《Ember in the Ashes》


 Prologue: Embre

    I hate the rain. I rarely afford myself the luxury of extreme emotions but there is so much about the rain that I absolutely abhor. I have seen gods and I have seen mortals become gods. I have seen war and I have seen peace. I have seen the tides of the world itself churn and remake everything before my very eyes and somehow, nothing can stop the rain. The ancients who founded civilization ruled it and brought it to ruin. From that ruin it was reborn at the hands of mortals and so they named it ¡°Embre¡± for the ashes we rose from. When the rain falls, the embers die and the ashes are washed away. It rained on that day and that¡¯s how I knew it was over.


    Embre has never been more fractured and broken than in the Age of Kingdoms. In this time, every man and woman of power took claim of the shattered empires abandoned in the Age of Strife. The Judgment War saw the anger of gods and saw those same gods bleed. And when god¡¯s bleed, we all cry. In the name of that blood, the lords and ladies that would become kings and queens proclaimed they had the right to by the very blood in their veins; lines traced to the gods or those that had slain them.


    On the smaller of the two continents that make up Embre, a cluster of kingdoms once resided. Among them were the kingdoms Brace, Jellette, and Sol. Brace was a militaristic country, lead by King Heirel. Jellette was a strong economically driven country ruled by King Ashel Jellette. Finally, the Sol kingdom was the smallest of the three and the more peaceful. Not particularly prosperous, the Sol kingdom survived on the kindness of their Queen, Lhianna De Sol, and she, in turn, gained their fierce loyalty and undying love.


    Unfortunately, loyalty, love, and kindness will not keep a small kingdom standing for long. The king of Brace saw the territory as merely land waiting to be conquered. With oceans on two sides, the Sol Kingdom was boxed in, adding irony to its perilous position as its coastal position was what gave Sol its greatest value. Brace bordered the Sol Kingdom on the south just as Jellette bordered on the east and King Heirel was ready to expand.


    Although Queen Lhianna became aware of his plan, there was little she could do to stop the impending invasion. Brace¡¯s army was larger, better trained, and more experienced. The Sol Kingdom¡¯s army was simply not enough to defend and there was no negotiating with King Heirel, try as Queen Lhianna might. The King was determined to gain the ¡°gate to the mainland¡± with dreams that it would put him above his rival, King Jellette. With the conquering of Sol, Brace would be set to eclipse the Jellette¡¯s glory. These dreams were not meant to come true.


    When things seemed to be at their bleakest and only a week remained before the invasion, a large group of travelers entered the kingdom of Sol¡¯s main city. Originally thought to be a scouting expedition for Brace, a group of strong warriors terrified man of Sol¡¯s citizens by their presence until they were stopped by the palace guards protecting the castle gates. The leader of the band of travelers stepped forward and asked to speak with the Queen. This man, named Alexander, was permitted to speak with her if accompanied only by palace guards.


    Alexander introduced himself as the commander of a small army that has lost its kingdom. In a plot to overtake the land, a rival kingdom tricked Alexander¡¯s king into sending the army across borders, leaving the territory unprotected and easily invaded. Vulnerable, the entire land was conquered in a day. After the trickery, Alexander, and his army refused to serve the new king and thus the lost army began to wander west, through the mountains of Bahemos Rest, in search for a place to belong. Their wandering had taken them to many places, many kingdoms, across Southern Embre, and the Sol Kingdom was the end.


    After listening to the story of how the Lost Army was placed in self-exile, the Queen sympathized and allowed Alexander and his men to stay for as long as they needed. However, she warned them that the kingdom would fall at the hands of another and the Lost Army would find its new King less kind. Alexander proposed a deal.


    Alexander volunteered his army to help defend the kingdom of Sol from Brace if the Queen would agree to allow Alexander and his men to make the Sol kingdom their home. The Queen agreed much to the disapproval of her general, Harkon. Regardless of the general¡¯s objections, Alexander led his army and a legion of Sol¡¯s men to the border where Brace planned to invade. The rest of Sol¡¯s army stayed behind Alexander¡¯s, in case the Lost Army failed to repel the invaders. Brace¡¯s army saw Alexander¡¯s command of roughly two hundred men set up to stop the several hundred sent to overtake the kingdom of Sol and was both insulted and amused. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    Predicting an easy victory, Brace sent their first wave of roughly eight hundred men to crash against the line of the lost army. Alexander and his men met the wave with strength unseen since the fall of Tartaros of Strife. The lost army fought like gods against meager men. Those who put their lives against such an overwhelming force found their brothers and sisters slain and the glory of their nation failing in the face of a contemptable enemy.


    Alexander stepped forward, bidding Brace send another wave of soldiers to meet with destiny. Brace sent double the strength; double the numbers. Behind that wave, riflemen readied a row of East Embre¡¯s new innovation, guns, and trained on the lost army. Clouds spread over the field, casting shadows over all. As the lost army readied to take on the next wave, the Sol Army let a flurry of arrows arch over Alexander, his men, and Brace¡¯s frontline to rain death upon the riflemen. Harmonized to the screams of the impaled riflemen, the lost army rushed the second wave of Bracene soldiers, delivering death once more.


    The general of Brace, frustrated and humiliated, resorted to one final attempt. He commanded the remainder of the Bracene invaders to storm the lost army, attacking with everything they had at once. A fool¡¯s gambit. Thunder rumbled and rolled in the sky only to be outdone by the sound of men charging at each other. Rain dappled against armor and caused blood to run from the dead and wounded. Swords clashed and sank into iron and flesh. Limbs were severed, blood was drawn, and hearts were pierced. Men collapsed with their last breath and as their bodies fell to the ground, some heads would precede them.


    It was this assault that the lost army received their first causalities. Under the Warrior King¡¯s command, death only came from carelessness. Lettings yourself become separated from your comrades, becoming distracted, charging in foolishly; these were mistakes that you cannot live to repeat. The Bracene army was suffering to the latter. The Bracene General called for his men to take Alexander and ignore all others. ¡°Cut off the head and the body dies¡±, he proclaimed. Alexander was mobbed by enemy soldiers. His giant blade held over him and swords clattered down from above. He crouched and changed the angle of his sword just fast enough to block each blow before it came in contact with Alexander¡¯s head. But he could not keep it up for long.


    It is said that for that moment, Alexander became a god. Lightning split the sky, lit the battleground, and exploded in the midst of Brace¡¯s men, striking Alexander. While he should have burst apart as anything else would have, Alexander remained in one piece. Electricity danced from the crater where Alexander was struck down. The smell of burnt ground and hot flesh overcame the smell of blood. It was the lost army that grinned in triumph, and it was the Bracene soldiers that looked on in horror.


    Alexander rose. From the crater he rose as if gravity could no longer hold him. Splits of electricity clung to his body and writhed in the air like snakes slithering around his form; each with a life of their own. His eyes were empty save for the lightning flowing through his body. That electricity curled around the sword and faster than eyes can follow, a white blur carved its way through the Bracene army, straight to the general. Before he registered Alexander having even left the crater, the upper half of the general¡¯s body slid cleanly from the lower half. The sound of his torso hitting the ground with a heavy ¡°thuck¡± noise was the call to retreat for the rest of the Bracene army. Cut off the head and the body dies. That Kingdom of Brace lost the day, as well as the war, as well as any hope of ever conquering the Kingdom of Sol. The lightning left Alexander¡¯s form after the death of the general, but the power remained in the memories of all those who marched with him, and all those who dared to march against him.


    ¡°Warrior King¡± soon became a true moniker. For defending the Kingdom, Queen Lhianna announced Alexander as the new leader of Sol¡¯s army. The two became close and over the peace that came from Brace¡¯s defeat, love soon rose. Alexander spoke to the queen about marriage. Talk soon turned to their eventual union. Once wed, Queen Lhianna presented Alexander to the people as King Alexander Lione. As Lhianna took Alexander¡¯s last name, so she did rename the kingdom in honor of its hero and the new king. The Lione Kingdom grew under the peaceful heart of Queen Lhianna and the stern hand of King Alexander. From her kindness came the love of the people, from his discipline came order to the kingdom, and from their love came a prince and a princess. Prince Kael Alexander Lione was the first of the royal children. Four years later came Princess Melody De Lione.


    It was a time of great prosperity. Unfortunately, not all good things last and radical change soon breeds resentment. All the light that the queen and king cast over the Lione Kingdom also created a darkness to lie beneath. It is in that darkness that a plot grew; a plot of hatred, of envy, and of promises to bring a great disaster to the royal family and two innocent children.

 Chapter 1: Kael Lione, the Black Dawn

    There are a lot of sounds you don¡¯t notice in your life. A lot of them go by unheard. This is because you get used to them. You become complacent in life and you just assume those sounds are going to be there forever. You end up mourning them when they are gone and feeling sorry you didn¡¯t appreciate them when you had the chance. Sounds like birds flittering in the wind, chirping in their own song. Sounds like the breeze teasing the branches of trees, making them sway and crick as they move. Sounds like the giggle of a little girl that can light the world around you when you are submerged in the abyss. It can awaken you from a horrid nightmare and you suddenly realize that the only thing keeping you from swimming to the surface is your own doubt that there is a surface to swim to. No matter what I tried to forget, I always missed my sister¡¯s laughter.


    The point was not to make a sound at all, but it was impossible for Melody to hold back her giggles. The excitement of the game was getting to her as well as the anticipation of being caught. If I have been anything in my youth, I have been perceptive and hide-and-seek was never a game I lost. My footsteps were light as I could make them while I dashed from point to point in the halls of the castle. This wasn¡¯t where I searched as I had realized that Melody never hid in the cold and poorly lit parts of the castle. With this knowledge, I was making my way towards the open courtyard.


    I passed General Jouch on the way through. His short blond hair always bristled back and balding, his eyes suspicious, and his head tilted back as if to cast his eyes down on me. He reminded me of an owl in a military uniform, watching the other animals and finding their play foolish. He made a remark in his gruff voice about his distaste for my sister and me.


    That alone was all the distraction I needed to trip over a pot laying near a doorway. It jumped and rolled across the floor after my collision, but its noise was muffled by the loud shouting of General Jouch who barked out, ¡°Watch where you are going!¡± as quickly as a jungle cat springs on its prey in its moment of weakness. I made no attempt to apologize. It wasn¡¯t a matter of social status or me being a prince and him being the General of my father¡¯s army. Rather, it was a matter of upbringing. My father always told me never to pay respect to those who have no reason to be respected. Jouch did nothing that would warrant him respect, even from his own men outside of commanding them with a misplaced sense of discipline and preaching about the ¡°good old days¡± which, even at the age of ten, I was able to perceive as a metaphor for the time before my father showed up.


    As if the thought summoned him, the tall and imposing figure of the Warrior King Alexander appeared, looming over me and casting a shadow like some great obelisk. The rich blonde hair I inherited from him spilling down his back, over his royal tunic, his short beard covering his chin, those blue eyes piercing in their stare, he looked every bit the king he was meant to be. I looked up expecting to meet his gaze, only to find his eyes fixed on General Jouch. The gesture alone put an almost indescribable weight into the air, a tension that seemed to bare down on all of us.


    Then, all the pressure of the situation was released at once as a reassuring, carefree smile lit my father¡¯s face. His bellowing voice commanded the air to carry that unburdened tone all around him as he said, ¡°if he is not bleeding, then I consider it a harmless accident, General. At the age of ten, he is still learning to be aware of his surroundings, which you and I know is an invaluable asset to have on a battlefield. Don¡¯t you agree?¡±


    Jouch summoned all the falseness he had to cover the anger gnawing at his spinal cord and gave a respectful smile to my father, his king. He responded with a pleasant tone, ¡°Quite right, my lord. Although, one could stand to learn this skill as early as possible, given that it has used in every aspect of life far before one ever raises a sword against his first, true enemy.¡± My father gave a nod agreement, and the two shared a moment of understanding.


    The Warrior King turned to me afterward and placed a firm hand on my shoulder then motioned with his head to move along. I ran past him in search of my sister, trying to focus on the task at hand rather than the unease I was feeling from the tense altercation. By then, I had completely lost any sign of her. The entire confrontation between my father and General Jouch made me lose concentration, leaving me with no idea where my sister could be.


    I didn¡¯t need to look far. The moment I stepped out into the courtyard, I felt the air speak to me, barely giving me enough time to react. Unfortunately, I was not practiced enough to keep up with my senses, reflexes taking too long, and in an instant I was on the ground, my face pressed against the dirt and stone of the walkway that went through the courtyard. A familiar weight had me pinned down, arms and legs sprawled out, head cocked to the side. Dirt stung in my eye but became quickly ignored as my mind raced. Well, not so much raced. Shifted is a more accurate description. As if my thoughts could work in two different ways, switching at will when the situation changed, without any of my awareness.


    She had my back straddled and her hands on my forearms to keep me pinned down. Something I never understood was how she could be four years younger than me but even at the age of six, she was able to overpower me. She had me trapped but I was never one to be trapped for long. I started to struggle, to roll to one side and the second she sensed it and tried to put her weight on the other side, I immediately changed direction and rolled the other way. She was stronger, but I was faster. Forcing her to overcorrect, I used her own strength against her and rolled her onto her side, then I changed directions again and in the confusion, I broke free of her grip while her priority was to regain her balance and stay unscathed rather than hold on to me.


    I rolled out of her reach and got to my hands and knees, then popped up quickly to my feet. She was back on her feet a second later, facing me with her lower lip sticking out in a pout. I took a quick look at my surroundings. I noticed a large planter on either side of the archway, a small blue green tree on either side, reaching to a ledge that started half way up one side of the opening to the courtyard and running along the top to stop back down the other side at the same spot. It is from this ledge, I assumed, that Melody had leaped from when I passed under the arch.


    My sister always had a warmth to her that nothing could replace. It was in her smile that lit the hearth of the heart. Had she not been born four years too late, we could have been near twins. Same blonde hair, same blue eyes, same bronze skin, but we were not identical in our demeanor. Sharing her more subtle features, Melody also inherited our mother¡¯s sweetness. Though she ran and climbed, scuffed her knees, tore her dresses, and came home dirty, she had an innocence to her that no amount of tomboyish antics could take away. Even now, the simple pale blue dress they had placed her in was gray with dirt and torn where it had caught on the tree she climbed to get to the ledge. She didn¡¯t seem to notice nor did she care. I, however, seem to have been born trying to carry the same weight of the world my father bared on his shoulders which is why the general was always telling me not to slouch.


    From the opposite end of the yard, two women emerged; each garbed in white gowns slitted at the sides and held with flimsy straps over their shoulders. They were handmaids, both at the bidding of my mother. They shifted uncomfortably as they approached us. There was something about we royal children that always made them nervous. It was odd because they were the most compliant and willing servants of the Queen, always responding quickly to every bidding and executing it without balking and with uncompromising excellence. I was told that before we were born, there wasn¡¯t anything the pair of them could not accomplish. They were named Leah and Calea and they were perfect servants for my mother.


    Melody and I proved to be a different matter. I asked them once what made us so difficult and why they were always so nervous around us and I could not get a straight answer. It was to be expected. What would be the odds that either of us would tell the Queen? So I asked my mother instead and she told me that each of us pose a different challenge. I am too serious, like my father, and I am too independent. It is hard to aid or guide someone who has such a strong will of their own. Melody was uncooperative in another way. She was unruly, chaotic, and enjoyed playing more than anything Leah and Calea were sent for. This gave her own independent demeanor.


    They moved apprehensively towards the two of us only to stop in front of my sister. ¡°Princess Melody,¡± Leah started while in the midst of a respectful bow, ¡°we have been sent by your mother, the Queen,¡± as if she had forgotten who her mother was, ¡°to bring you to her in clean and mended dress and in matching condition.¡± To this, my sister responded by jutting her tongue out and blowing spittle at the two. I knew from the moment the word ¡°clean¡± was introduced that my sister would object to it. Still, I admired their tenacity as they made the request again, adding, ¡°if you do not come with us, your Queen Mother will be quite cross with all three of us and surely she will have to choose a punishment for you. Perhaps something in the manner of six hours of book lessons.¡±


    I was witness to my sister¡¯s eyes becoming the widest I have ever seen then she stomped her foot in protest, huffing about how much she didn¡¯t want to wear another dress, get a bath, or anything else that came with their request; but in the end, she submitted to the pair and left to visit with my mother.


    ¡°Kael,¡± came the thunderous voice behind me and I turned on my heel to face my father standing in the courtyard. He was standing in battle gear, iron armor chained together with gaps to allow better movement, metal skirt clicking against his pants as he walked towards me in thumping iron greaves. The handle of his massive sword reached from his back to extend higher than his head, demanding two large and strong hands to wield it.


    ¡°You¡¯re wounded,¡± he said as he reached me, lowering to one knee. His hand reached out, adorned in iron and leather glove, and touched against my mouth. When a small drop of blood rested on the tip of his glove, I realized my lip was bleeding; most likely busted open when a certain six-year-old dropped on me from an archway. He suspected as much, as the next words to rumble forth were, ¡°Your sister?¡± When I gave a nod, he gave a smile that mixed pride and humor. My father had too much of one and not enough of the other. ¡°She has inherited more strength than you, but you are faster than her. You will learn to use that as your strength and, in the end, their lack of speed will be their weakness,¡± he explained.


    I didn¡¯t bother to ask who ¡®they¡¯ were. They were whoever would stand up against me as my enemy. For the time, the kingdom was in peace, but my father was unconvinced it would last. That is why he insisted that I¡¯d be trained as early as possible as both a warrior and a king. Although, I suspected that he was still learning the latter himself, even after ten years. Without questioning the reason he was dressed in battle gear, I went to the weapon rack to find myself a sword of my own. Nothing as enormous and imposing as my father¡¯s greatsword, I chose something strong but quick. Before I could turn back to him, he turned and started walking towards the sparring ground that was made in the courtyard separated by another large archway.


    It occurred to me then that our short walk was the perfect opportunity to ask him the questions that I, myself, mulled over whenever we trained. Falling in line next to him, I started by asking him, ¡°Father, why is it that we don¡¯t use practice weapons like the soldiers? Isn¡¯t it more dangerous to use real swords for practice?¡± I tried to keep my tone even and without waver because part of me didn¡¯t want him thinking I was afraid of his beast of a weapon cutting an arm off even though I was.


    He didn¡¯t look to me as he answered, keeping a calm demeanor as he kept his hands crossed over his chest, still walking. ¡°Because, Kael, we learn the hard way.¡± When his glance darted to me, I knew I still had a confused expression on my face. He continued, ¡°Because anyone meaning to kill you will not come at you with a practice sword. And there are those that mean to kill you. You do not have to worry for now and outside of your training I want you to enjoy the time you get to be a child, but you are born greater than men and men will want you dead for this.¡±


    ¡°Greater than men? You mean because I¡¯m a prince?¡±


    He stopped then and turned to me, taking a knee once more. He placed his hand on my shoulder, holding me in a firm grip to accent the importance in his speech. ¡°Kael, you are not human, neither am I, and neither is your sister. You come from a lineage ever known as the titanian. As demi-gods trace their bloodline back to the gods, so do titanians trace their bloodline back to the titans. We are made of stronger things than man, and strength is in our very souls.¡± Half of what he said next I remember from my history lessons. ¡°After the creation of Embre, beings began to grow in power and intelligence. Gods they were called but the gods were made, the titans have always been. It is the titans who remember the creation and it was the titans that played the biggest role in the War of the Dark Gods.¡±


    I struggled against the urge to look at my feet, or the sky, or anything but my father¡¯s hard eyes. My grip tightened on the hilt of the sword I carried while my mind reeled from the idea that I was different from everyone I knew. That I would grow up stronger, faster, smarter, and I would be hated and feared for it. The gods used the titans immense strength by enslaving and tricking them in order to win their civil war but when a titan turned against their lesser, the gods went to great lengths and sacrifice to destroy that titan. The gods are stronger than any mortal species on Embre, and they feared the titans. What is feared is often hated, and what is hated is often destroyed.


    ¡°What Titan are we descendent from?¡± I asked.


    He stood back up once more and began walking back towards the training ground. I followed. ¡°His name is Hyperien and he represents light given consciousness. It was a time before humans, who value history and memory, first started recording knowledge. And since the titans do not speak to mortals, and all the remaining gods are still too young to know, no one knows the origin of Embre. Not a single being in Embre. At least, not one who is willing to tell or capable of telling. You might want to discuss more of this with your mother. She is more educated in history than I am. I have only ever been interested in the stories of the gods and the titans. She knows better of the role of man.¡± He stopped a little bit past the center of the sparring ground and turned to face me, both hands reaching behind him to grab that long hilt and pull the heavy blade from its sheath. He sank down into a defensive stance, holding his sword in both hands vertically in front of him. I lifted my sword with both hands and did the same.


