Tana 2

Decades passed and eventually, our neighbors noticed we weren't aging and how we acquired new furniture or tended to the yard with no help and no money. They had no idea what we were back then, Afaria didn't even exist. But strange rumors started circulating about us, mainly me, calling me a witch and blaming every local tragedy on my dark magic. It was just talk, barely bothered me, but when Vetro heard about it he became enraged and the same day the rumor reached him was the day he murdered everyone. I stayed in the house crying, but I could hear the screaming. He trapped the whole city in a glass dome, around midnight he lowered the dome and the screaming stopped. The ground was dyed dark red until the rain came. He seemed happier afterward, taking me on walks every day to collect money or jewelry from the corpses and then bury the bodies. But when he saw how much it disturbed me he sent me home and instead just brought back "gifts.

Sometime after that, I got pregnant, we raised our first 5 children in that dead town. They weren't able to form a connection with their wings, even after we taught them how to do the summon. That's when we discovered that they were mutated, with featherless bat wings permanently attached to their back, as if to say that they shouldn't have been born. They could only minimize the wings and their ability to fly was much slower and clumsier than ours. Vetro seemed proud of them though and raising the children seemed to heighten his libido, so I was with child again in no time. 2 years passed and an investigation was done, to find the missing townsfolk. V killed the first round of investigators but after that, we moved and raised our next 10 kids in a new place. I wanted to love them, but it was difficult just acknowledging their existence at all. Especially since Vetro insisted on making it clear that we were siblings to all the children, he seemed to get pleasure from being sure their sense of morality was skewed like his.

I never went outside since I could no longer hide my face. V was the one who helped me with my bandages before and now he strictly forbids me from ever hiding my scars. It isolated me. So, he and the children handled all social affairs and work. Eventually, our children married humans from the surrounding areas and thankfully the powers (heightened strength and elemental control) were a dominant gene. They shared their powers with their lovers as well and once our population grew large enough for a small city Vetro devised a plan. He reviewed notes he had taken from our mother when she taught him how she created Infaniya.

We moved onto unnamed islands in the meantime, only visiting the mainland to find love or go to college. When a human was brought in, they were informed of our nature and given power. Many were lured in by that promise of power, eternal youth, granted wishes, or love. Since our population had become stable, Vetro invented a new way to make the humans useful, in his words. Our people were taught how to drain life force from humans in order to fill the gaps in strength that they were lacking, it lowered the rate of genuine relationships with humans, but it fixed the issues some were having with flying or elemental control. I knew he was pleased but this only disappointed me further, though at this point in time there was no one who would be swayed by how I felt.

It took one thousand years to create Afaria and to keep the planet stable, Vetro tethered his soul to it. It took another 100 years to move all of our people there. I had 13 more children with him in our new world.

I have to believe I'm happy and this is what I wanted, otherwise, I will break and there will be no way to fix me. The children are products of the moments when I could successfully fool myself. I'll just try being satisfied with Vetro's happiness. 

I would be... but he wasn't happy. Out of bitterness, he declared war against Infaniya, aiming to kill our remaining siblings. Finding out our mom was still alive inside the core of the planet was the motivation. I kept hoping that each time he gained something it would satisfy him and he'd show me his old self again, our family... our new home, riches, power... none of it was ever enough. I truly saw him and realized his obsession with me was only an extension of the obsession with our mother... Part of me still hoped he was just a brute when it came to showing love, but I was wrong he didn't love me. I felt like most of my life was a waste.

On Afaria, Vetro believed that the strongest should rule, so he made himself king. Whenever he was contested, he'd win brutally. The Afarions became accustomed to his rulership, some feared him, and others loved him... the masses who didn't really know him. If there were any strong enough to challenge him, they didn't because they respected his leadership.

500 hundred years later the Chosen phenomenon happened. On both planets, 7 children were born with incredible control over the elements Fire, Mist, Lightning, Thunder, Water, Smoke, and Sound. I learned that we could identify them by tattoos that usually appeared after 5 years and also by their astonishing talent with their elements from birth. Another hundred years had passed when one of the spies from Infaniya told me about a ritual that could be performed to strengthen the bonds of their affinity and unlock new abilities. On Infaniya the ceremony is taught to the spouses of the Chosen because the final step involves intercourse. When I told V the details, he was against it even using it, saying that telling numerous spouses about a way to strengthen the Chosen would cause the ritual to become common knowledge.

"I can't trust them... What if they turn against me and know ways to get stronger on their own? They're too strong as it is... I need a way to make them dependent on me." I would think having strong beings on our side would make him more secure, but it seems to be the opposite. I thought about what he was saying and could only come to one conclusion.

"I... can perform it with them, since I am already in charge of their training." After my offer, Vetro's light blue eyes gleamed so brightly that they illuminated the whole room, and I felt intense pressure, so heavy it caused my knees to buckle.

"YOU?! You would dare offer to be with someone else?!" I fell onto my butt and scooted away, watching the room shake and crack around me.

"It's only a ritual... I can remain detached... I just want to help you. The prophetess who told us about their birth said with all 7 we can finally end this war and we need them to be stronger than the ones born on Infaniya. Most of them wouldn't get married before 50. This will give us a major advantage. Vetro, you have to understand..."

"No!" When he yelled the roof caved in but none of the debris hit me or him, At least he has enough presence of mind to put up a barrier.

"I don't understand, I'm the best one for this!" I shouted back "There's no way anyone would fall for me, when I look like this and... I've been by your side all this time, you can trust me."

