Mecrotia

Kelcia steered her car expertly into her driveway and stopped in front of the door to her garage. A brunette in her late twenties, Kelcia was somewhat shorter than average and of a regular build for her age and gender. Endeavoring to explain her extreme beauty would be a futile exercise -- instead, I will leave the young girl's countenance to the imagination of the reader, assuring you that it was a sight to behold.

On this particular evening, however, Kelcia's face betrayed a certain uneasiness which had been mounting for the past two weeks. Strange dreams had pervaded her restless nights, and odd events from around the globe filtered into the newspaper day after day. Something was up, and she didn't like it too much.

Making her way clumsily to the door holding a bag of food, she fumbled for her keys and opened the door. Her cats crowded around her feet as she entered, and she set the groceries on the counter.

Kicking off her shoes, she collapsed into the closest chair and flipped on the TV. She flipped idly through the channels until she came across The Labyrinth playing. It had never been her favorite movie, but now she was strangely captivated by the odd creatures and powerful magic that pervaded the movie. The movie always reminded her of James, her old boyfriend. She winced at the thought, and quickly flipped of the TV. That relationship had been a mistake. Poor guy was crazy, and she had done all she could to help, but he never came to terms with it.

A noise behind her, like the muffled voice of a girl, made Kelcia quickly jump to her feet, but she saw nothing. Unnerved and feeling a headache coming on, she made her way over to the sink where she ran some tap water into a glass and got down her Tylenol. After swallowing the pill an gulping down the rest of the water, her eyes fell onto a small sheet of paper sitting on the counter. Now she remembered, she had written herself a note that morning. Good thing she had written it, too, because she couldn't remember for the life of her what it was now.

She walked over and picked it up. "Please, wake up!" the note read. "We must act swiftly. The Dark One will soon walk among us!!!"

"Ooohhh nooo..." she groaned. She had experience with one crazy person in the past, she hoped to God she wasn't crazy herself. But there was hardly any getting around it. She remembered that she had written the note, and she remembered that it had been terribly important to her at the time.

Suddenly she heard another voice, this time seemingly closer, right behind her. She started, tripped, and fell to the floor, hitting her head. Images of armies filled her head as she lost consciousness; masses of trolls and goblins and creatures she could not identify. All swarming together in a mass... the future depended on this battle... we must win... we must kill the Dark One....

*Knock* *knock* *knock*

Kelcia groaned and put her hand to her head. She had a splitting headache. What had happened?

*Knock* *knock* *knock*

She winced at the noise. "Hold... justa... wait..." she stammered wearily. This wasn't going to be easy. Slowly, she lifted herself off the ground, and made her way to the door, her hand still feeling out a huge bump on the side of her head.

She opened the door and winced. The stranger on the other side was not much of an reason to be put through this kind of pain. "Yes?" she asked, pained. "Do you need something?"

"Oh my! Makara!" he cried. He first noticed her obvious pain, but her beauty wasn't far behind that. "Can I help you in any way, misses?"

"Um, just tell me if you need anything or let me go lay down, please." she said, wearily.

"By all means lay down, miss!" the man said. He came in swiftly and, putting her on weight on to his shoulder, half carried her into the living room and laid her down.

Shocked but too weak to protest, Kelcia laid down on the couch and regarded the stranger with some bemusement.

"It seems, sir, that you have me at a definite advantage. I think it would be in my best interest to find out just who you are... and to have to get my something for my head, Tylenol is in the cabinet above the sink."

The man smiled kindly. "I'm afraid it is you who have me at a disadvantage, miss, for I do not know who or what Tylenol is. As for myself, though, my name is Necra, and I am at your service. I have a weakness for beautiful women."

"I'm sorry Mr... Necra, but I have little patients for men who barge into my home and who do not know what Tylenol is. One or the other maybe, but not both."

Sensing the humor in her voice, Necra gave out a little laugh. "I'm sorry, miss, but this is a very alien place to me, and I am not in my regular sorts."

"Just get me a glass of water and pull out any bottle you find out of the cabinet above the sink. Just grab a glass out the rack there."

Although obviously confused, the man set about his task, deftly filling in gaps of knowledge by way of elimination. He knew what glass was, so finding the rack he was able to identify the sink and so the cabinet above it. Gathering together the requested materials -- after a short inquiry as per the operation of the sink -- he carried the desired items to Kelcia and sat down on a chair across from the couch.

