Guardian: Darkness Rising

by Melanie Houtman

  All Mari wanted was to go that ball and find her father and Luke. They needed to know that she was okay – and she had to make sure that they were okay.

  The Master guided Mari all the way from her room to the carriage that was waiting for her outside – he probably still didn’t fully trust her, and he was right not to.

  As they walked toward the carriage, the Master went through everything he expected Mari to do while she was in the castle, but refused to explain why he needed to get that stone back to his body.

  When Mari tried to bring it up, the Master angrily brushed it off and said that Mari would just have to do as she was told, so she went on her way to the castle.

  When she arrived there, there were many other creatures arriving and entering the gats to the castle. There were guards at the gate, but they didn’t seem too serious; they knew who to let in and who not, and that was their only mission – aside from telling guests to put on their masks after they’d entered the gate.

  As soon as she saw the massive crowd that was attending the ball, she discovered that it would be difficult to find her father and Luke; she had no idea what Luke looked like now he was seventeen, and the fact that everyone was wearing a mask wasn’t going to make things easier.

  Mari walked through the castle’s main hall, where people were meeting and catching up with each other; there were two grand stairs that each led into a different direction and were separated by the grand door that led to the Ritual Chamber.

  From what Mari heard people say as she passed them, the Ritual Chamber would be the place-to-be that night; apparently, there were ten so-called ‘Guardians’, and their leader would be giving a speech later that night to open the dance.

  As soon as Mari heard the name of the leader, she knew for sure that her father and his friends were there. She knew only one James Riverdale, and she knew for sure that it was the James she knew. And Mari implemented that in such a way that she instantly knew that her father’s other friends were the other Guardians. Her father’s closest friends would make five Guardians.

  If Luke was one of them, too, he’d be number six. But who were the other four?

  Mari was quickly distracted from her questions when she saw a young man standing near the opened doors of the Ritual Chamber. His hair had a familiar shade of red, and had apparently noticed that Mari was staring at him, as he quickly approached her.

  As soon as he opened his mouth and said his name, he revealed his identity to Mari. It was him, without a doubt.

  “Mari,” Luke said.

  “Luke,” Mari replied, blinking as if the boy standing in front of her was merely a vision of her own imagination and would go away if she just kept blinking her eyes at him.

  “It’s been an awfully long time, Mari,” Luke said, his blue eyes twinkling behind the blue mask he was wearing, making them nearly undistinguishable – but Mari managed. “Where have you been?”

  “Everywhere and nowhere,” Mari replied quickly. “How did you know it was me?”

  Luke chuckled. “Well, I must admit that I had to come up close to know for sure,” he said. “But I’d recognize those pretty eyes of yours anywhere.”

  Mari instantly knew what Luke meant. Her eyes had always been the thing Mari liked the most about herself; it made her feel somewhat special. They were different, but a good kind of different.

  Mari let out a sigh of both happiness and relief. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you again, Luke,” she said.

  The left corner of Luke’s mouth pulled upward into a crooked smile. “So am I, Mari,” he said. “I waited for you. For four years.”

  “Thank you,” Mari said slowly. “You know you didn’t have to do that. But thank you for waiting anyway.”

  The right corner of Luke’s mouth was pulled up into a smile now, too. “Of course I’d wait for you,” he said. “What else would I have to wait for?”

  Luke slowly pulled Mari into a hug; for a moment, by the position of Luke’s head and the way he moved, Mari believed that he wanted to kiss her, but somehow felt relieved – yet, for some reason slightly disappointed – that he didn’t do so. It was weird for the two of them to kiss without having any reason to.

  After all, Mari hadn’t seen Luke in four years, and he’d probably found someone else. They’d always viewed each other as friends, and Mari didn’t want to change that point of view.

  “Now look at the ridiculous place I found you in,” Luke chuckled. “Out of all the places in our universe you could’ve chosen, I had to come find you in another.”

