'Evangeline, I'll give you ten more minutes, then we are leaving.' DeeDee huffed.
She, feeling sweaty and gross from her workout, waited for her friend to finish making notes. With a glance out the library window, she watched the sunset stain the trees.
'DeeDee I am going as fast as I can, why don't you, I dunno... read a book.' Evangeline teased.
Her eyes were flicking over the page in front of her with speed. Ever since they'd been set the ArcAngelus essay, Evangeline had seemed more intent on her school work than previous essays. DeeDee sighed again and picking one of the several books on the table, began to flick through.
'I don't get your overt interest in them, is all.' DeeDee moaned.
Her gaze lazily scanning the page she'd stopped on. Her eyes quickly blurred the words and she just held the book in her hands.
'Try having one for a grandfather, then you might have more of an 'overt interest'' Evangeline countered quietly flashing a "you get me?!" look at DeeDee.
DeeDee rolled her eyes but conceded, although Evangeline had never met said Grandpa, DeeDee knew her friend was already eager to show him he could be proud of his granddaughter. She made a renewed effort to read, and when she did focus on the words, she felt a lump begin to lodge in her throat.
ArcAngelus Jeremiel, his name is known on earth as 'Mercy of God'. In addition to being an ArcAngelus of prophetic visions and dreams, he is known to help newly-crossed over souls to review their lives. He is the ArcAngelus that oversees change, and helps those who seek it, gain new viewpoints on the life they lead. To the world we protect; he is an Angelus of guidance, to Angyali he is a confidante, one to turn to when visions trouble the balance within--
'--Silly... stubborn, unyielding woman!'
'Something up, Gabe?'
As the male in question dropped into the vacant chair next to hers, DeeDee noticed a huffy looking Kleio storm past the back of their table. DeeDee rested the book on her leg, unsure if she wanted to comfort Gabe and ignore the jealous stab in her chest, or flirt with the boy a little and get the troubled look off his face. She chose the former.
'Wanna talk? I'm sure two more girl's points of view is just what you need right now.' DeeDee smiled.
'Girl's views I can handle, stubborn, broodish Demi God views? Yeah, not so much.' he replied, his hands rubbing the worn out look off his face. He turned to DeeDee and grinned, 'but thanks for the offer sweetheart.'
DeeDee glanced at Evangeline and coughed out her surprise, Evangeline rolled her eyes at DeeDee and swatted Gabe in the back of the head.
'Possibly why she is mad... sweetheart? Really?' Evangeline said.
Although DeeDee made an agreeing noise, she felt an odd warmth at the term, she immediately locked down the emotion. Gabe grunted and in a typical guy way, shrugged off the incident and got out his own workbook, digging around in his bag for the textbook he needed.
DeeDee reached for her own book again, but when she caught sight of the text Gabe was working with, the title, Runes and Rituals leapt out and she shot to her feet. She all but ripped the book from Gabe's hands and ignoring his outburst, flicked through it. She squeaked, gripping Evangeline's hand as her friend nudged in next to her.
'What?' Gabe asked as both girls jumped in excitement.
'Section 47!!!' they said together.
When he tried to speak again, Evangeline hushed him as the pair began to read.
DeeDee felt the seizure coming on even before she got to the end of the first paragraph. Her body tightened uncomfortably, as if her skin was stretched too thin over her bones. As her head throbbed and the sound of rushing blood filled her ears, she collapsed against Evangeline who went down with DeeDee's added weight.
As though looking down a tunnel she saw Gabe and then Kleio appear around her, but on a scream, she felt herself rip apart. Her whimper cut out as impenetrable black filled her vision.
*
DeeDee sat up and swung her head from side to side. She was sprawled on the floor of what looked like a personal study. A warm, embracing fire, crackled in the fireplace beside her and she waited, watching the flames, as the pain in her head passed. The stabbing jab against her skull took some moments to fade.
Two women burst into the room through a side panel and DeeDee scrambled to her feet, wrenching her gaze off the old maps and tapestries hanging on the walls.
'You cannot put secrets of Divinare into a sidebar section of this book, you just can't.' The older woman's voice was harsh, but an underlining sadness filled it.
'Mother, I know it scares you... I scare you. But, if there is ever another like me, I must help them if I can. You've hidden this part of me from the world all my life, I have accepted this I understand why you're afraid but others might not accept this stigma as well as I.'
The younger woman settled at the desk, a determined lilt to her voice that DeeDee knew happened in her own. As the older woman fretted and the younger one began to write, DeeDee moved to stand in the middle of the study, her gaze doing a curious sweep of the room as she waited for their conversation to progress.
