Janelle Chevalier

10. The Scythe

Black.

Everything was black.

Janelle was floating...or she guessed she was. Her legs were numb, her arms were dangling loosely by her sides. Funny, she didn't remember falling asleep. Ha, it was the second time now. Did she fall into another 'energy' sleep? She raked her brain for any memory of using her powers but it was futile. The last thing she knew she was standing next to her uncle.

She remembered cold and darkness, and a cave. They were inside a cave lit by torches that failed to warm the place up. They weren't alone, however, there was a third person with them. He was dead. No, he was alive! He took them to that cave...

What happened?

"What about Henri Chevalier?"

That voice. It belonged to her uncle. Her eyes didn't see him anywhere, it was still black all around. Her head pounded intensely.

"Henri Chevalier was titled the Greatest Controller of all time," someone replied. It sounded familiar. It had to be that third person with them. "He thought Shamans were the Superior Humans, and he vowed to let all people know that."

"He started killing Humans." That was her uncle. She could almost feel the breath of his sigh afterwards. Should she walk towards the sound?

"Yes. He warned them and whoever defied him was instantly beheaded."

Janelle couldn't stop the gasp from coming out. Nobody had bothered to tell her that.

"Henri killed a lot of Humans but he wasn't satisfied. He met a woman called Çeren, the woman who wrote this very book. She was a powerful Conjurer. They made an alliance, she conjured the souls of soldiers in the past and with the help of Henri as a Controller, he let the souls into the bodies of the people he intended to kill. Thus, the bodies will eventually kill themselves, but until that, they will kill other people."

Their voices were getting louder now, she kept flowing in the same direction hoping to at least see a shimmer of light or something.

"Henri, the Greatest Controller of all time, was turning into Henri the Deranged. And with Çeren they made an army of Shamans of all kinds. After the Great War of Gwelnasyer and the defeat of the Elves, Humans waged another war amongst themselves. This time, Shamans were no longer on the Humans' side."

Her body surged downwards as gravity seemed to regain control over her body. She tried to scream but her throat constricted. She couldn't breath.

"What Henri didn't account for was the alliance of Mages with the normal Humans," the person continued speaking. They weren't aware of Janelle who was now falling to her death.

"The Mages sense spirits and Shamans," her uncle mused.

"Indeed, they do. They helped the Humans against Shamans, and together they fought back. They won."

Her body plummeted to the ground.

✾

Rousing with a scream, Janelle's eyes flew open in fright. She gulped down mouthfuls of frosty air, trying to calm her senses from overdrive. She took in her surroundings: she was back at the cave. How...? She died. She remembered excruciating pain, the cracking of her bones had hit her ear. She had to be dead.

There was no way she was alive at the moment.

"Ma tête," she groaned, putting a hand to soothe her throbbing head and closed her eyes. She waited a few seconds to pass off the discomfort before reopening her eyes slowly.