Ascent to Divinity

There weren't always dragons in the valley. For the past two hundred years, the people thought dragons were nothing but a myth. Over the two hundred years before that, they were legends. Now, the events of the past several weeks were proving the old fables to be true. Sightings of dragons, among other creatures, were being reported more and more, and the re-emergence of these beasts was seen as an omen by the power users. It was thought that a dark power was on the rise; an enemy of old that wanted to destroy what the World Gods had made. And this time, with fewer protectors to keep them in check, the Wicked might just succeed.

Looking from the tree line on top of a nearby hill, Kendall looked down at the small castle he'd just left, holding his wrapped little master in his arms, trying his best to shield the baby boy from the unnatural cold. The very air felt like an ill omen, a foreshadowing of events, events that became the reason Kendall was ordered to flee with the boy and his older sister.

That final moment with his masters would forever be burned into his mind: Young Velicianna had begged her mother not to push them away, refusing to leave without them. Her father had to push her out of her mother's embrace, and he did so with more emotion than Kendall had ever seen from the normally calm, stoic-seeming warrior.

“You must survive, Veli.” Delach had told her. “You and your brother are the best hope for this world. You,” he had seemed to put extra weight behind the word, “are the only one that can undo what the Wicked have done.” Delach gave both his children a quick, tear streaked hug and kiss and then turned away from them.

“I love you.” Velana had said, kissing Velicianna on the forehead, “I love you, babies.” She kissed little Taven and handed him to Kendall. But before leaving them for good Velana knelt down and put a hand over the pendant Velicianna wore around her neck and said, “Trust in your abilities, trust in yourself, and watch out for each other.” She gave her daughter one last kiss goodbye and then looked to Kendall, “Go, Kendall, go now. They are coming.”

That would be the last thing Velana ever said to him before Kendall and her two children fled out of a hidden entrance at the back of the castle grounds, just outside the rampart walls. Kendall's Masters knew what was coming, they knew that the arrival of the Wicked preceded most certain death, and that they could not hold it at bay this time. Why they couldn't also flee, was a question which kept coming up in Kendall's mind. Why would they stay if they thought doom was inevitable? Was there something in the castle they needed to protect? Secrets, perhaps? Artifacts? Kendall knew so little.

Little Taven squirmed in Kendall’s arms. Whether from the cold or because he could sense what was out there, Kendall wasn’t sure. Taven, like his sister and like his parents, was not a normal mortal being; they possessed power which Kendall couldn’t begin to understand. Just one of their lifetimes was nearly ten times that of a normal human, and it seemed they could control the very fabric of the world, as if the laws of nature didn’t apply to them. Though despite their power, they were not immortal, not completely. And they still had fear, like any other being.

The little girl, Velicianna, tugged at his pant leg, worry etched on her round face, unsure of what was to come. She was shivering slightly, but with no trace of fear. Her dirty-blonde hair was swept back by a light wind, revealing sparkling brown eyes that were looking up at Kendall, asking a question he couldn’t answer—or didn’t want to answer. Kendall had been in his Masters’ service his entire life, his own parents having birthed him while they, too, were in the service of the same Masters. He was twenty-five years old now, his whole life had been that castle and the people within it. Velicianna was technically a third his age, which only seemed strange when he looked at her and thought back on the years. Right then she seemed like any other four or five year old little girl; she still needed to be looked after, as did the boy, who’d been born barely a year past.

“Come, we mustn’t linger, it will be dark soon.” Kendall spoke, turning to walk farther along the crest of the hill beside the tree line of a light forest. Primarily he felt they should leave the area to spare the girl the sight of what was to come.

“We can’t leave Father and Mother,” Velicianna spoke defiantly.

There was a maturity to her voice that momentarily caught Kendall off guard; just yesterday she was more concerned with her toys, and complaining about doing the chores her mother tasked to her. Now, that juvenescence had all but vanished, replaced with a sense of needing to protect and save, just like her mother; even knowing she would be risking her own life in doing so. Perhaps it was her Heavenly Powers maturing her mind, trying to protect her from the realization of loss that would haunt any other child for the rest of their lives. Or perhaps she just knew that from this point on, her parents would be no longer, that she needed to be grown up now, for her brother’s sake and her own. It wasn’t the first time Kendall had witnessed a glimpse of intelligence far beyond her years lived, and especially the age she looked, but he'd never had the courage to inquire of his masters.

