The Song of Demons' Hope

chapter 3

Chapter 3: Thundercreek Castle

 Eventually, Aaron stopped at a castle. He seemed to not notice Aria following him. The flames stopped gushing from his feet. He landed perfectly. He had apparently had enough time to bound and gag Silas. Aaron entered the castle. Guards appeared behind him. They walked like an army squad.

 Seth had caught up with Aria now, who was about to try to tear the whole castle down.

 "Aria, you can't face him alone, he's a Turned! That's Aaron! I doubt I could face him alone, and I'm an Omega Chosen One!"

 "What?" Kaden and Zackary exclaimed. They had understood the story, but had never expected their own father to be an Omega Chosen One!

 "You guys really didn't assume it? I'm especially disappointed in you, Kaden. You're supposed to be the smart one..."

 "Hey!" Zackary yelled.

 "Bickering will get us nowhere! Remember, Silas is in Thundercreek Castle; Aaron's, a Turned, fortress! We need to act. The question is: how do we get in? We can't become invisible, and who knows, they might have a seer."

 Seth seemed to know how to get in. "They only have guards. Plus, Chosen Ones, even Turned, don't trust seers. I say we kill guards and sneak in. See those three there on the side of the mountain? We'll take them out first. Then we'll go in the castle and kill Aaron and save Silas. After all that, we can go home, and have some nice hot cocoa..."

 Aria wasted no time. She sprinted forward and killed one, two, three guards. As she came back, it was obvious how. In each of her hands, she carried a long, sharp sword of light. Seth grinned. That was his wife, all right. Always ready to kill for her family. It made him think back to a time where she had a tree, and she was still a dryad. During her dryadic life, she had saved him from a djinn named Ba'csnu. Seth was trying to figure out how to become a more powerful wraithier [he did eventually; he had to do was hatch a phoenix egg in the Well of Minds, which was very hard to do.] When the djinn had tried to blast Seth to pieces, Aria had done the only thing she could do. She gave up her dryadic life for her future husband. Aria had chopped down her own tree, severing her from the bond and making her a Chosen One, capable of living thousands of years and barely aging.

 "Are we going in or not? The guards are dead!"

 "Yeah, I was just waiting for you to get back."

 The Dreamveil family ran into the castle. They continued killing guards. Eventually, Seth tortured a guard rather cruelly and painfully until he gave up the location of Aaron and Silas. The family rushed to the rescue. They walked down what seemed like a labyrinth of dungeons, dining chambers, armories, and master-sized bedrooms. Finally, they reached the ballroom. Aaron was there, simply waiting while humming a lazy tune.

"I thought you'd never show, Brother!" Aaron laughed.

"Not bad guy Aaron, Uncle Aaron?" Kaden murmured. He couldn't believe he was going to fight his own uncle, he couldn't believe his own uncle was a Turned! Was this why they warned me about the War? Perhaps not. Either way, it helped to know that I am in mortal danger.

"Back off, Aaron, just hand over my son and I won't have to kill you" Seth growled.

"Is that any way to talk to family? Tsk, tsk. You should know better, you of all people! What with your wife and kids and such..."

"Leave them alone, this is between you and me. I'm the Chosen One, and you are only here for my Verse."

"Wrong again! I'm not the one who wants your Verse."

"You're not implying you work for the Dark Excecutioner, are you?"

"I'm not just implying, I am clearly telling you I positively work for the Dark Executioner."

"How could you? It was bad enough you're a Turned!"

"Being a Turned was the best thing that ever happened to me, Brother."

"What is wrong with you? What happened to the Aaron I used to know? The Aaron who would never hurt a fly, or betray his family?"

"That Aaron is gone, he is dead and no longer is a part of me."

"Aaron, that wasn't a part of you, that was you."

Aaron yelled and threw a fireball at Seth. Seth neatly cart wheeled out of the way, while slowly morphing into a giant viper, reaching from the floor to the ceiling. He hissed angrily and slithered rather quickly at Aaron. He coiled around Aaron and prepared to bite, when Aaron screamed and spun, gushing fire from his hands the whole way. The sheer heat alone hurled Seth against a wall, knocking him out senseless. Aria cursed in a foreign language [in Maranian so her kids wouldn't comprehend her foul, foul language. Aaron, on the other hand, understood perfectly]. She hurled multiple beams and spheres of light [still cursing] and refused to relent her attack.

Zackary and Kaden joined the fight. Zackary shot sparks from his fingertips, sending a strange scent into the air. Kaden tried relentlessly to attack Aaron's mind. Uncle or not, he was going to pay. Aaron tried desperately to block their attacks, but they were too strong. If only he could contact his fellow Turned! That's it! He could trick the telepath into thinking he had burrowed into his mind, and then use his telepathic power to contact Cody, Joel, and Matriatsu.

That was his biggest mistake, for Kaden had already broken into his mind, had heard his thoughts, and was now in the process of killing Aaron. Aaron screamed in pain. His thoughts now were only of suicide and getting far, far away. Before he could decide, he dropped, dead.

The family rushed over to Seth, but he was still unconscious. Aria made a carrier of light and floated Seth close next to her. They set off to find Silas.

"Three doors to the right, protected by a guardian, a morpher to be exact." Aria thought.

The family [minus Seth and Silas, of course] prepared for their battle with the morpher. The boys had battled with one before, only one that one had been given strict directions not to kill them. This one probably was supposed to blast them into microscopic pieces. Just their luck.

The morpher was female, but that didn't make her any easier, if not the opposite. She used her flexibility to avoid every blast of light or bolt of lightning they shot at her. However, she couldn't avoid what she couldn't see. Kaden was throwing telepathic punches enthusiastically at the morpher, whose name, Kaden had discovered, was Facora. He was satisfied at the way she flew at nearly every punch. Now it was time to do some research. Surprisingly, she was not guarding her mind at all. He went inside and attacked. The morpher howled in pain [she was in the form of a wolf at the time] and dropped, in a trance.

The Dreamveil family started down the hall. They found Silas in a cell. In a rush, they flew out of Thundercreek Castle.