“Apprentice.”
“Yes, master.”
“It’s time.”
I help him up and walk him into his study. He is paper-thin, light like a bird, a wisp of the force I remember from my youth. I can feel the fire burning through him. My second sight, even shielded, cannot block the visions of his power. I help him to his workbench, central seat of his gift.
Only as we draw close can I sense it.
The bracelet. It shimmers in darkness the way his power glows brightly. A cool black metal that flickers like glass, lit from within with a sinister madness. This is my last time to say no.
He sits. His palsy stops once he picks it up. His eyes harden like flint, and his gaze beckons me to sit across from him. The light from the power within him dims. “Once you put this on, you will enter our Order. There is no release, no resistance, no rest from Ouroboros. Her power is complete and unending. Do you understand?”
Of course I do. This is what I trained for the last fifteen years. This decision marks my journey to true power.
“I know that look, boy. You think you are getting what you want. Do you think I don’t know what you’re feeling? I sat there once.”
“Master, I am just eager to begin our work.”
“Don’t be in such a rush to go out and subjugate the world.”
“Master ….”
“Spare me. Your lust for power was the reason you were chosen. Ouroboros requires strong passion, better to harness your gift.”
“Harness my gift?”
“Give me your hand, child. This is not a toy, nor just a tool. It is a weapon coupled with your intent. Fail to harness your intent and it will kill you.”
He rubs the bracelet and taps it on his stone workbench. He taps it again. And again. The flat sound echoes across my senses, first a ripple, then a tide. Then a crack appears in the surface of the stone. Ironwood, once living, now a metallic stone, one of the hardest natural substances, cracks, splinters to dust, with a sound like the world ending. He grabs my hand and his grip is as strong as it was weak moments earlier. The bracelet, now expanded, slips easily over my hand.
All I can feel is the power.
All that I thought I knew about power is erased. My inner energy is as a candle compared to this burning sun. He was right. I had no idea. The things I would do. The metal burns my flesh as it closes tightly on my wrist. As my power grows darker, I can suddenly see his. Always there, it usually could be seen only for a second whenever he would pass before a window and the light hit him just right. Now it is alive, visible, and its energy flies toward me.
“Yes, you can feel the power of Ouroboros and you think, I can do anything. And you are right. But with light comes the darkness. Ouroboros is between all things, so I now give unto you the other side of power: responsibility. The chains that bind this power to your very soul. Each time you partake of her power, you are dying. You will do great things. But whenever you reach beyond what is yours, and ask her for power, your sacrifice will be your time left to live. And you have much to do.”
The black shadow falls on my bracelet, and its light diminishes, flecked with nuances and shades of gray. My vision returns to normal. His grip loosens, and he falls back into his chair, boneless and still. I leap to him over the remnants of his work desk, its power drained into me.
He looks at me, then down to the bracelet. He smiles fiercely. “Chained you again. He’s a strong one. Your scourge will be contained, for a time.” He lifts his head, his eyes rheumy with age. “I’m sorry, Kal.” His whisper barely reaches me.
He dies slumping forward into my arms.
“He was a bitter old man. We will do great things, you and I.”
I could feel her coiled around my heart. Squeezing and settling down like a snake. Making my power her own.
All that light. A radiance that dwarfs my own. It is the life energies of mages she’d claimed before me. I am insignificant to her. She thinks to use me up. I am no more than food to her. I may never be able to be free of her, but I certainly don’t have to give her what she wants. She will earn every meal.
“They all said that. All fell before me. Ambition is a hard taskmaster.” She pauses to let me think on that. She continues: “We have time; there is no rush to get back to taking your world for my own. Let us get to know one other.”
We conspire deep into the night.
Do you see?
Yes, I see.