    When he came at me, his sword tilted and came swinging towards my left side. It was all I could do to torque my upper body, turn my sword so the flat would receive the blow, and place my palm on the other side to brace the sword against my father¡¯s incomparable strength. When the blow hit me, I had to decide between keeping my footing and keeping my sword. I ended up losing both. I stumbled backward as the force of rattled me and I ended up somersaulting to my back, my feet coming up over my head and landing behind me. And placed a hand on the ground and pushed back to my feet, then returned the hand to my sword.


    My father was not impressed. ¡°Did you forget what I just told you? Your strength is speed. You should not block what you can easily dodge. The greatsword is a slow weapon and its moves should be easy for you to predict.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    Without thinking, I shot back, ¡°I know.¡±


    That made his face tighten with annoyance. ¡°If you know, then why take the blow? If you can see it coming, then you should not squander your endurance trying to withstand it and instead move around it. Find an opening in the attack and counter it.¡± It took him only one large stride to close the distance on me and swing that large sword at my left shoulder. I slipped down into a low crouch and let it sail over me this time. When I crouched down, however, his knee was rising to meet me. The crack sounded louder in my head and a pain shot from the part of my forehead he hit then ran the course to my temples and then deep into my skull. I went backwards again, stumbling, and when the pain hit my core, I tightened my grip on my weapon and managed to keep a hold on it. My free hand moved to hold the part of my head he hit for the lingering moment it took for the pain to subside. I partially expected my father to come charging at me again in my moment of weakness, but I suppose, being ten, I was allowed some mercy.


    After I recovered, he began a sideways pace, strafing around me. I began to mimic his movements, pacing the circle of the training ground. I watched the giant that was my father move like a predator, gauging its prey. ¡°Learning yet?¡± he asked. I knew better than to answer him with words. I stopped suddenly and pushed off with a burst of speed. It took me a few more steps than him to close the distance so when I arrived, sword pointed in a straight thrust, jabbing towards his stomach, he was ready for me. He moved his sword into a vertical position, pointed to the ground while turning his body so that my sword would simply skid across his. When my blade was halfway across, I pulled back suddenly only to turn my body inward. I twirled on the balls of my feet, spinning around the massive blade blocking me and stopped facing my father¡¯s exposed side with my sword coming around with me. The blade bit shallow into the leather beneath his armor, and would have gone deeper had he not pushed off of the foot closest to me and danced away.


    He seemed genuinely impressed by the feint. I wish I could have claimed victory right there and called it a day, but my father wasn¡¯t satisfied with a single cut. There had to be much more before the day was done and all of them on my arms, legs, back, chest. He avoided my face on purpose. If I had any visible bruises or cuts, my mother would have taken an age to forgive him. My stronger skin helped but only to turn each fatal blow into a black and purple bruise.


    When he was finally satiated with the progress we made and the sun was just starting to make its descent after reaching half the sky, he told me to go wash up for my book lessons. I set the sword I used for practice back on its mount and waited until I was no longer in my father¡¯s sight to rub my sore muscles. My father¡¯s opinion of me was the most important thing to me at the time, and the last thing I wanted to do was to make think I was weak.


    As I made my way towards the library where my studies were held, I passed through a part of the castle where I could see out into the distance. When I looked at the sky, the setting sun seemed to set the world on fire. Red across the top of the sky, bleeding into darkness. It didn¡¯t look right. The red was too deep and the darkness seemed to suffocate the light from the few stars that could be seen. It created an ominous cold within me and I knew. I could feel the disaster coming. It was as if the sun had risen in the morning, but instead of bathing the world in light, it gave way to an endless darkness. It was a bad omen, a sign of doom, a black dawn.


    The feeling stayed with me all through supper and gnawed at me while I lie in my bed. It kept me from sleeping and I kept staring at the door. My bedroom was higher up in the castle (as were all the royal bedrooms) and my sister¡¯s room was just across the hall. My room came with a single window that let the starlight in and faced the outer wall of the castle itself. The placing of our rooms was meant to be a position of honor but even at my age, I questioned whether or not it was foolish to be so far from all possible escape routes. I was told that it was the best place as far as defense goes but no one listened when I argued that the best defense is a good escape. They told me they didn¡¯t want to give up the castle. I argued that stone and granite are not worth keeping when compared to the lives of those that live within it. No one listened.


    I wanted to stay some-what awake so I could listen out for any trouble but the roll of thunder drowned anything else I would have heard. Rain beat at the shutters of my window and washed down the sides of the wall that faced the storm. I remember how soothing the sound was. It relaxed me enough to sleep and kept me safely in a world of dreams before the nightmare would come to wake me.


    It started with some shouting from downstairs. Like the sudden pull of a string you didn¡¯t know you had around your neck, I was yanked out of my dreams by what sounded like arguing. Next came the clanging of metal and heavy steps of men who didn¡¯t care what time of night it was. I slipped from my covers and began to dress. If I would be scolded for being up this late, it would be worth it to satisfy that need to know what was going on. Part of me needed that certainty no matter how terrible that knowledge was.


    I had finished lacing my boots over my pants and had exchanged my night shirt for a shift when I heard the yelling get closer. It sounded like our royal guard. Not the ones commanded by General Jouch, but those who had been part of father¡¯s Lost Army. They were yelling something about a retreat. I could make out words that I could only guess were calls about being outnumbered but what were they being outnumbered by? What was coming at them that they could not defend against? Then there was only the sound of hard and fast footsteps as they hurried up the halls. Finally, the last shouts I heard before their voices went silent was one of them shouting louder than thunder. ¡°The King and Queen are dead!¡± The black dawn had risen.


    More heavy footsteps came from outside my door but I was sure it wasn¡¯t from the personal guard. It was from whoever killed them. I moved to the side of the door, putting my back to the wall on the side opposite of the direction the door opened. There was a soft try at the door¡¯s lock, then a length of hard pounding, until finally the door gave way and a man burst forth into the room. He was clad in leather armor, not unlike that of the recruits under General Jouch¡¯s command, and in his hand, he carried a worn-down sword, firmly gripped. I studied him for as long as I dared while I went unnoticed. He was fixated on the bed while I tried to figure out who he was or where he came from.


    As I tried to piece together what this armed soldier¡¯s purpose was, he was stalking towards the bed itself where my pillow was making a lump beneath the covers. Nervously, he lurched over it and reached out with an empty hand at the sheet, grabbing the hem of the comforter while raising his sword high, pointed down to plunge into the bedding itself. ¡°You can do this,¡± I heard him mutter. ¡°Don¡¯t think of it as a kid,¡± he told himself in a whisper, ¡°think of it as a little lamb or something. You can do this.¡± It was me he was after. Surely he was the man who killed the King and Queen and now he meant to cut off the line of succession completely. That means I wasn¡¯t the only one in danger. After he killed me, Melody would be next.


    I silently slipped behind him and put my fingers on the knife in his boot, gently pulling it free as he gathered the courage and focus on killing his supposed ten-year-old target. With sword tilted, he yanked the cover back and stabbed blindly, piercing the feather-stuffed pillow. As he did so, I pierced the side of his stomach, right where his kidney should be. He took in a sharp gasp and hissed in pain as I wrenched it free. He half-turned, half fell to face me. I saw that he was fighting the urge to call out his pain, but he kept it in. He didn¡¯t want to alert his allies to his failure. He didn¡¯t want to be here. He didn¡¯t want to kill a child.


    However, it seemed I had no problem killing a man. I grabbed his sword, placed it on his neck, and ripped it to the side, tearing a hole in his throat. He was the first man I had ever killed. His was the first blood I had ever spilled. I had imagined it when I practiced and I had known that I would be faced with no other option than to take a life but I didn¡¯t think such a day would come until I was old enough to fight alongside my father¡¯s army. I thought I still had some time to be innocent; to keep my hands clean. That idea was dead now with the man who would have seen me just as dead.


    I gathered myself when I thought of innocence and remembered that my sister was still across the hall and in as much danger as I was. I don¡¯t know why, but I remember bending down and cleaning the blade off quickly on the front of the man¡¯s leather armor. After that, I turned and ran to the threshold of my door. Stopping just short of exiting my room, I peeked my head out and looked first in the direction opposite of my parent¡¯s room, which I assumed is the direction the attackers had gone after killing them. There was no one that way so I looked the other way.


    It felt strange like I wasn¡¯t really there. A small part of me was trying to convince the rest of me to accept that inside that room at the end of the hall, my parents were dead and I would never again hear their voices or see their eyes looking down upon me. I would not let the same happen to my sister. I didn¡¯t see anyone moving from my parent''s room, nor did I hear anyone coming up the hall. I dashed across to her room. In the second it took to cross the hall with heavy sword held aloft at my side, the door made a creaking sound and cracked open. I could see a blue eye peering at me through the thin slit, strands of blonde hair falling in front of her vision.


    I leaned into the opening and whispered to her. ¡°Melody, we have to get out of here. It¡¯s not safe.¡± I could see her recoil in fear. It might have been the urgency in my voice or how quickly I approached her. Or it might have been the blood that undoubtedly stained my clothes, none of it my own. Her voice was shaky and weak with fright. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± she asked when she was sure enough. I didn¡¯t want her to have the burden that I had on me knowing our parents where dead, though if she had been listening outside her door, she would have heard the same call as I did. ¡°Quickly, there are people coming for us,¡± was all I said.


    She opened the door enough for me to come in but I did not enter far. I told her she had no time to gather some clothes or take some toys. There was no time to tell her where we were going, not that I could. I had no idea where we were going either. I grabbed her hand with my free hand and pulled her out the door. She complied but kept asking questions in a hushed voice I didn¡¯t have the answers to. I had to stop at every corner to look around it before hurrying along to the stairwell that leads down to the castle entrance. When I got to the bottom of the stairwell, I was met with a group of men in the same kind of armor and brandishing the same swords as the man I left upstairs.


    I had rushed down the stairs too hastily and it resulted in us being caught. My heart caught in my throat and refused to beat so I stood frozen, sister in one hand and sword in the other, watching as the men turned to us. Cautiously approaching us at first, they didn¡¯t seem to understand what a pair of children we doing in the midst of all the chaos. Around us, I could hear fighting going on inside and outside of the castle. It had escalated to a full battle in the time it took us to get down from our rooms. I¡¯m not sure why these men where waiting at the bottom of these stairs but it seemed like they were waiting for someone and we were not who they were waiting for.


    My heart went from frantic to stable and I gathered the courage to let my sister go, move in front of her, and raise my sword in both hands to hold the combat stance I had practiced time and time again. I counted about five men and even with the lineage of a titan on my side, I doubted my odds greatly. The only light in the room was a pair of large candle stands on either side of the banister, sitting at the end of the stair. The lights at the doorway leading out into the court were out and darkness had consumed all but where we stood to where the soldiers stood some eight feet away.


    I wanted to lunge at them but I knew it was foolish to be rash. I had to think of something, though. They were beginning to work out who we were and what sort of threat we posed. ¡°Oary failed,¡± one of them said the others. ¡°It¡¯s the royal children. They¡¯re still alive.¡± A skeptical one asked, ¡°how do you know? Could be a servant¡¯s kids.¡± The first to speak pointed his sword at me, gesturing at my own with the tip. ¡°That¡¯s Oary¡¯s sword. I can tell by the nicks in it. The kid killed Oary and took his sword.¡± Again, the skeptical one responded, asking, ¡°How do you know it was him?¡± The first gripped his hilt tighter and narrowed his gaze. ¡°He¡¯s the son of the Warrior King.¡±


    The others accepted this explanation and resolved that even if I was only a ten-year-old boy, I was too important and too dangerous to let live. Oary, who I assumed was the man I killed upstairs, was sent to end the bloodline of the Lione family by killing us off in our sleep. I still don¡¯t think he wanted to kill my sister and me, but I¡¯m sure he wanted my mother and father dead, as did the rest of these attackers. The question that begged to be answered was ¡°who were these people?¡± So I asked them as they finished closing the distance, cutting us off at the bottom of the stairs so we couldn¡¯t run anywhere but back up.


    The first to speak answered me. ¡°We¡¯re the ones who want what¡¯s best for the kingdom, boy. You¡¯re too young to understand, but what your father is doing to us is wrong. We¡¯re being oppressed in the name of progress. You¡¯re mother gave the whole kingdom to a tyrant: the land and all the people on it. But there is another way. There¡¯s a man who can save us; free us. You see, Gen-¡° He was cut off before he could finish, a metal chain having lashed out from the darkness behind him and coiled violently around his neck. It was pulled tight, keeping him on a leash for a moment before one hard jerk pulled the man off his feet and into the waiting darkness.


    The men turned quickly to aid him, but I recognized the sound of a blade sinking into flesh and muscle. I knew it was already too late. I showed my familiarity with the noise by harmonizing it with my own blade thrust deep into the lower back of another one of the soldiers, just next to the spine. He wasn¡¯t quite like the first, and the stab wasn¡¯t fatal, but when I dragged the blade out of him by pulling it to the side instead of backward, it was enough to end his screams and his life. There wasn¡¯t any silence to follow, though, as my sister started to scream next in terror.


    One of the remaining soldiers turned to face me, another to the darkness, and the last was caught in that chain and pulled away, this time from and to a different direction. Like the first, there was no time to speak or react. The chain wrapped around his neck and he was gone. The one facing me gambled his life in trying to finish the mission his friend upstairs had started, rushing at me and swinging his sword down at my head. I went low and tilted the sword so the end pointed right at his belly. Pushing forward with my feet and putting my shoulder into the stab, I forced him to impale himself on my sword while his own stopped in mid-swing. His arms went limp, the sword clattering to the stone floor, then the rest of his body began to slump as well.


    I pushed the body off my sword and stepped back, ready to take on the next only to find there was no next but the last one had disappeared in the time I had spent skewering the soldier that came at me. It wasn¡¯t over, though, as I could see someone stirring in the darkness in the direction of where the others had been dragged off. Listening closely, I could hear the faint sound of a chain softly clicking while the person came nearer. When our assumed savior had emerged, he was far from what I expected. Clad in all black, the whole of his face hidden by a demonic, white mask, he wore neither armor nor protection of any kind except the light clothes covering his entire body meant only to protect his identity. I could see short strands of black hair peeking out from his hood and his form was definitively male.


    What worried me, was the chain he had wrapped around one of his arms and the thin sword being held by the other. I had never seen a blade like that before and it looked lighter and sharper than any sword I had held. He relieved my worry though when he slid the sword away behind his back and offered out a cloth-wrapped hand to us. ¡°Come,¡± he spoke in a voice as deep as my father¡¯s, ¡°I¡¯m going to get you out of here. It¡¯s not safe to stay.¡±


    I turned and went to my sister, who cowered against the rail of one of the stairs. I spoke to her loud enough for only her to hear. ¡°Come on, Melody. We have to get out of here.¡± Her screaming had stopped when the black-clothed man had revealed himself but she was far from composed.


    The man spoke again, ¡°there is no time, you have to come with me now.¡±


    I narrowed my gaze at him, asking, ¡°Why should we trust you?¡±


    ¡°You have no choice,¡± he said honestly. He added, ¡°if I was here to kill you, you would be as dead as they are.¡± He was referring to the men he had dragged into the darkness. ¡°There is no one to ransom you to and there is nothing you possess anymore that I could gain from holding you hostage. Now come along, quickly, before more arrive.¡±


    It was Melody who went to him first, running as fast as her little legs could carry her. I followed, deciding to go where ever she went and protect her from whatever threatened her, even if it was this man she trusted over whatever waited for us beyond the walls. The stranger took us out of the castle through a series of passages, starting in the courtyard. There was a war raging around us and a number of times I feared we wouldn¡¯t make it even with this stranger¡¯s help. Thankfully, we managed to escape the castle and make it to the edge of town where the man had a horse waiting for him. He put us on top of it first before climbing on behind us and taking the reins.


    He told us to hold on as he sped away from the roar of battle overtaking the castle we once called home. I looked back and watched the fires grow; illuminating the night sky brighter than the stars could ever manage. I listened to the shouting of the people as they slaughtered one another and were slaughtered themselves, death ruling the night. As we rode away, I looked up at the darkness being touched by the yellow and red of the war below it, stained in its violent brushstrokes as the sky was painted with so much tragedy and I knew I would never again see a blue sky.

 Chapter 2: Melody Lione, Sunflowers and Dark Places

    There is so much before that night I wish I could remember. I didn¡¯t think of it then but now I wish I could have spent more time memorizing my mom and dad¡¯s faces. They are just vague blurs now. Over time, they have become silhouettes of people. I can see their outlines but details about them have been reduced to smears of paint; yellow for their hair, brown for their faces, blue dots for eyes. They are too far away now and too far to see clearly, like anything in the past.


    But that night, I remember vividly. It was deeply etched into my bones and everything about me is a result of what happened so long ago. I was so young that it¡¯s hard to say that I miss everything that came before it but there are things that came after it I miss as well. What I don¡¯t miss is the sheer terror of waking up into a nightmare by someone shouting that your parents are dead.


    After that, it was a downward spiral deeper and deeper into chaos and absolute hell starting from my brother coming at my door with a sword in one hand and blood making his clothes a crimson work of art. I never said it out loud, but there was a small second where I feared he might have been the one that took their lives. It was only the smallest of thoughts and it didn¡¯t stop me from going with him when we needed to flee. I guess all the time he spent with dad paid off because he was able to get us down to the foyer right before the courtyard without getting caught.


    It wasn¡¯t a perfect escape because we did, eventually, get caught. Right before we got outside, just as we reached the bottom of the stairs and the first floor of the castle, eight or nine men appeared out of nowhere and surrounded us. Kael tried to fight them off, but they were so much bigger and better equipped than he was; Kael with his stolen sword and simple clothes. Then these iron whips came out of the darkness like the arms some metal kraken, pulling them into the depths of shadow never to be seen again,


    Once they were all gone, a man emerged. Tall and dressed completely in black, the stranger hardly said a word and never gave us his name. At least, he never gave me his name. He did tell us that if we wanted to live, we had to follow him. Having no other options and owing the stranger our lives, we followed him. I remember being scared that under those black wrappings and evil looking mask, he was secretly some kind of horrible monster with metal tentacles kept hidden until he lured his prey into a false sense of security. I thought that if I pulled his mask off, he¡¯d have a mouth full of jagged, sharp teeth like a metal trap.


    In the courtyard, there were a series of tunnels that lead under the town surrounding the castle that I never knew about. This surprised me because I was sure that as a kid, I had explored all there was of the castle I once called home. I did that to every place I called home. The tunnels had multiple exits, most of which I think either exited out into another part of the castle or somewhere into the town, but we didn¡¯t want to be in either of those places. The tunnel we took went even further. On the outside, there was a horse tied to a tree hidden in the most random of places left there deliberately by our rescuer.


    He placed us on top of the horse first before getting on behind us and riding opposite of the fierce battle waging where our home once was. I watched it get smaller and smaller the further we got from it, much like my memory of my one-time home. We rode on through the rain until daybreak, never stopping for anything. I wanted to sleep but I couldn¡¯t. I was afraid of falling off. I was tired, from all that had happened and all it had taken out of me, but I just couldn¡¯t sleep.


    We finally arrived on the far outskirts of the kingdom, a place I didn¡¯t remember the name of but would later discover to be the quiet little village of Sonata which rested on the coast of the Alblu Sea. After we dismounted, we were told to wait by the horse while the stranger went inside of a house. It was still dawn when we had arrived so I wasn¡¯t sure if the owners of the house would even be awake. For a moment, I thought he was going to sneak in and do something to the owners but that thought might have been the night playing a toll on my normally sunny disposition; making me see the worst in people instead of the best.


    He emerged again with a kindly couple who seemed to be somewhere in their late thirties. The man was old enough to be wise but young enough that he still had most of his strength still in him. Mark Reyes was his name. His wife was named June and she was a black-hair beauty that was refreshing to see so far out in the sticks. She had a curvy body with some decent tone to it and a sweet manner and I could see what Mark saw in her. The thing they had most in common was their kind nature. (That and their loyalty to the Lione Kingdom.)


    The stranger took my brother aside while the couple came to talk to me. They introduced themselves and explained what was going on. ¡°Melody,¡± June began, ¡°something terrible has happened and your home is no longer safe. I¡¯m so sorry for what you have gone through but I want you to know that we are here to make sure that you have a safe place to stay for as long as you need it. Your friend has asked us to take care of you and we have agreed. Would you be okay if you stayed with us for a little while?¡± She asked as though I was in any sort of state to answer.


    That was the first time I had to actually stop and think about what had happened to me. We were far from the carnage that was once our peaceful lives and I had the ability to finally look back. My wonderful life had been torn away and burnt to ashes and I wanted to know why first before I made any attempt to rebuild it. ¡°Why did they attack us?¡± I asked. Neither of them seemed to know or at least they weren¡¯t sure what answer to give me.


    It was the masked man who came to answer my question, returning with my brother. ¡°They were rebels trying to lead a revolution against your mother and father. They believed so strongly that your parents shouldn¡¯t have been king and queen that they were willing to destroy everything and kill many people to change that, including your parents and the two of you.¡± His voice was flat as he explained it to me, like a book of history reading its own pages. It wasn¡¯t history to me. It was several miles south of us and who knows what became of it?


