In Eden's Shadow

by Amanda Churi

  Seek kept her hand raised and fingers curled, holding onto the air that Merritt’s figure had previously occupied. She did not move.

  Merritt snarled in frustration, whipping her cape. “Vasili! Make them leave!”

  “Don’t drag him into this,” Seek butt in. “Why don’t you show me your powers and make me?”

  The volume of her snarl increased. “NOW. Get them out of here!”

  Vasili was not swayed. “You fooled us this whole time. You’re not a lerial, just some squatter. Why would I help you after all you have helped them?” He angrily thrust his hand to the pile of carcasses beside her.

  Merritt did not have a response, tucking her chin into her neck with a snarl continuing to brew.

  “I’m still surprised that you couldn’t tell she wasn’t a lerial,” Virgil said. “One look at her skanky ass proves that.”

  “We’re not stupid!” Vasili retaliated with the gnashing of teeth. “Yes, she looks different, but hundreds of years separate her from every lerial in this forest! It is perfectly reasonable for a distant ancestor to bear different traits; and besides, she has the scent of a lerial!”

  “Probably because her meals are seeping out of her pores,” Virgil grumbled.

  Head down but eyes up, Seek ignored the warring males and tried again. “Merritt, you are no lerial. You are a sorceress: you have eternal, fragile life, and depend solely on your Eyla to do your bidding.” She lifted her head, her thin white hair falling before her eyes and striking darkness into her soul. “I will ask you one final time, and if you don’t want me to take that lucky soul from you, you best speak up. So… Merritt-sama, tell me: what can you do?”

  Merritt inhaled, turning her eyes over her environment in search of a final cop-out, but when no alternatives presented themselves, her pounding heart reluctantly accepted reality as her eyes became one with the child. “Now just listen… I’m not lying when I say that I really can’t do anything.”

  Seek threw up her arm and aimed her palm, Merritt scrambling to the side with an ear-piercing screech. “Matte! Just hear me out! I can’t fight, I can’t heal, I can’t brew or chant— really, I just hide! It’s the only reason that I’ve broken the age of one thousand years! I—”

  “So, you camouflage?” Seek pushed. She never lowered her loaded arm; her shimmering skin showed that a blast was ready to fire if Merritt kept testing her.

  “I-iie, iie! Not… Not every supernatural gets lucky, you know! Some can bend light, others can live beneath the sea or even walk up to the stars. What you can do is solely dependent on the interests and nature of your Eyla, and…!”

  “And what?! I know all of this! Spit it out!”

  Merritt sniffled, her fresh tears streaking away the stains inked into her face. “An-and… And…!” She took a long, squeaky breath before throwing her head into her knees. “AND MINE LIKED GINGER!”

  “…Huh?”

  “A-AND PLUMS AND CITRUS A-AND FLOWERS AND FRESHLY CUT GRASS—!”

  “AND?!” Seek snapped, practically screaming.

  “THEY WERE OBSESSED WITH SMELLS!” Merritt collapsed face-first onto the ground. She rocked and nibbled on her thumb, the twitches of her jaw nearly strong enough to snap it off. “That’s it! Nothing else! They were the biggest Nose—Perfumer—whatever you want to call them! There was nothing they didn’t want to sniff!” She picked her head up, leaves and fur clinging to her wet cheeks. “So, yeah, sorry to burst your bubble, your highness, but I’m useless! I can only control perception of smell, big whoop, right?! Only comes in handy when someone takes a shit!” Her face replanted the ground.

  Seek had no words. She cautiously drew forward, halting before Merritt’s plowed-in face and listening to the heart-wrenching wails that melted the soil. With a firm hand, The Seeker grabbed Merritt by her tuft of powder-white hair, giving it a gentle tug despite her recent infuriation. Stifling a hiccup and inhaling her running snot, Merritt raised her head to look at Seek. There was no darkness or ill intent present now; Seek’s naturally gray eyes were radiating an ivory glow so soft that Merritt didn’t want to look away.

  “You’ve got a nick for smells, do you?” Seek restated with an innocent smile. “How good are you at controlling them?”

