Dark Humanity

by Gwynn White

  “It’s an honor,” they said.

  “The Cliffs are all knowing.”

  “Perhaps you could ascend from the sea and rule our world. You never know…”

  Vineet did know. Either way, one of them would die. He glanced back over his shoulder, hoping to catch a glimpse of his mother and father. There they were in the distance, watching.

  He paused, staring back at them. His heart was broken. He would never see them again.

  The sudden quiet all caught Vineet and Preeti’s attention. When they looked around, they saw that the procession had stopped.

  It was time.

  Vineet took a deep breath. He tried to be strong, and yet he could feel his hands shaking. The Clerics ushered everyone forward. Like fools, they would toss themselves off the cliffs and into the sea. From such a height it wasn’t possible to survive such a fall.

  Could it be me? Vineet asked himself the question that was on the minds of everyone there.

  His feet moved slowly as his eyes bore into the back of the teenage boy before him. An elderly woman stepped in between Vineet and Preeti, taking their hands into hers.

  Vineet glanced at her, forcing a brave smile. He had no idea how he was staying so calm. He did it for Preeti. Others seemed to lose their mind the closer they got to the edge. They flailed and screamed, all while the Clerics told them to be brave and to not ruin this beautiful day.

  High Cleric, Orthon stood on a pedestal and spoke to the crowds. With arms outstretched he smiled. “Ignore the cries of anguish and agony, brothers and sisters. This is a beautiful day. I can feel it. One of us will be chosen on this day. We should rejoice.” An arm draped in white gowns stretched toward the cliff. “Smile at your destiny.”

  Vineet wished that Orthon would toss himself off the cliff with a smile. He closed his eyes and took a breath.

  “I’m afraid,” Preeti said in her soft voice.

  “Everything is as it should be,” the elderly woman said. “Do not worry yourself.”

  Vineet pursed his lips. Knowing that Preeti was the brave one and still felt fear turned his stomach. Why couldn’t he protect her?

  What was the point of training with her in weaponry? Or history and language skills? There was so much Vineet wanted to do with life.

  Everything they’d experienced and learned was all for nothing now. Every second that passed by brought him closer to death, and it frightened him to no end.

  As they reached their spot at the edge of the cliff his lower lip trembled. The sea below was beautiful. Green mixed with purple and blue. One could almost forget that it was full of Teranic, and not water. One fingertip in that pool and you’d lose an entire arm to its wicked magic. Like fire, it ate everything. The waves crashed on the slick black rocks below as bodies fell or were tossed against their will.

  Vineet’s heart pumped with fear as he watched those bodies enter the water never to be seen again.

  The screams and sounds of waves below made his throat clench back a yelp of his own.

  He swallowed the lump in his throat, looking over at Preeti.

  His beautiful sister. She didn’t deserve this.

  Vineet considered grabbing her and flying away to somewhere safe, somewhere he could protect her, but the older woman wrapped her arm around Vineet and Preeti’s shoulders.

  “We go together, all of us?”

  Preeti burst into tears.

  Vineet nodded, unable to speak or barely see through his own tears.

  “I’m sorry, Preeti,” he whispered.

  The woman kissed them both on the forehead, tenderly.

  “Bless you, children,” she said, and before Preeti and Vineet could lose their nerve, they jumped with the old woman.

  Cold air blew into their faces, like a gust of wintry wind laced with sharp knives. Vineet’s mouth opened, fighting back the wind that affronted his face, sending chills through his body.

  Was this was what death felt like?

  He found the cold air odd since it was such a sweltering hot day under the red sun. The air sucked his screams away, filling him with an odd sensation of drowning before he even hit the water.

  They fell slowly, slow enough that the descent made it possible to look from side to side.

  The old woman was no longer there.

  He panicked. What’s happening?

  Someone grabbed him from behind.

  “I’ve got you,” a familiar voice said.

  Vineet couldn’t speak or scream even if he wanted to, but he knew that voice. It was the old woman, and he was no longer falling. His face paled as he realized that she held him still in mid-air, halfway between the cliff and the sea.

  Preeti stood across from him, on nothing but the clear air. Her gray eyes were wide in a look of wonder and confusion that matched his own.

  The old woman’s face didn’t look so wrinkled anymore. Her hair looked less gray and more silver, braided long to her feet. She smiled at him as her skin went from pale to smooth ash. Silver eyes gazed into his.

  “How long I have waited.”

  Vineet felt odd standing on nothing at all. He was sure this was a dream or perhaps he was already dead because he’d never seen anyone stand on the air like this.

  But Preeti was there as well. Were they both dead?

  Waited for what? He wished his mouth would work. He had so many questions.

  Her smile widened.

  “To choose two gods worthy of ruling this world.”

  Chapter One

  The screams of the dying would have been better than the silence of that morning. Kellian was used to battle. He’d fought for the army of their world’s gods for centuries.

  War was his profession. As a general in the Aden army, Kellian thought he had seen it all.

  Fighting demons and shadows from other worlds had hardened him, yet seeing his home in ruins was something he was not prepared for.

  The air was thick with the scent of blood. Vultures feasted on fresh corpses, squawking as he passed them by as if he’d snatch their meals from under their crimson beaks.

