"Ian, what are you doing with a scythe?"
"Oh, you know, cutting the grass, harvesting wheat, severing heads..."
"Oh shut up."
"Jeez Greta, can't take a joke?"
Greta stalked off and I went to look for the others. With the number of girls in the house, I figured that the bathroom was a good place to look. Since I could still see glass for some reason, I had to check inside the shower for someone. Once I was in the room, however, I could tell by the humidity that no one had recently showered. As I turned to leave, the mirror caught my eye. I realized that I hadn't looked at a mirror since that first day at Zaak's... the strange thing was, the mirror was alive. It moved, it swirled, it twisted. And then I saw them. The other five me's stood behind me in the mirror. I spun around, and there they stood. Death smiled.
"Hello, Ian."
"What the hell are you doing in the real world?"
"We think that your new power has unlocked the potential of the portals."
"Portals?"
"The Greeks believed that mirrors were portals between the worlds, and apparently they were right."
"So my power physically manifested your reflextions by pulling them out of the world between worlds?"
"And the reason you saw our reflextions is because the mirror shows you what is inside you now."
"Wow, that actually mostly makes since for once."
Now that they were real, I began to really look at the five.
Pain was me hunched over, face contorted. He was heavily muscled, his body covered in scars.
Misery was me unnaturaly thinned out, a wry smile on his face, wiry and dangerous looking.
Truth was me even taller, thick and solid, but at the same time shifty. His face was horribly distorted.
Love was me, softer featured and well defined. He was the kind that made girls swoon. Instead of blue his eyes now burned red.
Death was tall, dark and handsome. He was tall and elegant. His smile sent shivers down my spine. He was powerful, unstoppable. He was Death.
I noticed that the other me's all had the scar over their left eye, just like me.
Then it clicked. The dream I had, the dream of Kuchiki's death, was a metaphor. The man in my dream was Death. Death had carried her away.
"Ian, look in the mirror behind you..."
I turned to see myself. At first I thought it was Death, but then I realized it was me. Death stepped up beside me. The juxtaposition was subtle, but it was there. It was the way we carried ourselves. I was relaxed in my powerful new body, while Death was coiled, ready to... well, kill.
Death smiled once again.
"Check this out." Death stepped towards me, and then into me. I felt his conciousness return to my mind. He stepped back out. The second mind left.
"That is so cool."
"I know, right?"
It took me two seconds to figure out what to do next.
"Hop on in guys, we have a prank to pull."

I walked into the kitchen, a smile on my face. The whole group was already there.
"They already know about the scythe," informed Greta.
"But none of you have seen my newest trick."
My five other selfs stepped out, all smiling.
Zaak's jaw dropped.
Greta's plate crashed to the floor.
Alisha screamed.
Zoe fainted.

After things began to cool down, I talked to Zaak for the first time in a long while.
"Zaak, there are some things I need to know."
"So you finally figured it out, eh?" Zaak look saddened by this turn of events, even though I didn't know what was going on. "Ian, long before you were born there was a prophecy concerning you and two other people. Unfortunately, you were the only one with a specified birth date. the prophecy did, however, state that you would know where to find the other two."
"Other two what?"
"They were called the Gods of Power. The three of you were to be the most powerful magical creatures ever known. One thing that doesn't fit the prophecy though is the fact that you were supposed to be a prophet as well."
"But I never..."
Zaak smiled.
"Exactly. But since you were supposed to be a prophet, I, the chief prophet of the Council, was chosen to solely train you. Ever since it was shown that you didn't have the gift of prophecy, we all hoped that you weren't actually the subject of the prophecy. But that's enough history for today."
"Bu-bu-but..."
Zaak smiled again and walked out of the room.
Disapointed with my half answers, I began to wander around outside. Basking in the glory of nature, I began to play around with the power inside my body. I found that by speeding up my heart I could slow time, similar to what had happened when I first had the ring on. Bored with that, I began to play with the plants in the woods. While I couldn't make them grow on command, some odd things began to happen. By channeling the power in me, I could make woods springier, softer, more flexible, and harder. Much much harder. In fact, I found that I could make branch so strong even I couldn't break it. After some searching, I found a branch as tall as I was. I brought it back to the shop at the house, and carved it into a slender pole. I grabbed Greta's broken sword out of my room, and brought it to the grinder in the shop. Once I ground the blade into a tapering curve, I cut off most off the handle. I cut a notch in the end of the staff, and fitted the remaining handle in the notch. After hardening the still-living-wood as much as I could, I pounded a metal cap over the notch, holding the blade in place.
Stepping out of the shop, I brandished my new scythe.

"Is this awkward for you? Fine." I took off the ring and slammed it on the table. "There! No one had to know, but you felt the need to tell them anyway, didn't you!"
"Sorry, Ian, I--"
"I just-- sorry Zoe, I'm stressed out right now, and that ring is the only thing that gives me comfort."
"So that ring does what, exactly?" asked Greta.
"It allows me to see things that are alive in... an odd way. I see them as what they are, things of nature, of simple beauty. Things that aren't alive appear as a haze. Things like cars, or instruments, or.... clothes."
"How is that comforting?" asked Alisha.
"What allows me to see things that way is this strange...force. It flows through me, and I don't have to pretend to be what I'm not. I don't have to be human."
"Ian, this is very important. What does this force feel like?"
I looked at Zaak, expressionless. "The Earth's beating heart."
"My God."
"What is it?"
"That ring is... forbidden."
"What do you mean?"
"The magic in that ring has the power to become nature itself."
I picked up the ring.
"Ian, how long have you had that ring on?"
"Um... four days?"
"And you haven't lost your mind?"
"Zaak, I lost my mind a long time ago."
Zoe decided to enter the conversation.
"What do you mean 'you don't have to be human?'"
"Zoe, I haven't felt like a human being since I was changed. With that ring on, I don't have to try to feel like I'm a person. I can be a force."
I slipped the ring on, and I felt relief flood through me.
"How does it feel?"
"I feel... alive. I feel like a force, an action. I feel powerful. I feel like I can do anything, but I don't have to do anything."
"So you can see... everything?"
I willed myself to stand in front of Zoe, and my body brought me there in an instant.
"I do. But I don't see things the way a human would. What is beautiful to me is the blood rushing through your arteries, the fibers of your muscles seamlessly contracting and relaxing, gliding back and forth to produce motion. But I appreciate their beauty the same way you appreciate the colors of autumn."
"Ahhh that is so creepy. It's like your looking right through me, to underneath my skin."
I looked into her eyes, sparkling with the gentle beauty of life.
"I am."
"What? You can see my insides?"
"And by simply touching you, I can learn everything that there is to know about your body."
"Really?"
"For example." I appeared next to Greta and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Greta, you've broken three bones in your life, burned your left palm twice once exactly eight years ago and once two years and 67 days ago, and you've drank 3.275 onces of alcohol since you were born."
"How do you--?"
"Your body remembers everything."
"That's creepy," said Zoe.
"Creepy? That's beyond creepy!" replied Alisha.

