Chapter 1
"Zabulon......you really need to hear this."
Zabulon grunted and rose from his chair. He knew this was going to happen, ever since the first reports came in a few months ago of the newly initiated witch. She was a little feeble minded and at first they thought the initiation had pushed her over the edge. But with the strange disappearances lately not a single usable Other could be ignored. She could have been used as a 'battery' if nothing else. When she came out of the twilight though, she had started talking. She hadn't stopped talking since...even in her sleep, vast amounts of verbal diarrhea had been pouring forth, whispered quietly day and night...until someone bothered to start listening to it. Then all hell broke loose, to pardon the pun. A lot was repeated, almost like it was set on a loop. But sometimes a clear, coherent passage would come out....and they were predictions, some so accurate that they even mentioned dates at times to almost the nearest second. The witch had already predicted the losses amongst the lower leveled Others, which ones and when...setting guards did no good, they just faded away into the twilight, called by the strangeness that was currently reaching out, teasing and enticing Others to enter, for some, to go in so deep they couldn't return.
It was all becoming predictable to the point of boredom, but Zabulon had still left instructions to be notified as soon as something changed. Obviously something had.
Following the witch that had come for him, Zabulon strode down the corridor away from his office and turned towards the medical wing. The room on the far left had two Magician guards at the door, no need for all the Dark ones to know what was being predicted, moral was already as low as it could get, no point making it worse and rendering half of them incapable of doing there jobs when needed.
Zabulon nodded to the two guards. One nodded back, and dropped the shield around the door allowing Zabulon to enter. He could have entered himself easily enough, but why waste the effort?
As Zabulon closed the door behind him, he felt the shield replaced. Good, there was a least a few who still knew how to do there jobs properly.
There were three more mages in the room, all stood and bowed to Zabulon who returned the nod almost imperceptibly. He passed them and entered the inner door. Behind the second door was a small room, the only furniture in it a bed and a chair. In the chair was a Dark sorceress, taking notes, and the prophecy witch, lying in the bed, visibly weaken by the constant monologue. Her eyes were closed and sunken, her breathing rattling in her throat. The smell of sickness permeated the air.
But the witch was silent.
"Zabulon...." The sorceress stood up and bowed, ".... I'm glad your here. As you can see she has fallen silent, but it was the last thing she said that I called you here for." She passed him the clipboard. Zabulon read it, and at first frowned, then his expression turning to one of puzzlement.
"You see what I mean?" The sorceress turned to the bed. "She said that three times. She has been silent since, but as you can see, she said in three hours a great message of import was coming...and was for the ears of the master alone. You are our master, its almost time."
"Have you set up the recording devices?"
"They are in place sir."
"Good, I want this recording. It may be nothing, but I've a feeling this will be important."
"39 seconds to go, the recording is running now." She glanced at the clock. "7.15pm, exactly 3 hours....."
Zabulon sat on the chair next to the bed. "Lorah, Lorah, this is your master, I am here for the message as you asked. Speak....."
A pause. Lorah began to breathe deeper, then her eyes opened.
"He is coming.....he is coming."
"Who is coming?"
"Light cannot illuminate him, Dark cannot shadow him, none can oppose him, none can control him, yet all can see themselves in him. A shining jewel in the greyness. A reflection of us all."
The sorceress wrote it down. Zabulon leaned closer to Lorah.
"Who....who is it?".
"Light cannot illuminate him, Dark cannot shadow him, none can oppose him, none can control him, yet all can see themselves in him. A shining jewel in the greyness. A reflection of us all."
He sat back, sighing. Repetitiveness, that had been the norm so far, he would just have to wait until the next part arrived. It was only seconds though, before Lorah sat bolt upright and screamed.
"Ten days! Ten days and our lives will change forever! The world will change forever! The balance must remain! Ten days from NOW!!!!"
She collapsed back on the bed, the last word torn from her almost as a scream. The sorceress rushed over and felt for a pulse. Then looked at Zabulon. "Shes dead."
Zabulon shrugged. "Arrange for the body to be disposed of. What do you make of that then Maya?"
The sorceress Maya was shaking. "Lorah was never wrong so far, but I'm not sure what to make of it."
Zabulon glared at her, "Yes you do, she just described perfectly a mirror. In seven days there's going to be a mirror...its going to be a massacre. There has been a change in the balance, there's going to be a mirror to rebalance things. What concerns me though is she indicated something worldwide, a mirror is normally localized."
"A mirror? But I didn't think the twilight had the strength yet?"
"What do you know of the twilight, what does any of us know for sure."
She slid over to Zabulon, he hips swinging provocatively. "But surely that will be a good thing for us? A few less of them is better all round."
Zabulon swung around and struck Maya in the face with such force that she was flung across the room. Raising herself up on her knees she stared back at him, her eyes filled with terror.
"Fool!" He hissed."Who said it was the light that was favored?"
Maya brushed the back of her hand across her mouth, wiping away the blood trickling from the corner, and trembling, said "But is this not because of that zero point brat that was initiated ahead of time?"
