Throughout history, people have chased the dream of living forever, or at least extended life.
The Fountain of Youth. The Holy Grail. The Pools of Lazarus. The Ancient City of Ubktor.
But if anyone had actually lived for thousands of years, they would know it was much more a curse than a blessing.
Everyone you love dies around you. You have to constantly move around, remake your identity, keep the tumble of lies straight. You become irritated at the impatience of those who live such trivial life spans compared to yours. Continental wars, plagues, technological innovations — all trivial and just par for the course when you’ve seen civilizations rise and fall.
So when the witch out of time saw her own end, she welcomed it with a deep exhale of relief.
Kat (the name she was going by in this decade) was tracking a branch of
The curse that had kept her alive since she was born over 46,000 years ago was humming, almost speaking to her. Her ancient bones quivered as the magik inside of her began to bubble up. Even though she was sitting in the middle of a park in the outskirts of Kyoto, she knew what people thought of her wouldn’t matter anymore, and she let the mana flow.
On the other side of the world, a man wearing a robe and a green skull mask stood atop a mountain, surrounded by other masked and cloaked people. The standing man’s chest was bare, revealing a huge tattoo of a circle with seven spokes radiating out from a central eye.
In a pentagram of black candles was a pile of dead bodies. Blood spilled out, running into rivulets that formed glyphs from a long-forgotten language.
The man in the skull mask began to chant, and his hands began to glow with bright green light. The light turned blood red, and he suddenly reached into thin air, grabbing and twisting it, distorting reality itself.
A tear in space began to form, and a rainbow of light began to shine from the meter-long opening. From the blood glyphs on the ground chains of black energy emerged like snakes being called from a tamer’s basket. The black chains slowly rose into the air, and then shot into the glowing tear in reality.
A woman’s scream was heard, and the chains began to retract slowly and a woman cloaked in white began to be pulled from it, the black chains phasing into her limbs and torso. The woman continued to scream as she was pulled down through the portal and on top of the pile of corpses.
The masked demonologist crossed his hands suddenly, and the chains then began to melt into the woman’s body. She screamed one last time and suddenly fell silent and still, and the candles all extinguished themselves.
As smoke drifted up around him, the demonologist walked up to the woman.
“Lilith, you’re finally ours.”
Kat embraced the surge of mana and she rose into the air, levitating as bright green energy surged from within her body, light pouring from her eyes, nose, and mouth.
She was sure there would be a crowd taking pictures and video, but suddenly her mind was suddenly in 6,660 different places at the same time, and none of those places was the park her body was floating in.
The stimulation was overwhelming.
She was deep inside a cave, being lowered into a black abyss of darkness by climbing rope.
She was screaming in a maternity ward while giving birth.
She was drinking a cocktail on a First-Class flight into Singapore.
She was in a bedroom in Toronto, kissing a different version of herself in a bedroom in Toronto.
She was sitting in an office listening to an old man yell at everyone.
She was in four hundred twenty-seven stores, three thousand seventeen dwellings, sixteen hundred eighteen forms of transportation, nine hundred fifty office buildings, five hundred fifty-five health centers, and ninety-three outdoor locales spread out throughout the globe. All at the same time.
Kat struggled to take in all the information, and it took all of her focus and will to barely utter a single word in the First Language.
She hoped it would be enough.
She was suddenly back in her own body, just in time to be vaporized by the energy flooding out of her cells, tearing apart her corporal form.
Kat found herself, disappointingly, in a bright green void of swirling energy.
She was wearing all black, and had glasses on even though she had always had perfect vision. An amethyst necklace and a black lace choker both hung around her neck, and on her head was a stereotypical witch’s hat. In her forehead was a rune drawn in blood.
She didn’t even know how she knew what she looked like, but somehow she knew. A presence suddenly made itself known behind her, and as Kat turned, a woman with dark skin and long curly hair suddenly appeared next to her. The woman was wearing a long, loose white gown stained with fresh blood and black chains wrapped around her body.
Kat gritted her teeth, her body tensing with a flood of different emotions.
The woman in white smiled softly, and with tears in her eyes began to speak.
“Helene, the prophecy is upon us. Thank you.”
“Lilith, I- what happened to you? And I haven’t gone by that name in over ten thousand years.”
Lilith chuckled. “No, of course you haven’t. It’s been far too long..Kat. And I’m sorry for what I’ve asked of you.”
“I haven’t seen you in over four thousand years, and now I explode and you’re chained up, and now you’re apologizing? How am I supposed to deal with any of this?” Tears welled up in Kat’s glowing eyes and she felt her fists clench and burn with the familiar heat of the mana she was instinctively beginning to draw into them.
“It’s unfair to ask anyone to live so long, to be of service with no end in sight. You have every right to be angry with me, but we both know that this is beyond both of us. Someone as beloved by mana as yourself could have long ago undone the spell that bound you to this service. But there is a part of you that never stopped believing in the cause, no matter the pain it has caused you over the millennia. The fact that you’re here with me now is proof that you still believe.”
Kat opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She felt a wave of anger and loss and grief and frustration built over thousands of years boil up inside of her, and she let out a scream. As if in response, a green inferno erupted around them, a heatless explosion of magical fire full of emotion but lacking any intent to harm.
When the scream faded from her lips, Kat folded in two and knelt on the floor, tears streaming from her eyes. As she sobbed, Lilith moved to comfort her, but the chains held her firmly in place, tethering her to where she stood.
A minute passed. Kat cursed, removed her glasses, and wiped her eyes. She sniffled a bit, and then stood.
“God, this is so hard. You probably don’t have much mana left, do you? I mean, you’re all chained up. That means they got you, right?”
Lilith nodded. “Indeed, the Order has begun the endgame. Their head cultist is cunning. He plays multiple roles in the cult — from clown to king, and he is vastly much older than he lets on. He used all of his manipulations and tricks to finally find the Scroll of Lok’Shiar’s Bindings. He’s currently siphoning my energy to create portals directly into the Abyssal Void, and my time here is limited.”
“I understand all of that — it’s what we figured would happen anyway given the Prophecy of the Doom. But I’m confused as to why I’m still here. I’ve been waiting for the end for so long now, and I’ve done my job — I’ve called all of them to come out of hiding and fight. Why am I still alive?”
“You’re not. We’re currently in a pocket outside of time and space. With your chronomancy you’ve brought our consciousness here even as your corporeal form is disintegrating.” Lilith smiled. “You’ve done well, and more than anyone could have ever asked of you. Now, it’s up to our sisters to heed the call and take action. Your time of rest is finally here. You just need to let go.”
“Will you be alright?”
“My fate, and that of the universe is not up to me, or to you, my sweet Helene. It’s up to the choices of the women who have been misunderstood since I was first blessed by the seven Creators. Will they choose to fight for a world that fears them? Will they be strong enough to stop the Seven Who Feed? We both know that these answers are not up to us, and will never be known to you.”
Kat smirked a bit, and looked away. She watched the twisting energy all around her and surprised herself that there was no longing for the past. With her tens of thousands of lives she had led, she was finally ready to stop living and fade back into the essence of the universe.
“Funny. Even after all of this — the rage, the pain, the frustration , everything the world has done to them— I actually do know the answer to that.”
The two women smiled at each other.
“Good-bye, Helene.”
“Farewell, Lilith.”
Kat closed her eyes, released her spell, and smiled.
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The Witch Out of Time
