... The coming of Seven

What happened between us waking up and now I don’t want to go into, it was boring as shit. Just walking around, some talking to people at the Town Hall, and now... Well, this.

“That’s certainly a big house...” Ardiente said from right next to me. “How could it have been so cheap?”

“Well,” I told her, “apparently it’s “haunted” and no one wants to buy it. So, they lowered the price hoping to sell it.”

“You don’t think it could be a Sentiment, do you?” Jav asked me.

I shrugged, “Could be. If so, then Mary and Sira have a chance at getting a power. We’ll never find out if we stay out here though, so let’s head in.”

I guess I should describe the house a bit. It was a few good stories tall with maybe three floors in total, not counting a possible basement. The whole thing was stone and wood on the outside, not giving it much in the way of appearance. The strange thing was the condition of the house. It was nearly in perfect shape, no broken windows, no rotted wood, no apparent problems. Despite me being told that no one had been near the house in ten years, it looked like someone had come by all the time to fix it up.

Entering through the front door, I saw that the inside was in just as great shape as the outside. Furniture, walls, decorations, everything was perfect preserved, even after the ten years of abandonment.

“Jesus, this place looks pretty great for being untouched for so long,” Jav said.

I nodded in agreement, “Yeah, kinda strange if you ask me.”

We walked through the house in silence, looking through all of the rooms it had. There were at least fifteen fucking bedrooms, including a master bedroom on the third floor, and two bathrooms per floor. All of the rooms were furnished, kept in great condition, and had working electricity and running water.

The basement was pretty big, much bigger than the house itself. The walls went back at least ten more feet compared to where they stopped on the above floors. It was split into four areas; a room for washing clothes, a storage area, a large main room, and an entertainment area.

After we were done, we stopped in the living room and sat around on the couches and chairs. Looking around at the big house once more, I asked out loud, “Why in the fuck is this house like this? It’s huge and in great condition, but no one has offered to but it? It was only, what, twenty thousand? I remember you telling me that that’s not too high of a price for a house, Ardiente, so what the hell?”

“Well, you did say that you were told the price was knocked down because ponies thought it was haunted.” Ardiente said.

I threw my arms into the air, “That doesn’t seem like much of a fucking reason! What could possibly be haunting this place that would make people not want to buy it!?”

My answer wasn’t from anyone, but instead came as a blood red sword swinging in an arc right in front of me, hitting me in the forehead. A large clanging sound rang through the room as it impacted and bounced off my skull, but not before leaving a cut in my skin.

I looked up to see... I guess it is a Sentiment then.

It was a human man that stood at about six feet and wore black dress pants and a red dress shirt. In his hands he held a sword, it’s blade dripping with blood that disappeared after falling a few inches off the blade.

I blinked, “Well, I guess that’s what was haunting this place. Huh, guess you were right Jav- WHOAH!” I rolled to the side as the Sentiment swung it’s blade again. I stopped and stood, glaring at it as I activated my claw.

“I was wanting to try this since I did it in Manehattan, and now I actually have a name for it... Restriction level one, released.” Dark red energy burst from my body as my claws elongated and curved inward. I glared at the Sentiment once more before saying, “Nevermore.”

My body experienced the sensation of splitting into a dozen shadow ravens. It’s a very odd feeling, I can tell you that. I could see from every single one of their eyes at the same time, and all of them were staring at one thing; the Sentiment.

They rushed forward and swarmed him, tearing at bits of his body and scratching away at him. He stumbled back and swung his sword wildly trying to hit all of the ravens. After a minute or two, he roared in anger.

“Blood Harvest!”

He swung his sword upwards, and several blades made of blood shot up along side it, striking the ravens all at once. They screeched and flew back to where I stood before, and formed back into my body.

I didn’t have much time to react before he launched himself at me, swinging his weapon and screaming in anger. I worked to block his strikes, taking advantage of his wild and uncoordinated fighting style. He was pretty strong though, pushing me back with every swing.

He was pushing me up against a wall, and I was seconds away from being struck when the weirdest thing happened. I looked behind the Sentiment and saw a decently large shadow being cast by the staircase across the room. Next thing I know, I was pushed back into the shadow cast by the wall I was up against, and I found myself on the opposite side of the room, dropping out of the shadow cast by the staircase.

