Chapter 20 - Divine Intervention
"No! NO!" Bloom screamed angrily and fell to her knees. Despair suddenly overcame her fury, and she buried her face in her hands. She was dead and she could feel it. Somehow she felt… detached from the corporeal plane, incapable of waking up within her own body. She looked up from her hands and looked around. About her the darkness flowed, thick and smothering. "I can't be dead! I need to get back! Let me go back…"
Bloom ceased talking when she heard whispering. The whispering escalated until an onslaught of hisses made her shiver. They all said the same things, "Denial, anger, bargaining, depression…" They chanted the words, taunting her. She hugged her knees and closed her eyes tightly. Despite the voices, she was alone.
"But you are not alone!" A voice called out, booming louder than the horrid whispers.
Bloom's eyes snapped open and she found herself standing before two looming thrones of smoke. A man and a woman, cruel in appearance and expression, looked down upon her, their gazes hard. A growl before the thrones made her flinch and she saw a demon sitting at the foot of the thrones. It eyed her hungrily. "What…"
"We are the members of the Silver Kingdom! The Keepers to the Death Doors and Realms! We uphold the balance within the domains of the dead! And you, Princess Bloom of Domino, have caused quite a stir in our domain!" His voice was most certainly commanding in tone as he emphasized each of his sentences like he were giving out a royal proclamation. The man glowered down at her, and indifferent expression showing on his face.
"I'm sorry?" Bloom inquired and blinked. Her raw emotions from earlier had been replaced with confusion. "What?"
The woman answered her harshly. Her tone was filled with much more accusation than the man's, "You dared to take more from the Death Realms than what we allowed. You removed two souls more than we commanded may leave." She cackled then, despite there being a lack of humor in anything she said, and Bloom raised an eyebrow. Was the lady's laugh for real? "Daphne of Domino and Nabu of Tides were charged with wandering the Fields of Asphodel. Then you show up and disturb the whole undead population, not to mention rile up the demon hordes that reside in the realm."
"They didn't deserve the 'Fields of Asphodel', if that's that horrible place they were in with all the wandering souls!" Bloom snapped. "They were heroes! They deserved something much better!"
"Well that's not for you to decide, now is it? Since when did you get so high and mighty as to declare spiritual fates?" The witch harrumphed and turned her attention to the wizard. "Gauthier, love? Why did she not go straight to the Death Realms when she died? Why is she floating about space like the useless trash she is?" Bloom's cheeks burned as the demon before the thrones chuckled at the insult.
Gauthier didn't laugh. He only stared hard at Bloom like she was a peculiar object. "I don't know." He gave a pleased smile then, like he'd finally noticed something good about Bloom. "But she isn't whole. Which can only mean the deal was successful. Something did come out with her…"
"What?" Bloom narrowed her eyes and her suspicion of the trio grew even more. Her mind raced to process what the Death Door Keepers were going on about. "What are you going on about… wait!" Suddenly pieces of the puzzle began falling into place. Nabu and Daphne were supposed to stay in the Death Realm, but she'd been allowed out. And something came out with her. Dark Bloom's unpredictable appearance couldn't be a coincidence. "You're responsible for Dark Bloom!"
"And?" The witch cackled and Bloom shivered. The witch's laugh was horrible and Bloom wished she would just stop. " We assumed that the traveling between planes and your extreme powers would cause Dark Bloom to split from you and become her own being. We just wanted to stir up a bit of trouble for the damned Golden Kingdom! Always a good time! And there was trouble. Lovely, titillating trouble!"
"That's terrible! And wrong! People were hurt and possibly killed!" Bloom closed her hands into fists and clenched her teeth in frustration. She really wanted to make them pay for the pain her friends and family had to face.
It was as though the horrid witch had read her mind. "What are you going to do about it, Bloom?" the witch mocked, tacking on another heinous cackle. "You're on our turf. We rule you, your royal deadness! Of course your coming into our throne room does defy the laws of balance of the Death realm. Therefore you'll need to be taken care of, as is our duty! Since you won't go to the Death Realm with the rest of the souls, we'll let Beelzebul devour you. He's got a special hatred for you, considering you managed to destroy some of his minions!"
Beelzebul growled with pleasure and glared at Bloom, licking his sharp fangs with a forked tongue. Then he quickly crouched and launched himself into a pounce. Bloom stumbled backward as he landed where she'd stood moments before. Before she could move again, Beelzebul put a heavy claw down on her stomach to pin her down.
