Into the Ether Read online

  Handing Chris a scroll the large man said, “He told me to give you this and not allow you to disturb the work that’s going on today.”

  Behind the reception, Chris could see two employees there keeping their head down. Working on in some magical devices for the presentation. Chris waved to them to try and get their attention, but they ignored him.

  As Chris was trying to get their attention, the larger man started to push him out of the door. Chris’s suite gave off a faint glow as his magical symbols reacted to the force, stopping the man from pushing anymore.

  As he got out a small wooden rod, from inside his coat pocket, he said in a grim voice, “Now, sir please do not make a scene, and just take your scroll and be off with you.”

  When the man said this, he activated the magical rod by pressing his finger onto an engraved mark at its base. The rod flashed, and a buzzing noise now emanated from it. Chris recognized the rod as a stun device. If it touched him, it would give him a powerful and very painful shock. When he was at university one day, a group of his friend had been messing around with a smaller stun rod. On a dare, Chis had activated it and touched the device to his leg. This resulted in him spasming in pain and being knocked out for a few minutes. When he came to, all of his friends were laughing, until they tried it. The rod in the larger man's hands emanated a lot more power than the small device he had been stunned with. He backed off from the man and eventually felt his back against a door. Fumbling with the door he managed to open it and was out on the street before the man touched him with the magical stun rod.

  Outside, Chris was in a state of shock and bewilderment as he looked at the large man through the glass doorway. Feeling that he needed to take stock of the situation, he walked to a small park beside the office. He found a wooden seat under the shade of the large trees and sat down. In the park there were some people take different pets for a walk. In this richer area of the city, some of them were the more exotic magical pets, however Chris was so focused on himself that he really did not pay any attention to the people and their pets.

  Opening the scroll, to get some explanation, of what had just happened to him, Chris started to read. It was difficult to understand the written legal language, but the meaning soon became apparent, nevertheless. The scroll stated that Chris’s contract with the company had been terminated by Jake, citing as justification, misconduct in his work practices. As he finished reading, a magical seal at the bottom of the cursive text activated and sent a signal to the originator that the scroll had been read.

  The supposed ‘termination’ of his employment only increased Chris’ bewilderment. While technically he was an ‘employee’ of the company, Chris was also a joint owner of the company. He had to get to the bottom of this, so he quickly ran back to his apartment. Nobody was out and about as he ran past the swimming pool and towards his apartment. He quickly passed his security markings and entered. On the top of a wooden counter in the small kitchen was a small case with a farseeing mirror in it. Opening it up he activated the farseeing inscriptions to activate the device. Soon Chris had inscribed Jake’s communication mark to open a farseeing channel. As he waited, looking into the mirror that had swirling mist behind the glass, Chris expected to see Jake’s friendly face, but all he got was more swirling mist. Resetting the inscriptions, he retried to farseeing Jake. Nothing happened again, except the swirling mist. After about an hour of pacing, in his apartment, and trying to contact Jake in regular intervals, Chris decided that Jake was blocking of the farseeing communication channel deliberately.

  He needed some legal help to solve this situation. Using the mirror again he activated the inscriptions and inscribed a request for legal agency listings. The mist revealed a list and Chris selected one he had heard about.

  In a few seconds, an image of a woman face appeared in the mist and she said, “Proctor Legal Associates, Betty speaking how can help you?”

  Chris said in a panicky tone of voice, “I need to speak to somebody about a legal matter, is there anybody I could speak to?”

  The woman looked bored but said, “Is this criminal or a civil case?”

  “Civil case.” said Chris in a clear tone.

  The woman quickly relayed, “Our rate for consultation are two hundred Drachmas per half an hour for a junior partner and starting at one thousand Drachmas per half an hour for the senior partners. Which do you want?”

  Chris at the moment was very limited in terms of money. He had just the other day paid ten Drachmas for a simple lunch, and that was hitting into his bank account, if he did it every day. He decided that he had to go with the junior partner. This was also too expensive for him, but he had to do something. As he gave his answer to the woman, the image in the mirror misted up again and within a few minutes a young man appeared in Chris’s view.

  The man said, this is “Bob Cartright, I am a partner at Proctor Legal Associates how can I help you today.”

  Chris quickly started telling his story, of the strange events that had happened today. As he described them and his position in the company, he was more and more bewildered. The man on the other end of the farseeing link, asked some simple questions as he made some notes.

  When Chris had finished, Bob said, “this all seems a bit strange, but I hope we can get this sorted out quickly. I can have you and the opposition, in front of the adjudicating justice spirit, in an hour from now. Is that fine with you Doctor Smith?”

  Chris said in surprise, “That quick!”

  The lawyer smiled and said, “Well, it’s the wonders of the magical age we live in. The adjudicating justice spirit was created to speed up the justice system. It is the personification of the laws, society have developed over the year. Just remember all of its rulings are final and magically binding for all parties. Be ready in an hour for a farseeing vision.”

