Chapter 3: The Story
Kante passed out when Bonclyde touched his forehead. Perhaps it was out of fear, for he thought he was falling from a high cliff or perhaps it was because of the sharp pain he felt as Bonclyde touched him. He woke up now to see her passed out, making him wonder what wizardy thing she did that made them both pass out. He sprinkled water on her face and she regained consciousness, gasping and breathing heavily.
"How long have I been out?" Bonclyde asked, trying to get up.
"Not long enough" Kante replied.
Bonclyde looked at him and realized he was quite upset. "Sorry about earlier" she said, still feeling weak from her travails.
"What did you do to me?" Kante asked
"I got into your head, tried to find the memories of how you got here" Bonclyde replied.
"well what did you find?" Kante asked.
Bonclyde paused, realizing she hadn't processed her findings. "Well I saw my own memories instead," Bonclyde said. She paused for a while, looking confused this time. "Even the memories I had lost I now remember" she continued, starting to sound excited.
Kante didn't understand what was going on, he just stood there and watched Bonclyde speak.
"I had lost my memory when I was 8. I had an accident but I remember them now. Something about you made this happen. who are…" she suddenly went silent. "You have magic. What are you? Are you a warlock?". She asked.
Kante stared blankly at her and said: "A warlock?".
"Yeah a warlock, are you one? Tell me!" she screamed at Kante.
Kante looking confused exclaimed: "warlock!, Wizardess!, what's all this? I don't even know what you're talking about so how can I be a warlock, what's a warlock even?".
Bonclyde could see that Kante honestly knew nothing of what she spoke. "How do I explain this to you? Alright sit down, I'll explain it from the beginning" Bonclyde said. She proceeded to tell Kante the story of the Mirror world, the story Mr.Trebor had once told her.
"Many years ago humans lived together with other beings and creatures. The earth was filled with a diversity of creatures, from the magic class of Wizards and Mages to the shifting Werewolves, the winged Fairies and their pixie pets, Mermaids, Elves to the dwarf Gnomes, Goblins to the Fauns and Centaurs and many other kinds of creatures. Even beings like the Demigods lived among men. The gods lived in the skies and other places, or so we thought, and would occasionally come among men. The world was inhabited by five classes of beings; The Humans, the Creaches, the magicals, the demigods and the gods. The creaches were all the other creatures who weren't Humans, godlike or of the magic class" Bonclyde started telling the story and Kante listened keenly.
"The creaches lived peacefully with the humans, but the humans had always disliked them because of their unnatural looks and the fear of what they could do. Some humans even called them 'an abomination'. While the creaches loved their culture and heritage and preferred to live and do things the way they always have, humans sought out new, faster and easier ways of doing things. Little by little, the humans became more developed and found easier and better ways of doing things through what they called Science and Technology. They studied the natural and physical world, it's structure and behavior, conducted experiments to prove the natural laws and obtain other facts. They applied this knowledge based on proven facts in making tools, machines and other inventions. The knowledge of science and technology spread throughout the world and was even taught in schools. The Humans wanted to use this knowledge to destroy other beings for fear that they may rise up and destroy the humans first. The Humans were the most numerous and dominated the earth. Soon they developed deadly weapons of war that had never been seen before. Guns, cannons, bombs and other chemical weapons that could take out large numbers of enemies faster, even from a far distance. These weapons of man, made the weapons used by other creatures, like the swords and arrows, obsolete. The humans were exceptional for the use of their brains in making great inventions" Bonclyde was interrupted by Kante who smiled and said: "obviously" to what she had said about the humans. Kante quickly apologized for interrupting and asked her to continue.
