Curseborn Saga - Fade to Black (10 page)

“
Seven more days, ka …
”

“
Meep, meep
!
”
Storm heard something faint from near his feet.

Caim was looking up at the moons as well. “Doesn’t matter how strong they are … I’ll beat all of them!” He punched his fist into his other hand forcefully.

Storm grinned, “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” said Caim. “The stronger they are, the more fun it will be. Grandpa told me life is just a great challenge. If you’re going to challenge yourself, choose one that will push you past the brink of your limits.”

A sudden feeling that he was being watched swept over Caim and he turned to find that there were now dozens of Tree Spirits following at his heels, some hopping, and some flying. Caim noticed that some of them had started following him in a single file line, prancing about in a dancing motion. He looked up to the trees. Some must have been hiding amongst the branches and were awakened when he had jumped up to the highest branch. They had followed him down without him knowing.

Storm turned to face the unknown darkness and kept walking. They had been traveling for several shades and the once worn down path was nearly vanished. They were leaving their area of the forest and entering the domain of the Master of the Forest. Storm shook the dark thoughts from his head and thought back to Caim’s last words.

“A great challenge or a great game, sometimes I can’t tell which way you look at it Caim.” Storm muttered. He was expecting some retaliatory answer from Caim, but heard nothing.

Caim wasn’t paying attention; he was distracted by the effect of the Tree Spirits, for just looking at them gave one a calmness of the heart. Caim turned and stopped suddenly. Behind him, the Tree Spirits bumped into his leg one by one, knocking themselves down one by one in a domino effect. They cried out as they toppled over, their sharp eyes staring up at Caim, obviously angered by his sudden halt.

Caim kneeled and pulled on one of the creature’s ears. “Stop following me already.”

Just as he was about to get to his feet something caught his eye. It was clenched between the teeth of one of the Tree Spirits and its tiny pink tongue was cleaning the sides of it. Looking closer, he realized that it was holding onto a shimmering red gem and the instant it noticed Caim staring at it, it ran into the shadows of the trees and vanished.

“Did you see that?” Caim asked.

“What?”

And just like that his memory of the past few seconds went blank.

“See what?” Storm said.

Caim shrugged, “What are you talking about?”

Storm raised an eyebrow. “You have issues.” He stopped for a moment, gazing at the many Tree Spirits trying to swat the feathered tails of Caim’s vest. “I don’t understand why they have such a fascination with you,” he said. One of the Tree Spirits flashed by Storm’s face, attempting to scratch him. “Little bastard,” he said, swiping at the creature.

“They don’t like those who don’t understand them,” answered Caim.

Storm smirked, clearly not believing that the creatures had any higher form of intelligence at all. They sure didn’t look very intelligent. “It’s probably because you smell like food all the time.”

Caim’s stomach growled. “I’m hungry!”

Shit, I shouldn’t have said that.
Storm quickly changed the subject. “We’re never going to get to Trestles by morning at this pace,” he said, kicking a stone. He watched it soar over the ground and crack into the side of a tree.

Caim, who had been distracted by the Tree Spirits, suddenly found his focus with the loud
thud
of the stone hitting the tree, and without really thinking, proposed an idea that was astoundingly amazing to him. “Let’s race!”

Storm stopped dead in his tracks and felt a grin creep up his face. The wind whistling through the trees seemed to die down as the two brothers turned to face each other. Caim cocked his head to the side smiled.

“To the lake,” said Caim. “And whoever wins gets to hold the magic stone.”

“So,
that’s
your plan” said Storm, his suspicions confirmed.

Caim was grinning even harder now. “Unless you’re
scared
you’ll lose.”

Storm laughed, shaking the hood from the top of his head. “Fine, at least then you’ll shut up about trying to see it every five seconds.” Storm looked through the trees.
“
Its a little ways away but … at least it will make the time go by faster
.”
Storm cracked his knuckles. “And besides, I’ve been practically burning up with all this talk of a world tournament. I’m seriously going to throw the old man off the Edge if he’s making up another story.”

He walked over and stood beside Caim, who was stretching his legs. Dozens of Tree Spirits had gathered behind Caim as if they were his little reinforcements.

“What
is
it with you and those things,” muttered Storm. For a second he stared at one of the Tree Spirits. It was about the size of his hand, looking up at him with perfectly round blue eyes. Its fur looked as if it had been rolled in powdered sugar. And just like that, something foreign and calm came over him. Immediately he fought it, disliking the idea that something could control his emotions other than himself.

