“It’s my understanding she wishes for your support in ruling over the Reapers,” I said. “Actually, I think she made that pretty clear.”
“She could’ve asked us if we wanted to do that, in the first place,” Phantom replied, looking at her brothers. “I, for one, can see where Widow is going with this.”
“What would you rather do?” I asked, hands in my pockets.
“We’ve been locked inside pieces of Thieron for millions of years,” Soul said. “We’ve done our duty and then some. We deserve the freedom she promised us, not going back into the fold.”
My stomach tightened. Something cold crept up my spine. I would’ve listened to whatever was left of this conversation, as it offered me unique insight into the First Tenners’ minds, but my Reaper body was reacting to something, bringing back the whole hypersensitivity concept.
“Hey, guys?” I breathed deeply. “When you say I’m hypersensitive, do you mean I can sense pieces of death magic or something?”
Soul shot me a cold grin. “‘Or something’ would best describe it, sure.”
“How come I’m feeling cold and… I don’t know, heavy?” I asked, my knees suddenly made of lead. I leaned against a monolith, welcoming the rugged surface scratching against my fingertips. It made me feel like I was still made of something physical, not just a spirit living between worlds.
“You’re reacting to the last Beta element, I think,” Phantom surmised, watching me with renewed interest. The ninth Beta element was firmly in her grip, with Morning watching me, equally fascinated. “I’m not sure why you’re manifesting now,” Phantom went on. “I’m assuming, based on your befuddlement, that you haven’t felt like this before?”
I shook my head, trying to go over past instances when I’d been around death magic, and seals, in particular. Nothing came to mind. “No. It started when you cut down the first Beta element, I think.”
“Ah. That’s got to be your trigger, then,” Soul said. “You’ve had the ability all along, you just didn’t know about it. There is something in the Beta elements’ composition that made you react. That’s all.”
“But… But why me? I’m just a common Reaper. Why am I hypersensitive?” I asked, feeling somewhat wronged by fate. My plate was full enough as it was, and I certainly wasn’t enjoying any of these sensations. I felt as though I was gradually losing control over my spirit, reacting to death magic and manifesting symptoms I wasn’t even sure how to handle.
Phantom moved closer. “Breathe deeply, Kelara. In and out.”
I had trouble concentrating. Soon, I couldn’t even understand what they were saying anymore. All I knew was that the last Beta element was coming, and that my entire being was resonating with it.
Sliding down the monolith, I ended up on my knees. My arms were like spaghetti. Phantom held my head up, constantly encouraging me to breathe, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. For a moment, I felt as though I’d been locked on the outside, looking in, unable to say anything—let alone move.
Silence muffled everything as a figure emerged from the woods. It glowed… black. What a strange sensation; what a peculiar view this was. I just stared at it, my lips parted, as it moved toward us.
Phantom, Soul, and Widow followed my gaze, but I doubted they saw what I saw. Phantom killed and reaped her Beta element. Purple blood mist expanded around her as the creature died, further breaking the seal.
“That’s the tenth,” Phantom said. None of the First Tenners seemed horrified or even remotely troubled. Their galaxy eyes glimmered with recognition, but none of them moved. Something changed inside me as the glowing black creature looked at me and pointed a finger my way. Then, everything felt… different.
Whatever this was, I had to handle it.
There was no instruction manual, not even the slightest understanding about it, but it… it had to be me. It was my only certainty in this instance. Pulling myself up, I managed to walk toward the black figure.
Soul said something, but he couldn’t move. Phantom was frozen, too, though struggling to get to me. Widow was the angriest, twitching and jerking against his invisible restraints.
The closer I got to the black figure, the clearer everything became. A voice made its way into my head. It wasn’t mine, but it sounded familiar.
“You have to break it, Kelara.”
Why me? I wondered. Whatever this vision was, I knew it wasn’t what I was seeing. There was a Vetruvian creature beneath the black glow. The last of the Beta elements. This was an epiphany, I thought. There was a conclusion at the end of this road, something I had to come to terms with… but what was it?
