Kapitel 2: Sorcerers and new towns
Nick sat in the garage and tapped his fingers on the desktop. He stared at the hologram in front of his eyes – an unthinkable piece of technology for the year 2007 – and waited for an answer from home, wherever it was. After ten minutes of complete silence, the hologram blinked and a little girl of about six years old appeared on the screen.
She had long black hair tied into a pigtail at the side of her head, bright blue eyes, thick eyebrows, a button nose and thin lips. Oddly enough, she wore a business suit and looked much more serious than any child should.
"Nicholas. Nice to see you again, how's your new place?" she didn't raise her head to look at him, but Nick didn't mind. He was more interested in what she was reading, so he tilted his head to the side to read the report.
"It's great, thank you guys for finding this house. I even managed to meet my neighbors today. Nice people." he finally realized what was in her hands and blinked in surprise. "Marie, I know you're actually eight hundred years old, but why do you need a six-foot dildo? You wouldn't be able to even lift it."
Marie looked up at Nick in confusion, "What do you…?" then looked back at her papers. Black text on white paper remained unchanged, not a single mention of a sex toy. Then, she turned the page over and noticed the sex shop receipt stuck to the back, and just like Nick said, it was a check for a six-foot dildo called Big Ben. She took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair. "I hate Joylin, you know?"
A comb appeared in her hand and the braid on the side of her head untied itself. Black hair fell to her shoulders and Marie began to comb through it.
Nick nodded slowly. "Okay, Joylin ordered the dildo. That doesn't answer the question why she needs it."
Her hand twitched but remained firm. "She wants to make it into the perfect weapon, as I understand it. The bitch used a company credit card for this under the pretense of a work project. I don't know what exactly she's going to do, but I hope it blows up in her face."
Both Marie and Nick were one of the ten immortal sorcerers on the entire planet Earth. The only ten immortals capable of wielding the power of magic. No one except the Original sorcerers knew exactly where their power came from, but the Originals were all dead… Well, expect for one.
In addition to the ten immortals, the planet was inhabited by about a thousand-or-so other people with magic, but quite mortal. They also helped protect the planet, but not everyone wanted to keep the peace.
Nick completed his training in the mystical arts last year and moved to America. And when I say "completed his training," I mean that he learned basically everything that the rest of the sorcerers knew. Of course, that doesn't mean that he is as skilled with magic as they are, but he memorized all of the theoretical knowledge.
After a hundred years of training, Nick just wanted to take a break for a couple of years, so he chose America as his zone and moved there.
After the other good sapient magical races left the Earth hundreds of years ago, at least those who knew where to go. No one ever found out where they disappeared. The League of Sorcerers had to stretch across the planet to protect the world from supernatural threats, so they divided it into zones. These zones were created so any sorcerer could quickly notice something suspicious. When you can teleport, the main problem becomes to find the incident, not to eliminate it.
Nick, as was said before, chose America. Marie and Joylin, unfortunately, both went to the capital of Russia. The Country required special surveillance because there were dozens and hundreds of petty Demons hiding in the government.
Australia was home to Patrick, a middle-aged man so stubborn, that after he lost his hands, he learned to cast with his legs and head to kick ass. He held back thousands of poisonous monsters that wanted to come out of the ground. Unlike ordinary poisonous creatures, monsters poisoned the soul of a person, killing their spirit. Normal people had no chance against them.
Akech took the continent of Africa for herself, because it was impossible to get the old woman out of her country. The only times she went outside the continent were during the emergence of global threats. Usually, she only controlled the supernatural world, giving every magical animal and monster what they needed to survive, but in a legal way.
Brazil was guarded by Ivan. He never said why he chose Brazil, but Nick suspected that it was done because the dude was a man-whore. Needless to say, he never got laid. And although he was an adventurer at heart, he was a killing machine to everything that threatened people's lives.
Indranil was very similar to Akech, he didn't leave India. But unlike Akech, who took the time to learn magic from the rest of the sorcerers, the old man chose the path of worship to use magic and became much more powerful than anyone expected. No one has yet figured out if the Gods really exist, or if Indranil has trained his magic to work in a strange way. He held the role of support and could send his blessings even to another planet.
Catherine lived in France. She hated the French with her very soul, but she knew that because of the high population there were more incidents. Now she was looking for some witches who turned people into toads for fun… Yes, they were not original at all.
And in China, Dayu was the defender. But unlike the others, it fell on her shoulders to guard the only magical prison on Earth.
All these people received magic at different times and voluntarily decided to protect the Earth. Because no one else would do it, they simply had no choice.