“We cannot remain, Velicianna. We risk discovery if we stay much longer.” He could see the torment on her face, knowing that she had seen the last of her parents - felt her mother's last kiss, her father's last hug, and could do nothing about it. But she still wanted to try to save them.

“I must help them, we should both help them,” Velicianna declared, a single tear sliding down her cheek. She always hated crying.

“I’m sorry, but you are a child, and I a mere servant with no real skill in battle, we would surely perish. That is not what your parents wanted.”

“But I have abilities, power, I can save them! If only I try.”

“So do they,” Kendall replied, “please do as your parents asked, we must save ourselves. Think of your baby brother.”

She chewed her lip, trying to decide how to proceed, briefly glancing at the babe.

Kendall wanted to help his masters just as badly, but knew there was nothing more he could do. He thought he had gotten that through to Velicianna as well, but she suddenly began walking back toward the small castle that was the only home she’d known. “What are you doing?” Kendall asked, knowing exactly what she had decided.

“The right thing.” Velicianna stated with authority, sounding more adult than child.

“Your parents tasked me to save you from their fate,” Kendall placed the boy down in the soft grass and ran after her. “I cannot let you perish doing what they did not wish of you.” Velicianna ignored him and kept walking, but Kendall grabbed her by the arm and began to pull her along, back toward her baby brother. “This is their final order for me and I must fulfill it. I am sorry.”

“No, let me go!” Velicianna yelled, trying to detach his fingers’ grip on her forearm.

Kendall had almost reached little Taven when the ground began to tremble beneath him. He looked back, fearing that they were too late, that the Wicked Ones had arrived, but when he looked down at Velicianna he saw that she was causing the tremors. Her eyes had become a solid, pale blue, and it appeared as though black ink was dripping in tiny streaks down her eyeballs, striping them. Her skin became cold, and she began to vibrate.

Kendall let go of her arm, momentarily afraid, when the earth around his feet began to transform and suddenly burst upward, encasing his legs in dirt and grass, holding him in place.

“I must go. They need me.” Velicianna turned and started walking down the hill again.

“Your brother needs you!” Kendall called after her. She stopped for a moment, and he held his breath, hoping she had changed her mind. But she just pulled something from around her neck, a pendant she had always worn, given to her by her parents, and dropped it on the ground. Then she ran off down the hill toward the castle. And with that, Kendall knew he would never see her again.

After about five minutes, Kendall was able to wriggle free of the grassy dirt, falling onto his backside. He had never seen Velicianna do anything like that before, though he’d heard mention that she was very gifted, even by the standards of Power Users. But this was something much different. Most of the abilities he had heard of were devastatingly destructive, and had never manipulated the earth in such a way. Perhaps some of the ancient texts would shed some light on it, Kendall pondered. But the only texts he knew of were back in the castle, and very soon the Wicked Ones would come lay waste to it.

Kendall, from his place amidst the dirt and grass that had previously entrapped him, suddenly looked back at little Taven, forgetting his ruminations; they needed to get away from there, and quickly. He then heard the shrieks, which made his spine shiver and the hair of his nape stand up. When he turned and looked toward the castle, he saw them: a large group of creatures that looked human, but not quite human - fifty or so - running out of the light fog to attack the surrounding wall of the castle grounds. Behind them rode the Wicked Ones, two of them on drakes and another four on what Kendall could only describe as demon horses. Just as the Wicked Ones came within ten paces of the rampart walls, they began lashing at the masonry with crackling energy. In the direction their arms flung, a lightless void extended, whipping out like black lightning, but instead of illuminating the skies it seemed to swallow the light around it, causing a shimmering blur in the air. And when the energy hit the wall, the stones evaporated and exploded, showering the creatures in dust. Occasionally a Wicked One would carelessly strike one of the creatures with the crackling energy, and the part of the body that was struck would immediately burn up and be swallowed into the void of energy before exploding into a gray and red mist.

They made short work of the castle walls and the humanoid creatures scrambled into the courtyard, where they were met by a man and a woman, Kendall`s Masters, who lashed out at the creatures with their own devastating power. Where their crackling bolts of energy connected, limbs, torsos and heads exploded in a fine mist. A few of the creatures slowed and began to float in the air as if suspended in water, and were quickly struck down by the black energy lashing from his masters’ arms. Others were struck to the ground so hard that their bodies were embedded into the soil.