I'm not sure how I got to the house, and I didn't really care. I was numb, completely numb, and that was good enough for me. I was, however, tired of everything else moving so slowly. I found that with some effort, I could raise the pulse of the beating power that slowly washed over me. After some time, the heart beat in time with mine. But then something unexpected happened. The world changed. The air became humid, there was ozone hanging in the breeze. There was tension in everything, and the earth turned a strange color.
Slowly but steadily, I lowered my heart rate to match the Earth's heart before I had messed with it. And everything was at normal speed.
"Ian! How did you do that?"
"What?"
"You just appeared out of nowhere!"
"Sorry, I'm not sure whats going on. Zoe, where is everyone?"
"They aren't here?"
"Everyone is at the battle, I can conjure things from here... Zach, are you ok? The fighting just ended..."
"What! No time has passed? Then no else knows yet..."
Just then Zaak, Greta, and Alisha came through the door.
"Ian, what the hell happened back there!"
"I uh, well Zaak, uh." I showed the ring.
"What's that?"
"A gift Kuchiki left for me. It's hard to explain."
"Left for.... No!"
"I'm sorry Zoe, she died. Because of me."

We held Kuchiki's funeral that night. We cremated her, and scattered her ashes. When we came back to house, I headed for the music room. It was hard to walk through the halls when I could hardly make out the walls, but the occasional insect made it a lot easier. I sat down at the piano, and I began to play. I played Bach, Brahms, Mozart. And I played Beethoven. Lots and lots of Beethoven. After a few days straight, however, I ran out of music to play. So I began to play violin. Vivaldi, Mozart, Bach. A day or so later, I once again was out of music. So I began to play my guitar. I began to play around with minor chords, and an endless song of death flowed from my fingers. After a couple of hours, Zaak peeked in the door.
"Ian, I'm going to have to ask you to stop."
"Why?"
"Whenever you start playing, Alisha starts bawling hysterically, Greta breaks whatever she's holding, and Zoe has been in the shower for three hours straight."
"Oh. I'll see what I can do."
I made my way to the bathroom, not sure what I'd say.
"Zoe!?" I knocked. No response. I knocked louder. No response. I gave the door a good whack,... and there went the door.
I walked in, and I knew I was about to lose some hearing.
"IAN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE!?" Zoe had thrust her head from behind the shower curtain, and I knew the red color of her face wasn't from the shower.
"I, came to get you out of the, uh, shower. And that sounded weird."
"Why are still in here!?"
"That shower curtain doesn't block anything anyway."
"What!?"
"I, ... nevermind. Zoe, we're worried about you is all." Zoe still looked like she felt akward, but I could tell a lot of the tension in her was gone.
"Ok, I'll be out in a bit."
"K."

The next morning, Zoe stood in front of the table at breakfast and proclaimed,
"You're all naked!"
I almost died laughing.
"Ian has X-ray vision now."
The others in the room stiffened, and akwardness filled the room.

It was the next day when it happened. At 2:31 in the afternoon, over 100 magic users attacked Zaak's house. All of us went to fight, each in our own way. Zaak and Greta launched several types of missiles, Zoe conjured boulders and made men disappeared, Alisha transformed men into twisted, disfigured shapes. Kuchiki struck out with the elements, killing many. And I killed. I snapped bones, crushed organs, and slashed arteries. I moved like a shadow, killing many before they even saw me. Suddenly, like before, a ring was formed around me. But this time at least thirty men had me surrounded. They launched lightning attacks all at once. I lept into the air, spinning as the attacks hit me. The attacks bounced off in all directions, some at strange angles. As I finished my spin, I saw Kuchiki. And I saw the bolt of lightning heading towards her. And I realized how inadequate I was. I couldn't protect her. I caught her before she hit the ground. She smiled that precious smile, and then the light left her eyes. The ring she gave me glowed on my right hand, and as I watched, the gold cracked and shattered, and silver was left behind. The black stoned turned to dust, and a red stone was in its place. Suddenly, my senses sharpened beyond belief. I could see everything. I could hear everything. I could smell everything. I could taste things in the air. I could feel every living thing nearby. I could see the blood pumping through men's veins, I could see everything about them. But the men's clothes were hard to see. They formed a shadowy wisp over the men, and didn't conceal anything. But that didn't bother me. They didn't feel like people anymore, they felt like living things, a part of nature. And I was one with nature.

The heartbeat passed through me, and I could feel its power. It was power that I wanted. I felt alive, at one with the living world around me. I could feel the gentle power of the world seeping into me, and I found it strangely soothing. I remembered that Kuchiki was dead. She could never feel what I felt. I looked to the men around me, and I realized that they were the ones that killed her. So I killed them. Then I realized that I was the one who killed her. Then the heartbeat passed through me again. I fell to my knees, my breath taken. A voice entered my head. Kuchiki's voice.
"Do not wear the ring for more than 34 minutes, or you will lose your self."
I began to weep.
An hour later, the ring hadn't left my finger. And I still wept.

