by S. B Terra
The girl had long, straight black hair with a single plat running down the back of her head and neck and looked to be a couple of years younger than Alice, and as Alice became more aware of the man standing below on the middle of the carpet, she realized who it was - it was Marax Vordare.
Vordare suddenly took a couple of steps closer to the stairs and then stopped still, staring up at the girl for a moment, and then he began to speak.
“Alaria Medelle, true heir of the Bloodline of the Pure and last of her name, your time to rule is upon us, may your strength and power proceed that of all of your predecessors. We, your faithful servants, hereby pledge our unwavering, unbreakable and undying loyalty to you, and only to you. May you live long and rule well, my queen.”
Suddenly, Vordare and the ten hooded people behind him simultaneously raised their wands and released a black, smoky substance into the air. The black substance combined and twirled forward, surrounding the girl, circling her a few times and then entering and disappearing into her heart.
A chill suddenly shot through Alice as she realized what was taking place, and as the chill shot through her body, the girl instantly turned her head and locked her eyes onto Alice’s presence.
Alice’s vision suddenly went black, and as darkness engulfed her, she started shaking and convulsing violently.
Alice fell to her side, shaking and drooling uncontrollably on the ground, her eyes were now wide open and had started rolling into the back of her skull.
“Alice!” Brian gasped in a terrified tone as he rushed over to help.
Brian looked down at Alice in panic as she continued to roll around and shake on the ground, when a few seconds later, she suddenly stopped moving, lying limp on the ground lifelessly.
Brian rushed into the apartment searching for a scroll, and when he found a scroll in the bedroom, he quickly raced back outside to the balcony and pressed it up against the window.
Bella Turnox
Bella,
This is Brian Hemms, Alice has just ingested the Vision Plant brew and needs help urgently, please come to her apartment as soon as you receive this.
Brian
Brian rolled up the scroll and handed it to Blue, who had flown over from the tree and was now standing next to Alice on the ground, lightly pecking her neck as if he was trying to wake her up.
“Blue, please give this to Bella, Alice needs help right now” said Brian, his voice was trembly and he was shaking a considerable amount himself.
Blue grabbed the scroll and instantly flew off, and as Blue disappeared into the distance, Brian sat next to Alice on the ground, checking her pulse and waiting in suspense for Bella to hopefully arrive.
Less than fifteen minutes later, the front door flung open and Bella hurried out onto the balcony, kneeling down next to Alice and holding her head up, opening her mouth and then pouring a greenish liquid out of a flask down her throat.
Once Bella had emptied the flask down Alice’s throat, she then picked her up and carried her into the bedroom, placing her down onto the bed.
Bella then walked out into the living room where Brian was now standing, pausing and staring back at him.
“How much did she take?” she asked.
“Five milliliters” responded Brian, his voice was shaky and nervous.
“Thank you for being here for her, you may have saved her life. The medics are on their way and she needs to rest, it’s best if you go home. We will notify you once we know if she is okay or not” said Bella seriously.
Brian looked distraught and in shock, his eyes were watery, and he had gone pale, and after standing there staring back at Bella for a moment, he slowly shook his head and then made his way out of the apartment.
Alice’s eyes slowly opened, her vision was slightly blurred and unfocused, Blue was sitting on the bed next to her and she could see the sun shining into the room, she could tell that it must have been morning.
As her sight started to clear up, she saw that Bella was asleep sitting on a chair next to the bed and another woman was standing, looking out the bedroom windows with her back facing towards Alice.
Alice looked around the room and realized that there was a drip attached to her arm, and as she sat up and stroked Blue, the woman that was standing heard her and walked over.
“Hi, Alice. I’m Rebecca, I’m a medic” said the woman, she looked to be in her mid-twenties and had long, curly brown hair, and as Rebecca spoke, Bella suddenly woke up and stared at Alice.
“Hi, Rebecca” responded Alice quietly, she felt light headed and tired.
Rebecca walked over and stood at the end of the bed, facing Alice.
“I’m going to raise my hands and I want you to tell me how many fingers I’m holding up, okay?” she said.
Alice softy nodded her head in response.
Rebecca raised both her hands out in front of her.
“Seven.”
“How about now?”
“Nine.”
“And now?”
“Four.”
“One last time.”
“Eight.”
Rebecca then walked back over to Alice and proceeded to check her pulse, forehead and eyes and then got her to make some arm and leg movements.
“She should be fine, it was lucky that she only drank a small amount” said Rebecca, looking at Bella before turning back to Alice, “you need to rest today and drink plenty of fluids, you need to stay on the drip for at least another hour and then you can take it out, okay?” she said.
Alice again nodded her head in response.
“Alright guys, if you need anything at all just send for me and I’ll be right over.”
“Thank you, Rebecca, I’ll see you soon” said Bella.
Rebecca then walked out of the bedroom and left the apartment, shutting the door behind her on her way out.
“How do you feel?” asked Bella, she had a serious look on her face.
