Chaos strolled the streets of Eduron. He was quite proud of this world. Much like Earth, yes, but the people here were much more skilled in wielding the power they possessed. And he needed that.
He swatted away a flyer shaped like a bird. He knew where he was going and couldn't afford to be distracted. He walked into a shop. The vendor who owned the place whispered softly from behind the counter as he bended over a box, writing on it. The ink disappeared as soon as it was applied.
Chaos watched silently as the vendor took the set the box on the counter. He snapped his fingers, and the box disappeared.
"Good morning," Chaos said.
The vendor jumped slightly and scratched his dark blonde hair. "Morning, sir. How may I help you?"
"I have a special spell set in my mind. Would you like to hear it?"
The vendor nodded and listened to Chaos's plan. He fiddled with one of the buttons on his shirt as he listened.
"But, if you're a god, why would you need a spell from me?" he asked skeptically. "I mean, couldn't you make it by yourself?"
"I could, yes, but things like this are always better when created by a professional," Chaos wheedled. The vendor blushed with pride. "Plus, mortals have one thing immortals don't: creativity."
"Okay, I'll do it," he said, holding his hand out to Chaos.
"Yes, Arcanus." Chaos clasped his hand. The vendor's eyes glowed demonic red. "Yes you will." Chaos let go of his hand.
Arcanus stumbled back. His eyes changed back to brown.
"Arcanus, there is one more thing I want. I want the spell to have a quality to completely erase the victim's personality." Without hesitation, Arcanus agreed.
Arcanus worked hard on that spell. He needed for it to give a person great strength, several magical powers, and resistance to the fatigue that always came after performing magic. And then, there was the entire personality wiping.
His little sister watched him around the clock. "A god gave you this task?" she asked skeptically. "But there's no such thing. They're just bedtime stories."
"He was real, Solli."
"Sure he was! I'm also from the planet Earth and I run around half-naked shooting fellow humans for sport," she said sarcastically.
Arcanus laughed. "Actually, Earth is real."
"I don't believe you."
"It is!" Solli crossed her arms. "Solli. Chaos told me. He told me how he created this world, as well as Earth."
"Where is Earth?" Solli asked.
"On the other side of the universe. On the other side of a black hole. Invisible to even the best astronomer."
"How do you know this?"
"Well, Chaos told me. I did also search for it, though," Arcanus said.
"You're not the best astronomer," Solli teased.
"But I am the best sorcerer."
"This is true," Solli said.
"I mean, why else would Chaos have come to me?" Arcanus asked. Solli's smile died. "Now, run along, sis. I'm busy."
"What? So soon? But-"
"Go."
Solli trudged out of her brother's shop sullenly. Chaos, Chaos, Chaos. That's all he ever talked about anymore. Who would trust a person with a name like Chaos anyway? He seemed like the kind of guy who would be able to go to total anarchy just to get something he wanted. Chaos was not the name of a benevolent person.
Solli swallowed her jealousy. She neared the trinkets cart. She had always yearned to work someplace like this, and now she was his apprentice! How exciting.
"Hey, Silly Solli. Ready for another lesson?" her mentor, Torque, smiled at her from the other side of the cart. He wasn't really that much older than her; he had inherited the cart from his father, who died tragically young. Solli tentatively returned his smile and nodded.
Torque pulled out a couple of amulets. "Okay, tell me what these ones do." He lay them down one by one.
Love, love, love, love… Solli smirked at him. "Are we working on love today?"
"Not necessarily…" Solli stared into his blue eyes,and then looked away, blushing madly.
"Well then give me a challenge, Torque!"
Torque laughed. He pulled a handful more of of not-yet-strung amulets and set them on the table. "If you get it right, you can string it," he said.
Solli did get most of them right. She picked up a strange symbol that looked a bit like a trident. "What's this one?"
"I just learned about that one. The people across the Idatic Sea swear that if you wear it, you'll be protected from just about anything." He thought for a moment, and added, "Except for hurt feelings, I guess."
Solli put it back down. Her brother flashed through her mind, and she fingered it again.
"Whoa, what's wrong?" Torque put a hand on Solli's arm.
"I'm worried about Arcanus."
"Why?"
"He's been acting different. He's so...obstinate all of a sudden. And about bedtime stories!" Solli sighed.