Everyone else seemed pretty fucking surprised, but the Sentiment just turned and kept on swinging at me, pushing me back again.

Jesus this guys is getting annoying... How do I beat him? I thought to myself.

Try releasing your second restriction. I heard Death say in my mind.

Second... Oh, I guess that makes sense when you think about it. Thank you, Death. I thought. He didn’t respond, probably so he didn’t interrupt my fight.

“Now releasing the second restriction.” I kicked the Sentiment back and reered my claw back to strike, “Restriction level two, released!” I felt a huge surge of power as I swung my arm down. The Sentiment raised his sword to block, but I hit too hard for him to handle.

“Agh!” He screamed as his sword’s edged was pressed into his chest, backed by the strength of my swing. I wasn’t done though.

“When Shadows Reign!” I shouted. I built up shadow energy in my arm, which was still pressing his sword to his chest, then pulled it back. A large wave of darkness came from my arm and cut through his sword, followed several more that cut through him.

His arms, which tried to reach up and grab me, dropped limply to the floor, and he slowly faded away. Left behind was a small, blood red soul, which I picked up in my left hand and looked over.

“Whoah, Sarah... Look at your right arm.” I heard Arlosia say.

Raising an eyebrow, I looked from the soul to m arm, and I was pretty surprised by what I saw. Instead of five, individual claws, my hand had turned into a single, large, scythe-like blade. Looking closer, I noticed the blade itself wasn’t actually black, like I thought the claws were. Instead, it was a very, very dark red color, so dark it actually looked black. It gave off a faint red glow along the edges, and even with how dark it was, didn’t exactly appear solid. What’s the word.... Ethereal, right? Yeah, that. It looked ethereal.

I shook my head and looked at everyone, “Never mind the arm. Who should get the soul? Both Sira and Mary don’t have a power yet.”

I looked at Mary who didn’t say anything, that at Sira who shook her head and said, “No, I think Mary should have it. She is your sister, and it was just recently her birthday. Not to mention, after everything she went through, I believe she deserves it.”

I nodded and smiled, “Right then. Here you go Mary.” I tossed her the soul and she caught it. After looking it over for a second she put it into her mouth and... Is that the face I made when I ate the one Dean got for me? Jesus Christ. It felt good, but I didn’t think I looked like I’d just came for the first time... Actually, she probably just did. Kind of weird given the fact that she’s my sister.

Mary opened her eyes after her little... Experience, and glowed brightly as she saw all of us looking at her. “Um... Sorry...” She said meekly.

Ardiente just stared at her with wide eyes while Jav waved a hand and said, “It’s... Fine, I just... Didn’t realize that I probably did that too when I got my power...”

Sira leaned back a bit and rubbed her upper arm with her left hand, “I don’t think I want a power if I’m going to do that in front of others...”

Arlosia raised an eyebrow at all of us, “Why did that happen? That didn’t happen when I got my power.”

OH THANK GOD I DID NOT NEED TO THINK ABOUT HER DOING THAT, I thought. I think everyone else did too given their sighs of relief.

I was about to say something, but a slow clapping from behind me cut me off. I turned around to see... Oh good God what the fuck is that?

“... I commend.... Your.... Fighting spirit... Young... Sarah Akinson...” A low, raspy, mechanical voice said to me. It took me a second for me to realize it came from the monstrosity in front of me. The monstrosity I’m talking about was this large, hunched over thing. It was covered head to... Whatever it has as an end, in cloth, scrap metal, machinery, wood, chains, leather, pelts, and a whole other slew of things. It’s body wasn’t actually showing anywhere, as it was covered by all the things I mentioned, but it did have a distinct head, and arms.

It’s head, which was covered in a metal, grated mask, swiveled to look at the remains of the sword that was still left behind by the Sentiment. It picked them up, looked over the broken pieces, then placed them in the massive pile of scrap it carried on it’s body.

When it spoke again, I caught slow, ragged breaths between words, “I... Greet you... Young Akinson.... And I am.... Impressed by.... Your defeating of my.... Sentiment servant....”

