“Of course not. In fact, I’m relieved. When the Rosinanti do rise again, at least I know we have your mighty brother here to defend our home.”
The light fell from the room, enveloping them in a hazy darkness. The figure of Aleksandra and the bed-ridden Kayden froze in place. The floor beneath them shook, and Kayden’s boot suddenly lifted off her back. Seraphina spun to her feet as the black-clad animus warrior screamed at the memory. In response to his emotional outcry, the roof of the tiny room exploded, and Seraphina found herself once more staring up into the dark, lightning-streaked sky and the ridiculously huge face of the sneering black dragon.
“Kayden, you have to see what she was doing to you,” Seraphina called out over the storm. “Kayden, do not let these memories control you! You can rise above them! You can be redeemed!”
He turned again, grabbing her by the throat, this time with more ferocity and strength than before. He lifted the princess into the air and smashed her into the crumbling stone wall. “Redemption? I am so far beyond that, you fool! I don’t need to be redeemed! Power is my redemption, and I will be vindicated when you, my brother, and your sister are all dead at my hand! Let’s get started on that first part right now, shall we?” He raised his fist, ready to cave in Seraphina’s face, and the air around them was filled with the pleasured purr of the giant dragon.
Vahn knew something was wrong. For the last several minutes, Seraphina’s blank face had grown taut with concentration. Kayden lay prone on his back with the princess sitting above him, one of her delicate hands along his brow. Vahn leapt back as Kayden’s right arm erupted from the ground and grabbed Seraphina by the throat. Vahn nearly toppled over his own legs in surprise. Seraphina’s fingers remained locked onto Kayden’s face as her back arched.
Vahn ran forward, determined to do something to aid his struggling queen. He laid his large, rough hands on Kayden’s strong, muscular arm, and the instant his flesh made contact with the two warring spirits, a bright glare erupted along his vision, and Vahn felt his consciousness floating away.
“Kiiiiiiilllllll herrrrrrrr.” The dragon’s whisper shuddered the entire world. Every time it spoke, Kayden’s mind and body felt strengthened. His resolve hardened at the colossal beast’s words. Its voice carried a soothing assurance, the rock-hard determination that gave him the strength of will whenever his mind had faltered in the past. It was this silent whisper that urged him to destroy Lazman, to attack his brother, to lay waste to Kackritta. The whisper of the dark had always been with him. Why should today be any different?
Seraphina struggled, but in here, he was the only god. This domain belonged to him and him alone. She had entered into his mind willingly. That was the last mistake she would ever make. Since the moment of his dark awakening, he had envisioned ending Seraphina’s life on several occasions. But in his imagination, Valentean had always been present, watching helplessly as he pulled the spine from her back and cracked it over his knee. How he would scream, how he would cry—that imagined anguish had been the lullaby that had eased him to sleep on many nights. But in all of those perceived murders, there was never any malice toward Seraphina herself. She was inconsequential, not deserving of his hatred. Now, though, things had changed.
She had violated his mind, seen him as no one had ever before. She saw the naked truth of him, the unabashed honesty of his great doubt and shame. For that intrusion and for the crime of forcing him to face these painful memories once more, he would enjoy her death.
“Die, witch,” he hissed through his clenched teeth, locking eyes with the panicked chestnut stare of Seraphina’s powerlessness. He threw his arm forward, ready to end her, anticipating the sweet sensation of knuckle obliterating skull, but something impossibly strong closed around his forearm, stopping the universe-ending punch mid-way. Kayden’s head turned toward the intrusion, and he gasped. He was looking into the stern hardened face of his father.
“Let her go, Kayden,” Vahn said, his tone rough and authoritative. Kayden stared at his arm, still cocked for the finishing blow, in astonished bewilderment. How was this possible? “Let. Her. Go!”
“No! I don’t listen to you anymore, old man!” Kayden strained and groaned as he attempted to pull his arm away to no avail. Finally realizing it was futile to resist his father’s inexplicable strength, Kayden released Seraphina, who crumpled to the ground. His now free fist shot toward Vahn’s face, but the old warrior easily knocked it away, grabbed Kayden by the collar of his robe, and heaved him across the crumbling room.