She knew from her last slip into the past she could not be seen, but when the younger of the two Angyali rose from the desk, and came to stand close, DeeDee held her breath despite her invisibility.
'It is a tough life as a Divinare, to know how much to reveal after a vision. How much to explore.'
The girl tipped her head a little and DeeDee couldn't shake the feeling that the young angelus was looking into her lavender gaze.
'Knowledge of the past, the present and even glimpses of the future is a curse and a blessing, you must look to Jeremiel.' The woman stated.
DeeDee shifted and then stepped back and away, the girl's gaze followed, although it now rested somewhere at DeeDee's shoulder.
She knew DeeDee was there.
This was a new development.
DeeDee's heart plummeted with realisation.
'Divinare powers are all but gone... others of our race have even come to distrust the power of a Divinare.' DeeDee whispered to herself. Glancing down at her hands, nervous of the gift she knew coursed in them but wanted to deny, she sighed and hugged herself in a moment of utter vulnerabity.
'True. Many creatures also hunt the power of the Divinare, another burden to bear, but only you can decide how this gift shapes your fate.'
'You, who? Evelyn, do you mean you?' the older woman cut in, DeeDee had almost forgotten anyone else was in the room. The young Angelus glanced away from DeeDee then and into the fire. Her profile fired DeeDee's senses. Evelyn? Her great grandmother had been called Evelyn.
'Grandmama...?'
DeeDee tried to step closer to the young woman in front of her, but white pain shattered her sight. She yelled, her hand flying out in an attempt to grasp the woman in front of her, but instead it collided with a broader chest.
DeeDee felt weak, as if her body was too heavy for her to move on her own but oddly light as though her limbs weren't quite part of her. She sighed and allowed the person carrying her to just take her wherever he was headed, her mind fuzzy and shooting pain, like a ping pong match was going on with her brain as the ball.
'Put her in bed one.' said a clipped voice.
DeeDee blinked then, feeling a cool flannel against her neck.
'Damn it bestie, no more bleeding tonight 'kay.' Evangeline's voice berated.
A moment later, DeeDee was able to focus on her and watched as her hand came up to brush DeeDee's hair out of her face. DeeDee forced her eyes remain open.
'What happened?'
'You scared the bejeezus outta us that's what.' Evangeline said.
'The Bejeezus... what even is that?' DeeDee asked, noticing the high arching windows opposite and rows of beds with partitions dotted around, 'what'd you bring me to the medic wing for?' she grouched.
'Cause you were bleeding out of your ears and not responding to this one's repeated screeching's of your name.' Gabe informed her.
He and Kleio came into her line of sight, pointing at Evangeline as they did so. DeeDee remembered then, just as she'd fallen into the Divinare state, seeing them watching over. Now they too knew what she was. DeeDee groaned. She was a Divinare. Or at least she had the capacity to be one. Her head thumped a dull beat and she groaned again, reaching out for Evangeline's hand. Outside the window, the sunset finally gave way to twilight. Angelus Marie moved towards them, a tray of medical gear in her hands.
As the remains of red faded from the night sky, DeeDee felt it. Angelus Marie did too, the tutor's fingers loosened on the tray and as it clattered to the floor; she, Evangeline and DeeDee froze.
'No, oh please no...' Evangeline whispered.
'Darklore...' she snapped her gaze to DeeDee's, whose hand she was still clutching.
The worry in her friends' face tugged at DeeDee's heart and she tried to hide the pull of another seizure as Angelus Marie reacted fast.
'Gabe, in my office is a wardrobe, unlock it and bring the contents back here now.' she told the Warrior, passing over a key from her chain of them at her waist.Gabe did as instructed as a moaning cry filled the keep. For a long minute everyone froze, listening to the noise, attempting to comprehend its meaning.
As it faded Evangeline sprung to her feet, only to be stopped by Marie. DeeDee watched Evangeline reel in her annoyance as the tutor pushed her back towards DeeDee's bed.
'Defend yourselves with those if necessary,' she commanded, pointing at Gabe, who had returned and stood behind them holding an assortment of weapons, 'but barricade yourselves in and stay here.'
The Angelus tutor gave the girls a strict look before she portal shifted from the room. Evangeline cursed after her and looked at DeeDee. Her hands came to rest against the headboard bars of the bed next to the one DeeDee was on, she pushed it towards the doors, to do as they'd been bid, but then another moaning groan filled the air. She paused and then brought her gaze back to DeeDee.
'Dee--'
DeeDee held up her hand, taking all her strength to hide the fact she was suffering from splintered sight, half her vision was of the room in front of her, which was being intercut with a distorted flicker of the Horde attacking the keep. The veiled image of their intention beginning to form in her thoughts.
