The Dying Art of Magic

by Natalie Gibson

  “You noticed?” Eiran turned over on his stomach, with his head resting on his hands. He gestured to the great glowing orb in the sky, “Ud, our father, provides energy. Ki, our mother, provides nutrients.” He grabbed a handful of sand and let it slip through his fingers.

  Is that why I’m not hungry?

  “No. Ud and Ki provide, but they cannot satisfy.”

  Nathalia wondered at her ability to overlook a serious detail such as eating. She’d been underground for Mother knows how long and she hadn’t even thought about food once. Don’t we eat? Don’t you ever get hungry?

  “To be Nephilim is to live with hunger. I am blocking what might compel you to do something you would regret.” He was looking up at her intently now.

  Eiran’s English was improving with every passing sentence. His ability to adapt and learn was intimidating to Nathalia and she didn’t enjoy feeling inferior to any man. Well, stop it. If you can control yourself and my natural impulses at the same time, then I can certainly handle my own.

  “Come lay down. Let Ud’s light and Ki’s nutrients soak in your skin while I show you what it was like before Nephilim learned to manage our hungers.”

  Nathalia scraped away the top few layers of sand and laid down, but not beside him. It did feel good to have the full sunlight on her face and the cool sand on her back. She closed her eyes and the light shining through her lids began to morph.

  She saw her ancient ancestress, the one at eternal rest in Eiran’s quarters of the mother’s tomb. The mother had a baby and was deeply distressed because that baby, though she had just finished nursing him, would not stop crying. Nathalia saw that baby grow, constantly suckling at a different woman’s teat. A fleet of wet nurses as well as his mother fed him at all hours of the day and night, but still he hungered. They introduced solid food, pounded soft with extra added animal milk, to him earlier than normal. He ate it up and begged for more. Now when the women were not nursing him, they were taking turns preparing his food.

  Then he cut his first two teeth, incisors. A very odd configuration of first teeth that frightened the women, and he began to bite them when left on a breast for longer than the milk supply lasted. He stopped crying for a while then and when he had been weened, the cooks always added a little blood to his baby food. His need for blood gave birth to fear throughout the kingdom.

  As he grew so did his hunger. Nathalia saw a young boy at a feasting table. Platter after platter of meat, bread, fruit and vegetable were brought to him. She saw him on the hunt with other hungry teenagers. They ate everything in their path, no plant or animal life was safe. They literally gobbled up the world’s resources.

  The people began to starve. Then the people began to die. One of the young men had an idea to eat the dead bodies. They were after all, just meat at this point. Impulsive and impressionable as young men are, and as hungry as these were, it did not take much coercion.

  They ate the recently dead and when the meat was gone from the carcass’s, they broke up the bones and ate them too. They were not hungry for a while after such a feast on raw human flesh, but it never lasted.

  Nathalia didn’t say it, but she was disgusted. No matter how bad she wanted to, she would never be a cannibal or blood sucker. Being the uncontrolled empath that she was, she didn’t have to say it aloud. Eiran knew her feelings about what he had shown her and felt the need to explain.

  “We were children. Children of god kings who knew no self-control nor reason for it. You have never felt the hunger. I protect you from it, or you would not find the vision of our feasting so repulsive. You must master the hunger or devour all life on Ki. I will teach you now if you are ready.”

  Eiran stood and then offered a hand to Nathalia. She didn’t take it, but stood on her own. Eiran walked several feet away from her. “If it is too much, all you need do is ask for my help.”

  Before Nathalia could say anything about not needing the help of any man, it hit her. Hunger was too small a word for this all-encompassing desire. It felt like standing in the world’s strongest waterfall of need. Resistance was impossible. Every thought washed out of her mind except getting what she needed to escape the current. She wanted.

