by K R Leikvoll
We were only a short time away from leaving the Hidden City and it was a dark shadow looming in my mind. I could tell by the sheer amount of people preparing for battle that it was going to be serious. I could only assume that I was going to be in those battles with them. Operation Duskwraith Storm? War was a scary thought for me, obviously. So much room for error, plus I wouldn't be able to save everyone. I didn't want to watch anyone die, especially the people I was friends with now. Back home, James had been my only friend through the years. I had more on Praetis to fight for than I had ever had on Earth.
After more days of planning, Vya had insisted upon us heading straight for Femora by cutting west before going north. He wanted to make it there before the Infernal Army, to sort of stand guard between the Femoran city and Lazarus. If we could get the jump with two armies, perhaps we could continue straight to her castle with all our force. It seemed like a good idea, since we would have the help of allies.
Those days I spent mostly alone, lost in my own mind. Everything was fuzzy emotionally. I was overwhelmed by anxiety each time I thought about Guinevere. Her blood on my hands reminded me of how I felt when James died in my arms. Even Alvir's death seemed to tie back into my grief for losing him.
And as much as I hated to admit it, I was still nursing my wounded heart. All I wanted was to be in the safety of Kirin's arms. I wanted to sleep the bad feelings away with his protection. When I got back to the city the night he buried Guinevere, we had gone our separate ways. It took time before he would at least stay until I fell asleep, but it was spent in almost complete silence.
The most pressing matter on my mind, above Kirin, above my post-traumatic stress disorder, was Vince. His activity had spiked questionably high since I had arrived in Kaeda. After the incident with Guinevere's blood, his voice whispered in my ear multiple times every day. Never anything of any importance besides to torment me with his opinion. James brought out his voice in my head every time I was taken back to his death since I drank the blood. He had a worse sentiment for him than Kirin did. I begged him to stop, but it didn't seem to matter. I was beginning to think that Vince purposefully knew that he would have more liberties in my mind from the blood. Or he could have had the power the whole time; he was just choosing to bug me now that I was vulnerable.
The only thing keeping me from going crazy and doing something reckless (like teleporting home somehow), was Arturio's presence in the afternoons. He stopped by to make awkward conversation, and I didn't mind his attempts. I never had a sibling growing up; my parents didn't want to risk having any around me. It was nice to talk to someone that wasn't Kirin. Someone that was an outsider like me. After some of his stories, I was actually envious that he got to grow up with Alexandra in the wilderness, fully free. I got to grow up in and out of hospitals because James was too oblivious to tell me to shut up occasionally. Arturio’s past with Alex was enough to quell my dark thoughts. I never said it to him, but he was lucky to have spent so much time with her. I wondered what she would think of my situation with Kirin if she could see us now. Probably not good thoughts.
When it came time to leave the Hidden City, I wasn't ready. Naturally, I couldn't sleep. Kirin had been patiently waiting for hours for me to doze off so he could drink himself into a stupor. At some point he gave up and hit the bottle. He was lying on the cushions in the other room staring at the ceiling in silence.
"Do you think people are going to die?" I asked while I was lost in my own mind. His grim laughter as a response didn't help my nerves. Obviously, people were going to die.
I finally came to terms with my situation when I was being placed on my katoma the following morning. The entire city had practically been emptied of people; men, women, even some children adorned themselves entirely in metal armor and prepared to march. The Evyans and the Kaz’moran (the fun-haired halflings) were not afraid of battle. I was under the impression that every single one of them could wield some sort of weapon. Most of them had already been to war before; they were the only survivors of Vince's destruction so they had to be the fittest. At least with our numbers, those risky demon fights with Kirin would be a thing of the past... right?
I was one of the only people that got a panther creature, besides the council and Arubai. The King rode in front with his kingsguard, followed by Sylvia and the other two council members and their guard. Behind them, Kirin, Ronen, Mortos and Arturio walked as, I guess, my own escort. After my panther and “guard” was Arubai and the rest of the army. I sat in the center of it all, protected from harm. It was the safest I had ever felt traveling.
