Chapter One: Destiny
Obviously, some ideas were bad, but what was the harm in this one?
It was the night of the fourth of July. People would be out in the streets, it's not like she'd be alone.
So Fayre, or Fay as her friends called her, thought it safe enough to go skating down the river park trail that night. It wasn't like she was looking for trouble and trouble always decided to give her a wide berth. This meant that her life was peaceful enough, although like many fifteen year olds she had her troubles, it was nothing out of the ordinary, and Fay didn't expect today to be any different.
Sure her Mom and Dad would get a little upset about her being out at night on her own, but she could handle them, and so with that thought in mind she arrived at the park and started down the trail, pulling her earphones over her head and raising the volume of her music, paying little mind when she left behind the few people that had been in the park.
For a few minutes, Fay was on her own, humming her music...until she saw something she wasn't expecting to see.
Fay stopped as she neared the figure. "Hey, is everything okay?" she asked, her tone uncertain and a little cautious.
In the middle of the trail stood a girl, long blonde hair cascading around her as she hunched over, her hands in her hair. Wild hazel eyes peered at her through the blonde fall of hair. "It won't go away!" she shrieked.
Fayre took a step back, or rolled slightly back since she was still wearing her skates.
"What won't go away?" Fay asked carefully.
The girl shook her head and her eyes vanished behind the blonde curtain of hair.
"I can't take it!" She screeched and pulled at her hair. Fayre gasped and rolled forward. "Stop it! Your hair!"
The girl had pulled so hard that her hand had come away with a hand full of long golden strands.
The older girl collapsed to the ground with another shriek and tensed, convulsed.
"Get away! Get away! I never wanted you in the first place!" As the girl shouted this, fireworks began to light up the night sky.
"It's okay, I'll call an ambulance, and they'll be able to help, just wait." Fayre tried to sound soothing as with trembling fingers she reached for her cell phone, but froze at the sound of crazed laughter that spilled from the older girl.
She lifted her face up and Fayre gasped.
The girl had been biting her lips, and now they were torn, blood seeping from the tears and trailing down her throat. "They can't help me." She said, a crazed edge to her voice. "No stupid normal humans could help me, not unless…"
The older girl fell silent, muttering to herself quietly. Whatever she had said, Fay felt as if someone tugged at her, her skates rolling forward a few inches without her say so.
The girl whipped around, suddenly focusing intently on Fayre, the crazed light in her eyes clearing for the first time. "You...' she gave a strangled whimper. "When we're you born, the month and day?" The strangled words sounded almost like a prayer.
Fayre gave the girl a strange look but since she didn't see the harm, told her. "October first."
Faster than Fayre thought possible, the older girl stood, rushing forward to grip Fay by the forearms with surprising strength.
"Hey that hurts!" Fay winced in pain and tried to tug herself free from the girl.
"Balance of the stars! Let what strayed to me return to thee!"
'What the hell!?' Fayre tried to tug herself free once more but the girl's grip was impossible to break.
"Hey, look, whatever you're on I'm sure we can get you some hel-" She trailed off, surprised by the sudden light that glimmered not from the sky and fireworks but from beneath them.
Fay looked down and watched as the light that had appeared underfoot grew into a circle of aquamarine light; symbols Fayre had never seen before adorned the circle from within.
"So let it be." The girl spoke again.
"Let go!" Fay was now panicking, but the girl kept her grip tight and Fay found herself being lifted from the ground, a golden aura flaring around the girl, rushing into her, blinding Fay momentarily. Fay closed her eyes and stiffened when she felt her whole body burning, as if she'd plunged into too hot water, only to be lifted into icy cold. Seconds later the feeling vanished and her skates touched the ground.
Fay backed away the moment she could, forgetting she had on skates and falling to the ground. Wide eyed she looked up at the blonde girl. "What the…what just happened?" she asked in a breathless whisper.
The older girl smiled down at her, her whole demeanor relieved and relaxed. "Thank you, thank you so much for finding me." Then her eyes rolled back and she collapsed.
'Psycho.' Was all Fay could think of the girl. She didn't know what the special effects were and where they came from but she didn't care, she just wanted to get out of here, now.
Fayre stood up and turned to leave, but hesitated as she glanced back at the unconscious girl.
'I can't just leave her.' She reached for her cell phone once more and dialed emergency; ten minutes later cops and an ambulance arrived.
