by Rue Volley
“I would be weary as to your mood,” he said to her.
She smiled and reached towards his face.
“Today is monumental. You shall take your place and I at your side,” she said to him.
“Only in ceremony,” he said to her.
She lowered her hand and stared into his eyes.
“I see,” Clytie said.
Caine grabbed her around the waist and knocked her to the floor, falling on top of her.
“You please me; if not… you would be in memory,” he said to her.
“I would believe that you would dispense of me, my Lord… at will,” she said, as she turned her head and looked at the wall.
“This is truth you speak,” he whispered, as he bit her neck and she moaned.
Another knock came at the door and Caine sighed and flashed up quickly, pulling Clytie up to his side. The door opened and four guards stepped into the room.
“It is time, my Lord.”
Caine nodded and took Clytie’s hand in his. They followed the guards from the room and into the hall. Caine stopped and looked at Clytie.
“You will enter the council room by my side,” he said to her.
She nodded and continued to walk towards Caine’s future, as well as her own.
They stepped up to a large mirror that rolled like water. The guards stepped through it first and Caine stared at their reflection in the rolling mirror. Clytie glitched from Rue to her own reflection for a moment and Caine looked at her and smiled.
“It would be wise of you to appear as Rue Valon.”
“I know, my Lord. I only wanted to see us together as we are, for just a moment,” Clytie said to him.
He grinned and her form changed to that of Rue Valon, dressed in a long flowing blue gown. It dipped low in the front and the back, held on at the shoulders by a thin strand of mercury. Her hair was flowing in long curls and strung with more strands of mercury and blue flowers. Caine took a step forward and she followed, holding his hand. They stepped through to look out at the council room decked in long flowing blue material, shimmering from the little sunlight peeking through the skylight. Blue flowers covered the platform they had stepped onto, as well as all the pillars in the room. Ten in all that stretched up towards the skylight. Caine looked out at all protectors gathered in the huge hall, and he glanced at Clytie, as she held her head up high and looked at the crowd.
Sophia stepped up through the crowd and smiled at the two of them. She lifted the front of her gown and started to walk up the steps towards the two of them. Sophia glanced at Clytie and Clytie nodded to her and grinned. Sophia stopped in front of Caine and then turned to the crowd.
Sophia raised her hands and looked up at the skylight.
“Today is a joyous day in Valon… to our people, all who still reside and those who have returned to the creator. Today we welcome a new Lord. One that I humbly hosted as a child and continued to nurture, until he was strong enough to accept his rightful place among us.”
Caine glanced at Sophia and clinched his fist.
Clytie looked at him and tightened her grip on his hand.
Sophia turned to him and grinned.
“Sanguis… spiritus,” she said as he nodded to her.
Caine let Clytie’s hand go, and she watched him pull his blades, glowing, from his back. She stepped away to the left, and he held the blades out to his sides, tilting them in his hands. Sophia stared at the glowing blades and then at Caine. He lowered the blades to his sides, and then two guards stepped up behind him and took the blades from his hands. Sophia smiled as she looked at Caine. She stepped up to him and started to undo his straps on his chest. She pulled the leather apart and looked at his chest and then into his eyes.
“You are more powerful than any before you,” she whispered as he closed his eyes.
Two human girls stepped up to either side of him and pulled on his sleeves, easily removing the blue leather shirt from his body. Caine sighed and looked up at the skylight.
“Servo atum,” he whispered towards the falling sun.
Sophia took both blades in her hands, and Clytie stepped forward. Sophia looked at her and gently shook her head at her. Clytie backed up and waited, her heartbeat speeding up in her chest.
“Lord Caine… do you accept the rights to Lordship… to protect Valon and all Valonians in her womb?” Sophia asked him.
Caine nodded.
“Do you take in the blood and the light into your soul, letting it rule you at its will?” she asked him.
Caine nodded again.
Sophia turned to all protectors, collected in the hall, and held the blades up to them.
“Today Caine Morris Graph shall perish to allow Lord Caine to emerge,” she yelled to all of them.
All protectors raised their hands and a glow started to rise into the air over the crowd.
“Concentrate your energy on our dear Lord. He will need the strength of all to emerge as the one,” she said.
The light started to pulsate in the room. Two guards stepped up to each side of Caine, as a mirror rose from the floor from behind them. It rolled like water, turbulent like the sea. Caine watched as light snaked from the guard’s hands and wrapped his wrists. He hissed as it burnt his skin and smoke rose from the burning of his flesh. The two guards stepped backward, pulling Caine with them until they stood a foot from the mirror. Sophia stepped towards Caine and stared into his eyes.
“My beloved son… the pain you are about to witness is something I have prepared you for your entire life. Allow the past and the future to inhabit your heart, and come back to me as a whirlwind, a hurricane… a force of nature controlled by no one.”
Caine nodded to her and the guard lifted his arms and allowed the mirror to grab hold of the white energy wrapping his wrists. Caine groaned as it lifted his feet from the ground, and he dangled there with his muscles on his arms stretching out almost to point of breaking. Sophia raised both blades in her hands and then she thrust them through him and into the mirror behind him. Caine arched his back and cried out in a voice unknown to any ear… that of pure pain and torture.
