Nurturer of Nightmares

Selphien

The fields stretched out around me, rain pouring down overhead, obscuring my vision as I ran, barely keeping my balance against the mud, sludge and rocks that scattered the field, and I screamed out, “Syrphien!”

His retreating form didn’t seem to notice me running after him, nor did it hear the screams I let out for him to wait for me, the pleads I let out for him not to leave me behind.

The wall of Ordeallan rose over both of us, towering, and he paused, staring up at it, his back still to me.

Still running for him, I began to slow, panting loudly, gasping out, “Syr… Wait! Please!”

He turned around, revealing the wound across his chest, right in his heart, huge flakes of salt drifting from it, melting into the mud beneath us. The rain washed away the blood, but I could smell it between us, and his face crumpled as he looked at me.

“Selphien.” There was a look of hopelessness in his face as he looked at me, noting the tears on my face.

I pressed my hand to my mouth, shaking my head, begging, “Please don’t go! Don’t leave me behind!”

He shook his head as well, stepping forward to pull me into a hug and breathing, “Never. Never. I’ll watch over you.”

“Just stay with me! Why leave me behind?!”

He pressed my head into his chest, kissing me on the forehead, and I clung to him as he collapsed, blood pooling around him. It sank into my boots, and I fell to my knees beside him, trying to stifle the blood flow as he gurgled, the salt killing him. His face contorted in pain, and he choked out, “I love you, Selph. Rule our people well…”

Wiping away my tears, I replied, “I love you, too. We’ll rule them together, okay? Syr? Syr!”

He exhaled shakily, going still, and I screamed his name in desperation- Sitting up with a startled cry that I quickly muffled, I looked around the room lit up for a split second by the lightning outside, rain pouring down over the rooftops of the buildings surrounding us.

Sellan and Jane remained peacefully sleeping, the former half-falling off his bed, the scratchy blanket hanging over the lower portion of his legs, while the latter was curled up in a tight ball, her mouth hanging open. She let out a snuffling noise, rolling over in her bed, and I stuffed my fingers between my teeth, silencing my sobs.

Being here, so close to the city walls where Syrphien had been murdered, made me feel haunted, like he was following me.

Rising silently from my bed, I pulled my nightgown tighter around myself, shuffling over to peer out the window, watching the rain bounce off the buildings, running down the walls before pooling in the street below. It was nearing dawn, not that you could tell from the darkness of the storm raging outside; the first winter storm for the year. The temperature seemed to plummet with every passing second, and I eventually dragged my own blanket over, taking a seat in the worn-out leather armchair by the window, the only other piece of furniture besides our beds.

Ordeallan’s winters were miserable; I hated being here during winter, and the fact that I had once been willing to remain in Ordeallan with Seth was laughable. I would have hated every second…

Perhaps that was a lie. I’d liked Seth, maybe even began loving him. Destiny had known, too. Heaven above, she’d been the one to ask me if I’d loved her Connected, had almost orchestrated ways to bring us together.

But she’d still killed Syrphien. It had to have been her- no other person in Caliem was such a skilled Assassin, and she had been taken back to Caliem not long before he had been killed.

Would she kill him? They hadn’t been best friends, but I hadn’t sensed any sort of hatred coming from her.

We had tried to humiliate her, though, when her affair with Seth had become more mainstream. People had been accepting of it! They’d claimed that, because they were Connected, it was normal, even if what Seth had done was wrong!

She had been the one to kill Syrphien. It had to have been her.

Which was why Tiskial going to retrieve her was so annoying. Clearly, she would be back in her element, being one of Caliem’s revered Princesses! She probably enjoyed the attention!

A bell tolled outside, waking Sellan with a loud groan, the Fae male rolling over on the rickety mattress he had spent twenty gold on. Jane simply pulled a pillow over her face, mumbling, “I’m not getting up yet…”

I didn’t blame them, even if the feeling of the roughly-hewn blanket on my skin was sending me mad. I’d been up half the night just scratching my skin whenever it happened to rub against the blanket, too.

With Ordeallan now under Caliem’s loose control, since none of the Lords of Hell had actually cursed the city with their presence, the bell to wake everybody was rung every morning, rather than night, half the city still struggling to adapt to their new schedule.

