Alice was still alive. That much was true while her family were all burned down when Assassins and the Wizards’ puppets stormed into the mansion to kill all of them. The Wizards got scared that the evil soul might use another body of the royal family so they decided to just kill everyone of them. It was one of the stories that were left out in history books. Everybody decided to forget about it. Only the Books of Fate kept the secret. It laid there written in red. The blood of the royal family.
A curse was cast before they died. Alice’s mother was born from the dark witches of the South Realm. It was she who brought the curse of their family into the mansion and within one of her children. And upon her death, she protected her daughter with a curse. Knowing that Alice’s death was inevitable, she cursed the evil soul to be bound into Alice’s body if it would seek to revenge their deaths. Within the curse was a promise of life for Alice. And before she died she whispered her secrets into the Book of Fate.
The evil soul started to gain control of Alice on her sixth birthday. It was the time an original started to gain knowledge of their powers and of the worlds parallel to theirs. That was what Alice thought it was. The voice she kept hearing seeking to have a form. At first, its words were unknown to her. It used the words of the old. She was just starting to learn it but the voice taught her more. It surprised her guardians at how fast she learned it. They were so fascinated that Alice embraced the voice with all her eager heart. She listened to its voice and did as she was told without thinking of whether or not it was right or wrong.
One day, the voice whispered to her to cast one very difficult curse upon her pet, Star. A curse that shall imprison a mortal body into a state of pain. It was a curse that her mentors forbid her to ever learn. They said it was hard that’s why she shouldn’t do it. But Alice was persistent and she thought it was just a challenge. With the voice’s guidance, she cursed her pet. It died instantly. She cried and told her guardians of what happened. They frowned at her and punished her to stay in the howling dungeons for a full hour. The voice got angry and punished her adding to the howls from the dungeons. She cried and covered her ears as the voice kept yelling at how weak she was. It kept telling her awful things. It wanted her to kill her guardians and then herself because she was puny and she doesn’t deserve to live. She shook her head and cried even more. Clyde was her only companion in the dark dungeon singing to her making the voice go away. Since then, she never left his side.
Seeing this made Alice’s guardians and Clyde’s parents to bind the two. Alice and Clyde assented not fully knowing what it meant. Alice was happier since then and the voice had stopped completely. Or so she thought. But one fateful morning before her eight birthday, Clyde was called away for an errand. The voice sensing Clyde’s presence gone came back hissing angry words in Alice’s ears. She tried to cast away the voice by joining in the morning gaieties which she usually doesn’t attend. She laughed loudly and talked non-stop until she was so tired she fell asleep and woke up to a quiet evening in her room. The voice was still muttering angrily but it was subdued. Then out of the blue, her hand moved making half cast symbols. She was too afraid to move but she willed herself to stop. It took time but she finally did it. Then she ran out of her room looking for the only person who can make the voice go away. Clyde was there and Alice ran to him whispering the things that had happened that day. Clyde was the only one who believed her. The night went on and the voice kept threatening her. She clung to Clyde but their bond had been unknowingly broken by the evil soul when Clyde left. It was stronger than before and Alice felt it. Clyde held her whispering words of encouragement. By midnight, Clyde accompanied Alice back to her room and waited until she slept. He even secretly poured a sleeping draught in her milk so she wouldn’t have to wake up in the middle of the night and find herself alone with the evil voice that plagued her. But worry kept nagging on Clyde’s mind as he lay awake in his room. He was about to fall asleep when he heard someone whisper by his window. He jumped up and creep up to the balcony. He saw Alice walking in her night dress down in the gardens. A deep fear came to him and he was rooted in his place. He couldn’t move and no voice came out when he called for help. Alice was in danger and he was overcome with cowardice.
Suddenly, Alice turned to him. Her eyes were pleading and he knew it was not her. It was someone else controlling her. Tears flowed and her mouth uttered words he couldn’t understand. He tried to remember all the spells that he had been taught. Nothing came, just fear and helplessness. He finally succumbed and watched as Alice covered herself with forbidden symbols. Symbols that calls for death and suffering. Spells started to form and he could feel them running in the wind free from any binding and taunting him to make a move. It sang songs of the old wildly marking Alice with its powers. Alice was lost in the agony as each symbol that formed into spell was forced from her like a knife being slashed painfully against her skin. The voice inside her started to howl in victory as the spells surrounding her formed into one unit. A single spell that had been erased from every living creature’s memories. Alice wanted to cry out to Clyde and lift the spell she casted on him. But it would put Clyde’s life in danger. She screamed as the last spell was forced out from her soul. Alice was coughing up blood and long and deep gashes appeared on her skin. Her strength slowly slipped away as the spell comes into its end and opened the door from hell.
Death came quickly assessing its victim in his long and dark robe. It snorted in disgust seeing the old soul beside the body of the beautiful young royal.
“Where is the soul?” it asked in the old tongue, each word slowly slipping from its mouth. Its presence stifled night’s voices. Nothing and no one could be heard. The world hushed into a tense silence as Death looked down upon the lifeless body.
“What do you mean, where?” the soul hissed in puzzlement.
Death shook its body and fire spewed from its mouth as everything seemed to shake ominously. The soul cowered beneath Death as it pleaded for forgiveness. It promised to find the soul and deliver it to hell along with others as payment for his carelessness.
