Damian

''Are we all ready?'' I send to everyone gathered in the Dyson Citadel, the stronghold and most well-defended position in the Walish Queendom. A nation completely controlled by the cults and lead by the Circle towards a single goal for the past 21 years.

''We are ready.'' A recovered if slightly changed Diana responds for everyone.

Only having come out of her seclusion in the recent years all the more stronger for consuming the spirit that tried to consume her but also more quiet, more reserved than she was before the backstab by that fat Albert and Yolanda. The eerie Diana having taken a more prominent leadership role of late without the usual in-fighting from the others. I would almost think they were afraid of her had I not known them to be all heartless men and women that have looked death in the eye countless times.

There a hundreds of us gathered in the Great Roundhall around the vastly intricate heptahedral sigils drawn on the floor in crushed soul stones. A formerly useful people of the Cold Belt that mined and sold the precious stones no more as they have outlived their usefulness and the time for petty peddling finally being over.

The virgin slaves in the cardinal points taken from the dead corpses of their mothers' by the killer. Raised to the age of their moon blood and used today as sacrifice to power the circle. The ritual stones already in place and filled to the brim with the spirit energy of thousands of dead slaves sacrificed for this purpose, a great purpose if a somewhat insane one if I say so myself.

The 25 of us necessary to initiate and direct the waking of the working towards our goals, unimagined power. The following 25 of the Outer Circle necessary to help maintain the working stable and also peripheral beneficiaries of the mythical knowledge and power that will be made available to The Openers of The Gates and the 'breakers of seals'.

Then there are the fifty worthy servants behind that circle that make up the third and final layer of those to be rewarded with secrets and gifts from the beyond. The room beyond the sigils working is occupied by allied kings, queens, princess, priests and other 'worthy' dignitaries that have been necessary to befriend in getting to where we are now.

All 200 of us are in black and white hooded robes laced with katari and enchanted with repair and fire resistance; the 100 of the inner and outer circles, spot bronze rings with a tiny round black gem that is a piece cut from a single soul stone. The 25 of us of the inner circle spot celestial metal weapons and accessories for offense or defence.

The ritual we are about to undertake has been years in the planning, making and testing stages. Most of us that have gotten this far from the beginning have done this numerous times already in practice and other minor rituals we've performed. Our hands have been washed in so much blood that there was never any justification for our actions except to succeed otherwise all would have been in vain.

Most of us here aren't zealots and came into this bargain with both eyes open and full awareness that we would be propagating the acceleration of the end of our own world. But make no mistake that if we succeed and somehow survive the aftermath, we ourselves may find ourselves worshiped as minor deities or actual super beings living in the planes.

Everyone in this room will get a shadow of the power that will be falling for us to swallow, benefiting even if from the periphery from this taboo we are about to embark on.

Krrrrr...

There is an electric ripping sound that cuts the ambience in the large chamber as a portal is forced open where a portal shouldn't be able to penetrate; not with the wards we have put up. The air is displaced gently I notice as Aralias stumbles back from the thing's force field as it opens. The few elite guards allowed witnessing the Working already rushing towards the intrusion, no sorcerer worth their salt is without a shield and a cast at the tip of their minds to ensure their survival. For above all else any sorcerer is a survivor.

Waves of a quiet hungry aura billow out of the tear in space and out comes a leg and then another, transitioning into a person working out of the dark queer opening.

"Sorry I'm late; I didn't want to wade through all those guards outside so I took a detour." My father says casually as though everyone in the room knows him personally and should understand his plight or expecting his eminent arrival.

"Who the fuck are you?" Orc King Warrick from Southern Drada'ka asks and I can't help but grin.

"That my dear is Aaron the Black, come sit beside me Aaron." A woman I don't recognise says from an ornate couch by the wall.

My heart is pounding in my chest because clearly the old man knows exactly what I've been doing and with whom if he is able to get himself here at the last minute. His timing is uncanny actually which could only mean the man has a mole inside my organisation. Worse, he could have been the power smoothing the way for some of my agents this whole time. I'd hate for my accomplishments to become family accomplishments but there are bigger things to worry about right now.

He being here means mother knows where I am, and that is a prospect I do not wish to face. Not with me 'consorting with spirits'. Something dear mother warned us all about numerous times.

"As you were." Father says as he wades through the people towards the woman and they part for him as he expected.

I show no outward emotion but I'm both pleased that someone in the family will bear witness to my rise and also terrified he will only witness my failure.

"If you think the army guarding this territory and the zealots guarding this city are enough to stop the forces formed against you then you are mistaken son. I will be here as the last line of defence lest you need it." He sends before taking his seat smoothly.

This citadel was built specifically for this ritual and defence in mind. Every stone and wooden board is enchanted and the wards are laid from the foundation upwards. It will be difficult for anyone to pinpoint our location even if they feel the Working and the breaking of Seals. Then there are the 2 million strong armies of both Evenga and Whales protecting the boarders from invasion.

Then the roaming bands of Dasas Inquisitors patrolling the roads for any people heading this way and discouraging them. Then the mercenary companies hired to sit on their asses and only get a bonus if they have to fight are numerous in the central region of Whales. Before the Espada and noble personal guards protect the city itself from any attack without or within, his last line of defence shouldn't be needed.

