Divine Destiny

by Hayley Todd

  Anton didn’t manage to stay conscious long. He downed some blood with my help and fell into unconsciousness while he ran his fingers through my hair. Even as his labored breathing lengthened, his fingers still played down my skin until I too fell to the lull of slumber.

  I squeezed my eyes shut hard before opening them. Something about my environment felt eerie, even before I could see.

  That tension humming in the air made it no surprise that I saw first Sage, then Achillia, then Not Achillia sitting in an arc around me. Achillia grinned at me and it morphed her into an exquisite beauty. That wasn’t to say that Achillia was not always lovely, but something about that smile made her seem younger, gentler.

  It was eerie to see their manifestations lined up before me. Each of them looked similar in many ways, but I could also see distinct differences. They all had long auburn hair, like my own, and piercing vividly blue eyes. Their skin was pale and their features were even similar, looking like cousins.

  But they had their differences too. Achillia’s jaw was sharper, more masculine than the other two. Sage had dainty features, making her look far younger than she was. Not Achillia was the eeriest of the three. She had an ethereal grace to her that’s origin was impossible to pinpoint. She just was.

  “Hello again, Kyra,” she said, watching me carefully.

  I found myself sitting with my legs crossed in the same circle. There were empty, blank spots between them, as though their occupants were missing. Sage and Achillia sat closest together, with gaps between them and their alien counterpart. There was also a two-person gap between Achillia and myself.

  “Hello,” I replied, awkwardly. What did you say to mirrored echos of the past?

  “Though we have met before, I...decided,” she traded a pointed glance with Sage, “that it was time I introduce myself formally.”

  I stared blankly at her. You would think that by this point in my life, all of this supernatural stuff would start to become commonplace but still, I was as taken aback as I was every time.

  “What she means to say,” Sage said, speaking up, “is that you’ve earned your right to knowledge, as many have before you. It was time for us to meet.”

  I gaped at her. She and Achillia hadn’t actually acknowledged me yet. I hadn’t been entirely sure that they even realized I was there. They both watched me now though, making it evident that we did indeed exist in this same empty darkness at that moment.

  Not Achillia stood and paced around the circle, keeping a foot or so from me, Sage, and Achillia, as well as the unoccupied seats around us.

  “Kyra, we have met before. We are familiar. I have been called many names over the ages but Harmonia and Achillia both know me as Seira.” Sage’s face twisted in outrage, but she said nothing. I did notice her fists balled on her lap, however.

  “At long last,” Seira continued as though nothing had happened, “you have encountered our adversary in her newest form.”

  I watched her, brows furrowed in confusion, as she continued to pace.

  Seira lifted a hand and transparent blue-white energy seeped from the sky above into a central point in the middle of the circle. An image formed there, solidifying as it went until the pale-haired girl from the arena stood there.

  She looked more innocent--less sinister--in this form. She was small and thin, her eyes a pearlescent violet. She had round, soft features that made her look like a child but I was beginning to realize that she could have been any age from ten to thirty.

  The image lifted her hand and held it aloft before whispering, “The Tempest is nearly at hand,” in a monotone voice. While the image was nearly identical to my memory of her, her demeanor was completely different than what I had seen in the arena.

  Sage jerked suddenly, and there was a snap that resounded from about her neck. The amulet soared forth until it’s chain dangled from the image’s hand, the sapphire stone swaying in the air.

  Seira stepped alongside the image. “Like you, Kyra, and those before you carried my spirit, the spirit of Order, Tempest and her predecessors carried your nemesis, the spirit of Chaos. The original adversary, Kenos, permeates their every move and desire.”

  “As if you don’t do the same,” Achillia said on a scoff. She rolled her eyes and leaned back on her hands which rested on immeasurable darkness below.

  Seira glared at her. “It is true that in the same way, Order is everything that you are. It inflicts its cause on your thoughts and actions, however, Chaos and therefore Kenos, exist to create more disaster and tumult in the world. Order, myself, and all of you exist to reign that power in. The world cannot exist without one or the other. It is our duty to ensure that while both Chaos and Order exist, neither shall overcome the other.”

  I considered that for several long moments. I wasn’t sure what Seira meant in how that affected me, but I understood her concept. “So, we exist to endure an eternal game of tug and war?” I couldn’t help the bitter attitude that accompanied the words.

  It wasn’t Seira that responded to me, but Sage instead. “We are blessed and also cursed to carry Seira’s spirit,” she said.

  “Seira’s...spirit?” I asked. I had no idea what she meant.

  Achillia sighed. She seemed to have the least patience of the group. “Kyra, there have been dozens of women in this same position.” She took a second to look around the circle. It seemed as though she saw others in the vacant seats that I did not. “At the dawn of time, there was creation. The heavens and the earth, the created and the void, whichever telling of the tale you prefer. In this creation, two entities were born. Sisters. The first sister, Seira was created as the keeper of Order and the second sister, Kenos, who formed as her original adversary, the keeper of Chaos.

  For a long time, Seira and Kenos lived harmoniously as ethereal forces with no body to inhabit. Chaos followed Kenos wherever she ventured but Order drove Seira after her to forever rebalance the world. For millennia, Kenos and Seira existed in this way.

