by Noëlie Frix
“That’s about the only thing you trust me on,” she grumbled.
“How should we proceed with the training?” Julius inquired, placing the conversation back on track before it took a turn for the worst.
“Yes, let us focus on the battle ahead of us. Augoro will not be an easy victory.”
“No,” Atos agreed. “But it will be deadly.” His exulted, crooked smile made even Julius shudder.
Chapter 31: Bloody Night
When Elaine woke up, it was the middle of the night. Outside, she could hear the waves crashing on the beach and the quiet chirp of insects. But something felt wrong. She sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and looked out her bedroom window. The view was spectacular, as usual. The moon was full and bright, low in the sky, hanging above the dark ocean. Elaine left her room as quietly as possible, trying not to wake her parents, and headed downstairs. The window in the small kitchen overlooked the street. Nothing moved, no one stirred. A chill went down her spine and she shivered in the cold.
Suddenly, the village’s alarm bells rang out and a shrill scream pierced the silence. Elaine rushed back to the kitchen window, her stomach knotted with fear. Lights appeared in homes and several figures walked out on their porches in hope to see what was wrong. Elaine didn’t wait for her parents to catch up, though she heard their footsteps echo down the wooden stairs.
About halfway down the street, a tall, alien figure stood up, dusting his pants. Next to him, lying on the ground, his throat open to the cold night air, blood gushing from the wound, was the fisherman who had raised the alarm. The stranger walked calmly to the closest villager and, with a smooth twist of the hand, broke her neck. The rest of the town’s inhabitants, who had been stupefied by shock, began screaming.
From her doorstep, almost at the far edge of the village, Elaine stared in horror at the terrifying events unfolding before her. The man moved again and another person fell, blood flowing freely from the wound and onto the street. He’s smiling, Elaine noticed, terrorized.
“Elaine!” Her father shook her and she finally snapped out of her stupor. “Elaine, let’s go!” He yelled, pulling her towards the dock where the family’s small boat was anchored. “Come on!”
“Vic! We can’t leave without him!” she begged. Her father groaned audibly—he had not been too happy when she had started dating Victor. But he realized the two teenagers were deeply in love, and he still liked the boy.
“Find him. Quickly,” he urged.
She nodded and set off. The smell of blood was overwhelming. Screams filled the air—of fear, despair, and pain. She ignored it all and ran with a single purpose in mind.
“Elaine!” Victor ran into her, startling her. She took his hand and they ran toward the ocean.
“What’s happening?” she managed to ask between breaths.
Vic didn’t answer. He stared ahead, his jaw set, his sea-green eyes full of fear and determination. We’ll make it. We have to, he thought but had trouble convincing himself.
Suddenly, the stranger appeared and cut them off. He was tall, his skin incredibly pale. Everything else about him was black, aside from the blood dripping from his hands. Vic gasped and Elaine screamed. One short, startled scream.
“Aah, young love,” the man sighed, smiling widely. “How adorable.”
“What do you want?” Vic growled, but he couldn’t keep his voice from shaking. “Get away from us!”
“Now that’s not very polite,” he frowned. Then he moved. His hand flew toward the girl’s stomach and his incredibly sharp and long nails tore the skin apart like butter. Elaine tried to scream, but all that came out was a gurgled sound and blood bubbled at the corners of her mouth. The man grabbed something inside her and she felt him tear it out. Vic did scream, a shrill, terrible, gut-wrenching scream that was cut short when the sharp nails ripped open his throat.
“You were my last one,” the man looked down at the dying teen with great satisfaction.
The entire town was dead—about a hundred inhabitants in all; it had only taken a few minutes. The dark stranger overlooked the carnage from the high point of the village...And smiled.
Chapter 32: On the Road
A few hours earlier:
The troops were setting camp for the night. They had been traveling for about three weeks, walking along the coast with the ships following, and sometimes preceding, them. Heka set down her blanket on the edge of the cliff which dropped sharply into the ocean below where the boats were anchored.
