by M C Ashley
But at this point, the Almighty seemed to have pity on me, as the kunai deflected off the shield and landed outside the ring.
I had no time to celebrate, as Zea had rushed forward, her spatha ready to slice my head off if I wasn’t quick enough. Knowing I had no alternative, I commanded Ageg to appear in my hands, and the weapon materialized just in time to stop her assault.
Zea pulled back, watching my bow with interest.
“Aren’t Sentinels supposed to use swords?” she asked, flitting to her left as she struck Ageg with her spatha.
“Yeah, but I was never what you’d call a rule abider,” I said, knocking her backwards and firing off an arrow at her, but in a fluid of motion, she split it in half with her sword. “Then again, Psionics weren’t supposed to be adept in swordsmanship either, from what I recall.”
“The rules have changed. Where’d you get it?”
“Gift from my mother’s side of the family. Apparently, she’s related to King Hayk.”
“Who?”
“Some Armenian guy who made Armenia.”
“And I should care why?”
“Hey, I’m royalty, sister. Show some respect.”
“Oh, I will. Shock and Awe!”
An arc of lightning erupted from her fingertips. I ducked to avoid the blast.
“A destructionist, I see,” I said, rolling to the side to avoid getting sliced in half. “Impressive, but nothing I haven’t seen before. That’s all Psionics are good for anyways, Zee.”
“I’ve never heard that term before,” she said, dodging another arrow.
Her speed was incredible; far beyond what Psionics in my day were supposed to be like. Sentinels were supposed to be the quickest on our feet—ready to spam fifty or so invocations in the amount of time it took for a Psionic to craft the perfect invocation. This wasn’t what I was used to at all. If Zea wasn’t going to conform to what I knew about our kind, then I needed to adjust my strategy.
“Means you can use the elements to blow stuff up,” I said.
“I like it,” Zea said.
“You would. Psionics were only worth our time because they could blow up a city block if you gave them enough time.”
“Oh, and Sentinels were always so useful? From what I hear they were weaker than Psionics, and forced to back us up.”
“Only because it took forever for Psionics to build up for a decent attack. They could never do things small.”
“Well, at the end of the day, they’re only classifications.”
“Not so, because a Psionic could never do this,” I said, flicking my hand. “Udo aream!”
Tiny drops of water seeped outward from my body and fell onto the floor in front of Zea, who slipped in it and fell face-first onto the floor. I couldn’t resist a good chuckle, which proved to be my undoing when she recovered faster than I expected.
“Face Annihilation!” Zea roared, as the wooden part of the ring I stood on was forced into nonexistence by a combined blast of fire, ice, and lightning.
Falling into the hole left behind by the attack, I used Ageg to stop my descent by forcing it in-between the cracks. Knowing she would attack me during the lull, I used my upper body strength to propel myself upward, just in time to get up and prevent her from gutting me.
“Nicely done!” Zea shouted.
“Thanks; I try,” I said. “I was the best in my class after all.”
“The best, eh?”
“The best of the best. The crème de la crème. The Kamina to your Viral.”
“I get the point, I think. I have one of my own.”
“Oh and what’s that?”
“Recite the Laws of the Christened!” Zea yelled.
What’s she getting at? I asked myself. Is she trying to distract me? It’s not like she needs the upper hand. Well, I guess there’s no harm in showing off my awesome memorization skills.
“First Law: Killing humans and non-threatening sapients with magic is always a last resort,” I said. “Wanton or malicious use of the Christening to take the life of another is punishable by death.”
Zea flicked her wrist and stood in place, powering up an invocation. I fired an arrow her way, but she deflected it with an invocation I didn’t hear.
“Rushing Flood!” Zea shouted, as a wave of sharp water headed my way.
I ducked down and continued reciting, “Second Law: Taking control of another is forbidden, unless it is needed to bring them to safety. Third Law: Never meddle with the flow of time, for in so doing lays the way to the destruction of the world.”