Our trip through the forest should've been a breeze. It should've been, but instead of going five minutes without drama, my head decided to pound with furious déja vu. It was as if I knew those woods like the back of my hand, and I had no reason for it. The deeper into the forest we went, the more it worsened. I was getting paranoid about the shadows that had plagued me on my way to the Hidden City showing up and making it worse.
By midday it got to the point I couldn't stand it anymore. Everyone around me was chatting about random things that didn't make sense. I didn't want to have a vision; I was fighting it as hard as I could. I knew what was waiting for me in the darkness. There was only one thing it could be, and after multiple deaths in a short span of time, I didn't think I could handle something like that.
No, no, no. Not here, not now.
The air was visibly vibrating like I was in the midst of a supersonic wave, yet nobody else seemed to notice. I tried to call for someone to help me, but I couldn't even speak. I didn't want to go back to Duskwraith. Not again. A high-pitched ringing filled the forest so loud I couldn't think. The head rush was pulling me in regardless. Unsure what else to do, I gripped the reigns as hard as I could, hoping I wouldn't fall off and get crushed while I dreamt.
The darkness greeted me before the light did. Free from whatever was affecting me in reality, I crossed my arms. I wasn't going to touch that shit! Unfortunately, I didn't have a choice in the matter. Rather than crushing it in my palm, I was forced toward it by the shadows. When it touched my chest, the light erupted in its usual fashion.
But not even the light could illuminate the darkness of Eve's prison.
As I appeared in the box, I slouched to the familiar corner I had used in my last vision for comfort. The black floor was glistening with an overwhelming amount of Eve's silver blood. For a moment, I almost thought she was dead. The smothered sounds of a baby crying made the hair raise on the back of my neck. Eve was holding me, I guessed, trying to quiet the sounds. I almost didn't recognize her.
Eve’s body was skeletal; parts of her hair were missing where it had been ripped out, her skin was blossoming from head to toe in purple bruises and deep scars. Her eyes were gaunt and dim. She looked dead inside. The only thing that seemed to be keeping her from dying was me. Eve was too broken to nurse; all she could do was try to keep me quiet before Vince heard.
On cue, the door opened, but it was done cautiously. A figure with blond hair slipped into the room silently. James studied the trail of blood and afterbirth to Eve's wounded body. His red eyes showed something I hadn't seen yet… maybe empathy? His presence was anything but soothing to Eve, though. She pulled me closer to her chest and gathered herself in the corner as much as she could.
"I knew it," James said simply.
Eve's eyes narrowed into the most intense glare she could manage. "I will slay you where you stand, demon. Don't come any closer," she said in a pathetic, broken voice. She held the ring out as a threat.
"How have you managed to keep an illusion up this long?" he asked curiously. He crouched toward her, which in turn caused her to smother me into her body further.
Eve didn't respond to him; she just kept her hand out with fury on her face.
"I'm not going to hurt you," James said evenly.
"Says the Butcher," Eve replied angrily. James tried to move closer again, and Eve moved away in response. "Stay away from my child
, you monster."
"The only way you'll kill me is if you use your final invocation. I think we both know you cannot waste something like that," he said gently.
"Why have you come?" Eve snapped, never letting her guard down. "To see for yourself before Vince murders her?"
James had trouble responding. He kneeled beside her shaking form with his hands up.
"I have no desire to harm the Nephilim, Eve," he replied, trying to persuade her to calm down.
Upon hearing the word "Nephilim," she covered me and began to cry. "Speak demon! Don't torture me anymore with your intent," she said weakly, leaning her head against the wall.
James nervously glanced at the shut door and through the walls. "Let me help you," he said quickly and quietly. "You'll die today, but she doesn't have to."
Eve laughed in distress. "You murdered my husband! How could I ever put the Nephilim in the hands of the demon lord's whore?" she asked. I began to cry in her arms again, louder than before. She rocked herself back and forth, desperately trying to make me stay silent.