“A little light headed and tired, better now though than when I first woke up.”
A moment of silence went by.
“Bella” said Alice, breaking the silence.
Bella looked back at Alice as if waiting for her to speak.
Alice took a deep breath before continuing.
“Can you please pass me The Six Ancient Bloodlines and my wand? The book’s over there on the desk in the black bag.”
Bella gave Alice a confused look, and then removed Alice’s wand from her robe and handed it to her before walking over to the table and removing the books from the bag.
Bella then walked back over with The Six Ancient Bloodlines and handed it to Alice.
Alice opened the book and pressed her wand against the first page, the pages then flicked over and landed on the introduction page for the Medelle Bloodline.
The Medelle Bloodline, one of the most powerful and accomplished of the six ancient bloodlines, and the last of the bloodlines to have perished from our world. The Medelles were a purist family and ruled for a total of over eight hundred years at different stages throughout history. They believed that they were the direct descendants of higher spirits who materialized into this world that were responsible for creating humanity and were historically violently opposed to crossings into the higher, natural world of magic by those originating in the material worlds. They believed that too much analytical presence in our world would dilute and weaken the immateriality and spiritual nature of the higher, natural world of magic and had the crossing channels closed at different stages throughout their long rules.
The Medelle Bloodline, infamously known for calling themselves ‘The Bloodline of the Pure’ has a vast and strong legacy that we will explore throughout this chapter.
Tears started to flow down Alice’s cheeks and her breathing become heavy as she closed the book and placed it down on the bed.
“What is it?” said Bella, staring at Alice blankly.
A moment of silence went by as Alice paused, staring out the window before turning and lo
oking at Bella.
“He had a daughter” said Alice quietly as more tears rolled down her cheek.
Bella stared back at Alice nervously.
“Who had a daughter?”
“The man that you killed.”
Bella froze, staring at Alice in shock.
“What do you mean? What did you see?” asked Bella seriously.
“Alaria Medelle, true heir of the Bloodline of the Pure and last of her name, your time to rule is upon us, may your strength and power proceed that of all of your predecessors. We, your faithful servants, hereby pledge our unwavering, unbreakable and undying loyalty to you, and only to you. May you live long and rule well, my queen” Alice repeated, exactly how she had heard Marax Vordare say it.
Bella stared at Alice in complete shock, seemingly unable to speak.
“It was Marax Vordare, he was the one who spoke those words. There were twelve of them, five on each side of the black carpet, facing each other, Vordare was below the stairs and the girl was standing in front of the throne looking over the others. I saw the black smoke substance go into her heart.”
Bella suddenly stood up and walked over to the window, staring out at the tree in silence.
“After Vordare had spoken, a chill, or emotion went through my body when I realized what I was seeing, she then turned her head and stared at me, everything then went black and I don’t remember anything else” said Alice, wiping away the tears from her eyes.
Bella turned her head and looked at Alice, she seemed to be in deep contemplation and looked worried, and after a moment of staring at Alice, she walked over and picked up a scroll and then walked out of the bedroom.
Over fifteen minutes had passed, and Bella still hadn’t returned, and as Alice stared out the window processing the significance of what she had seen, she heard the front door open and close.
Alice continued staring out the window, listening attentively, but could hear no one inside or outside the apartment, and after roughly ten more minutes of lying there in silence, she heard the front door open and close again.
Bella then walked back into the bedroom followed by Darius Bane and another woman, the woman looked to be in her fifties and had long, straight, red hair, and as they walked into the room, they all stopped and stood at the side of the bed, looking down at Alice.
Darius sat down on the chair, facing and looking at Alice, he had a curious look on his face and seemed calm and relaxed.
“Hi, Alice” he said kindly, smiling at Alice.
“Hi, Darius.”
“How do you feel? Do you feel well enough to talk about what you saw? If you don’t, we can wait and come back tomorrow” he asked in a reassuring tone.
“It’s fine, I’m okay.”
“Bella has told me what you told her, if you remember and if it isn’t too much difficulty, please describe to me the room that you were in when you saw Vordare and the others” he said, looking at Alice attentively.
“There were fires and large lanterns built into the walls, there was a long, black carpet leading up to a wide set of stairs that had black throne with jagged spikes, that’s all I noticed” said Alice nervously.
“It’s okay, Alice, we are all extremely glad that you are okay, you can relax.”
Alice slightly nodded her head.
“The black substance that you saw coming out of the wands of the people in the room, can you describe to me what it looked like and what it did?”
“It was black, it looked like a black, smoky liquid almost, it all accumulated together and then circled around the girl a few times before it all entered and disappeared into her heart.”
Darius paused for a moment.
“How old did the girl look?” he asked.
“Around fifteen, maybe.”
Darius looked at the others for a moment before looking back at Alice.
“Thank you, Alice, that’s all I need to know for now. I also need to ask you a favor, I’m sure that you understand the sensitive nature of what you have seen, so I must ask you to keep this to yourself until we find out more” said Darius seriously.
