Blyss of the TrueHearts

II

“You shot him?”

I squirmed in my seat uncomfortably. I tried to smile innocently, but Elhanan did not take kindly to it. “Blyss, you can’t just shoot other TrueHearts. When I say you’re special, it doesn’t mean you have permission to go and do something like this! I let the letter slip, but this I simply cannot ignore!”

“You knew about the letter?” I asked sheepishly. Elhanan rubbed his temples.

“Of course, I knew about the letter. You think I wouldn’t know you switched them?” My eyes fell to my lap. “That’s besides the point. It’s one thing to let a letter pass through, but shooting another TrueHeart, and such a nice one like Thomas, well, I can’t let you escape this one.” Elhanan paced from one end of his study to another. He had me seated in his favorite chair by the fireplace, but the flames weren’t gentle and warm today. The fire was loud and crackling, much like the thunderstorm I had caused at PearlGate.

“I promise you it wasn’t him I was trying to shoot!” I repeated for the umpteenth time.

“Oh, so it was someone else you wanted to kill? Is this supposed to help your case?” said Elhanan throwing his arms in the air. Nothing ever seemed to swerve Elhanan from his usual placid disposition, but today he was just as out of sorts as me.

“I told you I didn’t see Thomas at all. I saw man, dressed in all black. He was evil, Elhanan, I could tell. He needed to be…” I struggled to find a word to use. “He needed to be defeated.”

“That doesn’t mean we shoot him! We try to reverse evil and save the person trapped in it, not-did you say defeated?” Elhanan looked at me very deliberately.

‘Um, ye-yes.” I stuttered. Elhanan’s sudden quietness frightened me. He put a finger to his lips, something he always did when he was deep in thought. He began to pace again, but his grey eyes were darting back and forth like a mad man. His pacing sped up, and his long white hair began to fly behind him as he walked. “Is something wrong, Elhanan?” I inquired nervously.

“You made an interesting choice of words, Ms. Bannon,” he said with almost a smile. He hadn’t called me Ms. Bannon since he met Rudy and me at Istoria’s border with Chorio. He paced a few moments longer before walking to the door and gesturing for me to come.

“Where are we going?” I asked as I followed him down the corridor.

“To see Vangelis,” was all he said. My heart skipped more than one beat. I had only seen Vangelis at the welcoming ceremony and the few times he stopped by to watch trainings or to grab food from the dining hall. He seemed like an amiable man; he was always talking and laughing with any TrueHeart who wanted to make conversation, but still he was the leader of us all. He was the one who hand picked me and ordered me to be given Maleficent magic, so clearly he knew something about me that I didn’t. Despite all that, I had never spoken to him personally since I had arrived at PearlGate. I wasn’t looking forward to the first time being after I shot a man with an arrow.

Since my incident this afternoon, all the TrueHearts had been ordered back to their rooms for the rest of the day. The hospital ward of the castle had been locked up so the doctors and nurses could focus on Thomas with no distractions. I was grateful for the quiet, empty corridors we walked through. At least this way I wouldn’t be harassed as I turned each corner.

We walked into a part of PearlGate I had only been through once, but that was because I was lost looking for my room. This wing of PearlGate was reserved for TrueHeart leaders, professors, and counselors. I was sure Elhanan’s room was behind one of the many doors we passed, but it seemed inappropriate to ask now. At the end of the hall was a set of double doors, beautifully carved and adorned with golden handles. The doors didn’t make a sound as Elhanan opened them.

Vangelis’s study was much like Elhanan’s but larger and with windows that brought in tremendous amounts of light. Vangelis was at his desk, leafing through some book and annotating on a separate sheet of paper. He rubbed his black and grey beard every time it seemed he didn’t understand something. The top of his head was covered in thin dark hair that was completely slicked back. When he looked up, his gentle brown eyes glowed.

“Elhanan! Blyss! Glad to see you both! Please, make yourselves comfortable,” he said cordially as he gestured to two chairs across from his desk. Once we were seated, Vangelis put down his quill and folded his hands. He smiled pleasantly as if he was completely unaware of what I had done today.

