“It would appear that She fooled you all, then; you arrived here later than She did, Commander” Hydra replied. “A god cannot exist in a dimension without it first being born there. They are beings of extreme, pure energy. If they just appear in a dimension, without first being made from its own forces and laws, the very fabric of every world would be torn asunder to equal the equation.”
“The Auranair was reborn? How can that be?” Olympus breathed. “Even the gods had limits to their power; She couldn’t have just made herself anew”.
“Actually, it would appear they can. Reincarnation, I believe the humans call it” one of the 375th said behind him.
Olympus chose not to reply, too caught up in the truth of what really happened to Vermillion.
Hydra caught the mystified look of his brother and directed his speech back to him. “She was reborn here, and She chose the recluse world of Apollia to be Her home world. It is the planet that a goddess was born on; that is why we call it heaven. It can only be accessed by that portal” he gestured towards the Gate. “Perhaps now you can understand the complexity of my fortress and the reason for our deception to you, brother”.
Hydra was right, Lupus could understand it now. Somehow, the four Apostles had tricked his legions into thinking there was no presence on this world, but they had only done so out of self-preservation. He would have done the same in their shoes. For reasons he could not find, Vermillion had not told him about her rebirth in this dimension. It was obvious now that the psychic beacon was put in place after the laborious struggle to fortify the world, to create the leviathan of a fortress to shield the Gate to Apollia, was over.
Lupus felt physically affected by the news, the very idea of being misled by both the goddess and his Apostles a pain in his heart.
“You should not have lied to me, Hydra…” he frowned, unable to accept the past despite its noble purpose.
Hydra grimaced, unable to understand his hurt. “We did what was necessary. If the Great Enemy found out the secret of this world, through a weak legionnaire or a Corrupt and we were unprepared, the result would have been catastrophic. He has terrible power, brother, even inside the time lock. There’s no knowing what He could have done”. It was the first time anyone had indicated the dark god, their ultimate nemesis, when speaking to him.
Lupus looked at Hydra pensively. In his mind he knew that he was right, but the wound at missing the opportunity to meet his brethren years before wouldn’t go unheard.
“You may have been the First Apostle, but you are not completely unique” Hydra tried to say politely. Like him, Hydra appeared to be young and gentile, but it was clear that he had years on him that his skin would not betray. “Apollia is where the Auranair sent our brother Seraphim to. He, like me, is responsible for safeguarding that sacred place. She told him the truth about Herself, everything about the war and its origins. Perhaps She told you those things also, but you did not need to understand the nature of Her coming here. The risk that the enemy could find out was too severe”.
The blunt reality of Hydra’s words hit home with brutal force. Lupus hadn’t been trusted with the information of She who had Blessed them all. How could he not be? Was he not the First? Was he not sent back before the others to secure the Empire for the war ahead, to prepare the way for his brothers and sisters? In reality, who had prepared who?
For a long while he stared longingly at the Gate, daring it to overwhelm him much as Hydra’s words were threatening to. It was just as Hydra predicted; even the Lion needed time to process all of this, every Apostle had.
Lupus spoke again after what felt like an age.
“Whatever this is…this insane fate of ours…I don’t think any of us truly know what our paths really are. There are many things I wasn’t told and I am certain that there are things you weren’t either. The Auranair made a puzzle for us, one that together we must solve”.
Hydra nodded slowly and assuredly at him as he talked.
“We are the Chosen and as much as we need Her answers, the Auranair is no longer with us. Instead, She is shared between us; a part of our very spirits and souls. We are meant to help one another, Hydra. I think that’s the point of the Blessing, to make us a family. We cannot, any of us, do this alone.”
His voice was solemn as he gazed back at the Gate. “From now on, we work together. Secrets and deception would be the undoing of us all”.
AFTER LUPUS WAS content that the Gate wouldn’t share its secrets with him, Hydra led them back to the staircase and the trident of corridors.
