Authors: Rain Oxford
My first few steps left me gasping because it hurt to
breathe. There was a tightness around my chest like I was still strapped down.
I was led away, down several hallways. There was no way I could make it out
without my vision. Despair swamped me so badly that when I was tossed onto a
bed, I didn’t move. The door shut and a lock turned. I tried to feel for my
magic, but I couldn’t feel any form of energy. It was like my connection with
magic was broken.
In that case, I was no help to Ron at all.
“Mom?”
I tried to call to Divina, but I knew
she wouldn’t hear me.
“Vretial?”
There was no hope. After hours of lying there in pain
and powerless, I had no hope. Then the door open and I froze.
“Hail?” Sari’s voice was a welcome surprise. “What
did they do to you?”
“I can’t see anything.”
I could feel her body heat even before she took my
hand and pressed it against her cheek. “Let’s get out of here. I’m sure your
father can heal you once we find him.” She pulled me off the bed and put my arm
over her shoulder to help me walk. I still managed to smash clumsily into the
door. “Shh! We have to be quiet.”
“Where are we?”
“I don’t know. It’s a forest out there and I haven’t
found any people.”
It only took a few minutes before the floor under me
gave way to soft dirt. Sari was huffing under my weight before we gave up and
took a break, but she swore we were far enough away to be safe. She guided me
to sit on what felt like a fallen log. I listened for the sounds of birds to
try to determine where we were, but there were none. In fact, I didn’t hear any
animal.
“Is the forest we’re in dark and creepy?”
“It’s night, so yeah. What happened after I escaped?”
“I very nearly escaped, but I had a vision at the
worst possible moment and they captured me. They’ve been experimenting on me
for days.”
“I’m sorry it took me so long to make it back. I was
trying to find a safe way out of here.”
I felt towards her voice until I caught her arm and
was able to gently pat her hand. “What’s most important is that you didn’t get
caught. You did very well.” I tried again to find magic… and still felt
nothing. I was blind, powerless, and lost.
“Do your eyes hurt?”
“Yes. Does it look bad?”
“You look like you’ve been in a major fight. Your
eyes themselves aren’t purple any more, they’re blue. The skin around your eyes
is red and bruised. You have a bandage around your chest.”
“That explains the tightness,” I said, reaching up to
feel it. It was thick and felt professional. I wanted to tear it off, but I
didn’t have enough strength and I was afraid of what might be under the
bandages.
“Did they ask you questions?” she asked.
I opened my mouth to say they didn’t… and then
paused. “I don’t remember. I had a lot of dreams, a lot of incriminating
dreams, but I don’t remember saying anything.”
“What do you mean ‘incriminating’ dreams?” she asked.
“Family secrets. I dreamed of things I would never
tell a person if I were conscious and lucid, but I don’t know what all they did
to me. As far as I know, they could have seen everything I dreamed.”
“And if they did?”
“Then they would be after Ron.”
“It’ll be your turn soon.”
That was my dad’s
voice.
“Dad?”
“Who are you talking to? It’s just us here,” Sari
said.
I was in shock; I had to be. “I just heard my dad. He
said… never mind. We need to go.” I tried to stand, but I couldn’t manage it
without Sari’s help. We walked for several hours before I stopped. “Listen… Do
you hear the ocean?”
She listened for a moment. “Yes. We’ll go that way.”
“I don’t think you will, young lady. That’s our
territory.”
It was the voice of a man, but there was no way I
could tell his stature from his voice. Even if I could, there was no way I
could fight in my condition. “What’s going on?” I whispered to Sari. She
pressed herself against my front as if I could protect her, blind.
“There’s a man. He’s older and thin, but he’s got
friends, at least twenty. I think maybe it’s a gang.” Several of them laughed
at her words. “Please let us be, we just want to go home.”
“Home? We all want to go home, pretty.”
“Oh, no. We’re on Canjii, aren’t we?” I asked. They
laughed again.
“That’s right. There is no home for you. Now, give up
your girlfriend, cripple, and we’ll let you live.”
“People are scum, you know that?” I said to Sari,
wrapping my arms around her. I could fight a few men blind, even as injured as
I was… but twenty men… I would die for sure.
