by Ivy Logan
ORIGINS: THE LEGEND OF AVA
ORIGINS: THE LEGEND OF AVA
PREQUEL TO THE BROKEN (BOOK I OF THE BREACH CHRONICLES)
IVY LOGAN
Copyright © 2019 Ivy Logan.
This edition published in 2019 by BLKDOG Publishing.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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Contents
TITLE PAGE
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER I:
THE DYING - AVA
Ava watched the hysterical girl dart in and out of the gloomy shadows cast by the dense trees that loomed in her path.
As a sorceress belonging to the Heichi clan, Ava’s blessing or curse, depending on how you looked at it, was her ability to move through time. It was never self-initiated, though. She was often affected by visions of the future and then drawn to them, literally pulled from the past and taken to that moment; it could be a few years, decades or even centuries. When, why, or how? She had never been able to answer that question.
The girl Ava watched was the very personification of fear, and distress always felt the same whether you were in the past or present. An invisible thread must bind them both together; because Ava could feel the cold fingers of dread encircle her too. It wrapped itself around her heart, constricting and squeezing. Breathless, she balled her left hand into a tight fist. Her nails bit into the soft skin of her palm, drawing blood, but the pain failed to distract her. She felt the fear burning through her skin, seeping into every pore of her body.
Stay silent, stay hidden, and never let the ones you watch spot you.
Her directives were clear, but Ava had always found it difficult to blindly follow rules. She needed to understand and make sense of them. She was an Elder, no ordinary foot soldier to follow orders without understanding them but sometimes Siobhan, her best friend, and her queen forgot that. The rest of the sorceresses were always waiting and watching for the slightest sign of discord between her and Siobhan. So even when she was tempted to argue, Ava had learned to silence her own opinions least it be seen as dissent.
Among all the sorceresses, Ava was one of the kinder ones. She often rushed to help others, tumbling head first into trouble to rescue them. Time travel couldn’t change her nature. In her heart she was still the same Ava. She couldn’t suddenly turn off her helpful nature. She couldn’t stop caring just because she was in another time. The unknown, solitary girl was heading for trouble and she had to try and stop her.
Ignoring her conscience, which seemed to have suddenly started sprouting sage Heichi wisdom, Ava shouted, “Don’t go that way!” Her plea fell on deaf ears for the girl only seemed to quicken her pace. Just my luck, she can’t hear me, lamented Ava. For when Ava moved through time, more often than not, humans failed to sense her, although there had been some rare exceptions to this rule. However much she wished that the girl could hear her it was not to be.
Ava knew that if she had been pulled through the chronicles of time to bear witness, it had to be a cataclysmic event. The girl had something to do with it, but what?
****
Nia had stolen away to meet a boy, oblivious of the deathly blow that fate was about to strike.
Jai was wild, worldly-wise, and everything her father hated. The forest on the outskirts of their village, dark and mysterious, seemed like the perfect location to infuse the right amount of mystery and romance into their budding relationship. Nia was a die-hard, romantic after all. But she didn’t know that she would pay for this adventure with her life.
In the fading twilight, the forest didn’t look so inviting and exotic anymore. It was downright forbidding. Fears began to prey on her mind. Why had she asked Jai to meet her in such a secluded setting?
Jai had cringed at her choice, but given in. All the men in her life eventually caved in. The combined force of her charm and persuasive abilities became too much for them to withstand. Their outright ‘No’s became ‘maybe’s, and then finally a resounding ‘Yes’. She had learned to be persistent and persuasive. On the outside, she seemed so soft, feminine, and helpless. Victims of her manipulation always made the mistake of underestimating her. They thought she was as easy-going and pliable as she looked, but they were wrong. She was hard and determined on the inside, but she used her softness as a tool to mould people to her way of thinking.
Jai was a different matter. There was nothing soft about him. He was outrageous and like a rough-cut diamond. She had always been attracted to bad boys. The recklessness of such situations made her feel like a rebel, and gave her a sense of freedom from her conservative and suffocating upbringing. It always fell to her brothers to get rid of them when she no longer cared for their attention. Jai was different; her feelings for him were stronger and deeper. She knew that despite his wild ways she had genuinely started caring for him. Right now though all she wanted was to escape this forest. She didn’t feel rebellious, only desperate. All she wanted was to be free of this stifling place. Alas, she would never leave it alive.
Jai had lingered at their meeting point long past the decided hour, and when he could wait no more, he turned back. Nia’s family must have stepped in and she must have caved in to their wishes, he speculated. Offended, but not heartbroken, he left; there would always be another girl, another rendezvous.
Oblivious to the sad reality that her love had just moved on, Nia, lost and confused, wandered further into the heavily wooded area. Her enthusiasm was long gone, influenced greatly by the fading light. She felt a sinister vibe springing at her from every corner. The thorns pulling at her clothes and the branches grasping at wisps of her hair felt like monsters trying to grab her. Then came the crashing in the undergrowth behind her. It broke through the silence of the forest, startling her, propelling her to start running.
