by Meco Brown
“Payton, relax.” Esmond said calmly.
I sat there trying to understand why Payton's nerves were suddenly running thin. Why was she now acting so aggressive? Perhaps she is simply afraid of what may come of us, if the Nioeaon did find out. As long as they don't shout to the clouds they know of our existence, Ms. Chestnut and Maria would be safe.
“For God’s sake Airius, just tell the woman what she needs to know, so I can leave.”
“Payton, that's enough!” Aviva yelled.
“Tell her what Taideo really is! That his powers are a result from the family she never really knew!” Payton pointed at Ms. Chestnut.
“Payton, stop!” Brock barked angrily.
“Why?” She questioned, “Tell her how you were too weak to protect Taideo when it all happened, Airius.”
“Payton... don't you dare.” Lillian said, forming her hands into a hardened fist.
“When what happened? You mean his accident?” Ms. Chestnut asked.
“When Taideo died and was mysteriously brought back. His supernatural resurrection, caused the celestial fire that destroyed the town. The same town my coven and I have been working pretty much nonstop in order to repair. Some of us haven't been feeding like we should, so I’m guessing that’s why I'm a little cranky. All because Airius failed to save your grandson.” Payton stood to her feet. “Being that I'd rather not suck the energy out of the two humans in the room, I think I'll take my leave; Thanks for dinner.” Payton said with a fierce attitude and vanished in a dark blur of purple.
I could feel Ms. Chestnut's eyes on me, but I didn't look up from the plate of food in front of me. There was nothing but the echo of silence flowing around us now; Which meant Ms. Chestnut was probably thinking of what questions to throw at me. I allowed myself to gaze at her, and felt my heart breaking as a stream of tears fell down her face, and onto the table.
“Dead,” She whispered; But behind that single word was an echo of fury. She was angry, downright enraged. I knew it, they all knew it. How could Payton do this? Why would Payton do this? How could I go about explaining things? What would the outcome be? “You, Airius, wanted Taideo, and the two of you became one, a couple and I accepted that. You reveal to me that the world is a lot larger than what I've come to know; You're witches, and that there are demons out here, and I accepted.” She rose to her feet, gripping the edges of the table in her hands. “I don't understand what is happening....”
“Ms. Chestnut...” I said, but was quickly interrupted.
“I'm not finished!” She screamed. “You don't get to come into my home, and dump something like this on me and think I can just accept it. Taideo died and came back only to be placed in some magic coma? What in the hell?”
“I-I'm sorry.”
“I don't want to hear I'm sorry, or some poor excuse as to what led up to my grandson apparently dying.” She placed her hands on her hips and cocked her head to one side. I climbed out of my seat, readying myself to leave. This was a mistake, I can't be here right now. I can't allow myself to become anymore angry. It really isn't Ms. Chestnut's fault, it's Payton's. “Where are you going?” Ms. Chestnut asked rather bluntly.
“I'm leaving.”
“Don't you dare walk out of this house!” She shouted, tossing her glass of wine towards the wall. It hit with resounding force, painting the wall in red, and covering the floor in bits of glass.
“What do want me to say!” Screeched from my lips, as I found my eyes burning by a cascade of tears. “I love him; I had since the very beginning. Life, was so very simple for me before I met Taideo. I did as I pleased, didn't really consider the repercussions of my actions; But knowing him, loving him made me better. I mean, my god, Ms. Chestnut open your eyes.” I sighed. “What do you really think has been happening the past several months? The weird occurrences, Taideo's abnormal headaches. God, how many bottles of Tylenol have you purchased, knowing he tossed them back like tic-tacs.” I clutched myself, feeling as if I could no longer sustain my weight. “He's a telepath as well as an empath; Taideo has the ability to read the mind of others and their emotions, but those gifts were literally causing him pain each and every day, because he's only half-witch.”
“Half-witch? H-how do we stop it?” Ms. Chestnut asked through grit teeth.
“It's part of who he is. Do you think he chose to be like this, to read minds? Do you have any idea how lonely it is for him? H-how dangerous? Do you know how many times I caught him wishing he were normal? Just having to worry about regular things like homework, dinner, or God, just what to do on the weekend?”
