Chapter VI: Beyond the rift

In his knees the man known as Malcolm lies after falling through the rift he tore; his books and notes fell in the circle he draws to repel the cultists of Besthemor. The voices in the dreams and the fog in those forests filled with death, metallic black spiders swarming towards him as scratching endlessly to feed on his torture.

In his knees the ceiling came in colors, shades of a dark green and gray lightened the room, unending proportions with tall columns holding the structure whole, torches burning with a green flame. Within the spaces obscured by the light, from a green haze the shape of a woman's face took form and her body came in form.

A voice tender and warm, a choir of female touch calmed and approached the kneeling man –“You have crossed from your realm Malcolm, the chants you recited calling my name, a testament to your talents and my undying fame”- the shape of the woman dissipated from the mist and the shadows sang with hollowed echoes - “For she is the guide of the wise and the brave”.

From the darkness more green torches were lightened with the dark green flame to reveal a throne where the goddess sat holding one of Malcolm’s tomes and the other two were floating in circles around him. “I’ve come seeking answers, all the knowledge I discovered drove me into looking you. The scribes call you ‘Mirna’ and say you know the weakness of Besthemor’s children, I’ve yet to find his name but the sight of a six legged spider with black slime and a black metallic body that only breads demise.”- said Malcolm on his knees as he were worshiping an idol.

“Insolent!” - Malcolm’s books flew to her throne and encircled her with a purple trail of dim light following their movement. “You bring me news of wolves and vermin begging help. I will read your notes, remain silent, my children like the darkness quiet and you would be a fool to upset them” - said the goddess as the mist on her bode became a robe while she sat on her throne made from a mix between emeralds and gray rocks, her eyes turned a glowing blue that could hold the  whole ocean inside, she read the tomes as Malcolm held gaze at her eyes, a blue that reminded him of Anna, the feeling of disconnection that the visions brought and the pain to be unable to explain her the reality of his visions haunted him.

Her hand closed the book and her eyes turned and him, she looked almost human, a beautiful face with black hair soft as silk that floated in the air, there was something strange about her height and proportions but somehow she looked like the perfect ideal of beauty of his century, the robes were thin and her body flawless, always surrounded by her mist.

“It seems to me that you have come looking for an answer little Malc but your kind shouldn’t be in this plane” -she stood from her throne and slowly walked towards Malcolm. “You aren’t the only prey of the cult of Besthemor and his children, he has claimed the souls of many of my children too and countless lives of a hundred species. The scribes were my doing, my order, my children ran into those forests and were their graves were smeared I wrote a lament to their deaths” - Mirna crossed her arms and walked away from him, holding her robe with seemed as mourning.

“All men before you have claimed that they wish to serve me, hoping to thrive on my shape. I am in need of a fleeting hand, a spy and an explorer to enlighten my curiosity.” - her eyes became a bright green standing a head taller than Malcolm. “I left everything I have and everyone I loved to look for help, the cult felt my presence through my visions and their master wants to destroy all I love. I don’t know the reasons, I’ve never known true evil Magnanimous Mirna, I beg you, hear my plea.” - Malcolm in his knees begging for a guiding light in the coming darkness.

“Thine sacrifice must go beyond desire”- the darkness chanted once more. “I share no knowledge with you sentient creatures, only one of you is proven worthy and he lacks any flesh”- she knelt in from of him with the burning stare as her hands descend from her lips to her breasts arranging her hair to cover her body -”Your kind has denied me from pleasures and needs, your god sins against me by hiding truth from me”.

“Yet you are brave little Malc I will give you the benefit of doubt but no witch shares her gold with a random self-taught cultist” - she closed the book and with a stare of burning greenish flames stood - “Thine soul will revere her limitless sight”- chanted the voices in the darkness- “Knowledge comes with a cost Malcolm, you will gain what you want but you can’t imagine that what you have lost just by reaching me.”. Mirna stood in front of him as a knife took shape into her hand.

“I am pleased with your plea little Malc, to serve me you must endure. You will bathe in my blood to prove me extreme devotion and you will repeat the ritual chant after me when I stop baptizing you with my gift” - he looked at the burning eyes beneath the hair and the hood that now covered her - “I accept the burden to know that what must be never understood and to understand that what must never me known” - Mirna smiled to him after she heard he memorized the messages he read left in the graves of her children.

Mirna opened her flesh and a green blood flowed, no pain was felt as she smiled when the blade of the dagger crossed her skin and feel over Malcolm’s face as he knelt and opened his arms- ”The price of knowledge you gladly pay, offer me the endless and the unending purpose to serve, be my wrath, by my patience, by my silent hand, by my hunger, be my pleasure and share my sins. Lose yourself to the void.” - the blood falling of Malcolm’s face paralyzed him, every drop felt like a burning sun touching his skin as he drowned in acid. He said the chant of her children’s grave and he felt unconscious .

She smiled and carried Malcolm to the darkness as more torches were enlightened as they moved, she laughed silently for the hallway as she smelled his skin “Strange these men, we could do great things. Serve me well and I will spare your sacrifice little Malc”. She left him of an altar similar to the throne, but he laid asleep. Mirna returned to his throne and said to her children “Another crusader comes and we now watch over him. Let the search of our kingdom come."