The raging sky boiled and frothed as a maelstrom of mana wreaked havoc outside the tall windows off of the mezzanine in the laboratory. The shadow of a haggard looking man reflected on the surface of the window. He seemed to be in his 30’s with long salt and pepper hair that covered most of his slightly pointed ears. The dark bags underneath his eyes, and a slight hunch under his dirty lab coat, showed the remnants of lack of sleep over the last several months. The unkempt stubble called for a razor and the dark look in his green eyes framed the stress he was under. Even with all this he would still be considered handsome.
He sighed, “Not much time left”.
Turning around, he quickly walked towards the stairs, passing hundreds upon hundreds of bookshelves filled to the brim with ancient leather bound books, tomes and scrolls. The work of over a 1000 years of collecting. Stalling at the top of the stairs for a second, he looked out at his life's work with a sense of loss. A massive lab filled with hundreds of instruments and contraptions he had built with his own hands stretched out before him, all had been used to help him get closer to his dream. At the center of the lab was a small fist-sized glowing orb of condensed mist bobbing slowly atop a podium. A fine rune script covered the entire podium, winding its way down into a magic circle nearly hundred feet in diameter.
“An entire lifetime of work to finally succeed, then to not even get to utilize it?” Shaking his head slightly, he made his way down the stairs and through the lab to the center. The magic circle was drawn out with a powdered crystal mixed with a thick red substance that gave off a subtle sense of power. Thousands of intricate symbols interweaved together, forming the majority of the circle. Placed in key points throughout the circle were at least 40 perfectly cut gems easily 3 feet in diameter.
He spent some time going over every detail to make sure everything was perfect. Once everything was verified, he took a deep breath to center his mind. Standing at the edge of the circle, he raised his hands and started the spell. Mumbling the spell under his breath, he started pouring mana into the magic circle. As it flowed through the symbols the entire circle started to glow and each gem lit up one by one. Once every gem was lit, the mana started to seep out of the gems then float into the air, creating an exact replica of the circle. As time went on, the replica started to spin faster and faster creating a vortex above the pedestal and orb.
Sweat dripped down his face as he concentrated on the difficult and untested spell. In the distance a loud crash from the mana storm thundered through the laboratory. His eyes snapped open with a look of absolute horror.
“No, no, no, nooo!!!”
A massive wave of mana blew through the lab causing things to go flying through the air and smash into the wall. The magic circle made of mana started to boil as the wave clashed with it. Then it exploded. A black maw-like crack opened up and swallowed everything before closing and leaving absolute silence in its wake.
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Standing on the top of the cliff face, Jake watched the sunrise come over the expansive forest. The morning dew covering the trees glistened as if made of precious gems. Mist twisted among the base of the trees, moving by unseen breezes and the passing of small animals. It was truly a breathtaking sight.
In his hand he held a small urn with care. This simple unmarked black urn held his father's remains. It fit his father, who had been a simple man. Taking a deep breath, he pulled the lid of the urn off and slowly poured out its contents over the side of the cliff into the morning breeze. His father's ashes danced in the wind as if they were happy to be free before they scattered across the forest below.
It was such a beautiful morning. His father would have loved it. The thought that he would never be able to hear his father’s corny jokes or that deep baritone laugh of his again was hard.
“I’m going to miss you…” whispered Jake.
He thought back to all the times that the two of them had spent together traveling to camp. They had traveled everywhere, camping, hiking and had even rock climbed. The outdoors were always something that he and his father had loved and enjoyed together.
The last time they had gone camping together was here on his father’s property, two years ago, after Jake had just gotten out of the Air Force.
They had been sitting up here looking at the valley on a morning just like this.
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Jake held his little metal camping mug out for his father to pour some hot tea out of the thermos for him.
“Thanks dad...I really needed this”
“It’s only tea, son. Not even the good kind, just some healthy crap that your mother packed for you,” he paused, receiving a look from Jack. “Okay fine! It’s for me.”
The two shared a laugh.“You know what I mean,” Jake said before taking a big drink of tea.
The taste of rancid mud infiltrated every inch of his mouth. He spat the mystery substance that was supposedly tea out with a face of complete disgust. His father bellowed out a deep baritone laugh and handed him a small flask.
“Here, this helps…..and yeah, I know what you mean.”
After a few moments of silence his father spoke up again.
“I don’t know what it is you saw or did over there, but I do know that your mother and I are proud of you. Also know that we will always be here for you if you need us. Not only that, but you can always come here to the property anytime you need to as well.”
“I know…. Thank you…..So, does mom really make you drink this….. Tea? If that is what it actually is.” Jake looked at his father with a smirk.
“Yeah unfortunately. She keeps nagging at me about my heart and health, but she just doesn’t seem to understand that I am a god of a man and I can’t die.” His father winked at him.
“Pfft. You better not let her hear that, she might try to prove you wrong.”
Laughing, they both took a sip of the tea and then almost simultaneously both spit it out.
"There isn’t enough liquor in the world to make this better.”