“Are you sure you know what you are doing?” A grizzled warrior shouted at the young man over the roar of the vortex that wrapped itself around the stone

“What?”

“I said: are you sure you know what you are doing?”

“Yes, I have already plotted my route so it should go without any problems. Just two gateways to pass through to be sure.” Shouted the young man in return: his blue surplice, blowing wildly in the gale.

“Good luck then: may the Goddess smile upon your endeavour.”

The boy waved in acknowledgement before gently tugging on his horse’s reigns and stepping through the storm winds and into the glowing stone.

He emerged into an endless desert: devoid of any permanent features, shifting with every passing second.

“So, where are we going this time?” a female voice chirped in his ear.

“Permulcere.”

“Was that a bit too much?”

Lucia glanced at the man sitting on the chair close by her.

“No it wasn’t: I was trying my best to go easy on her.”

“But these bruises, they will take weeks to fully heal: even if you use magic to assist in the process.”

Lucia looked back towards her half sleeping apprentice, who shivered in pain every few breaths.

“That would be the case for most humans, which, both me and my apprentice are not.”

“Sometimes it is difficult to see you as not human.”

Lucia bowed her head.

“Sometimes I wish that I was human: then I would not be surrounded by so much death.”

“Meaning?”

Lucia turned back towards Harold in the flickering candlelight.

“Hunters. You could say that they are mostly comprised of veteran soldiers.”

“I know that already: we healers must be accompanied by hunters in certain circumstances: usually when there is some disaster regarding demons.”

“Then have you heard about their highest ranking warriors?”

Harold paled slightly. “I thought they were a myth?”

“They are not: as all white healers are taught to be one of the Hekatine.”

Steadily he pressed onwards through the desert: a breeze caused sand to cut across his face, forcing him to shield his eyes. Already he had been travelling for over an entire phase of the night through the continuing waves of tiny grains.

“Caius! We are almost there!” yelled a female voice from the peak of a small dune.

He ploughed onwards towards her, feet slipping with each step.

The girl had yet to tell him her name, but that was her decision. Gradually he managed to reach the top of the sand hill, looking across the infinite landscape.

Caius watched the woman run down the other side of the dune towards a large standing stone surrounded by a small rocky plateau untouched by the swirling winds of the desert. He tugged the reigns: coaxing the horse onwards towards their first checkpoint.

“I told you it was here!” the girl exclaimed excitedly.

“I can see that.” He panted in reply.

“Well you had better be quicker getting here next time.”

He chuckled at her telling off before moving towards the stone.

“See you in the morning.” He smiled, placing a hand on the cold hard surface of the rock before him.

The surface rippled and glowed before caving in allowing Caius and the horse to pass through in a sudden gust of wind.

The woman looked at Caius as he passed through the portal: what was that on his neck? Something dark blue in colour: contrasting greatly with his grey-blue scarf.

“Wait!” she shouted as he disappeared through the portal.

Gone. She stood hopelessly staring at the now silent stone. Slowly she moved a hand down to her wrist, feeling as a bone harden and crack: piercing her skin with a dark blue crystal.

“Hey. Wake up.” A female voice chirped in her ear

Nicola rolled over where she slept: the texture of her rough sheets as well as the hard stone ledge put further pressure on her bruises. She moved a hand up to brush away a small flower from her nose, feeling the brush of fabric against her fingers.

“Hey. I told you to wake up!” the voice commanded: placing a dainty hand on Nicola’s shoulder.

She opened her eyes in response to the touch, finding herself surrounded by meadow grass. Nicola rose slightly to get a better bearing of her surroundings.

A freezing cold breeze blew past her through the fog. The meadow was shrouded even further in darkness than usual.

“Well, at least you are awake now.” The girl complimented.

Nicola looked at her to see her own reflection: both standing naked across from each other. The only difference; that Nicola could see, between herself and this reflection was: the girl was human.