  Merritt chuckled hoarsely, risking a side-glance at her stupefied clan leader. “Well, I passed off as one of them for centuries, didn’t I?”

  “Not funny…!” Sybil squeaked.

  “But I can only imitate the scents of things that I have smelled before,” she added. “Again, not the best Eyla to get…”

  “Not to you,” Seek agreed, “but that’s invaluable to me.”

  Merritt cocked her head. “How?”

  Virgil was anything but pleased when he saw where this was going. “Seek, come on, get your senses together! We’re at war! We don’t need someone who thinks so little of themselves, and for good reasons!”

  “War…?” Merritt echoed. “You mean the people are actually fighting the Reveres?” She turned back to Seek, dumbfounded. “That’s why you want me? You’ve pulled together an army…? Do you want to die?”

  Silence descended upon them, focused on Merritt’s answer rather than her question. “You mean you didn’t know about them?” Griffin wondered. “The Encryption? When’s the last time you’ve gone to the districts?”

  Merritt’s eyes ballooned. “Um…?”

  “To put it in perspective, who was the clan leader?” Vasili tried.

  The sorceress thought on it for a moment, veering her sight to the side. “There… Kinda was none? Not even lerials yet…”

  “You mean to tell me you’ve never been in the city?” Flye clarified.

  Merritt awkwardly shook her head. “No, I have, but not for centuries… I tried staying in my homeland, but everything froze… The winter never stopped. All my human friends that refused to emigrate died. All the plants, animals, everything… Gone… In the end, if I wanted to live, I had no choice but to cross the rift. I stayed there for countless years until technology started becoming too invasive. They would have discovered my true identity, so I went back over the rift—came here and have stayed here since.”

  “You say that you saw lerials get dragged up from Hell,” Vasili pushed. “When was that?”

  “…A few centuries ago?” she guessed. “I settled here only a handful of years before that happened. Trust me, I didn’t intend to stay in the forest—this was only supposed to be my base of operations while I prepared to travel back home, but sorceress or not, I quickly found out that I couldn’t live beyond the barriers that they put up… No one could.”

  All brows creased. “Barriers…?” Virgil prompted, taking a seat. “What are you talking about?”

  Now Merritt looked at them as though they were the idiots. “Barriers? Climate control? You know, the thing that keeps this place permanently frozen?”

  Their wide eyes reinforced their silence perfectly. The sorceress got the hint, tensely puckering her lips. “Oh, well then… This is awkward.”

  “Barriers,” Virgil repeated. “Explain.”

  “Well, sheesh, you don’t have to be so rude! Doesn’t benefit me to keep quiet…” She sighed with annoyance before beginning. “See, the world isn’t ice forever—it was for a while, but the Proxez kept pushing crap into the air for centuries, and there was no nature left to offset the harm. Eventually, they started to feel the effects; they had to retract Reeve’s magic and concentrate it within the empire to save themselves, abandoning the rest of the world in the process. Now, the only life left is what’s inside this little snow globe they’ve got going on—the barriers.” She pointed to the sky. “You don’t see a sun anymore because the snow clouds, Reeve’s powers, block it; it never gets warm because they purposely trap all of that icy magic within their direct reign of control… And it sucks, but you are a fish in a bowl; stay in, you die, but hop out, and you still die.”

  An overwhelmed chill crept up Griffin’s throat as he too looked at the sky. So,
the sun was still there… Still alive. They just couldn’t see it anymore. But knowing that it still burned beyond the manmade clouds and barrier somewhere far above, it was the greatest news Griffin had received in what felt like forever.

  “Demo… You say there is war…” Merritt recalled, circling back to the conversation that her information had killed. “I know the Reveres are basket-cakes, but you all must be even worse if you would do something as stupid as fight them.”

  “It’s true that nobody has ever taken down a Lord,” Seek argued, “but nobody’s ever been as close as we are. Believe me; we are on the verge of winning, and he knows it. That’s why there’s all these aircraft! He’s trying to kill us before we kill him!” She pushed her hands together in prayer and got onto her knees for the sorceress, who lurched back in surprise. “Please… We need your help. If we win, we take back everything he stole, but if we lose…” She made direct eye contact. “It’s game over for us all—you included.”

