The Protector & Destroyer of the World

Goddess Dezaral and God Engel from the Silver Barrows welcomed a daughter. Dezaral died during childbirth, and thus her daughter was granted the highest form of respect found in her name: Xantara. She grew up unique in the Silver Barrows; when everyone knew their powers, Xantara didn’t. Her father told her that the Gods had something special for her, and thus she would receive them when she turned 18. Her 18th birthday came, and what began as a joyous day ended in a disastrous one as Engel was killed by Caz. Xantara, absolutely devastated, refused to accept her powers and fled to the lands below known as Rhode Island.

For six years, Xantara has remained in Rhode Island and has lived an ordinary life. Everyone from the Silver Barrows has tried to contact her, but she declines. Her job at the café and her classes at the local college are what she knows she should be doing.

“Don’t forget to lock up!” Xantara calls to her co-worker Anna. When she gets to her car, Xantara notices a blue envelope on the dashboard, the type of envelope only residents of the Silver Barrows can see. She climbs into her car, and after a moment of hesitation, Xantara grabs the envelope and slowly opens it. Only two contents filled it: a picture and a note. Xantara looked at the picture, which was of her father’s murderer. A cold chill ran through her body, and it took her everything to not continue to stare at him, wishing her mind could easily make him pay for his sins.

Xantara opened the note, and it read:

He is planning something. We need your help. -C

After her eyes read the two sentences eleven times, Xantara laughed, threw the papers into her backseat, and started her car. She would not return to the Silver Barrows only to see that this is a ploy to get her back. Xantara is happy; she has a fulfilling life that does not need help or assistance from the people of her past.

There were police cars along the street that lined her apartment. Confused, Xantara quickly got out of her car and ran upstairs, hoping her roommate, Julia, was ok. But instead, Julia was outside, tears streaming down her face, and a police officer in front of her with a notepad.

“Julia?” Xantara asked.

“Xantara!”

“What happened?”

Someone robbed their house and destroyed it. As Xantara looked around, she felt something, someone. They talked to her, telling her that this wasn’t a coincidence. No one is safe. Xantara ran out of the apartment.

“Where are you going?” Julia asked.

“I will fix this,” Xantara called. “I promise!”

It began to rain as she got to her car. The note was underneath her seat, so she had to bend down and get it. The number was tiny but on the bottom. It was the Rhode Island area code.

“He’s here?” Xantara thought. He was in Rhode Island; her uncle was in Rhode Island.

She dialed the number, and Calvex immediately picked up. He told her to meet him at his land, and the details would be given there. The location he sent her was only 20 minutes away, leaving her to suspect her life wasn’t as secretive as she planned it to be.

Calvex was waiting for her when she arrived. “Ready to go?” He asked.

“Do I have much of a choice?”

He unclasped his necklace and blew on it. The world around them shook, and in an instant, Xantara and Calvex were standing in a small cottage. She knew exactly where they were now: The Silver Barrows. Calvex made Xantara a cup of tea, and while the water was heating up, he told her everything he knew, which isn’t a lot.

“He wants to destroy everything in the Silver Barrows,” Calvex said.

“Why?” Xantara asked.

Calvex poured the water into the mug, the steam rising in front of his face. “Nobody knows, we’ve been keeping tabs on him for a while, and last week was when things started to get unusual.”

“Who is ‘we?’”

Calvex looked at her silently, refusing to answer the question. She knew who he was talking about, the person she left—the reason why she didn’t want to come here in the first place.

As Xantara drank her tea, she began questioning her sanity for agreeing to all of this. If her dad died trying to defeat Caz, why would she have any luck doing the same? She has no idea what her powers are, and nobody will tell her why the Gods picked her name. This isn’t going to end well, and Xantara worries that no matter how much training they put in her, she will not be able to defeat Caz.

“So,” Calvex said, looking at her expectantly.

“So what?”

“Ready to start training?”

Over the next few days, Xantara met several people, some she remembered from her childhood, some she didn’t. But all of them were there to help her find her powers.

“Again,” Talia shouted. Xantara began to fight Zanthus, taking her anger for Caz and the frustration of not knowing her powers out on him. The best way to understand one’s destiny is to put them under pressure, and with Zanthus’ literal lightning-fast reflexes, Xantara would be put under a lot of stress.

Zanthus threw a punch at her, and in an instant, the match was over as Xantara was on the ground. Without saying a word, she got up in anger, and as she walked out of the room, Talia called to her, “We will figure it out, alright?”

“No!” Xantara shouted. She spun around, her arm flying to the side. The rack of dumbbells went soaring across the room, and everyone went silent. “What just happened?” She asked, staring at the rolling weights.

Talia and Zanthus laughed. “I think we found your power,” Talia replied.

Telekinesis was Xantara’s power. Nobody thought this because children don’t inherit their parents’ powers, and her fathers was super strength and telekinesis.

Xantara and her cousin Arya filled the next 48 hours with strengthening her body to move things with her mind effortlessly. They began with tables, and Xantara quickly threw that into the wall. After a car, a large semi-truck, and a 1000-pound trickster (he was ok), Arya brought her father’s trident, one of the heaviest things on the land.

“Remember,” Arya called from a safe distance. “Focus on your anger, your hate for Caz.”

Xantara stared at the trident, her blood already boiling at her enemy's name. She didn’t have to try hard to get the trident off the ground; the hard part was getting it to move. She raised her arm and used that for the extra power. Then, in an instant, it flew across the land, ending up on a sandcastle that a mini goddess had just built before going inside for lunch.

“Oh, my goodness!” Arya called. She came running over to Xantara and hugged her. “You are so ready now!”

