Dark shadows curled across the invisible room. Tendrils of creeping darkness caressed and enveloped furniture that didn’t exist. A looming presence demanded dominion over the small confines that hid a larger expanse. A single figure sat in the middle of the unassuming room, where a dreadful mist slowly seeped out from their heart, and they were completely enshrouded by the mysterious mist. Groping tethers of shadow probed the room and investigated the almost eternal expanse that was hidden from sight in an invisible illusion. As the dominating presence leaked out of the stationary figure, the tendrils began to tremble. Then, suddenly, the shadows shrinked back into the sitting figure to disappear completely in almost an instant.
There, where a dark power had once enshrouded the will that commanded it, was a woman. A young woman whose hair glinted silver, even in the darkness that remained in the isolation of the dark illusions. Slumping over from the exhaustion of concentration and immense focus, was a young woman wearing a simple white and blue dress. Sleep tugged at the corners of her mind as her spirit exhausted itself in experiment after experiment, while her physical body remained unchanged. The young woman sat, eyes closed to shut out what small amount of ambient light somehow glowed in the almost completely darkened space.
Mevi sat there, in the middle of the still elusive dark room. She had meditated for what felt like weeks to produce that small effect. Her test failed before she could even manage to navigate to where she recalled standing bookcases; her power over her shadowy daemon evaporated in a moment of lost concentration. An entity that hid within her soul and had once gained such joy from escaping her to torment her in the dark of night, yet now hidden in a stubborn isolation. Whatever power was meant to flow inside of her was now stubbornly locked away, not even appearing to harass her as it once would night after night.
Mevi brought herself back to a semblance of consciousness, having been in a deep trance for several days, maybe more. Yet even as she forced her stiff limbs to function once again she felt almost no fatigue or hunger. She had spent many days, and even weeks, isolated before returning to a more solid world for sustenance. If this was due to the room’s effects, or something else entirely, Mevi wasn’t sure.
As Mevi brought herself once again to her feet, she walked to a half materialized table that stood on almost invisible legs. A small pile of transparent, or some entirely invisible, tomes and texts rested as if to taunt her lack of understanding. The text she had recently finished, a meant to be simple collection depicting a type of meditation practiced in long forgotten ancient days, had been little more than a compilation of complex phrases and meaningless tangents. Yet the subject had given her ample opportunity to practice her reading skills, and within the strange illusionary space she had a desperate need to understand the concept sealed within the written word.
Mevi had isolated herself for so long, a true grasp of time was impossible to understand. Yet the gnawing desire to learn ate at her mind always. She needed to become useful, in whatever way these texts allowed, or learn of some capability she had that could help her wounded mentor. Mevi’s dedication resurfacing after so long of focused thought summoned forth terrible memories. Her mentor, Kalesi, was still trapped inside of a technological coffin that offered no hint of any soon recovery. The first few days and weeks of Mevi’s inauguration to her new life had been spent in silent vigil for Kalesi. Yet the once strong woman showed no sign of awakening. In these recent days an exhaustion of the spirit hung over Mevi, one that no amount of galavanting with the odd associates within the facility could lessen.
In fact, Mevi had slowly begun to push herself away from the outside world. Delving further and further into meditation and difficult study. Those outside were distractions, their meaning was pure but Mevi’s focus could not be taken away from her real goal. Her brief companion, Saerin, seemed dedicated to make friends with her. The young woman was intelligent, but eccentric and with boundless energy. Yet the more Mevi interacted with any from within the facility she learned quickly that this eccentric trait was almost commonplace. Odd personalities, strange fixations, diverse peoples, and so much talking. It was as if the world outside of her studies was designed to distract her, their personalities so attractive that Mevi often found herself thinking to stay outside more often than permissible to her self-declared duty.
Mevi waved away the recollections, even recalling the outside was a distraction she would not afford. Mevi was sworn to her new master; she was sworn to the Lord Magi of Knowledge, Maphet. Her aetherial master, one of the elusive and god-like Magi, had asked the simple request that Mevi grow her power. Mevi was given a space to test her comprehension and power, the room she now resides within during her studies. The room was designed to lock itself away and hide its features, the place only expanding as Mevi’s own understanding of provided knowledge expands.The room acted as a physical show of her progress, and that progress was small. The dreadful realization that her power might even be less than it once was, crossed her mind often. Mevi’s powers, if she could call them such, had sealed themselves away in some kind of stubborn isolation. What Mevi was able to see of the room before, at the start of her welcome to Lord Maphet’s service, was halved now. The room was short, and furniture was nonexistent beyond the half-formed idea of a table with a handful of barely perceivable books and data pads.
