Somewhere, lost in the frosty heights of a forgotten mountain range, there was an old cabin. The cabin itself was not special in any way, simply a crude construction of logs, planks, and stonemasonry. It was only slightly unusual in the fact that it had a cellar, a feature that was not very common to its genre, but that, too, was a simple, rustic construction, and one that would never occasion much comment.

The cellar's walls were of cold, rough granite, no doubt dragged to this forsaken point from a nearby quarry, also long forgotten. The floor was earthen, gravelly and uneven. There were no windows to shine light into the quiet darkness; the only illumination was the fading sunlight struggling through the cracks of the cabin's floorboards.

So had this cabin stood, empty, and virtually unknown to the world, for countless decades-perhaps even centuries. The utter silence of this place was profound, especially if one considered the harsh weather outside. One could easily say this house was meant to remain uninhabited.

By no means, however, was this cabin unimportant.

A bright, unnatural light abruptly pierced the stolid darkness in the cellar. Growing brighter, a hole appeared in the air, which rapidly expanded to the height of the cellar's ceiling. A moment more, and two figures emerged. As suddenly as the light and the hole appeared, they disappeared, leaving the two strangers alone in the room.

Jake turned to where he figured Talamia was. "Where's the light switch in this place?"

"I don't think there is a light switch, My Lord. I don't think there's any electricity out here."

Jake grunted sourly. Holding up his hand, he concentrated briefly. A glowing ball of light burst from his palm, brightly illuminating the cramped cellar with a sun-like radiance. Spying the stairs leading up, he started for them when Talamia stopped him.

"My Lord, no. The Door is down here." Jake turned around in surprise. He sent the orb in his hand floating around the room, but all he saw were blank rock walls. No Door.

"Where?" he asked, mystified.

Talamia grinned conspirationally. "It's in the wall, My Lord. The cabin was built to hide the door; an unbelievable amount of spells went into its construction. You might almost say it protects the door with something approaching sentience."

"Hmm. Ok, so how do we get to it?"

Talamia walked over to the wall opposite the stairs, stumbling slightly over the uneven floor. Jake marveled at how she could even make stumbling look graceful. Silently she placed her hands on the coarse granite, and Jake felt her channel Ether directly into the stone.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, before Jake's impressed eyes, the stone flowed back with a strange sighing sound, leaving a gaping hole so deep that even his ball of sunlight couldn't see the end of it. Gesturing for him to follow, she stepped inside the opening. Shrugging, Jake followed.

The rock door oozed closed behind them. Talamia explained as she led Jake down the passageway. "The door acts like an airlock. There are two openings, one here and the other at the end of this corridor. This was made in the old days when it was considered very dangerous to let the mortals accidentally see something they weren't supposed to. This way, the worst a person who was not initiated would see was a stone wall with a secret passage."

"They were pretty paranoid back then, huh?"

Talamia looked at him seriously. "They had good reason, My Lord. Back then, having magic was very threatening for most people. There was nothing more dangerous than being discovered by a mob. A competent Practitioner could handle a few people should he or she be discovered, but a few hundred? That happened quite a bit more often than the history books suggest, you know."

"What do you mean?"

"Up to about 70 or 80 years ago, witch- hunters scoured the whole world, looking for our covens. When they found one, they summoned their compatriots and destroyed it utterly. It was a dark time to be a Practitioner."

"Huh. Why did they stop?"

Talamia smiled grimly. "We finally wizened up. We started hunting them."

That didn't seem to require any explanation.

Abruptly, the passage ended in a smooth stone wall. It was black, like the rest of the passage, but this one had a marking on it that seemed vaguely familiar to Jake. Suddenly, he realized why-the symbol on it was identical to the one at the entrance to the Chamber of Broken Souls. Again, Talamia placed her hands on it and channeled ether into the rock.

Instead of flowing away this time, the passage opened like the iris of a camera lens, expanding from the center of the swirling design. An eerie green light grew brighter as the circle widened enough to admit them both. Without a word, Talamia walked forward, and Jake followed suit.

The scene that met them astounded Jake. He gazed into a chamber that had to be miles across, and at least a mile high. It appeared to be a perfect circle around, and in the center of this huge chamber, was what appeared to be a fountain, which fairly erupted an incandescent, emerald liquid almost to the ceiling. Pure, unrefined Ether, Jake realized. So that's what it looks like in its natural state. At least, in this plane.

Almost immediately, their presence caused a commotion. Men and women came rushing towards them from all directions, their expressions ranging anywhere from shock to outrage to curiosity to dread. Jake paid special attention to those with looks of dread.

It was one of the outraged ones that reached them first. He looked quite young for a Practitioner, perhaps thirty or so, with black hair and icy blue eyes. His brow was furrowed as he marched up to Talamia, fury darkening his features.

