Amadea and the Divinity Blade - Chapter 28

Chapter 28

“He… just… just…” Luna stuttered, and then fainted. Kyle, Notus, and Boreus all made signs against evil, and took a step back.

Zephyr gave a humorless smile. “I had almost forgotten that you could do that.”

“Really?” Abydos asked, not believing him in the slightest.

Zephyr shrugged. By this time, he had finished healing himself, but was still weak. He reclined against a tree in order to rest, and watched as the protective orb faded now that it was no longer necessary.

Abydos knelt next to Amadea, and looked at Zephyr. “I wish I could heal her, though she doesn’t really need it.” He then focused on her with a faint – somewhat fond – smile on his face. “I’m so glad she survived the battle against the Source of All Evil. Out of you all, I think she was always my favorite.”

He gently brushed some hair out of her face, and Zephyr leapt to his feet. “Don’t you touch her!”

Abydos held his hands up submissively. “Relax. If I wanted to harm her, I wouldn’t have bothered saving you all.”

“I don’t care if you intend no harm, don’t you touch her again!” Zephyr insisted, stepping between his wife and Abydos.

“I see,” Abydos grinned so wide that his eyes seemed to be closed. This was his normal – deceptive – facial expression, and didn’t necessarily mean that he was happy. “So you’ve finally admitted that you have feelings for her?”

“Yes… We’re even married,” Zephyr stated.

Abydos looked impressed. “And here I thought that you two would never have the courage to start a relationship, much less get married.”

It was Zephyr’s turn to smirk like a bastard. “You mean you don’t know?”

“What?” Abydos tried to ascertain the secret by staring at Zephyr’s eyes.

“She… is Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Amadea. After the scales chose her as the Heir to the throne, her father insisted that she get married, and I just so happened to be lucky enough to be chosen as her true mate by the Scales of the Gods,” Zephyr explained.

“Ah…ha…” Abydos replied slowly. “No, I hadn’t known that. The details of mortals are of no interest to me.”

“I’m surprised,” Zephyr paused dramatically. “I was certain that you wanted Amadea to appoint you as one of her advisors so that you could attempt to destroy the Empire.”

Abydos sighed. “When have demons ever tried to interfere with mortal politics?”

“I can name quite a few occasions,” Zephyr responded sarcastically.

“So can I!” Zira backed him up.

Abydos simply gave them his trademark grin. “Think whatever you like.”

Zira started chuckling menacingly. “Now that that demon is gone, we have no more need of you.” She wrapped her hands around his throat, and tried to choke him. “If you had stuck with us, none of us would have died! You bastard! You despicable monster!”

“Demon,” Abydos corrected, smiling again. “You do know that you’re a ghost, right? You can’t actually hurt me.”

“I can effin try!” Zira promised, thunking his head against the tree behind him.

“Ow,” he laughed. “That kind of stings.”

“I…” Notus finally managed to talk. “Take it you know him.”

“Unfortunately,” Zephyr grumbled. “He’s a high level demon that seems to think of us as his pets.”

“Hmm,” Abydos pressed a finger to his lips and looked towards the sky as he considered this description. He couldn’t find a more accurate way of saying what he thought of them, so he nodded and grinned. He brushed Zira’s hands aside.

Zira would not take this as an answer, especially since he couldn’t hurt her, and grabbed his collar so that she could stare fiercely into his eyes. Luna gasped, indicating that she was awake and had been for long enough to know that he was a demon of enormous power.

“If you think of me as a pet, then explain to me why you bothered to help me out and guide me from time to time if you were just going to abandon me when I needed you the most?” Zira asked intently.

“Simple, I guided you because I wanted to. Instead, you should be asking why I abandoned you,” he replied with a grin. “That’s simple too. The moment the Source of All Evil was released from prison – no… the moment it was certain that he would be… I was unable to help you. After all, he is my creator. I cannot disobey his will.”

Zira was staring at him in open-mouthed shock, and she wasn’t the only one. Long ago, the world was controlled by and fought over by the Gods and the demons. Neither race could ever truly win against the other, and so they eventually entered into a truce. Part of the truce was that both the Source of All Evil and the King of the Gods would be sealed away for all eternity.

This was long before the Divinity Blade was created. Back then, there was only a handful of each race. The Source of All Evil had personally created just three demons. Two of the demons then went on to create a handful of demons each and so on until the lowest ranking demons were little better than humans when it came to how much power they had.

The Gods – on the other hand – opted not to create more than limited number of new deities. In this way, they have conserved their power rather than diluting it with each successive generation. Instead, they created a mostly powerless race of beings… humans.

