The Blood Order

XII

"Sultana? It is three a.m." Myrina chides me as she pulls me into her home and slams the door behind me making sure that no one follows me in.

"I... don't know, need you." I mutter and hold the note out with the last bit of writing from Raphael sitting on the page.

Myrina takes the note from me and looks over the scribbles trying to piece together what has happened.

"I told you not to write to him, didn't I?" I nod in response to her accusation and lower my head in shame. She did tell me not to write him and yet... I couldn't resist.

"This is messenger paper directly from Hermes, it can be used between two travelers to communicate. This special paper allows two people to write to each other from any distance, any world, no matter where they are or what it is with. If you wanted, you could cut this thing up and make letters on the floor and the King would still get the message."

"Hermes? The god?" I question her and she forces me to sit down on the couch and hands me back the message.

"Not like you are thinking Purple. Do you want to know?" She sits across from me and looks me over.

I nod once encouraging her by leaning forward.

"The world you know isn't the only world. There is world's in space, in hell, in other universes, and beyond that. This world, the one we are in right now, we call an underworld which means you are underdeveloped from the rest of us. Our job as the more developed world is to protect and keep you in limbo until you come to the discovery yourself. That's more for another time. I am a Tazi warrior meaning I am an advocate and soldier of the Tazimen Kingdom which dictates how we bring to the light the underworlds, but over a century ago a man single handedly took down the Tazimen Kingdom and became the King. He slowly took over the underworlds and built an army becoming the strongest ruler in all the realms that were under the old kingdom's control, but he wants more. Before he took over, the Tazimen tried to mold your world beginning through sharing you 'mythology'," she draws air quotes around the word and I raise my eyebrows in alarm, "We told you about our warriors and their stories to encourage inventiveness in science and development which would have been successful if it wasn't for the new King."

I lean back trying to process all the information and decide if I believe her, why would something like this be able to be hidden for so long from so many people?

"Why is it important?" I raise my chin and she laugh lightly.

"You have seen three different Tazi warriors: Jamal, Dahn, and I. The importance of keeping the underworlds in the dark is the not because we want to be better than you, but once a world is brought into the light and shown the truth many people get enslaved by other worlds, people kill themselves over the realization, people kill others, and many more. It is like the end of days when people realize they are not the only things in the world. Our job as the Tazi is to protect people from well... themselves and help them come to the realization slowly and efficiently so that there is no bloodshed, no pain. Then while we protect the underworlds, we make it our sole duty to find other worlds and other people to bring under the Tazimen Order."

Myrina sucks in a breath and then lowers herself deeper into the chair trying to sort her thoughts.

"Why does he want me?" For some reason I felt the need to point to myself as if she wouldn't know who I was talking about.

"That is a little more complicated." Myrina sucks in a breath and runs her hands down her legs trying to straighten out her pants before she speaks, "The new King controls mostly everyone, many of the Tazi warriors have been enslaved under his law and forced to follow his every word taking over world after world. One of his smaller goals, but still important, is to find his j'kani which you might know of as a soul mate of sorts. You are the kings j'kani meaning he wants to take you as his bride forcing you to rule beside him. This is something that I have been trying to avoid by guarding you from Jamal and Dahn, but all things considered they are getting closer to taking you illegally."

"Isn't taking me at all illegal?" My voice tumbles out before I have a chance to really think taking Myrina by surprise as she is not used to me talking so much in one sitting.

"Even though he has taken over the new King is still following many of the old orders, or what you would call laws, to keep the peace with the older warriors until he is ready to completely change everything to the Blood Order. So as of right now it is illegal to take you, but in three days the Blood Order will fall into line and it won't be."