Criminal

"What shall I start with?" Tathar interrupted the awkward silence. Elessar had been started at him for a relatively long time, the awkwardness had even been palpable to me.

"Why are you still with Lessie? I know you loved her, but she... Turned you in." He jumped straight to the point.

"Ah, always straight to the point with you. Well... Kind of the point." He trailed off.

"The next question was going to be how you're alive but I want to know the answer to this question first." Elessar retorted and leaned forward to place his elbows on the table, in a somewhat menacing manner. Tathar simply smiled.

"Well, you know how your life flashes before your eyes when you die? Or at least your favorite parts? For you it was probably your future or what you've missed out on... Or maybe you're like me and all you thought of was her." He gestured at me. "She was all I could think about...Lessie, not Idril. I knew she turned me in but I wanted more time with her, I wanted to give her a better life. I wished I hadn't gone to jail and my mother hadn't fallen from her position when my father died, and that I had something to offer her. But I knew I would never be able to do that... I knew that if I stayed with her the only thing I would offer her was death. So it was better I died alone." Tathar paused and looked down at his hands for a moment.

"I wanted her to know how much I loved her... And how I regretted getting her hanged before her kingdom." He muttered.

"Your exact words were 'beheaded,' I believe." I interrupted and smirked at him. "Which technically didn't happen." He rolled is eyes. But when he said that out loud, I realized how similar these two were. If they were like emotional twins. They didn't look the same, but they sure seemed to act the same.

"She's got a point." Tathar smiled. "So when I had that realization, I was content to die. As long as she lived on happy and safe, I could die happy. But... I didn't die. I became a spirit... I stayed near... Well I guess I haunted Lessie. I didn't attack her or move things on her, I just watched over her. I saved her from a vase that was going to fall on her and that's the only time I ever intervened. But there was one other time I tried to.... I had been watching her for three months when she hit a wall. She suddenly became depressed, she stayed in her bed for two whole days. During those two days she wrote on any scrap of paper or empty space she could find. They were all apologies to me. She felt so guilty." Tathar looked over to Lessie and tears formed in his eyes. She gave him a small nod. "The third day, she became extremely active. She sprang from her bed with dry eyes and ran out the door. She often used recreational running to clear her mind so I assumed that's what she was doing. Until she reached Widower's Peak." I heard Elessar gasp. I had never heard of such a peak, but with that name it couldn't be good.

Lessie noticed my confusion, and took advantage of Tathar's pause to explain. "It's a cliff just outside our old village. It looks over the ocean in the great rift. There's a plethora of jagged rocks at the bottom of it, and those rocks have a habit of calling people to their home... Lifeless, and adrift in the ocean..." She said the last part awkwardly, as if she wasn't quite sure how to phrase it.

"Oh." I said in a small voice.

Tathar cleared his voice and continued. "She stood at the edge and started down. Her hair was blowing lightly in the wind. She looked so beautiful, yet so sad. She paused for a great while, and I thought she had decided against jumping. Until she whispered my name, and another apology. I screamed at her, as she edged closer. I tried to push her away from the cliff's edge. I begged her to see reason, or to at least hear me. I was fine, perfect actually. I got to see her everyday and live a life with her, but there was no way for me to harm her. But she couldn't hear me."

"The wind kicked up though." She said sadly. "It pushed against me, and I felt as if I had to push against a mountain to take a single step, it was so strong. But I was determined... There was happiness in a life without you in it." She smiled morosely at him.

"She jumped." He said bluntly. "The people of the village say they could hear my screech of despair from miles away. They said it struck everyone's core, it shook them. Then it just hung there, creating an eerie silence. They knew something was wrong. I will admit I cried, I've never cried that hard in my life. But it all ended when she, too became a spirit and we were reunited. It was bittersweet. I get to spend the rest of my life with her but we wouldn't actually have a life to live. Do you know what the first thing she said was? She said 'I love you. I should never have turned you in, I know it's pointless to apologize now but I truly am sorry, I had you killed to save my reputation in the village, which shouldn't have even mattered.' Then we hugged, and then we woke up here. Your mother had a spell cast on us so when we died we would become spirits, but when both of us died and found each other we came back here."

"Almost like she new what would happen." Elessar muttered under his breath.

"I don't trust her either." Tathar leaned in and whispered. "Well, I don't fully trust her. I know she's doing a lot of this to help us master the use of magik and our gifts, but she knows far too much. How did she hide it for so long?"

