Chapter 7: Spirit

  The carriage arrived outside an abandoned house and the mystics disembarked. Mr. Rouge gave further instructions to Olivia while the others looked around.

  Mr. Specter took out his ceremonial dagger and motioned for Mr. Magician to do the same.

  “Your characteristics aren’t fit for combat. Stay close to one of us and if you get separated… Hope that you don’t.”

  Mr. Magician nodded and took out his ceremonial dagger. When Rouge was done talking to Olivia, he took the lead into the house as the carriage drove away.

  “Where are the others?”

  “Don’t know….”

  Ms. Snow walked at the front with Mr. Rouge, the two of them whispered while discussing the current situation. Mr Magician turned to Mr. Specter and asked a question.

  “Why don’t the spirits just leave?”

  “Don’t know. Spirits aren’t that intelligent, they themselves probably don’t understand that they are sitting ducks.”

  Suddenly loud steps on the second floor could be heard as if someone was running.

  Sudden gusts of winds blew down the stairs next to the front door and a man and woman came flying down, landing with a heavy bang.

  The man started coughing uncontrollably while the woman looked at the group of four mystics in surprise.

  “Captain! The mystics from the church of dreams are locked inside a room on the second floor! And we are being pursued!”

  “Shit!”

  The captain’s cursing echoed through the house in a haunting manner and a chill enveloped the group. Ms. Snow started chanting a divination statement 7 times with an ethereal voice.

  She was holding a pendent in her nondominant hand and it started to glow as she was chanting.

  The surrounding walls started to shake and then burst. Metal pipes that were hidden inside the walls started attacking the group.

  The coughing man stood up and swung his hand in a half circular motion. The metal pipes bended and didn’t hit the mystics.

  When Ms. Snow was done chanting, the monocle started floating up and started scanning the surroundings.

  Ms. Snow looked through the crystal monocle and saw no spirits. She followed where the pendant levitated towards in search for spirits.

  Mr. Rouge nodded at Mr. Magician, prompting him to hold the pendant that was hanging from his left hand.

  As Magician was about to begin chanting, the pendant in Ms. Snow’s hand suddenly turned. Through the crystal pendant, Ms. Snow saw Mr. Magician and a big white cloud flying behind him.

  “Magician-”

  Before Ms. Snow could warn Mr. Magician, he was sent flying further into the house by a strong gust of wind before she could finish her sentence.

  As Mr. Magician crashed into a wall with a pained groan, Mr. Rouge stretched out his arm and opened his palm. A blinding light shone from his hand.

  Mr. Rouge’s hardened expression turned grim as he noticed something amiss when he used his spirit characteristic. He screamed out in anger.

  “Shit, it isn’t there!”

  “It’s doing something around Mr. Magician!”

  Ms. Snow’s words echoed through the hall. The floor around Mr. Magician started breaking and the ceiling right above him opened.

  A gust of wind pushed Mr. Magician up, sending him to the second floor as the ceiling started closing up as if nothing happened.

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  “Captain!”

  Mr. Magician screamed out in fear before the floor on the second floor completely closed up.

  The group of mystics on the first floor could only watch in horror and disbelief as their newest member was kidnapped right in front of their eyes.

  Rouge shook his head and then gave his orders to the group of mystics.

  “Ms. Snow, lead the way. We will search the first floor first.”

  “Huh! What about Mr. Magician!?”

  Ms. Snow protested but she received no reaction from her captain. Mr. Rouge took out his ceremonial dagger and looked at the stairs leading to the second floor as he spoke.

  “You are an experienced mystic. You know as well as I do that, we as mystics have to act with absolute discretion, otherwise death. Pray to the goddess for his safe return.”

  Ms. Snow felt pity for her newest coworker. He nearly died on his first day and tonight may become the night he dies.

  Ms. Snow had dropped the pendant in her hand when she saw Mr. Magician being dragged into the second floor.

  The divination had stopped, and the pendant returned to be a normal piece of accessory. As the pendant was bound to her hand it didn’t fall on the floor.

