Night after night I continue to sneak out of my tent and explore the forest around me feel more of a desperate need to find these spirits the little girl was talking about, maybe they could fix my eye. But I have n luck finding anything but trees and they don't whisper to me anymore. I sit between the great roots of an oak tree, ancient and creaking in the slight breeze.
"Please, I cannot survive like this. Half blind and still unable to tell lies from truths." I beg softly to the forest around me hoping they will hear my pain, my cries for help. A small tear leaks from my ruined eye and drips onto the roots.I curl up like a child and cry suddenly feeling everything all at once, everything that has built up over this very eventful journey. Almost dying, being betrayed, not knowing if my friends lived or died, everything I have learned about the people I thought were my family, what happened to my real family so long ago, losing my sight and being unable to fix it.
Suddenly I hear whispering all around me as I purge my soul from all that has happened to me. I look up wiping my eye on my sleeve and find silver haired and eyed women all around me. as I look at them I almost don't see they, everything about them seems as if they come from the ground and are the forest themselves but then I can distinguish them from the surroundings, and then they are as ancient as the trees and young as new grass, focusing on them hurts my eyes and searching for them hurts my mind.
"Do not weep young one." One of them whispers to me but none of their mouths move.
"Who are you?"
"We are the one you called for. We are the spirits of the forest, the souls of the trees, the very wind in your hair. Now tell us what is troubling you?"
"I have lost sight in one of my eyes and the other is un-healable, I no longer know who I should trust or what is the real truth. No I only have one eye to rely upon and it has made me see no clearer. I am to start a war but my heart tells me it will be not be worth the bloodshed." I pour all my fears and doubts out to them.
"We know of your strife child, and we can see the future you fear so greatly, but my dear you are the key to the war. If you do not fight the fae are doomed to fail and they will fight without you if they must. But if you do fight you will not survive to see the new world this war will create." They lay the heaviest burden on me yet. "The people you should trust are the ones true to your heart, they will be the ones you need to truly win in the end. You will know them only in the end. You are the weapon this war will be fought with and it is your choice to fight or to run." One of them comes closer to me slowly. She kneels in front of me.
"There is not much we can do about your eye but we can show you how to heal it yourself." She holds out her hands palms up. I place mine in hers and she grasps them tightly. Fire burns up my arms and I struggle to not pull away. Once the fire burns its way to my neck then through the rest of my body I suddenly understand what they mean by show me how to heal myself, they give me their knowledge on healing. "We do not give this knowledge to many, but you are kin and you are all alone now it is the least we can do before we leave you again. We can only give knowledge like this in this form, we may be powerful but we are more powerful when we are connected to the earth, good luck young one." She kisses my forehead and then they all dissipate.
For the rest of the night once I get back to my tent I work on healing my eye. Feeling the power begin in my chest I move it up though my throat and along my spine to my eye socket where I let it burn me until the pain is white hot. The first time I did it I looked in the mirror as soon as the fire dispersed and found that it had a slight change like I fast forwarded the healing by a day, it was less red around the edges and looked less swollen. I continued the process for the rest of the night feeling it slowly but sure heal itself. Soon enough I fall asleep exhausted.
The next morning I am woken by my fathers messenger and told he wishes to see me. Even after everything they told me last night of the war I have decided that I could not run from those I promised to help. Once I enter I tell him as much and he stands fully shocked but happy. He rounds his desk and catches me up in a great hug.
"I am so glad you have found your way to us." He releases me and goes back to his desk and begins writing a letter. "I must write to the elders so they know the good news and can begin preparing for this war."
Suddenly we hear the earth rumble and the clatter of armor. Fathers pen freezes over the paper and we all look to the flap of the tent. A man runs in out of breath and panicked. "Sir, its knights, they're everywhere! Valtok is leading them." Father stands at once rolling up the letter.
"Take this to Elder Fikilise, he'll know what to do." The man takes it and runs back out. We begin to hear the screams as the knights reach the camp around us. "You must go, now." He grabs my arms and shoves me towards the back of the tent where he had cut a hole last time.
"No! Tie me up, give me to them." I resist his shoving.
"What? That's ridiculous who knows what they'll do to you!"
"Your right, I don't know what they'll do to me, but I know what they'll do to you. Either way, they will have to take me back to the castle and that's exactly where I want to go, they will walk me through the front door and I'll kill the king." I can see it on his face, this is the best plan we have but he doesn't want me to go.
