Five are the Elders with their gifts born in the black of night.

Five are the Elders’ gifts hidden to set Seras right.

Five Elders pitted beneath an angry sun.

Blood will flow. Flesh and blade become one.

The blood is given to ease time;

The breath known to free men’s minds;

The bones to merge distance and space;

The body a destined warrior, the Solia Custor, out of place,

forged in battle with one true oath –

protect Tolth’s final gift, the Heart of Seras, our final hope.

~ Ancient Seras Prophecy

Prologue

Julie Ayers’ life has changed dramatically the past three years. Sometimes, she longed for the naïve girl she was before meeting Mr. Marcus Campbell. Life would have been simple; cheerleading during the fall and playing basketball in the winter for her beloved Cedar Creek Penguins. Now, she tries balancing a normal life on Earth while being the savior of another dimension named Seras. There she is known as the Heart, a mythical warrior created by Seras’ Elders. The Elders were angels given power to create and rule that Seras, and they failed miserably. Julie was born to protect the people of Seras and rid it of the evil that possessed it.

Marcus Campbell, a warrior from Seras was sent to retrieve her and train her to fight Queen Pallanex, a servant of the elderess, Eryx. Marcus was once a feared warrior of the cursed Skorei—male warriors cursed to be part demon and part human. When his father was poisoned by his mistress, Pallanex, and his mother murdered by an unknown assailant, he, his brother, Darius, and his sister, Freya, were attacked by Pallanex’s army. He chased Pallanex and killed her. Marcus, Darius, and his best friend, William, took control of the Skorei army left leaderless by the death of his father. They terrorized the countryside until Marcus and William decided they should separate to control more territory.

Three years later a message brought the two friends back together to conquer Fort Madena. Marcus discovered a stairwell, and at the top, a portly priest. The priest said, “It is you,” as Marcus stabbed him. He felt a burning sensation before blacking out. When Marcus came to, he felt something he had never felt before, compassion and regret. After rejoining his army, Marcus and his friend, William, argued which led to the “Battle of the Betrayer.” Both men lost their armies. William retreated as Marcus, badly wounded, escaped.

Marcus was convinced he was who the ancient scribes called the Solia Custor; one of the five Gifts of the Elders. He gathered the remaining gifts: the Blood of Vestus, which slows time; the Bones of Azahleah, which transports the bearer anywhere they wish to go; and the Breath of Ostram, which allows the holder to control the mind of others and envelop their knowledge, and stepped through the Elders’ symbol, a portal to the unknown dimension fully armored for whatever was to come. He landed on Earth, completely naked, and nearly run over by an oncoming car.

Marcus spent two years learning about life on Earth; mostly by using the gifts of the Elders. He was able to take the knowledge of an older high school teacher, Mr. Christian, because he learned school is where someone of the age he was looking for would be. He discovered the Heart to be of one his freshman students, Julie Ayers. He developed a bond with the girl and convinced her to travel to Seras with him. Now he has to protect her and train her so she can complete the prophecy and destroy the evil Queen Pallanex.

Chapter One

Earth

“Oh my gosh!” Julie stomped up the stairs and stormed through Mr. Campbell’s basement door to his living room. She had waited until she heard Mr. Campbell exit the basement before opening her eyes. She quickly threw on her navy-blue shorts and her white tee-shirt with green sleeves and “Home of the Cedar Creek Penguins” printed in green on the front. Traveling through the crude portal drawn on Mr. Campbell’s basement floor was something she had become use to; arriving at her destination, whether it be on Earth or Seras, completely naked was a total inconvenience. “I can’t believe that man!” She pulled her long brown hair back into a ponytail with trembling hands. She wanted to cry.

Mr. Campbell was sitting on the couch. He had his palms placed together, lifted toward his face with his fingertips resting on his lips, the middle part of his nose that separates a person’s nostrils, and the tip of his nose. Julie wanted to scream at her mentor and high school teacher, even if he was a fake teacher, but she refrained. His cat, Shakespeare, was resting on the back of the couch. The pure white feline was excited to see her.

“Now, would you like to tell me what happened between you and Bobo?” he asked her with his calming sincere nature. He stood and put his hands on both of her shoulders. He was so tall, much taller than her five foot three-and-a-half-inch body. She could feel the strength in his hands, and the warmth. He made her feel safe.

A large breath escaped her lips. Julie looked into his blue eyes and hesitated. “He told me so much. He told me about how your mom and dad met. He told me how Pallanex killed your father. He told me how you killed Pallanex.” Julie pulled back long enough to look him in the eyes. “You slit her throat…just like that?”

