The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft

CH APPROACHING SHADOWS

Late that afternoon, Serapha came in to check on Fleur. She chatted happily about misleading Demona into believing Fleur was playing hide and seek with the other young royals in the maze and gardens. By the end of the evening, nearly one hundred were playing and no one seemed to know whom the seekers were and who were hiding. It was chaos and the perfect distraction; no one even knew that she had left because one of the Odini mages had created illusions of her running here and there before she just vanished into thin air. No one could catch her. Everyone seemed to believe the story of her being an orphaned and sickly fosterling raised by Yllumina to be an oracle, and that Fleur and the Prince had known each other since childhood.

“How can they possibly believe that?” Fleur demanded in disgust at how gullible some people were.

Serapha laughed, “If it is in the rumor river, people will believe it. Suddenly, everyone had met you at least once over the years. No one even seems to care that it’s all false. And Lord Admos had received no less than fifteen requests to court you, in spite of your betrothal to Oren.” She grinned evilly at Fleur as she announced, “You have even replaced Demona as number one on the most eligible ladies list.”

“Seriously? No one even met me before last night!” Fleur was flabbergasted.

“My sister is fuming! That’s not all. Demona demanded, for my father, to know everything about you. So, I truthfully told her all the good and happy things I knew about you. Everything!” Serapha cackled happily, admitting, “When she demanded to know if you and Yurieth were lovers, I told her no and asked her if she was jealous. She... she got so mad... she threw a plate at me.” Serapha dissolved into giggles, “I’ve never seen her jealous of anyone.”

Instead of laughing with her, Fleur sat contemplatively thinking until Serapha got her composure back. The Fleur revealed, “If Kalyssa hadn’t started crying, we would have made a liar of you.”

“Wait... what? Abrieth said you kissed, and Yurieth left because he was upset about it.” Serapha’s eyes were wide enough Fleur could make them out through the haze that clouded her vision.

Fleur shrugged, explaining, “It was a lot more than a simple kiss. I needed help to get out of my dress and one thing led to another...” Fleur revealed everything up to the point she had locked herself in her room, then fled to the Tear worksite to keep herself from going to Yurieth’s bed.

“What Kaleth and I shared was amazing, the stuff of romantic stories. People still talk about the miraculous love story of the Guardian and the Oracle like some kind of sealed ones fairytale. Of how we met when I… how we found each other through time.” Fleur paused trying not to reveal too much because she knew they all remembered a little bit from this time, and she didn’t want to risk contaminating the future. “Anyway, there was an incident after his death when Yuri and I both succumbed to our loneliness and grief. For a short time, we were so happy, but then the reality of the war came back, and it changed everything between us. It felt like because we succumbed, we became each other’s weakness. We had to pretend it didn’t happen because it was too intense for our friendship to survive. Then the war ended, and it happened again. It shouldn’t have happened because we were both still grieving Kaleth. I... I don’t want a repeat. My biggest fear is that I will go home, share my memories with him, and...” She stopped because she didn’t want to say it.

“And he won’t want you then like he wants you now,” Serapha extrapolated. “Aetherians are so restrained in their intimacy. Xelusians no longer care about those boundaries. Physical passions are acted on without regard to consequence. Some females have conceived as young as 150, but those children are simply terminated if their grandparents are unwilling to provide for them.” She shook her head, before continuing, “Abrieth always treated me respectfully, refusing intimacy until I knew I was loved for me and not my body. He held me with gentleness and that was part of why I fell so deeply in love with him and not just because we were sealed ones. He showed me I wasn’t an object to be groped and desired, I was a living being, worthy of love. Something my mother tried to teach us before she was bled for the altars. After the war, my sister was always trying to seduce Yurieth, she didn’t understand how Aetherians felt about love and intimacy and could only pretend for so long. She never wanted to marry him, she just wants his children because of some prophecy of the children of Adamos ruling many worlds. She could never love a child as our mother loved us, or anyone for that matter. She is too much like our father and grandmother.”

