VANJA STORY PART 5

It was an interesting feeling… sleeping with Archane in the real world, to actually hold him and feel him with my arms as we slept together was an interesting sensation compared to what I was used to. I sigh perhaps it’s merely the fact that I had never done this with him before that it felt so special since I couldn’t fall asleep with him before after all. However the special time ended as the sun broke into my room. Archane opened his eyes nearly immediately and sat up stretching himself out. I then felt a gentle hand on my side stroking me as I started to wake. I roll over to look at him just watching me. My eyes are still clouded by sleep but I manage a smile.

"Hmm, that was a cruel trick, leading me on that you had all your memories back so I would tell you the rest… I’m sort of glad you did." He told me. He then stood up. "I’ll be making breakfast so come out when ready." He told me as he then walked away as I lay there thinking about this. Despite the warm wonderful feelings I had remembered from being around him, the memories of the great times we shared, all of it coming back to me at once I was still left with a nagging feeling… He was going to have to face this shadow demon… what did he call him… Shaw… this creature had already severely wounded him once could he survive another encounter. I get up rubbing the sleep from my eyes as I go out to the dining room as I put on my robe. Archane already had food down and he’s dressed… it was only five minutes… how was he so fast? Sigh there were so many things I didn’t understand about him.

I sit down and dig into my meal, he was… okay… guess he was rusty with Tolatem doing all the cooking I would hate to think with eons of cooking under his belt this was his best…

"Something wrong?" He asks me all of a sudden.

"Oh! No, no, no of course not…" I tell him with a smile… if this was an anime I would probably have one of those sweat drops going on.

"Okay, if you say so." He told me as he ate his food. I sigh in relief that he let it go. However brief that distraction was it didn’t stop me from thinking about him fighting this shadow demon… that had beaten him once…

"Archane… do you have…" He cut me off there.

"Of course, Shaw is a demon from the dream plane it’s my job to vanquish him once again."

"But he already beat you, how can you beat him now?"

"I went in without collecting intelligence on the enemy, his entire encampment is hexed to suppress all magic except shadow type. Right there he turned off a great deal of my powers while leaving his intact. I should have expected something like that. Next time I’ll kill him.

"What if you don’t!" I blurt out, I calm myself down before continuing. "I mean he already wounded you badly once, what’s to stop him from killing you this time?" While I was acting concerned about him he was… he was actually SMILING! ARG! It’s so interesting to how he can take me from the edge of concern to ANGER in such a short time. "What’s so amusing about me showing concern!" I yell at him as I point my finger at him.

"Ha, shows you really do love me. Meaning your memory has fully restored." He told me with a sort of smug smile. Grrr. "Besides I won’t die, not with you here. You can help me overcome this enemy."

"Eh… how… doesn’t sound like I would be much help." I tell him as he suddenly told me I could help him… I guess I liked the idea but to be honest how could I help him in a fight against such a creature!

"Yes you can, I can’t do this without your help I need you to… draw."

"Pardon?" I ask him confused.

"I need you to draw." He actually said that, how was drawing going to help, could this be a joke!? No, he seemed serious, but, but how would that help!

"I need you to draw a talisman that will give me some shielding from this hex. I know how to make it, but it would take too long to make. I know a spell that could bring the talisman into the world for a short time if drawn perfectly and since your such a talented artist I need you to draw it."

"Ummm, what happens if I draw it wrong?"

"Then when I go into battle the talisman will have no effect leaving me at his mercy completely dooming this world to became enslaved by his will where the people are mere slaves and the women nothing more then cattle until only shadow covers this world." Archane told her as if it was a simple thing.

Great… no pressure I thought as I slumped in my chair as I felt like the entire world was starting to crush me underneath its weight. I then feel a hand on my shoulder. I look up and Archane is smiling at me. "I know you can do this babe. It’s your talent."

"Grrr… you!" I tell him trying to get upset but blast him he just stood there’re with his hand on my shoulder smiling. Sigh being married to a guy who’s several eon’s old is tough. He hardly seemed phased by danger, the seemingly impossible, and sometimes even my anger which most of the time evaporated in his presence.

