by Holly Martin
I remembered back at the ruins, on my first day of training. I had visualized the bond that me and Seth had as a thick golden rope between us, as a tangible representation of our friendship, and pulled on it, forging a connection so strong I had inadvertently downloaded all of his memories and feelings. It was that moment when I had realised Seth’s true feelings for me, how deep they had ran. It was also that moment when I started to realise that the feelings I held for him were something much more than just friendship. Just how close had the Oraculum been watching me, if they knew about the thick golden rope? They could have projected into the ruins and watched every day of my training and I would have been none the wiser. I sighed as I carefully put the rings into my pocket.
*
Leon’s spot on the floor had barely grown cold, when I heard the gate opening. Quinn scurried to my side again, ready to shift at the first sign of trouble. Though I didn’t think this cell was big enough to hold a grizzly bear.
Two shadows loomed from the darkness. They were very similar in size, but both of them towered over me. If I was made to be so perfect you would have thought they would have made me a bit taller.
‘I’m Nereus,’ said the one with a long silk curtain of dark hair, his skin a beautiful shade of chocolate brown, which matched his eyes exactly.
‘I’m Helez,’ smiled the other one, slightly thinner than Nereus, his skin a warm conker brown but eyes of a dazzling turquoise.
‘So,’ Nereus smiled. ‘I presume you’ve heard, I’m going to die for you.’ He said it so casually, like he was offering to cook for me. And there was no hiding with talking in my head, like Leon had done, he just came out and said it. Though I understood why Leon felt the need to be covert with his thoughts, it was his prophecy after all that had caused this tension between the Oraculum.
‘So I hear,’ I said quietly. ‘Why do you think it is that you kill Samuel?’
Nereus shrugged carelessly, he obviously had come to terms with his betrayal now. ‘I can only presume it has to do with loyalty to you, with protecting you. Cain says I die so you can live. Well if I’m going to die, then I can think of no better way for it to happen.’ He grinned at me. Out the corner of my eye, I could see Quinn relax a bit.
I shook my head. ‘Have you met Seth? You two have a lot in common.’
Nereus laughed loudly. ‘I would like to meet him. Maybe I should come down to Fort Naga one day; his name has been bandied about a lot lately. I’d like to see how that little experiment turned out. It seems you two are to wed, I like that, I like that a lot.’
I frowned slightly. ‘Little experiment?’
‘We made him, right here in the castle, because it was prophesized that you would fall in love with a man that was half human, half Deus, so we set about trying to make one. It wasn’t easy let me tell you, the human and Deus DNA doesn’t mix very well, but we managed it somehow. We created him and then sent him out to you to fall in love with. And it worked, brilliant!’
‘He was sent to protect me,’ I said, quietly and defiantly. I didn’t like the sound of this little experiment.
‘No, that was just something he was told, to protect you no matter what. As if we would send a boy to do the job that hundreds of Guardians were already doing. But he did it, he fulfilled his duty, and then he fulfilled his destiny by making you fall in love with him.’
I swallowed, nervously, a lump forming in my throat. ‘Making me fall in love with him?’
‘Well we knew you would fall in love with him, it had been foreseen. We figured he would grow to love you, like a friend, or at the least for the prestige of going out with The Sentinel. We didn’t foresee that he would fall in love with you as well. Those human emotions are quite handy little things aren’t they, love is very powerful.’
‘You created him for me to love?’
‘Yes, of course.’ Nereus beamed, proudly
Helez stepped up to the bars. ‘Eve, have you ever killed anyone?’
This completely threw me. I had never really thought of myself as a killer before, but I had and on more than one occasion. ‘Erm yes, the two Putarians that were trying to knock us out of the sky in their planes on the way out to the fort, and erm the Reapers, maybe twenty of them, I didn’t really stop to count them as I burnt them to the ground.’
‘But that was with your powers, have you ever killed anyone with your bare hands, or a weapon,’
‘No, never. I don’t know if I could, the other deaths were in self-defence, to protect me, my friends or the innocent. I don’t think I could kill someone in cold blood.’