“Demona doesn’t change in the future, she is just as heartless,” Fleur told her softly, then she took Serapha’s hand, “But neither do you. You’re still as kind and wonderful as you are now. During our imprisonment, you saved my sanity, Abrieth made me laugh, and Yurieth sacrificed his own strength to gather the things that kept me alive and allowed for my escape. Everyone thought I was mad when I insisted on going back to rescue you all, but I couldn’t leave you there. I had to save you.”

“You told Yllumina that we don’t remember our lives here?” Serapha sounded afraid.

“Don’t worry, you know who you are and who you are to each other. It’s just the day to day stuff, but much of your knowledge comes back as you study. We thought you were an Aetherian Healer who had studied Xelusian Culture. Your intuition remembers what you know even if your conscious thoughts do not. Abe and Yuri both recover their skills too. You don’t remember me at all except as Yuri's lost beloved, and almost nothing from the war or building the Tear. The important thing is to love each other and don’t lose hope.” Fleur prayed Serapha would remember her last words.

“How... how does Yurieth not know you?” Serapha asked, then added, “He is your sealed one.”

Fleur shook her head, she weighed what to reveal and worded her response carefully. “I look very different then. He thinks Fleur and I are different people. He didn’t know what happened to Fleur. He only remembers Fleur in one or two memories, events which haven’t happened yet. Like he vaguely remembers Roserae and his daughters on their last day, he blamed himself for their deaths. He spends years having nightmares about all those he lost in the war. The prison, it affects all our minds, but our souls survive.”

Serapha wiped her tears, “It sounds terrible, worse than my childhood.”

“I won’t lie to you, it will be, but you will survive, and I promise I will come and save you because I already did go back to save you.” Fleur put her hands on either side of Serapha’s face. “Your knowledge of the Darkness and its Shadows means we will win. Your horrible childhood becomes a blessing in the last war because you know things no one else does.”

“I am so happy to be your future friend and future sister,” Serapha declared, suddenly hugging Fleur.

“You’re my friend and sister now, Pha,” Fleur assured her.

“Pha? That’s cute. You’ve called me that before. I like it.” Serapha wiped away her tears.

Fleur patted her arm, “I am glad you are here with me, so I don’t have to miss you as I miss so many others, especially my son and daughters.”

“Tell me about them... I won’t remember anyway.” Serapha begged but Fleur resisted the temptation to give more than a vague answer.

“I can’t… I… I wish I could. Just know that our family loves you so much. You are our hope when we struggle.”

Later that evening as they prepare for bed, Serapha told Abrieth of her sister’s jealous reaction. They were laughing when Fleur’s screams echoed through the manor. Abrieth put his full strength against the locked door and it shattered inward. Serapha rushed passed him, followed by Adamos, as Abrieth scrambled to his feet. What they saw horrified them all. A kneeling agonized Fleur was on the balcony surrounded by wisps of black smoke with sparks of dark static crackling in the air around her. Her scars were visibly darkened, her hair had turned black, and her eyes glowed red.

Fleur swiped at the smoky tendrils with long black nails, hissing, “You can’t have me... I won’t submit!” The weird black static sparked at her and she screamed in pain before sending out a pulse of light to drive it back. “NO!... No... No... I will never be yours again!”

Yurieth breathed out in horror from his father’s right, “What is happening to her?” No one had heard or seen him arrive.

The static and smoke suddenly coiled around her like a serpent and she cried out painfully, her clawed hands drew the energy into an orb between her fingers. One hand shot skyward and she cast the dark energy away. They all looked up and for the first time noticed there was a great dark seam in the sky. It shrank as something like a negative lightning bolt struck it.

She staggered to her feet and screamed at the gaping void where no stars shone. “Go away! You can’t come here; you won’t take me!”

Serapha rushed through the dark mist, glowing gold and cried out in pain as she seized Fleur in a hug. “I love you, sister. Resist!” The golden glow of her healing magic pushing the darkness back and trying to strengthen Fleur.

A great bolt of black lightning fell toward them and several shield glyphs appeared above Fleur as she stood between the onslaught and Serapha, Fleur absorbed the blast as the last glyph shattered, redirecting it, and shouting in staccato words. “You. Won’t. Kill. Her.”

