EPISODE 9: The Thread of Fate
The Thread of Fate -- an oraclistic Hindu philosophy in which it's believed, not only is everyone's fate predetermined, but there are invisible forces, some divine, others malevolent - influencing a soul to follow a specific path for prophetic reasons.
An obscure picture, is coming into sharp focus. Orem, and Reginald Black were both instruments, skillfully guided by unseen powers of both light and dark. It’s not beyond of the realm of possibilities that everything leading up to this point, including the creation of the Order of Wormwood was a ripple effect of a karmic influence.
At Black Manor, the stranger who switched places with Orem as he read an incantation, vanishing into thin air in front of the Order of Wormwood, is finally awake in the West tower...
Banerjee and Veera entered the hallway to find Order member, Hui Chen, known to audiences as “The Chinese Conjurer”...His hands raised, palms forward, fingers splayed -- holding steady a telekinetic forcefield, shimmering, pulsing with threads of psionic energy... It’s an invisible barrier, to keep the stranger at bay. The Order, taking every precaution, not knowing who or what the man truly is...A vessel, a curse, possibly a demon or djinn in disguise.
With a gesture from Hui Chen, the magic shield dissolves, allowing Banerjee and Veera to enter. The man, scared, confused, cowers in the corner.
MAN: Who are you? Where am I?
BANERJEE: We’re not here to harm you. I am Banerjee and this is my nephew Veera Sarin.
VEERA: What is your name sir?
The man curiously looks up at Veera...despite being of Indian heritage Veera was mostly raised in England, developing a British accent.
MAN: You’re an Englishman?
VEERA: Yessir, we’re in England. London in fact.
MAN: I...I’m in London? Thank the Lord almighty. How did I come to be here?
BANERJEE: First things first my good man, what is your name?
MAN: I’m Broderick Zayne.
Banerjee and Veera share a surprised look.
BANERJEE: Where did you come from?
That question is harder to answer than it seems, but Zayne does his best to answer honestly.
ZAYNE: I was in an eternal sea of darkness.
Noticing the contemporary fashion in which they're dressed, Zayne is compelled to ask...
ZAYNE: What is the year?
VEERA: 1894...
Zayne’s gaze drifts, both devastated and astonished…He tells his story to the rapt attention of Banerjee and Veera. His search for the Book of Amar. Attempting to steal the original text in India...the grimoire’s magic used against him...The last thing Zayne remembered was the air around him beginning to curve and swirl, as if existence itself was bending. There was a sudden flash of blinding light and...
ZAYNE: I found myself in an unending void...No matter the direction I took, boundless nothing. But I could feel the presence of others near me. Of things, horrible things, menacing things, stalking me. I was convinced I was in Hell.
ZAYNE: My perception of time there was absent...it felt as if time and space didn’t exist. I was wandering through this infinite night, and there seemed no end in sight...until another bright light brought me here...
The place he described, the black void, Banerjee and Veera wondered if that’s where Orem went. Veera, using his sharp psychic abilities, followed his mind’s eye, attempting to locate Orem. But pinpointing him is only possible if Veera’s second sight knows where to look. A void? That could be anywhere. His sight searching for Orem...he feels psychic remnants of cold, a bone chill in the air...But that’s it.
Despite Veera’s efforts to trace Orem across dimensions, Orem is, in-fact, somewhere deep in the void Broderick Zayne spoke of.
A flicker, barely perceptible, emerges in the umbra. A shadow within a shadow. It’s Orem, moving silently. He walks through sheer darkness. There’s no sense of direction here. Just absence. A perfect, unblinking stillness that clings to the skin. But unlike Zayne, who raged and fought against the dark, Orem simply moves forward through the endless nothing. He grasps something tightly in his hand, holding it to his heart, as though it’s the only thing anchoring him to life...
Then...a familiar voice echoes behind him.
REGINALD: Orem, my son.
OREM: Father? Is that you?
Reginald, in a long black hooded cloak, steps into view, a light emanating around him. Orem takes his hand away from his heart, opening his grip to reveal the silver locket, his mothers. Inside, is a small photo of her.
REGINALD: You keep your mother close to your heart. As you should. I’m so sorry for what I did...to her...to you. But death is not the end.
OREM: Is this purgatory?
REGINALD: You’re in the Abyss, betwixt worlds.
OREM: Is mother here?
REGINALD: No, her soul has been reborn into another.
OREM: Why are you here?
REGINALD: To guide you.
Struggling to reconcile talking with his dead father, Orem leans in to get a better look at Reginald’s face, but in the boundless dark, his father remains in shadow.
REGINALD: Son, you must listen to me...There are prophecies contained in the book you were led to discover. Ancient Processions which must be deciphered.
OREM: Why?
REGINALD: A war, an Absolution is coming, with flames that will consume heaven and earth...You must return to the light and with the book uncover the prophecies one by one...You are to become a man-at-arms, the most powerful being in the living world.
OREM: Then I shall not fail.
Unbeknownst to Orem, the figure to which he speaks is not his father, but instead is the man who gave him the book...a demon in disguise...Kasson.
KASSON (as Reginald): All of time has led to this moment, the soul chosen for you, your birth, all of the things you’ve experienced have been for a reason. And if you follow your destiny, you will stand with the victors. Let me show you the way.
Led away by the Serpent in silk, Orem was taken deeper into the hollow, well past the boundaries of time...beyond life, beyond death. There, he received lifetimes of instruction... Forbidden truths. Dark, ancient, and vile knowledge seeped into his mind like oil through cloth. For Orem the inner workings of magic, twisted and raw, unraveled before him until it became second nature. He was shaped by malevolent forces, transformed into something immeasurably powerful. Millennia passed… though not a single moment ticked by on Earth. And when Orem would return, the sky had not changed... but he most certainly had.
TO BE CONTINUED…