The Path Betwixt

You followed Miss Blair down a long hall, decorated with black banners that whipped at the air like snakes. At the end of the passage, stood a tall narrow archway, leading into dark space, a pointed trapdoor into the darkness.

"What... in the name of all that holy, is that?" whatever surpassed that archway was pitch black, and made the air around you feel strangely empty.

"Does it frighten you?" Her hands had slithered down to yours, whisking them up and deftly, subtly, pulling you in closer to the Black hole at the other end of the room.

"No...." You didn't know if you were being truthful or not, while unsettled the whispering dark seemed to push on your fears and leave only butterflies fluttering in your stomach; as the air grew thicker and colder like a clot in the veins of a corpse. Morgan seemed to bolden as her small steps pulled you further into the jaws of darkness.

"You are a brave one then, and a pathfinder to boot. We go to where no undead has ever walked before, into the immortal engine of the shadow where we witches truly bloom." Her soft tone rippled strangely as if each word slithered into the abyss below.

"I've seen something like that before... it feels familiar, like something from a dream. What is it?" You asked, a static like the hard crash of a waterfall on mossy rocks growing in your ears.

When Morgan smiled her pale face was now cloaked in the pitch black hue that desaturated all around it. You could see little more than the dark silhouette of her tall, sultry form as the two of you paused at the landing of the broad gateway of umbral shadow.

"Come with me, Charles Drake, plunge down into the deep. You ask what this is, why it calls to you so sweetly, it is because within, lies the truth that we seek.

Her fingers snatched suddenly at your chest and tore both of you down, where your bodies, together, splashed into the nebula below.

Your body was invaded by cold, unrelenting. The colourless, formless void in which you sank pushed up your nostrils and down your throat. You snatched and grasped in the darkness, unable to feel Matriarch Blair at your side.

"Do not fight it." A voice crept in, reverberating in the icy water "You must let go. You must let me in."

**** and flailing, panic consumed you as the cold crawled into your skin, freezing your muscles, and making ice of your bones.

"The shock will pass, breathe sweet boy, and you will drown your fears and be open to truth."

The words softened your mania, and slowly but surely your rapid movements slowed as the embrace of the stormy frost sunk into your chest, flowing into your lungs and cooling the inferno within.

Your eyes opened. "This is some weird shit..." You muttered as you took a short breath, finding the icy waters as refreshing as inhaling the spring breeze. Looking around in awe, you peered into the vista of Onyx which sung with harmonic tones in the distance.

There was only peace, in those seconds before she came, a content that You could scarcely describe. You couldn't remember what calm felt like until this moment, and it was in this Abyss that a pale phantom swept in from behind.

You watched as the ivory body of the white woman weaved through the gloom in a beautiful backstroke. A long cape of white hair shrouded her naked form, following in an seemingly endless trail behind her.

When she wove through the murk towards you, reaching out with her shining hands, each finger gleaming like flowing diamonds, you saw the face of Morgan Blair: transcendental in its otherworldly beauty.

She was snowy in every aspect, a slithering white shadow surrounded by a shimmering aura of stark ivory hair, how she shone like moonlit silver, a ghost amongst the waves of shadow.

It was her eyes that made your face burn hot and cock stir in you jeans: a duo of iridescent black voids containing a bottomless nebula. "You have questions..." Her voice boomed like the crack of an avalanche in this place where her power was greatest, but she smiled sweetly, touching your face and neck with silky fingers. "...Ask me."

You let free a chuckle of astonishment "every other day, I read some myth on people like you... You're definitely not what I expected. My family don't take kindly to witches I've read, I know you've met my parents but I want to be clear. I need answers"

Morgan Blair lifted her pale arms and for a brief moment you were blinded by a flash of white.

Your body was crushed in tightly by wrapping walls, strong as iron wire wrapped around your body and pulled tort. Discombobulated, you pictured the following milliseconds after she lifted her arms... the strands of her endless white mane sprawled out in tendrils, snatching you up before you could react.

"Do not make the mistake of underestimating us. Demi-god or no, I will crush you into paste and feed you to my children. Half of them are baying for your blood already, it has only been my protection which has protected you from their lust."

"My..." The cocoon of hair pulled tighter and you felt the blood in your veins rush to your head and feet "A-Apologies."

A roar of relief came when the strands came loose and you spilt out on hard ground. the long platinum locks slid fro myour shoulder to your legs. It rushed along hanging from above... until you felt the strange recognition of forward motion.

"I'm moving."

Lifting your weight from the floor, you arose to find that the thick mane of hair was actually fluffy vines on a pale gold tree. Petals fell on the vessel which carried you on the endless waters of a river woodland. Birds sang and the silver sailing boat slid silently beneath ivory-gold weeping trees, their petals fell on the clustered banks of golden moss and green grass.

A shadow moved in your peripheral vision and when you turned, Morgan stood before you once again. She wore a midnight hoodie, with the violet lettering of black sabbath; the little devil danced on the letter D, diving down into the dual pocket below.

