Entry #264913, added on 06-17-09 @ 8:46 pm EDT
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| Beginnings (prologue) | Entry #264913 |
The apprentice awoke, quivering in the darkness as his mind raced with the dreams that had lingered with him the past few nights. This day would end in darkness as well. War drums beat inside his ears, making his head throb. His eyes ached from the wicked visions embodied in his dreams. Death, cruelty, and destruction manifested in living forms and vivid colors, and were now trapped in his mind as he awoke. He was unsure whether the depictions in his dreams were just nightmares or something of a higher meaning, like omens of the new world he was entering.
Either way, he was glad to be awake.
He sat up on his pallet, and rubbed his clean-shaven face. His forehead and neck were soaked with sweat, but it wasn’t the least bit hot in the dry, quiet room. Rising to his feet, his knees cracked as a result of the awkward position his body seemed to end up in after a restless night of sleep.
He cleansed himself using the basin of water already prepared for him on the nearby table. Though he was about to enter a realm already devoid of purity, the body was required to be clean before donning the robes worn by those of his following. The icy water sent a shiver through his naked body. A wave of fear crept over him for a moment, but he shrugged it off. He kept his mind on his goal, and a new confidence filled him as he picked up the robe from the table. He pulled it over his head, his shoulders succumbing to the weight of the heavy cloth.
Taking a deep sigh, he collapsed into a chair in front of the table in the study, on which sat the large grimoire that contained every dark spell a wizard was to learn. Many of those spells he had learned already, and those were to be skipped. The spells he was about to learn he knew would be difficult, and the process would definitely weaken him for a while. Most of the wizards at his level were much older than he, but the toll the power had taken on him aged him beyond his years. Drained as he was, he forced himself to stand, his legs wobbling like jelly. He grabbed the edge of the table to maintain his balance and then closed the spell book.
Moving toward the window, the apprentice pulled the hood of the robe up over his head, masking his face in shadow. He looked out at the land below, pleased with his progress in building his dark dominion. The tower hummed with his presence. He was now the heart that beat within its four walls, the only sign of life in the vast realm that surrounded the tower.
As the last light of the setting sun dropped below the horizon, the deep red hues of the sky rich as blood, he knew it would be the last time he’d ever see daylight. From that moment on, the night would be his domain.
He turned from the window to face the black portal behind him, and then closed his eyes, allowing himself to be drawn toward it. A cold sensation came over his body, as though he had been struck by a blast of frostbite.
The void consumed the young man’s mind, twisting his spirit like a black eddy in a river flowing with evil. He felt the shadowy knowledge creeping into him, overcoming him, beating against the inside of his skull as the dark arts filled his brain. The words and symbols, chants and rites were all new to him, and they danced on the elusive edge of his memory. But he drew them inward, like a magnet attracting another. The feeling was incredible, beyond anything he had ever felt before. He couldn’t stifle a maniacal laugh.
All his life he had waited for this moment. For years he endured the seemingly endless training to control the power within him. Finally, it was his turn. He was about to become a master. No longer would they hold him back, nor could they. Once the newfound power was complete within him, he would build his own domain, and then he’d return to his origins to claim the prize that should have been his. |
© Copyright 2009 Mark C Bradley (UN: auric at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Mark C Bradley has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
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