Riley Nyt and The Mortal Order

Chapter 11 - Luna Garden

Riley flicked her lighter open and closed. It clicked loudly as she snapped the golden rectangle's lid up and down as she walked through the wide-open halls of the second floor.

The lighter had been a gift from her uncle Damien. He wasn't actually related to them but he had been close to the Nyt's for a century, ever since the time of Alaska.

Damien had been Darius Vale's right hand before the first Mortal Order had been formed. He had accompanied Alaska, Darius, Kelsey and Lily on many of their adventures until he had been kidnapped by the realm of Greed. They had experimented with his vesence, trying to harness it and exploit it into becoming more powerful. He had been one of many experiments but, he had been the first successful one. They had taken another vestal's vesence, and infused it with his, creating the first viemäri. The power had corrupted him and the test subjects that followed after. They developed an incurable addiction to vesence, needing to absorb or steal others' vesence in order to fuel their own and survive. The viemäri war had been a sad war, families turning on their own and the viemäri doing unthinkable deeds to survive, but the Mortal Order had not given up on their friend and had found a solution.

Vesence sources were scattered across earth, and with the help of metallum and natura vestrals, they had found a way to access these power sources and harvest them. This had led to vesence being harvested to help the viemäri, create Kincaide station, and vesence weapons. Of course, with the discovery of this new power source, came many new problems like the illegal sale of vesence to greedy mortals and realm dwellers.

Families like the Nyt's became protectors of certain sources in the earth and had been tasked by the Supremes to protect them for generations to come.

Damien had been the first viemäri and when the war of the Seven Realms had reached its breaking point, he had rallied the viemäri and rushed to the Mortal Order's aid, turning the tide of the final battle - but not without great loss.

Lily Chase, a natura vestral, had made the ultimate sacrifice on the eve of her eighteenth birthday and sacrificed herself to seal the realm gates. She had unleashed her vesence, right down to her life force and saved the earth realm.

Her sacrifice had earned her the title, the Martyr, and the vestrals had grieved her loss. The last remnants of her natura vesence could be seen in the aurora borealis, a reminder of the great sacrifice that had been required for peace.

Damien Rex had disappeared and many believed that he had loved Lily and her loss had broken him.

Over a decade later, when Darius Vale and Mei Hua had welcomed their daughter, Xiuying, into the world, Damien had returned from self-exile, with the help of Alaska, and accepted the role of Xiuying's godfather.

He had helped Darius create the Valere Corps, he had stood at the altar with Alaska's brothers, Orion and Apollo, when she married Valentina Luna and he had been at Alaska and Darius's side when they grieved the loss of Kelsey Nova, when she had died saving their children from nightcrawlers.

Generations later, the Vale's rejected the way of vestral life and became pacifists, turning Damien away and so he had remained only by the Nyt's side. An uncle, a friend, an advisor, an ally and the man who had given Riley her first and only lighter.

She twirled it across her scarred knuckles, a trick she had learnt during a particularly boring stakeout with Thomas.

She looked at her warped reflection in the lighter's small surface. She had her two new scars running down her left cheek like upside down ticks and bruised eye that was fading quickly. Cassidy had healed her when they had finally been left alone in the infirmary but scars could not be avoided and her focus had been more on Riley's collapsed chest and cracked ribs than her scratched cheek.