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Chapter Ten
The Catalyst
Chapter Ten
The Immortal’s voice was light but soft and after the disturbing shock I had, I found that I was stepping back into him for protection and comfort.
As I did, however, I was abruptly swept off the ground and into his arms; just as Caleb had done to me earlier.
“Why do people keep picking me up!?” My shout was stronger this time, though the pain still hurt just as much. “Do I look like I need to be carried!?”
“Yes.”
I stopped short, and then frowned in annoyance.
“Well …I don’t. I’m fine.” I began to squirm a bit in his hold. “Put me down!”
“No.”
I thrashed slightly until the intense pain of my injuries caused me to discontinue my efforts towards freedom. Once I calmed down he then relaxed some of his grip, which made it a bit more comfortable.
“Why did you come for me anyway? Did Caleb talk to you?”
He grimaced at the mention of Caleb, but nodded in reply.
“So you know what happened?”
He mutely nodded again.
“Would you stop being so monosyllabic and uncaring!” His pace stopped and he looked down at me with mild confusion as I hoarsely shouted. “I died! I was dead, gone, vanished completely from this and every world for nearly two hours!”
After I finished my outburst, I glanced up to find the Immortal angrily staring down at me, like a terrifying statue.
“What?” My reply was timid.
He suddenly looked out into the trees, “Orion!”
My head was getting fuzzy; everything was becoming more and more baffling as the day slipped into night.
Orion stubbornly pushed through the trees not long after being called and seemed to roll his eyes when he saw me.
“Orion, take Jade back to camp.”
I attempted to protest this transfer but as I opened my mouth to speak, the Immortal effortlessly lifted me onto Orion’s back. As I sat sluggishly, I idly scratched my wrist and laid half-way down.
Once he turned from me, I caught a quick moment of tension between him and Orion; the Immortal was placing a heavy glare on him. However when he left, Orion snorted towards his departure; neither seemed overly pleased right at the moment.
I ruffled his surprisingly soft mane, to show my irritation at him and his gesture. He simply shifted his blue eye to me and snickered.
When we headed through the forest, back to camp, I found myself having to lie down along his back and neck since he clearly took no notice to avoid low hanging branches.
I released a sore and heavy sigh against him, blowing pieces of his shining hair.
“Orion, could you slow down a little more? My chest is throbbing from all the movement.”
To my surprise, he complied and lowered his pace. While peacefully riding I began to droop my eyes, eventually I shut them completely. His stride became a gentle rhythm to me, so I started to pet along his neck and shoulder in reply to it.
I heard him bluster at the contact but I was tired and sore and didn’t care right now. Soon he stopped protesting altogether and let me continue stroking his white coat.
I hadn’t noticed until I slid from his high back to the ground, but a pretty humming voice had been coming from my body. Just before I laid onto several strewn blankets, Orion nudged my head with his nose. I looked at his large blue eyes and he then bumped at my forehead, leaving his exhaling nostrils pressed onto my skin.
I quirked my brow, “what?”
He smacked against me again, beginning a bizarre attempt at humming. It was definitely the strangest sound I had ever heard, especially from a horse.
“You want me to keep humming?”
He snorted into my face and nodded.
I rubbed my hand against his long muzzle and I dropped down onto the warm bedding. I was just so exhausted all of the sudden. Furiously I scratched my wrist again before starting to lightly hum the same tune I had been before. A simple lullaby my grandmother had sung to me years ago.
Whisper softly my angel’s lips
Take my hand and soar
Protect my dreams and watch over me
Be there when I slip too far
Guardian with me still
Night’s wings shelter here
And forever I’ll love you my darling
Till dawn’s break into day
I barely managed a second loop before I wholly succumbed to the comfort of sleep.
A sudden jerk pulled my awake and through watery, blurry eyes I saw the fire low and dancing and on the other side sat the Immortal; his eyes appeared closed. I quickly ran my nails along my wrist as I moved to a sitting position.
Orion was quietly standing and sleeping not too far from where I was; his blue eyes were shut and light exhales blew against his long deep auburn mane.
I was so hot; but every breeze that passed across my skin caused me to shiver violently, disturbing my wounded chest and side. I gripped my torso then scratched my wrist again, though more forceful this time.
I clumsily stood up, nearly toppling over two or three times.
The world was spinning in my view; the trees seemed to be changing places over and over...dancing around me in strange patterns. I tripped and caught myself on a tree that abruptly stopped just to catch my fall.
“Nice tree…….thank you….”
