by Oxford, Rain
Before I could ask him how he knew, the world around me changed. Suddenly I was standing in a forest in front of Vretial, who was sitting under the apple tree. He was perfectly calm, as if he expected my arrival, so I took a moment to let Rojan adjust to the god’s presence. He was insanely powerful and never bothered to hide his aura like Dylan instinctually did, which bothered my dragon more than me.
This was because I was comfortable with Vretial. The god was evil, manipulative, and could have prevented Sydney’s death, but he was also necessary. Vretial was the one who brought Dylan into this whole thing, particularly into my life. Personally, I thought the eccentric god and my brother were good for each other; each of them was driven incessantly to solve puzzles. They were a puzzle to each other, and even though Dylan no longer viewed the god as a mystery, Dylan never left the god out of the game.
Dylan was married and mated to the goddess of Earth, yet when things got really sticky, he turned to Vretial to bribe, threaten, or make a deal with. The god, on the other hand, seemed more interested in figuring out what Dylan was than building his own world. My brother was constantly trying to heal everyone while the dark god was persistently trying to manipulate everyone, but they satiated each other’s need to solve puzzles… for the most part at least.
It was my belief that the cause for Dylan ending up in danger so often was because he was trying to drive himself further away from what he wanted to believe was a solved case. He couldn’t stand that Vretial was possibly a permanent element of his life. At the same time, it hadn’t escaped my notice that Vretial always either fell right into Dylan’s plans or stubbornly refused to cooperate, yet whichever path the god chose, it worked out for the best for them both. Whether as enemies, allies, or puzzles, they needed each other.
“Why do you never bring me offerings, dragon?” Vretial asked. “Dylan always brings me chocolate, but not you.”
“What do you want?”
“The mage staff that Dylan refused to destroy.”
“Why do you want it?”
“What’s with your family? Why do you think he kept it instead of destroying it?”
That I didn’t know, but there were many things my brother did that I didn’t understand. He could be ridiculously goofy, but he picked up on things and made connections that normal people wouldn’t. He rambled as a way to disguise his keen observations as well as to gage reactions.
Unfortunately, he didn’t always know why he did things. After many years as his friend, I asked him about such erratic decision-making. He explained a lot of psychological stuff that I wasn’t really interested in, but what I understood was that his brain would pick up clues, interpret them, and force him to act accordingly without cluing other centers of his brain in. Edward, who overheard our conversation, immediately stood up and left without a word. It was a month later that I learned he was upset because what Dylan described explained things about Ronez that Edward had never understood.
The relationship between those three was confusing even to me, and more so for them. Ronez and his twin were so different, but they equally loved Dylan as a son. I could see aspects of them both in my friend. Still, it was Edward that Dylan felt was more of a father; that I had seen from the very beginning.
Pay attention, Rojan warned. Amongst a god, never lose your focus.
“I don’t know why he kept it. I assume it was because he had planned to use it.”
“You came here for my help, and you offer me nothing in return?”
“I’m not giving you the staff. We are on the same side in the demon war, so you should help me. I need you to send me to Hail and I need you to transport us to where demons are attacking. If you want the boys to choose to be your Noquodi, this is exactly the kind of way to prove yourself.”
“They will choose me, but I see your point. The boys will make my life hell if I don’t help you.” The next instant, I was standing in a cave with Hail and his girlfriend, Sari.
There was a very small fire in the center with the two teenagers sitting around it. Hail was clearly wounded, though it wasn’t horrible enough that his life was threatened. His eyes were light blue instead of their usual purple and his black, long-sleeved, button-up shirt was open to reveal a bandage around his chest. There were no bruises or wounds visible. Sari looked just fine.
Sari made a soft gasp. “Who is it?” Hail asked.
I crouched in front of him and studied his eyes, which didn’t follow my movement. “What happened to you?” I asked.
Other than a slight flinch, he didn’t move. “We’ve been waiting. Why did you leave?”
“What are you talking about? I haven’t seen you since I left the house with Miko.”
“You were here just a few hours ago. You healed Hail,” Sari argued, as if I had forgotten.
“It wasn’t me. What happened, Hail?”
He hesitated. “Sari and I were kidnapped and held in a lab. I was kept in a cage with stone bars that took away my powers. They said it was an alien---”
“Gordzite,” I interrupted. “Kahún used it a long time ago, before magic was outlawed altogether, to control criminals. To this day it laces the structure of their cells.”
“I think Dad tried to tell me Kahún’s history… I wasn’t paying attention, though. Those people asked me all kinds of questions about our family and when I had a vision, they did other stuff to me, including something that made me lose my vision. Have you talked to Dad? I can’t get ahold of Ron and without magic, I can’t call Ikiru.”
“I can’t get to Dylan and you can’t get to Ron. The demon war is starting and demons are attacking Dylan’s allies. We need to stop them.”
“How can I help without my magic or vision?”
Unfortunately, he had a point. Although Dylan and I were unstoppable together, I knew the value in having backup. Under normal circumstances, Hail and I were a solid team, which I knew from friendly competition against Dylan and Ron. With his bow and Ikiru, he was a formidable force, but blind and powerless…
I also knew that Hail was too much like me. We are both powerful in our ability to protect our brothers, and neither of us were considered powerful by… anyone. After asking him to help me, if I changed my mind, it would only intensify his insecurities. On the other hand, if I did let him help me as he was, he could get killed.
