Cursed Blood

"You do?!" Dmitri exclaimed. He grabbed me by my elbow, trying to shake my out of my frozen state. "Can you explain it?"

My mind was stuck on the file with Angel written across it, and the need to go see Spirit. I shook him off, chewing my fingernail.

"The red eyed man. He's a god, I know that now. The random painting the Queen let me have -- it's a picture of the godly war. Angel is the woman tied in the center, and that red eyed god is on the top half with the major gods. He once mentioned a botched reincarnation, and it makes sense, doesn't it? If Angel lost her power but is alive, what if her power is a part of the reason I am a hybrid? The gods created the Light and Dark blood types, so if she's their hybrid, what if their wrecked way of saving her created this world's hybrid," I ranted, piecing it together. "And there was something the spirit mentioned about being well loved -- either way, I think Angel is the goddess I'm looking for, but we aren't the only ones who know."

Dmitri and the scholars scowled. "What do you mean?"

"Lillian, one of the Queen's advisors, once gave me a copy of the file they had on me. In the margin, someone had written angel. I hadn't thought much of it, but now... If we're right..."

"Someone else knows who you are," Lori agreed, "and has known for a while."

"I have to visit the spirit. She'll tell me everything."

"But what if you're wrong?"

I paused, frowning at the floor. Honestly, I'd been too excited to even consider what I'd if this lead was wrong. A part of me desperately wanted this to be right, just so I could get my head on straight and figure out what I had to do. There was a war coming -- that's what Spirit had first told me. The Darkbloods, even if I was their friend, still had an old hatred with Lightbloods. Hell, their ambassador figure that had come with me to an official, high-class ball had gotten attacked. I wouldn't blame them for being upset.

But how much would they take before a war began?

"You guys stay here and search more. I'll follow this lead and visit Spirit, since I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who can see her anyway."

They nodded. "Do you need us to call a horse for you?"

I snorted.

"Nah, I'll take the flight option."

Sneaking past the family who moved in wasn't as hard as I orginally thought. Once I was in the Valley outside my old home, I used my wings to get up to the roof and wandered around until Spirit materialized in front of me with a curious look.

"Back so soon?"

I crossed my arms, tapping my foot against the roof. We were in the frozen state, when the sky looked like a galaxy and no one else was around.

"The god, or goddess, I should say," I began, "it's Angel, isn't it? The mixed god."

There was a heavy silence before Spirit finally smiled.

"Very good," she murmured, "you finally pieced it together."

My eyes widened, my wings fluttering as I perked up. "So I really do have power from a goddess?"

Spirit sighed. "I forgot, you don't know the real story, do you?"

A mischievous, mysterious smile lit up her face.

"Allow me to tell you about the gods..."

Once upon a time, centuries ago, the world was in a much better state than it is now.

Blood types lived in clans and had minor squabbles over territory, but they worked together and used their abilities to everyone's advantage. The same was with the gods, who were able to cooperate using their middle man, the goddess Angel. Angel was a major god and a minor god, contributing to the creation of Lightbloods and Darkbloods equally. She was adored, and seen as the Goddess of Gods because her powers were vast, though untrained. This particular goddess believed in unity, so she never trained her magic.

That was her fatal mistake.

After the clans went to war following the death of the woman meant to be the first Cursedblood, the gods went to war as well. The Cursedblood was meant to be a tribute to Angel as a hybrid goddess, with both bloods working on it for her. Darkbloods were the children of minor gods while Lightbloods were the children of major gods, meaning that when they went to war, tensions were high in the celestial realm. Feeling guilty about the life wasted in her name, feeling like it was her fault for being abnormal, Angel forgot about keeping the peace.

The godly war started soon after. Terrafell was in ruins, with broken alliances everywhere. Their conflict soon lessened as Lightbloods seemed to dominate, but with gods, almost invulnerable beings, it was a much longer fight.

A long, brutal fight that ended with only one casualty.

In a desperate effort to stop the fighting, since she loved both sides dearly, Angel tried to use her vast powers as the Goddess of Gods, only for it to backfire. She used a spell to absorb the damage the gods threw at each other, meaning to dispel it completely, but she instead turned it on herself. That very power killed her. However, her death did in fact stop their war.

At this point, everyone was devastated. The gods agreed to work together to rescue their messenger, and began her reincarnation. They planned on using a human body as a vessel.

After years of planning, they finally selected a vessel from a seemingly weak Lightblood family. Before the child's birth, they began the process of exchanging its soul for Angel's to bring their goddess back to life.

What they weren't expecting was the gift of immunity that was barely noticeable in the girl's aura. It was strong enough to resist the reincarnation, but not all of it. Their ritual was ruined as the shell of what once was Angel came to life; a Goddess of Gods without any real magic. She was still a celestial being, but all of her power had rested inside their reincarnate.

And so, the Cursedblood was born. The screwy ritual left the child with many problems, such as hybrid nature. The gods, knowing the mix of bloods would most likely kill the baby, were ready to absorb the magic back into Angel. However, that child was saved when she was stolen by Darkbloods.

Now, the next war is set to begin, and with two halves of the ultimate goddess in play, no one's plans are going exactly how they wanted them to.

"And that's who you are," Spirit finished.

"I'm... half of Angel?"

She nodded. "The goddess is too weak to come into this realm anymore; she doesn't have the magic for it. She's been reduced to an adored negotiator, and the gods are blaming each other. Like how Darkbloods and Lightbloods blame each other for everything."

A displeased frown graced my face. "So what do I do? Stop the war?"

The ghostly woman shrugged. "It's up to you, Cloud. You have enough power to do anything you want. No one expects you to do anything, really. The ideal situation would be for you and Angel to be melded together, but I highly doubt it will work."

"Why?" I wondered. "Can't they just fuse our souls together?"

"Because," she smiled wistfully, "your soul isn't just half of hers. You weren't born as a vessel for her, you were born a regular child. Fusing your souls won't work because there's pieces of you that aren't actually hers."

"So... she's just... broken," I concluded. Suddenly, I was the one feeling guilty.

"Believe me," Spirit assured me, "she isn't upset. You're like a daughter to her."

I frowned. That's weird to think of, but alright.

"This is strange," I admitted. "But somehow, it makes sense."

"Does it?"

I sighed, sitting down on the roof. Spirit watched me with curious eyes. My memories were running through my mind at a ridiculously high pace. Does it really make sense? Gods. Gods of gods. Big gods, little gods, crazy hybrid experiments and reincarnations. How could I get tied up with all this? Why me? Things were falling into place, pieces of the puzzle locking in which each other, but it felt like someone had picked up the finished product and was trying to shake it to see what pieces would come loose.

"Well?" Spirit prodded. "What will you do now?"

"I want to stop the war," I said slowly, "but I don't know if I can."

"You can't."

I looked over at her, shocked that she could be so blunt.

The smirk on her face set me at ease.

"But you could try."