Chapter 10 - A sea of shadows

What? I’d swear it was an hallway this door opened onto, not a room? Recovering from their surprise, the other Claimants entered the room after Lysandre. “How did you do that? Opening the door?” It was Louisa. “I just said all aloud what was written on it. In Demonic, I mean.” “You can read that?” It was the turn of Assane to ask a question. “Yes she does, and that’s why I asked her not to translate it.” Answered Sylas in place of Lysandre. “But we will not talk about it. What we will talk about is the sentence Lysandre translate. Has anyone actually listened to what she said?” They started fidgeting, it’s strange to see someone old enough to be my father fidgeting, really, but Ella started speaking. “Knowledge is power, competition is evolution, cooperation is survival. Wasn’t it?”

“Ha! So someone was paying attention, at least. Knowledge is power, because without knowledge you can’t make enlightened choice, you can’t create the tools you need, you can’t answers the questions you have. Competition is evolution because, to stay at the top, you need to be an innovator, an explorator, a creator. If you’re stale, you’re dead. Cooperation is survival because th world is big, way bigger than you can imagine, and our ennemies are innumerables. United, we are strong, divided, we are prey. Keep that in your mind. Every people around you is a competitor, so you can surpass yourself but, first of all, they’re the thread that keep you alife. That’s our Motto. Keep it in mind, or you could quickly be quicked out of the Cell, or you could even die. Understood?” “Yes!” They had answered as one. “Good. Please, take a seat. You will now have to wait a bit before the next test will start. I can’t say anything about it, but that you will have to face it alone.” “B-but you just said to us that cooperation was survival?” Thomas seemed bewildered. “That’s true, but you won’t be able to face everything together. Some things are just ment to be faced alone. I’ll let the door open. If anyone want to quit now, he or she can by going in the elevator, just like before. This time, it’s really your last chance to go away from us.” He walked toward a wall. “I’ll see you soon, I hope.” And he disappeared, diving into the wall. Everyone stared at the point Sylas melted with the wood, or the stone. I can’t see what material the wall is build with, until Ella went to sit on one of the chairs. “So, why are you guys here?” Her casual tone was contrasted her focused, scalpel-like gaze. “Well…” Seeing that no one was starting, Thomas took the lead. “My wife, she was… acting strangely. She had been for quite some time, but recently it had become unberable. She was jealous and paranoid. I tried everything, talking, seeing if she wasn’t pressured by her job, going with her to a psychologist. Nothing worked, and she was getting worse. So, hopeless, I went to a strange shop, like some kind of witchdoctor. I was truly desparate to try that. She said to me that my wife’s sickness could have been linked to some kind of… demon, or bad spirit, or something. She gave me a necklass, and a crystal dagger. Cost me quite a bit, too. So I got back and I gave my wife the necklass, and suddenly, some kind of… tumoral monstruoisity appeared on her. I knew it could happen, but I was still surprised, nearly too much to use the dagger. She went mad and tried to attack me, but I stabbed the tumoral thingy. She woke up moments later, with big chuncks of last few weeks memories lost, but without her sickness. Some time later, I was contacted by a man who made me an offert, about all this.” He swept the room with one hand, showing it. “That’s it. I don’t really know more. You?” He asked Ella back.

“I found an old book in our family library. I was always the curious kind so, when I swa what was in it, I couldn’t wait to try it. So yeah, Alchemy is real, and quite dangerous too. I nearly killed myself creating some kind of slime monster or something. After that, same as you.” She looked at the three other and Louisa shrugged. “We have a… I don’t know, I think it’s some kind of fairy or something? Well, we have that in our garden.” The other looked at her, not persuaded. “My garden is very very, veeeeery big, and I found him when I was little. Years passed and recently I made a pact with him. I really wanted, and I stil really want, to do magic, so he gave me a book and some magic. After that, well, you already know. Offert blablabla…” Silence followed. “Well, and you two?” Asked Thomas to Lysandre and Assane. “I… don’t really want to talk about it…” Answered the girl, clutching her right hand. “Me too.” Like the girl, he seemed to have lived through some traumatic experience. “Come on, we did it, can’t you?” Assane didn’t say anything else, but Lysandre couldn’t bear the untold pressure they were putting on her. That’s why I like being alone. “Do you remember the terrorist attack, last wednesday?” Everyone noded, some with a frown. “Well, it wasn’t terrorist. An Angel and a Demon fought there, killing and wounding everyone. I was caught in between, and barely survived.” She turned green, thinking about the blood, the innards flying everywhere, the screams. Stay calm! The voice snapped her out of her shellshock trance. “Now I can read Demonic, and see demons, too. Thomas, what you described, I see it non-stop on people, some I know, some I don’t. So one night I was taken here, and it was said to me that I would be participating in this trial to join the Cell.” She tried to smile but failed to brighten her eyes. Her inside felt bad, hurtful, her hand and head burning. One moment she was in pain, another it was gone, and she was just sitting here, talking to strangers. “So yeah…” She scratched her head. “...let’s not talk about it, please.” “I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t, know…” Started Thomas. “No please. Just don’t talk about it, I’m still trying to figue it on my own.” After that, the room stayed silent, as Assane didn’t want to talk about his own experience.

