The Time Capsule

Chapter Twenty-One.

The screams of tormented souls encompassed Nadia. They were everywhere. Everywhere she looked, she saw black souls crying out to her. In the back of her mind, she felt like someone was calling her name. ‘Nadia. Wake up.’
The souls advanced, clawing at her, tearing her apart. She gasped, trying to break free, but the swarm was too large. Too powerful. Nadia was being pulled down into the pit of souls. Where she knew, somehow, that if she was thrown down there, she would never get out. “Let go of me!” She shouted, trying to ward off the evil beings.
‘Wake up, Nadia. Wake up!’ The voice in the back of her mind appeared again, this time, more insistent.
Heaving a breath, she used all her strength to break through the throng of unwanted attackers. Her eyes flew open. She was sitting on a cot in some kind of hospital. Bright lights were covering the ceiling, and they blinded her momentarily. “Wh-” Her mouth couldn’t form the words. Nadia felt so weak. Exhaustion hit her like a ton of bricks, and she closed her eyes for a second.
“Don’t try anything. We’re healing you so we can put you in front of the High Council. If I had had a say, we would have let Fate kill you when he had the chance.”
Nadia recognized the voice, and she opened her eyes once more to look at him. “Cyrus.” ‘Great. Just what I need. After being stabbed and-’ Looking down, she felt her chest. No wound. It still felt like someone threw salt on it and lit it on fire, but much better than, you know, dying…’
“Can I have wa-water?” Her throat was dry, and she could barely utter the question.
“Not until you give me answers.” Cyrus glared down at her. “You escaped from the inescapable cell. Then we found you on your deathbed in the time loop. Your father, Fate, was dead. And the Keeper of Time’s sister? Also dead. Can you see why I am curious as to how you did all this”
Nadia didn’t reply. Her heart felt like it was being torn in half. Until she realized something: “W-what do you mean, ‘the Keeper of Time’s sister’?” She asked, tilting her head in confusion.
“Idiot. Mortal. DeathBringer.” He muttered under his breath. “Just that.”
“Roman is alive?” Nadia’s eyes widened.
“Have you gone deaf? Yes.” Cyrus gritted his teeth, looking like he was wishing to kill her.
“Rosamund is dead?” Tears filled her eyes as shock swept through her. She hadn’t known her for very long, but loss filled her heart thoroughly.
“I’m not going to answer any more questions. Now, answer my questions.” He glared at her, then, in a flash, she saw him lift up his cloak from his leg, just to see a small dagger hidden in his boot.
“How did you escape from the cell?” Cyrus questioned, knowing that she saw his threat.
“I-” ‘I need to lie. He can’t hurt anyone because of me. “I was given this bracelet-”, She lifted up her wrist. “-When my parents passed. My aunt gave it to me when I turned eleven. She always told me that in a scary situation, that I can press this-”, Nadia showed him the gemstone. “-And it would hide me from harm. So I used it when I was in the cell, and it teleported me to Fate.”
“You do realize that I’m not an idiot.” Cyrus looked over at Nadia’s IV. “You only have a small amount of time to give me answers. Then, the medicine will kick in. Now, answer truthfully.”
“Medicine? What medicine-” Nadia stopped when she realized that the IV was an odd color. Almost blue.
She scrambled, ripping the tubes out of her arm.
He smiled smugly. “It’s already gone into your bloodstream. Don’t worry. I’ll arrange a funeral that is fitting for a king. I’ve been thinking for ages about what to do with you. After I let Fate put you into the Time Loop, I figured you would be out of sight, out of mind. Obviously, that didn’t go as planned. But…” He sighed wearily. “Having him die at the hands of his own daughter, now, that is quite the story. It’s too bad he didn’t get to see me kill you.”
Nadia’s fists were clenched, her heart beating too quickly, her thoughts completely scrambled. ‘He tricked me. I know that he’s never liked me, but…’
“Adelaide was an unfortunate pawn. She was supposed to get the job done, but that failed when your little friends came to your rescue. I cursed her to an eternity on one of the Earths, and she will forever be unable to speak of her experiences or even talk at all. Saves me from getting into… trouble.”
“You sent Adelaide after me?” Nadia paled. “How could you? Why do you hate me so much? I did nothing to you.”
