Dire Destiny of Ours (8 page)

The last four guards sheathed their swords. At first, I thought they'd given up. Instead, they gripped each other's forearms. A sphere of Murk formed in the palm of the seraph on the end. He extended his arm and a bubble of Murk shot toward me. I threw up an ultraviolet shield. The two forces collided so hard, the impact sent cracks racing up the walls, across the floor and ceiling.

The Seraphim looked absolutely astonished as my shield began to slowly push theirs back.

My opponents had linked themselves to make a single channeler more powerful. I didn't know if that gave him power equal to four Seraphim or simply amped him to some lesser degree. Either way, I could tell it wasn't nearly enough to beat me.

One of them shouted something. "How are you channeling Murk?"

"I'm not a Brightling!" I decided to take a risk and threw in a postscript to my declaration. "I can channel both sides." To back up that claim, I speared a beam of Brilliance into their Murk bubble. Sweat broke out on their foreheads. One of them stumbled as my attack drove their efforts straight back at them. The seraph channeling collapsed to the floor.

I immediately stopped my attack, keeping a sphere of creation and destruction flickering in either hand. "Free my friend and take me to your leader."

Before they could answer, a tall Seraphim stepped into the hallway. His inky black hair was combed straight down Roman style. He wore a black cape embroidered with what looked like glowing strands of Murk. The seraph held up his hands as if to ward off further attacks.

"I am Cephus." He offered me a confident but friendly smile. "You may deal with me."

I regarded him suspiciously, but relinquished the hold on the aether coursing through my body. The energy vanished from my palms. "I am not your enemy. I am here on a mission of mercy."

He looked me up and down. "We can discuss that if you will follow me." He gestured down the perpendicular hallway.

"Not until you free my friend." I pointed to the door.

He nodded and spoke to the guards. One bearing a badge with wings, similar to the one I'd noticed on the leader of the soldiers who'd originally captured us, sent a charge of Murk into a gem next to the door. The door dissolved into a cloud of mist. Nightliss emerged a moment later, eyes uncertain.

I motioned her to me. She came and stood by my side without uttering a word.

"Do not try to trick me," I said.

Nightliss started to translate, but flinched as the translation reached her ears. She looked at me with a puzzled expression. "What magic is this? Why is the translation so bad?"

"I don't think my language dictionary is geared for speaking." I shrugged. "At least I can understand what's going on."

Confusion flashed across Cephus's face. My phone was still broadcasting to everyone present.

I approached the seraph carefully where he stood at the intersection of halls. Aside from the defeated guards nearby, he didn't seem to have reinforcements. I knew better than to take that for granted. "Are you alone?"

He shook his head. "Never alone. Thirty more soldiers there are waiting in the atrium." He pointed back toward the entrance. "Take you prisoner, we could but"—he looked from side to side at the unconscious and defeated guards—"the bloodshed worth it might not be."

Even though I knew he was right, I put on my best poker face. "I'll beat them like rented mules if they try anything."

His forehead wrinkled with confusion. I could only imagine how my idiom translated to Cyrinthian.

"I don't think they could take me," I said to clarify my statement. "Are you truly the one in command?"

"A member of the Trivectus I am." He gave me a meaningful look.

"I know of the Trivectus that used to rule the Brightlings thousands of years ago," I said. "Do you use the same form of government?"

His eyes flared with astonishment at my statement. "How do you know of this?" He held up a hand. "Wait. Improve our communication, I must. Will you allow me to call in a specialist?"

"Nightliss can translate," I said.

His eyes grew even larger at this statement. He quickly regained his composure. "I have a better method in cranium."

I gave him a suspicious look but nodded.

He motioned me toward hallway. "Come. We will go to a better meeting place."

"Where?" I wasn't about to walk into a trap.

He pointed up. "The minister's office at the top." He held out his hands, palms up, as if to show they were empty. "I promise trickery befall you will not."

I really hoped he had a better way to translate because the random word order was really starting to get on my nerves. I couldn't imagine listening to someone talk like this all the time. I looked at Nightliss. "What do you think?"

"It is our best hope," she said. "Perhaps our last hope."

I snorted. "No need to get melodramatic."

She offered a wan smile. "I am female, Justin. This is the perfect opportunity to be dramatic."

A laugh burst from me. "Fine." I offered my hand to Cephus. "My name is Justin Slade." He gave it a confused look but eventually extended his own. I gripped and shook it. "Let's do this."

Cephus looked at his hand after I released it, as if looking for some sign that I'd cursed him. He recovered, smiled reassuringly, and led us down the hall.

We took a right and headed toward a glowing shaft of light in an alcove. Cephus stepped inside. Nightliss and I joined him. Our host charged a gem on the wall and we zipped upward on an invisible platform, other floors blurring past until we neared the ceiling at the top of the shaft. When our momentum ceased, Cephus simply stepped forward and into a room.

I looked down at the long drop and quickly followed him.

We entered a wide, empty room with no furniture or walls aside from the curving windows along the exterior of the building. The shiny black floor rippled like water beneath our feet as we walked across it, giving me an uneasy feeling. I wondered if we could sink into this material, or if it was some sort of special effect. Cephus charged a gem inset in the floor. A holographic image sprang from the floor displaying an organically curved piece of furniture that only slightly resembled a desk. Cephus flicked past it and several other interesting designs until settling on a plain circular table with tufts of cloud floating around it.

