Rebirth

by Darkbringer

  “The Second Great Fight broke between the Gods, and it seemed as if nothing could stop the plague that was Chaos. Every rule that was set and agreed to was broken. Everything that was decreed to not be, came into being. Stones talked. Water gained life of its own. Life was born directly from the flames, as creatures were altered or created such as The Phoenix and gifted away by Chaos.

  Life, being the most light-hearted, and easiest by nature, found the whole process wonderful and was drawn into many of Chaos’s greatest works and pranks. Air, being as flighty and forgetful as she was, would forget that she was supposed to stop Chaos, and after being distracted or tricked, would often be drawn into Chaos’s work as well.

  “Death reaped. Earth and Water moped. Fire fumed and blew her top. And Order was once again stuck having to try and bring Order to the Chaos, all to no avail, until one day he stumbled upon a secret. In frustration, he exclaimed, ‘I bet you can’t stop, even if you wanted to!’ And, Chaos stopped. All at once, utterly and completely. Chaos simply stopped; frozen like a statue, doing nothing.”

  “For a God that does what can’t be done, Chaos was drawn to do nothing, simply because it was believed that he couldn’t. Even in the Heart of Chaos, order exists, and once Order discovered that, he brought peaceful accord back to creation. New rules were agreed upon, with all the Gods and Goddesses were asked to abide by; with the exception of Chaos, who was forbidden to follow, listen, or agree to the rule – and thus was often the first to vow to be bound by the agreement.

  “Since creatures had been given free will, a new system was created for when Death reaped their flesh. Those that chose a God could remain with that God for eternity. Those that hadn’t would be separated to either Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory forever more. To watch over the pure souls, Angels were born to manage and guide the heavens. To punish the dark souls, Demons and Devils were created and placed within the hells. A balance was struck once more with Creation, and we are privileged to live within this time of calmness, My Lord.”

  “And you think I’m some sort of Fairy?” I asked, trying to wrap my mind around all the pieces of this world’s creation mythology. The way she described Chaos made it sound an awful lot like The Fool that I’d had the displeasure of meeting twice now.

  “Not at all!” Crystal laughed lightly and hugged me tight. “A fairy is a pure creature of Chaos, much as the Phoenix is a pure being of Fire or the Unicorn is a pure embodiment of life. I simply think you may have the Blessing of Chaos, and be one of Its Children. They may be called Chosen Ones, Priests, or Children, but they’re all the same thing – those that have been blessed or claimed by a God.”

  “So you think I was claimed by a God?”

  “Absolutely,” Crystal said, without a doubt sounding in her voice.

  “Why?” Leaning my head up, I looked down into her eyes.

  “In the case of Chaos, who knows why the God will claim one. Some of those who carry his blessing are pure saints, others are pure evil. If you try to set a rule by which they can be found or judged, then that rule will be broken. Nearly all seem driven to pranks, laughter, mischief or mayhem, but not all. There’s no real hard or set rule for who Chaos may favor. But there're some things which they always seem to have in common. An “Order in the Heart of Chaos”, if you will.” Crystal was staring back at me and smiling radiantly.

  “And what’s that?” I pressed. “What did you see from me that makes you believe I carry that blessing?”

  “I’m telling.” She laughed.

  “Then tell me.”

  “I’m telling!” Her mouth twitched and her eyes danced.

  “So spit it on out!” The sparkle in her eyes was almost too much for me to resist.

  “I’m telling! I’m telling!” She laughed freely, and finally I’d had enough. Smothering out the light with my magic, I wrapped a wall of thick air around the passage out to Mongo’s and Skeet’s chamber to blanket us in silence, and I descended down upon her. If she didn’t want to say, I didn’t care. The sparkle in her eyes, the twitch of her lips, and the warm embrace of her flesh was simply too much for me to resist anymore.