Xantara went back to the cottage to surprise Calvex with the news. But, as she walked up the steps, she heard two familiar voices. Involuntarily the door swung open, and Xantara mentally cursed her powers. Xantara’s childhood friend and ex-love, Alexios, looked back at her, standing next to Calvex.

“What is he doing here?” Xantara snapped.

Calvex held his hand out. “I called him. There are some things we need to talk about.”

“So? This does not concern him,” Xantara crossed her arms.

Calvex and Alexios shared a look, and Alexios took a step forward. “You were not here when this happened, but Caz got to my grandfather and killed him.” Xantara’s heart stopped for a second. Alexios’ grandparents raised him; his grandfather, Lex, was his best friend. “Why would Caz do that?” She thought.

“Ok,” she finally nodded. “This does concern you. I will fight Caz not just for my dad but for Lex because he meant something to me too.”

Alexios nodded. “Thank you, Xantara.”

“But I am fighting him. I can’t risk any more of my family getting hurt because of me.”

“But—"Alexios argued.

“No, you have super strength, which I understand that my dad had, but this is my mission.”

Knowing he can’t argue with her anymore, Alexios nods his head and turns to Calvex. “Shall we round up the others for the meeting?”

Twenty minutes later, the team sat at Calvex’s dining room table. He explains that Caz’s powers have somehow strengthened since the last time they saw him.

“So?” Xantara said. “Mine have too.”

“But his have increased not just in strength, but in numbers. He is now strong in invisibility and telekinesis.”

Alexios and Xantara shared a glance. They communicated through their eyes, something they used to do when they were younger. Xantara’s father had telekinesis, and Alexios’ grandfather had invisibility.

“What are you two thinking?” Calvex asked.

“He must absorb his victim’s powers,” Xantara replied. “When he kills someone, he gets their powers. That’s why he wants to destroy the world because he knows more powers are out there.”

Alexios pushes his chair back and storms out of the room, the front porch door slamming as he leaves the house. Xantara gets up and follows him; he is sitting on the porch steps staring out at the land.

“Hey,” she said, taking a seat next to him. “We will get him, I promise.”

“It’s not that. I don’t want you doing this. I don’t want you risking your life for this when I just got you back.”

Xantara placed her hand on his knee. “He will destroy everything, not to mention everyone.”

“We need to get out of here. We can go to the land below where he can’t find us,” He paused, looking over at her with pain in his eyes, longing for a future that is right in front of them yet feels light-years away. “I cannot lose you again, Xantara.”

Before she could reply, the door behind them opened, and Calvex stared down at them. “Xantara, why don’t you and I talk for a moment?”

They went to the backyard and sat on a bench, watching the fairies in the trees. “He’s scared,” Xantara said. “He doesn’t want to lose me.”

“I understand. I don’t want to lose you either. But, we will lose everyone if you don’t do this.”

She shook her head. “I just-If Caz was strong enough to kill our family without those two extra powers. What makes us think I have any chance against him?”

“Let me tell you a story,” Calvex said.

Xantara was born a powerful figure in the Gods’ eyes where they knew she would do great things. Thus, her name was given to her specifically by them. Xantara means protector of the land; whether it be the Silver Barrows or the Earth below, she was built to protect it and her people.

“There is more to yourself than you think,” Calvex said.

“What do you mean?”

He smirked. “You have to find that out for yourself. The only way to do that is to finish what your father started.”

Xantara’s mind shifted, and her dwindling confidence returned, ready to finally complete her mission. She goes to Caz’s gated land, bursting through the doors. He knew she was here; he had known for a while that she’s been here. But he wanted to see how strong she could become.

She stops at his electric bubble and feels a grip on her arm as she is thrown to the side. Caz appears in front of her. “Man,” he laughed. “Do I love being invisible!”

Xantara charged at him and pushed him back with her mind, his body flying into the gate. She throws the door from his house at him, but he flies upward, missing it entirely. He becomes invisible again, and as Xantara tries to figure out where he is, she is punched in the face and then in the stomach, doubling over.

“We are coming in there!” Alexios yells into her ear through the earpiece.

“No!” Xantara screamed. A forcefield is put around them, forbidding any unwanted visitors. Xantara is unsure if she did that or if Caz did.

He comes up to her, and before she has time to fight him off, he has her neck in his hands, squeezing. She doesn’t struggle, knowing that would make it worse. Then he floats upward, and she worries he will go up as far as he can and then drop her, falling to her death.

“Your dad,” he spat in her face. “Was nothing; he didn’t stand a chance against me because you want to know what he was? A coward. He knew what you were capable of and instead thought his powers were better, but they weren’t. Just like you aren’t.”

Xantara’s body grew physically warm as she listened to him insult her father. Her heart was pounding from anger and the fact that no air was going through her lungs.

“He was worthless,” Caz whispered. “Just like you, and just like your family.”

Then, in one loud scream, Xantara freed herself, and everything in her vicinity flew out, a red fire surrounding her. She was flying and knew exactly who she was at that moment.

“I am the protector of the land!” She screamed at Caz, who was on the ground below. “And you are no longer welcome in my land.” He was gone in a second, turned to dust.

Xantara fell to the ground, her body lying there as if she was hurt. The forcefield disappeared, and her team was at her side. Alexios helped her up, and she pulled him into a big hug, whispering in his ear. “We did it.”

He chuckled. “No, you did it.”

“Well,” Arya said, looking around. “What now?”

Xantara smiled. “I go home.”

“Home?” Calvex asked. “Where’s home.”

She looked at Alexios and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Exactly where it’s meant to be. Here.”