Seventh

by Ray Chilensky

  “Evelyn, please let us explain,” Randal pleaded. He had transformed from a displeased patriarch to a loving uncle who wanted nothing more than to comfort his niece. “We have to show her what’s behind the veil,” Eve said. “She has to believe if she’s going to understand what she is, what we are.”

  “What do you mean ‘understand what I am?’” Evelyn asked, having regained some control over her emotions.

  Eve extended her right hand with its palm facing outward. “Randal, Cadell, show her your sigils.”

  “No, Eve,” Randal implored her. “We can still stop this…”

  Eve’s face softened in sympathy for both Randal and her niece. “It’s too late now, brother. We’ve already said too much.” Eve’s hand glowed with a blue pulsating light that had streaks of gold flashing around it. On the palm was the sigil of the house of Corey, a six-pointed star composed of two interlocking triangles at the center of two concentric circles and a stylized phoenix at the center of the star. Tiny symbols were visible at each point of the star and glowed more brightly than the rest of the sigil. Randal’s palm glowed in a blue and green version of the same mark. Eve shielded her eyes from what was, to her, a painfully bright light.

  Cadell stood directly in front of her, only inches away. He held up both of his hands. “Look at me,” he said softly.

  “It’s too bright!” Evelyn said, shielding her eyes with both hands.

  Cadell took her hands lightly in his and pulled them gently away from her eyes. “Look at me,” he told her again. “It will be alright. I promise,” he assured her.

  Evelyn looked up slowly, blinking tear-filled eyes. She found that Cadell was bathed in blue light with golden sparks spiderwebbing through it. Though still bright, the light was no longer painful. Evelyn saw a symbol similar to the symbols that Randal and Eve had shown her, but his was on his left hand. It depicted a sword-wielding angel standing in front of a gate flanked on both sides by trees. On his right hand was another glyph or rune that Evelyn didn’t recognize. Almost without her own volition, Evelyn brought her right palm up and touched it to Cadell’s. Her own aura flared to life.

  “It’s the sigil of the Archangel Uriel,” Cadell told her. “Uriel is the patron Angel of my family. Your family’s angel is Camuel.” Evelyn gasped and pulled away as she saw a sigil glowing in the palm of her hand.

  Cadell, Randal and Eve allowed their auras and sigils to fade and Cadell helped Evelyn into a nearby chair. Her sigils still glowed on her palms. “The sigils mark you as one of the Blessed.” Evelyn stuffed her hands into her armpits to hide them from view. She began sobbing.

  Eve touched Evelyn lightly on her shoulder.

  “Honey, it’s alright,” she said. “You’re part of long, proud bloodline, a very special part.”

  “No!” Evelyn shouted. “It isn’t real! It’s a trick!”

  “It’s real, honey,” Eve assured her. “Look at your hands.” Slowly, reluctantly Evelyn took her hands from under her arms. The sigils still were bright on her palms. “You can make them fade,” Eve told her. “They’ll always be there, but you can choose whether or not to make them visible.”

  “Being in our presence when we allowed our auras and sigils to be seen caused them to flare. Our spiritual energy flaring made your sigils to flare.” Randal added. “That’s why I kept you away from the other Blessed, so this wouldn’t happen. Now that your aura has been touched by unrestrained auras of other Blessed, your Truesight is activated.”

  “It’s a trick!” Evelyn insisted, trying to convince herself more than anyone else.

  Eve took Evelyn’s hands in her. “No, honey, it’s not.”

  Evelyn stood abruptly, nearly knocking Eve down in the process. “It’s not REAL!” Evelyn backed herself into a corner.

  Eve turned to Cadell. “Cadell, show her your trueblade,” she said.

  “Eve, no,” Randal objected. “She’s already shaken enough.”

  “She needs to get her head around this now,” Eve insisted. “Do it, Cadell.”

  Cadell hesitated. He looked at Evelyn, who had stopped crying and stood as though she was about to fight off some kind of assault. He wanted to hold her, to calm and comfort her. She had begun the evening sure of her place in the world and had had that assuredness shattered. The rules that she had relied on all of her life were being torn apart in front of her eyes. Cadell didn’t want to cause her more pain. “I don’t think so, Eve,” he said. “I think she needs a little time to process all of this.”

