by Rain Oxford
Glancing around, I could see the Guardians teaming up on the creatures and holding them off. Hoping the boys knew what they were talking about, I went inside the cabin and downstairs into the bedroom. Under Dylan’s old bed, there was a lamp, a spare left boot, and a sword. Dylan had shown me this sword before with its black metal. I took the weapon and got back outside as quickly as possible.
Hobble tried desperately to get out the door before I could close it, but I shoved him in. Edward kept him inside for a reason; he would fight to his death to protect us and we didn’t want that for him. Stone flesh could be busted, but it wouldn’t heal like living tissue did.
“See, if you were not Dad’s brother that would be too heavy for you,” Sammy said.
“I’m not biologically related to him,” I said, lifting the sword. It was extremely light. As I turned back to the creatures, the black metal emitted a dark blue, faint glow. Spurred on by his apparent invincibility, the reptile creature came at me with no hesitation, easily running into the blade. Shock crossed the grotesque face as putrid blood spilled in the grass. I put my right boot on the creature’s chest to push him back off the blade. The skeleton turned to me just as light filled the air.
I felt rather than saw Dylan appear behind me. “Bad timing, Dylan,” I said. The two creatures that remained standing, as well as the one writhing on the ground, all froze and stared at Dylan.
“No, no, I was just in the mood for demon hunting,” Dylan said, no fear in his voice. There was nothing that could have surprised me more than when each of the demons turned and scrambled to get back into the void, which closed behind them. “Oh… Too bad, I guess. They didn’t want to stick around to play.”
I took a cloth from my bag and wiped the blood off the blade before handing it to Dylan and tossing the cloth in the trash by the fire pit. Vivian stood next to Dylan, staring in shock at where the demons had disappeared.
“Vivian,” Nano said. She went to him, gibbering about missing him and being worried about him, and all that stuff people who are in love say when they were separated… and Sammy looked devastated. His father ignoring him was hard enough on the little child, but his mother…
Ron went to hug Sammy, but Dylan was already picking him up. Sammy put his face in Dylan’s neck, obviously trying not to cry. “You are loved so much more than they are even capable of. They are all each other has, but you have all of us.”
“I know, Daddy. Go back to work; I’ll be fine.”
Dylan let Sammy down, but not before Vivian sent her child a look of desperate longing. There was no sorrow or forgiveness in my heart for her. She knew she could take him back with her, that Ron was old enough to transfer their spell back to his mother.
Everyone took a seat again as Dylan pulled out a notebook and started writing.
“I am curious,” Shiloh said, studying Ron. “Do you take after your mother, or your father?”
The child grinned at him. “Yes.”
Father, then, Rojan snickered.
“I hate you, Dylan. I’ll get you for this,” Vivian growled when she saw what Dylan wrote on her card. Everyone ignored her, but Sammy couldn’t meet her eyes. Dylan gave her his brightest smile as if she had thanked him instead of threatening him.
“So we established that something is controlling and attacking the Guardians. Have we established if any of the Guardians are betraying the gods?” Dylan asked. I shook my head. “Okay, everyone please turn your cards over and look at the colored dots. If you have a green dot, breathe easy. If you have an orange dot, stay away from my kids. And if you have a red dot, please leave.”
“What does this mean?” Meri asked, a little panicky, and held up her card. It was a black dot.
“Oh, it just means you are Edward’s sex slave and cannot be held accountable for treason.”
Meri sighed with relief and Vivian growled, having a black dot on her card as well.
I looked down at my card and growled myself. “Dylan, you tengen!” I cursed him. “I’m going to beat you within an inch of your life!” I yelled, scratching the black dot off my paper. To my shock, it actually peeled off.
“Relax, Your Grace; it was a mistake.” He pulled out his sheet of dots, peeled a white one off gently, and stuck it on my card. “So feisty when he’s not pleased.”
