A Meet of Tribes

  “We suspect there is a succubi settlement somewhere along those mountains,” Marchosi continued. “But I’ve not been able to find it yet.”

  I took a few steps closer, my heart stuck in my throat. I wanted to get a better look at the map before my vision ended. But darkness enveloped me again too soon. I cursed between my teeth, unable to delay my leave.

  I was standing between black walls again.

  Damn!

  I walked forward as the image before me came into focus. I was inside what looked like a dungeon. The ceiling arched above, while iron cages lined the walls on both sides. Creatures hissed and moaned, their crooked arms hanging limp between the bars.

  Green flames flickered overhead, and I was able to recognize some of the prisoners. There were several…

  Fae?

  The fae were bruised and scratched all over, their once sparkling clothes now tattered and dirty. Some of them slept, while others wrestled against their shackles. I figured they were unable to use their ability to thin themselves and disappear due to Azazel’s influence.

  I felt so sorry for them, but I had to keep moving. I had to record as much as I could in my mind. I wondered how the fae had made it into Eritopia in the first place, but that was a question for Draven. There were endemic species in the dungeon, including dozens of succubi and a few incubi on the left. One of the incubi seemed dead, his gray eyes open wide and blank, silver blood dripping from his mouth as he lay on one side, motionless.

  I instinctively covered my mouth with my hands to suppress a gasp. There were a couple of strange-looking women captive as well. They looked mostly human but had vibrant green and yellow scales covering their chests, legs, and arms. One of them yawned while leaning against the iron bars, and I could see her fangs and thin pink tongue, its tip split in two, reminding me of a snake. Was she a female Druid, perhaps? I’d have to ask Draven.

  I jumped to the side, startled by noises behind me. I kept my mouth covered as I watched a Destroyer drag an incubus along the floor. He reached an empty cage and threw the new prisoner in there as if he were a sack of potatoes. The incubus landed inside with a thump and a groan, cursing under his breath.

  As soon as the Destroyer locked the cage, the captive grabbed onto the bars and rattled them, startling the others. The Destroyer slammed a hand against the bars and hissed in response, and I took a few steps forward to get a better look.

  I was surprised to see Sverik, Kristos’ brother. I hadn’t forgotten his handsome features from my previous vision. He’d been captured and imprisoned, despite what we’d heard about his father joining Azazel.

  What is he doing here?

  “You can’t do this to me!” Sverik shouted at the Destroyer, prompting hisses and growls from the other prisoners.

  “We can do whatever we want, little boy! You are insurance,” the monster replied with a satisfied grin.

  “We swore fealty to Azazel, both my father and I! There is no point in locking me up!”

  “My lord needs to make sure that your grumpy old man obeys and doesn’t think of turning his sword on us when things get rough. Blood is thicker than water,” said the Destroyer and walked out.

  I stood there for a minute, watching as Sverik struggled with the iron bars of his cage. His right eye was swollen and purple, and silver blood oozed from his lip. He must have put up quite the fight before getting dragged into the dungeon.

  But what is this dungeon?

  What is Azazel doing with all these creatures here?

  Serena

  A few minutes into the session, I walked over to Aida’s bedside. Draven’s presence so close to me was draining me further, as I fought the urge to syphon off of him. I was so hungry that his delicious energy was breaking my focus.

  I stood by Field’s side, watching over Aida. Her eyes moved beneath her lids, and the shadow of a frown passed over her face once in a while. I wondered what she was seeing. I unwittingly leaned into Field’s shoulder. I was feeling weaker and weaker.

  Field looked at me, visibly concerned, and touched my forehead with the back of his hand. It felt cold against my skin, and I started to worry about the possibility that I was coming down with a fever. I was more susceptible to illness if I didn’t feed as a sentry.

  “You look pale, Serena,” Field said slowly. “When’s the last time you syphoned?”

  “When we first got here.” I gave him a weak smile.

