The Witches' Road - Clea's Trial
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xp_logsWith Five Trials, they set onward towards the next trial when they are aware of three of the five Salem Seven are waiting for them. They are able to take them on and proceed to Clea’s door.
The group of mutant witches stepped back onto the Witches Road after departing Pixie's encounter, and it was just as it ever was. However the Road plotted their encounters, the path itself was constant and never-changing. At this point, it was almost a comfort, as they could at least expect something constant in this chaotic, unpredictable voyage.
Rictor was growing accustomed to this strange land the longer they spent here, and that was why he knew they were not alone just seconds after their arrival. "There's something else here with us," he warned, though the earth would not tell him more than that. "It's gentle and quiet, but as long as it walks on the ground, it's not invisible to me."
Amanda cocked her head, listening as best she could, but could hear nothing. "Topaz, can you sense anything? Sentient or not?"
Topaz tilted her head, thinking for a moment. "Yup. Three of the Seven. Not sure which ones exactly, but it's definitely only three. Waiting in the woods to ambush us up ahead."
"They probably don't want to confront us straight on. Not after taking out two of them before." Clea said. "Alright. If we know their general location, we can use that to our advantage. There are six of us, three of them."
Emily had felt more in control since her trial but she still didn’t feel particularly combat ready. It wasn’t something she really wanted to do either way but she could maybe help shield them if it came down to it.
She whispered quietly to the place inside her that seemed to be listening now and asked what felt like the universe for help.
"I'm ready." Pixie was still riding high from successfully completing her trial. She'd used the full spectrum of her powers to heal. When enemies wanted to harm you, however, sometimes a fight was inevitable.
When the Three of Seven burst out of their hiding places, the mutant coven was ready. Two birds and a fox. That's the one Rictor had detected. So much for representing a trickster spirit. The young man drew on the earth's energy, and he let it out, the air rippling with his vibrations. But the fox was smarter than the snake, and abruptly changed its path to avoid the shockwave.
"Not today." Clea's purple magic swirled the fox and her magic pushed it back into the path of the shockwave to allow the ground to take its next victim.
Emily’s hair transformed, fiery tendrils reaching out to trap one of the two birds, the smell of burning reaching her as she pulled back in alarm. She hadn’t meant…this was the first time one of her changes had been real.
Beside her, Amanda gestured, a tendril of neon blue energy whipping from her hands and around the Owl. She clenched her fist and the coils tightened around the transformed witch, before abruptly slamming it into the ground. The creature hit the ground in a flurry of feathers before lying deathly still. The older witch glanced at Emily. "Don't worry if you can't bring yourself to hurt them. Not everyone's a fighter."
Crow flew up high then dive bombed, aiming for Rictor. A shield formed right above his head before the bird could hit him; it bounced off, reeling from the blow, and Topaz prepared another energy ball to throw.
Then Crow vanished into the shadows.
"I've got 'em," said Pixie, fingers glowing with rose gold light. "You can't hide from me!"
Her wish to protect her friends bloomed like foxfire through her veins, her faerie magic entwining itself with her learned magic. Her power erupted in a fractal pattern of light and color, spiraling through the patch of sky where Crow had disappeared. It grew exponentially, shattering the shadows that clung to Crow's feathers, revealing the bird before it could strike again.
And it kept going, shattering Crow like a stained glass window. "Got you."
"Alright, now that is done." When silence returned back to the forest surrounding them. Clea turned but was greeted with a familiar door. A door she hadn't seen since she and Topaz were literally pulled into the dimension when she was a teenager. The unworldly symbols etched around the carvings of the wood-like door and stones that were alien in nature. Her hand instinctively went to the three long scars on her forearm, a gift from her uncle.
The young witch approached the door and pushed it up and was greeted with darkness before walking into a maze filled with mirrors that didn't reflect back.
Closely following, Amanda shuddered when she saw what they were walking into, remembering. "Stay on your toes," she warned the others behind her. "This isn't the real thing - I hope - but it looks a lot like the Dark Dimension. Don't trust anything."
Topaz wasn't proud to admit that she'd paused at the sight of the door. No. She wasn't afraid of a bloody door. Or what waited on the other side. She took a deep breath and pushed forward, fists clenched, ready to act if something attacked them. Pixie followed her.
It was dark, it was another dimension, but that's all Rictor could suss from this trial. The vibes here were way off. Literally, as in he could not feel the usual movement of the earth beneath him. "What is the 'Dark Dimension'?" he asked no one in particular.