  Laughter filled the air as I kissed and caressed her from top to bottom, and moans of pleasure shoved the darkness completely aside. The spark in her eyes filled my heart, and the warmth of her flesh fed my desires. I don’t know how long I indulged myself in the endless warmth and embrace of her body that night. All I know is we were both soundly asleep and twined together when Dino came into the room to refuel our lightstone, and we were still asleep when he finally managed to shake off his disbelief, and finally leave to gripe to the others about how inappropriate we were together.

  Comparing Notes

  It was well past noon, according to the brightness of the lightstone in our small room, when I finally began to stretch and look around. Crystal was still sleeping soundly, snuggled up tightly against my side, with one of her legs draped casually over mine. Grinning slightly to myself, remembering the passionate night before, I gently leaned and began to nibble on the corner of her ear and neck. One of my arms and hands was trapped underneath her head as she used it for a pillow, but my other was free to move down and stroke intimately between her legs. After several indulgent moments on my part, she began to moan lightly, while stretching and gently opening her eyes.

  “You’ve got me, My Lord,” she whispered quietly between moans.

  Laughing lightly, I rolled on top of her and whispered back, “Not yet, but I will be in just a few more moments.”

  Laughing lightly, she lifted her head to free my trapped arm, and then lazily crossed her arms under her head and opened her legs invitingly. “Do with me what you will, My Lord,” she invited.

  So, I did.

  * * * * *

  Once we had finished, I created a little water and we washed the sweat and smell of wild passion from ourselves. For simplicity’s sake, I wrapped my robe around myself, while Crystal simply pulled a small skirt up and fastened it around her waist. Without even bothering to put on a top, she grabbed up Heartblade and led the way out to the common area where the others were. Leaving our lightstone at the opening between the rooms, I followed after her.

  “Good morning, all!” Crystal greeted cheerfully.

  “What’s so good about it?” Dino grumped. “Except it’s already passed and gone. You two missed morning completely.”

  “Well, la de da!” I couldn’t help but laugh. “Did I have an appointment to do anything special today? I thought the schedule was simply, ‘sit on ass, don’t get eat, let Jess heal the girls’. Did I miss my fitting at the tailor’s this morning or something?”

  “Ha! If’n ya did din ah did too!” Skeet laughed. “All I’ze did is sit on me ass, not get et, and watched Jess heal ta girls.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh and nod in Skeet’s direction. He and Mongo both seem like more than decent enough roommates to me. “So besides Dino, did everyone else have a good morning?”

  “Aye,” Skeet answered, “but why ta ‘eck do ya call Mif, Dino?”

  “Mif?” I asked, trying not to laugh.

  “M. F.” Dino emphasized each letter uniquely. “I told them once that those would be the abbreviation to MageFlame, and Skeet remembered it. When I was trying to teach him the basics of reading, that’s what he came up with when you put them together. Mif is something I’ve been trying to get rid of ever since.”

  “No wonder he’s always in such a miff,” I joked, as Crystal walked over and handed me a few pieces of jerky to chew on this morning. Finding a nice spot near the wall, we went over and sat down together. “Dino is just a nickname. I honestly don’t know why I called him that, but when it annoyed him, it stuck.” I certainly couldn’t tell them the truth; that DINO was the Dangerous Idiot, Number One on my list of initial people that I wanted to avoid having anything to do with at the school originally.

  “Wanna talk about that nightmare?” Mongo asked slowly, but suddenly. He had one of those deep voices t
hat dragged out slow, but clear usually, and made it seem like he wasn’t one who got excited often.

  “It’s nothing special,” I shrugged. “I guess being down here, I just have death on my mind. I dreamed about dying, being buried, and having my soul trapped inside my body as it slowly decayed and fell apart over a few centuries. It was quite terrible, honestly.”

  “Sounds it,” was all Mongo said in return, as he stared off into space.

  “Sounds like what David dreamt ‘bout, afore ‘e went batty,” Skeet muttered, darkly.

  “David? What happened to David?” I asked, worried a little.

