The Greatest Sin

Olephia walked along her path. She came to a split once again. A large castle on the right, fluffy sheep on the left. She had been in the castle before, she had seen the sheep before. She took another step and sighed. The castle was uphill, the sheep weren’t. It was an easy decision to make.

She turned left. The path behind her disappeared, she knew it did, and it stretched towards the sheep. She walked past them before coming to another split. A cottage on the left, a forest on the right. The forest this time, it provided shade from the sun.

She turned right, walked through the forest and came to another split. Seaside and desert. Desert this time. Another split. Mountains and a refinery. Another split. A zoo and a school. Another split. And another.

How long had she been walking for? She didn’t know. Her feet hurt. She wanted to sit down. Why didn’t she sit down? She didn’t really know. Why did she stay on the path? She didn’t know that either. She just didn’t.

- Olephia’s Divine Dream, Present Day, Present Time.

 

Lyca looked around at the nothingness around them. He saw no floor, no walls, no lights, nothing, but it wasn’t pitch black, the Divine Library had simply disappeared around them. Next to him stood Edmonton, Fleur, Eliza was on his left. Everyone was here, and they weren’t dead… yet. He wished he could get that little yet out of his head.

The woman in the red dress and black cloak reappeared before them. She was holding a steaming teacup. “Who do I have the pleasure of entertaining today?” She asked, her eyes focused on them. Fleur broke down immediately. Lyca wished she hadn’t, but maybe trying to appeal to her sympathy was the way to go.

“Please, we really didn’t mean to…” Fleur took a step forwards and collapsed to her knees in tears. “I really can’t… Please, I’ll forget everything, do anything, just don’t… I can’t die here.” The woman tutted. Fleur lifted into the air, was stood up straight and forced back into line.

“I asked for names, not explanations.” The woman said.

“My name is Eliza Grinhoff.” Eliza took the initiative before Fleur could get sniffle out. “I am a student of Arcadia.” Eliza looked over to Lyca, her eyes begging him to follow along. Lyca put his fist on chest and introduced himself.

“Lyca Myklos, student.” Edmonton merely sighed.

“Edmonton Weaver, student.” The three looked to Fleur. The woman took a sip of tea as the girl kept crying, and then her head jolted to the side with a loud clap. Fleur blinked, her hand going to her cheek as it started to redden.

“I can do that again if you don’t calm down.” The woman said the words as if they were directed to no one in particular.

“Fleur Ambelee, s-student of Arcadia.” The woman gave a nod.

“It’s rare that children come to visit me, what happened?” The four blinked at each other. What happened? Lyca looked to Edmonton, he looked to Fleur, the girl shrugged.

“I don’t know?” Lyca tried to avoid the invisible minefield with tentative words.

“You don’t know?” The woman raised an eyebrow. “So why are you here?”

“We…” Eliza tried to take the lead before her voice faltered.

“We know there’s secret texts in here and wanted to learn.” Lyca said. The woman nodded, the teacup disappeared, she clasped her hands behind her back and faced them.

“Very well. Are you good?”

“Good?” Edmonton asked.

“Talented? Experienced? Gifted? I’m not in the mood for a lesson on language, are you good or are you not?”

“We’re good.” Lyca said and he felt Ed’s elbow from one side, Eliza’s from the other. Fleur whispered some curse he barely caught.

“One of you is confident.” The woman smiled. “Confidence is key.” Lyca gave her a thankful bow and bit himself for doing it immediately.

“What is your name?” He asked. The woman raised an eyebrow.

“Do you deserve to know?” He didn’t need to reply to know the answer to that question. She stretched and sighed. “How good are you?” The four looked to each other. What did she want? Was she actually interested in them? Of all the things Lyca expected from her, it wasn’t this.

“Top of the top.” Lyca finally replied. “Of the students I mean.” He calmed himself down and added that so that she hopefully would give them some leniency.

“And you want to learn?” The woman asked. Lyca nodded. “Very well, touch me with whatever you can conjure and we’ll see if you’re eligible.” Lyca blinked. He turned to his friends. “And I’ll give you some help, you don’t even have to touch me, simply the hem of my dress.” Lyca bit his cheek to stop himself from smiling. Just the hem? Even teachers weren’t that confident against him.

