Chaos (2 page)

From the diary of Skyler Errin

After Chaos and Order divided the world in half and sealed off the realm of Faerie and the mortal realm from one another, Chaos imbued a few select individuals with the ability to walk between the worlds. It was his way of ensuring that should the worlds ever wish the re-mingle they had a way. When Order found out he was furious. He wanted no parts of magic to be in the mortal realm or to have access to it. He feared the fae would introduce their magic to his now cleansed mortals and re-corrupt them. He threatened war again and to appease his brother Chaos unmade the fae whom he'd gifted the magic. His heart bled when he had to unmake one of his own creations but there was no other way to purge the magic. A fae's magic is a part of his or her essential self. You cannot unmake that which is so deeply ingrained in the cells of a being without unmaking the being itself. I don't know, my parents didn't know, and nor does anyone else Belial has forced to investigate the reason over the years, why I was born with the long eviscerated ancient magic. But I was and it cost me my entire family, my entire world as I knew it. In a few short hours at midnight I will finally be able to wield the magic that I detest so much. I will open a portal to the human realm and root out he who is the last of the once immortal turned mortal Roth bloodline.

Chapter 3

I
met Darrien in the palace courtyard a little past eleven. He dropped a quick kiss on my cheek and casually slung one arm around my waist.  We weren’t really an item, but for the past few months we had been crafting the illusion to the watchful eyes of Belial’s guards that we were becoming one. It made for an easy cover that allowed us to have coded conversations in the open space of the palace

The Order recruited me to their cause after finding out the real reason Belial kept me around the palace as his ward. The King never let me out of my gilded cage so the Order had to bring any communications to me directly into the palace. When its leaders wanted to meet as a group, they all snuck into the South Tower for a meeting. Darrien came alone whenever a group meeting wasn’t necessary. He carried quick messages between the Order’s leaders and me.

He leaned into me and whispered in my ear, “Are you sure you’re ready?”

              “I’m sure. Are you and the others?” My voice shook belying my words. I glanced around to see who might be watching us.

The King was going to be enraged when the guards he sent for me returned to report me missing from my room. When they reported I was nowhere to be found on the palace grounds he was going to be livid.

Darrien and the rest of the Order’s leaders would have to disappear. Because of our supposed relationship it would be the first place Belial looked. He would torture him until he got the answers that he wanted and then kill him, or more likely torture him further after he got no answers and then kill him. Belial was all about bloody displays to the public to further the fear that cemented his rule.

Selene, Ysabeau, Lor, Khamaad and Ignacio were known to frequently associate with Darrien and therefore would have to disappear as well.  Once Belial failed to get useful answers out of Darrien he would go after them. The remaining five would hold just as steadfast as Darrien and they would senselessly die too.

              “We’re all ready.” He assured me confidently.

I admired that about him. How he was always sure-headed and secure in his decisions and actions. Darrien exuded a cool confidence that some might say bordered on arrogance. I saw it as being comfortable in his skin, his position, his power and his decisions.

I realized not for the first time how classically handsome his strong jaw line and piercing gray eyes made him. It was only an observation seeing as how I had never harbored any romantic feelings towards him. Though I had began to suspect he might be developing some towards me. Our charade now seemed a little too genuine on his part. When in each other’s presence he placed his arm around me more than was necessary. He had also started making up reasons other than delivering messages from the Order to visit the palace.

The space around us shifted almost imperceptibly and I knew he had enveloped us in invisibility. Like all the Lords and Princesses of Faerie he had a myriad of abilities at his disposal. Their varied magic is what sat them a part from ever other fae and placed them at the top of the hierarchy in our society. He pulled me closer to him and sifted us out of the palace.

Moments later we arrived hundreds of miles away in a wooded area that sat near the edges of the realm of Faerie. The edges of Faerie signified the places where Faerie and the mortal realm backed up to one another. It was at one of the edges that I was supposed to be able to open a portal to the mortal realm.

The rest of the Order’s leadership waited for us when we arrived.

In an uncharacteristic display of affection Ysabeau embraced me in a hug. Her eyes lacked dark pupils or colored irises. It was the other reason I was disturbed whenever she looked at me. Her eyes were completely, seamlessly iridescently white.

“Remember what I told you Skyler. Follow your heart to reclaim your destiny.”

“Enough with the vague premonition babble,” Lor pulled her away from me. “Skyler needs to be focused on the task at hand.”

Ysabeau turned on him. Her normally even-keeled temper flared. “What I am telling her is as much a part of what we need her to do as finding and bringing the Roth heir to the realm of Faerie is,” she hissed at him.

Lor’s temper flared in return, but Darrien cut him off before he could respond. “Enough. We need to remain a united front. Once Skyler disappears into the mortal realm Belial will be out for all of our heads.”

“Darrien is right,” Khamaad backed him up. “Lor you know the power of prophesy Ysabeau holds and how strong it is. Let her tell Skyler whatever she needs to. She doesn’t speak unless she feels her words are necessary to help ensure a particular future she has foreseen. Whatever Ysabeau is speaking to Skyler about, it must be for the good of us all.”

