Waverly woke up with a start in the middle of the night when she felt a strange presence. She climbed out of bed and ran to the window to check if people still trained outside but camp was empty and dead silent. She rummaged through her bag for a change of clothes then reached for the bow and arrow Dermot had given her the previous day. She finally got to see him after a while and he had given her quite the hug. She took more archery lessons with him for a few hours before they were separated when he was called to round up the Company.
She spoke to Diarmaid instead who wanted to hear all about how she had conjured up the lunoglyphs. He walked around with a kind of pride then as Waverly was heavily respected in the army. People would randomly come up to her to say hello or to only glare at her which was uncomfortable.
The Elven officers with an inclusion of Sir Chedor nicknamed her Heshna Vasquissen which translated to "She Who Vanquishes" and even allowed her to take part in their exclusive meetings. She was kept a secret from the King as he would be quite wary of the presence of any Zanaan and was far from ready to meet one. A part of her felt she was only being treated preferentially because she was a god's blood much like Brijjet but a larger part of her knew this was her destiny and she had to accept it without question.
The presence Waverly felt was not one that seemed to be within camp or inside the room but close enough to the realm. She opened her door slowly and stepped out then glanced back at Chestnut who was still pup sized and perched on her bed. He slightly lifted his head as the light of the moon landed on his fur, making it glimmer.
"Want to come with?" She asked.
The wolf's ears reared. He stood up and ran to her and together they began their walk away from camp but as Waverly got closer to the main town she realized that a large number of Elf guards were on night patrol. She squatted behind a house and stared at Chestnut.
"Do you think we can get past them without being seen?" She whispered.
The wolf replied with a growl then began to grow in size. Waverly gasped as she watched him engorge until he was half as tall as the house window. She glanced quickly at the guards but none of them seemed to have noticed any noises.
"Sometimes i wonder if those ears of theirs work at all." She chuckled softly.
Chestnut lowered himself and she climbed atop him with the help of his fur. He raced through the cobbled streets and immediately took to the skies. Waverly felt the chilly air slap across her face and sting her skin as Chestnut flew across the sea and past the border. Her clothes were light and so the chill went all the way into her bones.
A heavy mist hung over the land below but as the wolf flew through it, it helped in clearing them off. Waverly glanced down at the trees as hers and Chestnut's shadow projected past them. She tried to pinpoint where the strange presence was. Then she felt it again - strongly this time.
"Set down over there, boy." She said patting Chestnut. The wolf descended onto a part of the forest and Waverly slid off him. She took out her bow and arrow, willing to use it for a change and allow Calaire be, at least for the time being.
The forest was dark and gave off a very foreboding atmosphere as she walked through it with Chestnut at her heel. For a few minutes, the forest seemed normal until a creeping darkness began to engulf the trees. Waverly halted and turned to look up at Chestnut whose own shadow towered over her.
"You can go, Chestnut. I will call for you when i need you."
Chestnut hesitated, digging his steel claws into the ground. There were now the same length as dagger blades.
"Go now." Waverly urged. "I'll be fine."
Chestnut turned and took to the skies. When he was well out of sight, Waverly turned around and got the shock of her life.
Judson stood only a few meters away, staring pointedly at her with a grave expression on his face.
"Jud." Waverly muttered then immediately strung her bow, realizing that he was the strange presence she had felt in bed.
Judson began to pace back and forth slowly like a panther biding its time before pouncing on prey. His pretty face was well defined now but the smirk on his lips made him look thrice as evil as any Hag, Cruel, Rage or Nightmare.
Waverly drew her arrow farther, doubly sure that if she took the shot she would miss by a thousand meters but Judson was alone and it was worth a try. Then again, Judson hosted Oculmus, the primordial force of Chaos and something as inconsiderable as an arrow would not even put a dent in his fingernail. He watched her carefully as he paced then stopped, his face finally stretching into a wicked smile.
"So. . ." He began. His voice sounded exactly like Judson's but now with command, maturity and a strange force like that of whistling bolts of fire.
"You finally summoned the courage to come at last." He finished.
"Let him go." Waverly managed in a small yell.
Judson cackled; a mature, sinister laughter. His grey eyes sparked with mischief but this was nothing like the kind Waverly saw in Diarmaid or Dermot's eyes. This was the purest, evilest mischief.
