CHAPTER TEN- CRIMSON LEGACIES

Simon was one of those men who gave off the air of mystery everywhere he went, a highly successful business man with several chains of companies and investments, yet not much was known about him. As he was an adopted child whose parents prefer to be behind the scene despite the fact that he has gotten so popular in his business,despite his average height, his muscular dark skin and his heavily bearded face alongside his extremely assertive personality and reputation made way for him.

He remembered his father always saying jokingly how he should have gone to the army due to his obstinate nature, meanwhile in the present moment a meeting had just been concluded and as Simon shook hands firmly with the dignitaries invited he laughs and says cheerfully 'thank you very much for your time' as he bids everyone farewell and loosens his tie 'phew!!!' he exclaimed; it has been four hours of closed door meetings with the biggest shots and the elites of the city, some of them even bigger business individuals than himself who wanted to be assured that his coming into power would do their businesses and brand no harm and not affect their fat pockets. He smiled as he muttered to himself 'Politics is a game of numbers after all' and picks up his telephone dialing to request for coffee which was brought to him afterwards.

Simon however is curious about his white opponent and has taken every measure to find out all that is about him, his family as well as his background,judging from his clean reputation he had no dirt to pull on him, Simon had always been the Man to go all in whatever he does, his approach to life is to usually accomplish an end goal no matter the cost.

Alexander on the other hand is also busy canvasing for votes and also with the influence and assistance of Laura, things have been much more easier for him and he has been able to reach out to some of her high profile friends in a bid to convince them to influence their followers towards his cause. In the midst of all these we see Orion again, staring at the banner of Simon, the black man in grey suit and a grey tie, grinning from ear to ear with his clean and sparkling white dentals. He wondered what a black man with the whole circle of events but he was sure he had been led here by his monster guardian, they have become one now as it still gives him insight on the happenings between the nightfall and morning dews, the rollercoaster of time.

It is said that time has its own play things and its owns woes, the pain of things undone, things that could have been, the joy of years where love and peace is felt, the era people lived like children, holding no grudges and no hatred against one another. Understanding that we all are time's play things in the end, all these thoughts flowed within Orion's subconscious and he wondered if he was the only one who thought this way, or perhaps it was just one of time's pranks and he has become its victim this time.

'Look within and beyond you' the monster whispered into its ears calmly , 'the answers that you seek are like seedlings, they lie beneath the surface and must be dug out' Orion still watching is startled when he realizes Simon could see him, even though the black man put up a charade so people would not notice, he realized Simon was staring him in the eye. Orion now more confused than ever vanished to the Avalon, a paradise of bliss, peace and tranquility, a place he goes when he is confused and anxious ever since he became an immortal wings man for the spirit of whispers, he goes to his special garden of daffodils and plucks one out to enjoy its aromatic scent, he also relaxes as he sits and watches the view of its bunches of yellow beauty, glowing into the sun in all their glory.

He began to think, he thought he had all the answers and that Halanda was the missing link but now that Halanda was murdered by Frotos in the past, he was utterly confused and needed to know where to go from here, he began to ponder on his several recent travels to see if he had missed anything and then he time traveled to halanda's time herself to be sure.

Halanda was a smart woman, before she met her tragic fate in the hands of Frotos she had been busy making plans to be a step ahead. She started to practice a rare form of sorcery called the Vial of the dawn , it was a long forbidden sorcery due to the greed of mortals and the way it was being misused made it to be banned by the Lords of the mortal world long before the birth of Orion and since there was no one allowed to speak of it openly, he had no idea such magic existed.

'I must have missed this, he said to himself' as he kept on watching events unfold, it turned out Frotos got wind of the art during one of his quests for extreme power with the evil lord Vlada, and during one of his closed discussions with his close allies ;Halanda overheard and she decided to go search for the book which cost her twenty days. It was in the process of looking for the book that she met Odin, the Vial of Dawn was kept with a creature of the sea and whoever must go had to go with something as a gift, a living gift hence she was able to convince an old friend she had not seen in a while ever since she met Frotos, her close friend Analie.

After taking a horse and lying to her husband that she wanted to go in search of blood jugs to help him in his sacrifices as she had always done, he let her go without suspecting anything. She had to pass through the Seas of Cordelia to reach the abode of the creature which lies in another sea called the Crimson Legacies, that was how her parts crossed with Odin and the two began to develop affection for one another.

Odin who apart from being a pirate is a master of sea travels, described to Halanda and her friend where they were headed and would have loved to go with them but he was expecting another big client that night, a head guard of the kingsmen returning through the sea after a successful battle conquest, that meant more gold and valuables for them so they bid each other farewell and Halanda continued her journey.

A few days later, they arrived by the sea and not without any turbulence, they were meant with great tempest and uproar, it was as if they were not the only one at sea and Halanda knowing the truth of what she had to do immediately pushed her friend into the sea after she struck her head with a stick.As Analie drowned with a pained look in his eyes, the sea became calm and Halanda saw it for the first as it came out in all its glory, It came out a three headed and slimy creature of tremendous size, it came forward with its tentacles long and spineless and asked Halanda what she wanted in a very low hoarse voice which displayed passive aggression, it was a black creature and because Halanda had already sacrificed, he gave her the book which contained the materials needed for her to perform the Vial of the Dawn ritual.

After Halanda returned, before which she took her time to live up to the lie she gave to Frotos and returned with his blood jugs, It took her another seven days to know where Frotos kept the stones of horror, the sparkling red balls which were seven in number kept and hidden in the inner chambers of Frotos; he himself had not practiced this magic as he just acquired it. Secretly Halanda stole these stones and kept it and the moment she realized she was pregnant for Odin, she immediately went to get them and at the midnight hour conducted the ritual with only one of Frotos ally in the knowing of it, a man called Gilk whom she had also been having affairs with in exchange for secret informations from Frotos meetings as Frotos was a private man who kept most informations to himself.With the help of Gilk, Halanda was able to get the stones after she fooled him by not revealing her true intentions till it was too late.

The ritual of the Vial Of Dawn was successful and Halanda was able to transform her soul into the body of a gullible and naive Gilk who was not aware of the ritual himself but he knew Frotos kept the stones of horror safe in his inner chambers, Gilk was too ashamed and scared to talk while in Halanda's body, and it was Halanda who now resides in Gilk's body that went to tell Frotos that she was with child with another man. It all began to make sense now to Orion, noe he saw that the real soul of Halanda was not really dead but lived on, and it could be in any one's body at the moment,and this scared him too.

After Halanda in the body of Gilk had successfully been able to influence Frotos into getting Gilk in Halanda's body killed alongside her child, she began to look for an appropriate feminine body, that of someone who had affluence and power, with the status of royalty and elegance, cogent and authoritative, all these had to be done discretely to avoid Frotos from finding out.

So she left Frotos under the lie that she had to secure his place in the east, after a lot of convincing conversations, Frotos allowed Gilk whose body housed Halanda's soul to leave , he was still under the believe that Gilk was one of his most reliable men.

Laura is seen discussing with her therapist, she has been visiting him frequently of late and thus has began to see him as some sort of confidant, but there are still things she will rather not talk about, like her love life, due to the desolate memories its brings her.

Collins on the other hand, keeps telling her she needs to open herself, 'you need to allow yourself feel alive' he said to which she replies in a downcast mood 'I try, I want to be a better person' , Collins smiles and responds again 'you can only shine your light to others when you have learnt to shine that light within yourself' .... Laura is still confused about the things she sees and according to her they are getting worse, she had began to see strange beings in day light now.