by E. S. Mercer
“She is the savior,” Raphael responded.
“She will be my salvation, not yours,” Samiel announced. “She will help me end Hyperion’s rule and restore me to the throne.”
“She will never choose sides,” Raphael assured his father. “She came to restore balance and I have faith that she will do exactly that.” Samiel’s rage began to surface. “Your faith is based on prophecy and nothing else. Those are words of the Magas; not belief based on action! The prophecy that surrounds her will be her greatest power, I need nothing more from her than that.”
“Meaning what?” Raphael asked. “You do not believe she is the Una Vis?”
“Yes, I know she is,” his father responded.
“So why do you minimize her role here?” Raphael argued. “And why do you think that she’ll be persuaded to join your crusade?”
“Because she is my mother,” Samiel cried. “She must avenge me.”
“That is a sentiment she may not understand,” Raphael replied. “Your pain is truly unfortunate, and I am sorry for it, but you can’t see past your own emotion and that has become dangerous.” “She has felt my pain,” Samiel barked. “She has been locked up in this prison for far too long, she understands what Hyperion is capable of.”
“That doesn’t mean she will want to seek revenge,” Raphael argued. “She is not built that way.”
“He took everything from me!” Samiel yelled. “Are you talking about your power and status or mother?” Raphael asked his father. He realized that his father’s bubbling emotion was coming from a much darker place than simply losing power, he could sense a deep shattering pain.
“Who are you to question me?” Samiel asked, as he slapped his eldest son.
“You trusted me once,” Raphael responded, ignoring the sting of his cheek. “Trust me again, please.”
“You betrayed me, like all the rest,” Samiel replied. “You chose sides and you chose the wrong one.”
“We chose to do what is right,” Michael interjected. “You think protecting her from me is what’s right?” Samiel asked. “I’m the one who has tried to help her. I’ve tried to free her from her father’s hold since she was a child and now, you are trying to turn her against me!”
Raphael stood silent for a moment, sadden by his father and his inability to see what his need for revenge was doing to him. Taking a deep breath, he accepted his fate. “Nothing we say is going to convince you, but I know no matter how hard you try, you won’t get what you want out of her either,” he said, getting back down to his knees.
He looked at his brother for reassurance. “Let him have her.” Leviathan’s face lit up. “And you will use her to destroy my father?” he asked with a grin.
“If you do this, you will set in motion something you can’t take back,” Raphael warned. “You will wake up a sleeping giant.”
“You underestimate the humanity in this woman,” Samiel replied. “She is distracted easily by love and your brother is her Kryptonite. “What does that have to do with this?” Raphael asked, pointing to my body. “She is may be in love with Gabriel, but that isn’t going to stop her from doing what needs to be done.”
He dropped his arm, “and it sure hasn’t deterred her clone.” Samiel began to find humor in his son’s conviction. “You really believe what is coming out of your mouth don’t you? My point is, that she can be manipulated easily. If she doesn’t bend to my will, I will make sure Gabriel will and then she will follow.”
“And you…” he said, turning towards Michael. “Why are you doing this? I mean, I believe your brother’s conviction and faith has led him here, but you claim to do this out of love. You realize you don’t really love her, right?”
“But I do, I always did,” Michael replied.
Samiel shook his head, “you, like everyone else just loves the idea of her and I was able to take advantage of that. Manipulating both of you.”
“Are you done here?” Leviathan hissed. “I have better things to do than to listen to family squabbles."
“Leviathan, you have one last chance to help us,” Michael pleaded. “Think of what your father has done to you and help us.”
“Or what?” Leviathan asked. “Seems like you are not in a position to bargain.”
“Or she will come for us,” Michael growled.
Leviathan grew impatient. “You claim she’s not one to seek revenge, so why should that scare me?”
He turned to Samiel, “take her now, before I change my mind.” “Gladly,” Samiel said, motioning for his men to carry me away and turning towards his sons for a final word. “I’m sorry it has to be this way. If you cannot see what good will come out of this, I don’t need you in my way trying to stop me.”
Raphael looked up at his father with a look of confidence in his eyes. “We won’t have to.”
***** Alistair insisted that we enlist the help of Ksenia and her father to find our way in and out of Abyssus. Up until now, they were the only people to leave the realm alive and intact and they were our best hope of doing the same. Knowing that it would take us a bit to find them, I demanded that we leave immediately. With what I had been told about my brother, if Michael and Raphael were captured, they would be in grave danger.
“Before you go there is something I need to tell you about your mother,” Renu said, as he pulled me aside. “I imagine you wonder why you haven’t seen her in all this.”
“A little yes,” I replied. Barely anyone brought her up and when they did, it was always with a hint of guilt or sadness. “Your mother fell apart after she heard what happened to you,” he offered. “She collapsed into a catatonic state and hasn’t woken up since. It’s like she went into a hibernation, protecting herself and her heart from anymore pain.”
“So, she is just lying somewhere, comatosed?” I asked.
“In a matter of speaking, yes,” he replied. “She is up at the temple on Mount Peperit.”
He could see the sadness in my face. “So, she is just asleep somewhere, as lost as I am.”