"What is the meaning of this, initiate? The Fount is not a tourist attraction!" Talamia just grinned mischievously, knowing that Jake would be taking control of the conversation at this point. Even with that insolent action, most of the men gathered were visibly taken aback by her incredible beauty. Jake chuckled softly.

Blue-eyes was not as easily meltable as the rest of them. He turned his not-insignificant-against-other-people glare against the unflappable Jacob Bourque, who blandly returned the stare with a slight hint of challenge. This was immediately acknowledged by a suspicious narrowing of the eyes. "Who are you?" came the slightly wary challenge from the antagonistic Seer.

Jake smiled again. "I am Jacob Bourque. You make call me Jake."

The result among the men was electrifying. Most of them gasped in shared horror. The rage immediately drained from the blue-eyed Seer's face, to be replaced with the dread he had seen on some of the earlier faces. Meanwhile, more people were beginning to gather around, a healthy mix of men and women, who had already begun to whisper worriedly amongst themselves.

Jake refocused his attention on the duly elected spokesperson for this mob of unruly Practitioners, fixing a wolfish smile on his face. "I understand that my. existence. was met with a great deal of resistance from you people." Talamia chuckled wickedly. The fear around him was almost palpable as they ripped their gazes from Jake and glanced at Talamia like she had betrayed them. In a way, Jake supposed, she had. She had brought him here, after all. Jake continued.

"I would like to speak with the Seer named Brent." An audible sigh of relief rippled through the assembly. It was off their shoulders. Several (almost all) of the Seers pointed toward a small building on the edge of the lake of Ether, nearly half a mile away. Jake nodded silently, dismissing them from his mind.

With his will, he lifted himself and Talamia off the ground and flew them towards the structure. Rushing towards it took longer than he thought, and he abruptly realized that the building wasn't as minor as he had thought, but rather the size of a small office complex. This forced him to reevaluate the dimensions of this gigantic chamber. Could this place really be almost ten miles across? His mind rebelled against the idea, but he realized that if he could do it, so could Ykir. In seconds, Jake and his latest concubine had set their feet gently down at the door.

A man was waiting at the entrance. He was tall, with blonde hair and a physique fit for a god. He calmly waited until Jake approached, then spoke.

"Jacob Bourque? Hello. My name is Brent. Ykir told me I could expect you."

Jake nodded and took the Seer's proffered hand. "Ykir had good things to say about you, Brent. Did he tell you why I wanted to see you?"

Brent shook his head. "Only that it had something to do with the Seers, but I could have guessed that much. Come," he beckoned, motioning Jake inside. "Let us go sit in the study and talk." Jake and Talamia silently followed as Brent led them down a hallway and into a comfortable little library with plush chairs and a soft shag rug. It instantly reminded Jake of the study that Ykir had created in the Chamber of Broken Souls, which, upon consideration, made perfect sense.

As he sat down, Jake's curiosity finally got the better of him. "Where the hell is this place, Brent?"

Brent blinked in surprise. "You came here, didn't you? How could you not know where it is?"

"I brought him here with a. shortcut." Talamia spoke up as she settled in to her seat.

A thoughtful pause followed that remark. "I. see. Well, Jacob-you don't mind if I call you Jacob, do you? Jacob, you are about three miles underneath the Swiss Alps. It's a little hard to calculate distances so close to the Fount-it distorts space as well as reality. Nothing is very dependable around it. That's why you won't find any machines or complex devices around here. They don't work worth a damn. Same with why we use lamps as opposed to electric lights."

Jake tried to wrap his mind around something this big being only three miles underground. The ceiling had to be at least that high. But then, it made sense, in an odd kind of way-the distortion Brent spoke of could be wrapped in such a way as to... "Okay, I'll buy it. It's a little hard to see, but I think I've got it."

Brent raised an eyebrow. "If you do, then you're the only one besides Ykir himself who does. It baffles me completely."

"Does that surprise you, that he would be able to visualize something on a par with Ykir?" Talamia asked.

Brent sighed wearily. "I guess it shouldn't. But Jake, surely you realize that your very existence is something that we Seers aren't really prepared to cope with."

Jake nodded. "Yes. And that's why I'm here. One of the Seers sent a Dreck to kill my family and me. It got my dad, and destroyed my mother's soul before I managed to banish it. I want to find the guilty party, and I want your help."

Brent's eyes had widened with each word. "A Dreck?!? Frankly, I'm shocked you were able to. no, if you really are like Ykir, I guess that really wouldn't be too much of a problem for you. Yes, of course I'll help you. Ykir was very specific that you were to be assisted in any way possible. I'd hate to be that fellow when you find him."

