Chapter Sixteen

The Grey Should Never Bury The Fair

The nurse led Savannah and Lauren onto the trauma ward. There were several bays, each with six beds, occupied by injured people in various stages of recovery. Savannah noticed a heavily bandaged man who appeared mummified, a teenage boy around her age looking worse for wear with a chest drain full of blood protruding from his side, another man with his leg in a casket and a face smattered with angry, purple bruises among several others, none of whom appeared healthy in the slightest.

‘Here we are,’ the nurse announced in that nasal voice of hers. ‘Let me know if you need anything.’ She hurried off to consult with a doctor outside of the bay.

Alexis was located in the bay at the very end of the ward. Of the six beds, only one aside from Alexis’s was occupied. This was by an old lady staring out of the window who, in Savannah’s non-medical opinion, did not appear particularly lucid.

Savannah turned her gaze to Alexis, who, in stark contrast, looked alert and present. The image of her lying on the road next to Theo, a thin trickle of blood flowing from her mouth, filled Savannah’s head. She banished it, allowing the warm embrace of relief to wash over her instead.

‘Alex,’ Savannah breathed, the tears coming instantaneously. She and Lauren darted over to her and perched themselves on the edge of Alexis’s bed.

‘You fuckin’ wimp,’ Alexis laughed, pointing at Savannah. ‘Why are you crying? I’m fine!’

Her eyes sparkled with their usual vigour and humour, though her skin matched the white of the bedsheets she was prostrated on. Savannah examined her arms and neck - they weren’t even bruised.

‘I know, but the point remains, you shouldn’t be! How did- the nurse said you had- god, I can’t remember the medical terminology, but she said you should be dead!’

Alexis lit up with a grin. ‘Yeah, but, as you can see, I’m not. Ain’t no car crash gonna be the death of me. I’m here to be a pain in your arse for a long while yet, big sis.’

Lauren laughed and Savannah had to smile. ‘Well… I’m certainly glad of that.’

‘You won’t be for long,’ she smirked. ‘I don’t know how it happened. The nurses keep calling it a ‘miracle’, but they’re not a thing. It’d be like saying ‘God is real’. Last thing I remember was crossing the road… then everything went black. I woke up an hour ago, absolutely fine. I could do with a nap, not gonna lie, but other than that, I’m all good to go. What happened?’

‘The nurses haven’t told you?’

Alexis shook her head. Savannah and Lauren glanced at one another.

‘You and Theo were crossing the road,’ Lauren said, scratching her eyebrow. ‘And a jeep came around the bend at a ridiculous speed, crashing into you and Theo. When we got to you seconds later, you-’

‘Wait,’ Alexis sat bolt upright. ‘Theo too?! Where is he?! How is he?!’

Lauren’s hand shook. Savannah looked away, unable to say the words.

‘Alex… he was killed by the impact,’ Lauren eyed the ground.

‘NURSE!’ Alexis yelled. The nurse scurried over. ‘Take me to see my brother.’

‘Alexis, you need to rest-’

‘No, I don’t CARE!’ Alexis screamed. She shot out of her bed and right into the nurse’s face, her eyes blazing. Her voice shaking with cold fury, she commanded, ‘take me to my brother. Now.’

*

Theo’s unmoving body lay in an unoccupied bay. The hospital staff had righted him so his limbs were in a normal position; even so, there was no doubt he’d passed. His skin was grey and mottled with purple bruising. There was no rise and fall to his chest, no sound nor jerk escaped him. Nor would it do so again.

The nurse, unwilling to leave the girls on their own, stood at the door while they spoke meaningless words to Theo.

‘Theo?’ came a small, broken voice from the corridor.

‘You can’t be in here, miss,’ the nurse said, turning and blocking the door.

‘That’s… that’s my son. You let me see him now,’ Lyra said. Her appearance was rivalled Theo’s - her skin was a mismatch of white, purple, and red; her eyes were ajar, not open; each movement looked like it would be her last; her chest heaved and juddered with each shallow, uneven breath. The nurse moved away and Savannah, Alexis, and Lauren retreated, allowing Lyra unfettered access to her youngest child.

The howl she let out as she sank to her knees beside Theo’s bed shook the girls and nurse, to their cores, invoking a primal fear within them. The sound was preternatural… none of Savannah’s experiences shook her as much as this one. She’d never heard a more devastating and harrowing sound; of a mother who had just lost her child.

