Old World Magic

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Authors note: This story is pure fiction. Names, characters, incidents and locations are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental.

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In the middle of the night, as Erin lay sleeping soundly, I woke with a powerful jolt. My entire body felt as if it had been slapped. When I was a kid my friends and I would take rubberbands and wrap them around our fingers and make 'guns' with our hands. Then by lowering our thumb, we could 'shoot' the rubber band at each other. No one ever got hurt too bad, but if you got 'shot' in a sensitive spot, like your neck or face, man would it hurt for a little bit. That's exactly what it felt like right now, but across every single square inch of my body.

Stifling a cry of pain, I rolled out of the king sized bed quietly and found the silk pajama pants I'd lost at some point during Erin's and my passion. I slipped them on and stumbled towards the door. The pain wasn't abating in the least and my head was throbbing as if there was someone inside my skull pressing outwards. It wasn't a headache, it was just unrelenting pressure.

I had the presence of mind to grab my key card before I stumbled into the hallway. This was magic. Something magical had happened and I didn't know what. But I did know where to find a mage at this hour in the pre dawn morning, and thankfully she liked to stay up for days at a time. I was pretty sure this was one of the days she didn't sleep.

Emily Whitefeld looked concerned when I stumbled into her office, brushing right past her secretary. "Mike, what..."

"Help," I said rubbing my hairless torso as if looking for a way to stop the painful stinging sensation.

Emily was up and out of her office chair and at my side quickly, and led me to the couch in her office where she lay me down, "Mike what's happening? What's going on?"

"I... I don't know..." I gasped as another wave of pressure in my head hit me. "My skin feels like I've been dunked in ice water and then thrown into an oven over and over. My head feels like it's about to explode." I shuddered as another wave of sparkling pain passed over me "Came out of no where, I was sleeping, woke up like this."

Emily sighed, stood up, and went over to her desk. I heard her dial a number on the phone and then start speaking to someone. "Yeah sorry to call at this time of... Oh good glad I didn't wake you then... yeah here at the Casino...No, I'm fine, it's one of my guests."

She looked over at me, then spoke into the phone, "Yeah that's him, you met him already huh?" Another long pause as she listened and then she said, "Well, that's it then, backlash aftershocks. no... no... no, he told me it was sunburn... Ok Hector, take your time. I think it might be good for him to sweat this one out then... Yeah, ok, see you in an hour."

She hung up the phone and then came over to me, her face a mask of disappointment and anger. "Well," she said standing in front of me and planting her hands on her hips, the classic dissapointed school marm. "I hope you're enjoying this you idiot."

I looked up at her and realized my teeth were chattering as the pain had transitioned into alternating chills and sweats. I said nothing but she looked down at me and said, "Hector told me your hospital visit was a serious case of reality backlash. He figures you were either casting wild magic or trying to go outside your milieu."

I looked up at her the question on my face as I hugged my body. "Outside of your area of magic," she said with an exasperated sigh. "Just like you can't cast my magic. I told you each type of mage has their own domain, yours is mental magic. What happened did you think you'd try to make it rain or summon a rabbit or throw a lightning bolt?"

I shook my head, "It was my own magic." I said through chattering teeth. I took a deep breath and tried to explain, "I know how to push a suggestion to someone, but I pushed too hard I guess. It was something they really didn't want to do, and I made sure they'd do it."

Emily threw her hands in the air and let out an exasperated sigh, her third in less than as many minutes. "Ignoramus," she muttered and then turned back to her desk. Pressing the intercom she spoke, "I'm going to have a visitor shortly, a Mr. Brown will be asking to see me directly. Please make sure he is brought to my office straight away. Inform the front desk."

Then she walked to her bar and poured two drinks. She brought one to me and then sat on the leather chair next to the couch and drank her own. "Don't spill that, it's a Glenlivet twentyfive, costs four hundred dollars a bottle. But do drink it, you'll need it. Alcohol helps with backlash aftershocks."

I carefully sipped the scotch and was amazed. I'd never drank anything as smooth and wonderful as this. I'd had ten year old scotch before, but this was amazing, smooth and smoky and just a little sweet. It instantly made me feel a little better. I stopped shaking so much and the pressure in my head lessened. "What's that mean, aftershocks?" I finally asked.