  Nathalia felt her incisors lengthen into sharp daggers. Her eyes darted around, searching for something. A thought in her head, maybe hers, maybe someone else’s said to give into the hunger. Eiran would taste so delicious. His blood would stop the pain. She lunged at Eiran, but he was faster than she. Just as she reached out to him, he disappeared and reappeared behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pinning her arms against her. She thrashed, trying to get away, trying to get at him.

  “You must never drink the blood or eat the flesh of another Nephilim. It would change you to Akhkharu. You would be a monster banned from communion with Ud and Ki would no longer accept or protect you. You would be sustained only by the pure physical violence you could incite.”

  Nathalia heard him through the rushing sound of the need waterfall in her head. She slowed her thrashing down to a small resistance, but this change in movement caused another hunger to surface. If she could have, she would have purred at him, as she writhed, rubbing her backside against his crotch. Feeling more animal than human at the moment, she began to show him images of ways he could satiate that hunger with his body.

  “Yes, that would help satiate the hunger, and I admit, it is what I planned, but we cannot. Nephilim are not allowed to take the maidenhood of any woman without something special in exchange. My something exists, but I gave it to you long ago and only you know where it is.”

  Eiran changed the subject to the task at hand. “You hunger for life itself. Prana is found in all things living. Its most concentrated form is orgasm, but there are satiating levels in blood also.” He ignored the image she broadcasted to him. “Less sentient animals have less prana and plant life contains even less, but it is there. It is lawful to take the prana from the blood of humans, but we only do it when necessary. We never kill, only taking what one can share safely.

  “This is what we will do now. Send your senses out and find a human who is alone. When I release you I want you to run toward them. I will be right with you and help you through this first feeding.”

  Nathalia didn’t have to work at the first step. She instantly found a man tending sheep to the east just beyond the desert. He slept standing up, leaning against his shepherd’s staff. She also knew there were 109 sheep in his herd.

  Knowing her thoughts, Eiran said, “Even if you drained every drop of blood in the whole herd, they could not satiate the hunger. I said we do not kill, and taking his herd would destroy this man’s livelihood, killing him and his family. The human has what you want.”

  Nathalia didn’t wait when Eiran released her. She ran across the desert floor. She outran the sun, and it sank below the horizon behind her. She felt the ground change from sand to rocky soil. She stopped running. Eiran stopped right behind her.

  Directly in front of them was exactly as she had sensed it. There was a solitary man and 109 sheep all sleeping soundly. She was puzzled at first because as she looked at him, she began to feel convinced that he was dead.

  Eiran gave Nathalia further instructions, “Conceal yourself from him and the animals. Just project an image of a peaceful night, and a feeling of safety from any predators. You will find it effortless. This is the same method I use when you asked to be labasu. There were never any clothes, but I projected the image, and the feeling of modesty to you.”

  Nathalia created the camouflage needed. They both together skirted the sleeping herd without alerting even one ewe to their presence. A few of the lambs picked up on their proximity, but were reassured by their mother’s calmness and settled back down.

  Eiran spoke inside her mind, The hardest to hide from are young people and baby animals because their minds are more pure. Less shadows in which to conceal ourselves. When they were close to the shepherd, Eiran continued to instruct her so that only she could hea
r. Hold his mind and thoughts steadfast with yours. Tell him not to wake up until we are safely away. Take what you need from him slowly. I will be here to make sure you do not accidentally kill him.

  Nathalia didn’t respond aloud nor silently, but walked forward. She seized the shepherd’s mind. When his arms dropped to his sides and his staff fell to the ground she took him in her embrace. Bending his head to one side, she sank her teeth into his neck.

  Life poured into her mouth and she swallowed it in great gulps. Colors exploded all around her and as she fed she could see the different measures of life in everything around her. Lizards and beetles under the dirt, plants and cactus clinging to the thin topsoil: everything was counted and recorded by her as possible prana providers. Her eyes fell on Eiran. He glowed differently than anything else. He was somehow more alive than anything should be.