"You have come to whine and complain, Waverly. I expected more from you. I expected you would put up a fight."
"If you do not release him, i will. . ."
"What?" Judson challenged amusedly then said in a mocking tone. "Shoot arrows at the trees behind you because that is how good your aim is or maybe you will unstrap that weapon around your wrist and cut me in half or worse pluck my eyes out."
He cackled again but not as loudly as the first time. "We both know you can do nothing, little roach."
"You have no right over Judson's body and you have to leave." Waverly said, dropping her bow inches lower. Her arm was beginning to ache for some reason.
"Have to? I have to?" Judson asked in an amused tone all the while admiring himself as if he was a masterpiece hidden within horse muck.
"But i cannot. I have come to stay. This body beats all. This host is magnificent."
"He is not!" Waverly yelled. She trembled slightly, watching her friend glare at her like free food. Judson seemed very much like his regular self but he clearly was not. His black wings blended so well with the darkness that Waverly did not see it until after a few moments.
"He is not, is he? And you think that you are?" Judson asked.
"I expelled you." Waverly growled bravely, finally letting her bow drop. It was a dangerous thing to do but her arms were tired. If she had to fight Judson with her sword, she could not afford to do so with weak arms or even at all. He was still her best friend - somewhere in there.
"Did you?" Inquired Judson, his eyes temporarily turned pitch black and somewhat greenish then back to normal.
"You have the gift of foresight like that mother of yours and yet you see nothing."
"What are you rambling on about?" Waverly asked.
The sky was as dark as Judson's wings and not a single shadow stirred anywhere. The pitch blackness that hung around the forest seemed to come from him and it began to spread out unevenly until Waverly could only see by the blue shimmer of Calaire on her wrist. The darkness thickened even more, enveloping the trees, the ground and even the little stream a few walks ahead of them.
This made Waverly very anxious. Darkness was not her forte. She was beginning to go weak in the knees and yearned for any source of light but the moon seemed to have deserted the black sky. She wanted to summon light but she found that she could not. That familiar sense of heaviness pressed down on her inside so strongly that she was almost forced to kneel. Her senses were slowly being overcome with every negative emotion she could possibly experience, all boiling down to a colossal tug of war in the most profound part of her mind; a war she could not win and had no control over.
Waverly knew this was Oculmus trying to steer her off balance, cloud her mind with darkness and break her as he had once done her mother so that she was reduced to nothing but a hollow shell left to wander aimlessly. The part of her mind Oculmus was trying to grasp was the part that Waverly knew contained her most fragile thoughts and memories; the part that was peaceful and undisturbed therefore the strongest point of her powers.
"Stop that." She gasped, finally caving to the unnatural heaviness. She dropped to her knees, wincing as her mind clouded over with thoughts that did not belong to her.
"You asked to know what i was rambling about, did you not? Well, i am kind enough to want to show you but i have barely begun and your mind is already crumbling." Judson teased. His voice now carried a deep resonance.
"What? Stop it! Go away!" Waverly muttered in panic, hitting herself across the face in an attempt to banish the fog in her head.
"You see, daughter of Alluna," Judson began leaning leisurely against the wide trunk of a tree. "You pride in the idea that only a year ago you succeeded in defeating me."
Here, Judson cackled wildly. "Such naivety. You only showed me to my greatest weapon."
"No!" Waverly shook her head violently, sweat dripping down her face as images of her experience in The Abyss blared to life in her head. She wanted to run from her own mind. The scenes played out in accordance to Judson's words.
"When we became one, not only were you able to look into my mind but you let me look into yours. You were too weak to see past the present and in that little time it took for you to admire my realm, i explored the entirety of your pitiful childhood and someone else's."
Waverly groaned as a past scene of her laughing as she outswam Judson in the lake came clearly to her mind as if she were still present there. But she knew it was only an old memory. That event happened a year after she first met Judson but a terrible accident had followed shortly after she made it to the chiseled bank on the other side.
"Through your memories, i was able to see into his." Judson continued, staring at Waverly on her knees as though she was a rodent he found annoying. "A part of his mind was locked out of his own reach so that the boy barely remembered anything beyond the very evening he first crossed into the Land of Men. I saw that he was an even bigger option preserved for me through the ages; a means through which to channel my power, to settle my essence for eternity."
