Marker 1,226,778 reads and 65,498 holy *bleep*!!!
AN; Finally not an authors note but a real life update! First of many in the next twenty days! I'm on winter break and trying not to let friends distract me and write every day and getta done! Anyways enjoy!!!!- Sam
"Are you sure?" I asked my father standing on the grass with the sun casting him a long shadow.
Everyone except for Henry and Deception were gone. All that was left was a few knocked over chairs and Emily's flower arch that she had stood under not even a half hour ago.
Everyone had stared at Neeva in shock after he told me to use him as a sacrifice. I hadn't replied just walked over and hugged Peter, Kami, Mr. Howl, Mrs. Howl, and finally Emily. Emily had whispered in my ear that she was glad that I was at her wedding even though it had ended like this. I had promised her I would help her plan an amazing wedding after this was over to make up for her interrupted wedding. Then Emily and Peter and Emily's family had hurried away to where ever their place was to be in this battle.
Santana had remained behind and started to say something to my father. From her tone of voice it had sounded like she was beginning an argument, but my father had turned to her and had given her probably the scariest look of all time. He told her to go meet him where they usually met for training. Santana had stared back unflinching before she too had turned and left.
"I am sure daughter, my life and my life alone should be enough for the greatest of prices," my father replied."
"And there is no other way?" I asked even though the answer was pretty clear.
"There are always many ways daughter," he said closing his eyes and opening them again, "Ways so numerous that they could fill the sky and block out the sun, but none are comparable to this way. I have walked the land of the living too long that every step I take is unnatural and a crime against nature itself. My death will not be anything sad, just an event that has taken far too long to come."
"It will be sad to me," I said softly.
My father nodded, "That I can't change and I feel the sorrow that you will be burdened with. You will be burden with many things during your long and unnatural life. Things that you can't bear the weight off, but forward you will move without collapse, without rest. There is no rest for creatures like us, this you must accept."
"I'm already burdened with a lot," I replied wearily and I felt the beginning of tears in my eyes.
My father nodded, "Yes as only those who walk between life and death can. They see the peace of death only to return to the much pain of living. You will be sending me to peace, daughter. I-"
"Okay just get over here, the more you talk the more I realize that I can't do this anymore," I said and extended my hands to him.
My father stared at my hands. He frowned and glided across the short space separating us. Behind us, I could hear the shouts of men and the sounds of animals in distress coming from the camp. The frenzy of getting ready for a battle no one had been expecting so soon was reaching its feverous pitch, and the sound surrounded us like a nest full of angry fairies.
My father's hands wrapped around my own trembling ones, "This resolve you speak of that is becoming lost to you, must be kept for just awhile longer. I sense that soon, but not in the time that we are existing in now, should you sacrifice me. I still have much to do and a very short life span to do it in, excuse me, daughter, until I meet you again and finally death. And," he leaned close to me and lowered his speaking volume to just that above a whisper, "center yourself, that voice that you hear in your head. The nastiest of things it whispers, sometimes you must lend it your ear.
He pulled away from me and met my eyes, which were probably wider than a mine that any dwarf could dig. He turned from me, his cloak billowing in the soft breeze stirring the grass, "Wait for my return in this exact spot!" he said loudly.
I think I might have checked out for a second because the next thing I knew Henry was shaking my shoulders in a desperate attempt to get my attention. I had forgotten that he had been standing there with Neeva and me.
"Violet! Violet! Violet!" he yelled into my face
I shook my head in and attempt to clear it "Stop it!" I said angrily batting Henry away.
Henry took a half step back step from me, and looked me up and down like he was assessing me for damage, "Are you..." he paused and stopped himself from the asking the question that the answer would have been no to, "...able to do what we need to do now?" he asked, his electric blue eyes burning into me.
"Yes," I answered, "What do we-" before I could finish he had pulled me against his chest and I didn't even hesitate for a second. I hugged him back and pressed my cheek against his chest and inhaled his bonfire scent. I could hear his pounding heart through the fabric of his black t-shirt.
"I just need you to wait here for your father to come get you when it is time," I felt him take in a deep shaky breath, "I had to kill my parents," he said abruptly in a voice that was full of something that I rarely heard in it, sadness. I felt a jolt of shock go through me at his words. I didn't know what I had expected him to say but it wasn't that!
"Our house was burning down and they both got to a window but they couldn't get out and I tried but I couldn't help them," he explained, "Rather than let them burn to death slowly and painfully, I slit their throats with my hunting knife. I was only ten. Amber doesn't know, and I don't think that she would understand. I might be just afraid she wouldn't under, I don't know, but you and John are the only ones who know this. Your little sister might not understand and your mom might not either. I want you to know it happens and sometimes the death of someone we love is necessary even if it doesn't feel like its.
