by John Corwin
Flava grew more excited. "Do you mean the Fjoeruss who went to Eden with Daelissa before the Eden War?"
I nodded. "That's the one."
"He could be a brother," she said.
"He never mentioned being related to Daelissa or Nightliss." I really wasn't surprised. Fjoeruss was never one to volunteer information if there was no profit involved.
"Back in those days, there were only hundreds of Seraphim, not thousands," Flava said. "I'm certain most of them were related somehow."
Elyssa shuddered. "That's kind of gross."
"No different than the Daemos," I said.
She shivered again. "Still gross."
"What did Kaelissa have to say about the Mzodi?" Flava asked.
"A sky ship is due here tomorrow morning." I nodded toward the dock. "She'll speak with them for us."
"Excellent," Flava said, though her eyes looked uncertain. "I was not certain the villagers would help us."
"What was our backup plan if they hadn't?" Elyssa asked.
"That is a good question," the sera replied. "Without the skyway, the journey through the vortex is perilous."
"If the rocket stick worked," I said, "what would prevent me from flying high over the vortex?"
"The updrafts and turbulence would likely break the rocket stick and throw you to your doom." Flava looked at me as if waiting for my next stupid question.
"Doesn't sound so bad." I shrugged. "Sounds kinda fun, actually."
"Yeah, right." Elyssa snorted. "Going solo on a rocket stick is a bad idea. You'll need our help if there's another monster crystoid up there."
I threw up my hands in surrender. "Well, let's hope the Mzodi like us." I blew out a sigh. "Flava, why don't you get the troops settled in? I'm gonna brownnose our host."
Flava stared at me blankly for a moment. "I hope you make her nose very brown if it will help us." She gave me another confused look and walked away.
Elyssa took a turn to look confused. "How do you plan to suck up to Kaelissa, and is that really a good idea?"
"I told her I killed Daelissa."
Her eyebrows arched. "That's not exactly brownnosing."
"Maybe not, but she didn't try to hurt me." I pressed my lips together and shook my head. "Daelissa was her favorite, surprise, surprise."
"I don't think you know what brownnosing is, babe." Elyssa leaned against my shoulder. "Maybe you should've left out the part about how you killed her favorite daughter."
"I wasn't brownnosing then, silly." I took her hand. "I promised Kaelissa more stories about her daughters. Hopefully that'll make her happy."
"Maybe you should tone down the killing of Daelissa part," Elyssa suggested. "Make it sound like you really regretted it."
"In retrospect, I did." I held up my fingers with a tiny space between. "Just a little bit. If I'd used Clarity on her—"
"You didn't even understand what it was." Elyssa set her hands on her hips. "We're not going through this again, are we?"
"Nah." I slashed a hand through the air. "I plan to use it on Serena, Cephus, and any other evildoers."
"That's not a good idea either." She gripped my shoulders and looked me in the eyes. "Clarity makes a person see the bare naked truth about themselves, but it doesn't make them a good person."
"We don't know that," I said. "What if I'd hit Daelissa with it sooner? Maybe she would've stopped."
"The truth for Daelissa was so awful, it killed her," Elyssa said. "I'm not so sure that'll be the case for Serena and Cephus." She shrugged. "You can try it if you want, but they're not insane like Daelissa. They know exactly what they're doing."
"Plus, I can kill those two the old-fashioned way." I punched a fist into my palm. "I just really want to tear Cephus apart, you know?"
"Yeah." Her eyes darkened. "I know exactly what you mean."
We went back inside Kaelissa's house and found her on the deck gazing out at the blue valley. She turned her serene gaze on us. "Your friends are taken care of?"
I nodded. "This is Elyssa."
Elyssa's mouth fell open when she saw Kaelissa's face.
"Is this your wife?" the sera asked.
I cleared my throat. "You wanted to hear about your daughters?"
"Yes, please." Kaelissa looked toward the door and nodded. Djola stepped out with a tray of fruits and a crystal pitcher of something that looked like wine. "Thank you, daughter."
"Of course, Mother." Djola set the table and held out the chairs while we all sat.
Kaelissa gave her a questioning look. "I believe that will be all."
