The Witch’s Destiny

by Emma Glass

  “Yes, Elliott?”

  “Please shut up.”

  Wearily, we approached the rotating rings on the floor. As we crossed the outermost circle, a burst of pale light hit the air with a melodic chime—and a glowing portal rose to life in the center. Its flowing, shifting surface shimmered in a majestic red light that was all too familiar to us.

  Elliott sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

  “Chrysm? Great. Well, that doesn’t exactly bode well.”

  “Call me crazy, brother, but I am really starting to think we shouldn’t depend so much on that stuff…”

  Chapter 26

  Clara

  The universe looks so vastly beautiful from up here.

  Twinkling stars fill the night sky. Colours defying imagination dance across the expanse. And the music. Oh God, how the music swells. I wish everyone could hear it for themselves. They all deserve a part of what I hear. A simple trill could turn even the coldest, blackest heart. And a single measure can cleanse the darkest hate from a soul. I wonder, what could an entire minute do? Perhaps bring an entire war to its knees…

  Below, the planet Earth slowly span at the symphony. It rotated ever quietly, an imperceptible turn on its axis. Oh, but look at it spin now. Or backwards. Or faster. Here is the time of older eras, long before even the dawn of mankind. Here, I can see now, the Earth is encapsulated in ice and snow.

  Watch me turn it back the other way. Watch it flood with the race of man. Cities rise; it fills with sparkling lights that stretch their way from coast to coast. Watch the population burst from one end to another, rising to meet its own magnificence…

  I flipped to another layer.

  Watch the forest spread across the Earth—beautiful and rich. Watch it stretch high into the sky, reaching to the sun it loves so much. Watch it build dark, hidden nooks for shelter, and broad, high places for the daring to reach. How it moves and breathes…

  I flipped to a different layer.

  Watch the floating islands break away from the land. Watch them fly up into the sky, each one a world unto itself… dangling across the horizon like dancing jewels. As the sun rises and falls, they cast their shadows on the world far below…

  I flipped to another layer.

  Watch the caverns and caves reach like hungry fingers under the earth, grasping out in all directions. Oh, how they all weave. How they connect back to one another. How they form their own layers over one another, each digging deeper from the sun…

  I flipped to another—

  What was that? I felt a tug from far away; my attention turned away from the slowly turning planet. I scoured the solar system, looking for the source of this sensation, but I could not find it. Fear had become an unfamiliar sensation to me now, and I did not know what to do with the feeling. It settled hard in the heart, like a rough stone.

  Another tug. Harder, this time.

  What is that? Where is that coming from? Please stop!

  The magnificent colours across the cosmos all began to bleed together. Helpless as I was, I was forced to watch the beauty of the stars fade to a dark, menacing red.

  What is happening? Where are my colours?

  Discordant tones overcame the orchestra over the stars. I reached out with all of my might, realizing the futility of my efforts. Though I saw everything, I touched nothing. In this place, I was powerless to intervene, even as I listened to the melody beneath the worlds deepen into a dull throb.

  Another tug came. It yanked my attention.

  Stop this! Leave me alone! Please, stop it!

  Everything was drenched in the colour of blood now. Every drop of light I saw was red. Everything else, blacker than the darkest sin. I tried to cover my ears to drown out the menacing chords, but I had no hands and no ears. Try as I might, I was held hostage here, forced to witness it all.

  The red shifted steadily.

  No. Stop it! Why can’t I stop this?!

  The cosmos was no longer red. Paralyzed in fear, I tried to turn a head I didn’t have, or find shelter in a dark place that I could never fit within. The red was gone—and what had come to replace it was even worse.

  The stars bled a bright, shining purple.

  Another tug, and another. It repeatedly stung.

  Stop it! Stop doing this to me! What are you—

  * * *

  In a burst of terror and rage, my eyes flashed open.

  “Ah. You have returned,” a kind old voice whispered.

  Standing upright in white light, I felt glued to the spot. I looked down at my hands, lifting one to stare at the back of it through the light. Lowering it back down to my side, I clenched both of my fists, and I relaxed them.

  Something pulsed in my veins—I felt it crackle in every inch of my body, from the hairs on my head to my toes.

  Power. I had never felt this powerful before.

  My amulet fluttered against my chest in unimaginable strength. It was the source of the light—the column that surrounded me, bathing me in such awe-inspiring might. The shadows that surrounded felt so… insignificant to me now. I reached out a hand and clenched it hard; something cracked, far away.

  “I can’t see,” I spoke simply. “Not beyond the light.”

  “It is not that you can’t,” she replied. “That you won’t. You can change this. Do so, Clara.”

  My eyes closed. I willed everything to be brighter.

  When I reopened my eyes, the blackness outside of the light had receded. I stood in an endless sea of white dunes. The only colour across the beautiful stars above was a rich purple, one that drowned out all the rest.

  “I want to go higher,” I said.

  “Test your abilities. Shape this place.”

  I lowered my chin, taking a slow breath. Giving way to a dais, the sand shifted aside. My platform rose up several feet, leaving one stone stair after another, all leading back to the sand below. I released my breath; the sand stopped.