"Well," Emily said, setting down her now empty glass, "You know what the reality backlash was obviously, you cast the spell and ended up in the hospital." I certainly did. The spell I'd cast was a mental command on Erin's father, Francis Solaris, that he'd make things right and then kill himself. The spell was so powerful and took so much out of me, more importantly that it tampered with reality so much, that reality literally punished me for it. Emily continued, "Well aftershocks are tied to that spell. Whenever the spell ends, you get ripples of the reality aftershock traveling through the universe as the abomination you created dissipates."

I must have had a lost look on my face so she tried to explain, "Ok, Adam Saks should have explained this all to you at some point in your training."

I shook my head, "He explained reality, and backlashes, but never aftershocks." I thought back to the first night I'd met Adam and he'd told me about how using magic reshapes reality. I remembered his coffee cup analogy, and then I gasped. "Emily you said mages can't cast spells outside of their domain?" She nodded and I said, "But I remember when I first met Adam he levitated a coffee carafe. If mages are stuck with their own type of magic, how could he levitate something?"

Emily paused, and then smiled, "Did he do it before you were awakened into mage dom?"

"Yes, does that..." She interrupted me before I could finish my thought.

"Then I'd be willing to bet you that he didn't actually levitate anything. He simply made you think that you were seeing something levitate." She smiled as if it should have been obvious.

But still, I realized that I'd learned to cast a type of magic from a succubus when Ruby had taught me, and I could pull off her card trick of forcing any card still in the deck to the top with no problem. These were two types of magic that fell outside of my 'domain' of mental magic. "So...." I said hesitatingly, "...no mage can cast magic outside his domain?"

Emily bobbed her head side to side and said, "Well I suppose if they knew the spell and dumped a ton of mana into it, and were willing to suffer a huge reality backlash penalty just for a minor spell, they might be able too."

That didn't make sense, I'd practiced for hours with Emily's trick and likewise hours with Ruby's glamour when she'd taught it to me, and I'd never suffered any drawbacks or backlash, just the normal flow of mana that happened when I cast spells. "So other than that, no mage can cast multiple domains?"

Emily looked at me with a grin, "Yup, well, no. There are the rare mage that have no limits, we call them Archmages, and they are fucking scary bastards I'll tell you. You never know if you're going to get a fireball to the face, mind fucked, or have to face a summoned hell hound if you go up against one of them." She shuddered slightly, "That's why the silence watches over all Archmages very carefully. Usually they recruit them, and I'd rather close this casino then have to go work for those creeps personally."

Archmage, could I be an archmage? Was that possible? I knew now for sure that I'd better keep a very tight lid on the fact that I could cast spells from multiple domains. I wasn't really sure what this whole 'silence' group was, but I had a very strong feeling I didn't want to find out. The fact that neither Adam Saks, my mentor, nor Elder Creaklimb, the ancient treant, had ever mentioned them to me meant that they didn't want me to know about them. I realized Emily had just asked me something while I'd been woolgathering and asked her, oh so eloquently, "Huh?"

She rolled her eyes and said, "So you understand aftershocks now?"

"I'm really sorry Emily," I said holding out the empty glass that had contained the scotch, "I drifted for a moment there, could you explain again, and," I grinned, "Maybe another glass?"

She sighed and snatched my glass and returned to the bar. When she came back she handed me another glass of scotch, but held out her own tumbler. She'd filled it to the very brim with water. It was so full I could see it bulging up over the rim slightly. She set it down on the table between the chair and the couch and the surface tension of the water barely managed to keep any from spilling over. I sipped the scotch as she explained. Pointing at the glass of water she said "Existence, right?"

I nodded and she said, "So if this glass represents all of existence, the surface of the water is our reality, ok?"

I nodded again and she leaned forwards and blew lightly on the surface of the water, it rippled but didn't break, and no water rolled down the side despite the glass being over full. "A good mage can change reality without causing a disturbance that breaks the surface." Then she reached up to her eyebrows and pulled out a single hair. She dropped the hair onto the surface of the water where it floated, "a less skilled mage can weave a spell that doesn't break the surface, but is visible to anyone who knows to look for it."