Kayden’s confusion dizzied him more than the upheaval of his careening body as it smashed into the floor. He jumped to his feet as Vahn strode toward him. “This isn’t real,” he said to his oncoming father. “This is impossible. This can’t happen.”
“Stand down, son,” Vahn said. It was not a request. He was commanding him once more as he had done for many years—as though Kayden were still a child that he could order off to bed. Kayden looked into the eyes of this man, this human he called father. This was not a fight that he wanted, but Vahn was trying to strip him of his purpose.
“Kiiiiiiilllllllll hiiiiimmmmmm,” came the voice of the dragon, and once more, Kayden felt the calm reassurance of the darkness. Purple light flared along his eyes, and he charged the old man with a scream of rage. Kayden launched into a furious barrage of punches and kicks, all of which Vahn nimbly dodged around. Kayden grunted in frustration and tried to throw a quick jab to his father’s face. Vahn caught the incoming limb as though it were nothing and drove a knee into Kayden’s stomach that struck with the force of a tidal wave.
Kayden doubled over, gasping for breath. Vahn swung his fist low, raising it into an uppercut that nailed Kayden in the point of his chin. His body flew up and back until Vahn’s palm came crashing down into his face, smacking Kayden to the ground and pressing roughly into his orbital bone. Kayden struggled beneath his father’s hand, but Vahn held him down with ease.
“You need to stop this. So many people have died, son. For what? For the glory of a princess who doesn’t care if you live or die? For the memory of a people you’ve never even known? You’re too smart to be so blind, Kayden.”
“Shut up!” Kayden squirmed under his father’s grip, but he was helpless.
“This has to end, son. You have to see that this path you’ve started down is madness. I refuse to believe you are fully lost!”
“KIIILLLLL HIMMMMMMM,” came the bellow of the dragon, and the righteous fury of the dark erupted within Kayden’s heart. His eyes blazed with such intense purple radiance that Vahn’s hand recoiled from the jolt. Kayden spun back up, but Vahn was waiting for him already with a front kick to the chest that threw him back down to the floor. With every strike from his father’s furious assault, Kayden could feel the darkness weaken within him. He cursed and grunted, tears of frustration cascading down his cheeks.
“This is impossible!” Kayden clutched at his chest, not having the strength yet to rise from his knees. It was then that he realized exactly what was happening. This was the Dreamscape. It was not a physical plane. The limitations of such a realm were only of the mind. These confusing feelings of compassion and love he still harbored for Vahn deep within a sealed off, secret section of his heart made the old man powerful here. He controlled Kayden because that love controlled many of his actions. It was unacceptable, and Kayden wished in that moment he could claw out his own heart if only that would make the darkness stronger once again.
He hated the compassion. He hated the love. He hated the pull to the light that his father still represented. “I hate you, old man!” he screamed, his voice hoarse and soaked in anguish. He wanted desperately to believe those words, but he knew they were false. He could not lie to himself here. “I don’t want your life. I don’t want your future for me! I’m better than that, Father! I am better than Valentean! I am better than you! I am better than every human being who has ever walked across the surface of my world! I am the darkness!”
“You
are not!” screamed a tiny voice from behind him. Kayden turned his head toward whomever this new intruder might be. Standing amidst the storm of darkness that had become his mind was his younger self. The thirteen-year-old boy who had sat reading beneath a tree in the palace gardens glared at him, hands planted on his hips.
The time was fast approaching. Aleksandra could taste it. The chaos stream had grown exponentially stronger, and sitting alone in the vastness of her throne chamber, Aleksandra could practically hear Seraphina’s power sing to her, betraying the location of its owner. She had pinpointed it to a certain section of her city, and she combed through it hungrily with her mind, desperate to unearth the treacherous whelp.
Something was happening within the heart of the city, and Aleksandra could taste it…underground. One more push would do it. She set her mind upon the area, penetrating the surface down into the catacombs beneath Aleksandrya. There! She could see it now as clearly as if they lay before her. There was Kayden, prone upon the floor, Vahn Burai clutching desperately to his arm. The arm extended up and was wrapped around the throat of Seraphina.
