Anesu Chimutengwende is a witch. She is from a family of very powerful magic users and since she was a little girl and saw her mother use her mind to move things around their house, she became obsessed with the words her mother used to control her surroundings. Anesu was a perfect student in her academics through college in Zimbabwe, and she moved to the US to start an import/export business between the two countries. As she studied and grew into adulthood, she also studied her family history, and the magical books she was able to obtain that were written by magic users from around the globe. She learned incantations and impressed the elders of her family, who called her their Brave and introduced her to her secret family inheritance. For centuries, the Chimutengwende’s were masters of incantations to manipulate spirit energies and each generation named a Brave who used their magic to defend the people of their community from evil. But long ago, the Chimutengwendes were defeated and since that time, the powers of the Brave have been wielded in the name of the dreadful witch Miriro, who has designs on ruling the Earth.
Anesu had personally studied with the spirit of Miriro all her life and she believed that the ancient spirit would make the world into a thriving utopia for all of mankind. Despite her immense power and knowledge of arcana, Miriro was always thwarted by the likes of Isaac Washington, who had been trained by his aunt, who had been trained by a relative, and back for generations, to serve as a check on the rise of Miriro, among many other duties.
“Say goodbye to your friends,” Anesu said during that Ill Night she was surrounded by a bright glow that encroached on the pale blue barrier at the Museum of Aphro-Arcana that Issac used to shield the grounds of the Museum from the spores of Illuminatos.
Issac had been working with some of the refugees from the Ill Nights inside the Museum to expand a second barrier, and Anesu was chipping away at it. Issac surrounded himself with a pale blue glow to match the barrier and he flew out in a flash toward Anesu, and he tackled her out of the air, then they tumbled into the middle of a suburban street. As the two got to their feet, Issac saw the Ill Nights for the first time since he retreated into the Museum. The streets of the normally calm neighborhood that ensconced the Museum were littered with crashed cars and he saw what looked to be dead bodies scattered on the street in the distance.
“You look surprised,” Anesu said with a chuckle. She looked at home in the chaos and she had her own protective barrier that shielded her from the influence of the pollen that seemed to hang on the neighborhood like a fog.
“You’ve been hiding in that sanctuary of yours while the world burns,” Anesu continued teasingly. “Cowardice should be beneath the Universal Master. You have fear in your eyes.”
Issac was overcome by the reality around him, but he was not afraid. He was calculating and scanning the area for any signs of life not touched by the Ill pollen and coming up short, it seemed that every person he could sense was already under the sway of Illuminatos.
“Why did you come here?” Issac said when he finally looked into Anesu’s eyes.
“To seize the opportunity,” Anesu said and she charged him while the glow at her fists intensified and a long stick materialized in one of her hands.
She swung at his head and though he dodged it easily, she swung her energy long-staff fast and slapped at his right ankle. The pain shot up through Issac’s leg and he fell onto his back in the road. Anesu flipped over him and swung her long-staff in a fury, slapping Issac’s body in a hurricane of blows that overwhelmed him.
Issac thrusted his hands up, expelling a force of energy that just missed Anesu who was finding her footing as he levitated up from the road. She shot bolts of her own energy with one hand while she levitated to meet him in the air. He caught each of the bolts of energy, storing them in his hands until she reached him with her long-staff. She swung the staff hard, but he caught it with his charged hands, and he discharged the energy into the staff that exploded in Anesu’s direction. She flew to the ground and crashed into a car that also exploded. Issac landed at a distance, sure that Anesu would emerge from the fiery wreckage.
The car and all of the flames that engulfed it, was suddenly hurled into the air and it hung there while Anesu stood and slowly approached Issac. The car fell back to the ground behind her when she stood a few feet from Issac.
“You know I’m not an amateur at this,” Issac said to her. “I can do the barrier and run circles around you for hours. Just tell me what you want, I know you didn’t come here to be humiliated.”
Anesu was smiling.
“I was the distraction,” she said.
Issac prepared himself to use an incantation to expel Anesu from the area, but when he tried to move his body, he was paralyzed.
Just then, a man with light brown skin descended to land next to Anesu. There were streams of energy linking him to Anesu and Issac.
Issac knew that his paralysis made it practically impossible to cast any spell because without his hand, he couldn’t direct the energy of his incantations and he risked hurting himself. He couldn’t move his mouth to speak incantations aloud, but he’d had enough practice that the spells he spoke in his mind were almost as effective as those he said aloud.
“You remember Rhode, right?” Anesu asked and both of them were surrounded by energy.
Suddenly, Issac felt himself being pulled back, like there was a strong wind sucking at him. Anesu and Rhode had opened a portal behind him and they laughed to themselves as Issac was sucked back into it, unable to move or see where he was going.
As he passed through the portal that was bright, he focused on identifying the spell that paralyzed him and he tried to ignore the fate of the people on the Museum grounds. He could only help them if he helped himself.
When he stopped moving and had passed through the bright portal, Issac could control his body again, but he cursed aloud. He was in absolute darkness and he smelled vegetation like an old forest around him. It was a familiar smell and Issac knew that Anesu and her friend Rhode had knocked him out of their universe and into another.
Issac felt the air in front of him, swinging his hands and arms, while his eyes adjusted. He was gathering information about the dark environment to calibrate his spells for the environment, when one of his hands became ensnared in what felt like webbing.
“Fuck!” Issac yelled despite himself and then he felt the large spider bite down on his arm and pull him up from the ground.
PRL Serials 