The Celestial Knight - Battle of Love

Chapter 9: The Attack

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Corvan realized how hopeless this was. He had came out here like a hero, only to find that he had not the slightest idea what to do. It was not going well.

 Zion was unsually quiet, Tamara seemed depressed, no longer her cheery self. Charles didn't bother cooking, so Keelan was moaning in pain. Aneeka's temper kept flaring, Rowe was disinterested in everything. The twins were not arguing like usual. Even Elfre seemed sad with Valeriana gone, adn Raziel lost his narcissistic personality. And Brindon was, well, like Brindon.

The group wandered the desolate lands, their familiars at their sides. But thee was no sign of Valeriana, they were utterly alone. In some reason, the loss of Valeriana's humour was devastating. Finally, Avaro spoke.

"Thy are angry at thyself. Is it because of the girl?"

Corvan was too tired of denying, so he simply nodded. Avaro hummed to himself, then suddenly pricked alert.

"Thy father and mother are summoning thy. Maybe that shall helpst."

Corvan brightened a little, days have been uneventful, and he was glad of a distraction. He wondered why he never thought of Arlandia's great library as a place for trying to figure out where the Great Demon was. After all, the Library in the Ember Palace nearly rivaled the Library in the Academy, but they dared not return, after all, it would be a disgrace and complete humiliation for the Twelve.

if only they knew of the secret room in the Academy's Library, where the ancient scrolls hold an answer, but alas, it was not to be.

Corvan informed the Twelve, and Charles silently berated himself for not having an idea for once. But it was too late too regret or dawdle, so they set aim for the Ember Palace.

On the ship, Brindon gazed out at the sea, his artistic side of himself rising. He wanted to paint a picture. An old women came beside him, holding a brush out, holding a blank, white canvas, her eyes twinkling. Brindon drew closer, unconsciously watching the women paint each stroke. "So precise, a picture of the moon," he thought. 

He frowned at the women's choice of paint. She was painting a night sky, but usually, Valemnians avoided the color black, choosing instead to paint the night sky a calming, dark blue. This women painted the sky black. Brindon shivered, feeling cold, yet the sun was still bright. The women continued to paint and the bright moon seemed ominous, full of foreboding.

Something wasn't right, Corvan sensed it, he could feel it, yet it was almost not there. But he didn't find anything.

The women dabbed some red on the moon, smiling at him mysteriously. Brindon scrutinised the drawing, and remembered. Back in their first Quest with Valeriana, they had found that the guardians were being tainted. The beasts have spoke of a moon bleeding, just like this one. 

He jerked back, his hand reaching for his bow, the women stopped him, her grip tighter than he expected. She jerked his forward, and bit him. The pain was immense, Brindon had never been the one for pain tolerance, he slipped into unconsciousness.

But the demon had left flashes of images in his brains, he thought he could hear it laughing, "Here's what you're up against, but you won't live to tell the tale!"

Corvan saw Brindon leaning forward, his love of art making him not notice the demon's presence, but the demon used a masking, so it was hard to notice even so. He saw Brindon fall to the deck, and rushed to him. A bite from the demon.

Valeriana had mentioned before when she learned about a bite of a demon, that it was similar to a King Cobra's poison. "It could kill 15 men on Earth, so this would probably kill 15 Valemnians!" Corvan missed her, it had seemed so long ago. He hadn't appreciated it at that time, but now he wished he did, very moment of it.

But there were more to be done. Corvan staunched the wound and called of Genevieve. The younger Sabian twin had been practising her control, and she took out her medical bag. Her hands glowed, moving over the wound, then she looked at Corvan helplessly, "I've managed to stop the poison, but not completely, it's too strong. I need medicine, he could die from blood loss."

Elfre gritted her teeth, "Then we better arrive sooner," she thrust out her hands, and the wind picked up the sail with full force, and the wind sped them along.

They didn't notice the drawing of the bleeding moon floating across the air currents, nor did they notice Brindon weakly trying to grasp a brush and paint.