Dark Matters

Dark Matter1

In the days of old, the priest whom they all called Nonimb had sought to uncover The Secret. When Nonimb found The Secret he was astonished, as it was surprisingly held within a young girl named Akasha. He had never had the intention of killing a human for The Secret. Relentlessly he sought to unveil the truth. But it had not been he who had found the teen, in fact she had come straight to him. Nonimb watched her in the dreamland, studied her psyche for a very long time until the answers began to unfold in a series of peculiar events.2

Humans called them demons. Souls, which are made from the elements of light, love, and compassion are immortal as well. But these beings were not of soul. They were of something else and could retain physical life and flesh for eons. The creatures never slept, and preyed upon souls in the dreamworld for energy. These demons had virility. None seemed able to end their plight of darkness which swept over the Earth.3

Nonimb put his ear to his pillow of ferns as if held in a fixation of wonder. He lusted for her, and never before had such a tale of Her beginning been told. Akasha's eyes gleamed bright with a tinge of gold. She slowly began to weave events to Priest Nonimb, her trusted friend, as he lay there upon the warm cot. He was completely entranced by her words:4

It had been an age of forgotten time, and all the creepers and creatures who were enemies of the Queen came unto earth in a rage of Nightmares. There were Reptilian beasts of all sizes and talents. There were the flying seamonsters, the giant worms, the bat-winged drakkos, and the herculean beasts of the bird-watchers. The bird-watchers could shape-shift into any creature that flies. But none of the creatures could ever compare to powers of The Black Magi.5

It had been rumored by the creatures of the Etherworld that the black mage, whom the creatures called Luciferous was once a being with five wings and three eyes. It was said that Luciferous had been the first 'God-Form' creation amongst the living, and that he had come to spread an age of enlightenment and alignment of the Cosmos. It was then said that this God-Form learned of the four sacred elements: earth, fire, water, wind. Later came the learning of solar and ether. With this knowledge of the workings of the Universe, Luciferous had the power to bring about an army of angels to disperse his power.6

Only the Angels rebelled once given the knowledge of the elements, and left Luciferous to wander the farthest corner of the Universe, where he become a being of both water and mist. Luciferous had been in a state of sorrow, and his moan was said to seem of Banshees. Some of the magic of Luciferous remained on the dry lands however, even after he had been rejected by his own creations. Then it is said that there came a new power, and that was the power of a woman.7

Ash was born in a village on the coast of the Egyptian Princess' third palace. She was said to have the power to heal with touch, or of 'healer's hands' she also had another power, which was once a secret to all who encountered her miracles and that was of the power to speak with the dead. When Ash learned of her powers, she desired to change the world around her and bring back her mother who had died at the hands of Cleopatra's army. Although Ash had never practiced the art of sorcery, her mother had been accused of this black magic and had been murdered.8

When Luciferous' one consort the Great Vulture, learned through dreamwalk of Ash's power he spread news high and low to all the creatures of the Ether. It was decided that the return of the King was at hand, before Ash could become all powerful. And although Luciferous had spent a long time weeping and wreaking havoc within volcanos, he had never abandoned his powers only had he taken a break...or so it was said.9

It was in a time when Ash was reaping great fortune in gold and silver from the villagers, who came to Ash to be healed of all diseases imaginable. The days seemed to grow ever-longer, and longer. Then they grew hotter, she waited in mosquito tents for customers who claimed all sorts of varied issues. Some diseases she cured were purely psychological. One man came to her claiming he had a serious case of "The fear of tall trees". It was a fear she could never quite understand. But she cured him of it anyways.10

Then there came that dreadful day, when a storm ripped through and seemed to only affect the village itself. No one had died in the storm, although many homes were destroyed. Ash had never attempted it before, though she felt she might attempt it. She concentrated all her focus towards healing the storm itself. And soon enough, the sun came out and all was good. But not good for long. There was rumor of a visitor, he wore a great black cloak and called himself the Magician.11

When he came there was a vulture circle following everywhere he went. All the people knew this meant bad luck, but also they feared this Magician enough to leave him alone. He came for one person and one only, and this came as no surprise even. He was searching for Ash the healer.12

Luciferous had learned the art of necromancy, & it was far worse than merely speaking with the dead. For although within the great Nile there was the true Luciferous, the man whom Luciferous re-animated was not anyone that anyone could recognize. The great beast within the water was far more scary and he had to take this form for anyone to listen. The body Luciferous inhibited, he had searched for through a millennium and had kept all to himself for another. It was the body of the first man who created him. But the body was not without the original Ego inside it...and that was the worst part. For Luciferous had trapped the very essence of this man's life within the heart. Luciferous then could walk amongst the living. 13