  In heavy boots, he walked along the blood-covered pathway. Eyes wide with panic, he ignored the dead soldiers and kept his gaze fixed on the entrance to the manor that stood in the center of the valley.

  As he ran through the golden double doors, nothing mattered at that moment but making sure his beloved family had not passed on to the world of the dead. Each hallway was crumbled, the floors destroyed by indentations much like a quake had ravaged the land.

  When he reached the living chambers, the door was already broken down, and the stench of death filled his nostrils despite the frost that seeped in from broken windows. White and silver mist and snow fell and swirled around the room by an unseen force.

  Frost? In this weather?

  Preeti. His daughter. She must have used her power on whoever did this.

  Kellian froze at the archway when he saw his wife’s body nailed to the wall. Snow covered everything in the room.

  His eyes lowered to his blood-covered boots. The image of her bruised corpse would never leave his memory. The body of her personal bodyguard lay beside the door to the secret exit with a gaping hole in his chest.

  Who dared to harm his family?

  Did they know what kind of revenge he would exact upon them?

  The manor was surrounded by a wall with sentries and archers equipped with the best weapons made by the Dreamweavers. No one could enter his home without proper authority.

  Whoever did this must have been known by his guards?

  Litha.

  Kellian balled up his fists. Heartbroken and filled with rage, Kellian crossed the room to pull his wife from the wall. He yanked the thick nails out one by one and clutched her to his chest.

  He’d sent his children to the sacrifice. They had emerged from the Cliffs of Ranoun without a scratch. Why were they being punished?

  He now realized how deep the betrayal went. Litha called him away to meet with the Counc
il so that she could do this. How he wanted to make her pay for her treachery.

  Kellian searched the room for any signs of his children.

  “Preeti?” His voice carried along a chilling wind that swept into the room and out the broken window. “Vineet?”

  There was no reply. His heart raced as he searched the entire manor, checking every room and calling their names.

  Neither were anywhere to be found. His once beautiful manor was now a tomb, and as a lesser god, there was nothing he could do to bring any of his people back.

  Unable to look upon his wife’s body, he covered her with the evergreen bed sheet.

  He opened the door that led to the secret passageway. Once he stepped through, he paused.

  He heard something. A faint shout.

  Kellian stepped forward and strained to hear. The howling of the wind seemed to follow him, and he knew that Litha was still there somewhere.

  A muffled cry of what sounded to be a young girl came to him.

  His eyes widened. He dared to hope.

  “Desi?

  “Master!”

  She’s still in the chest.

  Kellian ran down the dark narrow hallway.

  Once he reached the end of the hall where it forked in two directions, he pushed another secret hatch in the stone wall right before him. This is where he kept his valuables. No one, not even his staff knew about it.

  Another door was revealed.

  Pulling the door open, he looked down into a hole in the ground that was four feet deep and three feet wide. Inside the hole was a golden chest adorned with intricate black symbols engraved by the holy clerics of Latari.

  Kellian pulled the chest from the ground and set it on the stone floor.

  “Master?”

  He stared at the chest, relief flooding his body. There was still hope.

  He knelt to the chest and inserted the key. One turn of the lock and a sharp clicking sound resonated in his ears. The lid opened on its own, lifting upward until a tiny being was revealed.

  “Master Kellian,” Desi called as she stretched her small arms, and flew out of the chest. She rubbed her gold-colored eyes with a yawn.

  Her face looked up at him with joy, a wide smile stretching across her face.

  “You’re late, Master,” she said as she hovered before his face, the size of his hand, with white wings.

  He watched as gold tendrils of light raced up and down her skin and through her green hair, making her body light up the entire hallway.

  “Tell me what happened.”

  Desi’s smiling face turned sour.

  “Everyone was killed. They didn’t have a chance. The Goddess of Law had the Red Beast with her.”

  Litha left nothing to chance.

  “Where are the twins?”

  “The Goddess of Law took them.”

  Rage rose within Kellian. He wanted to smash a hole in the wall but restrained himself. He needed to get his children back before Litha discovered what they could do.

  He should have known that he would never truly find peace. Even as a god, there were always those that sought to ruin him.

  Not with Litha still living and breathing. The woman would not be stopped until she got what she wanted. The only problem was that she wanted something he couldn’t give.

  Kellian listened to the howling of the wind, his rage building with thoughts of what she was doing to his children. “Where did she take them?”

  “Oh, Kellian,” a familiar voice said from behind him.

  Kellian clenched his jaw as he turned to face the woman with the long lavender hair, brown skin, and white tattoos.

  Litha, the Goddess of Law.

  Desi pointed to Litha, her thin gold eyes narrowed. “Can I kill her, Master?”

  Kellian shook his head and withdrew his heavy sword. “No, Desi. I will.”

  Litha lowered her eyes as she circled him, her hands folded behind her back. “Did you think I would let you use your children to ruin me?”

  “You killed her.”

  Litha nodded. Her face was without emotion. “I did. I told you I would.”

  “I loved her.”

  “Yes. I know,” she whispered. “I’ve only just begun to destroy everything you love.”

