Heir of Galena The Power Inside
Jason wrinkled his nose as he looked to the sloughed off seal skin lying near the dusky grey shore inside the cavern, while making his way back from another therapeutic swim that had his body nearly fully healed, down to the last regrown hair and his dragon marked back. He shook off as much excess water as he could before grabbing his makeshift clothes that the ancient Selkie, Aroa had provided for him.
For roaweed and brax leaves, his breeches and tunic were as comfortable as could be expected. The weave resembled burlap in coarseness and color, but it wasn't quite so itch inducing. He looked even more common than he had before he'd been flushed out an ancient underground transportation and message system and drowned by a traitor.
Jason weaved through the throngs of seals and otters not really sure which of the seals were magical and which were not. None of the otters were magical but he'd expressed his gratitude anyway. Barking and high pitched squeaks greeted him from the various groups as he made his way to Aroa who had taken her human form as that of an elderly woman with waist length silken white locks.
Aroa was working on something in a small pot fixed over a roaring fire set deep in a spacious alcove. The others were giving her a wide berth and Jason wasn't sure if that was because she wanted to talk to him alone or because they were afraid of whatever she was working on. "You were gone for almost two hours." She commented without looking up. "Do you feel refreshed?"
"I feel better." Jason nodded but that was far from the sentiment he wanted to convey.
"But you're hurt." Aroa's voice was something melodic. It sent shivers down his spine every time she opened her mouth and he often found himself lost in her words. He knew that they didn't have the same effect on those that bore no magic in their blood, for he hadn't become completely enthralled with her, a hapless slave to her whims.
Aroa motioned to a rock across from her, giving him polite offerings of a seat. Jason sank onto it and leaned back against the alcove wall, watching her work endlessly on whatever was in the pot. "I'm upset, if that's what you mean."
"It's more that upset." She scoffed, looking up with a soft smile in his direction. "You're mother's gone. You can't feel her anymore."
"How…" She cut him off before he could get another word out.
"You had a vision in the water, before you came back. She told you goodbye. I know that Declan would have told you about the sacrifice that your parents made the night that Galena fell." Aroa hadn't been very forth coming over the last few days, always shooing him off when he asked even the simplest of question. She seemed as though her only true concern was making sure he was healed without him using his abilities. "They gave their lives for you, poured their own blood into the spell. They've been with you all this time, protecting you. You're mother had to let go, to move on. She gave you what little power she had left to offer so that you would live now. You're father's spirit remains, but as always you do not feel him. He is the last of your guardians, save Samantha." Aroa explained as she continued to stir the contents of the pot.
"How do you know this?" Jason asked in wonder. He had asked Declan for years to clarify about the little things in his life, the abilities, what it was to be a Life Bringer, about what happened before the fall of Galena and the answers were always cryptic or put off for another time. Was this the time? Finally? "Declan told me of that night. Elizabeth sacrificed her own brother in order to work magic that should have destroyed me. My mother and father…" Jason swallowed tightly, blinking back tears as even after all these years he couldn't deny that it hurt so to recount their sacrifice.
"They wanted you to live." Aroa met his eyes sympathetically. "They still do, you have much more to do."
"Right, I have to defeat Elizabeth." Jason huffed in frustration. "I've barely used my powers over the years. I don't even know what I'm capable of. How am I supposed to fight her? She's already shown the world what she can do and everyone fears her."
"Does everyone?" Aroa asked with a curious arch of her eyebrows.
"Everyone that I've met," Jason replied with a quick nod.
"Sam?" As soon as the name left her lips Jason prickled defensively.
"She doesn't know what's good to fear." Jason started, but Aroa caught a wave of giggles at his words.
"Love is so blind." Aroa seemed fully amused. "She believes in you, more than you believe in yourself." Aroa explained. "She's not afraid, because she knows she has no reason to be…" She paused with a sigh, giggles dying down. "At least she knew…now she struggles with her own sense of purpose."
"You can't keep masking me from her." Jason let out his true emotions coming through, anger shrouded in desperation and frustration.
"I do not hide you from her. It is simply an unfortunate side effect from masking you from Elizabeth." Aroa replied evenly, not seeming offended in the least. "Jason, your mind is so far from the task at hand. You are caught up in desires that cannot be fulfilled and arbitrary rules that make no sense. You just found out that you have a twin sister out there, which you never even knew about and the real gem is that you've been betrayed and murdered by your enemy."
