Chapter Sixty-four: The Teleporter

Athena and I don’t move, keeping our eyes on Nuria, who is strutting around, looking around her. She looks back to us curiously with her unusual eyes.

“So, which Goddess or God is your Mother, or Father?” She asks plainly, getting right to the point, watching our reaction.

“The Moon Goddess.” We respond, our voice in unison sounding slightly strange.

“Ah, I should have known from the hair. Lovely.” She says with a smirk.

“….And the Sun God.”

She stops moving and turns to face us. “Ah, so you are a child of two deities. Not common at all, certainly rare, especially two of the originals. I wonder why you are here and I’ve not seen you in Eos. I assume you have lots of gifts then. What’s your name? Have you managed to master them all?” She says very quickly, and as if we already knew all of this.

We look at her shocked. “I’m Aliana. And, er, no. We’ve only just mastered this.” We say, our hands gesturing to our current state.

“I think we should split so we can talk to her.” We say simultaneously in our mind, which is still very strange. We place a hand up, signalling that we need a moment, and she crosses her arms, seemingly impatient, but nods for us to go ahead.

Athena and I both pull up the wall we put down. I slowly feel Athena’s mind become unattached from my own and as it does, I see the glow dissipate from our arms and the tips of my hair in my peripheral vision returns to the brunette I’m accustomed to.

After a few moments, I feel the wall rekindle between Athena and I. I suddenly feel exhausted and so I sit on the sand in the exact same spot I’m standing, allowing myself a few moments to take a breather. Once settled, I look up at Nuria who is watching me still, a bit curious as to how my appearance has changed but she doesn’t broach the subject…..she’s probably used to children of Gods and Goddess’ changing their appearance.

I sigh after having a few moments. “I don’t know what an original is, but all I know is that they are my Mother and Father. You’ve never seen me on Eos, as I’ve never been there. As far as I’m aware, I was born on this world and more recently, as in months, I’ve only found out what I am and that I was a child of two deities.
As for the gifts, I can manipulate water. I’m unsure what else I can do yet.”

I stop, wanting to get to know her first before I carry on. I know I should trust her but I only know about her based on information found from books.

She regards me with her bottomless eyes.

“How did you find me?” I splutter, wanting to get in with a few questions of my own.

“I felt your presence. A part of my gift is to see manifestations of power. I can teleport to these locations on a whim. I should warn though, if I felt that surge, which was quite large, then no doubt my Father did also. He’ll be coming for your power no doubt.” She responds.

“Can he teleport here, like you have?” I wonder, unsure why he’s not appeared yet.

“Tsk tsk. No, he doesn’t hold this sort of power.” She starts while sneering, but not towards me. “He will be able to sense it though, and will be able to head in the general direction of where the power surge came from.”

“Very well. What powers do you have?” I simply ask, wanting to know her more.

She smiles at me. “Well, I can teleport to wherever I want. I just think and poof!” she says, throwing her hands in the air. “I can also feel power emanating. I differ from my Father though, as I can feel power from across all space.”

I cock my head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I felt a power spot pop up, which was yourself a short time ago. All I need to do is close my eyes and try and reach that spot, which I did, and I opened a portal here. I’ve been looking for help for a long time. I’ve been trying to jump to these spots which are very few and far between.” She says looking slightly crushed.

I process everything she’s said to me and one question pops up. “Why are you looking for me?”

She chuckles slightly before deciding to come and sit on the sand with me, mimicking my crossed legs. She places her hands on her knees though, seemingly finding it more comfortable.

“I was told to look for a child of Eos, and to trust them with information. The other power surges I’ve come across were not….people.” She says with a slight shiver. “Sometimes there are Suns, or well in more specific terms, stars, out there that are born and as with all life, eventually die. These also radiate power so I’ve found myself nearly blown up by a Star or two. You are the only one I have come across that is an actual person.
When I was last in Eos, I was approached by a few of the originals. An original is one of the first set of Gods ever created. Anyway, they are worried about my Father, Erebus. He is a consumer God, a God of darkness, who can bring an eternity of night to whomever he consumes. He can also absorb someone’s power for a period of time.
This is why the Gods fear him. If he were to take over, he could destroy everything. Every world, every person or creature, even them, the immortal Gods. Gone. He could then create a realm of darkness, forever torturing those he has consumed.”

I think for a few moments. “Why me?”