“Break the seal, Kelara. It can’t be any of my brethren,” Morning said, having somehow snuck inside my head. I wanted to scream and kick her out of here, but I understood that I only had one choice. I had to kill the Vetruvian, then ask the many questions already piling up.
Determined to get out of this place and out of this… mental trap, I took my scythe out and cut the Vetruvian down. I watched him collapse, and his figure became clear, the black glow fading away. He seemed young, barely a teenager, purple blood pouring from his chest wound.
“Thank you…” I heard him whisper, and I reaped him with almost no immediate recollection of the event.
His last breath released a flurry of emotions through me, some so powerful that I fell backward. Nothing made sense anymore.
“Kelara!” Phantom’s panicked voice made its way to me.
“Thank you,” the Morning Star said, though I wasn’t entirely sure where it came from.
Blinding white light came down from the sky like an endless curtain. I managed to glance over my head, the world turned upside down for a moment as I lay in the grass. Phantom, Widow, and Soul were running toward me, but everything seemed to move slowly, as if time itself had ground to a lazy halt.
I reached out, and the light swallowed us all.
Had I somehow found my end?
As soon as I came to, I felt different. Not better, not worse, but different.
Phantom sat by my side, watching me with worried, starry eyes. Widow and Soul were close by, equally concerned. Birds sang from nearby trees. The sky was clouded, lightning crisscrossing the charcoal masses. The air smelled of rain, and the ground shuddered from thunderclaps.
I sat up, trying to make sense of everything I remembered.
“What the hell happened?” I mumbled.
“You broke the seal,” Phantom said, giving me a warm smile. “It was weird as hell, Kelara. None of us could move when the Vetruvian walked up.”
“Well, none of us except you,” Soul added. “What was that about?”
I wondered the same thing. “I was hoping you might be able to tell me,” I said, and described the black glowing figure and the voice of Morning echoing in my head, telling me I had to be the one to break the seal. “What… What did she mean? Why me?”
The three former guardians of Thieron did not have an answer for me, but I had a feeling I would soon learn the truth. Something definitely felt different about my entire existence, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, just yet.
“Thank you, Kelara.” A delicate voice traveled across the tall grass.
We all turned our heads to find the source, and there she was, standing in all her beauty and sunny glory. The Morning Star, pale as a pearl, with galaxy eyes and long, golden hair. White organza covered her hourglass figure, her limbs long and delicate. She moved like a dream, her bare feet sinking into the grass, which grew bigger and greener wherever she stepped.
Metallic reflexes danced in her seemingly endless curls, as if every thread of hair had been spun from molten gold. I had never seen anything as wonderful as the Morning Star—I could easily understand why she’d been given such a name.
“Morning…” Widow gasped. He ran and swept her up in his arms, hugging her and laughing, which was so unlike him. He was so happy, I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.
Even Phant
om and Soul were affected, both of them beaming as if happiness was a crucial feature of their existence. Like sadness might kill. I quickly understood that this was Morning’s effect on people. Brightness incarnate, she brought joy and light and everything that made one’s heart weigh as much as a feather.
In her full and free form, Morning was pure sunshine bottled into the image of a Reaper. A vision of serenity and peace. The complete opposite of everything she’d put the Vetruvians through—though, in her defense, I could only blame Spirit for that troublesome situation.
“You’re back,” Phantom said, hugging her sister.
The four Reapers stayed close for a while. I watched and tried to recover from what felt like a rather intense daze. It resembled a dream, the kind that lingered well into the waking hours. I wasn’t sure what was real and what had been a mere figment of my imagination.
Morning’s voice, however, was the deciding factor. I’d heard her in my head shortly before I’d broken that last Beta element. I knew it now with more certainty than ever.
“I destroyed the seal?” I asked, loudly enough for them to hear me.
