Weaving Destinies

I ran down the empty corridors of the abandoned stone castle. Checking over my shoulder, I saw that she was still following me. Her long silvery dress swirling around her, she used her tattered, skeletal gray wings to propel herself forward. I raced to the end of the hall and turned around, seeing in fear that I was trapped.

“Leave me alone, Madison!” I yelled at her. “I’m sorry! It was just an accident! I didn’t mean to hurt you!”

“Just an accident?” she shouted in rage, landing in front of me. “You knew what you were doing! You knew what could happen, but you did it anyways! Now I’ll make sure you suffer for all of eternity!”

With a loud, unearthly shriek, Madison’s eyes turned even blacker, the pupils seeming to dissolve into the irises. The remaining feathers on her wings burst into flames. Suddenly, I fell into a deep and endless void. I screamed for help, but I was just falling, falling, falling…

“Faith, wake up!” Alec shook my shoulders. I groaned and opened my eyes.

“You were crying out in your sleep, my love,” he said, his forehead creased with worry.

“It was just a nightmare,” I sighed, thankful that it hadn’t been real.

“I suppose Callagroth’s evil still lingers here,” Alec remarked.

“Well, we’ve been here for two days now. Isn’t it time we moved on?” I asked.

“If you are satisfied that you have fully recovered, we will continue on our journey,” he replied.

The next morning, we gathered what little belongings we had left and set out.

“So, where are we going?” I asked Alec.

“A town called Porta,” he answered. “I have a mansion there that we can stay in.”

“A mansion? Really?”

“Well, being the High Prince of Torm, I naturally inherited a few dozen mansions, palaces, and castles all around the world. This one actually belongs to one of my sisters.”

“Sisters? I didn’t know you had siblings.”

“Yes, I have four sisters and three brothers, all of them younger than me.”

“Your mom had eight kids?” I stopped dead in my tracks.

“Well, one of the duties of the High Queen is to produce as many heirs as possible,” Alec said as if this was completely normal. “The number of royal children is usually above ten.” Yet another reason to not marry him.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I exclaimed.

“Do not worry, my darling. We can have as many or as few children as you want,” Alec assured me.

“I am not having kids with you! How many times do I have to tell you that we’re not engaged?” I practically shouted at him. He only smiled and kept walking.

“What are you smiling at?” I growled, narrowing my eyes.

“I have no doubt that you will come to love me someday,” Alec replied pleasantly. “I will wait for eternity for you.”

“So this is how stalkers are born,” I muttered to myself. I hated him more than ever. He was so arrogant assuming that I would fall in love with him!

“Before I forget…” Alec suddenly stopped walking and knelt in front of me. Taking my hands in his, he began to speak again. “I never had the chance to properly thank you, my dearest.”

“For what?” I sighed in irritation.

“Why, for saving my life!”

“I had to. We were never actually ten feet apart, remember? It was just an illusion. I wouldn’t have been able to get very far from Callagroth without you. And of course, I would have never settled for the whole damsel in distress thing.”

“Yes, but you made certain that I was alive once you had escaped. I admit that I was beginning to fear you would never feel any affection for me at all. It made me happier than I can express to know that you cared enough about me to fear my death.”

I stared into his deep blue eyes, not knowing what to say. He certainly seemed genuine, but I knew the chances of that were slim. I just couldn’t trust him. Lucas at least seemed real, always making me guess at his thoughts, but Alec was so open that it was truly unbelievable.

No matter how real or fake Alec was, I needed to end the awkward silence somehow.

“Race you to Porta!” I shouted cheerfully. I took off at a run with Alec close behind.

“Beloved! From my calculations about our location, Porta is more than three days away from here!” he yelled after me. I just laughed and continued to run, the sun’s rays warming my face.

A few days later, however, I wasn’t quite as energetic.

“I can’t go any further!” I whined, falling to my knees on the grassy hillside.

“Well, darling, I hate to say it, but I did warn you that it would be at least a three day journey to Porta,” Alec pointed out, sitting down beside me.

“But we’ve been walking for three days! Shouldn’t we be there by now? My feet are killing me!”

“If we keep stopping to take breaks like this, we will get there in about a week.”

“I know, I know,” I sighed. “Callagroth’s training did help, but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference on my endurance. Most of it was mental anyways. He made my memories so real that if I had been swimming in my dream, I’d still feel wet all over when I woke up.”

“I fear his power has increased greatly since the last time I faced his illusions when I was younger,” Alec said solemnly. “Using illusions and mind-control is one of the more difficult arts of magic.”