"The humans grew even more afraid of the creaches when a new species called the vampire was created. This creation was the result of a failed ritual by a dark wizard, Nubeus Avakin. Avakin was known as the first sorcerer. Sorcerers are a sect of magicals who practice a forbidden form of magic known as dark magic. Nubeus Avakin performed a ritual on his best friend, Count Dracula to make him stronger, with enhanced or superhuman abilities. Dracula wanted to be special like his friend, Nubeus. He wanted to be more powerful than other humans. Avakin resorted to using the dark arts to make this happen due to the pressure from his friend. The ritual worked but not exactly the way Avakin had intended. His friend, Count Dracula had turned into a deadly creature, now called the vampire. His senses became enhanced and he had superhuman strength, along with some other abilities and an affinity for human blood. Dracula couldn't control his thirst for blood and he fed on his family and everyone who lived in his castle, killing them all. Heartbroken by the loss of his family, Dracula proceeded to wreak havoc on the world by going on a killing spree. He killed dozens of people, sucking them dry and ripping off their heads, others he bit and left for dead. Anyone who Dracula bit but didn't kill, got the thirst for blood too; if they drank human blood, they live on as Vampires otherwise they died. Most chose to live and so the vampire curse began to spread. The humans at first were puzzled by the mysterious deaths, but later discovered the creatures that caused these deaths. This spurred the humans to action and they began attacking all creaches. They blamed the wizards too, though it was the action of just one wizard that caused the misfortune, so they began attacking magicals too, leading to the attack on my village. Though magicals and creaches are supposedly more powerful than humans, the humans had more numbers, they also had deadly weapons and they knew our weaknesses; they knew how to kill us. The humans were set on exterminating all other creatures, but the demigods stepped in to save the creaches and the magicals" Bonclyde paused, took a deep breath and swallowed saliva then continued. There was sadness in her eyes, this part of the story wasn't her favorite and she wasn't so happy to say it or to remind herself of it.
"The demigods were descendants of the gods or those chosen as the gods' apprentices. The demigods were furious at the actions of the humans and some of them wanted the humans annihilated. They were angry at the fact that despite the efforts by the magicals to sue for peace, the humans attacked all creaches and magicals even though they knew it was the vampires who threatened them and that only one wizard was to blame. Seven demigods, namely: Sango, Kwaku Ananse, Obelisk, Ikenga, Set, Zinsu and Anubis, started the battle against humans in Africa, they killed a great number of humans who were powerless before them. Other demigods, some of whom were Mars, Thor, Kratos, Perseus and Hercules followed their footsteps in other parts of the world. It was the gods that brought an end to the battle. They stopped the demigods from doing any further harm, seeking a better solution to the problem. The gods who had been nonchalant towards the affairs of humans and creaches came to help in order to prevent the human race from being exterminated completely. The council of gods was then formed with Jupiter as it's Head. Jupiter arranged for the great meeting of gods. All the gods were present. Osiris, Ra, Amadioha, Atum, Khonvoum, Kronos, Zeus, Apollo, Odin, and many other gods were all present" she continued.
"Most gods were descendants of beings called Titans, some were awarded the god status by higher entities whom no one had seen or knew which they called watchers. The watchers occasionally spoke to them, giving them directions and guidance. The watchers, appointed as gods, some creatures who weren't descendants of the titans, giving them powers and immortality, for exceptional deeds and qualities exhibited. The titans were killed and some, imprisoned for eternity, by the gods, on the direction of the watchers, when the titans opted to destroy the universe. At the great meeting of gods, Jupiter announced that the Watchers had informed him that they would be present at the meeting, leaving everyone excited in expectation. Everyone in attendance was awestruck when four beings arrived at the great hall where the meeting of gods was held. They were shining brightly as the sun, with large wings, flying around in their linen suits which covered their bodies to their feets. They introduced themselves as Archangels, the ones the gods called Watchers. They enlightened the gods on the existence of celestial beings superior to them and the titans. These beings were called Angels" Kante's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He would dispute this story as a fallacy on a normal day but he had seen enough today to make him believe anything.
"The four of them present at the meeting, were of the highest rank among angels and were called Archangels. Their names were Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Lucifer. They told the gods that they lived in a multiverse, made up of many universes, not just one universe. They spoke about the one called the creator who made all things in the multiverse. The angels served the creator. The archangels had direct contact with him and were known as his foremost children. They said the Creator had four descendants, namely: Good, Evil, Chaos and Order whom he made by giving off part of his essence and being. The descendants soon had bouts with each other and were destroying the entire multiverse. They made creations of their own, the Titans whom they used to fight one another and further destroy all creation. The creator asked for volunteers from his army of angels who would subdue his descendants. The angels who Volunteered were given immense power and they set off to fight the descendants. Four of these angels succeeded in subduing the descendants. Each obtained the power of the descendants he subdued and thus were elevated among the higher angels to the Archangel status. Archangel Michael had Chaos, Archangel Gabriel had Good, Archangel Uriel had Order and Archangel Lucifer had Evil".
