Chronicles of the Orchid Court

The symbol glowed slightly at his touch. I blinked and the glow was gone. He had pulled his hang back and turned to look at me. I was still standing in the same spot. I hadn't moved. He walked toward me and placed his hand on my shoulder. My gaze moved from the book on the table to his face. It was gentle, his eyes soft. His touch was warm and grounding. Real. I exhaled a shaky breath, not realizing until that moment that I had been holding it.
"Listen to me." His blue eyes locked with mine. The absolute certainty in them unnerved me just a bit. "Whatever we find, we deal with it together. As a team. I'm not going to desert you or hurt you. I give you my word." He squeezed my shoulder once, gently, and let go. He moved back towards the table and looked back at me. "Ready?"
I nodded and walked to the table. My legs felt like rubber, and my gait was jilted and awkward. Every fiber of my being screamed RUN. Every instinct told me to leave it alone. But I had to know. I had to find out what I was.
"Do it." I said, in a voice a lot calmer than I felt inside.
Adrian opened the book and it lay flat against the table. The pages were impossibly old. They appeared to be parchment of some kind, not actual paper. The words on the pages were handwritten, in multiple languages. Latin, ancient Hebrew, and something else entirely.
"I don't recognize that language." Adrian said pointing to one passage.
Then there were the illustrations. Very detailed and haunting.
The first page showed a figure split down the middle. One half bathed in light, wings unfurled, the other, wreathed in shadow, horns curving upward. Beneath it, two words in faded ink.
Nephilim Obscura
Adrian's breath caught and he looked at me. "Nephilim…" he bolted from the cabin and came back carrying a laptop bag. He unzipped it and pulled out a laptop, tapped a few keys and began moving his finger rapidly on the mousepad. "I've locked in my VPN so I can access my home office files without being traced." His eyes scanned the screen rapidly. "In ancient texts, Nephilim were called The Fallen Ones, then later were associated with the pairing of an Angel and a human. But Nephilim Obscura is something I've never heard of before." He scanned his laptop for a few more minutes before slamming it shut in frustration. "There is nothing in any of the archives or the Great Library. Not that I can access from my laptop anyway. They do have records down in the lower levels that are not recorded in the data files."
He turned back to the book and gently turned the pages. More illustrations were carefully drawn depicting a family tree of sorts. It showed bloodlines branching in impossible directions. Angels. Demons. Human. All intertwined and at the center of it all, in the very heart of the tree, was one name.
Alea.
Adrian went completely still as his finger traced the lines to my name. His voice was hoarse and breathless. "Your father didn't just know what you were, he was documenting it." He turned another page and this one had text, written in old English. Adrian read it aloud to me.
"The child born of Light and Shadow shall tread between worlds. Neither angel nor demon nor human full, but all. The essence of soul in each realm shall dwell within the breast of the vessel. The vessel shall remain ageless, immortal, sustained not by flesh but by will alone."
He paused and steadied his voice. It had become shaky as he read to me. I stood staring at the wall across from the table. "Is there more?" I asked in a quiet flat voice.
"Yes." He said.
"Continue."
"They shall be hunted by all sides. Angels will mark them as tainted, Humans will mark them with fear, and the Demonic will revere the abomination as…" Adrian stopped reading and his jaw tightened. His eyes rose from the page to scan my face. "Royalty."
Adrian watched me carefully. I stood, motionless. My mind was swirling, angels were disgusted by me, humans afraid, and demons, they honored me. The weight of his words, the words on the page, pressed down on me. The enormity of it threatened to crush me.
He turned another page and drew in a sharp breath. This one had warnings scrawled in messy, clumsy handwriting, as if someone had written it quickly and urgently. It was different from the script before. More desperate.
"They must remain hidden for they will be pursued relentlessly. The Angels will seek purification, to eliminate the taint. Extermination disguised as salvation. The Demons will seek to control. Use the power to tip the balance between realms. Human will seek to destroy outright or breed more."
Adrian's hand clenched into a fist and slammed the table beside the book. His laptop jumped and jostled beside it. "This is why your parents kept you isolated. They were protecting you from…everyone."
Finally, I could move. I began pacing back and forth between the bookcase and the table. "Were they? Were they protecting me? Or were they waiting until I was of breeding age? Did they want to destroy me? Were they even my parents?" hysteria tinged the sound of my voice. I drew in breath to try and calm myself. "Five minutes ago, I was positive they were my parents. I was absolute in my knowledge of that. Five minutes ago, I was safe, or so I thought. Had I ever been safe? Had I ever been loved?" My breathing became rapid and Adrian gripped my shoulders and stopped my pacing. "Breathe." He said quietly. He took slow even breaths, and I matched his until my heart stopped racing and the blood stopped pounding in my head. I let out a small giggle and Adrian furrowed his brow in confusion.
"I was just thinking that as I was matching your breathing my heart stopped racing and my head stopped pounding." I explained.
Adrian's brow furrowed even more, creating long creases in his forehead. "It is a very human reaction." He said. As the words left his mouth the irony of them danced across his face. He smiled and gave what, for him, was a chuckle. "Yes, that is amusing."