“Yay! I got an orange dot! I’m a suspect!” Ron yelled with delight, holding up his card. In his other hand he held one of the plastic sticks that Dylan had given him full of orange paint. He had obviously gotten a white dot and painted it orange.
“I got a green dot,” Sammy moped.
“Can I have the red marker, please? I want leave.” Edward grumbled at his green sticker. “Just get on with it, I’m getting old.”
“Stop complaining, please,” Shiloh said. “What do we do now?”
“Alright. We know the gates have been tampered with; the gods said so. We need to find out why and who did it. Any ideas?” Half of the Guardians opened their mouths to speak. “Other than Vretial,” he quickly added. Everyone paused and thought.
“Maybe another god has turned against the others in secret,” Rilryn offered. “Maybe one of them decided he could do what Vretial tried and get away with it by hiding behind Vretial.”
“Is it reasonable for a god to try something after another failed?” Shiloh asked.
“They are gods; they think of things differently. They may not even consider what happened with Vretial a fail on his part,” Azyle said.
“I think they would be really upset with us if they heard us saying anything about one of them turning on the others,” Rasik said meekly. He looked around as if to be sure we were alone. “That being said, I think Azenoth would be the first and most likely to betray the others for more power.”
“Regivus is the most like what I’ve heard about Vretial. It would definitely be him,” Samorde said.
“Zer wouldn’t do it,” Nano said.
“Erono would,” Edward said.
“Déjà vu,” Dylan said. “Okay, so we have some suspects. We also need to know how to stop it, and why we want to stop it. What is really going to happen if the gates open, other than demons getting out?”
He was obviously not going to say anything about the dream.
“We just fought demons, Dylan, and it wasn’t easy,” Edward said. “One on one, we can easily destroy a demon, but they don’t usually attack alone.”
“Actually, I’m more worried about the Ancients. Just one of them is hard enough to defeat,” I said. I should have kept my mouth shut. Sometimes, that little click in his head was the sign that we would live, that he had an idea to get us out of trouble. This wasn’t that sign. He had an idea and I wouldn’t like it. A small sniff confirmed my fears… then I realized what I just did.
“My nose! I can smell again!”
“Yes, of course, you smell lovely,” Dylan said, not really listening. “If the Ancients get out, we need something more powerful. Obviously I can’t hunt down and scare the piss out of a bunch of demons. It was pretty much luck I managed to subdue the first one. How many Ancients are there? I need to talk to Janus. If we could get…” He trailed off, right as he was about to reveal his plan, and looked at me.
“What? If we could get what?”
“Your nose!”
“What?!”
“Your nose is working again! I told you the allergy medicine would work! Didn’t I? I can’t remember, hang on, never mind.” He started pacing, oddly similar to how Vretial had done so. “We need to go to the ruins or maybe to the apple tree. Everyone assumed Vretial was opening the gates, but he told me he needed my help.” He spoke just a little too quickly to really understand his words, even though he spoke in Sudo.
“Did he lose his mind?” Ghidorah asked me.
“No, he just does this sometimes. I don’t think he actually knows he’s talking. It’s like when you’re asleep; his brain is firing ideas, trying to find connections.”
“He gets it from his father,” Edward added. �
�Just be glad he doesn’t see the future, like Ronez did. It was really annoying when Ronez started yelling at me for an argument we hadn’t had yet.”
“I want to go home,” Samorde said, leaning his head against his knees.
“What are you?” Dylan asked Ghidorah.
The temperamental Guardian shrugged. “It is easier to show you than to explain,” he answered, standing. “Do not be afraid; I would never hurt your children.”
Just as Ghidorah was about to reveal his secret, I felt a change in the air. Pressure built once again and it was like all of the nominal energy in the area shuddered. The void opened to spew a black cloud from its abyss, which fused and shaped until it was a man who stood before us.
“Janus,” Edward said, obviously familiar with the visitor.
The man had dark hair and eyes and sharp features, along with a powerful, menacing aura that suggested he would sooner stab us with a knife than say hello. I could sense Edward’s worry.