I pushed off from the bark and it went back to its swirling, leaving slight dust clouds in front of me.
The back of my hand swept across my forehead and cold beads of sweat stung my against my skin. To keep warm, despite the fire I felt in my stomach, I wrapped my arms around myself; my hands tucked deep into the long sleeves. Afterward, I quickly rubbed my forearm against the fabric of the coat, the skin was beginning to sting and felt raw with each itch that I tried to satisfy.
The area cleared itself of trees as they flew away together and beams of light splattered onto the ground. Young, excited giggling came from a female shadow that ran around me.
“Daela, Daela let’s play hide and seek!” My voice was child-like and as I spun around to chase her I saw my shorter locks of hair swish past my smiling face. Bare feet ran through growing green grasses that glittered in the brightening sun.
“Jade, I want to tell you a something special.” She cuddled beside me while we hid up in our favorite tree.
I leaned closer to her quiet voice.
“I have a secret treasure. No one knows about it, so you can’t tell anyone! Especially grandmother!”
I nodded and crossed my heart.
She slipped a soft box from her pocket; a peculiar design decorated the cover. Before I really got a chance to study it closely she popped open the top and a shining straight diamond glowed from inside. I reached my hand out to touch the piece of jewelry but she immediately closed the lid.
“Hey—“
“Shhhhhh….” She held her finger to her mouth.
“Jade! Daela! Get inside, it’s time for dinner!”
“Come on Jade, we’ll play later.” She took my smaller hand and pulled me away.
Suddenly I lost her grip and she kept moving further and further from me. She turned and smiled happily at me before fading from view, her pretty curly black hair cradling her face.
“Daela….” I whispered.
The trees stopped moving and the ground changed back to dirt and grass patches. I felt like I was lit on fire, melting inside my clothes.
In the dark blackness I slipped off a cliff that came up from nowhere and fell, fell, fell……stopping with a strange thud. While I laid there, the empty nothingness swallowed me whole.
When I awoke, black hair and eyes on pale, flawless skin hovered over me; his hand on my forehead. I blinked away some of the haze that still plagued my vision, alerting the Immortal that I had woken up.
I lifted my arm to scratch at my wrist but the Immortal grabbed at it and stopped me, revealing a bandage covering me from palm to elbow. The white, clean wrappings caught my attention because just at my wrist a brownish red stain was making a spreading pattern in the fibers.
I took a deep breath and my chest only ached a bit, though my side was somewhat stronger in intensity. I was surprised by the lack of writhing pain however and probed at my bruises. It was tender and in a few places sharp and more severe, but all in all I felt…better.
“I’m healed?”
The Immortal finally acknowledged that I had become conscious again and moved my hand away from the wound. “Mostly, though it was much harder with that poison spreading through your system.”
I furrowed my brow and then brought up my once irritated wrist, seeing the bloody bandages again. “What happened?”
He scoffed, his face marred with anger and cynicism. “I’m sure Caleb can elaborate far better than I could!”
I was a little surprised at his flare-up.
I lifted my torso towards him, ignoring the scream that my body gave, and placed my calm, bandaged hand on his fidgeting ones.
“Immortal…are you alright?”
He stopped making his agitating gestures and softened his face.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
He then pushed me back onto what felt like the blankets I had been on before, only more comfortable. I was reluctant to lie back down now that I had gotten up, but I went. When I took a moment to look around I noticed the scenery had changed completely, the trees were a little thinner and much less green and the ground was almost completely barren of any other plant except the few sparse roots from the trees.
“Immortal, where are we?”
I tried to sit back up but he pushed me right down.
“Jade, you have been asleep for five days. Nearly the entire journey is over.”
“WHAT!?” I shot straight up and my dirty hair flung up with me.
“Well, yes, when I found you a few feet away from the campsite five days ago, you were almost completely gone. Your arm was throbbing and deeply bruised with bright colored veins protruding, except for an oozing, bloody slit at your wrist which was surrounded by a patch of normal colored skin. I have been healing you as best as I could since, and Orion has been carrying you.”
I looked over to him and he snorted, turning his face away from me. He was just close enough that I barely managed to brush my fingers against his leg; my best attempt at a thank you.
“So… I was poisoned somehow and now the journey is almost over, yet you also healed up some of my ribs?” I was having a hard time following everything.
“Not much, some of that was Caleb’s doing before I found you…it just had not yet taken hold. Though I took away some of the pain; you would sometimes scream in your sleep.”
“I did?”
“Yes, though actually you hum a lot.”
