Abandoned: New Beginnings

[OutofSight OutofMind]

Going slightly crazy, Zaire laughed at himself when he realized that the room wasn't really anything to be frightened of. The room behind the wooden doors was nothing but a sort of garden room with a gaping hole into a pit of darkness beneath. The twisted trees all turned inwards towards the hole, something of a central point of attention for the room. Withered flowers decorated the edges of the area, giving Zaire a sense of death to fill his mind. The humanoid beings finally set him down, and within moments, the cage of bamboo had splintered into a million pieces, soon disintegrating into the air. Zaire laughed at how strange it was, paranoia getting to him.


'You magi come here.' A voice seemed to whisper in his ear. 'You magi come here.' It repeated. Glancing around, Zaire tried to hide his smile with his hand. This had to be a hallucination, right? Just some stupid thing from the depths of his mind! Haha! Zaire didn't really even care what the heck a magi was, as he thought he'd wake up any moment from now.

 

[Archon]

Michael found his feet, and willed himself to stand once more, he turned around 360 degrees, hoping for a way out. Somewhere to run. Yet he found none. The humanoids still remained unmoving, except one. One began walking towards him, its size massive and imposing, it carried a large sack on its back, he stared at the creature for several seconds, until it stopped directly before him. "You are here, because you are magi, all magi die many years ago, except them on island. You on island?" The creatures voice was deep and incredibly frightening, the tone was ethereal carrying miniature echoes. He remained silent for several seconds, before answering. "Y-yes, I-I'm on an island, I have no memory of before that." His voice was feeble, yet more confused than frightened, what was going on?

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

Zaire continued to laugh. The humanoids continued to just stand there, except a single one that gave him a strange look. "All magi dead." It said as if it might halt his laughing. "All magi dead now." It said, voice becoming deeper as it raised it's voice. "You and other man only ones left. Because of island." It told him.


In a short moment of lucidity, Zaire looked to it, however his grin did not fade. "The island?" He asked, smile spreading further when he realized that he could speak. "Yeah, I've been on an island," He said, when another bout of laughter shook his system. The sane side of him continued to wonder what exactly was so funny of the horrific, strange situation.

 

[Archon]

The humanoid before him remained unmoving, yet Michael swore he felt a disturbance in the nightmare land he was in, almost as if everything that twisted and changed stopped for but a moment. The thing then dropped the sack beside Michael. "Years ago, magi use magic to visit this dream, they use garden to do this, they not supposed to come here, but they do, they made dream into nightmare, this is nightmare. Now you here again, how you here when magi dead? We kill all magi. Yet you here." Michael's eyes widened, his emotions entering a frenzied state, as everything began to make sense, magic... Magi... People who could do magic where magi... Only magi could enter the strange garden that sent him and Zaire to sleep... And this is a dream land, their bodies must still be in the garden. They must be magi... The dark faces... The golems... Michael felt sick with the recent overload of information, his head spinning violently. This was far too much to digest all at once.

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

"Why you laugh?" A humanoid asked the crazy man.


"B-because this--" Zaire gestured to everything around them. "--is impossible!" He claimed, seeing everything as absolutely and totally insane. They couldn't be magi!


The humanoid seemed to give up on him and his oddities, simply stomping the ground and sending a tremor through the area, jolting Zaire back to his senses. "You magi," it said. "Magi all dead. They use garden to visit here and make nightmare."


"What?" Zaire replied, unsure of what it meant.


"Magi use magic and made dream into nightmare!" It shouted, booming voice startling Zaire.


"What?" Zaire asked again, this time more in unbelief of what he finally realized.

 

[Archon]

The humanoid looked at Michael once more, its very aura carrying a certain power. These beings were very powerful. Suddenly, a minor tremor was felt within the earth, it shook Michael for a moment and he looked around, but the humanoid spoke. "Ignore, open sack." Michael blinked several times.


"Why should I?" He was tempting fate, but he really didn't see why he should, the creature could have done it easy enough. "Open sack, or die, like other magi." Michael sighed, defeated, this whole situation had turned his mind into a never ending loop of incomprehension. The thing said they killed the other Magi... So why were Zaire and Michael still alive? He knew Zaire lived, he just knew it. Resigning to his fate, Michael opened the sack, and saw a book. He raised an eyebrow at the creature, "It's a book?" The beast raised its arm, pointing to the book. "Open." It;s voice left no room for argument, and so he didn't even try...

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

Suddenly, a sack was tossed right in front of Zaire. Startled and confused, he just sat there dumbly. "What am I supposed to do with this....?" He mumbled with a quick glance toward the humanoid that had thrown it at him.


"Open sack." It said. "Open sack," a few other chorused. Zaire gave no reply, confusion and a faint trace of fear still covering his mind. "Open sack or die!" A few hissed.


Zaire fearfully grabbed for the sack and threw it open, drawing out it's contents. A book? Why was a book so important?


"Read." One commanded him, and the dazed Zaire complied.


The first word he saw when he opened the page was a very simple one. "The," it read. His eyes continued to scroll it as he felt something strange begin to take over his person, almost as if he was entering the book and living it himself.


"The Story of the Magi..." He mumbled.

 

[Archon]

Michael stared at the book, examining its dtrange ornate cover, it felt... Powerful, he didn't know what power felt like specifically, but it was definitely this book. He opened the first page, and read 'The Story of The Magi' he looked back up at the figure. Yet something happened, the floor began to.... Shrink? "W-What's happening?" He yelled at the figures, yet they weren't moving, but they were! He was moving... Further and further away, a pit of blackness swallowing into an indescribable void. Then nothing. But something... Noise? He woke up, in a hall, a large jeweled hall of magnificence, several robed figures walking about, everything appeared ethereal... Another dream? Had the book sent him here? His attention was caught by a banner, a golden star in-crested upon it, a single 'M' at the center.

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

Within moments, Zaire was pulled into the void he had been sitting in front of, tumbling down into darkness with the book still clutched in his hand. He screamed, afraid of exactly what would be happening when he hit the ground and shutting his eyes tightly. But, to Zaire's surprise, he never splattered hopelessly against anything, and he no longer heard the sound of air whooshing by his ears. For a moment, Zaire felt nothing. No pain, no emotion, nothing. But when noise slowly dripped back into his ears, he warily opened his eyes. Huh?


Zaire now found himself standing, on a staircase. Some people seemed to laugh from around him, and some seemed to sulk along. He watched one man in particular, a hood covering his head as he rushed right past him. Zaire turned to watch him run, to see if there was anything else to what played out before him involving the robed person.


It was then that he realized he was standing right in front of a magnificent castle, stone pillars and domes decorating it with stain-glassed windows. He couldn't help but gawk a bit at the sight.

 

[Archon]

Michael soon realized the people around him were oblivious to Michael's presence, this must be a flashback... The Story of The Magi. He gazed upon a robed man, standing on a large pedestal, chanting down incantations at the many people in the crowd, was he a teacher? Michael made his way closer to the front of the crowd, physically walking through the people, they weren't real... It was then a large gust of flames errupted from the chanting-mans hands, soaring above the crowd as they gasped and applauded. This was it. The Magi. "You all possess this power, you are all Magi, like me - the elements bend to your very desires. We can teach you how to use this." The robed mans voice echoed throughout the hall, more and more people cheered, many began rushing through a wooden door, a single sign hanging down marked 'Recruitment'.

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

With a sudden urge to enter the vast castle, Zaire found himself darting up the remaining stairs and literally through the doors. Something of a faint memory tugging at him, he zipped through the hallways carelessly until he was in a large hallway. Everything strangely seemed to sparkle, and the feeling of deja vu was overwhelming.


"You all possess this power, you are all Magi, like me - the elements bend to your very desires." A man said from a pedestal, fire dancing on his fingers. It continued to fade as he continued speaking. "We can teach you how to use this." He said, and as the people cheered, he gestured to a wooden door that simply read 'Recruitment' on a basic wooden sign. As the people cleared away, Zaire thought he saw someone familiar in the crowd. Was that... Michael? And there was another equally important question-- was he part of this crazy dream or stuck in it?

