The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft
RETURN TRIPS

CH RETURN TRIPS

The half-hour it took to sneak to Naphtala’s chambers had seemed like forever as Karstien carried Fleur through the portal to Aetheria . He could feel her fighting the sleep potion’s effects, pushing with all her willpower to wake up. Black tears seeped from her eyes staining her pale skin as she twitched violently. Oren held a door from him, and he rushed into a room holding a pool of Water of Light. Serapha ran in the opposite door with Abrieth behind her.

“She’s waking. Get her in the water!” Serapha ordered but as Karstien knelt at the edge of the pool, Fleur’s eyes flew open and she punched him in the throat, sending them both flying backwards.

Fleur tumbled out of his arms and rolled to her feet, screeching at him in her birth language, “How. Dare. You! It was my turn, Karstien!”

Oren grasped Karstien’s arm, healing him, as he drew him to his feet. “Not... yet.” Karstien choked out.

“Screw you and your house!” Fleur screamed and turned on her heel, storming toward the door. A blue and white flaming glyph appeared in front of her and she turned slowly.

“If you know what’s good for you, my king, you’ll let me leave and save your grandmother instead.” Sparks of dark magic crackled around her like static.

“You can’t save her, Daisy. She’s already gone. Think of all the times, you or I or Asha have seen her in the Room of Light. It’s part of the Celestial Veil, if she wasn’t dead, none of us would have been visited by her. It was her time, not yours,” Karstien’s voice was calm, he stepped forward slowly, holding out his hand. “Please, Daisy, I know you’re hurting, just come home.”

The ancient Aetherians had no idea what they were saying to each other but Fleur’s whole being seemed to convulse, real tears mixed with her dark ones. She seemed to shrink on herself, her words meant nothing to them, but they could all feel her anguish. “I’m so tired, Karstien. I don’t have anything left to give you except Yurieth’s protection. Why did you change the plan? It was my turn.”

Her oldest surviving friend put his arms around her and held her as she sobbed. “What has happened, Daisy? Why are you giving up?”

“I... I c-can’t t-tell you until... until they... they are away,” she stammered between her hiccupped breaths. “Th-they can’t know.”

Kissing her hair, he agreed unhappily, “Okay, they can’t know whatever you found out. Fine. You need to bath in the Water and get ready to do the...” His words cut off as his heart felt like it was knifed.

Abrieth collapsed to one knee, crying out in pain and grief, while Fleur screamed. She shoved away from Karstien and ran out the door toward the portal. Karstien barely managed to tackle her to keep her from returning to Xelusia. He pinned her to the ground. “Daisy, no!”

“Get off me! Get off!” She shouted as she struggled against his restraint. “I have to save him, or everything is lost!” Her magic exploded out from her and Karstien almost slammed into a wall. The Flame of Aetheria was the only thing that saved him from colliding with the stone hard enough to kill him.

Serapha threw herself on Fleur. “Sister, let me come with you. They cast Demona through the Gate too.”

The oracle and the healer rushed through the portal and nearly collided with Regis and Sangriel on the other side. Regis looked bereft. “Lady Fleur, the King is dead, Father took Queen Eonae to the transport after he killed the false protectors, they launch within the hour but Prince Lucif...”

Serapha cut him off. “Threw Yurieth and my sister through the Dark Veil and into the realm of the Devourer. We know.”

Abrieth and Karstien staggered through the portal moments later. “Fleur, wait! We can’t just rush the Gate to retrieve them.”

Sangriel barked a single laugh. “The Dark Oracle walked through the Gate yesterday. She can do whatever she wants, Lord Karstien.”

“Not without a plan. She’s supposed to be dead.” Karstien reminded harshly. Both looked ready to go at each other.

But Fleur was staring at the ceiling, tracking movement none of them could see. “Enough, Lucif’s chancellor is on his way here to demand an audience with Lady Naphtala... Regis, tell your father we need a diversion to lure the Berserker Blood Warriors away from the Temple. Then you and Karstien take your places at the door, tell them Lady Naphtala is mourning and consulting the Shadows. Karstien, say nothing to them, or your accent will give us all away.” Fleur paced then turned to the assassin. “Sangriel, can you get Serapha and I to the Gate without being seen?”

