by Laury Falter
“No,” I said gravely, “I mean, train them to fight Fallen Ones so when they do fight them they can survive.”
Daniel and Jacob gawked back at me.
“You don’t expect the messengers to go up against Fallen Ones?” Daniel asked, appalled.
“I do,” I replied flatly.
In shock, Jacob mumbled, “But…why? They have guardians.”
“Because I think, despite their added security, Fallen Ones are taking the lives of messengers.”
Their eyes widened, their reaction being due equally to my revelation as much as to comprehending the dangers it posed.
“We’ll get right to it,” Daniel said, his lips barely able to move through his shock.
“Thank you,” I said with a respectful nod. “It’s not certain yet, but preparing for it can’t harm them.”
They nodded their heads in unison.
Suddenly, as if I were made of lead and a magnet was directly behind me, I was yanked backwards, ending up in my body on earth.
Someone exhaled over me and a second later I felt the pressure of something settling against my forearm.
“Thank you,” Eran whispered with his beguiling accent. He was directly beside me but muffled. “Thank you…Thank you…Thank you…”
I rolled my head to the side and lifted my eyelids. His face was down, resting on me, but when he heard the crunch of the makeshift pillow it shot up.
“Magdalene?” he said in a rush.
I had never seen him so unhinged.
“Friedricha,” I reminded him, bringing my hand to my forehead. The gash was back, but it was covered with a bandage.
Eran closed his eyes and chuckled. “Good to see you made it, stubbornness intact.”
“You made it too,” I sighed.
“You seem relieved,” he teased, his smile turning into a smirk. “I thought my demise would have been a blessing to you.”
I rolled my head from side to side, refuting. “Departure, yes. Demise, no.”
He rotated his mouth upward and laughed loudly. “I would have to say that’s progress.”
I tried to laugh but the pulse in my head kept me from it. Instead, I pushed my elbows beneath me and prepared to sit up, but Eran placed a hand on my chest. It was light and settled just below my chin, but it sent a spark through me anyways.
“Don’t move,” he encouraged. “Not yet.”
I wasn’t concerned so much about my movement as his hand. If he didn’t take it away, my pulse was going to break right through the bandage and intensify my already aching forehead. When he did, it was lifted slowly, hesitantly.
“What happened to my tunic?” I asked, feeling it restrained across my back again and not in loose shreds as it had been.
“It’s been stitched, with a few modifications, made by Mrs. Volkmar.”
“Modifications?”
“There are holes now…between your shoulders. My suggestion. I didn’t tell her what they were for,” he hinted, grinning.
“Where…Where are we?” I asked.
“In our tent. I wouldn’t let them keep you in triage.”
“I appreciate that,” I muttered. “And Cedric?”
“Getting the burial he deserves. They carried his body to a bog around midday.”
“Midday? How long have I been asleep?”
“Just until dusk.”
“It’s night again?”
“Yes, or have you forgotten how time works in the afterlife?”
I exhaled gradually, searching for the energy I had before I’d gotten the wound to my head. It allowed me just enough to stare pointedly at Eran.
“I do recall, and it feels odd to admit it openly.”
“Yes, it does,” he said quietly, staring at me.
This was the first time either of us acknowledged that we remembered it, and I felt relieved at lifting the shroud of secrecy between us. He seemed nearly entranced, and strangely content, as his eyes made their way across my face, but this look fell away when I spoke again.
“Another Messenger is gone.”
“How?” he asked, sitting straighter.
I recounted what I knew and by the time I was done he was standing with his back to me. The clench of his fists and steady, focused breaths told me that he was struggling to overcome the anger surging in him. He looked like he was in need of a distraction.
I glanced down the length of the tent to make sure we were alone and remarked, “You’re an Alterum.”
“As are you,” he said, turning around. He looked better now.
“How long did you know what I was?”
“Since this morning. How long have you known what I was?” he asked.
“Since this morning.”
We stared at each other before breaking into subtle smiles.
He remained standing for a few seconds longer, in quiet contemplation, and approached the bed. Settling back into a squat, he positioned himself no more than a few inches from me. I could smell his scent, a mixture of sun and soil.
“Why did you come to earth, Magdalene?”
I paused, not having been ready for the question. It seemed so personal to me, my reason for this journey.
“Why did you come?” I countered.
“For you.”
His answer was blunt, characteristically so, but still it shook me. Again, I braced myself to sit up. I was so wrapped up in my next question that I didn’t notice Eran place his hand on my chest again or my slump back into the bed.
I didn’t understand why he’d come for me. I couldn’t seem to register the concept. A great warrior whose reputation was known throughout the afterlife falling to earth for me? It didn’t seem rational, especially not for someone who assessed all outcomes before committing to an action, including one as significant as coming to earth.
“What do you want with me?” I asked. “Why did you come to the clearing where we trained? Why are you here now?”
His body went motionless and his face still as he silently debated how to answer me, if at all. He remained this way as he spoke. “I wanted to meet the one who stood up and told the truth when no one else would, the one who changed our way of thinking and the messengers’ way of living.”
