STARBORN: XLIII –VISIONS.
It seeks a host.
Liquefied, dark red fluid was held by an ancient column, buried in its center, a red glow sprouts within the middle where there's an opening. Suddenly, Jane's standing dangerously close to it, the red glow reflecting on her wide eyes making it seem as if she were in a trance. Slowly, but unhesitant, she sticks her forearm inside the opening of the column, the Aether begins to move towards her slowly, as if testing the waters, before rushing towards her almost hungrily.
2013
London, UK
KALUM SHOTS UP INTO A SEATING POSITION, CRYSTAL EYES SCANNING THE HOTEL ROOM AS HE TOOK DEEP BREATHS. He frowns, recalling the dream vividly, his mind raced with thoughts, doubts, and questions. He removes the bed covers off his legs and swings them to the side, his feet came in contact with the cool floor tiles, elbows resting on his knees and hands holding his throbbing head.
"A vision...?" Kalum mumbles to himself in disbelief, he leans back and his arms fall limp, he pushes himself up from the bed out of frustration and begins to pace. "A vision!? After all this time, not a single hello, but he sends me visions of the stones. Chef kisses to his parenting skills."
His angry crystal eyes darted furiously from across the room, harsh words falling on the deaf ears of the night. Kalum Tiberius snatched a white muscle shirt and put it on while making his way to the small balcony of his room, he opened the double doors and a cool breeze swooped in and kissed his exposed skin. The eldest son of Horus closed his eyes and took a deep breath of cool London air, it filled his nostrils and all signs of stress and anger slowly vanished before reopening his eyes and blinking at the dawn sky.
He leaned over the railings of the balcony, his eyes scan the quiet and sleeping city before they were back glancing at the sky. There was a vexed feeling cooking inside of Kalum's chest, he felt mad and resentful toward his kind, even with Ma'at. The reason why he was in London was because Amun-Ra had requested for Alora's presence at the Eternal Temple, Kalum couldn't believe he was still in exile, he had learned his lesson long ago. Even the Norse were much more forgiving than the Egyptians, after all they were known to be arrogant and ruthless, if you brought shame to your family the punishment was twice as condemning.
"I like big butts and I cannot lie!" A blond British man yelled out, raising his bottle of liquor wrapped in a brown paper bag. A slightly smaller dude carefully sustained his friends weight, the man looked incredibly skinny, almost unhealthy. "But... big bums don't like me mate, why won't they like me?"
Kalum's lips curved into a humorous smile as he silently peered from the balcony down the pair of friends, one of them being slightly sober than the other. "I don't know Ryan, that's a matter of bums." The man said, clearly running out of patience. "Now come on, let's get you home."
The demigod smiled at them as their tiny figures walked down the sidewalk adjacent to the hotel's, eventually they disappeared around the corner and Kalum was once again left with his own thoughts. Kalum could see the sun starting to come up from the horizon, he felt his stomach churn with nerves, he sharply turns away from the view and walked up to a small study. He flicked the desk lamp on and pulled out a piece of paper and pen from the desk drawer before laying it out on the desk, his eyes stare at the piece of paper with concentration, his mind began to relive the small vision he had.
"This ought to be bad if father bothered to show me this." Kalum spoke to himself, he drew the pen closer to the paper and wrote down 'Aether'. "The reality stone, not one to mess with. But why Jane? What is she doing there?"
Kalum wrote down the many questions that popped into his brain the more he recalls the dream. "For centuries, nobody has heard of the stone ever since Bor..." Kalum blinked as he realizes he just found out where. "Ohh so, earth it was. He actually hid the most dangerous stone on earth where its filled with curious and greedy, petty little humans?" Kalum wrote down his observations. "Smart? Not so much."
