“If I remember correctly, Brann told Inalia that the Hermessi needed a certain number of bodies for this ritual,” Eira replied. “What if this is how they’re getting the bodies now? By force, so to speak, and not through the cult conversion.”
“It makes me wonder why they wouldn’t have done this earlier, then,” Raphael said. “They obviously had the means, since they are practically waltzing into people’s homes in The Shade and taking over their bodies.”
“Maybe they couldn’t do it before,” I suggested. My synapses were fired up, despite the ache in my heart. I didn’t even want to imagine what Bijarki or River or the rest of the Novaks were going through right now. To my shame, I was actually glad I didn’t have any fae in my family. It would’ve made this so much worse. “Maybe they’ve resorted to this method because their initial plan was fumbled.”
Raphael narrowed his eyes at me. One reflected an endless meadow. The other mirrored the sky. And, somewhere in between, I was transfixed. “Like a plan B, you mean,” he replied.
I nodded. “You all heard what happened to Grace after she fell… ill. She hurt Ben, then passed it on to him. It’s going to keep spreading. That’s all the cultists needed. A few of their own, strategically infiltrated in The Shade, in Eritopia, and everywhere else where there are fae living… a cut, a whispered spell, and voila. Bodies ripe for the picking.”
“I’m not sure they’re ripe, though,” Lumi said. “Otherwise, they would all be up and about, wouldn’t they?”
“They’re being kept in some kind of stasis.” Varga sighed. “Until they’re ready. Of course, I’m just assuming this.”
“No, no, it’s good. I think we’re definitely making some headway here,” Lumi replied. “Think about it this way. There’s a finite number of reasons for why the fae are reacting like this. Your suggestion could very well be it.”
“Or! It could be a process,” I added. “And it’s incomplete, now. Once it’s done, they’ll awaken and… gah, I don’t even want to know what they’ll do.”
Lumi pressed the call button on her earphone. “Arwen? Corrine? Viola? Amal?” She waited for a moment, then looked at me. “It could definitely be a process, Amelia, thanks for that. We can take some preemptive measures, then.”
“Such as?” I asked.
“Hold on,” she replied, then lowered her gaze, listening to the earpiece. “Hey, ladies. Glad to hear you all. How are the fae holding up?” A second passed, then she looked at us and sighed. “Okay. Well, I wanted to make a suggestion, and I’m hoping you’ll all take it into account. The crew and I were talking… Mm-hm, and we’re thinking this catatonic state that Vesta, Ben, Grace, and the others are in could be a process, and it’s yet to complete. That’s right. Now, assuming the worst, I think we need to be ready for when they wake up.”
“How?” Raphael asked, his brow furrowed.
Lumi motioned for him to be quiet, as she listened to what the other witches and Amal had to say. The way she nodded made me think they were all on the same page. “Right,” she said. “Exactly. Isolate and quarantine them. Get Amal and Amane to organize a shipment of serium crystals to Eritopia, Neraka, and all the other affected worlds. Yeah, not too much, but enough to help power the spells. Good, thank you. I’ll be in touch,” she added, then pressed the earphone button again, ending the conversation.
“Isolate and quarantine?” Eva asked, her eyebrows raised.
“Yes. In crystal pods. The Daughters will devise the pods, the witches will perform the right spells, and the Stravians will provide the serium needed for this endeavor. Think of it as a controlled stasis. The fae go in. They stay safe and isolated. In case they wake up, the crystal casing will absorb any elemental powers they might manifest.”
Riza groaned, rubbing her face with her palms. “This is so awful.”
“We don’t have a choice,” Lumi reminded her.
“I know, I know. I’m just thinking about Bijarki. Zeriel. Lawrence, and everyone else who’s losing a loved one to this madness,” she replied.
The grief was too much to bear, at times. As much as I tried to keep it together, there were moments when I could feel myself unraveling. I became so focused on my breathing that I didn’t even notice when Raphael’s hand covered mine on the table, then squeezed gently. All I could do was gawk at him, not understanding his gesture. He gave me a faint smile.
