Dutybound

by Mark Aaron Alvarez

  A rumbling shook the walls around her. The moans of the dead rattled in the shadows. The Light Wings’ light surged, shining so intensely that the entirety of her surroundings was now revealed. What she saw was nothing short of a terrible dream. The leeches flung toward her as she lost control of her body. Something burned inside her, forcing her to fight. “Back off, you fiends,” she called, trying to get a grip on reality. “Stop!” She swiftly sent up her free hand with a blinded focus, pooling her power into a tightening orb. Lucia hurled her hand down, pushing her power into the earth, feeling the light absorb into it before sending out a shockwave into the vast radius ahead of her. “Emma!” she called out into the absence, exhausted. Lucia heard no response, only the escalating hiss of the dreadful serpents that outnumbered her easily as they emerged from where the light had first destroyed them. “This is not happening,” she whispered to herself, cold sweat running like ice down her soft forehead. “I’m trapped.”

  It was nearly impossible to think clearly, alone within the hostile and damp shadows of the catacombs. A chill ran down her prickling skin, sharply stinging the joints of her body with fear. She jolted up to her feet, sending a flash of white glowing mist around her with a graceful wave of her hand. It pulsed through the air, dissolving the dark matter around her, but the power of the light was weakening. She called out to the protectors. “Please, don’t leave me. We need you!” But Lucia felt the Light Wings slowly dimming, like a flickering candle. Even the tips of her fingers sparked out like a depleted fuse. There was not much else she could do. Her fear was consuming her, tightening over her chest as the Light Wings slowly faded.

  “Lucia, run!” she heard from behind as the hiss of a large leech vibrated at her feet. Like a falling star, the tip of her sword cut down, slicing the beast just as it lunged at her. Lucia’s feet took action, stomping against the damp ground beneath in long strides. Her feet were in overdrive, powered by not only the terror that embodied her but also the sensation that magnified each time she used her power. This thirst for light had begun to possess her every movement. It drained her body of its own energy and took control, as if she were a mere vessel, as the thirst for survival tightened around her neck, nearly choking her.

  Lucia stared blankly as she thought, What am I doing? She whispered to herself within the slow vision of her own reality. The hunger wasn’t weakening her as it had before, but instead became more a drive that she had never fully realized, fueled by the protector’s devotion to the Light Wings. Even as she had grown with the Light Wings, her resistance to its will had thinned as she found diligence within the ability of the wings. But she was tired—so, so tired. “Why,” echoed forth from her lips as she slowly released crystal-like tears from her eyes, “don’t I just . . . ” Flinging her arms to her side, she stopped and let out the next words, her final will: “give in.”

  And with a flash, as she almost stumbled forward, diamond wings sprouted from a misty aura behind her, glowing bright gold within the cuts of heavenly stone. They burst into a shower of sparkling dust, darting into the swarms of dark fiends that had started to collect into masses of deep black, tainted crimson. The shards of the wings danced around the army of malformed shadows, shattering and blasting them into a brilliant cloud of sparkling dust, a storm of light that eventually condensed into a single shining orb as small as the tiny pendant around Lucia’s neck. The orb shot back to Lucia, whose body came to a sudden stop as the light circled upward, filling the wings around her neck, revitalizing her. The Light Wings now shined with a vibrant radiance, returning the energy Lucia felt had been drained from her by the darkness.

  Lucia touched a fragile shaking hand to the pendant, feeling the warmth of light cross the gaps between her fingers. She sighed, not understanding why the Light Wings had spared her yet again this time. They always acted as a last resort. Must she suffer until they felt she was worthy? Hadn’t she been through enough, by now, that they should know she would be seeing this mission through till the end?

  Her mind was faint, but Lucia still sensed the evil in the air. Though the dark swarm had quieted back into the emptiness, she felt the tingling cold of fear. Something powerful lurked within the catacombs of the protectors. The spirits of the dead seemed to whisper it to her, calling to their redeemer.

  Slowly she turned around, facing the way she had just come. “Emma,” She thought of pulling her blade into her free hand. She held it close as it began to shine simultaneously with the pendant with the same sparkling stream of light that came from nowhere.

