Ancient Mystic's War of the Realms Saga, Lady Adellandra Dratianos [reading tree .TXT] 📗

hard breaking the news.
Orthos sensed his son standing in the doorway. “Come in, Damian. Come in.”
Bowing like a good servant, Damian didn’t meet his father’s eyes. “I lost it, Father.”
Orthos’ happy exterior turned awful, and his form turned from a human to a centaur. “You what?!”
“I lost the Black-as-Night Crystal.” Damian supplied, standing.
“Who took it from you?” Orthos demanded, making Damian step back.
“The – the – the Ancient Mystics.” Damian spat. “Young Guardian and her sisters.”
“Go on,” Orthos growled.
“Katherine was with them when I used the Crystal to transport them to the Abyss.”
“Why the Abyss?” Orthos asked.
“That’s where the Ancient Mystic Claudia banished her to when Sabrina tried for a Dreamer’s mind.” Damian explained.
“So – tell me what happened!” Orthos growled. “How could you lose such a priceless gem?”
“They did something to it, returning each of their sister’s powers to them.” Damian said. “They called a spell not even I knew, making it levitate in the air. The power from it sent us home.”
Gloriana shook her head. “Have you seen your sister since then?”
“Nay, why?”
“She’s not here, Damian.” Orthos replied. He returned to his human Wizard form, staring into his cauldron.
“What devious plan are you thinking of my lord and love?” Gloriana sneered, watching both Orthos and the cauldron’s image.
Damian was curious, too. “Whatever it is, I want in.”
Orthos shook his head. “No, not this time.” He said. “This time, it’s personal.” He turned to his new mate and son. “Both of you, leave. I have to prepare.”
“But –” Gloriana began.
“I said LEAVE!” Orthos roared in his dragon’s tone. “NOW!”
“Yes, Master.”
“As you wish, Father.”
Looking at each other, they obeyed.
“This is plain humiliating!” Orthos cried into the air. “Must it always be my brother and his stupid followers? How dare a child like the Young Guardian make a fool of me? I must think of something so terrible, not even she will get out of it alive!”
He laughed out loud.
“At least, not with her sanity!”
His eyes glowed, searching his lab. “How can I finally defeat the Ancient Mystics? Come on, think! Surely –” He cut off his own sentence, letting out a soft. “Perfect.”
From the corner of his eye, he saw his Spell-book leaning against an antique vase. Both the Spell-book and the vase gave him an idea. He grabbed both, setting them on the table in the middle of the room. He opened the book and flipped through it, searching for the perfect spell. The perfect words to call upon the Djinn.
Like the genies of Arabian myth, the Djinn could grant wishes. The Djinn work in ways unlike the Arabian genies. Instead of just granting three wishes, the Djinn feed on the hidden desires of their victims, using them. Once the victim was in their spell, they were slowly driven insane. It was a kind of Dark Magic Orthos loved to surround himself with.
Orthos set the vase on the table in front of his Spell-book. Staring at it, he raised his hands and called the spell in the Ancient Wizard’s tongue.
A silver mist leaked from the vase, slowly filling the room. Orthos had to step back in awe. He’d forgotten the famous Djinn entrance was so . . . smoky. It was meant to amaze and captivate, impressing those who called upon them. Once the air cleared, a man in a burnoose, golden armbands and black hair tied up in a horse’s tail held together by various colored wire stood in front of Orthos. In every aspect, he looked like an Arabian genie.
Of course, that was intentional, meant to fool. Orthos wasn’t fooled one bit. He recognized the Djinn god Omri, smiling at himself. He’d called upon the greatest of the Djinn.
“Your wishes are always my command, Master Orthos of the Dominion.” Djinn Omri made an attempt to bow.
“Look around you, Omri.” Orthos commanded, waving around him. “I am no longer Master of the Dominion, for that Realm no longer stands tall as it once did. I now rule over my Dominionites here in the Unknown.”
“Who was fool enough to Exile you?” Omri laughed.
“My own brother O’Dell.” Orthos growled.
“I see, brother against brother, as it always has been for centuries.” Omri smiled. “Tell me, what do you wish of me? Shall I bring the Djinn High Council together against him?”
Orthos shook his head. “Nay, not yet. I want him to think he has won against me for a while longer. Nay, what I want are the Earthbound Ancient Mystics.”
Omri’s grin widened. “Which of them and why?”
Orthos told him about the Crusades, O’Dell’s team of Crusader misfits, and how he’d gone as far as turning back time in hopes of ridding himself of the Crusaders.
Djinn Omri was impressed. “You say these Earthbound Ancient Mystics will try anything to defeat you for good?”
“Aye.”
“It would be hard to concentrate if they had, shall we say, other things on their minds?” Djinn Omri folded his arms and laughed heartily.
Orthos had an idea what the Djinn god was going to do. “Waste no time. I want them out of my way. Then, it will be between O’Dell and myself once again.”
With a wink and a nod, Djinn Omri disappeared, leaving Orthos alone in his cavern once again. He waved a hand to make the vase and Spell-book return to their rightful places on the highest shelf.
With a final laugh, he thought. The fun has just begun.

