While Kimberly sat there, completely in awe. Not able to deal with the situation.Next to her head, a pair of black shoes suddenly appeared, accompanied by the sound of hitting the rail. This shoes belonged to a small man. He was probably about a hundred and sixty centimeters in height. Black, a bit wild almost spiky, short hair was framed a face that belonged to a man surely not older than twenty five. But if you would took a closer look into his silver eyes, One would not be so sure about that. He wore a dark coat that looked like it belonged into a movie. Under the coat, a dark blue sweater was visible, that had some kind of symbol on it, that Kimberly could not make out. His jeans, that had a mellow grey color, that did not really seem to fit with the rest of his clothing. He jumped down the rail and went to the guy, apparently to check if he was really dead. After five minutes of awkward silence, Kimberly finally dared to aks:
“Who are you?” not sure what to make of this whole situation.
“Kayto.” It seemed that guy was not the talkative kind.
“Kayto … who?” Annoyed he looked at her.
“Kayto Hudson” Silence again.
“I’m Kimberly. Kimberly Shaw.” She was still not sure what to say.
“That's way to long. I will call you Ki.”
This was not a question, the guy just decided that on his own. Ki started becoming annoyed by him.
“Then tell me now what this is all about. What is happening? Who is that? Why is he hunting me? Who are you? What are you? Wh..”
Before Ki could continue her stream of questions, he interrupted her.
“Wait wait wait. I will answer those. But i’m not your library. Ask one question at a time.”
This guy was awfully rude, but Ki had to know the answers to her questions. So her careful mind started overruling the terror and fear of the last hour and she became more rational again.
“Who is the guy that hunted me?”
“His name was Montana Smith. Age hundred seventy four. Searched in half of the world. One could say he is a reborn Jack the Ripper.”
Ki had a hard time processing what she had just heard.
“hun… hundred seventy four? Are You Kidding Me?” She shouted. This guy promised to explain things. Not to toy with her.
“No need to get so agitated about this. You heard him. He is not human.”
Kayto said that as if there was nothing abnormal at all.
“What is he then?” Ki was not sure what to ask next. This proved to be much more complicated and abstruse, than she was able to deal with.
“People like him are called Magus. Plural Magi. It means a person who can use magic.”
He kept a tone like someone lecturing a child, but Ki was not bothered by that at all at the moment, were there more interesting things to know at the moment.
“Magic… you want me to believe that Magic is real?” Ki rolled her eyes. This could not be true.
“Of course, did you not see, how he changed that piece of metal into different weapons?”
“Wait, so you saw the whole Situation and did nothing to help me?” Ki was very close to hitting this guy.
“I could not. I had to make sure, that he would die as soon as i attacked. A drawn out fight would probably have resulted in your death.”
Kayto sounded like he had memorized this sentence ages ago and was just repeating it like a jukebox.
“Why was he here anyway?”
“Well i lured him here.”
“YOU WHAT?”
Kimberly could not control herself anymore, she lunched at Kayto who was surprised to see her able to get up, but she was way too weak to hit him. He just caught her as she stumbled forward.
“I lured him here. I knew he was hunting you, who do you think saved you in the first place?”
“Then explain” Ki started to calm down slowly.
“Ok,” Kayto answered, carefully looking at her.
“This guy,” he pointed to the dead body. “Has a split personality. One side of him is a ruthless killer, that sees nothing as more fun than cutting up young women. His other side is an absolutely maniac stalker, that falls in love with every woman he hunts. If you ask me, that is a really messed up combination.” Kayto stopped for a second, concentrating of what to say next. “His ability is, to manipulate metal at will. However he pleases.” Ki sat there. Falling silent. As suddenly a question sparked in her mind.
“And you know that because… ?”
“Well im a magus too.” Ki nearly did not dare to ask.
“Show me.” she nearly whispered. Afraid of her own question.
“I am not allowed to.. then again.. who would tell them. I can i guess.” Ki did not believe her eyes. as Kayto stepped next to her and was suddenly a full head taller than her. Did he grow? Was that his power? Then she realized. He did not grow. He was standing in the air. Floating. Defying gravity with the snip of his finger.
“So your power is… flight?” Ki was still not believing what she was seeing.
“Wrong.” Kayto did not seem to bother explaining. So Ki had to ask again.
“Then what is it?”
