SWNOVELS Chapter Chapter Thirty Eight: True Lies
The cellar was the coldest, most haunting and dreadful part of Lord Lucifer’s castle. Hardly any prisoner was known to have survived. What rode them to a torturous Death was unknown to everyone. But Azrael was about to find out. When the guards opened the bars of a cell and threw him inside, he crashed onto the floor with a groan; it his head on the side. He was then pulled up to sitting, his hands fastened together with shackles covering his wrists and then they bound the same around his legs. The worst part was when Lord Lucifer had come to see him. He had stood outside the cell callously, something that was reserved only for those he felt immense hatred and loathing for. Azrael did not like it being directed towards him.
“I will not ask how and why Amara came to this conclusion,” Lord Lucifer had said. “But since you were the one person that I had trusted the most after her, I will let you know this, I did not, for the slightest bit of me, fathom that it would be you of all people. I treated you like my own son. But I had always wondered whether or not you would trace your father’s footsteps. And you did. Until the war gets over, you will remain in this cellar and then we will decide what has to be done. All your powers are hereby sealed. They will no longer work. The cellar does not allow that. And no sort of dark magic can defeat it. You cannot send messages to anyone. You are, from this moment on, as worthless as a mortal to us.”
With that, he had vanished. Azrael had listened quietly, not uttering a single sound. His face was unresponsive, his eyes cold and blank. He felt not a single thing apart from wanting to be with the one person he thought he was safe with: Amara. Azrael needed her. Now as he sat with his head leaning onto the chilly wall on his side, his eyes focussed on the bars of the cell, all he could think of was how Amara would never trust a single soul after what had happened. She had barely begun to trust him, and now that it was revealed that he was the traitor, he was well aware that there was no way that she would ever be the same. Not only had he lost the chance to spend time with someone whom he had started to care for, he had also lost the Amara that he had pulled out of the fake mask that she wore.
He had lost her, and she wasn’t going to come back. That much he was quite sure of. No amount of explanation would bring her back. Neither would he go back to the way he was with Amara. He had lost himself too. Till eternity, if that was for how long he existed. Or maybe he would slowly fade into an agonizing Death in the cellar, like the others did.
The smell of Death was lingering around him, entering his senses and blinding him of all light. It made him weak, it made him cough and splutter as he spotted the remains of the older prisoners in the other cells. How many prisoners have died here? He thought, struggling to get rid of the stench. But it never left. There was nothing that could distract him from that until he heard the door of the cellar open and the sound of footsteps made him sit upright, expecting it was Amara. To his disappointment, he sensed the familiar presence of his sister.
Leandra sauntered inside, wearing a long cloak that covered the blood-red gown that she wore. She walked ahead and stooped below to come to Azrael’s level.
“The smell is really disgusting, isn’t it?” She uttered, scrunching up her face.
“What do you want?” He mumbled coldly.
“Dear brother of mine, aren’t you glad to see me? Your sister is here to visit you despite the horrendous surrounding,” she replied, looking around and then blowing air from her mouth, cleansing the area on the floor below before she sat there comfortably.
“You’re the last person I want to see right now,” he told her.
The argument that they had had in the chamber flashed into his mind and he cursed himself for agreeing to her terms. It had been silly of him. He could have done anything else to get himself out of the trap that she had set but instead he had given in like a coward.
“Rael,” she began when he hissed at the sound and glanced up at her viciously.
“Don’t ever address me by that name again,” he whispered grimly; the sound could have chilled Leandra to the core but she composed herself.
“Well then, prisoner,” she said maliciously. “I'm just here to tell you that the battle is going to strike tomorrow night. It was supposed to be a week away but father decided to attack sooner. It’s only good for me though. The faster Lord Lucifer gets defeated, the easier it is for me to get the hell out of here. Anyway, your dearest Amara is not holding up quite good. I heard her pushing Iris away a few hours ago. She was really cold and ruthless. Made my work easier. I don’t have to steal her powers now; she’ll do it herself by draining everything out.” She shrugged.