While the paramedics saw to the girl, one of the cops questioned her. Fayre simply told them that she'd seen the girl collapse. She didn't think they'd believe the rest, and if she told them she'd probably end up in a mental hospital. No way was that happening to her.
"Is she going to be okay?" Fayre asked, glancing past the officer to the girl that was now being placed in the ambulance.
"Except for her lips, she doesn't look like she's been wounded. I'm sure she'll be fine." The officer assured her. Fayre nodded and turned back to him. "Can I go home now? I'm late."
In the end she was given a ride back home to where, after being hugged and assuring her parents she was fine, she had to listen to a half hour lecture on being out so late; however when she started yawning her parents had mercy on her and sent her up to bed.
Fay yawned and dragged herself up the stairs and down the hall to her room. 'Man that was weird.' She thought, thinking back at what had happened, and then shook her head.
That was as much weirdness as she wanted to encounter in her lifetime.
Seeing the window open, Fay walked across her room to close it then stopped as she spotted someone. 'What the…' She narrowed her eyes and concentrated on the figure behind her mom's rosebushes. Yes, there was someone there.
"Hey pervert! I'm giving you to the count of three before I call the cops!" she shouted. Fay had the feeling that the man narrowed his eyes at her words, and then suddenly vanished. She blinked. 'Wait…how…how did he do that?' One moment he had been there the other he wasn't.
"Fay is something wrong?" Her mother called from the stairs.
"No mom! I just thought I saw something!" Fayre reassured her mother.
'Freaky end to an otherwise lovely day,' she closed the window and pulled down the drapes. 'So glad it's over.'
She didn't have anything against dreams. Except when they got scary and made no sense, and also made you wish you hadn't eaten that last taco because you knew something like this would happen.
Fayre found herself in a garden, in her pajamas. 'If I have to be outside I could at least have something nicer on.' The wet grass was making her feet cold. She didn't pay attention to the fact that in dreams you usually don't feel cold.
"So what's up?" Fayre asked the blonde girl. The other girl sat on a lawn chair, a small black cat in her arms. She looked calmer, happier, and unlike Fay, dressed in warm clothes.
'I guess I didn't get the dream memo on the right clothes to wear.' Fay thought dryly.
The girl looked up at Fay and smiled. "You're very calm for someone who has no idea what's going on."
Fayre shrugged. "I'm sure I'll start freaking out sometime later, but this is just a dream."
The girl's smile warmed. "You're right, this is just a dream."
Another lawn chair appeared and the girl motioned for Fayre to sit. She did so, lifting her feet up from the ground.
"My name is Camille, and you're Fayre." Fayre nodded and waited for Camille to speak.
She just knew that the girl had something to tell her; hopefully it would explain what had happened in the park.
"Do you ever wonder,' the girl began at length, 'If we're truly alone in the universe, and if perhaps, humans as a race feel so superior that they believe that none but humans inhabit this place called Earth, barring animals of course."
'Of course.' Fayre thought dryly. "Well I guess I think about it, not a lot though, but let's face it, no one's found any trace of life in space and as for on earth,' Fayre shrugged. "If there were anything other than humans living here then I guess someone decided to make them extinct." She hesitated then asked. "You mean like vampires and stuff?"
Camille chuckled then nodded. "Yes, exactly like that and this might sound corny but," Camille leaned forward and stage whispered. "We truly are not alone; and they aren't extinct. They've just decided its best the humans don't know about them."
Fayre scratched her cheek, her expression obviously doubtful.
"You don't have to believe me; however I will tell you what I know."
Camille closed her eyes and gathered her thoughts then began. "I was born different. How exactly no one was ever able to tell me; I looked like all the other humans, I was in fact human, but there was still something different. When I was eight I found out what." She opened her eyes and looked at Fay, although her gaze had a far away look to it. "He came to me where I was staying. You see I'm an orphan and I was staying at a shelter. He found me there and he told me….
Flashback
Eight year old Camille looked up at the old man with the long beard. At first she had thought that maybe Santa Claus had come early, but this man wasn't round like Santa Claus and he was wearing a black business suit, not a red one.
Slowly she sat at the small table directly across him. "They said you wanted to talk to me?" Was the hesitant question.
No one ever wanted to talk to her and she didn't know why, she'd love to have friends but people always seemed to dislike her for some reason. Shyly she looked up at him through her bangs. The old man looked back at her with kindly grey sad eyes.