“To put it simple,” he said suddenly getting a bit quieter, looking around for ears that were not supposed to hear his words.
“I am able to manipulate air at will. I can step on it. Fly. Even make solid objects out of it. I am the master of it’s element.”
“And then the fire nation attacked.” Ki mumbled.
“What?” Kayto was confused.
“Don’t you know the Avatar?” now it was Ki’s turn to look at him confused.
“No what is that?” He really did not seem to know.
“You are not into animation movies are you?” This question seemed to make a shadow appear on Kayto’s face.
“No. Not really can’t say i’m into movies in general. Why would i watch fictional stories when reality is already complicated enough?”
This answer was not what Ki expected. But it reminded her, of how little she knew of her saviour.
“So tell me how come you are a…. mag.. ?
“Magus”
“Right that one. How did you become someone like that?”
Ki was now really into her element. Magic. It seemed so far away. So unreal. And yet she had just seen solid proof that something like this existed.
“I was born like this.”
This sentence instantly shattered all the romantic feelings Ki just had towards magic.
“Born…. you mean some people are born with magic power?”
“Umm,” Kayto flinched “depends what you define as people. I am not really human either. Only half.”
Ki’s eyes grew bigger in excitement.
“And half what?”
“Half Magus.” Ki’s face got it’s puzzled look back. This was not explaining anything.
“The what is a Magus?”
“I already told you. Someone who can use magic. It is not a Power. It is a born gift. Magi live much longer than any human, but they are not looking different at all.” Kayto started to become annoyed by all her questions about his person. But he had promised answers, so he was determined to deliver, until Ki was satisfied. And breaking a promise was something he had sworn himself never to do.
“How come i have never heard of that?” Ki started to doubt if all what that guy said was actually real.
“It is forbidden to show off you power in the human world. You will be hunted down if you do. Just like that moron behind you.”
Kayto pointed at the dead body, reminding Ki again of the painful memories she had already forgotten in the moment.
“But surely someone must have broken the rules and People must have talked about it?” Kayto was seemingly uncomfortable with that question.
“Yes that has happened.”
“But then what? Why have i never heard about it?” Ki was determined to get the answer to that.
“You know… some people… disappear.. and no one knows where. Others become insane. And some are just labeled as idiots.”
Ki was shocked by that answer. “And no one does anything about that? What about the police?”
“The police.” Kayto said condescending. “They did not even believe you were shot by a gun. Just because they could not find a bullet.”
That reminded Ki of a question she had burning in her mind, since the day she woke up in the hospital. “How do you know that? What has happened that evening?”
“It is rather simple.” Kayto did not seem to make a big deal out of it. “I stopped the bullet.”
“You stopped it? But it hit me. I even had a wound!”
“Yes, because i was to far away. My powers are not unlimited you know? im not a god. Once i was in range, i simply stopped the bullet in motion where it was, by letting the air around it freeze in place.”
This sounded stupid even to Ki who had never been good at physics.
“But i heard energy never vanishes. Energy has to stay constant… i learned that in school.”
“Who do you think i am? A Professor? I only use this power. I cannot explain to you what it can and cannot do against the things that you learned in that school of yours. Think about this. I can fly. Ain’t that already defying everything you learned?”
That was quite true and Ki turned silent for a moment. So Magic could defy the natural powers at work. How exciting that was. And also how scary.
“Is that all you wanted to know?” Kayto made it seem like he was eager to leave.
“NO!” Ki was almost shouting.
“No. I mean. If you are forbidden to use your powers in front of normal people.”
“Humans. Not ‘Normal People’. I am also normal from my point of view.”
“Right. Right. Humans. If you cannot show your powers. Then there must be quite few of you right? If you are so scared to be discovered?”
A shadow hushed over Kayto’s face.
“No that is not true. I have no clue how many we are exactly. But it could very well be as much as twenty percent of the human population.”
Ki did not believe what she had just heard.
“Also we are not scared of you guys. It is really the opposite. This law was made, to keep human interest away from us. To shield them from those with evil intentions.”
“But if there are so many of you. How is it possible to stay hidden?” Now Kayto started grinning.
“Who knows. Maybe we have a secret hogwarts.”
“YOU Lier! so you do watch movies!”
“Wrong.” Kayto grinned again “I read the books.”
“So it is true? you have some space, hidden from the human eye, where all you people live?just how big is that space?”
