When I opened my eyes, I was greeted with a familiar empty darkness. Standing in the Axis of the Inner Collective Consciousness, I looked around seeing the absence of anything. I felt no pain nor exhaustion only the cold chill of the space. I looked down to see I was still missing my arm and no electricity sparking off of me. I was in my tattered clothes, but I was no longer bleeding or gasping for air. I did not see or feel any burns on me, but I could still feel the scars in my mind. 

“Why am I here?” I asked, only to be met with silence. Still rattled by the fire, by the primal fear, I lost my temper and yelled into the void. “I AM NOT IN THE MOOD FOR GAMES! I'VE LOST MY ARM AND KILLED MY BEST FRIEND! SHOW YOURSELF, LADY OF DREAMS!” As I yelled the words the realization of what I had done hit me. “I killed my best friend. He turned into a monster, and I sliced him in half with lightning.” I fell to my knees and started to cry having finally had the opportunity to process the madness I was forced to participate in. 

Tears ran down my face, I took the life of another person, of a friend. Everything Tyrone could have done or could have been, was now only fantasy. I felt sorrow as I realized the pain and suffering, I have inflicted onto his family. They will never see their son again. He will never walk through their door or help change the tires on one of the cars. They will never be able to see his smile or hear his laugh. I sobbed in anguish, knowing the life and legacy of a truly kind soul has ended. A person that would without a moment of hesitation would have helped a stranger in any way he could. He was my first friend, no something more, something I'll never be able to find out fully. “WHAT HAVE I DONE?” I screamed with despair into the endless void as I continued to sob over the monster I had killed and the monster I had become. 

“You did what was necessary and nothing less.” I heard a familiar voice say in front of me. I raised my head to see The Lady of Dreams and two other figures on either side. The first person was a very old woman wearing a yellow dress from the Elizabethan era. I couldn't make out the woman's facial features, as a strange miniature ball of yellow light, sticking out of the orb was the tops of a golden crown with blue, purple and yellow gems adoring the top was blocking my view. She was holding a golden scepter topped by a stylized two-dimensional sun with a emerald in the center. 

The second person was made of a strange blue opaque energy. He looked like a nineteen twenties detective. His attire was a trench coat, two-dimensional tie, dark pants, as well as a fedora. This hid all facial features except for his eyes which stared at me calmly and sympathetically. I stood up and wiped the tears of my eyes and nervously waited for one of them to say something, anything. 

“Hello Dearie, it's nice to finally meet you. Although I do wish it could be under better circumstances," the old woman, who I assumed was the “Sovereign Yellow” said. 

“Um, it's nice to meet you too, I guess.” I said awkwardly, still not there from my meltdown. “Sorry about my outburst. I'm still a bit shaken from the… everything.” 

“Ink don't worry, you do not need to explain your actions to us, especially not for that. There have been others burnt by the purple flame. In all honesty, you had some of the worst of it and still had the best reaction to it I've seen. And to answer your earlier question, we want you to seal away the book so nothing like that happens again. I know we said we could do it ourselves, but unfortunately we will still need a little help from you. I am sorry for that.” The lady of dreams tried to reassure me. 

“Will I have to kill Guams? Because I really don't want to have to kill another friend tonight.” 

“No, no dear,” the old woman spoke. “You misunderstand, you only need to recite a spell. No more dreadful killing and if you agree to cast the spell, I would be very willing to use my magic to heal you and your friends many, many cuts and burns.” She explained as a strange spectral bubble appeared next to the Lady of Dreams that displayed an image of my charred and bleeding body lying on the table of Alex's garage with everyone freaking out trying to figure out what to do, based on the “view” I guessed this was from Tulip’s perspective.

“You don't need to worry about killing your friends because I am still able to see inside Antonio and Guams’ memories, it means the Accession was not able to go into effect and they can be saved.” The lady explained.

“Wait, what do you mean by the Accession?” 

“Wait dearie, what do you mean, “What is the Accession?” Any mage worth their salt knows wha—He never taught him.” The Lady interrupted. 

“What do you mean he never taught him?" The old woman asked befuddled. 

