by Elon Vidal
"Oh, this is going to be so much fun," Fisher laughed, then spun like he was executing some ballet move.
"You don't have to do this," Dawn said, feeling stupid to even be thinking of trying to talk this man out of anything. He wasn’t the same person she had seen interact with his family. He was so gentle with his daughter, so caring with his wife. Yet he had murdered Pixies, created Hounds, shaken hands with the god of the Underworld. He was never going to give up the power when he was so close to it. Fisher stopped and looked at her.
"I'm not doing this because I have to, I'm doing it because I want to."
"You could have chosen anything else-"
Before she could finish Fisher lunged at Dawn. She raised her daggers to block his sword, sparks flew as the three weapons came into contact. Fisher pushed against her and she groaned as she put all her strength into maintaining her defensive move. With the amount of force against her, Dawn wondered if this was the moment her daggers would finally break. The First Guard weapons were fashioned to never break, forged in magic that preserved them forever. But these were had come about from her inexperienced magic that created them from a coin. She hoped they be able to withstand the assault.
"You think I had a choice when my wife and daughter died?" Fisher growled, pulling away for just a second before kicking Dawn with enough force to stumble back and fall to the ground.
Fisher didn’t advance as he looked at her with something almost akin to pity in his eyes. Dawn almost felt sorry for Fisher, he had been really happy with his family.
“I understand that having it all taken away in an instant is harder than I could ever imagine,” she said from the ground. As she lifted herself up, she continued, “but normal people grieve for their loved ones, they don't go on a murderous spree.”
" I couldn't use magic to save them. Do you know how helpless that made me feel? Having all that power and not being able to use it for the one thing I needed the most."
Dawn thought of the love potion she had tried to conjure with her parents and how ineffective it had been. It’s not easy to change someone’s mind if they’re set on something different from what they believe in their core and Fisher was clearly blinded by rage to any form of empathy. No love potion could change that.
"And then I saw Him," Fisher said with a smile that looked like something out of a horror movie. His eyes were wide and if he tilted his head just enough Dawn believed she could count all of his teeth through that smile. "My magic was always different growing up. I had different kinds of magic that had no business being together and I wasn't even Wiccan. My mother said it was because we were descended from a god, but I thought she was just crazy. She was in and out of it a lot, never knowing what was real or not."
“You never had a choice before you learned about it” Dawn taunted, wanting to get a rise out of him so he could make a mistake.
“I have a second choice now.”
He threw his sword at her as he advanced, distracting her as she dodged the weapon just long enough to land a punch in her stomach. Dawn cried out as she lowered her hand with full force, stabbing Fisher in the side. He staggered away from her, his hands glowing red as he removed the dagger. Dawn gasped as she felt the pain of a something piercing her abdomen, looking down and seeing an identical blood stain in her side.
Fisher’s chuckle brought her attention back to him. “Oh, she is clever.”
Dawn placed a hand over her wound and looked at him. “Who?”
“The goddess who brought you to this place,” he replied. “This is the third trial.”
Dawn wasn’t sure she understood what he was trying to say, but she didn’t want to waste any more time playing his games. She gripped her remaining dagger tightly and prepared for another attack. Fisher raised his hand and made several darts appear, using magic to throw them all at Dawn. She jumped out of the way, hissing when one dart grazed her cheek.
She held out her hand and drew her dagger back to her, the weapons flying through the air as it returned to its rightful place. She was about to throw them both at Fisher, when she noticed an identical mark on his cheek. He smirked the moment he realized that she had finally caught on; she couldn’t hurt him without hurting herself, neither could he.
This was the final trial, and it was a suicide mission.
“Neat trick isn’t it. Don’t complete the trials and you die; complete the trials and you still die.”
Dawn felt like throwing up, but she had to focus. There had to be more to this than what met the eye. She thought back to her dream and tried to think of anything that could help her. She looked at her hands and dropped her dagger, calling on the light to show her the way. Why this place, she thought. Sure, in order to seal Hades, Eos had given up her freedom as well. Forever stuck beyond this place as long as Hades was. But why this place, what was so special about it?
She looked around quickly, desperate for answers. She was about to give up when she remembered the white flower. Aurora, Fisher had called it, which meant Dawn. While the appearance of dawn killed darkness, it also embraced the light. Fisher had said it was poisonous, and it was probably what was binding the spell on Hades. But she was not Hades, and the flower shouldn’t have the same effect on her. Right?
It was all or nothing at this point, and she had to trust in her light. After all, the flower had pricked her, but nothing had happened to her yet.
Dawn raised her glowing hands and focused on every flower in the castle. She used the same intent she had done with by changing coins into utensils. She imagined them Aurora flowers and called upon their power as one. She could first sense the spot on her finger that had been pricked by the vine to heat up. A sliver of glitter dust wafted from it into the air and hovered over her palm. Soon she noticed a few more bits join around it. They weren’t coming from her finger but assembled from around her.
