"But my Lord."

38.

eXtasy's Collective Mind "No, Lakasak," his voice echoed throughout the room cutting off my response and settling in the pit of my stomach like a cold hard ache. "You will seek your place amongst the Wards. As it has been from the beginning, so it will be to the end. If you are The Chosen you will live. If not..." His voice trailed off as he made his way to the door.

"You are allowed one Guardian to a.s.sist you in the World of Shadows. Choose wisely," he advised cryptically and then like a wraith in the night, he was gone. I could only stare at the s.p.a.ce that he had occupied. I didn't even hear the door close behind him.

"Who?" I suddenly asked Valen as he stood, hand to the hilt of his sword, blocking my door. "Who could have done this to me?"

"I know not, My Queen," he replied his golden eyes finding mine from across the room. "But I will follow you to h.e.l.l if you will have me."

I stood in the middle of my solar and stared at this Night Hawk, this Shadow Guard who had offered me his fealty, his strength, and, last night, his body. Now, if necessary, he was offering me his very life and I wondered why. Why would he walk the World of Shadows with me so freely? Why follow me to the Lands of the Dead so willingly? What was it he hoped to gain?

"Why?" I asked him skeptically as I wondered why he too hadn't fallen in with my council and their plans to usurp my throne. "Why should I choose you, Valen Resnek when there are so many others of my court? So many others who would give their lives for me," I asked knowing that most of them, even now, wanted to see me dead.

He crossed the distance between us, his boots silent on the stone floor, his glorious wings expanding with the tumult of his emotion. When he stood before me, his large frame towering 39 Violet Visions over me, he pulled me into his arms and kissed me-the hard press of his lips searing my soul with fire.

I think I could have allowed him to kiss me for an eternity- the weight and feel of his lips gentle against mine as he stroked his tongue across them, parting them, seeking entrance into the heat of my mouth, and burning pa.s.sage to my very soul. When his tongue met mine, I melted into him and he wrapped his arms and his wings around me in a coc.o.o.n, speeding my heart with desire.

And I knew that this... this was why he had to accompany me.

Valen Resnek loved me. And he would not only protect me, he would sell his very soul to save me.

The Hall of Fates was filled to its edges with the Emissaries, Retainers, and the Kings, and Queens of all of the sovereign Realms who had come to pay homage to the Wards and offer a contender for Ward to The Lands of the Dead. Their jewels and elegant clothing appeared a captured prism as gowns, tunics, and crowns all sparkled in their beauteous glory.

I would have like to remain at the top of the stairs but my gaze was drawn to the center of the room where the contenders were being brought forward. My feet had already started to move as if of their own accord. The crowd had grown silent as each of the contenders began to take their places, each one to a man with their warrior Guardians by their sides.

I took that first step, my knees shaking at the enormity of what was to come, the uncertainty that lay before me, the evil I would face and the trials I would suffer. And then I remembered my dream-the oppressive Darkness, rank in the stench of 40 eXtasy's Collective Mind death, morbid with decay, and the breath died in my lungs as my eyes alighted onto the Journey Circle and my awaiting position- at the head of the Circle.

Was this a portent? A prophesy? What were the G.o.ds trying to tell me? What did this mean?

The crowd began to whisper as I hesitantly took that next step, their eyes watching me as I cautiously poised above, my heart hammering in a chest too tight with fear to contain it, when I heard the unmistakable whisk of an arrow slicing through the air.

I blinked, the instant zing of anger, fury and overwhelming uncertainty rushing through my body all at once. And then Valen was beside me, his arms firmly around my waist as he whisked me from the stairs. He clutched me in the vice-like embrace of his stout arms and we soared across the heads of the crowd, his wings stretched wide as he glided us to a halt at our place within the circle-the killing arrow vibrating a staccato of stolen death into the carved oak of the barrister beyond.

"Who dares desecrate this hall?" Diiun-Nar's voice rang out through the hall like a crack of thunder echoing in a small enclosure as every door slammed shut with a wave of his hand.

