Valyn "V" Lapis/Memory Books

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## **Pari Marzemino Volumes 1 - 2**

* **Little Pari (3)** being afraid of the dark and getting lots of nightmares because the ophanim house was big and cold and she thinks that its haunted because she hears whispering from the greenhouse. Zoltan puts in her room the Queen of the Night diamond to help keep her calm and the nightmares away.
* **Little Pari (5)** being told that her older cousin Saracen (10) is going to stay with them for a while because his mother is busy. She doesn’t understand why no one has taken care of his broken arm. Chaz (11) doesn’t like him. Ana (4) doesn’t understand what’s going on.
* **Running away to hide** when Rayla screams at Saracen for being ‘a feral animal’ when he wild shapes out of stress or anger or to spite her, and being disgusted that he would hunt his own food. Zoltan and Barak talk to him as little Pari listens in from her hiding place and is upset to hear that Aunt Avery was always too busy to make him food all the time.
* **Little Pari (6)** falling into the glitch pond when she sees something shiny and gold at the bottom and then getting pulled out by Chaz (12) and Saracen (11).
* **Chaz and Saracen fighting** over who should have been watching her, Chaz insisting that there’s no way she could have drown in the pool anyway, then getting rammed into it by Saracen wild shaping into a baby triceratops. Chaz hits the glitch and screams, his face permanently distorted.
* **Little Pari** hiding under the stairs as a huge shouting match occurs between Saracen and the Ophanims. Saracen turns into a velociraptor and runs away. Avery eventually sends him back because she’s too busy to have him. He looks skinnier than before.
* **Little Pari (7)** being told repeatedly and angrily by her mother Rayla, that “ladies do not sob, they cry quietly and in private” “ladies do not run,” “they do not fight with swords,” “they should always behave politely and properly,” and if she cried would get pinched or nipped by Rayla’s pet micro-raptor Princess, to “give her something to cry about.”. Ana (6) is spoken to in the same way but Barak always argues with Rayla to stop parenting his daughter and that she is allowed to play with swords.
* **Saracen (12)** finding her crying again, and trying to make things better by making coffee with her, insisting that he knows what to do because he’s done it tonnes of times before. The coffee tastes terrible but Saracen seems to drink it just fine, and not wanting to be rude, drinks it. Whenever Pari is sad, Saracen makes her coffee. The taste becomes comforting.
* **Pari (10)** learning how to heal so that whenever Chaz and Saracen fight, she can make sure they’re both fixed up before the rest of the family can find out. Their sword fighting is improving and it’s a daily exercise for them. Chaz insists that Saracen cheats by wild shaping. Pari is taught how to swordfight by them both; she’s better with a rapier than a sabre but has also learnt how to call lightning.
* **Pari (12)** resentful of going on this trip with Aunt Avery and Aunt Tarra, but Rayla says that it will be good for her to see the world before she becomes a young woman. Pari has grown to hate being called a lady/woman. Pari hates the trip because they’re going up into the mountains and the mountains are cold and make Pari feel sick. Saracen (17) trying to cheer Pari up by having a snowball fight. He cheats getting snowballs being thrown at him by wild shaping. Pari chases him up the mountain and when Saracen hits her in the face, Pari gets angry and calls lightning to slow him down but instead of hitting Saracen it hits the mountain side above causing an avalanche.
* **Pari is flying above** the avalanche looking for Saracen, trying to find where he’s gone. After a few hours of searching, she finds his body

### **Volume 15**

She had leapt to grab at him.

Saracen had returned from another adventure again. Through the magic that he had made for himself. The whole family was had arrived at Hellebore Island as apparently Rayla had a big announcement to make, and of course that meant Saracen had to come too. Pari had been excited to see him again but almost immediately as he stepped out of the tear in the sky, Rayla had insisted to Geoff the butler to lock her in her room. And yet Ana was allowed to be downstairs, as was Chaz and the others.

