Zodiac Academy 8.5: Beyond The Veil

“Flans for fingers, I’ve done it again!” Hamish cursed and I turned to him, looking away from the view beyond our window in the Eternal Palace. Today it was a serene landscape of barren ice and lonely wilderness. Yesterday it had been a sandy beach with waves crashing against the shore.

“What have you done, my love?” I asked him, the ache in my chest building as I tried to focus on the here and now.

My boys, my only purpose in the world we had been so cruelly ripped from were both in agony and I couldn’t help either of them. Xavier was drowning in the pain of his grief, trying to find his way to see any light in the world at all after having his brother and mother stolen from him so brutally, and Darius was chasing myths through The Veil in hopes of reuniting with his heart’s greatest desire.

“Lost the thread of the nobble-gobble right when the picking is nigh,” Hamish gasped, reaching towards an empty wall as if it might hold some answer for him.

My brow furrowed and I hurried to him, the silken gown I wore in this place flowing across my flesh like liquid metal, the silver colour of it catching in the light.

“The children?” I gasped, reaching him, and clasping his hand in mine.

“Nymphs approach at speed and I can only fear that that hoppity poppet Lionel can’t be far behind,” he said, his eyes wild with concern as he wrapped a hand around mine and looked into my eyes. “They prepare for a quarrel of darkest designs.”

“Flans with jam, I can feel it!” Florence Grus cried as she spilled into the room, her arms flying wildly above her head as she sprinted for us, countless layers of multi-coloured silk wafting around her small frame as she ran.

“What’s with the flan references?” I demanded, knowing this had to be one of Hamish’s endearing oddities but needing further explanation to understand it.

“The whole world is on a baking scale, my dear,” Hamish replied. “Bagels on the hoppity morn, scones in a crisis, jam tarts to alert the masses, and flans for a flap of flantastic design.”

“So…flans are bad?” I surmised just as Florence reached us, taking hold of our clasped hands and holding them tight within her own, not letting go when I pulled back.

“Flans are the work of devils and maybugs,” she whispered like she thought she might be overheard. “And I feel a whole pallet of them baking in my wobbling waters.”

“Florry, I keep losing hold of our Gerry-pop whenever the wind turns wally-ways and tumbling back on my noggin in this place, but I feel her there, in greatest need-”

“Hold on to your fannies,” Florence growled, her nails biting into the back of my hand as she tightened her grip on us. “Into the yonder we dive.”

The Veil pulsed around us, a tug in my chest bringing Xavier and Geraldine to the forefront of my mind, my need to protect them becoming the only thing that existed to me as the living realm materialised around us in a clash of Nymphs and flaring fire.

I gasped as I took in the scene, a battle unfolding at the foot of the rebels’ camp, our children fighting for their lives against those monsters once again, but this time I wasn’t there to help.

I tried to reach for them in the carnage, but the world flashed with lightning strikes, time jumping from one place to the next, Phoenix fire giving way to thorny vines racing across the ground, a tidal wave careering downhill, Geraldine screaming a battle cry-

“Wait-please!” a voice I recognised called out among the lingering dregs of the carnage and I turned on the spot, the world falling still as I looked at the man Lionel had brought into our home time and again in the lead up to him seizing the crown. Miguel Polaris. “I wish to speak to the Vega queens. I am not your enemy.”

“Kitty?” Hamish asked curiously as I led them closer to the Nymph who knelt naked on the ground in his Fae-like form, Antonia Capella standing over him with a snarl on her lips.

Seth and Max moved to stop her from ending the wretched creature’s life and I stilled, uncertain what I was seeing, only knowing it was important.

“Look at the will-o’-the-wisps,” Florence whispered so close to my damn ear that I flinched aside.

“The what?” I hissed.

