In All of Infinity (16 page)

“Do you know why I summoned you?” he
repeated. “I made it quite clear, if memory serves.”

“I was sent to please you,” she answered
with a blush. “I am sorry to tell you this, but I cannot please
you. I am but a virgin and know not of passionate ways.”

He smiled wickedly. “All the better, child.
All the better.”

Thomas ran his hand along the top of her
breasts, feeling their smoothness and how alive with movement they
were as she breathed heavily. He tore open the front of her dress
and she nearly jumped because his movement was so sudden. Thomas
shushed her, told her not to move. He groped at them now that the
fabric was no longer concealing them, felt the nipples tighten as
he ran his finger over them.

“Stand,” he said and sipped his wine. The
door opened again and a nude man came into the room. When they were
standing side by side, he smiled. “Entertain me.”

The man tore the rest of Deona’s clothes
off. Thomas looked at her mound, recognized how young she truly was
and that she was already wet from the excitement. He laughed when
they fell to the floor and the man spread her legs, began stuffing
her cunt with zuelcha and began eating it.

“Good show. Good show,” Thomas said,
clapping.

He waited until the man exploded inside of
her and she escalated when he dismissed the man and went to her.
After he stripped, he knelt beside her and ran his hands through
her hair, feeling the sweat. He demanded her to kneel on all fours
and rammed his bulging member into her over and over, knowing she
was feeling pain. Pain excited him. He loved pain. Wasn’t this the
sort of hurting that had killed his mother?

“Stop,” she whined. “Stop.”

He turned her over and stuck himself inside
her. Deona began clawing at him, trying to push him away, but he
wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. He needed a son! How could his
brother have sons and he couldn’t?

By the time he stopped, she was long dead.
His snake had released a flame that had consumed her insides. He
pulled himself away and looked down at her, wiping sweat from his
brow. Her eyes stared fixated at the ceiling. Their deaths were
always the same and so was his reaction.

“You were good while you lasted,” he said
and went towards his table. He picked up her glass of xatari and
swallowed it whole, then picked up a knife from the table. “Wife,
dearest, I’ve had a long day. What’s for dinner? Oh, that’s right:
you are!”

***

The night fell slowly and Peniolea opened up
to the celebrations, which were all regarding the foundation of the
land they loved. The largest was always held at the Ojala place,
where more than the usual were gathered this evening. Windrew
brought Otis back, who explained to Reverie that he was in love
with Mona. She merely smiled and said that she knew and that she
was merely glad he was fighting fit. Although Lodenau, the duke,
didn’t want his daughter to hang around such vagabonds, she
convinced him rather easily. Isaac knew she had used her abilities,
which he hadn’t been able to tell Windrew about.

Once Windrew fixed his nose, Isaac went
outside and roamed the grounds, amazed by the amount of preparation
that had gone into the celebration. It was like Independence Day
without the fireworks, which were replaced by skilled magicians
using their powers for anything and everything possible. Isaac felt
out of place on the Cathene Continent no matter where he went,
because he knew what he saw would be considered insane by those who
once knew him. He felt worse than ever tonight, thinking that this
was the end of a large part of his life. He knew it had taken long
enough, his search for Reverie, and it was about time that he
realized she truly was lost.

“Isaac?”

He felt someone’s hand on his arm and turned
to see a man with a bandage around his head that covered his eyes.
He didn’t know this man, did he? There was a part of him that
thought so, but from where?

“Who are you?” he stammered.

“It’s me: Emmanuel. Have you seen my
daughter?”

“Emmanuel!” He couldn’t believe it! He had
found not only Reverie but her father too! Isaac began looking
around him, scanning all the faces in search of Reverie. He
couldn’t find her at first, but then saw her exiting the house
escorted by Brornar. “I see her. What happened to you, anyway? I’ve
been looking all over for you!”

“Never mind that. I need you to take me to
her,” he said and grabbed hold of Isaac’s arm. “Go on, then. Lead
the way.”

Isaac walked towards them, but paused when
he felt a warning shoot itself into his brain. He couldn’t move.
Why? He looked around, saw only friendly faces. Why couldn’t he
walk? What had caused him to stop? A redhead in a dark blue dress
cut in front of him and walked up to Reverie, which seemed to only
worsen his panic.

“Good evening, Saena.”

Isaac turned around and began walking away,
followed closely by Emmanuel, who sensed the same evil even though
he couldn’t see. When they thought they were safely away, they
heard a cry of pain and froze again, feeling as if the world had
ended.

Isaac looked over his shoulder and saw Saena
with her hand on Reverie’s head; a stream of light was entering the
redhead’s body while his beloved’s eyes were rolling to the back of
her skull. He broke free from Emmanuel and charged across the
distance, which could have been miles because it took so long. He
felt his hands grow numb, so he looked at them and realized they’d
grown black and lightning was coming out of his fingertips. He
charged up to Saena and pushed her with his hands, sending her
flying towards the house.

Reverie fell. Keeping a wary eye on the
redhead, Isaac knelt beside her and gathered her in his arms.
Brornar walked over and picked her up just as the redhead stood and
turned towards them, preparing for combat.

“Need help?” Windrew asked and stood beside
him. “It looks as though you could do with some. She looks
feisty.”

Windrew noticed something had changed in the
younger man’s appearance. Instead of his normal brown eyes, he had
black eyes that possessed no pupils. He thought about those of
great evil that he’d battled and those who were in books, recalling
the darkness that always seemed to consume their eyes. Windrew knew
that he could be wrong, but he felt that there was something
changing in Isaac, almost like a day once full of gaiety becoming
nothing but gloom. He had never seen this change in Isaac before,
so the question troubling him was: why now?

“Isaac. Don’t.”

