Tenecrils Eighth

The bus driver didn’t seem to find it suspicious as I loaded my luggage and asked him to drive me into town where I could catch a train to anywhere far away.

He just took my money and drove. I allowed myself to close my eyes and relax my alert stature as I knew the trip was going to be long, and dropped into the world of dreams. That’s why when the bus stops 3 hours early, I don’t realise, that’s why when more people board I don’t care, and that’s why when I’m carried off, I’m in such a deep sleep, so incredibly exhausted, that I allow it to happen, I awake only when I’m feeling cold, in a dark room with Xander and the six Immortals staring at me wondrously as I lay in bed, changed out of clothes and put into a simple gown.

Feeling exposed, despite the new night gown, I gather the sheets and scurry against the frame of the elegant bed, hiding all of me except my head, staring at them in dread and feeling paralysing fear. Wondering what will become of me, I open my mouth and urge something brave to come out when they all back away and form a V. Suddenly they all draw out their swords in perfect synchronisation, point it to me and finally, bow down on one knee, swords striking the ground as they kneel, making contact with the ground in one perfectly timed movement.

 As I stare at them in confusion and frantically take in my surroundings planning some sort of escape Xander, who was in the front of the ‘V’ formation stands up and looks directly at me, with his honey brown eyes, and begins speaking to me in an obviously rehearsed tone

“Long have we awaited the arrival of our leader, the most powerful and most deadly force in our fight against the ancient evils. Priya Jones, Tenecrils Eighth is at your command and we live until we die to break the spell evil has bound and left on this Earth. We all pledge to your command, only risking to break our formation, should you turn away from our cause”

As he spoke these words, something pulsed through me and I gasped in pain as memories came flooding back to me. Memories of the previous lives of Tenecrils Eighth, sometimes a man, sometimes a woman as the leader as they called upon various things to aid them in a battle. Of course, tragically, the battle ended with their death when they were forced to make a life changing decision. I saw all the leaders, and gasped as I realised certain features and traits from them had been passed down to me. My last incarnation: being a 24 year old male who didn’t really believe in love and had sudden reactions to life threatening situations like me.

I sob as I see a cloak of darkness go through him and pick up a knife descending on him just as he finally dawns on what’s happening to him, the cloud gruesomely slicing his heart from behind. And I scream when excruciating pain sears through my chest in response to the flashback.

 When the memories abruptly end I find that I’m being rocked back and forth by someone, being told to calm down. The voice is pretty scratchy too bit I don’t care, I needed to be comforted, after watching countless gruesome visions flash through my eyes. I hold on tight to the person who was holding me tight back. When the heaving sobs stop and I look up I find Xander’s face deep in my hair. When he pulls back I see tears stain his normally perfect and proud face. I can’t bring myself to hate him. I saw his incarnations as well, and so far, he’s always lost the one he loved, something that’s already been achieved in this lifetime. Giving him one last reassuring hug, I rise, feeling a sense of power, ferocity, leadership and protectiveness as I look down at my kneeling mates for life.

“Get up guys, I feel weird with all of you kneeling down for me”. They get up and stare at me expectantly. I file through my brain, trying to think of some good words finally settling for

 “ I don’t really know how this works cos like, I’m just a girl. I’m an evicted Tenecrils girl. But I guess, whatever we fight, we fight through together”I pause “and we kill those bloody Shersaans” I grin “starting with the ones outside the office”.

As the warriors smile, and Xander bursts into laughter at my Shersaan joke Miss Maskeráde comes in, her serious expression reminding the group of something unknown to me as they turn and look at me in pity.

As my smile turns into a ghost and my throat turns dry. I ask the two words I desperately beg to be replied in some sort of happy manner

“What’s wrong?”

Miss Maskeráde turns to me and looks 50 with bags and dark circles under her eyes and smeared mascara from all the crying.

“It’s Silencer Height Priya”

My breath stops.

“Everyone’s slowly dying and they’re being held hostage by Bobby”

“Bobby?” I asked, genuinely surprised “he’s never even been to the town though!” then I panic as a thought rushes through my mind. “what does he look like?” I whisper.

Miss Maskeráde closes her eyes and mutters something and in an instant, a photo appears in her hand.

