Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #13 April 2015 | Page 92

were respectful members of our coven, by birth or
marriage, and all of them prayed to our deity for
salvation. Unfortunately, even though the Nexus neutralised the threats that prompted the worthy one to be
possessed in the first place, the possessed party rarely
survives it, and if they do they are rendered catatonic.
There has been several instances of the Nexus being
forced to enter an unworthy body, but fortunately the
body would dissolve soon after.
Margo shuddered and turned the page. This picture
was familiar. It depicted a coven member sitting on
the floor. Her hands hung limp next to her body, and
she was facing the ceiling. Light was streaming from
it and colliding with her:
Of course there are a lot of ways for a deity to walk in
a human shell: Manifesting in a human form in order
to communicate, Reanimation of a corpse, Trapping
in a body with a fabricated soul as a means of containment. The most elusive by far is Bonding, requiring a person who embodies the qualities the deity
represents and respects in full glow. When such a paragon is found, and the conditions (which are unknown
to us) are fulfilled, the deity can transfer itself into the
host, where it will fuse with the host’s body and bond
with their soul. Of course, no one has seen a successful bonding before so it is impossible for anyone to
know what would happen, though it has been attempted. Many witches of our order offered themselves, but
the Nexus would eventually leave their body, leaving it
exhausted and their soul torn to pieces.
One of the possible results of a bond is an entity called
The Hunter/Huntress, that is mentioned in several
ancient texts. Not much is known about this entity’s
appearance, or intentions, but the greatness of its
power is widely known.
Margo stopped reading abruptly. The Huntress. It
was the codename Malik gave her, the name she was
known by in the demonic circles before she started
using aliases. She never would have called herself
a paragon. Margo closed the book and sighed. She
didn’t want to die. She wanted to panic, to raise a fuss.
But a voice inside her head kept singing a calm relaxing tune, and Margo found herself thinking everything

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would be alright.
Margo rifled through the book some more, but there
wasn’t anything about her. There were only reports
of battles that have happened or battles to come. She
recognised many of the drawings. She had seen them
in her head, in living colour. It didn’t help with the
vagueness though. She couldn’t recognise any of the
people in them no matter how hard she tried. Margo
sighed and put the book with several others, the bag of
crystals, some magical valuables and a few pieces of
clothing she took a liking to in a large backpack and
exited the room.
“Are you alright?” Jake asked her as soon as she
exited the room. He was wearing a white shirt and
some jeans that were too big for him. It looked like he
raided the fourth bedroom.
“I am fine. See?” Margo snickered at his worried tone,
lifting her arms. “If I feel weird I will tell you.” she
patted him on his back. “Are we going to go now?
Let’s go revive Patrick.”
Jake’s wide smile came back. “We just need to stop
by my store to get the revival scrolls, and them get the
Hand.” He still insisted on carrying her bag. They tried
to teleport, but her brief demise meant the amulet had
reset.
“Wow, you’ve lost all those powers.” Jake looked at
her sadly, then pulled his cell phone out.
Margo twirled the amulet between her fingers. “Heh, I
can always get them back. Plus I still have telekinesis
and demonic strength and resistance. I think I came
out ahead in the end.”
Jake called a taxi. They kept their conversation quiet
as to not seem crazy to the driver.
“What did you have to do to get those scrolls? They
are just as hard to find as the Hand.” Margo looked out
the window. They were almost there.
“Well, I can be very convincing when I want to be. I
can also get into any computer I want and I am good at
extortion.”