The Artifact of Dissium (Demona Book 2)

by Megan A. Hepler

  What will he have to choose?

  Demona watched his cheeks flush and went to check on Kearne. He now leaned with his back against the cavern wall and his head slumped to his chest. He looked saddened and worn out by whatever had happened to him. Demona could not help but notice that despite the sorrow on his face his posture was more relaxed as if a large weight had been removed from his shoulders.

  “Are you okay?” Demona asked.

  Kearne nodded his head.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  Kearne shook his head. His eyes looked upwards into hers for a moment.

  Demona accepted that Kearne wanted to be left alone. Whatever decision he had made must have torn him apart. Demona’s anxiety grew with the situation and seeing the state that Kearne had returned in did nothing to ease her fears.

  What will Aleph have in store for me?

  Demona began to pace the floor back and forth along the length of Felix’s body. She dragged her pack over next to Felix and rested her back against the treasure chest. She pulled out a flask of rations and took several gulps. Demona kept glancing at the expressions on Felix’s face and her concern grew. Her stomach was in knots as she sat watching and waiting for Felix to awaken.

  Demona began to pace again as the time seemed to drag. How long has he been like this? She slapped her hands against her thighs in frustration and began to pace again.

  “He’s not in any physical pain, I promise,” Kearne said. He stood watching her pace and propped his left leg against the wall behind him.

  “Give me some kind of an idea of what’s going on in there!” Demona said.

  Kearne shrugged. “Aleph is probably explaining his options to him.”

  Demona spun around. “Wait… you mean you actually spoke to Aleph?”

  “Yeah… It’s not every day you speak to a god, but yes I did.”

  Demona looked curiously at Kearne. “Was the decision hard?”

  “Not easy, but worth it in some ways.”

  Demona shook her head. “That doesn’t really give me much comfort.”

  “Nothing will. It is life altering, that much I can tell you.”

  Demona walked back over to Felix and bent over his still body. She watched for any indication of a decision in his facial expressions, but there was nothing. Only a look of anguish filled his face.

  “Ugh! I hate mind games,” Demona said. She stomped her foot.

  “Life is a mind game. Get used to it,” Kearne replied.

  Felix squirmed on the ground and let out a moan. Demona ran to his side. Then, his eyes popped opened revealing blue eyes that were blurred with tears. Demona wiped them from his face. Felix prepared to stand and she helped him sit up. As she helped to steady him she searched his face for answers.

  Felix reached up to cup her face with his hand and he smiled at her reassuringly. “I’m fine. I’ll be okay,” Felix replied to her silent questioning.

  Fotos reappeared in a flash of light. “The last sacrifice remains. Dark one, it is your turn.” He raised his glowing staff and pointed it at Demona. The spear head shone right into her eyes. The room flashed with brightness and she shielded her eyes.

  Chapter 18:

  Demona’s Choice

  Demona tried to block the light from her eyes with her hands, but the light was too intense. It was so brilliant that she squeezed her eyes closed and even then it permeated through her eyelids. The light began to dim. She opened her eyes very slowly, and held her hand over her face to shield the remaining light. Demona blinked rapidly until her eyes were adjusted to its brightness.

  Demona stood in a new realm. She could not be sure, but she knew that there was solid ground below her feet. She felt around for objects. There was nothing but the cool moisture that clung to her skin while white mist swirled around her. The brilliant light still peeked through the mist. She could not locate the source of the light. The light and mist seemed to emanate from all around her. Demona walked straight ahead, but there was nothing to walk toward, just mist filled space.

  “What am I supposed to do?” Demona asked.

  Silence answered her. Demona turned to walk in another direction, but there was only more of the same, mist and light. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her through the space ahead. She slowed when she realized that this realm had no end and there would be only more of the same wherever she moved.

  “Aleph!” she yelled. Demona walked around in a circle looking upward. “Where are you?”

  “Finally, you acknowledge me by name,” Aleph said. “Why do you still continue to doubt me?” His voice seemed to echo all around her.

  “It’s hard not to doubt you with the experiences I’ve had,” Demona replied. “I don’t doubt your existence, I doubt your intentions.”

  “I want nothing more than for my children to live in peace and happiness,” Aleph boomed.

  Demona whirled around looking for the source of the voice. There was nothing more to see. “Then, why are you torturing me?”

  “I have not tortured you. I have only loved you. Do you blame me for the actions of others?”

  “Yes! You allowed it to happen. You could have prevented Darius from turning me into this!” Demona gripped her shirt as if to tear it from her body. “Why did you make me who I am?”

