by Lexy Wolfe
"How?" Ash whispered. "How could you know?"
"To be able to scry the wind is to be able to see the truth of the past. But I have only ever been a Guardian. You... Taylin... Mureln... You are the first potentials I have discovered gifted in other abilities. Without any sort of guidance, you have used the magicks of Guardians to enhance the magicks of your other gifts." He smiled thinly. "Had you the training, you might have known Dessa's almost killer was not entirely human."
"A darkling?!" Ash asked in shock. "I had... killed a darkling before I was named Illaini?"
"Perhaps. It was rather obscured to my vision. Darklings are parasites that slip out of the time stream and make a puppet of their victims." Almek frowned at Ash's familiarity with the creatures. "Darklings are common in Forenta?"
Ash did not reply immediately, going to one of the shelves and pulling out a huge tome. "Most consider them a child's tale. They use them to explain inexplicable misfortune. My master did not consider them a fantasy. But most dismissed him because he was very old and he was considered rather too eccentric." Tracing the cover of the book as he laid it on the table, he said more to himself, "He and Dessa were the only family I remember."
The silence lingered for the space of several heartbeats before he turned a few pages and laid the book on the table. A sketch of a grey, ghostly humanoid dominated the upper quadrant of the page. Somehow, the simple sketch made the thing all that more dreadful. "The stories would say they are only encountered when deep in the wilderness. That they lurk in shadows, waiting for those who travel alone."
Ash's finger followed the elegant Forentan script. "My master recorded many accounts of those who returned from the forests... changed. Always for the worse. Kind people turned cruel. Cruel people turned even worse. The more pain and grief they would cause, the more they seemed to flourish while those around them withered. And their progeny would be even worse." Lips thinned with repressed emotion. "He often said our traditions had been tainted by their presence, even after their hosts died. As if they lingered, feeding on the pain they had caused."
Almek put a hand on the book, expression troubled. "Lingered..." Almek abruptly turned towards the door, startling the mage. "We must go to the girl. Now! Before it is too late." Ash did not hesitate to ask questions, hard on Almek's heels.
Chapter 13
STANDING before a full length mirror in her modest bedroom, Dessa stared enraptured as she touched the flawless flesh of her throat. She startled as Ash and Almek burst into the room from the servant's hall. Her wide-eyed fright melted into a joyous smile of welcome.
"Ash!" Meeting him halfway, she slipped her arms around his waist with casual familiarity, her pale blue eyes sparkling with the purest innocence and love. He put his arms around her protectively, his eyes scanning the room. Her joy was undiminished by his grim demeanor. "Oh, Ash! I can hardly believe it! It is as if that day never happened!" Her voice was sweet and pure, her laughter light. "I can barely even remember what happened that day! Isn’t it wonderful? It is as if I was reborn!"
Ash's eyes went wide as the mirror behind the girl suddenly darkened, a pair of red eye slits appearing. "Dessa! Away from the mirror!" He pulled her behind him as he raised his other hand, casting a spell that sent a burst of air into the reflective surface.
The glass exploded outward. Without warning, the mirrored slivers hung in the air, frozen in time and space a moment before collapsing back into the mirror’s wooden frame as if nothing had happened. Dessa shrieked in fright as the surface of the mirror rippled, a mirrored appendage striking the mage away and ensnaring Dessa like a mantis capturing a butterfly.
A dreadful voice hissed as the entity spoke. "For so long, I drank your pain... fed on your agony... as your soul bled without healing." Dessa fought to get free as another mirrored, hand-like appendage caressed her with vulgar intimacy. "You were so delicious." She struggled futilely as she sank into the glass as if it were the surface of water. "Even better, his pain echoed through you." The eyes floated around behind her, as if examining the girl from various aspects. "It was so easy, learning his power’s touch through you."
"Let me go!" Dessa begged pitifully. "Please!"
