It is set after the third book. The war has drawn to a standstill with both sides dormant. The magician ruled government has collapsed and the commoners are back in charge with magicians only being a small minority. The amount of commoners resistant to magic has faded fast with the fall of the government, and the commoners are no longer waging a war against the magicians. Both are considered equal. The Resistance is no more. However the war in Prague has not ended and both sides wait to see who will make the next move.
With the lack of magicians, a boarding school has been set up in London to take new children. At a minimum of five years of age they are taken from their families to begin their studies. At the school they are given a new name and their new lives begin. Of course the commoners are wary of a magician hierarchy returning and many key positions in the government are taken by commoners and not magicians.
Kiera Blacklight is a thirteen year-old girl that attends the 'London Magician Academy' and she is the main character of the story.
I won't tell you much more but I hope you enjoy reading my first fan-fiction. Please, no flames, but I'd love all creative-criticism, it's one of the best tools a writer can have. I haven't read the books recently so hopefully my memory can stretch back a bit. Enjoy!
Chapter One
What? I can't believe it. The sensation is oh so familiar yet it's something I thought I would never feel again. A summons.
Even though here in the other place time doesn't really exist I know I have been here a long while. My essence has fully recovered and it's been a long time since I felt this good. When I was first whisked back here I didn't know what to think. Nathaniel had selflessly dismissed me, giving up his own life. My thoughts from then on often lingered on him and Kitty and also on Nathaniel's last words, "say hello to Kitty for me". I wonder if I'll ever be able to do so. Hey, I'm not young anymore. Maybe it's down to ageing. Even so, I cannot help thinking about them, which isn't normal for any djinni. I even miss them! I must be coming down with something or maybe not. Maybe I just grew to like them, grew attached to them. I remember Ptomely. I suppose it wouldn't be the first time.
Now even though I've been in the Other Place a long time now, I'm not quite ready yet to finish my vacation from magician mastership. As I give into the summons I sense that it's a young girl. Well then, I just have to terrify the wits out of her so she sends me right back from where I came from. I feel a tinge of guilt, something that's never been there before. I'll need to work on that. Other wise, I proceed as normal, ready to make my most blood-curdling entrance yet.
Now normally, for older and more powerful magicians, I prefer to take forms that are both subtle and professional. But with kids you have to go all out and scare the living daylights out of them. It's the only way.
I start by sending a chill through the room, swiftly followed by flames of heat accompanied by the smell of burning brimstone. Next, I enter as a pillar of swirling black smoke. Inside, flashes of searing fire with two eyes staring with menace from within. I send the candles out in a swirl of flaming ash. I increase the intensity of the swirling tornado – this is going to be such a work of art! – and then great scaly wings emerge from the smog flickering with tendrils of fire. Now, a hair raising screech and –
"Are you quite finished?"
I think that came from the kid! The scaly dragon of burning fire blows away the black smoke and I get a proper look at the girl. She is standing in her pentacle, hands on hips, looking up at me with disdain. She has straight black hair to just past her shoulders, cold, grey eyes and is wearing a black off-the-shoulder jumper, grey jeans, and black pointed boots. In my opinion she's looking way too serious for her age. Well, I'm not one to give up easily.
"Be wary mortal child," I say, undeterred, in a thundering growl, you know, the kind that set knees knocking, "you know not of the dangerous being that stands before you."
"I know enough to tell that you are no threat to me," she answers.
What cheek!
"Now cease with that childish guise and be quiet."
I let the black smog return casting the girl in a smoky shadow.
"And why should I comply to your commands?"
"Don't play the fool," she answers, completely undermining my question, "you know the answer as well as I. I am the magician and while you are in that pentacle there's nothing you can do about it. Now as reluctant as I am to inflict pain upon you, if you do not quieten down I must. "
Unluckily, the scrawny human girl is right. Being confined within this pentacle, I have to obey. But I do so unwillingly. I remain in my demonic dragon form but let the fire simmer down and the room return to normal. The girl remains standing but a small smile has appeared in her expression. It adds a touch of warmth to her otherwise cold face.
"Bartimaeus. I've heard the stories; people thought you were dead, but I never knew what to believe."
It's a shame that. If kids these days believed what they were told I might still be back at the Other Place.
"Well, I should think so. I am Bartimaeus, I am Sakhr al-Jinni, N'gorso the-."
"Oh shut up will you, I don't care about any of that."
She isn't impressed easily then.
"Well can we get this over and done with," I ask, "what do you want?"
"Can you tell me," she answers, another smile spreading across her lips, " about Nathaniel and Kitty."
I stiffen. The question strikes a nerve inside me. It doesn't seem that long ago when it all took place.
"It's none of your business. You're a kid, don't stick your nose in things that are of none of your concern!" But then curiosity prevails. Nathaniel's last words echo in my thoughts and I wonder if she would know the answer to my question, "do you know where Kitty is?"
The child's face resumes it's harsh expression then softens. The icy stare melts from her grey eyes.
"I do, but it's too late to see her now. She passed away years back, I was very young at the time but I still remember her. She was my grandmother. She liked to tell me stories about you and Nathaniel."
Kitty's dead. Well how am I going to say hi to her now? And I never got to say goodbye to her. I didn't realise I had been away so long, if only I had been summoned. And this girl, her granddaughter. For some reason I feel inclined to tell her, this fearless seeming girl. She has a right to know.
"I'll tell you, but first tell me where am I and what's going on."
The girl sits crossed legged on the floor and I do the same, changing into Ptolemy's form. The girl smiles again, but I just frown back. What's she smiling at anyway. She then tells me about a boarding school, the government and the war. She tells me about the commoners and about the fading of people born with resistance. I've missed a lot it would seem. Once she's finished I keep to my word and tell her about Nathaniel and Kitty. It brings up memories of things I considered unimportant at the time. I talk on into the night. Behind the girl I watch the night sky through he window as it deepens and the stars appear.
"Tell me," I ask, once I've finished talking about the amulet and Nathaniel's adventure against Simon Lovelace, "what should I call you?"
"Kiera," she answers, stifling a yawn, "but I think it is time I went to bed. Thanks for talking to me; I won't tell anyone you're still alive. I promise."
Even though she's a magician I think she meant it. She dismisses me and I fade happily away from my pentacle.