Lovers' Oath Ch. 06

"Thanks. I should get going now."

"Alright. If you feel any dizziness, weakness or find yourself hallucinating, get yourself down here as soon as possible.

"I will." Rayn nodded. Looking back at Rohan, she smiled again, "Let's go. I have a date I don't wanna miss."

"Hmm, yes." Rohan paused, then looked back at her, "No wonder Scott liked you. Demons usually have a liking for strong hearted girls, especially if they have powerful magic in them."

As the meaning of what Rohan said settled in her head, Rayn stopped in her tracks, "Demon?"

"Yeah. Why?" As he saw her expression, he shook his head, "Not all demons are bad, Rayn. Just like there are traitors among us - non-humans and humans alike who work for the Demon Lord, there are several clans of Demons who work alongside us. They are also a part of the defenders.These are the demons who didn't agree with Gedan when he wanted to take over the OuterWorld. They were banished from the UnderWorld. Actually, they have a huge role in our success in resisting their attacks. If it wasn't for their knowledge of the ways of the UnderWorld and their assistance, we might have lost the war on the very first blow they had delivered to us. Right now, there is at least one demon in each sector enlisted in the army of Gedan, and they work for us endangering their lives. That could be seen as treachery to their own race, but they see it as being defenders of truth, justice and the greater good." He smiled a little to put Rayn at ease.

"I understand." She nodded. "Why isn't their contribution documented in our records?" she frowned.

"They are. But those documents are highly guarded. Otherwise one leak will destroy any and all demons Gedan suspects of treachery."

"Oh. I see." She paused as they came to a halt at the entrance of the armory.

"I thought you had a date you didn't wanted to be late to?" Rohan asked.

"Hmm. I won't be. My date isn't back from his mission yet. He's leading the Recovery team on sector-3. Speaking of which, what exactly are these Lost Jewels that they are recovering?" she asked curiously.

"Jewels of a magical origin. Some say the Gods had given them to the eleven leaders of all the magical beings. The speculated number of jewels is twelve, but we've so far been able to trace only eleven. It is believed that the twelfth jewel is more powerful than all of the jewels combined. That bit might be a myth. But these eleven jewels are documented through out history, although, each time with a different name. Their mentions are rare, and disguised. It's hard to trace them. Even harder to be sure that we are on the right track. If we are right, Rogers should return tonight with those eleven jewels. And if we're right, then the demons will lose a powerful source of their powers. If they get to the jewels before us, it will be chaos all around."

"We'll be able to use those powers in fighting with the demons?"

"We should be able to, yeah. We'll see."

As they spoke they entered the room in the armory where the daggers and blades were kept. As Rohan took a log of the weapons and checked which ones were issued on missions and whether all of them were returned, she remembered something.

"Uh, Ro?"

"Hmm?" He was distracted as he noticed a few irregularities. He opened the records file to check something when Rayn asked,

"There haven't been any potentially high casualty missions within the past few days. Yesterday, before I went on that mission with Kiel, the medical bay was unoccupied. Then why are there heavily injured people today?"

Rohan almost dropped the tablet like data panel he was using for logging the weapons. "Huh? What?" he looked at her.

"The medical bay is crowded, at least ten people are there today, heavily injured. There haven't been any missions involving highly dangerous fighting yesterday or this morning. How were they injured?"

"Umm, one of the cold missions went wrong. We didn't expect many hostiles. But we either had bad intel or they knew we were coming. Enemies were more than we expected. The mission had to be aborted. They were brought in this morning, when you were out." He explained with his back to her. He didn't like the idea of lying to her.

"Oh, that's bad. Did we lose many?" the sincere concern and pain in her voice for those people touched him.

Nodding sadly he replied, "Yeah. Four. The others were able to get away. We lost two in the field, two others had irreparable damage. They died, despite the Healers' best efforts, a few hours after they got here." as he saw the saddened expression on her face, he almost cringed to think that if the death of people she had never met saddened her so much, how much pain it would cause her when she learned of her parents' death. He put a hand on her shoulder, "Don't be saddened, Rayn. We'll miss their presence, but they knew of this eventuality. They died fighting for a cause they believed in. And they'd like us to remember them with nothing but pride. Their souls will be reborn and returned to us one day. They will be reincarnated to return to their loved ones. So don't feel sorrow for their death. Be proud for them instead. They had the courage to stand up and fight for what they believed in, fight to save the innocent."

