by Lisa Randall
After a while, Helen fell asleep, and I soon followed her.
*****
I’m not sure what day this is, but it feels like a long time has passed since I was myself again. I looked to the desk and found my journal, still protected by the spell I had put on it, and it was still in the exact same place I had put it. I was sure Baal was able to read it at times, and I didn’t want to put anything too revealing in it just in case. As far as he was to know, I was insane all of the time, and he was pretending to be Hecate to get information out of me. What he didn’t realize is that he also looked like Rowena, and sometimes it made me insane just to look at him like that. It reminded me of what she had done out of jealousy and hate, and it made me mourn Hecate all over again. I wondered briefly if every time I mourned her I lost my memories, or the more I thought of Hecate the worse my memory got, but realized that kind of thinking was ridiculous.
There was a knock at the door, and Baal came in. He was himself today, no illusions of Hecate or Rowena to get information out of me.
“Are you alright, Viktor?” he asked. I wondered if he could tell when I was lucid, and hoped he couldn’t. My survival depended on it. He saw my confused look and said “You were screaming last night. A lot. I could not sleep.” He looked tired and worn down, and I wondered if he was on a deadline to get the gate open and stable. I wondered again at how much he knew about it, and how much I should be telling him to keep myself alive. I knew once I was of no use anymore that he would kill me.
I felt a wave of magic in the air and glanced around, finding Helen and Rai standing in the corner, not moving. I sighed, realizing they may think I was working with Baal if I gave him anything, and hoped they stayed long enough for me to explain. I faced Baal again and feigned ignorance saying “I’m sorry. And who are you? Why am I in this place? Am I ill?” I pretended to be in another fugue state, until finally Baal got mad at the lack of answers I was giving him and he left.
I looked to where Helen and Rai were, and they were still there. I breathed a sigh of relief and told them about the journal, in case anything ever happened to me before they got here. It was warded now, nobody could touch it except myself and those I specify, which is only Rai and Helen. I had put another ward on it to protect it from being detected by magic as well, and I hoped if Helen or Rai had to find it, they were able to. I also told them about the ward around the room I had put up, long ago. It was a somewhat difficult ward to remember to put up, once I thought to do it. It kept conversations private, as well as warded from the magic being detected. Basically it was two spells in one, which is hard to maintain when it is active. I started telling them about my fugue states, and how they come and go, when they started to fade.
I knew time was running out, soon Baal would lose control and get the answers from me that he wants, and the gate would be open to all the demons on the other side. I hoped Helen and Rai got here soon and put an end to it. I couldn’t do it all by myself. I needed their help.
Chapter 21
The next morning, we all gathered in the center of the mountain, waiting for everyone to arrive. While we were waiting for Rex to arrive with our weapons, we told everyone about our most recent visit with Viktor, and we also talked about which weapons we thought we would be getting. I had a feeling that I would be getting a sword, as would Rai, and we all thought that Alice and Selena would get either a bow or a staff. The Elder shifted, getting our attentions, and we all looked up to see Rex arriving, carrying four different packages that must have been our weapons all wrapped up. Rex greeted us and began laying out the weapons on the ground. When he was done, he had all of our attention, eager to see what we would be getting.
Rex smiled and pointed to me first, and I stepped forward. He held out a long sword shaped bundle for me to take, which I did. I opened it to see it was a spectacular sword that reminded me of a Japanese sword, a katana. The blade glowed slightly as I took it by the grip, and I could feel the power of the blade connect with my magic. I could barely make out some faintly glowing runes on the blade, and I tried to send magic into it, to see what would happen, and they burst into life, shining bright enough that I had to close my eyes.
Stop that, there will be time to play with them once you have all seen your weapons. Rex said, smiling like he could tell how much I loved it already. I tried to hide a smile, but failed, and ended up smiling bright up at him and thanked him. I put the blade back into its scabbard and went to stand next to Rai.
Rai was next, and he got a large broadsword that was almost as big as he was. When he held it, it also glowed. He put it away and came to stand next to me before Rex could say anything, eager to train with it as I was.
Selena walked up to Rex, and he held out a large bow. It was almost as tall as she was, but not so big that she couldn’t carry it with ease. It looked like it was made from a dark wood, and had black lines in patterns all over it. It also had some blades at each end of the bow, giving it a deadly look. When she took it, the lines glowed, like our swords. Rex didn’t hand her any arrows, but she didn’t say anything about it and walked back next to us.
Alice was the last one, and she got a staff that was just a little taller than herself, and it had a large gem set on the top of it. Just below the gem, there were spikes pointing outwards, like a mace from the dark ages. Like Selena’s bow, it looked to be made from a dark wood, and also had lines on it that glowed when she picked it up.
Alright. Now the real fun begins. For the next few days, or until I think you are all ready for battle, we will be training. First, we will start off with our basic hand-to-hand combat, in case any of you run out of magic or lose your weapon. Then, we will practice fighting with your weapons, with and without magic. Then, finally, we will see how well you all do fighting alone, as well as together. The Elder said.
We all nodded, eager to get started.
