Shadow of Okeaous

by W. M. Martin

  Mary replied sharply, “If you think for a single second that I’m leaving you here, in this horrible place, then you’re sadly mistaken, Maggie. I have a score to settle anyways, and you may need my help.”

  Maggie tried to be as delicate as possible when she grabbed her mother’s hand and said, “Mom, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’ve been locked up for over two years and you honestly don’t look like you’re up for anything except some bedrest at the academy’s infirmary.”

  Mary gently released her concerned daughter’s hand and took a single step backwards. Her eyes began to simmer until they burst into intense green flames, and her frail body was bathed in radiant emerald armor. A mighty roar erupted from Mary’s totem tattoo, immediately preceding a giant, majestic lion whose aura was as brilliantly emerald as his Kindred’s armor. The massive totem turned toward Mary, and she wrapped her arms around his head to hug his large and shaggy mane.

  “Maggie, meet Regis,” said Mary with pride.

  “It is nice to finally meet you face to face, Maggie. I have watched you grow, through Mary’s eyes, ever since the moment of your birth and up until the day of our capture,” stated Regis, before bowing his large head for Maggie to touch.

  “It’s nice to meet you too, Regis. We’ll have to get into exactly why my Mom never told me about you sometime, but we really need to get going,” said Maggie half-jokingly and half-serious.

  Mary, feeling the sting of Maggie’s slight jab, said, “I promise I’ll answer every question that you have later. I can take you down to the other cells in the castle because I’ve been to them. They’re one floor below us. Now, let’s go get your friends and get out of here.”

  Mary, flanked by her totem, Regis, led Maggie and Elliot across the hallway which led down to the stairs just above the other prison cells of the Fallen’s stronghold. Once they reached the floor that housed the kidnapped Kindred students, they were greeted by a corpulent guard who was standing at the ready as though he knew they were coming.

  “I thought I heard somethin’ suspicious headin’ my way,” said the large and imposing Fallen, smiling wide and showing off his jagged and yellowed teeth.

  “Shift in to your armor, Maggie!” ordered Mary.

  “I don’t know how, Mom!” exclaimed Maggie.

  “Stand back then. I’ll handle this!” stated Mary with true grit.

  Mary stood firm between Maggie and the heavy-set Fallen and braced a mystical emerald crossbow with a sharp, curved blade attached to the stock. The Fallen guard answered Mary’s challenge by bracing a large and oily, black battle axe of his own, complete with a morning star attached to the pommel. Regis roared with unnerving ferocity and pounced toward the guard whose own totem, an anaconda, met him halfway, and the two began to fight violently for supremacy. Mary, as worn down and battered as she was from her years-long incarceration, did not back down from her approaching aggressor. She stood firm and defiant, almost daring the black guard to come closer. The guard charged at Mary and swung his battle axe toward her chest.

  Mary’s movements were swift, practiced, and purposeful. She dodged the strike with ease and caught the incoming weapon’s head in the curve of the glistening blade which protruded from the stock of her crossbow. Mary twisted around sharply, and with balletic precision, she drew the braced weapon from the Fallen’s clumsy grasp, thus disarming him and leaving him vulnerable to attack. She wasted no time in regards to her offense. She spun full-circle and was now aiming her crossbow at the guard’s chest. The large and clumsy cellguard had only enough time to gasp in shock before Mary squeezed the trigger and sent her arrow, which had an emerald fist for a tip, straight at him, sending him careening into the wall of charred and grimy stone at his back.

  The dark guardsman slumped down onto the floor as the sudden impact of the small, battering projectile rendered him unconscious. The guard’s totem dissipated and the remaining mystical traces returned to his black and oily armor. Mary and Regis each turned to face Maggie and Elliot who were both surprised at the fighting prowess which had just been demonstrated.

  “What is it, Maggie?” Mary asked, noticing how wide-eyed her daughter looked.

  Maggie replied, “I just never would have imagined how capable of a warrior you are, Mom. I mean, I had heard stories about you and Dad from Edgar Newman, but I had no idea that you could move that fast.”

