The Esoteric Design: Disbanding Hope Read online

  “Do you feel safe here?”

  She eyed Petey. “Yes.”

  “With me?” he firmly asked.

  She hesitated. “Yes.”

  “Now, take those old memories and use them to your advantage toward future memories. You know where your garden is; you know where the kitchen is?”

  She affirmed.

  “You know where my study is? The cathedral? The escape routes and the hidden tunnel behind my bookcase?” He watched her confirm all of these with a nod. “Good. Then...if, for some reason, we are ever attacked, you will know all the ways to escape and get to safety.”

  “Do you think we'll be attacked?” she asked.

  “You never know. I only want you to think positively about your position. Use what you can from your memories; it doesn’t matter who they belong to. And from now on, be you. Your past is your past, whether you want to think of it as lost memories from a previous life in the Underbelly or ancient memories from long ago. Think of this as a second chance. This is a new you, a new life. Think about that. Not everyone gets a second chance to start over. Make this chapter of your life the way you want it. Be who you want to be, not who you think you are. Got it?”

  Ivory heaved a heavy sigh. “…Got it.”

  Dovian stood in front of the young woman, watching her carefully. After a moment, she finally looked to the side, staring at the rain once again.

  “I’m sorry I’ve been such a sourpuss,” she uttered timidly.

  Dovian smirked. “It’s expected. Remember, I’m not a very jolly fellow, either. We can’t have the both of us moping around, can we?”

  Ivory grinned, finally looking at the man. “No! We would make terrible company for King Petey.”

  “Exactly. We can’t be poor influences on Pete.”

  The lizard was fast asleep in the corner of the room, unaware of being the topic of conversation. Ivory watched the creature. “Whose is he?”

  “Petey?” Dovian asked.

  “Yes. I can’t remember who he belonged to. At least, not right now.”

  Dovian stared at Petey; his expression fell. Ivory watched his brow furrow. She could tell by the distant look in his eyes that he recalled memories from long ago. He twitched and quickly shook his head.

  “Mind if we sit down?” he asked, walking toward the bed.

  “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” she said, dropping onto the cushy mattress beside him.

  “No, it’s fine. I just…haven’t thought about my past in a very long time. In fact, I was beginning to forget some things.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said quietly, “if I brought up bad memories.”

  He shook his head. “No, I don’t ever want to forget, no matter how painful. In fact, these memories aren’t all that painful.” Dovian abruptly gave a loud laugh. The sudden noise alerted Ivory, but then her demeanor lifted. “Actually, Petey and his owner are some of the best memories I have. If I weren't such a pessimist all the time, I wouldn’t have forgotten her.”

  “Her?”

  “Ah, Lita.” Dovian gave a sideways grin. “My dear, sweet, troublemaking little cousin.”

  Ivory grinned. “Your little cousin?”

  “Well, it was a tad bit more complicated than that. My mother’s sister, Cyerys, married my grandfather. It was his second marriage; his first wife had died in an accident. He met Cyerys through my mother and father and had married her right before I was born. Age matters little in a world where you live for thousands of years. It was very common for spouses to be hundreds and thousands of years apart. This made family trees sometimes difficult to follow as Cyerys became both my aunt and my grandmother. They had Lita much later in life, making her my father’s half-sister.”

  Dovian took a moment to activate his armband. With a flicker, a diagram popped up with a list of names connected by lines. As he spoke, he pointed to each person of topic.

  “I was about five hundred years old when she was born. Because of the marriage situation, Lita was both my aunt and cousin. But, since she was so much younger than I, we simply labeled her as my cousin.” Dovian paused, making sure Ivory understood. She smiled, and he continued. “Lita was the only child they had together. She was so tiny; she fit in the palm of my hand. They used to call her a runt just as I was called.”

  “You were small?” Ivory asked.