    I looked at my brother and saw that his eyelids were puffy and a bit red. I wasn¡¯t sure what that meant. I knew what it meant for me, that I was crying, but for my brother, he never cried. He laughed on rare occasions, but crying wasn¡¯t something he could do. I wondered what he was crying about, thinking it was probably knowing our parents were dead. I felt my own tears start to well, but I didn¡¯t have the strength to bawl or wail. I only let them streak down my face while forcing words from my choked throat.


    ¡°Mom and dad are dead?,¡± I finally admitted. It was more an assertion of fact but it came out as a question. Mr. and Mrs. Reyes answered with a solemn nod. ¡°We can¡¯t go back to our home,¡± I continued. Again, they replied with a nod which helped cement the record I was creating in my mind. ¡°We don¡¯t have a home anymore.¡± That last one was harder to say.


    June answered me with words this time. ¡°Sweet princess,¡± she called me, ¡°you have a home here if you want it. We will take care of you and treat you with love and kindness until you are ready to leave. We will keep you safe from something like this.¡± More sadness began to lace the edge of her voice. ¡°We cannot undo what has been done and we cannot replace the king and queen as your parents, but we can make sure that you grow up safe and loved.¡±


    It was then that I had a chance to look and see what other choices I had. I couldn¡¯t go back to the castle where the rebels were most likely killing people and stealing everything. I couldn¡¯t go further north without a boat to cross the Alblu and even if I could, there was nothing waiting for me on the mainland. To the east were the great mountains of Bahemos Rest which I knew a pair of children couldn¡¯t get through. Farther south were the vast plains of the Kingsmeet and then the Kingdom of Brace. We weren¡¯t friendly with Brace; I remember that much. The Kingdom of Jellette was also to the east with its back to the mountains of Bahemos Rest but the idea of going there was just as poor as heading to the mainland. We would still be strangers in a strange land.


    ¡°I want to stay here,¡± I finally decided. ¡°Can my brother and I live with you?¡± I remember being taught to be proper to everyone, regardless of where they lived or what their status was, right up to the point where they prove they don¡¯t deserve the respect you¡¯re offering. A dark, sorrowful expression came to everyone¡¯s face, except for the masked man¡¯s face because I couldn¡¯t see it and my own because I didn¡¯t know what everyone else knew.


    Mrs. Reyes knelt down, tucking her skirt under her knees as she came to my level. ¡°Sweet princess,¡± she called me again, only, this time, it sounded more patronizing like when the servants would call me that while trying to get me to do something I didn¡¯t want to do but my mom said I had to. There was a lot of sympathy in her voice though and she tried her best to be comforting as she took my already broken world and shattered it into even tinier pieces. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she began, saying it like it was her fault, ¡°but your brother isn¡¯t staying with you. He has to go with the man that rescued you. He has something very important to do and he can''t do it here.¡±


    I still didn¡¯t understand but that heavy sobbing I had put off suddenly became one of the few things I could do. I put my fists to my eyes and cried so hard I was stuck in a symphony of moans while choking back the lump in my throat. I struggled to speak, managing, ¡°Why can¡¯t¡­ *sob* I go¡­ *sob* with him?¡± It was the stranger¡¯s turn to answer me. ¡°Because, Princess Melody, it is a dangerous place and you would be unwelcome by the people there. Furthermore, it is a secret from the world and few are permitted to know of its existence. By the laws of this place to which we must go, you are forbidden to even see it. I am sorry¡±


    I was getting sick of being addressed as a princess. Being a princess meant having your parents killed, your home burnt to the ground, and your brother being ripped out of your life with no real explanation. ¡°I want to stay with my brother!¡± I began yelling. Sadness had turned to anger and it soon became the only emotion I could understand.


    It was Kael who calmed me down. ¡°I can¡¯t stay with you,¡± he told me. ¡°You¡¯re all I have left and the only way I can protect you is if I go with him and you stay here where it is safe. The rest of the world isn¡¯t safe, and it¡¯s not safe where I¡¯m going, but I need to go. I can¡¯t, though, unless I know that you are going to be protected and hidden from the people who want to kill us like they did mother and father.¡±


    I was at an impasse with fate. All the pieces had fallen in a row to make a big wall that I had no way of overcoming. So now I was left here, no family, no home, no brother. Even the man who had saved me was leaving me here, abandoning me without anyone I had any sort of emotional attachment to. It was just going to be me and these two strangers. Their kind words and sympathetic tones were supposed to make me feel better but all it made me feel was more appreciative of the life I once had. I wanted to go back, prevent it all somehow. Yet, there was nothing I could do. I was weak and powerless against the cold hand of destiny. This is where it had placed me and I had no choice but to try and forge a good life out of what little material it gave me to build with.


    I got to watch the eyes of my brother show all the sorrow of an ocean¡¯s worth of tears never spilled, held back by pride alone. I know he wanted to call out to me and I wanted to call out to him. A hug was all I had to give my brother before he left my life so I could try and make something of it in this tiny town on the border of a burnt kingdom. I had to stand there and watch as the stranger and my brother got back on the horse and left.  Making the best of this situation was the only thing I could do to honor the memory of my lost family.


    Mark and June were the nicest people in the world and I have yet to meet anyone to prove me otherwise. For far longer than I¡¯d ever admit, I thought they were only treating me nice because of my title or because they had such a fierce loyalty to my parents; that it was not love they were trying to give me, but extended worship meant for my mom and dad. They showered me with so much affection that I would reject in my stubbornness. I stupidly thought they were trying to win my love so that when my brother or I took the kingdom back, they¡¯d have a free ride to fortune and comfort. Each time they¡¯d offer out a helping hand, I¡¯d spit in it. Yet, every time I¡¯d bite at that unconditional love, they¡¯d continue to offer it. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    They suffered me and my attitude without any promise of reward. There came a point where they felt enough time had passed that they could share the news with me about what had become of my former home. Mark sat me down with him and his wife and they showed me transcripts of reports that were spread through the kingdom. It was no more and there was nothing left to be gained from raising me and that¡¯s when I realized they didn¡¯t see me as a golden ticket to a better life. They saw me as a daughter.


    The details about what had happened to the kingdom were kind of hard to swallow but I never once showed any disbelief. A year had passed before I learned about what had happened and, by then, it was too late to do anything about it. When my dad had taken charge of the kingdom with my mom, he had replaced the royal army with his own army, who were arguably better trained and much stronger than the Sol Kingdom¡¯s army. The leader of the ousted army, General Jouch, didn''t like my dad¡¯s rule.


    That was the start of a revolution that would consume a small part of the world. The army that was cast aside began plotting over the span of a decade on how to overthrow the Lione family and it involved the murder of the King, the Queen, and the royal children. When that night came, my family was asleep and half the army had been deployed across the kingdom to secure a part of the border being subjected to more frequent bandit activity. What was left was murdered at nightfall, picked off by men they thought to be allies until only a handful remained.


    Using the guise of their brothers, the secondary army made their way past the posted security for the castle and one of them found their way into the bedroom of the king and queen. Before they could wake, they were each stabbed in the heart, again and again until there was no chance that the mighty Warrior King and beloved Sun Queen could ever rise again. With the king and queen dead, the next task was to kill the prince and princess and end the line of succession. The agent failed and the children managed to escape somehow. They had not been seen for a year and there was some dispute about what happened to them.


    I still didn¡¯t know what had happened to my brother from all that but I was here in Sonata still, growing up in that tiny house with Mark and June as their adopted daughter. The people of Sonata knew who I was but no one said anything. No one was in power anymore. The kingdom was crumbling and General Jouch had tried his best to take control after the revolution but pressure from the kingdom¡¯s neighbors became too much. Everyone thought Brace would be the one to inevitably invade when the power became too much for General Jouch; who never did take the title of king. It was actually Jellette that invaded and took control of the state. General Jouch, who was abandoned by his people, lead them to believe that a great change was what the kingdom needed and when they gave him his dream, it turned rotten in his mouth the moment the burden of my dad¡¯s position became his. He cowered before the greater king of Jellette and the people stepped out from behind him and bowed to King Ashel, begging for him to rescue them from the false savior.


    Out of respect for everything the kingdom once was and the great man my dad had been, King Ashel kept the territory named ¡°Lione¡± but there was no doubt who actually ruled it. We were called Lionens still but we were all subjects of the Jellette Kingdom. King Ashel claimed he was sending people out to try and find the lost prince and princess but no one ever came looking for me. Either they assumed we wouldn¡¯t be still in the kingdom or the king only said he¡¯d look for us as a sign of good faith to the people of Lione.


    Even if someone did show up asking about the princess, I doubt they would find any clue about where I disappeared to. No one in the village spoke about me to strangers and I started to look less and less like the princess of a kingdom. I cut my hair short and started dressing like the boys in the town. Small boots, pants, a loose shirt, and occasionally a hat that was just a tiny bit too big for me. Nobody called me princess and people stopped calling me Melody altogether. I was only known as Mel, the Reyes kid, and my entire past became an unspoken thought that slept in the back of everyone¡¯s mind, never even glanced upon unless something were to wake it.


    Life in Sonata can be wonderful break from any and all pressures. So small and insignificant, it was never really involved in anything that regarded the kingdom or its people. Mark, as it turned out, was a repair-person. His entire life was dedicated to not only studying and learning about all technology; simple to complex, archaic to modern, but also to help others whose jobs and lives had come to rely on such technology. As a port town, Sonata did see a decent amount of traffic from the mainland but most sailed down to Hope, since it was closer to the other major cities in the kingdom than the remote Sonata. We did see enough traffic though that Mark was able to somewhat keep up with trends in technology and learn about new innovations.


    June was a fisher, which surprised me. She would disappear for the better part of a day or two and return with the other villagers with a big enough catch to sustain the village should the crops ever fail. I was even allowed to go with her a few times when they were fishing a spot that was close enough to the village that they didn¡¯t have to worry about losing me. It was fascinating seeing her in action. She could tote and lift as well as the next man and I realized that while I was stuck in the castle, I had gotten the wrong impression about what jobs were and were not meant for women. In the rest of the world, a decent woman did what needed to be done just as a decent man does. Gender really doesn¡¯t matter as much as whether or not you could do what others depended on you to do.


    While out on those fishing trips, I would help any way I could by fetching spears or pails or whatever was needed. One trip, though, they ended up pulling up too many fish in their net and it became too difficult to wrestle their catch on board. Just when it seemed like they were going to lose everything they had worked hard to pull up, I grabbed a good part of the net and started pulling. The net dredged up the biggest haul of fish I had ever seen and, with my help, we got it all on board without losing a single one. I got a lot of looks after that, remarking on how strong I was for an eight-year-old. The praise made feel good enough that I didn¡¯t think about where I was and how I had gotten here. I had no ambitions of becoming a fisher like June, but I did feel like I could bring something to peoples¡¯ lives and help them the way I helped the fishers.


    Back on land, I did everything I could to help the villagers out in their everyday lives. More often the not, I just ended up getting in the way. Twice I ended up taking something that Mark was trying to fix and breaking it beyond repair. After that, I was encouraged to start exploring the outer limits of the village. I learned about the crops and the farms that provided non-fish related food for the village. That didn''t hold my interest either.


    Eventually, I started hearing talk about a series of caves along the coast, built into the bluffs that appeared if you traveled far enough along the beach away from the docks. They were called the Hollows and were said to be the refuge of some long forgotten god who had survived the War of the Dark Gods from ages long past. Naturally, I was far too curious about the Hollows for my own good and wanted to see it for myself, but June forbade me from traveling that direction. She said that there were bandits that hid out in that direction and she didn¡¯t want me getting kidnapped and hurt or killed.


    It was a sweet thought but it fell on deaf ears. I could haul a fishing net loaded with fish and break apart stone like it was wood. What sort of threat did bandits pose to me? So I did what any kid would do when forbidden to go somewhere. I snuck away when no one was looking and went there anyway. I first asked to come with on a fishing trip and as soon as June was thoroughly distracted with getting the supplies onto the boat, I snuck off. It wasn¡¯t easy because she watched me like a hawk, but there came a point where her attention wavered just long enough that I could disappear on her.


    It took a while to get to the caves I had heard about. I knew I was getting close because there were more and more rocks on the coast and they were tearing at the leather of my shoes. Eventually, my shoes gave out and I had to go barefoot.  After navigating the edge of the continent long enough, I found the Hollows. I remember thinking I''d find a lost and forgotten god or something. I didn''t but I wasn''t disappointed either.


    They seemed just like any other cave. Peering in, they looked dark and damp and after I got close, I could hear water running in the caves. There appeared to be only one entrance but they way I had heard about them suggested that the caves let out all over the place and stretched on underground for miles. Supposedly, the most openings were in a strange field full of holes that served as outlets for the caves themselves and were referred to as The Hollowlands. I should have gone there instead.


    It was at that point that I realized that I had come completely unprepared. I didn¡¯t have a torch with me or anything to light it with had I been able to find a suitable stick. I still wasn¡¯t going to turn back so soon and I decided to explore a shallow length of the caves; just enough of them until I couldn¡¯t see where I was going and the light from outside would no longer be of any use to me.


    I made my way over the jagged assortment of rocks that made the cave''s mouth and managed to find smoother, softer ground just past the threshold. I began feeling over the walls and taking in how wide the cave really was. It was large enough to build a small boat in and if there was some kind of beast lurking deep within the series of tunnels, it would be big enough to eat me and not scrape the ceiling as it moved. I pushed that thought away. The last thing I wanted to think about was some great, snarling dragon deep within the caves waiting for some stupid, little girl to come poking around in the dark.


    June taught me that dragons lived in volcanic mountains and refused to come down for the things humans had done to them. She also said, in all fairness, they had been trying to eat all of humanity long before humanity started hunting them to near extinction. This would be close to the kind of place dragons came from. It was warm and deep despite being on a coast and it reminded me of how Krymm, the titan of fire, took all the great reptilian beasts from the Age of Chaos and put them underground, giving them wings and fire to defend themselves against the other races for when they would eventually burst forth from their hibernation and scorch the land.


    I dared myself to search deeper into the depths of the caves.  Feeling along the wall, I kept to one side so I could find my way back out in the dim light. The walls were bumpy and wet with some kind of moisture and the inside of the cave got more humid the deeper I got. I felt the cave start to curve to the side while I was moving along and I knew if I kept going, I was going to lose sight of the entrance as well as lose what light I had. Something inside me pushed me to continue and I made the turn.


    I was hypnotized by a fascinating glow, decorating the ground along the walls on either side. It didn¡¯t completely light the cave up but it gave me enough illumination to see where I was going. I left the safety of the wall I was moving along and knelt down to look at what was glowing on the ground. It was some kind of fungus giving off a blue luminosity that bathed the expanse of the tunnel in soft light.


    With the way lit up, I had no excuse to avoid going deeper and deeper in. I had to be more careful not to step on my light source the deeper in I went because they seem to get more abundant the further I walked.  For a moment, I wonder if I could pull a glowshroom from the ground and use it as a not-so-brilliant torch but I had enough common sense that I wasn¡¯t going to bother touching something I knew nothing about. For all I knew, it could glow because of some toxin is secreted.


    The tunnel began to dip down and curve again, this time to the other side. I followed it, trying hard not to lose my footing to the sudden incline, only to feel myself slipping anyway. I sat down on my rear and reached behind me, crawling, down feet first and face up, low to the ground, so I didn¡¯t slide down out of control. At the bottom, the cave opened up to many diverging paths and in the middle of it, I could see a gathering of some strange things I didn¡¯t expect to see in the middle of a cave people avoided.


    I wasn¡¯t sure what it was at first but when I got closer, I could make out a sort of makeshift shelter made of branches from the beach and a leather hide that had been crudely sewn together then draped over the branches propped up on one another. It could fit someone small like me easily but a larger adult would not be very comfortable. In front of the tent, there was a gathering of smaller sticks that looked burnt in the middle, like a fire had been lit long ago but it had become damp and useless overtime. Inside the tent itself, there were furs laid out to make a comfortable place to lie.


    I would have explored it more but I didn¡¯t want to get lost and just as I got close enough to the shelter, I heard the low, guttural growl of something down one of the tunnels. I turned and began carefully, quietly, and slowly making my way back the way I came. When I got out, I moved along the coast until I found my way past the rocks to the more comforting sands of the soft beach. I found the fishing ship completely loaded but half the crew as missing. I found out they were looking for me and when they had returned, I got my worst scolding yet from June. My punishment was a trial of thankless and grueling chores for the span of three weeks but it did nothing to deter me from wanting to explore the Hollows again.


    It wouldn¡¯t take long before I could sneak off to the coast without needing to go with June and soon the comforts of the caves became my hideaway. I would disappear for long hikes out to the beach and move along until I found the Hollows again. Each time I would bring a rope so I could tie one end of it to a big rock by the shelter and take the other end to explore one of the many paths. That way I could always find my way back. It became my haven and I wouldn¡¯t know how much I¡¯d need it until chaos came to the peaceful village of Sonata; the quiet jewel yet untouched by the ravages of war that was ever present in the kingdoms of Embre.

 Chapter 3: Kael Lione, The Inane

    His name was Jukahn, the Chained. That is what he told me when he pulled me aside after reaching the village of Sonata. ¡°Young prince,¡± he addressed me, ¡°you have an incredible burden that has been placed on your shoulders. You are the vengeful soul of the Lione Kingdom, of King Alexander, and of Queen Lhianna. Their unspoken rage is trapped within you and you do not yet have the voice to express their anger. I can give you that voice but you have to come with me.¡±


    I had already had a long horse ride to think over all that had happened. Only a few questions came to mind when he made his offer. ¡°What will happen to my sister?¡± It was then that he removed the mask, showing me that he was human after al with a face that had a finely groomed black goatee but there was something about him that was off; something different. I could tell by his complexion that he wasn¡¯t from South Embre. He had come from the mainland.


    ¡°She will stay here with this couple. They are good people, loyal to the former Queen and King, and they will protect your sister and keep her hidden from anyone who would come after her. That self-sacrifice is wasted if you do not make something of it. If you stay here with your sister, your life will be quiet; it¡¯s true. However the tale of the Warrior King and the Queen of the Sun end with them being murdered in their beds and their children never heard from again.¡±


    I narrowed my gaze at him. ¡°You sound like you are trying to bribe me with glory and anger. How will revenge bring my parents back from the dead? How will revenge rebuild my home? Where will you take me that can ever make up for everything that had just happened?¡± I could feel the hot reminder of pain in tears that streaked down my face, collecting at my chin and dripping down onto my shift. I knew that all the pain in the world was playing out in my eyes.


    ¡°Your sister has her entire life ahead of her. She has the potential to make anything out of it but what I saw back there; you have the potential keep people like that safe from the same people that killed your parents. You have the potential to keep people like that alive by protecting them. Your sister has the world at her fingertips, but with the exception of her, you have nothing. You are an empty vessel and I would fill you with immortality.¡±


    His words did sway me little by little, but it was looking at Melody that convinced me what to do. I watched her speak with the couple who would take care of her, the same couple that I¡¯m sure would take care of me, but I didn¡¯t want to be taken care of. I didn¡¯t want to be safe and comfortable. Jukahn had chipped at the crust of my Embre until hot magma had burst forth and for the first time in my life, I was near erupting with a hunger for wrath. I wasn¡¯t na?ve enough to think Jukahn¡¯s intentions were entirely pure, but if he wanted to make me a weapon where my father would have made me a man, then I¡¯ll be both a shield to protect Melody and a sword to slay the beasts that hunt her.


    I agreed to Jukahn¡¯s offer again and again, even after he explained that I would be taken far from my homeland and far from my sister, going a long period of time without seeing her. I was blinded by vindication. I returned to my sister to hear her arguing in a voice twisted in pain. I had never heard her so sad and angry before. It was all I could do to comfort her but I had to tell her the truth: that she couldn¡¯t come with me and she wouldn¡¯t be seeing me for a long time.


    If she had to stay, she didn¡¯t want me to leave. If I had to leave, she didn¡¯t want to stay. There were two paths and neither was large enough for both of us to walk together. I explained to her as best as I could that this is what was meant to be. We had to go separate ways if we ever wanted to meet up again. We can¡¯t both survive staying in the Lione Kingdom. Even if we could, it would not be a life worth living.


    She finally accepted the misfortune for the promise of something greater blossoming from its ashes. We embraced each other one last time. Even in the chill of the morning and the coldness of her grief, she radiated with a warmth that spread into my heart, resting there as the final thing of hers that I could take with me. I told her I¡¯d miss her. I told her that I loved her. I told her that I would see her again. Lastly, I told her that the stranger would watch out for me. In that moment, all I truly wanted from that man was to not make me a liar.


