Memories Lost - First of Apocalyptic Hell Series

Truths Revealed

    As we moved out of this town, we came up on a farm that looked as if it had been abandoned weeks ago. Lucky for us they left behind a team of horses and a wagon to help us, I couldn’t have asked for a move perfect situation. The horses were easy and calm, I was surprised that they'd been left behind and it wasn’t until I searched the house when I discovered that they hadn’t been. The family who lived here had sadly never left, they had been slaughtered for what little they had in their home. The kitchen had been raided, but I was able to scrounge through and find things that would be useful, especially with a baby on the way. 

    “The horses are ready to go and the wagon is in great shape, wonder why these people would’ve left all this behind.” Asar stated as I came out of the house. I gave him a grim look and shook my head. “No, they’re..” he couldn’t finish as I nodded my head. 

    “Rather sad honestly, they were an elderly couple too. Whoever did this was human and not of Lilith’s forces.” I looked back at the door sadly. 

    “Are you sure?” he asked. 

    “Positive. Her minions wouldn’t have killed them to just raid their kitchen for food. If they would’ve killed them then the house and barn would’ve been burnt to the ground and the horses taken. Any livestock living here would’ve been slaughtered to feed themselves before moving on to the next place.” As grim as it seemed, those people were spared. Whoever came in here dispatched them quickly. 

    “We should bury them. They didn’t deserve to leave this life as they did.” Asar made a good point. 

    “Go look for some shovels, you and Aulcmid can dig the graves while Charles and Alex prepare the bodies.” He nodded and walked away to find Aulcmid and shovels. 

    I walked back into the house and into the living area where the couple were. The man was sitting in a recliner and the woman was face down on the floor. I heard someone walk through the door and as I turned I was greeted with a sharp squeal. I lunged forward and grabbed Alissa, clamping my hand on her mouth. 

    “Please, don’t scream. Refrain from screaming as much as possible. Loud noises will draw unwanted attention to us and only two of us in our group know how to fight.” I looked into her fearful eyes, tears began to well up as she nodded. I released her and walked her away from the bloody scene. 

    “What happened to them?” she asked in a soft voice. 

    “Raiders.” I saw the panic on her face, “Human.” I sighed as I prepared a quick pot of tea. I was thankful they still had enough propane to fuel their stove and the pilot lights hadn’t gone out. “It’s a blessing in disguise. Based on the amount of meds I found in the bathroom, these people wouldn’t have survived for long.” 

    “But they were slaughtered in cold blood. Who would do such a thing.” her voice was filled with such sadness. 

    “These are dark times, Alissa, people have to do what they can to survive and raiding is part of that. Granted I’ve never had to kill anyone while raiding, except when defending myself. Killing is sadly going to be a part of everyday life now. Survival is the only option. My job is to protect you and to get you all back to Eindenia where you will be safe.” 

    “Why do we have to go to this realm? What is so safe about it?” Alissa asked. 

    “It is the only safe place out there, it is protected by the magic of Queen Alenia and the Goddess Nyx. Out here, even if you could defend and protect yourself, you won’t survive for long.” I pointed out, “In Eindenia, Lilith can’t reach and she wouldn’t dare to seek a fight with the queen head on on her own territory, that would be suicide. None of her forces can infiltrate due to the old magic that protects it.” I turned around to face her and she looked scared again. 

    I could sense she was terrified of going, I wondered why she was so afraid. I sat the teapot on the table with a set of cups and poured her one. Handing it to her I caught a glimpse of her necklace and the charm that was dangling from it next to a medallion. I recognized that symbol on the charm as one of old magic, a glamor rune. What did she have to hide from anyone and what was she really? As I sat down opposite of her with my own cup I pushed some magic out to get a feel of what she might be under that glamor, unfortunately it didn’t work. 

    “Why use a glamor spell to hide yourself?” I calmly and quietly asked her, I kept my voice quiet enough that it sounded like we were having small talk to the others that were preparing the old couple for burial. Alissa almost choked on her tea, having to quickly wipe it off her chin while trying to not drop the tea cup. Her eyes darted around frantically while she tried to hold composure on her face, then she looked at me with more terror in her eyes than before. “Before you say anything, I am not going to harm you. I would never do that to an innocent. I do, however,” giving her a stern look, “expect an explanation.” I looked at her over the lip of my tea cup. She had to take a few seconds to compose herself before she could answer me. 

    “So others, such as yourself, can’t see what I truly am. More like who I am. I stole this charm from the vault of relics my mother had when I ran away, I couldn’t stay there anymore, I’m nothing like her. After seeing what horrors she was bringing to the mortal realm I couldn’t do it anymore.” She paused before smiling to herself for a moment, “When I left I had never expected to have met him, the love of my life.” Tears began to well up in her eyes and she had to force back a sob, “She took him, her minions took him.” That may have enlightened me on the fact that she wasn’t mortal at all, but it didn’t really answer any of my questions. I gave her some time to compose herself again. “I won’t let her take me back, I am not some minion she can control. I am her daughter for Satan’s sake, yet she tried to manipulate me and was so cruel about torturing me.” At that moment I dropped my teacup and stared at her in shock. 

    “You mean to tell me that you are the daughter of Lilith?” I asked her, I couldn’t believe it. How could that wretched b***h have the capability to produce something that was as sweet as Alissa was? Alissa looked down as she affectionately stroked her stomach. 