He laughed grimly. “I see. You don’t even know.”
“Know WHAT?” She was tired of this villain monologue. She needed to start figuring out how to get the medicine out of her bloodstream. If that was even possible.
“Eons ago, Fate was in love with Destiny, your mother. The story goes that Fate killed Destiny when she hid you away on an Earth so he wouldn’t kill you. In a fit of rage, he murdered her. But… that isn’t all there is to it. I was also in love with Destiny.” His eyes turned wild.
“But, she being an “honorable Keeper”, He did quotation marks with his fingers. “Rejected me, probably because she felt obligated to Fate. Pity she couldn’t see who was the better option.” He chuckled bitterly. “So when I tried to come to her again because I KNEW that she was lying about her true feelings for me, Fate discovered my plot. He also realized that Destiny had hidden his child away in the mortal realm. It was too much for him to handle. He took her life.”
Cyrus sighed. “And then Fate almost killed me. BUT I bargained my way out by giving him higher influence in the High Council. I was almost his “inside man”.”
Nadia listened in horror to this absolute monster of a man. ‘He let Fate kill my mother, and he feels no remorse. None. None at all.”
“As time went by, I realized that Fate could be pretty easily manipulated. He was too blinded by fury. So I made him think he was pulling the strings when I was actually the puppet master. He was so… dense at times. In the end, his arrogance was his downfall. Continuing on, thousands of years later, I heard that he had put you in a time loop, and so I researched it slightly. I could not FATHOM that Destiny would have a child with HIM. HIM, of all people. The insanity!” Cyrus had gotten up and was pacing across the room, running his hands through his hair.
“When you showed up in our Council Room, I knew that I could enlist Adelaide to kill you off. None would be the wiser. But, as per usual, if you want something done, you have to do it yourself.”
‘Think, Nadia. What can I do to keep myself from dying? Or should I just accept that this is my destiny?’ As Cyrus continued to ramble about this and that, his evil villain speech, she decided on one thing: It didn’t matter if she lived or died. All that mattered was that she needed to kill Cyrus before he harmed anyone else.
She willed herself to summon magic, even though the poison was already weakening her very being. As the Councilor paced across the room, she hid her hand under the hospital blanket and tried to force herself to make a dagger.
Nadia was already becoming light-headed, and forcing herself to use magic that she had no idea how to use… it was difficult, to say the least. Right when she thought that she might possibly make a dagger, the door opened forcefully.
Roman Adair stepped into the room, looking absolutely enraged at Cyrus. “You mentioned how Fate’s arrogance was his downfall? How strange that you didn’t even consider that yours would also bring you the same ending. Did you seriously think that telling the guards to keep me in a cell so I wouldn’t come here and ruin your little “scheme” would work?” The Keeper of Time sighed. “How pitiful.”
Cyrus stopped his pacing, standing stock still and turning as white as a star. “You know that if you were to breathe any word of my plans, I could have you locked up until the Universe caved in and crumbled. You wouldn’t risk your own life, would you?”
The two men stared at each other, neither one moving.
Nadia’s ability to breathe was lessening. It felt like someone had ripped the air out of her lungs and made her hold her breath. “S-Stop. I don’t think that you accounted for the fact that I am not weak. I am not some useless mortal. I am also not going to sit here and let you” Nadia gasped, sitting up slowly, “Let you come here and cause destruction in your wake.”
Cyrus began to laugh. “Stupid girl. Just as stupid as your mother was.”
Nadia clenched her fists in anger. “How DARE you speak of my mother in that way.” She forced herself to stand up, the adrenaline in her system making her breathing quicken.
“I’m only speaking the truth. Maybe you should get a reality check.” The council member grinned.
“You know… I don’t think you understand one thing.” Roman crossed his arms, looking at Nadia and then at Cyrus.
“What do I not understand?” The other man sighed, annoyed that his plans had gotten interrupted.
“That just because you’re killing Nadia Wolfe, doesn’t mean that your plan is free and clear. She wasn’t the only one to have heard your plot. How awful would it be if I did get some backup and “breathed a word” of your villainous scheme to the High Council. I have allies as well, you know.”
“Then I’ll just have to kill you as well.” Cyrus unsheathed a knife from his coat and walked up to Roman. Surprisingly enough, Roman didn’t move. He just smiled smugly.