“Creepy little bastards,” said Storm. The Tree Spirit seemed to understand him, and picked up a tiny piece of dirt and flung it at Storm with all its might. Storm grinned as the piece of dirt landed a few inches in front of the creature. He reached down and picked it up by the fur of its withers, and walked over to a puddle. The creature stared up at him with huge innocent eyes. He kneeled down and with a wicked smile, dropped it into the puddle. As soon as the Tree Spirit hit the puddle it kicked the water and splashed Storm in the face. Caim burst out laughing and all the Tree Spirits took off running.

“Don’t cry when I beat you,” said Storm, turning to Caim and wiping his face.

“I don’t even know how to cry.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“You don’t make sense.”

“Ok, I’m done talking to you.”

“I was already done talking to you first.”

Storm smacked Caim on top of his head.

“Hey! What’s the big idea!? You wanna fight!?”

“We racing or you getting scared?”

Caim tapped the ball of his foot on the ground, muttering something inaudible. Beside him, Storm reached down and picked up a dull grey stone half the size of his palm. A certain tension coursed through the air, and Storm’s tension rose with each breath he took.

“Alright, you know how it works,” said Storm, tossing the stone up and catching.

“Yeah, yeah,” said Caim. “We run that way and I win.”

“Something like that. Let’s do this.”

Storm threw the stone straight up through the trees. It whizzed past leaves, whistling up into the sky as the two brothers lowered their center of balance, waiting. Storm pulled his sheathed katana from the sash around his waist and held it firmly in his right hand. Caim shot him a strange look.

“I’m faster like this.”

“Nervous?” asked Caim with a grin.

“Not at all.”

“You should be.”

Straining their ears, they listened for the stone. Far off in the distance, they could hear it falling through the air, slicing through leaves,
thumping
off a branch …

Caim’s feet dug straight into the ground as he launched himself forward, temporarily vanishing from sight. Appearing next to the nearest tree, Caim dashed vertically up its side before swinging off the branches and piercing the treetops, disappearing into the twilight.

Storm released a heavy sigh. “Never could wait for it to hit the ground, could you.” Closing his eyes, he heard the final fall of the stone.
“Tmp”
was the last thing he heard before he dug his boots deep into the ground and vanished into the darkness.

IX – The Valyti

T
he brightness blinded the sister’s eyes for a few moments before their pupils adjusted to the sudden change. The three girls stood still, and then with deep breaths they walked as tiny shadows into the secret lair of the Force.

A massive white room made of stone a hundred times brighter than the inner walls of the tower spread out before them like an endless blanket. Pillars of black marble curved their way up from the tiled floor to the distant reaches of the stony ceiling, which was at least a hundred feet high and lined by thick, sharp icicles similar to the stony ones hanging from outside the window they passed earlier. The sisters were surprised to see that the Valyti was completely open to the sky along its farthest edge, while the white stone on the ground gave the impression of a sandy beach stretching before a vast blue ocean. A few fragments of floating stone hung in the sky not far from the entrance to the training grounds. Turning her gaze to the ceiling, Remi shuddered in fear: If one of the giant icicles were to fall it would crash through her like a boulder through water. As she was thinking she noticed strange tracks on the ceiling, lined with black runes that led to the side of the towering door they had just walked through. Following it with her eyes, she realized that the tracks led to the black stone cages holding the beasts and that they must have been used to transport the creatures into the room – for purposes she could only imagine.

“Unreal …” Remi said to herself.

Off in the distance, sitting on one of the floating chunks of earth outside the Valyti, Remi saw one Sorian with a long flowing white cloak. On the girl’s back was a long bow, but from the far distance, the only distinct features Remi could make out were that whoever it was, was not looking inward, but rather outwards at the sky, and that the bow on her back was the length of her body. The girl, or so Remi thought, considering that all of the Force were women, looked like a distant speck of white sitting atop an earthen throne of the sky. Remi suddenly shivered, feeling the intense cold of the room and watched as the misty vapor from her breath rose about her.

Ever since Remi had entered, the ground had been shaking and the distant drumbeat of what sounded like massive hammers cracking into stone began to grow faster and faster. Turning her gaze to the center of the room, she saw a young woman, naked from the waist up and wearing black wraps around her hands. With all of her strength, the girl struck one of the tall black pillars again and again. The stone cracked and splintered with each blow, but for some reason it never broke. With a closer glance, Remi realized that the stone was regenerating after each blow almost instantaneously. The pounding of the girl’s fists grew faster and faster until Remi could no longer make out the time between each one, and the thunder of her blows sent cracking sounds splitting across the open room. And then, with a sudden final blow, the girl stopped her barrage of attacks and stood still, her arms stiff at her sides. Crimson blood seeped onto the floor from her ravished knuckles.

