Xerxes by Micheal Achonye

Gods of heaven and hell

She stood, wandering over to the shelves with her index finger pointed at the books, "I thought these books were supposed to be destroyed. I can see you saved them..."

"Can we get back to the story?" I asked impatiently. I felt for her, I really did, but I needed to know if I was on the right side of the war. I needed to know who the real enemy was. 

"Very well," she said, walking back to her seat and falling in a lazy manner. 

"Where was I? Ahhh yes, my journey," she went on. 

"When I ran out of the nation, I joined the outcasts. They were a group of people unjustly kicked out of the country for one crime or the other. They were my new family. I learnt a lot from them and I got stronger with their help. I learnt all about the gods and the different powers a Xaj could wield. I... No, we fought together and we became more powerful. We recruited new members to our team and that was where I met General Obsidian and Kol. Together we drove off every single evil we could find until we became a force to be reckoned with."

She took in deep calculated breaths before carrying on with her tales. 

"It was going great, until a warrior in our group opened up a box that was not supposed to be opened — Pandoras box!" she exclaimed with excitement.

Looking around the room expecting some kind of reaction she was met by stale faces as we did not know what it was. 

"What is Pretorias box?" I asked ignorantly. 

"Not Pretorias box, Paaannndddddoooorrrraaaaa," she stressed, emphasizing on the importance of the word. 

"By the gods, how can you save this nation when you don't even know little things like these?" she said with dismay, laying back into her chair disappointed. 

"It is said to be a box filled with every evil power you can think of," the abbot answered. "If you think necromancy is bad, then Pandora's box is a hundred times worse."

"Don't tell me you found something that is believed all round to be a myth?" he questioned the Xaj smiling. It was sent off as a joke. 

"You believe it to be a myth, abbot, but it is real. Real as the air you and I breathe," she replied in anger. 

"Then if it is as real as you say, how are you still alive? The last wielder of such great power turned to stone and the one before her melted into the wind. But these are just fables told to children before they sleep," he grunted. 

"Believe whatever you will, I found it and it is real. The warrior who opened it died on the spot and the rest of the group fled away, but somehow I survived. Pandora herself appeared before me giving me her powers," she angrily put out.

"Hahahahaha, you must think me a child to bring such stupid tales in here. It does not exist!" he argued. 

"It does and I don't care what you think. You can burn in your ignorance for all I care, but you will never get her back because I loved her too!" she raged with fury.

They had been going back and forth, leaving Ang and I on the sidelines confused.

"Are they still talking about what I think they're talking about or is this something else?" she whispered.

"I don't even know," I shrugged.

"You never deserved her!" the abbot shouted. "You are supposed to be dead but somehow she protected you... Even after all you had done — causing chaos, breaking the hierarchy and everything. You are an abomination and she deserved better!"

There was silence for a moment, the only sound audible were the torches crackling from the fire eating at the wood. 

"Well," she said, breaking the silence. "You never liked me anyway," she went on with a whisper, making me strain to hear what was being said. 

"She was my mother," the Xaj said close to tears. "And I am so sorry that you lost your sister to such a useless and foolish child," she muttered grimly. 

Once again the room fell into a deafening silence as it was broken by a heavy sigh. 

"One day you might turn evil and he would not give you the benefit of the doubt," she announced to Ang whose eyes shone wide.

"Don't bring her into this, she is a child..." the abbot began before being cut short by the Xaj.

"I was a child too and you chose to believe an outsider but not your own niece," her voice echoed bitterly.

"I..." the abbot stuttered before sinking into his seat in silence leaving Petra to continue.

"I went back, fought against my father in a cloud of smoke which he created. Somewhere along the line Meridius stabbed him in the back and created a mirage to make it look like I had done it. That was why he trusted you to have better judgement and gave you his powers. That is also why Xerxes found his way to me and not to the opposing side. That is why I have watched over the little boy since he was a child," she said. 

"Believe whatever you will, I will not force you to help me end this war. I just want to go home and be with my people, that is all," she added.

With that being said, she stood up and made her way to the door. 

"Wait!" the abbot called, struggling to get out of his chair.

"If you did not kill your father and you are innocent, why did you not tell the King and save us of this bloodshed?" he asked angrily.

She turned around with a look of disbelief on her face.

"How can you have my father's powers and not know how to use them?" she queried. 

"Just answer the question Petra," the abbot snorted. 

Throwing her head back with a heavy sigh and grunt, the Xaj answered.

"He had cast a spell over the palace. I could feel heavy magic when I got in the second time. Meridius knew that for him to gain power over the nation he needed to get rid of my father and he could not do that with my father on guard every second. I broke my father's guard for a minute and look where it got us. Every warrior we fight from the Kings army is under a spell. The spell is released once they're dead," she narrated.

This was bad. 

This was even worse than I had thought. 

We were fighting people and they were dying without even knowing why. 

They were bleeding and breaking inside: they were locked in a box with no clue.

