Strange visions of faraway places floated through Newt’s mind.

Two armies clashed upon a battlefield. Swords and spears, arrows and cannonballs created havoc.

Blazing fire rained from the clouds instead of water drops. Lightning struck at carriages and trenches.

In a massive throne room, a woman in gold, eyes ablaze with hate, ranted and screamed, while a boy in purple robes cowered and concealed his tears.

In a dank cavern strewn with open books and unfurled scrolls, the boy stood beside a doorway. Wisps of Darkness curled around him from the Dark World. He smiled.

Darkness swept across the battlefield. Swords and armour turned to rust. Cannons and carriages fell to pieces. Flesh melted from the bones of warriors.

Four old men with beards and robes pointed their gnarled wooden staves at the boy. The gems embedded in the staves emitted an eerie light, the glowing embrace lifting the boy from the ground and hurling him through the doorway into the roiling depths of the Dark World.

 

‘Wake up, Newton. Wake up.’

Consciousness returned, bringing with it a pounding headache and overall grogginess.

Newt groaned.

Her face hurt.

She opened her eyes.

Lifting her head, her vision swam. Her right cheek was aching.

That’s where I hit the floor when I fell, she thought. I fell. Why did I fall?

And then she remembered.

She scrambled to her hands and knees, trying desperately to look over her shoulder. The spider. It had jumped at her. Was it still there? Clinging to her back?

‘Calm down,’ said a voice inside her head. ‘Please, try not to panic. I won’t harm you.’

The voice was female. Gentle. Kind. Quite young. Like a kid’s voice.

‘This is Moppet. I’m very sorry that I scared you. It was not my intention.’

Newt stared down at the floor, her breath in ragged gasps, as she tried to calm down. The spider – it was talking to her. Its voice was inside her head. How was that possible?

‘I’m not a spider. At least not what you would think of as a spider. I am a familiar. A channeller of magic. And I need your help. Your world and this, all worlds, depend on it. You must calm down and listen.’

Still looking at the floor, Newt took a few deep breaths before speaking. ‘Okay. Okay. I’m listening. But …’ She hesitated, not sure if she really wanted to know the answer to what she was about to ask. ‘Are you on my back?’

‘Yes.’

Newt’s breathing quickened again and she clenched her fists. She had never been overly scared of spiders, but neither did she like them. And the idea of a great, big, hairy one attached to her back upset her a lot more than she thought it should.

‘Calm down.’

‘It’s okay. I’m okay. I’m calming down.’ She took a really deep breath and let it out slowly. Then another. And another. ‘See. Calming down.’

‘Good. Are you ready to listen?’

‘Yes.’ Newt pushed herself up into a sitting position. She couldn’t feel anything on her back. But she was too scared to look over her shoulder and check, just in case it freaked her out. ‘So … what do you want to tell me?’

‘Stygian’s real objectives.’

Newt remembered her visions. ‘Does it have anything to do with what I dreamed?’

‘Yes. I put those images into your head. They are from the past.’

‘Okay. So what is Stygian up to?’

‘He does not want to stop the Darkness. He wants to release it. To set it free. To destroy everything.’

This whole situation seemed so unreal. Newt had come to terms with other worlds and her teacher being a mad scientist and the Darkness. But … now a spider was telling her that a boy mage was going to unleash destruction on … everything!

‘Why?’ she finally asked. ‘Why would he do that?’

‘His mind is broken.’ Newt thought the spider’s voice sounded genuinely grief stricken. ‘He was thrust into the position of Queen Xanxia’s Mage of War at a young age, just after his father’s assassination. He failed to please her. In desperation he sought out the black scrolls and their forbidden knowledge. He opened a doorway into the Dark World. He sent forth the Darkness over the battlefields. But the Darkness did not differentiate between one side and the other. There was no winner. His actions united the mages and they banished him into the Dark World.’ She paused. ‘And as his familiar, I with him.’

‘What happened?’

‘We were trapped there, in a world without time. We did not age, while the centuries passed in our world. All we had was our thoughts. And Stygian’s thoughts turned as dark as the world we were in. He is but a shell of the boy who … who was my friend.’