“The glowing tendrils of fate. You can see them if you squint just so.” She scrunched her face up into a tight ball, her eyes little more than slits as she looked at the man I had known only as Miguel. I hadn’t been privy to the meetings Lionel took with him or his wife and brother-in-law, but I had been trotted out to entertain them when they had arrived at our house a few times. I’d figured out what they were after they departed one evening and Lionel threw a fit of rage over the audacity of the Nymphs who he was offering such a great alliance to.

Despite my better judgement, I followed Florence’s lead, squinting at the man who knelt trembling in the dirt, my heart skipping a beat as I saw what she meant, tiny wisps of starlight dancing around him, darting away like miniature shooting stars, leading towards Tory who was stalking across the battlefield further up the hill.

There was a disagreement between the ex-Councillors and their sons and Caleb suddenly grabbed Miguel, shooting away with him, and dropping him at Tory’s feet.

“Look to the dampening sky, my dears,” Hamish breathed, drawing our attention to the forest where the Nymphs had come from, a dark shadow building across the sky which only we could see.

“They’re going to have to flee,” Florence breathed. “Before the stars show the great dunga-Dragoon where they are. Oh look how savage our Geraldine looks, Hamster.” She nudged Hamish then waved wildly at Geraldine as if that might draw her attention. “Gerry-jammmm! Gerry-jam we are watching from the never-more! Love you, my beauteous sock puppet!”

I swallowed thickly, seeing the danger looming on the horizon, knowing she spoke the truth even if the only evidence we had of it was a shadow crossing the sun. But I knew Lionel. He had the rebels on the run and the scent of blood in his nose. He was coming.

I shoved back into The Veil, releasing my hold on Hamish and Florence before turning and sprinting away through the Eternal Palace.

Our rooms faded to corridors, Hamish and Florence’s footsteps hounding after me as I ran.

I wasn’t sure where I was going but the palace understood my need and Hail and Merissa’s room appeared before me as I turned the next corner. I hammered on the door marked with a Hydra and a Harpy, my chest tight with panic, time slipping away from me too fast.

“Is it Lionel?” Merissa gasped as she wrenched the door open for me and I nodded.

“The rebels are going on the run, I don’t know where, but Lionel is hunting them. We need to help, to do something-”

Merissa turned to look at someone behind her and I leaned into the room, expecting Hail, but finding Azriel instead.

Lance’s father had once been my dearest friend. He’d been just as trapped in the corrupt politics and dark desires of my husband as I had, his own wife undermining him at every turn. He’d seen what Lionel was doing to me, even if he hadn’t fully understood. He’d tried to help where he could. And I trusted him completely.

“If enough of us flock to them we can shield their movements from the stars,” he said, striding towards us, his brow furrowed as he thought on it. “Lionel is relying on the prophecies he can steal from Gabriel. If we can shield them, then maybe he won’t be able to see them at all. At least for a little while. Perhaps long enough for them to escape.”

“Who do we need?” I demanded, heavy footsteps sounding at my back, recognition tumbling through me as I turned to find Darius there.

“What is it?” he growled, the weight of his grief laying heavy on his shoulders, the need in him to return to the living making his figure appear more solid than most of the others in this place. My heart broke to look at him, my beautiful boy, his life stolen from him just as he had managed to rip it away from that monster who had fathered him.

“The rebels will all have souls watching them from this side of The Veil,” Azriel said, taking a pulsing blue crystal shard from his pocket.

“What is that?” I asked.

“A piece of the orb from The Room of Knowledge,” he replied, placing his hand over the top of it and closing his eyes. “I can send a message to the dead with it. I can rally them, get all who have a tie to the rebels to push into The Veil at once.”

“Then do it,” I commanded, the assertiveness surprising those around me, but this was my child’s life on the line. Xavier had already lost too much and fought too hard. I wouldn’t see him fall to the vindictive desires of his father while there was anything I could do to help.

Darius placed a hand on my shoulder as the crystal shard glowed brighter in Azriel’s grasp, the blue light pulsing as an echo rolled throughout The Veil, a call going out to all those who needed to hear it.