“You wanted to meet me?” I repeated, still not grasping his motives.
“Yes.”
“But we met in the afterlife.”
“We saw each other in the afterlife,” he corrected. “We didn’t speak a word until my first night here, when you almost slit my throat on the dirt road outside your house.” A faint smile rose up but fell away when I didn’t share one of my own with him.
“But you didn’t need to become an Alterum for that…”
“No,” he agreed, and I knew there was more to his answer.
“You could have talked to me in the Hall of Records.”
“I could have,” he replied stiffly.
“Then why did you fall?”
When he knew I wasn’t going to end my questioning until I got my answers, he sighed and finally disclosed what he had so carefully attempted to bury. “You know the reason, Magdalene.”
“I want to hear it from you.”
He frowned as he said it, in preparation for my reaction. “To watch over you.”
I sighed and looked away.
“You of all others recognize the peril you are in. You understand the Kohlers are dangerous. You have proof that they have been involved in others’ murders. And you are aware they want you dead. That alone is reason for me to be here, and you as a messenger know it. But putting all that aside, they may very well be the reason behind the messengers’ deaths or a link to the truth and we have agreed, mutually this time, to determine what that truth is.”
“You’re trying to convince me that you have a reason to be here-”
“I know I do,” he said emphatically.
Awkwardly, we sat in silence until I muttered, “So you’ve come as my guardian?”
“No,” he replied, which surprised
me. “Guardians need to be designated. I have not been.”
“But you’re performing the same duty, no matter what you call it.”
“Yes, I am.”
“Do you understand how arrogant that is?”
“I do,” he replied flatly, surprising me.
His concession took the steam right out of me and we came to an impasse where neither of us spoke for several long seconds.
“You haven’t told me your reasoning,” he said suddenly.
“For what?”
“For coming here.”
“To lend my service to others.”
He closed his eyes and nodded to himself. “Of course, of course you would do it for others.”
Eran cleared his throat and acknowledged, “In an effort to assuage your feelings…your rapier,” he said, lifting into sight the one I had used to defend him a few hours earlier in the field. “I believe this was ultimately meant for you.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “So you don’t mind if I defend myself?”
He tipped his head at me, puzzled. “I insist on it.”
I hesitated, recognizing the signs of a truce. “All right, do as you wish and I’ll continue as I have been.”
“Independent, alone,” he replied, attempting to convince me of his way.
“Just as I like it,” I said before he could go any further, and an almost inaudible sigh escaped him.
He sat scowling at the floor for an extended time and only because he had given me a white flag of peace did I offer one in return by breaking the uncomfortable silence.
“I wondered a few times…,” I said, almost willing him to look up. When he did, I continued. “I wondered if you might be an Alterum.”
His eyebrows furrowed with curiosity. “When?”
“Each time I left home to deliver messages. You had a knack for sneaking up behind me.”
“Sneaking up?” he objected, smiling, dissolving the tension around us.
“Suddenly appearing out of nowhere without a sound…”
“I know the meaning.” Again, he laughed quietly before contemplating out loud, “I see your point. Not that it was my intention. I just feel that legs can be cumbersome, slow at times.”
“They are,” I agreed.
He seemed amazed and after uncomfortably clearing his throat he acknowledged why. “We are more similar than I thought, Magdalene.”
“Friedricha,” I said, correcting him again.
“I prefer Magdalene,” he replied.
“Then use it only when we are alone.”
The tent flap moved and someone entered. It was brief, just enough time to take something from a bunk and slip back outside but it drew me away from Eran.
When the man had left I felt Eran staring at me.
There was wanting in his expression now.
“How are we similar?” I asked.
Without a delay and making me think he’d already listed the reasons for himself, he rattled them off. “We’re both set in our ways, stubborn, rebellious. We care more for those we feel responsible for than for ourselves. We prefer to be alone, but despite that fact we enjoy each other’s company.”
“You think I like you being around?” I challenged.
“I know you do,” he said arrogantly, without breaking a smile.
The tent flap whipped up again and Eran groaned at the continuing interruption. But while he scowled, I had an entirely different reaction.
Heat engulfed my body. My heart lurched into a rapid pounding. My skin instantly became saturated with perspiration. And very quickly Eran’s expression changed to concern.
The crunching of feet across the tent’s dirt floor caused him to turn around and leap to a standing position. It wasn’t until then, when my view was cleared, that I spotted the intense white locks that I had seen only a few hours earlier.
“Stop right there,” Eran warned, but they continued and he withdrew his sword.
Strangely, neither of them went for their weapons. This was especially perplexing considering we had just killed their brother.
Kaila did come to a halt but it was only a few feet away. She squared her shoulders menacingly and seethed at us from below her lashes as Eran’s sword hung in a fighting position. Regardless, she seemed not to notice it.