"Yes, you would." Jake said grimly. Images of a blood-soaked bedroom flashed across his closed eyes. He took a moment to compose himself. Brent and Talamia waited in respectful silence.

"Can you help me find my father's murderer?" Jake asked after a moment.

Brent's brow furrowed in thought. "I think so. I'll show you how to use the Fount to expand your consciousness. It should provide you with the information you need."

Finally, Jake thought. Now we're getting somewhere.

It only took a few minutes to walk to the edge of the Fount. Bright energy-laden Ether spurted up like water under high pressure from the rift in the ground in front of him. Jake saw what the others could not: the rift between the planes was only about a eighteen inches across, but the stream was nearly quarter of a mile across itself, and shot nearly ten times as high. Jake marveled at the care that must have gone into constructing such a well of power in the mortal plane.

Brent had described how one stepped into the fount and projected one's mind through the flow, and how this allowed one to see certain things that were hidden from the mortal eyes. This was the true power of the Seers- they knew things before they happened, were able to predict outcomes of various strategies... this had made them indispensable to the rest of the Practitioners.

A strange thing happened as Brent was explaining all of this. Seers started to accompany the motley crew on their short walk, some of them frowning at Brent's words, some of them almost gasping in shock at them. At first Jake thought they were offended at Brent's betrayal, but several different times Jake caught a look of what could only be described as wild hope in a Seer's visage before it was quickly muted and a blank expression drawn over once again. This was disturbing. Perhaps there was a danger that existed in seeking this vision. He asked as much.

Brent hesitated. The crowd that had gathered was suddenly holding their breaths. "...Yes." The throng seemed to tense even tighter. "There is a significant period of... extreme disorientation... that follows using the Second Sight. It is why most of us spend as little time in the Fount as possible. It is not pleasant." He looked Jake somberly in the eye. "But if you want to know the truth, there is no quicker or easier or surer way. The Fount allows you to see not only the future, but also the present and the past. What people are thinking, how they feel, the reasons behind their actions. Where things happened, how or why. It is, for a brief time, like being God."

Brent stopped abruptly, his feet mere inches away from the gentle lapping of the luminous liquid. He continued. "I cannot tell you that it is completely safe. Many Seers have gone mad, looking through the ether. Whether they could not handle so much truth, or it was not as they wished to see, or for some other odd reason, no mind returns completely untouched. It must be your conscious decision to enter."

Jake stared at the eruption at the center of the pool. This was the only way. He sighed. "I understand. Thank you for your help. Talamia, a word," he said, gesturing her close. As she drew near, Jake whispered softly in her ear, "Watch over me. This is your sacred duty as my trusted concubine. Trust no one, not even Brent. If something goes sour, get us away from here post haste. Got it?" Talamia nodded solemnly.

"Yes, My Lord. Come back to me safe." She whispered back, then gently kissed his ear. This elicited a smile from Jake, which grew wider at the looks of envy he received.

"Is there anything else I need to know?" He asked Brent.

Brent shook his head. "That's all there is to tell. Good luck."

Jake nodded, took off his shoes and socks, and began to wade towards the center of the Fount. It was slow going, as the ether was considerably thicker than water, but in about ten minutes he was at the edge of the gushing column of liquid, and up to his neck (literally) in ether. Taking a deep breath, he started to step inside when he heard a shriek from the shore line. Talamia! Turning about as fast as he could he was just in time to see Brent hurling a fireball at his concubine.

Rage erupted within Jake. Quickly he concentrated on flying to her rescue, but something strange happened. When he opened a flow to the ether, he felt a sharp twist in the currents about him; before he could even gasp in surprise, an unknown force ripped his feet from under him and sucked him spiraling into the rift. Immediately his will was under heavy assault. The energy crashed against his mind with numbing force again and again, and for the first time in a long while Jake found himself fighting a losing battle. After a brief struggle against the titanic blows battering down his will, he surrendered, and the bright green light mercifully faded to black.

... distortion... time?... moving... slowly, so slowly...forming...<how long? where am i?>...void lacks cohesion, substance, therefore I am not nothing... concepts slowly form...

...sounds... the sloppy sounds of a good, wet fuck. The moans, the gasps, the slapping of skin against skin... brightening... blurring, clearing... <am i dead?> an image of loveliness, Genny <mickey?>, her legs splayed wide, apparently giving to Jake <?> as good as she got, her eyes half closed in ecstasy as Jake <wait, then, who am i?> rammed into her with the full force of the DemiGod he was. And then it was gone...

