Old World Magic Ch. 14

My method of casting spells was very heavily rooted in visual imagery. Since my magic was based on mental manipulation and mind reading, most of my spells started with my own mind. I had learned to visualize my mind as a room. It had started as a classroom that I'd taught in a lifetime ago, but had changed over the weeks of practice. Now my room was a safe haven, it was more like a small efficiency apartment than a single classroom. The main room was where I spent the most time when I started spell work. For the main room had the door that lead out to other people's minds. It also had windows which I could simply observe without taxing myself. But there were other rooms if I needed them. There were closets where I could store things, safe from the sight of anyone who might visit, such as Adam when he chose to read my mind. There were other rooms, rarely visited, the bedroom for example where i could examine my dreams and ponder their shape and form. There was the bathroom inside my head where i could shower and cleanse myself, using pure mana to get rid of any 'taint' or 'backlash' that I'd accrued with my spells.

But to read another's mind, I always had to leave through the front door. From there I could step into their mind, or I could pull the information into my own, and sift through it at my leisure. But while I was focusing on that, while I was working the magic of those spells, I had very little concentration to spend on the real world. So I could nod, grunt, throw out the rare comment that might make it seem like I was lost in thought. But I certainly couldn't perform tasks that required my full attention; like play a hand of poker.

I pondered my dilemma as I sat at the table, slowly losing my $1 chips to the nice old ladies. There were four of them, friends from church they'd told me, though I had already forgotten their names. It wasn't important, though they seemed gleeful to have a 'nice young man' sitting with them. I'm sure they didn't mind taking my money either as I lost or folded hand after hand.

Poker at a casino was a little different than other card games. The house didn't play, you only played against your opponents. There were five, seven, and nine player tables, and each player paid an hourly 'sit fee' to play against the others. There was a casino dealer, and it was considered good form to tip the dealer if you won a big pot. But it was low risk for the casino, and with the amount that poker had gained in popularity in the last few years, easy money for them.

I sighed, returning to reality enough to toss in my blind when I was made large blind, and then threw a $20 chip to the dealer for no reason. He smiled and nodded at me, "Thank yuh suh," he said in a deep southern accent.

It was just enough of a shock to my system that I turned to look at him. Crisply dressed in his uniform, with immaculately trimmed fingernails, he looked the perfect image of a card dealer in a casino. His skin had a healthy glow to it, a deep dark black skin that shone under the bright casino lighting. His smile was practiced and easy, but seemed genuine enough.

"You're welcome Tevon," I said reading his name tag. I added, mostly for show, "But I'd like some good cards this hand, these ladies are fleecing me!"

The women giggled and the dealer chuckled but said nothing. Something however was tickling my imagination. I couldn't sense what it was, but I was on the verge of an idea. I didn't know why, but looking at the dealer, I had something...something...something.... Something was trying to get my attention. I folded my hand in disgust when I was dealt a three nine off suit. But instead of going back into my mind to work the spells, I stayed here in the real world to try to figure out what the thought was on the edge of my mind.

It was like when you ate something and it got stuck in my teeth, I couldn't quite get the thought, but it was all consuming as I grasped for it. Something about my last few moments had been important.

Tevon the dealer? No, that wasn't it. The old ladies beating me at poker? No, not that either. The tip I gave, Tevon's uniform, his accent? No no no.

I put a $50 chip on my spot and stood up, "Washroom ladies, I'll be back right away." I stood up and backed away from the table so I could take it in as a whole, thinking maybe that would trigger it. Sighing, I walked to the washroom to relieve myself.

I nodded at Jamie, one of the pit bosses who'd been briefed of my status as a special guest by Mz. Whitefeld herself. He nodded back and then turned to watch over the blackjack tables in his section.

I stopped right in the middle of the casino floor. That was it! I looked back at the poker table I'd just left, then at the higher stakes tables on a different part of the floor. The poker tables didn't have as much security. I took one last look, fixing the images in my head, then went to the washroom, I had been drinking beer after all as I played.

