Dreaming of Power's Destruction
Title: Dreaming of Power's Destruction
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Length: Likely to be the size of a novel.
Plot Summary: 50 years ago, a group of six creatures sealed un-magic from the world with the help of a human mage. Now, one of their number is trying to weaken the seal in order to gain power.
Prologue
It’s weird how one day can turn everything upside-down, shake it up, and then release you back into the world without bothering to tell you that things have changed.
My first real experience of that was when I went to class on the first day of June. I had first years that day, an impatient bunch who spent their time staring out the window (the northeast tower gave a magnificent view of the land and my classroom was on the fourth level) instead of listening to my lecture on weaving. I couldn’t really blame them; it was absolutely gorgeous out. The lake's smooth surface reflected the clear blue sky, occasionally disturbed by a falling leaf or a student. Beyond Stiller’s Lake, the great forest of Arlen was starting to turn, a collection of green trees tinged with reds, yellows, and oranges. You still could not distinguish the evergreens however.
It was on this day that someone with Power came in.
People have a nimbus around them, an extra layer of skin that most people call an aura. That isn’t particularly descriptive from my point of view but I won’t go into that here. What is important is that the newcomer had a good two feet of power circulating around his body, weaving in and out of his skin, and it gave him a tail. Most people who have more than their fair share of power do not have a tail.
I didn’t stop talking, but I was only paying attention to the newcomer. His coal black eyes stared back at me, fiery sparks of magic moving along the irises in random patterns. Even the shape of him was weird; he was hairless, his body was long and sinewy, and his skin looked rougher than any other man I’ve seen.
Of course, he turned out to be something other than a man but I’ll get to that in a minute.
At the end of my presentation, he rose elegantly to his feet and clapped. Students lingered, curious about the newcomer’s strange appearance and what he’d want with their professor. Since I was curious too, I shooed them away with threats of extra papers.
A student’s loathing of homework is a powerful tool.
The newcomer seemed amused as he crossed the space between us in a few steps. It was kind of creepy actually. His power seemed to sharpen with proximity, shaping itself into a more distinct tail, some type of lizard-like muzzle over his mouth with little wisps of power hanging to the side like whiskers. He seemed to grow a pair of leathery wings, bat-like appendages that were twice as long as his body.
“Do you know who I am?” The creature asked me, his voice reminding me of earthquakes and the deep groans of ancient trees.
“The dragon.” I drew my power to the surface, putting a shield around my skin. It was a reflex. I’ve been in many fights before, though none of them were with this particular dragon.
He smiled, sharp canines poking past his lips. “Clever stitch witch. I have a proposition for you, Nina Goldthread, the most powerful weaver-mage born to date.”
“That’s not true.” I’ve read all the books on my brand of magic and some of those mages did great things. I’ve taught children for the past ten years, and though that has been challenging; it's nothing compared to diverting a river.
“Trust me, I’ve been alive for a long time and the only one who came close to you in power could not figure out what I was by looking at me.” His eyes seemed to shimmer for a moment, and I suddenly did not feel like arguing. "Now, about the preposition, I’m sure you’ve felt the amount of magic change over the past few years.” He didn’t even wait for a nod, the arrogant lizard. “Well, I have a plan to stop it and set things back to how they were five thousand years ago.”
I’ve felt the difference in magical energy during my relatively short lifetime, and it seemed to me that the world became a little darker every day. Most people wouldn’t notice, they cannot see magic; I can. The university described the phenomenon as an ‘exponential decrease of magical particles in the atmosphere’.
I could have sworn I felt threads of fate wrap around my heart at that point, and I now know it wasn’t simply my imagination.
And so I left the university, not knowing that I would not be able to see my family for the next five years. Of course, I didn’t realize that so much time had passed until today, and now it’s too late to escape anyway. The dragon’s spell made me lose all sense of time, memories of my family that I would never have left alone for so long otherwise. But I’m getting ahead of myself again.
The dragon brought me to Mt. Mirar. The mountain was the tallest in the world, a volcano that only recently became inactive. It was to the east, on the edge of the mountain belt.