She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms in annoyance.
“No, you don't, but I do. I was there for him, I helped him through it.” I breathed deeply, feeling a bit weary, ravaged in the mind and body.
I watched as Ms. Chestnut slowly walked over to me, staring straight in my eyes, and laid her gentle arm on my harden shoulder.
“And yet, after all of that, at the end of the day, you're the reason he apparently died.”
“Ms. Chestnut...”
“Not if, but when he wakes up, I forbid you to ever see him again.”
I felt as if my knees were about to give out. “What? You can't mean that.”
“Get out of my house Airius, and never return.”
INCANTATION
Pain and grief ripped within my stomach and shredded my insides, as I trembled against the far wall of the parlor back at home. I twisted around, catching sight of my reflection in the mirror, watching the tears streaming down my stiff and angry face. “God, help me, please.” I begged. I closed my eyes and shook my head, refusing to even consider begging for assistance, when I really am to blame for the situation I'm currently in. I don’t deserve his help.
“You're not to blame, Airius.” Taideo's voice said to me.
Despite feeling entirely alone and confused, seeing him again made it a bit better. Through the mirror, Taideo was standing right behind me. My eyes locked on to him, taking in every fine detail of this perfect hallucination. I was now convinced of what I learned before was true. Taideo, at times could project himself to me, using his combined gifts of telepathy and empathy. Which meant I could interact with him as if he were really here.
“Did you see what happened?” I asked, my gaze glued to his and I couldn't help getting lost in the sight of him. His soft pink lips mocked me, the lower one plumper than the top, parted seductively as he bit onto it. He looked so real.
“I saw, but I'm here to tell you that you're not to blame. That grams will forgive you, after you wake me. Which by the way, I figured it out, I know how you can save me.”
I twisted around, pulling him closer to me. “Tell me how,” I said, feeling a rush of hope wash over me. I needed Taideo back in my life, because his love is what I desired more than anything. “Taideo, please tell me how.”
He reached up, gently placing his heated palm on my deadened face. “There is a spell,” he explained weakly, “Nemri-Kishin.” He finished. How could Taideo possibly know about that spell? I even forgot it existed.
“Nemri-Kishin means, ‘come alive lost soul', it is an ancient and tricky spell that only the Nioeaon has access to. Taideo, how did you know about that?”
“My mother has this huge book of spells that I did study from time to time,” He said, inching himself closer to me.
“What are you doing?” I whispered, as he came even closer, and to my surprise, rubbed himself against me. The unexpected action although is pleasurable, it also felt wrong, not at all how Taideo himself would act. “T-Taideo, stop this,” my breath quickened as he lifted his arms, wrapping them around my neck. “Taideo, enough!”
His mouth immediately met my own, all while pushing me back against the far wall. I failed at pulling away, and allowed the moment to continue. With every rapid breath, I got thirstier, taking in the rush of ecstasy when his silken tongue caressed mine, sending flames of heat in the back of my mouth. The monster deep inside me roared, and an
grily shook its cage, begging me to set it free.
“No!” I shouted, pushing him away, moving myself further away from him.
“You're not hurting me, Airius.”
My mind was cracked down the middle, and I found myself faced with more questions of Taideo's current state of being. If I could feel him and touch him, could he not feel the same in return? Should I make my move, or shouldn't I?
Could I truly act on want and desire? I thought to myself, feeling the urge to completely devour him. If he wasn't real, could we truly take the next step? Go to places we couldn't go before, being that he was still practically human. If I made love to Taideo, I'd risk breaking every bit of him with my strength. I claimed him, so certainly, I wished to make him mine in every sense of the word. But my courteous upbringing, mixed with my fear of hurting or possibly killing him, highly prevented me from acting on my desire to further our relationship. If Taideo only knew, how difficult it was for me, to not take him the way I desperately wanted to; How important is was that he keep his virtue, something I highly doubt he even valued. Yet, those are things that I'd say if he were real, but, now he is nothing more than a tangible hallucination. Could I honestly do this?
