by Regan Claire
The Ethnos were capable of massive destruction, swimming through the evidence of that destruction was humbling — and motivating. Because the type of destruction Kaylus was going to unleash made a destroyed city look like child’s play.
I finally reached a place where I couldn’t swim without moving further away from Ezra. He was directly below me, and I had no idea how to reach him. Worst case scenario, I could force myself down by Gathering the sand and rock that stood between us.
It’s nice to have a Plan B.
Before resorting to that, however, I opened myself up — I took down the Spirit Shield that all Ethnos used constantly to keep their awareness, and aura, concentrated around their bodies. Opening myself up was dangerous in case someone wanted to Gather my energy, but it was a risk I was willing to take. I wasn’t stupid, though. I checked to make sure there was no one else close enough for me to sense them. I let tendrils of myself spread out, searching for some way down. Finally, I found something. Swimming over showed a dip in the sand, a shallow hole, but I knew there was rock and Runes not far beneath it. I Bent water to move the sand away, and saw a trap door etched in Runes made of stone. It had the circle of the Ethnos placed in the center which I placed my palm over, hoping that the Ethnos hadn’t changed the way they open doors in the past nine millennia.
I was rewarded with an open door and winding stairs. As soon as I fully entered the stairwell, the door above me shut tight again, and it’s lack of noise underwater was somehow more disturbing. I swam down the stairs, twisting around and around, going so quickly that the tops of my bare feet hit the stairs on more than one occasion. Or maybe that was because of the dark. I was able to Temper enough to see, though to the naked eye it was pitch black. The stairwell had even less light, and I had no way of creating it underwater. Finally, after so many rotations that I was starting to get dizzy, I saw a small glow below me. Cautiously, I swam out of the stairwell and up, where I was surprised to find open air and enough light that I could see clearly without Tempering.
I was in a huge cavernous room, big enough to fit Buckingham Palace in.
Or a step-pyramid — if a step pyramid was round at the base instead of square, that is. Because that’s what filled the space, and at the flat surface on the top stood Kaylus. I wondered where his people were. There was no way they hadn’t already seen me; no way I’d be able to sneak attack, especially not when Kaylus waved sardonically down at me. There was also no way I could leave, or get back-up until the Death Shield was down. Luckily I had a firm plan in 2case something like this were to happen.
Wing it.
I paddled over to the first large step clear of water and hoisted myself up, then worked my way up the large stone steps. Each one was chest high, and I took the time to bolster my Shields. I also started to sneak a Shield around Ezra now that he was close enough. It was small and far too delicate to do any protecting, but the idea was to toss some energy to strengthen it quickly when the time came and to hopefully lessen whatever hold Kaylus had over his son. I didn’t dare put anything substantial around him in case Kaylus noticed.
My eyes also started taking in the details of the room. It was as light as it would be if the moon were shining down, and looking almost directly overhead looked eerily like the night’s sky. The room was even lightening off to one wall, turning the pinks and oranges of sunrise. If I were to walk to the wall, I bet I would have seen Runes marked into the stone to create the effect. The fake sunrise matched perfectly to my own internal clock, and I knew it was an accurate mirror of what was happening at sea level.
When I reached the top I no longer worried about Kaylus’ people attacking me. On the other side of the pyramid than where I’d climbed up were scores of bodies floating in the water, still as only the dead can be. He’d drained them, and fed off the death it created. He’d been gorging himself, judging by how black his aura now was. A weird feeling of deja-vu came over me. Kaylus was exactly where I’d seen him in my Reading, standing to one side of a stone circle with Runes marking the four elements like a compass and Ezra lying at his feet. The side of the circle that he was standing in was unnaturally black, while the other half was unnaturally white — representing the final two elements of Spirit and Death.
The entire area was glowing softly, and judging by the wind in the air, Ezra’s Loa were doing their best to protect him even though he was in so much pain he was nearly unconscious from it.
Kaylus’ few remaining men let me walk towards them unaccosted while Kaylus watched, wide-eyed, as I stepped into the circle. The glow brightened considerably around us, and caused me to pause and him to smile.
“I knew it. I did everything I could with Ezra and he barely registered as a key. You, on the other hand, aren’t even using your abilities and the lock lights up like the sun!” Kaylus sounded downright giddy.
My gaze was pulled sharply to Ezra at the mention of his name. I tried to seem nonchalant about it, but I knew that Kaylus saw how affected I was by his condition. He was shirtless and lying on his side. The scars on his back were in full view and looked far worse than when I’d seen them before.
Kaylus had reopened each and every one of them and prevented him from healing. I had no idea how that was possible, though I was fairly certain it wasn’t unheard of. But it wasn’t something I wanted to know, because wanting to know meant wanting to torture another Ethnos. I ached to heal him; ached to step forward and connect our auras. My lace-thin Shield around him wasn’t helping nearly enough, because he remained unmoving even though his name softly escaped my lips. I took an involuntary step forward, and only then did he move. I halted and looked back at Kaylus, hatred spilling from my pores, because he’d made his son move by shoving him over to lie on his injured back with his foot which he then placed on Ezra’s throat.
