(Aria Castle)
"Sire, Ferand has returned from the village of Nalack."
Armand turned away from his view of the courtyard and crossed over to his throne. He sat down and reached for the goblet of fermented grapes near at hand. He smiled contentedly. Ferand would not be returning without good news. "Send him in."
The messenger hesitated, then bowed and left the room. The door opened moments later, and a frog hopped slowly across the room. It took Armand many long moments to realize what he looked at. His fury rose wildly and he hurled the goblet across the room where it shattered against the wall.
Things were falling apart. The threads he had woven were slipping out of his grasp. Everything was failing. He had lost his best warrior to a newly made witch. His hands clenched into fists at his side as he stared out the window of his throne room. When he had decided to kill his parents to claim the throne, he had known the prophecy might rise thanks to his cursed nephew being the third True Born. He had thought himself safe because Liena's blood had not been on Aria in millennia. How wrong he had been! That accursed sorceress he had tried to ignore was Liena's blood and she had evolved and now she would be coming right for him. She could not stop herself. It had been embedded into her very lineage.
Liena had not been a Ruler Cultivator—Activated or Deactivated—but she had understood Aria's delicate balance. She had sought to help the balance by giving the royal family majik that would aid the process. The Ruler Cultivators of Aria would have active majik alongside their magic, and that had helped Aria stabilize in its own Shadow Flower Element. She had also left behind some sort of majikal spell that could supposedly only be activated by her descendant wearing the Arian Draconis.
Armand had genuinely not noticed the pendant in the Iris Defender's possession, perhaps because he had neither been looking for it nor had he at all expected it. It had thrown all of his plans into a terrible tailspin. She had already allied with the True Born, and that could not be allowed to stay. He needed to get her to choose him over Rodi so that he could use her power to destroy the True Born and become Ruler himself. Not that he found the thought so distasteful, really. Once he had realized her lineage, he had felt an odd draw to her. Perhaps another result of Liena's connection to the kingdom.
She would never come to him willingly. Taking her by force seemed somewhat suicidal, and striking at her princess was out of the question as well. She would sooner die than let harm come to her twin. That loyalty actually intrigued him a bit. He had never had anyone be that loyal to him before. The only way to get to her would be to get her onto his turf. Doing that meant he needed to plan very carefully his next action. They had removed his curse, but that did not mean he could not still attack their Seeds directly again. It would take a bit of work to build that corruption curse, however.
He would take another half-hearted swing at them in the meantime. If he let up on that, they might begin to suspect something was going to happen. Better to keep them on their toes, and if the monster managed to defeat some of them, all the better.
* * * * *
The Defenders broke camp after breakfast, and got on their way once more. Tasia had not mentioned her visit from Rodi, and other than Raine, no one had noticed—though all had suspicions. No one complained about the excessive walking though all had begun to feel the strain of constant travel. Conjured soap and Water majik showers could only take the edge off of feeling grimy and grubby. They had hoped for baths in Nalack, but with everything happening so fast, they had lost their opportunity. Baths would have to wait until they took care of Armand and could indulge without guilt or concern.
Accepting putting off their own comfort had come rather naturally to all of them by nature of just being Defenders, but everyone had also adjusted with surprising ease to the revelation of being witches. Ryan especially hugged the knowledge close happily. He had majik, something he had always been so very drawn toward and wanted to know more about. He had borrowed more than once from the library books on witches and the Faith, though they had barely skimmed the surface. He had learned more during that brief conversation after meeting Striker than he had from any book. And still . . . he wanted to know more.
He debated with himself and then finally made up his mind. He moved over to where Tasia was walking with Leslie and smiled. "Can I ask some questions?"
"Of course, Ry." Tasia tilted her head slightly. "Go bug Emily, Les."
"'kay!" She hurried on ahead in the line and without malice or compunction began doing her level best to drive Emily batty by asking obvious questions. It was a short trip with Emily's temper, but she adored Leslie so she enjoyed their fights now.
Even though he now had Tasia's attention, Ryan wasn't quite certain where to begin. Tasia was content to be quiet and let her friend sort through his thoughts. She knew what he wanted to know. She had been waiting for the question since they met.
He suddenly asked, "The Path is an aspect of the Faith of the Goddess, right? And the Faith is basically a religion of sorts."