"You have two choices: either you let me help you or the light falls," James said, finally able to peek at me in her arms. "Like I said, I have no desire to hurt her. I can save her. I know a place where Vince will never think to look."
"Why should I trust you?"
James glanced at the door again. "My master is not himself anymore. He is losing his power every day and his mind is playing tricks on him. And Lazarus, she's planning to... Listen, I do not wish to live in the Void paying for the mistakes of Vince, and I do not wish to live in a future of Lazarus' design. I propose a bargain."
"Making contracts with demons? Is this really how the Divines die?" Eve asked the empty air. The thought must have agonized her mentally because she was struggling to breathe.
"If you free me from the Dark Sacrament, I will take her far away. Use your final invocation to save her," James pushed.
Silence.
"Where would you take her?" Eve finally asked, her voice cracking.
"Earth," James replied.
Eve looked at him like the idea was insane, but she was desperately working out her thoughts, as if she was trying to find another solution. Unable to think of anything else, her face grew expressionless. She pulled me away from her chest. "I have no choice," she whispered to my crying form. With shaking hands, she set me in her lap.
"We don't have much time," James stated, anxiously scanning the walls. "You do it now, or we all die."
Eve took a deep breath to calm herself down. James grasped my mother's reluctant, skeletal hands in his.
The sound of distant slamming caused her to jolt to reality.
"I, the final Light, Eve Ash, bind you to a contract," she said hurriedly. The ring on her thumb filled the room with blinding white. "For the price of severing your Sacrament, you must protect the Nephilim until the day she inherits the ring. If you fail to protect her, the Void will claim you. Do you accept these terms?"
James took several seconds before he was able to whisper, "I accept." The white light traveled from the ring down James' arm.
Eve closed her eyes. "Divines, hear my final plea," she said with more life than she seemed capable of. As if we were in a hurricane, heavy gusts filled the room so strong James was struggling to remain steady. She took her hand from his grasp. With a newfound fire in her aura, she twisted the ring off of her thumb. The moment she set it in James' empty palm, the entire foundation of the castle began to shake. I could hear the sounds of people on the other floors crying out in confusion.
The light exploded in one last wave over the three figures. The dark shadow that seemed to haunt James' footsteps evaporated. When I looked at his face, I saw his familiar green eyes. It was the James I knew my whole life readjusting to his freedom.
Crashing noises were coming from above us. Unable to wait any longer, he took my crying form from my mother's lap.
"I won't let anything happen. I promise," James said. "Lux Eterna." He closed his fingers around the ring.
As if someone flipped off the light switch, everything went dark.
So dark that when Vince made it to the room, the candles outside couldn't penetrate it. His red and black eyes scanned the blood to Eve. He was slowly absorbing what he was seeing: Eve, clearly post-birth, with no baby in sight. I had yet to see him show any non-sociopathic emotions; fear filled his eyes. Shadows whipped around him like flames. "Well, where is she?" he yelled as he ripped her to her feet by her hair.
Instead of cringing like I thought she would, she laughed in his face.
He grabbed her throat and slammed her into the stone so hard the rock began to crumble. Blood poured from the wound and didn’t proceed to heal. He looked at it, puzzled. His other hand fumbled with Eve's, feeling the absence of the ring. Unable to contain his rage, he started to crush her arm.
"What's wrong? Not used to losing?" Eve choked out with a wide smile. She was about to continue her taunting, but Vince had enough of it. With a loud crack and a spray of blood, he ripped her arm off at the elbow and threw it to the floor. She screamed in pain and grasped for the non-existent part of her limb.
"Don't make me ask again," he threatened, gripping her other hand. He pushed down harder on her throat, waiting for her to break.
"You will never have her," she replied finally with a smile still on her face. An audible crack echoed through the box as Vince severed two of her fingers by simply pulling them off. Eve cried out, but she still didn't give away any information. "You've lost! Hurting me won't save you from the Void!" Eve yelled at him through her pain.