"Come forth, betrayer," another voice chimed and the hairs at the back of my neck stood at attention. "Seek you we shall,"

she advised her voice shrill and sharp. "And once you are found your punishment shall be all the greater. Lest you come on your own." Aillwyn Thanath's voice was as crystal clear as a mountain stream and as cold as the iceberg it flowed from, and every single person in that hall felt the piercing arctic chill deep within their flesh, biting its way down to their very bones.

Aillwyn was the Ward of Light and Possibilities and all that she offered, you had no choice but to believe. If she said the moon would not rise, at her whim it was most certainly a possibility.

41.

Violet Visions As Valen and I reached our place within the circle, a man was dragged forward by the Warden Guards-frightful creatures crossbred between an Orc and a Minotaur, man and beast and every inch a death machine. His left arm was already at a horrific angle where they held it behind his back, and blood dripped from his face as they dragged him forward through the crowd.

I couldn't make out his face as his long, tangled brown hair hung down, covering his features, not only from me, but the entire court. The whispers began anew as he was dragged forward, his body already limp in the meaty club-like stumps the Warden Guards called hands, his feet trailing on the stone floor like two sticks protruding from within a bag of bones, his b.l.o.o.d.y trail smearing in his wake.

I wanted to feel bad for this being, but I could not produce even a glimmer of sorrow anywhere within me. I could feel Valen's hand at my back, strong and rea.s.suring as he tried to give me his strength-the once normally spirited, pliable Queen, who is usually not shaken, needing the rea.s.surance of her court and her retinue to guide her.

But I stood there and watched this disgusting, treacherous, murderous heap of a man and nothing but blood-l.u.s.t filled my mind. As the guards brought him to the center of the room and dropped him at the feet of the Wards, I knew I would have my opportunity to set my Darkness free-and the hidden Darkness within me rejoiced.

"Tivan Jar, Earl of Dathnumas, and protector of Alm, you have been captured in the presence of this a.s.sembly, weapons in your hands, in the attempt to do murder against your own Queen and sister Lakasak Ur. How do you plead?" Trealan Nuar's voice was filled with warmth and promise as he asked the unmistakable question.

The Ward of Earth and Life was both handsome and lovely 42 eXtasy's Collective Mind and you were never quite sure as you looked on the beauty that was the Ward, if it were truly male or female. But as its voice flowed over and through you like a stream or lake, or the wind or the birth of a hurricane, you knew that when tempted with its ire, the consequences would be fatal.

"I...I only seek what is rightfully mine!" Tivan groaned the words out from his displacement on the floor of the hall, and I hated him all the more.

There was no love lost between my brother and me. He had killed my mother for his place in line for the throne not long after our father died of a plague. Tivan obviously sought to do the same to me.

My level of anger quantified as the memories of my mother stirred within my breast. I was small when Tivan had killed her, and her throne, despite all of his treachery and madness, had succeeded to me. He and her council were left as my guardians until I became of age, which occurred on my twenty-first birthday, and then all of Alm became mine to rule. Apparently, my brother wasn't too happy with this situation.

So I stood in the center of the Journey Circle, my anger spiraling through my body like a vortex of wind and molten lava with memories of the loss of my mother, hatred as dark as the Shadow World, and violence as destructive as the very flames of Hades spilling over me, until I thought I would explode with the fury.

"How dare you!" I finally roared no longer able or willing to keep my tongue or civility. Too long I had remained the quiet Queen, the placid soft-spoken ruler, and for what? To have my council and my own brother try to kill me?

Oh, I may not be able to prove yet that my council was involved. But my brother could. And would if it were the last thing that I did. No more would the things that I cherished be 43 Violet Visions taken from me. And that included my kingdom.

Tivan looked up from his place on the floor as his sister was physically restrained by the hands of her Shadow Guard, Valen Resnek.

"My Queen, let the Wards handle this," Valen carefully advised, his voice the soft whisper of reason. But reason and sanity had left me the moment my own brother had notched the arrow upon his bow.

"No!" I growled as I pushed Valen's hands from me and entered the circle. The contenders who stood round had all visibly paled, their Guardians standing before them with weapons drawn, aimed at me.

