GB3

She had taken the boy.

Alaster’s feet pounded on the tarmac.

She had taken the boy.

Timothy’s pale face was retreating. Another spurt of speed, ignoring the griiiiiiind of protesting broken clockwork, closed the lost distance.

SHE HAD TAKEN THE BOY.

If this was a death tournament, Alaster would be happy to oblige whoever ran it.

---

In an alleyway, not far from Alaster’s current location, time and space blinked, scratched their heads, and then politely looked the other way for a bit.

With a crack of displaced air, three black-clad figures, robes billowing, blinked into existence. White porcelain armour, etched with the most powerful protective runes possible, contrasted to the darkness of the rest of the figures. Their faces were hidden in the depths of their hoods. Their mail gloves hissed with power. Also, they were floating six inches off the floor, because if there’s anything a wizard loves to do, it’s show off. Even when no-one is around to appreciate it.

They began to filter through the city with their minds, searching.

Through the magical link from the leader’s eyes, Abbadon Teus watched the proceedings and thought hard.

There were Nine Realms, everyone knew, laid on top of each other like layers of geological strata. They were the basis for magic. That was how it was. You had the Earth Realm, which was the sort of the default one and where humans came from. Then you had the Fire, Wind and Water realms. Dwarves, Elves, Hearthkin, Bandar Log, Merpeople, golems, giants – everything came from those four Realms. They were the easiest to travel between – so easy that is was a common service provided to the people. Those magics were for novices or for wizards who only took the standard course and then went home able to make their family life easier or to help on the farm.

The Divine and Demonic Realms were harder to reach. Teus had been to the former once, and had to leave almost immediately. The geometry was awful. The Demonic Realm was cold and lonely and dark, but he’d journeyed there once or twice to seek advice or to subjugate a potential servant. Those magics were… harder. Anyone who mastered Divine or Demonic magic was a professional wizard at least, dedicating their lives to magic. You couldn’t just pick up a book and try and recite spells from them. You’d die, or end up a vegetable.

Life and Death. Life was a canvas of evolution and spontaneity. Teus had been there only once. And never to Death. Nothing lived in the Realm of Death, not truly. But he had mastered that branch anyway, and was one of the few wizards who had. Had to become Mage-President for Life somehow. Very few mastered those, because there were severe ethical issues that Teus had happily ignored on his way to power.

And the last one you had to be careful with. There were myths.