Syphon

Prologue: Halisa

It was the sound of wood splintering, followed by the shattering of what sounded very much like fine-bone China, that roused Halisa from her sleep.

Instinctively, she reached a hand over. When her fingertips only found empty bedsheets that had long since cooled, her heart jumped to her throat.

Halisa sat bolt upright, ripping the pile of blankets off her body and lighting the candle beside the bed with the barest of thoughts from her mind.

As she pulled on her heavy velvet nightgown, in her favoured colour of blood red, a tentative knock came from the door.

"Enter," Halisa said shortly, straightening her back and lifting her chin as she fastened the buttons up to her throat.

Drivias, her son's mousy governess, peeked her head in through the barest of cracks in the door. The girl flinched when she saw Halisa already striding towards her.

"Y-your Hi-Highness," She stammered, casting her watery brown eyes to the floor in submission. "P-prince R-Rowe-"

"where he is?" Halisa snarled.

Typically, she usually tried to avoid being so short.

The servants around the palace feared her enough as it was, but when a clap of thunder so powerful it shook the entire castle roared overhead, her patience disappeared.

Oh, Ha Heema, She thought to herself in the Deamon tongue.

Drivias would likely faint if she ever heard the language spill from the Queen's lips.

Halisa pushed her way past the waif of a servant, the girl barely reaching her shoulders in height appeared even smaller as she folded in on herself in fear, and made for the grand staircase.

From the distinct tinkling sound of the cracking China, Halisa was certain of her son's location in this monstrous palace.

"T-the C-conservartory, H-highness" Drivias managed to squeeze out through chattering teeth.

How could Rossow ever allow such a frightened little bird to care for their son?

"Dismissed, Drivias"

The girl sagged with relief at the dismissal, fleeing from the Queen as though fire were at her back.

Weak. Pathetic. Unworthy, Halisa shook the cruel words from her mind.

She was not that woman anymore.

She was not the Deamon Queen they all proclaimed she was.

Drivias had a kind heart, and she was the only one to come forward for the job of caring for the Deamon Queens volatile son.

She had more courage than most if Halisa was objective.

I must be better, for Rowe, Halisa chided herself.

Another crash of thunder overhead had Halisa running the rest of the way, the dark stone corridors cold and eerie with the flickering light of the dying candles.

As the Queen approached the open Conservatory door she slowed her pace, wiping her face clean of all panic and replacing it with that icy confidence she was so notoriously known for, sweeping into the room gracefully like the Queen she was.

She bit back her gasp of surprise.

The once large velvet settee had been reduced to nothing more than scattered splinters and red cloth. The ceremonial vases, gifted to the late King Romis, were no more.

Every last one of the seven vases was dust now. Cracks ran through the stone walls and floors like veins, and the windows were one breath away from oblivion.

Oh, Ha Heema, She thought again.

Halisa's son, Prince Rowe, stood heaving for breath, his brilliant diamond coloured eyes wide and fearful.

At just five years old, her son was already a force to be reckoned with, and she feared for him with every breath she took.

Too much power breeds fear.

A very dark path lay before him a foreboding voice often warned in her head.

Halisa squared her shoulders and advanced on her trembling son.

He would not walk that road, not if she had anything to say about it.

"Ha Heema," She said gently, but not cautiously, letting her lips tilt up.

Her boy turned to his mother, his tangle of dark black waves a mess from him undoubtedly gripping it in his wild angst. "What beautiful destruction you've created"

His little lip shook.

"I didn't - I didn't mean to, I swear mamma," He choked out.

"I know, Ha Heema," She crooned, coming to sweep him into her arms and giving him the adoring smile she reserved just for him. "Your power grows stronger by the day. I couldn't be prouder. Just remember to calm that racing heart, you control the power, it does not control you. "

Rowe struggled against her hold, tears lining his eyes.

"Father will be so mad. So, so mad"

"No, Ha Heema, he will be in awe of you, just as I am."

His little hands came to tangle in his roots as he shook his head.

"No, no, no," He repeated. "I didn't mean to break father's things. I woke up and she called to me. She wanted me to come meet her. But then father was talking and I got mad and then I ran and I-"

"Stop, Ha Heema," Halisa ordered, her brows furrowing. "What are you talking about? Who called you?"

He shrugged a single shoulder.

Whispers in the night.

That was never a good thing. Halisa wrapped her hands around her son's skinny shoulders, holding him at arms length.

"What did the voice whisper to you, Rowe? What did it say?"

He did not hesitate, despite the tremor in his voice.

"She said I had to come to her now, or they'd hurt her," He whispered, as though it were a secret "I don't want them to hurt her."

Halisa straightened.

