The Awakening (19 page)

“Despite its macabre appearance, Pandemonia was not always like this Alexander. Long before my time, it was a peaceful place of immense beauty.”

Looking at the fierce landscape, it was hard to imagine it ever being anything other than terrifying.

“Like your world, Pandemonia was once split into two halves by the Veil,” he continued. “The Umbra populated one side and Luminar the other. The Veil ensured that the two sides never met or interacted with one another. In addition, it acted to protect your world from us and vice versa.”

“How did it do that?”

“It gave off a vibration which could imbue a sense of chronic fear and danger. This meant that instinctually no creature would ever venture too close.”

I nodded. “So what went wrong?”

“Over time - as it did in your world, the Veil broke apart. For the first time, the separate halves of Pandemonia met. By this time several life forms had evolved to a sentient state. You see, in your world, humans are the only fully sentient creature. In mine there are many.”

Around us, the thunderous booms grew louder and more frequent, adding a sense of tense drama to everything that Faru said.

“It all went well to begin with,” he said. “The two halves of our world traded and lived in a peaceful truce for what would be centuries in your world. In this time several smaller creatures mixed and bred and produced new species of Fera.”

As I listened to Faru, I noticed my palms had started to sweat profusely. I frowned at them, then wiped them on my trousers and dumped them in my pockets. “So I’m guessing that that truce fell apart. What happened”?

The Seelian gave a long sigh. “Greed. The darker side of nature began to show itself. Some weren’t content with their lot and on both sides there were murmurs of war. Umbra have their own nobility known as Demons.”

Demons. Now there’s a word I’ve heard before.

“Demons are renowned for being particularly fierce and bloodthirsty, but equally intelligent and cunning. One in particular shared the desire for war. He desired to control the whole of Pandemonia and for Umbra to become the dominant class.” Faru gave a shake of his head. “Unfortunately he was also in a position to achieve that desire. His name was Azraiel, King of Demons.”

As if to add menace to the name, another loud crack of thunder burst overhead, making me jolt.

“Azraiel roused a colossal army and sent them against the Luminar. He expected it to be a walkover owing to the Umbra’s natural predatory nature, but the Luminar were more powerful than he anticipated. We all have a fierce lust for life and will not go down without a fight.” I saw a glimmer of a smile as he provided that piece of information.

“Nevertheless, the Luminar were pushed back into smaller pockets of land, losing most to the Umbra. We never gave up and fought back under the leadership of Kishen the Wise.” He stopped for a moment and put two fingers to his forehead before placing them over his heart.

A salute of some kind?
I wondered.

“So began the Ageless war.”

Faru lowered his hands and folded them behind his back before continuing.

“Like its name suggests, the war itself has been raging for as long as anyone can remember. Today, the original leaders are long gone and their descendants have inherited the war. The Umbra are now ruled by the Demon King, Hades. He is as thoroughly evil as his forebears - the absolute epitome of all things unjust. He rules his domains with an iron fist and destroys anyone who displeases him or even questions his decisions. His opposition comes in the form of the Seelian Prince Ashan.” Faru repeated the action of pressing his fingers to his forehead and then holding them over his heart.

Okay he’s definitely saluting them.
I guessed they meant a lot to him.

“Prince Ashan is a benevolent leader who cares for each and every one of his subjects. The areas and cities of Pandemonia he still rules over are fertile and more beautiful than you could imagine. Furthermore, he is a noble warrior who fights alongside his people, unlike Hades who commands from behind the walls of his impenetrable fortress, allowing his followers to suffer and die for his cause.” Faru gestured towards the foreboding structure in the distance, an unmistakable look of contempt on his face. Lightning crackled around the spire, illuminating the shape in the gloom. Faru swept a hand around to indicate the rest of the cursed land. “What you see before you is an area of Pandemonia touched by the corruption of this mindless war.”