"I don't want to just hand you over to them, not again."
"I know, father, but it's my choice this time." He sighs letting me go in the same breath.
"Get me some rope." A boy digs through a chest and hands him some. "Good, now go bring Valtok here." I turn around and hold my hands behind my back for him to tie up. Once my hands are secure they guide me over to a chair and tie me to it.
"Hit me," I say thinking of how it'll look if I'm undamaged but tied down. He looks at me shocked. "Don't say no, think about it, they'll believe it more if it looks like you have been interrogating me." He shakes his head.
"No! Out of the question!"
"Get Wolkif in here." I snap at the boy, he runs. A few seconds later a bloody Wolkif crashes in. "Hit me." I snap at him. He takes two steps in before father stops him with a punch in the face. "Father!" I snap when Wolkif hits the floor.
"I will not let anyone harm my daughter!" He yells back.
"We don't have time for this. Leave if you must but someone has to hit me." Wolkif stands quickly and makes his way over to me before my father can stop him. He punches my jaw hard enough to make me taste blood. "One more, cheek." He does as I say and punches me again, tears fill my eyes but I blink them away. "My dress, rip it." Wolkif looks unsure for a moment then grabs the hem and tears it to my knee then rips my bodice and a sleeve, "thank you." Before anyone can say anything the tent flap opens and Valtok strolls in. Every fiber of my being rebelled against being tied down around him.
"Let her go!" He draws his sword and banishes at my father.
"I need some assurance you won't kill every last member of my clan," Father says playing along.
"You are in no position to bargain for anything," Valtok growls.
"From where I'm standing I'm in the best position for it possible." Suddenly I see how good of a liar my father is for a moment and I almost doubt the things he has told me. Then I remember the books I've read and the things the spirits have said making my doubts leave me just as quickly as they came. Valtok doesn't budge so my father nods at Wolkif who pulls his knife and presses it against my neck. I feel the blade split the skin slightly and blood slides slowly down my throat.
"I will call my men off, just give her to me." He says dropping the tip of his sword, lower less threatening.
"Call them off now." Father demands. Wolkif slices my arm backing up my father's demand. It stings and I gasp letting the tears in my eyes well up.
"Valtok please, call them off," I beg earning a slap from Wolkif. I know now that this pains him even if he does it so carelessly, he's doing it for me because I'm part of his pack and I asked him to. It's both his sacred and his most painful duty. Valtok clinches his jaw but turns and goes back out of the tent. He blows a horn twice, many echo and the sounds of the battle stop. He comes back in, his shoulders are tense like he's angry and trying not to show it. Father cuts the bonds that hold me to the chair and pushes me over to Valtok, I fall into him with my hands still tied. He catches me and looks over my face.
"Are you ok? What happened to your eye?" He asks touching the still tender flesh around my eye softly.
"I'm fine, get me out of here please." He nods and swiftly lifts me into his arms then walks purposely out of the tent not glancing at anyone as he does.
"I am so sorry you were there for so long my love we couldn't find them they continually move their camp around." Hearing him say my love makes my skin crawl but I hid my disgust by letting tears spill from my eyes.
"It was horrible! Valtok please I only wish to go home now." He sets me on my feet at the horses and cuts the ropes tying my hands to help me onto the horse in front of him.
"Of course, let us go." He waves his arm telling the knights to follow him back to the castle. I hang onto the saddle in front of me feigning weakness. Valtok's arms tighten around me like he's protecting me but I know the truth now. I know his plans and I know his madness.
Once back at the castle I am helped down from the horse and grab the torn ends of my bodice holding them together as if in embarrassment but all I feel is the numbness where my emotions use to be. Valtok places a hand on my back trying to guide me to the castle but I flinch away trying to get away from him as soon as possible.
"Let me take you to your parents, my dear."
"No, please I wish to bathe before I see them I am in no state to be seen." He nods but leaves his hand on my back.
"Come this way princess its less public." He steers me off my path to my rooms and takes me to my storage room where he taught me how to fight in spring, what a long time ago that was. Instead of the familiar smell of collected dust and wood I smell burning candles as we walk down the hall to the small door in the back.
"My rooms are the other way, Valtok." I say feeling panic tighten my throat and chills run down my spine.
"That is the first place they will look for you my dear, you said you wanted privacy." He shoves me forward towards the room.