“And you would know this how?”

“I took magic lessons when I was a boy. When I grew older, I realized I was more of a warrior than a mage.”

“Hey, do you think maybe you could teach me some of that stuff? I mean spells and whatever else you do. Since I’m obviously no good with swords and arrows and other weapons, maybe a little voodoo wouldn’t hurt me,” I suggested.

“Of course. I only know the basics, but I am sure that I could show you a few things. We need to get you magically tested to see where your inner powers lie elementally before we can begin,” Alec responded. He stood up. “But for now, we should keep going.”

“Already? I barely got to catch my breath!” I complained. “Plus I’m the only one carrying this bag.” Alec looked at me with a mischievous smile on his face.

“Oh, no. I don’t like the way you’re looking at me,” I said, slowly scooting away from him. He followed me. “Alec… get away! Back off! Down boy!” He quickened his pace until he was right beside me again. Bending down, he scooped me up off of the ground and into his arms. He started walking down the hill.

“All right, dearest, if you do not think you can walk properly, I will carry you the rest of the way to Porta,” Alec smiled.

“Put me down, put me down, put me down!” I screeched. I twisted around, but even though I was struggling as hard as I could to break free, he was much stronger than me and refused to let go. Realizing that I still had my bag in my hands, I dug through it to look for something to make him put me down. A wooden box fell out into my hands. Opening it, I found a shining bronze dagger lying on a green silk cushion. The hilt of it was carved into the head of a horse. I grinned with an awful idea of my own.

“On guard!” I yelled, aiming the dagger at Alec. He dropped me and pulled away just in time, even though the sheath was still on the dagger.

“Oh, you wish to fight, my love, do you?” he asked, taking out a small dagger of his own and smiling playfully.

“The first one to disarm the other wins!” I exclaimed, pulling the dagger out of its sheath and admiring the way light glinted off of its pure silver blade.

“If I win, then I get to carry you all the way to Porta, with no struggling,” Alec said, circling around me.

“And if I win, I don’t have to be the one to save your butt the next time you’re in trouble!” I replied, making Alec laugh. I started circling as well, not because I had a strategy but because it would make me look like I knew what I was doing.

“Then let us begin!” He charged at me, thrusting his wrist towards my weapon. Somehow, I ducked out of the way. He slid sideways and extended his leg as I tried to run at him. I easily tripped over his leg. I barely dodged his next attack. He was far better at this than I was. If I was going to win, I would have to play dirty.

As soon as he was close enough, I leaned forward and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. He stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide in surprise. With a sound similar to a bell ringing, I knocked his dagger out of his hand. I proudly held both daggers over him.

“All right, darling, you win. I will try to not be completely helpless next time,” he said as he took his dagger from me. I slipped mine back into its box and put it away in my bag. I started walking down the hill, not noticing that Alec wasn’t following. Smashing into the barrier, I groaned loudly.

“What’s taking so long?” I shouted up at him.

“You kissed me!” he exclaimed.

“Just on the cheek,” I rolled my eyes. “That’s how I kiss my great aunt.”

He walked towards me, beaming happily.

“You kissed me!” he repeated, looking like a little boy who had just been taken into a candy store and told he could have as much as he wanted.

I rolled my eyes and used his own tripping trick against him. He was in too much of a daze to notice my foot and fell headfirst, starting to roll sideways down the hill. I laughed until the invisible wall started pushing me in the same way, knocking me down. We both rolled the rest of the way down the hill, neither of us managing to regain control before the barrier knocked us forward again. By the time I reached the bottom, I was out of breath and dizzy, but we were laughing so hard that I didn’t care.

After laying there next to each other for a few minutes, I stood up and nudged Alec with my foot.

“Come on,” I scolded lightheartedly. “It’ll take us a week to get to Porta if you keep stopping for a break!” He laughed again as I reached out a hand to help him to his feet.

The air was suddenly quiet and peaceful. He was at eye level with me now, and I couldn’t help but stare into his deep blue eyes. He gazed back at me as my heart pounded. I realized for the first time that his reaction to my kiss had been very, very authentic. He was just pretending to like me, would he have stopped that suddenly?

I was the first to break the moment and look down. I notice that he was still holding my hand and even rubbing the back of it with his thumb. Repulsed, I pushed him hard in the center of his chest and pulled away.

I turned in the direction we had originally headed and began to walk, leaving him in somewhat of a daze behind me. I noted with a bit of anger that my heart was still steadily beating its way out of my chest and that my face felt hot. I couldn’t seem to bear looking at him the rest of the way to Porta.