by Aya Walksfar
Did some Power of Darkness take over their bodies? Or was the Power of Darkness within each of them, lying in wait for some loss, some doubt, some weakening of the Soul, before it crept out and began to devour the Light?
I leave this journal and this search to those who will come after me. I feel the Great Mother’s Call. Grandmother Moon smiles and spreads Her cloak of silver upon the green grass. The Good Night beckons me.
Nikki bounded into the room with a steaming cup in each hand. She set the cups on the table among the books and papers then flopped on the chair across from me.
I narrowed my eyes at my friend and lieutenant. “I hope you had the good sense to bring me coffee and not some weak beverage brewed from weeds.”
A smile burst across Nikki’s face and crinkled the skin around her eyes. “After you’ve been down here for over twenty-four straight hours, I would never dare to bring anything less appeasing than coffee.” She picked up her cup and nodded toward the journal that had closed itself as she walked into the room. “What’d you find?”
One finger stroked the ebony cover as I mulled over that question. “I'm not sure.” I summarized how I had found the book--or the book had found me-- and what I had read, so far. “What do you make of it?”
With a one-shouldered shrug, Nikki said, “I'm just a wanton turned Warrior, Captain. I leave that spiritual stuff up to you big guns.”
“This book indicates that the Ancients faced the same problem that we do--a greasy darkness that appears to overwhelm an otherwise good person.” I pursed my lips. “If I'm interpreting what I am reading in most of these volumes correctly, though, the argument seems to be that everyone, not one special powerful person, is responsible for eradicating that Darkness.” Looking at the book’s cover, I traced the letters with a finger. “It seems to be saying that Darkness originates within each of us, and if we don’t find a way to fight it, it wins.”
Nikki lightly scratched her cheek. “Can’t say I disagree with that, Captain.”
“Does that mean we cause Darkness, that we cause Evil?”
With a brief head shake, Nikki argued, “We don’t cause it. It’s already there, like the genetics for blue eyes. It simply waits until the right time to express itself in outward behavior.”
“If that’s true, then there isn’t any hope for eradicating Evil.”
A chuckle spilled from Nikki. “Captain, only Utopian dreamers believe that Evil can be eradicated. Those of us who live in the real world realize that Evil will always be around. It will always express itself in greed, violence, torture, rape, hate, whatever. The real issue isn’t whether Evil can be obliterated. The real issue is how many will struggle with their personal Darkness to create more Light? It is the Light that will hold the Darkness at bay.”
She gulped her coffee and stood. “Dinner will be served in fifteen minutes, Captain. Patrice said you are to attend dinner or she’ll spell lock this room.”
I frowned. “She wasn’t serious?”
“Maybe just a bit. She’s worried about you.”
As Nikki started around the table, I asked, “What if you think you are working toward creating Light when you’re really allowing the Darkness to take over?”
The lieutenant looked at me, compassion clearly written across her handsome features. “That’s called a mistake, Captain. We all make them. Sooner or later, we realize deep inside--or someone we love and respect points out--that we are making a mistake, maybe a terrible mistake. After that, it’s up to us to fight free of it.”
“What if its hold is too strong for a person to break?”
“That’s what friends and lovers are for, Captain. We are the healers, the strengtheners, the rock upon which those we care about can depend.”
“What if you’re too afraid to be open enough, vulnerable enough to let people that close to you?”
“Some people are. Some people believe they can only rely on themselves. They’re closed off to love, and they refuse help. Sometimes, people like that, Captain, they sicken and they die; or we have to kill them to stop the Evil that has grown too strong.” Quietly, she walked out. The door shushed closed behind her.
The candles guttered and died before I roused from my musing and rose from the chair. I dragged the door open and climbed the stairs. As I walked out of the entrance in the pantry and stepped into the kitchen, a glance at the window announced that night had fallen hours ago. A dim night light glowed from one counter. Dishes stacked in the dish drainer and the wrapped food setting on the counter reminded me that once again I had been an ungrateful guest, blowing off a sit-down dinner with my hostess.