  We stood together atop a raised staircase now, one that jutted up from the dunes. At their feet, I saw that circles of great magical power slowly rotated against one another. I reached into the depths of my knowledge.

  I understood them. They were a part of this.

  My eyes lifted then, observing the twinkling stars. The cosmos shined purple with Malediction—the magic wove itself into the very threads of reality now, reinvigorating all that I saw above. Once we left this place for good, I knew, these strands would spread out across the skies like thread and a needle—stitching reality back together. All of those countless other realms were a blight upon the world, ones that would destroy everything else, if only to survive. But they would not. Nothing would. Not until I did what I had to do now, under the watchful eye of my friend…

  We were in a dream—and it was time to wake up.

  The elderly witch watched me with a proud smile. “My child… you have done remarkably well. Why, I can barely believe how far you have come. The final moment is here. Clara Blackwell… it is time to fulfill your destiny.”

  “What is my destiny? I asked softly.

  “The amulet must die. Break it. Bind its power to your own, Clara. Inherit its strength for good. The realms cry in agony. But only your power can stop their destruction. It is time to forge them back together. However, know that you must hand yourself over to me. My spirit and your flesh will be the hand to rebuild this contorted realm…”

  Her hand descended on my shoulder.

  “And to do that… you must shatter the prison.”

  Yes, I thought. Grant her my strength. Break the amulet.

  A voice came from far below. A voice that I recognized, I thought, from another life. A life in which I was not fated to be the saviour of the worlds, but just a girl in love…

  “Don’t listen to her, Clara. Tzavos tricks you!”

  Standing in my column of light, I turned downwards.

  There, standing at the very edge of the rotating circles, a handsome face watched sternly. He started to ascen
d the stairs towards us; at his back, a woman rose with him, one who I thought I used to know.

  “What is the meaning of this?” The kind voice snarled.

  I felt her anger, but I barely heard her words… because at the very sight of him, something deep within me—from whence it came, I did not know—made me smile.

  * * *

  “Don’t do this, Clara! This is a terrible mistake…!”

  “No wonder the spell was delayed!” The old woman took a step down the next stair, her eyes glowing in anger. “One problem solved, only to beget more… no matter. Back to your prisons, you murderous fools!”

  They stood their ground, partway up the stairs.

  “You stay away from the woman I love!”

  Something in my chest twinged. I didn’t understand.

  “Love?” I asked, relaxing my fists at my sides.

  The woman turned on her heel. “Do not listen to him. He is here to steal away your destiny. He wants to undo the greatness you have strived to attain for so long! This is your moment, my child—save the realms, now! Do what is right! Do what you were meant to do!”

  The man shook his head gravely. “She lies! Clara, you have spent the last few years struggling to figure out how to oppose the Calamity. But it’s her! She betrayed you! The woman in your dreams, it was always her!”

  “Enough is enough!” The woman snarled, pointing her finger towards them in mounting fury. “Rise, my servant!”

  A faintly familiar form appeared on the stairs in a burst of black dust, already in mid-descent upon them.

  “Return them to their prisons! There must be seven for the spell! We are too close to delay any further!”

  Halfway up the stairs, the sorceress smirked, taking an offensive pose with both hands raised. “Yes, Master…”

  “Can’t fight your own fights, can you, Tzavos?”

  “Don’t you go antagonizing her!” His friend called out. “We struggle with just the one!”

  The woman ignored them, focusing once more on me.

  “Break the amulet, or your world will be torn asunder! The time has come, my child—fulfill your destiny! Become the witch you were always meant to be! Save us all, before it is too late!”

  I lifted one hand, grasping the fluttering amulet against my chest. Part of me looked back. Shining beautiful in our light, the red ruby twinkled powerfully on the black metal. The amulet burned hotter than ever before—scorching hot, in fact, enough that only my roaring power kept the metal itself from burning straight into my ribcage.

  I felt a strange hesitance to do as the witch asked of me.

  “Break the… amulet…?” I whispered distantly.

  “Yes, Clara! Fulfill your role!”

  Sharp commotion on the stairs distracted me. A fight, it seemed, had brutally broken out between the pair and the black dust sorceress. Indecision clouded my mind, pulling a veil over my thoughts. They both fought so hard to reach me—and something in my chest tugged as I studied him…

  He shouted from below. “Don’t do it, Clara!”

  The sorceress blink-stepped across the stairs, deflecting their attacks with ease. Lifting a burning hand with a dark, demented look on her eyes, she held down his friend—

  The old woman stepped before me, her eyes furious.

  “If you will not obey destiny, the duty becomes mine.”

  The glowing column of light blazed purple around me. I struggled against a power I felt was no longer my own—but it overwhelmed. Everything steadily faded far away as my mind went cold and became very, very small…

  Chapter 27

  Kinsey

  Three hours into exploring the doomed buildings and I still wandered aimlessly. Sinister shadows drowned the courtyards; mosaic windows lining the hallways and corridors scattered burning, reddish light at every turn. Though the crunching snow beneath my feet and the bitter chill in the air said otherwise… it felt though I walked now through a burning, forgotten world.

