Of Gaea (33 page)

“
Enough
!” Ari drew both daggers.
“
I
was here first. The
world is
mine
.”

“You play at something you don’t understand.” Lyris jerked
her head back. Her body warped and twisted painfully into the horse
creature Ari had seen before. There were no words to describe the
darkness that encompassed her. The darkness of the night was a
luminous candle in comparison to the abyss that was
Lyris.

“You are the last stone in the foundation of my
world.”
Ghita smiled and transformed. Her glorious white wings
stretched out to the sky, but they looked razor sharp and dripped
with blood. She radiated light that made the sun pale and fragile
in her presence.

They hurled
towards Ari.

She braced and
raised her daggers.

The force she had expected was intercepted. Ari barely had
time to see the familiar hair and form before he was encircled and
fell under their combined force. She couldn’t see him
anymore.

“Sasha!”
His knife like sword skittered across the asphalt and
stopped at her feet. Ari was rooted to the spot. She couldn’t move.
Sasha was… Sasha had been…

The Tainted lifted her head and her muzzle dripped with
blood. Sasha’s blood dripped from her like splattered paint. She
tossed her head and moved towards Ari just as the Pure rose above
her. Blood rained from the sky when she flapped her
wings.

Ari shoved the daggers back into their sheath and picking
up Sasha’s sword she took point. “
I will not cower
!” The words were more for her than
them, but they had no way of knowing that. “
I am Gaea
!”

She ran to
meet them.

The Tainted reared.
Her hooves danced above Ari’s head dangerously
close and Ari thrust the sword into the unarmed flesh even as the
Tainted hooves struck Ari on their descent. Several of Ari’s ribs
snapped as she was thrown back. The sword stuck out of the
Tainted’s chest and Lyris crumpled to the ground,
motionless.

Ari laid just as motionless willing her ribs back into
place. She wasn’t done yet. She had one more to content
with.

“So you will side with the Pure.”
The creature landed and Ghita formed.
“I am so proud of you.”

Even if Ari could get to Sasha’s sword in time, she
wouldn’t have been able to lift it. Her abused ribs wouldn’t handle
the strain. Ari struggled to her knees and reached for the dagger
at her back as Ghita approached.

Ghita’s arms
were outstretched as she bent for a hug.

Ari whipped out the dagger and shoved it into Ghita’s
heart.
Her
eyes widened in surprise.

“No.” Ari stood on shaky legs. “
I am Gaea
. I bend to no one.”

Ghita’s arm
lashed out and the pain of her fingers digging into Ari’s chest was
monstrous.

Ari’s shaky
legs gave out but she didn’t fall.

Ghita held her upright by the hand clamped around her
heart. “If we go so do you.” She yanked her hand and its contents
out.

Ari fell in
slow motion to her knees; from this vantage point she could see
what was left of Sasha.

Blood gathered in a lake around him.
He looked like he had been
mauled by a wild cat. There was nothing recognizable left about
him, save the fan of his gradient hair.

Ari slowly fell sideways and her last thought was she had
failed.
She
had failed everyone. She hit the ground hard.

A
ri jolter awake on the
floor of her room
tangled in the sheet. Her hands rushed to her chest to find the
unsteady heart beat beneath her tee shirt. She was alive. She was
breathing. She still had her heart.

It had been a dream.
An all too real dream. Maybe it was a foretelling
of things to come. Maybe Ari had entirely too much stress. Maybe
she was over exaggerating what was coming and her subconscious was
running wild with those thoughts?

Ari painstakingly unwound the blanket from her legs. She
focused on carefully smoothing it out and folding it neatly on the
bed. The deliberate action, somewhat calmed the rising
panic.

She pulled on a pair of shorts and without thinking about
what she was doing, she left her room.
In the living room, Ari downed the
slides next to the front door.

The warm night air greeted her when she left the
house.
She
didn’t bother locking up; robbers were the least of her fears. She
even welcomed something as trivial as a human robber. That would be
comic relief to what she faced.

The main problem was she didn’t know what she faced.
She knew the
basics, of course. That had been hashed out enough times. She knew
some of why, but she wasn’t naïve enough to believe that what she
had been told was the full truth. There were pieces missing she
needed if she was going to survive.

Idly, Ari walked the same path she had run in her
dream.
Nothing was on fire. The street was quiet but for the
occasional dog bark and the cricket’s chirp. The lamp posts were
close enough together the circles of light overlapped each
other.

Main Street was darker than the neighborhoods.
The lights that
would have poured out of display windows during business hours were
absent. Street lamps were a bit further apart and the single stop
light in the square flashed a steady red.

A heartbeat of darkness; a heartbeat of red light.
Repeat.

Here in the square her dream overlapped with reality. She
could see what she had dreamed over what stood silent and proud.
But she didn’t know what it meant.

“You won’t
find it.”

Startled out of thought Ari glanced wildly around. In the
heartbeat of light to shadow and back Madame Erelah appeared
standing across the street.

“Find what?” Ari stuffed her hands in her pockets as if it
didn’t matter.

Erelah smiled as if she withheld a secret no other had.
“The beginning of chaos.”

