Chapter 1

AUBREY

I come from the world of the Dead. They call me Queen of the Dead. You want to know the whole truth, don't you? This is my personality: Dead men fall under my power. I control them. I stole these powers I presently have from a powerful god. My real name is not Aubrey. I am her mother. And I have taken possession of her soul.

Her throne is high. It is the most beautiful I have ever seen. She sits on it like a Queen. Okay, she is a Queen—I am not denying that. The thing is my visit is not a friendly one. I have come here to destroy her. She is the woman who has knows the mysteries to death. I seek to steal her great knowledge and influence what's more.

"I can foresee you are not here to make peace with me, Aubrey. What do you seek this time?"

"Your Majesty, I am here to rob that which you possess. If you don't give me what I seek the nice way, I shall grab it from you through violence."

"How dare you come to my palace and threaten me like this? You have grown wings, you little witch, have not you?"

She is right. She knows I am the little witch possessing my daughter's body. What she does not realize is that the small witch has now grown into a giant goddess who dominates the dead. "Will you give me what I want, Souk? Perhaps I must use violence to lay hold of it."

"Rot with the dead, weak witch." From where she is seated, smoke arises and wraps her entirely. Right now, she is an old woman. She must be eight hundred years old. Souk is the Keeper of the Mysteries of Death. Her hair is whiter than snow, almost like the brightest rays of light. Her gown is white too, and long and beautiful. It covers her feet—I cannot even see them. Her breasts are small and shrunk; her face is wrinkled terribly. There is no slight youth in her.

After the smoke shrouds her from head to toe, it vanishes, and there she emerges at last—a beautiful, young, twenty-something woman. She is so beautiful she is beyond recognition. It is almost like I have never known her.

"Souk, is that you?"

"I am the Goddess of the Mysteries of Death."

I have been tricked! I must find Souk. For the moment, I must put up a fierce fight between me and this Goddess. Having said that, a golden rod appears in her hand and she points it at me. I don't know what exactly happens. All I know is wind stirs at me from that rod. It is moving fast. I sense danger with its approach. It doesn't have to fan me, or else I am doomed.

I place my fingers on my lips and kiss them. I am turned into non-existence. I am still here—alive and stirring. It is just that my tangible body has worn away and now I possess the elements much the same as wind. The wind that my newest rival has sent at me fans past without touching me.

"You thought it would be easy getting rid of me, Goddess, didn't you?"

She is stunned. She does not seem to know what else she can do. She quickly stands on her throne and faces me. "Damn you, wicked thing. I didn't know you have become this incredibly strong."

I laugh at her. "I am invincible, Goddess."

I push my feet up into the air and begin flying. Once I have moved above her, I stay still and stare down at her. A ball of poisonous air appears in my left hand and keeps on growing—bigger and bigger each passing second. Once is the size of an enormous rock, I throw it at her. With the speed of lightning, it zaps unswerving in her direction.

Guardedly, she levels her rod at the flying ball. The moment the ball touches the rod's head, the ball stills without causing her any harm. "Well, you don't seem too invincible to me, vile thing."

She turns the ball from poisonous gas into wind, which she then hurls back at me. The wind is without color—yet it moves fast, making a loud buzzing sound—like that of bees when they are traveling in a swarm. I sweep my hand in the air from left to right and make a shield of glass against the swirl of wind. Once it hits the glass, it gets blocked from striking me. In anger, the Goddess unleashes more wind at me, which begins to crack and break the glass little by little.

I look down at her throne and see it is made of human skulls and bones. Yes. I will use those dead ones to attack her. I have tremendous power over the dead after all. "Arise," I tell the bones and they quickly join together, fitting into the skulls. She is not aware of it. Six living skeletons are stationed behind her, slowly moving after her. When she stares back, it is too late to avoid them. They grab her by the hair and start pulling her mercilessly. Her hair tears off from her head, sending showers of blood down to the floor. She moans out.

"Kill her!" I furiously order the skeletons. They hold her head quickly and dig their knife-edged nails into it, ripping it bit by bit while she weeps uncontrollably. Her moans are cut short. She is finally dead. Her head has been chopped off with a sword, its flesh ripped apart horrendously. "No one messes with the Queen of the Dead," I tell myself. "No one dares me."

