Tetra & Xer

Nothing on this floor. Xer turned the corner back to the box and saw shadow trickling out. He moved back behind the corner to watch.

The shadow became large enough to hide a human, then it blew away, revealing Victoria.

She’d told him she was a mage, but he’d assumed something less terrifying.

What if she was planning something? What if he’d trusted someone dangerous?

God, he’d kissed her.

He took a deep breath. It wasn’t time to jump to conclusions yet. She mentioned being able to become more selves before, and this one looked like she was searching around.

He stayed out of sight as she put her arm against the barrier on the door.

“Invenio Huius Magum.”

Tetra used a spell like that before.

He followed Victoria more intently as she moved with purpose into a locked area. She moved up dark stairs without any issue until she made it to a door that overlooked the stage.

“Spoiled the surprise, I see,” a voice said through the door, “You’ve been relentless.”

“What are you planning?” Victoria asked in a Scottish accent. If Xer hadn’t been sure of her secret identity before…

Something smacked Victoria down the stairs. Xer caught her before she made it all the way down. She just stared at him for a moment.

“Shite.”

Shadows moved into the lit room before the stair lights turned on, dissipating them.

As Victoria seemed to prepare for a furious charge, something stabbed her through the chest, and she disappeared into the shadow she’d been a few minutes before.

“No!” Xer yelled.

“So the name wasn’t just for show,” Tetra’s target of the past weeks said, pulling back whatever he’d used to hurt her. “I should feel flattered they sent one so hard to kill to my doorstep.”

Xer threw fire at him.

Victoria doubled over, clutching her chest.

There was no injury. She was alive. Rex was Xer.

That last one shouldn’t have sent her reeling so hard. It was just his damn name backwards.

Maybe it caught her attention because Rex was now stuck alone with a mage killer in an area way too lit up.

“Are you okay?” Nina asked.

“Aye,” she coughed back to the posh accent, “Yes, I just think something I ate is rebelling a little, I’ll be fine in a moment.”

“Okay, but the bathroom isn’t far.”

“I’ll remember that.”

She needed to get back there before something worse happened to Rex.

She closed her eyes again, trying to block out all light, willing a part of her to return to where she’d once been.

All but one part rebelled at the thought. She summoned armor around it as it went.

“Please don’t screw this up,” she begged.

“Can you tell what’s going on?” Nina asked.

The mage dodged the fire with ease, dousing it with the same thing he’d used to kill Victoria.

“You’re mortal,” the mage said, almost impressed.

“You say that like mages don’t die.”

He resisted throwing fire again. He didn’t want to damage the building, and Victoria—Tetra—was alive. No one had been majorly injured yet.

The mage just smiled.

“We’ll wait for the Shadow Master to return. I want her to see this.”

“Want to tell her your plans for a theater that will somehow lead to world-domination?”

The mage lashed his substance around Xer, soaking the suit. Xer cringed until he realized it was just water.

“I don’t need to tell you my goals,” the mage said, “In fact I think it would be more fun to see you squirm in your final moments.”

“You have no clue, do you?”

Slam!

The wall hurt. In hindsight it probably wasn’t such a good idea to taunt the person who just took out someone trained for this. Looking up to the ceiling to deny the mage his look of fear, Xer searched for anything he could use. There was one terrible idea, if he could just get enough wiggle-room.

The water-rope squeezed tighter. He felt things start to crack, then he felt something just barely miss his back as the ropes released themselves with a hiss of steam.

He fell back to see Tetra in all her armored glory, holding the sword he’d first seen her with.

“Hey, gorgeous,” he said.

“That can’t be…” the mage seemed to recognize the sword.

“I guess it was too dark to recognize it before,” Tetra said, aiming the sword like she was ready to kill.

“Please don’t kill a man after I’ve found out how close we are,” Xer begged.

The mage took a shot, Xer blew fire on the sprinkler. Water poured down.

“Did you seriously just give a water mage more water?” Tetra asked.

Xer brought the spraying water together in a larger form, which he then used to grab the mage by the legs. Flipped over like this, he didn’t seem worth all the fuss.

“That explains the fish-tank.” Tetra turned to Xer, “Keep him still.”

She drew a circle underneath the mage with chalk, then dotted the edge with little symbols.

“Where do you hail from?” she asked.

“That’s none of your business.”

“Avalon it is then. You’re all so touchy about it.”

She made a final flair.

“Drop him,” she ordered.

Rex released his hold on the water, and as soon as the man hit the chalk, he disappeared in a plume of shadow. Tetra returned the chalk to a pouch on her side.

“You should return to your family, Rex.”

“So should you, Victoria.”

Neither moved from their uneasy stares.

By necessity, this changed something between them, but he had no idea what just yet.

“Discussion for another time?” Tetra offered.

“Yeah.”

Victoria wasn’t too startled when her other self returned. She struggled to pay much attention to the stage, but she’d listened to the story before enough to know what was going on.

Rex made it in just as intermission began.

“You’re soaked,” Mrs. Vivian said in a disappointed tone.

“Things got crazy in the bathroom,” Rex lied.

“Did you get toilet water on yourself?” Nina asked.

“Surprisingly, no. Only sink water.”

“If I find you smell like a urinal…” Mrs. Vivian threatened.

“You won’t,” Rex said. “If you don’t want me here, Victoria and I can leave.”

“Ah yes,” Mr. Vivian said, “Why did you bring a mage to the premises?”

Victoria gave a silent, “Oh,” pointed at Rex. His issues with mages were inherited.

“Any rules that said Mages weren’t allowed were made void when I was allowed in,” Rex said, “So if I stay, she stays.”