Ash sat meditating upon a dust-covered stone overlooking the Nile.14

It was all the sudden, at that very moment she felt a creeping sensation much like an inkling of terror filling her gut. Then did she dare turn? Did she dare turn to face what was pursuing her? She sat staring into the infinite waters, which no longer seemed tranquil, they seemed restless with hunger. There was an echo of thunder and then in a panic she whipped around to face it. It had not been as she had feared, but then again it was possibly worse. It had not been the man who was seeking her.15

Face to face with the large worm-like creature, within her innermost stillness there erupted a forceful dread of panic. In grips with terror and anguish, she did the very thing that might have made any common beggar laugh. She leaped backwards from the stone right into the waters of the Nile. It was an honest attempt of desperation and the River Daemon lacked not sympathy, for swallowing such a gifted girl would mean letting her soul sift in the sand of a thousand lifetimes.16

Instead the water it spoke to Ash. "Child, rush with me, for I shalt spit forth you from my watery domain!" It made no sense that she should fear the river. The woman was of a gleaming essence and shadowy frame, though she felt herself spinning into a whirlpool then barely struck by a pointy rock, the very water that sucked her up did not rip her apart. Ash became the water and imagined she were speaking with the Daemon as she whispered a lullaby which soothed the water around her and then screamed as she threw her with soft hands onto the surface.17

"My hopes did spare thee!" Sang the water18

Ash had not understand why the Daemon had taken her into the whirlpool, perhaps the Nile had spared her from the worm beast?19

But there was some other reason, and this she had feared whence gazing upon the furious movement of the water. Whatever the Magician had brought, was sleeping in the Nile waiting for the right moment when the villagers were not looking to swallow them whole.20

The day had barely passed before the second encounter of misfortune. The Magician was standing before her, bearing his arms out to her and smiling with an unusual glint in his teeth. "What a good day we have here for the miss! I assume my half-begotten foot spared thee?"21

The man looked oddly young for his age of 33. 22

But before Ash could speak the man snapped his fingers thrice, and soon there were hawk-like people who crept out of the shadows in three steps. By the evening glow of the moon Ash could make out specks of dust flung out from the Magician's fingers as he snapped them forth. "Come forthwith souls, ye finishers of fates, consume the punishers and make haste to this plate!"23

"Ah a prize!" Cried out one of the hawk-likes, with great eyes of white. He stepped before her and swooped his feathery hand before her face. And this was not what Ash had been expecting as she braced herself to tear the feather-brained thing to bits. The moon was hit first, as a black cloud of mist swarmed before her eyes, the shadows leaping forth from somewhere beneath her, and not from the feathered-creatures. It was almost as if shadows were being pulled out from the light!24

Energy was suddenly seeming like an impossible feat, as Ash layed her head upon the gray sand, and the demons merged from different elements of shadow and ether, they gathered round her and prepared for the feast...merely acting on impulse, merely acting on command as if by no free will. The Magician took pity, as the clouds in her eyes grew and resolved to send her through the veils but only once after effectively pronouncing the carrier dead. Then one of the Hawk-Creatures who all else had ever called Eithl, ran his bristling bony fingers across the fair lady's cheek. In an instant Ash woke up and started to cry out, "What happens! What will happen? When will it happen?"25

With his last will of effort he tore his wrist, then Eithl pushed from his wrist an Unseen before the Magician took his rod and beat Eithl into the sand with five motions. He began beating the beast, over and over again with the rod seemingly made of energy and blue sparks. But Eithl neither bowed nor cried, until at last he vanished into blue smoke. 26

Ash's hand was coiled by the Unseen, it slithered around her and began to hiss. Ash heard in some archaic language of seas and skies which were raked into corners, of raging fire and hot coals where once there stormed furious beasts of all kinds and of snakes. "snaaaakes" Ash sat up and at once the Viper bit her hand, there droplets of blood sprang forth and Ash like Eithl disappeared into blue smoke.27

The two-headed Hawk creature looked over to the Black Magician. "She's gone!" He said. "But she'll be back, Sire. And when she's back I will be her servant." "Heresy!" The Magician took two-head by the hand and commanded, "To the Moon my two-faced feather-brain!" And just as quick as he'd come, The Magician flew into the blackened abyss into other times and other places, to further his plight of evil. Where The Black Magician had gone was known to only the hawk beings or more correctly the bird-watchers, who had taken a part to the fateful meeting of foes. The dark magic that the Magi had left to the bird-watchers swept all across the Nile and sadly, the village was destroyed. 28

Ash found herself drenched by watery white light. She had no idea where she was. The waters were licking at her feet, where she stood sinking into what appeared to be a massive crater. The white sand twinkled in the light of the sun although everywhere there had been no forests, no trees, or even a blue sky. There seemed no hope for her, her powers were gone...she could no longer summon advice from Isile her guardian, nor to Tartus the beast of burden who had whispered her the warning of death before the great worm. Her friends, both alive and dead were not audible nor could she sense them.29