Every thing went back normal after my birthday. I played several pranks with my portable hole, and it turns out that trapped lightning makes a great lantern. I still practiced religiously with my sword, but with no one to fight, I didn't have much use for it. I loved the ring that Kuchiki gave me, but I had no idea if it had any abilities or not. And as I went back to training, my voices began to speak less and less. At first it puzzled me, but then I realized that it was because I was leading a semi-normal life.


And then they came. Just after lunch, a rumble passed through the house. I was at the window in an instant. The thirty, a mix of all the classes, marched towards the house. And in the back were three that didn't match any of the classes.Their magic was unlike any I'd ever seen. It was dispersed over their entire body, and shimmered like a billion tiny flames. It hit me. They were knock-offs of me. I had no idea what they were capable of, and I had to be careful.


I was out of the door with my sword moving at a 350 mile an hour dead sprint, and I took out the first six attackers with my first swing. I could feel Death growing closer to the front of my mind, and I knew his power could overwhelm me at any moment if I wasn't careful. I hacked and slashed through the enemies. Suddenly, a ring formed around me. Launching numerous missiles simultaneously, my shield reflected the attacks, but I feel its strength waining. Apparently my shield wasn't impervious. The reflected missiles took out some more of the men, but I noticed that the three mysteries were still holding out. I decided to say hello.
I swung up, dropping my knee to cut under then up through his defences. He was fast, and manged to dodge almost all of my uppercut. When my sword hit his skin, the sword shattered. I threw the remaining three-fourths of the sword up in to the air. I knew that his shield couldn't hold up forever, and I began to barrage him with my fists. I found out after three punches that while his skin rivaled mine, his bones were normal. He crumpled to the ground, dead. Apparently he couldn't heal like me either. As the second launched himself at me, I spun and grabbed his arm, flipping him over. I threw him to the ground, and before he could move, my sword pierced his heart. I yanked and twisted, pulling my blade from his limp corpse. The third swung his fist at me, but I dodged and raked his stomach with the jagged edge of my blade. The thick red line disappeared rapidly. He swung his hand towards my face, raking a long, deep line across my eye. With my shield down, I couldn't stop his hand. The cut went from my forehead to my chin, splitting my eyelid. I clasped my hand to my face, clenching the skin together. I pulled my hand away from the cut a secong later, and even though the cut was fully healed, I knew that that I had a huge scar across my face. Before he had time to attack again, I slashed again, cutting a ragged welt over his heart. Stabbing my sword into the earth, I sprung. I pulled the gash open, ripping open his ribcage. I pulled out the man's beating heart. I turned to the remaining warlocks who were still fighting my friends. I raised the man's still beating heart above my head, and shouted,
"Leave me ALONE!"
The warlocks turned, horror on their faces. I crushed the heart, blood and heart spraying through the woods.
The warlocks died with fear on their face.

"What the hell is going on!?"
"Damn, Zach, how did you know we were in here?"
"I could hear you, Greta."
"Well, happy birthday anyway, Ian"
"Thanks, Kuchiki."
"Surprise!" Zoe and Alisha jumped in from the deck.
"Yeah, he already knew."
"S***, Ian, why do you do that?"
"I'm sorry I can hear, Zoe."
After the bruhaha died down, I actually did have a good time. I got an entire cake to myself, and some awesome presents. Zoe gave me a real portable hole and Alisha captured lightning in crystal, both of which were pretty much amazing. Greta made me a sword. A freakin huge, magically reinforced, mind-blowingly cool sword. But I liked Kuchiki's gift the best. It was a gold ring, with a small black stone embedded in the top. Inside the ring was an inscription.
"Zu Herrn Ian meine polierende Nacht."
"Nice play on words. And since when do you know German?"
"I looked it up on the internet."
"Thank you."
After spending an hour suffering through girls' obsession with photos, I finally got out of the house. The ring fit my finger perfectly, of course, and I didn't even have to adjust the strap on the baldric. It was kinda creepy that Greta knew how wide my shoulders were, but I didn't think much of it. I decided to put the sword throught its paces. It was a greatsword, with a blade a bit over four feet long, a little wider than a palm, and a two-handed grip. It was a beautiful sword, and I soon found out that it never lost its edge, could cut through almost anything, and was incrediblely resistant to breakage. After a few hours of chopping down trees, I headed for home. The house was deserted, and walking through its silent halls, I found that I had never been there when there was nothing to hear. I wandered for hours, never going anywhere. And yet I went everywhere. I visited my favorite places, including the practice room I had thoroughly destroyed when I was 11. Suddenly I remembered again. Zaak should have another apprentice. He should be about ten, and just be starting defensive spells... nothing made sense. When Zaak spoke to the council man that day... something was wrong.
And it involved me.

A few days after the knife incident, it began to rain. And it rained and it rained and it rained. I loved it. I spent entire days outside, reveling in the showers. And I only got struck by lightning once. But the look on Kuchiki face when I told almost ruined the whole experience. Her face turned red, and I had to relax my face to keep her from breaking her handwhen she slapped me.
"Why would you do that!?"
"I didn't mean for it to happen. I'm sorry."
"No you aren't."
"I didn't want to make you mad or anything..."
"You are such a guy!" And with that she gave me a shove. Kuchiki is small, but she's surprisingly strong, and when she caught me off guard like that, I started to fall back. Realizing that I was going to fall, she tried to grab me, but I was so heavy that she couldn't stop me. In fact it just pulled her off along with me. I had taken to shielding all the time, but the shove had broken my concentration. That was lucky for Kuchiki, because the boulder we fell off of was tall enough that she would have broken bones if I was shielding. But it still hurt when she landed on top of me.
"Oh, f***. Kuchiki, are...."
But then I started to feel really weird. Like seriously messed up. And then I blacked out.
When I woke up, Kuchiki was curled up in a ball asleep on top of me. And as I looked at her, she was so relaxed, so at peace. Then, as I looked at her small face, I felt something I had never felt before. I wanted-- no, I HAD-- to protect her. She was precious to me. It wasn't like I had to do anything she asked, I wanted to protect her. I set her down on the ground, but as soon as I pulled my arms out from underneath her, she woke up.
"Hey."
"Welcome back, sleepyhead."
"You're the one who blacked out."
"You pushed me."
We continued to talk for hours. And while it appeared on the outside that nothing had changed, if it was possible, Kuchiki's smile was even brighter.