"Who wants to hurt her?"

Another shrug. But Halisa caught the fear in his eyes. King Rossow.

"Where is your father now?"

Rowe pointed a single finger upwards, indicating that the King was in his chamber's.

Halisa cursed the Deamon Lords for it.

She'd not been welcome in her husband's chambers for years now, and if his Syphon was there with him, Divinities help her.

It mattered not, though. She would go, for Rowe's sake.

"Come, Ha Heema," She clasped his hand, holding to it tightly and led her little Prince out of the room. "We shall see what your father has to say about this. Remember, always trust your instincts. They will never lead you astray. "

Rowe fought against her pull.

"No, mamma, I will hurt someone," He said, right as a spark of the vicious blue bit into her hands. She bit back the urge to wince, holding onto his hands tighter still as they wound their way up the grandstaircase, taking the corridor that would lead to her husband's chambers.

"Nonsense, Ha Heema. You would never hurt anyone, " She said with a click of her tongue."Remember, you are in control of your power"

She saw the doubt plaguing those diamond eyes, but he nodded his head anyway.

Her brave, sweet boy.

When they reached the enormous double oak doors with an intricate carving of a particularly bloody battlefield across it's face, Halisa stiffened, the hushed whispers from within pausing her hand on the brass handle.

She stoked the fires of her power, willing her hearing to sharpen, to penetrate the wood.

It was all too happy to oblige, and the voices became akin to shouting.

"We'll organise the Briarsbane tonic immediately," Her husband's voice rumbled.

Halisa felt her fists clench at the mention of the vile tonic he mentioned, Briarsbane.

To purge a womb.

He'd tried slipping her the tonic more than once when she carried Rowe, forgetting that Halisa was a Desmon Queen, their poisons were sweet wine to her tongue.

Vile fool.

"I agree. This child cannot live. You did the right thing coming to us, " the King continued. A woman's sobbing cut through his words, "Hush, Brissa."

His voice was abrupt but not unkind when he addressed his Syphon.

No, he would never deign to offend his precious Syphon.

Halisa felt her lip curl in disgust and could no longer stand in wait, throwing the doors open with a fury that rattled the windows.

Brissa, King Rossow's honey haired, willowy Syphon, gasped, holding a delicate golden hand to her chest in fright.

Her usually rich, warm brown eyes were red at the rims, her full lower lip trembling as she flinched back into the chair.

As it always did when she saw the woman who stole her husband's affection from her, Halisa's eyes dropped to the golden haired boy clinging to her side and the swell of her very pregnant belly.

The sting of her husband's betrayal continued to sting even after all these years.

The King, still wearing his tunic from dinner this evening, stepped in front of the woman he loved, his Syphon, shielding her from his wife.

That. That was what burnt Halisa more than anything else.

Whilst she was slipped poison when she carried his son, the King relished in the idea of impregnating his mistress.

He showered his bastards with warmth and love and knowledge, whilst his true blooded heir was left forgotten or locked away.

He'd protect his bastards with his very life. But for Rowe, he barely spared a glance.

Halisa didn't need Rossow to love her, but she wished better for Rowe. She took in their forms, the cunning King eyeing her with those turquoise eyes she once found irrisistable with distaste, whilst Brissa shook.

The golden glint to the pitifully short Syphon marks on her forearms told Halisa that once again Rossow had produced a male seed.

A weak Syphon for a weak King, together producing weak, illegitimate children. It was almost laughable.

The woman standing to Brissa's left, however, was an entirely different matter.

Kaehana Am.

Syphon to the High Syphate, the most powerful male of the Syphon race.

Though Kaehana had her markings covered, Halisa knew they ran up her arms, over her shoulders, and all the was down to her breast bone.ll

The tiny brunette with brutally high cheek bones and a haughty chin was the strongest Syphon that had ever existed, and she wore that title as proudly as any Queen, despite her situation.

Indeed, it was ironic that Syphon's are the counterbalance to their Syphate mates because her Syphate, Amris Wiccord, had the gift of power, pure and untainted.

The opposite to power was the absence of it.

Yes, Kaehana Am was the most powerful Syphon in existence, and yet she had not one lick of power, a fact that irked the petite hellcat to no end.

Her sobbing friend, Brissa, was no better. The King had the gift of cunning, it's counterweight was nativity. Such powerless women in such important roles.

Halisa, however, knew better than to underestimate them.

These women used their "powerlessness" like shields.

They ran this Kingdom.

"Halisa, return to your chambers" the King barked, waving his hand at her dismissively, not even deigning a look in his son's direction.

Halisa levelled her gaze at him, keeping her face a mask of cool composure.

"I am not your dog to order away, Rossow."