  “He claimed he was dreaming about death, dying, and decay every night,” Mongo told us. “Then one morning I woke up for my watch, and he was gone. So was Ghost. It was right after that, that all the dead started moving and woke. David had the map we’d drawn, so we didn’t even know which way to go to get up out of this maze. We barely made it in here to safety and managed to bar the door behind us. It was after that, that the girls started to get sick, and everything fell to hell as we ran out of food, water, and medicine trying to tend to them. Neither Skeet or I are healers, and once Tiffany passed out, I figured we were all goners.

  “To be honest,” Mongo admitted quietly, “I’d considered taking my sword to everyone and just putting us all out of our misery while Skeet and the girls slept, but I never could do. Each breath I took, though, the determination got stronger. I don’t think we’d be alive now if you guys wouldn’t found us when you did.

  “Sorry, Skeet.” Mongo apologized and hung his head low.

  “What fer? In ta shape we wuz getting in, it would’ve been a relief. I woulda kicked ta ass off ya spirit fer doing it, but I’d forgive ya af’er.” Skeet laughed. Slowly, I was beginning to understand him a little bit better over time.

  “So did you guys get into anything?” I asked, changing the subject so the two wouldn’t feel guilty over a past that never even happened. Mongo may have thought about it, but in the end, he never actually did anything. “Find anything? Anything odd happen to explain why David started having nightmares? I might have an idea why I had one, but I’d love to find out what started all this mess.”

  “Nothing that I know of.” Mongo looked over at Skeet, who shook his head from side to side in return. “Nuttin I knows of either.”

  “That’s not very helpful,” I griped while trying not to sound like Dino. “What about David. What type of guy was he?”

  “Mama’s boy,” Mongo answered.

  “Pussy,” was Skeet’s colorful assessment.

  For a few moments, I sat in silence and tried to assemble everything I knew about people, magic, curses, corruption, and anything else that crossed my mind, looking for an answer. Coming up blank, I was relieved when Mongo finally asked, “So why’d you have a nightmare? You said you had an idea.”

  “I think it’s because I exposed myself to the corruption once,” I told them all, honestly. “I’m a specialist in Earth magic, and not long after we crossed into the graveyard area, I tried to shape and use the earth to attack one of the dead walking. The taint followed back and tried to consume me, consume my magic. It simply wanted to warp or control us anyway it could. I thought I managed to drive it off, but now I don’t think so.”

  “Let me take a look at you,” Jess demanded, as she walked over and worked her magic on me.

  “I think my body’s fine,” I told her. “I think it corrupted my spirit or my magic somehow. It was the taint rooting itself into my dreams last night, that caused me to have nightmares.”

  “I don’t sense anything wrong with your body,” Jess proclaimed while frowning. “But, I’m not an expert on anything which might damage your magic or your soul. You’d probably need a master wizard to check the first, and someone specialized in Death for the second. Neither is something that we usually have to train for as healers,” she said defensively.

  “It’s OK, Jess.” Reaching out, I patted her cheek lightly. “No one expects you to have all the answers. If it’s my magic, I know my own energy well enough that I can sort it out and deal with it. If it’s my soul…” All I could do was shrug slightly. Damned if I had a clue what to do in the case of it corrupting my soul either.

  Chewing the corner of her hair, Jess looked worried but slowly nodded before walking over and sitting back down next to Dino.

  “And what makes you think you’re corrupted anyway, My Lord?” Crystal asked, trying to keep Jess from feeling guilty over something she had no control over; much as I’d changed the subject earlier for Mongo’s sake. I couldn’t help but smile and squeeze her knee gently in thanks. I’m happy she’s one who can read the mood as well.

  “Actually, it was the way my dream ended last night.” Laughing, I pulled Crystal over and ruffled her hair slightly. “This one thinks I might be a Child of Chaos because I woke up yelling last night,” I informed everyone.

  “Are you?” Jess asked, cocking one eyebrow slightly.