Clea said as she came up to a mirror and touched the frame, remembering the story the Ancient One had told her many years ago: "It was a thriving place once. Until Dormammu, a powerful Faltine, and his sister came and took it over. Each of the mirrors were gateways into other worlds, other dimensions. When Dormammu overthrew the ruling family, many of the mirrors were destroyed from the other side to keep him contained, under the order of the Crown Prince, Orini. He survived the massacre of his family and formed a resistance. However, Dormammu's sister, Umar, seduced him and a baby was born from the union." She touched the mirror and a memory played. In it a nursemaid picked up a baby, about a year old, and took off running. 'Don't worry Princess. You will be safe. He will never use you. We'll take you far from here. The memory faded and Clea walked on from the mirror to the next one.
In this memory, it showed the baby being handed to the Ancient One. That wasn't right. She was told she was found abandoned at a hospital. A small tremor shook through the mirror maze causing a crack to form. "The baby was brought over to this dimension." Clea continued, as if she was in a trance now and led the group further down the maze. The baby's white hair had turned red and then she was handed over to the Lakes. "She grew." More mirrors showed memories of Clea's childhood, laughing in the countryside of England, sneaking biscuits from the batch out of the oven that her granny just put out, drawing, and magic. Another vision that Clea had no memory of was another visit from the Ancient One, he was casting something over her and then another tremor shook the mirrors and CRACK!
"And grew." An eight year old Clea with Stephen Strange playing at camp and rescuing Cata, who was just a small kitten. Another memory of the Ancient One. Another CRACK echoed throughout the trial. Clea's coming to the mansion, meeting everyone in the room. Her being pulled into the Dark Dimension. Another Ancient One. CRACK!
They had reached the center and tears were running down her cheeks and she was breathing hard. She was seeing memories she remembered, and others she didn't. "Who am I?" She whispered. One mirror remained but Clea didn't move. The room stopped shaking.
"You're Clea." Amanda rested her hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "You're my former student. My team-mate. You're brave and true."
"We built and maintain a greenhouse together back in our home, in New York, for magic varietals" Rictor offered. "It's hard work because not much is documented so we have to learn on our own, but we're smart and we persevere, and we've succeeded."
"You're our friend," Topaz pointed out. "Someone we can depend on and trust. Which is worth a lot, especially in situations like this."
"You're not defined by your heritage," Pixie added gently.
“You’ve always been willing to answer my questions, and you take the time to explain the things I just can’t get my head around.”
Emily in turn rested her hand on Clea’s arm, wanting her to know they were there for her.
Hearing what her chosen family had said to her gave her a new found strength to take a step forward, but another voice entered the room. A familiar voice. The Ancient One. "You carry the blood of powerful beings. If you break free, there will be no stopping what you become." His voice echoed in the dark room. Clea took a step forward towards the mirror, the strength of her coven behind her.
"I did this to prevent catastrophe. Your heritage is a force of destruction." The thundering sounds of glass breaking in the distance as the voice became more forceful. The room began to tremble again. Clea took another step forward. "I did this to protect you." The voice continued, with each step she took, it continued. "You will be a nightmare unleashed." She stopped when she was in front of the mirror. A flaming crown appeared and his voice echoed again, "You will doom this world."
"Stop telling me who you think I am! You don't know a thing about me. They do. And I don't need you anymore." Clea raised her hand and punched through the glass mirror, surprisingly not harming her in the process, and she grabbed ahold of the Flaming Crown and pulled it through. "I am Clea and no longer will I be held back from the likes of you."
The room shattered, and for a brief moment the group saw another plane, one of floating islands and a dying star. And into view a large being of energy appeared before them, blocking their view of the plane, before it blinked out of existence. Clea winced as floods of lost memories came back to her and the feeling of being unblocked lifted. For the first time since she could remember, she felt like she was no longer stuck and could move forward.
Clea turned to face them all, the flaming crown still grasped tightly in her hands. "I take back what I said Topaz, I'd rather do puzzles then go through that again." She lifted her arm to wipe away the tears that were still falling from her eyes. A door leading out of the trial appeared behind the group.
Amanda gently lifted the crown from Clea's hands and set it on her head, where it flickered for an instant and then vanished from sight. "Whatever happens, you get to choose," she said. "That's what the Ancient Plonker doesn't get. We need to make our choices for ourselves." Then she glanced at the door. "Lead the way, Princess."
