Authors: Rain Oxford
“No, what?” Ronez asked, confused.
“You have no choice. If you do not give Maslye the
staff, it will create a paradox of a magnitude that even you cannot reconcile.”
She disappeared.
“Maybe this is our chance to save Dad,” I suggested
even as the balance fired up with outrage.
“Explain,” Ronez demanded.
“Pushy,” I commented. Hail widened his eyes at me.
“What?”
“I think you’re more like your grandfather than you
realize.”
I scoffed. “Hail keeps having a vision of our dad
dying. Actually, it’s Mordon who kills him, but Mordon cannot kill him. It’s
impossible.”
Ronez sat back down in the chair and propped the
staff up beside it. “This I might be able to help with. I am a seer, too. I
believe it runs in the family, but only one member of each generation inherits
it.”
“Actually, Hail had surrogate parents. He’s not
biologically your grandson, and I have no visions ever.”
“What about Dylan? Does he ever develop the ability?”
“No.” At least, not that we knew of.
“Good. He would have immediately started developing
the when I died, and the only way you wouldn’t have noticed them was if someone
was stopping them. These visions can save lives, but they can be deceptive. If
you know how to use it, you can see the consequences of someone’s decision or
what happened in the past.”
“Our mother trained us to focus, which made them
clearer, and we can induce them sometimes, but they can still be confusing or
happen at the worst possible time.”
“Stress can induce them because your body sees it as
you trying to make a decision,” Ronez explained. “The problem occurs when you
make a decision and someone else makes a different decision, or when you make a
decision based on a vision you saw. In trying to stop Dylan death, you might do
something that causes the vision to come true when it otherwise would not have
happened.”
“About ten years ago, Dad and Mordon went forward in
time to find an artifact that you made in order to close the gates of the
balance,” Hail said. “They were following the time map you made them. Dad faced
a mage there, who threatened him with a magic staff. This staff. I got a really
bad sense about it and warned Mordon to destroy it, but apparently, Dad
didn’t.”
“That sounds like my kid. So you are wondering if you
shouldn’t give the mage the staff? It makes sense if you get that bad a feeling
from it, and keeping it might prevent your vision from coming true, but the
paradox that will follow can destroy everything.”
“So we just let Dad die?”
“Of course not. My son may not know me, but I have
watched over him his entire life. Tell him what you know and let him do what he
does best. In the meantime, give the mage the staff so Dylan can get it from
him.”
Hail looked at me, waiting for my decision. I nodded.
“How do we get there? Our mother sent us here, but she can’t send us home.”
“I can do it.” He fiddled with his watch and held his
wrist up to the staff as if the watch was scanning the weapon. After a moment,
he gave the staff to Hail, took off the watch, and handed it to me. “This is
the one item I don’t want my son to inherit; I don’t want him to endure that
burden.”
When I took the watch and put it on my left wrist, I
was shocked that it fit. The frame of it was about an inch in diameter and the
band was about half an inch wide. The face of it was a simple black background
with silver hands and a silver frame. On the right-hand side of the background
was a small, gold date stamp. As soon as I clicked the metal clasp shut, the
background changed to stars and a nebula with dozens of colors.
“It adjusted itself,” I said, referring to the
wristband.
“It can do that.”
“Why did the background change?”
“Well, it does prove you’re related to me. Of course,
you’re also identical to Dylan when he was little. The watch only works with
our bloodline. When you are home on your world and in your time, the background
will be blank. When you are off of your home world, it will tell you the date
and time as well as the location.”
“How do I use it?” There were three tiny, silver
knobs on the right side and a gold knob on the left. I desperately wanted to
push the buttons.
“If you push the gold button, it will send you home
to your time, but anyone you are touching will be sent back with you. If you
want to take someone along, you must have skin-to-skin contact. It’s set to the
time and place the staff belongs in. Push the middle silver button and it will
take you where you need to be. Once you give the staff to the mage, press the
gold button to return to your home.”
“But how do I use it for other stuff?”