"He will not let you stay in there much longer." Waverly strained to stay. Her own memories felt like mountains on her head, threatening to shove her into oblivion headfirst.
"Ah, but the boy has no choice now. You see, you are not the only one with the gift of foresight. My daughter, Nys, my very faithful, very loyal daughter longed for my rise long before even you were born. She searched for ways to bring me back from The Abyss. There was no mortal or Zanaan strong enough to contain me until she found this creature."
Judson smirked victoriously.
"The poor thing was wandering about aimlessly without a home, without anyone to care for him. Say, the gods are quite heartless regardless of age. She bestowed upon him a means by which to contain me."
"The Night's Curse." Waverly gasped. She did not want to admit it out loud but something forced it straight out of her mouth.
Judson chuckled. "Yes, yes. The boy has been carrying my throne inside him ever since. I was slow to think you were the one to host me but then i saw that you were too unstable. I opted for the boy. And look how well he has done so far."
Oculmus admired Judson's scrawny arms as though it was covered in polished abalone shells. "They say strength is not measured by size and i see that in this child. He is mine now. We are one body."
"If you wished to rise again so much during all those years of your captivity, how come you did not think up this strategy instead of letting Nys do it for you? You are not as smart as you make yourself seem." Waverly countered, her voice strained with effort at each word.
"True - i was indisposed. I needed someone to pull me out from the depths of my own prison. Nys could not do that personally, no, she needed a body to contain me, one that would not break shouldering the weight of my essence. I did not believe that there was ever a Zanaan worthy enough to accommodate a godhead but then, the sands of time do churn backwards again."
Waverly's eyes widened by a millimeter. She glanced up. "What have you just said?"
Judson moved away from the tree. Waves of dull light rippled inside his wings causing the black feathers to shimmer like sharpened blades.
"What do the Humans say these days? The stories of the Elementals spread like the Rage of Fira within the soul of a mortal. Lies and tricks! Did you know, daughter of Alluna, that there were originally five Elementals?"
Waverly felt the strange heaviness leaving her slowly, allowing her rise up on her feet once more. "There are only three."
"Ah, like i said. Lies and tricks. There were five Elementals - Air, Fire, Water, Magic and Chaos. The Elementals ruled Six Eons ago. During the First Age of Creation. I was one of them. My siblings and i were the very fabric of the universe. We were neutral entities, the first to spawn life forms. I was closest to my brother, Yage, the Elemental godhead of Magic."
As Judson spoke the last sentence, a blinding image burned into Waverly's mind so realistically that she winced and turned away, trying to hide from her own mind's eye. The image faded as quickly as it came but Waverly was only able to glimpse the form of a person so large it was as if the entire earth had bent to create this form.
It was Yage. Or at least, an incarnation of him.
"We often argued about who was born first, you know, the occasional bickering siblings have. Oh right, you have none. Well, Yage and i were close you see, to the extent that there was a rumor that one was born out of the other - chaos born from magic, magic from chaos but i say a circle has no beginning. We were the most laid back of all our siblings. Until after Gayl created Elves; the first living, breathing minute replicas of us. He made them less powerful - empty vessels really - but he loved them. He blessed the earth with water and taught them to survive from it. They never saw him but they believed in the existence of the greater force that formed them. Gayl convinced the rest of us to grant the Elves a blessing and that they would serve us in return."
An image of the earliest form of the earth materialized in front of Waverly's eyes like a memory she had lived through. The earth was beyond beautiful Six Eons ago. It was too beautiful to describe with words. Waverly saw the first Elves, tall and as graceful as swans, bearing the very likeness of The Nurses. They were gentle and kind and wise and peaceful. The image melted and was replaced with the next part of Judson's story.
"We obliged because well, where was the harm? Elves were the calmest beings anyone could ever meet. So we blessed them as much as we could, giving them everything that they have now. And yet we remained hidden from their eyes. Can you guess what they did next?"
Waverly glared angrily at Judson. He was making her feel comfortable and she hated it. She reminded herself that this was not HalfHyde telling her a story, it was Oculmus - the sole reason behind so many deaths and pain and sorrow in the last few months. She clenched her fists.
"Well, the Elves got very comfortable. They got picky. They decided that they could feed off the air, water and fire and do just fine. They had no need for magic or chaos. They forgot about my brother and i."
