"We have to kill your brother?" I asked, cautiously.
I looked over to Serena. She wasn't looking at me, but I knew that somewhere in her heart, she felt hurt too. We may not be sisters by blood, but she will always remain my sister, adopted or not.
I heard Eladra take in a shaky breath.
"Believe it or not, we do. Zion has lost himself in a sea of darkness. He no longer has humanity in his mind. My brother may have been kind and generous once, but not anymore. He's lost himself so much, that he imprisoned Sister Aelia. She's called the Archangel. She's the supreme angel. Zion has enslaved all the angels. Our first mission is to free them. The more allies we have, the better."
"Do we still have to go that far as to kill Zion?" Fabian asked Eladra.
It looks like he's starting to trust Eladra. Maybe the reveal of her intentions, threw light into the dense fog clouding their minds. Soon, enough we should be able to pass through to Urzec.
"We need to leave now, if you want to save your friend. He isn't in coma, in fact he is under a spell. It sucks his life energy out. But since he is a werewolf, he has a better chance of survival. I believe the tentoria got to him before we could. Soon, your friend is going to turn into a tentoria. That is going to be chaos for this world." She said, ignoring Fabian and effectively changing the subject.
"So the guy without an alma, he's a tentoria?" Xana asked.
The nymph nodded. "So hurry up!"
Now that we have someone to save, we had to go to Urzec. The weight of two worlds rests on our shoulders. Eladra told us that time in Urzec moves faster than on earth. I think the ratio she said was 1:24. Meaning, one day in Urzec is only going to be 1 minute here. That was great news. Keeping Darius here would also make sense.
"How do we heal Darius?" I asked Eladra as we walked through the pretty portal.
"You'll have to kill the Necromancer, Jules."
"There's a necromancer?"
Eladra simply nodded, confirming my question.
"He's the one who put the curse on the tentorias. It's like a virus. Like they all went rogue. Prince Liam is the only tentoria who hasn't seen the necromancer. He's the only sane tentoria in Urzec. Every year, there is a calling of the tentorias. Last year, the necromancer was present, with the curse in hand at the Circle of Calling. I'd sensed something was wrong at the place, so I held Liam back from going to the calling. He hasn't seen any of his friends or family since then.
Liam has always wanted to go look for them, but the moment the necromancer senses him, we won't have any tentoria on our side if we ever need them. The elves are currently working on finding an antidote alongside a few fairies and angels, who escaped the dreadful castle of Zion.
We have one tentoria, apart from Liam, that we captured. We always have her under drugs, in our lab. Every antidote we come up with, we try it on her. Of course there isn't any Crimson wood in it or any wolf's blood. Those are the two things that could kill them. In that way, you have an advantage and a disadvantage.
You can use your blood against them. The Crimson wood in Urzec should keep your blood levels high, because of their high iron content. That's key. But, don't ever let them bite you. If you're scratched, then you need immediate care from an elf or a healer. First things first, you need to put on some Crimson wood paste.
Until we find an antidote or a potion to prevent this curse, you must always carry pieces of Crimson wood. They're great for walking sticks while hiking too. And if you ever decide to camp out, always burn pieces of Crimson wood. The smell will keep them away. Although, you might feel nauseous, Tyler. Shapeshifters are kind of allergic to them when they're burnt. But since you're not completely a shapeshifter, you might not have to worry."
We nodded as she continued. That was a lot of Crimson wood.
"I'm parched. I'll just give you a written copy of all the things you need to know about Urzec." She said handing me a piece of paper.
She comes prepared, huh?
"For a Queen, you have an awfully bad handwriting, darling." I said, as I tried to read it. She simply blushed, in embarrassment, and continued walking. Or stalking.
Other than what she told us about the tentorias, she had written about the elves, from what I could decipher. Rule number one. Never piss off an elf. And Rule number two was never to forget rule number one.
Duly noted.
Those on our side were the elves, the fairies, the nymphs, the angles, a few witches (Mostly ones practicing white magic), the centaurs, the demons (surprisingly), the fawns, the shapeshifters, the hippogriffs, the griffins, many sirens and the phoenixes.
The ones on the other side were, the tentorias, minotaurs, harpies, zombies, a few witches, a few sirens, a necromancer, Monsters and what surprised me the most...
