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  Into the Ether

  The Ether World Series

  Andrew Bardsley

  Copyright © 2019 by Andrew Bardsley

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Books by Andrew Bardsley

  The History System Chronicles

  Book 1 in the Series: The First Era

  Book 2 in the Series: The City god

  The Ether World Series

  Book 1 in the Series: Into the Ether

  Book 2 in the Series: The Inscribed Angle

  The Dark Part of the Soul

  The Unknown god

  See Author’s page

  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07LGBBBYD

  Contents

  Chapter 1 Eviction

  Chapter 2 Downward Spiral

  Chapter 3 The Start

  Chapter 4 Off the Streets

  Chapter 5 Gangs

  Chapter 6 - Changing the Mark

  Chapter 7 Opening a New Business

  Chapter 8 Negotiation

  Chapter 9 Security Problems

  Chapter 11 Power Brokers

  Chapter 1 Eviction

  Present Day

  The banging on the door sounded like somebody was trying to cave it in. Chris was sitting in his one-room apartment, with a few bags of his stuff lying around his feet. He had only been in this small, rundown flat for two months. Now it was time to leave. The insistent knocking continued to get louder, now accompanied by shouting.

  “Doctor Smith!” shouted the voice, “We know that you’re in there. We have an eviction order for this flat. You open this door now or we’ll have to break it to get in, and it will be charged to your unpaid debt!”

  Chris got up from the chair lethargically, muttering to himself, and walked the short, few paces to the door. Just as the knocking started up again, Chris opened the door. Before him was a heavily built man, of about average height, wearing a black leather jacket. Chris noticed that some magical protection symbols on the jacket surface were glowing faintly.

  “Alright Doctor Smith, let me explain a few things and then let's get this over with. I’m here to enforce this eviction notice, as you have failed to pay your rent this last few weeks. You need to leave now. You can only take items that I deem to have no intrinsic value.”

  The stocky man pushed a written notice script in front of Chris. On the bottom was a golden glowing seal, the seal of the adjudication court.

  The enforcer barged past Chris and walked into the one-room apartment. He glanced at a separate list as he checked off the listed items in the apartment, and then looked over at the three bags that Chris was going to take with him.

  As he moved towards them, Chris said in an exasperated tone, “Come on man, those are just some of my clothes and personal items, could you just give me a break and let me take them?”

  “Not on your life, Doctor Smith,” said the man flatly, “the value of these items may form part of my fee for the eviction.”

  The man quickly opened the first bag, pouring all of its contents onto the floor. The first thing to hit the floor was Chris’s beat-up magical scribing case. The man picked it up and opened the case with methodical precision, inside were small knives, metal scribing tools and other items for drawing magical script on any surface. This was a cheap set, as the more expensive one Chris had had been sold for food and rent money weeks ago. The man looked at the tools and snorted with disdain but put it to one side. The rest of the items were clothes which he sorted through, anything that seemed to take his fancy he placed with the magical tools. As he was going through the next bags, anything he deemed of value he put to the side. At one point he came across a stack of notebooks that were battered and looked well-used. As the large man went through the books, he snorted at the complicated math-a-magical symbols.

  Looking at Chris, in slight curiosity and with some disdain, he said, “In the news scrolls, it said that you were some kind of math-a-magical genius. I bet you feel really clever now.”

  With that snide comment, he threw the notebook on to the pile of junk. Soon there were two piles. One held all to the stuff the man deemed of value while the other just looked like some junk. Most of it was a few old clothes and the notebooks with Chris notes in them. The man had even taken the bags that Chris had packed his stuff inside.

  The man looked at Chis as if he was the least important thing in the room, and said, “Right time for you to leave. Remember I will be warding this apartment so don’t try and re-enter. You can take that pile of junk.”

  Chris looked at the pile feeling the pit of his stomach sink to a deeper level of despair. But all he could say to the man was, “Can I have a bag to take it in?”

  The man just looked at him with no feeling in his eyes, “Just take the stuff and go before I have to rough you up a bit.”

  Quietly Chris picked up the small pile, turned around and walked out the apartment's door. Walking through the rundown apartment complex, Chris passed under the flickering cheap light scripts on the ceiling and walls. Most of them had some part of the magical circuit damaged, giving a lower level of light than was normal. The complex was in a lower income area of the city he lived in. As he exited the apartment complex’s gate, his previous fellow tenants just looked at him with disinterest, as he passed with his bundle of junk in his arms. Some of them were activating small magical scripts on their forehead. This caused them to go into a trance-like state for a few seconds, coming out of the trance, smiles appeared on their faces. Soon this faded and was replaced by looks of disgust.

