Adamagika: The Spirit Within - Prologue. PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE

An unnatural sense of calm enveloped the man standing by the flames – if one could still call him a man. He was undoubtedly a man as he carried features distinctly human. But looking at him then, no one would think him alive. Then again, no one knew what to think and expect the last few decades ever since the world changed drastically. He felt relaxed watching the tongues flicker, casting an eerie glow on the cold barren walls. And yet, there was a sense of peace in him as though things were happening as he expected.

He watched as the flames danced together as if some unknown force was willing them to move in different shapes. He was so enraptured by this disturbing feeling that he didn’t even notice that the flames were not the normal orange color of fire, but in fact were a chaotic mixture of green, blue, and black.

The flames were forming shapes of people in battle with faces distorted in angry war cries. He paid them no attention.

He didn’t notice much anymore really – except for that voice.

It was a voice that came to him on an uneventful day. It started speaking to him, nudging him to do things he would not normally do. Sometimes, he woke up in an unknown place having no recollection of what he had done to get there. He faded in and out of consciousness whenever he would hear that voice talk to him. He sometimes saw things that were not there or so he told himself often enough.

But the truth was they were there. They were always there, waiting for their time.

He tried to shut out the voice whenever it came. He argued with it. Sometimes he screamed at it to get out of his head. But it just kept prodding at him, pushing at his senses until everything just faded to black.

The voice was unrelenting. It would whisper things to him. Tell him that he needed nothing, that it could take care of everything for him if he would just let it help. The man fought against it as though his life depended on it. A dark sense of foreboding enveloped him whenever he would entertain thoughts of submission. He felt himself slipping away each time he heard it. Somehow he knew that it was playing with him. He knew that it could take over any time it wanted. Yet, for some reason, it wanted him to be a willing participant – as though, it would be stronger if he helped.

He struggled against it every day until that day came. It was the day he lost everything.

But he did not have time to ponder such things. He was waiting because the voice told him to. And even then, it was whispering to him.

He comes. The messenger comes with news…

As though on cue, the door behind him opened to reveal a hunched man. At least he seemed hunched with so many layers of clothing on him that covered nearly every bit of skin. All one would notice if he were to look was the deep skull-like outline of a pale face sticking out from underneath a hood.

“I bring news, my lord,” said the lump as he closed the door behind him. “It is as you foretold. The child was born in an outlying village in the east at the heart of the human kingdoms.”

Ask him…

“Are you certain?” The man in front of the flame asked as though he was quite doubtful of the accuracy in this lump’s words.

“Yes, my lord. I did exactly as you taught me,” the lump answered with much excitement as he sat down across from the man. “I was able to sense him through the ways you showed me. He is strong, my lord. Even as a baby, there is no mistaking that he will be powerful.”

“What do they call him?”

“The humans call him Jacob.”

“Did you see who cares for him?”

“Yes my lord, I looked at them all – the mother, the father, that annoying other child of theirs. I saw the house where they lived. I can find them again if we need to, my lord.” There was a greedy glint in his eyes as he told the man how he followed all of the commands given to him. He narrated exactly how he avoided detection and lived with the humans without arousing their suspicion.

“We must tell the other Lords. They shall envy your discovery, my lord.” He was so excited that he did not see the coldness that suddenly flickered in his master’s eyes.

He must not tell the others. The boy must be ours alone…

“Show me.”

The lump stood there for a moment as though he might have misheard.

“M… my lord?

“Show me.”

The lump began to fidget, certain that his Lord did not mean what he thought. He followed everything the Lord said.

“Wh… what do you mean, my Lord?” The lump asked with some fear. Surely, he didn’t mean that….

“Show… me…” The man said again, this time with coldness in his voice that wasn’t there moments ago. It was as though he became someone else.

“But… my Lord… I did everything as you said. Certainly, you do not need me to show you. I can bring you there so that you can observe them yourself. I’m sure there is no need for… for that…” the lump replied with fear clear in every word.

He did not, however, get another command from his Lord. He did not in fact get to say anything else as the last thing he would see and remember would be the cold look in his master’s eyes with the green flames reflecting on them. He drew a sharp intake of breath just a second before the green flames in front of him reached out to envelop his body. His face contorted into a silent scream of terror. He tried to cry for help, but his throat felt tight as though invisible hands were choking him.

His burnt body crumpled to the floor and exploded in a whirl of ash to be consumed by the green flames which began to settle down again.

The tongues of fire seemed to dance to a new song as new, unfamiliar shapes would come and go. There was a man, a woman, and a small child jumping up and down. The man was looking down with approval at the woman and boy. On the woman’s arms was a small figure wrapped in cloth reaching out with tiny hands towards the Lord before the flames.

A smile that has not been seen in decades crept onto the Lord’s face.

He will be ours…

“Yes, he will be ours…”

A thousand miles away, the baby Jacob cried in his mother’s arms.