Old World Magic Ch. 17

Only after we'd entered her office and she'd locked the doors did she turn and look at me with a serious face. "Ok Mike, as agreed, you get a quarter of the pot." She smirked then and added, "Almost two million dollars, not bad for a few days work, huh?"

I found myself grinning like a fool. It was almost surreal to think about that much money. A little over a year ago I was a high school teacher who was glad to make around fifty thousand a year, "Not bad at all Emily, but I'll bet you don't mind the pay day either, huh?"

Emily nodded, "Well, my Casino does pretty well profit wise. But I won't lie, five and a half mil before taxes is a pretty sweet injection of capital. Though you know I really did it to get back into the poker world series. I wouldn't have been allowed back in without the golden ticket."

She paused and set down her champagne flute on her desk and walked towards me slowly. Her business suit clung to her body and for some reason suddenly I was picking up on quite an erotic vibe from her. She stopped in front of me and her voice was low and quiet. I sensed that she was trying to seduce me in a way, though I'd been living with Ruby, a succubus, for weeks. As sexy as Emily was, she couldn't hold a candle to a demon built for sex and lust. But she ran a finger across my suit's lapel and asked, "How would you like to take home that majority of the pot from tonight instead of just a quarter?"

I stepped back and raised my eyebrow. It almost felt like she was asking to buy a night in bed with me, but that wasn't her way. She was a businesswoman, and besides she knew I was a horn dog. I'd have fucked her for free if that was what she wanted. Instinctively I opened my mind and let the magic flow forth, trying to get a read on what she was thinking. My ability to gather some sort of information from my telepathic spell was becoming almost second nature to me now. But Emily wasn't a normal person, she was a mage also, and so my spell bounced off the constant 'static' that she put up to protect her thoughts.

"Whoa Emily," I said, "What's going on here? I know you're not going to just pay me for sex, so you can drop the sex kitten act. I'm not buying it."

Emily sighed and straightened her shoulders, "Ok Mike, here's the thing. I got put on the shit list because I won, and I won a lot. They didn't know I was cheating, but the casinos all realized that I was taking money whenever I played. That's how I got to be persona non grata. It's why I needed DiMarco's golden ticket."

She turned and walked to her bar and pulled down a bottle and two glasses. "You regain your mana by resting and by fucking. I regain it by rest and making bets. For me it's that thrill of chance, the roll of the dice, the flip of the coin, the spin of the wheel. It fuels my magic and my life. So to be cut off from gambling in Vegas, well, that'd be like you taking a vow of celibacy."

I didn't mean too, but I gasped in shock at that thought. She turned and walked back over to me, handing me a glass of scotch, "Exactly, now you see how much that golden ticket to the poker world series meant to me. What's more is I already have a plan for it. I'm going to try to make it to the bubble, and bust out of the tournament right before the money."

I quirked an eyebrow, "You want to get to the poker world series, but then fail out before you make any money? I don't understand why."

She grinned, "Money doesn't matter to me any more Mike. But being able to gamble does. Anyone who busts out right at the bubble has a huge stigma of being a 'loser' attached to them. The kind of loser who makes it that high in the tournament but fails out before cash? Well, that's the type of person casinos might actually want on their floors. It would be my inroad back into the local games and this time I wouldn't just roll them for every win I could get."

I nodded my head understanding, "This whole thing has just been about getting back in the other casino's good graces?"

Emily smiled and raised her glass, "I can't buy my way off a blacklist, but I can loose enough of my money to get off it, which is close enough for me."

I frowned as she drank her scotch, "But why pay me extra? Let me guess, you want me to disappear? You're paying me hush money?"

She shrugged, "Close enough. I don't want you winning anything of note for the next few years. You're going to be associated with me by those in the know, and I can't have you winning. If you play some tournaments, that's fine, as long as you come in way down in the rankings. But it might be better for you to just fade away after tonight's action. A one time gunslinger who shows up, wins big, and rides off into the night can be dismissed. But if he sticks around and sets down roots, well, people start taking an interest in him."

I nodded glumly, "...and that's how you got blacklisted."