Pari was furious. How was Saracen a bad influence on her now, after spending years with them already. She snapped her teeth and snarled at the door as it closed, but she hadn’t spent months practicing lock picking and climbing across the narrow ledge of the window to the trees for nothing. It didn’t even take thirty seconds between the lock on the door clicking, to Pari being on the ground floor and hidden amongst the clouds of blue lilacs to avoid being seen by the towering Quetzalcolatl that were roosting in the gardens, and listen in.

“Why are you even bothering him with this?” Chaz’s smarmy voice. “He’s not going to share it because doesn’t even have a clue what to do with it. He can barely explain how he can make portals. Its not like he was ever educated by wizards.”

“That just goes to show how much you know. You don’t even know that the world rotates around the sun.”

“No it doesn’t! Even children know that the sun goes around Fracture!” There was a collective laugh from the rest of the family.

“This is why I don’t want to come back.”

“That’s very selfish of you.”

“Sure. Okay.”

He must have rolled his eyes, as immediately Rayla and, from the piercing whining voice, Tarra, began lecturing him, talking over one another in a raucous clamour. The shouting made Pari tremble and want to cry, but clenching her jaw she listened anyway.

“HOW AM I BEING SELFISH?” Saracen yelled. “HOW IS IT SELFISH FOR ME TO WANT TO TRY AND GAIN AS MUCH KNOWLEDGE AS I CAN TO HELP THIS CITY- TO HELP THIS WORLD!”

“Because you’re not thinking about this economically! Do you know how valuable these inventions can be!”

“YOU DO NOT NEED TO MONETIZE THIS, YOU’RE ALREADY FUCKING RICH ENOUGH.”

“LANGUAGE!” Both Rayla and Zoltan were looking furious as Pari peeked through the window. Chaz was leaning against the wall beside the window and she flinched quickly, hoping not to be seen by one of his four eyes on the left side of his face. He didn’t see her but she didn’t dare look again in case someone else saw her.

“You gain all of this knowledge but you’re not sharing it with us.” Aunt Avery in her husky voice. A rare guest appearance. Pari winced. Saracen wouldn’t like that. “We’re your family and just want to make sure that we understand you.”

“Understand me?” He laughed humourlessly. “Why do you care? When has family ever mattered to you? The only one here who gives a shit about each other is the Ophanims.”

There was a chorus of anger from the Stones and Marzeminos in the room. Offended and outraged. Tarra screamed loudest, but Rayla easily matched her. Amidst it all she even heard Ana throw in a few curse words here and there in Celestial, followed by the scolding from

In a scramble, she climbed as fast as she could back up the trellis to her room but by the time she had swung one leg in through the window, Saracen had opened the door. Pari froze, then in a sly smirk swung her other leg back in.

Saracen feigned shock. “Being sneaky are we?”

“Causing another divorce are we?”

“Using the *‘are we*’ are we?” He smirked as Pari rolled her eyes and sat back on the window ledge, relaxing. “Sorry you had to hear us shouting again. I got you something.”

“Getting me things doesn’t make me any less mad.”

“I know.” Saracen shrugged and strolled over. He sat on the ledge with her, handing over a small package containing an elegant deep indigo ribbon choker, on which sat a beautiful diamond, nearly midnight blue and shaped into a bluebell. Pari leant over it, hiding her smile at receiving it with her long hair. She hated such ‘girly’ gifts like jewellery and clothes, but like Saracen, she was a magpie for shiny objects, and this was so small and subtle, that it just made her feel happy to hold it.

“You don’t have to stay here you know.” He tapped his foot anxiously, slowly at first then gathering speed as he heard the distant yelling of the rest of the family downstairs. “There’s no need for you to stay.”

Pari looked up at him. “What?”

“They’re disgusting and vile to you. You don’t need to stay here.”

He was upset and angry to the point that his arms were changing colour, becoming dark and covered with scales. Avery always made him upset, and when everyone ganged up on him. Nothing was ever good enough, and anything he did the rest of the family always wanted a piece of it. She understood it all too well, feeling the dull ache of worthlessness in her bones every time her family looked at her.