“I hum? How long has this been going on!?”
“I hadn’t noticed you doing it before; perhaps you were dreaming something specific.”
I tried to recall a dream but the only thing I remembered was the old, forgotten memory of Daela and I years ago, back when we still lived in Maine. “When was it that I remembered this?” I mouthed the words to myself. But, regardless, I didn’t recall any song from that? Out of some habit, I shook my head.
“No, I don’t think I dreamed.” I was looking sadly down at my hands, I couldn’t really describe the feeling but something just felt sad when I tried to recall anything.
“Don’t dwell on it too much.” He stood. “Come on, we need to be heading out. We should reach town by this evening.”
“What?! So fast?”
“Yes, we need to get there before sundown.”
I crawled sluggishly from the bedding and used a tree to help me stand up. “Why sundown?” I mumbled half-heartedly as I brushed the dirt from my clothes and cloak.
“People rarely ever come from these woods. The only creatures known to live here are the remaining Immortals and several mystical forest dwellers that can’t always be trusted, and for good reason…” he began wrapping up all the blankets I had been spread out on. “Although I suppose there is the occasional traveler who unknowingly stumbles in from an area that is not blocked off.” He shrugged lightly with the bundles on his shoulders, “besides, if we just came out at night, it would cause a terrible panic. Our presence will already be unsettling.” He easily tied the packs onto Orion like an expert, which he most likely became in all the time I had been asleep.
I smacked my forehead for that.
Hands suddenly grasped my waist and then I was hoisted up and settled gently onto Orion’s back. I had blushed a little from the unexpected contact. I wasn’t even sure why, blushing was not something I did too often.
“Let’s go, tonight should be the War Memorial Festival, people are going to be everywhere and we need to be there at a good time to slip in quietly.”
“War Memorial Festival...I never heard of that from grandmother...” I covered my mouth… and I had been doing so well with not speaking out loud.
The Immortal and Orion chuckled softly at me; this was already turning out to be the beginning of a very long day.
Chapter One
The Catalyst
Chapter One
I casually repositioned myself on my bed when I realized that I had been staring at the small emerald lined box for over an hour.
Gradually I opened the soft cover and exposed the perfectly clear gem shaped similarly to a needle nestled in a black onyx ring which closed in around it in peculiar designs. I gently removed the piece of jewelry and examined it closely beneath the lamp beside me. Every turn reflected the sudden rainbow of colors produced by the apparent prism within the onyx setting.
I slipped the smooth stones onto my ring finger and again observed its appearance in the light.
“Hmm…” I cocked my head curiously. I had never really been too fond of jewelry other than the simple rosary-like necklace I wore to ward off my cousin’s curse; I shivered reflexively from the memory. However there was something special about this ring.
I solemnly remembered my grandmother’s story, the true one at least. She said she had slit her wrists in an attempt to kill herself. When she fell, her right hand landed palm down onto the old wooden flooring of her kitchen and the longer she laid there the more her blood seeped through the cracks in the wood.
“For some reason the ring and its box were directly beneath the boards her blood was spilt on. Every time a drop slipped down to the hidden area containing the ring it seemed attracted to the gem. She remembered that just before her final breath the ring had become full, turning a deep scarlet, causing it to emit a slow pulse. Her flat hand had begun glowing in reaction to the rhythm and just a second later she looked as if she simply flashed out of existence, not a single drop of blood was left where she once lay.
I stared blankly at the wall before me, and then took a quick look at the ring resting comfortably on my finger. Sighing, I mumbled quietly to myself. “I suppose I could try…it couldn’t hurt.”
I quietly pulled off my bed and walked over to my bookshelf; resting neatly on top was a medium sized chest carved from wood and intricately painted in various warm shades of green. The clasp slipped open easily and I carefully opened the top. Deep within the several objects filled with past memories was a small clean steal dagger my uncle had given me before he disappeared.
Once I had replaced the chest I moved to the center of my bedroom and kneeled to the floor. My natural inclination toward strange and possibly dangerous things caused my nerves to flutter anxiously as I steadied the dagger above my left palm. I tried to keep my breathing calm as I prepared to start and in my head counted 1…2…3…cut!
The initial feeling was strange, but not bad. However almost immediately after that the pain hit me, the cries of millions of nerves struck my body and I instinctively clutched my hand tightly making a strong fist in an attempt to dull the pain.
I bit my lip hard and released my grasp. The cut was much deeper than I had intended and the flow of blood was very strong, spilling onto the floor in small pools of red. My body began feeling a little heavy and I seemed to be slowly rocking my head in a gentle, rhythmic circle.
