Let the End Begin (Excerpt from later chapter)

Seven figures sat facing each other around a much-beaten and very maple circular table.  Laura sat away, picking at her ax absentmindedly while her thoughts wandered far off. Her red hair looked wet in the dim light and her green eyes were unfocused. 

Aeson was leaning against the wall, his dagger kept on his hip, ready to go at all times.  His black hair blended in with the bare, dull castle walls that supported him while his blue eyes sized up all of the characters that were gathered in the large spell room.  If he just moved his hand a foot, he would knock over some concoction that looked acid. 

Argona stood opposite him, her sword in hilt.  Also opposite of Aeson was her hair, which was creamy blonde.  Her alert brown eyes hadn’t left Aeson’s face since he’d entered the room. 

Cian stood with the normal alertness of a knight; his sword and shield clamped to his back.  He too, like Laura, had red hair, though his was more the color of blood.  His eyes were bleached a blank white, intimidating others from coming near him, yet he never missed a movement.  No one saw any of his movements either, mainly because he didn’t want them to.  It was bad enough that when he did show himself, he was translucent. 

Patroclus, his bow in hand, resisted the urge to leave.  His hand kept twitching closer to his quiver, which was filled to the brim with arrows.  His blood red eyes shifted from being to being, not sure if any of them could be trusted. 

Hades was the only one actually paying attention to the swirling liquids, his staff almost forgotten in his hand, and his gray eyes following the flowing patterns.  He'd been the last to join the other seven, due to his lack of memory.  His bleached-white hair fell off of his shoulders.  He needed to take a knife to it sometime.  

The last figure was off to the side, her scythe impaled through the wall.  Her black hair and eyes contrasted her completely white skin and made her stand out from the walls.  She removed her scythe from the wall and replaced it, cutting through more mortar and rock. 

"If no one is going to say anything, then why are we here?" Patroclus asked hastily, pressing his knuckles against the wall to stop him from grabbing an arrow.  Hades looked up, noticing that everyone was looking to each other for an answer. 

"I was here first.  This is my castle.  You all just intruded with no reason." Laura pointed out, meeting Patroclus's eyes from the corner of hers.  He shrugged and the air was once again filled with silence.  Aeson pushed away from the wall, readying to leave, when suddenly five others were pointing their weapons at him, including Argona.  His dark blue eyes sized up the arrangement.  Cian was now visible, his slightly-green-translucent body acting as another light, adding a glow to the room.  Morana, the last figure, stepped away from the wall, flipping her scythe three times before bringing it down on the maple table, inches away from Laura, but Laura was too preoccupied to notice.  She knew that everyone in the room was there for a reason, yet for no reason at all.  They were all meant to be there. 

Aeson brought up his dagger from his belt in defense before making the connection.  He'd been educated well before he'd found his dagger.  As his muscles slowly lost their tension, the others' lost theirs, too.  He turned around, evaluating the figures holding the weapons.

"I know why we're here," He breathed, finishing his circle to face Morana, his eyes following her scythe down to the table, which was now a purple-gray. "Laura, your ax.  Where did you get it?"

"I found it in a forest," she informed him, an eyebrow cocking in suspicion.  Aeson turned to Argona, whose blade was closest to his face.

"And you, Argona, where did you get that sword?"

"I made it quite a while ago." She replied, her voice filled with hostile hatred.  Aeson nodded again.

"Cian, you're no ordinary knight.  Weren’' you once the King of Jasper?" He inquired, his voice becoming more excited.  Cian lowered his sword in amazement, nodding.  Aeson nodded back, turning to Patroclus, a slight grin touching his lips. 

"Patroclus?"

“"I received my bow and arrows from my father."

Aeson nodded once more, Hades already facing him.

"I found my staff in the possession of an old man, who gave it to me."

The last figure, Morana, hadn't budged.  Her eyes, which had no emotion in them whatsoever, met his.

"Morana, where did you get that scythe?" Aeson asked, already knowing where.  Morana closed her eyes and smiled, as if remembering something too sweet too believe. 

"Morana." She repeated, opening her eyes. "I have not been called Morana in more years than you have lived, kid."

"Where did you get the scythe?"