  “Your dad and I each took on Combat Specialization courses after our second year at the academy and also trained in espionage tactics on earth for our post-academy studies. That’s actually why we lived in the human world. We lived there as spies to try and protect the humans from the Fallen while covertly obtaining as much information about our enemy as we possibly could. That’s also the reason you were never told anything about what we all are. We thought that if you didn’t know anything that you would be safe until you felt the call to find a Haven before your sixteenth birthday. Your dad and I planned on telling you everything on the day that we were both taken from you. We even left you a little letter, for your birthday, telling you that we both loved you. Wallace wanted to leave tiny clues in the letter about a secret that we’d been keeping and would share with you later that evening, but I decided it best to simply write down that you were our little miracle. That’s what we always called you, remember? That was our special way of acknowledging that you’re a Legacy. You obviously know all of this already, seeing as you have a totem of your own now. I also see that you’re an Avior. That’s a great Clan, Maggie. I’m so proud of you, and I know that your dad would have been proud too. I’m so sorry that it wasn’t him or me who got to tell you everything about our world. Did you at least ever find the letter that we wrote for you for your birthday?” inquired Mary, as the weakness, sadness, and exhaustion in her voice betrayed her.

  Maggie replied softly, “I’ve read it every single day, Mom. I keep it in my pillowcase.”

  “I sense Kindred besides yourselves here. Maggie’s friends are indeed behind these doors. Use the Pentagem, Maggie, and let us all be away from this wretched place,” Regis patiently stated, before returning to the mark on Mary’s arm.

  Maggie once again tapped the mighty relic’s furious power which buffeted her soul like heavy waves against the base of a sheer, seaside cliff. Upon her command, each of the cell doors were snatched, violently, off of their hinges and landed with a crash into the center of the rather large and previously guarded hall. Each one of the now mangled doors were magically tossed upon one another into stacks of busted wood and twisted metal. One by one, the missing students from the academy walked out into the hall and were quietly greeted by their rescuers.

  Nigel was helping Oliver, who was missing his left eye, hobble into the large hallway. Oliver lost his eye when Plimpkins had been overrun by the Fallen, and he had fought, unsuccessfully, to evade capture. He looked at Maggie with his one, good eye and weakly joked, “What took you so long?”

  Before Maggie could respond to Oliver’s quip, she heard a maniacal laugh echo in the hallway behind her. The sound of that evil mirth belonged to the Fallen General, Sapka Strato, who was standing with Lieutenant Ara at his side and four other Fallen acolytes directly behind him.

  “I’m so pleased that you received our message, Ms. Bennett. I told the Dark Lady that you would most certainly bring it to us. Lieutenant Ara believed that you would have allowed your fellow students to die before bringing us the Pentagem. She believes you to be a coward like your mother, her precious younger sister. I do so love to be right. Oh, I love the look on your face right now, Ms. Bennett. You didn’t know that my lieutenant and your mother were sisters did you? Well, indeed they are. They were as close as family could be until your parents betrayed her. Say, that makes her your aunt! I like that, Auntie Ara. Now then, hand me the stone and you, your wretched mother, and your pitiful friends may leave. You have my word,” said General Strato smoothly in a voice which belied his sadistic wickedness.

  “You’re a liar!” shouted Maggie
.

  Lieutenant Ara spoke up and begrudgingly admitted, “General Strato speaks the truth, Maggie. Mary and I were sisters once. We could be again with your help. All you would have to do would be to join our cause and return to us that which rightfully belongs to the Dark Lady.”

  Mary stepped forward before Maggie could respond and spat angrily, “Never, Ara! The Fallen will never get their hands on the Pentagem or my daughter. Not as long as I have breath in my body!”

  Sapka grinned menacingly while his oily armor oozed over his entire body and replied, “Then I suppose I’ll have to help you to stop breathing, Mary.”

  Mary noticed the Kindred students shifting into their armor, preparing to fight alongside her, and she stopped them in their tracks.

  “No! Sapka Strato is mine!” exclaimed Mary, with years of pent-up rage and sorrow in her shaky voice.

  Sapka burst out into laughter and raised his arm to stop Lieutenant Ara and the other four acolytes from jumping into the fast-approaching and inevitable duel.

