Tok. Magick tale

CONFLICTS FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER

"Gold has never complained of being stolen"

Anonymous.

***

CHAPTER NINE

CONFLICTS FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER.

I

Tok's eye closed on Gerard's crystal ball, and the wizard stopped seeing the Dragonera. He was completely exhausted. The magical operation that the Munshi had taught him so many years ago was indeed very complex and exhausting - all those dragons together, all drained of the gold in their stomachs, practically incapable of manifesting on the physical plane! Outside his study, the sirens wailed again. The bombardment was over.

Gerard regained his strength and decided to take to the streets. The "business as usual" signs, which the great thaumaturge Churchill had commanded to be used, really worked. Gerard had long heard the echoes of the souls of his fellow citizens in the Bond but never before had he felt so identified with his hometown. He felt the moment was very close. He had been waiting most of his life to fulfil his destiny and take the sceptre of city mage. He heard the faint call of the child princess through the Bond.

–Duprey, come to Bond Street Station without delay. My mother and I will be waiting for you. The wizard of London has been hit by a stupid piece of shrapnel. His time has come. He must receive the Bond.

Duprey hurried to the rendezvous and tried to maintain absolute calm. As a peacemaker, he had an intimate obligation to take to the streets whenever the city suffered so that his presence could comfort the terrified Londoners. He did not even need to dream of war: the war was in the streets. He arrived on the scene to find his queen dressed in the simplest form imaginable for a monarch. From her hand, little Elizabeth held her gaze with the impudence of the old girl she really was.

–Hurry up, Duprey! He is dying, but he still lives. You must give him your hand. That will make things easier," exclaimed the queen.

The dying man was losing his light from the top of his skull. He was bleeding profusely from the wound the black metal had made in his chest. He was gasping for breath with the greatest difficulty.

The two had met on numerous occasions but had never formed a real relationship of camaraderie beyond the usual formalities. Today the old wizard of London was leaving his wrappings of flesh and Duprey played his part with the utmost tenderness and without any ambition in his heart. He took the old man's right hand, pressed it to his breast and thus, quite simply, the sceptre of the city became his.

The old man knew the last lucid moment of his existence and, with his last remaining strength, a peaceful smile and a thin thread of voice, he said his last words to Duprey:

–The wizard of the city is the city. Take good care of it Duprey, you will come to understand it over the years...

The light left the old man and, in that instant, Gerard understood why it was called "receiving the Bond". He did not quite apprehend that his knowledge of the Bond up to that point was somewhat tangential, despite years of practice and knowledge. The act of "receiving the Bond" reached its true magnitude at the moment in the magician's life when his gift and his mission finally coincided.

Both Mohandas, on the other side of the world, and Mabel at her Gloucestershire residence, lived the moment as their own and celebrated with joy the accession of their brother in arms to his rightful position. Gerard, at first, felt no new change inwardly or outwardly; but the old city, the sum of her wills and experiences, her egregore - who had hitherto been utterly mute - began to communicate with him as a son communicates with his father. Duprey began to read new motives in the actions around him over and above those he had known before, reaching a new level of understanding.