The Dark Materials

by Amanda Churi

  …Daisy… a low, quiet, practically inaudible voice whispered.

  The unfamiliar being immediately diverted Kevin’s attention, but Daisy did not stir—she almost seemed to have drifted off. Startled, he whipped his head to face the source of the sound, his back going erect with stupefaction.

  From the large wardrobe, the damned entity that Kevin tried to get rid of several times revealed itself once again.

  The bear stared out at him from within the cabinet, burrowing its black, poisonous eyes into Kevin’s soul as the deranged bear continued to repeat itself in a dark, heavy, and foreboding voice. Daisy… Daisy…

  Baffled, Kevin looked back at his daughter, who was lying on the bed and holding Puteulanus to her forehead, her eyes sealed as she reveled in the strength she was receiving. He rotated his sight back to the bear, gently retracting his hands from his daughter and advancing towards the creature.

  He paused before it, bending down and recalling all of the memories interwoven with its matted, patchy fur. He hated it so much… Hated every fiber of his past, but the connection between the stuffed animal and Daisy was undeniable at this point—he just didn’t know if it was good or bad.

  Pushing aside his rue and doing what he thought to be right, he grabbed the bear by the arm, raising it up and staring it down. His crown was hooked into the bear’s leg by its fur, almost as though trying to tell him something, but… How… What… And why?

  The threads forming the mouth pulled themselves into a deceptive smirk, the eyes slightly sinking back into the head and making the rings around them run black with nightmares. DAISY. Its voice was much more assertive now, the castle giving a strong shudder to reinforce the secretive meaning.

  Had they not been in the situation that they were, Kevin would have sliced the damn thing to shreds; given the circumstances, however, he slightly commanded his guard to back down and let the possible threat pass.

  He turned around, keeping his eyes glued to the bear as he made his way back to Daisy. None of this made sense; his life just seemed to be a puzzle anymore, and just when he thought that he found a missing piece, it turned out to not fit.

  A light ring tickled the air, somehow making itself known through the rumble of crashing stone. Kevin looked up upon recognizing the enchanted tone, a glare of innocent blue light flooding the room for only a second, hardly allowing Kevin to see it before it vanished. “Daisy!” he exclaimed, throwing the bear down at his feet and sitting beside her in awe.

  Daisy moaned, fluttering her cloudy eyes open. “What…?”

  Kevin could not speak, only stare—specifically at the blue orb that was no longer held in her hands but implanted in the flesh of her forehead.

  He shook his head, choosing to remain silent. He did not want to frighten her; he was scared himself, and adding one more to the group would only make it worse. Keeping the information to himself, he leaned down and grabbed the bear, pulling the crown off of its foot and placing it on Daisy’s head. His fingers trembled as he delicately wrapped several strands of her beautiful hair through the loops and curls, making sure that it would not fall off. It hurt, but he smiled, the future becoming clearer to him every second.

  “Your crown?” Daisy asked through a hefty pant, straining herself as she managed to sit up, tinkering with the gold band on her head.

  Kevin chuckled when he noticed how beautifully the jewelry adorned her. He sniffled, his red eyes preparing to release another wave of grief as he stroked her hand. “I don’t know what will happen from here on out,” he told her calmly despite the calamity of the dying Earth, “but I know that when I took you back to base and Calla prompted for your disposal, frightened by what she saw in you, what she claimed was evil, I fought to keep you with me—to take you in as my own.”

  He bent down, picking up the bear and placing it on her lap before grabbing the Memory Box out of his bag and giving that to her as well. “Because unlike her, I saw something bright… A purity unmatchable by anyone else.” He shifted his gaze back to her, watching the flecks of mist in her eyes pull away, the pink luminance suddenly growing in the heart of her pupils and overtaking the plague. “You and I… We’ve got a special connection by heart; always remember that. Whatever may come… Know that I could never have made a choice better than allowing you to fill my heart—you and Eero both. You are my children, no matter what, and I know… I feel that you will find him again. You must.”

  Daisy lurched backward, perplexed by what he was saying. “Daddy…?”

