Book of Darkness
Chapter 2: Peace is a Void Issue
Score didn’t know what had woken him up. One minute, he was sleeping like a baby, the next, he was sitting up in bed, wide awake. There wasn’t a sound in the castle, and there wasn’t a sound outside the castle, either. At least, none that he could identify as enough to warrant enough trouble that he needed to wake up.
But something was definitely wrong, and he wasn’t going to manage to get any sleep without knowing what it was.
He threw back the blankets and grabbed a shirt, pulling it over his head. Then, in nothing but a tanktop and boxers, he pulled open the door to his room and charged into the hallway.
Only to stop centimeters away from the point of a really, really sharp sword.
“Lord, Helaine!” he shouted, realizing how close he had come to being impaled by the weapon. “Watch where you point that thing!”
Helaine immediately sheathed her sword, and Score took the time to notice that she was still in her nightgown. She’d just taken time to grab her weapon. “Were you woken up, too?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “Something’s making my skin crawl here.”
“Mine as well,” she replied. “I’m sensing danger, but I’m not sure from where. When your door swung open, I reacted on instinct. I’d forgotten where your bedroom was.” She eyed him critically. “Interesting attire.”
“I could say the same for you,” Score shot back, raising an eyebrow at her. To his surprise, she looked down and blushed, eyes wide.
“Ooops,” she muttered, and he almost burst out laughing at the puzzled expression on her face. That urge immediately vanished when the sound of something breaking echoed down the hallway.
“Pixel!” they shouted in unison. Score took a second to grab his emerald, then followed after Helaine, who was already moving with her sword drawn.
Pixel’s door was ajar, and they paused cautiously outside of it. “I don’t hear anything,” Helaine whispered, looking at Score.
“Neither do I,” Score said back. “Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?”
“Depends,” she replied. “But I’ve still got that sense of trouble brewing.”
Score nodded. Then, slowly, he knocked on the door. “Pixel? We’re coming in.” Helaine stepped forward and tried to push the door open, but there was something blocking it. Giving Score a concerned glance, she stepped back, then kicked it hard. The door shot inward and whatever was in the way was thrown against the opposite wall.
It had been Pixel’s mattress. Helaine and Score stood in the doorway, staring into the room with total shock. “My God,” Score breathed. “What the hell happened here?”
The room was a mess. The mattress was torn and ripped. The bedding was shredded. The mirror on one wall was now on the floor, in pieces. That must’ve been what they’d heard breaking. There was a dent in one wall, indicating that something hard had hit it with brutal force.
“Score,” Helaine said, a strange tone in her voice. She pointed at something on the dresser. Score looked, and his throat tightened.
Four gemstones sat on the wooden tabletop: a ruby, a beryl, a topaz, and a jacinth. Untouched, and in the exact same position that Pixel left them when he went to bed every night.
The two magic-users looked at them. “He didn’t even have time to grab them,” Score said. “Where is he, Helaine?”
“I…I don’t know,” she said, her voice shaking slightly. “We didn’t sense anything…nothing at all.”
“Not true,” Score said. “We woke up. But whatever happened, we woke up too late. And I get the feeling that was exactly what whoever-it-was was counting on.”
They both knew that. Knew that they had woken up too late and too far away to be able to stop anything. But knowing that, and also knowing that it didn’t matter – they still felt that it was, in some way, their fault – wasn’t the real question.
The real question was, what had happened to Pixel?
Pixel was very much interested in the answer to that question himself. He’d been sleeping peacefully, without even a dream to disturb him, and then he’d woken up to find a pair of red eyes peering down at him. He’d rolled out of bed as the creature had attempted to slice him in half, but it had been quick. Then there had been someone else, someone who seemed to control the creature – it had all happened so fast, he couldn’t be entirely sure of that – and then…
A Portal, he realized. The second person had arrived in a Portal, and had grabbed him and pulled him through the Portal.
“Where am I?” he said, his voice echoing slightly. All around him, all he saw was darkness. Nothing but darkness, for miles in all directions. The only reason he knew he was standing on solid ground was that he could feel it beneath his feet. If for any reason he had been suspended in air by a rope, there would’ve been no way for him to identify the floor. “Where am I?” he called again.
Suddenly, lights flickered on along the edges of what he could now see (thanks to the dim firelight) were walls. This provided just a tad bit of sight, and Pixel fought not to sigh in relief. He didn’t want to do anything that might make those lights go out again.
SO. HE’S AWAKENED.
“Yah!” Pixel yelped, looking around wildly. The voice had come out of exactly nowhere, and yet seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. “Who’s there?”
THIS IS THE GREAT WIZARD OF SIGHT?