With a resigned sigh, I moved through the semi-darkness, too tired to care about eating.
The lamp in the corner of the kitchen clicked on and spilled soft yellow illumination across the gleaming tile floor. A chair scratched on the floor as Patrice rose and walked to the counter. She pulled a pan from the overhead rack and arranged the wrapped food in it before placing it in the oven. As she clicked the coffee pot on, she motioned toward the table. “Have a seat, Alexis. It will be a minute before this gets hot and the coffee finishes brewing.”
Exhausted and disheartened, I sank into a chair.
Before long, Patrice placed a cup of coffee close to my hand. “It’s rather strong since I haven’t let it complete its cycle.”
With a grateful nod, I brought the cup to my mouth. The strong scent of fresh coffee wrapped around my senses with welcome warmth. Though it burned going down, I gulped most of it before placing the cup on the table.
Patrice set dinner in front of me and refilled my cup. Fixing herself some tea, she slid into the chair across the table. “Eat. You need your strength.”
As I lifted the first forkful, I said, “You are too kind to me, Elder.”
The witch locked eyes with me, and try as I might I could not look away. “We all need nurturing at some point. It is the balance of life--we nurture and we are, in turn, nurtured.”
I shoveled food into my mouth to give myself time to think. Living among the panthers and the witches, I had learned to engage my brain before I put my mouth in gear. As Patrice said, it was simple courtesy to give consideration to another’s words. I finally spoke. “That’s not always the way it happens.”
“Yes, I know. It is when this balance is upset that the chance for spiritual damage occurs. Denied the nurturing we need and crave, we build strong walls around our Spirits and refuse entrance to anyone. If they cannot touch us, they cannot hurt us, we think.”
I cut a piece of meat. “Sounds reasonable to me.”
“To some extent, perhaps; and even wise when those around us are takers and users; manipulators and liars. Unwise, however, if we allow ourselves to hide behind that wall for too long. Such a space is filled with loneliness. Such loneliness is barren soil for the Spirit. Even trees seek the comfort and strength of other trees. This is why when the forest is cut and lone trees are left standing scattered sparsely about a graveyard of stumps, they often sicken and die.”
Patrice finished her tea and rose. After rinsing the cup, she walked to the doorway of the kitchen. At the doorway, she stopped and looked back over her shoulder. “Know this truth, Alexis Night Runner, we cannot heal ourselves--not even the greatest healers could do that. Nor can we find the warmth of life alone; not even with the thick coats of a wolf can such warmth be generated. Goddess made it thus for a reason.”
Chapter 33
Alexis Night Runner
The squeak of the door jerked me to my feet. My hand swept the short sword from the sheath hanging on the bedpost as the light clicked on.
Patrice stood in the doorway. “It is not your sword we have dire need of, Alexis. Come with me, quickly.”
Far from reassured, I hurriedly dressed and strapped on the short sword. Our feet shushed along the floor of the corridor. A stair squeaked as I stepped on it. I flinched.
With an intermittent wave of her hand, the elder switched on lights as we ru
shed through the house and entered the already-lit Gathering Room. Nikki paced in short, jerky strides in front of the pale leather couch that faced the fireplace. Blue and red-orange flames danced in the fieldstone cavity.
From the door, I identified the back of Ariel’s head and wondered what the child was doing up at this hour of the morning. The wound in her shoulder from the spell thrown by her mother had healed, but she still became easily fatigued. Perhaps, the elder felt Ariel’s position as heir to the First Councilwoman warranted the child’s involvement in this clandestine meeting. Not giving it more thought, I strode around to the chair perpendicular to the couch. My knees had begun to bend when I halted in mid-motion. Slowly, I straightened back up.
Footsteps dragging, I edged closer to the couch, unable to look away from Ariel’s face. In front of the couch, I fell to my knees. Tentatively, I reached up and traced fingertips down the side of the child’s smooth cheek. “Great Goddess, have mercy. What happened, Nikki?”