"Right some King I'll make." Jason scoffed as if the many blunders and his overall confusion as to what should be done next made a good case for his utter failure in the plans that everyone had for his life.
"Oh at that," Aroa wasn't mocking as she nodded in agreement as though he hadn't just sarcastically ridiculed his birthright. "You will make a fine and noble King." She promised him. "You stand up for those that can't for themselves. You remember and honor those that came before you, which loved you as you loved them. You do not hate with blinding passion. Even now your love for Sam far outweighs your hatred for Elizabeth. You are full of compassion and hope, not pride and prejudice. Jason, the only doubt you have is in yourself, because you know not what you are capable of. That is why you are here. You must learn what you can do before you take possession of your father's staff and go after the evil blood maiden." Aroa told him calmly.
"You can't be lost in want for Sam or a desire to find your sister, not until you master who you are." Aroa made her way over with a wooden cup of the steamy black liquid from the pot she'd been fussing over for so long. "And the only way to find that out is to drink this…"
Jason arched an eyebrow at her quizzically. How was drinking some brew that smelled like a combination of pine nettles and horse manure going to help him find out how to master his abilities? "Are you serious?"
"Well I'm not as mad as you're thinking I am…bottoms up, young King." She smiled.
Jason looked back her in disbelief and wonder before he finally sighed. He didn't know what else to do so he could only pray that she had the answers.
He knocked back the horrible brew in one gulp.
ZZZZZZZZZZZ
"You had to have known something!" Michael kept his voice as level as he could with the amount of seething loath pouring out with each word.
"No matter how many times I say that I didn't it will never be enough." Lorenzo shot back. "I was distracted and my men had been picking up the slack for months. I couldn't keep track of everyone and everything!" Lorenzo got out between clenched teeth. "I missed it!"
"You son of a…" Michael lunged in his direction and Carly caught him, hand encircling his arm in a jerk to try and keep him from attacking the Captain.
"Michael it's true. I've been with Lorenzo long enough to know what he's capable of and he didn't do this!" Carly spoke up in his defense. "Ronnie acted alone and he played us all."
Michael calmed at that as the others looked on, waiting for Nikolas to reach a decision as the make shift trial was drawing to a close. The whole grouped had gathered and everyone had been heard and so far it seemed as if what Carly was saying was the truth. Ronnie acted alone.
"I've come to a decision…" Nik finally spoke up quieting the group. "Ronnie did indeed act alone and Lorenzo will not be penalized for his action, but rather his inaction as he let a traitor into our midst. Punishment is civic duty for Heradesh for 9 months, of which the current mission counts as such." Nik dispensed his judgment quickly for they were running out of daylight and they needed to get down to their next plan of action.
They couldn't continue with the current mission as only Jason was capable of wielding the staff they had come to collect and they needed a new objective. They weren't going back to Heradesh the way they had come as the tunnel system was in the tree tops as far as all of them were concerned. Sam couldn't' activate her powers to levitate or jump or fly or whatever it was that she had done to save Jason, because her abilities seemed to only be usable in the presence of Jason and his dead corpse lost in the water surrounding them didn't seem to count. "We need to reestablish our objectives…"
"It's simple, defeat Elizabeth and restore order to the world." Sam spoke up for the first time since her morning spent starring into the waters of Jason's grave.
"But only, Jason could…" Jasper Jax started but Sam cut him off with a scoff.
"What you believe everything that's prophesied?" She asked wiping angrily at a tear that fell against her cheek, uninvited. "We're supposed to just give up and not fight the armies marching against humanity perpetrated by a Bitch that wants to make everyone miserable for her own entertainment?" She asked heatedly.
"That's not what I meant." He countered.
"Oh, tell me what you did mean? Please?" Sam shot back. "At least the nations conquered fought back. You're talking like we're already defeated. Jason was special, but so are we."
"Sam, we don't have any idea of where Elizabeth is about to strike next…" Nik started but she shook her head at that.
"Then we find out. We're in a nation she just conquered, someone knows which direction her army marched in, if they've marched at all." Sam replied just as vehemently. "We're the scouts, we have the opportunity to gain information about what's about to happen, so that we can devise a more workable plan."
