A Diary of a Young Mage
This is part of my ongoing chronicle 'In the Dark and Without a Light' series and I hope you will enjoy my saga. I've decided to try my luck in writing in journal form for this story and hope I'm not making a mess of it. Also later on there will be a fusion with a fantastic game called Persona.
The World of Darkness belongs to White Wolf and so does Senex; I'm just borrowing him to be Lydia's mentor. Persona belongs to sony playstaion and Atlus. Long live Atlus!
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September 18, 2000
Dear Diary,
Gosh, that sounds soooo stupid in this day and age. Anyway my birthday was two days ago and a nice nurse here in Franklin Square Hospital gave me a pretty purple journal and a pack of gel pens with really cool colors. I guess I should start at the beginning.
My name is Lydia Dervani and I just turned 13 yr. old. I have black curly hair that's hard to manage and dark brown eyes. Dad always thought that I will grow up to be beautiful. Lets just hope so, but I'm not taking much stock on his words, he was after all my father and dad's are suppose to say nice things to their daughters.
Let's see… what else… I guess I could go though all of my favorite things.
Color- purple
Book- harry potter (secretly, I think Rowling is a
Mage)
Animal- rabbits
Vedio games- role-playing like the final fantasy
series, Persona and the rest of the megami series (I've been trying to learn Japanese so I can play them)
Sport- soccer
Anime- magic knights rayearth
I'll probably think of some more of my favorite things later.
Now Diary, your probably wondering why I'm in the hospital, well you see two weeks ago I died for 10 minutes and 24 seconds. We were driving back from the cabin up in the hills where we stayed for a month because mom wanted to get out of the city for a while. We used to live in Townson next to the college where both my parents used to work as college professors.
We were driving through a bridge at night when dad saw two monsters fighting each other. One was a gigantic wolf and the other creature was some slimy thing with lots of tentacles. Dad slammed on the breaks and said something about a rabid wolf and tried to reverse the car, but it was too late. The thing with the tentacles used one of its arms and smashed through the window, it took hold of the car and threw us (car and all) at the wolf man.
The wolf man saw it coming and swatted us like some kind of fly. The car went over the bridge and down we went into the water. Because of the hole in the car front window, water came rushing in, not letting any of us time to take off the seat belts and swim out. Mom hadn't moved since the car was thrown, the doctor told me that her head was smashed in by the accident, but I know better. The tentacle man hit her in the head when it smashed the window. Dad was bleeding all over the place because of the glass, he was too busy trying to get me out…I can't go on right now this is upsetting me…I'll finish later.
September 18, 2000
Dear Diary,
Okay, I'm back I should finish telling you what happened because the horrors didn't stop there. As I was saying, dad was trying to get me out but I was so scared, I couldn't move. There was blood everywhere. When dad finally took off the seatbelt he grabbed me then shoved me into the hole through the window; the car was already underwater. Dad was about to let go of me so I can swim up to the surface when a part of the bridge landed on top of us. We were all trapped now. Dad tried to find a hole big enough for me to get through… but after a while he stopped moving… he lost so much blood…the river became a blood red haze and I started to drown in it. And with my parents I died.
There was no bright light nor was I in a tunnel. I was standing in a gray wasteland but I have to take off this icky stuff from my face first. Let me tell you being dead is no joke, its sad, its twisted and everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is gray. My parents were not with me; I was all alone in this wasteland. In the wind you could hear a million voices crying in despair. I was so upset that I added my own voice to the wind.
After a while I stopped and began to walk, it felt like days and I felt ancient. I AM ancient, I am after all a MAGUS and a powerful one to boot but that story is for another day. Right now I'm walking alone listening to the wind when I find myself staring at the most unbelievable site. A huge metropolis of a city- a city for the dead- it must have been magnificent in its decadence and decay but right now before my eyes, lay nothing but its ruins and a few straggling ghosts.
"This used to be Stygia, the greatest necropolis in the realm of the dead."
I look up and next to me was an elderly man. I knew he wasn't dead because he was the only thing here that had color. He was wearing baggy pants and a loose white shirt. His skin was chocolate brown and he was bald. His face looked as if he laughed and cried a lot in his lifetime. I already new I liked him. I asked him what he was doing here since he wasn't dead.
"Waiting for you."