“I have already talked to him at length about it and he was adamant about not wanting to get him involved.” The lady groaned pinching the bridge of her nose

Hearing this the Sovereign Yellow turned to the blue detective and pointed at him. “You are so lucky you're leaving the country, because the next time I'm in town I'm gonna throw you through a wall.” The blue detective, who I assumed was the Guardian, just stared at Sovereign Yellow. Which seemed to serve as communication since she continued to berate the strange man. The Lady watched in annoyance, at the sight before her. I walked over to her not wanting to get in the middle of that and asked. “I'm sorry but what is the Accession you mentioned?” 

“It's actually fairly simple, some magic items out there, fifteen to be precise are what we in the know call Lineage items. A couple thousand or so years ago, they were corrupted by an ancient royal family to gain the power of immortality. It works by first corrupting the user's mind, until they become a strange fusion between the users and whichever member of the royal family, they get stuck with, eventually gaining that royal family's ambitions.” 

“What are the members of the royal family and what are their ambitions?” 

“There are four. The first is the king who possesses the ambition to rule."

“That's the one who corrupted Tyrone?” 

“Exactly. The second one is the ambition to fill the world with smiles that belong to the Jester. That one tried to corrupt your friend Guams.” 

“Wait a Jester, I thought you said royal family, that sounds like a royal court?” 

“Well, it's easier to say the royal family, than to say the royal family plus the jester. Anyways there's the ambition to be the strongest in the world, is the prince who we believe was the one trying to corrupt Antonio, given his extremely aggressive behavior. And finally, the ambition to be loved by all, which belongs to the Queen. Any questions?”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

 “Yeah, why did Tyrone turn into a monster? Was that real or did I just lose so much blood I started to hallucinate?” 

“No that was real, the Accession was completed, both his mind and body was corrupted by the tome. His mind was corrupted by royal ambition, while their body was corrupted and twisted by his wish.” 

“Wait there, wish?” 

“Yes, their wish. A lineage item grants the victim’s deepest desire, turning their body into an embodiment of it, we don't why it's just how that old magic works.” 

“What was Tyrone’s?” 

“Ink, you don't want to know that.” 

“No, I've known the guy for years. I want to know what he could have possibly wished for, to end up turning into that.” She looked at me for a moment with deep sadness until she eventually relented. 

“... it was to be able to talk to you again.” I stayed silent, the answer hitting me like a bag of bricks. It left me with only a single thought in my mind. 

“How much of what this was my fault?” 

“You shouldn’t think like that. I am The Lady of Dreams, a scholar of thoughts. If there is one thing, I know from scouring through the minds of thousands it is there is never any one reason for anything happening. There was no single reason for why you came to Canada. There was no single reason why we decided to seek you out. There is no single reason why someone decides to eat a pizza instead of a sandwich. Every choice we make no matter how small or how big it is, has hundreds of influences leading up to them. So yes, even though you had an impact on the decisions that led them to that point, it was nothing compared to when you look at it from a greater scale.” Not believing the lady of dreams words but just wanting to leave so I can grieve in piece.

 “Ok what do I have to do to seal the book.” 

“It’s easy, simply touch the book and recite the spell, he will tell you the spell once he is done.” She glared at the two who seemed to be yelling at each other despite no sound coming out of the Guardian's mouth. Hearing the Lady’s annoyance, the two masters of magic stopped their fighting, turned and started to walk towards me.  “Now, before we send you back this will probably be the last time, we ever talk to each other. If there is anything you would like to ask me or Sovereign Yellow, this would be the time. No need to bother with asking the Guardian.” 

“Yeah, how is this not blackmail?” 

“What?” 

“Pardon me?” The Sovereign Yellow gasped taking great offense.

“Like, how is it not blackmail to tell me that you'll only heal my life-threatening injuries if I seal away the book?” 

“No, no, no dear you misunderstand. We're just offering you the chance to accelerate the healing process with magic.”

“No, you're right, it's essentially blackmail" The Lady said, causing the Guardian to double over on the ground, in what I think was laughing although it was hard to tell as no sound came out of his mouth. 

