Ancient Mystic's War of the Realms Saga - Lady Adellandra Dratianos (books to read in your 20s .TXT) 📗

Sichi gasped, then smiled. “Ah, that’s right, they gambled away all their earnings, and, oh, no, even your college tuition! How awful you felt! It was not soon after you were taken from them, forced into a foster home. How did you feel then? Lonely? Abandoned? More?” Sichi taunted, then smiled. “This is where it gets interesting, and your fear begins to grow.”
The darkness was silent for a moment and Jamie held his breath in his world. If he could shake his head, denying Sichi’s taunts, he would have. As it was, he was frozen in his mind, forced to feel all the pain once again.
Julie felt it all with him, but he didn’t know it. He just stood there, caught in the webbing against a tree, blind to the world around him, and blind to her presence. She saw the foster family he went to when he was a child of eight. Too old to be unaware of what was going on and too young to do anything about it.
Sichi continued the story of Jamie’s memories, unlocking doors he’d long forgotten were there. “Your foster family were very abusive, were they not? Do you remember the cage they put you in, forcing you to live in the darkness of your mind?”
Julie saw the bruises and gashes on the young Jamie’s scrawny body. She gasped at the images Sichi forced her to see. She winced when the faceless man that was his foster-father beat him senseless, shoving the whimpering boy down the hole and into the cage.
“Now alone with your own thoughts, you live in your own mind.” Sichi replied. “In your own mind, you are something you could never be; a strong, brave, fierce knight. As a knight, you fought for justice and honor. Soon, even your dream-self was haunted with dark thoughts. You realized early you fought these inner battles alone. You had no one but yourself on the lonesome roads of your mind. That is when the feelings of abandonment and loneliness three-folded.”
Julie wanted to cry, she hurt from watching the scenes play in her husband’s mind. Why was Sichi doing this to him? What was her point?
“You are all alone, Jamie.” Sichi taunted. “Ever alone, but the monsters and demons in your mind.”
Jamie gasped again, remembering his conjured monsters and demons.
“Yes, the monsters you created to destroy your foster parents and take away the abuse. The demons that unleashed their awesome powers on your abusers, freeing you from all hurt and pain. Alas,” the Fear-Wraith continued with a sigh. “Even those very creatures turned their backs on you, doing to you what you commanded they do to your abusers.”
Julie had to speak out. “Stop this, Djinn!”
A stare from the Fear-Wraith silenced her, prohibiting her from saying anymore.
Sichi turned back to Jamie. “What will you do now? There is no one here to help you. Those you thought loved you are now lost. No one is here to save you now.”
The visions from his mind disappeared from hers, and Julie panicked. Oh, Jamie! She thought to him. What am I supposed to do? You have to tell me – show me. How do I get us out of this?
A memory of her own came to mind, and she watched and listened to her clairvoyant vision in silence.

“The Djinn you have to look out for are Fear-Wraiths.” Her cousin Ariana Reading explained.
“What are those?” Julie had asked.
Ariana’s eyes went blank and Julie recognized the look on her face. She’d gone into an involuntary trance, and the only way out of it was through it. “Fear-Wraiths are Djinn that control mortal minds and force them to live their deepest, darkest fears. Unable to speak, think, or even move, they’re frozen in fear. When the Fear-Wraith finally lets go, the mortal’s mind slowly falls away from them, and they go insane.”
“Is there any way to stop it once he’s got you in his spell?” Julie asked when she thought it was safe to do so. “I mean, before he forces them to go insane?”
Ariana nodded. “A Chant of Destruction, backed by willpower, magic, and all the goodness you can muster.”

Julie shook out of her own vision, and the spell came to her mind.
I hope you’re right about this, cousin. Julie thought.
She closed her eyes and summoned all the willpower and good Ancient Mystic Magic she could. She added all the love she had for Jamie Stewart in her mind, melding it into one, powerful Destruction Chant. She opened her eyes and glared right at Sichi’s image.

“I am free. I am clear.
“Be destroyed by your own fear!”

She chanted the spell under her breath. With each repetition, her voice raised, along with the amount of Magic, willpower and love she sent with it. Watching the scene, she continued the chant.
The Fear-Wraith froze, stepping away from Jamie as she screamed. “No! You cannot!”
It was working! Julie thought.
The Fear-Wraith released her magical hold on Jamie, but she didn’t stop chanting until Sichi’s withering form was completely gone.
When she disappeared, the webbing disappeared with her. Jamie slumped to the ground. She wanted to race to him, but was too tired. The Chant had taken a lot out of her.
“I have to heal him.” Julie thought aloud to herself. It gave her the strength to go on.
She knelt next to his unconscious body, holding his upper body in her lap.
“Come on, Jamie, wake up.” Julie said softly, petting his sweat-drenched hair. “I don’t know how to heal inner-wounds. You have to show me.”
She kissed his dry lips, a tear falling from both her eyes to his cheeks. “Don’t leave me, Jamie, please. I need you as much as you need me. I can help take away your fears, but you have to be here to tell me how.”
Closing her eyes and holding him tight, she thought of the Healer’s Magic she needed to heal him. She felt her hands grow warm and opened her eyes. They were glowing, and now, so was his body.
The aura around him was a healing yellow, but was red around his head. She watched as the rainbow of healing colors swirled around his head and body until they dissipated. His aura was white again and Julie grinned, proud of herself.
I did it! I actually healed him!
She watched his face closely, sensing him coming back to her. “Come on, sleepyhead. Time to rise and shine.”
Jamie slowly opened his eyes, seeing her there with his head in her lap. “Jules? What happened?”
“I’ll explain later.” Julie supplied with a grin, brushing the fallen hair from his face before kissing his lips. “Right now, we have to find TJ and Charlie.”
She helped him to stand. “Do you have the strength to change to my gallant knight, Sir Jammins?”
Jamie smiled, closing his eyes and clasping his Dream Locket. In moments, he changed his image, bowing to her. Turning away, he whistled. Out of the forest of trees came his loyal steed. He held his hand out for her to take. “Milady?”
Julie mounted the horse with him joining behind her. He grasped the reins and she held onto the saddle horn. “Shall we?”
“We shall.”
Like all knights and ladies who rode before them on horseback, they rode into the setting sun on a quest.