“Ask your mother, Divina.” When I gaped at him, he
rolled his eyes. “It’s kind of obvious,” he said. I reached for the button, but
he held out his hand to stop me. “I’m glad I got to see you before I died. I
can’t tell you what it means to me to know for sure he’ll be happy.”
“This won’t be the last time you see us,” I said. “We
see you all the time. Yeah, you’re dead, but that never stops you.”
I grabbed Hail’s hand with my left hand and used my
right hand to press the silver button. A clear shield built around us and the
world outside of it disintegrated into an abyss of white. When it reformed, the
shield broke apart and vanished, leaving us in the dark streets of what looked
like a decimated city.
It was night, the only sound was something similar to
jets in the distance, we were surrounded by debris from collapsed buildings,
and there was fire everywhere. Hail pulled me close to him and readied his bow
for a target.
A dragon even larger than Rojan flew over us, filling
the air with fire. “This way!” someone yelled. Out of the debris came a small
man, who took Hail by the arm to try to lead us back with him. Between a dragon
and a stranger, I liked my chances with the mortal man better. I took Hail’s
hand and we followed the man though the wreckage for several minutes. Our trip
was made longer because we kept having to dive under stuff to hide from the
dragons.
We finally came upon a room, like a basement, that
had survived the disaster that the rest of the city had come to. Twelve other
people were hiding in the shelter, including three children, four women, and five
men. The man who had led us here took off the black scarf around his face and
accepted a large gun that one of the others offered him.
“You have come to Dargo at the wrong time, boys,” he
said.
“Dargo? We’re supposed to be on Lore,” Hail said,
panicking.
He frowned at us. “Dargo is this city. This is Lore,
currently at war between the dragons and mages. What world are you from?” He
aimed the weapon at my brother. “And are you mages or dragons?”
I reached out with my magic to tear the weapon from
his hand and flung it across the room. “Do you want to see dragon? Point a gun
at my brother again and I’ll give you hell! Nobody threatens my brother! I’ll
take that gun next time and shove it up your---”
Hail put his hand over my mouth and pulled me into
his arms. “Ron is a firecracker, but he’s not a dragon. We are from Duran.”
“Suspicious lot, they are.”
“Yet you speak English.”
“My father is human, my mother is sago. I was born in
the very beginning of this war.”
“War seems to be going around a lot lately. We are
looking for Maslye, the k---”
“I am Maslye. Who sent you?”
Hail hesitated and looked at me. “The Noquodi of
Earth sent us to give you this,” I said, indicating the staff. The man looked
startled.
“Why?”
“Because there will be less deaths if we give you the
staff now.” Hail held the weapon out and the mage took it hesitantly. “What
started this war?”
“Our god gave the dragons too much power, so the
dragons believed that they could make us into pets.”
“Mages and dragons should be allies,” Hail said. “Maybe
you need more territory.” His face was deep in concentration.
“Mordon gets
snappy when he is overcrowded,”
he told me.
“What we need is a Guardian,” the mage argued.
“You have no Guardian?” I asked, then nodded and took
Hail’s hand. “Have hope. You will have a Guardian. Maybe not soon, but you will
have one.” I pressed the gold button, a shell built around us, and the world
disappeared. When the light broke to form our home and the shield collapsed, we
were alone with Sen, Sari, and our griffins.
“Where is the wand?” Sen asked.
“Dad has it,” I answered. “That was the future,” I
said to my brother. “That means, if Lore has no Guardian, we must have chosen
Raktusha.”
“So those people are suffering without us?”
“Avoli is not a strong enough god to stand on his
own. He needs you.”
Hail froze. “But… he doesn’t want you as his
Guardian.”
“Dad said being a Guardian was like being in the
mafia; you never get out, and nobody messes with the family.”
“When Ghidorah told Ron his mother only kept him to
please his father, Dylan went off on him,” Sen told him. “He said that if
Ghidorah ever spoke to his son like that again, he’s wake up with a dead
whore’s head in his bed.”
“Horse head, Sen, horse head!”
“Really? Is there a difference?”
“Trust me; I speak English better than you.” I turned
back to my brother. “I have learned many things over the last few days,
including that I don’t want to be a Guardian. I also don’t want to work for
Vretial. As long as Avoli is okay with me being with you, I think you should be
his Guardian.”