“Blyss, are you alright? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost,” said Vangelis with genuine concern in his eyes.

“Well, sir, I just shot a man,” I blurted like a fool. Vangelis chuckled.

“You’re funny,” he grinned. “You have no need to worry though. It’s very likely Thomas will make it through with full recovery. You’re lucky to have shot a very nice boy like Thomas. I doubt he’ll harbor hatred against you.” Gee, that makes me feel so much better, I couldn’t help but think. On the outside, I smiled gratefully and held my tongue. Somehow, I’m sure Vangelis knew what I was really thinking.

“Now, Elhanan, I do believe you came here to tell me something, no?” Vangelis inquired. Elhanan nodded.

“Yes, but I think it would be better coming from Blyss.” I glowered at Elhanan for doing this to me.

“Well, Blyss?” Vangelis smiled. I swallowed my last bit of fear and spoke.

“When I was about to shoot, I saw a man, dressed in all black with black eyes and black hair.” An unidentifiable emotion flashed across Vangelis’s face. It was pain, but there was also confusion. I continued, “He sort of appeared just past my target. I never saw Thomas, I swear I didn’t. The man though, he looked evil. And I know it’s not protocol to shoot evil people, but-”

“Something told you to?” Vangelis finished. I nodded.

“She told me he needed to be defeated,” Elhanan finished. “That’s why I brought her with me.” Vangelis lifted his eyebrows.

“Defeated? Interesting choice of words,” he said surprised. Why do they keep saying that? I panicked.

“I didn’t know what other word to use,” I insisted. Vangelis gave me an encouraging look of sympathy and rose from his seat. Like Elhanan and all head TrueHearts, Vangelis wore a white robe that trailed gently behind as he walked to his book shelves. Vangelis, however, had golden decale threaded into the sleeves of his robe, signifying his importance. The golden threads glittered as he lifted his arm to pull out a book.

“Blyss, there are two types of Evil in our realms,” he said as he returned to his desk. “The type TrueHearts deal with the most is called Latching Evil. It latches on to a person’s soul, much like a parasite or a claw in someone’s skin. This kind of evil is fleeting. It is a demon that serves a greater master. It is a TrueHeart’s job to removing Latching Evil and free the soul from this burden.”

“And the second type?” I asked. Vangelis looked at me with grave eyes.

“Ruling Evil,” he answered. “For everything created, so is its opposite, its balance. For Good, there is Ruling Evil. Ruling Evil is the ultimate evil, the ultimate equal to anything on the side of the light. It can never be completely subdued because we need it to create balance. Evil provides the crucial necessity for Good.” Vangelis’s eyes almost looked wet as he looked out the windows. “TrueHearts are trained to pull people away from Latching Evil and show them Good. We never “destroy” or “conquer” or “defeat” Latching Evil because we simply don’t have to. It is trivial and weak. It begins to shrivel at the slightest presence of a TrueHeart. Ruling Evil is different. It likes to fester and grow past the balance. Ruling Evil, it’s like a creature with a mind of its own, and it wants to throw chaos back into the realms. Every few thousand centuries, it becomes too powerful. All the TrueHeart leaders from those time periods have written about it, and every one of them wrote the same thing.” He looked down at his book to confirm.

“Ruling Evil must be defeated,” I guessed, too impatient to wait for Vangelis. He looked up and nodded.

“Defeat is not a word we take lightly around here,” Vangelis explained. “So if you’re telling us you saw a man that needed to be defeated, well, then-”

“He might be connected to the Ruling Evil,” I finished. Vangelis nodded again.

“You are quite right, my dear. Quite right.”

“But you and Elhanan, you can both see into the future. Surely you saw this coming, and you can see what will happen,” I insisted, looking between them anxiously. Both Vangelis and Elhanan shook their heads.

“We only see what the heavens above allow us to see. The visions come sporadically. Usually it’s main events but not what leads to them,” Elhanan explained.

