Bloodlines

  BLOODLINES

  Copyright © 2019 by BF Worlds. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  CREATION

  Chapter 1

  The beginning of the world is steeped in mystery.

  A select few knew the truth but their accounts have been distorted by time and bias. Some sought to bury the knowledge with blood and lies. Still, it persisted, passed down through the generations, whispered in the bright light of day when no malignant shadows might overhear.

  Long ago, in a time before time, the universe, our universe, did not exist.

  However, there was Harmony.

  Much is debated about this place, as no being had ever seen it before. Some thought that it was a physical place that could be reached after traveling near unfathomable distances between the stars. Some believed it existed on a separate plane parallel, or perhaps above, our own. To others, it existed within their wildest dreams and most fervent hopes.

  Countless claims have been made about this mythical place. The stories could fill a thousand pages, the arguments for and against them a thousand more. Only three details remain constant; every element of this place existed in complete balance, it was inhabited by beings of unimaginable strength, and it faced a great threat.

  These facts contradict themselves. When it is said that everything in Harmony existed in complete order, it means that everything happened as it should. The many cycles that powered life functioned without pause or fluctuation. There were no aberrations, mutations, or ‘freak’ events of nature. Events happened on a schedule as predictable as the ticking of a clock. If one did not look closely, it would seem as if the world did not move at all. A snapshot in time. The closest thing to perfection imaginable.

  And this place was inhabited by perfect beings. Creatures that understood the world and their role in it. They garnered their strength from that knowledge as it allowed them to manipulate their surroundings in a way that only someone who understands something in its entirety can. If their power had to be described with words, one could say they wielded Truth.

  So, the question would be what could threaten a perfect world inhabited by such powerful beings? The answer is something stronger than even truth. A force that cannot be understood, even as it pushes against all things in existence.

  Change.

  Where there is order, chaos eventually gains a foothold. Such is the way it is for all things. The inhabitants of the stale paradise felt it pressing against their home. It manifested in small things. While no one knew what Harmony looked like, for the sake of explaining this history, it was imagined that the inhabitants of Harmony lived on a world like ours so metaphors could be drawn to explain the signs they witnessed.

  Seasons lasted too long or stopped too short. Abnormal weather patterns caused rampant destruction. Life went mad, the animals and organisms tearing themselves apart with abandon.

  Something had to be done.

  The most powerful inhabitants of the realm came together with a plan. They gathered up the chaos pushing against their home and shaped it into a physical thing. These they named seeds of chaos.

  As the seeds craved and clung to things in existence, the only way for them to be carried was for the beings to hold the chaos within themselves. Then they moved far, far away until the only thing that surrounded them was darkness.

  Here, in this empty space void of even dust, they stopped. During their travel, they could feel the seeds doing their work, corrupting their nature. The beings knew that they could not separate from the chaos and they could not bring it back with them.

  Left with no other choice and fearing what they would become if they allowed the seeds’ influence to go unchecked, they tore themselves apart and flung the pieces to every corner of the universe. Their bodies became planets and their minds fiercely burning stars. The pieces of their hearts became another race containing a fraction of their power. They left this new life, their first children, with two edicts.

  One, to keep the seeds of chaos at bay. They hoped that opposing chaos would delay its eventual return to their home.

  And two, never interfere. As all things in existence would eventually be corrupted by change, the more the new race interacted with creation, the more susceptible they would be to this influence. They were to remain silent guardians.

  This new race would one day be named the higher fae.

  Their creators, the true fae.

  THE CORRUPTION OF THE FAE

  Chapter 2

  The higher fae possessed immortal bodies. That is not to say that they do not have weaknesses or shortcomings. They required the basic necessities of life and though they had greater resistance to mortal perils than any animal, mundane threats could harm them.

  A particular quirk they all shared was an irregular sleep cycle. They remained awake and alert until the night of a full moon. Then, drowsiness overcame them. They could choose to either rest or resist the urge.

  If they gave in, the higher fae did not sleep for a couple of hours. They rested for a century, or even longer depending on circumstance, in the way a bear hibernates for the winter, and always awoke on nights of a new moon.

  If they forced themselves to stay awake until the full moon passed, they would remain awake until the next time it waxed. However, the longer they stayed awake, the worse the symptoms of denying rest became until it eventually began to affect their health.

  During the longevity of their lives, the Earth only needed their attention for small bouts of time. And so, the higher fae developed a system. Only House Harmonic needed to be awake at all times. Four of them roamed the Earth, across the span of twenty years. When their term was done, they sought the members of their Houses who were about to awaken and the two would swap; one going out into the world, the other taking the slumbering space as their own.

  Once every millennium, all the higher fae awoke at the same time and congregated, an event that would be later named The Gathering. Combining their abilities, they saw to it that the world was refreshed before its guardians returned to their slumber.

