Hidden within the page, is a circle of runes, with a greater complexity than any page within the book. It all finally makes sense. The importance of this book is not to be underestimated. Annie-Sue had explained to me that when this was recovered it served as the basis to all modern spell casting.
So I dearly want this to not be underestimated. The rest of this book is almost meaningless before this spell. I can feel the magic in the air, a tangible sparkle and buzz has filled my room. The water below me ripples and start to push upwards on the walls. The book is the epicenter of it all.
Adrenaline begins to course through my veins. What is going to happen if I enact the runes behind this? Anything? Would being able to read help? Shouldn't I just take this to Annie-Sue tomorrow?
No. I found this. This was meant for me. That feeling claws itself through my body. My hands are shaking, the excitement is starting to devour the nerves. Change, unrighteous, unholy, change!!
I start to fill the page with magical energy and at once my river is dry, I fall slapping into the water below me. I thrash around in the murky water, dry heaving before I wrench myself upward wiping the filth from my face.
The book is gone. A deep dark void is in it's place and wrapped around the void like a tight ring is a purple and blackish haze, circling, spiraling as if in orbit around the void. Beyond that are... cracks. It looks plainly like glass, spiderwebbing cracks etching up to 6 feet outwards, as if the air itself cannot contain the magical presence. With each passing moment the cracks grow, both in length and width, they begin to connect with one another, as if forming a net. An impossibility; I see shards falling as the cracks splinter together, the space between now almost nonexistent.
Pieces of what???
A glimmering hand sticks itself out of the death black void, fingers outstretched as if reaching into a foreign land, being the first humanoid to ever be here. But this is just my shitty room.
Then the connecting forearm fires out, followed closely by the other hand. Soon both arms are fully extended out of the void and they pull to each side, gripping the swirling purple haze that rings around the void.
Pop!
W-was that a popping sound? It was a fucking popping sound wasn't it! My mind is filed with nothing but horror. Maybe it's Mother Death. Maybe I summoned Mother Death?? How truly fucked is my stupid fucking life.
"Oh you didn't summon 'Mother Death'. You summoned something much, much worse." A cheeky 20 year old red haired tyrant says after leaping through an impossibly reality shattering portal to stand in the air 5 feet above me.
She puts a finger on her cheek pulling down her eye and poking her tongue out at me, "Bleeeeeeh! You couldn't even summon me right, I don't even feel a 10th of my normal magic output, what a #%& joke. #%&. What. Why can't I say #%&." A loud sharp whistling noise emits and her mouth physically blurs each time she says whatever the hells she's trying to say.
"EHHH. But you can think swear words, and I bet you can even say them too. How unfair, how truly uncouth. I'm starting to become quite fed up with this new... world." She gestures in disgust as she says the word world.
"Who-who are you?"
"I'm Ruby the Red Mage." She looks down at her hands and her body, "Well, I'm a 20 year old version of her", she sneers and looks down her nose at me, "Because someone didn't have enough magic to summon me properly." She turns to the side, side-eyeing me and whispers, "And I bet the proper technique was lacking too." She twirls in the air spinning upside down floating right in front of me, our foreheads are nearly touching as we make direct eye contact and her red hair dangles and brushed against my face. Like that, she swoops back into the air uprighting herself and begins rubbing her fingers against her chin. "Hmmm. You just might do. In fact, this might even be to our- no to my advantage. Your advantage is so duly implied it needs no mention." She begins to walk around in a circle, stars glittering at each step she takes.
"You can't possibly be Ruby the Red Mage. She died like a thousand fucking years ago." My head feels like it's going to explode or rip in half or maybe a bit of fucking both. My mouth grows a zipper, the zipper grows legs, which proceed to run across my face zipping my mouth shut.
