The blackness vanished, and was instead replaced by a beautiful milky blue. It was vast, spreading for as far as Mortis could see. Small, brightly glowing lights floated around them. They were perhaps only the size of a large pebble.
"It's… it's beautiful!" Mortis thought with awe. "So peaceful… so calming. I feel… at home."
"You would. This is your original home. For as many lifetimes as can be imagined, you've left and returned here. Death in Hell, death in Sanctuary; it doesn't matter. All life returns to the mana, ready to be reborn once more."
"And these floating lights? They look like stars."
"Look closer."
Mortis did, and marvelled at what he saw. Each light was a tiny glass orb, and inside was a life. A tiny creature, going about its merry away, enjoying the blessing, the gift the mana had bestowed upon it. He saw men, he demons. Some orbs were too bright to see into, and he assumed they were angels. Others contained a flower. More still, beetles or wolves. He was floating inside a world – no, a universe – oflife. He could find no thoughts to describe it.
"This is truly amazing. Can I… can I touch them?"
"You may try, but you will have no effect. This place is not real, just a projection of my memory. The real part of the mana like this is forbidden – extremely forbidden – by such as us."
Mortis reached for an orb anyway; inside a rabbit sat, chewing on some roots. As he watched, the rabbit flinched and looked around, just in time to see the talons of some predatory bird snatch it around the middle. The rabbit gave a single squeal, silent to Mortis but he could see its tiny mouth shrieking, and the orb popped.
Mortis's finger had been millimetres away from the speck at the time, and he pulled back quickly, thinking perhaps he had done it. Idjit simply shook his head.
"Watch, if you will."
Mortis did. He watched the tiny, almost invisible pieces that had once made up the orb, swirled around in the blue. They drifted lazily for awhile, seemingly content to dance where they were. Then slowly, slowly they started to flow into each other.
One by one, the pieces joined together, forming larger specks that then went on to join others. At last, the orb was made whole. It was dark within.
"What now? Is it dead?"
"Watch," was all Idjit repeated.
The orb slowly began to change colour, from black, to red. And suddenly orange light filled it. Mortis squinted, trying to see what was forming. The orange faded, and was replaced by the face of a man. He seemed to be looking down from above, smeared in blood, but smiling. He dabbed his equally bloody hands on a rough bandana wrapped around his head, and pulled back a bit. Mortis could make out wooden walls and a fireplace behind him.
The man retrieved a sharp looking instrument and turned back to the source of the orbs vision. He bent closer, made one swift motion, and came up holding a bloody cord. Then he laughed.
Mortis couldn't here the laughter, nor the words that came afterwards, but years of watching targets from afar had honed his ability to read lips. This man; this ragged, bloody man, was clearly saying:
"It's a boy."
Mortis pulled back from the orb and sighed silently. In the space of a few minutes, he'd seen a life end, and one begin. This was all a bit much for him right now, and seemed a very long way around answering a single question.
"So this is where you were drawn from? Summoned by your master."
"Yes. But there is more."
"Oh?"
"Haven't you ever wondered why the art of Demon Summoning is condemned not just by Heaven but by the Hell Lords also?"
Mortis remained quiet. He couldn't say he'd ever stopped to think about it, really. One would assume Heaven disapproved because bringing demons into the world of man gave Hell an advantage. Perhaps Hell condemned it because that was one less fighting soul in their ever swarming armies. Either way, it seemed like another answer dodge.
"No, and I can't say I'm that interested."
"But you should be! Watch now, and you will see my last moments in the place we all at some point call 'home'."
Before he'd even finished speaking, a white tear appeared in the milky blueness; a horrid, jagged gap that expanded in front of their eyes. Light poured into the mana, and the tiny orbs responded in a way that was both alarming and heart wrenching.
Like the mind of an earthworm, these orbs didn't seem to think, but like the worm they sensed "pain". The light was pain to them, and they wiggled away, further into the mana, like tiny frightened children that had no idea why they were being punished. Mortis watched the plight of the orbs, hearing nothing but sensing panic and fear.
Suddenly, a misty apparition appeared from the rip. It was a ghostly hand, sitting open a long, snake like arm. The arm stretched out, reaching for the closest orbs, reaching with undeniable purpose. The orbs tried to wiggle faster, but to no avail.
The hand caught one and held it tight, doing nothing but that for a few seconds. Then it rolled the orb between its fingers, bounced it in its palm, and finally threw it away. The abandoned orb slowed its flight a few feet (if that's how space could be measured in this odd place) from the interloping limb, and once again resumed its single minded struggle to retreat.
The ghostly hand and its snake like arm, meanwhile, continued their selective harassment. The hand picked up another three orbs, tossing all aside, until finally it found one it liked. It reacted immediately when it touching this orb, going from the pale ethereal blue to an instant bright green.
