29 Mistakes

With the plan in motion to watch known cultists the Magi coven has visited everyday since the betrayal. It has been four days and none of the cultists have moved from their villas. My family has joined me in Amans realm. Over the past few days I have begun outfitting his home with runes, water runes in newly made sinks. Going back and forth from my realm I have been attempting to learn from my ward stone to build on for Aman but my main problem is well of half the runes are unknown to me. Since I could copy my realms protections I created bigger rings that went on both sides of the gate. It would work like the iris in Stargate. When active you could see through but if you attempted to pass through you would hit an invisible wall. Luckily the portals aren't like the show. In the show the worm holes are one way and if you hit the shield you would die but since the portal creates a door between places its not as dangerous. Since I couldn't make a proper ward stone I made a dumbed down version. It had an antispacial rune that stops both portals and apparations, the rune was basically a movement rune surrounded with a shield rune when carving I imagined a locked space. Funnily enough I learned that the gate still worked even with the space lock rune, either the runes didn't supersede each other or my subconscious accounted for the gate. Hopefully it was the former as the ladder would be dangerous. Using the home, protection and servitude runes I was able to make an array that protected the ward stone, with a drop of blood people could be keyed to the wards. I of course keyed myself and Aman to his wards as I had built the box and it would help if anything happened and he needed to key someone else.

After all this work that took nearly a week the cultists still hadn't changed there routine. I began to worry which caused me to attempt divining the my future with Scapulimancy which didn't really help. I through the bones on a map of Egypt but they all pointed to different locations. Using tea leaves I saw a rather foreboding sign similar to Harry Potter but my Grimm had a longer snout. With nothing working our only option was to capture a cultist and interigate him. When Khemu showed up I discussed the plan and he picked out a couple of targets to pick up the next day.

When morning came I was escorted by Khemu's uncle Narmer. He dressed similar to Kemu except he carried an ivory scepter in the shape of an ankh with an Eye of Horus at the top. The plan was to open a portal, then use an invisibility charm and sneak into the residence, stun the target and portal out. The operation began and we entered the residence. It wasn't a large villa with only a single floor made up of 8 rooms. We began checking rooms only to find him in a study of sorts. Before I could stun him Narmer dropped his cloak saying "Found you." Once the man saw him he placed his hand over his hart and yelled "For Ammit" before stunning him his chest above his heart began to glow red. Dashing to Narmer I cast a shield charm as the cultists chest exploded and transfigured his blood into a needle shape flying in all directions. I stopped the assault but our target was dead.

With the mission failed we went to the second target, but I told Narmer to let me handle the target. This villa was larger with a second floor. I found the new target in his bedroom with 2 younger ladies. The girls weren't there willingly as one was tied in a chair and the second was on the bed. Mid stroke I hit him with a stunner. The moment I shot the stunner my invisibility charm deactivated. The girls let our a scream but the guards outside the villa didn't react as they just thought the man was enjoying himself. Walking closer I saw another girl laying on the floor behind the bed. Her neck was slashed and a liquid was coming out of her private area.

I pushed the target to the ground as I released the girls bindings. I told Narmer to see to the girls while I deal with the target. Opening a portal under the target I jumped in behind him. It felt quite weird as the moment I was through the portal gravity shifted almost causing me to land on my butt. I could care less if the rapist hit his head as I levitated him into the Amans house. I placed him on the dining table and conjured chains around his arms and legs. With Bjorn (my brother) next to me I told him to stun him if he tries to cast any magic. Using soul sight I watched the man and cast a Renervate on him. The cultist came to he was silent as he attempted to surmise his location.

I began my interigation, using a knife I slid it down his leg as a show of force. I stated "I need some answers. If you are cooperative you might keep some limbs." The man remained silent as I continues "My brother and I are quite adept at magic so we can torture you for quite some time. We will find out the location of the ritual. It's just a matter of time." The man kept biting his lower lip ad I used the flat side of the knife to touch his toes. The man kept silent, knowing my bluff has failed I climbed on the table and sat on the man's chest. Looking into his eyes I began to attack his mind. He has a simple barrier around his mind more than likely from an artifact as I broke threw I was in a dark plane only lit up by small floating clouds. I could feel his attempt to push me out of his mind as the air around me in his mind became thicker but remained the consistency of fog. Grabbing a cloud I saw a memory of him in a room om a large stage were roughly ten masked figures as he was seated I'm the audience with roughly a thousand masked figures. Each man on the stage had a golden animal mask as the audience had wooden versions matching the golden ones. A new man approached the stage wearing a golden skull mask with obsidian inlays similar to the masks worn on dia de Los Muertos.

With a shout I began repeated "Void Portal!" The memory began to change with each shout I saw a vision of a portal made of over a thousand bones. Skulls line the top of the portal and in the center lies the black stone we had found in the Black Desert Pyramid. Behind the portal I could see what looked like an oasis but the water was now pitch black and a dark smoke radiated it. A bird who flew over the oasis fell dead when coming into contact with the smoke before falling into the lake. When it his the lake the black sludge caught it on fire and slowly devoured the carcass. The oasis had a crystal structure around the water which reminded me of a famous tourist spot from the 21st century the Siwa Oasis. I continued watching as men walked up to the portal and took a breath of a dark purple smoke coming through the portal. As they breathed in their bodies began to morph. They grew as tall as the portal, their skin began to darken pitch black and become scaly, their eyes became pitch black with no iris. Their nails lengthened into claws as their faces became similar to crocodiles. One after one the men went willingly. Some of the men who didn't want to become monsters were chained to the willing participant and if they held their breath were killed by the newly transformed monster. Luckily nothing came out of the portal but with all the soldiers changing a monster army was being born. Not wasting any time I left his mind scape. The man had begun bleeding from his nose with his attempt to force me out. The rest of him including his sanity remained fine. Getting off the table I moved my hand snapping the guys neck.

Leaving the dining room I walked to Amans study where Khemu, Narmer, Aman and Kebi were talking. I interrupted stating "The Void Gate has been opened. I believe it is the siwa oasis but we need to prepare as the water gives off a black smoke and the portal can turn people to monsters. They are turning humans into black crocodile monsters." Using the light spell I conjured a hologram of what I saw in the man's memory. The blood drained from the mages face and I bet it would have from the vamps if they weren't cold blooded. Khemu began to despair as Narmer began to plan. Not wanting my family to worry I sent my brother to get Floki as I didn't want my mother or sister to get hurt. Thus was going to be a large battle and more than my family will be needed to win.