Cursed

I couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped my lips when I walked in. It was a single room; the ceiling was so high that I couldn’t see the top of it. It ended in misty darkness. Thick black pillars lined the room in columns, each set with four red gems that glittered from the only light source in the room.

The light source was a fire set into a grate at the very end of the room. The fire seemed to be constantly changing from colours between grass green and fiery red, swirling tendrils of smoke issued from the fire, making intricate swirling patterns before evaporating into nothing.

I let out a shaky breath I didn’t realise I was holding and shuddered slightly. Everything in that room radiated strongly of power, it pulled at my mind and I felt the block on my mind bend. I walked down the long room till I was standing in from of the fire. I didn’t even know why, I just fell drawn to it like I was a moth drawn to a light globe.

I stood in front of it, and the flames changed from the deep blue to a blood red colour.

‘Zaria...’

It was an eerie voice, somehow sounding both deadly and soft at the same time. It sounded like a thousand voices at one time, all speaking over each other. The voice seemed to come from the fire itself and it gave me goose bumps.

It echoed around the spacious room, bouncing off every wall and repeated a thousand times until it was merely a whisper. I rooted to the spot with apprehension so I didn’t say anything.

‘Why have you come here?’ It was softer than before, but it still had the loud ring of authority of it. There was no doubt that this was the Gods.

‘I-I wanted to...talk to you.’ I stammered, paralysed with fear. It sounded lame in my own ears. Their ringing laughs echoed around the room, and I flinched back.

‘We’re not here to answer questions at will, Zaria. We ask for a price.’ I swallowed. A price? What would they ask for? What would they want?

‘What would you want?’ I said, my voice coming out steadier than I thought it would.

‘Not so fast, Zaria.’ They hissed and the flames shank back and it looked like they were pondering something.

‘We will permit five questions of your choice and will state your return price when you are done. Do you agree?’ I bit my lip. Was five questions enough? And what would be their return price? I closed my eyes.

‘Hurry with your decision, girl.’ I let out a shaky breath and my eyes opened again. Could I do this? They could ask anything as their return price, should I risk it?

‘Yes.’ It was barely a whisper, but they heard it. They laughed, and the flames spread out of the grate, swirling around me. It should have burned, but it didn’t, instead, my mind was yanked forward and the block broke. My mind was now wrapped in a fiery blanket, pressing down on me.

It wasn’t painful, just uncomfortable. It slowly receded until it was barely noticeable, but still there in the back of my mind.
‘The promise is in place, break it and you die. First question?’ Their voices were expressionless.

‘Who is my father?’ I asked and I waited with baited breath for the answer.

‘Nathan Hunter. Second question?’ They said, still expressionless. I was momentarily disappointed; I had hoped the name would bring back memories, memories that I clearly didn’t own.

‘Why did he leave my mother?’ the information I wanted was so close now, and I knew it.

‘He didn’t leave your mother, he left you.’ My heart was racing in my chest and I flinched from the harshness in their tones. For some stupid reason, I felt tears sting in my ears. There were a thousand questions I wanted to ask them, but I only had three left now. It took me awhile to pinpoint the emotion that was flooding my body: rejection.

My father left me? What did they mean? He left both of us, didn’t he? I forced myself to calm down to think of a reasonable question to ask.

‘Why did he leave me?’ My voice was shaking now and I fought to form the words together.

‘Because, he cursed you.’ The words rang inside my head again and again, and I seemed unable to comprehend anything they were telling me. Cursed. I was cursed; my own father had cursed me. I felt weak, and I leaned against a black pillar to steady myself. The Gods broke me out of my horrified stance.

‘I suppose you would want to know what the curse was.’ I thought about that. Did I? Could it really be horrible? Would it end my life young? I looked up at the flames, then making my decision, I nodded. When they next spoke, it was loud, strong and clear.
‘You were cursed when you were only eighteen days old at midnight. He came home from Elendira and placed the Daemoni aendrael curse on you. At midnight, on your eighteenth birthday you will be one of them.’ I felt tears sting my eyes as I whispered the next and last of my questions.

‘One of them?’ The flames were quiet before they replied.
‘An outcast, a Demon.’ The tears streamed down my face, down my cheeks and they slipped down my chin. They fell to the Obsidian floor and my legs started to shake, my breath came in short gasps. So now I knew. I knew who I was, or what I was.

That seemed more appropriate. I felt something cold beneath me and I realised that my knees were on the hard, cold ground. Pain flashed uncomprehendingly through my mind when my knees scraped painfully against the rough ground.

A million emotions swirled through me and pain lashed through me mentally. My own father had cursed me. My time was trickling down like the sand sliding down an hourglass. Each second of the day I was losing my humanity.

The Gods ripped me painfully out of my misery.
‘Now, we have answered your questions, you have to uphold your part of the deal.’ I felt a spasm of fear slap through me and the tears didn’t cease to flow.

‘We want you to do something for us, a task.’ Their voices rose slightly with excitement.

‘A task?’ I said in a strangled whisper, my eyes red and puffy.

‘Yes, a task.’ There was a silence before I replied.

‘Want do you want me to do?’ I sighed, resigned. Laughter filled the room, it was cold and high and it made my skin crawl. I shrank back, scared. Their laughter subsidised, but it still rang in my mind like a bell and the tears began to flow freely again.

‘We want you to kill the traitor.’ My knees buckled, whatever I had expected, and this wasn’t what I had expected.