As I snatch it and inspect the face, my legs give way and I am caught by Xander who yells out orders to the rest to of the warriors to help him guide me back to the bed.

Tears well up in my eyes as I shove the picture back to Miss Maskeráde, frantic to get it out of my hands.

Xander kneels down and keeps at eye level with my face, placing both his hands on my cheeks and forcing me to look at him. But this time, no visions, no thoughts of his flash before me, I am just looking at a pair of severely distressed eyes.

“What is it Priya?!” he asks, desperation creeping into his voice. The guys not used to mental breakdowns for no actual reason.

I somehow find the will to manage to stop hyperventilating for a bit, look straight into his eye and whisper

“Bobby is Brett, the same guy who almost killed me, the same guy who I stabbed, the same guy who vowed to return more powerful than he was, Xander, he’s the guy you’ve been looking for” I put my head in my own hands as Xanders hands fall away from my face in shock.

When I say this, the room goes black and a red flame erupts in front of me, burning bits of my hair and a little of my face. As I hear the metallic slide of swords I manage to bark out “Stop!”

I watch as the flames form a face which then forms another and another frequently until it finally rests on Bretts.

“Hello Priya. Lovely to see you” I stay frozen to my spot with shock, confusion and fear.

“so, funny story, I come back to Silencer Height and find everyone mysteriously ill. It took me a while but I figured out that you are Tenecrils Eighth and most powerful immortal” he laughs and looks around the room when he suddenly recognises Xander standing behind me sword held so firmly in his hand, the knuckles are white.

 “Oh hey there Xan my man, how’s Rox? So sorry to cause her trouble but you gotta do what you gotta do”

 He winks at Xander who starts walking forward but I put my hand to his chest and stop him. My eyes begging him stay, and hand ordering him to. He looks at me, with eyes so torn, hurt and pained that I have to look away.

“He wants you to attack” I whisper.

“He knows me well then” he replied.

“As a Tenecril warrior I’m guessing you’re not meant to be provoked so easily and as a warrior under my command I strongly suggest you relax, I got this, and we will make him pay, I promise.” As I feel him relax, I let my hand close around his and squeeze reassuringly.

Then I focus on Brett once again and start speaking in a voice, my don’t you mess with me voice.

“Hello Brett, nice to see you too, looking as psycho as ever I see” I nod, noticing his wild tangled hair and wide eyes.

Brett just smiles “yeah well, that’s what being buried 15 feet under the ground in a coffin does to you. Let me tell you, digging out of there was not pretty.”

“I can only imagine” I cooly reply, “So, any reason why you popped up to me in the middle of a room as a fireball?”

Bretts easy going expression hardens and his voice changes into a threatening and low growl “Seeing as I’m my fathers creation, and also the closest of my kind resembling a human, I’ve made it my job to stop Tenecrils stupid gang killing my brothers and sisters.”

Inside, I’m freaking out, bad. Outside, I show no surprise “So you take my dying town hostage? What are you trying to achieve here Brett?”

“Ok, first, stop calling me Brett, the names Morgyew” he hisses, “and second, you and I have some unfinished business to deal with, a little one on one, you can bring your puny soldiers if you want but I’m warning you, they will die based on your choices, trust me, I know these things, I have only died twice by your incarnations hands and the last time that happened was” he pauses, making a show of thinking about the answer “about 5000 years ago. If you decide to not come, Silencer Height will be silenced forever and you will slowly fade away without your town’s spiritual essence” he smirks “I’ll see you soon babe” and winking at me in such a way that I want to throw up he disappears in a burst of fire, managing to singe my hair some more and reaching out to the rest of the gang but not quite reaching them.  

“Well damn” I whisper “This warrior thing is much more dangerous than I thought”, I look up at the frozen Miss Maskeráde and Tenecrils Eighth, eyes finally resting on Xander, The guy who’s lost everything dear to him, the guy who’s just given up the one most powerful thing he had to me, the last guy in the world who deserves to be caught up in this mess.

I force myself to stand up, my decision made, despite my shaky mood.

“I’m going to end this, alone”

“What?!” Xander, predictably, shouts in outrage as everyone else protests with him.

“I’m not going now! I don’t have all the details” I reason watching as everyone relaxes again.

