Reconciliation (The Magician – Chapter Twenty-Four)

This is the twentieth-fourth chapter of the serialization novel I am working on, The Magician – < click here to read the other chapters if you missed them or have no idea what this story is about.

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Reconciliation

Vanessa collapsed on the sidewalk, utterly spent from the tremendous amount of magic she had just exerted.  As she let out a heaving sigh of exhaustion, she looked up to see some of her Tamberlane relatives amongst the bystanders that had rushed to the scene.  They began to press towards her, crowding her as the onlookers did. Reginald looked dazed as he reached to help her up, having seen all of the magic and the resolution.  Alistair had knelt beside Ignace, seeing what he could do to help his cousin.  Even Freddy was there, trying to push his way through the throng to help his best friend.

With Alistair’s help, Ignace lifted his head and pushed himself to a sitting position.  He let out a large groan as he flexed his feet and moved his legs gingerly, the sensations overwhelming him.  He cast a spell and watched with a smile as colors floated around him.  His magic and the control he could exert over it had both returned.

Police officers began pushing their way through the crowds.  Two magician police officers were trying to figure out the magic that had encased Vitto while others were pushing the crowds back, taking command of the situation.

Vanessa pushed herself to her feet and shoved her way through the throng to come to the aid of Ignace, followed by Freddy and her uncle.  With Reginald and Alistair’s assistance, they were able to help the man get back into his wheelchair.

After catching his breath, Ignace grabbed Vanessa’s hand and looked up at her while the pandemonium played out around them. The color of the magic that emitted from him as he did so was from overwhelming gratitude and relief.  He spoke, but she could not hear him.  She leaned down so that her ear was next to his mouth.

“Thank you,” he whispered wearily.

Vanessa just put her arm around him as she felt as exhausted and fatigued as her cousin looked. She saw her mother then on the other side of the crowd, worry furrowing her brow, and nodded. Evelyn smiled in relief.

Several people were clamoring for their attention, but the two of them smiled at each other as Vanessa nodded and kissed his forehead.  She gripped his hand, her own emotions calling out to his as they both quietly stared at one another. 

“Well done, Godding and Rankin!” a voice called out.  

Some of the officers moved aside, letting this newcomer into the closed off area of investigation as he flashed a badge.  The man was dressed in a brown fedora and a long dark trench coat.  He looked like a high ranked official.  But Vanessa recognized him.

“Mr. Smith?” Vanessa questioned, trying to figure out what she was seeing.  She was confused at his presence.  Why was he here?

Ignace laughed heartily.

“Hello, Nathaniel!” he exclaimed.  He reached one hand out to the man as he came closer still.  “It’s nice to see you again.”

“You too, Ignace.  Seems the years have gone a bit hard for you.”

Ignace sized up the one Vanessa knew as Mr. Smith.

“And it appears they have been a bit kinder to you.  What’s with the Mr. Smith act, Tannie?”

“The Tamberlane Decree appeared to have affected me as well, Nace, even just as a friend.  I couldn’t go about giving my real name to the girl, now could I?”

Vanessa looked at them, trying to figure out their connection.  Freddy looked puzzled.

You two know each other? he signed. 

Vanessa quickly translated, her own face mirroring the confusion her best friend felt.

Nathaniel smiled as Ignace laughed.  He tipped his fedora at her.

“Indeed, Miss Rankin.  I knew this man before he was famous, of course.  I apologize for meeting you under false pretenses before, but I knew the magic needed to be undone and I also knew I could not do it.  But allow me to introduce myself.  I am Nathaniel Jenkins, Head of the Mysteries Department at the Museum of Magical History.”

“Dr. Jenkins’ brother,” Vanessa murmured.  “You knew my father then too.  She mentioned it.”  

Jenkins nodded.  

“Indeed, I am Kimberly’s brother,” he said.  “And Ben was one of my best friends.  We graduated from college together and I went into the museum as a security officer long ago while he went into law enforcement.  He was supposed to come work for me when he retired from the department, but life, alas, had other plans for him.  I should have seen it.”