The voice growled as the red eyes brightened hatefully. "It was supposed to be only a matter of time. I was certain he would mate with you." Its voice was a malevolent hiss as its red eyes flaring brighter in agitation. "Given me a powerful body to anchor to your world. Then I could finally destroy him, and feed on you until I bled you dry of magic, too." She cried out in pain as the hand squeezed cruelly. "It would have been perfect, but he had to be so noble. So careful not to harm you." Snarling, it raised a pointed arm over the groaning mage as he pushed himself up weakly. "He should have just taken you as I would have before he stopped me! I could have been darkborn! Free to hunt hidden among your naïve race."
Vivid blue energy shrouded the reflective monstrosity as Almek raised his hands, the darkling shivering as it struggled in its grip. The Guardian grimaced, unable fully to subdue it. "You are strong, Shifter," Almek acknowledged.
The creature laughed evilly. "Do you think I would have chosen a weak host, Guardian? This girl had more native born magic than most of the pitiful excuses for mages that exist here. I had no need to take her fully to be able to feed." Looking at Dessa leeringly, it laughed. "I have been feeding on them both for years." Almek narrowed his eyes in focus and made a tugging motion, the mirror creature rippling as Dessa was nearly pulled out of its grasp. It snarled. "You think to free her, Guardian?" Mirrored coils closed around Dessa tighter. "You cannot have her. I will not allow it!"
Almek took a step closer, stopping when a silvered arm ending in a sharp point hovered over Dessa's eye. The woman froze in wide-eyed panic. "You will not be allowed to endure, Darkling," the Guardian promised, moving his hands slowly. The mirror rippled as Almek forced it and Dessa apart. "You will feed no more here."
Ash looked up just as Dessa finally broke free. She started to run to him, then abruptly stopped, her face frozen in shock as a mirrored spike erupted through her chest in the darkling's last act of defiance. The Guardian’s power finally dominated and crushed it out of existence. Ash caught Dessa as she staggered forward, easing her down to the ground, cradling her. "Dessa," he whispered, agonized.
Having arrived in time to see the confrontation but unable to do more than watch, Mureln was at Almek’s elbow, lending him support as the Guardian staggered. The bard looked down at the mage and dying woman and glanced at the ashen-faced Guardian. "Taylin...?"
Looking as if he aged years in the space of minutes, Almek shook his head, closing his eyes in grief. "Taylin is too weak still. Used too much of her strength to break the darkling's tie to the girl. If Taylin were even conscious to make the attempt, it would kill her."
Sightless eyes stared ahead as Dessa reached out. "Ash? Where are you?" Ash clasped the outstretched hand, squeezing it tightly as he held it over his heart. "Oh, Ash," she whispered. "Thank the goddess... you are still alive... I feared... it had killed you, too..."
Ash choked. "Hold on, Dessa. The healer—"
Dessa shook her head slightly, shaking. "It is... too late for me, Ash..." She swallowed, her voice growing weaker. "Ash... please... do not blame... yourself..." Her breaths grew shallower as her life faded. "It was never... your fault..."
"Dessa," the man whispered harshly. "Don’t leave me."
"I have... always... loved you... Ash..."
"I know." Bowing his head, Ash held Dessa's lifeless body tighter. "I know."
Chapter 14
MURELN poured several glasses of the strongest alcohol he could easily find, handing them out liberally. He looked at Ash who just stared into the fire, unmoving. "Drink. It will help." Waiting a moment, Mureln leaned down and whispered something, squeezing Ash's shoulder. Ash closed his eyes and finally took the glass, draining it. Mureln refilled it before moving on to Almek.
"Never in my five hundred years have I encountered a non-
corporeal temporal shifter on this side of the barrier so strong." Sitting in the other chair facing the fire, Almek rubbed his face tiredly. "It is not normal for them to endure so long on this plane without a host, or to gain so much strength. Or had not been."