It was then she had the craziest feeling, or more of a silly realization to where she was as she gaped at the bewildering mounds upon mounds of sparkling sand. I am upon the face of the Moon! This realization could not have come without a moment of tender fear, for the moon she had thought to be a Goddess and was not a desert! 30

"Selene! Oh Selene what have you become?" Ash cried into the itchy sand which commenced to swallow her whole.31

Laughter came echoing forth from the craters. 32

"Oh Ash, have you no mind you poor girl? Were I a being of flesh, how shalt I have protected thee from ...err Luci"33

"But ...but...no!"34

"Hush my daughter, as I shall need to inspect you for a moment"35

Ash felt herself sucked into the crater, sand filled her lungs as she choked, or more so she felt as though she had been swallowed while choking on the madness of it all. Her heart which had once assumed the beautiful form of a female was now pierced through with one precise movement. Selene gasped, as Ash fell through the bottom of the crater into the watery abyss. "Oh no! That was an accident."36

Ash squirmed, choking on particles of sand as the whiteness rushed through her once again and swept out the pieces of what had once been her core, her heart, her essences swimming around her before rushing away in panic. Then she managed a cry as Luciferous' hands around her throat began to suffocate her life. Ash didn't know how to describe it though the thought that this was all a dream and that she was in the Nile caused her to attempt once more to summon the Water Daemon. 37

And then everything began to growl, the planet shook as the crater shot her up into the air and she landed before the feet of the Goddess Selene. "I apologize, Ash, really if I had known there was another way." But Ash was crying, for the very life-force she had once known was lying weak beside her. "My Soul! Why she is dying before my eyes!" Ash wailed out at the Goddess, Selene.38

"Nonsense. No need for a soul when you have anchored upon my heavenly body, here they all can swim in my waters and you shall see? Hm? Ha Ha, Ha Ha! You think I am nothing but an impression, my face is everywhere my daughter of nothing! Hm but perhaps we shall see!"39

Ash didn't believe it, didn't believe she was seeing the Goddess. "Luciferous..." she whispered coldly. "Ha Ha Ha Ha!" The voice grew louder and dark until it was a low cynical whisper. "Yes, my child...."40

"How did you find me? Where am I?" Ash spoke evenly.41

"Oh my poor dear. Shall I devour you whole or piece by piece?"42

"Where am I, if then I am not on the Moon?"43

"Oh poor dear, you are actually still on earth."44

"No, I know you are lying and I am not really here at all."45

"You're sleeping." Magician said softly into her mind.46

"I am not sleeping!" Ash cried out into the abyss.47

"Oh yes you are. Yes you are my princess and when you awaken you will see things unlike you have seen before!"48

"What? What have you done to my wretched mind, my body, my poor dying soul?"49

"One thousand years....."50

The sky exploded into shards. Akasha woke up from her trance, Priest Nonimb seemed to have been crying, and now as he stared thoughtfully he recalled that this had started out as a tale of tragedy, now seeming an episode of madness.51

"What year is it?" Akasha asked calculatingly.52

Priest Nonimb replied honestly, "It is the year three-thousand"53

Akasha wiped her forehead with a towel and then looked somberly into the Priest's eyes. "Why have thee forsaken me?"54

Nonimb looked sadly upon the poor girl 'she must be losing her marbles' he thought to himself. "Explain to me your trance, Akasha."55

Akasha looked overwhelmed. Then she drew in a breath and revealed something entirely new and utterly off-kelter.56

"Oh Nonimb, be you a friend or not?"57

"Akasha, I never intended you harm. You know that! I let you remain in the trance so long that you were lost and did not even suggest a word as to interrupt...."58

"Did you know...that you are..."59

"What?" Said Nonimb innocently.60

"The Black Magi? I confess little one, I know not as much as you but I know this much. The darkness and I are one."61

Akasha looked deeply into his eyes as they began to swirl with an inky blackness.62

"But death itself could not claim him!" with that she hugged him. You are not Luciferous?63

"Am I?" Nonimb replied.64

"What are you really?" Akasha asked.65

"I am more than worried you should not have told me this story."66

"Are you the man who created him or the creation itself?"67

"I don't know. I do not remember the story, though I believe I may have created the very thing that sought to steal your soul."68

And with that Nonimb shrugged, trying to shake it off. But the shaking continued as he began to convulse. Then he heard within his mind something so shockingly powerful that he succumbed to it with his personality like dying embers to a flame.69

"I Luciferous have been awoken!"70

Akasha left the room quickly and resolved to head to the place where it had all begun. 71