  On the road outside the apartment complex, people were moving quickly about their business. At this time in the morning, most of the people were on their way to work. Some of them were wearing magical scripted uniforms, with the glowing logos of the company they worked for. The sun was shining as was normal weather for this time of year. Chris glanced at up and down the street at the building around him. Most were several stories high, but all were in some state of disrepair. This area had once been a small industrial magical area making magical parts for transportation devices. Recently most of the work had moved to different cities with cheaper wages. Now nobody cared about the area as it was getting more and more rundown. This was one of the reasons that Chris had been able to get the cheap apartment only two months ago with the little money he had at that time. Now he was out, with no money to his name and only the pile of junk in his hands and the clothes on his back. Walking down the street he cast his mind back to what had put him in this position.

  --

  1 Year ago,

  Chris had always been very focused on his work. As normal he was working late into the night, in the small premises that he and his business partner had rented for their magical business start-up. Since he had graduated with his Doctorate from University, he had been working constantly with Jake on developing magical devices for communication. Chris had thought up the idea during the final month of his doctorate as he had started to worry about what he would do when he finished.

  The area of his research was an obscure area of math-a-magical, with no useful application at the moment. He was the only one doing any research in this area, and even his supervisor showed little interest in his research, as it was on the edge of what his supervisor’s research focused. He did admire Chris, for the elegance of his work, but Chris had a su
spicion that the supervisor did not fully understand his work. He had realized this when the professor had started making obvious comments and suggestions, often with no deeper understanding of the work. Chris’s research was outside the normal fundamental pillars of magic: earth, fire, water and air. He was working on a hypothetical area that Chris had termed ‘ether’. Over the years, he had been developing a magical system for this new pillar. It was all very theoretical at the moment and not even Chris understood the implications. But he had been in it for the pure intellectual challenge, which often had blinded him to any possible outcome of the work.

  This is where Jake had become involved. As Chris realized he would need a job at the end of his studies, he had started to really listen to Jake about setting up a small start-up. The two had known each other for several years at the university and Jake had always been talking to Chris about going into business together.

  He’d often made comments on the theme of: “With your brains and my business sense, we could make a lot of money! You could have the ideas while I do all the business work. It would be a great partnership.”

  Jake was studying law at the university and was a trust fund beneficiary, which always showed in the clothing and newest magical devices he always had. Chris had won a scholarship to the University. While he was in his undergraduate years, an accident had killed both his parents, leaving only his older sister and Chris. After he had finished mourning, Chris had thrown himself into his university work as he felt that that was something that he had control over. His older sister Jane was now married with a couple of children. Her husband worked at the University as a Junior professor. At the university, he acted a bit stuck up, but he’d been nice enough to Chris.

  This night, he was too involved with his work. Chris did not notice Jake walking up to him with legal scrolls in his hands.

  Jake said in a chipper voice, “I thought we had finished the full prototype group communication devices. What are you doing now?”

  Chris looked up and smiled apologetically, “I was just doing some last-minute checks, it will still be ready for the first production run. Don’t worry, I’m sure it all will be fine. It will be great to start to get some income from this business after all the money we have pumped into this project.”

  Jake nodded his head in agreement, “What have I always said to you? With your brains and my business acumen, we make a great team.’”

  Chris yawned and stretched his arms into the air, “Now that it’s finished, all of the hours of over-work in the last few months are starting to catch up with me. I’m glad the development is over, now I get to see you working hard on the business development side.”

  Jake smiled and said, “Oh, talking about work, I have some documents for you to put your mark on.”

  Chris looked at him wearily, “I’m too tired tonight, to go through legal work, can we do this tomorrow?”

  Jake shook his head and said apologetically, “Sorry Chris, this is important, the reason why I’m here so late is that I’ve been working all day on them. We need it for tomorrow’s presentation. It’s all very boring legal stuff about patents and confidentiality.” Jake paused as if considering something, “If you want, you can just put your mark at the bottom as I’ve been through all of it, and it’s all above board. Look, I’ve checked and double checked the scrolls, so I can guarantee that it is all correct.”

  Chris glanced at the pile of scrolls and considered it. “As you’ve checked it, just show me where to put my mark. Then I am going straight home, to bed.”

  Jake flicked through the scrolls and indicated the magical mark location. As Chris was yawning, he pulled out his magical scribe pen from his pocket. This had been the last gift from his parents before they had died. It was costly and was higher than the usual quality of device Chris normally used. It even was made of gold and platinum. Drawing some of his own essences out of this wrist, he placed his magical mark on all the places Jake indicated. As Jake was moving so fast and his eyes were a bit bleary with sleep, Chris did not manage to read anything he was signing.

  When he had finished, he thought he saw a look of triumph on Jake's face, but it was only passing and was replaced with a smile.

  Jake patted him on the shoulder and said, “You better head back to your apartment, as you look like you're going to drop asleep in your tracks.”

