AntipodeanSF Issue 313

By Maddison Scott

Every audience reacted with the same fervour though not always in the same way. Some cooed, some clapped or cried or became frenzied. The Magician — a name he bestowed upon himself — basked in it all. The steady anticipation of a curious crowd, the glory and adoration, the epiphany of the singular detractor whose wariness and scepticism couldn’t refute the magic before their eyes.

On the day of his last show, the Magician sifted through his desk, deciding and undeciding on a dozen different items. He landed on a small cylindrical speaker system. It had been an age since he’d presented music to the Bygones and the promise of primitive dancing and melodic euphoria made him giddy.

Perhaps he’d even join in the revelry?

Donning his flamboyant purple robe, the Magician straightened his top hat and ensured his suitcase was packed with enough provisions for three days. Though he’d never himself become trapped out of time he’d heard enough horror stories to know that a Time Recovery Team could take several days to find him if his device failed. He checked his trip log and set the time/space dial on his Expediator.

It took little persuasion to gather the townsfolk in the hamlet. There were only a dozen families to source and his translator made it simple to converse in Middle English. Curious but captivated by the man in luxurious fabrics with an aristocratic lilt to his voice, they formed a circle around the firepit. The Magician danced about the flames, weaving stories about the stars and the gods and the wondrous thing called music. He held his speaker to the sky as if summoning something from the dusky ether. Classical notes boomed into the night; strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion.

At first the Bygones were startled; a woman squawked and fell to her knees, a baby babbled and tugged at the Magician’s trousers and a young couple embraced tearfully. The symphony built into a crescendo, the embers rose higher and higher, the crowd began moving their bodies in unexplored rhythms. Their hips swayed, their feet hopped, their arms gesticulated wildly.

Their rapture was immediate. Seductive.

“‘Tis heaven in my ear,” bellowed one of the young boys.

“Never such a sound there was,” whimpered an older woman.

The town’s leader — a tall man with greying hair — stood rigid, his transition from cautious to captivated slower than usual. His pretty wife tried to grab his hand but he jerked away.

The song morphed into a 21st century pop hit. The Magician laughed, sashaying round and round, soaking in the reverence the townsfolk lauded upon him.

The Magician whirled and didn’t notice the leader was gone. He shimmied and didn’t notice the laughing had ceased. He waved his arms and didn’t notice the axe swinging.

The speaker tumbled and smashed. The hamlet fell violently silent. Hushed, everyone gathered around the Magician as his seeping blood drained his ego. Pleasure became pain but he couldn’t distinguish the two. Looking up at the stars, the once-transcendent man wondered if they were the same constellations he gazed upon in his own time.

The leader poked at the nearly-there-corpse and waved his people back with an authoritative snarl. “You are no god,” he exclaimed in the modern tongue, pulling his own Expediator from his tunic.

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About the Author

maddison scott 300Maddison Scott is a teacher, writer and former film projectionist from Melbourne, Australia.

Her short stories have appeared in, among others, Maudlin House, The Molotov Cocktail, Flash Fiction Magazine, Five on the Fifth and Stupefying Stories.

You can find her online at: maddisonscott.wordpress.com.

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Issue Contributors

The AntiSF Radio Show

antipod-show-50Our weekly podcast features the stories from recently published issues, often narrated by the authors themselves.

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Meet the Narrators

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    She has been a featured artist for the Noted festival, won a Red Room #30in30 daily poetry challenge and was shortlisted for the

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  • Chuck McKenzie

    chuck mckenzie 200Chuck McKenzie was born in 1970, and still spends much of his time there.

    He also runs the YouTube channel 'A Touch of the Terrors', where — as 'Uncle Charles' — he performs readings of his favourite horror tales in a manner that makes most ham actors

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  • Sarah Pratt

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  • Carolyn Eccles

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  • Ed Errington

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    His efforts at wallaby wrangling are without parallel — at least in this universe.

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  • Marg Essex

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    She feels so lucky to be a part of the AntiSF team.

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  • Laurie Bell

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  • Emma Gill

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    As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I recognised it was definitely God who opened up the pathways for my husband and I to settle in the Valley.

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  • Barry Yedvobnick

    barry yedvobnick 200Barry Yedvobnick is a recently retired Biology Professor. He performed molecular biology and genetic research, and taught, at Emory University in Atlanta for 34 years. He is new to fiction writing, and enjoys taking real science a step or two beyond its known boundaries in his

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  • Mark English

    mark english 100Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).

    All this science hasn't damped his love of fantasy and science fiction. It has, however, ruined his

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  • Sarah Jane Justice

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    Among other achievements, she has performed in the National Finals of the Australian Poetry Slam, released two albums of her original music and seen her poetry

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  • Tim Borella

    tim borellaTim Borella is an Australian author, mainly of short speculative fiction published in anthologies, online and in podcasts.

    He’s also a songwriter, and has been fortunate enough to have spent most of his working life doing something else he loves, flying.

    Tim lives with his wife Georgie in beautiful Far

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  • Geraldine Borella

    geraldine borella 200Geraldine Borella writes fiction for children, young adults and adults. Her work has been published by Deadset Press, IFWG Publishing, Wombat Books/Rhiza Edge, AHWA/Midnight Echo, Antipodean SF, Shacklebound Books, Black Ink Fiction, Paramour Ink Fiction, House of Loki and Raven & Drake

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