When We Were Mortals

by E. S. Mercer

  Elaina, who was screaming inside, sat down in her seat, crossed her ankles as only she would, and tried to look as regal and poised as possible. “We aren’t here for me,” she growled though a forced smile.

  He nodded that he understood and turned to address me. And to be honest, after all that time searching for answers, when he finally told me everything, I actually wished I had never asked.

  And why, you ask?

  Let me tell you. Well, let me first give you another quick history lesson so that my story makes a little more sense.

  You see, every time my father or Samiel used their powers, there was an after burn of energy expelled into the air, like the spray of a sneeze or cough. This ‘energy waste’ built up over time, and started ‘infecting’ people, causing them to be able to perform what they called ‘magic.’ Of course, this didn’t sit well with my father and he destroyed them. But, more and more of these magical beings kept popping up over time, so he realized he had to embrace what they were and use them to his advantage. He separated them from the rest of the population and heightened their ability to absorb the ‘waste’ so that they and only they would inherit its powers, no longer affecting anyone else. He forced most of them to live in their own realm, known as Magas, where they could protect their magic and keep it away from everyone. Others were sent to live on top the Holy Mountain of Peperit, the mountain said to the birthplace of the King and a temple erected to worship the Una Vis.

  Theses specific Magasians were known as ‘seers’ or oracles. These oracles could see time, future first, with no specific timeline to their prophecies. They could tell you what would happen but never be able to say how or when.

  Shortly before I was ‘born,’ one of the seers prophesied that the Una Vis would come to earth in the form of child. This child would be the physical embodiment of the Una Vis, as pure as the entity itself. It would come as a warning to its sons who had corrupted themselves in a search for power. The Una Vis realized this it was its own doing, because it had separated them into dark and light and vowed to give them one more chance to fix it before having to rectify this mistake.

  If the sons were to change their ways, the child would grow up to be a normal person, allowing them to keep their powers. It would still possess its power, but would not use it to harm them in any way. However, if the sons were to continue with their jealousy, hatred and need for control, the child would awaken and begin draining the sons of their powers, causing them to live out the rest of their lives as normal, mortal human beings. Their punishment, to never be reclaimed or remembered.

  My father passed it off as fairytale, refusing to believe that he had done anything wrong to be punished for. Even after the Monks found a small child wandering in the frigid peaks of the mountain, he still refused to believe. Samiel, however, believed and saw the child as a future ally and a friend.

  My mother, who had lost both her son and Ryan begged my father to raise the child, me, as her own. He hesitated, with no desire to raise a female child, one of the Magasians suggested that if I was in fact that child, it would be better to keep me within his sight. So, he allowed Seraphine to keep me as her own.

  When I first appeared, I had pale white skin with fiery red hair and goldenrod eyes, but as I attached myself to the woman I would call ‘mother,’ I began to change, looking more like her. My hair became a raven color to compliment the blue eyes that reflected hers. The moment I first touched her skin, mine changed, until I matched hers exactly until I became the spitting image of the daughter I knew she wanted.

  This terrified my father, who spent the next few years trying to figure out how to bind my power. He thought if he could bind it, I wouldn’t be able to fulfill the prophecy. But he couldn’t bind them, so he made me forget just how much power I had.

  When Samiel found out what his brother had done, he tried to reverse it. He needed me in his corner and as powerful as ever. Every chance he could get, he would try and remind me of who I was and what I was doing there. But soon, Hyperion caught on and made is so that no one, except for himself and Renu, could ever speak of who I was again.

  When I returned from my last ‘banishment,’ my father noticed a weakness in his power that he couldn’t deny, realizing that I subconsciously tapped into my ability to take it from him and forcing him to do something quite drastic.

  Now of course, you are thinking what I am thinking. You think that this is when he wiped my memory, scrubbed it clean and sent me to live as a mortal for the rest of eternity. And If that was the case, then I think I could have handled the news.

  Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t quite grasping any of this. To learn that I was the Una Vis, which was pretty much the mother of all living things, creator of the universe and an entity capable of destroying it, was not exactly the news I expected to get. But, it was less devastating than the rest of the story.

  “Wait, there’s more?” I asked Renu. “Isn’t that enough?”

  Not that he wouldn’t have told me the rest if I hadn’t asked, but I regretted it as soon as he continued.

  “Truth is Evangeline,” Renu said, sitting next to me, “what your father did next is something I never should have allowed.”

  “Did you really have a choice?” Elaina interjected.

  “Not really,” Renu replied. “But I could have tried to stop it somehow.”

  “Stop what?” I begged.

  “You are not exactly you,” he replied. “You are a copy, an identical copy of the person we all know as Evangeline.” My mouth dropped to the floor as Gabriel nearly fell off his chair. I mean, I had heard that before but I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me. Gabriel on the other hand, didn’t know anything about it.

  “A what?” Gabriel asked.

  “A copy,” Renu repeated. “Your father tried to destroy you. Well, the original you.” He went on to explain that after finding a weakness in his power, my father took me to the Mountain to request Magasian council. He said that my father convinced me that we needed to see what my behavior would do to the realm. However, when we arrived, I was ambushed by a different sect of Magasians who threw every type of magic at me, trying to destroy me. But, instead of killing me, it turned me into stone, putting me in a suspended state.

  In a reactive attempt to save myself, I conjured an exact replica, hoping to transfer my essence into her. But, their magic took hold before I could complete the transfer, splintering my essence and consciousness between the both of us and diluting my power severely. And now, that I was severely weakened, my father was convinced that he could permanently wipe my memory and cast me out with the rest of the mortals.

  “But I have seen glimpses of my power, I have dreamt of my past, I can even see the shadow people,” I cried.

  He had just told me I wasn’t real and I didn’t know how to cope with that. “It’s ok,” he said, trying to calm me down. But I could barely hear him over my heavy breathing and pounding headache as my hands, began to glow.

  “See!” I said, raising my hands. “I have power!”

  “Listen,” he said, gently grabbing my face with his oversized hands. “We can fix this.”

  Once my breathing slowed down, he let go and finished.

  “The reason you can see these things and feel what she feels is because you are essentially still her.” He realized my confusion when I looked at him cockeyed. “I shouldn’t have used the word copy. You are more like an extension of her. You have a connection with your original self that allows you to get a glimpse of what you really are.”

  “So how do we fix this so we can put her back together?” Gabriel shot up and asked. “That is the problem,” Renu replied. “Her father stashed her away and your brother and now father are on the hunt for her. If your father gets there first, I don’t what he will do.”

  “Where is she?” Gabriel asked.

  “You can’t go Gabriel,” Renu responded. “Your brother shouldn’t have gone either.”

  “Where?” Gabriel barked.r />
  Renu pleaded with Gabriel. “It’s not safe, you won’t do her any good if you get caught.”

  “Let that be my concern,” Gabriel growled, puffing up to a man quite a bit taller than him. Renu glanced over towards Ramiel who indicated with a simple look that anything Renu said would be in vain. He backed away from Gabriel and looked over at Elaina, hoping she would understand why he didn’t want to tell him. “She is with Leviathan.”

  “Oh no, we are definitely not going there!” Uriel demanded.

  “Why?” I asked. “Who is Leviathan?”

  “Hyperion’s son, the sin eater,” Gabriel replied, still staring at Renu.

  “Not his only son,” Renu muttered to himself, turning away.

  I, of course heard him, but was interrupted before I could ask him what he meant. “Leviathan eats Cimmerian’s for breakfast,” Uriel continued, going after Ramiel. “I cannot believe Michael went to face him and Raphael didn’t stop him! Why you didn’t stop him?”

  “The way Michael was acting, we didn’t have a choice,” Ramiel said, jumping out of her path.