Nicola studied the body of this woman before her with curiosity and fear. She was slender, yet her feminine curves were clear. Both of them had the same shoulder length hair and neither was overly busty. Only Nicola had a pair of obsidian orvisian horns.

Slowly Nicola stood so that she could look eye to eye with her shadow.

“Who are you?” she asked cautiously, unsure about if this girl was there for better or worse.

She smiled. “I am you. Or you could say I am a fragment of the goddess who is part of you.”

“A fragment of the goddess?”

“It is difficult to explain Nicola. All healers capable of using magic have a fragment like myself within them: their feminine mirror for some, or perhaps a crystallisation of their feelings and ideas of perfection.”

“So are you saying you are my idea of perfection?”

“Possibly: then again you could also say that I am the spirit of this landscape which surrounds us.”

The girl waved her arm, causing the fog to rise up over the lake and into the atmosphere, to be replaced by a beautiful glowing moon hanging in the night sky and reflected in the water.

“What did?” Began Nicola astonished by the change in her surroundings, created by the disappearance of the fog.

“Nothing much, just helped you by clearing you mind for a bit.”

“Clear my mind?”

“Lucia probably mentioned to you: the weather of this landscape is influenced by your feelings over a day. For you everything is still shrouded in mist; it is not clear as to who or what you are.”

“So who am I then?”

“You were once Nicholas Merket: eldest son of a merchant. But: now? I for one will call you Nicola Deushard, apprentice of Lucia Vitririus: someone who will have significant influence at some point in the future.”

“How can you be so sure of the future?”

“Because that is what you are capable of girl.” Replied a more mature voice behind her: one so sultry and smooth, with a feminine deepness that almost made it androgynous.

Nicola turned to see the horned woman lying relaxed and nude on the meadow grass.

“What are you doing here?” growled Deushard

“Just relaxing here by the lake.” The woman replied. “Anyway: why do you want us all to be naked Nicola?”

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

Lucia was woken slowly by a feeling that something was definitely wrong. She opened her eyes in order to gain a sense of what was happening. All around her the room was filling with mist. She breathed deeply in initial shock before calming herself.

“Mist not smoke.” Lucia whispered to herself.

Slowly she propped herself up and scanned the room slowly and carefully. The mist seemed to increase in density the closer it came to her sleeping apprentice.

“What is happening now?” she murmured to herself, rising and moving over to her bag. Quietly she removed a length of red string: with a small needle at one end. She stood and moved over to Nicola: the mist creating a cocoon around the girl’s body.

“What exactly do you mean by that?” Nicola asked.

“Do not listen to her: every word she spouts is poison.” Warned Deushard, scowling catlike at the demon.

“I am not my predecessor: I am not looking for trouble with either of you.” The woman snapped before turning to Nicola. “As for your question: everything you decide or feel will become true in this world. That is why Lucia brought you here to learn magic: this is your world, your haven.”

“Meaning?”

“Have you tried to use magic yet in the other world?”

“No.”

“I suggest you do. That is the only way you will learn.”

“I am sorry.” Deushard interjected, “but what exactly are you trying to do?”

“Nothing: just suggest what she should do to better herself. At the moment I feel there is little to offer her as any real power she would gain is easily obtainable from either of us two.”

“Power?” asked Nicola with a confused curiosity.

“She means that either of us two can offer you some way to increase your abilities and knowledge in regards to magic even without pushing yourself in training.”

“Which is why my offer: which I now declare, will be agreed upon by both of you.”

Nicola and Deushard looked at the woman with a perplexed expression on their faces. The demon rose, striding sensually and confidently towards Deushard, before kneeling submissively with her head bowed.

“What do you expect out of me?” asked Deushard.

“I, Meidtite Furrens: pledge my existence to the Deushard.” Declared the demon.

“You are pledging you existence?”

“That is correct.”

“Are you sure that is what you want?”

“It is what is best for all three of us.” Breathed Meidtite. “Do you accept Deushard?”

“I accept.” The girl replied calmly and strongly.

“What about you: vampire girl? Do you accept as well? ”

“Accept what?” Asked Nicola in confusion.