Vangelis must’ve seen my perplexity, for he quickly added, “You’ll learn all about this soon enough. Your trainings will cover the Evils and our future seeing, don’t worry,” he assured me. “Elhanan only brought you to me so you could be aware of the situation you are in. From the glimpses of the future we’ve seen, it’s clear you are somehow importantly connected. It’s one of the reasons you’ve been chosen as a TrueHeart and why you were so rigorously tested in Istoria. What happened today may have something to do with your future, but at this point, not even Elhanan and I can be sure. Be careful, Blyss. The Ruling Evil may be seeking you out. Just as you are important to us, you are important to Ruling Evil too.” I stared at Vangelis blankly. I rose up from my chair and returned to the door.

“Blyss?” Elhanan called out.

“She needs time to think, Elhanan,” I heard Vangelis say to him. I stiffly let myself back into the corridor and somehow made it back to room 158 without collapsing. Don’t panic. You knew this was coming. You knew you were chosen for a reason. This is it. So don’t panic. I put these reminders on an infinite loop. Silently, I removed my blue robe from over the simple black dress I wore beneath. The dress had bell shaped sleeves that, if I whirled myself around fast enough, expanded and fluttered around my wrists. Playing with the sleeves wouldn’t cheer me up now though. I threw the robe on my desk chair and flopped onto my bed. I stared at the wallpaper glued to the ceiling. It was obvious what this all was leading towards. Somehow, I’d be involved in the defeating of Ruling Evil. How I would do this or why it had to be me, I did not know. It was irritating, constantly being told new things that made my future all the more unknown. The more I learned, the less I wanted to know. I was drained. After so many ups and downs during the Month of Midnights, having ambiguous information shoved down my throat was wearing me out. I was already beginning to feel my heart drag when the trainings had started two months ago.

“Time’ll fly,” Rudy had promised to me.

“For you it will. Not for me,” I lamented. He chuckled and lifted my chin up.

“Just finish those rules for me next time I come back.” He was referring to the rules of our courtship, something our parents would have insisted on enforcing were they here with us. Though it seemed silly to have rules when we were technically free from our families’ control, it was nice to have something normal like courtship etiquette. Normal was hard to come by in this part of the world.

“I promise I’ll finish them,” I laughed. Rudy pulled me into his embrace one last time. I remembered clutching him tightly, almost afraid to let him go.

“You’re going to be a great TrueHeart,” he whispered. “Whatever they have in plan for you, it’ll be good.” I bit my lip, trying to keep myself from weeping like a child. I pressed my forehead harder against his shoulder.

“Go save the world, Rudy,” I managed to say. This always made him smile. He liked my little mantra for him.

Rudy laughed through his nose and said, “For you, Blyss Bannon, I’d do anything.” Oh, Rudy, why’d you have to go and say that? I did a very poor job of keeping myself composed. As I cried into his chest, I could feel his whole body tremble with me. He was crying too. “Don’t lose your fire while I’m gone,” he said, finally pulling away from me. I nodded solemnly and wiped away my tears. I wanted to be strong.

“Good luck, Mr. Horsefield.”

“And the same to you, Ms. Bannon,” he nodded, “but before I forget.” He placed his hand on the side of my face and kissed me for a time that never seemed long enough.

“There’s definitely going to be a rule against that,” I couldn’t help but add. He laughed only a little at this, for he was already bringing me closer again. This second kiss hurt. I knew it’d be the last one.

He told me he loved me one more time before finally leaving. Familiar guilt came with the memory of our parting. I wasn't supposed to lose my fire. After a mere two months, my fire had been practically extinguished.

The lavender evening light began to pour through my open window. It colored my entire room a soft purple. It was strange how gentle and calm everything had become after the day’s events. Between the letter incident with Elhanan, me shooting an innocent man and soon falling out of a tree, and finishing it all out by speaking to Vangelis for the first time, today had been the most interesting day since I arrived here.

