Zodiac Academy 8.5: Beyond The Veil

Darius materialised before me, almost fully corporeal once more as the stars dragged him away from the world of the living and deposited him in the great hall of the Eternal Palace where all souls found a home beyond The Veil.

They didn’t much like when we did that, but it was impossible to fully control the desperate yearning of lost souls to return to those they’d left behind. Those who remained in this place, refusing to move on, were full of strife, the Fae realm still holding answers, hopes, truths, and loves that none of us could let go of.

The huge room opened out around us, souls coming and going, the vaulted ceilings painted with points of time when fate had turned and changed everything. Some of the images detailed here were so long forgotten that it was impossible to say when they’d been or what had happened in that moment which had once been so important. Others were fresher, the hall expanding to include them, moments from my own life and the lives of my children now marked there among countless others. Points of time that seemingly mattered, a ceaseless story woven from the Fae’s very first ancestors right up until now.

I folded my arms as I came eye to eye with the man who had sacrificed himself out on that battlefield in the name of all he cared for. I knew him. I had watched him long enough, seen the poor choices he had made, witnessed the stubbornness of his soul. And all in all, I was still undecided on whether I liked him or not.

“Hail,” he breathed, no submission in his eyes nor bending of his back, nor any use of my former title.

“Darius,” I said curtly.

“Roxy is-” he started, sweeping toward me with passion in his eyes, but I cut over him in a baritone voice.

“I believe she prefers her friends to call her Tory.”

His jaw tightened. “I think I know what my wife prefers. And I am no mere friend.”

A growl rumbled in my chest, and he raised his chin, all challenge. Little did he know, I had been waiting a long time to pick this fight.

“Darius.” Merissa’s voice came at my back, sorrow washing through her tone. She swept past me, wrapping her arms around him, and he stiffened in surprise.

“Merissa,” I growled. “Have you forgotten what he did?”

“He offered up his life for those he loves, including our children.” She whirled on me, gaze full of fire. “He has redeemed himself in my eyes.”

“I believe he has balanced out the scales, returning him to ground zero,” I said.

“We don’t have time for this,” Merissa hissed. “We need to help our children.”

“We can’t help them now,” Darius said darkly. “What good are the dead to anyone?”

“Do not wallow in self-pity any longer, there is much we can do.” I twisted around, finding Catalina Acrux standing there at the side of Hamish Grus.

Grief closed around my heart, and I did not want to accept that some of that pain belonged to the man who now stood at my back. But I could let it be seen when it came to these two noble Fae.

“Well bless my gollywobbles,” Hamish stammered, jaw opening and closing as he stared from me to Merissa, then fell down to his knees with a wail. “All hail the Vega line!”

Catalina gazed at me in disbelief, then shook her head in apology. “Forgive me for all my ex-husband did to you. I never knew, I swear it.”

I frowned, the tightness of my chest speaking of that shame of mine. “And the same to you,” I said, dipping my head a little as we shared in this dark truth. Both victims of the same tyrant, both helpless to escape him during our lifetimes, though I supposed she had come closer than I ever had.

“I’m so sorry you had to see your son cross over before his time,” Merissa croaked, descending on Catalina and hugging her tight, and Catalina released a sob that was laced with heartache, her eyes latching onto Darius over my shoulder.

“It was my failure that led me here,” Darius said bitterly. “But my time would have come to an end soon enough either way. Dying in battle was preferable at least.”

I glanced back at him, my shoulders tight, fury daggering through me, but fuck, I couldn’t deny the pain I felt at his words. I turned from him again before he could see any glimpse of it on my face, retreating behind a wall of duty. “We must make a plan.”

“Anything, sire.” Hamish sprang back to his feet. “I am at your service like a walrus in a dinghy, oar grasped a-tight in my flipper.”

“You are not in service to anyone now, Hamish,” I said. “My crown lays in The Palace of Souls, awaiting my daughters’ claim upon it.”

“Hamster bear, is that you?!” a warbling voice filled the air that was laced with sorrow, and I found Florence Grus bounding towards us with tears streaming down her cheeks, her light brown hair flowing out behind her like a cape. Her black dress was covered in purple wolfsbane flowers, and she held her large breasts as she ran to stop them from bouncing.

“Well bless my bachelor’s button,” Hamish gasped just before Florence collided with him, leaping up to kiss both of his cheeks. She was a tiny woman, barely past five feet in height, and Hamish was a tower of a man. I had known both of them in life, had seen their love for one another burn with all the wildness of high school passion, and had always admired the purity of it.