She shrugs her shoulders casually. “I don’t know. In all honesty, the occupants of the kingdom of Eos were very surprised that I appeared there. I don’t think they thought it was possible for someone to just show up…uninvited. However, I have found that I can teleport anywhere, anytime I want.
Anyway, I told them my story and they decided to trust me with a mission. The mission being to take my Father out, which I happily obliged to. They said I should be on the lookout for a child of Eos, which is you, I suppose. You are the only one who can help me take him out. They didn’t relay any more information, apart from I would feel a surge when you surfaced, and I’d know when it would happen….but overall I assume you have a gift that can overpower his.”

I frown, not being able to make sense of all the information just handed to me. I push the thought back before asking something that’s been on my mind a while.

“When I arrived here, I found a book that could only be opened by myself. In that book, I found information on you and myself, among others as well. The book had seemingly been updated since I arrived but no one has been able to open it for centuries. It said that you were looking to bring your Father down.”

“There used to be Oracles that would create magical elements, such as books for example, that would forever write down information on the Gods, and I suppose the one you came across specifically detailed information on the children of the said Gods. I’m unsure why it would be here though.” She says and ponders for a moment before answering my question. “That sounds about right.”

“Why?” I ask, unsure why she’d want to take out a half that brought her to life.

She raises an eyebrow. “Why? I assume that the book didn’t detail what he did to my Mother?”

I shake my head, the book didn’t mention anything about her Mother, only that she was a mortal….not even her name.

She sighs sadly, and looks down, I can see she momentarily brings her strong wall down. She looks back up with a hint of anger in her expression.

“I’ve been alive for a few centuries. My Mother was my world, she looked after me and kept me warm for years on end. She was very special in her world. She had imperial blood running through her veins, she was the last of her kind.
My home world was a dying world, a lot of the inhabitants taken out by endless wars for power. I remember there was only a handful of cities left. The Sun in our worlds system was close to blowing up, and would take the planets surrounding it out with it. My Mother had the ability to transport items on a small scale. A tree about to topple over onto your house? My Mother sorted that. The river has run dry for the harvest season? Let’s move a tonne of lake water into the mountain for it to run down.
Hey bloodline was there when my home world was first inhabited. They were elected long before I was born as the imperial family there and ruled fairly and justly, each heir having only one child to continue the line. The last of that line is me, if I even count….now that the world is gone.
Long story short, my Father entered the world, right after he was removed from Eos. He told my Mother he was wrongly removed and spent a lot of time courting her. Eventually she fell for him and bore him a child…..me. When he found out my Mother was pregnant, he left her, promising he’d be back. He didn’t come, at least not for a long time.
My powers started manifesting when I was five. My Mother tried to teach me what she could do and I tried to copy her. It was shortly after that we figured out I was more than just a transporter. I could instead teleport my whole body to a different location.” She laughs as if reminiscing something.

She looks back at me before continuing. “When I was around fifteen, my Mother and I looked up at the Sun. It was a deep red and we knew it wasn’t long until it would have died. I had already mastered the art of teleporting to other worlds but I had never been able to teleport more than myself. That’s when my Father showed up.
It turns out he figured out how to use his darkness realm to move from world to world, albeit very slowly….it was extremely inefficient and he needed something….more. He came back for us, and I remember feeling overjoyed that he came to save my Mother and I from a world that was close to dying. I remember what he said to me when he first saw me.
He told me that he wanted to show me something, and offered to take my hand. I looked back at my Mother who nodded at me and smiled, waving me away. I remember looking at the Sun right before it disappeared, my surroundings growing dark. Soon I was in a place with only darkness, looking at my Father.
He looked at me as if I was a tool for his power consumption. Of course I didn’t know that at the time, I thought he was just a bit weird. I asked if he could take my Mother away from the world I came from to save her, and it was at that point he looked me directly in the eyes and he told me it was already gone.
I remember instantly teleporting back to where I usually would, finding that something was…blocking me from doing so. I tried to get as close as I could….but it made no difference, it was too late. I found myself floating in space not too far from my planet, face to face with the Sun’s rays obliterating the world I called my home. My Mother was gone. I quickly got out of there and headed to a place where I had teleported to previously…..it was a very dangerous thing for me to do but I did it by chance when I was younger.
My Father didn’t kill my Mother directly but he didn’t even lift a finger to save her. He found me shortly after my worlds demise and told me indirectly he never loved my Mother. He knew what she was and he needed someone to help him travel faster and more direct.
He used her to create me.”