Training Her Fear
POV: Alexandra
I was shaking after I came inside after the announcement. Lucien had shown up through the secret passage just before I was going out to make my speech. He strode into the foyer from the study at that moment and saw that I was shaking. He walked forward and hugged me, “I know this is nerve-wracking to put out a statement that you don’t fully feel. Try to calm down.” He turned to Dana while still embracing me, “Make her a cup of tea, the relaxation blend that the Queen Mother sent to her.” Dana curtsied, “As you will it Your Majesty.” I spoke into his chest, “Thank you.” He looked down at me, “For what?” I looked up into his eyes, “For being here for me, for calming me down and for being thoughtful enough to ask Dana for that tea. It’s already been so helpful.” He nodded at me, “It’s really nothing. I knew you needed some moral support though I imagine that Jess and Derek probably could have done that. I’m sorry imposed now that I think about it.” I shook my head, “You’re more than welcome here Your Majesty. I would never turn down a friendly hug.” We smiled at each other and came out of the embrace and I was immediately lifted off my feet into another hug.
Derek was not light in his hug either, it was like being hugged from a bear. Jess placed a hand on his arm, “You’re likely to kill her before The Order even attempts to. Put her down.” My feet were finally touching the marble of the foyer and I breathed a sigh of relief. I went and hugged Jess and whispered, “Thank you, he was squeezing way too hard.” She giggled into my hair and whispered back, “I had to since I wanted to hug you too.” Dana came in with the tea, “Here you are, Your Grace.” I took the tea from Dana and inhaled the nice fragrance, “Remind me to send a letter to Her Majesty for the nice gift. It smells lovely.” Lucien smiled, “You know, it helps to drink it though.” I laughed, “You do know that half of enjoying food and drink is the smell.” I took a sip of the hot tea and the flavors of mint, lemon and what I thought was chamomile but I knew that Vellum had no such flower. I looked up at Lucien, “Do you happen to know the flower in this?” He nodded, “It’s called aleria flowers. They are small blue flowers that grow near the beaches in Mesha.” I thought back to when I was in Mesha to visit Blake and remember seeing a field of blue star shaped flowers near the beaches, they reminded me of the columbine flower that grew in Colorado. The only difference between those flowers and columbine was they didn’t have the inner petals that the columbine had. This must have been aleria flowers that Lucien was talking. I nodded, “Yes I think I’ve seen them when I went to visit His Highness a few days ago.”
After about an hour of chatting with Lucien and the General, the two disappeared into the tunnel. Lucien wanted me to be able to go and try to speak with Aphrodite about training Sebastian so that our plan would work properly. I went up to my room to get some privacy to speak to her. I wasn’t sure how that would work since she hadn’t exactly instructed me on this, “Aphrodite?” A flash of light came into my room and she appeared, “Yes my child.” I gasped since I had not expected that to work, “I need to talk to you about the plan to capture the assassin.” She nodded, “Of course but we’re going to have to change the venue. My manifestation here is only temporary, the big man won’t allow for more than a ten-minute conversation outside of the Heavenly realm.” I acknowledged, “Yes, that makes sense.” She pulled her hand up and snapped her fingers and with a flash of light, we were back in Eden. We sat down at her garden table, “Now, you can talk to me about what it is you need from me.” I summoned Sebastian out, he came out immediately and ran up to Aphrodite. He was smiling and wagging his tail so obviously excited to see her. She picked him up, “You’ve taken great care of him. I am pleased to see that he is happy and healthy though I never doubted that you were up to the task. Hades on the other hand…he was skeptical. It was enough that he almost didn’t let me have a pup from the latest litter.” I sighed, “I bring him out to ask you if there is a way to train him to stay in the shadows until he is needed. I don’t want him to get into the habit but if there is a temporary measure that would be great.” She thought about it for a while, “I would have to ask Hades. I want him to see how well this shadow dog is faring.”
