Sylvie

Franco Tarsey rubbed his temples then ran his hands through his cropped salt and pepper hair. “Everything has an equal reaction to what we bring forth, it is a principle of the passages within To Xenagos itself.”  Franco clasped his hands as he referenced the troupe's book of knowledge. “We cannot purge them without having fallout, Kintha.”  Franco watched as the vampire-manufactured quartz was affixed to the iron poles.

Kinthia patted the elder vampire on the back. “We know you have been around for well over seven hundred years, and as far as I know are the oldest vampire other than ‘The Raven’ herself.  Without the chaos and hate of the dark, we can all exist as long as she has.  The temptation to fall into madness will be gone.  How can you not want that, Franco?”

Once again the rest of the group cheered, “Kinthia!”

“I hear you dryods!”  She turned to Franco once more. “Are you prepared to step through the door and begin the ritual to purge us?”

Still unsure about the entire process, Franco opened their guide and re-read the incantation to himself. “I will do my duty to the group, but I have apprehension.”  He looked around and saw a few bats flying around. “I think we should do this in stages.  We are twenty-five strong.  Five at a time go through and remove the beasts.”  Franco closed the book having committed to memory what he needed to do. “Five stay back and keep pressure on the crystals, keeping the door active and open.  We don’t want to be stuck on the other side.”

“The book calls it ‘The Harsh Expanse.’ so expect a place of destruction.”  Kinthia warned. She motioned to who she considered the five of her strongest dryods. “Enough pressure to generate the energy, do not snap the crystals. Remember you are dryod’s.  Everything in balance.  Watch each other and adjust as you need to.”  Kintha smiled and walked to each one of the five, giving them a kiss on the forehead. “Your duty is monumental, if any of you stop the pressure on the quartz then we will be trapped in hell.”

The five individually stood at their post and looked up at Cassiopeia to make sure they were aligned correctly. “On your command, Kintha.”

Pointing her finger at the strongest, Kintha nodded and the vampires all began to squeeze the blood-fused quartz.  A loud hum began to radiate from the crystals and began shaking the ground so hard it felt like a small earthquake.  Shortly after the earth beneath them cracked, the iron bars turned red and bent over so that the tips were dipping into the silvery pool.

Like a rising temperature, the mercury crawled up the hot iron poles and spread across until it touched the quartz.  Popping as and bubbling, the water of the pond churned and mixed until its surface no longer appeared to be the combination of mercury’s silver and the blue of water, resulting in a dark gray reflective surface like that of a mirror.

Franco stood at the edge and gave a small prayer, “Kathréfti, kathreftáki.  Tóso galínia kai stochastiká, deíxe stous tapeinoús ypirétes sou ti gi pou mas yposchéthikes.”

Kinthia laughed and knelt down while her eyes locked on the shimmering pool. “Franco, not all of us speak Greek, kindly tell us what you just said.”  Entranced by the calming effect of the mirrored water Kintha started to reach out and touch the liquid, but was promptly stopped by Franco.

Franco held Kinthia’s hand tightly and replied. “ What I said was;  Mirror, Mirror.  So serene and reflective, show your humble servants the land you promised us.”  He paused and looked back at the first five that intended to cross the portal. “It wasn’t a spell, Kinthia.  Just a little prayer of sorts.  I will use my blood on the back side and start the process.”

“I am the leader, I should go first.” Kinthia winked and looked at her fellow vampires, “First in, last out!” She declared and pulled away from Franco. “It’s time.”

Reluctantly, Franco let his leader free and watched as she touched the reflective surface.  “It’s solid.  Just as though I am touching a smokey glass.”  Kinthia channeled blood into her hand and willed the supernatural force to combine with the surface of the pool.  Blood streaks flowed around for a few seconds before settling in the center.  Moments after the lines of crimson settled in the center, a machine appearing like a disc the size of a wagon wheel appeared with a round housing on its perceived top that held tiny black lenses.  Violet and white light pulsed from the bottom of the unit and it turned in place, stopping long enough to focus its tiny mechanical eyes on all of the vampires.   

When the violet light turned to amber, the little floating device made a hissing sound and an arm with what appeared to be a metallic mesh net appeared and rotated, giving off bird-like chirps as it did so.  Kinthia stood up and held her hand for the disc to see. “What are you little metal friend?”  She looked back at Franco. “This wasn’t part of the text.  What do we do now?”

Franco’s eyes were wide with excitement and confusion. “I don’t have a clue, I don’t even know what that is.”  He cleared his throat, “Other than some machine, like a locomotive or something.  Just smaller.”

Once more the hiss came from the round machine and the metal net disappeared.  Amber lighting turned blue and began pulsing in a pattern that Franco caught on to. “That sounds almost like Morse code, like we’d send a telegraph.”

Moments after the elder vampire spoke, five more metal circles came out of the glassy pool and took position over the quartz, changing their lighting to a soft yellow and held in place waiting for a command.  

Floating over to Kinthia with a relaxing hum, the first disc slid back a small door and spoke. “Language collected and stored for future use.”  It paused, “Quartz power core to be stabilized, please stand back.”

Kinthia nodded to the five vampires applying pressure, “Go ahead, let’s see what happens.”  One by one the five let go and watched as the five new objects' yellow light blinked until the sound coming from the crystals matched the pulsing light.  A door hissed and opened on all five machines and they deployed a round metallic object that fastened itself to the top of the quartz and screwed into place.  Gray-white lightning arced through the iron bars for a second before the machines chirp-buzzed, then disappeared back through the mirror. “Passageway secure.  Power levels stable, no recharge necessary for five-zero-zero Earth years.”

Kinthia laughed and faced Franco, “If I heard that right, the door will be open for about five hundred years?”

“That does seem to be the case.”  Franco affirmed. “I guess the real question is, how do we use the thing.”  He held up one of his fingers, “Recall we are keeping myself and four others here just in case, so I am not going to touch the glass.”

Kinthia looked up at the little unknown object. “Um, metal thing…”  She scratched her head, “...the twenty of us wish to pass through the door?”