Demi-Sin of Deceit: Part Two
Ash

Ash

The Aos Si cave had become a place of mourning ever since the fall of Tarvenia, the ancient Fae wanting to show their solidarity with us by replacing gold with blackened stone, and fanciful silks with duller ones. Even Senias, who normally wore vibrant clothes, was dressed in black today. With an exhausted Lucifer behind me, and a battle-weary Senias in front of me, I strode down one of the many hallways of their domain, the ‘CLICK!’, ‘CLICK!’, ‘CLICK!’ of my sword against my belt the only noise between the three of us.

We’d already filled him in on Daemonium, and how Nicnevin was somehow an ancient God who created not only Faeries, but Witches, too, as well as the prophecy of Lazarus and Nazareth’s battle for control over the Dimensions, and he’d immediately suggested that we speak to Leanan about it. Her Shadow-Twin was Naneal, the supposed granddaughter of Lazarus himself. They would know more about Belial and his Soul of Shadows than anyone else. They would also, hopefully, know how to ruin this prophecy once and for all.

The obvious answer was to simply kill Lazarus and Nazareth, thus preventing a war from ever occurring, but the question was- How? How did one go about killing Gods? I’d felt their power in Daemonium! Nothing could match up to that!

Fiddling with my wedding band, my mind began straying as we sunk deeper into the bowels of the Aos Si territory, the once quiet whispers of the wind through trees now replaced by the gentle hums of music that emanated through the stones, being quietly played elsewhere.

How was Tiskial doing?

His return to Ordeallan so shortly after Syrphien’s death- not even a day after, had me worried. That Assassin would still be there, and he wouldn’t be against killing Tiskial.

I was so deep in thought that when I walked into Senias from behind, I flinched in panic, my wings rising, only to have Senias put his hand on my shoulder, assuring, “It’s alright, Ash.”

Behind me, Lucifer was gaping in awe at something in front of us, and I peeked over Senias’ shoulder to see Leanan, deep in a trance, hovering above a bed.

The doors to the bedroom had been left open, Leanan not concerned about being watched, and Senias whispered, “She meditates, but that isn’t what she’s doing right now.”

Leanan’s blonde hair had been tied back into a braid, and she was wearing a white nightgown that draped off her like fog hovering over the sea, but it was the bracelets around her arms that caught my attention. Starting at her wrists, they curled up to just below her armpits, keeping her arms perfectly straight, and a moment later, I saw why.

A bright white light began to crackle from her fingertips, running up the metal in the bracelets and dispersing across her back, where, for a split second, I could see the ghostly echo of wings light up before they faded again.

“Wings,” I whispered, and Senias nodded.

None of the Aos Si had revealed their wings to us, and now I knew why- Their wings weren’t like ours. Leanan’s wings were forged from her powers.

Leaning on the doorway, Senias dipped his chin toward his sister’s bedroom, murmuring, “Watch.”

Leanan’s power, now tired of skittering back and forth across her wings, arced outwards, lighting the room up, and Senias raised a shield of his own power, blocking the doorway, the white light growing unbearably hot as it neared us, and revealed the shadowy figure of a young woman, a crown atop her head. It was thin, nothing more than a wisp of a figure, like a shadow that someone was shining a weak light on, but it remained when Leanan’s first wave of magic dissipated.

“Naneal,” Senias explained to us, “Can only be released from Hell by something incredibly powerful, unless you feel like using someone’s body. Leanan had been storing her magic since you came to us for help- It’s why we haven’t been in any of your battles for quite some time.”

“You’re summoning Naneal?!”

“Yes. We needed answers just as much as you did. Now, we want to ask her about Lazarus, and how we can prevent the Archangels from completing their prophecy. We were going to pull out of the war, but I must admit, after what you’ve told me about this Daemonium place…”

“We need to stop it from happening.”

“Leanan says that the girl who took the sword is Reni Maladur. She took Faeretan when her mother found it. Apparently, she’s been aiding this cause for quite some time. In fact, she’s helping even now.”

“What do you mean?” Lucifer demanded as another wave of Leanan’s magic swept through the room in front of us, Naneal taking further shape, and Senias replied, “We’re in a pocket of time. I only noticed because I stepped outside of the pocket that Reni was controlling while on patrol, and it immediately went from day to night. Reni is slowing time, and not only here- After I discovered our little pocket, I took a look into the rest of the Dimension- She has another pocket in the Forest of the Lost, and yet another one in Ordeallan.”

“Where allies are,” I remarked, and Senias remarked, “It would stand to seem that Destiny and Seth’s daughter inherited a rather powerful heritage.”

“She’s slowing us down so we have more time!” Lucifer remarked, “So Caliem can’t catch up.”

“Wouldn’t she speed us up, then?” I asked, and Senias butted in, suggesting, “Maybe we’re moving too quickly.”