  “Yeah,” Mari chuckled, her mind still vaguely hanging on to the strange, kind of gross thought of her lips on Luke’s.

  ...Sadly, whether Mari and Luke would kiss or just keep hugging, there had to be someone to get in their way.

  What are you doing!? The Master’s voice boomed through Mari’s head. This is not part of our agreement, Marilyn. First, you’d do your job for me, and then you’d get to spend as much time with your family as you want. Don’t make me change my mind.

  Mari, startled by the sudden threat that had come her way, quickly pulled away from Luke’s hug, who grabbed her wrist as she tried to run off.

  “What’s the matter, Mari?” Luke said. “Why are you running away?”

  “I- I can’t explain,” Mari said heatedly. “I’ll be right back, okay? I just need to take care of something! I’ll come right back to you when I’m done!”

  “Can’t I help you?” Luke said. “Mari, you know you can tell me anything!

  “You don’t have to keep secrets anymore!”

  Mari stopped struggling as her eyes darkened. “No,” she said, her words shaking, yet certain. “I can’t tell you everything. Not this.”

  Luke didn’t blink; his eyes and voice seemed to freeze over as he said, “Mari. We know why you’re here. I’m not going to let the Master use you like this.”

  Mari’s eyes widened; the party went on normally around them, but to her, it was as if time had stopped. Did they know? How? Had the Spirits told them?

  ...Who was really the villain here?

  The Master had lied to her – there was no other option. Luke didn’t seem as if he was under some kind of spell – this was Luke, and he was offering her help. It wasn’t that Mari hadn’t already discovered that the Master was bad news – she just didn’t really believe he was. She’d just rather stayed out of his business – until he’d told her about the Spirits keeping her family captive.

  Mari peeked inside the purse she was carrying to have a look at the glowing red stone, and sighed. “I need to talk to my dad.”

  Luke placed a hand on Mari’s shoulder. “Of course you do,” he said. “Don’t worry. Together with you, it’ll be sixteen against one; this ‘Master’ fellow won’t stand a chance.”

  Mari smiled as she and Luke entered the Ritual Chamber; people were coming after them, as the dance was probably about to start. If Luke had confidence that they could win it from the Master, then why would she worry?

  The Master was powerful. That’s why she was worried. Well... at least he couldn’t enter the Land of Light, right? As long as they were here, they’d be safe, and that was more or less a reassuring thing to know.

  When Luke and Mari entered the Ritual Chamber, James and his friends were already attending the altars they’d once used twenty-five-years ago. Apparently, that’s from where James was going to hold his speech – would his friends be speaking, too?

  Luke told Mari that he and his friends would be joining their parents as soon as they were told to – which left Mari amazed; of course she’d still been wondering about the identity of the remaining four Guardians. Luke told her that she had to join them, so her father wouldn’t look so lonely up there (despite the fact that Daisy would be joining him), and it’d add a nice element of surprise to the evening.

  And Luke was convinced that if every last of the Lunariae knew Mari, everyone would support her in her fight against the Master, leaving him practic
ally powerless.

  ...Or at least he’d be pretty weakened – for as long as his wretched soul remained separated from his body.

  The Guardians began their speech; everyone attending the dance fell silent as they watched the five adults climbing the stairs to the altars.

  “Welcome, everyone, to his special evening,” James spoke; his voice was magically amplified. Akilah or one of the other Spirits had probably helped with that.

  “It is with great honour that we stand before you all here tonight. And, to be honest, before we arrived here, we didn’t even know that the Spirits had organised this masquerade ball for us, so we were actually quite overwhelmed by tonight’s turnout.” James let out a nervous chuckle as he scratched his neck, and the audience laughed along with him to reassure him a bit.

  They were all old friends in some sort of way; there was no reason for him to feel nervous or uncertain here tonight.

  “Anyway,” James continued, “we’re here for a reason, as you might already know. And we’re here tonight to tell you that we’re going to do everything within our might to keep Lunaria safe from harm.”

