PRL Serials

The following takes place between the Talj Rip and roughly twenty five years before the commencement of the Battle on Une…

Issac found a quiet corner of the Smiting Chamber and was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed. While his body rested, he manifested a replica of his physical being in a place of bright light that he achieved through incredible concentration. The yellow-white energy of the Aje churned before him. 

“I have been in a realm that is not my home for a long time,” Issac said to the Aje. “Is this the wisdom of Aether and the Quintessence, the source of my great powers?”

“Why do you ask questions whose answers should be apparent to you?” the Aje asked without a voice. “Do you think that expressing concern to me about your absence from your home will mitigate any negative consequences from your absence? It is human folly to think that concern somehow impacts the truth. More puzzling for you, Issac Washington, who understands that your existence is just as you left it. Is this why you have come here, for some sort of reassurance? Confirmation that you are doing the right thing?”

“Yes,” Issac said with a deep sigh. “Give me a break, I’ve been through a lot in the Fonlands and I am human. Reassurance is free, you know.”

“Everything is free…” the Aje started and Issac interrupted.

“Yes, yes, forgive me, that is not the point of this. Surely you must be aware of the dark threat to the multiversal structure.”

“We are aware because beings like you who have come to us in the past no longer come. But we do not know the dark threat. Can you show us?” 

Issac does show the Aje all that he has encountered in the Fonlands, what he witnessed in the Talj Junction universe.

“This is most concerning,” the Aje said. “But I see that competent beings are addressing it. We will be watching, Issac Washington.”

“Anything you all want to contribute to the effort? Maybe you can attack it from outside the structure.”

“We attack through you, and others like you,” the Aje said. “We see that you have powerful companions. Ensure that they are equipped with your skills and understanding of pattern magic and you cannot go wrong. We sense a new adventure in your near future before you return to the battle against darkness. Trust your companions and empower them.”

As the Aje said this, Issac opened his eyes in the Smiting Chamber and Zacchaeus was standing nearby speaking with Maria in her golden Wazad uniform. He walked over to join them.

“You ready to go?” Maria asked. 

Issac nodded and looked to Zacchaeus. 

“You sure you want to learn this on a mission? Could be dangerous,” Issac said.

“Maria said we should be fine, and since the Needy been here in the mountains, I had to figure out a new way to manifest my power. I’m so used to just talking to him about it, but he ain’t there like that no more. And after what happened in Talj, I wanna know everything. I don’t like being possessed and manipulated. Whatever going on in Outer Spacetime is just what I need to prepare for whatever happen now that Talj is gone and the Pito probably headed for the Fonlands.”

Issac nodded solemnly then looked to Maria.

“What’s the situation on the ground? Or in the Spacetime, or however it makes sense to say it.”

“No word yet from Theron or my contacts on the Aifyn Line. I’m really worried Issac, and I am eager to see what’s going on. I’ve asked around about these Barons, they’re as powerful as Owuo and Legba and they live in a place called Deads Town. That all sounds like bad news, especially considering that Death Magic doesn’t exist in Outer Spacetime.”

Issac had assumed that Death Magic was as pervasive as sentient life, so it surprised him to hear this. 

“Can we even help, then, if the Barons as strong as Vodun?” Zacchaeus asked.

“In a world devoid of death magic,” Issac explained, “the Barons of death are much less powerful, even if they will be disruptive to Outer Spacetime. We should be able to trap them long enough to drag them back to the Fonlands.”

“And make powerful enemies when they back in the Fonlands,” Zacchaeus added. 

“We have plenty of powerful allies,” Issac said dismissively. “So, let’s get to it, then. Zacchaeus, would you like to do the honors?”

“What honors?” he asked with confusion.

“You can use hand magic to create a doorway to Outer Spacetime,” Maria explained. “Here,” she said and using the pointer finger of her right hand, she touched Zacchaeus’s temple. A bright flash of gold flared where her finger connected. “That is knowledge of Outer Spacetime to use as you conjure the portal.”

Zacchaeus concentrates as Issac coaches him. He begins to move his arms and hands in specific formations that produce silver lines of energy and blobs of inky black magic that he contains and controls with his hand movements. 

“Contructions have many moving parts,” Issac explains, “but you know how to focus your energy, you’ve learned to portal, just take it one step at a time.”

The black magic streaked with silver continued to morph and grow and eventually, Maria added her magic to strengthen the connection to Outer Spacetime and the golden black mass swelled, then split, revealing an opening to Outer Spacetime that the three flew through. When they emerged in the brassy red, brown hue of Outer Spacetime, they were each covered in their magic as they flew through sepia space.