The protectors in the crowd continued to pulsate their collective light into the air above them all. Caine thrashed his head, back and forth, as blood spewed from his mouth and the blades cut into him more with each movement. The mirror started to roll and wrap itself around him, choking the life out of him. He screamed as it engulfed his face, and he kicked his legs until they slowed and then twitched to a stop. Clytie lunged towards him and Sophia struck her, knocking her down. The mirror started to slow its rolling waves of silver, and Caine was released from it and dropped to the floor at Sophia’s feet. Sophia leaned down and touched his hair. His eyes closed, mouth open… terrified expression on his face.
The light collected in the room started to pulsate into one. It snaked overhead and then, with a powerful strike, hit Caine’s body and he arched his back screaming out at the top of his lungs… He moaned and reached toward the blades protruding from his chest and pulled them out, as he cried out and spit blood into the air. He slammed the two blades to the floor and rolled onto his side. He leaned back and cried out again, with his back arched, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth. He lunged forward and slammed his hands into the floor, breathing in deeply. He groaned and then pushed himself up, rising slowly in front of all who watched him.
The two gashes on his chest started to pull back together; a small trail of smoke rising as they healed themselves. He cracked his neck and then opened his eyes… deep black and soulless. He cried out and held the blades above his head as the crowd roared in celebration. Sophia looked at him and grinned. He drew the corner of his lip up and grinned back to her.
“Lord Caine… welcome to your kingdom,” Sophia said.
Clytie sat on the floor looking up at him in terror, wondering of what fate she would receive now.
***
Johnathan stepped into Theo’s tent and looked around. He spotted the c
hest in the corner and bit his lip. He shouldn’t pull out Rue’s books. He knew he shouldn’t. They had been given to Theo, entrusted to him to decipher as best he could, but his curiosity was overwhelming. He wanted to know everything, although not knowing would be better.
He stepped forward and heard a voice behind him.
“What are you doing?” Brooke asked him.
“Umm,” he said, as he turned to look at her with a guilty look on his face.
“I, ah… was looking for Theo,” he said.
“Uh huh… don’t lie. You want to look at the books,” she said to him, as she walked past him and stepped up to the chest.
She looked back and grinned at him.
“Wanna help?” she asked him.
Johnathan rubbed his neck and smiled at her.
“Okay,” he said, as he walked to the chest and looked at the lock on it.
“Well, this looks hard,” he said.
Brooke grinned and looked around the room. She spotted a random pipe, about as long as her arm, and ran to it. She ran back over to the chest and lifted it up. She struck the lock and it sparked as it snapped off the chest.
“Holy shit,” Johnathan said as he grinned at her.
Brooke shrugged her shoulders and dropped the pipe. She looked at the chest and opened it up. There they were, all wrapped up in her jacket. She looked at Johnathan and smiled.
“Story is…I wanted my jacket back,” she said.
Johnathan laughed and reached into the chest and pulled them out.
He walked to Theo’s bed and sat them down.
Brooke turned to him and shook her head.
“We are so not going to read them here, right? I mean, someone could walk in.”
Johnathan looked at her and nodded.
“K… let’s go,” he said.
Brooke looked at him and smiled.
“We have to be back here in like an hour, for the ceremony.”
“Oh, we will,” he said to her.
Johnathan wrapped the jacket sleeves around his chest and tied them tight.
“Ready to take a ride?” he asked her.
“Absolutely,” Brooke said, as she closed the chest and faked the lock back onto the front of it.
They ran out the tent opening and around the side of the tent.
Johnathan looked out at the field and then at her.
“Get on,” he said.
Brooke nodded and jumped on his back as they flashed from the carnival into the field.
Johnathan and Brooke flashed into the trees, and he went as far as he thought was a safe distance from everyone at the carnival. He slowed down and stopped, as he looked at a nice grassy opening in the forest. Brooke jumped from his back and brushed her pants off. She stood up straight and Johnathan turned to her. She looked at his chest and he undid the sleeves of the jacket and placed it on the ground. He opened it up and looked at the four books. He grinned at her and she sat down, Indian style, in front of him and held her hand out to him.
“I want the first one,” she said to him.
“Really?” he asked her.
“Yes, of course I do… You always start at the beginning,” she said.
He shook his head at her and handed her the first book.
“Okay,” he said.
He picked up the fourth one all charred and blackened.
“It is a shame that this one is so gnarly,” he said.
Brooke opened the first book and looked at the first page.
She started to read it and said ‘uh huh’, like she was just agreeing with him.
She laughed and covered her mouth and he looked at her.
“What?” he said.
“Oh it’s just… she is funny,” Brooke said.
Johnathan touched the second book and looked at her.
Brooke smiled and shook her head. She glanced up at him.
“What?” he said.
“Oh nothing… it’s just good; I like it. I had no idea that she could write.”
Johnathan set the book down and looked at her.
“Can I see it too?” he asked her.
“Sure, come here… We can read it together,” she said to him.
