Chapter 1

I Call Thee, Sisters of Destruction

'I realize now what I should be doing.'

He had lived a not-so-ordinary life for more than two decades, and for all he knew, in that two decades he had probably gone through more pain than anyone. He thought he had gone through and survived the ultimate pain and torture at one point or another. He thought there was nothing he couldn't handle. After all, he had tasted the worst.

Or so he thought.

In the midst of the sound of the heavy clinking chains, Orphen screamed like he had never screamed before in his life, his bloodied body convulsed violently, his tortured howls reverberated in the cold, dark nothingness he was mysteriously restrained in. His weakened limbs, chained to whatever there was lurking in the darkness, struggled desperately to get free. Orphen's cries of agony echoed continuously, his frayed voice peaking more often than not as he endured unimaginable pain coursing throughout his body, and it was all he could do not to pass out and let himself be devoured by the darkness.

I need to get the fuck out of here!

But Orphen didn't have any clue where 'here' was, or how he even got there. He couldn't remember anything that happened immediately before he found himself chained in the darkness. He couldn't see much in the dark or through the ominous fog surrounding him, but he could very well tell just by the air and the atmosphere that he was in a strange, malevolent place. It was like he was in the worst nightmare he could ever imagine. Nothing felt concrete except for the iron shackles holding him in place.

He threw his head back violently in sudden shock and new pain, a gasp escaping his blood-drenched lips when the agony of his torments increased, the flow of air to his lungs cut for a very long second, leaving him breathless, panting, his heart threatening to stop. Maybe he should just let it stop. That would be a better option than having to bear this insane torture. His whole body, his skin and flesh felt like they had been pierced again and again mercilessly with numerous sharp things for more than a thousand times now. What they were; needles, nails, daggers, Orphen couldn't really tell or care. He wasn't even sure if they were real. All he was aware of at the moment was the constant excruciating pain enveloping his slowly dying body. He felt his mind shutting down, but he couldn't allow that to happen. He knew that the moment he let his mind go, that would be the end of him.

Orphen bit down on his lower lip until it bled, tasting the copper on his tongue, letting the fresh blood flow and mingle with the rest of his blood that had been pouring out of his mouth from the tortures.

And that was enough. That did the trick, even if it was just a little.

The self-inflicted injury caused him to feel pain that was slightly different from the ones from his tortures; it felt twistedly welcoming, and it was enough to inject some sanity into his numbing, spiraling mind. Orphen bit harder into his bleeding lip, gnashing the soft flesh unforgivingly, trying to ignore the pain as he endured another round of sharp things shredding his flesh and skin. In that short moment of sanity where his mind cleared up, in his gradually fading vision, he saw ghosts, familiar shadows, of two people beckoning him; a blond girl and a blond boy.

'Cleo… Majic…'

Their names sounded so foreign in his ragged, tortured voice.

Orphen struggled against his shackles weakly as he tried to reach for them, feeling himself slowly giving in to death.

No… I can't let them…

His eyes closed against his will, his body going limp.

No... This is not how… I…

He definitely wouldn't let himself end like it was going to. Like hell that would happen.

But he was already slowly drifting away into unconsciousness.

.o.o.o.

'What's wrong, Majic? Too scared to watch?'

Majic shivered at the sound of that menacing, blood-curdling voice hissing in his ear. He clamped his already shut eyes tighter, not willing to see the craziness unfolding in front of him. He couldn't understand it.

How could all this be happening?

He wished it was just a bad dream he was having after eating one of Cleo's deathly gruesome dishes, but he knew it was not. It felt too real to be something that his mind had just concocted in his sleep. He would rather have a thousand helpings and more of Cleo's toxic cooking if that would make what was happening at the moment just a crazy nightmare.

Majic tried to shift his body but to no avail. He was frozen to the spot with his back and arms flat against a rock, the result of a powerful binding spell.

'Open your damn eyes, Majic.'

It disturbed him, that voice.

It was a familiar voice, a voice he had known for years now, and to hear it like that; twisted and laced with evil Majic could barely fathom; it was disturbing. It was heartbreaking.

'I said open your damn eyes, my dear Majic. I know you've regained consciousness since a while ago.'

True. Even through the constant ringing in his ears, Majic was aware of what was happening around him since hundreds of heartbeats ago. He had lost consciousness from the big blast that had come without warning, that had apparently destroyed their camp, and when he came to he found himself immobilized by magic. But his eyes refused to open, as if by not seeing the reality that was happening in front of him, he could pretend that all of it was not happening.

Majic gasped, opening his eyes wide in reflex when he felt the cold tip of a dagger feather-tracing the skin underneath his right eye. A moment later, he felt his skin break and warm blood started to trickle down his cheek. He should have screamed, struggled from the cut and the fear, but his confused, messed up mind hardly registered the pain.

The bright noon sun momentarily blinded him before his blurry eyes slowly got into focus, and he saw a blond girl that he knew all too well not more than ten paces away from him, hanging from a tree. Majic's heart almost stopped at that sight of her, his cloudy eyes playing tricks on his sicken mind, making him see her hang by the neck for a moment. But much to his relief, she was not. Her arms were stretched above her head, her hands tied together as she hung from a tree branch, the tips of her toes barely touching the ground. Her head hung low as blood dripped from her temple where pieces of debris had hit her when their camp was blasted away into bits.