    “Sadly I am,” she sighed, “I’m nothing like her, clearly. Lucifer knew I wasn’t his child, but that didn’t stop him from loving me as his own. My mother, on the other hand, was punished for her actions. She tricked a high elf king into bedding her, used a glamour on herself to look like his queen. Her true form revealed when the queen entered their bedchamber. It almost started a war between the elves and the demons. Lucifer was able to make amends with the elves to prevent such a tragedy.” She paused for a moment, as if she was lost in thought. “Lilith was never much of the maternal type though, I’d never truly known what it was like to have a mother till the day I met my true father. Lucifer helped me escape when Lilith started the mutiny in Hell. I was found by elven guards struggling to survive on the edge of their realm and at first I thought I was dead for sure, that was till the king himself requested my presence in the throne room. He took me in, gave me sanctuary and the queen? Well the queen became the mother I had never had. I thought I was safe and all was perfect. I met my true love, Eldar, and life was filled with a bliss I had never felt before.” She paused, I could see a sadness fill her eyes once more, “Until Lilith’s forces made their way to his realm.” she paused again to hold back a sob, “I never expected any of this to happen, to fall in love or to become pregnant.” Tears began to stream down her cheeks and she was fighting to hold back the sobs. “I understand if you don’t want me to go with you, I’m certain Queen Alenia wouldn’t want me there.” 

    I sat there as I thought about everything she told me. It was pretty clear in the short time of knowing the young woman that she was nothing like Lilith. Lilith may have brought life to her, but she did not raise her and she did not taint her with her darkness. Alissa was full of light and good. She was just another innocent that was being dragged into this hell like everyone else. 

    “Alissa, you have nothing to worry about. I won’t leave you here and the Queen will not turn you away. I can tell that you are nothing like your mother. She may have given birth to you, but she did not taint you with her darkness. You nor your baby have nothing to worry about, we just have to make it to Eindenia before that little one makes its appearance.” I chuckled as I tried to make her smile, thankfully it worked, she smiled and gave a small chuckle. “I have a feeling ‘Alissa’ isn’t your real name.” She gave me a sheepish smile at my question. 

    “My real name is Caethrynna, Lucifer chose it.” She startled a bit as she heard someone coming into the house and looked back towards the door as Melanie and Jessica came in to join us. As they approached Melanie instantly bristled as she could see that Caethrynna had been crying.

    “Honey, why have you been crying?” Melanie looked at her, before shooting a glare at me. “What did you say to her?” 

    “It’s nothing, she did nothing wrong, just thinking back on old history is all.” Caethrynna gave her a small smile and quickly tried to distract her, “Do you want some tea?” I nodded at her and we made a silent agreement not to mention this to anyone in our group. 

    Soon we were able to get a move on, with the wagon of horses it allowed for the other party members to rest more, especially Caethrynna. I worried about her health, even though she was a half elf, half demon and would have no trouble with her delivery, I still didn’t want her to over exert herself. 

    Thankfully Aulcmid seemed to never tire and was able to clear paths for us so we could stay out of site, at least until we hit an older forest. The trees were too large for him to take down on his own. I stood with Aulcmid and Asar in front of one of the trees, I looked around and could see that if I could move them each over enough to open a path. 

    “It may be a long shot, but I could use magic to move the trees. I remember reading about a spell that did such a feat.” I stated, though I wasn’t exactly sure of myself. I was skilled in several fields of magic but nature wasn’t my strongest suit. 

    “Only if you don't exhaust yourself trying, that will require a lot of magic to do that.” Aulcmid looked down at me questioningly, “Are you sure you’re strong enough?” He continued to look at me while I studied the tree. 

    “We won’t know until I try, now will we?” I walked back to Vivaldi to find the spellbook and it took me a few moments to find the spell needed. As I knelt in front of the tree I called out to Nyx to aid me in and prayed that this didn’t kill me, even though I’m immortal I wasn’t sure if I used all of my magic would do it.

    I focused on pulling from the magic within myself, like it was a large well of power. The thrill of power flowed through my veins as the power built, I kept pulling till I felt I had gathered enough. I began reading the spell, speaking clearly, reading the Latin with my hand dug into the moist earth. 

    I called on the natural magic that was in nature itself to aid in this spell. The magic within me built up, a blue flowing aura surrounded me as the sheer power was building as I continued to say the enchantment. The air began to swirl around me as I continued to chant the words and power continued to build until all I could see was white light. There was a humming building in my ears as I continued to chant and it grew louder, so much so that I couldn’t even hear my own voice. It felt as if this went on for an eternity before there was a voice that rang clear as a bell in my mind. 

    “Release! Release your magic, Sayuri. Release it now!” rang a woman’s voice in my mind. 

    At the command of the voice I pushed the magic out through my hand and into the earth. I could feel the magic leave me, draining my strength with it. I started to feel woozy as it all left me, I fell forward onto my hands as I watched the blue aura of my magic weave in with the green magic of the earth. It went out as if it were following blood vessels as it traveled through the forest, for as far as I could see I watched the magic as it traveled from tree to tree. Each of them gave a slight shudder as if they were coming to life and had felt a cold breeze. 

    My arms gave out from underneath me as I fell forward, but a large pair of hands caught me before I landed face first. I could faintly see Aulcmid’s face when he lifted me up, holding me against his chest. My eyelids started feeling heavy, my body was like a sack of flour as Aulcmid cradled me and carried me to the wagon. I could hear a faint echo of Vivaldi and Fayrova’s voices in my mind, then everything went black.