****
Ava tried to grab the girl’s cloak, but failed. The velvety softness brushed against her fingertips, as if in silent mockery of her frantic attempt. Even as the shadows ensnared Nia, a thin unearthly scream resounded through the forest, leaving no doubt of the girl’s fate. The girl, something had happened to her!
Suppressing the shriek that made its way to her lips, Ava curbed the desperate urge to run in the opposite direction. Instead, she steeled herself. From her vantage point, behind a cluster of gnarled old trees with branches spread out the like the arms of an old crone, she combed the expanse nearby. Her heartbeat was loud enough to act as a beacon to anyone camouflaged by the darkness, man, or creature. Stay silent, stay hidden, and never let the ones you watch spot you, Ava repeated the instructions in her head again and again. Maybe the litany would act as a talisman against impending disaster. She was barely able to hold it together. Trouble was in the air, and she was bang in the middle of it.
Suddenly Ava’s searching eyes found the girl. Earlier, even scared to death, the girl had been full of life. Now her movements were disoriented. She lurched and staggered, her ermi
ne-lined velvet cloak hanging at a crazy angle from her shoulder. Ava knew her worst fear had come true. The girl was dying.
The beautiful red cloak fluttered to the ground, making a garish contrast with the green and brown shell of the forest floor. As Ava stared at the cloak, large splashes of blood dripped from Nia’s body and onto the earth below her feet.
The skin of Nia’s torso had been shredded to ribbons by vicious slashes bearing a curious pattern. Ava stared in shock at the mark of a Dueijian. A supernatural was responsible for her death. Would she be able to use magic to save the girl, or was it too late? The penance to pay would be very high, but a human life was in the balance. She had to try and save the girl.
Ava almost stepped out from behind her hiding place, determined to do her best, but it was too late. The girl collapsed, a look of utter astonishment overshadowing her beautiful face. As the life flowed out of her, the terror in her eyes was replaced with a desolate vacuum.
As if in acknowledgement of her suffering, nature lent her dignity. Her cloak fluttered in the wind, and its billowing folds draped themselves over her inert body like a shroud.
CHAPTER II:
WHAT MAKES A MONSTER? - SATOSHI
Even as Ava mourned the loss of a young life, she realized the deep trouble she was in. A pair of piercing red eyes stared directly at her from the other end of the tree line, and the killer stepped out of the shadows.
Ava stared at the Dueijian. There, in the midst of the isolation, in that moment in time, they were two of a kind. She was a supernatural, and so was he. But that was where the similarity ended. She bore a close resemblance to a human being. The only thing differentiating her was her blue hair, a legacy of their special birth.
The Dueijian was a monstrous creature-a chimera, a hybrid of a goblin and a reptile. His kind was known for hunting and attacking humans. Why was he playing a game of cat and mouse? Why hadn’t he tried to kill her already? Maybe fear of her powers was keeping him at bay.
The Dueijian couldn’t know that moving through the layers of time weakened Ava’s powers considerably. If he came for her, she wouldn’t be able to stave him off, and neither would she be able to escape. She preferred for the end to come soon. No doubt, she would rise again, for the Heichi were also blessed with immortality. The pain would be almost intolerable but what was a little pain compared to the permanence of death?
“Do not be afraid, sorceress,” a voice said, drawing Ava out of her reverie. “I mean you no harm. My name is Satoshi. I belong to the Dueija clan, but I am no killer. This girl’s death was an accident. Killing comes naturally to my brothers, but not to me. Ironically, they will be proud of me, because by slaying an innocent, I have become one of them. I will be judged and found wanting by humans. But this is nothing new. I have never taken a life before but I have always been looked upon as a monster. Today, for the first time, I feel like one.”
****
Satoshi, like the rest of his kind, had an affinity for dark and deserted places. But unlike his bloodthirsty brethren, he preferred anonymity and only animal prey. The forest thrived with wild life, and was hence his hunting ground. It provided sustenance for his family.
Satoshi’s wife had pleaded with him to stay away from the forest. Given that their marriage was a clandestine one, they were in constant danger. At times, worry for him seemed to consume her. Only seeing him safe gave her peace. He loved her tremendously, but her unreasonable requests for him to stay hidden bothered him. Love was not a crime, and he had loved with all his heart. It was true that the hatred and intolerance humans had for supernaturals were growing by the day. His wife was more sensitive to the undercurrents than anybody else, but the forest was his haven. What harm could befall him in there, in his familiar hunting ground? Under ordinary circumstances, Satoshi would have paid heed to her pleas. She had accepted him for what he was, and filled his life with happiness. However, their young son, Tagasaya, was starving, and Satoshi knew that only a fresh kill would satiate him.
The boy was Dueijian in heart, soul, and unfortunately in appetite too. Leaving Tagasaya ravenous would be inviting the boy to succumb to the demands of his baser nature and hunt humans. That could not be allowed to happen. He could already see the yearning in the boy’s eyes to leave home and join the rest of his kin. Love blinded the boy’s mother. She saw him as a child. She didn’t realize that a Dueijian child was almost as dangerous as an adult.