  Chris just nodded and picked up his coat and exited the building. It was about one o’clock in the morning as he walked home. He was not worried he would be in any trouble, as this was a well-protected area. He could see magical safety marking over the walls and different posts. These were for people to call for help if they were in trouble. All of them also had an element of a magical ward for protection, while help was on the way. The road he walked down was empty at this time of night, but Chris appreciated the trees along the road and the building interspersed with parkland. Even if the area was expensive, he was now glad that Jake had chosen this area for the business offices. Now that money would be coming in, he could start to pay off some of the debt he had incurred while living here.

  Chris's apartment was in a small complex close by. Walking to the gate he activated the security check device. A slight glow lit up across the gate to the complex. The material of the gate started to disappear, allowing him through. As he walked past the gate the material reappeared slowly. Walking past the walls of the complex Chris notice the glow of a ward on them.

  It only took a few minutes for him to walk to his apartment. As he pasted the heated pool, with a fire symbol in its centre that slowly warmed the water to a comfortable temperature. He noticed that Jane and some of her friends were still lounging around the pool. She waved at Chris and then came over to talk, for a while. Jane and Chris had been dating on and off for a short time.

  Jane took his hand and asked softly, “Where have you been all day?”

  Chris replied with a tired smile, “I was just finishing the devices we’ve been working on. It’s the big presentation tomorrow.”

  Jane eyes light up a bit and said, “Oh! The thing that you keep saying is going to make a huge impact on the world and make you lots of money.”

  Chris looked a tiny bit defensive, “I haven't talked about it that much and you mostly got all of that information last week when we went on the double date with Jake and his current girlfriend. He is always trying to talk the project up.”

  Jane just smiled and moved closer, pressing her gorgeous body up against Chris and said, “If you are not so busy now it will give us more time together. I’m looking forward to it.”

  Chris smiled, but kissed her goodbye and excused himself, as he really needed to sleep. Jane ran back to her friends while looking back, smiling at Chris. He was a tall and a fit man, generally considered by people to be quite good looking. This was due to him not only being very intelligent, but also being a bit of a fitness freak, always keeping his body in good shape. He even had some magical exercise devices in his new apartment. Jane, on the other hand, was a beauty and well outside his normal league of dating. Her body had been elegantly sculpted by the magical alteration of her genetics. Not only was she near perfect but it seemed, that she also did not have to work, at all, and spent all her time working on her looks. She was always wearing some new item of clothing and Chris wondered if he had ever seen her in the same thing twice. Once she was back with her friends laughing, Chris walked away.

  As he opened the door to his apartment the security marking flashed in acknowledgment of his presence. His apartment was still very sparsely furnished as he did not have a lot of free income, at the moment. Mainly it only contained his exercise equipment; a bed; and in the spare bedroom a table and some chairs for working on math-a-magical problems. Chris went straight for the bed as he stripped down to his underwear. Within a few minutes he was sound asleep.

  The next morning, he woke up with a bit of a start, as a time script woke him up by playing some of his favourite music. As he wanted to be in the office early be
fore they went to the presentation, he quickly took a shower. The shower was in an alcove with a section of the wall inscribed with water and fire inscriptions. As soon as he had stripped, he stepped inside and felt a warm blast of water hitting his body. This infused him with a feeling of invigoration as the magical energy pulse and gave him an energetic uplift, to start the day.

  When he finished his ablutions, Chris dressed in his smartest business attire. This had magical script all over the clothing, keeping him clean and at the right temperature, an additionally added bonus was a layer of physical protection. The style of the suit was the latest trend with close fitting top and trousers, all in muted colours. Jake had insisted Chris buy an expensive suite for any business meeting. It was not to Chris’s taste, as he was generally into more casual clothing, but he had acquiesced as he wanted to fit in. The cost of the suit had been horrendous but as Jake said this was the cost of doing business.

  As he made his way out of the apartment complex, it was all quiet. Of course, Jane and her friends would be in bed at this time, as it was way too early for them to be out and about. Chris had never seen Jane emerge from her apartment before mid-day. She then spent most of her afternoon shopping or meeting up with friends. Within minutes he was at his small office's door. As Chris entered, he saw something he had never seen before. In the reception area was a large man in a black clothing. He had a lot of muscle mass underneath the jacket of the suit.

  Chris looked at him with confused curiosity, and “Hi, who are you?”

  The man stood up to his full height and said to Chis in an even tone, “More importantly sir, who are you?”

  Chris said now slightly annoyed, “I’m Chris Smith, one of the owners of this company and I want to know what you think you are doing in this office.”

  The man made a face and said, “Jake, the boss, indicated to me that there might be some trouble with his former business partner today.” Chris started at the word ‘former’.