Champions of Serenity: Destiny Fulfilled

Chapter 25

The catalyst in Galogosch was a small armory within the guard complex. One of Korol’s jobs was to set the small explosive pellet to destroy the actual building while he was dealing with those few elite stationed in Galogosch. Tris was focused on that pellet and the explosion. As soon as the building was destroyed, she wrapped her magic around that which Dreybrenic was storing and hiding and pulled it inside her body.

Dreybrenic was just sitting down to eat when he felt another one of his catalysts being stolen. “That bitch!” He screamed and stormed from his room into the great hall and the giant magical map of Sandeenai to find out which one. Savine was still smoldering and there was a giant hole where his fortress at Kreben had stood. He scanned the map and narrowed his eyes when he found Galogosch showed it was surrounded by the symbol of Serenity.

He sent his probe out, hoping to find Tris and those with her who were stealing his power base and thought he found them, but before he could locate where they were, he was slapped with a magical force he had never felt before. His mind was suddenly trapped in a loop of terror, making him relive every second of his creation at Chaos’s hands. He fell to the floor, screaming in agony, but a small part of him admired what Tris had done and vowed to discover how she did it and return the favor one day.

In Drianne’s glade, Tris, Jehro, Drianne, and Fini joined with a peace as rewarding as the day before. Then the explosion in Galogosch happened and Tris stole the power catalyst. Jehro and Drianne barely had time to get the shield in place before Handsome started his attack to reclaim his stolen power. Angry at the would be Emperor, Fini turned the searching mind back on itself and made it relieve the worst memories it contained. The sudden stop of the attack was a blessing and Tris looked at Fini a moment before the pressure of the stolen power demanded action.

As before, Tris drained as much of the evil from the power she could, pushing the poisoned magic through her own personal filters and then passing it onto Jehro. The amount of pain and vileness in this catalyst made Tris’s stomach churn and she tried to take even more than normal so that the others wouldn’t have to suffer as much.

When Jehro received the power flow from Tris, he also cringed from how nasty it felt. He took what blackness he could from it, using the sunlight and music in his soul to cleanse the power, showing it once again the beauty of life. As the power built up in him, he opened it to Fini, sending him what had already been filtered.

Fini couldn’t believe how vile the magic was when he received it from Jehro. But he knew from the joining of minds that it was so much cleaner than when Jehro received it and the amount of evil Tris was holding from the stream of power was immense. He had watched as both Tris and Jehro used their own memories and bodies to take the darkness from the magic and cleanse it. So he opened his own tree like heart and let the magic flow through it, tasting again love and spring and growth. He was surprised when he let it flow from him to Drianne how clean it looked and felt.

Drianne watched as Fini gave of himself so selflessly for all of Sandeenai and smiled, proud of her little brother. Of course, he wasn’t really related in the sense of having a blood tie, but the connection between Dryads and Druids was such that they considered each other family and the Druids called the Dryads elder siblings and the Dryads called the Druids younger siblings. Today, Drianne was very proud of her younger brother, Fini, and all he was doing.

She took the flow of magic into her tree and filtered it with her leaves and trunk and passed the purified, clear and clean power back into Sandeenai through her roots. As before, the very soul of Sandeenai rejoiced and received the clean power with grateful thanks. The air around the four cleansing the power sparkled with tiny rainbows and butterflies flew in flights of beauty.

The badlands began to bloom again, grass and flowers taking root where they had been dormant for so long. The bloody part of the Favie ran clean as the evil of Handsome’s attack on Savine was purified by Sandeenai. The fires of Savine smoldered less and slowly died. The land was healing in spite of Dreybrenic’s curse. The souls of Savine found release from their torment and found their way to the halls of the dead. The spirit of Jena looked up at the sky a moment and a tear ran down her face before she followed her fellows into the next plane.

It took three days to completely cleanse the amount of power stolen from the catalyst. The four involved didn’t measure time as it passed, they only measured the volume of power that passed through them and the amount of taint they removed. Tyra and Airidon came often to the glade, to watch them and make sure they were still alive.