It was against the natural order; a parent should never have to bury their child. Becoming a vilomah was not how Lyra had expected her life to go, yet so it proved. No sound could come close to being more crucifying in its power.

Lyra caressed Theo’s cheeks the same way she had when he had come into this world. She rose off the floor, perched herself beside him, and cradled him in her arms.

‘Girls,’ Aaron appeared in the doorway this time, his voice a breath, his face reddened and downcast. He gestured at Savannah, Lauren, and Alexis to leave the room. With one final glance at the tragic scene before them, they did so, closing the door behind them. They walked Alexis back to her hospital bed, where she slipped in without another word.

Lauren rubbed her face and turned to Savannah. ‘Come on, there’s a coffee shop not far from where we are. Let’s go and get a drink.’

They left Aaron and Alexis and walked arm in arm, both spent for energy.

By this point, it was 11 pm and the wards were desolate, the only signs of movement coming from themselves and a couple of nurses pottering about. They turned left off the ward onto the white, winding, empty corridor.

‘Savannah… I know this is so hard, but…’

‘What?’ Savannah looked at her, her eyes puffy and voice broken.

‘When we’re out of here, you and I need to have a conversation. There’s somewhere I need to take you… something I need to show you.’

Savannah lacked the motivation to be inquisitive. ‘Fine.’

*

Savannah and Lauren made it back to the Glasco-Mason home at 4 am after hailing a taxi. Aaron refused to leave Alexis, and Lyra refused to leave Theo, so the pair had elected to call it a night and try to get some sleep - neither expected to get anything in that regard.

Savannah drifted off into a fitful slumber; Lauren remained in the bed on her phone. When Savannah woke at midday, Lauren was sitting upright, her face screwed up in intense thought.

‘Lauren…’ she murmured. ‘What did you want to talk about?’

She sighed in response. ‘I had hoped it would never come to this… I’d hoped you’d be permitted an ordinary life... but… get dressed. We’ve got to sort this now. There’s no point keeping it from you anymore. I thought… with Jeremy, after Katerina… I thought that was innocuous and the traumas had just… shaken something loose, but…’ She shook her head.

Savannah pushed herself up onto her elbows. ‘Lauren, what are you on about? You’re scaring me.’

Lauren jumped off the bed. ‘Sorry, I don’t mean to do that… but… just get up. Have a shower, get dressed, and… I’ll explain everything.’

Savannah frowned, but did as she was told. Her shower took longer than normal - encompassed by loss and the relentless barrage of grief-stricken ruminations, she could have stayed under the powerful, scorching jet for eternity. At least nothing dreadful could happen there. At least, in that environment, she was safe from those that would take what was dearest to her.

An hour later, Savannah was dressed and meandered into the living room. She hadn’t bothered to apply makeup - what was the point? Let the world see the pain she was in and maybe it would stop putting her in that position. Besides, getting out of bed had taken everything out of her, never mind the additional, mind-numbing task of putting it on.

‘Right, what’s going on?’

Lauren, as immaculate as ever, stood in front of her, picking at her cuticles. ‘Oof… how to begin… this will seem... insane - I know, I’ve been there. A long time ago, granted... but even then it was a hell of a lot to take in and… I know exactly how you’re going to take this because when I was introduced to this, I was also in the throes of trauma and grief, but… just trust me, okay?’

‘Lauren, you’re scaring me again.’

‘Do you trust me?’

‘Yes.’

Lauren gave a grim smile. Her shoulders heaved and she let out a hefty sigh. ‘Here goes.’

Lauren placed her hands in Savannah’s and the world disappeared. The walls of Savannah’s living room vanished, the photos of her brothers and sister with them, along with the sofas and all other appliances in the room. In the blink of an eye, everything from Savannah’s world, everything she was familiar with, faded and was replaced with a large expanse of open fields.

Beyond those was a monolithic, snow-capped mountain range directly ahead. Not as far away, but in the same direction, were ten elongated wooden buildings in the design of cabins but with the enormity and grandeur of palaces grouped together around a cobbled plaza, in the centre of which a massive firepit emitted a bathing glow of orange. Off to the left was a forest with what appeared to be no end, and to the right was a sea with a glorious, white-sand beach and a captivating sunset on the horizon; the blood-red sun cast magnificent champagne, orange, and violet rays in the clouds and strips in the sky, basking the land in a red-orange glow.

Not that Savannah noticed all too much, being too consumed with lurching out of Lauren’s grip. ‘What the fuck?! What just happened?!’ she cried, wide eyes darting around the fresh scenery. Her hand slapped to her stomach, her guts threatening to eject themselves.

