Lightning and Fire, page 9
The man bows his head again, a grin on his face.
Lola and I exit the man’s home and enter the chariot. The chariot sets off to the palace and I take a breath.
“Did he make this and how does he know it will do what I want?” I say.
Lola shrugs. “We were close by and I felt like someone was reading my mind. I focused, then I could hear his thoughts. We were reading each other’s minds. I was worried for you and he said he could help.”
“Do you think this works?”
“I don’t know. Do you think our paths merely crossed by chance?” Lola asks.
Now that’s a good question. My mind wavers between accepting the man’s help and throwing this new ring out the window. I look over at Lola; she raises her shoulder in a shrug. What if he wants too much from me? What consequences will come of this? It’s too much to think about in one day.
We get back to the palace and I’m excited but unsure. Here I have something that can change everything for me and solidify my position as ruler. I want to use the ring right away, but then I stop to think about it. There’s a flip side for everything; the repercussions.
I get back to my room and Kyle is waiting on the bed.
“What are you doing here?” I hate to sound so harsh, but I wasn’t expecting to see him as soon as I walked in. I pop my shoes off and walk over to the mirror to unpin my hair. Still, I clutch the ring tight in one closed fist.
“Where have you been? I was worried sick,” says Kyle.
“I left a note. Everyone knew I was out.”
“With Lola? What business do you have with Lola? You don’t even know anywhere in Kollosnia.”
“Which is why I need to meet the people and get to know the place, not stay cooped up in here all day.”
“It could be dangerous.”
“Many things are dangerous.”
“You should go out under the protection of hundreds of guards, not with your servant. You don’t know who’s out there or who might want to harm you.”
“Well, I’m fine, so you can stop worrying now,” I say, sitting in the bed next to him.
“So where did you go?” he asks, running his hand through my hair.
“A village.”
“Hmm..So specific.”
“I went to a village in the valley,” I say. “To get this,” I hold out the ring to show him.
He stares at it. “What’s that?”
“It’s a ring that can help me control my powers—strengthen them,” I say.
The Unraveling
Aiden
“What’s going on here?” Murdo comes walking into the cave and turns off the portal. He must have heard the screaming.
“I don’t think they’re going to be able to ride back to the palace. Get both of them there safely.”
“Where are you going?” asks Murdo.
“I’ll meet you there.”
I’m heading to the palace, but I need to get there fast; faster than I would, if I was walking with a group of people and a screaming child. My mind is going a million miles a second.
I take the tunnel exit out of the haven and head to find the quaggas where we left them. There is no time to stop and rest. I get to the animal and I mount her and head straight for the castle. The closer I get, the more my body shakes. I ride into the palace grounds, and, jumping off the quagga, I race into the castle. I get there, and Murdo’s already there, with Ric and her mother.
“How?” I ask when I see them.
“Someone in Undas can teleport. You should have asked before you ran off.”
I pay no mind to his snarky comment. “Follow me,” I say.
I lead them back to where the tombs are, and I find Calina’s grave. It’s a gold tomb, one made for royals and the highest nobles in the state. I insisted she had this one, just another thing I had to fight for. But with the fit of rage I experienced, no one dared to say no. Even if they thought it was unreasonable.
“Is this where Calina is?” asks Mrs. Cabhair.
“This is crazy,” says Ric, frantic but not screaming, crying. A lot of things going through her mind, no doubt. I assumed they got her up to speed on my journey here.
I push the cover of Calina’s tomb off and like I thought.
“It’s empty.” Everyone says, almost in unison.
I look again to make sure. It is empty, and it seems like no one was ever in here. Now the question is: Where is Calina?
Before
Leann
Chelsea. That’s what I’ll call her.
Then my smile disappears and my heart races in my chest. Chelsea is supposed to cry, right? I hold her in my hands, and there is no movement. I give her a tap on the leg and wait; nothing. I give her a little pinch on her hand, still nothing. Nothing at all. My chest burns and my body shakes, and I don’t know what to do. Then I notice the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. I remove it, but it’s too late now. She’s already turned blue, and I know she’s gone.
Tears are blinding me. I get up and stagger further into the woods; holding the baby in my hands, still attached. What am I doing? I can’t go back like this.