  “Damnit, girl. You know you can syphon off me and Jovi whenever you need a pick-me-up.” He took hold of my hand.

  I nodded slowly and allowed myself to open up and draw his energy in. It felt like a warm summer breeze rushing through my veins. I closed my eyes and watched the bluish green ribbons of energy sizzle from his body to mine. I felt what he felt in that moment—concern and uncertainty over what our future had in store for us and a blossoming warmth in his chest every time he looked at Aida. I felt the tension in his stomach from being close to her. I saw flickers of Aida in the back of my head, projected by Field’s mind.

  He cleared his throat, and I pulled myself from him, realizing I was digging too far into his soul. I felt invigorated all of a sudden. Strength returned to my legs. I took a deep breath and thanked him for his support.

  Before he could respond, his gaze passed over Aida and froze. His eyes widened in shock. I looked down and gasped at the sight of ink black runes fluttering across her entire body, moving beneath her skin.

  “Draven,” I managed to call out. “There’s something going on with Aida.”

  “What’s wrong?” I heard him ask from behind.

  “Runes… I can see runes on her skin… They’re moving across her body, but they are clear as day!”

  “You need to draw as many of them as you can, Serena, in the succession in which they appear,” Draven replied. “Check the cabinet by the door. I keep writing tools in there for various observations during my experiments.”

  Field immediately rummaged through a drawer and found an old notebook with off-white paper and a few pieces of charcoal. He brought them over and tore a few pages out for me. We started copying as many runes as we could.

  “Experiments?” Field asked, an eyebrow raised as he followed the symbols flickering across Aida’s collarbones.

  “This isn’t just a treatment room. It’s also where I study different plants and animals. I’ve had a lot of spare time on my hands,” Draven said bluntly.

  “Of course you did,” came my sarcastic remark. “Doctor Frankenstein would be proud.”

  “Who’s that?” he asked.

  “Never mind,” I muttered, as I hurriedly sketched the runes.

  “Are you writing everything down?” Draven asked.

  “We’re trying to cover as much as we can,” Field replied. “But a lot of them vanish and re-emerge on different sides.”

  “What are these runes anyway?” I frowned over Aida’s left arm, trying to make out the combinations of lines, points, and geometrical shapes forming each symbol. I wondered if she could feel them at all in her state.

  “They’re the ancient language of the Oracles. It holds millennia of wisdom and knowledge of Eritopia. It often relates to what visions the Oracles are having in that precise moment and is usually more helpful than the visions themselves,” Draven explained. “One Oracle might just see a tree on a hill, for example, but the runes might talk about the bones of the Ancients buried beneath, bones which, if found, can be ground into a fine powder and used for extremely powerful magic, like my father found out during one of Elissa’s visions.”

  I kept writing the sequences down. Aida’s chest moved slowly with each even breath.

  Vita

  I stood in front of a wide, open space on a terrace made of black limestone and marble. Tall arches rested on slim pillars that framed the circular plateau all around me. The sky above was a dark shade of pink as the sun drifted beneath the horizon to my left.

  I turned around and found myself facing the large glass sphere w
here the Nevertide Oracle floated unconsciously. Her long fingers slid along the glass. Her white eyes opened wide, as if staring directly at me.

  “Vita.”

  Her voice echoed in my head. This was the second time that I was in a vision of the future and the Oracle could somehow feel me there. It was just as creepy as the first time. I heard noises behind me, grunts and gasps and familiar voices getting closer.

  I froze when I watched Aida, Phoenix, and a future version of myself being dragged up to the terrace in iron shackles by three Destroyers. My heart jumped into my throat, and my stomach tightened. Azazel followed behind them wearing a satisfied grin on his face.

  A serpent made of gold with small ruby eyes slithered in a figure eight hanging on a chain around his neck. The lower half of his body was massive. I stepped closer to him for a better look. He commanded the Destroyers to put all of us in three glass spheres filled with what looked like water. They were mounted beneath three nearby arches, waiting to be occupied by Oracles.