  Merritt took a considerable amount of time pondering Seek’s plea. It had to be minutes, but the cursed child did not move an inch, remaining in a ninety-degree bow. Clearly uncomfortable by all that was suddenly being asked of her, Merritt began batting at her ears. “I can help with knowledge, I suppose… But I’ve never trained in combat.”

  “Maybe not,” Vasili spoke up. “But you did manage to elude the founding clan. Still…” He looked at Seek, who cautiously lifted her torso to his hanging question. “Is it really in your interest to align yourself with her, feared Seeker of Light? She is obviously quite crafty, and as her eyes say…” He put a claw up to his pupil. “Never trust one with the purple gaze. Their souls have been sold to the Dark Lord, and that is even true for us… Do you dare to take the chance with her when we have been lied to all this time? She does not truly want to be a part of your cause, and if one lacks willpower in war, they might as well not be there.”

  “…You’re completely right, Vasili…” Merritt coldly agreed. “But it seems to me like my time hiding is running out if I don’t join with someone, and given that you all have gone so far to seek me out…” Her eyes met all who surrounded her at least once. “…I have two conditions.”

  “Yes?” Seek urged.

  She lifted a finger. “One: I want full rights to live within the best part of the empire when we take him down—without tax or anything dumb like that. I don’t want baka solicitors or salespeople coming to my door, and I don’t want to be expected to contribute to society. Just let me gorge in peace with all the luxuries a queen desires.”

  “…Alright,” Seek awkwardly agreed. “Two?”

  Her second finger flew up. “Food. Whenever I want, however much I want.”

  The child’s face warped in perplexion. “Isn’t that part of your first term?”

  “It’s the most important part. I won’t agree otherwise.”

  Seek chuckled straight from the heart. “Well, it will take a while to work out an agricultural system after the overthrow, but there’s bound to be ample carnage… If you’re ok with holding out for a bit and gorging on bodies, then I think I can agree.”

  A shallow, amazed breath filled Merritt’s cheeks, a wondrous, thankful smile emerging on her thin lips while her filed teeth sparkled in Seek’s glow. Her hand shot forward. “I’ve got lifetimes to eat, and you’ve got lifetimes to wait on me. I think I can spare a few more years.”

  Their smiles clashed, palms locking and forming an unbreakable contract. The world around them appeared to dim as their auras combined at the hand, giving rise to a new color that was the perfect balance of darkness and light. Eyes mixed, gazes ebbed and flowed against the other, and when Seek rose to her feet and assisted Merritt, Griffin cringed. The hope that each had for the other could not be ignored, but the language of Seek’s eyes was not anything he had known in her before—and Merritt’s matched it perfectly.

  He knew that look far too well from Calla; their promise was formed from nothing but the other’s greed, fully intending to exploit the other as far as they could.

  He struggled to breathe as memories bashed him at every joint. Griffin shot his eyes to his wrist, studying the cuff that allowed his purpose to transform—the only thing that gave him even the slightest bit of value. He was just an extra now as always—never necessary but good to have on hand for when the going got tough. A convenient scapegoat.

  His tears burned; his hands were cold, but his face had never felt hotter. He felt so helpless… Dependent inside now, especially as he eyed the two manipulators now joined by a comforting embrace. He wanted that again, even if it was merely a business deal like theirs.

  He wanted to feel loved—needed. He wanted to be held. He wanted to smile, for real. He wanted to go back home. He wanted the life that he had before Kevin burned, before he was abandoned, before all the thieving began, and before he allied with the witch who never strived to save him in the first place, only use him like the tool that he had now literally become.

  He wanted it all, yet he could have none. Fate labeled him long ago, and it was a permanent branding; his arm only further proved that.

  But if he had to be a tool, if such was truly all that he stood for now, then he wanted to be the instrument that they could not live without—that they would morn when he finally broke and left them struggling.

  That way, he would at least continue to exist in memory when his flawed soul did him in.

  Ten

  As it Seams

  “Push harder! I can see the light right down there!”