I rose to shut the window before the night breezes could seep into my walls. Room 158 gave the prettiest view to the sunset. The grassy meadows were all colored pinks and purples, and the beautiful sun began to sink beneath the distant forests of Katharos. I pressed my head against the top of the window. Things will get better, I promised myself. I stayed by the window to watch the rest of the sunset and then went to bed, not bothering to come down for supper.

The next morning I rose early, long before breakfast would be served. Once dressed, I made my way to the hospital wing of PearlGate. It was opened back up again for visitors, but hardly anyone was there except Maudie. She was one of the oldest TrueHearts, but she opted not to take a higher position in our ranks. Her husband, once a commander in the Guard, had fallen terminally ill several years ago, and he was forced to a hospital bed in PearlGate. Maudie spent every moment of her freetime by Arthur’s side. I’m sure she was even allowed to stay in the ward when it was closed off for Thomas’s surgery.

PearlGate’s hospital wing mainly comprised of a long, wide, corridor that had been cleared of any fancy paintings or antiques. The walls were bare, and the floor was stone, and lining each side of the corridor were rows of simple cots. At the far end were doors to more operating rooms, but only TrueHearts who had volunteered to become doctors or nurses could go in there. At first, I couldn’t quite understand why’d there be a pressing need for such a large hospital wing. I assumed TrueHearts didn’t deal with anything too physically dangerous, but as usual, I was terribly mistaken.

I shuffled quietly over the stone floor, passing many empty beds on my way to find Thomas. I saw a few TrueHearts lying sick with fever, and of course, there was Arthur and Maudie, but all of them were fast asleep. Even the nurse on duty was dozing over her little desk. At the very end of the corridor, in the bed closest to where the operating rooms were, lay Thomas. A thick bandage was wrapped around his right shoulder, but thankfully no arrow was protruding out of it. Thomas’s sandy colored hair clung to his forehead, and beads of sweat were crawling down his pale skin. His lips were dry and cracked, and dark circles plagued the skin underneath his eyes.

I bit my lip in remorse. I had done this to him. In attempt to shoot a man I didn’t even know, I had instead harmed an innocent TrueHeart. Thomas was such a nice boy too. He was kind to everybody, humorous but still deeply compassionate; he was the perfect definition of a real TrueHeart.

I sat down gently on his bed, but even that was enough to awake him. “Blyss?” he muttered weakly. His eyes barely fluttered open.

“I-I didn’t mean to wake you,” I answered quietly. Thomas managed a smile.

“That’s alright. I’m glad you came before everyone else.” My head jerked back.

“Really?” I blurted. Thomas nodded in the best way he could.

“I know Anthony and the others will come and tell me all sorts of things about you. I’d rather just hear the truth straight from you.” Thomas was eighteen like me, but in that moment he acted wise beyond years.

My eyes fell to the blankets as I whispered, “That’s very gracious of you, Thomas.” A moment of silence passed between us. All the ward was quiet, only being interrupting by the single cough of a patient at the other end of the corridor.

“Why’d you shoot me, Blyss?” he finally pressed.

“I didn’t shoot you,” I answered. Thomas waited for me to continue. I met his gaze again and sighed. “I was getting ready to shoot the target when I saw this man. He...he was smiling at me. He looked, no, I’m sure he was evil. I know what protocol is for dealing with evil, but this man was different.” Thomas looked at me with great intensity, but his expression never changed. “I’ve already spoken with Vangelis about it, and I think he believes me.”

“I believe you too,” Thomas interrupted. My shoulders relaxed.

“Thank you.”

“I’ve heard about it a little. About the exceptions to the protocol for evil,” he said.

“Yes, there are some. Apparently there’s a whole other type of evil we’ve yet to learn about,” I replied. This made Thomas laugh.

“There’s a lot we’ve yet to learn about,” he agreed. Thomas and I made small talk a little longer. He expressed his gratitude for my company several times. He wasn’t looking forward to the swarm of people who’d be coming in the next few weeks. A quiet chatter of new voices began to trickle down the ward, and I knew Thomas’s other visitors had arrived.