“Amara isn’t that weak. None of her powers are going to drain out. She can fight even better now. Her mind will be focussed on nothing but defeating Lord Mikhail,” replied Azrael, with a scoff. Leandra rolled her eyes.
“It’s really disturbing as to why you can’t call him father,” she told him, shaking her head in disapproval.
“He is not my father. He is a liar; he is selfish, and an insolent coward. Just like you,” he hissed.
“You didn’t think of that when you left me, did you?” Leandra shot back with equal malice.
“You know very well why I left!”
“Yes, I do. But did you not think of me for once? I was tortured for days because I protested against him sending you to learn dark magic. I was tortured because I didn’t want to learn the same either. I begged you to take me along but you never listened. You left me. You were the reason that I was sent to learn dark magic from all sorts of Conjurers. In the end I went to Noctia Stella. I’ve been her apprentice since. Did you really expect me to turn into a good person after being trained in dark witchcraft? I became his messenger by choice. I pretended to get acquainted with Lord Lucifer because father asked me to. I entered this coven because he wanted me to be the spy.
“And I framed you into being the traitor because he asked me to. But I wouldn’t have done that, Rael. I wouldn’t, because I loved you that much. I did it because you left me at the time that I needed you the most. I want you to feel what it is like to have lost someone you trust. I want you to feel that Amara will never trust you again and she will never love you again. I’ve seen the way she looks at you and I’ve seen the way you look at her. At some point I was extremely happy that you had found someone. But my task was to weaken her. I had to let the bond be created between you two and I had to break it.
“Remember this, Rael, however good of heart a witch is, the moment she learns dark witchcraft to an extent that it cannot be undone, she loses herself. I am not the Leandra that you left when we were children. As much as I love you and want you to be with Amara, my identity of being a dark witch does not change. I’m going to destroy this coven bit by bit and then watch you die, because that is what I have been taught. And do you know why I’ve been taught that?” She hissed with the threateningly. “It’s because you let me enter that arena of darkness. It’s because you didn’t take me with you when I pleaded you to.”
With that, she turned around and strode out of the cellar with her cloak slithering behind. Azrael watched his sister walk away. He cursed himself for having Lord Mikhail as a father. He had not wanted to leave Leandra alone. He had wanted to take her with him but his journey wasn’t one that promised her safety. She was a little girl. She did not need to run away like that. But she did not have to stay with the likes of Lord Mikhail either. What choice did he have? Despite everything, he would have taken her. But because their father had threatened him that if he even thought of taking Leandra along, he would kill her. Azrael wanted to save his sister’s life.
And for that he had to make some sacrifice. It was obviously extremely shocking when he had found that she was Lord Lucifer’s apprentice. It was curious. How could that have happened? Had she escaped when she was old enough to do so? Or was Lord Lucifer doing them both a favour by training them? Those were the questions that had run through his mind when he had met Leandra after twenty long years in the castle. But now it all made sense. It made sense that Leandra was sent by Lord Mikhail. It also made sense that she was the messenger. Azrael’s mind went back to the argument where Leandra had so easily and smartly framed him into being the messenger and making Amara believe the same.
It had all started after Amara and Eridanus had left the chambers. Iris and Azrael were sitting beside Leandra, talking about Noctia Stella, when Leandra unknowingly said, “If it weren’t for me she wouldn’t have been there.”
Iris had failed to notice as she was busy mixing some herbs for Leandra as Soter had advised, but Azrael had clearly listened to every word. His head had snapped up to look at her in utter perplexity.
Of course he did have a doubt on Leandra for being the traitor and he had thought of confronting her too, but something always held him back. Her being his sister and the love and adoration that he felt for her made him think otherwise. But his doubt never left.
“If it weren’t for you?” He asked her softly.
Iris was still too preoccupied to notice.
“Don’t pretend like you didn’t have a doubt about me being the traitor,” she replied.
Azrael was taken aback. He was not expecting such a straight answer. Yes, he had a doubt but somehow he felt it could not be her.
“Lea-”
“Yes, Rael? You obviously had that doubt, didn’t you? And I admire you for that because your doubt was quite accurate,” she told him.
