But something more incredible than the thousands of houses, makeshift bridges, and stone stairways shook her heart the most in that moment- the sheer vastness of the Rejicio people themselves. She heard they had been growing in numbers, but she would have never imagined there could possibly be more citizens here than in any one of the four cities. She watched in amazement as the people swarmed around her working tirelessly, hammering into the mountain walls, adding large wooden beams to create even more houses, smoothing out staircases with a muddy mixture, tying rope around bridges, and pushing around heavy masses of wood and stone on metal wagons. People running around shouting at each other, exchanging goods for gold, labor for food, creating an open marketplace. A smile spread slowly across Mythia’s face.
“You like it?” Mythia jumped a foot into the air as a high, strong voice spoke from behind her, like a piece of ice had been slipped down her back. She whipped around to find a middle-aged woman with straight brown and silver-streaked hair pulled back into a low ponytail, watching Mythia carefully with a pair of clever gray eyes. She wore a deep brown leather dress lined with fluffy gray and white fur, covered in a long white cloak. It was Bello, the leader of the Rejicio people.
Mythia had met Bello briefly when she was traveling by horse to Monoceros to find one of the golden scrolls with the Doctrine, Lord Animus, and Prince Regulus.
Mythia paused for a moment, allowing her heart rate to slow down. “It's incredible.”
Bello smirked, studying Mythia, taking in her silky black, layered pants, the dragon etched sheath hanging from her waist, her dark tunic beneath the leather green vest, and the thin silver crown of triangles that sat carelessly upon her head of long, wavy chestnut hair. “It’s good to see you’re still alive. But you’ve changed since we last met… you look like a dragon queen.”
Mythia shuddered at Bello's odd choice of words. She suddenly felt sick at the thought and raised her hands to remove her crown.
Bello touched Mythia's arm. “No, keep it on. For now.”
Mythia gulped and lowered her arms back down to her side. She watched Bello closely, unsure of her intentions. Bello pulled the tuft of fur that lined her tunic closer to her chin. The air was still but cold inside the mountain. Most of the Rejicio appeared to be wearing some type of fur lined leather clothing, bundled up against the northern air.
Bello smiled at Mythia, this time wearing a slightly warmer expression, but her eyes remained calculated. “We've been hoping you would find your way here. You can drop off your horse in one of the stables, I would like to show you around.”
Mythia pulled Noctis across the moss ridden ground until they reached a simply built wooden stable housing around two dozen horses. She unhinged the gate and tugged at his reins, but the horse refused to budge.
“I know it's not like the woods,” Mythia whispered soothingly, stroking his long black hair. “But you'll be safe here…. I think.” She walked him into the stable and let go of his reins, slid quickly out of the fence, and locked it back up. Noctis stared at her incredulously. Mythia sighed and walked back toward Bello.
“Beautiful horse you have there,” Bello noted, walking deeper into the city, Mythia following in her stride.
“I found him injured in the wild. He's been my only companion ever since...” Mythia's voice trailed off as she lifted her eyes and drank in the scenery surrounding them. She leaned her head back to get a better view of the layers and layers of houses and bridges as they passed beneath them. Children dashed across the bridges, the intertwined rope rattling beneath their feet. “I've never seen so many children in any of the four cities...” Mythia noticed.
Bello raised her eyebrows. “That's because there are now more Rejicio being born than non-Rejicio. Marks no longer bare a purpose here. We are the future of the kingdom.”
They passed more strips of houses and workers. Some of the people stopped to stare as they walked by, their eyes wide in awe. Others bowed their heads in respect until Mythia and Bello passed.
They crossed to the opposite end of the wall and reached another, smaller opening. Bello continued through, Mythia at her heels. They traveled along a smooth tunnel lined with flaming torches, the dark ground slanting slightly upwards, shadows jumping across the narrow tunnel. Just as Mythia was wondering how long it went on, they reached a wide exit that led out onto a ledge with a low iron gate built around it. Bello and Mythia stood on the ledge and looked down below at a magnificent scene.
