by Turhan
Our timing was impeccable, the procession of Tutellas, a couple of small winged creatures and Le Femme Fatale Ophelexa didn’t disappoint us, they arrived right on cue and quickly assembled themselves.
“SILENCE!” She didn’t have to repeat herself. Ophelexa walked in and out, around the group followed closely by the two small, winged creatures, one was muscular and the other hairy, maybe they’re bodyguards?
“One of your sisters is dead! Murdered in her sleep at the hands of, of, I don’t know who! But I swear on the head of my sister Sophelexa,” Reaching inside her robe Ophelexa pulled out the severed head of the demon we had killed back at the Yurt. “She will not have died in vain!”
The two winged bodyguards were circling around the group sniffing them as though they were looking for a traitor, or clues, or us.
“Does anyone here have any idea who or what is responsible for my sister’s death?” One of the Tutellas cautiously raised her hand. “Speak!” No sooner had Ophelexa spoken than the bodyguards were by the Tutella, the hairy one hovered above her and the muscular one was to her front.
“The silk rope that was tied around Madame Tutella was the rope we found in the tree outside the wall here, we must have been followed, probably by Amber, she was always up to no good. Here’s the rope.”
The muscular bodyguard sniffed the rope then stuck its nose in the air, I quickly looked to see if I still had my rawhide ring on, the one that could mask my smell, I did, Elektra did too and Sin-dy didn’t need one. Looking over at Amber I realized we had made a huge mistake. We should have taken Kira’s ring before we left but it was too late now.
Elektra sensed my anxiety and reached out to hold Amber’s hand, I did the same hoping that somehow we could mask Amber’s scent.
“It’s almost time to gather all the girls of Sarturas!” Ophelexa screamed. “If the perpetrators can kill my sister, then even Sarine isn’t safe until we find them!”
Her yelling, was riling up her bodyguards, they started flying around bumping into the Tutellas, flapping their wings and generally making a nuisance of themselves.
“After tomorrow, no one can stop us,” Ophelexa said.
We all thought the same thing as we started to look at each other. Ophelexa said “after tomorrow,” well what about before tomorrow.
“All of the remaining dissenters to the plan and especially their leader, Qirvana,” Ophelexa yelled. “I hate even saying her name! Will be summoned to their final audience with Sarine and they will be squashed like this!” She reached out and grabbed the hairy bodyguard that was flying directly above and in her fury thrust her hand into its skull and using it like a ball she pounded it into the ground.
Hairy winced, its eyes popped and finally its brains splattered all over the Tutellas in the front row. Muscular circled around to the back row and hid from sight.
Finally, a crack in the ‘plan’ If we could reach Qirvana and some of the dissenting demons and let them know of Sarine’s plan to dispose of them all and any chance they had of saving their own children, then now was the time to do so. After tomorrow it would be too late.
Muscular hovered back up, sniffing. It was looking in our direction, maybe we had grabbed Amber’s hand too late, I don’t know but this wasn’t looking good.
Ophelexa noticed Muscular’s reaction and swiftly spun around, “GO!” she screamed, “NOW!”
Muscular sped toward us as Ophelexa drew her sword, spinning her tail in such a way as to raise herself higher so she could see past the shrubs we were hidden behind. Her triple colored eyes glowed as she picked out our presence. This was it, we were exposed.
The Tutellas were screaming and running in different directions. Ophelexa ran at us and Muscular was directly in front of Amber. It lashed at Amber’s face with its talons and drew blood on her cheek, but what Muscular didn’t realize was that Amber’s knife had already pierced its throat. She twisted around with all her strength but still holding on to her knife and tossed Muscular right at the advancing Ophelexa.
Elektra and I immediately pulled Amber back to see how bad the gash to her cheek was.
With her bodyguard Muscular hitting Ophelexa right in the face it gave Sin-dy the chance to leap forward and using her sword she sliced off the tip from Ophelexa’s front horn and green steam came pouring out of its opening.
“You Vixen of Gaia!” Ophelexa hissed. “I knew you were up to something!”
