Behind the Magic

What passersby see:

What you see when you pass through the magical 'gate':

Rune doesn't get many visitors, but the few that do stop by know of her abilities... The house abounds with herbs, tools of the 'trade', potions, lotions and just about anything else you could image that a three hundred year old witch would have.

They pulled up to Rune's home and immediantly Aislyn could sense the magic surrounding it.
The small white cottage was transformed to a beautiful victorian style home.

" Beautiful, somehow I am not surprised you would live here. "

Aislyn allowed Rune to lead the way.

"My GG left this to me when she died - I didn't even know that she had owned it until she came to 'visit' me in my hotel."

They entered the house and Jezebel greeted them at the door. Yes - Bell was a black cat...

"Please make yourself at home, and that's Jezebel, she's been with me for a hundred or so years." Rune disappeared for a few minutes to go gather up the family bible along with the Grimoire. She wanted Aislyn to look around and feel at home.

Aislyn felt almost at home here. Though she had never truely known what home feels like. The atmosphere was welcoming and warming. Magic seemd to electrify the air, like recharging a battery. The smells were alluring to say the least.

The the cat walked up to her Aislyn had a moment of recgniztion. She had seen the cat in a dream or two, but why she quite couldn't place.


Aislyn sat quietly on a nearby stool and awaited Rune to return.

Rune brought down the books and placed them on the massive oak table that filled the room. "Here's my family bible and here's the Grimoire that my ancestors started nearly 900 years ago. Let's hope we can find something in here that will help you."

Disappearing into the kitchen, Rune brought out a plate of snacks and a couple of drinks. "So what do you think we are looking for?" She still hung on the belief that Aislyn had some kind of Godly blood running through her veins.

" Like I said earlier, I don't know. Which bothers me because I know everything. " Aislyn said her hand hovering above the books.
They looked half their age, yet more precious than imaginable.

" May I? " She asked in respected. Ansty to behold the magic within.

Rune could tell that Aislyn was bothered by not knowing her history. She had these powers and no idea where or who they came from.

"You may..." Rune reached out and touched the girls hand lightly only to feel as though she had been electrocuted. In a flash of light a temple of some sort appeared and that quick was gone. That had never happened to Rune in all of her years.

Sitting down on the chair next to Aislyn, Rune pushed her hair back. "Wow - that was weird... even for me..."

Rune's touch was like liquid fire running through her viens. She saw all the years of Rune's life flashing through. The pain felt and the joys all surged at the same time.

Just as fast as they started Rune's memories faded, and all Aislyn saw was light. Surrounding and consuming her.

That same voice from earlier echoed around Aislyn, chilling to the bone as it was a voice carring pain and so much love

Πλεασε δαυγ-τερ, ὙΡΡΥ!

The light dissappeared, and Rune sat next from Aislyn now. Her look anything but expected. Whatever Aislyn felt, Rune obviously had also.
Rune pushed her hair back. "Wow - that was weird... even for me..."

Rune let out a small nervous giggle, knowing that Aislyn felt it too. "Ever had a dream about a temple?" She finally looked over to the girl, and could tell that Aislyn had seen way more than Rune had in that flash.

The paper and pen were sitting next to the books. "Were you spoken to again?" Rune offered up said writing instruments and rubbed her hands together. They were cold to the core.

" My dreams are never my own. Everything I seen involves others. And yes I did hear that woman again. This time the voice, it was...haunting. "

Aislyn wrote down the words. Πλεασε δαυγ-τερ, ὙΡΡΥ!

" Where's my mental translator when I need it."

Aislyn had a feeling that is she got this much of a jolt from Rune, that when and if she touched the books something nonrewinding would happen.

" Did you see something as well? " She's never experianced something that another had also shared.

Rune looked at what Aislyn had jotted down, and it made no sense to her. "Yeah, I saw a temple - almost like The Parthenon..."

Picking up the Grimoire, Rune opened it up to the very first page, hoping that if they started at the beginning they would find something.