Rows upon rows of Rejicio filled the massive cavern floor, each of them holding out a sword and moving in perfect synchronization, the glint of their blades sparkling like a thousand diamonds, as they slashed through the air with practiced precision. Mythia watched, mesmerized from high above, as the purpose behind what she was looking at slowly dawned upon her.
“You have an army.” She stared sternly at Bello.
Bello stopped smiling, her face turning serious, a line creased between her eyebrows. “The Rejicio have every right to possess the means of defense. The king has his army of knights, and my sources tell me he is growing less and less stable as the days go on. I don't know how much contact you've had with the cities Mythia, but much has changed since the night you fled Trigonus.” Bello looked back down upon her secret military, a smirk forming on her face. “Your husband has no idea what I have here.” Mythia swallowed, watching the dance of a thousand swords from high above.
“I plan on making my way back to Trigonus tomorrow,” Mythia whispered. “I suppose I shall see the change for myself when I get there.”
Bello’s gray eyes studied her. “You can’t go back to Trigonus.”
Mythia looked at her sideways, still watching the army. “I have to. There are people I need to see.” The prince’s face floated in front of her, momentarily blocking the massive army beneath. Her heart jumped at the mere thought of seeing him again.
Bello glanced back at Mythia. “Perhaps not all of them still reside in Trigonus.” She turned and dashed quickly through an opening in the side of the iron gate and down a set of stairs made from stone, leading to the floor of the cave, Mythia following her with growing curiosity. The sound of shouts and swords swishing into the air echoed and bounced against the walls, a sort of power rippling through them. The rhythmic stomping of a thousand soldiers played along with the song of their blades. They all wore long chainmail and helmets that covered their faces, looking more like the statues that lined the castle halls than actual human beings. Mythia's eyes were glued to them so tightly that she tripped over her own feet as she followed Bello down the cave along the wall.
Bello grabbed two soldiers that were training in front of one of the huge groups and pulled them into a much smaller cave, also lined with flickering torches. A fire jumped and sparked in the corner, casting warmth upon them like a blanket. The two Rejicio soldiers were dressed just like the others- covered from head to toe in silver.
“We have a visitor,” Bello said with a smirk. Mythia watched as the taller soldier lifted his helmet off his head, shaking long, dark curly hair from his face. He greeted her with a wide toothed smile, and warm brown eyes.
“Titus!” Mythia exclaimed in surprise. He looked just as surprised as she felt as he crossed over quickly and pulled her into a tight hug, completely knocking the wind out of her. He stepped back and looked her up and down.
“Mythia, you’re here! You’re alive! You look different,” he remarked, his wide smile turning into a frown. “What happened to you? Where have you been?”
Mythia was about to answer when she noticed the other Rejicio had removed his helmet. No more than a second passed before Mythia realized it was not a he, but a young woman; her dirty blond hair chopped off right up to her ears, opal eyes round and wide, a small straight nose and a strong, serious face. She smiled sheepishly as Mythia studied her. It took a moment before it dawned on Mythia who she was looking at.
“Ventus?” Mythia gasped. She let go of Titus and ran over to her old serving girl. She
held onto the girl's shoulders and stared at her in shock. Only a few months ago Ventus was a small and delicate fourteen-year-old, so thin and brittle that her spine stuck out from beneath her thin dress. The girl who stood in front of Mythia was no longer just a little girl. She had filled in; her muscles as defined as many of the knights from the city. Her once long blond hair now lay in short, sandy streaks across her forehead.
“I can't believe it's really you,” Mythia said breathlessly, pulling the girl into a tight hug. Ventus froze beneath Mythia's embrace before pulling away. “How did you end up here?”