"Thank you for your kindness... Necra," she said, enunciating the odd name slowly. "Now, what was it you came about?"

"Only for you!" Necra declared.

"I'm afraid I don't understand," Kelcia said wearily.

"Don't worry about it dear, just rest now. Let your eyes close... let sleep permeate your body...."

And as he spoke, Kelcia did indeed begin to drift off, unable to stop the drowsiness the felt. Strangely, her dreams were normal, even in that odd circumstance.

"And so you see," James was saying, "that these creatures that we regard as nothing but fantasies today such as elves and mermen... there is actual evidence that these creatures existed! I implore you all, after you leave my lecture today, seek out the truth yourself. Look at the records, listen to the so-called myths. There are truths there that our 'cultured' minds simply block out."

People began filing out of the auditorium and James' tone became more frantic.

"You're all heretics for not seeking out the truth! You call yourselves scientists, but you wont get out there and go out the extra mile to find real answers. You sit in your laboratories and your at computers and you deduce and you quantify all day long but you've all stopped thinking! Listen to me! You're all fools for not hearing me out. DAMNIT!"

His last word echoed across the empty auditorium. The echo of the door closing died down and he dropped his face into his hands, leaning onto the podium.

Necra sat engrossed in a book, and Kelcia was regarding him with a look of faint bemusement and wonder.

"How do you do it?" she wondered aloud.

Necra raised an eyebrow. "Do what, my dear?"

She laughed, short and loud. "You came into my house -- you didn't even know what Tylenol was or how to use a sink! -- and here I am, living at your house. It's only been a week. And also, since you've been here I haven't been loosing my mind. No more strange dreams, no more voices in my head. It's all gone, and it would seem that I have you to thank, but all you do is sit reading those weird books all day!"

Now Necra began to grin, and Kelcia found something slightly disconcerting in the expression. "My dear, your frame of mind is of the utmost importance to my well being. And beyond that, sweet Kelcia, I do believe I'm in love with you." He gave her a huge grin. But Kelcia was disquieted by his sudden revelation. He had seemed friendly towards her, yes, but she had not thought before that he might actually love her. Kelcia became quiet and engrossed in her thoughts. Before to long, Necra was unable to let the subject rest.

"No comment, my dear?"

Kelcia snapped out of her contemplation and gave him a sheepish grin.

"I'm sorry, darling, my mind wandered. What were you saying?"

Necra gave a low growling sound. "Nothing my dear, nothing."

Kelcia flashed him an innocent smile. "I think I'll go on another of my walks in our garden."

Kelcia had been living with Necra in his home for about a week now, and if there was one thing she loved about it, it was the garden. An exquisite, expansive garden where she could wander for hours lost in the beauty of the scenery and her thoughts. Too often, though, they wandered to James... the poor man. One might even look at the world at that time, though, and think the world of his delusions was coming upon them. This garden certainly was reminiscent of all those fantasy stories he had told her. And the trickle of odd happenings from around the globe was now a torrent. Smaller governments had collapsed. Some of the inner cities were in chaos, too. But here, in the country away from the big city, Kelcia and Necra could live in peace.

At peace... with Necra. It didn't seem to fit for some reason. There was something altogether odd about the man that she couldn't place. Well, except the obvious things. The way he dressed, the way he spoke. But something more basic than that made her skin crawl at times. She often felt like she was seeing the happy guise of a mad man; the kind of man who turns around and kills the girl he sought so hard to get at the end of the movie.

She gave out a little laugh. This wasn't a movie. This was real life. But he made it feel like a movie for some reason. He was other-worldly -- out of place. And he talked about things... armies of good and evil. He claimed... he claimed that he and his sworn enemy was preparing to fight. He had a plan, though; he could stop the fighting. He said... he had a way to nullify his enemy without killing her. If it was a battle between good and evil, Kelcia couldn't understand why he shouldn't just kill the evil, but she did not question him. In a strange sense, he was the embodiment of what James had sought so long. He had strange powers... and he had healed her -- stopped the insanity that had been eating away at her brain.

She was glad she had him, and he was glad he had her.

James sat in the dark room, a single light on his desk casting a strange but usable light onto the book that lay open in front of him. It was old and the pages were stiff and brittle, but he forged on page after page and hour after hour into the night. It was more than a simple compulsion. It was an addiction. He soaked up all he could from the book.

