The other side of magic

[everyone]

There was nothing peculiar about the waves in this night. Just the same. The same steady, monotonous, lulling rhythm of the waters softly running towards the shore, losing their vigour long before they even so much as disturbed the sand. The waves were not in a hurry, they knew that in this secluded realm there would always be the same shore to come back to, the same grains of sand, the same, neverending horizons. And so they rolled softly, breaking from the seas, the waters unaffected by the magic border that kept this part of existence from that where mortals walked. That, where things happened. Where waves were not always the same.

But yet, under the pale moonlight that shone on these neverending shores, something was different. Something that the normal eye could not perceive immediately, because it started like a whisper that mingled with the sound oft he wind, inaudible. And that whisper was magic.

Somewhere between reality and dream that made up the very essence of what kept the realms apart, something was stirring. The ancient powers that guarded the realm unyieldingly, not capable or affected by emotions, neutrally looking upon the struggle of the human who had been battering their restrains for these last few months, harkened as they felt a change in the workings of magic itself. A whisper, no words, but energy for the powers were beyond such simple things as human language or thought. They were too old, too different. But ripples in their foundations they felt.

And in that night that had begun like any other, they answered to them. And some of them answered more avidly, their spirits, their essence giving in to the call. They were protection and they were impartial. They were answering to only one thing. Magic. The magic that understood them and called them by their names. Knew them and named them truely. They knew nothing of alliance. And thus, unseen, unheard, the barrier that kept the other realm from the real world, faltered. Not completely, but at one, tiny spot, the magic that the protectors held up cracking and breaking as they were summoned by another power.

And finally, as if the world had waited for it, the going ons became visible also for the world of breathing and feeling things. Like a faint, orange –yellow glow it formed a crack somewhere close to the shore where the water only ran up to be maybe two feet high. And there it remained. A gateway, silent, its glow slowly pulsating and adding its light to the paleness oft he moon and stars.

The protectors were aware oft he gateway, but they did not heed it. They never heeded anything. They answered only to magic and to who commanded it. The gateway was there and they observed it, but neither with interest nor with alarm. Instead, they accepted it now as a part of reality, not even attempting to close it.

[Maeve]

The night held true to all the others. Only this time, the crushing weight in her chest was triggered by a mysterious and unknown cause.

Usually, nightmares were the reasons of her awakening in the middle of the night; tormenting memories would normally creep over her and haunt her until she’d wake up abruptly. Stinging flashes of dark clouds and thundering rains, ice cold raging waves, white sails glistening on a far off horizon, the wings of a hawk flapping in the sun…Vicious nightmares unfolding broken memories with such unbearable forces that they would cruelly yank her out of sleep on every single night. That’s what she was used to.

But tonight broke the custom.

She woke up, her quiet slumber assaulted by a curious disturbance. Something off. Out of place. A slight feeble change in the air that had somehow managed to trouble her sleep before her taunting dreams could do so.

Laying on her side, her creamy-colored face gently resting on her pillow, she shivered, bothered by something she couldn’t quite pinpoint, but oddly not yet alarmed by it. She just couldn’t find a good enough reason as to why she had just woken up. No flashes. No insufferable memories or heart-wrenching longing. Nothing. The ache in her heart was still there, stinging at its usual intensity, but she knew it had nothing to do with what had woken her up. And that’s what disturbed her so much, as if something was wickedly teasing her in the dark, toying with her. Something she could not see nor touch nor hear…

With a mysterious gut feeling, she slowly sat up in her small bunk, her tired eyes taking a few seconds to adjust to the dim light. She looked around her room, searching the silver darkness for anything that might seem abnormal, the silence of the night hitting her like a slap in the face. The atmosphere was so tensed, so heavy, so warm and so…alive, it seemed almost palpable to her. She could feel all her senses on high alert, harassed by every little thing. The diaphanous darkness of her room, the loud rolling waves outside, the humidity sticking to her skin, the lingering smell of herbs and incense... Something was resonating in the air, vibrating quietly through everything that was. A peaceful, yet powerful neutrality. However, despite her silent and growing dread of whatever it was that had caused this mystifying, troubling atmosphere in such secluded a place as this realm she was trapped into, she felt drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Like a weird inward pull…

