Jayden

The carriage jolted me awake as we ran over something in the road. It’s times like this I wished we had cars on this planet. Unfortunately, we don’t have the technology or fossil fuels to make functional cars, so horses and carriages were the only way to get around. Not that you really needed something faster than that; the colonized area of Rein was an island barely 300 miles across.

“What was that?” I called to my driver, Joe, remembering the jolt that had woken me up.

“Just a rock on the road, Sir,” he called back.

“How many times must I tell you to call me Jayden?” I heard no response from Joe, but knew him well enough to know he was smiling at least a little. “How much longer until we arrive at Marxus?”

“We should be there in about four hours, Sir.” I shook my head. The agency Joe was trained in must have hard-wired that “Sir” stuff into him. No longer tired enough to sleep the remaining hours of our trip away, I reached for the newspaper on the seat across from me. I caught sight of the Uniflux, resting in its usual place under the skin at the base of my left wrist. The parasite-like trinket always gave me a strange sort of comfort when I saw it.

“ELEMENTORIUM THIEF STILL AT LARGE” the main headline on the paper read. It had been about a week since the Elementorium was reported missing. A shame, really. I was hoping to meet the new bearer at the Lunar Festival tonight. Apparently the Elementorium was stolen the night it was awarded to its new bearer. Smart thief, I thought to myself. If you’re going to steal an object of that much power, best to do it when its bearer has no idea how to use it. I idly wondered how long the thief had been planning his heist.

I gazed out my window for a while, pondering the vast forest that covered most of Rein. It had taken generations for the forest to grow, but Elysium’s power controlled the life force of the planet so the plant and animal life had thrived in the years since Elysium infected the Marx family. I had always wondered if Elysium’s power was naturally more potent than Torium or Usarium’s, or if it was amplified by being melded with a human’s genes. The Elementorium and Uniflux required human bearers to focus and amplify the power they contained—and to protect them, of course. There are all those years before the Elysium bearer comes into power that the power remains mostly dormant, though. The wild growth of the planet generally slows during those years.

Suddenly something caught my eye, pulling me from my thoughts. Deep in the forest, I could see the outline of a large creature. It looked as though it was covered in dark fur, wielding sharp claws and standing on all four legs.

“Joe, stop!” I called, fascinated by the creature in the woods. The carriage slowed to a stop, and I exited it slowly and quietly so as not to alert the beast of our presence.

“Sir, what is it?” Joe asked. I motioned for him to keep his voice down, my attention still focused on the beast.

“Don’t you see it? Over there, in the woods.” I pointed to the beast and watched as it caught a fleeing deer and tore it in half, raising the corpse to an enormous fanged mouth.

“Sir, I think you should get back inside, now.”

“It’s eating, let’s just watch it a little longer,” I protested, fixated on the beast. Never had I seen something like this on my travels, it was fascinating!

“Sir!” Joe’s hand grasped my shoulder and shook me from my trance. I looked up at him, furious.

“This could be a new breed of predator, Joe! We should observe it and record any information we can discover,” I started, then stopped as I realized he was terrified.

“Sir, I could be wrong, but I believe that is the Tamani. We should leave here immediately and get the news to Marxus as soon as possible. It’s the closest settlement and likely the first place the beast will go when it gets hungry again.”

“The Tamani? But that’s—” impossible. No, maybe it wasn’t. The Tamani was captured and caged generations ago, but it reportedly grew stronger when each Elysium bearer came into power. It could have escaped its prison if the current bearer had just come into her powers—the beast was held underground, not far from here. We were probably the first ones to see it, assuming it killed the guards assigned to the prison.

“Please, we need to leave, Sir,” Joe pleaded. I nodded and climbed back into the carriage, still immersed in thought as I observed the beast. I had barely gotten into the carriage when I heard the snap of the whips on the horses and the carriage jolted forward. If that was the Tamani, we needed to get to Marxus as quickly as possible. The Uniflux glowed under my skin in response to my thoughts, lightly vibrating in anticipation. I did my best to push the beast from my mind as I focused on our projected arrival in Marxus, four hours from now. The Uniflux vibrated painfully as I closed my eyes and let the hours pass swiftly. When I opened my eyes, the carriage was just pulling into Marxus.

“We’ve arrived, Sir,” Joe’s voice sounded from the front of the carriage. “I hope your trip wasn’t too long.”

“Not in the slightest, Joe.” I gathered my overcoat and hurried out of the carriage, slipping the coat on as the chilly evening air met my skin. There was a small burn on my skin where the Uniflux was residing, but it would be healed in a couple minutes or so. The village of Marxus was lit up with lanterns and bustling with people who had arrived for the festival. To my right, a group of officials were approaching. I jogged toward them, startling them a bit.

“You’re the officials for the festival, correct?” I asked. Not waiting for an answer, I continued, “We saw what we believe to be the Tamani on our way here. If so, Marxus is in the most immediate danger and everyone should evacuate, as quickly as possible.” The officials smiled.

“Please don’t worry, Master Jayden. We are aware of the beast’s presence and assure you that it has been dealt with,” the official in the middle replied.

“So you’ve recaptured it, then? That’s good to hear,” I said, unable to hide my sigh of relief. Hopefully there weren’t many lives lost in the process of the beast’s capture.

