The Fallen

by R. L. Drummond

  “What am I?!” She screamed suddenly and tears spilled down her face in both despair and frustration that even now, with her heart breaking in such misery that she felt her body would rip apart, the one man she trusted above all still wouldn’t tell her the truth.

  Jenko’s jaw locked in raw emotion as he watched Reya break down into disconsolate sobs that wracked her lungs and in spite of how he refused to show it, he himself was wrenched apart at the sheer force of her misery. He gulped down the emotion that threatened to choke him and said to Tellan thickly, “We should tell her, Tellan.”

  “No, the less she knows the better.” Tellan shot back under his breath as he swiped a hand at him, his refusal borne of his own inability to take any more of Reya’s heartfelt anguish.

  “Look at the girl!” Jenko insisted hoarsely, incredulous that Tellan would be willing to prolong her suffering for the sake of misguided adoration, “She’s in pieces; don’t you think she deserves to know?”

  Tellan whirled around and speared his comrade with a glare in his eyes as he bit through clenched teeth, “It’s for her own protection! She won’t understand!”

  Jenko set his jaw firmly as he leapt to his feet and cried, “She already knows! Isn’t it better to help her understand? To prepare her as best we can for what’s to come? Belial certainly won’t allow her ignorance to hinder his pursuit.”

  Tellan hesitated at the awful truth in his words, but the protective instinct within him was so ferocious that it balked against the prospect of introducing Reya to more heartache and agony. Jenko couldn’t possibly understand; she already felt betrayed by him, how could he hurt her any more?

  Jenko saw the confliction within him and reasoned quietly beneath Reya’s wails, “She has already awakened her ability, Tellan. At the moment she is frightened and hurt; not learning how to understand it could swallow her whole. She’s been lucky so far, we both have…this time she took us to somewhere on Midgard.”

  Tellan glanced back at Jenko in horror, for he recognised the gravity in those words even before Jenko elaborated gravely, “What happens when she opens a gateway to somewhere she can’t return from?”

  Tellan stared at Reya as she wept her heart out, her arms wrapped around herself protectively as though this small act would be enough to shield her from any further heartache than she could take. She was so fragile…all Tellan wanted to do now was gather her up into his arms and hold her, tell her that everything was alright, that he’d make it all better, if only she would stop crying. But he knew that could never happen, not with the threat of Belial on the horizon and…Jenko was right…what if she opened a gateway to somewhere she couldn’t return from? Tellan couldn’t deny that if such an unthinkable thing was to occur then it would be his ignorance that would be responsible. He had sworn an oath to keep her safe…he couldn’t do that if she was somewhere he couldn’t follow, or worse…

  “Reya?” He said thickly and his eyes fluttered at how painfully her name pushed the emotion that had locked his throat, “Look at me, sweetheart.”

  Reya did as she was asked, her eyes red and wet with the unsurmountable pain her trauma and grief had crashed into her soul, and she fought against the urge to throw herself into her uncle’s arms. “Will you tell me, now? Please…I have to know.” She whispered weakly, and Tellan’s chin trembled at the awful hurt that was in that wonderful child’s voice.

  “Yes, my love. There is much I have to tell you…” He said and held his hands out to hold onto Reya’s, as much for his own sake as hers.

  She accepted Tellan’s hands as tears filled her eyes and Tellan’s own fluttered gratefully at her acceptance, his heart lifted in sweet anguish that she had chosen to place her trust in him again. He inhaled a deep shaky breath and as he looked into the violet pools of her wounded eyes, he prepared himself for the irreparable agony he would deliver his beloved niece.

  “There…are worlds beyond the one we walk upon, Reya, far beyond the veil of what you see before your eyes.” He began and gulped nervously, “Your father…was from the celestial realm of Asgard. He was a mighty warrior, a commander within the Legion of Asgard…” His eyes dropped briefly as he trembled through his words, “Our commander. The dreams you have been having…are memories of his…”

  Reya had already realised this truth for herself, but it still left a shock of apprehension within her to hear it spoken aloud from the man she called Uncle.