I wasn’t suppose to want this. But after seeing her face, the living thing that was inside of me; it hurts that so suddenly she’s gone. And it’s my fault. If I didn’t come here, then my Chelsea would be crying and not me.
I slump to the ground and rest the baby on my chest. Another series of pain bring me to my knees. I allow it to pass. I should call the police or the ambulance. Again, I didn’t get my phone, and now I’m further from it than before.
I decide to go back for it. Still holding the baby, I trot back to the tree where I fell. Looking down at the baby now, I realize everything is better if it ends here. I reach for a fallen tree branch and slam the tip of it into the ground so it breaks leaving a pointed end. Using the sharp end I separate my baby from me. I rest her down, and with my hands, I dig up dirt and grass, and I cover everything.
I walk back to where I came from. Dusting dirt and smearing blood over the dress I’m wearing.
The ground shakes; I’m not sure. Then I hear something, I’m certain of it—the crying of a baby. Joy fills me; she’s alive. I dash to the area I just left; I hear the moan again; but it’s not coming from the same place. I walk towards the crying and I see a light. Then I see; a baby in a basket, swaddled in blankets. I’m shocked, and I’m not sure what is happening. How did this baby get here? It’s a girl dressed beautifully. I look around the forest for someone.
“Hello,” I call.
There is no one. My eyes are playing tricks on me, I think. Even so, there is still a baby here. I walk over to her. I pick her up and hold her close. She purrs, smiling back at me. She has a locket around her neck. I open it, and inside there is a drawing of a flame burning, with black colored around it—the light in the darkness. I flipped to the back. Then I see her name, Calina Cabhair, engraved in it.
“Calina.” I let the name roll off my tongue. The baby giggles and reaches up to me, touching my face; all my pain dissipates. I’m numb, but the right kind; soothe. I lift her up and hold her in my bloody arms. Instead of making me sad for what I’ve lost. I feel like I can have a fresh start. Like I no longer have to battle with loving or hating the child I wasn’t sure I wanted in my life.
I should call the police and report everything that’s happened, but then I think; who would know? This is the child that came into my life. This is my baby.
Will this work? Will anyone believe this baby is mine? I look at her dark skin and black eyes, compared to my blue eyes.
I put the baby back into the basket and walked over to the spot where I had covered up Chelsea. I say my goodbyes and heap more dirt to cover over it. Then I set a few rocks on top.
I take Calina, and we head home.
Chaos Rising
Anorvia
There’s a knock on the door, and it’s Lola.
“I have something to tell you,” she says.
“What is it, Lola?”
“I,” she pauses, looking over at Kyle. “I overheard,” she says, almost like she’s unsure. “Aiden saying Calina’s alive.”
“That’s not possible,” says Kyle.
I let out a shout, and running over to my dresser, I push everything on top of it to the floor. Glass breaks and meaningless trinkets clatters to the floor. This feels unfair; such a cruel twist of fate. I want to say it’s not true, it can’t be, but I know it is. Since the death of the Dark King, I have felt it. I was hoping I wasn’t right. But every day since I entered Kollosnia, I’ve known—the histories in the cave isn’t mine.
“Don’t be upset, it’s fine. I will help you control this.”
I slink to the floor in a ball and burst into tears. “I’m not the savior. Calina is, and she’s coming to take my throne.” I say, struggling to get the words out.
“What are you talking about? Of course you’re the savior. Calina is dead.”
“No, I’m not.”
“No.” Kyle shakes his head in disbelief. “They trained you. We all thought… I thought…” I can see the wheels in his mind turning—there are too many details to go over, for any of it to make sense to him.
“I didn’t kill your father, Kyle. You were there. She did.”
“I thought... What?” I can see the night playing over in his mind again. Everything happened so fast. “It doesn’t matter. She’s dead.”
“She’s not dead,” I say.
He shakes his head. “Even if that’s somehow possible…”
“It’s possible, Kyle, it’s all there in the histories. Everything Cosmo said would happen is happening, except it’s not because of me. Magic is back, but it’s because Calina is alive. And she’s alive because even if the savior’s stabbed with the two swords in the heart, she will not die. That’s what it says; it’s in your legend Kyle. She isn’t dead.”
“We can get some men to get rid of her. Fix this before it gets out of hand…”
“People already know she’s back! Aiden, Cosmo, Murdo, Alana… they all know,” says Lola.
