Knowledge: The Fifth Division Saga: Book 1 (27 page)

Erion knelt on the floor, regaining his strength slowly but surely, “We need to call the Legion before they wake up.”

              Laurel smirked and placed a sassy hand on her hip, “Already done. One of us had to be responsible, you know. They’ll be here within the half hour.”

              An abnormally warm hand clasped my shoulder gently. I looked behind me and met the dark eyes of Ash who nodded towards Kelsey and Danny and whispered, “They’ll come back. I’m not going to say they’ll be alright, but they aren’t dead.”

              I nodded, not feeling any comfort in his remark.

            
 
“Mirabelle, in order for them to completely transform they need to ingest Shade blood.”

              I nodded and turned my attention to the unconscious Shade in the corner. My vision blurred with hatred and all sympathy I might have held for him vanished when I saw the red blood dripping down his mouth. Unthinking, I approached him as if in a dream, knowing what I had to do in order to save my friends.

But before I could take another step, Ash pulled back on his grip on me and shook his head, stepping around me as he did so. With one of his knives in hand, he carefully made a small incision on the Shade’s exposed arm. I watched the red blood well at the surface of the slit. Ash dragged the limp form over to the window and brought the sliced arm up first to Kelsey’s mouth and then to Danny’s, allowing a couple drops of blood to fall into each of their mouths. Pleased with his work, Ash let the arm fall deadly to the floor and dusted off his hands.

              Neither of them moved.

            
 
“Why aren’t they waking up?”

            
 
“It’s going to take some time. It’s not so simple to go from ordinary human to supernatural being, you know.” Erion responded, looking more concerned than he sounded. I nodded in understanding but the queasiness in my stomach continued. I could still hear their necks simultaneously snapping as the Shade grinned up at me. I shivered.

              Caspian’s eyes were distant as he looked upon his best friend. Suddenly, as if the sight became too much for him to handle, he bowed his head and shut his eyes, looking like he was about to cry. Laurel grabbed the hand that rested by his side and squeezed, refusing to look at him in the process. Surprised, he opened his eyes to peek down at the unexpected gesture and I could not help but notice his aura lighten ever so slightly.

Chapter 15

              The Legion arrived soon after the events that took place at Kelsey’s house.

              As guards carried Xavier, Wiley, and the Shade away, they heavily assured us that the criminals would be locked up in Nostos’s highly secure dungeons. But something in the maniacal way Xavier chuckled as they walked him out of the room set my nerves on edge.

              Caspian and I visited my mom and Bram before we left Lincoln City. A short, sweet, and much needed visit. Despite the fact that I still retained a good amount of pent up anger towards my mother for keeping us in the dark, I knew I couldn’t be mad forever. I hugged her as soon as I saw her, a wordless forgiveness. But when I attempted to ask her about the name “Durrant” and about what Xavier had told me about their courtship, she merely shushed me and swept away my questions with a breezy, “Another time, sweetie.” and left it at that.

              I could not bring myself to tell her or Caspian, or anyone for that matter, about the horrible accusations Xavier had thrown at me, not until I knew for sure what he meant or if he even told the truth. One word swam around in my head relentlessly, haunting me both awake and asleep:
Abomination
. As we left our house, the smell of blackened waffles flowing through the air, Bram snatched my arm and whispered firmly into my ear, “Be careful, please.” I was unaccustomed to any sort of emotion from him so all I could manage was a brisk nod before following Caspian across the front porch, back to the place where the Legion had a portal waiting.

              It took Kelsey and Danny nearly two days to wake up. By that time, the Legion had moved them via portal to Nostos, where they were being closely watched by Legion guards. Apparently Turning humans is an activity that is closely monitored by the Council and Legion and there are copious rules concerning different scenarios where it was legal to Turn someone. As it so happens, Xavier’s Shade broke almost
all
of said rules.

              When they finally did awaken, I happened to be sleeping beside Kelsey’s bed. Caspian and I had barely left their sides since returning to Nostos. “Mira?” she croaked.

              I startled awake, momentarily confused and wondering what the heck I was doing in the underground tunnel beneath Center Hill. The jeweled notebook fell from my lap as I struggled into an upright sitting position. Remembrance flooded me and I said, “Huh? Yeah? Oh, thank goodness you’re awake!”