“I will be right back,” I said to him. I closed my eyes and focused on the god. “Vretial,” I thought as hard as I could.
“You don’t need to yell.”
I opened my eyes to find myself alone with the god. “Heal Hail. He has been blinded and his powers are gone.”
“Both ailments are temporary and he will recover on his own in a month or so.”
“Heal him now.”
Vretial smirked. “Are you willing to owe me a favor?”
“No. I will get you the mage staff. Heal Hail now.”
“Done.”
Without so much as a flash of light, I was instantly standing in front of Hail. The teenager’s eyes returned to their usual purple. “Wow. What did you do,” he asked, looking around the small cave.
“I made a deal with Vretial. Do you want to help with the demons or do you want to rest at home?”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m not staying at home while everyone else is working. Where do we start?”
“I want to help!” Sari said.
Hail looked doubtful. “Hail, I will remind you what happened to Sydney. Bad things happen to people we care about.” I could never devote myself to anyone else because my most important job was to protect my brother, which meant that anyone else I cared about could end up dead. This was the same for Hail, although I honestly didn’t expect his relationship with Sari to go anywhere.
Hail turned to Sari. “He’s right. You have already helped me a lot, but I need to know you’re safe.”
“I was kidnapped at home. How is that safe?”
“We’ll leave you at Dylan’s place,” I suggested. “There are powerful
defenses that can protect you.” “Vretial, send all three of us to Dylan’s cabin to get supplies.”
I felt a falling sensation for a moment before the world around us changed. When everything became clear again, we were standing on the porch of the cabin. Unfortunately, the door was open.
“Did Ron forget to lock it down?” I asked.
“No. Ron is lazy, but he is careful. He would be afraid of someone breaking in and stealing his violin or hair-jell. I think this was the people who kidnapped me.”
As soon as we entered, Hail and I split up to search the house for anything missing. Although nothing was missing, it was obvious that someone had gone through everything. When we met back in the living room, Hail had his bow over his shoulder and his quiver strapped to his leg.
“Ron’s violin was fine,” Hail said, tugging the bandaging from his chest. The god had done a good job; there wasn’t a mark on the teenager.
We packed food, water, weapons, and clothes, then set the protection spells over the cabin. Sari was not happy about being left behind, but we successfully swayed her with Dylan and Divina’s extensive collection of books.
“Send Hail and I to wherever we need to be.”
Before the thought was fully formed, we were standing in a small village surrounded by mountains. It was dusk or dawn, a little chilly, and although I recognized the gravity and the energy, I couldn’t place it. I could also smell people all around us.
“Where are we?” Hail whispered.
“No idea.”
The energy is primal here. We are on Skrev, Rojan thought.
Here, my dragon was at a disadvantage. I had plenty of room to shift, but the people of Skrev could shift and ambush me before I could ever make it to my stronger form. Plus, that would leave Hail vulnerable.
As I was busy worrying for his safety, the teenager had drawn his bow, notched his arrow, and aimed at something in the distance. His bow and the arrow both glowed with an eerie blue color to indicate that his power was flowing through it.
I focused my attention on his target which was a draxuni-like creature I recognized called a varug. “Stop,” I warned Hail quietly. “It’s a child.”
He gave me an incredulous look. “It’s huge.”
“The varug of Skrev are huge, but that is about half the size of an adult.” Hail had actually faced the varug when he was a baby– and threw a woman against the wall in anger. He wasn’t even two years old, however, so I expected him to forget.
Before he could argue, his target shot at us at a powerful speed. Hail aimed the bow again, but hesitated at the last second and lowered it. Just as he did, three slightly-smaller raduma came around the corner of a house. As Dylan had once shifted into a raduma, I knew these were the size of adults.
Three adults against a child… I couldn’t make a shield as strong as Dylan’s, but I was a wizard, and these were just animals in the face of magic. I formed my energy into a wall right behind the varug. Hail instantly pushed his Iadnah magic into mine to strengthen my shield.
The raduma hit the shield and rebounded in obvious pain. The varug finally reached us and dived between us, only to hit the ground and quiver in fear.
“Shift,” I told the child. Hail repeated my command in the Skrev language.
Fur instantly receded into pale flesh and the child’s body shrunk. As the varug shifted, I realized I underestimated his maturity. The boy was actually closer to Hail’s age than I thought, but he was smaller like Ron. He had the same dark brown hair and gold eyes as he had in his furry form. He was young enough, small enough, and frightened enough that I knew Hail would find cause to protect the stranger.
“What is going on here?” I asked, which Hail translated.
The boy stood on shaky legs, pointed to the raduma, and said something.
“He was separated from his pack and they attacked him.”
“Were you in their territory?” I asked.
Hail translated and the boy answered. “They attacked him in his village.” The raduma shifted quickly. They were a lot bigger with serious athletic builds, pitch-black hair, and reflective orange eyes. When the three men shouted in obvious defense, I disliked them immediately.
