//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Her Misgivings // Story: Zodiac Brave Story // by Blankscape //------------------------------// Begin Chapter 3: Her Misgivings * * * The unwitting magus felt peaceful, knowing she was in a familiar space, her rightful vessel. But that tranquil moment ended abruptly when her senses came back in a rush, jostling her awake. She took a minute to collect herself, allowing the ringing in her ear to settle and her vision to stop spinning. This time, they were not lying in telling her she was on the ground. She felt the soft grass and thought it a pleasant thing to drift back into a deep and silent reprieve from the harsh reality once more as the smooth and verdant blades rustled around her. ‘That’s strange… Grass…. Instead of musty cobblestone?’ she thought to herself as she gripped the surface of the ground feeling something that shouldn’t be there. Turning to lie on her back, she confirmed it was indeed grass, slightly wet with dew. Her eyes opened up to a nighttime sky beyond a canopy of coniferous trees. ‘Am I in a forest?’ she thought again as she looked up in bewilderment and with a slight headache. The lack of illumination confused her for in its place was a gathering of strange cloud formations. They looked like clouds but they weren’t. They didn’t seem as airy and uplifting like usual clouds appeared. These ones looked condensed and twisted, almost like they were unnatural and resembling smog. She knew only incessant and constant canon fire, combustion spells of the grandest scale, or a small town’s worth of razed buildings could deposit large amounts of smog and soot into the sky enough to blot out both the stars and the moon. This did not bode well. If there were battles raging on nearby, the magus certainly wouldn’t like to get caught in the chaos and become a statistic. There were more important things that needed her attention, like what exactly just happened back at Midlight’s Deep. Thinking back to the incident, it made her shudder when she remembered the feeling of cold hard steel impaling her and the bloody gape it had left behind as well as the bruises that riddled her body. But something was amiss when she looked to check herself. There was neither a stain nor a smidge of crimson. Not even a blemish on her fair skin, as if she had never been harmed to begin with. Yet, further inspection underneath her clothes revealed that the gash, as well as her contusions, had been healed, so someone must have rescued her from those brigands back at the isle. ‘T’was no nightmare after all. Someone of great benevolence sought to fetch me from the brink,’ she thought to herself while getting up to stand, but not without great trouble. It felt as if she had gone a week without food or sleep, her pale and thin frame nearly depleted of energy as well as magick. ‘I should save that thought for some other time when I’m rested and have my bearings about me.’ “Meandering hither and thither when thou hast nary a notion to thy current whereabouts would be an unwise venture!” a rippling echo suddenly warned her, a voice which seemed to come from everywhere at once, startling the maiden out of her wits. “Show yourself!” she called out after getting a hold of herself. There was something familiar about this voice that seemed amicable and consoling. She waited for a response. “………..” But there was none nor was there anyone around to be seen. “Suit yourself. I’ll just flush you out from your sanctuary, then,” the magus whispered as she charged up her magick for the purpose of exposing the would-be assailant. She didn’t forget that she had been drained of magick prior to waking up, but that didn’t mean she could scrape a meager trickle for one very basic spell, one even a child cast. She tried to stir a sliver of magick, but there nothing within, nothing to manipulate or shape to her will. Three more times the magus attempted to gather and concentrate magick, but she still got the same fruitless result. Of course, she had no magick. The brigands did drain her of it all earlier, but it seemed something else was preventing her from managing even the most simple of spells. Off in the distance, she could hear the same voice suppressing mirthful chuckles. ‘Were it a ghast of malevolent intent, it could have done me harm when I had been more vulnerable. It’d be best to ignore the impish phantom and find civilization,’ she told herself in thought as she got up and started looking around, hoping to find a town as soon as possible. ‘And as for my magick, I’ll have time to sort that out once I’m sheltered and properly nourished.’ After wandering about aimlessly for about an hour or so, she found a dirt path that seemed to lead out of the forest. The amount of trees started to thin out as she approached the end of it. Off in the distance, she saw a light. The forest seemed to be cut in two, and its verdant and woody lush gave way to gravel as she ventured toward the light. Suddenly, the ground felt dense and uniform under her feet, having stepped on something metallic. Out of curiosity, she placed a hand to it and felt cold to her touch. It also seemed to be shaped into some sort of path. She had just barely inspected it when darkness suddenly became bright. The light had come to her, and the ground trembled in its stampede! Behind its glow was a large metal hulk of a carriage that ran towards her at alarming speed! A rush of adrenaline gave her energy and she leapt to the side, narrowly escaping the steel hull of the impending behemoth mere inches as it thundered down the metal track. Though out of danger, the sight of the monstrosity was enough to send the magus into a panic. She staggered back to the forest in a fright, unsure of what she saw. The maiden stumbled into a clearing and stopped running when there were no more trees to catch her fall. In the middle of the clearing ran a stream of clear water. and its refreshing sound had seemed to clear her headache. She thought that she could finally catch a break and rest her weary body. Unbeknownst to her, fate had something else in store. As she began to walk over to the small stream to sate her thirst, the pressure in the air began to prick at her skin, and the sky cleared to reveal an endless starry canvas and the pale full moon as some sort unworldly presence made itself known, catching her unawares. “Hast thou learnt what a foolish venture it be to disregard advice from scions, yet? Such pluck for even a youngling such as thee to tread unfamiliar ground at such a trying circumstance, if not foolhardy a choice.” The disembodied voice had returned. Choosing to remain silent in her surprise, the magus felt she was in the presence of something great and ageless yet familiar all the while. “Come forth to the mirror, youngling. For fear and uncertainty finds no welcome in my presence.” The stream running through the clearing started to glow at its command. The maiden complied, warily trudging to it in fatigue and apprehension. As soon as she made it to the edge and set her gaze upon it, she went slack-jawed. Reflected on the water was her face agape in awe and revere, not for her own haggard appearance, but for the invisible being that had made itself seen in the reflection. Behind her was large and vast serpent of an opulent obsidian hue. It was bound by numerous wards to an ornate looming arch that, despite its purpose, only seemed to amplify its magnificence. The magus thought starvation and exhaustion had finally got to her, and had conjured these voices and this apparition. Then, it spoke again. “Dreams and illusions be reserved for wanderers in slumber and souls in oblivion. Thou art neither of these, as well as I, neither dream nor illusion. What your eyes gaze upon beest genuine as the pang in thy belly or the warmth of thy baited breath.” Awestruck and speechless, she turned around to face the source of the echo. It truly was there in all its eminence and splendor and it had revealed itself to her. At the sight of the grand being, the magus knew exactly what it was. It was the being in the glyph, her guarantee. She wanted to skip about in joy of her discovery, for the esper that searched for and proven to exist. Now, her place in the esteemed Lesalian Magick Institute for Exceptional Prodigies was assured, and she could finally make her mother proud. But she kept a still silence, respecting of the deity so as not to displease it. Then, it spoke again, with the same voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once. “I say once more that fear and uncertainty finds no welcome in my presence. Speak thy mind now, youngling or forever be left in the dark,” The serpent said with an ethereal rasp in its voice. “…….” She chose to remain silent once more, out of fear this time, that her meager mortal mannerisms might miff the magnanimous deity who would smite her in its magnificently divine fury, if she did not show respect. “Dost mine grand and hallowed visage and exalted contenance intimidate thee to utter speechlessness, youngling?” the deity inquired inquisitively. The maiden barely nodded in response to affirm its suspicions. “One moment,” it said right after, and in a flash of bright light, the divine serpent was gone without a trace. It all seemed unreal, like she imagined the apparition out of thin air. The magus thought that it must have been the after-effects of the healing magick. Some spells tend to cause illusions, this almost always occurring when recipient is revived shortly before death. But the air was still stifling her breath, condensed with pressure as if reality was struggling to hold together in the presence of a god. Then, the pressure lightened up to a now bearable level and the stream began glowing brightly again. “Well, then. How does this fair to your liking? I find this facade to be a ways less intimidating than the usual opulent scales and godly mien, don’t you?” the disembodied voice spoke in a manner and sound almost human save for the rasp and ripple in it. Walking over to the pond, she was amazed to see the face of an amber eyed, young man dressed in similar blue robes, one at around her age, reflected on its surface standing left of her. She felt confused. ‘Am I talking to a scion or a mischievous trickster?’ she thought to herself as turned from the reflection to the young man beside her and stepped back in apprehension, wary of whatever scheme he may had planned, if he had any. “Is that how humes show gratitude to their savior nowadays? They’ve certainly fallen in their reverence for the divine,” the peculiar young man stated in a know-it-all manner. “Just who in High Heaven are you? Where am I? And what has become o-“ “Become of those knaves who dare desecrate my home and disturb my rest?” the young man interrupted in an intense and austere voice different from his earlier tone, a voice that only spoke truth. “They deserved their untimely demise, for they knew not their place in this world, much less before me.” She felt terrified of this being that looked to her with condescending eyes, knowing it had taken care of the five men that schemed against her with relative ease. Then, came the sudden return of her memory of that vast black abyss that crushed the sell-swords and dissipated their corpses into mist, which scared her immensely. Despite being exhausted, she tried to turn tail and run. But before she could even move, the young man held the top of her head to stop her. His touch was calming and soothing like that of an elder consoling an impatient youth. Then, another memory came back to her. The memory of the bright rays that banished Death and saved her from its cold clutches. Without a doubt, this was the very same being that had rescued her twice. And both these memories attested to the divine power of the deity that humbled himself before her. “What are you?” the magus asked anxiously. “I am the strongest to ever exist. They feared me and my potential greatly, and so kept me a child,” he began as he took his hand off her head, the air becoming even more stifling than before as he continued. “So indomitable is my strength that all things by me are twisted and pressed into nothingness. It was I who made basis the very laws of our realm, favoring your world's existence, as well as yours. So am I the Keeper of Precepts, whose authority is infallible and absolute.” When he finished, the pressure receded once more. “Serpentarius,” she soundlessly lipped to herself. “Is that the title I go by nowadays? I find it suits me much more than the last, though I've not the slightest of what it was,” he responded in nonchalance, surprising and confusing the maiden with a change of expression and demeanor. Realizing that being of equal strength to a god stood before her, she began to lay herself prostrate on the ground as if praying for his mercy for when she had been disrespectful. But the deity in human form stopped her halfway. “B.. But, but you are a god! A being of immense and awesome power! I cannot be brought to your level for my rightful place be beneath the very ground you tread!” she fearfully said in her half kneel, her head in a low bow to show respect and avoid eye contact. He brought her up and said “I care not for worshippers or sacrifice, for such trivialities are unnecessary. What I require now the most is a friend. Was that not your intent upon deciding to study your find? To befriend the being chained by glyph?” He held his hand out to greet her. She wondered for a second how exactly did he find that out. ‘Oh… Of course, it is well within the capabilities of a deity to ascertain the intents of mere mortals, as well as many other things such as omniscience.....’ She thought of other things an entity such as him might be capable of, forgetting him for awhile as her face became contorted by great curiosity and losing herself in a brief mental tangent. This was what interested the god-being so, this character that piqued his fancy. Most mortal men would come to him seeking power, the kind great enough to tear lands asunder and annihilate legions in a single blow. A righteous heretic, who, not too long ago, had defeated him in combat, only sought his aid to cleanse the land pure and make correct the mistakes of the selfish few, nothing more. Even his fellow scions thought themselves past and superior to ideas such as love and friendship. Not once had he been considered a being that could be befriended. That is what made this unassuming maiden different, what separated her from the rest. Her innocent naivety. Now with his first friend in sight, he would not let this mortal drown herself in the mindless worship and unfound fear of unknowns that he had come to expect of others like her. “What’s wrong? Mog got your tongue?” the entity with a now mortal visage said in an openly amicable tone. The magus cringed that she had actually made the immortal being wait on her, a deity no less! But she didn’t notice his shift in demeanor. “A- a thousand pardons, your Grace. Contemplation