Core:
It felt like I was only going through the motions; going to class, eating, sleeping. The halloween ball was two weeks past, and Flora's death still rang through gossip channels. Avol had given us leave for days and days, teaching us things that were taught in class as we worked on finding the killer. Phoenix and Avol never slept, or at least not when anyone was around. We needed to find that blood iron vein. It's the only chance we have to end the person who's done this, and avenge the deaths of Flora and Jax. Phoenix did her blood magic once or twice. She says there is a vein of blood iron in a cavern that is connected to a cave system, and there is one brutally powerful blood mage here.
Sighing, I push the books away from me. They slid into Aku's books that he had already pushed away from him. We all sat at the kitchen table, engrossed in book after book. Phoenix and Avol had their heads knocked together looking at an ancient book. There hair tangled merged into an odd color of flame. They looked to be one entity, and something in me twisted.
"Anything?" I bark out, "Is there anything?"
"No." Phoenix flops back in her chair, circles under her eyes growing.
Silence was only broken by ringing. Aku dug into his pocket, pulling out his rarely used cell phone. He was about to click the end button but paused and answered. "Dad?"
My bones froze, heart stopping.
"Yeah we're coming home for Christmas." Pause, "Yes, both of us." Pause, "We're still deciding." Pause. "I don't know dad. There is a lot going on here." Pause, "Dad-" Aku abruptly stops, waits, then gives the phone over to me.
I stare at it for a silent second before putting the phone to my ear and saying, "Hi dad."
"Core, good." His voice was like precaution it self. It once was, until another had gotten the title 'truth taker'. "I want you and your brother home for the holidays."
"I know that dad. Aku told me."
"No. No. Not just Christmas but thanksgiving as well. Your academy gives you seven weeks off starting tomorrow. I want you two home the day after."
"Dad, there are things going on-"
He cut me off, "Bring your friends, your team, and talk Avol into coming too. It has been a while since I've gotten to talk to him."
"Dad-"
He cut me off again, ending the argument, "Not up for debate. Home in three days or I come and get you both." The phone ended with a dial tone. I wanted to chuck it at a wall, but it wasn't my phone. I tossed it back to Aku
"We go home the day after break starts." I tell him. "No arguments this time." I turn to Avol, "I think we all need a break. Father says to bring you and the rest of the team."
"Or at least convince you to do it." Aku chips in, "We all do need a break."
Phoenix was the one to nod, "They're right, Avol. If we try and topple a tree with our bare hands we have to wait for it to rot."
Avol glares at her, "No more metaphors please."
"I grew up with them." Phoenix points out, "I'm surprised I don't talk in them all the time."
"How did you last this long without them?" Avol mocked.
"I bit my tongue. Many times." The last part was like an afterthought, "Please, Avol. We all need a break. I admit, I need a break."
Avol sighed with his whole body, as his shoulders slumped he flopped himself into a chair next to Phoenix. "Fine, we'll have a break, but Phoenix we'll check out this-"
Coin ran in and shouted, "I found it! I found the vein."
Sain:
I lay in bed, my head resting on my pillow, Hex's head was resting in the crook of my shoulder, and he was peacefully sleeping. He had been sleeping in my room since halloween. I playfully poke Hex in the cheek. "Wakey, wakey, sleeping beauty. It's past ten. The others will be coming to wake us up soon."
Hex grumbles, snuggling further into my shoulder. "Five more minutes."
"I would love to have five more minutes but-"
The door to my room slammed open. I sat up instantly. Jacon barged in and stopped when he saw us.
"My, oh my. At least now you don't have to think to keep it a secret." Jacon broke into a grin. "Coin found the bloodiron vein. I'd suggest you get dressed and get down to the living room as fast as you can, or else Phoenix just might leave you." He took his time as he sauntered out the door and softly clicked it closed.
"I'm going to kill him." Hex growls into my pillow.
I flop back on the the bed, wrapping Hex up in my arms. "I just might beat you to it. You want to make it a race?"
Hex laughs into my skin, "I would love too."
I peer down to him, looking into his eyes...
Bang. Bang. Bang.
"Stop contemplating my death and get up." Jacon says from behind the door. "Or do I need to watch you two as you get dressed?"
Hex snarled.
Footsteps raced down the hall faster than a walk.
I slide my hands down Hex's sides, "We better get up or Phoenix herself might come up here."
Hex snarled at me. I laugh and give him a long tempting kiss. Hex, reacting instantly, running his hands through my hair. After, what, a minute, I break it and shimmy out of the bed.
"You are cruel." Hex growls lustfully at me.
I give him a look, "Get up. I'm rather interested in what our little brother Coin found." I took a step towards the door, but Hex refused to move. A light goes off in my head. " If I'm too interested afterword, you can see if you can get me interested in something else."