"... Tell me you love me." He mumbled.

"What?"

"You can't understand why I'm upset and you can't even say that?! You never say you love me and now you're volunteering to sleep with other people?! Do you realize how that makes me feel?!" ... Now that I think about it... V whispers that he loves me all the time, multiple times a day, every day for all these years... have I really not said it back once?

"I'm sorry..." I noticed he was crying then so I rushed over to wipe away his tears... No matter what we've gone through, I care for him. "Of course, I love you, V." He kissed me with the same passion that has never waned over the centuries. After that... my memories go dark I can't remember it but I know what we did... because he was still on top of me sleeping naked amongst the rubble when I came to. Multiple servants came to repair the room, pretending to be unbothered by the state they found us in.

I only found out later that he agreed to my request and I had presented him with a compromise of starting a harem to help fill the void of my absence and make things fair between us... I still can't believe I said that but it worked out. Instead of every night, Vetro began calling for me only 3-5 nights a week and I was able to train with the Chosen unbothered.

After the 3rd incarnations were born Vetro instructed me to stop brushing my hair and wear shabbier clothes. I had no reason to appear even slightly appealing to them. I understood his worry because despite my face 2 of the 2nd incarnates developed feelings for me, they fought amongst each other, and even challenged Vetro on my behalf. One asked me to run away with him and the other was always cold and scolding me so I had no idea how he felt. In retaliation, Vetro killed all 7 of them the day he found out, which reminded me of how powerful he was. He also made changes to my wardrobe, going as far as to burn whatever he considered too sexy.

I didn't feel comfortable making the offer for the Power Ceremony with the 3rd generation of Chosen (The ones alive when I learned the method) but when they went to war they died so quickly, and it happened again with the next generation so I steeled my resolve to at least give the option to the future incarnates. The only downside is I didn't realize that when I offered to perform the rituals different spirits would start to inhabit my body, sometimes manipulating my thoughts and other times taking over me completely and making me do things I can't even recall. To perform them I had to take on the essence of their element of the person I was with. Which was harmless when done with one person but doing it multiple times with different elements came with some terrible side effects.

No one ever pitied me or grew feelings for me after that, and we sent all 7 of them to the frontlines of battle over and over. Somehow they usually died on the same day, never living past 100 years. The last incarnations before the present ones were a bit different, some died days or weeks apart and the Chosen of Earth lived for 3 years on his own. So the new generation was born likewise, incarnating as soon as the old host parished.

One night on the way to my room I was cut off by one of V's concubines.

"You cunning bitch!" Natasha yelled, slapping me hard in the face. I thought about hitting her back but she was pregnant and I'm not good at holding back,

"I'm sorry," I said as I held my cheek. My wound has never stopped aching so even a simple slap made me feel dizzy,

"It's because of you that I never see my husband! It's been 20 days since he's called for me!" She was talking about V... I know he doesn't consider her his wife, so I don't know why she's calling him that.

"There are over 100 other women in the harem, and the king has duties to attend to. It is amazing he sees you once a month, he must cherish you greatly." She hit me again this time burning me, blasting me with fire, again and again. It was hard keeping my guard up, and thinking about the baby kept me frozen in place,

"You're telling me that once a month is gracious?! I heard how often he visits you! He seems to have plenty of free time! I do my best to look beautiful for him! I smile at him! And still, he favors an ugly-!" She was thrown off of me at that point, by a steel arrow into her shoulder and V stepped into the room. He looked down at me, I was weeping softly, curled up in the fetal position, and surrounded by a barrier. Without even looking, I could feel the rage emanating from him. 

"What are you doing?" He asked, directed at her. I could tell by his tone that it was rhetorical.

"I... was... just teaching her a lesson... She... she started it! You know me, I would never do anything to-" V shifted towards her faster than I thought possible and punched her face so hard she was immediately unrecognizable.

"Wait!" I yelled, looking up. "Don't hurt the baby... that's your child!" He paused in his assault and rushed back to me, cupping my cheeks and kissing me over and over,

"You think I care about a fetus more than you?... Tana... she hurt you." I stretched out my arms to show that my barrier protected me, I only had minor burns.

"I'm okay." He kissed me again, more deeply this time then yelled,

"Someone tend to her wounds and keep her healthy until she delivers my son." Many servants rushed in, as Vetro lifted me and carried me into his bed chambers. "I was so worried about... because... I don't how I'd live without you." He muttered while he was on top of me, doing as he pleased like always. I had to reassure him that I was okay and that I loved him to calm him, otherwise, I feared he'd never stop. As soon as the child was born I heard that Vetro killed Natasha himself. I was racked with guilt because every time I looked at the child I saw her face, another person dead because of me. No wonder I'm losing myself, having blackouts and mood swings. I'm already beyond insane and broken. That baby was part of the new generation, Chosen by the Spirit of Fire. One by one the new Chosen trickled into the palace I was shocked that despite being the youngest, Valin was one of the first to display his powers. But he lacked ambition, his only joy was studying, a scholar is no use in a war that I desperately need to end. That's why I admired Zaikiel, his face showed the desire to take over, the willpower and intellect to win. It was after seeing his face that I realized how the war will finally end. With Vetro dying. He wants to steal the core from our homeworld, embrace our mother, and doom all of Infaniya in the process... the 7 finally overtaking him, instead is the only logical outcome and this generation is the strongest so far. I need to embrace a life where Vetro no longer exists so I need to ensure it happens.