had me better than myself and I veered to a tangent in thought. It is my hope a bow in reverence will suffice, lest a miracle come and grant me a gift to offer thee, for I have none at the moment,” she said, again in a low bow to avoid eye contact, for she thought herself less than worthy to stand before him. Nearly half a minute passed by in silence as she waited in vain for his reply. So, when she took a quick glance up, he had an unamused look about him. She thought back for a moment, and then it came back to her. “Oh! A pardon for forgetting myself again and the words you had just spoken. It never occurred to me that I would befriend a being such as yourself.” He was happy with her change of tone and that she took the hint to stop being so formal. “Now with the misgivings put to rest, let us start with introductions. And as the higher power, etiquette dictates that I begin, though the title I go by is known to you already, correct?” “Yes, I do, your Grace, so I shall give you mine in return. My given name is… is…is….” Her headache had come back with a vengeance as she tried to recall her name. “This is strange.. And embarrassing… I can’t…can’t seem to recall my own name!” she said distressingly, her right hand clutching her head and the left in a pounding motion. “I know but I can’t seem to reach it. I-I apologize for my incompetence, your Grace.” “Honorifics are unnecessary, and your incompetence is not the reason you forget yourself,” he said all-knowingly. “Um.. I.. beg your pardon?” “The Laws of this realm are to blame for it is the price they have exacted upon you,” the young man started to explain, pacing back and forth. “One does not simply go about traveling dimension all willy-nilly. Though, they be different, each world be governed by a similar set of precepts and principles. A common misconception mortals hold over my abilities is that I have the power to fashion these very Laws. To the contrary, I haven’t the power to do so, I merely discover them.” He glanced to her briefly to check if she had paid attention which she did. “But you-“ Her query was abruptly cut by his response. “Hehe, one of my faults. The word ‘made’ vastly inspires more awe than ‘discover’, don’t you think so too? The ‘gods’ themselves, in fact, are beings far from perfection as well,” he said with a sheepish smirk. “Now, returning to the topic at hand, recent findings lead me to conclude that these Laws of the realm exacts a price upon each and every individual who take part in interdimensional travel. The Laws do not take kindly to beings who disregard them.” “Another dimension!?” she almost shouted. “ And- and the toll I have paid for my interloping is my name?” the magus said, seeming unconvinced. Then again, she was talking to the Keeper of Precepts, so who was she to doubt him? But still, this was all too much to take in one sitting. She had plans for her life and to her, and this strange twist of fate was ways more impeding than the any setback hardship had thrown at her in the past. ‘What of the Institute? Of my career and my bright future? Were all my strivings simply for naught? How will mother fair without me?’ she deprecatingly wondered to herself, trying to hide her shock as she questioned him further. “Does that not seem too light a consequence for an offense as grave as this, your Grace? And what of you? Surely, these Laws have not the authority to enact penalty upon you?” He sighed in slight annoyance, seeing she had stopped all formalities but the titles and then responded. “Even I, in your words, a being of immense and awesome power cannot bend them to my will. Do not forget in my mentioning that I only discover these Laws, not fashion them. And even now, I am still not privy to what payment they have demanded of me,” the god-being said with a hint of uncertainty, to the contrary of his earlier statement. “Mayhap some be taken over time, which may very well be in our particular case, this being my very first experience in another dimension.” 'Your first!?' she exclaimed in thought. His last statement had the maiden confused even further. “But your Grace! Was it not by your doing that we are thrust to this strange land?” “Oh.. That little squall earlier? That was just a tantrum…. albeit one capable of bending time and space, hehe. But nothing beyond the Laws themselves, mind you! Should it happen, they obviously condone it as well.” he said jokingly with a chuckle. “I myself do not take well to such disturbances especially by those belligerent riffraff and the atrocities they committed in my presence, all for want of common coin. Just deserts, I say!” A disgusted scowl formed on his face as he recalled the event. “But-“ “And with regards to your situation, it only felt right in my being that I only undo their misdeed and restore you to life, so please feel free to shower me in your gratuitous praise anytime,” he finished haughtily. “Your Gra-“ She didn’t finish that sentence when he shot her another unamused glare.