Day eventually came by, Alora Stark woke up earlier than usual, her tummy was experiencing the heebie-jeebies from meeting Kalum's home and her celestial father. It was all very overwhelming, after finding the perfect outfit and getting ready to leave, she rushed to Kalum's hotel room and burst inside. The boy had fallen asleep on the chair, he snores softly and a trail of drool fell on a piece of paper filled with scribbles, Alora frown and reaches for the paper only for Kalum to jolt awake.
"What! What, huh?" Kalum met Alora's concentrated face as she read his notes, the demigod let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes. "Can't you knock?"
"Can't you stop yelling in the middle of the night?" Alora sent him a pointed look, Kalum's face fell with embarrassment. Gray eyes return to the paper. "And what is this anyways? Reality stone? And who isn't smart?"
Kalum snatches the paper away from her and re-read what he had scribbled before losing interest and slamming the paper on the desk, he got up. "Ugh, just father sending me visions at 5 am. Can you believe him?" He paced back and forth, hands hanging loosely on his hips. "71 years of exile, Alora! 71 and not a single hello, not even a pardon! Okay fine, Egyptians aren't benevolent but not even a visit? Not even through the Ephemeral Orbit, he just... he forgot about me and I hate him for that, I hate him so much its consuming!"
Alora stood there, not knowing what to do, it was a rare thing to see Kalum sad and much less conflicted. Her heart saddens as she watches him run a stressful hand over his messy dirty blond hair, he turns to look at her with a hurt expression, it reminded Alora of a sad puppy so naturally she rushes up to him and embrace him.
"I'm so sorry, Kalum." Alora whispers to him, she strokes the back of his head with her hand, comforting him. "You truly don't deserve any of this, what you did happened ages ago, he should've pardon you by now."
Kalum scoff, a dark look falling on his unusually dim eyes. "Father is many things, but forgiving isn't one of them."
Alora glanced at the open doors that led to the mini balcony, the sky was cloudy, dark grey clouds adorn with the promise of rain. Kalum hugged her tightly, her warmth and scent comforted him like nobody else could, perhaps she didn't fully understand his pain but she made an effort and that's one of the reasons why Kalum cherished her so much. They stood there in silence, arms wrapped around each other's protectively, radiating comfort and support.
The youngest Stark sigh, her mind made up, she pulled back a little just to see his face. "I think it's best if I refuse Amun-Ra's invitation."
"What?" Kalum blinked back, not even trying to hide his surprise. "No... no, absolutely not." Kalum pulled away from her, Alora frown, not understanding his reaction. "You have to meet him, he specifically asked for you. Amun-Ra isn't Nick Fury who you can send to voicemail and have him call you back. Amun-Ra is a creator, our creator, the God of the Sun and Air."
Alora narrowed her eyes at her friend. "Are you scared of him?"
"Pfft, no." Kalum scoffed, he shifts his weight on his heels and rocks himself back and forth. "But please, go. I really don't like it when he summons me to the Ephemeral Orbit."
Alora eyes widen with disbelief. "He summons you?"
"Of course not, it's not like I've been failing as a guardian angel or anything—which I'm not!" Kalum pointed an accusing finger at Alora who raised her hands up in surrender, backing away from the sleep deprived demigod. "But that's besides the point, the point is you, missy, have to go."
Alora rolled out her eyes, she made her way toward his unmade bed and fell backwards, she crawled underneath the bed covers and giggled contently. Kalum stared at her with a bewilder look, he watches her with an arc eyebrow as she curls herself into a tiny little cocoon. "Gosh, it's like you're eight all over again." He sits down at the edge of the bed, leg resting across the edge as he turns to face a comfy Alora. "What time is it anyway?"
Alora inhale deeply, she glances at the watch on her phone before looking at Kalum. "Three minutes past noon."
Kalum shots up from the bed and sprints to the bathroom, not before cursing Horus name over and over again before switching to human slang and letting out a string of... "FUCK!"
The building was completely abandoned, Alora Stark and Kalum Tiberius blink back at the lonely place adorned with broken and missing windows, puddles of water filled the entrance of the place. Kalum stare at it with boredom, wondering why they always choose the worse places to hide a portal.