It was a bit annoying to say the least. Of course those qualities were also some of his strong points, it was a perplexing condemn at times, but then again my life is much more interesting like this. "So what does this talisman look like?" I ask him resigning to my fate.

Archane then explained it to me in great detail. A very complicated design, his example drawing was…. Well I’ll tell the truth a kid in grade school could probably draw that well… maybe better. So I was left with his description, which like I said before was very detailed.

His description of the talisman is as follows- First you start with a six-sided star, similar to The Star of David. Each side of the star is exactly 5 inches in length. The metal of the star is plain brass. Then all around the Stars outer edge less then ¼ an inch from the tips is the body of a blood red snake. He goes all the way around in a circle. His head is located at the lower left point of the star and he’s biting into it. The snake is made of Iron. In the middle of the star is a black pearl with the symbol in white. Then you go back up to the points. The snake’s body should disappear behind the points and here is where you put the small white pearls. They two have a symbol’s on them each one unique. The Lower left symbol is – bottom point is-

Lower right symbol is- Upper left symbol is –

Top point is- Upper right symbol is-

Then finally after that tiring process of drawing the symbols a mixture of gold and silver is to be laid out in a line from the back pearl to each of the smaller pearls connecting them together.

I took my time knowing it had to be perfect. One slight error and Archane would be left defenseless in this fight against Shaw.

After several hours I was able to draw and color the picture to the point where I thought it was perfect. Archane looked it over carefully as he seemed to be deep in thought about it. "Hmmm, yes this will do, nicely done Vanja." He smiled at me as he then set it down on the table. "Now please sit down, we must bring it to life."

"But… you’re the mage why do you need me?"

"Oh well the person who drew it needs to be involved otherwise the spell won’t work. Just slowly repeat what I say and place your left hand on the picture."

"Okay…" I tell him as I sit down on the floor next to him and put my hand on the paper. He then reaches out with his and holds mine. He closes his eyes and I do the same trying to mimic him.

"Kara Son Kon Lee Toree Sue. Come on repeat it with me, we must do it together." He tells me. I focus myself as I begin the incantation.

"Kara Son Kon Lee Toree Sue!" We said at the same time as I could swear our voices started to echo off the walls as I felt warmth around my hand. Upon opening them I see that my drawing had come to life as the talisman was right there. I knew it was going to happen but still to see it work was something else entirely.

"Excellent I can finally defeat Shaw." He told me as he tucked the talisman underneath his shirt. "Now for your part in my plan."

"My part… I thought I just did my part?"

"Ha, please I know you well enough to know that you’ll be worried sick when I leave to go fight, you might even be tempted to follow me which in the end would only prove to be a liability to me."

I glared at him when he called me a liability. "Gee thanks."

"I of course mean without some sort of magical protection." He said as he brushed my glare off with a smile as he pulled out a cloak. It was red color that seemed to shine under the light. "For you my love."

I gently moved my hand out and took the cloak into my hands when Archane released his hold on it the cloak-changed color to black. "Aww, very good it accepts you."

"What?"

"This cloak is unique as it takes a unique color for whoever posses it. By putting it on though you are rendered invisible. However for me it’s completely useless now. My magical and spiritual energies are too high and the cloak won’t hide them at all. For you however it will prove very effective. Vanja… they have set up a portal that leads to their nightmarish world. What I need you to do is to destroy bindings they have made while I fight Shaw. He will be too busy with me to realize his opening is closing. Will you do this?"

Hmmm… I was being asked to help close a demonic portal… I thought this sort of thing only happened in bad movies and animes… But for the first time I felt as if Archane was truly counting on me… trusting me with a task… Sigh… I was just mad at him a couple minutes ago… how does he do this… "Yes, I will help you."

* * *

"I can’t believe Master Shaw has recalled everybody, I understand that Archane is a threat of course, but we should expand our collection some, the women we’ve have ether entered a comatose state or have simply lost there minds. It’s kind of boring now." One shadow told his follow guard.

"True, I do so enjoy the first moment when a women begs for you not to do it knowing it’s a futile gesture, to be lost in the sheer panic of it all." The other one said as he licked his lips just as a sword cut him into two vaporizing his essence as the end of the sword quickly met the other.

