The Case Of The Grand Mages (Part 1):
It was approximately 7 in the morning, but Charlie had already been up for 2 hours. He was sitting outside of a local coffee shop, waiting for his coffee to arrive. He watched the cars zoom by as he continued to wait, anticipating what the day had to come. Charlie smiled and took the coffee from the waiter. He took a sip from the takeaway cup before blowing on it. Normally he would sit and drink it, but he didn't have time. He walked straight out into the crowd, not looking if anyone was coming.
Enenra liked traveling, although it usually meant business; but it was still a welcome change to all the hours in an office. Like usual they were wearing nothing but long dark pants and a grey coat with a pipe slung over their back, ignoring all the stares from the people around them as they walked along the street. They didn't notice Charlie, running straight into him. Although they could have prevented the crash, they held themselves back as they were aware of all the mortals around them.
Charlie didn't see them and was caught by surprise. He recovered successfully until he tripped, falling over, with his coffee going all over him. He quickly stood up and brushed off his suit in disgust.
"You won't get the coffee off like that", Enenra commented.
"I figured that much" Charlie snapped, snarling at his soaked suit. "I don't have time for this" he exclaimed.
"Perhaps you should make some time", Enenra suggested, but then sighed. Working for a sanctuary ment many busy days, so they kind of understood his situation. "Or just take it off."
Charlie sighed and took the jacket of the suit off, though it didn't solve the solution of the shirt underneath. "I don't think you understand I can't make time."
Ash walked over towards her favourite coffee shop. She hated walking; it took way to long. She yawned. She hadn't realised how tired she was until now. She had been up most of the night working on a case for the sanctuary. As she was about to go inside, she heard loud voices coming from her left. She recognised the people in an instant and walked over to see what was going on. "What's going on?" she asked, walking over to the commotion that was now building.
Enenra sighed again, muttering "Humans", before turning their attention to the newcomer. "Just spilled coffee, nothing to concern yourself with."
"Ok well if it's nothing to worry about why is everyone now staring at us?" Ash asked. She wasn't lying, everyone around them was staring, interested in what the odd bunch of people were arguing about.
"By us you are including yourself even though you just walked over?" Charlie scoffed. "What the hell am I going to do about this" he groaned.
Ash glared at them both, she didn't have time for this, " Why don't you all just move along," she turned to Charlie, "go and clean yourself up and then we can forget about all of this, before one of us does something we all regret" she glared at the men, showing how serious her threat was.
Enenra's eyes were now focused on her, obviously curious. "Are you perhaps open-minded about a little bit of magic?" They stressed the last word, watching her intensely to judge her reaction.
Ash laughed," Of course I know about magic!" She clicked her fingers and lightning flashed between them and she stopped her lightning flow, "and trust me, lightning can run faster than you can" she smirked at the man who was still look at her curiously. "Now I'm not in a good mood today and, like I said before, move along before one of us does something we'll regret" Purely to prove her point she fired up the electricity that sparked between her fingers
She didn't scare them, although they wondered how electricity would affect them; in their long life they had never really come into contact with it. "Is that a threat?", Enenra asked lightly.
Now Ash was mad. She had only had 2 hours sleep and was having to deal with these people. "Right thats it," she said taking out her phone and making a call, "Hello? Yes i- Yes yes, come one this is your job. Thank you, yes bring him. Ok, see you in a minute" She put her phone back into her pocket and turned back to the men. "My name is Ash Jones; you're coming with me. I hope you dont mind teleportation" she smiled at these last few words as at that moment a young boy with black hair appeared next to them.
Enenra's eyes widened slightly in surprise, but concern was still far from their mind. "Why?", they asked calmly. "Am I supposed to recognise your name?"
"No, you're not, and thats the point. Alex?" The boy put his hand on her shoulder and went to place his hand on the men's shoulders. He stopped just above as they looked like they were going to speak.
Charlie shrugged Alex off. "I haven't even said a word! At least let me get another coffee!"
"Are you going to tell me why you want to take us with you? Or did the Irish sanctuary start to randomly kidnap people?" Enenra pried.
Charlie started to back away quickly.
As Charlie backed away, Ash nodded to Alex who disappeared in an instant before reappearing with a coffee in one and his other hand on Charlie's shoulder. "There here is your coffee, now please leave" she said as she handed Charlie the coffee.
Charlie jumped in fright at this and, with a yelp, his fight or flight instincts kicked in. A punch flew towards Alex's face, stopping a matter of centimetres before it. He slowly withdrew his hand and shrugged him off. "Why am I going anyway?" he asked Ash, with clear anger, approaching her. "I don't have time to deal with your play around."
Ash sighed; she didn't have time for this either. "Trust me, I dont want to be in this situation as much as you do but, well someone has to resolve this. And trust me, you dont want to fight me..." she glared at the approaching her as her hands started to glow and light up
Charlie looked around and sighed. "Absolute genius, and leave the onlooking crowd exposed to magic. Couldn't think of a better plan."
