Chapter 27 – A Broken World.

Callie woke to the feeling of something pulling on her magic. She sat up, blinked, and then stretched, as she tried to work out what was going on, her body still feeling heavy from the sleep, her movements sluggish. It was a weird sensation, and one that she had never felt before. Not necessarily unpleasant, but just strange.

“Witch, why are you here?”

Callie glanced around, trying to find the source of the voice. It was soft and sweet, but carried an edge of experience and age. Of someone who had been through a lot, but had emerged on the other side. Not unscathed, but still the wiser for it.

Wait a second....

Everything around her was white, and all too familiar. The feeling and sensation of it. She was in her mindscape, and probably still asleep. So how the hell had this other presence gotten into her? Into her mind?

“Who are you?” she growled back, the realisation annoying her. “Show yourself.”

“I am Arianna, the last of my kind. I ask you again, Witch, why are you here?” The voice seemed to echo around her, coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. And she could feel its power now too. Powerful, but much now lost. It was... sad, drenched with emotion.

“My name is Callie.” Witch was just a title, one that seemed to be easily picked up on by even those who couldn’t directly see her, it seemed.

“Callie... that is a nice name. Why are you here, Callie the Witch.”

Callie sighed, resigned to this person’s? creature’s? thing’s? determination to use her title. “We are here because we were forced here, and tasked with retrieving the seed from the last totem.”

“Do you resent being here, Callie the Witch? This world... it is dying.”

“I...” She stopped before she’d even started the reply. Did she? Did they? What they had left... had not been pleasant. The memories of what her parents had done stung, still raw and fresh. “It is better than what we were in,” she finally stated, trying to bury those thoughts again. “We have a measure of our freedom back, of what was taken from us, even if it only for a time.” And if in a completely different way.

“Those people, they have no right over you.” A quick and clear answer, its opinion strong, as if it had viewed her memories. Perhaps it had.

“Things aren’t always so clear cut. Even if I wish that they were.” They had taken everything from them after all, And in that world, the one that they called home, money was essential, and the influence that her parents wielded was far too strong. At least the manifestation of Callie’s body in here was starting to feel a little better, her mind more awake. And complete too.

“It has been a long time, and I am indeed the last of the totems.” Arianna seemed to have gone back to her thread. Her seemed to fit, at least. The voice had a feminine quality to it, as did the name. “What will you do with it, once you have it?”

“I... don’t know.” She truly didn’t. “Use it to get home? We were told that we couldn’t leave this place without it.”

“Will you give it to the Demon, as he asked of you?”

“No.” That much she was certain of. She was not going to be giving anything to Riddling if she could help it. She did not trust him at all, or believe his words. As to the how of that, that was a different issue entirely, but one that she could do nothing about at the moment. They would try and become stronger, that was a given. Not that it would be easy, but it was possible, her mark more than enough proof of that. Training, bonds, it all contributed. But would they need more than that? And how would they achieve the necessary heights? She had no clue. Well, apart from Julia. Her growth seemed to be a little more straight forward at the moment, but she had a lot of training to do.

“You will fight him?”

“We will try.” That was the only answer she had. But she also knew that it would come to that. He wouldn’t take the refusal well.

“You have a lot of power. You carry their blessings, Callie the Witch.”

A power that she felt more aligned with now than she’d ever been. But still, her understanding of magic wasn’t that good. Not compared to Riddling and Amber.

“Blessings?” she asked, realising that she had no idea about what Arianna was talking about.

“Perhaps you will be the one. We shall see.”

Okay, so she wasn’t going to get an answer on that one.

“What is it that you want from me then, that you reached out to me?” Perhaps that had already been answered with Arianna’s questions, but it never hurt to ask.

“A measure of you. It has been a long while, since any others have been here. Those who once were, they have all been long gone. Almost five thousand years. What was done, it broke our realm. Broke us all.”

Callie blinked, and just stared at the emptiness around her, unable to think of what to say. That was a very long time. Uriah was right, but they’d had no idea of the scale.

“There is a sadness around you, Callie the Witch. A dissonance. Why?”

It took her a moment to work out what Arianna was saying, before it all just clicked into place. “The me out there, and the me here, aren’t quite the same yet.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know!” Callie angrily shouted. Arianna had said it so matter of factly, and yet, she was not, and that had hurt her so much. “Sorry,” she then added, more sheepishly. “My magic has been changing me, but there is still a bit to go. It makes some things difficult.”

There was silence for a bit, Callie wondering if her shouting had made Arianna leave. Her snapping had been out of place, and yet, the pain was still so real.

“I wonder...” There was no anger or annoyance in Arianna’s voice, just a tinge of sadness. “Come find me, Callie the Witch. As you have already sought to do. Your lover will lead you here. His sense is true, for he carries a part of what was lost to us. Know that the journey is long. Much time will pass, but it is a journey that you must make for yourselves. And perhaps, out of all of this, you will be able to grab the future that you want. A future that we all want.”

And just like that, the presence was gone, the mindscape slipping away as Callie snapped awake.

...to find that her magic was surging around her, arcs of lighting dancing in mesmerizing patterns, the ground scarred and black, the sun just starting to rise over the horizon, long shadows stretching from them. Uriah, Julia and Felicia were all right beside her, Uriah’s arms around her as he whispered her name, her magic having left all of them alone, even as it continued its show. She wouldn’t have forgiven herself if she’d somehow managed to hurt them, even if unintentionally.

“Sorry,” she murmured, as she brought her magic under control, it easily and willingly doing so.

“You alright, Callie?” Uriah asked, finally realising that she was with them now. “Was it the totem?”