“Yes,” he answered. “Your father told everyone she had died, erected a statue in her honor and moved on.”
I felt myself desperately trying not to gag on the information. “That’s sick.” “I realize now he has been sick for a long time,” Renu replied. “I bought into everything he said, never thinking for a moment there was something wrong with it.”
“Why doesn’t he just confront me?” I asked, ready for a fight.
“He’s paralyzed by fear,” Renu replied. “When he tried to destroy you, and couldn’t, he became paranoid and weak.”
“So, he lost his power?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No, it has weakened tremendously, thanks to your existence, but he is simply just weak. Weak minded and weak in his soul.” I was scrambling to ask as many questions as I could before I left. I had to understand why Hyperion and Samiel were being so sneaky and manipulative, when they honestly had the upper hand at this point.
“So why hasn’t Samiel tried to destroy him then if he is so weakened by fear? Why don’t they work together to eradicate me?” “They have their own agenda,” Renu responded. “Samiel wants revenge on his brother, Hyperion wants to continue to rule.”
“So, they essentially are defeating themselves by not being able to see past their own desires,” I announced. “What am I needed for?”
“To keep them from destroying everything else in the process,” Renu replied. “To stop them from hurting anyone else.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” I asked.
“I am not sure,” Renu answered. “The prophecy says you are here to restore balance, but I’m not sure what that means.”
“What happens if I don’t stop them?” I asked.
Renu adjusted himself as he sat down. “If they destroy each other, it could be the end of the world as we know it. Everything they created is tethered to them. If only one wins, it will tip the balance so drastically that chaos will ensue.”
&nbs
p; “So, no one can really stop them,” I blurted.
“You could once you absorb their power...and acquire the tether,” he replied.
I could detect a slight hint of desire in Renu’s voice so I had to ask, “are you suggesting I kill them?” He sat up in his chair. “No, not at all!” He looked me directly in the eyes so that I couldn’t question is intentions. “I just want this to be over.” I sat for a moment and tried to soak this all in.
“Samiel is of the dark and Hyperion of the light correct?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered. “Well then that is the problem,” I announced. “That has been the problem all along!”
I don’t know if it was the moment of clarity, or one of those random moments where my counterpart was assisting me, but when I held my hand out, I was able to manifest what I imagined.
“See this ball of light?” I asked Renu. Hovering over my right hand was a glowing ball of both dark and light energy, intertwined like a ball of string. “It represents the Una Vis, or me I guess.”
I stopped for a moment realizing what I said and chuckled as I continued. “The problem is, one half cannot be whole without the other.” I placed my left hand on top of the ball and drew the dark energy apart from the light. “When they were created, they were made as two halves of a whole, with the assumption that if they worked together, they would be one entity and know that one couldn’t survive without the other.” I pushed the ball back together and it disappeared. “I don’t think when I created them I accounted for human emotions and behaviors.”
“I guess it is hard to understand something that hadn’t quite been articulated,” Renu said, coming to my defense. “Even you had some kind of feeling and emotions when you created them. It’s why you did it.”
“And it hasn’t done me a bit of good either,” I added. “It’s hard to find clarity in all this. Especially when you aren’t strong enough to handle the weight of feeling.”
He nodded in agreement. “No, they can’t handle it.” “I wasn’t talking about them,” I replied. “I fell into the same trap as them. The idea that I was above human emotion, which they used that to manipulate me, repeatedly.”
I jumped up from my seat, grabbing ahold of Renu’s shoulders. “I need to figure out a way to put myself together. I’m just as unbalanced as they are.” “How are you going to do that?” he asked
“I don’t know,” I replied. “That’s why I need to figure out.”
I leaned in and gave the man a big kiss on the cheek. “You need to talk to your wife, she needs some closure.”
“I doubt she wants to speak to me,” he said, in as meek of a voice as his throat would allow. “I really screwed things up with her.”
“You’d be surprised,” I replied. “Just give it a try.”
I jumped into the car where the brothers and Alistair waited.
“The gypsies are in the catacombs under the ruins of Diamond City,” Alistair offered. “It’s about an hour’s drive.”
“Good,” I said, leaning up against the window. “Maybe I can get a little bit of sleep.”
“Sounds good to me,” Gabriel agreed, leaning his head back. He grabbed my hand and closed his eyes.
Ramiel nodded his head. “Wake us up when we get there.” *****
I drifted off rather quickly, exhausted from the past few days, but my nap was quickly interrupted by Gabriel’s voice.
“Where are we?” he asked.
I opened my eyes, expecting to still be sitting in the moving car. But instead, found that we were standing in front of a large Cathedral not far from the Manor.
“This is another one of those weird dreams, isn’t it?” I asked, as we ascended the stairs.
“I have no idea,” Gabriel replied, looking down at our clasped hands. “But it doesn’t feel like a dream.”
I stopped on the top step. “So, I am doing this?”
“I think so,” he said, moving his fingers around in my hand as the two of us stood staring at the large wooden doors in front of us. He started to take another step when I stopped him. I turned grabbing his other hand. “Listen, whatever this is, I think it is something I need to do alone. I’m pretty sure my father is in there. I can feel it.”
