Author's note: All you need for this chapter is the meaning of the word "rime" is cold or frost. There might be certain things unclear but hopefully, they'd clear themselves up in the next part.
***
Eleni had been here. Eleni had been sent here.
This was a demonstration. Of what was about to come.
What other powers did she have? What else was she capable of?
I had to get her back.
Wiping my wet face with the cloak's fabric, I reached a trembling hand to one charred painting, with just a corner of the wooden frame hinged, the green color of a meadow on the edges, luring my tears out. I picked up all. All that I could.
Father had loved mother... he still did. He always would. How was I going to tell him? He'd break. Worse than me. Eleni had done this. Eleni had been made to do this.
Footsteps rang around me. Breathing heavy and frantic. "Doran..." Someone called. I picked up the ashes, not turning.
I felt a hand on my shoulder - Nova. I did not turn to look at him. This was because I had saved him. Because I had used all my fire in that dungeon. Challenged Neo. This was all because of Nova.
"Doran..." he called again, his voice guttural, "I..."
I swallowed, and stood up. "It's getting dark outside. Meet the Chief... you already know her. Get Dylan and some more Eclipses to protect my... father."
"Mate..." he stood up, clutching my elbow firmly.
I shirked his hand off bitterly, cradling the burnt canvas pieces close. I saw Serena and Ralph standing in a corner, and absent-mindedly extended the pieces to them. I averted my own moist eyes from theirs. I had to pick everything that was left. Not the time. Never the time.
"Mate, I... I am s-sorry. This... t-this..." Nova's voice was heavy, choked. My heart shattered.
On a numbing impulse, I turned and flung my body to his. To my friend's, who always apologized for his brother's sins. And he held me, as if knowing I would do just this. Knowing, I needed just this.
He let me cry on his shoulder, crying with me.
***
"I am getting her back." Eyes strained with fatigue, throat horse, heart sizzling, I spoke. Everyone looked at me, concerned and wary.
"Yes, you are. But hold on..." Nova said, standing with his face hardened, staring out the burnt window.
"I am done." I yelled, "Done with his shit. The Throne alone knows what else he has made Eleni do... what he would make her do... what he has done to her!" My throat choked on a fear like never before, the image of the red mass, of the hellfire, haunting my mind. My palms scalded; boots charred; soul colorless.
"He wants you to make a rash decision." Nova again said, calm yet eyes strained. "And I won't allow you to do that."
"Then what... do I just sit?" I screamed, my own voice deafening me and turned my head to Eleni's brother, "You want me to just sit?"
Ralph's hands clenched; eyes bloodshot. "No, you don't. Neither do I. Neo is always one step ahead, and we need to change that." His eyes roved around the charred room.
I sprung up from the ottoman, where I was made to sit and Nova put a step ahead instantly, stopping me like a solid wall of wind, resolute eyes meeting mine, "She will hurt you. Hurt you both. And that will be a guilt so heavy that she'd never forgive herself for."
A thunder-loud explosion went off in my body. Eleni would blame herself for everything.
"Doran, this was like that portal, threatening Eleni with her sister. To break your minds. To make you do something rash. Eleni could've easily fought Orella and stayed back, but she didn't. We have to learn from the past mistakes. Let him take the next step." Nova's brows had knitted, hazel eyes flaring with speculations. "I... I know him. He is bound to make a mistake if he thinks he is... winning."
My thundering heart slowed down. Serena cleared her throat, "May I add something?"
We turned our heads to her, urgently. Her brown eyes blinked with worry and some thoughts she hadn't been voicing out, until now, "I think... Neo is in the Conquest."
Terror slithered inside the room with her words, flickering between the two Defensors. My eyes affixed on hers, while she added, "Assuming he indeed is, then he'd need to work on his Enigma, too."
Ralph swore under his breath. "Eleni is the newest power of this world." Something new. I froze.
I craned my neck to look at Nova, and he had a shadow tainting his features, jaw tight. All his bravado seeped out in an instant, and he masked it in vain.
Serena's eyes had turned glassy as she again added, "The objects you sacrifice need to be personal to the Defensors, and Eleni... he always needed her blood. He... he bonded her to himself in a way."
He was indeed going to sacrifice her.
"I... I am thinking... and there is something amiss. But even if I figure it out, there is no time, is there?" She said, looking lost in her thoughts.