  They went about their duties with minimal contact with the world, heeding the warnings of their creators. The peace lasted for millennia. But they did not exist in the perfect realm of Harmony where things can be maintained indefinitely. Change pushed against order until one day, chaos gained a foothold.

  -

  History starts with the higher fae who would later be known as Sibyl of House Harmonic. Same as the other members of his House, he spent his twenty-year tour wandering far and wide, never staying in one place too long lest he leave behind an impression on the local ecosystem.

  He followed this directive but he also did one thing for himself. Sibyl developed a hobby, a fascination that helped him pass the time.

  Humans.

  House Harmonic’s abilities were meant to scan the world as a whole but Sibyl found he could narrow his focus to a smaller area or even a single being with practice.

  He found that he could form ‘connections’ to beings with at least some level of intelligence and those connections revealed to him the concept of individuality. Before, he thought creatures were only a single note in the greater song of the planet. He learned they, humans in particular, had their own songs, a series of overlapping vibrations that expressed who they were.


  Sibyl learned to distinguish between these ‘notes’ and what they represented. Emotions. And from emotions, he learned of motivations. He learned about their customs and interactions, things that influenced their emotional state. Sibyl learned everything about them.

  In the sixteenth year of his twenty-year tour, Sibyl passed by a valley nestled between two rivers. Eager to observe his favorite past time, he moved closer to a settlement comprised of primitive tent-like structures made of bone and animal skins.

  It happened as the sun was setting. The low light gave Sibyl the cover he needed to move in closer. Closer, until he was just at the verge of their perceptions, just far enough away that his silhouette might be mistaken for a trick of the light.

  Then it hit him.

  The abilities of House Harmonic were active. Sibyl needed to reach out with his ‘senses’ if he wanted to feel anything and he only picked up from the target he had chosen.

  This song forced itself on him. The slow, powerful notes weighed on his body like a physical thing, constricting his breathing as it pressed down on his chest. It drowned out everything else in his head.

  Sibyl screamed from the pain, but he couldn’t hear his own voice through the ringing between his ears. He recognized what the sound represented but he had never heard it at this volume, felt it so keenly.

  What he heard was complete despair.

  This was the first time one of his connections had ever caused him pain. Immortal, he was but that didn’t mean he was strong. He couldn’t endure pain. Desperate, he moved toward the source.

  It beckoned from within the human settlement. The commandment of his creators, to never interfere, weighed heavily on his mind but even that was drowned out by the agony. It overwhelmed rational thought and he stumbled forward into the settlement.

  Each House had different appearances that reflected their abilities. Those from Harmonic were fairly humanoid. They possessed two arms, two legs, and recognizable facial features. That’s where normality ended.

  Their skin was reflective and ridged. When the light struck them, rainbows danced across their skin in hypnotic patterns. They had thin mouths, but no ears and no nose. Their eyes were twice the size of a normal man’s but had no whites or irises. Instead, it was a clear multi-faceted surface that resembled their skin, as if someone had fitted diamonds into the sockets.

  At the late hour, only a few humans moved between the homes. Because of this, it took several minutes before anyone noticed Sibyl. He nearly made it to his destination when the first cries of alarm went up.

  Fear mixed with confusion at the sight of his fantastical appearance. They shouted, at each other and at him, which drew out others who added their own emotions.

  The strange bombardment on his senses left Sibyl weak. He drowned in the emotional ocean surrounding him, unable to pull a shred of focus together to filter out any of the noise. His steps faltered and he crumpled to the ground, whimpering.

  Among the humans, a single group gained sway over the forming mob. Those who believed Sibyl was a spirit of nature. Naturally, harming the creature would invite terrible consequences upon them.

  The mob began to fear for another reason. By no action of their own that they could perceive, the strange creature within their midst seemed to be dying. Fear of hurting overcame their fear of the unknown and two men hesitantly stepped forward, grabbing Sibyl under the arms.

  They half carried, half dragged Sibyl toward the chief, eager to have someone else shoulder the responsibility of the situation.

  What they didn’t know was that they were dragging Sibyl toward the source of his problem.

  They knew their leader was currently visiting with his oldest son, who lived in a large tent toward the center of their village. Smoke drifted out of the open flap that served as a door, orange light softening the gloom.

  Inside, the chief’s family sat around a small fire. The chief himself, with a head of silver hair and a body on the verge of collapse. His sons, Adom and Aide, both proud hunters. In her husband’s shadow sat Eve, small compared to Adom’s bulk. Her son, Caine, sat in a corner playing with a chipped arrowhead.

  The men jumped to their feet in shock as the two men dragged Sibyl in.

  “Take it out!” Adom shouted immediately, picking up his spear that rested on the ground behind him. “What is—no. I don’t want to know what that creature is or how you found it. Take it away now before it causes us problems.”

  “I…agree.” Aide peered at the higher fae from the corner of his eye as he moved closer to his father, also armed. “What were the two of you thinking, bringing an unknown threat to the chief.”