“How are you here?”
“It is the gates; they are opening.” He glanced at everyone in a circle around him. “This is creepy. So far, I am the only one who can get out, but soon there will be others.” He focused on Dylan. “It is nice to finally meet you, young Guardian. I have heard more about you than I ever cared to know. Your father never lets up.”
“Oh. Please say hi to him for me when you see him again. Is the demon still in his cell?”
“Your demon? Yes. For now, he is still contained and unable to use magic. He spreads your name like it is the plague, with the encouragement of your father. According to half of my demons, you are taller than the highest building, have more power in one finger than Vretial ever had, and women throw themselves at your feet.”
That explained why the three demons ran when Dylan arrived.
Dylan put his head in his hands. “Why are the gates opening?”
“It is the balance. The gates were meant to be open, while the books were only a fall-back method. Actually, the truth is not even that simple; the books were created to limit the power of magic-users and world-travelers.”
“More control for the gods, yeah, but less for those who would abuse the power,” Dylan said. “It’s hard enough for law officers to chase a man across the state line, let alone another country; think of the trouble it would be if the outlaw could escape the world. Sure, the books limit some of the access to power, but most people would never miss it. Humans are known for surviving anything. If they had access to other worlds, there would be nothing stopping them from trying to rule the universe.” He looked at me. “I just figured out why we have to stop the gates from opening. It isn’t the demons; it’s the humans.”
“Sago would go to war with humans if humans even hinted at conquering Duran,” Edward said. “In fact, my people would perceive a friendly visitor as a messenger from the gods. They would not approve.”
“In fear of a takeover, Skrev would kill any visitor no matter how friendly,” Ghidorah said.
“Vaigda would blow up the home world of anyone who would challenge us and then release a deadly virus that attacks that particular species’ DNA,” Shiloh said. “Actually, ‘challenge’ might be a bit misleading. If any other species can create technology that comes into the same class as ours, the citizens of Vaigda would perceive it as a threat.”
Samorde hung his head in shame. “Enep would surrender at the first sign of intruders, no matter how friendly they were. Then Regivus would get angry and kill us all.”
“I think we have established we want the gates to remain closed. Can we get on to the part where he explains how to do that?” I asked. “How is the balance of the universe opening the gates?”
“The balance is the guiding force in the universe. Almost anything anyone does acts against it, so the balance must either compensate or fight back. I am afraid there has been too much in the recent past for the balance to compensate… now it is fighting back.”
“But all that stuff we did five years ago…” Dylan asked.
“You were healing the wounds caused by the imbalance, and it was enough to temporarily settle things down. The balance is more like gravity than a conscious being, but it has sort of an instinct. This instinct, when threatened as badly as it has been, is to turn the entire universe back to its original shape.”
“A factory reset. And people?”
“People are not part of the original design. Life was design of the universe; the natural occurrence. Intelligent creatures, such as people, were the creations of the gods. Even evolution was encouraged by the gods. There was never anything more damaging to the balance than the Iadnah, even before this universe was created. People would likely survive the gates opening, but I cannot promise that.”
“How do we keep it closed?”
“I do not know.”
“Who does?” Dylan asked. Instead of answering, Janus became smoke once more and disappeared through the void. The tear closed behind him. “Mordon, I’ll be right back. Please try not to get ambushed by any more demons.” He turned to Edward, paused, and turned back to me, holding out the sword. “Use this if you need. It’s enchanted with like eighty points disintegrate armor or something. You are in charge until I get back. Anybody have a question for your god?”
“Can you ask Avoli to make everyone on Lore excellent and driven swimmers?” Sammy asked. Ron nudged him hard in the stomach. “Oh, right, and we want the theme colors to be purple and green.”
“You don’t need the world to have theme colors,” I said.
“Well then, maybe the plants can be green and the sky can be purple,” Sammy suggested. Dylan vanished.
“That’s Dylan’s sword. How are you able to lift it?” Edward asked.