...Jake's <my> mom, sucking his cock with a gusto that was difficult to believe, given her condition, massaging his <my> balls, moaning in pleasure as she squirmed about on Courtney's face... <what the hell is going on here?> Suddenly, she orgasmed, and bit hard. Jake <me!> roared in rage, and blew his <mine! no, goddammit, no!> mother and sister to smithereens with a blast of power...

<what is going on?> Jake, <me! not jake, me! what the hell is going on?> suddenly aware that someone else is there, slowly turns around. In the shady auras of this half-life, it was easy to see past the skin. Brent. In Jake's body. <of course! why couldn't i see that before?> He smiles. Jake <that's my body, dammit, and i want it back!> heals the blood around his dick and speaks with contemptuous amusement. "I'll bet you're wondering what happened, Jake. Would you like me to tell you?"

<yes, you little fucknut, tell me before i kill you...> "It's like this, Jake- how do you kill an immortal? Answer: you can't. Unless you can nullify that immortality.

"You and Ykir are creatures that exist in equal amounts in both ether and reality. If one part of you exists, the other part cannot die. And since the planes are separate, it's a nice, closed system. But-" he continued, standing up and putting on a robe that floated by, "if you bring your body and your soul together, in one place, where the two worlds are one, it becomes possible to destroy both at the same time.

"There is only one place in existence where that is the case. The Fount of Ascendancy. You went there, you went in, and then you tried to channel the ether through your body from the Ethereal Plane, when a much easier conduit was readily available- it created a pressure differential like you would not believe, and sucked you right through, to a place where your mortal body could not live, and your mind could not handle. Then, when all was said and done, it spit you back out again, sans mind and soul. So I took your body, and then I took your women. It couldn't have worked out better for me- I would never have believed how much power this body holds!

"And to think, I would have settled for killing you with that Dreck."

... a rage burns within. <you? you killed my father? destroyed my mother's soul?>

Jake (Brent) laughs. "It was such a good plan. Ykir implied to us that you would grow slowly into your powers, that you would be vulnerable for the first few years. Whether or not he was playing with us or you truly grew faster than he thought you would is a moot point. I used all the power at my disposal to chain that Dreck, and to send him to you without being detected, but you took him apart like a cockroach you were stepping on. I couldn't believe it. That's when I used my Second Sight." Brent's (Jake's) eyes glowed with madness.

"That was when I discovered how I could not only destroy you, but take your place, take your power. That was the original reason we were angry, you know- Ykir said that he was going to reincarnate himself in the form of a human. We all wanted to be that human! Think of the power! But he denied us, and said he had already picked a nobody, a nothing by the name of Jacob Bourque. It was an insult to all practitioners!

"But now, all is good again. My enemies are dead, as are your allies. I was surprised Talamia put up such a fight, I had no idea she was so skilled, or so loyal. Pity, she was a lovely creature." Brent (Jake) snickered.

<this can't be- not like this- talamia, courtney, mom, how can this have happened?!?>

[Jake.]

<?>

[Jake.]

<Ykir?>

[Yes. This is the future you see. A single future of many possible futures. It does not have to happen.]

<but I've already been sucked through the rift. I'm dead.>

[I told you, creatures such as you and I cannot die. It is not our bodies or our souls which make us immortal. It is our wills. Brent is intelligent and crafty- I'll admit he even had me fooled and that's not easy- but he is ignorant of the truth. He cannot make himself as we are by taking your body. Take it back!]

<really?>

[Yes!]

<ok.>

Concentrate... concentrate... there... a flying sensation... backwards.... through... and... out!

None of the Seers saw Jake's lightning approach, gliding under the tide of liquid ether. They were much too busy keeping themselves from getting cooked by Talamia, who was doing a fair job of frying a good half of the Seers, and keeping the other half at bay. Jake could sense she was tiring, though. It did not matter. He was here, and this was where it ended.

Talamia was still screaming out Jake's name when he erupted from the shallows and landed in the middle of the congregation, sizzling balls of molten flame bursting from his hands. Everywhere he turned, terrified Practitioners died, screaming in agony.

Talamia had instantly responded to a silent command and hit the deck the moment he came into view. Seconds later, there were only three people alive on the shores of that tranquil shore- Jake, Talamia, ...and Brent.

Brent looked around in shock. "What... how did you... you should be..."

Jake fixed him with a level glare. "You have no idea what it means to be a DemiGod. Truth to tell, neither did I, at first. In a way, one could say you helped me learn, but that's certainly no reason to spare your life."

Brand paled. Madness glinted in his eyes. "You would have done the same! Ykir promised us the future! Instead, he gave us a new master! I defy you! I defy your power! Die, you fucking upstart!" With that, he threw his hands in front of him and poured the remaining vestiges of his power into one final attack.

Jake didn't even have to concentrate.