Victima

by K R Leikvoll

  The man took the time to drink deeply from the horn until it was empty. He set it down on his lap and cleared his throat. His whole body hunched forward and grew rigid.

  "Vince is dead," he declared with a straight face.

  When Kirin heard this, he shot up so fast I barely saw him move. Alexandra gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. She glanced back and forth between the two men with a paralyzed look in her eyes.

  "Are you sure? You have to be sure!" Kirin said intensely. The man nodded slowly, causing Kirin to collapse back into his chair with the news. "How?" he asked after a few moments.

  His face and Alexandra's, had an emotion I couldn't read. Was it worry? Fear of the answer?

  The man slowly unrolled a piece of paper… well actually it was a roll of parchment, but that sounds too medieval. He cleared his raspy voice. "This is the official report," he started:

  "As I stood at our usual position, I noticed a gathering of the Infernal Army. Upon inspection of the Dark Palace, I was able to see Lazarus Lyon addressing the demon masses. She held the very head of the Dark Prince in her hands. She raised it above her and screamed with her banshee yell "Traitor King!"

  The Infernal Army responded with such intense cries of triumph, hellfire shot out of the cracks in the ground encompassing all of Duskwraith. I have never seen the demons this riled. Never. Our scouts have indeed confirmed the death of Vince. It is over."

  The man finished reading it out loud and tossed the scroll to Kirin, who scanned over it several times before looking up.

  "She killed him? This message is utterly unbelievable. She wouldn't kill him, nor could she," Kirin finally said, passing the scroll back to the man. He looked sick like it was a cruel joke.

  The man let out a loud laugh in response. "That's what I thought, but my presence is here to assure you that she did. She has control over two shards of the Dark Essentia now. That, along with the crown ruling over the damn. Seems like we should've been paying more attention to the loose dog," he replied. Alexandra hadn't moved her hand from her mouth. Her brows were furrowed in deep thoughts. "Should make ending this war a possibility though. Not sure how she killed him, but she seems more manageable than the 'Traitor King.' At least she isn't smart," he concluded.

  Finally, Alexandra seemed to come back to us. "Are you daft? This means that she is smarter than all of us! If she is as stupid as you think, she wouldn't have made it this far. No... Only someone smarter than all of us could've tricked us for this long," Alexandra said fervidly.

  Kirin almost seemed as though he was asleep in his chair, his eyes had been closed for so long. "The Dark Essentia is coming together now. Only thing we can do is fight," he proclaimed decisively.

  Alexandra remembered me across the room. Tears dripped off her cheeks to the stone floor.

  I threw my hands up into the air. "Is someone going to tell me what the fuck is going on? I don't know where I am! I tried to kill myself, and I wound up here! You guys are talking about this 'Divinus' and 'Essentia' bullshit with absolutely no explanation! If you expect me to believe anything you say, you had better start talking!"

  I pointed my finger directly at that stupid bastard Kirin's face.

  "And those women? Murder?!"

  I felt faint. Rather than glare at me, his eyes reflected a mysterious emotion. He glanced away to the side, unable to match my gaze for more than a few seconds. Alexandra walked over to me and put an amiable grip on my arm. She dragged me toward the door through which I'd entered because I was incapable of moving in my state of shock. I stole one more look at Kirin while he stared at the blood on his hands.

  Alexandra shut the door behind us quietly. The crowd had dispersed at some point during our conversation. Instead, I could hear the sounds of celebration echoing through the palace. She led me down the hall, past a formal dining room, to a spiral staircase tucked around the corner. I was still fuming, but at least Alexandra was nice to me. Her aura reminded me so much of James’ it made my heart ache. His death, and his life, seemed to be tied to whatever place I was in. Everything was just as real as he had always been.

  After making my way slowly up the staircase, Alexandra guided us into a small corner room. It was a bit more cramped than the one I had been sleeping in, or maybe it seemed that way because it was so packed with belongings. Her stone walls were so covered in banners, papers, and tapestries it was impossible to see anything underneath. The bed was strewn in what appeared to be half finished arrows. The blanket was made of ruby-colored silk with golden edging. It reminded me of those women's blood...

