Lineage of Zeal, Book One: Rosemary

Chapter Fifteen: Ascended

The wind picked up. Puffs of cloud raced past, obscuring and revealing the moon in turn. Trees and leaves sounded in creaking, papery tones as the autumn air twisted its way through branches and ran over the hills. And with it chilling everything over which it blew, there would be not dew, but frost, come the morning light.

Rosemary paid little attention to any of this.

The red woman leaned against a tree, looking down into the valley beneath her. Her robe was at her feet, folded neatly. Her hair was tied, but pulled over her shoulder and left to hang down her front in an effort to keep the wind from buffeting it overmuch. She held her arms folded under her chest and would occasionally stroke the end of her ponytail. Her eyes were their usual cold, distant selves, but her knitted brow betrayed the emotion her eyes wished to deny. She looked expectant. Impatient.

She looked worried.

Crunching leaves drew Rosemary's attention. She did not turn her head, but looked from the corner of her eye in the direction of the sound. She could not clearly make out who approached, but she knew without having to see any more than black pants entering her field of vision who it was.

"So. You think you're ready to deal with this?"

His voice sent her heart into turmoil. As soon as she heard it, her heart began tearing at itself. The darkness, the black entity from deep within desired more than anything to rip the vocal chords out of that incubus's throat, to tear every hair from his head and pluck every feather and break every bone and—

But she could not. It pained her, fighting this Fallen shade, but she could not give in. She knew it was not something she could best alone, so she needed his help. She needed Leviticus, for at the moment, he was the one who summoned this beast from deep within her upon sight alone. He was also the one who could restrain her were she to go berserk again, she had such confidence in his ability. Leviticus would show her how to overcome this.

"You figured it out, haven't you? What this is."

Rosemary clutched at her heart and slumped to the root-entangled earth, eyes shut tight.

"You've still got the better part of a century left before you turn two-hundred. Are you sure you want to attempt this?"

"I don't have a choice!" Rosemary hissed through gritted teeth. The words that followed, however, rattled like dead leaves in the breeze. "I can't keep losing myself like this. Not if I want to find my son again. I can't become a demon. I can't become Fallen, like his father."

Leviticus knelt next to Rosemary. He reached toward her shoulder, but let his hand fall before it reached its destination. "Then I'll help you. It's part of my atonement, helping all those that I can, when I can, with the power I've been given. But be warned: you're nowhere near two-hundred. You're special, that much you've made clear, since you've been able to live a 'normal' life up until now. But the part of you you're fighting, well, it's going to hurt bringing that under control, especially so soon. More than you already hurt."

Rosemary clutched at her stomach and bent over, heaving with her head between her legs. Nothing came up, but she wiped her mouth with the back of a hand and stood facing away from Leviticus.

"You can tell me about pain," Rosemary said into the wind, "when you've been raped by Lucifer, had your child stolen from you at birth, and the one time that you've seen him since the day of his birth, some soulless, diseased, whore of a woman prevents you from holding him in your arms again." Rosemary turned back to Leviticus. Her hair was already darkening to black, as was her hakama.

"That's right," said Leviticus, retreating a step and reaching his hand behind his back. "That's the first step. Let go."

And let go she did. Fallen Rosemary swung her right arm at the incubus, and her black crystal sword materialized halfway through the stroke. Leviticus pulled his arm from behind his back and blocked her massive blade with one of his feather daggers. Blades locked, they pressed into one another, struggling for dominance in this battle of brute strength. With a primal roar, Rosemary pressed harder with her one arm, forcing Leviticus to a knee. The incubus was losing ground.