The jeans and Converse shoes gave her a newfound air of casualness, her large pig-tailed braids falling down each shoulder and touching the wooden deck of the white ship, only bolstering her friendly smile "This is a deal more preferable don't you think?" She grinned wickedly.

Her eyes were still gleaming like obsidian, small twinkles of light hidden behind the two voids. "You could have warned me before strangling away what little life I have left."

Morgan guided you carefully up to the helm of the pale schooner, where a great engraved sailing wheel stood. "You have your father's pride. I have been known to have a soft spot for your family, but I need to make it clear just how **** you actually are in my hands, it wasn't wise coming to my coven the way you did, remember that."

You squinted your eyes, this place was beautiful sure, but the fragrant bloom was slightly overpowering as if the fairy tale nature of this oddity were scaled too high to make sense in your mind. "It was impulsive, I know, but ever since I woke up a week or so ago, it feels like I'm some lost kid, wandering in the dark while others pull the strings. I had to discover the truth for myself, I mean I found you didn't I?"

Morgan huffed, unable to contain what you thought maybe a sense of pride. "You did find us. I spent years pondering our meeting, with roman and Liz together we speculated on the man you'd become, and here you are as if we'd never spent any time apart. You haven't known me growing up, but god knows that I've done everything in my power to protect you, during your time at East Wallace."

The corner of your lip tightened, you felt a kinship with Morgan for sure, the minute you saw her, you knew that everything would be alright, but... "When my father... when he died, why didn't you reveal yourself, I could have used any family I could get..."

Morgan lamented on that for a moment, and she reached out taking your hand and placing it on her chest "I wanted to, so badly, I swear it. But I couldn't, there were measures put in place long ago. The reason for my elusiveness mirrors that of why your family kept the Dark Society from you for so long..." She seemed hesitant to continue, but took a steadying breath "...You don't know about Cain do you?"

"Cain -ugh" the name made your head spin and your chest thump, Morgan's grip tightened as she pulled your hand deeper into her chest.

"This is what I mean, we fought for decades to ensure that the Blood-god couldn't take possession of your Beast. I do not think that it has enthralled you completely, but the power of the Purest within you has been ripped out. You need that strength Charlie, it is a legacy fostered for over a thousand years. Now that it is free for the taking, wild and unleashed, it could spell the destruction of us all."

Her words buzzed like a drill into the back of your skull, but you ground your teeth forcing yourself to hear her words.

"I... I don't understand, how did I lose it? why the amnesia and all the confusion? I just need answers. War is coming and the Noxium needs me... without knowledge, without whatever came before all this, we'll all die, I can feel it." You professed your feelings and suspicions picked up from the past days.

The sound of birds twittered, the soft lapping of water kissing the skirmishing treetrunks seemed to calm the rampacy within. "That is why I have brought us to this place, so we might read scrolls of the future and fix what is broken inside you."

"What is this place anyway, it's nothing like the abyss from before?" You asked.

Morgan opened her arms to this beautiful watery grove in which the white schooner sailed "The space we inhabited, swathed in blackness, was the Black Loch, home of the Old One to which all Wicken owe their existence. It is the source of my power and the conduit to this place which we now roam. The Interstice is where all **** minds roam. You must stay on guard, for all manners of creature may manifest in this place where transcendental law is left without meaning. This part of the Schism between the realms of life and **** is tethered to your mind in particular."

You nearly laughed "What? we're in my head? I highly doubt that, it's far too peaceful!"

"Not your complete mind, no, just the subconscious of your slumbering super-ego. Your human nature if you will. Don't run to self depreciation so quickly, Charles, you have goodness inside of you, a kindness inherited from your Mother, if I was wrong then Penelope Helia would lie dead in the halls of Blumengarten, and not healed in her Astronomy class. We walk in the shattered remnants of your mortal soul, it is only by seeking out your immortal power that we may uncover a true revelation."

You nodded, catching on to a slight familiarity in this strange vision "I've... done something like this before I think?"

"Indeed, the familiarity that you now feel is because this place is host to all astral realms, such as your Red Sea ...A combination of both of our powers which have brought us here. With the Black Loch I can access all knowledge of those within, and with the Decendant's thread of Nevermore, you can send your consciousness back down the chain of your ancestral memory. With both of these powers combined, we will sail this white ship down the hereditary chain and discover how it is that you lost your Purist Soul.

However, I must warn you, we have... for lack of a better terminology, hotwired our ride. Our powers aren't meant to be mixed, the path ahead may lead us astray if we aren't careful and I highly doubt that we will arrive at our desired destination straight away.

Consider carefully, do you want to discover the truth. if so, you need only take the wheel, and we shall begin.

of course, if you feel this path too overwhelming to tred, then I will push your mind ahead and return you home as if we had never started our voyage.

What say you, son of the star?"

You contemplated her words carefully, as well as the whistling gales which filled this transcendental grove with the scent of honey and petals.