I fired an arrow, finally hitting her in the leg, but she grabbed it and threw it away, as I heard rushing water headed my way and ducked again, barely missing getting killed by it. The water returned to Zea, who wrapped it around herself as more protection.
“Fourth Law: Never give your Word unless you intend to keep it. Fifth Law: Defend the creations of God with your dying breath. Never stray from the path of righteousness.”
“They’re only words if you don’t mean them,” Zea said. “Flame Veil!”
True to her words a veil of flame surrounded her, joining her telekinetic shield and water.
“Rudis vis!” I yelled, hoping to break it, but the brute force failed to shatter it.
“You might as well keep reciting the laws,” Zea said. “This will take a while.”
I grimaced. I was supposed to be the mocking guy. She was stealing my shtick.
Grumbling, I said, “Sixth Law: Never penetrate the mind of another without their permission. Seventh Law: In religious schisms, never take a side, unless a foe of darkness is manipulating them, but instead encourage them to seek out the wisdom of God. Eighth Law: The raising of the dead is forbidden. To do so is to be disrespectful to the natural order of life and mocks the rising of Christ, who died and rose again so that we might be saved. Ninth Law: Maintain the illusion of our nonexistence for mundanes. They must not know of the dangers that they all face unless it is necessary for them to be told the truth. Furthermore, do not offer them a portion of your power unless it is needed to heal their wounds, whether they are physical or mental. Tenth Law: Love all.”
“A hard lesson when dealing with enemies like we do, but harder still is loving that which we cannot forgive,” Zea said.
“Now when did you get all philosophical?”
Instead of answering, Zea shouted out, “Lightning Reign! Earth Spiral!”
I heard a rumbling in the ground as a piece of earth flew upwards into a defensive position around Zea, right as a shield of lightning did the same. I blinked twice. Psionics could shield themselves from harm, as they needed to power up their attacks more than Sentinels did, but I had never seen one go to such extravagant leaps to get to where Zea was now. Then again, Zea had never been trained to rely on her Sentinel companion, who would do everything in their power to protect her from harm so she didn’t have to.
“You’re not finished yet,” Zea said.
“Eleventh Law: Do everything in your power to convert your enemy to the path of righteousness. Even the demons can be redeemed if they will see the light. Twelfth Law: Never be in the debt or service of an enemy organization.”
Zea rushed forward, yelling, “Amalgamation Wave!”
The combined elements that had once surrounded her jolted to my position. I was taken completely off guard with nothing to defend myself with. It struck my entire body and launched me into the northeast pillar. I collapsed to the ground. I could feel the blood leaving my body from the many wounds I’d taken, as I tried to force what little medicinal knowledge I had into an invocation, but couldn’t gather the willpower to finish it.
Zea, with speed unbecoming to a Psionic, headed my way, sending a lightning bolt near my heart. I used Ageg to deflect it back to her. She dodged it effortlessly.
“Tenebris regni!” I invoked, sending the darkness forward, where it collided with Zea, to no effect.
How weak am I? I asked myself. Come on, Blake. This is nothing. Yo
u used to be able to wipe the floor with Psionics like this.
“You’re still not finished with the Laws,” Zea said, sending a contingent of earth forward, and it smacked me back to the northwest pillar.
I tried to get up, but slumped down on the pillar, my body in too much pain to do anything else. Ageg had disappeared, and I was no longer able to concentrate on keeping it in this world. I looked up to see Zea standing above me, as she moved out of her mixed defensive shield.
“The final Law, Blake,” she said, crossing her arms.
I managed to regain control of my body and I stood up, the pain making me wish I was smart enough to give up.
“Thirteenth Law: Never perform the final release until you have foreseen your death,” I said.
I froze for a moment, realizing my mistake, as Zea clobbered me in the face, this time with her actual fist. I felt a terrible sensation in my heart, as I started to understand just how selfish I’d been earlier. However, Zea interrupted my thoughts by attacking me and not ceasing her assault.
