Battle of the Elements
Chapter 32 Luna

I walked towards the doors, willing my nerves to settle as I walked into the room. King Brendan was sitting at a table, goblet on hand. He looked to me with those hungry eyes of his, like I was a steak on a platter. Radha was sitting at the opposite end of the table, one of her strategic half-smiles on her face. She looked to me, her violet eyes locking on me as I placed the food down in front of her. Her black, slick hair was pulled back with one of her sliver, black-gem encrusted headbands. Her lips were coated in a dark-red colour as she smiled. Her dress was black and went way past her feet, making it drag behind her.

King Brendan still had his eyes on me, “Oh Radha,” he said, “you are so lucky to have such a beautiful assistant.” I walked over to him, not meeting his eyes as I set his food down in front of him. I felt his hand brush against my thigh and I choked back the bile rising in my throat at his touch. He continued speaking as if I wasn’t there, “Her pale skin, blue eyes and black hair make up something from a dream.”

Radha smiled politely, gently patting the seat next to her for me to sit down. I nodded and sat down next to her, relieved to be away from the king. His hungry gaze followed me wherever I went, but at least now he couldn’t touch me. Radha gave a laugh, it sounded forced to me, but to Brendan it would’ve sounded sincere, “Most of the Black Magi have these looks. Black hair is one of the most common features in our race. Pale skin is from our traditions and her blue eyes, well they are beautiful but that is something she and her brother share.”

I tensed at the mentioning of my brother, the traitor who left me with those monsters of our parents. He ruined everything for us. He was our saviour, our only hope for our master to rule and he ruined it.

Brendan shoved a piece of fruit into that wide mouth of his, “Her brother, the traitor right?”

I swallowed.

Radha nodded, “Luna, why don’t you tell Brendan about your brother?” she must be mad at me. She knew how much I hated talking about him.

I struggled to force the words out of my mouth, “His name was Shane. He was the chosen one, the one with more power than the rest of us. But he couldn’t handle the greatness of our master, so he left in fear, like a coward.” My vision went blurry, I was about to cry.

Radha nodded, pleased with my answer, “Luna, go and get me a drink. When you get back, Brendan and I will discuss battle tactics for the upcoming war.”

“Yes.” I said quietly before walking as fast as I could out of the room. As soon as I shut the doors behind me, I felt warm tears trickle down my cheeks. It wasn’t the fact that he was a traitor that made me cry, it was that he left me. Not just once, but twice. Once when he was thirteen, and then he left me forever, years ago. He died.

Bridgette

Once again, we all stood in the throne room. Arora, the woman who represented all the elementals was looking slightly panicked. I couldn’t blame her, we were at war now and we had no idea who we were up against. The crests on the guards’ armour meant that King Brendan was the leader of the war, but no mortal man could ever set off an explosion like the civilians explained.

Titania cleared her throat as she sat on her throne. Alex was looking confused and ever so slightly dumb – not that I didn’t expect it, this wasn’t his war, or his kingdom. Add that to the fact that he probably hasn’t seen his friends since they left, he had every right to be losing his mind. It was a fricken miracle he stayed if you asked me.

Titania looked to me and I knew what she was thinking before she said it, “We’re at war. Not just with King Brendan, but with the Black Magi.”

Murmurs sounded from all around the room. I turned to whisper something to Melanie, but bit my lip when I remembered that she was taken along with a bunch of civilians.

Titania whispered something to Audrie – her bodyguard, one of our best soldiers – before clearing her throat once again, “We have chosen our course of action. We will undoubtedly need to fight. Arora, I will need you to round up some of your elementals to participate. Jake, I want you to go and seek out the werewolves, ask them to help us. Bridgette and Maran, I will need a battle plan by tomorrow. Alex,” Alex looked up startled, “I want you to know, you can leave at any time. Don’t think we won’t help Harrison and Dane. You are a king and you must put your people first. I understand that now.” She said, softening her voice at the last sentence.