"Wow!" Kante exclaimed. "It was almost a believable story but now it's starting to sound made up"
"Oh yeah? How so?" Bonclyde asked.
"The people on earth believe in angels but they mention the names of only two angels, Gabriel and Michael, the archangel. Yet their belief is based on faith and not facts, so I don't indulge such beliefs. First of all your story and theirs don't match, and yours seem a bit too complex. The descendants of the creator, the titans, all these can't be proven, can they? You just believe the word of a man who isn't able to prove that what he says is real? I mean have you seen an angel before?" Kante asked, with a skeptical look on his face, the look he had on, whenever he protested an Idea.
"I can tell a lie Kante, I read minds, remember? I may not have met an angel myself but I have seen them while invading the mind of those who have met them. Everything I say is real no matter how weird or impossible it may sound" Bonclyde answered.
Kante wasn't still convinced but he did not press the issue any further but asked Bonclyde to continue the story.
"At the meeting, the archangels proffered a solution to the problem at hand, stating that a vast section of the multiverse remained uninhabited, so the other creatures could travel there and the humans can have the earth. The Idea was good in the eyes of the gods so they did just that. The gods gathered the demigods and other creatures and they travelled using portals to other parts of the multiverse. Many chose the mirror world because it was similar in many ways to the earth. Other gods like Jupiter chose to occupy the other planets in Earth's solar system, where they had been residing all the while. The planets were in fact named after the gods who presided over them, Mercury, Venus, Ceres, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The archangels thought it wise to give men the ability to create portals that can be used to travel through the multiverse, in case the need rises again. These men were called the Travellers. Furthermore, the archangels obliviated the memories of all humans and so they forgot about the existence of other creatures, merely seeing them as dreams, and telling them as myths and stories''. Bonclyde finished telling the story, and Kante was visibly filled with awe and wonderment, this would be the discovery of his life. Though he didn't believe every part of the story, he didn't show his doubt. He had a lot of questions too but Bonclyde had waved them off simply pointing out that there was more to every part of the story, other stories she said, could spin off from it but they were stories to be told another day. Kante was still curious as to how he got there. Bonclyde explained that the Travellers had portals all around in different locations called stations that could be used to travel. Once someone uses any portal the traveller monitoring that station gets alerted and the traveller even gets the person's profile automatically.
"Everyone uses portals to cross except gods and demigods obviously" she said, "but you didn't, and I'm not sure how".
"What if I'm human and accidentally used your portal without the travellers noticing?" Kante asked.
"Wizards created an Illusion, the forest, where you were, to keep humans out" she continued.
"If humans accidentally walk through a portal, they'll arrive in the forest and would never find their way to the travellers, they'll wander till they pass out, then the travellers will return them to earth and they won't remember what happened" she added. She explained that this was done to protect their world against humans. She told Kante if he was just human then he would not have found his way to the travellers.
Kante didn't believe that he had magic. "But I did," he said.
"Because you aren't human. That must make you a…" Bonclyde was interrupted by soldiers who trooped into the tent and surrounded them. They were dressed in black, military-like, uniforms and armed with assault rifles. A man, dressed in grey suit with a grey hat on, walked in with them. Bonclyde trembled at the sight of him and started shaking, her eyes went white and she fell down. Her memories were coming back to her in the most bizarre way. It only stopped when Kante held her while trying to help. She got up, saying she was fine. The man in grey suit made a sign with his arms and the armed men grabbed Kante and were forcefully taking him into one of the buildings in the facility. Kante tried to resist but to no avail. He kept shouting at the men to unhand him and let him go. He turned to look at Bonclyde, who was silent the whole time. He wondered why she didn't try to help him. He concluded she had set him up. He kept staring at her angrily, and the man in grey said to him: "You'll see her again soon, because you're going nowhere, for you are now my prisoner". Kante became catatonic as the words continued to echoing his mind.