"Sam, maybe you need to take a moment to calm…" Lorenzo started as everyone was seeing how worked up she was getting.
"Do not say down…I'm pissed off, I'm frustrated, I'm grieving, but I will not stop and lay down so that she can destroy what little is left in my life that I hold dear." Sam retorted venomously. "I'm scouting the Swamp and I'm going to fucking find something to use against her. Anyone that doesn't agree with this plan can follow Nik with whatever he decides, but anyone that wants to tag along…Here we go…"
Sam grabbed her pack from the ground and made her way into the marshy land, without looking back to see who was following.
It was Spinelli who moved first, a surprise to all as he grabbed his own pack and followed after her obviously trying to quell the fear that so was so easily bleeding through his façade of bravery. Maxie looked after him in horror at first but soon she thought it over more and took up her own pack following behind him.
"I like her…" It was Carly that broke the silence with the group left behind and she took up Michael's pack, shouldering his weight as her own as she looked at Michael with a soft smile.
"Mom?" Michael asked worriedly, not wanting to see her in more danger…
"She's right…" Carly called as she smiled over her shoulder to him and the others. "All grief aside…we have to find what we can."
Michael couldn't argue with her and while he wanted to keep her safe he was beginning to understand what they were trying to convey to the group…safety was in dwindling supply and soon they would have to fight anyway, better on their own terms.
"Looks like the majority is making their ruling know…" Lorenzo smiled to Nik as he shouldered his own pack and motioned to the men he had remaining before he followed after them.
Nik was the last to fall in line with Jerry and Jasper in tow.
ZZZZZZZZZZZ
Jason jumped backwards, flying several feet farther than he had ever been able to move, wondering at his knew found dexterity and strength as he looked back over his shoulder to the fog enshrouded landscape that he and Aroa now stood on.
"Where are we?" He asked in wonder. The last thing he remembered before jumping awake and backwards here was drinking Aroa's awful concoction.
"We're on another plane." Aroa replied simply. "Do you feel the magic coursing through you?"
Jason paused trying to understand what she meant, but soon realized that without fully comprehending her meaning that he did indeed feel the surge of the magic. He looked up in shock.
"Where do you think magick comes from, Jason?" Aroa asked as she walked around him in a circle her age depleting in decades as she did so, finally coming to stop before him a teenage beauty. "From your heart?" She touched his chest feeling the beat there as she met his eyes. "You're head?" She moved her hand to his forehead as if to emphasize the point.
"No…" he didn't know how he knew but he did. He could feel it and it was permeating from neither though he couldn't pin point where the mesmerizing power was coming from.
"No." She agreed with a bright smile. "It comes from your soul. "Something far too few people are in touch with."
Jason gasped in a breath as he watched her transform into Sam. "But then you know your soul better than most… and the other half of it that lies out there waiting for you…"
"Don't use her as an example." He whispered heartbroken to realize that she wasn't Sam.
"But she is the best…" Aroa replied evenly. "The counsel of Rubin knows it better than most…That's why they neutered the Life Bringers…they split their essence in two…Ripping any hope that the two should ever meet with their own magicks that forbid the pairing for they didn't want a power that could overtake the world…"
Jason watched her in trembling fear as he tried to understand her meaning. Sam was a part of him but she hadn't begun there…What was she saying?
"What I am saying is simple…The Life bringers used to be as feared as the blood maidens for the power that they held in their sway." Aroa answered his unasked question quickly. "It is they that are at fault for what has happened now…They weakened the one force of good to rival the blood maidens by creating guardians. At the time Blood maidens were a rarity and they were near extinct. They bet on the fact that they would die out when they weakened their adversaries…Guardians and Life bringers were always a package deal, but no one remembers the time that they fought the council of Rubin for their betrayal. You and Sam are the last of your line as is Elizabeth. You're only hope of defeating her is getting back to your roots and I could only tell you this obscured from their watchful eye in this plane…Jason, if you want the staff and to defeat Elizabeth then you have to take out the Council and purge Sam of her power, taking it into yourself. "
Jason was a gaff at what he hearing…it was like the little that he had been taught was all becoming a lie., but here in this place it all made so much more sense.