Emily tapped her nose, "so I'll recoup my investment, take enough to cover your expenses this past week, and you can take the rest. Lets say it's about six point six before taxes? All you have to do is agree that you're going to either get out of Dodge, or lay low in terms of pro gambling for say.... the next two or three years?"

I pondered for almost a minute as she refilled our glasses and we drank them silently. But then I asked, "Ok, but I just won a seven point five million dollar pot in one day. Our deal said you'd pay me 25% of that, but now you're going to bump that up a few million and i have to take two or three years off? It doesn't seem like a sound investment to me. I could win far more just by participating in this year's world series main event."

Emily nodded, "If luck stays with you. You're a rookie Mike, don't confuse one very small but lucrative tournament with your potential. Plus, you'll have another major problem. In addition to the casinos watching you, you'll have to start dodging the silence. They won't be too happy with a mage using his powers to subvert gambling culture."

"Ok," I said mildly annoyed, "What the hell is the silence? I've heard it mentioned once or twice, but my mentor, Adam, hasn't said anything about it at all. What, is it some sort of secret illuminati type group?"

Emily shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes, "Think less illuminati, and more like the IRS. They help keep the wizard world running, but god help you if they decide to look closely at your tax return."

I couldn't help but laugh at the analogy, but Emily explained further. "Some of the most powerful mages in our world work for us. That is, they work hard to make sure that the normal people out there don't ever figure out what's going on. They cover up any accidental exposures or misused magic."

"Well," I said setting the now empty drink glass down on a coffee table in Emily's office. "That explains the name I guess, the silence. They keep everything hush hush. So they are like Men in Black, the merlin version?" Emily quirked an eyebrow, obviously she hadn't seen that movie. I asked, "But why? Is it because we don't want to share our powers? Seems a bit selfish."

Emily's eyes went wide, "Oh no Mike that's not it at all. Most people couldn't handle the truth of reality, the vampires, the wizards, the ghosts, etcetera. But it's not just that. Think about the feedback you've felt." I shuddered and Emily nodded sagely, "and that's just reality punishing you for having one person question your ability to reshape reality. Imagine what it would be like if you suddenly had a thousand people questioning reality, a million, a billion. The simplest spell would become instantly lethal to any mage."

I whistled as I considered the ramifications of an educated world, questioning magic every time they were faced with something new. They'd question mundane events as well as magical, and all would be thrown into chaos.

Emily added, "It goes beyond that. Back in the early nineteen eighties there was a mage who thought he could get away with flaunting his power. Specifically he decided he would take a bunch of his close personal friends on a beach vacation... in Antarctica. He used his magic to create an almost tropical paradise on a beach a mile away from a glacier and ice cold ocean waters. Of course, it blew everyone's mind who was invited to his little party. Luckily it was a rather small gathering, about a hundred people or so. Also luckily for us apparently most of them were coked out of their mind."

I chuckled, "Oh the eighties," but Emily shot me a glare, "Sorry continue."

"Anyways," Emily said, "Apparently there was enough doubt in the ability for something like that to happen that it stayed with everyone who was at the party. The mage died of a massive uncontrollable backlash surge that literally ripped his spine from his body... through his chest."

I flinched at the gruesome thought, and emily finished the story, "But the problem was that even with the backlash, the thought was still out there in people's heads. How had there been a tropical paradise in the midst of a frozen glacial beach? How could they get sunburned in bikinis while drinking mai tais only a few hundred feet away from a raging blizzard? It nagged at them even when they weren't thinking about it. So their questioning of reality actually reshaped our world. Boom, a year later, scientists suddenly 'discover' a hole in the ozone layer. Wanna guess where it was centered?"

My jaw was literally hanging open, "No way, the hole in the ozone layer was because a mage decided to throw a beach party?"

Emily shook her head, "Sorta. It wasn't the party itself, it wasn't his magic keeping the area warm, it was the hundred people who questioned reality. If he'd gone there by himself, or even with someone who understood his powers, the backlash would have been no worse than.... oh I don't know, maybe a few days of migraines. But when those hundred people thought about it, told friends, and... ugh... showed pictures of the party to others. Well there was suddenly a massive explosion in reality that had to be explained. Reality reshaped itself in a way that could give people enough of an explanation for what had happened."