Curled on the couch and wrapped in a blanket, the sickly pale Taylin pulled her gaze from the mage and looked at Almek. "Forgive me, Dusvet. If I had not—"
Gently, Almek chided Taylin, his exhaustion apparent in the dismissive gesture. "Don't blame yourself. It is difficult even to glimpse temporal shifters when they have claimed a host, even for fully trained Guardians. Even for me," he added, more to himself. Mureln reached out to him, squeezing his arm, open worry in his eyes as he studied the Guardian carefully. "Usually they can only be seen when they actively control their host. The longer they remain, the more arrogant they get, and that is usually when they are noticed."
"But this one had not," Mureln pointed out. "It just... leeched the magic from the girl? And the mage?"
Almek nodded, draining the glass and holding it to Mureln. "It is nearly impossible to recognize the traces of darklings when they have first taken a host. It is later that they can be seen for what they are because the host body begins to develop the traces that betray them for what they are.
"As long as it had been here, if it had inhabited her, I would have seen it. No doubt, Ash, it held itself outside of her because it knew without a doubt you would have one day seen it, recognized it for what it was." The mage looked away with a grimace.
The Guardian sighed heavily. "It was Taylin who sensed it through the healing. Healing the wound had broken the link between it and the woman. Taylin tried to tell us."
"It is my fault." Ash's voice was low, agonized with loss. "I should have seen—"
"If there is any fault, it is mine alone," Almek chided wearily. "I had assumed nothing would be as brazen as to live so close to one with Guardian sight. Or endured so long without fully claiming a host."
Ash looked up, face drawn. "It had spoken of... of mating."
Almek nodded, rubbing his cheek. "Yes. They are called darkborn. Temporal shifters... darklings... that take a host at the moment of conception when there is no soul yet attached."
The reaction of revulsion and confusion was universal among the group. "Human souls are not unlike temporal shifters, both existing outside of our reality in the River of Time." Almek waited for the various sounds of reaction to subside before continuing. "Souls are timeless. But things outside of time do not grow or change. The physical body is an anchor, a vehicle to learn and experience. Some temporal beings, such as humans, will join with the physical world at conception. A human soul anchors itself to this physical realm shortly after conception. For us, reincarnation is a natural phenomena."
"So, what be th' difference b'tween these shifter things and anythin' else born?" Emil wondered, looking confused about the whole conversation.
"It is... The differences are less about the difference between that born normally and a darkborn." Almek held his empty glass to Mureln. He looked less grey, but no less haggard. "For humans and those like them, this is a natural process developed over untold spans of time.
"Out there in the rivers of time," he waved a hand aimlessly, "there are also predators and prey, scavengers and parasites. It is for Guardians to protect against these other things that accidentally or purposefully slip into this plane." Almek sagged back into his chair tiredly. "If they cannot be destroyed, then at least they must be dislodged. But if a temporal shifter can become darkborn, they are nearly impossible to detect until much, much later."
"So everyone who feeds off others' misery is one of these... darkborn?" Taylin wondered, troubled.
"Alas, no, it is not so simple." Almek offered the woman a sad smile. "Some people use others' pain to feel powerful. It is a failing that makes it easy for shifters to endure for so long. If not for the fact their incompatibility with their physical form eventually destroys them, they could corrupt and devastate everything."
"I want to take Dessa home to the only place I have ever known peace. So her soul can be at ease," Ash stated in a low voice, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "Then we can go wherever you deem necessary, Master Almek."
The others looked to Almek, silent. The Guardian nodded after a time. "There is time enough for our journey to begin. We will accompany you." Ash looked from person to person, nodding mutely in gratitude.
Chapter 15
CHEERFUL birdsong filled the air as the group gathered outside of Ash's home. The horses milled about, cropping the grasses and other carefully tended plants. Terrence held the reins of Ash's mount, his expression nearly as devastated as Ash's had been. The young man rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand impatiently.
Mureln looked at Terrance with sympathy. "You okay, lad?"
Nodding, Terrence swallowed hard. "Miss Dessa had always been... very kind to me. Even when I had accidentally ruined supper. Several times. She never got mad at me."