  “Not at all,” I told her honestly. “The whole thing is a misconception. After I dreamed about rotting and decaying for a while last night, I got angry and cussed anyone and everything I’d ever met. By coincidence, I once managed to meet a Child of Chaos before in my life. As I was cussing them in my dream, they showed up and became a nascence. They didn’t like the darkness all around in my dream, so they painted everything in rainbows and colors.

  “All except one small section that remained cloaked in darkness,” I clarified.

  “When they bounced over to check it out, they touched it and then ran around yelling ‘EWWW! EWWW! EWWW! They were the ones screaming, ‘I’m telling! I’m telling!’ It was their shouts and screams that woke me up. I’m not a Child of Chaos,” I told Crystal, looking her in the eyes. “I just had one mucking around in my dreams last night.”

  “Ya jist shut ya trap! Any more an’ ya gonna give me nightmares!” Skeet growled. Wrapping his arms around himself, he half shivered. “Ah can’t imagine how terrible it’d be ta have one ah dem in me head!”

  “Not a Child of Chaos,” Crystal clarified. “Just Touched by Chaos. If that child felt something so terrible that they needed to tell, the taint around here has to be something awful. You may have just given me nightmares as well,” she pouted.

  “Sorry.” It wasn’t much, but it was the best and the only thing I could say as I saw the worried looks on everyone else’s faces.

  Blank

  While everyone was being silent and lost in their own worries about things, I took some time after our conversation to sit, hold Crystal, and meditate. I’d been taught how to feel my magic, how to control it, and I knew it as well as I knew the back of my own hand. Probably better, honestly.

  If there was something wrong with my magic, I was determined to find it.

  Breathing slow and steady, I pulled upon my own inner essence of Earth and traced each and every flow, weave, and circulation of the magic in and out of my body. I figured since the corruption had attacked me while I was channeling the magic of the earth, the greatest chance of my being corrupted lay within it – but I found nothing at all wrong. The darkness had tried to grab a hold on me through the flows of Earth, but my control and mastery over my own talent was too great and I’d successfully fought it off.

  A quick, cursorily glance at the flows of Air, Water, and Fire also showed no signs of any corruption. Fire, by its nature, tended to burn out before it got corrupted – or else it fed off whatever was trying to corrupt it and simply grew stronger. Air was a magic that could be corrupted easily – but then it simply drifted off and separated like smoke in the wind. It was too peripatetic, moving and circulating too much for any real darkness to settle on it.

  As for the magic of Chaos… I didn’t even bother to worry about checking it. Anything that could corrupt and taint something as unstable as the energy of Chaos wasn’t anything I could deal with. The same with the magic of Order. Ritualistic, rule-bound, inflexible. Corrupt the magic of Order, and it�
��s no longer Orderly. It simply ceases to be.

  That left only the flows of Life and Death within myself to trace and account for, and it only took a moment for me to locate the issue when I was actually looking for it. Creating Heartblade had required a sacrifice of a piece of my life; a small portion of my soul; and the taint had used that wound to spread its influence into my innermost essence.

  My life, and even my very soul, had been corrupted and darkened by the taint all around us!

  “Oooohhh!” Opening my eyes, I stared directly at Crystal and informed her, “I’m telling!” I know it was a serious situation, but I just couldn’t help myself. If one can’t enjoy life while dangling from the end of a noose at high noon, when will they?

  Laughing slightly, Crystal leaned up and gently kissed me on the forehead. “And what, pray tell, are you telling, My Lord?”

  “It’s got me! I’ve been corrupted!” I told her, excitedly.

  “Poor taint!” Laughing, she simply snuggled up and stroked my hair slightly. “So what are you going to do about it?”

  “I don’t know yet,” I told her, seriously. “Part of me is tempted to try and force it out and free myself with my magic. A separate part of me is tempted to wait a bit and see what this taint wants from me. What it’s going to try and do to me, or want me to do. If we can assume that it took control of David, it might try and make me do the same thing he did. We may be able to use it as a lead to find the others.”