The Order of Ja'el

Chapter Twelve

The group stared at Vlad with their mouths open. Zora found her voice first. "Tamana?! What—actually, you know what, skip the lies I am sure were about to exit your lips and get straight to the truth! What is Tamana doing on Earth, and how, why, is she leading a pack of monsters to destroy my people?!"

Vlad stammered. His eyes focused mainly on Jada. Her crestfallen face punched a deep hole in his heart. "I'm so sorry... I can explain," he started, speaking directly to Jada. When Zora stepped in front of his line of sight, he looked away, embarrassed.

"Well?!" Zora snapped.

With a defeated breath, Vlad shook his head and began sharing the truth about Tamana and her terrible fate due to her connection to Ja'el since birth.

As Vlad explained why their parents felt it best to abandon her on the other side of the new Earth, Jada gasped, "She's a Siddhi?!"

"A Siddhi they cast away to die like garbage!" Zora spat.

"They were wrong, no doubt, and heartless and ruthless... but at least their terrible decisions saved her life!" Vlad retorted. "The Order would have had her executed!"

"Alongside your parents and maybe even you, for harbouring a so-called criminal all those years, right?! Come on, Vlad! We both know they did it to save their own skins! And you went along with it for the same reason! Your own sister!"

Vlad broke with every vehement word from Zora's lips. He couldn't refute any of her claims, mainly because, deep down, he knew she was right. The second they'd abandoned Tamana, the look on his sister's face had been enough to confirm how unworthy he was to be her brother. It was Ja'el's voice that had changed everything for him. "I didn't want to believe that what Tamana said was possible... I hadn't yet heard Ja'el's voice," Vlad sadly whispered. "I loved Tamana; I tried to find her ever since... and I even defied my parents' command to search for her. No one hated them from that day as much as I did! May they both rot in hell!"

"Wait," Julien interrupted, eyes suddenly narrowed at Vlad. "We had heard of your parents' demise even in our city. The death of two royals by the hands of, uhh, assassins—isn't that what they said? Sure, death threats to the unruly royals of Igo weren't exactly uncommon. You all were known to be the very worst of the royal lot! But someone following through successfully? It was such a rare and improbable thing that it stood out to everyone. Perhaps you can confirm... how exactly did they die?"

Vlad's eyes shifted as he internally raged. Julien's perceptive question had affected Jada. She took a further step back, hands covering her mouth. He could feel her heart closing shut at the possibility of his dark nature.

Leagus stepped forward until he was next to Zora, glaring searchingly into Vlad's soul through his eyes. "Your Supremacy, did you murder your parents for what they did to your sister?"

Before Vlad could muster an answer, bloodcurdling screams in the distance broke the tense silence of the group facing him, shaking them all back to the reality unfolding. Zora rushed to the Lookview and slammed her face into it, shouting in empathic pain as Tamana's creatures began their horrific indulgence on the outskirts of the city. "No, no, NO! Not the baby! NOOO!" Tamana herself had ripped a swaddled child out of her mother's arms and flung the baby to the nearest creature. It caught and instantly crushed the child with its mouth. While the warriors of the Earth Cols had appeared with high powered weapons of all kinds, none were effective against the rampage of the creatures.

Those among the group who had the stomach to look soon discovered that even the strongest stomachs were not built for this merciless brutality. Leagus rushed to a corner to throw up into a bin while Jada, who hadn't looked, shook uncontrollably as tears poured down her face. Millow and Zygil held each other tightly. Zygil was the one most affected to know not just the pain of the people of the Earth Cols but the depths of evil within her grandmother for its orchestration.