as well I’ve got you here to bring me back then, isn’t it?” he smiled again as Lancer lowered his arm hung his head slightly.
“There was never any stopping you, was there?” he conceded reluctantly met only with another brief smile from Richard. “There is a way…A rite which all Seers know of but do not know how to conduct. We know so that if this very text was ever found to be real it could be destroyed. Such a dangerous power is not meant for anyone, especially anybody of mortal blood lest they fall to the same fate as the Perceiver,” he sighed heavily, unsure that this was the right course of action but knowing that, at that moment, it could be the only way to stop Millaian before he unleashed whatever hell he had planned for the world. “It’s called The Rite of à L'autre…It translates roughly as ‘To the Other,’” he handed the book back to Richard carefully who immediately began scrawling through the pages, searching for the incantation. “I have done a terrible thing this day…I have broken the oath of all Seers, what ones that are left anyway. For over a century I have followed my path diligently only for it to come to this.”
Richard stopped searching and looked up at Lancer in concern. “I don’t believe that…This could have been your path all along…And, if you’ll excuse the cliché, you could have just saved all our eternal souls,” he went back to searching the book until arriving on one of the last pages. “I think this is it…” he flicked quickly through the book again and returned to the same page, “The Rite of à L'autre et Reconstituer…Looks like it was one of the last he ever used.”
Lancer carefully took the book back and gazed at the ritual instructions. “I am not familiar with Reconstituer. I believe it stands to reason, though, that it is a natural part of the ritual that allows the traveller to return to the living world. A part, I feel, that Millaian was unable to use, hence his assumed incarceration in the other world,” he rubbed his head briefly in thought, “but how was he able to return at all without this knowledge-?”
“I don’t really care,” snapped Richard, snatching the book from Lancers hands and quickly read through the incantation, “we have a chance to stop him without any more bloodshed and that’ll do just fine for me,” he held up the book harshly to him and pointed to it firmly. “Do it, send me to the Other Side.”
Lancer opened his mouth loosely, about to reiterate how dangerous the idea was, especially for Richard but eventually came to the conclusion that it would be pointless and reluctantly took back the text. “For all it’s worth, if you don’t come back then I hope you find peace out there somewhere,” he said softly only to receive a simple acknowledging nod from Richard. There was an extended pause before Lancer could bring himself to begin the rite but at last lowered his head and read the process he had to follow. “Fire is the key…A doorway, like any element to the many planes of existence,” he squinted with effort for a second and waved his hand around a single point in the air, moving his fingers into the centre of it and twisting them quickly to spark a small flame that burnt motionless just above his fingers. “Like the transition between this world and the border the element must be engaged with, allowed to encompass you and the very essence of what you are, only then will you have understanding to proceed…Now, focus on the flame, let it take you away…”
As Richard stared deeper into the flame he could begin to see the very being of what it was and slowly his eyes closed with whispered words flowing from Lancers breath, becoming evermore distant until they were all but gone. His eyes suddenly started open again to see a darkened outline of Lancer before him, still with the flame burning but now it was an empty shade of blue with its heart darker than the deepest pit. He was back in the border world he knew so well.
“It was so simple…” stated Lancer flatly, “in front of us all the time…The flame born by the earth, sustained by the air and doused by water. It holds all elementals within its grasp; Birth, life and death,” he gazed into the dark flame and smiled. “It’s a portal within a portal. The Other Side has always been here, within the flame, the gateway is only our own capacity to believe it so. Concentrate again, my friend, and you will see the truth…” Lancer spread his fingers, allowing the flame to move across his palm and waved it before Richard. “Fire is the gateway, the endless portal to the unseen world…” he pressed his palm forward and allowed the dark core to embrace Richard. The world began to fade; eternal night drew close and just before the starless eternity took him he heard Lancers final whispered words, “l'eau pour renvoyer la vie…Water to return the life…”
“Can you feel that…? It’s the sense of death.”
