by C. Swallow
"Tell me that again after this encounter is over," he snaps.
"Feel free to humiliate him, Sapphire," Seraphine calls down, laughing, "If he moves, he's dead and he knows it... and we're trying to make a statement here."
Seraphine helps me smile.
Once Traegr and his Dark Gems closed the distance...
...I would take her advice.
And the real fun would begin.
S~31~C
Sabir stays on his knees and keeps his head low as the Dark Gems finally make their approach. Traegr is holding a draining whip of his own, long and twitching on its own with the charge of his dark energy, which reacted to the close proximity of our female magic.
"So it begins," Traegr drawls out slowly as he thwacks a fern to the side and slides down the muddy slope towards Sabir and I.
Standing within metres from us, he glances up to the tree tops where Seraphine is still pointing the gun at Sabir and Traegr smirks slowly in response. There was dangerous intent in his eyes.
I didn't know what he had planned but it seemed he expected Seraphine to be lying from the beginning.
"Watch your step, ugly," Seraphine snarls out, referring to his half scared body. She consequentially draws all of the attention from the other Dark Gems, who fixate upon her up on her branch, reaching for their own weapons.
They all draw forth smaller versions of the gun she is holding, which assumingly shot out beams of electricity to taser those it targeted.
"Traegr, do as she says... listen to her, please," Celeste adds softly, waving her hand gently through the air, making the plants start to grow. A thorny barrier is built between him and Sabir and I.
Traegr simply looks on in amusement and shoots Celeste a look of warmth. If there was one person that could ever soften him, it was her and her alone.
Probably because when she was even on the side against him, she still spoke with manners that were just so typical of Celeste.
"Seraphine, the one who cannot die..." he replies, calmly, choosing to ignore Celeste and focus in on his greatest enemy instead, "You may have been miraculously lucky the first time you were caught by us. But I know one of you is injured, we followed a trail of blood here. You don't have to pretend, I know it's you, Seraphine... I sent my best warrior after you, your subjugator, the only Dark Gem who you can never defeat," Traegr is confident in his words, "I already have this whole area surrounded and a newly formed technology locked onto your positon in those tree tops right now. Surrender peacefully, and we'll let you live and welcome you into the Golden Palace as a respected slave. A new start. How about it, Seraphine?"
"I appreciate the offer, but I'll politely decline," she replies without smiling, "Now you will hear my terms, the unharmed return of your favourite punisher and warrior, for my Seraphine Rebellion Squadron and the CU Documents. You did not follow the blood of me here, Traegr, you followed the blood of Hraken himself," Seraphine explains, "If I was injured, Celeste would have healed me."
Traegr pauses and so do I. CU documents? So the acronym from the document about Pharis, was important after all! I look up again to the tree tops and notice something I did not see before.
Celeste's hand, resting upon the tree trunk and hidden by some leaves, was bloody.
It was Hraken's blood and to be honest I am not surprised.
When Celeste harnessed her magic, no one could conquer or outwit the way she manipulated the forest. I knew this because she was taken from the forest itself, where she grew up in a village, always practising her hold on the plant life around her. That's what she had told me when I first came to the Golden Palace as a young teen.
"I apologise, dear Seraphine, but it is not possible, even if you wanted your girls back, they are nowhere in the vicinity. They are secured in the Volcan Laboratories," Traegr replies.
"Where you held the hybrid-Gem, Pharis?" I add in, wanting to catch Traegr off guard.
He focuses in on me, the whip violently twitching as he clasps it even tighter.
"You've been snooping around, princess? How typical," he growls low, angry that I've found out something that obviously passionately angered him.
"It's only typical you'd want a boy dead, you are probably jealous a female Gem slept with a human and bore them a child," I smile and take a step closer to Sabir and run a hand through his soft, black hair, petting him, "You lot were never that appealing anyway, you're far too alike, human men have more depth. Dark Gems, on the other hand, are nothing but shallow, your souls consumed by greed."
I'm aiming to upset him further, but he just bursts out laughing.