“Oh, the hono- er, titles… Yes, dropping them.” “Continue, youngling.” “If it be well within your power to bring us both to another world, shouldn’t the same apply to the reverse?” “Well, yes, it should.” “It should?” she was still unconvinced. “ Lest of the Laws of this particular realm anathematize the use of magick, which unfortunately for us is very much an undeniable fact as evidenced by your most recent demonstration of magickal prowess as well as considering this little parlor trick here be the most I can manage. Any other form of magick aside from my own seems inaccessible,” he finished his statement matter-of-factly. She would have wondered how a transformation from a godly serpentine visage to that of humble human mortal would qualify as a parlor trick if it weren’t for the gravity in the words he spoke. She couldn’t use magick, and more or less, neither could he. She was trapped in a strange land with almost no chance of returning home, stuck with an unhelpful, if not insensible, immortal being no less. To her, being trapped here was as good as abandoning her responsibilities and everything that she built up to this point. There was no going back and here, in this strange land, she had nothing. Again, it was just all too much for her to take in one sitting. She knew this esper was her only credible source of knowledge and that benevolent deities never likely tend to lie. There was no denying it, and in her inability to see the silver lining, she started to fall into despair again, just as she did back at Death’s domain. She just couldn’t help it anymore, and broke down into tears. The deity in human form had predicted this reaction, and after an hour's worth of sobs, readied consoling words to reverse the mood. He placed a hand on her back then held her chin up as he sincerely conveyed his response.“It’s as you mortals say, youngling. We drift afloat on one boat, am I right? I myself do not savor the idea of lingering in a world where the Laws themselves tax me for mere existence, for I too wish to return back to whence we came." Holding her chin up to gaze in her eyes, he made a genuine, heartfelt promise. "No matter how long till we see this through, I shall offer all in my knowledge and ability to endeavor to that end. This I swear to you, my first friend.” She had judged him too quickly. This esper was honestly willing to help her, and the mere thought, that a deity would oblige himself to her cause, gave her hope that she could return home and see her mother again. “The correct term is ‘on the same boat,’ you silly serpent," she replied while she wiped the tears off her face, "and I greatly appreciate you lifting my spirits. Thank you.” “You’re welcome, milady,” he replied as he jokingly bowed in a chivalrous manner with a hand outstretched to help her up, making her cheeks flush red. “Well now, seeing as you’ve your emotions sorted out, let’s resume introductions shall we?” “Let’s...... Then again, how can I? I can’t seem to recall my own name after all,” she pointed out. "That and the fact the title ‘Serpentarius’ ill-suits an august and dapper face such as this in consideration, why not we assigned ourselves new names?” he suggested. “I see no reason to object,” she said, giggling at his self flattery. After giving each other a moment to pick out names, they turned to resume their introductions.“Then I shall begin..... Ahem…. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, my fair maiden. My name is Zacheus, but you may call me Zach for short,” the young man, now named Zach, said chivalrously as he bowed again, following up with a wink. “Likewise, I’m certain, Zacheus. My name is Parnella, and it shall be my pleasure to adventure about in this strange land with you,” she replied with a smile, deciding to finish her introduction with a bow in kind. It relieved her greatly that she was now in the good company of a selfless esper who had pledged to her his assistance in this difficult journey to home. But in spite of this respite from the hopeless circumstance she had haplessly stumbled into, this small comfort could not allay the effects of fatigue and magickal depletion. As soon as she had reached the bottom of her curtsy, Parnella lost consciousness and predictably fell into the young man’s waiting arms. The deity in human form sat silently in thought with the maiden sleeping soundly in his embrace. As the nearby stream of cool spring water continued its tireless cascade through the clearing, the sun began to peek out from behind the horizon, signaling the beginning of a new day. Zach looked to the dawning sky, wondering what the Laws of this realm had in store for him and his companion. How long would they be stuck here before they could return home? What challenges would they face along the way? And what exactly did he pay for his arrival into this world? He did not know. He could only wait for these question to be explained in due time. * * * End Chapter 3: Her Misgivings __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________