  “I never got to be a hero,” he interrupted strongly, sniffling to keep the dam in his eyes held up, “but you will. You are great, powerful, and above all, you are mine, and that alone will get you to where you need to be. Cross all limits… Fulfill your destiny; beat the force of time, and keep it turning.” He grabbed her face, letting his tears cascade down his cheeks as he took in this beautiful creation. “My little pinion of time…” he chuckled heartily, pressing his forehead to hers.

  Daisy was shuddering, hardly able to breathe. She knew what was happening… “You don’t need a crown to be a hero, Daddy…” she sobbed, grabbing his shirt and holding him close. “You’ve always been mine… Please, don’t leave me…”

  Kevin pulled away from her, forcing himself to hold back. “I’m near done with my course,” he told her. “The prophecy… It’s not only Mabel, but it’s also Eero and yourself. My job is to protect my apprentice… My daughter… And I will never allow them to get their filthy hands on you. You have to survive… You have to!”

  The windows exploded, a torrent of water straight from the ocean smashing into the side of the castle, whisking the stones right out from under it and causing it to come crashing down. Daisy screamed as the glass shards went flying, she and Kevin thrown off of the bed as the sea water poured into their makeshift coffins. Their backs collided with the tattered wooden door, the water flowing over them and burying their bodies in its unmerciful arms, banishing their words and cries into its endless stomach.

  Daisy spun beneath the waves as water continued to fill the bedroom, Kevin struggling to surface next to her. She thrashed, the water keeping her pinned below as the bed and several other entities were lifted up from the floor, spiraling towards her at terrifying speeds.

  She screamed, bubbles filling the space around her as the mattress came toppling for her and Kevin. Her face creased in fear and determination, the pressure behind her eyes building as she focused on the threat, her scream gaining strength before at once, Puteulanus flared up a blinding pink, shooting a bolt of energy through the water and towards the bed. It made a direct hit, the strings of magic wrapping around the bed like lightning and paralyzing it in the water.

  She froze in disbelief, staring at the paused environment. Flashes of Robert and Sam pounded against her skull, and, for a moment, she was back at her birth home, hiding beneath the shambles as Cecil battled with her biological father. There was a flash of green that came from his hands—a spine-shattering burst of energy that petrified first him and then Sam, their hearts permanently giving out and bringing Time’s hammer upon them.

  Daisy could not move, the events circling in her mind as she stared at what she had done. She, like him, outsmarted time and broke it.

  Levitating above the floor, entrapped in her trance, Kevin yanked Daisy up by the wrist, bringing them both to the surface. She gagged, coughing up what water she had inhaled while submerged in memories. Although the bed was stuck in time, everything else was not, and the water continued gushing in, making the pool they swam in rise higher and higher.

  “H-how can water reach all this way up?!” Daisy exclaimed, another push of water knocking her in the face.

  “The shaking earth has got something to do with it!” Kevin called back. “Come on, Daisy! We’ve got to get out before we drown in here!” Kevin quickly spun himself around, grabbing the door and trying to undo the locks as fast as possible.

  Daisy stayed back, dwelling over the recent happenings when
an object floated to her and bumped her hip. Surprised, she looked down, gasping. Her father’s bag was lapping at her skin, along with many of the entities once held inside, but the being taking a ride on the soaked satchel freaked her out.

  Daisy… the bear whispered as it stared up at her, a spark of blue flames suddenly born from its fur once more despite the fact that it dwelled in water. Its eyes were the darkest that they had ever been, cracks running across its face and ears as though it was made of porcelain.

  She flashed her eyes to her frantic father before turning back to the stuffed animal, snatching the soaked sack from the whirlpools about them and firmly placing it around her waist. She grabbed the bear, stuffing it inside first before proceeding to fill it with what else was about her: the Memory Box, a book, Sagey, and Calla’s staff, along with a vial of her blood.

  “DAISY!”

  Daisy looked at her father just in time to see the fear in his eyes as the water attacked her from behind, shooting her forward into Kevin and then the door, breaking the remnants of the waterlogged timbers in one go. They flew together into the crumbling hallway, smashing against the stone walls with brute force.