"Remind me again why you are telling me this story." Waverly requested, watching Judson as he walked away from her line of sight.
"So that you can understand, child and see the world for what it truly is. You can understand why my reign is so important and inevitable."
"I do not want to understand or believe a thing you say." Waverly backfired.
"Then you will die in ignorance like the rest of your stupid lot. It does not matter if you learn the truth now too because you will die still but you must understand how shallow this world is. Many understand so very little."
"And for good reason."
"What good reason?" Judson barked, making Waverly jump back a few inches. He walked back into her line of sight. "You ungrateful termite. Do you have any idea what this war is all about?"
Waverly lifted her chin. "I know that you will not win."
"And how do you plan to stop me?" Judson asked then cackled again.
"I told him. I told Gayl that one day his creation would turn on him. He was not the only one that got excited. Our eldest brother also felt he needed to try his hands at this new fashion. He created Man. Just like Elves did, men forgot all about him. They stopped serving him. After all we did for them, the realms. They shoved us into the corner. Yage got it worse. He faded into nothingness, never to be seen again. But do you wish to know the little miracle that preserved his memory?"
Waverly wanted to refuse but she was burning with curiosity down to the roots of her hair.
"What?"
"You are not the only Zanaan to have beheld an Elemental godhead and lived, daughter of Alluna."
Waverly tensed. How had Oculmus known about her meeting with Gayl? Had Gayl told him being brothers? She greatly doubted it.
"The first Zanaan to cross into Arwen unchecked did the same." Judson said with the smallest hint of pride in his tone.
Waverly had heard of this famous Zanaan over and over again - the reason why Edsel was separated from Tunis, the cause of the first war in the Realms of Power and the original reason why everybody, even the gods, hated her kind - but she did not know yet who the person was.
"You do not know." Judson stated then nodded. "She was young, younger than you were when you ventured to save your mother. She was only five when she discovered Yage. Even i do not know how the child was able to do it but she did.
"She was his only worshipper in the entire universe. As she grew older, she sought him out. It was a foolish thing to do because my brother was already gone but that Zanaan persisted and at last, she found him. The very last of his essence. She incured his aura so strongly that Yage was forced to bestow on her that last bit of power. It was only a fraction of his might but it was more than enough. Yage was a neutral deity. He would have probably thought that the Zanaan would use those powers for good but no."
Judson laughed humorously. "She had personal agendas. She had unfinished business with the gods. See, just like you, Hekate had no idea who her parents were until she made the discovery that her mother who had been the only sorceress of her time was sentenced to die by none other than your own mother - Alluna."
Waverly lifted an eyebrow. She could barely believe it but she said nothing. She needed to let Oculmus finish his story. She knew who Hekate was but she had no idea that the goddess was once a mortal just like her and a Zanaan for that matter. Her mind traveled to Levi but she reeled it back in.
"Hekate was outraged and sought revenge. She was strong enough to house an Elemental, the most powerful of us all. Yes, Yage was the threading that held us all together. When he faded, we went our separate ways. He did so much for both the gods and those petty life forms on earth and how did they repay him? By pushing him to their blind spot."
Again, Waverly's mind forcefully snapped to Nalie but she willed herself to focus on Judson. She dreaded allowing herself see sense in his words but the more she tried to shut out the voice of reason, the more it pushed to the surface.
"Hekate wanted the same thing that i did. With the right kind of alliance, she staged a siege on Enton. She put up the most glorious fight in the age of the gods. They could not contain her. When they finally managed it, Hekate turned her anger toward earth. She brought forth the massive destruction in the form of the Great War of Realms."
Waverly's mouth felt dry. Why had Selene sentenced Hekate's mother to death? A lot of things were starting to sound meaningless and confusing to her.
"The gods sought to do the one reasonable thing - the only way left. They fought fire with fire. They unleashed Peace. The powers of a godhead against the powers of a godhead. Jolan was also a holder of Yage's powers and so naturally, she was hidden by forces i will not mention. When the time came, she was set free and she healed the earth. Hekate was forced to retreat but now, now she has been called upon alongside all those who serve me. I will return the world to its former glory. It will be like the times when Elementals were looked up to, worshipped, feared, revered and obeyed. The world will bow once again and for eternity."