Mr. Campbell didn’t move, and didn’t say a word.

Julie continued, “He told me the Elderess Eryx possessed Pallanex’s body, and now she is a hundred times more dangerous, more evil, and even more powerful. He told me I have Tolth’s blood running in my veins, and that means I’m some kinda angel…human crossbred. And then he told me because I have angel blood in me, I am the only one who can kill Pallanex. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

“Julie…”

“No, stop! Maybe you can tell me exactly why he called me the ‘Betrothed’?”

Mr. Campbell reared back slightly. “Julie, I have never heard that before.”

“Don’t lie to me!” Julie pulled away.

“I’m not lying. I’ve heard you called ‘The Heart,’ ‘Savior,’ ‘Tolth’s Gift,’ and a few other things, but never the ‘Betrothed.’ What did Redderick say?”

“Nothing. He denied saying it and tried to back pedal his way through some lame excuse that he confused my story with a different one.” Julie put her hands on her hips. “How can I believe you?”

He took a step closer.

“No!” She shook her head. “He’s…he,” she stammered. She couldn’t repeat the words going through her head. Betrothed, what does that even mean?

“Julie, wait. Whatever he meant…”

“Never mind,” Julie said, holding up a hand to stop him from whatever he was going to say. “I’ve gotta go.” She bent over to pet Shakespeare goodbye.

“Julie,” Mr. Campbell spoke softly.

She didn’t turn around. Julie flung his front door open and raced to her car, the Purple Jellybean, her birthday gift from her parents this past June, and pulled out of his apartment’s parking lot.

Once safely down the road and away from Mr. Campbell, Julie burst into tears. “What did he mean? Why did he say that?” She slammed her hand against the steering wheel. “No, I can’t let him do this to me.” She wiped her eyes with one hand then brushed her sleeve across her runny nose as she continued driving towards home.

It was one of the few times she was glad she had the ten minutes or so drive from the village of Sunset. The drive gave her enough time to pull herself together. Julie let out a deep puff of wind as she turned into her driveway. “Okay, compose yourself, Jules.” She parked Jelly Bean next to her mom’s minivan. She checked her look in the mirror. It was a good thing she didn’t wear a lot of make-up, but the small amount of mascara she did apply the day before that survived the trip to Seras and back, had streaked her face enough to look like she just endured a zombie apocalypse.

Julie wiped her eyes and cheeks with her palms and got out of her car. She started shaking her body, hopping up and down, and letting out another gush of air to relax before walking in her house. “Be normal, everything’s normal,” she tried to convince herself as she walked up the front steps and opened the door.

“Mom! Dad!” she yelled, entering the house. She looked in the family room then the living room. “Mom! Dad!” she repeated.

“Hey, honey!” her mom, Michelle’s voice rang through the hallway as Julie headed toward the kitchen. “We’re out back.”

Julie opened the sliding screen door that led to the family’s back patio. “What are you two doing?” Her mother and father were sitting at the glass table on the deck. They were laughing and smiling under the shade of the patio umbrella. Julie didn’t like coming out here since the night she threw up in front of Mr. Campbell, the night after Callista was murdered by the giant, Junta, in what the people of Seras called the Battle of Yellow Fields. That was on her birthday, a little over a year ago. The worst birthday present ever. That night she vowed to Mr. Campbell she would never to return to Seras. Now, after Redderick Bobo’s apparent slip up, she wished she would have kept that promise.

“What are you guys doing?” she repeated, looking at her parents with two glasses of wine, a half full bottle between their plates, a tray of cheese, meat, crackers, and grapes within their reach, and five dice laid out in front of them.

“Nothing beats a quiet evening, beating your father’s pants off in Yahtzee,” Michelle said, picking up the dice and rolling them gently on a square piece of cardboard on the table.

“She wishes,” her father, Phillip, said. “I guess she couldn’t wait to get beat again.” He laughed as his wife picked up three of the dice to roll them again.

“Laugh at that.” Michelle clapped at the success of her roll. “Large straight.”

Her father groaned. “Yeah, last year I beat her twenty-nine games to twenty-six.”

“What?” Michelle protested. “I’m pretty sure that it was the other way around.” She took a drink from her glass.

“You two are too weird.” Julie shook her head and headed back inside the house.

“Where ya going?” her father asked. “Do you want to play?”

“No thanks. I have some work to do.”

“Work?” It’s summertime, Jules.” Phillip shrugged as it was his turn to roll. He finished his wine and poured himself another.

“Yeah, I’m doing something on my own,” Julie told him.

