Gloom Rising (The Book Wielder Saga 1) (27 page)

“Whoa, your eyes are white, man!” Lewis said to Winston. “You’ve got small black rings around your irises, then pure white, then your pupils.”

Winston looked at Lewis. “Yours are black,” he said slowly.

“Really? What, all black?” Lewis asked shocked.

“Well, black irises and pupils. The rest is white,” Winston replied.

“Cool, very cool. Thanks Omni!” Lewis said cheerfully.

“You are most welcome, Lewis. Winston, are you pleased?” the Archmage asked sincerely.

“Yes... thank you.” Winston tried to sound grateful but he was still uncertain about the whole situation. “So if you don’t need a portal, what do you need?”

“A full merger. You see, the quill will allow you to alter reality in some ways. The full extent will only be limited by your own personal power, Winston.” Omniosis once again waved his hand at the floor and it changed into a bird’s eye view of the real world. “For my plan to work I will require you to merge the Gloom with our world at these three points.” Purple markers appeared over Imperia City, Industria City, and Tropica City. “Your greatest cities merging with the Gloom will weaken the barriers between the two dimensions, I will cross over with Gloom City, and then each subsequent merger will increase my power until I will be able to assist you with bringing the source of magic across at your Central Isle.”

Winston thought of the Flesh Mountain. “You want to bring that thing to the real world?!”

“Only momentarily, Winston. You will be able to penetrate its exterior with the quill’s magic, and then I will be able to siphon out the magic and distribute it across the world. Without the source, my lost and deformed kin will be put out of their misery, the two dimensions will once again be one, and the foul sorcery of the two rebellious witches will finally be undone. That is, if you’re willing to help?”

“Of course we are!” Lewis said enthusiastically.

“We are?” Winston asked Lewis in astonishment.

“Definitely,” Lewis replied defensively. “Omni made the books, and they found us. We’re chosen to bring magic back to world, man!”

“What do you have a problem with, Winston?” the Archmage asked. “Is it that you still don’t trust me? I understand that it’s a lot to take in, but this is what you were made for. This is your destiny.”

Winston chose his words carefully. “What you’re asking is a monumental task. We won’t just be able to casually merge the biggest cities in the world with the Gloom, and there will be resistance from humans and Supernaturals alike.”

“But you will have an army at your disposal,” the Archmage said kindly. “I wouldn’t expect you to do this alone.”

“What army?” Lewis asked.

“The ones below – the Alternatives, as you call them,” Omniosis replied. “They will fight for me, and they will definitely fight for you, Winston. You’re a hero to them. I even have some sway with my old kind, the Demons. They will aide our cause.”

“It just seems a bit... extreme,” Winston replied. To do what Omniosis wanted bordered on global domination.

“Are you not actively engaged in spreading your gang, a gang you’re not even running I might add, across the face of the planet?” Omniosis asked in a curious tone. “Did you not just engage the human Inquisition forces on Central Isle? I watched the whole thing from here and I thought it was a magnificent idea, by the way.”

“Think about it, Winston,” Lewis said enthusiastically. “The world would be ours to do whatever we want with. We wouldn’t be working for the gangs anymore, they’d be working for us! Supernaturals would be able to live openly with the humans, no more hiding at all. It will be great!”

“That does sound good,” Winston agreed, “but where do figure into the end game of this plan, Omniosis?”

“Ah, that little matter. Now I won’t lie to you, especially as you are to be my salvation; I intend to take my old position back. The world was once mine, and so it will be again. But you are partially Archmage too now, so the world will rightfully be yours as well. That is, if you don’t have any objections about sharing it with me?”

Lewis looked at Winston with pleading eyes.

“Fine, we’ll do it,” Winston said. He’d come this far, and he might as well carry on.

“Yes, nice one Winston! Oh, this is going to be so good,” Lewis celebrated.

“Thank you, Winston. I shall forever be in your debt,” the Archmage said sweetly. “I will begin the preparations shortly and let you know when I’m ready. Do you agree that your Capital, Imperia City, is the correct place to start?”