“Yeah, but unlike you my friend, it doesn’t involve abusing innocent children.”
Ophelexa lunged at Sin-dy with her sword and the tip was crackling with electricity that sent Sin-dy down to her knees in pain. Remembering that I had the ability to fire off electricity too, I blasted Ophelexa’s sword with a bolt, it worked, the current rippled up Ophelexa’s arm and she dropped her weapon.
Sin-dy tumbled to the ground and wasn’t moving.
From behind Ophelexa we could hear reinforcements coming, fast, we had to do something, right now.
Elektra had Amber by the hand and had flown high enough that she could see the oncoming enemy. “There’s three of them!”
“Go!” I yelled. “Leave! I’m staying with Sin-dy.”
“Forget it Kylar, I’m not going anywhere!” Elektra had taken Amber far enough away to temporary safety and returned down to the ground by my side.
The reinforcements had arrived and tore into us with their blade like tails and talons. Elektra was hit hard and had rolled up against a tree while I had been smashed down flat to the ground but face up. I knew that if I didn’t act now, I’d be dead. Using my black ray I pulsed out a shot that only partially hit my assailant but it took out half his face, he fell right on top of me.
Ophelexa had had picked up Sin-dy’s slumped body and was getting ready to escape the fight when I heard a shout for help. As I pushed aside the carcass on top of me, one of the beasts had its arm raised, its mouth dripping with saliva and with all its talons spread, ready to tear Elektra’s head off, the other beast was heading for me.
I had to focus on the beast that was almost in front of me and managed to pulse a couple of black rays at its oncoming body, but over in the distance Elektra was winded and could barely move. Then suddenly over from her high vantage point Amber had pulled back her arm and let loose the knife she had picked up at the Tutella’s room.
It flashed past me at lightning speed and found its intended target, right between the eyes of the beast standing over Elektra. The pommel was glowing with energy as though it was sucking the life from its victim, then it twisted itself out of the beast’s head and returned back to Amber’s hand. She had saved Elektra’s life.
“Get me down!” Amber yelled.
“Goodbye fools!” Ophelexa laughed as she took Sin-dy and flew away. Elektra finally made it up and had flown over to Amber. “We can’t keep up with her,” she said. “We’re too beat up, we have to leave before anything else tries to kill us. We need to get Amber out of here.”
The air stunk as the beasts lay there, dead and burning from my black rays. As we watched we saw Ophelexa holding Sin-dy by her hair, dragging her through the sky and far away from us. We had no chance of following her, my heart felt like it had been torn from my chest and shredded to pieces.
“Dad!”
Amber brought my senses back to our immediate situation, but how could I just leave Sin-dy? I promised her I’d never do that.
“Kylar!”
“Elektra, I don’t know what to do!”
“We have to get out of here,” Elektra said. “Your daughter needs to stop bleeding, her face is burning up.”
In my hesitation, I had forgotten that Amber was wounded. Turning to look at her I could see her cheek was severely gashed and reacting badly. The beast’s talons were probably poisonous and if we didn’t do something right away it may kill her, but I still didn’t know what to do.
“Dad, we have to get to Jasmine’s house, she lives close by.”
“Kylar let’s go,” said Elektra. “We
have to get to safety so we can help Amber and figure out a plan to save Sin-dy.”
“Yes, I’m sorry, you’re both right, let’s . . . ”
As I looked over to where Sin-dy had fought Ophelexa I noticed the glowing pommel from her sword, she had dropped it after being struck by Ophelexa.
“Wait,” I ran over to the sword. “It’s Sin-dy’s.” As I picked it up it stopped glowing. “Let’s go,” The words left my lips but I felt like a traitor. Sin-dy needed us now, more than ever, but we had no other choice, we had to get out, right now.
Elektra and I picked Amber up and flew in the direction that she told us that Jasmine lives in and under her guidance we landed at a formation of rocks that she had pointed out to us.
