Of course, he said he wouldn’t lie to his apprentice.
The fact was, somewhere deep inside Kiro, he felt that Dylan was his closest
remaining connection to Ronez. While Kiro may not yet have figured out how
closely related they really were, Dylan was still maturing and would eventually
look extremely similar to his father.
As Kiro was distracted with concern for the corrupted
child, something else was wrong; Vretial took Dylan. “Things are about to get
sticky. Check on your apprentice,” I said.
“Divina! Can you get me to him?”
“Yes. Protect Dylan, but I need you to distract
Vretial.” I didn’t bother to tell him that there would be a time distortion
because of Vretial’s energy. It could be a few seconds, or it could be half an
hour.
The moment I flashed Kiro out, Krael burst through
the door. He looked at Tomie and then at me with frightened, wild hope.
“She will be fine, but she is no longer immortal; she
will live her life, grow up, grow old, and---” I was cut off by the man’s
crushing hug.
“Thank you.” He pulled back, reached into his bag,
and pulled out Erono’s book and both of Vetial’s books. “Ronez trusted you?” he
asked.
I stopped myself from reaching out to the book. “He
did. And he died for it,” I whispered.
“Woman, I watched him die. I was the last person he
spoke to… he did not regret his death. He regretted leaving his loved ones
behind, but he knew he was dying for a good cause. If you were that cause…” he
handed me the book, “I will trust you as well. You will defeat Vretial.”
I smiled sweetly. “I am surprised it is not my Guardian
you are encouraging. After all, Dylan is Ronez’s son.” I enjoyed his stunned
expression for a moment before returning to the matter at hand. “There is just
one more thing before you run off to live a happy life with your sister.”
“What is it?” he asked.
“Where are the people? Why is the planet empty of
people?”
“Because as soon as Vretial knew he could lose, he
ripped holes to all of the worlds and moved the people from both of his worlds
to live elsewhere.”
I was in shock.
He is that powerful?
“Why did
he do that?”
He gave me a guarded look that could have meant
anything. Then he gathered Tommie into his arms and started to walk out without
answering me.
“Wait. When did Vretial realize he could lose?” I
asked. Maybe I should not believe in my brother so much.
Krael turned back to me and smirked. “When Dylan
looked him in the eye and was not afraid.”
* * *
I tried to draw power from Erono’s world, from any
world, but only mine would respond. Even though I was connected to Erono’s
world, his power prevented me from syphoning. I asked my brothers for help, but
none answered.
My own power was not enough. Whatever it was my young
Guardian was meant to be, meant to do, he was not ready. My only option was to
take Avoli’s power away from Vretial. I could either take the world for myself,
or I could destroy the world, keeping Avoli from ever regaining it. If I took
control of it, I would have too much power. It would burn out my body and
probably my mind.
But could I defeat my brother first? For Dylan’s
life, I could, but then my world would be under threat as well. I opened
Avoli’s book and sent an apology to my most carefree brother. A sense of peace
washed over me. It was what he wanted.
I cut my wrist with a mere thought and held my arm
over the book. I flipped from page to page, spreading my blood over the ink.
Finally, it was done. I had destroyed a world, an empty one, but a creation of
art.
I felt Vretial’s sharp anger, followed by Dylan’s
unbearable distress. I turned my attention to them in time to see Ronez’s last
words. I knew Ronez did not have long, but they should have had more time.
What’s more, Ronez’s spirit was being turned over to
the Land of the Dead. I would never be able to bring him back if that happened.
I could trap him here; bind him to Earth, or Dylan, or his brother. He would be
as he was; able to see and hear people, but not be seen or heard. But was that
any way to live? He loved Dylan so much, but if I let him go, it would be
thousands of years before they saw each other again, if ever. There were so
many reasons for and against, but he was slipping away so quickly.
The decision was made.
Dylan
Divina didn’t sound like herself at all as she
appeared behind Vretial. She didn’t look even like herself. Her eyes were solid
black. She no longer looked cute and beautiful; she looked downright dangerous.
Her body was visibly radiating power and the air around her actually crackled
with heat. Her voice echoed unnaturally off the walls and held a sort of
controlled anger that made me sweat. She wasn’t the sweet, soft woman who had
kissed me just a few hours before.
