Second Sun

The Adjudicator - Short Story #1

Written by Deric Wagner

There is nothing like entering a library for the first time. That moment of calmness, which greets you at every future entrance, feels like returning home after a long journey. It was because of this that I decided to open my bookstore. I was chasing after that calmness, and I was hoping to be a source of peace for others.

The shop was busy today. It was a Saturday which was the best day of the week. I relaxed in my high green leather chair and watched people meander through the racks. Light beamed through the windows which arched along the front shop wall. Steam swirled from my tea as I took a sip.

“Excuse me, sir, is your register open?” a voice asked. I lowered my teacup and saw a young college-age kid. His hair was a mess, and he was wearing sweats.

“Yeah, come on over. Were you able to find everything all right?” I said as I stood from my chair.

“Yes, the store has a more complete selection of runic alteration texts than the community college I go to. I appreciate the fact you don’t just keep one school of thought.” He said.

“There isn’t one right way to do magic and it also means I get more customers,” I said with a wink as I rang up three different magical textbooks. Each one described a different popular practice for engraving and imbuing magic into items. I threw in the student discount without asking because who doesn’t like a discount? His eyes glanced up at me confused but I just kept bagging the books and waited for him to pay.

“Have you signed up for our membership yet?” I asked.

“No, not yet.” He said.

“Well, if you do the signup discount on this purchase will pay off a year’s membership, and then you get ten percent off in the future,” I said. He looked at me and smiled.

“All right I am sold. Is it okay if I give you my student email?”

“An email is an email is an email. Just know you will be charged twenty-five sesterces annually for the membership, so if you are not going to be back next year make sure to cancel before you leave town. Your total today is going to be one hundred and eleven sesterces even.” I said.

“That’s a little less than one hundred and twenty dollars, right? Is it okay if you take USD today?” The kid asked spelling out the currency’s acronym.

“Yeah, let me change the system over so it will take today’s exchange rate,” I said as I rang up the order. An inaudible crack resounded through magical space like a stone being thrown in a pool. My eyes shot up towards the window. I blew out a hot tea breath and groaned.

“Sorry, I can put it on my card if you don’t want dollars.” He said looking confused by my sudden annoyance.

“It’s not you, the dollars are good,” I said as I reached out my hand. My eyes flicked between counting the cash for the purchase and the entrance to the bookstore. I opened the register as the shop’s oak and glass doors opened. I handed the kid his change.

“Thank you for stopping in today. I would recommend grabbing some incantation alteration texts the next time you are in if you like Druse’s book. Remember you have ten percent off everything here including the coffee shop. Throw in a student discount and it’s twenty-five off.” I said.

“Damn breakfast just got a whole lot better.” He said before nodding his thanks and leaving. He passed a man in a long true-blue suit. He wore brown oxford shoes which had become a popular accent nowadays. The man’s brown eyes watched me coldly and expectantly. In his coat’s breast pocket, was a silver badge facing outwards for the city’s justice department. The badge was engraved with a silver phoenix, which was supposed to symbolize the court’s undying pursuit of the truth, and was presented proudly and prominently.

“Durand, it’s good to see you.” The man said.

“Jake, if I never had to see you again it would be too soon,” I said as I set my hands down on the oak countertop.

“Come now that’s no way to greet an official of the courts. How long have we worked together now?” Jake asked.

“About every day since I retired from the esteemed courts’ ranks,” I said emphasizing my present employment with the Tribunals.

“Come now Randy, it’s not like we ask that much.”

“My name is Durand to you boy, and I don’t want any case that you have to offer,” I said.

“Well, we got a live one. None of the other adjudicators have been able to nab him. He’s a pyro that lost it at a casino. He’s a two hundred- and fifty-year-old mage. None of those on the bench are within a century of this guy. Do you want me to send one of the other Adjudicators after him?” Jake said.