“Well, we have to do something. We can’t allow Calina or anyone else to touch this throne. It’s in my bloodline… Hang on. You were worried you weren’t the savior? He stares at me. “Why didn’t you tell me?” says Kyle.
“I don’t know. If Calina stayed dead, then my doubts wouldn’t matter.”
Something unreadable flickers across Kyle’s face. Kyle walks towards the door and looks back at me. “Let’s go. Nothing has changed. Put the ring on.”
Part Two
Chapter Sixteen
Calina
My body is falling, failing me. I should feel pain, but I’m numb. Blood spills from my chest, and I crash into the ground. I try to open my eyes, but I can’t, and I fade into sleep. Then I’m dreaming again. Or maybe I’m awake now.
I don’t know what’s real. My skin itches. I try to reach it, but I can’t. It’s like my entire body is wrapped up. It’s possible that the Dark King has captured me, and I’m in his torture chambers. Wait. No. That’s not right; the King is dead. I killed him. I killed him, and then...
Are you conscious through death? I remember falling off the fiord and Aiden reviving me. I wasn’t conscious then. That must mean I’m not dead. No. That can’t be right either. I have to be. The itch comes at me again. I snap back at it, lifting my body up to reach it.
My head hits something hard, and I squeeze my eyes together from the shock. Alright, not dead. I open my eyes, and I’m surrounded by darkness. Anxiety fills me, overcomes me. My mind pieces together the clues. I am in a small enclosed space with some kind of hard lid. Buried. I’m buried alive.
I feel like the walls are closing in on me. My body wrapped too tight for me to breathe. A flash of light draws my attention. Lightning? The wrappings fall off, freeing me. I feel around me, getting an understanding of my enclosure. Then I push at the cover of my grave. It’s hard and cold and heavy. Another scratch at the end of my leg; the cloth they wrapped me in—stupid material. I guess the comfort of the dead isn’t a priority. Without thinking, I reach for it. Pain shoots through my skull, followed by the warm, familiar trickle of blood down my forehead. Slowly, again, I fade away.
When I wake, I remember where I am. A light shines above me, and I can see that the top of the box is open. A shimmer of light from the outside streams into my coffin.
Pushing the top as far as I can manage, I hastily lift myself out.
I get out of what I thought was a grave, and I’m in a room surrounded by tombs. Is anyone else alive in here? But I know I must leave now. There’s a door at the front of the room, and I head for it.
A long hallway appears before me, and I run down it. I’m not sure where I’m going, but I have to get out of here before whoever is in charge comes back.
Looking around, I search for anything that looks like an exit. There’s a window with grills, so I can’t get through it. Still, I shake it hard, trying to loosen the bars, but it doesn’t budge. I get to the end of the hall when there’s a noise, the voice of a man screaming. They’re coming for me.
I close my eyes and wish for a way to get outside. There is a buzz and a shake, and when I open my eyes again, I’m outside. Shock fills me, and I look behind me to see the castle. I’m not sure what I’m shocked by most: that they buried me at the castle or that I appeared outside. But I don’t have time to figure out what’s happening right now. A white light washes over everything, like an explosion. I run.
****
I open my eyes and see Tesla standing over me. Tesla is the leader of the Caels, a group of people in a haven deep inside the Bowels of Ruina. I’ve heard rumors of the group’s existence. Still, no one believed they were real—stories of hope for an oppressed nation wishing for another haven. The two known ones weren’t easy to get into.
Who would have thought Cael was in Ruina, the same place I was to escape to with Aiden? They gave me a very brief tour, as there wasn’t much to see. Like Aiden told me, the area was a wasteland. Tesla and his people were living amongst broken down buildings and heaps of rubble. I thought being a haven it would be like the other two. Rich with unusual plants and abundant with food. Cael had neither, but the people here seemed glad that they were safe.
Tesla found me wandering about the place on his usual run—figuring out what’s going on in Kollosnia. Collecting intel, he tells me. He gathered from the bump on my head I have a concussion.
“The bump is gone, which is quite incredible.”
“I usually heal this fast when Sanitas Herbum is on my wounds,” I say.
“I put nothing on your wounds,” says Tesla. “We have little here in the ruins. It’s a great hiding place, but not much of anything else. ”
“That’s why you steal to survive?” I ask.