Catalina broke apart from Merissa, wiping the tears from her cheeks as she eyed Florence with uncertainty.

“Oh, Hamster,” Florence cried, grabbing his hand in her tiny one with a loud sniff. “I have waited upon this day for eleventy hundred years, it seems. Yet I could never have fathomed it to come as soon as it has, nor as wickedly for it to fall upon your bodacious brow.” She turned to Catalina, letting out a high-pitched shriek that made me wince, then she grabbed her hand too. “Lady of the new dawn, I saw you rise from the scaled nightmare who imprisoned you like a whelk in a rusted boat bottom. I have wept in your moments of pain, I have rejoiced in your moments of glory, and I have fallen for you almost as deeply as my big Hamster has.”

“Oh, wow, um…” Catalina looked to Hamish, lost for words before opening her mouth to speak again, but Florence barrelled on.

“If friends could be lovers, you would be mine,” she hiccupped. “We shall be the merriest of Madelines. And don’t you worry your Petunia about my dalliances. My days of wiggling the wango stick are long gone, and even if they weren’t, I would have no mind to pursue the past.”

“Florry, my dear,” Hamish rasped. “I am so deeply apologetic to walk into the land of the dead with my heart in the grasp of another, and yet, at the very same time, I cannot apologise at all, for my love for Catalina is as true and as desperate as ours once was.”

Florence nodded, smiling through her tears and bringing Hamish’s and Catalina’s hands together between hers before releasing them and stepping back. “Time is a taddler of a teapot, Hamster, isn’t that what you always said?”

“Yes, Florry,” he croaked before looking to Catalina and drawing her close. “A taddler indeed.”

Catalina smiled at Hamish, her love for him so clear, it made the air glitter. Without true, corporeal bodies, it seemed our aura spilled from our souls more easily here. Perhaps that was why everything seemed to shimmer with a faint golden fog. I hardly remembered a time when the world hadn’t appeared as such around me.

“Forgive me.”

I turned at the familiar voice, finding Azriel Orion there with urgency in his eyes as he looked between us all. “Catalina – it’s your son. Your, uh, other son. He’s in great peril. On the verge of death.”

“Xavier,” Darius gasped.

“What can I do?” Catalina ran to Azriel in terror, and he turned, beckoning us after him.

Merissa hurried to me and I gripped her hand, her fingers sliding between mine, and I found a fortress of pain housed in her eyes.

“We will do all we can,” I said, raising my free hand to carve my thumb along the line of her cheekbone.

“I cannot bear to see another person we love walk through The Veil,” she whispered, her features pinched in stubbornness like she could will it not to be so. And knowing my wife, she would do just that.

“Come,” I said, and we hurried to follow the others, moving through the Eternal Palace, the walls barely tangible in places, revealing only shimmering stars beyond, like a view into a ever-present night sky.

We stepped out into the golden glow of the ethereal landscape within The Veil, and Azriel led the way down the curving path which led to The Room of Knowledge. We climbed the stone steps, then moved through the arched entrance where we all crowded close to the swirling orb, surrounding Catalina as she gazed at the reality of Xavier’s fate within it, her knuckles blanching as she gripped the golden rail.

“What is this place?” she breathed.

“Simply think of Xavier and you will see him here,” Azriel explained, motioning to the swirling orb.

She nodded, Darius moving to grip her hand as she did as instructed, and the space before her shifted, revealing Xavier.

He lay prone on his back, his features pinched in pain and his face terribly pale. Geraldine stood at his side in her giant Cerberus form, offering him the anti-toxins in her saliva, the power of it so fierce I could almost taste it here in the land of the dead. Catalina became less visible, her soul reaching for Xavier’s, and suddenly we could see her in the glimmering orb, standing at her son’s side, laying a hand on his arm. I reached for Catalina’s soul, offering her the power that still thrummed within me, and Darius hurried to follow, slipping away into the space between realms to lay his own hand on Xavier.

Merissa’s power joined mine, then Hamish’s, Florence’s, and Azriel’s followed. Together, we gave what we could and watched as minutes turned to hours, time like water here, one drop flowing into the next, but finally Xavier’s features grew less taut, and a flush of colour returned to his skin.

Catalina and Darius came back to us, and the power my soul harboured withdrew into this false body of mine. Elemental power didn’t exist here, at least not in the way it had in the living realm. We were pure energy, and the magic of our souls could not be stripped from us.