‘Do you think you could kill someone in revenge…?’
‘Helez where are you going with this?’ asked Nereus, in confusion.
Helez stepped back from the bars.
Nereus stared at him, his eyes going suddenly wider. ‘You had a prophecy didn’t you, about Eve? Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Helez mumbled, clearly regretting his line of questioning.
‘Yes it does.’ Nereus was incredulous. ‘We share all our prophecies with each other, if we start keeping them a secret from each other now, then we’ll end up as bad as the rest of them.’
‘It doesn’t matter, it happens long after your death,’ Helez muttered, looking at his feet.
‘Tell me,’ Nereus insisted.
‘Yes tell me,’ I said.
Helez sighed and Nereus stepped back in alarm. ‘Oh.’
‘Exactly,’ muttered Helez. ‘I was just wondering why it would happen, what would cause it to happen.’
‘What is it?’ I asked.
‘When did you have this prophecy,’ asked Nereus. They were both ignoring me now.
‘This morning, when she stood before us in the assembly.’
‘And how do you know that it happens after my death?’
‘Because I had the scars on my hands and arms, the scars I get when I try to stop your death. They were old and faded.’
Nereus pulled a face. ‘That changes things.’
Helez was defiant. ‘No it doesn’t. It doesn’t change anything. At some point after your death, I clearly have a change of heart and that’s my comeuppance for it. It doesn’t change what you have to do and why you have to do it. She must be protected at all costs.’
Nereus shook his head. ‘What if Samuel is right, what if….’
Helez held Nereus’s shoulder. ‘No, my brother, don’t doubt what you know to be right in your heart, you have seen the prophecy of the end of the world as clearly as I have. She must be protected, she must reach the end of the world.’
Nereus nodded solemnly. ‘We should go and discuss these events with Cain.’
Helez nodded too and they turned and walked back up the corridor, without another look at me.
I sat back down on the bed. Were all these visits going to leave me feeling this confused? Quinn hopped up on the bed, nudging me with his soft, whiskery nose. I picked him up and held him up to my face. He looked at me quizzically.
‘No Quinn I have no idea what that was about either.’
*
Many hours had passed as I lay in the dark cell, the power still surging through me. Many hours that gave me time to think about Seth and what Nereus had actually meant by the Seth experiment. Many hours wondering if what he felt for me was real, or part of some big plan.
The metal gate opening pulled me from my bed again, but even before the shadow appeared from the gloom I knew it would be Cain, and I was right. He came to stand in front of the bars.
‘Hey,’ he said.
‘Hey,’ I said, searching his face. I wanted to ask more about the prophecies, especially the one that had caused Helez and Nereus so much alarm. But my heart wanted the most pressing question answered first. ‘So tell me, the prophecy of my wedding, was that really a prophecy, or just you showing me what I wanted to see, or what you wanted me to see?’
Cain cocked his head on one side, looking at me in confusion. ‘I’ve never lied
to you Eve, I showed you the prophecy that I had seen of you two getting married.’
‘But it was all part of the big plan wasn’t it, that it would be my love for Seth that would make me fight for the world.’
Cain frowned. ‘Yes I believe that your happiness, your love for Seth, your friends and family will be what makes you fight for the world in the end. So I’ve made sure that your life is a happy one, is that such a bad thing? I’ve given you happiness, and you’re angry at me for that?’
‘You gave me Seth?’ I said, quietly, feeling a sense of dread creeping over me.
‘Yes, he was created to love you, to give you somebody to love, somebody to fight for. Before you were even made I saw a prophecy of you two together, of your marriage, of your long and happy life together. So yes we made him to fulfil that prophecy.’