  Tellan frowned reflexively as he continued on with a roughened voice, “You have been seeing what we have come to call the War Beyond, a great war built upon Belial’s own ambition to take the Light of Asgard for himself. This war…it has spanned for centuries…Asgardian angels fighting back the Abyssal demons, stopping them from spreading across the planes. Baldur himself came close to ending the war once and for all–”

  “But Belial Fell,” Reya interrupted and Tellan’s face solidified with the grim knowledge that she had already seen this part of her father’s history within her nightmares. The sombre intuition within her face scalded the depths of his stomach like acid and it was all he could do but drop into silence as she continued, “And Papa followed. You two came after him, but he nearly died. You took him to my mother, didn’t you?”

  Reya’s lips trembled helplessly at the overwhelming, silent admission that Baldur and Tellan had kept this awful truth from her, such a horrendous charade for the people she loved most in the entire world to have continued for all these years. Tellan gulped at the agony within her face and he stroked the backs of her hands with his thumbs in what he knew was a terribly weak attempt at comfort.

  “Yes…Ana, your mother, saved his life that night. And in time…they fell in love.” Tellan’s brow convulsed as he choked on the sentence he knew would condemn him in Reya’s eyes, and it was through a roughened voice that he finally murmured, “You were born through that love, Reya…a child of Asgard and Midgard.”

  Reya stared at Tellan in utter dumfounded silence as the gravity of his truth sank a lead ball deeply into the pit of her stomach, and a wounded clarity beyond her years shone with dull light in her eyes. She was a thing…a creature that should not exist…an abomination.

  Her mouth trembled as she struggled through her whispered words, “I shouldn’t be.”

  Tellan’s face trembled against the harshness of Reya’s words, but he couldn’t hide from the affirmation that she needed to hear. “Our…kind…were not mean to…” He admitted softly. Reya’s face crumpled suddenly and Tellan added hastily, “But that’s not to say that you weren’t meant to be.”

  “How can you say that?” Reya cried even as her mouth curled in distaste. She shook her hands free from his grip and gestured at her own form as she spat disgustedly, “Look at me!”

  “No, my love…you are a gift!” Tellan interjected softly and his hands seized Reya’s shoulders with gentle reassurance, “The most wonderful miracle ever to have happened across the planes.”

  “A gift? A gift?!” She then staggered as though the deadliest of arrows had shot through her heart, “My Father is dead because of me!”

  “No, Reya!” Jenko cut in with a ferocious protection in his voice, “Never think that. Belial killed your father, not you!”

  Tellan gulped against the sudden sensation that he stood above a deep chasm and wounded desperation thrummed through his veins as he watched Reya carefully. “When you saw me last I was there because your father had sent for me. He knew what was within your dreams and it terrified him that you were no longer safe. That’s why I left that night; I was on my way to speak to Jenko.”

  Reya’s face flushed with sudden enlightenment. “So that’s why we were going on a journey, he wanted to hide me…” Her soft voice pierced through the stunned silence.

  Tellan and Jenko looked at one another awkwardly and Reya frowned as she continued thoughtfully, “Belial can’t open gateways himself; neither can you. You used to be able to…but you can’t any more, not since you Fell. I know this…I don’t know how,
but I do…”

  The silence between the two men intensified, a yawning abyss of mute shock that swallowed them both with the gravity of Reya’s words, for they were powerless in the face of her stunning revelation.

  “But I…I can open any gateway, to wherever I please. That is why Belial wants me, isn’t it?” She then looked up at Tellan suddenly and her wet eyes were skewed in betrayal as she hissed, “You should have told me…”

  “I…I didn’t know. We wanted to keep you safe–” Tellan protested weakly.

  “And now Papa is dead!!” Reya screamed and a great sob wracked her chest as she whispered harshly, “I trusted you.”

  “Reya!” He cried, wounded at the look of utter betrayal in her face.

  “Get away.” She whispered in wide eyed anguish and Tellan’s mouth hung open in despair of how closed off to him she had become. She turned and staggered away then, not crying in spite of how her eyes flooded with bruised truth, but there was a tug of war within her that threatened to tear her soul asunder in its magnitude.

