La Dolce Vita

By Seniya

L is for Leader

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.

John C Maxwell

In the long hall of mirrors that still couldn't be called home, despite the fact that she'd languished there for more than half of a century, Nerissa waited. She'd been waiting for quite some time for this moment, and now that it was almost upon her, she could scarcely gather the breath into her decrepit lungs.

Everything was falling into place. Each piece of her puzzle, and in a moment, a very precious moment – she would –

"Nerissa?"

The voice wouldn't have a body so she didn't bother to turn around. "Yes, Hades."

"How much longer?" He was not much for small talk.

"Soon, my friend. Soon."

"This is a bad idea."

It wasn't the least obvious thing Hay Lin could have said to Will tonight. In fact, seeing as they were crawling on their bellies in the inch deep mud and waste surrounding the tottering rebel headquarters – Will was ready to bet that it was the exact opposite.

The night was cold, but bright. The twin moons in the Meridian sky were both full, casting long but thin shadows on the muddy lands.

Problematic for two guardians intent on camouflage.

"I have asthma," Hay Lin moaned for the umpteenth time but Will just rolled her eyes. "We're almost there, keep quiet."

Hay Lin whimpered but didn't mention the state of her lungs again.

The destination, referred to as "there", was Caleb's room, which since the hasty reconstruction of the Rebel headquarters, was near to the top of the multi-story ramshackle wooden building. The plan had been to open the portal within his room hence saving the mile long mud crawl but Will had missed the mark. She had told Hay Lin that it might have been a spell on the place that had crossed her bearings but no one believed that. Will's bearings were always crossed.

"Okay, I think that's it." Will whispered while wiping some dirt out of her eyes, she crawled closed to the edge of the building, and motioned for her companion to follow suit. Here, they were covered by the shadows from the gigantic guard wall surrounding the hideout and Will thought it best to use it to their advantage.

"Fly up there and see if he's inside."

Hay Lin rolled her eyes. "And what if he is? We come back tomorrow?"

Will bristled at her frustration, really bristled. At the very least, she could usually count on Hay Lin's unwavering support. "No, then we will think of something else."

"You said he wouldn't be home."

"He's not supposed to be – Jesus Christ, Hay Lin, just go check!"

With a long outpouring of breath (which probably held a series of curses), the Guardian of Air took flight, fluttering up to the third story window and peering in before dropping back to the ground. "I don't see him, but it's dark."

"All right, take me up, we'll go inside, get it and then leave."

It was a cumbersome feat, witnessed by at least ten guards – the two guardians haphazardly trying to sneak into Caleb's bedroom. At the top, Will kicked in the window and fell, stomach first inside, and Hay Lin squeezed in after her.

"Ok, it's probably on that ..."

"What are you doing?"

Shit.

"Hey Caleb." Hay Lin chirped, "we thought you were out."

"It is clear." He was an imposing sight, dressed in his dragon leather coat with his arms folded across her chest, watching as his two charges scrambled to their feet. His hair was rumpled, his tanned skin looked loose on his face, and through the moonlight, you could see the shadows pulling on his green eyes.

There were at least two dozen spies behind him, most of them smiling. They were probably laughing at the folly of the guardians (as usual) but some seemed to think there might be other reasons two women would sneak into Caleb's room in the middle of the night.

"Leave us," Caleb told his entourage and with even widening smirks, they obeyed.

Then, he began his tirade. "My men saw you creeping here from at least a mile away. What foolish behaviour is this Will?"

Hay Lin, noting that she'd gotten off scot-free, edged closer to the window. Will shrugged, "we were bored. Thought we'd get some extra practice in. Improving our stealth and camouflage." She indicated towards her and Hay Lin's muddy façades.

"You are not very adept at it."

"Well, the teacher sucked so we're mostly self taught."

He frowned, "I do not have time for this." He ran his hand through his already rumpled hair, a hand that lingered on the back of his neck. "I have explained already that the rebels plan to attack Phobos, this takes hours of planning, lives are at stake, I no longer have the fortitude to coddle you and the guardians."

He moved to the other side of the room, where an array of heady wines and ales were laid out on a sturdy table. Now that his back was turned, Will motioned for Hay Lin to ease forward. The Asian girl nodded, then tip toed in the most literal sense over to the wall above his bed, where several drawings were hung.

"Why are you doing this any way? You must know that you can't win."

"Nothing is certain."

"This is." Will frowned, but her chest tightened as she whispered, "he'll kill you."

Caleb must have heard the breathless way she'd said it, and she immediately regretted ever opening her mouth. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Hay Lin slipped out her phone and took a few shots. Hurry up, she urged, but Caleb still hadn't turned around. He was fidgeting with something in his hand, a cup, she assumed.

"You will not come to fight with us."

