Ajalon: Blood to Blood, Chap. 3

Chapter Three –

Walker stood in front of Jarek holding out his hands, half in awe, and the rest in relief. He thought his brother could have been killed in the process, like their parents. When he felt the strange energy in Jarek’s room, he had called for assistance, and then blasted his way in to get the surprise attack.
His brother looked much older now, even older than himself. It shocked him that his brother had changed so much instantly. Without asking, he sent his mind into his brother’s space and read into his DNA. Like the molecules that Kennon had shown him, the new molecules visible, but unlike those same, earlier molecules, Jarek’s had a full hydrogen bond with the new code. As if the new code had fused and replaced a part of Jarek.
Suddenly, Walker was thrown back into his body, and then shoved out the door and across the hall. Jarek glared at him, “Stop researching me Walker!”
Walker caught himself with Majar’s Air and replied, “I…am sorry, Jarek I was just taking a look. It wasn’t anything harmful. What has gotten into you?”
Jarek shook his head, “Nothing.”
Walker shot forward, grabbing Jarek by the wrist and said sternly, “Jarek, something besides your appearance has changed!” A second later the two of them materialized in the World of Memories. “Jarek, I know what happened. I watched all of it.”
“The whole world watched it Walker, we all still know nothing about it,” said Jarek as he fought free of his brother’s grip, and then stepped back.
“You are the only one who showed any change. You are the only one powerful enough to sustain that much energy. Besides me, you are the only one with the Genetic Code of the Mergers besides me, and I didn’t host it! You did, now tell me what is happening!” said Walker furiously, taking a step forward.
Jarek scowled, and lifted his hands, balling them into fists. “Don’t come near me right now please, Walker, just let me be for a couple of days!”
“We may not have a couple of days!” replied Walker hysterically, taking a step forward, warily.
“I told you NO!” said Jarek, as he formed in his mind a raging whirlwind of lightning. As his brother had shown him not so many months ago, he shimmered into the real world, his newly created Memory manifesting, sending electricity racing down the halls of the Tower.
“Jarek!” cried Walker, as he appeared behind his brother an instant before a tendril of light and fire made its advance on him. Instinctively, Walker immersed into the Memory again, to re-enter reality with the retaliation and control of a king. Boulders filled the hall, as his defense became a powerful attack.
The electricity surged outward still, until the boulders began tumbling from every direction towards Jarek, who retracted his lightning into a physical electric barrier that held tons of rock at bay. Dematerializing, he said, “Don’t come after me…” The field of electric energy diminished instantly, as the boulders collided against one another, exploding into oblivion.
Walker stared at where his brother had been and felt tears begin rolling down his eyes. What have I done?

Jarek released his energies, wildly landing his translocation wherever he would fall. As his atoms compressed together again, he hit the ground on his knees, holding his head in pain. He had no idea where he was, but cold , dense mist swirled about him. This place was eerie, freezing, and miserable.
He sat still for a few moments, gathering his strength before standing. The mist was thick, his vision obscured by it. He could see no more than a few feet in any direction. Closing his eyes, he silently commanded the matter that composed the mist to separate, and move upward, into the sky to form the clouds that the moisture should create. The mist quickly raised, showing the marshy wet bog around him. He had landed on a small island of mud and sticks, which seemed to him like a once-in-a-lifetime crash landing.
Something in the marsh around him gave him the creeps. It gnawed at his nerves and stepped into his aura, brushing up against the limits of his boundaries. He lifted himself from the ground and hovered over the marshland, peering warily into the waters below.
Nothing attacked him, but everything seemed to watch him, as if on guard. He wondered if nature could innately sense his abilities, even the most aggressive creatures were standing down.
He flew quickly through the air towards solid ground, and landed glancing around. His senses were going crazy, warning him that there were countless evil things around him, approaching from all directions, barely staying outside of his vision, massing, perhaps to take him down.
He prepared the Rivers, pulling them into his grasp. Lifting his hands, into the air, they burst into flame which quickly gathered into spheres in his palms. Immediately after, two men manifested at a jog in the marshland behind him.
“Jarek Salathiel?” asked one of the men.
The young prince nodded, as the two men lunged forward, lightning spitting from their fists. One cried, “Malodra,” as the chains once again lashed outward to bind Jarek. The prince kicked as hard as he could from the ground, soaring into the sky. After catching himself, he turned to look down at the two men. He recognized them, they were Ajalon who were stationed in Guundon, a Kingdom across the Channel of Storms.
“Jarek Salathiel! We are here to take you home!”
“I can get there myself when I am ready!” cried Jarek in reply. Then he whispered with his mind to nature, Don’t let them follow me! In response to his plea, shadows and flame poured from the trees, as a horde of wraiths broke into Jarek’s sight. The two Ajalon went back to back, blasting fire and then lightning at will into the mass of evil around them. The wraiths slowed when the Seven Rivers hit home, knocking three of their number down. Almost immediately however, they lurched inward, and the two Ajalon were overrun, two screams cutting through the air, as Jarek closed his eyes, and commanded the Seven Rivers to pick him up in their currents.

Kennon Skyril stood with his own eyes closed, watching this little runaway in action with his Third Eye. He found it amazing that such a young being would have so much power. He had been alive for nearly nine thousand years, and never had he seen so many humans with as much power as these called the Salathiels. Since their first arrival, Orathiel, there had never been a moment that was not interesting.
He, like the Gods, watched these men and women, recording them throughout their history. In each generation it seemed that there was a new power that got tapped into, or unlocked. This was their evolution. Far faster than any other mortals, this bloodline was rapidly becoming God Blood. First it was the ability to host the full source of the Seven Rivers at once through one body, six hundred years ago. That was Kyle Salathiel at twenty-six years of age. These days, there were mere children with the power to turn the night to day, and to twist the very fate of the planet.
This world had been the favorite of all Gods since its creation, for it has always had the drama. Wars occurred on Amonor more than any other planet; it was only by a miracle that this world still existed after all.
The Lord of the Malador stood at the edge of the Marshes of Guundon, and watched as two Ajalon were devoured by wraiths. He didn’t dare do anything to stop it, knowing Jarek’s anger, and knowing that even he couldn’t take on an army of Darkbreed alone.
This was a rather amazing scene to watch however, and as he watched, Walker materialized beside him, “He does have amazing powers, your brother…”
“I know…it wasn’t so long ago that those…abominations…evolved, and their new power bows down to his, as if they were nothing,” said Walker, frowning, “So how are we supposed to deal with this? He just commanded the deaths of two Ajalon…that is treason. How am I supposed to deal justice on my brother?”
“Well, you can start by giving him the couple of days that he asked for,” replied Kennon, raising his eyebrows, “Because if you keep following him, he is going to run farther and farther away from you.”
“I know, but do you really think he will come back?”
“No one knows but him,” responded Kennon.
Walker watched as the wraiths began to part ways from their horde, and return to the mists that had already began to take over again now that Jarek was gone. He realized then what drove these creatures through life, and that was life itself…or rather, the destruction of it. Now that there was no more life in these marshes that they could sense, they fled the from the light, back into the fog that hid them, making them even more dangerous. They were smart creatures, and powerful after their cataclysmic evolution sixty three years ago.
Shuddering at their evil, he brought his arms across his chest for warmth and let the Rivers take him back home, where he would sit before the fire in his room, worrying about his brother for the rest of the night.