I took a deep breath and balanced myself as best as I could. Despite my attempts to control my body I continued to feel the same as I felt the blood dripping away from my existence, like an hourglass leaking it’s sand and slowly my ripped hand began to throb angrily as though it were being refused oxygen.
“Darn.” I exhaled, “I think…I cut..the veins…in..my…hand.” I took a few more deep breaths while weakly holding my wrist, trying almost in vain, to slow the blood flow. “I’m…going to pass..out soon…”
The strange feeling of constriction and pain continued to increase its overwhelming hold on me; in an effort to cease the confusion I quickly jabbed the odd ring deep into the flooded abrasion and then slapped my hand on the floor. I nearly slipped in the blood covering the surface combined with the clotting layer on my hand but I caught myself awkwardly just as the fabled red glow traced along each stained finger. I watched the light until suddenly the world turned black.
Large shadowy figures were everywhere, it was so very dark my eyes ignored my hopes that they’d adjust. Being practically blind I began running my hand in opposition to the ground I sat on, soft dirt, small rocks, and little clumps of grass and moss rubbed against my fingers.
I quirked my brow slightly. “…Is this the place?” I thought out loud.
I leaned forward and used my hands to help push myself up. A sudden sharp pain swept up through my calf, causing me to topple over and catch myself alongside a hard mass.
“OW!” My voice echoed eerily through the blackness before me.
With an unseen but definitely annoyed expression on my face I pulled away from the object and rubbed my hand along my now sore back. Using my other hand I reached backward for the thing I had run into and found a rough, bumpy, moss covered tree. The tree wasn’t very big and upon further inspection I found that I had just nearly missed a broken, protruding branch which was covered in sticky sap. I quickly pulled my hand away from the substance and wiped it against the trunk and a little on my most likely filthy dress.
I continued to feel around and found only more foliage. “This must be the forest grandmother talked of.”
I stumbled briefly in the dark against a rock lying in my hidden path; thankfully a tree broke my fall. “If this is the wood, it’s not quite how grandmother described. She said it had been strangely bright with animals rustling all around her. I don’t hear anything.” I stopped my blind groping and looked about at the deaf air around me. “I know she mentioned something about silence once? What was that?” I tapped my lip as I thought of the little poem she told me a long time ago. “Oh yes. When creatures hide with silence surrounding, be wary, for evil is waiting in the shadows.”
My hearts beat sped up and my eyes observed the black anxiously as I remembered how terrified she was about that little poem. I suddenly felt my hand grasping the metal cross of my necklace.
“Help me Daela.” I heard my voice whisper.
The sound of my deceased cousin’s name seemed to echo back to me, spreading though the hidden trees like light reflected off metal. Beneath my hold the tree shook abruptly, knocking me backwards. Daela’s name still fluttered to my ears in the dark; a warm wisp of air ran across my neck.
“Gweneviere?”
I jerked slightly at the sound of my grandmother’s name, even though the darkness prevented me from seeing anything.
“Who’s there?” My voice echoed once again. “How do you know my grandmother?” Once the words of my second question passed over my lips I noticed there was no chime of echoes but more of a dull, flat nothing similar to talking at a wall.
“Grandmother?” The mysterious voice said clearly as though it were right before my face.
Abruptly bright light broke out around me, startling my eyes, and I reactively brought up my arms to shield my face. A small, soft hand lightly touched my arms, urging me to put them down. I blinked my eyes a few times before they adjusted and settled on an attractive child, no more than six or seven years old. I opened my mouth to speak but was interrupted by a delicate albeit demanding voice.
“Who are you?!” bold, golden eyes were fixed on my own. Waving wildly in half curls were long thick locks of completely brown hair, nearly the exact same color as the dirt and trees I know saw clearly around me. Her golden glare narrowed at my silence. “Who are you!?” she demanded again.
“Oh, uh sorry, I’m Jade.” I grinned politely but continued sitting quietly beneath the young girl’s gaze.
“Jade?” She lowered her brow questioningly, “How do you know Gweneviere?” Her tone suggested she was confused by my answer.
“Gweneviere is my grandmother. I’m the only one of thirteen grandchildren who enjoys being with her.”
“Grandmother? Grandchildren? Gweneviere never had children.” The girl gracefully crossed her legs and sat down across from me like we were about to have some long conversation. Since she no longer protested so forcefully I assumed she wanted me to elaborate.
