Emergence: Bad Mage, #1

By Randal Sloan

In a world in some ways much like our own, but in other ways very different, technology and magic co-exist. What if magic has really existed all this time, but was just hidden, and now it's known to the entire world. But this is a world with computers, AIs, cell phones, and magic; now we have something new called MagiTech that combines technology and magic, and it's sending shock waves throughout the world.

A young mage born to this world finds herself on the FBM's Most Wanted List. With more magic than she knows how to control, some would say she must be bad. That means her story must be told...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Randal Sloan
• Release date: Sep 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215033593

Randal Sloan

I am a new author and I am currently working on a near future Sci-Fi thriller book series. I have over the last few years tried a number of interesting things such as writing an iPhone app, trading stock options and building a therapy pool, but now I have returned to my first love, writing. I currently have four books of a near future Sci-Fi thriller series in various levels of completion and have several more in mind. So join in with me as I envision the future.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

I— Jesalyn Michelle Moore — am the most dangerous mage in the world. Well, according to the FBM, the Federal Bureau of Magic, I am. I’m number one on their Most Wanted List.

Right now, I probably deserve the title, but luckily for them I’m far away from the populated world, standing on a point of land out at the edge of the ocean. Life has not been kind to me today and I’m totally out of control, furious with anger and heartbroken. Losing control is not good for a mage. In screams of fury, I cast that magic out to sea, causing gigantic explosions of air and water, but no one has been harmed. I’ve been doing it for what seems like hours, but still I can’t find my control.

You see, for nearly a year I’ve been estranged from my father, betrayed by him to the FBM at the moment of a magical encounter. I have an unusual manifestation of magic, something the world has seldom seen before, and that magic can be very destructive. Worse than fatal, as my attacker at the time of my magical encounter can attest — well, if he could still form coherent thought. He’s just a vegetable now, physically alive, but nothing there mentally.

In all fairness to me, it was entirely in self-defense. My attacker was a magical vampire, one who thrives by stealing his victim’s magic, but instead of falling to his attack, I drained him. You have to admit, that was pretty impressive for a teenage girl still discovering her magic and as a magical vampire he was stronger than normal.

Instead of supporting me, my father reported me because he thought I was going to become a vampire like my attacker. It was just a misunderstanding on his part. If he had just listened to me, I would have been able to explain my magic was different. More powerful and strong enough without me needing to steal magic away from others. Mages can absorb limited amounts of magic from the world around them; so far I haven’t hit my limit. So in some ways, they should fear me.

I’ve escaped the clutches of my pursuers for all this time, for they vastly underestimated me. Despite their many attempts, some legal and some not so legal, I’ve avoided their attempts to either kill or capture me, sometimes coming close to being the monster they proclaimed, but always able to stay back from that edge. It’s been hard, living hand to mouth at times and often alone, consumed by anger at my betrayal, fury at my treatment by those who are supposed to be for the side of the good, and determined to find revenge and retribution.

But that’s only part of my anger and only part of my sadness tonight. Today my father met with me, offering love instead of judgment and begging for my forgiveness. Finally able to reconcile with him, he was snatched away from me again. How cruel can the universe be?

Hence, my real sadness and the tears that are flowing down my face. I’m so filled with anger and sadness it burns within me. I barely made it to this dark and deserted place before I had to release my magic or explode. Somehow, I kept control until I could reach this spot, but without this outlet, I wouldn’t have been able to make it. Luckily, no one is here to challenge me.

I cast one more gigantic burst of magic out to sea, and then I turned back to the ones that are my escort for the night. Yeah, one more thing I forgot to tell you. My father had one last revelation he gave to me; one that is going to change my life once more, if I can figure out how to balance it with my problems with the FBM.

One of those waiting for me is my inside man in the FBM and it’s time I put him to work. He’s a lot more than that to me, something we’ve only just begun to explore. The others are the best of the best from the world’s top private security firm, and they’re here to make sure no one bothers me. Not even the FBM.

Before you judge me, let me tell you my story.

CHAPTER 1

BEGINNINGS

Iwoke confused and alone in a strange place, with my head a little fuzzy from what I now know was chloroform. I knew something was wrong, despite not knowing exactly what had happened. It was also rather dark, and I was about to cast a light spell when a voice spoke out of the darkness.

Sleeping beauty awakes, the voice said, and suddenly the room lit up; a little too bright, forcing me to close my eyes in shock. When I could see again, I realized a man had entered the room.

Who are you? Where am I? I demanded, knowing whatever the answers were, they couldn’t be good. For starters, my hands were tied and the man was hiding behind an illusion spell, so I couldn’t see his real face. That had to be bad.

You, my friend, are our special guest for the next day or so until your father pays the ten million dollar ransom we’re demanding. As soon as he pays up, you’ll be free to go.