"I had hoped I was wrong, but it seems I'm not." He spoke after a few more moments of silence. Then he did something strange. He spoke a word and the room they were in lit up momentarily with sky blue light. "That should give us some privacy." Camille swallowed. "What for?" she asked.
Whenever people took her aside it was to insult or try to beat her up, mostly the later, although she didn't think this old man would do it, she was wary of him nonetheless.
"There is a tale I must tell you, information you must know."
Camille relaxed slightly. "Is it about my past?" she asked.
The man looked out the window. "Yes, it is about your past and your future, but I'm afraid, not in the way you would think it."
Camille's shoulders fell. "Oh." Was her quiet and disappointed reply.
The man watched her with kind eyes before beginning. "There have been great men throughout history. Many known as conquerors, great rulers, and even some who have been known as dictators.
For example the one known as Alexander the Great and even before him a woman by the name of Cleopatra; you have heard of them, correct?" Camille nodded.
The man continued. "They had one thing in common, one thing that no one knew about; yes they are spoken in history as rulers in their own time and each one great, but there was something that they did know, that not many knew." He paused, his eyes on some distant memory, and then he turned to her. "They had something known as the Supremacy Right. Where it came from no one knows but the legend says that the very first creators of this world, of all worlds, forged it and threw it down to earth to cause havoc among those that lived here; and surely it did just that.
"For centuries it has been fought over in a secret war, and whoever gains control of it does great things, rises to power, although whether they do good or bad is up to them, but history never forgets them and so they live on in memory; but they have also fallen and this has happened because they became unworthy of wielding the Supremacy Right. If they gained it as a sword and then dropped it in combat they would no longer be worthy, in one instance it was picked up by another, a common unworthy soldier.
"Angry, the Right caused a wound to its former wielder that killed him over time." He placed a quarter, or what looked like one, on the table and slid it to Camille. She hesitated, them slowly picked it up and examined it. "Alexander…the Great?" she asked uncertain. The man nodded. "Yes, he wielded the Right as a sword then dropped it. He probably would have gone on to conquer more territory had it not been for his dropping the Right, but he did and so the Right vanished from sight until once more it was picked up by another, and so time continued and great men held it and rose to fame. By the time of the second world war, the wars that by then had become known as the Supremacy Wars to those who knew of it, had come to an end sometime ago when an unlikely man picked up the Right, this time in the form of a gun. He rose to power, as they all did and committed heinous acts against humanity. The Right may not be a person in the way we think of one but it is an entity, and this entity soon grew to feel enmity towards this man and retreated its favor from him, but stayed to become the instrument of his death."
Wide eyed Camille listened to the story, her attention completely absorbed by the tale.
"So…what…what happened?" she asked.
"That's just it,' the man continued "After the death of this man The Right vanished. Many searched for it, those who wished for its power, in hopes of becoming worthy of it. Over the centuries factions rose, all united in seeking the power of this artifact known as the Right, yet at the same time separate in their need to gain it for themselves. Beings calling themselves Demons, yet they belong to this world not, they belong to another. Werewolves, those calling themselves the Malaika, Vampires. All these beings seek the power The Right possesses because they know that their dreams will come true when they gain control of it. However The Right vanished a long time ago and although they've all searched, none has found it. I myself have been seeking it, but not to use it, only to guard it. Such an item cannot be destroyed, and so it must be guarded; and at last I have found it, or her." His faraway gaze settled on her.
"But…I don't have a weapon or anything that might be that." Camille said.
What Camille was thinking was that this man was completely crazy and she should be running out of the room for her life, however something stopped her, it's as if she somehow knew, in her soul, that this man was telling the truth.
"The Right has reappeared, it is not yet fully awake or complete, it is only luck that brought me to the location, and it may still take a few years, but it will awaken, and when it does everyone will know, and trust me when I say that this time the Factions will not stand for a mortal claiming something they have fought over for so many centuries."
Camille shook her head. "I don't understand, what has all this got to do with me?"
The man smiled sadly. "You see, the Right has decided to come back in a form that will give it what it wishes, experience in human life; love, sadness, laughter. All these things for a long time it has sought to truly feel, and so it has finally accomplished what it, or perhaps now we should say; she wishes."
Camille watched as the man stood and extended a hand to her. "My name is Merlin the Magician, yes that one,' he said at Camille's widening eyes.
"I seek to safeguard you, because you see, the Right is indeed, your soul."
And so Camille had found out why exactly she had been so different.
End Flashback
"Since that day my life changed. I thought it was for the better. I was told that one day I would have great powers and that this time I could choose.