The shock wave of the energy rebounding toward the rift forced everyone else to a knee. Abrieth launched himself to the side and managed to put his body between Serapha and the wall as a second violent blast knocked his beloved away from Fleur. He was hurt and Serapha was stunned as she lay in his arms struggling to stay conscious. Oren and Oshay rushed out onto the balcony. Fleur had been driven to her knees by the impacted but she stood again, swaying. Oren immediately went to Serapha and Abrieth. Oshay held out his hand, chanting, and an enormous shield glyph appeared above them. The black lightning shattered it easily and Fleur hissed in pain, clawing at the energy that tried to surround her.

“No, Shadz! Help Oren!” Her words were in her strange birth language. “Get the twins and our families away!”

“My lady, as you command,” the young lord bowed, answering in the same dialect, then he bolted into the house. They could hear him shouting orders to the house staff to prepare to leave.

“Daisy, what can we do?” Adamos asked desperately in the strange language.

Yurieth looked at them both, he did not understand what his father said but she obviously did because she looked at him with pained, pleading eyes.

“Help me, Adamos. The Darkness wants me. I don’t want to go back. I... I need my light,” she begged as black tears ran down her face from her glowing red eyes.

“Yurieth, do you still have her stone?” Adamos demanded harshly in Aetherian.

“Yes, father,” Yurieth couldn’t stop staring at her, he couldn’t mask his horror at her change, watching as she clawed at wisps of shadow and nothingness trying to touch her as though they burned.

“We need to place it around her neck, or we may lose her this night.” Adamos declared.

Showers of dark static sparked at her and she screamed, clawing at the shoulders of her nightdress. His father glowed and pushed the smoky mist away from Fleur with the power of his oracle magic.

Yurieth approached Fleur cautiously, and she looked up at him, begging in a broken tone, “Please... please help me...”

“I am, be still,” he said expressionlessly, as he knelt in front of her. He loathed to touch her as he tied her oracle stone around her neck. Suddenly, it flashed blindingly for several seconds.

“Thank you,” she sobbed, falling against him and clutching his shirt as she trembled violently. The dark mist and energy was gone and only a fine black dust remained.

Yurieth put his arms around her and helped her to stand because she seemed too weak to do it on her own, but he wanted nothing more than to release her and never touch her again. Her transformation into something like the dark queen remained, obscene and terrible. He cursed himself that he had almost let another dark one seduce him as she looked up at him with glowing red eyes.

“It’s over the towers. It’s coming to hurt everyone. To feed...” She shuddered burying her face in his chest. Her words were haunted, “I can feel its hunger.”

“What do you require to defeat this shadow, Oracle?” Yurieth’s cold and formal tone has Adamos looking at him worriedly.

“We have to get the families away, then disperse the shadow, and close the rift.” She murmured into his shirt. “Before it starts to harvest this place.”

“Father?”

“I heard.” Adamos was still eyeing him, perplexed and cautious. “We will require a short time to finish preparing, little flower. You should change into something warm; we are going to the high mountains. Yurieth, come with me.”

Yurieth untangled himself from Fleur and stalked away, glad to be rid of her filthy touch. Only a day ago, he enjoyed it, now it only made him feel cold rage against having been manipulated again. He had almost betrayed everything he was by falling in love with a dark magic wielder. He raged because he knew his parents knew, they had had to know. Everything he felt was based on their lies. He turned to glance back, seeing Fleur in Serapha’s embrace with her unnaturally dark hair and red eyes only reinforced his hatred of what she was, a siren.

Downstairs, the household quickly finished preparations to evacuate. Upstairs, Serapha helped a shaking Fleur into her favorite green dress and stuffed the rest of her winter clothes into a bag before handing it to Abrieth. Fleur went back out on the balcony to watch the event horizon of the rift. Her oracle stone glowed protectively around her neck as she slowly began to change back from being shadowed. She couldn’t feel Prince Lucif watching her curiously because of the rift above.