“Follow me,” Maria said, talking freely into the void because the three were connected and could communicate verbally or mentally. They followed Maria to a star that was surrounded by a long structure that slowly rotated around it. “The Aifyn Line,” she explained and as they flew towards it, they were met by a man in Golden robes who was flanked by two others in similar clothing. All of the men looked bruised and battered and their robes were torn. On closer inspection, they had wounds that looked as though something had taken bites from their flesh. 

“You are the Transverse? I am the High Patternist of Oliju. You must not approach any nearer to the Aifyn Line, there is grave danger there.”

“We came to help,” Maria responded. They all used magic to understand one another. 

“No!” the High Patternist exclaimed. “All is lost, the Kings and the Ice Prince, the Royals and their Heir, all lost to the Baron Cemetere.”

“We can combat the Baron,” Issac reassured but the High Patternist shook his head solemnly.

“The greatest powers of the Line are locked in cages, we are the few Wizards who managed to escape. Many of them were lost to the same fate as so many fyns.”

“What happened?” Maria asked.

“He drove them mad after trapping their leaders in cages of pure death magic. Now he is producing death magic on the Aifyn Line. You must follow me, I will keep you all safe.” The High Patternist subtly licked his lips. “We will protect all of the delicious magic inside of you.”

“That’s not possible,” Maria said, suspiciously.. “You can’t make death magic in Outer Spacetime.” She looked at Issac and Zaccheus curiously and when she looked back at the wizards, their appearance was different, like their bodies were rotting and the High Patternist grinned with a mouth that was only bones.

“Curse you, Transverse, “ the High Patternist says. “You are too smart for your own good. If you had just followed me, our bellies would be full of the delicious magic inside the three of you…”

Zacchaeus blasted his magic at the zombie wizard next to the High Patternist using a Direction formation as Issac mirrored his movement and action at the other wizard next to the Patternist. 

“Cemetere turned the fyns to zombies?” Maria asked.

“We eat flesh to get to the delicious magic inside. Let me eat you before the Baron takes you,” the High Patternist begged, seemingly unfazed by the death of his companions.

Issac blasted the High Patternist and even though none of the wizards were dead, they were propelled away from the trio and moved fast toward the structure of the Aifyn Line.

“Zombies that eat magic?” Zacchaeus asked with concern as they continued to the Aifyn Line, specifically to the planet Juoil that is the furthest from the sun of the solar system.  

“I guess it’s the easiest way to kill them?” Maria postulated as they landed on the icy planet that was the home of the Ice Prince. 

“They are infected with Cemetere’s influence,” Issac explained. “He must be controlling everything that wasn’t caged. Do you know the Royals he mentioned? Can you sense them?”

Maria’s eyes began to glow. After a moment, she lifted a hand in search formation, which Issac pointed out to Zaccheus because he hadn’t learned it yet. When the glow at her eyes subsided she shook her head slowly.

“The Ice Prince, the Halfyn Heir, I can’t feel either of them where they’re supposed to be. The fyns are ravenous on the line, it’s not like them. We have to stop this.”

Just then, a ball of sparkling, Violet energy descended to the surface of Juoil in front of the trio and it landed in an explosion that sent ice flying and made the trio throw up protective spells. When the commotion settled, there was a tall, dark-skinned man with white face paint that was reminiscent of a skull and he wore a dark violet suit with a vest. He was large, almost as large as a vodun, and the trio floated up from the surface to confront him. 

“Samedi said to be on the look out for beings not made of the pattern of this place. I’m Cemetere and I will facilitate your deaths today. Y’all wanna eat each other or we fighting?” Cemetere’s face spread wide with a large smile.

“Make them stop!” Maria demanded. “Tell the fyns to stop eating each other, now.”

“You know I ain’t gone do that,” Cemetere chuckled and then Zacchaeus blasted him with black magic that damaged the large body. Cemetere lost half his face, but he still managed to taunt the trio with his grin. 

Issac moved his hands and chanted words, and he gathered a chaos of navy blue magic with silver streaks in his hands before tenting all of his fingers at the injured Cemetere and his magic formed an oval cage around the Baron. Issac continued moving his hands and the cage disappeared with the Baron inside. 

“That was impressive,” Zacchaeus said. 

“I should go look for the Ice Prince…” Maria started.

“We should collect the next Baron and then confront Samedi as quickly as we can,” Isaac says. “The longer they’re here, the harder it’ll be to get rid of them and to rid this place of their death magic. The sooner we do that, the sooner this place will get back to normal.”

Maria nodded and then flew from the surface of Juoil toward Theron.