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

potential and then even so they must accept it willingly. It is the only way the transformation seed will sprout. It no easy contract for anyone to enter, so I understand if you need more time to think, but know this, the power of an daeva can save the ones you love and if you command it to its ultimate ability you will be able to save a person from certain death."

I gasped as I turned back to look at him. He was serious, his brilliant eyes twinkling and imparting so many connotations with that last statement. In the end, I realised that my internal debating hinged on such a possibility which meant my answer became crystal clear.

"That's the truth?" I asked. "If I gain the power of a daeva I can stop someone I love from dying, even if all hope is lost?"

Slowly he nodded down and then back up.

I grinned. "Then what are we waiting for, give me the paper to sign my life away on already!"

Raziel smiled. "I'm glad to see your enthusiasm but a written contract is not the way this one works. It is a contract because you must agree and accept the terms, but asides from that it is finalised very differently." Then he brought a pale hand up to his mouth and pressed a finger to an upper canine. When I saw something start to dribble from the point of contact I inhaled sharply.

"What are you doing? You just cut yourself!"

But Raziel was unperturbed, he just shifted his hand out in front of him where that substance rested on his fingertip. But what he exposed was not what I expected at all. The extrusion didn't trickle like blood did but remained raised and circular, unmoving and unswelling and completely firm, like a solid.

Of course, it could have just coagulated very quickly, but another facet showed its unnaturalness, the colour was jet black. A stark contrast to the white skin it was raised on.

"This," he explained, "is a seed from my body. If you accept it then it will begin to sprout and spark the transformation within your core. Then you'll evolve into a greater being, one that is not limited to the laws of this world and allowed the same freedom that is given to darkness. You can mix the possibility of dark, with the reality of light and achieve so much more than you ever dreamed. But again, I warn you, this is not an easy path to tread. To do so you must be certain. You must understand the difficulties you'll face, the pain you'll face." He raised the hand holding the firm black droplet. "This too is difficult for one to bear, the transformation will hurt. You may want to resist it and that will stop the pain but if you do that will destroy the seed and it will end in a failure. To gain this power you must be willing to endure the darkness taking root inside. It's not pleasant I'm afraid, but it is the only way."

I looked at the small dark spot, then gazed all about me and up into the sky. It was darkening now, oranges and deeper blues entered the scene but there was still plenty of light to reflect off the clearing's surroundings, off Raziel's skin and my own. However, that small spot reflected nothing at all. So purely dark and unchanging that it could not even be perceived as the sphere I knew it was, but just a raised splotch on his finger.

I was still scared, still a meek little girl but I had courage enough to grasp his hand then. I continued to look at it, daringly so, as if waiting for it to make its move first. And it seemed it did since the bearer moved across the gap and pointed his hand right up toward my face. As I felt his gravity my low jaw opened automatically where a single finger slipped inside my mouth. I gulped the innocuous seed at once.

After that Raziel pulled away and smiled indulgently. "Well you did that more enthusiastically than I expected."

It took me a few moments but then I realised the horrifying pseudo-meaning behind all that and suddenly felt as if I had been deflowered.

"Hey!" I protested tensely. "What was that all about?!"

Frustratingly it appeared as if Raziel was about to roll his eyes. "It was just a seed, like swallowing a seed from a passionfruit."

"Yeah, I got that part." I replied hotly. "And I've got news for you, forcing a girl to take your seed is not just rude, but also sexual assault! You could go to jail for that buddy!"

"Get your head out of the gutter, it's just the way the contract is presented to your body." He actually did roll his eyes then. "I swear, you're the first girl that's acted this childish."

I blushed bright red, at first from anger then embarrassment - he was right, I was making childish insinuations amidst a situation that was far beyond. I blamed my brothers then for traumatising my youthful mind.

"Um..." I murmured. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I guess I just don't know how to react to all this."

Raziel closed his eyes as he answered. "Well, I would recommend that you act with the same determination you showed me just before because things are about to hurt."

"What?" I was about to finish with do you mean but just then his silver eyes snapped back open and I was thrust into another world.