“Scavenge,” he corrected me. “Do you think there’s anything you’re forgetting?”
“The problem with forgetting things is, you can’t remember what you’ve forgotten,” I say.
“Well, I’ve tried everything I can to bring back your memory. Meditation is usually the best way.”
“I remember something though.”
“Well, what is it?” urges Tesla.
It surprises me he’s able to run this haven. The youngest leader of the three, he appears to be in his late twenties. He’s lanky, but walks with confidence. He waits for me to speak.
“I think…”
“Go on.”
“I’m the savior?”
He raises an eyebrow. “You remember that you’re the savior?” asks Tesla.
“You mean you forgot that you’re the savior?” asks Spirus, appearing from behind Tesla. She is short, so he towers above her. She must have been there all this time, and I’m only now seeing her. Her tattoo of a seahorse matches her eyes, making the green almost too bright. The seahorse tattoo sits right on the left side of her neck.
“Well, you can’t be the savior. There’s already a savior. She came, she killed the Dark King, and she saved us,” says Tesla. “Do you remember that?” He looks at me with concerned eyes.
“Did you see her kill the Dark King?” I ask.
“No, the portal opened up. There was craziness, and the world was going haywire. You guys came back. The King was dead.”
“But how do you know she killed the King?”
“Because only the savior can kill him, and she came here as the savior. You didn’t.”
“I know I didn’t come here to be the savior,” I say.
“And you pretended to be the savior,” says Tesla.
“To help,” adds Spirus.
“I don’t know how, but I didn’t even realize it then, in the craziness of that day. I think I killed him.”
They exchange a glance above my head. “You think, or you know?” asks Tesla.
“I took the sword, and I pushed into the middle of his little black heart until the blood oozed from his dark evil pores.” The memory assaults me as I scream. I know it’s true. I killed a man, and it still makes me sick.
There’s a pause, and then Spirus gathers herself. “Well, if we’re fair, we didn’t see you kill him either,” she says.
“So how can I prove it?” I ask.
“If you swear you killed him, then we need to figure out a way to prove you are the savior.”
I chuckle.
Lola and I exit the man’s home and enter the chariot. The chariot sets off to the palace and I take a breath.
“Did he make this and how does he know it will do what I want?” I say.
Lola shrugs. “We were close by and I felt like someone was reading my mind. I focused, then I could hear his thoughts. We were reading each other’s minds. I was worried for you and he said he could help.”
“Do you think this works?”
“I don’t know. Do you think our paths merely crossed by chance?” Lola asks.
Now that’s a good question. My mind wavers between accepting the man’s help and throwing this new ring out the window. I look over at Lola; she raises her shoulder in a shrug. What if he wants too much from me? What consequences will come of this? It’s too much to think about in one day.
We get back to the palace and I’m excited but unsure. Here I have something that can change everything for me and solidify my position as ruler. I want to use the ring right away, but then I stop to think about it. There’s a flip side for everything; the repercussions.
I get back to my room and Kyle is waiting on the bed.
“What are you doing here?” I hate to sound so harsh, but I wasn’t expecting to see him as soon as I walked in. I pop my shoes off and walk over to the mirror to unpin my hair. Still, I clutch the ring tight in one closed fist.
“Where have you been? I was worried sick,” says Kyle.
“I left a note. Everyone knew I was out.”
“With Lola? What business do you have with Lola? You don’t even know anywhere in Kollosnia.”
“Which is why I need to meet the people and get to know the place, not stay cooped up in here all day.”
“It could be dangerous.”
“Many things are dangerous.”
“You should go out under the protection of hundreds of guards, not with your servant. You don’t know who’s out there or who might want to harm you.”
“Well, I’m fine, so you can stop worrying now,” I say, sitting in the bed next to him.
“So where did you go?” he asks, running his hand through my hair.
“A village.”
“Hmm..So specific.”
“I went to a village in the valley,” I say. “To get this,” I hold out the ring to show him.
He stares at it. “What’s that?”
“It’s a ring that can help me control my powers—strengthen them,” I say.
The Unraveling
Aiden
“What’s going on here?” Murdo comes walking into the cave and turns off the portal. He must have heard the screaming.