“She did eventually. Ten children, six boys and five girls, however her first two boys-twins actually- they were born at an entirely different time period then the other eight but they have been missing for several decades. And since obviously she never told anyone but me about her life here, none of her other children have any idea about their older brothers or their mother’s past.
Unfortunately most of her children dislike grandmother, so they never come to visit or allow any of their children too. There was one son who cared for her and one daughter who tolerates her, that would be my mother. I had also been rather close with my uncle, he was like another father to me but he went missing after my fourteenth birthday, three years ago.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” The girl shook her hands angrily, “I don’t understand. I thought Gweneviere left because she never wanted a family or children?” The girl seemed to be unintentionally leaning toward me with intense curiosity in her eyes.
“Oh um, no…is that why you thought she left?”
The girl nodded anxiously.
“No, she told me that she was heading for this wood to tell someone something, I would imagine you, I think it was to mention that she may be pregnant.” The girl inclined forward a little more and opened her small mouth to speak but I held my index finger to her lips. “Anyway, she was running though the trees and suddenly the setting just changed and she was on a rain drenched cobblestone road in the late 1700’s, around 1798 or ’99 I think. Grandmother told me she researched for many years but was never able to figure out why she went back or why she could no longer return.”
The girl had a large smile drawn across her face.
“What?” I cocked my head.
She ignored my question and leapt up happily, her long hair bouncing about her face and shoulders. “Hello Jade, granddaughter of Gweneviere, I am Autumn the druid of Talen Forest,” she spread her arms around smiling proudly. “It is a great pleasure to meet you.” She held out a small hand and although I was wary, I took her invitation; she swiftly yanked me off the ground. I attempted to pull my hand away but Autumn held fast.
“The Catalyst suits you well.” I watched the rainbow effect reflect on Autumn’s young face, I had almost completely forgotten about the ring on my finger and the cut on my hand. My arm moved to show me my once mortally wounded palm, a long silvery taut scar lay where the bloody chaos once was.
“Don’t worry, the scar will go away a little more in an hour.”
“Only a little?”
“Yeah, the first wound you ever get when you come here stays with you as a scar forever, but all the others completely heal when you arrive in Talen.”
“Hmm.” I ran the tip of my finger along the smooth protrusion on my skin.
“Well, now that we’ve been introduced it’s time that you got going!”
“Wha—” she turned me around as I protested and pointed a finger directly ahead of me.
“Just go straight, heading for the shadows. That’s where it’ll be.” I felt her give me a gentle nudge forward.
“Wait, it’s where what will be?”
“You’ll see.” Her voice whispered across my ear as she had done the first time we met.
“Autumn?” I swung around, moving my hair and dress along with me; she was nowhere to be seen. I inhaled deeply and returned to face the gradually darkening shadows. “Ok, I guess it’s off to… somewhere.”
Once I started walking I yet again felt the sharp pain in my calf, it was less now but still not good enough to walk well or quickly. I gasped through clenched teeth and continued on, limping along with the help of sporadic trees. After about an hour, the sky had nearly fallen into the blackness I once sat in and the bright Talen Forest still shown faintly behind me. The further I went the fewer the trees became but then about fifteen feet away an odd, large tower stood on the ground, the area around the edifice was far spreading and barren of all nature. Once I finally managed to get out into the clearing, I was better able to view the structure hidden within Talen Forest.
“Wow, that’s a very tall building.” I craned my neck so that I would be able to view the peak of the tower.
Large rectangular bricks wrapped themselves around the cylinder with perhaps three large windows set into the stone, two of which had balconies with black iron railing warped into a strange mess of designs. As I limped in a daze around the side I found a vibrant green ivy growing from nowhere up the wall and slightly tangled with a railing. The leaves stemming from the vine were large and soft with small veins of blue emanating from beneath its thin skin. I gently slit through the stem of one leaf and carefully tucked it into the bosom of my dress, as I had no pockets. The plants appendage was warm against my chest, calming my racing mind which eased some of my discomfort with my now clotted calf abrasion.
While I continued my observation I came across a large door. “It looks relatively heavy and impregnable, most likely steel or some other form of iron. I wonder why? It’s not very probable that whoever lives here comes across many robbers.” I cocked my head and noticed the handle, it was vertical iron and just as warped as the railing along the balconies edges.
“AHHHHHH!” A muffled female shriek echoed in the clearing.