“I don’t like the way she looks with that much evil in her, Tyra.” Airidon said softly as he watched Tris take the poison into her own soul. “She isn’t an evil person, even though most would think so because of her Demon heritage.”

Tyra rested her hand on Airidon’s arm softly. “I know, Airidon. I think what scares most people who don’t know her and only know of her heritage is that the fact that it would be so easy for her to be evil. She is an unknown; Demons aren’t known for being sociable and part of society as a whole.”

Airidon nodded and sighed. “Most of the world will never know what she has done for them; she’s always left here to do the most dangerous part of freeing our world from Handsome’s grasp. All they will see is us, the face of the Circle and how we killed a few men here and there. It isn’t right.”

“Right or not, I don’t think the people of Sandeenai are ready yet to accept someone like Tris. You know the ironic thing about this, Airidon?” Tyra said and shook her head at her thoughts.

“What is that, Tyra?” Airidon answered, hoping for a silver lining somewhere for the lady he loved so very much.

The dark haired beauty looked at Tris’s golden beauty and sighed softly and then looked back to the red-headed giant dwarf. “She knows she will never be accepted. Tris knows that no matter what, she will never be accepted by the people of this world. And still she gives everything she has to save it and those who curse her.”

Airidon brushed some butterflies from Tris’s face and smiled sadly at her. The shadows of evil crossed her pale complexion, giving her the appearance of a full blooded Demon. “I know, Tyra. All she ever wanted was to be left alone to live her life in peace. Will she ever get it?”

The wizard shrugged. “I don’t know, Airidon. That is a question you must ask Serenity.”

“You can’t actually ask Serenity right now, she’s busy and asked me to keep an eye on things.” A voice said behind Airidon and Tyra. He chuckled as they whirled to face him, weapons drawn. “No need for those, I’m not here to cause trouble.”

Chaos looked at the four locked in the job of cleansing the power and shivered. “Creepy, seeing them like this, how do you stand watching them?” Chaos asked, turning back to Airidon and Tyra.

“We stand it because we love them.” Tyra said. “May I ask what you are doing here if you aren’t here to cause trouble?”

“I like you, Tyra. You are feisty but not rude like that Shrina.” Chaos said with approval in his voice. “I actually came to answer Airidon’s question.”

Airidon narrowed his eyes, kept his blade ready, and moved to put Tris behind him. Chaos watched all of this and sighed softly.

“Honestly, Airidon, I don’t want to hurt Tris. You wanted to know if she would ever be left in peace and find happiness. Tyra suggested you ask Serenity, but that isn’t in Serenity’s realm, it’s in mine. You see, life is filled with chaos and I get to direct it.” Chaos said and then looked to Tyra for some understanding.

“I don’t get it, I try to help you and all I get is disbelief and mistrust. What am I doing wrong?” Chaos asked the stone walls that were Tyra and Airidon.

“I don’t know, Chaos, trying to kill us doesn’t really put you in our good graces.” Tyra offered.

Chaos waved his hand negligently and shrugged. “It was necessary to bring about the prophecy; I thought you would have understood that. Let me tell you, things like prophecy are never appreciated for what they do. Think about it, if it wasn’t for the prophecy, you never would have even guessed someone like Tris existed and she would have passed from this world without ever leaving her special mark on it. Yes, it hurts, but growth hurts. You all had to be strong enough to withhold the test of time, because whether you like it or not, you are stuck forever alive and champions of Serenity, protectors of Sandeenai. There won’t ever be a time that you won’t be needed and won’t be busy saving some fool from himself.”

Chaos started to pace in the glade, being careful to stay away from the four sitting on the ground working. He picked one of the roses and smelled it a moment before handing it to Tyra on a pass by her position.

