I paused to look around me again to see if my breaking of the glass chamber had invited any newcomers to our location; all I saw was range of gently rolling green hills covered in emerald grass that dance softly in the calming breeze which would not be out of place in a remote Irish countryside, there were also beautiful copses of  short trees offering shelter and shade to any possible weary travelers that might chance upon this little slice of Eden, far off I saw a meandering skinny river traversing through the pocket dimension like a sinuous serpent, nearby there was a babbling brook cascading over polished flat rocks, and an azure sky left free of the taint of the modern world that gave us our power but left beauty out to rot on the curb.

It made me wistful of what life would've been like if I chose to pick up the pen instead of the sword, to choose peace over glory, to vault love over power, it made me wonder what life could've been if I stayed with sweet, lovely, caring Alyssa. 

I shook my head in anger at myself, I refuse to be dragged back into that topic and to be remember what she was like again. All that laid there was sleep broken by midnight tears and memories that were a bittersweet poison of a bedtime fairytale.

I felt tired beyond belief, I knew what caused it so I decided to let my melancholic thoughts quiet and turned to look at the lady of the hour; Sandra, the woman that I had done so much to rescue. She was still confused as to where she was and why she was being hugged by her brother who was in tears. She did not know why there was a woman standing in an odd mix of leather and white cloth with a bright red cross messing with a frighteningly sharp razor.

She was younger than I expected considering how Lionel must have been in his late 30s but she looked like a fresh-faced college graduate who was venturing into the real world for the first time. She had stunningly violet eyes to Lionel's brown, gently flowing locks of doe-like hair, she was a woman of average height, and she was skinny but in a lithe way that could be found in a leopard.

I stopped staring at her since it was getting weird and she was looking back at me oddly. I wondered wistfully if anyone would go to such lengths to find me or if anyone would even spare a second thought at my disappearance. Probably not, I concluded as I shook my head in self-depreciation at my shallow existence.  

I walked back over to the capsule we found Sandra in and examined it more thoroughly. Oddly enough there was a stone tablet that I had some how missed on my first look-through sitting on the side of the vessel. I looked at it more intently and carved into it were plump, fairy children with disgusting smiles laughing at a group of men and women pierced on a spear trap they had set. Just goes to show you that no matter how much we look alike, the Fæ are a race that live at the extremes, their beauty enchanting or gruesome, their kindness heavenly or horrible, and they are what Mankind would have been if we hadn't chose to walk the middle path.

There was also a set of runes and glyphs lovingly inscribed onto it and while my Elvish may be rusty due to an intentional distancing of myself from the Færie Courts, it was still enough to make out what it said:

The Queen is Ascendant and her Power Returned

Cry out in fearful Joy as her Awful Glory is shown

Your Red Blood will Burn Blue

As the Monsters on your shoulder

Scream for the World to Fall

The Mountain will Break

And the Cross will Bleed again

"Bloody ruin! What does that mean?!" I yelled out as I nearly choked on my words in surprise. I couldn't figure out what that meant or even if I translated it correctly but I figured that since the Færie were a race whose stratagems could confuse even themselves, I would be a fool to even consider to that I could unravel their mystic plots.

Hell, I don't even know if it was an actual prophecy or just a mischievous Elf trying to screw with people one last time.

"Jack! What's wrong!" Lionel asked worriedly as he quickly rushed over next to me and scanned for possible enemies around us. "Are we under attack!" He asked me as he put his back to mine and pulled out his still-empty gun that I have him earlier.

"Well, no. But umm. I just found something interesting," I said both touched by how he immediately trusted me with his back and amused by how fast he assumed we were we going to be attacked. 

"Like what?" Lionel asked as he continued to look around him with an eagle-eyed glare.

I sighed and forcefully pulled his shoulder towards me so I could talk to him without being distracted by how often he moved. "Lionel. While I appreciate your caution, even Avalon has limits on how weird and spiteful and odd it can be in the span of a single day. So, while I understand why you would be wary of what would happen, please calm down and listen to me," I said exasperated like a parent whose child was running all around the candy shop.

"Sorry about that, I was just kinda expecting us to be ambushed by now. You know, considering how often we got into life-or-death fights so far today," Lionel said sheepishly with a blush at how silly he was being right now. 

"Don't worry, I understand why you would be worried that we might get ambushed by a pack of rabid shrubs or something equally absurd. A lot of the newcomers that come into Avalon who survive become extremely paranoid the first few hours," I said reassuringly.

"I can guess why," Lionel said as he reluctantly stopped being so worried about possible imminent death. 

"Indeed you can, indeed you can," I said lightheartedly at his response.

"Well, anyways. I was curious about what this said over here," I said as I was interrupted by Sandra, Lionel's sister.

"There's nothing there but a bunch of scribbles," She said like I was like the madman that I looked like.

"Technically, yes but I happen to be able to read Elvish, only very roughly mind you, but I can't even understand a single word of the Elvish tongue what with their high pitch clicks and such," I said academically in response.

Sandra stared at me even more incredulously and spoke in the gentle tone one uses to speak to the mentally ill and insane "Ah. Elves. Yes. That makes perfect sense. How about you go look for them over there while me and Lionel go look for them over there," Sandra said to get me as far from them as possible. Which was reasonable considering she just woke up and didn't know what the Hell was going on, but that worried stare she was giving me was very embarrassing. 