It took me a moment to comprehend what he’d said, but as I did, it filled me with a cold, dark feeling. Then I realized something else. Chloe! My best friend had been with me when everything went blank. What happened to my friend I was walking with? I demanded, fearing the worst. If something had happened to her…

He shook his head. She’s fine. A little freeze spell and she never knew what happened. The spell should have faded out by now, and she’s probably talking to the police, not that it’ll do her any good. Our illusionist is top-notch, if I may say so myself.

He offered what I guessed was a smile, although with the illusion spell it looked horrible. Not so good an illusion spell, I could have told him, but I guess it served its purpose.

He laughed. Just in case you get any bright ideas, the room you’re in is the magical version of a Faraday cage, blocking magic and electronic signals, so you needn’t waste your time trying spells out on me. No magic allowed!

He pointed to the table in front of me. If you’re hungry, that’s our leftover pizza and there’s water in the sink. He laughed. Wouldn’t want you dropping dead on us before we get the dough.

Still laughing at his stupid pun, he turned and walked out the door. Suddenly, I was alone, and more than a little bit frightened. This wasn’t supposed to happen to people like me. Despite not letting my privilege go to my head, I was a mage and I should have been safe!

Then I tried to use my magic, and just like he’d told me to expect, nothing happened. He hadn’t lied about my magic being blocked, something that had never happened to me before. What was I going to do? No matter the illusion, that man scared me. His voice was so cold, I knew I would get no help from him, and I had to wonder even if he got the money, would I still be dead? I had to find a way out.

I had no idea what to do.

How did I get to this point, kidnapped for ransom? According to my parents, my birth presaged my life. The day I was born was the day magic was undeniably outed to the world in an explosive event. It turns out mages, werewolves, vampires, even the Fae, were not only real, but now everyone knew they were. The magical beings had decided they’d stayed hidden long enough, and the new International Magic Council declared themselves in charge.

All the supernatural beings were supposed to be represented, but the mages were the most powerful, so the Council tended to go along with their demands. It turns out a lot of people had at least a bit of magic within them, and that meant they fell under the mages. The mundanes were left to govern themselves, but magical beings were under the control of the Council. In the end, that made the Council the most powerful organization in the world.

After a few demonstrations of their power, the world agreed. They were no longer required to hide; instead, the world embraced them. Well, most of the world did — just like anything else some supported magic or at least the type of magic they favored, but there were also a few hate groups. Luckily, mages didn’t have too many hate groups since most of us used our magic for good, or perhaps my childhood would have gone differently.

Did the release of magic on that day lead to my magical abilities, or was I just the lucky recipient of a special gift? I doubt I will ever know, but even at a young age, my magic was different. Both of my parents were mages, but neither had more than minor abilities. Even as a child, I surpassed them, although we mostly kept it quiet.

With magic being outed, my life was a lot more interesting than if it had not been, since with my powers manifesting even as a young child I could receive special training. Instead of having to go to a normal school and pretend I was just a mundane, I attended a prestigious mage school. That was good, and that was bad. I didn’t have to waste time learning things that weren’t important to mages, but I also had to put up with the spoiled brats that thought they should have everything handed to them because of their magical heritage.

I have to admit my grade school was quite interesting. I earned the reputation of not putting up with anyone that tried to take advantage of others, whether bullying or merely lording it over them. With my powers to back me up, the ones that tried such around me learned the hard way to leave me alone, although it took more than one visit to the headmaster’s office before everyone was convinced. It didn’t help that my parents were just two run-of-the-mill mages without famous peerage like many, but we made it through those years mostly unscathed.

So I wasn’t one of the cool kids, but I had my friends and we got along with each other just fine. If I could have stayed out of trouble, with my long blond hair and looks I inherited from my mother, I could have done better, but for me that just wasn’t a priority. I cared nothing about popularity or power over others like so many other students did. As far as I was concerned, I had everything I needed.

By the time I got to high school, my dad’s company, Magitech, was beginning to hit it off. The first to combine magic and tech, what the world called magitech, his company could build devices that no one else could match. The most important one, something I knew about but most didn’t, the company was calling the spell phone and it was yet to make it to the market. There were rumors, of course, and the company already had a cult following with their other products.

Cell phones didn’t work well for mages, as they could easily burn one out. The spell phone was a huge leap forward. Combining magic and technology, it allowed the user to call anyone with a secure, private connection no matter where they were. Cell signals not required. The person they were talking to appeared in a magical bubble and like the cell phone it supported magical apps that let them do anything a cell phone could do and more. The magical browser was unbelievably powerful. All in a ring that the user wore.

When the spell phone hit the public, the company had high hopes it would have a dramatic effect. I was about to discover the bad thing about all that — I could no longer hide in my anonymity. I had my mage powers and was a top student in magic, but still no one knew of my full ability. For some reason, I had continued doing what we decided when I was a child, always keeping most of it hidden away — an ace in the hole, if you will.

But apparently, with my dad’s company doing so well, I became a target. Even now, I find it hard to believe, but apparently it was true.