Then she looked at me and grinned. Leaning over to the glass of water she flicked the surface, spraying a few droplets of water in my face and splashing more water to the table below. "But when you brute force a spell, you create a ton of waste, and look at the result." The water in the glass was now below the rim, and it was all choppy and rippled as the waves bounced around back and forth in the glass.

"Your spell that put you in the hospital was that third type. It disturbed reality and the waves that bounced back and all over the place was the payment, the backlash, you suffered. But look, there's still echos, still ripples in the glass, right?"

I nodded, and she smiled, "That's what you've got now. Your spell ended. The backlash you suffered was the splash on your face, but there's still these tiny ripples that are hitting you now. Not as big, but still noticeable."

I nodded and finished my second glass of scotch. "So why did the spell 'end' then?"

"Whoever you implanted with a suggestion must have finally carried out whatever task you set him too, and now there's no more reason for the spell to exist." She said with a smile.

So that was it then. Francis Solaris, the father of the red headed beauty that I'd spent several hours tonight fucking, had finally killed himself. I couldn't say I was unhappy about that, the man was a monster. He was a rabid dog and I put him down before he could bite anyone else. Still it made me wonder, why was I suffering so much for this one spell.

"Emily," I asked, "Can I be jaded for a moment?" She nodded and cocked a single eyebrow. "It seems like the more I learn about magic, the more it becomes obvious to me that it kind of sucks. There's so many rules, so many punishments, so many ways you could fall and get into deep trouble. Why do it at all?"

Emily sat back in the chair and stared at the ceiling for a good full minute before she answered. "There's no real reason Mike. You're right, some mages find it too tough, they drop out. They go to work in an office, or on a line somewhere, or whatever. They find a wife, adopt some kids, and then when it becomes obvious they aren't aging the same, they put a gun in their mouth or jump off a bridge." Her mention of adoption reminded me again how a mage could only conceive a child with another mage. "They want a 'normal' life, and the rest of us try to respect that. But personally I think that's a fucking cop out. That's like saying you don't want to own a car because you're scared you won't be able to afford it, you think gas is too expensive, or you can't pick out a color you like."

She turned and stared at me, "Yeah, being a mage is fucking tough, and keeping it a secret is even tougher. There's all sorts of rules and magic can be fucking unreliable sometimes, but you know what? Fuck those guys that can't hack it. I wouldn't be where I am today without my gift. How about you?"

I sighed and closed my eyes, "Married to a cheating wife, and probably collecting unemployment."

"Fucking A," Emily said, "fucking A." We sat in silence for a while and I knew that we were both comparing our lives to what it would have been like without magic.

But then the silence was interrupted by the office door opening. A dark skinned black man entered and I immediately recognized him, he was one of the first people I'd seen in the hospital when I'd woken up from my trip to the other world. I jumped to my feet, but then a wave of vertigo knocked me flat and I fell back to the couch. He laughed and said, "Don't yuh get up mr. Naughton, yuh jus' stay right there."

Emily stood up and moved to hug the older looking man. "Hector thanks for coming, Mike's an idiot."

"We all were at his age Miss Emily," Hector said laughing, "Yuh know we all were. Now let me see tuh his aftershocks an we can all get on with our day."

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Hector had laid hands on me, and I realized that he was a healer of sorts. I tried to follow the thread of his spells but it was over with too quickly for me to get a good grasp on it. After I spoke with the two of them for a while, then returned to my room, eager to get a little more sleep. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen right away.

Erin was awake and bustling about, packing up her clothes and things. She explained to me that there was a 'family emergency' and she had to leave for home, had to go see her mother right away. I knew that her mother must have found out about Francis Solaris's suicide, and called her in the middle of the night.

Erin assured me that she'd get the agency to send a girl over. She said Kara was quite interested in working with me again and I agreed that it would be fine. I told her that I understood and would have no complain on one stipulation. She glared at me, angry that I'd be putting her contract before her family needs. But then I told her that the only stipulation was that I didn't want her to prostitute herself until she spoke with me, that I'd see about getting her a job at the Hideaway, but only if she wasn't out turning tricks on the street or for her shitty agency. She threw herself in my arms and broke down crying. I held her and comforted her, and saw her into a town car in the lobby as the sun was breaking the horizon. She promised she'd be in touch.