As I struggled to my feet, rapier in hand, my head pounding, she glimpsed at me in the midst of deep breathing and returned to Eran.
“Where is he?” she demanded.
“In a bog,” Eran proclaimed.
Deschan, who stopped beside his sister, reiterated more fiercely. “NO, where is he?”
“In…a…bog,” Eran replied firmly. There was a hint of confusion in his tone this time.
“I’m not interested in the whereabouts of his previous body,” Kaila spat. “He should have renewed. What did you do to him?”
Eran hesitated. With his back to me, I couldn’t see his face but the sword remained poised for use despite his response. “He didn’t return…” He said this more as a probing statement than a question.
Kaila and Deschan glanced at each other, sending an inquisitive message between them.
“You did something to him,” Kaila accused.
“What did you do?” Deschan followed up.
Eran’s head shook lightly in perplexity. “Nothing different.”
“Liar!” Kaila spat and took a step forward.
The sword Eran held altered its angle, threateningly, and she stopped.
In an even, cautious tone, Eran explained, “While I don’t expect you to believe me, I have no reason to lie. We did nothing out of the ordinary to him. His body was incapacitated and discarded.”
A look of uninhibited hatred trembled across their faces. It almost seemed the emotions they struggled to keep subdued might overtake them and end this discussion before they had the information they came for.
“Incapacitated how?” Kaila asked, ending with an exhale undulating with rage.
Eran hesitated, knowing the answer was a slippery slope. Anything he said at this point would disrupt the thin line of peace he was walking. “A snap of his neck.”
“Don’t play with us, Eran,” Deschan warned.
The side of Eran’s face lifted in what I thought was a smirk. “So you do know me…”
For the first time since I’d met the twins, they wavered. It was fleeting and almost undetectable, but the jarring of their expressions reflected that Eran’s reputation also preceded him.
“A snap of his neck is not how Cedric died,” Kaila countered.
“Then you did see the body,” Eran deduced.
“We visited it,” Kaila said. “He did not die from a neck wound. Cedric’s weakness was metal.”
A tense stare was exchanged by all parties.
“So if you thought his life ended by the snap of his neck,” Deschan said unhurriedly, piecing it all together, “who put the sword through him?”
Slowly, their eyes turned to the only other person in the room, the only other person who had been in the field with them. And as their gazes fell to the rapier in my hand, the one used to kill Cedric, they knew…
“It was you,” Kaila breathed.
“Stand down, Kaila,” Eran warned quickly.
But she didn’t move. Her entire focus was on studying me, understanding me. As she did, revulsion wracked her body. She made no other motion before revealing the question plaguing her. In a hiss, she demanded, “What…are you…?”
I answered the only way I knew how, with a jutting of my jaw in manifest defiance.
“I am a messenger.”
Kaila’s face twisted into a sneer. “You won’t be for long.”
They spun on their heels and marched from the tent, leaving Eran and I silent and tense. After the tent flap fell back into place, Eran remained with his back to me.
“They won’t be back tonight,” he remarked.
“How do you know?”
“Because they tried to kill us before when there we
re three of them and they failed. They need something stronger and they know it.”
“Eran?”
Finally, he turned to me.
“What did Kaila mean when she said Cedric should have been renewed?”
Eran strode back to me, ran his hand down mine and left a comforting vibration where he had touched me. He took the sword’s handle and laid it on the ground.
“You might want to sit down for this,” he suggested and twisted around me to throw the blanket back.
“Why?”
“Because you’re seeping.”
“I am…?” I said, touching my fingers to my forehead.
He’d already taken a towel from a clean stack he’d collected before I’d woken up and tenderly placed it against my forehead. “Relax,” he said. “I have this taken care of.”
“You’re watching over me again,” I protested.
“Regain your strength and I won’t have to,” he argued.
Begrudgingly, I allowed him to redress my wound while listening to his lecture on “renewing”. It was mesmeric for two reasons. First, the history he relayed was riveting. Second, he remained close enough to me that I felt the heat radiating from him and even with my efforts to ignore it I was left far too conscious of his presence than I should have allowed myself to be.
“It was once thought that if a Fallen One’s body was incapacitated, or had ‘ended’ on earth as we called it that it was equivalent to a death on earth. We believed there to be no return and the body wasted away to organic matter. We weren’t sure where their souls went but, as you can imagine, we never found the opportunity to ask.” His understatement made me grin, but it disappeared quickly. “When they began reappearing and it was discovered that those Fallen Ones who had died on earth did not remain dead but that their souls returned in a newly formed body, it changed our strategy of handling them entirely. We finally understood what we were dealing with when it came to Fallen Ones. They exist in a perpetual cycle, stuck here for all eternity. They discovered this quicker than we did, of course, that when they die their soul rises from their body, as do all others, but unlike all others it never reaches the afterlife, from which they are barred. Instead, they fall again, and as they descend their bodies are reformed. Of course, when they discovered this, their efforts to retaliate against those reborn on earth, and some Alterums who were already here, increased exponentially.”