I thought it over though, why did the security matter? Obviously they had security at the poker tables, they had too in order to prevent cheating. But it wasn't as big a priority, because if anyone was getting cheated, it was one player versus another, and the over the table cameras could catch it and be reviewed after the fact. The casino didn't care about catching cheaters at those tables, because they didn't really stand to lose anything. They just had security so that they could tell who was cheating if someone got called out.

I slapped my hand against the tile wall of the bathroom above the urinal and let out a wordless shout of joy, "YAHHH!" I smirked broadly, I had an idea, possibly a great idea. I made sure I washed and dried my hands well before making my way back to poker table with the old ladies. I had a new strategy to try. As I did, I smiled up at one of the omnipresent black plastic globes that dotted the ceiling by the hundreds, covering every inch of the casino floor. "Thanks," I said to the black globe, "You've just given me a great idea."

- - -

I sat inside my mental room that was my visualization of my own mind. The main room had a large blank wall. With a thought it became a view screen as big as the wall itself. Then I looked out the 'window' and smiled. There, close by, I could see the visual representation of the four old women and the dealer. Further off in the distance, hazier, everyone else in the casino. Proximity made mind reading easier. Now normally I'd open the door and step into the minds of one of my fellow players, or draw in their thoughts and work with them in my room. But the problem was that there was just so much information and it was difficult sorting through all of it.

But magic was a mysterious force that I was in control of, wasn't I? I needed a filter, and what better way to do it than terms and images I was familiar with. I drew mana into myself and formed it. Then placing the still smoking mass of pure energy on the ground, I watched as it took the shape I desired; a computer. It looked like one of the old computers I had in school when I was a child, an Apple II, I think it was called. Monochrome monitor, keyboard built into the computer itself, and big floppy drives, it was glorious in it's own way. But it wasn't real, it wasn't an Apple, it was just a representation of a spell that I'd created. As I watched cords snaked out of the back of it and into the wall sized view screen. Then I turned back and went to the door of my mind. I opened it, and the women's minds rushed towards me, eager to reveal their secrets. But I held them off for now. I created four more balls of glowing mana and set them loose. As they zipped towards each of the women's minds they changed, turning from glowing balls to cameras on dragonfly wings. I smiled and closed my door and turned back to the viewscreen.

The screen resolved into four separate sections, and each one began filling with random images, thoughts, memories, etc from each of the four women. The images were too fast and completely indecipherable. This was why I usually had to weed through them myself, and with great care. The human mind simply thought too quickly for me to determine the multitude of different thoughts all occurring at once. But this was where the computer came in.

"Computer," I said, actually referring to the spell I'd created, "Filter out any thoughts not relating to poker."

Instantly the flood of images slowed to a trickle. Now there were only thoughts and memories related to the card game. But there was still too much. These women had lived decades more than me, and I was almost forty (despite being in the body of a twenty one year old). Every memory of poker flitted through their minds, making it too hard to decipher.

I called out, "Filter images to be only current thoughts and feelings, not memories."

The view screens all changed instantly. Now instead of a flash of images rolling by too quickly to decipher, each of the four quadrants showed just one image that changed at a reasonable rate, or moved along in real time. The problem was that none of the images were about poker. One lady was thinking about her cat, that she'd left at home. One lady was wondering if she should have another drink this early in the afternoon. One was worried about her daughter, thinking that her son in law might be unable to find work. The last was simply fantasizing about a vacation cruise. The last's imagination was so strong in fact I could swear I was watching events that were really happening, not a fantasy. Interspersed throughout all these images there were brief flashes of their cards, of me sitting at the table, of Tevon the dealer, but they were too quick. These women weren't playing the game seriously and their minds weren't on the game.

"Computer," I called, emulating the characters on a sci fi show I used to like when I was younger, "Now filter the images to only visual images that are occurring in the present, and disregard anything else, still keeping it limited to poker."

Better, but still not perfect. Now all the quadrants were blank, but occasionally flashes would show up of their cards or chips. I grinned, and added, "Now, any time one of them thinks about their current hand, or looks at their current cards, freeze their quadrant on that image."

