by JK Ensley
“I need to get out of here. You may be trying to help me, Rixx, but you seem only to be able to confuse me further.” She started to leave but turned back to him. “Tell me this. Why are your eyes like that? Are you part demon as well?”
“Demons have black eyes, colorless voids. This you know.”
“Well… I have never met a creature with one burning red eye and one icy grey one. It seems wrong… unnatural. They are disconcerting, hard to look upon, and… and… and they just make me uncomfortable. There is no one else with eyes such as yours.”
“Vashti has eyes such as this one,” he whispered, pointing to the eye now covered by the fiery side of his locks.
Jenevier turned and looked into his haunting grey eye, dumbfounded. The sorrow staring back at her was almost too much to bear.
“…Va-Vashti?”
“Yes. Vashti shares in not only my eyes, but my label as well… abomination. She is the only one of her kind, and she is feared at but a glance.”
Jenevier didn’t speak, couldn’t.
He snorted. “I thought… If there is any creature yet living who could understand my pain, it would be Vashti.” He looked down and shook his head. “Naga, I once heard you say… All who draw breath are of equal worth. I had never heard anyone say that before.” He sniffed. “I thought you meant it. You said it with such conviction, I believed you. Are you now saying it was but a lie?”
She grabbed his hand. “No, Rixx. I did not lie. My words are as true today as they were when I spoke them. I believe in those words above all others. Forgive me… please. I judged you unjustly, Brother. And that was wrong, so very… very wrong.” She ran her fingers through his bright silky tresses. “You are right. We are kindred spirits. None are able to truly understand the painful differences we bear. We are outsiders, you and I—the periphery of this universe.”
“Yes,” he whispered. “Pretending we are just like them. Knowing that we are not… and never can be.”
“Come back to Jinn with me, Rixx. No longer do you need to hide in the shadows. I will give you the home you’ve been searching for.”
“Searching for?” He brushed a curl back from her face. “You misunderstand me, Kagi Naga. I have a home, a rather nice home, actually. No, tiny Death Angel, I come to help you. Not the other way around.” He smiled sweetly. “I know your secret—the one you have managed to keep hidden from your friends, your family, even your beloved Yui.”
“Wha-what secret is that?”
“Your heart.” He touched her cheek. “If they knew the truth concerning your fragile little heart, Daichi would be forced to return to your side and Tenshi would go back to always worrying and fretting over you. All the precarious pieces of your elaborate house of cards would come crumbling down around you. Everything you have worked so hard for… would fly away like ashes on the wind.”
Vashti’s rubies flashed as she seized the Nephilim’s wrist. “Don’t you dare threaten me, Maza Rixx. If you think I will cave into this line of horseshit, then you haven’t been stalking me properly.” She shoved him away. “I care not if you are the last of your kind. Speak one word more of my family, and I will show you just how ruthless this tiny little Death Angel has become.”
“No, wait, Empress. You misunderstand intent.”
“Do I?”
Jenevier lifted one foot, quickly banging her heel on the bottom of Amatiste’s scabbard strapped across her back, popping the glowing sword from its resting place. She withdrew the blade slowly, purposefully, watching contently as this peculiar son of a fallen Angel began to withdraw, his eyes growing impossibly wide. She only smiled at him as the lethal claws extended from her left hand and the purple sword now twirled about in her right.
“What say you of my heart now, Nephilim? Hmm? Does it seem a delicate thing to you? Do you presume me not strong enough to claim your ancient soul? Would you like to wager upon it?”
“No… I would not.” His eyes narrowed, the fire within the one subsiding as the ice within the other seemed to grow. “Even I cannot stand before your scythe, Milady. I have not lived this long by playing the part of fool.”
“It’s not a scythe. It’s a sword.” Only one corner of her mouth twitched up as she slowly advanced toward him.
“Semantics.” He snorted. “It is your reaping blade. It matters not what you may call it, its purpose remains.”
Their dark glares locked for several long heartbeats. Neither backed down nor did they concede to the other.
“Seems we’ve found ourselves at a bit of an impasse, Nephilim. I know not your true purpose for revealing yourself to me this day. I am who I am, and the past is what it is.” She slowly retracted her claws. “Oh, and you’re wrong about my heart, Rixx. I cannot change what has been, only what will be.” She sheathed Amatiste as she turned from him. “Tears have not the power to heal… and I will no longer deny the truth in that.”
“But, Naga.” He stretched his hand out toward her back, but then thought better of it. “I only came to help. I speak the truth in this. An ancient darkness now stirs. I came to ensure friendship and offer whatever help I can provide.”
“I have no intention of forging new ties, Nephilim. If you have been watching me, that should not come as much of a shock to you.”
“Naga, you can never have too many friends. At least, not the celestial kind. I have been by your side for years and you knew it not. How can giving my lips a voice cause them to be a burden unto you now?”