“The others have gathered in my Strategy and Assessment Hall, down on the left. We should join them, before they start to wonder if we’ve had a disagreement” Hydra smiled, making light of the truth.
Lupus chose to remain silent with his own thoughts before they met up with the other Apostles. There were another ten that he had to meet, though Hydra had said that not all of them were here. He wondered how many there were, what they looked like in human form and how they would react to him. It was clear already that his status as First Apostle was known, but that their loyalty and obeisance to his position was not set in stone. He would have to earn their respect and love, where the Guardians’ was granted.
It felt longer than it actually was before they reached the room. Unlike the central passage leading to the Gate, various chambers branched off from this hall and Lupus could tell that each one served a different, but equally important purpose. He already knew that his brother was focused in everything he did, but he had no desire yet to explore the fortress in depth. His only desire now was to meet the other Apostles.
A pair of legionnaires stood at the entrance to the SAH, another archway that seemed defenceless enough but for the wall of hard light acting as the door. The two guardians quickly moved aside and saluted when they saw the two Apostles and their commanders approaching. The latter didn’t dare enter the chamber, its hallowed space reserved only for the Twelve.
Hydra went in first, with Lupus close behind. There was a stone staircase, the same colour as the stripes on the 375th legionnaires’ armour, that ran down to the left of the door and into the room. Inside, seven impressive figures sat or stood around a large wooden table that stretched to each end of the hall. There were four women, one who seemed more a child in an adult’s body, and three men, one brooding and restless, another calm as water.
As Lupus followed Hydra down to the table, he saw what his brethren looked like for the first time. They were all beautiful beyond his expectations, with flawless skin and perfect features. Each had hair of the richest colour and eyes of the deepest shades. He had overheard them deep in debate about each other, it seemed, but now that he had come down they were all silent in anticipation of him.
“Brothers and sisters,” Hydra said, moving to the head of the long, dark oak table but not yet taking a seat. The others didn’t even move an inch. “This is the Lion, the First Apostle” he announced, introducing Lupus to the group.
Lupus, who had kept himself away from the table to show he didn’t yet belong, bowed his head to them like he did with Hydra before. “It is an honour to finally meet you all” he smiled warmly, looking at each in turn as he spoke.
At first, none of them said anything in return. They each watched him, sizing him up and trying to work him out. He appeared humble, his armour simple compared to that of Hydra’s and their own. He wore only purple markings to display his legion’s affiliation, but the design featured nothing more.
Finally, one of his brothers replied. “At last, you’re here…we’ve been waiting a while” he chuckled. His youthful face and misty eyes gave an air of mysterious cunning and Lupus found it difficult to know how genuine he was being. “I am Waterfox, Seventh Apostle of Vermillion. You may call me Oz, brother”. His armour, a mixture of light blues and greys, made no sound as he proffered a hand to Lupus. A sword at his brother’s waist looked as though it were made of ice, the hilt transparent yet solid enough for even the tightest of g
rips.
Lupus was relieved to receive an open welcome and acknowledged Waterfox with a deeper bow than before. One of the women that had been patiently observing his arrival took her turn. Her long, dark red hair was tied up at the back and on her right cheek she bore what looked like a birth mark in the shape of a majestic bird. Though, where most such scars would be misshapen or imperfect, hers was a flawless resemblance so much that it could have been body art, but Lupus had a strangely confident impression that it was natural.
Like her legionnaires, her armour was black and shaped to resemble flames, but bore decorations of orange all over to mark her out as an Apostle. “So, you are the Lion?” she asked rhetorically. “You don’t look like one” she smirked.
Lupus knew she was mocking him, but couldn’t be sure why. There was a twinge of acquaintance when he saw her eyes, as though he had seen them somewhere before. “Appearances can be deceiving, sister. I’ve seen enough in my years to know that” he replied firmly.
