Divine Ascension (Wattys 2024)

Chapter 11 - The Test

The following day, Melinda woke up in a cold sweat. At first, Jeffrey didn't see anything unusual with it. It was how she tended to wake up. She'd had a nightmare, and now was the time to comfort her by holding her tight in his arms, whispering sweet nothings into her ear and telling her that everything was going to be okay. However, after a while, he began to notice that something wasn't quite right.

"I saw a man," she rasped, her breath heavy. "Or at least it seemed like it. There was a tall shadow standing in the doorway of the main facility of the Obscurian Field For Magic, eavesdropping on Olivia and Maria's conversation. I wonder what it could mean."

"I assume it's probably no-"

"No," she interrupted him, shaking her head. "It has to mean something. It looked just like reality, and before you say that dreams are meant to look that way, everything was completely identical to how it would look in real life. Even describing it as a dream feels inaccurate. It was more like a vision, really. I'm convinced I've just been shown something that happened at least a few hours before which I couldn't have prevented, but why? What is the purpose of this cosmic torment?"

"I have no idea," he stammered. "You were never a prophet or an agent of cosmic balance as far as I can remember, despite your numerous overwhelming powe-"

She proceeded to fall to the ground with a scream, clutching her head desperately as it was pierced by a terrible, searing ache. In that one moment, she not only bore witness to more events than her entire life consisted of but also more events than a mere mortal mind could comprehend. All that she would be able to remember about that experience for the rest of her life were the flashing images of entities and apparitions diverse in colour and shape that made no sense to her, blinding lights and buzzing sounds filling her horizon instead of reality.

"Are you alright?" Jeffrey gasped, his understanding of reality eluding him as he was faced with something that was never meant for a farmer, leaving him able only to ask this question, whose answer was obviously negative.

Even as she staggered like a drunkard while standing up, she raised her hand in the air to gesture that she didn't need his help. It took her some time to make sense of reality again because she'd just discovered things beyond her, beyond humanity, and it made her realise that this was only the beginning, whether she liked it or not. She smiled at Jeffrey, as she always did, but now, her smile seemed more sewed on than anything, and it shook him to his very core.

"Melinda..." he said weakly. "What did you see?"

Just as she was about to answer, Patrick knocked on her door. With a groan, Jeffrey marched to open it, doing so before she could say anything to stop him. She simply stood there like she was frozen in time as the door was opened, their captor looking around nonchalantly like they were merely minor annoyances to him. She counted to ten in her head so that she wouldn't do something reckless, waiting for his next move.

"Hey, what's the problem, man?" he said with a laugh as Jeffrey glared at him, clearly tired of his attitude.

"It's nothing," Jeffrey said angrily. "It's just that my girlfriend had a literal seizure, which, by the way, she didn't use to have before, because she saw horrors beyond human comprehension, and it was a haunting experience, but sure, it's your house, so you can simply enter anywhere any time you like."

Patrick's eyes widened in realization. "So, it's finally happening... Good. I thought we might have to wait longer, but I guess the universe's as impatient as I am. The plan is set in motion, the stars have aligned, and now all we have to do is wait and follow the cosmic guidance as Time takes its twists and turns."

"What is happening?!" Melinda exclaimed, waving her hands in the air, hopelessly confused by it all. "I don't get any of it! What does the universe want from me?!"