I stared out at the scene in front of me again. It didn’t matter how many times I looked, it still filled me with terror. A flash of lightning arched down towards the ground only fifty yards or so ahead, blinding me. I instinctively covered my eyes. As I did, I felt something rush past me, close enough to touch my skin. It made the hairs on my neck shoot up. I jerked my eyes open and stared until I could just about make out a dark shape moving at an incredible speed towards the beach.

In the bursts of illumination that the torrent of lightning provided, I watched the running creature launch itself with a feral scream at another dark shape standing on the blood red sand. It slashed out with clawed hands and a black jet of liquid sprayed out of its victim’s throat. The wounded creature let out a piercing howl of agony, which faded into gurgles as it collapsed onto the dark sand. Other silhouettes appeared from nowhere, running onto the beach, tearing and biting at each other. The bursts of lightning exposed the carnage like macabre photographs. Every time the battle was lit up, more horrifying details seared themselves into my brain. Bodies slumping to the ground, flaps of skin being shredded off bodies, blood pooling around the dead. Each crack of thunder was accompanied by screams of anger and agony.

I couldn’t take any more. I turned away and covered my eyes. “Stop please!” I begged.

The sounds faded. Once again there were only the rushing waves and the angry crack of the thunder, which was rolling away. I peeked through my trembling fingers; the creatures were gone. Letting out a deep breath, I composed myself.

Before I could say a word, Faru put up a hand. “I am sorry. That was something you needed to see to understand the dire turmoil Pandemonia is in. Hundreds die every day.” He sighed and shook his head slowly, dealing with some kind of inner anguish. “After all of this mindless fighting, the Ageless war is coming to a close. Unfortunately it is Hades who is winning.

“Not who Alexander...
what
. An unstoppable force. No one knows where it came from. It simply appeared about one hundred years ago and joined the Umbra. A soul eater known only as The Sorrow.”

The words sent a fierce shudder running through me, as if they were unmentionable. It took a few seconds before I was able to speak. “By soul eater, you mean-”

Faru looked grim. “Exactly that. The Sorrow feeds on the souls of others to feed its own twisted soul. The poor victims become deformed husks with no recollection of their former selves. The Depraved as they are known have no purpose other than to serve The Sorrow without question.”

The Seelian cast his blind gaze downwards. “The Sorrow is worse than anything you could possibly imagine.” For the first time I saw something different in his eyes as he spoke. Something which made my skin grow cold.

Fear. Faru was scared of The Sorrow.

“So...is it some kind of Umbra?”

Faru shook his head. “No one knows. Some think it’s a primordial Demon. One of the first, somehow woken by the everlasting battle. Others think it is evil incarnate, created by all the misery and death of the war. All we know for certain is that it serves Hades. Although, that could be because it serves its own purpose, which as yet is unclear.”

He stopped speaking and stared out towards the black sea - which swelled and bucked with angry waves - lost in thought. His hands were coiled into tight fists and his body rigid with the strain of what could only be countless horrific memories.

I didn’t know what to say, for some reason the mention of The Sorrow had filled me with a sense of dread that was gnawing away at my insides. I squeezed my eyes shut; trying to replace thoughts of an unstoppable soul eater and the grizzly show I’d just witnessed with images of the Earth from space and the gorgeous beach. It didn’t really work. I re-opened my eyes. Faru was still in the same position, staring across the angry sea.

“Faru?” I said gingerly, walking forward and placing a hand on his arm. He snapped out of his reverie. Turning towards me, he gave a smile which convinced no one.

“I apologise Alexander. I have seen many atrocious things in my time in Pandemonia. Please speak your mind.”

I swallowed, my throat dry. It felt like years since I had eaten or drunk anything. “Well I err...it’s bad about The Sorrow and the war and everything, but well...I just don’t see what any of this has to do with me.”

Faru placed a hand on my shoulder. “You will Alexander. What comes next will make it all easier to understand. I think it’s time to move on.”

It was the words I’d been hoping for. I couldn’t wait to get out of this hellish place, vision or not. Faru clapped both hands together and the world began to tear off from itself. Little pieces flaked away and dissolved into nothing as though the whole setting was wallpaper being stripped away by the hand of an invisible deity. In the spaces left by the flakes, there was nothing but a pure white glow.