  “Oh, yes. I was very small growing up. In fact, I’m still small. It was in my mother’s genes—the reason Lita was so tiny." He paused before adding, “When I was born, they thought I wasn’t going to live long. I had a multitude of complications, probably due to my mother’s size. They thought I was going to grow up weak.” He sounded slightly disappointed by this but carried on with his story. “My mother didn’t give up on me, however. She held onto me day and night for months until one morning…I was fine. No one could explain it, but I believe it was because of her. She was a magnificent healer, one of the best in the entire kingdom. She told me that she covered me with her light for every second that I was sick, and it was because of that, I received my name.”

  Dovian placed his hand over the orb of one of his spaulders, the blue light flowing to his fingertips. “It means ‘light’ in the heavenly tongue. It’s not a direct translation, but as close to what we can speak on Earth.” He smiled. “And she said it wasn’t her healing light that made her decide to call me that.”

  “What made her decide to name you that?”

  “You can’t laugh at me,” he chuckled, looking at Ivory with an amused expression.

  “Now I’m really interested.” Ivory leaned forward in anticipation.

  Dovian looked off to the side, letting out an exasperated sigh. “She said that she knew I was finally safe when I opened my eyes and the room filled with light. She said it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen…but even more so was my smile.”

  Ivory gave a quiet ‘aw.’

  Dovian grimaced at her adoring sound. “My tiny, toothless baby smile was what filled her soul with light. It was at that moment that she finally knew her purpose.”

  “That is so sweet.” Ivory clasped her hands together.

  Rubbing his forehead, Dovian grumbled, “Yes, yes….So sweet. I cannot believe I told you that. I’ve only told two other people that story.” He suddenly wanted to pull up his hood and hide, but his nervous smile remained.

  “I’Lanthe and…” Ivory guessed.

  “I didn’t want to tell her, but she had a way of pulling my strings…Lita.” He lifted his head. “Back to the topic previously at hand.”

  Ivory nodded. “Right, tell me more about her.”

  Clearing his throat, he continued, “As I said, Lita was much younger than I. I was one of the first people she had ever seen. And, I tell you what, the first day I saw those large green eyes look into mine, I knew I was doomed.” Dovian hummed a quiet laugh. “That little brat was the cutest thing I had ever seen in my life. And I never admitted to anything being cute until her. She was so small and had wild hair of silver and gold spun with the slightest hint of lavender, believe it or not. I taught her everything she knew. I taught her to speak; I taught her to walk, to hold a glass, to do cartwheels, everything I could think of. We were inseparable. She was always at my side, always asking questions. I loved how eager she was to learn, to figure out things on her own.”

  Ivory watched Dovian. It was the happiest she had seen the man. As he told the stories, he relived the experiences, his memories as vivid as the day they occurred.

  “She would run up to me, always, with something strange in her hands. ‘What is this’ she would ask. ‘It is a snake’ I told her. She screamed and dropped it, not because of the snake itself, but because now she knew what it was called and knew that many were afraid of them. This went on for years until she knew the name of every animal, plant, and insect in the entire kingdom.” There was a short moment of silence as Dovian retracted into his thoughts. Ivory waited intently, finding his stories fascinating.


  “Then there was the time she was in her genetics class. She always loved her schooling but was having trouble. Of course, this happened to be a class that I was teaching, and I think she was slacking off.”

  “You were a teacher?” Ivory asked.

  Dovian gave a small laugh. “We all had our little jobs here and there. I taught classes on genetics and hand-to-hand combat.”

  Ivory lifted an eyebrow. “Those seem like entirely different areas to teach in.”

  “Not as much as you’d think. If you know the way something works and functions, you also know how to break it down. It’s a very handy knowledge to have when in combat,” he explained.

  “I guess that makes sense,” she pondered.

  All of this was news to Ivory. It devastated her as she realized she knew absolutely nothing about Dovian. He wasn’t just some mystical warrior from Ives. He was so much more than that. He had a life; he had a family; he had a home. It was all gone now. Dovian was just like her. No, he was worse off. He still had his memories. He still felt the pain of a beautiful life that once was and had gone thousands of years alone, everything suddenly ripped away. Ivory couldn’t remember her past life. Now, she wasn’t so sure if that was a bad thing. Dovian’s warm voice broke Ivory from her thoughts.