"The only way to stop all this madness would be to kill Meridius and the King," she said in an offhanded manner.

"Why would we have to kill the King if Meridius was the link?" I inquired further. 

"Because the King, Xerxes, is not really the King but a demon with the power to shapeshift. He was put there by the mad magician himself to oversee things as he saw fit," she replied. 

Things were getting more and more complicated as I tried to wrap my head around it, but it only made me dizzy. 

"So, if the King is not the King, where is the real one?" Ang asked with worry written all over her face.

The Xaj walked back to the middle of the room a hand glazing over the dusty shelves. 

"He's the one with the most stupid story ever made. The one with the most crazy lifestyle and the one who saved Xerxes here from getting slaughtered on so many accounts."

Could it be, I thought. 

No it couldn't be, I negated. 

"Go on," she said to me. "You know who it is."

I did not need to think hard before his name came up, but just to be sure, I had to answer it as a question.

"Sergeant Roman?" I looked at her inquiringly.

She smiled and nodded.

"Yes, Sergeant Roman is the fifty fourth King of Czarö," she answered with calm conviction.

How can such a drunk, gambling, illegal fighting, stupid, maniacal, crazy man be a King? I was in his squad and every time I would try to fight, he would hold me back and tell me that I was not ready. Everyone told me he protected me as a father would, but he was the only one in the field that I hated the most. I had no idea why, but I did. Maybe it was because he did not think of my combat skills as useful or because he gave me odd and safe jobs to do while letting my friends die without remorse. Sure, when he saved me from the swords of the Draka soldiers, he carried me under his wing until now. He even fought against General Kol for hitting me across the cheek one time, even though it was my fault. My head begun to spin really bad as I leaned toward the wall. 

"I have a question?" Ang asked again. 

"Sure cuz," Petra replied. 

"Please don't say that, it's weird," the little girl frowned at the Xaj's jokes.

"I am making no promises," the Xaj smiled at her newly found relative.

"Back on the ocean, when you were with Xerxes you called him 'your highness'. What does that mean?"

The abbot looked at me in shock standing from his chair in amazement.

"Prince Exodus!" he exclamated. 

I did not know why, but that name brought back a lot of memories. I saw my mother, not the one who had died from the Draka attack, but another woman who looked familiar. I also saw my father, smooth shaven and young almost like a teenager. My head was starting to hurt as I sweated profusely. 

"Looks like everyone has it all figured out. Xerxes is the long lost Prince of this nation and Sergeant Roman or shall I say King Exodus the fifty fourth is his father," she let off with a final note. 

I saw my entire world shatter as I fell off the wall I had been leaning on since the narration began. Everyone screamed my name but I could not respond. My back hit the ground with my eyes closed causing me to reflect upon my life and how crazy it was getting. The pain in my head was much but as I lost consciousness, it began to get numb. 

I could see nothing. I could feel nothing.

Everything was dark. I tried to scream but nothing came out. 

Was this it?

Was this the end?

Maybe I was no one's saviour after all. 

"Xerxes?" a familiar voice called. It was her, wasn't it? 

A white dot sparkled in the distance. This had to be the light at the end of the tunnel. My journey was finally over I thought, but then it grew bigger the closer it got to me. I squinted at how bright the light was and when the intensity of the light had gotten dimmer, I found myself in a cherry field, the field of the gods. 

I began to remember things I never had before. Things about my mother, my father, this cherry field — everything. I had been here before, I could remember that for sure. It was so pretty in here with the flowers and butterflies all merged into different exotic colors. 

I looked at a clearing and there she sat on a tree stump looking prettier than I had seen in my dreams. She smiled and waved like she had been waiting for my return. 

The woman who had birthed me stood up levitating towards me. It was a godly sight, as I saw my mother, the Queen.

***

"I can see that your memories are coming back, that is wonderful," she said with a huge smile on her face. 

I was still confused. How had I gotten here?

"Oh don't worry about a thing. I can see you looking around the field expecting an enemy to jump out any minute now to attack but trust me, only you and I have access to this place," she said with assurance. 

What in the name of the gods was going on?

"Look, I don't mean to be rude but somehow I feel like you're my... like you're my, ummm... Like you gave birth to me... somehow," by firetails that came out wrong. 

"Yes, I am your mother. Now don't be shy, sit down with me. Come, sit," she levitated to the stump, gracefully sitting on it. 

I walked to the stump next to hers sitting with caution. Not wanting to appear desperate I looked around the field trying to act normal regrettably she sensed my tense aura.

"No need to pretend. I can read your emotions and I can tell that you have a lot of questions," she smiled. "I will answer the ones I am to answer and for the rest you will need to get them on your own. You are my son, but if I made your journey any easier then I would have disrupted the balance of things and that would cause another shift in the paradigm of reality."

I had no idea what she was talking about but I nodded like a baby jack lizard.