Torque lifted an eyebrow. "Bedtime stories?" He leaned over to her and whispered, "Y'know, I heard that all legends hold a grain of truth."
"But...gods? Other planets? Other...humans? It's a little hard to believe."
"Well, it would be rather arrogant of us to believe that we're the only lifeforms in the universe," Torque told her. "These 'Earthlings' could be real. Although, I doubt they're as intelligent as you and me."
"But some guy came up to him claiming to be the creator of the universe! I don't trust him." Solli threw her hands up in exasperation and looked at him. Do you understand?
Torque gazed into her oh-so-beautiful face. Such a beautiful face didn't deserve to be in such distress. He pulled some twine from his pocket. He took the protection symbol from Solli's hands and quickly and expertly tied them together. "Give this to your brother. He might need it." Solli accepted the amulet in her palm. She thanked him, pecked his cheek, and ran home. Torque watched her leave dreamily.
Nearly a month later, Arcanus docked his ship. He did it! He actually travelled to Earth and back! He wondered if Solli would like the tapestry he brought back. It showed one of their legendary heroes slaying a "Nemean Lion."
"Arc!" Solli came running up the street. "You're back! You're back!" She threw her arms around her brother's neck.
"I missed you too, sis. You'll never believe where I've been."
"You were gone a long time. Let me guess, Areanna? Gendanthra?" Solli's eyes were bright with excitement.
"No. Greece."
"Greece?"
"On the planet Earth," Arcanus added. Solli cocked her head. "I've got a gift for you." Arcanus grabbed her hand and pulled her onto his ship. He used it to travel all over Eduran for ingredients for his spells. It was much bigger than it would seem it needed to be, big enough to hold a crew of twenty. The only reason he would own a boat so big when he generally travelled alone was pirates. Pirates usually got bored if they couldn't find anything at first. Its cabins were also such a maze that if any pirate got close, he could defend his treasure from them.
Arcanus opened the door to the cabin with the present for his sister. She gasped. Solli wandered over to the amazingly woven tapestry and stroked it softly to test its authenticity. "What does this do?" she asked.
"It's just for decoration. That guy on it-the one in the skirt with the sword?-he's a major celebrity. His name is Heracles, and he's named after one of their goddesses, Hera. For some reason, they don't like each other, and she made him do all these tasks, killing the Nemean Lion for example."
Solli giggled. "Why is he wearing a skirt?"
Arcanus shrugged. "Everyone in Greece wears skirts. Don't ask me. Come on, let's go put this in your room." He pulled the tapestry from the hooks he had hung it from, bundled it up, and left the ship. Solli followed closely, so as to not get lost.
"I can't believe it! Earth is real!"
"It's hard to believe at first," Arcanus agreed. "Earth is beautiful. Mostly sea, though. I accidentally landed in the middle of the sea. I was stranded for a week! But a god saved me."
"A god? Come on now."
"Yes, an actual, living, breathing god. He showed me the way to Greece."
"I don't believe you." Solli unlocked the door of their house.
"Well, Earthlings don't glow and disappear when you're twenty leagues away from civilization, Solli. Besides, when I told locals about it, they stared at me like I was crazy and talked about 'Poseidon.' Chaos told me that Poseidon is their god of the sea," Arcanus recalled. Solli pursed her lips and shook her head.
They walked to Solli's room. Arcanus dropped the tapestry onto her bed with a plop.
"If we move that desk, we could put the tapestry up on that wall," Solli suggested.
For the rest of the day, they allowed Arcanus to settle in. He showed Solli the wheat he had brought home.
"You went to another planet...for wheat."
"Not the wheat! You see this brown stuff growing on it? They call it mýki̱tas. It's got a hallucinogenic power. Basically Earthian magic," Arcanus explained.
"It's still wheat." Solli remained obstinate that it was just wheat. Eventually, Arcanus conceded just to shut her up.
Arcanus was floating. He didn't know where he was, for all he could see was a blackish void. His night clothes rippled in an imaginary wind. The silence of the place deafened him. Arcanus tried to look around, he wasn't even sure if he was turning around at all.
His heartbeat grew rapid and his breathing grew ragged. He pawed at his eyes.
Suddenly, light and color invaded the blackness, creating an endless swirl. Arcanus couldn't discern if it went clockwise or counter-clockwise; it seemed to go both ways at once. He watched it, amazed, as the color changed from red to green to blue to orange to purple to yellow and even to colors he couldn't name. It was a calming chaos.