I moved to take a seat in the ring of stands which circled this room, swiping a hand over my face before settling my gaze on the shimmering orb and seeking out my daughters and son.

I found Roxanya first, the light of dawn brightening the dark hollows of her eyes as she stared across thousands of soldiers who had fought in the battle.

“Glory is an accolade coveted by so many,” she called to them. “It is what a lot of us expected to claim when we faced our enemies on the battlefield at last, and yet it is not what many of you feel you found. What glory can be found in defeat after all?”

Silence stretched out and I sat up straighter, my daughter’s voice commanding all attention, and Merissa moved to join me. We’d felt the power of the curse she’d placed upon the stars when she had found her husband dead on that battlefield. Every soul in this place had felt that, and I was on edge because of it.

Never had I heard of a living soul affecting the space between realms with their power like that, never had I heard of any arrogant enough to curse the stars themselves. But she had done it, and if the fire in her expression was anything to judge by, she had no intention of going back on that promise.

My gaze strayed to Darius whose attention was now on her too, his hands tight around the railing as he stared at her, the power of his emotions undeniable, the need in him to return to her palpable. But that wasn’t a fate they could claim, no matter how desperately they may have wished for it. Roxanya continued to speak, and I gave her my full focus once more.

“What glory can be found when standing shoulder to shoulder with men and women you don’t even know while united against oppression and persecution? What glory can be found when standing firm against a tide of tyranny so all-encompassing that you feel like a grain of sand trying to resist an entire ocean? What glory is there in seeing Fae you love cut down and butchered by monsters weaving shadows and creatures born of darkness? What glory can you claim when you fight against a leash which has already tightened around your throat? When laws are written against your rights and a false king dons a crown and no one manages to knock it from his over-inflated head?”

Roxanya’s face was laced with pain and all the loss she had faced, leaving me with the burning need to wrap her in my arms. But I had long lost the chance to comfort my little girl. I had only ever been able to watch as she struggled through all the pain life had offered her, never able to offer the embrace she had so often needed.

“What glory is there in fighting a losing battle? In standing with blade in hand and magic burning fiercely through you, against a force far bigger than your own, without fear ever once making you flinch? When even the stars won’t help us, and the night turns dark with shadows? What glory is there then, I ask you?”

Roxanya gripped the pommel of her sword and went on, her voice full of spirit and ire.

“Every one of you standing before me and every Fae who fell on that battlefield fighting by our sides knows the answer to that question. Because we don’t need glory. We only need to know that we are fighting for what is right. We are fighting for freedom from oppression and the end of a tyrant. We are standing up and saying no more. And Lionel Acrux may have sat his scaley ass on my father’s throne, but he is nothing but a serpent perched on a pretty seat. I don’t bow to him or his false crown. Do you?”

A deafening roar of defiance met her question, and a dark smile curved her lips that was worthy of my own.

“No war is won in a single battle,” she went on. “No kingdom claimed with one fight. And though we may have bled for our cause on that field of chaos and carnage, they bled for it too. We cut them in that fight. We made them bleed for us and a thousand tiny cuts can kill just as surely as a single blow to the heart. So I say we keep cutting Lionel Acrux and his shadow bitch bride in every way we can. We cut and slice and carve them up and we keep fighting and fighting them until the bitter end, when I know in my soul that we will claim more glory than any of us ever dared wish for!”

Darius shoved away from the railing at the edge of the orb, smoke spilling from his lips as his Dragon stirred and Catalina went after him as he stalked off into the palace.

Pride spilled through me, and Merissa laid her hand on mine, her expression echoing my own feelings. Then as one, not needing to say anything at all, we sought out our other daughter in the orb, finding her in the belly of a dark cave with a cloud of wicked omens clinging to her.

My pride gave way to terror, and I stared helplessly at my flesh and blood, not knowing how I could help her.

“Gwendalina,” I called to her, aching for her to hear me through the space between realms, to think of me and draw me close so that I might remind her she was not alone. Oh to hold her in my arms now, to promise everything would be alright.

“You can fight this, my darling,” Merissa called to her, and the world shifted, tilting on its axis as we were drawn to her through our desperation alone.

I fell to my knees before my little girl, her face pinched in pain, eyes shut as shadows shifted and wriggled across her body. Though I knew it wasn’t her own agony she lamented, but of those she had left behind on the battlefield after the violent beast of shadow had forced her to kill time and again.

“You are not that creature,” I growled, reaching for her, and cupping her cheek. She blinked at that very same moment as if she could just sense the warmth of me.

