SWNOVELS Chapter Epilouge
(Somewhere hidden)
Regulus growls as he stares over yet another failed mission report. He turns towards his lieutenants. “How is it that no one in this room is capable of finding one little girl?” he asks furiously. “It has been over three months since anyone has had any credible information.”
The room is filled with people, some talking on phones while others are coordinating with allies across the world. The room is abuzz with activity, with computers lighting up certain portions of those gathered.
One man holds his hands behind his back. “Please my Lord. We have expanded our search into the rest of North America, but we are constantly being given false leads from multiple sources. Yet with the few somewhat credible leads, we only discover nothing as a result.”
“Even our allies in Europe inform us that the Court has had no word of her whereabouts,” says a woman. “It appears as though she hasn’t once contacted them.”
Regulus glares at them, growing more and more frustrated. How…how could she have simply vanished from the world? She may be cautious, and prudent, but this is far too much for her to be concealed even from their eyes. My spy hasn’t once reported in on her.
He turns his attention towards a hazel-haired teenager sitting across from him. Diana, the resurrected and transformed former birthmother to Aria. She bears a great hatred for the girl, and is somewhat his daughter. He, however, begrudgingly refers to her as such.
“Tell me again what you saw the day you ambushed Aria,” he asks her.
The girl groans, “Aria opened some kind of pinkish portal. I fired a spell at her when she walked into it. The spell exploded, sending her flying in. But it closed before anyone could reach it.”
Regulus clenches his fist, pressing it hard against the table. Once more that child has managed to slip out of my grasp. Not to mention utilizing a form of magic that is unknown to me. He stares at the table, perhaps providence does indeed have a hand in her protection.
He then angrily slams his fist into the table, he grits his teeth as the pain from the girl’s damned wolf biting into his wrist resurges. Of all the beings he’s encountered, never has one such as her wolf inflicted such a lingering pain. It nearly ripped his hand off if it hadn’t thrown him away from the girl’s mother.
He at least should be grateful that Rachel was taken out of the picture. Not only that, while the initial attack on the Estate was mostly foiled thanks in part to her draconic sister, they still succeeded in removing a dangerous and powerful defender when the dragon was shot out of the sky.
Even still, the losses they suffered that day were far too great even for such a few paltry victories.
He then looks to another person. She is a young woman, small, brunet, with thin glasses. “What is our progress on the other searches?” he growls.
The woman nearly drops her stack of reports and tablet as she bows her head. “We’ve located the fourth marker, but having difficulty in its retrieval. The defenses surrounding it are far more formidable than we anticipated.”
She takes a long breath, trying to center herself. “They’re preventing us from going any deeper, even to the point of repelling those we send in.”
He grits his teeth, “Fine, double the number of personal needed. Then I want you to begin searching for the fifth marker.”
The woman bows and leaves, nearly stumbling over a few of the others gathered in the room.
He leans back in his chair. I wouldn’t have to bother searching for those damned markers if I only had the Xur’canah and the brat. Yet we are unable to find her. Somehow, she’s remained hidden after all this time, hidden from my sight.
He then glares at yet another of his lieutenants, “Have you located her aunt and uncle?”
The lieutenant bows his head, “We have, my Lord. We are watching them as we speak.”
He nods, “Good, I want you to drag them out. Do whatever you want with them, I don’t really care. Make it public, something that will draw her out.”
The man grins darkly, bowing to Regulus and leaves.
Diana looks over, “Why are you going after my brother?”
He turns to her, “Do you really even care at this point?”
The girl sits back and ponders for a moment, looking back at him. “I don’t.”
He smirks, finding some perverse pleasure in her response. “Good, for I want you to go with, in fact…you handle them yourself.”
“Why? Why bother at all?” she asks.
He leans in onto the table, “Because that brat cares a great deal for her family, despite having not spoken to them in years. With that said, if something were to happen to her last remaining blood kin, it will draw her out.” A grim smile then forms on his lips, “I want you to go, for you too must sever your last ties to your old life. Freeing you of yet another burden.”
The girl sits there for a moment, and then begins to smile darkly. She rises from her seat and disappears down the corridor.
“I have news!” shouts a man, bursting into the room. “Four of our allied covens have gone completely dark.”
Regulus looks to him, “Which ones?”
“Ballens, Neera, Eckharns, and Surren,” he replies.
Regulus leans back in his chair, his lips form into a half-smile. “So…Colburn is finally on the move.” But Neera and Surren are among the more powerful covens. This is strange for them.
“There are witnesses saying that a single masked figure, clothed in white, destroyed all four covens,” the man continues.
Regulus looks at him shocked, “One person?”
Soon another man bursts into the room. “My Lord, the Farashan dragon clan has been destroyed. Reports speak of a gigantic red dragon, tearing through their leaders.”
Again Regulus is taken aback. The Farashan Clan is in Eastern Europe overseeing where Dewloura once stood. But they too are now gone? What is going on?
Selene sits beside her beloved, having predominantly given the previous preceding news little notice. No, something else has been pricking at her mind over the past few months. It deals with Aria’s older sister, the woman named Marron.
The wight felt a strange sense of nostalgia with her, much the same as the girl. This feeling stemmed from her one and only encounter with the woman, the night she gave Marron Aria’s diary.
Ever since the night of their battle with Aria’s mother and knights, Selene has quietly pondered over the twin sensations that she knows both girls. Yet the feeling is elusive and still unexplained.
Something about her, again much the same as Aria, felt familiar.
Something…from the past.