  “Reya!” He shouted and desperately reached out for her as she blindly walked further away from them, but Jenko came before him abruptly and placed a firm hand upon his shoulder.

  “Leave her, Tellan.” He said gently.

  Tellan snarled at Jenko’s neutral expression and shoved him in the chest roughly. “Damn you, Jenko!” He hissed dangerously, “What do you know?”

  The swallow in Jenko’s throat betrayed his careful mask however and within the flash of his eyes, Tellan could see that he was just as wounded by Reya’s pain as he was. “Her entire world has just collapsed in on itself.” He said with a softness that was so uncharacteristic of him that Tellan balked, “She needs time to understand what she’s been told.”

  Tellan’s flare of misplaced anger died then and he placed a hand on Jenko’s shoulder in an act of apology for not recognising his brother’s pain. He glanced over at Reya as she collapsed into a little puddle of woe among a bed of white flowers and he could see how heavy her eyes had become with the helpless burden of her pain.

  “Besides,” Jenko started and Tellan glanced at him, “It’s not like she can go anywhere right now. This is a cosy little nook she’s found; nice and high and well covered. She’ll be safe enough.”

  Tellan nodded slowly at his companion’s wisdom, but as he turned and faced Reya once more, his eyes became sombre as he watched her bury her face in her hands. “I don’t like this, Jenko,” he said softly, “I know you’re right, but…what if she’s too fragile to handle this on her own? She’s such a sensitive soul.”

  Jenko followed Tellan’s gaze and even though his words were harsh, his voice was soft as he replied gravely, “She’s going to have to.” He then gestured awkwardly at her as she curled into a ball and added, “Do you think Baldur knew about…”

  “It’s possible.”

  “Poor child…she must have been terrified.”

  Tellan’s eyes softened at Jenko’s caring tone. “Baldur certainly was. I wasn’t far on my way to see you when I spotted the army in the fields, but I didn’t know why they were there. So I turned back to report to Baldur, but…I wasn’t fast enough.”

  Jenko’s eyebrows twitched momentarily as he thought upon the meaning behind Tellan’s words. “So he knew it was coming…” He murmured darkly, both saddened and angered that Baldur hadn’t rallied his aid before now.

  “It would seem so…” Tellan replied sadly. He hesitated briefly before he continued carefully, “Baldur told me that Reya had once spoken Belial’s name in a nightmare.”

  Jenko’s eyes flashed as he speared Tellan with a firm gaze, “Do you think she made contact in some way?”

  Tellan cast his eyes across Reya’s trembling form and thought deeply before he replied, “A demon’s Dark is a powerful thing and Belial is no plebeian Abyssal, even with his mortality; we’ve seen that for ourselves with these new drones he’s recruited. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had.”

  Jenko swept his hand across his mouth at the implications behind Tellan’s words and nodded as he contemplated on what their next move should be. “In that case we should find out where we are and make way as soon as possible.” He then squinted into the distant horizon and added, “I’ve not got a bloody clue where she’s brought us.”

  “See to it.” Tellan commanded.

  Jenko nodded as he tore the amulet from his neck and twisted the silver lozenge with his fingers until a faint click brought a smile of satisfaction to his lips. Tellan remained unmoved as Jenko pulled the two halves apart and tipped the contents onto his palm, revealing a collection of small cylinders. He then began to fit the pieces together with a speed borne of familiarity and eventually, with a final metallic click, he strode towards the edge of the cliff. Reya’s eyes had risen in curiosity at the flurry of activity and when she saw that Jenko now held what had become a small telescope, she couldn’t help but gasp slightly in wonderment.

  But when Tellan turned his gaze at the small sound and smiled uncertainly into the wounded violet of Reya’s eyes, she averted her gaze with such emotion that Tellan’s heart squeezed painfully.

  “There’s a trade road not far from here, looks to be well used so we must be near somewhere reasonably populated.” Jenko murmured and as he lowered the telescope thoughtfully, the muscle in his jaw ticked, “I’m buggered if I know where it goes, but hopefully there’ll be somewhere along the way where we can send a messenger to Vella.”