She nodded, "I know all that. Doesn't mean I have to like it." looking up at him, she ruefully smiled, "At moments, I am just a silly human girl who feels sad at the loss of such precious lives. They had a family. Loved ones who will feel their absence with all their heart. I can't even imagine the pain they must be going through right now." she sighed. Rohan stood motionless on the spot as his heart wrenched. He didn't know what to tell her. He opened his mouth several times, then closed it again. His thoughts darted to the impending future. Almost like a blessing the display inside the armory that announced a mission's return turned on. He looked up at it,

"Looks like your date has arrived. Come on, let's go disarm and strip'em. You get to strip Rogers." he smiled down at her. Playfully smacking his arm, she glared at him,

"Shut up, Ro."

"No scratching, Kitty." Laughing, he mussed her hair as they went to meet the returned team.

*****

"Wow! I never thought Rohan was gonna let you out of the debriefing room." Rayn exclaimed dropping herself on a chair in Rogers' kitchen. She heard him chuckle before he turned around from the coffee machine and placed a cup of steaming coffee in front of her, and sat down opposite her with the other cup,

"Well, he's very particular about the minute details of each mission. Those details are to him as a bit of good gossip is to an old woman. He just wants to know everything." He smiled at her. She nodded,

"I know what you mean. So, did you find the Jewels?" he shook his head.

"Nope. This is the third time we have failed to retrieve them. Every time, we seem so close one moment, then we seem to have veered off to another path, leading us away from the jewels. It's getting very frustrating." He shrugged, frowning.

"Third time?" she asked wonderingly. As he nodded, she thought out loud," The jewels gotta be pretty powerful if they have managed to misdirect you three times. Good luck getting your hands on them!"

"What?" He looked up at her, blinking in confusion.

"What?"

"What do you mean 'misdirect us'?"

"Well, it just seems too much of a coincidence to occur three times in a row. Rohan told me these jewels are pretty powerful, and they've been mentioned very rarely in the earlier documents, although people have been looking for them for centuries. Most of the times when they were documented as found, someone had stumbled onto one of them. So I figured they might have some magic to escape people looking for them." as she watched him observing her, thinking about what she had said, she blushed, "I could be wrong though. I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry."

"No." he replied distractedly, his eyes staring at nothing,"No, don't be sorry. I think you just gave me a clue about where to look. I shouldn't have underestimated the power of the Jewels of the Gods. They are smarter than that. Of course they would have put such a protection around those jewels. Is it possible..." the last three sentences were murmured to himself as he became visibly immersed in deep thought.

Letting him think, Rayn sipped her coffee silently, doing her own thinking. As she finished her coffee, she went to the sink and washed out the cup. The slight sound the cup made as she put it in the cupboard, jarred Rogers out of his thoughts.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I was thinking about some possible locations of the jewels." He looked apologetically at her.

"I understand." she smiled reassuringly. "But, something was bothering me. If the Jewels are that important, and the demons know about them, then why were you sent in with that small team? Suppose the demons had attacked you?"

He shook his head, "The team you saw return with me was only the recovery team. There were 3 back up teams located near by. Two teams were keeping an eye on the sky, and several other ground staff were there. The demons know, that's why I've been given this mission as a special assignment, rather than any level five operative." He answered automatically, again distracted by some thoughts.

"Special assignment?" She frowned. Special assignments were only given to operatives who have outstanding records as level five operatives over a long time. They were referred to as "Special Operatives". And very few people got to that point."Exactly how far up the ladder are you, Rogers?" she asked cautiously. That question got him to pay his full attention to Rayn.

"I... Umm... In ranking, right behind Rohan." he looked sheepishly at her. "I'm one of the spec ops."

"I figured that. Were you ever going to tell me?"

"There wasn't anything to hide." He looked into her eyes sincerely, "I never told you because there wasn't any need to. You never asked before today, either."

"I see." she fell silent, broodingly staring at a page of a magazine that lay on the kitchen counter. Standing up, he went to sit on the chair beside her. She didn't look up. Extending his hand, he cupped her cheek to turn her face towards himself . Resisting for a second, she gave up and turned her face to lock her eyes with his.

"This doesn't change anything between us, Rayn."

"And what is it you think is between us, Rogers?" she whispered. Hesitantly, he replied,

"Anything that you want it to be." his fingers slowly caressed the cheek he had been cupping. Reaching up, he tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. As his eyes returned to hers, he found her looking thoughtfully at him.

