Darkness of Magic (Soul of Magic Book 2)

Lightning and thunder cracked incessantly across the moonless and starless night sky, signalling the coming of a storm that would soon be descending upon the area. It was the kind of night where no creature would dare venture out of its home, preferring to stay hidden than brave the mighty storm approaching. However, it was also on this very night that a lone figure took to the roads. Clad in a white cloak and hood that covered her from head to toe, she was almost as eerie as the night. Two white balls of energy floated around her as she walked, providing the light she needed to navigate the rocky path she was on. Although appearing to be every inch in control of herself, the truth was that the figure was as turmoiled as the storm. The situation which had brought her to the road that night unsettled her very much; even to her soul which she felt as if it was being pulled in a thousand different directions. Sure, she wasn't the only one wrestling with the problem at hand. But she felt by far the most affected. And that was why, given the position she occupied, she called for a meeting of the others even on such an unusual night as that one. There was work to be done and no time to be wasted. Casting her thoughts aside, she peered into the cave which had been chosen as the venue for the meeting. She could have gotten another place for the meeting, that was definitely something that wasn’t hard for a woman of her standards to accomplish. But the others felt they should meet in a place where the matter at hand couldn't be overheard by unwanted parties; and she agreed wholeheartedly with them. Without wasting further time, she commanded the balls forward and ventured into the cave in front of her. She didn't have to walk for very long before she emerged in a compartment that was so large it was quite unbelievable it existed inside a cave. Four persons were already waiting for her, all of them clad in cloaks and expressions mirroring her own. "Lady Fara, you made it," said a tall bald man in a purple cloak with a genuinely surprised expression on his face to see her. "Why, Straegel, you seemed surprised to see me," she returned, pulling back her hood to reveal a beautiful well-chiseled face, brown eyes that seemed almost chocolate in the torch-lit cave and long black hair that had been braided round the crown to accommodate her hood without any problem. "I did tell you I was coming, didn't I?" "Yes," he replied, still maintaining the surprised look. "It’s just that I never thought black nights, dark caves and secret meetings were your thing." "Well, the present situation calls for us all to do things that weren’t initially our things," she replied before turning her attention to the others in the room. The five of them in the cave were the topmost heads of the council of magic; the High wizards, as the people loved to call them. They were a representation of the five pillars of fire, water, earth, air and life that held the world of magic and, by extension, the whole realm together. Fara was the head of that council; the Head witch. Thing is, many wizards had objected to her taking up such the mantle, arguing that her twenty-three years of age was just too young for such an enormous responsibility that encompassed not only overseeing magic as a practice but as a community and a religion. The fact that she was a woman didn't do anything to help her case either. But in spite of her disadvantages, Fara had the luck of being the daughter of the previous Head wizard and he explicitly nominated her to succeed him before he passed on. Her quick-wittedness, fierceness and high intelligence gave her the finishing touches she needed to edge out her contenders for the most coveted seat in the magic world; making her the first woman to occupy such a seat too. Unfortunately, not even those qualities which had granted her victory before seemed enough for the situation she was facing now. "Has anything changed?" she asked a gray-haired woman on her right; Belinda, the greatest Seer in the realm. "I’m sorry, my lady, but no," she replied, true regret in her voice. "My vision shows that Nicolas the Mighty will attack us, and he will drive us to annihilation." "But I already confronted him with it and he told me he has no idea whatsoever to fight us," said Fara as she remembered the perplexed look that Nicolas, the Crown-Prince of Cyrian and a good friend of hers, had shot her when she asked him about it. "Nevertheless, I saw what I saw," returned the woman with all certainty. Fara nodded in understanding. She had known Belinda since she was just a child and her visions had never proven to be false. If she saw that Nicolas was going to war against magic, then he was going to war against magic; and win by the looks of things. "Then we have no choice but to go ahead with our plans," Fara said as much to convince herself as the others. "Actually, my lady," cut in Straegel, looking a little unsure of the Head witch’s words. "I know this sounds like our best option at the moment. But what if we create an even greater darkness than the one we're trying to fight?" "We're already facing the greatest of darkness, Straegel," Fara returned at him. She had had that concern herself but she couldn’t afford to let the fearful bald man derail her; not when she was just coming to resolution within herself. "This is the darkness of magic." And with that in mind, the High wizards all stood in a circle and began to cast a spell in the sacred tongue, nature's own language known only to wizards of their calibre. As they did this, a pentagram began to form on the ground beneath them, shining with an otherworldly light. Suddenly, there was a loud c***k of thunder and a multicoloured light shot out of all of them. It met in the middle, coiling round itself to form a baby in the middle of the pentagram. "This is the Soul of magic," Fara said as she controlled the baby girl to herself and raised her for the others to see. "She will confront the darkness for us, and she will triumph."