Ignace shook his head.

“None of us could see it coming, mate,” he replied, shivering.  Evelyn pressed a blanket around his legs, since the medics were done treating his skinned knees.  She fussed over him a bit more.

The man shook his head.  “It was a sorry mess all around, no matter what.”

“It was,” Ignace replied, batting Evelyn’s hand from him. “Evie, I’m fine,” he muttered.  He turned back to Jenkins.  “But you were getting to a point, Tan.  Stay on subject.”

Jenkins laughed.  “Ah yes.  The meeting.  When Kimberly alerted me to your thesis, Vanessa, I knew you had Nestor’s gift as well.  I needed to let you know of Ignace here.  But I knew of the magic that also bound your family.  I had to resort to subterfuge to let you know of the sinister magic that imprisoned him.  Kimberly and I knew you’d figure out a way to free him.  Call it intuition, if you’d like, or maybe a bit of prophetic wisdom.  That’s part of the magic of my own lines.”

“Tan’s family comes from the old seers,” Ignace replied with a laugh when he saw Vanessa’s quizzical expression. 

She nodded, though she still looked perplexed. 

“Why wait until now to come out and tell us though?” she questioned.

Jenkins pushed the fedora up again, as it had fallen on his brow.

“Ah, see, I knew there was more at stake.  I examined the fragments of Malatesta’s pendant and the magical remnants left behind in the bindings.  He alone could not have pulled off the magic needed to coerce almost two hundred people into submission and keep them there.  He had to have had some help.  But we did not know who or what powers were at play.  Somehow though, the same magic that told me young Miss Rankin would free you, Nace, also told me that you two would find the answers if I let it play out.”

Freddy looked confused.  Though Vanessa and Alistair both had interpreted for him throughout the conversation, he seemed to not understand everything that had been said, nuanced as it were.  He got his best friend’s attention.

So wait, they set a trap?

Nathaniel laughed as Vanessa interpreted.

“Yes, my dear boy, we did,” he exclaimed. “I wish we didn’t have to, but we had no choice.  We knew eventually the magic would be discovered.  We also had hoped that the culprit would be apprehended.  Malatesta had made sure that Vittorio Ancillato needed him as much as he needed Ancillato, so I knew he’d make a play eventually.  We just didn’t know it was Ancillato at the time.  We let him slip through our grasp when we interrogated him after his release.”

Before anyone could reply, Jenkins nodded towards Vanessa.

“Hey, Rankin, when you’ve got a moment in between writing your thesis and saving the world with your familial magic, come talk to me.  I might have a job opening for you at the museum.”

Vanessa smiled wide as she translated for Freddy.  She nodded.

“I would love to talk to you about that,” she replied. “At some point in the future, that is.”

“Sounds good,” Jenkins replied, pulling out his cell phone.  “I got to get going.  There’s some paperwork I have to do now that we’ve got this situation under control.  I’ll see you soon!”  He grinned.  “And tell Nace not to be a stranger when he’s done being brought back into the family fold.  Never did I think the Tamberlane curse would be broken, yet here I stand.”

With that, Nathaniel Jenkins tipped his hat and walked away, answering a call as he pushed his way through the crowds.

Vanessa looked down at Ignace, who was moving his legs as he sat in the chair and talking to Reginald, Alistair, Freddy and Evelyn even as cops and reporters bustled around them.  There was bantering and laughing and even some love being shared.  The magician looked up at her, the smile on his face mirroring the one on hers.

They had done it.  They had healed the rift and mended the tree.  They had broken the Tamberlane Decree and they knew that no matter what, they would have the love of family.

Evelyn gently placed a hand on her daughter’s shoulder.  She reached down to do the same to Ignace.

“Come on,” she said happily.  “Let’s go home.”

Click here for the next and final chapter – Postlude

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Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction written by K. S. Wood, and thus is copyrighted 2024. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.  No part of this work may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.  All rights reserved.

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