Shadows of Atlantis: Fulcrum

Kyliron paced outside the guest chambers where the priests now cared for Loressai Torbin. Bavendrick had left when the clergy arrived. But Kyliron remained, ignoring the two warrior guardians who flanked the door. He was determined to care for the woman he knew he loved. If he took her under his protection, perhaps he could win her trust.

A shadow fell over the corridor, he jolted and went rigid in the icy presence of King Koraxx. The king held his son’s gaze, the hem of his robe whispering along the floor as he beckoned Kyliron away from the guardians. “Why do you stand for this woman?” he asked with a rumble of menace.

Kyliron opened his mouth but nothing came out.

“Out with it, boy!”

“I… I feel something… When I’m with her. It’s like a magnet. I am drawn to her.”

“Why do you think that is?”

“Perhaps she is my mate. My soulmate.”

“You are blood-bound to the dreamclans, just like your brother.”

“But I am not the heir. Bavendrick can undergo the Great Joining. Why would I need to…?” He thought of the dreamclan stranger he too had been betrothed to. Her name was Brigitte. Like Bavendrick, he dreaded the day she would be delivered to him.

“It is a matter of genetics, boy. And don’t be too sure your brother is the heir. You heard what the clergy in Tartessos said.”

Kyliron paused. “I… couldn’t. I am not like Bavendrick. He is good. He understands people. I would be a t…ty…”

Koraxx narrowed his eyes when his son stuttered into silence. “A what?” His voice sliced through the air.

“I would be a tyrant. I would be concerned if people were devoted to me. He is noble. He should be king. Not me. Besides… I didn’t activate that Fulcrum on my own.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was she and I. We both did it. That is why she is my soulmate. She and I have the power to access the ancient Fulcrums. Perhaps that is more important than the treaty with the dreamclans. Is the Telluric Treaty not meant to bring the royal bloodline back to the elementals? Back to the Grid?”

Koraxx spent a solid moment examining his son, weighing his claims. “This girl was spared in the attack.” He pulled a fist-sized rock out of a satchel he had slung over his shoulder. A crystal, black and jagged. “This is an ancient heirloom of our lineage, a black diamond, a dead sun from the distant stars. It was a gift to the royal family to combat the ancient enemies of humanity. If she is indeed your true consort, then this will be able to tell.”

Kyliron couldn’t keep his eyes off the ebony crystal that seemed to open into depths beyond his perception with a strange mineral consciousness of its own. “Shouldn’t I be able to activate this?”

Koraxx’s lips stretched into a smirk. “Yes. But if she adds to your ability like you claim she does, it will do much more. I will know.”

Kyliron reached to accept the gift. His chest swelled with pride at his father’s trust. “What do I do with it?”

“Leave it by the side of her bed and see what happens when she wakes up. Stay with her.”

The door opened and three clergy healers emerged from the chamber. The leader among them bowed to the king and prince. “She is asleep now. You may sit with her if you desire. But do not disturb her. The mind must repair itself from the trauma that haunts her.”

“I leave it to my son.” Koraxx whirled and strode down the corridor. Kyliron, smiling to himself, entered and placed the black diamond on the table beside her. He took up his vigil in the chair beside the bed with the crystal between them. He closed his eyes and tried to still his mind in a meditation. He didn’t notice as a glow flickered and pulsed deep within the jagged facades of the rock.

~*~

A cold jagged wind drifted through the open window. Bavendrick stood in the middle of his bed chamber, his eyes fixed on the flapping dance of the gauze drapery. The servants were gone, and he was alone in the agony of his thoughts. She was dead. Teya was dead. He didn’t know how to process the information. His thoughts ruminated in a raging fire of regret.

The court reception went on in his absence, anticipating the arrival of his betrothed. It wasn’t his place to break the news to their noble guests, and yet, he didn’t care.

The shuffle of the door slid across the marble floor and he glanced up at Vinesia with haunted eyes. She was everything to him. He didn’t have to lose her after all, and yet, the terrible price he paid for it raked its poison claws over his soul. She approached him, her face set in a question. All he could do was wrap her in his embrace and let the tears loose.

After a flood of emotion shook his body, he met the asking of her silence with shadows flickering in his eyes. “It was me,” he managed in a weak whimper. “I sent them. I am responsible for her death.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, her voice low with dread.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lain awake with you in my arms, praying for the blood bond to be broken. There is only one thing that can break that bond. Death.”

“No, Bavendrick, you can’t blame yourself.”

