Modern Mage – Chapter 7

This chapter is a bit shorter but not lacking for content and information. I appreciate all of you who are still following this tale. Anyone who is reading who has any questions or feedback please comment. If you want to send a PM you can register on the Forum and do so as well. I am enjoying the writing and letting the tale unfold and hope you are enjoying it as well. Thank you as always for taking the time to read my strange tale.



There we were, Marcus and I, out in the middle of the desert and mountains outside of Las Vegas. I had survived my Seeking; I still didn’t know what I gained from it other than knowledge. Sitting there; in the middle of a protective ring of Magick looking at an entire pack of Werewolves circling right outside the barrier. Now these weren’t the monsters of Hollywood movies and literature. I knew only a little about Were-creatures; the main point being that despite what the myths said, you were either born into a bloodline of were-creatures or not. Surviving as attack was pure chance and you didn’t become a were creature because of it. Second difference was they could shift forms at will, hence the 9’8” monster standing there looking at us at sunrise. Marcus turned and looked at me, “Trying for the understatement of the century Andrew?”

“It’s worse than you think, I’m too exhausted to focus on Magick and the power infused into the crystals is going to run out before I’m ready to help.” I wasn’t joking either; I couldn’t even pull enough Magick to refresh my mind and body enough to move normally. The thing about Magick is that while you are powerful, using too much at once takes its toll on the body.

The look Marcus gave me spoke volumes about his opinion of that, “I’ve never done a ritual like this circle for anything. If I was planning to do anything as dangerous as what you did, I went to one of my Sanctums. How long do we have?”

“I don’t know. You think they’ll have the patience to wait us out?”

“They started arriving right after you cast your spell last night and went into meditation for the Seeking. The first few just trotted out of the desert, sat down and starting howling. After that, several more arrived just appearing like a Mage using Correspondence. I didn’t sense any Magick in use; however there are spirits all over them and this place now. What exactly did this ritual of yours do?”

I had the decency to look chagrined when I sat up and looked at Marcus to explain. “In addition to the protective aspects that I told you about it weakened the barrier between planes. I figured it would make communicating with my Avatar for the Seeking easier.”

For the second time in a few minutes Marcus looked at me like I was insane, “You weakened the barrier between Planes?! How in the hell did you even come up with an idea like that let alone find the power to do it?!?! And what the fuck made you think it was a good idea to do so?!?!?!?!” Marcus voice increased in tone and volume as he yelled those questions at me.

“For one, you taught me that the only limits to what could be done with Magick were imagination and knowledge. I’ve been doing some reading on theoretical physics. You know we can get into this later, we have bigger things to worry about right now.” I said as I pointed out the situation that started this conversation in the first place. Leave it to Mages to lose sight of the immediate problem and focus on the minor issues.

Marcus looked around us thoroughly assessing the situation we were in. While we both knew either of us could simply move us away instantly through Correspondence, after his describing the arrival of our….friends, we didn’t know if that would help.