They wanted me to kill someone. Kill. To murder another living soul. I couldn’t, I wouldn’t. But as that thought occurred, the burning flame wrapped itself around my mind. A piercing scream issued from my mouth, and I found that I was on all fours again, panting. I couldn’t say no, I was bound to my promise; there was no way I could get out of it.

‘What do you mean by traitor?’ I asked, shaking with anguish.
‘You have a traitor among your kind in Elendira.’ A traitor? In Elendira, how could we? Was this the person who had put the block on my magic?

‘Who?’ My voice was shocked, surprised.

‘Saren Anderson.’ I pushed myself up against the wall so that I wouldn’t fall again, and I stared horrified at the fire. No...No no no. This couldn’t be true, it couldn’t. I had known Saren for most of my life; he had been good friends with Kaitlyn.

‘No...’ I whispered and pain laced my voice. Tears welled up in my eyes again and I squeezed them shut to stop them to overflow. They were lying, that had to be. But, no, the Gods didn’t lie, that much I knew.

‘Yes, he is. We want you to destroy him, eliminated him.’ Their voices were hard and unemotional. Once again, my knees buckled and slid down the wall, hitting my head against the wall. I turned my head to face the fire again, biting my lip.

But I had to, they were right, I had promised to do this, I had to. The Gods seemed to guess the battle in my mind and they spoke again, their voices ringing around the cavernous room.

‘You have to kill Saren Anderson, tell no one. This is between us and you, if you break the bound, than you will die, no exceptions. We are done here, now leave.’

Their voices were final, and there was no point in arguing. The flames shrank back into the grate, and there was silence. I stood up slowly and leaned my head against the wall, leaning my head on the cool walls. I had to get back to Elendira, and I had to get back there now.

I faced myself towards to the gigantic double doors at the end and I knew it was time to go and face the consequences of my actions. I walked swiftly to the door, my eyes still streaming tears, my mind still processing information.

I took the last step forward and placed my hand on the cool doorknob. I twisted the doorknob and the cool air washed over my face, refreshing me. I took a deep breath in and I saw Quynn standing there, fury etched onto every elegant feature on his Elven face. It wasn’t like I hadn’t been expecting him here, I knew he would be but I swallowed nervously.

‘What?’ I hissed, matching his narrowed eyes. In one fluid move, he pinned me up against the wall.

‘What do you think you were doing?’ he snarled, his eyes flashing. I clenched my jaw together angrily and unclenched it again before answering.

‘I did what I had to do.’ I said calmly, keeping my face smooth and clean of any emotion. Although, I knew my eyes were red and puffy and that gave me away.

It took every ounce of effort for me not to yell the accusations I was dying to scream at him.

‘What you had to do?’ He repeated my words and a disbelieving expression flashed briefly across his face. ‘And what was it that you had to do?’ his voice was soft and deadly.

Subconsciously, I felt the tears slide down my cheek and I wiped them away, hoping he didn’t see them. The anger slowly faded from his face and I guessed he had.

‘I think I can guess.’ He sighed, glancing up at the building above us and he took a step away from me.

‘Why didn’t anyone tell me?’ I whispered, the tears flowing freely again. Quynn turned his head, so that he was looking out over the plains, his eyebrows knitted together.

‘It would have been too hard on you. You’re mother wanted to be the one to tell you, but she didn’t know how.’ His voice was soft, even sad. I laughed without humour.

‘So, what? You were just going to wait until the morning of my eighteenth birthday to tell me?’

‘Maybe, I didn’t know her plans.’ He shrugged, and then he grimaced. ‘But I guess they’re not needed now, are they?’ he added bitterly. I slipped down the walls so that I was sitting on the floor, my arms wrapped around my knees. I couldn’t stop thinking about one thing:
The first thing in being my father, Nathan Hunter. I cast my mind back to the photo of my mother and his wedding, and how she looked so happy with him. How had things changed so fast, so quickly?

As if guessing my train of thought, he sat down next to and spoke.

‘Nathan and Kaitlyn met in Alessira, on the night of the ball. They were only seventeen years old, then. They fell in love and got married by the time she was twenty, and they lived happily together for couple of years. But then,’ he hesitated and then continued his story.

‘Your mother worked long hours to keep paying the bills and Nathan would come home to find that Kaitlyn still not back from work, or in bed, exhausted. Over the years they floated apart gradually and Nathan became more involved with dark magic.’

‘Dark magic?’ I whispered, my lips quivering.

‘Demonology, and became involved. Too involved, he pushed it too far, until he became one himself.’ My hands clenched together into fists to stop myself from shaking.

‘He’s a Demon.’ It wasn’t a question.

‘Yes, he is. He came home very late one day, a Demon and your mother knew what he had done. She had been suspicious before it happened, and when he came home that night, Kaitlyn saw his red, demonic eyes. She got angry at him, and that was the last straw for Nathan. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.’ His lip twisted slightly into a half smile.

‘You were there, in her arms at the time. So he cursed you.’ I wrapped my arms tighter around my knees and pressed my face into them, trying not to cry. I looked up to see him looking at me, hesitating.

‘Did you promise the Gods anything in exchange for you answers?’ He asked, and I fought to keep the panic down. A second passed in which I battled with the idea of telling him what I had to do. I didn’t.

‘No,’ I whispered, not looking at him. ‘They didn’t’.