Chapter Seven
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AMAROS KEPT HIS EYE on Gracelyn as he followed Zoe’s directions.
The teenager’s soul was far from pure. While he wasn’t shown visions of people’s pasts like Zoe, he could sense how they’d lived their lives.
The young woman in the back seat had lived on the edge of good and evil.
Her crimes had mostly been petty, but she’d committed enough of them for it to have stained her soul.
“Tell us about yourself, Amaros,” Zoe said. “I saw visions of you and others of your kind fighting in a bunch of wars. It looked like you went to a foggy nowhere land after you either won or lost.”
“That’s correct,” he confirmed. “Order created knights to fight the Soldiers of Chaos. Our foes’ goal is to cause havoc and misery. Our task is to eradicate them and restore balance to the world. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.”
“What do you do when you’re in the foggy place?” Grace asked. She wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and was hunched forward to listen in. Zoe handed her a box of cookies and the teen dug in.
“We sleep in a place called the Void,” he said.
“Do you dream?” Zoe queried curiously.
“No. We merely exist.” It wasn’t easy to explain the nothingness of his existence in between the endless battles he’d fought.
“No offense, but that sounds as boring as hell,” Grace said, then shoved another cookie into her mouth.
Amaros was about to mention the choice Fate had given him, then decided against it. It would be wiser to ponder about the ramifications before discussing it with them. “There’s no sense of time passing,” he said instead. “We don’t think or feel. We’re kept in stasis.”
“Like robots that have been switched off when they’re no longer needed,” Zoe said. “Go left up ahead,” she instructed him.
“Good call,” Grace agreed as the car veered away from the interstate. They could hear shouts and screams of pain. “Someone had an accident and it sounds like it’s about to turn ugly,” she figured.
“Should we help them?” Zoe asked, twisting in her seat to peer through the back window.
Amaros shook his head. “Stopping to help everyone in trouble will slow us down too much,” he denied. “I need to establish a base, then find my knights. Once I’ve gathered my team together, we’ll start hunting down Chaos’ minions.”
“What part do we play in your plan?” Gracelyn asked, gesturing at herself and Zoe.
“I’m not sure yet,” he lied, avoiding looking at them both. Zoe narrowed her eyes and stared at him hard. He pretended he couldn’t see her and adjusted the rearview mirror. “Fate told me to search for your kind,” he told them. “I’m to determine whether you’re good or evil.”
“If we’re good, you’ll add us to your team, but if we’re bad, you’ll kill us,” Zoe surmised.
“That’s cold,” Grace said in disapproval when he didn’t deny it. “We don’t even get a trial first.”
“Our enemies will be searching for their offspring as well,” he said. “Pray my knights and I find them first.”
His grim tone had the females exchanging looks. “What will happen if our fathers find us?” Zoe asked.
“They’ll turn you into their servants,” he said.
“How?” Grace asked skeptically. “Do they have some kind of power over us?”
“In a sense,” he said. “They can convince you to join their side. If you do, you could become as evil as they are. They’ll use you in our war.”
“Won’t you and your knights be using us, too?” Zoe pointed out.
He cast a glance at her to see she was frowning. “We won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do,” Amaros vowed. “You’ll always have a choice.”
“Unless we’re bad, then we’ll just be executed,” the kid said dourly. “Now that I’m with you, does that mean my pops won’t be able to find me?”
“We’ll all be vulnerable until I’ve established my base,” Amaros said. “My knights and I will create defenses that will hide our location from our enemies.”
“How will you find your friends?” Zoe asked.
Amaros shook his head. “I’m not sure. Usually, we all arrive in the same general area at the same time. It seems Fate has scattered us this time.”
“Who is this ‘Fate’ you keep talking about?” Gracelyn asked.
They were heading away from the city that lay ahead, which pleased him.
Their base needed to be secluded, so civilians wouldn’t stumble across them.
Amaros turned at the next road Zoe indicated before responding.
“Order and Chaos are the two entities that control every universe and dimension,” he said.
“A being called Anarchy is the right hand of Chaos. Fate is the right hand of Order. She’s the strategist who is tasked with attempting to save each world and its inhabitants each time war breaks out. ”
“Sounds like an awesome job,” Grace said sarcastically. “How many dimensions are we talking about?”
“There’s an infinite number of them,” the knight said. “War between the two entities comes in a five-thousand-year cycle for each world. Two opposing champions are chosen and they draw their warriors to them. Once one of the leaders and their soldiers are killed, the other side wins.”
“I saw you fighting in hundreds of wars,” Zoe said. “If each cycle begins after five thousand years, how long has this been going on?”
“How old is this planet?” Amaros said, trying to hide his bleakness.
“We’ve been battling each other long before humans appeared.
We were fighting each other when dinosaurs first roamed the earth.
Our battles became more complicated after humans appeared.
Chaos uses them as pawns, deriving joy from their destruction.
Civilizations have risen and fallen in the blink of an eye to us. ”
“Holy crap,” Grace said in awe. “You must be billions of years old.”
“Is he, though?” Zoe mused. “The wars only seem to last a few years or so. Once it’s over, they all go back into stasis like some kind of cryogenic sleep. They don’t age or change at all.”
Amaros nodded. “We look exactly the same now as we always have,” he said. “Only our clothing and language evolves with each new era.”
“What did you wear back when dinosaurs were lumbering around?” Grace asked.
“Leaves, mostly,” he replied in amusement at her fascination.
“Did you ever fight a T-Rex?” the kid asked, green eyes widening.
“One of my knights was eaten by one during a battle with our foes,” he said. “Not even we were brave enough to take on the large carnivores. We blundered into its territory by accident.”
“It must be so strange to wake up every five thousand years to see the world has changed so dramatically,” Zoe said, directing him to turn onto the highway.
“Fate always imbues us with knowledge, so we arrive prepared,” he said. “I must admit that the changes this time are more extensive than usual.”
“Do you always end up here in America?” Gracelyn asked.
“We’re sent all over the world,” Amaros said. “We were in what’s now known as Egypt the last time we fought Chaos’ minions. The Egyptians were the most advanced beings we’d interacted with at that stage.”
“The pyramids must have been new back then,” Zoe said, sounding as awed as the teen by now. “You guys are time travelers.”
“In a sense,” he agreed, feeling weary beyond description from the weight of just how much time had passed.
“How did Order create you?” Grace asked. “Did someone give birth to you in the Void?”
“I remember suddenly becoming aware of my existence appearing as I do now,” the knight said. “Fate appeared before me and told me of my destiny. My team was created in the same way. We’ve fought by each other’s sides since time began.”
“You miss them,” Zoe said, picking up on his nostalgic tone.
“They’re like my brothers,” Amaros said. “It’s always painful to see my men fall in battle. I take comfort knowing they’ve returned to the Void from whence we came.”
“From whence you came?” Grace repeated. “You sound so old sometimes.”
“It’s hilarious,” Zoe said, dredging up a smile. Grace seemed to be coping with the Rapture and subsequent fallout, but Zoe was still trying to deal with her loss.