by Greg Dragon
A beam of light appeared and the angel, Lancert, materialized in front of her, wearing a beautiful set of gold and platinum armor.
“Oh no,” he said, his deep voice echoing. He leaned down over the fallen Ert and collected him into his arms. “How long?” he asked, looking down at Alysia.
“I dunno. Maybe five minutes?” she said to him.
The large man threw Orwan over his shoulder and walked over to Bortex. Even though they were practically the same size, he collected him like a babe and cradled him in his arms.
“I can walk, Lord,” Amarah said quietly, “and I can handle Cyrio. Just lead the way, and I will follow.”
“Where are you all going?” Alysia asked.
“These Erts need rest and treatment, my dear daughter. They will be back to join you soon, but they must leave now that the main threat has been removed from the mansion.”
“You cannot know that!” Alysia said, rushing at him. “Chaos is in here! Why didn’t you come earlier, to help us fight? There’s an army of V’Kosha here, and Lenny is—” She stopped herself from saying it … just in case it wasn’t true. When she thought of her friend hanging from the top of the tower by an ankle, it felt as if she had no reason to continue. “You know what? Forget it, just bring Orwan back. I’ll rescue my friend, and drive Chaos back into his hole.”
Lancert nodded and made for the light, but Alysia wanted to stop him and say so much more. She wanted to tell him how much she hated him, for bringing her to Earth and putting people into her life. She wanted to ask him why it was that he was so afraid of Chaos. If the red man was so disliked as an ex-Ert, why avoid him instead of taking him out?
There was nothing about this angel Lancert that she found endearing. He had given her Euphoria, but that was to rob her away from Chaos. Orwan’s death had made her revert to feeling like a lost soul again, and now with Lenorela in such bad shape, she really wished she could go back to Earth and live out the rest of her years with Tracy and her father in the ruins of New York.
The Erts were gone and she was suddenly alone, except for the noises coming from outside where the villagers still looked on. She rubbed at her hand and the armor retracted, allowing her skin to feel the night air as it wafted in through the open front door. She walked back to the door that Chaos had opened and followed the hallway down until the last door, which was slightly ajar.
Kicking it open, Alysia saw a familiar ritual, as several of the V’Kosha had started a bonfire in the middle of the room, and one of Lenorela’s maids was tied up to the side, awaiting her turn to become their sacrifice.
Bliss alone was used to crash the party, and Alysia Knight, without armor, moved like a spinning wheel of death, cutting into every demon and leaving ashes all around the fire. When she freed the girl, she gave her instructions to run outside and disperse the crowd. The V’Kosha had a portal open, and with the chance of them bringing forth another demon like the one from before, she didn’t want to risk having it going out to slaughter all the innocents.
She opened a familiar door and started up a long flight of spiraling stairs. At the top was the roof, and she could make out a solitary form waiting for her up there. The body of Lenorela lay with her ankle raw with blood, and her skin a paler red beneath the bright Yalem moon.
When she stepped forward a noise brought her around, and the familiar, chiseled face of Chaos was staring gloomily into hers. “Chaos!” she hissed, her eyes full of fire. “What are you doing up here?”
“I came because I had to. I could feel her dying.”
“So you rushed to her aid, huh? Is that what you would have me believe, Syphert?” A smile came across Alysia’s face when she said his name and for the first time since meeting him, she could see that she caught him off guard.
“How do you know that name?” he asked, shifting his relaxed stance to a more guarded one as he backed away from her.
“I dreamed your name… or should I say, I remembered it. Yes, you’re surprised by my admission, but for all your scheming, Syphert, you slipped up when it came to Lenorela. I don’t know what you have over her to force her to take me in, but she has only cared for me while walling you off, and through her care, I began to remember who I am.”
“But how?” he whispered, his pale face like stone.