“My lady, that would be impossible now.”

Serapha snapped her ring finger against her thumb. “We walk right up to it.”

“Are you mad?” Sangriel demanded.

“Fleur is already dressed as an acolyte, I’ll change clothes. No one will look twice at us.” Serapha was already digging through Naphtala’s trunks. She threw Fleur a veil that covered her entire head to below her shoulders and then began pulling a scarlet gown on.

Fleur walked purposely to the crate containing the Temporal Implosion Device. “We need to place this before dawn and program it to go off in thirty days when Aetheria’s moon will block the bulk shockwave and Xelusia Prime has moved further away from the Aetheria Prime.”

“How do you figure that?” Abrieth demanded as Serapha dressed him like Regis and Karstien.

Fleur smirked at him, “More math.” He opened his mouth to retort but there was a knock at the door, and everyone scattered to stand in places a royal’s servants would.

Serapha answered the door with her covered head bowed. "Chancellor, my lady is..."

“I must speak to Lady Naphtala. The Prince demands it,” the Chancellor ordered as he pushed into the room.

Fleur was about to use her magic on him, but Serapha whispered in a strangely intoned way. “Lady Naphtala is seeking visions from the Shadows. You saw her praying.”

“I saw her praying,” the man murmured.

“Her acolytes said she is not to be disturbed until sunset.” Serapha insisted. “Come back then.” Serapha stepped away and bowed as if she had not moved.

The chancellor looked around bewildered for a moment then announced loudly, “I will be back at sunset to hear what the Pale Lady has discerned.”

Regis closed the door behind him, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

“How did you do that? It was like a jedi mind trick?” Karstien gaped.

Fleur rolled her eyes as Serapha explained, “My sister’s favorite magic. It’s how she gets so many into her bed, but it doesn’t last more than a day and it doesn’t work on Huntsmen or she would have stopped chasing Yurieth centuries ago. Seeing her naked didn’t even work.”

“I did not need to know that,” Karstien growled

Serapha laughed at his discomfort. Abrieth hugged his sealed one, “Please, stop teasing my nephew.”

Fleur fingered the crate. “Let’s get this over with. We need to hurry. The longer they are on the other side, the more danger they are in.”

"What about the detonation sequence?" Karstien asked.

"It will go off ten days before the end of the month of mourning for the King, unless Demona opens the Gate again." Fleur announced, he couldn't see her real tears under her scarlet veil. "Either way it will give people time to cherish their loved ones before the end comes."

Two siren acolytes lead four large guards dressed in the colors of Baalru to the Blood Temple treasury room. Only one person stopped them, they didn’t even have to compel him, Serapha simply said the House of Baalru had brought a gift for the new queen and the Prince had ordered it put away until the time of mourning had passed. They put it in a corner, Fleur programed the device and sealed the box. The warriors quickly stacked other boxes around it and on top of it while Sangriel, Fleur, and Serapha went to the Gate. Fleur followed Serapha and mimicked her actions. From the elevation of the Temple, they had a view of the city. Fires were burning in a dozen areas, then there was an explosion near the space port and several ships took off at once. While everyone was staring at the sky, Fleur and Serapha stepped through the Gate. The cold immediately assaulted them and both shivered.

Serapha reached out and grasped Fleur’s arm. “What is this place?”

“This is what will be left of Xelusia after the Against Hope detonates.” Fleur glowed brighter. “I can feel Yurieth in that direction.”

“Demona is with him, she feels terrified.” Serapha said as they walked slowly through the dust. “My grandmother would walk through the Gate sometimes, Demona always wanted to, but grandmother never let us. She said He would eat our souls.”

They walked in silence for a while then Serapha asked, “Are you okay, Fleur?”

“I feel like liquid, frozen evil is being poured on my scars. Why?”

“Your clothes are turning black and so is your skin.” Serapha looked normal, except that she was glowing gold with healer’s magic.