"She is a part of you and her magic is yours…you cannot expect to defeat Elizabeth unless you force the council to relinquish their ban on the combination of Guardianship and Life bringers and you take Sam's power as what is rightfully yours." Aroa explained though her explanation was a clear as mud as Jason was trying to simply understand what she meant….
"I don't…" Jason started but Aroa simply smiled and stepped forward and placed her hand on his heart as she transformed back into herself.
"It's simple…force the counsel to relinquish the ban and act on your feelings for Sam. The power will be restored…no more fatigue after healing, no more fighting to feel how to use your powers, everything becomes clear in one single act of passion." Aroa explained. "The ban will kill you both unless you get them to lift it…and only you have the ability to get them to lift it."
ZZZZZZZZZZZ
"You're a damn coward!" Olivia Falconeri called out as she was forced from the bridge of her ship into the marshy swamp land beyond, forced to kneel beside the rest of her captured crew, right next to her own son, Dante. She was talking to Elizabeth's soldiers as they had lined up the whole crew in chains for execution so that they could take their airship as their own.
She didn't know that all around the perimeter of the contingent of soldiers there was a small group taking out the soldiers one by one, dwindling their numbers to something manageable. Olivia looked to her son as tears streamed down her face, a moment of weakness that few had seen between the two. "I love you…" She whispered
"I love you too." Dante replied as she fought the chain cuffs that held his hands at bay behind his back as with the rest of crew and his mother.
Sam came out of nowhere, her attack cry the announcement that lit the swampy area as a battlefield as others suddenly surged out of what seemed like the marshy nowhere and began to take the insurgents down in droves.
ZZZZZZZZZZZ "In this world you tried not leaving me alone, behind...There's no other way...I'll pray to the gods, let him stay...the memories ease the pain inside and now I know why..."
Jason woke in a complete state of understanding as he looked about in shock at his surroundings. He couldn't even wait for daylight as he quickly packed his gear or what remained of it…his sword was the only thing really recovered. He looked back at Aroa in silent question. ..
She smiled brilliantly at him and rose to her feet drawing the blood staff from her feet, a gnarled branch with a large red gem atop it glowing. Aroa tossed Jason the staff in one swift movement, knowing that his real trial was still to come.
"All of my memories keep you near...it's all about us, imagine you'd be here...all of my memories keep you near...the silent whispers, silent tears..."
Sam stepped aboard Olivia's ship ignoring Lorenzo's warning that she was the leader of the Black Legion, his arch enemy. Olivia, newly freed turned to meet her with Nik at her back.
"Where is Elizabeth headed?" Sam asked simply.
"Is that all you truly wish to know?" Olivia asked as she met Lorenzo's eyes worriedly.
"It truly is." Sam replied just as evenly.
Olivia looked from Lorenzo to Sam but shored in a breath before deciding to answer. "Heradesh." She finally relinquished as though it might free them from helping further.
Sam gave a hard nod, knowing that Nik and the others were probably more reeling than her. "Then it's time to put up Sail and get us there." She said softly getting a scoff in disbelief from Olivia.
Sam quelled it with one look however. "I meant it…pull up anchor and sail us to Heradesh, now." She said evenly.
"Made me promise I'd try...to find my way back in this life...I hope there is a way...to give me a sign you're okay...reminds me again it's worth it all...so I can go home..."
Jason shouldered his pack that the Selkies had packed for him as he turned on Aroa respectfully. "Thank you." He told her softly as she leaned in for a friendly hug.
"No thank you is required, King…Just go be the best you can be." She told him gently. "We believe in you…as much as she does." She smiled.
"All of my memories keep you near...it's all about us, imagine you'd be here...all of my memories keep you near...the silent whispers, silent tears..."
Elizabeth leaned back in her carriage, settling to sleep in the peace that Jason was dead and his essence hung on her make shift wall as she snuggled in for the rest of her agenda for world dominance. She no longer cared about worry for her generals for there was none that could best her. It had been prophesied and she had taken care of the ilk that might destroy her. She was home free with the rest of the world to conquer.
"All of my memories keep you near...it's all about us, imagine you'd be here...all of my memories keep you near...the silent whispers, silent tears..."
Sam looked over the edge of the ships railings as they sailed skyward towards Heradesh. She would save the world if it was the last thing she did.
For Jason…
"The silent whispers, silent tears..." Last song "Memories" by Within Temptation.