The Flames of Deception - A Horizon of Storms: Book 1

by AJ Martin

  Where in the gods am I? Josephine thought. Her memory jogged suddenly. Taico Grimm. She threw a hand to her neck, feeling for where he had dug his nails into her skin. There was no pain and from what she could feel, no cuts. Am I dreaming?

  Her ears picked up a whispering voice, vague and distant.

  “Is there anyone there?” she called out. Her voice echoed around her, but no one replied. The air tasted strange as well: metallic like iron. Like blood. She shivered, even though she wasn’t cold. There was no heat or chill that she could feel at all – no sense of temperature. It was as if her skin had been dulled.

  Everything here seems wrong! Delicately Josephine rose to her feet. Turning this way and that she tried to decide on a direction, straining to hear the voice again. It was gone. Each way she looked nothing differed, and so she picked a path and started walking.

  What felt like hours passed; hours of walking across the eternal grassland with no end in sight. Walking began to feel somewhat pointless. Yet there seemed nothing else to do and as she continued she started to feel a pull on her, as if she were being drawn forward by an invisible thread. So she carried on. It was another half - hour at least of walking, when she suddenly felt the wind in her hair. It came from nowhere, but the further forward she walked the stronger it became. It was glorious, a feeling of reality bursting through the endless, lifeless landscape. As she continued on, fighting against the wind, her ears pricked up. There was a new sound in the distance.

  What is it? Could it be water?

  The wind seemed to grow stronger still, trying to push her backwards and she almost felt as if she could feel hands made of air, grasping at her, forcing her back. But the invisible thread kept her on course, tugging at her, and she stretched out her arms and flailed madly to keep going. She could feel no energy flowing through her, no ability to even grasp the power-however weak she may still be in its use- to help her push through. A bloodcurdling laugh echoed around her in the wind, and her neck grew tight, as if the wind were trying to suffocate her. She panicked and grasped at her throat against the invisible forces. With the blackness of unconsciousness starting to mask her vision, she forced her legs on and managed to take another step. As she did so, the wind seemed to lose its grip. Another step forward and she could breathe properly again. She ran forward as the wind died down, through the grass as fast as she could, and then, as quickly as she had started running, she skidded to a halt and yelped. The land in front of her had disappeared, replaced with thin air. She was standing on the edge of a cliff! The sea swirled below her. She looked behind, expecting to see the expanse of green field where she had come from. There was nothing. The land had disappeared. She looked down at her feet and saw that the grass had been replaced by flagstones, surrounding her in a small circle. What was going on?

  The sea thundered against the cliff - face, crashing into jagged rocks beneath her. She didn’t recognise the area, but it made her feel uneasy, as if she wanted to turn and run and not look back. The sea seemed formed, for a moment, into a malevolent face. It howled up at her, a whirlpool of a mouth shrieking its hatred for her presence. She closed her eyes as the face erupted towards her, stretching up the cliff. It was going to swallow her!

  There was a sucking sound and then the sounds of the torrent disappeared. She opened her eyes, and was presented with a grand hallway. Enormous pillars of red marble flanked her left and right, stretching outwards toward an archway. The ceiling was immensely high, taller than any building she had ever set foot in. Gold plastered its heady domes on which ornately painted blue beings were wrapped in marble - etched togas, surrounded by silvery clouds. They were unmistakably Akari. She couldn’t help but stare in wonderment. Until recently she had thought them nothing but a myth- an ancient story of people who may have lived well before her time. But now, looking up at those ethereal beings, she almost felt a kinship to them. In a way she was connected to them through the power she held inside her. She may not be an Akari, but someone had chosen to give her their power and so some part of her was like them. They looked divine, gazing down at her from their seat in the heavens, the ones sent by the gods to bring peace to the world. Well, the power certainly hadn’t brought peace to her world. All it had brought her so far was death and sorrow.

  She started forward across the room, her gaze still fixed on the fresco, but stopped again as she heard whispers. She ducked behind one of the pillars and tried to listen to where the voices were coming from. They were faint, and they seemed to have no point of origin. It was almost as if… as if they were coming from inside her mind. Which was silly, she reasoned, since she had decided that she was already inside her mind as it was, in some kind a dream. But then, this whole situation was silly. Why could she not wake up? What was happening out there in the waking world? How long had she been dreaming like this?