There was one problem with the world having magic no longer remaining hidden. Mages had always policed their own, and the fear of being the one to reveal their abilities forced most of the magical would-be criminals to keep their crimes less visible. Before that time they’d dared not take too many risks and thus kept a limit on their activities, but now they were beginning to feel such limits were no longer necessary.

Later, I would learn that with my father’s company doing so well, a group of magical thugs decided it was worth the risk to try pushing the envelope. Since my sister and I were raised to be humble instead of considering ourselves privileged, that meant there was no magic carpet for me to ride or some fancy limo, so I either rode to school with a friend, or on the days with good weather, I walked. My dad was busy with his company and my mom was already deep into her research program. I’m not saying I was not in a loving family — just the opposite — but my sister, Stefanie, and I were both rather independent minded, so we made our own arrangements to get to and from school. Stef and I weren’t really that close, but we got along ok and we had never worried about our situation.

After all, who would bother a mage? Or so we thought. Unfortunately, what we forgot was that mages are not immune to most human drugs since we are mostly human. After a normal day at school, I was walking home with my best friend, Chloe, and not really paying attention to the world around me, a lesson I painfully learned that day. Nowadays, they’d never have gotten the drop on me.

Chloe was talking about a young mage she’d met over the summer, one she had an obvious crush on. A mage from the other side of the tracks, figuratively speaking. I was pretty sure her parents didn’t know about him. I’d expected more than once to hear she’d moved on, but so far she hadn’t.

I couldn’t resist kidding her about it. What are best friends for? So, what’s the deal with you and Joe? I haven’t seen you guys go out on an official date yet. Obviously, you’ve got it bad.

It’s not that simple, she answered. We’re having to keep our meetings secret. Library, coffee shop, stuff you well know. My parents would never agree to let us date. Joseph is not the kind of mage that would meet their approval, I fear.

So you admit it, it’s just you and one of your bad boy crushes, I told her, expecting to get a rise out of her for sure. It worked too.

She sputtered in her answer. No, Joseph is just a little misunderstood.

I laughed. Misunderstood would be stealing the rival team’s mascot. Turning it into stone was carrying it just a little bit too far.

It wasn’t his fault one of the boys distracted him, and he used the stone spell instead of a freeze spell. Besides, they were still able to reverse the spell.

I wanted to tell her that a turn-to-stone spell was nothing like a freeze spell, but she already knew that. I also didn’t mention that if it had been just a little longer, it would have been too late for the school mage to reverse the spell; that one she probably didn’t know. But Chloe was my friend, and that was enough teasing.

Speaking of a freeze spell, I said, changing the subject. Did you do the bonus spell on our last exam? I didn’t in class, but when I got home, I couldn’t resist trying it out. Worked like a charm, although Stef wasn’t happy about being frozen.

Jes, why do you always do that? Chloe asked. Why didn’t you do it on the exam? You could have beat out Angela, so we wouldn’t have to listen to her bragging about it. Besides, she only got it half right, and I bet you did it perfectly.

Under the radar, Chlo, under the radar. Chloe was the only person who knew my secret. Not even my parents knew the real story. Once I saw a spell, I could do it without a second thought and our teacher had shown it to the class as an example of an advanced spell we might attempt someday.

I guess I should explain spells to all you non-magicals. It’s nothing like what you see in vids where the mages are spouting a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. Spells are just a defined way to combine magic with the physical world to accomplish whatever they’re designed to do. A sort of abstract recipe with none of that stuff like eye of newt or other such nonsense. They’re also a bit intuitive, rather than an exact science.

Sometimes the mage doesn’t have access to the magic required to do the spell. Air, fire, water, earth were the elements of magic, and most mages only had a couple of them. That was another reason I was different. I apparently had access to all the elements of magic. That Angela had even come close to doing that spell was actually an achievement in and of itself, so I didn’t begrudge her achievement. Her bragging about it so much was another story.

That got me to thinking about a possible variation on the freeze spell, so I was not paying attention when a van pulled up beside us. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late.

Suddenly, the two men that jumped out accosted me with a combination of magic and chloroform. The magic I could have handled; the chloroform, I did not.

CHAPTER 2

CAPTIVE

That left me kidnapped, trapped in a cage with no phone and no magic. Oh, I tried. I immediately tried using magic. Nothing! I wanted to scream. Magic was such a part of me. After a few moments of tears and frustration, I started working to get my hands free. Whoever had tied my hands up had done a pretty good job, but I spent a week in my childhood practicing to be Houdini. Of course, I usually got frustrated and just used magic, but some of the skill must have rubbed off. Apparently, the bad guys didn’t care, because no one said anything.

I had another problem. I was getting hungry, although I wasn’t really crazy about eating the cold pizza my kidnappers had handled. At first I worried that they might have drugged it. Eventually, common sense won out; if they’d wanted to drug me, they’d have just used a needle, so eventually I ate the pizza.

I sat there looking at the sink. My kidnappers hadn’t given me a cup or anything to drink out of, but I