  “So, at the end of each year, the students are responsible for genetically engineering their own lizard. Most of the time, they follow a basic recipe, the reason behind all the frilled monitors, but Lita was having trouble with hers. I’m not positive what she was doing wrong, but the lizards wouldn’t make it past the egg stage. The darn things simply wouldn’t hatch.” He gave a long sigh. “Long story short, she had somehow gotten ahold of my DNA and infused it with her lizard’s embryo.” He looked over his shoulder at Petey. “And that’s how we got Pete.”

  “Petey shares your DNA?” Ivory asked.

  “Yes. It is the reason he has lived this long and is capable of healing himself. I also have a special connection to him. When I concentrate, I can read his thoughts. I can see through his memories. That is precisely how I was able to find out what happened to Aria and Troy.”

  “That’s amazing. So Petey really is special.”

  “He certainly is.”

  “And what about Hector?” she asked. “Is he as old as Petey? Is he still around?”

  Dovian gave her a disappointed look. “No, he’s not the same Hector as back in the day. The one I have now is Hector number 228. The lizards only live about one hundred years, some more, others less.”

  “Oh, that’s sad.” Ivory frowned.

  “He’ll die like all the others, but there will be more. I wasn’t very creative with names. I liked Hector, so I stuck with it ever since.” He shrugged.

  “Well, it’s a good name.” She smiled. “A good, tough name.”

  Dovian chuckled. “Hector is far from tough. He’s as docile as a mouse. It’s a wonder how he survived the trip to the caves.”

  “Is he here?”

  “He is at my home in his usual bed. He hasn’t left it in two days. I’ve had to bring eggs to him; he’s so worn out.”

  “Poor thing.” Ivory held a sympathetic expression.

  “Would you like to see him?” he asked.

  Ivory looked over at Petey.

  “He’ll be fine here by himself. Think of him as a giant guard dog.” Dovian rose from the bed.

  “Are you close by?” she asked, rising with him. Wringing her hands, she gave a nervous laugh. “I suddenly can’t remember right now.”

  “Close enough. We can fly there since I live on the upper floors.” He looked outside, watching the downpour. “If you don’t mind getting a little wet. Perhaps it’s best we just stay here for a while.”

  “No, I want to go. I’m interested in seeing more of this place.” There was a fire in her eyes. Ivory indeed was looking entertained. Not wanting to ruin her chipper mood, Dovian agreed.

  “Alright. Hop up, we’re heading out,” he said, his wings jolting out of his back.

  Ivory eagerly hopped into his arms, wrapping her own around his neck.

  “Does that hurt?” She looked over his shoulder at the magnificent wings, the feathers flickering with a light of their own.

  “It did at one time, but one gets used to it. Now it simply feels like a hard pop to a joint.” He looked over at Petey. “Keep the place safe, Petey. We will be back.”

  The lizard barely budged from his sleeping position. Ivory smiled at the creature, thinking he looked precious as he snored and kicked up little dust clouds from his nostrils near the ground.

  “He seems entirely too concerned by this…” Dovian stated, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

  Bending his knees, Dovian leapt, his wings taking control. He carried Ivory back toward the building they previously passed that held the giant cross. To Ivory, this particular building looked slightly different than the one they had just been. It was grand with pointed architecture and had an enormous bridge out the front entrance that expanded over the silver lakes. The windows were full of colored glass that depicted a multitude of story-based images. Many of the pictured figures had wings and halos. It reminded Ivory of the church in the Underbelly.

  “You live here?” she asked.

  Dovian turned, floating toward an opening on one side with a balcony.

  “It is my family’s church. My great-grandfather, Gaius, built it. He was one of the first to land on Earth and reclaim Ives from below the ocean.”

  Swooping, Dovian gracefully landed inside his home. Ivory easily dismounted his grasp and turned to look over the balcony. The view was breathtaking. She could see a vast majority of Ives from where she stood.