  Kenos turned the things she was near into vicious monsters, whereas Seira unintentionally created hero after hero to kill the monsters, returning the world to normalcy once more.

  Then, came trouble as it were. The spirits that were Seira and Kenos entered a matriarchal village. Something like this had happened a dozen times, Kenos entering the minds of those nearby with her presence and morphing them into mindless creatures, Seira providing resurging faith and bravery to those that lingered near her. These side effects created, again and again, the war of good versus evil.

  But, the women in this particular village were no ordinary women. They were witches and mages and possessed powers bestowed on them from the very elements of nature, which spawned Order and Chaos.

  Kenos’ aura of chaos infiltrated the mind of the Chief Priestess’ oldest son, twisting him into a vile, careless monster who raped, murdered and pillaged his way across neighboring villages. Though the priestess and her people felt the urging of Seira, she could not kill her boy and instead, concocted a vengeful scheme with the other priestesses to chain both order and chaos as punishment for their meddling.

  The woman and her people lured Kenos into their circle using the power of two blessed gemstones which in turn drew Seira. The women in the circle attempted to contain the primordial forces of creation that were both order and chaos but quickly found that their attempt to funnel the forces into the gemstones would not be enough. The woman sacrificed herself and the next most revered priestess, her sister, as vessels to inhibit the forces of order and chaos. She devoured Seira, and her sister devoured Kenos. While Kenos and Seira inhabited human forms, they could use their abilities, but no longer carried the strength of creation which instead entered the two amulets. Nothing would be except what already was. They could alter their world but could not create anything new.

  The woman and her people had not realized, however, the strength of Kenos and Seira. Their power and entities were vast and beyond measure even without their powers of creation. They co
uld not simply be contained in human bodies. As the women devoured their energy, their bodies began to break down and deteriorate, as well as their minds. In an effort to save their high priestesses, the witches began working a spell on their bodies, to change them, make them more resilient. They used the power of creation stored in the amulets to turn first Seira’s host, then Kenos’ into creatures that relied on blood to constantly repair their bodies and embrace the forces of nature that most closely tied to the spirit they contained.

  In those simple rituals, Order and Chaos were ripped from their powers of creation, and a new creature was unleashed on the earth to provide a prison for them both. Thus, Magicks were created.

  Unfortunately for the Chief Priestess, this did not return her son to the man he had been. The spirit of Seira, though contained, still possessed enough ability to urge the woman to near madness until at last, she could not go on without ending the chaos Kenos had created. She killed her son, and had intended to kill herself and her sister to rid the earth of Seira and Kenos, however, she then discovered that she and her sister were both with child.

  The other women of their coven protected them and brought them sustenance until a time at which the children were born. Each of the sisters birthed a perfect daughter, on the same day, and found themselves suddenly entirely without madness.

  As the children grew, it became evident that they were not human as the women had once been. They had become similar beings, inherently tied to the elements of nature. The voices of Kenos and Seira remained quiet for many years until the children came of age. Their mothers thinking the threat that Kenos and Seira represented was gone, chose their coming of age ceremony to explain to them the story that preceded their births.

  The Chief Priestess and her sister presented the gemstones to their daughters as a gift and an indication of what their people had overcome. Little did they know that the presence of the stones would bring Kenos and Seira back to the world once more.

  The young girls who had always maintained close control of their respective elements found themselves overwhelmed with new levels of ability. When the Chief Priestess realized the danger this presented, she hid away both stones and let the daughters grow.

  As the girls aged, they showed more and more how little they were like humans. The sun ignited their flesh and without blood, they would grow weak, near to death. They had fangs amongst their teeth that their mothers had never had. They were stronger and faster than their mothers as well. They were what would later be called Magicks though infinitely more powerful and possessed with the abilities that Kenos and Seira afforded them.

  As they entered adulthood, Kenos and Seira would become integral parts of their personalities and beings. Their childhood bickering turned into adult feuds. They went from best friends to immortal enemies and in their own pursuits of tearing one another down, they put the world at risk.

  Kenos’ host was the first to locate a gemstone. She found the sapphire, buried in a shrine on the mountainside and delivered it to a smith, requesting it be formed into an amulet. She had concocted a plan to deliver the amulet to Seira’s host, in an effort to force her to be her own undoing. She did not realize that after a lifetime dealing with Seira’s presence, her host had developed a resistance to the madness encouraged by the unbridled forces of Order. The amulet wore on the host’s sanity but did not drive her insane. Without the amulet’s great drawbacks, Seira’s host became infinitely more powerful, able to cast her abilities across multitudes.

  After years of use, Kenos’ host sought out the other stone, the violet amethyst and in a moment of symmetry, had another amulet requisitioned and formed. Unlike the calm irritation that was a runoff of Order’s power, Chaos ran rampant in Kenos’ host. The amulet drove her insane, seeking only an end to the eternal conflict. The host lured Seira’s to her, antagonizing until she was sure Seira’s host would bring her own amulet.