“We’ll get through this, you know,” he whispered. “Or we’ll die trying.”
“I’d prefer the former, thanks,” I said, my voice faltering.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “You’re quite the rock. What’s gotten you so shaken up?”
“The Shade was supposed to be our safe haven,” I explained, drawing glances from Varga and the others around the table. “A place where supernaturals were protected and at peace. And these bastards… they went into our homes and did this. It’s… I’m sorry… It’s terrifying.”
I felt his hand squeeze tighter, but it seemed to do something to me—something good. It was as if Raphael was absorbing all my bad energies, filtering my overall state until I could breathe again, until my vision cleared up and the tears dried away. I couldn’t help but smile at him, losing myself in his gaze for a moment.
“I told you,” he said, “we’ll get through this or die trying. And I sure as hell am not ready to die yet. I’m what, a year old? Life’s barely getting started for me!”
“Aha, wait till you hit your first hundred. Talk to me then.” Herakles chuckled.
“Even then, I’ll still beat you into a pulp,” Raphael shot back.
It was enough to cast some smiles around the table. Enough to make us forget the impending doom that we’d all carried in the back of our heads since it became known that the Hermessi were behind this.
Light flashed across my eyes. It startled us all. Every flame in the room popped brighter for a split second, then faded to mere flickers, struggling to stay lit. All the candles and wall lamps were suddenly dimmed, casting a warm but faint glow through the room. We’d left them all burning, knowing that Brann was basically on our side and therefore not a threat. This couldn’t mean anything good, though.
“What the hell…” Trap Mellon muttered, frowning as he looked around.
Gasps and murmurs could be heard from outside, too. He rushed into the hallway, leaving the door open wide enough for us to see that all the lights had gone down, and not just in our meeting room. I shot to my feet and walked over to the window. I instantly covered my mouth to stifle a short breath.
“It’s everywhere,” I mumbled.
The rest of our crew got up and joined me by the window to watch thousands of fires and lightbulbs bursting, then fading to a mere twilight glow. The city of Silvergate was plunged into semi-darkness. The evening was settling over this part of Cerix, but there was no guiding light to accompany it, this time, other than the moon and the stars.
The streets were riddled with shadows and rushing steps. The streetlamps cast a faint, orange glow across the slate-colored cobblestone. Even the candles in nearby windows wavered.
“Oh, dear,” Lumi said. “This can’t be good.”
“The artificial lighting systems work, though,” Trap replied as he came back to the room. “They’re swamp-witch-powered. The lights are dim, but they’re on.”
“Well, technically speaking, the same could be said about good ol’ fire,” Lumi muttered, then took out a lighter from a hidden dress pocket. We all carried at least one for the fae in our crews, while on field missions. She flicked it open. It gave us a nimble little flame. The poor thing struggled to stay alight, and, somehow, that broke my heart.
“Something’s happened to the fire,” Eira breathed, her eyes wide with the horror of realization. “To Brann.”
“I thought as much,” Lumi replied.
“No, you don’t understand,” Eira croaked, building up to a full panic attack episode. “I think… I think they killed Brann. The fires are dying out. It’s how the legends said it would be.
First, the light would fade. Soon, it would succumb to darkness.”
“If a planet runs out of fire—” Herakles tried to speak, but Eira cut him off.
“It dies. With no fire, a planet will die.”
“Whoa. I doubt the Hermessi would let that happen,” Raphael said.
“We can’t be sure of that. Look at what they’ve been up to. Does it make any sense to us? Nope, not as much as we’d like, for sure,” Lumi replied. “I think the other Hermessi finally caught up with Brann, and he paid the price for his disobedience.”
Eira gasped. “Oh, no. Inalia…”
She was right to be alarmed. Even scared. Inalia had gone out to speak to Brann, after all. Had she been caught in the crossfire? Instinctively, I reached for my earpiece and pressed the call button.
“Taeral?”
There was no answer. That couldn’t be good. Stress began to crumple my stomach like a piece of useless paper. If the Hermessi had found Brann while he was with Inalia, there was no telling what they’d do to her, his progeny. They’d destroyed him. What would they do to her?