  The audience applauded encouragingly; of course they had full faith in these five humans after all they’d done to save Lunaria twenty-five years ago. They’d managed to defeat the Master once before; there was absolutely no reason they wouldn’t be able to do it again this time.

  “Thank you,” James said, making a small bow toward the audience, and noticed his friends did the same. “But this time, it won’t be just us. We’ll be helped by five very special teenagers – our children.”

  This was the cue for the teenagers to join their parents. The audience moved aside, making a straight path toward the altars for the teenagers to walk on.

  Anthony went first, shortly followed by his sister, Marcus and Daisy. Luke stayed behind for a few short moments to reassure Mari.

  “All you have to do is come after me and walk up to your dad,” he said. “There’s nothing to it, really.”

  And that was exactly as she did. After Luke had left, winking at her as he rounded the corner, ready to greet the applauding audience, Mari slightly lifted up her skirt and walked the same path as Luke had.

  While everyone had been applauding as the five new Guardians walked the path, they fell silent as soon as they laid eyes on Mari.

  Everyone was caught by surprise by the unexpected yet pretty girl, who nervously walked past them. And, of course, her father hadn’t missed out on the sudden silence downstairs.

  Antonio blinked slowly as the girl walked, only stopping in front of the altar he was standing on. “...Mari?” he uttered silently, fiercely hoping that this girl was indeed his daughter.

  “...Dad,” the girl smiled, as she ran up the stairs and threw herself into her father’s arms.

  “Everyone,” Antonio said, as he kept his daughter close to his chest. “I’d like you all to meet my beautiful daughter Mari.”

  The audience applauded and roared with support. Everyone knew that Mari was something special, something different; even though no one was sure why. The girl had a special aura, one of the kinds that a non-magical being couldn’t possibly possess. On the outside, she seemed human, but something on her inside declared that she wasn’t just that.

  “Four years ago,” Antonio continued, “Mari was taken from us by the Master; apparently, he needs her to complete his dirty plans for him. But we’re not going to let him, now are we, Mari?”

  Mari smiled at her father. “Of course not!” she shouted. “Whatever he’s up to, we’re going to stop him right in his tracks!”

  The audience roared with pride. The Lunariae had so much faith in the Guardians; it was absolutely incredible – incredible enough to stun Mari for a few moments as she watched all the magical beings, from dwarves to giants and fairies, cheer her on. There was absolutely no way that these people were the bad guys, as the Master put it. He had it all wrong. This was the side to fight for, and no other.

  “Well, that concludes it then!” Thomas shouted. “People of Lunaria; tonight, we celebrate the beginning of a new era! The era we hoped we could’ve started twenty-five-years ago, but will now officially begin! And it begins by taking down the Master once and for all!

  “Who’s with us?”

  Once again, the audience responded with roaring cheers of encouragement and excitement. They were ready to go back to war if they had to. Help the Guardians once more, to get rid of that pesky demon the Master was once and for all.

  Soon, it’d all be over.

  As the night went on, more and more people came to see and talk to the Guardians, hoping to hear what the plans were. Luckily for Mari, who was uncomfortable with talking to such massive groups of people, Luke stayed at her side all night, doing most of the talking for her.

  That was, until the Lunariae screamed for the two of them to dance.

  “Well, we can’t leave our guests un-entertained, right?” Luke said, as he gently took one of Mari’s hands. “I bet you’ll do great, come on.”

  “Luke, no!” Mari protested. “I’ve never danced before. We’ll both look like idiots.”

  “Just trust me,” Luke said, drawing Mari closer as they stepped on to the now cleared dance floor. “I had to learn how to dance for uncle Finn’s wedding. I’ll lead.”

  In the beginning, Mari was tense and nervous, but as she followed Luke’s every move, she slowly started to loosen up, yet didn’t get too comfortable, as she wanted to avoid stepping on her best friend’s feet at all costs.

  “See?” Luke smiled at her. “You’re doing fine.” He grinned, and decided to add a joke to reassure her more. “It must be magic in your feet.”