“It’s always complaints and curses, that’s all we gods ever get. You only remember us in times of trouble and then curse us for the trouble and thank us for getting you out, but you never remember when we send you good things and help you even though the times are good. Do we ever just get a thank you for making sure the world continues to spin and the sun rises and you have breath in your bodies? Oh no, that’s all your doing, I suppose, and we have nothing to do with that.”

Airidon and Tyra looked at each other a moment during Chaos’s rant. “The only real difference between you and my champion is that my champion is greedy and you aren’t. He’s just doing what he’s supposed to, just as you are; it’s all mapped out for you through the prophecy.”

“The real difference between your champion and us, Chaos, is that we respect and revere life and he is evil to the core and wants to destroy all he cannot own.” Airidon said stiffly.

“As I said, he’s greedy and you aren’t.” Chaos again waved his hand as if it were nothing of import. “Will Tris ever be left alone? No, she’s become a symbol, as have you all. Will she know peace and happiness? Yes, from time to time, but her very nature will keep her from maintaining that peace and happiness for very long.” Chaos said, stopping his pacing and looking at Airidon and Tyra. “The thing that makes it so hard to fight against you is that you are all balanced, the problem with balance is that sometimes it takes very little to throw you off balance and a great deal of effort to find that balance again. My champions will always be pure chaos, good or evil, and that makes them easy to predict and control. Well, that is my duty as a god to you right now, I’ve given you answers to your questions and others need my time and personal touch. Good luck with your lot.” Chaos said and then left as quickly as he arrived.

Airidon and Tyra looked at each other. “What…?” Tyra began.

“Did you…” Airidon said. They both laughed a moment and then shook their heads. “I suppose Chaos is and always will be an enigma.”

“Let’s get back to the cave and make sure Korol and Shrina haven’t killed each other yet. I will be glad when they are finished and back with us. I can’t believe how much harder it is without Tris and Jehro there to keep the moods stable.” Tyra said with a shrug.

“Yes, I hadn’t realized just how much those two do for all of us without us realizing it. We should plan something nice for them when they are finished.” Airidon replied as the two headed back to the main living cave for the evening.

The next morning, the final particle of magic left Tris’s body and she became more aware of what was going on. She watched the flow of magic as it passed through Jehro’s body and then through Fini’s and finally Drianne’s until it all passed into Sandeenai itself. She felt the others becoming aware of what was going on around them as well and starting to drop from the link. As before, she took all the evil from them that they had cleansed from the stolen power, leaving them untouched.

She smiled a little when she heard both Jehro and Drianne hiss in anger at her actions and then the fatigue pressed on her and she succumbed to the healing sleep as before. Tyra, Korol, Airidon, and Shrina were all there and witnessed all three of the people fall to the ground like puppets who have had their strings cut. Drianne had the herbs ready for Tyra again and she sounded tired as she spoke.

“She did it again. I warned her not to, but she was always so stubborn.” Drianne looked at Airidon. “You need to convince her she doesn’t need to take so much evil inside herself to spare us. The herbs I give will cleanse it naturally and not put so much strain on her. As before, make sure she gets the special mixture to prevent the bloodlust. I must rest now. There was more power and was tainted with a different kind of evil.” Then Drianne faded into her tree to rest and heal.

“Just how are we supposed to carry Fini?” Shrina demanded, looking at the crumpled forms before her.

Tyra sighed and used her magic to spell them all back to the cave. “Well, that was easy, I suppose.” Shrina said and then made sure Jehro was comfortably laid out on the bedding by the fire. “Was it like this before, when I was part of this?”

“It was quieter.” Korol said and gave Shrina a glare before picking up the buckets to fill with water. Korol didn’t have to say anything as they all remembered the last time they believed Meckin to be dead and no one was in the mood to do anything but mourn.

Shrina watched Korol leave the cave and looked at Airidon and Tyra. Airidon was carving something into a piece of wood he found. Tyra was adding roots to a pot with some dried meat and water in it. “I hate waiting.” She muttered and sat down to sharpen her knives.

