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Zodiac’s Story
Magick is a powerful force. Nature never intended it to be used by humans. Those who are powerful and stupid enough to wield it inevitably find themselves dead. Magick cannot be harnessed, for this would imply that it could be controlled. If Zodiac had any wisdom, she would have realised that she was the harnessed and Magick was her controller.
However, like most Necromancers, Zodiac had been taught knowledge, not wisdom. Knowledge told her that Magick was a tool to be used to her advantage. Knowledge told her that Dragons were noble beasts, sure to join her cause if they were manipulated the right way.
As often happens, knowledge was Zodiac’s downfall.
“Free at last”
“I have released you from your eternal damnation! You are bound by the code of honour to serve me!”
One bright amber eye scrutinised Zodiac, who felt that she was shrinking away under its glare. Inside the infinite vacuum, universes were born and died.
“I was created from the nightmares of your ancestors, shaped by Greed and Destruction. Honour means nothing to me. All I know is this…”
Zodiac was enveloped by fire.
She is merely a child.
Looks can be deceptive.
She might have lived for a thousand years.
Her powers could not save her.Everyone ends up here.
It might take a thousand years.
But everyone ends up here.The whispered voices grew in number until individual words melted into one. They came from nowhere and everywhere in this colourless, empty place.
Where are you?Show yourselves!
Silence fell. Zodiac felt suddenly alone.
I am in the Ether.
Yes.
Then I am dead.
Yes.I will find a way out.
No one has ever escaped their death.I will find a way out!
No one wanted to talk to Zodiac after that. This suited her fine. She could concentrate on escaping from this realm of the dead. She had raised the dead before, but that was just simple Magick. To resurrect herself… well, it had never been done before. Zodiac wasn’t even sure it could be done.
But there was a chance. Zodiac belonged to one of the few Demonic necromancer clans left. They believed that when the Apocalypse came, the triumph of evil was inevitable. Only those who were prepared to side with evil would survive.
In the old days, Zodiac’s people had possessed knowledge of magicks powerful enough to cheat death. The manuscripts detailing these magicks were thought to have been lost, but Zodiac had spent 200 years tracking them down. Finally, she had found the ritual she was looking for.
The ritual involved taking twelve innocents and arranging them in a circle, on the night of the full moon. One by one, Zodiac had murdered them, cutting open their chests and taking their hearts. The hearts had to be buried in places of magickal convergence all around the world.
There was a prophecy written alongside the instructions for the ritual.
Her mind was focused. She knew that astral projection was commonplace. The veil between the living world and the Ether was weak enough to let through the ectoplasmic energy of the dead. You just had to want it strongly enough.
But Zodiac wasn’t going to be merely projecting her astral form onto the living world. She was going to break through completely, into the vessel that awaited her.
I am Zodiac
Wielder of magick
Nature cannot hold me
The moon is my guide.
I am Zodiac
Neither dead nor alive
Born from the ashes
Bound to no one’s will.
Zodiac opened her eyes to an unfamiliar world. She inspected her hands, her arms, her chest and her legs. Yes, this pale, thin body was hers.
The darkness was incomplete. Some light must be creeping in through a fault in the stonework. Zodiac ran a finger along the runes that decorated the walls. They depicted her life, all five hundred years of it. She would have liked to have lived for a little longer, but that life now belonged to the past. The important thing was that she had succeeded where so many others had failed.
She had cheated death.
Breaking out of her tomb was not an easy task. She did not possess the superhuman strength of a Vampyr, nor a Spirit’s ability to pass through solid walls. She seemed to be more like a Zombie, but with all the intelligence she had possessed in life.
Eventually Zodiac found a place where the stone was weak from water damage, and she was able to create a big enough hole to escape through.
It was twilight outside. Zodiac stared up at the full moon, but it did not return her gaze. She felt abandoned and cheated, as if it was the moon’s fault that she felt so empty. So hollow and emotionless. So cold, as if her heart had turned to ice and was freezing her from the inside.
She wanted to feel thankful that she was not condemned to the purgatory that she had escaped from, but she could not stop herself from wishing to be alive again.
Zodiac looked toward the oasis where her clan lived, turned, and ran away into the unforgiving desert on legs that she no longer felt were hers.
The sun would rise soon. Zodiac felt apprehensive. The undead were famous for being unable to tolerate sunlight. Would she be the same? It was too late to worry about that now. The prophecy had said that she would be called upon. She had to be ready.
“Get up, child.”
“It burns!”
“It only burns if you believe that it burns”Zodiac looked up. Standing above her, blocking out the sun, was an enormous woman with skin the colour of clay. She was completely naked from the waist up and wore two flaps of leather, tied around her waist with string. The leather had been bleached by the sun.