  “I created you to be you, my child. Nothing more and nothing less. Your destiny was set before you were created, because my other children need a protector. You were chosen, because of the events that have happened within your life and within the lives of those before you. It has given you a unique position in this world and time.”

  “Why me? I don’t want this job. I just want to go back to the few good times I can remember…with my parents!” Demona slumped to the ground. She buried her face in her hands and tears fell from her eyes.

  “Trust me, trust yourself. You are much stronger than you can realize. Have faith in me and I will guide you on your difficult journey.”

  Demona sniffed. “Psh, we’ll see about that.” Demona stood abruptly with anger. “I thought I was here to make a choice?”

  “You are. Are you prepared to hear your options?”

  Demona wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand. “Yes.”

  “This will not be an easy choice. Each option presents itself with a loss and a gain. You must make your sacrifice in order to take the artifact. Think carefully on each option before you decide. Be sure to use your heart to guide you.

  “Your first option is to gain the knowledge you have so eagerly sought. The knowledge answers the questions of what has happened to your parents and in your past. They answer the largest questions of your existence. Questions you have asked since you first realized you were different from the others of your kind.”

  “I—”

  “Hear both options before you speak child…Be warned that if you gain the answer to your questions you will also experience the great pain and sorrow of this knowledge.”

  Demona thought for a moment. “And the last option?” Demona looked upward.

  “I will remove the prophecy from your destiny, but the course of the future will continue as it is. The dark beings will continue to overrun the earth and the light beings will continue to fight to protect the innocent.”

  Demona thought carefully. “Would I still remain a vampire if the prophecy was removed? Will all of my mageia remain?”

  “Yes, you would remain who you are at this moment. The prophecy will be removed from your future, not your past.”

  “And if I choose to find out about my parents, I will remember everything about them?”

  “Yes, all of your forgotten memories will be restored.”

  Demona sat cross legged on the ground and considered the options. The decision was not an easy one and she weighed each carefully. She wanted the truth about her parents more than anything, but she also wanted to be rid of the prophecy.

  If I choose to learn about my past I’ll have all of the gaps fi
lled in. I’ll know who my parents are. I’ll know what happened to them…memories are accompanied by great pain. If I choose to remove the prophecy I’m no longer the chosen one. No more big decisions...but what about all of the innocent people that the dark beings torture and kill daily?

  Demona was torn. She closed her eyes and tried to soothe her anxious mind. Then, she hopped to her feet.

  “Neither of these is an easy choice.” Demona chewed on her lip. “I understand why you’ve given me these options, because they’re my strongest desires. But there is only one right thing for me to do…and as much as I want to, I cannot turn my back on the prophecy. Even if it makes my life so much more complicated. As much as I don’t want to be the chosen one, I would not wish this burden on anyone else.

  “I want to know the truth about my past…my parents. I understand that what I’ll come to know will not be without its own costs, but I’m ready for the truth. I choose the knowledge of forgotten memories.” Demona waited for a reply.

  “You are braver than you know, my child,” Aleph said.

  ****

  The bright white light returned and blinded Demona. Before she could shield her eyes she found herself standing in her bedroom that she had seen from a flashback at the northeast headquarters. Demona looked around the room at the fairy figurines and the bright pink comforter that covered her bed, which was piled with stuffed animals and porcelain dolls dressed in pretty floral clothes. She was in her room, a room she began to remember.

  Demona walked around her room and studied each object. She picked up a picture frame containing a photo of a younger version of herself with her parents. She studied the beautiful features of her mother. She had long brown hair that fell in waves upon her shoulders. Her father was tall and lean. He had dark brown hair and delicate features.

  Demona spotted a full length mirror on the back of the closet door and she eagerly walked toward it. She held the picture up next to her face, so that she could compare her features to those of her parents. She poked at her nose, while she looked at the matching one on her mother’s face. She peered carefully at her father’s eyes. They were green too, though his were much deeper with flecks of golden brown around his pupils.

  She sat the picture frame back on a table and looked around the room one last time. She then descended the stairs and made her way toward the room where she remembered overhearing the phone conversation. Nothing had changed in the hallway since her flashback. Even the photograph she had stared at was sitting on the table beside the door she had been pressed her ear against. This time, however, the door was open.

  “There you are my darling!” her mother, Shanon, said. “Come, we were just discussing the upcoming holidays.”

  “Your grandmother will be visiting,” her father, Darryn, replied.

  “I cannot wait to see Grandma!” Demona found herself saying without thinking the words.

