Original Souls (A World Apart #1)
Page 49
I wondered if Sebastian had already gone to pick up the pieces of the World he sought to bring to its knees. I just can't understand people’s lust for power. There's so much more to enjoy. That thought prompted me to grab Anvard’s hand. I don't care if he's mad at me or not. I just want him to know how I feel. As I locked my fingers in his, he finally turned to me and gave a little eye contact.
"Don't worry," he said with his accent sounding a little thicker than usual, "it will work out, I can feel it." He was lying. He didn't seem remotely sure of it, and he shouldn't have been. The Tydrahn released the orb of light from its mouth just like in my dream. Most of the scenarios in my recurring dream had played out already. In different sequences, but still they occurred. All but one. The figure made of pure blazing light that tried to save me from having my face melted off never showed. Neither had my face been melted off, so I wasn't exactly sure how to interpret all that.
Our lady was close, but still too far away. The lightning flashed out of the Tydrahn's mouth, headed right at Delphi. I grabbed hold of Anvard. I didn't want to look, so I tucked my head into the side of his chest. "Oh, my goodness!" Lindle shouted, but in a jovial tone, which was something very unexpected.
I turned back to the hologram screen to see the lightning of the Tydrahn being countered by a large force of multicolored energies. The ministrants weren't going down without a fight. Even some students joined in. Massive force waves pulsated from both wands and llaves alike. They were fighting back, but just barely. The Tydrahn's lightning started pushing them hard. Stray sparks flew out of its mouth, electrocuting some of the other teachers and students running around the grounds in horror. They were flung around in every direction as the green-scaled animal, with the face of a tiger, roared impossibly loud.
They looked to be out of resistance juice when the creature suddenly stopped attacking them. The orb of light disconnected from its host, and the large beast flapped its wings sporadically in their direction, blowing person after person away. But the beast wasn't attempting to attack them with the wind force of its wings. It was trying to turn around. Somehow, it got wind of our approaching Trifecta star card. She moved at such a faster rate than the dreaded Tydrahn that she caught up with it quickly.
She didn't waste a second either. As the beast tried to turn its large body to face her, she struck it in the side with her ample sword. The pained screams were higher pitched than the screeching battle cries it howled when it busted out of the temple earlier. The beast started to falter as she withdrew her sword. But instead of tumbling to the ground, it shot up into the moonlit sky, crying loudly like the wounded animal it was. We cheered, hopping that our girl had changed the game. She did, and now we needed her to finish the job. But instead of doing that, she just hovered there over the Delphi building. She stared out into space as aimlessly as when she was with us in the temple. That's when it dawned on me.
"Put in another attack! Now Lindle!" He was closest to the board. He kept inching forward, from behind Anvard’s back, as we watched the Trifecta closing in on the Tydrahn a minute ago. He and I rushed over to the ELD. We pressed the same attack again and hit cast. Hopefully, she'd respond immediately. We don't want the beast recovering from the blow she got in already. Not one bit.
Or all the way! Which it appeared to have already done, recovered fully. A lonely beam of white lightning descended from the skies above our darling Trifecta card. She never knew what hit her. She immediately exploded to pieces, sending little fire balls spitting toward the Diamond Atrium and the surrounding areas of Delphi.
We three were speechless as the screen went blank and disappeared. Leaving us in the pretty dark room, only illuminated by the glowing shards of glass that passed back and forth by our heads, down to our feet, and all about the high ceilings of the temple.
"I don't get it," Lindle announced. "Why does the Tydrahn move like it’s got a will of its own, but we have to make each move like we're playing the real game?"
He didn't get it, but I knew exactly why. "That's only one of many reasons why Sebastian so desperately wanted the Nexus. He's controlling the Tydrahn." They both looked overwhelmed by my assertion. And I could feel the sensation of grief that flooded Anvard’s heart. He couldn't imagine life without his annoying little sisters. They were two of his greatest friends.
"Where is he?" Anvard barked abrasively at me.
"Where's who?" Lindle asked.
"I'm not talking to you, Curly, so just shut it!" Anvard was off his rocker. "This is your fault!" He turned back to me with tears in his eyes. He normally resembled a delightful puppy, but now he looked more like a pit-bull. He had it out for me. I could feel it in his heart and his mind. He put his fist to his head and knocked on his own skull vigorously. "What!? You don't think I can feel you poking around up here. I'm not stupid, Corinth. I know all about your abilities. I probably know more about them than you do!" His hands suddenly shot toward the ceiling. He paced back and forth in front of me like a madman. "You're a selfish little bastard. And I'll take you down myself if you don't tell me where Sebastian is. Right now!"
This was a new gear for him. Everything he did up until this point was to protect me. Now he threatened my life. And I have no known way of providing him with the information he wanted. I guess I found that flaw I was looking for behind the glowing pink eyes of the thought to be perfect fourteen-year-old boy? But no one's perfect. Not one of us. "Andy, I don't have any idea how to do that," I said quietly.
But he wasn't trying to hear it. "LIAR!" he shouted, charging toward me and gripping me up by my neck, lifting me clear off my feet.
