Darkness
Complete darkness
Aarion falls down slowly until he reaches the bottom of the darkness.
He stands, and suddenly a skeleton appears. The skeleton has black pants on with never seen before purple runes on it, pure diamond teeth, and a wide moving black cloak.
"You're death," Aarion says, assuming, with a look of fear. The figure then steps closer.
"I am, and you're not of my dominion. You're one of Magi's," He says and Aarion then falls.
Again in darkness, he yells out continuing to fall.
Suddenly, his feet are on a platform, and he stops screaming. He opens his eyes and looks around and sees that he's in a dark, narrow cave.
Fire then burns brightly on torches laid on both sides of the wall, deeper in the corridor.
Aarion turns around and sees a line of cloaked figures walking down the corridor. They whisper in Latin, but Aarion focuses on the carvings of runes and a story, into the ceiling and walls.
Aarion then looks back and follows the figures. He stops at a doorframe once he sees the figures enter a large rotunda like room.
"What is this place?" A woman asks, before she takes down her hood. It's Rhiannon, the first Jamison witch.
"Is this where you heard the whispers, Josephine? No one's here," Another took off her hood, its Lauryn Bello ( though it was just Lauryn during this time)
Suddenly, torches on the round walls of the rotunda like room begin to burn brightly. The women look around as they wonder how could it have become lit own it's on.
One of them point to the ceiling, "Look!" Josephine exclaims. "That's who called me,"
The women join together, and look up at colored paintings, and carvings on the ceiling.
At the center, they see a carving of a figure with a long, navy blue cloak. Around the figure, smaller humanoid figures are depicted around the figure in the cloak. The figures seem to be praising the cloaked figure.
"About time," A voice echoes, and the women are startled, jumping with fear or shock.
They turn around and there, a seven foot tall figure stood behind them.
The figure has a long, wavy, and fluidly moving cloak. The cloak is very dark blue, also embedded with grey runes, and lines all over the cloak. At the figures head, there is darkness. When the women look up to see the face under the hood, they see nothing but black darkness.
"One, two… nine women. Just as expected," He says.
The women begin to step back in fear.
"I'd wait if I was you," the Cloaked One urges.
"You all," Josephine began, "he is the one," she says, calming the other women.
"Yes," The Cloaked One spoke. "I am the Cloaked One. The one you haven't prayed to, but the one who answered," He said sincerely. Beatrice Benoit, then suddenly falls to her knees, wheezing.
"Bea!" Lauryn and the others went to her side.
Beatrice coughed up blood and wheezed hastily.
"Child," The Cloaked One began solemnly, "let me help," he reached out, raising a piece of cloth of his cloak, but his hand isn't there.
Beatrice inhaled deeply, and suddenly stopped coughing up blood and wheezing. She stands and stood beside her sisters.
"I…I feel better! How'd you do that?" Beatrice asks.
"Because I can," he responds.
"I can do nearly anything.. I am the Cloaked One," He adds.
"Further explain, please," Freya asks.
"The Man of Wonder, Heka?" The Cloaked One Continues then chuckles. "Hmm, seems I'm unknown by you alll,"
"I am Magi, the cosmic embodiment of imagination and creation… magic," he spoke with a smile.
"I've heard your prayers, and I want to bless you all with a gift," he lifts his hand and a rainbow circle appears above and the women stare at it in awe, coming closer to the Cloaked One
The room then darkens and Aarion panics as he is in the background. "The hell!" He yells out.
The room then reappears from darkness, and running footstepsn echoed from the dark corridor.
"Magi! Magi!" A woman yelled out.
It's Josephine. She walks into the chamber and Magi suddenly appears, his long cloak floating and moving wildly as he settles down from midair.
"I am here," he says.
"Me and my sisters have been compromised!" She exclaims. "Your request have been for naught, the people do not understand. They fear magic and are hunting us. I'm afraid we must flee this region, and separate," she elaborates.
"I see… Well, if you are being hunted, you must leave now. You cannot be trapped here," He says.
"But-" Josephine steps, "I expected you to join us on our travels. Where will you go if we are no longer present?" She asks. "Don't say-"
"No," The Cloaked One chuckled and cut in. "I know better than to return to the field alone… Now that you all have and understand magic, I will share it with more worlds. Yes… magic will form joy, and creativity from one's imagination," The Cloaked One explained sincerely.
He turned his head as the yells of angry Romans echoed out in Sicilian and Latin. They're searching for Josephine and her sisters
"And as one last gift to you and the rest of my Aashierah (magical women acolytes)," the draping arm sleeves of his cloak then lifts and pitch black fingers poke out of the dark arm holes as his hands fully pulls out and his arms continue to raise up.
His fingers clinks on the ends of his hood, and he slowly pulls it back.
SHOOOOM!
As soon as his hood is removed, a bright light shines over his head.