Kayto seemed to enjoy himself, at joking around with Ki. “I would not call it a space to be totally honest. It is more like it is half of the world.”
“You are kidding me. How would that not have been noticed?”
“It’s Magical.” Kayto already was making it a sport to tease her.
“Stop teasing me and tell me. How can half of the world be unknown?”
“I already told you. Magic. Once upon a time, before you and way before me. There was a very powerful Magic King. He decided that it was too dangerous to have a world that is inhabited by humans and those who can use magic. Countless wars were fought, Witch Hunts were started. The whole time must have been one big mess of kill and be killed. His Magic was special.
He could create barriers that could be kept up forever as long as there was energy to supply it. His best friend another King, had the ability of teleportation. Together they made a barrier around half of the earth, one that detects if one has magic power or not. If not, you will be teleported to the other side without any notice.”
“That sounds like a fairy tale.” Ki made sure he knew how ridiculous he sounded. “Kings ? so every king from ancient time was a magus?”
“No also i did not mean king as in the term you know it. To us, a King is someone who inherits the ability of his own magic element. He has the power to give others the power he has. For example. The King of fire could give you the power to manipulate fire at will. Of Course there is other things as well that define a King, but that would take way too long to explain.” Kayto did not see the smile that Ki got for a moment. She could learn magic! She had to know how to get it. Was it her dream all along.
“But,” Kayto concluded. “Most Kings do not do that anymore. People born into a king's house are royalty. People like me who are basically hybrids, are nothing but worthless halflings. Back in time there were also chosen human magi. But not anymore.”
“Why not?”
Kayto stayed silent for a minute. Deciding what to say about that.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
The question seemed to awaken a painful memory.
“So basically… you could take me to your King and make me a magus too right?” A Spark was glowing in her eyes.
“Absolutely not.”
Kayto was absolutely determined to refuse this request.
“Why not?”
“Because… Because why do you even want to be a magus?”
“Are you stupid?” Ki stomped angrily on the ground. “Who wouldn’t want to be one.”
“I could count a few.” Kayto whispered. More to himself than to her. So quiet that she did not even hear it.
“Then what would it take for me to become a magus?” Ki would not let this go. This was her chance. Nothing was to stand in her way. It was the only thing she ever wished for in her boring life. No one should stand in the way of it.
“Your life.”
Kayto said that without further explanation. Before he could explain what those words meant. Ki was already jumping over the rail. Falling towards the ground at an alarming speed. Hitting the ground now, would mean certain death. But before anything could happen, she stopped falling. and suddenly started flying upwards, faster than she had fallen.
“Are you completely insane?” Stunned, Kayto looked at her. Then looking down, to make sure, no one had noticed what just happened.
“You said it would take my life.” She replied. “There you go.”
Kayto did not know what to say to that. A Person that took his word without a second of hesitation, to achieve their goal. How cunning. How dangerous. How stupid.
“I did not mean it like that you idiot.” Still watching her like a resident of a madhouse, he kept talking.
“You need to give up your identity. No more family. No more friends. Not a single Soul can know who you were.”
“Easy” Ki thought by herself. “There was no one to miss me.”
“Well that is rather easy to do. I have no parents, no grandparents, no close friends that would miss me.” As she said that Kayto’s face suddenly became a lot kinder.
“So you really want to become a magus?”
“Yes. I already told you so.”
Finally Kayto stopped refusing. “I give up. If you really want to, then come with me. We will go to the Silver King once business here is done.”
“The Silver King?” Ki was sure she had never heard that term before.
“Yes the King of Wind. The House i belong to. We distinguish the Kings by color, rather than ability. It is a lot easier to remember, cause people of different houses wear their color. At least in the Capital. But that is enough for now. We should get away from here. You need to take care of your own body. And i need to take care of that Fool there.”
“What are you gonna do with the… corpse?”
“Well since i was hunting him, i have to turn him in to get my payment.”
“Is it normal for you too…. you know.. kill people?” Ki was suddenly not so sure if all this was a great idea.
“No. And yes. Every single person i have killed till now, was a threat to others and had killed multiple people. I'm not an executioner, i'm just a hunter.”
He jumped on the rail and suddenly Ki was flying. With him. The corpse flying behind them. upwards and upwards. Away from anyone who could have noticed them.
Freedom.
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