"An oddity in Blossom to be sure," she agreed. "Blossom Field usually does not have religion because we mostly just tolerate and accept gods and goddesses meddling in our lives and have no need to worship them. But for those who began the Faith . . . we wanted to offer worship, and love, to Destiny herself who oversees so much. We called her our Mother. She felt so honored by that that she gave us majik. We rarely call ourselves a religion, honestly, because it implies more structure than we actually use. Basically, the Faith is the overarching belief in Destiny as our Goddess, though we also do worship a Father God, and the Path is the term for the individual journey each member of the Faith makes. We all abide by the same rules for how we may or may not use majik—Theo referenced that earlier—but that does not mean we walk the same way. Me, for example."
"You are laying down the Path for those behind you."
"Basically, yeah. Part of being High Priestess."
"So you make the rules and if someone breaks them, you dish out the punishment."
She paused. "Maybe?"
He grinned. "Sorry, I don't think Theo was kidding about you being Karma. Which suits you, I think." He nodded firmly. "If Destiny is the Mother, then you're the Big Sister. And if they don't like it, you can kick them."
"Ha!" She swung an arm around Ryan's shoulders. "You amuse me to no end. You're so sweet and nice, but Goddess forbid anyone try to make you change your mind!" She kept her arm there as they walked. If it was the right time, then the question would come.
There was another silence between them until Ryan said quietly, "I always felt so drawn to the Faith. I re-read the few books on it at the library as often as I could, and it just called to me. I wanted to know more. Nothing you said changed that. I . . . think I want to walk the Path as well. Would you teach me?"
"Of course. That's what I am here for. And I expected you to ask, honestly. If you'd like to start now, this may be a good chance to show you something special you can do as a spiritual healer. It's a very rare sub-skill that only those on the Path get."
"I'd like that!"
She lifted a hand and waved it to get Rhya's attention. "Break time."
"Gladly!" Rhya said with emphasis. "My feet are killing me. I have never walked so much in my life!"
"It's doing great things for your legs, though," Beth told her.
"I'm so reassured to hear that."
While everyone sat down and got comfortable next to the road, Tasia and Ryan headed away from the others and back the way they had come. They were beginning to leave the trees behind and would be on another open plain within another hour of walking. They would be a lot more vulnerable without shelter, so a brief rest was worth it.
It also meant that for a bit of privacy, Tasia and Ryan had to retrace their steps back into the woods. When they were out of sight and earshot of the others, Tasia sat down on a grassy patch and Ryan sat down across from her. "So . . . what sub-skill do I have?" he asked.
"For lack of a better term, we'll call it a 'soothing touch.'" Tasia held out her hand and waited until he placed his on top. She traced a pentacle shape onto his palm with her other finger and left behind a softly glowing trail. Her touch was heated even though light, and his hands flexed. She just smiled. "It literally means you can drain away violent emotions and leave peace behind. You're actually the first person other than myself I've seen it in."
"That sounds surprisingly practical. What do I do with what I drain? Compost inside me like normal healing?"
"You can, or you can immediately return it as a majikal attack."
He brightened. "That is very useful! Majik can be an attack?"
"Selectively. Those of us with stronger majik can release it as a highly concentrated blast that does lots of damage both physically and spiritually." She got to her feet. "I think you need to meditate a bit, so I'm heading back to check on the others."
"When we get home," he asked softly, "will you help me start walking the Path?"
"You just did." She skimmed a hand down his dark hair. "We'll just formalize it at home." Without a sound, she walked off through the trees to rejoin the others.
He drew his hands back and looked at them as if he had never seen them. He felt as though he hadn't ever looked at them close enough before suddenly. They were his hands, yes, but now they seemed like a stranger's. He stared into the distance without seeing and rested his chin on his hands. There was such a strange sense of calm inside his soul now that he had found the Path. There was an explanation for the things he had always believed.
He was so deep in his thoughts that he jumped several inches when Emily put her hands on his shoulders. She grinned at him and he had to laugh. "You're mean, Em," he accused.
"Well, how was I to know you were off daydreaming?" She sat down next to him and watched as he studied his hands. After a moment, she leaned over and looked at his hands too. "Are we feeling like we need a manicure?"