Humans were different than either the demons or the Gods in that they did not create new life by dividing their own power to bring about something from nothing. Humans created new life in much the same way as animals did, by mating and then nurturing that life until it was ready to go out on its own. The Gods loved this about the humans, but the demons despised it.

In retaliation, they created monsters. Normally, the monster population was kept to a minimum by a barrier that the Gods had long ago cast around the human realm and maintained from the Divine realm. It was true that they could appear at random, but nothing like they had been recently. With these lesser doorways, they truly had an all access pass to the human realm.

Anyway, getting back to Abydos; if he could be believed, he was one of the three demons created by the Source himself! This entirely explained why he was so powerful! It was enough of a shock to keep a smart-ass ghost completely speechless for close to five minutes – which was probably the longest she had ever gone without talking in her life.

Amadea woke up just then, and noticed Zephyr and Zira sitting next to her gaping at someone. She slowly shifted her head, and waited for her eyes to focus. Recognizing the newcomer, she sat up and grinned.

“Abydos!” She cried out, pleased to see him. She pulled her feet under her in a kind of squat, and launched herself at the demon. She hugged him enthusiastically – half thunking his head into the tree that he sat in front of – and then sat back to smile at him.

“I thought you might have died!” She explained. “You vanished so suddenly from the battle with the Source. How’ve you been?”

Abydos gave her a genuine smile in return, and then secretly smirked at Zephyr. Not even a jealous husband could fault a demon for accepting a hug when thrust upon him so suddenly.

“Same as always,” Abydos admitted.

“Have you done as I asked?” Amadea wondered.

Abydos looked at her suspiciously. “What you asked?”

“You know!” Amadea giggled. “I asked you to look into the mirror everyday and tell yourself that even though you are a demon, you will hold all life as precious.”

“Um… no,” Abydos replied with his trademark grin. “As a demon, I just can’t say that!”

“Life is precious, Abydos!” Amadea admonished.

Abydos held up his hands protectively.

“Life is wonderful!” Amadea added.

“Stop!” Abydos begged.

Amadea grinned sweetly. “Just as long as you never forget it. So… why are you here?” She looked around curiously. “And why are the soldiers all still inside a barrier?”

“Oops,” Zephyr flinched sheepishly. It was true that he had forgotten all about them. A glance informed him that they were all bored – able to see this group, but too far away to hear anything. He released his barrier, and gestured for them to go find something to do.

As for Abydos, he continued to smile at Amadea. “I wanted to see how you were doing… and I noticed that you were in a bit of trouble. So, I decided to lend a hand.”

“He makes it sound like he did so out of the kindness of his heart, but in actuality, he expects compensation,” Zephyr pointed out. Then he explained what had happened while Amadea was unconscious.

Amadea grabbed Abydos’ hand, and gushed, “Thank you for saving us! Anything you want, I’ll gladly pay it.”

Zephyr rolled his eyes, and muttered softly, “Amadea…”

Abydos grinned. “In that case…” he leaned to whisper the rest in Amadea’s ear.

She frowned slightly. “That’s it? That’s all you want and you’ll consider our debt paid in full?”

Abydos nodded, and Amadea slowly inhaled. She sighed, and then nodded in agreement. She leaned close to glare at him.

“Absolutely no funny business, you got that?” She stated emphatically. At his nod, she pressed her lips to his.

“Amadea!” Zephyr protested. A light flashed for a moment, and then vanished.

Amadea sat back. “You promised there’d be no funny business! What did you do?!”

Abydos smirked. “I think I’ll keep that my little secret, for now…” With that, he disappeared.

“Amadea,” Zephyr ground out angrily.

“What?” Amadea asked, not fully understanding why he was upset. “He said that the payment for saving our lives would be a little kiss, and I thought we were getting quite a bargain! It’s not like it meant anything to me!”

Zephyr sighed in frustration. “Whether it meant anything to you or not, he manipulated you. Now we have no idea what he’s done! For all we know, he could have sealed your power!”

Amadea frowned as she realized that he could be right. She decided to test his theory by casting a tiny fireball. That worked just fine, so she pulled out her Divinity Blade.

“Everything seems to be working just fine,” Amadea said with a shrug. She slid the blade back into her hand.

Zephyr growled. “I know that now is not the time; we are all tired and hungry, and we have to get to the next place as quickly as possible, even so…” he pulled his wife into his arms, and carried her to his horse.

He turned to glare at their companions. “Stay here and rest up. We still have at least one more battle ahead of us, and we’re all going to need our strength. Most importantly, don’t follow us!”

Zira chuckled, saluted, and replied in an ancient and strange sounding language, “Yes sir!”

           Luna held her hands to her cheeks to cover a blush, and Notus, Boreus, and Kyle all grinned knowingly. They nodded their understanding, and wished the couple a good night.

Go To Chapter 29