He was reading a legend about a classic struggle between good and evil. The forced of both were massing armies, but there was a twist he couldn't make literary sense out of. In this legend, the magical world would cease to be magical. The author obviously realized that this would happen, but didn't know the outcome of that happening. Also, sadly, the heroine of the cause of good, Elizabeth, was killed by The Dark One, or so he was called by those who feared him -- and most people did. The myth also foretold of a time when magic would be restored to their planet Tereen, and of a figure known of only as "The Great Reviver". This person would find they were the embodiment of Elizabeth, and they would have to do battle with Necra. When James turned the page and saw a picture of The Great Reviver, though, he slammed the book shut and collapsed sobbing into his hands. Oh, why had he ever left Kelcia?

Sunlight filtered through the trees and bounced off the pale skin of Aaron. He was tall for an elf, and like all his kind, his skin had a vaguely green hue about it which cast a green aura about the elf when he stood in sunlight as he did now.

"Brethren," he spoke to a small assembled group of his own species, "The Dark One once again walks among us, and we have no idea where Elizabeth is, or even if she is among us as we would hope."

Several cries issued forth from the audience. One young elf near the back of the gathering began to cry softly.

"I know it is hard, my friends! But still, our precious world Tereen must not fall to Necra.The man is capable of too much evil. If he gets ahold of Tereen, and his forces are able to gather, all that is good might be wiped from the face of this planet. By the time Tereen has fully disengaged from its Dechantane -- unmagical -- stage and has entered the Mecrotian phase -- the world we know best -- the threat of Necra must be eliminated. We can no longer bet on our faith. I will go kill Necra myself!"

There were several gasps and a few cries from the collection. A few of the elves protested, but they all realized that Aaron was right, Necra had to be dealt with, and time was of the essence.

"Damn them all. Damn Kelcia. Ohhhh why. Why why why. Oh no, no no." James was muttering, stumbling along the side of the road. He was drunk, half insane, and half crazy with remorse. "Who is she? That bitch. 'The Great Reviver'. Hah! She's evil. Evil! She wants me dead... she wants to kill me. I bet she wants me dead. Oh no, no no no. Why!? Why did this happen!?"

And he collapsed, rolling down an embankment, stopping only when he hit a tree in a location just sheltered by the forest.

Kelcia sat sewing alone in her room. It seemed to her like these old castles were designed to minimize contact between their occupants. Necra seemed pleased with no arrangement, however, near or far. He stalked the halls, occasionally stepping in and conversing briefly with Kelcia. He seemed happy enough when he was talking to her, and Kelcia gave her best effort to appearing happy, but her thoughts remained disquieted.

Kelcia sat engrossed in a particularly difficult seem line when Necra entered her chamber for the sixth time in ten minutes; he seemed to be uncomfortable, as though his mind was fixed upon some evil he could not place.

"Do you feel... all right, Kelcia? Are you quite yourself this evening?"

"Yes dear," she answered, "I'm quite all right. And you?"

His brow furrowed. "I do seem to be out of sorts tonight. I seem to have a sense of foreboding which I cannot explain."

She raised her hand to his arm affectionately, but before she was able to speak, the sound of the main door closing snapped away their attention. In unison they made for the door, Necra moving slightly ahead of Kelcia.

They made their way swiftly down the passage between the sewing room and the main room of the castle, the throne room. As they left the narrow passage into the large room, Necra was first to emerge. His eyes met those of a elf, a small creature maybe three-fourths of his own height, but clad in impressive armor and wielding a cross-bow. As the elf raised the cross-bow, training it upon Necra in one fluid movement, Kelcia emerged from behind the body of Necra into the chamber, and the elf was stunned by her presence, his eyes locking on to her.

The elf seemed to be entranced. Slowly, he began to utter "Makara...."

Kelcia was taken aback. "That's... that's what you said when you first met me..." she said, turning to Necra. But he wasn't listening to her.

Taking advantage of the elf's falter, Necra made a wild and angry motion with his hands. Pulling them up in front of his body they seemed to start glowing, until he clasped them together in front of his face, and a great blue ball of light shot forth at the elf, blowing off a piece of its armor, throwing it back violently and charring the creature's flesh where the armor had once been. It died instantly.

"Agh!" cried Kelcia, running over to the creature. She pulled off the helmet and tried frantically to feel for a pulse, but found nothing.