The group of mutant witches stepped back onto the Witches Road after departing Pixie's encounter, and it was just as it ever was. However the Road plotted their encounters, the path itself was constant and never-changing. At this point, it was almost a comfort, as they could at least expect something constant in this chaotic, unpredictable voyage.
Rictor was growing accustomed to this strange land the longer they spent here, and that was why he knew they were not alone just seconds after their arrival. "There's something else here with us," he warned, though the earth would not tell him more than that. "It's gentle and quiet, but as long as it walks on the ground, it's not invisible to me."
Amanda cocked her head, listening as best she could, but could hear nothing. "Topaz, can you sense anything? Sentient or not?"
Topaz tilted her head, thinking for a moment. "Yup. Three of the Seven. Not sure which ones exactly, but it's definitely only three. Waiting in the woods to ambush us up ahead."
"They probably don't want to confront us straight on. Not after taking out two of them before." Clea said. "Alright. If we know their general location, we can use that to our advantage. There are six of us, three of them."
Emily had felt more in control since her trial but she still didn’t feel particularly combat ready. It wasn’t something she really wanted to do either way but she could maybe help shield them if it came down to it.
She whispered quietly to the place inside her that seemed to be listening now and asked what felt like the universe for help.
"I'm ready." Pixie was still riding high from successfully completing her trial. She'd used the full spectrum of her powers to heal. When enemies wanted to harm you, however, sometimes a fight was inevitable.
When the Three of Seven burst out of their hiding places, the mutant coven was ready. Two birds and a fox. That's the one Rictor had detected. So much for representing a trickster spirit. The young man drew on the earth's energy, and he let it out, the air rippling with his vibrations. But the fox was smarter than the snake, and abruptly changed its path to avoid the shockwave.
"Not today." Clea's purple magic swirled the fox and her magic pushed it back into the path of the shockwave to allow the ground to take its next victim.
Emily’s hair transformed, fiery tendrils reaching out to trap one of the two birds, the smell of burning reaching her as she pulled back in alarm. She hadn’t meant…this was the first time one of her changes had been real.
Beside her, Amanda gestured, a tendril of neon blue energy whipping from her hands and around the Owl. She clenched her fist and the coils tightened around the transformed witch, before abruptly slamming it into the ground. The creature hit the ground in a flurry of feathers before lying deathly still. The older witch glanced at Emily. "Don't worry if you can't bring yourself to hurt them. Not everyone's a fighter."
Crow flew up high then dive bombed, aiming for Rictor. A shield formed right above his head before the bird could hit him; it bounced off, reeling from the blow, and Topaz prepared another energy ball to throw.
Then Crow vanished into the shadows.
"I've got 'em," said Pixie, fingers glowing with rose gold light. "You can't hide from me!"
Her wish to protect her friends bloomed like foxfire through her veins, her faerie magic entwining itself with her learned magic. Her power erupted in a fractal pattern of light and color, spiraling through the patch of sky where Crow had disappeared. It grew exponentially, shattering the shadows that clung to Crow's feathers, revealing the bird before it could strike again.
And it kept going, shattering Crow like a stained glass window. "Got you."
"Alright, now that is done." When silence returned back to the forest surrounding them. Clea turned but was greeted with a familiar door. A door she hadn't seen since she and Topaz were literally pulled into the dimension when she was a teenager. The unworldly symbols etched around the carvings of the wood-like door and stones that were alien in nature. Her hand instinctively went to the three long scars on her forearm, a gift from her uncle.
The young witch approached the door and pushed it up and was greeted with darkness before walking into a maze filled with mirrors that didn't reflect back.
Closely following, Amanda shuddered when she saw what they were walking into, remembering. "Stay on your toes," she warned the others behind her. "This isn't the real thing - I hope - but it looks a lot like the Dark Dimension. Don't trust anything."
Topaz wasn't proud to admit that she'd paused at the sight of the door. No. She wasn't afraid of a bloody door. Or what waited on the other side. She took a deep breath and pushed forward, fists clenched, ready to act if something attacked them. Pixie followed her.
It was dark, it was another dimension, but that's all Rictor could suss from this trial. The vibes here were way off. Literally, as in he could not feel the usual movement of the earth beneath him. "What is the 'Dark Dimension'?" he asked no one in particular.
