Trinity Awakening (22 page)

             
Emma had taken to the fight like a duck to water, the fencing skills her father had taught her for the past six years were like a natural instinct to her, but this time she knew
there were no rules involved, this was real and she was fighting for her life as well as for her friends.  Emma kicked out at the pale white face of a creature that she could only imagine was some type of demon, it's dark eyes held an evil she had never known, there was no way she was going to let something like that get into her own world. She brought down her sword on the snarling, multi fanged demon that had come up to attack again, and cringed at the site of its grotesque head leaving its body. 

             
"Gross!" Emma looked around, it was mayhem, but Trinny was still safe, doing her super girl stuff in the middle. She saw Morthos being held by a werewolf while another one lashed out at him, Morthos legs kicked out at the creature, but it was barely knocked back and came back at Morthos with a bone crushing hit to his side. Emma moved quickly up behind the wolf thrusting her sword with all her strength through the beast’s chest then quickly withdrawing. Its tall powerful frame fell lifeless to the ground and Emma moved forward. Morthos looked shocked when he saw Emma’s petite frame with blood soaked sword in hand and a fierce look in her eye. He lifted his body up and to the side as the other wolf still held his arms, Emma slashed at the wolves’ legs, and a howl of pain went up as it let go of Morthos. Morthos wasted no time in taking a knife from his belt to finish off the injured creature. 

             
"You can thank me later!" Emma declared with a smirk on her face while quickly moving back into the action. Morthos smiled and took a place at her side defending the line.

             
Trinny was concentrating with all her might to control the powerful force of nature in her hands. She directed the tornado up and around the Ora, the Stealth's grip on the
enormous sphere loosened from the massive force of the wind and one by one they were thrown from the Ora. It was now free and Trinny could now focus on what she was here for. But the Stealth would not be defeated. They swarmed around the tornado trying to dull it's power, Trinny could feel her strength starting to weaken as the Stealth started to merge as one dark shadow working at enveloping its power. As Trinny looked toward the black mass, flares of red light started to flood the sky. With each burst of fire she could see the Stealth falling away and feel her strength grow.

             
"Heal!" Her voice was a shout. The tornado force engulfed the Ora, embracing every surface, resembling a swirling sphere of mud.

             
"Look!" Emma shouted as she watched the Stealth fall from the sky in flames. Parisa was already looking in awe at the heavens blazing with fire. Emma could see what looked like horses with wings alight in flames; the sky was filled with the beautiful creatures. They would dive at the Stealth, knocking them from their path and consuming the shadows with their flaming wings. Emma could see one of the winged creatures had a rider, the red haired woman landed in the now almost empty pond.

             
"Mrs. Gaia?" Emma said. Lucille slid with ease off the Dragus, whispered in its ear and turned to Emma as the stunning creature took to the air.

             
"Good to see you are okay Emma." As Lucille finished the words, she pulled Emma to her side and blew a silver mist from her lips toward a Stealth shadow that had crept up beside them. It was frozen in its spot and then shattered into a thousand pieces as Aarion's sword came crashing through it. 

             
"What's happening to the Ora?" He asked as he stared up at the whirling earth and water mass.

             
"She's using her combined powers to draw out the poison." Lucille moved toward Trinny, but was stopped by a thundering noise behind her. Descending on a mass of black swirling clouds was the Dark Empress, her snow-white hair billowing out behind her, eyes of ice-cold blue watching the Ora with Fury. Her glare shifted quickly to the girl below it, she could see the power resonating from her. A red haired woman abruptly blocked her view of the girl.

             
"Lucianna? It has been a long time."

             
"Yes Eviann, but obviously not long enough." Lucille was trying to contain the anger in her voice.

             
"Is that any way to greet your Empress?" The Dark Empress had moved closer now, but kept her distance slightly above the battle below her.

             
"You are not my Empress Eviann, you are a lost soul, filled with envy and hate."

             
"Oh Lucianna, you always have to bring up the past, I no longer envy you, you no longer possess what I want, it is you who will envy me." The Empress let out a satisfying laugh. "But, I am not here for a family reunion Lucianna, I am here to destroy the Ora and you are standing in my way, or should I say, she is standing in my way." She pointed to Trinny and started to move toward the Pond.

             
"You will not touch her Eviann, she is more powerful than you will ever be." As Lucille stood firm the Empress laughed.

             
"A child? One elemental? Oh Lucianna, you know nothing of my power, now stand aside or I will kill you."

             
"I will not stand aside!" 

             
"Nor I!" Aarion came up beside Lucille.

             
"And there's no way I'm letting some white haired witch near my friend!" Emma stood strongly, sword in hand
next to Lucille. Morthos, Garus and Parisa also lined up ready to protect Trinny.

             
"As you can see Empress, you are not welcome here." King Toron's booming voice came up from behind the defensive line that was building in front of Trinny.

             
"King Toron? You should be dead." The Empress was taken aback, then realization dawning on her face. "Is this an Earth Elemental behind you Lucianna? How can that be? That would mean...but that is not possible, unless...This is your child Lucianna?"

             
"I will fight to the death to protect her Eviann, you have already stolen so much from me, and you will not take my daughter as well!" Lucille's eyes were locked on the Empress.

