Fallen Allegiance

Chapter Seventeen

When Andor said we were heading to Davante I thought it would take days, but no, we were taking weeks. Ryan said it could even be a month till we arrived. A month, doing nothing but travelling. Why didn’t they have cars over here! Weren’t they meant to be the more technological universe? When asking Ryan he laughed at my statement.

“No, no, you’re not understanding the concept of the universes,” He said, his tone light and cheery, not snickering like I imagined Sayer would be at this moment.

I frowned, “There’s a concept of the universes?” Ryan bobbed up and down in the air for a bit, his blue light fading then brightening again.

“Why of course, each universe has a sort of… purpose I guess. One deals with industrial stuff. Two, which is your old universe, is technology. Three is evolution. Four, us, is magic. Five is something like floors, which I don’t really understand, something about cities in the skies I think… Six is logic and seven is law. Have you heard of seven?”

I shuddered, “Yes, yes I’ve heard of Seven.”

Everyday I thought about Seven. What is they found out I was from universe four, travelled to universe two and came back? Would they hunt me, kill me? Or worse, torture me? No one knew what torture in seven was like, but Ryan told me it was a hell of a lot worse than death. No one ever came back from seven and no one could visit seven by choice. Seven, overall, sounded a bit like hell, if there was a hell.

I spent most of my days in the forest doing the same thing. I’d wake up to find Andor had disappeared and Jayden and Ariadne talking in hushed whispers. Ryan and I would go for a walk, discussing things. Ryan taught me about his old city of Kutarka, the city of sprites. Though sprites were perceived to be the weakest supernatural on Valcriea Ryan told me the Kutarka city gem was the strongest city gem of all, though he didn’t understand why.

I told him about Earth, about cars and the different types of animals. Ryan seemed particularly interested in animals. Apparently Valcriea only had three species of animals, birds, humans and the four-legged. Each group had a few different types of animals, but not many. For one, there were only five different types of birds, which shocked me since Earth had such a variety. There were a few human breeds, Dusarlas being one of them along with sprites, vampires and the rest of them. The four-legged were mostly unseen, living in the outskirts of Valcriea to stay away from the human breeds.

We’d talk for hours, comparing Earth and Valcriea until Andor would find us and drag us on to continue our journey. As the days went by, Andor seemed to change. He would constantly instruct us to do things and whenever I tried to talk to him he would ignore me, pretending I wasn’t there. Jayden and Ariadne grew separate as well, keeping away from Ryan and I and always looking at Andor as if he might turn around and attack them. I feared that I’d wake up and they’d be gone, they certainly seemed to be planning something.

I’d tried to talk to Ariadne several times, but before I’d said anything, Jayden would appear, glaring at me. I didn’t understand; it was like once he found out I wasn’t Khadi he thought of me as the enemy. He wasn’t friendly at all and in some way, I found him a bit like Cashel, only speaking to say something sarcastic and harsh. Ariadne always sided with him, which annoyed me even more.

Dwynwen would have sided with me, but she wasn’t here. Sayer and her were somewhere back in Rynir, that is, if they were still alive. I felt more alone than ever, not only had I lost Ward and Claire, but now I had also lost their mirror images, Sayer and Dwynwen. Not only had I lost Evelyn, but Ariadne was disappearing as well. Ryan was the only one who treated me as normal, the only one who I felt I could trust.

At night I would go into the forest to train with Andor, but as time went, he became more and more frustrated with me. He’d grab me and grip my arm tightly, so when he let go red marks would appear where his hands had been. He’d lash out at me with his darkness, shout at me and sometimes storm away in the middle of training. I missed the old him, the way he used to be around me. He used to be calm around me, I felt safe with him. He used to joke around, tease me. He used to be patient but now all that was left was the shell of the boy I thought he could be. All that was left was a mirror of his sister.