The Rising - Ennead 1

Scene 8 - Silence Before a Storm; Act 2

The Knight Magus
I open the cab door for Temi. I'm pretty sure she's enjoying the attention even though she acts like she isn't. Prof Cho charged me with her safety and I damn sure intend to keep my word. I mean, it's not like I don't have reason enough to keep the Spider Magus alive, she saved my life.

The girl gets down like some sort of queen and glances at the small crowd hovering around the entrance to the Somerset House courtyard. Her eyes flit over the architecture of the building. Her lips are pursed as if unimpressed, but her eyes very obviously are. The building is beautiful.

Thanks to her insistence on making several 'observation stops' along the way we were pretty late. The sounds of what seemed like the first act of the evening were already fading.

"We need tickets." She pronounces flatly. "Do you still have the Royal Ballet tickets?"

I remain silent. I know what she's thinking. It might be in her nature to be sneaky and deceptive, but there's no reason she has to drag me into it.

"Carlos? The tickets please." her request drips with syrup. I find my fingers slipping into my blazer out of their own volition.

Shit! I forgot the girl is a powerful Speaker. "Stop it!" I hiss.

She chuckles, a sopralto thrum, like a cat's purr. Her dark eyebrows lift quizzically as she smirks, " Stop what Sir Galahad? I merely asked for the tickets."

"You know what I mean. I know what you're going to do with the tickets."

Her voice actually sounds almost honest when she says "I have no idea what you mean kind sir. I only mean to check if they're intact."

I'm not fooled. "We're paying the honest way," I fish a credit card out of my wallet.

"You think a glamor is different from buying on credit? Your mind works in mysterious ways Carlos."

I grunt as she holds onto my arm and we walk towards what looks like a ticket booth. There's no point in getting into an argument with a Magus.

***
They were all out of tickets. I ended up letting Temi use glamor. She somehow took it as license to get VIP backstage passes

"Look, We get to go to an after-party with the bands!" She coos excitedly as she looks down at the passes.

"I thought you didn't like this type of music?" I point out. Her enthusiasm isn't dimmed. "Don't be such a wet blanket Galahad, this just helps with the plan."

"And that plan is?..."

"I'm making it up as we go. Come on. We need to get to the front." By we, of course, she means for me to push a way to the front for her. I don't have a kid sister. Every second with Temi makes me thankful for that fact.

London smells different from D.C. It feels musty and a little bit damp, even in summer. It's not exactly noxious, just different.

I hum at a subtle pulse to make easing through the crowd a little bit easier.

Maybe I'm not fully comfortable with the idea of being Magus, not that I'm fully Magus yet. There are upsides though. I can do Knight Path stuff almost as easily as breathing. Most of the time I feel like I'm subtle drug trip. Not that I do that sort of stuff, but you know what I mean, there's a rush.

Kaspar's Dreams are about to come on when we get to the front. Well, we're as close as we would be able to get when I bump into a girl. She curses colorfully. Not that I get most of what she's saying in her accent. English accents are sexy, but sometimes they can be unintelligible.