Shifting Truth

by Francheska Fifield

  She sticks her tongue out and walks past him to sit next to Brian. She obviously feels safer and braver around the other Fae….and the vampire that helped subdue me when I went nuts before leaving.

  "You seem to be the leader no matter how little you are. Have you picked a sacrifice yet? The sooner we have someone willing to die the sooner we can do this."

  That almost sounds like me. Maybe I am teaching them something. Look at that, a piece of me will be left behind when I die. A demon with a sense of sarcastic humor. Between that and them saving the world I am starting to wonder if we have fallen down the rabbit hole. Even for my weird ass life I have to admit this is beyond strange.

  "What do you mean sacrifice? Almost the entire air clan is dead! We cannot sacrifice anyone!"

  The demons shrug and Brisa looks so angry she might cry. I have never been the one whose tear ducts are connected to my anger, but I know people that are. It is never a good thing; it shows your instability and basically shouts out your weakness to the world.

  The Fae Prince isn’t smiling this away. He isn’t making any jokes or displays of power. At least he is taking what they say with all the seriousness it requires. I hate to think of this happening, but I have to agree. One person, a volunteer, and it will save everyone else.

  "This personality wants me to always comment that a volunteer will be more likely to hold the power long enough for it to cement so when they die the funeral rites are more likely to be a success. She also insists we mention there is a chance they will live and keep the power…though it's so small a chance we weren't going to bother mentioning it."

  "I will do it."

  The prince and demons almost get whiplash as fast as they swivel their necks. That will crick up later. In the moment of shock and weakness I take over. I have her hand in mine before she can blink.

  "Brisa no. It will kill you."

  "The air clan is almost dead. This will give me the power to revive it. Kyle had a lot of power, that’s the only reason they let him leave the hill to work as a bounty hunter. He was too powerful to stop unless they wanted to kill him outright. If I survive I can use that power to revive the air clan. If I die its one less half breed they have to be ashamed of."

  "Very well Brisa I accept your sacrifice. It will be remembered by those that come after."

  I put the full force of my glare to work, but the prince has seen the logic in Brisa's statement and isn’t about to object to it when it so conveniently offers him the out he wants. I inwardly beg the demons not to agree, but they refuse to back me. A volunteer makes it less work; a sacrifice has to be forced, whereas a volunteer just goes with the flow.

  "Brisa…"

  "You have sacrificed everything Beth. You will die, you know you will, and yet you are here saving us. I will live on with this power and I will make sure the Fae never forget that you were the one to save us all. I will not let the air clan vanish like clouds after a storm."

  "Jason will never forgive me for agreeing to this. He wanted you to keep your innocence."

  "No Fae is ever entirely innocent Beth. I may be sheltered, but I know what I want. Let me do this."

  I nod and turn to the Fae.

  "Get what we need for the summoning and dispersing ready. I want this over with. And prince not so charming prepare, because you will owe these demons your cooperation, magic, and blood. I bled for this mission, my brother bled, your people bled. You will bleed for the demons willingly. Give me your blood oath or we walk away now."

  He is so not happy he is being put between a rock and a hard place but, well, we all have things in life we hate. He will get over it…and live long enough to hold a grudge. The demons come forward and the well of power circles in my eyes. I can tell because even the Fae flinch. They prick my finger and my blood glows.

  "Your oath or we will follow the advice of this personality and leave."

  The prince pricks his finger and lets his blood combine with the demons.

  "You have my word as prince of the Fae. I will make sure you return home. Everything in my power and the power of my people will be at your disposal for this reason only."

  Love how he adds that in for insurance. The demons don’t care; it's all they wanted from him.

  "As long as you keep this oath the moment this mission is over we agree not to destroy or expose your world…if you try to put the pause on it until this body dies we will not hold back our wrath. Keep that in mind prince."

  And of course they will put that in the oath…wow. Time for a rumble.

  "Very well, we are satisfied. Let us get to work. Someone very precise needs to draw these sigils. In blood. The blood of the same family this Kyle comes from. Salt first, blood dripping on it. No need to bleed them dry, but less is not more in this case. We need enough familiarity to call him here. We will gather our power. This will suppress this body's personality so much she might vanish so we will need quiet to prepare and try to prevent this from happening. You will need this personality to complete the ceremony."

  They leave the room and walk around until they find a quiet place they are unlikely to be disturbed.

  'Will I really disappear?'

  'We hope to not let that happen. We cannot promise it though. Should you die before hand we will have this body. It will die the instant we leave it. The others will have no chance to say goodbye. We need to be more demon than you for our power to work though. You cannot take over as you did last time we came across this thing.'

  'Save them all please…even Brisa if you can. I don’t care what happens to me if you promise to try to save them.'

  They give me the affirmative and push me down, deeper than the pit I’d been in before until, to the outside world at least, I no longer existed.

  "Beth."

  She opens her eyes but it is not her. So the demons hadn't lied. It really will be only them inside of Beth's body. I feel this itch somewhere deep inside. I want to kick them out, to save her. But according to them, and her insinuation earlier, she needs them to stay sane and complete the mission. I worry about the after, when they are home and she is alone. I still haven't found a way to fix her.