Looking down at herself, Fleur realized the dust was trying to smother her Light. “We need to get them and get out. The alignment is interfering with the Devourer’s ability to sense us, but it is...” Fleur turned and pointed. “It is that way.”

“What’s it like in the future?” Serapha inquired as her loose arm tightened around her. Her other hand had made a fist in the sleeve of Fleur’s gown.

“Not much different, except the Temple is a citadel and there is an ocean of Dark Water, the liquid essence of evil, under a shattered star. It was beautiful in its own way.”

“It sounds horrifying.” Serapha shuddered, with every step she felt Fleur’s light dimming.

At last, they found Yurieth and Demona laying in the dust, they both had black eyes like Fleur and twitched like they were convulsing. Serapha knelt over her sister as Fluer bent to aid Yurieth.

Fleur pressed her fingers to his temples and closed her eyes, when she opened them, she was standing across the lake from the summer castle. Looking down she was still wearing the red gown of a Xelusian priestess. Turning, she saw a cottage and two girls playing in the yard. Her heart broke with the knowledge of who they were. She walked around to the shooting range she knew would be there next to a shop. It was exactly like her Yuri in the future lived, simple and with purpose. In the shop various weapons in different stages of being made laid on the tables. He was bent, shirtless over a lathing tool. The scars he carried in this time were so different from the ones she knew.

“Yuri?”

A glance over his shoulder then he moved so fast she wasn’t expecting it. She was slammed into a wall with his longblade at her throat.

“What are you doing here, siren?” He snarled, he looked exactly the same except his silver eyes were as black as hers.

“I’ve come to take you back, to free you,” she whispered softly, “This is a soul trap. Lily and Willow have been dead for centuries.”

Her blood began to trickle down his blade, “Liar! My daughters are outside even now.”

“Those aren’t your daughters, Huntsman. They are shadows, meant to deceive you into wanting to stay here, so the Lord of Shadows can claim your body. Try and remember, you can feel that I speak the truth.” She was completely calm as she spoke, but she could remember the horrified panic of the first time she had been through this. The soul trap that had made her fall in love with him. “Please, Yuri. Abrieth is waiting. He hurts, to him, it feels like you are dead. He needs you.”

He blinked rapidly at her, stepping back. His false daughters rushed in, but Fleur did not hesitate to pulse them with Oracle Light. They disintegrated into dust.

“You’re an oracle, an oracle like my mother?” he exclaimed.

“Yes, but not like your mother. My name is Fleur... I’m your sealed one. I love you. Please Yurieth, please... we have to go.” She reassured him as he stared in horror at the piles of dust.

He looked at her with a pained expression, and confessed, “I... I don’t want to. I... I was happy again. Why are you dressed like that? You’re trying to trick me!” He accused and stepped menacingly toward her.

Her lips trembled, she had to convince him and to do so she needed to believe. Putting her hand over her pounding heart, she held the other to him. “You were captured by the Xelusians. They threw you through the Veil of Darkness, through the Gate of the Devourer. This place is an illusion. Serapha and I came to rescue you and Demona. Just take my hand, use your mother’s teachings to see all you mean to me.”

He reached out and as their fingertips touched, he saw the happy moments they had shared. She stepped closer and kissed him. Her love wrapping around him like a soft blanket and purging the delusion from his soul. Jerking back, he cried out in pain and dropped to his knees, vomiting black curds of Essence of Darkness. When he looked up, silver eyes stared at her unnaturally black ones in the middle of a dusty plain. “Fleur?”

She smiled at him wanly, “I told you I would come for you in this place... and I will again.”

“Fleur, help me.” Serapha called out.

The Lord of Shadow was standing over the sisters. “He belongs to me, but I trade you for these two useless females.”

“I don’t think so.” A brilliant pulse of light blasted out of Fleur’s hands and drove the creature back. Dust chains rose from the ground and seized her wrist pulling her to her knees, but white glyphs shattered the bonds then flew at the creature, driving it back several more strides.