Djola smoothed gray hair behind her ears and backed away. "Of course, Mother."
"Doesn't she want to hear about her sisters too?" I asked.
"She is but a mere shadow fading into dark, not even worthy of our family name." Kaelissa dismissed the question with a swat of her hand. "Hearing about her superior sisters would only make her feel worse."
Elyssa's hand tightened on my leg.
"Isn't that a little harsh?" I asked.
"The truth is often so." Kaelissa's eyes grew sad. "I have given life to so many, but none have risen to the glory of the first."
Poor Nightliss must have been treated like the red-headed stepchild growing up with her gloriously insane sister. I really wanted to light into this sera about how awful Daelissa truly had been, but I didn't think it would do any good. Kaelissa was just as blind to Daelissa's true nature as Daelissa had been. Judging from the odd gleam in her eyes, I had to guess she wasn't all that mentally stable herself.
That didn't bode well for her helping us with the Mzodi. If I rubbed her the wrong way, it meant we could be stuck in Seraphina with no way out, short of a miracle.
Chapter 12
The sera wanted to hear about her favorite daughter, so I decided to give her what she wanted. "Let me start at the beginning." I didn't quite go back to my own genesis when I discovered my sweet blood was a dangerous commodity to have. Instead, I told of the small black cat I'd rescued, and the first time I'd seen Nightliss in human form. She hadn't spoken much English in those days, but gradually grew much better.
Kaelissa seemed disinterested until I reached my first encounter with Daelissa. Her enthusiasm only grew when I told of the many battles with her awful daughter. It was hard—so damned hard—to stomach, but I made it sound like I actually respected Daelissa.
I used embellishments like, "I'd never seen such raw power," or "She was so beautiful I went weak in the knees."
Elyssa's grip tightened with every lie, and I'm pretty sure she gagged a couple of times.
"Yet, I fought because I had no choice," I continued. "My very existence was at stake."
"She was so powerful with Brilliance," Kaelissa said after I finished the tale. "She was no Darkling at all."
I wanted to contradict her as I had earlier, explaining about the prism I'd found in Daelissa's hand, or how completely insane she was, but I held back, certain if I gave her the brutal truth she'd either ignore it or get angry and not help us with the Mzodi.
Elyssa was the one who had trouble letting it go. "Daelissa murdered humans by taking all their soul essence."
"My sweet Daelissa was only doing what she was taught," Kaelissa said. "She was the most beautiful child, so full of love and life." Her lips peeled back in a snarl. "The Brightlings poisoned her mind."
Daelissa was, without a doubt, the most extreme case of bad parenting in the history of the universe, all things considered.
"Tell me more about Daelissa and this Ezzek Moore," Kaelissa said.
The last thing I wanted to do was go into a love story, especially since I didn't know many details. Then again, I could just make it up as I went along. "The first Arcane, Moses, lived for thousands of years and assumed many identities. Long after the war, he was known as Ezzek Moore, and in my time as Jeremiah Conroy. It was during the Roman Empire that he met Daelissa."
"How interesting," Kaelissa said. "Mortal enemies who survive the first war
only to meet again in another life."
"Yeah." My tone was anything but enthusiastic. "They didn't recognize each other and became lovers. It was only when Ezzek discovered he was bedding the killer of his wife, Thesha, that he began to plot his revenge."
"A love story for the ages." Kaelissa's face flushed with pleasure.
I wanted to pound my face on the table, but I plastered on a smile instead. "Yeah, a real heart warmer." I kept that smile on my face when I told her how Daelissa killed Moses, then known as Jeremiah. "She incinerated him to ash."
"There is no fury like a sera scorned," Kaelissa said. "I wish you had more details of their history."
"Well, your daughter murdered Jeremiah before he could tell me anything else." I was so done with this terrible mother.
Kaelissa sobbed into her hands. "My sweet little sera."
Elyssa bared her teeth with disgust. "Nightliss was the sweet one."
Kaelissa was too lost in her grief to hear her.
I ate a couple of quintos and drank the sweet wine, giving the sera time to calm down. Elyssa rolled her eyes with disgust and looked ready to leave.