  ***

  “Lucia!” Emma struggled to consciousness, pushing herself upward in a daze, feeling the rising alertness of her mind. She looked up immediately and touched the damp hair stuck to her cheeks, as she reached around her body. Her head was fuzzy. She had taken a hard hit, and she could not remember any of the events leading up to it. The last she remembered was chasing after Lucia from within the darkness as the shadows emerged, but after that it all went blank.

  Emma hunted for a glow in the darkness of the void. Lucia was nowhere in sight. She had lost her. She feared the worst as she clenched her throat, trying to cope with the tensions of her own sobs. This was all her fault. If she hadn’t felt compelled to tell Lucia the truth, if she had not led her into the catacombs, if she’d only realized sooner that Ralphoro was a demon, none of this would have ever happened. The anxiety built as it blurred her eyes, so strained by the lack of light. Then she saw a slim figure materialize as someone reached toward her. “Lucia,” she gasped, watching as the flowing strands of blonde hair fell ahead of the light. “Lucia,” she called again before looking up into the face of Luzanna’s beautifully crafted mask.

  “It’s Emma!” Luzanna cried, falling beside her. Leo quickly walked to Emma’s side as Luzanna brought a lantern closer. She assessed her body, examining Emma’s wounds. “Are you alright?”

  Emma struggled to speak. “Lucia, she’s . . . she’s gone. It was the shadows. They are here too. The sins, they can seep through here. It is not safe. She has to be somewhere. Ralphoro is gone too.”

  “Ralphoro was here?” Luzanna asked with a tone of urgency. “He did this?”

  “He must have!” Leo roared, ripping his dagger from his sheath, feeling the weight of Lucia’s absence crush his body.

  “No,” Emma said, “it wasn’t Ralphoro. It’s one of the sins. It’s taken the form of Ralphoro’s body because it killed him!” Emma cried in grief, realizing for the first time that her master was dead. “I’m sorry . . . I led Lucia down here. I felt she deserved to know the truth about the fall, about her father, my brother, and our family.” Emma paused before looking up at them. “She’s my niece.”

  “Oh, wow. That is . . . .” Leo took a deep breath at the thought. “Well, I can’t say I didn’t see that coming.”

  “Leo, this is not the time to act smug. Emma is hurt, and Lucia is in real danger! We have to hurry,” Luzanna said. “Emma, can you stand?”

  Emma’s dark eyes widened as she clapped a hand to her mouth. She closed her eyes with a soft turn of her head, as if she was ashamed of this danger she had so naively put them in. “I think so. I’m so sorry. I would never do anything to hurt Lucia. She’s my family. I wouldn’t.”

  “I understand, and I trust you. But now you have to trust me, okay? Now, help me get you up.” Luzanna hoisted Emma’s arm around her right shoulder. “Leo, a hand?”

  Leo shook his head, trying to regain his composure. “Right. I’m sorry.” It was as if his mind was in two places at once. He was there in body, but the longer he and Lucia were separated, the more his mind drifted. He had to find her. He hurried and helped Luzanna bring Emma to her feet. “Where could Lucia be?”

  Emma hesitated as she wiped the tears from her face. “I don’t know. The spirits are calling to her. I can sense that much, meaning she must still be alive. But Ralphoro—I don’t know where he might be.”

 
“Well, he’s here. We can be certain of that. Stay on guard. This is going to be a long night.” Luzanna’s eyes hardened. “I know you’ve already been through a lot, Emma, but you’re a protector. Can you use your power to fight?”

  Emma bowed and shook her head. “The protectors aren’t allowed to use their powers for destructive purposes. They are only supposed to use them for protection.”

  “The covenant is already broken! Emma, does it count if it’s self-defense?”

  “I . . . I don’t know. I just know I can’t.”

  Leo shrugged. “Leave her be.” He gave Emma a careful look. “You don’t have to fight if you don’t want to, but if you could use your power to shield us in any way, can you do that?”