“Look Jake, I appreciate you trying to look after us but everyone that makes it to the bench is more than able to punch a century above their weight. Show me a picture of the guy and if I see him, I will nab him, but I am retired.” I said shrugging my shoulders. Jake was irritated by my response. He glanced at his watch. My eyes flicked back towards the door before leveling back to Jake who smirked. He lifted a picture of a young blonde-haired man in his thirties. With mages it was hard to tell, he was part of some esteemed family because this was a headshot taken at a gala given the background and the tux.

“You find this guy you put him down. He burned alive three innocents in his attempt to get away from those he owed money to. His name is Jasper Rollins.” Jake said before placing the image in front of me on the counter. I grabbed it and placed it in my coat’s inner pocket. He nodded to me before turning around. Another kid was standing who didn’t look past twenty-five. He was Italian through and through. His hair was raven black, and his eyes were a leaf green. However, his appearance shimmered ever so slightly under the stores hanging runic lights. Jake paused looking at the kid as if there was something wrong, but he must not have noticed. Technically wearing glamour wasn’t entirely legal, especially in a public shop.

“Hello, um I am here for an interview for an open position?” The kid asked. As I watched him, I muttered under my breath to bring to life my mage sight. Sure, enough an intricately laced thin weave of runes fell over the kid. It wasn’t half bad, but I had been doing this for a while.

“How did you hear about the position?” I asked as I watched Jake exit the shop.

“I saw it online and one of my friends said this was the best place in the city to get any book to study any magic. I am hoping to learn something on the side while working.” I nodded to the kid slowly. I moved my hand under the table and began to telekinetically pull on the thread of the spell that lay like a weave over him.

“What brought you to town?” I asked as I continued to work at unwinding the spell.

“Oh, you know grew up here and just trying to get my feet under me. Not a lot of family and just living with my parents.” The kid said.

“What’s your name?” Just one more second and the glamour would fall.

“It is Veron Valeriana, sir,” he replied politely. I nodded as I yanked the strand that would break the glamour. Instantly the kid’s face dropped in horror as he sensed his spell fall apart. His young features aged. His black raven hair turned into a mix of grey. The firm lines of his face hardened and sagged as dozens of years caught up to him. His eyes sunk further into his head and a massive scar just over his left forehead erupted taking large sections of hair with it. I was looking at a dead man. A man who had died five years ago and was one of the most powerful mages in the entire city. His name was Valerio Ravenna.

My hands flew up calling down the thunder from the rafters which fell like bolts to the ground. In an instant, an interlocking cage of lightning surrounded him. I was shouting in ancient Greek as more spells flowed around me. A protective ward formed as my shield bracelet grew hot around my wrist. From the back of the shop, a staff spun perfectly into my outstretched hand.

The frightened eyes of a demigod-level mage looked back at me. His hands shot up towards me and a blast of wind flew from his hands without any finesse but instead with the force of a hurricane. The protective shield lit up with thousands of interlocked protective runes as it absorbed the immediate force of the spell. All the bookcases behind me fell over and the building shook as it groaned to remain intact. Those in the shop screamed at the eruption of sudden violence.

“I have nothing against you,” The kid shouted over my spell-casting. Just then as my sole focus was on the mage, I thought long dead, the glass to the front of the shop exploded.

Fire flashed through the windows and double doors as customers screamed in panic. The fire that shot from the four massive windows formed four different fiery dragon-like faces. Instantly, the kid turned and released more gale-like winds toward the explosion of glass and fire. The room shook as if from an earthquake as the wood-paneled walls lit up with intricate rune work. At that moment, the massive funnels of dragon-shaped fire were flung back through the windows they had come from. I leaped over the desk. Another mage was attacking the location and it was fire magic.

“You stay here. I am going to deal with you when I get back.” I said feeling more magic being gathered outside and this time it wouldn’t just knock the windows out. I raised my right hand and sent a spherical pulse of magic cascading out around me. Every pillar, beam, and panel of wood in the shop lit up with glowing vibrant blue runes. With each step, I gathered more magic to me. It coursed through my body as I stalked my way out to the front of the shop.