  "Is she still alive in there?"

  "We will not know until the ceremony is over. She has to survive being inside of, but detached from, her body for the duration. It is part willpower and part luck."

  I can’t help but smile. "Beth has a lot of both." They nod at me. It feels patronizing. Their face doesn’t say they think little of me, but I feel like they do.

  "She is not like others. We hope she survives. We hope, for her sake, you all do as well."

  "I hope she survives. I don’t care about everyone else." That sounds harsh but the Fae had their chance in the spotlight. It is no longer their time to rule. Their phase is over. This is their fault, their inability to control their own people. The other races have hunters to take care of things. The Fae let everyone run wild. And they wonder why the humans hunted them almost to extinction ages ago.

  "If you care so much how did she end up so broken to begin with? She wasn't going to survive long even without this issue."

  An issue they say. I try to not let what they say prick at me; I know they come from a different time, a time when women were cared for.

  "Beth is not like the women you knew. She is a warrior."

  "And you clearly are not."

  No vampire is weak. Even those not fighters. Though according to them likely none of us count as much of a threat.

  "Yet she cares for and counts on you. We do not understand how she can accept a mate weaker than herself. Far less powerful as well."

  It is lucky for them they are in her body. Power or not I would bite the shit out of them.

  "I don’t really care what you think of me. We have a job to do. Just do it as fast as you can so I can see her again sooner. I don’t want her to worry about the sanity issue…but I also don’t want you two inside her. You will destroy her. I can feel it. She sees the best in people, sh
e denies it, but she does. You may not be people but she trusts you. She wants to send you home. She cares for me so I am sure she has made provisions for me when her insanity takes over. I am just saying take care of her. I will save her when this is over. I swore I would."

  "We swore to do our best. We have an agreement with her. To protect what she cares about. And we can tell you care for her…so we are sorry…for the agreement we made before suppressing her."

  "What agreement ?"

  They start to chant and the world itself seems to almost whip around us. A tear appears and I can see home outside of it. The cottage Beth and I live in. I am so caught up I realize to late what that means.

  "She wants you safe Brian. Go be safe."

  I am tossed through the portal and land with a thud. It closes as I run at it screaming. I try to smash my fist where it had been, but there is nothing but air. I hadn't known they could do that. I hadn't been prepared. They had purposely angered me so I wouldn’t pay attention to their gestures.

  "Damn you!"

  I run to the garage and am sailing down the road before I am fully on it. I have a few contacts I can call up. Maybe one of them will have someone that can get me inside. I will get back, Beth will not go through this alone.

  After fulfilling our obligation we return to where the glyphs are being constructed. We watch using our power to test it as it is built. If it is correct it will react more and more as the construction goes on. A test here, a test there. Always watching.

  "Beth."

  As that is the body's name we respond.

  "Have you need of us?"

  "No…I just…is she in there still?"

  "We can no longer feel her. She may yet survive. The longer this takes the less likely she is to do so."

  The one called Brisa, the last one we have to try to protect, chews her bottom lip and tries to hide her uneven breathing from us. We can hear it, every skip the heart makes. We doubt she will survive the process but she insisted. Her will gives her a better chance; she has a reason to want to survive, as does this body's personality.

  Women hadn't been this strong the last time we were around. Women had been merely chattel, traded for land and gold. It seems it has changed. We have always known it could happen. Women could build, or destroy, an empire even when they were property. We can only wonder how the world has changed for them to have so taken control.

  "We want her to survive."

  The petite Fae looks us in the eyes. She is one of the few that do not flinch seeing our power there. She is more than we thought before.

  "I believe you."

  She walks off saying nothing more. Strange one that one. She seemed so fragile before. She had frozen up, passed out, and been terrified. Perhaps almost dying has proven to her that living your life in fear is a waste. We hope she lives long enough to see that thought through. The body's person will miss the little Fae girl. Hopefully everyone will live to send us home. What happens after that will no longer be our issue.

  'Will it not Murmur? This body will lose its sanity when we leave. Do you feel no remorse for that?'

  'No. This is not our plane, nor our issue. I do this to get home. We have been here to long Samigina.'

  'We will only get home because of this Beth. She was tricked into this and almost died. If we get home and leave her to a fate not of her own making does that not make us the demons this plane refers to us as?'

  'I care not. You are a lesser demon Samigina, you were young when we were called over, and you do not know what we lost. I remember it clearly and I will sacrifice what must be sacrificed to get home. I hope the body does well after we leave, but if it does not it is no fault of our own. Now hush and let me concentrate.'

  Samigina pulla back and I take control of the body once again. As the older and stronger, not to mention higher ranking, demon I will control the body. When it is Samigina's turn he will do what he must. Then we will go home.

  "Do not stop that part needs more blood. All the salt should be red."

