Ch. 6: Dukalis' Awakening

The book started to shake, then suddenly a bright blue light flashed from it. Books were flying off the shelves and spiraling around me; the candle blew out and I was in the midst of a lightning-blue hurricane.

I screamed and bent down in fear, covering my head as a huge tome flew over me.

I could hear ancient chanting, like a thousand spirits were singing all at once. I felt for once in my life a violent wave surging through my veins. Was it magic, or insanity?

It felt like I was in the presence of an army of ghosts, attacking me from all sides and pinning my own spirit down by the throat, ready to deal the death blow.

But then the terror subsided.

A chilling silence filled the air, and I cautiously opened my eyes and looked up, thinking that it was all a terrible dream.

But it wasn't. Although the wind was gone, books were floating in midair, spiraling around the one cursed object that held all the magic in the world.

But unlike the rest of the books, this one wasn't suspended in midair on its own.

Instead a vibrant, glowing figure stood there- or, rather, levitated there, holding the book.

I shielded my eyes and dared to take a breath. "Are you…"

The spirit's glowing white eyes widened.

"You can see me?"

I nodded, my heart caught in my throat.

The spirit gasped. "After all millennia… the one able to speak to me has finally come?"

I cocked my head, my initial terror and awe fading fast. The spirit resembled an aetyr, but he had no legs, an unstable form, and he had spiraling horns. And he was completely blue, save for his glowing white eyes and mouth.

"Who ARE you?" I asked.

The spirit bowed, shaking with excitement and disbelief. "I am Dukalis, father of magic and the Black Manes." But then he paused. "And may I ask who YOU are? You are the first in eons who has spoken to me, face to face and without going insane. I feel that I deserve to know your name."

I shrugged. "I'm Aven. Aven Elsgard. I've heard lots about you. But I thought you were… dead."

Dukalis paused, then narrowed his gleaming white eyes. "Wait a moment. You're…"

"Yeah, I'm an albino. Without magic. Everyone's been raving about it, believe me." I cut in indignantly.

Dukalis looked confused. "Well, I was going to state the fact that you're just a mere White Mane, but you're also a child. An inexperienced, young and reckless child." Then he flicked his ears back. "But what intrigues me most, now that you mention it, is that you are… magicless?"

"SO? What's it to YOU?" I shot back defensively. "I know I'm an anomaly. The only reason I'm here is because your precious descendants decided to use me as a guinea pig!" 

The spirit took no offense at my comment; he closed his eyes, deep in thought. "So, that was the key…"

"Huh? Key to what?"

He opened his eyes again and smiled. "To answer your first question, I never died. Instead your beloved Seven Gods were so petty that I became more skilled than they, that they ended up banishing me for all eternity in complete solitude to my favorite possession. And, because of that, every time I tried to speak to one of my own kind, I would accidentally drive them insane due to my own overwhelming magic becoming combined with theirs. Then-"

"Now, HOLD UP." I stopped him. "So you're saying that the gods were jealous of you, so they sent you to an eternal timeout to live in a personal journal? Then every time you tried to talk to somebody, they would go insane because of your own pure awesomeness?"

"Well, that's one way of putting it, I suppose," The spirit shrugged. "But what is especially interesting about our encounter is, for one, the fact that we can speak with each other without you aiming to kill yourself out of insanity. The other is the fact that you have no magic."

I paused. "…Are you saying that, because of my lack of magic, there's no barrier between us?"

"I would think so." Dukalis blinked thoughtfully. "When you first awakened me, those first few moments would've been when an ordinary aetyr would go insane. But I saw that you were stronger. There was nothing holding you back from facing my glory. Granted, you did shrink away, but you are only a child, after all." He chuckled.

I blushed. "Hey, I'm fifteen, dude! Not five! Give me a break."

"You're rather small for fifteen," Dukalis mused. "In my time, aetyrim of fifteen would be given mates and raise families of their own. But look at you all now! You're mere children."

I stuck out my tongue in disgust. "Ick! That's disgusting, old man. We've ALWAYS been children."

"Old? I'm not old, child. I'm thirty-five." But he stopped for a moment, then shrugged sheepishly. "Okay, maybe I AM old. I suppose I'm probably thousands of years of age at this point."

"Either way, you're still pretty old," I replied. "And taking the fact that you think fifteen year olds are adults, then you're pretty aged in comparison."

"Twenty years is NOT that huge of a jump!" Dukalis grumped. "Thousands upon thousands of years IS!"

I shrugged, feeling uncomfortable. "You do you, boomer. But would you care to explain what led the gods to imprison you in your diary? I'd like to hear what exactly their breaking point was."

The spirit stopped and paused, looking rather grim. "…I don't quite know. Or remember. It was all so long ago. Not that I could ask them myself, either. Ever since my descendants became the first rulers of Aetyria, the gods have… vanished."

"Vanished?" My ears pricked in anticipation.

He nodded, though uncertainty hung pointedly across his vibrant blue face. "Their aura has vanished from the land of Aetyria, leaving me as the sole magic giver. Of course they had to make me the only god as punishment, those petty lords!" He wiped his brow, sneering. "And now I have no way of finding them again, what with being bound to this book."

"Hold on," I asked, shaking. "If the gods are gone… where are they? They can't have died."

Dukalis shrugged. "As far as I know, it is possible for a god to die, but I doubt that is what happened to them. Instead, I presume they've gone to the only place aetyrim are forbidden to go."

