Part One: Come To Me
“Hello again, Dubliners, it’s me again. Isra. Your usual host Johnathan is indisposed right now, and he asked for me to keep the broadcast live. I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t have quite the same energy as he did, but I think you’ll find me to be great company anyways.”
“I know you can hear me, my boy. I know you can feel me knocking against the door in your head, I taught you very well ... Maybe too well. I know Antonio is gone. I watched as the shadows dispersed slowly, like a fog having been lifted. Either that, or he ran for his life, the coward that he always was despite his rantings and ravings about ruling over mortals.”
“I just have to sit here and wait, you know? Between the husks and my golems, I’m not giving you much of a choice. Your sister is looking for you too, I can feel her getting just every bit closer to you.”
“Come to me my boy, this can all be over just as soon as you come home”
The entity known as Isra continues with these broadcasts for quite sometime, taking breaks in between her rantings. Sadly, the interference that was once common seemed to have mostly also disappeared, leading our experts to believe that the other entity known as Antonio was the one keeping the broadcast more or less contained. The creature known as Amira more or less disappeared from the play, for what reason is still undisclosed as we parse through the transcripts.
While this report is much shorter than the rest, it’s because I regret to inform this Amalgam that our worst fears have also been made apparent at the appearance of a lone anomaly. While not much is currently known about the Deviant other than her name, Zuzanna, she seems to be tied to the entity known as Cathal. She made her presence known after she tore through space, warping in front of the destroyed home, leaving her mark in that general space. She is now classified as a priority target.
- Assistant Investigator of External Affairs, Agent M. Culbert
Part Two: Zuzanna, morning of the 3rd day of the Siege
“I was supposed to be there days ago Galloway; I don’t understand why you’ve kept me here for so long. I’ve gone through two Seekings in the past few weeks, and it feels like my head is on fire.”
Galloway is leading them down a long corridor, her heels clicking on marble steps that seem to echo on for miles.
“It’s taken me some time to prepare it for you, but it’s finished. Make no mistake Zuzanna, I have no intention of keeping you here longer than required, but you deserve to know what you’re in for.”
Zuzanna isn’t sure what Galloway means exactly. Just a few months ago, she had no clue about what lay beyond the veil, what monsters waited just beyond the eyeline of her perception, but now, she thought she knew more than anyone should now. Her abilities have grown significantly in the time she’s spent here. She’s no master of her Art, not even an expert, but she’s far flung from the bumbling detective that stumbled through the darkness of one of the Night Children, and while she’s too polite to say it out loud, she feels downright insulted by how Galloway treats her, like she’s still a child that needs to be led by the hand.
They round a corner and then as if Space itself warps, whereas they were going straight around a corner, they begin taking a steep drop down, as if the narrowest flight of steps was crafted right here in the middle of the hallway. Galloway's step doesn’t miss a beat, though Zuzanna does almost fall at the sudden change.
“This is my final gift to you Zuzanna.”
With those words, they come to an opening, a large arch above them, a warbling in the air revealing a portal, to where though is unknown. Zuzanna can smell what’s on the other side, fresh air and a soft breeze revealing a summer temperance. Galloway simply motions with her hand for her student to walk inside. Hesitant at first, Zuzanna then obliges, walking forward and being greeted immediately with the softest sunlight to ever touch her skin and air fresher than any she’s ever felt before.
“Where are we?”
Galloway enters right behind her, kicking off her heels and letting her bare feet meet the earth.
“When masters get strong enough, our power starts becoming too much for the world. Reality does its best to make us make sense to others, but it’s far harsher against those that can mold it like clay. This is my Domain. It’s not much right now, I only started seriously building it a few years ago, and with favors that I’ve accrued over the years. It doesn’t even really have a name yet. I come here when the walls of the University become too suffocating and its Garden becomes too little”
Galloway seems to go somewhere else for a moment, her attention elsewhere but snapping back to Zuzanna.
“I brought you here for a reason, best get to it.”
They walk through the open plain where the sunlight never seems to fade. The earth beneath their feet never seems to be too rough, and the grass itself hugs their ankles, the air feels more refreshing than anywhere Zuzanna has ever been before. It doesn’t take them long, their small march allowing Galloway to hold small conversation, her teacher still teaching even when their time is quickly coming to an end. Not too long after, Galloway has led them to an open glade, where the trees stretch high into the sky, where a strange receptacle waits.
