The Ethereal Saga - Volume One - The Child of Light

Chapter Thirteen - The Temple

Alex nervously entered the room. Though frustrated at Aaron for his lack of forthcoming, Alex had to agree this was something better shown than told. Laying on the laminate floor, with her head propped up by a pillow, was his mother. Her eyes were closed, and she certainly did not look well. He surveyed the room quickly and he was startled by the state of the four men. Aaron looked filthy, covered in dirt and some kind of blue ink he surmised was probably ghoul blood. He looked dishevelled but otherwise unharmed, which was more than he could say for the other three. Zach was bleeding from his now exposed shoulder, attempting to cover it with some kind of white medical mesh. Alex could make out what looked something like a bite mark but with spiky and misshapen teeth. In the corner, sitting in a slump was Christian with Kurt standing over him.
Kurt's jeans were torn at the knee with blood, dirt and the suspect blue goo merging in to one. He was not troubled with himself however. Christian was wearing a towel around himself as if having suffered recent trauma. He looked paler than Alex had ever seen a person, his eyes unfocused as if absent from the room he resided in. Tom went to his side, as Alex did to his Mum's.
"What's wrong with her?" Alex asked fearfully.
"I don't know," Zach admitted, "I wasn't there. The ghouls were everywhere. They'd nearly broken in. I've never seen so many."
Alex knelt down next to her and held her gently for a few moments. He looked up at Zach, "Maybe she's still frozen? You know, like that thing you did?"
"Alex..." said Laura, "It's not that, it's worse."
"What is it?" Alex asked urgently.
"You say you don't know," Lucy said tilting her head as if to interrogate, "But I know you do. Because I do. We all do. Except Alex."
Zach held her gaze and said nothing. The tension in the room grew palpable. Growing. Simmering, like a pot about to boil over.
"Show me!" came Tom's raised voice.
That split the tangible tension remarkably.
Christian remained unmoved, staring blankly in to space. It occurred to Alex that the pale look on his face was more than just fear or pure emotional trauma. A thought that was confirmed as Kurt gently lifted the towel exposing Christian, with his left arm missing below the elbow, seemingly cauterised badly. Christian had lost an arm and a significant amount of blood.
"Shit," said Tom panicking, "Shit, shit, shit."
Kurt decided everyone had stared long enough and returned the towel around Christian, who once again remained unbothered and unaware of his surroundings.
Tom swiftly got to his feet and moved quickly towards Zach, "Tell me what the hell happened and don't leave anything out. I think we're all just about done with being left in the dark on things. No more bull shit, just answers."
"She's possessed," said Lucy matter of fact-ly.
"We don't know that..." Zach began.
"Stop it!" Alex demanded.
Zach did stop. He gulped nervously in fact.
"There's something you haven't wanted to admit," Laura pointed out, "Something since the Henge."
The tension rose again. The situation grew intense.
"I found them like that," Kurt explained, "Christian was on the floor practically bleeding out, and she was slumped over unresponsive."
"Kurt," said Aaron, "Do you realise what you're saying?"
"It's him," Lucy accused, "Christian's possessed. He's the acolyte, isn't he? He's probably the one who tried to kill Alex. He did go straight for him after we got here."
"No!" Tom exclaimed, "He isn't. He couldn't..."
Laura placed a hand on his shoulder, "We'll get to the bottom of it. Together."
Tom scoffed and practically threw her hand from him, "How can this make sense? This man raised me! He would never betray us."
He looked to Alex for support. He looked solemnly at Linda, "Mate, he didn't do this. He couldn't have."
Alex remained silent, his mind had drifted elsewhere. Something didn't make sense to him, something he couldn't quite put together. After a while he eventually spoke, "If he's been possessed this whole time? Why look after Tom all this time?"
"Easy" Lucy said flippantly, "He's after the other half of the Orb."
Alex quickly disregarded this as an answer, "Then why not attack us, now he's been caught? Why sit there like that?"
She put her finger under her chin, as if to feign thought, "Let's see. Maybe because his damn arm is missing? He might be an acolyte, but he can still feel pain and trauma. That coupled with blood loss, hardly puts him a position to attack us."
Once again, he felt this answer didn't fit the facts, "That just raises more questions! How the hell is his damn arm missing?!"
Lucy had no response to that. Neither did anyone else. Alex felt everybody looking at him.
"What?!" he demanded.
"We found this," said Kurt. He was holding a Scimitar, a curved blade broadened at the edges.
It was stained with blood and Alex had no trouble guessing whose it was.
Kurt turned the blade around in his hand, looking at it intently.
"This blade is special," he said, "I'd recognise the work anyway. It was forged in the Lavas of Astaroth. Its edges are imbued with evil. It would have made short work of Christian's arm. We think your mother wrestled the blade from him."
"The Lavas of Astaroth," repeated Alex, "I suppose that's one of dark creator's realms."
"That's right," confirmed Aaron "and, if he had a blade from there..."
Aaron trailed off, preferring not to say what everyone already knew.
"What now?" asked Zach, breaking the silence.
Aaron huffed, "You're asking me?"
Zach shrugged flippantly, "I'm asking anyone. I don't know what to do. You can't keep looking to me to know what to do, especially after this!"
Zach gestured to Christian and Linda, "I'm drowning here, and I don't know which way's up."
"We need your leadership," Aaron replied calmly, "Now more than ever."
Zach raised his voice, "I'm not your leader! I never was! It was always him."
Aaron stepped up to Zach, their faces inches apart, "Well he's not here! Now's not the time to panic."
Zach held Aaron's gaze, unmoving and stern.
"You're talking about my dad," said Alex, "Aren't you?"
Aaron, calmed by the distraction, nodded in Alex's direction and turned his back before leaving the room. Laura quickly followed shouting after him.
"He's at the temple," said Alex.
Kurt and Zach looked taken aback.
"And, how do you know that?" Asked Kurt.
Alex moved his tongue around the inside of his mouth as if to think carefully about his next words.
"Lestrat told me," he eventually clarified, "Or more or less."
Kurt laughed in disbelief, "Oh you're talking to Number one now! And when were you going to mention this?"
"I'm mentioning it," Alex said firmly standing up, "now."
"Why should we trust you?" Kurt asked.
Zach looked astounded, "Kurt!"
"What?!" he replied, "He attempted to possess the kid once, right? Maybe he succeeded. It's obviously a trap."
Zach put his hand on Alex's shoulder, "I vouch for him."
Kurt rolled his eyes and nodded, "Fine. But, that doesn't mean that it's not a trap. Lestrat wouldn't send us anywhere nice."
"Wrong!" Aaron's voice echoed as he re-entered the room holding 'The Six Sources of Power'.
"In fact," said Laura joining him also, "This is pretty much the one thing we could trust him on."
"How do you figure?" Tom asked.
Aaron opened the book to a bookmarked page, "That piece we found. From the dark orb. Something broke it," Aaron explained, "But you can't just break a greater orb. People have broken a lesser orb before, but the lesser powers just won't cut it. You need a greater power, the darks antithesis."
"The light," said Zach astonished, "Oh, for god's sake! Why didn't we realise sooner?"
"Because we're thick!" Laughed Aaron, "Laura's the smart one. She read the book for practically a few hours and understood it all better than we ever could."
Laura blushed, "It's nothing really."
"It's not nothing, sweetie," said Aaron, "It means-"
"-He's here," Kurt interrupted.
"Who?" Asked Tom.
"Michael," said Zach with immense joy.