Gloriana watched him disappear. Orthos didn’t know she was listening in to their conversation. She wanted in on it, but for a different reason. She wanted to show him how disastrous she’d become since the Wars for Power. She looked it over once again. This time, a little closer.
It looked similar to the one he had in the Dominion, but this one was bigger. Darker. Better.
She got an idea.
Making sure no one was around, she went inside to explore. She passed bottles of potions, quills, parchment papers, books on the dead, books on the living, and even books on bringing the dead back to life. Her eyes spotted something in the corner on a shelf. Gloriana smiled to herself, taking the book down.
“If Orthos can call on the Djinn, I can do some damage as well.” Gloriana whispered to herself. She flipped through the thick book with ratted pages and Dark Magic spells of every kind.
It was Orthos’ Spell-book.
“Show me the right spell, the right incantation.”
There were spells for the most disastrous of works, but she didn’t want them. She wanted one especially for the Dream Realm, and going back. “Where is it?” She muttered under her breath. “I know you have it in here. If Sabrina used it, surely –.”
That’s when she spotted it. She put the book down on the nearest table, reaching for a feather quill and parchment.
“Perfect.” Gloriana said as she folded the parchment of paper and put it down her blouse. “Now to have some fun of my own.”

II

Something told Ariana she wasn’t finished seeing Gloriana, the new Queen of the Unknown. Whatever told her that, it was right. This time, she wasn’t going down without a fight. She was prepared for anything Gloriana had to throw at her. Nothing was going to stop her from making the Dominionite pay for messing with them.
Nothing that is, but her own mind.

On a night like any other, Ariana began by patrolling the Dream Realm. She happened to come upon a little girl, sitting on a rock by a lake. When Ariana went up to her, she could hear the little girl singing to herself.

“Love me tender, love me true, never let me go
“Aaron, how I have loved you, but I can’t let you know.”

It was a short tune, reminiscent of Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender.”
Ariana went over to investigate. Something was suspicious about this pretty little girl.
“Hello, little one.” Ariana said softly.
The little girl ignored her. Close up, Ariana could see the red-blond curls in the little girl’s hair. There was a sparkle to the child’s eyes when she looked. A silver-blue sparkle.
The girl was playing with the petals of a rose, making them move around her by staring at them.
“Little one?” Ariana tried again. This time, the girl turned to see her.
“Hello. Would you like to play with me?”
That voice sounded vaguely familiar. Was it her own, or Luna’s?
“Sure. What are you playing?”
“I’m playing a game.” The girl said. “Do you know how to play?”
“I don’t think so. Can you teach me?”
The girl smiled, taking her hand. “I can teach you anything, Ariana Moon.”
Ariana stepped back from the girl. “How do you know my name?”
Ariana was shocked. The little girl shifted her form, and turned into an older woman she met recently.
The Dominionite Gloriana, with her long black hair and perfect curves, was the epitome of evil. She wore a revealing leather skirt and red shirt that showed her cleavage. Her eyes were pitch-black and she had seductive-red lipstick on her lips.
“My dear, we have met before.” Gloriana began.
“How did you get back?” Ariana asked.
“Thank Sabrina. She gave me the spell, in a way.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Only you. You see, the Ancient Mystics have been making my Lord Master very angry.” Gloriana responded. “If I rid myself of you, Lord Master will be happy again.”
“Tough nuggets, Gloriana. Whatever you or even Orthos has planned, you better think twice before messing with us. Haven’t you learned we can’t be defeated?”
Gloriana shrugged her shoulders, waving it off. “Were you not wondering why I was singing that song?”
“Why should I care?”
“Because in your heart, you have a deep desire for someone that cannot have you.” Gloriana supplied. “Sure, Protector Derrick is sworn as your love and husband for all time, but Aaron. Aaron’s a different story.”
Ariana was silent and let her continue.
“Aaron has been in love with you since you met two decades ago. Would it not be nice if you could give in to the feelings you have for him without feeling you are betraying your husband?”
“I don’t have any feelings left for him but best friendship. He knows that.”
“Is it not true he has been there for you through thick and thin? Against Dominionites and nightmares? Protecting you from the awful orphanage master when you were in trouble?”
“Yes, it’s true, okay?” Ariana remarked, wiping a tear from her eye. Just thinking of her days in the orphanage made her heart wrench with feeling and love.
“Ah, but that friendship was only the beginning.” Gloriana continued. “Think back to your own feelings for him when you were barely teenagers. Forget you ever had an Imaginary Romeo to warm your thoughts. Just focus on Aaron Theodore, and the love you had for him. How much fun it was to defy everything you had ever known and just go for it. You let your feelings show just one time and what happened? Destiny kicked in and you became pregnant with the Enchanted Child. What had you felt when you found out? Hope? Love? What was it that made you want to run away from Aaron and his love?”
“If I stayed, I would have denied myself and the baby that chance at a better life. Nothing good would have ever happened to us. We’d be stuck as orphans, unloved and unwanted, fit for slaves.”
“What about Aaron? He would not have felt so alone and heartbroken all the years he was without you. Have you ever blamed yourself for that?”
“Every day of