Chapter 3~Altered

Twenty Screens about 2700 words and lots of information. See Here for Trysten's bio it might help explain a bit on her and see here for a creature explanation for Daywalkers and Nightwalkers. No warnings other than a few words and lots of confusion. 80) Enjoy

Oh yes one more thing, would you all like to see more of this particular piece with Lydie or more of Jayden and his current state of affairs???

Altoriah

Bright sunlight warmed Lydie’s shoulders and back from the large glass windows as she descended the stairs the glow casting her distorted shadow over the gleaming polished inlaid marble floors. The roar of the waves crashing against the shore just beyond the properties edge were louder than they had been in her room; their joyful rumble vibrated the glass and filled the air with an ethereal song of life. Sighing quietly to herself she took another step down, she’d spent an hour in her quarters watching as the white caps rolled in from far out at sea, the color of the water making it impossible to tell where the cerulean sky began. She couldn’t explain it but this strange land gave her a sense of belonging and peace.

Pausing mid-step at the base of the stairs, Lydie gazed out at the splendor, want coursing through her to go outside and feel the breeze that ruffled the thick vibrant green leaves on the tree’s. To smell the freshness of the air, briefly she’d considered doing such a thing upstairs, while she’d debated following the instructions the note on the bedside table had given to her. But she’d paused, reason warring with desire. The man had welcomed her to Altoriah, where-ever that was. For all she knew she’d been abducted by aliens and the house had been sealed to keep her alive. In truth the notion wasn’t that far fetched, the bright light that she’d traveled through with her mother very well could have been a beam that took her to the mother ship.

Was it possible that this was all some sort of strange dream implanted by the aliens to keep her resolute and manageable? her mother couldn’t be alive, no human could when they’d been shot in the heart… This had to be nothing more than a strange dream, none of it was real and before she knew it she’d awaken to find Jayden beside her.

Jayden… to think of him ached her.

The only reason she couldn’t just accept that it was a dream, he was real just as her father and they were vampires, Nosferatu whichever you wanted to call them. She’d tried to convince herself that it had been a dream when Jayden had first told her of his life state and just as now she’d found it impossible to accept. She’d touched him, kissed him, felt him in the depths of her soul, no it wasn’t possible to be a dream. Machinations of the slumber sort didn’t involve sense, sight, smell or emotion.

Reaching the dining hall she stopped, she’d seen Trysten plain as day this morning out on the green lawn, strolling sadly along. Her mother had to be alive and if she was that meant she was an immortal, but what kind? Certainly not a vampire, because the woman had been bathed in light and what did that make her? Her heart beat within her chest and if she cut herself she would bleed red the same as any other person, but to believe she was human didn’t make sense.

“Welcome dear one…” The strangely accented woman’s voice echoed through her mind. Jumping slightly Lydie glanced nervously about the lavishly decorated room finding nothing but a painting of an ethereally beautiful woman hanging on the wall. An immediate sense of kinship enveloping her as she gazed at the canvas., her heart skittering in her breast as the woman’s smile seemed to grow, blinking rapidly she closed her eyes and re-opened them finding nothing out of the ordinary.

Great, now she was hearing voices and imagining living paintings, surely insanity was closing in now… She couldn’t help but think like that after all her mother had to be immortal, her father was a vampire and the one man she loved an undead as well. Whatever happened to her droll old life?

In an attempt to pull her thoughts from their course Lydie turned towards the plate of omelets that had been set on an empty table to the right of the door. She had to admit that they smelled divine, she was hungry, she’d really not eaten much of anything since the night Jayden had made the steak for her and even that had been ruined.

“Your father is not a vampire,” Trysten’s breezy tone filled the quiet room, startling her before she’d the chance to grab a plate. Her left hand fell limply to her side as she masked her surprise at the intrusion. Resting one hand on her hip she glanced over her right shoulder, her gaze falling upon the unaged and discomforted vision of her mother.

Not a vampire? If her father wasn’t a vampire that meant he too was some form of an immortal, that couldn’t walk in the day. Although she didn’t know that for sure, she was merely going off of what Jayden had shown and told her. Unable to control herself she glared at her mother and spoke. “What is he then?” after twenty years of believing her mother to have been dead she was angry an emotion she didn’t bother to hide from her voice. In truth she was more than just angry seeing her mother standing there, looking the same as she had in 1988 enraged her. All these years Trysten had been alive and hadn’t come to her, had she heard her sorrowful plea’s, the prayers she’d uttered every night to see her mother again? As much as she wanted to know she didn’t dare ask it.

Trysten shifted in distress under Lydie’s watchful glare, dropped her nervous gaze to the floor, “Carter Marcel is the God of Deprivation, the leader of the American faction of Nightwalkers.” Her mother’s shoulders slumped briefly before she caught herself and returned her ice blue gaze to Lydies face.

She swallowed hard, trying to fathom what her mother had just informed her of. Her father was not a vampire, he was…he was… a god and not just one but the god of Deprivation. Before she could form the question her mother took a step forward a pained expression etched in her smooth features. “I am not an immortal Lydie, not in the sense that you’re thinking of. Highlander was a movie,” Trysten’s soft voice trailed off.

Stunned and confused Lydie turned away her gaze focusing now upon a large tree just outside of the window. “What are you?” she whispered softly, feeling for the third time in the past month that her world had been tipped upside down.

