Magic Lessons Part 4

"I know nothing about your Council or its rules."

"Ignorance is no defence. Miss Calvin should have instructed you of The Council by the end of your sixth week of training..."

"I haven't been training for six weeks," Michael pointed out.

"Your obvious power denies that statement. Her transgressions will be punished as will yours. You will be taken from this place..."

And Michael realised that the man before him was afraid. All of them were. The suspicion emerging from the back of his mind was that he was what they were afraid of. These were the people Cleopatra had warned him of. They would come to harm him and those around him. But they were afraid of him. Michael's back straitened.

"...your mind will be destroyed. Miss Calvin will be placed in eternal servitude in one of the dungeon dreamscapes. Your mother and the girl Lucy will be killed since they have been affected by your power." Michael clenched his fist and lashed out with his will. The man stopped speaking as his throne was tossed backwards by a massive blow.

"I suppose you think you'll be able to do that, do you?" Michael growled. The goons drew their guns and fired, but Michael had seen this stuff in 'The Matrix' and there was not much different between a computer simulation and a dream. The bullets slowed to a stop feet away from him and hung in the air, spinning gently. Michael swept his hand out in a long arc and one of the goons flanking the spilled throne jerked violently sideways. He crumpled into a heap, his head at an odd angle on his neck.

Images were flashing through Michael's brain as the judges' fear grew. He saw people with his talent for affecting the real world being hunted for centuries. For all those years the mass of lucid dreamers and minor magicians had tried the few stronger ones for supposed crimes against the Rule of the Council. Everyone who had come into contact with them had been destroyed to keep the existence of magicians and sorcerers secret from the majority of dreamers and the public at large.

"Kill him!" one of the judges shrieked. "Kill him now."

Michael's anger flared white hot and he lashed out. Three of the goons exploded into showers of white light. Another began to twist slowly until his spine snapped as his head achieved looking a one-hundred and eighty degree turn. The others fired repeatedly, achieving nothing, until their guns exploded one by one throwing shards of hot metal into their faces.

With a wave of his hand, Michael banished Julia's bonds and helped her stand.

"Thank you," she said in a tired voice. "Why hasn't that one gone?"

The judge that had been on the throne remained standing while his fellows had faded when Michael began destroying the guards. The look of terror on his face was most satisfying. "I'm holding him here," Michael replied, "and now I'm going to pass my judgement."

He walked up to where the man in the black coat was standing and looked him in his black eyes. "I'm not going to kill you; death would be, as they say, too good for you. I'm going to seal you up in your body. You will never have another dream, lucid or otherwise. You will have no powers and, since I understand dreaming is required for sanity, I expect you'll go slowly mad. You'll end your days a gibbering wreck in a mad house, and you'll always know what power you once had." As Michael finished, the judge's body faded away, vanishing into the air as the others had done. But this one was screaming as he did so.

"We should get you back to your body," Michael said and the dreamscape melted around them. They were left standing in the astral projection of Julia's kitchen.

"I'm... afraid that won't be possible, Michael," she said.

"Sorry?" He had half-carried her into the lounge by now and suddenly he knew what she meant.

There were dead goons lying around the room; five of them, all naked. He recognised them as some of the men he had just taken apart in the dreamscape. On the floor between them was Julia's body, lying face down, her hips propped up on cushions. She had been raped, repeatedly from the looks of it, and then her neck had been broken. "Oh shit!" Michael managed to get out.

"Never mind now, Michael," Julia said. "Take me to Cleopatra and then help your mother. Then you need to get Lucy and get away from here. There's money in a draw in my bedroom. I'll tell you where as we go. You can catch the Amtrak from Charlottesville. Go down to New Orleans. There are people I know who can help you there."

"H-how can you be so calm?" he stammered. "L-look what they did to you."

"I suppose it's my body and I'm dead. Being dead gives you a new perspective. C'mon, you have to hurry. The Council will be sending hunters out after you and as long as you're here you're a danger to all those around you."

With a strangled sob Michael summoned his will and drove them upward into the land of dreams.

Epilogue

"Death is only the beginning." Imhotep the Mummy.

Michael watched the night passing by the window of the train. He was alone. His mother had been dead on arrival at the hospital and, despite attempts to resuscitate, she had stayed that way. It had been too much; taking Lucy with him would have put her in more danger. He had run without saying goodbye rationalising that he could contact her in her dreams once he was out of her way. So Michael was heading for New Orleans, alone with his sorrow.

The train pulled into Danville, VA, at around half-past midnight. It was keeping to timetable, which would have them pulling in to New Orleans at half-past eight in the evening. He supposed he should get some sleep, but sleep was the last thing he wanted right now. With sleep came dreams and Michael very much wanted to never dream again. The train pulled away and Michael watched the lights of the town fade into the darkness of countryside.

There was a knock at the door. Michael stood, walked the short distance across the compartment to the door, and looked through the peep hole. It was Lucy. He unlocked the door and flung it open, pulling the girl inside and wrapping her in his arms. She said nothing, but dropped the bag she was carrying and hugged him back.

"How did you know I was here?" he asked finally.

"I told you to catch this train," was the reply.

Michael blinked and pushed Lucy out to arms length. "Julia?"

"Shut the door, Michael. We need to talk." She walked over to the compartment's seat and sat down, looking out through the window. Michael closed the door and sat down beside her.

"Is Lucy aware? Can she hear us?" he asked after a short pause.

"Yes, she's been aware of what's going on since I took control of her. You should not have left without her."

"They killed my Mom; I didn't want them doing the same to Lucy. I figured if I was nowhere near her she'd be safe."

Lucy shook her head. "Lucy's mind has been altered by her contact with you, me, and Cleopatra. She's marked; they'll hunt her down as well. If she stayed with her family she would eventually let something slip and they would become targets. She had to run just as you did."

Michael looked down at his hands and began to sob. "This is all my fault," he moaned.

Lucy dropped to her knees in front of him and looked up into his eyes. He looked back and realised he could see a hint of Julia there. "This is not your fault. You tried your best to save your mother. You could not have saved me. If anyone is to blame, it's me. I should have gone to Cleopatra sooner; I should have told you about The Council. You are not to blame, do you understand me?"

Michael nodded. "I'm going to get them, though," he said. "I'm going to find them, and I'm going to destroy them."

"Perhaps, in time," she replied. "Look, I've got a limited time I can stay here, it's tiring possessing a body like this. There's something I need to do before I go. Sit back." Michael sat back on the seat, wondering what she meant. She reached up and unzipped his pants. Before he could think about it his flaccid cock was cradled in her hand. "I don't think I've ever seen it like this," she commented.

"Look, Lucy, err, Julia, I'm not sure I can..."

"Michael, you need to understand that I don't hold you responsible for my death. Being dead isn't a good thing, but it has opened up paths I never had while I was alive. Consider this a reminder that I'm not entirely gone."

She opened her mouth wide and took his cock into it. Her lips worked down until she could suck in his balls as well and her tongue played over him, seeking some indication that she was doing the right thing. With a sigh, Michael relaxed and his cock began to stiffen. As he expanded in Lucy's throat, she allowed his balls to slip out and closed her lips around his shaft. Her tongue and teeth were doing things to him that could not be ignored. He groaned, knowing that once Julia had him in her mouth there was no way he could deny her anything. She teased him and played with him for ten minutes, and then allowed him to build to climax.

Then, as the bliss began to overcome his rational thoughts, he heard Lucy's voice in his mind. "Oh, so that's how you do it," she said.