Lady of the Shadows

By Jason Ixios

            I guess it goes without saying that my life is...complicated, the people involved in my life are complicated; their lives are complicated as well.

            I was sitting in my dorm room on this snowy little Sunday in late March, reading the books my parents had sent me for my birthday. Well, I was reading one of them. My parents had sent me two books for my birthday. The one from my mom was a book on dream interpretations; the one from my dad was a book of magical arrays and seals. I know that sounds like odd books for parents to give their children, regardless of their interests. But when you're a family of Alts...

            Lemme start off, and make something clear: Alts are human beings, I can't stress that point enough. We're human beings. Alts have been around since the dawn of Man, and you've heard of us through one form or another. If you've ever heard anything about Wizards, Witches, Shamans, Oracles, Giants, Trolls, Werewolves, Pixies and God-Knows-How-Many-Other legends and stories since legends have existed, you've heard about us.

            It's complicated...

            I was reading the text on arrays, circles and designs meant to evoke energies and magic and use them according to how the design was meant. My father was a bit obsessed with designing them. He would send me whatever designs he came up with, and often several modifications. Sometimes they worked, other times I had to go to the cleaners to get the smoke and God-Knows-What out of my clothes. At least this book had tried and true seals and arrays ranging from binding seals to pacification arrays.

The one array that had taken up a good portion of the book was something simply called Domination. It was a broad circle with about six or seven circles inside of it. In between those circles were symbols and words that were some vague, obscure form of Latin. Underneath the Seal was a blurb

Domination:

A Blood Seal developed somewhere around the Dark Ages. It was supposedly used to bind members of Church to the Mages will. The Seal itself is not enough to use it; the Mage's blood must have a specific, genetic marker. Possibility of this marker is 1 in 1 Billion.

             I had to admit, it was a pretty impressive Seal. One of the known principles of Alts was that it was almost impossible to dominate the will of someone, magic or otherwise. They had to accept being dominated, putting up no resistance. They had to want it. And if I've learned anything from people, we have a natural tendency to resist what did not match their beliefs. This and the fact that only maybe 6 people in the world could use it reassured me that I would never see it in use.

            The text then went on to discuss the moral and philosophical implications of such a Seal, and the need for it. One section talked about it being the work of evil forces in the Alt-Mage community, and that their use of the Seal justified the actions of the Church during the Dark Ages and its Inquisition. Another side considered it a possibility that the Seal was a result of the witch hunts and not vice versa.

            I had to admit, it was cutting it pretty close. As a general rule, Alts keep their natural abilities below the radar from the rest of the world. It all went back to that resistance thing, people resist what they don't want to do, or can't understand. There are a good number of us who feel that the Dark Ages never really ended. People still lived in fear of attacking hordes, plague, and anything that may endanger their way of life. The only difference between then and now is that instead of horses and a town crier its motorbikes and the World Wide Web.

            That's when my cell phone started going off. Call it a hunch, but when the phone goes off at 9 A.M on a Sunday, nothing good can possibly happen. I picked up the phone and looked at the call waiting. The name, DWIGHT appeared in big bold letters.

            I hate it when my hunches are right...

            I pressed the answer button,

            "Hey Dwight...what's wrong?"

            "How did you know something was wrong?" he replied, his voice a little chipper than most campus security guards

            "Call it a hunch, give me the details..."

            Dwight filled me in. I have something of a relationship with campus security. Because of my hobbies, they call on me if anything weird happens. Say, if the soda drafts in the cafeteria start pouring blood, or if the gym's pool starts boiling over, or a Townhouse filled with partying guys and girls passes out simultaneously right on the spot. I'm kinda like their version of Harry Dresden....

'cept he got paid eventually...

I was out of my room and towards the student union, where Dwight said he would wait. I slipped on my large white leather trench coat over a blue t-shirt. It managed to cover most of the baggy, faded green cargo pants I wore. With the trench coat and my pale skin, the only thing that could be seen in contrast to the sheets of snow falling was my pants and my hair.

Before I even got up the hill towards the student union, I could already smell it. It was sickly sweet, and fairly metallic, almost like sheer copper. It left a taste in my mouth that made me think I had a spoonful of pennies in my mouth. Despite the fact that Dwight told me to expect it, the smell of the blood only made me move more quickly. The walk between my dormitory and the Student Union wasn't long, but with several inches of snow on the ground, it was a tough walk, even with my boots on.

Dwight was already on top of the hill along with several other security guards. He greeted me with a cheery smile, which his high cheekbones only emphasized more than he should have. He looked at me cheerily, but the circles under his eyes told me that he was exhausted. That was an understatement, the bags under his eyes each could hold a months worth of groceries. These security guys really did have it hard. Most of them give a *CENSORED* about these kids, want to see us get out of here and make something with our lives, all they tend to see is us at our worst.

What was on the floor probably could be considered for these guys a matinee.

On the ground between the steps of the Student Union and the Cafeteria was a puddle of blood the size of a small SUV. What was odd was that the puddle was in a perfect circle, and what was worse, not a single flake of snow was touching it. The several inches of snow made it look like it was a descended pool of blood. Any snow that fell down on it melted before it could touch it.

A Blood Circle, fantastic...

I explained to Dwight what a Blood Circle was. Where most Mages use staffs, wands, crystals, etcetera as a focal point for magic, some used blood. Those that specialized in Blood Magic were known colloquially as Crimson Mages, or Crims for short. This array had to have been set up by a Crimson Mage, which is interesting in of itself, because I'm the only Crim I know around here. Hell, I was the only Alt around here.

I didn't add that part in to my description to Dwight, mostly because he didn't know about Alts, or that I was one of them, or that I was called Griever in the Alt community. And also because if I did, I would most likely be suspect number one.

            I walked towards the circle and knelt down before it, the snow soaking through the thick fabric of my cargo pants and biting my legs with a numbing cold. I ignored it for the most part, and tried to focus down on the crimson red pool in front of me. I slipped a small silver knife out of my lower sleeve, which made several of the guards put their hands on their guns.

            "Easy," I said, with a touch of command in my voice, but not too much as to get me shot for being an *CENSORED*.

            I took the tip of the knife against my left index finger and applied pressure, not a lot of pressure, but just enough to get a few small drops of my own blood. I concentrated on the small drops, focusing my will and emotion, and using some of the frozen pain in my legs. The drops made ripples along the surface of the red pool.

            "Reveal..." I whispered.

            Then something happened, the ripples changed course. Instead of going outwards, they move inwards. The pool started to grow smaller, if...can something grow smaller?

            Anyway, the pool stopped shrinking; all that was left were several small droplets, and small writing on the stones. I moved in closer stepping onto the hard stone floor. It was different than walking in snow; it took me a few steps to adjust.

            What I saw on the floor, the word on the street, made everything clear. This wasn't some Magic Circle made by some Crim. Only a few drops were made, and then some spell made it grow so someone would notice, and they would in turn call the only person on campus who could know anything about it.

            It was a message, a message directed towards me, and it was written in large enough letters: