From Darkness Comes

Sweat slicked hair kept stinging her eyes. Hands far too deep in the dust and grime of this experiment, the only option was to endure because attempting to push it back would likely leave her blind. She puffed air from her supple cheeks in an effort to keep focused. Every little detail of this contraption’s wiring had to be perfect. If she failed, the only thing worse than the rip in the universe that could happen was the sheer disappointment of failure.

Finally, her hands stilled and pulled back from her device in reverence. A smile spread across her face full of pride; it would work this time, she was sure. Wiping her hands over the full swell of her bottom excitedly, she danced back to her research table to grab the text she’d pulled from the depths of the ruins outside of town. Now she shoved her coral pink hair behind her ear and read over the information once more, one hand in the pocket of her jeans.

People said that magic was gone, wiped out with the last of the witch bloodlines centuries ago, but her dreams were telling her otherwise. For the last year, at night her brain showed her landscapes full of beautiful creatures, incantations of great power, and actual instructions on how to find the materials she’d need to awaken her destiny. Today was special. She’d finally found all the items necessary to create a summoning portal. Today, she’d call a familiar to herself.

She didn’t quite understand how those items together would open the space between worlds, but she understood machinery well enough to fashion this engine. Four crystals, 5 different kinds of herbs, a special graph drawn out with chalk, and a spark. Well, specifically a flame, but what was that supposed to be? A candle? A campfire? A carburetor? She decided the best option was to use copper wiring to create a little engine.

She drew the symbol on the floor and sat the engine in the middle of it. On top of the machine was a silver bowl with her herbs and around it she sat the crystals at the 4 directions of the Earth. This would work. She was ready.

She walked back to stand in front of her circle daydreaming about what her familiar might be. A kitten? An owl? OOO! A fox would be amazing! Her green eyes were bright behind her large gold-rimmed glasses. Her full rosy lips spread into a smile that made her face hurt. Sitting the paper with the incantation on it down on her stool, she surveyed her work once more to check for errors with her hands on her hips. She was a short but shapely young woman; her body strong but plush betraying her matching personality. With a little giggle, she brought her hands to her face to pat her chubby cheeks to take away the sting of glee, small streaks of grime smearing on her freckled pale skin. She set her face with the determination that had brought her to this moment. Reaching down, she grabbed the incantation.

There was no fear as she walked into the circle, careful to not mar the design of the lines with her sturdy laced work boots. Alternating the paper between her hands, she pushed up the sleeves of the deep red long-sleeved button-down she wore open over her tucked in white tank top. She wished she hadn’t sweat so much today while working. It was snowing outside, but her full-frame and bosom made her warm up quickly. When she’d reached the center, she squatted down and set the mechanism’s battery into the cradle.

She immediately heard the light hum of current. It was time.

She straightened up and held her head high. She began reading from the old text, translating with what she learned to decode it. She could smell the herbs heating in the bowl but continued along the page without looking down at the machine. What was important was to finish before the flame caught in the bowl. Just as she saw the smoke from her peripheral, she finished the spell on the page, rolled it up, and tucked it into her back pocket.

She watched apprehensively as the herbs smoked heavily, but there seemed to be no evidence of a flame starting. Bending over towards the bowl, she muttered a small plea and blew onto it hopefully. The flame caught and she smiled widely. It grew, and she leaned back. Then it kept growing. Her smile began to falter as the flame became larger and larger, still as small as the bowl at the base, but beginning to get wider and taller than herself.

Fear blossomed in her heart now for the first time. She wasn’t sure what to do now. The warehouse had a high ceiling, but everything she’d worked for was here inside. If this got out of control, she’d lose all that mattered to her! She took a shaky step back, still not messing up the lines, wondering if she should get the extinguisher. Suddenly, she heard a loud snap. The copper wiring wound through the machine was loose, some component breaking under the heat and setting it free. Shocked, she watched it start to move as if a live snake and work its way to encircle the 4 crystals in intricate patterns. The blaze dissipated in a blink, leaving thick smoke behind.

Unmoving, she watched the smoke clear, expecting to see only a destroyed machine.

What she saw instead caused her eyes to grow wide.

There was a man. A man in the circle. He had a cloak of some sort covering his bowed head, but as he lifted it to look at her, she realized he was wearing nothing else.

She shrieked and stumbled back, tripping over her own feet and landing on her bottom with a resounding thump. Her arms supporting her torso, she looked back at the man who was watching her with shameless amusement. They stared at each other a long while before she got up slowly and walked back to stand beside her stool.

The man stood, absently wrapping the cloak around himself to ward off the chill, and looked around her warehouse workshop. He observed the circle on the ground, now definitely destroyed after the woman’s fleeing, and smirked. The paper with the incantation lay on the ground where she’d fallen, dislodged from her pocket by the impact. His bare feet stepped gingerly over the waxed stone of the floor, then reached down to pick it up. He read over it and spoke to her with a chuckle that bubbled over his foreign tongue. The woman just eyed him in confusion, slowly beginning to shake her head. Arching a delicate brow, he advanced from the circle, looking at the papers scattered all over the room and passing her by.

He was aware of her staring after him as he made his way to a particularly messy surface littered with words of his tongue and what was sure to be hers. There was a drawing of the circle with crystals and some contraption. So she’d used that to summon him. He rummaged through the littered space until he found her cipher. It was almost completely accurate, except for one important word. She’d labeled the word “familiar”, but it was incorrect. He smiled deliciously, incisors peeking through his lips as he licked them in delight. He glanced at the drawing again in understanding. Even beyond her overpowered device, she must be quite a witch to pull him from the darkness.

He turned back to her gazing form. Although her chest was heaving still, she didn’t seem to be in a panic anymore. She faced him squarely, plump cheeks flushed but serious. This was a good sign. The little dumpling was determined. Glancing back over her cipher, he grabbed a little charcoal stick from the surface. In delicate penmanship, he crossed out “familiar”, and wrote the true word that belonged. After placing it back on the table, he walked deliberately to the small woman standing in front of her ruined, but highly successful circle. He extended the corrected paper to her and watched the alarm etch into her features. She dropped the paper onto the ground and stared at it unseeingly as she crumbled onto her little stool.

She was first afraid and shocked, so he waited. Time passed unheeded as she processed things, and he waited. At one point she looked to be near tears, little nose turning pink at the tip. Still, he waited.

Finally, her face changed the slightest bit. Still apprehensive, still a little fearful, but there it was, the spark of excitement.

Of curiosity.

Of confidence.

Of power.

He reached down as her eyes saw daydreamed ideas not shown by the stone beneath them. Capturing her chin in his coal stained fingers, he knelt to one knee as he raised her eyes to meet his. He could feel her heart leap beneath her pretty flesh covered in sweat and dirt. He could smell the magic threaded in her blood it pumped furiously through her. He was sure if he closed his eyes, he could see the possibilities she was planning to bring to pass go through his own mind as well. It could be said that he was proud of this naïve and dangerous little witch.

“You should have been far more careful playing around with summoning spells.”