Part Fifteen:Portent Flames, Old Cinders

"It was a portal. The most forceful I have sensed in a thousand years. The Dimension it bridged was not just veiled by the darkness, it was buried."

"Buried? By what?"

"Time!  Interred by a God. More troubling, it would take an equally numinous power to override it!  What did you see?"

"A door, massive, frightening."

"You feared it?" 

"No. I feared its opening. It held a domineering presence-vast as the ocean within me or much more!"

"You are the Overlord, Crowned thrice, there can be no equal power. Unless..."

"Unless?"

A tartarian landed before us. It bowed and the sky bowed, for they were one, there own mirrors of agony, and I their singular reflection, of peace. I accepted the vision.

"The soul warden!" What are they doing to her?!" The Lich King pulled the electrical pulses from my head so that now the vision was visible within a suspended smokeless flame. 

We watched her screamed as four figures circled her in a white marbled chamber. With each scream, a greenish wisp was drawn from her body, taken into the figure that commanded it and then inscribed unto the wall, though by neither hand nor pen, perhaps by mere deciphering thought. There were two things apparent: firstly, with each new inscription the captors became less agile as if the process was draining and secondly, her verdant gleam diminished as the runic decortication continued. She screamed."

"We must stop this! what are they doing to her?"

"There is great sorcery is those runes. Unsealing magic. Keys, My Lord, keys to doors in every realm and dimension, to doors even we do not know of."

I was no longer soul bearer. It was weird being addressed as Lord.

"You are from a long line of royalty, My Lord." He turned to the fiery vision. "And so is she. Princess Hetepheres was charged as the bearer of Keys for the nether realm."

My mind left my body. I turned to her, to him and then to her again, fevered with the resurfacing of memories and assemblage of information. 

"Yes, you begin to understand, My Lord. If you were the bearer of the sovereign soul then she would undoubtedly be its keeper, soul warden. If you were the destination then she was the way, your fates and blood akin."

I fell to my knees. My tears fell with me. It was torment to hear her screams for I had heard them before...


"You were separated at a young age. But we must make haste My Lord, the door must not be opened."

This brought me to feet again. "You know of it?!" 

"And so should you. You are  the imperial Guardian of the Elder Doors. Five were destroyed. Dreygon endured, the last.
The destruction of each door led to the destruction of its guardian realm. Terrible sacrifices. The last standing kingdom tried a different approach-to use a seal rather than destruction. One held in blood."

The images, they blurred, and burned with the sharpness of emotion. The throne room, its glitter and gloom betwixt noble shrouds...the flame changed to match my memory...they were waiting, we were all waiting, for the gateway to be summoned-it descended like a column, solemn sorcery parting forbidden veils,  shroud of Nun and the hidden dawn of Atum. It was the first time I saw the Gods moved, their ominous forms mobilized in opposing directions, making way for the portal's illuminating genesis. I could not contain the awe of my vision, then, had I known. Heteph was placed in the centre of the ceremonial alter. Mother set free the golden sands of the Eden Dunes and gave the Queen's command-Amunra, symbol of the left hand. They circled her. The sacred cinders from the remnant heart of Siwa were unleashed, by the king's command-Amun dei, symbol of the right hand. Together they gathered but never joined to form the second sphere. The chamber trembled. She slowly brought her palms together, merging the moon and sun-when the life lines touched the powers of east and west became hers. 

Creating the primordial mirrors were stunning to behold. She commanded the flame to move through the spectrum, from blue to red. When the scarlet flecks touched the sand a shimmering crystal was formed which she polymerized by will into flattened discs. When fire and earth were consumed, the dark ones came forth. Cloaked with sinistrous aura, they too circled her joined by two of the king's high priest. The runes left their bodies as they hymned, etched themselves on to the myriads of shards that revolved about her. When the hymns stopped she began to scream...they took her, piece by piece, flesh for glass, each shard adhering by heated fusion...how she rolled and scream-like manacles biting in...had I known!

I feared it would not end, I could not bear to hear those screams, so vehement, as if from a beast. No being should scream like that! The guards blocked my intercession. She called to me. The halberd of helplessness and the hammer of pity fell me .She called and called, "I could not help her." Then the calling ceased. They took her, the dark ones. Alarm turned to anger which came forth as a violent conjuring. The gaurds were flung aside. So did all others who came before me. It was my first summoning of sorcery. It was meagre sorcery, against dark masters. My small form rose by the decree of more potent magic, made still and impuissant as they took my sister to the other side!