“Everyone knows Syphert, not just Lancert, and with their help I began to remember things through my dreams. You belong to me. That is why you cannot harm me, and it is also why you’ve done so much to keep me blind and confused. Kill the V’Kosha is what you bade me to do, all while making deals with them to conquer Yalem. I was wondering why you would want me to wipe them out, but then I remembered little Maria. You’re using me, and hoping that I won’t remember, but I know who I am, Syphert. There is nothing you can do to stop me now.”
Chaos hissed his teeth, straightened his clothes, and said, “You may know my name, but you don’t understand my motives. The woman you were, she wanted to kill the V’Kosha and she charged me to finish the job once she knew that she was dying. Everything I’ve done is for the greater good of Yalem. I’ve trained an army of defenders, I’ve helped to bring you home safe, and—Alysia, you will want to go to Lenorela now, or you will lose her forever.”
Alysia saw that Lenorela’s red complexion had shifted to an extremely light shade of pink. The standoff with Chaos would have to wait, since she didn’t want to lose her sister due to negligence. “What does she need?” Alysia asked, glancing up at Chaos.
“She needs your blood,” he finally said, with the slightest trace of a smile across his lips.
Chapter Three
As Alysia Knight lay on the roof of the tower, she tried to distract herself by studying the colorful clouds that had drifted in to cover the night sky. Yalem’s nights were dark, but the sky was always more of a violet than a black or blue. It was expressionism art, blotches of color broken up by tiny moons and stars. Yalem’s main moon was always full, a shining, silver disk with winged monstrosities flying past it every minute.
This was a demon’s world in every way, but not quite the hell that Hieronymus Bosch imagined in The Garden of Earthly Delights. Yalem couldn’t be hell: she had been a good girl, plus the happiness she felt throughout her adventure with the Erts was not what someone could associate with Satan’s inferno.
Hell was Chaos, but he had run off once she went to take care of Lenorela. Hell was losing her parents, but that had come about on the same Earth she wanted to go back to. Hell was—Lenorela’s body convulsed violently, and her weight bore down on Alysia’s thighs as she released her arm. A gaping wound was left in her forearm from where her friend had fed, but as she watched, it began to heal: veins, muscle tissue, followed by the skin, and in a minute or so it was as good as new.
Letting Lenorela feed on her was one of the hardest things she had ever had to do. She was glad that it was finally over. The bite had been painful, violent and strong, nothing as convenient as the vampires of Earth, whose fangs would leave tiny holes wherever they fed. Lenorela’s magic was blood magic, and though she was resilient, she had been drained by the V’Kosha and left to die for many days before the Erts had shown up to rescue her.
Alysia tried to think of what the bite reminded her of, but there wasn’t anything she could equate to that horrific experience.
“I am sorry, sister,” Lenorela muttered as she lay across Alysia’s lap. Her damp, pale body felt limp and cold. “I drained more than I wanted, but it’s because of your blood. You are only partially from this place, and getting what I need put you dangerously close to death.’
“I had no idea,” Alysia said quietly. She was beginning to feel buzzed, as if she had been drinking heavily. “Well, scratch that, I’m flying now. Your bite sucked, Lenny, no pun intended, but this feeling afterwards is even scarier. Am I going to be okay?”
“You will, CeeCee, you will be more than okay. Your wound is healed, and the blood will return, but it will be of much stro
nger stuff. We’re truly sisters now, you know. You’ve given me your blood, and so we’re joined eternally.”
Alysia chuckled. “If anyone else had said that to me, I’d be so worried I would explode. But we’re already family, aren’t we, Lenny? This just makes what we have a little more special. You need to be more careful though…I’m not sure I want to go through your biting ritual ever again.”
Lenorela was quiet for a time, and then she finally said, “I’m so sorry that you had see me like this, yet alone feel it, CeeCee. This is the curse of my mother’s race, and what I am. It was something I never wanted you to see.”
“Sisters should share everything. You don’t need to be embarrassed. Plus you’re alive, so that makes me happy. Chaos was here—he cut you down from the window—but he seemed concerned about your health, and came all the way out here to save you. I have questions, Lenny, about you two. That seems like a lot he went through, just to help an enemy.”