  The voices were pulling her towards the archway in the far wall. She took a step away from the column she had hidden behind, and the whispers babbled in her head, louder this time, overlapping voices. Or was it one voice? Another few steps and the whispers became clearer. Someone was repeating her name, over and over again. They were beckoning her to come to them. How did she know that? She could not explain it. But she knew they wanted her to continue.

  “Who is there?” she called out, pausing again. The whispers stopped. The only answer she got was her own voice ricocheting through the room. Warily, she glided towards the archway in front of her, and passed into its dark confines. She emerged into a new hallway, divided into two shadowy routes. Which way should she go? Left or right? Each looked identical. The whispering came again, if it could still be called that. It had grown louder and nearly drowned out her thoughts with its intensity. She thought it was coming from the left. Tentatively she padded down the corridor and turned the corner. A doorway welcomed her, with black wooden panels, but there was no bolt, no lock. She pressed on it, expecting it to be stuck fast, but it evaporated at her touch into smoke. A dark spiral staircase wound down to the left. She tutted. More walking! The voice that filled her mind was coming, somehow, from its depths:

  “Josephine. Josephine. Josephine. Josephine.” It was never ending.

  “Be quiet!” She called down the stairwell. “You are giving me a headache!” The voice continued. She shook her head and descended the stairs.

  “I am coming as fast as I can!” she called as the voice continued to chant her name.

  Her spine tingled as she continued downwards. Hundreds of steps! How tall this building must be to accommodate such depths!

  She stopped as she heard another voice, one that was happily familiar. It was Thadius! But she couldn’t make out what he said. It was muffled: distant. She thought she heard another voice asking with him, but whoever it was, she couldn't tell.

  “Thadius!” she cried out. “I’m here! Where are you?” But he didn’t reply. Only the repetition of her name carried on, bouncing around her head incessantly.

  She reached the bottom of the stairs. Another door stood between her and the next room. This one instilled fear within her; dried blood smeared the ancient wood, drawing patterns she did not recognise. Gingerly she reached out and touched the door again, pressing it with her fingertips. From where she tapped, smoke began to rise. The wood blackened, and flame sparked into life, eating at the material until the entire door was ablaze. And then it stopped, as the wood turned to ash and collapsed into a smoking pile on the floor beneath her. She stepped beyond the doorway.

  The room she emerged into was unlike anything she had ever seen before. A maze of mirrors surrounded her, as tall as the ceiling, reflecting light from unseen sources. Her reflection stared back at her. The voices in her head seemed to bounce of the mirrors in the same way as her own image, and she could hear that they were coming from within the maze.

  “Oh well,” she sighed, “here goes.” She walked forward, her own face staring back at her through hundreds of reflective panels, and met with her first fork in the road. She cho
se the left way, as the voice seemed to her to be stronger that way, and carried on until the path split into three. Whichever way she turned, her own face looked back at her, and the light shone in her eyes.

  “Oh Matthias I really wish you were here right now,” she whispered, and then smiled. “Instead of me.” She pressed on. “You would likely have some Mahalian trick to navigate this maze. Whereas I have only my eyes and my ears to guide me. Neither of which is much help right now.”

  She stopped as the hairs on the back of her neck prickled and turned swiftly, convinced someone was behind her. The mirrors glared back at her. Swallowing, she continued, picking up the pace around the maze. Something caught her vision in the mirrors: a small, black shape rushing past, and she turned again. Nothing.

  “Pull yourself together Josephine!” she whispered. She moved deeper and deeper within the maze. As she stepped forward, another voice permeated the first. She couldn’t hear what it whispered, but something deep within her told her that it came from someone or something evil. Such black and white descriptions were hardly ever appropriate. The world was such a mixture of shades of grey. But in her core, she knew without any doubt that the voice belonged to the darkest soul she had ever encountered. It would kill her if she let it. An instinct told her to run. She began to grow panicked and disorientated. The room spun, faster and faster, and she threw her hands to her ears as the voices continued to cry out her name and the cackling, tormenting voice bombarded her.