A necklace of bones was hung around the Giantess’s neck. Zodiac wondered if they were from the humans she had killed.
“I told you to get up. What is wrong with your ears, child?”
“I am a wielder of powerful Magicks,” Zodiac warned. “I am more than capable of defending myself!”
“And what exactly are you planning do defend yourself against? Me? Children today have no respect for their elders!”
“I am three hundred years old!”
“And I walked this earth for millions of years before your ancestors were even dreamed of. Now get up, or we shall waste the day with talking.”
Zodiac was picked up and carried to a cave. To her surprise, she was given food and water. She picked up a joint of meat and sniffed it tentatively before wolfing it down greedily.
The Giantess laughed at her appalling manners and told her to eat all that she could.
“The journey ahead will be demanding, not just for your body, but your mind too. Your beliefs will be challenged. I hope you are not opposed to changing your mind, child.”
Zodiac asked if this had anything to do with the prophecy.
“Never heard of any prophecy. I am merely doing what I have done since the beginning of Time; protecting the weak and helping them to their destiny.”
“And what is my destiny?” Zodiac asked.
“If you do not know that, I cannot tell you. You will find out in due time, child. Now, no more questions. It is time for sleep, and dreams.”
In the end, Nature forced the Moon to leave the world, and it did as she ordered, leaving to watch the world from above. However, it did leave Nature’s children one gift. This was the gift to dream. They dreamed of the strange form that the Moon had taken, and because they were magickal, their dreams became reality. This is how humans were made.
Zodiac dreamed of Dragons and Spirits and Giants. She dreamed that she was trapped inside a tomb and couldn’t get out. The walls of the tomb started moving in towards each other and Zodiac was crushed.
Now she was walking across the desert, every step sinking into the sand and taking more effort than if the ground had been solid. She felt herself being pulled down and struggled to free herself from the quicksand, but it was too strong. She disappeared into the ground.
Your fate is inescapable.
No one has ever cheated death.
You think that you are Chosen.
You think that this makes you special.
You are no more special than any of us.
Zodiac was encircled by twelve Demons, chanting these five sentences over and over in the same whispered voices from the Ether. The faces of the Demons changed and took on the appearance of the twelve innocents she had killed.
“I did what I had to. It was in the prophecy. You were meant to die and I was meant to kill you. The prophecy said so.”
The prophecy is irrelevant.
We died so that you could live again.
“I did what I had to!” Zodiac screamed, and the Demons melted away in the heat of the Dragon’s fire.
Zodiac froze, trapped by those eyes, unable to defend herself. Unable to prevent her own death.
The Dragon breathed and Zodiac was enveloped by fire.
“Is this the best you can do, child?”“I am sorry. I have failed.” Zodiac sobbed. She was sinking into a white mist. When had her dream become reality?
“Get up!”With a force strong enough to rip the head off of a mountain, Zodiac was pulled to her feet. The mist faded away and Zodiac could see that she was standing in a long corridor. There were closed doors as far as she could see. The corridor stretched into infinity, never curving. Zodiac thought she could see the end of the world, far off in the distance.
So this was her journey. But where was she going? Holding back her tears, Zodiac started walking.
Once humans came into existence, they inherited the power to dream. Humans are different from beings of Nature in that they have the power to imagine things that do not exist. They imagined all kinds of dark creatures, and all kinds of dark concepts, including Fear and Death.
Nature saw what was happening and rallied all of her children together to stop them, but the force of evil was too strong. Nature’s children were fearful of humans and the things they had dreamed. Most of all, they were afraid of death.
Zodiac slumped against the wall, too tired to go on. A great sob shook her body and the tears could no longer be held back.
“There is no use in crying, Zodiac.”
Zodiac’s head snapped up. A tall stranger in a brown cloak was watching her. A hood covered their head, so she could not tell what race they were from, or even what gender they were.
“What else can I do but cry? I have no idea where I’m going or why I’m even here. I don’t want to fulfil the prophecy. I want to be alive again!”
“Are you sure that this is what you truly desire?”
“Yes! I should never have summoned the Dragon! I was drunk on power. I thought I could control it. I was wrong.” Zodiac hung her head, feeling ashamed.
“You have gained wisdom from your experiences. But you have a long way to go before you achieve true wisdom. I cannot give you this wisdom. But I can guide you on your path.”
The stranger pointed at a door to Zodiac’s left. It was like all of the others; very old, made of sturdy oak and covered in ancient runes that Zodiac had never seen before. There was no handle.
“Who are you?” Zodiac asked, turning.
“The last of my kind.”
The voice came from nowhere. The stranger was gone.
She touched the door and it swung open. She stepped through.
