Champions of Serenity: Destiny Fulfilled

Chapter 31

Dreybrenic paced in his palace, stopping to stare at the map on the floor. Catira was now, like Galogosch, surrounded by Serenity’s symbol, liberated from his control. In Meckadon, the mercenaries there revolted against his new rules on the inns and taverns. Bolstered by the success of Galogosch’s continued freedom, Rehven had also revolted and he had lost that strong hold of mercenaries. Taniry had never been in his power, every man he sent over there had died in that cursed forest claimed by that Demon Elf bitch and her friends. His hold on Sandeenai was slipping and it angered him.

His daughter was lost to him somewhere and no matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t find her. His son was likewise lost to him, but he knew where he was and who was raising him. The only woman who was ever able to give him children killed herself and that Elven female wasn’t even sexually active yet to give him another unwitting child. The Troll princess was freed by those cursed do-gooder champions of Serenity. Some of his advisors were now openly questioning him and his methods. He was losing his hold on his personal life as well as Sandeenai and that made him even angrier.

Chaos had stopped coming to see him or even answer his calls for help. Sheagnek stopped coming to see him as well, the candle’s wick was now a blackened stump. In fact, every god or goddess he tried to contact was ignoring him. He felt betrayed by those whose bidding he had been doing for so long.

Two names jumped out at him as he paced his hall and looked at the map. Pyrena and Savine, the last of his catalysts, and that bitch leading Serenity’s champions was attacking them. It seemed that nothing he could do would stop her but he didn’t have the ability right now to move them himself, not until he got that new and last shipment of captive wizards from Catira.

A messenger came in, trembling as he knelt to let Dreybrenic know he had a message for him. The way the man trembled, the news was bad and Dreybrenic knew he needed to hear it but also knew he wouldn’t like it.

“Speak.” He said to the messenger, his single word clipped and harsh.

“M….m….” The messenger began.

“Give me the message man, or I will kill you and take it from your mind. Say it aloud and you will be given a meal, a place to sleep, and a woman to please you for the night before you are sent back to your post. I am tired of these games.” Dreybrenic stormed.

“My Lord,” the messenger began again, still nervous but feeling a little more confident he would come out of this alive. “The ships from Catira arrived in Tealshire.” He started and was cut off by Dreybrenic’s question.

“Very good, the new slaves are on the way then?”

The messenger shook his head and trembled more. “N…no, My….My Lord. When the ships docked, the elite were all dead and the wizards were in charge of the ships. The captain of the lead ship is friends with the champions of Serenity. He ordered all the ships in his convoy to free the slaves and destroy your people. He couldn’t be stopped and punished because the wizards protected him and the others from the elite in Tealshire. Tealshire is rising in rebellion, My Lord.” He said and then he said no more.

Dreybrenic’s anger was so great his vision was clouded with a red haze. He aimed a kick at the messenger’s head and caved in the man’s skull. Then he jerked and turned to face the map. Pyrena had just fallen to the Circle. His catalyst was again stolen and lost to him. He didn’t even try to fight it this time; he knew it would be useless. Then he decided that since he was going to lose them all anyway, he would burn that bitch out. He, himself, shut down the Savine catalyst and sent all the power to her. Maybe this overflow of power, especially power poisoned by the blood of all those in Savine he had murdered would destroy that Demon Elf abomination.

He looked up and searched the faces of those still loyal to him. “Seal Hades shut. No one comes or goes any longer. We must prepare for invasion and attack by Serenity’s champions.” Then he left his great hall for his work room to try once more to contact Chaos for aid.

Chaos heard Dreybrenic’s call again and turned to see what was happening in that arena. He was shocked to see just how much Tris’s indirect attacks had crippled his servant. Then his eyes narrowed when he found out what his servant had done to Tris. He turned his attention to Tris to see how she was dealing with it.