He smiled wryly and dropped his hands into his lap. "Not precisely." He briefly filled his sister in on his decision and what he had learned, and hoped she wouldn't be angry at him. To his surprise, she only nodded as if she had confirmed something. "You're not upset?"
"Why would I be? Hell, Ry, it's your heart, your soul. You need to follow what's right for you, you know? Besides, you've always been into this sort of thing, so it's not that big a surprise. I would have probably given you shit even a month ago, but I had my eyes opened rather pointedly by a certain brown-eyed smartass. What's the special thing you can do anyway?"
He opened his mouth to respond when they both heard screams from their friends. They leapt to their feet and ran back to the rest spot only to discover that there was now a large and disturbing monster present as well. It had Theo and Tasia in one bloody claw, and the blood stained their clothes in streaks of gray and red. Neither had had a chance to don their Masks, so the damage had been far worse than if they had been armored.
Storm chucked an immense bolt of lightning at the monster that did surprisingly little damage, but it did make the monster drop Theo and Tasia. Raine and Rachel immediately grabbed them and dragged them out of the way, and Rhya slapped up a protective shield.
Ryan had just started to gather magic for an attack of his own when he saw Leslie from the corner of his eye. He gulped and gave Emily a shove. "Get down!"
The others still on the field saw what he had and everyone hit the deck. Leslie was furious. No, not even rage was a strong enough word for the look on her face as she saw the blood covering Tasia's form. This was a look of a nearly inhuman anger, a dark fury that would obliterate anything and everything that had harmed the one person she loved more than anything. It was terribly easy to forget that her core held far more Dark than Light for she seemed to spread cheer to everyone around her.
She took a step forward and the ground quivered under her feet. She slowly lifted her hands and black and pink magic surged up her body to form into massive white vines covered in thorns longer than her hands. The air around the vines began to quiver from heat waves as pink magic that resembled sunlight began to cover them. The vines fired through the air with violent force and punched right through the monster's chest. It was not instantly destroyed, it thrashed around furiously, but it definitely took damage.
"It's weak against Nature?" Beth asked.
Storm shook his head. "Anger! I think it's powered by anger! We either need to be more pissed off, or get rid of its anger."
"The latter sounds safer!" Ryan ran forward and jumped up to grab a vine. Using that, he hauled himself up to climb onto the monster's shoulders. He slapped his hands onto each side of the monster's face and grabbed for his majik. The monster immediately began to turn bright gold, and its attempts to thrash around became weaker and weaker. Ryan felt his hands burning so jumped away from the monster and swung around midair to fire off the majik he had gathered. Luckily for him, Storm and Emily caught him safely.
The anger-concentrated blast of majik proved to be exactly what was needed. It blew straight through the weakened monster and tore it to bits. Leslie dissolved what remained of her vines and dusted off her hands. She turned at a sound and found Tasia carefully sitting up with a hand pressed to her chest where the claw marks had been. She looked intact once more, and it made everyone breathe easier. Leslie immediately jumped into her arms and nearly knocked her over. "You idiot!" she shouted. "Don't do that again!"
"What did happen?" Emily demanded.
Rhya sighed. "That monster came out of nowhere and went after Leslie and me, for probably obvious reasons. Theo knocked me out of the way, and Tasia got in front of Leslie before we could blink." She shook her head. "And since both were easily healed, I guess it's no harm no foul, but, darn it all, I have discovered how much I'm going to hate seeing my Defenders get hurt for us!" She scowled at Ryan. "And what did you just do?"
Ryan smiled innocently. "They say anger destroys the person with it more than the person it's directed at. I just proved it right. That's all." He laughed as Emily caught him in a headlock and playfully rubbed her knuckles over his head. "Sorry, couldn't resist. But you're fully healed now, right, Tasi and Theo?"
"Definitely!" Theo hopped to his feet and then smiled when Rhya hugged him. "Aw, love you too." He kissed the top of her head and kept an arm around her shoulders. "You'd think I'd feel strange being so willing to die for someone else, but it feels perfectly natural. I think my only regret over all this is that Armand stole twenty damned years from us that we could have all been together."
Leslie nodded firmly without releasing Tasia. "I think he deserves to be hit just for that!"
"If so then we need to get on the road again," Raine said. "The sooner we get rid of Armand the better."
"I wonder," Storm said musingly, "if he realizes we're breathing down his neck."
©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.
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