  Ms. Snow started chanting her divination statement again and restarted the divination. Mr. Specter felt anger well up inside of him, he started worrying about his new sparring partner.

  On the second floor, Mr. Magician was left alone by the spirits after being brought there… Did they want to separate us? Why did they leave me alone after going through all that trouble?

  Mr. Magician stood up and patted his clothes to get rid of any dirt and dust. Suddenly, he heard a loud knocking sound coming from a door two meters from him.

  “I heard noise. Is… Is there someone out there?!”

  “Huh?”

  A whisper followed by a shaky voice sounded from the room behind the door… Should I answer? Spirits shouldn’t be able to speak, right?

  Mr. Magician made his choice and hoped that nothing bad would follow his decision.

  “Yes, I am… The Magician.”

  “…”

  Silence followed Mr. Magician’s words, he felt his embarrassment redden his cheeks. He still wasn’t used to introducing himself as the Magician.

  A moment passed and before he could open his mouth to speak again, the voice inside the room interrupted him.

  “Are you a mystic? There are spirits in the house, me and my teammates have sealed ourselves in this room. Most of my team are hurt, can you take care of the spirits?”

  Mr. Magician thought for a moment, he felt that something was off. He thought it best that he was careful about his choice of words before answering… Didn’t they cooperate with the captain and the other two? They should know that mystics from the Silver Moon is here, why are they specifically asking me to do it?

  After ignoring his confusion, Mr. Magician decided to give a rather direct answer.

  “I am here for the spirits. Silver Moon believers are on their way, hold out till then.”

  Voices could be heard coming from the room on the other side of the door. They sounded exhausted but relieved.

  “Thank you, Mr. Magician! Thank you!”

  Mr. Magician didn’t answer back, instead he decided to pick up his ceremonial dagger that he had dropped on the floor.

  He walked further down the hall as he softly muttered a careful thought of divination statement while holding a pendent in his left hand.

  “Show me the location of spirits in this house.”

  “Show me the location of spirits in this house.”

  “Show me the location of spirits in this house.”

  The pendent in his hand started levitating forward with a blinding light that soon subsided. The pendant led him forward as he took careful steps forward.

  Mr. Magician soon noticed an anomaly in the pendant, a spirit simply drifting further into the house, away from him… It hasn’t noticed me yet. I should avoid it, I can’t exorcize it.

  Mr. Magician couldn’t stop himself from thinking another rather stupid and dangerous thought… But I can seal it.

  Mr. Magician started weighing his options. Returning to his team is the best choice but he didn’t know what he would do if he was attacked by spirits from two sides… Trapping the spirits while waiting for the captain to exorcize them is the best option, albeit dangerous.

  Magician made up his mind. With the hand that held the ceremonial dagger, Magician brought out a vial that contained water from the underground temple.

  He dislodged the cork sealing the vial with his mouth and poured the water on the floor, creating a large triangle. He took one step back from the triangle and looked at the spirit through the pendant.

  After putting down the vial, Magician gripped his ceremonial dagger even harder. He took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself.

  He planned to lightly kick the vial to make a clear but low sound as to not draw more attention than necessary. But unfortunately, the spirit didn’t want to do as Mr. Magician had hoped it would. It suddenly turned around and saw him.

  “Shit…”

  He softly cussed as the spirit rushed towards him. While anxiety washed over his body, he couldn’t help but think a depressing thought… Now or never, preferably now!

  Remembering his mystical lessons, Mr. Magician pointed the tip of the silver dagger towards one corner of the large water triangle on the floor.

  When the spirit was within the confines of the triangle, Mr. Magician infused spirituality into the dagger and moved it along an imaginary line in the air that corresponded to the water triangle.

  Ethereal walls erected from the triangle on the floor, effectively trapping the spirit inside.

  As he let out a sigh of relief, he watched as the sprit flew into the ethereal walls time and time again, producing loud banging noises.

  …

  The man unbound by gravity continued to drift along an unknown solar system. He thought back about his first act as a Mystic… That spirit sure scared me. To this day I am still surprised that captain and the others only trained me for one hour on how to create a spiritual barrier with a ceremonial knife.