Turning to Miss Maskeráde in the best most dignified way I can I ask “What don’t I know about myself and Tenecrils history, and don’t leave anything out”

As we all settle around the living room (it turns out that they put me in one of the large bedrooms of a castle near the edge of the town), Marcus decides to conveniently drop by. Panicking, (duh) about Silencer Height and his young family there because his many calls have not been returned.

As Miss Maskeráde tows him to another room to explain, she closes her eyes and makes a whole stack of books plump down onto our table. As I skim through all the books titles, I find myself, wishing more than anything, wanting the historical book I’d received from Silencer Height, mainly because it was one of the last things I’d taken from my home, but also because I felt that there was some vital, some powerful clue in there. Just as I’m about to announce that I’m going to go back into my room to look for the book, Esther, the blonde girl who helped Ruby to a corner in our, erm, “friendly fight” exclaims in shock.

“WHAT THE HELL??!!” letting her warrior reflexes kick in she flings something across the room, it takes me a split second to realise it’s my book and a microsecond for me to catch it.

As I smile happily to the group, I’m countered with seven gaping mouths.

“What?”

“Wow!” Seth begins.

“That’s was….” Emerald continues

“EPIC!” Ruby, Esther Logan and Dustin breathe out in admiration.

I look to Xander, who just stares at me with blank eyes, knowing that it’s no use asking how the heck I’m doing all of this weird stuff and just knowing that it’s all part of my powers I simply shrug modestly.

As Miss Maskeráde re enters the room and finds eight teens reading away, she smiles, but the smile fades as she sees my tired eyes, I can feel her pity, I can feel her sorrow, and though my eyes are still reading the book and my brain still deciphering every word, searching for anything. I can hear her saying sorry over and over again. Sending little invisible hugs to me and somehow giving me strength. And though I appreciate the gesture, something in me snaps and I get up, collect the books I want to read and storm out of the castle a door, wanting to escape all the doom and gloom that has been inflicted upon me in the past 96 hours.  

After about two hours of skimming through the history of Tenecrils eight warrior’s I’m shocked to see just how stupid the leaders (regrettably) have been all this time. Shocked to realise something that should’ve been centuries ago. In each dangerous and tragic future changing battle that had been fought over the years of our groups existence, the leader had always had someone from the group there as well, to witness, to fight with, to fight against or to be distracted by. In all instances, there were one or more members of the group present at the ill-fated fight. In all cases, the leader was the first to be killed and the rest of the group hunted down, killed viciously by Morgyew, my ex.

I’m by myself sitting under a tree, in a tranquil place I had accidentally stumbled upon the other day. Its pure atmosphere instantly calming me and washing away all the murky and heavy feelings I was having in the castle. As I relaxed a little, an idea occurred to me.

Let’s check out just what kind of powers I have. I know for a FACT that I have… invincibility, MIGHT have teleportation, have the really suckish ability of seeing peoples thoughts in a rush of energy, have super speed annddd, have the ability to create something out of nothing, well, electricity anyway. I smile, remembering how I knocked out 4 of the warrioirs by wishing that electricity had somehow wound up into the water shooting from the showerhead.

“What should I start with?” I loudly ponder.

I attempt to make an apple, because I was feeling peckish, and one instantly appeared, though it was pretty far away. Wanting it to be in my lap, it teleported from a tree 50 metres away to my lap where it tasted as real as anything.

Then I attempted to do more powerful and, I dunno, more fight worthy things, such as creating powerful swords and weapons. In conclusion to my little experiment, I found I could manipulate the energy or air all around me to create whatever I wanted. My imagination was the limit, it was awesome and terrifying. I mean, was I worthy of all that power? My mind flashed back to one of my greedy incarnations, who, I thankfully did not inherit anything from. That blonde haired woman slayed her own warriors and that was what had made the warriors make up the command to turn against their leader should they stray from their cause or pose a threat.

As I shiver at the feeling of the vision going away, I feel weak and dizzy, but thinking it was an effect from the vision, I ignore it and think of something else.

What if I scan all my fights with Morgyew and see where I went wrong and see what his techniques are? A brilliant idea if I say so myself.