Iris had now gotten up and absent-mindedly walked a few feet away to look for water. But Azrael was speechless. What was he supposed to say to her now?
“And before you ask, I am the messenger and the traitor that you are looking for,” she told him nonchalantly. It was as though it did not matter to her at all. Azrael thought that maybe it was the potions and herbs that were making her mind play strange tricks to have her talk like that. It seemed like a different Leandra to him.
“The reason I’m openly confessing is because I want you to do something for me,” she said, leaning forward.
Suddenly Azrael did not seem to like the tone that she was using. He knew that something bad was about to be said and he did not wish to be a part of that. He wanted to run and tell Amara that it was his sister and that Lord Lucifer should take action but before he could do anything, Leandra had grabbed his hand.
“Lea, I’m not doing anything for you. If you really are the traitor then you’ll be punished for that,” he told her sternly, still not ready to believe that it was her.
“You’re so easily manipulated, aren’t you? You love me too much to even take action yourself right now. If it were anyone else, I’d have been dragged to Lord Lucifer. But you, you love your little sister. You trust me and that love of yours stops you from being angry with me,” she menacingly said.
Azrael did not like the Leandra that he was talking to right now. But she was right. Why was he not reacting? Was it because he was shocked? Or tired after the long journey? Or was it just because he did not want to believe this truth? He failed to understand why he was so calm at this point. He should be rushing out of the chamber to tell Amara. But he was doing nothing of that sort. He noticed Iris walking out of the chamber absently.
“Anyway, not wasting more time, I want you to go and tell Lord Lucifer that you are the traitor,” she told him adamantly.
Azrael watched her with a frown. What?
“Lea, my love, does it really look like I’m that blinded by this sibling bond?”
His voice suddenly changed, realizing what she was proposing. His own sister was the traitor and had now asked him to do something extremely foolish.
“Why do you think I would agree to do such a thing?” He asked her.
“Because if you don’t, I will hand every power to Noctia Stella and the coven would be easily destroyed. Father doesn’t know about her strength. If I let him know, Acanthus will be destroyed. Everything will end. Do you want that?” She said with equal intensity.
Azrael let out a sinister laugh.
“And what’s to say you won’t do it even if I do agree to your terms?”
“I won’t. Because with you gone, the strength of the coven will already be diminished. Amara wouldn’t be strong enough. Her mind will be boggled. The rest of the coven will become relatively tense and won’t trust each other since the one that Lord Lucifer trusts the most turned out to be the traitor. Father’s work will be easy. He won’t need Noctia Stella then. We could use her later to get the prophecy.” She shrugged in the end.
“And you think that the rest of us cannot fight Noctia Stella? I rescued Iris; Amara and I were perfectly capable of battling the Mortuis.”
“That wasn’t even quarter of her power being used. Once she decides to destroy everything, you and your little lover won’t be able to fight. Her strength will be tenfold if matched with father’s army.”
“My answer is no.” Azrael remained stern as he stood up to leave.
It did not matter that she was his sister. It did not matter how much he loved her. All that mattered was the truth.
“When I first arrived, I had started to weaken Amara’s powers,” said Leandra and Azrael stopped in his tracks. “The reason she felt tired a lot of times was because I was deteriorating her powers. I have to admit it wasn’t very easy. Every time I tried, she would come out even stronger. You might be strong enough to fight Noctia Stella, but once I ask her to use all her powers to destroy Amara, nobody will be able to save her. Not you, not Lord Lucifer, not this coven and not Amara herself. I was going to escort Iris to Noctia Stella myself while we were at the Sea of Cypress; but those dim-witted spirits that we had carried there – one of them came and fought me. I had already weakened Iris by then. It was easy for Noctia to summon her in the pit. If not for that spirit, I would not have been this injured. Anyway, that is not important. Rael, I am asking you to do something for me. Won’t you help your little sister?” She said with a sickly-sweet grin.
Azrael wanted to hex her but he could not make himself do it. He wondered why.
“You are just like him,” he told her, shaking his head with a humourless laugh.