It was also a trip that would have taken six months on horseback; Mrr brought me to his lair in a day. I don’t remember the ride but when I woke up, I was in a cave filled with books and ancient scrolls. This is where I met the sphinx, leader of the desert people and the most accomplished scholar in the known world. Of course, she also had a lot of time to gain that reputation. We worked on a spell to amplify the amount of magic in the world, some type of rite to renew what was lost. We finally found one in a book, probably a couple years later.
In the time it took to redesign the rite, I met the ice-queen Ilee, ruler of the northern country, and was surprised every time she gave me a glance afterwards. It did not happen very often. Ilee was a former nymph who came into her power after five hundred years, changing her body temperature to that of frost.
She was the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen, and one of the least welcoming people I’ve ever met. When she entered the cave, it was to tear the sphinx away from her work. Hyacinthia, the sphinx and a sweetheart, always tried to invite me along but I always declined. I could see threads of danger between the ice-queen and I.
Then there was the siren, the youngest and the second most powerful creature. She visited so often that it seemed like she never left. Her twittering and incessant wet hugs distracted me from my work. I had a hard time associating the chipper young thing to the being from the tales circulated by my people, she did not look like the type who kills men by fucking them to death. Every year, people around the coast select a man from their village and send him out to see sea, trying to keep her from wreaking their fishing fleets. The sacrifices were deigned heroes and the happy siren always helped the remaining villagers catch fish. I was surprised to find out that she knew about it and did not tell anybody she knew.
“She considers the men to be gifts. You should always trade a gift for a gift to receive good luck. If you choose to deny a gift, you are inviting disaster upon both parties.” It was the first time that Ilee actually talked to me.
When we were nearly done with the spell, the lust/pain demon Krasnar came. It had taken the appearance of a finely groomed young businessman, with light skin and dark hair. The glamour gave him dark eyes but I could see past the illusion, where its eyes held sparks of infernal fire in them. Strands of broken fates hung from his body, dark leathery wings coming out of his false form’s back, hidden by magic. It horrified me.
It argued with the sphinx for hours about my involvement in the spell. Eventually, the sphinx won and I could feel the Fates Which Bind wrap around her and the demon, creating a bond that neither knew about. Its parting words were: ‘You will be crueller to this girl than you have been in your life, Hiacynthia. And she’s so close to your tastes too, what does Ilee think?’
It never got an answer.
Anar the elf joined us after that, the only one of my new acquaintances that never fed on human flesh. He lived in the caves below the mountain belt, a beautiful creature clad in long, soft robes. The fabric was the kind used by elven royalty, finer than silk and much more durable. Actually, he kind of looked like the elvish high king, with silvery hair bound by black velvet bands every six inches, hanging inches from his ankles. His skin was as pale as snow and seemed to shine even if the walls were dark. I never asked about his past and he never volunteered any information.
I liked talking to him but I did not like the sad looks that he kept giving me.
I finally understood what was happening once I started the spell. I don’t know how I could have been so blind! It was not that the quantity of magical particles in the atmosphere had declined, the popular theory among scholars; it was that something new was masking its presence. I got my introduction to unmagic from Conrad, the world’s greatest anti-mage and a relative child. I bound him to the unmagic in the atmosphere, unable to stop the spell once it was initiated. As I was killing him, he told me about unmagic, the counter-balance to magic and its effect on magical creatures like the dragon.
The dragon never told me that magical creatures were dying because of the lack of magic in the atmosphere. He never told me that I was killing my species' last chance to rid itself of its supernatural predators. And so, the demon was right
I will hide this log from my new acquaintances and try to send it away when I get the chance. I don’t know if I’ll be successful, they’re watching me closely.
~Nina
There was a note scribbled onto the bottom of the page but the water damage was too great for it to be legible. The dragon thumbed the tear-stained edge of paper, trying to get an impression from the blurred ink. When he was unsuccessful, he returned the piece of paper to the chest and resealed it. It contained all of Nina’s personal items: her midnight-blue clock with runes stitched into the hem, a formal diary containing her thoughts about her work on magic, unopened letters from her family and friends dating back to her first week in the cave, and other personal toiletries.
Prologue *** Chapter 1 *** Chapter 2 *** Chapter 3 *** Chapter 4 *** Chapter 5 *** Chapter 6
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Length: Likely to be the size of a novel.
