GUARDIAN OF THE AURAS (THE AURAS' CHEST Book 1) Read online

  GUARDIAN

  OF THE

  AURAS

  THE AURAS’ CHEST (BOOK #1)

  VICTORIA MOSCHOU

  Copyright © 2018 Victoria Moschou

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-7904-8065-4

  DEDICATION

  To my Mother, Ourania, my inspiration!

  You kept believing in me when nobody else did!

  You taught me to trust my heart, when everyone else said it was my head I should’ve trusted.

  Emotions make us human. Denying them makes us beasts.

  ~Victoria Klein

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Writing a book is like running a marathon. It’s a long race that takes practice, effort, strategy and, possibly, tears. Even though it’s extremely hard, it’s also extremely rewarding, and I’m glad that I have many wonderful people to thank for standing by me over the past three years and for helping me achieve my dream.

  Mum and Dad, I love you more than you can possibly imagine and I want to thank you for giving to me my first ever fairy tale when I was just ten months old. You both taught me that I can endure reality by reading fantasy, and you helped me realise that in this crazy, bittersweet circle of life the heroes aren’t the ones that always win. You inspire me every single day to become a better person and for that I will be eternally grateful.

  A very special thanks to my dear Apo, for believing in me, for reading my notes and my very first drafts, and for making dozens of writing playlists especially for me. You are my best friend, you’re the first person I want to talk to when I wake up, you raise me up when I am at my lowest and you still laugh at my lame jokes. I love you more than coffee (but please don’t make me prove it)!

  To my darkling, Christine, for loving Aurora just as much as I do right from the beginning. Thank you for the countless twilight hour and midnight conversations, for the editorial help, for encouraging me to keep writing and querying. You’re an angel, I’m really glad I met you and I feel extremely honoured that I can call you my friend.

  Sometimes it’s hard to work on the story that you love when, at the same time, you’re dealing with grief, anxiety and insomnia. It feels as if you betray the one that’s gone by doing so. There are very few people that get that. So, huge thanks to my buddy, my Parabatai, my lovely High Lady, Nikki, for being there for me, when all I needed was someone to listen to my silences. I’m here for you whenever you feel ready to start training and I’ll always be here for you whenever you want to talk.

  To my incredible creative writing tutors, Heidi James and Judith Watts. You both are endless sources of inspiration and knowledge, I am grateful that I was your student and I want to thank you for teaching me a very valuable lesson: that I always need to pour my very soul out when writing a story. Judith, thanks for the world-building tips. Heidi, thanks for encouraging me to write a story that makes me cry every single time I read it.

  To those wonderful artists that made this whole process of writing, revising, editing and polishing the first instalment of THE AURAS’ CHEST a lot easier. Ed Sheeran, Rachel Platten, Celine Dion, Dan Stevens, Lea Michele, Sara Bareilles, Christina Perri, Lady Antebellum and Chord Overstreet, thank you all for inspiring me with your songs to write the story of a girl who was thought to be heartless when speaking her mind, and thoughtless when doing what was in her heart.

  To my favourite authors. Sarah J. Maas, thanks for reminding me that I should not let the hard days win. J. K. Rowling, thanks for reminding me that I’ll always feel at home when opening a HARRY POTTER book. Bree Barton, thank you for making girl-power cool again.

  Finally, to you! To the hopeless romantics that, in a world where everyone tries to suppress their feelings, you’re the ones that embrace them. Thank you for choosing to stay with me. This is just the beginning of a great adventure.

  There’ll come a day when souls will ask how our Rondure was made.

  So make sure that you learn by heart the Valiant Four’s parade.

  At first, only the darkness ruled upon this island’s sky.

  But then Ethereal fixed the sun, the moons and stars up high.

  She blew the air and souls awoke, finally brought to life.

  And so Barth’s earth was filled with laugh, prosperity and light.

  Twins they might were, the youngest two, yet not at all the same.

  For one was liquid, flowing free, the other one aflame.

  Cordelia means “daughter of sea” yet she was its own mother.

  The oceans, rivers, lakes and brooks claimed that they had none other.

  For that was true, despite her twin; he turned the fields ablaze.

  Volcanoes, fire, the core of earth, all these were Kai’s domains.

  Those were the Four, those were the brave; Element and Protector.

  Still, there was one, a Prodigal, a Humdrum souls’ collector.

  She was Creator as well, a Guardian of some kind.

  And that’s the story of the Auras’ chest, where mind and heart will bind.

  Chapter 1

  Nobody had said that hearts were wild creatures. They only used to say our ribs were cages. Cages that would protect this vital organ from the plague that used to rule upon the world. But in a land, where feelings had been banned for centuries now, two things were unforgivable. One, to have your judgement clouded, when up till yesterday, your place in the world was almost certain. And two, to let hearts melt, surrender to fierce emotions, because you were foolish enough in the first place, to unleash them once again.

  There would be no forgiveness, no hope for me. For I had done both.