I blinked and slowly got into a defensive stance between it and everyone else, “Who are you? What are you?” I asked it.

“I am.... Amháin a bheidh i seilbh....” It said. “I am a.... Member of the... Airíoch... We are.... The curators.... Those who keep.... Those who.... Collect.... Those who hold...”

I tensed up. The thing didn’t strike me as good, and I wasn’t sure it I should trust it, “What do you want, Amháin, was it?”

It paused, before it fixed it’s glowing blue eyes on me, “I have come... To offer a... Premonition...”

I raised an eyebrow, “Which is?”

“Six... Have gathered...” It rasped, “Then Seven will come.... And bring with it.... A new emotion.... Unknown by Six...”

It continued after a short pause, “Two will... Fall... And One will.... Despair.... Though heavy their emotion... They shall.... Reunite in fire...”

“And Eight...” It said, “Will bring both reunion... And love with them... To both One... And to Four...” I stopped and coughed into a metal plated hand, “Several more... Down the line... A definite number is lost... And their importance... Unneeded.... But know that.... Your fate is sealed....”

“What do you-” I was interrupted.

“You were... Chosen.... You are... Required.... We are in need....” It choked and coughed before it went on, “.... I cannot disclose.... That information... But know that.... When Eight comes into light.... The path ahead will... Be clear.... And intentions will be.... Explained...”

“Wait, what do you mean? By any of this?” I asked it, no longer in a defensive pose. I was confused and clueless about what it wanted.

“I must.... Leave now... I apologize....” I looked at me, and I swear I saw sadness in it’s eyes, “.... Please.... Forgive me.... But I cannot... Explain further.... Goodbye....” And before I could say anything, it just started to fade away into nothing. Within seconds, the area where it stood was completely empty.

I stared at the empty space silently before asking, “Does... Does anyone understand what just happened?” All I got for an answer was silence.

A few hours later we had gotten our rooms picked out and everything we needed set up, set up. Ardiente and I got the master bedroom, while Arlosia and Mary chose rooms on the top floor, and Jav and Sira on the second floor.

Arlosia and had planned to go into town, as she was interested in meeting Paige after I mentioned her. We were just about to leave, when an unrecognizable voice, with a German accent of all things, spoke from the living room.

“Excuse me, but could I speak to a, uh... Sarah Akinson, was it?”

I stopped and turned around with a sigh, making my way to the living room. In there, I saw another fucking person I didn’t know. She was woman, both older and taller than me, with shoulder length blonde hair, and blue eyes. She wore a black, three piece suit and tie, a white dress shirt, black dress shoes, black gloves, a black, tight fitting trench coat, and a black fedora. Jesus Christ she looks like a stereotypical mobster from the thirties.... Yes I actually know about some things, shut the fuck up.

I raised an eyebrow at her and asked, “Alright... Who are you?”

She smiled and said, “Ich bin Alexandra Eisenberg. Guten tag.”

God dammit people I don’t know other fucking languages, stop using them.

“Yeah, nice to meet you, I guess. Let me guess, Death sent you here to accompany our already large group of people?” I asked.

She nodded, “Ja. I have been a Wraith for slightly longer than your friend James, or Jav or whatever he likes to be called, so he sent me here to keep an eye on everything.”

I sighed, “Great, well, you might as well come with us then. We’re headed into town to find someone. Come on.” She nodded, and her, Arlosia, and myself left out the door and into town.

Thankfully, the house wasn’t that far out, just a short walk and you’re practically in the town center. Speaking of which, here we are! And... Oh hey, it’s Michael, looking almost directly at the fucking sun... How fucking stupid is he?

I stared at him for a second before shrugging and shouting, “Hey Michael!”

He looked over at me and waved, “Hey Sarah!” He glanced at Alexandra, “Who’s the new girl?”

I was about to respond, but she cut me off, “The “new girl” is Alexandra Eisenberg, and I’ve been a Wraith for about five years, kid.”

Michael raised his hands and said, “I meant it like you had just arrived, not like you just became a wraith.”

Alexandra stared at him with narrowed eyes before asking, “What is your name? I feel like I’ve met you before...”

Michael blinked, “Michael Fritz.”