Pixel gulped. “Uh…not really.”
ARE YOU NOT THE ONE NAMED SHALAR DOMAIN, OF CALOMIR?
“Yes.”
YOU SEE? I TOLD YOU HE WAS THE WIZARD OF SIGHT.
There were two voices, he could see – or rather, hear – that now. They sounded exactly alike, neither male nor female, and carried the same all-powerful, all-echoing, all-headache-inducing tone and volume. It was only the last words that had clued him into that – whoever, or whatever, these voices belonged to, they were arguing over him.
“Excuse me,” Pixel said, taking a deep breath, “but what is going on here? Where am I? Why’d you kidnap me? And what in the world is going on here?”
NOT QUITE IN THE WORLD, IF YOU WANT TO BE SPECIFIC. WELCOME TO THE INTER-REALM, SHALAR. WE ARE THE OMNIPOTENT.
“The…what?” Pixel shook his head. “What’s the Inter-Realm? And who are the Omnipotent?”
THIS IS THE INTER-REALM. WE ARE THE OMNIPOTENT. YOU’RE NOT BEING CLEAR. HE DOESN’T KNOW WHERE ‘THIS’ IS AND WHO ‘WE’ ARE. HE’S THE WIZARD OF SIGHT – HE SHOULD KNOW THESE THINGS. NOT NECESSARILLY.
Now Pixel was really beginning to get a headache. He couldn’t tell one voice from the other, and it was beginning to sound like these ‘Ominipotent’ or whatever were having a conversation with itself…or themselves…or whatever… Pixel shook his head. “Stop calling me the Wizard of Sight!” he snapped. “I’m not!”
ISN’T THAT WHAT THE PEOPLE OF THE DIADEM CALL YOU?
“Occasionally. But it doesn’t mean anything.”
IT MEANS EVERYTHING, CALOMIRIAN. WE OF THE INTER-REALM HAVE BEEN AWAITING YOUR COMING.
This stopped Pixel. “You have? Why? What for? Why me? And why can’t I just go home? And why, why, why don’t you sound different from each other?!”
The voice(s) paused. Pixel clenched his fists and drew in a couple of deep, shuddering breaths. He was tense, waiting to see what would happen next. Being without his gemstones made him feel vulnerable. What he wouldn’t give for those gems now. Or even his quarterstaff. He hadn’t spent the last three years having Helaine teach him how to use that thing for nothing.
But he had nothing.
Then the room seemed to brighten, just slightly. At the same time, a breeze kicked up. From where, Pixel couldn’t tell. As far as he could see, there was no window or door in this entire hall. Just the endless stone walls and ceiling above and around him.
The breeze grew stronger, until it was whipping around him like a hurricane, yet not really touching him. And then it was as if someone had opened a vacuum in the room, and was sucking all the air out, only Pixel could still breathe. The suction seemed to be coming from one spot, several feet away from him.
There was a flash of light, and the suction stopped. Pixel’s eyes widened as he took in the person who had just appeared before him.
He stood at eight feet in height. Long blond hair trailed down his back, but turned darker towards the ends, so it was hard to tell just how long it really was. The man’s skin was ghost white, and seemed to flicker with some inner fire. Ebony eyes looked at him, and the all-black ensemble the man wore reminded Pixel of something…but he couldn’t quite place it. He was too much in shock and awe to say anything.
“We are the Omnipotent,” replied the Omnipotent. “We are the ones who live within the Inter-Realm. The Realm between the worlds, so to speak. Magic-users cross this plane with each Portal, but always too fast, too quick to see anything.
“You were taken out of your world via Portal, but we intercepted you and kept you here while your abductor continued on. You will see him again. He will be looking for you, but he knows nothing of the Inter-Realm.”
“So, you saved me?” Pixel asked, confused. “Are you going to let me go home?”
“No,” replied the Omnipotent. “We do not have that power. Once a mortal has been trapped in the Inter-Realm, there is only one way for them to return to Real Time.”
“Then why did you keep me here?” Pixel demanded. “Why?”
“We could not let him have you. You are too important to the Diadem, and he would’ve used you for evil. You have two choices – stay here in the Inter-Realm and use your power to protect the Diadem as a messenger, or take the much more dangerous and less successful route to Dondar.”
Even though it was obvious that the Omnipotent was trying to get him to stay there, obviously he couldn’t force him. “How do I get home?” Pixel asked stubbornly.
The Omnipotent smiled sadly, as if had known that Pixel would turn it down. “You must travel through the Void.”
Although the name meant nothing, Pixel suddenly had a flash of fear run through him. “What’s the Void, and where is it?” he asked, steeling himself.
“Follow us.”
