Endeca (The Escapism Series) (20 page)

Nyxta faced the false embodiment of Corlissa, which disintegrated into the air. Instead, it took the form of a black mass of energy, forming into the outline of a female body. Nyxta got down on one knee, in reverence. “Our holiness, thank you for your mercy.”

The black mass lingered, suspended midair.

Daisy started the incantation, “Quattuor erunt lux lucet tantum. Utraque unum, et malum in adiutorium meum.” The incantation immediately reawakened Corlissa.

“I’ve restored balance to Endeca. Anoint them all. Guide them night keeper, and have them guide the prime ones into the next era of evolution,” said the dark energy field before it formed into a tornado of force, combusting into the atmosphere.

Kiran had given her the antidote in time. Corlissa looked around, frazzled by our presence and collapsed into Kiran’s embrace, emotionally and mystically drained.

With the return of Daisy, my link source, and Corlissa’s awakening, the eleven braced for the unexpected now that we were one step closer to uniting.

“What was that?” I asked of Nyxta. Whether it was a spirit or deity, it was strangely ubiquitous in all its time around us.

“The eternal source,” she beamed. “Our Creator.”

And then there were two

There were many things I thought I’d never believe in. Our existence for one and a few others like deities, creators,
God
. I watched as Daisy and Corlissa rekindled. Both Daisy and Corlissa were displaced from their sources in an attempt to escape the E-SOM and for Daisy, to escape her horrid mother, Maggie.

“Should I confront her now?” I asked Orion.

“Now is as good a time as any.”

I felt nervous even though on the outside, she appeared as any other seven year old girl, on the inside she was a four hundred year old immorta. She was the first of our kind to evolve and she was my linking source—a 17
th
century immorta, the first destined for Endeca.
Was this the fundamental side of me that Orion and the others feared?

I approached her hesitantly but she turned to face me expectantly. “Xenia, you’ve done more than your part in our restoration,” she commended, while Corlissa’s eyes remained fixed on me.

“Well, Kiran actually forced me here. I didn’t know what was going on,” I offered, humbly.

“He may have prompted it all, but you located my fragment and without you, I wouldn’t be here—Endeca needed us.”

It felt nice to serve a purpose, although one could argue that we all served a purpose in the grand scheme of life.

“What are we going to do about this λ-vaccine?” I asked out loud. Everyone looked at one another before Corlissa addressed the matter.

“The E-SOM could use a healthy dose or two,” she smirked, and her wild eyes danced on fire.

“Precious, you’ve been back for but five minutes and you’re already waging war,” Sebastian uttered, amused.

“Yes, but a war we could now win.”

Kiran nodded as did Daisy, Caleb, Viola, and Castiel. However, the 19
th
century ternio unanimously disagreed.

“Looks like we have a standstill,” said Nyxta, continuing. “And you, Xenia? Where do you stand on either matter?”

“Either matter?”

“War and becoming immorta—one could only happen with the other.”

I grimaced at the thought of either. I didn’t like the idea of war but then again, I couldn’t stand by and watch innocent humans die by vaccine, or worse, become undead. If one was to stop the E-SOM from circulating such deadly vaccines, there’d be no other way around it. War was the answer, and time was of the essence. The main question was how could one wage war upon such evil that lurked in hiding? Maybe Nyxta could help or Betsy as she knew the ins and outs of the dome or what was left of it.

“I’ll think about it. It looks like I have no other choice.”

“Xenia,” Nicholas roared, his grief stricken face was willing me to reconsider.

“I have to think about it. That’s all,” I reiterated. Edric nodded humbly before he vanished. Orion came by my side as did Nicholas. It was an awkward moment to say the least.

“I’ll leave you to think things through,” Nicholas said, shooting Orion looks of daggers. Orion was never one to follow suit. He smirked derisively at Nicholas’ futile attempt to leave me by my lonesome.

“Immortality is awesome,” he whispered, playfully. I couldn’t help but smirk.

“Well it is. And if we’d united as Endeca, you wouldn’t have needed the antidote.”

The antidote!

I reached into my pocket and quickly swallowed the contents of the vile. “Thanks for the reminder,” I said, nervously, “So I’ll be invincible, forever frozen and have to watch my family and friends slowly pass on.”

“You wouldn’t have to stay frozen, Xenia,” she intervened. Daisy looked rather robust and eager. “Immortality is of our preference. You can stay the age of your enlightenment. Should you choose to forgo eternal youth; you could age, however gracefully as you please.”

“If that is the case, why is it that you stayed seven…for centuries?”

“Our fragments travel between sources, relieving the source intermittently. Our fragments are the tortured parts of our being, the parts that preserve everything that you’ve experienced from past lives to present. I died at the age of seven and my fragment couldn’t be retraced, but now that I have been restored, I’m evolving, maturing with every second,” she explained.

Magnificent. I was in awe. “How fast will you mature?”

