Basilisk (A Histories of Purga Novel)

"Niku!" Someone was shouting. "Niku! Where are you?"

Niku recognized the voice immediately. He'd know it anywhere. After all, he'd been in love with its owner for a long time. Except she didn't know it. For all his bravery in battle he could never summon the courage to tell her how he really felt.

Not like it matters anymore, he thought to himself. Not since the Rook showed up.

He felt that old, familiar hate boil through him. He despised the Rooks for murdering his father, Cyrus, and torturing his mother, Gwen. They stripped him of enough already and now one took even more from him.

He stole Keiara.

"Niku!" he heard her shout again.

"Keiara! What do you want? Have you finally lost interest in your damned Rook?" he sneered.

There was no answer.

"Why play these games?" he asked, after a couple seconds. He looked around but still couldn't find her. "Why taunt me? Why continue to torture me?"

"I have a secret," Keiara whispered from directly behind him. "I've known how you felt about me the whole time. I just wanted to watch you squirm and twist. I wanted you to think you had a chance with me. I wanted to watch your love grow so I could crush you like a bug. And let me tell you. It was worth the effort. The look on your face when I chose a Rook over you was absolutely priceless."

Niku was shocked silent at her words but more than that, he was shocked at the callous, vicious way she said them. It wasn't like her. She didn't have an ounce of meanness in her. She was kind and sweet. She wouldn't say those things. She wasn't capable of it.

He turned around slowly and found no one there at all. In fact, he realized nothing was anywhere. The world around him was an empty, white void.

"Where am I?" he screamed. He was starting to panic now.

"Where you are meant to be," Keiara said. She suddenly materialized in front of him, as beautiful and perfect as ever. "Where you will stay. Forever."

Keiara suddenly changed into Rone. The smug Rook smiled cockily at him.

"This is where you belong. You're uselessness won't get in the way anymore. All you do is screw things up," he said.

Niku's fury rose to incredible new heights. His vision blurred. His heart thumped painfully. His hands clenched into white-knuckled fists. With an incoherent growl, he charged blindly at Rone. Before he could get to him, however, the Rook dissipated into thin air and Niku stumbled and fell onto the ground. He got up slowly and looked for Rone but he was alone again.

"Coward!" Niku screamed loudly. His face went bright red and he could feel his blood pounding through him.

"Always so easy to manipulate. Your anger will forever be your downfall." Now both Rone and Keiara were back and they said the words together, their voices in perfect synchronicity.

Then they started laughing. They laughed and laughed, their voices contorting and merging until they had only one voice. Then Rone and Keiara melted into each other. There was a hideous few minutes where they looked like some kind of two headed monstrosity. Then their features smoothed over until Niku was looking at the burned man. The man that lead the Rooks.

The man that did...something to him but he couldn't remember what.

"What do you want from me?" Niku asked, afraid. The man scared him badly.

"What I want is to take. To corrupt. To pollute. To contaminate. This world and every other now that I have been freed. Believe me when I say this boy, I will never stop." He suddenly blurred and then he was inches away from Niku's face. "I cannot be stopped."

The burned man changed again and this time Niku's fear was so powerful that he could barely breathe. The man's twisted, burned face split open and the tear continued on until the two halves of his former body fell to the ground in a slimy pile. What crawled out of the husk was a thing that looked like a spider but a twisted, deformed version of one.

And it was much, much bigger.

"My power is at its apex and no force on this world or any other can stop me now that I have you," it said.

Its voice was like knives that flayed the inside of Niku's head. He clamped his hands to his ears and fell to his knees as the pain quickly became unbearable.

"You will die here, halfling. There is no escape, One of Both Worlds," it said.

"No! No. I. Will. Not." Niku yelled out his rage with each word and as he did the pain receded. As his pain went away, something new filled its place. It was a rush of pure power. It whirled inside him and made his head feel slightly dizzy. He'd felt that kind of power once before when he faced off against the company of Rooks alone on the desert battlefields.

Then his eyes flashed with bright green light the color of a field of spring grass. They fixed on the spider-thing and then he threw out his left arm. His hand was clenched into a fist and it looked like he just punched the air. He didn't know what was supposed to happen when he did that. Something inside him, some instinct he never had before, was guiding him. It was like an unknown force had taken control of his actions.

At the same time he flung out his arm, the power rushing inside him flew out in a pulsing wave of green light. The air suddenly smelled like freshly turned earth and wild flowers.