After sleeping only one day, Jehro was awaken with Shrina’s voice ringing in his ears. “I’m tired of just sitting here waiting! All we’ve been doing for the past week is waiting! I have to do something or I’m going to go nuts!” She was screaming at someone Jehro couldn’t see. He groaned and tried to roll over. “Jehro!” Shrina shrieked again and was kneeling by his side.

Tyra knelt down by Jehro and handed him a cup of the special herbal tea. “I’m sorry, Jehro, Shrina has forgotten the headache. You recovered much faster this time.”

After the reminder about the headache, Shrina apologized but didn’t leave Jehro’s side. Fini woke up several hours later and was given the same tea. Tris didn’t awaken for almost a day later than the other two. Like last time, she didn’t open her eyes, she simply took the tea offered and lay still to let her body heal.

Tyra pulled Airidon aside outside the cave to speak with him privately. “I’m worried about Tris, Airidon. She isn’t responding like she should. This isn’t like last time and Drianne said the evil had a different taint.”

Airidon looked back toward the cave and then ran his hands over his face. “We have to trust her, Tyra. But if you are that worried, talk to Drianne. I’m not much good unless I can come at it with a sword. You could always ask your counter and see if something there is affecting Tris’s counter.”

Tyra nodded and returned to the fire and making dinner, thinking about what Airidon told her. She, like Shrina, would be glad to have the others back with them. She missed her husband and his cooking. Taking a moment, Tyra thought about Emily and wondered if she knew what was going on.

Emily looked up from the paper she was working on for class when Tyra reached for her. It was autumn and school was back in session. The question caught her off guard and she gathered up her books and papers and left the library to think about it. Finding a quiet spot on campus, she pulled out her cell phone and called Debra.

Debra was talking to Phil about some papers he needed when the call came through. She looked at the name and told Phil who it was and then sat down to take the call. “No, Emily, I have no idea why Tris would be having trouble recovering this time. The only thoughts I’m getting from her is the same pain she had the first time and irritation at Shrina for screaming so loud. I do get that she’s tired, maybe she just needs a little more sleep. I’ll talk to her and let you know if anything else comes up. Okay and good luck on your paper.”

Phil looked at Debra, a question in his eye. “I don’t know, Phil. Tyra is worried about Tris, she isn’t responding like she did before. Anyway, about this merger proposal…” Phil didn’t bother trying to redirect Debra back to the Circle; he had learned that when she didn’t want to talk about something, she wouldn’t talk about it.

Tyra felt someone watching her and turned to see Tris staring at her with very pale blue eyes. When she spoke, her voice was very weak and washed out. “You don’t need to bother Debra to find out how I am doing, Tyrandeannah, I would have told you if you had asked. May I have more of the tea please? I am very tired and need to rest.” Tris emptied the mug of tea Tyra held for her and then held Tyra’s eyes a moment longer before closing her own and drifting back to sleep.

Fini and Jehro joined those who were up and moving two days later, though they rested quite a bit more than normal and only helped with the easy things. The others didn’t mind, they understood just how difficult it was to cleanse the stolen magic. Tris didn’t join the Circle for almost a week after the others and she was quieter and less inclined to speak.

Chaos watched the recovery and frowned. Something had changed in Tris and he didn’t know what it was and that bothered him. “Serenity?” He called and waited for his sister to answer.

“Yes, Chaos?” Serenity asked, only her face visible in the mist. She looked distracted.

“What is going on with Tris? Why isn’t she healing as she should?” Chaos demanded.

Serenity looked aside for a moment and then looked to Chaos. “What makes you so sure she isn’t healing as she should? What makes you think the others didn’t heal more rapidly than they should?” Then Serenity vanished and Chaos grumbled. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. He was supposed to adding the chaos and mystery to life, not his practical, play by the rules sister. He wanted to take a bigger part of what was going on, but wasn’t sure how without upsetting what was already in motion. He, like Shrina, hated to wait.