Death sniffed the still air around him. He sensed the curse and saw Alice’s soul hiding beneath the body unseen by the evil soul. It sighed covering the air with a foul and rotten odour of death. Without answering the evil soul, Death vanished. The winds started to blow once more towards east carrying with it the rotten smell and the night creatures started to sing once more. The evil soul growled at the lifeless body then disappeared in search of Alice’s soul.
Clyde saw all of it. He was trembling from head to toe but he forced himself to jump out from the balcony and ran towards Alice’s body. He cried out and hugged little Alice. Then one spell came to him. The spell of binding and replacement, a unique spell that is practiced by his family alone. He had no time to call for his parents or his mentors so he decided to do it all on his own.
He drew a circle around Alice with tiny protective markings to protect her from other souls that needed a body. He made another circle inside the other one to cast out more powerful souls marking them with stars as its guardians. Next he marked the symbol of the sun, to represent life above Alice’s head. Then the symbol of the moon, to represent death below Alice’s feet. On either side of Alice, he drew the symbols of the twin souls, the mark of the surrogate. He picked two stones, white and black, placing one on top of the symbols. He started to draw the replacement symbols in the air uttering the words as the spell starts to form on Alice’s body repairing the wounds and other injuries. The spells glowed brightly as a door opened for Clyde. He closed his eyes and stepped inside the circle and opened his eyes as he felt the cold chill of death’s door. He saw Alice standing by the edge of a cliff looking down. He tried to call her but remembered that it would only attract unwanted attention. He ran towards it and as soon as he grasped her hands, he jumped back into the world of the living and placed Alice’s soul inside the body as she breaks the stones.
The evil soul woke up disoriented. It had no idea what had happened and it was still trying to figure out what happened when its eyes focused on Clyde standing before it. Something peculiar was happening and the soul did not like whatever it was. Uncertainty is one of the things that he hates more than failure. It thrashed around until it was exhausted. It reached out towards Clyde who was now looking scared and stunned. Then realization hit them both. Clyde grabbed the wrong Alice. It was the evil surrogate he put on Alice’s body. The evil soul on the other hand was starting to rejoice and was about to stand up and congratulate Clyde for his stupidity when it realized it cannot move. It looked inquiringly at Clyde who was breathing hard and pointing a finger at him. The circles beneath her started to glow as Clyde tried to cast it away from Alice’s body. The soul, who had survived for thousands of years from hell, was stronger though. The marks started to falter and one by one it was being blown away. The symbols started to disappear.
Desperation drove Clyde to utter the binding spell. There was no other way around it. Before the last symbol disappeared, he focused on the soul inside Alice. He let his words run out and circle the soul, its dim glow invisible to the soul’s senses. Slowly it trapped the soul as symbols burned on its skin disappearing as it finishes the binding. The evil soul cried out before darkness enveloped it.
Clyde told his parents of what happened. They punished him by taking his powers from him while they put a stronger bind against Alice. Since then, they had forbidden the two to communicate, Alice and Clyde were only too eager to follow their orders. The two reminded each other of their weaknesses and failure.
h en h'XЀX It had a round table with wooden old benches and beautiful flowers of the rarest kind. It was like entering a sacred place. It was the place where Sophia introduced me to them.
They were like Goddesses who summoned me, a mere mortal. Alice, looking like a nature nymph, was kneeling beside a flower bed of just about every colour. She turned to me and waved when I entered then went back picking flower wreath made of blue roses ignoring just about everyone. Ellie, who always looked poised and prim, was sitting on one of the bench in the middle of the garden and gave me a nod and a warm smile when she saw me. She looked to be talking to Clyde before I came but their conversation stopped when Ellie greeted me. The relaxed air suddenly seemed to be filled with tension. Everyone waiting for someone to talk. It was very embarrassing and Sophia was laughing her head off. I couldn’t wait to get out from there but of course I couldn’t, not when the Dark Magician was presently brooding behind Ellie watching Alice with those mysterious dark eyes of his.
Clyde. People at magic school secretly, which was not actually a secret, calls him the Dark Magician. He was handsome and very mysterious. He was also one of the most powerful kids. Considering he uses original magic, it was actually no surprise. Although, it was a mystery to everyone how he had so much control of it.
I already told you about Clyde and Alice’s special bond. Now, I couldn’t really explain it just yet. So, here is what you should know first about them. They don’t really like each other. But, Clyde is overprotective of her and so is Alice to Clyde. They lived and grew up in the same house, but they are not from the same family or that at least is what the rumour is. And the most puzzling piece of all, is that Alice never goes anywhere without him even though she treats him like he doesn’t exist. She only talks to him when she needs something. And he doesn’t talk to her at all. When we are all together, Clyde would only be talking to Ellie and Sophia or to no one else.
Last stop is Alice. It’s mostly her story by the way.
Alice, a beautiful name fit for a lovely girl. She had red gold curly hair that matched her temper which she rarely loses – thankfully. She had a lovely musical voice that compels you to listen when she’s talking. She has eyes as dark as night which seemed to be always dreaming. She is also very clever with a strange sense of humour. Everybody looked at her with awe and envy. She glides when she walks and she reserves her smiles to those only of her acquaintance which was few. Everything about her was magic.
It was as if, she was perfect. To others, probably it looked like she was. To us, she was a complex being that had serious flaws and imperfections that in a way it made us all want to always protect and care for her.
From the moment we met her, we knew she was not an ordinary magical being. She said so herself, once. But it did not bother us, except for Ellie. She knew what was going to happen but she never said anything until it was too late.