Lightning flew through the sky as typhoons and tsunamis spread across the land. Great gouts of flame and crumbling rock crashed down upon the sides of mountainous creatures as beams of white light and tendrils of pure black shadows coiled around the gigantic beasts of warped flesh, bone, blood, and rot. Forests and jungles whipped their branches back and forth to lash at these foul demons, even as the ghostly wails of a thousand noisy spirits cried out in righteous anger.
Nine great beings, composed of different elements; earth, water, wind, fire, light, shadow, wood, spirits, and lightning, drifted through the sky as they gazed down upon the shattered and broken world that lay beneath them. Nine other beings, bestial and eldritch in nature, composed of warped flesh and twisted skin and sinew glared up at the ancient elemental entities that stood above them.
A stalemate had been reached. The Ancients could not strike down the beasts that spread across the land, but the Brooding creatures could not reach the Elementals that stand just outside their reach. As the standoff continued, and the world around them crumbled, a tenth figure appeared. Its body was shaped like a cloaked human composed of blank space filled with a myriad of stars and nebulae. Galaxies took the place of this figure’s eyes, and all whose gaze turned towards it filled with a sense of awe, and dread.
With a wave of its hand, the Broods below were lifted into the sky, great spheres of twilight wrapped around them, encompassing them in an eternity of starry nights as time and space began to twist and turn. The Broods screeched their indignant denials. They screamed at the unfairness of what was to come. How the world was theirs first, and Its favor did not belong with the Elements.
The starry figure did not reply to the ranting hollers of the monstrous creatures It was currently sealing away. As the last of the beasts became fully enshrouded in stars and void, space began to bend as cracks appeared in the sky. Nine rifts appeared all around the world, as the nine spheres containing the eldritch Broods drifted through as the tears in space and time were sealed behind them.
“Do you see, mortal.”
The voice of the Ancient Void reverberated outwards echoing with the sound of a thousand people's voices all speaking at once, as it turned to an unseen audience. The other nine figures took on a posture of confusion. They could not see who their ally was speaking to.
“This is the power of the Void. This is the Power of Eldramir.”
The Ancient Void turned. The stars that made its body shifted to denote where its attention was pointed at. A figure, much smaller than the Ancients that stood before it, could only stare in unconcealed awe as his inner emotions shifted from all-encompassing terror, to confused wonder, and back and forth as he witnessed the cataclysmic events that were occurring before him.
“Do you see the power that you may one day wield and face, Ezekiel?”
With a startled gasp and a sudden jolt Ezekiel shot up in his bed. His eyes were wide open as he frantically looked around his room. The soft humming of his desktop computer and the blinking light of his phone charger were the only items of note within his dorm room. Numerous sheets of paper laid strewn about his desk, and a backpack half filled with textbooks laid in the corner next to the door.
A man of average height and stature, Ezekiel was surprisingly fit for a guy who spent most of his time hunched over a computer desk taking notes and writing essays. He had short brown hair with matching-colored eyes and was fairly pale due to a lack of time spent outdoors. His facial features were well defined, but not quite chiseled, and the word sharp would not be incorrect when describing his features.
Taking several deep breaths, Ezekiel finally managed to calm his racing heart before laying down once again. The sudden ringing from his phone, however, prevented him from returning to his sleep, and he forced himself to turn over to push himself up and reach over to turn his alarm off. Looking at the screen of his phone he could see that it was now seven thirty in the morning.
Sitting up in his bed, he could only rest his head in his hands as he took a moment to center himself. Lifting his arm up to his chest, he gently cupped the only thing he wore besides his underwear. A black opal pendant carved in the shape of a featureless human face.
He stared at the pendant for a while, turning it over in his hands as he thought back to the dream he just had. In particular to the voice that called his name. He couldn’t help but wonder what the hell was going on with him. Before he could go too far into his contemplations, however, another alarm on his phone rang out, signaling that it was now seven forty-five.
“Godammit.” Ezekiel couldn’t help but curse as he rushed to get himself ready to attend his morning classes. As he ran out and locked his door, dressed in a simply black t-shirt, blue jeans, white sneakers, and still putting on his backpack, he called out a few quick apologies to the people he nearly ran into in his hurry to get to class on time.
Stolen story; please report.
Racing across the university campus, Ezekiel burst through the doors to the building of his first lecture hall. Making his way into his Archaeology one hundred class, he quietly looked around for a familiar face. The hand waving back and forth made this much easier than he anticipated.
Seated in the back was a large man who looked like he could be the poster boy for any and every defensive linemen position in the world. Michael Brandish was wearing a jersey with the university’s team logo on it, and he didn’t really fit in with the rest of the classroom’s scene.