It wasn't the first time Alora visited an abandoned warehouse, which she keeps wondering why is there even a second time? "Seriously, why warehouses?" She glanced at her friend. "Can't they choose—I don't know, say a safer place?"
Kalum shrugged, he scanned the place using his super sight just to make sure they were completely alone. "Aliens love their mystery, now come on, we're already late and yet I keep wondering why I'm still stuck on earth."
The demigod took Alora's hand and lead her inside, senses sharp and alert, not wanting to get caught off guard and risk Alora getting hurt. As they go inside, they took in the unfinished place, columns that were supposed to support the weight of the second floor were half way finished. "Well what a waste of money." Alora mumble, Kalum 'mhmm' in response and kept dragging her deeper into the unfinished building.
They went through a dark hallway before Kalum pushed open a door that led to a stairway, Alora frown. "There's not even a second floor, but they made a stairway—like who hired these guys?"
Kalum chuckled, he glanced at her and squeezed her hand. "Hey, it's okay to be nervous, but everything will be alright. You won't be alone."
Alora blinked back at him before shooting him an incredulous look. "I'm not nervous."
"Yeah you are, you get all whiny when you're nervous." Kalum pointed out, he let go of her hand and began to jog up the stairs. "It's kind of annoying."
Alora scoffed, running behind him, almost tripping on the steps so she had to grab onto the railings for the sake of her life. "I am not whiny; I just happen to be very observant."
Kalum rolled his eyes but the humorous smile betrayed him. "Potato, potato."
The demigod suddenly stops when they were somewhere in the middle of a weird stairway, about th Alora kept wondering how exactly did this work but she was more excited to see the portal than questioning the sanity of the architect who designed this. Kalum peer over the railing to see the bottom and Alora follow closely, trying to see what he was seeing, suddenly Kalum threw out a piece of trash he found lying on the floor. Alora was about to question what the hell was he doing when suddenly something wobbles and glisten, the object disappeared, and Alora understood. She pushed herself away from the railings and Kalum glanced at her with mischief.
"Oh, no." Alora shook her head, her heart dropping to the pit of her stomach out of fear. "No. NO!"
Kalum nodded contently. "Oh, yes, baby. Hop in there."
Alora's eyes widen, she pointed at the portal that was actually positioned midair between the stairway. "I am not jumping over to my death!"
"Oh, for Horus eye. You're not gonna die! You can't, you're immortal, remember?" Kalum pointed out, leaning back from the railing and taking a step closer to Alora.
She shot him a look and slowly, still putting distance between him and her, she peers over and grimace at the height distance. "Is it... gonna hurt, though?"
Kalum made an annoying face at her. "Alora, I swear for Horus, that if you don't jump I'm gonna have to push you over. And I won't lie and say I won't enjoy it."
Alora shot him a glare before it shifted into one of worry. "You wouldn't dare do that... right?"
"Oh-ho, don't test me." Kalum warned, but his smile was freakishly sweet.
The youngest Stark let out a defeated sigh, she took out a hair-tie and comb her hair into a messy bun using her fingers. She swung one leg over the railing before doing the same with the other one, her back was turned to Kalum as she stares at her possible deathbed, lying at the bottom of the staircase. She took in a deep breath, praying to every God out there to not let her die even though she was immortal but her mindset and survival instincts were very much humane.
"Okay..." She breathed out, gripping the railings tight for the last time. "Here goes nothing."
She lets go.
✶ ┊사랑병 ˎˊ˗
↳ ScriveFiorella_ Note
OH YEAH BABYY!
H
APPY NEW YEAR!!!!
The trust between these two baffles me.
I know this probably wasn't the best intro,
Hopefully I can make it up to you next chapter. Alora will finally meet Kalum's
Family and see for the first time the
Eternal Temple. A lot of things will happen,
Well maybe.
So Kalum's getting visions now, huh? I wonder why?
Stay safe kiddos💕