Garden of the Black Roses

Chapter 1

Within the Garden, mysterious things happen. The most mysterious and perhaps startling secret of the Garden is the three sisters who tend to the Garden. They are the guides and gatekeepers who can both help and hinder visitors to the Garden. Let's see who today's visitors will be…

"Sui!" A woman in her thirties with deep curly red hair called. The swish of her waist-length hair echoed along the corridor of her home. "Kc!" She peeked into each room, occasionally catching a glimpse of her green-eyed self in a mirror, her Sun Staff shining light through the darkness to aid her search. "Where are you two? The orb is glowing again."

"Ada, does it say where the visitor is coming through from?" called a soft voice from down the hall. "I'm trying to work on a few potions in here." A woman in her mid-twenties leaned out of a door at the end of the hall. Her straight blue fringe fell over her right green eye. Despite living with her, Ada always was startled when Sui looked at her with her mismatched eyes. Sui blinked and brushed her hair away causing it to fall over her left red eye. "Well?"

"It doesn't," Ada replied coming closer to Sui. "However, it is overly bright so I'm guessing the desert." Sui ducked back into her workroom and turned everything off before coming out again and closing the door. "I can't find Kc."

"She's probably on the jetty again," Sui replied gently dragging her hand through her blue hair to undo her braid. It unwound quickly revealing streaks of reds and blondes through it. "You know how she likes to think to think about things." Together they walked through the back door and down the winding path down the cliff to the jetty below.

As predicted, they found Kc with her eyes closed. The wind played with her long golden locks and pulled at her clothes. She seems to be affecting the tides as she breathed in, the tide came rolling in and rolled out again when she breathed out. Sui wondered if she was setting her breathing to them rather than her setting them to her breathing.

"Kc," Sui rested a hand on her shoulder. "The orb is glowing. You need to come up to the house." Kc sighed and followed them back up the cliff. Before going in, she placed her jewellery on the stone table in the sun to charge.

She followed her sisters down to a circular room that descended downwards like an amphitheatre towards a small circular stage with the orb sitting on a pedestal in the centre. Limestone seats lined the descent in segments, as at one time the orb had many more viewers than the three sisters in the past.

"It's intense," Kc murmured placing her hand on the orb. Her sister's followed suit. "I see a desert… Desert of Lost Souls by my guess."

"I can see him," Sui murmured in reply. "He seems to be from Rise. Correction… Orion. He has the pointed ears of an elf."

"I thought Orion is deserted," Ada asked focusing on the image of the elf in her mind. "Is that no longer the case?"

"It still is deserted," Kc confirmed. "You were right the first time. All the elves are now on Rise." She looked at his dusty brown hair. "He seems armed."

"Not seems," Ada replied slightly alarmed. "He is! How is that possible? The gates shouldn't allow weapons through."

"We shall have to go and investigate the gate there," Sui opened her eyes and picked up her staff. "It may have been tainted by something." Waving the staff, she created a doorway directly to the gate. "I hope it's nothing sinister."

Ada jumped through after her. "We'll search for our guest," Ada replied. They both looked back at Kc questioningly.

"I'm going to retrieve my jewellery and make my own doorway to there," she said with a smile. "Catch up with you soon."

***

The elf wandered curiously through the desert. His white jacket flapped wildly around him. "This can't be Orion…" he murmured out loud to himself. "Where has Anima sent me?"

"Fancy me being the first to find you," Kc stared at him in surprise. "I hate all this sand so it's good you haven't moved very far from the gate. Who exactly are you?"

The elf gave her a slight bow and a very charming smile. "I'm Stykes de Orannis…" Before he could finish, Kc jumped in over him.

"The Prince of the Elves of Orion," Kc smiled broadly. "The Gods have told us much about you…" She lowered her voice and added. "More than probably even you know."

Stykes frowned. "So where am I?" He stared at the sand. "It's not a very hospitable place." He watched her fiddle with her bracelet. "What are you doing?"

"You're in the Garden of the Black Roses," Kc replied. "It's an intermediary place of sorts. We are both a part of time and outside of it."

"We?" Stykes asked curiously. He could tell there was more going on that she was letting on. "And how can something be a part of time and outside of it?"

"How were you able to get here?" Kc asked back. "We, meaning my sisters and I, can be a part of any timeline in the known universe yet we are not affected by it."

"Anima," he paused in case Kc was going to interrupt him again. "Attempted to modify a mirror so that it could link to Orion as well as Hell. Kind of like a three-way portal."

"I see," Kc shook her wrist and tapped it once more. It buzzed like an old radio. "Sui, can you hear me?"

"Hmm?" Sui's voice through Kc's bracelet startled Stykes. "What's up?"

"I found our visitor," she said with a smile. "It seems alchemy is what allowed him passage with his weapon on board. How's it going on your end?"

"Not good," Sui's voice was definitely frustrated. "We'll need Ada to de-commission this one and erect a new one. The alchemy used was severely flawed and damaged the gate."

"We'll make our way over to you," Kc replied. "Get in touch with Ada so she can do the same."

***

Ada had already started to head back when Sui contacted her. She turned her back to the sun so she could look into her shadow. Sui's green eye looked almost red and bloodshot.

"Kc's found the visitor," she said briskly as she fiddled with a lock of blue hair. "She said alchemy was used on the gate. You need to de-commission this one."

"That will take me a few days to do that and erect a new one," Ada replied walking forward keeping her shadow in front of her. "We'll need to take him to a different gate."

"Agreed," Sui said with a nod. "When you get here, we'll decide which one to send him to."

***

Stykes stared up at the gate he had come through. It began to shrink until it turned into a semi-large baobab tree. "Where did it go?"

"Ada de-commissioned it," Sui said throwing a forest green potion at the tree. "The alchemy that Anima used was flawed to the point that it damaged the gate. Ada needs to erect a new one close by."

"How long will that take," he asked, his tight voice the only indication of his worry. He stumbled slightly, pressing a hand to his head. "Odd…"

"Anima's memories will still reach you here," Kc confirmed quietly. "She's probably worried as she'd be seeing this strange place in yours." She watched him shake his head before straightening up again.

"So now that begs the question," Sui asked as Ada started to draw the start of the summoning circle on the sand. "Which gate should we take him to so we can send him back?"

"Which is the closest?" Ada asked planting an orange-sized seed in the ground. "You better get moving before nightfall. I'll be protected by my sun staff but it won't protect all of us."

"The gate in Monolith's Waste is probably the closest," Sui replied, waving her staff and then pointing it to the ground. A sparkling line flew out towards the distance. "It looks like it's pointing towards Monolith's Waste."

"Last time you did that it guided us to cross a river," Kc said tersely. "Almost a kilometre away from the bridge."

"At least it gives us an idea of what direction to take," Sui replied in an annoyed voice. Stykes had the distinct impression that Sui was related to Anima in some way. Her appearance and personality were both very familiar.