VANJA STORY PART 5

            I took Archane to my home and carried him inside. I tried to make him comfortable, but his face was still cringing in pain. I checked him over but I couldn’t find any external source that would cause it. I then felt someone’s hand on my shoulder I jumped at the sudden intrusion into my personal space. I calmed down a bit when I saw who they were. There before me were the two people who had questioned Archane about his presence here.

“We came here to congratulate Archane on a job well done, but were surprised to find him unconscious.” The man told me.

“Yes, what happened that put him in this state, some terribly injury in battle, exhaustion, what is it?” The women questioned me. I stare at them hard there voices hardly seemed to house any words of concern or feelings of it.

“I don’t know, after he defeated Shaw a dark light surrounded him for a brief second and then he fell unconscious in some sort of pain.” I tell them.

* * *

            “My body… so tired I can’t move.” Archane says to himself as he then feels himself being pulled up. There before him was a manor on an Island the crisp clear sea flooding his senses. It had a calming effect on him, this feeling he knew well. He then looked up into the eyes of a young looking woman, with blue hair and deep blue eyes smiling at him. “Ma… Maria…” Archane stuttered out as he stared in surprise at her smiling face. It was such a sweet gentle smile, one I would never forget. I look up at her as she slowly pulls me to my feet… she was my first wife I had meet her when I was a young man before I gained eternal youth, before I even became a master swordsmen and mage. I had married her after I attained those things. She was the only one to truly know what I had gone through. I stand up to greet her as she falls into my arms, a blade in her back. The scene had changed to that fateful day… one-hundred years later I came to her ancestral manor where her mother and sisters still lived only to find all of them murdered, killed by a demon I thought vanquished. I nearly broke in two as I saw this again this memory I had buried deep within me. The first time was bad enough that image was too horrible to ever rid my mind of, but to see it again so vividly…

            I fall to my knees, I could see Maria reach out to me and caress my check as she tried to whisper something to me as she died in my arms, the blood staining my body for all eternity. The blood of the love I should’ve protected…

* * *

            The man from the organization put Archane onto Vanga’s sofa, his body having taken a different look to it as his eyes are clenched tight even if they were closed it was obvious he was tossing and turning and I’m sure I saw tears coming from his eyes every once in a while.

“What’s the matter with him Natasha?” The man asked the girl. Finally I learned one of their names. She knelt down next to him and touched his head, her eyes turning white. “His emotions are terribly turbulent, where once was a happy individual I sense much sadness and pain, along with a dark shadow that overlaps his mind and body. I need more time.”

Archane… please be okay. That was the only thought racing through my mind.

            He was far from okay as a nightmare of nightmares was being inflicted upon him. The curse was playing his most dramatic events in his life, the times that in his mind he had failed to protect those who were precious to him. His first wife and her family was the first prime example of tragic events in his life. Living throughout the eons he could not live alone for all that time. A steady pattern was formed for him and played out, all according to Shaw’s curse, his whisper deep in his ears. “Everything you touch dies. Horrible I might add too. You should’ve died all those eon’s ago, the day destiny planned for you. Then all these people would’ve been spared such a gruesome fate. Especially those killed by the demon that is always reborn into the world due to you vast presence tipping the balance too far into the favor of good. Don’t deny it, after all it’s the reason you took the job to be the guardian of the dream world, to be cut off from this world and any influence of it, also to cut yourself off from any real human contact so no one could be hurt by you again.”

“No… it’s not true!” Archane yells out into the blackness as it continue to penetrate his mind.

            Natasha finished her examination of the now cursed Archane. “His mind is trapped within a dark nightmare, where what remains of Shaw torments him with distorted images of Archane’s past and feeling. He has imprisoned him in a living hell from which there is no escape. A truly fitting punishment in Shaw’s eye’s I’m sure, to trap and drive mad one of the world’s greatest hero’s whose place in the afterlife would surely be one of greatness. He instead traps him in a hellish world.”