Josephine covers her face for a moment, and when she lowered her arms to open her eyes, for the first time she sees the face of the Man In the Cloak.
Nine 10 feet long ropes of hair hovered around like floating snakes over The Cloaked One. Silver Jewelry and multicolored gems adorned the crevices in his hair, on every single braid.
Rainbow iridescent water like skin layered over his pitch black skin, and moved around fluidly, yet slowly. His pupils were bright blue five pointed stars, and his sclera mirrored the colors of the cosmos.
But there was another, a third eye in the center of his forehead, the eye was the same but different. Above the eye, a grey crescent is attached to it. There is a white eye in the center and a small black star behind the eye.
Magi smiles as Josephine looks up at him with large eyes full of marvel.
He holds his hand out and a golden key appears. "With this key, you may travel between this realm, and mine," he says as it floats to her and she takes hold of it. "In my realm Alshr, there is a settlement that awaits you if you ever seek sanctuary from those who do not understand the concept that is me,"
"However, there will be a day when it will be compromised. So, you must heed these words. Three of my Aashierah will bring forth a child who will be passage keepers, and the most important people of your community.
"A Bello shall be the guardian," he raises his hand and a small emerald and gold apparition appears, "she will be the protector of the door and the key.
"A Benoit shall be the key," the small humanoid apparition changes color from a swirl of emerald and gold to a swirl of a yellow and purple, "he will be the one who will carefully break the walls of the door, allowing for people to travel through the portal once it's opened," he explains, yet the yells of witch hunters get louder and louder.
"Finally, a Wiremu will be the Door," the color of the apparition changes to black, "He will be the one that not only connects you all to Alshr, but he will be the connection of all of you. He will be King," he finishes and bright lights coming from the torches of villagers began to be seen from the cooridor.
"You do not understand now, but you must go," he says cautiously and begins to raise his hand.
"Wait, Magi-"
BLINK!
In less than a second, Josephine disappears from the chambers.
Magi sighs as the humans begin to approach the chambers. He turns his head and unexpectedly,
He faces Aarion.
With a soft smile, he nods at Aarion. Aarion scrunches his face in confusion, breathing heavily. The pressure of The Cloaked One's presence is overwhelming.
Suddenly, the ceiling of the room rumbles. Aarion is startled, and he looks up, seeing dust and rocks fall from the ceiling. He looks back down and sees that The Cloaked One is no longer there.
The rumbling intensifies, and Aarion runs to the doorway, leading out the room, as he no longer hears the yells of the threatening mob.
BOOM
It darkens…Aarion did not make it to the door in time and the room fell in.
Or so he thought
Aarion gasps as he shoots up, breathing heavily. He stands up, looking around and it's a white room that goes on forever.
He chuckles and nods his head, "Fucking-"
"Are you fucking serious?!" He yells out. His voice echoes several times and his face enrages.
He sighs, trying to calm down, and he begins to walk.
He walks and walks for a moment, then
"Good question," he hears a voice echoes back, and he stops walking in response.
Aarion raises his head high and breathed with caution, before slowly turning around.
"Ah!" He yells out, jumping backward in shock.
His eyes move up and down and he looks with the most extreme amount of caution.
"This shit is so trippy," he says, not to himself. Someone stands in front of him, "You're me!" He exclaims.
Standing across from him, was him. In white garments, Aarion saw himself.
"Not exactly," the other one said, "None of that jogged your memory?" He asks. And Aarion just looked at him confused.
"What you just witnessed, the birth of human magic… you already saw it! During the seven years under your spell, you saw it," he explains
"This," he moves around, gesturing the place around them, "this is your memory bank. Millions of your memories are stored here?" The other one says, yet Aarion still looks confused.
Aarion then scoffs, "This shit gotta be a dream. No way I'm talking to a mirror of myself that's not Magus…" he says.
The other one smiles and say, "Tell that to the others," he says smugly.
"There are no others," Aarion rebuffs. Still smiling, the other Aarion turns his head to the right, and so does Aarion.
There, a line of at least two dozen figures stretched across the space and Aarion eyes widened at the sight of it.
"We," Aarion turns his head back to his Mirror self as his Mirror self began to speak,
"are one," he says, placing his hand on Aarion's shoulder.
Aarion twitches his eye and says, "What the fuck are you tal-"
"AH!"
"OH MY FUCKING GOD!" He yells out, screeching in pain coming from his shoulder.
His mirror self lets go of his shoulder and Aarion falls to his knees. He looks up, breathing heavily and sees a crowd of figures surrounding him.
Simultaneously, all of their right hand raises and glow black,
"AHH, FUCK!" Aarion yells out again, screaming in even more pain than before.
He rolls around on the white platform in pain, as the crowd of figures stood their chanting
"We are one,"
"We are one,"
"We are one,"