"Anything I want it to be?" she asked, half whispering. He nodded. "What if I don't want it to be anything at all?"

He smiled, "I can always be a friend."

"I'm not sure that's what I want it to be." she murmured, her eyes roaming over his face.

"Then what do you want it to be?" he leaned in a little, barely keeping himself from capturing her lips with his.

"I dunno." her whispered reply was almost inaudible as she leaned in and brushed her lips against his. The touch of her lips was so tempting, yet so minimal, that he craved that touch instantly. Pulling her chair closer, he locked her lips with his. As he kissed her deeply, he stood up, pulling her up from the chair along with him without breaking the kiss. As she stood, he picked her up and carried her to the couch in the living room, dropping small kisses on her eyes, cheeks, and lips all the way.

Sitting down on the couch with her straddling his lap, he again captured her lips. As he suckled and nipped her lower lip, he felt her fingers roaming over his chest. Lifting his hand, he pulled back her head by gently pulling on a fistful of her hair, taking care that he didn't hurt her, supporting her back with the other hand. As her head tilted back, exposing her throat to him, he started placing small kisses on her throat and neck. First kissing the spot, then nipping it lightly and then suckling the spot. As his lips slowly made their way down her throat and nearer her cleavage, she moaned in pleasure. He lifted her shirt to expose her belly. Bringing down the hand with which he was holding her head, he splayed his fingers on her belly, dropping slow kisses on her cleavage and the upper parts of her breasts that were exposed. His fingers slowly caressed her belly, making their way up to her bra covered breasts. As he lightly cupped and squeezed one of her soft breasts, she whimpered in pleasure.

Before he could unbutton her shirt, she caught the hand he had slid up her body and tugged on it. As he looked up at her, he saw the unsure look in her eyes.

"I... I'm sorry Rogers... I..." she stuttered as the color started to rise up her throat. He pulled himself back.

"It's alright, Rayn. We can take it slow if you are not ready for that." he smiled reassuringly, but that didn't seem to put her to ease.

"I... I just don't feel so sure about this." she murmured apologetically, her eyes averted.

"It's fine. We can wait till you are okay with it. No rush." he brushed his knuckles against her cheek. She lifted her eyes to his shyly,

"Are you sure it's okay? You're not... Disappointed or something, are you?" she asked. Despite hearing her worried tone, the way she said it made him laugh,

"It's alright, baby, really. I'm not disappointed in you. Don't worry." She nodded. Then realizing she was still straddling his lap, she got up and sat down beside him.

"Thanks for understanding." she murmured. He simply nodded, then got up,

"Wait, I'll get some snacks for us. Anything in particular you'd like?" he asked, knowing her answer full well.

"Those chocolate wafers you make please?" he laughed at the way she gave him the puppy eyes and blinked up childishly at him.

"Alright, princess charming. No need to bring out the heavy artillery. I'll get them." as he got a bowl of the wafers she wanted for both of them, he couldn't help laughing at the way she attacked the bowl. "Easy kitty. It's not gonna run away." She simply smiled at his comment.

As he leaned back on the couch and looked at her, she pushed the bowl towards him. Within a few moments they had emptied the contents between them.

"Can you tell me more about the Jewels? I thought they were called the Lost Jewels. Why did you call them the Jewels of the Gods?" she looked at him curiously.

At her question, he laughed. "Actually, there are several names for them, all given to them at some point or another when they were found. The name Lost Jewels is the most recent one. The most ancient name - and also the most accepted name- roughly translates into The Jewels of the Gods. The name was given in the Original language." As he explained the history, he saw her eyes shine with a thousand questions.

"But why the reference to the Gods?" she frowned, "Even Rohan was using the same term."

"Well, the legend is that after the Gods- the powerful beings of the higher plane - became acquainted with the undivided Golden race of Cardaera, they blessed them with powers of magic the people of that race had only dreamed of. I mean, they already had such powers, but not as strong as the Gods made them. It is not known what kind of, or rather in what form was the magic given to them. Some believe some people were given powers beyond imagination, some believe all the people of the Golden race were made equally powerful, while still others think that not magic as a power, but magical tools - such as crystals and such were given to them. Since there are no written records of any such event, the stories of the legend are rather fuzzy on this point.