Bello stepped in with a smile, placing her hand on the girl's shoulder. “She ran away moments after you did and sought us out. She immediately enlisted in our army and has climbed the ranks faster than any other soldier we've trained.” Ventus watched everyone around her carefully, her gray eyes far more serious than Mythia had ever seen them.
Mythia looked intently at her. “You did it... You've become a knight… More or less.” Mythia shrugged with a smile, remembering their sword training sessions with her father in the castle fields. Ventus had expressed her deepest desire to become a knight of Terra, but that was impossible as she was neither born into nobility nor a man. But Mythia was determined to treat her hardworking servant to a sword fighting lesson from her father as a way to thank her for all she had done. A deep ache clutched at Mythia's heart as the thought of her father falling into the volcano of Draconis threatened to pull her down. She let out a shaky breath. “I'm glad.”
Ventus smiled slightly, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “When you ran out through the castle dripping with blood, your dress nearly burnt off, I knew it was time for me to go. There was nothing left for me there... not really.” Ventus shifted her feet against the hard floor. Mythia clutched at her side, remembering the fire she had endured that night.
Titus noticed Mythia wincing and laid a hand on her arm. “Are you wounded?”
“The king set me on fire with his magic, the night I escaped. Half of my body's been burnt… for some reason the burning pain never quite left.” Mythia explained.
A strange shadow crossed Bello's face. “The king has magic?”
Mythia looked at her, suddenly realizing that what happened in the king's chambers that night was unknown to everyone but herself and King Tribus. Her eyes flitted quickly between the three people standing in the room, pulling the memories of that awful night slowly to the front of her mind. How strange it must have looked to the outsiders, when their newly crowned queen ran out of the king’s burning chambers, half her body singed and smoking, blasting away everyone who got in her way.
Mythia took in a deep breath. “After the wedding, I showed the king my unmarked shoulder. It was foolish… I thought maybe he would disregard his own laws if he… if he cared for me enough. But something happened to him. He changed. The Tenebris had overtaken him suddenly and struck me with his fire. The whole room went up in flames.” She struggled for a moment to find the words to describe what she had witnessed that night. “At times he was scared, like he couldn't control what he was doing, like he was fighting against himself. He would apologize and back away… and then his eyes would turn black and he would try to kill me again. At one point he had said that King Tribus was dead... that he was the Dragon King.”
Bello knitted her eyebrows. “There have been other reports of the Dragon King along the years. We believe it is an evil entity of the Tenebris, possessing royal family throughout the generations, but hardly anyone has lived after facing him. It is amazing you are still alive.”
“How did you manage to hide from the knights after sustaining such serious injuries?” Titus asked suddenly.
“I ran deep into the woods, not far from Trigonus. I thought I was as good as dead when the fever took over… but I had just enough strength left to keep myself hidden, somehow. I felt my body blend in with the forest floor around me. Whether it was one of my gifts or simply luck, I’ll never know. Occasionally I would hear hooves pounding nearby, but I appeared to be invisible to them.”
Bello folded her arms and tilted her head back. “What prompted you to come here? How did you even find us?”
“I remembered Vector, the one who brought me to the Rejicio campsite last spring, mention that the Rejicio were building a permanent dwelling up here. I figured it was the safest place to go for information, before I return to Trigonus… I was able to find the way here using my gifts of the phoenix.” She smiled warmly at her friends. She had craved their faces during the long, lonely weeks of summer.
“Mythia, you can’t go back there,” Titus urged. Mythia frowned. It was unlike him to be cautious or careful.
“I need to, Titus. I have to go see…” she paused, feeling Bello’s eyes boring into hers. Somehow, she thought it would be a bad idea to reveal her feelings for the prince of Terra in front of the Rejicio leader. “I have to go see the city for myself.”
“Nothing is the same as it was before you left. You’re not the only one with gifts anymore, Mythia.” Titus placed his hands on her shoulders. “And now that your face is well known in Trigonus as the queen who tried to kill the king and placed a curse upon the land, you won’t stand a chance. Stay here for a while. We will make it back there eventually, but not yet. We need a carefully devised plan.”
