by Darci Darson
“Not now,” she muttered, placing her hand on her forehead.” It’s not the right time. You boys are all the same.”
She glanced at him and burst into laughter when she noticed Radveriel’s handsome face splashed with rosy embarrassment. They stared at each other for a moment.
“The connection and friendship between us is destined to last forever,” Cherry said. She felt as if she had recited a prayer. “You are a very important person in my life. How do I know this?” It was a strange but also positive and nice feeling, to have access to another’s intentions. There was no uncertainty, just pure trust.
“You are a Varuh. We know such things. You are an ancient and powerful Varuh. You just don’t remember,” Radveriel explained. “You will learn.”
Cherry took a deep breath. Everything seemed to be clear to her.
“Do you know where Aaldir’s prison is?” she asked. “Taharial mentioned something about an ancient circle.”
“Yes, I know where this circle is,” Radveriel responded and his jaw muscles twitched.
“I feel I’m ready,” Cherry said firmly. “I’m ready to face him. Take me to Aaldir.”
“Are you sure? Maybe you should talk to Imre first.”
“No!” she shouted. “I don’t want to see Imre. I’m absolutely positive about my decision. Radveriel please, Take me to the prison.”
“You know that I will follow your orders because you are a higher being but it’s not fair,” Radveriel said with a cold bitterness.”This is my purpose to listen to the pure Varuh, but you are not fair.”
“Take me to Aaldir, Radveriel,” Cherry ordered once more.”Somebody must end the war. You know this. I am here for only this purpose.”
***
The journey lasted less than a millisecond. Cherry began to actually enjoy the feeling of the now-familiar rollercoaster ride.
She stood with Radveriel, her bare feet sinking in the cold, red dust. They were studying the border of the ancient prison. Her mind was like a devastated area after a huge, natural disaster even though she was so close to uncovering the final truth about her origins. Radveriel’s healing energy had dissipated, and she did not know who she really was. A Varuh caring for her new family, a guardian responsible for ensuring their survival or Cherry Devita: a human, whose ultimate purpose was to stay alive; neglect all the truths she had discovered so far and return back to Imre in order to heal her broken heart.
Aaldir called to her. Not a real voice, though. The desire to face Aaldir was so strong it was as if he was calling out to her. It was a temptation to learn the final truth, a longing to meet someone like her. That force grew stronger and stronger. She did not comprehend the whole meaning of the experience she was going through. Her human brain was too imperfect and weak to encompass the knowledge but from within her subconscious the conviction bloomed, pushing her forward as if she were attached to her faith leading her straight to Aaldir. She desired to continue and the decision was made. As Felicia had said to her in Westfad Manor, she knew what to do.
“You don’t have to do this, Cherry,” Radveriel said. His handsome, boyish face showed genuine concern and his eyes blinked nervously with his muscles tensed as if he wanted to go back with her.
“You are losing the war and the evil threatens mankind. I have to do something. I want to see Aaldir and I don’t know...talk to him. I’ve lost every important person in my life but still I can help your people. Our people...” she corrected herself.” This is the right thing to do. I can feel it profoundly inside me and I want to do this.”
“I can’t cross the border with you because I’m not a pure Varuh. There is nothing inside for us. It’s hidden and forbidden for my people.”
“I know, Radveriel. This is open only for me. They are whispering to me now…The Ancient. Can you hear them as well?”
“No. They are a mute mystery for us. We only know we are meant to protect the circle from the Opyri. They have waited for you, Cherry.”
“They are happy to see me,” Cherry spoke with a sweep of her arm, pointing at many tall winged figures made of black and white marble, that glowed in the dim light. They spread in a wide circle around the foggy middle of the prison. They were separated into couples, silent monuments of the past yet living and thinking creatures ensuring Aaldir's captivity for eternity. The whole area seemed to emanate a strange emptiness, a frozen silence hanging below the glazed, black sky. The statues were cold like relic stones but they emitted the vivid glow of a true, unconditional love, an enormous memorial neither complaining nor crying. The pure Varuh simply stood, guarding, going about their never-ending duty. Cherry and Radveriel’s voices echoed as though in a cave.