'I know. Horde are in the keep,' DeeDee said, her tone firm.
In the instant she told Evangeline to go, DeeDee had her first taste of the conflict being a Divinare would cause. The fear in her heart told DeeDee to beg Evangeline to stay and help keep her safe, but her head knew, had seen that Evangeline would be better use elsewhere.
'Go,' she repeated.
Her hand tightened on the bed covers, her body still jolting a little from her episode.
'You sure?' Evangeline asked, her face conflicted.
Gabe and Kleio took sharp breaths as they caught up with the two of them. As Evangeline gripped DeeDee by the hand one more time and DeeDee wavered, unsure if she should add to their troubles... Instead she locked eyes with Evangeline and said firmly,
'You can help. Go.'
When her friend nodded, resolve taking over her features, DeeDee baulked a fraction, but chose to be honest.
'You have to warn them... because there is something else, something darker out there.' DeeDee whispered.
Evangeline glanced at Kleio and Gabe, reaching into Gabe's crossed arms and plucked out a double tipped quarterstaff from his bundle. Kleio didn't hesitate and also picked a weapon.
'I have to make sure the others are safe; put all you can between you and these doors okay, and look after Dee?' she asked the pair.
They nodded, all three looked badass, clutching at the weapons DeeDee had been training with. Evangeline let go of DeeDee's hand, and sprinted from the room, she paused long enough at the entrance to give them a tight smile and then the doors slammed shut with eerie finality.
DeeDee sighed as she let go of control and yelled out. Her body spasmed and she felt the shudder of it all the way into her jaw and skull. Gabe and Kleio rushed to her side as her mind split in two.
Her sight exploded with light and when it returned, her thoughts were not her own, the focus and drive in her mind was of another. The reason that was leading the foul beasts into their academy became painfully clear; they were looking for DeeDee.Each loathsome Horde had an image of her face in their thoughts. Along with; her breath caught; Adonis, Alecto and Evangeline's. DeeDee sucked in another breath, crying out in protest.
A sledge hammer of hurt and pounding blood shattered her ability to see, and in the darkness a cutting pain gripped her before she returned to her own body.
'Good gods, DeeDee wake up!' Kleio spoke with a strained voice and shook her firmly. DeeDee panted and although their friendship seemed to be quite new, the girl's grip was firm and a connection seemed to pass between the two of them as Kleio surveyed her state.
'What did you see?'
DeeDee wanted to hug her, Kleio wasn't afraid of her Divinare ability, instead focusing on how it could help them.
So far only Evangeline had shown such fathomless trust after an incident, that she was not a demented crazy person.
'It's not good,' she muttered.
The groan and grumbles of the castle got louder as the enemy closed in. Gabe had been busy; he was shoving the final heavy pieces of furniture that could be moved into place against the Medic Bay doors.
DeeDee smiled as he made a show of wiping his brow as he returned to the pile of weapons now on the foot of her bed.
'Then tell us quick.' Gabe smiled, shooting both girls a grin, 'before we get busy.'
His hands tightened on the long sword now in his hands. Kleio gripped the pair of sai blades and rose from her perch on DeeDee's bed.
'The Horde inside the walls have a purpose. Me. Their minds are more primal, less eloquent than mine--' she gasped as an aftershock of pain lashed her mind and body, 'they want me for their Master.' she finished.
Her eyes watched waiting for the pair to recoil. Neither did, only tensed their bodies and gripped their weapons tighter.
'Game time, then.' Gabe muttered.
His hand came out to tug Kleio's ponytail. The girl cut him a look and for a second her fingertips touched his shoulder. DeeDee watched them and knew that a bond had formed, intertwined between the two and unified them. For a moment she took strength from the pair of them, and rose from the bed, grabbed tight onto an axe, then after a pause, picked up the other one.
They were a little lighter than the wooden versions' she'd trained with and that was a blessing. She tested the weight out in her hands, all they had until their protection was shattered was waiting.
Gabe grinned and Kleio nodded at her actions before all three registered the sound of pounding on the wood beyond their barricade.
'Together?' DeeDee asked into the silence.
And when they both shot a final confirming glance at DeeDee, she believed the bond she had witnessed between them, also included her somehow.
~
CITEȘTI
Risen: Beginning of a Legacy
FantezieHidden within the world of mortals, the offspring of legends, of immortals and those beings thought to be only myth, begin to join the war. An ongoing secret battle between two ancient brothers, who keep the entire world in balance. Legacy; a fragme...
