ă WHAT DID ... I ... JUST .... ă
all that remained were bodies. some of them had even been made, if only partially, into ash. there was just a boy, a room, and what was about ten of the Mageâs Associationâs brightest magi ... before whatever the boy had done.
now, there were just corpses.
the boy â really and truly, a man, but a man who felt too helpless to claim such a thing in this moment â rose shakily to his feet, knees sore from having cowered for so long after ... THAT. as he rose up, he looked immediately to his back, at the stone table heâd woken up from, and his breathing slowed.
i should just sleep again, he thought to himself most persuasively, if iâm asleep i donât need to think.
then, he heard the door open.
â SIR BARTHOMELOI, â came the first voice, â are you â oh my God, what happened ?! â
there was a second voice, more gruff than the last, and more panicked. â LOOK, â it yelled after the first, â the AESIR â ITâS AWAKE. â
the aesir. itâs awake. i am awake. the aesir is me. i am ... the AESIR?
the AESIR turned slowly to face the people who had newly discovered him slowly, as might a prey animal who has realised its fate. the two newcomers sported the eyes of the hunted just as well, and so for a long few moments they shared a mutual fear for their lives. the silence put an odd feeling in the AESIRâs stomach, but he dared not move to remedy it. to break this silence would mean to undo the strange pause of time heâd been caught in, and face the consequences of moving forward..
sadly, the other two did it for him.
â go â get the QUEENÂ !! QUICKLY !!! â yelled one to the other, and the other ran while the one whispered to himself. these whispers ... those corpses had whispered. he remembered them all of a sudden, hearing this one do the same thing â and immediately felt his heart pick up speed. there was danger here now, and it scared the AESIR to no end. he wanted to have been able to sit paused with them forever, and never have to face their judgement.
he squeezed his eyes shut, and saw the clock. the clock that existed in his mind, and kept moving forward ... irritatingly. terrifyingly. unstoppably.Â
even with his mind focused on the clock, he could hear the filling of that manâs magic circuits, and the firing of a mystic blast from his arm. he didnât need to open his eyes to know it was aimed at him.
hearing the mass of energy streak through the air, the AESIR was suddenly overcome by a need for the clock to stop. in his mind, he reached out toward the second hand ... and locked his thumb and index finger around it.
the sound of his circuits activating was quiet, but piercingly sharp â like the single, coordinated wingbeat of a million mosquitoes lancing the air. just before his assailantâs projectile hit him, the AESIR reached up a hand, and it disappeared with a sound like a zipper being yanked, reappearing behind him and slamming into the table with a crash that threw dust and stony debris wildly up and about the room. the air hummed and shrieked intermittently as sparks of blue passed from the air and the ground onto the AESIRâs skin, making his form roughly visible even in the momentary chaos of the explosion.
as this strange new energy filled him, the AESIRâs skin began to feel dry and flaky; the body within, suddenly light and limber. he reached up to feel his face, and was made to feel what exactly it was that caused such sensations ...
his skin was peeling away. under it was a strange, cold substance ... like clay. he could feel the light thrumming of his circuits working through it ... and somehow, despite not knowing what any of this was or what it meant, the AESIR couldnât help feeling that this wasnât right. his skin needed to stay on, he thought, as if skin was something which one could drop if they were clumsy.
how to keep from such a faux pas, however, escaped him until a single word surfaced in his mind.
the one - word reminder of decorum was easy to interpret, like heâd heard it before.
find purpose.
find power.
give them matrimony.
the AESIRâs thoughts as he drove prana into his own body came poetically, and he wondered if perhaps they were not original. his would have little time to wander, however, as the few seconds it took him to assess the situation had been the same amount of time his opponent needed to repeat his incantation â more powerful, this time â and send multiple bursts of energy at him.
for a moment he considered simply moving them away again, swapping out the space they inhabited for space that was far away from him ... but something about the feeling of his skin, now tightened against his body, made him far more confident in facing down this magus.
simply, mechanically, the AESIR began to walk forward, toward the volley.
and then he was gone.
his form blurred as he made snap - movements from spot to spot, combining a body powered by mana with quickly - executed swaps of the air around him. the show of power earned a second, panicked incantation, and a second, less accurate host of projectiles.
this one took even less effort to get around. the AESIR was within striking distance.
striking distance of what? not his fists. those didnât reach far enough to strike from where he stood after the second assault. the confusion brought about another one of the pauses in time that this pair had shared earlier. again, it was comforting, if also brimming with tension.Â
another helpful memory worming itself into his mind. he was too thankful to be concerned.
remember.
take hold.
make real.
and another one of those mnemonics. not that he would use time thinking about it, but there was definitely something more to how readily he dredged up these concepts in particular. for now, though ...
a staff. that was what he remembered best ... somehow. another inexplicable memory that he wouldnât question for the time being. in the moment, in the now, he simply focused on the image of it in his mind, then reached out to his side, and with a crack it was willed into existence. suddenly able fingers and arms reared the rod back, and a final flash forward contacted one end of it with the magusâs stomach.
there had been someone at the door, before. heâd been attacking the AESIR. now, however, there was left was a hole in the wall that let in the light of the moon and stars.
and all that that remained were bodies.
