Come Love A Stranger

Twenty eight

Azura watched the young human beside her going into a shock and sighed, “do not worry, I will not harm you…yet at least,” she turned away from her, “I brought you here for a reason,” she started walking away and Mariah followed her in fear. “Alador is a very unique god; he is the third one to be blessed with three powers. The first god with such ability was the mighty Darian,” she stopped in front of a painting of a man with long red hair and red eyes, “he has the power to shape-shift, control water and fire. When Alador was younger, he had set up a house on fire with just a thought, surprising every single one of us but as he grew older,” she shrugged, “t’s like it left him as he has not done anything like that again, but his eyes still indicate that there is fire in him and if that becomes true,” she shook her head, “then he would be one of a kind because he would have four powers, something that has never been witnessed in the demigod history.”
She shifted to another painting, “this is Alkaria, the second god to have three powers,” in the painting was a beautiful woman, she looked so innocent and lovely that even Mariah was taken away by her beauty, “she has the power of the forest, and the power to protect animals as well the power of lightening, these two are ancient gods that had been dead for over five thousand years ago. After the two of them, the demigod world did not hear of a god with three powers for a long time until Alador was born, and that fact alone already made him the strongest god alive and if it turns out he still posses the power of fire, then he would be the strongest demigod there ever been. This fact alone made him a treat to the fire gods, the sky gods, the forest gods and the animal gods, because none of them can beat him in a battle but at the same time, we are not too sure about the fire power yet which is why the fire gods are still hopeful that he is still not yet undefeatable.”
“Why would they want to defeat him?” Mariah asked.
“During Darian’s time, he was sort after and killed and only after his death was it understood that his ability was for our good and not downfall, so when Alkaria was born, everyone worshipped her and adored her instead because her powers ended up being useful when the only forest god then died mysteriously. She had taken it upon herself to care for the trees; something that would have been a drastic situation was immediately solved by her. The king married her and she became the queen and used her abilities in so many ways to help us,” she turned to Mariah then, “Alador came from a long line of Alkaria.”
“So Alador is only respected now, if he ends up having a fire power, he would become a threat as the gods would then hunt him, not that I think they would like to repeat history,” she continued as she started walking out of the hall, “come with me,” she ordered and opened a big gigantic door to enter another hall that looks like gold was the only thing that was used in building and painting it. At the long end of it were two thrones. Azura grabbed her hand and they were immediately in front of the thrones. “Alador is supposed to be sitting here with his queen,” she whispered, “his father was the king and as his heir, he should be the rightful king but he is not, do you know why?” she glanced at Mariah who shook her head softly, “because he kept breaking the one rule, the most important rule of the demigods. T’s said that if a demigod breaks a rule, that it is pardonable as long as they promise not to do it again but there is that one rule that should never be broken: Do not fall for a human.”
Mariah couldn’t say anything when she heard that, her heart kept beating in ten beats per second, it was really strange taking in all that was happening, first a strange woman appear and took her to a place she never knew existed, then she heard that her one and only love was not only the forest beast she had been told as a child to be afraid of but was also a demigod, then at the end, the strange woman turned out to be his mother and now told her that the one rule that must not be broken is a Demigod not to fall for a human and she is a human, how could she digest all these?
“Alador has broken that rule, not once, nor twice but five good times and venturing on the sixth,” Azura added.
Five time? Mariah thought, five times, so they were others before me?
“Nay,” Azure surprised her by saying, “t’s been you, only you Mariah. You see, you have reincarnated five good times and this being the sixth. Each lifetime of yours, you had had my son under your spell, making him ignore everything that he was supposed to do. Alador is supposed to be the king but he has not been carrying out his duties in hundreds of years now all because he had be smitten by you, a mere human girl. When his father died, he was not here to carry on with the rights and the kingdom could not go without a king so Ilayas took over. Ilayas is my husband’s younger brother, now we all know he has always coveted the throne and Alador just offered it to him in a platter of gold. I have this feeling within me that Ilayas would not easily give Alador the throne but what can I say? My foolish son has never even bothered about the throne, his birthright; he has always been bothered about you, a human girl.
Now for breaking the rule time and time again, Ilayas banished him out of the kingdom until he realize his mistake and also put a curse on him that he is to spend years out of the gods world and should he continue loving a human, he would forever be doomed to be banished. The problem now is not that he has gotten you to fall for him again but that he is embarking on a death mission.”
“A death mission?” Mariah asked.
“Aye, you see, you did not die naturally in your previous lifetimes, you were killed by our Hackeries. They are creatures in form of a human and a wolf. They have been serving us for a tale as long as time and only a king can summon them. Also, the Hackeries have this thing about them, when they kill a soul five good times, on the sixth kill they would trap the soul in them to avoid the soul reincarnating again and saving themselves the trouble of killing them again. Hackeries have killed you five good times, if they are summoned to kill you again, you would stop existing and your soul would forever be trapped inside them and the only way to free you is to kill them but there is no history that a god has ever been able to kill Hackeries. They are like smoke and have never been engaged in a battle before. They were created to serve us by the Almighty and help us to take care of the humans and also the evil gods.
You see, only humans reincarnate, we gods live all our lifetimes in one, while humans live seven times and reincarnate six times. You reincarnate every single time you die, sometimes it takes two hundred years to reincarnate and sometimes more or less but once after the sixth reincarnation, the human’s soul travels to the beyond, the final resting place for every being, including us. But if Hackeries traps the soul, then the human is like they never existed because their soul would not be found in the eternal world. Should Hackeries kill you in this lifetime Mariah, you would stop to exist and it’s what Alador is trying to avoid and t’s going to cost him his life.”