  Outside her giant window, uncovered by drapes I might add, I noticed dozens of groups of people gathered outside. All of them looked like soldiers, but minimally equipped. Despite the rain falling from the captivating maroon clouds in the sky, the men were cheerful. Someone could faintly be heard playing music on a stringed instrument. The groups were all drinking some sort of grog, spilling it down their beards and scarred faces. Not a single person looked upset like Alexandra and Kirin were acting. There was a massive fire on the grounds where people were cooking food. It made my stomach growl. How long had it been since I had eaten?

  Alexandra heard the gurgle and shot me a depressed stare.

  "I'm very sorry Divinus, I forgot your food with all of the commotion. Eat this for now," she said apologetically as she handed me a hunk of bread and a waterskin.

  Great, what I really wanted—a Hot Pocket. My stomach thought differently.

  I took a bite and swallowed. A flash of the eye I had seen before James' death appeared in my mind. I took a sip of water. A flash of the demon Kirin killed arose next. Another bite of bread. A flash of the ethereal being I saw in eternity. A sip of water. The mass of the bodies on the floor...

  I set the bread down on an armoire underneath the window. Alexandra was sitting on the bed working on the arrows. Some were tipped with regular arrowheads, others had claws, a few were made of hollow glass.

  "I'm sorry for everything you've been through, Divinus. I will answer what I can for you; knowledge is power," Alexandra said after a while in a whisper. She was acting like I hated her or something, and she was the only nice person I had encountered so far. I swallowed and cleared my throat. I was ready for this.

  "Where am I?" I asked. She looked at me evenly.

  "Our world is called Praetis. Our landmass is Naadea. Our country? The last frontier of the living. Your exact location, Divinus, is the Maundrell Castle," she said as she added feathers to her arrows. Okay, a bunch of information that I didn't understand. Let's try again –

  "How did I get here? Is this real? Truly real?" I asked her. She glanced up at me but continued her task without stopping.

  "Kirin brought you here as you jumped off of that bridge. A feat for someone such as himself. A feat for anyone—" she trailed off, distracted by her work. I stared at her intently as I waited for her to finish.

  "This is more real than you can imagine, Divinus. Please try not to die."

  The thought must have made her emotional because I spotted another singular tear roll down her face.

  "Yeah, that's not really the plan," I said matter-of-factly. I mean, how could I die if I was already dead? I was pretty sure that if I was really on an alien planet, I wouldn’t be able to understand their language to say the least. She reached over and grabbed my hand.

  "Nobody is left. It's just us," Alexandra said tightly gripping my clenched fist. Tears started spilling out of her verdant eyes. Her head rested on my shoulder and she sobbed into my neck. I felt so awkward. All I could think to do was gently pat her on the back.

  "Oh Divinus, please. Please tell me this is the end. Tell me that it's over," she cried into my throat. How the hell could I tell her that? I didn't know what was going on at all!

  "Um," I started and she pulled away. She wiped her tears from my shoulder with her dark sleeve.

  "I know you don't remember now, but you will Divinus. You always do," Alexandra said, still searc
hing my eyes for answers. "I've missed you so much." What was she going on about now?

  "How can you miss me? This is the first time we've met. What is 'Divinus,' anyways? And can you please call me by my name? It's a little weird," I responded, somewhat exasperated. Her gorgeous face cracked into a smile glowing through her depression.

  "What is your name, young one?" she asked chuckling through her tears.

  "It's Valentine, but I prefer Val if you don't mind. Brutal bullying, the usual," I said rolling my eyes at the thought. If those bullies could see me now. Hell, if my psychiatrist could see me now! And my parents. The thought made me want to laugh. It was the first good thought since I got there, and it wasn't even that good. If I wasn’t in a coma or dead, maybe I wasn’t so crazy after all.

  "Very well...Val. You may call me Alex if it pleases you. Your mother would have been so proud of your strength so far," she replied. My mother—that's right. James had mentioned that my Earth mother wasn't my real mother in a very odd way. For some reason, it felt true this time. Maybe it was my feverishness. Maybe it was the alien planet I was on. The thought of my “mother” caused Alex to shed a few more tears.