“Stop stalling and roll,” Michelle said, taking a bite of cheese and filling her cup again.

Julie headed through the kitchen, stopped, and made a turn to the refrigerator. She poured herself a glass of tea from a pitcher, took two huge swallows, and refilled the glass again before heading down the hallway. She leapt up the stairs two at a time, trying not to spill her drink then closed her bedroom door.

She took a deep breath. “Whelp, Jules, you fooled them,” she said aloud to her image in the mirror. She looked around her room. The colors were pastel bright; she had knick-knacks from her childhood lined on shelves, pictures of her growing up through sports, and her two posters of shirtless men. The décor of her room did not match her mood…happy times. I can’t remember the last time I felt completely happy.

In a fit of rage, she went after the shirtless men. Julie tore the two posters off her wall and shredded them. She wadded the remains of their paper carcasses up and filled up her little pink tin trash container. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She wiped her eyes and sat on the edge of her bed. “I want this to end.” Deep breath, Jules, deep breath. “Okay, first things first.” Julie took a candle from the top of her headboard and lit it. She breathed in and out, trying to calm down. Then she grabbed a tissue from a crocheted tissue box holder Grandma Franklin knitted for her and blew her nose and wiped her face dry.

Julie reached under the bed and pulled out her laptop. She turned it on and waited for it to warm up. Julie slowly typed in the word “Betrothed” and hit enter.

Noun: to whom one is engaged

“That’s what I thought. So, what does it mean? Who am I supposed to be engaged to?” She fell back hard on her bed. “I hate that old man.” Then she sat up in horror. “What if he meant him? Oh, heck no! If he thinks for one minute I would be…be…betrothed to him, or marry him. I will stab him in his pale, blotchy, gross belly.”

She closed her laptop and picked up her phone. “Crap! I must’ve had the volume off. Three missed calls from Mr. C. Yeah, right. That’s not going to happen.” She threw the phone on the bed, paused a second. “I have a better idea.” She picked up the phone and dialed the one person guaranteed to cheer her up.

“What’s up?” Claire’s voice rang with excitement from the other side of the line.

“Hey,” Julie said. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing. Why?”

“You wanna go do something?”

“Yes! Please! Jimmy is on vacation with his parents and won’t be home ‘til Saturday. I’m dying over here.”

“Cool. I’ll pick you up in a half hour. Where do you want to go?” Julie asked, hoping for anything to distract her.

“Shopping, duh.” Claire giggled. The sound of her voice made Julie feel better already.

“Okay, see you in a few.” She sniffed under her arms. “Make that thirty,” Julie said then hung up the phone. I need to take a shower first.

~ * ~

“So, why are we here if you aren’t buying anything or talking to me?” Claire, Julie’s taller doppelganger asked. She dipped a French fry in a small container of ketchup as they sat across from each other in a booth in the mall’s second level food court. The two had become instant friends in third grade when Julie let Claire, who was the new girl in school, share her coloring supplies.

“I have talked to you. I told you I like your new haircut,” Julie said, as she pointed out Claire’s new hair style which was now shorter than Julie’s and barely touched her shoulders.

“We’ve been here for, what, an hour and a half, two hours? You’ve hardly said five words…heck, it was better when I just wondered what you were up to.”

“I’m sorry. I’m a little distracted,” Julie answered. She was picking at her fries covered in malt vinegar, the only way fries should be eaten, in her opinion.

“Hello! When aren’t you distracted?” she said with a look that Julie knew was Claire’s fake surprised face. “You’re always distracted and you’re always busy, but you never want to talk about stuff.”

“Claire,” Julie pleaded.

“I’m serious. I was excited about you calling me and wanting me to go shopping with you, but here we are.” Claire continued her attack between more bites of fries.

“I know, I’m sorry.” Julie took a sip of her drink. “Don’t you just love mall music?”

Claire stopped eating. “Random much?”

“Just wondering out loud.” Julie shrugged. “You were wondering what I was thinking, so that’s what I was thinking.”

Claire shook her head. “You, my friend, need a date.”

“Talk about ‘random much.’ I don’t need a date,” Julie protested then took a drink from her soft drink.

“Oh yeah, when was the last time Little Miss Ayers went out with a guy?” Claire asked with plenty of attitude.

“I’ve been out with a guy.” Julie paused to think. The slurping sound signaled the end of her drink.

“When?”

It came to her. “Prom!” she was pleased with herself. “I went to prom with ‘what’s his face?’.”

“Oh, my gosh, Jules, that was four months ago,” Claire exclaimed. “No wonder you look miserable.”