“Yes, and I think I have some ideas to make things easier for us,” Winston said. The idea of being co-owner of the world seemed more appealing to him than he first imagined, and if the magic was forced out of the world wrongly, wouldn’t they be doing the right thing by putting it back? “We can just expand on our plan with the Shadow Circle to help, if Lucius is up for it. And the Imperian Governor is still hiding in the secret rooms at the Hotel Noir; maybe he can get the Military Peace Keepers on side for us now that the Inquisition has been crippled.”

“Excellent thinking, Winston,” Omniosis said in an impressed tone, “but obvious dangers of what we are planning aside, there is something, or rather someone I must warn you about. That goes for you too, Lewis.”

Winston didn’t like the sound of that at all. “Who do we need warning about?”

“No doubt you have noticed the two brightest stars in the Gloom sky,” Omniosis began. “They are all that is left of the twin witches who caused this mess. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have already attempted contacting you with what pitiful power they have left, but I have foreseen they will manage to contact another, one who desperately wants to communicate with them too. They will use this pawn of theirs to try and confuse you and fill your head with lies. Do not be taken in by their deceitful words, for they are filled with jealousy and malicious spiteful hatred. This pawn will try to destroy you both, I have no doubt in my mind.”

“Do you know who this person is?” Lewis asked.

“Foresight is a tricky thing. It’s hard to say exactly who they will choose before it happens,” the Archmage said, “but my best guess would be an Inquisitor named Alice Eve.”

Chapter 10:

Divine Intervention

The Autocrats plan had worked, but not in the way he had wanted it to.

Alice Eve had now taken control of what was left of the Inquisition. As per Edgar II’s instructions, she had left the Capital in the hands of her forces and returned to the Central Isle, and had recalled the ships guarding the underwater cable work to defend the Isle and increase patrols. Then she had pulled resources from all over the world to begin the lengthy repair efforts, though luckily the attack had only skimmed the surface and left the secret facilities intact. She had ordered the research and development teams to install motion detectors and other high-tech monitoring and surveillance equipment across the shoreline. Alice had also commissioned them to craft her a state of the art suit of power armour, including the inbuilt slim-line weaponry they had equipped their new model of agile Autons with. They were still struggling with developing an effective enough operating system but they had the basic function done now, so they could walk, target, and shoot, but not very quickly.

After that, she had contacted General Wallace and Azalea and given them a detailed account of what had happened. They had obviously been shocked, and she doubted that they truly believed her, so she ordered them back to the Isle at their earliest convenience to see the surveillance footage first hand. She had already done the same with the world Councillors just after the attack, and after the shock and disbelief had worn off they had decided to cover up the Supernatural attack with a half-believable story involving a made up group of Tropican rebels. They had agreed between them to delay electing a new Autocrat from their ranks until after Edgar II’s televised mock funeral (there was nothing left of him to bury), and the joint funeral for all of the victims that had died in the attack. They had unanimously agreed to give Alice their full support in dealing with the Supernatural problem. Once Azalea and Wallace arrived she would go over her ideas to enact harsher sentencing, and authorise torture methods for interrogations and on-the-spot executions for suspected human traitors; if the Supernaturals wanted to play dirty, so would she.

With Alice’s long list of business concluded, she finally had a moment to grieve and to pray. She had made to the top floor of Central Tower (using the stairs, as the elevator had to be rebuilt from scratch) and stood amongst the charred ruins of Edgar II’s study. The windows were gone, along with most of the walls. The roof had collapsed, and all that remained of the big metal doors were melted stumps. It was the first time anyone had been back up there since the few skeletal remains of his guardians had been removed from their burnt out power armour. The foul evil magic had been so hot that most of the bones had been reduced to ash. The only way they knew that Edgar was dead was from the buildings security operating system. His fight to the death with the disgusting puppet woman had sent a shiver down Alice’s spine.

Alice walked to the spot where Edgar had died, stared down at the blackened floor, and fell to her knees weeping. Her leader, her Autocrat, her friend from her youth at the orphanage onwards was dead, all because of the evil Supernaturals and their puppet freaks from a different dimension. She felt weak, powerless, and overwhelmed by the responsibility that had been placed upon her shoulders. If a great man like Edgar Aurelius II could not succeed then what chance did she have? She put her hands over her face and sobbed uncontrollably, rocking her head back and forth near the floor. She knew what her duty demanded of her, but how could she keep herself together through these mad times now that he was gone? Where were the Twin Goddesses, and why did they remain so placid when their humble followers were under such ruthless attack?