Now, I must hunt her soul and bring it under my control. Gradually, I watch it creep out of her body—a bright yellow light that is shaped after a human being. Quickly, I let myself fall to the ground on my two feet. Then I rush towards her as swiftly as I can. Just when I am about to reach her, she heads straight into the surrounding forest, fleeing as fast as she possibly can.

"How far do you think she can go?" Asks a dead man. Yes. I do talk to dead men. They can hear my voice. They obey my commands furthermore. At this moment, I have summoned them to help me find Souk's soul.

"She will not flee far. You will all help me find her. Once you do, seize her soul and bring her back to me." With this said, I gaze upwards and turn myself into ash. My ash scatters in the air and flutters into all the directions—north, south, east, and west. I have split my body up. These ashes carry my own powers. I am going to use them to grant supernatural strength to these skeletons I have just commissioned a hard task of tracking down the Goddess's soul.

They run faster with the exact speed that an eagle uses to fly. Some are down south, others are up north, the rest are scattered west and east. These are the dry, sunlit skeletons I am talking about. Together, we are looking for Souk's soul. She must be somewhere near. I can sense it. We are about to surround her very soon.

"I have seen her. There she flees," someone down south cries loudly. I turn there quickly, still in my form of ash, and fly in the air as rapidly as I can. Souk is not aware of it. She hits herself into my ash, and I straight off arrest her in a trap of white light brighter than her. She weeps out, seeking to break free from this net, and yet failing.

With breakneck speed, my ashes collect together from all the directions and form my entire self anew. In a matter of time, the small crowd of the dead stands surrounding me and her. She looks at me madly. "You will not get away with this, you witch."

"I am going to take your soul underworld with me, Goddess. And you know what? I will sell it there, in exchange of youth and beauty so I can keep running my schemes. You are not a Goddess anymore, but a mere slave."

I don't know where she gets the power from. She breaks through the net, shining brighter and more dazzling. I stare away from her, gnashing my teeth and pinching my eyes. Damn her! She is still powerful. I am going to grab her most fruitful powers anyway. I will surely conquer her. When I look back at her, she stands freely. "You are not invincible, witch. Who lied to you that you are?"

Another ball of poisonous air forms in my hand. This time, it need not grow bigger. I have plans in which I am going to make use of it. From this small ball, the poisonous air spreads quickly throughout until it forms a circle around the Goddess. She turns to every corner. She is stuck. She doesn't know where else she can flee to this time.

"I told you, Slave. There is no escaping your fate this time around."

"What are you doing to my soul?" She demands furiously.

"It is poisoned. Poisoned with death. Well, this is not actual death since you are already dead. You will only sleep, and by the time you wake up, you will be in the Underworld—no longer a Goddess but a pitiable slave. We shall see how miserable things get for you."

She is sleeping. I hold her in my arms. Well, I don't have to give myself the burden of carrying her weight. To ease up things for myself, I turn her into ash, which I collect in my hand and store inside a small vessel. Once we get there, I will turn her soul back into its original form and then place her inside a large cage. In the Underworld, there is no means of escape.

A few hours later of walking, I arrive at this tiny country house. It seems to be an inn; maybe a bar. Oh yes, it is a bar. There is an old man at the counter who is selling drinks. The tables are empty, except one, where a group of three men are settled while they drink and smoke and play cards. By now, I am no longer wearing my long black robe. I am dressed like any normal modern-day girl. I look nineteen. Yet I am far old than that. I am wearing jeans, a sweater, and cow girl boots. Frankly, I look like a country girl.

"Can I see the magician?" I tell the old man at the counter.

He looks at me with a doubtful expression. It is like I have told him weird and unimaginable things. "Who are you, young girl?"

"I am not a young girl. Believe me, I might look young but I am not young really. Now, take me to the magician. I hear his name is Simon."

He is more shocked than before. "Who told you that? You must be mistaken."

"There are three skeletons in Simon's chamber. I was speaking to them a while ago. They told me he is here, that he stays here, and he is also expecting my visit. Now, if you want me to spare your sorry life, let me see him."

He nods his head quietly and leads me there through the secret door. The shelf that is storing wine is the secret door into Simon's chamber. Those three men who were seated playing cards there are not genuine humans. They are the skeletons I were communicating with. When I glance back at them, I see that they have turned into their actual form. Everything in the bar is slowly changing. The place becomes more of a concrete-formed castle other than the wooden-built inn that it formerly was minutes ago. The old man himself is Simon's father, whom he turned his representative.