I sat down at the kitchen table with a sigh and laid
my head on the wood. It was cool, which helped my head a tiny bit.
“That potion should have kept you asleep for hours,”
Edward said.
“I’ll be fine when I get to Mordon. Until then, we’ll
deal with the witch hunter.”
“In your vision, a demon saved a baby, and the witch
hunter helped, right?” Abby asked. “Are you sure this is the same man?”
“Demons can change their appearance, but it would
explain his rising from the grave. I am starting to wonder if he is some psycho
vigilante instead of a religious nut. I don’t think demons have a problem with
witches. Being a demon also explains why his name is hidden. Maybe…”
“Maybe what?” Edward asked when I forgot what I was
saying.
“I don’t know. I’m too tired.”
“What if someone got his name?” Abby asked.
Yeah, that was my thought.
I normally loved to
solve puzzles, but my patience dried up after two days of missed sleep. I
actually felt worse after my nap. And of course, to top it off, Sydney sat
across from me at the table. I was still hallucinating.
“Abigail is a witch, right? Why hasn’t she come up
with a single good idea since we met her?” Sydney asked. “What is her purpose
here?”
I don’t know
. Abby’s phone chirped and I
pulled it out of my pocket.
I had something of yours and returned it. Now it
is your turn. Return what is mine or the witches die.
“Edward, do you know if someone took something from
him? You can’t return a name.” I handed him the phone and he read the text.
“If something was taken from him, it was before Ronez
and I were on his trail.”
“But he isn’t a fool. If we didn’t have it, he
wouldn’t be wasting my time on it, he would be trying to find it himself.”
“So you want to use it to make him back off.”
“It’s that or kill him. He should be punished, but
death is never the answer, especially if he is a demon, which he appears to be.
Let’s find out what was taken from him and we’ll go from there.”
“Can you induce another vision to see what was
taken?”
“I don’t know. Maybe if I touched the object, I would
know. Otherwise, I don’t really have anything to go on.”
“Maybe I can give you something stronger to sleep. Or
we can get ahold Divina and she can make something,” Edward suggested. “You
spent a week away from Mordon on your honeymoon.”
“And I felt sick the last two days of it. Besides,
that was ten years ago. Oh, crap, I need to think of something for our second
honeymoon.”
We spent the next three hours searching the house for
anything that might have been recovered from a witch. It was insanely difficult
because Ronez had numerous magical items in the place. Abby spent an hour
scrutinizing a tiny metal figure in the study, then decided it was a
paperweight only to discover it was a key to a secret compartment that I found behind
the skull painting in the living room.
I found a huge mirror that was covered up in the
basement. Although I felt no energy from it, I couldn’t shake the feeling that
this was something much more than a ridiculously big hunk of glass. Edward
found me staring at it.
“Abigail is upstairs trying to discover the secrets
of a locked jewelry box.”
“I’m glad we brought her along; she’s a huge help.”
“She is dependable and powerful. Her mother is a
nightmare, though. This used to hang in the living room. Your father kept a
curtain draped over it.”
“Mirrors are doorways,” Sydney said. I was tired, but
not an idiot. If my hallucination said it, that meant I knew it and my
subconscious was trying to tell me something. “He must have had a reason to
keep it covered.”
“Maybe he didn’t want something getting out.” I
pulled the curtain back over it. “A mystery for another day.”
Despite all of the weird things that happened around
me growing up, I was absolutely convinced there was no such thing as ghosts…
until I spent a few nights in Ronez’s creepy old house. It wasn’t the strange
sounds, occasional breeze, or even the bloody handprint all over one of the
bathroom windows that swayed me.
I pulled a book out of a chest in my father’s study,
set it aside, and then reach into the chest again. When I pulled out a second
book and went to put it next to the other, the first book was outside my reach.
Other things would move, lights would turn on and
off, doors would open or shut and lock, and something bit me when I reached
behind the fridge. Of course, we couldn’t find anything living, not even a
mouse. Hell, the place didn’t even have spiders.