“That cursed demon, why couldn’t he just die and leave it be. What are our options Natasha?” The man asked.

“We have to enter his mind and help him breakthrough it. All three of us.”

“You want to bring along his women!” He yelled only to be hit across the back of his head.

“Of course I’m coming along, you think I’ll leave Archane like that, I’m going to help too, so you best get used to the idea.” I told him with a huff.

“Ha, she got you good Troy.” Natasha told him as my whack had sent him face down onto the ground.

“Oh shut up.” He told her obviously embarrassed and a bit scared of me now as he rubbed his head.

            Natasha snapped her finger and candles and other objects of the occult surrounded us. “Join hands with me and be warned the time distortion inside his dreams may be much greater then we think, he could have already been in there for years according to his mind. So be cautious as I take us to Shaw’s nightmare world.” We joined hands and were off into the void as soon as Natasha said the incantation into Archane’s mind.

            We were completely surrounded by shadows… I had expected his mind to be a much different type of place, maybe this was because he was so focused and often hid his feelings and past from people.

“This is not good, his mind seems to be completely encased in this shadow.” Natasha observed.

“Yes it is, in my shadow.” I heard the familiar voice of Shaw. The floor then opened up and we feel into an abyss upon waking I found myself in chains along with the others… the might have been good under different circumstances but not here. A small light shined upon us as I see Shaw or rather a specter like him floating in front of us.

“Your far too late. To Archane five years have already passed that miserably fool is already gone. His mind is now my playing ground, he will do anything that I tell him just to avoid the pain.”

            The darkness surrounded us quickly; even the two people who seemed to carry the same strong presence as Archane were engulfed by the darkness. A light appeared in a corner in that corner was Archane grabbing his legs tightly as he rocked back and forth some.

“Archane!” I yell out.

“Do not waste your breath, save it for you screams of pain. Archane take up your sword and slay the women you love in order to avoid those painful events again.” Shaw told him as a sword appeared next to him. He picked it up slowly and walked towards me almost zombie like his eyes dull. He had begun to work slowly towards me as he raised the sword in the air preparing to bring it down into my skull.

            I closed my eyes in fear. I couldn’t believe this, Archane was going to kill me! I then felt a wind go by and felt nothing… maybe he missed. I open my eyes and the sword was through Shaw.

“It can’t be… you’re my puppet…” He coughed out as his wisp form was absorbed into the sword and then destroyed. We then woke up as soon as we entered. What had just happened?

“He was able to break free on his own, he merely needed a distraction.” Natasha said in shock.

“That’s right I was able to break free of Shaws control, but it wasn’t because you distracted him.” Archane addressed us as he stood there.

“Archane your okay.” I said happy to see him out of this state of course, but that happiness changed quickly. I could sense something wrong. Apparently Natasha and the man felt the same thing as they stepped in front of me and got into some sort of fighting stance.

“Ha, ha, ha. What’s wrong Natasha and Troy?” Archane asked them casually as he pulled his sword out.

“That can’t be you Archane, we sense a deep malice coming from you heart and body.”

“Ha, what you call Malice I call the truth. Having seen the atrocities of my past it put everything into perspective for me. All creatures in this world that supposedly have the seed of evil within them. Well this seed is planted into heart by the evils in this world already. To make sure that such evil no longer hurts anybody I care for I will kill every human, magical being, and otherwise in this world that shows the slightest sight of such the disease. In that way I can finally protect the ones I care about.”

            “We won’t let you do that!” Both of them yelled as Troy’s sword caught was then covered in a small blizzard as Natasha formed some sort of energy arrows and threw them at Archane as Troy jumped forward. They attack looked quite powerful but in one blink of my eye they both were on the ground as if spells had not even occurred. Archane was no longer in my sight as well. I then heard a voice behind me.

“Do not worry yourself my wife, they are merely unconscious. I would not stain your home with the blood of the evil. Now stay here so I may make sure this world is cleansed.” Archane told me.