Lor’s objections died with Selene’s words. Lor was headstrong, and stubborn and argumentative by nature but he never went against her. If I didn’t know better I would think the callous Lor to be secretly be in love with Selene. It was nothing overtly obvious that he did that made me believe so, but his normally harsh demeanor always softened a bit whenever he interacted with her.

Khamaad and Ignacio remained as unspeaking and stoic as ever. The pair of brothers with the same mother but different fathers preferred to shut the rest of the world out. The telepathic bond they shared with one another was all of the connection they seemed to need.

“When my magic manifests, how do I use it?” I asked the six fae around me who had already experienced what I was about to.

“It is different for every fae but you will know. Once your magic manifests how to use it will be as instinctive as breathing,” Darrien assured me.

“It is time,” Selene said.

Six pairs of eyes watched me and waited. At first nothing happened. I panicked that something might be wrong.

Maybe I am defective and my parents and brother were killed for nothing,
I thought.

Then the world around me dulled to the point of muted noise and pale colors. An indescribably intense pressure ignited in the center of my heart then it felt as if it was pumped outward into my blood. It seeped into and fused with every cell in my body. Darkness blanketed my vision for a split second and when it receded the world returned even more vibrant than it was before. The colors were more rich, the sounds more crisp. The magic came alive inside me. It felt like a living, moving thing just beneath the surface of my skin. I took a deep breath to steady myself from the almost overwhelming presence of it.

“The feeling will pass. As you use your magic and become more comfortable with it being alive inside you, it will settle. Right now it is like a sleeping beast that has just been awakened. It is eager to flex its muscles. Once you use it, it will calm,” Darrien told me.

My head nodded in acknowledgement but I remained uncertain. The magic was a thing under my skin attempting to claw its way free.

“It is time, Skyler,” Ysabeau said urgently. “You must open the portal
now
.” Her tone was uncharacteristically frantic as if I did not do it right then our carefully constructed plan would fall a part.

Selene was right. You never questioned Ysabeau. When she spoke she did so with a purpose. What that purpose was might be a mystery to all involved, but it was crucial to listen to her nevertheless.

I instinctively turned about forty-five degrees to my left and held my hands out with my palms flat. I imagined the space in front of them rippling with disruptions like the space around Darrien does when he turns himself and all he touches invisible. I willed a tear to appear in the rippling space in front of me and it did. A hole large enough for me to walk through appeared immediately after it.

Darrien, Lor, Ysabeau, Selene, Khamaad and Ignacio all stood behind me wide-eyed. It was the first time I had ever seen any of the six awed by anything. Normally, everyone and everything around is awed by them.

“Go.
Now
,” Ysabeau mouthed to me.

I turned back and stepped through the hole my magic created.

From the diary of Skyler Errin

After Chaos created the realm of Faerie, without his brother to keep him company he fell passionately in love with a fae woman. True to his nature, he loved her and the children she bore him fiercely. He loved them so much that he wanted to ensure he would never lose them like he lost his brother. He gifted them with true immortality save for one loophole-- should it be needed, one of his blood could kill another. I guess the limited specificity of the act was lost on him. Or maybe it had been so long since he'd known his twin in the mortal world that he'd forgotten about his counterpart. Or maybe he purposely left a larger loophole than he led anyone else to believe. Either way the Roths, the mortal descendents of Order, have just as much of Chaos' blood in their veins as any Asteroth. A Roth can kill an Asteroth. A Roth can kill Belial. Maybe Chaos never bothered to be more specific because the closure between the realms made it impossible for one bloodline to ever encounter the other. I know Order would seethe in rage at what I am about to do. I wonder how Chaos would feel about it? It's a good thing he vanished from the realm long ago and remains little more than a myth to most fae. He might feel compelled to uphold his long dead brother's wishes and un-make me too. It does beg the question why I was ever made with this long dead, ancient, rare magic? Where did it come from? Why did I get it?

Chapter 4

       
I
came out in the middle of a field. A girl no more than thirteen years old lay on the ground a few inches away from my feet, crying softly. I hesitated for only a minute before walking over to her.

              “Are you okay?” I asked her softly.

              She rubbed at her eyes with a worn and dirty sleeve. “Yes…Yes…I’m okay,” she sniffled.

              “What’s the matter? Are you hurt?”

              She shook her head no but then another round of wails broke from her. I knelt beside her in the grass.

              “Is there anything I can help you with?”

              She shook her head again. “No one can help me,” she sobbed. “My family is dead and I have no home. The High Noble kicked me out and now I have nowhere to go. My mother, father and brother are all gone.”

              My heart ached at the all too familiar scenario the girl described. I gathered her in my arms like I wish there had been someone around to do for me.

              “Shhh.” I said as I smoothed her hair back down on her head. “I lost my family too when I was a little younger than you. They were murdered by a really bad man. What happened to yours?”