It took a few moments, but eventually all four quadrants were lit up with a visual image of what the ladies were holding. I smiled, this was going to work! I added one last command, "Ok computer, run this program until I shut it down, and refresh the screens at the beginning of each and every new hand."

I returned to the real world to let my weak pair of 7s be beaten by the lady worried about her cat. Then the new hand started. I waited a few moments, and then closed my eyes. I dipped back into my mind for just a half of a second. Just long enough to look at the huge viewscreen and the four images that sat upon it. Four poker hands.

Smiling I opened my eyes again in the real world, and folded my hand. Then I waited, and sure enough, each woman had the exact cards I'd been expecting. The program worked, and now I could see what they had in their hands without all the time constraints of sifting through their mind. No one would hastle a poker player for closing his eyes and thinking for a second or two, and that was all I needed to know what they had in their hands!

"I feel like my luck is about to change," I announced to the table, "Lets play some cards."

- - -

I played with the old women for about another two hours, and each time, my new spell worked perfectly. I made sure to lose a fair amount, I didn't want to take these nice old ladies money from them after all. Though I did win back just a little of what I'd already lost. I finally begged off after purposely losing three hands in a row. There was a kindly old gentleman who was eager to take my spot anyways.

I stopped and handed my chip tray to Jamie, the pit boss, and nodded towards the table I'd just vacated, "Those four women? Comp em their rooms, tell em it's from the casino for being such lovely players. Give them tickets to something and a dinner voucher too."

Jamie looked at my chips, "On the casino?"

I smiled, "In this case, I represent the casino Jamie." Then I pat him on the back and made my way towards the elevator banks. I was feeling a little run down and needed a mana top off, I hoped Erin was in the room, because I knew just how to handle that kind of a top off.

One of the other things I'd been practicing over the last few days was my control over the 'gift' that Brooksbend had given me. I wasn't sure what the 'gift' was exactly other than I seemed to be drawn to the element of water, and it seemed to make me produce copious amounts of semen. After that first incident in the shower, I found out that I could 'control' it to an extent. If I allowed myself to stop ejaculating during orgasm, I would. But, if like in the shower, I simply let the waves of pleasure flow through me, I'd continue to spill my seed at a supernatural rate. The one thing I hadn't yet figured out if that meant yet, was if that copious ejaculation meant that I was now 'fertile'. See, one of the things that I'd learned early on from Adam was that Mages like us were often unable to conceive a child with a normal non-mage. It was why my wife and I, before I'd met Adam, had never been able to have a child. Over the last few days the only woman I'd had sex with was Erin, and obviously she was on birth control anyways. I pondered it as I pushed the button in the elevator that would take me to the upper floor where my suite was located.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, I had a slight headache. It must be from the flashing lights and noise of the casino floor. I hadn't been sleeping much the last few days. I'd been having a lot of sex with Erin, which gave me the mana pool I needed to work my spells, and also siphoning some of that mana off to keep me awake. I should probably sleep soon though.

I began to feel a little light headed and looked up at the display on the elevator as it counted up. Man, I was feeling really tapped out actually. Maybe I'd just take a nap and not give Erin the dick once I got up to my room.

*bing* The elevator chimed and stopped on the fourth floor. I felt the elevator car swaying around me and my eyes felt like they were burning, a headache springing from nowhere suddenly burst across my brain. The doors of the elevator slid open and a family looked in at me. The father asked in a horrible midwest accent, "Go-in down?"

I shook my head no and pointed up at the ceiling as a wave of nausea hit me, adding to the near migraine headache. What was going on? This wasn't normal, this wasn't natural, something was wrong. The wife of the family looked in at me and said, "Hey you don't look so good, you ok?"

I nodded my head, but didn't trust myself to speak. I slapped the door close button and managed to stay standing as the doors shut on the family looking in at me. As soon as they shut I fell face first into the wall of the elevator cab and slid down to the ground. Feedback, this felt like the feedback that had happened after I'd forced my spell on Francis Solaris. But it wasn't quite the same. I felt like I was being torn in two.

