Plague of Death

by D. L. Armillei

  “Seal? In the Living World?” She had expected Uxa to send her on a demon-hunting mission, but Van liked seals. They were cute. Especially the fluffy, white snow seals with their big, round eyes. “Does my mission have something to do with Lilla?”

  She hoped not. Last year Van had met Lilla’s sister, Lady Loka, the Elemental who guarded the Coin of Creation with her wily traps and monsters. Van dreaded having to face another Elemental.

  “Lilla?” Fynn raised an eyebrow.

  “Lilla, the Elemental Guardian of All Animals,” Van said.

  “I’m not following.”

  “Not that kind of seal,” Uxa said.

  Fynn rolled his eyes, unimpressed with Van’s display of stupidity. “You thought she meant a seal? It’s not an animal—”

  Van felt her cheeks flare.

  “Fynn, please,” Uxa said, cutting him off. She turned to Van. “Three seals secure the membrane-like veil that separates the Living World and the Earth World. I fear one of them might be cracked.”

  “Do we know what caused the crack? It is because I connected to my Anchoress light?” Van asked with a knot in her stomach. “Did I break them?”

  Van’s ancestral curse was no secret. It was the sole reason her father illegally went out of bounds the night he was murdered by Solana’s demons. The curse originated a thousand years ago, around the time of the Dark War and, to this day, loomed over Van like a storm cloud. In a wild rage, her ancestor Amaryl accidentally cursed her family line. Van used this story as another reason to suppress her feelings. Based on Amaryl’s history, emotions were dangerous and led to misfortune.

  “An increase in vibrational frequency in the Living World wouldn’t crack the seals.” Uxa’s eyes expressed deep contemplation. “But there’s so much negativity building in the Earth World, I believe the pressure fractured one of them.” Uxa looked grim. “I fear Solana’s dark master might be strong enough to break through the damaged seal and reach our world.”

  “Then all the demons in the Earth World will follow,” Fynn added, tensely.

  “Even if demons do break through the seal, they won’t be able to survive in the Living World, the vibration is too high.” Van knew the rules of vibrational frequency: if demons were raised to a much higher vibration, they would explode and die. It was the method Grigori used to kill demons, and one Van had used in the past.

  “We believe the negativity of the Earth World is seeping through the crack, lowering the vibrational frequency in our world.” Fynn shifted anxiously. “It’s already causing disruption. If that master demon, or any demon, breakthrough, their presence would trigger more negativity, eventually lowering the vibration in the Living World to the point where demons could survive.”

  “What kind of disruption?” Van asked, gathering as much information as possible like a good warrior, even if it meant asking Fynn.

  “The current monarchy is ripe for a takeover,” Uxa said, rescuing Van from talking to him. “Crown Prince Ferox Moor is young, about eight months younger than you, Vanessa. He’s known to be good and fair, qualities not valued by the Balish. We believe Prince Merloc, Ferox’s cousin, is seeking to take the Balish throne, with the full support of his father King Mador, the underking of the Alga region.”

  Uxa left her chair and began pacing. “The first seal is located in the House of Lacus. It’s the portal. I’ve checked, and there’s no crack. Now, I need you and your team to check the second seal. You’ll head west.”

  “Why west?” Van asked. “Why the second seal and not the third? How many seals are there? Shouldn’t I check them all?”

  Fynn snorted. “Why is it always like swimming upstream with you?”

  Uxa threw Fynn a warning look to behave and then answered Van, “Based on information gathered at Lodestar, I’ve noticed a pocketed increase in negative vibrational frequencies in the west. It also happens to be where the second seal is located.” Uxa stopped pacing, her demeanor turned even more serious. “Vanessa, I need you and your team to mend the crack before demons gain enough power to break it and reach our world. Do you accept?”

  “On one condition.” If Van couldn’t go to the mainland and fight demons, then going to the Living World would have to serve her own agenda.

  Fynn snorted, again.

  “Which is?” Uxa asked.