Edward pulled me behind him slowly and backed away.
The chair Vretial was sitting on was suddenly gone and he was facing her.
Vretial made a sound of joy. “I knew you were better
than the others said. You were always the one who knew when to move and when to
sit still. Too bad you weren’t on my side,” he said. She raised her hand and
black fire shot out at him. Instead of it engulfing him, it turned into of
shower of tiny, black jewels. “How sad that you think such simple magic can
destroy me. You thought taking one of my worlds would weaken me enough for you
to win, but it didn’t. You should have destroyed both worlds, or taken them for
yourself.”
“No,” she said. “After I destroy you in a fair fight,
I will give your world to Avoli.”
He laughed. “Fair… you will never be as powerful as
me.” Like lightning, something bright red shot from Vretial and struck Divina.
Before she could recover, he struck her again and again.
Divina needed help. Vretial could not be allowed to
win. I reached out for my book with everything I had, and it reached back. I
used it to search for my connection with Duran and Dios. Finally, after several
agonizing moments, when Divina started to collapse, I felt them. Every attack
Divina used got shot down, and every one of Vretial’s attack was taking her
down a little further. She needed help.
With a desperate call for help, I drew the magic of
Earth into me and then straight to Divina. The more I pulled and pushed, the
faster the flow became, until I was a river of energy into Divina. And this was
not regular energy; it was concentrated and beautiful.
Then I felt new energy joining Earth’s inside me.
Duran was answering me. Soon Dios’s magic joined in. The goddess stood to her
feet. She shot a bolt of black lightning at Vretial, and it hit him square in
the chest. He went down.
“What are you doing?!” Edward asked me.
I could not speak. Now it was Divina who was on the
offensive.
I thought I would burst with the strength of the
power flowing through me, but then I felt new connections form. Foreign worlds
were giving me power to give to Divina. I would have passed out if I could
have. I didn’t even realize I had broken out in fever until Edward grabbed me.
His skin was like ice, but he quickly let me go with a yelp.
“Stop!” he yelled.
I tried. There was no slowing the flow; it was too
strong. I tried pushing the energy back, keeping my body from taking it in. I
hurt too much to concentrate.
Edward grabbed me again. For a few seconds, it hurt,
but then the flow slowed and it was like there was a comforting ice pack all over
me that dulled the pain. The flow came to a trickling stop, but Edward did not
let me go until my fever broke. Then I had to grab onto him because my legs
wouldn’t hold me up.
Divina was all-powerful at this point. She took a
slow step towards Vretial and there was a loud snapping sound from the static
shock that followed her movement. I felt really sick.
She raised her right hand and Vretial slowly slipped
to the floor. He sat on his knees with his arms limp, his eyes closed, and his
head up. He was so calm about it. The light went out and for a moment there was
darkness.
Then, with a fascinating effect, black fire flowed
out of Vretial’s body and dimly lit the room. There was enough light to see
that Divina’s eyes were no longer black; her irises were red, yellow, and
glowed like fire. Vretial didn’t make a sound the entire time Divina was doing
her magic.
The black fire was still rising from him as he fell
back. It was only seconds later that the last of the fire rose and faded away,
leaving everything in dark. Then, to my disgust, Vretial’s body lit with
regular, bright fire. That was the end of the almighty dark god, who was the
object of fear even for the other gods. The end of all his actions.
Probably…
Divina fell to her knees and I went to her before
Edward could stop me, but I couldn’t get close to her; the power was too
strong. “Divina? Are you okay?” She looked up at me with pure black eyes.
“Careful!” Edward cried.
“Get away,” Divina said.
Her eyes flashed yellow a split second before I was
flying backwards into the wall. I hit hard enough to disorient me and I slid to
the floor. Warm liquid trickled down my neck. Edward was by my side instantly.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, not able to focus on anything.
“When she defeated Vretial, his power became hers.
She can’t take the power of the two worlds. Erase Vretial’s name.” With that,
he was gone.
I found a book in my hand, but it wasn’t mine or
Edward’s, so I opened it and tried as hard as I could to focus. There was only
one signature in it, of which was so foreign that it could only belong to
someone ancient. “How?” I asked.