I closed my eyes and retreated to the sanctity of my mental 'apartment' to try to figure this out. Now it's important to realize that the apartment in my head wasn't real. It was just a visual representation of my health, the spells I was casting, my general state of wellness. So you can imagine my surprise when I entered my mental sanctum and found it on fire.

The 'computer' I'd created with mana as a spell to filter the results earlier was throwing off sparks and had gouts of flame leaping from it. The giant screen on the wall still showed images of the women's poker hands. But most disturbingly, in addition to being on fire, chunks of the ceiling and walls were simply falling apart.

I would have slapped myself, but there wasn't a moment to lose. Every second things got exponentially worse. Pointing at the computer I willed it out of existence. It vanished as the spell that it represented dissolved into ether. Then I sent out mental commands and the spells that I had placed on the four old women likewise broke up and vanished. Immediately the pressure that had been building vanished. I felt the headache vanish and the flames in my mental 'home' burned out leaving scorched walls.

Returning my focus back to the real world and not my mental state, I breathed a sigh of releif. That had been a very close call. I'd almost suffered another aggressive feedback attack. I stood up, leaning heavily on the wall, and considered what had just happened. I'd created a new spell, two new spells actually. One that would gather the thoughts of multiple people at once, and another that would filter out the results of their minds for me. It seemed to be working fine, but as I got further and further from the targets, the drain on my mana to maintain the spells became exponentially more costly. As the elevator took me further and further from the casino where the four old women sat, the spells drained my mana more and more rapidly. Then when there was none left, it began trying to keep the spell running without any fuel. So it went to the next available source of energy.... me.

I shuddered as I realized how simple a mistake I'd made. I simply hadn't stopped the spell that was eavesdropping on their minds. Now I was not only completely drained, but I'd suffered some painful effects. If I hadn't stopped the spells when I had, it likely would have killed me. As it was I needed to rest, to regain my mana. No, what I really needed was to fuck and then rest. The need was overwhelming, it was a hunger, a drive, the lack of mana in my injured system was a hungry beast roaring inside me.

The elevator finally stopped at my floor and I uttered a mumbled prayer that Erin was in the room. I stumbled down the hall and managed to feed the key card into the lock on only the third try. Pushing the door open I called out as I began unbuttoning my shirt, "Erin! Erin, I need you!"

But the sight before me as I entered the main bedroom of the suite was equally unexpected and most welcome. Cheyenne lay on my bed, smiling, wearing only a black bra and panty set. I stopped stunned, my cock twitching at the sight of the caramel skinned, curvy, exotic beauty. Grinning wildly she stretched on the bed slowly, languorously, like a cat in a beam of sunlight and said, "I haven't seen you in days Mike, I had to come see you on my day off." Then she ran her hands back up and down her body, hugging the curves of her body and she sighed softly, "I hope you don't mind."

Here was one of the sexiest young women I'd met since starting my new life as a mage. Her mixed native american ancestry gave her all the right curves and just the exotic enough look I needed to feel my cock straining against the inside of my pants. I knew she had a little bit of a crush on me, and she obviously was hoping for some sex based on the way she was dressed and lounging on my bed. But, despite the obvious intention, I paused for a moment and asked, "Where's Erin, and how'd you get in?"

I wasn't prepared for her reaction. While her sexy smile continued, the wave of crushing thoughts from her almost flattened me. It must be because my mental 'defenses' were so shattered from the damaging spell work I'd done earlier, but I heard her thoughts as if she was shouting them through a megaphone. It wasn't a single thought, but a human mix of emotions, experiences, and reactions to my question. Fear and insecurity were primary in the blast. She definitely had feelings for me, and she was worried that what little relationship we had, which was very slight in my eyes, was slipping away from her. She also didn't know who Erin was, but was afraid that I may have found someone to 'replace' her as my number one girl in the few days I'd been away from the Hideaway. There was also a question there, hidden in all that emotion, a curiosity. She'd been hurt by men in her life, and it's one of the reasons she went into the job she did. But I'd always been kind to her, loving even. She wondered if there was more to me, if there was something that I had that could give her more than just a good time.