Soon we were surrounded by nothing but pure brilliant white. It was nonexistence; the blank canvass between life. There was no horizon, no background, no sky, no floor, nothing but endless white. I was upright as far as I could tell, but there was no way to know if I was standing or floating - I couldn’t feel anything beneath my feet. The brightness took a while to adjust to, like switching on a lamp in the middle of the night. For a few disturbing seconds it appeared as though Faru had two holes in his head, due to his glowing eyes blending in with the background. Thankfully the effect passed. I waited, but the Seelian didn’t say a word. He simply folded his arms across his chest as if he expected something to happen.

Then something did.

A point a few feet away began to shimmer. Frowning, I stared at the patch of nothingness. It continued to waver like heat in the desert. Then out of nowhere a blue ball of energy formed. It started out the size of a marble and grew until it was roughly the size of a tennis ball. Then it hung motionless, releasing an electric blue glow.

A small moan of wonder escaped my throat as I gazed at the orb. I had never witnessed anything so glorious in all my life. It was better than the beach, better than the view of Earth from space. Better than
everything.
Tears spilled down my cheeks. I wiped with the back of my hand, unable to stop staring at the divine orb. When I managed to locate my voice and use it, the words were soft and dreamlike.

I reached out to touch the shining orb but was dismayed when my fingers glided right through as if it were a mirage. The soul shimmered for a second, then solidified again and drifted away from me. I cried out and tried to snatch at it, but Faru placed a hand on my shoulder and shook his head. I dropped my eyes to my fingers in disappointment, and drew in a sharp breath; the tips were glowing blue like oversized matchsticks.

I breathed a sigh of awe and looked back up. All around, more souls appeared, unfurling and growing in the emptiness of the non-world. Soon there were hundreds, gliding around us like atoms under a microscope. They seemed to radiate peace and happiness. I felt calmer than I could ever remember being in my life. It seemed that nothing else mattered, just these precious little souls.

Faru glided around so that he was facing me. “Souls are the life force of all species,” he said. “A miraculous, eternal energy which cannot be destroyed. In humans, a soul unites with a new-born child and stays with them until death, before moving on to another.”

He scooped a hand through the air and caught a soul, much to my jealousy. It lay sheltered in his cupped palms, shining rays of neon light from the cracks between his fingers. Faru widened the space between his two thumbs and gestured for me to look. I discovered that I could move forward without actually walking - a sort of glide. Once in front of the Seelian, I peered into his cupped hands. Inside, amongst the glowing blue, I could see flashes of cycling images, like short videos on a slideshow. A young boy clothed in rags running from a bakers - a loaf of bread clutched in his grubby hands; a middle aged man with curly hair driving a red American convertible, holding hands with a smiling brunette sat next to him; an elderly lady lying in a hospital bed, surrounded by family. A young woman standing by a-

Faru dropped his hands away and I pulled back my head. Then he gently released the soul and it floated off to re-join the others.

“Snapshots of past lives,” he answered before I could ask. “The existence of souls is nothing short of a miracle and impossible to explain. Because they cannot be seen by the human eye, it has often been debated that they do not really exist. But I can assure you they do and if you could see them, they would look like these here.”

“Wait, you can see them?” I asked.

“I can. Although I am blind by normal standards, my unique style of vision allows me to see things that do not exist on the relative plane. I can also manipulate them.”

“So you could touch a real soul?”

“I could yes, not that I could think of a reason to. But I digress.”

He raised a long index finger and tapped it once in the air. “Now, to explain how all this fits together. As I already explained, the Veil had broken down and with this, its repelling effects diminished. As the ageless war raged on, countless died on both sides. Many grew weary of the battle, of the constant fear. They wanted to escape the bloodshed. They hid anywhere they could to avoid fighting, in caves, underground, and those that could, underwater. Desperate to escape and presented with a greater threat to life than the diminishing Veil could present, it was only a matter of time before someone stumbled into your world. Before long, word had spread of a solace away from the war, a safe haven where one could seek refuge.”