Trials of a Planeswalker Ch. 02: Fall

Varia didn't give a moment's thought, the second the vampire was on her feet, she reached out with her Sangromancy and took hold of her body. The vampire started in shock as her body refused to listen to her. Varia smiled widely, "I have seen things you can't imagine Vampire. You are naught but a trifle on my voyage. I told you to leave, you didn't listen. Now join your sister in eternal sleep."

She clenched her fist and blood exploded from every inch of the vampire's body. Her lifeless husk fell to the ground amid a gory shower of her lifesblood. Varia grinned widely. Her powers had grown immensely since she had become a Planeswalker. Before she could barely fight one or two vampires on even footing. Now she felt like she could take on a dozen without injury.

Just then, another vampire that Varia hadn't noticed standing on the wall of the manor called out, "The twins have been slain! Help! There is a vampire hunter out here!"

"Shit!" Varia cursed, turning. With a single leap, she jumped over the river and started her mad sprinting again. Against the night sky behind her, two dozen dark figures rose into the sky and sped after her. She knew they would chase her and she hoped to be out of their sight by the time they came, but they were quicker than that. The vampires gave chase and caught up with her before even a league had passed. One of them stopped in front of her and they quickly surrounded her.

"You dare come into our land and kill two of my precious daughters." The man in front of her said, his white fangs glistening in the dim moonlight. He was wearing a black leather outfit with a heavy cloak over his shoulders. He produced a short sword from within his cloak and took a slash at her.

Varia responded with a loud cry, clenching her eyes shut and letting out a huge blast of golden light. Before they could recover, she leapt on one to her left and hacked his head in twain. They hissed and ran towards her, eyes bleeding from the holy light that had pierced them. Gathing up all the power she could, she grabbed two of the vampires with her magic and drained their bodies of blood. It encircled her and formed a protective barrier that stopped the vampire's vicious assault. She made it flow and churn around her, keeping them at bay from all angles. Finally, after a few more failed attacks, the vampires fell back in a tight circle around her, just as she had hoped.

She spun the circle of blood around her waist until it formed a sharp disk. Then it burst outwards like a terrible red hallow. Even against the undead, the power of her Sangromancy was great. She cleaved at least a dozen of them, draining their bodies in the process. Then an older woman, likely the lead vampire's wife, landed in front of her. When the vampire matriarch raised her hand, Varia felt the blood grow stiff. She was a little surprised to see the vampire was completely naked and very busty. Her extremely pale skin gave a sort of pure beauty to an otherwise horrid abomination of the night.

"You are skilled blood magic, but we are vampires. Blood is everything to us." She hissed with a sinister, leering smile. With a twist of her wrist, she condensed the blood into a hard rod and smashed Varia upside the head with it. Lights flashed before her eyes and she slumped to the ground.

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CHAPTER 28 - MEMORIES AND SPIRITS

Blayne stood at the edge of the glimmering Lethe Lake. He felt hollow, empty of anything of importance. He had no idea why. For that matter, he didn't really know anything. He knew his name was Blayne, the strange man in a blue robe told him as much. The man also said that Blayne was a powerful magician known as a Planeswalker. He was on a quest to save his world and all the people he loved. To do that, he had to dive into this mysterious lake and find something called a 'Sapphire Mox'. The blue robed man had put a spell on Blayne that allowed him to breath under water. Around his shoulders hung a cloak that the man said was enchanted to keep him warm even in the deep, frigid waters of the lake.

Aside from this, his few memories included the name Varia. The man had told him that was the name of his wife. Blayne knew he was telling the truth because he felt a deep longing to see that woman again. He couldn't remember what she looked like, but the man assured him that all his memories would be returned once he came back with the Sapphire Mox. Apparently the lake was dangerous and known to eat away memories, so the cloaked man had sealed away Blayne's to keep them safe.

