Forgotten Lover | (1) The Shattering Archives

Book 1 of The Shattering Archives; 1st Draft Manuscript.

A/N: Be warned, this story - like all of my works - explores themes, ideas and philosophies which may be considered triggering or offensive. You are responsible for your own feelings. If you do not like the story, do not read it. Thank you.

Can history be changed? That was my entire drive throughout my long life – both Julius’s and mine. Could we change our Fate? Our Destiny? As written by our God, our creator? Because never did I think our fun and secluded life together with our friends in Theriel would become the epic and bloody tale of war and myth that it became.

“And-and-and so Asel made His f-f-first twelve angels to lead the humans to fight the-to fight the Dr-Drakan,” the little girl of six years babbled as she held her older brother’s hand while they walked back home from school.

The path wound its way up the hill, through hills of lots of grass and lots of big houses. Beralin loved playing in the grass and jumping down the hills with an umbrella to try glide. She was not grown up yet to be able to fly. Her wings were too small.

The flowers were big in the sun and smelt so nice while the birds sang so sweetly. Not that Beralin noticed any of it, nor even the residents of their district walking by and smiling with greeting. She learnt all about their world’s history today in school, and she needed to tell Julius all about it.

“The Angels were given lots of power by God to-to-to fight the Drakan and free all the humans from being their slaves. These Angels-these-these Angels became known as the-as the Arch-Archangels. Did you know that, Julius?” she asked, her emerald green eyes shooting up to her brother’s face.

He was smiling kindly as he was watching some round little poku birds stomp through the grass, too lazy to use their wings to fly. His golden hair caught the light of the sun.

“Julius, you’re not listening to me!” Beralin exclaimed, cross.

His smile ever remained and his equally emerald green eyes flickered back to her. “Yes I am, Bera,” he said lightly. “I am always listening. The first Angels were the Archangels. What happened next?”

Julius was another ten years older than her. That made him sixteen, she counted when she learnt about numbers.

Happy that his attention was back on her, Beralin continued with delighted enthusiasm.

“They are the-the-the Malakim and Erelimum Highlords –”

“Erelim,” Julius corrected.

“E-Ererelim . . . Erelium . . . Erelim,” Beralin repeated – and eventually got right – with his pronunciation. “One of them, Highlord Zelphar, he-he-he wanted peace with the Drakan, which made the twelve Archangels fight. The meeting went bad with the Drakan and-and it broke the Tower. Highlord Zelphar and Highlady Alo-Alovan were Displaced in the fighting, and that was the Shattering.”

“Aloevan.”

“Alo-e-van,” Beralin repeated again with a frown. Why did so many of the Archangels have hard names to say?

Julius chuckled, stroking her ringlet black hair. Some people said they weren’t brother and sister because they looked different. But Beralin didn’t believe that. She grew up with him. He was always her brother.

“You did very well. You remembered everything perfectly.”

His praise made her beam.

“What happened after the Shattering?” Julius prompted as the neighbourhood became more full again with more houses and beautifully laid out greens.

Trees lines the streets and, even from this distance, Beralin could hear the faint sounds of the market at the main square. Her tummy rumbled at the thought of the pastries and pasties there, even though they were not going in that direction.

“The world became two. Elysil and Asaeda. We are light. They are shadow. They are bad now.”

“Bad? Is that what the teacher said?” Julius mused, but he didn’t sound too happy.

Beralin nodded. “Mhmm! The teacher said Asel left them because –”

“Oh Julius, there you are,” one of their neighbours, Nurid, exclaimed, rounding a corner looking breathless. “Oh and hello Bera, dear. Have you just finished school?”

Beralin smiled and nodded shyly. He was a nice man.

“Is everything alright, Nurid?” Julius asked, hoisting Beralin’s backpack more comfortably further up his shoulder.

“Did you upset someone in Mesamere?” Nurid seemed puzzled.

Julius raised an eyebrow. “No, why?”

“The Holy Templars of the Mirage Battalion are waiting outside your manor.”

Julius stopped and stiffened. Beralin looked up at him worriedly. His entire face changed. The gentleness left his expression, his eyes sharp.

He was angry, and its rarity was what made Beralin very quickly nervous.

“Do you want me or someone to come with you?” Nurid suggested with concern. “I cannot imagine anything you’d do that would bring them here but . . . well, they’re here.”

Julius narrowed his eyes in thought, but he was not looking at Nurid at that moment, before he then exhaled through his nose.

