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

breathed the floral air in through my nose.

"Bethanie, Bethanie!" A voice screamed behind me and as I turned a girl with golden brown hair pummelled me to the ground.

"Oh, Bethanie, please help me!"

I grabbed the girl's shoulders and pulled her far enough away so that I could see her tear-streaked face.

"Abigail, what's wrong?" I asked with alarm. "What happened to you?"

"Bethanie," She struggled, "they attacked me! They are trying to hurt..."

"Who, Abby? Who are these people?"

"The bad girls. They chased me and I think they want to hurt you, Bethanie!"

Chapter 9

 

Abigail

 

"I don't understand." Bethanie murmured. "What do you mean the bad girls are after me?"

"They..." I whimpered still clinging tightly to her. "Were talking about you and when I heard I think they must have realised that I knew you so they attacked me. But I don't know why they did, I don't understand! Bethanie, why are people hurting each other like this?!"

"I know why." I just realised that Ariel was at Bethanie's side as she interred. Rising she began to lay out some facts. "They want Bethanie because of what she is and also... because of what I am."

Instantly I released Bethanie and rose to my feet. Though I had come to like Ariel at school the things the girls said couldn't be ignored, they talked about Bethanie as a pawn in some kind of recruitment and Ariel at the helm of it.

"You have done something to her, haven't you? And don't!" I exclaimed as I saw both of their mouths open in surprise. "Don't tell me I'm wrong when I know I'm not! So tell me already, what is going on!?"

Bethanie stared at me wide-eyed but it was Ariel that began to comply with my directive. "I warned you, Abigail, that this world is not as bright as a child sees it, but it is far darker..."

"Don't think of me as a child!" I screeched louder than I knew I could produce. "I'm not a child. I might be small and not very strong, but in my heart I'm strong, so please, don't shut me out of yours!"

Bethanie knew this was directed at her so after a moment her stiffness faded. "Abigail, I wanted to tell you all of this, everything, but I didn't because I was afraid of how it all would affect you..."

"Well," I replied. "I don't know how the truth of how your secret will affect me, but I know that being left out and witnessing your solitude again hurts more than any truth could!"

Bethanie recoiled suddenly, as if my words held a real lash to them. Then Ariel moved in and attempted to explain the scenario.

"It's too late to keep you away now, I'm afraid." Ariel sighed sadly. "Though I wished to keep you far away from all the hostility it seems our enemies have grown aware of not only out movements, but of those we meant to keep safe. Now it appears that we cannot hide any longer, we are at the point where we must confront our adversaries and tackle them head on. So then I need you, Abigail, tell me all that you have learnt. Don't leave anything out, Bethanie's fate depends on it."

"Bethanie's fate?" I repeated shakily. "So they are your enemies, they really do mean to hurt you, don't they?"

"They do." Ariel replied solemnly.

"Hold on!" Bethanie interrupted. "What is this about enemies? You mean those shades, right?"

"Like I told you, Bethanie." Ariel answered. "We are in the midst of a war and not all our enemies are so easy to spot. There are daevas out there who are fighting for the other side, for the world of darkness."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Bethanie argued. "You can't seriously mean girls like us? That's crazy!"

"I do and I agree, it is insane, we should all be working together but things just have not turned out that way."

"No!" Bethanie cried. "I don't believe it! There's no way that girls like us could be on those monsters' side!"

"It is true and if Abigail did see the same people that I am talking about then she is now in grave danger." Ariel and Bethanie both turned to me with concern. "But I think the main thing is to see if these girls really are dark daevas. Abigail, you must tell me everything you learnt about these girls."

"I don't really know that much." I looked away and spotted a black marble tombstone with white cracks running through it. Recognising the name inscribed I sighed. "I just know they're trying to stop you, Ariel, from some kind of recruiting. They know about Bethanie too, but it seems like they only think you're considering her, that you haven't done it yet. But you have already, haven't you?"

"That's correct." She affirmed. "So then, it really is them, they're really coming after us. Abigail, tell me did you see anything unusual about these girls?

I nodded. "Yeah, I did. I saw that they're super strong, and fast and that they have some sort of weapons made from... light, but hard, solid."

"My sword..." Bethanie breathed as realisation hit her. "It wasn't made from light, it had form! A black hilt and a silver blade!" She turned aside to empty grass and two deep cuts into the ground.

"It's gone!" She cried, rising to her feet. "What happened, where did it go!?"

"Calm down, Bethanie, it's not gone! It's just returned to your core. That's what happens when you drop your erosreaver, the energy releases into the world but the shape will always be held within the depths of your soul."