  "So, are you going to tell me about this 'Divinus' thing?" I asked quizzically. She nodded, I think more at herself than at me, presumably to help her relax. Bringing it up again seemed to help at least a little.

  "The holy light. It comes from a source called the Imperium. It bestowed itself to us in the form of a crystal ring and a line of people with the ability to use its holy power. It allowed them to accomplish miracles through multiple lifespans; it was the earliest indoctrination of magic. Throughout the ages, we have come to understand that it was sent here to protect us from the darkness, a powerful void that conquers the universe relentlessly. The Void has its own weapon to fight us—an orb containing a weapon capable of destroying planets. It’s referred to as the ‘Dark Essentia.’ When it infected our world, my sister—your mother—carried the souls of hundreds of incarnates of the Divinus' before her. We believed her to be the strongest being in Praetisian history, maybe even the true Divine Light itself—" she trailed off again.

  It was a lot to take in. I was in a complex matrix, except I was the useless one that couldn't fight. Did she say my mother was her sister? That would make her my aunt? It would explain her touchiness.

  "What happened to her?" Alex's gaze dropped to her hands again.

  "Consumed by the darkness. Taken by the Void. Vince killed her," she said as though they were all synonyms for each other. Vince was the dead man, right? The "Traitor King?"

  "How could he kill someone if they were like that?" Alex’s instant expression looked like the thought pained her.

  "Vince is as old as every Divinus combined. The first demon. The first touch of darkness on Praetis and, up until this evening, we assumed he was truly the dominant being," Alex explained.

  So basically, I was chopped liver because I can barely do a push up or run a mile. I wasn’t even sure if I believed her mumbo jumbo.

  "And Vince was killed by someone. Does that make that person the most powerful now? Some kind of power hierarchy?" I asked indulging her. Alex grimaced.

  "I suppose it does. I would've wished it to be anyone other than Lazarus," she said more to herself than me. "She's not in touch with reality like Vince was, and she's far more destructive."

  My head hurt. I think I had as much information as I could handle for the time being. The rational side of me said that I was dreaming—or dead. But the other part of me said something else. Rather screamed. It screamed that it was the truth. It screamed that it was right in front of me the entire time. The ring on my middle finger grew icy cold. I peered down at it curiously.

  It was hazy and not as clear as before. Smoke rings danced within its interior. I started having a severe case of déja vu, as though I had sat in that very spot before. When I looked at the sky outside the window, I felt that I had only known it to be purple, not blue. It was strange and distressing. When I looked back to Alex, I was suddenly overcome with the sensation that I could not remember who I was. I stared at my hands.

  Val, whoever she was, stood in a line of infinite white. Behind her, it extended endlessly. In front of her, nothing but darkness. Who was I? Where was I?

  I turned around, confused and scared, mentally coming back to earth…well, Pra-whatever. It was hard to breathe (I was getting really sick of the sensation), only that time it turned into a mild panic attack. What was that? What was wrong with me?

  Alex was kneeling in front of me when I sobered from my daze.

  "I know it is uncomfortable, but this is normal. I have never experienced it myself obviously, but soon you will have visions of the Divines. You will be able to see their lives and learn from them. Bring your knowledge back with you. It is essential that you pay attention."

  I wondered if that's what happened to me after Kirin killed the monster.

  "I think that I've had one already," I said, holding my head. I tried to focus on breathing evenly and calming down. Alex’s expression changed from worried to excited.

  "What did you see?"

  I zoned out in the direction of the window. I could remember it vividly, but much like a dream, I couldn't put it into words entirely.

  "Just a valley," I started as I focused on the memory of the place existing in eternity. I remembered the shadows. A sharp spike of pain shot down the center of my brain. I groaned and held my face in my hands again. How was I not dead? I was sick of hurting.

  "Can you try to remember anything else?"

  "No," I responded quickly. I didn't want to think about it anymore. It was too painful past the shadows for some reason. Alex nodded understandingly and didn’t question me any further. She retrieved a brush from a small bookshelf she had tucked in the corner and began to brush my ratted hair.