Mevi only now noticed, having begun staring at the illusionary terrain once again, just how dark the room was. No real light invaded the space, she was left in and almost complete dark. Yet where once she might panic at the stretching shadows, Mevi now begged them to come back to life. Her once daemon, the thing that seemed to give her power and rested inside her, slept in a deep coma. It had once found such joy in stalking Mevi in the dark, some sick game where its power could finally be let loose against her, but now it only hibernated for an unknown season.
As Mevi scowled at the dark shadows, a light pulsed against the wall to her left. An archway, once bricked over with the hard stone surface of the white marble walls, began to glow slightly. An alien purple and blue shimmered to life against the should-be blocked portal. Yet as Mevi watched, the archway began to transform from a flat wall into a swirling pool of glowing blue energy. A whirlpool of strange power formed briefly and then transformed into a bright image of the outside corridor. The light from outside flooded quickly into the space Mevi called her own, and a figure stood illuminated by the extremely bright lights.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
A golden-clad and powerful creature stood as a tall figure, bearing heavy golden armor styled like ancient plate mail, standing just beyond the portal. The creature seemed to reach out a hand, as if to offer Mevi help to her feet, but did not dare to properly cross the threshold of the hallway into the room. Mevi was confused, the door had never opened without her instructing it to do so before. The one and only time she knew it had done this was in the presence of Maphet, the powerful Magi who controlled the facility and was Mevi’s master.
Mevi slowly stood and then crossed the portal into the hallway. Taking the offered hand to steady herself as the strange feeling of travel to and from the illusionary space always disoriented her. As Mevi stumbled out of her room, and into the arms of the golden creature, she recognized the being. It was her Sentinel. The tall, powerful, and mysterious guardians in the direct employ of the Magi. They never spoke, never acted without instruction, and this one always seemed to know where Mevi was and how to reach her.
As Mevi felt the portal behind her twist shut and reform into a bare marble wall, Mevi gathered herself enough to look up at the stalwart Sentinel. The creature looked down at her, expressionless through the full helmet. Only the Sentinel’s red eyes peered through the visor and beheld Mevi as if it knew more about Mevi than Mevi might know about herself. Breaking the eye contact, Mevi righted herself to stand as nobly as she could muster. There was no sign of either of her other companions. Her given attendant, Zelkan, almost always went where Mevi was, or would quickly arrive wherever she exited her room, and Saerin had developed the ability to know when Zelkan was leaving to meet Mevi to tag along with him. Yet neither were anywhere to be seen in the long and undecorated hallway.
Suddenly, just as soon as Mevi began looking up and down the hallway, the Sentinel grabbed Mevi by her shoulders. The creature’s powerful grip and strong frame was more than enough to fully overpower any resistance Mevi could put up, and despite being initially startled she calmed down to stare confused at the Sentinel. Mevi was manhandled by the golden guardian who, gently yet firmly, brought Mevi down to a sitting position on the hallway floor. Confused and concerned about what was happening, Mevi tried her best to follow the wordless instruction. Then just as the Sentinel positioned itself above her, as if a protective tent with its arms against the wall for support, a loud ripping sound echoed from every direction.
A terrible tearing, like fabric being torn asunder by a fell hand, echoed louder than Mevi could have possibly imagined. Her ears rang and felt like they would explode as the cacophonous choir of noise railed against all surface and sense. Mere moments after the dreadful tearing began, the very floor began to shake and quake under Mevi. The powerful movements threatened to throw Mevi about and against the walls if not for her dutiful Sentinel acting as a cage to keep her confined to one spot. The Sentinel fell to its knees to close the space tighter, and Mevi was firmly held between the golden creature and the smooth marble wall.