'Cleo!' Majic shrieked in panic when he saw the terrible sight of his travel companion, tugging at his immobilized body, forcing it to move. 'Cleo! Are you alright?! Please tell me you're alright!'

Majic froze when once again he felt the cool tip of the dagger on his skin.

'Now, now, Majic. Don't get yourself excited,' the voice said from beside him.

Majic felt the bloodied point of the dagger being traced down his cheek, before it was brought to the wielder's mouth, a tongue sticking out to lick the blood off it.

Majic eyes followed the dagger, and he felt his body shiver again in fear, in disappointment, in confusion, when he saw the twisted, gleeful face of the man licking away his blood.

'No…'

When all this chaos started, Majic couldn't believe it. He refused to believe it.

The man standing in front of him wouldn't do something like this to him and Cleo, no matter how annoying they were to him. This was impossible. But it was happening.

It was really happening.

'Master…' he choked.

His eyes were starting to water. He wasn't sure if it was from the pain finally registering in his brain or from the disappointment in his heart.

'What happened to you? Why are you doing this to us? Get back to your senses!'

The dark-haired sorcerer dropped the hand that was holding the dagger to his side, his russet eyes glaring at his young apprentice. With deliberate slowness, he bent over Majic so that they were seeing eye-to-eye before he roughly grabbed a handful of Majic's sandy blond locks, knocking the back of his head hard against the rock behind him.

Majic whimpered. He could feel something warm and sticky oozing out from the back of his head.

'What happened to me?' Orphen repeated his apprentice's words in a low, threatening voice. 'Nothing fucking happened to me, Majic.'

He gave him an evil smirk, making Majic's skin crawl. The boy shut his eyes in terrible fear when Orphen came close and he felt his master's tongue on his skin, licking the trickle of blood underneath his right eye. It was absurd, but Orphen's tongue seared Majic's skin like hot iron.

'Ah, I didn't know your blood tastes so sweet, Majic,' Orphen said as he released his tight hold on Majic's hair, licking away the blood on his lips, looking not much different from a crazed, blood-lusting wild animal spotting an easy prey.

Orphen caressed the sharp edge of his dagger with a finger.

'You know what, Majic?' he said, his eyes locked on the pointed tip of the dagger. 'I lied to you. Something did happen to me.'

He smiled, where only one side of his mouth curved upwards, a look that left Majic feeling unsettled. He wanted to run away so badly from this Orphen who had lost his mind.

'I had an awakening, Majic. I realize now what I should be doing. I realize now what I have always wanted to do to you fucking little weaklings.'

Majic stared at Orphen, not making any sense of his master's words as the sorcerer shifted his evil gaze to where Cleo was. The look on his face sent shivers down Majic's frozen spine.

'Master… what… please… why are you…'

Orphen glared at Majic, the look in his eyes so different from what Majic was used to seeing. It was as if he was staring up into a stranger's eyes.

'Shut the fuck up and stay here like the good boy you are, Majic.'

The boy started to struggle violently when he realized that Orphen was heading for Cleo.

'Master, no! Leave her alone! Leave Cleo alone! Master!'

Why is this happening? Everything was fine this morning!

Majic started sobbing as he watched his master walking away from him, towards the helpless Cleo.

'I'll be back before you know it.'

That was what his master had said good-naturedly, like he always did, before he left camp earlier this morning to find herbs for Cleo who had sprained her ankle the night before. He was annoyed that Cleo got herself hurt again, complaining about how it wasted his time and energy to go look for herbs, but all the same, he still went looking for them to ease Cleo's pain.

That was the Orphen Majic knew. His master was never good at showing his somewhat weird brand of affection towards others, but Majic knew that he never meant them any harm. He was brash, rude, mean, foul-mouthed, vile, arrogant, wretched, despicable and many other negative traits Majic could think of, but he was also kind, in his own way, and would never hurt his companions.

At the very least, Master would never hurt Cleo.

That morning, more than two hours after Orphen's departure into the mountains to look for herbs, Majic had anxiously waited for his master's return as he packed the camp while ignoring Cleo's incessant complaints about what a lousy sorcerer Orphen was. He was worried. His master was never this late. Orphen had said he would be back in an hour. He would usually be back in less than an hour whenever he went herb-hunting. But he wasn't back. They still had a half-day journey towards Taflem where Orphen had grudgingly agreed to meet Hartia, his fellow classmate when they were students at the Tower of Fang. Majic wasn't quite clear why Orphen was meeting the freckled redhead sorcerer given his master's apparent dislike for Hartia's antics, but he was glad he'd get to meet him all the same. Hartia was, at least in Majic's opinion, a more conventional sorcerer than Orphen was, afterall.

Close to noon, with a sigh of relief Majic finally saw the familiar figure of his master returning to camp. But there were no herbs whatsoever in his hands, only a dagger in his fist. And there was a strange look in his eyes; a look that Majic had never seen before. It unnerved him to the core.

'Welcome back, Master…'

That was the last thing Majic remembered saying before he saw Orphen raise an outstretched arm, his fingerless-gloved hand splayed in the direction of their camp, a crooked, evil smile on his face.

'I call thee, sisters of destruction.'

And that was the last thing Majic heard; Orphen's familiar rumbling voice as he intoned the spell of destruction, before everything around him exploded, knocking him and Cleo unconscious.

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Next chapter:

I Dance in Thee, Mansion of Heaven

'This is the true me.'