Chapter 88 Lessons from the Last Sage On Mot Zebeyas
Lessons from the Last Sage
On Mot Zebeyas
She waited, staring at the page long enough for it go blurry.
The Last Sage spoke, and her hand moved into a familiar rhythm, documenting his words.
The longer a potential Sage spends time with a Mot Zebeya, the stronger their bond becomes.
The Zebeya grows the need to protect and lay their life down and in turn, the Sage is protected to carry out their duty.
Just as Varos the Night Lion has a blood bond with his vampires, and can compel them, a Sage shares a light bond with his Mot Zebeya army and can order them.
This bond can only be solidified when one names the other.
The exchange of names is a powerful vow.
The Mot Zebeyas who are blessed with such faith reside in the Semain Mountains.
June’s mouth formed a line as she sensed where this was going. “I’m not going.”
She had heard about those cursed mountains all her life and had hated the House Adane pins because of it.
Every time the silver eclipsed mountains twinkled on her sleeve, June’s throat closed up.
The abyss waited between those mountains.
Waited to swallow her into a universe she could never return from.
Swollen, dark clouds moved. The gentle wind morphing into an icy gust. The pages of June’s book struggled helplessly. She braced forward, ready for the Last Sage’s anger.
“You should have gone to the mountains years ago!”
The sky cracked with thunder, making her flinch.
“No.” June tucked her whipping braids behind her ear. “I won’t do it!”
The entire plain quaked, near collapsing in two. June clung to the stone table for dear life, teeth chattering. But she would not give in. She hadn’t for almost fifteen years, and she wouldn’t now.
Because before June went to those mountains, there was one thing she had to do.
With every ounce of strength in her shaking body, June hurled up to the lightning-struck sky. “I’m not killing my sister!”
The Last Sage’s displeasure echoed down through the bond, violent and bone shaking.
Her bottom lip trembled but she clamped down with her teeth.
“Why did you even choose me at all?” June whispered at first, then grew loud and angry. “You should have picked Kidan!”
The lightning and violent wind dropped at once. An ocean morphing into a still lake. June tensed. Sometimes the Last Sage ignored her, claiming she wasn’t ready. But what point was there in secrets now?
Their twenty-first birthday would arrive soon, and with it, a horrifying choice.
Every generation, a pair of siblings from the acti houses was chosen to fulfill the will and sacrifice set by the First Sage, Yonas the Sun Bird. June and Kidan, siblings of Adane House, were the current vessels of that will.
It was in June’s very first lesson, and the knowledge that haunted her every waking moment since.
The Last Sage’s voice returned with the sun, washing over her. His face was obscured from the great height of the pillar, but sometimes, when the sun didn’t blind her, June could make out a faint outline of a straight nose and dark eyes.
“A Sage must dislike violence and abolish darkness,” the Last Sage said. “You, June, carry a pure heart. Kidan Adane has proved herself not worthy.”
June curled her knees to her chest. She yanked out a fistful of grass, letting the breeze carry it forth.
“You want me to kill her.”
“I killed my brother to continue Yonas’s will.
” The Last Sage’s voice hardened. “Our burden is to walk this life alone. The First Sage understood that love focused on only one person was the root cause of evil. An abomination like Varos the Night Lion was created because his own brother loved him so much, he drained all plant life, all human life, to revive him. He broke all laws for one soul and was punished for it. A Sage can never be blinded by one person. So yes, you must kill the person you came into this world with, forsake such selfishness. You must take on the stranger, the child, the woman, the man as your family. Understand the loss of one finger should cut as deeply as the loss of a hand and protect all life. You must understand and grieve true loss without being consumed by it. It is that single sacrifice that allows a Sage’s powers to exist in this land.
It is what will help you kill all evil.”
Kill all evil.
He could tell her this a thousand times, but it did not matter. She would never kill Kidan.
June shook her head violently. “I can’t do it.”
“Foolish girl!” he roared, making her whimper. “If you do not fulfill your duty, all of our binds here will unravel. The lineage of Sagehood will cease to exist. Varos and the Manes will reduce this land to ash!”
June trembled in the sunlight. The earth beneath her was snow. She shook her head repeatedly.
I can’t do it. I can’t do it.
“Foolish girl. You need to see.”
“No.” June’s spine locked. “No, I don’t want to. Please.”
The Last Sage’s memories of the horrific war between dranaics and humans wrapped around her, a thick black smoke choking her nostrils and mouth.
June gasped and fell forward onto her palms. The grass disappeared, replaced with wilted Abyssinian roses and blood.
The agonizing scream of men and the whistling sound of a blade ruptured all around.
Not real. Not real.
It was helpless, though. Whether real or not, the atmosphere of this much pain made her cells contort and whimper. June got to her feet and ran, stumbling over wounded bodies and reaching hands, trying to find the sun and warmth.
