by JK Ensley
“Anything, Little Fire.”
“Entreat Father on my behalf concerning Ardune and Hunter.”
Nilakanta glanced up at the two warriors—half frozen in grief, the evidence of which now marked their cheeks—and back down to his beloved Guardian.
“I know not why they are in Sheol,” she rasped. “But those two amazing men carry more honor than most I have known. Were it not for their might… I fear you would have shown up too late, Brother. You would have had to remove that necklace from my cold, motionless statue.”
Nilakanta wiped the tears from her face and kissed her cheek. “Father knows all that transpired here, Little Fire. He heeded your prayers, yet turned not a blind eye—as you had asked. He wished you success in your crucible, Kagi Naga. Now…” He gently tucked her curls back behind her ear. “Is there any other treasure you wish never to part with?”
Jenevier drew in a ragged breath and nodded. “If Father will allow it… I would like to keep the blood ruby Varick gifted me, and Finnean’s warrior shield.”
Nilakanta smiled. “As it should be.”
He held up the caged blood ruby, and then the Celtic medallion. Blowing his magical breath upon each yielded an ornate ring in their likeness.
Nilakanta gently kissed her forehead before slipping the large, intricate ruby ring onto her left pointer finger.
Jenevier looked down at it. “Why is there a cross-shaped cage over the stone?” She slowly lifted her other hand. “The same holds true with the ring Michael gifted me. A black cross is set atop Vashti’s glowing red.”
“The cross is a symbol of great sacrifice… spanning across all layers, throughout all time. These rare powers you were gifted, they came at great expense and sacrifice, Little Fire. Sometimes from you… sometimes from the gifter. These crosses symbolize such.” He smiled softly. “Nothing is ever free, Naga, is it?”
“No,” she whispered. “Every curse has a blessing…”
“And every blessing has a curse. As it should be.” He slid the large shield-shaped ring adorned with a golden cross onto her finger. “Finnean knew this truth as well.”
Jenevier could no longer contain her bitter tears. She wrapped her arms around her beloved Dragon’s now human neck, and squeezed him as he tenderly kissed the side of her head.
He held her like that a few moments—Jenevier upon his lap, her broken body pressed firmly against his shattering heart. Nilakanta quaked inside—a desolate, helpless feeling… unlike any he had ever known.
Again, she heard the faint sound of an arrow being loosed. Nilakanta roared half a heartbeat before Jenevier felt the searing pain in her shoulder blade. In but a blink, her Dragon was gone. She waited helplessly in the sand, propped up against the Kappa’s stone form… trying desperately to catch her next pained breath.
When a sparkling, ethereal creature slammed into the ground in front of her, Jenevier couldn’t fully grasp what was happening.
Then, Nilakanta landed atop the felled Guardian with a sickening thud, and jerked Valencia up upon her unsteady, trembling legs.
“Wha… How…” Jenevier mumbled as Nilakanta tore the bow from the other woman’s hands. “How… How did you come to be here?”
Valencia didn’t speak, only jerked free… then glared at the ferociously powerful Dragon-man before her.
Nilakanta raised a single eyebrow as he took a step toward her. “The lady’s asking you a question, she-Guardian.” He smiled with only one corner of his mouth. “Best answer her… unless you’d like to go another round with me, that is. Ahh… it would be my pleasure.” He mockingly bowed.
Valencia growled under her breath, before spitting bright red blood out upon the sand. She flinched as she reached up and lightly touched her busted lip, then opened and closed her mouth to ensure that her jaw wasn’t actually broken.
She slowly turned to face Jenevier. “How do you think I got here, you infuriating little fool?” She hastily wiped at her bloodstained chin. “You locked me inside a decrepit old man! When his body finally gave out, I woke up in this place.” She waved her hands, signifying the whole of that darkened realm.
Nilakanta snatched Valencia by her long silver hair, roughly jerking her back against him as he pressed his lethal sapphire claws to her iridescent throat.