“Can we… have a few minutes to plan?” The woman looked at him dully, as if terribly unimpressed, and then instantly vanished from the black existence they were in.

“WHAT WAS THAT!” Eliza shouted immediately. Fleur finally recovered from the slap across the cheek.

“WHAT DID YOU GET US INTO?” She added her shout. Lyca merely shrugged.

“Do you think I have any idea?” He said.

“Well we’re this far in.” Edmonton said. “And she doesn’t seem to be too… I mean, if she wanted to kill us, we’d be dead already.” He indicated to the dark space around them. “I mean, look at this.” His blue eyes were sparkling with awe.

“AND YOU WANT US TO GO UP AGAINST THAT!” Fleur shouted.

“I don’t think we have a choice at this point.” Lyca pulled out his wand. “More impressive is I can’t feel a thing from it.”

“Wow crazy, a mage is more talented than you!” Fleur said. “Imagine that! Insane, isn’t it!”

“Come on Fleur.” Lyca said. “She’ll obviously give us some leeway. I mean, this isn’t a real test, is it?”

“All it takes is some pretty legs and a nice face? And now you think she won’t harm you?” Lyca chuckled.

“Well those legs do help.” Edmonton slapped the man across the back.

“Be serious. What are we going to do?”

“I mean, there’s only thing to do, isn’t there?”

“What about the illusions?” Eliza asked.

“Deal with them as they come?” Lyca said. “I mean, four against one? And we just have to singe the hem of her dress?”

“What if I make it rain? We could argue one drop is enough” Edmonton asked. The other three nodded.

“Then I’ll heat it up, the steam will count.”

“You’re going to try to trick her like that?” Eliza asked incredulously.

“There’s a reason the best avenue for mages is lawyers after Arcadia.” Lyca flicked her nose and she took a step back. “Besides, what other idea do you have?” Lyca asked, Eliza thought for a moment, hesitated, then shook her head.

“I don’t.” She finally answered.

“There’s another problem.” Edmonton said.

“And that is?” Lyca asked.

“Who is she even?”

“She’s obviously some Goddess.” Fleur said, arms crossed. “You saw the size of her.”

“Goddess of Education maybe?” Edmonton said.

“You think a teacher would be that pretentious?” Lyca asked and then immediately answered his own question. “Actually, we know a few.” That got a few mirthless laughs out of the group.

“But I mean with what she said.” Fleur repeated the woman’s words. “It’s not the Divines you should be worried about? What about that?”

“Maybe she’s a monster or something.” Lyca said.

“HOW CAN YOU NOT BE SCARED?” Fleur shouted, Lyca laughed nervously before he replied.

“I mean, she does have nice legs.” He managed to make his voice not shake as Fleur threw up her hands up with a big sigh.

“So do we wait now or what?” Eliza asked. Lyca took a step forward and shouted into the darkness around them.

“WE’RE READY!”

The woman appeared immediately, exactly where she had stood before. Same red dress, same black cloak and hair, same terrible red eyes staring them down. Same massive size, towering over them. The four pulled out their wands, four sticks of ancient woods, each one’s tip growing a bright colour. The woman merely smiled.

How long did that scene last? Lyca didn’t want to be the first to cast a spell, but if not him, then who? He leaned close to Edmonton and whispered. “Just focus on the… you know.” Ed replied with the tiniest inclination of his head.

“One of you do something or I will kill the lot of you.” The woman leaned on one leg and crossed her arms. Lyca had tested his luck enough today, he wasn’t willing to try and call those words as a bluff. One, two, four, six, ten orange orbs appeared around his wand. The woman raised a curious eyebrow. They circled stick, condensed around the stick and disappeared.

In the next instant, a cone of concentrated flame burst from his wand. It wasn’t a sword of flame, it was an eraser which would incinerate whatever it touched to dust. He wasn’t allowed to use during the school tournaments. It crossed the distance between him and the woman in the blink of an eye. Lyca felt his lip twitch up in pride, and then he had to bite himself from the shock.

