“Avalon you haven’t answered her last question. What exactly is the purpose of our Resistance?” Principal Saint entered the kitchen arms full of brown paper bags. The smell of Chinese food filled the room and as soon as he set the bags down on the counter I snatched one and pulled out a paper parchment filled with Crab Rangoon. I tore the legs off of the crab shaped pastry and devoured the fried goodness.
“Why don’t you do the honors Amory?” Avalon addressed Principal Saint with a strong familiarity, and slid a box of fried rice over to himself, digging in with a set of wooden chopsticks.
Chapter Thirty-One
“So you know about the Resistance?” I asked Principal Saint tentatively, not sure where he stood on the issue. He entered the kitchen uninvited, and made himself at home to no one’s objections, his arms laden with paper bags of hot Chinese food.
“I believe I was the founder,” Principal Saint smiled at me widely when my mouth dropped open from disbelief. As the principal of my high school, I found it hard to imagine him plotting the death of one of its most prominent students. “That was a long, long time ago however. I’ve been able to take somewhat of a backseat position for quite some time,” Avalon rolled his eyes and I could tell that Principal Saint was not being entirely truthful with me.
“Sure, sure,” Avalon mumbled, shoving more rice mixed with Mongolian Beef into his mouth.
“Well, at least for the last sixteen years. You kids have been quite time consuming,” he grinned again. I was a little taken aback by his casual appearance. His black hair seemed a little looser; and instead of the double breasted suits I was used to seeing him in, he donned a pair of jeans and navy blue polo.
“What?” I asked, my disbelief growing.
“That has been my task since you were born: to make sure you both survived. So far, so good, but I think Eden here is bent on destruction,” I gave him an acerbic squint of the eyes, but half wondered if he was right. “In truth however, it has been the greatest task I’ve ever been given,” his expression turned serious, and something in his eyes gave me a foreboding anxiety that I couldn’t explain.
“Why is that?” I choked out.
“Well, let’s just say that you two are very important to the survival of our species,” I opened my mouth to ask him to explain further, but he continued quickly. “Back to your question concerning the King, or Lucan. He’s the same as his father and his father’s father, and the King before that. They are all tyrants. They care only for the survival of their bloodline and have been chasing Immortality since the day they lost it.”
“So we really can’t live forever anymore? Kiran could have died last night?” I asked quietly, afraid of the answer.
“Anything is possible. Some of us have definitely lived longer than others,” he smiled almost humbly as if he were embarrassed of something.
“And we all live longer than them,” Avalon said “them” with such disgust that I had no doubt he was referring to the Kendricks.
“You haven’t lived longer than anyone yet, Avalon,” Principal Saint addressed him with authority and I saw Avalon look down at his food with a half-smile on his face; as if he didn’t quite take Principal Saint seriously. “But it would have taken a lot more than a long fall to kill Kiran Kendrick. He’s just fine Eden, you’ll see him at school tomorrow, I’m sure.”
“So what can kill us?” I asked, once again afraid of the answer.
“Only another Immortal can kill us and in very dire circumstances,” Principal Saint shook his head as if refusing to say more. “And then there is something we call the King’s Curse; but so far it seems to only affect a person after a long life. It is much like dying of old age, only a little more gruesome than that I suppose.”
“Why is it called the King’s Curse?” I asked reaching for an egg roll.
“Because that is exactly what it is,” Principal Saint’s voice hardened. “It is a curse brought on our people by the first King, Derrick Kendrick, and grows stronger after every consecutive Kendrick that rules,” when I gave him a curious expression, he continued. “You see before we had a King our people had never experienced death. For a couple thousands of years we had walked the earth without death. Nothing could be done to us that we could not heal from, and no sickness or plague affected us. We simply lived, our powers growing stronger every year longer we survived. Finally, however, there were too many of us, we outnumbered the humans, and we were spread across the globe. Instead of thanking God for our blessings, the people grew complacent and cried out for a King. The Immortals wanted to live like the humans; even though we lived with abilities the humans couldn’t even comprehend; even though the humans lived in war and hunger and under oppression, still our people called for a King. So they elected one. One of the strongest Immortals to ever walk the earth; and how did he thank them? By destroying them. First order of business, he hunted the Oracles down and executed them.”
“Not all of them,” Avalon interrupted.
“All of them died that day,” Principal Saint growled back.
“Avalon has mentioned the Oracles before, but I guess I still don’t get it. And how did he execute them if no one had died?” I asked naively and confused.
“The Oracles were elders who guided the people before the King. They acted as a referee for disputes, and other issues that arose. They were one of the first and strongest of our species. But at that time, every kind married each other; there was no distinction between races. Because of that, the magic was much stronger than it is today. You see a Witch could marry a Titan and together they could have a Medium for a child. The magic was mixed; but each individual would display certain attributes defining what they were capable of. Derrick killed them by first draining their magic and then they were easily murdered just like any normal human being would have been,” I thought for a moment Amory was going to be sick. A look of pure nausea passed across his face, but then it was gone and he continued, “The second thing Derrick did was to cut off the magic from mingling. Each race, by King’s edict, was henceforth forbidden to intermarry. This singled the magic out, not only weakening its power, but cursing us for generations to come. The King’s Curse spread wildly, destroying most of the older generations first, and then working its way down, cutting our numbers by millions. It hit the King’s household the hardest however. And to this day every King we have dies young comparatively, and worst of all they are only gifted with one male heir. It has been like this for King after King after King. Yet, they continue to oppress us, enforcing the rules even more harshly these days.”
“So that is why Kiran has to marry a Psychic? Because he’s a Psychic?” I asked, thinking very selfishly of my own problems.
“Well, in order to prolong their lives and strengthen their powers the royal family is both Witch and Psychic. They alternate what type of wife they take. Lucan took a Witch, and now Kiran must take a Psychic in order to ensure the equality of magic,” Principal Saint explained this as if it made perfect sense, but I found this entire history lesson a bit confusing.
“So if the royal family is responsible for all of this, how come the Resistance has to be a secret? Why don’t we all just rise up against them and take over peacefully?” I asked, hoping for a better solution than murdering Kiran.
“Because of the f-ing Guard,” Avalon shouted out impatiently.
“What Avalon means, is in our weakened state, most Immortals wouldn’t stand a chance against the Titan Guard. They are too skilled in battle; the community as a whole understands that we would all die. Their combat skill is what sets them apart, what defines them as Immortals.”
“And the Titan Guard is Ok with how things are being run?” I asked thinking of Talbott and his utter loyalty to Kiran.