Chapter Five, Fake

Artemis was not surprised by Silyah's knowledge. Of course he was wondering the story behind her encounter with the People, but he knew it would be perfectly logical.

Still in Gnommish, he asked the young girl to tell him her story.

"Sometimes I can be a little bit obsessed when I have a new passion… Maybe four years ago, I was fascinated by fairies and by accident, or almost, I fell on one. The People could have mesmerised me but the fairy I met believed strongly in one old prophecy, which I am still unaware of, and decided to keep me as an ally to keep them updated of what was happening above them," she explained in the People's language.

"And did they keep you updated about what was happening below the ground?" He asked her trying to hide his curiosity.

"I'm sure that you meant 'Did they tell you about me?' and the answer is yes. They told me to keep an eye open, to be careful. However I think that you are a good friend of the People, since you are now fighting Opal with us."

"Have you met her yet?"

"No, but I know that she is responsible for all of this, I just know it…" she said before adding in plain English this time, "Do you have the password for the Wi-Fi connection? I need to check my Twitter page."

And that was the last thing he told her before a knock came at Zahra's door. As soon as she reached and opened it, Grace, the one who had greeted them when they arrived on the island, told them that a Council assembly was about to start.

As they walked through the hallways and then through a little road on the island, the fledglings could not help but wonder what would they be doing in during the Council meeting. They were all newly Marked and they knew nothing too serious about vampyre politics...

When Artemis arrived in front of the Council chamber, he noticed that it was as ordinary as a modified human cathedral. It was a really beautiful ordinary church but that did not change anything about the nature of the building. The windows were decorated with stained glass, all of them representing something about Nyx. Artemis could recognize the Goddess herself, as well as a pentacle, an indicative of the five elements. The group walked into the church/Council chamber and Grace assigned them two tiers of seats, one for the High Priestesses in the second row and one for the fledglings on the fourth row of the right side. As the minutes passed, more vampyres filled the Council chamber… When the last two people that were not part from the Council arrived, the mood in the room changed and the three special fledglings tensed. Artemis could not help but seeing darkness (or was it madness?) in the auburn haired and green-eyed vampyre beside the man. She seemed very powerful and dangerous to him and he knew where he had seen that same personality. Opal Koboi… One more time, everything appeared to be linked to the evil pixie. She was followed by - Artemis blinked twice and realised that it was not his imagination - a winged man who was wearing nothing but a pair of jeans. The situation was getting more and more curious...

Shortly enough, the Council arrived and everyone got up, everyone except the two people who were radiating darkness. They remained seated as if they were waiting for the Council to listen to them.

Finally, the seven Council members took their seats at the front of the chamber.

The vampyre who was seated in the middle, Duantia, as the fledglings learned, spoke first. "Merry Meet everyone. Since we have an unexpected guest today, I will not expand on greetings and I will start this meeting right now. Neferet, would you explain to the Council the reason of your presence here?" Her gaze went to the auburn haired vampyre and the winged man beside her.

"Please, from now on call me Nyx Incarnate. That is why I am here, to tell you that the goddess finally made her way to Earth through me." Her voice was empowered by darkness and yet she really looked like a goddess, or at least an immortal being. "And of course, my warrior and consort Erebus followed me too, as I need him to protect me from any danger."

That was it; Nyx's enigma was complete. Artemis, Minerva and Silyah looked at each other, the three of them realizing that "the false goddess" was without any doubt Neferet.

"And what danger could you face, if you are only here to tell us you who think you are Neferet?" Another vampyre asked. By her tone and the expression on her face, it was easy to tell that Thanatos was the asker.

"Well, as I am Nyx Incarnate, I am also here to claim the title of High Priestess. And for your information, dangers are everywhere. Competition can be a danger," she said in a sharp voice, looking straight at the three chosen High Priestesses. Zahra raised her hand and the Council recognized her.

"Please, Neferet, spare us the theatrical manners! You cannot claim the title. Nobody here can either. If you actually make it and become the High Priestess, so be it, but at least use a little bit of democracy."

"She is right Neferet. Nobody will interfere with our selection process," nodded Thanatos. "However, since you were not in our original selection, you will have to make your proofs."

"I can't believe you are arguing with me. And my name is not Neferet anymore!" exclaimed the auburn-haired vampyre. Her tone was not angry but the madness in her eyes had doubled.

"I declare this case closed," Duantia said. "Neferet, or Nyx Incarnate, will be considered in our voting, along with the other Priestesses… And she will be treated equally. Now, on another note and in the name of our Council, I recongnize Mr. Artemis, Ms. Minerva and Ms. Silyah, you may all stand up please. One by one answer this question, in human age, how old are you?"

"Fifteen years old." They said, taking their turns.

"Oh, Goddess," Duantia seemed really shocked, which was not common for a member of the Council. "Fledglings are not supposed to be Marked that young…"

"But their Marks are not supposed to be added to and yet, four cases occurred recently," pondered Thanatos.