Something hit the ground with a small thud, interrupting her hysteria. Alice opened her eyes to see that her damned notebook had fallen out of her trench coat’s top pocket. She glared at it through her tear soaked eyes, looking at its stupid open pages glowing in the sun. The thing had enlarged itself with whatever foul magic was contained within. Enough was enough.

“Get the hell away from me!” she screamed at the top of her voice. She went to grab fistfuls of the pages to tear them to shreds but her hands became stuck to them. She tried wrenching herself free, but all of sudden it seemed as though the book weighed a ton, and it remained in place on the floor no matter how hard she struggled. Alice panicked, kicking and screaming and trying everything she could to get free, but nothing worked. Suddenly, the world around her began to spin.

Alice’s surrounding became a sickening blur. She saw flashes of screaming mouths and bloodshot eyes in an endless mound of exposed muscle. The stench of death was all around her, and she vomited heavily as she was wrenched upwards. Her world kept spinning as she was pulled above. Higher and higher she went, until she finally came to a stop floating amongst the stars. Her heart pounded so hard that her eyes flashed with every pulse, and the sense of vertigo was nauseating.

All around her in a twilight sky were dim stars that sparkled intermittently. Beneath her was a seemingly endless sea of white and gold clouds, and directly before her were two glowing orbs of light.

“Be calm, Alice Eve,” the two orbs said together in a serene airy voice. “You are not in any danger.”

Suddenly, magically, the sense of fear and nausea were washed away from her. She felt at peace, but she didn’t let that lull her into a false sense of security. “What are you?” she demanded, reaching for her plasma pistol.

“We are your Twin Goddesses,” they replied softly, “although in truth we are far from Gods.”

“Lies,” Alice spat back. “Do not take me for a fool, foul creatures! If you wish to kill me then be done with it and drop this stupid charade!”

“We are being honest. We will make you understand,” they replied calmly. “We could drop you right now if we wanted to harm you. Speaking to you would make no sense if that was our intention.”

“It would if you wanted information. You’re not getting anything from me.” She put the plasma pistol to her own head.

“Stop this please,” the orbs asked, and the pistol turned into a cloud of white smoke in Alice’s hand.

Alice gasped and recoiled from the puff of smoke as it dissipated. “What do you want from me?”

“We want to give you information,” the Goddesses said, “and then we need to ask a great favour of you.”

Alice had run out of patience. Maybe this was all just a bad dream. “Fine, tell me then.”

“We were once Book Wielders, like you...”

“I’m not a Book Wielder. I don’t work for those foul Supernatural beasts!” Alice cut in.

“Oh, but you are child,” the Goddesses said sadly. “Whether you accept it or not, it doesn’t change the truth. If you weren’t one, you wouldn’t be here with us. But being a Book Wielder doesn’t mean you work for the ones you call Supernaturals; it means that you
are
a Supernatural.”

“No, no, I don’t accept that! I’m a good person, and if you are truly the Twin Goddesses then you would know that. I’ve lived by your code my whole life! How could I be a Supernatural?” Alice said hysterically, but in her heart she knew that she was a Book Wielder. She’d known it from the moment Edgar II had told her about them.

“Being a Book Wielder doesn’t make you a bad person, nor does being a Supernatural. Their thoughts and actions determine whether they are good or bad, exactly the same as with regular humans,” The Goddesses explained. “Please listen to what we have to say and all will become clear.”

“Okay,” Alice reluctantly agreed.

“We belonged to a race called Archmages. We looked like you and lived like you, but we were immortal and possessed great power. We lived in harmony with humanity for a while, but a group of the most powerful Archmages took control of the world and enslaved humanity, who they deemed to be nothing more than animals. The trend continued until it became less acceptable to be tolerant than intolerant. My race was mad with power and did whatever they could do gain more. But since the beginning of time, there have been Book Wielders of both human and Archmage origin, and they are chosen by forces that even we cannot begin to fathom. If and when they die, the books find new chosen owners, and on rare occasions a completely new book manifests into reality to keep the numbers of Book Wielders steady. Their purpose was to regulate the use of magic and stop those who would abuse it. However, the tradition has faded and been forgotten, along with the true history of the world. ”