Horal pulls on his light and fashions it into strings of fire, he sends the fire out and wraps it around Gray. He pulls on the strings, tightening them. Gray is fighting it, a huge blast of water exploding out of him and extinguishing the fire. Horal pulls back on the strings, igniting them again, he closes them around Gray and storms into the ethereal, he shoots more strings directly at Gray's ethereal, closing the fire around his well. Gray is screaming now, desperately trying to pull his light through the ethereal.
"Gray." Horal says. "Gray! GRAY! STOP!" His voice rising to a shout. Gray stops fighting for a moment.
"Please, just wait Gray. Asrath rescued me." Horal turns to Asrath now, "we both need an explanation. Now Asrath."
Asrath nods.
"Take a seat, it's going to be a long tale."
And so Asrath begins.
"It started two thousand years ago, the light had left our universe to explore, and in its absence the darkness came. Two of us led the resistance, myself and a man called Achilles," Horal notices Gray nodding when Achilles is mentioned. Curious. "we fought for six years before the light returned, we had lost so many. Only a few of us remained. We had fled, we were in hiding and barely surviving. But the light had come. The light came in the night and summoned me and Achilles to a forest in what is now called Ireland. And so, we went. And the light told me of a way to defeat the darkness, it did not tell Achilles, yet, the light left that task to me, but swore me to an oath to wipe Achilles memory of the particulars, and even now I cannot tell you, I may tell only the lightbringer. While the light told me of the plan to defeat the darkness, it told Achilles of something else. And then the light left us. Achilles and I spoke to one another. I told Achilles of the only way to defeat the darkness, and Achilles nodded and told me what the light had spoken of - the light gave us a choice, through Achilles. One of us would become Lightbringer, a vessel for the pure essence of the light, but a price would need to be paid - whoever chose to be lightbringer would lose access to their power when the battle was over, and the second would become the darkbound, the vessel for the darkness, and in doing so would have their light corrupted by the darkness. The light left us to decide and then the light returned and asked us for our decision. I told the light I would be the darkbound, Achilles protested, but it was decided. And then the light entered Achilles, the light spoke to me once more. It told me to remain loyal and true, good and selfless. I promised I would. The light told me there would be a sign when it was time to return to it, and so here I am now, the sign presented itself at the battle of the dragon."
"Battle of the dragon?" Horal asked.
Asrath pointed to Gray, Gray nodded.
"You have missed much Horal. Thomas had a vision of Gandrea, she told him to come find her in Arizona. And so, we did. We journeyed across the world and through an apocalyptic wasteland, and we arrived at a small hut in the desert. Thomas needed to touch the door and speak the words to summon Gandrea. But before us lay an army, led by Asrath. A burst of light exploded from Thomas's crown an-" Horal cut him off.
"Crown?" he asked.
"Right, the surviving magi sword fealty through the ceremony of light, after it was done, the light crowned him king of the light. In the desert, light exploded from his crown and reached out to the darkness inside all the soldiers arrayed between us and the hut. Asrath teleported away, I thought out of cowardice... but perhaps..." Gray finished, now with eyes on Asrath. Asrath nodded.
"Now, tell us your story Horal, we all thought you were dead." Gray asks Horal.
"We were in the battle at the black house. I had just sent Wident away to find you. I knew Thomas would need a war leader in the coming weeks. And then a burst of darkness and Thomas rushed past me, chasing someone. I followed for a moment, but then darkness shrouded the building. Asrath saved me. He teleported and took me with him. The darkness came an hour later, it chained me to a wall and interrogated me. It wanted to know where Thomas would go, what his plan was, it also kept asking me about a store of light somewhere in the city. I gave no answers. And then a few nights ago, Asrath came to me and told me it was time to go, but we had to be quick. And so, we escaped. We have been fleeing through the city ever since, hunted by black cloaks and unable to portal. Asrath can't use his power again or the darkness will find him, and I don't have the strength to activate a portal." Gray listened attentively during Horal's story.
"Okay, we need to go. I can open a portal to the safe house. If you are true, Asrath, Thomas can decide." Gray tells them.
Horal nods and releases him from his fire wraps.
"I won’t be able to portal tonight, it will take me some time to pool enough light for such a casting after my attack." Gray says.
"I'm sorry old friend, but I needed to stop you from killing us so we could explain." Horal apologises.
"I get it. Let's have some food." Gray pulls out his rucksack from behind the wall of the house he was using to scout the area, inside he has jars of soup that Melanie made up for him.
They spend the rest of the night listening to Gray's stories of Thomas and the things he has achieved. He tells them about mastering multiple elements, to which Asrath is shocked and scared, Horal doesn't understand this reaction.
They wake early the next morning and Horal watching as his old friend activated a portal, light blue flog rolling against the glass instead of the El-Assum purple. Horal can't stop thinking about the progress made by Thomas.
They step through the portal and into a large hall with a huge table, the council hall of the safe house.
Of course, Horal thinks.