"I wrestled it from an old and outdated man." She ended curtly, smirking.  Aeson grinned.  Her answer had proven his theory.  Laura, the red-haired female, was the Bearer of the Ax of Life.  The legends said that she was to cut down the Tree of Life when the world was to end.  How she knew that was what made the legend seem false.

Argona, the blonde swordmaster, had forged The Flailing Maul of the Innocent, and, in order to do so, had cut down 1,000 innocent people.  She was a mass-murderer of the worst kind.  Females never played fair.  She’d been told the location of many like her by an old mage before he died by her hand, and, out of curiosity, came. 

Cian, in his odd green-translucent manner, was, in fact, a ghost.  As most who saw him didn’t know, however, that he was the late King of Jasper.  He’d kept his sword and shield, just because it reminded him of his traitorous sister who was now ruling his kingdom.  He was there to end her rule, no matter how much pain it caused him.

Patroclus, the nervous archer, wasn't technically human.  Yes, his body was in fact human, but his blood was that of his father's, and his father's blood was that that descended from the gods.  His bow, The Bow of the Half-Blood, had been passed from father to son since the beginning of time, but it was the first time that his human mother had passed her body to him.  He'd been sent by his father to help end the world and the evil in it.

Hades, the pale wizard, was the son of the ever-acclaimed Merlin.  He'd been taught many spells, including how to make his staff disappear and reappear.  Even now, he was learning how to improve his spells by a tenfold.  Upon his father's death, he'd been told to come to Laura’s castle as his father's last wish.

Morana, the gothic reaper, had a very interesting past.  She'd been sick with the Black Plague when the Grim Reaper had come to steal her life away when she’d wrestled him and won.  Out of shame for his loss, the Reaper had killed himself in front of her, and she became the new Grim Reaper.  But, before killing himself, the Grim Reaper had told her that in 600 years to go to Laura's castle to meet her fate.  In doing so, she took possession of his Dark Scythe, making it her own.  She'd killed many a people, more than the days she'd lived.

And last came Aeson.  He was an assassin, paid to kill people with one flash of his dagger.  After many jobs, he'd come across an old man who'd paid to have himself killed.  He'd gone to Aeson for the task, and, before giving Aeson the word to kill him, he presented Aeson with the Flying Dagger of the East and told him all about the seven that were gathered.  Aeson knew all of the tricks behind the dagger, making him the only one to use it. 

"Well, then.  That proves my theory," He announced. "I know why we're all here."

"Don’t just say that!" Patroclus hissed, eager to know and to get out of there. "Tell us!"

"It's because the end of the world is coming, right, Laura?" Aeson asked, turning to her.  Laura's skin was pierced by the blade of her ax as she looked up.  Her eyes slowly met his before she sighed and looked away.

"Yes, it is, Aeson.  That's why we're here today.  The Seven Bearers of the Armageddon are now acquainted.  Now all we have to do is fulfill our task:  ending the world."

"Okay, that makes sense," Argona said, still confused. "But how are we going to do that?  There's seven of us and only about a billion of them." She looked at the others, from Morana to Cian and from Patroclus to Hades. "Fill in the rest of us."

"Here's the plan," Laura whispered, standing and turning to the rest. "Hades, are you skilled enough to cause a month of darkness?"

"Not by myself," Hades replied, looking to Morana, "but if I had some help, I could."

Morana nodded, saying, "Yes, Hades.  I can help you."

"Then yes, I can."

"Good!" Laura smiled, turning to Aeson. "Then you and Argona will have to start killing people.  Are you morally strong enough for that?"

"Of course," Aeson replied, turning to Argona. "Are you?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?”"She retorted. “You know what sword I forged." Aeson nodded.

"Of course." He smiled.

“Cian and Patroclus, it is your duty to take out all the nobility of this world.  Can you do that, Cian?"

Cian bit his lip before nodding. "Yes, I can."

"Excellent.  Morana, Hades, as soon as you’re done with the darkness, I need you to help me to get to the Tree of Life, which I shall cut down, hurtling the world into its end: eternal darkness.  Understand?"

"Yes, Laura,” Hades said, thinking. "One condition, though." Laura nodded and Hades continued. "All of us are never to fight each other.  I'd rather not have to kill all of you."

Laura nodded, smiling.  Morana grinned, meeting the eyes of all present and announcing, "Let the end begin."