III

The Djinn god Omri was thrown from Sichi’s mind when she was destroyed, and he wasn’t happy. How could a nearly-unknown Elder Ancient Mystic like her outwit his best Fear-Wraith?
Didn’t matter now, for Omri had another Fear-Wraith standing ready to attack. Hachi was Sichi’s brother, and quite the formidable Fear-Wraith. Unlike his sister, Hachi couldn’t and wouldn’t be thwarted by a mere Ancient Mystic’s puny power.
The Ancient Mystic he sent Hachi to was young, yet, and not fully into her powers.
“Dare not let me down, Fear-Wraith.” Omri growled, receiving a nod from Hachi.
“I will not, my Lord.” Hachi announced.
“I am not your lord!” Omri yelled, sending the Fear-Wraith on his way.
Once Hachi was gone, Omri sat back and waited for the entertainment to begin again.

IV

“Face it, Charlie.” TJ said as they walked hand-in-hand. “We’re lost.”
“Where did they go?” Charlie asked, receiving a shrug of an answer in return.
It was then TJ sensed something near, and felt Charlie tense up.
When she looked at him, she saw a familiar look on his face. He was frozen – again.
“Don’t do this, Charlie.” TJ’s voice shook. “Not here. Not now.”
He wouldn’t answer.
TJ searched the area with her Empathic sensors, trying to pinpoint what froze her brother-boyfriend in his tracks. She saw the rustling of a nearby tree-branch and was drawn to it. She heard a shrilling in the air and covered her ears. From the trees came a shadow of a creature, almost like a ghost, but it was black.
The shrilling was coming from that thing! TJ realized.
The shrilling demon-thing wrapped itself around Charlie’s frozen body, and TJ could see it up close. It resembled a woman wearing a tattered green gown, with long, flowing black hair and ghostly-white skin. She could see blood-red eyes flashing in the thing as it forced Charlie to the ground.
TJ moved closer; afraid of this thing, but courageous enough to tempt it away from Charlie. Her mind racked with thoughts, and came up with one name to call the shrilling-demon. Beansidhe, a banshee. A death-portent faery that signaled a mortal’s death by shrilling a death-song as they devoured their souls. Usually, they would leave the living alone, unless it was for sexual pleasure. They were usually seen on battlefields, their voices heard only by those souls they were going to devour.
She’d read about them plenty, but didn’t know how to stop one from attacking a living soul. She could only watch in apprehension, her body frozen in fear, as the Banshee assumed human form, her body straddling Charlie’s unknowing body as if riding him.
The shrilling grew louder as TJ could only stare at them. To her horror, the Banshee took Charlie’s mouth with its own. She couldn’t move to save him from it, and the thought scared her. Her heart pounded, hurt she was so helpless to her own Protector when he needed her most.
She heard a male voice echoing from afar. “It’s all your fault, you know.” The Fear-Wraith Hachi crooned as he came closer to her. “You made him the way he is. You and your demon powers.”
“That’s not true!” TJ cried, turning to see a genie-looking man standing beside her. She shuddered at the way his eyes searched hers, so demanding, yet so patient. “I am not a demon; I’m an Ancient Mystic.”
Hachi didn’t seem to hear her. “Do you remember when his fear began?” He placed a finger on each of her temples, sending a probe to her mind. “When one of your powers alerted you to the fight he got himself into?”
TJ was almost lost in memories, listening to the genie-looking man’s voice. She didn’t hear hoof-beats coming up behind them.
“Leave her be, Fear-Wraith!”
She was startled out of her trance when she heard the familiar voice of her stepfather.
“Stay out of this, Jammins!” The Fear-Wraith cried.
TJ felt another mental push in her mind, urging her to yet again relive memories from her near-forgotten past.

She had a premonition of Charlie being mortally wounded in a fight. Frightened and hoping she’d make it in time, she fled to him in the middle of a fist-fight with a local bully. For a minute, she just stood there, watching the fight. That’s when she saw the glint of steel on the bully’s waistband.
It was a knife!
As