‘But what if he didn’t love me? What if his duty to protect me, made him resent me? How far would you have gone to ensure that prophecy came true? What did you do to him to make him love me?’ I didn’t even bother to keep our conversation in our heads, a horrible tightening feeling settled across my chest, across my heart. It all made sense now; he didn’t love me because I was special or funny, or because I was a nice person, or because I was pretty. I definitely wasn’t pretty but there was a small hope that Seth thought I was. He loved me because of what the Oraculum had done to him, either through manipulation or because it was his duty, or they used their powers to corrupt his mind and forced him to love me. I’d always thought he was too good for me, that I wasn’t in the same league as him and here was the proof, we were never meant to be together at all. ‘He had no choice,’ I said quietly, more to myself than to Cain
Cain smiled at this. ‘No he had no choice.’
Disappointment and loss flooded through me. ‘He loves me because it was his duty to love me,’
Cain looked alarmed. ‘No!’
‘Then because you made him so he would love me, you manipulated his DNA, his genes so he would love me.’ Tears welled up in my eyes.
‘Eve, it wasn’t the prophecy, or his duty that made him love you. It wasn’t anything we did. It was you, it was all you. He had no choice but to love you, from that day you spilt milk all over him, you reached into his chest and held his heart and you never let go. You were destined to be together.’
‘So you haven’t done anything to make him love me, no powers, no talking to him about his obligation, no manipulation.’
Cain smiled. ‘He loves you because of who you are, not what you are. It’s nothing to do with us. We haven’t corrupted his mind, you did that all by yourself.’
‘Oh.’ I flushed with embarrassment. I really shouldn’t be left alone, it gave me too much time to think, too much time to come up with the worst possible case scenario. When I was with Seth my glass was brimming over, but when I was alone, I was definitely a glass half empty kind of girl.
Cain grinned. ‘Now I wanted to talk to you about Helez’s prophecy.’
‘Yeah, I have no idea what that was. One minute Nereus is here proudly telling me how he was going to die for me, the next they were talking about a prophecy that Helez had this morning, not a good one, apparently.’
‘Helez has foreseen that you are going to kill him,’ Cain said simply.
‘Me personally?’
Cain nodded. ‘You stab him apparently.’
‘Why?’
‘I have no idea,’ he shrugged.
‘You seem very relaxed by all this. Nereus kills Samuel, Nathaniel then kills Nereus and months later, one of the few Oraculum that is still loyal to me gets murdered by me, and you don’t seem bothered by this at all.’ How could he not be bothered, these were his friends, his brothers?
‘There is only one reason that I can foresee that Nereus would kill Samuel and that’s because there is a serious threat to your life, and he kills Samuel to protect you. If you kill Helez then you must have a very good reason to do so. Helez is only disappointed in himself, because he knows at some point in the future he must let you down for you to react in that way.’
‘I can’t imagine ever killing someone, unless it was in self-defence, or because they had killed someone I loved.’
‘Exactly, I’m sure the killing is just.’
I sighed, sadly. ‘You have a lot of faith in me.’
‘I know you Eve. I’ve watched you grow up so closely, I know you so well. I don’t doubt you for a second.’
‘Nereus said something about Samuel, when he heard Helez’s prophecy he said. ‘Maybe Samuel was right.’ What did he mean?’
Cain shook his head angrily. ‘Nereus doesn’t really believe that, it was just a shock to hear of Helez’s death. Samuel claims he has had a prophecy, that with all the powers that lies within you, and the mix of Donum, Oraculum, Zeki, Guardian and shape shifter DNA it actually turns you mad. Samuel claims that it is not you that saves the world but it is you that destroys it.’ He shrugged, as if he didn’t hold much belief in Samuel’s prophecy.
I gasped. ‘Oh god, really?’ As much as I hated the title that I had been given as the saviour of the world, I hated the destroyer of the world even more. Maybe Samuel was right, maybe this cocktail of DNA would turn me mad. I stepped up to the bars. ‘Cain, promise me that you will kill me before it gets that far. If you think I’ve turned evil, kill me before I do anything. Don’t stand loyal to me as I destroy the world. Kill me, promise me that.’