“Jasmine uses this entrance to get in and out of her house,” Amber was pulling at the rocks and we realized this must be a secret tunnel to her home. The three of us pushed aside the rocks, stepped inside the tunnel and placed them back to cover the entrance again. Elektra ‘glowed’ her body for us to see where we were going as we made the short underground trek to Jasmine’s home.
Amber was in pain and looked as though she was developing a fever from her gash, but she’s a natural born warrior and didn’t complain. “There,” she said. “Pull that rope twice, then once again. It goes all the way to Jasmine’s room, she’ll come down right away, it’s our panic signal.”
In just a few seconds Jasmine was in front of us. She is tall, maybe six feet tall, her skin aglow with a gorgeous milk chocolate color that was reflecting from Elektra’s body light and she had a bow with a quiver full of arrows.
“What is this? Amber, speak to me.”
“I’ll tell you about it later, you can trust them.”
“Amber, your face.”
“She needs help,” Elektra said. “She was scratched by a poisonous animal, can you do anything?”
“Quick, this way.”
We followed Jasmine through her basement, then up into her home.
“My Madame Tutella had to leave in a hurry today,” Jasmine said. “She’s getting old so it takes her a long time to get back from the meetings.”
“Can she lay down over−?”
“What are your names?”
“Elektra.”
“I’m Kylar, can she−?”
“Yes, but you need to tell me what kind of animal, I have hundreds of salves that I can make−”
“It was a beast that was helping Ophelexa fight us,” Amber quietly interrupted. “Its talons gashed my face.”
“I knew something was going on, that’s why I had my bow with me. Wait here.”
“She’s the best,” Amber said. “She’ll take good care of me.”
A few minutes later Jasmine was back with a bowl full of something that smelled like a dead rat, only worse. She dunked a finger in the bowl and extracted a glob of lime colored goop and plopped it into Amber’s gash.
“Stinks and hurts like Heaven,” Jasmine said. “I’m afraid you’ll have the scar forever.”
Amber gripped my hand hard, her teeth clenched, her brow furrowed. But this girl, my daughter, wasn’t going to let the talons of a dead beast break her spirit. If there is any benefit to having a demon as a mother then being fearless must be in her blood.
I began feeling strange, like every gold atom in my body was busy doing something.
“Dad?”
“Kylar, Elektra?” Jasmine echoed Amber’s concern.
Elektra was on her knees and was trying to reach for me. Amber turned and leaned on Jasmine as they watched me and my sister morph into a thousand shapes and colors. We changed from a glowing mist to purple flames, from molten metal to shimmering stardust, and then combined into a fluctuating silver cloud that finally erupted and sprayed both Amber and Jasmine while reforming our bodies.
Somewhere within all the dynamic metamorphoses Elektra and I felt Kira’s presence, did she just go through the same thing back at the hillside refuge? I looked at my sister but before I could say a thing, Amber and Jasmine also caught my attention.
“Dad! I, I, Jasmine, you too?”
Jasmine and Amber were translucent and their bodies were slowly ebbing and flowing back and forth until finally they were back to themselves, but not really.
“We’re all different,” Elektra was looking at the rest of us.
“Aunt Elektra, you look like a goddess, you too Jasmine.”
We had all changed, each of us had become a superior version of our former selves, we were no longer just humans with a couple of powers. As time went on we were to experience all the incredible transformations that had just happened to us and somehow Amber and Jasmine were affected too, because the silver cloud that sprayed them somehow at some level changed them, not like Elektra and I, but in more subtle ways.
Amber’s wound was healed, I’m not sure if it was the salve Jasmine had made, or if it was the transformation we had all just gone through, but she was right, Amber still had a scar. It was on her left cheek, about two inches long.
“I’m alive, Kylar.”
“What?”
“I didn’t say anything dad.”
“Yeah, you said, wait, you wouldn’t say, Kylar. ”
“Maybe this change we just had is making you a little nuts?” Elektra joked.
“No, someone just said ‘I’m alive Kylar’ ”
“Are you saying that Sin-dy is talking to you?” Elektra asked. “Is this a part of our changes?”
“What?” I asked.
