Regius (5 page)

I gulped, nodding at her
words and watching as she pulled a short blade from out of her
boot. "And you believe you and I, both being Seer, can break the
one in my mind?"

"Yes." She cut a small line
in the palm of her hand, wincing as the blood seeped from the wound
before offering me the hilt. "What is the one thing each and every
one of us in Zinc have in common, yet makes us different at the
same time?"

"Blood." I gritted my teeth
as I sliced a small line into my own palm. "You think that is what
they mean by 'core'?"

"What we are about to do
could kill us instantly." I scowled at her words. "The bright side
of that would be that you could enter the Valley again and see
Datura now."

I rolled my eyes, offering
her my palm all the while eying her in amusement. "I think you need
to work on your jokes a while longer before testing them on your
audience." She shrugged, smirking as she smacked her hand against
mine, both of us simultaneously grasping one another's wrists to
hold on.

For a long minute we just
sat there, staring at our clasped palms, our blood mingling yet
nothing spectacular seemed to be taking place with the exception of
us thinking about trying to find a way to wash the blood out of our
clothes. I even had the time to start thinking about how the Altors
must have come up with some kind of product to do such washing with
all the battles they had to go through.

Before I could really get
into it, I was hit with a wave of electricity from Vervaine into
our hands, up into my body, circling my system and then slamming
back into her.

It nearly forced us to let
go, but we stubbornly held on, our fingers tightening as we gritted
through the pain that followed. Detaching my eyes off our hands, I
looked up and gasped when Vervaine's pupils glazed and shone
brightly. I could
see
images in the depths of them. They flashed by one after the
other at a high speed, making it hard for me to distinguish
anything out of them, unable to identify what it was she was
envisioning. It was like she had turned into a hard drive and was
quickly downloading the memories out of me.

"Vervaine?" I asked,
panicked when it seemed to never end, the feeling growing when I
was no longer in pain and could only sit here and wait. What was I
supposed to do?

"Vervaine?" I repeated a
little louder this time and it seemed to trigger something out of
her. I yelped in fear when her pupils returned very suddenly and
the lost look in her eyes made me want to back away in fear. But
that gaze was quickly replaced by a look of
understanding.

"Here," She said, unlocking
our hands only so she could place her bloody palm against my
forehead. "They are yours again." Her voice sounded distant and the
grass surrounding me faded away. I blinked my eyes, wondering if my
Altor vision was turning on, but soon realized my world wasn't
turning grey, instead it was distorting and shaping itself into a
new image.

~~~~~~~~

"Why can't I just stay
with Uncle Jan?" I asked the tall man, reaching up to take his hand
in mine. Looking down, he offered me a smile.

"Uncle Jan is going to
marry Iris."

I frowned. "I don't mind
that. I'll be very nice to her. I'll even call her auntie if she
wants me too. Just like I call Jan uncle even though he isn't
really my uncle."

Pieris chuckled softly,
but I could hear that he was a bit sad. "Iris would have loved
that. But, you see, she has a very dangerous job. It's not a place
for little children like you, Calycanthus."

"So they are leaving me
here for my safety?"

Pieris patted my head.
"Exactly so." He pointed at the house before us. "Stay here while I
go talk to Mina. She will be your new guardian." Pieris nodded over
at the group of children playing in the yard. "Maybe try to make
yourself some friends." Gulping, I watched him walk towards the
boarding house's entrance, leaving me standing all by
myself.

"Are you an intruder or a
guest?" Someone asked behind me, making me yelp in fear and turn
around so I could see the boy. A long braid fell over his shoulder
and he had very funny eye color. He looked older than my seven
years and he was taller too. He looked nice though. At the very
least, the smiley on his t-shirt was cool.

"You look like a guest."
He said and then grinned. "You have chocolate all over your mouth."
My eyes widened and I uncovered the stain of chocolate on my
t-shirt, placing my hands over my mouth to hide the chocolate there
instead. Laughing cheerfully, he pried them off my mouth, taking
one in his hand so he could pull me along towards the
house.

"Where are you taking
me?!" I shrieked, kind of afraid. He stopped in his footsteps
instantly at my frightened shout, turning around with concerned
looking eyes.

"I'm just going to take
you to the bathroom so we can get the chocolate off your mouth." He
offered me a small smile. "I'm not going to hurt you or anything."
Staring at him for a while, I tried to figure out if he was telling
the truth. After a couple of minutes I decided that he
was.

"Can you give me another
shirt too? Mine has a big stain on it." I grimaced at the stain,
pointing at it so he could see. He smiled broadly now, nodding his
head. "What's your name?" I asked.

He stuck his hand out to
me, and I took it. "I'm Datura Lovelace. What's your
name?"

"Calycanthus Esquivel." He
tried the name on his mouth, frowning a bit before he grinned down
at me.

"That's a mouthful. Is it
okay if I call you Cali?"

I smiled excitedly up at
him. "Okay! Nobody has given me a nickname before!" He laughed at
my giddiness, ruffling my hair. I thought about his name. "I don't
think I can shorten Datura." I told him apologetically.

"Then just call me
Datura."

~~~~~~~~

Falling off the bike, I
winced in pain as my forearm had taken the impact. Datura quickly
crouched down beside me, looking over the wound.

"Why didn't you peddle?"
He asked, wiping off the small stones that had pressed into my
skin. "You are also supposed to keep your eyes open, you know." He
informed. Feeling my bottom lip tremble, I turned my eyes away from
him and wiped the tears off my cheeks. My pride was severely
damaged.

"Hey, are you hurt that
bad?" He asked in concern. I shook my head, still not looking at
him. He gripped my chin though, turning my head so our eyes could
lock. "Tell me, Cali."