With a devilish grin, Hex finally rolls out of bed.
Aku:
When Hex and Sain finally decide to tramp down the stairs, Phoenix laid into them. They bowed their heads sheepishly, but their grins stayed in place the enter time. She gave up, her hands flying into the air in exasperation, but she smiled and gave them both a pat on the cheek. Avol gave them both a look that told them a lecture would come later. They just grinned at him. He rolled his eyes, but laughter glinted in them.
Avol's shield had cracked the moment he meet Phoenix. He might not have noticed, but we had. His cold, detached personality had been thawing out slowly, but thawing nonetheless. He would have grabbed Hex and Sain by the hair before and drug them into the kitchen to get the lecture then and there. Now, he was just laughing at them. Phoenix made Avol relax. Made him consider others before the rules.
It was not just him who was affected. Core was starting to become a true leader. He had the strength and intelligence before, but now he was working with us side by side. He's taking responsibility for things he would have before denied. He's trying to become my elder brother. Trying to build that bridge we neglected to do before. Kuma had been by my side for the past month, still not talking to me but by me. It would be enough.
"Core." Avol's voice broke through my train of thought, "Can you pick the lock?"
"No. It's lock from the other side..." Core whispered back.
Coin crept to the front and slid through the door. A solid steel door.
"Wraph." Phoenix breathed. She then hit Avol in the shoulder, "You should have told me."
Avol shrugged, "You think I wouldn't fight tooth and nail for each member on this team because they were just outcasts?" Phoenix hit Avol again. Harder.
I grinned. She had yet to learn each of their individual talents.
The lock clicked, their argument put on hold. Coin open the door, a big grin on his face. We all slid past him, but not after ruffling his hair. Phoenix gave Coin a sweet hug. Coin had an even bigger smile on him afterward. He slid to the front, just behind Core and Avol. All our blades were drawn as we crept down a dusty, unmaintained hallway, abruptly turned to a cave. It's walls were starting to constrict, making it barely able to walk through single file.
"There." Coin said as he pointed at a small hole in the cave wall, "It's down there."
Core and Avol glanced at each other with weary looks, but did as Coin said and went down the rabbit hole.
We were panting for air by the end. The cavern was worth it. The dark, glowing red vein was like a stream of blood. Phoenix was grinning from ear to ear, her smile the only white in the dark cave.
"I thought bloodiron was black." I ask running a hand over the blood red vein.
"It is and it isn't," Avol says, "The bloodiron starts out red but after forging it is black until it takes enough blood of others to turn back to red."
Phoenix is the one who explained, "Life blood usually does that, but not many truly take someones life blood. Even if they take the one's life."
"Have you done it?" Jacon asked.
Phoenix shook her head, "I have never done it but..." She trailed off.
"The blood mage, Exerset had done it a lot." Avol shuttered under his own words, "He had so many killed with bloodiron blades, and then used them is such cruel ways."
Lupus, surprising everyone except his brothers, spok up, "Why did no one kill this guy before all this?"
"Many tried." Avol answered, "But it's nearly impossible for any but another blood mage to kill a blood mage. They can throw up seals and words that only blood mages can brake. It truly is a bloody fight when blood mages go at it."
"Who killed Exerset?" Core asked.
"I did." Phoenix answers this time, "Or I hope I killed him. He hasn't been seen since, so I pretty sure he is dead."
Avol sighed, "As does everyone else. He was a cruel, cruel man, but he is also a blood mage. Most still think he lives."
"I'm just waiting for him to return," Phoenix admitted, "That fight destroyed nearly half the capital."
"You destroyed nearly half the castle when you were six." Avol pointed out.
Phoenix glared at him from her spot by the vein. Avol grinned at her. She huffed, and turning back to the vein, ending all conversation.
She ran her fingers down the vein, muttering in sharp and tangled words that where somehow still graceful. The bloodiron seemed to glow in response. The glow brightened and dimmed like a drum in a steady beat. Then it abruptly stopped, and Phoenix dropped. Avol got there before she could collide with the floor. Core was next to them in an instant, reaching for Phoenix's pulse.
"She's alive." Core sighed out, "What happened?" He asked to Avol.
Avol glanced over Phoenix with an assessing eye. "I don't know."
"Look." Coin shouts out making it echo in the cavern. He was pointing at the red vein.
We all looked.
My jaw dropped open. The vein was coming alive. It darkened in areas lightened in others. I made out human figures, horses, beasts, and weapons. The humans and animals were charging at each other, blades drawn. Battle. War. The bloodiron was showing us a battle in a war. There was no sound. Even our breathing could not be heard. Battle. Bloody. Merciless. Deadly. At the end, only one living thing walked off the field. He was limping and wild. The vein turned its color into a molten gold for its eyes. Atop the hill he looked down and flared his wings, roared mourning over his fallen. The king of dragons flared his mighty wings and launched into the sky, never to be seen again.
