Demi-Sin of Deceit: Part Two

Tatiana

We’d set up a camp on the edge of Demon’s Crest, the steep descent flickering in the heat of the flames from our small campfire, and I wrapped my arms around my knees, contemplating what Lucifer had said, what he could have meant, while knowing exactly what he’d said.

Syrphien was dead, and we’d lost the war.

Simple, but effective at destroying any hope I had left in me.

The others didn’t seem to notice my quietness as they cooked meat over the fire, the smoke painting the normally bright blue sky a dull grey. They were laughing about a story Selphien was telling of her time in the Lake Palace, and I grimaced as she mentioned her brother, casually wondering how he was doing.

Syrphien was dead, but I had no details as to how, where, or even who had killed him. An accident, an Assassin, a soldier? How?!

With no information available to me, and with the crevice not far away, I was hesitant to inform Selphien of the death. If she asked questions I couldn’t answer, or worse, threw herself over the edge, there was nothing I could say or do to make things better.

It would be better to wait until I had something to tell her- a method of death, an explanation of their killer, something! Even his damned sword would be better than me just claiming that he was dead!

But keeping an ordinary secret was hard enough, especially one that was lifechanging, and this one was… More than that. It would shatter Selphien, and if I revealed it too harshly, it could be the final straw that broke her. She’d had a harsh life, piling this on top could send her over the edge… Literally.

‘Lucifer, I need more details. I- For Heaven’s sake, I need to know something!’

My Connected had, for the first time ever, ignored me. He could be in danger… Tugging on the connection, I flinched in surprise when I felt a tug back in the direction of the forest.

Rising, I turned to study the edge of the Forest of the Damned, the others following my gaze, questioning, “Are you alright, Tatiana?”

“Something feels strange.” I needed to get away from the others for a while, to sit down somewhere and try and get more information out of Lucifer. Tiskial must have brought them to the Forest of the Damned to avoid whoever had killed Syrphien, and at that point, they might as well join the camp, and tell Selphien what had happened. A part of me wished I could tell her, just so I didn’t have to pace back and forth wondering if I was going to have to tie her down first.

Shaking off my cloak, I let my wings unfold, seeing the ashamed grimace Selphien struggled to hide as she turned her face away, and Myr asked, “Tatiana, is everything okay?”

Nodding, I murmured, “I’ll go talk to Senias. Flying, I should get there and back by nightfall. If I’m not back by then, continue down into the Demon’s Crest.” There would be no point waiting, and thus risking the Maladur family from finding the ring before us. Lucifer had claimed we’d already lost the war, but we still had a chance to fight. We could find a way into the war camp we’d abandoned at Karmona, gather some supplies, and set up a new camp elsewhere.

If Senias would take us, we could camp near the Aos Si home. At least then we would be protected by their own soldiers. Thank the Heavens they’d dragged theirs back home before the final battle. I’d been annoyed, at first, that they hadn’t seemed willing to actually fight alongside us, but now, they might be our last chance at winning.

Running for Demon’s Crest, I leapt into the sky before the others could stop me, their shouted questions fading as I soared into the clouds, the wind curving against my body.

Beneath me, the Forest of the Damned sprawled out like a map, shrinking as I soared even higher, just relishing the chance to be alone for once, even if it was for an emergency. It was beautiful up here, a showcase of why we fought so hard to protect this space, and I sighed wistfully. We could be saying goodbye to all of this.

I’d never flown to Senias’s home before, but I tugged on the connection between Lucifer and I, slowly drifting closer to the ground, letting it guide me.

The leaves on the trees, originally a single, waving mass, were now individual, and I noticed that a few of them were growing sparse, winter fast approaching.

By now, I could see the brighter colours of clothing in the forest, my Connected making no effort to hide in the forest. They were sprawled out, Tiskial lying on his back in the mud, staring up at the sky, Ash resting her head on his arm, while Lucifer was sitting on a log, staring blankly out across the swamp in front of him. Jane was leaning against a tree, her eyes closed. They were nowhere near Senias’s home, which meant Tiskial had just brought them somewhere random in the Forest of the Damned.

Flying down, I wasn’t spotted until I sunk beneath the treetops, having to swerve around a tree branch, and Tiskial sat up, pointing to me.

Lucifer stood, his arms outstretched, and I landed in front of him, folding my wings inward, pulling him into a hug. The look in my Connected’s eyes, and in the eyes of the allies surrounding me, spoke volumes. No, it wasn’t some sort of joke, and yes, they were telling the truth.

Syrphien was dead.

It just seemed so… anticlimactic. He hadn’t gone out in some sort of epic battle, like he’d always claimed he would. Instead, he’d been assassinated. At least, that seemed to be how he’d died, because the others were physically unharmed.

“What happened?” I questioned, taking Lucifer’s hand in my own. He leaned into the touch, pressing his forehead against mine, and Ash gripped Tiskial’s hand. Jane stepped forward, bowing her head to me, explaining, “We made it to Ordeallan, but they wouldn’t let us past the front gate, claimed we needed proof we were who we claimed. When we couldn’t present that, they brought out a Lady of Ordeallan.”