In just a dozen lashes, and with other powers unknown or indescribable to Kendall, they had taken out half of the creatures. As the other half retreated, the Wicked Ones approached, placing themselves in a semicircle around Kendall’s Masters. The surviving creatures scurried behind the Wicked, now waiting and snarling.

Up until that point Kendall had been still as a statue, too entranced by the show of power to move, but now it looked as though his Masters and the Wicked Ones were actually talking with each other; he couldn't begin to guess what they would be discussing.

Kendall finally scooped up Taven and took a few steps toward the forest before a loud, cracking boom resounded through the air and a powerful tremor moved through the ground like the echo of an earthquake, causing him to stumble. Looking back to the castle, Kendall saw her - Velicianna was running into the courtyard, yelling, and in front of her the ground transformed and rose up. She then flung her arms forward and the earth that had risen pitched forward and toppled over the Wicked Ones and their beastly minions. She came to a stop just in front of the large mound of tilled dirt and vegetation, staring at it. Kendall didn’t understand what had just happened. Did Velicianna do that, or did one of her parents? His masters had never displayed any such ability, or even mentioned it. Then again, he was only a servant - however much they'd developed a liking for him, they wouldn’t reveal these things to a mere servant.

Velicianna seemed to be in a trance. She hadn’t moved at all, and when one of the drakes began to claw its way out of the dirt in front of her, Kendall instinctually reached out to yell for her to get back—even though she would never hear him at this distance—but then the drake's arm was instantly forced to the ground and flattened by an unseen force. Velicianna’s mother, Velana, then ran toward her and embraced the child.

Maybe they were going to be alright after all, Kendall thought, feeling the emergence of relief. The relief was short lived, however, as the mound erupted, showering them in dirt. Velana and Velicianna retreated toward Delach as four Wicked Ones rose. Three of them rushed Kendall’s masters, black bolts of energy reaching out to devour their prey. Delach stepped out to meet them and deflected each connecting bolt with his arms. But, that couldn’t be, Kendall had seen what the same whipping energy did to the stone walls and to the creatures, how did they not do the same to his master? There was so much he didn’t know about the Divine Powers. Even having lived with them these last twenty five years, Kendall realized he knew practically nothing about these Beings of Heavenly Power.

Delach had defeated one of the Wicked, but another managed to free himself from the dirt mound and was now engaged with Velana, who was protecting Velicianna. As he watched on, Kendall knew he should leave while he still had a chance, but he couldn’t; something held him in place like he was meant to be witness. Looking over each being, Kendall saw that a Wicked One was standing atop the dirt mound instead of engaging in the fight. His hands moved rhythmically and his mouth was moving as if he was incanting some sort of spell. At least that was Kendall’s best estimation. Whatever the Wicked One was doing, it couldn't be anything good.

Kendall shook himself of the pull to stay as witness and ran, ran as fast as he could into the sparse forest with the little boy in tow. Moments later, an explosion went off and a concussive wave came rushing over the hill and through the trees, knocking Kendall to the ground. He held the infant close to his chest and took the falling impact without resisting to protect little Taven. When Kendall arose, his face and shoulder scraped and smudged with dirt, he looked around at the trees. They were still standing but bent away from the castle, and the source of the blast. Kendall was almost positive that the blast originated from the Wicked One atop the mound of dirt and grass, from whatever spell he had unleashed. Kendall wasn't the least bit curious to find out for sure though. He just hoped that the Wicked Ones were no more, as he suspected his masters were no more.

Kendall checked Taven over and was relieved to find him unharmed. Amazingly the one year old boy hadn’t cried at all, and barely made a peep. Kendall's gaze lingered on little Taven's soft face, looking into his dark blue eyes, his delicate, light brown hair waving in the breeze. Someday Taven would want to go back there, to what remained of his parents’ home. The boy would age slowly—around an eighth the speed of a normal human, as Kendall understood from what his own father had told him—too slowly for Taven to be ready to make that journey while Kendall was still a young man, if alive at all. So Kendall would pass on the tale, if he was not able to tell the boy himself, so that in the future his little master might have answers to the questions he would eventually ask.

It may be a hard road ahead for little Taven, but Kendall would do his best to keep the boy untroubled from the events of the world as long as he could. And when the time came, he would make sure Taven had the means to ready himself for the encroaching darkness.