“Zea, stop,” I said, trying to deflect her blows. “I can’t go on much longer.”
She pressed her attack and shouted, “Winter’s Embrace!”
A cone of ice surrounded me, chilling my body, but the numbing made the pain go away. However, I knew that this wasn’t the boon it seemed to be when Zea grabbed me by the shoulder and flung me over herself into the other side of the ring.
I wished for anything to stop the pain. Why was she doing this to me? She’d won, hadn’t she? I was in no state to fight back. I couldn’t win. The only people who would do this would be the ones I was about to head out after.
I froze in place and mentally smacked myself in the head.
I understood. She wouldn’t stop, because my enemies wouldn’t stop. If I had any shred of doubt within myself, I couldn’t hope to fight them or survive. I could have the whole universe on my side, but if I wasn’t able to keep up with my foes, I would die, and I would have done nothing to help change the world.
Zea unsheathed her sword and ran my way, slicing downward, but I managed to move myself out of the way in time.
I had committed a sin; I had broken one of the Laws. Every Christened will see their death in some form before they die even if they had no precognitive talent to speak of before this event. It was something that everyone believed in, no matter how much we pretended that it wasn’t true. The future was unchangeable, a constant; nothing we could do would change the flow of time permanently. To try to kill yourself before seeing your death was a crime against the Almighty Himself.
“I understand,” I said, but she didn’t stop.
Zea raised the sword over her head and prepared to plunge it at me. I looked in her eyes and trembled as I collapsed and fell to the floor, waiting for the sword to finish me off. When nothing happened, I opened my eyes once more to see Zea shaking her head at me, her sword sheathed.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Zea asked, moving forward so that her face was inches away from mine, her eyes boring into mine. “I almost killed you. Anyone with any talent could have blocked that blow, but you didn’t. This whole fight you’ve been holding back, whether you know it or not. There were so many opportunities for you to beat me—if you were in full control of your abilities. You could’ve stopped me there at the end. You just…accepted it. Like it was inevitable. Why do you want to die?”
I stared at her, not having an answer.
“Do you want to make a point to someone?” Zea asked. “Let the world know that Blake Azarel was here and that he has nothing left to live for? Or do you just not care about your wellbeing anymore? Why?”
She stepped back and shook her head, her eyes broadcasting pity.
Did I have a death wish? Did I really want to die that much? To go out in a blaze of glory as a final “screw you” to our enemies? To remind them that the Gray Forum had existed? To join my comrades in death so I could be with them? Surely, I wasn’t. I wanted to help others. I wanted to save everyone. It was my job. I had to make sure everyone was never going to be hurt again. I had only chosen the final release as a last resort.
I closed my eyes. I saw my mother smiling at me, and extending her hand toward me. To her left was my father who did the same. I opened my eyes, and saw Zea rushing over to me and I dodged her assault.
I blinked and in the briefest of nanoseconds I watched Akemi twirling around in a dress made from fire, and she invited me to dance with her. To her right was a woman with blazing red hair and a pale complexion. She shook her head at Akemi’s dance, and then she pointed at a light I had never seen before.
I felt a disturbance near me and opened my eyes, seeing Zea ready to engage me again. I jumped back and managed to avoid Zea’s fists, but ended up colliding with the southeastern pillar and fell to the ground. In my shock, I closed my eyes and saw the same woman holding something in her arms, as she smiled at me and said, “Lost time, Blake. It will all make sense one day. Protect yourself from sin. Guard your heart. I will be there soon.”
Opening my eyes, I saw Zea hovering over me, watching my every move with an insatiable bloodlust. Part of me wondered if any vampire could be as terrifying as her at that moment.
“Do you really want to die that badly?” Zea asked. “You have an almost endless supply of energy at your disposal, yet you won’t access it. You’re holding back and not from any sense of protecting others. You’re holding back because you can’t be bothered to protect yourself.”