  “You’re from an important lineage,” she murmured.

  “You could say that.” He drifted slowly toward a bookcase, looking at nothing in particular as his wings folded comfortably behind his back.

  She looked over her shoulder at the man. “Did that give you a lot of pressure?”

  Dovian scoffed. “To be the great-grandson of the almighty Gaius—the angel that protested God’s will and gave up his salvation in order to give the humans a second chance? To be the grandson of the fierce Gaius II—the one who single-handedly ended the first Great War the humans fought since the Sorcēarian Empire started? And to be the son of Gaius III—one of the most brilliant warriors of our time? He was a weapons master, a genius architect, geneticist, and an amazing agriculturist. He made the Sorcēarian lifestyle simple. So simple, in fact, that the humans swore we were sorcerers and magicians.” He finally returned Ivory’s stare. “I don’t think pressure is a good enough word to use.”

  “You make it sound like you're not as worthy as they are.” She frowned.

  “I don’t think I was expected to last as long as I had,” Dovian muttered. “I don’t think my father wanted to risk his name on another child like me.”

  “Another?” Ivory asked, shocked by this revelation.

  Dovian lowered his head. “I had a brother.”

  Lightning flashed, casting strange shadows across the room. The following thunder was startling. Dovian watched the rain outside; his forehead wrinkled as he traced his memory.

  “He was born and dead before I ever came into this world. Gaius IV…killed in battle. He was tall, handsome, and strong…like his lineage. It was just some terrible accident. He had swooped down to try and protect a human soldier and took the brunt of the blast. He wasn’t a healer, was buried under the debris. The man he had tried to rescue had died…and I think he gave up. I never heard much about him, but apparently he was always hard on himself. He wanted to save everyone. He could save a thousand, and if one died, he would beat himself up over it. Oh, yes…following the Gaius lineage puts a lot of pressure on you.” Dovian looked down at his marble desk and rapped his knuckles casually against the surface. “And I appeared fragile. I don’t think there was a lot of faith put into my existence. It was known that the Gaius lineage would eventually become cursed. We were a
n easy target for darkness. My father thought I was meant to die. He distanced himself from me after my mother had passed.”

  “But…why?” Ivory whispered. “He should have been there for you.”

  “Oh, he wasn’t entirely neglecting by any means. We just didn’t share the same bond as he did with his father…or first son. I was quite different than the Gaius types.” Dovian shrugged. “Sorcēarian men are great beings. You saw Euclid; he was frail compared to the others.”

  The woman’s jaw dropped. “But Euclid was a whole head taller than you.”

  “And my father was an entire chest.” He gave a short laugh, but Ivory could tell he wasn’t amused. “At least at one time I was grand to the humans. Now, you all are a foot taller than you once were.”

  “Foot?” Ivory asked. “You mean approximately thirty and a half centimeters?” she giggled, remembering the conversation about the standard and metric system at Aria’s apartment. Her smile faltered. That day seemed so long ago.

  Dovian cocked his head to the side and smirked as he quietly chuckled. “Of course,” he whispered.

  “You are still tall compared to humans.” Ivory looked up at him.

  “Not by much.” He slowly approached Ivory, setting his chin on the top of her head. He stood still for a second, staring at the scenery of Ives. The woman closed her eyes, avoiding the desire to wrap her arms around him. “You are almost the same height as an average Sorcēarian woman,” he said.

  Standing rigidly beneath the man with her cheek against the crook of his neck, she asked with apprehension, “Am I as tall as I’Lanthe?”

  Dovian looked down at Ivory, his eyes searching her face. “She was slightly taller. Her forehead reached my lips.”

  Suddenly feeling ill at ease, Dovian stepped away, strolling toward the desk in the center of the room. He eyed the door on the floor. It had become unhinged during the attack when he first met Aria and Troy. Now, even his home held a memory of their presence–another reminder of what was to come. Sighing, he held out his palm. Blue light surged from his staff, and the broken gate lifted, quaking as it locked back into place within the confines of the wall.