Her sister looked so much older, so much more mature, clad not in a gown fit for royalty but in light, blue body armor more befitting a general—more befitting the murderer that Seraphina had become. Aleksandra leapt to her feet, ending the connection with the chaos stream that flowed within the Skeletal Throne.
Now was the time for vengeance, at last.
Sophie…my dear, dear Sophie… You shall be avenged…
Seraphina gaped at the scene that had played out before her. The thirteen-year-old Kayden advanced on his older self, fearlessly, furiously. Vahn rushed to her side, helping her to a standing position. Seraphina’s brow furrowed at the curious sight. Vahn opened his mouth as though to question what was happening, but the princess raised a silencing finger, eager to see how this scene would play out.
“What?” The older Kayden sounded unnerved to be approached by the boy he had once been. He started to take a hesitant step back but then seemed to think better of it and stood his ground.
“You can lie to them, Kayden,” the boy said, “but you can never lie to me.”
“What are you?”
“I’m you. Well, I’m the you that is still you.”
“What are you talking about? I’ve never stopped being me!”
“Yes, you have, Kayden.” The boy looked at the ground, a frown creasing his face. “You became that,” he said, tilting his head back and pointing up at the black dragon that still hovered over the scene. “You became that dragon; you let the darkness rule you. You could have bent the power to your will, but instead you were weak, and you let it rule you!”
“I am not weak!”
“Who do you think you’re lying to right now, Kayden?”
The older man fell silent, looking down on his younger self with an expression of panic. Seraphina could feel his unease echo through the Dreamscape.
“I…I can’t…”
“Yes, you can,” the boy insisted, taking a step toward him and holding out one hand. “I know you can, Kayden, because all of this time, I’ve been trying to reach you. I’ve been trying to tell you that this is wrong. That you are wrong. But you’ve been ignoring me in favor of—” The boy was cut out by a deafening roar from the dragon above them. Its face was slowly lowering until it took up Seraphina’s entire field of vision. She could feel its hot breath washing down over them as it snarled at the boy.
Kayden turned his attention up toward the dragon as well, looking at it as though it were some indescribable, tantalizing treasure for which he lusted. He reached one hand up as the dragon’s head descended, but then he slowly turned toward the boy. Kayden regarded the child with sadness and with what almost looked like regret. His other hand moved toward the boy. Seraphina was transfixed by the scene as it unfolded. Two sides of one personality were vying for the soul. There was the immense ebony creature that embodied all the dark power Kayden commanded. Then there was the little boy who held within him the long-buried, kind, compassionate soul that had always lived within Kayden’s heart.
It was a tense moment, waiting to see which path the young Rosinanti would choose. This was a moment, Seraphina knew, on which rested the entire future of Terra. This was a moment that could tip the balance in this war against Aleksandra. Then, as Kayden extended his arms toward the polar opposite ends of his emotional spectrum, the Dreamscape exploded.
Seraphina felt blistering burns ignite along her arms as she was violently thrown back amidst a deafening explosion. The harsh smack of the ground alerted her to the fact that she was no longer within the Dreamscape. This was the real world, and they were under attack. The underground chamber was in flames, and thick, black plumes of smoke choked Seraphina as she coughed and wiped tears from her eyes.
A large hole had been torn in the ceiling, allowing the moonlight to filter down into the catacombs. Kayden still lay at the blast’s epicenter, beginning to move up to his hands and knees. Vahn had been thrown clear, and Seraphina saw him crouched to the side, one arm covering his nose and mouth. She could sense the chaos magic in the flames that chewed upon their formerly secure hiding place, and she knew, with a lump of dread in her throat, what had happened.