"I don't know... She said something earlier about how Idril's gift could be used on others, and I hadn't paid close enough attention in lessons, which is why I... Hadn't known about that detail?" Elessar said hurriedly. "But Corinth was taught exactly what I was; that Idril's gift worked only for me."

"But Corinth knows everything." Tathar mumbled.

"We think it has something to do with the Saast Paar prophecy, that is apparently about us. We've hardly been told anything about it, I think it's being withheld for a reason."

"It shouldn't be." Tathar said, slowly lean back to a more relaxed position. "Do you know anything?"

"We are supposed to either save Peltumbe and bring peace throughout the entire world, or fail and send the world into chaos." I answered.

"Well, that's a part of it." Tathar shrugged. "But you two are supposed to be the most powerful magik users ever. It's said that you will be granted the ability to use every magikal gift. Even the lost four."

"Really?" Elessar gasped. Should I be impressed? I was never taught about this magik stuff... It sounded impressive.

"The elements." Lessie said, looking into my eyes. "Control of the what the world is made of. There's only ever been one person who had a gift from one of the lost four. He was beheaded the moment the late king found him."

"So this is big." I said flatly.

"Monumental." She responded in the same tone. I like her. I think.

"So... You answered my two most important question and then some." Elessar suddenly changed topic. "Do you have any for me?"

"A few." Tathar smiled widely at him. "How did you let a girl steal your heart? I would also like Idril to tell me how she tamed such a wild stallion."

I barked out a laugh. "Wild stallion?" I tried to construct a proper sentence but couldn't stop the onslaught of laughter.

"Hey, are you laughing at me?" Elessar feigned offense. Before I could calm down and answer he playfully tackled me to the ground. He started tickling my sides and play fighting with me.

"Maybe I'm not a stallion but I'm definitely a tough bear." He growled.

"I think you mean a teddy bear!" I managed between the giggles.

"Oh no you didn't!" He laughed and then put all his weight on me trapping. "Does a teddy bear weigh this much?"

"You weigh more than the human's elephants." I yelled, trying to push him off of me. "You're crushing a princess I'm sure that illegal somewhere." He simply laughed. He only laughed. Then Tathar and Lessie joined in on laughing and heat rushed into my cheeks.

"Your friends are here." I whispered.

"Yes, they are." He whispered back with a smile on his face. He's so happy now that his best friend is back. There's no evidence of his tears a mere moment ago. Is... Is this how he was before he went to prison? Happy go lucky, with no care in the world?

"You're on top of me." I gingerly pushed his shoulders. "Aren't you supposed to be talking to them?"

"Maybe." He pressed a small kiss to my lips and the door opened. Naturally his mother stood in the the doorway. She seemed to have a thing for dramatic entrances.

"You're done messing around back to training, we need to work on your gifts... Tathar no doubt told you about them." Elessar stood up and faced his mother. This is bad. An angry Elessar is not a good Elessar, it's actually terrifying.

"Why?" He said, anger played around the edge of his voice.

"Because you need to, and I'm your mother." She said sternly.

"Mother knows best?" He scoffed. I stood behind him and pulled back on his arm.

"Elessar, calm down please." I begged, he shrugged out of my grip.

"Yes, I do." She shouldn't have said that. She knew Elessar's emotions were extremely volatile, why would she purposely set him off?

"Mother, I just got back, just began talking to my long lost friend, who you somehow knew would die. And that the girl he loved would die. You knew I would die, along with Idril. You seem to know everything and I have reason to believe you've been lying left and right. Why should I trust a single thing you say? How do we even know your true motives? Are you even my mother?" He screamed at her. Wind had kicked up in the room. I whimpered and hid in his back. The windows were closed... Is he causing the sudden windstorm? If he was, we had all the more reason to be frightened.

"You think just because your friend told you a few things that you suddenly know everything?" Her composure was cracking and her voice slowly grew into a yell. "You know nothing about your destiny! You have no idea how hard I have worked to keep you safe, and her! Do you know why? Because you have to save Peltumbe. I bet you don't even know how you're supposed to save it! You have to die. I know when and where it will happen, I always have! Do you know how hard it is to be a mother and know your son has to die, and there's nothing you can do to stop it! I had to let you sit in jail for six years and when you escaped and were on the run for another year you never came to see me. So not only do I have to watch you die but I hardly get to spend any time with you!" She started panting, then tears fell down her face."No wedding, no grandchildren. You don't get the happily ever after you deserve after all this hell."

The room fell silent and her screams seemed to echo in the deafening silence.