As soon as the power left him, Niku felt a wave of exhaustion. He staggered to one side for a second before he fought against the sudden fatigue. He used what remained of his strength and managed to stay on his feet. He wasn't going to drop his guard. He wasn't going to be vulnerable. Not again. And there was no way he was letting that creature get him. He wasn't letting it escape either. He was going to destroy it.

The spider-thing didn't even try to move. It just laughed with crazy glee.

"Futile. All your efforts are futile," it said as the light hit it.

Then its body swelled and bulged grossly.

Niku watched in horrified fascination as the revolting thing exploded in a blast of stench and putrid slime. The force of it smacked into him next and sent him flying a few feet through the air. He hit what passed for the ground in that weird place a minute later but all it did was shatter like glass. He kept going, passing from that white void and into the sky of a devastated, ruined world.

He shouted in complete terror as he tumbled end over end through a brown and yellowed sky. Streaks of purple blackness raced over and through the land below and whole chunks of the earth were just gone. Tendrils of darkness covered two thirds of this world and they were hungrily trying to devour the rest.

Niku's screams rose the closer he got to hitting the ground. He closed his eyes before he did. He couldn't stop his fall but he could stop himself from seeing his own death. A second later, he smashed into the peak of an enormous mountain that looked like half of it had been sheared away. Rocks and pebbles flew into the air when he hit it and he created a crater about two feet deep.

He coughed harshly as dust flew down his throat. His eyes watered and his chest burned. He took a few seconds to get himself together. He was amazed that he was still alive but he was extremely shaky. His body was trembling from the fear of certain death.

He managed to flop onto his back. He waited a few more minutes, just sitting there and taking steadying breaths. Finally, he pushed himself to his feet. His legs were wobbly but they stopped a few seconds later.

He looked around the half destroyed mountain he was on and finally got a chance to take in this new place he was in. It was a ravaged wreck but he knew instantly that it was some sort of mirror world of Purga, only the real Purga was beautiful and vibrant. The Purga he was in now was a pale comparison. It was dry and wasted. Chunks of earth were just missing and tendrils of purple laced darkness invaded it like a plague.

"Now where am I?" he asked out loud.

[The world between worlds.]

He wasn't expecting an answer so when he got one, he was startled. He turned around and directly in front of him was two massive creatures.

One was a dragon. The other a roc.

[And time is running out. You must fight back.] Both creatures seemed to be talking at the same time. Neither ones' mouth moved, however. Instead, their words filled Niku's mind like thoughts.

"I don't understand," Niku said. "What is going on here?"

[There is a war,] the Dragon said.

[And we are losing,] the Roc said next.

"A war? Against the Rooks? You don't have to worry about that. We can handle them." Niku brushed the matter aside.

[Humanity's flaws will be their undoing,] the Dragon noted. [Ignorance. Greed. Pride. Bigotry. Racism. These are the things Blak has used to gain his foothold in their minds.]

[It is a sad thing to witness,] the Roc agreed.

"Hey! Why don't you two quit acting like I'm invisible!" Niku shouted, annoyed. "Now why am I really here?"

[To protect your mind,] they said. [Your body is in the physical world under Blak's control. We pulled your mind into this one to keep the demon's infection from spreading. You are the third, Niku, son of Cyrus and Gwendolyn D'Avignon Varlamagne. You are meant to protect. To preserve. To serve as a Sentinel to this world we have built for humanity. Fight. Fight as hard as you can. The other two will fight to bring you back as well and together, the three of you can defeat him.]

"Gwendolyn D'Avignon Varlamagne?" Niku asked. His hands clenched into fists and his body went completely rigid. "Varlamagne? Never associate me with that cursed name again. My mother is Gwen of Vitari. She is not a Rook. Do you understand?"

[It is you that does not understand,] the Roc shot back. There was a flash of anger from its eyes and they sparked with white-blue light. [You are the One Born of Both Worlds. You are both Rook and Terraquois. Fate has brought you into being for this moment. Do not let your idiocy and petty hatreds cloud your judgment.]

"You're lying," Niku replied quietly. Then he looked up and his eyes locked onto the Dragon's. "Liar!"

The Dragon let out an earsplitting roar as the Roc screeched painfully. Both of them were clearly angry. The Dragon's eyes glowed red hot as flames danced off its scales. The Roc's eyes were bright with blue light and arcs of lightning were sparking off its body.

