NOVEL NEXT Sabbatical – Chapter 202: Herald of the Change
Antalia, having finally succeeded to move enough of her mana into the pendant she wore, breathed a little more easily as the ancient family heirloom warded off some of the pressure coming from the giant woman.
Given what she had just said, however, it made sense that her mere presence would carry such weight. Though it also made the mage question how they had not noticed her before. If she had always been a walking fountain of mana, she should have been easy to spot. How can she hide herself with that much mana? Antalia asked herself before another thought entered her mind. Did she take our mana?
"Why are you here?" The gruff voice of Haggard echoed through the room, the old Werewolf not caring that the one he spoke to was either the first to use magic or the reason it existed at all. "Have you come to reclaim the last of your magic after silencing the Voice?"
The woman suddenly vanished, though her overbearing presence did not. Antalia's eyes flicked through the room before she spotted the broad figure behind Haggard. The strange woman named Aperio looked at the man with her head tilted slightly. The movement caused her silver hair to cascade over her pointed ear, catching the light in a shimmering and unnatural blue.
"I have not taken anything from this world. Quite the opposite in fact." She lowered herself slightly, meeting the Werewolf's eyes. "I have come to judge your character. To see how you fared without the meddling of Gods." Aperio righted herself again and brushed a hand over her stomach, tilting her head yet again. "Does that answer suffice?"
"Yes," Antalia replied for him, unwilling to push the woman for more as she seemed to simply look through her for a moment before her eyes refocused.
"Good," Aperio said, her smile showing a little tooth this time around. "Depending on how this goes, I might also lend a hand in fixing your little mana problem."
The last words of the winged woman barely registered in Antalia's mind as she still thought about the mention of 'meddling Gods'. As far as she knew, Earth had once had a few Gods that actually talked to people. Some of them had even performed miracles, if the rumours were to be believed. And considering that Elder Wu is one of the sources, I am inclined to do so.
Antalia might not think very highly of the old Vampire, but she also knew that he took the whole truth thing very seriously. Serious enough to kill his subordinates for lying, at least. Even when they lie to protect him.
"How?" Haggard asked, his raspy voice not only bringing Antalia back to the real world but also forcing her mind to think about the last words spoken by Aperio.
"You would not be able to comprehend the answer even if I explained it," the woman replied, her gaze shifting towards the Werewolf. "Suffice to say that I have my ways. It would be a sad state of affairs if I could not repair that which I have made, would it not?"
Antalia blinked as she tried to parse the sentence. The choice of words coupled with Aperio's accent had made it a little harder to understand than it should have been.
"Claiming to have made magic is ridiculous," Horatio said. "Who are you really?"
Aperio stood straight and spread her wings slightly, muscles visibly shifting beneath her dress. "I am Aperio," she declared, her voice driving the air from Antalia's lungs before another wave of mana almost robbed her of consciousness. "The All-Mother," she continued, appearing next to Horatio and effortlessly lifting the man out of his chair by the scruff of his neck. "Creator of everything you know. Including magic."
The woman let go of the mage and let out a content sigh that rippled through the mana she had spread inside the room. Her eyes flicked to the other pointed-eared woman for a moment before she smiled and appeared behind her, placing her hands onto her shoulders before running them down her arms.
There was another, unspoken, exchange between the two women, Antalia was sure of it. Telepathy was rare — all but extinct now — but with how much mana Aperio threw around, it should hardly matter. Probably has too much of it for her own good. She could not place her finger on it, but she could feel something happening within the woman's body. It was tiny, but somehow stood out to her amongst the tidal wave of magic Aperio brought with her.
"You may doubt me as much as you like," she said, her voice again subdued. Aperio sat herself down on what Antalia could only describe as a throne that had appeared out of nowhere, pulling the other woman with her in a move very much not befitting someone of the stature she had just portrayed a moment before. "It does not change the truth."
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Haggard scrunched his nose at the thick, ancient smell of the woman's mana. It reeked of creation and destruction; the promise of a boundless world ready for the making and the absolute cold nothing that awaited all at the end of time.
He did not like it. Not how it flowed through him as if it was the mana of this world when it was clearly not. Not how it pulsed whenever the woman spoke, or how it acted upon Earth's mana, changing it somehow. Haggard scrunched his nose again, trying to rid himself of the promises Aperio's mana wanted to whisper to him.
The unspoken words tugged at his core — his very essence — with a certainty that had no right to exist. His senses told him that the woman was foreign, not of this world, and most importantly, dangerous. And yet, every word she uttered was known to him to be the truth. Undeniable and absolute.
A low growl escaped his throat as he felt his hair shifting. Whatever Aperio was up to was undoing the magic he used to hide himself amongst the normals, and his carefully-hidden ears were growing back into view. He did not like it, but it was a rule of the council he was willing to endure.
Aperio looked at him, her head slightly tilted as she sat in her throne with the other pointy-eared wench in her arms. That one was definitely an Elf, and he would like nothing more than to rip out her throat like he had done to all the others he had found over the years. They had brought into existence the curse that caused many of his kin to become feral and rampage through the lands. He would never forgive any of them for what they had done.