After a moment, another got up from the battlefield. Not a dragon, but a man. Shadows seeming to ripple from him. He looked to the fallen and white flashed. It was neither a snare or a grimace. It was a smile. A smile of evil to the core. He kicked at one of the dead, and spun around like it was raining gold.
I wanted to vomit.
That sick man walked off the field and disappeared.
The glow dimmed until it was just a bloodiron vein again. Phoenix still lay motionless in Avol's arms. Her breathing was even, not a mark on her.
"Do you know that battle?" Blaze breathed out.
Avol shook his head, "I know the dragon in it, but not the battle. The royals keep some battles in a need to know baces. The dragon. Clogon. King of dragons. He lost his love, and was never seen again. That how the legend goes, but looking at that battle I don't think that love was just one person."
"It was a kingdom. It was his people. It was everything he ruled." Core whispered, "He lost everything."
"That man." I throw in, "He is evil. Deadly. Crazy. Psycho."
Avol grunted as he hosted Phoenix fully into his arms. Core took her from him so he could get up. Avol was grateful as I helped him to his feet with a hand.
"None of you are to mention what we had seen here to anyone. No one. Don't talk about with anyone, including each other." Avol ordered, "When Phoenix wakes up we can ask, but if she refuses you will leave it be. Am I understood?"
"Yes, sir." Our voices mingled in the echoing room.
Avol:
I sat in a chair next to my bed, Phoenix sleeping peacefully in it. The others took over my living space downstairs waiting for her to wake. I had been sitting here since coming back from the cavern. She was sleeping. She had to be. I breathe in than out, concentrating on calming myself. In. Out. Phoenix groaned. I sprang up from the chair, quickly striding to the side of the bed where I could sit down next to her.
"Phoenix?" I shake her shoulder. "Phoenix, you up?"
She groaned again.
"Phoenix, get up." I made my voice as commanding as possible.
"Shut up." She growled out.
I shook her again.
"That hurts." She muttered, "My head."
I stopped instantly, "Sorry."
She blinked her eyes open, "Damn my head. What happened?"
"How about we start with you. You just collapsed."
"I heard swords clash. Screaming. Cries of animals I haven't heard before and..." Her voice trailed off than breathed, "Dragons. There were dragons." Her face drained of any color.
"Phoenix," Saying her name made her look me in eyes, "The vein showed a battle. No sound. Just a battle." Than I expand in excruciating detail the story the bloodiron vein had shown us. With each word Phoenix became a bigger presence. At the end of the tale, she sat up without a complaint or even a wince on her face. "Phoenix?"
"Where is everyone?" Her voice was cool, distant. Royal.
"Here, down in the living room."
She threw off the covers, standing without even a tremble, and strutted out in a few strides. Everyone silenced at her entry, not daring to speak. She looked over them all with keen eyes, not missing a thing.
"What you saw, you will forget." She said in that voice. That voice sounded so much like her aunt's; the Queen. Commanding attention and obedience without raising her voice. "What you saw can get you killed. What you think it means, forget it. If you think to tell anyone of it, your head will be missing a body. I stand here as your princess, not your friend, telling you that if you become a liability, you will be dealt with." She looked them all in the eyes, watching as theirs dropped to the floor, "Am I understood?"
"Yes, highness." They all say formally getting up from sitting and bowing.
She lifted her chin taller before turning on her heel, back into the bedroom closing and locking the door. They all sagged, sitting back in seats.
"Shit." Sain murmured into his water glass, or what I'll say is a water glass. "That was intense."
"Death." Zace breathed, "We can die from knowing that."
"We don't know a thing." I snap harsher than I meant. Quieter I say again, "We don't know anything. We saw nothing. Go back to your rooms. We'll leave tomorrow to Aku and Core's home."
They nodded, getting that they needed to leave. But Core lingered.
"What happens from here?" Core murmurs into his cherry red soda. It was cherry red soda; nothing else.
"You keep them silent." I sigh back to him, "Hopefully, this break will give us clear heads when we get back."
"Or puts us back at square one." Core points out, "I could stay for a few days-"
"No." I shoot him down before he could continue, "You are the eldest of this team and they need you. You're not staying here alone. I will not allow it."
"Avol-"
I cut him off, "No. This is an order form your commander. You bring this up again and I let you go. Am I making myself clear?"
Core bares his teeth in defiance, "Yes sir. I won't stay."
"No." I snarled, "Do you understand that no one will be staying."
His snarl back at me was more throaty. "Yes," The words hissed out, "Sir."