I shifted my eyes to see their auras light up. People of Skrev were difficult for me to read because they were all just as much beasts as they were people. On Skrev, the strong survived and the weak became stepping stools.
Ghidorah had once explained that they didn’t normally kill those who were weak. Instead, many of the weaker people found a way to serve the strong in exchange for protection. These raduma had no interest in protecting anyone; they wanted blood.
“They said he was found in bed with their leader’s daughter,” Hail explained. The varug was shaking hard now.
I sighed. “So what do you want to do about this?” I asked.
He gaped at me. “You’re the adult!” he said, he voice breaking just a little.
I smirked. “You’re the Guardian-in-training. This is the stuff Dylan has to deal with when the world isn’t falling apart.”
“Ron would have a fit and tell them all to deal with their petty squabbles like men. What would Dad do?”
“He would stand tall with grace and tell them all to deal with their petty squabbles like men,” I assured him. Hail turned to face the raduma when the sound of an explosion left a ringing in my ears. A nearby cabin went up in flames. Spurred by the danger, people and raduma sprang from hiding places everywhere. Demons soon followed the villagers into the clearing.
Demons always knew exactly what form to take to be terribly frightening to their target. As it turned out, I had previously come face-to-face with the nightmare of the Skrev people. The demons took the form of a creature that was about the size of the raduma, meaning their heads would come up to my chest if they were on all fours. They could easily be considered gangly, were covered in black matted fur, stood bipedal, and had large, leathery black wings. Their heads were short with solid, blood-red eyes and wide snouts, full of fangs that were so large and sharp they could barely fit in the creature’s mouth. Their ears were pointed and sitting high on their heads.
Hail reached for a cluster of the demons and they were thrown back. I drew my fire out and set some of them ablaze. Realizing we had magic, many of the people tried to hide behind us, which I found interested since a varug pack once tried to kill me for having magic.
“No!” Hail gasped unexpectedly.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. When his eyes glowed purple, I reached out and caught him just as he started to fall. This was not a good time to have a vision.
I was able to hold most of the demons back with fire, which encouraged the people behind me so that when a demon got passed me, the people shifted and attacked. Finally, after several minutes, Hail shook his head and his eyes cleared. He got his feet under him, so I let him go.
“What did you see?”
“Nothing,” he lied. I knew the teenager since he was eighteen months old; I knew when he was lying to me. Unlike most sixteen-year-olds, Hail never went through a rebellious, self-destructive phase, so if he was lying, he had a damn good reason to.
It was a struggle, but we fought the demons for about half an hour before they decided they had enough and all simultaneously vanished. After everything settled down, we discovered the little varug protecting an even smaller raduma.
The rest of the raduma pack tried to converge on them until Hail pushed himself between them. No raduma was getting passed a dile. Men shifted and started yelling at my nephew, but the teenager was as stubborn as they come. Finally, another man was drawn to the commotion and the crowd split with fear to let him pass. The man had the same black hair and reflective eyes as his pack, but his aura was much more powerful. Hail met the man’s eyes easily.
They spoke to each other in calm voices until they came to some sort of agreement, after which Hail stepped out of the way and returned to my side. “Edine was the only one brave enough to protect the pack m
aster’s daughter while her own guards ran in fear,” Hail explained. “The alpha was impressed and made him her official guard, with the stipulation that if he impregnated her, he would be neutered. The alpha went on to explain the process in which Edine would be neutered and I felt a bit sick. Seriously, it involved glass, dirt, and fire.”
I laughed. “Pretty good for your first field mission,” I said, sheathing the azurath sword.
“I think Edine just became the most celibate man on Skrev.”
“Mission accomplished. Next place.”
We appeared in a city on Vaigda. If the glittering city and the medical/communication bracelets on everyone’s wrist wasn’t enough to clue me in on where we were, Shiloh fighting demons was.
The city before us with the insanely tall structures was in dire condition. Glass littered the ground and once elegant statues were smashed and crushed. Entire buildings had holes in the sides. People here were not afraid of a little war, however.
On Duran, bows were outdated but classic. These people had guns small enough to fit in a pocket that shot beams of light that literally vaporized any demon unfortunate enough to get in their way. Any time I tried to focus on a particular demon, someone shot it first. The demons, who were all in the form of people, were disposed of within minutes.
Shiloh turned to us and smiled politely. “Hello, Mordon, Hail… Where are Dylan and Ron?”
He had short, medium brown hair done and medium blue eyes. His normally ridiculously white clothes were dingy with the ash of demons. I thought it was odd that every person of Vaigda had a problem with blood and dirtiness, yet none of them were freaking out about the ash.
“They’re busy. We just came to help, but it looks like we weren’t needed at all,” I said.
The Guardian shrugged. “We know how to take care of ourselves.”
“Send us to somewhere we can actually do some good,” I thought at the god. Nothing happened.
Perhaps we are needed here for some other reason, Rojan thought.
I sighed. “Have you heard anything from the others about Janus?”
“Ghidorah is hiding a few of the void guardians, who seemed to believe Janus went into hiding before the Ancients started attacking. Kiro should have better luck finding him; they were friends of some sort.”