The soft click of her mother’s heels barely registered as she stared out of the window, trying desperately to assemble her emotions, she flinched as her mother’s warm hand brushed against the back of her arm in an attempt to soothe her. “I’m a daywalker, born of pure light it is my duty to help fight the threat of the evil army’s Armand created. But more I was the chosen…”

The words were less than comforting and only added to her confusion. The pain that she felt…
Lydie shook with disbelief and frustration as she took a small step forward away from Trysten’s touch, a soft gasp of heartache the only sound to leave her mother’s mouth. “Armand?” she’d heard that name before, somewhere but she couldn’t place it, the mere mention of it sending a shiver of fear and disgust through her body.

“Yes Armand, your grandfather the god of sorrow and retribution. He rules the Cimmerian realm alongside the sage priestess turned Goddess of Vanity, Arianne.”

Arianne! Just the name sent a shiver of loathing and fear down Lydies spine, the horrid woman that had claimed to be her grandmother. “Yes I met her on a few occasions, she is…”

The air in the room crackled with tension and Trysten fell silent for a moment. When she finally spoke her voice was weak, nothing more than breathless, shaky squeak, “y-you have been in contact with Arianne?”

Inhaling a deep breath Lydie contemplated what to say, finally decided on the truth, maybe then she’d get some answers…“Yes she wanted for me to…” she blushed at the thought of what her grandmother had requested of her, “Well Jayden and I were to well… apparently he and I are meant for each other and we are supposed to sleep together, but only if he professes his love.” She stammered out uncomfortably on one single breath.

From Behind her Trysten gasped, her icy blue eyes burning into Lydie’s shoulders and back, she couldn’t explain it but she could taste her mother’s unease, smell her tears. “Have you and Jay?” Her mother’s voice wavered uneasily.

“No!” she interrupted without hesitation confused by the feeling of relief that passed through the room from her mother. “Why?”

Trysten shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, her hand dropping away from her, “Lydie , I have known Jayden for many years and he is not what he seems but I cannot tell you of him. You see in the throes of passion he is liable to bite you and being you are the only of your breed, it is uncertain as to how his bite would affect you.”

Lydie moved so quickly her mother gasped and cringed as she glared at the other woman, confusion and the need for answers at the forefront of her mind. “Affect me? He bit me in the hotel room the first night I met him and I am still… Well here aren’t I?” Lydie’s voice trembled with a combination of bewildered anger her mind spun with questions. When it occurred to her that Trysten had told her she was the only of her breed. “What do you mean breed mother? I am not an animal I am a human, at least that’s what I believed until now.”

“You are the only to be born of pure light and dark Lydie, you are a prophecy for you see…” Trysten explained breathlessly, unshed tears sparkling in her eyes.

“Prophecy? Come on now, when am I going to get some answers that make sense? First I find out that my father is what I thought to be a vampire and now he’s a dark nightwalker god what ever the fuck that is and now I find out that my believed dead mother is in fact a fucking daywalker, alive and well! Yet another creatura lima that I have never before heard of!”

“Lydie I know that you are confused, I am trying to explain…” Trysten interjected her voice dropping to the slow cadence that she had used when she’d been young and in need of solace.

But this time it only served to infuriate her more. After weeks of dealing with Arianne and facing avoidance from all those around her, Jayden included she wasn’t having any of it. “No mother you aren’t trying to explain you are doing the same thing as everyone else avoiding giving me anything but cryptic bullshit!”

“That is enough Lydieanna!” the raspy voice of the man from the night before cut into her tirade, drawing both Lydie and her mother’s attention towards the entrance of the dining hall. “Trysten you are needed immediately in theTemple of light, Alaine is waiting.” If she’d thought her mother discomforted before it was now ten fold as Trysten blanched and bowed her head.

“Luciene she is my daughter,” Trysten quietly argued, her eyes downcast upon the floor and her voice wavering as if she feared the man’s wrath.

Folding her arms across her chest Lydie glared up at the extremely tall man, who had to stand at least six foot nine or ten, uncaring that his face was solid as granite, his lips pursed in a tight line of frustration. She’d been brought here against her will and she wanted answers and now, “Yes Luciene,” she spat adding extra emphasis to his name now that she had learned it. An odd warmth building within her as she spoke it, a soothing and calming sensation that she fought against.

He is a part of this… she chanted silently to herself to keep the sensation at bay. “She is my mother and we are having the first conversation since her supposed death twenty years ago…”

With an elegant raise of his hand, Lydie felt her every cell in her body freeze, rendering her incapable of moving, fear replacing her demand as she gazed into his piercing red and gold eyes that seemed to bore into her soul. “Lydieanna you are within my own realm and therefore when you address me you should address me with the same respect I would afford you within yours.” His raspy voice deep and caressing against her mind, each syllable vibrating her soul, Lydie was well aware that one’s voice sounded different when spoken telepathically and judging the look in his eyes, he’d placed a block upon her mother from hearing his retort. “Trysten I order you to the temple immediately, you will not be training this one…” He ordered his raspy voice filled with adamant vehemence.

A sorrow filled whimper slid from her mother’s throat drawing her attention, to her left. Lydie’s heart thundered within her breast at the expression of pain in her mother’s face. Softening slightly she wanted to hug Trysten close, provide comfort but not until she’d thoroughly railed this unknown man. “Trysten you will report to the temple immediately, you will not be training this one…” He reiterated pointing towards the entrance of the room, his enraged glare falling upon Lydie as he finished his sentence….

To Be continued…