"Rule 1. No cursing around me. If I can't curse you #%& well sure can't either. Rule 2. Treat each and every word uttered from my mouth as if it were a priceless and valuable gem. Or looking at you, as if it were a guide to passing. I have no need to lie or trick, it would bore me and be a waste of time, 2 things you'll grow to learn that I just cannot stand!"
"Mmph, mmph."
"Ah." She snaps her fingers, poof, the zipper disappears and my mouth is free to talk sh- uh, crap again. I don't even dare to think curses.
"I- how- Ruby the Red Mage?", is all I can utter in pure disbelief.
"Well you sure catch on quick. I'm gonna have my hands full with a fox like yourself", she rolls her eyes.
Ok fine. If she wants to sass, we can have a sass-off.
"You died after massacring like half the world."
"Lies by the ruling class", she runs her hand through her hair flicking it to the side.
"Then what happened?"
"I was l-l-locked awaaaaay", she says in a sing-songy voice. "Real brutal place called The 3rd Layer of Hell. There's like zilch magic over there. But your girl is way more than just all that." She looks directly into my eyes, seeing deep into my soul, "I tricked The Devil. Made him look like a real chump. But yeah answering the rest of your question, unfortunado, the Kings and Queens of the time decided that", and she swipes a finger across her throat, sticks out her tongue, and rolls her eyes to the back of her head, "killing all the #%& peasantry would be a better choice rather than to let me form my own country. Real old magic, passed down from rich, backstabbing, stealing the credit of others, old ass to the next. After all, if I'm gone who gets the tell the tale?" She shrugs and begins to dance between falling droplets of water.
This woman is very overstimulating. I guess this is the effect of being trapped in the Hells for like a 100 of my entire lifetimes. I guess she's lucky I failed to properly summon her or her wrinkles would be so pronounced we could probably find the entire alphabet on her face. Or maybe you don't age in the Hells? That's probably why it's so scary. Just eternity of being the same, the only new things being all the innovative torture methods enacted on your immortal flesh.
"What are you doing here? Is this your way of escaping? Coming back to the real world again?"
"Well in terms of the escape, I won't be able to do that until you are capable of fully summoning me."
"Then what are you doing in here now?"
"I'm going to speed things up for you. But I obviously can't have you burning your entire river everyday, that wouldn't be practical in the least bit. So for starters we are going to focus on a more sustainable practice." Ruby the Red Mage makes a face of great effort, her cheeks puffed out, her face is deeply scrunched, her skin tinging with a color of light red, veins begin popping from the sides of her forehead.
Yet another uncanny sound. It's quieter than the first time but still unremarkably unique.
Pop
Ruby the Red Mage is now the size of a watermelon. She flashes me 2 thumbs up and I feel my river begin to rage and roar again, albeit I'm missing around half of the usual volume.
"What did you do?"
"Made myself tiny." She looks at her hands with a proud smug look.
"Well no sh-, duh. What else did you do? My river came back."
She rubs a finger under her nose annoyingly, "So glad you noticed that, my pupil is quite wise. Well you see it's been a few years since I wrote that spell and I've come to the conclusion now that there are quite a few ways to make it more... well in layman's terms more efficient. But it made me look like this." She floats through the air like a balloon, bouncing against the ceiling and the walls. Eventually a bead of water rolls down her face. Unlucky.
I stifle a smile but the queen of magic doesn't notice me. Her attention is now on the dripping roof.
"We need to stop this, I can't allow for scum water to grace my new cute form." She looks to me now, "Why do you live in such conditions? How have you not stopped this yet?"
I shrug, "I only know Dispel, Shield, Missile, Telekinesis, and Fly."
"Hmph, some teacher you must've had."
"Hey, we only had a week."
"Then in only 3 days I'll show you exactly what a true professor of magic can endow. Especially with a student like you."
Lightning crackles overhead. Dark, thick storm clouds are billowing above the castle. Rain pours down overhead filling the long forgotten trench with a dingy, murky swamp. Reptilian beasts swim through the muck, bones sticking out of their rotted flesh.