“They are singing about the past, about your past, Radveriel,” Cherry continued. “Aaldir killed many of their destined partners and turned some of the surviving ones into the Opyri. It was a cruel revenge, changing their lost love into a hunger stronger than anything. It took away their wings forever. Aaldir blamed them for separating him from me. He hated them and he wanted to destroy them all... These here are the last bound couples. I was supposed to find somebody else to save you all with our bond but I fell in love with another vampire. I don’t want to kill my sweet and naughty Imre so I will face Aaldir alone.” Cherry stepped forward. She put her palms on her chest, inhaling the thick threat of the prison. She closed her eyes for a moment as she sent a silent goodbye to Imre and Madison in her mind and paid her respects to Felicia. “The biggest adventure of my life,” she whispered.
She started slowly. Radveriel grabbed her wrist to stop her, but she asked him in her mind to let her go and he obeyed her wish. The young soldier understood her duty, but it broke his heart. She passed the statues and sank into the fog. The remnants of Radveriel’s doubts and regret vibrated in her for an instant and ceased to exist. The fog was cold and disturbing. Cherry’s senses acted at a sharper level now and she felt the odd time disturbances, the low pitched tunes blurring and scratching in her head. It was her new ability and she just knew it. It was strange, but she did not think about it. She would think about it tomorrow, if tomorrow was to come.
The shadows lurked like dense nightmares. Echoes of suffering, loss and murder tortured Cherry's ears as she walked. Her feet touched a smooth and cold floor. She could see very little and she felt lost yet still she went forward through the damp, sticky greyness.
The fog ended abruptly, converting into a dark stillness, a cave of blackness with a pond in the stream of bright light as though from nowhere. It was not what Cherry expected. There was no cage and no bars. Her first thought was to retreat. The silence crept into Cherry’s body. It hurt and sucked her in like a black hole.
There was a Varuh, sitting on the low, stone wall circling the smooth, navy fluid of the pond. His wings were as black and satin as Cherry’s. Long, thick, indigo hair enhanced the charm of his beautiful, ivory face. Hyacinth eyes stared with cold neutrality, sending a chill down Cherry's spine. A long, silky, black cape with wide sleeves-extending to his wrists, covered his body like a piece of the frosty, winter night. Its lower part descended into the scarlet mist as though Aaldir’s feet were bathing in a red cloud.
CHAPTER 16
“YOU ARE A weak human. Of all the entities in the Universe you’ve chosen to be a human... How pathetic,” Aaldir said sarcastically.
Goosebumps popped up all over Cherry’s skin. A freezing fist of terror crushed her stomach and slowed her thinking. Cherry’s courage and power disappeared and hid in the deepest corners of her mind. She was suddenly herself; a shy girl with no social skills, too petrified to say anything. She felt like an irony with sad and heavy wings. She tried to survey the surroundings in order to plan her route of escape but her own, loud heartbeat was a powerful distraction.
“Why have you come here?” Aaldir asked, his face lightened with curiosity.
Cherry had asked herself that question at least ten times as soon as she had seen him. Her whole motivation was non-existent. It might
not have been the best idea to get the final answers about her origins and her purpose from Aaldir. How could she expect sensible behaviour and willingness to help from the creepy first Opyri?
“I thought I could talk to you and maybe we could find a solution,” she answered. She shivered. Her heart fluttered like a dying bird. Cold sweat pricked up under her arms. “Your Opyri murder our kind and threaten the humans. We have to stop them.”
“Come closer and look at the pond,” Aaldir waved to her with an inviting gesture.
Cherry moved forward and stood next to him. There was something odd about him, something ethereal. It seemed to waken a feeling of compassion for him. Aaldir was connected to her in a strange and perplexing way. She realised that she had cared for him. His scarlet mist flooded her with strange emotions. There was a dense gloom in it as well as feelings resembling those of people looking after their dying relatives, an inevitable sadness and sharing of sentiment. Aaldir looked to be her age, but at the same time was primeval, wild and distant. Lost like a doomed character from a romantic poem.