I marched towards my brother and felt the swirl of death and madness shimmering beneath my skin like the light of a resurrection, and knew the bliss of homecoming as I threw my arms wide and embraced the Darkness as it filled me like an erupting volcano. From my peripheral vision I could see the other contenders standing around the circle, their hair blown back from their faces, their eyes wide in sudden shock and uncontrolled fear. And I laughed, a joyous mixture of hate and euphoria bubbling up from the well that was my reason.

I could hear the voices from the hall, whispering in shocked awe as I clutched my brother by the scruff of the neck and pulled him from the floor. "You will tell me, brother. Who amongst my court conspired with you in this deceitful plan, Tivan? Who has paid you, a.s.sisted you in this attempt to seek my demise?"

I could feel the lies forming in the pit of his stomach, curling on his tongue like coiled snakes and I wanted to tear his very soul from his being-and I knew that I was capable of doing it.

That it would be such a small and painless act on my part. And then my hand reached for his heart before I even realized what madness was upon me.

44.

eXtasy's Collective Mind My brother started screaming, "Valen. Valen Resnek!" and I looked to my own Guardian, the instantaneous jar of disbelief rocketing through my veins. But as my eyes found Valen's across the length of the circle, his large frame standing strong and sure as he looked on me with amazement, and wonder in the depths of his gaze, I saw only the look of love reflected back from his swirling dark eyes. He looked back at me with pride glowing in his eyes-pride in his queen, love in his heart and his own murderous rage simmering beneath the surface of his veins for the lies that were spewing forth from my own brother's lips.

I knew in that moment that Valen was my mate. My mate and my equal in this Darkness. He would stand beside me no matter what horror he saw. No matter what shock this day wrought, and it was there for me to see-the amazement in his eyes that his quiet, unaffecting Queen, held this Darkness, this power within her, and I knew that he loved me anyway.

The crowd started screaming, "Great Mother, stop her!"

"Kill her! Before she kills us all!" People started pressing the circle forward and one of the Guardians pulled his sword from its sheath, the unmistakable pulse of steel seeking destruction ringing in my ears, and as I caught the look of death in his eyes, I knew its answering glory.

Suddenly Valen was poised before him, his own sword raised in my defense, his dark wings expanded, blocking the other Guardian's view of me as I reached down towards my brother's sniveling, lying form, and grasped his soul within my hands as he screamed for my mercy.

"Cease!" Diiun-Nar's voice exploded through the hall as steel met cold steel.

The crowd froze as the timbre of his voice ricocheted off the stone edifice of walls and ceiling, floor and stairway. It sliced through the madness of the moment as though a blizzard at the 45 Violet Visions end of time, and everyone in its path stood listless in the wake of its sudden fury.

"Lakasak Ur." My name boomed above the crowd as the Wards stepped as one towards me. I could feel the weight of their power and prowess as each one came forward to stand beside me.

"Release him Lakasak, it is not yet time," Aillwyn Thanath, The Ward of Light and Possibility advised, as her power flowed over and through me like a calm cool wind.

I felt Tivan's soul fleeing from my grasp and knew that it was so. That soon he would be mine and there would be no escape for him. That there would be no place far enough or dark enough for him to hide in.

The crowd settled as one as the Wards gathered close beside me. I could see Valen off to my left, his sword still clutched within his grasp, fury still blazing in his eyes. I looked at him, trying to tell him with the calm that returned to me, that everything was fine, that things were as they should be, with a tilt of my head. And I knew that he understood for he responded in kind, his great dark wings settling behind him.

The Wards circled me, their hands touching, forming a circle around my body. We stood in the middle of the Journey Circle as the crowd looked on in hushed silence. A kind of peacefulness began to settle over me, as dark and still as the dead themselves.

And I knew in that moment my reason for being. The reason my name was entered among the contenders and who had entered it.

As I found the dark knowing gaze of Diiun-Nar, certainty filled my mind as the calm unsustainable serenity, usually only found in death filled my spirit.

"Lakasak Ur, daughter of Erebos, who was son to Chaos- and daughter of Nyx, Divine Mother of Night-It is time to take your place among us," Trealan Nuar, Ward of Earth and Life said.

