Sapphire Flame - Yasmeen J.
Aedezia
"KAENA! KAENA!" Griffin screamed, trying to get to his feet. He tumbled over himself as the pain in his upper body enveloped him like a blanket of fire. Continuing to call her name, he started to use his forearms to crawl toward where the portal had once been.
"Griffin?!" he heard Cya's voice call out. He suddenly felt a bunch of hands grab him and pull him up.
"Let me go!" he yelled, fighting against them, still with hope that he could go back. "I said LET GO!"
He felt the monster of the Lycan start to rise up within him, the color of his eyes began to shift and his teeth morph into knife-like canines.
But it quickly subsided when the pain shot back into him. He groaned and nearly fell again as they fought to pull him along.
"Griffin calm down we have to get you back to Aedon," Adonis said beside his ear, his grip on him never loosened.
"I have... I have to get Kaena... I have to find Kaena!"
He continued to struggle against them but he was too weak to do more than wraith around in their hold. Eventually, they got back to Aedon, where they brought him up to his chambers.
<><^><>
Akantha's heels clicked against the ground rhythmically as she made her way to Griffin's room. Two hours later Cya walks on one side of her explaining the earlier events with Brandon on the other.
"We sent officers to Kaena's house and they found a struggle but no Kaena."
"Did you find evidence of what attacked them?"
"Not in the house but Griffin's broken ribs say a lot. It had to be something exceptionally strong. Or of magic."
"What exactly are you implying?"
"Kaena's the only one strong enough to-"
"I'll stop you right there because I'm sure Griffin can smell your suspicion unconscious or not. He wouldn't be very happy if he heard it too."
"I could smell her magic on him."
"Kaena isn't the only magical or supernatural being in this world or the next."
"She is the only one that we know of strong enough to take down an alpha that is part lycan. Besides yourself of course..."
"I can't believe I'm entertaining this but I'd have no reason to try to kill my friend, plus he would be dead if I did try and so would the rest of you. Kaena, my poor little dove, she wouldn't hurt a fly unless she had to and I'm sure she would never have to hurt Griffin."
"Wouldn't hurt a fly? She killed over a hundred of the defiant all at one time."
"By no will or fault of her own."
"Exactly. Maybe she lost control."
Akantha leaned forward.
"If she did... he wouldn't have survived."
Cya shook her head slightly.
"Are you done now? Can we move on from this now before Griffin somehow finds the strength to come to and impale you onto one of these statues?"
Cya's jaw tightened and she looked away.
"Wonderful! Now let's find out what really happened."
Akantha entered the room zoned in on Griffin's tiny form compared to his bed that damn near fit the room. The lower portion of his torso was wrapped in bandages and his face was still bruised, which worried her.
She walked to the side of the bed and scoffed. "This bed is ridiculous."
She kicked off her heels and lifted her skirt slightly and started to walk over to his side.
"Is that really necessary?" Brandon said with a dead tone.
"Would you rather have me yell across this damned room and stress my throat for someone other than you?"
He cut his eyes and glared menacingly at her. She felt chills run down her arms, it always turned her on when he looked like he wanted to kill her.
"Thought so."
She turned back to Griffin and studied him for a quick moment putting a hand over his bandages. Her energy glowed around her hand and from her eyes, scanning and reading his body.
Her sight went down to his muscle and bone. One rib cracked on his left side and four shattered on the right. Soon when she looked towards the center of her chest that's where she saw traces of magic much like her own and Kaena's but in its weakest state.
Puzzled, she also realized that bones weren't moving back into place as they should be.
"He isn't healing," she said aloud.
"What?"
"He isn't healing at all, not even at mortal speed."
"That can't be. Is he-?"
"His heart is still going. One thing you were right about... no normal enhanced being did this."
"Well then what do we do?!"
"I may be able to heal him myself. I could be fast but it'll be painful for him."
"Anything for him to wake up..."
She would have to remove whatever that magic was in order for his healing process to begin. She kept that to herself. It would only further Cya's suspicions. Whatever this magic was, it was powerful enough to keep a lycan from healing even at its weakest. Only Kaena's magic was known to do that.
She put both her hands out over him and began to move her fingers in a weaving motion, in turn, unweaving the magic from him bit by bit with her own.
He started to stir and groan a bit, the most noise or movement he made since he came back. Sweat immediately beaded across his forehead and along his chest.
Akantha struggled herself, it was like untying a ball of knots, every time she seemed to unravel one it made another.
"In the meantime, you all still need to find Kaena. I can imagine how... upset he'll be when wakes without her by his side. Especially if they were attacked by someone."
"Well, how long will this take?"