  “I want to use the Coin to find a counter-curse.” Van’s father believed the solution lay hidden somewhere in the Living World and she needed to find it before her luck got worse. But, the curse gave Van more than misfortune, it caused her to die during childbirth. As the Anchoress, her duty included passing down the Anchoress bloodline to her first-born female child. She deemed finding a counter-curse a more critical objective to accomplish during this Alignment, rather than looking for a potential crack in the second seal.

  “Oh, please,” Fynn said. “You’re not planning on having a baby on the trip, are you?”

  Van couldn’t decide what infuriated her more, that Fynn had called her mission a ‘trip,’ or suggesting she was weak enough to let romance get in the way of duty. She took a breath to calm down and then said, “Removing it will make me a stronger warrior. It’s imperative to the safety and security of my people.”

  “Our people,” Uxa corrected.

  “And, Brux wants to find Daisy,” Van added.

  His determination to find his sister was driven by emotion, and that would lead to nothing but disaster. But, she hoped to use Brux’s search for Daisy as an excuse to spy on Ferox. Van wanted to make sure Ferox wasn’t following the path of his sister and conjuring demons, especially if he knew his kingdom was at risk of a takeover by his cousin.

  “Vanessa, I sent a team to find Daisy.” Uxa’s expression remained stoic. “I believe her to be dead.”

  “Find her body then.” Van threw her arms in the air, exasperated. “The Coin will show me the fastest way to the seal, then I can use it to find Daisy—dead or alive—and then search for the counter-curse. The Coin may be the only hope for me remove this damn curse.” Van took another calming breath. “The Earth World is where the demons are, that is where I should be—on the mainland fighting demons to make sure none get strong enough to break the seal.”

  “We have Grigori trained to do that. They’re taking care of it,” Uxa said, with some impatience. “You’re not ready to fight demons in the Earth World or anyplace else. You’re certainly not emotionally ready to use the Coin again.”

  “Pffft!”

  Uxa’s expression grew stern. “Vanessa, you must integrate your feelings about your father and Solana’s deaths—process the pain you’re feeling. It’s the only way you can become a competent warrior.”

  “Telling me that I can’t use the Coin is an emotion-based decision on your part—the wrong decision.” As Van stewed, she wondered about Uxa’s real motive for not letting Van use the Coin.

  For years, high-level information had been leaked from Lodestar to the Moors. The spy remained a mystery. Everyone thought it was Van’s father until she uncovered the truth of his innocence. The culprit who framed him—Solana.

  “You haven’t learned how to control your power yet,” Uxa said. “You’re not fully trained.”

  Van prickled with annoyance. She went back and forth suspecting that Uxa was the spy. Right now, she was thinking yes.

  “Why can’t you send someone else to check the seal? Like Pernilla.”

  “Pernilla is part of your team,” Uxa said.

  Van’s irritation skyrocketed.

  Fynn added, “All members of your team—”

  “Have to stick together,” Van continued his sentence, rolling her eyes, “because of the collective balance of skills, blah blah blah…”

  “I would go with you if I could,” Uxa said, trying to temper the situation. “But we still haven’t found the device your father used to throw off the Balish squawker system. I would be tracked the second I crossed out of the Salus Valde boundary.”

  Uxa began pacing, again.
“You must use your time wisely. Tensions remain high between the Lodians and the Balish. We’re in what the terrigens call a Cold War.”

  “They’re still trying to overthrow Manik’s law?” Van asked. “I mean, the part that magically protects Salus Valde from being taken over by the Balish?”

  Uxa stopped pacing and turned toward Van. “The Balish continue to gather evidence, hoping to prove we have violated the law so they can have it overturned, yes. Their main focus is still to convince the Elementals that the Grigori aren’t doing their job.”

  “A cracked seal will only help further their cause,” Fynn said.

  “The Balish know that I’m real and have access to a magical weapon—the Coin,” said Van. “They know I’m underage and can legally go out of bounds—”

  “Not anymore.” Fynn’s lips turned downward.

  Van paled. “What do you mean?”

