Mira laughed, clapping her hands. “That was beautiful!”
We flew past the cluster, which was now reduced to mere ripples on the ocean’s surface and lingering pieces of debris. Each pulverizer pellet had a certain amount of physical mass that it could destroy, which was why I’d needed both clips of two thousand rounds each in order to wipe out the entire fleet. And I didn’t have a single regret.
“We could do a lot with weapons like these.” Kemi’s eyes were wide with awe and wonder. “How do they work?”
“Trust me, you don’t want this kind of firepower,” I said glumly. “We only use them if we don’t have other options, and even then, it’s a drag—the pulverizer pellets can destroy an entire being in under a second. No one should have this in their arsenal.”
“But you do,” Kemi muttered.
“We have a strict moral code we adhere to,” I said. “I don’t think GASP would share this technology with Visio until you prove you can use it wisely. Imagine if the Lady Supreme or the Master of Darkness got their hands on something like this.”
Indeed, imagine.
What hell they would’ve unleashed upon anyone they considered an enemy, given their already bloody track record. Both Kemi and Mira seemed to agree, but Arya’s response was the one I liked most.
“I guess we’ll just have to win this war and prove ourselves worthy of wielding such weaponry,” she said. “I have faith in my people.”
“Good. We need that the most,” I replied. “We’ve got Reapers and ghouls on our side, as well. I think you’ll find our alliance to be quite colorful and diverse.”
“And the Unending?” Mira asked.
“She’s working hard to remember who she is,” I said. “It’s not an easy journey, as you yourself stated, but I have faith in her.”
“No matter what happens, we’re stronger together,” Kalon chimed in, giving me a confident and encouraging smile. “We’ve got more friends today than we did yesterday. That alone should give us the edge we need against the Darklings.”
I wholeheartedly wanted to agree with Kalon, so I gave him a single nod. Deep down, however, I was filled with all kinds of doubt. We weren’t returning from the island with all the Seniors. Yes, two hundred of them were better than none, but still… I felt our forces were incomplete. There was only so much that love could accomplish in the face of adversity. Only so much that kindness could heal.
Even so, I dared not give up on us. We’d made it this far, and I had every reason to fight even harder going forward. I wanted a future with Kalon, no matter what it might look like or what we’d have to do to get there. I wanted us to have a shot at our own eternity.
We just had to destroy the Darklings first. Easy friggin’ peasy.
Tristan
Our Orvis reunion was more bitter than sweet.
Ridan’s crew returned first with far fewer than had left in terms of ghoul forces. The dragon was conscious again, and although Kailani had bandaged his scythe wounds, he would need a couple of days for a more serious recovery, and I wasn’t sure that time was on our side.
The Night Bringer was pleased to find Valaine in Phantom and Morning’s company, especially after they brought him up to speed on what had happened in the woods. Sofia and Thayen stayed close, while Amane took hold of Ridan and handled the rest of his medical care, thanking Kailani for all her help.
Rose and Caleb were befuddled, still reeling from the shock they’d suffered back in Dieffen. Trev, the poor soul, was practically speechless and unable to look any of us in the eye as Kailani and Hunter filled us in on the details.
Lumi and Sidyan stayed close to Seeley and Nethissis, who were joined by a still-injured Rudolph. We all gathered around the central tower as Kalla patiently listened to everything we’d done or failed to do since our last council meeting.
The sun rose high overhead somewhere beyond the mazir haze, so I kept my head covered, much like Caleb and Rose. Sofia wore a hood, as well, keeping an arm around Thayen’s shoulders as she paid attention to the details from Dieffen.
“It sounds to me like they were extra prepared for your attack,” Kalla concluded at the end of Kailani and Hunter’s account. “They knew you were coming. My guess is they took over Dieffen solely for the purpose of drawing you in.”
“And we fell for it,” Kailani grumbled, her arms crossed.
“How are you feeling, Valaine?” Kalla asked, moving her focus away from the botched raid. Valaine exhaled sharply before offering a mild shrug.