Alexandra’s eyes widened, “Are you related to Nathan Fritz at all?”

“How do you know my dad?” Michael asked suspiciously.

Alexandra’s eyes widened, and she suddenly started to laugh, “W-what? Your father? Oh Lord... Did he not tell you about his connections to us?”

He shook his head, “No. My father always kept things from me.”

Laughing even harder, she said, “You’d think practically being a member of the German Mafia would be something to tell your children!”

“What!?” He twitched. “What? I don’t even... Fuck my unlife.”

“And,” she continued, “and now... that makes you an honorary member, according to family rules. Glückwünsche, Michael Fritz, und willkommen in der Familie.”

Stop with the foreign languages already!

Michael sighed, “Tài bàngle.”

Seriously, fucking stop!

Alexandra blinked before smirking, “Не пытайтесь ввести в заблуждение меня, мальчик, это не будет работать.”

I swear to God I will kill you all!

Michael blinked and smiled, “فهمت. ومعوجة السر؟"

For fucks sake enough!

She tilted her head to the side, “Hversu mörg tungumál þú veist í raun?”

HOW MANY OF THESE GODDAMN LANGUAGES DO YOU FUCKERS KNOW!?

Michael shrugged, “שלוש.ואנחנו צריכים להפסיק במקרה שרה מתרגזת.”

MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOULS, CAUSE I SURE FUCKING WON’T!

Alexandra pouted, “Por kjo nuk është e bukur...”

I swear to God. I swear to fucking God. NO ONE WILL FIND YOUR BODIES.

He sighed, “Ja, og Sarah kan drepe oss i løpet av sekunder.”

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Smiling, Alexandra said, “Ίσως, αλλά έχω μια καλύτερη ευκαιρία.”

I was fed up with them, so I shouted, "Licuit, licuit vos volo facere stupri lingua cacas? Peius 'adicies ad illud, faxo mea conlationem! Suus' solum lingua scio praeter Anglorum, sic utar stupri Latine! Quam operor vos stupri similis eam!?"

Michael blinked, “Paenitet.”

“YOU’D FUCKING BETTER BE!” I shouted.

Michael motioned to the library, “Well, I’m going to go and find Alex so I can remember what happened yesterday.”

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down, then said, “Right. Before you go, do you know where Paige is? Arlosia wanted to meet her.”

He shrugged, “She went with Dean yesterday, I think she’ll be here soon though...”

Michael and I blinked as a bunch of leaves came from an alley and reformed themselves into Paige, “Oh cool! So this is the commons area.” She looked at me and waved, “Hello!”

“Uhh... I’m not going to question how the hell that just happened, because I just got my sanity back and I want to keep it. And hi.” I said.

Paige looked at Arlosia and grinned, “Oooh, who’s that?” She then looked at Alexandra, “And who’s that? I’m Paige!”

“This is Arlosia, and that is Alexandra.” I said while gesturing to them.

Alexandra just nodded while Arlosia waved a hand, “Hi.”

Paige blinked, “Oh wow! You look so cute!”

Arlosia glowed purple and looked away, “Uh, thanks?”

Paige smiled, “You’re welcome.”

“So...” Arlosia began kind of awkwardly, “You use magic to?”

Paige nodded, “Yep! Thurgatury and Pyromancy the most, but I can cast some Conjuration and Necromancy.”

Arlosia looked at her in surprise, “Wait, what?”

She grinned, “Yeah... I can summon a ghoul, maybe a banshee if I concentrate.”

“Huh... I tried demonology, a type of conjuration, but that just ended up killing me. I stick to destruction now.”

Paige grimaced, “Ooh... I had to wait five minutes before the comet I was on crashed into a planet.” What the fuck...

Arlosia’s response was pretty similar, “What the fuck...” Okay so it was the same.

Paige blinked, “What? My legs were trapped under unmelting ice.” She grimaced, “I don’t like remembering that.”

“Again I say: what the fuck...”

Paige waved her hands, “Anyways! What spells can you do?”

Arlosia shook her head and said, “Oh... Uh... Well, I can do this.” She pointed her hand at a nearby garbage can and said, “Demon’s Roar.” A dark purple symbol thing appeared on it, and a ball of purple energy flew from her hand and hit the symbol. The garbage can was then sent thirty or some feet into the air due to the resulting explosion. What the fuck.

