The Vampire Gift 6: Secrets of Hope

by E. M. Knight

  It takes way more concentration than I would expect. The Forces behave differently here. They’re more slippery. Harder to catch.

  But eventually, after an intense effort, I manage to do it. A thin layer of Air on the inside prevents the caustic ash from actually touching my skin. I tuck the currents maintaining the spell into a nook of my mind and set out to explore my surroundings.

  I am acutely aware that this place is most likely home to demons. I’m also puzzled that I can no longer see those glowing strands. Could they only have been visible inside of that time-warp bubble I created?

  I still have absolutely no idea how I did it. Or if it even was me who did it.

  For all intents and purposes, though, I assume it was.

  I start my trek in a random direction. Every step I take is cautious. I am an intruder here. My presence alone disrupts the equilibrium.

  And in a place so absolutely still, any movement is enough to draw the attention of unwanted things.

  I walk forward without seeing any change in the landscape. I go and go, waiting, searching, looking, but everything is exactly as it was when I landed here.

  It could be minutes or it could be hours that I walk. To my surprise, I feel no tiredness. Zero fatigue.

  But at the same time, the light in the sky does not change. If there is a sun above the clouds, it does not shift its position insofar as I can tell.

  Suddenly, without any warning, the sky splits open. A horrendous fount of red flame scorches across the earth.

  I jump back, stumble, and hit the ground hard. Oh, I definitely don’t have my vampire grace.

  The phenomenon from the sky lasts only a moment. The flame ends, the clouds close up, and everything is still once more.

  My heart is pounding.

  Cautiously, I move closer to where the flame scorched the ground. Radiant heat from the blast makes the air thick and awful.

  I see the long scorch mark it left in the ash. But I also see something that absolutely astounds me.

  The ground beneath the spot undulates, almost as if it were liquid. It turns over the burned ash, and when it’s all swept over, the ground stills.

  Uncanny.

  I test the air for any trace of magic. There is none. The flame was not cast by the Elemental Forces.

  Not wanting to linger any longer, I hurry on.

  More time passes. I cross an indeterminable amount of land. Other than that one blast of flame, nothing about this place changes.

  It’s too quiet. Too still.

  Too dead.

  My mind starts to drift. I wonder how I’m going to get back. When I was still in the human world, I saw the portal leading here. It just spit me out in this place.

  Will I have to conjure one to try to get back?

  But that is absolutely outside my scope of skill. I cannot do it. I wouldn’t know where to start. A portal into The Paths, I can make, because I was shown how, but also because I possessed an instinctive understanding of their nature.

  And I can only make that portal from a familiar place. Not from this unknown… world.

  I keep going. On and on I walk, without a single change in the landscape. I start to think maybe I’ll never find anything different.

  But just as I’m closing in on a sense of despair, I see a little outcrop rising up in the distance.

  Immediately energized, I run to it, all caution be damned.

  As I get closer, it seems to grow. At first, I think it’s just my mind playing tricks on me. But every step I take, the outcrop increases in size more than it should were it just a regular approach.

  When I first sighted it, I thought it would be no taller than shoulder height. But from nearby, it’s towering over me the height of a five-story building.

  I reach the nearest side.

  The rock is smooth, almost like obsidian. The ash does not touch it. Somehow, the smooth surface seems to repel the dust.

  I bring a hand to its surface.

  The moment my skin makes contact a spark of electricity jolts through me. I gasp and flinch back.

  But then, right before my eyes, right from where my hand made contact, a glowing spider web of runes starts to reveal itself.

  They fissure out from the spot like cracks through an iced-over pond. They glow and shift in colors of the Elemental Forces: from the faintest blue, to the softest red, to a subtle brown.

  The same colors as were lighting Morgan’s cords.

  I take a step back and let the flowing pattern reveal itself to me. It spreads over the rock like growing vines.

  The runes themselves are very similar to the ones that decorated the inside of The Book of the Dead.

  That gives me a strange bit of hope.

  Mixed with trepidation.

  These are human symbols. What would they be doing here?

  I look around me for some sign of anybody else. As expected, I see no one.

  Frustration takes me that I cannot read the familiar runes. They are a vital part of magic and an area I know nothing about. I should have learned!

  But I can’t do anything about that now.

  There comes a final flash, and the movement ends. All of the runes are in place and fully visible.

  I realize that, in their midst, a door was formed.

  I come closer, extremely cautious. At the same time, I’m crippled by a morbid curiosity. Isn’t this what I wanted to discover?

  Once more, I reach out. My hand hovers just an inch before the door. If last time I touched it, I triggered this reveal, what will happen this time?

  As an extra precaution, I collect as much of the Elemental Forces as I can and ready the weaves for a defensive spell in my head.

  I take a deep breath and place my palm against the door. A warmth seeps into me.

  Then the entrance shifts and pulls away.

  I’m left staring into a long, dark tunnel.

  Chapter Eight

  Eleira

  The Demon Realm

  I take my first step into the void. Nothing happens. I take one more.