“You did, Kelara,” Morning replied, leaving her siblings behind and kneeling in front of me. I felt warm on the inside. The closer she got, the happier I felt. What a masterpiece Death had created. Sheer bliss beneath pearlescent skin and delicate layers of organza, with hair made of gold and eyes made of stars. “It had to be you.”
“Okay. But why?”
“The seal that Spirit put on me required the strength of a stranger to set me free. My siblings could’ve destroyed nine elements, but the tenth belonged to a stranger, which is… you,” Morning explained. “Had you not been here, I would have lingered between the last element and freedom for an eternity.”
“Was that why the last Beta element glowed black?” I murmured.
Phantom shrugged. “We only saw the Vetruvian. Nothing odd about him. But we couldn’t move.”
“That was the last Beta’s power,” Morning said. “He held you, the familiar ones, back, and revealed himself to the stranger.”
Breathing slowly, I began to come to terms with what I had done. It made my heart ache, but I accepted the reality of it all. “I killed someone to set you free.” Standing up, I embraced the resolve that came with this simple slice of truth. “You had better not disappoint us.”
“I would never,” Morning replied. “You might not know me as well as my siblings, but I am free and eager to help, now.”
“Good. Because we need to get a move on,” I said.
Vetruvia felt empty and cold. It was only the effect of a thunderstorm approaching, the winds rising and the skies darkening and flashing, but it lacked Morning’s touch. As extreme as her power had been against the locals, it had also bathed this world in a sacred kind of light. The lush beauty I’d first observed upon our arrival here was gone. In its wake, sullen wilderness remained, along with a handful of white huts that would eventually erode and fade away.
Most importantly, I was eager to leave because our mission was not yet done. We’d barely completed one out of three tasks. If retrieving Morning had been so harsh and tedious, I didn’t even want to imagine what it would be like once we got to the Night Bringer or the Unending.
“I know where my brother is,” Morning said, smiling. “Upon my release from the seal, I remembered something that Spirit let slip while he was laughing in my face. I doubt he even realized he’d said it.”
“What did he say?” Phantom asked.
“‘The Night Bringer has made a home for himself under the Star of Lussian,’” Morning said, quoting Spirit. “My mind is clear now. I remember everything.”
“And that’s the kind of stuff I want to hear, going forward,” I replied, slightly—though bitterly—amused.
It would take a long time for me to truly get over the fact that I had killed someone. Yes, I’d accepted it, but that didn’t mean it sat well with me. On the contrary, the life I’d taken would forever linger inside me, like a ghost… a reminder of the lengths I would have to go to in order to restore the universal balance.
My silver lining was that Morning could lead us to her brother. “Where is the Star of Lussian?” I asked, looking at each of the First Tenners.
Soul was the one who answered, wearing a most devious grin.
“Oh, you’re gonna love this one.”
Tristan
A hundred miles in, and we were looking a lot better in terms of capture, though not as well in intelligence gathering. We’d managed to capture about ten Darklings from various settlements, but they had yet to tell us anything.
The prisoners were placed in one of the mobile cells we’d brought along, mounted on a wheeled cart drawn by four Vision horses. They were given blood for sustenance, their Black Fever capsules removed. They had no choice but to cooperate, yet they likely held on to the hope that they might make it out of here without betraying their Darkling brothers.
Night had settled over the Green Road, casting thick, black shadows over the woods on both sides. Valaine and I rode our Visions behind the prisoner cart, while Corbin kept his position at the front, leading the troops through the nocturnal darkness. The giant moon was partially visible through scattered clouds, shades of purple strewn across the sky.
We’d lost several gold and silver guards during previous raids, but we were still three thousand strong, which was more than enough to handle the Darklings.
“They’re being foolish,” Valaine said, staring at the prisoners. They were all huddled inside the cage, knees to their chests and lips pressed into small, thin lines. Blood had dried over their faces, a remnant of the fights they’d survived against Corbin’s Crimson guards. He’d ordered his men to take as many alive as they could. “Once we settle somewhere, they will be tortured for information. They’ll beg us to kill them.”