  Thoughts she did not recognize as her own rang out in her head, Yes, it is good, is it not? His blood would taste even better. Don’t fight the hunger. Kill the man and then move on to the Nephilim. He is weak and would not fight you.

  Human hands brushed Nathalia’s bare skin, and she heard a deep growl come from Eiran. She jumped at the sound, breaking her seal around the bite. Blood began to flow from the two pricks. She did not know what Eiran had done, but the man sagged against her, his arms dropping to his sides once again. The hunger was not gone, but reduced to a manageable level. She felt strong and a little high. Nathalia heard Eiran’s instructions again, Bite your lip or tongue and rub your blood on the wound. It will heal him and he will have no physical evidence that tonight was different than any other.

  Nathalia did as he said, but as she kissed this human’s neck, Eiran growled again. She pulled away, sensing the danger was to the human and not to herself. She laid him down on the ground and crossed to meet Eiran. The hunger, is that how it is for you all the time?

  “It is worse. Especially since your conversion. You are incredibly tempting and I must hold the whole hunger beast until you are prepared to manage your half.”

  That was only half?

  “We have had the whole beast within us since the dawn of civilization. Only our Sinnis Ina Ummum Zumru Warki Sessu Sessum-Esrum can carry her half, dividing our burden.”

  I’ll try to learn to carry my half quickly. Nathalia felt amazing. She couldn’t stay somber under the influence of her feast. She giggled. Mentally. What’s a Sinnis Ina…

  “It is what you are. What every mate will be. It means ‘woman from mother’s body after sixth six-ten, or 360, generations.’”

  Nathalia’s mind ran all over the place. It was impossible to stay focused. She was really horny now. What was all that growling about? I was only doing what you told me.

  Eiran replied, “You did very well for your first feeding. Everything was done in accordance with our laws. I did not properly anticipate how great my jealousy would be. When he touched you and you healed him with your mouth, the rage built within me. I apologize. I will try to control my emotions better, but in the future perhaps we will find women for you to feed from.”

  I like women better anyway. Nathalia said snidely. She gave him images of herself with various female lovers from the Abbey. I’m not innocent. My virginity is a technicality. I still have my ‘maidenhood’ as you called it, because I’ve never slept with a man.

  Nathalia felt downright giddy from her first feeding. It was exactly like being high and she wanted to talk about what she was feeling. I didn’t expect it to be so delicious. I would probably have killed him if you hadn’t helped me stop.

  Eiran pointed to the right and they started walking where the desert met the range. “Yes you would have.”

  Nathalia was shocked that he could be so flippant about her killing someone. And if I had killed him?

  “Almost all of us killed our first donor while trying to master our fully matured hunger. The others would understand your difficulty in stopping. We eased into it throughout puberty; you were converted and so had not time to acclimate.”

  Did you kill your first?

  “Yes. It was a servant boy. His name was Etu and he had always been kind, never showing his fear of me. We were going to battle and I needed strength. He volunteered. I felt so terrible that I tried to change him. I thought I could save him and arrogantly broke the law. My blood reanimated his dead body. I had to kill him a second time.” Eiran came to a stop and pointed up toward a rock ledge, twenty or more feet above their heads. “That is where we are going.”

  Nathalia looked around for a way to climb up, but found none. She turned back to him to ask how. Eiran was nowhere around. She heard his voice from on high and looked to find him standing above her. “I tabalu because I have not fed. If I moved you too, you would lose your added strength and satiety. Jump up.”

  Nathalia was eager for physical exercise. The blood seemed to encourage it. She felt she could dance with abandon for hours, as she had heard people on ecstasy could. She effortlessly jumped straight up and landed on her feet on the ledge next to Eiran. “We only feed when we are going into battle or need strength for important tasks.”

  The full moon rose over the mountains behind them. They both felt her rise and Eiran explained, “Annu strengthens our abilities. We consider her our sister.”

  Nathalia sat, hanging her legs over the edge. They swung like a child’s. Will my cycle still follow the moon?