Uncomfortable shivers running up and down her spine, she slowly swung her legs out of bed, but not without a frown of discomfort as a wave of tiredness washed over her, her body screaming for rest in a complaint she had so repeatedly ignored in the last year. Blinking a few times, she forced herself to focus her attention on the distant, lulling rhythm of the ocean outside, with its strong and regular pulsating waves caressing the shore in a never-ending cycle that reminded her of all the other sleepless nights she had faced. Sighing deeply, she ran a hand through her red curls and got up to her feet, with the only desire of exiting the small house to wonder aimlessly on the beach to shrug off the strange, edgy feeling she had in the pit of her stomach because of the uncanny mood of the night.

Squinting in the dark, she grabbed her brown dress and put it over her usual white chemise, her fingers sleepily struggling with the laces. Then she made her way to the door, not even bothering to take her boots with her. Mechanically, she opened it and tiptoed to the main entrance, her feet knowing the way out by heart. Waking master Dim-Dim up crossed her mind for a split of second but she resolutely opted against it, knowing all too well how exhausted he was. Seeing him wearing himself out everyday was breaking her heart, and the helplessness that surged through her whenever his small eyes flickered with determination to break free from here, was more than she could endure. Hence, there was no way on earth she was going to disturb him now, especially because of a silly, foolish feeling in her chest and some weird pulsations in the air. Chances were there was actually nothing wrong. Perhaps she had just reached the end of her wits and was going mad.

Finally stepping outside in the sand, the fresh breeze of the ocean revived her a little and she closed her eyes for a moment in an attempt to savour what little comfort its salty scent had to offer. She couldn’t believe how dependant she had become over the sea. Its smell, its sound, its view, its touch. This self-destructing, craving need to be as near as she could to her executioner…

No.

She frowned angrily and shook her head, bringing her chocolate brown eyes down to the ground. She didn’t want it to hurt tonight. Thus, before her yearning heart could bring her thoughts too close to the edge, she started walking, assigning all her concentration on her stride. Left. Right. Left. Right. That was the only way to keep herself from falling too deep in painful memories. Left. Right. Left. Right. The only way for it not to hurt…

All the while focusing on her feet, she decided to occupy herself with the task of drawing some sense from the weirdness of the night, if that was even possible. Steadying her breathing, she emptied her mind and brought herself into a state of oblivion and meditation, allowing her spirit to freely follow the rhythm of the air. After a few minutes, she felt the mysterious pulsations vibrate inside her, yet something still managed to keep her at bay; a veil, somehow forbidding her from embracing their silent meaning. She restlessly tried to wrap her mind on the strange energy flow that was at work but it was too delicate and too subtle to comprehend and truly seize; the powers echoing in the night reaching far beyond what she could usually sense, the origin of its magic attaining somewhere in the hidden world, a far off place where she could hardly soar.

As her head became too dizzy with all the quiet throbs of the night, she slowly came back to reality. She took a couple of deep breaths and rubbed her eyes gently with one hand, always keeping on walking, with her regular pace functioning like an anchor to her sanity. Left. Right. Left. Right. As her bare feet gently brushed against the sand, a wave came tickling her skin. It did so a couple of times before she actually realized she had deviated from the straight line she had followed since leaving the house. Stopping where she was, her feet sinking in the wet sand, caressed by the water, she lifted her head up to gaze at the spot where the sea met the sky in a blend of sparkling stars. But two seconds had not even passed by that she found herself unable to contemplate the crystalline view for something caught her attention in her peripheral vision.

She froze.

Shock and puzzlement soon became the only two emotional traits visible on her face.

A golden ripple. Somewhere to her left. Further down in the water.

Near the wall.