Slumped on the arm of the couch, shoulders bowed and hands dangling helplessly between her knees, Nikki looked at me with haunted eyes. “I must have heard something in my sleep. I woke up all of a sudden and felt this...this heavy greasiness in the air. It made it so difficult to breathe that I gasped and rolled out of bed. All I could think about was escaping it. I had even gotten as far as the door when I remembered Ariel and turned back. Her bed covers had been flipped back and she was gone. I panicked. All I could think about was finding her.”
Shame filled the Warrior’s eyes. “I raced downstairs, hoping she had awakened and maybe gone to get something to eat. I searched the rooms and had started toward the stairs to come up and wake you when I passed this room. The door was open. I didn’t recall it being open the first time I came through, so I entered.” Tears stood in her eyes and she blinked hard. Emotion clogged her voice. “That’s when I found her.” She motioned with her hand at the blank-faced and eerily still child. “Like this. Before I could come to get you, Patrice arrived. She told me to remain with Ariel while she awakened you.”
Nikki jumped off the couch arm and began pacing. I swiveled around on my heels and watched her. Finally, I climbed to my feet and ran a hand through my tangled hair. Gently, I tugged on the child’s arm. With a wooden motion so unlike her natural grace, Ariel rose to her feet. I placed a hand on Ariel’s shoulder and turned her sideways. The child turned easily. I removed my hand and commanded, “Sit, Ariel.”
Without turning flush with the couch, the child sat down on the floor in front of the furniture.
“Stand, Ariel.”
Silently, she stood.
Tenderly I positioned the girl then gently pushed down on one shoulder until she resumed her seat on the couch. Tears trickled down my face. I dashed them away with the heel of my hand. “Enthralled. She’s been enthralled.” Raged surged and my hands trembled with the implications. I shoved the child’s hair aside. No bite marks. Surely they could not have healed so quickly.
The child did not appear disheveled enough to indicate that someone had taken lust with her. Besides, how could anyone get into the room where Nikki slept closest to the door without awakening the Warrior? The questions twirled around in my brain until my stomach churned. I stumbled away from the couch.
I had not noticed that the elder witch had left until Patrice walked back into the room. She halted beside Ariel. Eyes closed, she placed a hand on the child’s head. When she removed her hand and blinked open her eyes, puzzlement scrunched her weathered features. She looked at me. “I cast throughout the house and felt no other presence, now or at any time after we turned in. Just now, I quested in the child’s mind and do not find the chains of enthrallment. The child is not enthralled, Alexis.”
“What do you mean you didn’t find the chains of enthrallment?” I kept my arms crossed to hide how my hands shook from rage and fear.
“It was not only human Magic Users who could enter an enthralled’s mind.” She sighed and wearily lowered herself to the couch. With one hand, she rubbed comfort circles on Ariel’s back, though I doubted that the child felt them. “This was during The Time of Hunting. The vampires were already hunting my people, so the Witches Council of Seven decreed that we were to hide many of our powers, especially ones that might cause the vampires to feel threatened.”
“Why would being able to tell if someone’s enthralled be threatening? Almost anyone can tell that.” Nikki hunched on the edge of the coffee table and faced the couch. She reached over and lightly touched Ariel’s knee. Tears tracked down her cheeks when the child remained unresponsive. She withdrew her hand.
Patrice shook her head. “If the vampire does not want it known, it is easy to hide enthrallment.”
“Really? But when we found those people Arundia had enthralled, they were like robots. Like this.” I blurted. What I didn’t say was that they had all died. Some by their own hand, some had starved themselves to death and one Gregory had had to kill.
“After The Great Fall, a significant number of Caine’s progeny refused to stop hunting vampires and other Supernaturals. Artemis bestowed upon Abella’s descendants the ability to enthrall so that those humans might be kept from their destructive ways without ending them. That is why blood and lust must be taken simultaneously from the human and with intent to enthrall. Some vampires allowed it to be obvious that a person was enthralled as a way of deterring other humans.”
Nikki and I stared at the elder. I regained my voice first. “So, Clan Dellefore’s ancestor was right about enthrallment, and the need for intent to make it happen.”
