Flames crackled.
Rubble groaned, sending up clouds of white.
Then silence, but for the trudging footsteps.
Then a scream split the still air, and was silenced again, a moment later.
Blood.
The smell of it tinted the air, it painted the walls, the floor.
The wraith muttered to itself as it slowly stalked through the city. Dead languages that only a Linguist could have understood permeated the air.
Words of regret, of pain, of suffering. The words painted, vividly, a lost empire burning upon a still night like this one.
The grey clad figure slowly drifted through the burning city. By morning, the sorcerers would have wiped this city from all memory, would have settled the waters, as it were.
The wraith despised them. It despised the two sorcerers, its followers. A Psychic and a Gust. Time and space shifted, and the two stood before the wraith. They bowed and held out the two keys. From nearby ruins, the wraith's other followers watched. Three in all. Faith, a woman with grey eyes and supernatural strength and speed. Fawkes, a man gifted with the ability to drift through solid objects with some concentration. Farn, a sorceress with flames at her fingertips.
The wraith raised the two keys to its eyes. They glinted in the firelight.
The wraith clenched its fist. It looked at the Psychic and Gust.
"We attack," it whispered, its words sinking into the unnaturally still air and fading.
•~•
The Key of Power was hidden in a peculiar hiding spot. With the powers of the Key of Time and Key of Space, the fourth dimension could be accessed and used as a way to move through vast stretches of space with ease. A tesseract, it was called. The Key of Power was hidden across the vast gulfs of darkness, beyond the reach of man and his technologies. There, a colony of sorcerers had been set up to protect the Key.
The wraith smiled inwardly. Ah, the Elders and their follies. Elders never changed. Five elected sorcerers to rule over them all, and yet their choices, no matter who sat upon their thrones, were always so predictable!
No doubt they had held on to the keys of space and time to be used as weapons if necessary. How amusing. How... lucky.
The wraith observed the two keys. Around him stood his five followers, Fawkes, Farn, Faith and the Psychic and Blaze.
His grey hand tightened around the keys and the world shifted.
An immense headache threatened to loom over the wraith. It hadn't felt pain in so very long. A great pressure seemed to press down on it, even as what felt like a cool breeze brushed over it. The ground felt hard, yet the wraith's feet sank into it. The world shifted again, and then the wraith and its followers emerged onto an alien world. The sun blazed down on them, and yet... it was cool here. They were in a desert, and black sand shifted beneath their feet. Far off, the wraith felt the warm pulse of life.
The wraith stalked across the dark sand, and its followers slunk behind it.
•~•
"I swear, child, one of these days you're going to want me to reattach your wrist with scotch tape, or extinguish your burning head for you," sighed Master Taura.
"I'm sorry," said Ven.
"Don't be sorry to me," said the old man, "I'm not the one getting beat up."
Ven fell silent.
Master Taura sighed. "You're too young to be doing these sort of things. Those idiot Elders think that because you're destined to defeat some great darkness, then they can throw you into whatever sort of danger they want,"
"Master Taura," said his assistant, opening the doors, "Elder Vari is here. She wants to see Ven. She's already talking to Mort and Lani."
"Well, tell her she can wait. I'm busy making sure that Ms Ven's nose isn't about to fall off," said the healer.
"You do that, Master Taura," said a calm voice, "I can speak to Ms Ven while you ensure the future welfare of her respiratory system."
Elder Vari entered the room. A gifted Psychic, Elder Vari was the interrogator of the Council.
"Hey, Elder Vari," called Ven, "Hi Mort, hi Lani!"
Mort and Lani walked into the room. Mort had the ability to manipulate Time, while Lani could manipulate space. Ven herself had a sort of strange white energy that had manifested as her power. The three had been hunting down the villains who had stolen the three mystical keys and when they had come into contact with the keys, something strange had happened. They had been given the powers of Time, Space, and Power.
And now here they were again, about to go after those same keys.
Master Taura harrumphed as he stepped back and examined Ven. "So of you're sending them again, into unimaginable danger, where they might have to face the Shadows of the Other Reality. And if they're really lucky, they might get out of this with a broke spine, and at worst, they might be going up against the Significant Other itself. And a wraith. Let's not forget the wraith,"
"We are aware of the implications, Master Taura. We will be sending a platoon of our best warriors-"
•~•
The wraith danced amongst the sorcerers, its fingers lengthening as they absorbed the shadows. They became swords, severing heads as they swept about. The buildings crumbled all around it.
