Knights of Keiar - Part 9

By Savid Seo

Continued from "KOK (Knights Of Keiar) #8"…

Xena had gotten her hand on the leather pouch when she felt a thump on her back. Callisto had tackled her, pushing her down into the ground. She attempted to take the pouch from Xena, but Xena held on for dear life. She swung a leg out and landed a solid kick in Callisto’s face, making her loosen her grip on Xena’s arms and fall away. Not missing the chance, Xena got up and kicked at Callisto’s side.

"Oww!"

Xena kept kicking her, pushing her over to where Ares was standing. Ares, no longer giving a damn about Xena or Callisto, did nothing. He merely stood in front of the pit, looking down into the lava below and waiting for Dehak’s arrival.

Xena kicked Callisto one last time and rushed over to Gabby. As she passed Ares, Xena felt something wrap around her leg. It was Callisto, who was still on the floor rubbing her stomach. She had managed to take a hold of Xena’s foot.

"You are not gonna make your son immortal!"

Ares turned around with a start. "What did you say, Callisto?" Then he noticed Xena’s left hand holding the leather pouch. "What is in that bag? Is that what I think it is?"

With her free right hand, Xena struck Ares as hard as she could. Ares, taken by surprise, lost his balance and fell into the hole, barely having time to catch a hold of the ledge by his fingertips.

Xena threw the bag at Gabby. "Gabrielle! Give this to Solan! It’s the only way!"

"Oh no you don’t!" Callisto shouted and pulled Xena down, but it was too late. Gabby caught the bag and opened it. Inside was an orange glob; it looked like a chunk of Jell-O (of course, Jell-O did not exist at that time).

"Xena! What is this…Ambrosia????????" Gabby looked over at Xena, who was being dragged by the foot by Callisto. Ares was pulling himself out of the pit, but he had frozen in awe.

Before she had the time to answer, Xena had the wind knocked out of her lungs as she was kicked in the stomach. As she was getting beaten to a pulp, Xena managed a shout: "give it to Solan! Now!"

"Shut up! I’ll gonna kill you right now!" Callisto held her sword above Xena, but her body was levitated and hurled to the side. Xena, bleeding from her lip and forehead and dazed, thought that Ares had pushed Callisto aside, but saw that Gilead was on his feet.

"Solaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnn!!!!!!" Xena scrambled up and ran over to her son, having trouble believing what had just happened. Gilead, as if disbelieving it himself, looked down at his own hands, then at Gabby and Xena.

"I’m a god!" exclaimed Gilead.

"Yes, you are, my son. That was the only way I could save your life…" mumbled Xena, almost fearful to touch him.

Gilead:
"But why? Now I have no life!"

Gabby laid a hand on Gilead’s shoulder. "It was Xena’s last choice. She did not want to see you leave her…again; I don’t want you to leave. Can’t you understand the love a mother has for her son?"

Behind the three, Ares grabbed and shook Callisto. "Why is Dehak not coming forth? Even an immortal cannot escape hell. Once Dehak sends this entire world into hell, I will be rid of that now immortal Solan forever," he chided.

Callisto sighed. "I’ve got news for you, Ares. Once Hope dies, Dehak loses all power. He won’t be coming up anytime soon."

Ares shouted so loud that Gilead, Xena, and Gabby all turned to look at him. "What??? Do you mean all our attempts have been a futile waste?????????"

Gilead heard Ares and quickly figured out what was going on. He stared at the dead body of Hope, then looked at Callisto.

Callisto sighed and answered Ares’ question. "Yes, that’s what I mean. Why do you think Dehak needs Hope’s energy to be revived? Dehak’s powers have grown weak over the centuries, near to the point of nonexistence. He needs to feed on Hope’s life force to keep him sustained. If and when he succeeds in coming out to the surface of the world, the first one that needs to be sacrificed to him is Hope. She has to become one with her father to let Dehak regain full strength." All this time Callisto had her look of hatred fixed on Gabby. "We have lost," Callisto said to Ares.

Ares stood up and looked at Gilead. Shaking his head, he proclaimed, "know what? I don’t really hate this world. But I guess you already knew that. I want, really want that little hotshot—" here he pointed at Gilead—"to be gone from my life. That’s why I went to all this trouble."

"You did all of that just because you were afraid of your father’s heavy hand? You are not really as bad as you think you are," mocked Gabby. Seeing Gilead all right again, more than all right in fact, gave her renewed strength.

"Shut up and go to hell!" Ares fired an energy bolt at her, but Gilead fired his own bolt, and the two bolts clashed in the air and dissipated in a blinding flash of light and crackling energy.

"Not while I’m around," said Gilead.

