by J E Mueller
“She’s got a point,” Lliam said, keeping up with us. “Though I don’t think many will be happy to be told off that way.”
“Lliam thinks you’ll be ticking off everyone,” I echoed.
“Probably. Annoying the elders is easy. Aggravating the angels is even easier.” Lydia shrugged it off, not bothered. “So, why is Lliam following us still? Doesn’t he usually relay a message and vanish mysteriously?”
“I’m trying to come up with a good plan that will not get you both killed,” Lliam replied. “Just because I’m dead doesn’t mean I don’t care about another Blessed. Geeze.”
“He’s being an obnoxious Blessed do-gooder.” I snickered. “I have no idea how he’ll help keep us alive to reach our new destination but-”
“Oh, I’ve got it!” Lliam replied snapping his fingers. “But to keep up with wonderful habits!” He vanished.
I groaned loudly. “Apparently he has a solution and just vanished.”
Lydia wrapped her arm around me. “Hopefully it’s a good one. We’re going to need a lot of luck.”
Chapter 12
The first week gave us little trouble with demons. Rain battled us instead, making the journey slow, miserable, and gross. The second week was as perfect for travel as one could hope, but I could hear lost souls much more easily now. It seemed that now that I knew what was going on, on a very small level, and with the spirits unable to cross, I was hyper-aware that they needed help. It went frustratingly the same way every time. Sneak up on the demon, destroy it, convince the spirit I was there to help, and let Lliam take over. I had no idea where they were going and he still hadn’t explained his master plan to help keep us safe. The less we knew, the better was all he said.
It made me want to scream.
At the very least, stabbing some demons was a good way to blow off steam. Lydia supported that fully, which was wonderful since the more we slew them the more seemed to appear.
“If I’m correct, we’ve got just under two days left,” Lydia commented as we finished packing up camp.
“Is it bad that all I can think is that things have been going too smoothly?” I sighed and wondered if my fear was justified.
“Probably.” Lydia slung her pack over her shoulder. “But it’s true. We’re going to meet someone who can teach you about this spirit nonsense. That means they’ve been trained to some degree and are likely hunted by the demons. I’m sure there are a small number of them keeping an eye on them incase they try to leave. The person is trapped, for better or worse.”
“And soon we will be too.” I considered that fact.
“We’ll find a way out when the time comes. This person likely can’t fight demons. We can. That makes a big difference.” Lydia radiated confidence. “Let’s go find out what they know and what’s to come. At least my sword arm won’t get flabby on this adventure.”
“Like you ever take enough time off for that,” I teased, feeling a little more at ease. We could totally take care of a few demons. They were the worst of it, right?
Of course, they were the worst of it. I shook off the small feeling of dread and set the pace for our trip.
“I hope there are extra beds. I’m tired of rocks and mud.”
“You picked the wrong person to adventure with for that.” Lydia laughed. “Though a bed and a nice soak without looking over my shoulder sounds amazing. I don't even want to know what my hair looks like unbraided.”
I felt a tingle in the air and froze. “If only hair could be our biggest problem,” I grumbled.
Lydia had already dropped her pack, pulled her sword out, and was ready for business, “Lord and Lady, please help save the soul that comes between me and a bath.” She muttered angrily as she placed her hand on my shoulder. A rush of Blessed magic coursed through me.
To my surprise, Marella appeared in front of us.
“Ladies,” she said calmly with her arms crossed. Her face meant business.
“Marella,” I said for Lydia’s sake. “What a pleasure and surprise.”
“You caused quite a stir by not being able to hide your gift,” Marella replied, diving right into things.
“I couldn’t just knowingly let a soul be grabbed by demons. I had to try something,” I replied. Not that I knew what I was doing, but at least I had tried.
“I know,” she replied simply. “Which is why I followed you.”
“You followed us and waited that long to help?” Lydia raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t sound much like a good deed, waiting until the last minute.”
“Of course I had to wait,” Marella replied unabashedly. “If they knew I was nearby, they would have gotten more help and things wouldn’t have gone so smoothly at the end. Annoying for you, but it was for the greater good. We don’t need a bigger realm rift now do we? Hm?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Ahead there are a lot of demons. Your trail was easy to follow and it’s obvious now where you are heading. They will be waiting.”
“And are you going to clear the way or disappear again?” Lydia demanded a response.
“Neither,” Marella smiled pleasantly.
“What does that mean?” Lydia scrunched up her face, not sure what to make of the demon who wasn’t evil anymore.
“I will be incognito. Disguised as a normal traveler with you. To them, I’ll be another mage. A Blessed with the ability to send them back from whence they came. It’s a simple way to keep up my rouse and lend you aid.” Marella smirked.
“Wait, you can’t enter there,” Lydia pointed out. “It’s a safe zone.”
“My dear, living beings with evil intent cannot enter there,” Marella replied, voice ever sweet and honey filled. “I have no evil intent.I’m just guiding a friend and her friend to safety.”