She was repeating words I’d already heard from her father. Words she clearly believed in. But I had a feeling that this particular mantra would not be enough to sway the captives into cooperating.
“Maybe they don’t believe you,” I said. “The Darklings seem to operate on a rather familiar principle. As long as they don’t talk, they’re precious. We won’t kill them until we get information out of them, and they know it. Besides, given their ability to heal, as Aeternae, torture isn’t exactly scary enough to make them talk.”
“You make a valid point,” Valaine replied, interest glimmering in her black eyes. “What would you suggest we do, then?”
I thought about it for a moment, taking every possibility into account. Looking around, I noticed the soldiers still had plenty of energy for this journey. I figured we had enough in us to make it to Astoria without camping anywhere for the rest of the night.
“What you did to that Darkling, back at the palace, seemed to work a lot better,” I said, though I was a little wary of setting that side of her loose again. We needed the intel, however, and the captives could provide it. “Would you be able to do it again?”
Valaine sighed deeply, pondering my question. She nodded slowly, giving me a concerned glance. “I don’t know how to control it. I might need you to pull me back if I go too far, Tristan.”
“You can count on me, Valaine. You know that.”
The smile she gave me made my heart sing as it swelled and challenged my ribcage. This was one hell of a woman I was traveling with. A creature like nothing I’d seen before. And I seemed to have her attention.
“Okay… let’s see what happens,” she murmured, and drew her horse closer to the cage, ordering the guards to stop for a few minutes. Two of the Crimson soldiers handled the Visions. The entire caravan came to a halt, questions rising from guards up and down the road. Valaine’s name was mentioned several times, followed by nods of acceptance. I could see Corbin looking over his shoulder from where I was.
Valaine got off her Vision and reached the cage, looking through the metal bars at one of the prisoners. The temperature dropped, somethin
g heavy settling in the pit of my stomach. Feelings I’d experienced before came over me, pummeling my senses with cold violence. My hands gripped the reins, but I didn’t move. Beads of sweat erupted on my forehead, trickling down as I struggled to breathe evenly.
“Tell the truth,” Valaine whispered to one of the captives.
The Darklings were quickly terrified, taken over by her peculiar and crippling influence. Whatever this power was, it seemed incredibly strong. Valaine could easily push a person beyond the brink of madness, if she put her mind to it.
“Make it stop,” one of the Darklings screamed, blood gushing from his nose.
But Valaine couldn’t stop. I could almost feel her. She’d gone past a certain point of self-control, exerting her power and filling their minds with anguish and terror like nothing they’d experienced before. They cried out, begging us to stop her, but I couldn’t bring myself to end this just yet.
She’d made that Darkling talk, back at the palace. She could do it again. I had faith in Valaine, perhaps more than anyone else around her. She scared me, too, but I embraced that fear. I welcomed it as a precious part of her. Every moment that passed was one more step that brought me closer to her.
“Make it stop, please!” another Darkling shouted. He was pale, his eyes bulging as he covered his ears in a bid to stop whatever it was that Valaine was doing to him.
“No more… No more!” a third captive sobbed, tears streaming down his cheeks as he curled up on the metal floor of their cage.
“Tell the truth!” Valaine said, her voice sending shivers through my limbs and down my spine. Black veins expanded around her eyes. The winds swelled and blew with increasing strength. Leaves rustled as the forest shook in her presence.
“Stop it!” Corbin cut in, pulling Valaine away from the cage. “Please. Don’t do that anymore.”
“But Father…” Valaine couldn’t take her eyes off the Darklings. Corbin tried to put more distance between her and them, but she rejected his intervention. Pushing him away with shocking strength, she moved back toward the cage, while Corbin landed on his back, grunting and gasping as he tried to get up.
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