"I was the Right, but the one thing I could not do was to grant myself the ability to be what everyone seeks, to become like those great men of the past. That power, I was told, could only be given to another, the one I chose. I was taught many things and I couldn't wait for my powers to awaken, and one day three months ago they finally did."
Camille looked up at Fayre, her eyes filled with tears. "And I also found that I could not wield the power, I could not! It burned my insides, it hurt so badly I screamed and screamed!" Her voice was choked by the pain and tears she could still so clearly remember having to deal with, and she turned her head away, her trembling hand absently petting the black cat, who purred as if to encourage and comfort her. "Merlin and the others did their best to seal my powers, but they could only do it for so long."
Tears began to roll down her cheeks. "I had such a bright future. I had a scholarship to the college of my choice, the life I wanted, people had actually begun to speak to me. I had friends."
She lifted her palms to cover her face, although Fayre could hear her sobs and see the tears she tried to contain escape past her palms. "I thought to myself; I don't mind a normal life, this is what I want, to be like many others, but….but it wasn't meant to be."
She uncovered her face and looked at Fayre who watched her, unsure of what to do and a little uncomfortable with the situation. "It began to get worse and worse. One day I overheard the Wizards talking. One of them mentioned a spell, a spell that would render my soul my own and not the Rights', since I was truly not that being, they had come to realize. However, finding the correct being was like searching for a penny in the middle of a cornfield; impossible, especially in the time I had left. It left me feeling desperate, and so I ran, I ran as far and fast as I could. Two days later I found myself in that park, the one where we met. I could feel it; the power rising within me and yet seeking, and I knew I was in my last moments of life."
She closed her eyes and sighted, then once more opened them and stared directly at Fayre, something that made her feel just a little…well no, a whole lot uncomfortable.
"I was at my wits end; hanging to my sanity by a thread. You see I wasn't born under the right star or the right time to be able to take on so much power, even when it was cut in half, especially when it wasn't mine. The Right should have merged with the correct soul, the other half of itself, someone born under the right star. I was so desperate and beyond caring that I gambled. I used the spell, hoping that the Right knew its mistake and wanted to spare me, hoping that it had called its other half, its true half."
Until now Camille had been tensed and distressed, now she relaxed and sighted in contentment. "And it did." Her eyes warmed and her smile could almost be called radiant as she looked at Fayre. "It called you to me so that it may right its wrong,' she giggled. "No pun intended. I could feel it, the moment I looked at you. It was as if the power within me was reaching for you, but I had to be sure, that's why I asked your birth month and day." Camille stood, the small cat cuddled in her arms.
"The only reason I wasn't killed when the powers granted to me by the Right began to awaken was because it wasn't whole, but now it, no, she is, and so the time will soon come when they will all know that you've finally resurfaced."
Fayre shot to her feet and shook her head. "No way am I some sort of magical item! Look at me!" she exclaimed a hand over her chest. "I'm just an ordinary sixteen year old who almost got grounded! I'm not any magical item or being! I don't hold the soul of some weird trouble making weapon!"
Camille's eyes filled with compassion.
"You don't simply hold the soul, Fay, you are mind, heart, body and soul; The Supremacy Right."
"No!" Fayre denied heatedly, none of this could be real! "I'm normal! Just like you've wanted to be normal! I never asked to be anything but myself."
"That's right, and you see, you finally are yourself." Camille spoke quietly. "I'm sorry for what my actions will cause you, but even if I don't remember you, know that I am forever grateful to you, for your presence last night. And please be careful, the Wizards are trustworthy; they will safeguard you. However the other factions have something else in mind. Do not let any of them try to fool you. Do not try to contact me, all my memories of this will be gone, and so I bid you farewell." With that Camille faded away.
"Get back here!" Fayre shouted, stomping her foot. "I'm not done with you yet! I don't want this power so come back and take it! Hey! Hey where did you go Camille!"
Fayre's voice echoed around her before it suddenly turned into a loud beeping noise close to her ear.
End Dream
Fayre woke with a start and slammed her palm over the 'off' button of her alarm. She yawned and sleepily looked around. 'It's Sunday, why'd the stupid alarm have to go off.' She thought and collapsed back into bed. 'Man where do I get the inspiration for these dreams?' She groaned and covered her head with her blanket. 'I'll never watch another fantasy movie again.' With a sleepy yawn she went back to sleep, and this time no dreams disturbed her.