Aleksandra descended slowly through the hole, her red and orange gown billowing with her power. Her crimson death stare locked onto Seraphina with venomous rage. The Ice Queen climbed to her feet, the pain in her hip having subsided, determined to meet the threat of her all-powerful sibling head-on. But she could sense how greatly overmatched she was. The first time she had faced off against Aleksandra, it had been in the Northern Magic. Her sister had fought her, not to kill, not even to win, but to simply hold Seraphina at bay while trying to appeal to her. Then, their next encounter had been one in which Seraphina had prevailed but only because Aleksandra had been fighting through the use of a magically fabricated clone that carried not a fraction of the mighty sorceress’s true power.
Now, here she was, all-powerful and fully committed to ending Seraphina’s life. “Hello, sister,” Aleksandra said flatly, regarding Seraphina with a curl of her lips. Before Seraphina could respond, Vahn cried out in rage, leaping at the empress through a wall of flame, broadsword raised over his head. Aleksandra turned and met the incoming weapon with the index and middle fingers of her right hand. The blade shattered like glass upon contact. Aleksandra smirked at the elite warrior and jabbed those same two fingers into his chest. Vahn flew back into the cavern wall, crumpling into unconsciousness.
Seraphina’s eyes came alight with the azure energy of order, determined to take advantage of the momentary distraction Vahn had given her. She lashed out, fingers pointed at Aleksandra, summoning the power of her element in the form of sapphire bolts of lightning, which emerged from her fingertips. Her spell coursed through the air toward the invading royal sorceress. Aleksandra held both hands outstretched, catching the lightning on her palms, canceling them out harmlessly. All that remained of Seraphina’s assault was a series of tiny, blue sparks that prickled around the empress’s dainty hands.
Seraphina gasped in panic as Aleksandra blurred from sight, appearing in front of her and lashing out with an open palm strike to the heart. Seraphina’s bones nearly liquefied at the intense, unguarded contact, and she shot violently back.
“Sister dear, all this time you’ve obscured yourself away in the bowels of my city like a rat. But now I’ve flushed you out, and nothing can be done to save you.”
Seraphina raised her hands once more, attempting to summon whatever water was in the burning air, but Aleksandra subtlety flicked her wrist, and a translucent, concussive burst slammed into her body and sent the princess tumbling back. It felt as if an entire building had been dropped onto her chest.
“My dear little murderess. I am truly sorry. I am sorry that you have lived a life of sin and evil. I am sorry that you have degenerated before my eyes into a demonic, hate-mongering heretic. But the days of your kind an
d forgiving sister ended when you took the life of the only person who ever truly loved me!” The mania in Aleksandra’s voice was evident as she pointed her fingers at Seraphina like claws. Red lightning screamed forth from her glowing fingertips and bit into Seraphina’s flesh, engorging themselves on her agony. The Ice Queen’s blood boiled in the oppressive, electrocuting heat. She screamed and cried as her limbs jumped and jolted of their own accord. She could feel the scatter of burns spreading along her limbs and torso as she tried desperately to cover her face with both arms.
The energy stopped, and Seraphina felt a rush of relief. Her arms and legs shook, her breathing ragged, coming in gasps of pained exhaustion. She was going into shock.
“Yes, feel it burn, dear sister. Feel the rage of my faith. Feel the anger of my cause. Feel the avalanche of my hate as the chaos chews you into nothingness. Die, Seraphina. Die!” As Aleksandra threw her hands forward, Seraphina could do nothing more than stare wide-eyed, naught more than a smoking, huddled mass on the floor.
“Wait,” another voice rang out, cutting through the sound of gathering magic and the crackle of flames. The voice drew Aleksandra’s attention, shattering her momentary bloodlust. Her burning crimson eyes turned toward Kayden, who stood tall in the center of the flame storm that ate the once empty cavernous space.
“What did you say?” Aleksandra asked, the edge of threatening rage quaking her voice.
Kayden held up one hand as if to calm her train of thought. “Mistress, should you choose, the girl’s life is rightly yours to claim, but might I suggest another course of action?”
Seraphina watched this bizarre conversation unfold. Her body was so wracked with pain and burns that she could not mount an escape.
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Speak, Kayden.” The way her sister issued that command sounded to Seraphina as though she were addressing a dog.
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