[everyone]

The protectors sensed the woman as she awoke, sensed her feeble attemts to wrap her mind and magic around their existance, noticed how very different their being was from hers. Curiosity stirred in them, a curiosity not prone to any sort of side, neither good nor bad, benevolent or evil, just curiosity of what would happen and they shifted their attention towards her, let her touch on their strangeness that she felt like a tingle in the air without giving much of a reaction, just floating.
Being.
Existing on that eternal brink between the worlds, not belonging to either and yet subdued to both.

They were usually confined to that never-realm of inbetween where nothing was but them, where nothing ever stirred and nothing ever mattered. They did not mind, they could not mind for it was not their nature, but when the rift opened, part of the protectors´ existance reached out into the world that contained the distant beach, causing the rift to glow. Bodyless existance of nothing but spirit – and even the concept of ´spirit´ too alien to even begin describing them – reaching out to float along the waves and engulf them, to sense each grain of sand and how they were shifted by the nightly wind and the waters that tore them this way and that in an endless helpless struggle. Feeling the shift in existance when the woman became aware of them and made her way out.

It all happened at once and never, they had no concept for time and space, just for being, and curiously they waited, entwining with her world unseen and unheard, riding with the wind and gushing along the waves aback the seawater. It was so strange, so different from their own existance that the protectors could not help but wonder and venture out. The rift opened more, creating a gateway and thus unknowingly bringing the worlds together more. Merely obeying magic, but developing an interest of their own now for the first time after aeons of time.

Beckoning her closer.

The woman´s being was so fascinating to them that they reached out to entwinewith her mind. She would not notice it, but they would savour in her presence, knowing nothing of the like and therefore revelling in the warmness of her being, the tantalizing difference of her way to exist. Emotions…feelings…nothing of what the prorectors could understand.

As she approached the rift in the air the protectors could sense…know…how her feet touched the waters and they halted in curiosity.

[Maeve]

She just stared at it. Totally bewildered and completely dazed, almost hypnotized. She had absolutely no idea what the glittering golden glow in front of her was all about, heck she couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was all about, her thoughts way too fuzzy at the moment to form any kind of proper judgment on the matter. However, the more she stared at it, the more it dawned on her that the ripple wasn’t near the wall, but rather in and within the wall, and this new notion made her heartbeat accelerate with every second that passed by, a tiny, silent hope stinging in her chest but which she immediately shot off in reflex mode.

With her brow furrowed in utter confusion, she blinked back a few times in the darkness, trying to shrug off the shock and to get a grip. Her thoughts and senses took a minute to register a little and when they seemed back to their normal functioning state, she cast a nervous, foolish glance around the beach in puzzlement, as if searching for an answer, something, anything, to explain the strange display a couple of feet in front of her.

Just what the hell was that thing? She was so used to the wall as being such an enormous entity in itself, always undisturbed and impassable, that this small ripple so carelessly shining in its foundation was literally shattering all her marks on the realm’s boundaries. There had been the bottle episode before, true, but this…this was something else, something coming from the outside world, not from the realm. Alarm and mistrust thus immediately urged her to turn back and alert master Dim-Dim but she simply stood there, a dreadful fascination knotted inside her and pulling her forward for some unsettling reason.

Somehow, she just knew the mysterious magic pulsating in the night, vibrating to the rhythm of powers more ancient and universal than anything she could fathom out, had everything to do with what she was staring at. The truth behind this curious, gleaming ripple was concealed somewhere in that timeless magic, flowing in the air all around her, within its quiet throbs that had woken her up and that had silently led her to this very spot. It was as if the mystical life, echoing within the sparkles of the golden veil in front of her, was acting like a magnet. It was luring her to the heart of that yellowish glow. Like a faint lullaby, gently calling out to her. And she stared at it, both mesmerised and terrified at the same time, a contradiction she couldn’t yet sort out.