“It seems you’ve made it,” said a familiar, perturbed voice. It was a voice Remi hoped she would have never heard again.
Unfortunately,
thought Remi.

Lady Theresa had walked up beside them. Her long golden hair, perfectly coiffed, fell upon her shoulders. She placed her hands on her hips and Remi gazed at the copper leather that wrapped her arms from wrists to shoulders, laced with black ribbon. Remi’s eyes flicked to her chest, which was prominently bigger than her own, and a spike of envy shot through her. She redirected her attention to Theresa’s long sword in an attempt to distract herself and tried to count the number of tiny black gems that adorned its crimson steel sheath.

“You’re late,” observed Theresa.

“Maybe if you hadn’t shredded my book into a thousand pieces, we would have gotten here sooner,” said Remi with heavy defiance.

Baelie’s mouth dropped, appalled by Remi’s blatant disrespect of Lady Theresa. “Please excuse my sister, Lady Theresa!” said Baelie and gave the Sorian salute. “My apologies for being late!”

Baelie’s apology irritated Remi more than anything else and she rolled her eyes.

“Ah, your book,” said Theresa. “Yes, I felt … pained by your loss.” Reaching into a tiny pocket on her short steel skirt, Theresa pulled out an exact copy of the book. “Here you are,” she said, and tossed it through the air.

Remi caught the book and all her feelings of hatred toward Theresa
almost
vanished. She still resented her for destroying something she had owned since she was little, but she was grateful that Lady Theresa had gone to the trouble of finding her a new one. That was, until she remembered that the book had been destroyed before Theresa had a chance to see which one it was. Or so she thought. Remi suspiciously looked the book over. The cover looked identical to the original book. She opened to the first page. Her eyes grew sharp and dark as she read the first and only line of the book.

“
Ha ha … Sucker!”

“You jerk!” Remi screamed, launching the book straight at Theresa’s face. But the book flew and hit nothing but the ground; Theresa had vanished. A second later Remi felt someone’s hand on her shoulder. She turned to see tears streaming down the cheeks of Theresa, who was laughing so hard she looked like she would faint from lack of oxygen.

“I – was – hoping you would – open it here!!”

Losing all composure, Remi swung her fist straight towards Theresa’s face. She felt it smack hard into something and the bones in her frail little hand seemed to crack. Her stomach lurched with the sudden explosion of pain, and looking up Remi winced, realizing what had stopped her.

Standing before her was an exotic looking woman with chocolate brown skin and twisting white hair. Her face was stern and sharp. The solid steel wall Remi had struck was actually the woman’s palm. The woman now held her crushed hand in her grip. Desperately Remi tried to pull her hand free, but it felt locked within a deadly cage of twisting fingers. Her thoughts became dark and convoluted, as if the woman were snaking into her consciousness, piecing away the very secrets of Remi’s soul and skinning them bare with a sharp dagger. Another roil of nausea overcame her and Remi wished, at that very moment, that something would free her of the bitter torment.

The woman spoke in a harsh tone with clear enunciated words, all the while her violet eyes piercing their way into her own. “Do not think for a moment, young lady of the castle, that you would not be struck down where you stand for raising your hand against one of us. The Valyti, is our realm.”

“My apologies for my ignorant sister!” said Baelie, throwing another salute. Her face was flushed with embarrassment.

The woman before Remi gave her one more piercing look and released Remi’s fist. She stood next to Theresa, who was in tears on the ground, punching it with her fist.

The instant Remi was free her senses were released, as if she had been drowning and just barely reached the surface. With every ounce of her remaining strength, she forced back tears that were not from the physical pain of her hand but rather, the force of the girl’s mind.

“Theresa,” the woman said coldly, “get up. You’re out of line.”

“My apologies,” said Theresa, rising quickly yet still smirking.

Remi cradled her throbbing hand and took in the full view of the woman before her. Other than her distinguishing features of skin color and starlight hair, she wore a similar outfit to Lady Theresa; a beautiful silver breastplate with mythril leggings and blackish silver boots laced with black ribbon. However, she wore no leather over her arms, and where Theresa wore a steel-linked mini skirt, this one had a skirt made of daggers that wrapped around her upper thighs. She met her gaze and wished she hadn’t. There was something much, much different about this one compared to Theresa. She had an aura of force about her, and Remi felt microscopic vibrations from her body. Remi froze as she read the number etched in black ink on the girl’s shoulder.

