Yes, this is my yearly October one-shot, and no, it has nothing to do with any of my other stories. I know, it is surprising as my last one was introducing Angel. However, this one was born from an idea I had when my first wizard graduated Ravenwood (geez, that was a while ago. . .). I just decided to take that idea and expand it a little.
Oh, and the poem is mine. If it seems oddly placed or seems weird, I was just experimenting with the format a little.
I DO NOT OWN WIZARD101!
Light, Shadow, and Death
gh0stheart
It was the night before my graduation from Ravenwood and I was sitting next to the pond in Unicorn Way. I must have looked reminiscent or even melancholy, but it was suspected.
The water seemed to shine brightly under the pale moon's glow. If I was in a better mood, I would've probably built structures of ice and made them move under the moonlight. I knew that I would be considered a hero for what I had accomplished. I had defeated Morganthe, a threat that loomed in the spiral for many millennia. She was a threat that even the council of light couldn't remove, but yet I had. I defeated a master of magic.
A sad smile met my lips as a memory came floating into my mind. It seemed to look over the rest of my thoughts.
I was in Morganthe's throne room, a place where shadows seemed to devour the light. There wasn't a hint of bright color or happiness. The room was almost barren, spare for the throne, Morganthe, Old Cob, and me. There was no way to escape, except if I wanted to die. It was such a morbid thought, I knew. It reminded me of my favorite lines of a poem I had read.
There is no room for good and bad,
save for the memory of what I had.
It ironically was the beginning of the poem, not the conclusion like I thought my life would be at that time. I had tried so hard to be considered good, but, what was the title even for? Was it to say that I had died to try to protect the world from evil? It was at that time, I felt the lines cross. My memories of light and dark became muddied by the stream of magic as I accepted my fate.
Magic seemed to weave around Morganthe and me. Hers was as dark as a night without stars and felt frozen. Mine, it was dark on the inside and absolutely light on the outside. Her magic tried to wrap itself around mine as we dueled. The duel seemed to go on for ages. It was spell after spell. It was a tremendous weight on my body to have to survive. I did not see that she split herself into five parts. I only noticed when it was the end, where she came back together again. No matter how powerful a wizard is, they should know better than to split their conscience into so many parts. I could see that she was weakened and while she tried to write me out of existence, I made the floor below her crumble. She should have known better than to think I'd let her use her knowledge of the song to kill me.
Her death made the whole room lighter. The shadows seemed less likely to crawl and I stood over the hole I placed in the floor. I could see the spiral, everything I had fought so valiantly for and I couldn't do anything. I only stopped my great staring when Old Cob shook my shoulders.
Silent joy and equaled pain,
created me and joined my way.
"Today is a victory for you. You have won much, child," Old Cob told me. I didn't doubt him in that. I couldn't with what was at stake. She was going to rewrite everything through the song. I could still feel the energy from it. I knew that I could now access it. It was tempting. I could have saved Azteca, maybe even have removed Morganthe herself from the spiral's history. I could have made myself a god, so to speak. Yet, I did nothing of the sorts. I looked at Old Cob.
"How is it a victory if an entire world is dying as I say these words? Is it a victory because I've survived? Or is something else?" I asked. Old Cob became silent for a second. For a being that seemed to always know what to say, it was odd. In the short time that I had known him, I had looked up to him for it. It was depressing that he had turned from that to destroying the spiral. It was these thoughts that made it hard to be joyous on the night before my graduation.
I hide but appear in moment's thimble
thrown in the water after evil.
It was true, I needed to accept that maybe death wasn't something I should have feared. After killing Morganthe, Malistaire and a few others, I had felt death's grip on them. The things I had done just to save the spiral, something that would end by my choice; irony, was it not? I let out the very thing that would destroy the spiral and everything in it while trying to protect it.
I felt the familiar feeling of darkness that I had acquainted with not that long before. For once that night, I did not smile in grief. Instead, I smiled in joy.
My nature is neither virtuous or wicked
but forever I will be titled it.
It was then that I knew. I had to fight if I wanted to live. Old Cob, or Grandfather Spider as he revealed himself, was not going to play nice. I had to use everything I had to my advantage. I just had to let him make his move. If I was going to die, I was going to make his life holy Tartarus. He was going to regret everything he ever did. It was then, I had wondered, How can I kill him? I didn't notice it then but I had later, my eyes changed from a light blue to a far darker blue. I had accepted my disposition.
I was the Child of Light and Shadow and the bringer of death.