He nodded furiously. “Yes, I can. I felt those shadows. I sent them.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I am bound to the Grid. I can control it. I can’t tell you how. I don’t even know how. But sometimes I feel these creatures living inside the Grid. They answer my summons. Shift with my moods. They are part of us. And we ignore them. They are made of our denials. If we continue to ignore them, they will destroy us. All of us.”

A sudden gust ripped through the chamber. She jumped, staring at him with fear in her eyes. He stepped toward her. She took a step back. They froze in a silent détente.

“I bought our love at a terrible price, Vinesia. It’s my fault. I sold a piece of my soul for you. For us.”

“No, Bavendrick. That’s impossible. We are the light. The Watchers gave this to us.”

“I hope you’re right, my love.” He brushed wisps of hair from her eye, admiring the flawless lines of her face.

She reached to brush the tears from his cheeks. Their passion surged, an electric current that bound them together. Breathless, he pulled her face to his and urged her lips into a kiss, drinking from the well of their love. He pulled her to the bed and fumbled with the clasps of her dress, worshipping every inch of skin he revealed. Slowly, gently, he nudged her body into the blankets and ever so slowly made love to the woman his soul cried out for.

~*~

That face. That horrible face greeted Loressai in her dreamscape. He took her tiny hand and led her into a darkened corridor where the bioluminescent moss lighting the caverns of Subterra had somehow died away. Her father had let this man take her. He was some sort of dignitary from the surface with more authority than her father.

The warm air of the caverns hugged her close. Subterranean silence sucked them into a tight envelope of nothingness. Only the sound of their footsteps echoed along the rocky trail until the caves opened into a swirling whirlpool of darkness.

The blackest of crystals appeared in his hands, and he handed it to her. Her childish fingers could barely carry the stone which seemed heavier than it should have been. The rock was life condensed into a state of compression. It was death, trapped in stasis. She tried to drop it, but it stuck to her hands.

He urged her to enter the vortex. She cried until he pushed her. She took a step forward. The rush of shadows reached for her. Touched her. Crawled up her leg. Black tentacles stretched out of the vortex like vines, alive, reaching for an escape from their prison. She screamed.

Loressai opened her eyes, her childhood scream joining her consciousness. It was as if she remained spinning in the dark vortex, her spirit only connected to her body by a tether. She tried to return, but her soul slammed into an invisible wall.

Her eyes glowed red as she sat up and noticed the man sitting beside her bed. Loressai’s soul banged at the barrier that kept her from controlling her body. She watched from outside as she crawled toward him.

His eyes popped open in time to recognize the feral hunger spilling from her approach. He said nothing as she wrapped him with her legs, lowering her mouth to his lips, drawing blood with a wicked laugh. He flinched and pulled away.

She used her fingernails to scrape ridges into his perfectly chiseled chest and followed with her tongue. She writhed in his lap until he wrapped his hands around her thighs with bruising brutality and threw her on the bed. She summoned him with a snarl, tearing the night clothes from her chest. He had no choice but to obey.

~*~

Loressai woke up to the warm kiss of morning sunshine. She was in a strange room. The screams of her Subterran companions, poor, sweet Teya haunted her thoughts. She pressed into the pain of her temple and turned to see the fist-sized black diamond on the table – the same rock she had held in her dream. A faint memory of her childhood slithered in her soul, King Koraxx leading her down that corridor of death. Fear lodged in her throat.

A moan on the other side of the bed drew her attention. With wide eyes she realized the insufferable prince was beside her. She drew back. He reached out with a lover’s touch. She gasped, realizing their nakedness. “What are you… doing here?”

He sat up quickly, puzzled. “What do you mean?”

She examined the crusted blood under her fingernails, the scratches on his chest and curled into a ball. “I don’t know… what happened.”

The door opened and Bavendrick’s voice called out. “Kyliron? Are you still in here? Loressai?”

Neither of them answered. All they could do was stare at one another in horror until Bavendrick poked his head around the corner. His eyes darted back and forth between them. “What is going on here?” he demanded.

She couldn’t stop the rising flood of anger. She climbed up to her knees, clutching the covers over her body and pointed at the prince beside her, eyes red with rage. “Get out!”

Kyliron back-pedaled and dove for his discarded clothes. At the last minute, he snatched his father’s diamond and stalked toward the door, his face contorted with confusion.

When the door closed behind them, Bavendrick glared at his brother. “What. Did. You. Do?”

Kyliron shook his head. “It’s not what it seems. I… she wanted me. And then this morning she didn’t.”

“She was in trauma. It was not your place to touch her.”

“But… she…”

“It’s not her fault. You cannot blame this on her. You were out of line, brother. You had no business touching her!” Bavendrick stepped away, sucking in a deep breath. “I should not have trusted her in your care.”