    We got back on the horse after I was able to tell my sister goodbye and headed even further north, to the small harbor that belonged to the village. There, a boat was waiting for us. It was the same size as a fishing boat, not meant to hold more than a handful of passengers and aside from the captain and two crew members, Jukahn and I were the only passengers present.


    The boat ferried us across the Alblu, which I thought I wouldn¡¯t see until I had become king and was on my way to visit foreign dignitaries. The Alblu is a sea of water that divides the mainland from South Embre and it can be very hazardous to those who don¡¯t know how to navigate it. They say that a large expanse of the sea is made up of the titan of water, Delunari. This might be a rumor though made up by sailors betrayed by the dangers of an angry ocean. We faced no such anger on our journey and managed to make it safely to the mainland.


    We stopped at the port of Harusame, a port city that served as the crux of a kingdom in Eastern Embre. We had made it to the mainland but there was further to go. What time we spent in Harusame was to rest before the next part of our journey. I had to wear a cloak to keep myself hidden. It wasn¡¯t that anyone would recognize me for the lost prince of the Lione Kingdom, but because my skin tone was darker than the pale people of Eastern Embre. Natives of Southern Embre knew the sun¡¯s warmth more intimately, and thus easily stood out against the people who lived in colder or more neutral climates.


    Jukahn rented us a room in an inn for the night where we could rest but he didn¡¯t stay in the room.  I had gotten my fill of sleep for most of the boat ride when the thrill of crossing the Alblu had worn and fatigue finally took its hold of me. So I stayed up for the better part of the night reading some books that were put in the room for the comfort and entertainment of guests. None of them were particularly interesting but I settled on the only book that I was willing to read past the first six pages without becoming too bored to go on.


    It was a novel meant to romanticize history and I never really had a chance to find it again to finish it. It was rather well written for what I would have easily passed off as a trash written in the span of a few weeks. The concept occurs in the Age of Chaos where a man unknowingly falls for a woman who is actually a physical form created to house the combined consciousness of three titans. These titans were Clothene, Atrae, and Lechesai who represented the ethereal concepts of life, time, and death. My historical studies touched on them briefly but I only had the chance to learn enough about them to know that the book would most likely end with the woman, who was named Tria after the ancient tongue for three, giving birth to a set of triplets historically known as the first everchild, the first mythish, and the first necromancer.


    I got as far as the man and woman settling down for a life away from the strict tribes of other humans trying desperately not to anger the already warring gods when the sun invaded the room. It was time to pack up what little supplies we had (all his) and leave. Jukahn handed me a loaf of bread and a small canteen of apple water to break my fast, instructing me to eat on the way out because we did not have the time to stay. Either it was urgent to arrive at our destination or there was something up with the room where we had to leave the inn as quickly as possible. I never found out which. I did notice that we avoided speaking to the innkeeper as we hurried out.


    In short time, we were back on the horse and heading west towards the Rainlands, taking the River Road through the vast forests. I noticed that there was a greater variety of trees within the Rainlands that I had not even read about. Some of them were very thin but also appeared to be remarkably durable. They were like single stocks that went straight up with a few large leaf-laden branches at the top. As we went further and further through the wet landscape, the trees grew thicker and more decorated with leaves, branches, and even fruit. Such a large variety of plant life most likely also had a large variety of animal life dwelling within them. I had heard that a small number of elf tribes hide within the vast forest as well. I had never met an elf before.


    The further west we went, the higher into the mountains we¡¯d go until we diverted off the path at a large rock, misplaced on the side of the road. It appeared as a normal boulder, about a couple feet tall, with no distinguishing marks or unique shape. One could easily overlook it if they did not notice that it was the only rock that size along the River Road for miles. There was no path hidden beyond the rock until a good ten minutes of seemingly aimless wandering through the woods. If we had not been traveling in a straight line since leaving the path or if our direction had been off by just the smallest degree, we would have missed it altogether.


    The path weaved through a number of hills before breaking into a small valley and nestled within the center of that miniature valley was a village that took up much of it. The houses were made out of the sturdy but thin trees I had seen earlier and they ranged from small, one-person huts to larger, simplistic structures. We were greeted as we came through the gate by the villagers. They wore simple clothing and sandals on their feet in place of boots and shoes. Many of them wore short-sleeved robes that also stopped just above their knees with only a select few even wearing pants. Men and women seem to dress the same way as did the children.


    We dismounted and a man in green with his hair tied atop his head in a short knot took the reins of the horse and led it towards a nearby stable. Jukahn hitched his small sack of supplies onto his shoulder and lead the way down the center of the village. ¡°This is Shinohari,¡± he explained halfway through the town. ¡°It is hidden within the Rainlands and its people are ruled by no one and protected by us.¡± When he said us, it sounded as if he was including me. I was only here to learn how to protect my, sister. I had no plans of protecting a village of people I had never met before and who I owed no loyalty to.


    Sensing this, he went on to say, ¡°you are now a member of the Shinohari. As such, you are going to begin your training as one of its protectors. When you learn how to defend and support a people who are not your own as if they were you flesh and blood, you will be the savior your sister needs to rescue her from the monsters lurking in the shadows; the monsters that took your life away.¡± He knelt down, his tone lowering with him so that only I could hear him. ¡°And to stop the monsters in the dark, you must live among them and become as they are.¡±


    I didn¡¯t understand what that meant. How was I to become a monster? How would becoming a monster save my sister? The last thing he said before he lead me to the great hall sitting at the end of the village furthest from the entrance was ¡°Born in darkness, living in darkness, light may only come in death.¡± He seemed to take some joy in switching between speaking in a straightforward manner and speaking in riddles. It kept me confused but it at least it kept me thinking.


    The hall itself was not what I expected. It was mostly empty, decorated with weapons along the walls including many copies of the thin sword that Jukahn used as well as swords and knives in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There were other odd weapons: considerably short throwing daggers, chains like the one Jukahn used, short sickles, a long scythe, much shorter versions of the blade but still too long to be knives, gloves with claws on them, blades that looked like they strapped to the wrists, spools of wire, balls of packed gunpowder but no guns, staves, glaives, flails, and many others. It was a room of death. The only thing that decorated the floor of the room was a small assortment of training dummies similar to the ones I used to train with back home. That¡¯s when I guessed that the hall was a sort of training barrack. ¡°Training for what,¡± I wondered.


    We weren¡¯t alone, either. At the far end of the hall, sitting in front of a wall with a large mural painted on it, a figure was facing away from us. First, I looked at the mural. It was a painting of some forest in the middle of some mountains, mostly greens and blues except for a large patch in the middle of the painting. Red and yellow and other angry colors blended together in a great fire nestled within those woods. I must have been studying it too long because Jukahn noticed, giving me the answer to a question I hadn¡¯t asked out loud. ¡°These mountains are the ones in the painting and the fire is this village.¡±


    The stranger that was slumped in front of the painting and possibly asleep proved to actually be in meditative thought and Jukahn¡¯s words broke that concentration. Rising up and turning in one motion, I saw that it was a woman. Her black and gray hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail and she appeared to be older than Jukahn, but by how much I couldn¡¯t say. The most distinguishing feature I noted was the eye patch that hid her right eye. When she spoke, her voice had a rasp that comes with age but enough chime to it to make me think that she had a beautiful voice when she was younger.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°Saban painted that when Sahil was still alive; before they left on that mission and only Saban returned.¡± She began approaching me, her steps inaudible on the wooden floor. Then I noticed I was the only one of the three of us who could be heard. Something I would learn to avoid, I suppose. As she stood in front of me, hands folded behind her back, I realized that she was shorter than Jukahn. Looking up at Jukahn, I saw a great deal of respect and even the barest hint of adoration seeping through his steel gaze. She was the one who introduced herself, offering out a hand in a friendly gesture. ¡°My name is Junoro, the Winged,¡± she said as I took her hand and shook it in greeting.


    ¡°My name is Kael Lione. It is an honor to meet you, Junoro,¡± I replied.


    She smiled at me a sort of knowing smile and withdrew her hand, then looked to Jukahn. ¡°He is certainly well-mannered, I¡¯ll give him that. A prince?¡±


    Jukahn gave a quick nod to the woman. ¡°Of course, mistress. He had killed the man sent to kill him and one other before I found him. He shows remarkable promise as steel fit for folding over and over into the finest sword.¡±


    They were going to make me a weapon after all. I remained silent, letting them speak rather than going after them for details. Junoro was the one to volunteer the information. ¡°Kael, you are going to be trained by Jukahn, the Chained to be one of us just as Jukahn was trained by me before you and I was trained by Juli, the Rain before him in succession going all the way back to our founder, Juen the Beginning.¡±


    Jukahn continued for her. ¡°We protect this village of Shinohari but we also do more than that. We have the power of manipulating the course of history. We offer this power at a very high price to those who wish to see the fate of their kingdom, people, or Embre itself moved in their favor. This price that is paid for the power we wield is spent keeping these people healthy and hidden from the rest of the world, as the last bastion of Embre. We are merchants of death and the gold we are paid reinforces the gates of paradise.¡±


    I understood what was to become of me. Over the course of many years, I would be trained to become a merchant of death as they were. Shinohari survives based on a line of successive swords for hire that sell their blades to those who wish to shift the path their lives are taking. Though we may be used as spies or bodyguards, it is our role as assassins that truly decides the future of the entire world outside of Shinohari.


    I found out that before I had been taken here, there were three lineages and each were descendant from Juen¡¯s teachings. The more direct line is distinguishable by the prefix ¡°Ju¡± as in Jukahn, Junoro, and Juli as well as many others leading back centuries to Juen himself. The next line comes from Reika, the Uncaged and ends with Reina the Legion who trained at the same time as Jukahn. Their line all contains the prefix ¡°Rei¡±. The third started from Salial, the Sun who came to Shinohari after Reika and his line ended with Saban, the End who not only predicted the end of his line and Reika¡¯s but also brought it about when he turned mad. He trained at the same time as Reina and Jukahn and went insane, killing Reina, her master, his own master, and himself. The gift of foresight is seldom a gift at all.


    By the time I finished my training, I would be given a name with the prefix of ¡°Ju¡± in addition to choosing my title. Each is chosen for a reason that best describes the nature of the person who chooses it and takes the entire length of training to discover a title that fits. Jukahn is called ¡°The Chained¡± because he believes that we are all chained to something; some of us to fate or responsibility and some of us to our own mortality. Junoro is called ¡°The Winged¡± because she favors the high ground above all else, striking from the sky. If she truly had wings, she¡¯d soar above the clouds and never return to solid ground again. She only feels free when gravity itself has little to no hold over her. There are others I learned about as well, such as Reina who was called ¡°The Legion¡± because she could become anyone or anything and Saban so-called ¡°The End¡± because he knew he would inevitably end Salial¡¯s line and Reika¡¯s line as well.


    The training was not easy but there was something easy about living in Shinohari. It was a more comfortable lifestyle than what I was used to at the castle. There was no pressure on me and the only weight on my shoulders was to finish my training and find my sister. It was short-sighted, I know, but it was comforting because, for the first time, I felt like I had freedom. Somewhere along the way, I lost myself or at least I lost what I thought was me. I lost Kael Lione, and maybe that was their intention. Maybe that was Jukahn¡¯s intention; to create a blank slate and hammer into me through discipline and philosophy a new being that was neither a man nor a weapon. He would be Shinohari and nothing else.


    I didn¡¯t want that to happen. Because, in doing so, I would lose my sister. If I didn¡¯t always have her in my mind, if I didn¡¯t keep the reason why I was doing this in the first place, I would truly be nothing. I knew that was what they meant for me and it was all I could do to give the illusion that they were making of me exactly that. Jukahn¡¯s teachings were very much along this line. Many of the lessons ended reminding me that ¡°You do not last forever, initiate. While you are here, you must become something greater than what you started out as and to do that, you must cast off the chains and clear yourself of whatever corrupts you. Become inane, empty as the void, with no purpose so that you may take on a purpose worthy of your unique existence.¡±


    The physical training was demanding for someone born human, nearly impossible in fact, but my titanian heritage gave me an edge against the grueling regimen of muscles and stamina training. They had no way of challenging me other than to increase the frequency in which I was pushed to my limits. I ached and I sweat but I survived and came out stronger each time I was sent through the fire. It wasn¡¯t until after a year that my training became more focused. I was taught to move quickly without making a noise. To be very precise in every gesture with no wasted movement. I was taught to quickly observe and react. I was taught critical thinking and problem solving, weapons training, hand-to-hand combat, disabling an opponent, confusion, infiltration, deception, disguise, misdirection, observation, and many other skills that would benefit me as a merchant of death. I was not only taught, I was practiced in each of these over many years.


    The mental training was much like the physical mixed with history lessons and teachings about those who had come before me. I was also taught mathematics, language, geography, culture, and much more that would have been my standard course of learning back in Lione had my life continued down the track it was meant for. But there was more to it, though. There were a lot more lessons about the harsh reality of people, of their nature and what drives men. I was always taught that all evil derives from the hunger. The hunger is an emptiness that all beings are born with desiring to be filled, even though by its nature, it can never be. Jukahn taught me that the hunger is just part of the need to survive. We have an innate need to stay alive as long and as comfortable as possible and the hunger is just the part that tells us what we don¡¯t want to admit: ¡°We survive through the sacrifice of others¡±. It made much of my training seem contradictory.


    I learned very little about Jukahn during my constant time with him as far as who he was, where he came from, and what he wanted out of life. However, I did learn a lot about his way of thinking. Jukahn believed that nothing born on this world may exist forever. They used to believe that the gods were the only true immortals other than the titans, but two foolish wars and godly blood being spilled all across Embre proved that while they were not as a frail as we are, they are far from unending. Jukahn believed that was the nature of all things to come from Embre. He wasn¡¯t nihilistic. He always spoke as if waiting somewhere over the horizon, there was a way for someone to transcend that truth. It was his way to speak as if he knew something no one else did. Some truth of existence that we were always meant to know but he was the first and only to understand it.


    It wasn¡¯t all training. I had much time to learn of the people of Shinohari and about Jukahn¡¯s mentor, Junoro. The people of Shinohari were refugees when an Eastern Embre warlord tore through their original home as part of his path to conquer the eastern mainland and rule over the land from the north coast to the south coast and from the high mountains of the Rainlands to the large island of Devil Isle. This warlord sent his spies and assassins to each homeland he sought to conquer to defeat them through espionage and shadow tactics so that the enemy was brought down from the inside before his army destroyed the husk of what was left. A man among these dark infiltrators saw the madness and the tragedy befalling those the warlord trampled under his foot while he marched on. He took in what was left of a people whose homes had been burnt to the ground and most of their friends and family murdered in a war they had no say in. He took these people far into the mountains, out of reach and out of knowledge, and he cared for them. He did what he could, what he knew how to do, to keep the people healthy and stable. The village is named Shinohari for the Eastern tongue meaning ¡°People of a lost world¡±.


    My mind was honed as finely as my body and both were put through their limits, redefining what those limits were everyday. I began to see in Jukahn what he saw in Junoro. It wasn¡¯t accurate to say he became a father figure but I depended on him to teach me and take care of me while I learned to take care of myself. It explained the motherly look Junoro was always giving Jukahn when they spoke. Eventually I would call him ¡°master¡± and he called Junoro ¡°mistress¡±. Through his guidance, I was able to pick up on advanced teachings rather quickly. There was one exception, though.


    They say there are three things that make a being. The first is the body which is the physical part. The second is the mind which is the mental that commands the physical. The third is the spirit which gives the energy to make the mental and the physical work. In a time long past, a set of monks in Eastern Embre found a way to extend the energy of the spirit beyond the body. It creates an incredible strain on everything that makes up a being and exists as a secret never meant to be unlocked, but if it is practiced, a creative mind can make miracles of the energy the spirit naturally produces. A titanian, in theory, produces an exuberant amount of energy compared to humans but bringing it out was a feat unto itself. That is what Jukahn spent the better part of our training trying to tap into.


    Willing the power that is reserved only for the functionality of your body and mind is not an easy task. I spent many hours high in the mountains, surrounded by no noise save for the serenity of nature. I was humbled by waterfalls and rivers, the calls of birds and beasts, the wind dancing over the tops of trees and the rain falling in torrents only to trickle off leaves before it made it softly to the forest floor. All this time spent trying to find the energy of the soul, bring it out, and hold it in the palm of my hand, outside of my body. The mind is master of the body but the spirit exists like a force of nature, beyond control, and beyond understanding. If it is yours, though, should you not be able to understand it?


    The key was in his teachings. I sat on a rock that had no special meaning or significance with my eyes shut and only the wise voice of Jukahn singing symphonies of wisdom into my ears. ¡°Your mind still believes that your body needs all of what your spirit provides. The spirit gives more than enough, but the body demands it all because that is all the body knows. Teach your mind to let go of the needs of the body. Empty yourself of the desire to satisfy the flesh. Become the void, blank so that you may rewrite yourself the way you need to be writ.¡±


    I took in slow breaths and exhaled them patiently a moment later, I was lost within myself. I could see and hear the echoes of the mind playing out every thought, showing me all that was holding me back. The voice of my sister making me promise to find her again, the burning of my home, the call in the night that the king and queen were dead, the look of the man who was reluctant but ready to take the lives of two children for an idea that it was for the greater good. Then I realized that I had nothing beyond that. I didn¡¯t know anything about what befell my home after we had been rescued from it. I never got any news and no one would tell me because they believed it shouldn¡¯t matter to me.


    It shouldn¡¯t, really. I should have no concern over the fate of my people because they weren¡¯t my people anymore. I had no responsibility to them because I wasn¡¯t Kael Lione anymore. All the thoughts and memories I had been clinging to, the sense of identity, started to slip away and piece by piece they fell. The voices went quiet and I was left in vast, white nothingness. I stood at the precipice of a new beginning, where one step forward would take me down a countlessly splitting path where before I saw only one path.


    I opened my eyes to a glow in front of me. In my hand was the tool I needed to etch my future into the stone of who I was. It was brilliant, burning brighter than any torch, molded into a perfect orb and floating some few inches above my palm. I watched light and shadow dance around it and marveled at what I had created after I had cleared myself. It was a unique kind of focus that brought me here. It was beyond simple concentration. This was avoiding distraction by leaving nothing to distract.


    Jukahn broke the silence, asking me the question that I had not had the chance to ask myself. ¡°Who are you?¡±


    ¡°Juik,¡± I replied, as the name suddenly became mine. Everything that was Kael Lione slipped away and in speaking that name, I became someone else.  I was Shinohari, a protector and a merchant of death, whose sword and hands shaped the world to a new design that could be whatever I wished it. I could forge a wondrous dream or an unwaking nightmare.


    He asked a second question; one which he already knew the answer to. In calm and steel voice, he asked, ¡°what are you?¡±


    I stared down at the ball of light I had created from nothing and it stared back at me, speaking in whispers and chirps of energy crackling like electricity. Tiny sparks leaped over the smooth surface. This thing came not just from me, but from the emptiness I had created inside of me. A hole I had made so that I had room to be what I needed when it was needed. That is what I was. ¡°The Inane,¡± I answered, ¡°empty as the void so that I may fill myself blood.¡±

 Chapter 4: Mel, Freckles

    Years went by where it was just me exploring all the little village on the coast had to offer. Before I settled into my preferred look, June had this idea that if she put me in a white sun dress and wove flowers into my already short hair, she could make me more ladylike but each time I came back with the flowers lost and holes torn in the dress, she came closer and closer to giving up on that dream. Pretty soon, I was in more enduring leather breeches and off-white shirts that didn¡¯t show dirt as well as the pure white dresses did. It wasn¡¯t a large sacrifice for her, but I think she secretly dreamed of having a daughter that could treat like a daughter and not¡­ well, me.


    I talked with the kids in the village and even played with them a few times, but none of them would go with me to the hollows, I didn¡¯t want to show them my little hideout anyway. We¡¯d play but their games were all the same. It was always some variation of the same pretend. It was either knights versus dragons or knights and princesses or kings and queens or some stupid game based on a fantasy about how the nobles go on big adventures and save the day. I hated them because I knew there were no brave adventurers and the only monsters to fight were inside other people.


    Every time it was the same cast of characters. Luke, the son of a ship captain who was left ashore with his mom by a dad who would never return to port again, always played the heroic knight or brave knight-king who would inevitably save Jani, the daughter of a baker whose only notable quality was that she was pretty. She was pretty looking and pretty dumb which somehow made her perfect to be the princess or the queen. Killian and Talbet were the twins, both big for their age, and were often cast as the knights dedicated to helping the brave Sir Luke in his noble quest. The handmaiden, and occasionally another princess, was played by a girl I knew as Chris. Christinia was her actual name but Chris seemed more familiar. Guess who played the monster.