  “But…the spirit is dying!”

  In the torrent of emotions, one existence stood out. The chief. If Sibyl had to pick one word to describe the man, he would call him solid. While he was anxious, the same as the others, it was buried beneath an enforced calm.

  The tranquility was the metaphysical equivalent of a lifeboat to a drowning man. Sibyl latched onto the elderly man with his senses. Lifting his head, their eyes met across the room and, the longer they held each other’s gazes, the further the higher fae sunk into his being. In moments, Sibyl knew the man intimately, every moment that made him who he was.

  The warmth of a mother. The thrill of taking down his first prey. His painfully stern features as he stood at his father’s burial. The first time he held his son. And…

  The headache and nausea retreated, allowing Sibyl to find his feet. The two men holding him dropped his arms the moment they felt him stir, waiting with bated breath along with the rest of the room’s occupants to see what he would do.

  They were all surprised when the higher fae bowed his head before the chief. “I am sorry for your loss.”

  “You…” The chief’s voice was steady but quavered on strong syllables. “You can speak.”

  “Yes, you can tell your people that I mean no harm.” Sibyl swung his gaze around the room and the men flinched. But not Caine. The boy looked up from his toy, eyes glimmering with excitement. Sibyl waved to him and basked in the glow of happiness the small action invoked as the little boy edged closer.

  “What do you want from us…” The chief floundered as he grasped for a name he didn’t have or a title he couldn’t fathom.

  “To help.”

  Sibyl braced himself with the steadfastness of the chief and the simple joy of Caine. Then he turned to face the source of his pain that still niggled at his mind, even after he had turned all his senses away from her.

  Eve was frozen. She hadn’t moved an inch since Sibyl stepped into the room, her eyes dazed and unfocused. Though she was entirely silent on the outside, she screamed on the inside. She screamed with a voice louder than any he had ever heard.

  Sibyl crouched beside her. Slowly as not to overwhelm himself, he reached out to her with his senses. He scanned only her surface emotions but even they were enough to tie his stomach into painful knots. “I am sorry for your loss.”

  Eve finally turned his way. Whatever wonder she might have felt from his appearance was unrecognizable beneath her gloom.

  “Eve, you are unbalanced.” That was the only explanation Sibyl could come up with for the way the woman affected him. “It is my job to correct unbalances in the world.”

  “This is ridiculous!” Adom took an aggressive step forward. The chief signaled his other son and Aide stepped into his brother’s path. “Get that thing away from her!”

  “Peace son,” the chief shouted. “Just…let us watch for a while.”

  “Don’t—”

  Aide shoved him, cutting him off. The two brothers glared at each other heatedly but Adom backed off first, huffing angrily.

  Sibyl never noticed the heated argument over his fate, entirely focused on Eve. “Tell me. What can I do to ease your burden?”

  Eve looked up at him. Then she turned to her husband, inciting him further. Adom called his brother’s bluff, shoving him out of the way.

  “I do
n’t care what that thing is, what it wants, or what my chief wants. Get it out of my home. Now!”

  Sibyl couldn’t believe it when he felt Eve’s despair reach out. It twined with her husband’s anger, turning it into something dark that promised violence. Then it reached further, souring the mood of the room. Sibyl could feel his control slipping.

  “Very well.”

  Sibyl got to his feet, inclining his head toward Adom in deference. “It is your home. I truly don’t want to cause problems so I will take my leave.” He had a way of enduring the pain and suspected he could manage a few days under the strain while he figured out how to solve this new problem.

  With a backward glance to Eve, he exited the tent. A few steps away, a hand grabbed his arm but quickly released him.

  Sibyl turned to see Aide, pale and shifting nervously on his feet. “My father has invited you to spend the night in the village. If you…need sleep at all. We could set you up in your own tent.”

  Sibyl recognized the gesture as a friendly one. Being closer to Eve would also make his examination of her easier. “I will accept.”

  “Good. It’s this way.”

  Aide led Sibyl to the largest tent of all. “Here. Father and I will find somewhere else to sleep tonight.”

  “Thank you.”

  Sibyl took a seat on the dirt ground, ignoring the mats in the corner he assumed the humans slept on. While it was good they had welcomed him, he couldn’t sleep. Instead, he waited.

  After several hours, the swell of emotions quieted to a hum. He planned to sneak back and speak to Eve when her husband wasn’t awake to interrupt. The question of how he would contact her without waking the other members of the family eluded him but thankfully, the problem solved itself.

  Eve never went to sleep. As the village quieted down, Sibyl felt her tumultuous emotions still peaking. She was awake and moving, away from the village. Sibyl followed after her.

  He found her seated beneath a large tree, eyes closed in contemplation. As before, she didn’t stir as he sat next to her, but she spoke. “…You never told anyone your name.”