It sounded to Newt like the spider was crying.

‘The Darkness turned him evil?’ asked Newt.

‘No. It is he who poisoned the Darkness.’

‘The Darkness isn’t evil?’ Newt was confused.

‘The Darkness is neither good nor evil. It simply is. The anger and hate is Stygian’s.’

‘So, he’s the evil,’ said Newt.

‘He is broken.’ There was so much sorrow and anguish in Moppet’s mind voice. ‘I miss my friend.’

‘Are you okay?’ asked Newt.

‘I am tired,’ said Moppet. ‘I am exhausted from fighting him. He has spent his time in the Dark World trying to let it loose. And I have spent my time stopping him. When we arrived in this world I got away from him as soon as I could.’

‘What do you want me to do?’ asked Newt. She instinctively felt that she could trust Moppet. It both surprised her and comforted her. If someone had told her, even a day ago, that she would come to trust a giant magical spider over a scientist, she would have laughed at them. But a lot had changed in a short time.

‘You must keep him from me. As long as he and I are apart, he cannot perform magic. And if he cannot perform magic, he cannot unleash the Darkness.’

‘So you’re the one with the power?’ asked Newt.

‘No. Neither a mage, nor a familiar have any power on their own. Only when together, can magic be woven. Many have the potential for magic, few will find a familiar with which to weave it.’

CLANG!

‘The door,’ said Newt. ‘They’re here. Go and hide. I’ll try to get rid of them.’

Newt felt movement at her back and then heard scuttling as Moppet ran off.

‘Newt. Are you there? Are you okay?’ Rowan’s voice echoed around the warehouse.

‘Fine,’ she called, as she got to her feet and walked down the aisle to the entrance.

Rowan stood by the door with Dr Bloom and Stygian.

‘Sorry we took so long,’ Rowan apologised. ‘Stygian was … still a bit unsteady on his feet.’

‘Did you find Moppet?’ asked the mage eagerly.

‘No. Sorry, I didn’t. I thought I had, but it was just a rat.’

‘What happened to your face?’ asked Rowan. He reached for her cheek, but stopped himself before touching her. He pulled back, embarrassed.

‘The rat scared me,’ said Newt, thinking fast. ‘I stumbled and fell.’

‘Are you sure that creature isn’t in here?’ asked Dr Bloom.

‘Pretty sure,’ said Newt. ‘I’ve been up and down every aisle. I think she might have gone the other way, past the broken elevator.’

Stygian stared searchingly into Newt’s eyes. It made her feel uncomfortable and she looked away.

‘Well then, we had better search the other end of the corridor,’ said Dr Bloom, as she ushered them out of the warehouse. ‘You go ahead. I need to dig out some other equipment that might help us.’

Newt was about to protest, but the Doctor stepped back into the warehouse and shut the door in her face.

As Stygian headed off down the corridor, Rowan put a hand on Newt’s arm. They hung back.

‘They’re up to something,’ whispered Rowan. ‘They were talking excitedly when I came to get them, but stopped the moment they saw me. And then they wouldn’t come back to the warehouse straightaway. Bloom said Stygian wasn’t strong enough yet and needed to rest. But he looked fine to me. She then went off to fiddle with her equipment.’

‘It’s a whole lot worse than you think,’ hissed Newt. ‘I need to talk to you.’

Allowing Stygian to go on alone, Newt and Rowan slipped into the kitchenette. Brian looked up from the espresso machine, grunted and gave them a thumbs up.

Newt filled Rowan in, Brian watching intently, feather duster in hand.

Rowan was white as a sheet by the time Newt had finished.

‘Seriously?’ he said, his voice shaky. ‘Everything. This world? His world? Our world?’

‘Uh-huh.’

Brian moaned.

‘What are we going to do?’

‘We need to make sure they don’t find Moppet.’

‘Got it!’ Dr Bloom’s triumphant voice echoed from the warehouse.

They rushed to the door to see Dr Bloom carrying Moppet out in front of her by one leg. The spider’s body was limp, its other seven legs curled in on itself as if it were dead.