And the smell! Arcanus smelled everything from bacon to grease to dung to fresh-cut grass. The scents went on and on, some more pleasurable than others.
It was cold and hot and comfortable at all the same time. This annoyed him, because he wanted to rip his clothes off from the unbearable heat but also draw them around him from the frigid cold at the same time.
The only sense missing was sound.
"Arcanus."
Arcanus jumped, or he would have, if he had anything to jump from. He looked around to see who had spoken. The voice seemed to come from the chaos itself.
"I am growing impatient, Arcanus."
Arcanus recognized the deep, raspy voice of Chaos. Obviously, he was demanding the spell he had ordered. And, no one else mispronounced his name that way.
"It's only been two months...your, uh, godliness."
In front of him materialized another version of himself. He wore a plain red shirt and blue jeans tucked inside of brown boots. He had the same brown eyes and dirty blonde hair as Arcanus, except he didn't seem disoriented by the madness. He hovered as if he stood on flat land. He glared at Arcanus.
"'It's only been two months.'" he repeated. "I know of inferior magicians who could do it in two days, Arcanus." It is truly a strange experience to be reprimanded by yourself.
Arcanus ran a hand through his hair. "I'm nearly done! I need another week!"
Arcanus's doppelganger held up three fingers. "You have three days."
"Three days?! I can't finish in that time!"
"I will come to collect three days hence." His doppelganger held his hand out. As it came closer, pain bloomed in Arcanus's chest. Before he could be touched, Arcanus was ripped from the dream and back into reality. He gasped for air and found himself sweating.
His sister had put the amulet on his chest, and now she stood by his bed. "You weren't wearing this."
"I took it off, so it wouldn't strangle me in my sleep," Arcanus said.
Solli's expression matched that of Arcanus's dream doppelganger. "How's an amulet meant to protect you going to strangle you?! Put it on now!" Startled by her sternness, Arcanus sat up quickly and lifted the twine around his neck. Solli blushed. "Sorry, I was just concerned."
"Why are you in my room so late?" Arcanus asked.
Solli blushed harder. "Oh, I was wanted to tell you I was going out…"
"Why-where are you going in the middle of the night?" Solli didn't answer, looking away. Arcanus grinned and poked her in the side. "Who are you meeting up with, huh?" he teased.
Solli covered her face. "It's no one; forget it!"
Arcanus poked her some more.. "Who does my little sister have a crush on? Eh? Come on, tell me."
Solli giggled. "Mercy! Mercy! I'll tell you; I'll tell you!" Arcanus stopped poking her. Solli pursed her lips, smiling. "Torque," she whispered.
"The amulet seller? The one you're apprenticing from? Hmm, I should have known something would have happened between you two," he mused. Solli stared down at her feet, embarrassed.
"Well, I'd better get going," she whispered.
"Have fun, you! Don't stay out too late. Be careful." Arcanus followed her to the doorway and shouted things like this until he heard the front door slam.
He smiled, happy for his sister. He lay back down on his back and let his mind mull over his dream. His heartbeat quickened at the thought.
He rubbed his solar plexus; he could still feel a ghost of pain there. He pulled off his shirt and inspected it. His chest seemed a little red. He frowned and put his shirt back on, lying back on the bed.
Making a deal with a god was a bad idea. He genuinely couldn't finish it in three days. The ergot was mixing with the rest of the ingredients, and that would take five days. Then he needed to test it, which wasn't going to be easy. Who would agree to have their personality completely wiped?
He regretted ever saying yes. He shouldn't have done it. Never.
Arcanus shut his eyes to sleep.
Why couldn't I just have declined? Anyone who claims to be a god is absolutely insane.
Arcanus rolled over.
He was a persuasive bastard. If I had declined, that would have been admitting defeat to myself.
Arcanus rolled over to the other side.
Never again. If anyone claims to be a god, I'll just kick them out of my shop.
Arcanus tried to sleep on his stomach.
What will he do when I don't have it ready?
Finally, he gave up. Arcanus sat up and fingered the amulet. It was a peculiar little trinket, meant to protect him. He had a strange feeling he would need it.
He got up and went into the room where the ergot was mixing with the rest of the ingredients. He had stripped the fungus from the wheat. Then he had put it into a fermentor connected to his weird little contraption.