"Don't be a fool!" Necra screeched. "It is not a creature like you and I, it's evil! Even had it lived, it would not have had a pulse where you search for it. The damned creature's black heart resides where it's stomach should be. Come away, before his dead carcass infects you with his awful being."

Slowly Kelcia got up and stepped back to where Necra stood, now smirking at the dead body. A strange kind of red light, like the fires of hell seemed to emanate from those sockets. Kelcia shuddered inwardly. Something didn't seem right about the whole episode.

James sat propped against a conveniently formed rock. It had smooth moss on it that felt good against his back. The shelter of the trees made the hot day seem pleasant, and he had a drink at his side. Why don't I get drunk and fall down embankments more often?

Another drink was brought to his side, and the bearer reminded him of the gravity of the situation. Many lives could be lost if he didn't complete the task ahead of him, and he wasn't even sure how he was to pull it off. It was hard to think about talking to Kelcia after all these years. What irony this entailed! He allowed himself to be inwardly amused, but he realized all too well how this might negatively affect the task in front of him.

Kelcia heard the car pull up and walked over to the edge of the garden where a rock wall held the raised garden up about seven feet from the roadside below. Upon looking out, she instantly recognized the old beat-up car of her ex-boyfriend parking. "How the hell did he find me here?" she wondered under her breath.

James jumped out of his car and spied Kelcia almost immediately. He ran over and vaulted up onto the turf of the garden with the use of his hand as an anchor. Getting to his feet, he smiled at Kelcia.

"James..." she said slowly, looking down. Her eyes started to tear up.

"No no no," James said quickly, trying to sooth her, and gently taking ahold of her arms. "It's all right. I'm OK. Look at me." he said, smiling.

Kelcia looked up, and saw that he was well dressed, well kept, and he seemed in general good order.

"Oh James, you got help!" she said, flinging her arms around him.

James let out a laugh. "I suppose, my dear, that in a sense I did. Regardless, I am OK. And I have some amazing things to tell you."

Kelcia became suspicious again, stepping back and disengaging from James' hold. "What are you talking about, James?" she said, woridly.

"Oh Kelcia, I knew this was going to be hard. Hear me out, please."

"What is it, James? Don't start telling me about more of your delusions. I don't think I could take it... I couldn't take it...." she put her head into her hands dramatically but quickly regained her composure, and stood apprehensively waiting for James' response.

"OK, listen... and don't dismiss anything I say until you've heard it all. Five-thousand years ago, before our recorded history, a great society of people walked the earth. Not just people, though; elves, dwarves, mermen... they were all real! Real!"

"I've heard this sermon before, James, as I'm sure you know. You've never been able to tell me how or why these creatures you believe used to exist disappeared."

"I know now, though, I know!" Kelcia raised an eyebrow at him, but he forged on. "I know because they're coming back. Magic is returning to Tereen! And that's why they all disappeared five-thousand years ago; magic left Tereen. It's a cycle, Kelcia! And it will continue into eternity. Look at the chaos our world is being thrown in to, and magic is only trickling in right now. Before long it will be a torrent! When magic left, all the magic creatures disappeared. They can't survive without magic. They disappeared then, and they're reappearing now! We, however, can survive with magic. That's why we're not disappearing like they did. The threat to us isn't so ingrained in to our being. The threat to us is that our society will tear itself apart. If it does, five-thousand years from now, we'll be just like they were to us: forgotten."

Kelcia was visibly shaken. What James was saying suddenly made sense, and when she thought about the powers that Necra had....

"Oh my God..." she whispered under her breath.

"But there's more, Kelcia, there's more! I hope you believe me, because what I am about to say is of the utmost importance. Five-thousand years ago, right before Tereen's shift from its Mecrotian to Dechantane phase, there were two great forces mounting, a war between good and evil."

Kelcia gasped. "Necra... he's, he's talked about it...."

"Necra?" James exclaimed, aghast. "The Dark One!? Is he...? But that would explain for these surroundings. Damn the elves, why couldn't they have told me?

"I fear you've been deceived by him, Kelcia. I can't be sure what he's told you. But something is definitely wrong. Kelcia, you... you're the one who must bring this world out of the terrible hardship that it is facing. Look, Kelcia, five-thousand years ago, Necra was massing the army of evil. His nemesis, Elizabeth, was a powerful sorceress, the agent of good. Only she could have possibly defeated Necra. But she did not. She was killed in a confrontation with Necra.

