Blood of Decusia

Chapter Eight

    "I-I," I stammered, unsure of what to say.
    Marcus suddenly grabbed me by the arm, pulled me to my feet, and shoved me back against the tree, pinning my arms. I winced as my back screamed with pain.
    "Marcus!" Warned cried, but he didn't try to help.
    Marcus's eyes were blazing, an anger fiercer than I had ever seen.
    "You're-you're hurting me," I stammered, squirming against his iron grip.
    "Who are you?" he demanded again.
    "I don't know!" I blurted, "I don't know what's wrong with me!"
    He stared at me intensely, as if he was trying to figure out if I was lying. After a long moment, he seemed satisfied and let me go. I swore I saw a look of shame cross his face, as he turned away.
    "Sorry," he murmured.
    "Ok," Warner said, stepping between us, "Why don't you tell us what you do know? But you're going to have to tell us everything this time."
    I took a deep breath, rubbing my arms, still looking at Marcus's back.
    "It started when I first came into the forest," I explained, "They were coming at me when I felt this intense heat in my chest. The next thing I knew, the men were 30 feet away and the rope that had been used to tie up my hands was smoking. Then when we were battling those silver masked men. One of them was trying to drag me into the woods and it happened again. But this time, it was different. It was more than just heat, it was power. It was built up like pressure and when it was released, it was like I could feel the energy of everything around me. I assume the guy got blown back, like the other two."
    While I talked, Marcus turned back to me, listening intensely..
    "Clove," Marcus said, slowly, "You didn't blast him back."
    "What?"
    I looked back at the scene of the fight. I could only see five bodies piled near each other. I looked around, but saw nothing.
    "Where did he go?"
    Marcus turned to Warner, who's brow was furrowed.
    "You disintegrated him," he said, turning back to me.
    "What?"
    I hadn't just disoriented him like the other two, or even killed him. I destroyed him. I literally wiped him from existence.
    "No," Warner muttered, "No, no, no. There's no way."
    "It makes sense, Warner," Marcus turning toward him, "The portal, the dormancy, all of it. If one of them is real, they all are."
    "What are you guys talking about?" I asked.
    Marcus turned back to me.
    "Clove, was there anything different about yesterday?"
    I let out a harsh laugh.
    "I can safely say that I have never experienced a day like yesterday."
    Marcus didn't smile. His eyes focused on my neck
    "What's that?"
    I put a hand to my neck, feeling the silver chain of my necklace, slightly revealed from my sweatshirt. I pulled it out.
    Warner stopped pacing.
    "No way," he muttered, "How is that even possible? How would that even get into the Other World?"
    "Clove," Marcus said, "Where did you get that?"
    I furrowed my brow, confused.
    "My aunt gave it to me," I explained, "It was a gift from my mom that she was saving for me for my 18th birthday."
    Marcus and Warner exchanged a look.
    "I really wish you guys would stop that?" I exploded, throwing my hands up, "What is going on?"
    Marcus sighed.
    "Do you remember when Warner explained about the three sections of Decusia?"
    I nodded.
    "Well according to the legend, there's a little more to the story, but before today, I thought it was even more insane than the origin story."
    "Which is saying something," Warner muttered.
    "Anyway, a century after the creation of the Malum and the humans, a war broke out. It was mostly between the Malum and the Fauna, with the humans unfortunately being caught in the middle. Villages close to the borders were the most vulnerable, men, women, and children were collateral damage from both sides. King Osric, who was human, pleaded with the Fauna for extra protection, but they had their own issues to deal with. So he decided to take matters into his own hands. He led a legion of his army into the fight.
It was horrible, even with the help from the humans, the Fauna were losing badly. Both of them had lost almost half of their troops. All hope seemed lost, but then the Fauna queen, Amata tried something risky. She tried to call upon all of the energy and power from her ancestors, the Fairies. No one had ever tried to absorb that much raw power before."
A shiver went down my spine and I could've sworn I felt a slight warmth in my chest.
"She had reached her peak, lighting up the battlefield. When the king of the Malum, Veneficusia stabbed her. Releasing a huge amount of energy. At the same time, Osric, who by the way, was rumored to be Amata's lover, rushed forward to stop him, but he too was swallowed by the light.
When everything cleared, the Kings and the Queen were gone and in their place there were three stones, one black, one green, and one purple, said to be the very essences of the three. Not only were they gone, but the Malum too, and they weren't heard from again. They became the stories that the older children would tell the younger ones to try and scare them."
"Until 10 years ago," Warner jumped in.
"When the Fauna were slaughtered," I finished.
"Exactly," Marcus said.
"Wait, what happened to the stones?" I asked.
"No one is really sure," Marcus continued, "It's said when the King and Queen disappeared, the line of royalty passed on. That they each took them and hid them in their own lands, as a way to keep the balance of magic is Decusia. The green one, Bellatoro hidden in Majestas and the purple one, Naturae, hidden in Althuria. The black one, Umbra, was cast deep into Tenebris once it discovered that there were no Malum."
"If the Umbra was the essence of essentially darkness, then why wouldn't they destroy it?" I asked.
"Because of balance," Warner answered, "Without that darkness, the magic in Decusia, the very root and core of this world, would become unbalanced. At least, that's how the story goes."
"So this necklace," I started, putting a hand on the cool stone, "is what? The essence of the Fauna queen?"
"I guess so," Marcus said.
Suddenly, the pieces clicked in my head.
"That's why he wants me," I said, "He wants the stone."
"He must've found the Umbra," Marcus agreed, "That's the only way he could've gotten through the border."
"So he's after the stones," Warner said.
"Wait," Marcus asked, "If he was really after the stones, then why would he go to all that trouble going into the Other World? Why wouldn't he just storm Majestas?"
"Because he's building an army," Warner answered, "With two of the stones, he'll have enough power and enough manpower to take Majestas easily. It's theoretically a lot easier to go after a single girl than take down an army, even if it is human."
He furrowed his brow, a new thought coming to him.
"The question we should be asking is, how did the Naturae get into the Other World?"
"Yeah," I agreed, "Why would my mom have it?"
"Listen," Marcus jumped in, "We can talk about this for hours and theorize, but what we do know is that Clove is in danger. We need to get her back to Lupidium, now."
"We're almost there," Warner said, squinting through the trees, "The river isn't far from here."   
"Ok, but I still have so many questions," I said, my voice sounding sort of whiney, "Marcus, something is still missing. The why and how. Why did my mom have it? How did Dominius know where I was?"
"Well, we're not going to figure it out if we're attacked again," Marcus said, "When we get to base, we can find someone who might be able to fill in the pieces."
"He's right," Warner said to me, "If we're right, and weirder things have happened today, he's just going to keep sending people to get you and my guess is, the next batch will be harder to beat than these guys. We'll be safer when we cross the border and get to Lupidium."
As much as my mind buzzed with questions still unanswered, I knew they had a point. Who knows what would come along next and I couldn't rely on this stone to bail me out, especially if it was truly as powerful as they said. A part of me wanted to take the necklace off and chuck it as hard as I could. We needed to get somewhere where someone could answer my questions and make sense of all of this.
"Ok," I said.
Marcus smiled and clapped Warner on the back.
"Let's go home."