“No, we will be fine. I think I know why they are here.” He squeezed Beralin’s hand. “I’ll handle it.”

Nurid cocked his head and then scoffed softly with amazement. “A young Pureblood lord you really are, Julius. You’re quite something. But look, if something is happening, please do not hesitate in asking for help from any of us. Ever since your parents were Displaced, I know it’s been hard on you both.”

Julius shook his head and smiled again, the stiffness disappearing. “It’ll be fine, Nurid. But thank you. I always keep you all in mind.”

Nurid patted Julius on the shoulder. “Good lad.” He then knelt down to Beralin who watched the whole exchange with worried confusion. “Don’t worry Bera. The Mirage Templars won’t hurt you. They are Highlady Elwin’s Angels, and her light is our greatest blessing.”

Beralin’s eyes widened with wonder and amazement. The Archangel of Light?

She glanced up at Julius, who bid farewell to Nurid and they continued on their way.

“Are we going to see Highlady Elwin?” Beralin gasped in both fright and awe.

“Just wait a moment, Bera,” Julius said calmly, but there was something in his voice which made Beralin think this was not something amazing.

As they came closer to their home, barring a few tree-lined streets, Julius then stopped and stepped in between the gap of two hedges, guiding Beralin with him. In the cover of the bright green and purple leaves, he knelt down to her level. Even at sixteen, he was tall.

He took off her pack and looped it back through her own arms and onto her back. His face was open-hearted to her, as it always was. But this time, he was also stern.

“Julius, what’s wrong?” she asked quietly.

He took one of her shoulders. “I have a very important job for you, Bera. The people outside our house will not hurt us, but they are very powerful. I can’t hold your hand for the next bit, so I need you to stand behind me, very close and, whatever you do, do not make a sound. Can you do that for me?”

Beralin could not understand how her busy day of school and telling Julius all about it on the walk home turned into something serious. It scared her. It worried her.

But Julius’s eyes were ever steady. They never wavered. His voice was gentle to her, but forever strong. He was the strongest person she knew and, he was safe. She always felt safe with him.

Therefore, even though she now felt very nervous as she twiddled her thumbs, she knew Julius would know what to do.

Beralin gulped and nodded. She did not understand, but Julius seemed to, so she just needed to follow him.

Julius’s stern expression smoothed over and brightened slightly. He smiled and kissed her forehead, setting all of her nerves at ease once again. He tapped his finger to his lips.

“Remember, not a single sound. Not even a gasp.”

Beralin took a deep breath and nodded, clamping her hands to her mouth to emphasise being quiet and kept them there.

“Good girl. Now stay close to me,” he instructed.

They left the hedges and continued down the final street. Beralin kept her eyes peeled, noting elite Angels standing half way down their street to stop anyone else going past.

Julius said elite Angels are Virtues, Beralin thought as she stared at their glorious armour, enormous golden shields and glowing, flaming swords. They were so big, so intimidating. The best of the best, standing guard like the magnificent and powerful warriors that they were.

Between her awe and wariness of the Virtues and watching neighbours talk amongst themselves in both confusion and excitement, Beralin became temporarily distracted by what she thought were tendrils of hair falling around her, glittering ever so faintly in the sunlight. Except this hair was glowing green.

Beralin glanced up to see where it was coming from, except there was nothing above her head beside the blue sky, puffy clouds, and the distant looming shadow of the other half of their hemishell planet on the other side of the broken Tower – Asaeda.

“Young Lord Atherton,” a deep voice greeted.

Beralin’s attention snapped back. Julius stopped at the first guard. The Templar was huge! Covered from head to toe in shining armour, as if the metal itself had come from the sun. His Aether was almost as burning as such and Beralin felt like she had to squint as she shrank into the safety of Julius’s shadow.

Julius did not bow to the weight of the Templar’s Aetheric might, however. Instead, it was the Templar who inclined his head towards him with respect, before extending out his gauntleted hand to indicate that Julius and Beralin may continue.

She followed him closely, but kept looking back at the giant Templar, wondering if all fighting Angels looked that big, including the Sorcerers and Assassin, even though they looked much smaller.

As they approached their manor, there were many more of them. Twelve of them in total, packed close in formation outside at the foot of their front garden path.

Beralin’s footsteps faltered. What were they doing there outside their home? Had they done something wrong? Were they in trouble?

Beralin’s heart began to pound in her small chest. Its rhythm thumped in her ears. Her breathing quickened with growing panic and her palms grew sweaty.

