Touched by Fire (Atlantis Unearthed Series) Read online

  When the hand grasped my arm it began to change. It began to burn hotter than liquid metal landing on my skin. I cried out in pain and dropped to my knees, but still the hand held me. Surly this is going to burn through my arm I thought, yet it didn’t. The pain lessened as I stopped struggling. As I looked upon the hand that burned without leaving a mark I saw the hand was no longer that of my dream self, but that of a man.

  Finally the hand let go. A male voice asked me “Are you prepared to listen now? You have survived my touch when many cannot even abide my presence, you are of the sun Siria rather you choose to believe it or not.”

  I looked up to see my dream self replaced with a man of epic proportions towering to at least seven feet tall. He was built like a professional soccer play or a feather weight boxer, all powerful grace and agility, and he glowing with a light that seemed to come from within.

  “Who are you!?” I asked one more time shakily coming to my feet and squinting to try to get a better look at this man.

  “I am Helios, the God of the Sun” He said. And I actually believed him.

  “You are one of my chosen, and have been since birth, you will listen and learn what you need to know to fight this evil, and you will begin now.”

  I just sat there and listened to him as he outlined what was to come. Helios informed me that Atlantis did in fact once exist. It was there that this evil was born. Seeking to capture the powers of the Gods the Atlantians performed rituals and sacrifices seeking unlimited power. One powerful priestess named Nokto, delved deep into the sacred texts and found a way to transform herself through the sacrifice of a virgin, but it had to be a virgin who was the daughter of a god. Blending rituals to her will she forged something no one, not even we Gods had thought possible. Nokto merged the immortal essence of the demigoddess with her own dark essence creating an entirely new being, but it came with a price. The goodness of the sacrificed women was completely reversed, what were once her strengths were now Nokto’s weaknesses. Nokto had so aligned herself with darkness that she could no longer tolerate the presence of the sun, and to feed the darkness within, she began to partake of the blood of the innocent, spreading her vile darkness. Thus the darkness spread corrupting the island of Atlantis. The others of the time called them nosophoros, or plague carriers for they carried the evil within.

  Helios looked wearied as he came to a stop, I had never thought that a God could look worn out, but Helios did. He continued explaining “ As Nokto learned more about her new powers her strength grew. She was as powerful as some of the Demigods, and had the spark of the immortal essence within her. This gave her a since of being immortal. However it was not true immortality as she had stolen it, she could still die. The sun would burn away the darkness that bound the immortal soul within her, piercing the heart or decapitating the head would allow the soul an avenue to escape. Other than these methods one could only dissuade or confuse the evilness that spread like the plague enslaving most of the populace of Atlantis. As the darkness continued to spread, the Gods convened to discuss the new threat, knowing that if something was not done soon there would be nothing left untouched by its corrupt hand. They formed a plan of action, isolate and bury the island of Atlantis and trap all of its corruption with it. However, one God spoke out, it was his daughter whom Nokto has merged her withered soul with, and he held out hope that they could somehow sever the bond Nokto had over his daughter. However, as the darkness spread the other Gods over ruled him, but he could not give up hope. In secret he abducted Nokto who now wore the form of his daughter. She also had taken her name,Circe. He carried her to a secluded Island hours before the Gods sunk Atlantis into the depths of the ocean.

  “At first the plan seemed to work, no more outbreaks of darkness, no more spreading of the evilness was heard of. Years went by, the thing that called her herself Circe hid in caves and feasted on the blood of pigs, but no one crossed her path. She was unable to spread the darkness. Then a lone sailor and his crew descended upon the island. Odysseus. Circe placed upon them a curse and once again began to build her strength and slowly the darkness began to spread again. However the God had been keeping an eye on her. He descended upon the island and once again took possession of Circe, binding her in chains of light he forced her into a vault blessed with the power of the sun so it was strong enough to hold her and her darkness. He then cast her down once again into Atlantis, to lay forever in its ruins hidden by the power of the Gods. He was unable to kill this creature of darkness that bore the likeness of his daughter even though he knew what would happen if she were ever released, not while he knew his daughters soul was still bound to Nokto’s. Banishing Nokro’s spirit to the depths of Hades would banish Circes as well, so despite the threat, despite the danger, he let her live and prayed her internal tomb would never be uncovered. However, as I have shown you, that is exactly what is going to occur“

  Helios stopped there either unable to go on or giving me time to process all of this. Either way I didn’t know what to think or say. I had no doubt of what he said, for some reason I knew it was true, all of it, even if I didn’t want it to be. This evil existed, and was about to be uncovered. Then it hit me, who had let it live? They could have killed it then, and all those people who were going to die would have lived, all those innocent people could have escaped this horrific fate. What idiot could not see that his daughter was dead and kill the monster that lived within her body? I didn’t know so I asked “Who was he, who was Circe’s father, the one who wouldn’t kill her when he had the chance?”

  Helios looked up at me eyes ablaze with an anger that chilled me to the bone. At the same time heat waves began to radiate from his skin and the grass around his feet began to wither. With hands clenched at his side I knew the answer before he even spoke it.