"What sword?" I asked. "What are you talking about, erosreaver?"

"It is the ultimate power of a daeva, what I am and what Bethanie has now become." Ariel explained. "I know this is a lot for you to take in, Abigail, but it is of the upmost importance that you try to accept it and tell us all you can. Those girls you saw, did they follow you?"

I had to blink a couple of times to allow all the information to sink in, when I finally realised that I was asked a question I shook my head. "I don't think so. They threatened me, told me to leave or they would kill me and because I did I think... they let me go."

Ariel nodded. "Good, now, tell me was there anything else that you saw or heard. Even anything small."

"Two of them were fighting, it seemed like they didn't get along very well. One girl's name was Vanessa and the other's was Rebecca. The other two I didn't get a glimpse of. But actually, now that you mention it I've seen them both before, they're seniors at our school, grade eleven..." I murmured as the school uniforms they were suddenly connected a few dots within my mind.

"Girls at our school?" Bethanie repeated. "More daevas so close, I had no idea..."

Ariel showed no surprise. "Yes, I know those two, Rebecca and Vanessa don't get along very well but they wouldn't actually kill one-another, I am certain, seeing as they're both on the same side."

"And you?" I asked. "Would they actually kill you?"

Ariel's silver eyes flashed with understanding. "Was there something else that you saw, Abigail?"

In my mind I saw that red-head girl lash a whip of light as she earnestly sought to harm a very pretty girl with platinum blonde hair which ended up giving her red dripping streaks along a new uniform she had just acquired.

I looked at Ariel's uniform and murmured, "It's all clean..."

"Abigail?" Ariel prodded. "You can tell me. You need to tell me what you saw!"

I nodded as I stared into the grass that had its leaves swaying gently with the breeze. "Yesterday, I saw you with that girl Vanessa. You were fighting and she was trying to kill you."

"No way!" Bethanie shouted, breaking her strained silence. "No way a daeva would want to kill another, that's just inhuman!"

"It is," Ariel agreed, "but we are not truly human anymore so cold acts like that become more common-place."

"What!?" Bethanie cried. "But why? That just doesn't make sense! Why would they choose the other side and fight for the dark?!"

"Because, giving into the Noein's energy gives you the possibility of obtaining so much more power. It's darkness is the driving force in all daevas, to reach new heights in ability, but the only way to allow more light in is to become darker on the inside."

"That's..." I whispered. "Crazy. People would hurt others just so that they can get stronger?"

"It's true and you may think it crude, evil, and they may even think so too. But the lure of power is so great it can over-ride any compassion and empathy. It can be invigorating, but toxic and the more you give into it the further down that dark path you travel."

"All for power..." Bethanie uttered as she clenched a fist. "But we already have so much, how selfish can they be to sacrifice the world for it?"

"What would happen to the world?" I asked over the top of Bethanie. "What happens if the darkness wins this war?"

"Then shades would spill onto the earth in such massive numbers and consume Gaia, the world's soul. Plants would wither, the air would become thicker, the sun's rays would no longer be felt or seen, food would lose its flavour, it nourishment and then babies would cease to be born, people would get sick more often and die before their time. The world would be thrown into one of death and despair but the daevas that remain would be granted near limitless power, they would become... gods."

"And these shades," I murmured quietly as I remembered the white forest that was quickly being obscured by black bodies, "I've seen them before, haven't I?"

"Yes, two nights ago atop the peak of Skyward Mountain you were both attacked by a horde of shades where they drew your aura from your body."

"So that's why I suddenly lost all my energy. Then you came and saved me, it was you, wasn't it?!"

"It was." Bethanie answered in Ariel's place. "She saved both of us that day."

"So these shades that are spilling into the world, they take a person's aura, in other words, their soul?"

"That is true, however," Ariel corrected, "there is quite a lot of soul energy in a person, so great that at its very centre it condenses into the hardest substance possible in living creatures - a diamond. A part of it leaks out and interacts with the world and this is aura. This is always kept at a small percentage of the total soul, but when the aura is siphoned away the diamond core breaks down so that the ratio may be maintained. It does this in order to keep livings connected with one-another and so that they may feel the world that they live in. So, since this is such immense power, a single shade would be incapable of draining away enough aura to break the diamond down completely, no matter how much of an appetite it has. However, when a swarm of them attacks a person then that threshold can be overcome. Imagine a drop of water falling onto a rock, there is very little change felt to it, but the sea however,