“Do…you need coffee?” She asked holding onto his scaled arm to try and calm him. He would have done the same for her. He snorted and elbowed her gently.

“Your coffee is always too strong.” He joked. “I can feel my heart in my eyes whenever I drink it.”

“You’re the one who taught me how to make it.”

“Yes, but making doesn’t mean putting my heart at risk of implosion.”

Grabbing him in a headlock, she pulled on his ears and cheeks as he began to laugh, threatening him with playful violence.

“I’m serious though,” he said, his laughter slowing as he became sombre once more, “there’s nothing you can do to make them happy, and all they do is make you miserable. You can leave.”

“But I leave, what can I do?” She let him go, and dropped her gaze to her hands. “I’m not…enough.”

“Only because they say that. You can learn to do something. I don’t know, be a doctor or medic, or maybe even a thief stealing everyones’s money.”

“But what if…” her voice choked and strangled. She curled forward, holding her breath and hair covering her face as she tried to hide herself crying.

“What’s wrong? Ah, shit, I made you cry.” He hugged her tight. “Look Ri. I just want you to be happy and this isn’t the place for you to do that.”

“I know.” She cringed as her voice came out all mournful and childish. “I just don’t know what to do.”

With a deep breath Saracen let her go. He looked guilty. He knew he should have stayed. Forcing a gentle smile on his face he messed her hair up and pulled on her cheeks.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t know what to do right now. I’m sorry I started shit and upset you again. Let me go make you a coffee.”

“Only because you don’t want me to make you one.”

“You saw right through me.” He feigned shock again, slapping his hands to his cheeks, but they both laughed and she smiled as Saracen left to go make them coffee.

Taking a minute to compose herself and dry her eyes, Pari went over to the vanity to try on the gift Saracen had gotten her. The little indigo diamond looked like a frozen flower and as she gave it a tap, she was delighted by the tiny and delicate ringing it made. She did like it, and felt pleasantly calm for wearing it, but then Rayla no doubt would have some criticism to say. ‘*Its badly made,’ ‘the diamond isn’t big enough,’ ‘you’re not pretty enough to deserve that,’* were some of the things she had said about the hair pin given to her by Chaz for her birthday. With a sigh, she removed it and began to tuck it away to hide under her bed frame when she heard shouting again. She winced at the sound, remaining still for a moment, then heard the slam of the patio doors and shatter of glass.

Scrambling to her feet, she rushed to the window and saw Saracen storming off through the garden Zoltan and Tarra hurling abuse at him as he drew his sword. Chaz was already on his tail, a dagger in each hand and cursing him out. There was a quick flurry of blades as Chaz attacked and Saracen defended. Their skirmishes never lasted long and as Saracen whipped around, using his skills as a beast-barbarian to grow a spiked tail that gored Chaz in the side, he turned and sprinted towards the edge of the cliff.

He was going to leave again. He was going to leave and leave her all alone. Tears in her eyes, Pari shrieked for him to stop.

Saracen couldn’t hear her over the shouting of the rest of the family.

Panicked at being left behind amongst the screaming, and shouting, and venom, she let the radiant white wings unfurl from her back, the light pouring from her eyes as she flew as fast as she could.

He raised his arm, preparing to cut a hole into the sky, and she leapt to grab him.

“Don’t leave me!”

Head whipping round, Saracen stared wide eyed with shock and opened his mouth to yell something as he tore into the sky with his claws.

There was a moment of pure light as the world fractured around her with a cracking sound so loud that the world fell silent immediately after- but what world was it. Where was she if she was anywhere.

She saw the sea- a mountain city- an icy tundra- a burning hot savannah- a canyon of grey cubes- metal dragons- castles- valleys- deserts- jungles- creatures she knew and creatures she didn’t. She fell into the abyss of an endless night sky, burning with pain to the point of numbness.