“But Avalon said-”

“Yes, he called them potential traitors. As it turns out, he was right. They brought Lady Espin out to identify us. She didn’t identify us, but someone threw a dagger from inside her carriage, and it hit Syrphien. The two of them were working together, but a moment later, Lady Espin was killed by the Assassin, too.”

“With thanks to you, Jane,” Tiskial muttered, “You turned her into pulp.”

I swung, wide-eyed, to stare at Jane, who shrugged, unashamed.

“Ordeallan has been taken into Caliem’s control. I’m not sure what they were promised, but they’ve switched to Caliem’s side.”

“We have nowhere left to defend, then?” I gulped. Which meant our last chance lied with the ring in Demon’s Crest, and whatever information Senias might have for us.

“Tarvenia is under Agron’s control, Karmona has fallen, Lamia is gone, and Ordeallan is under Caliem control, so… Yes. We have nowhere left to defend. With all four cities now out of our control, the Lords of Hell will begin working their way inwards pretty soon. We’ll lose control of The Borderlands.”

“Should we go to Korath, then?”

Tiskial shook his head, saying, “It would leave people like Adriel and Emmett stuck here. They can’t travel through the Divider.”

“What about the Northern Isles?” There had to be somewhere we could go! We couldn’t have nothing!

“It’s too far away. Even the Paradoxin Rift is in Destiny’s backyard in Karmona.”

Destiny… Poor girl. She was getting tortured, there were no doubts about that. It didn’t seem she’d revealed any of our secrets, yet, otherwise we certainly would have had the Lords of Hell intercepting us at Demon’s Crest. Except, she hadn’t known about it. She’d been taken thinking we’d run out of options to fight the war. There was no hope for her to cling for.

Maybe we should have taken the risk and rescued her right away. At least then we would have kept Ordeallan under our control. Even if we rescued her now, it wouldn’t do us any good. Ordeallan was under Caliem’s control.

“What do you suggest we do, then?” Jane asked, and I said, “I think we should go to the Aos Si. We’re Fae, they’ll hide us.”

“Yes, but the Aos Si realm is dangerous. We don’t even know the name of it!”

“It’s still a Fae realm! It’s certainly safer there than it would be anywhere else! We can begin looking for Caelum, Inferos and Faeretan, as well as the ring from Demon’s Crest! We have the Sacreds and the stones!”

Tiskial pressed his lips together, turning away for a moment, and with a sinking feeling in my chest, I demanded, “What’s that look for?”

Chewing on his lip, he slowly said, “Well… There were only so many places I could hide the Sacreds, right, so I took them to the last place we had left.”

“Ordeallan?” Jane said at the same time Tiskial admitted, “I took them to Ordeallan. They’re well hidden, but we should probably retrieve them before the Maladur family finds them first.”

“Where in Ordeallan?” Lucifer sighed, dropping his head into his hands. We were going to have to find a way to retrieve those Sacreds, gather supplies from the war camp, and begin planning a war with very few soldiers.

“One’s in the tunnels underground, another in the Night-Hunter home that Destiny had rebuilt, and the third is in-”

There was a rustling in the trees behind Lucifer, a Demonic-being breaking away, sprinting through the brush, and I swore. How long had they been there?

Lifting my palm, I watched as a huge flytrap rose from the ground, swallowing the Demonic-being in its huge jaws, the screams followed closely by the sound of bones breaking, the flytrap crushing its latest meal.

A few seconds later, it sunk beneath the ground again, the crater of dirt it left behind slowly filling itself in, only to have it reappear, spitting up a pile of blood-stained clothing, a golden ring flying into the air only to snag itself onto a tree branch. Tiskial strode over, reaching up to pluck the ring from the tree, while Ash gathered the clothes, tucking them deep into her backpack with a shrug.

“They might be useful later.”

Scowling, Tiskial turned the ring over in his palm, still standing beneath the tree.

“Tiskial, what do you have there?” Lucifer called, and I turned to Ash and Jane, saying, “It might be best if we keep discussions of the Sacreds to a minimum.”

As Tiskial and Lucifer discussed the strange ring they’d found, which was composed of two interlocking pieces, Jane and Ash began scouting the area, talking quietly amongst themselves.

I could see in the way they held themselves, their shoulders slumped forward slightly, that they were grieving, the scouting nothing more than a distraction for what they’d seen, and it soon became apparent that Lucifer was the same, because he strode over to Tiskial, muttering, “Is it the same sort of ring that the Lords of Hell used to escape from us?”

“I can’t say,” Tiskial admitted, sliding the ring onto his finger, and twisting the second piece. Behind him, the Paradoxin Rift whirled to life, leaves and bits of grass flying inwards as a loud howling overtook the space. Unable to see through the other side, Tiskial warily stuck his hand in.

Shuddering, he retracted it to reveal snow melting on his fingers, goose-bumps rising on his wrist.