"Well, here goes nothing." Blayne sighed, leaping off the steep cliff. There was a moment of shivering free-fall as the heavy cloak fluttered all around him, and then his feet hit the freezing water. It made his entire body bristle from his toes to the tips of his hair. The memories the man had planted in his head showed him where to start, as this cliff-side was as near as he could get to the sunken school before entering the lake. The water closed in over his head and he fought the urge to swim back up to breath. Instead, with incredible willpower, he breathed in the cold water around him. There was a moment of panic as it passed down his throat. Instead of drowning him, it seemed as refreshing as chilly morning air. His ears popped loudly as they filled with water and the pressure pushed in on them.

The water was fairly dark. The area around Lethe Lake seemed to always be covered in dark clouds. He raised his hand and did as the cloaked man had instructed him, looked deep within himself for power. When he found it he drew it out, imagining what he wanted to happen. He felt a strong, bright power surge through him and a glittering orb of light appeared before him. It lit the water brightly and he could see the muddy lakebed beneath him. He had definitely cast spells like this before: it seemed almost instinctual.

Blayne couldn't see more than thirty feet in the murky waters, but that was enough to know he was headed downward. He needed to go towards the middle of the lake. The school had been built atop the water with the use of magic and strong stone pillars. Neither he nor the man in the cloak knew what the school looked like, only that it had once been there and collapsed into the lake for some reason. The few books the man had read about the school told of a powerful gem, used by the headmaster for the greatest spellcrafting anyone had ever seen. Yet the school faded out of existence close to five centuries ago, around the time that the legend of Lethe Lake was born.

Water filled his mouth and nose, tingling all through his head. But with the magic that enchanted him, it felt right. The silence was the worst part of being underwater. Above it, he heard the wind rustle the grass and the waves from the lake lap on the shore. Down here, the only thing he could hear was the beating of his own heart. He took another breath of water and started to walk, feet sinking haphazardly into the muddy lakebed. For the better part of an hour, he trekked downward into the lake.

He went deeper and deeper until the ruins of the school came into view. It was constructed entirely of stone and mostly intact. He could see empty doorways and windows, the wood long since rotted away. What little he could see at this depth stood at a bit of a tilt. The school had settled into the mud of the lakebed unevenly. Inside the school, mud considerably thinner on the stone floors. It was eerie inside that sunken building. He had the strangest feeling he had been in an old ruin like this before, and that it hadn't ended well.

With a wave of his hand, Blayne sent the orb flying ahead of him to light the long hallway. Room after room he searched, looking through an entire wing of the school as quickly as he could. Each room was just as empty as the last, barely a few old pieces of metal still clinging to existence amidst the mud and muck. It was difficult to imagine this place had ever been a school, but then again he couldn't remember what a school should look like. He continued on, heading ever deeper. He reached what could've been a sort of common area. There were stone benches, either broken or sinking. A few doorways led into different wings of the school. Blayne opened the one closest to him and headed down the hallway.

The cloak seemed to be working, for as chilly as the water was around him and in his lungs, it didn't seem to sap the warmth from his body. He also finally understood how to walk underwater: he was no longer floating half to the ceiling with each step. Now the extra water in his body pulled him down. The wet clothes and cloak also added weight.

The wing he entered took more than two hours to search through. It was likely the dormitory, because the rooms were smaller and more packed together. He came across quite a few fish living there. They barely paid him any mind unless he got too close to them. Then they would zip away faster than he could blink.

Blayne returned to the common area and chose another wing of the school, the third out of four. This one seemed a little more promising because as he headed down it, he began to feel strange. There was something going on here he couldn't explain. Weird sensations passed over his body, ghosts of people that once walked those halls seemed to appear and glide past him. He began to remember things, things that weren't his to remember. The memories were mostly nonsense, ebbed away to little more that sensations and emotions after so many centuries. Sometimes he would catch a thought that wasn't his own or his mood would suddenly change. One second he was walking down the hall, scared that he didn't do his homework, the next he felt all jittery because the most handsome boy in the class had looked at him and winked.

Multiple times he had to stop, shake his head and go over the cloaked man's instructions again. He found it helped if he constantly repeated his name in his head: Blayne, Blayne, Blayne... These emotions and feelings weren't his. He was Blayne: he would know exactly what that meant when he left here. He was Blayne: none of those ancient or strange memories belonged to him. Blayne, Blayne, Blayne...