She struck something semi-solid. But what could be solid in the night sky. She stared at the stars, and then the stars stared back with a thousand eyes. They focused on her, each spot of light a pupil in the face of a gigantic being with hair that swirled and coiled all around – living night. The night-being moved forward towards her, but she couldn’t scream. Shutting her eyes, she curled up into a ball as the being rushed towards the still glowing glitch she was trapped within.

And then.

She was falling into the sea.

-x-

“I’m going to repeat this again. Where did you go?” The doctor they had called was being very patient, but it was quickly ebbing away the more Pari snarled at them. With the radiant energy pulsing through her eye she had a constant headache and could feel it building up again. The doctor was aware of it too, keeping as far away as he could from her, keeping as far out of the light as he could.

Everything was still blurry, and she could still taste salt in her mouth. How hard did she strike the sea? Everything hurt, especially her chest and face. Maybe she should have tried to aim for the trees for at least a partially softer landing- oh well too late now.

The thoughts rolled around her head in slow leisurely drawls, bringing her focus back piece by piece to wherever she was now. Her room? Maybe? No, it was one of the villas they had been building on the lower side of Hellebore.

The Doctor’s foot tapped impatiently. “Pari. We’re only asking you these questions to help you.”

Pari stared blankly at him, slowly looking between the pale man and Rayla. Rayla was also getting angry. Her face was thunderous, but what confused her was how round her belly was. It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds right? How did her mother look so heavily pregnant that she could burst at any second.

Pari clenched her jaw tighter. Remaining stoic and silent and staring at the two with pure contempt.

“Hm.”

“Speak young lady. Speak.” Rayla ordered as Pari looked away. “Why is she like this now? Did Saracen do this?”

“I think being an aasimar may have saved her, but also caused this damage.” The doctor hypothesised, taking off his tiny glasses to clean them. “Radiant energy. In other places they might describe it as a nuclear force.”

“I really hate it when you use words from other places to sound intelligent.” Rayla tapped her foot impatiently. “Can this be fixed?”

“I cannot say for certain.”

“Then what am I meant to do with her now! Look at her. She looks hideous! Oh her poor hair.”

“I’m sure her hair will grow back Mz. Marzemino.”

“And what about her face. It’s cracked. Do I have to find something to permanently disguise that face of hers with?” She stepped closer, arms folding across her chest. “Stop scowling Pari, you already look revolting.”

“Pari. We just want to know what happened, what hurt you.” The doctor cut in, ushering Rayla to step back. Unlike her he kept his tone soft, but he remained at a safe distance. “We haven’t seen you in months, we just need to know if you’re alright.”

Pari stared him down as he watched her. She didn’t like his eyes. Too red.

“Saracen was distraught you know. He thought that he had killed you.”

Pari’s heart clenched. Saracen thought that she was dead? That he’d killed her? He must have felt as bad as she did after the avalanche. Tears sprung to her eyes immediately, pouring down a river of white-hot light from the radiant eye, guilt triggering a surge of pain.

The doctor leapt back as a crackle of electric white sparked from the cracks across her face and chest. Ignoring Rayla as she snapped and snarled at her to stop crying, she curled up into a ball and sobbed quietly to herself.

Beyond her crying she heard the doctor make a soft noise of intrigue and try to whisper in a low voice to Rayla.

“I would like to try it again.”

“What?”

“Only to see if this damage can be reversed. We’re getting very far in our research into glitch magic. If we know the cause of the problem, which we now do, we can find a way to cure it.”

“If you can fix that can you fix this god awful noise she’s making.

Holding her breath to stop herself crying until her blood rumbled in her ears like thunder and her head hurt to the point she thought it would explode. Through bleary eyes she saw the doctor wave his hand for her attention and she looked up to see him holding a feather quill and book.

“Pari, you don’t have to speak.” He said calmly as he sat in front of her. “Just let me ask you a few questions on how you feel and why you are like this.”