“I don’t think they’re going to be able to ride back to the palace. Get both of them there safely.”
“Where are you going?” asks Murdo.
“I’ll meet you there.”
I’m heading to the palace, but I need to get there fast; faster than I would, if I was walking with a group of people and a screaming child. My mind is going a million miles a second.
I take the tunnel exit out of the haven and head to find the quaggas where we left them. There is no time to stop and rest. I get to the animal and I mount her and head straight for the castle. The closer I get, the more my body shakes. I ride into the palace grounds, and, jumping off the quagga, I race into the castle. I get there, and Murdo’s already there, with Ric and her mother.
“How?” I ask when I see them.
“Someone in Undas can teleport. You should have asked before you ran off.”
I pay no mind to his snarky comment. “Follow me,” I say.
I lead them back to where the tombs are, and I find Calina’s grave. It’s a gold tomb, one made for royals and the highest nobles in the state. I insisted she had this one, just another thing I had to fight for. But with the fit of rage I experienced, no one dared to say no. Even if they thought it was unreasonable.
“Is this where Calina is?” asks Mrs. Cabhair.
“This is crazy,” says Ric, frantic but not screaming, crying. A lot of things going through her mind, no doubt. I assumed they got her up to speed on my journey here.
I push the cover of Calina’s tomb off and like I thought.
“It’s empty.” Everyone says, almost in unison.
I look again to make sure. It is empty, and it seems like no one was ever in here. Now the question is: Where is Calina?
Before
Leann
Chelsea. That’s what I’ll call her.
Then my smile disappears and my heart races in my chest. Chelsea is supposed to cry, right? I hold her in my hands, and there is no movement. I give her a tap on the leg and wait; nothing. I give her a little pinch on her hand, still nothing. Nothing at all. My chest burns and my body shakes, and I don’t know what to do. Then I notice the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. I remove it, but it’s too late now. She’s already turned blue, and I know she’s gone.
Tears are blinding me. I get up and stagger further into the woods; holding the baby in my hands, still attached. What am I doing? I can’t go back like this.
I wasn’t suppose to want this. But after seeing her face, the living thing that was inside of me; it hurts that so suddenly she’s gone. And it’s my fault. If I didn’t come here, then my Chelsea would be crying and not me.
I slump to the ground and rest the baby on my chest. Another series of pain bring me to my knees. I allow it to pass. I should call the police or the ambulance. Again, I didn’t get my phone, and now I’m further from it than before.
I decide to go back for it. Still holding the baby, I trot back to the tree where I fell. Looking down at the baby now, I realize everything is better if it ends here. I reach for a fallen tree branch and slam the tip of it into the ground so it breaks leaving a pointed end. Using the sharp end I separate my baby from me. I rest her down, and with my hands, I dig up dirt and grass, and I cover everything.
I walk back to where I came from. Dusting dirt and smearing blood over the dress I’m wearing.
The ground shakes; I’m not sure. Then I hear something, I’m certain of it—the crying of a baby. Joy fills me; she’s alive. I dash to the area I just left; I hear the moan again; but it’s not coming from the same place. I walk towards the crying and I see a light. Then I see; a baby in a basket, swaddled in blankets. I’m shocked, and I’m not sure what is happening. How did this baby get here? It’s a girl dressed beautifully. I look around the forest for someone.
“Hello,” I call.
There is no one. My eyes are playing tricks on me, I think. Even so, there is still a baby here. I walk over to her. I pick her up and hold her close. She purrs, smiling back at me. She has a locket around her neck. I open it, and inside there is a drawing of a flame burning, with black colored around it—the light in the darkness. I flipped to the back. Then I see her name, Calina Cabhair, engraved in it.
“Calina.” I let the name roll off my tongue. The baby giggles and reaches up to me, touching my face; all my pain dissipates. I’m numb, but the right kind; soothe. I lift her up and hold her in my bloody arms. Instead of making me sad for what I’ve lost. I feel like I can have a fresh start. Like I no longer have to battle with loving or hating the child I wasn’t sure I wanted in my life.
I should call the police and report everything that’s happened, but then I think; who would know? This is the child that came into my life. This is my baby.
Will this work? Will anyone believe this baby is mine? I look at her dark skin and black eyes, compared to my blue eyes.