Zodiac was standing on a golden beach. Palm trees were dotted around and a few people were relaxing on the sand or sitting in groups and talking in a lazy, casual way that suggested that they had all day to finish their conversation and they weren’t going to rush it. A man with dreadlocks waved gently at Zodiac as she appeared from nowhere. She realised that she must look out of place, a pale goth on a Caribbean island, but no one seemed to mind.
She walked around for a while, wishing she could feel the sun on her skin. Instinctively, she started drifting away from the people, reluctant to inflict herself upon the living.
“Psst!”
Zodiac looked around, wondering whether she had imagined the noise.
“Hey! I’m talking to you!”
Had that palm tree just spoken to her?
“Dead Girl! Over here!”
Definitely the tree. Zodiac wondered if she was dreaming, but decided that she probably wasn’t. Stranger things had happened to her than talking trees.
“What are you?”
The tree giggled. It occurred to Zodiac that it was starting to look less like a tree and more like a chubby, grinning, brown skinned girl with green leafy hair. The tree was still there, behind the girl, but it seemed less corporeal than when the girl had not been visible.
“I’m a Nymph, silly! Well, a Hamadryad to be specific.”
“Oh.” Zodiac had thought that Hamadryads were a dead race. She’d never before heard of one inhabiting a palm tree. It seemed pretty obvious now that she thought about it, though. The girl’s clothes had three layers, each a different shade of brown and looked similar to the layers of bark on the trunk of a palm tree.
“Hey, guess what?”
Zodiac felt inclined to say that she had no time for games, but the truth was that she had all the time in the world.
“What?”
“I can grant wishes!”
Now this was interesting. Zodiac forced a smile and bent down so that she was at the girl’s height.
“Any wish that I want?”
“Any wish you want!”
“I wish that I was alive again.”
The Nymph’s face fell. “Wouldn’t you rather wish for a lovely bunch of flowers?”
She should have remembered that Nymphs could only grant minor, Nature related wishes. They had roots deep into the ground and could tap into natural sources of magick and use it to do party tricks.
Maybe she shouldn’t have been so hard on the girl, then. It was too late now anyway. Anger had caused her to act without thinking. Wishing couldn’t undo what she had done.
Tears ran down the Nymph’s cheeks and plopped into the soft sand at her feet. This had been her home for thousands of years. Now she would have to replant and it wouldn’t feel the same. Humans were so cruel and thoughtless. If they hadn’t abused Nature’s magick in the first place and diluted its power, she would still be as powerful as she once was.
The Nymph remembered the days when Nature’s children had covered the world and been able to do as they pleased. Dwarves were once able to change rock into gold and make beautiful jewellery for the Nymph and her sisters. Satyrs could once play songs that changed the shape of reality and Fauns would dance along, adding bits in. Elves, the wisest of all races, were able to see the future and the humans had captured them, hoping to use this ability to their advantage. The Nymph didn’t even know whether there were any left. Giants, the once protectors of all other races, were now forced into hiding due to the belief of humans that they were evil.
“I’m sorry I ripped up your tree”
The Nymph turned. It was that dead girl again. There was no mistaking the spiky black air, dyed purple at the front, and the painted swirls under the girl’s green eyes. She sniffed.
“Did you just apologise to me?”
“Yes. I really am sorry. I’ll help you replant it, if you like.”
The Nymph smiled. “Thank you.”
Somewhere, in an endless corridor, a stranger in a cloak nods, smiles, and carries on walking into infinity.
“She is learning of wisdom. Soon, she will be ready.”
“There. It’s as good as new.”
“Thank you for helping me. Maybe humans aren’t as bad as I thought.”
The Nymph grinned at Zodiac and the necromancer found herself smiling back for a few seconds, before she remembered herself.
She turned and walked across the beach, feeling angry with herself. There was no use making friends. Soon she would be called upon to bring ruin to the world. The prophecy had chosen her to commence the Apocalypse.
It was getting dark; she should find somewhere to spend the night and tomorrow she would find out how to complete the prophecy. The natives were having a party on the beach, dancing and singing and enjoying life. Zodiac could never have that. She must accept her death and move on.
Lost in thought, she bumped into something large, scaly and warm to the touch.
She looked up. And up. And up.
“I have tracked you across time and space, human.”
Zodiac found herself frozen to the spot. She had never been so paralysed with overwhelming fear. In life she had feared death, but this was worse. Ignorance had always held the fear back, allowed for hope that death wouldn’t be as bad as she thought. Now she knew what would happen, and the fear was enough to drive her insane.
The Dragon roared and sent spurts of flame towards the natives, who had abandoned their party and were hiding under trees. The trees caught fire and several people were consumed by the flames. Anger bubbled up into Zodiac’s chest, so much that she almost felt like she was alive again.
