The Darkness

“Wait. Let me see it,” He grabbed her arm and pulled it closer to him so that he could see it clearly, “Shit.”

She yanked her arm back and looked at him with wide eyes. A god saying shit in that tone meant this was more than just some kid playing in their mommy or daddy’s book of shadows.

He gently pushed her off of him and stood up, walking down the corridor. Without a second thought, Serafina pushed herself off the floor and jogged to catch up with him.

“What’s wrong?” What a stupid question for her to ask but she did anyway.

He said nothing and walked into the restricted library that Lorenzo showed her on their tour. Only a god who has ascended can access the library and neither Serafina nor Lorenzo had fully ascended.

In order to ascend one must master 6 of the 9 elements; Blood, fire, water, spirit, light, and dark. Without that you won’t be able to ascend and you will be unknown to the rest of the world as a shadow god. There were more gods in this world than many knew nothing of. Chronos and Gia had more children than the 5 that were mentioned in the mythology, but the rest were not able to ascend.

She stood outside the doorway, an anxious feeling settled in her bones. She lifted her hand and carefully stuck it out; the barrier burning her skin as the sun would a vampire without their daylight ring.

She hissed and pulled her arm back, gripping the boil covered flesh. She whistled and watched as the boils sunk back into her skin until they completely disappeared and her arm was smooth.

“Hello, Unascended goddess standing over here!” She yelled over at him, lifting her arms and waving them before letting them fall back to her sides, “I can’t enter, dimwit.”

He sighed and looked up from the book he pulled out, snapping his fingers. She looked at him like he was crazy. Carefully she took the same arm and stuck it through the entry-way smiling when it didn’t burn her. She then walked over to Thanatos and looked over at the book. The binding was tearing away and the pages were yellow and painted with fading ink written in a language Serafina didn’t understand but recognised. It was Steyic, the old language.

Just how old was this book? Fae hadn’t spoken or written in Steyic since the defect that created humans and that was over 3 million years ago. Serafina had seen pictures of old writing in this dead language just as every Fae child had but no one taught it anymore.

How did Thanatos understand it?

Her eyes skimmed the book once more and found one phrase she had seen before right below a picture of the mark on her wrist.

“Thisu whi lauru shos maurr shaull firuzur lu au slauzu si kaurrnuss. Thu kauw shu miin serns ruk aunk shu sen serns llaucr woll maurr shu unk if aull aus shu haunks if shu slauzu.” She quoted, “I’ve heard this before. What does it mean?”

“It’s a curse. ‘Those who bear this mark shall be a slave consumed by darkness. The day the moon turns red and the sun turns black will mark the end of all at the hands of the slave.’” He translated.

Serafina felt her heart drop to the floor and her already pale face whitened, “But I’m not the only one with the mark.”

“What do you mean.”

“Do you have a computer?” She asked him and he nodded, “Good, take me to it.”

He led her to his suite where he had a desk set up in his living room. She sat down in the office chair and turned on the computer, hacking into her morgue files. She pulled up the file that had the victims of the mark and turned the screen so that Thanatos could see it.

“A few months ago, the people of Hel started to die all baring this mark randomly all within one month of having it. At first, I thought it was a magic plague but there were no reoccurring symptoms, they didn’t even have the same cause of death. See,” She clicked on someone’s file, “he died of a heart attack at 22 but she,” She turned to another one’s file, “died of sharp force trauma to the chest. And my people aren’t the only ones who have been dying, humans have as well.”

“Do you know when this all started?” He leaned against his couch and folded his arms.

“The first death was my lady-in-waiting, she died about 3 months ago.” She pushed her hair back and gripped it in frustration.

“When did yours appear?”

“About two weeks ago on Hel’s blood moon,” She trailed off in realisation, “‘The day the moon turns red and the sun turns black’.”

She turned the chair back towards the computer and Google searched the last eclipse and cursed when she found her answer. “Hel and Earth are two different plains; our moon and sun are different yet we have the same events but at different times. Hel’s blood moon was the same day as the Earths eclipse. Our moon turned red and the earth’s sun turned black.”

He looked over her shoulder and peered at the date that marked the eclipse, “That was the same day Limir died.”

“What was his C. O. D?” She asked, dreading the answer.

“His heart was ripped out,” His eyes were cast down to the floor.

“By who?” Who could be powerful enough to kill an Aphin god? Even if Aphin gods were not born from the Dikihites or Titans, they were still super powerful.

“Not by who, by what. A Dikihite; Valke.” The name sent a shiver down her spine. Children born into fae families were taught the legend of Valke, the original. He was the first being, the first dikihite and Naiana’s father. He was chaos and everything that was dark. He caused war between the Fae, almost ending the species entirely before Naiana put an end to it.

Naiana threw Valke and everyone who stood by him into a volcano making it dormant. But that volcano erupted six months ago.

“When that volcano erupted it set them free, but why would it erupt randomly? Someone set them free,” She realised.

“They’re trying to start a war between the gods and the Fae.”

“Sothey’re using me to do it.” She gulped.