A World To Lose

by Frances Ellen

  “No one does,” Nathan answered. “Only my bloodline.”

  “Then how did he do this?” Lian wondered.

  “No idea,” Sky said.

  “We can be sure about one thing. The King was definitely here in person. Look.” Matu pointed a little further along the shallow gorge. Lian saw what he meant. All along the gorge, tiny blue and black particles floated in the wind; remnants of Dark magic. They glowed a little, as well. As Lian looked along the complete mess the King had made, he realised the remnant magic particles were not only near the shallow gorge, but everywhere; around the houses and floating through the side streets. If Lian would guess, the entire town was awash with what remained of the Dark magic used the night Gayle and her parents were killed.

  Then Lian realised that they weren’t the only ones near the destruction site. There were at least ten people walking up and down the street as if nothing had changed. None of them looked at the rubble, or seemed to notice anything was different. One man in particular was walking right towards the Asters. Lian had to step aside so that the man didn’t bump into him. The man walked past and climbed over the first line of rubble, jumped down the few feet into the chasm, climbed over the other line of rubble and continued as if it was the most normal business in the world.

  “I think it’s safe to say your cloaking spell worked,” Lian said, staring after the man.

  “Thank you, Sophie,” Matu said.

  Sky just grinned.

  “Asters,” came a quiet voice from behind them.

  The boys turned around and found a slender woman in a black pantsuit standing behind them. She had short black hair, which accentuated her small round face and pinched nose.

  “Karla Morais?” Matu said.

  The woman nodded and stepped towards them. She extended her hand and shook all of their hands firmly.

  “Thank you so much for coming,” Karla said. Her voice was high as she spoke. Lian didn’t fail to notice how good her English was. “There is lots you need to do.”

  “We can see,” Sky said, eyeing destruction behind them.

  Karla shook her head. “Not just the gorge, I’m afraid.”

  “What happened? Do you know?” Lian asked.

  Karla shook her head again. “We have never seen anything like this before. We hoped you would know more. Please, come with me.”

  She headed off down the main street. She waved her hand in front of her every few steps to keep the floating Dark particles away from her face. Matu walked alongside her. Sky and Lian walked behind them, and Nathan took up the rear. Lian looked over his shoulder. Nathan didn’t seem at all interested in the information Karla was telling them. All he was doing was staring at the gorge. Lian noticed that his Band was glowing green, and he wondered if Nathan was trying to communicate with the earth to discover what had happened here.

  “How come the humans act like they can’t see the gorge?” Matu was asking.

  “We spelled them with the use of the Council’s potions. It’s the first thing we did the first morning. They are spelled to act like everything is like they’ve always known it. It won’t last, but that’s why you’re here.”

  “But what about new people coming into town?” Sky asked.

  “The Dark veil is keeping people out. The King created it not just to keep Asters and Affinites out, but it also influences people to stay within it, or to stay away from it. No one from the town has left since that night, and no one from outside has even come near the town. We’ve been supplying the stores ourselves because not even food delivery trucks have been coming. Your parents only broke the veil momentarily, but did not destroy it completely. It’s been weakened. That’s why we could come in and you could shimmer in without a problem. But we need it gone so these people can return to their normal lives.”

  Karla took them down a side street and towards a tall rectangular building. It was old looking, with brown bricks, rectangular windows only near the roof and a large wooden door. Karla led them inside.

  Aside from a few tables and chairs and a pile of boxes, there were only a few fitness machines stored up against the back wall, to suggest this was once a gym. A group of about fifteen people were standing around them. They looked up as Karla and the four Asters approached. One man near the front looked Lian directly in the eye. Being able to see him, Lian knew immediately these must be the other Affinites from around the area helping out.

  “This is Igor, my husband,” Karla said, gesturing to the man who had looked at Lian when they arrived. Igor shook hands with the Asters. “He has been in charge of preserving the scene at the Mendosa’s house.”

  “The neighbours on either side are not in. We’ve asked around, and they both seemed to have gone on vacation a few days before that night. We assume that was the King’s doing as well. Better to influence them and have it look as though they left of their own accord, so as to not raise suspicions. No one knows when they will be back, so we’re trying to finish up before they do,” Igor explained.

  “This King was really thorough,” Lian spoke aloud.

  “That’s why he succeeded,” Sky muttered under his breath.

  “We’ve packed up all the Mendosas’ belongings in these boxes here. We will be keeping those here, along with our initial investigation report for Saluverus’ researchers when they arrive. It will still be good to have you come to the house first, though.”

  Matu nodded. “We will.”

  “And afterwards? Where would you like to begin?” Karla asked.

  Matu thought for a moment. “Sky and Nathan will take the house while Lian and I will take a look at the veil. I think it’s important we work on the remnants of Dark magic throughout the town first. That might take a few days. After we’ve got rid of all Dark traces, we’ll work on the veil and the gorge.”

  Lian thought about all the glowing particles he’d seen around the gorge, but also on their way to the old gym. Even though the town was small, he estimated that it would take them at least till late afternoon of the next day to get rid of it all. A spell as great as the one cast in the main street was bound to leave behind a lot of traces, and they couldn’t just leave the particles floating around the town. Dark magic, even remnants of it, had a bad influence on humans.

