Daeva: Black Diamond Chrysalis - Danielle Bolger (essential reading txt) 📗

to get to. I'll catch you later." Bart stated before walking away with great speed.

"So we scared them all away. Now it's just us two." Kieran observed.

"Well I guess we ought to make our way to class then." I stated as I reached for my backpack but then suddenly Kieran grasped my wrist and spun me back towards him.

"I was thinking, we skipped out on school before, we should do it again..."

I shifted my eyes across. "That was ages ago. We were just both acting out 'cause of the crap going on with our home lives but we're in year ten now, approaching the end of school and some of us will graduate this year so we really should take it seriously." I made to turn away but his grip was still tight against me.

"I was thinking though, that we could head off again, go to the arcade. Bail on all this bullshit like before."

I tore my hand quickly and secured my freedom. My head directed up towards the school as I answered. "I told you that I think of you as my friend who provided a nice distraction for a time but that I don't feel that way."

"Yeah," Kieran uttered behind me softly, "and like I said, I don't either, that was just a joke! But forget it, you're boring anyway. Why would I want to hang out with you?" When he released my hand he practically threw it before hurrying ahead towards class.

Shrugging off the tense situation I reclaimed my own backpack and began to follow Kieran up the hill but stopped as I heard my name called behind me.

"Hey, Bethanie." She said. "So I hear that your eyes have finally become opened."

I turned around to find Ariel leaning against the tree we were all just congregated around, one I had left out of my sight for a meagre moment.

I appraised her uniform. "I wondered if you might have been the new girl."

She smiled. "That's right, my first day was yesterday, I'm disappointed that you weren't there to greet me. I'm pretty sure I said that you were to meet Raziel around dusk yesterday so you didn't need to wag."

"Great, a lecture from you too. I'm really getting it lately." I responded mirthlessly.

"Hey, I don't care about your school performance. I just wanted to see you and chat about how you were considering the daeva proposal. I really didn't expect that you were so ready for it that you would have been sitting in the clearing the whole day just waiting for him."

I smirked. "Yeah, I didn't really expect to do that myself. I just sort of ended up there."

Ariel raised an interested eyebrow. "I bet. Like a pawn always heads to the end of a chessboard to become a queen, you showed the same warrior desire. Though you may have been weak and meaningless in the grand scheme of things, you chose the fate that all true soldiers aspire to, the transformation into an elite. Meeting you two days ago I thought you would take this path, only I didn't expect you to do it in so few moves."

I shrugged. "I know what I want."

Ariel nodded. "Yes and now you have acquired your flavour of power. So tell me, I'm still curious, how do you like those new eyes?

"Eyes?" I repeated.

Ariel smiled. "Well, yeah. Now you can see the real world through that seed of darkness you took inside. So, what do you think?"

"It's..." I murmured as I watched small white dust particles glisten through the air between us. "It's beautiful but..." I trailed off, frowning.

"But you want the rest of it, don't you? Seeing isn't enough, you want to be able to feel it."

I nodded slowly at first but then its speed and force increased exponentially until I replied, "Yes, yes! Please, tell me what all this is! Teach me how I can use this power!"

"You're awful eager. Are you sure you're not rushing things here, you don't want a few days to get comfortable in your new skin?"

I shook my head violently. "No, this is what I want, all I've ever wanted!"

Ariel closed her eyes. "I see, then we'll launch you straight into it. Meet me at Skyward Cemetery straight after school and don't dawdle." Rising she turned and began to walk up the hill towards a class of her own.

"Hey!" I called as I instantly moved to match step with her. "Um... so why the cemetery? That's a little spooky isn't it?"

"Not at all." She responded. "Actually it makes perfect sense which you should be able to understand with those new eyes of yours."

"It makes sense? But how?"

Ariel's eyes shifted through the land ahead, up towards the buildings and across at the nearby trees, then finally to me. "Remember what you're seeing."

I followed the path her eyes took and then realised exactly what she meant. "The world's aura. That's what I can see, that's the power that I can use, isn't it? And the greatest source of that special type of soul energy is..." I frowned.

"That's right, people. So it stands to reason that the places that are richest in this power is within cemeteries where fragments of the dead's souls still linger."

"Wow... that's so morbid."

Ariel lowered her eyes sadly. "I know, but that is all a part of the cycle of life - the dormant energy within the dead goes on to fuel the bodies of the living."

