Magium

by Chris Michael Wilson

  “Well, if doesn’t exist, then maybe we shouldn’t be worrying about it, don’t you think?” the other lessathi says. “Here’s an idea. How about you stop bothering me with nonsense, and wait for the others in silence, like everybody else.”

  “Aha!” Arraka says, as she makes the clowns disappear. “I knew it! I knew that these bastards were resonating with the Magium somehow. But then again, if the lessathi have such a good affinity with the Magium, then how is it that Eiden and the fox were the ones who first learned how to create food out of nothing, and not them? Wasn’t that knowledge somehow taken from the Magium as well? Hmm…”

  “You do realize,” I say, “that if you’re going to keep giving me so much information about the Magium, I will eventually figure out what it is, right?”

  “So what?…” Arraka says. “Do I look like I care? This is all a game to me. I couldn’t care less if you find out the true nature of the Magium. I’ve only been hiding it from you because I find your reactions to be amusing. It’s not like I was forbidden to talk about this by the Magium itself, like Flower and Illuna.”

  “What did you just say?…” I ask her, shocked.

  “Arraka, don’t say another word,” Illuna says, with a mixture of both anger and fear in her eyes. “I’m warning you!”

  “Warning me?” Arraka says. “Warning me? Has our little trip to this parallel universe managed to completely fry your brain? Do you forget who you are talking to? I am Arraka! Even the gods live in fear of me! Do you seriously think that I am going to let myself get intimidated by the likes of the Magium? The Magium is nothing but a tool! A tool that I can freely manipulate, without even breaking a sweat! Why would I have anything to fear? Do you think I’m like you? Well, Barry, you’re in luck! Today, you will finally find out what the Magium is! You see, it is all pretty simple, once you think about it. If you take into account everything that I’ve told you about the world we are in now, and if you also remember everything you already knew, then the answer that is staring you right in the face is that the Magium is in fact—”

  Right before Arraka got to finish her sentence, I felt a sensation that was so terrifying and so hard to put into words, that any threat I might have felt to my life from the likes of Arraka and the God of Time simply paled in comparison to what I felt just now. It was no longer a question of fearing for my life. I was fearing for my very existence. I felt the whole world flicker around me, for a fraction of a second, as if everything froze in time and lost all of its color. Then, within the same fraction of a second, it all simply vanished from right before my eyes, and all I could see now was emptiness. An emptiness that stretched for miles and miles, even though it was made of nothing.

  What felt like a moment, also felt like an eternity at the same time, and during that eternity which lasted for less than a second, I got to experience the sheer dread of complete non-existence. Not only had my life been wiped away, but the very notion of me had been completely erased from the tapestry of the universe. For that fraction of a second, I was nothing, and yet, I was still there, somewhere, trapped for an eternity in a complete void, while trying in vain to make sense of the utter absurdity of my situation.

  Once I find myself back in my semi-transparent body and in a world full of color, I suddenly realize that I am completely drenched in cold sweat, and that I can feel my heart beating in my chest like a very loud drum. Flower also seems to be frozen in shock, as she simply stares straight ahead of her, without saying a word.

  “You arrogant fool!” Illuna shouts, all of a sudden, as she grabs Arraka’s amulet in her hand, to bring it close to her face, while her eyes are shining with a bright blue color. “Do you realize what you’ve done?!”

  This must be the first time I’ve seen Illuna so furious ever since Arraka told us about the sacred woods massacre, in the ogre stronghold. As Arraka stays completely silent, the world flickers around us once again, and I can feel myself fading in and out of existence several times in a row, before I get returned to the underground hallway, sweating harder than ever.

  “Are you going to just stay silent until we get erased from existence?!” Illuna shouts at Arraka again.

  “Shut up!” Arraka says, with a slight tremble of fear in her voice. “I’m trying to fix this, but I can’t do it if you keep distracting me. Just… give me a minute!”

  As we wait for Arraka to finish what she is doing, the world turns black and white one more time, but now it is flickering much more rapidly than before, and it feels like this time, my consciousness is going to get trapped into the void for good. Just when I am about to give up all hope, I suddenly get pulled back in my body, and the world around us comes back to normal, while both Flower and I are breathing very rapidly, and looking at each other, as we’re trying to make at least some sense of our situation.

  “Okay…” Arraka says, with a bit of panic still left in her voice. “This should be enough for now… We shouldn’t be getting any more interference.”

  “What do you mean this should be enough for now?” Illuna says. “Did you or did you not solve the problem?”

  “Yes!” Arraka says. “I think… I don’t know! I’ve never done anything like this before. I diverted the Magium’s attention away from us, by using some tricks that I learned from the God of Fate. I heard that he had to do a similar thing in the heat of the moment, when they tampered with the Magium to banish me from their realm. And given that they all managed to escape without being erased from existence, then so should we!”

  “You’re saying that you used an illusion to create a distraction?…” I say.

  “Well, if you really want to make a comparison, then it was more like a ridiculously complicated suggestion spell,” Arraka says. “Technically, it’s still searching for us, but in a completely different world. As long as I manage to keep my idiot mouth shut this time around, it shouldn’t be able to find us again.”

