Magic and Monsters

Ursa

"Sir Charles, please explain to me again. How did you manage to pull out a golden, magical barrier from thin air?" asked Sir Wilson as they rode on horses away from the smoking High Court.

With a flash of the King's Seal, the soldiers immediately let them through without further questioning. Anderson Lyon however was less fortunate. The soldiers had dragged him away to one of the prison cells down below when the situation was explained.

The streets were bustling with people in the morning. Most were running errands and delivering goods, or appeared to have some business to attend to.

"Charles? Are you listening?" asked Sir Wilson again.

"Honestly, I don't know. It felt instinctive and natural in the moment. I can do it again, I think." replied Charles.

"Don't! You've expended too much energy already." said Beatrice. She turned quiet and thoughtful for a moment.

"Charles, have you been contacted by a Deity?" she asked.

Charles was about to answer when the wind and noises came to a stand still. Everything was frozen in mid action. Charles could tell that time had stopped yet again. What was it now that the entity wanted?

Then came the familiar thousand voices, in a condescending tone.

"Tell her... and she dies."

A long, smokey black clawed hand materialized around Beatrice and caressed the side of her frozen face.

"Mortal souls are fragile, beware of how you speak. So fragile, that even words can shatter them, chosen one." crooned the thousand voices.

The smokey arm relinquished it's grip around Beatrice and faded away into nothing.

Then the entity was gone. Birds began to chirp and a soft wind blew once again, as if time had never stopped ticking its eternal clock.

Charles was panic stricken. One wrong word and disaster would fall.

"Charles? Are you OK? You look as if you've seen a bogeyman." asked Beatrice with concern written on her face. She was always first to notice things.

"Must be from the drain of using magic earlier." said Charles quickly, despite feeling anything but tired from what he just saw. "Anyways, I'm fine. Don't you worry."

"Be careful with your newfound powers. Use too much energy and it will begin to sap at your own life force. Your reserves will naturally grow as you become more adept." warned Beatrice.

"I know, I know. By the way, what did you mean by a Deity? Is it like some god?" asked Charles.

He was careful not to reveal anything as the entity had demanded. A single slip of the tongue could end very badly. However that didn't stop him from learning for himself.

"The gods, they made a pact to not meddle with the mortal world. As you can see from the stories, contact between the two dimensions never end up well. The imbalance and chaos is simply too destructive.

However the gods found alternative ways to influence our world. They send messengers down to the earthly realm to do the dirty work every once in a few centuries. We call the messengers Deities. They are servants of the different gods." explained Beatrice. Charles nodded, absorbing the information.

"Sometimes, they endow a portion of their powers to chosen individuals. However the gift of a god's power is never free, there is always a heavy price." she added.

"Oh." managed Charles. That would make a lot of sense if the entity was a Deity. The Deity seemed to be keeping him alive for some ulterior objective, and the new found powers can also be explained. But what could the heavy price entail?