I saw Edward talking to her and she was standing
again. He was trying to calm her. “Blood.”
That made absolutely no sense to me. Fortunately, it
must have to my body, because my hand went to my head, came back bloody, and
wiped the blood all over the signature. I thought I was seeing things when the
name and blood disappeared.
The effect was instantaneous; the field of power around
Divina vanished. She started to fall, but Edward caught her and helped her onto
the chair that liked to disappear and reappear. She leaned her head back and
Edward was suddenly helping me up. I tried to hold onto the book, but it was
impossible as it suddenly turned to sand. That confused me.
Edward turned me to face him and held me up. “Are you
okay?” he asked.
I tried not to sway. “I’m fine,” I lied. Edward
helped me over to Divina and I fell to my knees, but managed to stay in an
upright position. “Divina? Are you okay?”
She slowly lifted her head to look from Edward to me.
She swayed and blinked as if she couldn’t focus well. “Who are you?” she asked.
I fell back, but Edward didn’t seem surprised, only
upset. “He’s your Guardian. I’m the Guardian of Duran.”
She shook her head, then tried to steady herself.
“No. Ronez… My Guardian… What happened?”
* * *
Edward attempted to explain to her what happened, but
she argued with everything. Though she seemed to have an idea who Edward was,
she had no idea who I was, and she was convinced that Ronez was the Guardian,
but had no problem believing he was dead. It was like talking to someone who
couldn’t hear you completely; she didn’t seem to be in the room with us, or
even in reality. I myself was having trouble focusing.
Edward kept insisting we had to get home before this
world was destroyed, but I kept trying to sleep. By the time he somehow got us
home, I was half unconscious. I passed out completely soon after, despite
Edward’s pleads. I was pretty sure he was trying to keep me awake. It did occur
to me that I wouldn’t wake up if I passed out, but that didn’t matter to me.
The empty blackness that closed in on my world promised my escape from the pain
and confusion.
* * *
I woke up to the sweet scent of Divina. I didn’t open
my eyes. Though I couldn’t remember why, I knew I didn’t want to face reality
just yet. I just relaxed there on the comfortable bed and enjoyed her wonderful
scent. She smelled like berries, vanilla, and oddly… Indian spices.
“How’s your head?” Edward asked. I opened my eyes and
everything came back.
While I reached up to touch the bandage around my
head, I tried not to cry out and tried harder not to heave. I was back home; in
my bed in the bedroom of the cabin in the woods of Shomodii on Duran. Vretial
was gone, Divina was lying next to me, asleep, and Edward sat on his bed across
the room.
“It hurts. Are you okay?”
“Moderately uninjured. You’ve both been out for a
couple of days. Try to take it easy.” he said as I heaved myself up.
It was a very stupid move, but once I was halfway up,
I had to go the rest of the way. Everything spun. Edward moved surprisingly
quickly and handed me a piece of Wigknot bark. I tried to lift it to my mouth,
but needed help.
“Divina… she’s…”
“I know who she is. Do you remember what happened?”
he asked.
“Divina killed Vretial, I erased the only name in his
book, and she lost her memory,” I said.
“Close. She didn’t lose her memory, she mildly lost
her mind. She couldn’t handle the power of the second world. I think Vretial
could handle it because of the way his mind worked. The other gods have
supposedly been informed of what happened. What you did enabled her to kill
Vretial. I felt you calling on Duran for help, and I felt it answer your call.
You were… Never question your Guardian ability again. You are more powerful in your
determination to help and do what is right than any Guardian has ever been. How
you erased the dead god’s name is beyond me.”
“What happened… else?” I asked.
“What you weren’t there for?” he asked. I tried to
nod and failed miserably. “While you were in the caves with Divina and Shio, I
was escaping from the dungeon. I found my way to the little girl that you left
for me and removed her memories. Divina removed her immortality. She’s upstairs
and she’ll be on her way to Anoshii tonight, along with her brother. I know
someone who can adopt her. I also killed Shio, sort of. Vretial thought we were
distracting him so Divina could get the book, but in reality, we were
distracting him so Krael could get it.”