Disclaimer: I don't own it, but I love it. And I hope you all love this chapter.

AN: The plot is picking up the pace. And a familiar face appears in this chapter – but it's probably not a face you ever wanted to see again. Enjoy ;)

Of Spirits and Bargains

Terrio seethes. He slams the door of his private apartments and moves through the lounge room, metal toed boots clacking violently against the floorboards. He barely notices Queen Portia relaxing on the couch. "There has to be a solution he mutters.

"Terrio, what on this Earth."

"It's spread to the Palace," he growls. "Do you know what they're talking about in the servants quarters, on the back stairs, in the damn kitchens?"

"Do you mean the Guardian?" Portia leans against the study door with a hand over her stomach, the baby's kicking again, as she watches Terrio frantically rifle through the bookshelves. All of the scrolls came from the private library of the Selene family, liberated from the old Palace before it was burned. Terrio rips scrolls from their holders, wrenches them apart and scans the titles before throwing them on the floor. "What are you doing?"

"They're talking about the Guardian, yes. Every last damn one. Every resident of this palace – even Sir. Brutus – and he has been my supporter since the beginning. They are all talking about the Guardian," He growls. "I told them all it would be a child of the new royal blood. And it is not. Now do you know what they think?"

Portia swallows. "That you're a fraud."

"That I not worthy of the crown." He throws a scroll at the window, cracking the glass. "Even those who hated the Selene's question me. Because apparently the blessing of 'The Planet' can dissuade even those who supported the rebellion from its infancy."

"Can we not simply take the Guardian in as your bastard?" Terrio's head jerks up in response. "I can deal with the whispers, but I won't lose the throne."

Her husband passes one of his scrolls back and forth between his hands. "It had not occurred to me. I would rather just kill the Selene brat."

"Is that wise?"

"No," He throws the scroll onto the desk and leans over it, bracing his hands on the elegant wood. "Not when the people love her as they do."

"And it seems bad luck to me – to kill Ra's chosen. Not just in a blasphemous sense either. This could be the generation the next great evil invades. We could ruin more than just our kingdom by throwing off the cycle."

"All fair concerns," the Usurper drums his fingers on the desk. "That doesn't solve our problem though. The people already know of the Guardian. I've heard a few have seen her and apparently she looks just like a Selene. It won't take long for the commoners to piece together. When they do…who will need me as King with a Guardian to lead them."

"So the problem is?"

"I need to make them forget," he scowls. "But it would seem that despite his extensive collection of histories, poetry, and encyclopedias, Octavius Selene had not an ounce of interest in magic."

"You think you'd find a spell to make the whole city – the whole planet even – forget about the Selenes. They've ruled this planet since the Age of Ra herself."

"Well there must be something!" he punches the mahogany desk. "We have a crystal which at full strength can produce ten years worth of a bountiful harvest, and I've yet to make it do more than sprout a flower. There are countless weapons in the armoury and a horde of Priests and Priestesses with magic – unlike Helios – that could engender good will towards me. And I have access to none of them."

"It doesn't even sound like a spell that they would do, this sounds more like… no, never mind."

"What?" His dark blue eyes dart up to her face. "What, Portia?"

"There's an old Earth spirit – they say it rewards great amibition…but she's quite dangerous. I've been reading the King's journals about it. It caused quite a bit of trouble from its prison when he was a prince."

"Any trouble for the old regime is trouble I'd be willing to deal with to be rid of them. The tables can always be turned."

Portia bites her lip. "The enemy of your enemy is not always a friend."

"Well if the Selenes could contain them then so can I – I killed the Selenes. The spirit will favour me."

"Just…be careful."

"Where can I find the books about this spirit?"

"They're the old King's journals... they're in a chest in the Catacombs" Portia shakes her head. "Whatever you do, don't agree to set it free. It's a nasty creature."

"What is its name?"

"Metalia."

~paxlunae~

A week later, Terrio rides out into the foothills of the barrier mountains between their valley and the desert with a well trained squire in toe. He carried an amulet in his pocket. Throughout the hours long ride he keeps a hand over it. It feels hot in his pocket, perhaps it's only the long ride, and he swears it gets warmer as they approach the hills.

They hike into the foothills on horseback until they find the cave – a deep cavern ripped into the earth by some ancient earthquake. Terrio lights a torch and he and the squire repel down into the cave.

They walk beneath the earth for miles, sometimes going down, sometimes up. The deeper they travel, the lighter the cavern seems – red and orange stones cast angry light through it, growing in size as they near the center. Eventually they reach a formation in the stone that is smooth and carved with ancient pictographic script. Terrio places the amulet against the stone, and the squire jumps when it groans and moves, swinging open to reveal a cavern tinted completely in scarlet and purple light.

Within, in a stalagmite cage, a shapeless demon gazes at them. It doesn't look anything like the spirit described in the journals; Terrio smirks. It is no larger than an average human and ripples of maroon and purple flared out from its black body.

It trains fully red eyes on Terrio. "A King, but not a King, here to gawk at me."

"Hardly" He holds up the amulet for the spirit to see. "I have read the old King's journals – you are locked up here because you have great power. It took the last Guardian and a whole contingent of Ra's irritating followers to put you here."

He shines the gem in the light "That power…is something I now need."

