The Curse of Thir
Chapter 34

Naveen watched helplessly as the smoke turned everyone into mindless dutiful slaves. She was shocked and infuriated at everything she had just learnt.

“Then why not just destroy everything now? WHY PLAY THESE GAMES WITH US!!” Naveen shouted at the girl she now found so unfamiliar.

“No need to raise your voice princess.” She walked slowly towards Naveen, blood boot prints followed her. She stopped inches away. “Games are fun. You should know, you enjoy toying with the emotions of this body.”

“...that’s not true.” She whispered in response but refused to make eye contact.

“You’re a very bad liar girl, but don’t worry, it won’t be around for long. It’s just a puppet.” She spread its arms to reveal the blue veins spreading rapidly throughout her body. “Just like most of the fools in this room.”

“Is she still in there?” Naveen looked deeply into her eyes. “Xylee! Stop this please! You’ll die...”

“Don’t be stupid princess.” She turned about and walked back to the bleeding body of Ruiters son.

“...I’m sorry...” Naveen dropped her arm to her side, in a defeatist type of manner. “Give her back...I... Love her.” Xylee turned around and smiled.

“That’s lovely princess and I am sure she would have loved to hear you say that but, she’s not coming back.”

“...give her back...” Naveen scrunched up her fists tightly and began to shake with anger.

“Not here princess.”

“Give her back.”

“Not very bright are you?”

“GIVE HER BACK!” With that she charged blindly forward.

Xylee lifted her hand about to stop Naveen.

“Stupid girl-?” Nothing came out. “That can’t be all of the power gone already I can feel more!” The demon within glared down at her hands and felt something familiar claw its way to the surface. Xylee.

“Impossible.” Naveen flung forward and grasped tightly onto Xylee. “Let go you idiot!” It attempted to pry Naveen off with her claws, but as soon as Xylees hands got close to Naveens body, the nails receded and became normal and she lacked the strength.

The King struggled against his captor in an attempt to help Naveen but was quickly knocked unconscious.

“...give her back... I love her.”

“Get off of me! Ruiter-” This command was cut short by a simple yet effective manoeuvre. Naveens lips forced their way onto Xylees, full of rage at the demon creature attempting to steal her friend and at herself for waiting till now to do this.

Lord Nico felt the surge of consciousness as Xylee began to push forward to regain control. She gave into the kiss and held Naveen tightly, her body feeling odd and more adult. The kiss did not last very long as Xylee pulled away from Naveen feeling odd from just having suppressed the demon, weaker and queasy. Her hand shot to her mouth and she turned away from Naveen doubling over to purge herself of the nausea. Blue sludge fell to the ground noiselessly. She ran he hand over her mouth and stood up.

“I’m sorry... I didn’t know it was... in me.” Her eyes worked their way into their original form, her horns shrunk and her nails were rounded but the tail remained.

A gurgling noise was heard from where she had just thrown up. They looked down to see it move towards the body of Garret. Ruiter looked down, unsure of what had just happened, he watched as the blue sludge climbed into Garrets mouth, nose, ears and eyes. His body twitched and sprang to its feet, pale and colourless. Its mouth moved but the voice was inconsistent with the way his tongue flopped inside his mouth.

“You... stupid girls... how.... did you.... do that?! AAh!”

“Lord Nico?”

“Yess... ?” The boys’ head clicked uncomfortably back to view Ruiter.

“Should I just kill them?”

“The demon girl.... kill her.... she is.... more than.... I thought. Leave princess... need her.” A bolt pierced through Lord Nicos corpse body. Everybody looked up to see a shadowy figure load another into the cross bow. At the same time Gelnane nodded to Anakal who had been waiting impatiently to act. He burst forward, placed his hands on the marble flooring and sent dozens of tiny sparks shooting towards all those under the demons spell in the hall. Ruiter snarled as the current hit his armour, which rendered the spell useless due to its rubber insulation. The rest of the people crumpled.