Plot Summary: 50 years ago, a group of six creatures sealed un-magic from the world with the help of a human mage. Now, one of their number is trying to weaken the seal in order to gain power.
Prologue
It’s weird how one day can turn everything upside-down, shake it up, and then release you back into the world without bothering to tell you that things have changed.
My first real experience of that was when I went to class on the first day of June. I had first years that day, an impatient bunch who spent their time staring out the window (the northeast tower gave a magnificent view of the land and my classroom was on the fourth level) instead of listening to my lecture on weaving. I couldn’t really blame them; it was absolutely gorgeous out. The lake's smooth surface reflected the clear blue sky, occasionally disturbed by a falling leaf or a student. Beyond Stiller’s Lake, the great forest of Arlen was starting to turn, a collection of green trees tinged with reds, yellows, and oranges. You still could not distinguish the evergreens however.
It was on this day that someone with Power came in.
People have a nimbus around them, an extra layer of skin that most people call an aura. That isn’t particularly descriptive from my point of view but I won’t go into that here. What is important is that the newcomer had a good two feet of power circulating around his body, weaving in and out of his skin, and it gave him a tail. Most people who have more than their fair share of power do not have a tail.
I didn’t stop talking, but I was only paying attention to the newcomer. His coal black eyes stared back at me, fiery sparks of magic moving along the irises in random patterns. Even the shape of him was weird; he was hairless, his body was long and sinewy, and his skin looked rougher than any other man I’ve seen.
Of course, he turned out to be something other than a man but I’ll get to that in a minute.
At the end of my presentation, he rose elegantly to his feet and clapped. Students lingered, curious about the newcomer’s strange appearance and what he’d want with their professor. Since I was curious too, I shooed them away with threats of extra papers.
A student’s loathing of homework is a powerful tool.
The newcomer seemed amused as he crossed the space between us in a few steps. It was kind of creepy actually. His power seemed to sharpen with proximity, shaping itself into a more distinct tail, some type of lizard-like muzzle over his mouth with little wisps of power hanging to the side like whiskers. He seemed to grow a pair of leathery wings, bat-like appendages that were twice as long as his body.
“Do you know who I am?” The creature asked me, his voice reminding me of earthquakes and the deep groans of ancient trees.
“The dragon.” I drew my power to the surface, putting a shield around my skin. It was a reflex. I’ve been in many fights before, though none of them were with this particular dragon.
He smiled, sharp canines poking past his lips. “Clever stitch witch. I have a proposition for you, Nina Goldthread, the most powerful weaver-mage born to date.”
“That’s not true.” I’ve read all the books on my brand of magic and some of those mages did great things. I’ve taught children for the past ten years, and though that has been challenging; it's nothing compared to diverting a river.
“Trust me, I’ve been alive for a long time and the only one who came close to you in power could not figure out what I was by looking at me.” His eyes seemed to shimmer for a moment, and I suddenly did not feel like arguing. "Now, about the preposition, I’m sure you’ve felt the amount of magic change over the past few years.” He didn’t even wait for a nod, the arrogant lizard. “Well, I have a plan to stop it and set things back to how they were five thousand years ago.”
I’ve felt the difference in magical energy during my relatively short lifetime, and it seemed to me that the world became a little darker every day. Most people wouldn’t notice, they cannot see magic; I can. The university described the phenomenon as an ‘exponential decrease of magical particles in the atmosphere’.
I could have sworn I felt threads of fate wrap around my heart at that point, and I now know it wasn’t simply my imagination.
And so I left the university, not knowing that I would not be able to see my family for the next five years. Of course, I didn’t realize that so much time had passed until today, and now it’s too late to escape anyway. The dragon’s spell made me lose all sense of time, memories of my family that I would never have left alone for so long otherwise. But I’m getting ahead of myself again.
The dragon brought me to Mt. Mirar. The mountain was the tallest in the world, a volcano that only recently became inactive. It was to the east, on the edge of the mountain belt.