“Now, brother of mine, you know what will happen if you refuse to do what I ask of you? Let me tell you. I will break your lover’s soul apart, bit by bit until there is nothing left of her. Amara will die. I promise you, Rael, she will die,” she replied.
“You will never be strong enough to harm her and I will not agree to this no matter what,” Azrael said with rage, turning to face her.
“Yes, you will. You will admit that it was you or I will do it. I can go tell Lord Lucifer that it was you who sent all messages to father. Because apart from Amara you were the only one that knew about the prophecy. I found out because I spied. The sculpted fairy on the topmost tower, it is my medium to send messages. It guards me. It all makes sense, you know; you being the traitor. All the information that father has was known to you and Amara. Since it obviously cannot be Amara, it only makes sense to be you."
The way she threatened him made a chill run down his spine. Suddenly he was worried for Amara. Yes, she was strong and she was powerful but battling Noctia Stella alone when she set out to harm Amara – he wasn’t so sure that she could do it. How was he to save her? Worst of all, how was he to deny that he was the messenger when it was him – apart from Amara – who knew about the prophecy? Nobody else was aware. There was no witness.
“No! You cannot make me do this!” He protested.
He shook his head, moisture settling in his eyes. He would think of something. He would find a way. The Lord trusted him more than he did Leandra. He would listen.
“Oh, but I can, sweet brother. I can,” she whispered maliciously before her voice became louder for just the two of them in the chamber.
“You will accept it. Accept that it was you who tried to get Erasmus into trouble. Be brave, Rael, tell them that it was you who sent a message to the King’s Minister so they could find Lord Zachariah,” she said.
Azrael stared at her. She spoke with such intensity that it nearly killed him to think that Amara would be harmed. At that moment, he realized how much he actually loved her. He was so blinded by it that nothing came to his mind. Losing Amara and being the reason of her Death wasn’t something he was looking forward to. What could he possibly do?
“You don’t mean that, Lea,” he told her, taking a step forward trying to reason with her.
What was he doing? Giving in? Acting like he was vulnerable and weak? Maybe then she would stop whatever she was saying. It wasn’t possible for him to think of Amara being harmed. But who was to say that she would not be harmed even if he agreed to this? Whether or not he did, Leandra would try to kill Amara.
But before he could begin to manipulate her using his powers, she spoke, “I do. I do mean it. It’s only fair to accept that it was you who helped Noctia Stella reach the Sea of Cypress so she could harm Iris. It was you!”
That was when he lost it. What was going on? How was Lea speaking like that so easily instead of convincing him? Why was she openly accusing him of something he had not done? At that moment, his eyes darted towards the door of the chamber, which was slightly open. He hissed a breath. Amara was outside. He wanted to run there and tell her it was all a lie when Leandra stepped forward in his way.
“It was you who let the Lord get into the clutches of Noctia Stella and you tried to deceive them by going with Amara to rescue him! How long will you lie? How long will you act like you are not the messenger of Lord Mikhail? For how long will this betrayal go on?”
There was a malicious smile that she held as she spoke. Azrael was furious. Leandra had framed him so easily that he could not even protest anymore. What could he possibly say that would save him? He shut his eyes for a long moment before opening them and then threateningly said,
“Lea, you need to shut it right now!”
Leandra smiled in triumph, glancing at the door and Azrael made an attempt to rush there once again but she stopped him with what she said next.
“No, I won’t! What is your beloved Amara going to say to this? Do you think she’ll be happy upon knowing that you’re the one threat who is living in the same castle with her and luring her into falling for you? Don’t think I don’t see the way you’re meddling with her feelings. I see it, and I see that she has started to fall for you. You’re that brilliant, aren’t you? You acted like the one person that she could trust and when she finds out who you really are, what is going to happen?”
She was lying. There was a lie in every single word that she spoke and Azrael – in his rage – did not know how to respond or what to do. All he could think of was Amara who stood outside the door and listened to everything, probably believing it all. He wanted to go and tell her what his sister was doing but he just could not, because Leandra refused to shut up even when he said, “Lea, enough! I won’t hear another word-”
She cut him off. “No! I’m going to tell the truth to the Lord. I cannot believe you would do this. I didn’t know my brother was a traitor.”
