The Night Rider

Chapter 34

I am silent. I knew the moment I gave Noa that necklace, that this could also be my death. Maybe not soon, but eventually if there is a way to keep Rafiki alive, I will die. After all these years and things I've been through, it's fine for now. This has always been my goal since the massacre.

We'll discuss that later. It's starting to twilight. I'll be right there, you go ahead. It's not wise to be out late, especially considering the circumstances'. Rafiki seems to hesitate for a moment before she nods and gets up. She shakes her clothes clean. Her eyes glide along the mountains. For a second I see her blue eyes change to deep black, so fast that it is barely noticeable.

A sharp pain shoots through my veins. I put my fingers in the grass to control myself. The pain I feel since the connection is intense, these stitches are debilitating. Rafiki doesn't give a peep before she walk away. It is miraculous that as a seventeen year old you can endure this pain. It's not that it becomes agitated, less painful or easier. The further time slips by, the fiercer her life lines start to burn.

As soon as Rafiki is out of sight I take the book I got from David this morning. Although the book is at least fifteen years old, it still looks like new. I let my fingers slide over the graceful letters on the front. It almost hurts to see Chanel's handwriting. The brown cover is dull but certainly not damaged. Slowly I open the book, afraid of its contents.

Dear Celeste,

We once promised each other that not a single word would remain unsaid between us, I broke this promise. I've been hiding a puzzle from you for years, waiting until I could ever find that last piece. As soon as you get this book pushed into your hand I am dead, I will watch over you here, I promise you that. Here in hell I am quietly watching you keep tying things together, like you always do.

Did I ever tell you about a conversation I had years before with my father? The man was a complete idiot but smart. He told me about the predictions the nymphs made thousands of years ago. He told me about a young girl who will grow up among the humans and suffer a war of deaths, Chea. He told me about the last Raven who will know our country, Elien and about the coming queen who will claim her place in a deathly way, myself. After the murder of my parents, I have never forgotten his words. He knew my fate was to kill him, yet he did nothing about it. I brooded for a long time about his motives. For a very long time I didn't understand where this idiotic behavior came from, until recently.

I came across a book in the library "The lines and their creators". At first I looked over the book, until I thought of his words. I grabbed the book and read for hours in a book from my father's eyes. The book was filled with old stories and spells about how the lines in our world came into being. As you know, there are four: Wind, Water, Light and Blood. Part of us always carries a piece of the blood and light lines with us. It turns out to form you in what quantity this is divided. These lines have an ancestry that we both know as Yin and Yang, Yin for the blood and Yang for the light. As soon as you are more connected to the blood line of Yin you will have more evil magic in your body, with Yang the same with light magic. Nymphs are the purest form of light and carry their greatest magic from the line of light. We know a lot of dark magic but vampires and sirens in this and are therefore very connected to the bloodline.

Why am I telling you this? I learned something from this information, more than just the origin of our magic. I suddenly understood how Alisha and Novak looked like each other's Yin and Yang, I understood why Elien changed because of Chea's blood but most of all why Nuri has changed so much since she broke loose. The balance between these two lines in us makes sure that we don't hug and kill each other all day long. Yin is the darkest magic on earth and the source of the bloodline. We all thought that when Nuri broke loose, Yin would be gone. Yin is a spirit, a very powerful source of magic. Without this magic, we would all lose ourselves but also our magic. Yin cannot die or perish, he finds himself bound to a source. A dark mind will always have the intention to exterminate his or her host, that is in his or her nature. The balance the two fishes had together was the perfect balance to keep both spirits hidden in their host. With the destruction of Yang and the jump from Yin to Nuri there is one thing that is not right, Yang should not be able to die either. This question has occupied me for a very long time.

I spent hours in the library, looking for an answer. I found nothing and after years I never seemed to find anything. One Sunday morning I looked at Chea and asked her something, what is not clear to me anymore. It occurred to me that a Opper is a composition of the two moons that first existed, Novak and Alisha. Novak and Alisha were together as Yin and Yang. Chea is a mixture of both kinds of magic and is like a mixture between the two. I was thinking about the strange relationship Chea and Elien have had together for years, about how the blood of Chea Elien could change to a normal looking boy. I realized that since the death of Alisha, Chea looks so much more like Alisha than before. I asked Chea how her magic had changed since Alisha's death. Her answer was "drastic". She told me that the magic she practiced was more like nymphs than before, more like Alisha. Alisha sacrificed herself for Chea and when Alisha died, her magic jumped over to Chea. This means that Chea does not only carry the magic of two superpowers, this means that Chea is the purest form of Yang.