"I want to go to my rooms Valtok." I say as fear slithers through my veins.
"Don't worry I'll take you there in a moment, please my love let me show you something first. I cleaned up our fighting space." He smiles trying to make me more comfortable. I swallow my fear feeling almost naked without a single blade on me, nothing to protect myself with. I force my feet to move to the door and my hands to open it with him behind me the whole time. I step into the room slowly looking at all the candles scattered around the room and around a large stone alter in the middle of the room. Its just large enough for a person to lay on. "Please go lay on that dearest." He asks from behind me closing the door.
"No."
"That is not the answer I wanted to hear."
"Well that was not the question I wanted to hear, I guess we've both been disappointed today." In my anger and fear magic begins to crawl along my flesh feeling like sparks of fire, it tingles along my scalp and raising the hair on my arms.
"It's pure magic!" He exclaims surprised and in awe. "You never knew you had this in you did you?" He smiles like a cat who's caught a rat.
"Had what? Magic? This is all yours!" I snap feeling it in the air. Mine isn't this chaotic. "Oh no my sweet this is all yours, and I'm going to take it from you with your soul." My hands snap to my sides pinning themselves there against my will and my legs carry me to a stone table.
"You can't!" I yell fighting my own body but he wins. Laying down in a gangly heap of my own limbs in the circle of candles they light around me and my body straightens out like hands pulling my legs and arms fixing the body that I no longer control. Then the hands are gone and the cold of the stone seeps through my dress stabbing my flesh.
"Oh yes I can, I was hoping you wouldn't be such a fighter but I do like my souls fiery." He sneers.
"Valtok please!" I beg my mind begins to panic searching for a way out of his grasp but he doesn't seem to notice as he walks around the table looking over my body, the candles cast a sinister shadow across his face.
"I do love it when you beg." He purrs dragging his hand up my bare leg where Wolkif ripped my dress.
"Let me go, Valtok!" I demand still struggling against his hold on me, sitting here in my own body unable to move is the worst torture he could inflict.
"Not yet. I still need to bind your soul to mine, mate." He spits the word like the only thing he ever cared about was taking everything from me. He begins to chant a strange language and the candles flames leap higher and higher.
"My soul is not yours to bind!" I scream over his chanting feeling his fingers in my mind begin to rip and claw at my memories first. They burn through the faces of my family cutting the strings connecting them to me. It feels like he's stripping off my skin layer by layer next breaking my bones and ripping them away from my soul. I scream desperately clawing at his hold on me looking for any weakness in his own armor as he shreds mine. As soon as my soul lay bare surrounded by the fragments of myself I find one, a small soft opening in his mind where I find his heart I rip apart tearing it open enough to surprise him breaking his hold on me. I swing my arm up knocking over a candle breaking the circle and covering him in hot wax. He screams now getting burned and losing me completely. I scramble to get off the table but my body is weak and exhaustion clouds my thoughts.
He grabs me by my ankle yanking it out and dragging me back to him across the table, his hands wrap around my throat squeezing tightly. " I thought you loved me princess, isn't that what you said to me? I guess you lied. Fine, then I'll just take your powers the fun way." My vision begins to go black around the edges as he squeezes tighter and tighter choking me. I rake my nails along his hands trying to hurt him but he only laughs as his blood and my tears mix on my neck. I see a glint of light off his knife strapped to his waist and my mind screams at me to live, I reach for it. I wrap my fingers around the hilt and thrust it up through his ribs into his heart. His hands slowly loosen from around my neck as confusion washes over his face and I gasp for breath. He slumps on top of me further drenching me in his blood and pushing the knife into his heart. I shove him off me and the table as the blood pours over the edge dripping onto the floor. I stand shivering in the cold blood and look at Valtok laying on the ground his eyes dead and his chest a gaping hole. The door behind me slams open but I don't look, I keep my eyes on the dead man waiting to feel something but I feel nothing for him.
"Sylenia?" Wolkif calls softly behind me.
"You were right he wasn't after the crown, just my soul." I wrap my arms around my middle remembering him in my head tearing me apart.
"It's ok Syl, he's dead now."
"I know, I killed him," I say softly making it real, tangible almost.
"We can tell them I did it if you want to stay here." He puts his hand on my shoulder warming me slightly.
"No, I came home to start a war, here is my kindling."