Eternity Zero

Chapter 6

        “-if we killed him?”
        “Oh, bugger off, I did it perfectly!”
        “I did it, and if it was perfect, we’ll soon know.”
        Kai felt a tingling. A sort of pins-and-needles all over his head. His eyes opened. What was this?
        He was in a cluttered workshop, but it was like no workshop he had ever seen. Colored mists hung over the air, smelling of bath salts, candy, and strangely… dead rat? There were shelves that went high to the ceiling, festooned with large, heavy-bound books. Papers covered in a solid, untranslatable script. In front of it all was a very strange man.
        First of all, his beard. It was a long, white, three-pronged thin, topped with a large moustache. He had large, circular ears, and a round nose. His eyes were a twinkling blue, his mouth a continuous smirk. At his sides were two braziers, one carrying a blue flame, the other a purple. At least he thought they were flames, until one of them spoke.
        “Toldja!” said the purple one, a crude mouth forming in between the licks of fire.
        “He might have amnesia! That sometimes happens!” said the other.
        “Shut up!” said the old man. “It’s bad enough that you annoy me! Don’t annoy him!”
        A wizard? Nope. they don’t exist. Nope nope nope. Kai was even more in shock than before. Talking fire. I’m insane.
        “Hi there.” said the wizard. “Don’t move.”
        He of course, moved.
        He committed all his groggy force to trying to get away, then quickly figured out that he was so tired that he flopped down after his head got six inches into the air.
        The fake wizard continued: “Sleep-inducing flash spell. You should be fine soon with this.” He pulled out a little vial, filled with an odd green substance. He poured some into Kai’s mouth, until he started to cough.
        Killian’s head cleared. This wasn’t some sort of hallucination. Maybe some of it was, but not the old guy. “Wuh...Where am I?”
“Sewers o’ London, kid.” said the purple flame, “You might tell from the smell, the rats, and the cracked bricks. As well as how damp it is here. I could go out! The things we do...” he said unhappily.
        “He’s just awakened again.” said the blue, “Be easy on him! He’s important too! No rudeness!”
        “Anyway,” said the wizard, “Meet overzealous and overwrought. I think you can tell which is which”
        “Eaden.” said the purple one.
        “Aeden.” said the blue one.
        The old man stated his name; “Iobar. Any way, you’re in for an explanation.”
        “Like” Kai croaked, “What the heck is going on?”
        “Something like that.”
        “Imagine the world as two worlds” began Iobar, “One world is the bland, boring world you’ve lived in until now, with nothing interesting. No magic, no demons, no giant, hulking nightmare creatures that’ll eat your face off. Ugh. The other world is what happens behind the scenes. The dragons. The nightmares. The world of magic. Creatures that hide behind a veil they can slip in and out of at will. There a pixies, and will-o'-the-wisps. That’s what these guys are,” he pointed to Eaden and Aeden.”Wisps. I’m a Mage, not a Wizard, there’s difference.
        “We are those boogeymen peoples mothers warn them about. we are the night creatures. The Fae. Good or bad, seelie or unseelie, light or dark. We are the magic in this world, and you are one of us”
        You are one of us.
        One of us.