"I'm dead, your not. What's going on?" I was getting miffed at this time, "Who the hell are you?" since my parents aren't here I might as well say what ever I want. Within reason of course.
"My name is Senex, and I remembered you to be a polite young lady."
"Well, excuse me, but seeing two monsters fight and witnessing the death of my parents AND experiencing my own death has caused me to forget my manners because it doesn't mean much when your dead." I was fuming at this time. I mean I may know a lot about the world but I'm still a kid, damnit.
"They are alright, they have moved on in the cycle of life and death. The wheel has turned for them. But not for you, your time has not come, little one and I am sorry for your loss."
I started to cry this time, " What do you mean, the wheel has turned for them?" the old man was hugging me trying to comfort me.
"You know much about magic, little one, the tradition that I belong to believe that life is part of death and death, a part of life. Where there is death there should be a rebirth. We help to make sure that the wheel turns, as it should. We do our best to protect the Cycle from stagnation and corruption. But I need your help little one and there is not much time to prepare you."
I stopped crying letting the words sink in, " Why, what's wrong."
The old man sighed," One of our own has fallen and he is now a powerful and cunning foe. I am tracking him down. I'm sorry to say but I need your help."
What can I do, I mean I'm just a kid. Frankly I find it hard to believe that a powerful mage like the old man (and I can tell his THAT powerful) would need the help of a dead 12 yr. old girl. The fallen one must be his equal. This does not sound good.
Oh, hell, what have I got to loose.
He smiled at me and thanked me telling me that he could not come to earth because the gauntlet between the spirit realm and the material has thicken and master mages could not stay in the material realm. Apparently, the Traditions lost the war. They did this to Stygia, the Technocracy sent a bomb here and destroyed the city of the dead and a place called the Labyrinth somewhere in the umbra.
You're wondering how I know all of this? Well what if I tell you that I was born a mage? You see I never went to sleep like most people and the weird thing is, is that I can remember some of my past lives. Most of it is in bits and pieces but a lot of my knowledge about the Traditions, Technocracy, Nephandi (really evil pricks) and the spirit realms comes from my past lives. That is why a lot of what Senex is telling me came to no surprise.
Anyway back to the story. The old man couldn't come to the material realm so he wants me to be his agent here on the material plane. It looks like I'm going to be initiated into the Euthanatos Tradition and I'm taking a crash course right there among the ruins of the dead. I'm beginning to hate irony.
First of all I had to learn the Tradition's history and the Chakra-Dharma. And I was warned about the death taint, Jhor, and how I must guard against it. He is going to see if he can find me someone to help me on my journey.
It felt like I was there forever, listening and learning from Senex, he said that I am a good student even if I did ask some crazy questions, but you never learn if you don't ask. Mom always said that, even if she did pull a lot of hair when I started to pester her.
He even said that he would be proud of me if I find my way to his chantry, the Cerberus, and show me around. I kinda of like the idea and I hope so too.
We said our good-byes; not sure how I was to go back I looked to Senex, he just smiled and said that my lifeline is still there, that I have to believe that I want to live.
Well, I closed my eyes, and began to pray (yes I do believe in God) that I want to live, that I want my parents to be proud of me, that I'm not ready to die just yet.
This time there was a tunnel of light. Apparently the light source was the electric lights on the ceiling but hey, at least I got the tunnel of light thing. Those books got it all wrong I guess. You don't get the tunnel of light when you are dead; you get it when you are being reborn.
Anyway I had all kinds of tubes in me, even down my throat which kinda of hurt, I don't mind the pain so much now, at least the pain tells me that I'm alive. There was this doctor that kept pounding my chest and thank god he stopped when he saw my eyes open and noticed I had a pulse. I don't think I could take much more. I have bruises because of it.
It's been two weeks since that day; I don't know who brought me in, since the bridge was practically in the middle of no where. The police found the car and fished my parents out. It then hit me that I am an orphan, that I have no one but myself. I cried that night. I've been doing that for awhile now, crying myself to sleep.
But I have a purpose; a destiny even, and I must look forward to an unknown future full of darkness and uncertainty. I'm scared but I must be brave for Senex, for my parents and for myself.
I AM LYDIA ARMETISIA DERVANI BANI EUTHANATOS
so look out world cause I'm coming to get you!