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

within the early hours of the morning so countless camping chairs and collapsible gazebos complemented the scene. It was always busy here, but still always felt spacious. I guessed that's what open skies and green trimmings did, they made you comfortable regardless of whatever crowd one may have been caught in.

I felt just as at peace as I pulled my camera from my backpack and began snapping multiple images of the scenery. Cascading waters, vibrant children, the cries of laughter and birds in the distance. Much of what I witnessed could not be captured solely within the devise as the images were muted compared to what my daeva eyes revealed, but they served well enough. The sixteen megapixel camera failed to capture the scene accurately but with its faint impression my memory filled the void and with it I became confident that work towards my art major could soon commence.

At around lunch time I took my final few snaps but as I viewed the display screen I halted. I know that girl.

Running across the park, camera hanging from my neck, I approached the red-head's flank but hung back from her field of vision. In mine she was hunched over on all fours, fists ploughing into the ground. Right, left, right she was striking. It was soft grass that her knuckles fell into but as she pulled each back I did not miss the red coating them.

"Stop, stop it!" I yelled as I ran the small remaining distance and pulled at the latest arm attempting to collide with the ground.

Fist still tense but not fighting my resistance the girl turned her head around to view me with disdain. "What's your problem? Why the hell are you here!?"

"Vanessa, please stop hurting yourself!"

The girl raised her eyebrows as she gazed upon the fist I had caught in my hands. "You know us daevas don't feel pain like humans. Even if we bleed, so long as our emotions aren't involved, then we don't feel it."

"Then..." I suggested meekly. "If it doesn't hurt why are you crying?"

The teen snapped her hand free of mine quickly. "I didn't say it didn't hurt. All I said was that it's different." In front of her she stared at her clenched bloodied hands. "You know, a daeva's pain receptors are a lot smarter than a human's. A human will feel pain any time their body is injured, even if it is for their own good, but a daeva, we only feel pain when we know we should. We only feel it when it hurts inside. We only feel pain when we deserve it."

Quickly I turned to my backpack and pulled out a couple of bandaids. With a peel and a tender touch I placed two on each fist, all paling to what was needed. When I was done I smiled meekly up at the eleventh grader.

She returned with raised-eyebrow hostility. "You know we have heightened healing capabilities. Maybe you don't, you only have the eyes because of the seed but otherwise you are still very human."

"Oh... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be a nuisance..."

Vanessa rolled her eyes. "I get what you're trying to do but you should just give up, it's useless. Any compassion you have, any sympathy, direct it away from daevas because it'll only end up giving you despair. If you don't protect yourself now then I promise you'll experience pain like you never could have as a human."

Her words were coarse and hostile but because I recognised them as a frail membrane to sorrow beneath them I lingered there and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. Under it she quivered before finally pounding her fist once more to the ground.

"It's just..." with a broken voice she continued. "It's just so not far! We've lost so many already! When my sister died I thought I did with her, I thought that I could never feel despair like that again since I hardly even recognised myself as me. There were a couple of others between, I felt sad but I still managed, I still kept walking, but when it came to her..."

"Your sister?" I repeated, curiosity piqued by the hanging thread despite its impropriety. "She passed away?"

Vanessa scoffed dryly. "Passed away, what total crap that term is. Makes it sound as if she died like an old lady in her sleep. No, it was worse than that, she... disappeared."

Frowning I responded, "I've heard you daevas saying that a bit. That when one of you dies she disappears but... I don't really get it. I'm really sorry to hear about your sister and I hope I'm not horribly rude by asking this but, if it's okay, do you mind explaining that to me?"

The girl raised her head and surveyed the park's track before finishing with a shrug. "Whatever, my workouts done. It's not like it's gonna make me any stronger. Disappearing, "she relented void of expression, "is what happens to a daeva when she dies. A chrysalis forms, hardens the whole body into crystal before it shatters and the girl literally disappears forever. They're gone, dead. No matter what you think, despite what you want to believe, that girl ceases to exist and if anything is left behind it is just emptiness."

I breathed in and out steadily as I persevered through her frightening words. "You're very sad."

Vanessa reclenched her fist as she turned her anger towards me. "What do you know about sadness!? What gives you the right to judge me!? Yeah, I've been through hell, but why do you think you get to decide that!? Why are you even here? Why are you sitting next to me, putting bandaids on my hands? Why do you act like you ever care!?"

"Because..." I recoiled slightly. "Because I can see it, you're hurting so much. I can see it under those bandaids, I can see it in your expression and then... I see it on your legs where the black crystals are."

Vanessa glared at me venomously. "You know that you're doomed, right? Your fate is sealed just with the rest of us. Your seed mightn't have flowered yet but it's still inside you, still waiting for its sprouting. And it's only a matter of time before something shakes your core enough to have it spring to life. You don't realise it yet, but you're just as much racing against the clock as the rest of us."