As I nestle myself in the soft and comforting green grass I centre myself on my environment and slowly ease myself into a sort of neutral and trance like position and state of mind. Then I make my request to my mind. I always felt that my mind was somewhat locked up or blocked when I thought of certain things. I always felt that when I thought of something even remotely related to violence, I’d feel somewhat limited and left to use only my current life times knowledge. When I whisper “show me my past” over and over again in my end I almost instantly fall into an endless pit.

In pitch black and a soundless dream like dimension I can do nothing but hopelessly flail about and wait for something to happen. But, suddenly I feel like I have slowed down incredibly and the pitch black all around me transforms into a bright and heavenly like field. As I look around and gaze wondrously I stop and close my eyes, inhaling and expecting sweet and soothing air. I almost faint when it smells polluted and bloody. It burns my lungs and I can only describe it as evil.

When a shattering scream breaks my revolting thoughts I find blood spattering the picturesque field and thankfully, passing through me. As I look at the source I see Morgyew, looking exactly the same, as youthful as ever, drinking the blood of a young brown eyed girl and firmly holding down a green eyes girl. As a soul shattering cry screams

 “NOOOO” a tall, like, MASSIVE man kinda flies down. Obviously being the Leader of Tenecrils Eighth he manipulates the air around him to guide him softly to the floor. I look to Morgyew who’s cackling, I can tell but no sound is coming out. As I wonder why, a tiny wind blows

“To protect you” is what I make out from its soft whisper. 

When Morgyew stops talking to, Alexander, something I just know. He lifts the green eyed girl and breaks her neck in one quick move.

As I feel the anguish and despair rage through me I hear Alexander hurl what must’ve been vicious curses in that time to Morgyew and even though it’s technically me saying it, I’m chilled to the bone.

The vision speeds up, sparing me most of the long and gory fight that ensues, but also making multiple emotions and waves of pain rush through me at once; when it slows down I’m gasping in pain, but am determined to figure out what is being revealed to me. As I focus, my and Morgyews swords clash at once, but, just before the swords connect, I/Alexander sees someone out of the corner of his eyes, and surprise and a flicker of relief washes through me before panic does. I automatically assume that this was another member of the group and when I further inspect the face I realise that it’s Emerald in a really tall, really blonde female form. The only thing that makes me sure it’s her is her fierce blue green eyes. When the swords clash a light blinds the rest of the vision and it slows down even more, I’m struggling to figure out what’s happening but I feel contemplation running through me.

When the vision resumes so that I can actually see it, the light is consumed by a think black cloud that snakes out from the ground and Morgyew transforms into a thick choking smoke that creates a sharp spear with an incredibly long point. As he hurls it toward Emerald, Alexander teleports and creates a shield by manipulating the air around him, but a thick greasy substance breaks through the shield and impales his/my arms. As I create another shield with my remaining strength, I ask Emerald why she went against my orders to stay put. I watch in horror as Morgyew becomes tired of waiting and transforms into a human again, manipulating a dark mist around him to make a similar spear to the one that was, currently, embedded in my arm. As he charges toward my weakening shield and readies himself for the final blow, Emerald and Alexander are too into their heated argument and Emerald looks up too late to see Morgyew descend upon Alexanders/my failing shield, easily penetrating it and impaling my chest, as a familiar pain sears through my chest, I along with Alexander crumple to the ground in pain, as he lifts his hand up and points to Emerald, my mind is filled with thoughts of a happy, warm and safe place and she disappears, as she tries to hold onto my hand and wipe a river of tears running down her face.

As I/Alexander turn to a towering Morgyew, I feel my brain think of a snide remark then conjure a massive fire and electrical ball which I hurl at Morgyew. He takes it and is weak as he gets up slowly but, absolutely drained of any more strength, Alexander closes his eyes as Morgyew manipulates an axe into existence, Alexander squeezes his eyes shut and thinks of his living mates and warriors and of the happiness he’ll feel when he’s re-united with them and his loved ones. I scream as Morgyew lifts the axe and brings it down on his/my head.

I’m abruptly taken out of the vision and find myself feeling blocked of anything related to violence once again. I’m sweating and can’t seem to find the stupid animal that’s making that horrible noise. When Xander jumps out of the bushes with a sword ready in his hand the animals stops screaming.

“What the hell happened? Why are you screaming?” his eyes are wide with alert and I can feel a crazy energy swirling around him.

How am I feeling? Really really dizzy, and it’s at that moment, my body decides to faint.