RETURN OF THE HYBRID (Book III)

Chapter 12

The sight of Ariella on horse tickled king Rhode’s loins. She made him regret marrying Aliya so quick before looking around. He could tell Ariella was not from the kingdom if she was his scouts would have told him about her beauty. He looked at her as she walked towards them, her long dress was showing her curves if he could Rhode wanted to ask her to turn around. The king was feeling like cheating again. The virgins that were washing him on a daily basis and Aliya were not enough to satisfy conjugal needs.

"My king" Ariella went on her knees.

"No don't bow you are too beautiful to do that get up!" Rhode commanded looking all psyched up.

"Thank you, my name is Ariella and am looking for my sister she..."

"What's her name my dear?"

"Last I heard from the wind she was your queen"

Rhode looked confused. Lord Herman too. They had no idea Aliya had a sister. She was the only daughter of a king Timothy among six sons. When Rhode married her the king and the queen died consecutively in a span of three moons the sons were instigated by their uncle, they fought and killed each other leaving their uncle as the reigning king. Since then she has never gone back and no one had ever come to look for her.

"Get Aliya" Rhode said to Herman.

"Right away your majesty"

Ariella was trying to maintain a low profile she did not want to cause a scene. So far she could not feel if Leon was around. It was a simple mission and all she wanted was to kill the prince and escape to a different timeline that's the only reason Ariella pretended to respect king Rhode. The true and arrogant version of her would have killed him and sat on that chair. As Aliya and Herman walked towards them she cast a spell with a mumble. But she did not have to. Ariella could see her soul and it was all her brother.

"Son of a b***h!" She cursed.

"What?" Rhode asked.

She had no idea how loud it came out.

"Nothing am sorry"

"My queen, you never told us you have a sister” Rhode asked when Aliya got to them.

Aliya looked at him and ran to hug Ariella tightly the two of them walking away. They wanted room to talk and their sniffles could be heard.

"Cry make it real siz" she whispered in her ear.

"I can handle this you don't have to torture this innocent soul" Ariella whispered.

"This innocent soul did your job, you have to confirm he is dead am sure he was looking for something that can kill us"

"We have a lot of time to talk about it introduce me to your husband"

They broke free wiping each other's tears. In her head or in Zeli's head a story of how Ariella and Aliya were related was cooking. He could only posses her but not use his power through her. That one he required an Alpha male werewolf and from a specific pack only he knew. It was among his few limitations and advantages.

"My king, meet my sister Ariella" Aliya said happily.

"Are you sure? She has never come up in any of our conversations"

The two sisters were holding each other’s hands tightly.

"The same way I accepted Adonis you have to accept my sister"

"But Adonis is my son, anyway tell me where had she been all this years?"

"I was captured by my father's rival. They faked my death, the kingdom mourned and forgot about me. While in captivity I stuck on hope that my sister Aliya remembers me"

Herman and Rhode were very uncomfortable. It w2as something they did too and no else, alive knew about it. That was top secret information that even the evil queen Aliya had no idea about. She was just in the dark as everyone else.

"Am sorry, take your sister inside"

The same royal treatment that was given to Adonis's was given to Ariella. King Rhode was also happy about it to some extent. If they lived in the same house there was a possibility they were going to meet although in secret without Aliya finding out. He was one horny king. And sleeping around in the kingdom was on his job description.

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Cassandra was getting close to finding out much about Leon. Since the encounter with Zeli that left an innocent girl dead, she had left the girls to take care of patients who knocked on their door, all her time was dedicated to going through ancient literature, casting spells and summoning spirits. The last bit was not a success so far but she kept trying to summon her grandmother. It was her last attempt.

"I summon the spirit of Frida the daughter of the powerful Oracle iris" she said.

There was nothing. Not a surprise. She had been trying to do that the whole day and now it was dark still nothing. During the day she thought maybe the spirits were afraid of the light. She even made the room darker by drawing the curtains which did not make any sense but desperation forces people to do things that don’t sound so sane. Cassandra was giving up.

A knock on her door reminded her that she had other people to worry about.

"Come in!"

The door opened and was shut immediately. She froze.

"Dahlia what was that?"

"I opened the door but it just locked itself"

"Go downstairs I will come to you, what did you need?" Cassandra asked looking around.

There was something in the room with her and she didn't know what it was. Neither could she feel or see it with her own eyes. It was strange.

"I was just checking on you"

"Go!"

She picked up an enchanted bracelet and put it around her arm. Dahlia was right to check on her. Their mistress had not gone downstairs, she barely ate and drank. They were getting worried about her. They were not ready to take over if she died, they were barely learnt enough from her.

"Show yourself"

There was a ruffling sound, then it stopped and a cloud like figure of a woman stood in front of her. She could not tell who she was. After spending the whole day summoning countless spirits of the dead it was impossible to differentiate.

"Who are you?"

"Frida of Iris" a distorted and scary low pitched voice came out of her mouth.

"Grandma, I have been trying to reach you without success even mum bailed on me" she said sadly.

