Last chapter was supposed to be PROLOGUE not EPILOGUE. I am too lazy to return to the story to correct it. Besides, (sigh) my back up copies of all my stories were casualties when my computer broke down, they weren't recovered so I relied on the sites where I posted my ongoing ones. (Thanks to DA and my yahoo group I was able to get the old ones that I took down from the sites, lol).
Anywho, for disclaimers, see Prologue.
Warning: I do not know classic latin (or modern), so italicized scripts means it is supposed to be in that language, so for those who actually knew classic latin, pretend it is in that format. (I don't want to be a mediocre, putting in latin text of English phrases, taken from google, I know the translations are almost always direct that it loses its meaning!)
CHARMCASTER'S HEART
Chapter One
[5 years later]
Philosophy classes were supposed to be boring. But for Gwen, who decided on taking Bachelor of Arts, major in Philosophy, the class was the most interesting thing that happened to her day. The bell rang, and while every student hurried to go out of the room, the red headed woman decided to stay for a bit.
She looked down at the opened book on her desk, PLATO and sighed. She had all the important texts colored, all she had to do was go over it when she comes home. So with another sigh, she closed her book and put it inside her bag. A gray booklet caught her attention, so she took it out.
Scripts in classic Latin could be seen, phrases only magicians, sorceress, witches, warlocks could understand, (And those taking Classic Lit, she had convinced herself that those were closeted witches, magicians, sorceress… so on and so forth,). She looked at the scripts and heaved another sigh. In the last five years, Gwen had been jumping from one library to another, searching the library's archive, asking favors from people she had helped, saved before.
And she haven't found the right phrase yet to open the gate to ledgerdomain.
Her rumination was interrupted by a hard knock on the classroom's open door. When she looked up from the book, Kevin, Ben and Kevin's new beau, Elena were all standing outside it.
"Are you busy? Or are you busy?" Kevin started and walked inside, dragging a frowning Elena who had a green stain on her white shirt. Following the two was Ben who had the biggest grin on his face.
"Let me guess, Ben got the alien again, Kevin lost a bet and you…," she grinned at the frowning brunette, "You're the one who got the brunt of it all?"
"Why is it always me?" Elena whined,
"If you don't want it to be you, I already told you, leave that two alone." Gwen said smiling, looked down at the book, closed it and returned it in her bag. "So what brought you here?"
Ben smiled and scratched his head, "Well I am here for Juliet, Kevin here though needs to talk to you." He said.
The red head looked at Kevin's grinning face, "You gate crashed in a university?"
"Gate crash? This is UNI, anyone can come in." he said shrugging his shoulder,
"Not in this building,"
Kevin rolled his eyes, "Okay, fake I.D.!" he raised his hands up in the air in surrender, "I'm not here to fight, I got some news that I thought might benefit you."
Silence
"So?"
Kevin shook his head before rolling his eyes once again, "Why are you always so serious?"
"I take life seriously Kevin, that's why." She narrowed her eye on the plumber, "So?"
The tall plumber looked at his girlfriend who nodded her head before facing the red head, "News got out that ledgerdomain is once again in chaos, from a reliable source, it seems it's deteriorating, and will collapse."
"Wha…,"
"No power could stop the downfall; that part of the universe will cease to exist soon."
Gwen closed her eyes, "What about the inhabitants?"
Ben interrupted, "There's no other inhabitants Gwen, I think the lack of living creatures there is the reason why it's collapsing."
"Charmcaster…,"
"Can you open the gate?" Kevin asked and watched as the panicked red headed woman shook her head no, "If there's no way to go in, then there's no way to get out. Only Charmcaster can open that gate, remember?"
"But…,"
"But what?"
"I got to try!"
Kevin hit the air with his fist, "Damn it Gwen! You've been trying for the last five years! Charmcaster doesn't want to be saved!"
"I still want to try!" Gwen said before taking her bag and running out of the room.
The three people were left stunned, "We did the right thing by telling her yeah?" Elena asked.
"We did." Ben said, "It just sucks she has to hear the news from us."
"Well we can't do anything about it since she already quit hunting." The dark haired man said tsking.
"Well, hunting isn't as fun as when she was with us." Ben said a bit sadly.
"Hey!" Elena called out irate.
"I was just saying…," Ben smiled, "You don't have the power Gwen has, it didn't mean though that you're not effective."
"Whatever," the dark haired woman huffed and turned to leave. "I don't see any reason for us to stay noh?"
"Come on," Kevin said dragging his girlfriend once again.
XXX
[20:00 Hrs, two days later]
"Arghhh! There's got to be something I can use somewhere!" Gwen growled as she looks for a book at the archive of magic, in a secret library, in a hidden province in Hungary. Gwen's search though was interrupted by the sound of one of the windows breaking, telling her that there was a forceful entry.
With her power, she flew and hid in a shadow at the top of one wall. Her green orbs were surprised to see a half naked man, with tattoos on his body. "Hexlord…" she whispered to no one.
"Come on out Gwen, I know you are here. I can smell you from where I stand." He said in a voice unlike before, unlike the last time she saw him. He sound stressed, hopeless.