Time passed, maybe half an hour, Lysandre reading on her tablet, looking at the time every two second, worrying if she would make it home on time. “Hey, what’s happening?” Asked Louisa all aloud. Lysandre took her eyes of her tablet and her gaze fell on pure darkness. The walls weren’t there anymore, nor the ceiling, only a seemingly unending black emptiness. Shadows. It’s shadows. She could feel it, deep in her throat. It was a land of shadows. The other were already up but stared anxiously at the vast darkness. Unbeknownst to her, she had got closer to it, going as far as… touching it. Shadows flowed like water between her fingers. She didn’t know why, but it put a smile on her face. She started walking on it, deeper and deeper. “Hey kid, what are you doing? Lysandre? Lysandre!” Screamed Thomas behind her, shortly joined by Ella, but the Shadows around her were too fascinating.

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***

Fuck. “Lysandre!” Screamed Ella again, but she couldn’t even see the girl anymore. Fuck fuck fuck! She didn’t know why, but she liked the young girl, quite a lot. Hope it’s not your big sister instinct that’s awakening now, would be quite the bad timing. She was, in normal time, a relatively rationnal person, trying to make choice based not on her emotions, but on facts and logic. However, when it came to children, she couldn’t be so assertive. She had a little brother and a little sister, and she cared deeply for them. But now is not the time to care. She looked one last time toward the way Lysandre disappeared, then turned back to face the others. “We can’t do anything about her, it’s already too late. We should focus on us now.” Thomas hesitated but gave an aknowlegment nod in the end. “Isn’t this the test the guardian, Sylas, told us we would face?” They took time to think about it, some more minutes stretching the long silence. Finaly. “I think that we need to… go into it. Alone, because Sylas said so. I don’t know if it’s dnagerous or not, but I wouldn’t go against the word of that old man, personally.” Assane argued. “I don’t know. Their Motto is also that cooperation is survival, so…” Countered Ella. “Well, you do as you want, but I’m going in.” Assane started walking toward the sea of shadows under the look of the others, disappearing as quickly as Lysandre did. I’ve a bad feeling about that… “And you two, what do you think?” “I think you’re right.” Answer Thomas after another moment of reflection. “So, should we go in together?” “I-I don’t know… why are you all following what Lysandre did? For all we know, we need to stay here to pass the test, not go into this... thing. I’ll stay here, you two go ahead if you want.” She went back sitting, she as a point but, I don’t know. I’ve a bad feeling about this, and Thomas looked at Ella. “Well, let’s go then.” She simply said, and he followed calmly.”

***

The horizon was a thin luminous line in the distance. Under her feets, shadows rippled like a pond in which a peddle had been thrown. The sky was strange, dark but also oddly… bright, as if light was highlighting the outlines of the shadows. All in all, it was really peaceful. This place is… lovely. She didn’t know why she felt that way. This place would have giving the creeps to most of the people she knew, yet… it’s just… nice to be here. She lost track of the time. At one point she stopped to sat cross-legged. She dreamt…

***

Pain exploded in every part of her body. Her eyes opened and she tried to move, but the pain became unbearable and she fell back in the bed. This odor… an hospital, again. Again? Her memories were scrambled, foggy. “My god! You’re awake!” Tears could be felt in this voice, her mother’s voice. “Mom?” “Yes Glimmer, I’m here.” “Mom, what’s happening?” At first, silence answered her question. “You don’t remember, Glimmer?” What’s happening? “No mom! What’s happening?” She started panicking. “Hush hush, I’m here… I’m here…” She was rocked by her mother’s voice till she was a little bit more peaceful. “You’ve been admitted to the hospital two days ago. You’ve been recovering since then.” Something emerged from her memories. “It’s because of the terrorist attack?” Shock bloomed on the face of her mom. “What mom?” “T-that was more than a month ago, Glimmer.” “What? What’s the date? Mom, what’s the date!” “ Third of July. You had an heart attack two days ago…” “I-I don’t remember anything from the last month and half…” She raised her hand. Red, the skin was all read. The poison. No. No no no! I’ve two months left to find a cure! I don’t want to die. She suddenly started to convulse and her cardiac monitor went mad. Her mom screamed but she couldn’t hear what she said. I don’t want to die! I don’t want! Fear started floding everything until… Stay calm I said! Please! This is an illusion, stay calm and I’ll free you! This was the voice of.. of her… Grimoire. Yes, my grimoire. Memories snapped back in place and what was happening to her became clear. She curled up in a ball and tried to calm herself, but the pain and seizure weren’t letting her. Fight your fear back! I try! Fear of death was storming her mind, fueled by the illusion…

“CRACK!” The illusion started to break down like a mirror. Everything turned into shadows and went back to the dark sea. She was back, cross-legged. Her heart was racing and her eyes full of tears. What was that! Rage and fear in equal amount filled her thought. It’s a ‘Mirrors of Fears’ spell, althought a toned down version. The original is a Minister-class Mind and Shadow spell. It draw the deepest fears out of the target and use them to either kill them or drive them mad. This one was designed to be more like a… A test, maybe? Exaclty, that’s it. A test. A non-lethal version of the Mirrors.

***

“How are they doing?” Asked Sylas. “So far? Fine. Heck, your protégé literally threw herself in it when she realized it was there. I wouldn’t be surprised if she just pierced through it right now.” Answered the Adept in charge of the Spell. “Piercing through it?” “Yeah, look at the way Shadows arrange themselves around her. It’s like she’s naturaly drawing them to her.” Interesting. Another shadow wizard, and maybe even more powerful than Pierre… Maybe this could be good to settle him down a bit.