“Where’d that come from? The only possible place is this tower.” Although the voice was obviously expressing pain, I reached for the large handle and pulled. Dust, dirt, and small rocks drifted from the top of the door molding, it had evidently not been opened in several decades or centuries even. Luckily as I strained to open the door, not one rusted cry came from the hinges. I heaved a sigh of relief, just in case there was a murderer or psychotic torturing fiend lurking in the tower and so I then carefully shut the heavy door behind me.
The inside was even darker than the clearing until my eyes adjusted and I noticed a small amount of patchy clear, blue light drifting in from most likely the three windows.
“I don’t recall seeing the moon while I was outside?” I shrugged my shoulders and began to look around. I quickly found that the room was enormous and quite empty, with polished black marble floors and smooth ebony banisters lining the two elegant spiral staircases on opposite sides of the room.
A sudden vibrating creak sounded from above me.
“That’s right, I had almost forgotten about the scream I heard. Maybe I shouldn’t go on.” I had my head tilted slightly in thought and my upper lip pushed out over my lower one.
The excitement began increasing its force and fast paced adrenaline advanced its once steady flow through my veins; my thoughts raced quickly with all I could imagine and something clicked in my brain. “It seems my curiosity has gotten the better of my fears.” I bit my lip lightly and then stepped toward the left stair but before my foot even touched the first step I felt the blue, clear light envelope me. It was strangely warm, like walking into the sun’s rays. I looked up to find the source of the light and found that the blue only seemed to continue toward a black nothingness. The light was similar to the source less vines that grew on the outer walls of the evidently huge tower.
I turned my head away and focused on the dark stair that twined before me. Another shrill creak rattled the wood of the banisters and pulsed eerie vibrations through the tips of my fingers. I stepped onto the smooth step again and began to lift myself up. The blue light dulled bit by bit and the further up I went the deeper I headed into darkness and consequentially toward a possible life threatening danger.
When I finally reached a continuation of a stair I assumed I had reached the top level, although I could not see to be sure. As my eyes adjusted to the pure black around me, I noticed a ray of white light emanating from most likely a crack in the floor. I made my way over to the hole rather slowly, groping about with my hands straight ahead of me. I kept feeling the general paranoid thoughts like I were about to hit a wall or fall down a never ending pit.
The hole in the wood flooring, or so it appeared to be, was not very large but did give me a view of two peoples in a brighter room though dimmed in several areas. It appeared to be a man speaking to a woman tied to a wall coming up out of the floor. “A wall in the middle of the floor?” I whispered without thinking. I quickly covered my mouth; hopefully they had not heard me.
For a brief moment I thought I saw the woman’s disturbingly bright pink eyes twinkle excitedly in my direction but I must have only imagined it. Her eyes were very vivid.
She suddenly screamed violently toward the man who leapt back with anger on his face, at least that’s what it looked like. I didn’t really have the best view from where I was. She definitely glanced at me this time and her eyes seemed to glow before she winked quickly at me. I pulled back my curious eye in confusion and concern. However, an almost immediate cracking sound erupted from beneath my body. Before I knew it the floor had given way and I felt myself falling a good twenty feet down but was caught lightly in the air and then set down on the broken rubble. There was a sudden flare of pain from my most likely injured calf; no doubt falling through a ceiling didn’t help matter much.
Everything was blurry for a few seconds due to the abrupt change of light and startling fall but once I could see clearly I saw untainted black eyes staring back at me. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what his expression was, but I assumed it wasn’t a good one. We continued to stare at one another, though I kept my gaze for mere uncertainty of what could happen if I turned away.
A few long black hairs draped down over his shoulder which caught my attention, making a good excuse to stop looking so intently at him. He seemed to begin the attempts of forming a word when the woman abruptly rammed into him, knocking a chunk out of an arch molding and breaking several small objects.
Many more loud bangs came from the room openly connected to the one I had landed in. A bit of the separating wall beside me began to crack and dribble pieces of what looked like dry wall but smelt completely different. I leaned forward to touch the strange substance but the wall unexpectedly ruptured and collided with my head. The peculiar scent hit me along with a painfully nauseous dizziness, I felt my eyes roll against my eyelids with small patches and blurs of moving light and then I drifted into unconsciousness.
Prologue
The Catalyst
The Prologue
“Jade, do you remember the story I told you as a little girl?” My grandmother gently held my hand between her own, her soft aching whisper carried on the heavy smelling air of the room she had been in the last few weeks of her gradually worsening illness.