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The day I'd been preparing for all week came with a flurry of activity. After Erin's departure, Kara showed up a few hours later. Her hair wasn't white this time, but a honey blonde, and longer, down just past her shoulders in what most women would have called 'a rachel cut'. I didn't care for it overly much, but Kara was eager, and practically mauled me when she arrived. I think she was actually eager for another good fuck like I'd thrown her the night before. She admitted that she'd never in her life squirted when she orgasmed, and she found it hot being painted with my cum the way i had. So who was I to let a lady down? Thanks to Brookesbend's gift, Kara got a second thundering orgasm where she sprayed ejaculate all over, then took an inhuman amount of my spunk. Well, actually that happened a few times, as Emily had given me this last day off to rest and relax. So I spent the better part of the day fucking the hell out of Kara, then went to bed at a very early hour, early at least for me.

When the sun rose the day of the tournament, I was up and ready to go. Kara didn't sleep with me, but was in her side of the suite, in a bed that could only be described as 'obviously fucked upon.' The gentlemanly thing to do would have been to get her clean sheets from room service at the least, but if she couldn't figure that out, she could sleep in a king sized wet spot for all I cared. I was for all intents and purposes, done with her and the escort service that both she and Erin worked for.

Normally I'm a gentleman about such things, but this was different. I really felt no emotional connection to Kara at all. She was a whore, here for me to get my rocks off with, relax, and 'recharge' my mana batteries. Now I'm not the kind of guy who looks down on a woman because she gets paid for sex, but I am the kind of guy who looks down on a woman who acts like she's only in it for the money. While Kara might have enjoyed the sex, I could tell she was a bit cold and distant, emotionally sealed off, and she really only was here for the money and the easy job. Finishing out Erin's contract for less than a day meant a good chunk of Erin's pay, and she already had fucked me once so she knew I wasn't 'gross' like some of her other clients. So when I shut the door on her the night before the tournament, I knew I was done with her. I locked the door so she was on her side of the suite, and then went to bed by myself, full of mana, and quite happily drained of cum.

The morning of the tournament Emily showed up at my door just after I'd finished getting ready. I'd showered, prepared, and was pouring myself a cup of coffee. I didn't need the coffee of course, but it made me feel better, it was soothing to me. It was a bit of that ritual that helped one make sense out of life and prepare to face the day.

She entered with a man that I could only describe as the plainest most uninteresting looking man I'd ever seen. His voice was a perfect monotone at a completely normal pitch. He had a normal haircut with just a touch of grey, was probably five foot ten inches tall, and was dressed in a suit, but one that was obviously off the rack and inexpensive.

Emily introduced him to me as "Mr. J." but wouldn't say anything other than that. Apparently the man liked his privacy and obscurity. He was a mage, I knew that the moment he walked in. But Emily explained that he was a body shaper, and one she'd hired to come here and mold her, before she and I had met, obviously. But she wanted to know if I wanted any body shaping before the tournament, since she'd already paid him.

Running a hand across my bald head, I admitted I did miss hair. I asked if he could undo the permanent state of baldness I was under. He nodded and guessed right off the bat that I'd come under the care of Renia. When I asked how he knew, he explained that all new mages she worked on, usually left her care bald as an egg. He asked if I wanted beard hair or ... anything else. But I declined, I had gotten used to not shaving and I figured I could go for a while without having to deal with that hassle. Twenty minutes later I had a fuzzy dome of black hair. A buzz cut would probably be the best way to describe my head, and it felt good to finally have hair again after so long without.

But then it was off to the other casino for the big poker tournament. At first I was nervous carrying the small canvas case containing four hundred thousand dollars in cash (Emily had already paid 20% down to reserve the seat), but I didn't need to be. The town car carried me into a private garage where I was met with casino security, who escorted me directly to the cage. They took my money, checked my name as one of the registered applicants, and then saw me to the private room where the tournament would be held.