“What now?” I demanded.

“Now, we fly,” Azriel replied, a dark glint in his eyes.

The ground bucked beneath our feet and Darius tightened his hold on me, keeping me upright as the world flexed around us, light from the living realm spilling over us.

I blinked as I found the rebels gathering across the hill, many of them shifting into their Order forms, cries going out for them to keep their movements wild and follow without thought.

Behind me more of the dead pushed against The Veil, appearing between the crush of the rebel army, moving close to their loved ones, swelling the numbers surrounding us beyond measure. If only we could have done more than simply watch over them, if only these numbers could join forces with theirs and truly join in the fight against my ex-husband. But I would take the weight of our power shielding them if it was enough to get our loved ones to safety.

“What are they doing?” Darius asked, his focus on the rebels, his head turning to follow the passage of a Manticore as it flew overhead.

“They’re dodging fate,” I breathed, watching as the chaos unfurled around us. “Not making any firm decisions, keeping the stars guessing so that Lionel can’t find them.”

“Then let’s make sure it works.”

Darius’s form began to tremble as he called on his Dragon, the roar that burst from him as he shifted making my hair billow across my face.

He leapt into the sky, a host of the dead racing upwards with him, those who could fly in their Order forms heading for the heavens, moving to act as a shield above the heads of the fleeing rebels below.

Hamish howled as he watched the rebels go, pointing out a lilac stallion as he galloped between the masses, making my heart swell with pride even as the pain of seeing the stumps where Xavier’s wings should have been cut into me.

My beautiful boy galloped on, his friends whooping, howling, and laughing as they ran with him, my heart aching as I felt the pain which he couldn’t shake even as he galloped.

“To the skies, my dearest dandelion?” Hamish offered and I nodded, the Dragon within me growling in delight as I called it forth.

Shifting wasn’t like it had been before my death, the beast in me almost tearing from my skin entirely as the change took me, but I grasped hold of it and refused that impulse, staying one with that most intrinsic part of me as scales coated my skin and a roar escaped my lips.

Hamish leapt onto my back as I spread my wings and I took off into the sky with a triumphant bellow, The Veil fluttering against my flesh with every moment that passed. A thrill danced through me at the thought of Lionel seeing me now, offering a ride to my love, defying his nonsensical laws about Dragon supremacy and simply enjoying flexing my wings and showing the man I loved what I could do.

The dead rallied around me, roaring, howling, baying, and hollering in support of the rebels who fled for their lives below.

I could feel the stars turning their gaze towards them but as the army of the dead created a blanket of motion above their heads, the ethereal beings found their eyes blinded from the choices being made below.

I raced after Xavier, Darius roaring deafeningly as he swept in to fly at my side, our wingtips brushing against one another, the love I felt for him transcending my soul and reaching out to caress him as we found ourselves racing along with Xavier beneath us.

Hail bellowed from the heavens in his many-headed Hydra form and the rebels upped their pace as if they could feel the strength of the dead wrapping around them, protecting them, and shielding them on their journey across the land, towards the distant sea.

The world was alive with motion, the rebels a stampede which never faltered as the coast rose in the distance and they charged for it as one.

The golden glow of The Veil grew around us as we all pushed beyond the limits of what was allowed, our souls brushing against that impenetrable barrier, refusing its call as it tried to draw us back.

We held on, defiant in the face of protecting the ones we loved, determined to see them safe, whatever the cost.

The rebels finally made it to the coast, and I watched with victory soaring through my chest as they carved a lump of land clean away from the edge of the continent and set out to sea where the wind, the rain and chance could choose their path and no Seer could predict it.

They were safe.

And with that all-encompassing knowledge, the army of the dead were summoned back into the embrace of The Veil, the glow brightening until all sight of the living realm was lost to us. But it didn’t matter. Because it had worked. And the rebels were safe once more.