A third burst of magic radiated from Leanan, surprising us, and for a moment, we were blinded. As I fumbled for my weapon, I heard a voice purr, “Lay your weapons down, soldiers.”

“Leanan?” Senias called out, “What’s going on?”

“It’s just Naneal,” Leanan reassured, “Remain calm.”

“It’s been eons since I’ve been freed from Hell.” That was distinctively a male voice, and I tensed up again as I felt a hand on my shoulder that didn’t belong to either Senias or Lucifer.

“And that is Balor.”

“There are others in this Dimension… Other Demon Lords,” Balor said, his hand still on my shoulder, “We can finish them?” Naneal offered, finishing her brother’s sentence flawlessly.

“Your aim is to protect our allies. Send Demon Lords back to Hell wherever you can.”

The hand vanished from my shoulder, the two Demonic siblings blurring in my eyes as my vision began to return, and they turned toward Leanan in unison before I could see them properly, who had her eyes closed tightly.

“Go,” The Aos Si Princess commanded, and the both of them vanished, leaving behind the scent of ash and flames crackling over wood.

Senias, who I now saw was on his knees in the hall, rubbed at his eyes, grumbling, “You blinded us, Leanan.”

“I had to,” she replied simply, “If you look at Naneal or Balor, you would claw your own eyes out.”

“Why? Are they that ugly?” Lucifer joked gruffly, just as annoyed at having his vision stripped away as the rest of us, and Leanan shook her head.

“No. Their power can suck souls from bodies. If you look at them, you won’t have a good time unless you’re Demonic. Which is why Cain, the Prince of Demons, can look at them. He’s a descendant from Nazareth, and the son of the bride of Lazarus.”

“How did you become the Shadow-Twin to Naneal?” I asked.

“We were born at the same time.”

“That’s not possible according to Lazarus and Nazareth.”

“The Aos Si are older than you, Faery,” she sung, pulling the bracelets from her wrist and collapsing them in her palm until they formed a single gold bangle that she slid back on, smiling at her brother, who offered her a crown he picked up from the floor.

“We need to begin searching for that sword. If Reni has it, then it means we need to replace a way to Time-Jump,” Senias said, Leanan reaching under her bed and dragging out a stack of books, “Naturally, we’ve been doing some research, and came to a conclusion. Time-Jumping is almost impossible unless you have the ability, or the right tools. Our parents aren’t aware of this, which means we’ll have to be careful with how we go about it. As the oldest, it’s my responsibility to ensure none of you come to harm. For now, I want you both to remain with us here in the Aos Si territory while we search for a way to reach Reni. There’s been increased Demonic-being activity across The Borderlands ever since Karmona was lost. We’re rebels now, and we have to be careful how we go about everything from here on out.”

“Very well,” Lucifer conceded, “We’ll stay, but first- I want you to tell us everything you know about Joseph Smith, because I’ve been coming to my own conclusions while we were gone.”

“We haven’t learnt much about Joseph at all beyond the fact that he’s related to Sal Smith, one of the first Night-Hunters. I bet Nazareth didn’t tell you about them, though.”

“Why would he?”

“Because the original Night-Hunters weren’t Nephilim. They were Demonic-beings. Leanan discovered that something had created them to protect the Archangels and the Sacreds.”

“We believe Lazarus and Nazareth made them to protect the Sacreds, particularly, because they were with the Archangels at the time. They had no knowledge of the prophecy plans, but when Sal found out, he convinced the others to help him steal the Sacreds and run. They split up, each taking a Sacred, while one acted as a decoy. They were on Earth at this time, not The Borderlands.”

“Seth’s family traces back to Earth?”

“We found a genealogy chart of Alyssa’s family. Alyssa was an Aos Si who lived with us, but she met Sal and then vanished. When the Legacy War broke out, it’s unclear what happened to Sal, but Alyssa took her child through the Divider. As you already know, Cain and Destiny fought in the Legacy War, near the Divider. They prevented certain people from coming through. Alyssa and her child were personally escorted by Cain.”

“Why?”

“We’re not sure. We found some of Alyssa’s private journals from when she briefly joined us here again, in The Borderlands.” Leanan pulled the first book from the stack, handing it to me. It was a leather-bound journal, worn down over time, with fraying pages, but its handwriting was still eligible. ‘Alyssa Smith’ was engraved on the front, and on the first page, there was a sketch of a baby sleeping in a cradle, surrounded by twisting vines and small glowing lights. Underneath that was a set of initials- K. S

The second page had a few sentences, a diary entry, and I raised an eyebrow at the handwriting. It was neat, in flowing, delicate letters that almost appeared to hover off the page, but it was also completely in Faereveyn.

Feyrentana madeyn objectia mustic Tevlag Borderlands, objectyn Sal pastela tenap tehern tevlag Helan ofvlog Feh’riq. Kayla islea finnea. Feyrana willowana contin mustic scouron.