  “Show me,” Evelyn said, her voice was still choked from crying but it also held a profound resolve. Her aura and sigils had ceased to flare as she calmed herself. “Whatever’s happening, I need see it all. I have to make it real for myself.”

  “No!” Randal said. “We can still stop this…” “No, Randal, we can’t,” Eve countered. “Whatever bonds Angela placed on Evelyn’s Blessing are gone now that her sigils have been revealed.”

  Evelyn wiped a final tear from one eye. “It’s alright, Cadell. Do whatever it is Aunt Eve wants you to do.” She had fought back her shock and fear and was now standing upright, staring Cadell in the eye.

  “Alright,” Cadell said.

  His brow furrowed slightly and he drew his hand across his body. An arc of shimmering light followed his hand and solidified into a highland broadsword. Its double edged blade gleamed with a light that seemed to be generated from within the steel itself. A shining silver basket-like handguard protected the entire sword hand. At the front of the handguard there was a gold-inlaid silver sigil identical to the one on Cadell’s right palm.

  Evelyn moved toward Cadell. “I can still see the light around your body,” she said. “It goes around the sword, too. The light is the same.”

  “The sword is part of me,” Cadell said, holding it slightly higher. “I summon it from within me. It’s made of steel but its strength and power come from my will, from my soul.” Evelyn was close to him now. She was almost mesmerized by the gleaming steel and the way sparks of unnatural light danced across its mirror-like blade.

  “May I touch it?” Evelyn asked.

  “Be careful,” Cadell said with a nod. “It’s sharp as a scalpel.”

  Evelyn touched the flat of the blade with two fingers of her right hand. The sparks that so fascinated her converged on where her fingers were in contact with the steel. “It’s warm,” she said, “like it’s alive.”

  “It’s part of me,” Cadell said.

  “Why did you call it a trueblade?” Evelyn asked.

  “Because it cases true death,” Cadell answered, “If you kill someone with a trueblade, it doesn’t just kill the physical body, it destroys the psyche and the soul too, if there is one.”

  “And you kill demons with it?” Evelyn said, asking and answering her own question.

  Cadell reabsorbed the sword into himself. “Yes, that’s pretty much what the Blessed are all about.”

  Evelyn looked to her uncle. “The Blessed? You all keep using that word. What does it mean?”

  Randal took a long, deep breath. It was as though in answering Evelyn’s question, he was admitting some kind of defeat. “The Blessed are seven families, seven bloodlines that have each been blessed by one of the seven archangels,” he said. “The Selkirks were blessed by Uriel; our family was blessed by Camuel. The bloodlines were blessed during the First Crusade to protect mankind from demons and other ungodly creatures.”

  Evelyn’s face was hard now as she faced her uncle, her voice coldly calm. “You said that my mom and dad were killed by demons.”

  Randal placed gentle hands on her shoulders. “They were attacked in their family home. A Grigori, a very powerful demon, managed to get past the warding spell that protected the house. He had some other lesser demons with him. Your mother was eight months pregnant with you. She was barely alive when we found her. Just before she died, she made me swear to protect you. She wanted me to keep you away from the Blessed. She had just seen six of her children die
before her eyes. She wanted you to live.” “That’s why you sent me away to school.” Evelyn concluded. “To keep me away from the Blessed. So I’d never find out what happened to my family.”

  Randal touched her cheek. “I had to make sure the other Blessed families didn’t find out about you. They would have insisted that you answer the Calling. I promised your mother I’d never let that happen.”

  “Then why have you told me all off this now?” Evelyn asked, turning to Eve,

  “Because you’re needed,” Eve replied. “There is something bad happening, and we need you to help stop it.

  Feeling that Evelyn needed time to gather herself, Cadell fetched a tray of drinks from the bar. He, Eve, Randal and Evelyn drank in silence for a few minutes. Cadell and Evelyn sipped the Homeward’s signature micro-brewed lager while Eve and Randal opted for blackberry brandy. The tension level had subsided somewhat, but Randal still radiated discontent. Most of that negativity was still directed at Eve. Evelyn was clearly trying to bring her emotions under control and clear her mind.