“Better than this morning,” she replied. “But I still have a long way to go.”
“You’ve already taken a great step forward by refusing to let this eat away at you,” Phantom said. “I trust you’ll sail through the rest of the process.”
“I thought you said it would be hard,” Valaine retorted.
Phantom smirked. “I was trying to encourage you.”
“I can’t believe it. I still can’t believe I got played this way.” Trev sighed, sitting on the ground with his legs crossed and his shoulders slumped.
Soul chuckled bitterly. “They were a few steps ahead of us. That’s all. It doesn’t mean they defeated us.”
“We had to retreat,” Trev reminded him.
“And we’ll reassess our strategy,” Soul insisted. “This isn’t the end. You of all people should know that.”
Sofia nodded. “I agree with Soul on this one. We have the clarity and the ability to rework a strategy that will get us Dieffen. We underestimated the Darklings, and it’s going to be the last time that happens.” She paused to look at Lumi. “Have you heard from Derek? Has he broken the green bead yet?”
“No. He knows to do that as soon as he senses a real threat to his life,” Lumi replied, “so I’m assuming he’s still happily gathering intel. The more he learns, the better it’ll be for all of us.”
“I’m scared to think of what else he might uncover,” Valaine muttered, slowly leaning into me. “The last time, we learned my own father is the Master of Darklings and wants to kill me.”
“Just don’t say things can’t get worse,” Nethissis replied. “Because they will automatically get worse if you do. The universe has this way of screwing us over.”
Widow cleared his throat, demanding our attention. His galaxy eyes startled me—in the absence of an expression, they were all I had to rely on for any kind of emotional reading on the guy. For the first time, I could swear I was seeing genuine concern in them.
“We lost most of our ghouls,” he said. “That alone is a tremendous problem, because the ghouls have an ability to shift from a subtle to a physical form. Without them, it’s only us Reapers, and the Darklings were savvy enough to draw a circle around the whole of Dieffen to keep us in there. We cannot risk another ambush like that.”
“Aside from the grim outlook, do you perhaps have something more optimistic to share with the class?” Soul asked him, pursing his lips.
Widow shook his head.
Phantom scoffed. “Figures. Let’s hope Esme and Kalon have had more luck.”
As if summoned, the shuttle’s hum reverberated across the Nightmare Forest. The air rippled as the invisibility shield was disabled. Esme had finally returned, and I spotted movement through the windshield. She and Kalon were not alone.
“Do you think they have Seniors in there?” Thayen asked, his eyes round as he watched the shuttle steadily land at the edge of the village.
“There must be some, at least,” I said. “I know my sister wouldn’t have come back without some help. She’s not the kind to take no for an answer.”
“How are you holding up, kiddo?” Trev asked, looking at the young prince while we waited for Esme and Kalon to reach us by the dark tower. “You’ve barely said a word.”
“I… I don’t know. I’m safe here, so there’s that,” Thayen mumbled. “I miss my father… and I’m not sure how I feel about my mother.”
“You must miss her,” Sofia said.
Thayen nodded
once. “I do, but… she’s evil. She wants to hurt people, and I don’t… I don’t think I could ever make her change her mind.”
“There is only so much you can do as her child,” Rose said. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. Whatever happens, know that you’re not alone. You’ll never be alone again, as long as you’ve got us.”
Thayen gave her a shy smile. “At least I’m not the only one feeling like this. Ansel, Tudyk, and Moore are pretty much in the same boat.”
“Have you seen them today?” Lumi asked.
“Yes. I took Thayen to see them,” Sofia replied. “They’re better now. I think Ansel is playing a huge part in their recovery from an ideological point of view. They’re no longer emotionally bound to the Darklings, and they understand why all this is so wrong. We’ll have to keep working with the boys going forward, however. Petra will use them against us without hesitation if she gets even half a chance. This is where Thayen comes in.”
“If anyone can teach them how to break away from their own mother, it’s me,” Thayen said, bitter sadness dripping from his soft voice. It broke me to see the kid feeling this way, but I agreed with Rose. None of us would dare leave the boy on his own, no matter what the future had in store for us.
