Part A - Bedtime Stories
The skies had waved the blue of day away and the moon had come with his friends to play along the jet seas that remained. The kingdom had hushed itself and given in to the sweet song of darkness that blanketed the land. The castle as well as the scout posts along the outskirts of the territory were all that remained well-lit. King Angello was dashing through the corridors of the residential wing with his youngest daughter Princess Phinelopy on his back giggling as the two imagined flying through the clouds together. Finally, they arrived at her room and the King gently lowered his sweet daughter into her crowded bed. Plopping her between the pillows and teddy bears, tucking her in as tightly as he could, kissing her on the forehead, and then rising to leave. Phinelopy struggled to remove her hand from under the sheets but managed to do so in time to grab the hem of her father’s robe.
“Daddy, I know... mommy... said tha– that we are... tttttt—o be asss—leep early toni–ght but can you please graaa–nt me a bedtime story?” Angello grabbed his daughter’s chin and smiled at her while nodding his head yes. He laid beside his daughter, with his feet hanging off the bed and stuffed animals covering half of his body, and began to think of the perfect story to tell Phinelopy, one she had never heard before and he finally landed on it.
“The story of creation is short but begins with destruction. Much millennia ago the world was plagued by an Entity beyond all evil. A monster that turned the purest of souls dark by a simple touch; killing all that stood in its wake to the point that life was brought to her knees. But, the Entity hadn’t won just yet – a family of very powerful sorcerers remained and they stood in its way of complete victory. This family was cursed with the power of darkness, but, blessed by the power of light, and thus the great evil could not simply kill them outright in its current form. Their dark side protected their purity. The entity hatched an ingenious plan, to go back in time and possess one of them, their leader: King Tobias Archer. Once in King Archer’s body, the entity just had to wait. And that it did, trillions of years later, at just the right moment, when King Archer finally chose to die, the entity took control of their shared Body. The entity was now an unstoppable monster beyond your wildest dreams. Though the rest of the family fought valiantly, the majority fell.
After months of battle, one child remained a witch with no training, but a very powerful one all the same. Though powerful enough to cast the most effective spells, she knew there was no way to defeat the monster from the outside; she had to free her grandfather from the entity’s grasp, using one of the twelve forbidden spells, the Mind Spell.
From class today you will remember that the Mind Spell can be used for many sinister things, from taking one’s free will to causing one to lose their sanity. The entity was too powerful and smart to succumb to mind control, so Martha decided to use it another way. What way do you think she used it?” Phinelopy thought about her father’s question, and she went into her memories in search of the answer, after all, she learned about three of the twelve forbidden spells today in magic class, one of which was the mind spell.
The answer came to her and she spoke eagerly. “She jumped inside his sub... subconssss... subconscious mind, it is the most basic part of the... mind spell, and therefore the least likely to be antici... anticipa... anticipated, and thus the most likely to work.” Phinelopy has a speech problem, she stutters on words ever so often. Her mother has given up on teaching her how to speak like a princess, but her father insists that proper attention and time will have her stringing rhymes and chimes like she was born speaking.
“Yes! She plunged into the shared mind of the evil entity and her grandfather. She went around the maze of that mind in search of Tobias and finally found him bound to a web of insecurity. You remember from class last week my dear child that the Web of Insecurity tricks those trapped in it into believing they are inadequate using their own internalized fears and hatred for themselves. Martha was stunned to see her grandfather trapped in this web. She thought he had no fears, no shame, and no regret within him. But, like Martha, my dear daughter, you will learn quickly in life that everyone is afraid of something. King Tobias was mostly afraid of himself, and all the power he had. King Tobias thought himself a monster, he said it so often that people thought he was proud of his power when in truth... he was ashamed of it. The webs whispered to him constantly ‘monster’ ‘monster’ ‘monster’ and he shook in fear, screaming ‘no’ ‘no’ ‘no’ but his own shame was too powerful and he was stuck-”
“How did he get free daddy?”
“Sometimes, even the most powerful person in the room needs help from a little girl just like you help daddy smile every day; Martha helped to pull Tobias out of his self-made jail of shame. She reminded him, he was not a monster, and that there was still good in him. At first, she failed. Noticing her presence in the mind, the entity had dispatched internal soldiers for her capture and destruction, like a virus she was cornered, however, just as she was about to join the rest of her family in the afterlife, she was saved by Tobias who then told her to run. Tobias upon hearing the screams of his granddaughter was able to free himself.
Using his almost endless knowledge and unlimited power he overwhelmed and weakened the Entity, but, as we say in class, all magic, especially at such magnitude came with a price. Tobias knew the entity was dangerous on its own, so he decided to reverse the tethering spell the entity placed on him when he was a baby. Putting Tobias in control over the Entity. A normal man would die reversing such spells, but Tobias was the most powerful master of magic to have ever lived to this day, but not even he could best the Entity.
A somber victory as only the King and his Granddaughter were left standing, and the laws of magic do not allow for life restoration more than twice. The King also knew the entity would one day return if he is to remain in continuous time.
Tobias spoke frankly to his granddaughter. “You’re in charge now. I know you’re only eighteen thousand years old but, my son and the advisor tell me they raised you well, in the arts of morality, empathy, survival, and fairness. If I stay, there is no point in returning life to these lands, for evil will return, as evil like the one inside of me always returns. The only solution is to freeze myself in the time vault, for the safety of all. I will erase the location from your memory and ensure that it moves every thousand years to avoid it being found by foolish mortals or ambitious immortals.
My Queen, though this is a solution I must warn you. This specific time spell I intend to use will only last three centuries and can only be cast once every thousand years. The other time-freezing spells will freeze everything but the caster, though permanent, it is not my intention to freeze time itself nor do I have the ingredients to do so, just time’s effect on me.
The spell has little cost in terms of ingredients, but physically and magically after I cast the spell, I will be too weak to recast it after it wears off, and too weak to overwhelm the entity. If the entity has my body, it will easily escape the time vault, but, if it doesn’t it will be trapped in there unless opened. I will have to remove my immortality once in the vault, then freeze myself in time. After time unfreezes on me in 300 years, I will die, as the many years catch up to my body. I will disintegrate and be no more but the entity is not bounded to a body and does not need a physical form. But it will be trapped in the vault as long as it remains closed. My warning sweet Queen is that the vault is not ever to be opened, if the vault is opened, the entity will return, and once more bring the world to its knees unless captured once more.
Cheer up! You, like I, and my father, get the honor of holding the title Father of all Creation, well, in your case, Mother of all Creation. Before I go, my Queen, I remind you that as my Grandaughter; you are perfection’s perfected perfection.
There are none more suited for my job.” he waved his hand and a massive book appeared floating beside them. “This book, contains all the magic spells throughout time, past, and future. It belonged to my father, me, your father and now, you. It will teach you how to be the most powerful witch alive, and more importantly, it will teach you how to create life. Now, have fun.” He vanished, leaving her there in the void of space.
She spent another trillion years learning, before creating all of this.
Your mother is going to kill me it is way past both our bedtimes. I will be sure to tell you more about the mother of creation and her family another time. For now, sleep well and sleep happy. Daddy loves you okay.”
“Thank you, daddy. I lo—ve... love you too.” How sweet. He blew out the candles and waltzed to the throne room.