  Chris nodded as the image faded in to the clouds. For the next hour Chris walked back and forth as he waited for the vision. Thoughts and ideas kept running through his mind, trying to understand what Jake was doing. He knew his friend was a sharp business man, but what had he done to Chris, was unthinkable, betraying him just for money.

  At the exact time down to the minute the lawyer had indicated for the communication, his farseeing mirror glowed and chimed with a connection. Chris put his hand on the mirror activating the vision. As his mind's eye raced through the familiar swirling fog, he soon found himself sitting in a chair. In front of Chris was a straight desk and seated next to him, Bob Cartright. They were in a large open room that looked like something out of a medieval court house. In front was a wooden bench carved with numerous powerful magical symbols, all glowing faintly. Above the bench in the centre was a swirling spirit mist.

  Bob lent over towards Chris and whispered, “That is the representation of the justice spirit, and you need to be respectful at all times toward it.”

  Chris nodded. He was in a setting that was completely out of his depth. To the side of Bob, Chris could see Jake with and older man, presumably his lawyer, both were sitting quietly without any showing of emotion.

  A voice with a solid tone came from the justice spirit, as it said, “This is adjudication of the case Chris Smith vs Jake Bridge on incorrect dismissal from the ‘Mobile Script Communication Group’. Mr. Cartright, will you please present your case.”

  Bob Cartright stood up and started to go through the events, that Chris had described over the farseeing mirror communication link. Bob did not deliver the greatest presentation of the facts and Chris had to correct him on some of the finer points. It was a halted rendition of the events, but eventually the story was all told. The final bit of evidence presented was the document he had received, from the man in his office. This document was passed over to the justice spirit for examination.

  The justice spirit then asked the lawyer, on the defence side, for their version of the story. The older lawyer stood up and introduced himself to the court as Blake Blackwood.

  “Your Justice,” said Bla
ke Blackwood in a very dry tone, “thank you for hearing from the defence today. I will prove that Doctor Chris Smith has been, lying, on all parts of the account he told the court. Firstly, he is not a part owner in the ‘Mobile Script Communication Group’. I am about to submit, the relevant documentation for your examination. This outline the current owner of the company being my client.”

  As the older lawyer handed over a set of scrolls, the spirit examined the details and said in a reverberating voice, “It all seems to be in order with Doctor Chris Smith. I concede the point that he no longer is a half owner in the ‘Mobile Script Communication Group’.”

  The older lawyer nodded in agreement, and said “the next, item, is about his behaviour during his stay at the company. I have three affidavits, all officially marked, describing his behaviour in the company. It describes his conduct as condescending to others and sometimes having an aggressive attitude in the work environment.”

  Again, the lawyer passed over scroll of documentation, which the spirit surveyed.

  The spirit said, “All done under a truth magi seal, it all seems to be in order. Thank you, Mr. Blake for a good presentation of the details of the case. Mr. Cartright, what do you have to say for your client?”

  Bob Cartright stood up with and angry face and said, “Sorry spirit, but my client failed to tell me any of the detail that have just been presented. May we see the evidence?”

  The documents floated over into Cartright's hands. As Chris and his lawyer examined them, Chris found his seal on a document detail, the sale of his share in the company to Jake. The value, stated in the document, for his shares, was for a nominal amount of one Drachmas. He noticed that his mark on the documentation, was dated this morning. These were the documents that Jake had got him to mark when he was tired. Next, he checked the affidavits. From his point of view, all of the information in them was completely made up. None of what they said, about his behaviour in the company was at all true.

  He said to his lawyer, “None of this is true and the contact document I marked last night without reading it!”

  His lawyer looked at him without any emotion and said, “The presented documentation is against you Doctor Smith, but I will present your denial to the court.”

  Bob passed back the documentation to the spirit and said, “Your justice, my client denies the accusations against him and says that the sale documents were marked without him reading them.”

  The justice spirit said to both of the parties involved, “Is that all the evidence for this case?”

  Both of the lawyers nodded in acknowledgement.

  The spirit said in an official sounding voice, “I have made a judgement. This is final with no appeal. The judgement is as follows, the case has been decided in favour of Jake Bridge on all counts. Chris Smith is ordered to pay the legal fees and in addition will have an inscription on his mark. This will outline the charges of harassment. Case completed the count is now dismissed.”

  As the vision started to fade, all Chris could remember was the smile of satisfaction on Jake’s face, he was just able to see across the room.

  Chapter 2 Downward Spiral

  Present day

  As Chris walked away from his previous rental, he considered the betrayal he had experienced to be a turning point in his life. Not long after the betrayal, Chris had to start selling his belongings to a pawn shop in order to meet all his legal bills. Not long after that, he left the apartment in the rich area of the city, for cheaper accommodation elsewhere. Time passed, and people started to hear about what had happened. Chris started to find that none of his so-called friends were contactable anymore. Even his old university supervisor would not make any time for him. As for Jane, she was the first thing to disappear from his life.

  For the next few months as his money dwindled, Chris applied to all the jobs he could. Though in the application process they examined his mark, the days turned to weeks and he still received no replies. The mark was like a curse that he could not get rid of. He was able to get a few off jobs, labouring for cash in hand, but this was never enough to survive on for long.