Cherry leaned over the wall and glanced down. She had locked her emotions in a cramped cellar at the bottom of her soul. All her feelings had fallen into a deep hibernation and she had thrown the key away. It was fortunate that her mind had become sharp and cold or that glance would have made her go mad.
“What can you see, Cherry?” Aaldir asked, seeming intrigued.
“The essence, the infection and the choice,” she answered in a cold and firm voice.
"There is no choice!"Aaldir shouted as his claws scratched the stone. "There has never been a choice. We were both supposed to serve. We’ve never had a choice!"
"I don't understand. I am only a stupid human. You must consider me as a naive and lower being," Cherry whispered. She wanted to escape, but she was frozen like an ice statue, sitting on the wall next to Aaldir.
"Actually I find your human hope attractive, the hope that keeps you fighting despite the fact that everything has already been lost. Your human freedom is beautiful." He squeezed her hand and his long claw tore her skin. Another unique feature they both shared. Cherry’s blood dripped down. She could hear the sound of the drops hitting against the floor. Drasa had been right. They were animals; Aaldir and her, and the pure Varuh. Aaldir watched her with his cold amazement and she saw fury flickering in his eerie eyes as they locked onto the bites on her neck.
“His scent is still lingering on your skin.” Aaldir said.”Isn’t it ironic?”
Cherry balled up her fists, her chest rising and falling down.
"I wanted to kill you once. A long time ago,” Aaldir continued. “Before they imprisoned me and you were my conscience wandering somewhere in space and time. I sent the Opyri, my obedient and faithful soldiers, to search for you in every time and every dimension to erase you so that I could forget my lost love... It stabbed my essence like a splinter which I couldn’t take out. When I see you now, though, who you have become...You are beautiful and so fragile and I want to keep you for myself.”
Cherry blinked and felt a ripple of air brushing her face. All of a sudden, it was blackness around her that smelled like Aaldir, fruity, spicy, deadly. A sharp pain surged through her neck as his fangs tore at the skin. She could sense his desire for her, but the bite was only death for her. He longed for her love and sensuality but she could offer only her compassion in return.
“He took you from me,” he said with anger, separating from her. His hand still clutched her wrist whilst she swayed. As her vision returned, she felt tears flowing from her eyes. A sharp pain permeated her chest, the agony as if it were ripping her internal organs apart. She stood up and stepped back, liberating her wrist from the clutch of Aaldir’s fingers. She leaned forward with her elbows folded, not sure whether she could absorb more of Aaldir's anger and suffering and envy. She understood clearly the thirst of the Opyri, their eternal emptiness of lost love, their lust after blood and suffering, a never ending desire seeking fulfillment.
Aaldir leaned towards her and stroked her cheek with a gentle touch of his fingers, ceasing the pain. He pointed at an image in the pond.
"She is so beautiful," Cherry whispered. "My little girl." The image opened in her head a door to a new world of feelings. She had already loved the girl and wanted to be with her, to protect her and to survive for her at all cost.
"She could be ours. Join me, love me. Our bond would be an ultimate weapon. We could conquer and rule this world. And we could have a choice," Aaldir said and there was a warm tint of hope in his cold voice.”We can force this prison together. I will love you.”
"Aaldir, you know I can't do this. The pure Varuh separated us so that you could not bond with me. You are uncontrollable, our bond would be evil. They wanted me to find somebody else. To heal you, Aaldir," Cherry said, lowering her voice to a whisper, but inside her, a flame of courage started to burn. It was fed by her strength and the bravery of Felicia, Imre, Radveriel and his people. She knew she had to stand up to him and she knew that everything that had happened in her life had led her to that exact moment. She was a tiny toy to Aaldir so at least she could keep her pride and dignity. “I will never bond with you, Aaldir. I will fight for saving my people even if I have to die here. Help me, help me to finish this,” she said firmly. She realised that her fate had been sealed. Aaldir was a destructive force, but a tragic and lonely Varuh. His loneliness was so sad and painful to her, because she knew now that he craved for her love and because of her, he could not find a love for himself.