Johnathan stood up and then sat down next to her.
“Okay, what is so funny?” he asked her.
Brooke looked up at him and he looked at the page.
“Just read, okay?” she said to him.
Johnathan looked at the first lines and then he read on.
Brooke waited until he had the first page under his belt and then she turned it; after that, they read at the same pace.
I woke up on Josh’s chest. I looked down and pulled my clothes over me… I mean, we were there in the front of the tent for craps sake. I didn’t even think about that when we, uh…well. You know. I sat up and ran my hand through my hair. Josh opened his eyes up and looked at me smiling.
“Can we like argue all the time?” he asked me.
I hit him on the arm and he fake ‘owe’d’. I smiled and stood up, getting away from the doorway. I looked back at him and waved my hand to him.
“Get up,” I said.
Josh raised his hands up and then pushed himself up.
He stretched his arms out and smiled back at me. I rolled my eyes.
“Away from the door,” I said.
“Oh, come on… It is like so known… more so than you think,” Josh said to me.
I started to pull my shirt over my head and looked at him.
“Well… so known or not, I don’t want someone to walk in here,” I said.
“Oh, you mean the idiot,” Josh said to me.
I looked at him and sighed.
“If you mean Johnathan… yea. I would prefer him not have to see anything,” I said.
Josh looked down at himself and grinned.
“I would love for him to see something,” he said.
I laughed and threw his clothes to him. They covered his head and he pulled them off.
“He would drop, just pass out,” Josh added.
“Oh my god… Get dressed,” I said.
“He would,” Josh added.
I shook my head at him and looked at the door.
“We have to get ready. I mean, we are having the ceremony in like an hour,” I said, as I looked out at the sun falling.
“Okay… fine. But I will torture him at some point, so you might as well get all pissy now,” he said to me.
“First of all, I don’t get pissy, and secondly, you are not going to get me all mad again,” I said.
Josh pulled his leather on and grinned at me.
“Damn,” He said.
I laughed and shook my head at him.
“I love you, even when you are an ass,” I said.
“That’s my girl,” Josh said, as he plowed into me and knocked me on the bed.
I laughed and hit him on the shoulder.
“Seriously, get up!” I said.
A throat cleared and we both looked up from the bed and saw Sam standing there.
“Yea, getting out of the bed would be a good start,” She said.
I looked at Josh and he grinned at me. I hit him in the head with a pillow and pushed myself off the bed. I stood up and looked at Sam; she looked like she had run a marathon. I stepped towards her and she held her hand up to me.
“Don’t touch me,” Sam said.
I looked back at Josh and he shrugged his shoulders at me.
“You okay?” I asked her.
“Oh… do you really want to know, Rue?” she said, all grumpy.
I stepped towards her.
“Why are you mad at me?” I asked her.
She looked at me and then at Josh.
“I would appreciate it if you guys could knock this off until Theo can find a spell of some sort to stop all your… you know… affecting me,” she said.
“Oh,” I said.
Josh laughed into the pillow behind me.
I glanced at him and raised my eyebr
ows at him and shook my head.
“Sam… I didn’t know, not the first time anyway… The second time and the third, I will admit, Josh had told me.”
I glanced at Josh and he held up his fingers to indicate that it had been four times.
I knew that, but I tried to pull back on the crazy.
Sam glanced at Josh.
“Yes it was four… thank you… if not more… It felt like twenty.”
I covered my mouth and looked at her. I was smiling, but I didn’t want her to see that.
“Sam… I am sorry.”
Josh pulled the pillow from his mouth and looked at her.
“I’m not,” he said.
Sam flashed to him and hit him in the stomach. They rolled off the bed onto the floor, smacking each other in the head, and I flashed to them and grabbed a foot. I tried to pull Sam off of him, and we all stopped when we heard a clap behind us. I blinked. God, Theo’s new habit of the single clap is annoying. He stepped in and looked at the three of us.
“Unbelievable,” he muttered to us.
I let Sam’s foot go and she pushed up from Josh by slamming her hands into stomach and pushing herself up. He ‘ooom’fd’ and she grinned, as she stepped away from him, and stepped up to Theo.
“Someone had to stop this, it is ridiculous,” she muttered to him.
Theo held his hand up to her and then stretched it out to me.
“Come, love… we have a dress to try on,” he said.
My eyes got big… The thought of a dress made out of that awesome fabric we had picked out was so far from my mind. I admit, I had forgotten all about it.
“Oh my god… Sam, I forgot about the flowers,” I said.
“I already took care of it. Well… Lily did,” she said to me.
I smiled and looked back, as Josh rose up and looked at Theo.
Theo shook his head ‘no’ and Josh looked at his hands. I crinkled my eyebrows.
“What was that?” I asked.
Josh picked me up from behind and I screamed as he swung me around.
“Enough, Joshua… Rue, Dress now,” Theo said.
Josh set me down and kissed me. I closed my eyes and then smiled at him.
“I gotta dress thingy,” I said to him.
He grinned. “Go,” he said.
I turned to Theo and ran from the tent. Sam stood there shaking her head at Josh.