"Enough!" called a powerful voice.
Bloom glanced back and saw figures start appearing one-by-one. Light emanated from them and they approached the thrones with determined gaits. "I see the so-called Silver Kingdom continues to abuse its bestowed powers to tamper with balance and meddle with Fate!" called a different and familiar voice. Bloom saw Ianessa walk forward with a man at her side. It was Arlen, leader of the Theistic Wizards. "Remove thyself, unholy Beelzebul." Ianessa commanded.
As the light came closer, the demon backed off of Bloom, a grumbling tone sounding from deep within its throat. Bloom tried to get to her feet and scramble back at the same time, a combo of actions that failed to execute and caused her to stumble back onto her butt. Ianessa and Arlen had reached her by then and positioned themselves between her and the thrones. "Be gone. Her fate is out of you hands now, as is the fates of her sister and friend. When she returns, she is yours to tend, not devour." Arlen glanced at the demon.
"You can't interfere with our work with the dead!" The witch screeched.
"Fate has overruled you, Desdemona. Considering what you just confessed to the girl, I'd accept Fate's demand and leave the girl to us. Unless you'd like to fight the powers of Fate?" Ianessa motioned to the group behind her.
"Damn you…" cursed Desdemona. She stood and glanced at Gauthier. "What, you've got no issues with this? They're invading our work!"
Gauthier held Arlen's steady gaze for moments before standing. "Let them have her. She'll return to us soon enough." He disappeared in a cloud of black. Desdemona scoffed and followed suit. The demon just growled and faded completely into the darkness.
"Explain to me again why Fate won't just replace them? They're a nuisance with almost no sense of honor." Umbriel sniffed. "We're always tidying up things after they play pranks on the Golden Kingdom. And the Golden Kingdom doesn't even retaliate!"
"That's because the two are supposed to remain mutually exclusive. Naturally, the Silver Kingdom tenants would be stupid enough to forget that little detail." Ciaran answered Umbriel in a bored tone. He glanced down at Bloom, who was still on her butt. "Well, Princess. We've come for you. Consider it your lucky day."
"Lucky?! I'm dead!" Bloom snapped. Ciaran's attitude just pissed her off. She pushed herself to her feet and took a calming breath. Then she let all her confusion out. "Why am I not wandering with the other spirits in the fields? Why am I not being devoured by Beelzebul? Why are you here, telling off the Silver Kingdom rulers?" Bloom spouted off the questions, her mind reeling. "What is going on and how am I still involved?"
"It was time for divine intervention, Bloom!" exclaimed Galina, the white fairy. She gave Bloom a brilliant smile. "And being we're divine figures…"
Ciaran interrupted Galina. He gazed intently at Bloom, with less mocking than she'd received whenever he'd looked at her before. "Fate commanded that you need to return to life. Your destiny has not been fulfilled, therefore balance cannot be restored. Recall that I once told you balance could only be achieved through only one of your probable destinies being fulfilled. You can't fulfill anything being dead."
Bloom wondered to herself if Ciaran's final statement was meant to be demeaning. Then she shook her head and returned her focus to Ianessa. "It doesn't matter if you restored my life. I'm probably too late anyway. Baltor probably finished off my family and friends because I wasn't strong enough. And I have no idea where Dark Bloom… I mean I would go with my father…" Bloom choked on the words.
Ianessa cupped Bloom's chin and tilted her face upward to meet her gaze. "It's never too late. You are proof of that. Because of you, it wasn't too late for Domino after eighteen years of entrapment in Obsidian. Because of you, it wasn't too late for your sister or Nabu after they died. Because of you it wasn't too late for loves to be restored: Daphne and Mathias, Miriam and Oritel, Layla and Nabu, you and Sky…" Ianessa's eyes shined with pride and happiness. "You will fulfill your destiny, Bloom. You will save your father and yourself. You are a strong, willful, and powerful girl. We have faith in you, just as your sister and Nabu have faith, and your Earth parents have faith. Now if only you'd have faith in yourself…"
Bloom looked at Ianessa. "But I don't know where…"
"You do know. Dark Bloom was a part of you. You know where to find her." Ianessa stepped back. "Now take this gift of chance Bloom. Go forth and fulfill a destiny, so long as it is your path and not anyone else's."
The light emanating from the figures became intense then and blinded Bloom indefinitely. She closed her eyes and felt a sudden heat shoot through her. With the warmth came a heavy pull that seemed to drag her back. Then there was a jolt and she was forced to open her eyes and gasp for air.