“I’ve never heard that before,” Lydia huffed in disbelief. “So, any demon can enter if they aren’t being evil in that moment? What if they change their intent after? Then everyone inside is screwed?” Anger filled her voice.
“Of course not. It would banish them to the outskirts. It works well,” Marella replied, “I’ve tested it enough. Both sides have. We created them for balance, after all.”
Lydia studied Marella skeptically for a moment. “Who are you?”
“No one of consequence.” She smiled sweetly and in a puff of smoke changed form slightly. Marella looked younger now, maybe seventeen. Sandy blonde curls were pulled into a messy bun and her clothes looked worn from wear and travel. She now carried a short sword at her side and had a beaten up pack slung across her back that was covered in bits of dirt and twigs. It looked as if she had been traveling with us the whole time. “Shall we be off, then?”
“I don’t trust you,” Lydia said bluntly.
“Good,” Marella called back as she walked ahead of us. “Never trust a demon.”
For a while we walked on in silence. Lydia seemed to be in a constant state of uncertainty. She wanted to fume and yell at Marella for being so contradictory but we both knew her words were right. One should never trust a demon, so why should we be working with her now?
It seemed to fill Lydia with anger, but for me, it was another bit of curiosity. Marella had proven she could be trusted time and again on many levels in a wide variety of ways. Was she just speaking of her kind in general, or was she considering herself in that lot? Not wanting to dwell much on it, I pushed it out of my mind. For whatever reason, we had to make it to the Order of Reawakening. Finally, there was someone there who could actually teach me what was going on.
“Do you think there will be much to learn there?” I asked Lydia, breaking the silence. “It seems rather weird to have a sudden push in this direction.” Suddenly, it hit me. Key had mentioned that I should check there to begin with. How had I forgotten? Kegan showing me those books, Lydia’s confession of her feelings, and this demon hunting mission might have pushed – rather shoved – that suggestion aside.
“I trust Lliam, but I don’t know how much you have to learn. He can’t even stick aro
und for details, and Blessed love going into great details, even to the point of exaggerating…” Her thoughts trailed off.
“But if he’s on a mission, and just dropping in to help here and there he wouldn’t have time for that,” I pointed out. As boastful as the group was, they always seemed to know when to put aside the stories and songs and get down to business.
“True, but what mission? What is he even doing?” The frustration returned to her features. “This whole thing is just bloody nonsense and we’re stuck on the worst end of it.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. It was humorless and tired, but still I laughed. “No kidding.” I shook my head. “Run here, run there, hope to not die. At least earlier we didn't have a target on our backs.”
“What is hunting us down going to do for these demons anyway? It’s not like we really know enough to cause them too much more harm than normal,” Lydia grumbled.
“That I can answer,” Marella chimed in sweetly.
“By all means.” Lydia gave a sarcastic bow and continued on walking. “What is going on?”
“To put it simply, at this stage of their plan, things are in a very sensitive and critical state. The balance of Spirit Guides has been disrupted. The power to guide the spirits of this world to their proper resting place isn’t taken away once a guide perishes. Instead, it is spread to others until a new Guide can take their place.” Marella paused to let this soak in.
I did not like the way that sounded.
Lydia beat me to an answer. “So, all the power is going to Tella and whoever is left making them extra powerful…. So, if Tella learns what to do, she can cause maybe as much damage to whatever their cause is as say a hundred or so guides combined?”
“More or less, yes.” Marella smiled. “So, they are running out of time to hunt down everyone, and all that is left are the ones who haven’t come forward. It is very hard to find those who won’t talk about their gifts.”
“So, what is their end goal, anyway?” I asked. We knew they somehow closed off the good from going to heaven, but how and why?
“That is very simple, dear,” Marella replied tiredly. “With the gates closed off to the guides, and by shutting down passage for spirits to one side of the realms, they can collect a much larger army for themselves.”
Lydia sighed tiredly. “How can they turn spirits into their own army? I thought only those who had made previous contracts could even be turned into demons?”
“Oh no, contracts just assure where the soul is going after death. Spirits are complex things, which is why Guides are trained to help them. Do they go to what you’ve labeled as heaven or hell? Or are they sent back to be reborn and grow more? Spirits are a very specific form of living magical energy. They are in everything and can be remodeled to become anything. Demons, angels, trees, rain…” Marella smiled sweetly at us. “Before the gates were made, when someone or something passed on, angels and demons alike of all ranks would fight to gain them and reshape them into what their side needed. It was quite a long time before we established a balance and the guides were created and the gates were formed. With this new thing formed, the fighting stopped. Neither side could simply grab hold of a spirit and neither side knew why. A very small secret group formed this and has all the information.”
“Until the last few years, I take it,” I replied. “Or did one of the sides betray the creators?”
“Who are the creators?” Lydia demanded to know.
Marella looked at us each in turn before deciding which question to answer. “What happened is best described as betrayal. A member of this group who had been going by the name of Arno decided he wanted to change things. He knew none of us would agree, but he needed some help with his grand scheme and took on a vile apprentice.”