After a time, Kaelissa wiped her eyes with a silky napkin and regained her composure. "Thank you for giving a mother peace."
"Holy farting fairies," I muttered. How in the hell could a story like that give anyone peace? "Now that I've told you about your daughter"—I intentionally made that singular—"I'd like to know a little about Seraphina."
She nodded. "Of course, what would you like to know?"
"This first question is a bit personal, but I hope you'll forgive me." I hated asking this question, even of immortals females. "How old are you?"
"I cannot say precisely," she replied. "I was the third generation to be born on Seraphina."
That drew a wide-eyed look from Elyssa. "You knew the first Seraphim?"
She nodded. "The ancient ones lived in Eden before the Sundering. Many of them died, but—"
"Uh, what's the Sundering?" I asked.
"Ah, yes, of course you are too young to understand." A condescending smile stretched Kaelissa's lips. "All the realms were once one earth. The Seraphim ruled the skies and our eternal adversaries, the Sirens, ruled the seas. It was the dawn of mankind, and the mortals lived in complete harmony with nature."
I tried to get a handle on the timeline. "Ten thousand years ago?"
"Perhaps ten times that," she said. "The ancients are not ones who keep time. To them, its passage is like water in a stream."
"Like urine streaming into a toilet?" I said.
Elyssa elbowed me. "What happened next?"
"The Apocryphan," Kaelissa said in a clipped tone. "No one knows whence they came, but they were more powerful than any of us."
"What did they look like?" I asked. "Humanoid?"
She shook her head. "Sometimes, yes, but only when they willed it. I was told their natural form is like a dark vortex of energy and they could change their form at will."
"Creepy," I said. "What did they do?"
"The story is quite long and involved," Kaelissa said, "but their leader, Kathazal, came to us in Seraphim form and told us the Apocryphan had long watched our war with the Sirens and determined it would lead to the destruction of this world. In their benevolence, they decided to declare themselves our rulers." Her hand tightened around a wine glass. "The Seraphim and Sirens fought back, even gaining the help of the dragons and other ancient beasts. The mortals refused to help, for they agreed that stopping the warring between the Seraphim and Sirens was for the best."
Elyssa's lips tightened. "Benevolent dictators usually aren't benevolent once they take power."
"The war against the Apocryphan ended quickly," Kaelissa continued. "They were more than immortal—indestructible. Nothing my ancestors did to harm them had any lasting effect." She paused for a long drink of wine. "For a time, there was peace. The Apocryphan divided the kingdoms among themselves with Kathazal as their leader. Though gender does not apply to the Apocryphan since they can take many shapes and genders, Kathazal was deemed the father of the others."
"Everyone has to come from somewhere, right?" I said.
She nodded. "Perhaps. Posthaneid was the favorite son, and as such, he was given Aquilis, the Siren kingdom. Couriondral ruled Draxadis, the dragon lands."
I had a boatload of questions about the dragons, but bit my tongue so as not to interrupt.
"Every Apocryphan ruled a kingdom—all but the outcast Xanomiel." Her gaze rested on the valley, but her eyes were focused inward. "Though none of the ancients knew for certain, they believe Xanomiel fomented unrest among the Apocryphan, claiming Kathazal planned to give Posthaneid complete power over all the kingdoms. War once again blighted the Earth, every Apocryphan throwing their kingdom against Seraphina and Aquilis."
"Talk about a world war," I muttered.
Kaelissa's gaze refocused on me. "As an outcast with nothing, Xanomiel likely hoped for the end of the world. Instead, the incredible outpouring of destruction fractured Earth, spinning the kingdoms into realms, still together, but separated by a veil of magic."
I put it into scientific terms. "Same place, different dimensions."
"Some ancients believe Xanomiel intentionally created the realms, while others argued Kathazal did it, hoping it would end the bloodshed." Kaelissa shrugged. "No one knows for sure. Thousands died from the breaking, and thousands more were ripped from their corporeal bodies and thrown into a spiritual realm called Haedaemos."
"Whoa," I said. "The Sundering created demons?"
"Indeed," she said.
"Are the Apocryphan still around?" Elyssa asked.