The King snarled, which made Halisa laugh. Unlike these Syphon's, the males all coveted so dearly, she was not bound by the same laws of magic.

She was of the Deamonic Race

Her power, was almost limitless.

But she restrained herself.

She was powerful, but she was not an animal.

"Am I not King?" He fired, his face flaming almost as red as his fiery hair."Do I not command this Kingdom?"

Brissa placed a placating, albeit shaky, hand on her Syphate's forearm, grunting a little with the effort it took rise from her chair.

"Halisa means no harm, my love," She murmured softly in his ear.

Her temper flared.

"I am your Queen, and you will address me as such."

Brissa cowered back, her hand wrapping around her bastard son's hand.

The boy was barely two, and he couldn't have looked more different from Rowe if he tried.

His fiery red hair from his father, thin, reedy frame, even beneath all of his baby fat, from his mother as well as those doe like brown eyes.

Such soft features and a cowering demeanour would do the boy no good in this world.

Though Rowe shook at the weight of his own immeasurable power, he always kept his head high, shoulders back, and his face indifferent to the outside world.

The King this Kingdom would need all too soon.

Brissa had the good sense to bow her head to her. Kaehana, however, did not so much as move an inch.

Kaehana and Halisa had never warmed to each other. However, the Demon Queen respected the High Syphon's stubborn haughtiness.

She would have been worthy of Halisa's ire at the very least.

Alas, it was this simpering girl who undermined her simply by existing.

"Enough, Halisa"

"It is enough when I say it is enough," Halisa fired right back. "You speak in whispers of tonics to kill unborn babes, and you think to speak down to me?"

The King outwardly growled at her. Again, she laughed.

"Get away from me." The venom in Kaehana's quiet voice had the entire rooms attention snapping in the High Syphon's direction.

Halisa froze.

She hadn't noticed that Rowe had moved closer to Kaehana, his small hand outstretched to the tiny woman, her mouth curled into a snarl.

"Ha Heema," Halisa said gently, but her son's attention did not waver from the Syphon. His hand was still outstretched, though he stopped a few feet before her, not daring to take the final step to touch her.

"I will take care of her," He said quietly, his hand shaking slightly. "I swear it. I won't hurt her. I won't. "

Even as he said it, those menacing blue sparks erupted from his hands, showering the floor.

Kaehana recoiled, retreating a few paces, her face twisted with pure disgust.

"Do not touch me, deamon child," She hissed, swatting at his hands.

That was moment that Halisa noticed the Syphon marks on her hand, thicker than she'd ever seen any marks, taking over almost the entirety of her hand, bar her Syphate marks etch in gold on her fingers. And they were pitch black.

Kaehana was with child, a female child. A Syphon...a very powerful Syphon.

Rowe's Syphon.

The realisation slammed into her.

"Please. Please. Please, " Rowe begged, still inching forward, his words muddled."I will take care of her. I will never ever hurt her. Please."

Oh, holy Divinities, the Briarsbane tonic to kill an unborn babe.

To kill Rowe's unborn Syphon mate.

To kill the one person that could stabilise her son's volatile magic, to counterbalance his destructive powers, someone that could love him, understand him.

And they would kill her.

A chilling calm settled over her. A feeling she had not felt for many, many years.

Halisa moved towards her son, drawing him away from the High Syphon and crouching down so she could look into those beautiful diamond eyes.

Her diamond eyes that he wore so much better than she.

"Ha Heema, it is time for you to return to bed," She whispered gently. When Rowe opened his mouth to protest, she gently cupped the side of his face, silencing the young Prince. "You will have plenty to fight in your coming years. Do not fight me now,"

Rowe frowned, then leaned in, whispering for her ears only.

"I can't let them hurt her...she is mine,"

Halisa slammed her eyes shut and took a steeling breath.

"Do you trust me, Ha Heema?"

Rowe nodded.

"Then it is time to go back to your chambers and do not rise until the sun does." Still, he hesitated at her words. "I will keep your Syphon safe, I give you my oath,"

A few more moments passed before Rowe finally nodded, slowly beginning to back away from the room.

"I love you, mamma,"

She smiled at him, wishing she could pull the covers up for him herself.

"And I love you, my darling Rowe,"

She could see his reluctance to leave, whether it was the unborn Syphon in Kaehana's womb or that steely intuition of his, Halisa did not know and when she called over her shoulder to him, he stopped eagerly.

"Oh, and Ha Heema, remember for next time... you beg for nothing."

She watched as her son's spine steel, his jaw clenching.

Giving her one last sharp nod of his unruly raven haired head, he left.

When the door snapped shut, she allowed herself one moment to feel the weight of her love for her son.