Sometimes people get what they asked for. And I hate it when that happens. Not only did Zoe teleport the group straight to my favorite mountain clearing, they were fully equipped to distract me, even though they didn't know why. But the sadistic looks on their faces took the cake.
After three hours, I was exhausted. With torture devices ranging from stones to cattle prods, I was hard pressed to find a way to focus and shield. I was actually happy that none of the girls realized that I could harden my skin, because the look on their faces when I had perfected the technique would be great. Just as I started to find my zone while being hit with stones and fireballs, the sun began to set. I began to run sprints back across the mountains, leaving the girls behind.
The girls began to come with me less frequently, settling in on once a week. But Kuchiki would come by herself every few days. I'd stop and take a break, and we'd walk through the hills, just talking. One day we found a beautiful waterfall, and from then on we'd go there daily to relax in peace. It wasn't long before the other girls start harassing me, and Misery would cackle for hours afterward. I denied all accusations, but the girls didn't seem to believe me.
An occurance that began to happen more and more often was that I began to dream. I would be at rest with my other selfs, and suddenly I would faze out and enter a dream. The dreams were ambiguous, mostly swirling colors and voices that would drift across my conciousness. But one night the dream was different.

I stood on a grassy clearing in a wood. Kuchiki stood across the clearing, smiling as always. But then a look of terror shocked onto her face. A tall dark figure grabbed her by her robes and lifted her up. I didn't recognize the face, but the man had a large, ropey scar across his left eye. He blinked, and the scar even covered the eyelid. He laughed a dark, haunting rumble that rolled through the air and sent shivers down my spine. Then he rose into the air on huge black wings....

And I woke up. Misery looked at me with a grin and said, "Lovers always do meet tragedy, don't they?"
Before I could tell Misery to stuff it, Love defended himself.
"Very funny Misery. But she's just a friend."
I was amazed. It had been so long since Love spoke, I'd forgotten his voice. But there was a ring to Love's voice that I had never heard. And when I looked into his eyes I was met not by pale grey wells of despair, but by breathtakingly blue gems that looked like they belonged to a god.
Love grinned at my dumbstruck expression.
"Friendship is a kind of love, too."

The next morning I decided I was ready. As Alisha went to get herself some milk, I called from the table,"Alisha, see that knife? Throw it at Zoe's head." Everyone froze. Zoe looked at me with this look on her face.
"What?" I asked,"I'll stop it." But Zoe still looked pretty miffed.
You have to realize, this was no ordinary knife. It was one of those big knives chefs on TV use to cut vegtables. Reluctantly, Alisha gently tossed the knife in Zoe's general direction. I moved from the other side of the table in the blink of an eye to catch the knife just in front of Alisha's hand.
"No, no, no. If you're going to do this, throw it as hard as you can. Use your magic and everything."
I thought Zoe was going to kill me. But me sitting down back on the other side of the table probably didn't help.
Gathering her magic, Alisha focused and paused. Then, quick as lightning, she threw the knife. But not quick enough. Faster than anyone but me could follow, I lept over the table, landing next to Zoe between her and Alisha. I got there so fast I had to wait a little for the knife, even though for even a magical observer, the knife took an instant to reach Zoe. As the knife closed in, I shielded and swung my arm. The knife shattered as it hit my arm. In the same motion I grabbed the pieces of the shattered out of the air. To anyone in the room, I appeared by Zoe's side and swung my arm, making the knife disappear.
"What just happened?" asked Greta.
"Holy s***!" exclaimed Kuchiki.
Alisha almost fainted, and Zoe looked at me in both loathing and amazement.
Zaak didn't say a word.
I dropped the slivers of knife on the table, and walked out of the room, knowing I made the day interesting.

It took Death days to calm down. At first, he'd shout as loud he could for hours, swearing and cursing the "miscreants." After a day or two, he simply went silent, not speaking even when spoken directly to. Even after he began to open up again, I could tell that he was still angry.
Greta had managed to stop the fireball from burning her, but it would still take her around a week to recover. The first night of her recovery, she slipped in and out of conciousness a few times, and none of us knew if she was going to make it.
After Greta's condition began to improve, I began to train. I ran a couple hundred miles every morning, over and around the beautiful Rockies. I also went deep into the mountains and began to lift weights. Not just for weight, but also for reps.In the heat of the day, I lifted hundreds of tons thousands of times. As it began to cool off in the afternoon I would do millions of push-ups and crunches. When evening fell, I would run sprints back to Zaak's.
Greta healed, and I continued to train. When she was able, she even ran with me for a small while. As I trained more and more, I began to change. My muscles started to become hard as stone, and my training became too easy. I increased weight, number of reps and distance. But I also began to train my wings. I would fly with resistance, and I lifted boulders with only my wings. After several more days, I noticed a curious thing. When I focused intensely on one thing, my skin became incredibly hard. Despite everything I tried, nothing seemed to be able to pierce my skin when it was in that state. Unfortunately, I could keep it up for a few seconds at a time, and I had to have no distractions in order to do it at all.
And so I began to meditate daily. I cleared my mind, and focused on one object. I had some trouble at first, but soon I could harden my skin for minutes at a time. By the time Zoe and Alisha were back, I could almost "shield," as I liked to call it, for half an hour. But I still hadn't mastered it with distractions. So when the whole group offered to help me practice with distractions, I accepted. I went ahead running, and they said they'd catch up later.
So you can imagine my shock when I entered my favorite clearing to find the four waiting for me.

Even now that Greta was speaking, and I could speak to myself at night, the walk was still boring. I grew tired of having to stay with Greta, but I knew it was dangerous for her to travel alone. Finally, one day after breakfast, I asked Greta, "Greta, how fast can you run?" A wide grin flashed on her face, and then she was gone.