“Then you definitely shouldn’t go in there by yourself,” Gabriel begged. “His whole mission has been to destroy you.”
“I don’t think he can’t hurt me here,” I replied. “Besides, I think it’s time I finally faced him and ask him why he is doing this.”
“You know why,” Gabriel argued. He was right, but I wanted to hear it from my father’s mouth, so I let go of Gabriel’s hands before he could argue his point any further and whipped open the door in front of me. I turned back to reassure him I would be fine, but he had vanished. I shook it off and crossed the threshold, accidently slamming the large door behind me. It echoed off the stone wall, which should have alerted the parishioners to my presence, but no one besides the man behind the pulpit flinched.
“Evangeline? How did you find me here?” he asked, rushing towards me. “Hyperion,” I said, taking a few steps back. The way he came at me scared me a bit. “Why are hiding out here in a church, pretending to be a Priest?” I asked as he circled around me.
“I am not hiding,” he barked staring me up and down. “I am a god; I don’t need to hide.”
“It kind of looks like you are,” I argued. “You ran from Caelum and now you are held up in a Church in the mortal realm. You are definitely hiding.”
He grabbed my arm and pulled me closer.
“Are you, you or are you the…?” he asked, waving his hand to indicate I knew what he meant.
“I am the clone,” I replied. “But not for long.”
He started cackling as he let go of my arm. “You are not a clone; you are more like an echo. Something insignificant compared to her.”
“Meaning what?” I asked, getting flustered. “You may remember little things or even see glimpses of power you think are your own, but they are not. If she wakes up, you will vanish, as if you never existed,” he announced.
I could feel myself starting to choke up. “No, that is not right. I am part of her, so I am her.” “Like I said, you’re only here, because she needs you to be here, but if you know about her, then so does my brother and I need to come up with a plan before he wakes her up.”
“You just said you weren’t hiding,” I corrected.
“I’m not, I’m regrouping,” he replied arrogantly.
“Why? What are you afraid of?” I asked.
“Afraid? I am not afraid,” he said, waving me off again.
“Oh I disagree. You don’t want him to wake her, I mean me, up,” I argued.
“You are right!” he replied. “I don’t! If he gets to her first, he could convince her to destroy me!”
“Her? I am her!” I reiterated. “And no one is going to convince me to destroy anything! I am not here to choose sides.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” he barked, visibly getting annoyed. “But I’m telling you, I know why she is here and it’s not to forgive us and move on.” I bit my tongue. I wanted so badly to beg him to stop saying ‘her.’ I was her, maybe an extension, yes but I was still her. But I didn’t, I focused on what he was planning to do.
“So, you are just buying time until you find a way to destroy me?” I asked.
“No,” he growled, “I’ve already tried that and failed miserably. I think I’ll just destroy everything else!”
“And what would that prove?” I scolded, “what have these people done to you to deserve this?” He swung around the pulpit and started thumbing through the Bible. “Nothing, but what does it matter? I created them! She is only here to protect them, if they are gone, she has no reason to be here.”
“You’re so wrong,” I said, feeling the weight of his announcement weigh heavy on my chest. “The point is to save you from yourself. But I can’t allow you to destroy them. These beautiful, exquisite and complex creatures are
connected through you, to me and I can’t let you hurt them.” “I’m doing it to spite you. I know it will hurt you and I don’t care!” he bellowed, glaring at me.
“Then why haven’t you done it?” I asked, encroaching on him. “What are you waiting for?” “The power,” he replied, focusing on me. “I have to find a way to regain my power.”
“You aren’t a god,” I said, backing away, “you are a toddler with a power you don’t deserve.”
I could see words he hadn’t thought through start to explode out of his mouth when I suddenly woke up, back in the car.
“We are here,” Alistair announced as I sat straight up.
“Well, what happened?” Gabriel asked, ignoring Alistair.
“He’s going to destroy everything,” I replied. “Everyone.”
“Can he do that?” he prodded. “Can he do that without my father?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “But I know I need to find a way to stop him.”
The next thing I know, the car door whips open and I am being dragged out of the car by a screaming girl.
As I landed awkwardly on my feet, I could see Zara coming in for a very long embrace.
“I am so, so, so, so, so, sorry,” she kept repeating as she squeezed the breath out of me and kissed all over my face. “Please forgive me!”
I had to push her off me for a second so I could see if it was really her.
“Zara? Where have you been the last few days?” I asked. “I went looking for you!”
“Days? I haven’t seen you in months,” she replied, hugging me again. “I’m so sorry I had to go. When I failed, I had to leave.”
“Wait a minute, months?” I asked, looking at Gabriel and then back at her. “I just saw you less than a week ago!” It took me a minute but then I remembered that I had spent a couple days in Aljann and that time worked differently there. The time gaps were never consistent but in the short time I was there, the mortal world hadn’t seen me in six months.
“Never mind that,” she said, elbowing me, “Which brother is that?”
“It’s Gabriel,” I replied, shaking my head. “And no, you can’t have him.”