And every morning there was a gathering of different sections of the city in the Town Square, where one of Caliem’s Generals would write down everyone’s names, creating what I could only assume was documentation for everyone. They were looking for traitors, too- anyone who they could match up with soldiers’ names from our own army. So far, only a few people had been whisked away, Sellan, Jane and I watching in horror from the tunnels below. We hadn’t seen what happened to them, but it didn’t take a genius to guess. They were probably tortured and executed in the Ordeallan Palace.

We’d avoided every gathering thus far, jumping from inn to inn in different sections of the town after noticing the pattern Caliem used. They were going through the districts in a clockwork motion.

We were on the eastern side, the poorer part of the city. Yesterday, they had documented the western side. Today would be the northern side.

After that, we would have to gather as much money as possible and find somewhere safe to sleep in the western side for two nights.

There would be a second bell in the northern side of the city in a moment, summoning everybody in that district to the gathering.

“What’s the plan today?” I asked quietly, still staring out at the rain. I couldn’t imagine the sort of people who could afford living in the northern side coming and standing in the rain, but if Caliem demanded it, they would. Especially with the notice that had come out yesterday, about those who complied with Caliem’s rule could continue to live almost normally, albeit with a few law changes.

Sellan lifted his head from his pillow, blinking blearily and groaning out, “We’ll keep searching for the Sacred that Tiskial hid.”

“Must he hide them in such obscure places?” Jane sighed dramatically, “There’s plenty of better places to hide an ancient artifact.”

“Not many places are safer than the ones he chose,” Sellan replied, and I murmured, “He hid them for Destiny to find, not us. That’s why we’re struggling.”

Despite being given two very distinct locations: The tunnels below the city, the Night-Hunter home and wherever the third location was, since Tiskial had been cut off when explaining it, we had failed to find any of the Sacreds. We’d scoured the tunnels, having even found one or two of Destiny’s abandoned Dens, but we’d never found even a trace of the Scales of Balance, the Hourglass of Time, or the Tree of Life.

The Night-Hunter home, since it had been rebuilt, and was now currently being run by one of Madorinne’s contacts, was harder to get to.

So what was the connection between all of these, the one thing that linked them?

They were all dark, shadowy places. Which was strange, because they were all places Caliem would think to look.

Which had been Tiskial’s exact hope. He’d said we had to find them before the Maladur family did, because all of the Sacreds were hidden right in the areas you would expect to find them.

“Why would he do that?”

“Think about it- He has explicitly said that we would need Desterium to retake Ordeallan. All of the Sacreds are hidden in places she would seek refuge. The tunnels are full of her Dens, the Night-Hunter house is an obvious place for an Assassin to blend in, and whatever the third location is will be something similar- a place Desterium frequents.”

“Alright, everyone needs to brainstorm places Desterium visits.”

“The Rusty Tin Bar?” Jane suggested, sitting up in bed and rubbing at her eyes. Sellan nodded, adding, “Or the Town Square.”

“What about the Palace? There’s so many places you could hide a Sacred there,” I said, and Jane shook her head, saying, “Surely not? That would be incredibly obvious.”

“That depends on what it is. Sure, Caliem might recognise the Scales of Balance sitting on a damned pedestal in the artifacts room, but an hourglass? The Hourglass of Time doesn’t even look particularly extraordinary! What if it’s there?”

“On the other hand, Desterium had a large garden in that Palace. The Tree of Life could be hidden there. Here’s the thing, Selphien, we can’t approach the Palace, so right now, it’s off limits. I don’t think we should risk our lives for a whim that has no proof one way or another.”

“So what are we going to do today?”

“We’re going to-” Outside, a bell began tolling, the first one still ringing, and someone in the street began shouting, “Everybody in the eastern side to the Town Square! Everyone out!”

We all looked to each other as frantic footsteps began in the hallway outside, other patrons running to get to the Town Square for fear of appearing disobedient, and Jane breathed, “It was meant to be the northern side today…”

“They must have realised something was up,” I said, peering nervously out of the curtains at the Caliem soldier striding down the street, a sword in his hand as he shoved people towards the Town Square.

We’d hidden and watched a district being emptied, once, just to see what they did. They would ring the bell to wake everybody up, and then the second bell to send them to the Town Square. In ten minutes, they would begin deploying soldiers into the buildings to search for anyone trying to stay behind.

If you did try to hide and they found you, they would either kill you where you were, or take you away to kill you in front of everyone at the Town Square.