[Your world is in peril and still you refuse to see it,] the Roc yelled, angry and infuriated. [Blak will destroy everything. He will consume everything. And here you are enveloping yourself in your stubborn refusal to accept a simple truth.]

Niku couldn't think. The creatures' words were too much to handle. He was lost in a confusing cloud of emotions.

It couldn't be true. I can't be one of them. They...they are killers. And that Rook. Rone. He's...he's...my brother? Can't be.

"No!" Niku shouted. "I can't accept that."

[You don't have to like it but you must accept it. You have been fighting this truth, this part of yourself, for so long. I know you've always suspected. I know you've felt your differences with others in your tribe. Embrace them now. Give in to the truth,] the Dragon explained, its voice considerably calmer. Its bright, red and gold eyes stared fixatedly at him, making Niku quickly uncomfortable.

Niku turned away from the pair.

"I can't," he said. "Not after what they did."

“Niku is my brother!” Rone yelled, horrified. He stared at the woman in front of him. He was angry but at the same time he felt happy. The two emotions waged a war inside him.

The woman’s eyes were cast down. Her fair blonde hair wafted in a small breeze. She shifted a bit uncomfortably as she rubbed her hand over a rough, octagonal-shaped scar about midway up her forearm.

The woman was someone Rone had thought dead for over fourteen years.

She was also his mother.

“First, I find out you’re not dead. Then I find out that you abandoned me to go run off with a Terraquois you fell in love with and now you tell me that Niku is my half-brother.” He was so mad, he couldn’t think straight. Above all else, he felt betrayed. He felt hurt.

She’d left him and she hadn’t thought twice about it.

“How could you do that to me?” he asked her.

“Rone, maybe you should stop,” Keiara said. She could see the anger etched on his face and was afraid he might do or say something stupid.

“I never planned on any of that happening,” the woman said.

Keiara knew Rone's mother well. She had been very close with Niku after all, before Rone came into the picture. Her name was Gwen. She’d always seemed a bit odd, but basically harmless. The shocking revelation on her true origin however, left Keiara speechless.

Rone ignored Keiara’s warning. Instead, he took hold of his mother’s arm and dragged her after him. He rushed her through the camp and she let him. Soon after, they came to an empty tent and Rone ushered her inside.

Keiara followed them in.

“I don’t think you understand,” he said immediately. “I thought you were dead! I cried for you. I longed for you. I went to your grave almost every day over the years. Why would you do that to me?”

“I didn’t want to,” she said again. “It was never the plan. I wanted to take you with me.”

“Don’t give me that,” Rone spat.

Gwen flinched and tears sprang up in her eyes.

“I planned on taking you the night I left!” she yelled. “I was going to sneak into your room to get you but your father was there, watching you sleep. I knew that if I tried to take you, he would stop me. I couldn’t…I couldn’t risk it. I had to leave.”

“Why?” Rone asked. “Why was it so important that you leave?”

“Because I loved Cyrus!” she yelled. “I never wanted to marry the King! It was just a way for my family to gain more power. A marriage of convenience. I did the best I could for you. But then I met Niku’s father and everything changed. They’d captured him and tortured him for information. At first, I was wary of him. I’d seen him a handful of times and he always looked like a cornered animal. Ferocious and dangerous.”

Rone glared at her. The hurt of hearing his mother’s confession was intolerable.

“Then, one night, I started talking to him. I was curious. Maybe young and foolish too. To my surprise, he actually talked back. He was gentle and nice. He treated me like a real person and not an object to show off at Upper Tier functions. I came back to see him almost every night for three months. Then, one day, I came there and he was lying across the floor, bloody and beaten. I found out later that your father had questioned Cyrus. It was at that moment I knew I couldn’t be with him anymore. I’ve grown up hearing so many stories about the Terraquois. About how they were savages. That day I realized who the real savages were and I wanted no part of it. I made a plan to escape. I was going to free Cyrus, take you, and we were going to run.”

“So when you couldn’t get me, you chose to leave me behind instead?” he asked, outraged.

“I know what I did to you is unforgiveable and I can never tell you enough how sorry I am, but I couldn’t live there anymore. You of all people should understand that,” she said, looking at her son earnestly. “I was in Vitari when you were recovering. I know what you and Keiara were trying to do before all this chaos happened. You were trying to bring peace between the Rooks and the Terraquois.”

Rone held up a hand, interrupting her.

“Wait. You were there?” he asked. It felt like someone had driven a six inch spike through his heart. “You were in Vitari when I was recovering and you never came to see me?”