She turned to face him then. “If a snake wishes to slither across my lawn and burrow beneath my lavender, I will leave him to it and concern myself not with his affairs. But when the day comes he wishes to enter my home and curl up beside me at teatime… that is the day I will salt that same lawn with his ashes and attribute his death to his own poor judgment.” She spread her wings as she turned. “Try to slither into my home uninvited, and the same will hold true for you.”
“As you wish, Kagi Naga. Alis volat propriis.”
She stopped short. “What did you just say?”
“I was only admiring your strength, Empress. It means… She flies with her own wings. Such was not always the case. You cannot imagine how your current fierceness makes my troubled heart sing.”
She eyed him for a moment, but did not speak.
“As I said before… always do I watch you.” He sighed quietly. “You are terribly good at troubling me, Naga. And you are the only creature who ever has.”
“Troubling you? I had no idea you even existed. How in the universe could I have possibly been trouble for you?”
“You trouble my heart.”
Jenevier rolled her eyes. “Oh no. Not this old tune again.”
“No, Naga. This is a song you have never heard before. I did not fall in love with you. I would never allow that, no. But… you trouble me, nonetheless. I felt my very first pangs of jealousy because of you.”
“Oh yeah,” she said, completely uninterested. “And just when was that?”
“When you kissed Finnean that first morning… by the wild rose vines.”
Her body visibly jerked as his words took her back through that most precious memory… and all the joys and pains those years with her white warrior had brought her.
“I wasn’t jealous because I watched you fall in love, no. I was jealous because I knew I would never be blessed with feelings such as those. It is not my purpose.”
Rixx looked off then. Jenevier stared at his strangely haunting profile, but did not speak.
“And panic.” He chuckled softly, mostly to himself. “I felt my first adrenaline-fueled rush of panic because of you, little Naga.”
He glanced sideways at her, a slight smile turning up one corner of his mouth. She noticed. Of course she did. Jenevier was meticulously recording everything about this man. Still, she did not speak.
“And you know well the day that happened…” He paused.
When she did not respond, he turned to face her fully.
“The day your ninja wrapped his beautiful hair around you… and you screamed. Remember?”
She only cocked her head to the side, remaining silent.
“You were together on his balcony,” Rixx continued. “The look in that fair young man’s eyes… I couldn’t tell if it was love… or hunger. And when you screamed… I lost control.” He chuckled nervously, a bright blush now apparent on his pale cheeks. “That’s the first time that had ever happened, Naga—me losing control. Before the thought had even been properly formed in my mind, I found myself sitting on that same balcony railing.”
Her eyes widened then. “Ahh!” She gasped. “That was you? The shadow creature with the burning eyes?”
“Is that how you saw me?” He half chuckled. “I didn’t even realize what form I took. As I said… I did so without thought.”
“So you’re the one who kicked down the tree. That calloused act sliced though little Cherie’s soul. Did you know that?”
“Apologies, Naga. I meant no harm. That was the first time I had felt anger. I didn’t know how to control it.”
“How is it you say you are thousands of years old, yet simple emotions have only just found you?”
“I am Nephilim. I am neutral.”
Jenevier stared at him, waiting for his words to continue. They did not.
“Well, Nephilim… I know not what your business is with Death, but I think you should steer clear of me from now on. I have much to see to. None of which is any concern of yours. And, well… I’m not particularly fond of you.”
A slight smile curled up the corners of his mouth. “No… I didn’t expect you would be. Alas, I do not regret speaking with you this day. I will keep my distance so that you can be at ease. Farewell, Kagi Naga. Go. Stand within the clouds and watch.” He chuckled softly. “No matter what Uriel may think, you are more of a Grigori than even the Grigori.”
Jenevier hissed before she even realized what she was doing. “Do not play games with me, Nephilim. If you have something to say, use plain speech and be done with it.”
“Do you not understand when I say that I watch you… always? I know everything, Naga.” He held his hands up toward her, palms out. “Do not be angry in this. It is nothing you can stop or prevent. You have no say in the matter.” He ignored her growls and continued, “I watch you as you stand within the clouds. You perch there within the mists as if you sat atop the highest mountain… always watching, always listening. But I am the only creature who knows how you have come to spend your days, Naga. Not even the Archs are aware of your presence when they pass through.”
She softly snorted. “You think I don’t know this?”
Rixx continued to smile. “The change in you amazes me, Death Angel. I did not believe you capable of such strength. Yet, I am glad for it.” He sighed. “You now watch over the layers instead of sipping tea with your loved ones. You have become the great watcher, Naga. Something the Grigori have long failed in.”
Jenevier shrugged her shoulders. “So what? I wish to know what is stirring about in the universe. What’s the big deal? I am curious. That’s all.”
He smiled knowingly and cast her a sideways glance. “That’s all, huh? Are you certain it has nothing to do with that beautiful, troublesome granddaughter of yours?”
She snorted again. “I am certain it has nothing to do with you.”
He did not answer, only continued to smile.
“Can my blades truly rend you, Nephilim?”
“Yes, as they can any creature.”
“And you still thought it wise to reveal yourself to me?”
“I have done nothing worthy of your reaping, Naga. I watch only.”