              “Our water is contaminated. We are too poor to do anything about it ourselves and the High Nobles refuse to. They said it wasn’t their problem. We went to bed and when I woke up they were all dead around me. I don’t know where I am going to go. I have nothing. My family was all I had.”

              “It will be alright,” I tried to console her. The words tasted sour coming out of my mouth. I knew from first hand experience it would perhaps never be okay.

My heart still bled from the deaths of my own family. I fixated on Belial’s ruin so much because I thought it would help heal the gaping wound. As I knelt in the field and held the sobbing girl whose story was so like mine I rethought that notion. I doubted if anything would ever fully heal the tear left on my soul. Seeing Belial meet his end might help a thin scab heal over it. But the wound would be no less raw or deep.

A thought of how I might be able to help her crept into my mind. She would have to leave the world she knew behind, but I could perhaps offer her a better life than the one that remained in the mortal realm for her.

              “I can help you,” I told the young girl explaining to her the idea I had in mind. I did not push her to accept it. I remained silent once I told her and waited for her to make her own decision.

              “I want to go,” she said without hesitation.

              “You can never come back,” I warned her. My magic whispered to me that I had the power to carry mortals between the realms but once I took her into Faerie she would not be able to leave.

              She looked up at me with sad, sorrowful eyes. “Nothing remains for me here.”

---

              “Skyler, what happened?” Darrien rushed to me in alarm when I reappeared through the portal so soon after leaving.

              “Nothing,” I assured him then inclined my head toward the girl whose hand was locked in mine.

              She looked around at the Order’s still assembled leadership with wide, slightly fearful eyes.

              “Don’t be afraid,” I told her. “You can consider them friends. They won’t hurt you.”

              “You brought a mortal into Faerie,” Lor growled undermining my words. His green eyes glowed with a quiet flame. I was not his favorite person at the moment.

              Selene patted his shoulder. “I am sure Skyler has a good reason for what she has done.”

              “I do,” I told the six fae collected around me. I explained the girl’s situation to them and when I did their hearts softened towards her, as I knew they would. Theirs did for the same reason mine did. We were all kindred spirits who had lost our parents at much too young an age.

              To my surprise Khamaad and Ignacio stepped forward and nestled the girl in between them like a pair of loving brothers would do a younger sister.

              “We will see that she is taken care of,” Khamaad said to me.

              It was the first time I’d ever heard him speak. His voice came out rough and pained. It sounded like metal scraping against glass. I wondered at what had caused the damage to his voice.

              “Thank you,” I responded.

              “What is your name?” I asked the girl. I neglected to ask her in the field. I wanted to know before I left her.

              “Emilia,” she answered in a soft voice.

              I smiled. It was a pretty name. “Emilia, I have to return to your world, but I will be back as soon as I can. Until then my friends will take care of you like I told you they would. Are you going to be okay?”

              “Yes.”

I admired the newly found courage I saw in her.

              “Skyler, you have my word she will be. You have to return,” Darrien gently prodded me when I made no attempts to reopen a portal.

              The girl was so much like me that in my mind we were one in the same—frightened little girls who had found themselves ripped away from their family and the only life they had ever known. I had been utterly alone when it happened to me and I did not want to leave Emilia alone.

              “She will not be alone,” Ysabeau said as if reading my mind. With the extent of her abilities perhaps she was. “She has the six of us. We will be the family that she needs just as we are the family that each other needs. If you do not return now the future I have seen that needs to come to pass will not. A new course will be set. One that may not be for the good of everyone here.

              Ysabeau’s words spurred me into action. If she said I needed to return now, then I needed to immediately.  I reopened a portal and stepped through into the mortal world. I found myself once again in the field I found Emilia crying in.

I don’t know exactly where the idea came from. It felt as if a silent voice within my soul whispered it to me. I used glamour to change my appearance to how I looked at thirteen and assumed the story and past of Emilia. To blend into the mortal realm I needed to learn what it was like to be human.

I lived life as I thought Emilia would have. I slept in the field until a man came and told me the High Noble of the area said I must leave. It was his land and to remain there I needed to pay taxes on it. I left the field and wandered into the nearby city. I went without food and slept on the streets. The night Samael found me I didn’t need him to save me. I could have broken every bone in the mortal men’s bodies without breaking a sweat. Samael intervened a split second before I would have acted and I decided to let him. The same voice that silently told me to assume Emilia’s identity is the same one that told me to let Samael slit the throats of the men and follow him to his home. It also told me to accept his offer to become one of his assassins and to bide my time before seeking out the Roth heir. It said the time was not yet right but it would tell me when it was.

I remained with Samael for four human years, the equivalent of no longer than the blink of an eye in Faerie. I used glamour to appear to age as a human would as the years went by.

The day I looked into the eyes of Lord Krishna then unfolded the thick white paper with the name Edwin Alexander the Fifth scrawled across it, the voice in my soul whispered that it was time.