  I shot up from my seat and began pacing, trying to figure out what to do next. “Ok, well, I’m just have to go then, by myself.”

  “You can’t go by yourself,” Alistair announced. “Leviathan is much stronger than you right now. Besides, there is only a few people I know of that have faced him and lived to talk about it.”

  “Who?” I asked.

  “The Gypsy Queen and her father,” he replied.

  “Ksenia and Constantine?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he replied.

  “But they vanished. The camp it was empty,” I said, still pacing. He shook his head. “They didn’t vanish, they move around so no one can find them. They left to save themselves from your father. They were never meant to interfere.”

  I stopped pacing. “So now what?”

  “Just because they believe they are undetectable doesn’t mean we can’t find them,” Renu replied.

  “Then find them please,” I begged. I turned to Gabriel who was still obviously shaken by the news. “So, last night, do you think that was her? Do you think that is why I thought it was a dream?”

  “It had to be,” he replied staring into my eyes. “Sometimes I see it and sometimes, like right now, I don’t.”

  “See what?” I asked, slightly insulted.

  “Her-- and the love she had for me,” he answered, turning away.

  “Meaning what?” I asked, grabbing his arm. “I’m not her so now you are over it?”

  “No, not at all,” he said, turning back to face me. “I am heartbroken and utterly mortified by what has happened to her.”

  I choked back tears. “But I am her.” He realized how selfish he was for not seeing how all of this made me feel. So, he grabbed ahold of me and just held me while I cried. “I know you are Eva,” he replied. “I know.”

  Chapter X

  I wish I could report that the brothers got to my body first, snatched it and saved the day. Or even that Leviathan hated his father so much that he vowed to do whatever he could to end all of this.

  Sadly, that isn’t the case. Don’t get me wrong, Leviathan hated his father, but he also hated just about every living thing, so finding something that would appeal to him was nearly impossible.

  The King’s only son, Leviathan had once been a vision of beauty and strength, perfectly sculpted to represent the Lumenarian bloodline with pride and honor. He was the man any other in Caelum wished to be. His intelligence and strength were not diminished by the beauty he possessed. Now I’m sure your saying to yourself, beauty is not a word that should describe a man. But, I am here to tell you, beauty is the exact word I should be using. Much like his Cimmerian cousins, Leviathan once looked as he was carefully and lovingly sculpted to perfection, chiseled out rare stone so that the gods could be modeled after him. His personality, equally exquisite, drew men and women to him much more than gifts ever did for me. He was his father’s pride and his mother’s joy, at least for a little while.

  Leviathan eventually found himself quickly losing favor with his father when his strong will and immense desires allowed him to only find joy in over-indulgence, lust and greed. Soon, his ‘hunger' for more became contagious, drawing in people who found life in paradise a tad boring. Hyperion grew angry and threatened to destroy Leviathan’s followers for their transgressions, unless they all repented.

  Leviathan refused, forcing his father’s hand. Seraphine begged for Hyperion’s mercy, keeping him from destroying her only son and those he cared about. He obliged his Queen, deciding that he would spare his son on one condition. That Leviathan would cleanse his people of their misgivings, by eating each and every ‘sin’ he had infected them with. But, he didn’t stop there. He had become so angry with how corrupt his son was, he cursed him to not only ‘eat’ their sins, to eat the sins of anyone who defied the laws of Caelum and it’s King.

  Imagining that his son would suffer the punishment and repent, Hyperion allowed Leviathan to remain in Caelum. However, he didn’t quite understand the torture he had put his son through.

  People committed sins faster than Leviathan could eat them and the sins he did eat, began to destroy him from the inside out, until he became devoid of any feeling.

  It drove the Prince mad. His whole life had been built upon his excessive desires, the need to feel everything and feel it stronger than anyone else. He needed to feel again, the more his curse took from him, the more he took from others, until he could no longer just eat the sins but their will to live and feel as well. In turn, those he drained, would drain others, his curse becoming theirs. Leaving Leviathan and his victims to walk the earth empty, hungry and ruthless.