Alex stood up a little straighter, “I want to stay for now.” He looked around, “We’re missing someone. The girl from earlier, where is she?”

I swallowed. Everyone in the room looked at each other with wary looks. He couldn’t know, not right now.

Titania waved her hand as if waving away a fly gently, “Do not mind that, we have bigger issues at hand.” She looked at everyone in the room, “Now go, round up civilians, tell them to take shelter, gather supplies for the war and as for tomorrow, stay in their homes until further notice.” And that was that. Everyone left and took care of their jobs. Maran and I met up in the library – the private section – to discuss battle tactics.

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I looked at the wine in my goblet. Was I supposed to drink it? Radha forbids us to drink any substance with alcohol – granted, we did break that rule sometimes when we were in our teens, but I would never had done it in front of her. I looked to her, asking for permission. She didn’t look back at me, so I set the wine down in front of me.

We had been in the dining hall for hours, discussing battle plans and negotiations. The Black Magi didn’t want any of the land, we only wanted the women and children, the queen and her child. The king didn’t know that though, that was why Radha chose him. He was an idiot. All he cared about was women and drinking. He was a stubborn fool, exactly what we needed.

Radha sipped at her wine politely as she nodded to the senseless, drunken things the king said. I couldn’t help but think she knew about yesterday though, did she know about the meeting with them?

“Ah! Why don’t I give you the weird creatures!” the king said, his speech slurred.

“Oh, you can have those, we want the children and women.”

“All of them?” the king said, maybe he wasn’t drunk enough to be rid of suspicion.

“Not all, just a few. We have a feeling the children can be saved, but we will need their mothers to raise them. We don’t believe in taking a child from its mother.”

“I agree!” the king said, overzealous at her words. Maybe he wouldn’t be so happy if he knew why we were taking them. The prophesy did say that one of those children would have to die. But that wouldn’t stop Radha. She has been working towards this for years, each movement strategic and soon, everything was in place, until Shane betrayed us for some stupid girl he met in the woods. Titania. He went out looking for the girl he would one day have to murder and he found her, fell in love with her. ‘That was the day his mind started to cloud’ the adults all said. I didn’t understand then, I was only five when he met her, he said that the adults went out and erased him from her mind after that.

“Luna?” Radha looked at me like I was crazy.

“Yes?” I said, snapping out of my thoughts.

“It’s time to leave.” She said matter of factly.

I nodded and stood up. King Brendan was gone, he must’ve been dragged off by one of his guards.

Radha walked towards her chambers – the king had lent us rooms in the forts so we could sleep away from the soldiers, but have easy access to the battlefield. As soon as I shut the door behind me she walked straight over to the mirror, “That king seems to fancy you. He looks at you like you’re a meal, it’s quite disturbing.”

“I agree.” I mumbled as I sat down on the edge of the bed. I wasn’t supposed to be sharing a room with the High Seine, but lately I have had to break so many of our rules and traditions, I didn’t really care about the small details of them anymore.

“I’ll have to remember to use that to our advantage.” She mumbled.

I looked up at her, hoping she didn’t mean what I thought she meant, “You don’t mean…”

“Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to sleep in his chambers, just… motivate him to do as we ask. It’s for the greater good.” She said as she took out her headband and placed it carefully in her black jewellery box.

I felt my stomach churn at the thought of the king. Men having interest in me wasn’t new, but they were all Black Magi. They would never had made a move on the High Seine’s assistant.

Radha lit a candle and let it burn for a minute before crushing the flame in-between her fingers. She began her mutterings of words I couldn’t understand and I just shrugged. She was praying to her master. I looked to my hands, not sure what to do. I stood up from the bed and went to a separate mirror and began combing my hair with a brush. I could understand why the men had an interest in me. I had soft features, raven hair, large blue eyes and pale skin that almost seemed white. I had power too. Quite a bit of it, not as much as my brother though. He had many gifts, I only had five. I put down the brush and reached for the piece of cloth by my nightgown. I unfolded it to look at the embroidery.