“Taideo,” I whispered, fighting against the vortex of blissful emotions rocketing throughout my body. “I'm not strong enough being away from you.”
“Then how about I help you reawaken some of that confidence, you've seemed to have lost.” He leaned against the wall, completely begging me to ravage him.
I love him. I need him. I want him.
In a blur, I was up against him, pulling his face up with a single finger, and quickly seized his lips in a much-needed passionate kiss. My teeth mildly bit onto his bottom lip, as he gasped excitedly, enjoying the way I explored his private island; Which to me, was my way of claiming him once again. Everything within me detonated, until my entire universe faded away, and all I could sense and feel was Taideo Kavita.
I held him tighter, and wallowed in the warm and accelerating rhythm of our dancing lips. For the last few months, this kiss was the one I'd been waiting to give him; To finally let all pent-up thoughts and fears fade away, and revel in the idea, that I could give this to him. That our bodies could finally dance in the sea of love, and truly rock the boat.
“Hold on,” I whispered to him, lifting Taideo into my arms as I blurred us both up the stairs, and into my room. My body immediately hit the soft silk mattress, landing on what should have been Taideo's warm body. But he was gone. Yet again, he'd vanished from my sight.
My mind was stuck in pause, then repeat, and pause again. I could feel the faint shimmer of anger expanding inside my chest, leaving no room for any other emotion. “No, no, no, no!” I screamed loudly, punching my mattress repeatedly, as my hysterical cries of anger shattered my frozen heart into hundreds of pieces, a fracture that would not be healed, until Taideo is back in my arms. My thoughts drifted as I sat there, and focused on my own inner pain, when a sudden thought had shimmered into my mind- that spell, Nemri-Kishin, could possibly work, but only if I could get the correct ingredients. The only way to obtain such a complex spell was to summon a member of the Nioeaon.
I took a deep breath to fill my useless lungs, and headed out into the hall, facing the large glass mirror that decorated the end of it. Behind it laid our alter room- A secret area which holds every component, artifact and spell that can be used at our discretion. It is where we keep our book of spells, and where we've hidden Taideo's mothers book as well.
The alter room is our most sacred and protected area within the entire house, a place that Taideo himself doesn't know about. Using my index finger, I draw a complex pattern onto the glass, which withdrew into the wall, and rose. I descended the stairs to the alter room entrance.
The massive, square-sized room is encased in stone, and radiates with a sense of power, and with good reason, as this place houses hundreds of magical items we've collected over the years.
I passed the enormous bookshelf to my right, that held so much knowledge and mystical lore, and quickly headed towards the center of the room, my eyes focused on two metal pedestals; One that held Taideo's mothers book, and the other that housed our coven's tome of magical secrets and incantations. The content within our book was in constant flux, as some pages within seemed to be permanent, while the spells on other pages would disappear for reasons that I didn't always understand. However, I felt the Nioeaon often changed things to their liking. This is what made Taideo's mother's book so special. The Nioeaon for some reason had no control over what was inside. Only she did. But, it would seem that after Taideo died, the book altogether froze. As if it was mimicking Taideo's life force.
I hunched over and began flipping through the book.
“In order to get the spell to awaken Taideo, I need a spell that'll bring a member of the Nioeaon here.” I said to myself. “Long ago they closed the Elder Kingdom to anyone they deemed not worthy, which of course is anyone but them.” I told myself, while using my speed to rush through hundreds of pages. “Dammit!” I screeched sharply. “What am I thinking?” I raised my head looking around the room. “The problem is, I can't bring them here, with everything going on in Olah, they'd purge this area of all its inhabitants, including Taideo.” I sighed, “What am I going to do?”
My eyes fluttered upon seeing Taideo's mothers book flip open and turn its pages all on its own.
“What in the world...”
The book stopped on a blank page, and information on dimensional travel, written in a glowing cursive script, began to slowly emerge. “Not good,” I sighed. There are fundamental forces in the universe, which I have undoubtedly come across in the early course of my learning the craft. The magic of this particular spell, delves deep into one of those forces and is extremely risky.