“Pretty fast,” Orion jumped in, nodding. I didn’t care to know any more.

Queen Nyxta announced, “For the interim, we’ll locate the manufacturing plants and demolish their supply of vaccine. Sebastian, Castiel, come with me. Play time is over.” The two of them grimaced at one another. I wondered what became of them and judging by their expressions, it was a treat for them to be out of whatever hell dimension they resided in.

And one by one, the eleven dissipated leaving me with Daisy and Orion. “Do you need a place to stay? After all, it’s like we’re family so you’re welcome to stay with me.”

“You mean, stay with you and your human family?” she asked, displeased.

“Is there a problem?”

“I have a dwelling in store, thank you.”

“Okay, where’ll you be staying? I’d like to spend some time with you, if I may.”

“Very well. Orion’s.”

I could sense his smug face from across the room.

“Ah. Okay, be seeing you,” I hastened to say and drew Orion aside. “What are you trying to pull?”

“What seems to be the problem? My brother lives with you, so I thought, why not reciprocate. A friendly gesture is all,” he grinned wide.

“Some gesture. You’re being your usual conniving self.”

“A little, but in all fairness, it’s only to spend more time with you.”

“I’ll tell Edric to pack tonight,” I sneered. Orion wasn’t the least bit thrown by my response.

“As you wish,” he sighed.

On that note, we parted ways. Daisy was
my
link and Orion was hogging her. It wasn’t fair but I couldn’t just tell a four hundred year old immorta what to do. She knew the doors were open but I presumed living with humans wasn’t on her top ten list now that she was restored.

I travelled back to the online world and back in my house, Edric skulked alone.

“When do your parents get back?”

“One month or so. Business trip turned into a tropical getaway.”

“Yessssssssss. The house to ourselves. Where’s Daisy?”

“That’s what I need to talk to you about. She’s staying at Orion’s.”

Edric didn’t look the least bit surprised. “He’s something alright,” he uttered, “so when is he expecting me?” His clairvoyance never ceased to amaze me.

“Soon, I suppose. I just want you to know, it’s not like I wanted you to leave but he swayed Daisy. Now that my parents are gone, she could stay with me and we could get to know one another. I could learn more about my roots. Maybe she knows who my bio-father is.”

He nodded sympathetically. “I’ll miss this place.”

“I’ll miss you too. Thanks for everything, Edric. You saved my neck more than once.”

“I just returned the favor,” he humbly replied. He didn’t do well with goodbyes, although this was more of a ‘see you later’ kind of thing.

I decided to drop by the hospital to check on Marla’s status before visiting hours were over. With so much that had gone on, it provided a nice escape while it lasted, but now came the time to face the harsh reality before me. There was no running from the truth, the possibility that Marla’s fate could go either way. I prepared in the best way that I could, mentally bracing for any news.

The hospital was surrounded by a different energy field than what I could remember. The sky was darkening and the air was crisper. Something was coming our way, something grim.

With only a meter away from Marla’s room, I heard silence, which was unusual for this ward. Inside her room, I drew the curtain and her bed was empty. Something clenched, and squeezed deeply in the center of my chest before it released and rampantly picked up speed. I ran out to the nurses’ station.

“Where’s Marla? Marla Holmes. She’s gone!”

The nurse looked up, disheveled and alarmed. “That can’t be. I just checked her vitals. She was fine.” She got up and briskly walked over.
Any slower and I would’ve dragged her there myself.

The nurse stood in front of Marla’s bed. She relaxed her brow and grimaced. “She’s here,” she uttered in relief. “Now take your shenanigans elsewhere, ‘k?”

I looked at the empty bed, rubbed my eyes, and looked again.

Empty.

“Why can’t I see her?” I asked, distressed. Something weird had happened as though a hex was casted to shield me from…holy shit, it belonged to
her
.

The nurses’ disapproving look and tired eyes said it all. “I have half a mind to revoke your visitor’s privileges and have you committed.”

She was serious. I left in a hurry and dialed his number. He didn’t answer in his usual peppy way.

“Hey Kiran…you in the mood to revoke a hex?”

~

I had never been to Kiran’s place before but I didn’t want to meet anywhere else. He seemed rather edgy once I arrived.

“I’m the one who is preventing Marla’s recovery. I’m the one responsible for her demise in this world.”

“Calm down, Xenia. You didn’t know the Lifter belonged to her. How could you?”

“We need to reverse the hex.”

“That’d mean she’d reunite and you’d die in the process.”

“I don’t care. I can afford a life. She can’t.”

“She has a life…offline,” he pointed out, in reminder.

“I can’t lose her, Kiran. Death isn’t in her cards.”

“Paths change—nothing is set in stone.”

“Exactly my point. Fate or no fate, we can reverse the damage,” I pleaded.

“If you want to save her, we’ll need Caleb and Orion or Nicholas.”

“Let’s leave Orion and Nicholas out of this.”

