The First One

…A being of light and dark, they acquired consciousness eons ago, around them laid the infinite emptiness and before them were two doors. Part of them wanted to go through the first door and part of them wanted to go through the second. And so The First One battled theyself for a time incalculable by mortal minds. Slowly but surely The First One separated into two beings. Samun and Numas. Samun struck down Numas, and, believing to have killed them, crossed the first door.

Kel didn’t sleep a minute in the last thirty or so hours. Ira’s monologue, together with the apparent disinterest of most students at the auditorium, were beginning to take a toll in him. His head rose and fell, his eye lids closed on their own, the first victims of sleep deprivation. He fought it, but it was a losing battle, like trying to climb out of quick sand inside an hourglass. Eventually even the sand beneath one’s feet is gone and all that’s left is a sink and the force of gravity. He leaned his head against the window frame and surrendered.

Samun’s crossing gave existence to our universe, our reality. It bore the stars, planets and moons. And throughout eons more, mountains rose and fell, seas swallowed the earth. Miniscule life forms appeared and evolved. There were times when all there was in the world was green, a massive forest with trees in the tens of trillions numbers. There were times when white ice and wind took over everything and nearly ended life altogether.

Kel was in an empty room. No doors, no windows, nothing. Even the air seamed to cease to exist. He looked around, desperately searching for someone, but he was alone. He began walking to one of the equidistant walls, but his steps guided him to nowhere. It was as if the floor accompanied him, keeping him always at the exact center. The walls were the horizon itself. He cried out for help. Nothing, not even the echo of his own voice. But then, he heard a familiar female voice, that seamed to come from nowhere at all, or everywhere, he couldn’t really tell.

Intelligence sparked. First in snake-like people, the first tyrants who ever ruled the world. Then humans rose from the primates, together with other bipedal and sapient races from originating from a myriad of creatures, some forgotten, some that still walk the earth. Samun watched through all of that, curious and amused at their own little zoo.

Kel sat and closed his eyes. He breathed deeply, until his heart was beating normally again. When he opened his eyes and rose again, there were two doors in front of him. The walls that were there previously were gone. Even the ground was strange, something he knew ought to be there, sustaining his form on a plane surface, otherwise he would be falling. And yet, he couldn’t exactly gaze it, nor could his feet feel it.

Meanwhile, in the infinite emptiness, Numas slowly began to rise. They are, both Samun and Numas the most immortal of immortals. Their bodies, an intrinsic part of reality itself. And so they can’t be vanquished permanently, not even by each other’s hands. At most, they are put in a long slumber. Nonetheless, Numas was still weakened from the battle with they’re other half. They dragged themselves to the second door. And when Numas’ finger penetrated into the passage, magic began in our world. Of course that quackery and charlatans existed since the dawn of society, but the best trick they were ever able to pull paled in comparison to the meagerest practice of real magic.

Kel felt the doors calling to him. Come to me they said in a million different voices that merged together and became one, clear, soothing and seductive. He was as a little kid whose mother arrived from a long day of work and extended her arms readying for a love full embrace. He was as a lover whose significant other just came back from a week long travel. He was as a father whose baby had just been borne. He was as a vengeance-bound man whose mortal enemy had just appeared and invited him to a death duel.

The Crossing began nearly eleven thousand years ago. Scholar’s and mystics alike agree that that number is near to nothing in terms of The Two Halves’, as Samun and Numas are now known, time passing. Numas’ finger-tip barely just began to cross through the door. And that crossing, just as Samun’s crossing, bore creations and effects that rippled across existence.

It was pleasure and despair, fulfillment and emptiness, orgasm and torture. Kel’s hands couldn’t stop shaking. He fell on his knees. Tears flowed from his eyes, and blood from his nose and ears. He thought of screaming “stop!”, but immediately knew his mouth wouldn’t even open, and then even the capacity to think slipped away from him. Come to me, come to me, chanted both doors, pulling him with equal force in opposite directions.

Some believe that magic is only possible while the Halves are passing through, meaning some day in a very, very, distant future, it inevitably will cease to exist. Some believe that to be nonsense, and claim that the surging of magic is due to the presence of both Halves on our side of the doors. That theory suggests that magic itself would only increase in power with time, as more and more of Numas’ body would be in contact with our realm of existence. A third group suggests that the doors don’t necessarily lead to the same place, and until that is verified beyond doubt, nothing can be certain. Of course, there is always the forth group: those who don’t give a fuck about my classes.

Irannas stopped her lecturing and threw a piece of chalk at Kel, hitting his forehead. He woke up screaming, like someone who was drowning and had just been resuscitated. He was panting, his face sweat-ridden.

“Marliss, Kaera, can you please accompany your colleague outside for a few minutes? Help him up; make sure he gets some fresh air and drink some water, please?” Irannas said.

The students nodded and did as she said. Kel was half conscious and his senses were weakened. He couldn’t speak or communicate, but Irannas could tell by the look in his face that at least he heard her and understood his surroundings. A faint spark of worry broke her normally neutral class-time facial expressions. Professor? Professor? Can we continue? Someone said, bringing her back to the present. Irannas continued.