Remind herself of his scent, his smile, his iron will.

She went through each and every moment with her son in a whisper of a moment.

And then she rounded on them.

Each one of them visibly flinched.

"You would dare take the life of an unborn child just to keep my son from her?" Even Halisa could hear the murderous calm of her voice. Her magic stirred, and for once she didn't push it away, she allowed it to begin pooling in her fingertips, allowed it to take control of her. She would need it all.

"He is too powerful. Give him a Syphon, and Divinities knows what the boy could do, " Rossow argued, still guarding Brissa with his large body."He could reduce this palace to rubble."

Halisa barked a laugh.

"He could reduce this entire kingdom to dust if he wished,"

"Halisa, you are not helping your case, dear -" Brissa's mouth snapped shut the instant Halisa levelled her with a flesh stripping glare.

"I am not your dear"

Brissa nodded, averting her gaze again.

Young Roddic, her bastard son beside her, made a small whimpering sound before climbing into her lap.

They wound their limbs together, finding comfort in one another, and for a moment, Halisa hated them.

Truly hated them.

"I will not hand more power to that...creature" Kaehana spat.

"You speak of killing children, and yet you dare call my son a creature?" Halisa roared, her own power sizzling in her palms, smoke rising from her very skin.

"You will obey me, Halisa. The child must not be allowed at Syphon. It is unfortunate, but Amris and Kaehana's child must die. " Rossow's voice only shook marginally.

"The child? Don't you mean your son? Your heir?"

"Do not fool yourself, Halisa. He will never be accepted by the people. He will never be King. "

"He's a monster," Brissa whispered quietly, still clutching at her son.

The very blood in Halisa's veins boiled.

"By the time this is all through, the people of Etherias will be begging for Rowe to lead them" She ground out through gritted teeth "And he will do it all with his Syphon by his side, this much I can promise you all. This Kingdom is failing, your kingdom is failing, Rossow. And Rowe, he is the solution"

Tension crackled in the room as Halisa turned on Brissa, her smouldering arm outstretched. A thought of her magic had both Rossow and Roddic mindlessly moving away from the golden haired Syphon.

In a low voice, she began muttering the language of the Deamons, her tongue flying over the words, relishing in their familiarity.

Her blood red power flew from her fingertips in the form of red smoke, wrapping itself around the High Syphon's middle.

"What are you doing?" She shrieked, almost tripping over her own feet as she stumbled back, desperate hands trying to wipe away Halisa's power.

It was no use, though.

Her power moulded itself around her before seeping through her clothes and skin until it settled over her unborn child.

Halisa ceased her chanting, and Kaehana stared at her with wide, horrified eyes.

"What did you do?" Her hands shook."WHAT DID YOU DO?"

Halisa smirked, beginning a slow pace about the room, feeling their eyes boring into the back of her head, wishing her, and probably Rowe's, existance into oblivion.

She lifted her head and looked Rossow square in the eye, knowing what was coming.

He would have to look her in the eye when he sealed her fate.

He hesitated.

Finally, the King squared his shoulders, striding over to the wall and pulling one of the ropes she knew would ring the bells in the barracks and bring soldiers to this room.

For her.

"You directly disobeyed an order from the King. Halisa Ro, you are stripped of your title as Queen of Etheria and hereby charged with treason"

Years. She had spent years playing by the rules, so she might live with her son long enough to see him into adulthood.

She would never regret this decision, even in the afterlife.

A parent can only take their children so far, and then, they can only pray that they surround themselves with people who have the same capacity to love them as unconditionally.

Rowe's connection with his unborn Syphon was proof enough for her.

They would be unstoppable, every bone in her body, every pint of blood in her veins screamed it.

This child had to live.

Rowe would need her.

Halisa raised her hands up in submission, then looked to the Kings Mistress.

"You may want to take a seat, dear" Halisa said with a cold smirk.

A look of wild panic crossed Brissa's face for just a breath of a second before the colour drained from her high cheek bones.

She tipped, slowly to the left, as her eyes rolled back.

Rosssow on just managed to catch his now prostrate mistress, cradling her delicately in her arms and checking that she still drew breath.

She did.

The King fixed her with a look of disgust.

"What have you done, Halisa?"

Halisa blinked, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest.

"From this day forward, you will take me from my son..." Halisa said, her voice unnervingly calm. "And so shall I take her from hers"

The King bellowed, raged and cursed her.

He aimed every insult he could think of directly at her, as his soldiers filed into the room.

Halisa had blocked out the noise in the room, remaining quiet and calm as the King ordered his soldiers to seize her.

Halisa allowed the to shackle her and lead her to her fate.

And she did it all with her head held high.