“No tent tonight?” Jason asked.
“It’s a beautiful night,” she shrugged. “Why not enjoy it?” Shadow smiled.
She lied down, watching the stars above her with wonder—despite having seen it for nearly six centuries, she still found the night sky beautiful and intriguing.
That night, Warrior dreamed of Chaos.
She stood in the dining hall. Seth had his back turned to her, with his hands crossed behind him, he looked into the fiercely burning fire.
“Hello, Sweetheart,” he greeted, sensing her presence. Chaos slowly turned around to face her and invited Heka to come forward. It was as if someone was nudging her from behind, and she reluctantly walked to him. “How are you?”
“I was better before,” she grunted. “Sleeping should be for dreams, not nightmares…there’s plenty of those in real life.”
“A dream? Oh no, my sweet, you are mistaken. All of this is quite real.”
“What do you want, Seth?” she groaned exasperatedly.
“Not much. Just to say hi and let you know that my offer still stands, should you change your mind.”
“Haven’t we gone through this before?”
He shrugged and offered his arm. Resenting how familiar this scene felt, she took it nonetheless, incapable of resisting for some reason.
“You must be familiar with the phrase ‘keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer’,” Seth grinned.
“No, not at all. Would you care to explain it to me?”
“Much obliged. It’s—”
“Just get to the point!” she interrupted.
“Sometimes, there’s the wonderful opportunity to watch both at once, without even realizing it.”
“That’s a traitor, yes, but what’s your point?”
“Treason is hardest when it comes from the people closest to us. Although, I wonder if it should be called treason when the person is unaware.”
“What are you planning, Chaos?”
“Me?” he asked faking offense and innocence. “Nothing to endanger your success. Remember, you have my word,” he waved his left hand and smiled snidely. “I wish you luck,” Seth stated simply. “You are going to need it.”
He suddenly turned to purple smoke as did the rest of her surroundings, until she was left in complete and utter darkness.
Heka felt a hand clamp around her mouth. She grabbed the arm and shifted her weight so as to throw her opponent to the ground. He didn’t budge.
“Shhh! Don’t scream, don’t attack. I’m not here to fight you,” she recognized her uncle’s voice. “I’m going to take my hand off now, so keep quiet.”
As soon as he did, Heka turned around to face him, standing up in the same movement. Marcus had been kneeling; he stood up slowly, dusting off his pants and smiling.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered fiercely—had it not been for Chaos, she would have sensed him long before he arrived.
“I have something to show you.”
Heka remained silent for a bit. She could not leave him alone, she knew that, so Warrior decided to go along with War. She nodded curtly.
He gestured for her to follow. The camp was dimly illuminated by the full moon and stars and plunged in silence.
“I thought you would have been awake before I came,” Marcus said conversationally, keeping his voice low. “What happened?”
“Nothing you need to know about,” she snapped irritably, looking at her right hand where her scar felt wa
rm, though the feeling was almost gone now. “What is it you want to show me?”
“It’s not very far from here.” He led her down a steep slope, moving away from camp and toward the beach. Warrior’s keen eyes perceived the dark silhouette of a coastal town far below. “I believe this will be on your troops’ way when you travel tomorrow. I suppose I just wanted you to be the first to know this.”
“Enough with the riddles. It’s two o’clock in the morning!” she complained, throwing her uncle a disdainful look.
Marcus only grinned.
Heka smelled it before all else. The stench of death. They were still a ways from the town, but she feared she knew what awaited her there. Then, Warrior sensed the presence of another Immortal nearby. Sure enough, waiting in front of the village gates, was Atos.
Marcus sensed his niece tense up and reassured her, “It’s quite alright, dear. We are not here to try and harm you. That would be foolish considering help is minutes away.”
“The day I start trusting you is the day I must die,” she replied, still on guard.
“Please start trusting me,” he begged. “Please.” Heka rolled her eyes in response.