Inalia
My father had just been reduced to a teensy flame, and I couldn’t move. I couldn’t get away. Not for lack of trying! I’d spent the past couple of minutes trying to weasel my way out of this place, as the tree, the river, and the tornado seemed to… watch me. I felt like I was being watched. No one said anything. And that was beyond creepy.
They’d locked me in place, somehow.
In the end, after minutes that felt like hours of trying to get out of this… heart-tearing nothingness, I gave up. “What do you want?” I asked them.
I was powerless before the Hermessi. What the hell could I do against them? Avenge my father’s death? My critical thinking hadn’t left me yet. I’d only just met my father, and losing him would’ve probably hurt a lot more, had I, say, grown up with him in my life, by my side. This way, it bothered me, it made me feel sad and incomplete, sure, but it didn’t break me.
What did break me was the viciousness with which they’d pounced on him.
“You’re a daughter of Fire,” the river said.
“And?”
For some reason, I couldn’t show them any of the reverence or respect I would’ve otherwise set aside for these entities. They fueled my home planet, after all. They were worthy of all kinds of awe and sparkling gazes. But I couldn’t. They’d just killed my father.
“You killed him,” I said when no one answered. “You killed the Fire Hermessi of Cerix. Do you… whatever the hell you are, even realize what you’ve done?!”
“We haven’t killed him yet,” Earth said.
“Wha—what?”
“He’s as good as dead, though,” Air replied.
Their voices were so calm. Light and breezy, even. As if nothing serious had just happened. It made me so damn angry, but, since I was still stuck here, I had to play my cards with caution and a ton of self-control. It could very well be my only way to survive this unexpected encounter.
“Brann will die out,” Acquis, the Water Hermessi, explained. “And you were foolish to seek him out again.”
“I told you she’d do it.” Earth chuckled.
“You were banking on me to reach out to him, in order for you to find him…” I mumbled. If guilt could burn, I would’ve been reduced to a pile of ashes right about now. Brann’s death was on me. I knew I was taking a huge risk. But I’d gotten some answers, which were better than none. If we understood the cut-and-spell method and the purpose it served, we could maybe focus on a way to stop their followers from claiming more victims. Plus, now I knew the endgame was the same, and that it had something to do with ending the world—you bloody maniacs!
However, I needed to get out of here first, if we were to do anything about it. That much I owed to Brann for what I’d put him through.
“Of course,” Air said. “A Hermessi’s link to his child is his weakness.”
Acquis didn’t say anything, but the water in his stream seemed… blue. Literally blue. The way it flowed, it made me think that maybe he didn’t really want to be here. Remembering that he’d been the first to warn Taeral and his crew about the others, I figured his support was still a secret. Oh, no… Acquis had come down here and helped destroy Brann, even though he’d previously tried to protect him. He’d probably done it because he couldn’t reveal himself as a traitor to the fanatics’ cause and suffer a similar fate.
“What happens now, then? You destroyed your planet’s fire,” I said. The least I could do was pull as much information from these impossibly powerful bastards as I could.
“Fire can and will be replaced,” Air replied.
“When the last flicker of Brann dies out, you’ll know what you have to do, Inalia,” Earth added.
In my haze, I barely even registered my name coming out of them. “How would I know?”
“You were foolish. You shouldn’t have done this,” Acquis muttered. “You should’ve stayed away.”
“What… Why? Why would I just stand back and watch you hurt innocent creatures?!” I said. “You’re the ones who’re supposed to stay in their lane! You’re supposed to grow stuff,” I added, pointing at the tree, then at Water and Air. “And you’re supposed to flow and… I don’t know, hydrate! And you, you’re supposed to… blow. Brann was supposed to burn. Why’d you all have to go crazy and do this… whatever this is that you’re doing?”
It pained me to see Brann reduced to that little flame, and I couldn’t, for the life of me, understand what I was supposed to do. Then again, these were the same cunning Hermessi that had cooked up a death cult and plotted against multiple worlds. I had to take everything they said with a grain of salt. They couldn’t be trusted.