  “It was I, the one God who can summon the power to kill her that could not do so. It is I who am responsible for the deaths to come. I know it was my own weakness that allows the events to unfold that release Nokto from her crypt in the form of my beloved Circe. While I cannot undo what I did all those eons ago, I can give you all the chance of survival, the ability to fight this evil. I have searched the earth for mortals that can bare my touch so that I can bless them with the abilities to fight this evil. As you were shown, I will grant those individuals the power, speed, and endurance that they will face in the enemy, along with the ability to be immune to the darkness. I will give them the words of truth to convince others of what is to come, and the means to prepare safe havens for survivors so when the darkness is defeated they can rebuild society once more. It is the most I can do.”

  I sat there in numbness realizing that the one who could have prevented any of this from happening is the only one giving us a chance to survive. I was angry that those people would die, that all of this was to happen, but at the same time, how could I blame him. It was his daughter, an innocent herself that he was trying to save. Granted the price was too much to justify it completely in my books, but I wasn’t looking at it through the eyes of a parent. Either way, did it really matter? This was the only help humanity was going to get, even if we wouldn’t need the help if not for him.

  “But why?” I asked. “If you had the ability to defeat her then, why not know, why can’t you use your powers to kill her now before any of this happens? Why can’t you stop it now?”

  “I am unable to do so without ensuring the complete destruction of humanity. Even the Gods cannot completely overthrow fate. If I intervene now and kill her or stop Circe’s unearthing, the very fabric of life that the fate weaves will come undone. Time will collapse upon itself. This world would exist no more. The only hope I can give is to gift you and others like you with what powers I am able. I can only give humanity the warriors it will need, and time to prepare as much as possible for the battle yet to come. I am sorry.”

  With that Helios reached out and touched my forehead where I felt a searing pain spread across it as I faded into unconsciousness I heard his parting words.
”

  “Do not forget your path Siria, find the others who bare the mark, together you will know what to do. I will help where I am able, until we meet again my dear Siria.” With that he kissed my head and disappeared just as I slipped completely into unconsciousness.

  Chapter 3

  I woke up the next morning after Keane stuck his head into my room and yelling at me that I had overslept. And dammit to hell I had a bitch of a headache as well. I jumped out of bed and got dressed in that panic mode one always goes into when they over sleep.

  I grabbed the first presentable thing I could find in my closet and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. As I walked down the hall I tried to remember the dream I had had but it eluded me for the most part. When I reached the bathroom I turned on the water and jumped right into the shower. I didn’t even stop to look into the mirror, if I had I probably wouldn’t have made it into the shower.

  As it was, I finished my shower, wrapped my hair in a towel, and went to brush my teeth. That is when I saw it. A design that looked like a tribal rendition of a sun was drawn on the middle of my forehead. I screeched in frustration that today of all days Keane had to pull a prank on me. I snatched a wash cloth from the stand and scrubbed away. Nothing. What they hell kind of marker did he used. I kept trying, using every makeup remover at my disposal and cussed out Keane the entire time promising every horrible payback I could think of. Scrubbing my forehead raw was still not working so I tried the next approach of covering it up.

  The damn thing still would not go away. I piled every concealer and miracle in a jar product I had on it and it didn’t even make it less noticeable. There was still this damn black tribal sun on the middle of my forehead. If anything it seemed to become more noticeable the more I messed with it. Finally I stomped out of the bathroom and decided today would be a good day to call into work.

  After talking to my boss and telling him I wouldn’t be in I went to go kill Keane. I found him eating cereal and watching cartoons on the TV. I threw a couch pillow at him and almost made him spill his cereal.

  “What the hell Siria! Shit I woke you up it’s not my fault you over slept” he said as he turned to me. When he caught sight on my forehead he burst into laughter. “What the hell is that on your face? Oh my god, where is my phone I have to get a picture of this.”

  “What the hell do you mean what’s on my face, you should know you put it there.” I screamed as he ran around looking for his phone. “I had to call into work you moron, what the hell type of marker did you use, this is nuts Keane, it’s one thing to mess around, but you can’t keep doing stupid crap like this, it will get me fired. “

  Keane stopped looking for his phone and turned with a confused look on his face. “I didn’t put it there, you mean little miss perfect has a big ole tattoo on her forehead and dosen’t know how it got there, oh this will go viral, where the hell is my phone when I need it.”

  “Tattoo it’s not a tattoo I said. It’s sharpie, or damned well better be, and don’t pull that innocent shit, I know you did this.” I yelled at him and began looking for more objects to throw.

  “Siria, I swear I had nothing to do with this, but whoever did it gets one hell of a high five from me on pulling one over on you. “Keane kept looking for his phone and I began to wonder if really hadn’t done it, but then who else could have.

  “Keane, for real, you are the only other one in the house, what did some serial sharpie user break in and draw on my forehead in the middle of the night?” I asked sarcastically.

  He gave up the search for his phone and came over to get a closer look at my forehead. “Siria, I really didn’t do it, and that does not look like sharpie to me, it looks like a tattoo.” He gave me a puzzled look, looked back at the sun symbol, then asked “Did you try to wash it off?”

