A Third of the Moon and the Stars Struck

by Jade Brieanne

  You’re incredibly adept at doing things the wrong way.” She glanced at Anais. “That seems to be a family thing.”

  “So you’re the one who killed Balladan?” Anais concluded, her voice shaking.

  Pythia Phi’s smirk was slow, crawling up her face like water spilled across the floor. “Hm. I wonder. Did I?”

  She looked past Kano to the hooded figure holding Khavah captive. Khavah was shoved away while a hand reached up and pushed the cloak back from their head.

  Anais’s trembling hand came to her mouth. “Balladan?”

  The Son of the Hakimu stood there, very much alive.

  “How,” Anais whispered, haunted. “I saw the pictures. I saw your corpse!”

  “You saw a body, wife. Many should wonder why they picked you, a woman who’d probably forgotten what my body even looked like, to identify my remains. It worked out in the end,” he said as if he were talking about the color of the sky or his favorite meal. “Phi told me this was the surest way to get rid of you. Even with your lack of affection for me, you would fight for honor to the death. Looking at your condition, she was right.”

  Anais looked at Pythia Phi, her eyes flashing with hurt and betrayal. “You wanted…you wanted my death?”

  “Whatever it took to get you out of the way, didi. See, that’s the problem with you people. Your goals blind you! Ahn wanted Aria back. Mother wanted to bring peace. Aria wants to win this war. Wants are fine. They are wonderful!” Pythia Phi exclaimed. “How great would this realm be if we could do what we wanted? But we have a purpose, right? To save humans. Humans,” she snorted. “My human father was nothing but a donor to my creation. My daughter’s father, nothing but a donor to her creation. What connection do I have to humans? I could have had one but you,” she said pointing to her mother. “And you,” she said pointing to Kano. “All of you said I had to serve the humans as a Priestess.”

  “You were your sister’s heir, Pythia Phi,” Khavah explained patiently, as if she were talking to a child. Her child. “There was no other choice! Your strings–”

  “Oh, fuck the strings, Mother!” Pythia Phi exclaimed with a haunted laugh. “I wanted to fight! I wanted to be a warrior. A proud Mutare warrior. But this realm isn’t about what I want, is it? It’s not about what you want, or what anyone wants. Our strings dictate our purpose–to want anything else is an anomaly! But how can someone’s dreams be an anomaly?” she seethed.

  “Anomalies result in chaos, Phi,” Anais returned, her voice still light in her fatigue. “Chaos causes deaths that don’t make sense, occurrences that upheave everything. That’s why Tambour exists! To help us keep balanced!”

  “How’s that balance thing working out for ya, huh?” Pythia Phi chuckled. “Chaos is good! Think about the chaos you’ve caused for your own desires, Ma. Look at your children. Pythia Del is stuck on Earth because of your desire to keep Caeli untainted with rebels. Kano is stuck in a position he doesn’t want but thinks he has to keep so you’ll be proud of him…for once. Anais’s rightful desire for power has been curb stomped by you, reigned in with a marriage that would limit her power while you purposely separated her from the one person she loved so very dearly.”

  Anais frowned. “What…what is she talking about? My marriage has nurtured my authoritative power.”

  Pythia Phi snorted. “Sure it did, sis. She tied you, with your assertive, controlling nature, to a Hakimu with their staunch strict rules. They caged you, Anais, like a wild animal. And it worked because you are tethered to your power. It’s your own captivity! You can’t even lift a finger towards Balladan. And trust me, he deserves it.”

  Balladan shrugged.

  Khavah frowned. “’Don’t listen to her. She’s not in her right mind right now.”

  “Oh, I’m very much sane. So much aware of how chaos can be used for good. Khavah Dantò, the Divine Matriarch, the mother to this realm.” Pythia Phi laughed. “Do you all want to know what her biggest crime is?”

  “Phi,” Khavah growled in warning.

  “Aria,” Pythia Phi continued, dismissing the warning. “Her biggest crime is Aria. Aria Jinni, the Hero of the War, Sekhmet reborn. An abomination!” she spat. “A mongrel blooded usurper who she helped raised to the highest position imaginable save for The Above!”