The people seated around him, for instance, mostly looked like they were your stereotypical pencil pushing office workers. Dressed in button ups and polo shirts. Due to the quickly cooling weather, however, jeans and other warm pants were still the norm for most of the people inside.
Walking up the staircase isle to reach the top, Ezekiel sat down right in the open seat next to his friend. Plopping down his bag and unpacking a laptop as the door to the lecture hall opened again, and a strict looking woman in business attire walked in and turned on the projector.
“Zeke, dude, what’s going on? You’ve been cutting it closer and closer every day. I’m starting to think you might be spending more time out at night than I do.” Michael whispered as Ezekiel finished logging into his computer. A questioning look rested on Michael’s face and his voice was filled with concern. He knew Ezekiel wasn’t the kind of person to risk being tardy for no reason, but this had been happening for almost two weeks without any apparent reason.
“Trust me, I’m not going out every night like you are.” Ezekiel’s reply was deadpan and tired as he tried to focus on what his professor was saying. In reality, he really didn’t want to be here, and wanted nothing more than to go back to his dorm room and curl up for a nap to catch up on his sleep.
“Is it those weird dreams again?” Michael asked as his brows scrunched up in concern. “You’ve been having nightmares ever since your parents sent it to you in the mail. You sure it’s not... you know...?”
“What? Cursed? Look, you know I don’t put much stock in that stuff.” Ezekiel couldn’t help but roll his eyes at his best friend’s concerns. Ever since he had started dating that goth girl last year, he’d been getting more and more interested in the weird stuff she believed in. “Just because your girlfriend’s got some interesting ideas as to spirituality and stuff, doesn’t mean that I or my family are cursed. Let alone that my grandpa’s heirloom would hold onto that curse.”
This was a topic they had discussed several times over the past week. Michael was concerned that the pendant Ezekiel had received from his grandfather, bequeathed to him after his grandfather’s death not even a month prior, was the cause of these weird dreams. Ezekiel himself didn’t deny the possibility of the pendant causing these dreams.
“Besides, the dream changed again. This time a new figure appeared, and it even spoke to me. Clearly this is something weird with my psyche. Nothing more.” Ezekiel said in an attempt to turn his friend’s attention away from the possibility of being cursed, or some other hocus pocus possibility.
He might not have been the most religious or spiritual people, but he did believe in the spirit and the afterlife. Rather, Ezekiel didn’t think that his dreams were the result of a curse. Instead, he believed that, if they were something supernatural, then they were either a message or a sign, perhaps even a warning. Of course, he wasn’t going to put too much stock into it.
“Well, even if it’s not a curse, you’ve been stressing out way too much recently. It’s not healthy.” Michael said as he patted Ezekiel on the back. “As such, I’m taking you out tonight. No refusal. You’re coming with and that’s final.”
As he tried to refuse, Ezekiel stopped short as he heard Michael’s tone shift from slightly joking to more serious and pushy. Knowing that if he didn’t agree, he would just be dragged out later anyways, Ezekiel kept his mouth shut and nodded his head.
“Okay, fine. But at least tell me what the occasion is. You’re never this pushy when it comes to getting me to relax usually.” Ezekiel couldn’t keep the confusion out of his voice as he asked this.
Michael opened his mouth to reply, with an incredulous look on his face, before--
“Excuse me!” The professor’s sharp call echoed out from the center of the lecture hall. Her face was set in a frown as she glared at Ezekiel and Michael, whose voices had slowly risen as they conversed. Several students were now looking in their direction.
“If the two of you don’t mind; this is a classroom. As such, my job is to teach, whilst yours is to listen, and speak only when requested or questioned. This is the third time this week that you have interrupted my lesson, and if you don’t think you can keep quiet then you are welcome to leave.” Her voice was cold and cutting as she pointed to the doors just a few feet away from her. The look on her face showed just how serious she was about kicking the two of them out of the classroom.
Neither man spoke, instead tilting their heads down to continue copying the notes that were being projected on the screen. The professor watched them closely for a few seconds before turning back to the slides with a huff. Ezekiel and Michael let out soft sighs as they kept on taking notes.
“Zeke.” Michael whispered so softly that Ezekiel, who was right next to him, almost didn’t hear. He was being as careful as he could to ensure that he wasn’t overheard by anyone else again.
“Hmph.” Ezekiel grunted in reply. He didn’t want to risk getting kicked out of the class. He knew full well that the professor would keep her promise to get rid of them if they kept this up.
“Happy nineteenth birthday, man. We’re getting drinks later.” Michael’s statement caused Ezekiel to pause in his note taking as he thought for a moment. The realization that he had forgotten his own birthday due to the stress and lack of sleep surprised him, but he couldn’t help but smile. He was happy that he had a friend like this who would remember these things for him.