Ancient Mystic's War of the Realms Saga, Lady Adellandra Dratianos [reading tree .TXT] 📗

for each of their own tastes. For the twins to actually speak at the same time meant disaster was ahead. It never happened before, and it was sure to happen again before the adventure was over.
Adventure? Mary Ellen thought. What am I thinking?
She shook her head, paying attention when her empathy told her something was wrong.
“The Circle.” Anna supplied softly, showing them her ring.
All four sisters stared at the glow coming from it. It glowed a deep red, signaling she was either in a precognitive trance or there was something wrong with the Dream Realm.
“Anna?” Ariana asked. “Are you okay?”
As soon as Claudia put a hand on Anna’s shoulder, she was out of the trance.
Turning crimson, Anna looked around at her sisters. “We’ve got company.”
“Company?” Mary Ellen whispered.
Anna put a finger to her lips. “We’ve gotta go.”
“What? Why?” Luna and Ariana chorused.
“Trouble, thy name is Sabrina.” Mary Ellen whispered, and Anna nodded. She gathered her bag, paying the check. “The Circle awaits, my Sisters.”
The sisters nodded, following.
“Where should we have it?” Claudia asked.
“The place where Sabrina dares never to enter.”
“The Mirror.” The twins chorused.
What adventure awaits us in the Circle? Mary Ellen wondered, following behind them.
She wished she had grasp of her other Ancient Mystic Gifts. She had a feeling she’d need every one of them, and soon.
As for the menace named Sabrina – she only had to wait to see what fate brought them.

Prologue #2:
Evil Unleashed

Aaron Theodore Schmidt tossed in his sleep. Memories played in his head, and he was powerless in his own Dream Realm. Being a Dream Realm Crusader, he could usually control his Dream Realm.

He was disoriented, confused, lost in his own Dream Realm. Where was the Young Guardian when he needed her?
The air around him cooled and his head hurt. He looked at his hands and noticed a greenish glow. The Unicorn Magic. Why was it itching to come out now? What made that special Magic want to be used, and why? So many questions plagued his mind and heart.
He was dizzy, seeing two of everything as he stumbled through a dark forest. He sensed someone watching him, and stopped. The moment he looked up, he regretted it. He doubled over near a tree, retching from the feel of Dark Magic in the air.
Darkness surrounded him like a blanket, making his necklace burn at his chest. He managed to grasp it with green-glowing hands, wishing the Unicorn Magic he had in his blood would shield him from darkness.
His head continued to pound harder, louder, so he released it.
Through the noise in his head, he heard a woman’s voice calling his name. “Aaron. . . . Aaron . . . . Come to me, my lover.”
It sounded vaguely familiar, like the voice of his best friend Ariana, but it didn’t feel right. Something about that voice in his mind screamed Dark Magic to his very soul. He jolted upright, finding his voice to scream into the darkness. “Who are you?”
That’s when she appeared from a thick cloud of black smoke. In all appearances, it was Ariana, but the eyes....so hollow and lifeless. The stranger approached him, and he was entranced by the sight, unable to move. She had the same reddish-blond hair and features as the woman he’d fallen in love with years ago.
His heart echoed in his chest as he stared.
When he and the strange look-alike woman were face to face, she spoke. “I am your heart’s desire, my Aaron Theodore.”
Aaron Theodore. The name from his youth brought thoughts of both the orphanage and of the love he and Ariana had shared. It was her name for him, for those special times. To hear it spoken now, in his Dream Realm, by a stranger who looked like his Ariana Moon, was a mixture of torture and betrayal. His heart and soul told him it wasn’t her, it wasn’t that special girl who let him into her own fractured soul so long ago.
“I am no longer that man.” Aaron pointed out with a low growl. “Least of all to you, stranger. Who are you?”
The woman didn’t answer. Instead, she smiled as she changed her image. The air whisked around her body, wrapping her in a ribbon of red smoke. With raised arms, she changed from the blond look-alike beauty to something he immediately felt as pure evil. When she was finished, her black eyes glowed red, and he knew he was in trouble. He tried reaching for the necklace as he had when Exiling the Merchant years ago, but found he again couldn’t move. So he stared, mouth void of words and mind empty of his own thoughts.
The woman wrapped an arm around his neck while one of her cold hands gently caressed his cheek. She was tall, with bright red hair and hollow black eyes. He could see the reflection of his own frozen state in them.
“I am whoever you wish me to be.” She whispered, kissing him firmly on the lips. “For I represent your hidden desires, your secrets within, your forbidden passions and yearnings. I can help you or hurt you.” She let her hand wander to his growing manhood. “Love me, Aaron Theodore,” she said in Ariana’s familiar voice. “We belong together.”
Thinking of that special night at the orphanage years ago, he found the glowing sphere of Unicorn Magic that pulsed his system. He closed his eyes, picturing himself, twin Amethyst and his Ariana Moon, linked forever through her blood. With that thought, he found the strength to open his eyes and push her away. One denying word came to mind and mouth. “Never! I am a powerful Crusader and you are nothing but a demon after my own affections. I will never love anybody but Young Guardian!”
At the last two words, she stood a few paces from him, stunned and unable to speak. To her, he’d used the name of the very being to Exile the Master to his Unknown realm. Lord Guardian’s own successor’s very name frightened her. A thought came to her mind, and Aaron saw the look on her face turn from shock to determination.
“Maybe not today, Young Aaron, but soon.” The crimson-haired woman’s voice was suddenly her own, vile and empty. She disappeared, leaving her voice to whisper in his Dream Realm, “You will be mine.”