"Your time has passed. If as you say, the world will be returned to its former glory, why then do your siblings not help you? Why do they not see sense in this plan you have? Why were you locked up in The Abyss for so long? Why did Nys wait for that many years to at last find you a host?"
Judson chuckled. "All those questions deserve no answers. My siblings have a great love for mankind, they will not join me because they feed off the worship of Men but now i have my sister on my side. She will be unleashed and i will sit back and watch how mankind battles rage."
For a minute, Waverly was confused then she suddenly realized. Oculmus meant Fira. If he had somehow released the godhead from wherever she was kept to join him then all hope was lost. It was easier to fight monsters or any other form of opponent but it was a death wish to try to fight one's own feelings. Fira would devor every being until ash was all that would remain.
"You cannot do that. We'll still fight." Waverly confidently voiced, even though she sounded like a mewling kitten.
Judson smiled and for the first time, approached her. "You claim to be so willfull and yet you have lost so many things all at once that you will waste no second to surrender your sword at the smallest chance to get them back."
Judson's nose was only a few inches away from Waverly's. He smelled clean, like a natural spring. "Tell me, Zanaan, how would it feel to harness the power of resurrection and not be allowed to use it?"
Waverly frowned. "I don't know what you speak of."
"You probably will or you will not." Judson said in shrewd tone. Just then, something slithered around Waverly's neck in a tight knot and began to choke her.
"It is too easy." Judson cackled, willing more vines of darkness to twist around Waverly, bringing her to her knees.
Her face swelled and reddened as she struggled for air but there was no escaping this. The vines were so many and so lithe that even if she had a chance to free herself, she would end up gutting herself instead.
"The boy is very pliant but more useful on the dark side. We have so much chaos to bring upon the world. Pity you would not live to witness my victory, daughter of Alluna." Judson said and inhaled the fresh air with his arms spread out. His eyes turned into a mix of pitch black and luminous green.
Waverly's body sweltered as life drained slowly away from her but her healing powers fought to keep her alive. Soon, her vision began to tunnel. The vines squeezed even tighter such that they began to snap against her skin but newer vines only replaced them. She knew that Oculmus was ten times stronger than her and would kill her in the middle of a nameless place where no one would ever find her body. He did not only try to choke her to death but also fabricated the most malevolent sceneries in her head that seemed so real she could almost feel them. She flinched as the evil closed in around her and the vines tightened even more.
This torture went on for quite a long time while Judson watched gleefully, waiting for her to give up.
Soon, Waverly stopped screaming and fell limply to the side but something wedged her before she could hit the ground. All the vines retreated from her body.
"Oh joy." A masculine voice exclaimed from somewhere around Waverly's left. "Finally, some action."
From both sides of her it was if someone had switched on a hundred of Crillion's strange white light but Waverly could barely concentrate on anything other than the heavy pulsating of every inch of her skin and the lingering constricted feel in her throat. Two people walked into her peripheral vision, both dressed in impressive armor that looked nothing alike.
One was male and the other was female.
The male was tall and lithesome, slightly muscular while the female was stout and regal. Waverly thought that it was only as a result of the pressure on her brain that she glimpsed stark white horns protruding from either sides of the woman's hair. She held onto something strangely similar to Waverly's crescent but it was evidently bigger with a gleaming string hooked from the top to the bottom.
A bow!
"I hate it when you lot interfere but oh well - more to kill." Judson mused.
Together, the intruders attacked. They fended Judson off and almost matched up to the strength of Oculmus inside him. This allowed Waverly to crawl away unnoticed. In the distance, she spotted a huge mass of silver fur descending the clouds.
"Chestnut!" She whimpered. Her body was threatening to break to pieces. Pain racked it with every movement but she was determined to get away from Oculmus.
Live another day.
She stopped crawling and pushed herself to lie on her back. The wolf landed gracefully on the ground and bounded toward her. He nudged her side as if telling her to get up but almost immediately, the animal realized that she was hurt.
It pushed her head up and managed to slip her securely onto his back then with a gentle run, took to the skies again.
Waverly glanced down at the part of the forest she had just left where a violent clash was taking place - two bright lights against something shadowy. It was like watching a dice roll around on a board but Waverly knew better - the Entonian gods had finally come to the rescue. They were on her side.
There was hope.