"The… the East Horizon?"

He nodded.

I prodded my chin thoughtfully, then sighed and sat down. "This is a lot to take in."

The spirit nodded, floating down to the floor and curling his wispy tail around his waist. "I wonder if there's anything we can do. To bring the gods back." He looked at me out of the corner of his eye, looking cheery, as if something had entered his mind.

I glared at him. "You're not thinking of going to the East Horizon, are you? Besides, how do you even plan to get there? You're stuck to a book, after all."

"And you'll likely get caught trying to sneak out and leave the kingdom, if you take me along," Dukalis added with mild amusement. "I suppose the royal family will want to keep a close eye on you for the time being, seeing as you are the first to not go insane from coming into contact with my spell book." But then he narrowed his eyes, and suddenly flew up close to my face, the eerie blue glow emanating off him like little embers. "Promise me this, little one," He hissed in a low voice. "Do NOT tell ANYONE that you spoke to me. I doubt that anyone else knows I'm bound to this book, but I don't want anyone trying to fish out more magic from my spirit."

I blankly stared at him. "What's in it for me, boomer? I've already done you a favor by giving you your first conversation in who knows how long. Unless you aren't fond of social interaction, in which case I can stop talking to you altogether."

"No, NO-" Dukalis replied hastily, "I'm sorry- I DO appreciate talking to you. You're quite bright, honest. But I suppose you wouldn't enjoy being stuck inside a solitary prison for eons on end, would you?" When I glared at him for longer, he added sheepishly, "I'm just putting this into perspective for you. Don't take any offense from what I say."

I grabbed the spell book again before he could finish speaking, and when he was done, I stroked the cover gently. "Aside from giving you a daily dose of healthy social interaction, I need to know what you want from me. I risked my sanity and my life to get here. Heck, even my father's a criminal." My eyes gleamed as Dukalis fidgeted nervously. "So, answer me, Dukalis: What can you offer me in return?"

Dukalis looked sullen for a moment, his glowing white eyes melting into the haze of his azure spirit. But then his countenance brightened. "Forgive me if I'm wrong, Aven," He answered slowly, "But I think that, due to your lack of magic, I believe it's possible that I can channel my own power through you, like a fountain pen channeling ink to paper."

"...And?" I replied, trying to cover up my surprise with skepticism. "I've made it this far without magic. Why would I need it now?" To be fair, having magic for the first time in my life, even if it wasn't really truly mine, sounded incredible. But I was afraid that it would go horribly wrong, and I would end up going insane as a result of being used as Dukalis' vessel.

Dukalis looked hurt at my words, but shrugged them off and replied rather calmly, "Because I know something that's more important to the royal family than your lack of inborn magic. I'm surprised that you yourself didn't know that aetyrim can learn magic aside from the kind they were born with, but they do it, all the time."

I stroked the spell book warily, the old dusty scent of the paper distracting me slightly. "So real sorcerers still exist, huh? But what are you getting at, if anyone can learn magic that isn't their own?"

"Well," He answered smugly, "If my belief that I can channel magic through you is true, then you can say that you learned magic from my book. You'll come off as a pure prodigy, and then the royal family will possibly recruit you to head to the God's Headrest with various other sorcerers. And beyond the God's Headrest is Dragon's Reach, and it's where the Consumed were banished."

I nearly dropped his book out of bafflement. "So you're saying that… you give me magic, I LIE to the royal family that I'm a sorcerer or whatever, just so that they send me off to fight demons in God's Bedrest or Snake's Stretch or whatever? But WHY? That seems kinda pointless, cause… y'know… What if I literally DIE? Then you'll lose your social interaction for GOOD."

"I don't think you quite understand the royal family's motives, little one," Dukalis answered quietly, smirking. "The only reason they don't kill the Consumed when they're created is so that the sorcerers they send can harvest their overflowing magic and bring it back for them to consume. It's how they possess the most powerful magic in the world. Instead of taking the time to learn various other arts, they just absorb it right away." He winked. "Seems rather easy, don't you think?"

My heart sank, and I stood there, still quite baffled. "Sure, maybe it's easy for the royal family, but what about the literal SORCERERS who go to harvest magic from demons?! How do they NOT die?"

The spirit shrugged. "The same way you didn't die, I suppose."

I groaned and was about to open the spell book when suddenly Dukalis grew quiet and looked at me, almost sad in a way. "I think it's fair if I asked you what you want from me," He said gently, curling his tail around me like a wisp of fog blanketing the ground. "So that we can help each other out. I made the mistake of not cherishing what I had while I was still mortal and free, and was blinded by my hubris. So, just… confide in me about what you need, and I'll make sure to pay you back your dues."

I grew wary and uncomfortable when my mind flicked to Abarin. "I…" I paused. "I want to find my father again. I miss the days when we were together."

"Done and done." The spirit replied. "Abarin Elsgard, whose magic is illusions, correct?"

"How did you know?" I asked, shocked.

"Magician's intuition." He grinned. "But to make both of our dreams come true, you'll need my help, as I need yours. Will you take my magic?"

I stared at him, determination bubbling up inside of me. Dukalis seemed well-meaning, and desperate for life again. But I had to be careful. I had no idea what he was truly capable of.

But if it meant that I had a chance at finding Abarin again, then I might as well take that chance. I had nothing else to lose, and neither did Dukalis, if he was speaking truthfully.

"It's worth a shot, boomer." I replied, staring him square in the face.