“Yet… not today.” She tilted her head and narrowed her gaze. “Tell me. What has changed, Nephilim? I am not so foolish as to think today’s sorrow was enough to cause you to reveal your long-held secrets. If you have truly been watching me as you say… today’s tears are nothing compared to my past.”
He half snorted. “You speak true, Kagi Naga.” Rixx turned his back to her then. “Alas, something is coming. Something as we have never seen before. The ancient seals are being threatened, little one. And, as is your damnable Fate… much will be required of you in the near future.”
Jenevier growled, an instant before her eyes flashed red.
Chapter 4
Lala
(LAH-lah)
“We have time,” Duhrias said. “The Empress is still out on a summons and we don’t have to be in Iga until tomorrow. The irritating King of that layer invited you personally. Remember?”
“Why did you say irritating like that?” Lala turned to face the sell-sword. “The King of Dimthe Leard is one of the most gracious, honorable men I have ever met. There’s nothing about him that’s irritating.”
“He fawns over you.” Duhrias glanced away. “That’s irritating,” he mumbled.
Lala snickered. “Aww… is my devoted River Spirit jealous?”
“Do not tease me,” he grumbled. “It shows poor manners and an improper upbringing. Neither of which you have.”
“Stop pouting. You’re the one pushing this trip.”
“That’s because I’m curious. Aren’t you? Getting to see a live telling of their history—actors and singers and poets all performing for our pleasure—it will be amazing.”
“They are not performing for our pleasure, Dimples. We were just lucky enough to receive an invitation.”
“A royal invitation, yes.” Duhrias pulled her close. “So… are we going?”
Lala only smiled.
*****
“In ancient times… through clandestine means and in sundry manners…”
Duhrias squeezed Lala’s hand, but kept his gaze fixed upon the storyteller—center stage.
“Our forefathers sought always to ensure their lineage… to ensure our future—the survival of man.” He lifted his arms. “We are a strong people, sturdy of build and sharp of mind. This we owe, in whole and in part, to a young boy known then only as… Thacius.”
The low sound of drums began to softly echo throughout the theatre as the lone man stepped back into the shadows, and two costumed actors took his place.
“Man was but one of many creatures to wander the hills and valleys of Dimthe Leard. He was not the most powerful. He was not the wisest. Yet, he was the most honorable.”
The silent actors mimicked the orator’s words through mime and dance.
“The Elves sought wisdom and beauty over all things. They worshipped the forest and sang their own praises through elaborate song and dance.”
The spotlight fell upon the actor dressed as a regal Elf.
“The Grindocs were the Elves mirror opposites.”
The spotlight then shifted to the other performer.
“Where the Elf Lords saw beauty and magic… the Grindoc Mages sought only darkness and power. And man… well, man’s heart was pure and undefiled. They were as babes before the other races. Their unfettered innocence, a blessing to be sure, was laughable not only to the dark and twisted ones, but to the high and enlightened ones as well.”
The elaborately arrayed actors gracefully spun towards the outer wings of the stage, and a humbly adorned family approached the center. The man family began acting out their days as farmers—tilling the ground and sowing their seeds—hope and joy ever present on their dirty, yet smiling faces.
“And so it was that man flourished in the North, and the North flourished under the diligent care of its noble keepers. Man stood as one, spoke as one, and communed as one.”
The background drums grew louder.
“Until the day… terror came to Atlaug and to young Thacius.”
As an elegantly arrayed woman came to stand within the spotlight, eyes closed, the narrator continued.
“And this… is his tragic story…”
The lone woman opened her eyes then and began to sing. The accompanying music was a sorrowful duet of a soft harp and an ancient flute. The haunting words w
ere as poignant as was the tune.
The woman’s melodic voice was the most enchanting, most heartrending Lala had ever heard. Her breath caught, as painful tears burned the backs of her sapphire eyes. The song she heard that day… would remain in Lala’s weeping heart for as long as she yet drew breath.
These are the words that pierced her through and through…
In olden times… There was a river
Ran between… Two mountain walls
And the place… From where it started
Was a place… Called Haunted Falls
On the banks… There lived a good man
With his son… And daughters, three
And their shouts… Of pain and sorrow
Echoed with… Their shouts of glee
To the little… Town, the brother
For some meal… One day had gone
Left his Pa… And loving sisters
For one… Quiet hour alone
Hark, the sound… Of trampling horses
Then the father… Turned in fright
Just in time… To draw the door bolt
As four Grindocs… Rode in sight
Then he seized… And kissed his children
Bade them neither… Speak nor cry
Placed them in… A secret closet
And prepared… Himself to die
With one cruel… Push the Grindoc
Flung the bolt… From off the door
Grabbed him by… His long brown tresses
Drug him to… The river shore
There they sang… And danced about him
Paid no heed… To his piteous cry
Tossed him down… To the rocks beneath them
Where in agony… He died
Then they mounted… On their horses
As they started… Back through town
First they burned… Those crying children
And the dwelling… To the ground
Now a young… Man sadly wanders