Darkest Desires → Caliban [CAOS]

i. the ultimatum

THE ULTIMATUM
CHAPTER ONE

Sands shifted beneath Caliban's feet as the sun hung low above the horizon, illuminating the space around him. He gazed at the enchanting scene, ethereal light washing over every surface of the land, painting it with strokes of pure gold. The combination of purple, gold and blue that highlighted the sky proved to Caliban even more that he was exactly where he needed to be. Scorching heat prickled against his skin. It rolled past, disrupting the picturesque landscape with a rippling haze. Even despite the almost unbearable heat, Caliban could still sense the magic that lingered in the sultry air that brushed his skin.

Scanning his surroundings with reverence, Caliban took in the emptiness around him. Mountainous dunes rose and fell as far as the eye could see, and he had no doubt that he was the first to tread this land in quite some time. The portal he'd summoned deposited him far from any modern civilization, leaving him alone in the deserted grounds. It was safe to assume that no living mortal held the memory of this place. But regardless of its millennium of negligence, its beauty still lingered to this day.

Caliban's curls rustled in the subtle breeze that did nothing to subdue the suffocating heat, drawing beads of sweat to his skin. Soon night would fall, and his task would grow much more tedious in darkness. Refusing to waste any more time, Caliban proceeded on with his journey. He was finally only minutes away from finding what he'd spent days searching for. Nothing would stop him from leaving the desert without it— not the heat, not the oppressive darkness soon to come. This very moment amounted to everything. It could solve all his problems, make him more powerful than he had ever been. Nothing could get in his way. Every step he took solidified his certainty that this was indeed the place he'd been searching for. Every text, every spell, every whisper, culminated to this moment.

Half crumbled stone walls and eroded columns leered down at him with centuries of wisdom. Once, this place might have been a sight to behold, but now, it was nothing more than a forsaken wasteland. But beneath the layers of sand and rubble, something lay long forgotten. Caliban halted at the very center of the skeletal structure and cocked his head to the side.

Something was different here. A phantom trail of energy trickled down his spine as if someone had taken a finger and pressed it to his very skin. It was here.

He'd visited many locations, followed lead after lead, all of them dead ends. But now he felt it. The whisper of power just waiting to be woken, waiting to be wielded, and Caliban would be the one to do it. A smirk subconsciously curled his lips as his chest filled with satisfaction, knowing how close he was to getting all her ever dreamed of.

Caliban dug his fingers deep into the sand. His skin screamed in protest as the grains burned at the contact. But even if his fingers burned to the core, even if the heat left him with nothing but his bare bones, he would not abandon his search.

So when his fingers made contact with what he could have imagined had physically been on the sun itself, Caliban did nothing more than flinch. He bit his tongue at the growing burn he felt at the tip of his fingers, but he refused to withdraw his hands.