Without noticing, he bumped into something he hadn't seen before. It was a large oak door, untouched by the ravages of time and standing strong against any intruders. Blayne reached out and tried the knob. It refused to turn. He tried to use magic on it. The door resisted all attempts to be magically opened or damaged. Finally he sunk down and sat in the lake mud that had gathered around the base of the door. His shimmering magelight hung in the water near the ceiling, shining a pale light all around the hallway.

Closing his eyes, Blayne tried to think. He couldn't remember anything specific about magic, didn't know rightly how to use it besides just through instinct and sensation. Another memory entered his head and derailed his train of thought. This time terror filled him as a sensation of falling overcame his body. He tried to scream in the water, this memory was powerful and it almost completely engulfed him. Without his own memories to think of, it started to affect his personality. He repeated his name again and again. He remembered the cloaked man, remembered his journey to the school. He thought of his leap from the cliff-side. The invading memory started to fade. He was left breathing heavily and if he wasn't underwater he would likely be sweating.

Then it hit him: perhaps there was a memory in the water around him that pertained to the door. Maybe something that could tell him how to open it. He sat upright and focused his mind. He cleared it of any distractions and focused solely on breathing. Something told him he had done this before, a lot. He thought of nothing and began to reach out. The memories were like leaves floating on a current around him. He plucked at one and examined it. It had nothing that he was interested in, so he pushed it away. Time and again, he looked at memories around him. Some intimate, some inconsequential. Some were from students and teachers while others were about people who had visited the lake. Explorers that wanted to map the ruins, adventurers that thought the lake might hold treasure. All of their memories had been eaten away and left to float around the lake.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, he stumbled upon a memory from someone he assumed to be the headmaster. After five hundred years there was not much left, but what he could understand gave him what he needed. The door had a sort of magical puzzle on it that, if one could navigate it, would unlock the door. He leapt to his feet as best he could underwater and turned on the door. His hands pressed to it, he reached out with his magic. It found openings in the door and he pushed into them. Inside was a nightmare labyrinth of magical tunnels and passageways. For almost an hour he sat there, trying to find his way through the maze. After the last dead end, he had almost lost hope, when he turned on a different passage and felt the locking mechanism just ahead of him. He pushed his stream of magic into it and pulled. The lock clicked and the door creaked opened silently.

With a shuddering breath, he put his hands on the door and pushed. It opened to a room that shouldn't exist. Right in front of him, the mud and murky water ended: the water crystal clear. It was a headmaster's office all right. It was in pristine condition without a single bit of decay. The walls were full of beautifully crafted leather books. The table was still set with three teacups and a pot of tea. On the desk at the end of the room sat his goal: the deepest, most beautiful sapphire he had ever seen. It glimmered in the clear, clean water and a gentle light pulsated from it.

Behind it sat a man. Not a rotting corpse but an intact, whole man. If his eyes hadn't looked so empty, Blayne would've thought he was still alive. His hands were clasped around the sapphire and there was a certain sense of desperation still on his face.

Finally Blayne gathered the courage to step over the threshold. It was like being thrown into a maelstrom of madness. All around him surged billions of memories, his entire being was assaulted by the passing thoughts and emotions. He cried out soundlessly in the water and grabbed his head, 'falling' forward as he tried not to go crazy. His mind couldn't cope with the memories stolen from an entire school of students along with five hundred years of any and every passerby.

Greed. Hunger. Desire. Happiness. Joy. Sadness. Depression. Theft. Murder. Sex. Rape. The emotions and thoughts were endless. He lay on his side, twitching painfully as his mind continued to struggle. He frantically tried to hold together what little remained of his memories and consciousness. He continued to say his name, over and over again for an hour he tried to fight off the churning psychosis. Just when he was ready to give in, a name came to his mind, one that the man in the cloak had never told him, but was etched onto his very soul.