“It is a delightful performance,” Victoria said.

“And she’s lovely,” Mrs. Vivian said, “Even if she’s only a neighbor, for now.”

“I don’t like your emphasis on that last part,” Mr. Vivian said.

“Victoria’s cool, dad,” Nina said, “Get over your mage thing, and let us out of here before intermission ends.”

Victoria took Rex’s offered hand, immensely grateful once they got outside into the main area of the theater, which was too bright after her use of magek.

“Stay close,” Rex said as he pulled her close amid the crowd.

“Thank you.”

Holding tight her cheap bottle of alleged scotch, Victoria knocked on Rex’s door.

One more week of not talking to each other. They seemed to spend more time avoiding each other than being around each other. Were it anyone else, she wouldn’t care, but Rex knew enough to be owed explanation.

The door opened, Victoria just gestured with her alcohol, and Rex backed away to let her in. As Victoria opened the bottle, Rex placed two glasses on the table, shoving over the pile of papers that covered it.

“I take it you still haven’t unpacked,” Rex said.

“Actually, I finally got time for it. Thank you for helping with that issue,” she was glad to speak normally around him, no more posh accent in the safety of his apartment.

“You’re welcome.” Rex offered a cheers motion, Victoria reciprocated.

They drank quickly, letting the drink burn instead of their questions.

“So how long have you been a master?” Rex asked, “What does that even mean?”

“The masters are the force that keeps other mages in check. There’s only eight of us total: 7 elements and the all-master, who isn’t necessarily the leader. One of us tends to stay in magek, while each other takes a continent and some surrounding islands. I have North America at the moment, while before I was unassigned courtesy of being the youngest. I started training at 15 and a season.”

She felt confident she’d answered all his questions, but it waned as Rex seemed to be thinking of more.

“So fifteen and a quarter,” he said.

“About that, aye. Magek’s calendar is easier to remember, even if I was born on Earth.”

“Yeah about that,” Rex extended a smile, “Tetra said she was from Magek, but Victoria said she was originally from… I assume Scotland given the accent. Which one’s a liar?”

“Well I didn’t really consider my life worth explaining to someone who said Magek is a made up place.”

“I—” Rex searched around for a good explanation, “I still don’t think it’s real. It doesn’t make sense to me.”

“Do you think Mages managed to hide ourselves with our subtlety?” Victoria asked, “I grew up on Earth and you had me figured out within a week, most of which you didn’t talk to me. Do you really think we’d be able to hide staying on Earth?”

Rex shrugged.

“Hasn’t your family been here awhile?”

“We live in a goddamned Loch, Rex! It’s how we got our surname.”

“Your last name is Loch, as in Lake?”

Victoria nodded.

“And you said you’re a descendant of Lancelot?”

Victoria nodded.

“And the lady of the lake.”

“One could assume,” Victoria said.

“Your sword’s Excalibur, isn’t it?”

“Now he understands,” Victoria said. “Do I get to ask questions now?”

Rex shrugged.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Why are you a vigilante?”

“Judging my lifestyle?” Rex asked.

“Curious why you’d do something so risky. I’m bound by duty, and won’t get arrested. You have neither of those encouragements.”

Rex pointedly didn’t look at her.

“I don’t like seeing people hurt, not innocents at least. I can do something about it, and maybe it’s nice to let my powers loose a bit. I mean you’ve seen my apartment, I’m not considered all that safe.”

Victoria looked around at all the damaged furniture and decorations. She could easily pinpoint the cause of each now.

“And you’re the only one in your family like this.”

He nodded.

“It could be worse. They could hate me for it, but honestly my dad was impressed. My mom just wants me to be normal. Nina doesn’t really care. You’ve mentioned family, or clan, or whatever, who’s that?”

“My father, Julius. My gran on my mum’s side. My cousins in the Avalon line, but I don’t really know most of them.”

Rex took this in relative stride.

“Are the obligations you’ve mentioned to do with your family or…”

She rolled her eyes.

“I have more questions,” She said.

“Right, right.”

“What are your powers even like?” She knew Magek. Everyone described it a little differently, but it was mostly the same. Rex was Empowered, a real superhuman.

“They just are,” Rex said, “It’s like having an extra limb, or three, and they’re more freeform as long as I have the elements to manifest them, but each one is different, not that I can really use them at the same time. I don’t know, I don’t really think about it.”

She couldn’t have expected a better answer.

“How long have you had them?”

“Water when I was seven, plants at ten, fire as a teen. Water’s mostly under control aside from that incident a few months ago.” He pointed at the broken tank. “Don’t worry, there weren’t any fish. Plants are okay, I have better control if I’m the one that made them grow. Fire’s a crapshoot. What about you? When did you start turning into more people, or the shadow nonsense?”

“The first time I turned into four people was in my mother’s arms as a babe. She switched between like it was second nature, and I just piggybacked off of her. I didn’t start on my own until 9 or 10. Shadow magek started manifesting around 5 or 6. Normally, I would have been warded away from that element, but mum got sick, and nobody bothered to discourage me until after I was set in my ways.” she felt tears start to stream down.

“I’m sorry,” Rex said, “I didn’t mean to bring up painful memories.”

“Not painful, just bittersweet. My father never found another partner, which is why continuing the family line rests on me.”

“That’s a crappy burden to bear,” Rex said, “Why do you have to keep some family name going?”

She kissed him on the forehead.

“Because it’s not just about the family line.”

“This feels patronizing.”

“Well I couldn’t well kiss you on the lips, I’m betrothed.”

“You’re what?”