“It’s really light.”
“It’s really not. Azurath is a very rare metal and is unbelievably heavy. Ronez’s was made for him as the Guardian of Earth, so Dylan could use it since he is Ronez’s son and the Guardian of Earth. How you can hold it, I have no idea.”
I understood his confusion; I was aware of the stories.
Azurath was a legend of metals, and could only be forged into a weapon with the strongest of magic. As the magic could only be wielded by the one it was intended for, the black metal was unbearably heavy for anyone else. It was completely beyond me how I was capable of doing so when it was Dylan’s sword.
“Mordon is Dad’s brother,” Ron said.
“I am Ronez’s brother, and I cannot use it. I figured Dylan being able to lift it had more to do with Dylan being the Guardian of Earth than being Ronez’s son. Mordon isn’t even related to Dylan.”
“Not blood,” Sammy said with frustration. “It’s not about blood. Brother is the wrong word, but we don’t know the right one. Vretial can explain.”
“Vretial is not the good guy. You cannot trust him,” Edward said.
“There is too much distrust going around,” Ron said. “Shiloh’s council cannot work until you guys learn to trust. If you cannot trust the gods yet, at least start by trusting my father. He may not know what he’s doing, but he’ll never let you down.”
“Everyone acts like Dylan is amazing. What is so special about him?” Ghidorah asked.
“You will see soon,” Emrys said.
“Maybe. He has done little more than talk so far. He even failed to teach his children the dangers of dealing with Vretial. A parent should have his offspring hidden away at home, with their mother. Besides, I thought little children were supposed to take naps after lunch?” Ghidorah said, with a pointed look at Ron.
Ron gave a perfect little eye roll and dramatic sigh; an exact mimic of his father. “My mother is a god, my father is the most powerful Noquodi ever born, and my uncle is a three-thousand-year-old dragon with the heart of a knight. Do not patronize me.”
Sammy snickered. I got a horrible chill, as if I just saw a new side of Ron and there was much more to come.
Azyle turned to me and asked, “Did Dylan just say that you are in charge?�
�
I grinned.
Chapter 7
Dylan
Standing before all the gods who were lined up with unhappy expressions, I was beginning to feel like a messenger more than anything else. After all, wasn’t repeating what someone else said what a messenger did?
“How are the boys?” Divina asked before anyone else could demand information.
“Sammy wants a swimming pool and Ron wants the sky to be purple, but they’re good for now.” I wasn’t a very good messenger, it seemed. “Janus gave a visit.”
“We know. He was never meant to leave the void, and we know not why he did, but it is proof that the gates are open enough for the beasts to get out,” Regivus said.
“Yeah, he came to warn us that the gates were opening. I’m a little concerned that we aren’t all having Guardian warning dreams. So far, only Azyle and Emrys have had one.” And myself. I still wasn’t sure what it was.
“What are you not saying, husband?” Divina asked me privately.
“I don’t know yet. I think I had a warning dream.”
“You didn’t. Those visions are caused by the books, like a self-preservation tactic. Anything my book does to protect itself, I would know about it.”
“Then it must have been a regular dream,” I said, not believing it one bit. Something was holding me back. I knew it wasn’t just a dream, and I also knew Divina wasn’t telling me something. I loved her and trusted that she wouldn’t do anything to hurt me intentionally, but I wasn’t stupid. “If the gates open, what will happen to the books?”
“The books are losing their power the further open the gates become. Once they lose all magic, every person would have power equivalent to if they signed the book of their world. The Noquodi would lose the advantage they have from the gods. They would still be the most powerful wizards of their worlds, but it would only be because of their experience. They would also lose their immortality, meaning they would start aging again and would be more easily killed,” Enki said.
“So I would be---”
“You have Iadnah magic,” Divina interrupted. “You would still be a powerful wizard, but your mortal skills would be less than the other Noquodi because you have less experience. However, your Iadnah magic would be unaffected.”
