Modern Mage Chapter 17

Sorry about the long wait to all of my readers. I have been distracted and unable to write with the proper inspiration and wanted to do the story justice for all of you and for my own personal pride. I don’t enjoy doing something unless I do it properly. I would hate to give you all a sub-standard story. I don’t know how much time will pass between chapters or when this particular storyline will come to an end, however I will try to keep everyone informed whenever possible. I think with the practice I’ve gotten here I may try to write that book about the Hidden War I mentioned in stories I’ve posted. I will have to change some of the concept of Magick and what the different creatures of the world can do as not to infringe on the copyrighted material that inspired this storyline. Keep the feedback and comments coming and let me know what you think. If you aren’t a member of the website, please sign up and feel free to message me via PM or on my profile page or post in the forum.


After leaving the existence late that evening I realized that I had a lot to accomplish as quickly as I could. First Sindee and I had to move the rest of our stuff into the new house and then assist Natalie with moving in. Second was the transfer of properties and bank accounts into my name from the ID I had used for the last five years. Third was to continue training Sindee in Magick to ensure her safety. Fourth I needed to set up training for weapons and hand to hand combat with as many of my new allies as I could to ensure their safety and abilities in the coming fights. Most importantly and concurrently with everything else that was going on was to plan the wedding with Sindee. I loved her too much to allow even a war to stop me from marrying her.

The next several months flew past quickly with everything going on. First was the moves, Natalie was ecstatic about moving into the house and threw a large party which of course we had to attend. Natalie was like family to Sindee and as such I took to her quickly as well. While we had to hide our secrets from her we were able to enjoy the time we spent relaxing with her. Nat treated me like family which it had been five years since anyone treated me as such, especially my own father and brother. After the party Natalie and Sindee started the wedding plans in earnest, including me when choices need to be my input such as guest list, colors and food but otherwise left me out of it. I didn’t mind at all as I loved Sindee and wanted the wedding to be special for her. Planning that kind of ceremony and celebration were skills I didn’t have. It didn’t take long to get some of the details settles. We had decided to have the Ceremony on the last week of January as it would allow time to get everything ready and allow all those coming to arrive. Arthur offered the Existence as a reception hall and Guido offered to prepare the menu. After eating there Sindee jumped on the offer and the reception was taking care of with the only remaining details to discuss were the menu with Guido and provide the wedding colors and flower types to Arthur for decorating the club. We send the invitation’s out about two weeks after the planning started including to my Father and brother.

While all the wedding planning was being done I continued with Sindee’s training as a Mage. She was a fast study as evident from her career as a doctor and how well she took care of things. While she was a naturally gifted mage and took well to it she was not strong in the areas of Spirit and Matter Magick. She excelled in Life Magick however and could do things that I hadn’t the knowledge to do. I started to learn from her in Life Magicks as I taught her to manipulate reality in the other areas. I was even more impressed and amazed by her because once she realized that she could change her body however she wanted she had such self-confidence and awareness that she was as happy with her appearance and body that she wouldn’t change it. Sindee is the most amazing woman I had ever known and every day I fell more in love with her. She progressed quickly in most areas of her training and was more than capable of defending herself should the need arise.

I made all of the property and account changes over this time and contacted the allies I had gathered from around the world to update them on my contact information. From a few of the groups I asked them to send a few volunteers who could assist in training my allies here for what may be coming. I wasn’t looking to turn everyone into soldiers, just enable them to defend themselves and each other should it become necessary. Four people moved into the area near the new house and came around daily to train with anyone who was willing. I spent some of my time learning from them with everyone else that was interested. You may have noticed by now that while I am trained and can fight I am not the greatest at it so I spent a few months getting my ass kicked along with everyone else in order to learn to defend myself better. Everyone who intended to aid in fighting the war not just defending the node was required to train with firearms so no one got shot accidentally. I had heard Sam telling a story about JD at the Existence and didn’t want that to happen here.