A single black flower was in the middle of the white fabric. Vines spread over the background. I smiled, remembering the day Shane gave this to me. He stole it from one of the rich ladies in the underground village. He got into lots of trouble for it but he never told them where he put the handkerchief. He said he sold it but he actually gave it to me for my birthday. Mother and Father said celebrations that didn’t have anything to do with our master were unneeded. That handkerchief was the only present I had gotten for my birthday. I clutched the piece of fabric and put it in my wooden box that I kept with me wherever I went – it was a box of things from Shane.

“We will infiltrate them two days from now.” Radha said.

I looked to her, started to see she had stopped praying. “Oh?”

“Yes. Two days from now should give them enough time to get their bearings.”

“Are you talking about Titania or King Brendan?” I asked, not sure why she would mean Titania.

“King Brendan. We don’t want this war to be over until the negotiations are fulfilled. Until then, we will be making sure that our prophesies will succeed.”

The prophesies. There were two prophesies in our religion, each of them giving us a way to summon our master. The first one was why Shane left: The man who holds more power over the world than any other sliver of darkness.

It meant that, if a Black Magi was born with more power than any other, they would be the vessel for our master since no other man was strong enough to contain such power. But the man would have to go through extensive amounts of torture and brainwashing. There have only been two men to fit that prophesy: Salvis and Shane. Salvis withstood the torture, but it drove him crazy so he was locked away forever. Shane couldn’t stand the pain; ‘His mind was too astray’ the doctors said. He had already gone down the path that was forbidden to any Black Magi. He had stopped believing in our master.

Then, there was the second prophesy: The darkness in the light, the light in the darkness. A child born of dark and light will shift our world and make it one. The four creators will be the ones to leave.

That was where Haley came in. Shane was a Black Magi, basically a darkness elemental. Titania was a light elemental. Haley was a child born of light and darkness. The four creators were discovered years ago: The mother, the father, the mother of a mother and the first love.

Melanie

I sat against the wall, listening to the murmurs of the civilians. I looked through the bars of the cell, looking at Katy. The poor girl was scared out of her mind, you could see it in her face. But she didn’t panic. She would help the elders or children in her cell. There were four cells in this dungeon. Eight guards. Two at each cell. Once every hour, a new guard would come into the dark hallway and drag away a civilian. Some would scream, others would be obedient. None of them would come back.

I looked around my cell. Around ten people in my cell, same for the other cells. Forty people. A guard came down the corridor and gave me a look. I stared back at him unflinchingly. Show no weakness. The guard gave me a smirk before strutting towards me, “Hello girly.” He said, his voice reminded me of something slick and greasy.

I swallowed but didn’t look away. His eyes were a dark brown and there was something sick in them.

“I like you. You’re not like the other cowards in here. You’ve got guts.” He said, grabbing my chin and digging his nails into my skin. “You’re a beauty too. Not like some of the bitches I’ve seen.”

I glared at him and quickly seized his fingers between my teeth, biting down hard until I heard his yelps of pain. I smirked smugly at him. But that smirk wiped off my face when I felt his fist slam into my gut. I grunted as the pain exploded around my stomach.

I felt two hands grab me and the man’s voice, “This one.” He said. I was thrown over his shoulder. I struggled and reached for his hair, pulling it back. I almost got away when his grip loosened but two guards stopped me. I heard Katy’s yelps of horror as one of the guards wrapped his hand around my throat. Black dots clouded my vision and I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness. I felt the man’s hands on my body as he threw me over his shoulder, “Don’t be afraid. Once you’re done being questioned, you won’t have to die. I’ll take you home with me and I promise I’ll take good care of you.” I made one final attempt at escape but I felt something pierce my skin. A needle. I went limp and was carried down the hallway.

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