Prince Lucif tipped his head as he observed the woman he hoped would soon be the vessel of their queen. She was beautiful and so much more powerful than he expected. He could understand why the great Huntsman Lord Yurieth would prefer her; even over Lucif’s own beautiful and powerful daughter, Demona. Lady Fleur was a sleeping goddess. As the ritual to summon the Devourer to this place continued, he rubbed his jaw thoughtfully, he must get Fleur to accept the Dark Queen willingly and to do so he must get her away from the House of Adamos and its Huntsman.

“Yurieth, a word in my study,” Adamos calm voice implied a request but Yurieth knew it was not. Once they were alone, his father’s eyes were hard. “You will help Fleur with whatever she needs to dispel this Darkness. We are not yet finished preparing.”

“You cannot ask that of me, did you not see what she became?” Yurieth retorted hotly. “How could we have not seen it when she first arrived?”

“Do you not understand the teachings of your childhood?” Adamos fired back in cold reprimand. “An oracle’s power is dependent on love!”

“She’s a siren!”

“She is not! The darkness tried to claim her tonight and failed. She is one of us, she belongs to the light, and you will help her,” Adamos ordered.

“I won’t. She is just like Demona...” Yurieth argued.

Suddenly his head jerked as he was slapped hard enough to stagger him back a step.

Serapha hissed at him hatefully, “Fleur is nothing like Demona. You know nothing about her or my sister if you could say that!” He was shocked when he was suddenly at the tip of his brother’s sword.

“You will help her, or I will kill you myself for being a fool and a coward!”

“Serapha, give me back my sword,” Abrieth said cautiously, he had never seen his sealed one act with such rage and violent intent. She turned quickly and thrust it at him before whirling to face Yurieth again. Grabbing the front of his coat, she shook him, spitting her fear and rage into words. “That thing in the darkness above is the Devourer and only solid obsidian can protect us. If it comes here, everyone in the city will die! The wastelands of my world were created when that thing fed on those who refused the blood mages! Fleur partially sealed the gate with its own dark energy, but only light can dispel it completely and block its entry to this world unless it is fed... She loves you; she has for a century. She will need your love to have the power to seal the gate. Hate my sister, hate me, hate our people all you want, but I will not allow you to hate her!” She was screeching but the last words. “I will not allow your blind prejudice to kill everyone here!”

“Enough Serapha,” Adamos commanded pulling her into his arms, “Ease yourself, daughter,” he murmured, hugging her.

“He doesn’t understand, Adamos,” She wept.

“He will. Calm yourself and return to Fleur, she will need you to strengthen her as she battles this creature. Abrieth, tell Oren, Yurieth will have need of him too.”

“Father... I wo...” Yurieth started.

“You will!” Adamos snapped at him harshly. “You will help her overcome it to save the city and prevent the fall of our kingdom, or we will fail. Is your foolhardy honor more important than your kingdom?”

Yurieth’s jaw ticked in rage, but he acquiesced. “Only this once,” he growled back at his father, showing the defiance of his youth.

He turned on his heel and stormed after Abrieth, Adamos sank into his chair with his pinching the bridge of his nose between his brows as Yllumina came in, she knelt and placed her hand on his arm. “My love, have patience.”

He cupped her cheek, “My golden one, why must everything be a battle with our eldest? Why must be he be so filled with resentment? What she can do matters more to him than that she loves him.”

Yllumina reached up and pushed a lock of silver-streaked golden hair over his ear, “He is much like my brother, Yavid was. Stubborn and so determined to do what is right and honorable, he can’t see that sometimes the most valuable things exist beyond his rigid beliefs.” Her golden eyes were so sad as they held his silver ones. “He will realize too late that she is his heart, and in their far future, he will almost surrender his life, seeking his hope. It is a lesson he must learn, for he will not listen if we tell him.”

“I pray you are correct,” he said as he leaned forward and pressed a kiss against her temple.

She favored him with the smile that still stole his breath, “It is my curse.”

He stood suddenly, crushing her against him and kissing her fervently, before whispering down to her. “For all time, Yllumina of Yophriel.”

“For all time, Adamos the fourth of Adamos.”