“Take them and go!” Fleur shouted. “I can’t hold him long.”

Serapha was shocked to see the Gate only a few feet away, she was sure it was miles away. Yurieth scooped Demona up in his arms as Serapha dragged them through the Gate. Fleur retreated and panted as she collapsed to her knees on the blood marble floor just beyond the Veil of Darkness.

“My queen? You live!” Lucif gasped and rushed forward.

Demona lay beside Fleur’s feet, Yurieth and Serapha were gone. The gathered priest and priestesses all fell down, bowing. Her black weeping eyes and dark dust covered skin were in stark contrast to the line of crimson blood seeping from her neck.

“No, I dwell with the Shadows now.” Fleur embraced Lucif then he stiffened suddenly. Collapsing to his knees, with his mother’s cursed blade through his heart.

“I was never to be your queen and falsely binding the Siren Queen to me as brought your ruin. You have failed your people and the Shadows, son of Bab’lona. The Dark Oracle was only meant to bring the new queen, not be the queen. Hail, Queen Demona.” Fleur shoved Lucif through the Gate. She could feel the Lord of Shadows reaching for her from the other side and pulsed her Light blindingly bright. As she fainted from the overuse of magic, strong familiar arms caught her and spirited her away from the stunned, flash-blinded priests.

Hours later, Fleur woke to an odd feeling of deja vu. She could feel that she had been bathed in the healing Water of Light. Her scars didn’t feel cold and she had lost the magic sight given by the Darkness. Bandages were wrapped her forehead, and Yurieth was there.

His hand held hers, fingers intertwined, just like when she had arrived in this time. She reached up to touch the bandages and he murmured, “Let me.”

He talked about how the rumors Sangriel spread about Demona murdering her and Lucif, rumors that had civil war raging on Xelusia in one night between the common people who loved Dark Oracle Fleur and the Priest class who had seen her murder Lucif and declare Demona to be Queen.

Moments later, she reached up to touch the raised swirling scars on her temples as she blinked at the grayness.

“There. How are your eyes?” Yurieth asked softly.

“Now, I am completely blind and scarred.”

“You’re still beautiful, my love,” Yurieth replied.

She bowed her head, chastising him, “You don’t have to say things like that, I know they aren’t true, and I am not vain enough to care.”

“I wish you could see yourself through my eyes,” Yurieth murmured.

Fleur shook her head, she had enough of seeing the world through others’ eyes, and their lies. “How long did I sleep ?”

“We arrive here almost ten hours ago. Serapha and Oren healed you, but Oren said you overreached your magic with the last burst of Oracle Light to hide our escape. He is worried it may take weeks for you to recover.” Yurieth sounded so concerned but she didn’t want to believe it. She loved him and that was enough, he didn’t have to pretend to love her.

“I will be fine tomorrow.” She huffed in annoyance.

“I don’t know how you saved us, but you did. Did you blend the Darkness into your Light to overcome the Lord of Shadows?” He asked curiously.

“No, that only works against indwelled beings in this realm. One can’t overcome Darkness with Darkness; it must be overcome with Light and Love.” She repeated the words spoken to her.

“That sounds like something my father would say,” Yurieth chuckled ruefully.

“Actually, it was your brother,” Fleur admitted softly. "On the day that justified your hatred of me. Kaleth was right."

“Do you still miss him?” The tightness in Yurieth’s tone would have bothered her once, but now it didn’t matter.

“No. I learned something and realized it was time to let him go. Love is the most enduring illusion of them all, because once it’s lost, it lingers,” she said, then her thoughts added bitterly, 'And sometimes it was never there to begin with.'

“Rest, my love.” He kissed her fingers and she resisted the urge to both start crying and slap him.

“I need to start your enchantment before sunrise but first, I need more sleep and my stone.” She reminded matter-of-factly. “Good night, Yurieth.”

“Sleep well, Fleur, thank you for saving me.”

He watched her fall back asleep, there was something poignant and painful about the way she felt, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He had never felt this way about anyone, so he assumed she was as anguished as he about their upcoming separation and left her to rest.

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