The Defeat of Magnus

Writing Prompt was the door wasn’t there yesterday. this is the first time I was able to sit down and write an entire story I’m happy with from start to finish in a few hours.

Every morning, you take the same route to work. But one morning, you notice a small, unfamiliar door built into the brick wall of a building you’ve passed hundreds of times. There are no handles or windows, the thing that you notice is that your name is carved into the wood. When you touch it, someone on the other side whispers:

“You finally came back.”

Beyond any reason you walk up to the door, and it opens at your mere presence.

You stand there in stunned silence at the mist swirling in front of you. It is so thick you cannot see who spoke to you. That’s when they speak again.

“It’s been 500 years since you left. What took you so long to find us again?”

A warm feeling washes over you and you choose to trust this voice. Though you have no idea what or who they are, or what they are talking about. The people on the sidewalk behind you have taken no notice of you, the door, or the voice; so, nobody stops you when you step into the mist. You also don’t seem to care that the door closed and disappeared behind you. You can feel it in your soul that you are meant to be here.

When the fog finally begins to clear, you find yourself standing beneath an unfamiliar night sky. The stars are brighter than any stars you’ve ever seen, and a massive silver moon hangs impossibly close overhead. A figure is waiting for you. They look human, but something about them is unmistakably different.

 “You really don’t remember us, do you?” They say as they smile sadly. Then they reach out and touch your forehead.

Suddenly, you remember something. Not a memory from your childhood. Not even a memory from your lifetime. A memory from 500 years ago.

The children playing around you seem like they have never known tragedy. But you know that is about to come to an end. You look up to a night sky you have known for a millennium and see a fireball in the distance. You need to decide what to do to protect all these children. You have brought them here because they needed somewhere to keep them safe. And now that mission is about to come to an abrupt halt.

You are pulled back to the present as the young child takes her hand away. You see sadness in her eyes that you never wanted her to feel.

“You protected us from the fire in the sky, but you had to leave in order to do so. You promised you would come back soon, but that was so long ago. Why?”

You stare at the child, unable to speak. The sadness in her eyes hurts more than the fireball burning across the sky. Then, suddenly, you remember. Not everything. Just enough.

A village beneath a sky filled with fire. Hundreds of frightened children gathered around you. Your hands glowing with a light so bright that you could barely look at them.

And your promise. I’ll come back.

You look toward the sky. The fireball is larger now. Closer. The children have stopped playing. One by one, they turn toward you, and you realize they aren’t afraid. They are waiting. Waiting for you to protect them again. The young girl reaches for your hand.

“You came back,” she whispers. You look down at her.

“I did.”

“But you don’t remember.”

You swallow hard. “No.”

She smiles through her tears. “That doesn’t matter.”

A deafening roar rolls across the sky. The ground trembles beneath your feet. You look up to the friary shape coming closer. And then you understand why you had to leave them 500 years ago.

You hadn’t abandoned them. You had been holding something back. Something far worse than the fire falling from the sky. Your eyes widen.

“Oh no.”

The girl squeezes your hand. “What is it?”

You stare into the burning heavens. “That is no ordinary comet,” The children look at you. “It never was.”

You finally remember the promise you made all those centuries ago. Not I’ll come back. The real promise. I’ll keep it from finding you. And somewhere beyond the stars, something ancient opens its eyes.

Magnus, the comet dragon of the Ignis galaxy, has been devouring planets long before you were born. These children are the lost souls meant to inhabit those long-gone planets. You brought them here to the furthest planet in the galaxy to get away from Magnus. However, he somehow found you and wants to consume this planet as well. He believes that the souls you hide from him are going to make him stronger. 500 years ago, you managed to hold him off by hiding all these precious souls. Now that you’re back Magnus can find the planet you had so artfully hidden all these years. And he doesn’t plan on letting you get away again.

The girl’s hand tightens around yours.

“You remember now, don’t you?”

You nod slowly. The memories come flooding back. The planets. The screams. The billions of souls that Magnus had consumed. And then the children.

You had found them drifting through the darkness between worlds, lost and terrified. They were all that remained of civilizations Magnus had devoured. You couldn’t save their planets. But you could save them. So, you brought them here.

The furthest planet in the Ignis Galaxy, a tiny world hidden beyond the reach of ordinary stars. You had hoped that Magnus would never venture out this far. You were wrong and in order to hold him off you had to shield the planet. The magic you had to perform required a sacrifice, and there was no way it would be anyone but you.

For five hundred years, the children had been safe. Until you came back.

A shadow passes over the moon. The children look upward. You don’t. You already know what is coming. Magnus.

The comet dragon emerges from the darkness; his enormous body wrapped in fire and stone. His wings stretch across the heavens, blotting out the stars. Behind him trails a burning tail of debris, the remains of worlds he had consumed.

The children begin to scream. You turn toward them.

“Don’t be afraid.” The girl looks at you with tears in her eyes.

“But you said that last time.”

You kneel beside her.

“And I was wrong.”

A low growl shakes the planet. Magnus speaks without moving his jaws. His voice rolls through the ground, through the trees, through every living thing.

“You hid what belongs to me.” You feel his words in your core and question if there is a way to defeat him finally.

You stand. “No.”

The dragon’s eyes burn brighter.

“You stole them from me.”

You look at the children gathered behind you. “They were never yours.”

Magnus laughs. The sound causes mountains to crumble in the distance.

“You cannot hide them again.”

You glance toward the sky. He’s right. The moment you returned, the hiding spell broke. But there is something Magnus doesn’t know. Something you didn’t remember until now.

When you created this sanctuary, you didn’t just hide the children. You hid something else. Something powerful enough to destroy Magnus. Something you swore you would never use. You close your eyes. The ground beneath you begins to glow.

The girl steps forward. “What are you doing?”

You open your eyes. “Finishing what I started.”

Behind you, the children begin to glow. One by one. Thousands of them. Then millions. Their light rises into the sky, forming constellations where there were none before.

Magnus suddenly stops.

For the first time in a million years… The comet dragon looks afraid. You smile, because now you know why you sacrificed yourself. The children needed to grow. With you there that growth was not possible. Now their strength is bigger than you had imagined. They are ready to fight.

“You will not win Magnus” you mock knowingly. “They are ready now.”

Magnus charges. He is desperate to feed on what he believes belongs to him. That was his final mistake. The children’s life force creates such a strong barrier that Magnus breaks into a billion pieces. The ruminants of his burning tail scattered again throughout the galaxy. It will take time for the planets to reform. But the danger has finally passed.

The young girl who called you home looks up to you. A smile wider than you have ever seen before crosses her face.

“You did it, you defeated him!”

“No child, I didn’t. you did, all of you. Soon you will all be able to return to where you belong.”

“Will you stay with us until then?” she asks with worry on her face.

“Yes, I will. I will never leave you again. I vow to stay forever to oversee all lost souls until they can find their home.”