He looked into my eyes, searching. "Better?" he asked. I nodded and turned back to the book. This time I was going to read the words. It was my history, my fate, it should be in my voice.
I turned the page and my blood ran cold. The drawing was both beautiful and terrible at the same time. It depicted a figure standing between two armies. Angels on one side, Demons on the other. The ground at the feet of the figure littered with bodies, humans. Both forces were reaching towards the figure, both wanting to claim it.
I read the words beneath the picture.
"The Nephilim Obscura cannot be killed by mortal means. Jade will wound them but not destroy. Holy water will burn but not end them. They exist between life and death, sustained by the contradiction of their blood. The will is stronger than the desire."
Adrian exhaled slowly. "You're not just immortal Alea, you're…you are…unkillable!" He closed the book gently and turned to face me. "That demon from before, the one who bowed? That tells me that they can sense what you are. To them you are not just powerful, but you are sacred." His words began piecing it all together. "Your parents…"
"We don't know that they were." I barked.
"Fine." Adrian replied. "Your guardians, they hid you away. Why? Was it because they realized what you were and wanted that power? Were they protecting you, or keeping you for someone else? Were they working alone?"
I raised my hands. "Stop! To many questions!"
Adrian stopped and really looked at me. "How do you feel?" he asked gently, real concern in his voice.
"How do I feel?" my voice came out like a squeak. "I feel freaking terrified! This book is saying I am some sort of Angel/Demon/Human half breed, wait can something that is three parts be a half breed? I'm a tri-breed? Hybrid? Whatever, I'm on everyone's hit list! I don't belong anywhere, but I am part of everything, and everyone wants me dead or to use me to control everyone else. How am I supposed to feel?" I began pacing again. "Dating is out of the question, so is any other sort of life. I can't join a convent, or a cult. I need to go as far away as I can!" I looked frantically at Adrian who was looking uncomfortable and uncertain. "I'm panicking. Yup, full on mental breakdown." My whole body began to shake, and tears ran down my cheeks. A small whimper escaped my lips and suddenly Adrian moved. Not away, but toward me. His hands came up carefully, hovering just above my shoulders. He moved slowly so he didn't startle me any more than I already was. He gave me space to breathe but stayed close enough that I knew he was there.
"Hey. Hey, look at me." He said softly. His voice was calm and grounding. I recognized it as the same voice he had used on the human at the demon attack. "Alea, look at me."
I lifted my eyes until they met his. "Breathe. In through your nose. Hold it. Out through your mouth." He demonstrated, breathing with me. "Good. Again."
Eventually my breathing steadied. "Good. Okay, yes, this is terrifying. I'm not going to lie to you and say it isn't."
He took a breath. "You are a Nephilim Obscura." He had said it out loud. No more hiding from it. "You're caught between three worlds, and yes, they all see you as either a threat or a prize."
He paused and then spoke again. This time his voice was firmer, lower. "You've survived 157 years alone. The entire world changing around you. I was wrong before. You are NOT fragile." He finally laid his hands on my shoulders. "And you are not doing this alone anymore."
I tried to pull away but his grip firmly but gently held me in place. "Running won't help. You've been hiding for over a century and it only delayed this. Now that demons know what you are, angels probably aren't far behind. Humans are a little slower, they need visual aids to see what is right in front of them." He gave my shoulders a final squeeze and stepped away.
His voice took on a lighter tone. "Dating might be complicated, yes, but living? No. You get to live Alea. Actually live. Not just survive in a cabin alone."
He sat down and his hand gently rested on the book. "You're panicked because this is overwhelming. That's normal, or at least as normal as things can be in this situation. But I need you to stay with me. Okay?" His voice softened. "We'll figure this out. One step at a time."
Adrian held my gaze. Never wavering, never flinching. One question hung in the air between us.
"Why?"
He let his gaze drop from mine. "You want the honest answer?"
I gave him a look that told him that was a stupid question. "Because when I became a Hunter, I told myself it was to protect people. To stop monsters from tearing families apart the way mine was." His jaw tightened. "But somewhere along the way, I started seeing everything in black and white. Demon? Kill it. No questions. No mercy. No second chance." He looked at the book on the table, his hand tracing the symbol. "And then I met you."
"You're a demon who doesn't eat flesh. Who's been alone for over a century. Who followed a Hunter out of curiosity, not malice. Who trusted me enough to bring me here. To show me this." He patted the book. "You could have run. You could have attacked me. You could have done a hundred different things." His expression softened. "But instead, you asked me to stay. You showed me kindness. You even offered to let me tie your hands if it made me feel safe. You allowed me to help you discover what you are. Never once showing any signs of fear that I might hurt you."
He exhaled slowly. "157 years Alea. 157 years alone and the first person you let in is a Demon Hunter. That takes an insane amount of courage, or desperation, or both."
His eyes met mine. "So why am I staying?" he stood from the table and walked to me. "Because you deserve better than another century alone. Because I refuse to let you disappear into the mountains thinking you are a monster. And because…"
He hesitated, just for a second. "Maybe I'm tired of killing without question. Maybe I want to believe there's more to this war than just black and white. So, that is the why."