"Your attempt to suggest we are subordinate to humans is amusing, Sapphire. However, I'm done negotiating –" Traegr starts to raise his hand, to signal an attack. Except Seraphine swiftly turns on her weapon to full charge, loudly buzzing to life in her hands.
"Not so fast, you make one move and he's dead!" Seraphine raises the gun to her shoulder and aims it perfectly at Sabir's head, "You're going to go back to the palace, within the next five minutes. You're going to arrange the return of my Squadron and the papers for CU, and you're going to do it quickly. I suggest you make a move on, Hraken is in the trees along the way back, and he will bleed out in the next few minutes. If you hesitate, he will die, if you refuse to listen to me, both Sabir andHraken will die. Your best friend and your best warrior. Choose wisely, King of the Dark Gems, if you don't, I do not doubt there will be a rebellion against your rule...and your closest allies will not be around to fight with you."
He pauses at her words, now that Hraken's life is also in the picture. He also knew Seraphine wasn't lying this time. If he carelessly let Hraken and Sabir die, the other Dark Gems would not respect him any longer, nor would they trust him to rule.
"Celeste?" Traegr growls low and catches her eye, his mind was racing, that much I could tell.
"She is telling the truth," Celeste shows him her bloodied hand, "This is Hraken's blood, one of his carotid arteries in his neck is pierced and he is losing blood quickly. I only healed it partially enough so that if you find him soon, he will live. If you disobey her... you know what the consequences will be."
"Where do you want the deal to take place?" Traegr eventually asks Seraphine, believing Celeste, his face going red from the admission.
He had to give into her orders, it was the only way to save Hraken and Sabir.
"Same place," Seraphine relaxes enough to sit down on the branch and swing her legs while grinning, "You come back here in 2 hours with what I want, and I'll give you Sabir unharmed. Thank you for your co-operation, Traegr... also, I want you to know, by my Seraphine Rebellion Squadron I don't just mean the girls you have locked up in the Volcan laboratories, I also want every girl in the Golden Palace here as well, they belong with me. Do you understand, your highness?" she gives him a wink as his cheek twitches in barely held back frustration and fury.
Before he turns away, he eyes me as I hold the rope around Sabir's neck and I tug on it, pulling Sabir's head up so he can finally look up at his King. They hold each other's gazes for a moment, as they are forced to bend to the will of their supposed slaves.
"Soon, you'll also be wearing a leash just like him, sweety," I speak with as much joy as I'm feeling right now, especially since I get to say it to Traegr.
His eyes darken a tad, but Traegr does not respond.
He spins around and yells at his men.
"Clear out, find Hraken, now!" his words send the other Dark Gems into a flurry.
"How are you feeling, Sabir?" I ask him, catching his attention.
"I feel like some justice, darling," he smiles at me and slowly gets to his feet, using my Earthen term against me. I stand still as I continue to hold the rope leash and he takes an unexpected step toward me, leaning down slowly to whisper in my ear, "It won't be long now, I promise you that," before I can react, he places his warm lips against my cheek, they linger before he pulls back.
Blood instinctively rushes to my face at the
intimate contact.
Seraphine and Celeste make their way down off the tree as Sabir assesses my quick and unexpected blush.
Even if it was just on my cheek... I guess it had just been a damn long time since I had been kissed by him.
1000 years.
"Tie him to this tree," Seraphine hits the ground lightly and nods at me, worry in her eyes.
I know why, she saw him kiss my cheek and she saw my reaction.
Those sort of responses to the Dark Gems were the reason we got pulled back into slavery time and time again.
I had to be careful.
I knew Sabir.
He could be as evil as all hell or he could be as sweet as an angel.
I had to watch myself and most importantly...
...I had to listen to Seraphine.
"I'll tie him up," I agree with her command and she nods before glaring at Sabir, who is staring intently at her, especially now that he wasn't blind folded.
"You don't want to show me your secret hide out, Seraphine?" Sabir asks with attitude.
"I doubt you'll like it there," Seraphine responds dryly.
