I wanted to ask so many questions, so badly but I could not. My tongue was tied as I watched the entity that was partly inside me since. I apparently crossed the world of the living to their world. I had passed through a physical gate and landed myself here both body and spirit.
“Am I still alive?” I questioned.
“Yes.” She laughed. “Very much so. Oh how I wished that I could get to spend time with you and know you, my newer self but I cannot. Time has ran out and our world is in jeopardy. Both of our worlds. You need to defeat Mazikeen but for that to happen, we need to go back to the beginning because for the future to be safe once more, the genesis of it all has to be known. Are you ready?” She asked.
I nodded my replied. I have been ready ever since I started this journey.
“Mazikeen did not go out looking for power, he stumbled into it when sadly he was enraged at the gods. The death of his wife prompted him to start looking for something higher, he wanted something other than a god who can help and sadly he found it.”
“There are beings more powerful than gods?” I asked surprised at the news.
“Yes, being a god is just touching the tip of supernaturalism. Mazikeen did not find a normal or a good source of power. He found an ancient evil. One which has been imprisoned and could draw others near himself. He offered Monar, the name Mazikeen bore before he became unnatural, great things and Mazikeen was drawn to the offer. He accepted it but the cost was his humanity. Monar also had a strange human gift too being of the fact that he was of the forgotten world. A world that is fantastical, where beasts and people who lived there were so strong and fantastical that they were like mini gods.” The Golden queen smiled sadly. “My home which I had to destroy before something in it could extend its reach from that world into this one. I could not allow that to happen. Not when this world served as catalyst and point of contact to more worlds that exists.”
“Does the forgotten world have another name?” I asked.
“It did, however when Mazikeen was created because of Monar’s lust for as much power as he could get, the gods stepped in and created someone who could defeat Mazikeen. Me. I was created to grow in power just like how Mazikeen grows too but I am always to be a little ahead of him in level of power. I represents everything which Mazikeen oppose just as he represents everything I opposed but rather, I was not well versed in the issue and so the gods decided to punish not just me but also the world we came from. The name is the forgotten world is forever forgotten and if we want to remember… well I made it worse because how can we remember the name of a place which is supposed to be forgotten itself.”
“Why did you do it, what is your story?” I asked and then watched as tears fell from the eyes of the queen.
“I was beloved by my king but he was only human and like all humans was susceptible to the taint which Mazikeen brought with him. He somehow managed to infect people with the lust for power. Of Magic. Magic is not meant to be restrained or to engorged in but with Mazikeen, only a few could escape.
“I did not know that my King was already that deep in magic. I told him of my plans and he ordered me to stop. I needed to take all magic away from the forgotten world and still keep the world in tact but he killed me instead and so I laid a curse on him and our generation and made the forgotten world the way it is. Northshore was more of a vacation place for my people and we had fled here because of Mazikeen. Although there are various spots in which Northshore is connected with the forgotten world. Passageways between the two world, passage ways which I was weak to close and the same passage ways in which Mazikeen hid in as Magic was sucked out of the world. He had become a being of magic and that made him unable to exist in a place where there was no magic. For his reign to achieve his goals, he has to introduce magic to the world and you need to stop him.”
“So me crossing the borders after I have gotten control of the power which you have given me by you choosing me, I woke magic up?” I guessed and when she nodded, I just needed to ask. “Why me? Why was I the one chosen, why now?”
“The gods needed someone who had characteristics that would make them survive in Mazikeen time against a fight with Mazikeen and apparently, you are the first person since my death who has those characteristics. That makes you the first out of millions of Northshorians who had lived since me.”
“But I am not a Northshorian.” I protested weakly, starting to feel the pressure of everything. I was supposed to save not just the world but also worlds at large, I did not know how I could do it, the burden was getting heavy.
“I know that you are a foreigner but you have to have the blood of a Northshorian somewhere in you for you to be chosen. Sadly, I cannot tell your lineage but maybe you can find out when you succeed.”
“If I succeed.” I mumbled but she shook her head as her eyes became fierce.
“When you succeed because we have no other option. We will not be a failure.” She said firmly.
I stared at her in shock before I smiled. We were really alike. I would never tolerate failure and she is just like me. “How can we succeed when I am like this? I do not even have the knowledge that you do on issues and how to use the power.”
“You do not need that knowledge, not when you will gain extra knowledge from when you eat of the tree. Just one fruit only.” The golden queen replied as she shifted to the side.
I forgot where we were was so focused on Queen Trisha and her story but now that she drew my attention to the surroundings, I saw that it still hadn’t changed much. The tree was much closer. Still glowing in unearthly light but then again, no tree is of the color gold. I went to the tree to pluck a fruit from it but that was when I realized something. Each fruit was calling me out in different ways.
“They mean different powers, don’t they?” I asked the golden queen who smiled and tilted her head in acknowledgement to what I have discovered. I turned back to the tree realizing that I was supposed to choose one all on my own.
The strongest call from the fruits came from an unassuming one. It was the same size as others, nothing special about it but somehow I knew that it was the one for me. It represented me. Without too much doubts on my part, I reached for it and removed it from the tree and took a bite.
And then the burning started. Like I was on fire, I screamed for all my worth as I felt my head was about to explode. I begged for it to stop but it did not, not until after it was done doing whatever it wanted with me and it did not stop for days.
When it did, I was wiser than anything I could imagine. I felt the power and knowledge at my fingertips, I knew what I needed to do to Mazikeen.
“You could have warned me.” I scowled at the golden queen who shrugged.
“I did not know what would happen. You are the first person to become a full goddess, I never achieved that.” Trisha responded.
“I need to go back. Mazikeen has done enough havoc.” I whispered, my eyes staring into the fog.
“I wish you good luck.” Trisha responded but her hand was still on Adela.
“Adela?” I called.
“Her journey has ended Queen Gwenn, all she was supposed to be was a guide to you and that she was.”
I bent at my waist level, something which put me in the same height with Adela as she strutted to me. “I will miss you girl.” I whispered to her.
She gave a small yowl as she butted her head to my chin. I placed my hand on her neck as I hugged her to me. Tears feel as I lost my third ally in Northshore but I understood why she stopped here. She was with her mistress now after all. “Take care of yourself girl.”
With that I turned and walked back into the fog, ready to face my enemy, to end over a thousand year menace.