And before he could even try to stop her, she had opened the door. Then everything had gone numb. He saw the fury, the hurt and the deceit that flashed across Amara’s eyes as she stared at him. It was then that he had no control on himself. He could not speak, could not move and answered simply to what was being asked, with a ‘sorry’. He had then fallen prey to Leandra’s terms when Iris was stood next to her and with her eyes she threatened that if he did not agree, Leandra would harm Iris without anybody even knowing about it.
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Azrael snapped out of his thoughts in the cellar. He blinked, trying to push the tears away. He missed Amara. He wanted her to be there with him and he wanted her to help him recover. He wanted her to understand that he had not done anything that he had been accused of. He wanted her to believe him when he would tell her that it wasn’t him. He wanted her to believe him when he would tell her that he loved her. But there was nothing that he could do anymore; nothing at all.
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Amara stared at her fingers. She sat there unmoving, her head resting on the wall beside, eyes expressionless and blank. What did you do, Azrael? She wondered. Why? There was no sound in her chamber apart from the winds that entered inside as she sat over the window-sill. She was unable to utter a word, unable to move or begin to prepare for the war. There was no time left. Lord Mikhail had decided to attack earlier than necessary, which, Amara thought was because he wished to gain the prophecy as soon as possible. Even though the King had given the time of two more weeks, Amara knew Lord Mikhail wasn’t one to follow rules.
Her mind kept going back to the conversation between Leandra and Azrael that she had heard from outside Leandra’s chamber. Her heart constricted with pain each time she thought of it and it made her weaker and weaker. She found it hard to believe that Azrael would be the traitor. She was sure, so sure that it could not be him by any chance. She had begun to trust him as much as she trusted Iris. Maybe even she would break her trust. Would she? Amara wondered. Her mind told her that there was something wrong and that she was having a nightmare. But reality seemed as though it was pinching her inside every now and then, reminding her that whatever had happened was true.
Yet she could not bring herself to believe it. The pain that she felt in her veins was so unbearable that she wanted to crawl into the lake and drown. While her mind was battling with her upon the fact that she actually might have found it in her to love Azrael, reality told her that he wasn’t worth the love. Did love really matter? She had loved Leo once, had it mattered to him? Maybe it did not matter to Azrael either. Maybe he had managed to break her trust like Leo had. Leo used her to get to her family, to destroy other witches. In a similar way, Azrael had used her to weaken her powers and send information to Lord Mikhail; information that was extremely confidential and could potentially ruin the entire world of Conjurers, maybe even mortals.
The way that her trust had been broken once again, the numbness inside her began to show. The cold and harsh aura that she had built up to hide all the pain and agony – she felt that it was better she stayed that way. Because whenever she let that guard down, her trust would break. Whenever she opened her mind to trust someone, it was destroyed. She wanted to become the way she had been for the past hundred years. In one year, Iris had managed to help her break that shield. But now Amara wanted it back. At least she was comfortable and she knew no one could hurt her then. The Gods only knew how much Lord Mikhail might have found out if Azrael was the messenger. There would have been so much information shared, it wasn’t that hard to decipher anymore. It scared her but that would not stop her from using all her force to protect the prophecy and the treasures, even if her life depended on it.
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Her doubts were all true. Lord Mikhail did know about the prophecy. What he knew, however, was about what the prophecy held and how he had to get to it. Leandra had told him everything by invading Azrael’s mind. Since she had the uncontrollable skill of shielding her own mind from any sort of attack, she could venture into anybody’s mind and read them. All that she could find out about the prophecy, she had informed her father. What she could not find out, however, were the riddles that needed to be solved to get the treasures. That had been effectively guarded by Azrael in his mind for no one to enter. But whatever she had found was enough for her and Mikhail.