Kyliron reached up to his cheek. A tear. He was crying? He couldn’t understand why he was crying. Did he have feelings, after all? He wanted desperately for her to love him, and she did. But then she didn’t. She hated him. What had he done? His head whirled with confusion. She had wanted him. Seduced him, even. He stiffened, building a wall against his brother’s wrath.

“Kyliron, if you want to gain someone’s attention, you ask her questions. You care about who she is, what she wants. You separate yourself from her. What you want has nothing to do with what she is. Get that through your thick membrane! I can’t even imagine what it’s like to be you.” Bavendrick threw his hands in the air and skulked down the slick, polished walkway of the arching corridor.

Kyliron stormed back to his rooms. Servants appeared to see to his desires. He dismissed them with fire in his eyes. Pacing and alone, he stared at the fist-sized black diamond cupped in his hands. A fit of rage bubbled up from the depths of his soul, feeding an uncontrollable spiral of shame. He threw the diamond with all his might. It bounced off the wall and hit him in the head. All went dark.

~*~

Citizens of the ruling city of Atlantis flocked to the Commons Area where Viewer-Crystal screens towered over a sunken plaza filled with community tables. Every sector of the city had a Commons Area where the donated food of farmers from the surrounding island was served in communal meals.

Most with high influence tallies could easily afford the luxury of prepared meals at home, or through private purveyors, but most workers in the other sects accepted the generous bounty of their fellow citizens to save themselves the time and effort. Gathering at the Commons was a way to commune with neighbors and watch VC broadcasts together.

Today they awaited news of the royal claiming reception, buzzing with excitement. Nothing besides the birth of a royal generated as much excitement as much as a joining ceremony. Tables sprawled out in the plaza from a stage around the towering flat crystal screen of square-cut selenite.

D’Vinid followed Sulia Tierro to the control booth. She had somehow convinced him to come along despite his desire not to witness the announcement. Ultimately, curiosity about how it would be spun for the public was what motivated him. Sulia didn’t know what they planned to say either.

Together they entered the control tower. The workers whose job it was to activate the screens greeted her with respect. Sulia’s glossy hair spilled over her shoulders, brushed to a luster. Her buxom figure was fitted in a low-cut dress, the cuts in her draping sleeves showing bits of olive skin along her arms. D’Vinid hadn’t coaxed her into his bed, which was his usual strategy when forming female friendships. But admiring her curves made him wonder if that was where they were headed.

She hadn’t been drawn in by his usual tricks. All he needed to do was play music and stare into their eyes. She seemed somehow immune, or more interested in her “project” than what else he could do with his agile fingers. He would never presume to force the issue, but then again, he always loved a challenge.

They watched as the screen flickered to life, gathering the attention of the Commons. To his horror, he saw his own face on the screen, serenading the crowd with the look he gave his female prey. Sulia winked toward him. The operators smiled at the interaction, knowing it was the VC heir’s way of winning the attention of a love interest. D’Vinid couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread spreading through him. He kept his eyes on the screen with a flicker of a smile acknowledging Sulia’s dirty trick.

The broadcast went on, showing the pageantry of the court where courtiers and mediators mingled in a soup of feathery fashion. And eventually the face of King Koraxx appeared on the screen as he took to the dais above the bejeweled courtyard. His face was stretched and gaunt, his eyes fixed. He glanced back at Queen Dafni, who remained poised with her usual indifference.

“The festivities of today are regretfully cut short,” Koraxx began. A stillness fell over the Commons. “Today the dreamclans have broken the blood-bond of the Telluric Treaty. The betrothal with the Dreamclan of Hades has been severed. Go back to your homes and attend to your illumination rituals. Pray for the proper joining for my eldest son in the best interest of the Telluric Treaty.”

The screen went blank. Silence hovered like a wet mist.

D’Vinid scowled toward Sulia. Koraxx had just lied to the people. The idea of what consequences might come of that had him simmering with disdain. But he wasn’t a politician. What could he do? Conversations rustled through the crowd, discussing the king’s announcement.

The people knew the Telluric Treaty was meant to mingle the elemental blood of the Lemurian dreamclans with the royal line in this generation. It was an ancient agreement to maintain the proper function of the Crystal Grid powering their cities. But it didn’t make much of a difference to the people. This was the business of kings.

To save themselves the hassle of being upset, the story that lingered on their lips was the rise of the queen’s favorite musician, a commoner from the Builder Sect who had blessed the courts with his raw talent. And just like that, D’Vinid was famous.