She spoke, “Hey Hades, you have time?” A black flash came into view and a man in an all black suit with black hair and red eyes appeared, “I never have time. I am the lord of the underworld. What do you want?” She giggled, “You need to lighten up dear uncle. I wanted you to see how the shadow pup you gave is doing.” He looked down at the pup who was smiling up at him, “I’ll be damned. He is probably the healthiest of his litter. The pyrio is doing well with him. Is that all?” She shook her head, “I was just speaking with her.” She gestured to me and he looked at me, examining me with his scarlet eyes. She continued while he studied me, “She is getting ready capture her would be assassin but she needs to figure out how to keep him from attacking so that she can succeed.” He narrowed his eyes at me, “Why would you want him to not protect you? Wasn’t that the point of taking him to the Magical realm?” I sat up in my seat, “I just need him to stay put long enough for my trap to be set.” He shook his head, “It is in his nature to protect the one he is engrained to. In essence, you are his mother. He sees you that way and he would never allow you to be hurt. The best you can do is use him to capture the assassin. Usually, shadow dogs will kill their master’s enemies but I can give you the command to restrain him. It works like magic but you’d have to be at least okay at shadow magic.” I had not heard of shadow magic in the Magical realm so I asked, “I had never heard of this element of magic.” He scoffed, “You wouldn’t have. Semi-mortals would not be able to do so but ones whose souls are created from us are able to do so. You wouldn’t be proficient but you would be able to use just enough to control the pup.”
I thought of what he said wondering if Saraphia was also able to use this magic since her soul was made by Brigit. I nodded at him, “I think I understand. What is this command that I must say to keep him from killing?” He crouched down to play with Sebastian, “The command would be sisto.” It seemed like such a simple phrase but it would be easy enough to remember in the heat of the moment. He looked up at me, “As for waiting for the moment to have him attack, he reacts on your fear. He cannot see what is going within your shadows. You will have to train your fear to keep him from showing up before he is needed to arrest the assassin.” Aphrodite spoke up, “And that is where I come in.” I looked over at her, “What do you mean by that?” She smiled and pulled out a bottle of grey liquid that had a slight purple shimmer to it. She handed it to me and smiled, “One of my children is the God of Fear, he said that this should help you train your fear. You drink it and it will temporarily get rid of the fear. You can deactivate it with this small vial.” She pulled out another small vial of clear liquid. I studied the two bottles and placed them in my pockets. Hades rose to his feet, “If I am no longer needed, I must get back to me duties.” I spoke, “Thank you for your valuable insight.” He waved over his shoulder, “Try not to get killed, I really don’t need more work.” He disappeared with a black flash. I looked over at Aphrodite, “He seems like a delightful god.” She shrugged, “Do you blame him? He stuck overseeing death all the time. You probably wouldn’t be happy.” I nodded, “He is inevitable after all.” She giggled, “Well my love, I need to send you home. I am being summoned.”
Before I could tell her bye, I was standing in my room. I spoke to myself, “Well that was rude.” I just remembered not having Sebastian in my shadow when she sent me back. Fear and panic rose within me when suddenly I heard next to me a dog growling. I looked down to see Sebastian and my fear subsided. He barked at me and I reached down to pick him up. I pulled him up to my face, “Thank Aphrodite. I thought you were stuck in Eden.” He licked me profusely in my face, I fell back on my bed as he continued to lick me and I started to giggle uncontrollably. A knock came at the door and Dorothea’s voice came through, “Pretty one, are you decent? We witches need to talk to you.” I rose to my feet and opened my door. Dorothea smiled up at me, “We heard from the brat. They took your bait. They’re getting ready to capture you and kill me. Isn’t that cute?” I furrowed my brows, “Capture me? I thought they wanted me dead.” She shook her head, “You pissed off the head guy with your statement. He now wants you tortured.” I sighed, “Oh how nice. Well, I spoke with Aphrodite. She gave me some potions from her son Phobos to train my fear. I also got to meet Hades. Delightful guy, he gave me a command for Bash not to kill the guy.” She nodded, “There’s just one more thing.” I looked at her confused, “Oh? What’s that?” She winked, “Just meet me and the girls downstairs in few minutes.”
