Alcingeria Chapter Fifty: Magic For The Mafia

The captive magic users discover the horrific reason that the mafia wants them so badly...

Chapter Fifty Magic For The Mafia:

Saturday July 3rd 1690

Tabatha sat slumped over the metal table that she was shackled to, feeling completely and utterly drained of any energy she had.

            “Tabatha, get up!” Antoinette pleaded in a whisper.

Tabatha groaned, attempting to sit up but failed.

            “Tabatha, if they see you…” Antoinette trailed off.

The thought of what the guards would do to her if she was caught resting, under any circumstances, was enough motivation to get up. She slowly and unsteadily sat up, shaking as if she were freezing.

            “I… I can’t…” Tabatha stammered, falling back onto the table, still shaking.

            “Tabatha, please! Keep going!” Antoinette pleaded.

The room that they were in was the mafia’s research facility. The whole room was full of metal tables that had witches and warlocks shackled to each of them. There was a huge furnace in the far corner of the room. A few destruction magic users were assigned to keep it burning hotter than any coal powered forge could. As a result the room was very, very hot. The mafia said that they needed a very hot fire to smelt large amounts of ores at a time. The mafia was getting ready for something, something big. They forced some of the magic users to dig in their mines, to gather the ore that was to be smelted here. The magic users who weren’t on the forge were given roles based on their magic types;

Healing magic users were to treat injuries, which were quite common. Manipulation magic users were assigned to pass supplies around the room. Illusion magic users were assigned as guards, Antoinette has not yet been assigned. Influential magic users are walking around the city, persuading law enforcement officers to let mafia members go if they are arrested, however the mafia doesn’t have a lot of influential magic users. Protection magic users are assigned to the highly ranking members of the mafia for protection. Enchantment magic users are assigned to enchant the mafia’s weapons. Curse magic users are assigned as guards. Destruction magic users are also assigned as guards. The mafia has no summon magic users yet and has no dark magic users yet.

            “Hey!” A guard snapped as he kicked Tabatha’s chair out from under her, making her fall to the floor.

Tabatha cried out in pain as her rear end hit the floor.

            “No sleeping on the job! Get back to work, and don’t let me catch you napping again!” The guard yelled at Tabatha.

Tabatha barely had the energy to get back up and place the chair back beneath her, but she made do. She just barely did so without collapsing. Just then, she heard a scream from the forge area.

            “Get some water on that!” A witch shouted.

            “There’s no time! It’s already burning!” Yelled another.

            “Is there a healer in here?” A warlock asked urgently.

Tabatha raised a shaking arm, beckoning them over. Two witches brought a young warlock over to her table.

            “Miss, you look to be in no condition to use magic! You look absolutely drained!” The warlock protested.

            “No… I’m f-fine…” Tabatha said tiredly.

She then looked at the warlock a second time, and a third. His facial structure looked familiar, even under that huge coat of soot from the furnace. She recognized this man.

            “Jesse?” She asked in disbelief.

The man responded to his name.

            “How do you know me?” He asked in confusion.

            “I… I sent that glass mug sailing into your head that day at the guest lounge.” She said.

Jesse did a double take.

            “That was you?” He asked.

Tabatha nodded, donning an apologetic smile.

            “Yes, sorry about that.” She said.

Jesse shook his head.

            “It doesn’t matter. Can you heal my burn? You know, before it kills me?” Jesse asked.

Tabatha nodded, eyeing the huge, nasty red burn on his arm.

            “I think so.” She said.

Tabatha grabbed her staff off the table. She held it over Jesse’s burn with a very shaky hand.

            “Healing gaze!” she cried out tiredly.

The green glow enveloped Jesse’s arm. In seconds, the green light receded into the emerald on Tabatha’s staff. Jesse’s arm was healed. Tabatha then fell to the table, feeling more drained now than ever.

            “Tabatha, you need some rest.” Jesse said with concern.

            “She was caught napping, the guard kicked her chair out from under her.” Antoinette explained.

Jesse nodded in sad understanding.

            “I understand. I need to get back over to my post. Thanks for healing me…?” Jesse trailed off, looking for her name.

            “Tabatha. You aren’t going to kiss my hand this time, are you?” She asked, some of her energy returning to her.

Jesse chuckled and shook his head.

            “No, I’ve learned since then.” He replied.

He then walked back over to the furnace, sending a jet of flame into it.

            “He’s handsome.” Antoinette remarked, regarding Jesse with dreamy eyes.

Tabatha looked to Jesse, she saw his dark black hair, his dark blue eyes. He had a muscular build and a rugged face. Tabatha didn’t find him handsome. She knew who she liked.

            “I think you’re breathing in too much of those fumes, Antoinette.” Tabatha joked.

Antoinette just scoffed.

            “Oh please Tabatha! Can’t you see? He’s handsome. Kind of cute too.” Antoinette retorted.

            “Whatever.” Tabatha brushed her off.

Just then, Artemis Blaine walked into the room. He was holding an object that Tabatha had never seen before. He was also accompanied by a woman. Instantly, the fire jets supplied by the destruction magic users were extinguished, objects floating around the room fell to the ground. All magic just stopped. Tabatha then realised that she knew this woman; it was the witch who was responsible for the curse that weakened everyone’s magic!

            “Now that I have your attention, I have something to present to you all!” He proclaimed.

Everyone in the room listened, waiting for his presentation. Did it have something to do with that strange object he had?

            “Magic users, behold!” He said, thrusting the object he had with him above his head.

            “The offspring of science and magic!” He said, playing up the suspense.

A confused murmur came across the room.

            “This is the greatness that we are all working towards! This is why you are all here! With the help of my brilliant engineers and of course, all of you, we have manufactured this! This is the future!” He shouted to everyone, thrusting the strange object higher over his head.

            “Everyone behold! This is the first ever fully automatic firearm the world has ever seen!” Artemis shouted.

Everyone in the room gasped collectively.

            “With the help of that superheated forge, we were able to make more metal than ever before! With the help of the enchantment magic users, we were able to make a bolt that snaps forwards and backwards as long as the trigger is held! We made a narrow vertical magazine that is enchanted to bring the bullets loaded in it into the chamber. Because of this, we were able to make this firearm set off multiple bullets in a rapid succession!” Artemis yelled.

As if sensing everyone’s doubt, he turned around and shot a burst of seven bullets into the far wall. The bullets each made a loud noise as they were set off by the mechanism within the firearm. They each hit the stone wall and severely chipped it. The bullets didn’t exactly land in a precise spread, but the fully automatic firearm was very, very impressive. The bullets ricocheted to the side. Everyone was in stunned awe.

            “Thanks to the power of magic, and the knowledge of science, we were able to build the first ever prototype of the fully automatic firearm!” Artemis shouted.

Alcingeria had never seen anything like this before. No one had. This was the first of its kind. The first fully automatic firearm.

Author's Note

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