  “As you wish,” said Sapka as he braced his deadly whip with the twin blades on the ends, which mirrored the viper’s fangs on his black helmet.

  Mary was holding her emerald crossbow, now aimed directly at Sapka Strato’s head. She slowly moved in closer to the Fallen General, watching as he mirrored every action that she made with ease. Mary remembered how deftly she and her husband had been disarmed and defeated by Sapka before. They had never fought anyone who could slither around in combat the way that Sapka Strato could. Mary remembered this and moved with great caution towards her captor.

  General Strato stepped closer in response to Mary’s tempered steps and whirled his dark whip in a circle above his head and cracked it at her. His attempt to intimidate Mary and cause her to flinch was unsuccessful. Mary shot an emerald arrow at Sapka to test him, and he deflected it with surprising grace. Without any kind of warning whatsoever, the two seasoned combatants flew at each other with blinding speed. Maggie was very surprised at how fast her mother was, because she knew that if it had not been for Regis’ power, Mary would hardly even be able to stand on her own.

  Sapka Strato spun his whip furiously to keep Mary at bay, but regardless of each hit that she received, she simply kept coming. Sapka yelled furiously and swung his weapon, angrily, so that the ends wrapped around Mary’s leg. The whip’s sharp fangs struck true and pierced through the emerald greaves on her left leg. Mary had managed to brush off every strike issued by the twisted Fallen General, every strike, except for that one. Sapka seized on the opening and jerked his whip hard and then swung it to wrap tightly around Mary’s armored neck. The sudden impact and immediate strangulation due to Sapka’s cruel weapon caused Mary to drop her crossbow. She was violently forced down, hard, onto her knees as Maggie screamed in fear for her mother’s endangered life.

  Maggie started to run towards them both when Mary shouted, “No!”

  Mary raised her arm and sent Regis flying from her mystical tattoo to stop Maggie from coming any closer.

  “Get out of my way, Regis! Now!” Maggie screamed at her mother’s totem while fear washed relentlessly over her entire being.

  “It’s Mary’s wish that you remain safely at a distance from General Strato. I am bound to her will as she is bound to mine, Maggie,” said Regis sadly.

  Maggie continued trying, without success, to get around the large lion totem. The only thing that Maggie could do was watch over Regis’ back the horror that was unfolding before her eyes.

  Sapka looked over at Maggie and giggled at the tears which were running down her young cheeks before returning his attention to Mary.

  “I fought a First Year Terran the other day who put up far more of a fight than you have. Look, Lieutenant, I have beaten the great Mary Bennett two times now,” gloated Sapka with ghoulish glee.

  “You may have beaten me, but you’ll never get the Pentagem or my daughter,” stated Mary through deep gasps for air.

  Sapka braced his whip, and it released Mary’s neck as it morphed quickly into a large, black sword.

  Sapka sneered with contempt, “I’m going to kill your daughter, Mary. Then I’m going to take the Pentagem off of her corpse and deliver it to Lady Okeaous, myself. I want you to know that before you die.”

  The cruel and heartless General Strato placed the razor-sharp sword on the back of Mary’s neck and then swiftly raised the weapon to strike her down.

  “Goodbye, Mary,” laughed Sapka.

  As the Fallen General’s blade cut through the air to remove Mary’s head from her shoulders, she shifted, with preternatural speed, to the side and dodged the incoming swing by the thinnest of margins. By the time that Sapka’s sword had completely missed its mark, Mary was standing directly in front of him, face to face. She was close enough that she could hear his ragged and labored breathing. Sapka’s armored helm melted away from his mustachioed face to reveal a look of shock and a single stream of blood, coming from the corner of his mouth. He looked down at his stomach now completely run through by an emerald broadsword, and then returned his dying gaze to Mary, who tried in vain to hide her satisfaction at delivering a kill stroke against one of her tormentors. When Mary pushed the Fallen General away from the emerald sword that was still stuck firmly in his gut, Sapka stumbled backward and crumpled onto the ground, dead.

  Mary leaned over General Strato and echoed the last thing that he’d said to her, “Goodbye, Sapka.”