Julius glanced back at her briefly, but gave her the tiniest of nods and a smile, eyes steady.

It calmed Beralin’s quickly beating heart. Her chest was still tight, but Julius’s acknowledgement of her helped.

Stay close. Be quiet. Stay close. Be quiet, she repeated in her head.

“To what do I owe this unexpected visit?” Julius greeted them.

They nodded their greeting to him, but did not speak. Instead, they parted to two sides, revealing a thirteenth figure; a woman covered in thin, hooded white cowl.

Beralin could not see her features very well from within the hood, but her hands were a warm and tanned beige, with thick and long auburn hair spilling down her front from the shadow of her hood.

Julius stiffened, and Beralin looked to him to see why. His face stayed calm, but his jaw was tense.

He bowed, catching Beralin by surprise, so she fumbled by copying with a little curtsey of her own. If Julius was bowing to this lady then obviously she was very powerful and important, even though he did not say hello to her with a name or title.

“Hello Julius,” she said. Her voice was so melodious, so smooth and rich like a dark honey. “Where is Beralin? I would have thought she finished school now.”

Beralin blinked, her appreciation of this lady’s sweet and beautiful voice shunted sideways by such a strange thing to say. Where was she? She was right here!

“She has gone to a friend’s to play this evening. I will collect her later,” Julius answered smoothly.

Beralin’s eyes flashed to him, equally more puzzled because he was lying. She was standing right behind him! Could they not see her?

“What are you doing here?” he asked politely, but there was a cutting edge to his voice which stilled Beralin’s fidgeting with a deep unease within her very bones. It almost felt like his voice had an Aetheric spell inside it.

The guards detected it too and their postures changed, moving to hover their hands over their swords with cautious hostility. It was suddenly extremely tense.

The lady in white held up her slender hand to them, however, to stand them down and they did. She wore golden bangles on her wrist which glinted in the sun. It did not distract Beralin very well though as her eyes flickered in frantic silence between her, the Templars, and Julius.

The white lady stepped up to Julius and held out a white envelope, encased in an Aetheric barrier with a holographic seal.

“A summons,” she said lightly.

“You come all this way in person, with your Holy Templars, just to give me a summons? It is unlike you,” Julius replied.

They are her Templars? Beralin thought in awe, and wondered how powerful or important someone would have to be to have their own Templars like these, especially if they were Virtues. Was she actually the Archangel of Light? Nurid said these Templars were hers, right?

“It is so I know you have received it,” she said.

She then nodded to her Templars. They stood to attention with perfect unison, turned, clanked their tall shields to the ground and then began their teleportation spell back to the capital city. Beralin watched them in fascination as the array plates spun into existence on the ground beneath their feet, streaking them with rising light to eventually take them away.

The lady in white, on the other hand, leaned close and rested a delicate hand on Julius’s shoulder. From this close, Beralin could see into her hood.

Her eyes were gold, as if they glowed with the fire of the sun and light itself. They were eyes that were so clear they could see through anything.

And yet she could not see Beralin.

“It is time for the prophecy to be met, Julius,” she murmured into his ear. “You cannot avoid it, and neither can Beralin. She is the Key. Without her, our world of Sol is lost.”

Julius said nothing as she let go. She stepped back and bowed her head to him, before her body shimmered and swiftly elongated into rays of light which then shot up into the sky and into the Aether.

The white cloaked lady and the Templars all disappeared, leaving Julius and Beralin stood in front of the manor’s front garden. It had all been so surreal, so strange, amazing, confusing and scary. She turned her attention back up to him after a beat of silence.

“J –”

He tapped one fingers subtly to his lips again, while his other he gently placed behind her back to indicate she walk up the path to their home. Swallowing all of her questions down just for a few more seconds before they exploded, Beralin obeyed and stomped up the path with him. He let them both into the manor and, when he shut the door, Beralin sucked in a big breath.

“What was that, Julius? Who –?”

Julius knelt down and scooped Beralin into an unexpected embrace. She blinked in surprise.

“Julius?”

He was shivering. But how could he be shivering? It was summer and warm today. And he was quiet. Too quiet.

Beralin now frowned, realising her brother was upset and her heart leapt instantly to trying to make him feel better with love and care.

“Julius?” she asked, hugging him back. She loved to hug him and be close. He was so warm. She took comfort from his company and always wanted to do the same for him.

“No matter what awaits us in the future, I will always protect you, Bera,” he whispered. “You are the Key I will never use.”