  “The Balish Council appealed to the Elementals,” Uxa said. “They asked to modify Article 57 of Manik’s law, the section that allows children under the age of eighteen to leave the boundary of Salus Valde. The Balish claimed there’s no reason for our Anchoress to go into Balish occupied territory again now that she has established herself.”

  “They won?” Van’s confidence plummeted, along with her stomach.

  Uxa nodded. “The decree was approved by the Elementals. The Lodian’s Anchoress is no longer allowed to leave the boundary of Salus Valde.”

  “So how will I get around the squawkers?” This added a measurable difficulty to the task.

  Uxa’s eyes sparkled. “The Elementals didn’t agree to track the Anchoress.”

  “So I can leave the Salus Valde boundary without the Balish being alerted.” Van inwardly hid her relief.

  “But if Lodian children are caught outside Salus Valde, especially with the Anchoress,” Fynn said. “The Balish will assume we’re seeking to make allies of other tribes. They already believe we’re in cahoots with the terrigens, planning to rise against the Balish rule, in a foretold war they call Solmor.”

  “Right,” Van said. “Their version of Dishora.”

  Van could’ve sworn she heard a gasp from Fynn.

  Uxa tensed.

  Apparently, neither cared for the comparison.

  “If you're caught, the Balish Council will claim it is an act of war. A clear violation of Manik’s law.” Uxa paused, then continued. “If you’re found on their soil in possession of the Coin, which is known as a powerful weapon…they will have won.”

  “But the Balish don’t know my identity,” Van said. “Or that I’m Goustav’s descendent and the true heir to the Balish kingdom. That bit of information died with Solana.”

  “The Balish know the Anchoress exists,” Uxa said. “And the spy in Lodestar remains a mystery. We have to assume your identity is known to the Moors, even the Balish Council. This will make your mission that much more dangerous.”

  “Wait.” Van tensed. “I haven’t agreed to check the seal.”

  “Mending a cracked seal is the best way for you to protect your people,” Uxa said. “You must go.”

  Although earlier, Uxa had asked Van if she accepted the mission. Now it seemed Van had no choice. “Do you at least know the exact location?”

  Uxa shook her head as if she had failed.

  “Then I need the Coin.” Van slapped the wooden arms of her chair.

  “If you screw up—” Fynn stopped to re-assess his next words. “What I mean is, the Balish want control of Salus Valde. Their goal is to transport to the Earth World and kill all the terrigens to prevent Solmor. They believe terrigens are destined to rise into the Living World and kill their king, or something like that.”

  “How do they plan on killing all the terrigens? There are seven billion of them.”

  “Evil finds a way,” Uxa said.

  “Have someone else check the seal.” Van crossed her arms. “I need to check on Ferox, find out if he’s consorting with the master demon. Together they could be plotting to crack the seal. I’ll take him down like I did his sister. Then I can find Daisy’s bod—Daisy—and search for a counter-curse. The seal isn’t an immediate threat to us.”

  As Van finished her last sentence, the door to Uxa’s office burst open.

  “Yes, it is,” Ambassador Kasey said, looking flustered.

  Uxa and Fynn straightened, standing alert and ready for action.

  “Maren’s illness,” he said. “It’s worse than we thought. And it’s spreading.”

  Chapter 10

  “Medical is using colloidal silver to slow the progression,” Ambassador Kasey said. “But the illness is more serious than we thought.”

  “More children are sick?” Uxa asked, alarmed.

  “Eight more have come down with the same symptoms. All terrigens, all on the island.”

  Ambassador Kasey turned to Van. “The seal must be mended to prevent an outbreak in the Living World.”

  Van’s hunch that something more than appendicitis had afflicted Maren had proven to be correct. “What does Maren’s sickness have to do with the seal?”

  “The illness will find its way through the crack in the seal and reach the Living World,” the ambassador said.

  “Right now, it seems to be contained on the island.” Uxa shifted her eyes, deep in thought.

  Van asked the ambassador, “You’re using medicines to get my classmates better? You can get them better, right?”

  The ambassador glanced at the floor, then looked at Van. “None of our antibiotics are working. The colloidal silver will ward off the illness, but not for long. The situation is critical.”