“Mind your tone, Guardian,” he coolly warned.
Valencia laughed—a twisted, maddening kind of sound.
“When I heard Ahriman had lured you here, I couldn’t believe my luck. I knew Father would never allow you to enter Arcadia. I just knew it!” She hardened her glare. “You belong here in Sheol with the rest of us, Death Angel. I was simply ensuring you awaited your punishment… frozen in stone.”
“As will you, she-Guardian,” Nilakanta hissed.
Jenevier watched, numbly detached, as her beautiful Dragon-man ripped that hated Guardian into tiny, sparkling pieces of marble.
Since her statue could not easily be removed, the arena cleaners simply kicked Valencia’s broken bits off to the side.
Jenevier only came back to reality when Nilakanta slowly pulled the arrow from her back.
Her pitiful cries brought Ardune to his knees, tears flooding down his dark cheeks.
Nilakanta held her, gently stroking her curls. “Shhh, little one. The time is at hand.” He kissed her forehead. “Are you finished, Little Fire?”
“Almost,” she barely rasped. “But there is one last thing.”
Nilakanta watched as Jenevier raised a trembling hand, reaching for her left bicep.
“I want you to have this,” she said, coughing up a bit of blood. “I gift this to you, Brother.”
Nilakanta held out his hand as she dropped her binding band into his palm.
“Vittorio gifted me that treasure many, many years ago. It holds great magic.” She placed her hand atop it in his. “With this… you can bind. Bind someone to you, or to your will. And if you ever have the need, you can unbind as well. But the magic only works for the one who has received it as a gift of love.” She looked up at him. “Accept my loving gift, beautiful Dragon. Never part with it. Promise me.”
Nilakanta bit his lip as tears trickled off the tip of his nose.
“It is a treasure I shall never be parted from,” he whispered. “Alas, the only creature I wish bound to me… is you, Little Fire.”
Jenevier smiled with only one corner of her mouth as she tried to pull in another haggard breath.
Nilakanta gently kissed her forehead, holding his lips there as he whispered, “I love you with every tiny piece of my crumbling heart.” He softly kissed her again. “Now…” He sniffed, then looked into her weary eyes. “Are you finished, Little Fire?”
She barely nodded her head, trying hard to swallow down the rising blood.
“Yes, Dragon. I am finished.”
He squeezed her to him, his bitter tears falling soft atop her golden curls.
“I only wish…” she whispered. “I only wish I was absent all these damn sapphires. I tire of the visual affirmation of my many mistakes.”
Nilakanta gently lifted her chin. “But you are, Naga. Your scars faded as you prayed. When you stepped into this arena, you were as pristine and whole as you were the day you first stepped into Vanahirdem… save this.” He lifted her tattooed hand and tenderly kissed it.
Jenevier smiled as she gazed at the intricate dark patterns swirled across her fair skin.
“And that is one reminder I will gladly take to my grave,” she whispered softly.
“You are the most glorious creature I have ever beheld. None are your equal, Little Fire.”
“So… my scars are gone…” She reached up then and felt the now smooth skin of her left cheek. “…I hadn’t even noticed.”
“You don’t need this anymore, either,” Nilakanta said, removing Michael’s collar from about her neck. “I am all but certain there is someone else that demanding Arch would like to jerk around in the future. I will see that he gets this.”
When Jenev
ier began coughing up blood, mingled with bile… her devoted Dragon carefully wiped it from her quivering chin.
“I will miss you, Brother,” she barely whispered.
“I will see you again, Kagi Naga. I promise.”
She smiled as she slowly closed her eyes. “…I will… hold you to that… Brother.”
*****
“Anicee?”
“She is ready for you now,” Nilakanta softly said.
Jenevier tried to open her eyes.
“Anicee, my love… I have come, just as I promised.”
When she had managed to barely raise a single eyelid, Jenevier saw the lower half of Varick’s smiling face.