“We were lovers,” Lenorela said, a bit too quickly. Her voice was low, as if it was painful to say. “He had me when I was a dumb, young girl being rebellious to my mother. We have this theory, you see, that Chaos is old, a descendant of the original Chaos who created the V’Kosha and destroyed Yalem’s peace—”
“But Chaos isn’t old, Lenny, his real name is Syphert. Well, he’s old in terms of Earth years, since he was a young man back when I was in another body. But he’s just an aimless soldier of whomever I was. He’s become mischievous and bored, but a very far cry from the ambitious world conqueror everyone assumes him to be.”
“Who was it that told you about your past, CeeCee?” Lenorela said, twisting painfully to face her. Alysia could see that a healthy red color was returning to her pallid face.
“Lancert did, and the others confirmed it. Plus, I’m starting to have dreams. I saw the crystal palace, the leagues of Erts and angels. I even saw Chaos when he was younger. I was one of the angels, Lenny.”
“Yes, you were, and you’re right about Chaos. Learning the truth was what made me feel sorry for him, and I did a lot more than I probably should have. When I learned of his wife I was upset with him, so I went into hiding and came here, doing whatever I could to keep him away from me.”
“You seemed to really hate him when I first met you,” Alysia said.
“I do hate him. I followed him here and I now have no world. You managed to stop the V’Kosha from finishing off your Earth. This is why you are able to visit and make portals to talk to your parents. It is also why you have a chance to go back. I was never given those options. The V’Kosha had destroyed every inch of my world before I could learn how to return from Yalem. It was then that I started looking for Ambriel Ilyse’s relics. The twin rings and the twin blades that can destroy the V’Kosha forever.”
“But you had no sword skill. Then I showed up, and you saw an opportunity to get what you’ve always wanted,” Alysia said. She was not too happy about feeling used again, but here it was from her own lips. Another person directing her life to help them get something that they couldn’t do themself.
“I’m sorry, CeeCee,” Lenorela said.
“Nothing to be sorry for; we both want the same thing. If they had managed to destroy Earth while I was in the Bloody Garot, I would hate Chaos too. I hate him enough for opening the portal. I lost my mom, Jaime, Debdan, and Koko. I don’t even know if my other friends, Isobel and Jasmine, are alive, or if he has them in some other world. So, yeah, I can’t be mad at you, Lenny. All of my anger is aimed towards Chaos and the V’Kosha.”
She was about to say more when Lenorela groaned and pushed herself up by her slender, red arms. Alysia stood with her and they embraced, but Lenorela held it longer than she expected. “I’m going to get you home, CeeCee,” she said. “We owe you that, and a lot more for everything you have done in Yalem.”
When the two women separated they descended the stairs. Alysia placed her arm around Lenorela’s waist in order to keep her up during this ordeal. Once they were on the bottom floor where the bodies were strewn, the red witch looked to be on the brink of tears. The servants who had willingly volunteered to help around the mansion were a part of the piled up bodies that seemed to be everywhere in her mansion.
Stained rugs, torn tapestries, and broken glass served as only the top layer of the wreckage. There were sticky ashes, black demon blood, and body parts, maimed and decomposing rapidly, on the tops of chairs and tables. Lenorela walked out from Alysia and looked around. Her eyes were jet-black with rage, and she seemed to be looking for a target to unleash it on.
A single V’Kosha that had somehow survived stepped into the room and hissed. Lenorela threw her hands towards him and blue fire lashed out, consuming him quickly and melting him as if he were mere wax beneath her flame.
Alysia said, “Careful with the magic, Lenny. I can barely stand from all the blood that I gave up in order for you to live, let alone cast fireballs. I know that you’re upset, but this isn’t the time. Let me clean up the stragglers and we can work on getting your house back in order.”
“The nerve they have of coming here, CeeCee,” Lenorela said. “The nerve to come into my home and attack. You don’t understand. This is unheard of, what they did here today. Every Ert I know will hear about this on the morrow. This is war, this is it. The battle that Chaos wanted you for is going to start because of this. Will you stand with me when I go down there, CeeCee?”
