King of Darkness and The White Flame

Chapter 6

“What happened?” I ask one of the soldiers who had been with Asher. 

“When we got into the forest, the trees fell on top of the wall. The wall is crushed, the stones piled up on top of each other. There’s no way over. Some of the trees blocked our way left and right. Just as we had decided to turn back and come here, we were attacked. The Mutated creatures, with neon eyes, grabbed Asher. We tried fighting them but they had a tight grip on Asher. One of them kept saying something to Asher, but we couldn’t hear him.” Mally, one of the volunteers, brought the soldier a cup with warm liquid. I see the steam escaping and wonder why there have been so many more mutated creature sightings, as far as I knew, there weren’t that many before. “The trees around us cracked and fell on top of the creature holding onto Asher, the rest ran away and that’s when we took some of the branches and twigs and made a makeshift stretcher for Asher. We couldn’t leave him behind.” I nodded as he spoke. 

“You did a good thing. Thank you.” I felt ashamed that I didn’t know this soldier's name. No wonder the soldiers all followed Asher when he ran off. He knows these men. He knows them each by name. They care for him. I am King of 11 factions and yet, I do not know anything about the soldiers or what they do when they aren’t sent to war. I realize that I know nothing about the people I rule over. 

Mally returns with a cup of warm liquid for me. “I’m sorry Your Highness, I should have served you first.” 

I shake my head “No, no, that’s ok. Thank you.” I take the cup from her and she gives me a strange look. 

“I don’t know what you mean. He’s nothing like his mother.” I hear her whisper to someone nearby. 

There it is again, the comparison to my mother. “We need a plan,” Jessie pulls my arm toward the back of the cave. “We’re running out of food, we’re all cramped in this cold cave and we know that the water here isn’t safe. It’s only a matter of time before someone wanders off deeper into the cave and comes across the room with the water.” 

“I know that it’s not ideal, but for now, this is the safest place to be.” I answer.

“We need to leave to find food and drinking water. We cannot stay here.” Jessie argues. 

“I understand your frustration Jessie, trust me when I say that out there is more dangerous than in here.” I take a sip of the warm liquid and enjoy the sour taste of lemons and sweetness of honey as it pours down my throat. My body warms. “At least for now, till we can come up with a better solution.”

“I have a good solution for you, let’s go back home.” Jessie says

“We can’t do that Jessie,” I sigh and run my hand over my face. I don’t think I’ve ever been more tired “if we leave Mole City without consequences, others will feel they do not need to contribute to The Society. Our people will slowly die from a lack of resources.” 

“No, I think you’re scared.”

“Of what?” I sneer. 

“That people will realize that The Skulls have nothing to really contribute to The Society.” 

“Watch it Jessie!” I warned him.

“The Skulls haven’t contributed in years. Your mother put so much fear in The Chosen and The Wilds that everyone overlooked the fact that The Skulls weren’t producing crops, sharing animal meat or producing clothing or living resources. If it weren’t for your mother, The Skulls would die out.”

“Be very careful choosing your next words, Jessie White.” I have him backed into the wall, but he’s so blinded by his own frustration and anger that he doesn’t realize it. 

“Or What?” he says, my hands in fists, his words remind me of Lilith. Then it hits me. This is Lilith’s brother. I cannot do to him what my mind is egging me on to do. 

I force my hands open and take a step back. With my eyes shut tight I take a very deep breath. When I open my eyes, I see that Jessie is not going to let this go. 

“You need to learn to trust in Omnione. If you do, you’ll see how things work out for you. We can go back and you’ll see that Mole City will be delt with and things will go back to normal.”

“In what world do you live in Jessie?” He’s starting to raise my blood pressure. “Life is not a fairytale where magical beings fight your battles for you. If you believe that your magical Omnione is in control then for all I know, he might even let us lose! So far, we have no water, we’re running out of food and there are mutated beasts after us. How do we know your Omnione is even on our side? What if his plan was for us to die out here?” I ask him.

“There’s a way we can find out.” He responds, which surprises me. I didn’t think that there’d be a way for this Omnione to speak back. I’ve heard the stories. I always thought of them as horror stories mothers told their children when they wanted them to do as they’re told. If you don’t listen, the Omnione will smite you. The only magical entities I believed, were the ones that I can see. The mutated creatures and the White Flame, were the closest I’ve come to anything Supernatural. The mutated creatures, I feel are easily explained through that funky water we came across. The White Flame though, that one has my mind boggled. I am curious to know about this Omnione, so I ask, “Ok, I’ll humor you. How do we consult your Omnione?”

“There’s someone here with us, Evan. He’s got a gift. A direct line, if you will.” That interests me. “Call him, we’ll go a little deeper into the cave and ask him to ask the One.”

Jessie goes into the crowd of people for a minute. I’m surprised we can all fit into this small opening at the foot of the mountain. The room is wide and round and some of the people have mounted fire torches into the grooves in the walls. It looks like the room has wall sconces. The light bounces off the walls and luckily the dripping water is only at certain parts of the cave. The fire in the center warms the room quite well and people huddle up together to keep warm. I observe the people carefully and notice how many of them know each other quite well, once again noticing how few of them I know personally. 

Jessie returns with Evan and we go a little deeper into the cave, out of earshot of the others. “I take it Jessie has let you know that we are in need of your special gift?” I jump right into it. He nods his head. “Ok, so we need you to ask Omnione if we will win the war against Mole City.” Evan doesn’t look too happy about this request. He looks at Jessie who gives him a nod. Evan hums a little tune and raises his hands. I shake my head and focus on Evan. Evan looked like his mind was far away for a minute, his eyes glazed over. After a while he looks at us and says “Omnione will let you win the war. He also said that tomorrow, when you leave the cave, you will come across a field that will be filled with drinking water.” Jessie thanks Evan. Evan gives me a strange look and disappears back into the crowd. Jessie turns to me, folds his arms across his chest and gives me a hard look. “I don’t buy it,” I tell him. “I’ll believe it when I see it.” without another word, he shakes his head and walks away. And I’m left standing there wondering why the flames nearest us turned white when Evan was consulting with Omnione.