Aaron woke up, drenched in sweat. He sat up in bed, pulled back the covers and headed to the bathroom. He quickly washed his face with cold water before heading to his twin’s room. The Crusader team’s Over-Seer had to know about this.

II

Meanwhile, the demon known as Shenara returned to her mother and sister’s sides. She was scared now, especially after Young Aaron had mentioned the Young Guardian. Though she’d never met the woman, Shenara knew of her. To a Dominionite such as herself, Young Guardian was a threat, and a powerful one indeed.
Shenara paced the hideaway dwelling where she lived, trying to think of something to take Aaron’s attention away from Young Guardian.
“Foiled again, were you sister?” Came the shrill voice of her step-sister Albrath. When Shenara turned, her sister laughed.
“Shut up!” Shenara screamed at her. “He thought of no one but Young Guardian.”
“Ah, the infamous successor of poor Lord Guardian.” Albrath announced. “He still pines for her, does he not?”
Shenara nodded. “I intend to change that.”
Albrath laughed again. “Ha! I suppose you have a plan?”
“Not yet, but I will.” Shenara promised.
“When?”
Shenara sighed, then said. “Soon.”
“You will have your chance, my daughter.” Came the voice of their mother, Gloriana. “Just as I will have the Master as my own.”
“How dare you speak of the Master so lightly!” Shenara cried. “Do you not know the Maiden has returned?”
“Aye, Shenara. I know.” Gloriana said calmly, which told both her daughters she was up to something. “I also know she brought great, corruptive magic back with her.”
“You have seen her since her return?” Albrath asked, eager for gossip. “Is she assembling another Army against Lord Guardian?”
Gloriana shrugged. “That, I would not know. I have heard she stole the Black-as-Night Crystal from the Gatekeeper’s hidden alcoves in the Abyss.”
Her daughters were silent, looking at each other.
“For now, we plan our return to the Master’s side.” Gloriana said. “It will only be a matter of time before my revenge can begin.”

III

Orthos paced his cavern in the Unknown, thinking of another way to get back at his brothers, O’Dell and Maximaniac. Especially Maximaniac for taking Jezebel away from him, leaving him alone in the Unknown.
He fired the kindling under his Dark Cauldron, wondering what was going on in the Outer Realm with his brother O’Dell’s Ancient Mystics. There wasn’t another soul in the hidden cavern with him, not even his favorite Warrior slaves. He was alone in this room to ponder his next move.
It had been nearly a decade since O’Dell and his Dream Realm Crusaders defeated him, Exiling him and his two remaining children to the Unknown. Young Guardian, O’Dell’s successor and leader to his Crusader team, had Exiled her longtime enemy, the Maiden Sabrina, with an Exiling spell. Unwittingly, she’d used the most powerful of her own Magics, the Ancient Mystic Force to Exile Orthos’ seductive daughter. One of the Crusaders, Aaron Schmidt, had used a power like none he’d ever seen. Aaron’s Unicorn Magic had Exiled the Merchant Damian, Orthos’ son. After his children disappeared, Orthos found he had no control over the Warriors. O’Dell, Lord Guardian of the Dream Realm himself, dared to face him, making him freeze with an Ancients’ spell of Exile.
He’d let his brothers have their time, their glory in the sun. No more. Time has almost run out, and Orthos, former Master to the Dominionite Warrior Army, could let them have no more. He had to do something to retaliate....something no other would think of....something so cunning, they wouldn’t suspect him.
His attention turned back to his Dark Cauldron when he happened to catch a glimpse of his daughter Sabrina.
She was back in the underground dungeons of Dark Tower, where she held an Ancient crystal necklace in her hands.
The Black-as-Night Crystal. How did she get it from the Gatekeeper in the Abyss? How did she return to the Dream Realm when Orthos himself couldn’t? What was she planning? She disappeared, crystal aglow.
He watched as she reappeared in the Dream Realm’s Canine Valley. The crystal pulsated, seeking power while Sabrina sought the Lady of Canine Valley with glowing red eyes and vicious smile.
He knew, whatever Sabrina was doing, he would have a hand in it sometime.
Prologue #3:
Katherine’s Fear

Katherine Hawk-Stargazer, Lady to the Dream Realm’s Canine Valley, stared straight ahead. She didn’t like what she saw. Using the Ancient Mystic power she had within, she could faintly feel the air cool as her cousin approached her.
“Sabrina.” Katherine hissed under her breath. The evil in the air made her shudder.
What could Sabrina want with her now? More importantly, how did she get un-Exiled from the Unknown?
“My, cousin, what a life you have for yourself.” The Dominionite Maiden appeared in front of her in moments.
“Go away, Sabrina.” Katherine hissed curtly. “Your kind are not needed here.”
“But I am family.” Sabrina sounded innocent, her raven-black hair swept behind her back as she circled her cousin. “Are you going to turn family away?”
Katherine ignored her, anger bubbling up in her blood.
“Shall I bring my mate to escort you, or will you go willingly?” Katherine admonished.
Sabrina only laughed