“What comes next is inevitable, Inalia,” Earth said. One of its roots slithered across the nothingness and dipped its tip in the river. It turned the waters red, for a brief moment. “And you, Acquis, you need to stop feeling sorry for these creatures. The future will cleanse everything.”
“Cleanse everything? Oh, wow, you fellas are really planning some doomsday bonanza, aren’t you?” I croaked.
The danger in Air’s tone hit me like a rush of ice-cold northern winds. “You, too, will play your part in it, Inalia.”
“No. I won’t. You can’t make me!” I shouted. “I would never help you! Never!”
“But you will,” Earth replied.
“For now, however, take care. A time will come soon when you will have to make the most important decision in your life,” Acquis added, his stream clear again. The water flowed toward me, and the sight of it sent chills through my whole being.
“Why can’t you just speak normally, instead of in half-assed riddles?” I murmured, genuinely irritated by their prophetic drama-style enunciation.
“Because you’re a simpleton, Inalia, and you must elevate yourself, by yourself,” Acquis whispered, as a thread of water rose from the river and came up toward me. “Everything you do, from now on, will determine the fate of this world and all the others. Now, go.”
I wanted to say something, to ask for more information, to desperately plead that my father’s fire be restored, but the water thread touched me, and I was abruptly cast out of that ethereal and darkened meeting place.
My spirit was hurled across time and space. It hit my body with such speed that every bone and muscle I had began to ache. My eyes popped open, and I drew in the deepest wheezing breath. Taeral was stunned, his arms wrapped around me. Judging by the look on his face, he was tremendously pleased to see me awake again.
But all I could do, now that I had tear ducts again, was cry. I bawled like a little girl, as the desert winds rose around us. I cried for my father. I cried for myself. I cried for everyone who’d lost something or someone because of the Hermessi. I let it all out, hiding my face in Taeral’s chest and praying to all the other deities out there to save me.
To save us.
Taeral
I’d felt it.
<
br /> The devastating surge, turning my blood into liquid fire for the briefest of moments. Then, the dim… as if the very light in me was being turned down. Even my body temperature was beginning to drop, as chills trickled down my spine and arms. We were in the desert. It was supposed to be hot and dry.
But all I could feel was the cool of the night, seeping deep into my bones, even as I felt Inalia’s warmth in my arms. Tears trickled down her cheeks. She sobbed, uncontrollable in her grief. I knew what had happened. I didn’t need her to tell me.
They’d caught Brann. They’d hurt him or, worse, destroyed him.
It was the only thing that could explain everything that I’d been going through for the past few minutes. Looking up, the sky was covered in a peculiar haze. Smoke, I realized, from the many fires that had just gone out all over Cerix. Every candle, every pyre and volcano… every single flame was dying.
“They killed him, didn’t they?” I asked, gently running my hand down the side of her head and finding some comfort in the silky feel of her copper hair against my skin.
“Yes…” she breathed. “They piled up on him, Tae. I’ve never seen anything like it. These were cosmic forces clashing against him. They reduced him to the tiniest little flicker… said he’ll die soon enough. And, when he does, the planet will wither, too.”
I shook my head slowly. The desert breeze intensified, raising beads of sand like wandering scarves that fluttered chaotically across the reddish dunes.
“What were they thinking? I still don’t understand this. Why would they destroy one of their own, thus compromising the entire planet?” I wondered. “Wouldn’t it affect them, too? If the fire dies out on Cerix, what will these other Hermessi do?”
“I… They said something, wait…” she murmured, then parted from me and sat up straight. I felt cold, all of a sudden. So cold, without her body near me. It was beyond strange. I wondered if she’d experienced chills like mine since Brann’s demise. But the look on her face was the one thing that truly tore me apart on the inside—the pain, the puffy and teary eyes like glistening amber, the trembling, pink lips… “They said… They said I knew what had to be done.”
A Shade of Vampire 70: A Breed of Elements Page 21
