(Updates everyday)
Power demands what it's owed, and souls are its favorite currency.
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When museum curator, Lena Goodwin, receives an anonymous package containing damning evidence of a mistake she thought she buried years ago, her carefully built...
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Lena was pulled into a dark, barren expanse. One second she was in the chamber beneath Hugh's apartment, her surroundings hazy until her vision gave way to darkness. When she opened her eyes, she was outside. The sky above her was a storm of grey and black clouds, unlike anything she'd ever seen before. The air sparked with promise.
The only thing that remained from before were the glowing symbols that pulsed faintly near her now on the ground instead of stone walls. Each lit up like it was struck by lightning, illuminating the confusion on her face.
Where was she? Was this another vision? It certainly felt like it.
For a moment, Lena stood in place but when nothing happened, she took a cautious step forward, standing on one of thirteen glowing symbols. Shadows suddenly erupted from within, like they had been released with her weight. They moved around her. She could hear them whispering. They spoke in the same voice the Codex used. A chorus of high and low tones that made her freeze in place.
"Welcome, Chosen One."
Chosen One? Was she somehow...inside the relic? They sounded much louder, closer. The chill that traveled throughout her body confirmed her assumptions.
The shadows then came together, revealing hooded figures each on a symbol of their own. They were chanting an incantation different from hers. They spoke of creation, of a limitless power to control all of existence.
Lena observed every cloaked individual carefully, but she couldn't make out their faces, hidden beneath large, flowing cowls. Almost all exact replicas except for the one to the left of her, where the tall figure held a new leather-bound book.
She had seen it before. In her time, it was covered in symbols and worn-out, but here it had yet to contain all that power and knowledge.
It was showing her how it was created.
This had to be centuries ago, during an era when forbidden magic dominated the land. These thirteen figures were a powerful group of ancient mages that came together with a single goal.
They talked of power, to control the very fabric of reality. They seemed to believe that by harnessing all known forms of magic - alchemy, necromancy, elemental manipulation, and blood magic - they could craft an artifact capable of rewriting the laws of life itself.
The Astral Conclave.
Lena had never heard the name before, but somehow she knew that was who they were. They were the most ambitious sorcerers of their time. They envisioned a world where they could dictate, command all creation and death, and then the universe to their will.
The information eased into Lena's mind like the Codex was allowing her to learn of its origins, the truth of where it came from.
This group decided to create a book of ultimate power. It would be a vessel that contained and amplified the essence of their combined magic. They crafted an empty, leather bound tome, using the rawhide of a rare creature believed to have touched the boundaries of existence itself.