  The flashback was strange and unlike any she had ever experienced before. It was as if she had some control over her actions, but none over her own voice. The flashback seemed more of like a simulation than a vision. Demona was looking through her own eyes, but she was not in her own body. She was not sure what to make of the situation, but was determined to find out what it could tell her about her past.

  “We must make certain to give your grandmother the very best ljosalfar welcome!” her father said.

  “Darryn, she will have none of those silly elvin traditions. You know your mother is a modern woman,” her mother replied.

  Elvin, I’m elvin! Demona walked to an empty cushioned chair and sat down. She watched and listened to her mother and father discuss all of the arrangements for the holiday. She studied their every action and every facial expression. Demona did not want to forget any piece of this memory. I have to remember it all, memories fade.

  The room grew dim as the sun began to set outside. Shanon Brennan got up and walked around the room to switch on the table lamps. When she was finished she sat back down and laughed at Darryn over something that he had said. Demona found herself laughing in response to their merriment. Shanon turned and looked at Demona with a loving smile.

  My parents were in love. My parents… my parents loved me.

  Demona watched her father walk around to a large desk and opened a drawer. He pulled out a cigar and produced a flame to light it.

  Magic! I get my elemental magic from my father!

  A knock came from the front door.

  “I wonder who that is?” her father said. He got up and walked through the room carrying a trail of cigar smoke behind him. The cigar smell swept through the room towards Demona and she inhaled it.

  A knock came again.

  “Alright, alright I’m coming!” Her father yelled from the hallway, as he made his way to answer the door.

  Demona waited to hear the door open, but instead she heard the sound of her father’s feet pounding on the floor. He ran into the room and slammed the door closed behind him. He turned the lock on the door and stood against it. His eyes were wide, as he tried to slow his breathing.

  Shanon bolted up from her seat. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s him. He’s at the door. The Council… I just called yesterday. We won’t have anyone to protect us, we must defend ourselves.”

  “Mom, what’s going on?” Demona asked.

  Her mother ran to a small closet and swung the door open. She grabbed an elongated object out of it and unsheathed a double-edged sword. “Demona, I need you to listen very carefully. We wish there was more time, but apparently there isn’t.”

  Demona turned to watch her father push a table against the door. He slid a shelf in front of the only window in the room. He looked around franticly making certain that every entrance was blocked. Then, he returned his gaze to his wife.

  Her parents both walked to her. They both wrapped their arms around her in a tight embrace, one on each side of her. Demona could smell the cigar smoke that clung to her father’s clothes and the delicate smell of lavender in her mother’s hair. She felt a flood of emotions in their embrace. There was love, devotion, honor, and an abundance of fear.

  Her father was the first to pull away as the sound of something heavy crashed into their front door. He moved to position himself between the door to the room and his loving wife and daughter. His body tensed as he stood guard over the people he held most dear.

  Shanon pulled back from her daughter, but her hand remained on Demona’s shoulder. “My beautiful daughter, there are so many moments I wish I could share with you. I need you to understand that we love you and what we do… we do to protect you. You are special.”

  “I know, Mom. You always say that,” Demona replied. Tears filled her eyes and she knew her mother was saying goodbye.

  “No, dear,” her mother said. “You are special. You are one of a kind. You are the daughter of an elvin lord and the daughter of a defender of the Good Light Council. You will posses special abilities unlike any other, but you must wait until these abilities develop.”

  “I don’t understand. So what, why does it matter? What’s happening?” Demona asked. She began to panic with the things her mother was telling her. Did they know about the prophecy?

  There came a large crash from the hallway.

  “They’ve broken through the front door,” Darryn said. “We don’t have long.”

  “I only have my suspicions, but there are more important things for you to do in this world. Be strong my daughter, remember your heritage. Our strength lives on in you.”

  “Mom, Dad… I don’t like this!”

  Shanon’s hand brushed Demona’s check. “I know my baby. There is a man who wants you, because you are special. You must do everything you can to resist him. Try to remember who you are, never forget where you came from. Never forget us.”

  The sound of heavy footsteps could be heard coming closer to the door as her father watched it intently. Shanon placed herself in front of Demona and gripped her sword tightly with
both of her hands.

  Something forced itself upon the door. With the impact from the other side the desk that blocked the door moved slightly. Once more a heavy object crashed against the door and it began to splinter.

  “I love you, my girls,” Darryn said.

  “I love you both,” Shanon replied.

  “Mom, Dad, you can’t leave me!” Demona yelled. She looked at the door that began to give way.

  Another impact against the other side of the door produced a hole. A large hand pulled the splintered wood from the hole in the door making enough room to reach through. The hand reached through the hole.