My hands trembled and she walked over to me, her voice soft, "He is always in balance, in sync with every step someone takes. You burnt his cave, and he..." she faltered, lowering her eyes, "Doran, he wants to break you... because I think... you are the only obstacle in his path."
I blinked back to reality. Obstacle. Me?
Serena added, "You know the bond between you both is cracked, but the debt is unpaid."
Understanding flickered through me. Eleni might've saved many people, like she had saved Dylan but what she had with me, she had with none.
We had changed the definition of the bond, because I fell in love with her.
It had always troubled me... why I had fallen for a strange girl so early... who had Earth powers. I had tried hard to get her image out of my head. But the feeling never went. No matter how hard I tried. Her and me. Summer and Autumn.
The most forbidden thing in all The Four Realms.
I had been reluctant to accompany father, when he had told me that he was the one participating in the Conquest... and I hadn't wanted to go, out of sheer humiliation. But after a few days when father had left, I had seen a rare falling star from the window of my chambers. Stars didn't break in the Summer Realm, not as they did here, and on an otherworldly instinct, I had set out to the Winter Realm, convincing myself it was just to see the Winter gala. And the day I had arrived in this cold Realm - Eleni had crashed into me, with starlight in her midnight black eyes.
After all her years of being a Vacant, she had found her Earth powers, while saving the strange boy, the driver prince. Would she have let herself loose like that if it were someone else? Would that impulse have aroused in her, to find her dormant power, to save some other stranger?
It was meant to be. Some destiny shit, surely.
I looked through the open charred walls of the room we were in. It was dark outside. The night sky was glowing with snow-coated mountains, stars twinkling around the winter moon. The smell of Eleni's powers congested my senses, making me crave to see her, hold her, kiss her till she only heard my voice, only had me in her mind. I missed her like never before.
Eleni always put others' feelings first. She hesitated opening up or trusting others having grown up all alone. A survivor to the very core. A rebel for the people she held close to her heart and even strangers. She was made of some stone - a rare combination of the Three Realms she belonged to - and had finally carved and found herself completely in this frosty one.
Eleni was, after all, a child borne off a potential High King and a true warrior, also being the descendant of the revered High Queen Brianna.
Of course, Neo was obsessed with her. He still underestimated me. He could've killed me, and got rid of whatever obstacle I was for him, but no, he was obsessed with mind games. I had gotten his most treasured slave out before, and I'd get the other too.
I'd be the best obstacle of his damned life.
Is that why he had slaved Nova for so long? To participate disguised as him. But why not just participate alone? Why both the twins? How was that even possible? Two Defensors of the Spring Realm? Had Neo managed to trick the Throne? He indeed knew every bit of magic...
Excusing myself, I stepped out into the foyer. My eyes stung with exhaustion or tears I knew not. Eleni was tranced and Neo was indeed going to kill her. Heart hammering, tendons of my hands itching from the strain of not reaching her, I cursed the devil with the choicest of words I could find.
No, I won't be reckless. Not like her at least. Despite all the fatigue writhing like a serpent in my body, despite the Eleni-named emptiness gripping me with talons and claws from inside, I cackled my neck. I always ruined his plans. I always will.
My fingers still engraved with the ashes of my loss, the burning boils from the hellfire pulsing on my hands and feet, I inhaled deeply, and looked around the crisp and eerie chill of the night, fighting a shudder. I needed armor. But neither a Summer one nor an Autumn, no, that won't work. Not against a Fire-Earth Eclipse.
A few Winter soldiers were stationed, flanked with robust and plated blue armors, from head to toe. Well, when in rime...
***
We reached the mountain top, like a tight knit cavalry, the Eclipses' shields around us, steady and comforting. The Eclipses with Earth power, had constantly shifted the structure of the steep ground for us, making our climb easy and speedy. Instincts told me, that there were Earth soldiers everywhere, every turn I took, every cliff the horses crossed. Invisible and one with the mountain - camouflaged like the terrain. This would've been a lost cause without them. Only Una could've gotten an entire army up and ready in such a short time.