  Evelyn finished the last quarter of her beer in a single gulp. “Okay,” she said, exhaling a long breath. “I need to hear all of this again in some kind of order that makes sense. Let’s start with the Blessed. What are they?” “As I said earlier,” Randal went on. “The Blessed are seven families that have each been blessed by one of the seven archangels. That blessing gives the members of those families certain supernatural abilities.”

  “Like being able to pull swords out of thin air,” Evelyn said.

  “Yes, and the Truesight,” Randal added, “the ability to perceive the spiritual and psychic worlds. That’s what you just experienced.”

  “When did it all start?” Evelyn asked. “I mean, how long have the Blessed been around?”

  “It started during the First Crusade,” Eve replied. “The founders of the seven Blessed bloodlines were part of an army of crusading knights that participated in the siege and capture of Jerusalem in 1099 A.D. After three years of traveling just to get to Jerusalem and then a seven week siege, the crusaders broke into the city and there was a massive slaughter. Some accounts claimed that blood ran, literally, ankle deep as the crusaders killed everyone in the city that they could find. The slaughter was so horrific that even battle-hardened knights who had been trained for warfare since they were born were sickened.”

  Cadell continued the tale. “Seven of those knights, who had been friends since childhood, were so horrified and ashamed of what they had done that they walked away from the crusader army and swore never to take another human life. They felt so guilty that they felt the need to atone. They decided to go into the desert with no supplies and no weapons. They figured that they would either die or have a vision that will tell them what they could do to make up for what they had they had done in Jerusalem.”

  “They did have a vision,” Randal went on. “The seven archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, Raguel, Raphael, Camuel, and Jophiel appeared to them. They offered the knights God’s forgiveness and cleansed them of their guilt. The Archangels also explained the true nature of evil. They told them that demons did, indeed, walk the earth and that demons were responsible for much of the misery on the Earth, including the crusades.”

  “Those seven knights were the progenitors of the seven Blessed bloodlines,” Eve said. “Because the Lord

  God could see that the knights had truly repented and wanted to atone, he commanded each of the archangels to confer his blessing on one of the knights, empowering them to fight the demons that walked the world. Over the years, the descendants of those seven crusaders became the Blessed families. Those families have been protecting mankind ever since. Protecting mankind is the Calling.” “Why did you hide this all from me?” Evelyn asked. She stood and began to pace. “If what you’re saying is true, then being a Blessed is my birthright, my heritage.”

  Randal leaned forward in his chair and looked at the floor, his elbows resting on his knees. “It’s what your mother wanted,” Randal said in a quiet voice. “I told you that your parents and your sisters were murdered by demons. And, as I said, she wanted you to have nothing to do with the Blessed or the Calling. The life of a Blessed is more dangerous than you can imagine, and not just to the body but to the soul as well. Ask young Cadell, here. His father and one of his brothers are dead and another of his brothers is crippled for life. Three of his six uncles are dead as well, not to mention a slew of his cousins. Your mother wanted you, at least, to be safe. I tried to protect you as best I could.”

  Evelyn leveled a harsh glare at her uncle. “You sent me away, though,” Evelyn said. “Why did you send me away? Couldn’t you have let stay with you and Aunt Phoebe? Couldn’t I have stayed with Aunt Eve? I was all alone at that boarding school. I could never make any real friends. I could never fit in, because I always felt that I was different from everyone else there. Now I know why — because I was different. You could have let me stay with family and not let me be involved with the Blessed. You could have just ordered me to stay out of it. All I wanted, for my whole life, was to be part of the family. I would have done anything to live with you and Aunt Phoebe, even given up my heritage. I would have stayed away from what the Blessed do.”

  Eve smiled a wry smile. “Ordering you to stay out of it might have worked when you were little, but you’re too much like your mother for that to have worked once you got older.” Eve said. “By the time that you were eleven or twelve, you would have demanded to join in the Calling. You wouldn’t have stood for being left out.”