“We’re here,” Merissa promised, kissing Gwendalina’s temple, and brushing her fingers into her hair, though it didn’t truly stir beneath her touch. “You possess the blood of the Phoenixes, but not just that. You possess my blood too. The blood of the Voldrakian royals. Generation after generation of warriors who fought and bled for each other. This beast is your enemy and yours alone. You will defeat it, darling, I have no doubt.”

The air shuddered and The Veil forced us to release our grip on her, stealing us away where I found Merissa looking to me in agony.

“She has faced down each of her demons and come out victorious,” I said with passion. “This will just be another mark of her greatness once she overcomes it.”

Merissa blinked back tears and her jaw tightened as she latched onto the truth of my words. “They are fighting battles we should have raised them to face. They should have been far more prepared for the grim days they have endured.”

“Then we must marvel at how well they have navigated the evils laid at their feet without us to raise them,” I said, and her eyes brightened. “I know that Gwendalina will overcome this one in ways we cannot yet foresee.”

“When one falls to the dark, the other shall be their guiding light,” Merissa murmured with a frown, those words familiar to me.

“What is it?” I asked in concern, laying my hand on her knee.

“When they were born, those words were whispered to me by the stars,” she said.

“Yes, I remember now,” I said, nodding slowly. “It must mean they balance one another. A harmony forged of fire and ice. Between is where they find true peace.”

“If they cannot find their way back to one another, I fear what will happen. The balance starts with them, but it does not end there,” she said mysteriously, and I realised what her mind had moved to.

“The Zodiac Guild,” I said.

We had discussed it countless times, but it was Azriel who truly led the charge on that front. His hunt for the Guild Stones had not ceased even in death, and the importance of them was unfathomable – if his and my wife’s predictions were correct. And Marcel’s of course.

As if summoned by the thought of him, Marcel appeared, the tall man walking through the crowd of souls gathered around the orb. Irritation stirred within me at the sight of his handsome face, his resemblance to my son too stark to ignore. He had his black wings in place as always, bronzed chest bare and a look of all-knowing about him that already had my teeth grinding.

“We were just talking of the Guild Stones,” Merissa called to him, and his eyes slipped our way, frustration pooling in my chest at her inviting him closer.

“Ah, yes. I have seen more glimmers of fate hinting towards the reformation of the Zodiac Guild,” Marcel said as he arrived.

He no longer held any access to The Sight here, but both he and Merissa were capable of seeking glimpses of the future in the orb, their power too great for even the stars to stop them finding truths now. “That path seems far from easy to claim, however.’

“Yes, Lionel’s reign makes it less likely than ever,” Merissa agreed, rising to her feet and I got up, coming face to face with Gabriel’s biological father. “But where there is possibility, there is hope.”

Marcel inclined his head, then his brows lowered. “Gabriel is in grave danger,” he said thickly, terror crossing his dark eyes. I had witnessed my son be taken by Lionel Acrux, had roared to the stars to see him freed, to be given a new fate. But their silence was as damning as Gabriel’s current path was, and my fear for him knew no bounds.

“I shall do everything in my power to protect my son,” I said fiercely.

“As will I,” Marcel said, nodding to me. “I foresaw his life long ago, and I know him intimately.”

“Not so intimately as the man who raised him,” I said coolly. “You may have had pretty visions of his life, but I know his truth.”

“I have seen him take many paths. I have known him as he is and as he could be. Some would say, there is no greater knowing of a person than that,” Marcel said, but before I could start an argument, Merissa interjected.

“We must do what we can for our children,” she said firmly, gripping my arm. “And while we cannot change their current fates, we can stoke the flames of the fire that will blaze a path towards a better future for them. The answer lays in the greatest weapon known to Fae kind. Knowledge. The whereabouts of the Guild Stones and the truth of the broken promise. If we can find a way to provide these to our children, then we will be handing them knives fit to carve fate and shape it into something blissful.”

She swept away from us towards Azriel, and I hurried to follow, feeling Marcel close at my back and clenching my jaw as he shadowed my movements.

“I can take it from here,” I told him, but he brushed past me, his wing slapping me in the face, causing me to stumble a step so that he reached Azriel before I did.

Azriel turned to him with fear clouding his expression for his own son, and I let my frustration with Marcel ebb away as I focused on the task at hand. If finding the final Guild Stones could help my family, then I would break the heavens apart to find them, and once I had handed them to my heirs, I would find a way to reveal the broken promise and help my daughters break the Vega curse once and for all.