"They exist, though not in any of our realms," Kaelissa said. "The Sirens were the first to breach the divide between worlds and secretly contacted the Seraphim. The Sirens had discovered the spiritual plane and realized it held the key to defeating the Apocryphan. Using what they'd learned from service to their master Posthaneid, they partitioned Haedaemos, creating a sub-realm from which nothing could escape. With the help of the Seraphim, they tricked the Apocryphan and trapped them in this new realm, the Abyss."
A penetrating cold formed in the middle of my stomach. "The Abyssals are the Apocryphan?"
"That is another name for them, yes." Kaelissa seemed to sense something was wrong. "Why do you ask?"
"Are there others in the Abyss besides the Apocryphan?"
"Yes, there are other demons and spirits trapped there." Kaelissa raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Because I summoned one and it escaped." I prayed I hadn't screwed up majorly. "It looked like a black vortex with a glowing red eye and humanoid upper body."
"I cannot say for sure," Kaelissa said. "But it is highly likely you unleashed an Apocryphan upon Eden."
That wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear, but Jeremiah's warning about summoning Abyssals rang loud in my ears. In short, he'd told me not to do it just before Daelissa killed him. Other Daemos had echoed the warning, but during a battle with Daelissa, I ran out of options. Her army was decimating mine, so I summoned something powerful to fight her goliath battle golems. We'd won the day, but the Abyssal had broken my control and gone AWOL. I felt pretty certain it hadn't left looking for a college degree so it could get a nine-to-five job.
I looked at Elyssa. "You remember Kaylee Diggs?"
Her forehead wrinkled. "From high school?"
"Yeah. I'll bet she graduated and went to college."
"I don't understand." Perplexity wrinkled her forehead. "What does she have to do with the world being ruled by ancient gods?"
"Kaylee's biggest problem right now is probably deciding whether she wants to go to a party Friday night, or maybe she's worried the hot guy in her class doesn't like her." I sighed. "Must be nice having real world problems like that."
"Yeah," Elyssa said in a resigned tone. "Let's concentrate on unreal world problems so she can stay ignorant and alive, okay?"
I took a deep breath and rewound the story
in my head. "So, the Sundering happens, the good guys trap the Apocryphan, and then what?" I asked Kaelissa.
She pondered a moment before answering. "There is far more to that story, but after a time, the realms lost contact. Thousands of years passed, I was born, and the following generations of Seraphim forgot Earth or the other realms ever existed. The ancients instructed those of us who knew to never reveal the past." Her eyes saddened. "Unfortunately, Daelissa discovered Eden and it led to her destruction."
"Technically, my mother found Eden," I told her.
Kaelissa didn't look surprised. "The news I heard from Zbura spoke of you and your mother, Alysea, Justin." She studied me intently. "The halfling son of a demon and angel."
I was surprised to hear her use that term. Most of her kind preferred the term Seraphim. "My father is a Daemos."
"Ah, yes." Her eyes brightened. "The incarnate form of demons. I heard about them during the First Eden War, but never met one."
"You took no part in the war at all?" Elyssa asked.
"No." Kaelissa's gaze retreated inward. "The ancients believed it a mad quest driven by bored youth. That was before Daelissa returned, her powers magnified enormously by mortal souls, and killed the Trivectus." Her chin rose slightly. "My daughter ruled the Brightlings."
"Murder isn't something to be proud of," Elyssa said. "Even if she killed Brightlings."
"The ancients were a different breed," Kaelissa said. "They were neither Brightling nor Darkling, but perfectly balanced, able to channel both forces equally. It was not until after the Sundering that their offspring manifested affinities to one force or the other. Many believed it a curse from the Apocryphan."
I swished the wine in my glass. "Fjoeruss is the only pure Seraphim I know who can channel both forces equally."
Light blazed in Kaelissa's eyes. "How do you know of him?"
I frowned and exchanged a glance with Elyssa. "He was one of Daelissa's companions."
"How very interesting," Kaelissa said. "An ancient helping one who killed so many of his own."
"Fjoeruss is an ancient?" I nearly jumped from my seat. "That's not possible. My mother said he was about her age."