  “Destroy them all and retrieve the stone!” yelled Lieutenant Ara as her armor poured over her like hot oil.

  “Maggie, use the Pentagem now!” ordered Mary.

  Maggie did as her mother instructed and called forth a great gust of wind from the Pentagem which blew all of the Fallen halfway down the prison floor’s hall. As the Fallen were getting back to their feet, they found that an enormous flaming, blue omniport had exploded to life and had carried everyone, except for Maggie away to safety.

  As Maggie stepped into the omniport she heard Lieutenant Ara call out, “I’ll find you, Maggie! I will find you, and you will join us!”

  Maggie stepped through the omniport to the other side, and it snapped shut. She found that she was standing in front of the portal back to their side of the Veil and Alice was still there waiting for her.

  “Maggie! You did it, Maggie! Everyone else has jumped through to the Forever Forests except for me and… Who exactly is this by the way?” asked Alice excitedly.

  Maggie answered, “Alice Pennington, meet Mary Bennett.”

  Alice’s face lit up and she exclaimed, “Oh, Maggie! This is your mother?! Oh, that’s simply wonderful!”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Alice, but we need to hurry back to the academy. Let’s go,” said Mary, exhausted and nursing a profusely bleeding leg.

  Once they joined their friends on the other side of the portal in the Forever Forests, the Pentagem’s omniport caved in on itself and disappeared. Maggie found that Nancy and Edgar were there waiting for her. So were most of the Praetorians and a few of the Second Years. Lester rushed past everyone and ran up to Thomas and gave his brother a huge bearhug.

  “I was only gone for a day and a half, Les. Seriously, relax. You’re embarrassing yourself,” Thomas joked, very happy to see his twin brother again.

  Alice walked up to the brothers and asked with a broad and lovely smile, “May I cut in?”

  Lester and Thomas released each other from their brotherly embrace, and Alice stepped in. She grabbed Thomas and hugged him tightly around his neck and then took Lester by the hand.

  Nancy walked up to Mary and said, “I can’t believe that you’re still alive. You don’t know how happy that makes me. I’ve done my best to watch over your daughter this year, Mary. Edgar and I both have.”

  Mary replied, “Thank you, Nancy. I’ll be forever grateful for what you’ve both done for Maggie. I’m also very relieved to be free from that horrible place.”

  Nancy asked, “How did everyone escape?”

 
Before Mary could answer Nancy’s question, she collapsed onto the moist grass under her feet. The years of captivity, the fight with Sapka Strato, and the emotional tidal wave of seeing her daughter again, had taken a hard toll on Mary.

  “Mom!” Maggie exclaimed with great worry as she rushed to the ground by Mary’s side.

  Alice ran to Maggie’s aid and said, “Hurry, you have to get her to Dr. Sobek before she bleeds out. Go, take her to the infirmary. Les and I will return the Pentagem to Mr. Akiyama.”

  Maggie, trying to help her mother and carry the stone at the same time, said, “You can’t, Alice. It only responds to me, remember?”

  Alice, who was also trying to help Mary up, replied, “So then tell the bloody thing to let me hold it so that Les and I can run it to Mr. Akiyama!”

  “Okay, hang on,” said Maggie as she closed her eyes and concentrated her power to will the Pentagem to allow Alice to touch it.

  “There, that should do it. Hurry, take it,” Maggie said.

  Maggie held out the stone for Alice to claim and then quickly returned her attention to her wounded mother. Edgar hurriedly stepped forward to take Mary from Maggie and Nancy. He raised her up to hold her, as delicately as he could, in his arms. Nancy had sent word via her medallion to Dr. Sobek that the missing students had been recovered and that Mary Bennett was alive. He was to prepare the infirmary for everyone’s arrival. It was going to be a busy night for Dr. Sobek and Cleopatra.

  Maggie turned around quickly when she heard an omniport explode into existence. Alice stood in front of a dark portal which was glowing ominously at her back while the fury of its power was whipping her hair around. Everyone else turned to see what was going on as well. Lester rushed to Alice, fearful that the Fallen were about to march through.