  They were pinned to the walls by the gushing water, both gasping for air and freedom as the water quickly filled the tunnel.

  “C-come on, Daddy!” Daisy screamed, a shield of water colliding with her face and throwing her cheek against the stone. “We’ve gotta go!”

  Grunting in determination, she pushed off of the wall with her muscles wailing, grabbing Kevin by the shirt and pulling him with her as she fell into the stiller parts of the channel.

  Kevin looked up, panting and smiling graciously. Daisy gave him a curt nod, grinning back before wading through the rising tides and intensifying currents with her father secure in hand. Screams echoed up from the foyer—the cries of lives being stripped from bodies possessed for a second time, the Eyla having nowhere to turn once again.

  “We-we get to the foyer,” Kevin ordered, “and we get out through the old throne room windows; if we are lucky, the waves won’t have reached that high yet.”

  “The waves, though,” Daisy reasoned quickly. “They will be the strongest when we jump from there; we might drown—!”

  “And we’d drown for sure trying to get out of those gates below if the damned Returned don’t kill us first! Head up!”

  It wasn’t preferable, but Daisy knew the logic behind it. She nodded, turning to look back ahead and trudging onward. “I don’t see how I will ever be a good leader,” she mused, Kevin’s hand continuously relaying magic to her weakened body, magically stitching up her chest. “No matter what you think, you are a great leader, Daddy.”

  “Well, you are young,” Kevin reprimanded her lightly, though his voice was tight and hurt. “You will learn; you’ve got unlimited years.” He fell silent, dying cries and rushing water being all that Daisy heard for a moment. “And the first thing you have to learn if you want to be a good leader—”

  Daisy tensed by the tone of his speech, looking over her shoulder with worry. “Wait, Dad—?”

  “—IS WHEN TO LET SOMEONE GO!”

  He finished his words with a scream—a righteous roar unlike anything to Daisy’s ears. He ripped his hand from her, Daisy spinning around just as her father turned tail, fighting the force of the tide as he pumped his arms at his side, running back the way that he came.

  “DADDY?!” Daisy cried with despair, every frame passing by in slow motion as her father ran over to the archway of his bedroom where water continued to flood in, plunging his hands through the robust pump of salt water and locking them around the neck of a glowing blue sculpture, who had used the flooded castle as his scapegoat.

  “GO!” he ordered, refusing to look back as Orione thrashed in his hold, growing and snapping his teeth as he tried to pry Kevin off of him. “HE WILL NEVER STOP HUNTING YOU! RUN, DAISY! GAIN GROUND WHILE YOU CAN!”

  “B-but Daddy…!” she stuttered, rooted in place as her heart dropped.

  “I CAN’T HOLD HIM OFF FOREVER! JUST GO, PLEASE!”

  “NO!”

  “DAISY, GODDAMMIT, PLEASE LISTEN TO ME! I LOVE YOU, BUT THERE IS NO OTHER CHOICE!” He flashed a strong, urgent glance over his shoulder at her, never so angry but desperate in his life. “GO—!”

  The hands of Orione shot up through the churning sea foam, grabbing Kevin by his neck and yanking him through the crumbling floor head first.

  “N-NO!” Daisy wailed pitifully as she watched them wrestle beneath the distorted, surging waters, both spinning with the current and dancing with Death. “DADDY!”

  The tears flew free, singeing her skin with the misery straight from the wounds in her heart as she saw her father’s face one last time, his midnight eyes flicking away from the enemy and to his daughter… His true daughter. Through his depleting air supply, he smiled, his pupils shining in the sea and pushing her away in body, but never in heart.

  And then, he grabbed Orione, twisting his body so that he was on top, the two disappearing below the fragments of the hallway floor, trapped.

  She could not stop screaming and bleeding internally, but with his last glance burning in her head, she forced herself to turn away, her eyes glowing with an unmatchable rose hue as she bolted towards the foyer, preparing to fulfill his final loving words.