He charged the gem again, and ultraviolet mist rose from the floor in front of us, slowly forming into the image we'd just seen. Within seconds, a floating table with cute little clouds as chairs hovered before us. The color of the table changed to a deep mahogany while the clouds turned white.

It was a nice change from the homogenous color of Murk. I mean, I liked purple as much as the next guy but had begun to wonder if these people lacked appreciation for any other hues of the rainbow.

"Impressive." I ran a hand along the table. It felt like wood. "You made this with Murk?"

He nodded. "The force of creation." He touched his ear. "How are you sending words to my ears?"

I noticed the word order from the translation had improved marginally and wondered if the translation program had made adjustments as it heard more and more speech. I took out Nookli and showed it to him. "This is an arcphone. You can talk to people with it."

He raised an eyebrow. "Can you not use your mouth to talk to people?"

I chuckled. "If another person has an arcphone but is across the city from me, I can call them." I made a show of dialing a number and speaking into the handset. "It is like a communicator."

"Ah." He touched a gem on his collar. "We also use long-distance communication magic." Cephus looked at my phone. "Is this Brightling magic?"

I shook my head. "No. The Brightlings don't have this sort of technology."

He looked a little confused and I had to wonder if technology translated into Cyrinthian.

Nightliss said something and Cephus nodded as if she'd cleared it up.

"What is the language you speak?" He looked at me. "I know you are not speaking Murikan."

This was officially the point where I had to tell him I was from Eden. Either he'd believe me, or things would get really weird and he'd think I was crazy. I'd seen enough movies with people claiming to be aliens to know how this usually worked out. Unfortunately, I'd have to convince him sooner or later.

"Cephus, I am not from Seraphina." I gave that a moment to sink in. "I'm from another realm called Eden. The language I speak, English, is one of many from there."

Surprise registered on his face, though it was mild compared to earlier. "The legends are true."

It was my turn to look surprised. "You believe me so easily?"

"I have read the histories from those who have lived since the ancient days." He looked at Nightliss. "Many have removed themselves from society, though a few still participate."

A warm sensation blossomed in my chest as hope made a comeback. "You know about the Seraphim War, about Eden? You know about Daelissa and her quest for world domination? Holy crap, this is great!" I almost leapt from my cloud seat but managed to resist the urge.

Cephus's forehead wrinkled with confusion. "I'm sorry," Nookli translated in my ear, "but I did not understand much of what you said." He motioned toward my phone. "It would be beneficial to all of us if I could help you with your Cyrinthian. To do so, I must examine your mind."

Allowing a stranger to get inside my head sounded like a risky proposition. He'd seen me take down a squad of guards without breaking a sweat. If I allowed him inside my head, he might be able to knock me out without a fight.

Nightliss touched my hand. "I believe he means to imprint you with knowledge of the language. I do not think he means you any harm."

I did a double take. "Wait a minute. If that's possible, why didn't you do that to me before we left?"

Her facial expression turned apologetic. "I am good at healing mind trauma, but I am not very good at imprinting knowledge unless it is simple." She looked at Cephus with wonder. "If he is capable of such a thing—"

Cephus held up his hand to stop her. "I am only marginally capable." He motioned at the room around them. "This building is enchanted with spells from the most gifted among us. I will use one of those spells to help." He continued to speak, but the translation grew worse. "Intelligence…dietary fiber…brain midget experiments."

I deactivated the translation routine to get rid of the nonsense words and turned to Nightliss. "What did he just say?"

"He lapsed into a very technical explanation, some of which even I couldn't understand." Nightliss said something to Cephus. He chuckled and nodded.

"Should I take him up on the offer?" I asked.

Nightliss turned her serious green eyes on me. "I will not allow anything bad to happen to you."

"You know I trust you with my life."

She smiled. "It is mutual." She spoke to Cephus in Cyrinthian.

He nodded, turned, and sent a charge of Murk into a gem located on the window next to the levitator shaft. His eyes closed as he continued to channel. After a moment, he opened his eyes and spoke to Nightliss.

"He found the spell and is about to channel it into you," she said. "It will take some time."

I gave Cephus a thumbs-up and nodded. "Go for it."

He raised an eyebrow. Nightliss translated and he nodded.

Cephus channeled into the gem. He raised his other hand and channeled into me. My head tingled as if a ghost had just passed through it. I felt myself growing sleepy. As I closed my eyelids, images and letters danced through my mind so clearly, it was as if I was seeing them projected on a screen. Glimpses of memories flickered through my mind's eye.

I see the outlines of my parents in a doorway as they hand baby Ivy to Jeremiah Conroy. I see my old bike, the neighbor's cat, someone mowing their lawn. I witness a fast-forward account of middle school. Kids making fun of me, the fat boy. A teacher paddling someone in the hallway. Blood on my knees after falling off my bike.

My memories reach high school. I see Katie Johnson, tears in her eyes. Brad Nichols, her former boyfriend, frozen in the act of punching me. Stacey, my felycan friend, hitting on me in the gym when I was still a pudgy nerd, desperate to improve my looks.