Vince snapped her wrist next as if it were made of paper. She used all the strength she had left to kick at him viciously, which infuriated him further. With one hand, he threw her by the throat into the stone floor. Silver blood poured out of the back of her head at a steady pace. Her eyes rolled back and she let out a whimper of distress. I didn't want to watch anymore. I wanted to close my eyes and wish for home, but the black door was thrown open yet again.
That time Lazarus stood in the threshold with a curious look on her face.
"Master?" she asked in a steady tone.
Instead of ignoring her, Vince lost track of who he was upset with. He coalesced as shadows practically on top of her and threw her on the ground near Eve's almost lifeless form.
Lazarus clawed desperately at his leg as his foot pushed down on her windpipe, in a daze from being knocked in the skull. At the moment she was on the verge of passing out, red shadows covered her hands, searing through his clothes and into his flesh like fire.
Vince didn't react in pain, instead he pulled her back to her feet. "James. Go get him. Now," he hissed, barely able to speak through his anger. He released her by throwing her through the door. The force was enough to not only crumble the wood, but it also sent her soaring into the far hallway wall.
Lazarus glanced at him with fury in her eyes as she picked herself up off the ground, but he was too busy climbing on top of Eve to notice. With homicidal rage on her face, she tore off to go look for James, who she would never find.
My eyes went back to Eve who was trying her hardest to speak but couldn't. Vince waited a moment for her to say something intelligible before clamping both hands on her throat. Her feet kicked furiously while she tried to get away from his grasp. "Where's your precious light now?" he whispered as he watched the fear in her eyes. Her legs stopped moving and started to relax. Instead of continuing, Vince released Eve's throat.
She let out a few choked gasps of air, coming back to reality. Just as her mouth opened to utter her final words, Vince snapped her neck via the spinal column. Her blue eyes faded as the light left them conclusively.
The last Divine was dead.
I woke up like I had been submerged in water. My lungs desperately gasped for air. It took me a second to come back to reality. When I was finally able to will myself to open my eyes, I was still sitting on my katoma, walking through the forest with the army
. The group in front of me was having some sort of mundane conversation I couldn't focus on. Instead, I focused on the shadowy form of Vince, taunting me behind the trees. I was physically sick to my stomach with what I had seen, though I knew I was definitely still in shock. I couldn't feel the reigns in my hands; I couldn't feel the wind against my face. I was entirely numb.
"Soon you'll be the only demon left, after knocking Guinevere off the list," Arturio's voice said.
All these people thought such bad things about Eve, but how could I possibly hate her after watching her sacrifice? It was clear that she hadn't trusted James, yet she believed enough in the light to save me. And James... he had taken me to Earth just to save his own skin. He got himself in too deep and used her desperation as an escape. A small part of me was starting to understand why people detested him.
"Who else is dead? Oh, Vince, almost forgot about that pompous cunt. The worm still needs to be accounted for. What about Lazarus' other worm, Varnoc?" Arturio's voice rambled.
"Lazarus renounced him. He is bound to the Ashlands now. Had it not been for his aid, I doubt I could have navigated the wilderness," Kirin's voice replied.
There were no words to describe the feeling of having Vince in my head. I wanted to rip my hair out, pull off my skin and break my skull open to dig him out. It took every bit of my being not to freak out and start attempting his removal. I felt like a parasitic bug was making its way deeper and deeper into my brain and there was nothing I could do. A murderous, psychotic bug.
"One less enemy then. I know Raven is still alive because I saw the mark of his undead not too far north. What of the Butcher? I haven't heard of my father's murderer in a long time," Arturio droned on.
"I don't think we should speak of him," Kirin's voice responded.
"Then you know something? What information do you have, Maundrell?" Arturio asked angrily.
I finally looked away from my hands—where I had been focused—to Kirin. Based on their very forward stances and slight distance from me, I could tell that they thought I was asleep. Stupid Kirin, shouldn't he know by now what a vision looks like?