"What are we going to do for the next two hours?" Celeste asks, worriedly clearing the thorns from around Sabir and I so I can lead him to the big tree next to us, where I can tie him up.
"We should plan for unexpected surprises," I reply, "But first, I honestly can't wait any longer... Seraphine... why don't you answer the question we all want an answer to?" I suggest, eyeing her with interest.
Her eyes light up, she expected this to be brought up again and she said before that she'd explain later.
Now was as good a time as any.
"I was not dead, but I was near death," she explains slowly.
"So how did you live?"
S~32~C
"I was near death not because I had been drained excessively of magic. Instead I had been accidentally shot with this very gun, at full charge, when Traegr had only ordered a knock-out blow be passed onto me. Ironically, although they didn't care if I was dead, they still preferred to take me alive," Seraphine speaks clearly as Celeste and I secure Sabir to the tree.
He lolls his head back onto the trunk and keeps his eyes half closed as he watched Seraphine, interested in the details himself. She even speaks as if directly to him, un-afraid and unashamed.
"Anyone of this planet would have died from the maximum charge in that gun, it's impossible to survive," Sabir points out, curious to know the full story of her survival.
"I did die," she happily answers while not breaking eye-contact with him, "all I remember is waking up, Hraken had a hand resting over my face after he had closed my eyes, thinking I was still dead. As he took his hand away, stood up and left, I had awoken to hear a space craft roaring to life. I knew the girls decided to hijack a spaceship – and I didn't want them to leave without me. I transformed into my fire, made my way into the spaceship before it blasted out of the atmosphere. By the time I seeped in, I was un-noticed because everyone was passed out. I also decided to take the potion while I was hidden from Celeste...I didn't want to distract her from our course to another planet. I knew if she saw me alive she might think it was worth staying on Kiyr with me as their leader. So I hid. Then we all woke up after the spaceship had delivered us to Earth. Celeste made sure everyone slept the whole ride there. She had been the one to program the computers for Earth, a planet where our powers would be suppressed. Earth had Gem stones just like ours, but they were negative versions, you could say. They hindered our magic, hence we could live new lives on Earth. 17 years passed for us and we were given new memories, in that time – 1000 years were passed on Kiyr. Space and time are funny things," as Seraphine explains her eyes glaze over as if in deep thought.
"When you were kidnapped too, did they not realise you were more than human? That you were marked?" I ask, confused.
"They didn't search for me on Earth because they thought I was dead, any genetic record they might have had of me was of no use. Not to mention my face was never known to many Royal Dark Gems, only a few, most of the time I had been wearing my mask," Seraphine smirks and I know she misses her infamous disguise, "I was human to them when they arrived and abducted us. Until I escaped one of their prison camps here, most of my memories had returned anyway because I only took half of the potion Celeste had given out to the girls on the spaceship. The humans the Dark Gems stole are now being turned into slaves for Kiyr; miners, for the collection of more gemstones. Free labour, you could call it," Seraphine now glares at Sabir, who just scoffs.
"Humans are weak, why wouldn't we take advantage of that? We didn't steal many from Earth, it was just a few thousand, out of curiosity. When we quickly learned how weak they were, we thought of a simple use for them," Sabir says this like the conclusion for their use was obvious.
"At least you didn't experiment on them like you did with that boy, Pharis, the hybrid," I bring him up for the second time, this time to see Sabir's reaction.
"He was an undefinable risk. His use of magic needed to be assessed," Sabir growls low.
"Undefinable risk is a perfect description of that kid," Seraphine mutters, rolling her eyes.
"You know, it's rude to talk about people behind their backs," everyone gets a fright when we hear the cocky sixteen year old voice near by.
We all turn our heads to see Pharis casually leaning against a tree, sneakily watching on behind some ferns growing around him.
"Oh great... you're still around," Seraphine raises an eyebrow at him, sounding sarcastic while he just grins.
"I've decided to accept the invitation," he exclaims, walking forward with his arms thrown out in excitement.
"What invitation?" Seraphine asks suspiciously.