Tris started to cleanse the power taken from Pyrena, her new anchor this time was Korol. She had been a little surprised when Handsome hadn’t fought back. Then she screamed as even more power flooded into her and she quickly broke the connection between her and the others. It wasn’t just more power, it was also all the tortured souls from Savine. Handsome hadn’t fought to protect his catalyst; he had destroyed his last and passed it on to her hoping to burn her out. But he had included all the dead of Savine, knowing it would hurt her.

“Tris!” Jehro shouted as she severed the connection between them and then vanished. He looked at the equally shocked Korol and Drianne. “What just happened?”

Drianne frowned a moment and then went pale. “Handsome sent the souls of the dead from Savine to torment Tris.”

Jehro grabbed his head and moaned. “Serenity, help her.”

Tris appeared in front of Chaos, swaying with holding too much power and not being able to syphon it off. “Chaos, release them, set them free.” She demanded, falling to her knees at the foot of his dais.

The god stood and walked to where she was. “No, I won’t free them, not yet. But I will take their poisoned blood from you. You can finish your task of cleansing the power then without their torment troubling you.”

She looked up at him, her eyes narrowed. “My dear Lady Tris, you must know I can’t release them yet. It is part of the chaos of life and I must honor it.” He sat next to her and gathered her in his arms, knowing the burden she was holding and wanting to help.

“Your body is straining to hold the amount of power you have now. I applaud your efforts to return to Sandeenai that which was stolen from her. You are wise enough to know that you are not meant to hold such power. My servant, on the other hand, is not.”

Tris watched Chaos as he spoke to her. She saw the golden glow to his bronze colored hair and in his eyes, the color of new wheat. His skin was covered with a slight sheen to the coppery tone of his flesh, which was scantily covered by red and purple robes in clashing tones. He had the face and body of a young hero and he smiled seductively as he read her assessment of him.

“I may be chaos in name and nature, Trisinda Jaqukwen, but that doesn’t mean I have to be ugly or evil and can’t appreciate beauty in either myself or others. Now, will you accept my help in taking from you that which is mine; namely the souls of those from Savine?”

Knowing she couldn’t hold out much longer, Tris nodded in silence and Chaos softly kissed her before sending her back to her forest, the souls now gone from her body.

Airidon and the others came charging in the clearing just as Tris returned and sat back down with the others. She shook her head at the questions and pulled Jehro, Korol, and Drianne back into the link as quickly as she could and started to once again filter the evil from the last of Handsome’s catalysts.

Within the link, the others learned very quickly of why she had to leave as she did and thanked her for sparing them that extra evil. Korol had a few thoughts about her taste in men as he watched the god kiss her in her memories. Drianne gave the Shadow a mental smack as he cleansed the evil through his humorous outlook on life before passing it on to her. Drianne’s thoughts were for him to show more respect for someone who’s had to make some very difficult choices in her life.

The cleansing only took half the time of normal and Tris attributed that to Chaos’s help. When it was done, she also didn’t have the excess evil in her system or in any of the others and found the tiny trickle still open from her to Chaos where he was taking the evil strained from the power from them all. She broke the link with the others, the last one to Chaos with her thanks.

Serenity, hearing Jehro’s plea, arrived in Chaos’s chambers in time to witness his aid to her champion. Crossing her arms over her chest, she stared at him, tapping her foot. “Chaos?”

The god chuckled and didn’t bother to hide his enjoyment of the kiss. “She’s very sweet tasting.” He said with a shrug. “Don’t worry, I didn’t take anything from her but what was mine. You can see that for yourself.”

Serenity sat down next to him and sighed softly. “Chaos, brother, it seems we are more closely entwined than most people think. That is probably why Father didn’t give you equal champions, mine were balanced for both of us and He knew we would both need to help and watch over them. Thank you, Brother, again, for your assistance.” Then she was gone and Chaos watched where she had been sitting with surprise. He hadn’t ever thought about that, but he supposed it must be true.