This battle strategy was set in his mind. Nearing the end, he would distract Lord Lucifer by sending a blazing Fire towards the Sea of Cypress which would effectively lead some strong force – preferably Amara or Lord Lucifer himself – to help save Lady Calypsa. Then he would attack with all his might and Lord Lucifer’s army would remain in nothing but broken shards. The Fire would swallow whomever that had been sent to the Sea of Cypress, rendering Lord Mikhail as the winner of the battle. He would then go to the Sea of Cypress, defeat Lady Calypsa using the help of Leandra whom he was sure would be trusted by the Lady since she had already been there. It would not be hard to get hold of the prophecy then and gaining what the treasures were. All he had to do was understand the prophecy, which no one could help him with. There he was left stranded.
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Her trail of thought was broken when she heard a knock on the door. Amara did not leave her seat. The knock was heard again but she ignored it. Iris stood outside with her eyes watering and her arm raised in the air to knock another time but she stepped back. She had lost Amara once again. She realized that in the beginning she had been right when she worried about Amara being with Azrael. It took a lot of time for her to begin trusting him. When she did, she wished that Amara was happy. She felt that he would keep her happy. But everything had shattered. He was a traitor. He was Lord Mikhail’s son. Leandra had been crying all this while, telling Iris how much she hated her brother for doing this and how much she despised being the daughter of someone as evil as Lord Mikhail.
The Lord had questioned Leandra to see if she was helping her brother in any way. Leandra had managed to assure him that she was not at fault. She had left her father as soon as it was possible for her to escape from his clutches. Lord Lucifer had chosen to believe her since Amara was the one that had informed him about Azrael being the traitor. He trusted no one as much as he did Amara. Her word was enough since he knew there could not be any flaw in her verdict. So if Leandra was saying that she was not – in any way – involved in this act and Amara had already agreed upon Azrael being the traitor, Lord Lucifer did not wish to waste time in anything else. They had a war to fight.
“Amara?” Iris dared to call through the door.
Amara did not respond.
“The-the Lord is asking for you,” she stuttered.
The tears were blinding her eyes and she wiped them away, clearing her throat. Amara blinked. She pushed herself down from the window-sill and began to walk towards the door of her chamber. She opened it and walked past Iris without acknowledging her. Iris whimpered in hurt. Amara’s indifference was something she was unable to live with. But she knew that Amara had a valid reason for that. Iris followed after her. They reached the main hall where Lord Lucifer was seated along with the other coven members and the leaders of the three covens that were supporting them.
“My lords and Lady Nysa, this is Amara, as you might know,” said Lord Lucifer, gesturing towards Amara who stood there in silence.
“Of course,” Lady Nysa replied with a small grin. “Everyone knows Amara.”
Amara did not look up. Lord Lucifer cleared his throat uncomfortably. He sensed that Amara was not in the right frame of mind at the moment. But discussing war strategies was important and she could not be left out. Amara was, after all, his strongest warrior. He could not afford to let her be weak.
“Have a seat, Amara. We are here to discuss the battle strategies,” he told her and she obediently took a seat at the end of the hall.
Iris took a few steps back and left the great hall.
“Lord Mikhail’s army consists of new Conjurers along with experienced ones. We cannot be sure whether they are strong enough to fight us. They might be trained in physical combat if not in mental. We have to be prepared since newly trained ones can be quite unpredictable,” said Lord Theodore.
“But there has to be an obvious disadvantage,” Lord Vincent replied. “New Conjureres are mentally weak. They don’t have enough meditation power. I think that would prove fruitful to us.”
The conversation continued on while Amara’s eyes stayed on the floor. Her mind was elsewhere. She was aware that it was important for her to pay attention but the entire battle strategy was in faded whispers in her head. She stared blankly at the floor as the rest of them talked about what had to be done. Amara was lost again.
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Levels below in the dungeon, Azrael was in a similar condition. His eyes were stuck on the floor, unmoving while his mind displayed nothing to him. Another night had passed, another day had dawned and time dragged by. Then as the moonlight streamed in through the bars of the window above, he heard the faint footsteps of the coven heading out the castle. Suddenly he remembered what Leandra had told him the night before about the battle starting the next day.
The war had begun.