No, Zea was wrong. I wanted to live. Didn’t I?
“I…I don’t know,” I said, feeling a tear leave my left eye. “I feel—I’m lost, Zea. I don’t understand what’s going on. I don’t want to die. I want to understand.”
Zea’s expression softened, and she moved back, holding her hand out to me. Part of me wanted to stay down and do nothing, but when I saw her smile warmly, nothing else mattered. I extended my right hand out and grabbed hers, as she pulled me up and hugged me. She let out a healing invocation that spread throughout my battered body.
“I—I don’t know what to say in this situation,” Zea said. “I wish I did, but I just don’t, Blake. This was the only way I could help.”
She let go of me and we looked into each other’s eyes. My wounds started to seal themselves, but the pain was still there. Despite her strength in healing invocation, there was no way Zea could fix everything in a matter of seconds.
“I need some time to think,” I said. “Is there somewhere I can stay?”
“I believe I can help with that,” Mara said, making me realize she was still there.
I turned to her and waited for her to speak.
“You may stay in your old room,” Mara said, smiling.
Chapter 9
1
Mara and I walked through the haunting corridors of the Silver Fortress, as I tried not to think about what had happened there. We passed by several death marks. I resisted the urge to tap into them. Natural curiosity was to blame for some of it, but a part of me wanted to feel the rush of it again, as morbid as that is to write down.
It wasn’t a pleasant feeling—that I will admit freely—but there was something intoxicating in the experience of watching the events that had created a death mark. There was always an intense source of power in them for it to have been left for so long and it could be directly tapped into my own energy reserves, temporarily making me stronger.
For people like me who pretty much leak out power if we don’t contain ourselves, power is something we inherently crave. It’s one of the downsides of being so powerful as a Sentinel—it never satisfies you, no matter how much you obtain. That’s why it’s so easy for some of us to turn to our darker natures.
There were times that I wondered if I was ever any better than the beasts that I fought against, because I inherently fed on their energy whenever I killed them, giving myself a power boost to continue fighting. Sometimes in a battle, it would be very easy for me to lose control of myself and le
t the power take control of my actions, so I always had to hold back—out of fear that I wouldn’t be able to stop myself.
“They are always so tempting, are they not?” Mara asked, bringing me back to reality.
I flinched. “I—you noticed?” I asked.
“Sentinel Azarel, look at yourself.”
I blinked twice and realized that my hands were outstretched to the closest death mark. I saw the purple and black vortex of energy swirl in the middle of the air, as every now and then the visions of the past appeared within it, showing a woman with long blonde hair impaled by a vampire’s sword.
How long was I standing here? I asked myself. I thought we were still walking.
“You were standing there for quite some time,” Mara said. “Doubtless you were not aware of yourself.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “I thought we were still walking and that I was just thinking about taking the energy for myself.”
“It is not your fault. You are inclined to absorb as much energy as you can. It is the curse of those blessed with great power, which does not excuse what you did.”
I nodded. “I need to get away from these. Isn’t there any way to exorcise them?”
“There are ways,” Mara said, “but I do not have the capabilities to fight them off, and Zea has the same problems as you. Should either of you attempt to exorcise them, then you run the risk of losing yourself to the power. I suggest that you take some time to sleep, and then meditate on the issue. You can overcome this temptation.”
“Have been my whole life.”
I saw a memory float in my mind. I was seven and my mother was scolding me for trying to leech away energy from a fire invocation she had made. I had unwittingly tapped into its power and recreated the blast.
I shook my head. “It never gets any easier.”
“Some would say the same about vampirism.”
I furrowed an eyebrow. “How does that resemble anything I have to deal with?”
“They hunger for power, much like you, but they take it in a different way. They take what they do not have in order to feel this power. Always they hunger for it—craving the next chance to have this delicacy. Is that how it feels, Sentinel Azarel? You should be mindful of yourself as much as your foes.”