  Aria pulled her sword from her sheath. “How dare you,” she growled.

  Pythia Phi tapped her chin. “I wonder if that anger is because you knew and are trying to hide it or…” her eye jutted towards Khavah Dantò,” you were never told.” She nodded sagely. “I gather I shall be benevolent and tell you. These secrets are SEKRÈ fruits of labor. And look, I won’t even charge you!”

  Aria took another menacing step towards her. “Tell me what?”

  “You know that Khavah only regards you as a weapon, something she can use at will whenever Caeli is in danger. That’s why she went through such great lengths to get you back, even going so far as to conspire behind the backs of The Fallen and the noble houses! It’s because you are unique, Aria. No one has powers like yours, abilities like yours, in either Caeli or The Glory Beyond. It’s because you are not like any angel in Caeli or The Glory Beyond. That’s because…”

  Aria narrowed her eyes at her.

  “You are not an angel.”

  “That’s it? That’s your reveal?” Aria waited for a beat before laughing. Yeah, I’m glad you didn’t charge me because I would have wanted my money back. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “Believe me or not but you are one of Caeli’s biggest conspiracies.”

  “Who told you that lie?” Ahn asked.

  “That’s right.” Pythia Phi sighed, annoyed. “You’re still alive. You know, you’re really good at ruining my plans, Ahn, but the good thing about that is I am a good problem solver! Vethi,” she commanded.

  One of the clocked figures pushed their mask up to reveal the loud mouth from the pit. Aria wanted to say she was surprised but she wasn’t. There was something always capricious about that girl. “Do you have what I asked you to bring?

  “Yes, my leader.”

  Vethi tossed a metallic red arrow with a gleaming golden tip to Pythia Phi.

  “A light arrow?” Ara asked. “That was reported missing from the Amory. Vethi was the one who reported it!”

  “I know,” Pythia Phi said. She notched the light arrow. “This would have all been so much simpler if Anais had killed you in The Pit. I guess love conquers all, huh?”

  Ahn stood tall, slowly, pain etching his face in winces with his every step. He inclined his head, ever so proud, to stare Pythia Phi in the face. As she aimed the bow towards him. “What are you going to do after you kill me, Priestess?”

  “Free angels and humans alike from this insipid entanglement the Root Watchers bore unto us, that’s what! And,” Pythia Phi tugged back on the string, staring at him, “who said anything about me killing you?”

  Ahn frowned. “Didn’t you do all of this to get me out of the way?”

  There was the noise of movement, branches breaking and grass crunching, the displacement of air, and all of a sudden the clearing filled with hundreds more masked figures. In their hands, weapons, glass knives and swords and pistols and axes, all aimed to kill. “So vain. You all will die…here, today, but…” Pythia Phi sneered, “you were never my real target.” Pythia Phi shifted the aim of her bow and released, the light arrow careening through the air, the arrow sparking with brilliant red light and fragrant warmth, and…

  …striked Khavah Dantò in her heart.

  The Divine stared wide-eyed at her daughter, the shock of the attack, so unthinkable, unfathomable, and the palpable hurt. Her hand shook as it reached for the arrow’s hilt. Anais screamed. Kano’s knees buckled. “Pythia Phi…why…?”

  As Khavah’s hand touched the light arrow, her body burst into a million fragments of light.

  “Because, Mother. I want to be free.”

  CHAPTER NINETY THREE

  The groun
d rumbled and Aria flew into action.

  Escape. They had to escape. If they didn’t escape, they would be executed.

  She grabbed her sword and poured some of her spiritual pressure into it. “Kano! Get Anais! Everyone, run!” Without waiting for him to answer, she crouched and spun quickly, releasing the energy from her weapon. The result was a push of spirit pressure and wind, strong enough to knock anyone not anticipating it down. Noticing her chance, she dashed across the clearing, placed Ahn on her back and fled, using the trees to make her escape.

  “Put me down,” he muttered weakly. “I still have fight in me.”

  “Shut up and rest.” She looked behind them and saw the other

  Luminaries, along with Kano and Anais, behind her, which was good. It was the wave of cloaked figured chasing them that worried her.