  To prevent them from doing any more harm, the ‘cursed’ as they were called, were banished from all populated realms, forcing them to live in a realm underground known as Abyssus. This hell was devoid of life, preventing the curse to spread any further. However, to appease the broken heart of his Queen, Hyperion made sure his son was allowed some comfort in the void. Abyssus would be the final stop for those who had not learned their lessons as a mortal.

  To placate his own guilt, Hyperion went one step further allowing Leviathan, and he alone, to enter the mortal realm for one day, every one hundred years so he could feed. He could keep his prey as long as they returned to the void with him.

  He would seduce his them, men and women alike, with visions of a life full of whatever they desired, in excess. The greater the desire they felt, the quicker he was able to feed off of them. He fed off their life-force, their ‘essence’ as he called it, sucking the soul out of everyone he came across, leaving them ghostlike and empty. But he grew tired of mortals, as they were weak, leaving him hungry for more.

  To get his hands on anyone who still had their tether would be a treat, allowing him to feed for days before draining them dry. But to have a pureblood, like any of Samiel’s children, would give him an unlimited supply to feed from and the only thing the man could truly covet.

  Knowing this Samiel thought for sure he could strike a deal with the Dark Prince.

  Michael and Raphael, for me. “Although I appreciate the offer, I do think you are getting the better end of the deal,” Leviathan hissed, through his tongue and equally sharp teeth. His curse had distorted and evolved him, making him exquisitely grotesque yet oddly appealing.

  "How so?” Samiel asked.

  “Her essence smells much stronger and sweeter,” Leviathan answered. “It is so pure!”

  He slithered around my body, trying to get just a tiny whiff. “It is almost god-like.”

  “And yet you cannot touch it,” Samiel noticed. “How sad.” “It is torture,” Leviathan wheezed.

  “So, appease your hunger take my sons,” Samiel offered. “I assure you they will not disappoint.”

  Michael, who like his brother was now forced to his knees with a knife to his throat, made his feelings very clear. “This isn’t going to
work, as soon as Eva finds out, she will come for us.”

  “How? When she is right here?” Leviathan asked.

  “Well, yes and no,” Samiel replied. “There is another version of her floating around somewhere. Turns out, she can make copies of herself.”

  Leviathan tapped his long, crooked, chalky finger on my stone cheek. “Well then, why can I not have her clone?”

  “Her clone does only shares a fraction of her essence,” Samiel replied. “My son’s will give you what you need.” The monster turned towards the brothers, hissing as bent down to their level. “You are just going to sit there and let him trade you?” Leviathan asked the brothers. “If I were you, I would put up a little bit more of a fight.”

  “Maybe if you two would stop talking, we could plead our case,” Michael retorted.

  Leviathan snickered and turned to Samiel, “and if I gave her to you, what would you do with her?”

  “Well, wake her up of course,” Samiel replied.

  Leviathan slithered around the brothers, inhaling their essence and shuddering with excitement. “You don’t think my father has tried?”

  He dug his nail into Michael’s chin, forcing him to stand up, changing the subject. “Why would you let him trade you for her?”

  “I would die for her,” Michael answered, chivalrously. Leviathan leaned in, dragged his nose across Michael’s neck, inhaling once again. “Our fathers are weak,” he said, licking his lips. “They destroy most of what they cannot control and exploit the rest.”

  “Maybe so,” Raphael replied, standing to his feet to face him. “But as their sons, it’s our job to stop them and to remind them of the mistakes they have made.”

  “And do they listen?” Leviathan barked, lunging at him. “We are here because they choose fear and jealousy over everything else.”

  “And we can change that, together,” Raphael pleaded. “Stand with us and fight. Let us free her so she can do her job.” “Why? What is she to all of you?” Leviathan asked. “What is so important about this woman? Is she not simply just a child of Hyperion and Seraphine, like me?”