“I understand, I won’t say a word to anyone.”
“Thank you, Alice. Now, get some rest and I will check in on you soon” said Darius, smiling at Alice as he stood up.
Alice nodded her head and forced a smile, and then Darius, Bella and the other woman walked out of the bedroom.
Alice heard the sliding window doors of the living room open and then close again, they were seemingly unaware that one of the bedroom windows was slightly open, and as they started to speak among themselves, Alice could hear everything that was being said.
“There could be a number of explanations for this” said the woman that Alice didn’t know.
“There could be, but how do you explain the description of the throne room and the pledge by death?” replied Darius in a calm, serious tone.
“Perhaps she subconsciously overheard a conversation in one of the many places she visited, perhaps she briefly viewed a conversation in a close to sleep state, perhaps she heard stories? It could have been imagination” said the woman.
“That’s quite a stretched theory” said Bella.
“Yes, but we need to restrain ourselves from jumping to any conclusions too quickly on this” replied the woman.
“And if it is true, Cynthia, which it certainly looks like it is, then you need to have the courage to accept it” said Bella seriously.
“If it turns out to be true, I will be the first person to accept it, but until we know for certain, I’m not going to be jumping to any conclusions.”
“If it were to be true, and if the girl was, as Alice says, around fifteen years old, and if she was sworn in upon the death of Lars, which we all know is tradition for the Medelles even if the heir is yet to finish their training, that would mean that she would be in her early twenties. But why not show herself? If she is in fact the daughter of Lars Medelle, we can only assume that she was trained by Lars and Vordare, she would have finished her training years ago” said Darius.
There was a short moment of silence.
“Perhaps waiting for her power to mature, perhaps she has been waiting for the right moment, waiting for their army to regather and gain a formidable size and strength” said Bella.
“This would perhaps explain the festival attack, it would also explain Varl’s rhetoric” said Darius.
“If it turns out that Lars Medelle’s daughter is alive and living, as you said this would have taken place over seven years ago, unless for some reason they delayed her inauguration, this would mean that Alice’s journey was – “
“Divination” said Darius, interrupting Cynthia.
Another short moment of silence went by.
“Divination, yes, but the sensing of her presence, the eye contact, how do you explain that? Crossing time and actually being there is more than just divination, unless she viewed it or witnessed a previous inauguration and got the man confused with Vordare after all the hype about him in the press” said Cynthia.
“There are many questions and many potential answers, people that come through this world have many different natural skills and talents, some of which we don’t fully understand. Perhaps it was meant to be seen, perhaps it wasn’t, or perhaps it was as you say, just her imagination or a previous inauguration, however, I don’t believe there has been a Medelle heir of the name Alaria before. Perhaps she was shown or guided by the spirits to alert us of what is to come, or that she was shown someone else’s vision or somehow connected with someone’s passed experience, and therefore felt the same effects as they did.
“It is also possible that the inauguration was delayed for some reason, and that would mean that she simply viewed it. To me it would make more sense that the inauguration would have taken place upon Lars’ death, following family tradition whilst they still controlled the Black Cliffs, there is no way for us to know at this point in time” replied Darius.
“We need
to let Arbus know about this” said Bella.
“Yes, he should be made aware. I want you to up your training with Alice from now on, you should be doing at least five sessions per week. I will also organize for her to start doing a couple of sessions per week with Nara, just in case this is real, for her own safety. Nara will report to you on her progress and perhaps she will be able to give us some insight as to whether or not this is real, this should not be looked at as a hindrance but rather an opportunity to progress Alice to her full potential. I also want our viewers and shamans fully deployed as of today, searching for any information that they can find on Vordare and those around him, however, they must not know about this just yet” said Darius.
Another short moment of silence went by and then Alice heard the sliding doors open and close again, shortly followed by the front door opening and closing.
A few seconds later, Bella walked back into the bedroom and sat down on the chair next to the bed, staring at Alice with a look of utmost seriousness.
“I don’t know what you were thinking, but I want you to seriously contemplate your actions. What you did was careless and reckless, you have been in this world a little over two weeks and you have already done something that could have easily gotten you killed. The world of magic is no joke, Alice, a great responsibility lies upon those lucky enough to be able to journey through this world, a responsibility of discipline and caution.
“The higher, natural world of magic is far more dangerous than the world from which you have come, and you need to start coming to terms with that. From now on we will be doing at least five sessions per week and you will also start doing two sessions per week on learning how to defend yourself against remote incursions, dangers whilst journeying and how to control yourself in those states. I will be going away for a few days, so if you need anything, contact Darius. We will resume your training when I return” said Bella in a serious, stern tone.
Bella then stood up and walked out of the bedroom.
More tears started to flow down Alice’s face as the impact of Bella’s words sunk in, and as she heard the front door close, she realized that Bella was right, the higher, natural world of magic was no joke, and her actions had indeed been careless and reckless.