I couldn't respond straight away. Heart hammering in my chest and the world becoming cloudy all I could do was stay seated in the position I was in. I couldn't even give credit to her words, not when the weight would have surely crushed me.

Vanessa smirked at my reaction. "Raziel fooled you just as he did the rest of us, just as he did to her. In the end, you're either evil or dead, there's no in between."

"There isn't?" I questioned as a chill ran down my spine. "So you're saying that, everyone who's good is... destined to die?"

Vanessa shook her head. "I was right, you are a little princess! Princess Polly! You think the world is all just rainbows and ponies, don't you? Well news flash, girl, people die and the best of them - they die first!"

"No..." I murmured. "No, I don't believe that!"

"You obviously don't know yet, do you? Your little sword-friend hasn't told you..."

"Sword friend?" I echoed. "You mean Bethanie? Why, she tells me everything! Unless... unless something has just happened. Has something just happened?"

"Ding ding ding!" Vanessa sounded. "Give her a prize, it seems Polly Pocket isn't a total princess after all!"

"Hey!" I protested. "Quit making fun of me and just say what you're thinking already!"

"Well maybe I don't wanna say what I'm thinking. Maybe doing so will..." Her voice broke. "It will..." Then her eyes suddenly widened before furtively flicking in a distant direction. With a contrasting even voice she murmured, "There's a lot of aura being drained nearby."

"Aura?" I gasped. "Does that mean that...?"

"That's right." Vanessa finished for me without hesitation. "Soul energy is being consumed from the Earth as well as from people. And by the quantity of it, I'd say there's at least a handful of shades located together and once there's a few of them then there's enough to take the lot."

"You mean?" I gulped. "Enough to kill people?"

"Yeah, kill them but more importantly, consume their diamond cores. That would leave nothing at all."

"No!" I shouted. "No, we have to help them!"

"We?" She repeated condescendingly. "And how can a... pre-green daeva possibly help?"

"I... I..." I started to answer without a retort in sight.

"Idiot! Why are you putting yourself through all this!? Just run home and hide under your bed covers! That's all you can do, it's the only way you can protect yourself."

"No!" I refuted. "I... I know I'm not strong, or very clever, or very good at much besides maybe my art, but still... even knowing all that, even being limited as I am, I promise, I'm not going to run away! I won't hide my head in the sand. Even if I can't fight I'll still try! Somehow, as long as I try I know that I can make a difference! And I won't give up on people, no matter who or what they are, I won't ever let them suffer!"

Vanessa's eyes narrowed. "I should kill you now, it'd be kinder I think, than to let you suffer what's to come." But then her hostility diminished slightly with her sigh. Rising to her feet she turned her eyes away. "Well alright then, Polly Pocket, if you wanna die so bad then I won't stop you. I'll go check out that vacuumed aura area and since you sound like you're gonna come then, just don't slow me down."

"Really!?" I exclaimed happily. "You'll let me come with you!?"

"I don't want you to but I'm hardly going to attack you to stop you..."

"Oh, thank you, Vanessa!" I cried as I threw myself about her. "I promise I won't get in the way!"

"You're in the way now..." She muttered.

With a gasp I tore myself away. "Right, I'm sorry..."

The corner of Vanessa's mouth lifted. "It's fine, just don't do it again."

"Yes, I promise I won't!"

As she rose to her feet and offered me a hand up I noticed that the same lopsided smile had yet to fade.

I accepted her help and with a small canter followed her away from the park and back onto the roads' adjacent footpaths. After a couple of minutes I called out breathily, "It's the plaza! People are being hurt there?"

"You tell me, you've got the same eyes as me." Vanessa directed.

We reached the hill where down the road the small shopping district became visible. There wasn't a lot there, a few restaurants on the outside, the cinema, a florist, then a passage to enter inside the plaza that housed less than a dozen shops, the arcade and a food court. The place was so small that it didn't even have its own designated car park, just those by the road-side. But it was a quaint shopping centre, its main appeal given by the lush green surroundings. Today however it appeared washed-out and grey. Part of it could have been because of the overcast overhead remaining after the prior rain. That would have surely muted things, but not so much to a daeva. To my eyes it should have still been sparkling because its soul energy would continue to shine no matter what the weather was doing, but it seemed that particular life-force was being eaten away.

"They're inside, aren't they?" I asked as our feet fell onto the cobbled surface the path transitioned into.

"Yeah and to do this kind of damage that means there's a lot of them. Watch out, these guys have brains so stay smart."

"They have brains?" I asked with surprise.

"I dunno, probably not but they got something like it. They think, that's all I know but that's all they need to be a danger. Just lay low okay. Better yet,