  I wanted to shout, to shoot fire at them, to rip their eyes out with my bare hands. I felt consumed by the rage of feeling useless before this horrifying scene. Phoenix’s eyes were red and swollen, and most of his face was severely bruised. He must have fought the Destroyers. He must have tried to stop this from happening. Aida was passed out. Her feet dragged along the ground. One of the monsters pulled her up like she weighed less than a pillow.

  Azazel muttered something, and one of the spheres opened up on one side without spilling over, enough for the Destroyer to shove her inside before it sealed itself back. I watched Aida’s body as it turned and twitched helplessly, the fluid filling her lungs until she stilled. I watched my future self cry and scream out, begging Azazel to stop. A Destroyer’s arm nearly crushed my torso with his grip.

  “This is what you get for being naughty little children,” Azazel hissed at us.

  I shivered as I watched the Destroyers put Phoenix and my future self into the other two spheres. The liquid filled our lungs until we stopped moving.

  “Vita, there isn’t much time left,” I heard the Nevertide Oracle in my head.

  I couldn’t face her again. My chest was about to explode from the grief of watching myself and my friends in those spheres, destined for an eternity of misery and imprisonment. Aida floated slowly on one side, enough for me to see her face. Her eyes opened wide—blank and white—and runes emerged and slid across her pale skin.

  Azazel laughed with great satisfaction, and I knew that all three of us were experiencing visions against our will.

  “Vita, listen to me,” the Nevertide Oracle called out to me again.

  But before I could look at her again, I watched Azazel slither up to her and caress the glass between them with one hand.

  “You wonderful, wonderful creature,” he hissed at her. “I wouldn’t have gotten the whole set of Oracles without your…assistance. So, thank you, my darling. You’ve been a great asset!”

  I froze at his statement, then looked at the Oracle. She looked so miserable, but what did it mean? Was that real suffering or just the guilt she felt for having betrayed us all?

  My anger burned like fire until everything went dark. I wanted to stay longer, to see more and find out whether she really had played a part in our capture or whether she’d just been an unwilling pawn in Azazel’s game, but my vision faded and took me deeper into the future.

  The darkness dissipated, and another place came into focus. The black stone architecture made me think I was still somewhere in Azazel’s citadel. Everything exuded suffering and doom. A nearby window revealed that the sky was a dark purple now, riddled with black and gray clouds that occasionally glowed from the electrical storms they carried.

  My gaze immediately fixed on Serena, and my heart stopped for a moment. She was slightly older, her eyes wearing decades of experience more than the Serena I knew. Her skin was tanned, and her body was clad in black leather and silver armor, reminding me of Anjani and her warrior succubi sisters.

  Her hands were tied behind her back. Her torso was chained and hung from the tall ceiling above a massive fire pit. Green flames licked at her naked feet. She kept pulling them back to avoid the burns. She must have been in a lot of pain, but she didn’t show it.

  I looked around to see the rest of the hall, square and spacious with massive torches mounted on the walls.

  Azazel stood by the edge of the fire pit, hissing with delight as he enjoyed the heat. His serpent tail twitched, and his fingers caressed the moving serpent medallion hung around his neck.

  I saw two massive doors open into the room. In came two Destroyers dragging Draven along in heavy black chains. There were symbols carved into the cuffs, and it made me wonder whether they had some binding spell that forced the Druid into submission. My heart twisted at the sight of Serena crying out his name.

  “Draven, no! What did you do?!”

  The Destroyers pulled him closer to the fire. Azazel slithered around the pit to get a better look at his face. His grin made me nauseous. I took a few deep breaths to keep myself under control, telling myself that this was still in the future, that it hadn’t happened yet, and that I would do everything I could to stop it from happening altogether.

  “I’m here, as you can see,” Draven said to Azazel. His tone oozed sarcasm as the Destroyers forced him to stand.