He let me go and I took my arms from around his middle only to wrap them around his neck and pull his mouth down to mine and kissed him before I pulled away and looked into his eyes, "Thank you for telling me that," I said before I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against his.
"Yeah I'm not sure if it helps you but I'm glad I told you," Henry replied
"Me too and it did," I said.
"I have to get back to camp and get my squadron ready, we're one of the leading forces on the front lines."
"Don't die," I told him.
"You don't either."
A small smile pulled at my lips, I let my hands fall from him "How can I die if I'm death itself?" I joked like I hadn't been asked by my father to kill him and Henry hadn't just told me he had been forced to kill his parents just minutes ago. These might be my last moments with him and I was going to enjoy them, no matter what.
Henry shook his head, "You would probably manage it with your dumb self," then he added, "If we both survive this I'm marrying you. I'm the only one smart enough to keep you alive."
I tilt my head to the side, "Are you asking me to marry you while insulting me in the same sentence?" I asked in amusement.
He bent down and picked a long piece of wild grass from the ground. After fiddling with it for a second he managed to make it into a circle. He took my hand and slipped it onto my finger.
"Does that answer your question?"
I looked down at the makeshift grass ring on my finger and back at him. I smiled probably the biggest smile I could manage under these circumstances, "It does and yes I will."
He nodded and turned and ran. The smile dropped from my face while I watched him go. I had a feeling, no a premonition, that I was going to lose more than just my father today. Already the feeling or impending death was in the air, and it was making it hard to breathe.
I took my hair out of its ponytail and Deception crawled over to me and I sank down to the grass beside me. I let him curl his hot body around me. He unfurled his wings and wrapped them around us creating a living tent and blocking out most of the chaos outside and the cold wind. I looked down at the grass ring around my fingers and opened my ears to the little voice inside my head.
"If you bear him any children they will kill, and kill and kill just like you will today," the voice whispered gleefully.
"I know that's why I will never have any," I said aloud.
"Your father brought another one into the world after you. How reckless of him! He couldn't even wait a year to replace you!"
"I'm sure that there will be a purpose for her someday in our world and if I didn't come back, it would have been in this fight maybe not this battle, though," I replied out loud and realized just how insane hat I was doing was. I having aa conversation with the homicidal voice inside my head. But at this point, I didn't even care. These were crazy times so I was allowed to be a little unscrewed in the head."
"And you will take your father's life and raise the dead and paint the ground in hues of crimson."
"I will take my father's life use it for what has to be done."
"You take fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, and send them to purgatory."
"Those people are trying to kill the ones I love yeah why wouldn't I kill them!?" I protested to the voice.
"That's right you are a god of death, you judge who lives and who dies, and they're worthy to die, those who want to do harm to the people you love. They will send them to their graves."
"That's right I am a death god I control who lives and who dies."
"Daughter I said to lend it your ear sometimes, not lend it your mind and sanity."
I tapped gently on the webbing of Deceptions wings and the small black dragon opened them and released me from my warm cocoon, exposing me to the cool air again. My father standing in front of me. I felt a twinge of dread in my stomach.
"What is it?" I asked him, referring to the voice I had just had a full out conversation with and if it wasn't for Neeva, would have had me convinced I was a death god and could kill whoever I pleased. This was the last chance I probably I had to ask him something about myself. There was so much I still didn't know about the fifth element and I was going to have to figure it out by myself now.
"That voice that speaks loudly in your mind is your powers and who you truly are under your outer skin,'" Neeva slowly, "That voice started out soft, barely spoke words, but as your powers grew it did too like mine did. It will just grow stronger with each time you grow stronger. It tells you what must and what you can do, truths and inner desires. You must pick out the must do and the truths and since all else. You will be able to do this in time daughter, but not at this time so be careful of yourself. What is it telling you to do might I ask?"
"It is telling me to take your hands and use your life to raise the army, our true army."
"Yes indeed daughter so do it," Neeva said.
Feeling oddly at peace with what I was about to do I stepped forward and did what he asked me and took his hands in mine, just as I felt the first life being taken by the swing of an enemy's weapon.
"The battle has started," I said with the feeling of more souls slipping out of this world. Just then there was the distinct sound of horns. Not our horns, though, but ours soon joined in and sounded against the other horns, like two great beasts roaring at one another and trying to drown the other one out. I couldn't see what was going on from where I stood. There was a small hill that obscured my view of some of what was happening in the direction of camp
"Yes, it has, I find singular comfort that I will not have to view the aftermath of this battle."
"I love you," I said looking into his dark purple eyes that mirrored my own one last time.
"And I too, carry no guilt from this," was the last things my father ever said to me before I took his life.