  Elliott… I can see how I might have taken you for granted. Every time I ever came here, it was as your guardian. Everybody bent over backwards to get you wherever you were supposed to be. Nobody ever wasted your time…

  But this place was deserted. I had no idea where to go.

  Seven Portals was a sprawling academy built across an ancient stone citadel. Towers loomed high. Basements hid, buried far from the sky. Even if I could move rapidly from one corner to another, thanks to my typical stamina, I was still left at a complete loss on where they could all be.

  I grew less patient as time marched on without me. The storm above, while seemingly frozen in place, still swirled to blot out the stars. Nor did the reddish light ever change. I found it near impossible to determine just how long I had been here, scrambling from hall to door, stairwell to gate, courtyard to rooftop. Pushing open yet another large set of iron-enforced doors, I stared down a dusty, empty hallway of glowing torches and nearly screamed.

  It can’t be this easy to hide the Council of the Eight Holds…

  After a precursory glance through the rooms, I turned a blind eye and continued onwards. I felt now as if I merely explored this stupid place in circles. These accursed rooms and corridors were all starting to look the same—the same withered old tapestries, the same boring mosaic designs in the glass, the same mounted sconces and torches burning the same five or six colours of flame. I hoped that, after all of this, I would never have to step foot in the citadel again.

  I whipped open the last door before doubling back and leaving the corridor. To my annoyance, it housed nothing but the sixteenth upwards staircase I had seen today alone. Just as all the others, the stairs fanned out from the central beam, meaning I couldn’t peer up into the room and judge how high it went.

  “Well. Maybe it’s this one,” I noted optimistically.

  It wasn’t.

  * * *

  Three stairwell reveals later, I finally stumbled into a door that didn’t react to my master key. It stood atop one of the tallest places in Seven Portals, discreetly tucked into a tower partway across the academy from the High Tower of the Magisters. My fist pounded against the wood.

  A small commotion came from within.

  I waited patiently, tapping my foot. When no one came to greet me, I beat on the door again. Harder, this time.

  The door squeaked ajar. A familiar face stared at mine. “Oh, a food delivery! Wrong house. Happens all the time! What you will want to do is go out the way you came, take a left at the blue-moss tree, about five hundred kilometers until you see a—”

  “Wilhelm. If you do not let me in right now…”

  “Oh, you’re no fun.”

  He stepped aside, holding the door for me. I wandered into the room, desperate for refreshment—and barely took notice of the strange circle of thrones before me.

  “I have been scouring this citadel for hours,” I grunted at the assembled vampires. I recognized the friends of the witch, including the ones she made here, her instructor… and the Arch-Magister. The latter two of them stared at me in complete surprise. “Could have picked a place easier for me to find… somebody, please tell me there is something to drink here.”

  Griswold turned to Viktor and nodded. The stoic guard quickly rattled around in a cupboard, pulling out a pitcher of blood and a couple of glasses. He hastily poured me one and handed it over.

  Gratefully, I downed half of it in a single gulp.

  “What are you doing here?” The Arch-Magister asked.

  I sighed, wiping my lips with the back of my wrist. “It seems Elliott left a quick way here in case of an emergency. There was enough chrysm power for a single jump here.”

  “Emergency?” Hargonne raised a brow.

  “Yes. Any of you notice that your barrier’s gone?”

  Vayne and Griswold shared a horrified look.

  “I wondered about that,” Viktor replied calmly, casting an eye to the windowless arches lining the room. “As soon as the red light reappeared in the skies
, I thought it might have had something to do with that barrier…”

  “Nonsense,” Vayne walked over to the nearest one. “I checked for the barrier when the darkness left before.” She reached out a hand and murmured a quiet spell under her breath, concentrating intently.

  “The blackness?” I asked Wilhelm.

  “Oh yeah. Very spooky stuff. The skies were gone. All just pitch black overhead—no stars, no moon, nothing.”

  “Sounds terrifying.”

  “Oh, trust me. It was.”

  Nodding distantly, I turned to look at the council.

  Everyone was accounted for—everyone living, at least. I paused at Elliott’s side, studying the peace over his face; it felt as though I infringed on my lord, seeing him asleep and vulnerable like this. In thrones on either side, his sister and his witch rested just as quietly. I continued around the circle, looking into the faces of the vampire lords; each one slept facing outward, slumped in various states of sleep. A few sat upright; two, the younger female lords, practically slept resting against one another. This was the closest I had ever come to any of them; I was not permitted to watch the council meetings, and Elliott only called for my presence if he met with any privately. This was not often.

  In fact, of the few I had met privately, one was dead.

  “It is true,” Vayne returned, alarmed by the revelation. “How did this happen? Why is the barrier down?”

  I lifted my gaze off the tribal lord. “There was a chrysm spike here a few hours ago. It took the barriers down.”

  “Then we are defenseless,” Viktor observed.

  “We are. Hopefully, we can hold out until they awaken. Who knows what is happening in there…?”

  I held off on the bad news a minute longer; it seemed a little out of the question to move them right now. “Why are they all asleep?” I looked to another lord, the bitter, elderly woman from far abroad. “What is going on here?”