‘You just teleported, basically,’ Lauren said, nonchalant. ‘Just take a moment - you’ll calm down quickly. It’s rather jarring doing it the first few times.’

‘You could have warned me! How the fuck did you do that?!’

‘No, I couldn’t. Had I warned you, you wouldn’t have believed me, would you? As for how I did it… well, that’s simple. Magic.’

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Savannah scoffed and held her hand out between herself and Lauren, backing away. ‘Wha- no, don’t even go there. Magic doesn’t exist. We had this discussion.’

‘Yeah, it does, actually. You’ll believe me more as we go on, don’t worry. First point of lesson number one - magic is real.’

Savannah exploded into harsh, manic laughter. ‘Don’t act so casual! What the fuck is going on?! Where the fuck are we?!’

‘Ah… look, just calm first. Let’s go sit down inside.’ She gestured behind Savannah, who turned.

Before them was a colossal, wrought-iron gate, accompanied by a fence of the same material which encircled the land from where they stood to the edge of the cliff. This cliff was a sheer, unprotected drop into the sea below.

Beyond the gate was more grassland, intersected by a white-gravel drive which led up to a mammoth of a mansion. Constructed from marble, it stood haughty at the edge of the cliff. To the left was a garden and orchard filled with reds, purples, yellows and blues.

Lauren strode past Savannah up the drive. Savannah, still reeling but with no way out of her current predicament, hurried after her. A million questions rocketed around her mind.

‘Where are we?!’

‘We, my dearest friend, are on Archaic.’

‘That hardly answers-’

Savannah stopped, noticing a group of four approaching. Two were clothed in extravagant, red, black, and gold armour, the other two in simpler armour of boiled leather. Swords and daggers swung at their sides. That in itself was enough to grab her attention, but Savannah was hit with something more striking - these people weren’t all human.

At the front of the group was a woman who looked no older than Savannah. Her hair was black, her face was chiselled, her eyes (a devastating blue) were laser-focused and observant… and she had two black wings protruding from her shoulder blades.

Two of the group were oaken-skinned, brown-eyed, and owned brown hair braided around twigs that seemed to grow out of their skulls. The fourth figure was human, causing Savannah further problems - the presence of a human affirmed that she wasn’t hallucinating.

This particular human was inconsistent with all others she’d met. Her chalk-white skin glowed, her golden eyes reflected the light in the sky, and her features were sharpened.

The group passed beyond Savannah and Lauren, nodding at the latter. All ignored Savannah, except for the woman with the wings. She fixed her narrowed eyes on Savannah, scanning her with distrust.

Savannah grabbed Lauren’s arm but was unable to tear her focus away from the creatures. ‘Lau- what the fuck are they?’

‘Shh!’ Lauren put her hands on Savannah and whipped her head around. ‘Don’t talk about them like that! They’re part of this world, the same as you or I, and as such deserve the same respect! Come on, inside.’

They’d reached the front doors, made of reinforced, solid steel several inches thick. Two guards, in armoured, white bodysuits, wrenched open the cumbersome entrance. Savannah passed through behind Lauren, gawking at the guards, who were again humanoid, but grey-skinned and lifeless. They possessed an air of grace, standing straight-backed yet weightless, but there was something overall off about them. Their stares were dull, and their faces grey and seemingly bloodless. Long, silver hair flowed from their skulls, though it was limp and dry. That being said, their muscled bodies possessed serious strength, and the broadswords strapped to their backs - though they gleamed as if they had never been swung in battle - were huge and threatening enough to make up for the creatures’ lifelessness.

The pair entered into a cavernous hallway the size of Savannah’s whole home. A resplendent, crystal chandelier hanging in the ceiling attracted her attention. The floors, similar to the building’s exterior, were made of solid marble. Lining the walls were paintings depicting various scenes (some horrific and graphic - one showed another strange being beheading one of its brethren with a sadistic grin). Seven intricate suits of armour stood on plinths around the hallway.

Lauren followed Savannah’s eye line. ‘I know what you’re thinking. A lot of this is very strange to a new eye…’ She strolled over to a painting of a solar system in its destruction, caressing it. ‘It gets lost on me sometimes… just how wonderful this all is… anyway,’ she removed herself from the painting and directed Savannah off to their left into the next room.

‘I appreciate this place is… quite something,’ Lauren smiled. They passed two more guards into a living room the size of the main hall in their school. There was a wide assortment of pendants, rings, weapons, and other memorabilia in display cases. Crocodile leather sofas and armchairs encircled a wide, open fire pit.