Bello smiled at Titus, something like pride behind her face. She motioned toward Titus and Ventus. “You two go back down for training. We'll see you at supper.” Titus gave Mythia’s shoulders one last squeeze before he left with Ventus. The echoing of their boots slowly growing quieter as they walked away.
Bello peered at Mythia sideways. “They have both been incredible additions to our army. Titus is a natural born Rejicio, I’m not sure if you knew that.”
“I knew his gifts were versatile from his dragon mark,” Mythia answered thoughtfully. Titus had the strength of a dragon, but he was also able to fill others with a feeling of peace, which was a gift of the unicorn. An abnormality, or a genetic defect as the Doctrine had once called it, which makes someone a Rejicio.
Bello sighed and stared at the fire, her expression suddenly turning serious. “After you fled, the king told the people you had used your magic against him, in an attempt to kill him, so you could take over the throne. And when your attempt had failed, you used your magic to place a curse upon all of Terra to awaken the gifts from inside the people and spread chaos throughout the land.” Mythia felt a burst of angry heat fill her face. Bello turned to face the queen and continued. “Most people in the cities believe him, and blame you for the changes that followed, swearing allegiance only to King Tribus, claiming that you had been crowned on false pretenses. But some, including most of the Rejicio, know the truth. Our allegiance is with you, Queen Mythia, as it always has been. Not with King Tribus.”
“I keep hearing about the cities changing. But what kind of changes have taken place?” Mythia asked, frowning.
“My sources tell me, that the night you fled, the king raged a personal war against you. He claimed that those who were for you were against him, committing treason, and those who were with him would be greatly rewarded. He ordered all his knights, all the knights in the entire kingdom, to search every corner of Terra for you. It is a good thing you have such incredible gifts… being able to conceal yourself like you said, obviously saved your life.” Bello looked down at Mythia, her cold eyes narrowed. “Within the next week the people of the four cities were waking up to powers they could not control. Fear spread like a forest fire, and literal fire spread from those who awakened with the elemental gift of the dragon. Citizens of Monoceros sprouted small earthquakes all over their mountain, destroying their houses and roads. Fenniks endured several windstorms that made a mess across the city. And then there is Trigonus, where people are waking to all sorts of gifts, blasting apart the architecture, their roads, their farmland. They have closed the only gate that city has and only open it to bounty hunters or knights with donatus, which is the name they are
now using for those whose powers have suddenly awakened.
The kingdom is in ruins, the people having to constantly fix them every time someone else awakens to their uncontrollable gifts. People do not understand what is happening to them. And then the king made a new law...” Bello turned toward the fire, clenching her jaw. “Stating that all bounty hunters, guards, and knights, were to collect the donatus and throw them into the dungeons to await their deaths without trial.”
Mythia looked at Bello, a shadow crossing her face from the flickering fire. “That law doesn't sound much different from before...”
Bello took two strides over to Mythia, her gray eyes widening madly. “Only a very, very, small percentage of the population within the cities had magic before, Mythia, and it was usually a very mild form and therefor easier to hide. Now people are suddenly blowing up bits of their cities then being torn from their families to be slaughtered for gold. It is only a matter of time before everyone's power awakens, and everyone is imprisoned and hanged. Even some of the bounty hunters and guards have magic. They either hide it, or abuse it, taking control in a time of chaos and fear.
You need to put yourself in their position, Mythia. Every morning these people wake up to the fear that their children may be ripped out from their hands, every day more and more civilians are captured and killed for something they have no control over. And then there's the gifts themselves...” Bello swallowed. “When magic awakens in someone who never once wielded it before, it is impossible to control. Many have died at their own hands; others have killed their loved ones accidentally. Life in the cities as you once knew it, is gone.”
Mythia: and the Awakened Beast Page 3