Gwen’s throat worked, her words sticking there.

“I could’ve died! And still you didn’t think to check on me? You didn’t think to let me know that you were still alive?”

“I was ashamed,” she explained.

“You damned well should’ve been,” he yelled at her. His next words came out harsh. “Don’t come near me again. Go back to pretending I never existed.”

Ignoring her bout of sobbing, Rone walked out of the tent and away from her.

“You don’t mean that,” Keiara said, rushing after him.

“Yes I do,” he replied angrily.

“She’s your mother, Rone,” Keiara tried to say as she rushed to follow him.

“No. She was my mother,” he replied. “When she left me behind, she gave up that title.”

Keiara couldn’t think to say anything back. His words were true.

“Are you okay?” she asked instead.

“Better the farther away from her I get,” he told her.

Rone had a rush of confusing thoughts inside his head. So many emotions kept tearing at him. He felt anger toward his mother but a part of him was overjoyed at the fact that she was still alive. A huge part of him was disgusted that Niku was his half-brother, but another part of him was happy to have one. He’d always wanted siblings but his father never remarried. Now he had one. He wasn’t overly fond of who he’d been stuck with for a brother, but he still had one.

He clenched a fist, irritated at the jumble of thoughts cluttering up his mind.

“The One Born of Both Worlds,” Keiara whispered suddenly.

Rone turned to look at her but her words sank in and he realized what she was talking about.

“Niku. A Rook for a mother and a Terra for a father. He’s half of both races.” He wondered, idly, what that really meant. He wondered if his mother ever really had a choice in the decisions she’d made or if fate had played a bigger role in her life…and in the choices she’d made.

No. She abandoned me, he thought. It doesn’t matter if she never really had a choice in the matter, she still did it. And willingly.

He pushed the rest of those thoughts aside and tried to focus on the bigger picture instead. Wilhelm was getting closer and closer to destroying Purga. He had Niku, the third Sentinel. Somehow, they had to get him back and free him of the control Wilhelm held over him. Then, by some miracle, Niku needed to agree to fight alongside someone that he’d expressed on numerous occasions he despised. Oh, and he also needed to come to terms with the fact that Rone was his brother.

Why can’t things ever be easy? he asked himself.

**

Asher sat in front of his mother, staring openly at her. Sitting in a dark corner of their house was the fat man that kidnapped Keiara. He was grabbing his knees and blubbering like a baby. Snot dripped from his nose like a faucet and his cheeks were bright red.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he mumbled over and over again.

Asher had no idea what was going on or what his mother did to him. He wanted to ask, but he was a little afraid to hear the truth.

“Who else knows that you’re a Caller?” he asked instead.

Aeole didn’t answer right away. Then she took a deep breath and smiled wearily at her son.

“No one. I never told anyone. Even my own parents,” she responded. “You and those that saw my power today are the only ones that know.”

“Why did you hide it from us?” he asked.

“I love you, Keiara, and your father. I think I didn’t tell anyone the truth because I couldn’t bear to see the shame in your faces. Our people have never liked Callers. They think we’re abominations. To control and contort the will of nature is something that isn’t exactly tolerated,” she explained. “You know that.”

“Did you think we wouldn’t love you anymore?” he asked.

“I think you and your sister might’ve been able to move past it but your father is very stubborn. He believes what he believes and it is rare for him to change his mind. The only one that has had any success with it is Keiara and even then it is still difficult for her.” Aeole shifted her gaze to Lord Guilder when he let out a loud snort.

“Well, I don’t love you any less,” Asher said.

His mother cried a little, but she was smiling happily. She motioned for him to sit next to her and Asher did so. She hugged him tightly, holding him there for a long time.

Lord Guilder sniffled and wiped his nose with his shirt. His eyes were bloodshot and greenish liquid seeped out of the wounds where the tree branches had punctured his skin. He looked at the two of them with huge, round eyes.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he murmured.

“What did you do to him?” Asher asked, finally giving in to his enormous curiosity.

“I showed him the pain he’s caused. I showed him the price his greed and selfishness took on him. He felt the desperation and hopelessness he inspired in his own people. He felt their humiliation. He felt all of their grief,” she explained.

“How long do you think he’ll be like that?”

“As long as it takes to come to terms with the suffering he’s caused.”

Asher looked at the man and shuddered visibly. He couldn’t imagine what suffering the man had caused to get that reaction out of him. The way he was crying and blubbering, he must’ve spent nearly his entire life causing people pain.