              I counted to three before looking at her face, and bit back the yelp that threatened to escape my lips as I took in her new features. She was still Kelsey: cropped blonde hair, ski slope nose, and curvy body frame. But now, her skin had lost its tan glow, replaced by a pale snowy complexion. And her eyes were no longer chocolate brown. The eyes that stared groggily into mine were a deep red. Blood red.

            
 
“I feel sorta funky.” She murmured. Her normally perky voice had adopted an unidentifiable mystery to it, a sort of whispered attribute.

              Danny groaned unintelligibly in the bed beside her, “Whadappened..?”

            
 
“’Morning, bro. How’re you feeling?” Caspian asked nervously, immediately perking up at the sight of his friend’s revival. Danny, whose skin used to be a rich mocha color, had taken on a slightly duller tone and his normally stunning green eyes, just like Kelsey’s, were now a brilliant red. I let my eyes wash over my two best friends. A new beauty exuded from the two of them, an eerie sort of exotic elegance.

            
 
“Like I was hit by a truck.”

            
 
“What happened? Where are we?” Kelsey demanded.

              Caspian and I shared a hesitant glance, we had already planned for this question and we both knew there was no perfect way to respond. I breathed in deeply and told them the entire story. They listened intently, Kelsey gasping and nodding where appropriate. At the end of the tale, and after I had explained to them their new situation, they glanced at each other.

              I braced for the crazed panic that was sure to ensue.

              Danny, who had remained silent the whole time, simply shrugged, “So, I’m like a vampire?”

            
 
“Sort of. Vampires are the myth that came from Shades, there are similarities but they’re not the same thing. Humans misconstrue reality and the idea of vampires is one result of that.”

            
 
“Sounds cool enough to me.”

              Caspian’s jaw dropped, “Are you kidding me?”

            
 
“Dude,” Danny sat back in his bed and folded his arms over his chest, “I’m in a magical land with things that aren’t supposed to exist, you being one of them, and now you’re telling me that I have been Turned into a supernatural being with my own set of powers? Please, tell me what I should be upset about.”

              Bewildered by his response, I turned to Kelsey.

              She took a bit longer to respond, but eventually nodded, “It’s going to be hard to hide from my parents, but it is pretty cool. Plus, do you have any idea how hot vamps are right now?”

            
 
“You’re not a vampire!”

            
 
“Eh, close enough. Ooh, we’re still going to Prom right? It’s in only a few days!”

              I could not believe they were taking this news so well. Caspian and I shared an exasperated glance at each other before bursting into relieved laughter.

*

              Roman held his sister’s hand as she slept.

              He remembered when they were younger and used to shoot amateur Casts at one another, thinking it all to be just fun and games. But as soon as their parents were alerted of their children’s activities by a maid, the two of them were forced to stop their shenanigans. Their parents stressed how dangerous magic could be when not used properly. It was not something to fool around with.

              Roman hadn’t a clue what Zoë had done to make someone put her in this state, to cut off her hand and mutilate her body. But nothing she could have done justified this. Every time he looked at her blank face or the bloody bandages that covered her body, a strange feeling of sickness overwhelmed him. He had recently come to recognize this as revenge, a new emotion to him. Whoever did this to Zoë was going to hurt, just like they hurt her.

            
 
“Roman?” she breathed and he reached for her cold hand.

            
 
“I’m right here Zoë,” he assured her, rubbing her hand with his thumb, “I’m right here.”

*

              I left Caspian to deal with our new and overenthusiastic Shades and snuck through the tunnels, praying that I headed the right way. I crept down the dark halls, following the twists and turns faithfully. Finally, I started to recognize some landmarks (a large rock here and a missing light there) and my confidence grew. Soon enough, I stood in front of the large door with the Archives label clearly plastered on the front. With a shaky breath, I twisted the handle and entered the room.

              Complete darkness enveloped me, no windows or torches to illuminate the space.

Over the past few days, I had managed to learn a new trick while waiting for Kelsey and Danny to wake up. I concentrated on the Knowledge that I now knew teemed inside me. I focused on the essence of light and the warm feeling I felt whenever I was in the presence of any brightness.