*****
It was a hard first few days, training with everyone, but I can tell that we are all improving each day. Today, we just finished with our hand-to-hand training, and we each learned how to best fight one of our kind, if we were to meet them in the Demon City. Not knowing exactly what to prepare for had us training for any instance, but we couldn’t do everything in one day. We were getting better, but it was slow. We didn’t know how much time we had until Baal got what he needed from Viktor. If that happened before we could get there, all would be lost.
That last thought had us training to our limits each day. We couldn’t afford to waste time taking it easy, and The Elder helped us with that. Since we couldn’t train each other, he had many of the gargoyles volunteer to teach us what they knew, and to be our sparring partners, as well as trainers.
Helen and I could now take down a gargoyle with our bare hands, which made them think we were ready to face a demon without weapons. The gargoyles and demons had similar body-types, large and strong, and some full of magical power. Selena and Alice didn’t do so well without magic helping them, Alice was too slow, since she was only human, and Selena was fast, but not strong enough to physically hold off a gargoyle. Rex had told us this was to be expected, since they had long ranged weapons, but they still needed all the extra training we could give them.
Tomorrow we will be using our weapons with magic, and I can’t wait to see what we will be able to do. Each day gets us closer to our goal, and I only hoped that Viktor could keep the information from Baal long enough for us to rescue him.
*****
It was night again, and I was waiting for Helen or Rai to visit me in their dreams. I hoped Baal wouldn’t come in while they were here, not knowing if he could see them or not. I heard footsteps coming closer to my room and the door opened, revealing Baal. He entered with a large smile on his face. “We have located a pair of vampires that seem to be similar to you. We plan to capture them soon, and they will give us the information that we require, since you are so unwilling to help us.” He said to me. I wasn’t sure if I should pretend to know them or not, and thought
for a minute before speaking. “Apparently, they are with a bunch of gargoyles and a few others, doing who knows what. Soon, they will be ours. If they will not talk,” he paused, taking a step closer, “we will make them.” He then left the room before I could respond. I wasn’t sure if he knew that I knew who they were, but for now, I was going to pretend I didn’t. Better to play the fool than to give anything away that would hurt them. I hoped they were ready for a fight, the demons were moving out, and would most likely be close to them by tomorrow.
*****
Chapter 22
It was morning, and we were all gathered at our usual spot, waiting for the Elder gargoyle to arrive. After a while, he flew down to us in a rush. “Scouts have noticed some demons headed this way. They will be here within a day. We still have some time to train, if you are all willing?” he asked.
“But what else can we learn in such a short time?” Selena asked. “Shouldn’t we help you prepare for their attack?” I had to agree with her on that point. I couldn't see us mastering anything new in such a short amount of time.
“We have others preparing for the attack. As for time, I can help with that. Some gargoyles, when they are old enough, develop special talents. Mine is the manipulation of time. I can create a separate dimension, making it any way that I wish, and for whatever purpose. While in that dimension, I can control the flow of time. For example, in that dimension a whole week could go by; while here, only a few hours would have passed. The longer you wish to stay in that dimension, the more magic I use up, so I cannot go for more than a month in the dimension time, which would be almost a day here. That would give us time to get your final training in before the attack.” The Elder explained.
“That sounds incredible. How come we haven't been doing that this whole time?” Alice asked.
“Because the amount of magic and concentration I use in doing this wears me down so much, I cannot do it for too long, and we didn’t have a deadline before, just an estimate.”
“Oh.” Alice replied.
“Is it possible to try it?” Selena asked. “I mean, I think we could all benefit from more training, and if there are demons coming this way, the more prepared we all are to fight them, the better off we will be, right?” I had to admit, she had a point.
The Elder seemed to think on her words for a moment and replied “If we do this, it must be now. Each moment we waste could be used in your training. I see that each of you has grown since coming here, but you all still hold great potential. If we do this, you must be willing to push yourselves more than ever before. Remember, there are many lives at stake, and you must all be strong enough for the battles to come.” He gave us a moment to think on it. We all gave each other a look, then nodded and turned to the Elder and agreed to his terms. He seemed pleased we agreed, but also worried. I felt there was something he was forgetting to tell us, and I was about to ask him, but Rai took my hand and barely shook his head, just enough to tell me that we didn’t have time for questions, so I kept my thoughts to myself.
The Elder seemed to glow for a moment, and a swirling of magic appeared in the air next to him. “That is the portal to the dimension you will all be training in. Walk through the magic to get there, I will be waiting on the other side. We did as he said, and after the last of us had entered I began to look around. It was a place that looked like the castles of my time, back when I was a human. The place was huge, and I could only imagine how big it was. The Elder spoke up, scaring us all, since we hadn’t seen him enter the portal. Looking back, I could tell it had disappeared. “When did you get here so fast? We didn’t even see you.” Selena asked.
“This is merely an image of myself, not my true self. If you hurt me here, I will feel it in the real world, but I am not really here. Stronger and older magic works like this, they always have a price. Now, to get started.” The Elder gargoyle said.