  The foyer was filling up fast, half of the building completely submerged in red-tinted water. The sea cascaded down the stairs above Daisy’s head, showing that the windows were broken there as well, and without hesitating, she ran, ready to grab her last route of escape.

  The crown of her father was hanging onto her drenched hair, her heart and blood pumping as memories from every part of her life ran beside her: her adventures with the Resistance; the battles; her training with Cecil; the kisses from her father and the times that he would throw her up into the air, allowing her to gain flight; the strokes to Tripp’s mane; the warmth of the fire when cooking with Koral; the glorious, captivating flames of the bear when her destiny was first revealed to her…

  And she remembered staring at the stars, always wondering why they captivated her. She always had the answer, but she just hadn’t figured it out until now.

  She emerged into the flooding throne room, pausing at the top of the stairs and staring at the prophecy that had not broken; it was cracked, but it did not break from its frame. The surrounding windows could not bear the force of the ocean, however, completely stripped of glass and trickling with water as the tower awaited the next tidal wave.

  She stood up to her ankles in water, the wind tossing her drenched hair and lightly frosting her skin. She widened her stance, taking a large breath and focusing as the light in her eyes filtered throughout the whole room. She lowered her head, releasing a blaring scream as she stormed forward towards the walls that kept her safe no longer.

  She charged the stained glass picture of the prophecy, nearly upon it when she jumped, her scream turning into a wail of melancholy and blood.

  Her shoulder forward, she shattered the glass like a pillar of sand, the pieces of glass flying past her face—flying past her entire body harmlessly as the skin of her back was suddenly shred apart, but not by the mural reflecting the words from above passed down thousands of years ago.

  Black wires exploded from in between her shoulder blades—four sets of wires, two pointing in each direction. They were slick and metal; they were coated in blood, and they expanded like paper fans, forming the outline of beautiful and stunning elaborate wings. The air around her crystallized with pink light and the essence of stars, shimmering like the galaxies of space as the broken glass was suctioned inwards, latching to her bare wings in a snap and forming multicolored magical glass feathers.

  She screamed, her full wings flying out beside her and flapping rapidly to keep her suspended in the dark, blood-washed sky. She panted frantically, hardly able to establish her balance as she turned to face her ruined kingdom—her ruined life—taking in the sight with a squeal of
heartbreak.

  The castle had fallen, nearly submerged as waves continued to bash its frail bones all the harder. The town was in shambles, as was the forest, killing any possible survivors. The blizzard was slowly retreating, and Earth gradually began to settle down, but the damage had been done… And somehow, she was supposed to live and smile… To lead and rule and fight back.

  She didn’t know how it was possible; the lights that were burning had all faded out, and none remained but her.

  A tear raced down her face, her fingers tracing the crown atop her head. It would take lifetimes to stop them… To repair the damage caused by his arrogance so many months ago… She didn’t know where to even begin, but standing by and not trying to honor her father was not an option.

  “I will make you proud, Daddy…” she whispered into the breeze as she forced herself to turn away and fly off into the distance, determined to find refuge and begin planning for the long battle she had building ahead of her. “Your daughter… Your apprentice, Daisy de Vaux… Pinion of Time… She will make you proud…

  “I promise.”

  Thirty-eight

  One Last Step

  He stood in the throne room, drenched, unmoving, and hardly breathing as he stared out of the bare window frame that once held the legendary prophecy. He could not believe it… After all of that… She still escaped—the last unturned stone, who could come back to rip it all away at any time—

  And when she did, there was no doubt that there would be a new fire in her soul, yearning to take back all that they stole from her.

  “D-Desmond…” a raspy, wounded voice came.

  Desmond turned around, his eyes nearly popping out of his skull when he saw the warrior come trudging up the remains of the stairs, hardly standing.

  “Orione…!” Desmond acknowledged in surprise, hardly expecting to ever see the Elite again. It had been several hours since Daisy fled, and only recently was Desmond able to search amongst the remains of the castle for survivors. Besides a handful of Returned who had taken refuge in the heart of the castle with him, barricading themselves against the torrential waters until the aftershocks settled dramatically, Desmond had not seen anyone else who came out of the war alive.