“If we make it out alive, you can marry me, and we’ll
go live somewhere where there are no people, okay? Ron can live with us, I’m
fine with that. Just get us out alive,” she said. I tried to take my arms away,
to push her back in the direction I thought we came from, but she tightened
them around her until my chest hurt.
“That was your only chance, cripple. Now you die.”
“Oh, you just had to go and seal your fate, didn’t
you,” a new voice called in English. I startled because it was extremely
familiar, but it still took a moment for me to place it, since I hadn’t heard
it in three years. “See, he’s under my protection, and I am under orders to
kill anyone who threatens his life.”
It was Xul, my father’s demon, who was bound to
protect mine and Ron’s lives. He was also the demon who was after my life as a
child, but I could never hate him for it, because it was the reason Dylan found
me and eventually adopted me. In fact, I owed my happiness to this demon.
Of course, Xul did like to talk a lot, which was
wasted on the thugs in this case because they didn’t speak English. Although he
could understand a threat to mine or Ron’s life whatever the language, he did
not have the translating magic that demons had in order to be understood by
anyone.
“Sari, close your eyes,” I warned.
Suddenly, screams sounded and the scent of blood
filled the air, but it was over in seconds. A cruel laugh told me it was done.
I had seen inside the mind of this beast as he had seen inside of mine when he
tried to possess me as a baby. Of course, I was two at the time, but I still
remembered a lot of it. There was nothing human about Xul, no mercy or
kindness. On the other hand, it was unfair to call him an inertly evil
creature, as that would be like calling a virus or a shark evil. Xul was a
demon; nothing less and nothing more, but he could be trusted at his word. For
his bargain with my father, I could trust that he would always be there to save
my life.
“Thank you,” I said.
“No problem. Shouldn’t you be with your brother?”
“Sari and I were kidnapped. Can you send us to him?”
“Actually, no. I can’t find him.”
“What do you mean, you can’t find him? Is he hurt? Is
he… oh, god, please find him. Ron relies on me. If I’m not there, there’s no
telling what trouble he’ll get into.”
“I could only find you because you were in danger.
Something is definitely going on, or I’d be able to find him, but he isn’t in
danger or I would be drawn to him.”
“Can you send us to my father?”
“Actually, he
is
in a bit of danger right now,
and sending you to him would put
you
in danger, which I am unable to do.”
“What about my mother?”
“No, your presence would blow her cover and put you
both in danger. I could send you to your biological parents, but your
girlfriend would have to be left behind because she hasn’t signed Dios’s book.”
“That wouldn’t work.”
“Who is this?” Sari asked. “What language are you
speaking?”
“It’s complicated. What about Mordon?”
“Also missing.”
“Can you send my mother here to get us?”
“I could, but it may take several days, because I’m
unable to endanger her life. She seems to have stepped into a mess she wasn’t
expecting. Just tough it out here as best as you can, and I’ll do what I can to
help.”
There was a small snapping sound, and I assumed he
disappeared.
“Who was that, Hail? You owe me the truth.”
“Well, I guess I do… especially since you agreed to
marry me if we survived, and we just survived.” I ignored her gasp. “That was
an extremely powerful demon who tried to kill me before I was even two years
old. My father, Dylan, destroyed him, then brought him back to protect me and
my brother. By the way, my dad is Noquodi of the planet Earth, my grandfather
is Noquodi of Duran, and if you ever tell anyone that, my uncle, who is a
three-thousand-year-old dragon, will kill you very painfully.”
“And your mother?”
“Is a secret, so hush. Oh, and Dylan and Divina are
not my biological parents. You know the dark god, Vretial? He’s my biological
father, but so in Nano, the Noquodi of Dios. And it’s a secret, so really,
hush.”
“I don’t want to hear any more.”
“Ron and I have two griffins, which are incredibly
powerful beasts created by Vretial, but I can’t call one of them to help me
without my magic.”
“Your magic is missing? Why didn’t you ask the demon
to send one of the griffins to you?”
“Because I’m not thinking clearly right now.”
“Why are you telling me all this?”
“Because one; I don’t know, two; I can’t think, and
three; you did agree to marry me.”