All around there was nothing but darkness and a terrible, chilling cold that pierced to the bone. Slowly a soft texture took hold, still as cold as before but with a comforting edge that didn’t give time to feel alone. It swelled and grew all around, with it came a harsh, abrasive wind. Richard gradually opened his eyes to find himself led in deep snow with drifts continuing on as far as the eye could see. However, a strong gale gusting up a blizzard made sure that the eye wasn’t able to see so far in the first place. Strangely enough though, as he turned his head skywards, it was brilliantly clear with single stars glittering prominently along the edge of the bright galactic arc against the dazzling night. Richard waveringly got to his feet, struggling to gain a footing in the soft snow against the force of the wind. He turned around a few times, trying to see some kind of life or purpose in the windswept tundra but found nothing but the faint outlines of twisted icy forms in the distance, shaped by centuries of the non stop conditions. All of this, endless stretches of nothing but ice, a cold that could freeze you solid if you let it and yet Richard still did not feel the deathly stab of solitude and desperation like that of the Median World. That voice was with him, even now, the itch of it still in the back of his mind.
“Your time grows short in this place…” it whispered again, “you don’t belong here.”
Richard suddenly turned and squinted into the snow filled air. “Where are you!?” he shouted at the top of his lungs, “somehow I don’t think this is the Other Side,” he said, more quietly to himself.
“This is true,” the whisper seemed to move close and then away as the words were spoken.
“Show yourself,” Richard said more calmly, looking up to the celestial horizon again, “I know you’re here.”
“Our form is beyond your comprehension,” it stated one more time, “but we will accommodate you.” There were several seconds of complete silence, even the wind seemed to fall quiet still gusting as strong as it ever had. Soon another outline became apparent in the blizzard, striding closer from the land of ice and appeared to elevate higher and higher until its shape was far above Richard and standing on an icy overhang. Richard looked around again and now found himself to be surrounded on one side by a sheer glacier wall with nothing behind him but the storm that raged on.
“What is this?” shouted Richard to the figure with no reply, “where is this place?”
“You could not be allowed to continue!” a deep, gravelly mans voice eventually came from the overhang, “you would condemn both our worlds.”
“This is the Far Side, isn’t it? The border world to the Afterlife?” he asked, not quite believing that the place was real.
“You are intelligent yet far from wise; your incursion on us has damaged the membrane between our worlds. None must travel between worlds unless it is their time!”
“That’s why I’m here-” Richard tried unsuccessfully.
“We know why you are here. The one you call Millaian has already breached the membrane. You only weaken it further!” the figure seemed to point accusingly at Richard and then withdraw his arm carefully. “But your intentions are true. You wish to return him to us; I only wish to do the same for you as you both are now one in the same,” he raised an arm as though he was about to swing it aggressively.
“Wait!” Richard screamed, raising his hands, submitting, “I only want you to bring him back, stop him from harming my world.”
&nb
sp; The arm was again lowered, this time more reluctantly. “It is not our place to deal with the matters of your plane, and he is now exactly that,” he fell silent for a few seconds before crouching and leaning closer, still obscured by the snowy air, “though we have watched and seen…His ties are of your world, the ones he controls. Separate them and he shall return,” he stood back up again bolt straight and looked down the cliff, “and so now, must you,” quickly he raised and swept his arm harshly in front of Richard sending up a huge whirlwind which threw him into the night. He managed to look up to the brilliant sky one last time and see the stars streak back into obscurity followed by distant colours that streaked before his eyes, barely visible against a vast darkness and a disorientating spinning, falling sensation which finally came to its end with an abrupt jerk.
Slowly Richard opened his eyes and found himself gazing up towards the swirling mass of Guardians around the rafters of Lancers chapel. He gave a gentle sigh of relief and looked about the place. Lancer had placed him on an old mattress in the corner of the main hall. Around him, he realised, were lit candles and burning incense making the air thick with flavoured smoke