While Aislyn wanted to focus as Rune opened the first page of the book, the nagging feeling she always got before a vision started. This time she could tell it was going to be a strong one.

The house exploded around her, and before Aislyn knew she was standing in the middle of a war it appeared, only outside of a motel. A red head and a tall black man stood almost back to back attempting to fight off the enemy. Another man stood struggling as many more tackled him.

Upstairs Aislyn could see a blonde male walking into a room. Immediantly she knew that was a mistake. As the room blew up, Aislyn had the urge to look across the street and witness the most beautiful woman she's ever seen just sitting there, watching the distructing and enjoying it.

Her hair was dusty gold, her face that of an agel but Aislyn knew better. If the gradification on her face was anything to go by, this woman was anything but an angel

Time fast forwarded a bit, and the once muted surrounding became audible. Screams of agnoy echoed in the motel complex. Cries of pain and fear rang out louder than anything Aislyn has heard before.

And the woman, standing now was laughing before staring directly at Aislyn in a whisper Aislyn heard she said, " Stay out of my way!"

Aislyn was shot out of the vision with so much force she actually was blow off the chair.

Rune looked up to Aislyn since she had fallen silent, and it appeared to be happening again, she was having a vision.

Taking a deep breath, Rune held both of Aislyn's hands in an attempt to catch the vision as it was happening. Not much - just blood and screams, gun shots and oddly a woman's laugh. In the next instant Aislyn was literally ripped out of her hands. Rune stumbled over to counter and vomited into the sink. Sliding to the floor, she looked to see Aislyn across the room slumped on the floor. Her stomach still knotted, she crawled over to the girl and moved the hair away from her face waiting for a response.

Aislyn's eyes were blank, as in whiter than bed sheets, and her skin matched the color. She felt, cold hands holding her face, someone calling her name. And as if rising to the surface of the Atlantic ocean Aislyn gasped fror breath.

" C-cco-old! " Was all she could muster. She felt as if her insides were getting a dose of nitrus. Even her tears fell from her face, frozen.
Soon she began to remember her vision, the vile laugh sending chills down her spine and goosebumps to break out over her body.

Rune heard Aislyn - she left her side long enough to fetch a few blankets. Wrapping the girl up, Rune picked up her head and rested it on her lap. "Aislyn, can you hear me?" The pale color of the girl worried her and Rune was unsure what to do at the moment.

(My bad if Aislyn had not in fact told Rune her name... I can change it if need be.)

( That's fine! )

" Evil, motel. Downtown. Wolfs, cats, demons, HER." A light began to iluminate around Aislyn as the words poured out of her mouth. The final one ending in " EVIL "
Time froze once again this time Rune was included due to the contact she had on Aislyn. Flashes on the images Aislyn saw played it's self out for Rune to see.
When the woman appeared laughing, Aislyn's eyes snapped back to normal and she spoke her voice not her own,
"Ευιλ βε ωαρνεδ, υου ωιλλ βε δεφεατεδ. Ι υοω ιτ"
When Aislyn's color returned a whisper cared in the wind gently caressed Aislyn
Δαυγ-τερ, βεωαρε Αμαια

Rune's skin crawled as time seemed to stop only to be caught up in the flashes that Aislyn was seeing. She saw the laughing woman's face and it tickled her memory somehow.

When Aislyn started speaking Greek again, Rune cursed herself for not learning anything but Latin. The only two words she picked up on where the last two; 'Beware daughter.' The visions stopped and time started once again.

"Someone is watching out for you, Aislyn, now if we can just figure out who."

( I'll translate it for you, the first one is Beware evil you will be destroyed. I vow it. and the sencond is, daughter beware Amaia)

Aislyn breathed, and practiced her calming techniques the coven had taught her.
And failed.
" Forget whose watching out for me, those people need help Rune. We HAVE to do something before Amaia kills them."

It took Aislyn a second to realize she'd spoken the woman's name.