Paige clapped her hands, “Cool! Do you want to see what I can do?”

“Uhh, sure.”

Paige grabbed her cutlass and looked at us, “You might want to stand back a bit.”

“Alright then...” I took a step back, followed by Arlosia and Alexandra.

She took a deep breath and started drawing a symbol of what looked like a flame in the air before piercing it with her cutlass. “Phoenix!” The ground began to rumble and my eyes widened when a giant bird made of fire burst outwards, spreading it’s wings over the town. The bird looked at us before raising it’s head to the air and cawing, shaking the nearby windows and causing a jet of fire to launch itself into the air.

It stopped and looked at Paige before slowly fading away into ashes.

        ... She had better hope she doesn’t use that shit on me, she would be nothing but dust in about three seconds...

Arlosia, after picking her jaw up from the ground, stared at Paige and said, “That... Was fucking awesome!”

Paige glowed a little, “Thanks.... I can teach you if you want.”

“Really!?”

Oh, great, my magic twelve year old is fascinated with his magic twelve year old... Why do I only see this ending in fire?

Paige nodded, “Yeah. I have an entire book filled with spells like that. We just need to see what school you belong to....”

Arlosia ran up to her and gripped her arms, “Holy crap I think I fucking love you!”

Paige glowed, “Um.... Thank you? Anyways! I think you might fit the bill for Storm magic. But by your attitude I’d say Fire.”

Oh sweet Jesus NO!

Arlosia tilted her head at Paige, “That’s how you classify magic users where you’re from? We do it a lot differently...”

“Yeah, it’s weird. But we have other names for them, There’s Theurgists, Pyromancers, Conjurors, Diviners, Thaumaturges, Necromancers, Sorcerers. And just recently we got the astral schools of Sun, Moon, and Star.”

“Huh. We classify them as Arcane, Fire, Frost, Nature, Shadow, and Holy. Then they’re split into Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Necromancy, Enchantment, Transmutation, Evocation, and Illusion. Then there are fourteen subschools, Descriptors, Rune Magic, and Divine domains. It gets kind of complicated after a while.”

She blinked, “That does sound complicated... Our’s base off of each other, Fire and Storm combine into Life where as Storm and Ice combine into Necromancy. Then I belive Fire and Ice turn into Myth. Balance simply does it’s own thing by taking from every other school, then after that Sun boosts spells, Star boosts the wizard, and finally Moon transforms the wizard into something else.”

“Cool. Magic back home is-”

I interrupted her, “Okay, can we please not talk about complicated shit I don’t understand? You saw what happened with the languages, let’s not make it worse.”

Paige shuffled her feet, “Sorry....”

“It’s fine.” I said, “I think we should go now, you two, there was some stuff I actually wanted to get done, and we’re kind of wasting time here.”

Paige looked at Arlosia, “Aww... It was nice meeting you.” She hugged her, “I can teach you later.”

Arlosia glowed brightly, “Uh, right.... See you later then.”

She let go, “Later.”

I picked Arlosia up and started walking away, “See you guys later, then.”

As we left, Michael waved us off, “Later.”

As we walked away, I saw a pretty large shadow on the ground, and wanted to test out that thing I did when fighting the Sentiment. Looking over at a shadow across the street, I stepped into the one right in front of me. In an instant, I was dropped out of the other shadow, Arlosia alongside me.

“Well,” I said, “that’s pretty useful...”

        I think Michael might have said something, but I didn’t hear it.

As we walked away, Alexandra asked me, “An linguas peregrinas realiter defricatus urina vos off ne multo est?”

“Don’t you fucking start with me, I am slowly loosing my good mood right now.” I snapped at her.

She held her hands up, “Fine, fine, I will stop. So, where are we headed then?”

“Well,” I told her, “we may as well find everyone we can and introduce you. Given that you said you were part of the German Mafia, Dean might want to meet you.”

“Dean?” She asked, “Dean who?”

I smiled, “You’ll know soon enough.”

Next Chapter: Arc I-II, Intermission I: Luis Vera Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 6 Minutes