With a sharp pang of joy, the tip of my right pointer finger lit up like a flashlight, illuminating the Ink that decorated my hand. I stared at the Ink for a moment and thought back to when the Legion guards had come to the rescue mere days ago. When the Wielders of the group saw the tattoo they all exchanged uneasy glances at each other and I even heard one of the mutter, “That’s red around the edges, means it’s new. But she’s got a Knowledge, what the heck is she?”

Wouldn’t I like to know.

All I knew about Inks was that they were achieved only when a Wielder had fully mastered the art of summoning energy and controlling it into deliberate Casts. I most definitely could not control my Wielding powers, much less any of my powers. But the Ink said otherwise.

              I tiptoed to the file cabinet where Ash and I had found my name before and started fingering through the papers. I pulled out the one labeled “Mirabelle Durrant” and opened the folder. Just as it had before, one piece of paper with the same cryptic information awaited there for me. I still could make no sense of the listed Kingdom:
Boni Coniugator.

              I went back to the files and pulled out a second folder that read “Caspian Durrant” and scanned the document inside. Everything we knew already had been stated there: that he was a water Knowledge and the list of all the members in his family. Under Kingdom, his merely said Wielder and Elemental, sinking my heart deeper into the depression it had recently succumbed to after my encounter with Xavier. With a short sigh, I placed both of the folders back into the cabinet. The drawer shut with a bang and when I looked up I almost went into cardiac arrest.

            
 
“Hello Mira.” The Elemental queen greeted me ruefully. She loomed in the doorway, creating a major de ja vu situation. “You seem to find yourself wandering here quite often.”

            
 
“I could say the same for you.”

              She chuckled, “What is it that you are so desperate to learn here?”

            
 
“I need to figure out what’s wrong with me.”

            
 
“Wrong with you? Child, you assume the worst.”

              I tried to control my breathing, “What else is there to assume?”

            
 
“Being different is not always a bad thing, it is uniqueness from which the greatest leaders arise.”

              I glared into her silvery eyes that shone in the darkness ominously, “Xavier told me that I’m not his daughter. He told me the Council switched his daughter with me, that I was some sort of creation made by the Council. Is that true?”

              She didn’t respond right away. She studied the ceiling for a few minutes, as if admiring the great architecture of the dirt tunnels and said, “Did you know that Nostos is in a state of unrest? That the Kingdoms are on the very brink of war? We make it seem like our most awful foe is across the realm but really our greatest threat is ourselves. We need a common goal, a plan without division. We need…” she looked me straight into the eyes and said, with the utmost solemnity, “unity. The time will come for you to understand. Soon, but not quite yet. They say that you are a light Knowledge?”

              I nodded, “That’s the best way I can describe it.”

            
 
“Well, good day little light, don’t ever let the darkness extinguish you.”

              And with the most mystical of exits, she glided out of the room.

*

              I walked away from Center Hill, desperate to clear my head.

              The conversation with the queen had only upped my anxiety. She had said close to nothing outright, but she implied a lot. And when I had asked her whether Xavier told the truth or not, her avoidance of answering told me everything I needed to know.

              I trudged along the stream that flowed beside the cobblestone path leading me into town. Every so often, I would glance sorrowfully down into the glassy water, the surface disturbed by the gurgling of rushing water over rocks. The reflection that stared back at me was the same one I had known for sixteen years: crazy red hair, big gray eyes, and ghost pale skin. But something had changed over the past month, other than the glistening butterfly-like wings. I stood a little taller and my stride stretched a little further. The changes were probably hardly noticeable to a stranger, but in my eyes, I was a new person. I had felt and seen myself use powers I had no idea how to control, but I could still harness them. A whole new universe now exposed for my blinded eyes to see, and I knew this was only the beginning. 

              Curious, I focused on the electricity inside of me, always there but usually subdued. At that moment though, I brought it to the surface of my consciousness. My skin tingled with the Wielding power and when I checked my reflection in the stream, my eyes rippled back brilliant cobalt blue.

              With great effort, I managed to push the electricity back into submission and concentrate on the power I knew only slightly better. I felt the pleasant warmth that the setting sun and the dim lights of the Elemental village transferred to me. I absorbed the light and showered in the wonderful power it brought me. Now that I knew where to focus my energy, light seemed to bring me much more strength than it had back when I was ignorant to my Knowledge. When I glanced back down at the stream, my eyes burned like two beacons of light.