My Elements started Bending to my will without my thinking about it, and the circle we stood in glowed brighter as a result.
Kaylus gaped down, marveling at the glow coming from our feet. Using my abilities made him happy; using my abilities would help unlock the gate to another realm.
I stopped immediately, and Kaylus looked sharply up at me. His face was a mask of rage, and I flinched as an arm of black energy reached towards me from his center. It did nothing, though, thanks to my necklace.
Instead of becoming angrier, Kaylus smirked. His black arm of power was still by me, and it reached up like a true limb and caressed my necklace.
“It took me a while to discover why you were sometimes immune to my power, and other times not. Then I remembered Ethan and his strange attachment to your ancestress. He always was clever. I assume it’s one of a kind?” He asked with the same type of curiousity someone has about a secret ingredient in a favorite recipe. I remained silent.
“Well, I can’t coerce you into using your powers against me this way.” The black tendril retreated back to his aura. “But there are other ways.” A knife appeared in his hand, edge shining in what I now knew was Death with a capital “D”. I knew from my Reading what he was about to do, knew he was about to reach down and run it through his son’s heart. I didn’t think, only reacted, which had been the point I think.
I Bent air and pulled Ezra to me as quickly as possible, but Kaylus had a firm grip on his son. I succeeded only in pulling Kaylus down to his knees — in pulling that darkly glittering blade closer to Ezra. Everything was in slow motion except my heart, which was beating frantically beneath my chest. I was going to watch, again, as Ezra died.
They were only a few paces away, but that was still far enough that I couldn’t stop Kaylus from plunging his knife deep into Ezra’s chest. Couldn’t stop the certainty that I was too late to save him as an echo of that pain seared my heart. Cold rage filled me, and my elements stormed around me as a reflection.
I made it to Kaylus before he could even look up with his unfeeling eyes.
I made it to Kaylus and drove one of my spikes deep into his center in a righteous parallel of what happened to E
zra.
I made it to Kaylus, and watched as he fell to his knees with confusion etched onto his face. He tried to heal himself, and when I started draining his Spirit energy and prevented that, he resorted to his other energy. With a zealous look to his eye, he tried Gathering the Death from his own body. But taking Death away doesn’t give something life. Finally his eyes went dim and he fell over completely, having succumbed to the same power he’d used against so many others.
Chapter Nineteen
Journal,
It has been months since I’ve written last, because this journal is a painful reminder of what I’ve lost. It was on a whim that I’d grabbed it from the drawer in the motel room and shoved it in my purse, and I’m glad I did. It’s a good distraction right now.
I’m also glad I made myself check out a hospital last week in case the baby came a little early. I was on the bus, halfway to the beach, when the first contraction hit. I’d never seen the Pacific though, and was determined to finish my journey. Labor always takes ages, that’s what they say. I’m glad I did, though. This ocean is so different than the one I grew up on, but it still reminded me of home. And having bits of sand still stuck to my toes as I give birth to my daughter just feels right. I didn’t make it to the water before I had to stop walking. A very nice life-guard called an ambulance for me. Did I leave my shoes on the beach? I’m rambling. Anything to distract myself from the pain.
Oh, yes! The Dr. just performed an ultrasound. They’re worried about me, apparently my heartbeat is weaker than they’d like. The ultrasound showed I’m having a little girl! Delilah will be her name, after our ancestress Delilah Deare.
But I’ll call her Della.
The pain is getting stronger, and I’m so tired already. Soon though, I’ll hold my baby girl in my arms and this whole journey will have been worth it. I’ll make Derek read this journal entry one day so he can know how crazy and exhausting labor makes you. I don’t know how other women have the energy to yell and shout at their husbands. I could almost sleep if the pain weren’t so great.
So tired.
Soon, Della…
*****
The lock beneath my feet started to shake and I felt an all too familiar hand on my shoulder.
“Della, what did you do?” Ezra, wonderfully alive Ezra, asked. I rushed to him and threw my arms around him with my cheek pressed against the new scar over his heart.
“You’re… how?” I asked. Even the Ethnos were hard pressed to survive a puncture to the heart, especially one that was laced with Death energy.
“I’m assuming because we connected once you were close enough to me.” His gaze was caught on his father’s body.
I pulled back and looked up at him. “But you were dead, Ezra.”
He looked down at me, and a ghost of his dimple popped through. “Maybe I was only mostly dead. Miracles are known to happen for a noble cause.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Now was not the time to make movie references. “Or maybe my aura healed you before you actually died.”
The ground started to shake even more, and more than just the symbols were glowing. We let go of each other and started making our way down the large steps as quickly as possible.
“Della, when you killed my father, were you by any chance using your other abilities at the same time?” Ezra shouted at me. We were close enough that our auras stayed fused, but the shaking was turning into a roar of sound.
“Maybe,” I called back.
“And was he using his Thanatos ability by any chance?”