Marella shook her head and continued. “Lucky for us the apprentice slew him early on. Sadly, the apprentice decided to take things up a notch and went on an even more corrupt mission of his own. Thankfully the apprentice has also been slain, but of course there was someone under him to pick up the mantle and spearhead more chaos. Now because of all of this, we are losing balance. If this realm collapses, we’ll lose a lot more than just an army for both sides.”
“When did this all start?” I asked curiously, well aware she had skipped over who created the Guides in the first place.
“About ten years ago. Five years ago the apprentice was slain. Even with them putting the plan into effect two years ago, no one’s told me who is in charge. The lackeys seem to not know, and well…” Marella laughed coldly. “The high up of my kind and I don’t get along well enough to give answers.”
“But who are the creators?” Lydia demanded again. She wasn’t going to let Marella pick and choose answers so easily.
“My aren’t you determined to get answers about things you don’t understand.” Marella glanced her way.
“How can I understand without answers?” Lydia challenged her.
“The names of the creators won’t help you with that.” Marella answered simply, “But if it helps to satisfy your curiosity, there were three from the demon side, three from the angel side, and seven from the human side. Those of us from the outer realms built the gates and set the system in place. This was only to create balance so we wouldn’t need to find a new world. To no surprise, we haven’t joined forces for anything else since.”
Marella pressed on with the answer we sought. “The humans were the ones who ultimately decided how guides were chosen. It needed to be uncommon, magic that could be given instead of being inherited by birth, and it also needed to be something that no one would learn about easily.”
“What event could do that?” Lydia, asked genuinely curious.
“They could have picked something less cruel,” I spat, understanding hitting me like a kick to the ribs.
Lydia turned my way, surprised. She didn’t understand. I didn’t care. “Why would they choose that?” I demanded from Marella. “Why?”
“The gift ultimately needed to be given somehow,” Marella replied calmly, but sadness filled her voice. “We decided to make it so all spirits could gift it, even without knowing it.”
I picked up the pace and walked ahead of the group needing to be with my own thoughts for a moment. Not that my own thoughts were helpful, but I didn't want to direct my anger at everyone else.
“I…. I don’t get it,” I could hear Lydia say from behind me.
“Do you know when she could start seeing spirits?” Marella asked simply. “What event happened before?”
There was a long pause as things came together for her.
I remembered the night well. Father was possessed. He almost killed me, but I didn’t cross. I was told to go back – maybe even pushed. I remember feeling the healing touch from Lydia and her mother. I was pulled back just from the brink of death. A passing spirit gifted this to me, likely without even knowing what they were doing. They just wanted me to live and not join them. And in a way, I was now joined with them through other senses.
Something dawned on me. “Marella, are there other creatures that are in this world? Ones that aren’t on either the demon or angel side?”
Marella and Lydia caught up with me.
“I doubt this world could handle more.” Lydia shook her head.
“Plenty,” Marella replied, causing Lydia's eyes to widen. “There are hundreds of thousands of realms, parallel universes, everything out there. The only other ones we deal with are those that keep watch over the balance. They make sure that if one side or the other is too strong, they bring them back down a few notches. If we destroy this series of realms we don’t just hurt ourselves. We can have a nasty effect on the ones connected to us.”
“So, they are stronger than both sides?” I asked curiously.
“Much stronger, though you’d never know. They blend in, lead normal everyday lives. You think they are normal, mundane people.” Marella smiled widely. “They are here and there and already working to restore balance.”
“How?” Lydia asked softly. The fire seemed to be dying down in her questions.
“How do they know? How are they helping?” Marella asked with a shrug. “Very simply by giving the tools needed, giving the direction needed. I was asked to join this fight as well, and one does not simply deny such a request.”
“Why? Would they vanquish you?” Lydia asked curiously.
“Oh, much worse. Imagine being imprisoned in a realm with no magic for a few thousand years.” Marella let chills roll off her.
“That sounds like a very interesting punishment. Maybe some time without magic would help the balance,” I mused.
“No magic just gives more power to those born into power. Nothing more. The good and evil play much the same,” Marella replied, “but I couldn’t smash in faces with fire anymore.” She made a disgusted face and for once I saw her demon side shine through.
It was easy to forget she wasn’t inherently good. But was she really evil?
I let the thoughts turn over in my head for a bit before I asked. “How were the sides originally created?”
This caused Marella to stumble for a moment, but she kept walking as if nothing happened. “We’re from two different worlds that crossed paths several millennia ago. Both of us had essentially destroyed our homes and were looking for better places to live. We live off of different things, and not what you would expect.” She paused as she thought about how to explain. “At first it was just some of our different kinds. We figured out that together we create just the right way to survive. We need certain elements to continue to live forever.”
“You seriously can live forever?” Lydia sounded skeptical.
“Yes,” Marella confirmed. “The originals of our kind cannot die. Sure, we can be killed, but we do come back. We just….” She motioned for the words she was looking for. “It is hard in your language. We are reborn from nothing. We will suddenly be again, from a young age. Most memories can be regained, but not all, so we can be re-raised, if that makes sense.”