“I’ll slip out before I cause a riot over your bedside,” I joked as I began to stand up. Thomas suddenly grabbed my hand.

“Thank you,” he said firmly, “for telling me the truth yourself. I’ll never believe anything they say about you, especially now that I really know you.” I stammered out a reply of gratitude, but he still gripped my hand. “There’s rumors you’re here for a different reason than the rest of us.”

“I’ve heard,” I muttered bitterly.

“Blyss, you’re here to save us.” I felt my mouth begin to gape open, for I could offer no response. His eyes were so sincere, I had to believe him. The familiar clump of blue robes began to come closer, and I darted out as unnoticed as possible.

Thomas’s words still had me unnerved all through breakfast. Since Vangelis had told me of Ruling Evil, I had come to figure I’d be instrumental in its defeat, but I never thought about what that really meant. Defeating Ruling Evil meant I also had to protect everyone in the realms.

Now the pressure really began to set in, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it. Today was a training day, and I was shuffled into one of the sitting rooms converted into a classroom. I hardly paid attention to what was being said. I was trying to avoid the glares and the small sounds of disgust being made by others in the room. Everyone sat very far away from me; they didn’t want to get “shot by the villain girl.” Only Lachlan stayed by my side who thankfully had a training schedule almost identical to mine.

“Lucky you have a second boyfriend to protect you while the other’s gone,” Anthony whispered as he passed by me. Ugh! How can Elhanan say he has goodness in his heart? Let alone be a TrueHeart! I thought resentfully as Anthony passed on. Lachlan shot a nasty glance to Anthony before resuming looking towards Ludovic our instructor.

Today, all new TrueHearts would only attend one training that would last well into the afternoon, only breaking once to let us eat lunch. Everyone was receiving the same information, just from different instructors. The topic of the day was Soul Slipping. It was one of the most important skills we had to master, thus we were already beginning training for it so early. Today would be a lesson on the basics of Soul Slipping and maybe an attempt or two at actually trying it.

Ludovic commanded our attention once everyone settled. “I will not tolerate any foolish behaviour. The quieter you are, the faster we can get through the boring parts and get to actually trying it this afternoon.” Just like that, the room was silent. “Excellent,” he smiled. He surveyed the room curiously, looking to see which students he had. His eyes fell over each of our heads nonchalantly until they reached me. He paused for a moment, absolutely expressionless, and moved on.

“Pull out your books. Let’s begin,” he said finally. Each new TrueHeart was given several books, all with blank pages, that we used for annotation to study later. Ludovic snapped his fingers and a multitude of quills appeared in the air. Gently, each of them fell into a lap of a TrueHeart to use for writing. Unlike the traditional quills we had to use for any extracurricular writing, these quills required no inkwell. With the touch of magic, these quills never ran out of ink, making it more productive for TrueHearts to use during a lecture. At the end of each training, the instructor would snap their fingers again, and they’d be gone just as fast as they came.

As my own quill descended to my lap, a random girl snatched away. She twirled it in her hands playfully with a mean smirk on her face. I looked down at my book, waiting for her to return it. They’ve been chosen for a reason, I reminded myself, somewhere deep inside, there has to be a powerful good. As I expected, she gave it back with an eye roll and focused on her own book.

“Soul Slipping is crucial to the success of what we do. To convince a character to make the right choice, to fight the Latching Evil inside them-” Latching Evil. I looked around the room, but it seemed only I knew what that actually was. “-we must be in their soul, the root of where the conscience is. Once in there, we can speak to them directly. Slipping into a Soul requires something different from each person. None of you will see the same things in the Soul. Some of you will even meet Latching Evil directly, which won’t be too much of a problem, but it will distract you and-”

“Excuse me, what exactly is Latching Evil?” someone finally asked. Ludovic smiled.

“That is an excellent question. For the time being, I can’t go too much into detail, but another training will cover that soon enoughg. For now, all you need to know is that out of two types of Evils, Latching Evil is the weaker. It merely ‘latches’ onto the soul and drains the life from the person through the persisting impulses it creates. You should never have to fight it directly, just coax the Soul away from its temptations.” Everyone quickly wrote this down, and for once I let myself feel a little bit smug for already knowing it.