  Today, after the eviction, Chris found himself walking down a dirty street with nothing but his few belongings in his hands. He had only one hope left in him, and he was on his way. It took him several hours to trudge through the city’s footpaths. The sun shone, and the birds chattered around him, but Chris kept his head down and seemed not to have heard any of it. It was in this state he arrived at his sister and her husband’s house. They lived in a decidedly middle-class area with rows of separate small houses on small plots of land. It was late in the afternoon when Chris walked up their front door. The security inscriptions above the porch flared a warning, glowing in red light, as he approached the front entrance. “This was a new occurrence”, thought Chris. It had been a long time since he had been invited around, probably close to a year by now, but last time he had been allowed entry automatically.

  As the flare of power died down, the glyph returning to its faded state, a voice came from the door knocker. It was his sister’s monotone voice, “Is that you Chris? You know that Dave wrote to you, asking you not to come by the house.” She paused, “What do you want now?”

  Chris looked into the dead centre of the door knocker, “Have I ever asked anything of you before sis?”

  There was a pause. She replied in the same flat voice, “No. But this could always be the first time. So, what have you done now?”

  Chris sighed under his breath, not wanting to try and convince her yet again that he was innocent of what the mark indicated he done. But, in the end he had no choice. “I have no more money and no place to stay anymore and I was hoping that... that maybe you could put me up for a while?”

  As he said this, Chris could hear some hurried discussion on the other side of the door. The next voice to be projected from the door was Dave’s.

  “Chris, just go away, Sarah doesn’t want to talk to you anymore,” said Dave in an angry voice, “The amount of damage you’ve already done to our lives is too much to bear. It’s best for all of us, that you just… go away. You’ve already ruined this family's reputation. Now go, before I get security to take you away.”

  Chris thought that Dave had always been protective of his reputation, but this was going a bit too far. Even if he had been guilty of what he was accused of, this was still clearly an overreaction. But as there was now only silence coming from the door's communication device, he could not protest. Chris, now void of choices, turned to walk away in silence. At this point, the dull feeling of hopeless sunk deep into his soul.

  After walking for a few miles, towards the city’s centre, Chris found a quiet park bench to sit on and rest. It had been a long day, filled with disappointment, and he was tired. Soon he found his eyes closing of their own volition, and it wasn’t long before he began falling asleep in the chill night air. Several times he tried to adjust his position or wrap his remaining belongings into a better pillow. It was uncomfortable, but it was all he had to sleep on as the night passed. As he was dosing half in and out of sleep around mid-night, he felt as sudden sharp pain in his side. His eyes sprang open and his body contorted almost knocking him off the bench. As he looked wildly around, he located the source of his disturbance. It was a city ranger, dressed in night uniform that had touched him with a stun stick on the lowest setting. The ranger held the stun stick loosely by his side, as if he could tell that Chris posed no threat to him.

  The ranger spoke in a dispassionate low voice, “You can’t sleep here. You need to move on and get out of the park area. We’ve had some complaints.”

  Chris started in confusion, “I’ve done anything except lying here, where do I go if not here?”

  The ranger gave the smallest shrug. “Just not here.” He looked again at Chris and seemed to consider him more closely. “You might try and sleep in some of the aqueduct’s storm drains closer to the river. It’s out of sight and a lot of homeless camp out there. But anyw
ay, you better be moving quickly, or I increase the stun setting and help you on your way.”

  Chris nodded and quickly walked out of the park, clutching what little he had left as the ranger followed from a distance.

  Over the next few months, Chis was shunted from area to area as he started to understand the life of the homeless. Chris found that he was now almost invisible. Passers-by mainly ignored him, as a homeless man sitting on the road or a bench. Anybody that did talk to him was either curious or arrogant and wanting to give him unsolicited and useless advice. Sometimes the more irritable people chastised him for being what he was. Often people also assumed that he was a trance addict, a criminal or both. He’d noticed a lot of that was going on with the people around him, but Chris had not sunk that far yet, despite the circumstances.

  Chris Smith tried to keep busy, doing whatever jobs he could find, all of them were cash in hand and he often found himself cheated in any dealings. Mostly people did not want to deal with him, as he was not able to wash regularly. It was even hard to make magical scripts to clean himself, as he did not have the correct equipment.

  He soon discovered that any fussiness he had previously harboured about food was gone and that now he would eat anything that was edible. In certain areas of the city, he found that people who work with food would bring leftovers to the homeless. Kind people would sometimes buy him hot food, which was a delight. He discovered soup kitchens to be a great help. The volunteers worked to make it pleasant and serve edible food, but it was not very nutritious. Relying on soup kitchens to eat meant that most of the day is spent moving around town, standing in long lines and filing into overcrowded seating areas. A lot of the people he encountered had poor table manners, unhygienic habits or were looking for a fight. Chris thought that shelters, soup kitchens and other facilities for the poor were often the most unsanitary, unhealthy and dangerous places to stay.