Rogue Magic:Chapter Two

The Legion of Thieves

                                                            Rogue Magic

                                                           The Beginning

                                                           Robyn Hayward

Sunlight crept along the edges of my curtains and across my eyes, waking me up. I blinked, yawning. What was I supposed to do today? Suddenly, it all came back.

“First mission!” I yelped, tumbling out of bed. I rolled until I hit the closet door. “Owww.” My door creaked open. Lissa poked her head in, smiling.

“Are you okay?” She asked. I nodded, rubbing the back of my head. Lissa giggled. “Come on down when you're ready. Also, Arthur says he's both impressed and surprised at your German.” My face flushed. I hadn't realized my cursing was that loud.

“Alright,” I muttered. “I'll be down.” Lissa smiled and left. After getting dressed, I hurried to breakfast.

Xaro, Aaron, Callie, Max, Lissa, and I gathered in the conference room. I raised my eyebrows at Lissa. She sat down next to me, whispering,

“I'm coming along. Arthur would have, but one of his experiments blew up this morning.” I sighed. That sounded like him. Aaron pointed at my bowl of grapes.

“Why didn't you just finish those at breakfast?” He asked. I shrugged.

“Mainly to have something to throw at Magpie, because it's fun. Also didn't want to hold us up any longer.” Max frowned. I grinned at him. The nickname was fitting. Xaro cleared his throat, and I pushed the bowl away from me. Actually throwing grapes at Max probably wasn't the best idea right now.

“Now that we're all here,” Xaro said. “Aaron, Callie, your meeting's scheduled for right about...now.” To my right, one of Xaro's shadow portals opened up. I shouted in alarm, nearly falling off my chair. Once Aaron and Callie were gone, I glared at a certain smiling son of Hyperion. After a few minutes, a near food fight, and a silent scolding from Xaro, the two magicians came back. Aaron smiled.

“Permission obtained.” He said. “Ready to go?” Xaro nodded. “Okay then. Along with permission to set foot in Greece, we also got a clue as to where to go. They said we should stop at Gavdos Parlor and Casino first.” I laughed.

“A casino? I have always wanted to go to one of those.” Lissa sighed slightly.

“Of course you did.” I shrugged.

“What did you expect?” I inquired. “I'm literally the daughter of luck. Is it really so strange for me to be curious about a place who's business is at least slightly dependent upon my greatest ability?” Max smiled.

“Either way, I can get us there.” Xaro said. Yet another portal opened, but I thankfully didn't fall over this time. After a few seconds of twisting stomachs and cold shivers we arrived in a surprisingly well lit alleyway. Getting to our feet, our small group moved out. Noticing several combat and quest ready teammates, I couldn't help but think, No, we're not on guard at all. What on earth makes you think that?

We rounded the corner. I whistled lowly.

“That's the casino?” I asked quietly. Callie nodded. The white and gold building rose nearly 50 stories in the air. When I voiced the thought, Callie snorted.

“Not even close,” She said. “More like 15.” I glared at her, snapping,

“It's tall, how about we leave it at that.” Max put a hand on my shoulder. I huffed. “Anyway, the place is probably magical. I doubt we'd be chasing a- what was it?- 'magic-wielding anarchist' here if it wasn't.” Aaron nodded.

“Good point.”

“Can you get us through?” Xaro asked me. I nodded, concentrating on forming my orbs. Turning, I threw one at each of my teammate feet. They exploded into dark blue smoke. After the smoke had cleared, the world started to tilt. I swayed on my feet a little until my vision returned to normal. When it did, I found several people watching me concernedly. I waved them off.

“I'm fine. I get a bit woozy after making that many dark orbs. I'm fine now, really.” I groaned, realizing that wasn't going to throw all of them off. “Anyway. Are we going in?”