I nodded slowly and placed my other free hand over our entwined ones. Her hazy gray blue eyes still held the youthful glimmer I always used to see when she looked at me as a girl. A small grin pulled at her delicately aged face and then she nodded as well, disrupting her pure white hair which flowed like water all around her face and head.
“Jade sweetie, can you hand me the box over on the vanity.” I rotated my waist toward the small vanity beside the bed. The container was about the same size as a ring box with a strange greenish metal or stone lining the edges and forming in the center of the cover to create a strange design. It appeared to be a hand.
I placed the package in her open palm and watched as she stroked the unique design on the top. Tears flooded her eyes and her breath shook slightly as she ran a finger across her cheeks.
“Are you alright?” I quickly lurched forward to make sure everything was normal.
“I’m fine sweetie, fine.” She eased herself up against her pillows along the headboard while still cradling the box in her hand as though it were the most precious thing in the world. “Jade, remember how in the story the girl ended up in a magical world and met the man of her dreams?”
“Yes,” I quirked my brow in confusion.
“The story is actually very different.”
“I don’t understand, what do you mean different? Why does it matter?”
“You see sweetie, the story is true but not exactly how I told it.”
I shook my head angrily. “But—”
“Jade.” Her quiet voice interrupted my question, “I feel that it may be time to tell you the real story, but I warn you it’s not what you may think. You probably won’t even believe me, but please wait until I finish telling you. ”
I nodded somewhat reluctantly and repositioned myself as she took a deep breath in order to begin speaking.
“Back in the 1600’s, around 52 years after the landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth rock and the Pilgrims had settled into their lives somewhat, I was born. It was the 21st of June 1672 that I was born as the second daughter of a prominent family among our colony. I grew up like all children did in that time, however I felt different toward some things. What our families would consider evil things. Around my 18th birthday I decided to come out with my true interests, which caught the attention of a small group of three woman and two men in town. It turned out they were what our village dubbed as witches, though I didn’t see in them the qualities our reverend described. I worked with them for about a year and stupidly tried to tell my parents who I really was.
“They disowned me; called me a devil worshipper. I spent two weeks of that horror from them and later the whole of our town. Not long afterward it had been decided that I and two of my spell casting friends were condemned to be burned at the stake. Just so you know this was close to the time when the famed Salem Witch Trials occurred. Two of my friends were kidnapped but again escaped, and as far I as I know they lived safely for the rest of their lives.
“Anyway, the night before our death, our other friends arrived to rescue us from the prison which confined us. Thanks to their excelled skill they managed to burn a hole in the wall so that my friends and I were able to slip out into the woods unseen. We were on the run for three days when I finally couldn’t stand the guilt that welled up inside me. I missed my two younger brothers terribly. They always played with me, and called for me and not my mother when they were scared or sick. So I left my company and went back to my cottage home.
“It was about one in the morning when I arrived, so I crept into a window and headed to my brothers bedroom. They were asleep together in their one bed; I could see their sandy colored hair rustled on top of the pillows. I gently tapped them awake and neither were too surprised to see me, they were always rather mischievous and not easily scared little boys.”
Grandmother smiled sadly at the thought.
“The boys both sat up and glared coldly at me. I had thought they would find me more exciting due to their rebellious nature, but I could tell by the sinister look in their eyes that they were very angry. I softly spoke their names and in return they spat at me and turned their faces away, calling me a devil worshipper. I was stunned. Of everyone, I thought they would still love me, as young and stubborn as they were. But they shunned me definitely, in every way. My family and friends had refused to acknowledge me, threw me away like garbage.
“I walked away like a dazed ghost, sweeping easily down the staircase and through the hall and eventually I stopped in the kitchen, with the moon’s bluish halo encircling my body. I felt completely worthless, a broken shell that had been slowly ripped to pieces by every person I had ever known. The feelings that had before plagued my mind now came flooding back to me. Horrid, evil things, but I found I didn’t care I didn’t feel much of anything the longer I stood in the light of gentle darkness. I slowly searched the drawers of the small kitchen until I clutched a smooth wooden handle; I pulled out a clean steel blade which my fingers excitedly held. I knew my people’s ideas in regards to killing oneself and honestly a part of me wanted to spite them. My life was over no matter what I chose to do in the end and without the love of my brothers I just saw no life to be lived; why not curse their precious ideals? I quickly ran the blade through my skin and severed the veins. In a strange mix of tingling, dizzy numbness and throbbing pain I sat down and soon fell to my side feeling as though I were on fire inside, all the while attempting to recite the Lord’s Prayer. I remembered that just before I was gone a faint red glow danced in front of my blurry eyes. The next thing I recall was bright sun, it was like a sudden jerk from a second of unexpectedly tripping into sleep.”
