The Unveiling - Modern Magic: Book 1

Chapter 17

A/N:  Are you tired of twists yet?  I hope not!

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Chapter 17 - Probabilities and Reality

Tim didn't hesitate for a second after seeing the look in my eyes. He sent a mass text to the whole group and then launched a pair of formations into the sky, one kinetic, one Antimagic. The explosion was quick and bright. We left for our car, hoping the others received one or both messages to abort.

The ride back to Aki's shop was silent. I could feel Tim's gaze locked on the back of my head, and my mom looked over at me at least a dozen times. I was stuck in my own head, searching through my memory of the probabilities I sifted through in those few moments at the cemetery.

When I saw that camera crew, I knew I had to do something to affect these events. My hope was that they were nearby doing some fluff piece connected with Easter and heard some of the smaller explosions. Maybe they came over in hopes to catch an exclusive. If that was the case, it would be extremely unlikely that they would be live transmitting. Maybe I could cause a short in the camera, make it unable to record, or corrupt the DV tape? Either way it would be the opinions of two people that could easily be dismissed when there was no 'hard evidence' of a magical battle waged in a cemetery.

I dove into the possibilities in the past, my mind guiding the swarm of events. I found what I was looking for fairly quickly, and I was able to cause a minor power fluctuation in the charging station for the camera's battery. The change would make the battery unable to hold a charge for more than a few seconds. As I traced the event back to the present, I quickly realized one thing. This crew wasn't here on accident.

As I followed the event, I saw the crew getting an assignment to check on the cemetery today. I was floored. How could that be? I redirected my mind, tracing the path of the man who assigned the crew. I followed him as he walked backwards through the office, my mind beginning to feel the strain of working through the complexity of the past. The whole time I tried to focus on this one person through the actual past, millions of probabilities kept flowing around me. Sometimes these probabilities would pull enough of my focus that I felt like I was trying to focus on a single leaf in a swirl of leaves blown from a tree by a strong gust of wind.

I finally traced his past to a phone call. He was talking to someone on the other line, a look of skepticism and disbelief on his face. "You know how many of these sorts of calls we get every day?" He asked, but something the other person said made some of his disbelief fade, although he was clearly still skeptical. "Yeah, whatever. Maybe if we have a free team." He hung up.

I had to find who was on the other side of that call. Tracing something as abstract as a phone call through probabilities was extremely hard, and I was already strained from the time and complexity of my dive. I traced it back anyway. Following events back to the phone call, I grabbed hold of the conversation as if it was an event in itself. I stepped back to view it in its entirety, putting massive tension on my mind when all the parts of electronic communication warred with the two people involved.

My mind cried out in pain, and maybe I did in the present as well, I don't know. But I caught the other person, feeling my mind jerked over to them. I found myself in a large house. It was dark inside, and the sun was just rising through the windows. I was disoriented, my mind whirling with the strain I was putting it through. I finally focused on a woman sitting at a desk with a phone in her head. "I'm sure you do, sir, but I promise you, this is an event that will change the world. You wouldn't want your competitors to get the first exclusive, would you?"

Her voice. I'd heard it before. Where? I was having a harder and harder time focusing on the actual past with all the probabilities swirling around me and through the events as they actually happened. I soon noticed two things. The probabilities involving this woman were nearly completely set. This wasn't a whim or chance, this was planned. One more thing that had very few alternate probabilities was a piece of paper on the desk in front of her. On it was the phone numbers for every local news agency and several national ones.

"Thank you for your time, I promise you won't regret finding an available team." She ended the call, putting a check mark next to the news agency's name. As she was dialing the next number on the list, she murmured to herself. "If even one of these attention whores does what I ask... It will be the end for Magi."

Her voice finally synced with my memory. Angelina. James's aunt. The advisor to the Governor.

That was when I lost control and was jerked back to the cemetery.

We arrived at Aki's shop and piled out. Some cars were already there, and others were arriving. I led my mom and Tim into the shop, walking straight to the back room where I found a few Magi from our group, including Aki. Aki's eyes locked on mine, and I don't know what she saw, but it surprised her. Aki - surprised. If it were any other day, I would have laughed. I went over to a small TV mounted on the wall and turned it on, scrolling through the channels to find one of the CNN broadcasts. At this point it wouldn't matter who got the actual exclusive. Every channel would be playing and replaying the video for hours, maybe days.

I heard a few breaths that would have preceded questions, but they were instantly stifled as eyes shifted to the TV screen. "... and we're still not sure from this footage how these explosions are being created. There are times where a few of these people simply swing their hands and others fall over from apparently nothing." A man was speaking. He was dressed in a nice suit, maybe being called in from a church service. "We are of course analyzing this video with every technique available to determine authenticity as well as to gain a better understanding of what is happening." He seemed to have an intellectual curiosity mixed in with his confusion, and I got the impression that he was trying to stay as objective as possible.

The news anchor nodded, her face held in a perfectly controlled look of concern and interest. "Thank you so much, Dr. Furlow. But that doesn't answer the question. Was this an attack? What sort of new terrorists have we been introduced to today? Did they pick Easter as an attack on Christianity?"

I felt the overwhelming desire to groan at the fear-mongering and conclusion-jumping by the anchor. Dr. Furlow seemed to agree with some of my views, his face showing restrained frustration at the questions. "We don't know if this was even any sort of attack. This could easily have been an elaborate hoax. It's important not to make assump-" The screen snapped back to the anchor as the doctor was cut off.

"Thank you, Dr. Furlow for your hard work. As of right now, Governor Andrews is urging all citizens in the greater Boston area to return to your homes, be with your families, and wait for us to better understand the violent individuals involved in this incident." The screen flashed a series of logos before returning to the anchor who began reiterating information already covered - the standard operating procedure for the 24-hour news cycle.

I turned the TV off. Amid the complete silence, my soft voice floated through the whole room. "It was a setup." I looked at Aki and the other Magi standing around her. "It was a complete setup. Not just for us. For all Magi." I gave a condensed version of my time diving through the past. "She never had any intention of helping Magi take control. She wanted us on display. She wants us destroyed."

The group was silent, probably sharing a lot of my own thoughts. Why? How? Who is she? What is her connection to Magi?...

"What do we do now?" A man in the middle of the group asked, matching my next thought perfectly. The Magi around him all looked to Aki for guidance.

Aki stepped in front of the TV, looking around at everyone. "We do exactly what the Governor said. Go home to your families. Keep a low profile for now." Aki frowned for barely a second, a facial reaction that could have been missed by people who didn't know her too well. "Be ready to move. If things take a turn for the worse, we may all need to leave the area with little to no warning. I hope we work through this, but this has never happened before - not on this scale."

Everyone nodded, some more focused and determined than others. The group began slowly leaving the room, and I followed. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, and I pulled it out. A text message from Diana popped up on the screen. "Are you ok? I'm at your apartment." I walked out of the shop and saw Tim waiting for me next to his car.

I walked over to my mom and gave her a hug. "We don't need to decide anything yet. Go study. We'll take things day by day." I nodded and smiled half-heartedly. The look in my mom's eyes told me she was trying to hide her worries beneath the reassuring face of a parent who is in control.

"Yeah. Be safe." I said and then climbed into the passenger seat of Tim's car.