As I looked around the plateau, which was barren leave alone for the Winter soldiers firmly spanned out all around, a few tents at a far corner, I realized that High King Maris had clearly barred his subjects, miles away from the mountain Stellus, for there was no jollity around, just a reek of terror. Usually, the civilians and locals gathered for the Throne's arrival, for it was a sight to behold, to feel your magic thrumming stronger inside you, when it Branded the next Conqueror. However, this time, there was nothing but a sea of silence, tempest of unseen yet foreseeable dread.
Nova, Ralph and Celia were silent, the whole Eclipse army behind us was silent. And I realized, it was the calm before the storm, for another huge lightning struck from the sky, only the silver of its zigzag line visible. Meteor showers were supposed to be the main attraction of this Conquest, but this darkness only reminded me of the mysterious night when Spikes had died.
But it suddenly stopped, all the darkened lightning and thunder. And without having to turn, I knew who stopped it. Nova's magic flew around. The skies cleared, black clouds drifting away. The thunder inaudible, lightning not reaching the ground, frozen mid-air and vanquished. The air around grew crisp, almost pleasant. Following him, all the Eclipses, who I presumed were the ones with similar Air Element, raised their hands too. And it suddenly felt like we were out on a midnight picnic.
"Ah, it looks like I am in the Spring Realm." A deep voice called out. High King Maris emerged from a tent close by, his face cradling a wistful smile. We all bowed in sync, the Eclipses having jumped down their mounts instantly, along with us.
To my surprise, Angus and Arlette were close on his heels; she smiled at me pleasurably and I smiled back, despite all the hollowness curling inside. I knew only Ralph could've organized everything in one single day, amassing the allies and flanking the battalions. Neo must hate him, if he knew. Even without Summer army, we might put a strong front after all.
The High King's long sandy hair flew with the wind, an ornate blue cloak followed him like a sleuth. The crinkles near his eyes always kind, and the energy swirling around him, was as close as one would feel to the Throne. For thirty years, for three Conquests, he had won and had been worthy, but this time it was going to change. He'd be released of his powers, and the Throne would lend it to a new Conqueror-one of my three friends. Hopefully.
"I'm not ready to let my powers go, but well, it's time someone young overtakes and lets this old man rest." He smiled warmly, eyes not landing at Ralph, guilt evident. And I knew why-there had been talks about indisposing him as the Summer King who had a 'criminal' Eclipse as a half-sister. Ralph knew it, and he didn't care a bit, neither let it show-for he was ready to rebel. It was High Queen Brianna's unjust tragedy all over again.
My eyes took in the five grand golden, circular pedestals, one each for the Four Defensors and fifth for High King Maris. They were placed on a huge porch in a far corner of the land stretched around, overlooking the deep valley down. Before the Throne arrived, at the stroke of midnight, at the stroke of this decade's end, they had a coronation and oath-taking ceremony for their respective Realms.
I looked at Nova who was wearing a white cloak, a mandatory crown he now had fetched from his inside pocket as if it were a mere trinket. Had he prepared his Enigma?
But what bothered me more than that, was Ralph's silence. His face was constricted and exhausted. No cloak or crown in sight, armor dirtied. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back. I took a step towards him, and whispered, "Ralph..."
"I am not going." He simply said, already having anticipated my question.
My mouth lay open, fear and urgency crippling in. "Damn it, Ralph, tell me you brought Eleni's sundial and that glowing ivy with you."
"I'd be much better here, than waste my time standing on that stupid pedestal. I don't care about the Throne, but Hell be damned if they take my title away." His stance not wavering, he swallowed hard, body rigid, eyes glassy. And I realized in the moment, just how much he had come to adore his sister.
Ralph's father had missed the Conquest two decades ago, abandoned him because he had had Eleni. No, this history need not be repeated. Eleni would blame herself, if her brother missed it as well. She went feral when it came to him.
I bumped my shoulder against his, my voice hesitant, "Mate, I know you are not interested in the Throne, or any crown but I... I'd never let this opportunity go if I were... you." If I were in the Conquest.
Silence stretched between us for a long haul and I felt his shoulders drooping, defensive stance breaking. He turned his head to me, and sighed. I scratched the back of my neck, stepping away from him. Point made.
"Why is Neo delaying the conflict?" A too familiar voice spoke, and I looked at Una, who approached with a flowy yet muddied emerald cloak bouncing behind her. A crown already perched on her head, and a scabbard firmly tucked to her side. She looked... regal, with a dozen of Eclipses flanking her just as I had wanted them to.