Sydney disappeared for a while, only to reappear
whenever I sat still. We all convened in the living room, where Edward and Abby
sat on the chairs and I stretched out on the couch. “We’re missing something,”
I said.
“Yeah; the witch hunter’s thing. We don’t even know
what it is,” Abby whined.
“She doesn’t get it. Abigail is just a spoiled little
witch,” Sydney said, appearing next to me on the couch.
“Lay off her,” I said, closing my eyes and groaning
from the pain in my head.
“Huh?” Abby asked.
“Why are you defending her?”
I ignored my hallucination. “I mean that I saw
something. I saw something and I’m too damn tired to…”
“Dylan?”
“What?”
“Are you falling asleep?”
“No.” But I couldn’t open my eyes, either.
“Why are you defending her?” Sydney asked. I never
knew Mordon’s girlfriend was so annoying. “I’m not annoying you.
You
are
annoying you. I’m just the last ditch effort of your subconscious to reason
with you because Mordon isn’t here to help. What did you see?”
“Why can’t I sleep?”
“You need to focus.”
I sat up with difficulty. “Screw this game.” I
focused my mind as best as I could on the witch hunter based off of the picture
on Abby’s phone. Bright light filled the room slowly and it took a lot more
time than usual to feel Earth fall away. The sensation didn’t last long; within
minutes, gravity returned and the light faded. I was in a small hotel room with
Abby, Edward, and the witch hunter. “How did you follow me?”
“You are unfocused, kid,” Edward said.
“Kiro!” the hunter exclaimed with excitement. “It has
been so long.” His face was just as scruffy as it had been in his picture. He
wore a black t-shirt and blue jeans with heavy brown work boots and a long,
black leather trench coat. I thought his outfit was missing a tattered, beaten,
dusty hat.
“Not long enough. I see you are hunting witches
again.”
“It is what I do. But… this isn’t Ronez.”
“Ronez is busy.”
“How many brothers do you have?”
“Ronez was my father,” I corrected the man.
“Wait, what?!” Abby shrieked.
“Well, that is a relief! If I can’t kill Ronez,
killing his son would be even more fun. And I see you have brought me what I
asked for.” He grasped Abby’s arm and pulled her against him before anyone
could act. Just as quickly, he retrieved a knife from some hidden place and
pressed it to her throat.
“Let her go,” Edward growled. I had only seen the
man’s true anger a few times in my life, and it was something no one ever
forgot. The fury in his dark brown eyes was not like the fire in my
temperamental brother, but more like lava. There was no mercy in the man at the
moment. If that wasn’t enough to reduce the witch hunter to quivers, my uncle
pulled his gun from the holster in his jacket. He had it whenever we went on
any serious missions, but I never saw him use it.
“Get the hell off me, you piece of shit! Where is my
sister?!”
“The same place you’re going, witch.” Keeping his
knife against her throat, he reached into her shirt with his other hand and
snapped off her necklace.
“I am so tired of demons,” I said.
“Give that back! That’s mine!”
“It was stolen from me by witches hundreds of years
ago.”
“It’s very pretty,” I said. “My son would appreciate
your taste.”
He snarled. “It was my mother’s.”
“Demons have mothers?” Sydney asked before I could.
Of course, she was in my head, so I guess that made sense. “Why would a demon
value jewelry so much?”
“Because it isn’t jewelry,” I said, gently touching
the spot where my own pentagram usually was. Even if it didn’t look like mine,
it could have been a focal tool of power. Mine could actually retain energy
and even constructed spells, so I would assume his could as well.
“Of course it isn’t jewelry,” the witch hunter sneered.
He held it up and a dark aura emanated from it. Edward shot the witch hunter’s
shoulder, making the demon drop his amulet. Infuriated, the hunter shoved
Abigail at me and lunged at Edward, slashing his knife threateningly.
“Xul, now!”
The Ancient appeared right between the witch hunter
and Edward and the witch hunter didn’t have time to stop before he plowed right
into Xul. They both went down, but their exact moves were cloaked by a burst of
black smoke. I had enough time to worry for my demon’s life before the witch
hunter stood.