  “No….I just decided to keep it there as a new fashion statement. Of course I tried to wash it off, I used everything I could think of and nothing, just tell me what you used so I can wash it off.” I was getting more pissed off by the minute that he wouldn’t fess up. Enough was enough already.

  “I.Didn’t.Do.It. Siria. I don’t know how else to say it. What about baby oil, I heard that can work on sharpie. But I’m telling you that’s a damn tattoo. What the hell did you get into last night while I was at work?” Now he was getting angry because I didn’t believe him. Great.

  “I didn’t do anything; I came home from work, watched some movies, and then went to bed. That was it, and then I woke up this morning with a killer headache and this on my forehead.” I motioned wildly at my forehead just in case he was missing it.

  “Wait a headache, could you have been drugged?” he asked again with a puzzled look on his face

  He was serious, he really though I had either lost my mind or gotten a tattoo on my forehead or that some crazy tattooist drugged me and practiced he trade on my forehead in the middle of the night.

  I was tired, had a headache, and a huge black sun on my forehead. Today was turning into a real winner.

  “Come on let me help you wash it off” he said and drug me to the bathroom. For the next hour or so we tried everything we could think of and everything Google could think of to get it off. Nothing was working.

  By this time I was crying because I knew any type of marker would have come off by now or at least faded. The sun was still as dark as ever. Keane suggested calling the cops but I knew they would never believe a story like this, and even if they did it’s not like they could remove the damn thing. I called a local tattoo removal specialist and set up an appointment for the next day and went back to bed. Keane was still looking worried and puzzled over how I could get a tattoo and not know it but he left it alone for the time being.

  It was while lying in bed that the first wisps of my dream began to float back to me, but I ignored them and fell asleep.

  The next morning I got into the car with Keane, who insisted on driving, saying that if I couldn’t remember getting a tattoo, I definitely didn’t need to be driving. An hour later I sat in a chair with the tattoo consultant who was looking extremely puzzled. Which given the circumstances was not a great sign. At last the consultant sighed. “Well I give up, I have seen thousands of tattoos in my life, but this is not any type of tattoo I have ever seen before. It’s not even ink, or at least any type of ink used to my knowledge. I ran an analysis on the sample I took. It came back as some type of carbonate and resin, almost like it was made out of amber and ashes mixed together. I will tell you though, I have never seen the like, but I am afraid that we cannot remove it. I apologize; I did set up an appointment with a dermatologist to see if they could find out more than I could. The receptionist will give you the information.”

  As we left the office both Keane and I were speechless. So some unknown thing had left a permanent mark on my forehead, and now I was stuck with it. Great. How was I going to explain this to my boss, let alone my mother?

  We got back to the apartment and sat down on the couch still not talking for awhile. Keane got up gave me a hug and told me everything would be okay, but I had the distinct feeling nothing was going to be okay. He left for work a little bit later and I went and layed down in my room. It was then that I finally began to let the fragments of the dream come back together.

  Slowly the horror of my dream came back to me, as well as the images of the warriors, or guardians as Helios had called them, and of course Helios himself. He burning touch as he marked me with his symbol, that of the sun, right in the middle of my forehead. The jerk, why couldn’t it be on my arm, or butt, or anywhere easier to hide?

  I still didn’t want to believe any of it was true, but after two days of scrubbing, a very confused specialist, what else could I think. But if Helios had really marked me, then it meant all of it was true. It meant Circe was real. That she was going to walk the earth again, and with her came the plague of darkness and evil. That was the thought that haunted me for the rest of the night.

  I stayed awake the rest of the
night doing research on Helios, Atlantis, Circe, and Vampires. Along the way I learned many things. For instance, Circe was the legendary witch who kidnapped Odysseus but was really Nokto is disguise, but the name Circe tended to stick even knowing the truth, it was just easier to say. I also learned that Helios was actually a titan, not a normal god even though that’s how we referred to him. Also he was the God of oaths and the gift of sight. He was also supposed to have the gift of pretty much knowing everything. I guess this explained how he could know what was going to happen. This reminded me of his promise to make me be able to convince people of the truth. That’s when it hit me, if I couldn’t convince Keane of the truth then I was in fact going crazy. But if I could, then everything was about to go to hell in a hand basket.

  I decided to wait up for Keane to get home to test out my theory. I ambushed him as soon as he walked through the door. I made him sit down and told him everything that I have told you so far. At first he kept laughing, but then he actually started to listen. I finally ended the story where I woke up with the mark of being on of Helios’s chosen on my forehead and waited to see what he would say.

  Everything in me wanted him to laugh and say I was crazy, or something of that nature. Anything to let me know he didn’t believe a word that had came out of my mouth. But he didn’t. He sat there without saying a thing and at last he grabbed my hand.

  He hand was shaking, and that scared me. Here was a man who had seen death and war in person, and his hand was shaking. He looked up at me and with his next sentence I knew my fate was sealed.

  “Where do we start?”