Soon the day would come when Tagasaya would not be able to control the fiend within, and then he would be gone. Until then, Satoshi had to do what he could to protect his son. He had planned to wrap up his hunt quickly. No doubt, his beloved would still be upset; he might still find her crying buckets. At least their son, the apple of their eyes, wouldn’t go hungry.
****
Through Satoshi’s eyes, Ava saw what had happened. Engrossed in hunting an antelope, Satoshi reacted to the sudden sound behind him as any natural born killer would. He attacked. Whirling around, he lashed out instinctively. The last thing he expected in these woods was a human, and definitely not a young girl.
Satoshi had watched in disbelief as Nia stumbled away from him. She had once been pretty, but now terror distorted her features. He hadn’t meant to kill her. It was an accident, but it didn’t make the reality of the death any easier to bear, it didn’t reduce the regret he felt. The body of the innocent girl lying at his feet drained Satoshi of his will to live. He needed to make amends, even if it meant his own death.
CHAPTER III:
TO KILL A MONSTER - SATOSHI
Nia had not been alone. Her brothers, strapping young men, had learned about her clandestine meeting with Jai. They had entered the forest with the intent of putting an end to their sister’s budding and inappropriate romance. If the boy ended up dead, he had no one but himself to blame.
Ironically, blinded by fear, Nia hadn’t realized that it was her own brothers she was fleeing from. The young men found Satoshi standing over her lifeless body. The sight of the red-eyed, scaly-skinned, and claw-limbed creature drove them to violence.
Ava wanted to intervene. She wanted to rush out into the open and explain that the death was an accident. With a firm shake of his head, Satoshi asked her to stay back. This is my destiny, he seemed to say. They will not believe you. They need to avenge her death. Stay out of sight. Nia’s brothers fell on Satoshi with their weapons and bare hands. Ava was forced to be a mute witness as the Dueijian calmly accepted his violent death without a word of protest.
Ava fell to her knees, weeping tears of regret.
Just then, the ground tilted sideways, and the thick and spongy moss-covered forest floor of the gory scene grew foggier, no matter how hard she rubbed her eyes. Her vision started to blur, and the leaves soaked with blood, the fallen tree trunks, and the dead girl vanished.
CHAPTER IV:
RETURNING TO THE PAST - AVA AND SIOBHAN
Many hours later, Ava awoke to the molten, golden rays of the sun falling on her face. She felt unbalanced and disoriented. She sighed with relief when she saw the pleasant rolling plains and the distant towering mountains. The familiar setting told her that she was back in Calabrigh. She was home.
Ava’s delicate frame felt mangled and wrecked. She tried to regain her composure but her mindkept replaying the horrific image of the deaths. Ava drew in a ragged breath, and closed her eyes again.
“Wake up, Ava, wake up!” a cajoling voice called. Ava resisted. She never wanted to wake up. But the voice was insistent. “Ava, open your eyes,” it commanded, changing tact. Ava felt her eyelids open reluctantly, groggily, as though she hadn’t slept in days.
“How are you?” asked the voice, laced with worry. Ava looked up to find Siobhan staring intently at her, concern as well as worry lining her face. Why was Siobhan here in Calabrigh?
The queen’s beauty was ageless, rich and flavored like fine wine. Siobhan wore elegance effortlessly in her finely flowing sheath that wrapped itself around her like a cocoon. Eve
ry inch of her looks magical, thought Ava, unlike me. She didn’t need to disguise herself in the ordinary garb of humans like Ava because she was a shape-shifter. She transformed into a female puma whenever she desired to observe a human. In the more traditional and superstitious corners of Earth, she was a revered figure among humans.
“The magic is in the blue of our hair, not our looks,” said Siobhan aloud, intruding on Ava’s thoughts. “And to answer your earlier question, I came because I sensed you were in trouble.”
Ava gave a start, realizing that Siobhan had once again picked up a random impression from her head. At unguarded moments, Siobhan could read her mind. She is right, Ava told herself, as she stared at her Queen’s voluminous soft, blue curls so like hers, cascading over her delicate shoulders, almost to her knees. Cut off our hair, shave it all off and all the magic is gone, our immortality is lost. We become mere humans.
“Ava, what is the matter with you today?” asked Siobhan worriedly. “You have never been this disoriented after a vision.”
“I am fine,” Ava said, trying to reassure Siobhan. Ava then fell silent for a while, trying to frame her thoughts. “It was very different this time. It did not feel like a vision. I was right in the middle of it. I saw a young girl die. Let me show you,” said Ava to Siobhan. So Ava laid her hand gently on the Queen’s shoulder. Immediately a swirling cloud of images drew Siobhan into their midst.
“There must be some reason you were pulled to this scene,” observed Siobhan.
“The girl who lies dead in the forest will be the harbinger of some great disaster. I am almost sure of it,” replied a miserable Ava. Having witnessed a young life being snuffed out, she wished for a power other than the gift of foresight. For her time was but a series of events, its flow, movement and changes illusionary in nature. Her power allowed her to see terrible things in the future; catastrophes through time often burst into her consciousness randomly, and drew her to the actual event. It was the standing back which was most difficult for her.