I scrubbed at the back of my neck. Too much was changing too fast. “Patrice, how do you know more vampire lore than the vampires? Serena thought accidental enthrallment could occur and that’s why she forbade her People from the taking of blood and lust simultaneously from one donor.”
“Among witches, the lore and our Powers have been handed down from mother to daughter from the beginning of time. It is our way to guard the words of the past, so we might learn from them. We hand down not only hereditary knowledge, but also information gained from research and from others. Our scholars spend their lifetimes seeking to expand what we know. When European witches landed on our shores, we recorded their knowledge. Then when vampires and other Supernaturals arrived, we again sought to expand what we knew.”
Slowly, I traced the logic of what I had just learned and what I had heard from the vampires. “Then the real reason the breaking of enthrallment resulted in vamp-kill crazed humans was that those humans were already of that mindset.”
Patrice gave a brisk nod. “When Magic Users, or witches, broke that enthrallment it released the human. Having been enthralled did not lessen their desire to kill vampires.”
I shook my head. It wasn’t only the humans who had lived for centuries with misinformation. “Sweet Goddess, I feel like a newbie in the Supernatural world. Surely the Matriarch’s Council knew the truth of enthrallment. Why did they let their People believe it could accidentally occur through a single incident?”
The elder fell silent, her eyes going distant as if she saw tragedy written on the far wall. “Artemis laid down strict laws on the use of enthrallment, Alexis, and still there were vampires who wished only to dominate and to use Caine’s progeny. The Matriarch’s Council sought to stop the perversion of one of Artemis’ Gifts, so they took away even the excuse that somehow the enthrallment was accidental.”
“With that in place, why did they need to institute the Law Against Open Enthrallment?” I studied the elder’s face, trying to read the emotions that shifted across her tired features.
“According to the herstories brought by the European witches, during The Time of Hunting, certain segments of the vampire populationdeclared the right to openly enthrall others. When that time of lawlessness passed, the Matriarch’s Council passed strict laws—so there could be no misunderstanding--with harsh penalties to protect humans and to protect Supernaturals.”
Nikki’s trou
bled gaze shifted between Patrice and me. “But Ariel isn’t enthralled?”
Sorrow darkened Patrice’s eyes. “No, Nikki, Ariel is not enthralled.”
“What’s wrong with her then? What did I feel up in our bedroom?”
For the first time since I had known the witch, fear flickered in her eyes. “The child’s Spirit wanders the Cold-Between. Like the spell that damaged Serena’s Spirit and now eats at her Soul, I dare say the spell lance that injured Ariel’s shoulder left behind some small part of itself.” She reached over and tucked a stray strand of hair behind one of Ariel’s delicate ears. “That must have been why the poor baby couldn’t get rested.”
“Why didn’t anyone feel the spell? Several of us felt a wrongness with Serena when she awakened from her state of suspension.”
“I think it is a different kind of spell, Alexis. The spell on Serena was meant to destroy her by taking over her Spirit and destroying her Soul. I believe the spell on Ariel is more passive. It lies inside of her until the caster calls to it.”
Nikki hunched toward Patrice, eyes intent on the elder. “Calls to it?”
Patrice nodded. “Yes.” Unconsciously, she shifted closer to Ariel as if her body might protect the child. “Like Tabitha, I apprenticed to Elder Moira. She is the only Elder who trains her disciples in how to recognize Blood Magic of both kinds; and some of the ways to fight it. I can see now that the spell Serena cast against Ariel was meant to destroy the child’s Spirit and sever her Body Mortal from her Soul Immortal. If the person survives the attack, a small part of the spell is still lodged deep within that person’s Spirit. The caster can then use the spell to Call the person’s Spirit to them through the Cold-Between.”
Patrice turned to me. “When you met Gregory in the Cold-Between, did he feel solid to you?”
Slowly, I nodded, feeling like I was about to be read my death sentence.
“When a person’s Spirit is called through the Cold-Between that Spirit becomes solid. It can be Called into the physical world while the body is some place different.”