  His ankle was swollen, and blood drizzled from his temple, where he’d been recently hit. Nevertheless, he leaned into his other leg, unwavering in front of Azazel, who took his chin in his scaly hand and turned his head to one side, a pensive look on his face. I could see black and brown scales spreading out from Azazel’s neck onto his cheeks on both sides. His eyes glistened red.

  “Hmm. You do take after your father,” Azazel mused, then pulled the Druid’s hair painfully to one side, jerking his head.

  Draven winced but kept a straight face.

  “I’m here, as per the terms of our agreement,” he said, his voice low.

  I froze, as did Serena, who stilled against her restraints, her cheeks red from the flames below. Tears welled in her eyes, and I understood then that she had developed feelings for the Druid. It broke my heart, but I kept my composure and continued watching the exchange.

  “Draven, what did you do?” Serena cried out.

  “What I had to do to keep you alive,” he replied, his gaze softening as their eyes met.

  “No, no, no, Draven, no! You can’t! We need you! Eritopia needs you! I’m not important. I’m not worth your sacrifice. Don’t!”

  Azazel roared with laughter as he snapped his fingers, and the chain keeping Serena attached to the ceiling moved and threw her backward against a wall. She hit the floor with a thud, coughing and struggling to stand.

  “When will you understand, Serena, that you are worth everything to me?” Draven said before shifting his attention back to Azazel. “She lives. You guaranteed it.”

  “I’m a Druid of my word,” Azazel hissed and grinned, snapping his fingers again.

  Another Destroyer emerged from the darkness and dragged Serena out of the hall, despite her flailing legs and screams.

  “Draven! Draven!”

  The vision faded into darkness again, but Draven’s response echoed anyway.

  “You’re not a Druid anymore, Azazel, you’re a monster.”

  I drifted further into time. This was immediately clear from the moment the image before my eyes came into focus. The sky was black and heavy with thick clouds above Eritopia. The thousands of acres of lush jungles had been burned down and stripped to charred trunks and blackened dust. I was on the same platform where I had seen our capture and the Nevertide Oracle, but the arches had been torn down, and rubble was spread at my feet.

  I stood above a lifeless wasteland on the edge of the circular terrace. Glass spheres were shattered, shards scattered around. A pang in my heart drew my focus to the center of the scene, where I found Azazel.

  His serpent tail flicked around, h
is clawed hands digging deep into Draven’s chest. I cried out, but I couldn’t hear my own voice. Instead, I heard Serena’s scream. She was on her knees, in shackles, held down by a Destroyer.

  A golden light poured out of Draven as Serena cried out his name, her face pale with devastation. Azazel was feeding off the Druid’s energy from what I could tell, and I could see his body light up from within, like an incandescent lightbulb. Azazel laughed as he drained him of his life force.

  I saw Phoenix, Aida, and myself lumped on one side, our arms tied behind us, runes flickering over our bodies, and our eyes wide and white. I looked over the edge of the platform and noticed another level below, larger and with wide, circular steps descending toward the lowest terrace, many miles down. Hundreds of incubi and succubi lay on the terraces and the stairs, their bodies limp and lifeless.

  “This is the perfect recipe for success! A Druid’s life force can be truly extraordinary!” Azazel barked as he continued to draw power from Draven.

  The Druid turned pale, the last flickers of life leaving his gray eyes. His gaze settled on Serena. The shadow of a smile passed over his face.

  She cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. I felt my own eyes burn, but I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t leave them there. I had to make sure I could stop this before it became a distant probability.

  I walked forward to get a better look at Azazel’s claws piercing Draven’s flesh. Blood dripped from the Druid’s wounds while his once tanned skin lost its color.

  “You see, Serena,” Azazel said to her, his eyes burning red, “I need a lot of energy to find another world to conquer. Eritopia’s weak now. It can no longer sustain my grandeur. I need something more. I am a king in need of a kingdom!”

  “You’re a sick bastard, drunk on your own power!” Serena barked at him between hiccups, while she continued to struggle against her restraints and the Destroyer’s firm grip.