“We need at least one of them, so who’s it gonna be?” he pressed.

“Orion,” I faltered. Nicholas would only stand in harm’s way.

“Let’s party!” Kiran beamed. He loved a challenge. Reversing magic and summoning Lifters was right up his alley. After all, it was his ternio’s domain. While he called the crew, I decided upon a strategy of my own
.
Once we successfully summoned the Lifter, I’d tell her my plan. Reasoning with her worked once before, minus the part where she stole my light.

Caleb and Orion were at the doorstep shortly after Kiran called. Caleb couldn’t conceal his contentment; he was getting what he wanted and what the rest of Endeca needed. Now with Daisy back, I was the only one standing in their way. Orion on the other hand looked indifferent.

“What?” I asked him, while Caleb and Kiran conversed.

“All this for a human? I don’t get it.”

“Marla isn’t just a human; she’s family. Endeca may be my birth right but it’s not the same.”

“I agree. It’s not the same. Regardless, it’ll all work out in the end. A blood sacrifice and you’ll be anointed thereafter. The E-SOM won’t stand a chance, and humanity, as we know it, will cease either way.”

“What? How do you mean?”

“Thousands of humans have already received the vaccine. We’ll have two simultaneous wars, one with the E-SOM and one with the soon to be mounds of undead.”

Kiran and Caleb returned with a dagger.

“This is the same dagger I used on you before—we need this to reverse the hex.”

“Let’s start,” I ordered nervously.

“Once we’ve summoned the Lifter, you’ll need to draw blood. Then carve this symbol,” he said pulling out a wrinkled paper from his jacket’s pocket. “I’ll be able to get to Marla’s source first.”

“Got it. Blood and symbol.”

“Once the Lifter is unbound, it won’t be able to take your light because you’ll have the dagger. It’ll have physical form. That’s when you’ll hand Orion the dagger.”

What they neglected to tell me was that Orion intended to kill the Lifter, in turn, Marla would die (the sacrifice) and I’d be anointed shortly thereafter. Saiph proved to be very useful after all…

I swallowed the lump in my throat. What was about to happen trumped our odds against the E-SOM and extinction of the human race but I had no other choice. I made my bed, and now I had to lie in it.

“Here,” Caleb said, handing me the dagger. He looked gloomily at Orion.

Orion handed me a piece of paper with the hex reversal. “Oh no. I won’t recite anything he’s given me.”

“Caleb transcribed it, not me. I swear!”

Caleb jumped to his defence, “It’s true.”

I took the paper reluctantly.

“
Obsecro te reverti
—”

“Hell no,” Kiran shouted. “We ain’t summoning anything in my bachelor pad. Let’s go in the woods as mother earth intended.”

We followed Kiran out back and once we were surrounded by wilderness, I restarted, first with some blood from my forearm and then the hex. “
Obsecro te reverti leve reddere. Constringo vos ad terram iterum
.”

Just as soon as the words left my mouth, a gust of wind nearly knocked us over. It lingered above our heads. A dark, furious angry spiral of energy.

Shit, what the hell was I invoking?

“Xenia, don’t stop,” urged Caleb.

“
Lux mea semel!
” The Lifter came to and Orion lunged forward. “The dagger Xenia,” he awaited confused as were the others. The hovering mass of black energy above our heads grew in size.

I’d decided to work some magic of my own.
Orion, Caleb and Kiran were rooted to the earth, immobile.

“Xenia, what are you doing?”

“What I should have done long ago.” The Lifter hovered just as confused.

I plunged the dagger straight in my abdomen, as deep as I could before pulling it out; I watched as the blood gushed out. The Lifter breathed in deeply, drawing in the light that escaped my source. “Go to her,” I whispered, right before falling to the ground. I ensured Marla would have a fighting chance. I on the other hand was a ticking time bomb. I was destined to become immorta. As soon as I pulled the dagger from my abdomen, the hex had lifted and Orion came to my side.

“We all got what we wanted,” I whispered, coughing up warm thick fluid. Kiran and Caleb stood in the shadows.

“You’re wrong, Xenia. Taking your own life means you can no longer be anointed,” he said, and just before my eyes shut, Nicholas appeared. The person I wanted to see before my final breath.

“Xenia, what have you done?” His sweet voice was the last thing I heard before nothingness swept in and the faint sound of chimes echoed. I had expected the sound of a large fire pit but I guessed I was also privy to a first class ticket upstairs. Everyone served a purpose in life and my blood related purpose didn’t define me, my actions did. My best friend would survive in the sole world we had known to be true. Although I’d no longer have an on-source, I had the luxury to travel. If Kiran’s off-source could, I’d find a way too. I wondered if I’d change somehow, being part-dead. Would I still be me? With the same temperament, the same likes and dislikes the same outlook on
life
? I embraced the darkness but it was much brighter than I’d anticipated.
Too bright, actually.