Dimensional travel, if done wrong, can rip a witch of our magical energy, and kill us instantly. Several centuries ago, the Nioeaon deemed the spell dangerous to pursue, and thus went through a great deal, in order to have the incantation removed from the possession of any and every witch; Luckily for me, Taideo's mother wasn't your average witch and still had the spell in her book.
I leaned over the book and studied the spell. My lips moved slightly as I committed to memory the list of ingredients. Then went to quickly gathering everything I needed, sitting each item onto the arcane cobblestone table, located in the left corner of the room. The arcane table, was where we created spells and other works of enchantment. The golden bowl in the center of the table, broke down whatever was put in on a molecular level, and would combine and or take away, what it needed in order to complete the spell.
One by one I dropped in seven items, that when combined, emanated a soft blue glow, and I could sense the power radiating from the golden bowl. For a brief moment, I basked in the flow of energy. Reaching for an enchanted blade, I sliced open my hand, allowing the sparkling purple toxin to spill out of it, and into the bowl. My blood, or magical toxin, flowed from my hand and gently dripped into the concoction before me. Suddenly, a bright point of light fluttered into view in the air above me.
“What the...” The liquid from the bowl turned from blue to silver, and began to illuminate the room in an even brighter light. “Oh crap, crap, crap!” I screamed loudly, as the liquid reached for my hand, and started crawling up my arm. “Dammit, let go!” I yelled, as the room itself began to shake wildly. I felt my limbs bend and twist, as I was driven to my knees, gasping for air. The light expanded, growing oval-shaped, and a strong wind encased the room in a chilling storm. It was as if the world itself was being torn apart. Planets crumbled in my head, stars then shimmered away, and a terrible pain overpowered me.
The wind and light swirled, tugging at my body. I suddenly felt lighter, and found myself sailing through the air, speeding upward toward the blinding display of light. A vortex appeared above me, I squeezed shut my eyes, unsure of what lay ahead of me; Hoping that I didn't mess up the spell, praying that this wasn't the
second death; Because the only thing on my mind, was never seeing Taideo ever again.
THE ELDER KINGDOM
The first thing I became aware of, was that I was lying on something softer than silk, which I found strange, considering the stone floor at home-
Wait, where am I? I quickly thought to myself, finally allowing my eyes to pop open, just as the blinding light flashed and quickly faded away. I was greeted with an unobstructed view of what I thought to be a black sky; Which was cloudless, yet stained with swirling hues of cerulean blue, scarlet red and glittering pink; Setting a beautiful scenery for my first, and possibly only visit to the Elder Kingdom. I had always held a secret wish of wanting to see this place, as it is kept locked from anyone but the Nioeaon.
“The spell, it worked.” I said, and lurched into a sitting position, feeling the pain in my head settling. It took a few seconds for my vision to focus completely on my immediate surroundings, and several more before I could recognize what was further in front of me.
I had been anticipating a magnificent castle, but my preconceived idea of such a place seemed almost trivial, in comparison to what the Elder Kingdom really looks like. I stood on an exceptionally long grass-made bridge, which led to a great and spectacular combination of shimmering buildings, that were carved into a massive golden mountain. Spiraling violet roads clung to the steep cliffs, which led down into a maze of bridges and rigorous pathways. Within the center of the otherworldly city, stood an eminent lime green building, that accepted the levitating flow of a clean, ocean blue river, running around it.
Dimensional travel, allows the spell caster to travel between different planes of existence, or even to various forms of reality itself. This floating city seemed to be located in mid-space; The Elder Kingdom, literally sat at the center of the universe.
“Unbelievable,” I told myself, hardly accepting what I was seeing to be true. This is the home of the Nioeaon- Powerful elder sorcerers who govern the flow of all magic, ensuring its existence is never uncovered by the mortal world. These frightful men watch for and slay apostate witches, whom they see as abominations for murdering our own kind. Some outside witches call this place a haven, others think of it as a prison. Either way, I didn't care much of what other's thought, I was here for one reason, and one reason only. I needed that damn spell, and no one was going to stop me.