“Is it really you?” She tried to open her eyes the rest of the way. “Are you truly here?”
“Yes, my love. I told you I was preparing a place for you. Remember?”
She tried to nod.
Varick smiled again. “I have come to take you home, precious Angel. We will never again be parted.”
“You mean… I get to live with you?”
Varick chuckled. “I hope that’s all right. I designed the place with only you in mind. It would be a shame if you did not join me there.”
“Then… I will not be nailed up within my own mountain prison?” Her chest made a sickening rattling sound when she tried to draw in a breath. “I will not be punished as were those other Angels?”
“Of course not, my love. All has been forgiven you. Besides… do you truly believe you are as evil as the soul-eater?” Varick smiled his angelic, breathtaking smile. “Your punishment, dearest Anicee… is an eternity with me.”
Jenevier then glanced beyond her loving Guardian and beheld the lighted opening to another, magical-looking realm.
“Come.”
When Varick took her hand, Jenevier’s pain suddenly vanished. She felt as light as air, swollen with nothing but love and peace.
“Your home awaits you, my love,” he softly said. “I designed the main palace to favor yours upon Jinn… but with so much more.”
“Am I dreaming?” she whispered.
“Only if I am as well.” Varick gently kissed her hand. “When did I first notice how slim and beautiful your fingers were?”
She glanced at the stunning, ethereal man at her side.
He smiled as he stretched out one of her curls. “Never have you looked more radiant, my love… as enchanting as a moonlit lake… as breathtaking as a cloudless night.” He pulled her closer, wrapping his arm around her waist. “I will worship at the shrine of your radiant smile, throughout all eternity.”
Tears filled her eyes. “Am I dead? Is my hell to be one where I am tormented by the beautiful memory of you… by the wretched loss of you?”
“Do you believe my praise to be tormenting?”
“If it were real… no. Alas, I have not lived nearly good enough to be blessed thusly.”
Varick chuckled. “Perhaps not, but I have.”
Jenevier turned to face him fully, yet did not speak.
Varick smiled as he tucked her curls behind her ears. “Father found favor in me while I was yet young. He set me up as judge, even used a literal piece of me to create a brand new soul.” He lightly kissed the tip of her nose. “And that soul… that most precious new creature…” He smiled. “She was a handful, to be sure.”
Jenevier blushed. Varick chuckled.
“The blessings Father poured out upon you for my sake…” he whispered. “…never has there been the like.”
“You mean… all that I am was for you? For your glory?”
“For my reward,” he said softly. “No matter how you erred, you were created to be my bride, to be my Anicee. Father kept blessing you, kept building you up, so that when the time finally came… you would be exactly who you are… right now.”
“But, Varick… I was not worthy of you when first we met, and even less so now.”
“Not true, my love. You have been reborn. Not a scar, not a blemish, not a single mark your torrential existence left upon you yet remains. You are as exquisite as the first day you laid eyes upon me, upon Vanahirdem.”
When they stepped through the brightened portal to another realm, Jenevier never once looked back. Her gaze remained fixed upon the one she had always loved. The only one she was ever meant to love.
“If you were so favored, Varick… why did Father curse you with one such as me? You know me better than anyone, sweet Prince. You know how badly I err.”
“Such was not always the case… not until you met me.” He sighed softly. “What I did to you during your training… that sin was laid upon my head. And… partly as my punishment and partly as his… you were delivered unto another. That was but the first snowflake in the avalanche that would become your life. Yet, through it all—”
“I was being made worthy of you.”
“That is not the whole of it, no. Many other people and events and things came into play. You had much to do, Anicee. Much was required of you. Yet, in the end… you would be eternally mine.”
She chuckled. “Even if it killed me.”
Varick smiled. “Even if it killed us both, yes.”
The smiling Guardian pulled her close and kissed her, sending Jenevier’s elated mind into a slow, blissful spin. When he slowly withdrew, she remained frozen as she was—eyes closed, joy highlighting her every feature.