    Each time I dared myself to go play with the village kids, I¡¯d end up as the dragon or the troll or the ¡°hideous beast from the deep .¡± I didn¡¯t mind being the dragon. Dragons were fierce and strong. They could also breathe fire and fly. The best part was that, at least for a little while, I got the chance to hang out with Chris and Jani before Luke and his knights would find us and fight me to rescue the princesses. Jani would get upset because I would stop pretending to be the monster until Luke showed up. She wanted to be terrorized because ¡°that¡¯s what monsters are supposed to do to princesses¡±. No, monsters take princesses away from their families so they never see them again. Chris didn¡¯t mind. We used to make fun of Jani because she had all these stupid ideas of what a princess is supposed to be. We knew better.


    Me being a monster was a lot like Jani pretending to be a princess. I could only guess how they acted and what it was they wanted. I just went off of how Luke insisted a monster should act. He said they were mean to people and hurt them and stole princesses but whenever I asked him why they did all those things, he simply said, ¡°cause they¡¯re monsters.¡± I was supposed to kidnap the fair maidens, be mean to them, fight the hero, and then die to the hero. I got that last one wrong the first time I played. I tried to fight the hero and win. I ended up getting in a lot of trouble for putting Luke and his brave knights on their asses with bruises that wouldn¡¯t go down for weeks. I went easy on them too.


    It was June who taught me how to hold back when there are no real threats. ¡°They can call you a monster until they run out of breath, but only you can decide whether or not to become one.¡± The kids told me I had to be the monster because there were no other parts to play and because I could do stuff like climb a tree really fast and jump down without getting hurt. I could also break their bones if I squeezed hard enough but I didn¡¯t want to scare off the only kids my age willing to play with me. So, whenever I was feeling friendly enough or missed the company of others, I would grin and bare it to play a part of Luke and Jani¡¯s stupid fantasies about what they thought being heroes was.


    It did make me think about what I thought a hero was. Even at the age of ten, I didn¡¯t think a hero was someone who rode into battle to fight monsters. Fighting a monster to save a beautiful princess is not a hard decision to make, especially if you have the best armor and swords and a group of equally well-armed soldiers with you to help you slay that monster. Real heroes, in my mind, were the ones that make the hard decisions; the ones that chose to take the big risks. A hero was someone who, at the age of ten picks up a sword and fights through full grown men in armor to save his sister. A hero was someone who stayed up all night working on clocks and winches and plows so an entire village of people didn¡¯t starve to death because the crops couldn¡¯t be tended. A hero was someone who went out on a worn and beaten boat in the middle of torrential rain to provide food for those people. A hero was someone who took in a little girl with no family and nothing to inherit and raised them as their own daughter even when, day after day, she didn¡¯t show them nearly as much respect as they deserved. The difference between those kids and I was that my heroes were real.


    There came a day I remember unknowingly playing a game where the outcome would shape who I was forever. It started out innocently enough where I decided to go see what the village kids were doing rather than journey down to the Hollows by myself. I had spent the last three weeks mapping out a good portion of the cave system but I still had no idea how far the tunnels went or what was lurking within them that kept making such a terrible noise. After convincing myself that the caves weren¡¯t going anywhere, I made my way to the east part of the village, where the other kids normally hung out.


    I arrived at the edge of Sonata where I heard them playing behind the stable. I could hear Luke and Jani shouting to each other before I even rounded the corner. Nobody was playing anything. It seemed they were arguing about what to play. Luke wanted to play Knights and Dragons but he couldn¡¯t convince anyone to play the dragon. He was insisting that Chris be the dragon but Jani insisted that Chris had to be a handmaiden. Jani also said that because they didn¡¯t have anyone to play the dragon that they should just play Castle instead, which is a game where they just pretend to be royals living in a castle. It was a step up from Knights and Dragons in that it would elevate Jani¡¯s rank to Queen and Luke would, of course, be her King. She even wanted Chris to be her daughter instead.


    As soon as I approached to greet them, their arguing ended and I knew that the matter was settled. No need to argue about what do without a dragon anymore now that a dragon has suddenly appeared. ¡°Mel!¡± Luke called to me like we had been friends forever, ¡°thank creators you¡¯re here. Just in time too, cause we need someone to do something very important. How would you like to play the dragon for Knights and Dragons?¡± Even knowing what the question was going to be didn¡¯t make me resent it any less.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to be the dragon,¡± I told him flatly.


    He wouldn¡¯t take no for an answer. ¡°You have to be the dragon. No one else can be.¡±


    I crossed my arms over my chest and scrunched my face until it was an annoyed glare. ¡°Jani can be the dragon.¡±


    He looked at me like I had just told him I was going to grow wings and fly away. ¡°Jani can¡¯t be the dragon, she¡¯s the princess.¡±


    I wasn¡¯t going to argue with him about changing Jani¡¯s role, because, frankly, I had zero interest in being a stupid princess. ¡°One of the twins can be the dragon then and I¡¯ll be a knight or squire or something.¡±


    That didn¡¯t seem to be possible either. Luke gave a firm shake of his head, crossing his arms over as well. ¡°You can¡¯t be a knight, you¡¯re a girl.¡±


    That irritated me even more. June was a fisher. I could be a stupid knight. ¡°You remember  I kicked your ass once before, right?¡± Reminding him of his embarrassment didn¡¯t help my cause.


    ¡°I beat you way more times when you were playing the dragon than you beat me!¡± he shouted, fully delusional at this point.


    I let my arms drop, but my hands remained balled into fists. I came stomping towards him at the same time he came stomping to meet me. The difference was in each step. My stomping left small dents in the ground where his only left what little common sense he had behind in a confrontation with a girl who had nearly broken his bones the last time they went at it. Inches from each other¡¯s faces, each word scorched with heat. ¡°I let you win,¡± I reminded him, ¡°so I didn¡¯t have to hear you cry again.¡± That last part was probably petty and unnecessary but I wanted to make him hurt without actually laying a hand on him. Some part of me was hoping he¡¯d back down if I reminded him that when it wasn¡¯t pretend, I came out on top every time.


    ¡°Mommy says I shouldn¡¯t hit girls but you¡¯re not really a girl so I will hit you if I have to.¡± That was his attempt at a threat. It lost all merit when he first referred to his mom as ¡°mommy¡±. Everything beyond that just brought my blood to a boil. I honestly didn¡¯t care about being accused of being a boy but it was the idea behind the statement. It was more of that ignorant way of thinking; that you should treat girls delicately because they are pretty. That meant that either he thought that since I wasn¡¯t delicate, I wasn¡¯t pretty or that because I wasn¡¯t pretty, I wasn¡¯t delicate.


    ¡°You can hit a girl if a girl hits you first,¡± I informed him. Then I gave him permission to take a swing after I thrust my arms out to his shoulders, giving him a hard shove. I wasn¡¯t holding back this time and the shove was enough to send him tumbling backward, ass over head until he landed on his face. I saw his fingers dig into the dirt as he started to get back up. Jani screamed at us, ¡°stop it!¡± as if that would make us see reason. I must not have been too far past reason because Chris came behind me and asked me to let it go and I almost turned and left it behind me. What stopped me was Luke scraping to his feet and throwing a fist full of dirt at my face. The grit got into my eyes and stung, robbing me of my vision and causing me to stagger while I tried to rub the dirt away with my palms.


    He rushed me, putting the full force of his body into me and taking me off me feet. After tacking me to the ground, my eyes still watering, I watched him wind his fist back and ready to strike me. He was straddling my waist and the look in his eyes held an unbridled rage. I swear I could see him crying as he started beating down on me, alternating his fists one after another. He went straight for the head, hitting me two or three times before I was able to get my hands up and start blocking his punches. The pounding he gave me made my head throb and the world pounded with it but I was made of tougher stuff than he was and I knew I could take the beating for a while if I chose to.


    Instead, I managed to grip one of his fists, clenching tightly. I could feel the joints of his knuckles pop the more I put pressure on them and he put his other hand around my wrist, trying desperately to pry his left hand free. Jani was still screaming at us and I think Chris was pleading with me to let him go. I yanked Luke¡¯s arm in towards me, the force causing him to whip forward and as he did, I thrust my forehead up to meet his. There was a very loud crack and he went limp from the headbutt. I let go of his hand and pushed him off me.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    I licked my lips to find a coppery taste on the tip of my tongue. I put my fingers to my lips and came away with blood. I didn¡¯t have to look at Luke to know that it was his. I did look though and I saw a small river of it trickling from what was most likely a broken nose. My head started to pound with a sudden rebuff of pain that was just a background noise before. I got up off the ground with two sounds filling my ears. One was a strange ringing and the other was Jani trying to get Luke back to consciousness. I didn¡¯t really feel the same worry that Jani was feeling until I heard Chris ask, ¡°did you kill him?¡± Did I?


    I turned to face them and found Jani crying over his body while Luke was showing increasing signs of life that were going completely unnoticed by his ¡®princess¡¯. Chris and I watched them from a few feet away, knowing that if I came near him, it would end up making things worse. Then I¡¯d have an emotionally unstable Jani to fight off. Luke was already starting to stir and even before then, he was visibly breathing, just through his mouth. His nose was a little bit out of commission.


    I wasn¡¯t really sure what to do at that point. That¡¯s when I heard Chris suggest ¡°you need to get out of here¡± and then offer ¡°I¡¯ll come with you¡±. I didn¡¯t have to be told twice. I agreed and we slipped off while Jani was caught up in the emotionally overwhelming scene of her preteen paramour slowly coming back from the supposed dead.


    We moved to the front of one the buildings and then ducked behind the back of another. ¡°They¡¯re gonna find us,¡± she pointed out. She was right again. We had to disappear for an hour or two until everything blew over. They would never forgive me but at least if I gave them time to cool off, hopefully the punishment I was to face would be less as severe. As far as the physical part of the confrontation went, I did start that, but part of me hoped that I could convince the grown-ups that it was his fault for provoking me. It was an unrealistic idea, but it made me feel better to imagine them seeing my side.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got just the place,¡± I said in a hushed voice and motioned for Chris to follow me. We ran mostly unseen to the edge of the town where I took her past the farmlands towards the coast. She stopped as we got past the onion field. I gave her a questioning look as she explained that she wasn¡¯t allowed to go past the fields by herself. I remembered that her mom was the village physician and her dad helped run the tiny clinic. It turns out that since neither of them had a reason to leave the comfortable nest of Sonata, Chris had never been outside of the village herself. More to that, her parents saw all the dangers lurking outside the village through the injuries of the patients they saw and decided it was too much of a risk to let Chris even past the crops.


    It took a long minute or two to convince her that she¡¯d be safe with me and luckily, she had seen a few of my feats of strength. What really convinced her was finding a creative way to explain the situation. ¡°Luke was being mean. I fought him off and then took you away from him. That makes Luke the monster, me the knight, and you are the princess.¡± I saw that freckled face smile beneath disheveled locks of brown hair and I knew by the look in her amber eyes that I had won her over and she was willing to disobey her parents to run away with me. I started believing my own words. I started believing I was the hero.


    She let me take her hand in mine to I lead her past the border of where she was allowed to go and down the partially hidden path that I always took to get to the beach. She almost lost her sandals a few times and once her sun dress got caught on a thorn-laden bush but we managed to make it down the coast after about fifteen minutes. I found she was surprisingly light for being the same age as me whenever I had to lift her up and help her get over the many rocks that served as a path to the Hollows.


    When we got to the Hollows, she started to have second thoughts. I couldn¡¯t blame her not wanting to just wander into the mouth of a cave with such a scary name, especially when she hadn¡¯t even left the limits of the village before then. I had to go in ahead of her to show that it was safe and even then she was still a little reluctant. I ended up holding her hand again and leading the way once more just to assure her she was going to be safe. I was okay with that.


    I watched as her face lit up with fascination the moment we rounded that corner to the display of glowshrooms. For a lingering moment, she stood mesmerized by the sign like she was standing in the middle of the night sky, surrounded be constellations. I had seen the display many times before but it held a new sense of enjoyment for me because I got to see the wonder that I had first played out in the face of another. I watched her slowly turn to look at the magic of the cave and I understood the happiness that came from bringing joy to another person¡¯s heart. She said they looked like big fireflies, glowing as they rest and I genuinely laughed. I thought I didn¡¯t know how.


    She also pointed out how deceivingly warm the inside of the cave was. I was going to share my opinion about dragons and such but then thought it would be better not to scare her off after how much trouble I had to go through in order to get her to come into the Hollows in the first place. When we reached the dip, I slid down ahead of her and waited at the bottom of the incline for her to come sliding down as well. She cautiously tried to do what I did the first time and crawl down, but backwards instead of face-up like me. When she lost her traction, she let out a shriek and came down much faster than she intended. I darted forward and opened my arms just in time to receive her. I fell backwards while wrapping her up in my embrace, taking the impact of her fall while I landed on my back.


    It knocked the wind out of me but it didn¡¯t take that long to recover. I let her go and she managed to get back up to her feet. Even in the near dark, I could see the smile on her face and hear the excitement in her tone as she said, ¡°Thank you, brave sir Mel.¡± She was enjoying her little act of rebellion for the adventure it was turning out to be. I think I enjoyed seeing her happy more. I guided her to the large open area where the shelter could be found. She looked as curious about it as I was and knelt down to poke around inside it. ¡°Did you make this?¡± she first asked, voice echoing off the cave walls and playing in stereo. When I shook my head, she then asked, ¡°who left this here?¡±


    I shrugged. In the countless times I¡¯ve been back to this spot and in all the different ways I¡¯ve explored this system of tunnels, I¡¯ve yet to find out who put this shelter here and why it was abandoned. I was starting to suspect that it hadn¡¯t been entirely abandoned as I thought it was. A few times I found the fire pit in front of the tent smoldering as if someone had just left. ¡°I¡¯ve been here a bunch of times but I¡¯ve never found out who made this tent or this fire pit. I think they might still be around.¡±


    She started to feel nervous again, backing away from the tent and looking around anxiously as if whatever it was that set up this shelter was still lurking in the caves and waiting for curious children to leave themselves defenseless. I moved over to her and reached out, taking her hand in my own and holding it to comfort her. ¡°I¡¯ll protect you,¡° I assured her, feeling like the brave knight again. I understood why Luke always wanted to be the hero. It put a feeling in me that felt warmer than the inner cave, part of it pride for having someone depending on me and part of it security for feeling that someone I cared about would be safe because I was sure I had complete control over the situation. She even went as far as to smile back at me and call me ¡°my hero¡±.


    I remembered how the game of knights and dragons always ended. When the dragon was slain and the princess had been rescued from certain doom, the knight would be rewarded with a kiss from said princess. That seemed like the next step. So, facing her, my head darted forward and, as quickly as I could, I struck by pecking my lips to hers. Everything inside me compelled me to do so and the split second I had made contact, my nerves were on fire and my body felt more alive than I could remember. It was Chris¡¯ reaction that froze me over once more.


    She recoiled and turned the full force of those wide, honey-yellow eyes on me. ¡°Wh-what was that for?¡± she stuttered, her tone vibrating with shock.


    At first, I didn¡¯t know how to respond. My mind had already made up how this was going to play out and now it was all turning out wrong. ¡°I¡¯m the knight.¡± As if that would explain everything. ¡°The princess kisses the knight when she gets rescued.¡±


    She dragged the back of her hand across her mouth as if she was trying to wipe away something unclean that I had left on her. ¡°You can¡¯t be a knight, you¡¯re a girl.¡± That was the part that stung the most. Being rejected was one thing. No one wanted to feel rejected. To leap from the cliff expecting to fly and hitting cold, hard ground; that destroys people. Saying that any dreams I could have about being the hero will never come true simply because of what I was unmade me altogether. It made me question the point of even trying. A darkness came to swallow me and it was set loose by a child who had been convinced with every other child in the village that a girl cannot be anything but a burden to other people.


    I snapped out of it when I heard a thunderous growl rise from one of the tunnels. It resonated off the walls and rolled through each of the other tunnels, confusing where it originated from. I saw Chris start to panic. She had already wrenched her hand free from mine and now she didn¡¯t know what to do. ¡°Stay here,¡± I insisted, ¡°I¡¯ll protect you.¡± It seemed that light inside me refused to die. Even at my lowest, I will always come to the aid of those I care about, even if they are repulsed by me.


    Chris didn¡¯t believe me. ¡°You can¡¯t,¡± she said finally before scrambling towards the cave on two feet. I went to chase after her but the monstrous noise became deafeningly loud and I could sense that whatever it was had become a lot closer like it was waiting just beyond the veil of darkness hiding the entrance of one tunnel. I turned to face it. If I couldn¡¯t escort her out, I would at least cover her retreat. Lower and more cautious, the growl threatened me and I could see a set of glowing eyes peering at me from the tunnel almost directly behind the tent. I took a few, shaky steps towards it, fighting for even the smallest amount of courage. Its eyes looked as if they were level with my head but much larger and spread apart. They had a yellow gloom to them and I could only imagine they belonged to something large but low to the ground.


    I looked over my shoulder to see that Chris had clawed her way up the hill and was half running and half stumbling out of the cave. I felt relief that she made it out but now I didn¡¯t know if I even had a chance to follow. I felt my heart race and my body tighten, robbing me of the ability to do anything. The only option I had left was to stand and wait for it to emerge and eat me in one bite. (That and to not pass out before it came.) I at least wanted to see what was going to kill me before it did.


    There was a long moment where heavy breathing was all I could hear. It was impossible to tell if it was my own breathing, the creature¡¯s, or both of us. We locked eyes and waited for one of us to make a move. I couldn¡¯t even get my legs to work, so it wasn¡¯t going to be me. Then, strangely, one of the eyes began to move higher than the other. More than that, as one eye moved higher, the other began to lower until one was above my head and the other was level with my chest. I had forgotten all about my shock and the next thing I knew, I was blurting out ¡°what are you?¡± for the whole cave to hear.


    Both of the glowing orbs that had been staring at me suddenly dropped, lowering all the way to the cave floor. Once they had settled onto the ground, they shifted in color, going to something between a yellow and a green tint. Then I heard the sound of something moving towards me but the glowing eyes stayed still. That¡¯s when the thing that had been stalking me stepped out from the shadows to finally reveal itself.


    It wasn¡¯t a great beast or a terrible dragon. It was a woman. She was tall and waiflike. Her skin had a majestic glow to it even as it blended in with the darkness. Her hair was also dark but more silken than June¡¯s. Her eyes smoldered with secrets churning behind a prison of the bluest blue I had ever seen. ¡°You¡¯re beautiful,¡± I spouted stupidly. Her smile lit up the cave better than the glowshrooms ever could.


    Her voice rolled with some strange accent that gave some flair to her smooth voice. ¡°Thank you, child,¡± said that melodic voice. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for what happened to your friend. Normally you come here alone.¡±


    ¡°Who are you?¡± was my first question. ¡°How long have you been watching me?¡± was my second.


    ¡°For a while now,¡± she admitted, vaguely. ¡°You are not like the others. You can be so much more than what this little village has to offer. They call me Jezebelle, and while that is an insult in this ignorant part of the world, I think it is a beautiful thing to call someone. Tell me, what is your name?¡±


    ¡°Mel,¡± I said sheepishly, then corrected with, ¡°Melody.¡±


    She smiled that pretty smile of hers, offering out a slender hand as an introduction. ¡°That is also a beautiful name.¡±


    I put my hand in hers, and it felt comfortingly warm. My mom was a queen and I never wanted to be a queen like her. June was a fisher and I never wanted to be a fisher either. Jezebelle, however, was someone I would aspire to be and what she would teach me would become part of who I am for the rest of my life.

 Chapter 5: Juik, The Second Dawn

    The three consistent enemies to a merchant of death are complacency, sympathy, and doubt. Complacency makes you careless and carelessness begets mistakes with fatal consequences. Sympathy prevents your hand from striking when you need it to the most. Doubt keeps you from even reaching for your sword for fear that you are not strong enough or fast enough to do what needs to be done. Theoposition of these enemies were hammered into me over and over again so that when it finally came time for me to go on a mission I would be ready to do whatever it took to complete that mission.


    My first mission was in the city of Harusame where it was considerably easy to blend in with the crowd as long as you didn¡¯t completely stand out. The problem I had with getting lost in a crowd was that my skin was tanner than the pale people of Eastern Embre. Spending so much time in the Rainlands lightened my skin some due to lack of exposure to the sun but I had discovered a kind of paste that, if rubbed over exposed parts of my body, would make it look like I was naturally fair skinned. I just had to keep myself dry or the substance would wash off with enough water.


    Jukahn would follow me through the streets as I wandered downtown to where my target was unknowingly waiting for his executioner. All I knew about this man was what I needed to know for the mission. His name was Han-Wei and he was the spoiled son of a lord. His father, Chen-Wei, controlled the territory Harusame was in. Chen-Wei was in service to the warlord and valuable in not only controling of the territory but also making it thrive. Somewhere along the way, his son had become a disappointment and was not fit to succeed Chen-Wei when he would inevitably die from the disease eating away at him from the inside. All was not lost, though, as Chen-Wei had a daughter, Lin-Wei, who could succeed him and was a better fit for the role but she was second in the line of succession. That is where I came in. I had been contracted with the assassination of Han-Wei so that Lin-Wei could step up as heir to the territory.