Esme and Kalon came through, joined by a little over two hundred Seniors—I counted, noting three key figures who walked close to my sister. My first instinct was to run ahead and hug her, but I had a feeling she wasn’t ready for an emotional reunion. She’d brought ancient Aeternae to Orvis, and there was a certain dignity that came with such a feat. I was so proud of her, I could literally burst.
“Sorry it took us so long,” Esme said. “But it wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped.”
“Welcome,” Kalla replied, tapping the ground three times with the end of her staff. “Welcome to Orvis, oh ancient ones.”
“I temporarily disabled the cloaking shield to let you guys in,” Lumi added, bringing her hands together and whispering the closing spell. Light shimmered from her fingers and spread through the invisible dome-shaped structure she’d placed over and around Orvis. The Seniors were now part of the protection magic, and I had a hard time looking away from them.
They were all beautiful creatures, tall and graceful and covered in flowing white silk. Their skin was luscious and slightly tanned. Their eyes glinted with a mixture of curiosity and determination. And their faint smiles gave me hope for the days ahead. Everything about the Seniors gathered around us told me the tide might eventually turn in our favor, even after the loss we’d suffered in Dieffen.
“Thank you for having us,” a tall Aeternae woman said, bowing politely before Kalla. “I’ve heard good things about this place. It’s a model for the rest of Visio, and I must congratulate you and all your forefathers for what was accomplished here.”
Kalla smiled. “You’re most kind, milady.”
Esme went ahead with the introductions. That alone took a little while, as our crew had suddenly gained two hundred new fighters, led by Mira Nasani, Kemi, and Arya. Thayen gasped at the sound of Mira’s last name. He couldn’t stop staring at her.
“Holy crap,” he muttered, as Mira looked his way.
“You’re one of mine,” she said, her lips twisting into a timid smile. “You’re a Nasani. I can see it in your eyes, your cheekbones. You’re Acheron’s boy, right?”
Thayen nodded. “Yes, milady.”
“Call me Mira, please.”
We spent the better part of an hour discussing the island situation with Mira and Kemi. Arya stayed quiet for most of the conversation, listening and analyzing each of us in turn. I could see her eyes lighting up whenever they settled on one of the Reapers. She was fascinated by their presence, as were the other Seniors. The only other Reaper most of them had met had been the Unending, prior to her entrapment.
As I got a better picture of their captivity at the hands of the Darklings, I could certainly see why they’d chosen to work with us. I also understood why the others had stayed behind. With my comparatively few years of life, I could only imagine the Seniors’ physical and mental exhaustion after all this time.
“I’m sorry you were made to suffer like this,” Mira said, walking toward Valaine. Upon reaching us, she dropped to one knee, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’m truly sorry.”
Valaine was speechless. “I… thank you, I guess.”
“You don’t remember me.” Mira looked up with a strained smile. “Or Kemi or Arya or any of us, for that matter. The last time we met was a very long time ago.”
“You know me,” Valaine murmured, her hand tightly gripping mine.
“I know the real you. The Unending. I was among the first to receive your gift of immortality. Most of the Seniors gathered here were there,” Mira explained, wiping her tears as she got up. “I didn’t understand what this was doing to you at the time. We were all selfish, and we believed the Spirit Bender.”
“But Mira tried to save you,” Kemi said, his eyes twinkling with emotion. “She tried to help your first incarnation remember. And that wasn’t even the only time she struggled to free you.”
“We fought the Darklings,” Arya added. “We fought them with everything we had. Eventually we realized we didn’t have the power or the knowledge to set you free, but we could at least push back against the Darklings. I swear to you, Maker, we refused to let them win or gloat in their victory for millions of years.”
Morning sighed deeply. “In the end, the Aeternae were as much victims as our sister, in that sense. With only the Darklings holding the key to her freedom.”