After bowing to the High King, she looked me up and down, and her eyes twinkled, as though finding me in one piece reassured her. And before I asked, she answered, "Lord Orlon is down with the Centaurs and Eclipses. That Dylan guy has got him."
I nodded, stunned and relieved, and quickly added, "Serena is down with Adrian... in the safe-tents. Eclipses and all." Her face remained stoic with the knowledge.
And like a wayward storm, Nova spoke into the night's calm. "No one hurts Orella."
I froze. Everyone did. He repeated much slower this time. "No one hurts Orella."
"Nova, this is not the time..." Una started, and my own fists clenched dangerously over the scalded skin of my palms.
He raised his head, eyes penetrating, "Tell me, did you straightaway believe that Nova was hurting Eleni? That Nova was hunting the Eclipses to execute them? That he had indeed pushed Ralph purposely in the dragon duel? That he had plans to kill Serena?"
No one spoke. We hadn't. Not completely. But for Eleni we had to get to the bottom of it. No wonder Eleni and father had never voiced out their fears. Who would believe that Nova, of all people, would do anything like that?
He clutched his pristine crown harder, "You stupid, reckless people never gave up on me. And I would never give up on you. Not even on snowflake. No one hurts her. That's it." A command, not to be refused.
Ralph's eyes looked thoughtful and he didn't protest, neither did Una, nor did anyone else, for some unbeknownst and unfathomable reason.
Yet another lightning went up in the skies, and we all stiffened. "Listen..." I spoke, getting everyone's attention, "No matter what happens, stay where you are. Prioritize the Throne. Your coronation is just as important as all this. If the Throne is what he wants, then one of you has to get it, before he does."
I saw Ralph open his mouth, but I cut him, "No. Matter. What. Happens."
Una rolled her eyes, Nova gave a tight-lipped nod, and Ralph... glared at me. And as they walked on, I heard the High King asking Nova, in a faint voice, "Are you sure Lord Orlon's son can hold the fort down here?"
Lord Orlon's son. Molten rocks slithered in my guts. He didn't even know my name-no one ever did.
Nova mumbled something in response, but his voice didn't reach me. Had he voiced out his doubts too? And in the very moment, all the exhaustion came rushing to me. Milan's face - his red hair forever messy, mother's face from the portraits - her aura oozing from the paintings wherein she had stored a part of herself, father's graying hair, Eleni's smile when I had called her dramatic, everything flashed in my head making me lose my thinning grip on sanity. Not the time. Never the time.
"Commander, who do you think would win?" Celia spookily asked from my side, making me jolt out of my colorful thoughts. Her feeble attempt to subdue the awkwardness, perhaps.
"Orella, of course." I said curtly, and Arlette laughed out, absurdly energized.
A silver lightning shot out from the sky yet again, rumbling with an ear-splitting noise and I swallowed hard. The trepidation of the hundreds of Eclipses spread around us. Their presence comforted me, but I knew it wasn't the other way around. They'd much prefer one of the Defensors commanding them, but well, they were stuck with Lord Orlon's son, for the Defensors had a Throne to face.
I went to my horse back, to fetch the crossbow and quiver, all the while Angus filled me in with all that happened while I had been away. As per the Chief, who had arrived and stationed around the whole mountain with her army, it was advisable to let Neo make his move-not like we had any other choice. He was one step ahead, and I was determined to put him in his place or toss him off the chessboard.
And then there it was.
The wind flew around violently, disrupting the calm that Nova had conjured. The ever-so familiar white light. The portal. Up in the air. Several white-uniformed soldiers dropped down from the other edge of the plateau, making me squint my eyes to gauge their strength and number. Too much. Too many.
Angus wheezed by my side, "Doran, if he has even enslaved all the Spring army, we're really doomed. We might have to hurt them after all."
I looked at the Spring Lord, and felt both our apprehension colliding. Arlette had gathered her Winter soldiers and flanked them around the Eclipses behind, like a human wall separating the Defensors' Crowning ceremony, and the chaos that was about to commence. The portal moved closer, widening in girth. My heart lurched. The flat plateau of the mountain top, was suddenly teeming with people. With soldiers. Armored, weaponed and tranced.
