Chapter 9: Chapter 9

Alinanda’s words were stuck in my head on repeat. Over and over I kept hearing them—“The Jólu Elves, they were wiped out by The Dryads decades ago.” I can’t believe I was so stupid. I knew Esmeray was a Mhetymorf, I was so proud of it in fact, but not once did it cross my mind that Varin’s family could be too. I was foolish to think that Nix hadn’t started this onslaught on Vol decades or even centuries ago. Many islands have been lost to The Void, so many in fact, that an entire war was waged against her and her island of Fadsper—in the end, Fadsper was banished and Nix was imprisoned, but I knew she was never going to stay sealed long, she is an Original after all.

Maeve and I are currently on our way to a Dryad Outpost somewhere in the West. Maeve told me she was heading there herself in search of her mother’s whereabouts, when and I quote “There was a stench in the air that I hadn’t smelt in over five hundred years and I had to see it to believe it.” Maeve, like me, is a Demi, one who I have known for centuries. Her father is a Tiefling from The Free City of Iduon, a small island nation in the Southern Hemisphere of Arrithia, and her mother—well, let’s just say there is a reason Maeve and Nix happen to be on the same island at the moment.

Maeve doesn’t hate her mother, I don’t think she does, but she isn’t too fond of her work, even if her work is just her existence. Nix is The Void, she is a product of this universe and she has a place in it, her place just happens to be a harbinger of death. Maeve knows her mother isn’t doing it for pleasure but for survival and balance—hasn’t stopped her from trying to kill her for the last seven hundred years.

“Hey Maeve, if you kill your mom, won’t that leave a gap in the cosmic balance of things?”

She looked back at me, even with the smoke covering her face, I knew what it was making of me, her words were very clear. “Did you just try to sound smart?”

“I’ll have you know, I am super smart.”

“You just used the word super to describe your level of intelligence,” She turned back around. “Take that as you will.”

I stifled a laugh and teleported again, doing my best to keep up with her. I may be able to teleport, making me, in the technical sense, faster than Maeve—but I still struggle to keep up with her across long distances—and yes, she reminds me of it constantly. That’s why I like to do things like this.

“Hey, Maeve,” I called out. I quickly moved my hand outward just as she was turning around. I teleported in front of her, firing a fireball from within my palm. “Catch!”

It soared through the air, aimed directly at the back of her head. The ball of flames touched her hood and passed right through to the other side where it toppled into a tree, setting it ablaze for the briefest of moments. Maeve turned her head around abruptly, I could feel the glare beneath the smoke, cutting into me just like daggers.

I teleported three times, trying to escape the incoming wrath, but like I said; I’m just not fast enough. Maeve appeared behind me. She wrapped her arms around my chest and her legs around my own. 

“Caught you.”

I teleported away, keeping her locked to my back. I pulled us into the sky, far above the clouds where ice will start covering your body if you stray too long and where someone who hates the cold will retreat.

“I know this move,” I teleported us again, keeping us locked in place. “And I ain’t letting you do it.” I kept teleporting, making sure to keep us in the air.

Maeve tightened her grip, but it wasn’t because of the cold.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Oh yeah.” I teleported us another hundred meters into the air. “You’re afraid of heights.”

*

“Master Protus.”

“Fontaine.”

“You went against my wishes, we were to use the boy to wage our wa–.”

“Silence. Do not speak as if you are an Original, nor speak as if Xayddryrth will not try to kill the both of us the second he learns of our true intentions.”

“You act like he doesn’t already have his suspicions.”

“We will use him to kill the others and when we are done, we will kill him, it really is that simple Fontaine. You want to rule Arrithia and I wish to rule The Armada System, and Lord wishes to rule this entire Universe, we all have our goals, and we all have our PARTS, now, leave me, he and the girl are coming up on Koko'o'yo, I want to know how he fairs against them after all these years.”

“As you wish, Master Protus, as you wish.”

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*

“How much longer?” Varin turned to her brother in the cart. “And if you say just a little bit one more time I swear, it’s been a little bit, a lotta bit.” Varin’s words fell on deaf ears as her brother continued to look out the window. “Hello? Moon’s Light to Quade? You there?” Again, he did not move, he did not so much as blink. Varin moved closer, positioning herself in front of him. She watched his eyes, examining his pupils as the Moon reflected on and off of them—still no response, not even a dilation. “Okay then.” She moved back to her seat, going to open the door when she found that it was locked. “Hey now, not cool, Quade come on.” When Varin turned back around, her brother was gone. “Quade?” She looked back to the window, hoping the door being locked was a mistake, but when she turned around, everything had changed.

Varin was now standing in the middle of nothingness. Wherever she looked there was nothing but white. She saw no ceiling, no walls, and even the floor she stood on was nowhere to be seen. She called out into the void, only for her words to fade away just as they came out like they were being sucked out of existence.

The silence was deafening.

“Varin, Princess of Vol, my oh my, how I have been waiting for you.”

The voice that curled into the area was raspy at first, seemingly covered in a layer of fog, but as it continued on, it became—almost younger.

“I have been waiting a very long time for you my dear.”

Varin turned around to where the voice had come from and was met with its owner.

“No…you’re her…you’re…”

“Nix, darling, Higher of The Void, cut the stutter, it’s a bad habit, especially for a Princess.”

Nix was just like any other Higher when it came to her stature—a twelve-foot-tall Goddess. She was draped in a long black gown that rippled like flames at the bottom—it covered her entire body, keeping her skeleton frame hidden—when it swayed enough, you could see the white bones that made up her body and the black smoke that made up her organs—her face was quite the opposite, in fact, it was beautiful. Her skin was a soft ebony, with her eyes a bright silver, and hair that curled down past her shoulders in a mix of blues and blacks.

She stuck her hand out to Varin, moving her index finger outward from under the cloak. The bone stretched out and touched Varin’s chest—a bright spark of purple erupted from the tip of her finger, sending Nix backward a few meters. “I beg your pardon?” She pulled her finger to her face, watching as purple flames danced on the tip of it, slowly growing their way down onto her entire hand. “Amaterasu, but how?” Nix’s words had barely left her mouth when a blinding light filled the entire area.

“I would just like everyone here to know that I am a genius.”

Varin’s eyes widened at the new, but familiar voice that filled the area.

“ZERO!” She exclaimed.

Maeve was still wrapped around me, I had moved us up to the point where even I was having trouble breathing and was just about to teleport back down when the spell I put on Varin activated.

“As I said, I’m a genius.”

Nix closed her hand, extinguishing the flames around it. “You!”

“Me.”

*

“He did it again, didn’t he, Master Protus? He changed the timeline.”

“Yes, it would seem Xayddryrth is far more unpredictable than we thought, well, I guess it will be his final test for us, if he can beat an Original, then we can proceed with the next phase of our plan, I might even allow you to take the lead, how does that sound Fontaine?”

“It would be an honor sir, a great, great honor.”

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