The thrill of a good run was welcomed by my legs, and even though Greta was no where near as fast as me, she ran quickly enough that I was no longer bored. We made great time, and it wouldn't be longed before we got to Zaak's house. Our last night in the mountains, I noticed that Greta looked drained. She'd been running with the aid of her magic for four days, and her body was wearing down.

When we rounded the bend and saw the field behind part of Zaak's house, I knew something was wrong. A group of magic users was standing in front of Zaak, yelling loudly. As I approached, one of the wizards in the group turned and threw a fireball at Greta.
Warlocks don't have strong defensive spells anyway, and in her weakened state, Greta ended up taking most of the blast. Greta flew ten feet back and landed limply. I could feel that she was alive, but that didn't save any of the attackers.
"NO!!"

Death, Pain, and Misery all spoke as one. A shudder ran through my body, and I felt a burning heat spread through me.
For the first time since I was changed, I was angry.

One of the mages grew vines, trying to ensnare me. The slowed me as much as dead air. The two wizards and one of the other mages hit me with a wind-fire-lightning combonation attack. It slowed me some, but I used my wings to thrust forward and close the gap. In close combat, none were a match for me. I could lift 10,000 pounds with my arm outstretched, and curl the same amount, and I could increase those amounts if need be. My uppercut took the wizard's head clean off, ripping muscles and cracking bones as if they were tissue paper. There was a crack, and a large boulder appeared over me. Before it even had a chance to touch me, I grabbed the boulder and threw it, crushing one of the mages. The mage who tried to pin me with vines lept towards me, brandishing two earth daggers. I swept with my foot out, breaking the mages ankles and knocking him off his feet. Before he hit the ground I grabbed his head, and, twisting my upper body 180 degrees, smashed the mage's face into the magician's temple. They fell to the groung in a tangled heap. As I turned, the other wizard launched a fire-lightning attack. The blitzbolt, as it is called, streaked towards me, gaining speed as it went. Just before the blitzbolt hit me, I jerked to the side, deflecting the bolt. Caught off guard the last mage was killed instantly by the exploding blitzbolt. Realizing that he was all alone, the wizard tried to flee. But as he turned to run, I was already there. He stopped with a jerk, a look of pure terror in his eyes. As my punch hit his chest, the man's body didn't have enough time to overcome its own inertia. My fist went through his ribs, his sternum and a chunk of his spine falling out the other side. I could feel his heart stop beating.
As the heat bled away, my conciousness returned,, and I saw the seven men I had killed.

And yet Death was not happy.

Walking was incredibly boring, and three weeks into it, Greta hadn't said a word. I was starting to get a little annoyed, but I didn't want to hurt Greta's feelings or worse, make her angry. That night, I decided to do something. It started to rain near nightfall, and Greta was soaked. Sitting next to the fire, I attempted to break the ice.
"I found out this cool way to stop the rain."
"Leave me alone."
"Nonsense. Check this out." I unfolded my wings and rotated them around my head so they made a large umbrella. Greta responded by turning her back to me. Without even thinking, I grabbed Greta by the midsection and set her down underneath my improv canopy.
"Wha--!"
"You need an attitude check." Greta had a strange look on her face, and even thow I knew I knew what it meant, I couldn't place what that look.
"Does this feel strange to you?"
"Umm... Yeah, it does."
"Is this too close for you?" I had realized that six inches might be a little too close for Greta.
"It's way too close."
I backed up a foot or so, and the tension relaxed from Greta. We began to talk, and I found out that the head of the opposing warlock faction was actually Greta's father. We actually ended up talking late into the night, and I didn't realize how late it was until Greta fell asleep. The odd part was when I tried to fall asleep. After an hour of nothing, I finally started to fuzz out. Suddenly I snapped awake and there in front of me were the five me's. But I wasn't in the cave. I was sitting by the fire with Greta.

"How did you get out of my head!?"
"Relax, Ian. This is totally natural."
"Natural?"
"You are able to see us like this when you are at rest. You don't need to sleep anymore."
"Natural?"
"We sleep for most of the day, and your mind rests in between."
"That is handy."
"So now you get to talk to us all night!"
"I'm simply overjoyed, Misery."
"I know."
It was then that I noticed that Love was totally captivated with Greta, and he stared at her with a weird look on his face.
"No way man, she's off limits for you."
"What?" Snapping out of it, he looked around like he was unaware of what had just gone on.
"Its not like that with her."
"Ian, since you became isolated from other people, Love has felt uneeded, and so he's a ittle desperate."
I looked at Love, and in his cold grey eyes I saw a... hunger.

I spent the rest of the night talking with Love.

I didn't know what to expect when I returned to the Council Chamber, but everyone was looking at me expectantly.
"Ian," intoned the Leader of the Council, "we have decided that you will be allowed to live."
"What!" exclaimed the leader of the warlocks, "He is an abomination!"
"He is a member of the magical community, and is protected by this council!"
You could feel the tension between the two leaders, and I knew this wouldn't end well.
The second in command of the warlocks stood up in defiance. I noticed that he was the leader of the three that helped examine me.
"I cannot stand by and allow this creature's destruction. He is a one-of-a-kind marvel and is a powerful member of the Council."

The sound in the room died. No one moved, and hardly anyone breathed. The head warlock looked to his second, pure hatred in his eyes.
"You wish to harbor this creature? You are no longer a member of this fellowship."
A murmur passed through the non-warlock members of the Council, and some of the warlocks looked to each other nervously.
"This could get interesting," pondered Misery.
"Very interesting," replied Pain.
"That's it!" shouted the head warlock, "any you who wish to follow this foolish traitor can stay. Those who wish to follow me are leaving. Now."
Just over half the warlocks stood up and left. I was crestfallen to see Greta was one of them. A few moments of silence passed, then a clamour rose from the hall. There was a loud bang, and Greta stormed into the room looking furious. I would not have wanted to cross her path, especially with the way I saw her now.
Greta made 13 warlocks who stayed, exactly half the warlocks who came to the council.
"In view of recent events," began the Leader of the Council, "I say a magic 'guard' should be formed to help hide Zach from the warlocks, and defend him if need be."
"Not that you need protecting," whispered Zaak.
"All classes will have one representative who--"
"What!" cried the now lead warlock, "How can that be asked--"
"A full trio is too many, and with the social taboo on pairs, the only thing that can be done is to only send one warlock."
"I'll do it." Greta stood as she spoke, defiance gleaming in her eye.
"Very good. Any more volunteers?" Zoe and Alisha stood.
"That shouldn't be a problem since you already know Ian... Now all we need is a mage."
I almost vomited on the floor.
"I'll go." A small japanese girl that spoke with a slight accent stood up, a smile on her face.
"Thank you Kukichi," replied the Leader of the Council, who couldn't help but smile.
Zaak stood, and at first I wasn't sure what he was up to.
"I wonder I if could join as well, since--"
"I understand. That would be completely fine."
"If it would be helpful," replied Zaak, "we could stay at my house, at least for a while."
"That is something you should suggest to the team, but I don't see why not."

We met outside the council complex, not sure what to do next.
"Well I caused all of this, so I guess I should introduce myself, Kukichi. I'm Ian Kemt, and I am-- was a wizard."
"Nice to meet you," replied Kukichi, absolutely beaming.
"So, Zaak, what's the plan?" I asked.

The plan was that we made our way to Zaak's in three groups. And that we went the slow way. Kukichi and Zaak would arrive first, followed by Greta and I, and then Alisha and Zoe.
Greta and I flew the first leg to Olympia, but then we had to WALK the rest of the way. I was PISSED. But there wasn't much I could do. As Greta and I made our way into the Cascades, Pain began to laugh.
"This is going to be fun."

Shut up, Pain.

I love the rain. And Japan is breathtakingly beautiful. But neither of them helped me that day. Lying on that hill, I could almost feel my humanity bleed away. After they found I didn't tire, the team set out to find my strength. The scary part: they couldn't. No matter how much the weight, I could lift it. They hypothesised that when my muscle cells broke down, they regenerated incrediblely fast, allowing my strength to increase to whatever size needed. But my strength didn't go back down after I was finished lifting, it was permanent because I was generating new muscle fiber. As a result, I was very bulky after the lifting tests. Then a curious thing happened. My muscle returned to their original size. Puzzled, I lifted the largest weight again. My muscles didn't become larger. The warlocks figured it out first.
"Your body is toning itself," said one of the warlocks, "if it didn't your muscles would get so big it would be impossible to move."

After some intense questioning, I couldn't take it anymore. I ran outside into the rain and flung myself on to the ground a way off from the Council Chambers. The isolation set in, and with no one in the world to talk to, I began to question myself.

To my surprise I found myself in the cave again. The other five of me were still talking to each other, and I still couldn't hear them. I decided to make myself heard.
"If you don't mind me asking, who are you guys?"
The five spun around, looking at me in utter disbelief. Gaining control of himself, the leader bent down and wrote in the dust on the floor: ONCE WE SPEAK THERE IS NO GOING BACK.
"I honestly don't care."
The leader smiled at me.
"How nice of you to join us, Ian."
I felt a barrier in my mind fall down. I could now sense five other selfs inside my head.
"Who are you?"
The leader responded, "I am Death."
The other selfs began to name themselves.
" I am Pain."
" I am Misery."
" I am Truth."
" I am Love."

I woke up on the hill, slightly disoriented.
"Where am I?"
"On a hill outside the Council Chambers."
"Thanks Truth."
Just then, I saw Zaak walking towards me.
"Good old Zaak. Glad to see him."
And I agreed with Death.

I have to admit, I was freaking out. Anytime the Head of the Council says, "We are now going to test you," you should be very afraid. I was shown into a chamber that looked at little too much like a prison cell, and asked to remove all my clothes except my underwear by a pinked-robed female mage. I hate mages.
"What!? What kind of place is this?"
"It is needed in order to see the full extent of your transformation."
I was suddenly very glad none of my friends were on the examination team.
Begrudgingly, I pulled off my shirt and pants. I had never took the time to actually look at my new self, and I was surprised to see that I was A LOT more muscular.
"Since your skin has been bonded with magic, we will first see how resistant it is to various otherwise dangerous stimuli."
I felt the blood drain from my face.
"Lets start with heat."
A small flame ignited just off the tip of her finger.
"This would just start to burn you under normal conditions."
Without any hesitation, she put the flame to my new rock hard abs. Nothing happened. The others in the room started murmuring amongst themselves.
"How's this?"
The flame grew larger, and I could actually feel its warmth, but still no pain. A look of frustration crossed the mage's face, and I grinned at her fierce concentration. She began to slowly add magic, and the flame grew incrementaly. Abruptly, the little mage stopped. I was about to make a snide comment when a huge forced slammed into my back. I could tell it was a fireball, but rather than being hot, my back felt very cold. I could hear a strange fizzling sound as the magic died out, something very abnormal for a fire ball.
"Now we are getting somewhere," remarked a voice I didn't recognize.
I whipped around to see three warlocks standing at the door, one of them still had his arm outstretched.
"Now please," asked the mage," could we see your wings?"
Curse Zaak. Man never could keep a secret.
"Why don't you look at them yourself? They're right the--" But they weren't there. As far as I could see, my wings had disappeared, but I knew they were there, I could still feel them. I unfurled my wings to their full length, and everyone gasped. I should say, everyone gasped except for the warlocks. The were still by the door, stoic as ever.

Over the next half an hour, I was repeatedly burned and struck by lightning, neither had any affect.
"Water and earth would only measure strength, and we're testing that one later..." pondered one of the wizards on the Examination Team.
One of the warlocks stepped forward.
"Sharpened air." It was NOT a question.
"Nothing too dangerous," piped in the pink toad.
The warlock proceeded to form an air disk as tall as he was and launch straight at my chest.
The pink mage screamed as a deep rent was opened up in my chest. The pain was incredible, but it was endurable. Then, about a second after the pain hit, it was gone. The huge gash in my chest was totally gone. The mage didn't even notice at first.
"IT COULD HAVE CUT HIM IN HALF!" she shrieked.
The warlock looked at her with a grin plastered on his face that would have gotten a normal human thrown in an asylum.
"It should have." Was all he said. You could hear the ecstasy in his voice.
The mage then looked back at me, and realized that I was now unhurt.
"What happ..." The mage promptly fainted. THAT got a good laugh out of me and the warlocks.
A magician walked to the center of the room.
"Why don't we move on to strength now?"
"Oh f***," I thought.

I was puzzled when Pterry, as I now called him, began to descend. I realized that while I didn't fatigue, Pterry must have been exhausted. We set down in the peninsula of Washington, and I chucled as I saw the irony. To bad there isn't actually a town named Forks. Zaak sent Pterry back home, and I got a fire started. It was a lot harder than usual, because I can't cast magic in my new body. My magic is bound to my cells.



After we settled in, Zaak and I began to chat about old times. When I brought the subject of apprentices, Zaak got very tense.

"The Council of Magic can tell you more about that."

"Is that where we are going?"

"Yes, they meet in Japan a ways outside of Tokyo these days."

The Council of Magic is the head authority in the magical world. They represent wizards, warlocks, mages, and magicians. The fact that the Council was having a session just because of me was rather frightening. I fell into an uneasy sleep, not sure what to expect.



I didn't dream at all that night, which scared me more than my regular nightmare. Crossing the Pacific was uneventful, and I had a lot of time to think. As I landed on a hill on beautiful Honshu, I was unsure how I would handle the questions that would be thrown at me.



The outside of the building was magically hidden, but the inside was incredibly oppulent. I saw several people scurrying about, and I could almost taste the magic in the air.

"It seems a little sparse from what you told me," I commented.

"Since it's an emergency meeting, for the most part only the council is here."
As I walked into the Council chambers, I was shocked to see somewhat familiar faces.
"Alisha and Zoe are on the council!?"
"As a matter of fact, they are."
"I didn't even know they possesed magic!"
"Council members are usually talented at concealing their power."
"I'll bet."
"Alisha is a wizard like you... were, and Zoe is one of the more powerful magicians."
"That's what the colors mean?"
"What?"
"The magic I see radiating from people has different colors, and apparently it denotes the type of magic they have."
"That's interesting. Hmmm... the warlocks have just arrived."
My jaw almost hit the floor, and I almost crapped my pants at the same time. The trueself of a warlock was amazingly beautiful but at the same moment almost disgustingly harsh. The effect made them terrifying, but impossible for me to take my eyes off of. My heart almost skipped a beat when I realized that one of them was Greta.
"Close your mouth, everone can see you," whispered Zaak.
"Sorry."
I couldn't believe that I didn't know that Greta was a warlock. I could feel the magic coming from the whole group of them. I felt retarded that I had never swept for magic around any of my friends.
As the Council came to session, I noticed that the warlocks sat by themselves, and that Zoe and Alisha barely looked at Greta. I wondered how someone could NOT stare at the warlocks, but then I remembered that I was the only one who could see them that way. A man I didn't recognize then cleared his throat and looked directly at me.
"Ian, we have called this council to speak of one and only one topic. You."

"Can we eat first?" I asked, the fact that we were leaving didn't even register as a big deal. Then it hit me. I'd never seen Zaak leave his property except for one reason. In the nine years I'd know him, he'd never even hinted at going anywhere else.

"No! Of course not!" he shouted as he swept some things into a box. "We have to leave as soon as possible!"

I ran upstairs and threw somethings in a bag. I noticed that all of my old things were exactly as I left them, and there was something that was nagging at the back of my mind. I froze. Zaak hadn't taken on a new apprentice after I left. A wizard like Zaak would have one after another...

"Ian! Hurry up!"

I ran to the front stairs and hopped the banister, gliding down to the first floor. "How are we traveling?" I asked. I knew I could fly, but I wasn't sure about Zaak.
"Flying, of course."
"Oh great." I thought. "I don't know if I can carry you." Is what I said.
"No, no, no. I'm not flying with you."
"Then how?"
A mischevious grin crawled along Zaak's face.
"Follow me."
He pushed a button on the wall that I had never seen before, and walked through one of the various locked doors in his house. We walked into a gargantuan hangar, but something seemed to be missing.
"Where's the plane?" I asked.
The grin came back.
Zaak put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. I could hear the tint of magic, and a shiver ran down my spine as the whistle pierced all the magic dimensions. The air in the top of the hangar began to shimmer like water, and then a huge mass dropped out of the rift. A pterodayctal rigged with a saddle rose up and stretched its wings.

The look on my face must have given it away.
"Do you like it?" Asked Zaak with the biggest grin Iv'e ever seen. "I summoned him from the under world and put him in Dimensional Space 3."
"What are the first two?" I asked.
"Storage and a fridge."
"So why does he get a dimensional space to himself?"
"Hehehe. He gets cranky when he's hungry."
I looked up worriedly at the huge beast.
"Don't worry, he's eaten."
The thought had crossed my mind, but what I was actually worried about was having to fly near the thing.
"Well, we'd best be off."
As Zaak climbed onto the creature's back, I began to walk towards the mouth of the hangar. With a sudden whoosh our winged friend took off and roared just over my head, Zaak cackling with glee. I couldn't help but laugh as took off in a light run that brought me the the door of the hangar almost instantly. I lifted off, feeling free in air once more. As I got settled in above Zaak, I began to think.
"Why did we have to leave on such short notice?"
Zaak looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Ian, you are in BIG trouble."

I woke up the morning confused and unsure. I was already used to the way my body felt, but I didn't dare look in the mirror. As I showered, I thought about my dream from the night before. You see, ever since my gift was awakened at the age of seven, I've had the same nightmare every night.

I'm walking down the center of a dark cave, with a vaulted ceiling above me and pillars of rock randomly spaced to my right and left. There is a blue light emenating from the back of the cave. Standing in front are five of...me. They are darker, more sinister, some even grotesque, but they're all me. They stand in a spear head formation, and the first raises his left hand and beckons me with his index finger, palms up. He even has a dark, twisted smile on. And thats usually when I wake up screaming. When I was younger, Zaak was always there to reassure me, although he never asked what I drempt about. But as I grew older, Zaak would come less and less, until eventually he might not even wake up, but he'd never admit that.

That first night I was at Zaak's, however, the dream was different. The cave was the same, except this time I stood with my back to the blue light. And beside me stood the leader of the other me's. We both turned to the entrance to the cave, and the other four me's walked in, chatting with each other, but no sound seemed to reach my ears. When the four saw the leader and I standing together, a look of shock crossed their face. They looked questioningly at the leader, who shook his head. The leader turned to me and stroked my hair just once, then walked over to the others. They began to talk amongst themselves, but once again I couldn't hear a word they were saying. It was then I noticed that the blue light at my back was beginning to brighten. As I turned to look at the source of the light, the light flashed, and then a hand grabbed my shoulder with an almost painful grip and yanked me backwards.

I hopped out the shower and quickly got dressed. I barely even noticed that my clothes fit a lot tighter on my new body, and I didn't stop to think of why Zaak would have clothes that fit me even though I hadn't lived with him in three years.

I slid down rail of the kitchen stairs like I always did, but Zaak wasn't in the kitchen. I stepped into the front living room to see him running around and cursing at the top of his lungs, an occurance that only happened once a month.
"Ian!" he yelled, "we have to leave!"

I recognized Zaak immediatly. His long, flowing, hair and those weird robes he always wore. I realized, as I looked at him, that he looked different now. His stomach glowed in a pale light. Not only that, but he looked so much... younger. I didn't know what to make of it, but before I could say anything, Zaak stopped me with his hand and said "There are many things I must explain, but first, would you like something to eat?" That was when I realized that I was about to keel over from hunger. But strangely enough, I didn't feel tired at all...

After a pound of bacon, a bag of hashbrowns, and a dozen eggs, was full enough to talk. Zaak began with, "Ian, I called you here because of what happened" Duh. "you were subjected to--" "I know what spell was cast on me" I interrupted, "what happened to me afterwards?" "Well," replied Zaak, "to put it simply, all the magic in your body was freed from your magic-sack and was bound to every individual cell in your body." Side note here: magic-sack is slang for an "awakened" appendix. It is where the body stores magic when it is not in use.

I was half-way through my second bucket of ice cream when Zaak finished. "And thats why I look young. You can see my trueself." All this talk about magic was making me woozy, and i was a little confused. "All this talk about magic is making me a little woozy, and I'm a little confused," I replied. "Why don't I look any different to myself?"
"I said this before Ian, you have transformed into your trueself. That is what you are truly like."
"I'm supposed to look like this?! A freak!?" was all I could get out. I stormed off to my old room, and went to bed. As I slipped into the world of dreams, my nightly terrors came to visit again...

I began to slow as I realized I wasn't in Iowa anymore. The Loess hills of western Iowa gave way to the flat, rolling plain of Nebraska. Even though I had gotten there in half an hour, it felt like running took too long. In spite of myself, I stretched my new wings and took to the sky.

I have to admit, flying began to grow on me. I was free in the air, and soaring over Nebraska was the most exhilirating experience of my life. Unfortunatly, the feeling that I had to get somewhere fast didn't leave. The sensation was akin to a disturbance I hadn't felt in three years, "but there's no way" I thought to myself...

Gliding peacefully over eastern Colorado, the feeling, the tug, grew stronger. I followed it, crossing over the first foothills of the Rockies. A few minutes later, I saw it: a huge chateau that dominated the wooded hill it was nestled into. I glided to the front door, the impulse to go inside incredibly strong. As I threw open the doors, a familiar voice greeted my ears.

"Hello, Ian, I'm so glad you were able to make it."

He stood up looking like Death himself: his black wings unfolded, eyes that pierced your soul. He could kill anyone in existance, but there was only one we wanted dead. He focused the last of the energy rampaging through his body into his finger. As he rose into the air, there was no anger in him, no emotion at all. The girl simply HAD to die. She tried to take him away from everything he loved, and she must pay. The beam of light that left his finger carried all the love of his life in it. And as the spear of hatred hit the girl, we knew it was done. As the flash from the explosion bled away, I crept back to the corner of his mind where I lived. I killed that girl for him, but my body was now his to keep forever. I was asleep once more...


I awoke on the ground, not sure what just happened. As I stood up in the midst of the crater, I realized that a huge crowd of people was staring as if I was some kind of freak... I cringed when some nut started yelling something about a demon, but when I cowered, everyone in the mob gasped. Then I saw them: huge, black, feathery wings that swept out my shoulders at least ten feet. Then, I did somethig that I almost never did-- I ran. Not only that, I ran FAST. As the world fell into a blur behind me, I didn't care where I was going, only that I never got there.

The day I killed that girl started like any other day. I didn't mean for it to happen, and there is nothing I can do about it or what happened afterwords. All I can do is tell the story...



"See you later, Seth" I called as I turned up the side walk. It was a beautiful day; you could almost taste the magic in the air. And then, I saw her. She was driving out of the first lot when I saw her. I only glanced at her for a second, but I could see something strange in her eyes. I didn't sense anything strange--I didnt expect to--so I just kept walking. I was about to cross the bridge when I heard the words-- words that even if others could hear, wouldn't-- they were meant only for my ears. Before I could do anything, a feeling of euphoria shot through my entire body, tingling across my skin. Slowly, at first, the tingling turned into the feeling of electricity crawling all over my skin. Then it became a burning, then an incredible pain that knocked the wind out of me and dropped me to the ground, even though I wasn't sure how I got into the air. As I got to one knee, a feeling of emptiness swept through me. And the hate flowed forth.