The beam of fire was there one moment, in the next, it was simply gone. “Impressive.” The woman said. “Magic has indeed advanced while I was away.” She stood there, unmoving. “Unfortunately, it’s still not good enough.”

Ten beams appeared from nowhere above her. Brighter, thicker, stronger than Lyca’s beams. They hissed through the air lightning, Lyca’s shield start to form and was instantly dismantled by the sheer release of power. He would have fried himself if he went up against that. He stumbled backwards, beating the fire off his clothes. All ten had perfectly hit his heart, all ten merely left his skin reddened. “Naturally, this is unfair, I will give you three extra chances where I will not harm you.” The woman’s voice resonated from around them. “That was your first chance.”

“All of us at one, you do it Ed.”

Edmonton pointed his wand to the sky, his eyes glowing a dark blue as his feet lifted off the air. Light blasted from the stick in his hand, it condensed into a cloud, then coalesced into a ball of water. Fleur ran off to the side, sparks of lightning flying from her wand into the woman, Eliza’s notebook flew from her pocket, it tore into shreds, each shred becoming a tiny needle.

Fleur’s lightning… Lyca watched it, he had faced her before. It was impossible to dodge, you either had a shield up before it began or you were stunned on the spot. Two dozens of those bolts were enough to overwhelm anyone he knew, she fired twice that.

The woman did not even turn. She did not lift a hand. Her eyes did not even follow Fleur. A flash of bloody crimson surrounded her for a blink, it was gone the next, as was the lightning. Fleur let out a shout, fell over and pushed herself up to her knees immediately. “That’s two.” The woman said.

“READY!” Edmonton shouted. The ball of water above his head had grown twice the size of man, bigger even than the woman. Lyca aimed his wand as he saw the orb explode towards the women. Dragon’s breath erupted from his word to superheat the water, Eliza’s tiny little paper needles flew above them, surrounded the woman and cascaded down like a volley of arrows.

Lyca watched the steam cloud engulf the woman. Eliza’s tiny needles burst through the cloud as the steam started to sizzle and crack. Fleur’s lightning hit the cloud and danced like a silk web being dragged by a dozen spiders.

When the crackling was done. The steam cloud started to clear. Not a single of the four students said a word. Lyca expected…. He did not know, it wouldn’t surprise if the woman was lying dead on the ground and it wouldn’t surprise him if they had failed utterly and she had protected herself. Those spells would have killed most of their teachers combined like that.

The cloud became opaque and Lyca blinked. It rose into the air and Lyca had to hold his knees still. Nothing. There was no one there. “Got you.” The woman said from him. She touched Edmonton on the back with a single finger and gave him a light shove. “That’s three.” She took a step. “Impressive work, really, but it’s your poor luck that you came across me.”

Edmonton aimed his wand at the woman. Water poured from it in a stream. It hit an invisible wall, rebounded and launched him backwards. The woman smiled. “Quite smart to escape like that.” She turned to Eliza and finally moved her arms.

Her fingers left a red trail in the air. Lyca felt the hairs on his neck rise from those red blades. There was no protection against that magic. “ELA!” He jumped in front of her and felt the light slash his back open.

“LYCA!” Ella collapsed backwards as the blast launched Lyca into her. “NO!” He silenced the pain on his back, pushed it away and pushed himself off her.

“I’m sorry Eli-AAHHH!!” The words transitioned into a scream. He felt a heel crush his ankle as Eliza’s big brown eyes looked up into his. Tears swelled in them, threatening to overthrow, and something sharp poked Lyca’s chest. A glance confirmed it was Eliza’s wand, stabbed into his side.

“I-I’m sorry.” Eliza said, her eyes locked on Lyca’s. “Forgive me.” He understood what she was about to do immediately and held his gaze firm. On his nod, the wand seared, froze, devoured, poisoned and exploded in his side.

Lyca rolled over and saw the woman standing there, her face clothed in surprise. Those pretty eyebrows looked as if they were about to jump off her face, those crimson eyes had dulled in colour as she looked down at her dress and cloak. They were stained in blood; Lyca’s blood. The woman put her hands down, the red spears of light snapped and disappeared into the thin air as the library returned around them. She finally spoke.

“Very well, you’ve won.”