Ludovic continued on into more precision of what we had to do to Soul Slip. I zoned in and out, still thinking about everything Thomas said this morning. I snapped back to attention whenever specific steps were given on the process. There was something about a little chant we had to say, some spell we had to cast before we began. I wrote down all of it but understood not a single word. I was lost somewhere else.

Suddenly, everyone around me was rising from their seats and leaving the room. “Where are they all going?” I asked Lachlan. He rolled his eyes.

“Daydreaming again?” he asked sarcastically. I felt my face flush as I began to close my book. My quill had already disappeared.

“I wouldn’t call it a dream,” I muttered half heartedly. Lachlan frowned.

“Don’t let them get to you,” he said. “They’re just a bunch of half wits.” This made me chuckle, just as Lachlan had intended it to. I returned my things back to my room and came to the dining hall for the midday meal. Larkin and Piper were waiting for us, both eager to talk about Soul Slipping. Even Larkin seemed excited about the unique TrueHeart skill and spared a bit of emotion in smiling.

Piper chirped as we waited in line for our food, “I mean, isn’t just amazing? We get to be in a person’s soul and help change their life! I’m just jumping out my robe, I’m so excited for this afternoon!” Larkin let out a pleasant laugh.

“For once, I think I agree with Piper,” she grinned.

“Who was your instructor?” I ask. Just like Lachlan and I were paired in the same courses, Larkin and Piper had several mutual trainings as well. It had been pretty amusing at first to see them come in and out of their classes. Piper was so full of life and energy, and Larkin’s face was solid as stone. Even her brother had made fun of how strange they looked walking together.

“Meredith,” Piper replied promptly. “She’s so nice, and she had such beautiful long hair. It’s like liquid chocolate!” Larkin rolled her eyes.

“Never mind her hair. She’s confusing in her lectures. She’ll jump from one topic to the next, completely at random! It’s a nightmare having to learn to her, especially when it’s something as complex as Soul Slipping,” she complained.

“Didn’t you two have Ludovic?” Piper asked. Lachlan and I nodded.

“He’s a bit strict for me,” said Lachlan. “He should’ve been in the Guard. He’s better off leading soldiers into battle than teaching a bunch of newbies how to Soul Slip.” We all agreed our instructors had their faults and left it at that. Lunch was eaten, and all TrueHearts in training were sent back to their instruction rooms from this morning. Thankfully, everyone was too excited talking about Soul Slipping now to show any resentment to me. Lachlan and I sat quietly; we had already done most of the “excited talk” with Larkin and Piper. After what seemed ages of waiting, Ludovic strolled into the room calmly, his hands folded in the large sleeves of his white robe. Again, he silenced us and looked around the room with a sparkle of amusement in his eyes.

“As some of the more experienced TrueHearts might have already told you, you will be put into pairs for Soul Slipping practice. I will give you your pair, and then we’ll head out to the courtyard with the others.” Ludovic pulled a small scroll from the sleeve of his robe and unfurled it slowly. “Please keep in mind if you do not like your partner, Vangelis has hand chosen each and every pair. If you have a complaint, you’ll have go to him.” Of course, no one would do that. As nice as Vangelis was, he was the most powerful TrueHeart. Complaining to him seemed petty and foolish.

“Daniel and Casper. Ash and Marina. Eve and Morgan,” Ludovic began to list pairs faster than we could process. People awkwardly stood up, looked for their partner, and stood next to them as they waited for the rest of the names to be called.

“Lachlan and Claris.” I caught an unexpected smile in Lachlan’s expression, but it quickly faded away into the tough exterior he put on like his twin sister. Claris, a beautiful girl who showed kindness to everybody, even me, eagerly came to meet Lachlan.

“Heidi and Maximillion-”

“It’s Max!”

Ludovic eyed him and continued. “Heidi and Max. Anthony and Blyss. Mildred and…”