It was also a trip that would have taken six months on horseback; Mrr brought me to his lair in a day. I don’t remember the ride but when I woke up, I was in a cave filled with books and ancient scrolls. This is where I met the sphinx, leader of the desert people and the most accomplished scholar in the known world. Of course, she also had a lot of time to gain that reputation. We worked on a spell to amplify the amount of magic in the world, some type of rite to renew what was lost. We finally found one in a book, probably a couple years later.
In the time it took to redesign the rite, I met the ice-queen Ilee, ruler of the northern country, and was surprised every time she gave me a glance afterwards. It did not happen very often. Ilee was a former nymph who came into her power after five hundred years, changing her body temperature to that of frost.
She was the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen, and one of the least welcoming people I’ve ever met. When she entered the cave, it was to tear the sphinx away from her work. Hyacinthia, the sphinx and a sweetheart, always tried to invite me along but I always declined. I could see threads of danger between the ice-queen and I.
Then there was the siren, the youngest and the second most powerful creature. She visited so often that it seemed like she never left. Her twittering and incessant wet hugs distracted me from my work. I had a hard time associating the chipper young thing to the being from the tales circulated by my people, she did not look like the type who kills men by fucking them to death. Every year, people around the coast select a man from their village and send him out to see sea, trying to keep her from wreaking their fishing fleets. The sacrifices were deigned heroes and the happy siren always helped the remaining villagers catch fish. I was surprised to find out that she knew about it and did not tell anybody she knew.
“She considers the men to be gifts. You should always trade a gift for a gift to receive good luck. If you choose to deny a gift, you are inviting disaster upon both parties.” It was the first time that Ilee actually talked to me.
When we were nearly done with the spell, the lust/pain demon Krasnar came. It had taken the appearance of a finely groomed young businessman, with light skin and dark hair. The glamour gave him dark eyes but I could see past the illusion, where its eyes held sparks of infernal fire in them. Strands of broken fates hung from his body, dark leathery wings coming out of his false form’s back, hidden by magic. It horrified me.
It argued with the sphinx for hours about my involvement in the spell. Eventually, the sphinx won and I could feel the Fates Which Bind wrap around her and the demon, creating a bond that neither knew about. Its parting words were: ‘You will be crueller to this girl than you have been in your life, Hiacynthia. And she’s so close to your tastes too, what does Ilee think?’
It never got an answer.
Anar the elf joined us after that, the only one of my new acquaintances that never fed on human flesh. He lived in the caves below the mountain belt, a beautiful creature clad in long, soft robes. The fabric was the kind used by elven royalty, finer than silk and much more durable. Actually, he kind of looked like the elvish high king, with silvery hair bound by black velvet bands every six inches, hanging inches from his ankles. His skin was as pale as snow and seemed to shine even if the walls were dark. I never asked about his past and he never volunteered any information.
I liked talking to him but I did not like the sad looks that he kept giving me.
I finally understood what was happening once I started the spell. I don’t know how I could have been so blind! It was not that the quantity of magical particles in the atmosphere had declined, the popular theory among scholars; it was that something new was masking its presence. I got my introduction to unmagic from Conrad, the world’s greatest anti-mage and a relative child. I bound him to the unmagic in the atmosphere, unable to stop the spell once it was initiated. As I was killing him, he told me about unmagic, the counter-balance to magic and its effect on magical creatures like the dragon.
The dragon never told me that magical creatures were dying because of the lack of magic in the atmosphere. He never told me that I was killing my species' last chance to rid itself of its supernatural predators. And so, the demon was right
I will hide this log from my new acquaintances and try to send it away when I get the chance. I don’t know if I’ll be successful, they’re watching me closely.
~Nina
There was a note scribbled onto the bottom of the page but the water damage was too great for it to be legible. The dragon thumbed the tear-stained edge of paper, trying to get an impression from the blurred ink. When he was unsuccessful, he returned the piece of paper to the chest and resealed it. It contained all of Nina’s personal items: her midnight-blue clock with runes stitched into the hem, a formal diary containing her thoughts about her work on magic, unopened letters from her family and friends dating back to her first week in the cave, and other personal toiletries.
Prologue *** Chapter 1 *** Chapter 2 *** Chapter 3 *** Chapter 4 *** Chapter 5 *** Chapter 6