“We can’t stay here,” Sellan said, a quiet defeat in his voice as he gathered up his shirt and cloak, pulling both on. Jane and I rose as well, replacing the nightgowns with the simple brown and grey dresses we’d bought in an effort to remain inconspicuous.

I’d even began dying my hair again, the purple now replaced with a deep, mud-brown that was slowly beginning to wash out.

“If we go and they discover us, they’ll kill us,” I warned, and Sellan nodded, saying, “But either way, we’ve been caught, pretty much. At least if we go, we stand a chance at tricking them. Right now, you need to take those shirts we stole yesterday from that Nephilim house, and begin rubbing them on your arms, face, neck- anywhere with exposed skin. We need to hide the fact that we’re Fae as best we can.”

“We’ll need fake names, too,” Jane said.

“Alright. Selphien, you can be Violet Pennysworth. Jane, you can be her sister, Alice Pennysworth. I will be your older brother, William Pennysworth. If anyone asks, we’re the children of a merchant killed in the Karmona attack. We’ve returned to Ordeallan recently.”

Committing the name to my memory, I rose, Sellan turning away as Jane and I dressed, the two of us trying to pull our hair back.

Without brushing it, we looked like a mess, but if we were meant to be poor, then all the better for us.

Grabbing the money we had, I tucked it down into my corset, hiding it as best I could, and Sellan turned back around. Jane arranged my hair in front of my ears, carefully hiding them, and then murmured, “We should keep our heads low.”

We stared at each other for a moment, and Jane breathed, “Let’s go, then.”

Sellan opened the door first, the hinges creaking loudly, and he peered into the hallway. Everybody had already left, the stairs beyond empty as well, and we made our way out, trudging down the hallway slowly.

The downstairs lobby, where we had eaten dinner last night, was empty as well, even the owner of the inn gone, and Sellan opened the front door, immediately revealing a Caliem soldier. We flinched, bowing our heads to him, and he stepped aside, growling, “To the Town Square, Nephilim, now.”

We rushed by, Sellan thanking him in a deep voice, and I linked my arm through Jane’s, keeping close to hide the shaking in both of us. I could feel her heartbeat in the palm of her hand, her fingers twitching nervously, and I whispered, “It’ll be okay.”

The closer we got to the Town Square, the more people appeared, hurrying along. Some carried children with them, or dragged a screaming toddler behind, while others simply hung their heads and walked alone, all of us wondering who might be dragged up and killed next.

Four Guards, all armed, stood at the main entrance to the Town Square, the others mostly blocked off by large brick walls that were being built, sectioning the Town, and it was here that they began removing cloaks and peering into people’s faces. Sellan stiffened, the cloak the only thing hiding his Fae ears, before straightening his shoulders, striding forward. He remained behind him as he bowed.

The Guard didn’t seem to care for the bow as he lifted a clipboard with half a dozen sheets of paper on it, names already scrawled on, and asked, “Name?”

“William Pennysworth. These are my sisters, Violet and Alice Pennysworth.”

“Remove your cloak.”

Sellan peeled it back far enough to reveal his face, his ears barely covered by the edge of the cloak, and the Demonic-being squinted. I tightened my grip on Jane’s hand, and before he could examine Sellan any further, I nudged him aside, stepping forward with Jane and saying, “My name is Violet Pennysworth. This is my sister, Alice.”

“Remove your cloaks.”

Luckily for us, we had hair long enough that, when styled correctly, we could hide our ears, and as the both of us pulled the cloaks back, Sellan watching from the side, the Demonic-being nodded, muttering in boredom, “Move along, then.”

We curtseyed, striding forward quickly, Sellan joining our sides again, and he leaned close to me, quietly saying, “Thank you.”

Shaking my head, I breathed, “We need to stick together.”

People were being lined up in one of five lines, signs categorising what these lines were meant for- Fae, Nephilim, Fallen Angel, Vampire. The fifth line had no such sign, and I paused, watching the line-up of people in the fifth slowly grow, more and more people being funnelled in.

Before we could join the Nephilim line, a Demonic-being stepped into our path, saying, “Race?”

“Nephilim,” I replied coolly, Jane nodding sweetly at my side. He studied all three of us, sniffing, before saying, “You two girls- to the fifth line. You, boy, to the Nephilim line.”

“What’s the fifth line for?” I questioned fearfully as two Demonic-beings rushed forward, grabbing Jane and I’s arms and dragging us away from Sellan.