“What are you going to do with him once he goes back to normal?” he asked.

“Don’t worry about that right now,” she responded. “Are you hungry?”

“How long is he going to stay here? I don’t like him being in our house. He’s dangerous,” he tried to tell her. “No one else wants him here either.”

“They’ve been instructed by me to leave him alone. I told the Tribunal that I will see that he doesn’t cause any trouble,” Aeole said, patting her son’s leg. She got up from the couch and headed to the kitchen. “Do you want something to eat?”

Asher nodded his head as the Rook let out a soft sigh. He looked over at the man and found him lying across the floor and snoring heavily.

Asher's mind wandered over recent events, cycling through horror after horror. It touched on something that he remembered from yesterday after he’d come back to warn Vitari of the Rooks scattered throughout the forest.

It was something about a prophecy.

“What were you talking about yesterday?” Asher asked, remembering the weird look on his mother's face when she’d mentioned it. “What prophecy were you talking about?”

His mother didn’t answer for a long time. The sounds of her cooking suddenly stopped. He wondered if he should’ve brought it up.

A minute or so later, however, she finally responded.

“I suppose there’s no point in keeping it from you. Not after everything you’ve been through." She looked at him and smiled wearily. Then she went on. "The prophecy was entrusted into the care of the Callers for centuries. It told of a day when a very dangerous creature will break through its prison and try to consume Purga,” she said, her words short and clipped. “The creature’s name was Blak but it goes by another name.”

“What’s its other name?” Asher asked with rapt attention.

“It also goes by Chaos,” she responded heavily.

That’s fitting, Asher thought. Everywhere he looked there seemed to be nothing but chaos. His world, and everything he knew, was dying because of it.

“What’s this prophecy got to do with Keiara?”

Aeole took a deep breath. Sometimes, Asher’s relentless barrage of questions tried her patience.

“It also spoke of three guardian spirits called Sentinels that would be embodied by three very specific people. The Prince. The Savior. And the One Born of Both Worlds. Together, only the three of them can defeat Blak.”

“What do these Sentinels do?” he asked as he remembered his sister throwing fire at the enemy and the weird way Rone had stopped the bullet-thing that had almost killed him.

His mother walked back into the living room carrying a plate of delicious food. She handed it to him and watched as he devoured it.

“No one knows for sure. The prophecy didn’t speak of it,” Aeole finished. “Now eat up so you can go to bed and sleep. You look exhausted.”

She took the plate back from him when he was finished and brought it to the sink.

Asher wondered idly if he should leave his mother alone with the Rook. Then he remembered the devastating power she wielded and he knew she’d be fine. He really was exhausted and sleeping in his own bed sounded like Heaven.

He gave his mother a kiss on the cheek and headed up the stairs to his room. He pushed the door shut and was immediately met with a series of beeps and mechanical chirps.

“Quiet down Blink,” Asher warned. “Do you want my mom to find you?”

The hover craft floated out from beneath a chair in a dark corner of his room. A red light blinked on and off rapidly from the front of its rounded nose. The blinking light is what inspired Asher to name it Blink.

“Ball,” Asher commanded.

Blink burst apart into a cloud of nanos only to reform a second later into a solid, uninteresting metal ball. It plopped to the ground and Asher picked it up, bringing it to bed with him. He got himself comfortable, pulled the covers over him, and was asleep within a few seconds.

He dreamed of terrifying, nightmare creatures that only wanted to kill him and his family. He saw silent, wraith-like forms flitting through the trees and murdering as many people as they could. Then he dreamed of panicked screams and wails of pain that grew louder and more insistent. Even Blink made it into the dream and was chirping at him nonstop. The Rook machine went so far as to start bumping itself into his arm. He did it repeatedly and Asher thought he could actually feel the pain.

The dream Blink gave it another shot, ramming itself as hard as it could into Asher.

“Ow!” he cried, jerking awake and shooting up in bed. He glared menacingly at the machine. “What’d you do that for?”

Blink hovered up and down for a moment more and then flew to the window. Asher suddenly realized that the dreams of shouts and wails hadn’t been a dream at all. They were real and they were getting louder.

He got clumsily out of bed, tripping on his blanket and crashing to the floor. He let out a grunt of pain, got up, and then went to his window. What he saw made his blood run cold.

Rooks were everywhere and more of them were appearing from behind veils of camouflaged nanos.

Vitari was under full-scale attack.