  "Stop it! Stop it please!" she cried, as everything blurred around her. She screamed, and the mirrored glass around her shattered into a million pieces. Instantly she was falling, faster and faster, through darkness that seemed to have no end. She shut her eyes as she waited for the ground to find her and crush her bones. She knew it was a dream, but somehow, she felt that if she were to die here, she would never wake up.

  She hit water with massive force and sank, deeper and deeper, bubbles escaping from her mouth. She fought hard to open her eyes against the murky blue - green water that surrounded her and flailed around desperately. Her eye caught an object below her in the depths: light glinting off a large, golden ring embedded into a stone plinth. No, it wasn’t just one golden ring. There were three rings, implanted into the surrounding stone, with symbols engraved all around their circumference. Gasping for air, lungs heaving and her heart pumping, she scrambled towards the surface. Her head broke the water and she drew air into her lungs with a great gasp. Her vision danced with multi-coloured spots. Viciously she hit out with her legs to keep herself afloat and wiped at her eyes with a hand to clear them of water.

  “Welcome child”, said a voice behind her.

  She spun round towards the owner. Light shone from the figure that stared at her; a beautiful, intoxicating figure, dressed in robed of pure white. She was dazzling. She was an Akari.

  Visionary

  Day of the Cycle Unknown, 495 N.E. (New Era)

  “You… you’re an Akari!” Josephine exclaimed, staring at the ethereal figure standing above. The creature had pastel blue skin, unblemished, smooth like porcelain. Veins of dark blue ran across her cheeks and speckled her forehead. Her eyes shone like mercury. Behind her back she seemed to have wings, although they flickered in and out of Josephine’s vision and she couldn’t be sure they truly existed or if she were painting them out of her imagination. The Akari wore a white peplos, its cut running diagonally across her neck and chest, leaving her right shoulder bare. An ornamental clasp at her left shoulder held the garment in place, and the tubular cloth hung down to her ankles. A pattern of meandering gold lines in a repeating square pattern ran around her midriff. The creature surveyed her with its unearthly stare. Josephine was in awe at its unusual beauty, but tried to speak. “You have summoned me?” she asked.

  The woman shook head from where she stood on the plinth above her. “I did not do this”, she replied and her body flickered. “Though we did try and speak with you before, many times.”

  “Then am I... am I dead? Is that what I am doing here? Are you to guide me to the temple of the passing?”

  The Akari smiled and tilted her head. Her velvet words fell into Josephine’s head and caressed her mind. “You misunderstand your circumstances child. Though in a way, you are almost correct. But I am not here to take you to the next world.”

  “Then... then why am I here?” Josephine asked.

  “You are dying”, the Akari said.

  “I thought you just said-”

  “There is a great difference between dying and being dead, child.” She smiled. “I do not expect you to understand.”

  Josephine’s face grew angry. “You patronise me,” she said angrily.

  “I speak only truth,” the creature said, apparently ignorant of Josephine’s anger. “How can one so young understand the complexities of life, death and all of creation?” The Akari shook her head. “But this is irrelevant. As I said, you are dying. It has altered your state of being. In doing so, it has allowed us to speak with you at long last.” Her form flickered again and a momentary annoyance registered on her pale face. “Though our link is unstable. I do not know how long we have.”

  “How are you speaking to me from beyond the grave?” Josephine asked.

  “I am as alive as you, and perhaps a little more”, the Akari said.

  Josephine blinked back her surprise. “You are alive? Then where are you? Why did you leave? People barely remember you even existed!”

  “We are trapped,” came the response.

  “Where?” Josephine asked.

  “In a reality beyond your comprehension. But such questions of how and why are not as important as that which must be done.”

  “They are important to me! I have so many questions!”

  “Then they will have to remain unanswered. For now at least. I have no more time to give you child. I am sorry.”

  “No!” Josephine cried. “You will talk to me! Tell me why you gave me this power? Of all people, why me? You made me kill my mother!”

  “We gave you nothing”, the Akari said. “It was always within you.” She smiled. “You are a part of us.” The room rumbled as if an earthquake shook the ground and the Akari looked about herself, concern on her face. “We grow weak, speaking to you in this way. You must stop wasting time! Now, you must listen, for there is much for you to do.”