-

Down in my lower abdomen I felt the most intense clawing. Something had found its way there and like a blade sliced all through the region. I had felt pain in this area before, I realised, and on numerous occasions, but never so bad, never quite like I was being destroyed from the inside.

No! I screamed internally, let go of me!

And just then I felt that force weaken its hold and the pain instantly diminished.

Then I remembered what Raziel had said, that I needed to accept what was coming in order to transform. That was the way this particular contract was formed.

Fine then, I told the small force that was located in my lower torso, take root and sprout. I won't resist. The pain you dole I'll take, I'll take all of it so long as you fulfil your end of the bargain and give me power.

And it reacted just as I willed it, that seed had floated inside and grasped at the internal walls of my being. With razor hooks it anchored into me, causing me to scream out loud. Then another projection happened and with an emptying invading sensation feeling I gasped. The world was still around me, that beautiful young man still in front of me but it and he all looked so very different. Just then everything was thrown into shades of grey and as I looked down at my abdomen, hands pressed at it desperately, I saw a colour release. Red gas emptied into the grey world as some searing unseen limb penetrated further. Finally this sharpness spread from my core and into every section of my body so that I screamed with the pain. And still, despite all that I managed not to fight it but let the waves of agony wash over me. It was the price of power, the contract that I entered and the pain was my signature.

It was horrid, but in the very least I could say that it was a climax for then the grey in my vision shimmered into white before disintegrating into black. And then I detected that seed had settled its position within me and my agony was over.

It was only when I opened my eyes that I realised that they had closed and I was frowning. But as soon as I saw the world again that frown turned upside down.

"What... is this?" I asked, elated. "What am I seeing!?"

"You're just witnessing the world, Bethanie, for what it truly is. A splendour that can only be seen by a being that does not truly exist amongst it."

"But how?" I almost giggled. "How could I have been blind to this for so long?"

The sun had just reached the horizon there, some way off to the west, veiled by a heavy shroud of trees and land beyond but it wasn't completely hidden for colour poured through the sky over it. Oranges, pinks and blues set the usual backdrop but over it intense reds, greens, yellows and purples rushed through, wiggling and fraying through the sky. It appeared that the setting sun was not just producing rays of light, but rivers of them that moved with tremendous speed. I remembered seeing this on a documentary before where they called this flowing force the Aurora borealis or Aurora australis, each only capable of arising in the north or south poles respectively. But somehow it was happening here, in a sky not yet dark.

"You couldn't sense unfocused auras before so you could never see the soul of sun interact with the soul of the world." Raziel explained. "Both are normally white in appearance but when they collide they produce the most amazing colours. Of course they always interact during the day, but it is at sunrise and sunset that a greater quantity of these can be perceived and so you have this wonderful sky display in the sky with every dawn and every dusk."

The awe did not stop there however, for when I lowered my eyes a fraction I saw these particles that he was talking about, small spots of white light sparkling as they floated through the air. And then the trees and grass as well each carried with it a glow that brought out their natural colours with lustrous potency. Even when I looked down at my own hands I saw my skin shimmer as if my flesh was a fabric woven by tiny diamonds.

"It's like I've stepped into a painting, only everything is so clear and full of detail." I breathed. "It's all real though, I know it is, only I can see it now, like my eyes have suddenly switched to high definition."

"Eyes of light can only allow in light that is brighter than their own, but eyes that have a little bit of darkness inside will absorb more and therefore reveal greater truths to the world you live in. And the rest of your body is now the same way, with greater darkness you can absorb much more of this universe's light, so much so that you can condense it and use it as a weapon."

I remembered that brilliant bow of light Ariel carried then and the arrows that destroyed the dark creatures with ease.

"Well then," I smiled excitedly, "time to get to work."

Chapter 5

Abigail

 

"Did you have any classes with the new girl?" Amy enquired excitedly as she sat to my left on the art bench but then kept rattling on so fast I never had a chance to respond. "I did, she was in my drama class. You should have seen her, she was so good! So emotional and powerful. She just got right into the scene we had to play, not embarrassed at all that she was a warrior