There are people there, Horal recognises some of them. Melanie, storm born, Gray had mentioned her a lot in his stories. Phil, storm born warrior, famous for his skill with the blade. Bert, a water born scholar. A non-magi is holding a gun, he's pointing it at them. Horal pulls in his light and unleashes a small ball of flame at the man’s shoulder, hoping to incapacitate him. But the flame hits his shiny suit of army and disappears.
What??
Suddenly Melanie is there, she's looking at Gray but her hands are facing Asrath and Horal, electricity flickering. Phil is on his feet now, swords drawn level with Horal's neck.
"Fetch Thomas." Phil tells the non-magi, who nods and sprints out of the room. He returns moments later, moving back through the hall, his gun pointing at them again. He nods to Phil, who relaxes slightly.
Another minute passes, silence in the hall. And then the doors burst open and the lightbringer storms in. Adorned head to toe in white and silver plated armour, engraved with castings of fire and water, storm and something else, something new to Horal. Behind him is the dragon born.
Thomas summons a huge amount of light into the physical, it's blinding. Horal closes his eyes. When he opens them, Asrath is on his knees and the light has dimmed. The light is reaching straight into Asrath. Darkness is starting to ebb along the string of light into Thomas's ethereal, as soon as the darkness touches the crown it disappears in a flash. Agony all over Asrath's face, his mouth open in a silent scream, his fists clench.
"Thomas wait!" Horal shouts, but Thomas ignores him, pushing more and more light into Asrath. and then it's done, one last flash and the light has returned to the ethereal.
"Welcome back to the Light, Asrath. It has been too long."
Horal is confused, he's still watching Asrath, the agony fading now as he regains himself. His eyes open for a second and then close, Horal can see him diving into his well and switches to ethereal vision. Light. No more darkness, the darkness inside Asrath is gone.
Horal opens his real eyes and look sat Thomas in wonder.
"You destroyed the darkness in him?" Horal asks.
Thomas nods. Asrath rises to his feet.
"My King, how can I repay you?" Asrath asks.
"There is one thing you can do for me Asrath, something you can tell me." Thomas tells Asrath, who nods in return.
Horal finally notices Thomas properly, he's sweating and his face
is pale, his legs are shaking and his hand is fidgeting.
"Tell me about the creator." Thomas says.
Asrath's face is pale now, drawn, fear in his eyes. He nods.
"As you wish."
Forty-One – Vault of Souls
I stand there, patiently, as Asrath tells me about the creator.
"When the darkness possessed me as a vessel, I had access to its memories. There was one memory stronger than all the others. The moment of the darknesses creation, the first emotion it felt. Fear. A whisper in the air, in the nothingness, the emptiness where nothing exists - until the darkness. A prophecy, the first prophecy, The Inferno Prophecy, but if you know of the creator then the light showed you already, right?" he asks me, I nod, "the wielder of all the elements. Recently the darkness has become frantic and panicky, not the eternal evil it once was, no. In reality the darkness is a scared little boy that never had a father figure, never had any guidance, everything belonged to it for so long. And now it stands at the edge of its own destruction, and I don't mean the battle with you. You cannot destroy the darkness, I assume you have also come to this conclusion for yourself?"
"I have." I tell him. The others gasp, they didn't know up until this point that destroying the darkness was impossible for us. The darkness was everything, the entire universe and all its alternate dimensions, the darkness was everywhere, in each pocket of space. When the lights go out and the sun sets, the darkness is there. It cannot be destroyed. But the power of the darkness, its ability to take a form, a vessel, and to cast magic, that can be taken away. I also knew how to do it - in theory, but it relied heavily on Wident finding an earth both magi.
"So, the darkness is scared now. And fear does crazy things to a being that has never truly feared anything. But when the lightbringer finally masters the final element, the creator will come forth. The darkness doesn't know how, or what form it will take, all it knows that is with you comes the end of all things. Not the destruction of all things, the end. It will be as if nothing ever existed, no trace that humanity was ever created, no sign of fire or light or darkness, or anything. Gone. All of creation." he tells us. He's sitting at the council table now, tired and still in pain from me taking away the darkness. It had been grasping his light so tightly, I could only imagine the pain of having something that had been a part of you, had mutated into you, for two thousand years cut away like a tumour.
"Everything the darkness has done has been to try and prevent the lightbringer from rising to full power, the first battle where he tried to extinguish all of creation, its long sleep, waiting, and now this, its final attempt to destroy you. All out of fear for its creator, and their return." Asrath finishes. He's massaging his temples now, tired.
"I'm sorry Asrath, there will be no time for sleep. I'm calling the survivors to the courtyard, to introduce you and tell them the truth. And then we will be returning to London." I tell him.
"The Vault?" he asks.
I'm a little surprised that he knows about the vault.
"Yes, how-" I'm cut off.
"I've always known. I have guided Gandrea since her birth. Every vision she ever had, came from me." he tells us. Gandrea is smiling, she knew, and failed to mention it. But of course, she knew, she was so close to Achilles, who had also been there since the beginning.