  Mari could feel the colour rising in her cheeks. Indeed. She was doing fine. And... the fact that everyone was staring at her and Luke didn’t seem to bother her at all. It made her wonder what was going on for a few moments, but she quickly let those thoughts go.

  She was doing amazing, and for once, she wanted the entire world to know.

  To Tame a Demon

  The ball didn’t end until sunrise, when all Lunariae were slowly starting to return to their own realms and homes. The Spirits offered the Guardians that they’d go to sleep for a while before getting down to business, and that was exactly what they did – they were too tired to be able to discuss serious matters now.

  After everyone had slept off their tiredness, the Spirits called in another meeting – and this one was about Mari.

  They wanted to know what the Master was up to, what he’d asked her to do, and so on. They wanted to know everything, up to the smallest details.

  Mari managed to stay surprisingly calm as she told her story to the five quite impressive creatures in front of her; as soon as she’d finished, they started to silently discuss what she’d just told them.

  “And that stone you just talked about,” Ince said, “where’d you leave it?”

  Mari blinked slowly. “Ah,” she said, “I believe I left it in the purse I took with me last night.

  She slowly rubbed her arms; she’d put on a pair of gloves she’d found in the closet of the room the Spirits had given her to sleep in, along with a deep purple dress that had been there, too. To her surprise, all the clothes she’d worn thus far had fit her surprisingly well.

  The black coloured veins had spread all the way across Mari’s left arm to her shoulder; she didn’t know how to stop it, or what the consequences would be if she just let it run its course.

  Maybe she could find a cure later without having to scare her father.

  “Well, then,” Ince said friendlily, “would you mind to go and get it so we can see it, Mari?”

  Mari nodded, bobbed into an awkward curtsy and quickly left the Ritual Chamber to go find the room she’d spent the night in. Luckily, it wasn’t long until she’d done so. Mari quickly went through her chamber, got the purse and went back to her family. She wasn’t sure what the big deal about the stone was; both the Spirits and the Mast
er seemed very eager to have it in their possession.

  “Ah, there we are,” Akilah said as she noticed Mari entering the Ritual Chamber, carrying the small, leather purse. “Come, dear. Show us what you’ve got.”

  Mari handed the purse to James, who shivered at the touch of the purse – Mari noticed, but she wasn’t sure if the others had noticed too.

  James carefully took the stone out of its case and let it slide to the table, unwilling to touch it again.

  “What’s the matter, James?” Samira asked her younger brother. She most definitely had noticed how strangely James responded to touching the small, tear-shaped glowing object. “Is it something with the stone?”

  James, feeling that everyone was looking at him, nodded. “Yes,” he said. “It contains Dark Magic. And a lot of it.”

  Mari noticed that Akilah and Aharnish were sharing a sideways glance. What was going on?

  “…Right,” Akilah mumbled. There was a certain amount of uncertainty in her voice that Mari found unsettling. “It might be worse than I thought.”

  She hovered a slender finger over the stone’s surface, and gently touched it, only to instantly withdraw her finger, drawing it close to her chest.

  “What’s it, Aki?” Aoife exclaimed, worried for her sister’s safety. “Is it what you thought it was?”

  “No,” Akilah said dejectedly, “unfortunately, it’s much worse than I thought. Especially if…” Akilah glanced at James for a brief moment, but moved her eyes away from him before James could ask her what the problem was. “Never mind,” Akilah said. “We’ll find a way to stop this.”

  Then, her attention went to Mari. “Mari,” she said, on an alarmingly strict tone, “please tell me you haven’t touched that stone with your bare hands.”

  Mari started; what was she going to do? She’d probably scare everyone if she showed her arm – it probably meant something bad, if the Spirits were this worried about it –, but she probably couldn’t keep on walking with it, either. Mari knew neither the repercussions this would bring for herself, nor for her family and the rest of Lunaria – that is, if there were any for them.