A cloaked figure broke the horizon, tall and faceless, with long knifelike claws.
Twin red eyes peered out of his dark cloak.
Varos the Night Lion.
June’s heart seized. He was never alone. Four more shadowed figures appeared at his side, each carrying a different silver weapon.
Ralonar the Venomous Lion.
Lidia the Split-Tongued Lioness.
Helenik the Horned Lioness.
Nira the Silent Lioness.
Only one person was by June’s side. Demasus the Fanged Lion, facing the approaching death with his own silver blades.
Their faces were always hidden from June, a blur of shadow and mask. The Last Sage hid them from her on purpose, to hide her from their wrath, and because she hadn’t earned it yet. Only after she killed Kidan and ensured the continuity of the cycle of Sagehood would he reveal their faces.
“Because they will be the only faces you will see from that moment on,” he’d told her. “Until the day you die. And if you do something foolish, like seek them out, you will die. And all will be lost.”
All June knew was Demasus had skin the shade of mahogany.
He cut through the horde of dranaics with incredible speed, then he melted into smoke, and June was alone.
She fell to her knees, the grass wilting and leaving only black rot.
A malevolent power she couldn’t see but sensed like sweat on skin rippled through.
Varos wanted to consume her entirely, break her mind and spirit.
Finally, when June could no longer bear it, she screamed.
“This is what will be unleashed on us if you don’t do your duty!” the Last Sage boomed. “You must kill without malice, for good. For our legacy.”
June kept screaming as the cloaked figure scraped against her flesh, inside her brain.
“Please, please, stop.”
It never did.
The vampires were Varos’s army, sired with darkness and blood. The Last Sage had his own people standing as well, men and women armed with nothing but impala horns and armor—Mot Zebeyas.
The horrors wouldn’t stop, the damage stretching endlessly, and June was going to die too, any moment now—and then the image shattered like stone through glass.
June bolted upright, back in the real world, alone on her room’s floor. Tears ran down her cheeks.
With shaking legs, she went to her vanity. Her skin was clammy with sweat, her mouth still tasting the ash of war. June turned slowly and pulled her top down a little to see the scar in the middle of her back.
If only she could get the artifact—the stone of a ruby ring, out of her body. But the third artifact wasn’t only inside her. The other half, a golden band, was inside Kidan. The ring, bound to the immortality law, was always stored inside the chosen siblings’ bodies, safe from discovery.
Reaching back, June scratched her skin hard enough to wince.
She applied more pressure and cried out when her nails cut in and blood poured.
It wouldn’t work. The artifact was near her heart, and she was supposed to take it to her grave.
She hated this scar, hated how it reminded her of their cursed fate.
To honor the First Sage’s will, Kidan had to kill June, or June had to kill Kidan before they turned twenty-one.
Why that age? It was a mystery the Last Sage had yet to educate her on. All she knew was this: If she and Kidan failed to kill one another, they would both die. And the power of Sagehood that had lasted eons and held together many laws would be brutally severed.
Varos would reign.
June let out a cry and ran an arm through her beautiful collections of perfume and jewelry, letting them crash.
She sank to the floor, still digging around her back, face twisted in misery.
Stop, Desta.
It was Warde, his voice accompanied by a crinkle of bones. The only other soul who knew what awaited her.
I hate him, she said, rubbing her cheek.
You must save us from what’s to come.
June rested her hands slowly, ignoring the sting of her back. How is GK?
His soul is torn, but he can heal. He is curious, which will lead him to the truth soon enough.
Good.
Kidan would need him to be safe.
We need the blade artifact from Samson. He will not give it to Susenyos or Arin, June said.
What do you want me to do?
June thought for a moment, then spoke through their bond. Break him out and take him to the ivory house.
A wave of hesitation came from Warde, but he never pushed her too much. She was thankful for his support.
Because once Kidan took possession of the mask artifact, everything would be clear.
Never hold an artifact bound to a law, the Last Sage had warned all her life.
The myths every acti and dranaic chased weren’t entirely untrue.
To become a Sage, all artifacts would have to be possessed.
Broken. But it couldn’t be just anyone. Just like a house was inherited by its descendants or someone written on a will, the artifacts were written for June and Kidan.
Written right across their hearts. They both carried the First Sage’s soul, culture, and will in their blood.
It could break laws and make them. It could rule.
Desta!
The Last Sage’s warning broke through, but June threw up her mental shield quickly. He could not reach her while she was awake if she concentrated.
In the mirror, her honeyed eyes appeared wet but determined. She was done being afraid. Done being told what to do.
Yes, June would crown her sister as Sage. She would lie and do whatever necessary to make sure Kidan lived. She’d do her best to die by Kidan’s hand.