Mirrors on the wall reflected them and their surroundings, yet the majority of the room’s wall space was taken up by more bizarre artwork.

Two additional guards were positioned at a stained-glass double door at the far end of the living room, which led off to god knew where.

Lauren gestured to the nearest sofa. ‘Can I get you anything to drink?’

Savannah, quivering, took her seat. ‘I’d rather you just explained what was going on, to be honest.’

‘Understandable.’ Lauren sat down beside her. Her expression was clear and she moved with a lightness now, as though a ten tonne weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

‘First thing I want you to understand is… this place, where we are… it’s my home. Well, not just my home, but I’ll get to that. We’re on a planet called Archaic.’

Savannah’s jaw dropped. ‘Nah, that’s bullshit! We’re on another planet?!’

‘It’s not bullshit.’ She stared up at the ceiling. ‘Let’s see… to put it simply… in our universe, there are multiple solar systems we have jurisdiction over. Yours and mine is what we call ‘Telantes’, the system that this planet is part of is called Archaic as well as this planet, and the universe as a whole is known to us as Krivonia.’

Savannah frowned again. ‘Right… who’s ‘we’?’

‘Manuel!’ Lauren shouted in the direction of the glass doors.

A tanned, strapping, dark-haired man stepped through. He gave Savannah a good-natured smile and a wink, his delightful blue eyes twinkling. His clothes were insanely tight. Despite how overwhelming all this was, her heart fluttered and beat with a renewed vigour. He even smelled amazing.

‘Bring the others through, would you?’

‘That won’t be a problem,’ he smiled once more and went back the way he came. He spoke in an accent that had a tinge of somewhere European, yet was too indistinct to pin down exactly where in Europe it originated.

Was this a joke? Had Lauren drugged her and taken her somewhere where she’d hired foreign people to dress up as weird creatures? Did she get a kick out of this and the bullshit she was spouting?

‘I can see your thoughts in your face, Savannah. Just stick with me, okay?’

The door opened once more and five people entered with Manuel (all except one were human, something Savannah was grateful for).

Behind him were twin girls, shorter than Savannah and, judging from their appearances, about ten years older - they were slim, pale, and with hair as black as night, one (dressed in a flowing, white dress and with a tiara adorned with gleaming rubies taming back her hair) smiled at Savannah and spread her arms wide in welcome; the other (wearing a tight, black shirt and even tighter trousers) scowled at a spot on the wall behind Savannah.

Following the twins was a second man, sour-faced with violent emerald eyes that glared at Savannah. He wore a sharp, black suit, which, paired with his neat, jet-black beard and matching cropped hair, would not leave him out of place in a room of high-flying business executives. This man did not give Savannah the same vibe Manuel did - she squirmed in his presence.

Then came a giant, hulking creature. He was the same kind as the guards - a grey-skinned humanoid creature dressed in an armoured bodysuit (except his was black). An enormous battleaxe hung on his back. His face was mottled and decayed; his eyes, white like the moon, darted with vociferous life. He nodded at Savannah, then stood to attention in the corner.

Finally, following the grey-skin, was a strapping blond man with arms and thighs like tree trunks. His demeanour was shy - he gave her a sheepish, nervous wave. The warhammer strapped to his back, however, was rather direct. Its black metal glimmered with menace. The armour he was clothed in - black and gold in colour - was of the same style as the grey-skinned creatures.

They all took their seats. The dismissive twin and the emerald-eyed man gave Lauren pointed stares.

‘What is the meaning of this?’ the emerald-eyed man asked in a voice the auditory equivalent of metal-on-metal. It made Savannah’s teeth churn. ‘We agreed not to invite any humans to this place. It never ends well. This one does not belong here. I expect you to explain yourself.’

‘Enough. Is this how we treat our guests?’ Lauren narrowed her eyes. ‘Savannah, this charmer you see before you is Tristan. The twins are Kiara and Kyra - Kyra’s wearing the tiara, Kiara the face like a slapped arse - the Verik -’ She gestured at the grey-skinned creature. ‘Is Kristoffer, and the blond man is Malik. Together, we make up The Seven.’

‘Um… hi,’ Savannah murmured, fiddling with her earlobe.

‘Er, enough of the introductions,’ Kiara said, holding a hand in front of her. ‘Why is she here?’