They finally came up to Atos.
“Hello, dear,” the latter greeted, his black eyes shining with malice.
Heka smelled blood and sensed no life besides the three of them. She pushed past Death without acknowledging him, entering the peaceful fishing village with Atos and Marcus right behind her. Heka already knew. Knew that everyone was dead. She had to hope, but, deep down, she knew.
Warrior stepped inside one of the houses at the village’s entrance where homes were sparse. A woman of about thirty lay on the ground of her kitchen, her husband sat on the couch, lifeless. Upstairs, two children lay in their beds—a young five year old who clutched a doll and her twin brother, both were dead.
Heka walked out with the certainty that all other households would be the same. She continued along the path, deeper into town where the seaside shacks were a bit more crowded. That’s when the stench of blood became stronger. She saw bodies strewn across the ground, saw the warm crimson liquid running down the cobbled stone.
“Someone woke up before I got to them,” Atos explained. “They sounded the alarm.” He paused and added, “Things got a bit more violent, then.”
“You’re a monster,” she snarled, struggling not to cry…and not to attempt to strangle both of them right then and there. A cold breeze blew through, pushing her hair back, the salty ocean smell did nothing to mask the metallic scent that impregnated everything. She saw a young couple holding hands—they were teenagers. The boy’s throat had been lacerated, the girl eviscerated. Heka turned away—she was used to seeing death. Death on the battlefield and dead soldiers. But this was coldblooded murder, genocide even.
“Why?” she turned to face her enemies.
“You know,” Marcus said.
“We’ll see you in a couple weeks, dear.”
Atos and Marcus left. Warrior’s knees gave out, and she crashed to the ground. She furiously wiped away tears of rage and sadness and screamed out her frustration—a huge, primal howl full of pain. Her legs were soaked red; she didn’t care. All she cared about was that innocents had died. And for what? To discourage her troops and make a point. Sembor suddenly appeared by her side; she grabbed him in a fierce, desperate hug, burying her face in the soft and warm fur.
“Heka?” a quiet voice called out to her. It was Myegi. Warrior didn’t respond. The Moon Spirit came to kneel in front of her, wincing slightly. “Heka,” she repeated, taking the latter’s red hands in her pale white ones. Sembor didn’t even protest. She finally responded, lifting her eyes up. “I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you here?” she croaked, forgetting to pull her hands back.
“I followed you. I saw both you and Marcus walking away from camp.”
“I didn’t sense you.”
“I didn’t want you to, otherwise War would have been aware as well.”
Heka did not even question it. After all, Spirits and Demons were related—if one could make himself undetectable, why not the other?
“Come on,” Myegi prompted, pulling Warrior up.
“We can’t come this way,” Heka declared, trying to pull herself together—the best way she could do that was to be purposeful and active. “It was the shortest route.”
“So what do you want to do?”
“If we cut training out of tomorrow, we’ll make up for lost time.”
Myegi stood in shock and actually gaped.
“Ugh, don’t look at me like that. What other choice do we have? I cannot let anyone else be faced with this horror. Can you imagine the morale?”
“Believe me, I can. Do you want to do anything about this?”
“I wish we could bury them, but we don’t have time,” she sighed heavily. “I guess the best thing to do is to go.”
“Hold on. There is something I could do.” Myegi closed her eyes and her aura flared silver. The waves seemed to grow steadily, the tide rising quickly. The water came all the way to the town, washing away the blood. Just as quickly as it came, the water left, and the tide returned to normal. It left the street and bodies clean.
“The Moon controls the tides,” Myegi explained. “I am not Water, so cannot control more than that. And I am not Earth either, so I cannot bury them, though we could burn it down easily enough.”
“How?”
“Aapol.”
“I don’t know that it would be right for us to make him witness this.”
“He’ll know. Maybe he already does.”
“Then yes.”