"I don't know how to ride
a bike." I mumbled out miserably, my vision blurry because of the
big, round, watery tears.

"Is that all?" He said,
smiling widely as he wiped the tears away with his thumb. "I'll
teach you." Staring in amazement because he hadn't made fun of me,
I let him help me back up onto my feet and wipe the dirt off my
clothes while I just stood there frozen.

Realizing what was going
on in my head he flicked the tip of my nose. "You're my best friend
Cali; I'm not going to dislike you because you don't know how to
ride." He picked up the bike, gesturing for me to come closer,
"Come on, just sit on it and I'll hold to keep you stable. We'll do
a couple of rounds where I make sure you can't fall over and once
you got the hang of it, I'll let go."

"Let go?!" I
shrieked.

"It's okay. I know you can
do this." He assured.

~~~~~~~~

"Cali, run!" Datura pushed
me out of the front door and before I could turn around and tell
him I would help him fight off the blue haired man, he'd already
closed and locked it. "Run!" He repeated from inside.

~~~~~~~~

"Take him, Ilex. He isn't
safe with me anymore. Sage will find me sooner rather than later,
and I won't allow her to get her hands on him."

"How am I supposed to keep
him safe?"

"Make sure he doesn't find
out about me or his mother until the time is right."

"Can he at least know his
name?"

"Calycanthus. It's
Calycanthus Esquivel. Now take him and go."

~~~~~~~~

I screamed in fear as I
saw Datura thrown through the boarding house's window, the broken
pieces of glass tearing apart his back. Before I could rush to him
and see if he was still alive, bright lights blinded me and as I
lifted my hand to block it, I realized too late they came from a
car.

~~~~~~~~

"Calycanthus!" Vervaine
slapped me across the face, pulling me harshly back to the present.
"Did it work?" She asked, my eyes focusing on her face, the blur
fading and color returning. I blinked a few times, shaking my head
to make sure I was really back. "Did you see?"

"I sure did." I answered
shakily, glad to see her gloves were back on when she offered me a
hand to help me back up on my feet.

"Do you remember? Is the
barrier gone?"

I gulped. "It
is."

"How do you feel?" She eyed
me curiously.

Feeling acid trying to
travel its way up my throat, I grimaced and sat back down onto the
grass. "Like I was hit by the memory truck. Give me a
minute."

* * * *

Five hundred years ago the
Regius entered the land of the natives. Four hundred and eighty
years ago their blood was turned blue. Four hundred and seventy
eight years ago the Altor who would create the rebellion was born.
Four hundred and sixty years ago, the war began. That war lasted up
until this very day. But two hundred and ninety five years ago, the
Civilians believed the war to be part of history. The exact date of
this event was on the Third of May.

The day of the
eclipse.

The day where the Regius
surprised a large rebellion of Altors, who were scouting the
Wastelands of Xenon, planning on ambushing the Blue Bloods. Many
Altors died that day, many families destroyed, never to be revived
again. Many died believing they shouldn't have, creating a Valley
that holds the souls of those who do not wish to pass on. The
Valley of Death.

Only one Altor did not die.
He woke, surrounded by hundreds of Altor bodies whose souls had
left their harbors. The man went mad. He couldn't handle the
sight.

I've seen it. I nearly went
mad myself. Of course some would say I was mad already.

This man, who was to become
Datura's ancestor, sang. Alone on the battlefield, surrounded by
piled up bodies of brave Altor soldiers, he sang. A melody so
bittersweet, it called to the ghosts.

The great battle of Xenon.
Not only did it create the Keepers of the Dead, a lot more happened
afterwards that would nearly devastate the entire race called
Altors. Because of this battle, the numbers of the rebellion was
reduced to practically nothing and forced the Altors to seek their
wives and husbands elsewhere. Their blood mingled with that of the
Civilians and many Altor children without the extra strength were
born. A vulnerability Altors couldn't really afford.

Along with the mingled
blood came the poison, the sickness that could kill the Altors.
Many more died because they had no idea what to do, no idea how to
remove the blue blood within and keep these children alive.
Ironically, it was Maitre and Rhamnus' ancestor who found a
cure.

Not all children were
killed by the Regius on sight. Unfortunately, or fortunately as it
depended how you viewed it, some were brought within the Blue Blood
territory to be tested on. Altors were an abnormality the Regius
wished to get rid of, yet those very few, such as the ancestor,
were curious. He wished to know what the disease was that helped
them reduce the numbers of the Altors. Had Maitre the First never
found the cure to what we call 'the poison', the Altors would have
surely died out on their own. It was quite ironic to know the
Altors were still very much alive and fighting the Regius as best
they could thanks to a Blue Blood scientist who tested an Altor
child that would become Pieris Saxton’s ancestor.

Maitre the First figured
out what it was that killed the Altors, and to test his
intelligence, he began finding a cure for it. Thus the trigger came
to be. Having been triggered, Pieris' ancestor got caught in an
outburst, seeing red as a sign of danger for the first time, giving
birth to the Altor vision. He massacred the Blue Bloods that held
him captive; along with Maitre the First who'd already fathered a
daughter and would then carry on the line in order to bring to life
Maitre and Rhamnus.

Getting rid of those who
kept him within the claws of the Regius, Pieris' ancestor escaped
and returned to his people with a cure. Pieris' ancestor was the
one who befriended a man named Jen, an Altor who loved books, and
was the ancestor to Jan and Jatrop Jansen. He was the one that
figured out the smaller details concerning the trigger, explaining
that believing you were about to die, was the only way to allow the
outburst to set in. Those two together founded the Coliseum on
Serenium ground and made it a safe place for Altor children to
come, a place where they could trigger those kids who would die
unless something was done about it. Thus came to be the Altor
Coliseum, which today could be compared to a school.