She raised her head and noticed a few more emerged from the flower next to her. She followed that trail and noticed even more from the flowers above it. Her heart rate increased, and she kept focusing on the flowers, inviting them. She looked up and the sky above was covered in glitter. It emerged from all corners of the castle, gathering in larger masses. The entire castle was now blanketed with this flowing sparkle.
With increasing speed, it wafted and whirled around her. It wasn’t dust, it was light. Its intensity increased, ever brighter. She closed her eyes and could see it radiate vividly through her eye lids. Scintillating flashes gleamed to envelop them. The Aurora were gifting their radiance until it all concentrated around her.
In an instant it merged into the sliver hovering on her palm in a ball of light which blasted towards Fisher. He managed to jump out of the way and responded with shards of energy he emitted her way. One of them managed to pierce her leg. They both shrieked out in pain. More Aurora sparkles continued to channel around Dawn, and she was able to blast light once again. This time she used both her hands and split the light into two. She ejected both rays at him. He dodged one and barely missed the other, which prompted Dawn to quickly launch a third ray.
This time she hit him square in the chest. The light exploded all around him into smaller particles of light, shimmering like fairy dust. He stood there as if frozen in time for a second before his reaction conveyed a dumbfounded look of disbelief as he raised his eyes back towards her. He smirked. In that instant she suddenly felt disappointed and overwhelmed imagining that her plan had not worked.
And then Fisher cracked and crumbled under the pressure. He fell face first on the rock floor.
A few seconds passed. She hesitated, wondering what had just happened. Then her arms began to glow. The light quickly spread up her limbs and all over her body, quickly disappearing as fast as it had appeared. In its trail, the same markings that she recalled seeing on the girl in her dreams now appeared on her skin. Vines threaded in whirls and spirals emerged along her arms and hands. She could feel every part of her body being affected by a soothing emergence along the lines.
“You have done well,” two strong voices said behind her.
She turned to see two creatures standing on either side of a glowing door. It hadn’t been there before, it appeared out of thin air. Two saffron-colored pillars lined the towering gates that were ornamented with winged-horses, several flowers, such as roses, magnolias, petunias, and droplets emerged from a sunrise with rays that crisscrossed the entire gate. Monsters and gargoyles seemed to seek cover from the intense rays while a variety of fauna, like deer, rabbits, and elephants seemed to be charging in their direction.
The two creatures standing in front of the gate looked frightening. Their large heads looked like a bird of some sort, or a combination of many birds and they had bodies of lions. Their wings were white and large, just like their tails. These creatures were a mash up of the oddest animals, and Dawn had never seen anything resembling them.
“Are you the Gatekeepers?” she asked hesitantly.
“Are you the one who seeks entry?”
She nodded and took the vial from her neck, kneeling as she held it out for them.
“Magic, blood, and a binding spell,” they both said, “do you present us gifts young one?”
She nodded again and the vial disappeared from her hand. A small dagger took its place.
“Your magic and the spell,” they spoke again, “shed your blood,” they ordered in unison.
She winced as she made a small cut on the tip of her index finger. A drop of her blood dripped on the ground. Once it was shed, her hands glowed again, and a scroll appeared in front of her. She wondered what was happening now as the markings had left her skin and transferred themselves onto the scroll. Once the markings were gone, the two creatures disappeared along with the scroll.
Dawn was again alone facing the East Gate. It then creaked as it opened slowly. She hesitated but understood this was an invitation and she had to walk through. She grabbed the scroll and stepped into the glowing white beyond.
TWENTY-THREE
The place was beautiful, no question. Everywhere she stepped, butterflies appeared behind her and disappeared after a few seconds. The air smelled like springtime, fresh and scented. Rolling hills and floating boulders sprinkled the horizon. Waterfalls flowed off their ledges as sparrows dived from lilac wisteria branches into snaking springs that crisscrossed into the woods. The twinkling light birthed rainbows that splashed into a kaleidoscope of lush grass and bushes. Rows of angel oak arched in cave-like tunnels that invited Dawn to take a deep breath. She had never experienced anything quite like it. It was what she imagined the word perfect would look like if it was incarnate.
A few giggles to her left made her turn her head to see tiny winged creatures spinning around in the air. They looked like children, but she knew better than to be fooled by appearances. They were Air Sprites. She knew from reading that the Sprites were messengers of the god of air, and they could poison the air with just one drop of magic from their wings if they so desired. There were also purple, glowing flowers on the side of the path that she was on.
Dawn walked towards them as if in a trance, captivated by their beauty. "They are so beautiful," she whispered, smiling when the petals released a glittery substance that floated into the air as soon she touched one.
'And poisonous,' she thought, then drew back.