"Yeah, I suppose that makes sense, but..." I bit my lower lip. "Flesh and bodies are one thing, but this is souls we're talking about, right? Doesn't that always belong to a person so when they die isn't that part is taken with them into Heaven?"

"Is that what you really believe happens?" I saw Ariel's profile grimace as a lock of platinum hair veiled her eyes. "Well, I can't tell you that it does or doesn't, only that when a person dies a large amount of their soul returns back to the rivers from which they first sprouted. So if this place in the universe is Heaven then I guess that's right, to an extent. But there is always a part that lingers, like ghosts that hang back because of unresolved emotional distress. So, the greater the turmoil, the more of it left behind. Separated from its physical form within weeks of death, but unyielding to merge back into which it originally came from, it remains near its body, dormant and practically begging to be absorbed."

I frowned, nodded and chewed my lower lip all at once. "I see..."

Ariel laughed lightly. "You can see a lot more than you could, but it is clear that all I have told you you are still blind to, but not for long. Meet me after school and there all will reveal itself to you. Soon you'll learn everything, your power and what it means to be a daeva."

Then suddenly she diverted her path towards a block of buildings that were distant to my own destination.

"Hey, wait!" Stopped at the sort of crossroads I called out again. "Don't go just yet, can't you tell me a little more about what we are? Please, I need to know more! Why are we called daevas and what are these shades? How did they get in our world in the first place and why must they steal souls to survive?!"

When Arial turned her head back to me I thought I saw a moment of wide-eyed anger flash there, but whatever alarmed expression it was soon transformed into one of concern. "Please, not so loud!" She hissed across the gap. "Shades... aren't the only enemies."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Ariel walked back to me and placed her hands on my shoulders, here she gave me a comforting smile. "Listen, there are other dangers out there. This world we live in is tough, but you are so I know you'll be just fine. I promise everything will become clear, just remain strong, okay?" Still smiling her silver eyes glistened. "We're in a war so things aren't black and white but filled with colour and now that you've learnt just how much colour there was unseen you'll start to experience it too. We're in the midst of a war, us girls its warriors, but if you keep fighting, if you remain firm then I know you'll be by my side when we attain victory. We'll win this world, Bethanie, side by side, but for now keep your distance until we arrange our meetings. It's just safest this way. Please trust me on this."

There was so much earnestness to her face, her voice that I found myself nodding in agreement without any more thought.

Ariel sighed as if a massive weight was lifted from her shoulders. "Also, don't tell anyone about all this, okay? It's not just for your own safety, but others close to you."

Again I nodded, but slower.

"Good!" She smiled. "Well I'll be seeing you around school, but we'll talk this afternoon. Have fun in class, study hard!" She cheered as she waved and ran off so quickly that she missed my yeah, right comment.

School, hey? Well I guess I'll put the pretence of integrating into it for now, but as to learning there is only one thing I seek to dedicate myself to in the future. I thought as the Ariel's bright bow shone back into my mind and I saw the arrow of light slice through the darkness. All I care about is learning how to harness the awesome power of a daeva.

Chapter 7

 

Abigail

 

"The cell that is present in more complicated beings, however, is called a eukaryote. See, unlike their prokaryote counter-parts or, counter-cells," Miss Cerney had a little chuckle here, "They are surrounded by a membrane which is permeable to numerous chemicals, water a big one. You see the prokaryotes have a wall which you can imagine to be made of brick, the eukaryotes have more of a... skin, which allows the good things in and funnels the bad things out. Well, most of them, some of them they're not so good at. Alcohol for one, it lets that in any night of the week, too many nights..."

"Hey, Eric?" I asked to the boy seated beside me. "How do cells have to do with alcohol?"

"It's because our teacher is a secret dunk." He whispered back.

"Anyway!" My teacher stated as if remembering that she was just in front of a classroom of students. "The point is that eukaryotic cells are incredibly porous, they are in a constant state of absorption and rejection of the substances that surround it to provide the best conditions inside. And then when you break it down they are again far more intricate. Within are found multiple more structures," Miss Cerney pointed to the image projected on the screen at the front of the class. "At the very most core is the nucleus, then nuclear envelope, then ribosomes, then endoplasmic reticulum..."

"Eric..." I whined. "My head hurts."

"Yeah, she explains simple concepts much more confusingly than they are." He whispered back.

"How on earth could this ever be simple?!" I groaned softly.

"And here is the most important part!" My teacher declared as she pointed to a kidney looking thing. Then the projection changed into a close-up