Cain smiled. ‘You see, that passion, that’s what will save the world in the end, there’s no way you could destroy it. You would rather die yourself. I believe that Samuel has made this prophecy up to try to discredit you. I think he hopes that by turning the Oraculum against you, those that will ultimately seek to destroy him, will seek to destroy you instead. Like I said before, Eve, I know you so well, there is nothing remotely malevolent about you, unlike Adam, his soul is black.’
‘Adam?’
Cain paled, realising he had said something he shouldn’t, he quickly changed the subject. ‘So Eve, your wedding is soon, and as one of your nine fathers, and your Mum not being around I feel maybe I should give you some advice about your wedding night.’
Urgh. ‘No thanks Cain.’ I blushed furiously. There was no way I was having this conversation, through the bars of a cell with a member of the Oraculum. In fact there was no way I was having this conversation at all with anyone.
Cain seemed unfazed. ‘But you and Seth…’
‘We’re fine thanks.’
‘Eve….’
‘Cain, you can either change the subject or you can go now, I am not talking about that with you.’
Cain smiled. Nothing seemed to faze Cain. The very foundations he had built and stood on for four hundred years was about to come crashing down. Three of his friends, his brothers were going to die because of me and even the prospect of talking to his sort of daughter about sex hadn’t fazed him.
‘After four hundred years, it takes very little to faze me Eve; in fact the only thing that has fazed me in the last three hundred years was you going to the Reapers.
I looked at my feet with embarrassment.
‘Anyway, since you won’t talk to me, maybe I’ll just talk to Seth instead.’
‘You will not,’ I said, angrily, my face burning with embarrassment.
Cain smiled as he turned to go, then he suddenly turned back and looked at my feet. I followed his eyes down to Quinn and my heart leapt.
Cain broke out into a huge grin and walked back up the corridor, chuckling to himself as he disappeared into the darkness. He knew.
I lay back on my bed with embarrassment. Thinking about Cain talking to Seth about our wedding night, made me curl up inside. I had known that the intenseness of my relationship with Seth, the strength of our love for each other, would naturally lead to the next stage at some point, but I’d always been too nervous to instigate it myself. What if I did something wrong, or if I wasn’t very good? But as Seth had never brought it up then neither had I. But
being married meant things would change, there would be certain….expectations.
Thankfully I didn’t have any more time to think about that as the metal gate clanged again. I rolled off my bed and went to stand by the gate. Three men were walking down the corridor towards me; Matthias, Nathaniel and Samuel. I swallowed nervously. Nathaniel had been the one that wanted me dead when I had inadvertently spied on his conversation with Cain. Samuel was the one that would die because of me. This conversation was not going to be good.
Chapter 10
‘Eve, I am Nathaniel of the Oraculum.’ I caught Quinn out the corner of my eye; if mice had hackles they would most definitely be raised by now, Quinn looked positively furious. ‘This is Samuel and Matthias.’ He gestured to the two other men, who apparently couldn’t speak for themselves. Matthias was the tallest of the three, in fact he was quite possibly the tallest man I had ever seen, and with a broadness to match. Samuel had white blond hair that had been shaved so close to his head, that it could only have been a few millimetres long. His eyes were an empty flat, black and there was something almost reptilian about them.
‘Hello,’ I smiled, politely.
This clearly displeased Samuel though, his lip curling in derision. ‘So this is what I’m going to die for, this is what causes my brother to turn against me and murder me. We gave you life, gave you a house, a family, ensured you had enough money to buy your clothes, food, holidays, and protected you, watched your every move. We paid your school a vast amount of money to hire Guardians as your teachers, so they could protect you at school. We gave you Guardian and Donum friends to protect and guide you, we gave you everything you could ever need. But ultimately that isn’t enough, you want me to sacrifice my life for you, for me to die for you.’
‘I don’t want you to die for me, I don’t want anyone to die for me,’ I blurted out, before I remembered that I should be calm and polite.
‘Tell that to Caleb,’ Samuel smiled cruelly. I took an involuntary step back.
‘Samuel that’s not fair. We gave her Guardians to protect her that were willing to die for her,’ said Nathaniel, with some annoyance. Matthias remained unmoved, his face a stony exterior.