Ari looked down the street again, but the dream was gone.
Only what was real lined down the blocks. “What do you
want?”

“Peace tonight, Goddess Embodied.” Ari could see her eyes
sparkle with mischief even from across the street. “I have not come
to quarrel with you.”

“Could have fooled me.” Ari muttered and stalked back down
the street away from her.

“Doesn’t it
bother you not knowing the whole truth?”

Ari didn’t
stop walking though for half a heartbeat her step faltered.

“Doesn’t it
bother you that your supposed guardian isn’t linked to you?”

Ari turned on her heels. “What do you know about Sasha?
Nothing. Stop shouting at me. I’m trying to think. That’s all I
want tonight. Peace and quiet to think.”

“I know Sasha
isn’t the one bound to you and without your real guardian, you
cannot make the claim you want.”

Ari didn’t move, but lifted her chin. “You obviously have
my attention.”

“You are doomed, simply because you do not have all the
truth. You will die a frightening death. I have seen
it.”

“You have seen what your patron wishes you to see. No
future is set in stone.”

She nodded sagely and swayed.
“There are many futures. In most of
them, you die. In the few you do not, well… they are few and far
between. Perhaps you are looking in the wrong direction for
answers.” She held out her hand. “I can give you the whole
truth.”

“More like your take on them.” Sasha stepped out of a dark
alley. “I am not as blind as you think I am, crone.”

“No, but you cannot act on your own either.” Madame Erelah
pointed behind Ari.

She turned and Leonidas stood casually against a building,
half hidden by shadows with a cigarette to his lips and a walking
stick in his free hand.
When she turned back Madame Erelah smiled evilly
and vanished in the blink of the light.

Leonidas cursed himself for twice a fool. He should have
known Sasha would have come in time. Sasha was after all loosely
linked. He had made the link himself to get Sasha to leave him
alone.

It had been irresistible though.
Her turmoil and fear had been so
tangible it had awoken him. If for no other reason, it had been
enough for him to search her out.

He could have tried to ease her mind of whatever was
bothering her enough so they could both sleep.
Instead he stood half a block
down with his cane and cigarette, and watched her interact with
Erelah.

It was interesting to see how much the Voodoo Priestess
feared Ari.
He was sure Ari couldn’t see it but he had. No doubt, Sasha
had seen it as well, or he would not have been as confident against
Erelah as he was.

Ari watched Leonidas flick his cigarette into the street
and disappear in to the shadows.
“She’s right.”

“No.” Sasha wrapped his arms comfortingly around her waist.
“Well, not totally. She does know things. But to know what she
knows will come at a price. I don’t want to lose you to the Tainted
and that’s what would happen.”

“I’m tired of not knowing, Sasha.” Ari stepped away from
him and tilted her head up to look at him. “Tonight is the second
time I saw you die in a dream. I won’t let that become reality. I
won’t.” Ari walked away from him, and for once he didn’t
follow.

Sasha watched her walk away.
He wanted to follow her, but knew she
would only feel smothered if he did. She needed the time. After her
birthday, quiet time would be very sparse. He respected her enough
to give her the space she needed because he knew she wouldn’t have
it later.

He would be close regardless but not close enough that she
would even notice.
Just as he also knew, Leonidas was still around. Leonidas
would still, no doubt, be close enough if Ari absolutely needed
it.

She didn’t go into the house when she got home.
Ari walked around
the back instead and stretched out on her stomach in the grass. She
felt complete closer to the earth. It had been the same way in the
forest with Nasya.

“What troubles
you?”

Speak of the devil.
When Ari looked up she looked right into Nasya
face. She mirrored Ari’s reclined position in the grass.

“Half truths.” Ari crossed her arms and rested her chin on
them.

Nasya smiled.
“It is better than no truth.”

“It’ll still
get me killed.”

“True.”
She closed her eyes and seemed to nap. “What have you done
to learn the whole truth?”

“I spent time
with you.”

“I only teach the gifts and protect.
Such is my role.” She responded
without moving. “You are doing well too. No uncontrolled weather
anomalies or unexplained phenomena. Good job.”

“That can’t be all it is. A skill and a statement that I
can become Gaea. That’s not all of it. It doesn’t tell me why I can
do it, or to what purpose or how.”

“But it’s a start. You can’t run before you walk
Ari.”

“I’m ready to
jog at least.”

One of her eyes cracked open and she studied her. “Why not
ask Gaea?”

“Should I
answer cynically and say, I am Gaea.”

She laughed softly.
“You know so much already. And yet so little. I’m
sure if you look inside yourself, you’ll find that you’ve always
had the answers you needed.” She leaned forward and kissed Ari’s
forehead. “Gaea holds you safely.” She stood and walked
away.

Ari laid there a moment longer before she pushed slowly to
her feet and went into the kitchen.
A box of salt, a bowl of water, a candle,
some dirt, and a fan later, she was back in the yard trying to
meditate.

Nasya had said to look within herself.
The only way she knew how was
to meditate. Maybe she didn’t mean it quite so literally, but there
was no harm in trying. If nothing else, meditation would help Ari
find the balance she has been sorely missing the last few
weeks.