There was no mark that I could see or blood gushing
from a wound on the Ancient’s body, but he wasn’t breathing. The witch hunter
had picked up the amulet during his struggle.
“Hello, master.” Even though the words were said with
the witch hunter’s voice, it was the familiar tone I was hoping to hear.
“It worked then?” I asked.
“Barely,” he said, his voice strained. “Even a minor
demon is difficult to restrain and this demon is barely below me in power.”
“He is a demon for sure then?”
“Yes. He is the son of two Ancients, in fact. The
amulet…” he clinched his teeth as if in pain. Clearly, it was difficult for him
to dig into the witch hunter’s mind. With a grunt, he flung the amulet across
the room.
“What’s going on?” Edward asked.
“Zeb is possessing the witch hunter. Where is Maria?”
He closed his eyes and winced. “Don’t recognize the
name.”
“She’s a witch. She’s thirty-five, ginger, has a
tramp stamp of a humming bird,” Abigail described.
“She’s in the basement. The basement has been made up
like a dungeon. He tortured her, but she is still alive.”
“Thank God,” she said.
The hotel has a basement?
“What is the
amulet?” I asked.
“It’s a… basically what the books are. With that
amulet, all the demons… who fight against you in the war… would have the power
of Ancients.”
“So we just dealt a major blow to the demons?”
“Trap. They have a… trap… the chest… I see an
accomplice… His name… Argo---” He was cut off and instant before he dropped to
his knees. Xul sat up then in his own body.
I created a shield around the witch hunter, but it
crumbled on its own because I was too tired to focus my energy anymore. “Did
you get his name?”
Xul shook his head. “I got as much as you did. Demon
names are long for a reason. I couldn’t get anything else on the trap other
than that he has one. There was an accomplice, but I didn’t find a name.”
“Did you see him clearly?”
“Yes. Give me the power to flash and I will find
him.”
“No,” I said. The demon looked devastated. I knelt clumsily
next to him, panting harder than he was. “I can’t keep giving you more power
whenever it suits me. I will still require that you protect my family, and you
will still be given as much of my power as you need to save them, but I’m
giving you your power back. Full time.”
I put my palm on his forehead, closed my eyes, and
focused on the power inside him. I could feel the safety lock I put on his
magic in order to control him. When I first made the deal with him, I had been
worried that he would betray me. It was difficult to unlock it, either because
it had been so long or because I was so exhausted, but it finally gave.
The Ancient vanished before I could remove my hand. I
wondered if I would ever see him again, but he had earned his freedom many times
over.
The witch hunter dived for the amulet, but Abby beat
him to it and all he got for his efforts was a kick in the face. Not missing a
step, the demon snatched up his knife, turned, and sprang at Edward.
I felt the familiar presence before I saw the
surprise on the witch hunter’s face. The demon froze as if he hit a wall, then
his eyes slipped closed and he collapsed. Mordon stood behind him with blood
dripping from the black azurath blade. Finally, the demon burst into ash.
“I guess my work is done,” Sydney said an instant
before she vanished.
I opened my mouth to say something, probably
sarcastic, but lethargy overcame me and my eyes closed of their own accord.
Sen
“Maybe I would like you better if I had a daughter.”
“You would prefer it if I were a girl?” I asked,
surprised. My mother ranted on my every flaw, genetic or otherwise, but my
gender had never been a problem before.
“No. I do not want you to be a girl. I just think if
I had another child, a real dragon child, then I could pretend you were
adopted.”
“Stop picking on him, Miko,” Mordon growled.
She looked at him and opened her book, not
acknowledging his command but following it. It was a mystery to me why Mordon
stayed with my mother. Mordon could never love her, but she would cling
desperately to him because she knew he was the best she would ever get. My
mother was pretty much unlovable. She was a precious gem, created with flawless
beauty, but her gift was also her curse, for like a jewel, she was only meant
to be admired and envied. Although she was artistically perfect, Kaori-mor
Emiko was not meant to be loved or kept forever.
She was still my mother, as much as she often wished
she wasn’t. For the most part, she tried not to hold my father against me, but
it was in her nature to pick apart all my flaws as if they were personal
insults to her.