•~•
"-and a Psychic to bind the wraith. That's about half the forces they have there. So you see-"
•~•
An then the Psychic stilled as two long fingers skewered his head and a third took it off. It was tossed to the floor, where it bounced. Then, the ruined city was silent. And there was only death and blood.
•~•
"-there's really no reason to worry. At all," said the Elder. "Ven, Lani, Mort. You move in five minutes. Prepare yourselves,"
She swept out.
Matter Taura glowered. "Damn Elders. Always so full of themselves. That's why I left,"
"What?" asked Ven, "You were one of the Elders?"
"Oh... a long time ago," the old man sat down in his chair, "As you know, this is the second generation of Elders. I was amongst the first generation. We were so naive... bursting with hope and visions of what sorcerers could be. Then... the World War broke out. Sorcerers were torn. Do we step in and help? Do we stand aside while humans tear themselves to shreds? We stepped aside, but some opted to join the humans. If they were to reveal magic to the whole world... it wouldn't have done. Black ops were conducted to... assassinate the renegade sorcerers. I stepped down soon after. No one condemned me for it."
"Oh," said Ven, because that was all you could say after hearing something like that.
"My father gave me a piece of advice, a long time ago. I will pass it to you," said the old man.
Ven, Mort and Lani listened intently. They knew what would come- something witty, with the hallmarks of wisdom, faint brushes of ingenuity, something amusing but serious. Ven prepared her mental notebook.
Master Taura sighed, "Don't die."
•~•
When Ven, Mort, Lani and the platoon of soldiers teleported into the ruined city, the stench of blood was the first thing to hit them. Second thing to hit them was Farn, Fawkes and Faith.
Faith roared as she snatched up a sorcerer and swung him into his friend. There was a crunch of bones. Fawkes punched people and then became intangible before he could be attacked. Farn gestured, sending streamers of fire at the sorcerers.
Ven faced Faith.
"Faith. Nice to see you again. Last time I saw you I was punching your teeth out," said Ven, "No hard feelings, eh?"
"Of course not. It was my own fault, letting you punch me, so really, if you look at it that way, I actually deserved to have my teeth punched out by you," said Faith.
"Well," said Ven, nodding, "That's really understanding of you-"
Faith lunged forward, so fast that she was nearly a blur. Ven fell under Faith's weight, managed to get a hand between them and blasted Faith with a crackling bolt of energy. Faith went flying.
Fawkes punched a sorcerer in the face, and then someone called his name. Fawkes began to turn, but Mort had slowed down time and was already in front of him and Fawkes squawked as a fist hit him.
"Stop!" called a voice. Farn stood behind Lani, two fingers alight with fire. Her other hand was on Lani's shoulder. "Or I'll burn your friend,"
Everybody fell silent. Fawkes chuckled as he staggered to his feet, and Faith made a small squeaking sound as Ven suddenly grabbed her and pressed a hand to her head.
"I've got a counter proposal. You let Lani go. We beat you three psychos up. Then we beat up the Psychic, beat up the Gust, kick the wraith's ass and then put you guys in jail. Or I'll fry Faith's brain,"
There was another silence. Then Farn shrugged. "Faith annoys me. Go ahead. At least we'll see whether she has a brain,"
Another silence. Then there was a soft whoosh as Lani teleported herself and Farn. A few seconds passed. Then, with a pop, Farn and Lani reappeared, Farn handcuffed in magic cancelling handcuffs and Lani grinning.
"Good job," said the captain of the platoon of sorcerers who'd been sent with them, "Let's finish this job and get back. I've got a wife and kids to get back to." His soldiers handcuffed Fawkes and Faith.
"Where is the wraith? Where are the other two?" asked Ven, speaking to Farn.
"We'd rather die than tell," hissed Farn.
"Unfortunately, the little lunatic is telling the truth. She's a nihilist. They all are. The Psychic in their group? An old professor who studied the meaning of life. He now wishes to study death," said the captain.
"I'm disappointed," said a cold voice which echoed through the desolated city. The temperature dropped.
The wraith slid silently into view around a corner.
"Sorcerers are so weak. So... fallible," said the wraith as it stalked towards them.
"And you are not, I suppose?" asked the captain.
"Once, I was," said the wraith, "That I admit freely." It raised a hand. "But no more,"
Dangling from its hand were three keys.
"Shall we call the Shadows together?" asked the wraith, its dead features twitching into a smile for the first time in millennia.
•~•