            I stood there as I heard the door open and shut in utter shock. Archane had been driven mad… and there was no one to stop him… the world was doomed…

“Ah child, the world can be saved by you.” I turned around and no one was there… at least conscious anyway.

“Who is that?” I ask around. Hell why shouldn’t there be someone there, it’s not like nothing weird had happened to me the past few days.

“Well you could say I’m your mother… you’re ancestral mother. It’s one of the reasons my foolish apprentice decided to teach you magic.” The voice told me.

“Apprentice?”

“Yes, I lived before Archane I was one of the people who taught him in his early years, and as one of my ancestors you’ve always had the potential for magic, yours is just a greater natural gift then most. Archane himself has used your powers to help you both. I do not have time to teach you, so I wish to possess you, so my strength and knowledge flood your body. So I can use your powers to stop Archane. So we can help him to regain his sanity. Will you agree my child?”

What a question to trust a voice that just came out of nowhere, yet it was ether trust the voice or let Archane kill people…

“Fine, I can’t let Archane throw away everything he is. Do it.”

            Archane was in downtown were he would start his cleansing of the world when he was hit by a magical blast from behind. As he stood up he see a demon looking creature with black boots with spikes on them, some black pants, and a black coat with a red inside. He also had a smaller demon on his shoulder, with purple skin and more like bull horns on his head. “Now don’t worry I won’t ask for your soul, consider it free of charge my dear for bringing me to life.”

“What the hell!” Archane yelled as a new person appeared before him, it was a clown, he was balding with red hair.

“Karelius here and I’m quite real.” He tells Archane as he snaps his fingers and teleports him to an Island.

            His head darts from one direction to another very quickly. “What the hell!”

“Hello lover.” I tell him as I step out of the shadows.

“Vanja.” He says then looks at me, his expression changes. “So my old sensei, you’ve possessed your descendant how very bad of you. Spirits of the past should not enter this world unless summoned.”

“No more then you Archane, now just stay there and we can use Karelius powers here with dream manipulation to restore your sanity.” I tell him as the clown reappears with the demons following suit.

“I see, then Juene you possessed her in order to use her powers. The powers of a conjurer.”

“Yes I did…” The person inside me told Archane. What she told me though was surprising but made sense.

            Before Back at the house- “Now my dear you are a conjurer, a rare form of magical power, even the best wizards alive can only conjurer things like food and drink. Your powers as a conjurer give you the ability to bring anything to life, so you’re power and truly limited to your drawing ability and your imagination. You used these powers before with that amulet you drew for him. Now we will use your drawings and your imagination to bring Archane to his senses.”

            Yes that was what I had learned as I brought forth Karelius the clown WAOTBBC (Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Clown) and who I thought was my most powerful creation Vito the evil demon. The first thing he asked me when I brought him to life is if I would trade my soul for a hot guy, some money, or power… Well at least he stayed in character I thought.

“So my dear wife, you know the truth and what I was slowly training you to became to access. The art of conjuring is a practice long thought to be forgotten from this world, when I saw your potential never did I think it would be used against me.”

            He gave me that look… a look I see when he stared down Natasha and Troy… and when he fought Shaw… It scared me to the very core of my being but I couldn’t back down, what would that say about me, Archane… my husband threw away his very being to save me. He sacrificed himself and threw himself to the wind in order to keep this world and me safe. I would bring back his sanity to him, just wait my love, I will help you!

Authors Notes- Sigh, a little late for a Valentine presents but here it is. This story really took a direction I did not expect. It was always my intention to have Vanjas powers that I would give her was that of a conjurer. It fit her so well, I just had no intention of turning this romance into an action story line. Just had to be dramatic with the curse didn’t I. Sigh. Oh well regret is for losers and I’ll just work harder on the next one. Once again comments are welcome at jediroshi@hotmail.com and Happy Valentine’s day babe.