I watched as grandmother took a long, deep breath and sighed a few times.
“Grandmother?” I placed my hand on her shoulder.
“Hmm, oh I’m fine. Just tired, sweetie.” She nodded and patted my hand calmly.
She cleared her throat. “Now, I stayed in this land for a while and found it to be quite pleasant, though I never did hear of a name for it. Anyway, I was able to practice my witchcraft and study many more different types of magic, and even things I had never heard of before. About two or three years into my time there, I met him. The Skeleton Man is what many referred to him as; others simply called him the Immortal. I soon began to work with him, he opened doors into dreamlike wonders my old friends and I could have never imagined and soon I was able to create an elixir which, in a way, could make a person immortal. In reality it merely prolonged life depending on the amounts of certain ingredients added to each portion.” Grandmother winked wryly at me, knowing full well that I would try to recreate the potion if she named the contents. “After many years together we found that we had fallen in love. We were very happy for a long while, then one evening I discovered some exciting news, and so I left to tell a friend as quickly as possible.
“I was running through the woods I had originally appeared in when I first arrived after my attempted suicide, and suddenly the soft sounds of my feet on the moss and grass changed, the air was heavy and thick with moisture, and the scenery was quite different. The forest was no longer there, instead buildings came up all around and a rain drenched cobblestone road lay beneath my running feet. I later discovered that I had landed in 1798, on a city road somewhere in Massachusetts. A lengthy while afterward, I was able to do some accurate research and found it to have been around my home town of Plymouth now called Plymouth County, Massachusetts.
“In any case, a little over nine months later on February 23rd, 1799, I had twin boys whom I named Crispyn and Gabriel. I remember both boys had black hair and shared each other’s eye colors, one grey blue like mine and the other violet like my mothers. They were good, strong boys, and I loved them more than anything; however on their 21th birthday they made a joint decision to leave and explore the world. Crispyn was always very stubborn and adventurous, and Gabriel never left his brother’s side so he gave up his artistic talents to go with Crispyn. It broke my heart the day they left, and when my boys never returned I felt as though I died a little inside.”
She made no expression like I thought she might, but simply looked at her hands calmly.
Signing she grinned and began speaking again. “I spent decades waiting, but I knew deep down that they weren’t coming back to me, so I left our home and decided to travel as well. Sometimes I went places as a mere tourist and other times I traveled on my own, usually only when I was low on cash.” She giggled girlishly. “Oh, then when I had the appearance of a twenty five year old I met your biological grandfather, my first husband. I loved him very much and we lived quite comfortably; during that time I had my first three children with him, your eldest two uncles and your mother.
“However after a sudden illness he died unexpectedly and the doctors never found a reason for it. I had a hard time after that and through the years inadvertently developed a close relationship with a co-worker and close friend of mine, that would be the grandfather you know, Kalen, we were just as happy as I had been with my first husband and had many more children. Then of course, as you know, he died the year before last.” She sighed again, nearly out of breath from her long story. “Now, that was the short version. Maybe some other time I’ll tell you the long one.” Her smile stretched across her face in a mischievous way and her eyes glittered happily.
“That’s the short version? …wow that was so long.” I shook my head as thoughts finished slipping from my mouth.
“Dear, you’re speaking out loud again.” My grandmother tapped her hand against my arm.
“Hmm?” I looked up at her, “Oh, sorry.”
“Now back to this little box of mine.” She stroked the small container with a smile. “This is my friend. I have had this with me everywhere I went, but when I remarried Kalen I promised myself that I would say goodbye and never wear it again.” She gently popped open the top revealing a stunning thin shaft of a clear diamond. “I want to die, Jade. I want to be with the men I love once again.”
A light, sad smile barely tugged at her lips and she turned her tearful gaze on me. “Here.” My grandmother placed the small box in my unsuspecting hands.
“Uhh, why are you giving me this?” I must have looked like an idiot starring at the box and my grandmother at the same time; it felt as though my face were turned in two opposing directions.
“It’s your birthday gift, my last to you, and also the most precious thing you’ll ever own.”Her grey blue eye twinkled at me. “Now sweetie why don’t you go read your books.” She yet again tapped my arm lightly as she lowered her eyelids to sleep.
I kept the box palmed as I walked out of the room, my face still held a slight hint of stupefied awe at what was going on.
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Later that evening, my grandmother went to meet her true loves.
End