  “Besides,” Randal admitted, “even if you did obey me about not pursuing the Calling, the other families would have insisted that you be included in it. I had to hide you from them.”

  “Why would the other families care if I got into the family business or not?” Evelyn asked, looking to her aunt. It was Cadell who answered her. “Because you’re special, even by the standards of the Blessed. You’re a Seventh, like me.”

  Evelyn looked at her palms. “That’s why we have two marks on our hands,” she said.

  Cadell nodded. “Seven is a sacred number. Seventh children like us have a special connection to our family’s patron archangel. There are a few things we can do that even other Blessed can’t.”

  “What can the Blessed do?” Evelyn asked.

  “Cadell, why don’t you and Evelyn go downstairs and have another beer,” Eve suggested. “You can answer

  Evelyn’s questions. You’re the best one to do that anyway.

  I think that Randal and I need to speak privately.”

  “Okay,” Evelyn said. “But don’t fight.”

  “We’re not going to fight,” Even said, ushering the two of them the door.

  Eve look at her aunt and uncle in turn. “Please, Aunt Eve, Uncle Randal. I hate it when you fight,” she said.

  Eve smiled weakly. “We won’t fight,” she said.

  The door closed and Cadell and Eve found themselves in the Homeward’s hallway.

  “They’re going to fight,” Evelyn said.

  Cadell’s mouth formed a lopsided grin. “I know,” he agreed.

  They sat at a table in a corner of the bar room. Sally brought them two beers without having to be asked. “Okay,” Evelyn said. “Let’s pick up where we left off. You said that being a Seventh child makes us special, even more special than the other Blessed. So, first things first. What can the Blessed do?”

  Cadell took a long drink from his beer and met Evelyn’s eyes across the flickering candle at the table’s center. “All of the Blessed have the Truesight, the ability to see the Trueworld. After they embrace the Blessing, all Blessed, no matter what path they take, are about twice as strong as normal person of about the same size. We heal from most wounds a lot faster than normal people and we are all trained to fight.”

  “Trueworld?” Evelyn asked, tilting her head. “A better term might actually be the ‘complete world,’” Cadell replied. “You perceive the psychic and spiritual plane
s as well as the physical. You saw my aura tonight, so your Truesight is active. You’re blocking it now, instinctively, because it scared the shit out of you. But once you get used to it and get some training, you’ll be able to turn it on and off like a light-switch.” He took a long breath. “The thing is that most Blessed come into their Truesight at the age of seven. I don’t think anyone’s ever been brought to the Truesight or embraced the Blessing this late in life before.”

  Evelyn raised a Spock-like eyebrow. “Late in life?” she objected, “I’m twenty-six years old.”

  Cadell smiled. “You know what I mean. Like I said, most of the Blessed have their Truesight brought to them when they’re seven and fully embrace the Blessing when they’re fourteen.”

  Evelyn tilted her head again and took a long pull from her beer. “What do you mean, ‘fully embrace’ the Blessing?” she asked.

  “When a child of one of the seven bloodlines is fourteen, they can choose whether or not to answer the Calling, that is, whether or not to devote their life to their family’s patron archangel in service to God or to live a normal life. If they choose to embrace the Blessing, their angel puts them into one of four castes: warrior, scribe, mage or healer. Their caste determines which abilities are granted by the Blessing.”

  Evelyn tilted her beer glass toward Cadell. “You’re a warrior, I’ll bet,” she said.

  Cadell nodded. “Yeah. Warriors are about five times stronger than normal people and heal even faster than other Blessed. We also get a lot more combat training, and you’ve seen my trueblade. We do most of the demonic bloodletting.”

  “Why do you call it a trueblade, again?” Evelyn asked.

  Cadell’s eyes took on a hard appearance. “Because it causes a true death," he said. "It doesn’t just kill the physical body, it kills the soul too. After that, there is no chance at forgiveness or redemption. Anyone or anything that’s killed with a trueblade is gone, really gone, forever. Only the warrior caste can use trueblades. ”