"Are you going to check the magic sensors?" Marie changed the subject, no longer wishing to even think about Joylin. "We haven't checked the runes in America for a long time, and I'm afraid we might miss something important because of it."
Nick waved his hand, and next to the hologram, a map of Canada and America unfolded, a couple of hundred blue, three yellow and ten red dots shining in it. "I have already started the verification process, right now only eleven sensors are out of order and three require maintenance. I will be done by the end of next week."
Mari leaned closer to her hologram and looked at the map. "Huh. One of the sensors is right in your town," she remarked.
Most of the sensors were located in densely populated areas for better formation accuracy. But the formation required that each sensor-column be located at a certain distance from all the others.
"Yeah, I'll save that for last. I'm thinking of taking a break after work." Nick summoned the long, flat piece of metal that he had cut before the move into his hands and ran his fingers over the carved Chinese words. "I still don't understand why we use Chinese Formations and not Norwegian Wards. They cover more ground."
Marie looked at Nick with a raised eyebrow, "Don't act like an idiot just because you don't want to write in Chinese, you know that Formations are more accurate than Wards. And the Norwegian system wastes more ambient mana anyway," she snorted. "If you can pull a Layline to the surface then please, more power to you."
Nick rolled his eyes and continued to talk about the little things he noticed in the city. When it came to his neighbors again, Marie became very interested again.
"Bloom's going to show you around?" she asked with a smug grin. "Are you going to follow Ivan's steps?"
Nick violently coughed into his hand, the very thought about being like that pervert was worse than death. "Fuck off," he scowled, "it's a simple walk." And it was. Nick didn't think that Bloom considered their walk tomorrow a date. And if he wanted to go on a date with her, he would say so.
"Sure, big guy, does she know about that?" Nick wanted to curse her a second time, but he heard the glass break somewhere behind the camera. Marie's head snapped to the side and Nick could have sworn a vein popped out of her forehead.
"Jay! Bad creature! Don't touch the vase!" She got up from her chair and the hologram shook a little. Sounds of lightning magic and Jay's barking could be heard off-screen. The hologram shook with every step Jay took and Marie's angry cries grew only louder, "Stay still, you fiend!"
Nick leaned on the table and sighed heavily, "But she's a good doggy…"
"IT'S NOT A DOG, YOU UTTER MORON–"
When the sun rose on the horizon again, Nick didn't get a wink of sleep. All night he was creating new sensors to replace the faulty ones and collecting materials to fix those that could still be salvaged. So, when Bloom came to his house, she was met by a quiet clanging of metal from the garage.
She raised her hand to knock on the metal gate, but it immediately opened in front of her. Bloom stood still for a couple of seconds, just looking at how the garage transformed into a completely different place from the inside overnight.
Empty boxes lay stacked on shelves, machines for working with wood and metal – the names of which Bloom didn't know – stood against the walls, and in the center appeared a huge table full of scratches and cuts. On the far wall hung various tools and a huge number of axes, from very small hatches to a full-fledged two-handed battle axe. Bloom was sure that this one was taller than her.
Nick stood on the far side of the table; several thick metal pillars lay in front of him. These were the most ordinary metal poles with many Chinese characters carved into the metal and filled with silver. Some groups of hieroglyphs were surrounded by twisted lines, and some stood alone.
"Good morning. Is it already nine? I thought I'd still have a couple of minutes before my tour," Nick straightened from his position and looked at Bloom. She wore comfortable wide-leg blue jeans, open-toe high-heeled boots, and a blue top with a red heart on the chest. Her red wavy hair fell below her waist and her blue eyes were accentuated with black eye liner. Even a blind man could tell that she was a beautiful girl, but one thing worried Nick.
"Why do you need high heels?" He tilted his head in confusion. "Can you even feel your feet in that?"
Bloom rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Good morning, and yes, I can." she wiggled her toes. "And I don't really want to look like a gnome in front of you, so heels," she snarked with a smile.
He shrugged and moved the metal column from the worktable to the table in the center of the room and wiped the sweat from his face. Bloom noticed that this version still had no silver in the cutouts.
"What is it? Decorations for your house?"
Nick shook his head, "No, they're not for me, now you're looking at the product of my work." He covered the unfinished column with a sheet and took a ready-made one instead so that Bloom could take a closer look. "I'm in the business of handcrafting commissioned sets of… Well, whatever the client wants. This one is for a client of mine in Burningham. Weird guy, but he pays well." Nick laughed at his own words, but Bloom felt that it was some kind of inside joke.
"Wow…" She ran her hand along the column and felt a slight electric shock which made her pull away a bit. "These patterns look simple enough, but I can't imagine making something like this was easy."