    Han-Wei spent most of his time in the entertainment district of Harusame. There are a plethora of gambling halls, brothels, bars, drug dens and many other ways to sate one¡¯s appetite located in this haven of debauchery. Eastern Embre has never been a stranger to decadence, to which I have been informed, is the same with most of the mainland even after the War of Judgment where the surviving gods tried to punish mortals for living lives of excess in the gods¡¯ names.


    It wasn¡¯t easy getting his exact location. The first problem I ran into was that he frequented many of the places in the entertainment district. The second problem I ran into was that his father required him to use a pseudonym in order to protect the family reputation. I spent most of the time just asking for anyone fitting his description. Most would ask if I was talking about the lord¡¯s son and I would correct them by saying it was just someone who looked just like him. Eventually, I got his location and his fake name from a night worker. ¡°Quan-Wo¡± was what he was going by and he was currently using the name in a brothel on the renowned ¡°pleasure street¡± a few streets from where I found all this out.


    It was called the Purple House and it tried to save some face by identifying as an inn but it didn¡¯t try very hard. The building was three stories tall with a fair number rooms and a very wide foyer. There was a bar not far from where guests were greeted. As I stepped inside the foyer adorned in fine attire for the region, the first thing I was met with was an elderly hostess eager to show me the merchandise.


    Women and men, all nearly identical in shape and build, were lined up before me awaiting my judgment for who would escort me to one of those many rooms. Prices weren¡¯t mentioned and everything operated on assumption. A place like this doesn¡¯t deal kindly with those who cannot pay and such transgressions are not easily forgiven. There was only one person I was seeking and he was already with someone. The only way I was going to get to him is if I refused for the time but gained enough of their trust that they allow me to wander the brothel without throwing me out for wasting their time.


    I told them that I was applying for a job. When I sighted the grisly looking bartender, I told them I wasn¡¯t looking for anything in ¡°sales¡± but I was very interested in taking up the position of bartender to take the current one¡¯s place. I had no reservations in thinking that I was attractive and even with the paste hiding my origin, I did have a certain exotic look to me. It was only more subtle with the disguise. It was this handsome youth convinced them to interview me for the position. A younger and more attractive bartender could draw in a better crowd. The current looked like he doubled as a guard.


    The hostess told me to take a seat at the bar while she went to go fetch the owner of the Purple House. I dif, then took off my jacket and folded it in my lap. The tender asked if I wanted anything to drink and I declined, saying I was here on business and there would be time for a drink after I had finished it. I did, however, ask him where the restroom was while making a related remark about modern conveniences. Once he told me, I put my jacket on the seat and asked he watch it for me while I headed down the hall.


    The jacket was to secure any doubt. It was nice enough that it would be unlikely anyone would abandon it, thus instilling a false confidence that I would return. This allowed me the freedom to roam about in search of my target. The question was: what room was my target in? It was time to change personas.


    I didn¡¯t bother asking any of the guards who made sure that nothing violent happened to the merchandise and that no one tried to cheat the establishment. Instead, when a girl would pass by me, I told her I was the liaison for the lord who is searching for the lord¡¯s son. I was surprised that the very first girl I asked knew who I was talking about and was able to point me where to go.


    He was upstairs on the third floor, in the green and gold room with ¡°Prince¡± written on the door. I moved confidently through the halls and up the stairs, careful not to make my pace seem too fast or intentional. Otherwise, I would stand out too much.


    Upstairs, all the rooms had been labeled with strange titles ranging from ¡°King¡± and ¡°Queen¡± to ¡°Dragon¡± and ¡°Tiger¡±. I never found out the purpose of that but I did find the Prince Room halfway down the hall from the stairs. Two very large and intimidating men stood outside of the room, one on either side of the door. I could hear all manner of giggling and moaning going on beyond it and the first of the two men, a bald mammoth of a man with his hands behind his back, looked at me with suspicion.


    ¡°If you do not have urgent business here, move along,¡± he grufflyspoke in the common tongue. The other man, who had shorter hair and a scar so deep from one cheek to the other that it took a large chip out of the bridge of his nose, also turned his attention on me.


    I crossed my arms over my chest, secretly fingering at the short knives hidden within my sleeves and bringing them closer to my cuffs. All I had to do was dip my arms down and they would fall into my palms. ¡°The lord wants his son home, now.¡± The stern voice I used to convey this command was enough to provoke them. It was enough to reel them in to my control. They wanted less to know about whether or not I was trying to pull something and more about who I was and how I knew Han-Wei was in this room of this brothel.


    I uncrossed my arms and the knives slid comfortably into my hands where they stayed firmly in my grip. In the same fluid motion, I swept my arms out while lunging forward and pushing myself upwards. I arced the slashing motion towards that thick column where head met shoulders and twin ribbons of blood flew from the necks of both guards, robbing them of their ability to call out for help. They both lost balance, falling with their backs to the wall and sliding down. I checked left and right, estimating a good ten seconds before they were discovered by someone, given the traffic of this place.


    Quickly, I slipped inside the door and had only seconds to react to whatever was waiting for me inside. By sheer good fortune, he has his back to me while he was lurching over his woman of the evening. I stalked towards them both, unseen, eyeing the brooch of gold standing out from his river of well-kept, black hair. The brooch was a lotus of gold that was revered in this part of the world for its ability to thrive in the most devastating rains. It was also the symbol of the Wei family. There was also a birthmark on his right shoulder in the shape of a diamond. This was him.


    I came up behind him, using my speed and precision to my advantage. Once I closed the distance, I reached around and put one knife to his neck. In the same movement, I pulled it back to slash his throat, I also plunged the second knife forward to drive it home into the heart of the woman he had paid for. Han-Wei flopped to the floor with a loud thud and the woman didn¡¯t have time to scream as the life pumped out of her in fits and spurts, pooling beneath her on the bed from the hole between her ribs reaching down to her heart.


    I had just enough time to hear the screams from outside and get to the window of the green and gold room. The last thing I heard in the room was the sound of them bursting into the door while I ducked out into the open air of the warm city night. I looked down at the busy street below and I knew I couldn¡¯t drop down for the same reason I couldn¡¯t have climbed up to infiltrate the Purple House in the first place. I would be spotted and most likely stopped. Instead, I went up, clambering to the roof.


    They had reached the window by the time I had scaled on top of the building. In the span it took them to figure out where I had gone, I was already sprinting across the wooden slats that covered the Purple House. When I reached the edge of the roof, I leaped across to the next one, clearing a small alley in one bound and landing on the next roof. I had to do this for two more buildings before I could see that I wasn¡¯t being followed. After that, I slipped down to the beside another building and waited for the crowd to thicken before I blended into it, mixing in with the street folk. Theb I¡¯d make my way to where my ride was waiting. I would never see that jacket again.


    I had a long trek back to think about all that had transpired. Did I really just take a life that posed no immediate threat to me? Why was it so easy? How did I manage to turn off that part of me that still holds to some kind of morality? Is that part of me even something I can turn on and off or is it something that I unknowingly got rid of altogether? It¡¯s possible that I no longer knew where to draw that line between what is right and what is wrong. Or maybe I did, but for the sake of circumstance, I had to push that line much further back. So far back for so long, that I wasn¡¯t sure if it would ever be returned.


    Eventually there was no line and I was left standing so far from where I had started that I didn¡¯t recognize the place I lived in. So many people had fallen at my blade and I stopped asking why. I stopped asking who they were or what purpose their death served. Everything blurred out to the same abstract image. I felt like I was lost in fog where the only choice I had left was the wander until I could find a light to hold on to. I was drowning and I doubted there was even a surface to swim to.


    Twelve years passed and I had learned so much at the cost of so much forgotten. When I abandoned Kael Lione, I abandoned everything that had driven him. That is why I was so lost. Kael Lione was someone who had a purpose in life. Juik was truly empty as the void. Every assassination made the deficit inside me deeper and deeper. For as long as I was Shinohari, I would always be at the bottom of that hole with no way of knowing how to start making my way back to the top.


    Jukahn and I left midday for the river road. Once we had made it to the boulder that marked the hidden path to Shinohari, we had to part ways. He had business south of the Rainlands and I had to go east for a mission involving the pilfering of plans for an attempt at overthrowing the newly established government of Eastern Embre.


    The entire order of Embre had changed and I had a personal hand in changing it. I got to see much of the world beyond Eastern Embre, and I was more than a witness to the downfall of the old ways. ¡°The Fall of Kingdoms¡±, it was called. A man named Marcus Fox, who ruled a kingdom in the north, had found himself unhappy with Embre¡¯s structure. He rallied the kings and queens of Northern and Western Embre to the noble cause of equality. Give the power to the people, he insisted. It was his insisting that caused this democracy to infect the land, coursing its way through until all the Mainland was united by inspiration or by force.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    One faction did not wish to be a part of this new proposed utopia. The collective kingdoms of Southern Embre united into a versamilitary to stand up against the Alliance of Nations. This sparked the fires of a war that consumed the world. ¡°The End War¡± is what it would be called, for many felt that it was so great that it would be the last war Embre would ever see. Atrocities were committed and scars were made that would never heal. It lasted for years with each side clashing.The Alliance of Nations was trying to overpower with numbers and advanced technology and the Southern Embre Versamilitary was holding their own with strategy and mystic forces beyond human.


    The End War had to eventually end and Southern Embre fell to the might of the Alliance of Nations. Negotiations were reached and while Southern Embre was no longer allowed to establish any monarchies or take the power away from their people, they were given a generous amount of freedom considering they had just lost a war to the power of a united mainland. It would most likely take another age before the tensions would finally wear down between the two continents. Being a foreigner in any land now meant almost certain persecution and general prejudice from the people. That meant it was even more important that I hide my Southern Embre descent.


    The plans I was meant to steal were part of a plot by the descendant of the warlord who once controlled all of Eastern Embre. The son of that warlord had been groomed to succeed his father as ruler of all of Eastern Embre and when Marcus Fox dethroned and killed the warlord, the son suddenly found that he had nothing to inherit. He had spent his life believing the world was owed to him and it had all been taken away. So, in the darkness, he began to scheme on how to get what he felt was rightfully his.


    ¡°The hostilities have already ended and the entirety of Eastern Embre has become its own democracy, so if this man¡¯s idea to overthrow Eastern Embre were even allowed to go public, it would undermine everything about the Alliance of Nations and it would fall bit by bit like a house of cards with uprisings in places where the AN had to use force to assimilate the kingdoms.¡± Jukahn had a habit of trying to convey the importance of certain missions to me when he feared that I didn¡¯t care enough to show the concern needed. I was ready to part ways and get it over with. It was Jukahn who seemed apprehensive.


    ¡°I like information theft. It¡¯s a nice break from assassinations and it challenges a different set of abilities.¡± It was a half truth I spoke. Information theft was a good break but only because I was drowning in blood and needed an exercise I could complete without adding any more bodies to my growing count.


    A sigh escaped from Jukahn and a hand reached out to grip my shoulder. It had been a long time since I was given such a gesture. ¡°Juik, do not think for a second that I am not proud of what you have become. Think of the people of Shinohari. You have become the protector you were meant to be. As long as you are giving it your all, these people will stay safe.¡±


    ¡°And how long do I remain their protector?¡± I asked. ¡°How long am I to be tied to this place? Do I stay until I die of old age like Junoro or you? Do I wait until I¡¯m killed by another Saban? Or will I become the next Saban?¡± I was tired of being patronized. This wasn¡¯t about protecting a village. Even if it was, that was not why I started this path.


    ¡°You do what needs to be done for as long as it is needed. Trust that you¡¯ll know when it is time to move on. No one is tied to this place, Juik.¡± He motioned behind him towards the direction that Shinohari was in. ¡°We don¡¯t stay because we have to. We stay because we want to. We stay because there is nothing waiting out there that can give us the home we have in Shinohari. You are not a prisoner. You are family.¡±


    The family thing was a cheap tactic and it didn¡¯t work on me. I relented with a sigh and put my hand on his shoulder. ¡°Master Jukahn, family was why Kael started this path. Juik has nothing because I am nothing until I need to be. Even when I must become something, I am never anything for very long. This is what you created, Master. Empty as the void¡±


    He removed his hand at the same time I removed mine. ¡°I had such high hopes for you, Juik,¡± he admitted. ¡°There had always been a fire inside you that could have lit the whole world but now I see the tragedy in what I¡¯ve done. Instead of setting you to the path of light, I set you to the path of darkness and now that spark I saw in you is all but snuffed out.¡± So much for being proud.


    I wasn¡¯t sure where this was coming from. I had never heard him talk like this. I had never seen him look so defeated. ¡°I thought this is exactly what you wanted from me.¡±


    Jukahn shook his head again. ¡°We¡¯ll speak more about this when you return.¡± That was the end of it. He pulled his rucksack up onto his shoulder and began his journey down the road.


    I went my own way, walking the few miles it took to find a town where I could rent a taxi. Technology had made drastic leaps and bounds out of necessity. There was no denying that when the kingdoms fell, it ushered in an Age of Advancement. That is what people were beginning to call this new period but only time would tell if the name would stick. Some say it was technology that ended the war; that South Embre was brought down by an army of machines made to look like men and fight like demons. The automobile was probably one of the more beneficial fruit of this new age. For me, it meant missions could be completed within the span of a day if they were close enough.


    The mission was pretty cut and dry with nothing notably interesting about it. When I arrived in the city, the sun was still lazily drooping over the skyline and the ominously tall buildings reached up against the orange horizon like fingers trying to grasp it before it faded. I didn¡¯t need a disguise or pretense to enter the building. All I needed was my black garb and a half-mask to hide everything between my chin and nose. I had my hair dyed black and knotted in a taut ponytail so it wouldn¡¯t obstruct my vision. A small quiver full of throwing knives was holstered to each of my thighs. Twin short and thin swords were tied to my belt horizontally behind me while the rest of my belt was decorated in pouches with assorted items of use. Once I was prepared, I set to work.


    The building had its lights turned off and had already been locked up for the evening when I approached the back door that served as an emergency exit. Buildings of this size need a box to serve as a hub regulating all electrical activity. I had found that hub next to the emergency exit and severed its connection to the building, cutting what power was still alive in there. The door made an audible click after I disabled the electricity and I tried the knob. It opened without alarm nor the need to pick at the lock. As I assume, it was mechanically locked. The idea seemed foolish to me but I could see how, in an emergency, you¡¯d need a door to unlock itself lest you be burnt alive or trapped with some other cruel fate.


    The door lead to a stairwell that I scaled in the dark. My steps had been made a whisper by my cloth wrapped feet and just enough light was left in the building that I could see where I was going. When the stairs would flatten out briefly, it would be at the doors that lead to the interior of each floor. Each door was numbered with the floor it corresponded with and when I made it to number ten, I tried at the knob. It took some work with a metal pick, but I got it open and I was able to slip inside. I¡¯m not sure why the door to the stairwell that served as the emergency exit needed to be locked but then again I wasn¡¯t the owner of an office building. I was just breaking in.


    I ended up halfway down a hallway with several more doors on either side. While the stairwell door was metal, all the other doors were wood. Before I began my mission, I had oriented myself with the details of the building¡¯s schematics. I was able to make my I way directly down the hall to the most prestigious looking door. It belonged to the office of Lei-Gan and it was in this office that I would find the coveted plans.


    It took the same finesse I gave the previous door to get this one open, but once I was inside, it was only a matter of minutes before I pried open the desk and found the documents I was looking for. I carefully tucked them into the front of my clothing, keeping them close to my chest while I made my exit. After that, all I had left was to complete the drop-off and I could head back to Shinohari.


    Something gnawed at me while I was on the road towards the mountains. It was a feeling I had not been familiar with in more than a decade. I kept looking to the horizon, watching the stars rest in the night sky as if any moment one or all of them may explode and take the sky with them. It put fire to my feet and I hurried back towards the village with more vigor than I had left it with.


    I was rounding the hill, being careful of the poorly lit way to the valley, when I saw part of the sky had been blotted out by ominous black clouds. They curled up from beyond the hill¡¯s crest and I knew what it was and where it was coming from. The closer I got, the more I could see a foul light blossoming into the sky. The moment I reached the valley, all the fears left unspoken came to light by the illumination of a brilliantly cataclysmic fire. It marked the hidden village for even the creators to see. For the second time in such a short lifetime, my home was burning.


    I was in a full sprint when I saw the fires eating at the tops of the trees, no longer content to simply consume the village itself. I raced down into the valley and made it to that archway where the sounds of screams were being stopped short by swords cutting through tender, innocent flesh. I had strength this time. I had swords of my own. I could stop it this time. This time, it would be different.


    I rushed through the gate and I was immediately met with resistance. One of the invaders saw me run past the threshold and didn¡¯t recognize me as his own. He brought an iron sword down on me, screaming war and murder only to have me side-step the blade and jab one of my own into his lungs. His warcry faded and his body collapsed only to be replaced by two more strangers with swords.


    They began to recognize me as a bigger threat than the villagers but that wasn¡¯t to say the villagers themselves were completely defenseless. Many of them had taken up weapons themselves and attempted to put up a fight. They chose to die for the chance of saving some than run with the chance of losing them all. Swords, scythes, pitchforks, and whatever else could wound someone clashed in the violence of the night.


    I took a moment to study the invaders while they studied me. Tthey were wrapped in blue and red. Each chose to keep the lower half of their faces covered. The thing that stood out the most was that no matter how many of them I examined, no two shared the same sword. Their weapons didn¡¯t share the same style, the same length, and some did not even share the same material. I knew who our invaders were. Bandits. We were being slaughtered by bandits.


    I didn¡¯t have the time to figure out how they found us. By the indiscriminate way they hacked at man, woman, and child I could only guess that they wanted us all dead. Shinohari Village drew in a considerable amount of wealth each time they sent Jukahn or I out on a mission but it was never horded. It would only be used to fund the village so that we could survive the seasons and nothing further. The only things we kept were the things no one would pay money for. Artifacts with terrible reputations such as curses or possessions so coveted that they would be a danger to anyone who owned it. Perhaps that is what they were after.


    As I said, I didn¡¯t have time to mull it over. The two bandits were rushing me, swords held aloft and ready to come at me from either side. I don¡¯t think either of them was expecting my speed because there was a lingering moment after I dashed past them and let my blades bite through parts of their midsections where they didn¡¯t seem to realize they were dead. They stood still for an agonizing, unreal eterity before they fell on their faces in the dirt. Time stood still for them while I moved on.


    Try as I might to cut a path through the bandits coming at me from all sides, I couldn¡¯t kill enough of them to have any sort of effect. For each one of them I would cut down, two or three villagers would be killed somewhere I could not get. With all my remarkable, inhuman speed I was still not fast enough. The only option I could think of was to find the leader of this assault. Cut off the head and the body will collapse. I¡¯m not sure it that applied to bandits but if I could at least take out the one who was giving commands, they would without anyone keeping them in order.


    I found a shed and some crates I could use as stepping stones to get up a roof. Above all the din, I was able to move over the chaos that consumed Shinohari. As long as I avoided the shelters that were being eaten away by fire, I could make my way to the head of the massacre without being slowed down by nearly endless ranks of thieves. It was at the end of the village, where the training hall was, that I found the start of all this. I leaped from the roof I was on and came down hard on a stray bandit, knocking him to the ground and confusing him just long enough to pierce his heart with my sword. I pushed off of him and back onto my feet.


    When I arrived at the training hall, I could see the silhouettes of two figures clashing with one another in front of an intense living wall of yellow and red rage, breathing heat to all who stared upon it. The fire was so much more intimidating here than it was for the rest of the village. So much so that I couldn¡¯t make out who was fighting at first. I had to get closer and closer to the inferno before I could see who I needed to lend aid.


    As I got close enough, the two parted from having swords locked and looked upon me. One of them looked at me with a demonic mask, speaking in the voice of my master. ¡°Help me Juik,¡± he said to me. ¡°Kill her,¡± came the command from that demon¡¯s unmoving lips.


    The other stared at me from one single eye and it said only one word to me. ¡°Run.¡±

 Chapter 6: Mel, Feel the World

    Jezebel didn¡¯t live in the caves. She actually lived just outside the village in a cottage I had passed by many times while traveling down to the Hollows but always overlooked it. It had always been just off that path a half mile out from the village itself, but I never bothered to wonder who had lived there or why they lived so far out from the rest of Sonata. It turns out there was a good reason for that as well.


    Jezebel wasn¡¯t what some would call a ¡°respected member of the community.¡± I had a hard time understanding why even after it was explained by other members of the village. Jezebel said that part of it was because she was foreign. Another reason she said was because she has a unique attitude about people and life in general that makes people in this part of the world very uncomfortable.


    First, she believed that love is freely given and not bound by notions of monogamy. Second, she believed that humans, in general, were the most destructive and petty beings in the world right after the gods. After all the loss and destruction brought on by the Judgment War, most people don¡¯t like being told that hedonism is okay. After all, that¡¯s what the war was started over.