The violence against sound and foundation continued for longer than Mevi wanted to tolerate, but it suddenly ended and was replaced by a comparably calm electrical buzz. Mevi’s vision was blocked by the large frame of her Sentinel’s body, the creature still holding tight to both Mevi and the wall to keep her safe. Yet even from Mevi’s awkward position she could see electrical discharges shooting off from the walls and floor. The charged air tingled against her skin and made her hair stand on end. After several minutes of quiet waiting, the electrical charge in the air began to slowly dissipate and with it the Sentinel backed away from the wall to stand to its full height again. Offering a hand down to Mevi, who was still reeling from the sudden attack against her senses, the two stood up in the hallway; Mevi still wobbling from the experience and a tingling sensation in her extremities.
As the sensations fled, echoing feet came running down the hallway towards the pair. Mevi saw her attendant, Zelkan, racing down the hallway carrying what looked like a large data pad. Zelkan wore white robes with swirling blue designs creating an image like a clouded sky, the same style made for followers of Maphet, but donned a full mask that digitally displayed swirling clouds against a pure blue sky. Yet even with the mask blocking his face, and with clouds passing by the blue digital screen, Mevi could see some part of his features and face; not enough to gleam what he looked like, but enough to understand some part of his emotions. And as Zelkan raced to Mevi, he seemed rushed, or even worried. Upon noticing Mevi in the care of the Sentinel, Zelkan calmed down, but approached with a due haste holding the datapad tightly. Before Mevi could ask what was going on Zelkan spoke, “My lady! I am glad the Sentinel reached you in time, experiencing the sudden escape into real space can be difficult on your own… But there is little time to explain, there is a broadcast being given by the Grand Magi. I realized you do not have a neural implant yet, so I raced as soon as I could to retrieve a device to let you watch. The transmission began moments ago!”
Before Mevi could question what a ‘Grand Magi’ was, or what he meant by ‘escape into real space’ Zelkan activated the device. The dark screen lit up with life and light, and processed the task eventually forming a coherent picture of a grand stage. Standing atop the stage was a remarkably brilliant figure. A Magi unlike any Mevi had seen before. Donning a flowing robe of deep and dark blue, that began to dissolve into purple energy at the mid and end sections; with golden threads flowing down from the center of his waist to mix into the purple energies of the rest of the lower robe. The Grand Magi bore a mask unlike what Mevi had seen before, a comparably simple design that was fully black with symmetrical golden formations making up the idea of a face but without any detail or precision. Strangest of all was what seemed to be the Grand Magi’s hair, a flowing platinum that shone like glittering diamonds split perfectly even and flowed long down past Grand Magi’s chest; the platinum hair, in places, seemed to twist and bend into the design of the robes to transform into metal curved spikes attempting to reach upwards. The Grand Magi’s arms were incomprehensible, made up of tangles of what looked like many gold tendrils twisting and tightening into a pair of, almost writhing, arms.
The Grand Magi stood silently on the massive stage, one which had no physical audience. The striking figure stood in continued silence, staring down towards the floor as if in a dower mood. Mevi silently wondered if there was some speech happening that she couldn’t understand and if her lack of a neural implant caused her to not hear or understand the Grand Magi. Yet just before Mevi would ask Zelkan what was supposed to happen, the Grand Magi rose his head as if to face whatever camera pointed at him. The being spoke with a remarkably quiet and soft tone, incredibly dissimilar to the booming and brilliant displays all other Magi seemed to prefer. “Children of the Barge. Our path diverges, the Barge wishes to apologize for the sudden departure from our initial course. A new system has called for our aid and patronage, the life there teems with anticipation of the Barge’s mana. I call for our Magi Lords to confer and judge how best to approach this new civilization. The Barge has sent forth its cosmic message decades ahead of our arrival, and they are prepared to receive us.” The Grand Magi takes a moment to pause and wait, as if catching his breath from a strenuous activity. Then the being finishes, “For the glory of the Magi, and by the power of the Barge. So it is done.” As soon as the word ‘done’ was spoken, the feed of the Grand Magi cuts short and darkens to nothing.
Mevi looks to Zelkan and then to the Sentinel, who are respectively confused and silently stalwart. Zelkan’s head then darts up, the tell-tale sign he received an invisible message of some kind. Then, looking down at Mevi, says, “Our Lord Maphet and Lord Odion wish to speak with you. We depart immediately for Lord Odion’s Tower of Archives.”