“I don’t look miserable,” Julie hissed. “I’m just…it’s hard to explain.”

“I’m sure it is.”

“I’m sorry, don’t you know how much I want something like what you have with Jimmy?”

“What me and Jimmy have?” Claire scoffed. “You just need to make yourself available. Guys would line up to take you out if you—”

Julie interrupted, “No, you don’t get it. I have a lot going on. I can’t…no guy would put up with me right now.”

“Okay, then tell me what I can do to make your life less busy.”

“I promise I will…someday.” Julie shifted and placed both of her legs on the booth seat.

“You’re driving me crazy, Jules. Oh, and you haven’t even asked about Jimmy, who, by the way, is having a marvelous time without me in the Outer Banks. Not that I’m bitter or anything,” Claire rambled. “Oh no, I couldn’t go because my mom didn’t want me to miss cheer practice this close to school and football season starting. It might ruin my chance to be on the varsity team. We’re still a month away…okay, three weeks, but that might as well be a month.”  Claire took a drink from her straw. “Do you remember how much fun we used to have?”

“Yes, of course I do.”

“What do you remember most?”

“Remember the most? Not sure what I remember the most, but I know what I miss playing the most,” Julie said. “Especially in a mall.”

“What?”

“Playing ‘What if…’”

“Oh my gosh, yes!”

“Like what if the malls were actually ran by aliens and sucked out humans’ common sense with piped in music?” Julie laughed.

Claire laughed hard enough to draw attention from others in the food court. “Oh my gosh! I love that game.”

Julie’s eyes got big and a smile appeared on her face. “What if the mall was under attack by…android robots?”

“Man-sized or giant?”

Julie paused. “Man-sized.”

Claire grinned. “Can they fly?”

“Heck no. We would never get away then.”

Julie and Claire looked around the second-floor area where they were sitting.

“It’s always easier during Christmas time,” Julie said.

“I know, right? We could always run and jump on the Christmas trees and ride them all the way down to safety.”

“Or climb up the railing to the hanging ornaments and swing across them to the security railings.”

The two friends gobbled up the remaining food on their plates. Julie sucked on her straw to drain the last of the melted ice from the bottom of the cup.

“How did Jimmy get off football practice to go on vacation?” Julie asked as they slid out of their booth, and emptied their trays in the trash.

“He told his coach that if he wanted to bench the fastest player on the team because he wants to go on vacation with his family, then that would prove how big of a jerk he is, and he doesn’t deserve to win.”

“Really?”

“Heck no, I wish it was that easy. Football coaches think they have way too much power. No, this is ‘non-mandatory’ week.” Claire used air quotes for the word non-mandatory. “And Jimmy promised he would run every day, and his dad would find a place for him to work out.”

“That worked?”

“I guess.” The two girls stopped to look over the railing to the first floor below. “I guess Mr. Schultz’s brother, Coach Schultz, isn’t a jerk after all, or at least he’s not a jerk like that.”

“Okay,” Julie changed the subject. “If android robots came after us right now, I would run toward that kiosk, grab the cloth banner, and use it like a parachute toward the kid area. It’s padded and shouldn’t hurt too bad.”

Claire clapped in approval. “Then we could hide in the giant treehouse until they had their backs turned.”

“Yep, then run to the sporting goods store and grab some bats.”

“Or find an exit,” Claire said in distaste. “I’m not fighting android robots with a bat. Who do you think we are?”

“Oh yeah.” Julie paused and gritted her teeth.

“See, this is way better.”

Julie looked at her best friend. Claire was right about her needing to have fun, but something had changed in her. Julie knew she would grab a baseball bat and run headlong into a swarm of killer android robots. And Mr. Campbell would be right at my side.

“Hey, I know what we can do.” Claire broke Julie’s thoughts. She grabbed Julie by the hand and whisked her toward one of the mall stores.

The two girls looked at different clothes, mixing and matching different outfits. “What do you think of when you hear the word ‘betrothed’?” Julie asked while playfully trying on a floppy hat.

“That looks so cute on you,” Claire said. “Betrothed? You mean like Shakespeare stuff?”

“Yeah, sure.” Julie agreed with a shrug.

“Eh, I don’t know. I guess I think about star-crossed lovers, marriage proposals, romantic sonnets,” Claire answered. “Why?”

“I heard it awhile back, and it didn’t make sense to me.” Julie put the hat down.

Claire tried on a pair of sunglasses. “Yeah, nobody talks like that anymore. Who was it?”

“I like those,” Julie said, referring to the sunglasses, before adding, “Some crazy old guy.”

“Creepy.”

“You have no idea.”