  “With the eidolons starting to dissipate, I can feel their spirit pressure. It’s powerful, yet immature and unfocused. We are very out-numbered and I don’t know what they are capable of, so nothing stupid. If you’ll follow my suggestions, we can lose them,” Ahn breathed.

  “Suggestions? I’m very open to suggestion.” Aria threw a hand signal up, one that would inform the rest to follow her lead. Up ahead she could see the volcanos rising above the tree line.

  “We need to block them first. Maybe with the terrain but try to refrain from using path powers. The eidolons will absorb path energy output until they are gone. If we block them, we can head to Mount Ubuntanju. There is a secret passage there. We can regroup and figure out the next course of action. We don’t want to lure them to the Pit.”

  “Say no more.” Aria pressed her wrist comm to open a line of communication with everyone else. “Ryuu. We need to lose our fan club behind us. Balladan and Vethi are probably their strongest fighters but neither of them is equipped to attack all of us while giving chase. Got any tricks up your sleeves?”

  “Aria, my dove. Why even doubt me?” Ryuu’s comm buzzed as the line closed and Aria looked back. Ryuu leaped from a branch, his hands reaching out for the next one. Using it, he looped around it once, his burly body swinging with the momentum before dropping to the jungle floor. The ground shook again, harder, much, much harder this time and Aria watched as a large section of trees fell back, landing on another section, causing a domino effect that reached their pursuers with lightning speed, either trapping them in the tangle of trees or blocking the path.

  Ryuu reappeared, dusting off his hands, and in a few giant leaps was behind them. “Tell the Later Ụwaians I’ll come back and plant a few trees as an apology, eh?”

  Aria laughed. “That’ll work.” Aria looked forward and concentrated, scanning the trees. Numbers appeared to her, distance, their speed, the temperature. She tapped out of her powers, wanting to conserve her energy.

  “Never imagined our immediate threat would come from the inside,” Ahn murmured quietly as the landed on another branch.

  “I never imagined any of this, Ahn.”

  There was cool relief in the hidden tunnel at the base of Mount Ubuntanju.

  “Word to the wise. Mount Ubuntanju is made of Ubuntanju crystals, hence the name. It’s the same material we use in our clogs and this amount of it will not only mask your spirit essence but no one will be able to discern your spirit mass from the mass of a..tree.” Ahn informed.

  “The reason most people avoid this volcano is that Ubuntanju soaks into the body and causes spirit mass disruption at a soul level,” Ara offered. “Sounds really bad but it’s not going to affect us that much. Ahn and Anais are another story. It will slow down their already slowed healing so let’s not move them until we have to.”

  “Oh, that’s…that’s just great,” Sunny muttered, hovering over them, pouring what little healing energy she stored away into them. “We should have just fought instead of running away. We would have had a better chance at getting them some help.”

  “I understand the lot of you are strong but I think it’s highly foolish to fight an enemy you know nothing about. It’s best we came here so we could come up with a plan,” Ahn explained. “They did a good job of evacuating the Pit. I can’t feel or hear anything.”

  “My sister,” Anais whimpered. She shivered and Ahn began rubbing his hands up and down her arms to warm her up. She leaned into his touch. “How could she do this?”

  “And what did she mean by freeing angels and humans from our entanglement?” Ara said as she parked against the passage wall. “Our engagement is indestructible. It’s divine. What can she do? It’s impossible.”

  Ryuu grunted. “We thought the barrier was indestructible because we thought no one would ever attack Khavah Dantò of all people. I don’t think we are in a position to work in absolutes right now.”

  As they discussed amongst themselves, a bright light burst through the rocks, breaching into the base of Ubuntanju and filling the air with white. The mountain rumbled and the earth shook. Ahn leaned over Anais protectively and Yusuf stood, his hand going towards his standard issue weapon.

  “There is no way in hell they found us,” Ara whispered hotly, her eyes glued towards the bend in the passage.

  Aria’s eyes slid closed and she smothered down the groan she felt just at the tip of her throat. It wasn’t Pythia Phi or SEKRÈ or anyone else that was hunting them for that matter. She recognized that spirit mass, because it was overwhelming and zaftig in its power. She also knew that if he had shown up, things were really going to shit. He hadn’t even shown up for her funeral.