Panic was breaking out as flames spread to the grassland behind the beach. Zodiac realised that the village was in that direction. Their homes would be destroyed.
“Stop!” she shouted. The Dragon’s great head bent down to her level and the eye surveyed her as it had done once before. It sniffed her deeply and smiled with satisfaction.
“Your emotions are delicious. The first time that I killed you, you were but a morsel, but now…”
It snapped up a frightened child in its jaws and swallowed him whole. Zodiac’s fists clenched.
“What a banquet awaits me!”
“Run!” Zodiac shouted at the natives. Some of them came to their senses and ran away, others were swept along by friends and family. Soon the beach was clear of innocents, a perfect arena for a final battle. The opponents faced off, one expecting an easy kill and the other not caring whether she lived or died.
But not all of the innocents had fled. The Nymph grabbed Zodiac’s hand and squeezed tight. Her skin was too warm, as if she had a fever.
“I’m scared, Zodiac. My tree is burning. I can feel it!”
Zodiac knew that Nymphs are tied to certain landforms; a Hamadryad, for example, has a bond with a specific tree. This makes them almost an extension of Nature herself and means that they can use her magick. Unfortunately, the bond is so strong that when a Hamadryad’s tree dies, so does she.
“Don’t worry. I know what to do.”
Over time, Nature’s magick has been diluted. Those who try to harness its power must use symbols, words and potions in order to produce any effect. However, there are four natural elements, which are still as powerful as ever.
It is possible to manipulate these elements by channelling the natural magick into your body. A non-magickal being, such as a human, cannot withstand such powerful magick for long. Some elemental spells are so powerful that the entire life force of the user is consumed in the casting.
It was a calm evening. The sea gently caressed the shore, as if it wasn’t bothered about making waves tonight. Zodiac called out to it and the water drew in towards her, lapping around her feet.
At her command, it pulled back, gathering all of its force into a wave, which grew to the height of a child, then a tall man, and kept increasing in size until it towered over the Dragon and the island upon which the foul beast sat.
Zodiac glowed with energy. She could feel every cell in her body burning up, unable to contain the magick that coursed through her.
“Release!” she gasped, and the wave eagerly rushed towards shore, roaring with pleasure. It crashed over the beach, smothering the forest fire that was spreading toward the village, then sank happily into the sand.
The Dragon roared louder than ever before. Steam poured out of its nostrils as it writhed upon the sand, cursing Zodiac and the human race. Finally, it fell silent, its fire extinguished forever.
The Nymph watched as Zodiac’s body became clear and started to lose its shape, as if she was melting away. With a splash, she burst into pure water. Instead of trickling into the sand, the water flowed into the sea, which had regained its lazy tranquillity.
Orbs of light began to gather on the water’s surface. They came from all directions and accumulated until they formed the outline of a human girl, who nodded at the Nymph, glowed brightly for a second, and was gone.
A new star appeared in the sky. The Nymph walked back to her tree. Her face was wet with tears.
Flames licked around the Nymph’s legs, burning her alive. Her skin was peeling away and at the same time, her bark was blackening and crumbling to dust. The pain she felt was deeper than human agony; Nature’s magick amplified it and turned it into a song of distress and suffering.
Water sprites danced around her, taunting her and all at once she was reminded of why she came.
Healing water surged over her, putting out the flames and restoring the Nymph’s health. The sprites turned into stars and flew away. A bright light filled the Nymph’s vision, momentarily blinding her, and when she could see again, she was in a long corridor.
“There is something you wish to ask me?”
The Nymph jumped and turned around. A stranger in a brown cloak was standing over her.
“You knew what would happen to her. Why did you send her to my island?”
“I saw all possible futures. The Dragon was hunting her. It would have found her, regardless. There was no chance of survival.”
“You could have sent her to someone who could help.”
“That was one possibility. And she would have lived for a while longer, if you call it living. But soon, the emptiness would have driven her to suicide. And she would have learned nothing.”
The cloaked stranger bent down and dried the Nymph’s tears.
“She told me that she wanted to be alive again. We both know that this was impossible. I gave her the next best thing.”
The Nymph took a step back and looked the cloaked stranger in the eye. Without any physical change, she had managed to become taller than before, and a little less chubby.
“Can I see her again? I never got to thank her. I owe her that, at least.”
“It is possible. Are you ready to leave your old home and grow up?”
“I am.”
A young woman has been seen sitting in its uppermost branches. Her hair is long and wild, her skin is the colour of chocolate and the dress she wears is simple, but elegant. She must be in her twenties, but if you looked into her eyes, you would see that she is much older than any human.
She never moves from the branch upon which she sits. Some say that she is waiting for a lover to return, others believe that she is waiting for the end of the world.
For her story to end, another must begin.