She listened to his response, seemingly satisfied with it, introduced herself to him. “Oh, I imagine you have. I am Phoenix, the Eighth, though I am known as Novus too. The 77th are my legion. I believe you have met them already” she smiled. So, she had only been jesting with him after all. He wasn’t used to so many different personalities. Or was it that he just wasn’t used to being surrounded by equals?
Lupus bowed to her. “I have. Your commander has a lot to be credited for” he replied. She nodded sharply in return, as if to tell him that she didn’t need his approval to know the merit of her legionnaires. He hoped she would accept the compliment regardless and with that wish he realised the whole conversation with her smacked of familiarity. Was it possible that they had been friends before the Blessing? But if they were, how could either of them forget that? Perhaps it affected them in more ways than none of them could begin to comprehend, but there was certainly a closeness about her that was palpable in the air. Even Oz seemed to notice that they might have known each other from before.
By now the others had moved around, some taking their seats at the table. Lupus remained standing where he was. “This is Nightingale, the Sixth” Hydra announced, gesturing to a hauntingly striking woman with hazy armour that seemed to be in constant motion. It hurt Lupus’ eyes to look at it for too long, but he guessed that it was a part of her form’s power rather than what she wore. Interestingly, she wore no colours; there was only the black. She surprised him by bowing first and he returned the courtesy all too happily.
Before Hydra could continue to the Apostle next to Nightingale, he was interrupted. “I have no wish for the Lion to know me through anyone bar myself, brother” the man who had chosen to sit down said, a hint of annoyance in his voice. He looked at Lupus as if he was unsure of him, but spoke to him anyway. “I am Cerberus, Fifth Apostle of Vermillion.”
Had he not been at war for the last decade, Lupus would not have been able to contain his excitement. His memory of his form was one of the most pertinent. Now that he saw the man that would become the noble beast, he was inspired and bore immediate love for him. Cerberus wore the black of the legions, striped with reds and yellows, but his shoulders were the snarling heads of hounds baying for the kill and his chest was a bulky series of plates layered over the other, though with the impressive bone structure he bore as a human, the Apostle needed little else to look as formidable as his namesake. He would be more than a match for the Great Enemy’s pawns, that much was certain.
“Thank you, brother” he managed to reply, but Cerberus said no more.
The last of his standing sisters walked up to him and stroked the side of his cheek with the back of her hand. It was a sudden, unexpected movement and he was surprised to have not seen it coming. It was warm though, as if he were being touched by a person that knew him deeply. It frightened him how much it was reminiscent of the love he had lost so many years ago; he wondered where she was now, the girl who should have been his life companion.
“There is no doubt about you, Lion” she told him. Only now did he seem to realise her skin was a forest green, her hair more rosebuds than anything else. The only armour she wore was an earthly brown that covered her chest and waist and her face was smooth and fairy-like, so perfect that it was an injustice to call her anything less than comely and fair. “You are the First Apostle and I know that in both my heart and mind. I am Gaia, the Eleventh”. Smiling, she turned away and joined Nightingale.
Equally as unusual as Gaia’s introduction, the last woman to make herself known and easily the most beautiful in the room jumped out of her seat and threw her arms around him. Her armour was simple too; a sleeveless white top that buttoned at the front with a black piece of cloth around her midriff, a long shoulder pad shaped like a tear drop on her left shoulder with her right one bare. She wore fingerless gloves and a vambrace on her left forearm and though her pink hair, with hints of a black base, was short on her right cheek it flowed down onto her left. To protect her legs she wore only a long mauve skirt that flowed from the front to the rear and brown leather boots that stopped just before her knees. Yet for all the appearance of innocence and weakness, the longsword strapped to her back, almost bigger than she was, betrayed her hidden lethality.
Her rosy cheeks blushed with an affection of a trueborn sister as she came up to him, shorter than he was by a head as though she really were his younger sibling. She embraced him truly like the long-lost relation that he was, as if she had known him for all her life and had known the sight of him before she had even beheld him with her eyes. Lupus felt her energy bond with his own; the pure, untarnished acceptance of him as her brother instantly creating a connection between them.