Over the next few hours we all sparred with one another, trying to get a handle on the different types of fighting styles we each possessed. Once the Elder was satisfied with our progress, he let us rest. He had manufactured chairs and benches for us to rest on. I wondered why we weren't feeling thirsty or hungry yet, and asked the gargoyle about it. “As I said, this is my dimension, and time works differently here. While hours have passed here, in reality it has only been minutes, and your bodies will not react the same in this dimension. You should start to feel the effects of your training physically after a few days here, which would be a few hours in real time. Understand?” he explained.
“Kind of. I mean, certainly this is all new and strange, but it makes a weird kind of sense.” I said. I looked around to everyone else and they all nodded in understanding.
“Good. Now that you have all rested, shall we move on?” he said. I realized then that we didn’t even need to rest before. It was our minds telling us that we should be tired, but we weren't really tired. We all nodded and stood; the benches and chairs disappearing into nothingness. I was starting to like the Elder’s powers. They definitely kept things interesting.
For the next few hours we sparred with each other, with weapons and without. It felt as if we were learning things faster in this dimension, and when I asked the Elder gargoyle about this he said, “That is because, as I said before, I can manipulate things in this dimension. That means everything in here. Even your minds. I am pushing your minds to accept the new ideas and skills that you are learning here. The rest is up to you to understand it. I am just giving your brains the extra boost.”
We were finally ready to begin training with our weapons out all of the time, to get used to their weight. While the Elder was working with Selena and Alice, I was training with Rai. We could spar with each other better than with the other two, mainly because our vampire abilities were being pushed more with each other than with the others. While Rai was coming at me with his sword, he was also attacking my mind, trying to make me slip up by putting images in my head with what he was about to do, then change his course halfway through. These feints and bluffs were hard to follow at first, but the more he changed the rhythm, the harder it got for me to find my own rhythm. Realizing that I knew this, he smiled and changed it up once again. He came at me harder than before, barley giving me any time to form any type of attack, keeping me on the defensive. I kept backing up, one step at a time, until finally my back was to a large boulder that wasn’t there before. I had to think the Elder put it there, so they must be watching us. I knew we were moving too fast for Alice and Selena to follow us, but I had a feeling the Elder was able to follow the fight with ease.
Growing desperate, as we were treating this as a real fight and not holding back, I tried calling upon my magic. I didn’t know what I meant to do with it, but I had a feeling the only way I would gain the upper hand here was to try something new. I tried sending a blast of energy at Rai, meaning to send him off balance, when he went flying through the air. I heard Alice and Selena gasp, and I just stood there for a moment, realizing how much power I had just used. I didn’t mean to use so much, and feared I would get sick again like I had all the other times before, but nothing happened. If anything, I found I could use more magic here than in the real world.
By the time I got my act together, Rai was landing on his feet. I used my vampire speed to rush him and begin my own assault. This time, I used my magic to aid me. I put more energy and magic into each swing, almost willing the magic into the blade. At first I wanted strength, and focused on directing my magic into the sword and my arms to get more powerful swings. But this only seemed to slow me down, so I switched to concentrating on speed. At one point, I was going so fast my attacks barely made a scratch. I finally found a perfect medium of the two, concentrating on both power and speed, and finally my attacks were pushing Rai back with each swing. This time, it was his back against a boulder. I saw the magic flare in his eyes, and briefly wondered if mine did the same. I didn’t have too much time to wonder on that though, as he seemed to understand where my new strength was c
oming from. I could feel the magic he was trying to push into his sword, like I had done. I didn’t know if mine glowed or not, but his did.
I could tell he was putting more magic into his weapon than I had, and soon I heard a crackle of energy and saw the electricity coming off of his blade. It seemed to be coated in it, but I knew that his magic was the source. I tried doing the same, pushing more energy into my blade, and thought of my own special powers. I had used the white fire before, and tried thinking of its shape and feel on the blade. The blade burst into fire, glowing white and looking deadly. I just knew this was the same fire I had used before, and hoped it didn’t make me sick like it did before as well. Rai and I sparred for a few more minutes, until neither one of us could move. Using magic really took the energy out of us, and we lay on the ground panting, trying to process what just happened. I waited for the pain to start, to pass out, anything, but nothing happened. I looked over to the Elder and was about to ask him why I wasn’t getting sick like before, but he spoke before I could say anything.
“I told you before, didn’t I?” he said, smiling. Selena and Alice were still standing there, a look of awe on their faces telling me that it really did happen. “The more you use magic, the better you will be at it. Because both of you pushed yourselves to the limit both physically and magically, you don’t feel the aftereffects like you have before. You are getting stronger and better at wielding your magic, therefore it doesn’t hurt you as much as it did before, when it was raw and unchecked. Now, you know how to focus it, and have more control over it. I also believe I explained about this place, did I not?” he said. Then I got it. Because this place was different from the real world, there was no radiation in the air, which was what was making me sick before. When I took the energy around me in the real world, I also took in the radiation, but here there was none, so I wouldn’t be getting sick. I smiled, knowing I could use my magic more and more here, without getting sick like before. I hoped that by the time we return to the real world I could use magic with ease without worrying about getting as sick as I did before. Here, I was learning to use the energy inside myself, and not around me.