"What? – hang on. Sapphire," Pharis pauses in his approach, looking promptly betrayed as he looks at me, "Was it an empty promise?"
"I was desperate at the time but of course not. I'm a princess, I can make anything happen that I want to happen –"
Sabir bursts out laughing and I glare at him instead. He tries to stop, but he can't help it – and promptly starts laughing again.
"Why are you laughing?" I snap.
"Don't listen to him," Celeste reassures me gently, while giving Sabir a glare of her own, "Stop. You're the prisoner," she reminds him.
"No shit!" Sabir's laughter quickly comes to an end
"What are you really doing here, Pharis?" Seraphine asks dead seriously now, wanting a proper explanation and ignoring Sabir.
Pharis looks to me, hoping I will explain.
"I offered him a spot in the Seraphine Rebellion Squadron..." Seraphine instantly narrows her eyes at me and I feel offended, "Hey! Don't look at me like that! I know he is pretty much a Dark Gem... but... he is half human. He's just a kid and he has no-where to go."
"Well I did find that field of diamonds you told me about," Pharis proclaims with pride at his success, reaching into a pocket on his hospital gown he wore at the laboratory, he takes out a handful of diamonds, showing us, "See?"
Sabir hisses through his teeth, his body going stiff as Pharis takes a step forward.
"Careful," I snap at Pharis, taking a step forward I put my palm on his shoulder and push him back, "Those many diamonds will kill him if you get too close. I'm surprised they aren't affecting you!"
"Hybrid genes are strong genes, princess," Pharis is not sure exactly what I'm on about, but takes what I say as a boost to his confidence. He winks at me and then gives a blank look to Sabir as he takes a step back, "Why is he still alive anyway, if he is a bad guy? And do you accept me into your Squadron?"
"I think we should take him," Celeste offers her opinion.
"Me too," I agree.
"Fine," Seraphine finally gives in, but not easily, "Can you promise to listen to me and follow my orders, Pharis?"
"Of course I can, besides you shouldn't be so rude – I helped you escape that camp. I handed you over to that cute princess over there, so you should be a little
more grateful," Pharis adds, sounding a little annoyed but also trying to be polite at the same time, "So what are we doing about food? And you didn't answer my question about why that man is still alive? Oh and what's your name?" he directs that at Celeste.
"Celeste," she answers happily. Seraphine sighs but does not answer any of his questions.
"Learn to talk less, your big mouth will just work against you," she snaps at him before stalking off into the trees, "I'll be back, don't untie Sabir, no matter what he says."
"Where is she going?" Pharis asks.
"I believe she is going to scout the area," Celeste answers.
"Okay," his eyes eventually rest on Sabir, and I turn to see Sabir focused intensely upon the half-Gem half-human teenager.
Sabir looked mildly interested in Pharis' qualities and potential. However, I felt a vibe of possessiveness and irritation, especially when Pharis gives me a warm smile.
"Thanks again for inviting me," he grins, innocently happy.
I smile back at him while thinking, morbidly, that Sabir better stay tied up.
Or Pharis might end up with a fight on his hands.
"Ahem...you better keep those diamonds close to you," I suggest.
Celeste notices the tension too but she just hums a song and grows the nearby tree branches in closer until she has made a seat. She reclines on it and lets out a sigh of relief.
"Freedom is nice," she murmurs, closing her eyes, tilting her head back and catching some rays of sunlight, "I hate cleaning."
"Poor sweetheart," Sabir just has to have his say in all this, "If you'd prefer other chores, you could have just found Traegr or myself– we'd keep you busy for hours if you wanted."
I see Celeste keep her eyes closed but her cheeks slightly flush. She does not reply but mostly maintains her composure, trying to ignore his words.
Sabir then gives me an evil glance and I glare back at him.
He knew how to play this damn game but I would not give into his provocation.
"You guys are weird, man," Pharis sits down against a tree trunk and pats down on the ground next to him, "Sit," he offers me the space, "Can you explain to me what's going on?"