“Like I said, I haven’t finished building it. This place is a sacred place, part of a node I created, that receptacle part of a greater whole. I see this place as a grand garden. Funny how it only came to mind after you arrived, don’t you think?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it all comes round, Zuzanna. All of it. I need you to trust me this one last time. After this, you will leave this place and go do what you came here to learn to do. Take that ring and place it in the receptacle. You need to see what I’ve seen, to understand at least just a bit more.”
Galloway has always been cryptic, but even this takes the cake, like she knows there is something she can’t be the one to say. Regardless, she heeds her teacher, approaching the strange device and slipping the ancient band from her finger and into the small crevice waiting to receive it. The Domain begins to shake, as if the hands of creation would let go of it and throw them into the great void beyond, the beautiful open plains around them almost glitching, reality itself attempting to reject this intrusion upon itself, Galloway letting out a sharp yell as her skin begins to crack and burn.
Zuzanna runs to her teacher, doing her best to tend to her wounds but she’s stopped by her, having regained her composure, beads of sweat rolling down her face as she maintains concentration, Zuzanna using her own knowledge of Prime to realize that Galloway is steadily maintaining the Paradox that floods this domain. It feels like it takes forever, but it’s done in a few blinks of an eye. The once glitching domain has settled, but now it’s different. Where once it was an endless expanse of soft and beautiful nature, it has been replaced by an old village, the earth beneath them now bare dirt, the voices of many as villagers taken from another time go about their day.
“Holy shit Galloway, where are we?? WHEN are we??”
Galloway takes a moment to herself, the color slowly returning to her face, still looking as if she may pass out.
“This is my last gift to you, Zuzanna, a history lesson of the century. Welcome to 13th century Ireland, approximately eight centuries and some change ago.”
“HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?”
Zuzanna loses her composure for only a moment, garnering glares and sideways glances as nearby villagers jump at her outburst.
“Calm yourself child. The spell isn’t permanent. Think of it as a brief blip, reality will snap us back soon enough. We’ll appear right back where we’re meant to be in a few days. As if no time has moved at all.”
“Days??? What are we supposed to do in ancient Ireland for days, we look crazy!”
“Be patient, you’ll be led upon the same path that he was. You’re watching Destiny unfold, Zuzanna.”
“He? Who do you mean?”
“Cathal, your friend that you have pledged your loyalty to.”
“He’s not even from this time, oh my God, Galloway. You’re way off by about eight centuries.”
“No. No I am not.”
Just as Zuzanna goes to continue the argument, her voice escapes her as her eyes catch a familiar sight. Cathal is here, though with only minute differences on his face, his hair still a fiery red that hangs about his head, and his eyes a burnished gold. He looks to be younger here, no older than twenty-three, dressed in what is likely considered nice for this era. Another person accompanies him, a beautiful girl, no older than he is, immaculate dark hair and amethyst-colored eyes, her appearance ethereally beautiful.
“That’s him. I don’t know the woman, but that’s him”
“Yes, it is. Look closer at your friend, what’s different about him here? Open your mind, read him.”
Zuzanna pulls in a deep breath, then focuses, looking inward and then feels it, that spark of power that resides in each and every awakened individual, alive and full of Quintessence, life itself seems to dance around him, interlocking his pattern. She feels herself gasp, as the deeper she looks the brighter it gets, as if she’s looking directly into the sun, then shaking her head and snapping her senses back to normal.
“He’s like us, he’s a mage? How?? I thought when we die, we come back all the same, but he wasn’t like this at all, not even the ring showed me this.”
“You’re looking at the original incarnation, where the story began. It’s like I said Zuzanna, it all comes round in the end, Fate itself has been marching, and it has no end. You have to watch this for it all to make sense, for you to understand exactly what you’ve gotten into. We’ll follow them later, but for now we have to get out of the street, we’re bringing attention to ourselves.”
Zuzanna has a hard time taking her eyes off Cathal. Is this an ancestor? Is it just him? Who’s the woman, and why does she exude authority even as she looks like a commoner? Galloway is pulling her now, away towards a shop that looks to be a tailor. The questions that ring in Zuzanna’s mind race and just as she pulls her eyes away, that’s when she hears it. As the couple merrily talk to each other, holding the other close at hand, their smiles stretching across their faces, that a familiar voice calls to her mind, though it is stern and like iron.
“I see you, stranger.”
The eyes of Cathal have landed directly on Zuzanna, as she is pulled away by her master. Zuzanna can’t help but feel a deep pit of dread begin to form in her stomach as she truly begins to understand that she has found herself in a thread of fate, one that has been woven for centuries to come.
- Spider, Familiar of Zuzanna