  Emma lifted her head up and stared into Leo’s calm blue eyes. She nodded.

  Leo smiled. “Good. Now come on. We’ve got you.”

  Emma blinked, looking at Leo’s dagger and then at Luzanna. “How are you going to fight? You don’t have a weapon.”

  Luzanna brought her fist in front of her face. “I don’t need one. I’ll fight any way I have to.”

  Emma grinned at Luzanna’s answer. “You believe nothing is impossible, do you?”

  Luzanna nodded. “You can do anything you put your mind to. If you believe it, it can be so. Mind over matter.”

  Emma reached out and touched the side of Luzanna’s mask. “Please remember that when you’re fighting.”

  Like a phoenix with a fire of determination in its eyes, Luzanna said, “I will. Thank you, Emma.”

  ***

  Lucia walked through the tunnels as the darkness surrounded her, confusing her. She heard the cries around her—crying out for forgiveness, it seemed.

  “Help us! Forgive us! Please, redeem our fears. Set us free,” they called out.

  Lucia felt the pain as the voices rose in agony within her head, louder than even her own thoughts. Was this why she had lost their power? Had their power long since been corrupted by the folly of her own father? The pain they were in couldn’t be his fault—but it was. If only she had known.

  A heavy sense of burden fell on her slender shoulders, and her heart thickened with sadness and guilt. There was injustice in their restlessness, for these souls could not be at peace while their blood failed to protect the world that had been blessed unto them. She tried to ignore the voices, tried not to let them faze her as the sins of her parents tormented her. She had gotten the message, but these spirits held no sense of an end, not to this misery. They continued to moan and scream from within the shadows, in distorted pleas.

  Her fear was multiplying as she ran through the catacombs, with no idea where she was going. And then, suddenly, as if by a mistake of fate, her foot slipped on some sort of glass that must have broken there before. Lucia fell numbly to her knees, the voices overtaking her mind, breaking her focus. Her sword slipped from her fingers and flashed as it hit a distant wall and shattered into light dust. She held her head, tightening her grip as the voices seemed to turn into a single deep, demonic laugh. “Stop!” Lucia screamed, clenching her head as she stretched upward from the ground. “Leave me alone!” She let gravity pull her fists down as she cradled her head between them. She looked beneath her body, seeing a familiar symbol reveal itself within the light of her pendant. The symbol seemed to curve around her hand as she stared at the circular stroke. She had found her way back, hadn’t she? The vastness of the room swallowed her shallow light in the abyss of the endless emptiness of her desperation.

  Quick footsteps fluttered not far from her. A clang of metal against a hard surface sent a chill up her spine. She quieted her breath as she tried desperately to distinguish what she could see, but the darkness was impossible. “Emma,” she whispered, sitting up and thinking positively as the gripping cold wrapped around her damp clothing. She inhaled deeply, catching her breath as she heard the distortion of another laugh. She hesitated, taking in yet another slow breath, trying to calm her already-edgy nerves into words. “Ralphoro,” Lucia whispered before a sudden and fiery pain pierced through the center of her body.

  Lucia choked as her warm blood leaked from her body and spread across the floor. She stared at the scarlet flow, unable to comprehend where it all even came from as it rose into her throat and from her mouth. Her head felt faint and her body tightened into shock as she watched a silver blade withdraw from her body, lifting her a bit before she slid off its tip and fell hard onto the floor. Blinded by the blossoming pain, she felt her sight slip away and her thoughts fade from her mind as if she were drifting into a silent hell, and into a storm of complete agony. She fell back to the floor, feeling her blood flow past her outstretched arm, leaving it to sparkle in the light of a lantern that emerged in the distance.

  “Lucia!” Leo cried out. His eyes immediately filled with tears as he noticed the blood flowing from her body.

  Lucia looked up, struggling to breath, reaching out to Leo with the last of her strength before her head collapsed to the floor again. Leo stood in shock as his companions behind him screamed at the sight of Lucia’s waving hair floating in the dark mass beneath her. They watched helpless as a blade hovered above her body, now bathed in the light of the lantern.