Are you sure Lord Orlon's son can hold the fort down here?
"Angus, what do we do?" I asked with a tremor in my voice that I didn't recognize as my own.
I heard him swallow. "I... I was going to ask you that."
"We put up shields, of course. For now." Arlette said, voice loud and confident.
I gratefully obliged and raised my hands over my head, without turning back to the troops that I had. They knew the military gesture, for a huge white shield, mingled with all the Eclipses powers, formed between the spot where the portal whirred and where we stood. It had turned dark, a sensation of fast approaching chaos swayed around us. The plateau was now divided into two equal halves. The game had begun.
And when the wide portal dispersed completely - Silver eyes met mine.
A silky black cloak embraced him, long golden hair neatly tucked back, a mole near his chin. And all I wanted to do was wipe the smirk off his face, with a kick to his jaw, arrow to the eye, or a dagger sliced through his throat. Never had I felt such intense anger in my entire existence, like I did in the moment, as I saw him looking around leisurely, with an enormous tranced army now speckled on the plateau.
I was finally meeting him.
"Look who's imitating me." Neo rasped, hidden inside the thick veil of dark night's shadow. "Eclipses and all, huh?"
"Where is Eleni?" I took a step ahead, and felt a strong ward forming around me in a heartbeat-Celia's Water-Earth shield.
Neo frowned. "No hello, nothing?"
"I'll ask you again - where is Eleni and her sister?"
He cocked his head, amused. "You meet a friend after ages, you give them a hug. Come on, Doran." He spread his arms wide.
"Why are you alive again, friend?" My face morphed into a disgusted expression, on a reflex.
"So much left to do." Even with the shadows curling around him, I could see his face radiated with moonshine, and flambeaus flaming around, while he smiled a Nova smile.
"Where. Is. Eleni." I screamed.
"Always wonder, what does she even see in you, Doran? The commoner in her fell for the first pathetic royal she met." He laughed.
I'd need a sinful sword after all.
"You hate me, don't you?" I crossed my arms.
His face simply broke into a wide smile of affirmation, daggered eyes affixed on me.
I felt a similar sick smile bloom on my face, "You must've cried yourself to sleep that night, when I took your brother, no?"
Neo's eyes darkened, "I thought I balanced those tears earlier." I recoiled at the insinuation of the paintings, but he clicked his tongue, "But I suppose you need more."
And then, he spread his arms, inhaling deeply with closed eyes, his black cloak catching wind behind. The portal appeared again, making everyone squint their eyes at its brightness. Dust rose, whirling with the wind. My heart stopped, as I stared and stared at it.
When it dispersed - there she stood!
Black eyes hollow. Long hair flowing. Her skin once-pristine ivory-now appeared-sickly. Hands limp by her side, looking straight into a void, lost in her head. Tranced. Unaware. Slaved.
I looked at her till my eyes blurred. Her clothes were black, a short-sleeved tunic over black leather breeches. She must be cold in that flimsy thing-she was always cold. "Heat up!" I commanded, and the Fire and Air Eclipses obliged. The cold vanished around us, morphing it similar to Summer Realm, and I hoped it'd reach her regardless of the massive shield between us.
There was nothing more I wanted than to reach her and soothe her till she was warm, till her eyes twinkled like starlight. She was here, so close yet so far, cold and lost. And here I was, alive yet dead, dazed and helpless. Eleni wasn't Eleni anymore.
I watched Neo tuck a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. My whole body froze. A breath whooshed out painfully from my chest, while my gaze rooted where his hands touched her. I stood with unnatural stillness, while rage unlike anything I'd ever felt exploded out of me.
"You bastard, get away from her. Fight me, come on." I bared my teeth and strode forward until my chest touched the hard impenetrable shield, rage running naked in my head. He was making a mockery of the fiercest girl I had ever met, in front of everyone, in front of me.
Neo ignored, smiling at her lovingly. He was going to use her as a weapon, and then toss her off. Fire danced on my fingertips. I'd have broken the bothersome shield but it was the only thing protecting my Eclipses and the Defensors behind.
Bitter helplessness coiled in my guts, as I reminded myself that I had to protect the Eclipses on either side of the shield.
Neo rasped close to her ear. "Show him, sweetheart. What all you can do."
And Eleni raised her hands.