Amelana snorted softly. "She was soft. A sound beating would have taught you better." She turned her nose up at Mureln's disapproving look, her voice sour. "I do not know why Master Ash kept only that woman around. He had the right to have dozens of proper servants." All eyes regarded Amelana with chill hostility, though she seemed oblivious. She did fall silent when Ash emerged, though her expression reflected criticism over the valuable silk that enshrouded the dead servant woman.
Instead of offering to take Dessa's body so Ash could mount, the ever silent Emaris knelt wordlessly to offer the mage a leg up. Ash grimly accepted the assistance with an equally silent gratitude. Amelana brought her horse around to join Ash, looking at the body. "Master Ash, you should have that Sevmanan brute carry her. It is beneath you to burden yourself with a lowborn." She drew back at the dark look Ash turned on her and remained silent.
The perpetual twilight of the forest floor seemed appropriate as the group rode between the monstrous roots of the giant trees of Forenta. So when they pushed through some heavy brush into a grassy glade open to the sky, there was a great deal of surprise. Golden sun flooded the glade, brightly colored flowering vines curtaining what remained of a fallen tree in the center. A cloud of songbirds and large insects took wing as the horses pushed through the thick brush wall.
"What is this place?" Terrence asked before he could silence himself. "I did not know..."
"Few do," Ash stated tonelessly, eyes forward as he directed his horse with one hand, still holding Dessa closely to him with the other. "It is a protected place. Only those blessed by the Great Mother can find it."
"Protected by wha-?" Taylin unsuccessfully smothered a scream of fright as she looked into the eyes of a small tree sprite, its dragonfly-like wings humming as it crossed its arms, scowling at the healer.
Several more of the colorful creatures appeared, flying around as they inspected the group. The one that had been glaring at Taylin flew over to Ash, landing on the front edge of his saddle. "All Mother not able helping you," it said sadly. "Life already slipped away. Is nothing but shell now."
"I know, Li." Ash offered his palm to the sprite who stepped onto it lightly. "I want Dessa to know peace and beauty in her death rest."
The tiny creature nodded. "All Mother would deny you nothing. But others... not sure if welcoming them—"
Almek watched bemused as the tiny winged persons began clustering around him, sounding like chitterling birds as they spoke in excitement. "Of course you may," he said to a very small one, who flitted close and touched the metallic patches of color on his face. That seemed to garner even more excitement among the tree sprites as others flew close to do the same.
Ash looked over as the sprite in his hand did. Li's demeanor changed drastically. "You have brought two-color? Many cycles passed since one visited. The All Mother must see him." Li launched herself to fly over to Almek. She scolded the others, and the cloud of sprites dispersed. "You are not same two-color coming from before." She landed
on his outstretched palm and stated firmly, "But not matter. She will want see you."
Almek tilted his head, offering a finger to Li in polite greeting. "No, I have never been here. There are no others but me now." Li looked troubled at this news, her wings buzzing in agitation. "But I would be honored if my students and their companions would be allowed to accompany us."
Li flew off again, zipping around the glade as she scolded commandingly. Like a swarm of insects, the sprites circled above the group, then swooped towards a thick growth of flowering vines that cascaded down the remains of an ancient tree. They drew back the vines like a curtain, revealing a passageway. "Four-legs must stay. We will take good care of four-legs," Li reassured.
Mureln walked to the entrance, peering through it, then around the old tree. "This is not possible."
Li zipped to hover in front of Mureln's nose, shaking her finger at him. "All things possible if know how but know how you not need for you to see All Mother." Pointing imperiously down the passage that led to what appeared to be a high cliff overlooking a sea bluff, Li stated, "She wait. No making Her wait longer. Go! Now!"
Ash walked over, carrying Dessa still. He could not help but smile slightly at Mureln's muttered comment. "Shards! Bossy things come in small packages."
Chapter 16
THOUGH it appeared short, the tunnel was deceptively long, and when the sprites dropped the curtain of vines back in place, the only light came from the far end of the passage. From the back of the group, Amelana's petulant voice broke the tension filled silence with unending complaints. "We have been walking forever! Are we there yet? I can't see anything but this Sevmanan brute's back!"