  “It’ll be easier once we know where we are. In any case we’ll camp for the night and leave at first light. At least…that’ll give Reya enough time to…” Tellan said and the mumble in his voice betrayed how wounded he had become in the face of Reya’s anguish.

  Jenko nodded slowly at the gravity of his commander’s words, but he had nothing he could offer that could assuage the pain that rippled across Tellan’s features. He feared in that moment that Tellan would dissolve into helpless tears in the same way as Reya did and Jenko’s face solidified in his own refusal to witness such an act. He cleared his throat awkwardly and closed his small telescope with a click of decisiveness that sounded so stern in the silence of the night, that Tellan was shocked out of his morose thoughts.

  “Right,” Jenko stated loudly and Tellan rocked from the overcompensating, boisterous slap that pounded upon his shoulder, “I’ll go see if there’s anything to kill on this rock bigger than a tortoise. I don’t know about you, but I’m bloody starving.”

  Reya smelled the cooking meat from her tiny sanctuary and it took all her willpower not to go over for a slice of whatever it was that roasted tantalisingly over the campfire. She watched with avaricious hunger as Jenko and Tellan ate vigorously, however when Tellan glanced over at her, she averted her eyes quickly with the hope he hadn’t seen her staring. She heard the rise in Tellan’s voice when Jenko spoke to him and a small stab of hurt speared Reya’s heart with the knowledge that the men were arguing again. They seemed to fight almost constantly, and Reya was becoming increasingly aware that the subject was always about her. There was a flare of guilt in her soul as she stared down at her hands; she knew that all Tellan wanted was to look after her, but after the enormity of what had been revealed, she just couldn’t ignore the pain within her that was too great. She wanted to throw herself into his arms and let his gentle voice soothe her as he had always done, but her betrayal was too deep, too fresh for her to admit this desire aloud.

  She wrapped her arms around her shoulders and shivered when the chill bite in the air hushed through her clothes, a vain thought within her mind that she could somehow trick herself into thinking that this was Tellan’s embrace. But no…she realised sombrely as she dropped her arms, it just wasn’t the same. She glanced up when she spotted movement in her periphery and when she saw that Tellan now stood with a giant leaf laden with meat on his hand, she couldn’t stop the involuntary smile that tugged at her lips. But she choked the smile down with a frown as he approached her with tentative foots
teps and stubbornly, she kept her gaze affixed to her boots with exaggerated care.

  “Reya?” Tellan asked gently as he stood over her and a momentary foolishness suffused his mind of how he cradled this makeshift plate of meat for her. He awkwardly held it out in an unseen offer and added superfluously, “I brought this for you.”

  But still Reya didn’t lift her head, mired in the determination that she wouldn’t admit her desire to speak to him in the face of her betrayal.

  “You don’t have to talk to me if you don’t want to, sweetheart…” Tellan said softly and the plaintive tone of his voice made Reya’s lips tremble, “But please, you have to eat something.”

  Reya’s eyes flashed upon the large leaf placed beside her and as Tellan stood back up once more, she snatched the offer hungrily, devouring the juicy meat with fervour. Tellan nodded with a gulp of grim acceptance and as he turned away with heavy sorrow, Reya finally lifted her head.

  “Thank you.” She said softly and her quiet utterance was just as wounding to him as it was to her.

  “You’re welcome.” Tellan replied thickly, but in spite of how grateful he was that she had finally broken her silence, he still kept his back to her, for he was entirely unsure of where his boundaries with her now lay.

  “Tellan?” She asked tentatively, but abruptly shut her mouth with a soft clack of teeth. Now that she had his attention, she was entirely unsure of what she wanted to say.

  Tellan’s heart fluttered briefly, for he was glaringly aware that she hadn’t called him uncle. “Yes, my love?”

  Reya was silent for a moment as she fought with herself on why she had spoken to him, but her betrayal reared its head once more and she blurted, “Is there any more?”

  Tellan blinked at the chill of her pragmatic question and answered, “Yes, would you like me to bring you some?”

  Reya’s gaze dropped then, for she couldn’t bring herself to meet the heart-breaking worry that filled Tellan’s eyes. But over–compensation made her reply a little too primly, “No, I’ll come over. It’s cold not being by the fire.”