“Maybe.” A pattern was starting to appear, and I had a sinking feeling that Kaylus hadn’t used his Death energy in a misguided attempt to heal himself.
He’d used it to provide the final key to open the portal.
“So, while you were using your elements you inadvertently healed me, while my father died from a blow you gave him while he used Death energy?”
We stopped running down when the entire pyramid started moving up.
“That about sums it up, yeah.”
Ezra turned to face me with a strange look on his face. “Della. In all seriousness,” he took a deep breath and stepped closer. “You killed my father, now prepare to —”
“I swear to god, Ezra, don’t you dare finish that quote!” I couldn’t stop myself from cracking a smile, though. He was preposterous.
I started to move away, but he pulled me by the arm and kissed me hard enough to make my toes curl.
“What was that for?” I asked him, breathless as the pyramid continued to move up and up.
“So we both remember why we aren’t going to let whatever is about to happen be the end of our story.”
I grinned. “Damn straight, we aren’t.”
Below us, the steps started glowing brighter and looking significantly less… solid. We looked at each other, and as one started moving back up the stairs. The ceiling above us started to crumble into dust starting in the center and working its way outward. At first ocean water poured in, but we were moving upwards so quickly that the morning sky was soon visible. When we got to the glowing top of the platform again, Ezra looked panicked for the first time.
“Where is he?”
“Where is who?” I didn’t know who we could be expecting. I was looking over the edge at the steps, which were becoming less and less solid; less and less real. I could see shadows start to form in the light.
“Kaylus is gone!”
I jerked my head back, and was surprised to see the platform was completely empty. I looked around, half expecting him to attack at any minute. Which was why I saw it coming towards us.
“Ezra!” I jabbed my elbow into his back and erected a Shield to protect us from whatever creature had just escaped the OtherRealm. It was vaguely humanoid, if humans were as wide as they were tall, with arms that looked like tree branches, and a gaping jaw that made the Scream guy look like a close-lipped fella.
It was so dark it seemed to dampen the color around it, and if it had skin, it was somehow a gooey mist. Which makes no sense whatsoever, but there you have it.
Ezra turned, and because our auras were one, I felt him reach out with his power and try to hurt it, to absolutely zero effect. I joined him, hoping our considerable combined strength would do something.
It didn’t.
“Della? Any ideas on how to kill a Nothing Monster?” Ezra asked while we both backed away from the thing.
“Um. That’s a big fat no.”
It was closing in on us, and more were joining the party. I could feel some of my energy being pulled towards them, as if they had their own gravitational pull.
“Are you feeling that, too?” I asked Ezra.
“The energy-sucking? Yeah.”
“With your Death energy, too?” I remembered hearing that these things born of nothing craved that which it lacked, which was energy: substance.
“Definitely. Everything. It just absorbs any Loa I send its way, too.”
An idea occurred to me, a stupid one that would likely fail, but we were now surrounded on all sides, and nothing I did could prevent them from eating our energy.
“Wanna try something dumb?” I asked Ezra. We were back to back, now, with more of the oddly shaped things popping up every second. I knew there were more, hundreds more, pouring out of the portal and entering the world. I just hoped that whatever Runes of Protection the Ethnos used were somehow able to keep the flood at bay.
“Sure.”
“Maybe if we give them some energy…”
“Infuse them with it? They wouldn’t be nothing anymore, would they?” Ezra sounded much happier with the idea than I did.
I had just suggested we give energy to the beings that were currently stealing it from us.
“Yeah.”
We both settled on the first it that had popped up. Easy to tell them apart, since each one was horrifyingly different than the other. I infused a bit from all my elements into the being, and knew Ezra was doing the same, when a
remarkable thing happened.
Small pieces of it’s surface solidified from misty goo to something resembling cracked tree bark. But it didn't stop moving.
“Now what?” I asked. My idea had definitely done something, not that the something was all that helpful; it was Ezra’s turn to have a bright idea..
“Maybe hit it on the barky area?”
I grabbed a spike from my sheath and Bent it at the monster where the biggest bark spot was. The spot shattered, but the thing kept moving. I hit another solid bit, and that shattered, too.
I tossed my last spike to Ezra, the third stuck in Kaylus’ chest the last I saw it. “I think this is the best we’re going to get,” I told Ezra while he jabbed the spike two quick times, and the entire thing fell to dust.
“Then, let’s get to work,” Ezra said, and as one we opened ourselves completely, infusing every monster our expansive reach touched with a mixture of all six elements.
The training I’d been doing the last several months took over, and Ezra and I moved as one supreme being atop the mountainous portal. We more than sensed each other’s movements: we were each other’s movements. Once we settled into a routine of “infuse infuse, jab jab” I contacted Alexander through the gems. Constantly infusing our energy into the creatures, then physically attacking them was already taking its toll on us. We needed an end-game.
*Kaylus is dead, but the portal was opened
I didn’t mention that Kaylus’ body disappeared, and how the portal was opened. We could save that for later.
-I am so glad you are still alive. We know the portal is open. We’ve erected as much protection closing the area off that we can, but we are seeing movement come towards us.