“What’s an essence magician?” Hiro asked.
“Step through the arch and find out,” Jason said.
“Boss,” Taika said. “This whole thing is messed up. I’m just gonna go with it. See where it takes me.”
“Taika!” Hiro called out.
But Taika had stepped through the arch and vanished. He didn’t have to worry about fitting, as he did with most doors. The arch was large enough to accommodate even a leonid or a draconian, to which the mountainous Māori was comparable in size.
“Vermillion, would you check on him?” Jason asked.
“That’s a portal,” Vermillion said. “I’ve heard that some of your kind have them, but I’ve never actually seen one before.”
“Then this’ll be fun for you.”
Vermillion shook his head with a chuckle.
“Knowing you is an exciting lifestyle, Jason Asano.”
He shared a grin with Jason and stepped through.
“Jason, this is insane,” Hiro said. He was still walking around the archway, staring disbelievingly at the space that Taika and Vermillion had vanished into.
“Yep,” Jason agreed. “Just be lucky that you’re getting a nice, gentle introduction to magic.”
“This is gentle?” Hiro asked. “We were attacked by a bikie gang!”
“Just be glad no one tried to eat you. I’ll tell you about my introduction to magic later. For now, it’s time to go. You aren’t going to leave Taika hanging, are you?”
As he said it, Taika came back through, looking around wildly, then throwing up.
“Holy crap, bro!”
He went back through the arch, vanishing again.
“See? No worries,” Jason laughed.
Giving Jason a trepidatious look, Hiro steeled himself and stepped through. Passing through the veil of darkness in the arch, he emerged atop a tall building in the CBD. Jason followed him through, to find Hiro also emptying his stomach. Vermillion was nearby looking peaky. Eventually, Hiro recovered, wiping his mouth on a handkerchief.
“Where are we?” he asked.
“On top of Victor’s building,” Jason said.
Hiro looked at the arch, walking unsteadily around it.
“Can I go back, like Taika?”
“Go for it.”
Hiro went back through the arch, returning moments later and throwing up again. He staggered to the edge of the building, gripping the railing as he looked out at the city.
“This is crazy. It’s not possible.”
“That’s why I used magic,” Jason said. “Being impossible is kind of the point.”
“You said you’d give us magic,” Taika said. “Will we be able to do stuff like this?”
“Maybe,” Jason said. “There’s an element of randomness to what kind of powers you end up with.”
Jason turned to Vermillion. “I’ve shown you one of my trump cards, here.”
“I recognise that. You know I won’t keep it a secret from my people, but I will remember that you were willing to share this.”
“Consider it thanks for looking after my uncle,” Jason said.
“There is one more thing,” Vermillion said. “Victor.”
“Yeah,” Jason said. “Uncle Hiro, I know you just had your understanding of the nature of reality rewritten, but we have things to do. So, ask any questions you have now and I’ll answer them. Once you’ve had time to process, you can ask me some more. There will be plenty of time for that.”
Hiro rubbed his temples.
“I don’t know where to start. How did you find out about magic?”
“I was in a magical accident.”
“Your apartment.”
“Yes. It sucked me into a magical alternate universe.”
“What?” Hiro asked.
“You were serious?” Vermillion said.
“Bro, everything you say is weirder than the last. And the last thing was that magic is real. This is trippy.”
“This is… I don’t know what to ask,” Hiro said.
“I do,” Taika said. “You said we could get magic. How?”
“There is more potential power in your soul than you can imagine,” Jason said. “I can use objects to unlock that potential.”
“Is that where your power comes from?” Hiro asked.
“Yes.”
“Will our powers be like yours?” Taika asked.
“No,” Jason said. “I don’t have the right items to give you powers like mine, but you don’t want them. I’m very specialised.”
“In what?” Hiro asked.
“Things best explained when I have time for context,” Jason said.
“I’m not going to lie,” Victor said. “This feels like a betrayal.”
With Vermillion, Jason, Hiro, and Taika lined up in front of him in his office, it had the feel of a confrontation.
“Victor,” Vermillion said. “Things in my world just got a lot more complicated. If you don’t let me negotiate a way out for you, things will end badly.”
“So now you’re spruiking for the EOA?” Victor asked.
“No, Victor,” Vermillion said. “I don’t need to. No one who can stop them is willing to stand in their way, and any support you might have been able to wrangle has gone now.”
“Because of that rolling fight on the news?” Victor asked.
“Yes. The people who keep that kind of thing off the news are on the warpath. Everyone else is hunkering down until the storm passes.”
“And I’m the one who suffers.”
“Victor,” Hiro said. “The things I’ve seen today. If that’s what’s coming for you, there’s no stopping it.”
Victor’s gaze panned from Hiro to Vermillion.
“He knows?” Victor asked.
Vermillion nodded.
“How much?” Victor followed up. “Did you tell him more than you’ve told me? What happened to needing dispensation from your people?”
“I was the one who told my uncle, Victor,” Jason said coldly. “I don’t belong to Vermillion’s group. If you have a problem with that, you can take it up with me. I’m here because Vermillion and Hiro don’t want you in the path of what’s coming. I don’t care if the EOA bury you, so long as my uncle is well out of it.”
Victor paced back and forth, angrily rubbing his forehead.
“You’re telling me I have no recourse, but won’t tell me why. You realise that sounds like you’re feeding me a line, right?”
Jason sighed.
“Gordon,” he murmured.
A cluster of darkness appeared, hovering near the high ceiling of the office. It shifted into the form of a cloak, within which a nebula of orange and blue light lit up in the shape of an eye. Around the nebula, four spheres, likewise in the form of glowing eyes, floated slowly around it.
The others in the room were all wide-eyed at the sudden manifestation of the familiar. The floating cloak-entity was unmistakably alien and unfathomable, seeming to contain mysterious depths.
“This is my friend,” Jason said. “Notice that he contains what looks a lot like the Helix Nebula. The one they call the Eye of God. I won’t show you what he can do because it would be rather destructive.”