  Karla looked over to her husband before nodding. “Then follow us.”

  Nathan didn’t know what to expect, but for some reason he thought the Mendosa’s house would be bigger than this. But it was a small, two-story house, with a small kitchen, dining and living area on the bottom floor, and two bedrooms on the top. It felt strange walking through the living room, knowing that Gayle had lived here. It almost felt like an invasion of her privacy. The Asters were never meant to know where she lived, even after she’d come to Saluverus. For the protection of the people in the town, no one was to know where the most powerful creature on earth had lived. The first thing a King would do was take someone she grew up with and cared about, to use against her.

  Though none of that mattered now.

  Most of the personal belongings had been taken away, already in the boxes stacked in the gym. It was hard to imagine that two Ceders had lived here. Two powerful beings hidden away in a small house in a little town on the edge of a great jungle.

  Even in his cold, focused state, it was hard for Nathan to keep his concentration, knowing that the immense beauty of the rainforest was so close to him right now. He could feel the pull of the nature around him. That great, massive strength of green, most of it never explored. It felt like it was something alive that he needed to see, needed to be a part of. He’d never felt anything close to this before. Not even in the jungle in Indonesia. Then again, no jungle compared to this one. No expanse of nature even came close.

  Sky and Igor were in conversation in the living room when Nathan walked up the stairs and stepped into what used to be Gayle’s bedroom. There were no personal belongings anywhere. Her cupboards had been cleared out. There were no notepads or books on the little desk, nor
any picture frames on the walls or shelves. Nothing in this room said someone had lived here all their life up until only a few days ago. Igor and his people had done a good job of clearing it all out.

  Just like outside, glowing black and blue particles floated through the room. Nathan held up his right hand and cast a spell to expel Dark magic. He didn’t need a spell book to know what spell to use or what the words were, but it took him more effort to remember spells than it did Sophie. Her magic probably played a great part in her memory and knowledge. But he’d put in the effort. Nathan didn’t want to be dependent on the other Asters if he didn’t need to be. And also, Sophie always seemed both impressed and grateful that she wasn’t the only one in their group to know enough spells. Matu had quite a range, too, but Nathan knew more. Sky and Lian barely knew anything. They were always joking around together instead of paying attention in class.

  The Band on Nathan’s wrist prickled as he finished the spell and his magic started working. His right hand glowed a bright white. He started moving his hand around the room, and every particle near him got sucked towards the white glow and vanished. The spell didn’t last long enough to get rid of all the Dark magic in the room. Nathan would have to cast it at least twice more to expel all the particles on the top floor.

  After Nathan finished clearing the Dark magic from her parents’ bedroom, he headed into Gayle’s room once more and looked out of the broken window. Madeleine was sure Gayle had escaped this way. Nathan hadn’t been able to get a good idea of what had happened in the main street. Something terribly evil had been involved there, and it was blocking his communication with the earth. Like the ground had been tainted by something much more powerful than he was. Although, Nathan wasn’t even sure if it was tainted by something evil. Just something… impenetrable… something ancient. Not that that made any more sense to Nathan.

  He didn’t know if Gayle had been swallowed up by the earth in that main street. He did know that she hadn’t been killed in this house. Madeleine was sure Gayle had managed to run. But where to? The Amazon was his best bet, but Nathan couldn’t imagine she’d have made it. Not with the King actually being present in the town that night. And not with whatever Dark magic the King had used to create the gorge in the street. Knowing nothing about her own magic, Gayle wouldn’t have stood a chance.

  Nathan couldn’t imagine what she had experienced; how she must have felt when all she knew, her comfortable and loving world, was obliterated before her eyes. He shut those thoughts away and headed back down to the ground floor, where he found Sky, Igor and the two other Affinites who had accompanied them.

  “Clean?” Sky asked. Nathan nodded. When they arrived, Sky and Nathan had already expelled the Dark magic floating around on the ground floor.

  “Then we’re done here,” Sky said. He turned to Igor and shook the man’s hand. “We’ll cast a protective spell on the house that will deter humans so Axel’s researchers can work in peace and you won’t have to manipulate the minds of the humans anymore. Then we’ll go and join our brothers and start working on the rest of the leftover Dark magic in town.”

  “Thank you,” Igor said.

  The five of them stepped out of the house. Nathan remembered being told that the front door had been completely thrown off its hinges. It seemed to have been replaced. The current door creaked as it closed behind them. Nathan turned back to the door and placed his hand on it. He closed his eyes and whispered the words of the spell to cloak the house. Once he was finished, all human onlookers would just see the house. They would not see if Affinite researchers were walking in and out. They would see nothing and they would remember nothing. Nothing of the three people who had lived there for almost eighteen years. The Mendosas would be completely erased from all of their minds. As if they had never existed at all.