"You and your bad ideas … but you can't tell me what to ..." And then he was in her face, crushing every sense, conquering every sensation. He smelt like the outdoors, it must have been the leather but somehow the smell of grass clung to his skin. Her lips quivered when he touched her hand – her sword – that's what he was reaching for. Pull your shit together, Will.

"Keep this safe. You know that is your purpose." He was so close, her mouth had dried out. "So you're saying your battle isn't safe."

He clutched her hand tighter, the cold hilt coupled with the heat of his flesh made her shiver. "Take this." He pushed something else into her palm – a piece of parchment. "What's this? I don't want –"

"For once in your life woman, be silent and listen. Listen and do not follow. There are things here you do not understand."

"Because you don't explain them."

"Do not follow us into battle Will. If you do, I will kill you myself."

Then, he turned on his heel and left.

Will was visibly shaken as he walked out, it took a while for her breathing to steady. When Hay Lin spoke, she actually jumped – she'd forgotten the other girl was there. "Maybe we should listen to him Will."

The redhead scoffed, "when has Caleb ever been right?" She was upset, she could feel tears clogging her throat, she forced them down. "If he wants to kill himself, he can OD on Prozac like everybody else."

"Will ..."

"Did you get them?"

Hay Lin sighed but confirmed that yes, she had managed to photograph the layout of Phobos' castle. "Good," Will steadied the Blade of Kandrakar and exhaled, "let's go back home."

And in a flash of light, they were gone.

Will's suspension had come as a blessing in disguise. Without school for the next few days, she was free to pour over the maps and try, desperately, to come up with a plan for how they could rescue Elyon, destroy Phobos and ensure that all rebels were alive at the end of it. So far, she was stumped.

The castle plans were complicated. The structure was a virtual stone Labyrinth with endless secret passageways and trap doors. Not to mention that it was crawling with soldiers and Cedric. The photographs showed that Caleb had highlighted some areas – she had spent the last few hours trying to decipher if those were the safe areas … or the dangerous ones.

We're doomed.

Will lay face down on her notes and Hay Lin's sketches and sighed, while her raven haired companion shook her head. "There's so much of it." That was an understatement.

"We don't have the time for pity. If push comes to shove, we'll have to sneak in the castle and do reconnaissance." She'd heard that on A Team re-runs. God help them all.

Hay Lin bit her lip. "There might be a spell we can do. A safety spell, it could point out the more dangerous parts on the map if I charmed it."

Will nodded, "see, that's a start. We will figure it out."

Hay Lin was lying on Will's bed, helping to decipher the piles of intel they'd collected over the past two days. She'd lied to Yan Lin and told her Will was helping her with a project her mother had assigned. A project on the impact of the Texas heat on freckles.

Yan Lin hadn't seemed inclined to investigate.

In the evenings they went to Meridian with Irma and Cornelia after the pair left school to train for hours. They were getting stronger – but just barely. And as the well intentions of the martyr mentality slowly faded, the group was admittedly becoming less convinced of their ability to succeed.

"What did Caleb give you?"

Hay Lin had been dying to ask that since she got back and they had washed the mud from their bodies. She'd tried before, but Will had changed the topic. Right now, the parchment was shoved under her pillow, and she was pretending it didn't exist. Will had looked at it of course, seen it was a drawing of a red headed girl, standing stubbornly on top of a roof with a sword by her side. She seen the soft detail of the girls of the girl's hair and the freckles on her cheeks. And then, she'd tried to tear it up.

She couldn't. So she'd hidden it, and now it didn't exist.

"A headache, stop asking." Will snapped and Hay Lin rolled her eyes.

"Hey, I've been thinking." Will began, "Five guardians are better than four."

"Yeah, but Taranee definitely won't go along with this."

"Maybe we have been asking wrong. Maybe it was your grandmother's social skills that turned her off. If you get me."

"Aw jeez Will, we're gonna threaten her until she joins?"

"No!" Will was insulted, "we're gonna guilt her into doing it." She jumped up off her bed, "just like we were all guilted into joining. Get your coat. Taranee skipped school today to protest global warming."

"We're really bad at sneaking Will." Hay Lin said as the pair walked along the deserted Heatherfield streets, it was already ice cold, despite being November the chilly air that had drifted down from the mountains was bitingly frigid.

"I have noticed that."

"How are we gonna sneak into the castle then?"

"Can you wait maybe until we get a plan to poke holes in it, Hay Lin? Thanks."

Hay Lin shook her head. "Caleb likes you." Will grumbled something incoherent. "A lot."

"Hay Lin, we are trying to save the lives of dozens of ungrateful people, and you're bringing up useless teenage angst."

"It's true, everyone can see it. And I know he gave you that drawing that you tried to rip up."