Xylee, greatly weakened by the possession, growth and use of magic found whatever energy she could muster, grabbed Naveen by the sleeve and made a mad dash for the hall door. It flew open and dozens of men and women with the same blue veins burst through.

“No where... to go!” Lord Nico shook off the electrical current and loped slowly towards Naveen and Xylee. “Ruiter!”

“Yes my Lord.” His suit buzzed and flickered with life and shot Xylee square in the chest. She flew backwards hitting a pillar and folded uncomfortably at the bottom. Naveen darted for Xylee but was quickly stopped by Anakal.

“Let go!”

“I need to protect you princess.”

“Protect her!” she pointed at Xylee. Ruiter edged closer aimed for a clean shot at her head. Green light flew directly for Ruiter. He managed to dodge at the last second.

“Not this time Gelnane!” He turned and aimed for the stationary target and hit him cleanly on his chest. He didn’t even flinch, as his tunic burst into flames, revealing roots and bark crisscrossing across his chest. His eyes held no vengeance or guilt he was simply there, but why he had shot Ruiter was a mystery. Possibly his disliking of Ruiter was so great, or he understood the importance of preserving Xylees live.

Xylee stirred. Her head pounded and her back felt hugely uncomfortable.

She saw Naveen standing with Anakal. He seemed to be holding her back, which was not what Xylee wanted. She wanted to be as close to Naveen as she could for as long as she could. Getting up was difficult but she managed to clamber to her feet and walk towards Naveen.

“Ruiter!... Leave the tree... shoot the... Girl!” Lord Nico was punctured again by another bolt. The shadowy figure loaded again and shot, this time at his head.

“Ahh! Stop... that!” Lord Nico was furious and highly distracted, so Xylee took the chance to hobble towards Naveen, but as fate had it, Lemoine crabbed her leg as she passed near his unconscious body, said something she didn’t understand and found herself watching as her body broke into tiny fragments and got sucked into a tiny rip in the air.

And just like that she was gone before Naveens very eyes. Anakal took her confusion as opening and dragged her towards the one side of the hall. Placing his hands on its surface it crumpled and he dragged Naveen with him. Next thing she realised she found herself outside of the castle in a distant field, standing beside an exhausted looking Anakal.

“What...No. We have to go back. My father! Xylee!” She ran forward.

“There’s no way you can get the King outta there alive, nor yourself Princess.” He breathed heavily and sat down revealing a small rug sack that had been clipped onto the inside of his cape. “And that demon girl Xylee, she isn’t there anymore.”

Naveen turned around and stormed towards Anakal.

“Then where is she and what the Elta is going on!”

“Don’t look at me Princess; you’d have to ask that wizard man Lemoine where he sent her and Gelnane only filled me in on the basics. Something bad was a foot something to do with demons of old, you had to be saved and that demon girl thing couldn’t be allowed to be controlled or drained of her power. No matter what the cost.”

“What do you mean no matter the cost?”

Anakal took a swig of water and offered the cask to the princess. She shook her head angrily.

“She could be sent far away or she could be killed. But only after whatever was in her was removed. It’s confusing.”

“Bring her back!”

“I can’t. I’m nowhere near as powerful as Lemoine and she could be dead.”

“She’s not dead!”

“Doesn’t matter. We should get going. The horses are not far from here.”

“I’m not going anywhere but back!”

Anakal put the cask back into the rug sack and clipped it back onto his inner cape, then stood up.

“Do you want to lose your kingdom to demons and traitors?”

“Of course not.”

“Then as the last air in a long line of Tyres you have a duty to survive for your people. So that when the battle is over you can rightfully claim the throne.”

“I don’t understand what’s going on. Where is she where is Xylee, and why didn’t you do anything sooner if you knew what was happening?”

“Forget her now, and we didn’t do anything because we weren’t prepared until now, and that was just barely. You just need to understand that you need to survive this land needs you more than you know and that I will protect you.”

“Why can’t Gelnane ever do anything normally?”