The fingers wavered eerily with excitement, before snatching the orb fiercely and shaking it. Before Mortis could blink, the arm retracted into the rip, taking the hand and small orb with it. The rip closed as quickly as it had opened, and all was blue once more. The orbs stopped their retreat and resumed the blissful floating they had enjoyed perhaps since time began. Mortis stared, opened mouthed, at the freakish display that had just occurred. He was both unnerved and disgusted.
"What the Hell was that?"
"The will of my old master," Idjit replied. "And the orb: me, unfortunately. I can only imagine I was enjoying a life somewhere else before his treacherous hand snatched me away from it. We the summoned have no recollections of our previous existence, and it is a source of great sadness for us."
The blue mana began to fade, and was replaced by an area that was sparse and grey. The orbs still floated about, but very few. There was a feeling of loneliness here that Mortis found overwhelming.
"What is this place?"
"Another mental projection. I've never seen this part, but the mana flowing through me now is showing me it quite clearly. This is an area where Summoners over the centuries have 'over-grazed'. Like a shark that comes back to a feeding ground to often without letting the prey have time to rebuild its population."
"I'm beginning to see what you're implying here. Summoners aren't just calling in creatures from other worlds; they're calling them directly from the mana. This is a dangerous practise I assume."
"Indeed. As you saw earlier, the 'souls' are self sustaining; living in an endless cycle of life and death eternal. Outside interference pulls them out of the mana completely. Sadly for creatures like myself, this means we will never be able to return to it. Once we die in the mortal world… we die forever. Hence why I was always so fearful of master dispelling me."
Mortis listened in silence. There was no further question in his mind regarding the damnation of the Summoners. They were not only interfering with the natural order of Sanctuary, they were interfering with the natural order of everything.
"Is there a way to stop this? Do the orbs repopulate? How many Summoners of this calibre have there been, or still are?" The questions rolled out in an unstoppable tide. Idjit seemed unfazed.
"They can be stopped. But only via the actions of others. The mana is defenceless. It relies on the ones it gave life too to keep it from harm."
"In other words, someone has to kill the Summoner."
"Correct. The soul orbs do repopulate. But it takes many more millennia then you or I will live to see. And there have been few Summoners able to do what you have just seen. There may be more in the future, but at the moment, my master is the only one."
Mortis felt a tension he didn't even know he was feeling drain from his body. His apprehension over the safety of the orbs was surprising.
"A thought comes to mind; many humans, and demons too, have the ability to raise the dead or summon spirits to their side. Does this harm the mana?"
"When a life dies, the orb shatters, as you saw. Though it may seem only minutes to us when it is splintered, it is a limitless amount of time for the being within. During this point, it can make a choice: be reborn as another entity, or return to their world in the form it was last, as a bodiless spectre. If they choose the latter, they are free to roam as they wish, anywhere they wish, for as long as they last. The drawbacks are that they can never taste, touch, smell, or be seen by another living creature. Unless they are helped."
Idjit paused, letting this all sink in. Mortis was cross legged now, floating lazily as always.
"The men and demons that can summon the spirits to their sides are merely giving these wandering entities flesh. They cannot be sustained for long, but for the time they last, they are real enough. Necromancy is the process of reanimating a lifeless form. They have no soul. They are puppets to preform their raisers every whim."
"Then nobody can truly be revived?"
"If the spell is preformed fast enough, it might be possible for the soul to be snatched back before it reaches the mana. Before the brain has time to die. This would be limited by the condition of the body, the strength of the caster, and the willingness of the deceased. Though… I won't go as far to say true resurrection has never been preformed. Some beings have been strong enough to defeat the odds. I believe you met Radament? He was quite a work of art, I must say. Still dead as ever, but he retained some of the basic memories. It took my master months to perfect the spell."
Mortis's face darkened at that ancient evil's name. For the time, he had forgotten about Lut Gholein. He resented Idjit for reminding him.
"Well, if what you say is true, there isn't much to fear at the moment? Your master is the only Summoner left, and he's… gone?"
"Gone from the worlds as we know them… but not far enough to be forgotten. And now comes the tricky part. I hope this doesn't go too far beyond you."
Idjit straightened his body, and the mana suddenly returned to it original black state. Mortis felt uncomfortable here compared to the pleasing blue he'd seen a second ago. Idjit poked out a finger and pointed to an empty point, somewhere in the blackness.
"Pay close attention. This will be difficult."
He slowly drew his finger in a circle, and a trail of blue was left in its wake. Mortis marvelled at the glowing hoop. Idjit pointed and looked at him.
"Sanctuary."
Now he made another loop with his finger, to the upper right side of the blue circle. This time, a red circle appeared, not quite touching, but very close.
"Hell," Idjit said.
Finally, he moved to the left of the red hoop, and began another. This one was yellow, golden. When he was done, the three glowing rings where perfectly formed into an upside down pyramid shape. None touched, but all were within a breath of doing so.