Windrew glanced towards Reverie, who was
trying to charge out of Brornar’s arms, wondering if he’d heard her
speak because she was quiet. Isaac turned to Saena and smiled
nastily, holding his hands merely inches apart. Windrew stared in
wonder as a silver ball began forming in the space between his
friend’s hands. He looked towards the redhead, saw fear form on her
face.

“Isaac,” Reverie managed again. “Don’t.”

He felt himself wanting to turn towards her,
but another temptation unlike any he’d ever experienced consumed
him. He wanted to kill the woman who had nearly killed Reverie,
even though she was telling him not to. When he stared at her,
Isaac didn’t see flesh, blood, and bone. He saw an enemy. In the
back of his mind, he sensed an uncanny mantra forming: annihilate
all threats. Saena was a threat and she was going to die.

Isaac felt the ball of electricity finish
creating itself in his hands and released it. When she spotted
this, Reverie gave it her all and jumped from Brornar’s arms. She
pressed herself to go the distance, even though she felt exhaustion
creeping into every muscle and every organ in her body. When she
reached the sphere, she jumped in front of it and absorbed its
energy. The light filling her body emitted a powerful ray of light,
causing everyone near her to shield their faces with their
hands.

When the radiance died, Reverie stared at
Isaac, who had returned to normal, and smiled humbly at him. She
could feel the static in her hair and her heart was racing, but she
couldn’t feel much else.

“Rev—” Isaac started.

Reverie fell backwards and stared at the
sky, thinking how wonderful it was that she was alive, and then she
felt herself growing tired. Although she’d been warned several
times not to jump in front of orbs until she was ready, she
couldn’t let one of her friends die. Who had told her so? She
couldn’t remember. All she knew was that Saena wasn’t strong enough
to take the electricity Isaac possessed, even if he was beginning
to learn his powers. Reverie didn’t want her to try.

“Reverie?”

Isaac was at her right side, kneeling. She
looked at him, then at Saena as she stood on the left. They didn’t
know each other, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t keep being
strangers in the end. The cause had enough room for everyone, even
those with dark powers. As they looked from one another to their
friend, Reverie could sense their uncertainty as well as a tint of
animosity.

From a distance, they heard a voice whisper,
“We have plenty to discuss.”

***

The darkness chased the unlikely group of
strangers towards the caves near the Temhae Sea located near
Ubroque, which was an island off the coast of Peniolea. Invisible
to everything and everyone but those who traveled the sea was the
Daonira Mansion, which was the length and height of the cliff
closest to the water. Even though the most powerful waves crashed
against it, there was never a need to be afraid. One of the
residents within the mansion was powerful enough to keep anything
bad from happening to it, especially since it was her safest
refuge.

In one of the many rooms, Anekaya, sorceress
and mother of two, sat beside her responsibility, trying to keep
from staring at her husband. After all this time, he was beginning
to understand her true position for the cause. He merely thought
she was loyal because he was, never thinking there was a deeper
reason. When he spoke of prophecies, sorceresses, and magic, he
often thought he was blessed that she wasn’t part of any of it. He
didn’t know how often she laughed at his errors when he wasn’t
around.

After focusing on Reverie
for a few minutes, knowing that her situation was stable and that
she was merely exhausted, she turned to Saena. She was busy
explaining to Isaac that she was someone who consumed large amounts
of dark magic, otherwise known as a Devourer. Anekaya had searched
all over the Cathene Continent for the remaining members of the
assembly, never thinking they were living in Ubroque. She was
originally from that vicinity, long ago when the world was pleasant
and pious, but it had been the last place she looked. After all,
she had
lost
everyone there. How could she have known she would
find
someone
instead?

Anekaya turned to the man standing in the
doorway, who was getting used to seeing since he’d been blind for
two years. She didn’t know him as much as she knew his situation.
Madame Frost had explained it to her in a dream, told her that it
was vital that she find him, which she did by chance.

She let her expressive pale gray eyes look
around her, take in her surroundings, and try to find something
normal about the situation. Her two boys, Herauz and Kevnar, were
placed in a different wing for the time being. Since they respected
their mother and feared their father, they didn’t ask questions.
Herauz, the oldest at sixteen, was sure that he understood what was
going on; Kevnar, at twelve, understood the situation better than
his older brother. Anekaya had a feeling that she knew Herauz would
end up, more or less, with Windrew’s powers; as for Kevnar, she was
sure that he was destined for greatness. Even his birth had been
magical!

Anekaya was familiar with the bed on which
Reverie lay and knew that Windrew was as well. It was the bed they
had spent countless nights upon in the throes of intimacy when she
had saved his life years ago after his travels to the Temple of
Idenia. Since she wore a mask, he thought she had been someone
else, and, when they met again, she knew he was close to the truth
when he said, “I feel as though I know you.” He knew more about her
now. Although she brought Herauz and Kevnar with her when Windrew
was away, they had been sworn to secrecy and never told him. After
all, she knew that he wouldn’t be able to take the truth from his
sons. She knew there was a time and place, and that was now.

For a moment, she recalled her quickest
enchantment of the evening, which had come only moments before the
townspeople began attacking. Windrew had been unable to hold them
back, but then he’d been unable to focus when he saw her and lost
his concentration. She didn’t blame him, but this told her that he
wasn’t ready for the truth. She wished she’d had time to tell him,
but such was never the case when battling the darkness. Since they
were safe for now, she had to take that as a blessing and hope
there were more in their future.

“Nice place,” Tanner said and popped his
head in. He looked around at everyone, who seemed disturbed at his
intrusion. “I’ve never seen such a large cave.” He backed out when
he saw Windrew staring at him, then left the room, nearly stumbling
over his feet.