"That’s why beings such as yourself need to be locked away and to stay where you belong… in our nightmares." Archane told the smoke. I then walked forward to the edge of a cliff overlooking the main encampment.

"Ah… so you’ve finally come back." Shaw yelled out as he dropped the women from his lap and kicked her aside as if she was some dog.

"Of course I’ve left you alive for too long, this grudge ends today." Archane tells him calmly while his eyes glared with a fierce hatred of the creature before him. I jump down onto his battlefield knocking away any of his minions that got in the way as there battle began. My task far simpler I merely had to sprinkle this potion over the clear blood red line on the ground and then remove the black clear stones around the portal. Archane was right all of the smaller shadow demons immediately stopped what they were doing and turned to watch or to try and hinder Archane in his fight… as far as I could see they amounted to less then a buzzing fly.

"Come now without your magic how do you hope to survive my shadow punches!" Shaw’s hands crackled with a dark energy as he threw the punch at one of my unguarded spots. The shadow punch transferred his negative energy, an un-dead energy into his opponent. However he encountered quite a surprise.

"What!" He yelled in shock as my magical energy dispersed the magic.

"You didn’t think I would come prepared this time." Archane told him with a smirk. My body then engulfed in flames as I sent an explosion out from around my body sending him flying back.

"It’s not possible… to counteract the sealing magic you would require the Amulet of…"

"Sin Ra Cel… You mean this." I tell him as I pull it out into plain sight.

"That’s impossible… it’s one of a kind…" He growled out at me. His eyes then grew wide… as his magical sight saw a trail of magic leaving the medallion and heading over to the portal… was something there… he thought as he strained his eyes only to receive a gash from my sword across his chest.

It was too late anyway I smiled as the last of stones was removed and with the line disconnected from the original source portal. Almost immediately the effect was evident as the demons suddenly lost substance as they started to became ghost like as the portal shifted its magical frequency. Cutting off the energy these creatures needed to survive. Most of them barely had the time to flee back into the hole from which they came. The others simple faded away as if they had never been there… Shaw was a bit more powerful and not connected to that world so I wasn’t about to let him off that easily. He lay there crumpled on the ground as his sudden loss of power though, it had left him stunned. "Like I said… our grudge ends today." I held the Phoenix Sword firmly in my hands as I brought it down, the pure magical energy flooding his body as he slowly disintegrated, he left this world with a cold laugh as he faded slowly started to fade away into nothing. "Fool, I plan for everything… even this… I’ll accept… a… tie." His body faded away completely with those words.

I removed the cape and walked over watching as the creature disappeared… was he really that powerful… Archane seemed to take him out with no difficulty at all. He then reached out and pulled me close. "Thank you my dear. This battle could not have been won without this medallion. Come on lets go back to your place." I smile at him and nod. As we started to walk away Archane stopped dead in his tracks as if he was stunned by something. His body was suddenly covered in sweat, it was latterly pouring off his body as he slowly reached up and held his head. I was then thrown away by something.

I got up slowly as I saw a dark circle form around the area slowly shrinking in size around Archane. A runic symbol then appeared when it fully surrounded his body and a flash surrounded his body as he then collapsed where he stood. I rushed back over and turned his body over. His eyes were closed and he looked to be sleeping except… his face was covered with distress as he cringed greatly. What had happened to him.

To be continued…

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Author’s comments- Well I did say I would get this done in less than three months and here it is. I thought it would be a good time to finish it up since Vanja just finished one of my requests and it’s such a lovely picture I love it! Thanks babe.

On another note getting down to the wire here, I think about two or three more of these stories and the series will be complete. Then maybe I’ll start up another story line with these two. Hard to say since I’ve gotten so little feedback on said story on the forum. So I guess I’ll run the risk Vanja does by giving out her email address to get some feedback. I mean after all I’m sure that 60% of the email our lovely web mistress receives is nothing but guys asking for dates which I’m sure is flattering but sure does plug up ones email box.

So for feedback and comments send email to jediroshi@hotmail.com