“We were not victims,” Mira corrected her. “We were complicit in one way or another, and unable to break free from the cycle that Spirit and the Darklings established. We didn’t fight hard enough. And we paid a heavy price. Kemi and me, especially…” There was more to the story than Mira was telling us, but I dared not bring it up. She would open up and say more when she felt like talking about it. But one thing was clear—whatever it was, it was deeply personal and the root of much suffering for Mira and Kemi, in particular.
“But you’re here now,” Valaine replied. “That means more than you’ll ever know.”
Mira shuddered, and I was stunned to see an ancient Aeternae so flustered and emotionally beholden to Valaine. It was a deeply emotional sight, and I could feel my own eyes stinging with tears.
“I can only hope you’ll forgive us when you become your true self again,” Mira said. “We can’t possibly do enough to make up for our failure to protect you.”
Kalla chuckled softly. “You’ve done enough simply by showing up here. At least we all know where you stand today. We know what’s ahead, and we can sleep a little better tonight because we’re not alone anymore. You, the very first of your kind, have come here with great strength and willingness to support us. For that, I must thank you. Visio will owe you a great debt when this is all over.”
Seeing us gathered like this did give me a new kind of energy. After what I’d been through with Valaine—and after everything my sister, my friends, and I had endured along the way—it was good to find myself in the middle of such a powerful gathering.
Reapers both young and as old as time, ghouls who’d had no say in what they had become, a lost soul with an ability to wield Reaper scythes, a bunch of GASP agents who refused to let evil reign supreme in this world, a village filled with people who’d decided that the Aeternae feeding on Rimians and Naloreans was wrong and unethical, a rebel Rimian-turned-Aeternae, the sons of two Darkling Whips, and two hundred Senior Aeternae—it was an odd cocktail, to say the least, but a combination in which I had plenty of faith.
Despite our mixture of failures and struggles, we were one step closer to victory here. I was ready to mark this down as a win and move on to the next stage. There was plenty of work left for us to do. The Darklings were still coming, and Derek was still dangerously close to Danika and the other Whips. An all-out war with Visio wasn’t an option, either—not without massive colla
teral damage—so all we had was this uncanny crew of creatures from all over… each of us willing to give it our all for the sake of a better Visio.
“Sofia, how are you feeling since you started taking the cure?” Esme asked, moving the conversation away from the Darklings and the Unending for just a bit.
“I’m fine, physically speaking. Hopeful, even,” Sofia replied. “Amal says I can try taking my hood off tomorrow, when the light is at its brightest. Technically speaking, I should be able to go out now and test the cure but… I admit, I have yet to gather the courage, which is ironic, since this is what we came here for. It’s such a massive change, I’m still adjusting to the idea, let alone the act of stepping out into the light again.”
“Ah, the Aeternae gene got watered down by the time it reached you vampires, huh?” Mira said, not hiding her amusement. “I’m impressed you even exist.”
“Did you know them?” Sofia asked. “The Aeternae who ended up on Cruor? Basilius and the others?”
Arya scoffed. “I knew them. Opportunistic pieces of trash, the whole lot. And to think I was supposed to be on that mission.”
“Yes, thank the stars you got arrested and shipped to the island,” Kemi shot back.
“And you’re the one responsible for that Cruor mishap, right?” Arya asked the Night Bringer, who offered a meek nod in return.
“It was out of my control,” he said.
“We know. Esme filled us in on the way here,” Mira interjected. “I suppose the Spirit Bender’s actions reverberated across time and space.”
“No one was really spared, if you think about it,” Rose said, a faint smile lingering on her lips. “Had it not been for him, the Aeternae would’ve never gotten stranded with a captive Night on Cruor. We vampires would never have been made. As a result, none of the worlds we discovered would’ve developed to where they are today. I doubt I’d even exist.”
“We wouldn’t be here had it not been for him,” Sofia murmured, the reality setting in, larger than life and death combined. “From this point on, however, we have the power to shape our future. To rid the world of everything he did wrong. To restore the balance he so carelessly and selfishly destroyed.”
A Shade of Vampire 83: A Bender of Spirit Page 22