"Heaven," Idjit ended. He floated up beside the rings and looked at Mortis. "These are the worlds – the dimensions – as we know them. Three separate universes, existing next to each other, but never melding."
Mortis nodded. So far, this odd geography lesson wasn't that hard. He thought the imp wasn't giving him enough credit.
"Go on, I'm learning."
Idjit did a quick series of lines between the red and blue circle.
"These are the pathways. Portals, man calls them. They are common between the worlds of Sanctuary and Hell."
"Why are there no paths to Heaven?"
"There is only one way into Heaven," and that was all he said.
Idjit now pointed his finger to the middle of the diagram, the black space between all three circles where nothing filled. There, he drew a pink diamond. As Mortis watched, it slowly began to rotate, and as it did, the three circles went with it. Orbiting it like a vultures on a kill.
"What is that?" Mortis asked slowly.
"The pinnacle. The balance. The guider. The pearl. What ever you want to call it, it is what keeps our three universes separate and aligned. Without it, there is no telling what could happen. However," Idjit made a dismissing gesture, "that is talk for another time. I will get to the point I'm trying to make."
Now he drew one final circle. This great silver ring enveloped the entire of the other three, diamond inside. The instant Idjit finished it, the remaining space that wasn't within the other four shapes, filled with sparkling blue light. It twinkled and flickered. Mortis could make out millions of dots swimming around. It was magnificent.
"The mana?"
"The mana," Idjit nodded. He placed his finger on a tiny speck within the glittering blue, and suddenly the diagram began to grow. It grew till the rings were larger then Mortis, larger then a lake, larger then the horizon. It kept on expanding and growing, and the two demons found themselves flying towards the place Idjit had pressed. All the time, the little mana-born continued to talk.
"There was one Summoner, one so powerful, so ignorant of the forces he was playing with, that he defied both the Lords of Heaven and Hell. He found a way to isolate a piece of the mana, take an entire chunk and cut it loose from the rest. His name was Horazon."
Mortis blinked. He had heard that name before, though at the time it meant nothing. They were deep among the mana again now, flying towards what looked like a giant crystal sphere. They were going very fast, and as the sphere grew closer, Mortis began to grow nervous. Were they going to smash straight into it? His logic told him that was a foolhardy thought; nothing in this place was real. His eyes told him different, however.
Though he'd convinced himself he would be safe by the time they hit, he still flinched. They passed through the strange sphere, and appeared within an extraordinary place. Here, the milky blue mana still floated, and so did the soul-orbs. But there was something else. Something man made.
"This," Idjit gestured, "is Horazon's safe haven. The Arcane Sanctuary. A place neither Hell or Heaven could reach."
Mortis gaped at the structure before him. It twisted and turned in all directions, defying gravity in impossible places and looking down right insane in others. Mortis guessed this Horazon person was not of his right mind anyway; he'd have to be mad to challenge everything that ever existed. He followed the spiral staircases with his eyes, before feeling that horrible vertigo again and squeezing them shut.
"Did you ever come here, Idjit?"
"No. This is another place the mana is showing us through me. It hates this place. It is like a grain of sand caught in your eye; irritating and painful."
"Are all these soul-orbs trapped here?"
Idjit reached out sadly to one of the golden floating balls, his hand passing right through it.
"Yes. All trapped. This is a Summoner's paradise. Here, he has access to as many souls as he requires, can take his pick from a million or more innocent lives. And this is where my master has 'gone'. He is far from harm, but causing irreparable damage to the force that gives life to all. We can but pray that he will be stopped, and maybe this cursed place destroyed."
Idjit looked more then a little depressed being here, so Mortis thought it time to leave. They did.
They were back in the black again. Idjit floated beside the glowing diagram of the circles with the diamond inside. Mortis's head felt swelled from all the new information he'd gained. Next time he'd think twice before asking how something was created.
"I apologise for taking you on such a vast and informative trip. I would have been content just telling you where I came from… but… but the mana... It suggested I show you everything… well, almost everything, and I agreed. It is possible you may need this knowledge in the future… but for what reason I don't know. Neither does the mana. It just…"
Idjit trailed off, a troubled look on his face. The little demon couldn't explain it, but Mortis was fine with that. Let his life take him where it may.
"I thank you. Both… of you. I guess. I believe I've seen more then any one being would get to in their lifetime. It's been… well, amazing really."
Idjit smiled.
"Guard your knowledge well. Your role in this universe may as yet be unknown… but a higher purpose you will serve."
Mortis felt the blackness begin to weaken, and struggled to stay with it.
"Wait, will you remember any of this when we return?"
"Yes, some," smiled Idjit, "But I won't have the capability to talk about it. Oh how I hate having such a tiny brain."
The darkness was definitely dissipating, and Mortis felt suction dragging him back to reality. He spared one last glance at the strange, glowing circles, floating among the pools of glittery blue and the pink diamond within. Then he was flying backwards, his eyes squeezed firmly shut.
He was looking forward to firm ground beneath his feet.