"There is a balance, though, Kelcia... a balance in the world. No good without evil, and no evil without good. Elizabeth's soul, her being... it was cast into the future, into the body of another. Your body, Kelcia. Elizabeth, the only being in the Universe who can possibly defeat Necra lives in you."

"What?" she exclaimed, horrified. "No! Necra is a good man! If not for Necra, I would be losing my mind!" And she became more perturbed as she spoke. "How dare you accuse Necra of such a thing? How dare you? Leave! Go! Get out of here!"

"Kelcia, please! Here me out!" James pleaded, but their conversation was cut off.

Suddenly, Necra flew into the garden clearing. The look on his face was one of determination, evil and animosity. His eyes gleamed red as they had when he killed the elf. He began to describe in the air in front of his a great arc, staring above his head and to be connected at his waist. The air his hands passed through sputtered with pure, raw magic. His entire body began to glow.

And suddenly, there was a bright flash. James leapt for the utterly inconsequential coverage of a small rock wall... but the light had not emanated from Necra as he had thought.

A wave of heat and electricity slammed into Necra's body, throwing him against the wall of a rock pump-house. Kelcia stood, hands extended in front of her heaving chest. Her face wore a look of contempt and disgust.

"You evil, evil man!" she cried. "You stupid, stupid man, as well. You should have killed this body when you had the chance, but instead you let your lust for this girl control your actions. And now you will die at my hands."

Necra was in obvious pain, and he spoke with an odd labored tranquility. "Ah yes, Elizabeth, so again we meet. I feared such an occurrence. I was afraid I could not hold you down for long in the body of this girl. Yet I hoped, perhaps, I could do it... just long enough. Had you been a weaker women I could have kept your spirit suppressed until I had a iron grip on this world. But then again, you wouldn't be Elizabeth -- nor Kelcia! -- if yours was not the strongest of wills. Goodbye, Kelcia. I fear I did love you, but you could not possibly have understood my motives. I'm sorry... sorry I had to deceive you. Elizabeth... ock trite, pwin gabraw."

"I must say," remarked Kelcia, swallowing a bite of pasta, "it has been a most interesting few weeks."

James laughed at the understatement. "It has indeed, my dear Kelcia, it has indeed."

"So tell me, James, you mentioned the elves when you learned I had been living with Necra. I don't think anything can shock me now... tell me how you came to meet these elves, and where they live."

James smiled. "No, not much could shock me, either. Well, I happened to be reading an old myth, one of the only stories to survive since the 'First Age of Mecrotia', and they're calling it on the news these days. I was engrossed in the story, when I came across a most interesting image. It was a picture of you, obviously you, though my mind claimed to be playing tricks on me. I was so overcome with grief -- no offense to you, my dear -- when I saw the picture, that I went out and did the manly thing."

"Oh?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "What might that be?"

She laughed. "I'll accept that answer this time, but from now on, getting plastered will not be considered a manly retreat. But, this has to do with the elves how?"

"Ah yes. Well, it just so happens that on that particular evening, I could be found walking -- well... doing a sort of shuffle-sway, actually -- down the side of the highway, when I passed out, and rolled down into the forest off of Highway 260."

"And... there were elves there?"

"Actually, there were! That forest, you see, used to be home to a great elfin kingdom. The elves had only started to return then, appearing one by one, more every day, but there was a small band, and they nursed me back to health... and sanity. They were also so kind as to explain the general situation to me."

"Ah yes, I am beginning to remember. An elf attacked Necra, a few days ago. Aaron, I believe his name was..." she trailed off, and suppressed a small sob. "The memories of Elizabeth I have now... they aren't all happy ones. It pains me now to know the elf I say was a close personal friend to Elizabeth before she died. If I had excepted her consciousness earlier, his death could have been avoided...."

"Oh Kelcia, you can't blame yourself. It was Necra, not you, who was suppressing Elizabeth's spirit." He smiled at her and leaned back. "And now look at you! Makara, in all her glory!"

"Ahhh yes... Makara... 'The Great Reviver'. I didn't know what it meant before Elizabeth surfaced, though people called me by that name often enough..."

"Oh that's right, I didn't even consider that. I saw the word in that book I had been reading, but I suppose Elizabeth knows the actual language. So tell me... that phrase Necra said before he died, what does it mean?"