"That's not how it works child, spirits of Oracles don't rest sometimes if you summon them and they don't show up they make might be helping someone else...so what is it you want to know?"

Cassandra had no specific point she wanted to start from. There was a lot she wanted to ask and she hoped Frida was her last stop. A successful one.

"A lot, but first can beasts of the night travel through time?"

"There was a prophecy about one such beast in future, the loophole of nature one of its kind" Her voice became more human and she started having a face, “He would be half beast half monster..."

"A vampire werewolf hybrid that's what they would call it those days" Cassandra interrupted.

"It was said he would be very fast than the speed of light and travel through worm holes from time to time but to perfect that he needs the double edged sword of life and death, the sword of flames and ice"

"Where is that sword?"

"Is the prophecy fulfilled?" She asked getting to a full human figure although her face and hands were glowing a little bit.

"Yes and he doesn't know why he is here, neither do I then there is a wizard named Zeli chasing after him. Today I felt another supernatural distorting the timeline and I think it's him"

She went dumb for a second there worrying Cassandra.

"Did you hear what I said?"

"Yes, Zeli the great evil. To stop him a hybrid needs the sword of life and death, Zeli has a sword of fire that he uses to kill other supernatural species if he is here then you need to help him"

"Where is the sword?"

She went quite again. Was there a chance she has no idea where it was? If she didn't then they had little chance. Frida had just confirmed Leon’s story. It was matching up ad Cassandra was starting to believe she was not mad.

"It’s somewhere in the five kingdoms probably under King Lloyd's jurisdiction. The tomb has a mark of two swords crossing each other. Let me show you..." She said.

A portal opened and from it she could see people walking in the markets, others tilling their lands with oxen in their farms, the lands were green with plenty of fruit and vegetables. The rivers were clean with fish and animals, birds and butterflies. It was paradise.

"This are the five lands in the season 1445, the people lived in peace and harmony. They shared and did not kill each other in war like they do"

The images changed to a burning land. The people were running in different directions, fear stricken and others were falling getting mauled by the strong and powerful. They were killing each other, the clean rivers were now flowing with blood and vultures were ripping meat of carcasses of people. Women were being molested in front of their own children, their husbands were being turned into slaves, killed and maimed without remorse.

"This is the same lands in the season 1600, when a wizard named Allen made his wrath felt. He wanted to reshape the world in his own image and likeness"

The image of the wizard came. He had a human body with a burning skull for a head. His horse was red and in his hands he had the sword of life and death. Everything it touched caught fire.

"The five kings back then came together and merged their forces. The Oracles, witches, beasts and monsters came together. Allen was killing everything and everyone. The only way to stop him was to work together and figure out how to separate his head from his body"

Cassandra was keenly looking at the images.

"Why wasn't this written?"

"The fear of Allen coming back, although it was prophesized another great evil will come in the name of Zeli. The people believed it couldn't be greater than Allen and cause more damage"

"So what happened?" Cassandra asked.

They went back to the portal of images. Allen was lying on a raft with a beautiful girl feeding her berries. What they had no idea about, not even Leon knew was the fact that Zeli had already happened and the evil that they thought they were averting was just a second one, the first one had passed.

"Like all men even the great Allen had a weakness for beautiful women, one beautiful woman witch named phoebe took it upon herself to kill Allen"

"How did she do it?"

The portal of images disappeared. She went back to concentrate on Frida.

"She cast a spell that prevented Allen from leaving his chambers. He was so in love that he never thought killing her was an option. While in captivity the kings and their armies murdered all of his men and surrounded him. Allen knew when to give up so he gave them an option"

The more she narrated the more Cassandra understood ancient history that none of her family members thought it was necessary to let her know. She had found the connection of Leon’s presence in 1823 one thing was remaining. Why that year?

"And what was that?"

"If they let him go he would never kill them again and if they killed him he would be reborn"

"So they killed him?"

"Yes, he had done a lot of damage they could not let him walk free, his head was separated from his body. While the body burned to ashes the head could not be destroyed. The witches created a tomb of magic and sealed it with the blood of the five kings so as to secure the head. To open that tomb one has to be fast enough and have the blood of the kings or their heirs"

"And why 1823? Why this season?"

"With the raging war either Rhode or Lloyd can die and they are the last heirs of the original five kings, without their blood the tomb can't open..."

"And the sword can't be reached then Zeli can't be defeated"

"One thing I forgot to say, phoebe is Zeli's and Ariella's mother"

"Ooh my goodness, he said if they killed him he would be reborn!"

"Yes, I have to leave you now. Help the hybrid to get the sword or there will be no world he will go back to a second wave is coming"

A wind started to blow as Frida regained her cloud like image. Cassandra was so panic stricken that she didn’t get the last part. A second wave was coming meaning the first one was done. And the second wave was the biggest, the siblings were working together.

"How does he go back?"

The wind became stronger. Everything was shaking. Cassandra remembered one thing she had not asked and sadly it was not about the second wave.

"He is a nature's loophole, it will create a path for him" She said and disappeared.

Cassandra had to find Leon. They had no time on their side with large ground to cover.