Clea said as she came up to a mirror and touched the frame, remembering the story the Ancient One had told her many years ago: "It was a thriving place once. Until Dormammu, a powerful Faltine, and his sister came and took it over. Each of the mirrors were gateways into other worlds, other dimensions. When Dormammu overthrew the ruling family, many of the mirrors were destroyed from the other side to keep him contained, under the order of the Crown Prince, Orini. He survived the massacre of his family and formed a resistance. However, Dormammu's sister, Umar, seduced him and a baby was born from the union." She touched the mirror and a memory played. In it a nursemaid picked up a baby, about a year old, and took off running. 'Don't worry Princess. You will be safe. He will never use you. We'll take you far from here. The memory faded and Clea walked on from the mirror to the next one.
In this memory, it showed the baby being handed to the Ancient One. That wasn't right. She was told she was found abandoned at a hospital. A small tremor shook through the mirror maze causing a crack to form. "The baby was brought over to this dimension." Clea continued, as if she was in a trance now and led the group further down the maze. The baby's white hair had turned red and then she was handed over to the Lakes. "She grew." More mirrors showed memories of Clea's childhood, laughing in the countryside of England, sneaking biscuits from the batch out of the oven that her granny just put out, drawing, and magic. Another vision that Clea had no memory of was another visit from the Ancient One, he was casting something over her and then another tremor shook the mirrors and CRACK!
"And grew." An eight year old Clea with Stephen Strange playing at camp and rescuing Cata, who was just a small kitten. Another memory of the Ancient One. Another CRACK echoed throughout the trial. Clea's coming to the mansion, meeting everyone in the room. Her being pulled into the Dark Dimension. Another Ancient One. CRACK!
They had reached the center and tears were running down her cheeks and she was breathing hard. She was seeing memories she remembered, and others she didn't. "Who am I?" She whispered. One mirror remained but Clea didn't move. The room stopped shaking.
"You're Clea." Amanda rested her hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "You're my former student. My team-mate. You're brave and true."
"We built and maintain a greenhouse together back in our home, in New York, for magic varietals" Rictor offered. "It's hard work because not much is documented so we have to learn on our own, but we're smart and we persevere, and we've succeeded."
"You're our friend," Topaz pointed out. "Someone we can depend on and trust. Which is worth a lot, especially in situations like this."
"You're not defined by your heritage," Pixie added gently.
“You’ve always been willing to answer my questions, and you take the time to explain the things I just can’t get my head around.”
Emily in turn rested her hand on Clea’s arm, wanting her to know they were there for her.
Hearing what her chosen family had said to her gave her a new found strength to take a step forward, but another voice entered the room. A familiar voice. The Ancient One. "You carry the blood of powerful beings. If you break free, there will be no stopping what you become." His voice echoed in the dark room. Clea took a step forward towards the mirror, the strength of her coven behind her.
"I did this to prevent catastrophe. Your heritage is a force of destruction." The thundering sounds of glass breaking in the distance as the voice became more forceful. The room began to tremble again. Clea took another step forward. "I did this to protect you." The voice continued, with each step she took, it continued. "You will be a nightmare unleashed." She stopped when she was in front of the mirror. A flaming crown appeared and his voice echoed again, "You will doom this world."
"Stop telling me who you think I am! You don't know a thing about me. They do. And I don't need you anymore." Clea raised her hand and punched through the glass mirror, surprisingly not harming her in the process, and she grabbed ahold of the Flaming Crown and pulled it through. "I am Clea and no longer will I be held back from the likes of you."
The room shattered, and for a brief moment the group saw another plane, one of floating islands and a dying star. And into view a large being of energy appeared before them, blocking their view of the plane, before it blinked out of existence. Clea winced as floods of lost memories came back to her and the feeling of being unblocked lifted. For the first time since she could remember, she felt like she was no longer stuck and could move forward.
Clea turned to face them all, the flaming crown still grasped tightly in her hands. "I take back what I said Topaz, I'd rather do puzzles then go through that again." She lifted her arm to wipe away the tears that were still falling from her eyes. A door leading out of the trial appeared behind the group.
Amanda gently lifted the crown from Clea's hands and set it on her head, where it flickered for an instant and then vanished from sight. "Whatever happens, you get to choose," she said. "That's what the Ancient Plonker doesn't get. We need to make our choices for ourselves." Then she glanced at the door. "Lead the way, Princess."