"Anvard! Stop, it’s Corinth!" Lindle looked more than shocked… as his attempt to settle Anvard’s temper… was blatantly ignored.
He looked me dead in eyes as tears continued pouring down his face. But he wasn't sad in appearance. Just mad. "Did you really think you were going to get off on this one that easy? You just destroyed a whole towns worth of people—my sisters!" his voice cracked as he choked back more tears. He started wiping them away dramatically, trying to stay tough and intimidating.
Just then, Lindle slammed a fixture from the wall behind the floating Creative Window over his head. He dropped like a stone, and I stumbled backwards, hitting the damp ground. "I didn't want to hurt him but . . ."
"No, I understand. Thanks." He simply nodded in my direction.
"What do we do now?" he asked me, rubbing his shoulder, purposefully looking away from Anvard's unconscious form sprawled out on the ground.
"Remember Señor -Huntzmen’s speech… what Walker just told us too?” He nodded again.“The light figure in my dream too?” More nods.“I’m thinking there’s a connection. We have to find the Shattered Temple’s Guardian."
Chapter 26:
Guarding The Tomb
May 23, 1002 ~ Nightfall
Sebastian wasn't feeling well at all. His mind, so clouded. Much more so than Corinth's was with the weight of an Original Soul weighing down on him. It was quite a hardship to be ripped from the mind of the pure young boy and thrust into the warped world of a maniac.
"The people, they're fighting the beast with all their might." Sebastian said to Camil as they walked down the last passageway to the Guardian's tomb.
"Interesting," she retorted unsympathetically. "And we planned for that. You didn't expect them to drop dead willingly, did you?"
"Hold your tongue if that's all you have to say," he growled. "I'm having a hard enough time with controlling the beast, and now the Guardian must be kept at bay as well. Neither you, nor Cade mentioned this little problem before we allowed that abominable child to unseal the window,” he seethed with pain as he used the wall to guide each unbalanced step he took.“Raising the temple from the depths of the lake was the only obstacle stated to me."
She stopped, turning aroundright as a shard unaffectedly passed through her lovely face. She didn't so much as flinch when it crossed between her forehead and eyes, disappearing beyond her sigh
t. "Why didn’t you know any of this yourself? You couldn't even perform the ritual on your own. Very simple words to be spoken, and yet you needed assistance. Being a Secretist and being weak are not synonymous. These were your plans, Sebastian, not mine. Yet you required more help than any of the others."
He leaned against the wall for support, grabbing at his chest like he’d soon have a heart attack. "Well, do forgive me for assuming we were to work together."
Her green-eyed stare gave him no relief. She had been subservient until this point. He couldn't figure out her game, though he possessed the skills of the Nexus. He was torn between the battle with the school's ministrants, holding the temple's Guardian inside of its tomb, and the mental anguish inflicted upon him by my resistance. Little did he know that I could crush his mind from within, without so much as a slight ripple in time pulsing out. But it is better that this play out in real time, without me, the Nexus, interfering.
They continued to walk on, reaching their destination. A circular sheet of rock, rolled carefully in front of the mouth of a cave. A series of bars, similar to that of a prison, were peeled back. They'd been opened by an unlikely source, much to the Chancellor's surprise. "Who's been down here?" He looked to Camil and then behind himself. The two Draconian Squadron members that dragged Evan all this way looked unfazed by their surroundings. The goons had nothing to say, but Camil wasn't so shy.
With a malevolent posture, she stepped away toward the gate in front of the tomb. Sebastian turned back to her with shock in his eyes, as Cade turned the corner from behind the bars. The two met up with one another in front of the shiny boulder that covered the opening to the tomb. Cade clapped as he grinned widely at the old pale fool before him.
"What a masterful job we've all done getting to this point." His smile, so deranged that it even gave Sebastian the creeps, the lord of weird glares. He put his arm around Camil's shoulders and gave her a wet kiss that she seemed to very much enjoy. The reach around her body stretched his black suit. Her being a tall woman, combined with the high heels she wore, put her on par with Cade height wise.
"Cade, what is the meaning—"
He cut Sebastian off swiftly. "Trust me, friend, when I say that I truly mean you no personal harm. Still, this process was ordained ages ago. Only now do we have the means to carry it all out. Corinth, or the abomination as you may know him, he's the rightful wielder of the Nexus, my old friend. Not you."
Sebastian couldn't contain himself. He nearly let the Tydrahn fall from the high skies where it lurked waiting to attack the school on his command. "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded a simplistic answer. Spit flew from his lips. He was nowhere near them, yet Cade wiped his lapel, as if Sebastian’s ocean of saliva had washed up on the shores of his jacket. Cade walked closer to him with a domineering strut that ticked the old man off. "What's your game, Cade? I possess -the Nexus. We can destroy the town now, and rebuild under—"
"You? Under you, Sebastian?" Cade said these things for him, while pointing at the Chancellor in a condemning fashion.
"Well, yes that was the plan," Sebastian choked out, while he tried to silence the awakening of the temple's Guardian from behind the large stonewall.