“You just heard−”
“Kylar, listen, they’re coming to hurt me again. I need you. Is amber okay? Ask her if she knows where Qirvana’s temple is, quick!”
“Sin-dy!” Realizing I was really bad at this mind communication thing and that our transformation had allowed me to hear Sin-dy, I quickly asked Amber, “Do you know where Qirvana’s temple is?”
“No dad−”
“I do!” Jasmine cut in. “It’s in Sector One.”
“Kylar, Help!”
“Sin-dy, I heard you, be strong,” This time I managed to speak to her using my new powers. “We know where you are, we’re coming!”
“Hurry Kylar−!”
Our communication was lost.
“What did she say Kylar?” Elektra asked. “How can we go there, Jasmine, do you know?”
“I don’t,” Jasmine sadly said. “I’m sorry.”
“Dad, maybe we should head back to the hillside, they’re probably worried about us, they don’t know what’s been going on.”
“I wish I knew how to open up a line of communication with them,” I said. “We have a lot to learn with these new powers.”
“How do we even know how to get back?” Elektra asked. “Sin-dy brought us here.”
“I know the way,” Amber said. “I made mental markers, I did it all the time when I traveled outside of our house.”
It wasn’t long before the four of us set off back to the hillside refuge, guided by Amber’s prudence for having tracked our journey. Amber no longer needed our assistance to fly after their transformation, she, along with Jasmine settled into their flight mode like the bellatrix’ they were.
It was another day in Sarturas, ‘Paradise in Hell’ So much was hanging in the balance. Sin-dy, the woman I had fallen in love with, somewhere, possibly being tortured for information. Millions of girls on the cusp of unimaginable terror, the possible fall of the Templars along with the Angels of Heaven, everything and everyone, everywhere, was in danger, has this much ever been at stake?
Yeah, we had changed, and at the time I didn’t know it but we had become Elementals, but there was just a few of us, we needed help, lots of it, no, enormous amounts of it. It was time to try and reach out to the Third Millennial Templars.
Chapter 11
Sin-dy and the Pact
“You TRAITOR! I know you were just talking with those humans back at the meeting, Sin-dy,” Ophelexa twisted the knot tighter on my throat and somehow she had discovered my n
ame wasn’t Sceleris. “I’ll kill you quickly if you tell me where they are.”
“I’ll tell you, just stop tightening the knot,” I gasped. “Please, I can’t breathe.”
“I don’t trust you, you murderer,” Ophelexa looked as though she could actually cry, but I highly doubted she had the ability. “My sister’s death will be revenged, now speak! Or I’ll rip your heart out and have it for supper.” She slowly licked her reptilian tongue across her lips, then across my face as though she could already taste my heart.
With my feet shackled I stood there, vulnerable, my clothes shredded and my back against a cold stone wall, my arms were raised and bound high above me.
“Just let me breathe, I’ll tell you,” I said through a raspy voice.
Ophelexa walked away and summoned a demon that stunk of a thousand rotting Durian fruits, plus a thousand Titan Arum plants, just his smell could kill me.
“Loosen her knot,” she ordered. “You better tell me what I want to hear, or . . . ” She licked her lips again.
Smelly, tightened the knot another half turn while smirking at me, then loosened the knot against my wind pipe two twists. I immediately coughed and accidentally but on purpose spat in his face. Laughing inside of me I thought my spit was probably like cologne for him, compared to his stench.
“Don’t they have showers in Hades,” I looked at him with venom in my eyes. “Bastard.”
I could hear rustling at the far end of the hall we were in, but couldn’t see past the stench machine in front of me.
“Well, Sin-ful, or Sin-ner, whatever your name is today,” Ophelexa sneered. “Revenge is a bitch, and that’s my middle name, and believe me I’m going to extract every letter from your soul. SPEAK! Before I stop being so nice to you.”
There was more rustling as I spluttered, gasping for air and barely able see past the moisture from my eyes. Blinking to clear my vision, I tried to see if it was the grim reaper waiting for me in the shadows. I must have been delirious because all I could think about was the time I asked Kylar on our first date, he almost spluttered at me too.