  "Your hair is lighter than your mother’s was when she first inherited the ring," she said as she brushed it softly. It was making me drowsy.

  "Yeah, salons won't color it. They said it's too sought after," I replied with my eyes closed. Alex paused her brushing before chuckling. I think it was because she didn't understand what a salon was.

  "Don't fall asleep now, you have to be at the official hearing of the King and dinner shortly," Alex said in an irritated voice. I was glad to know that Kirin irritated someone other than myself. My stomach gurgled. The small piece of bread was nowhere near enough to fill me. Not even close. It was nothing compared to my hearty 100% American diet of Cheetos and Mountain Dew. I guess I would have to tolerate his shitty attitude for my gut’s sake.

  Alex put the brush down and opened a heavy wooden trunk at the foot of her bed.

  "I'm sure I have something you can wear. Most of our belongings were lost in the Capitol," she said as she threw various articles of clothing on the bed. All of it looked like medieval hunting gear to me, until she eventually pulled out a dress at the bottom. She held it out to me. A freaking dress; I wanted jeans and a sweater. Maybe a bra?

  Reluctantly, I took it since it was an upgrade to the poor excuse for clothes I was wearing. To make matters worse, Alex insisted on me wearing a strange corset underneath it. Now back home, I don’t think I’d be opposed to it for lingerie or something temporary. Here? It was uncomfortable. She tied it as loosely as she could so it didn't crush my bruised ribs. It still managed to hurt like a bitch.

  The dress itself wasn’t too awful. It fit tightly and was made of red silk the same color as Alex's hair. Within it, darker, wine-red thread embroidered the dress with various triangular shapes. She threw a light cloak with a large black hood around my shoulders. It looked pretty cool, like I was a Jedi or something. I thought it was a witty joke but decided against saying it in lieu of having to explain Star Wars.

  When Alex handed me a tiny oval mirror to look at myself, I noticed we had the same shaped nose. Maybe she was my aunt after all, even if I was four skin shades lighter than her and blonde with blue-hazel eyes. It was
all so strange.

  A knock on the door startled me. Everything seemed to spook me here. Maybe it had something to do with the giant demons and dead people. Alex, on the other hand, acted as though she had heard the source coming up the stairs down the hall. She opened her wooden door a small crack. I could barely make out a black form on the other side. Alex said something that sounded like it was scolding in nature before opening it entirely. Of course, it was Kirin to be revealed standing in the hallway.

  Chapter Five

  Kirin had cleaned himself up relatively fast. He was dressed in... well, really awesome armor, I had to admit. It was made of silver metal pulled over a layer of thick, ebony cloth. The breastplate protruded from his chest in a triangular spike, and then back down where his clavicle would be. It was accompanied by massive armored pauldrons covered in yet more silver spikes. Even his silver arm and thigh guards were decorated with long barbs that looked like they could be used as weapons. Somehow, his impossibly large cloak hung underneath it. On his head sat a dark metal crown with his sigil etched into the steel. His long, black hair was damp and free of blood as if he had found the time to take a bath. His eyes weren't the color of the moon like when we first met; they were still wine red.

  "Leave me to change," Alexandra instructed, gesturing for me to follow Kirin. I hesitantly obliged. I half expected him to start dragging me by my clothes again, but he refrained. Alex closed the door behind me and I was left with him alone in the hall. I can’t begin to explain how nervous I felt to have Alex leave us. He didn't even look in my direction as he walked through a door next to the staircase. I trailed a decent distance behind him so I didn’t become his next meal. When I finally made it through the door, I was greeted with a humid rush of air.

  We were standing outside on a small balcony overlooking all the soldiers still in full celebration swing. The smell of food was worsening my feelings of starvation. Clouds of smoke drifted upward into the night sky toward the white stars. Down below, I was taken aback by the head of the demon Kirin had slain. It was impaled through the skull with a massive wooden stake. Groups of people were gathered around, cheering and throwing objects at the head: food, beverages, even mud. I was with them on that. Screw that monster.