  The door crashes into place behind me.

  Darkness takes over. I spin around. I’m trapped! I cannot see! Without my vampire vision, I cannot see, I’m actually blind—

  With a jolt, I come to my sense and cast a simple glowing ball spell. An orb comes to being in front of me, rotating and emitting a faint, faint light.

  I cannot shove more of the currents into it to make it stronger. I don’t know why—they just won’t go.

  But a little bit of visibility is better than none. Miles better.

  I take a deep breath and start down the tunnel.

  That external sense of oppression is stronger here than it was outside. Maybe because I’m closed in.

  It’s uncomfortable and threatening and speaks of danger, but like with everything here, I am incapable of making it any different.

  So, I start my cautious trek down.

  I trail one hand along the wall, just to convince myself that I am moving. After the experience outside, I cannot leave any doubt.

  I walk and walk, and, before long, I see a curve in the tunnel.

  From the other side of it comes a very faint light.

  Excited, but also cautious, I start walking faster. I reach the corner and look one way.

  There, far in front of me, is an opening that leads to some kind of cavern. Light flickers from there.

  It’s firelight.

  I pick up my pace. Halfway there, I think I hear voices. I stop and concentrate.

  No, it’s nothing. Just my imagination. Little more.

  But then again, the very distinct sound of conversation reaches my ears, and I nearly lose it.

  I hurry toward the opening. I reach the threshold.

  Sure enough, below me is a magnificent, lighted cavern. The walls are made of dark, jagged glass. It is much like The Paths, but with a more menacing material.

  I feel the definite pulse of power running through them.

&nbs
p; In the middle of the floor is a large bonfire. Gathered around it are the figures of three cloaked women.

  As soon as my eyes fall on them, they twist their heads and look up as one. Plain white porcelain masks cover their faces. Two tiny slits are cut into them for each of their eyes.

  In perfect unison, they lift their hands and gesture to me.

  Some type of invisible force tightens around my body. I stiffen in alarm, immediately picking on the Elements to counter it…

  My threads of magic are spliced clean, as if with a knife.

  The force lifts me up off the ground. I gasp. It propels me forward, floating me toward the women.

  When I’m right beside them, the force dissipates. I drop down.

  Once more in perfect unison the three of them turn away, ignoring me completely, and resume their stare into the fire.

  I realize with a start my makeshift gown is gone. Now I do feel very much naked. I quickly place my hands over my body, protecting myself…

  “There is no need for false modesty, child,” an echo of a voice says in my head.

  I gape. The sound doesn’t come from any of the women before me. But I know it’s them speaking to me. The voice doesn’t belong to a single one of them… but to all three.

  Just like they move in unison, they speak inside my mind in unison, too.

  “I’m not—” I begin to say.

  “Turn around.”

  Something shoves my shoulder to prompt my movement. And there, floating in midair in front of me, is a gown just like the one the masked women are wearing.

  “Put it on,” comes the command.

  I hesitate.

  “If you don’t,” the trifecta of voices comes again, “we will force it onto you.”

  Seeing how easily they got through the magic spell, I decide it’s probably best to comply.

  I slip the fabric over my head. As soon as it falls over my body, a strange sense of… peace… washes over me.

  “This world drains the natural energy from you. It does that from all its inhabitants. The planet thrives on seeping away the vitality of living things. That is why your magic so drastically failed you up there.”

  I get the sense that “up there” refers to the spot where I was caught and dragged from.

  I stare at the women, who have gone still as statues.

  “The gown protects you from the worst of the effects. Wearing it will afford you tranquility. We know you feel the difference.”

  My eyes narrow in suspicion.

  “Who are you?” I ask.

  “We are three like you. Portal travelers. World-hoppers. We came here from the same realm you did.”

  “How long ago?” I ask warily.

  “We were born on your planet twelve centuries ago.”

  Once more I gape. “You’re… vampires?”

  A derisive hiss sounds in my head. “No. Do not accuse us of such vile things!”

  I take a step back, caught flat-footed by the absolute hostility in their voice.

  “Then how have you lived so long?” I ask cautiously.

  Do they know that I am a vampire? Or at least, I was one, before coming to this place?

  “We exist in a realm outside of time. This reality, this world, all that you see around you, operates on a different plane.”

  I screw my face up. “If we’re talking, if we’re conversing, then time is obviously passing!”

  “Time is a river. It flows around us. We are protected here.”

  Immense frustration takes me from not being given a clear answer.

  “You said you’re like me. You’re witches? Come here from Earth? And somehow… immortal?”

  “No, child. On Earth, twelve hundred years have passed. Here, no time at all.”

  “You didn’t answer. You’re witches?”

  “You know we are.”

  “So then, where is ‘here?’”

  “You know that, too.”

  In my mind, huge, flashing images of the Narwhark come to life. The Narwhark, and other demons like it, other creatures of this world. Other hideous, ugly, horrible things that have evolved to survive the hostile atmosphere and oppressing climate, who leech off the energy contained in this world.