Neferet turned her head for the first time towards Artemis. Her expression was somewhere between repulsion, grace and hate. The young boy noticed that his newfound enemy had realized how powerful he could become. Her eyes grew wide for a nano-second when she saw Silyah and Minerva, other possible threats, but she quickly gained back her composure and offered the group a fake motherly smile, which they returned to her. For a moment, Artemis felt like is old self again, smiling his trademark vampire smile. Ironic.

"Now, may I ask you about your powers? To make this simpler and less repetitive, would you please designate a speaker?" Duantia continued.

"Artemis," murmured Silyah while Artemis looked towards Minerva for approval.

"Go ahead." whispered the blond girl.

"Miss Duantia, I will be the speaker," the Council Members nodded at Artemis and he started one of his signature mini speech. "Apart from the normal vampyre gifts I am aware of, we are all believed to be Gifted with an affinity for all of the five elements. When we attended to our first circle casting, we all felt the elements surrounding us," he looked at the girls to make sure he was speaking for everybody and went on. "We never had the time to see how we could control them but I am sure an opportunity will be offered to us soon enough."

"Is there anything you, Gifted fledglings might want to add before I can discuss a new subject?"

"No Madam." They all said like if they were in Elementary School.

Then, Duantia went on with the meeting, and finished by reciting a prayer for the ex-High Priestess Shekinah.

"Well, that's it for today," She finally said. "Merry meet and Marry part and Merry meet again. May Nyx bless all of you."

"Blessed be." replied the audience as they left the cathedral, quietly whispering about what had just been said in the chamber. Nobody however, had appeared to noticed the madness in Neferet's eyes.

It was barely 2:30 AM and the moon was slowly disappearing behind the horizon but the group still had time for a little nocturnal walk in San Clemente. While Artemis and Minerva kept making comments about architecture and mythology, the three High Priestesses tried to keep up with the knowledge overload and Silyah just observed silently taking in the beauty of the surroundings, taking pictures as they walked in front of an anicent labyrinth.

Once supper time arrived, the vampyres and the fledglings headed back to the hotel where a five star restaurent awaited them.

The "evening" had passed smoothly and as the day began, everyone was back to his or her rooms for a well-deserved sleep.


Artemis's dream began as every single one of his dreams did, with the nightmarish visions of previous adventures. Then, his world started to lighten up with the arrival of Holly… However, as the Captain Short was about to save their lives once again, the young boy seemed to gain consciousness within the dream.

I must be in a lucid dream, he thought, but he reconsidered the idea when the settings around him began to fade in pixels.

Looking at his left side, he saw the concert Silyah was attending to vanish and to his right, Minerva's Nobel Prize ceremony slowly disappeared. As their surrondings dissipated, the expressions on the fledging's faces flashed from a foggy state to a fully conscious one. The two girls walked to the center of the room as if the walls were pushing them towards Artemis. Passing her hand in her wavy brown hair, Silyah was the first one to break the silence.

"Is my imagination way too vivid or this dream seems too real to actually be a dream?" Then, she flexed her fingers to see how much control she had over her "body".

Minerva nodded slowly, fascinated. "How are we supposed to know if everything happening right now is not all in my head?" she asked.

"We could use a password," suggested Artemis. "A word we don't really use often in these times… What about D'Arvit?"

"Sure, why not," replied Silyah, "but while we are here and while we are, hypothetically, conscious, maybe we could try to understand what took us in this dream and why. I know that vampyres are psychic but I am sure that they don't communicate during their sleeps."

"I suppose it is because of our Magick..." theories were spinning in Artemis's brain. "Our minds are, hypothetically, connected as if we were in a time tunnel, probably because Nyx is aware of the gravity of the situation and she wants to give us some time to discuss a strategy, and all of this in secret."

"Plausible," agreed Minerva, "the fact that we got Marked might have awoken our powers as we all have been in contact with some sort of Magick… Am I right Silyah?"

"Yes, I have been healed once… And I agree with Artemis, as I said earlier most vampyres are highly intuitive and some informations, like the fact that an High Priestess might have been mesmerized by a pixie, are just not meant to be heard."

"Mesmerized, Really?" Asked Artemis thinking about how Opal had taken possession of his mother's body.

There was a few seconds of silence before Minerva added, "I assume that now every elements of the poem have been deciphered… The ultimate powers belong to 'the poisonous, precious stone' or Opal Koboi and the false goddess we must beware is Neferet... But I have a feeling that a piece of information is missing from this equation."

"We need to summarize everything we already know," concluded the boy. "First of all... We are a different kind of fledglings, a Magickal kind. We are gifted with abilities no one else ever thought about. Secondly, I belive that we will eventually play a major role in the People's life. The third point would be that Opal is using Neferet, as well as the winged man. The fourth and last thing I know is that we are now taking part in a real battle between good and evil."

"Well said," agreed Silyah furrowing her brows. "What a job description..."

She barely had the time to finish her sentence that a loud "beep-beep-beep" forced the fledglings to wake up. An alarm clock, they guessed.

Yet, afterwards, they would have prefered that the clock would have never rang… The fledglings had no way of guessing before they went to sleep that a disaster would occur the following night…