“Now, if you’ll please follow us, the guests have been eagerly awaiting your arrival,” one of the officials said. I glanced back at Joe, who was gathering my luggage from the carriage. He would send it with one of the officials to be taken to where we were staying tonight, then return to me soon enough. Joe was trained not just as a driver, but primarily as a bodyguard. He was assigned to me when I was selected as the new bearer of the Uniflux, three years ago.

Joe and I followed the officials through the streets of Marxus, greeting several rich guests on our way to the brightly lit meadow near the tall, stone Sanctuary. I caught sight of a young woman standing in the meadow alone, her dark hair blending into the night sky as her pale skin glowed lightly. Her turquoise eyes glinted in the lamplight as she surveyed the crowd in front of her. She wore a medium-length black dress and a white shawl, which was adorned with the marks of Elysium. The bearer of Elysium, surely. She was the first female to ever be born with the gift, and was quite beautiful. I noted that the area around her left eye didn’t glow as brightly as the rest of her skin, though. Covered with makeup, perhaps? But why? My thoughts were distracted by some commotion in the crowd.

“I’m telling you, it’s coming! We all need to get out of here, now! Everyone is going to die!” exclaimed a young man with light brown hair. Joe moved to walk between the commotion and myself. We watched as some officials went to the man, dragging him away from the crowd.

“What was he talking about?” I asked the officials ahead of us as we approached the meadow.

“Nothing of importance—he was probably under the influence of alcohol, Master Jayden.” Before I had a chance to respond or ponder the young man’s words more, we were at the edge of the meadow. The officials gestured for me to proceed, and Joe nodded as he stepped to the side. I walked into the lush meadow to stand beside the Elysium bearer.

“Good evening, Miss. My name is Jayden Cortez. I’m the current bearer of the Uniflux,” I said, greeting her with a smile.

“I could tell, your skin glows like mine does,” she replied, not looking at me. Her face was impassive, though I could see a hint of guilt in her eyes. Guilt from what?

“I’m sorry, where are my manners?” she said, turning to me and painting a smile on her face. “I’m Seraphine Phoenix, bearer of Elysium—as I’m sure you already guessed.” The crowd milled about, ignoring our presence. The officials who had led me here had long since left to attend to other duties, and Joe was scanning the area for any potential threats.

“If you don’t mind my asking, Seraphine, why are you wearing makeup?” The smile left her face and she looked back out at the crowd.

“People wear makeup all the time, Jayden. I don’t see why it matters.”

“You’re right, but that isn’t just any makeup. In fact, it’s the only artificial product on you tonight. I might understand if the concealer was spread all over your face, but it isn’t. Your skin is flawless, so you would have no need to wear it anyway. Having the makeup applied only to the skin around your eye suggests you’re trying to hide something. A bruise, perhaps?” Seraphine sighed and turned back to me. Her face was still impassive, but her eyes revealed her troubled thoughts.

“You’re a clever one, aren’t you?” She asked, the hint of a genuine smile teasing at her lips. “If you must know, you’re correct. The concealer is hiding a bruise around my eye.”

“So why would an Elysium bearer need to hide an injury that should have healed in a matter of seconds? And more importantly, why would a beautiful, gifted woman such as yourself be haunted by such anguish that she has to hide it with every fiber of her focus? Particularly on a festive night such as this.” Seraphine said nothing for a moment.

“Very clever,” she replied eventually.

“Your eyes give you away,” I explained.

“I’m going to die, Jayden.”

“Are you sick?”

“No. I’ve asked my brother to kill me after the festival tonight.” My mind spun at her answer. Suicide? Why would she commit suicide? Unless she didn’t want her powers of course, but something told me she had a sense of duty that would override any selfish thoughts such as that. How would her brother kill her, anyway? She heals so quickly that he would have to kill her in one blow… though apparently, she wasn’t healing all that fast.

“Why?” I asked, quieting my thoughts.

“Because my powers are sealed, Jayden. Without them, the world will fall into chaos. My death will bring about the birth of the next Elysium bearer, and everything will go back to how it should be,” she explained. For the first time all night, I saw a real emotion cross her face—anger. What she said made sense, though. With her powers sealed, she would heal like any other human. It also meant that she wouldn’t passively provide Rein with Elysium’s power, rendering her useless.

“I assume the people of Marxus don’t know,” I said, my thoughts escaping through my voice.

“I would be dead already if they did.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?” I asked.

“We need your help.”

“We?”

“My brother and I. The village is going to be attacked by the Tamani, and I don’t have the power to stop it.”

“But the officials said they had dealt with the Tamani…” I trailed off. Why would they tell me if they hadn’t? They wouldn’t want to cancel the festivities; nor would they want to be viewed as failures.

“The officials lied to you,” she replied simply.

“So that man in the crowd—”

“That was my brother. He was trying to warn everyone, but clearly that didn’t work.”

“I control the flow of time, Seraphine. I don’t see how that will be able to take down that beast. Are you sure you can’t unlock your powers somehow? Controlling life and death, that kind of power would be useful against the beast.”

“Do you think I would be standing here talking to you if I could use my powers?” She asked, anger and frustration taking control of her. Before I could respond, a loud thud came from the outskirts of the village. The crowd fell silent and Seraphine and I looked to the direction of the noise. Another thud sounded, this time closer.

“It’s coming,” Seraphine said quietly.