Considering that each column was two and a half meters tall, it was safe to say that yes, it wasn't easy. How Nick could easily lift them with one hand was a mystery to Bloom. Maybe they were hollow?
"The hardest part was finding the right metal, the rest was easy enough," he wiped his hands on the towel and threw it on the table. "But enough about the boring stuff. I need to wash up and we'll be good to go."
While Nick was in the shower, Bloom sat on the ground floor and drank tea. She did not have to wait long, because in ten minutes he descended into the perfection of his dignity and with a new hairstyle. A white button-up polo shirt and gray trousers, but his work boots remained the same. His hair was tied in a long braid, and now Bloom noticed that his hair was even longer than hers.
"Right, where to first?" Nick asked and Bloom began to tell him the plan for the day as he poured himself some tea.
"First we will go to the nearest shops and malls. If you are interested in interesting landmarks, we can visit them a little later. The second will be cafes and just places to spend time in." Bloom sighed heavily and propped her head on her hand, "Actually, there aren't many interesting places here. All the clubs are in the western part of the city where you don't want to go on your own feet. I don't even have a scooter to get there."
Nick sat down across from Bloom and thoughtfully began to put the lumps of sugar into the mug. "Maybe I should get my motorcycle out, haven't used it in a long time."
Bloom looked at Nick with interest. She would have envied him, but knowing that he was an orphan and most likely bought this bike himself, reduced her envy by a great margin. Moreover, she was no longer a little girl to be jealous that someone had better toys. Instead, she asked, "You can drive?"
"Yep. I was taught by a Russian friend of mine, and he taught me how to drive a German motorcycle that was left from his grandfather after the second world war," he grinned. "It was a very fun month."
In the end, they decided to take Nick's bike, and this time Bloom was not even surprised when he showed her an obvious German bike. It was a black BMW bike that Bloom had seen in the magazine when she was looking for a moped.
Externally, the BMW K1200R – as it was written on the side of the bike – very much resembles a giant insect. At the heart of its tail section is a truss welded from steel rods, and square black rods dissect the silver brackets of the passenger footrests. Angular sides, front stretched wheelbase and fork are like the legs of a praying mantis. The avant-garde oval of the head unit-headlights of a motorcycle in itself is worthy of taking a place at the exhibition of design achievements and adds even more resemblance to an insect.
Why exactly Nick took that bike, Bloom had no idea, but she couldn't help but agree that it was attractive. Luckily it was one of the newer ones, Bloom didn't know much about motorcycles, but she was sure that riding a Second World War old one wouldn't be very pleasant. Nick opened a metal cabinet on the side of the room and pulled out a pair of dark blue helmets and two leather jackets, one of which fit Bloom perfectly.
She took the jacket in her hands and looked suspiciously at Nick. "Why do you have a perfect sized jacket for me?"
"Don't look at me like that! It's just my old jacket, I wasn't always this tall," he shook his head and climbed on the bike.
Bloom sat down behind him and grabbed a chair to keep her balance – she was not going to grab onto Nick – and began to show where they should go with her free hand.
As Bloom promised, she showed the important points of the city. Shops where Vanessa always bought fresh food and bread, coffee shops where Mike got coffee before work, a strange tree that has stood in the middle of the city since its inception, and many more things like that. One of these points of interest was the school where Bloom spent the most annoying moments of her life.
"Remind me, why are we here?" Nick looked at the dull yellow building with distaste.
He had no good memories of schools, even when he was working as a professor, hiding his face under an illusion. Nick was sure that the education system was created to torture people. Partly because Catherine helped with its creation and wanted as many people as possible to suffer, but mostly because people were bastards.
When he was a student, things weren't much better. Teachers not interested in teaching students, shitty books that cost a fortune, the campus on the verge of destruction– and Nick didn't even want to talk about the sexual harassment scandals. The amount of stress from all the assignments he needed to write left him wishing for a bullet in his skull. Not that it would kill him, but the desire itself was concerning.
Bloom took off her helmet and put it on her thighs, "Because this is my school, and as much as I hate it, I made enough good memories in it," she peeked at the wide-open gate and made a sour face. "Okay, we looked, we can move on."
While the bike was leaving for the horizon, Bloom didn't notice that they were being watched. Nick did, but chose to ignore the glare on his back. He didn't feel any magic in his stalker, so he decided to leave them alone. For now.
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
Simple_Russian_Boi
Simple_Russian_Boi Some information about sorcerers and their location in the world. Gradually we will meet new characters and learn more about them, we just need patience.
Oh, and I still need your Stones. Yes, it is important.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
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Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein