Black Magus

The Hateful, Ravenous One.

***

The first thing I remembered was an incandescent sun. An oppressive heat that glared upon me with the intensity of a war god aiming his wrath at a single blade of grass.

I then looked up to see green. More greenery than I'd ever seen in my life. Trees. Weeds. Grasses and leaves, grown to the proportions of man and beyond. While burned dry by the summer glare, the overgrowth swayed under the veiled threat of another tempestuous God. Toiling clouds of a rumbling deity echoed across the stillness of brown leaves, ripped earth, and overripe plants. Only then did I see it: the eyes that burned with the sun's malevolence. The fur was as dark as the deepest shadow. The paws immolated the trees that rose to colossal heights, yet stood no higher than the knees. The sweeping tail left death in its wake.

He looked upon my frail stature with unbridled hate, that Celestial Wolf.

That King of Celestial Wolves lunged with his maw wide.

Seeing that expanse of fire in its throat, my eyes widened further. I backpedaled. He faded into ash, leaving burned brush and smoke before me, green to my right, brown to my left, and behind me, fearsome snarls, magnificent plumes of smoke, and baleful eyes.

There was no pain when he sundered me. It was almost as if I was disconnected from my body, yet attached all the same. I heard my flesh be torn from my bones but there was no pain. I felt the claws putting an immense weight on my chest but there was no pressure. I saw my blood vaporizing into a hellish mist but my mind remained clear. It was only when that magnificent creature of fire and hate dove into my spirit with wild fervor. So ravenous that King of Wolves was, that he seemed to make a den from my bones as he crawled through my innards to pick every bit of my flesh clean. And then, rather than leave, that Celestial Patron, finally satiated, laid down to rest in that man-sized cave.

---

I felt an eye open before my own snapped wide. Then I shot out of a bed that seemed to be a cloud, finding myself in the strangest of places; a room of wood with shelves stacked high with tomes. A table and plush chair; both illuminated by a sconce of glowing stone. A wall of glass that showed a blur of greens, whites, and blues.

"Am I... in the afterlife?" I wondered aloud, though a thousand thoughts and memories told me otherwise. Searching for answers, I found a room containing a tub and toilet, plus a wardrobe containing a battle dress born of a wolf pelt that seemed so familiar it forced me back a step. But then I pressed forward to trace my hand along the ashen black fur, traced with golden bits.

While reluctant to put it on, I felt a sense of reverence and unity as the wolf head pauldron fit into place atop my right shoulder. The fur cloak trailed behind me like smoke from a bonfire, even in the still winds of this room. The boots hugged my feet as if they were melded to my skin and seemed to reform, giving me the claws of that reverent creature if only for a second. But even before that, I started to notice things.

Familiar scents in the air were somehow visible to my eyes as colorful bands of lingering smoke. A black one was an almost skunky smell of pine mixed with rot and death. A purple one was the deep scent of earth, mushrooms, and sweat. A blue one was the strong odor of oil. Deeper blue ones smelled of perfume and the sea, three of them; and a white one, the most familiar, smelled of snow and pollen. They were all mixed with voices I could also see through some unknown means. It was almost as if the air was rippling or producing vibrating lines that appeared from their source, penetrating walls and anything else solid to meet my eyes. Some were shrill and high-pitched like children. Others were deep and brooding like men. All of them spoke of the mundane.

Following them, I found myself descending a tree house to enter an eerie forest. Benches and chairs stood among the growth as if they were in tents or rooms. Globs of water floated freely throughout the place, but it was strangely dead. No creatures roamed this expanse of green, and while humans were present, those tree houses seemed to be the only structures beneath this vast ceiling.

Rounding a brush, I stopped and stared, wide-mouthed, for I came face to face with a dark elf and several human children sitting at a fine table. But… for whatever reason and despite my hesitation, I thought nothing of it. I stepped forward. Then I saw him.

"Oh." My head rocked back in a greeting. "Hey, Amun." I stopped and stared, wide-mouthed all over again. "Wait, what?" I looked at them, confused. Amun was laughing while the rest turned to each other with raised brows. Then, the sounds of chaos ensued.

Turning to the source, I saw the most warming sight; my sister, sliding haphazardly across the dirt as if she were searching desperately for someone. Despite that, her hooded cowl and tunic remained as pristine and clean as ever. Born from the fur of a white wolf, it seemed just as radiant as mine, although she seemed not to notice. She ran into my embrace with all her might, nearly toppling me.

"Sister." I pushed her away to look in her glistening eyes, cold and blue like rapidly melting glaciers. "What dreams did you have before waking?"

"I dreamt of snow and darkness. Fields and flowers." She trembled, running a hand along my face. "I dreamed of a white wolf. Colossal in stature. I- I held my hand out to her. She approached almost instantly, smelled me, then... nuzzled me. When I went to pet her, I awoke here."

"My dream was the same," I grunted. "But the opposite. It was hot and bright, like summer. Fields of green forests and rotted, decayed land. And a black wolf. It... consumed me, and now lives within me."

"Do you remember your names?" Amun's voice cut our reunion short, and when I turned to him a resurgence of those memories, both familiar and foreign, passed through my mind. The beatings. The cold nights. The hunger. The fear. The relief. The darkness. The power. And then… light. My mother. Death. In time, I remembered everything else. The land of endless snow and boundless prey. The dark elf we thought to be prey. The being of death who killed the pack. The dark den that changed us. The light that was painful until it was not. The lights I did not want. The incandescent sun. The eye of the beast now sleeping in my chest.

I remembered it all. Except one thing. "S- is it Skoll?" I asked just moments before my sister stammered. "H- Hati?"

"Good." Amun smiled wide, showing a row of predacious teeth. "You are my companions still. But those names won't work for you anymore. So." He looked up, tapping his chin several times before returning his gaze to us with a beaming smile. "Geri." He pointed to my sister, allowing his darkness to inscribe the name above his hand, then to me. "Freki."

"Freki." I slowly echoed the name, finding a smile creep over my face. "I graciously accept this name." I bowed.

Amun only chuckled. "Well met." He gestured for us to sit before two heaping platters of meat. Raw meat.

While raw meat seemed a bit more appetizing than it otherwise would have been, I remained hesitant to eat it until I first pinched a steak between my thumb and forefinger, wherein I noticed the claw-like nails at the tips of my fingers. Then I brought the morsel up to my nose to draw in a whiff. The aromas were intoxicating; blood, sweet like honey, but sharp and dull like iron. I exhaled dreamily, wherein I heard… sizzling.

"Well, guess I don't have to cook for you." Laughs accompanied the comment before I opened my eyes to a piece of finely charred meat dangling from my claw. Laughs that hastily died down once I tore into the rest of the platter. But to my surprise, I found them aimed away from me.

Upon my dear sister- Geri, they widened with morbid awe. As did mine, for she gnawed furiously on a chunk of frozen meat while staring absently into the distance as if oblivious to our presence.

"Can you cook… barbecue?" I asked, noticing the rough growl in my voice as I turned to… Sam. "You are the chef of this Troupe, yes?"

She turned her gaze to me slowly, confusion written across her brow before she slowly nodded, then grinned cunningly. "Yeah, but you're gonna have to do a lot of hunting to feed your greedy ass, and I'm gonna teach you how to cook it yourself."

"H- Haha!" I rocked back from the sudden surprise. "Very well, I accept!"

"So, here's the deal. Like me, you all have dual natures. You are my companions. Veritable demigods on the way to godhood, free to pick your domains or aspects and do as you please. Or." Amun grinned. "You will be once we go home. But, I also have a guild. And should you be a part of my Legio Noctis, you shall be among the highest-ranking officers in the Legions. And so, like everyone else, you must train to meet my standards before you get there. Moreover, you must pick a specialization and be the finest in the realms of that craft.

"The Culinary Arts." He gestured to Sam. "Recreation, Entertainment, Sports, and Tourism." He motioned to Blude. "Maritime Industry." He pointed to Redd. "Technology." He pointed to the small one, then looked back to us, and curiously, the drow- Etan. "What you choose is up to you. You have plenty of time to decide, so think about it for now. Anyway. Here's your weekly pay." He waved a blinding flash of sliver that dimmed into three chests, stacked high with gold coins and bars. My sister leaped onto it immediately, throwing coins into the air to laugh maniacally in the heavy shower. But gold wasn't something I could eat. And, quite to my shock, it seemed not to impress the drow.

"How much is this?" he asked in that strange accent of his, so monotone but melodic and proper; it pained my ears.

"Two thousand gold." Amun cheekily replied in another strange accent. But one that was… otherworldly. Foreign, yet spoken in the slow, deliberate tone of... Odissi. Unique enough to entice any who heard it. "You'll also be receiving enchanted clothes and weapons like them." He nodded to us, then held out a small box for the three of us to take. "For now, there's this. The most important tools in your arsenal."

"A watch and an earring?" Etan asked in disbelief. But I… partially knew what it was and slipped it on without delay.

In hindsight, I had no idea what it was. Both pieces faded into nothingness within my very hands and reformed on my body a moment later, triggering the soothing voice of a scholarly male to resonate in my head.

"Soul Imprinted. User verified: Freki, the Ravenous."

"The Ravenous." I echoed. Or began to, only to have a field of lights, visions, illusions, and words consume my sight before settling on the edges of my perception. It was such an influx of information that the words were stolen from my lungs.

"This is what I used earlier." The drow gasped in sudden comprehension.

"What you used earlier was the Mana Net, which is being sold to everyone in the Peninsula." Amun corrected, smiling proudly. At least, I thought it to be pride. "It's an intangible information and communications network I created for my artificing business, ArcaTech Industries. What you have now is NoxNet. It is the same, but it allows you to use the same… mental enhancements, I use. And more.

"Iris will give you the tutorial." He motioned to the small one in the blue tunic. Then to the drow. "After that, we train."