‘I’m getting to that,’ Lauren snapped. Her gaze lingered on Kiara for a moment, then she turned back to Savannah. ‘I promise they’re more... palatable when you get to know them. Together, we rule the universe. There was an order before us, The Original Seven, who ruled since the beginning of time, but… they disappeared. Some two thousand years ago. After that… we began to sprout up, and as of 70 years ago, there were Seven of us once more.’

‘70 years? But… you’re my age.’

Lauren shook her head, her expression pained. ‘No, I’m not. I was born in 1861 and was initiated into The Seven at 17. The twins, they were born just before the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s, Manuel was born in Spain in the 1500s, Kris grew up in Ancient Greece 3,000 years ago… you get the picture.’

‘How is that possible?’ Savannah whispered. What little colour her face retained deserted her.

Lauren grinned. ‘Magic, my darling.’

‘You’re all magic?’

‘Yes,’ Tristan rasped. His voice conveyed his disdain, yet his eyes, which roved up and down her, betrayed interest. ‘I still fail to see why we’re telling this to an inept, incompetent human such as yourself.’

Savannah looked down at her feet. This stung.

Lauren snarled. ‘That’s enough, Tristan. Stop being a dick.’

‘Hold on, it’s easy for you to just sit there and tell me that you’re magic. How do I know you’re not bullshitting?’

Expecting that question, The Seven raised their hands as one. In Lauren’s palm, blue lighting crackled. In Tristan’s, the lightning was purple and black. Kyra’s palm held a ball of pure darkness, Kiara’s pure light. In Manuel’s, a bright orange flame grew. A gaseous, green substance rotated in a ball in Malik’s fist, and Kristoffer pushed his palm towards Savannah, directing a strong gust of wind in her direction, sending her hair flapping.

‘Ah… fair enough,’ Savannah shrugged. She clutched the arms of her chair, her fingernails digging into the wood. A minor feeling of disappointment grew within her - she’d half hoped they would be unable to prove it.

‘Now, why is she here?’ Tristan pressed as they lowered their hands.

‘She’s an exposure risk,’ Lauren said with a shrug. ‘She has magic. It’s been surfacing in the human world. It’s only a matter of time before she’s caught, and when that happens, we’ll have one hell of a problem.’

Tristan scoffed and slouched back in his chair. ‘Show us!’ He said to Savannah, watching her with an expression that clearly said, ‘you’re full of shit’.

‘I-I can’t. I can’t do it on demand.’

‘How convenient,’ Kiara said, wrinkling her nose like she could smell something foul.

‘I think,’ Lauren jumped in before things could devolve further. ‘That trauma is shaking it loose. That is when the magic surfaces - in Savannah, at any rate.’

‘Trauma? What trauma?’ Manuel said out of genuine worry.

Lauren glanced at Savannah. ‘Someone is… killing her family.’

‘Bloody humans,’ Tristan spat.

‘Someone’s killing your family?’ Kiara asked, injecting as much warmth to her tone as she could muster.

The pain of Theo’s passing rose again in Savannah. ‘Y-yes. My grandma… she was stabbed a few weeks ago and… yesterday… my brother was…’ She gulped. ‘K-k-killed in a hit and run that also should have killed my sister but… thankfully didn’t.’

‘Oh, my,’ Kyra breathed. She rose from her chair, approached Savannah, and embraced her, brimming with tears. ‘I’m so sorry. You have my sincerest condolences, that sounds horrific.’

Kyra returned to her seat and Lauren continued. ‘We need to train her up. Irrespective of the murders, she’s one of us now, whether you all like it or not.’

Tristan banged his fist on the table. ‘You can’t just dict-’

‘I’m not leaving her out in the cold to freeze and die. I’m not leaving her to run the risk of exposure. She gets caught, and she’ll be lucky if her fate is to end up in a mental institution. As I said, we’d have a much bigger problem. I know the rules regarding humans we established. This girl is different. I personally vouch for her, and I will always do so. She is one of us.’

Savannah’s heart swelled. She might not comprehend everything yet - not even close - but this display was heartwarming.

Tristan stormed from the room. Kyra smirked and Manuel chuckled.

‘Such a child. You would never believe that he is nigh on ten thousand years old at times, ’ Manuel rolled his eyes. ‘So, what happens now?’

‘She’ll need training, that’s what happens now,’ Lauren said, standing. ‘I take personal responsibility for her magic training.’

The others stood. Manuel appraised Savannah, sizing her up. ‘I shall talk to Alyssa. I am certain she will take responsibility for your physical and combat training. She is one of our best initiates.’