She swallowed hard, feeling torn between turning back and investigating this on her own. She knew very well that master Dim-Dim should be here with her but strangely, her instincts told her that time was ticking. That this was now or never. And afterall, with the magic at work being all peaceful and neutral, completely indifferent even, what harm could possibly come to her in the few hours left before sunrise? She could pretty well wait a little, see what she could find out herself, and then speak to Dim-Dim about this mysterious phenomenon first thing in the morning. And anyway, she couldn’t ignore the tugging, glowing flows of magic around the ripple anymore. The curiosity was too much. Hence, even if the reason behind it all escaped her totally, she found herself answering to them, surrendering to their invisible soft pull.

Casting one last glance at the little house on the far-off sandy hill behind her, she made her decision. Cautiously, as her heart hammered in her chest at a frantic pace, she took a step in the light’s direction. Then another. Slowly, she moved deeper and deeper in the water until the waves gently flapped against her knees. Her gaze was riveted on the shimmering gap, on this gleaming veil breaching the realm’s wall with such innocent ease it was almost frustrating. Raising her hand hesitantly, her fingers now almost yearning to touch the luminous wrinkle, she approached it ever so slowly towards the light. Her breath caught in her throat as the wild hope she had suppressed earlier surged back through her full force, unexpectedly. But she shot it off again, knowing all too well how unbearable the pain it triggered was. She just couldn’t let it in, couldn’t allow it to grab a hold of her and tear away her shield. She could endure the small, yet permanent aching numbness of forfeit everyday, but this insufferable stabbing pain of hoping for something that can never be, she couldn’t…

As her trembling fingers gently disappeared within the golden glimmers of the veil, she waited, adrenaline pumping in her veins like crazy and fascination and fear creeping up on her at the speed of sound.

[everyone]

The protectors had been watching her all the while, their bodyless existance probing and entwining with her thoughts and her being as she hesitated, feared, hoped and finally as she made her decision and started making her way out towards the crack in the veil. They observed and absorbed her uncertainties and curiosity, taking it all in carefully like a child that picks up and treasures shells it finds along a coast. Storing them. Not because it feels for these shells, but because it finds them to be pretty, extraordinary, its surface different from what it is itself.

As she walked closer they were all about her, travelling along the bare skin on her arms, in her hair, unfelt unseen, but there, curious about why this strange creature that was made so heavily out of flesh and bones and all those troubling, heavy emotions would decide to venture out , why she would be curious to have a closer look at them – they, who were so different, who didn´t care anyways about what these humans did. Strange creatures they were indeed, clumsy and unelegant, but no doubt fascinating. And thus they had started to reach out to have a closer look, confused by the assault of emotions that made no sense for them. Fear, hope, despair…such a tangle of things and all confined in the small space that humans used to reach out beyond the shapes of their bodies. So small, so precious. What was it, they wondered in confusion that could get her so upset? They tried but could not find a reason or rather, they found the reason easily no matter how deeply she had buried it into her mind but to them, beings of pure being, it made no sense.

And it seemed like these overbearing emotions that the protectors thought had to weary her mortal frame so much took over completely, making her invest the rift closer, coming closer. The protectors watched on even though something inside them stirred, wanting to have a closer look, inspect more, learn more about this strange creature that was approaching them, see what it would do, if it would let them lead the way. And curiously they reached out further, not caring what would happen to her or if she would follow their cue or if she even wanted to get away from here. For if she stepped through that rift, she would find herself somewhere else…physically even though such little changes mattered nothing to the protectors and did not seem worthy of their contemplation. But it seemed to matter to her and therefore they beckoned her, entwining her mind, beckoning her closer like a child would coo over a flock of pidgeons on the street when it wanted to feed them. Wilful and maybe just up to mischief.