"I said I'd be fast. So I'm being fast. You need to go and find her."
"Where else do we look? She's not here or in Vreko or in the mortal realm from what we could see. She just vanished."
<><^><>
"It's been hours. Are you even making any progress?" Cya impatiently roamed the room biting at the inside of her mouth, even drawing some blood.
"Plenty." She bit her lip in concentration as she came to the last few knots. "I just need to pull it out from him now."
Griffin's eyes shot open at that moment and he sprung up from the bed with heavy gasps.
"Griffin," Cya said leaning forward to him. "Are you alright?"
Akantha sat back and still held the ball of magic in her hands as he caught his breath. "You can heal now but you still need to lie down."
He continued to refuse so Cya helped him sit up and began to bandage his torso.
"Now... to get rid of this... somehow." Akantha strained to keep the magic contained within her palms, using her own energy to try to break it down. It only grew steadily.
"You mix your energy with that stuff and you'll blow us all to hell," he breathed out.
Her eyes went wide. "Then what the fuck else am I supposed to do?!"
"Throw it."
"What?"
"Throw. It." He pointed to one of the windows.
Standing, Akantha reared back and launched the ball of energy over her shoulder, sending it blasting through the window. It flew a couple of meters before erupting in a blast that sent them all tumbling over.
Akantha sat up and helped Griffin as they gathered themselves.
"Go. Make sure no one got hurt."
Brandon nodded and left along with Cya and the others. Akantha got comfortable beside him and gave a toothy grin, her fangs threateningly prominent.
"What are you doing here?" he asked rolling his eyes.
"Hello to you too, you runt. You know they have to call in the next sovereign to rule if you decide to die or something. I was just polishing my throne." She picked at her nails and made a face.
"It was sticky by the way."
Griffin scoffed but then sucked in a breath at the pain from moving to adjust himself.
"Now, mind explaining what in Hades' name is happening here?"
"We were attacked... and Kaena..."
"Who attacked you?"
"There was... there was this woman with powers like you and Kaena. But she... she was so much more..."
"More what?"
He shook his head, doubting his own words. "She had the aura... of a Daemon."
"As in... Hades' daemons?" She backed away.
He looked down. "I could smell the Under on her... It took her."
"Those don't exist anymore," she said with a smile of disbelief.
"Phexes also didn't exist six months ago."
"Did it speak? Did it say where it was taking her?"
"No. All it said was that it wanted her, and it wanted to kill me... to take my kingdom."
He threw the blanket away from him and started to get up from the bed. "If we leave now we can track them from Kaena's house."
"Griffin, Kaena's house has already been searched. Her scent ends there too."
"I have to get back to her!"
"You need to stay here and heal. We will find her." She grabbed him and made him sit again.
"I can go! I was able to fight it before it used its magic. We fought it and its other daemons for as long as we could. Then a portal opened... to send me back. I think... I think it was Kaena."
"Kaena... opened the portals? From thin air?"
He nodded slowly.
"That would explain her scent being cut off. But she shouldn't even be able to do that. It's an old rule..."
"You're seriously still questioning her abilities?"
"This is different. Why didn't you tell me that she could do that?"
He watched her stand up and walk off the bed. He felt something wasn't right with her.
"I didn't know."
Akantha picked a spot in front of her and held her hand out. She thought of the portal opening easily at her will, the usual routine of when she opened one herself, the swirling of cold wind around her hand expanding until a sheet of dark fell in front of her like a curtain.
The wind began to swirl and mix with her conjuring purple. But instead, she had to struggle to seemingly push it open. It started to tighten around her hand and fight against her.
Her brows furrowed and she grunted with effort.
"What's happening Akantha?" She heard him through the struggle and the whoosh of the growing winds.
"I-I don't know!"
She pushed again, putting more of her magic into it and draining her power. It was spit right back at her, however. Almost in slow motion, she was thrown back off her feet. Before she could hit the ground, both Cya and Brandon were there to catch her. A side of her fell into each of their hands.
"What the hell was that?" Brandon exclaimed.
"When she opened her own... she must've gotten control of the others."
"Is that even possible?"
She looked at him, genuine worry behind her shining eyes. She shook her head slowly.
"They're c-closed," she affirmed, her voice uneasy and wavering.
"Impossible! We traveled through them fine earlier! I just sent troops-"
A soldier's message came into Cya's head at that moment. Commander, the portals... they're gone. Just... disappeared.
"She knew we'd try..."
Cya let go of her. "What the fuck are you saying?"
"I'm saying she's trapped us in. We're stuck in Aedezia..."
Published ~ 6/6/21
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