"No, old man, that was your plan," Cade admitted. "We," he turned and gestured toward Camil, she nodded respectfully, "made other arrangements. Like—sticking to our links on the Chain of Divinity. You, on the other hand, decided that you'd rule the Worlds, instead of our master carrying out his original plan."
Sebastian actually appeared afraid. "I ... I was only planning this for a short while. Until things were stable enough—"
"Stable! Ha!" Cade hissed. "He speaks of stability as if that were our goal!" He leaned close at Sebastian's face. Much to the old man’s dismay. "We aren't running a stable operation here." He pulled anyway, walking back to his beloved, Camil. "The Guardian will be released," he said quietly. Then he turned to gauge Sebastian's reaction to his words.
And react he did. "What! That will undo all that we've worked for."
"That's the plan!" Cade chirped enthusiastically. "I mean, did you honestly think that your link was a one way street only?" Sebastian had no idea what he was referring to about his link in the chain. Severity was something he knew well. That's why he was charged with it. A Secretist didn't make mistakes. Sebastian knew he had carried out his duties with dignity. "Sebastian, you didn't think that you were only to hand out a severe punishment to the people," Cade laughed at him. "No, no, no! You too . . . were meant to endure it!" His emphatic behavior riled up both Camil and Sebastian. But in very different ways. She giggled as the older gentleman turned deathly pale.
"I achieved the impossible. I unsealed the window. The temple has risen. And neither the Nexus nor this so called 'Guardian,'" he angrily gestured toward the tomb, "can do a damned thing about it!"
"No, the child achieved the impossible. A mind like yours isn't fit to house the Nexus. I suspect that even you knew this. To do what we have planned, we must have a layered operation. Not just strike at the wind like lunatics. As I’ve been informed, that’s exactly what you did with that beast. A mindless animal from a card game. Who, I ask, plans such a childish adventure to lure a boy here? A man, who is just as naive as a child himself, is the perfect answer. Even the boy's friends thought it was an idiot's idea to travel out here. Lucky you, that the foolish Walker is a double agent,” he paused to assess his own statement,“of sorts, I suppose." He decided he wasn’t completely off key with his assertions about the well-read fellow that saved Corinth.
"I even disposed of that odd intruder that tried to rescue the boy!” Sebastian thought he’d done more than expected of him. He had, but didn’t quite understand the message that; less is sometimes more.
“Oh, of course you did! There is no other logical explanation,” Cade dismissed him. Which spurred Sebastian to justify himself further.
“The boy is here, that was the plan. I forced his father to bring him here. I made all of this possible," he said with grandeur as his hands rose in the air.
"To some degree, you are right. You've served your intended purpose then. Now you are released, go ... retire. You look so beat anyway, old man." Cade grinned again. "But don't forget to leave the Nexus, of course."
"It’s mine now, and I'll use it to destroy you both! All of you, in fact. My will is stronger than its own. It will obey me!"
"I think not, friend. Yes, your will is strong. Myself and the other Secretists even placed wagers on it. I thought you'd give out before the boy even got to Hyperborean. Looks like I owe a few of our pals some coin. But nevertheless, you are too weak minded. A fool, truly."
That last statement rang throughout Sebastian's mind. It's all that I can hear him thinking about. It dug up memories he didn't want to recall. He decided in that moment that he was through with his Secretist position. And through with Cade and Camil. He actually trusted her, until this point. She was very good at creating belief and disbelief. Her link on the chain being Depth. A distinct ability to invade, infiltrate the largely uncharted recesses of places and even people's feelings, creating false trust, among other things.
"Your mind is too clouded," Cade informed from in front of the series of bars to the tomb. "Withered by age and deceitfulness. The Nexus doesn't require someone strong of will, it needs someone dynamic of mind. That's why the other psychics forecasted that it would be conceived into the mind of a mixed race child. Who more torn and neediest of coping mechanisms than one of them. And now here we are. The search through all eight Worlds is well over. We've found that child."
"I found that child!" Sebastian barked in a searing shout.
"Yes, lucky you that one of your Squadron men is his father. It couldn't have been any simpler for you, could it have?" He turned his back to Sebastian and looked to the beautiful Camil. "I would love to chat further about this Sebastian, but I'm on a tight schedule. Camil, darling, I beg of you to complete this final stage of our mission here tonight."
Without hesitation, Camil walked up to the boulder that covered the mouth of the tomb and placed her hand on the metal plated golden hand imprint. It lit up when she touched it. Burning brighter than the sun in the deep bows of this great temple built into the fallen mountain. She shut her eyes while rotating it clockwise, allowing it to strike eight notches before it crumbled beneath her fingertips. She smirked as she moved away, and then the tomb began opening up behind the dust of the disintegrating stonewall.
The wall that formerly blocked the Guardian from rising to defend the temple was now gone. Turned to debris by the manual release Camil initiated. The darkness inside the tomb was soon illuminated by the emerging light within. As the form of a person, it came rushing out past Camil and Cade, stopping in front of Sebastian. He -continued to will the Nexus to keep the Guardian at bay, but that was no longer an option. I could do nothing of the sort for him. The human form, made of pure light, took its right hand and reached into Sebastian’s chest. It reached even into his soul.