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Lionel stepped in with a cough and saved me from embarrassing myself any further by saying "How about we tell Sandra what has been going on the past few hours and where we are before we continue,"

Saying my thanks, we filled her in on what happened from the Angel meat to the supernatural monsters to the blood sacrifices to the pocket dimension we were in. Her expression shifted from revulsion to shock to disbelief and finally to a complete lack of emotion as her brain simply gave up on trying to make sense of what we were saying.

"...yes...umm...yeah...that makes sense," She said in a quiet tone and with fear in her eyes as they flitted between us. I didn't know why she was so scared or confused, I mean Avalon has been common knowledge for some time now. 

"Why is this so hard to take in? Haven't you heard of Avalon?" I said in sincere confusion.

"Yeah but I always assumed that it was only stuff like throwing around a few fireballs or levitating stuff and not stuff that sounds like it belongs in the plot of a bad horror movie!" She said as her voice raised in anger at what was going on. "I am a woman of science and reason, not a kid playing wizards!" If she didn't calm down soon, I'm certain that she'll start getting violent.

 Deciding that actions speak louder than words, I walked a few meters away from them and asked Sister Josephine who was standing quietly beside herself this entire time, "Do you mind helping me with something? I think that showing her Avalon magic would make this whole thing go a lot faster," She merely nodded in agreement and stepped up next to me. 

"So how about you do your Judgement of God thing and I'll do my earthquake stuff," I asked her cordially. Surprisingly, she grew a maniacal grin and said "It's been ages since I've done that, I'll love the chance to show off,"

More than a little worried, I prepared myself for the Great Power I would enact by calming my mind until it was like a tranquil pond. I planted my legs slightly spread out and took out my athame with my Gift. It stayed steady in front of me as I lifted my arms up as if in supplication to the Gods and I said in a voice that projected quite well "By your Grace and Mercy, I implore you to give this weak servant of yours a touch of your Divine Fire!" 

With this, my blade moved suddenly and stabbed me in the chest up to its hilt, sending a geyser of blood spurting out everywhere and painting the grass red. Bloody ruin, did I hate that part of the ritual!

I heard Sandra shriek in shock and shout "He's fucking insane! Holy shit! Lionel! Help him!"

"I'm pretty sure that was suppose to happen Sandra...maybe," I heard Lionel say unconvincingly to her.

As they were arguing back and forth, I felt Selene whisper to me through the wind that came out of nowhere "It's been so long since we've done this, I was beginning to think that you didn't love me anymore, Jack,"

By the Gods, was that disturbing but I'll be damned if I was fool enough to think that out loud. I felt her fingers through the wind playing with my graying brown hair. "Just hurry up and do your part of the ritual. I'm beginning to feel faint," I thought to her in a way that was somehow both respectful and urging. 

"Oh, you're always so stuck up," Selene said as she temporarily gave me a taste of her power. It was an intoxicatingly giddy rush of power that I felt pass through which surpassed any of the myriad of drugs I had taken in my foolish youth. It was freedom incarnate and wildness given free reign. It was the power of a Goddess of The Hunt.  I felt like I could shoot out the sun and bring an endless night to all the world. 

"Jack, are you okay?" I heard Selene whisper in my ear in worry as she got wind of my thoughts. 

I realized what happened: it has been so long since I've tasted her true nature that I've forgotten how addicting it could be. Wresting control of myself, I channeled the power into my blade inefficiently-if I didn't then I would shudder to think of the destruction a God's power channeled through Mortal Freewill could enact-and felt the blade thrum so violently that any other blade would've already shattered and sent a million tiny shards flying into my body.

But since it didn't, it meant the ritual went fine and now there was an invisible vortex of force whirling around the blade. I pulled the blade out of my body with a grunt and stabbed outward at the air. What happened next shocked Lionel and Sandra at the in-proportionate amount of carnage that was wreaked; the force that was let out by the blade dug great, deep furrows in the earth for hundreds of meters, there were sonic booms  generated by the rapid expulsion of air around us, and a temporary vortex was created by the rapid change in atmospheric pressure.

The look on their faces was almost enough for the fact that there was a gaping hole in my chest. Sandra's mouth was wide-open and Lionel looked like he just experienced the Rapture. If they were impressed by this, I couldn't wait for what they thought of Josephine's. Fortunately, the wound was closing slowly after the residual power in me allowed me to regenerate. 

Josephine went down to her knees and pulled out a set of rosary beads. She started praying reverently to her God and soon a increasingly bright aura of light enveloped her whole body until she was like an inferno. Out of nowhere, she stood up ramrod stiff with a blue glow behind her eyes she shouted "Sanctus Dominus!" She whipped out her razor and cut a cross in the air in front of her so swiftly that the air caught fire, which burned longer than naturally possible. Josephine was no longer Josephine, she was an instrument of God now. She flew up with golden wings into the air as the cross became more malleable and wrapped itself around her razor. 

"By Your Will, it is done!" She slashed downward once and a great, white flame scorched the land. The earth turned into black, barren rock that began to melt and become scorching lava. Slowly, she descended back down with he wings gradually dissipating and the glow fading. I made sure that she was fine after the Holy Spirit possessed her and said to Sandra cheekily, "So! Believe in what happened today and how squirrelly Avalon is now?"