[i]Robin.[/i]

His mind fell to silence, like the ringing of a bell over a quiet morning. [i]Robin.[/i] It reverberated around him and the memories suddenly seemed powerless. [i]Robin.[/i] He thought it again and his mind became clearer. [i]Robin.[/i] He regained his feet. [i]Robin.[/i] He could walk forward and put his hands on the desk. [i]Robin.[/i] The name meant nothing to him, but at the same time it seemed the entirety of his existence was devoted to it. [i]Robin.[/i]

His hands reached out and touched the Sapphire. The corpse's hands slipped away and he lifted the plum-sized sapphire from the desk. The memories all around him seemed to give a shrill cry and surge outward from the room. Free of the enchantment, the lake filled with the billions of memories that had been trapped in this room, giving it a shining, glittering blue appearance. From the surface, the lake seemed to shine like the night sky, pinpricks of blue light dancing across its surface. From that day forth, anyone who came to the lake would no longer be torn apart at their very center, but instead be treated to a beautiful show of lights across the lake. The sensation of all those memories would sometimes touch passing minds and they would feel the happiness, sorrow, rage and desire of thousands swirling within the lake. Sometime after Blayne's departure, a scholar would visit the lake and note the change, and eventually Lethe Lake would be renamed 'The Lake of Memories'.

*******

Varia woke up slowly. Her head was groggy and the back of it throbbed painfully. Her eyes didn't want to open and she didn't rightly mind, any bright light right now would be agonizing. She was content to try and remember her situation. She was on Innistrad, she had been going to Sorin Markov's castle, deep within Stensia, in an attempt to contact him. She had been halfway to her goal, when she had come across two vampire sluts by accident. They challenged her and she fought them... then more vampires... she couldn't remember much after that.

But that was enough. She knew now where she was. She had been captured: the manacles around her arms and legs were proof enough. She opened her eyes and found a very dimly lit dungeon around her. She was chained to the ceiling, her entire body naked. Lucky for her, the manacles had a fur lining in them, though she couldn't imagine why. It seemed a waste to try and give your prisoners any sort of comfort.

Her feet were only a few inches off the ground, but it was enough to make any attempt to pull on the chains above her a fruitless effort. With her ankles chained tightly enough to prevent her legs from lifting more than an inch or two. Her magic could easily melt her bindings, but she had been in a Vampire's dungeon before. Their restraints were always enchanted to prevent such tampering. Escaping would be difficult.

That didn't stop her from trying. She cast her magic at the chains and found her power rapidly fleeing from her body. The chains glowed brightly with purple light and her limbs grew weak. She fought off the devouring magic and was left panting heavily at the exertion. Whatever enchantment had been cast on these chains not only made them immune to magic, but also caused them to siphon magic from her when she tried to use it. An ingenious spell, but that didn't mean it was invincible.

"Fuck." She cursed quietly. She looked around the room for anything that could help. Her long mane of red hair was matted with blood from her injured scalp and she shivered a bit in the cold. Varia was a little annoyed that the vampires had even taken her underwear. She went without it half the time, especially when wearing skirts: no underwear just seemed fun and free. But the issue here was that the dungeon was very chilly: her nipples were already hard from the cold. A few degrees colder and she would be able to see her breath condense in front of her.

Somewhere down a hallway a heavy wooden door could be heard opening and closing. There was the soft patter of bare feet on stone. Then the door to Varia's cell opened and a naked woman walked in. She was the same pale, curvy vampire matriarch who had stopped her sangromancy.

"You are quite the persistent little bitch, aren't you?" She said, seeing Varia awake.

"Oh go fuck yourself." Varia scoffed dismissively.

"After killing two of my dear daughters and more than a dozen of my sons you have the gall to curse at me while you're in chains. You must be very courageous and very stupid." The vampire woman said, stepping closer, "Especially considering what I'm going to do to you."

She ran a tongue up Varia's cheek and put her hands on her hips. Varia forced herself not to react to the touch, unnerving as it was to have a vampire this close to her neck.

"I don't honestly believe you have the power to hold me." Varia whispered coldly in the vampire's ear as she stepped back.