    The gods had been gone from Embre for a long time during the Age of Human and that allowed humans to develop slowly and steadily over time. Eventually they rose up to equal the Age of Kingdoms. When the Age of Gods came about, deities started coming out of the woodwork and demanding to be worshiped because they were bigger, stronger, and had much longer life spans. The thing about gods is that most of them don¡¯t really care for mortals and while they wanted tribute and adoration, they offered absolutely nothing to the mortals in return.


    It got so bad that mortals stopped worrying about the gods smiting them for whatever reason and started ruling over one another, claiming it was the gods that gave them the right to do so. Next thing you know, the world became a big party for the wealthy and noble and complete misery for the poor and common folk with no in between. Your life either sucked or you were too busy raving to notice that your fun is making life suck for everyone else.


    While all this was happening, the gods were too busy being idols to notice what the mortals were doing in their names until the day they woke up and decided to punish mortals for their insolence. In response to this, a mythish woman named Arletas stood up and spoke out about how unfair it was for the gods to punish mortals for living just like their idols did. The gods didn¡¯t care to hear about any of her objections and went about forcing sacrifices just to put the mortals in their place.


    It was around that time that Arletas challenged the gods face to face and the first god since Vampira Gorath fell at the hands of a mortal. Arletas killed Iriam, the god of pride, and his death was felt in the hearts of gods and mortals alike. After that, the world woke up to the truth. The gods could be killed. ¡°The Judgment¡± became ¡°the Judgment War.¡± Mortals of all different sentient species came together and rose up against their supposed superiors, driving them back to the shadows once again.


    It had been countless centuries since the gods had been heard from and only a handful remain. Some people claim there are no gods left at all. Some claim to have met one before. Most agree that they don¡¯t care. They stopped being relavent long before I was born and even Arletas herself, with all that she had done to free mortals from their path of enslavement and/or destruction, had disappeared. Humans had to build back up from their tribal days and it took over many millennia to reach the Age of Kingdoms. No one, anywhere, wants to return to the Age of Decadence, except for Jezebel.


    She told me that in those days, the people who were most free were the ones who weren¡¯t shackled to the worries and constraints of fear. ¡°The nobles were not all beevolent kings and queens,¡± she said, ¡°but they were free because they did not fear the gods and they did not fear death. They lived their lives in complete abandon and they lived more than anyone has ever lived since.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure what she meant by that but I know now what it means to be free.


    She invited me to her house many times but every time I tried to invite her to visit the village, she would tell me that she would rather not cause trouble for me or herself by making an appearance to the townsfolk. The townsfolk seemd to show a general dislike of her but that didn¡¯t stop me from visiting her. Her house was nice. It was small and quaint with many cozy nooks and crannies. She always had the sweetest jams and jellies to serve with her bread and most of the times I spent with her would have us sitting in her kitchen with a jar of jelly open and a basket of bread triangles to dip into the jar.


    What I found most fascinating about her home was the assortment of sculptures and paintings she had collected from her many travels. Some sculptures were in the shapes of people or creatures while others were shaped like emotions. You could look at them and feel what they were trying to express. Some inspired anger or passion while others flowed with peace and serenity. The paintings were the same. Some paintings were of people whose entire lives were captured in colors that told of the hardships they endured or the wondrous things they experienced. Some paintings were swirls and strokes of energy that soothed the soul or set it ablaze. I¡¯d get lost in those paintings.


    The other thing that had a lot of passion and anger in that house was me. Jezebel recognized it from all the times she had watched over me while I explored the Hollows. Even for a kid playing by herself, I had a lot of drive and energy. Sometimes I¡¯d go to the caves just to vent when I felt I couldn¡¯t go to Mark or June. Jezebel wanted to comfort me those times but she felt it wasn¡¯t her place. That was until she couldn¡¯t stand staying in the shadows anymore and came to intervene during the thing with Chris.


    Like me, Jezebel came to the Hollows to unwind. Unlike me, she did so by going through a specific tunnel that led to an underground lake where she would sit and meditate. I didn¡¯t know how to meditate and it weirded me out a bit to know that the entire time I was playing around in those caves, she was in there too just sitting and listening. I also thought it was odd that while we were both in there at the same time, I never ran into her nor did I even hear her. She told me that, ¡°you cannot find me because you do not seek me. You cannot hear me because you do not listen for me.¡±


    An idea came to mind. ¡°Okay, so then teach me how to go unseen and unheard!¡±


    Jezebel let out a slow sigh and put her cup of tea on the table. ¡°There are many things I can teach you, child. Just as there are many things that I have learned. However, going unseen and unheard won¡¯t be the point of these teachings. It is simply something that happens when you become part of the world.¡± She reached out with her slender fingers and delicately grasped a corner of bread, bringing it to her mouth.


    At that point, I was thinking that becoming part of the world meant blending in like camouflage or something; the way that lizards do. ¡°Can you teach me to become part of the world then?¡± I paused. ¡°Please?¡±


    She took a knife and began spreading a bluish-red jelly over the piece of bread. Her face showed infinite patience and I still felt as if all her attention was on me even as she statred to work with the jelly around. ¡°You were already part of the world, child. That is where you come from. Remaining part of this world is something that you and almost all other people have forgotten. You stop being able to feel the heartbeat of the forces that were responsible for your creation. You have become blind and deaf.¡±


    I lowered my head, recognizing her response as a ¡°no¡±. She cradled my chin with her first two fingers and lifted my head so my eyes could meet hers. With a honey-sweet smile and vibrant gaze piercing the haze of my sadness, she added, ¡°I can teach you to open your eyes, child. I can teach you to truly be alive. Alive an Free.¡±


    Besides attending lessons at a tiny school, I spent very little time in Sonata during the day. Mark and June trusted me to take care of myself after they had figured out on their own that I was going down to the Hollows every day. They knew what I was capable of and they felt I was safe after being given many talks to warn me about the dangers in nature and in people. As long as I was home by a certain time and did as they asked, they gave me all the freedom I needed.


    That was a better attitude than a lot of the people of Sonata had. Most people seemed to keep their heads down and their walls up. That seemed to be the way of the town. I didn¡¯t notice until later but Sonata was self-sustained enough to be completely cut off from the world. That¡¯s why the stranger knew I¡¯d be safe here because Sonata wasn¡¯t involved in politics or charges of loyalty. The only business we got was when the rare ship would pull up to our port and exchange goods. The rest of the world seemed ignorant of Sonata.


    It was a good thing too, because while we remained isolated and blind to the struggles on the other side of the Alblu, the world was going to war. Kingdoms were falling and the monarchies were dying. The power to decide the fate of so many people was taken from the hands of one man or woman and given to the people themselves. A man named Marcus Fox made it happen. He killed the kingdoms.


    Marcus Fox was king of the Fox Kingdom in Northern Embre way up at the top of the mainland. Marcus Fox saw how other kingdoms were being ruled and looked to his own. He asked his people what they wanted and gave each citizen a voice. Other kings and queens were acting on what they thought was best for the kingdom without ever asking what the people wanted in those kingdoms. Marcus spoke with the rulers of other kingdoms and, under his guidance, changed the order. Kingdoms became nations governed democratically and kings and queens became mere officials whose only power was to enact the will of the people.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    It started out as a peaceful transition but the nations began to have problems dealing with the kingdoms that remained. Marcus Fox continued to push for change even after all the kingdoms that volunteered to become nations had done so. Those nations banded together in an alliance and helped Marcus force the change upon other territories. One by one, kingdoms fell to the Alliance of Nations. In a matter of years, all of the mainland would become part of the Alliance of Nations, encompassing North, West, East, and Central Embre. The only remaining resistance was South Embre.


    Sonata never saw the blood of battle nor heard the cry to war. We kept our heads in the sand only speaking about what was going on around us in whispers over supper. The Alliance of Nations brought their army to invade Southern Embre and, with it, they brought a weapon that no one could imagine. Men made of metal that didn¡¯t know mercy, didn¡¯t know honor, and didn¡¯t know hostile from non-hostile nor even ally. With heavy footsteps, they landed on the shores of the Southern Continent and tore apart the versamilitary of humans, elves, goblins, and any other mortal that was called upon to hold off the forces of oppression. The kingdoms of Southern Embre fell, but Sonata never felt their loss.


    So while Sonata sat in the dark, the rest of Southern Embre was forced to change everything. Brace was no longer a place at all, having become part of Jellette just before the Fall of Kingdoms, and now the kingdom of Jellette had become the leader of the Southern Embre Nation. The city of Hope had become its capital and everyone on the eastern side of Behemos Rest suddenly mattered when before the war they were like strangers separated by a long stretch of mountain from northern shore to southern shore. The southern continent also had a lot more interaction with the mainland. This was good news as far as economic growth was concerned but after the End War, it was barely a promise for economic recovery. The only thing we ever saw of the thriving economy was in new technology. Otherwise, Sonata didn¡¯t grow at all. It was a flower that never died and never bloomed.


    While Sonata kept itself detached from the rest of the world, I was getting closer to it. Jezebel took me to that place in the Hollows that she used to meditate. It was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. The place was a large open area with an extremely high ceiling that opened up to part of the Hollowlands. The opening had a waterfall that poured down into an underground lake. The sound of water running down into the large basin was soothing and I could see how it could put one in a peaceful state of mind the second they walked past the entrance. The plant life that surrounded it was more diverse than just the glowshrooms that littered the tunnels before.


    Glowshrooms were how we found our way around at first. When she had used them to pretend to be a monster taugh me that they were safe to pick up. They changed color when they were plucked from the ground and when you put them down, they would change color again. It would never be the color it started as. Jezebel said there was a lesson in that, like there was a lesson in everything. ¡°Once something dramatic has happened to it, it can never go back to the way it was. You can try to recreate all the circumstances it had before it was affected, but as long as it has memory, it will never be the same.¡±


    When the portable, electric lantern became a thing, we didn¡¯t need the glowshrooms anymore. Once electricity was condensed into a miniature light, I thought such an invention was perfect for exploring the caves. Mark gave one to me as a present knowing how I loved the Hollows and I raced to show Jezebel what it could do. She marveled at the invention and told me how she thought it would be wonderful to spare the glowshrooms from being plucked and carried to where they didn¡¯t grow.


    At the underground lake, we spent a lot of time doing seemingly nothing. We would sit with our backs to the waterfall and close our eyes. At first, I had to fight the urge to fall asleep, what with the ambiance of the rushing water and the melodic sound of Jezebel¡¯s voice telling me cryptic teachings. It wasn¡¯t until I started actually listening to those words that I stopped having to worry about passing out. The things she said were meant to make me think and the more I thought, the more I changed.


    ¡°Child, everything in the world lives and pulses like a heartbeat with its own rhythm as it moves through time. You have this rhythm inside you and it does not have to go ignored. Relax and feel the song of your heart. Once you do, you can change it. Make it slow. Make it fast. Change the pitch. Change the tone. Take that rhythm and synchronize it with the rhythm of the world around you. Move as all of life moves and feel as all of life feels.¡±


    When I would close my eyes before, it was just darkness and my imagination. After a while, things began to change. The darkness would have subtle touches of color seeping in around the edges. I didn¡¯t just see them. I felt them. Some were warmer and some were cooler. Some moved fast and some moved slow, but they all had their different flow. I could start to see and feel where they were coming from. The quick white flow of the waterfall shifting and changing to a slow blue as it hit the lake and settled down into the pool before it was swept into the quick white and black tunnel beneath the lake. I could feel the slow green of the plants as they took in the vibrant white, yellow, and red of the sunlight pouring in and making them to pulse with green and white life.


    The most incredible and vibrant colors came from Jezebel. They tumbled over one another and mixed together, each one taking turns being dominant. Every color I could imagine churned inside her and they moved in the most unique ways. I was starting to understand how she thought and how she felt but I still wasn¡¯t sure how to sync up my rhythm to hers. Not until she sang.


    Beauty that intense had no words to describe it. She was a symphony unto herself, with all other instruments except her voice replaced with raw emotion so profound it inspired lovers to wed and armies to war. It burst forth like the birth of a new star, exploding from her body in all directions and showering the cave walls in radiance far beyond the most inspired dreams. I was washed away in wonder and finally found my own colors being eclipsed by an entire world of brilliance.


    I didn¡¯t know how I was ever going to match up to that and then I realized that I wasn¡¯t supposed to become equal to it. I was supposed to become a part of it. It started when I let it flow through me, not just through my ears, but right through the very core of my body, saturating it. The light surrounded me and filled me at once. I lost track of what part of the iridescence was mine and I felt hers begin to pull at me. It lead me to sway and move and then I did what I hadn¡¯t done since I was six and curled against my mom while she carried me off to sleep. I sang too.


    I didn¡¯t think the chroma of our beings could become any brighter or more intense. Once I joined her singing, it grew and flared out until the cave could barely contain it. It was flooding in all directions and swirling about. Even with my eyes closed, I could see it and I could feel it. It crashed against the walls and poured into the labyrinthine tunnels of the Hollows. It moved in torrents until it spilled out not just into the sea, but into the sky.


    I felt more than just the music embracing me. I was being held in warmth and security. It was like I had fallen into the place where I belonged. When the music stopped, I slowly opened my eyes to see what had embraced me and saw that I was at the beginning of the hollows, staring out at the atual waves crashing against the jagged rocks that protected the entrance. It was Jezebel¡¯s arms that were wrapped around me, keeping me from falling in. ¡°How did I get here?¡± I gasped.


    ¡°You were moved by the music,¡± she explained in her sweet voice. ¡°Yes the music is a dangerous thing. It can sweep you away and take you to amazing places you have never dreamt or down into nightmarish holes you can never crawl out of. That is why, when it moves you like this, you must take control. Grab a hold of rhythm and teach it to move the way you want it to move. Life flows like a river. Move with it but do not get washed away.¡±


    She leaned over me and spoke into my ear with the softest sound she could conjure while still being heard over the sound of the sea lashing against the coast. ¡°Your instinct right now is to fear what is before you. You fear the unknown that is beyond but do not struggle and do not fight against the stream. Do not stand still or you will lose all control. Hold your arms out,¡± she whispered as she slipped her thin hands over my wrists and guided my arms open. ¡°Move to guide yourself through the currant. Make it take you to where you want to go.¡±


    At first, I wondered what the point of all this was. Was she trying to manipulate me like she did the stream of life? Was she trying to twist me and move me like the rhythm she spoke of? Was she trying to make me like her for some sort of need? Did she need me for some plot?


    No. She was the river that had met another force like her, held back by a cobbled dam of worries and responsibilities. She saw me and knew I was shackled to chains of regret and sorrow. She changed her course to erode at the things that were holding me back. She wasn¡¯t trying to control me. She was trying to set me free.


    I took in a slow breath and looked out over the waves jumping up at me, ready to jump into the water and be carried out into the Alblu. I understood now. The river can¡¯t be fought. It¡¯s too hard to stay still, clinging to what was while everything else passed me by. I can¡¯t swim back upstream. I can¡¯t get back what was lost. While I may crash against the rocks and parts of me may be taken where I cannot follow, I can live. I have to be like the water and keep moving. I can¡¯t let the things that have happened to me be what hold me down. I must let them shape me. I must learn the way. I must keep going. I cannot stop for the world will not stop for me. There is an end for all things but so much beauty is lost if I stay in place and wait for it. I must keep going. I must see what waits for me further down. Unspoken promises of rapture have yet to reveal themselves. I must keep going. I will never replace what is lost but the emotions within me aren¡¯t dead; only chained and weak. I must set them free and find something that makes me feel that way again.


    I turned to face Jezebel and I wasn¡¯t sure if the moisture on my face was the water spray from the sea or if my breakthrough had let tears once shut away now loose to fall again. Maybe it was both. She knelt down to my level and set her soft hand against my face, not pushing away the water but cradling my cheek in her palm. ¡°Sweet child, are you ready to begin your journey? Do you know how to move even after staying still for so long?¡±


    I got the feeling she knew more about me than she was letting on but it didn¡¯t bother me. She was a guiding hand and a mysterious teacher who had happened into my life to show me the way. I don¡¯t know how my life would have turned out without her to enlighten me. Perhaps I would have stayed in Sonata and let my days play out as a quiet woman in a quiet place doing quiet things. It would have been a stagnant life not worth living.


    I gave a nod to her while fighting to breathe. There was so much sorrow and elation mixing together like the colors in the cave. All of it flooded into my small vessel and I didn¡¯t know what to do. I didn¡¯t know what to say. All I could do wa drown in it until she said, ¡°don¡¯t. Let it come and celebrate what it means. You are alive and full of so much beauty; the beauty of love and the beauty of sadness. Take the passion and the melancholy and be proud that you have them. Do you know what to do with all this?¡¯


    I knew. I knew how to sing this song. I knew how to travel down this road. I knew how to laugh and love and cry and despair. I knew that life promised neither joy nor tragedy but if I ever wanted to know what it felt like to be the brightest star in the sky, there was one thing I that must do in order to experience it. I must keep going.

 Chapter 7: Juik, The Birth of Wrath

    My world was on fire. For the second time, I had to stand and watch it burn. Jukahn didn¡¯t wait for me to answer him. He rushed Junoro again and his master barely got the chance to get her sword up and block a downward strike. He came at her again and again, from different angles, hacking at her. Junoro wasn¡¯t putting up a fight. She parried, blocked, and dodged where she could but Jukahn was too relentless and every other attack would land, biting into her flesh and sending blood to the ground. She twisted her body and danced the dance but without her fighting back, it wouldn¡¯t be enough.


    Then the rain came. I could hear it hiss as thick droplets hit the fires that ate away at each roof it had attached itself to. Maybe it was a coincidence but it seemed like all the tragedies of my life came with rain. I didn¡¯t have the time nor could I afford to express my sorrow, so the world did it for me.


    I could hear bandits approaching behind me. I turned a blade and sheathed it behind me, then moved to face the approaching gang of thieves looking to finish clean up. I balled my fist and let anger rush through me like forceful river, coming to collect in the palm of my palm. As I uncurled my fingers, the night was lit by both the fires and the glowing orb in my hand. They wanted a piece of me, and I would give them the only peace I had left; wrath.


    I pitched the ball of energy at them. They watched it without any certainty on how to react. All they could do is recoil and wait for it to hit the ground. When it did, all my anger burst forth and the blast echoed off the burning huts. Bandits were thrown here and there, and a few of them neither stirred nor attempted to get up.


    I turned back to the two fighting in time to see Junoro arched forward, head against Jukahn¡¯s shoulder and blade thrust through her stomach far enough to protrude like a violent obelisk out the other side of her body. I stood frozen. She reached up with a shakey hand and put it to the back of Jukahn¡¯s head, drawing him intimately close. She used her remaining strength to tilt her head up and whisper in his ear. It might have been the rain, but I swore I saw tears flow from her remaining eye before Jukahn set a hand on her shoulder and shoved her off his blade, letting her collapse to the ground, still and gone.


    I screamed, not knowing what else to do, and ran at Jukahn with blade raised like a ignorant child, fighting with emotion in place of strategy. I brought my sword down with all my strength and it was cast aside like an insect. Jukahn deflected me and then turned his blade fast enough to bring it back up and cut into my side. I stumbled but kept on my feet. I turned to face him and drew my second sword, holding both in an aggressive stance.


    Jukahn tsked at me and held his sword in both hands, taking a more defensive position. ¡°When has anger ever won the day, Juik?¡± Pain stung at my side but not as much as the realization of what was going on around me. Bandits had gathered to surround us but they only created a border. They weren¡¯t attacking. They weren¡¯t attacking me because I was distracted with Jukahn and they weren¡¯t attacking Jukahn for another reason.


    ¡°You brought them here,¡± I accused him. I had moved my position to stand over Junoro¡¯s body, protecting it as if anything worse could happen to her than what my master had done.


    He lifted his mask and let it rest on top of his head. The look on his face gave nothing away. Everything he felt was locked up but his tone remained so condescending and pleased with himself, that if he was feeling anything other than contempt for what was once his home, he was hiding it well. ¡°Do not stand over her like she was your mother or something. She trained me as I trained you. There is no affection between any of us. We are just weapons forging the next one to take our place.¡±


    He began to pace a circle around me and I had to turn and walk around Junoro¡¯s body so as to keep facing him. I repeated my accusation. ¡°You brought them here, didn¡¯t you? You lead the guild of thieves to our door step and let them slaughter our people. Why?¡± Then I noticed the satchel tied tightly to his hip, kept close and protected. ¡°What¡¯s in there?¡± I asked, motioning to it.