  Chapter 4

  A light breeze kissed Sophie’s face as she walked across the stone walkways that were built into the cliffs that made up the western edge of Saluverus. If Sophie leaned over the wall that reached up to her hip, she could see the deep plunge down to the Norwegian Sea below. A few passages led through the cliffs to the rest of the island. Queen Aiyana had created the stone walkways on this side after she and the first generation of Asters won what was now called the Original War.

  All along the western side of the cliffs were stories upon stories of walkways, which led to the thousands of family crypts right inside the cliffs.

  Sophie didn’t know why she was on the stone walkway now. She just felt the need for the open yet private space after her first session with Doctor Masalis that morning. Sophie had no aversion to the idea of therapy. She knew of countless soldiers who had gone to Olga Masalis after suffering traumas from the war. She knew even her own mother had seen Olga on occasion to work through the things she experienced during the final battle against Astaroth. Sophie would’ve preferred not to need a therapist’s approval to go back on missions, but she knew better than to fight Sylvia, Axel, or Doctor Masalis on it. Better to go along with it. Maybe she would actually get something out of it.

  Sophie thought of her brothers in Brazil. She should be there with them. Even if she was still not up to her full strength, they needed her. Casting spells might not be good for her recovering body right now, but the fact that Sky needed her for a cloaking spell and Matu had called her for another matter as well…

  Sophie chuckled to herself. They would be fine without her, but it was nice to know that her brothers still felt like they needed her there. There were no Disciples anywhere near the town. She could have been there. From what Matu told her about the destruction in the main street… Not even Nathan knew how it had happened. Maybe she could’ve figured it out, if only she had the chance to see it. But Sophie knew there was no chance of that happening.

  Sophie let out a long breath. She looked over her shoulder to the entrance of the Mendosa crypt. She knew she wasn’t ready to enter it at this point in time, even though she was only a few feet away from it. Since her accident, the rocky walls had been reconstructed, the inside of the crypt repaired, and the gold plaques and glass casings replaced. Sophie felt a sense of guilt at the trouble she’d caused and the ashes that’d been lost because of the explosion.

  Sophie leaned on the stone wall and stared out over the Norwegian Sea. With her right thumb she rubbed over the bandages around her left hand. She didn’t want her mother to heal her flesh wounds. Sophie knew her shredded palm would heal horribly, but she wanted to keep it as a reminder. She’d lost it, just for a moment. If Sky hadn’t found her in time the spells would have killed her. Sophie had felt hopeless and desperate. She never wanted to feel that way again. And she would keep the scars to remind herself of that. Even if it would take time—and therapy. Even if she wouldn’t completely recover from what losing Gayle Mendosa had done to her. It was enough for now.

  Sophie stared at the point in the distance where the sea met the sky. The sun was already starting to set, casting the darkening sky with beautiful shades of purple and pink. She liked it up here. There was something peaceful about the dead lying at rest all around her. Here, Sophie didn’t feel so important. She didn’t feel like she was the Aster of Health and Knowledge, one of the most powerful creatures in the world. Someone everyone turned to for guidance and wisdom. One of the only people in the world who could stand up to and question the Ambassador.

  And who could possibly kill a King.

  Sophie sighed and closed her eyes. Nathan and Sky had told her about Axel’s plans to have two Affinites take the vows and receive the magic to become Asters. That news had been fine. Even though she’d trained with her brothers ever since they were four years old, and she couldn’t quite imagine what it would be like to bring in two outsiders to their close-knit, diverse family, she knew it was necessary to have Aster magic live on.

  It had been done ever since the first generation of Asters had lost two of their own in the Original War. Throughout the centuries Asters had been killed and new Asters
had come in their place. There was no arguing that the “birth” of two new Asters was necessary. They would not be the first generation to lose an Aster and bring in a Transfer, and they most certainly wouldn’t be the last.

  But a new Queen…

  Or King, even…

  Sophie chewed her bottom lip. No. They couldn’t. She’d told Axel Reed as much when he came in to see her. There was a reason for everything, Sophie had said. She believed as much. Only twice in history had the magic of the Wolf – the magic of Fauna – been gifted. There was a reason for that. There was a reason that Aiyana’s children hadn’t inherited her magic. It wasn’t supposed to live on the way Aster magic did. Not through generations. It was far too powerful and ancient for that. No one knew precisely why Cara and Tomas’ child was born with the ancient power, but it wasn’t a coincidence. The child had been gifted with the magic just like Aiyana’s almost five hundred years ago. Sophie would never believe that the people who had been given that magic were just a random choice. It was specific and strategic and beyond what any Aster or Affinite knew in the world.

  Sophie doubted the magic could even be extracted from Gayle’s body, let alone placed into someone else. Not that she herself even believed in that miniscule chance that they could find what was left of Gayle’s body, for any of this to matter at all. Sophie would find out more tomorrow, when she, the Ceders and the Small Council planned to have a meeting on how to strategically handle the two separate missions in South America; Cara and Tomas’ Bone Recovery, and the manner of Gayle’s death. They would also cast one final tracking spell to see if Gayle’s body could even still be found. If the King was smart enough, he’d have burnt her body and obliterated her bones. Sophie suspected he was.