  The rock they were using to hide the entrance into Ubuntanju was removed as if it were a pebble, and a tremendous amount of more light bled into the deep passage. Sunny yelped and rushed to cover her eyes. Ryuu grunted. Aria huffed loudly and stood, clapping her hands on her hips. “For the love of–”

  “BEHOLD! IT IS I, YOFIEL JINNI OF THE MIGHTY ELIYAH, ENDYMION OF SERAPHIM, OF–”

  “Oh, Father, knock it off!” Aria yelled, throwing her hands in the air. “And cut the lights for The Creator’s sake! Please!”

  “Aria?” came a voice, much quieter than the booming echo just a moment before. The passage grew dark and a tall, dark-skinned man wearing what could only be described as an extravagantly armored tuxedo entered. He didn’t look much different than the last time she saw him. Which was saying a lot. It had been centuries.

  Aria noticed he was holding a golden scroll–a signifier of communication with Nuntii.

  “So you got our message,” she said as she greeted her father. He returned the greeting in kind, touching his forehead to hers.

  “Yes, but not through Nuntii. I’m here secretly. Prie contacted Nuntii before your message could get to them and she caused quite an uproar. The Hakimus are amassing and leveraging their political power. Based on their influence and due to the perceived crimes against the Noble Houses, The Glory Beyond may not assist.”

  “If the crime they are harking about is Balladan’s murder, I have news for them. Balladan isn’t dead.”

  “He is not dead?” Yofiel titled his head to the side. “Do you have any sort of proof?”

  “Yes, I saw the bastard with my own two.”

  Yofiel considered her words for a moment before nodding. “That works.” Yofiel reached out and wrapped his hand around Aria’s wrist and began to drag her towards the entrance. “Then come back home with me, daughter. Selene Okoro misses you and The Glory Beyond is where you belong, not down here in all of this…undignified mess. Your mating with that human,” he droned, and it had been a long time since Aria had heard the word spoken with so little regards to worth, but her Father had not only disliked Yeong, he hated him, “was bad enough but now you’ve gone and engulfed yourself in another war. If you come back now, you can testify and–”

  Aria snorted and yanked her wrist from her father’s grip. He must not have been expecting that because he turned around as if she’d ripped his arm off. “I’m not doing that, Father. They decided that instead of running a thorough investigation, that they would
let the Hakimus bully them into accepting Dennes’ conclusion, a conclusion that took less than a day for him to come to and was heavily influenced by Ose–an agent of the enemy! If the Glory Beyond does not want to offer us assistance, fine! We don’t want it.”

  “You cannot make that decision for all of us, Aria,” Kano countered, evenly.

  Aria turned towards him, her brow inching towards her hairline. She hesitated for a moment because the stress of his family issues shone starkly on his face. Too bad. He was the leader. He would have to deal. “Do you want to go and testify then, Kano? Do any of you even know what a Glory Beyond deposition looks like? It’s long and arduous because noble fullbloods are lazy and would rather not be bothered. Their judicial system is a joke! They are only expedient when judging Mutare or humans. Go if you want. It won’t conclude until well after the war is done, that I can be sure of.”

  Kano opened his mouth to argue but Ahn and Anais made noises of agreement and Yofiel outright nodded. “She has a point.”

  “Besides that,” Aria started as she took a seat on a rock. “If you aren’t here because of Nuntii, what are you here for?’

  Yofiel waved the scroll. “Alloyon sent me. With Khavah’s body being recycled, he has been sequestered to their fortress. He wanted to me to check on his daughter in his place,” he said, glancing at Anais and her injuries with concern. “What should I tell him?”

  Anais pushed herself to sitting, leaning against the passage walls with a pained grimace on her face. “Tell my father not to worry. Send him my love and comfort. I am sure the news of mother’s…circumstances will hit him the heaviest. You know how he is.”

  Yofiel chuckled. “Yes. I do.”

  “We can delay the preparation of her vessel until things stabilize here. It’ll take a day for Mother’s spirit to solidify over Caeli as a protective barrier, a bolster to the standing barrier,” Anais said, quietly. “It’ll keep The Eleven and Glut out.”