  The bleeders reopen their wounds and pour more blood on the salt. I watch it turn crimson. The more blood the easier the calling. I can’t believe a trespasser in Solomon's decrepit temple is going to lead us home. For that reason and that reason alone I watch like a hawk to make sure everything is done to perfection. This has to work. I want to go home.

  Chapter Twelve

  Finally it is done; the bleeding, the salt, the incense; everything the occult said we needed is done. I have seen Solomon do many things similar to this so I know enough. Once this task complete we can return home.

  My power, the power of the conjurer, is to force deceased souls to appear and answer every question I desired. Samigina's, a lesser demon of Solomon, duties are to force souls who are airy bodies to come, to leave their purgatory. We will combine our powers to create a rope to trap the Kyle entity once it arrives. We use the salt, the blood, the sigil to summon that which is lost.

  Samigina takes precedence this time, he has to pull the soul back from the purgatory of the Fae…it is not like human purgatory. It will not be so easy to channel his will in this form. He releases his power. His ounce after ounce (if it were measurable) until every piece of himself is in the world spread through every dimension connected to this one. Summoning that which is Kyle into our world, into our space.

  The plasma appears the energy ready to fight. I can tell the second Samigina's power works because the power goes from being a ball to a more complex shape. The shape of a man, the shape of one who has died. It starts to fill in, to look less wispy, more solid. Hair appears individual strands can be made out; slightly tipped ears given to him by whatever Fae parented him. I cared not about his background though. Samigina, exhausted, steps back allowing himself to rest leaving me to fully control the body. Now it is my turn. I release my power, our rope of power. I force his soul, this deceased being, to submit to my will.

  "You will answer my questions soul." There is no great echo, no clap of thunder, just the voice of this body. Everyone outside the barrier looks around seemingly shocked and disappointed. Theatrics are ridiculous yet the people here seem to thrive on them.

  It fight. Twist and turn. The eyes are still made of the power we saw before. I cannot tell what his original eye color was. The energy still fills his eyes and surrounds his hands. Which he seems to remember as I whip at him trying to capture him. He shoots power at us. I had hoped Samigina would be up to stopping it; he can control one hand with defensive magic while I use the other to rope our prey in, but he has diminished his power fighting the soul to bring it back. That leaves me alone to defend the body while roping in the soul.

  "Normally I would ask why you felt the need to betray your people, your clan, your family, and friends. That is the type of thing they wish to know. I do not care. I will now proceed with stripping you of your power and putting it into this one."

  At my behest the little air Fae who worries for this body steps into the sigil, which is now glowing bright. Lights flash reminding me of the men who use to visit our court to entertain the king and his men. Many had smoking flashing tricks. I should be more focused, but all of us are stuck inside and I am bored. None of us can leave until the ritual is closed and only I can close it or the others outside can break it and cause mass destruction from the backlash. Likely I will be the only survivor in such a case.

  The thing known as Kyle tries to get free. It smashes into the barriers and triesto attack the little wind Fae. It is time…I take the power Samigina and I stored up before he exhausted himself with the summoning. I wrap it around our devious Fae spirit, with the spirit connected to the power it is ironically more solid and makes for easier connecting. There are more bright flashes, enough to blind anyone who is watching. Which is why I have instructed everyone on the outside to keep their eyes closed and their hands connected. The circle needs to stay complete.

  History has often portrayed me as a soldier, occasionally a griffin when they still existed,
but I am also known as a vulture. Aggressive and greedy. Devouring. This time I am the vulture. Using my power I devour him, I suck him dry. Lightning flashes in and out of the portal that I am creating, the little portal that will suction his power and put it into a little wind Fae. There are explosions inside and out of the sigil. Glyphs float in the air trapping every piece of escaped power, we will succeed, and then this body will get us home. It is the only reason I do this.

  When all of the power is leached, all that is left before Samigina and I is a soul with greenish blue eyes staring at us in fear. The eyes reflect the soul, but still his power affiliation eludes me, not that it will matter one it settles into the little Fae girl. There is no longer a vortex of power surrounding the simple soul standing before us now. Still we don't stop. Instead I reach for the soul and we feed. Samigina and I will eat it, he will cease to exist, and we will be revitalized. We cannot afford to be weakened around these Fae…I do not trust the Lord. Even after the blood oath I am not that naïve. His people run wild and I have a feeling he is the worst of all.

  I let Samigina start with the eating of the soul as he has exhausted himself more than I. He has the lesser power of the two of us. While he feeds I hoard the power and shoot it into little Fae girl. She rises in the air, lightning splitting her skin. Blood is squirting everywhere inside the barrier. It smells like burnt flesh. She screams and screams but I do not stop. She volunteered, she wanted this power knowing it could destroy her, she still wants it. So I give it to her. Every last bit. When I am done she drops to the ground. I see many inch forward and use my power to push them back. This is not over.

  "No one moves. She cannot be healed. She will fight internally with the power. She will either win or she will not. If she does not we need another to take her and the power. The next volunteer will also face the same quandary. We will do this until one of you can contain the power, at least long enough to die with it set inside."