  “So you admit that you were an idiot, then?” Illuna says.

  “Yes!” Arraka shouts. “Yes, I admit it! Are you happy now? I was an idiot to try and challenge the Magium in its own territory. All of my thousands of years of knowledge are nearly useless, when faced with this world of contradictions and absurdities. Now let’s calm ourselves down, and finish doing what we originally came here to do. I no longer want to spend any more time in here than is absolutely necessary.”

  “Then how about bringing us to the actual start of the lessathi meeting?” I say. “We’ve been wasting enough time here as it is.”

  “Yes, I was just about to do that,” Arraka says.

  She then accelerates the time, until the last of the lessathi finally make their way into the hallway, to join their colleagues. Once everyone is assembled, the meeting finally begins.

  “You may all be wondering why we’ve called you here…” says a lessathi with gray hair and a long gray beard, who appears to be in his late fifties. “I will try to keep this brief. It has been brought to our attention that a few of you have been approached by a certain individual, offering to help you escape from our facility. As you all know, the rules state that if someone were to make such an offer, you would immediately be obligated to notify us about it. Unfortunately, not only has this rule not been followed properly, but there have also been a few cases where some children agreed to escape. Needless to say, we are very disappointed. Therefore, this meeting has been called for two main reasons.”

  The lessathi speaking now moves towards the hooded lessathi who is on his knees, and he stops right behind him.

  “The first reason is to punish the traitor who tried to help you escape,” the bearded lessathi says.

  He then grabs the head of the kneeling lessathi, with both hands, and he twists it to the side, breaking his neck in one motion, and killing him on the spot. As Kate sees the lifeless body of the lessathi caretaker drop to the ground, she almost lets out a gasp, but she quickly covers her mouth, to stifle the sound. Somewhere further away, towards the middle of the line of o
rphans, an eight year old version of Leila, with the same silver hair, is looking at the whole scene in front of her eyes, frozen in fear.

  “The second reason,” the bearded lessathi continues, “is to teach a lesson to all those who agreed to join this traitor in his escape plan. We already know who you are, but we will give you one last chance to prove that you are not a completely lost cause, by allowing you to turn yourselves in. Those who know that they’re guilty of having accepted the traitor’s offer are required to come here to our side, immediately. If you do as we ask, then your punishment will be less severe. If you try to fool us, however, then the penalty will be much, much worse…”

  After a few seconds of waiting, a six year old boy and a ten year old girl step slowly away from the line of orphans, and they go to join the lessathi in front of them. The girl has a very scared look on her face, and the boy is on the verge of breaking down into tears.

  “You have made a wise decision to come here,” the bearded lessathi says, as he puts his hands on both their shoulders. “Taking responsibility for your mistakes is an important step forward, towards your re-education. However, you are not the only ones who were ready to leave this place, together with the traitor. I am still waiting for them to turn themselves in. I assure you that it would not be in your best interest to keep me waiting for much longer…”

  As the whole room stays silent, I can see that Kate’s whole body is now shivering uncontrollably from fear, while she is hugging herself, with her arms, in a futile attempt to stop herself from trembling. After waiting for about ten more seconds, the lessathi shakes his head in disapproval.

  “I was hoping that it would not come to this…” the lessathi says. “Very well, then. If you insist on disobeying us even now, then I have no choice but to call your names myself. First of all, I would like to introduce to you the person who has played the most crucial role in allowing us to find all of the culprits. Olivia, will you please step forward?”

  “Yes, sir,” Olivia says, in a very timid voice, as she joins the lessathi, and then turns to face the other orphans.

  When she sees her friend, Olivia, joining her mortal enemies, Kate is momentarily frozen in shock, and immediately afterwards, her previous trembling gets a lot more violent.

  “Olivia has been secretly serving as our informant for quite a while,” the bearded lessathi says. “However, she hasn’t really produced many notable results until now. We’ve told her in the past that if she ever managed to make a significant contribution to our cause, then we would consider giving her a more important role in our organization, and with the help she’s provided to us today, she might just obtain that position. In short, your friend, Olivia, came to us today to warn us about the traitor, and also to warn us that there might be others, willing to join him. She then agreed to carry a transceiver with her, and to keep it open, so that we could hear her talking to the traitor, and to all of the children that said they wanted to join in on the escape plan. Since we already have all the proof we need, we will expect you to come quietly to the front, without posing any resistance, as soon as your names are called.”

  He then coughs loudly before he continues.

  “There are four names on our list,” the lessathi says. “William, Hannah, Lillian and Matthew. Please don’t waste any more of our time by pretending that you didn’t hear us call you. I think we all know what happens to those who openly try to disobey us…”

  The four orphans whose names were called are now all stepping forward, with their eyes looking at the ground. When they stop, in front of the lessathi, we see that they are all shaking in fear, but they are not saying a word.

  “Good,” the lessathi says. “Starting tomorrow, you will all be sent to room fifty-one, in order to commence your re-education process. Is that clear?”

  “No, please not fifty-one!” shouts a thirteen year old boy who is one of the four orphans that were called by the lessathi. “Anything but that! Have mercy, I beg you!”