She knows, Haggard thought to himself as Aperio shifted her wings a little to cover the Elf. Why this Caethya needed her protection was unknown to the Werewolf. He might like nothing more than to kill the pointy-eared wench, but he also knew that she was stronger than him; much stronger.
"Manners," Elder Wu said. Haggard knew the comment was directed at him without having to look at the Vampire.
"You know what they have done," he growled.
"And you should know that they do not belong to them," Wu replied.
"Them?" Aperio tilted her head to the other side, and the hair slid away to reveal her own pointed ears.
"He…" Elder Wu hesitated, his eyes darting between Haggard and Aperio. "He thinks that the two of you belong to a people that have done… unspeakable things to his kind."
The self-proclaimed All-Mother narrowed her eyes at the words. She said something to the other Elf that Haggard did not understand before she met his own gaze.
"I have done nothing to you or your people," she said, each word a shining beacon of truth in his mind. He wanted to look away, but her eyes stared past his mortal shell to judge something only she could perceive, somehow keeping their gazes locked. "Nor do I have any intention of changing that.
"If you, however, decide to go against myself or those I hold dear," she continued, the mana that filled the room not only rippling with power but also somehow turning into sharp spikes that were all pointed at him, "I will not be merciful."
The other Elf said something Haggard did not understand and moved slightly under the cover of Aperio's wings. The tall woman held her gaze for a moment longer before she relaxed a little, the magic that permeated the room returning to a more natural state.
Haggard did his best to not growl or hiss, the small outburst of the woman having already turned every bit of magic in the room against him. Even the mana that coursed through his body had felt foreign for a moment; as if it had not liked what he had suggested.
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Elder Wu steadied his hand before he brought the chalice of blood to his lips and took a sip. The liquid, kept warm by the magic in the vessel that held it, brought relief and a small refreshment of power that the Vampire immediately used to work more magic on his own mind. Aperio's mere presence was a little much for anyone that had access to the arcane, but she somehow went beyond that. The way her words somehow caused the world to align itself with her will was, simply put, terrifying. But it was also a sign that she had likely not lied.
Her words always resonated with truth, untainted by deceit or anything else he usually observed from his fellow council members, but how much of that was he to believe? It was obvious the woman was well-versed in the arcane and had no shortage of mana, so a trick of the mind would not be unthinkable. But her actions align with what she said she was.
No matter what he chose to believe, one thing was clear. The woman was a herald of change. One that was inevitable and uncaring for their ways. She might have said that she would only give her aid if they passed her judgement, but Elder Wu knew that it was only a matter of time until she would do what she had come here for. Imagine the power to change the fate of an entire world at your whims…
It was one he would not trust anyone of the council with, not even himself. He had seen more members join and leave than anyone else, and none of them would have done good with the power their new guest seemed to possess. The issue now was that he also did not believe that the woman herself would use that power to benefit anyone but herself. However that might look like.
"Is there an issue?" Aperio asked, her voice cutting through the silence of the room.
"No," Elder Wu replied. His voice was a little hoarse, despite the fact that his mouth was still wet from his latest sip of blood. "I am merely contemplating things."
"Like?"
"Your goal, for one," he said. "I do not mean to offend, but what exactly do you wish to achieve? Or judge, for that matter."
"I have already said I am judging your character," Aperio replied, shifting her wings as the other Elf stood up to stand next to the throne. "As for my goals… I dislike seeing this world in such a sorry state. But I also know that the people gathered here would benefit most from what I have planned so before I do anything, I wish to make sure there will be no abuse."
She focused on the Werewolf, quite obviously telling him to not enact the revenge he so desperately wished for. Aperio held her gaze a moment longer before she flicked her eyes back to Elder Wu. "It would seem that I have to visit more people to make sure of that, however."
A moment later, she simply appeared at the table. The throne she had been sitting on was no longer present, with no indication that it had ever been there in the first place. There had also been no visible movement of the woman herself. One moment she was on her throne, and the next she stood in front of the table, wings slightly flared and hands clasped behind her back.
"I have a feeling that you have much to discuss," Aperio said, appearing somehow taller than Elder Wu remembered her being just moments ago. "I will be watching."
With those words, she simply vanished with the other Elf. A glance around the room showed that Eleanor and Ethaniel had disappeared with her. The only thing that remained was the thick mana Aperio had summoned. It was dense enough that an untrained mage walking into it might not only inadvertently harm themselves, but others as well. They would have to bar entry to the room until the magic dissipated.
“She needs to go,” Horatio said, the first to break the silence. “We cannot have something like that roam around.”
“And how do you want to do that?” Antalia asked as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. “You saw how easily she bends reality to her whim. A few words paralysed us all.”
“Anything can be done with enough preparation,” the other mage replied.
Elder Wu could not help but sigh as he closed his eyes. He cradled the chalice of blood as he replayed the events that had just transpired in his mind. Horatio was right, as they could not just let her roam around unsupervised, but Antalia was also correct. They did not have the means to bring about anything that the woman herself did not want to happen.
He took a careful sip of his blood as the council descended once more into the bickering the Elf had interrupted with her appearance. Some things were seemingly unchangeable, no matter what happened.