  I stagger back. The images were forced onto me. They were not mine.

  “This is a parasitic world,” the witches tell me. “Our sanctuary is the only safe place.”

  “Then what are you doing here?”

  “That’s a story that would take eons to explain. Because it’s housed not in the answer to ‘why.’ But the answer to, ‘for what’?”

  “And? So what is it? Why aren’t you moving, why won’t you look at me?”

  In a single sharp flick all three heads turn on me. I’m forced back by the immense power radiating from the hidden eyes.

  “You came to us, child,” the voice of all three informs me. “Do not forget that. Without our protection, you would be dead.”

  My back stiffens. I refuse to be afraid. “What do you mean?”

  Laughter. “You think the atmosphere here is suitable for human life?” they jeer. “We’ve been protecting you since you stumbled into this world. We cast a shield around you, filling it with oxygen so you could breathe. Without it, you would have suffocated in seconds.”

  I shift my feet. “So that means I’m really here?” I ask. “I’m here, right now, in the flesh? This is my real body?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then what about… what about the one I have back on Earth?”

  “You exist as yourself both here and there. You are in both places at the same time.”

  “I don’t understand.” I shake my head. “That’s impossible.”

  “Not impossible. Improbable, maybe. And yet you did it.”

  “How?”

  “My child, that is the very thing you have been summoned to answer.”

  Again I shake my head. “What?”

  “We did not protect you without reason. You are an intruder on our land. An invader. A foreigner. Some might say, a curse.”

  “You said you are the only ones here.”

  “The only ones like you, capable of communicating with you. There are other sentient beings in this place, though. They would not be thrilled if they knew of your coming.”

  None of this is making any sense. It’s too far out there, stretching the limits of belief.

  Vampires, I’ve come to live with. Witches, I can understand.

  But traveling to this other world, finding this strange gathering here, listening to them claim to be twelve-hundred years old…?

  “Demons, you mean?” I wonder out loud.

  “Oh. You’re sharp.”

  I scowl in irritation from the mocking I hear in their voice.

  “So what, this is some kind of tribunal?” I ask, feeling particularly defiant. “You led me here, and now I have to answer for my crimes, is that it?”

  “That attitude will not get you far.”

  “It’s gotten me here just fine,” I fire back. I refuse to be a slave to the victim mentality.

  “Fierce. We like that.”

  “If you’re from the Earth that means you got here just like I did—through a portal.” I say. “I have questions for you, too. Did you pull me here? Are you the ones that stopped the flow of time around me when I was back on Earth? Where I still am, somehow, according to you, right now.”

  I sense a change to the demeanor of the three witches. They don’t—haven’t--moved from the positions they took when they turned on me, but somehow, the atmosphere of this place has shifted.

  “Well?” I ask, when I don’t get an immediate response. “I’ll answer your questions, but not for nothing. You have to give me answers, too.”

  “Bold, for one so young. You demand much of us. You realize you are completely at our mercy?”

  I cross my arms. “If you wanted to kill me you would have done it long ago.”

  “That doesn’t mean you can’t push us over the e
dge.”

  All of a sudden, I feel a great pull, and the air around me collapses.

  I try to gasp in a breath, but I’m in a vacuum. The pull, the sudden suction, steals the air from inside my lungs.

  I start to choke. I fall to my knees and desperately claw at my throat. I try to work my lungs, but the suction from the outside is too much. There’s no substance for them to pull in.

  I wring around in utter agony. I’m drowning, dying, feeling the life seep out of me on the floor.

  And then, just as suddenly as it disappeared, the air comes back. I gulp down deep and hungry breaths, desperate to give my body oxygen.

  It takes a very long time for me to regain my composure. Humiliation overtakes my entire body.

  I push myself up, shaken and trembling. I force myself to stand and face the emotionless women.

  “You see?” they mock. “You are at our mercy.”

  My brain hasn’t recovered fast enough for me to think clearly. After a very long time, I manage to ask, “What do you want?”

  “Tell us of your journey here, in your own words.” Something scrapes along the floor behind me. I turn my head and find a small stool being pushed toward me by that invisible force.

  “Sit,” they say.

  Shooting all three of them a despising look, I do. Admittedly, it feels better to have the support of something solid underneath me.

  “Where do I begin?” I say.

  “With how you arrived.”

  “I already told you,” I exhale. “Through a portal.”

  “The portals on Earth were all destroyed,” the women say.

  “No.” I counter. “Some of them were destroyed. The witches split into factions. Those who wanted to seal all of them and those who didn’t.”

  Again there’s no perceptible shift that I can see, but I feel the witch’s increased attention.

  “This occurred after we left?”

  “That’s why you don’t know,” I say. “Right?”

  “Tell us.”

  “The ones who wanted to destroy the portals were not able to. It required too much power. But, like I said, they were able to seal some of them. Maybe—probably--the majority. I don’t know.”

  “Sealing portals is not a one-time thing. It requires the constant flow of magic,” they tell me. “It can’t have been sustained.”