For all the warmth of the moment, Lupus couldn’t help but feel there was something amiss with her. She was too childlike for her body’s age, a youthful spirit about her that belied what she was. Yet, there was no mistaking her identity and position; she was an Apostle, that much was certain. He could feel the fact in his bones as much as he did with the others.
“My name is Solitaire. I am Ninth” she said, emphasising her titles as though he was slow to understand. “Welcome, brother. It’s good to see you; now we can all play and fight and wage war together” she beamed.
He had never seen anyone so gleefully happy to see him, but he felt the truth in every word and it reassured him of his place among his brethren. Once she calmed down, she returned to her seat and waited expectantly for the last of them to present himself to the Lion.
Throughout all the introductions his unnamed brother, who had been silently ruminating near the exit of the room opposite the stairs coming in, had circled the table slowly. It didn’t bother Lupus at first, but now it grained on him. He considered it impolite for his brother to be so discontent at his arrival.
“Brother, may I know your name?” he ventured.
The man looked at him with an unreadable expression. He was as tall as Lupus, but his bone structure was far sturdier and impressive. His eyes were a fierce orange that seemed to glow every now and then into an angrier, hotter red. With armour equally threatening, its majority dark ochre with only the briefest of black here and there, he seemed as truly volatile as his posture suggested.
“How do you not recognise any of us?” the Apostle asked, his voice heavy with disappointment. “You are the First Apostle, are you not? It’s said the Auranair was supposed to show you everything, give you all the knowledge she had…Yet you cannot even tell your brothers and sisters apart…”
Lupus had given up trying to align his footing with his brother and resorted to following him with his eyes and ears instead.
“It’s true that she gave me a lot, but she did not show me your human faces. I know which forms you all take and I know what you have all gone through to accept them as your nature. No, I couldn’t name any of you, but sometimes even the simplest of things are not given to us in time” Lupus replied, hoping his answer would satisfy him.
However, his brother was unwi
lling to give up his resistance. “I suppose your years away from us on your own have given you that wisdom? You managed to spend a decade, if my legionnaires have been informed correctly, without finding any of us?”
Lupus found it hard to admit his faults, but he had to accept that the failure to find his brethren had always stung his spirit.
“Were I not deceived by a third of you, the shortcoming would truly have been my own. It is not without a heavy heart that it’s taken me so long, but I am here and so are you” he replied.
Studying his brother Apostle, he tried to remember any clues that Vermillion had given to him about their identities, both human and Chosen. Then he realised something, a fact he had worked out the second he walked into the room but one that only now caught up with him; there were three missing. One of them was Seraphim, that much he knew from what Hydra told him about the Gate and Apollia. Though he didn’t know their appearance, he knew the last two were female, for there had been six men and six women Blessed. That left only one possibility.
“Dragon…” Lupus named him.
Solitaire clapped her hands together excitedly as the guessing game finished. Noticing the reactions of her mature siblings, she stopped and kept her joy to herself.
His brother scowled at him in reproach. “You don’t know me…you have no right to use my Chosen name. To you I am Samael, but don’t fool yourself” he said. “You don’t know any of us”.
Samael, not the Dragon, was starting to wear Lupus’ affection thin and the venomous accusations that his brother was making began to corrode his delight at their meeting.
“I know more than you think, Samael. I know that you have each suffered similar pains as I have, that each of you have been challenged more than any of us were ever prepared fo-” Lupus began before Samael cut him off.
“-Pain? What do you know of pain? Were you sent to your world without your legion, without anyone to discover yourself with? We had nothing but shadows and fear, the darkness of uncertainty shrouding every decision we made and every choice before us!” Samael now stood face to face with him, spitting out his bitter words.
The Deian War: Vermillion's Apostles Page 22