Callie nodded. He’d worked it out somehow. “Arianna, she called herself. She just wanted to talk. And told us to find her.” She looked up at Uriah, his ethereal features flaring in the morning light. “Thanks, Uri.”

“Umm, Callie, what’s this?” Julia asked as she stepped back from them, staring at the ground, somewhere between worry and amazement.

Callie looked at her confused, before standing up and joining her, looking at the same and observing the intent of the lines that her lightning had scoured deeply into the earth around her. Felicia was the first to comment though, her observation right on the mark. “It’s an array. Your magic was bridging the gap between you two. At least, that’s what it looks like.”

An array that she did not know or recognise. A form of magic that she had been largely oblivious to before they’d been sent on the mission. But was that all there was to it? She had no way of knowing. Arianna had managed to reach her in the first place, a singular person who knows how far away, in this seemingly mostly empty world. A world that had lost so much because of an event that had given her world the gift of magic. A gift that was probably not deliberate, given what she knew about it all. But the totem, Arianna, had not resented her for that. At least, it didn’t seem so. What more was going on here?

At least her magic hadn’t touched any of their gear either, somehow working around it as it had formed the lines. She’d happily take that. The last thing that they needed was avoidable complications.

Callie relayed to them all that Arianna had said as they broke camp, eating some food as they started their walk up the river. There wasn’t a lot that could be added, speculation around what was unsaid unlikely to actually give light to anything. They could but wait and see. But at the least, they knew they were heading in the right direction, even if they didn’t fully know what awaited them there.

And that there was going to be a lot of walking involved. She wasn’t a hundred percent sure how she felt about that. Like, she’d assumed that given their first few days, but now it had all but been confirmed. At least they’d all stay rather fit from it.

Callie felt it, a strange prickling in her senses, as Uriah stopped dead in his tracks, a look of fear on his face.

“Oh crap,” was all he managed before a large rumbling roared past them, and everything started to shake.

Violently.

She could see it, the ground around them seeming to roll and shift like it was waves of water, the ground cracking in places, splitting open and then being rammed back together, dirt and grass spraying everywhere. To say that she was having difficulty keeping her balance was an understatement. Standing in the river was a cake walk in comparison.

On instinct she turned to look at the river, almost wishing that she hadn’t.

“Move, move!” she screamed, trying her best to run away from it. They didn’t stand a chance, waves of water slamming into and over them, and throwing them further away.

And then it was over, the rumbling stopping, the ground retaking the shape that it had mostly had before, the water slowly draining away back towards the river. Callie stood, spluttering from having inhaled some water, looking for the others as she did so. They were fine, just meters from her, and also completely soaked through. Not muddy yet, but given the state of everything around them, it wouldn’t take long.

This world... it is dying.

It was more than just the sun, the dead land in which they had found themselves when they had arrived, or the missing totems. Arianna’s words echoed in her mind. That had been more than just an earthquake.

Nor were they alone any more. She could feel them as they appeared, the creatures of shadow, clawing their way out of the cracks that remained from the upheaval. Forms as black as night, the orange light of the sun illuminating the chaos that was contained within, things that should not exist. Scouts, hunters, and predators, Callie pulling her magic to her as she watched with worry. There were nowhere near as many as their fight against Alyther, but then, that had just been against the smallest ones. Then, she paled as a roar echoed around them, something truly monstrous bursting out of the ground near the river, looking as much a creature of water as land.

No. Callie shook her head, banishing the negative thoughts. They could do this. They were more than they had been before.

Uriah looked at her, a smile on his face, his body ablaze as his ethereal features burned brightly. “We’re doing this?”

Callie couldn’t help but smile back at his confidence. “We’re doing this!”

‘You good Felicia?’ she then sent. They were going to need her too.

A flash of light, and Felicia had taken on her human form, the pink, white, and blue light dancing around her as she stood beside them. “Of course. Not going to let anything touch any of you.”

‘Well, I’ll try not to,’ she added as she looked around. ‘That time was my first you know.’

“Let me guess, I’m to stay close and try not to get hurt,” Julia grumbled, almost glaring at them as she quickly moved closer, Uriah handing his backpack to her. Not a hint of fear or worry at all. Just a desire, and the want to be comparable to them all, very clear across the connection that they shared. That was part of the reason that she’d taken Vampire’s offer after all, wasn’t it. “You’re training me after this, elites.”

“Yes, that we will be,” Callie answered, leaning in and giving her a quick kiss on impulse. It seemed to help, and they would need to. This realm had suddenly become a lot more dangerous.

The creatures knew that they were here, all eyes on them. Last time they had been influenced. This time, they were not, and she had no idea at all how they were going to react. And the monstrous one, that was going to be an issue. Predators could be a pain at times, and this thing was four times its size. But right now, all of them just seemed to be waiting.

Callie breathed in deeply, trying to relax, and let her magic loose, arcs of lightning coursing over and around her. Hungry and ready. Eager. Uriah stood beside her, tail lazily swinging, his magic bright and intense around his hands.

The day had cooled, everything seeming just a little bit darker. The shadow creatures, they were absorbing its warmth, its life. And if they could get their way, them too. That day would not be today, or ever.

A howl from one of the smallest creatures cut through the silence as it suddenly lunged at them, and then vaporised in mid air, a tendril of her lightning slicing straight through it before it had managed to get anywhere. It had made its declaration, the intent clear. Callie reached out a hand, brushing it against Uriah’s. His magic was warm and comforting, and oh so familiar.

And then, just like last time, they let loose.

mogust

They might have done this before ^^ But this time, the stakes are somewhat different.

The next chapter (28 – Dance of the Elites) will be out within the next week.

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