Will's face was as red as her hair, "stop talking about this!"

"Why?" Hay Lin actually smiled, Will wanted to slap it off her face. "You should be happy! You treated him like doodie and he still loves –"

"Don't say it!" Will shook her head wildly, she looked like she might be sick. "I mean it Hay Lin, not a word."

Her brow furrowed, but Hay Lin didn't continue. Instead she indicated a figure across the street, "there she is."

Taranee was dressed for the Bahamas, in a long floral sundress, sandals and sunglasses. She'd also tied herself and three of her most sarcastic placards to a telephone pole and didn't seem intent on moving. "I'm wondering Taranee, how many trees do you save when you make all these paper placards?"

"Go away Wilhelmina," Taranee sneered through her shivers, "it is recycled paper."

"I think your placards would be better if you put more glitter on them. That'd give 'em more zazzle." Hay Lin smiled and Will nodded, "I think Hay Lin should tell you lots more about being zazzled, what do you think Taranee?"

"Really?" Hay Lin grinned, "also, using feathers can make a real difference!"

"Oh Jesus, Will, I'm tied up until tonight when my housekeeper comes back. What do you want?"

"I'm glad you asked." Will shifted her weight from leg to leg, trying to keep warm. Undoubtedly Taranee wasn't freezing her ass off because she was the Guardian of Fire. Everyone else got perks with their powers – she just got a menopausal soliloquy that played endlessly in the back of her head.

"We're going on a mission later this week. We were wondering if you'd like to come along."

"Didn't her grand-devil tell you? I'm not actually a Guardian of the Veil. That whole correcting the imbalance thing, isn't my M.O. Besides, if you would train harder, you'd be strong enough and wouldn't need my help."

"That may be true, but you'll want to come on this mission, I think.

"And why is that?"

"When I first moved here, I met a girl called Lydia Boyce."

Taranee's eyes hardened. "What do you know about Lydia?"

"I know who killed her."

Phobos was happy.

After years of uncertainty, after months of experiments, his life, yes life, suddenly seemed guaranteed. Everything hinged on that small, slip of a girl, currently pulling him through the walls of flowers that had once been his mother's sanctuary. Truly, he hadn't revisited the place since she'd died and now it was over run with weeds and rubble, but there was still some life in the garden, as Elyon excitedly pointed out. "L-Look, these ones here! Th-they are alive!"

"So they are. These flowers in the garden are quite resilient." The garden had been locked away for years, he'd never wanted anyone to enter it, afraid they'd damage his mother's memory. But being here with Elyon, was not so terrible.

He told himself that he was simply trying to win her trust so that it would be that much easier to steal her body when the time was right. But sometimes, like when she found a particularly interesting trinket and came bounding back to him with her eyes large and bright with excitement. He was reminded, profoundly, of his mother. And then, he was not so certain.

"Do you still miss your Earth friends?" He asked finally, because he was curious but not concerned. He reiterated that final part again, not concerned.

"No." Came the brisk reply and the stagnant, musty air between then rippled and coursed with energy. "I do not."

Later that night, Phobos summoned Cedric to his side and stressed the importance of the next few days. "No one must be allowed entry into the castle." There was a change about him, even as he paced restlessly across his throne room. There was vigour in the man, strength. "The procedure is very delicate … very painful. I will be at my most vulnerable."

"Yes, Master." Cedric hissed, although he found that his thoughts had now been stirred in a different direction. Vulnerable, his master had said. Weakness, is what he had heard.

"Do not disappoint me Cedric." And then, he was dismissed.

Cedric was not certain how exactly he found himself in the dungeons, indeed, there were points as he'd slithered through passageways and chambers that he told himself to stop – but he had not. Could not.

He was before the witch's cell before he knew what had happened. There was no blood in his veins, only magic but that still pulsed and trembled with a terrible hum borne of anticipation.

Lucia seemed to know he was coming. She was awake, seated with her back against the damp stone wall. A shell of her former self, her hair was matted and tangled, her face bruised and gaunt. However, her eyes were still as eerie and bright as ever, and when she spoke, her voice was strong. "I think I know what you want."

There was a part of him – he didn't know what it was called, he was no man, he had no mind nor heart, that nagged him to return upstairs to his Master's side. He pushed that voice away. "How do I know this is not a trick?"

Lucia cocked her head to the side, "why would I trick you?"

Cedric knew no answer, instead, he asked, "why would you not?"

"I hate your Master, Cedric. He has locked me in this cage and tortured me for months and before that, he killed my family and countless friends. So, let's just say, I'm helping myself, just as much as I'm helping you."

Cedric understood that. Revenge did not require a head or heart.

"How can I ..."