I put the baby back into the basket and walked over to the spot where I had covered up Chelsea. I say my goodbyes and heap more dirt to cover over it. Then I set a few rocks on top.
I take Calina, and we head home.
Chaos Rising
Anorvia
There’s a knock on the door, and it’s Lola.
“I have something to tell you,” she says.
“What is it, Lola?”
“I,” she pauses, looking over at Kyle. “I overheard,” she says, almost like she’s unsure. “Aiden saying Calina’s alive.”
“That’s not possible,” says Kyle.
I let out a shout, and running over to my dresser, I push everything on top of it to the floor. Glass breaks and meaningless trinkets clatters to the floor. This feels unfair; such a cruel twist of fate. I want to say it’s not true, it can’t be, but I know it is. Since the death of the Dark King, I have felt it. I was hoping I wasn’t right. But every day since I entered Kollosnia, I’ve known—the histories in the cave isn’t mine.
“Don’t be upset, it’s fine. I will help you control this.”
I slink to the floor in a ball and burst into tears. “I’m not the savior. Calina is, and she’s coming to take my throne.” I say, struggling to get the words out.
“What are you talking about? Of course you’re the savior. Calina is dead.”
“No, I’m not.”
“No.” Kyle shakes his head in disbelief. “They trained you. We all thought… I thought…” I can see the wheels in his mind turning—there are too many details to go over, for any of it to make sense to him.
“I didn’t kill your father, Kyle. You were there. She did.”
“I thought... What?” I can see the night playing over in his mind again. Everything happened so fast. “It doesn’t matter. She’s dead.”
“She’s not dead,” I say.
He shakes his head. “Even if that’s somehow possible…”
“It’s possible, Kyle, it’s all there in the histories. Everything Cosmo said would happen is happening, except it’s not because of me. Magic is back, but it’s because Calina is alive. And she’s alive because even if the savior’s stabbed with the two swords in the heart, she will not die. That’s what it says; it’s in your legend Kyle. She isn’t dead.”
“We can get some men to get rid of her. Fix this before it gets out of hand…”
“People already know she’s back! Aiden, Cosmo, Murdo, Alana… they all know,” says Lola.
“Well, we have to do something. We can’t allow Calina or anyone else to touch this throne. It’s in my bloodline… Hang on. You were worried you weren’t the savior? He stares at me. “Why didn’t you tell me?” says Kyle.
“I don’t know. If Calina stayed dead, then my doubts wouldn’t matter.”
Something unreadable flickers across Kyle’s face. Kyle walks towards the door and looks back at me. “Let’s go. Nothing has changed. Put the ring on.”
Part Two
Chapter Sixteen
Calina
My body is falling, failing me. I should feel pain, but I’m numb. Blood spills from my chest, and I crash into the ground. I try to open my eyes, but I can’t, and I fade into sleep. Then I’m dreaming again. Or maybe I’m awake now.
I don’t know what’s real. My skin itches. I try to reach it, but I can’t. It’s like my entire body is wrapped up. It’s possible that the Dark King has captured me, and I’m in his torture chambers. Wait. No. That’s not right; the King is dead. I killed him. I killed him, and then...
Are you conscious through death? I remember falling off the fiord and Aiden reviving me. I wasn’t conscious then. That must mean I’m not dead. No. That can’t be right either. I have to be. The itch comes at me again. I snap back at it, lifting my body up to reach it.
My head hits something hard, and I squeeze my eyes together from the shock. Alright, not dead. I open my eyes, and I’m surrounded by darkness. Anxiety fills me, overcomes me. My mind pieces together the clues. I am in a small enclosed space with some kind of hard lid. Buried. I’m buried alive.
I feel like the walls are closing in on me. My body wrapped too tight for me to breathe. A flash of light draws my attention. Lightning? The wrappings fall off, freeing me. I feel around me, getting an understanding of my enclosure. Then I push at the cover of my grave. It’s hard and cold and heavy. Another scratch at the end of my leg; the cloth they wrapped me in—stupid material. I guess the comfort of the dead isn’t a priority. Without thinking, I reach for it. Pain shoots through my skull, followed by the warm, familiar trickle of blood down my forehead. Slowly, again, I fade away.