“Anicee,” he whispered. “Welcome to your eternal home, my love. Welcome… to Arcadia.”
When he turned her around, Jenevier slowly opened her eyes to behold a scene far beyond her imagination.
Lavender fields stretched out as far as the eye could see. The whole realm seemed to be buzzing with joyful activity—elegant butterflies and colorful Pixies, playful kittens and majestic tigers, wobbly puppies and massive wolves—all lived happily within her lovely purple garden.
“As you see them now… is how they will always remain,” Varick said. “Each creature left its own realm in its own time, and here they will remain, always. This is their home, their paradise… and yours as well.”
“…Can I pet them?”
He chuckled. “As if anyone could stop you.” He lightly tugged on one of her curls. “There is no war on Arcadia. No strife. No hatred. Nothing to fear. Every creature is safe here… and every creature lives in perfect, loving harmony.”
As if to emphasize his words, a wolf—nearly as tall as she was—sniffed Jenevier’s hand before licking her there.
“How can this be real?” she whispered. “How can I be this lucky?”
“I am the lucky one, Anicee.” Varick hugged her from behind. “Father is too gracious.”
Jenevier nodded, then smiled. “And I am so happy that He is.”
A little striped kitten playfully swatted at the intricate lace hem of the flowing white dress Jenevier hadn’t even realized she was now wearing.
“Looks like you have an admirer,” Varick said through a soft chuckle.
Happy tears filled Jenevier’s eyes as she lifted the tiny meowing furball and nuzzled it against her shining cheek.
“I think he likes you,” Varick whispered.
“Then we are of like-mind.” She giggled, then kissed the purring kitten. “I’m gonna love you so much you’ll pop, little one.”
The kitten playfully batted at one of her curls.
When Jenevier laughed again, the many other animals began to migrate toward them.
“Varick?” She turned back to face him. “Those horses, there.” She pointed. “The one on this side looks like Epona.”
“That’s because it is Epona. She has been waiting for you.”
When Jenevier started to run toward the beautiful golden horse, Varick grabbed her wrist and turned her back to face him. When he smiled, she melted… again.
He lifted her tattooed hand to his perfect lips and gently kissed her ring finger. It began to softly glow.
Jenevier gasped, tears fast filling her sparkling blue eyes.
“…Varick…�
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She watched in sheer joy as Varick’s treasured manacle was once again made manifest upon her tiny hand.
“Welcome home, Anicee,” he softly said.
Then… he kissed her.
*****
Father smiled as He gazed down upon the now-happy couple. Jenevier—rocking back and forth in the tree swing just outside her new palace home, two kittens in her lap and another one upon her shoulder. Varick—leaned up against that same tree, smiling fondly at his beloved Anicee, laughing aloud when the tiny yellow kitten got tangled within her flowing curls. A truer vision of heaven there had never been.
Father’s smile grew. “As it should be,” He whispered to Himself, slipping Jenevier’s trinket-laden chain around His neck. “Yes… As it should be.”
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About the Author
JK Ensley is a native Tennessean by way of Missouri, born there and quickly ushered down South. A product of public school and private college, she spent her early twenties bouncing across the country. Fascinated by rich culture, ancient customs, and thick accents, she’s compelled to drink in the many exquisite differences humanity is gifted with. A self-described, happily divorced mother of three with a black belt in sarcasm and an über common minivan, she does little to hide her wicked wit, advanced sarcasm, and extreme shoe addiction. “At the core of me, I’m one slightly twisted, pink haired, sword wielding, invisible ninja with a laptop, an imagination, and very little me time. That’s just who I am. I’m comfortable in my skin and I love my life. Totally not kidding about the hair, the swords, or the laptop, but I might’ve stretched it just a little with the invisible part.”
You can find Jennifer at the following locations:
http://www.facebook.com/ADancewithDestiny
http://www.jkensley.com
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