"Your Master is planning to conduct a very complicated spell in a few days." Shakily, Lucia got to her feet, with great effort, she stumbled forward until she was touching Cedric's claws through the rusty cell bars. "He is dying you see, he must have told you. And you must understand, that being a creature created by his own hand, that once he dies ..."

"Yes-s, I know."

"Good. He will attempt to place his soul in his sister's body. I once did a similar spell, so I know … how difficult it can be."

"You knew of someone with the King's blood curse?"

"His entire family has it. Every last male. I met a young boy once … all of the men in his family had been killed by it and he was completely alone. The only way I knew to save him was to ensure that he was no longer human." Her voice shook as she remembered that boy, small, timid. Nothing but long brown hair and deep green eyes. She'd made him into a monster, but she'd saved his life. Barely.

"If he can be killed, it will be during that spell."

There was silence then and Lucia sensed that perhaps, she'd said too much. But then Cedric nodded, "do it, set me free from his grasp."

"You're saying that ..."

"Yes-s-s … I will kill him."

When Will walked out of her mother's house on Friday night, it was with a heavy heart. She'd actually lingered around Susan's study for a full half hour, watching as her mother proof read the potential sequel to the Gucci Series – the Versace Diaries – wondering just how to repair 16 years of damage in a sentence. Eventually, she'd just tried an awkward hug and rushed outside.

She wasn't stupid. Will knew as well as anyone else that there was as good a chance as any that she and the other girls might not be coming back. This wasn't a game. And she was terrified.

She tried to shake off the fear that gnawed at the pit of stomach as she walked along the semi-deserted path to the Heatherfield Cemetery. She needed to be brave, for the others, if not for herself. That's what being a leader meant.

The other girls were already there, crouched around a massive limestone Virgin Mary. No one was saying anything but Will could feel it. There was no doubt in her mind that the last few days of brain storming and training now seemed woefully inadequate.

"No one knows we're going right?" Will looked at Taranee and Hay Lin in particular when she asked. The both confirmed that they'd kept their mouths shut.

Irma sighed, "Will, are you sure about this?"

No. No, she wasn't. She didn't want their blood on her hands but she didn't want the rebels to die either. She couldn't leave Elyon in Meridian. Her head hurt, and a part of her waited to hear that familiar hiss behind her ears. Nothing. Even Nerissa thought this was a bad idea apparently.

"We will be all right." And when she spoke, it was with such an easy calm, that she almost believed herself. "Just stick to the plan and stick together. We won't get distracted and it will be quick and easy."

The easy was a bit of a stretch. "I did the spell, it says the West entrance is the safest place for us to enter." Hay Lin said.

"Where will Elyon be?" Cornelia asked.

"The living quarters are at the top of the castle, most likely she'll be in the one with the most guards."

Her hands were shaking when she took out her sword, Will hoped they'd think it was because of the cold.

"You guys wanna say a prayer or something?" Irma asked.

"I'm Buddhist." Taranee countered and everyone else rolled their eyes.

'"Any other questions?" Will asked. The faces staring back at her were worried, troubled but willing. They'd follow her, she realised, and right then, a bit of pride permeated the smog of anxiety.

"We'll be okay."

She believed it when she created the portal and even as they stepped through it. She believed it up until the moment she opened her eyes and found herself on the inside of the castle's South entrance – completely alone.

Far above Earth and Meridian and all that separated them, was Kandrakar. An indescribable location, high above the clouds dotted with glass castles that glittered like diamonds in the rays of the sun. Here, lived the Oracle, who watched all these happenings (and many others) from within a gigantic gold orb, as he had done for thousands of years. His face was impassive, his thoughts – unclear.

"My Lord," Halinor's quick footfalls disrupted his thoughts, annoyance now prickled against his bone white skin. "What is it?"

"The guardians, my Lord, I fear they are about to do something foolish and rash."

"What is your point, Halinor?"

"My Lord, I believe we should intervene. It believe it would be best."

"Leave them."

"What?"

"Dare you question my authority?" His voice was colder than ice, it was devoid of any emotion. Halinor swallowed audibly, "No, my Lord. But I worry … of the safety of the Guardian of Fire."

"She will not be touched."

Halinor nodded, and then, feeling bold, "and the others?"

"She will not be touched."

Author: Well, well, well. What can I say? The prodigal daughter returns.

It has been a hell of a year for me. I was just plagued by some unadulterated bad luck. It got to the point where I couldn't write, was far too depressed and distracted, but I've found my passion again, and I'm excited to finally, finally, finally wrap up this story.

Thanks to all of you who have kept on reading and asking, I appreciate it. I'm here because I love this story and these characters and I want to tell it. Hope you all still want to read it.

M is for Monster is next and that's the last of the Phobos saga. I don't know how good this was. I felt like writing and wrote it all in one sitting before the vibe left. Do hope you like it though.