Both Ares and Callisto stood speechless. They still seemed to be trying to grasp what had happened. Gilead was a god now, just like them. An annoying little inconvenience had become a real, looming problem. Callisto, without saying another word, disappeared in a whiff of flame. Ares, on the other hand, stood staring at Gilead for a long time. When he spoke at last, his voice sounded almost congratulating. "You have come a long way, immortal Solan. You were born of Xena and Barius, killed at a young age, then brought back by the Olympians who took pity on you. Now, as fate would have it, you are made immortal. You have cheated Celesta twice now. Therefore it must mean it is not a part of your destiny to die." He picked up Gilead’s sword, lying on the floor, and tossed it over to him. "I believe this is yours."

Gilead received the weapon, no longer of much use to a god like himself, and sheathed it.

"We will meet again, Gilead, god of wind." Ares then vanished in a flash of light.

Gilead was standing outside the devastated temple, looking at the morning sun come up, penetrating the darkness. As the first birds began to chirp, Xena and Gabby dragged their exhausted, bruised and battered selves outside and sat on a large rock. Xena tried to ignore her stinging wounds on her head and face and called out to her son. "Solan?" Gilead looked over, then came and sat down next to the two mortal women.

Taking her son’s hand, Xena asked, "What Ares said back there; what was that all about? The "god of wind"?"

Gilead smiled and spoke slowly. "When a mortal eats Ambrosia and gains immortality, he also gains a specific power. Velasca, the rebel Amazon, became the goddess of wind when she ate Ambrosia." He looked over at Xena and Gabby. "You two saw her powers, right?"

They nodded. "But how do you know about Velasca?" asked Gabby. "We never mentioned her around you."

Gilead smiled again. Looking out to the orange glow coming from behind the mountains, he continued. "When I ate that Ambrosia, a world of knowledge came to me. Among the things I learned was what other mortals had eaten Ambrosia. One of them, of course, was Velasca. Callisto, the other mortal-turned-god, commands the power of fire, as you both know. Both wind and fire can be constructive or destructive, and both goddesses used their power for destruction."

Xena:
"And you gained the power of wind, like Velasca?"

Gilead saw through his mother’s worries. "Yes, mother, but you have nothing to be concerned with. Our powers are independent of one another. It’s not like I draw my powers from Velasca, so don’t worry."

A long silence followed. Some fallen leaves rustled in the wind and Gabby pointed it out. "So, you are responsible for that?"

Gilead shook his head. "Not really ‘responsible.’ But I can manipulate the air to my liking, like this…" Gilead held a hand out at the leaves, and they stopped in their tracks and started going the other way as the wind reversed direction. "But in the end, Gaea has her way over all things, even other gods."

"Gaea; she is Mother Earth," Xena nodded in agreement. "The first deity to ever exist in the world."

An even longer awkward silence followed. "So, what happens now?" asked Gabby.

Gilead got to his feet. "I must stay in these mountains."

Gabby and Xena spoke almost in unison: "Why?"

I won’t be a renegade god like Velasca or Callisto. I have decided to stay in these mountains and find solitude."

Xena sprang up. "No, Solan. You can’t do that! You are my son, and you are traveling with me!"

Gilead laid a hand on her shoulder. "Forgive, me, mother, but I am a human no longer. Don’t you see? All of my previous ties with this world have been severed. In time, I don’t expect to remember you. I cannot mingle with humans any more." He spoke with finality that hit Xena hard.

She knew what her son was saying. She knew the time had come to say the final goodbye, but she could not bear to see her son go again. When Solan came back in to her life as Gilead, Xena had sworn to herself that this time, she would never let him go. But now, it seemed that she would have to break that promise with herself. Xena clutched Gilead, who was no longer confined to the miniscule world and knowledge of humans but had entered a completely new world in which he was now a part of.

Gilead wiped the tears streaming down Xena’s face. "You must go now. When that sun rises, I shall be gone."

Gabby looked over at the sun, starting to show its face over the rising mountain peaks. She walked over to Xena. "Xena…it is time."

Xena managed to detach herself from her former son and turned around. Wiping her tears away, she looked at the sun, rising steadily.

Gabby stood and looked up at the god of wind. As she stood there, she saw Gilead starting to fade away into the air. He held out a hand, but when Gabby tried to take it, she could not feel it. Gabby stood in front of Gilead and watched as he dissipated into the morning air. She did not say a word, but her eyes told him everything: I once knew you, god of wind. I knew you when you were one of us…I loved you. You were the only one I truly loved. Now that you are gone…I’ll never see you again. But I won’t forget you. You have a special place in my heart. …Goodbye, Gilead, the god of wind…

Xena turned around to see Gabby standing alone; Gilead was nowhere to be seen. As the sun quickly illuminated the mountainside they stood on, Gabby turned around and slowly came over to Xena’s side.

"Is…he gone?" Xena asked.

"Yes. And we should get going, too," replied Gabby as she took Xena’s arm and led her down the mountainside, toward the morning sun shining over the mountain peaks.

THE END