"There IS no imbalance."
"But......"
"There is no imbalance. I have been.....busy..... The brat, even at her level, is still years from her full power yet. If anything the favor is currently microscopically tipped towards the dark. Which means its your ass on the line this time. Think on that."
"I'm sorry master, I did know know."
"A mirror is the worse thing to happen at the moment. Get that recording copied, and give me the master tape. I need to see someone."
"Yes sir, at once."
"We're not going to go into this alone. The light doesn't know of any imbalance, no matter how small, in our favor. They will probably assume it is there side that is top-heavy. I'm going to recruit them. Why do our own dirty work."
"Oh well done sir." Maya grovelled, bowing low.
Zabulon looked at the Sorceress and frowned, she has served her purpose. Sex was not the best way to handle ambition, at least Alicia knew that before she met her end. He was bored of her now. Maya didn't feel the energy blocking shield he slipped around her, rendering her powerless. He left the room. In the first chamber he motioned the mages to follow him. On the way out of the second door and into the corridor, he spoke a word to the guards, who turned back into the room. There would be two bodies to dispose of tonight. And less of an imbalance to worry about.......
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"Get me our archives on the line" Zabulon ordered.
"Yes sir." His secretary got immediately to work. Efficiency was the key to a good office, he thought, it didn't matter how the efficiency was achieved....respect...fear...all the same to him.
The phone rang. He answered. "Archives....get me the full list of all the artifacts we have in the vault that can be used immediately....yes immediately! I want them all primed and ready by noon tomorrow. YES YOU HEARD ME! Get every available mage and witch we have onto this.....purpose? You are asking me my motives?! Just set them up for draining when the power is needed, I may need then very shortly. When primed, keep them in the vault until I say so, and bring me that list! An accurate list, not a 'possibly' in site, I'm going to need to know what to work with.....NOW!"
Zabulon slammed the phone down. If he wasn't short on time he would have the archive manager flogged. No matter, when this is all over......he had a long memory.
Zabulon looked at the phone. The white button on the phone seemed to be looking at him. He had to press it. He wasn't prepared if a mirror did come. It was too soon after other things. But to use the direct link to the Light Headquarters felt like an admission of weakness. But there was no choice, this time they had to be prepared, and both forces only had 10 days to think of something.
'And maybe this situation can be twisted to my advantage' he though.
Lifting the receiver one more time, he pressed the button....
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"For Light sake! That's the third one this week." Gesar threw the report onto his desk. "If we keep losing them at this rate we'll have no Light Others any where in the city, or even Russia, below the 5th rank inside three months."
"Shielding them didn't work either." Olga said, sat in the chair by the door, stirring a cup of coffee. "They just...faded away. If we blocked their power they just dissolved themselves into it. Its like a mass suicide."
"Did you get anything more on the last one to go..." Gesar looked at the open report on the desk, "...the new initiate Yuri?"
"I was there, I was the one to set the shield, he just dematerialized himself....withdrew into the twilight. No spell in the world can stop that. We might only feel the twilight's call call as a minor irritation, a gnat bite on the skin, but its driving some of the lower levels insane. Yuri was interesting though, he did say as he went that it was the right thing to do. The only one to say anything, and its cryptic beyond measure."
Gesar started pacing back and to behind his desk, a sign he was agitated. "And the other reports?"
Olga pulled out a sheaf of paper. "The same, all over the world, Others slipping away into the twilight, all lower leveled, all at random."
"At random?" Gesar raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"If you had bothered to correlate the data yourself you would be able to see the randomness of it." Olga sighed. "Yuri heard the twilight calling days before he...lets say disappeared... he was a level 5, his fellow 'classmates' were mostly below him, the intake has been poor this year, but out of all of them, only two others have heard the 'call'. A 6 and a 7, but Yuri went first."
"Lack of willpower." Gesar snored, and sat back down.
"I don't think so. I think its searching for something, or someone."
"What......?"
"It seems to be selecting people at random, all of about the same power, as though its looking for someone."
"Someone who's lower than a 4? I would have thought that if the twilight wanted someone it would have been an Other far more powerful than an underling."
"Or the one it wants seems to be that level......to it..."
"Olga, I've never heard anything so ridiculous in my life."
"Boris"...she used his 'human' name, she had always preferred it, "...You tell me what else it could be then?"
Boris/Gesar sat back in his chair and turned to the window, staring out over view far below. Olga sat waiting for an answer she knew she wouldn't get. Night was drawing in, the sun still above the horizon, sinking slowly in the early summer sky. The heat of full summer hadn't yet arrived, the evening promised to be cool and inviting. A myriad of figures below were scurrying about, enjoying the last of the day. Meeting, chatting, going about the business of life.
But in the office the silence was oppressive.
The phone rang. Olga jumped, but Gesar looked as though he expected it. Allowing it to ring four times before he picked it up, he just said. "Yes." Statement, not a question.
A voice at the other end spoke for a few moments, and then Gesar hung up. He glanced at Olga.
"I think, soon, we may have some answers....."
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