The Gods also met the other races, and seeing their bravery, they picked eleven rulers from the people of the Golden race and assigned them leaders of all the races and gave them one powerful jewel each. Each of these jewels are supposedly this powerhouse of magical energy. A person who has the knowledge of how to channel that energy can control the magic of these jewels. There is also a prophecy associated with them, the oldest prophecy in recorded history. It says that when the descendant of the Original Mystique Princess shall combine the eleven Jewels, three worlds shall come together and the Golden Race shall resurface again to thrive and prosper." as he found Rayn devouring his words with rapt attention, he smiled, "Actually the prophecy speaks of other possibilities, too. It's really an If...then situation. But the Descendant seems to be pivotal. She is the balance."

"What makes you think the descendant will be a she?" Rayn demanded.

At her question, Rogers looked away to the side, and murmured softly, "The descendants of the Original Mystique Princess are always women. Women of great courage, and of tragic endings." he added the last part in a bitter tone.

"Tragic?"

"Yeah. They bring peace, but at the cost of some great sacrifice." As he said that, he seemed to get lost in some memories. Something nudged at her mind. She frowned,

"When I was in the armory the very first time, I had seen two daggers there. Rohan had told me they were Eleyna's - someone who was their greatest warrior and that she had made a great sacrifice. Was she..." her voice trailed off as she found Rogers staring at her intensely. He nodded, replying to her unfinished question.

"Yes. She was the fourth descendant of the Original Mystique Princess."

"Who are the Original mystiques?" She asked, her curiosity triggered. As she looked expectantly at Rogers, he smiled softly.

"It's hard to explain, Rayn."

"Well, try please. I want to know." Rogers' eyes twinkled in amusement as he heard the eagerness in her voice.

"You really want to know?"

"Yes, of course."

"Hmm, let's see." he eyed her speculatively. "The historical data points that the city of Aliadon, speculated to have been situated near the Aliad Mountains and now buried under the jungle surrounding it, was the home of the Golden race. Alongside them, housed in the neighboring state Solin, were the Original Tribes, people who claimed to have been born shortly after life started on Cardaera. The time I'm speaking of is roughly estimated to be around 35 to 40 billion years after the first signs of life started on Cardaera. So you can probably guess how people reacted to their claim that they were near 35 billion years old. But, after a lot of research, the disbelief melted away slowly, since their ages could not be determined and they seemed immortal. Due to the mysteries surrounding them, they were named as the Original Mystiques. They were... More like a collection of several tribes, with their own laws and law makers. Some historians believe that the Original people lived in Aliadon too, as a part of the population of the Golden race. One thing is sure, that the two races had significant interaction, both social, economical and political..." as he caught the incredulity written on Rayn's face he stopped and smiled, "Tough to believe, huh?"

She shrugged,"Yeah. I mean, some people claimed that they were billions of years old and others believed them?" she gave a disbelieving snort.

Rogers frowned at her disbelief,"They had ample reason to believe, Rayn. Remember, almost anything is possible if the proper catalysts interact in the correct way on the right time. Don't be too rigid in your beliefs that you overlook the evidence, or refuse to learn the facts."

Rayn felt guilty at his irritation, "Well, yes, I guess I shouldn't have refused the notion before I heard it all." she looked at him apologetically and urged him on, "Tell me the rest." He nodded.

"The Original Mystiques were masters of Magic. What the present Children of the Elements have is residual magic. They only learn to channel it in proper ways. But they... They were something else entirely. Their body, their blood, not only stored and channeled magic, but, in a way, produced it. They didn't have to learn to use magic, they instinctively knew how to wield magical energy just like a child instinctively learns to feed from his mother's breast. It is also believed, that the Golden race had started from the Original Mystiques." Here he paused a little, gathering his thoughts, "There is a distinction between Original Mystiques and the Original people. The Original Mystiques are the Masters, and, although not all, but most of them were from the Royal bloodline. That is the bloodline considered to be the Original Bloodline that had started from the Beginning and then had spread out. The Original Tribes were the subjects under their rule, but in someway or the other, each tribe's every ancestor could be traced back to the Original Bloodline. At some early point of time, a group had detached from the Original Bloodline and had gone on to establish their own identity as the Golden race. That is why, despite having descended from the Original Bloodline, the Golden race owned magic in lesser quantity, but of similar quality as that of the Original people. No one has ever been able to compare up to the powers of the Original Mystiques. " As he continued, the look in Rogers' eyes became far off. "Those were the golden days, the people of Original tribes lived in peace. There was immense wealth at their disposal, yet no one ever dared to attack them due to their prowess, not only in magic but in battle, too. Then came the darker days.