“You don’t really want to marry me, do you?”
“It’s a secret, hush. Wait, no, not that part. I
don’t know. You asked me, remember? I need my magic. I can’t do anything
without magic. What did they do to me that I can’t feel my magic?”
“Hail? What if you told them everything?”
“Then I’ve betrayed my family and should die, slowly
and painfully.”
“I think you’re tired, Hail. Take a nap, and we can
figure something out later.” Before I could protest, she was guiding me
somewhere. With my blindness, I was helpless and completely reliant on her.
* * *
I woke with a shout and tried to sit up before I
realized I was strapped down. It was dark, but I could see I was back in the
medical lab. There was a rusty knife lying on the pan next to the bed,
alongside stitches and scissors. I looked down and found my chest was open, a
gaping wound bleeding profusely. I started to scream, but the assistant was
there, putting her hand over my mouth.
“Answer the question. Where is your father?” the
doctor asked, holding up a needle full of blue liquid. “We can do this with or
without force, but you will tell me. Even if it’s in your sleep, you will tell
me. Where is your father?”
My chest hurt so badly I couldn’t even stop
screaming, so he stuck the needle in my arm.
* * *
I woke screaming and thrashing, but this time my
restraints gave.
“Hail! Stop, you’re going to hurt yourself!” Sari
cried.
I stopped trying to get up and instead focused on
breathing through the pain in my chest. Blindly, I touched the bandage over my
chest and felt something warm and wet. I licked my finger and confirmed that it
was blood. “Am I dreaming?”
“No, you
were
dreaming. You were screaming in
your dream.”
“But I could see. Maybe
this
is the dream.
Maybe everything I tell you, I’m actually telling them.”
“This isn’t a dream. I’m really here, and you really
escaped.”
“It was too easy. The escape was too easy; this has
to be a dream. You were way too calm about meeting the demon. You tricked me
into telling them all about my family.”
“I didn’t trick you! You told me willingly. I don’t
know if you told them, but this is real.”
“I can’t be sure. I can’t even see you. Of course,
you’d never ask me to marry you. That’s proof this is a dream.” I stumbled to
my feet, ignoring the pain, and tried to walk off in any direction that was
away from Sari. Or at least the Sari imposter. Actually, I thought I managed
quite well considering the pain.
“I didn’t ask you to marry me! I was just trying to
encourage you! I mean, I thought we were going to die.”
“But none of it was real. You are actually out there,
free, and far away, while I lay on the operating table with my chest open and a
mad doctor trying to get me to spill my secrets.”
“Then why are you walking away? If you think this is
a dream, what’s the point of walking away?” she asked, obviously exasperated.
“Because I don’t want to tell you any more secrets.”
“Then don’t tell me! Besides, you already told me
everything.”
“I didn’t tell you that Ron has the balance of the
universe inside him or that Mordon’s adopted son, Sen’s father is a future mage
from a world that hasn’t even been created yet.”
“What?! Stop telling me this!” she screamed.
The pain in my chest made me stumble and collapse. I
felt her wrap her arms around me gently and wanted to push her away, but I
couldn’t bring myself to do it. As much as I didn’t want her to see me weak, I
needed comfort.
“I can’t see anything.”
“I know.”
“I’m scared.”
“That’s okay. It’s okay to be afraid; fear makes you
stronger. Fear keeps you on your guard, ready for anything. Just don’t be
afraid of me. I want to help you, but I need your help, too, so just don’t run
from me.”
“I can’t see, I can’t talk to Ron, and I don’t have
magic. I don’t know what’s real.” I was hyperventilating, which only made my
chest hurt worse. This was as bad as when I was little and I couldn’t tell the
difference between my visions and reality.
“I’m real. Your mother will save us soon, so just try
to stay calm.”
“I don’t want to be Noquodi of Raktusha.”
“I don’t know what that is, but I’m sure you don’t
have to be anything you don’t want to be.”
“But Ron wants to. I hate Vretial. He’s like the
opposite of Ron, and that has to be a bad thing, but I can’t disappoint my
brother. If I choose Avoli, then Ron doesn’t get to be Noquodi, but if I choose
Vretial, then I have to see him all the time.”