"They have a human?"
"Yes. Human monster tamer and hunter, Hansel. Technically, he's a mage actually."
"So, there are still humans in Urzec?" Lucas asked.
"No. He killed the rest of his family.."
For some reason, she looked nostalgic.
"You were in love with him." Serena spoke confidently.
Eladra's neck snapped towards Serena. "You're the siren?"
Serena simply nodded. Eladra's bulging eyes went back to their doe shaped structure.
"I was actually. Before the war broke out. We were about to get married. Me and Hansel. But then, I heard of him joining forces with Zion to create a world where they were supreme. That was the day I lost my joy. 'The sparkle' as Aelia called it. Zion called me that before, you know? He always called me sparkle. And now..."
I knew it was getting harder for her to speak. "Eladra, it's okay. Falling in love is inevitable. And so is falling out of it. But you can always move forward, leaving the past be the past. It would be hard, I can only imagine it, but you can do it. It doesn't matter whether you take one century or ten. You'll eventually forget the feelings you had for him."
I looked back at Fabian and saw him looking at me with....I don't know what. Maybe love. Maybe a feeling no one could describe. I smiled at him, softly, and moved my gaze from him to the bright light at the end of the portal.
Eladra shook her head, probably dismissing the thoughts in her head about Hansel. She put a bright smile on her previously frowning face and said,
"Welcome to the land of all creatures, ever to exist. The land of Urzec."
She turned her body towards us walking backwards. I smiled to myself seeing her optimism. At the end of the portal, she fell.
My eyes widened as I ran towards her. "Eladra!"
But all she had done was jump into a lake. I could see a waterfall, right at my foot. I looked up and saw the shimmering liquid flowing down towards me, but not touching me. At all.
Don't tell me we emerged from the middle of a waterfall.
"Woah. We're literally in the middle of a waterfall!" said Will.
"What are you all doing there? Jump in!" She said giddy with joy.
Serena was the first one to take the leap. As her body touched the water, her legs turned to a fin. I saw Serena's eyes widen in horror.
She resurfaced from the water, her ash-brown hair covered in....pearls?
That's a weird transformation....
She splashed her fin around, confused. She asked Eladra if this would happen everytime she touched water.
"No. You can control it, but you'll have to learn to do that. It's like shifting into your wolf. Try shifting back now." Eladra replied.
She looked up at us and said "This is called as the pool of rejuvenation. This is where most of us come to relax. It's hidden away from Zion's castle, so he can't see it. He doesn't even know about it."
She rolled her eyes and went on to explain that she created the pool when she was learning to harness her powers. She loved the place so much that she decided to keep it a secret from everyone. It was only about a century ago that she gave the secret away so that this could be a hideout spot for all our allies. A witch enchanted the pool and voila!
The pool of rejuvenation.
I smiled and dived in. Only mid-air did I realise that we didn't have extra clothes. I landed in the water perfectly, but I took a deep breath so I came out coughing up the water.
Fabian and the others jumped in too. Fabian walked towards me, pushing his hair back, looking like a model. My heart skipped a beat as he came closer. Goddess, why does he have to look so good?
"You okay?" He asked, snaking his arms around my waist. I smiled at him and nodded.
"Yeah."
"I can't believe that we're actually here. In Urzec. It's so beautiful here." He said turning me around so that we were facing the forest. He rested his head upon my shoulder and my arms tightened over his, pulling ourselves closer to each other.
Eladra swam over to us. She stood beside me.
"It's not all this pretty. Most of Urzec is already barren. A few of us are dying due to starvation, here actually. But, we can't afford to be found out, so we can't all be together. Most of us are here though. I'll introduce you to them, once we get to camp. We can save training and missions for tomorrow. Today, we'll make merry to celebrate your return."
She was smiling by the end of it. I knew this was a new beginning for us. I looked around to find Serena still trying to figure out how to get back to normal, while Will was trying to help her; Tavi and Tyler were missing, probably making out behind the waterfall; Xana and Lucas were splashing each other like little kids and my mate was right behind me, looking down at me softly.
This was a new adventure, with a new family. It was the opening of a new door.
This was our new story.