I was stunned, absolutely stunned. I'd been a teenager when that whole ozone hole thing was everywhere in the news. It was amazing to think it was the fault of one careless mage. Emily added, "But you don't hear about it much anymore do you? Because after twenty five years reality has managed to reshape everyone's perceptions. We stopped using some chemicals, started recycling, saved a few penguins, and bam, no one thinks about it anymore. So reality reshapes itself and everyone goes along with it like nothing happened, just because one mage thought he could flaunt his powers."

I reached up and rubbed my head, "So the silence, they stop mages from doing that kind of thing?"

Emily nodded, "and a mind reading telepath winning the poker world series is exactly the kind of thing that they would consider a serious threat to our community, and our reality."

I picked up my glass and held it out, "I think I need another drink." Emily smiled grimly and took my glass. I added, "Actually make it a double."

- - -

Emily roused me early the next morning. I'd gone to bed alone for the first time in a week. It was odd how quickly I had gotten used to fucking a hot woman, then passing out. Or waking up to morning sex. Or actually middle of the night blowjobs... well, you get the picture. I had high hopes when Emily entered my suite first thing in the 'morning' bright and early at the crack of ten am. But she was all business, "Come on Mike, get up and dressed. We've got to go sign documents for DiMarco before he will release the funds. Then I've got a money manager to set you up with before I pay you."

I grumbled, and took my morning wood into the shower, alone. After I was dressed Emily and I took one of her casino's town cars to a rather non descript office building in downtown Vegas. There she introduced me to a very nice man whose appearance screamed 'boring accountant' in every possible way. He talked me through various things like 'low yield high return' investments, risk to benefit ratios, and break even formulas. It was all way over my scope and experience, but I got the basic idea; this guy would take care of my money for me.

In all honesty, I probably would have followed the conversation a lot more closely if I hadn't made the realization that this guy had basically the same job that Erin's father, Francis Solaris, used to have. My thoughts during the meeting revolved around the man I'd commanded to commit suicide, and wondering how Erin was doing in the wake of those events.

The meeting ended with Emily Whitefeld shaking the accountant's hand, and agreeing to a transfer of four and a quarter million dollars into a new account they'd created for me. I signed more documents than I could even count, and then the man handed me his business card. He assured me that they would have all the particulars straightened out in a day or two at the most. Then he went into his desk and pulled out a sheet of paper with a rather generic looking credit card on it. There was no name imprinted on it, but he assured me that until the new card came in the mail, this would work for the next fourteen days.

I placed the card in my wallet, wondering if a year ago I'd ever have believed I'd have a card with access to literally millions of dollars riding on my hip.

After that it was off to DiMarco's casino to claim my winnings and sign them over to Mz. Whitefeld. DiMarco didn't make an appearance, and his people made us sign every form they could throw at us. It took some time, and I was glad that Emily had explained how the casino kept thirty three percent of any winnings for taxes, or I may have made a scene when I saw the payouts.

The sun was already starting to dip when we were finally done and ready to leave. But Emily was elated. "I don't feel like going back to the casino just yet Mike. Why don't you take me out for dinner and drinks?"

I smiled and wondered if she was playing some sort of angle. I'd already agreed not to any major gambling ventures. "Sure," I agreed, letting her pick the place. We chatted and talked for hours as we ate, and then sat around in a comfortable bar. I learned quite a bit about Emily even though she was trying to be private with her most personal information. Likewise she learned a lot about my old life, from before I'd become a mage.

Finally, she got down to what I felt she'd been building towards all evening, "Mike, you may want to consider not going back to Ruby's Hideaway."

I shook my head. I didn't have much in my new life in terms of possessions. I could walk away from those few things I owned, especially now that I was literally a millionaire. But I'd made a promise to Ruby, the succubus who ran the brothel, to try to free her from her captivity to that place. Also, Cheyenne was still there, and waiting for me to come back. I knew the half native american beauty was in love with me, and while I didn't quite feel the same, I couldn't just abandon her with no word. "I can't do that Emily, why would you even say that?"