  Josephine shook her head in desperation. “Are you talking about the dragon? You want me to stop it from being released?” she asked. “I am trying! But people keep getting in my way!”

  “The beast is irrelevant,” the Akari said.

  “How can it be irrelevant? The prophecy... the gods told the wizards that the dragon must be stopped! By me!”

  “The beast is one part of a much larger puzzle, child. It is insignificant in light of that which is to come.” She flickered again, her form destabilising dramatically and she looked around pensively. “Something else is here. It is working against us. Against you.”

  “Something else? I don’t understand! I-”

  “You have to free us!” the Akari said with haste. “Find the gateway to our prison and open the rift! It is the only way that your world can be truly saved. We are the only creatures that can bring peace.”

  Josephine swallowed. “How do I do that? Where is this prison?”

  “The gateway was hidden and buried. The tainted beings-“ The Akari closed her pale eyelids as another quake shook the room. Rocks from the ceiling above plopped into the water.

  “Are you alright?” Josephine asked.

  “I am afraid our time is at an end,” she said hurriedly. “You must survive and do what must be done. We must stop Soral!”

  The Akari gasped as a blade end emerged through her chest. She looked down, surveying the wound, before regarding Josephine with pained eyes. “The four tainted ones will bring forth the Alignment!” she cried. Then she dissolved, shattering into pieces, revealing the rest of the blade behind her figure and Taico Grimm, holding its h
ilt.

  The Council Meets

  135th Day of the Cycle, 495 N.E. (New Era)

  The circular amphitheatre that housed the Council Chamber of Mahalia stretched on for what to the untrained eye seemed miles. A trick of the earth power made the walls semi - transparent, so that the room was alive with the real view on the outside of the room, which sat at the top of the pyramid - shaped structure of the city. Clouds moved overhead, overlain across the ancient, ornamental architecture of the ceiling that seemed almost pointless given how little it was seen beyond the sky. Under normal circumstances the room would perhaps be half full at most, with many wizards abstaining their right to sit and discuss matters both trivial and mundane. Today, however, the room was packed. Today was the day that Augustus Pym would be hauled over the coals for all to see.

  Pym sat in what in his situation could only be referred to as the ‘dock’. He was under no illusion: he was on trial whether it was named so or not. No - one went against the consensus. Not for many years at least, and never in relation to something so important. The chancellor stood on the central, circular dais, resting his weight on the old, wooden plinth that had been restored countless times throughout the centuries and was covered with gold leaf and amber jewels.

  “My fellow council members,” he bellowed, his voice projected by a subtle twisting of the air with the earth power so that it filled the entirety of the room. "I have called this meeting to address an issue of great importance concerning the actions of a member of this council, Augustus Pym, which go against the Consensus of this chamber on the matter of Princess Josephine Arwell.” The room murmured with delight. It was not often that such a topic was discussed openly amongst the chamber. “As you will recall, the decision of this council regarding the fate of the girl was that, in light of the revelations we have uncovered in the twelfth seeing stone, Josephine Arwell was to be retrieved from Aralia, her nature purged and thereafter contained until the current crisis we face has been resolved.” He turned to Augustus. “Councillor Pym, however, has seen fit to take matters into his own hands. He has sent Matthias Greenwald, whom many of you will be aware is only a recent graduate of this realm, to train Princess Josephine.” The murmurs became louder and more excited with each passing sentence. “Without consulting the council, this plot to undermine the unity of this house has placed us in even greater danger than we were already in. As we speak the princess is on her way to the city of Crystal Ember. She believes she can stop the dragon from being released!” The chancellor paused until the commotion ebbed and he could continue. “Lord Fenzar has engaged in a pursuit of Matthias, however as of yet he has not been able to locate him or the girl." He took a breath. "To say that I am disappointed in the actions of Councillor Pym would be a grave understatement.” He turned to Augustus, who watched him placidly from his box. “This council must then decide on the actions to be taken to restore this situation to our control and furthermore, decide the fate of Councillor Pym. I therefore open the floor for your discussion.” The man stepped back as hundreds of men rose from their seats and began waving their arms in the air to gain attention. Inspecting the crowd, the chancellor pointed to a man in the front row. “Auric, please speak,” he nodded.