When I wake, I remember where I am. A light shines above me, and I can see that the top of the box is open. A shimmer of light from the outside streams into my coffin.
Pushing the top as far as I can manage, I hastily lift myself out.
I get out of what I thought was a grave, and I’m in a room surrounded by tombs. Is anyone else alive in here? But I know I must leave now. There’s a door at the front of the room, and I head for it.
A long hallway appears before me, and I run down it. I’m not sure where I’m going, but I have to get out of here before whoever is in charge comes back.
Looking around, I search for anything that looks like an exit. There’s a window with grills, so I can’t get through it. Still, I shake it hard, trying to loosen the bars, but it doesn’t budge. I get to the end of the hall when there’s a noise, the voice of a man screaming. They’re coming for me.
I close my eyes and wish for a way to get outside. There is a buzz and a shake, and when I open my eyes again, I’m outside. Shock fills me, and I look behind me to see the castle. I’m not sure what I’m shocked by most: that they buried me at the castle or that I appeared outside. But I don’t have time to figure out what’s happening right now. A white light washes over everything, like an explosion. I run.
****
I open my eyes and see Tesla standing over me. Tesla is the leader of the Caels, a group of people in a haven deep inside the Bowels of Ruina. I’ve heard rumors of the group’s existence. Still, no one believed they were real—stories of hope for an oppressed nation wishing for another haven. The two known ones weren’t easy to get into.
Who would have thought Cael was in Ruina, the same place I was to escape to with Aiden? They gave me a very brief tour, as there wasn’t much to see. Like Aiden told me, the area was a wasteland. Tesla and his people were living amongst broken down buildings and heaps of rubble. I thought being a haven it would be like the other two. Rich with unusual plants and abundant with food. Cael had neither, but the people here seemed glad that they were safe.
Tesla found me wandering about the place on his usual run—figuring out what’s going on in Kollosnia. Collecting intel, he tells me. He gathered from the bump on my head I have a concussion.
“The bump is gone, which is quite incredible.”
“I usually heal this fast when Sanitas Herbum is on my wounds,” I say.
“I put nothing on your wounds,” says Tesla. “We have little here in the ruins. It’s a great hiding place, but not much of anything else. ”
“That’s why you steal to survive?” I ask.
“Scavenge,” he corrected me. “Do you think there’s anything you’re forgetting?”
“The problem with forgetting things is, you can’t remember what you’ve forgotten,” I say.
“Well, I’ve tried everything I can to bring back your memory. Meditation is usually the best way.”
“I remember something though.”
“Well, what is it?” urges Tesla.
It surprises me he’s able to run this haven. The youngest leader of the three, he appears to be in his late twenties. He’s lanky, but walks with confidence. He waits for me to speak.
“I think…”
“Go on.”
“I’m the savior?”
He raises an eyebrow. “You remember that you’re the savior?” asks Tesla.
“You mean you forgot that you’re the savior?” asks Spirus, appearing from behind Tesla. She is short, so he towers above her. She must have been there all this time, and I’m only now seeing her. Her tattoo of a seahorse matches her eyes, making the green almost too bright. The seahorse tattoo sits right on the left side of her neck.
“Well, you can’t be the savior. There’s already a savior. She came, she killed the Dark King, and she saved us,” says Tesla. “Do you remember that?” He looks at me with concerned eyes.
“Did you see her kill the Dark King?” I ask.
“No, the portal opened up. There was craziness, and the world was going haywire. You guys came back. The King was dead.”
“But how do you know she killed the King?”
“Because only the savior can kill him, and she came here as the savior. You didn’t.”
“I know I didn’t come here to be the savior,” I say.
“And you pretended to be the savior,” says Tesla.
“To help,” adds Spirus.
“I don’t know how, but I didn’t even realize it then, in the craziness of that day. I think I killed him.”
They exchange a glance above my head. “You think, or you know?” asks Tesla.
“I took the sword, and I pushed into the middle of his little black heart until the blood oozed from his dark evil pores.” The memory assaults me as I scream. I know it’s true. I killed a man, and it still makes me sick.
There’s a pause, and then Spirus gathers herself. “Well, if we’re fair, we didn’t see you kill him either,” she says.
“So how can I prove it?” I ask.
“If you swear you killed him, then we need to figure out a way to prove you are the savior.”
I chuckle.