  ***

  It was always dark and wet in the Forests of the Fiendish, trees having twice the height of those the Humdrums, those soulless mortals, planted, creating a natural ceiling and preventing the beams of the sun to shine through them. The ground was always covered with dew, and unless you were a fool human, looking for the elixir of immortality, you wouldn’t dare to move close to the lethal plants and flowers that were blooming near the roots of the enormous trees.

  Neither the Earth, nor the Water had spoken to me. I would have noticed. The little brooks that were showing me the way from the day I left home were as indifferent as they always were to me. I had gone through the Vales of the Valiant Four, the grand valley spreading from the northern to the southern side of our heavenly island, Rondure. I had climbed all the way up to the Forgotten Mountains and then had walked down, down till the entrance of the Forests of the Fiendish. And yet… Nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

  I didn’t question Mother when she informed me that my quest would begin right before the dawn of my seventeenth birthday. It would be a long and arduous journey, all the way till the other side of Rondure, deep inside the woods, but I knew it would all be worth it in the end. For I’d declare my power, my loyalty, my pledge to one of the four Main Elements; to one of the Valiant Four.

  And here I was now, two months later, standing inside the dark Gate of the Ghosts, the most ancient of the Forests’ caves, where this unearthly song kept echoing long before I had entered the cave, while I was still walking inside the woods. I could feel the hair at the back of my neck rising, still shivers weren’t being sent all the way down my spine. That was for the fainthearted, not for the daughter of the High Priestess of Air.

  The eerie song kept reverberating through the cave. What if this was yet another task, something I had to overcome to embrace my power? I had already come across pixies and sorcerers. I had already faced some of the Unpledged, the women of my kin who had chosen darkness over light, forgetting who they should worship, who they should respec
t. And who they should have disavowed years ago.

  Mother hadn’t said how long my journey would be; hers had taken over three months, so why would I be the exception? There were Priestesses who had never returned back home, still I didn’t want to think of that, at least not now of all times.

  I took a secure step, all my senses being on edge, walking deeper inside the cave. At once, two grand torches came to life, crimson and orange flames crackling fiercely, illuminating the Gate of the Ghosts. Most importantly, illuminating the little chest that was placed in its centre. I tried to touch the flames of the torch that was placed on my right, but the fire started burning even fiercer than before.

  Alas! It wasn’t the Fire, either, even though everyone claimed that this would be the Element where I would pledge my loyalty to. I’d never understood that. Couldn’t a redhead, with the most carmine eyes in all Rondure, be destined for something other than Fire?

  I always believed it would be the Air, Mother’s element, especially since I were the only Priestess of Rondure being born with the exact same tattoo that Ethereal, the most powerful of the Valiant Four, had all over her right hand, from her shoulder, to her wrist. Stars and moons and otherworldly patterns adorning her limb in every painting, statue and document referring to her. Something like that hadn’t happened since the day our world had been created. There must have been a reason for that.

  We may have hearts made of ice, but by the Valiant Four, Aurora… This is your destiny! This is your path, I heard Mother’s mantra echoing inside my mind. And I knew why she had kept saying that time and again, as my departure’s time was approaching.

  Every woman in my family was destined to protect and preserve one of the four Main Elements, right from the beginning of time, long before the Humdrums had taken over our home. And I was destined for the skies up above!

  Maybe I didn’t know how the mortals’ hearts used to skip a bit and they felt butterflies in their stomachs when they were around their paramours. Or how they used to feel shivers being sent down their spines, how they were at the end of their tether, or even how they used to fly high, ignoring every trouble, every problem they might have.

  That was before logic had dominated upon Rondure. Before the Valiant Four had separated themselves from the mortals of this world, leaving even their offsprings to find their place in Rondure with little guidance and help after a few centuries. Before every single emotion had been locked away, to save us all from the Humdrums’ menace and hate.

  Even when thinking of feelings and emotions, those were simply words to me. Logic was above everything. Duty was above everything. And destiny!

  I’d been led here for a reason. I wouldn’t wimp out now! Even if I wasn’t armed to the teeth, like the rest of the Priestesses used to travel, still I would be able to face whatever dark creature lurked inside those woods, and in that cave. After all, I never went anywhere without my twin blades. At that thought, I fingered their handles. Good. They were still hidden beneath my tunic.

  A whirlwind swept the little box that was placed right at the centre of the cave, and I finally knew it for certain. Air! The moons and the stars and the night skies! Everything I always wanted!

  I marched towards it, eliminating the distance between myself and the box, that little chest that would signify the next day of my life, changing it forever. A few more steps inside the cave and I was standing before it, that cylindrical, black box, encrusted with rubies, sapphires, emeralds and amethysts; the precious gemstones, the emblems of each one of the Valiant Four. Under the low light of the cave that little chest almost looked divine.

  Empyrean! An eerie voice said, echoing through the crackling of the fire, the moment I took the chest inside my hands. Come on, now! Open it! Aren’t you curious to see what the airs can do? How you’ll be able to bewitch and control them? How the Auras will cleanse Rondure once more?

  I was bewitched, my mind paralysed as the voice kept echoing inside my head. And I don’t know how or why, but slowly, I removed the top of the chest. For just a split second, nothing happened. And then… The Gate of the Ghosts was full of voices, full of colours, mists and smokes.