"My name is Carla, at least that is my mortal name, but in the heavens I'm being called Aurora," she said cheerfully. "Your father's name is Roman, in the heavens he's being called Mephistopheles. We are both gods and we descended just like normal beings to keep the peace here on earth."

Gods? 

This was definitely news.

It took less than a month for my life to turn into a shit-show. If they were gods, does that not make me a god too?

"Amongst us descended twenty other gods, but it was all in the balance of things," she went on. "As I was once a daughter of the skies and your father ruler of the depths we were not supposed to meet. This was an unwritten rule, but fate had other plans," she said with a smile.

"I remember when I went into a forest to play a game with my rabbit dog, I found him, your father, sitting on a tree stump, just like the one you're sitting on right now and he was creating something with his hands. A dragon made of fire. I hid behind a bush but I could not stay away for so long. He intrigued me and I wanted to be friends with him. Our eyes met and that was when I fell in love with him. All through my life I had been told to avoid demons because of their crude behaviors, but he did not look like a demon, he was just a young boy and I was a young girl who didn't have any friends. Your father was my only friend, and I held him dearly above everything else," she stood up, walked to a rose garden and plucked a red flower.

She continued the story keeping her eyes fixated on the flower.

"Every day we would leave our respective villages and secretly meet. We had knowledge of our heavenly lives and since we were basically gods in human bodies, we would change our forms and run into the forest or a valley away from our homes to talk to each other and have fun with our powers."

There was hesitation in her tone before she went on. 

"He gave me a rose flower, just as this one and proposed to me, but I was afraid that if anyone knew of him, we would be punished," she chuckled. "He had other plans. He told me not to worry. That he was going to have me as his goddess and princess in no time. I loved him and I had no doubt about his love and determination to be with me forever."

Throwing the flower back into the garden, she walked back to the tree stump sitting with her eyes still fixed in the garden. 

"When I was ripe for marriage, my earthly father called the whole nation to witness a tournament and anyone who would win would have me as a wife. Your father appeared and won each battle flawlessly, even against the other gods and devil's. He was unstoppable. We got married, my parents lived and died and we ruled the Kingdom as we saw fit. We abolished the rule that was set against demons and we brought back the humans who had the ability to control all three magical powers. They had been extinct for several hundred years leaving only the mages. You humans call them Xaj," breathing in deeply with her eyes closed, she let the suns rays hit her face making her skin glitter. 

"Everything looked peaceful and we decided to start up a family during this peaceful period. I got pregnant and had you. The first baby born of two gods of heaven and hell. My father, Uranus was not happy about it. He saw what we had done and decided to punish us for it. One day we woke up and found out that our powers had gone. You could not be touched because your powers had not shown any signs of manifestation yet. It was just the usual stuff baby gods had," her eyes twinkled when she spoke.

"Like what?" I asked, curious to hear what she would say.

"Well, let us see," she said, deep in thought. "For example, you could manipulate people's dreams and create fantasies or nightmares. Of course that was from your father's side. But then again, you had the ability to manipulate nature — wind, water, earth, fire, lightning, flowers, plants, sound, insects, animals, birds — everything. Your powers stemmed from something deeper than a union between a goddess and a devil," she smiled into the empty space before her. 

"Now your father knew that a day would come when there would be a war and he called his brother Mars to help him. Now Mars had always been jealous of your father for being the ruler of the depths and he brought traitors into the Palace to take down your father. One of them being Pontius warned us of an impending war between gods, because of what we had created, you."

I gulped. 

Was it really bad for a god and a devil to be together?

Was I really a taboo?

"Pontius vowed to protect us with his life, but in exchange, he had to give up his relationship with his family to keep them safe. Everything was going well, until he took up a student who had a wrong outlook on what being a Xaj was all about. Meridius wanted powers by all means and he tried to kill you a couple of times to get yours but he never got the chance because I was always by your side. After the fight between Pontius and his daughter Petra to which he lost his life, I knew it was time to leave," her voice quivered in fear as she spoke.

"I was killed before I could get into the caravan prepared by your father. Before I died I told him to take care of you and protect you with his life. I knew that one day you would awaken, but the problem here is that you are not an old god nor a new one. You are different from me, different from your father, different from my father. You are an old force, something created to battle another power just as great as yours. There is a power inside of you which the gods fear and they want to either use it or control it, even though this depends on who you join forces with.

I looked at my hands. I could feel something inside of me but I did not know what it was. If only I could communicate with it, maybe my mission would be a bit easier.

"Heaven and hell is divided because of you, son. This war is deeper than what we know it to be. Rumors have been spread and it is your duty to stop this war and end this violence between gods, humans, devil's and Xaj. No matter what they say, I believe that your powers be it good or bad can be used for the greater good. My father could not see it, but I believe that you were born for a reason. To be a bridge between the gods and devils."

It was all beginning to make sense now. This war was deeper than I had thought it to be.

This wasn't even a war, this was a family squabble which had led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of souls.

Mars needed to be put down to avoid more human lives from being destroyed.