  “Why aren’t the children on the mainland getting sick?” Fynn asked.

  “Perhaps the terrigens on the mainland are somehow immune.” Uxa leaned back against her desk and crossed her arms.

  Ambassador Kasey shifted back and forth. “Well, uh—”

  Uxa narrowed her eyes at the ambassador. “Yes? What is it?”

  “It seems,” he cleared his throat, “for the past several years, common bacteria in the Earth World has been mutating and becoming unresponsive to antibiotic treatment. Viruses have also been getting stronger, new strains discovered every year. First, we attributed this to adaptation—the bacteria and viruses getting smarter.” He cleared his throat again. “Now, we believe our superbugs are getting stronger due to the increased number of demons.”

  Uxa’s nostril’s flared. “You. Kept. This. From. Me?”

  Ambassador Kasey took a step back. “I, uh, didn’t think it was important. We have crazy viruses all the time. Got top men working on it. It’s under control. Nothing to worry about.” He babbled.

  Uxa took a deep breath, probably to keep herself from throttling the ambassador. “This illness—you think the demons are getting so strong they’ve generated an illness that’s afflicting Providence Island’s terrigens?”

  The ambassador nodded. “Yes.”

  “Why is Maren’s illness different from the mainlander’s viruses?” Van asked.

  “We think the virus mutated, raised its vibrational frequency and changed form,” the ambassador said.

  “That’s why it’s here,” Fynn said. “It would move toward the highest frequencies in the Earth World—the island.”

  “The illness travels to the easiest, closest match first—and terrigens vibrate at the lowest frequencies on the island,” Uxa said. “Then, once it gains strength, it will spread to those with higher vibrational frequencies.”

  “Like the same as demons,” Van said, proud to acknowledge that she understood the concept. “This particular illness isn’t afflicting the mainland terrigens the same way because they’re vibrating at a lower frequency than the virus.”

  “You’re saying the disease will get stronger?” the ambassador asked.

  Uxa nodded. “It went to the children first because their immune systems are weaker than adults. The virus will gain strength and spread to adults and all vichors.”

  Fynn
tensed. “If the virus is seeking higher vibrational frequencies, then it’s headed straight for our world.”

  “It’s imperative we contain this illness to the island,” Uxa said.

  “But the magic controlling the island’s location is malfunctioning,” the ambassador said. “We have no way to keep the island in the Earth World.”

  “If the Balish catch word of this, it will fuel their case for voiding Manik’s law,” said Fynn. “The Grigori not doing their job—”

  “Ugh,” Van said. “Don’t they ever stop it with this takeover-Salus-Valde stuff?”

  “No,” said Fynn and the ambassador at the same time.

  “Our Grigori will immediately increase their efforts to reduce the demon population in the Earth World.” Uxa turned to the ambassador. “Your people need to find a cure for the children in critical condition.” She turned to Van. “You must mend the second seal.”

  Van sighed. “How am I supposed to mend this seal?”

  “Use your Anchoress magic to connect to the power of the Coin,” the ambassador said.

  Van brightened. “I get to use the Coin?”

  Uxa shook her head. “You’re not emotionally equipped to handle the Coin again.”

  “Yes, yes,” the ambassador said, waving his hand dismissively at Uxa. “You’ve expressed concern about the Anchoress’s mental condition. However, the Brotherhood regards her emotionless state as a good thing. We believe it’s a sign of maturity.”

  “I’m not emotionless,” Van said.

  “She’s not ready.” Uxa’s whole body tensed. “She’s not a weapon you can take out and use at your disposal.”

  The ambassador tightened his jaw, apparently sick of Uxa’s menacing stares and ready to stand his ground. “Vanessa has the qualifications and experience to mend the seal.” He curled his hands into fists. “She will use the Coin.”

  The moment had arrived when Van would discover who had more authority: Uxa who spoke on behalf of the Elders or the terrigen’s Brotherhood.

  Uxa remained quiet for what seemed like a long time. Then her eyes darted to Van. “I don’t want you using it to search for Daisy’s body or to look for a counter-curse.”