  Awestricken I stood before that spectacle, for it was both empyrean and horrific. Some of the voices sounded happy, singing songs that were long forgotten, while others sounded devastated, mourning and grieving, their shrieks like thousands of broken glasses in my ears. And then, there were the others… Those whose colours were more bright and vivid, more intense. And they sounded angry, envious, lusty, passionate…

  Slowly, the mists and the voices started flowing higher and higher, desperate to break free of their chest and the Gate of the Ghosts. I concentrated, trying to bring them all back, to put them once again inside the cylindrical box, for they were airs, after all, yet nothing happened. I had no control over them and I didn’t know why. I placed the top of the chest back to its place, my hands trembling a bit, as a troubling thought started taking shape inside my mind.

  One by one the mists started flying away, disappearing inside the woods. But… What if those voices were never to be heard again? What if those smokes were never to cloud the judgement and the sight of the humans? What if they were…

  No! It couldn’t be…

  “What have I done?” I whispered, my heart sinking by the second.

  You did what others before you should have done centuries ago, young Guardian. You unleashed the Auras! Now Rondure will become pure again! None of the Humdrums will survive, for they will be consumed! Their feelings will eat them alive from the inside and only the strong ones will endure!

  What had I done? I had brought Hell upon Heaven!

  Chapter 2

  I stood frozen in front of the Gate of the Ghosts, unable to believe what had just happened; what I had let to happen. It seemed like hours, ages, eons… I just kept standing there because the alternative was something I didn’t even want to think about. What would I do? How would I return home after today, ordinary, an Unpledged, without having mastered one of the Main Elements? Most importantly, how would I return home if what I thought I’d done ended up being true?

  It was only when the eerie song had vanished that I recalled how that invisible being had called me. Guardian… I couldn’t think back on having read or heard of something like that before, in all the years of my training. We were all called Priestesses and Preservers by the common folk, but never Guardians. There must have been some sort of mistake. The being must have been wrong. Or that was just me, trying to reassure myself I hadn’t made a colossal mistake; one that would change Rondure, and probably the entire world, for the worse.

  Still, I couldn’t take that voice out of my mind, I couldn’t forget the title she’d given to me. Guardian…

  That couldn’t be. The men of our tribe were the guardians. That’s how it had been decided after the first grand battle. That’s why we lived separately. They had vowed to protect the Humdrums from hurting themselves and one another, protect us from them, for the common people had forgotten to whom they should worship and pledge their faith, their loyalty to. I couldn’t blame them though… Gold and power and authority were too great of gods to be ignored.

  I didn’t have much more time to think about that, about whether I was indeed a guardian like my tribe’s men. Suddenly, the darkness of the woods was illuminated by a red flash, a mist that dashed into the Forests of the Fiendish, flying fast, flowing between the trees, the plants and the lethal herbs and blossoms.

  It was like I was wide awake again after a really long time. A crazy idea started taking shape inside my mind, as I rushed behind the mist, following it in a trivial conquest. An idea that would either doom me once and for all, or it would carve my name in golden letters in the history of Rondure; I would catch them all, if it was the last thing I’d do! For if I had unleashed the ancient emotions of our world once more, I had no other choice but to hunt them down. Hunt them down and lock them once again inside that little chest, that I held protectively aga
inst my heart right now, as I kept running deeper inside the woods.

  I couldn’t let the Humdrums die because of me. I couldn’t let anyone die because of me. I wouldn’t! I would catch all the mists, the Auras as the being had called them, and place them back inside the chest. Even though I didn’t know to which direction the rest of them had flied… Even though I didn’t have the slightest idea of how to catch those airs and smokes with my own bare hands… They had been locked away for hundreds of years, and I could clearly see the reason why now. Still, I would try to catch them all; that was for certain!

  I followed the red mist, my black, silk tunic slithering upon the moist ground. The autumn leaves rustled as I kept walking through the woods, avoiding the Traps of Despair, one of the most ancient and most dangerous herbs that were growing in the Forests of the Fiendish. Yet for those who weren’t accustomed to those deadly plants, the Traps of Despair looked exactly like Dicentra Formosa, also known as Bleeding Heart, the flower of love, passion and lust.

  Suddenly, the mist stopped moving, flashing much more intensely than it did before. That was when I heard them… Those voices that were one with the Aura, coexisting and singing to each other, a song that only lovers would dare to sing.

  Of course, I couldn’t be sure if lovers could feel hurt, broken, betrayed, happy, ecstatic, desperate, healed, full of joy, all at the same time. Because that’s what the song was talking about; about how love was never easy, but people were always trying to find and feel it. About how love was everlasting, living for all eternity in our hearts, first flowing like a little brook inside our souls, then like a torrent!

  And I couldn’t be sure because I’d never had the chance to even think about love. Besides, the emotion of love was long gone, and all I could do was simply read about it; about how people used to feel before the first grand battle, how they found their other half and decided to share their life together, instead of marrying simply to perpetuate their kin.