46.

eXtasy's Collective Mind "As there is the Living, so too must there be the Dead. As there is the Light, so too must there be Darkness. As there is Possibility, so too must there be the Lands Between. Let the Four-Wards be complete." Their voices rang out in unison and I felt myself lifted from the circle as power rushed through my body in an erotic rapture of divine Darkness.

A flux of static tore through my veins like the charge of a storm and once again I felt that heavy weight of Darkness filling me, only this time I wasn't afraid. I opened myself to the Lands of the Dead and let its chill dark coils stalk through my soul like the homecoming I knew it was.

When my resurrection as Ward of the Lands of the Dead was complete, I stood poised at my throne as their new Ward of The Lands of the Dead, before the people of our Realms, and rejoiced in their fear of me.

Through the souls of their eyes, I could finally see what they saw in me and my laughter rang out through the Hall of Fates like the vile Darkness it was named for-the lavender hue of death as it spread its luscious beauty across my flesh, gleamed in the light of the sconces. The dark poisonous vines of my royal blood spreading itself in a web around my flesh, where I alone would hold the deceit of the world within my veins, glistened in the flames dark shadows. And at the very center, the very core of my being, the dark heart of my royal bloodline, stained a dark violet-death and blood, Chaos and Darkness, for all of them to remember me by.

47.

Violet Visions Grapes and Gravity By Viola Grace ara held stil as her keepers came for her once more. She T didn't fight the grooming, but this time they stripped her of every vestige of body hair, including that on her head.

"Oh, dear Morla. You shouldn't have gone that far." Another of her keepers frowned at the chestnut locks lying on the floor.

"Well, they said to remove all body hair, and that was on her body." Continuing their ministrations, they had her tugged into a net suit to support her anatomy and yet leave nothing to the imagination. The vine cuffs on her wrists were meant to be decorative, but in reality were restraint cuffs that would send severe electroshocks through her body at the whim of a remote control. Tara had learned that over the last three months, the hard way.

They had salvaged her from her crashed ship as a pilot from an Alliance shuttle. To the minds of those who found her, that made her free goods to trade on the black market. So trade they did.

48.

eXtasy's Collective Mind That is how she, Tara Kelis, ended up on this unnamed world as a prize in a great fight compet.i.tion. Each day they prepared her, and each day they marched her out. She sat in her little dais and waited for a winner to choose her, even for one night, but it never happened. The women on daises to either side of her were Selna and they had a thousand times the s.e.x appeal of one lost little human.

The daily champion always chose them-it was never Tara.

A gong rang, it was time to enter the arena and take their poses. Tara smirked as they pushed a feathered headdress on her head before sending her out. The shaving of her head was a mistake that the crowd would not let her soon forget.

She waited in the staging area for the next gong, and as one they stepped forward and settled into comfortable positions. For Tara it meant one leg crossed, one leg bent at the knee and an arm covering the obvious attributes of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

On the lavender mesh that they had framed her with, this was as comfortable as she was going to get.

One final gong rang, and she braced herself. It was the fighters. They were coming in, and as always, they would make lewd comments to her and the other two, promising to win them all. One dark eyed fighter with golden skin stopped by her dais and looked her in the eye. "You will be mine this evening, and for as long as I choose." Shivers ran through her at his deep sultry voice and when the words finally registered, she went into shock for the rest of the day.

"Welcome one and all to this impromptu Arena, in this building, on this planet, we are free from interference by the Alliance, and free to engage in fighting!" The crowd, which had formed even 49 Violet Visions before the prizes were on display, drowned out his roar.

Once he had whipped the crowd into a frenzy... it began.

Oiled males of over a hundred species faced each other in pairs. At a signal, the pairs collided and the feats of strength began. The cheering was deafening, it repeated in waves. After the first few days of this torture, Tara had learned to filter it out.

She simply watched the games with her mind on mute.

The fighter who had threatened her with possession was working his way rapidly through the ranks. She couldn't help but admire all of that golden oiled skin sliding smoothly over his ample musculature. A soft giggle from her left let her know that one of the other 'prizes' noted her fixation, and she blushed. It was the first time she had shown an interest in any of the fighters, and it just happened to be the one who showed more than a pa.s.sing interest in her.