“Cyrus! No.” Nadia clenched her fists, trying to move as quickly as possible to get out of the bed and over to where they both stood. “Please. Don’t kill him.” Nadia dropped to one knee when her heart stuttered. The poison’s journey was almost complete.
Roman looked over at Nadia, pain in his gaze. “I hope my efforts weren’t all in vain. You will embrace your destiny. The Prophecy was true. My fate has been set in the stars for eons. And yours as well. Goodbye, Nadia Wolfe.”
Cyrus clenched his jaw. “I’ve always hated you. You got what you deserve.” He held the handle of the knife and plunged it straight into the Keeper of Time’s heart.
“NO!” Nadia’s vision was blinking in and out of the moment.
Roman closed his eyes, dropping to both knees as blood the color of starlight spilled out onto the floor.
A blinding flash burst throughout the room, and Nadia fully opened her eyes. Her strength felt renewed. If anything, she felt…. Stronger?
A shattering sound occurred where Roman was kneeling. The object that had fallen out of Roman Adair’s pocket looked familiar, other than the fact that it was in pieces now.
‘The hourglass. HOW?’ Nadia’s thoughts raced, and she ran over to him. “How?” She whispered hoarsely.
“That day in the park. When I snatched it from you, I never gave it back. I said a while a-” He breathed in, trying not to fade as quickly. “Ago that the last person that held the hourglass died. That was your mother. The Universe gifted it to her during the time wh-when Fate trapped her in the time loop.”
“Why would he put her in a time loop?” Nadia asked, her eyes welling with tears.
“Because. The same reason he tried harming you. He thought that she was too powerful. He wanted to control her. So he put her in the time loop. Somehow, using the hourglass, she sent you away into the mortal realm. Then came back to the time loop, only to have Fate discover what she’d done. He also had figured out what Cyrus was trying to do and killed her.
In her pocket, however, was the hourglass. And when she died, it shattered. Her body was never found. I knew that if…. If you had been gifted it by the Universe, that you would eventually die. So I took it in the hopes that it wouldn’t happen. In turn, the Prophecy was working all along.” Roman couldn’t hold himself up anymore and fell to the ground.
“The Prophecy? What-” Nadia couldn’t finish her sentence, however, because she saw something that made her chest seize up in pain. He was actually going to die.
“I gifted my power to you. To s-” He inhaled sharply, struggling to speak. “Save you. Use it wisely. And if I die, do no-” He looked at her one final time and exhaled slowly, his eyes going blank and his chest failing to move.
“No. NO! You can’t be gone. You didn’t finish what you-what you had to say! You didn’t get to finish training me. Or-or…” Nadia began to sob, despair clouding her every thought, her every move.
Someone was chuckling behind her. “Someone’s not happy that their friend died. A consequence of being my enemy. Now, if you can wrap this up, I’m going to-”
Nadia looked at Cyrus. His eyes widened as realization hit him. “He just said that he gave his power to you. Oh.”
“You DESPICABLE MONSTER!” She got up, breathing heavily with rage and uncontrollable anger. She closed her eyes. When she opened them, she held a scythe in her hand. Long, black, and the tip was bloodred. The blade was sharp enough to cut through bone. The handle made of ebony, smooth to the touch.
Nadia felt her mind breaking into pieces, just like the hourglass. No thought was fully finished. No emotion is completely well rounded. “Your death is one that I will greatly enjoy.”
Cyrus backed up, terror now flitting across his face, then shock. His demeanor changed, and he held out his hands. “Hold on, now. I didn’t mean it when I said I wanted to kill you. And… your Keeper wasn’t in that much pain.”
Nadia lifted up the scythe and charged towards him, slashing him across the face with her weapon. Blood was everywhere.
Cyrus collapsed to the ground just as guards rushed in, ten of them having to wrangle Nadia to the ground. The scythe was wrenched out of her hands, and she couldn’t even see the council member. One of the guards held up a sharp needle, glinting underneath the bright lights of the infirmary. Pain grabbed and twisted her insides, making her only thought be: ‘He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead. He’sdeadhe’sdeadhe’sdead.’
Tears streamed down her face, mixing with the blood, and finally, darkness fell upon her when the sting of a needle punctured her skin.