  “Maybe if you took it easy on the drugs, I wouldn’t have to!” A forceful, agitated slam plowed into my rear, shoving me an inch or so farther into the tunnel. Had I been human, the sharp rocks forming the passageway would have stripped me raw, but thankfully, my rough skin countered its resistance.

  Still, not being a greased swine certainly worked against me here. I was so enraged and driven by vengeance that I smashed my way into the puppet’s hole without too much thought—tore right in and clawed my way through like an animal until it narrowed and pinched me at the shoulders, keeping me from catching the deranged creature that loomed just beyond my reach. A few more feet and I would have had it… Would have reached where the floor of the tunnel opened and dropped down into their twisted sanctuary. Then I could have snapped their neck and plucked every thread from their skin.

  But until I figured out a way to get through my current bind, tearing them apart would only be a marvelous daydream. The longer that I was stuck there, listening to them sing a choppy hymn with “Jesus” being every other word, the more I wanted to rip my ears off—start there and then whittle down my skeleton layer by layer until I shot through like a cannonball and shut them up for good.

  The lightweight rammed my behind again. I skid slightly more, but nothing notable. “Come on, put your back into it!” I roared. “They’ll have made my tail into a cross by the time you’re done!”

  “HEY!” It was a hit harder than any of the ones before, making a wince inevitable on my part. “I’m the one having to practically headbutt your ass! Don’t think that this is fun for me!”

  I snickered. “Thought you would have enjoyed the show.”

  A blow a bit too low, and every pocket of air flew out of my lungs. “Oh, sorry. Guess I missed.”

  Her vengeful strike ended my witty comments; the tunnel was so claustrophobic that breathing was a chore in general, and with my groin panting and trying to resuscitate those that it could, another snarky remark on my side would have probably left me infertile.

  Maeve shoved again, and again, and again, each time having the same outcome. I could hear her huffing and puffing, struggling to plunge the pipe I clogged, but it was not much use. Between my weak legs, the hot air, and that idiotic high-pitched melody, I was getting nauseated.

  I closed my eyes to settle my stomach as Maeve’s huffs of frustration started to turn into inaudible, staticky sound waves. A reassuring, warm pop tapped my scaly ears; a heat diff
erent than stuffy, immortal air gently fell over my arched spine. A room began to build within my mind—an empty, cold gray cube, suddenly brought to life by a young fire in a distant fireplace that began dancing, juxtaposing against the blandness. Chairs grew from the bare, flat ground, hardwood floors rushing under and wooden paneling crawling up the walls. Shelves, furniture, pointless knickknacks began to clutter my head, and then the room ceased—finished growing when a man of a fatherly age appeared in a sunken rocker. He did not speak; he looked rugged, a bottle of booze in one hand and a bag of cannabis tucked under his thigh, but on his knee perched something… A ghost, perhaps.

  Misty vapor gave the creature its skin, but only in certain areas; for the most part, its existence was random—a smashed puzzle. Two passive, exhausted blue eyes stared into the spinning flames, reflecting its presence instead of processing it. Sitting along the hearth were three more ghostly beings, but they were solid, unbroken like the first. One pair of brown eyes and two of green were set in their faces, but the ghosts said nothing; they did not look at the boy, but dead at me instead.

  I was impaired from speaking; the only thing I did was mentally float, onlooking what had to be a hallucination brought about by Maeve’s nut-chop.

  “Boy, give it a rest,” the drunk began, stroking the head of the mounted child. “No means no…”

  The boy did not speak; he did not even move. There was only the jangle of flames before the father continued. “And how do you expect to feed it?”

  I blinked, watching the man roll his eyes and shake his head, almost as though there was another element of speech that I just couldn’t hear. “They don’t eat potatoes.”

  Silence.

  “No, they can’t eat cotton either.”

  More silence.

  Aggravated, the father took a swig from his bottle. He got to his wobbly feet, stretching his back with one palm while swinging the alcohol in front of his face, refusing to acknowledge the ghost that had passed through his lap and now rested on his seat. “Tell you what, brat. You think you can raise it, then go ahead, but when the stupid pelt dies, that hunk of meat will be on our dinner plates.” He tilted the bottle and downed the remaining contents with a thirsty gulp, pulling his fingers away and letting the bottle shatter around them.