  “Don’t make the mistake of assuming that you have any choice in the matter,” the bearded lessathi says. “Every single complaint that you make from now on will only add more time to the penalty for all four of you. Now tell me, do you have any more complaints?”

  “No, sir…” the boy says, in a voice that sounded like he was one step away from crying.

  “Splendid,” the lessathi says. “Now, then, Olivia, I would like to ask you one final question. Were there any other orphans who might have wanted to conspire with the traitor? Perhaps some of the children who you might have talked to before you came to us, to obtain the transceiver?”

  When she is asked the question, Olivia takes a very short glance towards Kate, out of instinct, but then she goes back to looking right in front of her.

  “No, sir…” Olivia says. “There was no one else.”

  “Very well,” the lessathi says. “Rest assured, you will be rewarded for your efforts. You may be a reject, but even for someone like you, there is a place in our organization, as long as you keep proving yourself useful.”

  “Yes…” Olivia says, in a very meek tone of voice. “That is all I’ve ever wanted. To be useful…”

  “Let us take these traitors to a temporary holding cell, until we make all the necessary arrangements,” the lessathi says, as he now addresses his colleagues. “Tomorrow, we will begin their re-education process.”

  “No!” Kate shouts loudly, all of a sudden. “You can’t take them with you! They did nothing wrong!”

  As I take a look at Kate, I see that she has finally managed to stop her trembling, and she now has a much more determined look on her face. Every single person in the room is now staring at Kate, as the bearded lessathi slowly approaches her.

  “What did you just say?…” the bearded lessathi says, calmly, as soon as he reaches her.

  “I said they did nothing wrong!” Kate says, with a somewhat shakier voice. “All they wanted was to escape this hellhole of a place. How can you blame them for wanting that?”

  “Strange…” the lessathi says. “I don’t remember you ever being brave enough to stand up to us before. In fact, I remember you as being both very timid, and obedient. Your aura seems different from how I remembered it as well. I wonder what could have happened, to cause such a great change in your personality… Perhaps we should try to dissect you and find out. You are a reject after all. It’s not like your death would be much of a loss to us.”

  “No, leave her alone!” Diane shouts, from the other side of the room, as a tear flows from her eye. “Don’t you dare touch her!”

  “What is this supposed to be?…” the bearded lessathi says, as he now turns towards Diane. “Some sort of rebellion? Do you think you’re going to receive special treatment, just because you’re one of our elite bodyguards? Or did you forget that you can’t cast any magic with that collar around your neck, unless we specifically allow you to do it?”

  He then goes closer to Diane, and he grabs her by the hair, in order to make sure that she looks straight into his eyes.

  “Do you think that you are beyond our reach, just because you routinely escort our great leaders?” the lessathi says. “Do you think you no longer have to worry about our punishments? Maybe we should send you to room fifty-one for re-education as well. I’m sure the leaders would not mind having a more obedient servant…”

  “What is the meaning of this?!” we hear a woman shout, as she is just now entering our hallway, and walking fast towards the bearded lessathi.

  The lessathi woman who shouted appears to be in her late thirties, with long brown hair and green eyes, and she is wearing a dark blue robe, just like every other lessathi in the room. She is being escorted by two lessathi men, who are both carrying weapons.

  “Lady Meridith…” the bearded lessathi says, as he immediately releases Diane. “I thought that you and our lord, Heksol, had already finished your inspection of the Beacon…”

  “Lord Heksol left early this morning,” Meridith s
ays. “But I still had some unfinished business here, so I chose to remain for a while longer. What were you doing just now, to my loyal bodyguard?”

  “Lady Meridith!” Diane says, in a shaky voice. “They were trying to kill her. They were trying to kill Kate! They said they wanted to dissect her, to find out why she stood up to them.”

  “Kate?…” Meridith says. “You mean your best friend from the Beacon that you once told me about?”

  “Allow me to explain, Lady Meridith!” the bearded lessathi says.

  He then points towards Kate, with pure hatred in his eyes.

  “This… reject, was trying to interfere with our process of re-education!” the lessathi says.

  “Re-education?…” Meridith asks.

  “Precisely!” the lessathi says. “Those four orphans that are standing over there have broken our rules, and they must be re-educated, so that they will no longer cause any problems. But this reject was trying to give us orders! She was telling us that we have no right to take the orphans away with us.”

  “What exactly is this… re-education process that you keep telling me about?” Meridith says.

  “The re-education process is an extreme measure that we take against those who are caught trying to break our rules more than once,” the lessathi says. “All of the rule breakers will be taken to a special room, and there they will be tortured, repeatedly, for the duration of a few months, until they will be made completely obedient. The brainwashing techniques that we use are of the highest quality, and they are meant to ensure that every ounce of free will is completely eradicated, while leaving their intellect intact, so they can still understand and follow our orders. The children that pass through the re-education process usually stop interacting with their peers altogether, and they rarely ever talk, unless they are directly asked a question by us. In other words, they become the perfect test subjects. Our re-education technique has been refined throughout the years, and we are very proud of the results it has given us, especially in the last few months.”