Nekroz

  In a nd far and wide, y kingdom ruled by might. A twilight realm, helmed by no king or bde, where might maketh w right. In this nd, ruled by none, is might the only decree. Held in truth by mightiest of thee.

  "Hello child, I am the king of the abyss, and I have long waited your arrival." The giant monster of a thing said, four amber eyes locked directly onto my two.

  I, of course, was left speechless. Brain trying to decide if it was supposed to be frozen with fear, or just pretend that this was normal. Maybe even a dream. And after a moment of silent thought, the tter won out, and I gave a hesitant wave.

  An instinctual thing, I suppose.

  "Speak child. Tell me your name." The supposed king commanded. The iron in his voice brooking no room for dissent.

  And I scrambled to my feet. Answer spilling out my mouth. "Marceline. I'm Marceline."

  "Marceline. Hmm, a fine name. It tastes of battle yet to come. The strength of it I will hold." He said, his words carrying an almost physical air to them. "As, I have more important matters to discuss with you than the beauty of names. I bid you invitation to my court, to join me."

  He reached a green skinned hand the size of my torso out. Fingers only inches away from me. And my immediate reaction was to back up. Wall meeting me as I did. Which, to my surprise, actually seemed to give the monster pause. His advance coming to a sudden stop as he stared.

  "Do you refuse my invitation?"

  I didn't even have to think. Still, I held my tongue. If there was one thing I had learned as the daughter of a baron, it was that very few people took outright rejection well. Much less a monster who called himself king. So I took the slightly more cautious, indirect way of btantly saying no.

  "I think I'd need to know where you'd be taking me first. That is, if you don't mind telling?"

  I half expected to die right there. For the monster in front of me to see through my question, realize what I meant and kill me in anger. Instead he responded better than most nobles or other town officials would have.

  He backed off.

  "There is a wisdom in doubting what you do not know. And in wisdom strength. For that I will... Respect your wish. But not while leaving you defenseless. So, as you offered your name I shall offer mine. Abaddon. Call upon it in your time of need and I shall come."

  And I felt it.

  His name, there was a physical weight to it. A heaviness. One that felt like it was pressing on the back of my mind, impossible to forget. Artificial memory seared into pce. Immovable.

  Which was more than a little concerning. Like I'd just been forced into something I didn't understand. Given something I couldn't possibly comprehend. And expected to just accept it, all because I had no choice to. Which, in all honesty, I probably had.

  And as I thought on that, pondered it, the monster in front of me left. Departing the same way he came.

  Through a hole he made in the roof.

  A hole, that seconds ter, knit itself back together. Fallen pieces rising up and putting themselves in pce as if they'd never been broken in the first pce.

  Or maybe I had been dreaming after all. It was te after all, at least, it was supposed to be. Kinda hard to tell time without the sun to look at. Either way it felt about that time, and I really didn't feel like staying up trying to figure out if that really was a dream or not. So I didn't. Instead I decided to head close my eyes and let myself fall into deeper sleep. My own massive breasts serving as a perfect pillow for my tired head. Which, unsurprisingly, made it very easy to doze off.

  ...

  What was a surprise, hours ter, was waking up and finding that I wasn't alone anymore.

  That there was, in the far corner of the room next to a pile of rubble that may have once been some sort of altar, a cloaked somebody. Skinny looking through his cloak, eyes pointed at the ground as he sat there. Possibly avoiding me.

  A gesture I couldn't bring myself to copy. Not when there was the chance that he was human. That I hadn't really been transported to the abyss. But I'd gotten drunk with something and just hallucinated it all. So I called out.

  "Hello?" Simple, pin, almost guaranteed to get some sort of response.

  Which it did.

  The man looked at me, a short gnce that revealed more about him then I was prepared for. Like the fact that he wasn't human. Not even anything close. No he was something made of twisting mass. A living bramble of orange tentacle like growths.

  Which was... Disturbing, to say the least. Gave him the sort of look that would send a shiver down the spine of most. Of which I was no exception. But that was something I looked past. Not because it was easy, no, but he hadn't done anything to me in my sleep. And He easily could have.

  I was practically defenseless.

  So I somewhat owed it to him to not be scared or spooked by his appearance.

  Instead, i tried to be decent. Tried to treat this like it was normal. "Hi, I'm Marceline. You?"

  And this time he responded.

  "Fisher." He said, barely above a whisper what with the distance between us. But I'd heard it.

  And that was good enough.

  Good enough to satiate my curiosity as I let silence once again settle. The two of us sitting where we were. Strangers giving each other a stranger's berth.

  Until the silence was once again broken, and this time, not by me.

  "Light born." He said. Term pulled right out of a history book. "That's what you are, isn't it?"

  I gave a single nod of the head. Up and down. "Yeah, and your an abyssal?"

  He nodded. "I am. But... Lesser. Weak. Too weak to even kill you."

  "I wouldn't be too sure about that. I'm less magically touched than a rock." I chuckled, words coming like second nature.

  And then I realized what I'd said. What I'd just admitted too.

  And the abyssal must have realized it too. Because he was looking at me now. Staring deep into my eyes, face bnk as something ran through his head. My death perhaps. How he was gonna kill me.

  Instead, he accused me. "Liar."

  It was all he said. The word heavy in the air between us.

  And somehow, I couldn't help but frown.

  "I wish. But no, believe it or not, I've got not a drop of Arcane ability to my name."

  "Liar." He said again, then he pointed. "I can sense it within you, gathering. You lie."

  I immediately checked for myself. Shutting my eyes tight as I looked into my core, into my shard, for even the faintest wisp of Arcane energy. And to my surprise, it was there. Not a lot of it. Barely more than a newly awakened child might have.

  But it was there. And that could only mean one thing.

  I had Magic.

  It was the one thing I had wanted all my life. The one thing that, to everyone else in the world, was a given. A natural talent inherent to every living creature of Me. Every single one of them except for me.

  Until now, that is. Because, for the first time ever, I could feel the power of the Arcane for myself. I could sense it stirring within my long dormant shard. Gathering up inside me, finding it's way to my center like oxygen finding it's way to my lungs.

  And naturally, my first instinct was to try to cast a spell. A simple one. An easy one. In fact, I was pretty sure there wasn't an easier spell than this.

  Me's light, it was called.

  A very, very simple spell designed both to summon a little light in the palm of my hand and to teach the very basics of spell craft to new mages. An order I could now consider myself apart of. All of twenty years too te.

  Still, I don't think I could've been more excited than I was now. Already my mind was spinning with the possibilities. Each imagination a glimpse into a dream that I had almost discarded one too many times. And now that dream was anything but impossible.

  It was already mine.