The old magician smiled when the red headed woman flew out of the shadow and slowly descend towards the ground, opposite the man. "What brings you here?"
"Shouldn't I ask the same thing?"
Gwen frowned, "You asked me to come out, so I'm guessing, you're not here to chat. If you want to fight…,"
"On the contrary Tennesson," he said throwing his magic baton on the ground, "I'm actually here to chat."
One brow rose, "Speak,"
The old magician sighed, "I am actually in need of your help."
Silence
"You… need my….help?" green eyes watched the magician nod his head, "Is the apocalypse coming?"
"To ledgerdomain, yes." He looked around and found a table at the corner of the room, "Can we go there, we might be chatting for a long time tonight." The college junior nodded her head and walked after Hex who went directly on one side of the table and sat on a chair. "Please sit, I'm neither here to fight nor trick you."
Gwen sat, "I heard about it,"
"The energy circulating in Ledgerdomain had diminished greatly, it cannot sustain its existence."
"And Ho… Charmcaster?"
"…Is stuck inside." He sighed, "She had honed a lot of energy in her solitary stay in there, but I'm afraid she had lost the will to fight and would gladly lose her life than leave the damned world."
"Why come to me?"
He smiled, "I know you've been trying to get in the world for the last five years, and up to now, you are unsuccessful." He eyed the red head nodding. "I could help you get in." he said
Gwen's eyes widened, "Wait, if you could get in, why don't you help Ho – Charmcaster?"
"She had banished me and blocked me from the world."
Silence
"I am not that powerful to stop her!"
"Who said anything about stopping her? She needs to get out of there, she needs a reason to-"
"Reason?"
"Well, if there's no reason at least there must be someone as stubborn as her to pull her out of Ledgerdomain before it explodes." He sighed, "As soon as possible."
The red headed woman remained silent in contemplation. "Okay, I'll do it!"
Hexlord smiled, "This doesn't mean we will stop being enemies, we'll just have a truce for now."
Gwen smiled, "I'm not into hunting anymore, whatever is your score with Ben, then you settle it with him."
Hexlord frowned, "I don't have any grudge to match with Ben, my opponent will always be you."
Gwen just looked at him, "Truce then."
"Truce."
Hexlord let a large black book appear out of nowhere. "This is the Ledgerdomain's book of spells. The combination to the gate that connects this world to it is also here. It may change, but it will never deviate from this book."
"So all I have to do is find the right combination?" The older magician nodded his head then pushed the big book to Gwen. The red headed woman opened the book and her eyes widened. "This would take…,"
"I didn't say it would be easy."
Gwen closed her eyes, 'I could do it!' she thought. "Okay," she stood up, "If I'm going to do this, I have to start now."
Hexlord frowned, "And Ben 10? I am not in truce with him."
"I don't work with him or Kevin anymore. I work alone now."
"You shouldn't be so open about it, a lot would be pleased, and a lot wanted to you dead."
Gwen smiled, "Charmcaster isn't the only one who had grown." She said before taking the big book, turned and disappear in the room's shadow.
"Clever woman," Hexlord said before he summon his power and flew off the room using the broken window.
XXX
Gwen sighed, she had been combining symbols in the book to open the gate for 24 hours. She had eaten a little and haven't sleep yet. She knew that this would probably take here more time, but she doesn't have that much time. Ledgerdomain is going to explode soon and along with it is Hope.
"Why can't she just get back to hating earth so she could just open this damn gate and come here to try and kill us all!" she said in frustration. "ARRRGHH!"
She concentrated, relax her muscle and let the power flow in here, "This is my last attempt for today, I need to rest!" she said. Once her mind was clear, she started calling out symbols, in different order from before.
"Spring," A circle with a V shape on its top appeared, the end of the V shape were curved outside making it look like a wilting stem. "Sunrise," A horizontal line with semi-circle above it, and an arrow pointing upward above the prone semi-circle appeared. "Order," Three squares of different sizes atop each other, "War," Diamond with an X over it glittered on the stone, "Home," A triangle with a small square inside it lightens up. The last symbol where Gwen's eyes focused stopped her from saying it. She looked for other symbols but her eyes stray on it over and over. Taking a deep breath she decided to say it, "Death," A large X mark with a diamond on top of it appeared.
Gwen focused her attention on the stone arc of the gate, the symbols glowing brightly. She's expecting it, it had been doing that for the last 24 hours but it doesn't open the gate. Sighing in defeat she stood up and picked up the black book of spells. "I better try tomorrow," she said and turned around.
Her fleeing was stopped by the sound of the gate opening.
-End Chapter One-
This story focuses on Gwen and Charmcaster. I don't care about Kevin's new lovelife or Ben's. They will be mentioned here and there, but there will be more chapters where they are not in it. Anyone who doesn't approve of that, then don't read. I warned you.
I wanted to write Gwen saying "Miskah, Mossekah, Mickey Mouse!" to open the gate, but well, I don't think Gwen is ready for the comedy part yet. There will be, this isn't angst after all.
The symbols I took from pinterest pin / 78461218480831139 /