She sighed and looked me in the eyes, "I've been in contact with Adam." The look on her face said it was bad news. My mentor, the man who'd introduced me to magic, the man who'd taught me my mental magic, hadn't tried to contact me once in the week that I'd been in Las Vegas. I'd suspected that it was a bad sign, but I had a sinking feeling that Emily was about to confirm it. "Apparently he gave you leave to go to Vegas for the weekend, and is taking great umbrage at the fact that you disappeared for more than a week. Further, he was making some claim about you using the brothel's credit card without his permission." She held up a hand to forestall my protest and said, "Yes, I made sure all the charges were reversed and paid for them when you and I made our deal. But he knows that you did it in the first place. He's really... what do the kids say now a days... old school? He sees the kind of things you've done as a direct betrayal of his authority as your master."

I narrowed my eyes, "I never agreed that he was my master. He said he would teach me to be a..." I looked around to make sure no one else was within ear shot of the conversation. There were plenty of people around, but everyone was wrapped up in their own little worlds. Still, I lowered my voice as I said, "... teach me to be a wizard. But I never agreed to some old european notion of master / slave just to learn my craft."

Emily raised an eyebrow, "Didn't you? I've known Adam for the better part of a century and he's never agreed to simply teach someone. He usually uses the term 'apprentice' for the people he takes under his wing."

I fell quiet. I remembered that night of the family reunion where Adam had introduced himself to me. When we'd talked about my potential as a mage, he had used that exact word, apprentice, to describe teaching me. Still, I argued, "But apprentice isn't a slave, I mean, he can't really be mad because I've gone and spent a week away. He never said anything about being stuck at the brothel."

Emily shook her head, "He wouldn't, he'd expect you to know that, to understand the rules of apprenticeship as they existed hundreds of years ago, when he was a child. You have to understand, Mike, it's tougher for some people than others. Since we mages have an unnaturally long life, and one that can be extended quite a bit more by a visit to a body crafting mage every few decades, we sometimes feel 'out of place' in whatever the present time is. Some of us," she gestured at herself, "are able to cope pretty well. I don't let my memories of my youth color the present. That's the trap of our extended lives, the ennui of endless stagnation as the world moves on around you. I think Adam has fallen into that trap, thinking that as long as he keeps accumulating wealth, prestige, power, and training the next generation of mage, that he's somehow moving forwards. But he's not Mike, he travels between his brothel here in Nevada, his ancestral home back in Italy, and then the various spots around the world to check in on his distant relations to see if they've potential to become mages. But that's it. That's no way to spend the years or decades."

She sighed and raised her glass as the waitress passed, signalling that she wanted another, and I took the opportunity to jump in. "I know that I've learned a lot from him, but I feel like there's so much more he could teach me. But on the other hand, I feel like I've learned a lot from being out from under his thumb too. Experimenting on my own has been very dangerous, but it's also taught me a lot. Likewise I've learned from you, from Elder Creaklimb, even from that healer, Hector."

Emily cocked an eyebrow at me quizzically, "How's that Mike?"

I could tell that she was already getting the sense that I might be more powerful than I was letting on. I'd gotten the hint that a mage who could cast across disciplines was a rare thing, an archmage they called it, and anyone who was branded as one would quickly attract unwanted attention. So I had to play this one cool. "Well, like I didn't know anything about the silence till you and Hector told me about them. Elder Creaklimb taught me about the nature of our worlds and the alternate worlds that touch ours. Hector taught me, along with my own mistakes, a lot about reality backlash from a very real and painful point of view. Those are lessons I'd never have learned hiding away at the brothel under Adam's tutelage."

Emily smiled and I could tell she liked my answer. I was afraid of her reaction if I'd told her that I was in fact an 'archmage'. My ability to cast her type of 'luck magic' as well as my own telepathy and mental domination proved it to me. What was more, I had a burning desire to see more disciplines of magic at work. I wanted to know how Hector healed, how Renia body sculpted, heck I wanted to know how I controlled the water in that shower the one time. I still hadn't been able to replicate that. But ultimately it came back to what I had to risk versus what I could gain. Adam had taken me out of my old life, and I suppose I did owe him for that. In a way I'd always owe him for that. But what was more, I felt like there was more that he could teach me. Ultimately though, I had always believed you owned up to your choices in life, took responsibility, and if Adam was mad at me, I should face that, not run away.