I am fine, but they abducted Amia. We've to find her!” She says with an angry voice. “Five people broke into the house. I was in the kitchen at that moment, so Amia answered the door. They took her and the rest tried to get more captives, but we managed to fight them off. While I and Melan had our hands full with two of them the other three overwhelmed Amia and carried her away.”

“That might actually turn out to be a hard task. They had a teleporter with them to escape. They could be anywhere on Aether.” Ed mumbles to himself.

“Not with me. We just have to follow her signal. But I don't get why they would want to abduct Amia.” I quickly access the network and order a small program of mine to display the whereabouts of the people who are affiliated to me.

“What do you mean.” Melan asks astounded.

I pull a small screen from my robe and order it to display my little tracking program. “I've put a tracker on Amia. Just in case.”

“You know that such a thing is illegal?” Ed asks, taking a look at the screen which shows Amia's position inside the city.

“Why are there so many dots at our mansion, the government building and Rhiannon's workplace?” Melan asks with a hushed voice.

I quickly give the command to display only Amia's tracking device. “I don't know what you are talking about.”

Cyla takes the screen from me and accesses my program. “Melan, Hedeon, Cyla, Rhiannon,... you also have Ed!”

“What!?” Ed starts touching himself, searching for the bug. “I am overlooking many things, Gideon. But this could get you into real trouble.”

“It was just a basic precaution against cases like these. Can we simply overlook this and get it over with?” I ask.

That's when I get a call from an unknown number. I take it to inform the nuisance who is calling me that it's highly inconvenient at the moment. “Yes, Gideon Alvar, Governor of Aether. I've no time for you at the moment.”

“But I think you have the time. Here is Markus.” A voice answers me over the connection. “And I think I may have someone important to you.”

“Not really-” My answer is interrupted by Cyla's slap to my cheek, so I decide to re-evaluate my answer. “Of course you have someone -very- important to me. I want her back!”

“If you want your girlfriend back you've to ready a ship for me and my followers. We'll meet you at the docks in five hours. I warn you, I've control over the family members of several influential people.” The connection is closed without further ado.

“Idiot. He abducted the wrong one.” I grimace at the thought that it could have been Cyla. “They are inside a warehouse of the agricultural department. Probably Markus is hiding himself there with a few bonded people.”

“Give me just a few minutes! I'll assemble a suitable attack force. We need a lot more fighting power if it's true that he controls several innocent people. Otherwise we can't subdue them without killing.” Ed runs off to give commands to his subordinates.

“We can't?” Wouldn't it be much easier if we simply kill them? I am no expert in blood-magic, but the whole bonding stuff sounds like the best strategy is to first kill off all the master's minions to rob him of his power pool.

Melan crosses her arms in front of her chest. “No! We can't kill off innocents who are controlled against their will.”

I try to reason. “But they are aiding him.”

“There is a difference between freely given assistance and being forced like a slave.” Cyla replies.

I give up and wait with them for Ed to assemble his people. It took him a while, but finally we've twenty faceless and ten battle sprites at our disposal. The plan is to teleport ourselves directly above the warehouse with Amia inside. Then we'll breach it from all sides at once and use maximum force to subdue everyone inside.

It's a rash and hasty plan, but in the current situation we are hoping that Markus isn't expecting a full force counter attack that fast. I also don't believe that negotiating with such a man does us any good.

Melan, Cyla and I form a triangle around the faceless. I perform a gravity spell to lift all of us a few metres above the ground, then all three of us start working on a teleportation spell to translocate the entire group to the warehouse.

.