“Caliem,” he said with a finality that made us shudder, and he twisted the ring again, the rift closing with a ‘POP!’ that made my ears ring. Around us, the leaves began to settle again, falling into the grass.

Jane and Ash, who had wandered back over when they’d heard the Rift, asked, “Why would the Paradoxin Rift lead to Caliem? I thought it led to Earth.”

“Maybe the Lords of Hell use it to get around?” Lucifer mused, “Like how you use portals, Tiskial. What were you thinking about?”

“About where Destiny was.”

Well, that solved that question.

“We could use it to retrieve the Sacreds,” I suggested, and Ash shook her head, “It’s too dangerous. Ordeallan is under enemy control, now.”

“Then what do we do?”

“I think we should scout out Korath. If Destiny is there, it makes sense, doesn’t it? We’ll need her help to reclaim Ordeallan.”

Ash shook her head again.

“I don’t think Destiny would want to reclaim Ordeallan. She didn’t even want to be Queen.”

“Then let’s just focus on getting this ring from Demon’s Crest. How are you all getting there?”

“We’ll portal,” Tiskial said, clicking his fingers. His portal whirled open for a second, before slamming shut, and from behind us, a dark voice said, “I haven’t seen the Rift since Earth…”

Ash nocked a bow in her arrow as she swung around, aiming it at the woman who stood in front of us, a long blue dress hanging from her thin frame, her curved claws, which extended from withered, ancient hands, tapping against a tree. Behind her was a whirling, buzzing mass of miniscule insects, the only sign of their presence the sheen of their wings, and the buzzing they made whenever they moved.

The woman was tall, taller than Lucifer and I at least, and her swirling black and green eyes made my shift my weight nervously as I felt magic begin to tap at my skin, testing me. Lucifer stiffened, while Tiskial began furiously trying to reopen another portal.

“Don’t bother, Faery, I have control over these forests.”

“But the Aos Si-”

“The Aos Si are wise enough to know not to mess around with my territory. Rest assured, Queen of the Sun Palace, that we’re allies, although you haven’t met me.”

“How do you know our names?” Jane demanded, and the woman replied, “Witches know almost everything. I see one of your friends has died, too, and in quite a cruel way. I can bring him back, for a price.”

There were only two fully-grown Witches that we had met- Silba, who had since passed away, and her daughter, Sylvia. If this woman was a Witch, then it meant she was Nicnevin, Queen of Witches.

“You’re Nicnevin,” I said, the others jolting, swinging to stare at me, and Nicnevin bared her teeth in a vicious smile, her tapping pausing for a moment. Her claws were needle-thin, and they seemed to sharpen further at the sound of her name. Holding my ground as she approached, I watched as she plucked a strand of hair from my head, rubbing it between her fingers before tossing it at the ground.

“A Sevenna… I met your ancestor, once.”

From the ground, where that golden strand of hair laid, a shadowy wisp, an echo of a woman, began to rise. It was a copy of myself, right down to the golden wings that hung from my back, but it began to shift, going back generations, until a copy of Nel Sevenna stared back at me.

“She was a preening bitch, so I truly hope you won’t be the same, Tatiana.”

Swiping her hand through the copy, Nicnevin banished the image, leaving only her grinning face staring at me.

“As I said earlier, I can bring Syrphien Maw’tryx back, for a price.”

“Name it,” Tiskial growled, stepping neatly in front of me, and Nicnevin’s smile became dangerous.

“A life for a life, darling Faery. I’ll bring Syrphien back, in exchange for the person he valued most.” Her hair shifted colour, becoming a startlingly bright purple, and Jane hissed.

Selphien. Nicnevin wanted Selphien’s soul.

“Not a chance, Witch,” I snapped, “Faeries don’t come back from the dead!”

“Well… That’s not quite true. Look at Nel Sevenna. She’s back, isn’t she?” The buzzing mass of insects flew closer, and I dipped my chin to them, asking, “What are they?”

“Gigelorum. They were sneaking up to attack the lot of you until I arrived. My magic holds them in place, at least until I leave… If you won’t accept my offer of Syrphien returning, then how about a deal for something else? I have information you might want about a certain tale in the Garden of Eden… Even humans don’t know this one, I promise.”

“What would your price be?”

“I saw that you have a certain Demonic-being Princess as an ally. As it so proves, her soul regenerates- a valuable commodity, for a Witch. Give me her soul, and you can have your tale.”

“No. Destiny’s given enough.”

“How about her Angelic twin, then?”

“No! For the sake of all things holy and unholy, either give us a better deal, or leave!” Tiskial shouted, and Nicnevin sighed heavily.

“Fine- My final offer. I’ll give you the tale of the Garden of Eden, in exchange for a leaf from the largest tree there, once you find the Garden.”

“Deal. Now tell us the tale.”

“Show, don’t tell?” She questioned, and with a click of her fingers, we fell through a portal beneath our feet, Nicnevin’s laugh following close behind…