"Damn" Ash said, realising what she had just done and what a big mistake it was. "Umm ok... ummm…" she said to herself. Suddenly she had an idea and whispered something to Alex who then put his hands on everyone, and they teleported. Finally, away from all the mortals.
"Will you stop it?" Charlie shouted at Alex and Ash.
"I'm sorry but I dont want those mortals see anything that they haven't already!" Ash shouted back at him, "now…" she said more calmly," we're only a few streets away from the coffee shop, we can all just go on our ways now- goodbye" she spoke as she walked off in the opposite direction, closely followed by Alex.
"Wait Ash Jones", Enenra called after her; sometimes they just had to do what their position required from them. "You just used magic in front of mortals, and not just once, three times. I can't just let you go…"
Ash turned to them, smiling. "And you think you can stop me?" she asked while giving off a little laugh, "Good luck with that."
"trust me, I know what I'm doing. Most of those mortal won't believe they even saw what they saw by this evening. So if you dont mind, I'll be going now." she went to walk off again, but before she could she was stopped by Enenra.
"As the grand mage of the German sanctuary I actually do mind", Enenra replied, crossing their arms loosely in front of them.
Ash had stopped walking. "W-what?" she stuttered, unable to believe what she was hearing, "Th-thats impossible!" she spoke, turning around. " The English and Irish Sanctuary's would know if you were here!" she added quickly, realising what she had just done.
Enenra inclined their head. "Indeed. You should know that the grand mage is expecting me, although it's not a public meeting."
"I'm ever so sorry Grand Mage," Ash gushed very apologetic, "The Irish Sanctuary's Grand Mage sent me over here to meet someone, she never said it was you..." she trailed off
Charlie sighed and sipped his coffee, having to resist spitting it out. "This coffee is awful."
Ash turned on him, anger flashing across her face briefly, "I'm sorry, you make it yourself then next time!" she took a deep breath before turning to face the German Grand Mage again. " I'm ever so sorry, our teleporter has just gone to inform Grand Mage China Sorrows of your arrival in our area, he should return any moment now..." As she finished her statement directed towards the Grand Mage, Alex reappeared at her side once more. "They're ready for you" Alex said as he offered out his hand for the Grand Mage to take.
"I see", Enenra drawled. "It seems like you have a communication problem within your sanctuary but knowing your Grand mage I'm not too surprised." As Alex reappeared, they nodded at him and took his hand, "Seems like you still possess some manners."
Ash glared at Charlie as she placed her hand onto Alex's shoulder and they teleported, leaving the alleyway, Charlie and chaos of the morning behind. They reappeared inside the Irish Sanctuary moments later. Ash turned around to face her Grand Mage as she waited for the lecture that was sure to follow about exposing magic to the mortals. That was, if Grand Mage Enenra told her.
Enenra greeted the other Grand mage politely, for now not mentioning the incident, before turning back to Ash. "Would you mind bringing the man with the coffee here? After everything he should at least get some fresh clothes."
"Of course, Grand Mage," Ash replied, turning to Alex, "Alex?". He held out his hand for her and as she took it, they both disappeared, returning moments later with a stumbling Charlie
He took a few more steps before stopping and looking around. "For Christ's sake, I thought I was free!"
Ash smiled apologetically, "I'm sorry Charlie, if you want to blame someone, blame the Grand Mage, she requested your presences here with us. If you'd like I can take you to get some clean clothes?"
Charlie sighed and rolled his eyes. "Sure, why not."
"Ok then" Ash spoke back to him as they walked out of the meeting room
Enenra followed them with their gaze, deciding to check on those two later. But for now, they had things to discuss with the other Grand mage.
He followed her slowly, taking in the view around him.
Ash turned around to check that Charlie was still following her, as she walked through a door leading to a storage room. "here, you should find some clothes to change into and an area to clean your coffee stained ones." she told Charlie before quickly turning around and walking toward the door they had entered the room by, "Also there is a café area just across from here, I'll wait for you there." she said before leaving the room.
Charlie quickly found and tried on some similar looking clothes and joined her promptly within 5 minutes.
When he arrived, Ash was staring out of the window and down at the city below. "I ordered you a coffee," she said as he arrived, "and this time it should be to your liking." she finished, still not looking away from the window.
"Thank you" Charlie said, looking over to the store and waiting for the order. A few minutes later his order arrived, and he got the coffee with a smile.
As the coffee arrived, Ash noticed her phone was ringing. She took it out of her pocket to find it was Alex calling her.
"Thanks, Little Bro, yeah we'll be over soon, see you!" she finished on the phone and put it back in her pocket. Still waiting for Charlie to get back from getting his coffee, she went back to staring out the window.
Charlie walked back over to Ash slowly, unsure what to say. "You ready?" he offered.
Ash jumped, not noticing that he had been behind her. "Oh" she gasped "It's just you, Alex called me, they want us back at the meeting room"
Charlie nodded, waiting for her to take the lead.
"Come on" Ash said, walking away towards the meeting room, "apparently somethings happening between the two Grand Mages. If I know Sorrows, and I do, she'll have done something, something thats going to cause something big..." she trailed off as they neared the meeting room…