Halloween came and went with a costume party at the Existence and I have to say a bunch of supernatural beings dressed for Halloween is an incredible sight. There were some who dressed as the clichéd version of what every category they fell into. There were a couple of Lugosi style vampires as well as a few who mocked Twilight with body glitter and yellow or red contact lenses. There were some Old Hag Wicked Witches and Glinda the Good Witch costumes, Warlocks and Wizards the like of Gandolf and Dumbledore types. The werewolf costumes made me laugh after having seen and met the real thing, then again most of the costumes were funny especially as they were being in most cases worn by the real deal. There were plenty of Fae costumes from the nightmare creatures to the winged fairies and pixies. The was no lack of the Sexy Witch, Vampire, schoolgirl or anything sexy really among the mix. It was a fun evening and I took everyone from the property into the bar for the party.

At Thanksgiving Sindee and I were joined by a large crowd at the house. She had invited Natalie over and a few others from the hospital were invited but they were spending the holiday with their family. Arthur arrived with Jaq as his date and Sam came along as well. Arthur and Jaq have been spending a lot of time together and I couldn’t be happier for either of them. Arthur was a very good man even if he didn’t believe it himself all the time and Jaq was such an amazing woman and made him smile despite all that her has to worry about in the world. Marcus and Kyra of course came together as they were growing very close. Marcus was an old man in a young body and Kyra’s influence has brought him around to acting his apparent age instead of his actual one and that could only be good for both of them. Talia and George showed up together as a couple, Sam had given him the night off from protecting Arthur and seemed happy that the lonely wolf was finding someone to spend time with. I think despite her gruff and distant seeming attitude she was the one that held their group together at its heart. Guido came over but we wouldn’t let him in the kitchen, no matter how great a chef he was. Sindee and I prepared dinner for everyone that came. There were about another dozen people there all told, some from the werewolf pack and the four volunteers who came to train my people. The evening was very nice as we all spent time learning about each other as people and not discussing any of our strange realities since there were a few uninitiated humans around.

The first week of December arrived and we started getting responses to the wedding invitations. While it didn’t surprise me, it bothered Sindee that responses from my father and brother were that neither of them would be attending. I sat and spoke with her regarding the situation.

“Why would they not attend the wedding?” Sindee asked with a look somewhere between angry and upset.

“I don’t know how to fully explain it but since the attack that took the rest of our family they and I haven’t gotten along. It could be survivor’s guilt for them or anger at me for failing to protect everyone. I know I did everything I could as a sixteen year old kid, but now after what happened with my trip through time I feel guilty because I know now I could have stopped it easily. I can’t blame them if they are angry anymore because I blame myself for not changing things even though I know I did what was right. I tried for the time I remained at home to rebuild the relationship I lost with them and have attempted to remain in contact since but as you’ve seen it has changed nothing….” I trailed off not knowing what else to say.

“I met you right after that happened and was amazed by what you attempted to do. You were a sixteen year old kid who stood up to what you thought was a killer and who turned out to be more dangerous then you could have ever imagined at that time. It doesn’t matter what else happened you succeeded in saving them.” Sindee stepped up and wrapped me in her arms. She tilted her head up to look me in the eyes before continuing, “As for being guilty about not changing the past when you had the chance, let us discuss that. You have told me that if you had you might not be a Mage now, is that correct?”

“Yes, but..,” I started but she put her fingers to my mouth to silence me.

“No interrupting or explanations, just answers for now. So there is the chance you may not have awakened at all. If you hadn’t awakened that night you would not be around to have made that trip back in time and would all of you would be dead including you correct?” She gave me an expectant stare.

“Probably yes” I replied, fighting the tears in my eyes.

“Even if you had stopped that night from happening you would most likely have disappeared from this timeline on that night if I understand Time Magick correctly from your explanations. You can elaborate a little on this answer,” she gave me a smirk as she finished that statement.

“When dealing with normal Time Magicks yes, I would most likely have ceased to exist on this timeline as I was because what created me now had been changed. However since my trip through time was the result of something other than Time Magick I may have continued to exist here as I did even if I changed the past.” I answered.

“If either of those two things occurred you would not have been in the hospital for me to help you. While I fell in love with you after seeing you again here in Las Vegas, my feeling for you started with the admiration I had for a kid standing up to a serial killer to defend his family. That would mean that we most likely would have never found each other.