“Down where?”
“To the V’Kosha’s subterranean hell to start their genocide, that’s where.”
Alysia didn’t even recognize Lenorela due to the change in her features from her rage. She wanted her friend back, the gentle Lenorela who had fed her soup and told her stories, and who had kept her safe when she was hurt. She walked over to her friend and placed a hand on her shoulder, and she could feel the heat coming off of her body when she did this.
“You need to calm down, Lenny, there will be time for revenge. Right now what those people outside need is to see your pretty face, walking out, indomitable.”
The witch seemed to settle and her heat dissipated into a visible mist. Lenorela took a deep breath and when she exhaled her face was left twisted into a sinister smile. “My beautiful, smart Alysia. You’re right, of course, I need to maintain control. I will rally my people to help rebuild, then take the fight back to the V’Kosha.”
“Do that, Lenny, and I will go through the mansion, make sure that there are no more of these creatures and then come back to help you out.”
Lenorela nodded and reached out to touch her hand. “You’re a great friend, Alysia Knight, and we are going to get you home.”
Chapter Four
“Chaos is mad, he’s absolutely mad,” Lenorela shouted as she burst into the large dining room, throwing up her hands in frantic gestures.
Alysia was in the middle of a spoonful of creamy wheat when she barged in, so she quickly reached for her tea, gulped it down, and then rose to see what she could do.
“No. Sit, girl, finish your breakfast. I’m just trying to understand the urgency of this man,” she said as she plopped down in a chair at the far end of the long table.
“Do you want to start at the beginning, catch me up?” Alysia said.
Lenorela stopped to regard her and a look of understanding washed over her face. “Chaos has led his young army on to the fields of Cormer this morning.”
“Still not following, Lenny. What’s Cormer, and why is that so crazy?”
“Cormer is where the entrance to the V’Kosha’s world lies, CeeCee. He’s started the war without us! No Erts, no Bliss or Euphoria... it seems like suicide, so I don’t understand.”
“Oh, it’s not suicide, but it’s definitely manipulation.” Alysia laughed.
“What?” Lenorela said as she tore off a piece of bread and dipped it into a bowl of jam.
“He’s forcing me to help, Lenny, don’t you see? I need him to go back, so diving headfirst into th
is war, he knows that I will have to help him to succeed. He also knows that I care about the Garot ... I should’ve seen this coming. He rescued you and left me as your caretaker, knowing that we had the four scions needed to destroy the V’Kosha. He knows how much we love each other, and he knows that I want to get home. He’s been playing me since I met him, Lenny. Let’s just say that I’m getting used to it.”
Lenorela seemed to settle back into her seat, and she lifted the bread to her lips and began to chew slowly. “Hmm,” she started, “you’re right. He knows that you’ve awoken and that you’re unhappy. He moved ahead despite his plans in order to lessen the chance of you not helping him.” The red woman laughed, and it was a pretty, harmonious sound. ”You frightened him, CeeCee. He charged you to go after the V’Kosha, and what you did instead was to go off and learn about your true identity. Now your eyes are open and you have the swords... what did you say to him when you saw him here?”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t even remember,” Alysia said. “I did call him Syphert, so maybe there is something to that. I never thought Chaos was capable of being taken by surprise, but that seemed to do it.”
“Yes, that would have done it,” Lenorela said quietly. “He hates the name and the memory of who he was back then. Syphert was the weaker, unimpressive apprentice of Ambriel Ilyse. Now he’s Lord Chaos, the most popular and sometimes most feared warrior in Yalem. You frightened him, and he’s probably wondering if you will eventually become the full reincarnation of Ambriel—”
“Which will take his glory and push for control,” Alysia finished. “He wants me to help him get the V’Kosha out and then he will send me away forever.” She laughed. “Works for me. Wow, this all worked out in the end, didn’t it?”
“You will still need to find the portal and seal it if you want to remain on Earth, CeeCee,” Lenorela said. “He can send you back, but you don’t want the V’Kosha returning to ruin your world again.”