As I stepped out into the open air, two suns greeted me. One was millions of miles away and the other was barely a hundred feet in the air. A man stood several dozen feet away wearing a long black cloak. Hot winds whipped through the air causing the mage’s coat to billow around him dramatically. He stood with his feet wide apart and his hands reaching up as if physically holding the massive ball of plasma. His eyes blazed with fire, and I could barely hear his inaudible chanting.

Patrons ran from my store in all directions. The park in front of the shop was beginning to catch on fire. First my windows now the trees and the grass. Why did it have to be a pyro? Of all the things for Jake to lead straight to my bookstore. Anger flared from my gut. I let the emotion course through me as I drew from my ocean of magic. I raised my staff amidst the fleeing bookstore goers.

“Fulminis!” I shouted as I pointed the end of my staff toward the black-clad mage. In a flash of light, a bolt of electricity flew from my extended staff straight at the mage who stood chanting, staring unaware at his ball of plasma. The bolt connected and instantly grounded out. I turned on my mage sight and watched as the energy from my spell was converted into the fiery ball above him. If I threw any battle magic at him, then the sun in his hands would only continue to grow. However, while looking at the runes that made up the spell, I noticed one fatal flaw.

I opened my coat and from my coat pockets, I called forth seemingly endless snakes of copper wiring. The mage continued to chant lost in keeping the spell under control. The copper wires slithered towards half a dozen rot iron streetlamps that were on either side of the street. There was only one way to contain plasma and that was with magnetism. The dozens of individual feet of copper wiring climbed up their respective poles as I began chanting my spell. It was ancient Greek calling back to the fear that had inspired the ancient Greeks to name Zeus the king of the gods. The clouds gathered across the blue sky leaving everything in the darkness that wasn’t touched by the light of the second sun. He was shouting faster now nearing the end of his spell. His hands swung forward as six bolts of lightning cracked down from the sky and hit the top of six iron streetlamps wrapped in copper.

The sun didn’t move. My staff was slammed into the ground in front of me. The air around us was condensing, increasing the gravity as the amount of latent magic fueling both spells warped reality. The lampposts were acting like electromagnets locking the massive sun in its place. The mage, whom I could see now was Jasper Rollins, was screaming angrily and with all his might he tried to repeatedly throw the sun towards me.

The old mage, who I long thought dead, stumbled out of my shop. I reached out the hand not holding my staff, which was continuously calling down lightning. I reached for more magic looking to lock him in a cage of magic. A dead man walking with his power couldn’t be allowed to leave. Valerio stepped forward his eyes glowing green with power. His mage sight was watching the sun before us. He raised his hand and the condensed magic around us beckoned to his call.

“Ascendo” he cried. The concrete beneath the mage groaned and ruptured as a pillar of earth raised Jasper towards his flying molten mess. His chanting stopped as he lost his balance. Slowly the asphalt raised Jasper towards the unmoving sun above his hands. Jasper looked down over the edge as he was now over ten feet above the ground. The mage looked at me and the fire magic left his eyes.

“What are you doing? You are gonna kill me!” The mage yelled as his hands strained over his head trying to hold onto the twenty-foot mini sun he had created. Jasper had built the spell wrong and was unable to lift the sun any higher than it was due to the electromagnets created by the crackling lighting and the iron lampposts.

“What did you expect? We were gonna let you throw that at us?” Valerio shouted as I pointed my staff toward the plasma orb in the sky. Valerio raised the earth pillar another two feet closer. The mage shrieked as his warding spell flashed blue around him barely managing to protect him from the immense heat of his spell.

“Durand, you were going to adjudicate me! I saw you speaking to the officer. I knew you were gonna hunt me. You can’t take me in. I won’t go in.” Jasper yelled.

“How about up then?” I asked, shouting over the deafening roar of the lightning bolts hitting the lampposts. Valerio raised his hand ever so slightly, causing the pillar to rumble in place. The mage fell to his knees while still holding the sun overhead.

“You’re supposed to be retired.” He shouted.