             
"I am hurt Lucianna that you would not want your daughter to meet her Aunt." The Empress had a new calm about her. She showed no emotion. Emma stood with her mouth hung opened and Aarion looked to his father to see if this new revelation was true, but just met a confused stare. At that moment, beams of light started to break through the dark swirling mire that engulfed the Ora. Aarion and his family all felt a surge of power fill their bodies. They looked to Trinny, her blonde hair billowed out from behind her and her whole body was shimmering with a pearlescent light. Her eyes were now full amber gold, no flecks or even pupils were showing.

             
"The Ora, it's regaining its power. Form a shield!" King Toron called out. The King, Aarion and Parisa formed a massive combined shield that reached out around the pond area and over the Ora; none of the dark army could get through. The Empress lifted her hands in fury, her eyes and hair turned black and her face shadowed like the blackness was rippling from under her skin.  She let out shots of dark
arrows toward the newly formed Ora shield. Just as the arrows were about to hit, a huge flaming wind came from the side of the shield and blew them off course, the wind directed the deadly arrows into the army of dark creatures that were trying to break their way through the shield. The Empress looked down to see Micah and Nina side by side, their powers combined. 

             
"You, you should be rotting in my prison!" There was no sweetness in her voice anymore, the air around her pulsated with her anger.

             
"And you should be suffering a slow painful death." Nina was forming a huge fireball in her hand. 

             
"You stupid girl, fire will not harm me, I have the Fire Ring of Cassis." She spat out her words toward Nina who was ready to make her attack. 

             
"Yes, but their combined power can do some damage. Please Eviann, there must be some good left in you, you don't have to do this." Lucille stood looking up at the Empress with pleading in her eyes.

             
"Ha! You were always the caring one Lucianna, always wanting to make sure everyone was happy. But when it came to me you could not allow me to have what I wanted, what made me happy. Do not pity me sister, in the end, I will get all I want and you cannot stand in my way. Maybe tonight you got the upper hand, but next time we meet, there will be no mercy and nothing will be able to hold me back."   

             
"Now!" Toron yelled the order and the shield formed into a ball, Nina and Micah merged their powers with the glowing sphere and it shot out toward the Empress. The dark cloud beneath her whirled up around the Empress, and as the Orb hit there was a burst of light. The clouds dispersed and the Dark Empress was gone. Her dark followers made for a
hasty exit when they knew their Empress did not protect them. Fae warriors headed after the retreating army to take out as many as they could in their enemy’s time of weakness.

             
"Did we get her?" Nina asked excitedly

             
"No. We cannot trust that she has been defeated. I would say she has gone to re-organize and that we will see her again in the very near future." King Toron had a mixed look of relief and worry on his face. Aarion turned to see if Trinny was safe. She was still lost in using her powers to heal the Ora, he looked up in time to see the last of the
Shadowdust
being drawn out, and the poison was gone. Trinny's arms fell to her sides and her body went limp, Aarion moved just fast enough to catch her before she hit the ground. A flood of dirt and water came pouring down around everyone. Aarion held Trinny up out of the water and gently moved her hair from her face.

             
"Trinny!" His voice sounded distant to her and his face was blurry.

             
"Did we do it?" She whispered, exhaustion filling her every fiber.

             
"You did it Trinny, you saved the Ora." He smiled at her; she loved it when he smiled like that.

             
"Trinny!" Lucille knelt down next to Trinny and cupped her cheek in her hand. Trinny could see faces appearing over her, Emma, Garus and Morthos, she smiled, and then everything went black.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end.

But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

-Sir Winston Churchill

Trinny's mouth felt dry, and her body ached all over. She opened her eyes slowly and found herself looking through large glass windows. Stars filled the black sky. She could feel clean crisp sheets between her feet as she moved her legs and the soft rustle of a feather pillow beneath her head.

             
"Mrs. Gaia, she's waking!" Emma had been taking turns with Lucille watching over Trinny. She had spent the hours at her bedside reading books on Fairies and other magical creatures.

             
"Em, where am I?" Trinny's voice was extremely croaky.

             
"You're home Trin. We're home." Trinny could see how happy her pretty brown-eyed friend looked to see her. She sat up slowly and took a sip of water from the glass Emma held out to her. 

             
"Aarion?"

             
"He left yesterday, he didn't want to though, he wanted to wait to make sure you were okay, he was pretty worried." Emma sat on the bed next to Trinny.

             
"How long have I been out, and how did we get home?"

             
"Nearly three days." Lucille said from the doorway. "I had Aarion and Morthos bring you back here after you collapsed, they carried you the whole way. 

             
"Your mum had to stop them from bringing an army of Fae warriors through the portal to protect you. Imagine
all this
coming out on the six o'clock news.
'Teenager saves world from evil power hungry mystical Empress!'
" Emma smirked at Trinny who was smiling back at her over dramatic friend.

             
"The last thing I remember is the Ora being attacked by those Stealth things and the sky lit up with flames.... Did I see you on a flying horse?" Trinny was looking at her mum in an unbelieving stare.

             
"Yes, you did. Do you remember when we were on our way to Taeith and I left you on the boat so I could catch up with some old friends?" Both Trinny and Emma nodded. "They are Dragus, a type of Pegasus, beautiful black creatures, very noble. When in battle their wings ignite in flames, the Stealth hate fire. The Pegasus your father saved the day we met, it was their King, he has always remained indented to your father, I only had to tell them that his only daughter needed help and they were there."