I couldn’t read Faereveyn, but I recognised a few of the words that Alyssa had written in the common tongue- Borderlands, Sal, Kayla- They were names. Sal was her husband, Kayla her daughter.

Seth’s great-great-great-great-great grandmother was Kayla. That was… a long time ago, further far back then I cared to think for most people, but if Seth’s lineage began with a Demonic-being, then why did Abel have to make him Demonic? He already was!

“Now, since Leanan can read Faereveyn, we managed to decode most of the journal, aside from a few written in languages from Earth that we no longer keep records of, but the important pages were accompanied by sketches that Alyssa had done, including this map.” Taking the book back from me with tender hands, Senias flipped through the pages, stopping around halfway into the journal and turning the book toward us, revealing a sketch of the Dimension’s map. It was roughly drawn but detailed enough that I could see where Alyssa had placed three red ’X’s on the map; One in Ordeallan, one in Karmona, and one in Tarvenia, marking the locations of the Sacreds. She also placed another three, in a different ink colour, in the Northern Isles, the Forest of the Damned, and in a temple in Tarvenia’s Sun Palace territory.

“What could those be marking out?” I asked Senias, and Lucifer pointed out, “They’re all temples. There’s one in the Sun Palace territory, one in the Forest of the Damned, and one in the Northern Isles.”

“A certain sword was found in a temple in the Forest of the Damned. A second blade was found in the possession of a Night-Hunter Maiden of Midnight who came from the Northern Isles, and a third was a treasured possession of a certain Demonic Princess.”

“So it’s the location of the blades, then.”

“Yes. But there’s also this.” Senias flipped the map around, revealing the back of the page, which had another map on it, of a place I didn’t recognise. It was labelled ‘Revala’, but none of the towns or cities were familiar. The map seemed to resemble The Borderlands, if it had merged with something else. On this map were three more ’X’s in bright green ink.

“Alyssa was a Time-Jumper. It’s where Seth gets his ability from. Alyssa has labelled this map to be from two-thousand years in the future from now. She also explicitly mentions that a young lady who can also Time-Jump must follow this map, a young lady born in our time, in two years time from now.”

Two years time… If Merry and Mira had a child, it could be her, but they didn’t seem to have the Time-Jumping ability, unless it skipped all these generations only to appear in their child?

Seth had gained the Time-Jumper ability, and- “Destiny and Seth’s daughter.”

“Destiny and Seth will only be nineteen in two years,” Lucifer said quietly, and Senias butted in, pointing out, “Most people in The Borderlands are long married by that age. Would it surprise anyone here if they had a child?”

“Um… Yes, it would, because Destiny doesn’t seem like the motherly type.”

“Reni seems to have turned out alright,” I offered, trying to keep the peace before a fight could break out, and Senias said, “Regardless of who it is, these ’X’s are more than concerning. What are they marking out?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s a message for Reni- Alyssa’s descendant. What really matters is replaceing Faeretan.”

Stepping forward, Leanan patiently pointed out, “Reni has Faeretan. Destiny has Inferos, and Madorinne has Caelum. We know where they all are, the problem is getting to them. Destiny also has the Paradoxin Cord. Which, we recently discovered, was called Inanis.”

Inanis. That was part of the ritual used to choose Lazarus’ and Nazareth’s brides. Well, at least we didn’t have yet another object to replace, because the Paradoxin Cord was with Destiny.

“Madorinne can be called back to The Borderlands, or we can go to her and fetch the blade, and Reni seems to appear whenever you need her, so we can replace a way to reach her. Destiny… is off limits, to say the least.”

“I will send Urias to the Northern Isles to fetch Caelum, and Leanan can send Naneal to meet Reni and retrieve Faeretan. Inferos will require some planning, since Destiny is currently in the Dome.”

“How do you know that?” I asked, and Senias’ face became crestfallen.

“We formed an alliance. She wears a diamond bracelet that she can’t remove, and she can summon me through it. I can sense everything through it, too. Her pain, her sorrow-”

“Sorrow?” Lucifer interrupted.

“She’s grieving for someone. She has flashes of fury, sadness, elation, and then there was pain again not long ago.”

“So Zeella told her something that made her upset, furious, and then happy before torturing her again?”

“He might have told her we had lost, threatened to kill us all, and then promised to spare us?”

“I’m surprised she hasn’t given any information up.”

“She doesn’t need to. We were watched the entire time,” I reminded Lucifer, who tilted his head in consideration just as Leanan said, “Both of you should go back to Tatiana and help her retrieve this ring. Once Urias brings back Caelum, we’ll summon you all here again. Zeella and his cronies won’t dare step foot in the Forest of the Damned, especially not once he realises who we have as allies.”

I stood, still toying with my wedding ring, and Lucifer patted my shoulder reassuringly, thanking Senias and Leanan for their time, the two of us striding out of the bedroom, where two Aos Si Guards were waiting to escort us out.

We’d laid the plans out, all we had to do now was finish them…