Violence & Roses

3. Present Day-2

My parents met when war broke out on the Pentavi lands before moving to the blood-soaked battlefield of a war realm known as Reclon. There were hundreds of these war realms, but Reclon was the worst. It was lousy with monstrous beasts, some so big they could be mistaken for mountains. Massive tornadoes of toxic ash and acidic vapor swirled constantly, while oily black rain poured down, but those were the good days. When the seven suns came out, blood turned to vapor the moment it hit the air, and the heat could cook you like a sausage if you didn’t constantly manage your protection spells. Savage tribes of mindless rouges fed off the coagulated blood and fetid flesh of fallen warriors, while vicious, poisonous, carnivorous plants constantly lay in wait for any and all unsuspecting victims. Caustic oceans and acid rivers cut through the jagged, rocky terrain like toxic arteries; it was a hellscape of unimaginable cruelty.

My mother, Layluna, seemed to cherish the time she spent with the Pentavi, reflecting proudly on her training and service to the clan and her sisters. She was very young when the Great Divide split the genders but grew up and chose to remain at an adult age indefinitely, as most did. She largely supported their departure from Zol and condemned the Sinteverete for their relentless pursuit of control over the Pentavi women. In the end, she would ultimately realize the Pentavi Elders were no better than the Sinteverete Elders in their selfish quest for power.

My mother had dark green eyes, just like me, set within the porcelain skin of her face like emeralds, as well as a head full of long, abyss-black hair. She was a bold, brilliant, free-thinking spirit-of-fire, and I loved her dearly. She always wore the traditional Pentavi Ceridome wraps until she passed them down to me. The Ceridome wraps were long, black silk strips decorated with elegant blood-red symbols and edged raggedly in gold to mark her rank. Almost like a mummy, the wraps crisscrossed chaotically over much of her body, except her head, hands and feet. The enchanted wraps accommodated yaggowar transformations with style and flair. Additionally, the straps would sheath and carry their weapons after yaggowar transformations. Being touched by magic, they were as hard as light armor but as flexible and breathable as cotton. Each Pentavi woman enchanted their wraps with different spells, making them a lethal weapon when needed. Equally as important, they carried the wearer's life story, usually one of warning. This was the uniform of the Pentavi and was embellished or decorated per the style and desire of the woman wearing them. Layluna was considered a bit of a rebel because she never wore armor, only her Ceridome wraps—nothing else. She never wore anything within her long, flowing, midnight-black hair either, but she sometimes wore a large, round, black, flat amiboshi hat when there was bad weather. I, too, wear her Ceridome wraps, but far more discreetly; I wasn’t trying to advertise it after all.

My father, Vasser the Voracious, was head of the Nevuscar, or The Undying, a very small, very formidable sect of seven Sinteverete warriors who are almost as old as the Elders. They are the most powerful Sinteverete warriors and are truly immortal. While they cannot be killed traditionally or in battle, they are susceptible to incarceration and certain magic.

They possess a hyper-healing ability with one catch—they can only heal through the formation of scar tissue, so they do not retain their stunning good looks. When you see a Nevuscar, you know it.

My father, however, was impossibly handsome, possessed a classy gentlemanly disposition and was very stoic. He was naturally pale and ghostly like the rest of us, but was stippled with small gray freckles that made him very unique. He always wore his Absence of Light cloak, a cloak so black it was like staring into the Devil’s heart. It was as powerful as a black hole, and fit like a tight coat, buttoned up the front by three rows of two side-by-side silver metallic coins. The massive hood enveloped his head and shoulders like a death shroud; only his two blood-red eyes could be seen floating within its lurking shadows. Always by his side was Sepultura, his cursed Blade of Black, one of the most powerful blades in all the realms. It had more trapped souls within its steel than any other of its kind.

The most important difference between Vasser and the other six Nevuscar was related to their rank and the reason Vasser was the leader; he had only one six-inch-scar that curved from the right corner of his mouth to the crux of his eye. Only my mother knew how he got the scar, but she never told me. Each of the other six Nevuscar knew their rank because they knew exactly how many scars they had, ranging from a couple hundred to several hundred thousand. Any Nevuscar could tell you the skin story behind each and every one of their scars.

My father was a very rare breed. He was once married to a Pentavi woman before the Great Divide, but she was killed in the ensuing wars. The Elders had long ago bred him to become a Nevuscar, which was only possible using special magic on an unborn Yasmani Ro child. He always fulfilled his obligations to the Sinteverete Elders but was a wild card. After the Great Divide, there were no more Yasmani Ro children; therefore, there were no more Nevuscar.

Now for my story…

“I’m pregnant,” Layluna blurted out.

Vasser wore a look of complete shock. “How can you know?”