“I am retired, and for the record, I didn’t accept that asshole’s case. I don’t care what you do but then you went and blew out the windows to my shop, scared all my patrons, and then tried to kill me with a shabbily made Pater Magnus Ignis. So, your either going to go up or your gonna go into court. Those are your options.” I said as Valerio caused the pillar to rumble a great deal to make a point. The magical space around us was being pulled in towards the mini sun but dozens of ripples across magical space all happened at once as mage police warped into the scene. Immediately, the police gathered the ambient magic from the condensing air into wards that effectively cut off the area from outside magic. The sphere couldn’t get any bigger.

“Goddamn it all.” The mage said as his hands fell to his sides. The second sun began to shrink. I watched as the man sunk to his knees and the plasma began to dissipate into the air. Hot winds cooled and the first responders began to address the fires in the buildings and the park. As the ball of hot plasma winked out of existence, the pillar of earth lowered back down, and I released my hold on the lighting from the sky. The copper wiring glowed hot, and steam swirled off from the overheated lampposts.

Police ran through the containment ward and waved hands wrapped in complex circular floating runes. Jasper in his long black coat floated up into the air and his hands were forced behind his back. I turned towards Valerio who stood beside me. He looked around the green magic leaving his eyes and instead replaced with fear. At that moment, I decided to go against the law that I had for many years upheld. I gathered magic from the dissipated magical sun and quickly began crafting the best glamour I could. Magic flew to Valerio forcing onto his image the kid I had seen earlier. Unlike the glamour he had before, there were layers to mine to make sure that if you looked at him with mage sight or saw him in runic light there would be no way to tell the old man was glamoured. As quickly as I had started, I stopped and turned away towards my shop.

The front was now decimated. The red brick was burned black, and the windows were all destroyed. The books in the front of the store were either singed or smoldering. Why did it have to be a pyromancer? There would be even more damage inside the shop as I doubted any bookcase was left standing upright.

“Well, that went better than I thought,” Jake said next to me. I sighed.

“You better put it back exactly how it was. Also, this is the last time that you lead a mage to my shop. If you want me to fight your fights that is one thing, but the shop is off-limits. Do you understand?” I said giving the brown-eyed brat my best stare of death.

“It was just coincidental Durand. What do you take me for? I am not a bastard.” He said with a smirk.

He began collecting the left-over magic from the plasma sphere and began warping it into purple sigils that formed a complex net around the front of the building. More runic shapes started appearing inside the shop and before long it seemed every speck of dust had a rune. I watched patiently as time unwound itself. The attack on my shop began to reverse. In slow motion, the bricks that had exploded into dust became whole again. Shards of glass that had spilled into every bookcase now danced quickly back to their appropriate window. The black soot crawled itself back to the origin of the fire and slowly disappeared. Within half a minute the entire building stood as it had that morning when I first walked in.

Jake’s arms slumped to his side and his glassed-over eyes became their usual brown. Sweat dripped down his scalp and all over his face. I slapped the back of his shoulder causing him to almost collapse from exhaustion.

“You are one old ballsy wizard.” He sputtered between gasps of air.

“Well Jake I would say it’s good to see you, but you are a sore sight to me. Please don’t bother my retirement again. I know you’re going to ignore that piece of advice so until next time.” I said before retreating once again towards the calmness of a bookstore.

“Hey Veron,” I shouted, “if you don’t mind checking to make sure Jake put every single book in the correct section, then you are hired,” I said as I turned back from the top step to look at him. He looked at his arms and hands as if they weren’t his own. He clearly could feel the glamour I had placed on him. His eyes searched nervously around.

“Look kid, if that old geezer is giving you a job you better take it. He won’t ask twice.” Jake said. Valerio or Veron, whatever his name was, looked startled by the fact that Jake was dressed as a member of the courts and wasn’t attacking him or trying to take him downtown.

“Yeah, being a librarian sounds nice,” he said looking around at the carnage of the street and the raging fire in the park, “What does your worker’s comp plan look like?”

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