(thank you - I tried translating it and it wasn't working so well. LOL)

"Amaia?" Shock and despair moved like shadows across her face. "That's bad..." Gently sliding Aislyn's head out of her lap, Rune stood and flipped to second page of the Grimoire.

And there in her ancestors handwriting was the warning along with a crude drawing of the immortal named Amaia.

Caveo pro vis accersitus Amaia - addo of ruina Terminus ut nos may totus teneo.

Rune had gone quiet. Aislyn stood and placed her hand on to Rune's shoulders.

" Is something wrong Rune? "

Rune tapped the parchment and nodded. "Does this look like the woman you saw? Amaia was one to come to the surface and wreak ungodly happenings on the human race - every couple of hundred of years or so. Just long enough that generation to generation only believe the stories that have been told about her."

"And this translates to; Beware of the force summoned – Amaia - bringer of destruction - the End as we may all know"

" Great. And now she knows who I am. " Aislyn stopped for a second. " Wait those people at the motel. They need our help Rune. If she's causing it than..than they have no idea what they up against. Does the book say anything more about her? How to stop her. "

Aislyn grew frantic. She absolutly hated not knowing things. Aislyn watched as Rune's hands moved over the book, without touching it for she was afraid what would happen. The images of those four fighting just kept flashing in her mind. Something was there she just couldn't place it. What was off...What was she missing?

Rune didn't know if here was anything in the book to stop the woman or not... Even though she had read it - there was over nine hundred years of spells and sorcery.

"I don't know...Maybe a banishment spell would work." Rune suddenly felt hopeless - she had only dealt with humans - not a Goddess... Rune thumbed through the pages hoping to come across something.

Aislyn stood caught up in her thoughts, as Rune flipped through the books. Cautiously Aislyn picked up the other book, the moments her hands feathered the book a presage feeling washed over her. Sparks of magic raced throughout her body, the air encircling her even seemed disturbed.
Aislyn caught flashes of an older woman hovering over this book, her eyes frantic. Than the images shifter to an older time, all while Aislyn held the book as if it would dust at any moment. Nine hundred years of history flashed through her mind until the glimpse of Amaia stopped everything. Not nearly as meancing as she was before, Amaia stood in the background, merely observing as the pages were flipped at the hand of an anonymous person.
When the flashes ended, Aislyn was left to her thoughts and voiced some them.

"Amaia must be nearly as old as this book. It remembers her. "

Once the cover was opened, Aislyn with much care shifted through the pages, hopeful to find something of use.
With the book as old as it is, some of the letter was barely readable. Some spells seemed ever surreal such as turning a human to a toad or making a lake appear. Spells that Aislyn never knew possible. Nearly finished with the book, Aislyn stopped on a page labeled Seekers. A brief statement followed,

Those with the ability to see through time, forever lost in it themselves. Born with God-like capabilities, the Seekers were considered all mighty even to the vigorous Gods. They controlled time and destiny of man. They were known to have very few limititations. Written in a scribble of handwriting was, If they aren't with you, they are against you. And you are screwed.

Beneath it were a few photos of the most powerful ' Seekers '. And a very, very faded photo of three woman. The caption said, Three sisters known by many as the fates.

Looking at the photo, Aislyn gasped in horror. A old woman sat on a chair her grey hair down past her waist was tied up in a braid, holding a pair was scissors. A young girl stood with a doll in one hand looking as innocent as an angel. And finally, the woman in the middle stood tall in her white gown, hair bunched in a bun atop her head she held a watch in her hand as if it were a treasure. Yet when Aislyn looked at her face, she might as well been looking into a mirror. The face was her own.

Rune was lost within the book until she heard Aislyn speak. "There was another Grimoire that existed since the beginning of the family tree, but it was lost over... over nine hundred years ago." She went back to the task at hand looking for anything that would help seal Amaia off from the face of the Earth forever.

"What's wrong?" Looking down at the pages that were open in front of the girl, Rune glanced at the picture then to Aislyn and once again back to the book. "That's you..." Rune read the small caption that that was above the picture and fell silent.