  When Seira’s host arrived, Kenos’ host turned on her, initiating a spell with the help of witch followers to force the spirits to combine in Kenos’ host. When Seira realized the danger her host and spirit were in, she urged her host to twist the spell. Instead of combining both spirits into one entity, Seira used her amulet to divide Kenos’ host from her magick abilities.

  Kenos’ host lived, but only just. She became a Magick with powers that were but the runoff of Kenos’ great abilities. Her connection to Kenos’ spirit, however, was irreparably severed and entered one of the host’s siblings who had always remained human.

  From that moment forward, Kenos’ spirit has always moved on through death from human to human, and Kenos’ magick passed to her former host’s daughter on her death.

  In human forms, Kenos’ overwhelmed her hosts and drove them mad, always instilling a drive to reunite their being with their Magick counterpart. Without magick, their bodies could support Kenos, but their minds would never be capable of withstanding Kenos’ disruptive energies.”

  Achillia finally went silent, leaning back and staring into the nothingness above. Seira had remained still and silent through the entire story. She had waved her fingers through the air, drawing more imagery in the center of the circle. It changed and swayed like watching a movie on a reel. The priestesses formed, surrounded by shrowded figures in the darkness. Then the daughters formed and I realized they looked very familiar.

  Sage stood on the other side of the circle, watching the images with distaste.

  “Kyra,” Seira suddenly said, drawing my attention. “Kenos’ most recent host has found the amethyst amulet. We believe she may be trying to do what her age old predecessor did. She may be trying to pull the spirits from within you and combine them in herself.”

  I considered the implication. With the Order and Chaos spirits combined, what would happen? Would they balance each other out? Maybe all the fear Seira seemed to be inspiring was only out of self-preservation.

  Seira stepped so near to me that I shifted back out of instinct. “Kyra,” she said, commanding my attention, “If she forces the spirits together, it will Kill you and begin the end.”

  I stared blankly at her, not sure what such a weighted statement meant.

  Sage decided to explain for Seira. “Kyra, she means that if the fates are contained in one being, they will eat away at each other until they are either released or gone completely. Without Order and Chaos, reality itself will begin to dissolve. This world was created to exist in harmony with both, it cannot handle the absence of either drive.”

  Okay. So, now it was up to me to literally save the world.

  I wanted to ask about how I was supposed to do this but instead asked, “How am I here? I thought I could only see you when I was near death?” Seira had told me this when I had nearly died trying to save Will’s life. I hadn’t seen her fully since.

  Seira glanced down at me, a knowing smile on her lips. “You’ve touched the amulet, haven’t you?” she asked, the grin almost sinister.

  I didn’t get a chance to respond or find out more about their miraculous appearance because right then, my back slammed into something hard and I was shocked into consciousness.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Pain shot down my shoulder as my back connected with something hard. I opened groggy eyes to find myself half on the bed and half on the floor. I cursed my thudding heart when I realized that all that had startled me was falling off the bed in my sleep.

  As my brain caught up to the rest of me, I desperately wanted to tell someone about what had happened but realized--with a resounding pain in my chest--that the two people who knew most about Achillia and Sage’s adventures were the farthest from me right then. Kellic acted like she’d been possessed and Carson was...well Carson wasn’t exactly there for me right then.

  Anton’s face popped up over the edge of the bed, his chin leaned on his hand, watching me with playful eyes. “You alright?” he asked, a smile on his lips. He held his hand out to me and I took it as he lifted my torso back onto the bed. He was exc
eptionally spry this morning.

  “Thanks,” I said and gestured down to his bandage. “How are you?”

  Anton looked down at the bandage as though he’d forgotten all about it. “Oh, yeah,” he said, “I think I’m all healed up.” He sat up and started tugging at the wrap, struggling to pull it around his back.

  I leaned up and took the edge from him, unraveling it from him with more ease. The last round fell off and I ran my free hand down the muscles along his back. He was surprisingly built and it occurred to me that I had never seen him without his shirt. He turned to look over his shoulder at me, exposing his chest.

  His skin was completely smooth, with only a slight difference in coloration exposing that there had ever been a wound at all. I ran my fingers over his chest skeptically, as though there couldn’t possibly be nothing there already.

  Magicks healed quickly but more slowly than other vampires. Even with sufficient amounts of blood it still took us days to heal from severe wounds. The pain in my own arm had significantly decreased but I still couldn’t completely move it.

  I hadn’t realized how invasive my touch had been until his hand wrapped gently around mine. I looked up at him, taking my eyes off his skin for the first time. His gaze was smoldering. “I’m alright,” he said, his voice rough.

  “How?” I asked him.

  “Just lucky, I guess,” he said, laughing. His voice was still husky and low but it was obvious he was trying to push the underlying feelings away. He hadn’t let go of my hand as he spoke though and his skin was surprisingly soft. He let my fingers rest against him, not moving my hand away.

  My heart pounded in my chest at that gaze. It was intoxicating.

  He suddenly pulled away and climbed from the bed. He moved away so quickly that the warm air scattered in his wake. “Do you mind if I use your shower?” he asked, gesturing to the bathroom. His jeans were torn to shreds and his shirt was already gone. Despite his brief sponge bath, he was still covered in grime from the previous night’s fight.