“Let us just say it is something that will help you in the long run.”

Lucia attached the length of red string to her fingers: weaving it into a tight web which stifled the blood flowing through her veins and capillaries: making her already pale fingers glow red, before fading into an even paler tone of flesh. Carefully she manoeuvred the other end of the thread down towards Nicola’s forehead.

“I am just going to see what is happening inside your world.” She whispered threading the small needle through the mist cocoon.

“I accept then.” Decided Nicola.

The two women nodded in acknowledgement: Deushard reaching forwards and placing a hand on the head of Meidtite.

Nicola watched as the landscape was once again shrouded in mist. Except, there seemed to be a strange glow; surrounding the three women. Nicola moved closer in order to study what was happening between the human and the demon. The mist swirled around them creating a sealed cocoon within the meadow. Steadily it began to increase in density: becoming a wall of ice.

Whilst this was occurring Meidtite’s hair slowly rose up, wrapping itself around Deushard’s outstretched arm before solidifying into what appeared to be an obsidian and ruby gauntlet. The rest of her body began to shift strangely, becoming the same obsidian and ruby colour that her hair had become. Suddenly, Deushard drew her gauntleted arm back: pulling the entire mass of Meidtite with her as a huge slimy black mass, which solidified into a long slim blade; covered in deep red runes and markings.

“Are you ready for the next stage?” the girl spoke with two clear voices.

“For; what?” Nicola asked, not quite registering the sinister look in the woman’s eyes.

They stepped forwards: bringing the blade around in an elegant arc aimed at Nicola’s chest.

Lucia felt the pressure of the needle as it gently pierced Nicola’s forehead. She felt the sensation of emerging into her apprentice’s world: to be confronted by a colossal block of ice which appeared to span the entirety of the landscape. She looked up to the roof of what appeared to be a small pocket cavern: separating her from Nicola.

She looked into the walls of ice, to see two things; the space in which she was trapped was contracting rapidly and there was a face embedded deep within the crystal.

Slowly the face opened its eyes, staring angrily at Lucia.

“Go away!” it snarled, compressing Lucia’s body to the point where she was completely immobilised.

“no.” whispered Lucia, feeling the pressure increase.

“Go away now!” it screamed.

Lucia’s voice echoed it as she was slowly forced out.

“No. Please do not let me go there.” She gasped before disappearing in a spark of flame with a scream.

She looked onwards in shock at the being before her: her eyes travelling down towards the blade that pierced her body.

“I told you to be ready.” The being warned her before slowly melting into a haze that surrounded the girl.

Nicola looked on stunned as her skin began to burn: a series of runic markings began to decorate her flesh. She collapsed in pain at the sensation that ran through her.

The girl sobbed gently within the burning building, paralysed with the fear of her surroundings. She never wished to be here. Never wished: to experience this again.

“Are you all right?”

Nicola slowly opened her eyes, the pain subsiding as she slowly uncurled.

Before her stood an individual she did not recognise.

“Are you a white healer?” the woman asked.

“Not quite.” Groaned Nicola in pain, “I am an apprentice of one.”

“I need your help: my main shard is infected.”

“With what?”

“The Caerelus Plague.”

Nicola’s eyes opened wider at the mention of it.

“Are you certain?”

The woman nodded, offering her wrist to the girl, showing her the growing cluster of blue crystals.

“He will be here soon.” she informed, before the world faded around them in the morning light.

Nicola woke slowly as the room became filled with the dawn light.

The first thing she noticed was the strange feeling in the centre of her forehead. Gradually she raised her hand, her fingers touching the cold metal of a needle with a long length of red string. Cautiously she removed it before looking around the rest of the cell.

There seemed to be no sign of Lucia on her bed or in the room: that was until her eyes were drawn to the unconscious heap next to her own bed.

“Mistress! Are you all right?” she shouted in shock. But there was no response from the blank eyed Lucia, who did not react at all to her apprentice’s pleads.