Looking me dead in the eye, he mouthed, “Don’t fight back!”

The people in the fifth line didn’t seem to be anything unusual- they were just a medley of people that had been chosen, like us, for seemingly unknown reasons.

Different skin tones, hair colours, eye colours, races- nothing made any sort of link between us, and Jane clung to my arm even tighter, breathing, “Violet.”

I ignored her for a moment, still striding through the crowd to get to the end of the line, and Jane said, “Violet.”

“In a moment, Alice,” I replied back snippily, scanning the crowd. What was the link between all of these people?

What linked us to them?

In a moment of distraction, I ran into someone, bouncing off their chest, and Jane let out a shaky breath as I looked up, into Kynal’s eyes.

Leviathan…

The eyes had dulled in colour, seeming to rot, and his skin was peeling away in flakes, but he was still recognisable as the man who had once been our friend. Our family.

His clothes hung off him like curtains, revealing the skeletal body Leviathan now inhabited, and I shuddered. He looked like a corpse walking.

Jane clung to my arm even tighter, her face going paler than ever before, and she let out a squeak of pain and sorrow, tears welling in her eyes. I held my ground, staring up at him with hatred, and he purred, “Ah, it’s a pleasure to see you again, Princess Selphien. Or rather, Queen Selphien, now.” He knew of Syrphien’s death, then. Which meant he likely knew who did it.

“My name is Violet,” I snapped back in return, “I don’t know of who you speak of!”

Rolling his eyes, a fleck of grey skin peeling from his face as he did so, he replied, “You’re really going to try and lie to me? I must admit, you both did a wonderful job of disguising yourselves. A lesser Demonic-being wouldn’t have been able to smell the Fae on you.”

“We’re Nephilim.”

It would have been an effort for Jane to keep her wings lowered, especially as Leviathan took a step closer, towering over both of us before asking, “And what are the two of you doing in the fifth line? Which idiot thought you would be weak enough to submit like the rest of these?”

Pointing to the Demonic-being who had sent us here, uncaring if Leviathan killed him later or not, I simply said, “We were sent here by him.”

“How unfortunate for the both of you. That will be an interesting experiment to witness.”

“What do you mean?” I breathed, the courage in me fading at the look in his eyes. He leaned in, quietly saying, “Well, Demon Lords like my siblings and I need new bodies, especially as the ones we’re in start to decay. This is the line-up. They pick the ones they think are strong enough to handle the full ritual, but weak enough to succumb to it at the end.”

“Why not use Destiny as your body?” I suggested cruelly, and Jane dug her fingernails into me, hissing, “Violet!”

“The Princess is currently otherwise occupied, and besides, my sister doesn’t find her very attractive.”

“She’s occupied while killing people?”

“Being killed,” Leviathan corrected, laughing harshly and adding, “You seem to hate her with a passion, Queen. I hope that won’t affect your alliance at all.” They wanted it to, obviously. The less people coming for Desterium Maladur, the better for them.

“If you do hate her, then you would have enjoyed what they did to her, being a traitor to Caliem and all. I wasn’t there to witness it, unfortunately, but I heard about it. A Severing, followed by a torture session that is still ongoing.”

“She was captured a while ago,” Jane breathed, and Leviathan nodded, saying, “Yes. She’s had a rather rough four weeks, I suppose.”

A month. It had been a month since they’d captured her, and she’d been tortured that entire time…

“Zeella was quite cruel with it, actually. He Severed Desterium in front of her Connected, and then had them split apart. Both think the other is dead.”

I couldn’t imagine having a Connected that you knew was being tortured, had no idea of the kind of pain it might cause, but Seth had been my friend, even something more, once. The idea of him being there, panicked and alone, unsure if his only ally in that place was dead or dying or somewhere in between, made me feel ill to my stomach. Seth had been missing for even longer than Destiny had… Had he been in the Caliem Manor this entire time?

The blood rushed from my face, trying to settle me, and Leviathan said, “If my sister chooses you as her new body, then maybe you’ll get to see them again. Until then, get into line, remain silent, and pray you aren’t the one taken away in chains.”

He brandished to a small group of people being dragged away, their family screaming their names, and Jane sunk into my side, beginning to tremble as the Guards continued escorting us to our positions, Leviathan remaining where he was.

Turning to watch us, he simply smirked, giving us a wink and mouthing, “Good luck, Violet and Alice Pennysworth.”