As she finally decided to get close enough to get in touch with their essence, they wrapped closely around her, golden light flaring in front of her eyes, creeping over her like gleaming shadows, tangling on her like living things, blinding her with their light and wordless whispers. They could not speak, they could not think in the way humans did but they did the equivalent knowing that their timeless presence was so all encompassing that she would get the meaning. Taking you away…away…so confused…such a strange mind…strange mind… It was as if they were soothing her but at the same time they were not and barely making observations. So strange…strange thing…so lonely… They kept cooing, observing, entwining all around her, swallowing her whole so that the water, the beach, the nightly sky… it all vanished in a blazing light and a place where time did not exist.

[Maeve]

When her fingers grazed the mysterious sparkling veil, she barely had time to brood over what could possibly happen for the magic within it reacted to her touch instantly, destabilizing her to the core. The glowing wrinkle seemed to respond to her; slowly it throbbed and flinched, investigated and sneaked, spreading intricately all around her, as if the mystical life forms within it wanted to drink her in, and she now could sense their inquisitive, almost mischievous impulses more clearly than ever, but the thin, imperceptible veil protecting their essence was still keeping her at bay somehow, preventing her from fully grasping the purpose of their existence once again.

One thing she knew for sure though was that the whole neutrality and peace of everything was beginning to drive her nuts. Heck, in cases like these, although she couldn’t think of any similar to this one at the moment, she was used to classifying magic as either good or evil, her judgment based on who was using it and how they were using it. Period. Anything in-between and neutral was bond to lead to mistrust since it was inclined to stray one way or the other. So whatever it was her touch had awakened within this particular, unclassifiable peaceful magic, she didn’t like it. In fact, something about the whole atmosphere just didn’t feel right anymore, like everything had suddenly taken a wrong, perilous turn. And she had a growing, dreadful and guilty feeling in the pit of her stomach that told her that by touching the ripple in the first place, she had dangerously screwed up. Because even if the strange powers winding all around her in these luminous strays were perfectly armless, and indifferent to their own impact, as she sensed them to be, the entities conveying them were nonetheless interfering in something that concerned the confines of the realm, hence that concerned her pretty seriously.

And it scared her to death. Because she had no control over it. And because everything was happening too fast.

Something was just wrong. Terribly wrong. The way the golden light was entangling itself up all around her so closely and so tortuously was sending cold shivers down her spine. With her brow furrowed in fearful confusion, she nervously glanced at the snakening strays with mistrust as they threaded around her body, her arms and her legs, like a spider weaved its complex web to capture its prey. And that’s exactly how she left like right now. A prey. A prey that had fallen into a trap, an ambush, where the hunter was hiding in the dark with his bow and arrow aimed perfectly for the kill.

She felt caged, choked. Her head was spinning and she suddenly realized she couldn’t move an inch, as if the strays had somehow managed to numb her entire body, paralyzing her completely in their glowing net. And the light…It was so bright, gleaming so sharply in every possible direction, it was blinding her. Squinting uncomfortably, almost painfully, she couldn’t even make out the beach and the ocean anymore, the sensation of water flapping on her legs also long gone by now. And she couldn’t hear anything either. The strong waves and their loud rolling, the soft wind and its low whistle, it had all vanished to give way to a deafening, consuming, heavy silence.

There was only light. Light everywhere. Sucking on everything. Closing in on her.

Her heartbeat, frightfully racing, was the only thing she could still feel functioning in her body, along with the frenetic struggle of her mind trying to tap into what little control she still had over herself to counter the mystical magic that was engulfing her so ravenously. A part of her simply wanted to yield, but another part was screaming for her to break free and fast, and she didn't know why but that need to escape seemed urgent as ever, and stronger than everything else. She just had to get away from the imprisoning light. But it was no use. No matter how desperately she attempted to resist its oblivious pull, her efforts were vain. She was powerless against this ancient magic. The more she struggled the harder it became to breath.

And then it dawned on her. Like a punch in the stomach. Leaving her breathless.

The golden veil, somehow breaching the wall…

Taking you away…

Her heart skipped a beat.

But it was too late.

In a flash of powerful blinding white light, before she could surrender to panic and dismay completely, her world went black.

[everyone]

Continue reading at post #21 over here:

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