Deep within the chamber of the lair of evil, Mother Death paces through the halls. A silver orb lies in her hands. She's tried to use telekinesis on it, to no avail. The thing just won't receive her magic worth a damn.
Not according to my plan, yet all the more interesting.
She hasn't ever seen nor heard of any object with abject magic invulnerability such as this.
And it was all going so well. Time to check on Swiftblade and Fat Tree to relieve some stress.
The trio had gotten along quite well. At first the burden of presence had made it awkward. But with enough of the world's finest wines, admittedly a tad bit of coercion, and all the charm Mother Death could bear to muster; they finally began working as a team.
The one thing Swiftblade and Fat Tree couldn't understand: why them?
To Mother Death, that answer was simple. There was treachery within her ranks, deep seeded. But that matter did not matter to her. For the cogs continued to turn and the bidders continued to bid. Only once this betrayal came to a head would it be of any relevance to her.
Let the lowly dogs do as they please in their own free time.
But to overthrow the Queen of Death, it would take immense preparation. Mother Death knew she was in no mortal turmoil just yet. For now, her own interests could continue to lay at her top priority. After all, without the sacrificing of so many people, so many rituals, she wouldn't have this disloyalty within her ranks. Each action has a reaction. She had considered this but never did she think her undeath spell would have holes poked in it so easily. Outside help is the only answer. But where or where could it be from?
She dragged her fingers along the wall before rapping her knuckles against the thick wooden door.
"Come in!" Fat Tree squeals. The door creaks open, revealing the ominous silhouette that has haunted his dreams for so many days now.
A sinister smile stretches along Mother Death's face, "Good. I'm glad to see you two are still so devoted." She had tasked them with unrooting the deception. They had no such luck as of yet. At first, that made it easy for Mother Death. She would yell and scream, venting her own frustrations of this damnable silver orb on them. But it got neither of them anywhere. So Mother Death began to do what her body called her to do. To coax, to coddle. And it worked! Well for them it worked. Maybe Mother Death just needed to find someone to coax her, to coddle her.
No, no, no! She shook her head, banishing the thought from her skull, only for it to return to her in her dreams or as she lay sleepless in her soft elegant bed.
But still, they had done it, why couldn't she. They had cracked the improbable, nay impossible task she had set before them. Why couldn't she. Perhaps she finally needed... help. She shuddered at the thought.
Never in my lifetime but once. That once cost me everything I knew, everything I was.
Swiftblade could see Mother Death was discontent. She greatly worried it was due to the progress she and Fat Tree had been making. Mother Death had seemed so on edge recently. She clasped her hands together beginning to share the news of the different ploys they had made to today, "Mother Death, we have-"
She's cut off by Mother, "I want to show you two something."
They both simultaneously gulp. This did not seem like good news. Where they being suspected of being traitors? Regardless, they could both tell from the intimacy they had all had together, that what weighed on Mother Death was about to unburden itself onto all of them.
Mother Death takes a silver orb out from her beneath her cloak. The rooms sits in silence.
Finally after no explanation or noticeable effect Swiftblade gains enough confidence to ask, "So what exactly is it?"
Mother Death looks between the two, a confident smile growing on her face, "It's our prize for killing God. I believe it to allow inter-dimensional travel."
"W-what might you possibly need our help with?"
Mother Death shamelessly shrugs, "I can't figure the damn thing out. It rejects all magic that I put into it, without even the trace of a spell."
Swiftblade takes the orb holding it in her hands, it's heavier than she had ever expected, the material must be unbelievably dense, "If it came from another dimension, it might be possible that where it existed before had no such thing as magic. Maybe that's how it deflects your spells."
Mother Death bites on her thumb anxiously, "I hadn't imagined such a vile place... no magic."
Mother Death looks over to Fat Tree, he's rubbing his thumbs together.
She barks at him, "What are you doing??"
He looks up nervously, "I might have an idea."