“Trust me, a lady knows,” Layluna promised confidently.

“I’m going to be a father?” Vasser gasped, the entirety of the situation dawning on him.

“Looks that way, daddy,” Layluna smiled and looked up into his astonished eyes.

“I’ve never been happier in my entire life!” Vasser yelled, coming to life! “This is…a big change. I guess we can’t go off trying to unite the clans and collecting the heads of our Elders now. What are we going to do?”

“Well, the way I see it, all bets are off. We have a child to think about now. It flips our path on its head.” Layluna paced back and forth. “While I can’t stand the thought of my sisters fighting and dying in Reclon, or the Elders getting away with their g******e, we have to redraw our destiny.”

“What are you suggesting?” Vasser asked pleadingly.

“We can hide out in the Mandala realm. Time passes six times slower there than it does here or in the Reclon realm. We can train her, educate her, armor her against our oppressors. Then, we can fight by her side.”

“Her?” Vasser asked.

Layluna smiled, “Her.”

“How can you know?” Vasser demanded.

“I can sense her Alma—her soul smoke. What do you think of Mina as a name?” she asked tentatively.

Vasser sat down hard on a rock and put his head in his hands. “I think it’s a beautiful name. I also think this is the most terrified I’ve ever been in my life,” he chuckled.

“Good,” Layluna said, smiling. “That means you will do it right.”

Vasser and Layluna stood tensely on the edge of a swirling black portal to the Mandala realm.

“This is it,” Vasser told Layluna, his arm around her, holding her tightly. “It’s important you know I will never stop fighting to make sure you and Mina are safe.”

“Same,” Layluna said poignantly. “I think I love that about you.”

“I think I love you,” Vasser said nonchalantly.

“I think I love you too,” Layluna said, putting her hands on his face and turning him toward her. “I know…”

“I know too.” They shared a rare and tender kiss that filled them both with hope and promise. “Don’t go hiding the marriage stone just yet,” Vasser joked.

Layluna held up the blue worry stone and grinned ear-to-ear. “That’s precisely what I intend to do!” With that, she lept through the portal into the Mandala realm.

Vasser called out to her, laughing, “I’ll give you a full minute to hide it!”

Suddenly, her hand reached out of the portal, grabbed him by his collar and yanked him through.

When Vasser emerged on the other side, he was struck by how lovely the realm was; the only issue was everything, and I mean everything, was a different shade of blue. Layluna laughed, “Good luck!”

Vasser grinned and began to whisper chant, but Layluna silenced him with a kiss. “No cheating, suitor.”

Vasser let out a great sigh and began searching, “I don’t get one hint?”

“It’s within a hundred feet radius,” she laughed.

Vasser stiffened, turned and wrapped his arms around her. As he kissed her passionately, he reached inside her wraps and touched the worry stone. “I knew you would never take this off.”

“Then you know me.” It was Layluna’s turn to kiss Vasser passionately.

“And you me.” They held each other and watched the blue dwarf sun set behind the myriad shades of blue that comprised the landscape.

The Undeniable TruthOne warm summer morning, when Mina was still just a wide-eyed, wonder filled little girl around the age of six, she learned a harsh, but very important lesson. She was desperately trying to help Layluna deliver their beloved mare’s foal, but the little blue and gray colt was in dire straits. The foaling had not gone well, the mare was experiencing dystocia, and the baby was improperly positioned for birth. Both the mother and baby’s lives hung in the balance as Layluna quickly realized they were going to have to make a very tough decision: either they were going to have to sacrifice the mare in order to save the foal, or they would have to forfeit the foal to save the mare. Naturally, Mina was bound and determined to save them both, but Layluna knew in her experience of raising horses it was impossible. They would have to either save one or the other. “I’m sorry, bunny, but we need to choose which one we save.”

Tearful and despondent, Mina clearly could not make up her mind. She had grown up with the mare, Freya, but had been so excited about the birth of her foal, she simply could not bring herself to make the impossible choice. “I can’t do it, mommy! I can’t pick!”

“I know it seems unimaginable, but we have to make a decision, and it has to be made now or they will both die.” Layluna’s heart broke for her daughter, but knew she needed to learn the hard lesson.

Tears continued to stream down Mina’s cheeks as she buckled under the incredible pressure. “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t…!” She screamed in mounting hysteria, so Layluna pulled her away and held her tight.

“I know this isn’t fair or easy, but this is what life is for most of us,” Layluna told her weeping child. “We have to be ready to make hard, split-second decisions in the heat of the moment. They won’t always be right, and they won’t always give us the results we want, but right or wrong, we have to make those choices and stand by them. We do the best we can and live our lives without regret. Do you understand, Mina? If we don’t do something right now, they will both die.”