 

[Archon]

Michael entered the supposed recruitment area, lines upon lines of people gathered to sign up for The Magi. Something was wrong... From what the creatures had said Magi just 'were' they did not get taught these powers. And there were hundreds - if not thousands more trainees than trainers. That was a fact. He moved to the spiraling stairs that people were walking up, yet soon the familiar sinking feeling occurred, he found everything getting further away, as he re-entered the earlier void, what was going on? Soon, the familiar feeling of nothing was upon him, before more sound filled his ears, he raised his head. To see a large line of people marching towards what appeared to be a more rundown castle, they looked like normal people. Magi recruits?

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

Zaire chased after his friend as he entered through the door marked for recruitments. The mass amount of people in the area was truly something else, with everyone chattering but looking just like any other average Joe. Were these people really Magi, or whatever they were called? Zaire couldn't even begin to understand it all. Following the crowd, Zaire quickly lost Michael in the sea of faces. He rushed to follow everyone up the stairs, halting the mission to find his friend and instead going to scour the area for answers.


Suddenly, a tingling feeling enveloped his feet. He glanced down, just to see something of darkness covering them as he was slowly sucked into nothingness.

 

[Archon]

Michael entered the castle gates, the place wasn't nearly as grand as the last. He spotted a robed man leading a separate steel door, guards st either side. The main crowd was then led into a huge Colosseum like area, where a robed man, was giving more speeches. "This, is where you will learn to harness your magic, those who qualify as naturals, will follow a trainer to the second level of the castle, and will begin training immediately. The rest, will remain here." Michael examined the lined of people, the robed men before the lines appeared to rest their hands over the peoples heads, and either sent them to one of two lines. Likely the 'naturals' and the rest. Though why did the naturals appear more... Physically fit?

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

Zaire found himself standing next to a sort of a line. People stood around him, and if he looked over the line he had appeared in, he could see yet another line of people. Everyone chattered around gleefully with the others in their line, and as even more were sent to the line for them to chat up. However, a few people did not seem happy. In the line farther from him, Zaire noticed, everyone seemed to be happier and more in-shape. His ears strained to hear above the noise, to hear if any instructions were being given, yet none came to his ears. Yet the people's chattering was far too loud from Zaire's spot in the crowd, and he couldn't hear a single word that was being spoken. He sighed, moving ahead and literally through the people so that he could try to hear the next words being spoken. Wait a second! Zaire turned around. He was right. That one person he had just passed through was very, very familiar. The man didn't seem to be talking to anyone, but instead kept his eyes trained on the speaker. He knew that black hair and slightly unnerving red eyes.

 

[Archon]

Michael found himself following the people who entered the huge metal doors... They were heavily guarded at each side, they didn't want people getting in - or out - without permission. The robed man all wore the same robes, each one appeared to do magic proficiently. Yet he had yet to spot a single non-robed individual cast the faintest spell, he wasn't sure why - sixth sense perhaps? - But none of it sit right with him, there was something wrong about everything that was going on here, had the creatures sent him to this past memory to learn something important about The Magi? Or was this a simple history lesson? It didn't matter much, something was meant to be found here, but what was it... Michael moved through the steel doors, identical to that of a ghost, phasing through the huge steel barriers effortlessly.

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

Eyes widened, Zaire stared straight at the man. He had never really been able to see himself in a mirror since arriving on the island, but this was probably much more clear than any mirror could ever be. Zaire stood there, dumbfounded in total. W-What the? How is this even possible? He wondered. Where do I play in in a story like this.... The Story of the Magi.... this is crazy. He thought as his mind drifted to how the story might be true. But perhaps, this could've been an illusion meant to confuse him? He shook his head and kept walking, going closer to the speaker so he could hear him. One of the lines followed a group of soldiers and what seemed like more trained Magi to steel doors in the far back of the coliseum-like area. Yet the thought of himself back there moments ago still unsettled him, and a sudden bout of paranoia did not aid him one bit.

 

[Archon]

((Hey! I'm currently hard pressed for time, I'm currently dealing with a uni exam which is much harder than I had first anticipated. It'll take me a long while to reply, but I can promise you I have not forgot!))

 

[OutofSight OutofMind]

((Alright! I wish you luck in the exam!))