She had been destined to heal him with the power of true love, the weapon she had not managed to develop due to her strong desire to save Imre's life. Her lips and hands trembled. She thought about her mum once more. How desperately she wanted to see her again and make things work between them. Now, after she had learnt to be important for herself. "Are we Angels? Is it like this in every universe, in every dimension? I don’t remember my previous life. I don’t remember you. Why?" she questioned unexpectedly, curious about her origins and purpose.
"That is because you have no previous life as a Varuh. You were a pure Varuh consciousness wrapped in a ball of your essence. And they sent you out into space and time. I was born as a pure Varuh. When I grew up I realised I was lonely and different. All of them were happy with their soul mates, all of them except for me,” he paused, contemplating something. “There are a handful of the bound guardians left. The Varuh are guardians, not angels, too tiny and weak to understand anything but you and me, we are special. There were no other pure Varuh after us." Aaldir stood up, just like an eagle threatening a hummingbird. “The possibilities are endless in the Seven Dimensions,” he added.
Cherry looked up into his eyes, digesting the information he had just given her. A little over week ago, she was a college student, looking after her alcoholic mum and now she stood in front of the scariest beast of all times, trying to comprehend the revelations about the Seven Dimensions and the guardians. The Universe had turned out to be completely the opposite than she had ever thought.
“You know, Aaldir why I am here?” she started to answer his previous question. “I killed a very good woman and I nearly killed a very good man who is the love of my life, but I will never be with him because of you. I ended up in a dysfunctional family with parents who were more immature than me and who made me feel like a freak struggling with every tiny thing in my life. Maybe I ruined your life but you ruined mine as well. We are even. Will you help me, or not? There are people out there, who care for me and count on me. And what is the funniest thing about my whole ridiculous situation is that I realised that I love my mum despite her problems and her horrible character. Thank you, Aaldir,” she added with a hint of sarcasm. This connection between her and him had a bad influence on her rational thinking as she could not believe that she had just told him all those things. Deep down inside her there was this translucent certainty that they both, Aaldir and her, were equal and she had not accessed her real powers yet. S
he saw how, for a moment, his face sharpened in desperation that soon was replaced by his cold neutrality again.
“You are giving me no choice,” he said. “And you know what the Darkness is. I have no choice at the moment. You are pathetic, indeed.” He sent Cherry an intense and mysterious look and in this second, everything inside her pulled backwards and her mind screamed to run as Aaldir suddenly grabbed her wings and twisted them, nearly separating them from her back. The crack of broken bones came first and then Cherry’s screams followed. They contained her surprise and fear. She did not manage to make even the slightest of movements. His speed was so great and soundless as if he did not exist and no trace of emotion was betrayed on his face.
Cherry felt a pain, deep and overwhelming starting from her back and surging through her body. She watched the skin on her forearms and hands going grey, her fists clenched. As her mind clouded, she stumbled, her legs feeling like two pieces of soft sponge. Cherry fell to the ground, trembling. Her injured back was facing towards the black ceiling and fountains of blood splashed her dress and surroundings. She felt a sudden and sharp stabbing between her ribs, a fragment of her broken wing must have reached her right lung. She started gasping for air like a fish pulled from the water. Every breath was a short and shallow agony. There was an invisible corset around her chest tightening more and more with every second. The fear of death slipped into her mind. She lifted herself on her shaky elbows and turned her head towards Aaldir. She thought that maybe he had been right. They were all just puppets in the great, ridiculous theatre of destiny. There was no happy ending for anybody. Not for her or for Imre, not even for Aaldir. However, a part of her, the most human, did not agree to acknowledge that. There was always a choice. She could choose to be brave, and proud of herself. She tried to help. She did not turn her blind eye to others’ suffering. The end was neither good nor bad. It was just her end. She knew that she would die here. Her Varuh warned her.