I send a pulse out into the safe house, waking the survivors that were sleeping, and calling them all to the courtyard. I can feel them all making their way there through the ethereal.
"Go on ahead, Asrath wait." the others left, Asrath didn't move.
"I'm going to tell them first, then call you. I don't want someone to get carried away and for someone to get hurt." I tell him, he nods sluggishly.
I walk through the safe house and out into the courtyard, everyone is waiting. The centre of the courtyard is left free, I walk there now. I turn in one circle, looking at everyone for as long as possible.
"I have a story for you all. Two thousand years ago, lived two heroes. As you know, Achilles was one of them. But there was a second. A hero no one knows about. The greatest of all the magi, this man sacrificed more than any of us could even imagine. He has spent two thousand years as a servant to evil, being corrupted and used, all so we may have a chance of winning. This man was given a task by the light at the first battle. He was asked to give himself over to the darkness, so that the darkness may be trapped. This man is the reason the first battle was won, and will play an important part in the final battle. He has spent two thousand years fighting the darkness within him, and tonight he returned to the light, I have extinguished the darkness inside him, and once again he feels the light on his skin, the goodness in his heart. His name. ASRATH!" I shouted the final word, imbuing it with light. There was silence all around now.
The survivors were in complete shock. Asrath? Asrath had been the head of the darknesses forces for longer than anyone could remember. It was taking a moment to sink in that he was truly a warrior of the light.
He walked out into the courtyard, his black cloak gone now, replaced with a golden robe with white strips down either side, his hair was free and cut since Thomas had last seen him a moment ago, he had used the light to return to his previous style.
He marched through the sanctuary and knelt before me. I knew before he even gathered his light what he was going to do. He was saving it for here, in front of the crowd, one final act to prove his loyalty. His light burst out of him, all of it. It rose into the air and transformed. And then it reached out for me. I felt as his light met mine. Instead of loyalty and trust, I did feel these too, but the strongest feeling was sadness. So long since he hadn't had his light, so many things done for the darkness in the name of the Light, terrible deeds performed so that there was hope of victory in the final battle. The man was broken by his own actions, he had given more than two thousand years to this battle, he had given himself, all of himself. And Thomas knew this man would never recover. If he survived this battle he would see out what remained of his life in shame and pain, hopeless and lonely.
The ceremony finished, Achilles broke away from the crowd and pulled Asrath into an embrace. They stood there for minutes, hugging each other. Two best friends that hadn't seen each other since they had made their unimaginable sacrifices.
The crowd began to cheer now. it started off low, unsure. But it rose. And soon it was a deafening roar. ASRATH. The man that had saved them all. A true hero.
"ENOUGH!" I shout, my voice magically magnified.
"Everyone back inside. Macklin remain her with the council." it took a few minutes, but the courtyard emptied.
We leave in twenty minutes. Suit up, all of you. Asrath there is armour for you, Achilles told me the truth of your story and I had some made for you. I think you'll like them. Macklin, gather your squad, they come with us. Go." everyone dispersed. I waited in the courtyard with Katie and Phil, the three of us already suited up and ready to go.
"So, this is it? We take the vault?" Phil asks me.
"Yep." I reply.
"There will be fierce fighting. The darkness knows of the light store in the city, it is waiting for this moment. It will do whatever it takes to destroy you and any chance you have of mastering the elements." he tells me. But I already know. I have prepared us as much as possible for this battle, we would soon see if it was enough.
I activate the portal immediately, a huge glass dome of purple fog. Everyone arrives on time, ready to go.
We step through the portal and into the old sanctuary. Just rubble and burned wood now. In a heartbeat, we're under attack, fire and darkness coming from everywhere, we're surrounding. Most of it fizzles out to nothing as the Mack squad (as they had begun calling themselves) took perimeter.
"Go down, do what you need to do, we will hold them off." Macklin tells me. I nod and we make for the stair case leading down.
I take the stairs two at a time, the rest of the council descending behind. It's dark, the steps are shattered and chipped, I almost lose my
footing a few times before I start being more careful.
We reach the bottom, a long corridor leading straight ahead to a huge wooden door with a red flame. We rush down and through the door, another stair case, we descend once more into the belly of the earth. It's a long staircase, this one, it takes maybe ten minutes to descend. But then we're at the bottom. Another door in front of us.
This door can only be opened by a burst of light, making it impossible to access by the darkness. I slip a slither of light into the triangular hole in the centre of the door. A click and it swings open.
A large room, the walls covered from bottom to top with shelves. Empty jars covering them all. Straight ahead at the end of the room, one shelf with seven jars, the only jars with light inside them, I dive into my well and send my light out to them. A lot of power. I begin pulling all the power back into my crown, but it's a slow process, a lot of light needs to be pulled back in. When I'm finished, I open my eyes. Macklin and his team are here now, there's been casualties. Only eight remain. They back into the room, a wave of darkness following them.
The Darkest Light: Book 1 of The Inferno Prophecy Page 19
