Matthias, are you sure this is the right thing to do? We could get arrested... or even killed," Felix stammered quietly.
I scoffed, ignoring him. After what felt like an eternity in line. We finally reached the front of the line.
I stepped forward, eager to conclude our business. I raised my eyes and my breath hitched. The "lady" behind the counter wasn't a lady at all. Her skin oozed off her body, melting as if wax near a flame, revealing patches of muscle and bone. Where her eyes should have been, there was only hollow darkness. Her mouth stitched like a ragdoll with a black thread poorly lacing it.
I staggered back, oxygen fleeing my lungs as my hand instinctively reached for the dagger at my side.
The air shifted. Everyone in the room turned to look at me, their stares heavy and unnatural. The tension in the town of Erkinrave tightened. As I glanced around, my heart was hammering in my chest. Felix hissed my name, but I couldn't hear him over the pounding in my ears and the sharp metallic ring.
Swaying my gaze left and right, I felt every set of eyes drilling into me, waiting for my next move. Slowly and reluctantly, I let go of the dagger instead reaching into my dimensional pocket, pulling out the money.
The voice came like a whisper inside my head, smooth and chilling.
"So, what is it that you desire?"
I froze, my eyes darting left and right. The voice didn't come from around me.
"It is I the shopkeeper," the voice continued, "the one you were so quick to draw your blade against."
I placed my left hand behind my head, forcing a slight smile. Scratching the back of my neck, I let out an awkward chuckle while I let my eyes wander away trying to not meet her eyes or what's left of it. Then, with measured hesitation, I bowed my head to apologise.
Letting a raspy muffle "Ah it's fine young man many people like you attempting to buy illegal goods react just like you."
I gulped.
"So umm... I want a demonic phoenix heart obtained within a demonic Phoenix inside a sandalwood tree."
Her eye sockets widened as. At first, she looked at me confusedly waiting for me to correct myself. However after a few seconds she slowly clawed it out of her magical goods sack with her gloves on revealing an obsidian heart emanating a mephitic stench.
"Are you sure young man? You could get in serious trouble if caught with this even in this city."
I let out a slight simper as I threw her a sack of gold coins and took the heart swiftly shoving it deep into my pocket. I grab Felix by the arm pulling him along the shadowed streets of Erkinrave, concealing our faces in the tattered brown rags.
As we are scurrying away I slam into something, not someone. I stagger back clutching onto my wobbling head. While I attempt to stabilise my head I slowly tilt it up looking straight into the towering man's shadowed face. Slowly revealing a grin as he stares at my pocket to then lock eyes with mine. His gaze pierced deep into my soul, slithering around us in a circle not once breaking eye contact. A shiver went down my spine. He knows something.
"Matthias. Matthias. Are you ok why'd you stop, aren't we supposed to be going home now" Felix whispered urgently.
I didn't respond. I continue to look back to where the man, no the thing had been. Felix slapped the back of my head, snapping me out of my trance. We slip through the narrow gaps of the desolate buildings. Until eventually we reach into the glowing streets of the etheric city of Estoriva.
As we enter Estoriva we remove the tattered rags. Underneath, I revealed a light blue cashmere sweater with gold-trimmed edges, layered over a linen shirt. Beside me, Felix shrugged off his disguise, unveiling a dark blue velvet jacket with ruby accents over a silk shirt. Walking down the street holding our heads up high we turn left to a building under my name. I reached into my pocket for the keys. A guard dog steps forward, its nose seeming to be locked unto the heart.
"Matthias. Hurry up we could get caught here. You told me guard dogs don't traverse here." Felix babbled while shaking my body.
I rummage through my pockets feeling nothing. My chest tightened. I realise that I left the keys in my sack. I signalled for Felix to stay put and turned back to retrieve my rags. I hear a loud barking guard dog chasing after me. Fast. Close. Loud. I snatched the rag, yanking it over my head and started bolting away. Left. Right.
The guard dog charged gradually closing in on me. The sound of my boots slamming onto the pavement echoed. The sound of the guard dog grabbing the attention of the citizens of the city. People turned. Guards' eyes shifted locking onto my figure. I turn right. But guards were ahead blocking the route with behind me a guard dog closing in and guards chasing me. Desperation hit. My fingers curled around the white orb Felix gave me for emergencies. I smashed it onto the ground.
A thick fog exploded outwards swallowing the entirety of Estoriva putting it in a dense white haze. I jerked for my rag to cover my nose, muffling my breathing as I crept through the mist through the guards coughing and stumbling blindly. A tall shape, its silhouette reminiscent of the man I bumped into in Erkinrave loomed near me. A shiver went down my spine with a cold wave crawling up my sternum squeezing my chest. I pressed against the wall with my heart hammering as my eyes attached unto him, my body instinctively slipping through the fog until I reached Felix. Without a word I reached into my pocket and unlocked the door to my house.
I pushed Felix inside, swaying my head left and right assuring nothing was in sight. Moving steadily, I closed the door behind me, slipped off the tattered rag, and threw it into the burning fireplace. Felix entered the basement and I followed right behind him. Throwing the sack with the demonic phoenix heart onto the table, clustered amongst our magical gears and tools.
"Aight Felix I think it's time to measure the heart to see if it's good. I'll magically connect it to the phoenix heart"
Felix nodded, pulling out the magical magnifying glass. After a moment, he exclaimed, "It measures around 1907 thaumic, nearly the same as the holy phoenix heart, which is around 1900!"
My eyes widened in shock. Perfect. It's absolutely perfect. The stars aligned perfectly for me. My holy mana will surely allow a balance as with the time it takes only 7 thaumic will be used making both combined 1907 thaumic.I take a deep breath. Holding my hands in front of my face squatting down until my body is in the right angle position. My eyes fluttered shut.
"Coniunge duo objecta quibus impero: cor phoenicis daemoniacum et cor phoenicis sanctum." I chanted.
Golden light spiraled from my hand, enveloping both hearts in a radiant embrace. It danced and twined around them, weaving the hearts and the mana into a single, luminous tapestry. Fusing into a deep, rich earthen glow. The light exploded outward, swallowing the entire room in a blinding radiance. Felix and I turned away shielding our eyes. But even with our hands raised the light seared through burning into our eyes. As it stopped our eyes took a while to adapt. Hovering in the air, a newly forged heart glowed with an eternal ember crimson, its surface shimmering with veins of gold and purple. Its power beyond the incarnate.
"Matthias, is that it?" Felix asks, his eyes filled with wonder.
I stare at it as it gradually drifts downwards to my eye level still maintaining to glow faintly. My hands trembled as I held it out. It softly lands having a chilling coldness in its veins yet a warm, glowing ember as if I am in a moonlit abyss seeping through my skin and into my mind.
"Matthias," Felix whispers, his eyes wide, "what do you think it does? Is it beyond humans? Can it connect us to angels and demons? Do you truly believe we can discover or even reach the great God, or the power of His chosen hero, Cain? Do you believe that we can revive the power we used to have?"
I didn't know what to say. It felt ineffable and transcendent. Though the object itself felt fragile like it could break at any moment, the power within it was nothing I have ever felt, seen, calculated or described.
A shiver ran through me. My thoughts blurred. My chest tightened. Was this even something mortal hands were meant to hold?
BANG!
Wood chips and iron exploded, the debris of the door now lying, fragments at the bottom of the stairs.