She swallowed hard – it read in one elaborate black rune the number …
4
.

“Learn your place, young one of the castle,” the woman said. “For this is not the time for rash decisions and unnecessary violence. With that being said, you need not fear this place. That is, unless you do not respect it.”

Remi bit back her pride and with it her anger for Theresa. She said nothing but nodded her head. A second later she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder and the pain from her hand nearly vanished. Auric traces of green energy lifted from Remi’s fingers and she looked up into the dark girl’s eyes. They were so surreal and so mesmerizing that Remi almost couldn’t pull away from them. The feeling from before was astounding in contrast, and this time she felt a warmth like that of waking up from a long soothing nap under the shade of a tree on the most beautiful day of spring. A smile crept across her face unknowingly.

“That was pretty brave, though, openly attacking a member of the Force in
this
place,” the woman said. “Maybe one day you’ll have a place among us.”

Remi managed to smile.
Over my dead body
, she thought.

Baelie collapsed to the ground beside Remi, her forehead flat against the ground and her arms by her sides. Those words had made her entire world come crashing down. She was the one who was supposed to be getting words like that from the Force, not her stupid older sister who didn’t care.

Remi looked at Baelie, happy that something had put her younger sister in her place for once. She tossed a wrathful look at Theresa, who raised her hands, grinning.

“Come,” said the woman, “we have a few minutes before Lady Enies, the Vice Captain, will meet with you.” Remi’s eyes flickered to the center of the room, back to the woman who had been punching the pillar. She could vividly remember her ravished and bloody knuckles. Terror shot through her. Just one glance at the woman called up a visual mirage of screaming demons erupting from the flames surrounding her. She shivered as she watched her from afar, light a long wooden pipe. The woman in the center of the room was definitely the Vice Captain.

“Thank you, Lady Arya!” Baelie said, and saluted once more.

Remi turned back to look at the woman who had blocked her punch.
So this is Lady Arya – I’ve heard her name many times.
She stopped suddenly, remembering something about Lady Arya saving a village in Falia from a rogue Kushala Flare. Her thoughts flashed back to the sinister words of Beliosr. Her eyes grew wider as she gazed on at Lady Arya.
She’s the one … who captured him!

It was during her silent observations that Remi realized Maile was nowhere in sight. Casting glances back and forth she scoured the room for her little sister, gathering a sense of worry. She finally found her, standing in front of a strange crystalline structure not too far away. There appeared to be someone, a girl, sitting cross-legged inside of it. A bright red glow emanated from something clutched within her hands. Strange it seemed, and so Remi found herself walking closer. Even more bizarre was that small rays of light raced around the woman like stars trying to escape. Without realizing it, Remi found herself transfixed in front of the crystalline cage. Lady Arya cast a curious gaze their way before grinning, and followed, leaving Baelie saluting where she stood.

Remi gazed in awe at the spectacle before her. The girl sitting within the crystalline structure was a Force Corps soldier with the number
8
stitched onto the shoulder of her robes. She wore all black, including her leather gloves and boots. Even her hair was midnight in color, with the exception of several strands of bright blue. Her eyes were closed and her hands reached out before her, grasping something that looked to be an exceptionally bright ruby. It had dozens of perfect facets and no matter how hard Remi stared at it she could not conjure up a thought for what it was she was staring at. It was as if the gem itself were confounding her. Inside of the brilliant ruby, swirls of energy whirled like a storm over a hidden world. But most astounding of all were the tiny flashes of light she’d seen zipping around the container. As Remi leaned in for a better view, one of the lights came to a stop directly in front of her, and Remi came face to face with a tiny white creature. It stared at her innocently for a moment as it floated in midair, and it was in that moment that Remi came to the conclusion that she had found the absolute cutest creature that ever existed.

It looked like a tiny flying kitten, blanketed in fur of such perfect white that it seemed to glow. Except for its miniature pointed ears and tail, which were completely black, and its petite pink nose, the little creature looked as if it had spent hours rolling in freshly fallen snow. The blue of its eyes were so serene that Remi almost felt lost looking into them. The instant it had made eye contact with her a calm flowed through her body, as if not even death could stir an ounce of worry from her bones. She moved round and round the container, trying to get better glimpses of the creatures. She soon found that they had tiny wings that were black on the inside and white on the outside, so that when they landed they fell beneath their withers, giving the little creature the illusion that it had no wings at all.