To create it, he had cut an hourglass in half. Once he had ensured that all the sand was gone, he had started with one of the bases. Two glass tubes circled around each other leading up to two other hourglass bases. In these, he put his ingredients when he wished to mix them. It was much easier than doing it by hand, and safer at times.
Right now, the already-mixed ingredients sat in the dish on the left, and the ergot fermented in the right. He had charmed them so whenever essence of ergot would slip through, the proper amount of everything else would too.
He watched as a little stream of essence of ergot slid down the tube. The other ingredients followed suit. Because the ergot was not Edurian, it mixed painfully slowly.
Maybe he could use a little magic to speed up the process. But of course, that would make it less powerful. It hurt his pride to do it.
Three days hence, Arcanus took the finished spell (It was truly a miracle he finished it in time.) and flew his ship to a field in the middle of a field inland from his home, Cheritha. He stood waist-deep in grasses, waiting.
While he waited, he tucked the protection amulet underneath his shirt. He turned up his collar to hide the string.
Ten minutes passed before a swirling, black portal appeared in front of him. Chaos came through, dragging a young boy in a toga. If not for the toga, Arcanus would have assumed he were from Eduron. The young boy was crying and trying to pull away from Chaos.
"No, please, lord, please don't kill me! I'll do anything! Pleeeeeeeeeaaaase!"
"Hush, boy!" Chaos's bruteness with such a young boy caused Arcanus to step back in surprise. Chaos turned his attention to Arcanus. "Well, do you have it?"
Wordlessly, Arcanus nodded and handed the bottle to Chaos.
Chaos let go of the boy's wrist to uncork the bottle. The young child ran away. Other way, Arcanus urged him, civilization is the other way! Luckily for the boy, he was hardly taller for the grass, meaning it would be harder to find him the further he ran.
Pale blue fog swirled around Chaos. When it penetrated through his cloak, Chaos stood taller as if he were gaining strength, which Arcanus supposed he was. Chaos held his hand out to the boy, who was still running for his life. Nausea washed over Arcanus as he saw his doppelganger from his dream appear in front of the boy.
"Shh... it's all right. I'm not going to hurt you." Arcanus whimpered. That was his voice.
Don't believe him! Don't trust him! He's just a mirage! All he'll do is destroy your life. His doppelganger scooped up the now calm boy.
"Civilization is that way, silly!" his doppelganger said, walking the boy back over to them.
Arcanus glanced over at Chaos to demand how he could do something so horrible to someone so young, but fear froze his tongue. Chaos was glaring at him. Usually, nothing could be seen from under the god's hood, but now two golden irises stared at him.
"You have done well, Arcanus."
Arcanus swallowed hard.
"I have no use for you anymore."
Arcaunus nodded fearfully and turned in the direction of his ship.
"This makes you indisposable."
Arcanus broke into a run. He felt something like a shove from behind. He looked behind himself to see black tendrils retracting into Chaos's outstretched hand.
"What?!" Chaos growled.
Arcanus swallowed his fear and stopped running. "You can't hurt me. Just take your stupid spell and leave!"
Chaos laughed thunderously. Oh how Arcanus immediately regretted his decisions. He was an idiot. "Are you sure I can't hurt you, Arcanus?" An idiot!
Arcanus's doppelganger disappeared, leaving the boy to drop to the ground. Chaos stepped backwards into a portal that appeared out of nowhere.
Was it over? Arcanus asked himself when the portal disappeared. Why would Chaos just disappear out of nowhere like that.
"Why-why is the ground turning black?" the boy asked. Indeed, where Chaos had stood, the ground turned into a brittle black rock: the plants died, and when the boy curiously touched it, he turned to ashes.
Arcanus froze as the circle expanded outwards toward him. He stumbled backwards and retreated to his ship. He flew it to the sky, just above the atmosphere. All he could do was watch as his planet was reduced to nothing but charcoal.
When it was over, a lump formed in his throat. His planet...his people...his friends...his sister… All of them gone, and there was nothing he had done to stop it. There was nothing he could do to undo it or to fix it. And the worst part was that he had caused it. This was his fault. Arcanus broke into tears.
A/N: So, like I said, really slow updates (and if I didn't say it, there are going to be really slow updates). From now on, if I have a chapter ready, it's going up on a Friday.