  Chapter Nineteen:

  Light’s Lament

  The scream that left Luzanna’s lips was absolutely mortifying and filled with an anguish none should live to hear. It struck fear in its shaking echo, sending a tempest of terror through the moist air around them. Tearing off her mask, Luzanna released one last cry before bringing a quivering hand to her face. The sight before her was the revelation of her greatest fear: the death of whatever hope she had left.

  Emma’s shock was written all over her face, and surprisingly, her heart felt nothing. It knew only silence as its beat fell beneath the clatter of her own teeth. She watched as Lucia’s blood slowly dripped into the spreading puddle from the tip of a shining blade, long and slender. The light of the lantern exposed the shape of the old man, Ralphoro, bearing a wide grin, the wrinkles of his face stretching so far they were showing the bone beneath them. His skin had turned a ghastly pale, like a corpse, the color of pale green ashes. “Ralphoro, what have you done?”

  “Naive girl,” he whispered into the echo of Emma’s voice. “Why do you still deny it? The fate of your master should already be known to you. Do you still refuse to acknowledge the truth?”

  Emma’s throat swelled as her mind flooded with memories of her true master’s image. “You killed him!” she shouted, sobbing as she stepped back into the shadows. “You tainted this holy place,” she said softly, her body trembling. The air cooled as the lantern light dimmed. A sharp chill blew from behind Ralphoro out of the nothingness around him.

  “Did I?” asked the imposter, looking genuinely confused. “I don’t recall killing anyone. I mean, not tonight. Actually, I don’t really know how long it’s been.”

  Emma gasped, placing both of her hands over her mouth. Could it have been him this entire time?

  “No. Impossible. Ralphoro was here. He greeted all of us,” Luzanna cried. “You’re a liar!”

  The shape chuckled. “I see that my reputation precedes me, but I guarantee you, Ralphoro has been long dead.”

  “So it’s been you this entire time,” Emma said between hiccups. “Ralphoro never lived past the plague, did he?”

  “No. He didn’t,” the imposter replied. “I must say, the corruption of Remena was among my most impressive work. It didn’t take much to turn this land toxic. After all, the darkness created the earth. It is the very source of our power. Easy, it was.”

  “You killed everyone,” Emma shuddered.

  “Everyone”—the imposter stepped forward, pointing the dripping blade at Emma—“except you.”

  “What do you want from her, you freak?!” Leo shouted, drawing his blade. “I’m going to kill you!”

  “Ah, ah,
ah!” The old man pointed the sword down to Lucia’s limp body, still bleeding on the floor. “She’s alive for now.” He snickered. “Don’t tempt me. I’m not like the others, blindly following orders in order to bring about the eternal’s grand scheme. I will gladly put an end to her life and this prophecy once and for all!”

  “Then why don’t you?” Luzanna asked, her voice bold. “While you have your enemy within your grasp—are you a coward?”

  “On the contrary, beautiful. Though powerful, I too, am a servant just like you. But my will is the very core of my being. It is who I am!”

  “Who are you?” Emma asked, her voice quivering.

  “The better question is, who are you?” Ralphoro’s skin was growing more twisted as he spoke, darkening around his eyes as they glowed a bright red. “After all this time, why is it that I chose to keep you alive?”

  “Shut up!” Luzanna cried. “Don’t listen to him, Emma. He’s trying to deceive you.”

  Emma looked down at Lucia with her tears still fresh on her face. “It was my family. We corrupted the balance.”

  The man grinned yet again. “Right,” he snarled. “Your blood is marked, tainted by the sins of your cowardly brother. What better vessel could we choose to harbor our power?”

  “Harbor your power?” Emma asked faintly.

  “The light chose its vessel—a weak one, I admit. It chose her, your niece, but also the heir to the Sanoon bloodline. If I had to bet, I’d say the light’s the losing side. Its precious savior is cursed, too, but of no use to us four. But you, my dear, your blood has no link to the light. It never has.”

  “What?” Luzanna shouted, grabbing hold of Emma’s arm. “No, Emma, that’s a lie. You’re a protector. Your duty is to the light.”