She had no idea where the thought had come from, but it had been her own voice in her head. She wiped her hand against her cargo pants as she stood up, hoping that she hadn't accidentally poisoned herself.
A couple of steps ahead and the road started moving out of focus. With every step she tried to take, it seemed as if the road was deliberately moving the other way which made her giggle.
"This feels so weird," she said then giggled again when a small winged monkey appeared in front of her and started dancing. "Oh, you are so cute!"
“The innocence of a child,” a man said as he appeared in front of her.
He wore a long, blue robe, and his hands were behind his back.
“That is a snake,” he said calmly, and Dawn jumped back when the winged monkey suddenly turned into a snake.
Everything around her seemed to peel away as she saw a different side to the place. While one side was beautiful and peaceful, the other side was dark and full of vile. Uprooted trees mounted on top of each other across a barren landscape, burning in charcoal. The very springs burst into oozing lava and fire dropped from crimson flying boulders. Short flying imps with horns and long tails circled the remaining burning treetops and crawled along the branches with swift movements.
“Walk with me,” the man said, then turned and started walking towards a mesmerizing angel oak behind him. Dawn noticed how his movement created ripples in the air that revealed the idyllic landscape on one side and the devastated scenery on the other.
She inched towards the beautiful side and chose to oblige.
“I have not had a visitor in ages,” the man said, “so forgive my manner if they lack in some ways. My name is Eurus, and I am the East Wind.”
“You are a wind?” Dawn asked, making the man chuckle.
“An incarnation, if you will, I have several forms.”
“And you live here? Aren’t you supposed to be, I don’t know, blowing somewhere?”
“I am the guardian here, and my power roams the earth in what you term ‘wind’. But think of me as Air instead. I can be everywhere all at once.”
They stopped once they got to the oak. A tree house surrounded the base and snuggled under the branches that arched over it and rested onto the forest floor behind.
“I will offer you a gift, and it is up to you to accept or refuse it. Choose wisely, for you can only have one.”
“You are not going to offer me power than can destroy the earth?” Dawn couldn’t help but ask. After all the noise that had been made about this mystery reward, the Air god or whatever he was, was making it sound too easy.
“Do you want power that can destroy the earth?” he asked, and Dawn laughed.
“Of course not. I just want…I want…” her voice trailed as she thought of all the things that she wanted.
“Look up,” the god said, then disappeared.
Dawn looked up and saw a bubble full of some of the best memories that she'd had as a child. There was a time she'd gone to see a human magic show and Elijah had ruined every single trick by explaining it. They were eleven then, and it was one of their best memories together. There was also one when Nathan was around five and decided that it was a good idea to run around without clothes for a month. Nothing they did could make him stay put and actually stay inside clothes for more than a minute. Dawn smiled as she reached for that bubble, and the memory changed as soon as she touched it.
She saw something different, not a memory since she had never seen or lived through it before. Her parents were in a kitchen, and it took her a few seconds to realize that it was the kitchen in her father's apartment. But they were laughing, and she paused when her mother leaned in to kiss her father.
Wait, what?
She kept looking into the memory that hadn't happened yet, a promise of a future that she could have.
"Beautiful, are they not?" The god said as he floated around her. "A rare true love between creatures that have no business being together."
Dawn opened her mouth to ask if he thought that humans and magical folk shouldn't be together, but the god beat her to it.
"I think all love is a beautiful thing and I celebrate it. How else would we have you, such powerful warriors?"
"And this? Is this real?" she pointed to her parents’ image with slight hesitation.
"It could be," was the simple response.
Another bubble popped up and this one contained an image of Dawn in a lab coat and goggles. Someone was handing her a medal and she looked so happy. Her family embraced her, and she was even shedding a few tears of joy. The table in front had a wide variety of seedlings.
"And that?" She asked but didn't get a resp
onse.
She turned and realized that she was now alone again. She turned back to the bubble of her doing what she loved most, but it changed again and showed her with purple fire around her hands. Her hair was long, held at the top by an emerald tiara and her eyes were an interesting shade of blue that pulsated in tiny bright bursts. Around her hummingbirds seemed to enjoy her company and her legs were wrapped around with pink and yellow daylilies that emerged from a luscious forest blanket. She looked powerful, confident, and gorgeous.
Is that how I would look if I'd been born with magic? she thought. There was no one to answer her but she knew what she was seeing. That really was her with magic. Something she had always dreamed of when she had been younger. Wasn't life easier with magic? Wasn't life easier with her being able to control her environment somewhat and being like everyone she had grown up with?
Several bubbles began floating above her head and she spun as she tried to look at them all at once. They were all so tempting, and she had no idea what she would choose. She drew closer to the one with her parents now holding hands as they lay on the couch. How could she just walk away from the chance to get her family back together again? Her parents deserved to be happy, and her brother deserved to grow up in a perfect home. Or as perfect as they all could make it for him.