  “Why did you have to kill everyone? They were innocent.”

  A small laugh made him glance up at her. It was easy to remember why he once loved her. She was beautiful beyond words. Long lavender hair flowed down to her naked ankles. He swallowed as his eyes went up the length of her shimmering gown.

  “They were in my way,” Litha said. The bitterness in her voice made every word more and more powerful.

  Kellian shook his head. “You’ve really lost all of the qualities I once loved in you.”

  “Perhaps,” Litha said, her eyes darkening.

  “My children were chosen to rule. I had no part in the decision.”

  “I no longer care,” Litha said. “I will not be ruled by children. Not in this life or the next.”

  “Please, Master,” Desi whispered. “Let me kill her. I can do it!”

  “Shh,” he said, waving her away.

  “You deserve a slow death.”

  The glow of her blue eyes hurt his, but he didn’t back down.

  “No, Kellian, dear,” Litha said, pulling an orb from behind her back.

  A smirk came to Litha’s face, and Desi started buzzing around Kellian’s head, blocking his view.

  “Run, Master,” Desi shrieked, tugging on Kellian’s collar with her tiny hands.

  Litha released the glowing orb, letting it hover before Kellian’s face. Within it, he saw nothing but black.

  “You do.”

  Chapter Two

  From inside a cage, the world seemed bleak.

  Especially for the children of a god that had been sent to his eternal slumber. Even if their father was one of the lesser gods, the twins were meant to rule them all.

  They had been chosen through an act of sacrifice. None of that mattered now.

  Their beautiful manor was the scene of a massacre. Mother and father were dead.

  Now, the Vault was their home with all of its dark and dismal glory.

  They couldn’t even grieve the loss of their parents in peace. Every minute of every day was plagued by cold and darkness, with the occasional act of torture.

  This was to be their lives until the day Litha decided it fit to have them executed.

  Preeti could barely lift her head from resting on her brother, Vineet’s lap when the guard, Pavvi entered the dungeons.

  Dressed in leather armor made in Pollos by the Dreamweavers, he was too skinny to even be considered for any occupation in the army other than a prison guard.

  With wild red hair and freckles scattered all over his cheekbones, Pavvi reminded Preeti of a ragdoll she used to have as a child.

  Vineet smoothed Preeti’s hair. He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “It’s time.”

  Pavvi pressed his smug face to the bars as he looked down at them.

  “Supper time!”

  Preeti winced as he poured their soup onto the already damp stone floor. As she watched the thin liquid splash and trail though the floor’s creases, her stomach grumbled.

  Neither of the twins had eaten in days. Pavvi only fed them their meals once a week, and that cycle had gone on for months.

  “Just leave us alone, Pavvi,” Preeti said, her bright gray eyes glaring at him.

  “Why? You’re so fun to watch suffer. Come now. Just lick it off the floor. I won’t tell anyone the infamous Latari twins eat just like dogs.”

  Preeti’s face heated. If only she could get her hands on her swords. She imagined grabbing his lips with her fist and slicing them off with her sharpened blade.

  Closing her eyes, she imagined his cries of agony. One day.

  Maybe today.

  Preeti had trained in every form of combat. Killing a lowly guard would be nothing to her.

  She’d never k
illed anyone and had never wanted to until she and Vineet were charged with treason and imprisoned by the Goddess of Law.

  How could Litha convince anyone that Preeti and her brother were frauds when everyone in attendance saw them get sacrificed, and come back from the Cliffs of Ranoun alive?

  It had been a life-changing day.

  To face certain death and be spared. Preeti and Vineet never had dreams of ruling the gods, but their shared experience proved to them as well as to the citizens of Aden that they were chosen.

  Destined.

  Now, she wished they could simply return to when life was simple and there were no responsibilities outside of their daily studies and training. To rest in bed with a book until breakfast was prepared was a common dream for Preeti now. How she wished she hadn’t taken her good life for granted.

  Preeti coughed, the back of her throat dry. She and Vineet would have to conserve their energy if they wanted to escape.

  “Bastard,” Preeti said under her breath.

  Pavvi kicked the bars with his thick boot. “What was that?”

  Preeti sighed. It took everything in her to stand, even more, to hobble over to the bars of her cell. She wrapped her hands around the bars, standing right before him.

  Pavvi jumped back, fear in his eyes.

  “Get back!”

  “Why do you have to be so hateful? What have we ever done to you?”

  He grabbed a long, silver pole and stabbed her through the bars with it.

  Hope filled her body even faster than the intense heat that entered her belly.

  Despite the pain from harnessed lightning, Preeti grabbed the sharp end of it and ripped it away from Pavvi’s grasp.

  A triumphant grin came to her face as she flipped the pole to point its end at Pavvi.

  It worked.

  His face turned ashen as he looked down at the sharp end, sparks of lightning racing up and down the steel like blue and silver cords of light. The heat radiated off the steel and warmed Preeti’s chilled cheeks.

  “Good job, Pavvi,” Preeti purred. “There is one thing I can honestly say that I truly love about you.”

  “What’s that?” He asked, sweat beading on his forehead.

  Preeti leaned forward. “You can be so predictable.”