"Oh how interesting." The spirit hisses. Beside him his squire shifts from foot to foot, hand clenching around his sword. "And you will free me if I grant you that power."

"Unfortunately no." Terrio examines the Amulet. "As much as I hate the old monarchy, I can't deny their logic in putting you here. I don't quite trust you, you understand."

"Then how am I to earn your good will?" Metalia sneers. "Give me the power, human, and I shall show you what I am capable of."

"I want something from you first – and believe me I think you will find it ammeanable."

"Oh."

"I can use this amulet, and I can give your…are they golems? Youma? I can give them access to the protected lands and people. I believe that should satisfy your desire for energy."

"They can yes," Three shadows spring up outside the edges of the cage. Terrio grips the amulet tighter. "Let me send them out on one first mission and I shall have plenty of power to grant whatever request you desire."

"I want my request granted first." Terrio insists and the spirit retracts the Youma shadows and growls.

"I do not have the energy you fool!"

"And that is why I have brought you some." Terrio grabs the squire by the back of his tunic and throws the boy towards the stalagmite cage. "He is unprotected – a peace offering."

Before the squire can do more than scream, the spirit is apon him. Metalia's youma drag the boy into the cage and Metalia's dark form consumes his. Terrio watches with growing apprehension and interest as within the spirit, the boy's body writhes and convulses, white like draining from him into Metalia. His energy melds with its black and red body, which expands quickly until it is three times the size of a man and pressed up to the roof of the cage."

"Such a strong energy." A shadow tongue flicks out of where the demon's mouth would be. "What is it you require of me, King of Earth. Give me more energy such as this and I will grant whatever the request."

"I need the people of earth to forget the Selenes. I need them to think the clan never existed.

Metalia laughs, it sounds like an avalanche. "release two of the lands protected by that amulet to me and I shall see what can be done."

"I will give you one to start"

"Then the forgetting shall have to be a little at a time. With only a little energy, I will not have enough power for more than one city."

"If you can cast the spell on Central Ellisium, then I shall see what I can do."

"That is…acceptable."

"Then let it be done." He murmers the spell of unsealing into the amulet with a clear intention in mind. There is a farming community that has had a bad harvest this year and requires assistance he cannot provide. If Metalia can remove them as a problem for him that will only sweeten this deal. The amulet glows to signal his spell has gone into effect, and the moment it does three youma are flying from the cavern, darting towards the outside world and the areas now accessible to them.

"I shall be in touch." He says to the spirit and walks quickly from the cavern, hearing the deep laughter of Metalia all the way out of the cave and down to where they left the horses.

He swallows the knot of anxiety in his throat. He can deal with Metalia, and keep it contained.

~paxlunae~

The fog rolls through Ellysium just after midnight, sweeping into every window, every home, and even the Palace, though it is bared at the doorways of Ra's temples.

All around the city people sleep on, breathing the fog into their lungs. When they wake up, everything is exactly the same as they left it. The pantry needs to be restocked with root vegetables and grains, the rising sun is making a beautiful red hue over the horizon, and the long established line of Terrio is still in power and expecting their newest royal child. It is, for all, a day like any other.

So it is easy, early that next morn, to seek out the husband of the Guardian's nurse. That woman might live in the temple protected, but her husband had breathed in the fog the same as any other. When he hears a rumor that the baby his wife nurses is actually the King's – whom the Priestesses are holding hostage and whom Terrio offers a reward if any man brings the child to the palace – he abandons his carpentry for the morning and races to the temple.

And his wife's so supportive of him taking their little one and her charge out for a stroll. He puts both babies in slings across his chest and walks them freely out of the temple with no ill intentions – exactly as Terrio had hoped – and strolls at a fast pace up to the Palace gates. The Captain of the Guard himself escorts him to the Royal Audience chamber.

"Thank you good man," the warm ocean blue eyes that have always belonged to the monarchs smile at him. "You shall be rewarded handsomely."

"Thank you my King – it is an honor to deliver the Princess to her family." He bows low. "It is only sad she has not inherited the Terran eyes, your highness."

He sees Terrio smile, teeth flashing, and regard the girl's strange amber eyes amused. "Well, nothing is ever truly perfect."

"What shall his Majesty call her – if I am permitted to ask."

"You know, I have only just learned about her, I hadn't quite thought of it."

"They call her Serenity," the carpenter offers.

"No, no that won't do." Terrio pulls at his mustache. "But if she must look nothing like me, she could at least bare my name." He taps the girl's nose, grinning when she giggles. "Terra – yes, that will do nicely."

The Carpenter is overjoyed. He goes back to his work for the day and does not think anything of the transaction. By lunch his wife is home and yelling at him – why has he done such a thing. He yells right back. What can't she understand, there was a handsome reward, the child is with her family now. What does it matter the nonsense of some priestsess.

By dinner time to fog is back, by morning his wife has forgotten why she fought with him at all.

And as the Priestesses safe in the temple pray and plot and try desperately, but to no effect to get Serenity back from the palace, the Princess passes her first month mark completely unaware that all in Ellysium – and as the year passes by the rest of the Earth – have forgotten the significance of her eyes and her hair. She settles into her new home, her new caretakers, and her new name, as innocently as any other child.

~À suivre~