Chapter 9 - Book 1 of Death of Magic Series

"The Witness seems so young and fragile, I am worried as the future of magic depends on her strength" - Sara's journal

Sara was sitting in a room full of screens, watching Brenda as she processed what had happened to her. Richard stood behind her, his eyes still red and puffy. “She doesn’t know a thing…” said Sara, “it’s unbelievable, boss.”

“Don’t call me boss, Sara. You know it pisses me off.” Richard was in a bad mood. Sara cringed guiltily. She knew Richard did not like to be called the boss; he kept telling them that the fact that he was the oldest in the group did not make him the authority here. “We’re all in this together,” he used to tell her.

Sara waited in silence. Apologizing, she knew, would just make Richard angry. Richard was still looking at the screen in silence.

“Brenda isn’t stupid, she’ll figure it out,” he finally said. “But she was definitely not prepared by her parents. She isn’t even aware of the concept of the Retuning… I worry about her emotional maturity, not her wits,” he said earnestly.

“Well, this is going to be a crash course, for both of them,” Sara said. “Valor seems kind of young, right? I wouldn’t put him at more than 18.” She looked worried. “All of this seems so different than how I imagined it.”

“You’re not the only one. All the previous ones who came through seemed to be much older. The last one must have been at least 25,” he said grimly. “Maybe they ran out of adults and had to start using teens. But you know they age differently than us – he could be 100 for all we know.”

“It’s so weird to see one alive, isn’t it?” Sara asked. “He seems like a human at first, until you start noticing the small things. He seems more… wild. Like petting a cat only to find it’s a mountain lion.” 

“More like petting a horse and finding out it’s a unicorn,” he said, and she smiled drily. 

“Be careful what you wish for, Richard,” Sara said in a sad but amused tone. 

They watched the screen in silence for a few more minutes. Brenda was looking out the window toward the gardens.

“Any news from headquarters?” Richard asked. 

“Our guy said that they killed the person responsible for failing to kill Brenda,” Sara said.

“Does that mean they know she is alive?” asked Richard, urgency creeping into his voice. 

“Our source says no, he said they were unhappy that they couldn’t verify it was her,” Sara replied calmly.

“Bloody hell they couldn’t,” Richard said through gritted teeth. “I can’t believe they killed someone because they were unhappy… I guess these are desperate times,” he added grimly.

“Yes, right,” she said, glancing back at the screen to avoid his look. “Our source thinks we have two days before we have to move.”

Richard looked worried. “That’s not a lot of time. We can’t move him too soon, at least not without sedating him first. We need more time!”

Sara nodded. “We might not have that time, though. We’ll need to work with what we have, Richard.” She tried to keep her voice calm. Richard had been understandably agitated for the last few days, and showing her own nervousness wouldn’t help anyone. 

“All we can do is play with the cards we’ve got, in the best way we can,” she added. “The sooner we introduce Valor to her the better.” Sara looked at Brenda on the screen. She was looking through her luggage, and started taking off her clothes and changing. 

Richard averted his eyes. “I will let Valor know that Brenda is ready for their first meeting.”

“Richard, remember he knows her as The Witness or as Julia,” Sara said without taking her eyes from the screen. Brenda was beautiful, and it was hard for Sara to look away. “I’ll go and pick her up for the meeting in 5 minutes.”

“Right,” said Richard, and went out. 

Sara continued to look at the screen. Brenda was slowly getting dressed, and the fun was over. She glanced at the other screens, which were connected to cameras concealed all around the house, behind mirrors and in lanterns. Electricity was, of course, not to be seen in the house in any shape or form. Not while Valor was around. Not yet, at least.

She let her finger slide across the screen, until it touched Brenda’s figure. “You don’t know what’s waiting for you, do you.” Brenda was fully dressed now, looking at a painting on the wall, then looking at the mirror, straight at the camera. 

“You have no idea, but you’re about to find out, and fast,” Sara whispered. “I hope you’re ready, for all of our sake.”

She stood up and left the control room. It was time for the next step in her role, time to meet The Witness and introduce her to her future.