  Nathalia had never bothered to go on the pill. She didn’t have sex with men and didn’t see the point. Her period had always been regular as clockwork, if clock’s ran on moon time. She also felt it was deeply wrong for the male dominated career of gynecologists to be so insistent that every woman take medicine. Medicine was for the sick. They were saying that there was something wrong with all women, something that had to be controlled. Yes, at first it had been a great step in women’s rights, but it had taken a turn for the worse when men began to use it as their control over women’s choice.

  “I do not know if you will have a cycle at all. You haven’t had one yet.”

  Nathalia’s legs quit swinging and she turned back to Eiran. Am I barren? She may not have wanted kids before, but she liked having the power of choice.

  “You are the first female of our race. We have never been able to impregnate human women. We don’t know if it is because we, as a race of half-breeds, are barren or if we are just not compatible with human women.”

  Half-breeds…half what and what? Wait, are you telling me that you really are a biblical Nephilim, born when the angels saw that the ‘daughters of men’ were beautiful and came down to have sex with them?

  “My father loved my mother more than anything. He defied the gods and started a holy war with his maker to be with her. He didn’t do that just have sex with her. The bible is a misguided collection of stories and myths gathered from many cultures. Some are accurate, but most are tainted by the men who wrote them down.”

  I agree with you there. Nathalia had known that since she was very young, but keeping your mouth shut about those beliefs was smart when you grew up in the bible belt.

  “I will tell you what I can. My mother was a human, and she was very beautiful. Born in a time before religions existed, other than ancestor and great mother worship, she was revered even at a young age, seen as a symbol of holiness because of the many children she successfully bore.”

  Eiran hesitated.

  Nathalia prompted him, Your father was not human? but still he paused. Eiran mentioned Yahweh before. Surely the Jewish god is not the one true god as they claim?

  “No, humans throughout the ages have assigned attributes to us, our fathers, and their maker to help them explain the world. They are incorrect. My father, along with others, was created by a being named Yhwy to be her lovers.”

  Yahweh’s a woman?! Then we’re created in god’s image, not men.

  “Yhwy had no gender. She recreated herself in your image when she looked with jealousy at the way women create life after physical pleasures with
men. She was a member of the Gregori, tasked with watching only. She was a selfish creature who broke the law many times. The Igigi will teach you more when you meet them.”

  Nathalia lay back and crossed her arms behind her head. When will I meet them?

  Eiran’s voice cracked when he croaked out one word, “Soon.” He took two steps toward the edge and leaped. He landed silently on the ground below. He called up to her, “It is time to train. You have much to learn and the hunger will not stay down for long on the blood of one human.”

  What is that? Nathalia dropped down to the same level as Eiran and turned toward the disturbance she felt.

  Eiran knelt, both arms plunged into the earth elbow deep. His head turned slightly, like he was turning an ear to the earth.

  Nathalia closed her eyes and her other senses took up the slack. It was not a sound but a vibration she felt. The earth spoke. When Nathalia opened herself up to it, she understood Ki no less than if she had an audible voice. She told Nathalia of all the atrocities being committed by Akhkharu around the world. They and the men they influenced spilled the blood of innocents all over Ki’s flesh. There was something evil very close by, Ki warned. When Nathalia opened her eyes, Eiran was standing again.

  He took her hand and started running, never giving Nathalia the option of not accompanying him. Where are we streaking off to? The blood got the better of her again and she giggled. They were running so fast that the word streak had come to mind, shortly followed by the realization that they were nude. It wasn’t even funny, but she couldn’t stop herself.

  What she saw when they came to a halt sobered her quickly. There were seven nomadic houses erected here. One was on fire. Yelling and screaming came from the others. A few people meandered around, oblivious to the chaos. One stumbled and fell into the flaming tent. He stood up and walked off, taking no note that his head was on fire and making no attempt to put it out. What’s happening?