A few minutes later, Myegi was back with the Sun Spirit who looked very grim. The two held hands, their auras grew bright, mixing together. A field of silver roses and golden tulips came to cover the town.
“When the sun rises, they will catch fire,” Aapol said. “That will also give you a good pretext for our detour.”
Heka nodded, and the three headed back to camp.
Unable to fall back to sleep, Heka saw the camp start to come alive. As dawn rose over the ocean cliffs, the tents were pulled down, breakfast served and eaten quickly. In the distance, Heka saw smoke rising. Heka’s gaze crossed Aapol’s who nodded knowingly.
“Change of plans,” she told the king and his officers. “There’s a fire blocking our way, we’ll have to take a short detour.
“Are you sure?” Damien asked, perplexed.
“Yes. It has minimal ramifications, anyways—we’ll skip tonight’s training.”
“Never thought I’d hear you say that. Are you feeling well?”
“Minimal ramifications?” another officer joined in, who had had enough experience with her to know it was uncharacteristic.
“Yes.”
“Who are you and what have you done with Heka?” the king asked, shaking his head in disbelief.
“It’s me, and we need to make the detour,” she stated, exasperated.
A while later, the ships were sailing along and the troops moving forward; Heka, for once, walked in the back. Jason came up to her, his face drawn. He held her arm, waiting to put a little distance between themselves and the rest of the men.
“What?” she snapped irritably. “Sorry, what?” Heka asked again.
“I found this,” Jason showed her the pants she had been wearing last night—the ones covered in blood.
“How?”
“You asked me to put away your stuff,” he reminded her. “Because you had to tell the king about the detour. What happened?”
“Would you put those away, please?” she bit aggressively.
Jason shoved them back inside his pack and stared at her accusingly.
“Do not look at me that way! Unfortunately, there isn’t much to say. Atos took a fieldtrip to a peaceful fishing village. He made sure nobody survived. Men, women, children…they didn’t stand a chance. Marcus made sure I saw it opening night! Myegi and Aapol helped me burn the bodies.
”
“I’m sorry,” Shadow murmured.
“So am I.”
“You know why they did it, though. You can’t let it get to you.”
“I saw gutted children! It’s not that easy not to let it get to me,” she said furiously.
“It’s not…you know what I meant.”
“Yes. That in a week we’ll be meeting up with Damien’s allies, and in two, we’ll be facing off Marcus’s army and that I have to be ready, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally too. I know that, thank you very much! That sounds like something I’ve said before…hum, right! To you…and everyone else!”
“Okay. Please, don’t get mad at me, alright? I didn’t really think that through—”
“Yeah, maybe you could do with a bit more thinking!”
Jason opened his mouth to reply and closed it. “I can see you need some space,” he decreed. “I’ll see you later,” Shadow moved quickly to rejoin the group, going up to the front where Nature talked to Juan and Brandy. Never thought they’d be better company than Heka, Jason thought bitterly.
Warrior spent the rest of the day by herself. It did her some good. As dusk came, rain began to fall and thunder grumbled in the distance. Warrior enjoyed the cool feeling of the water on her face—it was cleansing. As night fell, Heka finally felt able to reconnect with others.
Chapter 33: The Battle of Augoro
Two weeks had passed and it had now begun. There was no going back, no changing of plans, nothing but the battle, the fatigue, the blood and noise that filled the grass plain and stone courtyard of the fortress. Heka’s archers had held back the first wave, their arrows all hitting their marks, but there were simply not enough of them, and soon enough, Hunter, at Marcus’s orders had focused his energy on those arrows. Eventually, Atos had taken care of the archers…permanently.
Both armies seemed to stretch endlessly over the battlefield. As Heka, wearing Chaos’ armor, walked quickly towards the center of the field, she thought there was no chance this would be over quickly or that the battle would be clean and result in minimal casualties. The grass at her feet was already wet and red, her own weapons, armor, hands and face were splattered with blood, but she barely took notice. The sooner this was over, the fewer people would die.