“You two are the exact same,” the old lady croaked. “But there is one more term that you and your friends will need to follow regardless of whether or not you accept the deal.”

“What’s the term?” 

“To never cast a spell or use your magic items again.” The Lady of Dreams answered.

“Fine all magic has ever done is hurt me anyways but was my lighting real or just some kind of weird hallucination?” 

“No, no it was real alright, surprised the hell out of us, we did not think Orange magic is what you were attuned to, I guess the signs were always there tho. Personally, I had my money on blue magic, I mean I think we all did. Basically, everyone has the potential to use magic. The magic comes in different colours and those colours manifest in different ways. Depending on the colour, magic will do different things, like Green is animation, while Orange is the wild, nature and plants, stuff like that. And although everyone has magic in them, most can't use it. Unless their parents have already done it, through one of two ways. Either by using a Lantern or with enough repeated exposure to a magic item. Like your friend Guams and Antonio, who would now be considered First-Generation Mages. When a First-Generation Mage has a child, their children become a Second-Generation Mage. They can more easily activate their magic; however, it is random which colour they are able to use. Second Generation Mages are also the only kind of mages that have Shimmer Sense. 

“Wait, doesn't Antonio have Shimmer Sense? Does that mean he’s a Second-Generation mage?” 

“Yes, his mother was a First-Generation Mage. However, due to circumstances I will not reveal out of respect for her. But I will say she erased all her memories of magic, the life it involves and removed the ability for her to remember anything more about magic. That is all I can say about the matter. Antonio never casted his own magic because he never met the requirement to unlock his powers, theoretically he has a different colour that comes naturally to him, but right now he's just able to use Nature's Pandemonium power.” 

“Wait, how did I activate mine? Did I activate it when I lost my arm? Does everyone activate it when they lose a limb?” 

“What? No, the world would be a lot more aware of magic if that was the case. Then anyone could tell almost immediately if someone was a mage or not. Second generation mages like you activate their magic in a specific way. When they feel an emotion strongly enough, it sparks some kind of desire for change. It's hard for us to pinpoint the exact moment you activated your magic there's a good chance that if you looked back at various moments in your life you would notice other instances of you using magic, that you might've just written off as something else.” 

“Well, that explains a lot, and gives me even more questions. I don't need to think about those right now. If this is the collection of all memories and dreams, is it possible for you to erase the surviving cops and any bystanders’ memories of the magic that happened tonight?” 

“Of course, we were planning on doing that anyways. The last thing we want is for you and your friends to get arrested.”

“Thank you. I guess my only other question then would be, what's the spell?” 

“You'll have to ask him that.” 

“Ok” I turned towards The Guardian. “What's the spell?” 

When he spoke, his voice rumbled like waves rolling onto shore. “It's quite simple, channel your rage, your despair, your dreams and your fears, place your hand on the book and simply say…” 

“Huh, it's really that simple?” He nodded and I looked into his eyes, his crystal blue eyes. For some reason his gaze felt familiar to me, although I couldn't place my finger on it. 

“Are you ready to go back now dear?” The woman in yellow spoke.

“Almost I just have one question. Why me? Why couldn't any of you do this? Why did I have to be the one to stop him?”

The Guardian looked down sadly and spoke. “Two reasons. First, we were on damage control, there are several treaties in place to prevent any magic user from casting a spell in Canada. When Tyrone and his friends robbed the convenience store, it broke that treaty. Angering The Bleachers and The Restorers, not to mention sending The Dynasty into a frenzy. And two no one we are aligned with has both the ability to teleport and the strength necessary to stop the Accession. I am truly sorry that the burden of sealing the book has fallen to you. If I had it my way you would still be completely ignorant of magic, and the misfortune that often comes with it. Unfortunately, fate is fate, never ending and inevitable. You were the only Second-Generation mage in Canada we could contact that wasn't already partway through the Accession.” 

“Goodbye and… thank you, I think.” They looked at me with a melancholy expression on their faces. 

“I’m sorry Ink. I truly am for everything we have put you through. Hopefully this will be the end of it.” The Lady of Dreams explained, before I awoke once more lying on a table in Alex's garage.