"Let us begin." I send to my subordinates and we each place the ceremonial daggers at the throats of our own sacrifices and slit the jugular.

We begin the chant as we infuse our words with spirit whilst also infusing the sigils themselves with energy. The spirits collected and trapped intended to be sacrifices start to cry out inhumanly as they begin to burn from within with the start of the ritual, the ambience in the large chamber darkening and becoming more sinuous. The vast amounts of spirit energy we pride ourselves in possessing being quickly drained then the next 25 then the 100 then the screaming spirits go silent as they begin to disintegrate as they fuel the Working.

I'm not sure what's happening outside the Working at this point but it is with great Will and effort that the collective inner circle directs the great amounts of energy being sucked into oblivion towards the 'oblivion' we seek to accomplish. I find myself screaming as I try to maintain my concentration while an insubstantial intangable power sucks me dry not just of spirit but seems to have drained my mana and is now putting my very soul in peril. I scream in anguish and I slowly loose grasp of the Working as the pain becomes completely unreasonable from any point of reference I have of what pain is or could be.

Unbearable pain is liberating in a way as you really don't have to try to bare it 'cause you can't. My bowel loosens and I feel no shame, all I know is pain. My connection to the others disappears and I feel no worry that we have lost our handle on the working 'cause all I feel is pain. My ego, my ambitions, my fears are all supplanted by the pure feeling of pain which is all I know, all I am at this point. Pain frees one from the distractions of the ego, of overthinking, second guessing, estimating and all the other distractions. Pain allows the true self to come forwards as the ego and everything it has with it retreats allowing you true indescribable clarity that could be the greatest of enlightnement. Liberation, devastation? All I know is pain.

*

Ancient of Days

I look up as I feel the disturbance in the ether and a moment later there is a depletion of the spirit energy in the air. "And so as it was foretold so shall it be."

''Is it time grandfather?''

''Not yet, it will take some time still for them to achieve that which they have begun. Come, let us go to the others and begin the selection of the chosen champions.'' I say looking behind me at my Pathfinders in training. They know most of the routes around the big continents on Gaia, but it's a big world with many hidden nooks and crannies.

*

Andromeda Draconis Orion

The sleeping daemon within my familiar/me trembles as it/I senses the disturbance and we/it hisses into visibility for a moment from our/it’s vigil in the Inner City Sanctum. The sensation of the disruption in the spirit of Gaia herself is electrifying, bringing with it finally the possibility of a challenge worthy of me, finally I will be able to uncurl myself against a creature worthy to slay me.

I stand from my thinking chair and step down the dais smoothly, the power already blazing off me in imperceptible fumes as I stretch and flex ‘muscles’ I haven’t had a reason to flex in ages. I feel a similar response from my eldest son Laniakea across the city, then Nasah across the continent then Kakaroth several stories below the royal palace. The most powerful of my children getting excited about the possibility of unlimbering themselves from mortal flesh as they unleash themselves truly in the world.

My Other Self steps in from a dimensional chamber into Gaia as It feels my excitement and realises what it likely portents. We connect to each other and feel joy in each other as we revel in childish excitement. Maybe there may even be a challenger that forces us to combine, maybe we could finally be One again with the blessing of Gaia.

* * *

A lean Hito man sleeping on a park bench in the small town of Mao in the lands of Norientia is startled from rest as he feels for the first time in 10 years something new in the world. Something he has never tasted before and he stretches his arms over his head to dispel the sleep from his old bones though he looks to be in his prime. The man sits up and smiles at the sight of human children playing with beastmen children so blissfully and the sight of the peace the people of Orientia bought with the blood of their emperor.

‘It seems there is a new mystery to discover.’ he says to himself as he sends his goodbyes to the few associates he’s made here in Terra continent already heading towards the curiosity.

* *

Bái Hú

As I wake I realise first that I’m no longer just myself, I am two creatures in one spirit being. Then I realise I have slept more than intended as I get in tune with Gaia again. The new me is different yes but like a fantasy is different from reality. I can remember my past lives as thought they are dreams I lived through before I actually started life for the first time. Like both Byakko and *#’’$5&$#%& are past lives I remember living before I was born as myself, West.

I notice my surrounds as a comfortable grass clearing in the living forest with a small pond decorated snf circled by rocks. I am in a time lapse, a place within the forest outside the time of Gaia and therefore not physically in existence on the world at the time one would expect. Completely isolated from most of the outside world yet part of it, if only at a different time. I feel to confirm with my senses as indeed yes, there is an attempt to unbind one of the World Seals.

Already I can feel the spirit energy being drained from the world in what will turn out to be a vulnerable time for all spiritists till the Working either fails, expires or succeeds. Time in which I should use wisely and learn my limits and improve myself for the coming struggle. I feel the call of Jethuthun as s/he notices my awakening, I’m surprised the little rascal still pays attention to the world but I heed his call dematerialising with the wind towards him/her. After all, when the Ancestral Beast of the Red Forest calls one has to answer.