    ¡°The Dragon¡¯s Tail,¡± he confessed immediately. ¡°You are right. I did betray the village to the guild of thieves. I let them kill the Shinohari and take our coveted treasures. All except this,¡± he said as he reached to his side and drew out an emerald-looking statue segment, the size of a fire log and intricately designed to look like the tail of some great serpent. ¡°The Dragon¡¯s Tail, when combined with the other artifacts that make The Broken Dragon will grant the one to unite them the power of a god. Immortality, Juik; that¡¯s why.¡±


    He wanted to break the chains that bound him to this world. That was worth more than the collective lives of everyone who was willing to take me in and raise me. Then I had a thought. Some dark idea was born within me and I had to see it through, to know if it was true. ¡°What were you doing in Lione Castle the night you took my sister and I away? What were you doing the night of the rebellion?¡±


    A prideful smile pulled at his lips, making him look like a savage beast whose prey just did something entertaining. ¡°Killing your parents, as I was paid to do.¡± I felt the grip on my swords start to loosen while the will to fight started to slowly drain out of me, all with the power of one sentence. ¡°A man representing the rebellion sought out the Shinohari and hired me to assassinate the King and Queen in their sleep.¡± He went on, speaking casually as if it was just another mission for him. ¡°I researched my targets and learned that your father had to go first. If there was the slightest chance he could survive, he would have joined the fight and it would have undone the rebellion. After that, I was able to kill your mother at my leisure. She was a considerably sound sleeper. She didn¡¯t even wake when her husband was stabbed in the heart only a foot away.¡±


    After each word he spoke and after each detail he shared, he took a step closer. I wanted him to shut up. I wanted him to never speak about my father or mother again. I wanted him to stop. Why was he still going? Why was he still talking? I didn¡¯t want to fight anymore. I wasn¡¯t sure I wanted to live. With that thought, I understood. He was trying to gain the advantage by exploiting my emotions so I wouldn¡¯t put up a fight or what fight I would put up would be full of careless mistakes as I stumbled about blinded by anger or sorrow. He was the one who had made the mistake, though. He forgot my name. ¡°I am the inane, empty as the void that I might fill myself with vengeance.¡±


    I tightened the grip on my swords once more and rushed him. As I got within striking distance, I stopped and darted back a half a foot, making a feint with my sword. He took the bait and moved his blade to deflect an attack that never came. My other sword came around low and from the side, taking a nick out of his hip. He moved back slightly and hissed in pain. It wasn¡¯t deep enough to hinder him, but he didn¡¯t expect me to fight as well as I did.


    I came at him again, making a sideways slash at his torso. He blocked and my blade ricocheted off his. I used the momentum to spin around and drop down at the same time, coming in low so that when I made a full circle, that same blade would come at his ankles. He lifted his foot so that I barely missed his heel, then made to step on my blade, hoping to trap it and me to the ground. I pulled the sword back and let him stomp the dirt. With my other sword, I made to stab at his stomach. He slashed his longer sword at mine, parrying the blade and turned his wrists so he could slash down at an angle. I tried to bring my first sword up to block it only to be a fraction too late.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    I felt the vicious tear of flesh as his sword hit the bone of my cheek. It hit hard enough to knock my head back. A little lower and I¡¯d have a second mouth. A little higher and I¡¯d be missing an eye. I rolled backwards, out of the way of another slash coming at me. The words of my father came to mind, asking me why I tried to block the attack when I was fast enough to avoid getting hurt. Why take the pain when I can outrun it?


    I got back into a standing position and tried to think of a strategy. I could keep hacking and jabbing at him until I found an opening but that would put me in harm¡¯s way. I could already feel the blood steadily streaming from the gash in my cheek telling me that was a bad idea. I could lob an energy grenade and try to take him out in one attack but Jukahn was not the kind to fall for to something so obvious. I could try to lead him but with the bandits on all sides, there was nowhere to lead him to.


    ¡°You¡¯re not going to kill me, Juik. You don¡¯t have the power or capability to.¡± He was taunting me. He still thought he could throw me off my edge. ¡°And what purpose would it serve? It¡¯s too late to save the people of Shinohari. The bandits have put them all to the sword. It¡¯s too late to save Junoro. She gave up with hardly a fight. It¡¯s too late to save the people of Lione. That general gambled on their fates thinking they¡¯d be better off and he lost that bet.¡±


    He was closing in on me again. He was getting louder also. It wasn¡¯t just because he was moving closer. He was intentionally raising his voice so that the wall of ears surrounding us could hear as well. ¡°It¡¯s too late to save your mother and father. They died without ever saying goodbye.¡± I was determined not to fall for it this time. ¡°It¡¯s too late to save your sister. The End War has long since ravaged that part of the world and the Coldsteel Army, who kill without prejudice, landed right on the coast of Sonata.¡± He was only a few feet from me; within sword distance. ¡°You helped land that army there. You helped them kill your sister.¡±


    I wound an arm back across my chest and then whipped it outwards, sword slashing at him. He swayed back and let the blade sail past. While he was dodging, I let go of the blade and let it impale into the ground next to me while my other arm was jabbing forward to try and pierce his heart. I lunged at him and with my now free hand, I shoved my anger into my palm, feeling heat ball in my fist. He twisted his body just enough to let the stab miss him and then grabbed the arm of my sword hand at the wrist, locking it in place.


    He was trying to squeeze down on my wrist at the right point to make me let go of my sword but he was underestimating titanian durability. I brought my other hand around and opened my palm, trying to give his face a full burst of the energy I had stored there. He turned his body into my arm and tucked his shoulder under mine, lifting me off my feet and sending me flipping over to land on my back. The energy fizzled out into nothing and I lost my other sword in the fall.


    Jukahn released my arm and put a foot to my chest, keeping me pinned to the ground while he turned his sword so the tip pointed down at my throat. ¡°You had such promise,¡± he spoke with mock dismay. I put both my hands around his ankle but that only served to make him put more force into keeping me down. Using my grip on his leg to pull myself, I quickly brought up my lower half and curled to jam my knee into the back of his. I let go just in time to shift out of the way while he fell forward.


    I scrambled to recover at least one of my swords. I heard him behind me moving back to his feet and fetching his longer blade. As soon as I spotted the thin metal sticking out of the ground where I threw it, I lunged for it. I made a half dive, half roll movement and pulled the sword from the ground in time to hear the sound of metal hitting hard-packed dirt behind me. I stood and pivoted, instinctively putting my blade up to clash against Jukahn¡¯s as he made another downward slash at me.


    Everything went slower and anything that didn¡¯t matter was drowned out. I no longer noticed the rain pouring down or the fire reaching up. I forgot about the bandits standing still all around us and the hundreds of dead killed at the hands of those bandits. But, I remembered Master Junoro, lying on the cold, hard ground where she had been betrayed by her own. It was my turn to speak. It was my turn to throw him off.


    I ducked and swayed, bobbed and weaved, shifting my position to give his sword-swings nothing but air to cut through. I teased him with words each time his ear was close enough. ¡°She loved you. We don¡¯t get the luxury of love but she felt it all the same.¡± I could see his face tighten and that smile fell away like raindrops, lost in the night. I wasn¡¯t going to stop though, even as his swings became more reckless. ¡°She took you in the same as you took in me but it was different after she started training you.¡±


    ¡°Shut up,¡± he growled through gritted teeth.


    I began taking chances at hitting him again, slashing whenever I got an opening. ¡°She couldn¡¯t have son but she had you. Everything that she denied herself she put in you and you put a sword in her heart.¡±


    ¡°Shut up,¡± he repeated, getting a little louder this time. He winced as I connected the edge of my sword to his shoulder, making a shallow cut just deep enough to draw blood as I sliced through.


    I wasn¡¯t going to shut up. I danced backwards and dipped my hand into the pouch tied to my thigh, pulling a pair of throwing knives out and whipping them forward in the same gesture. ¡°Is that what she said before she died?¡± I asked as the knives went sailing in his direction. He dodged one but the other stuck into his upper thigh. Quickly, he gripped the small handle of it and yanked the knife out. While he was doing that, I closed the distance and thrust my sword towards his stomach. He moved to the side a half second too late and the blade grazed the outside of his abdomen, cutting into his black clothing and pale flesh.


    He staggered backwards, holding his side with his free hand. ¡°I SAID SHUT UP!¡± he shouted over the chaos of the fire and rain and the maddening calls of the bandits all around us. Then he made the mistake of turning his back to me, shouting the same thing over and over to the thieves he let ravage the village in the first place. ¡°SHUT UP!¡± he called again and again while they rabbled.


    This is was the mistake I was waiting for. I held my sword in both hands with the end pointing towards the part of his back that would lead to his heart should I pierce it. I ran full tilt at my master and readied to shove that blade into his body.


    Time lurched to a near stop. Every second became a painfully long eternity and I had the time to see every single detail play out in front of me. I felt the mud fight me for traction. I felt the tiny little pains in my cheek as rain water hit my open wound. I watched the grip Jukahn had on my throwing knife turn and work the instrument to face upside down in his palm, and then tighten around it once more. I watched his upper body torque and his legs change positon as he turned to face me. I watched his stance sink and move enough to avoid the blade coming at him and I with too much momentum to change my path. I felt the sharp metal force past flesh and muscle and tear a brutal passage into my midsection. All the strength I had in me abandoned my limbs and I went limp against the blade, just as Junoro had. He shoved his shoulder into me. With darkness creeping around the border of my vision, I watched the clouded night sky replace the scene I was watching and the cold, wet ground came pounding against me.


    I was dancing completely unaware that the entire time my movements were being led by invisible strings. My words never reached Jukahn. I could see it now in the expression on his face as he stood over me, smiling while he watched the light escape my eyes from the other side. Pain became a background noise like everything else and the only thing that was clear was his voice. ¡°¡¯I forgive you,¡¯¡± he said just soft enough that I could hear it. ¡°Those are the last words she said.¡±

 Chapter 8: Mel, Lost and Found

    The people in Sonata began to talk about how the Hollows were haunted because of all the strange singing they heard coming from the caves. It was like our own private joke, listening to them whisper about how the fishermen could hear the singing from their boats and some of the farmers swore they could hear songs coming from the Hollowlands. Whenever I would come see her, she would take me down to the Hollows and we would practice singing and dancing. From the outside it looked like she wasn¡¯t giving me any instruction and that I was just making things up but if a person could see and feel the things I felt while the music carried me, they¡¯d know that the way has always been there, but you have to do more than see it to follow it.


    There came a point where she gave me actual instruction. I started getting lessons on how to apply everything I¡¯d learn about the rhythm to things that directly opposed me. The last thing I expected to learn from my experiences with Jezebel was how to fight. She told me that I would inevitably meet an opposing current.


    Instead of going to the Hollows, she took me out behind her cabin to where a sea of grass stretched out in place of a sea of water. I followed her a good thirty yards away from he house where she told me to stand perfectly still and to feel the world around me. She stood opposite of me, dressed in billowy attire, sarong hanging loosely from her hips. So far, nothing seemed different. I didn¡¯t have to close my eyes anymore to see the tempo. It was like a second kind of vision I could switch to at will. It was smoe kind of new awareness.


    I stood there, waiting for whatever came next when suddenly she was only inches away with her palms colliding with the center of my chest. She sent me tumbling backwards. I got up onto my feet and began to ask ¡°What was that all about?¡± when she was on me again, standing at my side with one hand thrusting into my stomach hard enough to make me double over and the other hitting the top of my spine. She made a curling move to guide my petite body into flipping over so that by the end of it, I would be on my back.


    I got up again, this time with my hands up defensively so I would be ready for the next attack. She thrust her right hand out towards my face and I saw her lips mouth the word ¡°break¡±. I brought my hands up to block the hit. The hit didn¡¯t come. Instead, she pulled her hand back at the last second and twisted to corkscrew her body downward so that when she faced me again, she had a firm grip on my ankle to yank it upwards and jerk me off my feet where I landed on my back once more.


    I was getting frustrated at that point. I rolled back to my feet but this time I was ready to go on the attack. Anger had built up in me and I was going to give it all to her with a curled fist sailing right for her gut. Her hands rose and cupped my fist in mid throw, turning her body outside of mine at the same time she guided my fist to slide past her. While she was parrying my punch, she shifted to the side so that I would pass right by her and it would have just been a dodge, but her foot had moved outward and slipped in front of mine, causing me to trip over it and land on my face.


    I wanted to throw something at her but all I could find was an assortment of rocks scattered in the grass and if I threw one at Jezebel and it landed, it would probably do some serious damage. I got up instead and tried to keep my distance. ¡°Now you¡¯re afraid to move,¡± she observed.


    I clenched my fists again. ¡°I¡¯m not afraid!¡± I shouted defiantly.


    She shook her head. ¡°Cautious then?¡± She began moving closer to me, making me move in the opposite direction. ¡°You¡¯re being pushed. You are letting another force manipulate you and force you away.¡± I stopped moving but that just made me more frustrated. What was I supposed to do if I couldn¡¯t move away and I couldn¡¯t defend myself? ¡°Take the force and move it. Guide it. Find out the direction it is flowing and move with it, then change it as it goes.¡±


    I moved forward, taking quick but careful steps to reach her. She let me come and as soon as I was within range, she shoved her palm towards my head. I watched it thrust out at me and ducked under, letting it sail over the top of my head. ¡°Guide it,¡± she said. ¡°Change it as it goes,¡± she said. I brought my hand up, turning my palm upwards and grabbing her arm. I caught a hold of her forearm and pulled her in the direction she was thrusting, only this time I was taking her body with it. As it went, I pushed out my palm as she had and slammed it into her stomach.


    She let out a hard breath and stumbled backwards when I let her arm go. I expected her to rush me with more movements that were impossible to react to. Instead she smiled her honey-sweet smile. ¡°That was very well done. You are a very fast learner, child.¡± It was my turn to smile, feeling heat come to my face. It was the opposite of what I had heard from everyone else. I was described as pig-headed and stubborn, mostly. It turns out I just needed to apply myself to something I actually wanted to do.


    She took in a long breath, chest rising and falling slowly then came at me again. At first her movements were too fast to follow. She came running up to me thrusting her hands and occasionally swinging her legs at me and all I could do was block. That ended up pointless because she¡¯d find a way to either go around my block or use it against me and I¡¯d end up right on my butt again. But I was a fast learner and it didn¡¯t take long before I was able to twist and move to keep up with her, also also give back.


    At one point we had to stop so she could explain, ¡°it does not take the entire river to weather away the stone.¡± My confusion must have been obvious because she went on to explain, ¡°you are hitting me too hard and I¡¯m starting to bruise.¡± She kept smiling, even as she was holding her stomach were I first hit her. Apparently I needed to start holding back or I would end up breaking my teacher. I apologized and we continued.


    When half the day had gone by and I thought we were done, the second set of lessons came. Even with her body feeling sore, she was still strong enough to give me lessons on how to dance and sing. I admired her strength but even more I admired her ability to never be slowed down by the needto rest and recover. She just moved on to the next strenuous activity.


    Against fighting and dancing, I liked singing the most. We eventually got radios to our cut off part of the world and while most of Sonata listened for news about what was going on beyond their imaginary walls, it was the music stations that we were fascinated with. So many beautiful voices and hypnotic instruments leading the heart on a journey it didn¡¯t know it was taking; all while sitting still and listening to this little box play transmissions from an entire sea away.


    I found out another one of Jezebel¡¯s many talents while listening to the radio in her home. ¡°I wish I could play my own music to go with the songs I sing,¡± I casually remarked while sitting in the window box in her home. It was a rainy day, music pattering as softly as the raindrops on glass. Her face lit up the gloom of the weather and she left for a few minutes, only to return with a guitar.


    ¡°How about a different kind of lesson today?¡± she asked while sitting back down next to me. ¡°I can teach you any instrument you are willing to learn, provided of course I have it.¡± She curled her fingers against the strings, one hand strumming the notes and the other changing the way they sounded. She matched the music on the radio as she heard it and I could feel her colors mixing with the plethora of beauty coming out that small speaker.


    She sat behind me after handing me the guitar and draped her long arms over me so she could guide my hands to the strings and show me how they worked. She showed me how to change the sounds the guitar made, how to adjust and tighten the strings, how to bend the notes and extend the sounds, how to make a note long or cut it short, how to match the radio the same way I first matched her voice and how to make my own sound. I got lost in the music and even when I was making my own path for the river to flow, I never truly knew where I was going, only that I was at peace just moving in the rhythm.


    She took me back to a part of her house that I had only been through once or twice and showed me a cloth draped over something large and imposing. When she pulled the white curtain off it, I got to see my first piano. It made me wonder how she got it here given her whimsical lifestyle but she had been rooted in Sonata for at least a few years before I met her. Even though she didn''t get along with the village, they didn¡¯t outright refuse her business eiter. Somewhere along her travels she had been lucky enough to gain some kind of wealth and this was the only kind of luxury she ever spent it on. Otherwise, she was happy living out the rest of her life in simple peace.


    She taught me how to pull the music out of the piano, the drums, the guitar, and many other instruments she had learned while wandering Embre. Some days she would let me pick the instrument and she would chose one that best harmonized with it, then the two of us would play until our fingers and throats had gotten too worn out to play any longer. We continued dancing lessons, also for entertainment and for defensive means.


    I spent so much time with Jezebel that I didn¡¯t notice how much the people of Sonata were changing. Mark and June were being pressured to reel me in and show me more discipline. The other teenagers were starting to fall into their natural paths of boredom and mediocrity. Luke and Jani became the "power couple" everyone knew they¡¯d become and the adults would remark on how adorable they were together and how sweet and innocent their love supposedly was. But secretly, they would fight over stupid things or sneak off to do not-so-innocent things and no one knew because they put up such a good illusion about being the paragon of love.


    Chris was learning to become the town doctor like her mom, or at least that was as far as I had heard. I hadn¡¯t spoken to her in years like I hadn¡¯t spoken to many of the other kids but whenever I¡¯d ask about her, she¡¯d be off somewhere studying. Much later, I''d find out that Chris would run away from home. After she was gone, no one really knew what happened to her; not her parents, not the villagers, not the other kids from the village.


    For the time being, I tried to simply enjoy my life in Sonata even after spending so many years resenting what it meant. I didn¡¯t want to stay there and let my life become meaningless like so many others had, but I was still trying to find a reason to leave. Day after day I would wait for some reason to present itself, practicing music and meditation with my teacher who would tell me, ¡°The reason why it has not come to you is because it is waiting for you to go out and find it. Maybe you are afraid?" Maybe I was.


    Beyond the imaginary walls of Sonata, rest of the world was waiting. This was the same world that burnt my home to the ground and killed my mom and dad. This is the same world that was making guns and machines to destroy each other in wars that no one wanted to be a part of. Jezebel kept talking about the beauty in the world but it was hard to believe her when the news kept talking about all the death and devastation. Fear is a unique motivator all on its own. It whispers so seductively for you keep safe and stay away that you believe that¡¯s your only real option. It blinds you to your potential in life.


    What became the tipping point was when the desire to become something more and the need to keep moving became stronger than the fear of what was waiting for me. ¡°Keep going, even through the unknown.¡± I needed to keep going. I also needed Jezebel to come with me. She would dismiss me saying that she had already seen the world and that she was getting too old to travel by whim alone. The same woman who knocked me on my rear was saying she was too old.


    No matter how much I begged her or tried to convince her that I wouldn¡¯t go without her, she insisted she couldn¡¯t leave. Defeated, I asked if she would at least help me get ready, thinking that maybe if she saw me prepare for what was ahead of me, it would bring out the wanderlust in her and remind her of all the great experiences she had when she was traveling. It was my last hope of getting her to come with me.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    She agreed to go into town with me to gather up supplies and information so I knew where I would be going and what I would be doing. She decided that the first place I needed to travel to was South City. It was considered the hub all human civilization. Located on the southern coast of Central Embre, most of Sonata''s trade business came from South City. It was there or Harusame which was located on the southern coast of Eastern Embre. To get to South City I would need to catch a boat from Hope going northwest. Most boats were going to or from South City anyway. Part of me wanted to go west once I hit the mainland to see the rarely visited Western Embre hidden past the Dragonspine Mountains. Jezebel told me that I was young and that I would have an entire lifetime to see West Embre and everywhere else.


    Tension in the town was thick the moment we set foot inside. Eyes turned to us as we made our way towards the center of the town where the supply shops were. Most of the looks were directed at Jezebel. A few glances came my way. Some of them pitied me for being corrupted by her and some judged me for trying to be just like her. It was the kinder hearts that thought I was being seduced by the foreigner while the more closed minded thought of me as some little hellion who wanted nothing more than to be a sinful succubus like my sultry teacher.


    I walked in her shadow once the crowd started to thicken. People gathered around the center of the town to contain some sort of drama going on. We could only get so close and we didn¡¯t seem able to get close enough to the epicenter so as to find out what was causing such a scene. I used my smaller body to my advantage, grabbing Jezebel by the hand and wedging through the swarm of the people while pulling her through.


    We broke through the thick of them to find the source was a couple fighting specifically. It was Jani¡¯s parents. I recognized her mom from the many times she was pulled away from our play so she could help prepare dinner and set the table. I could only assume that the man was Jani¡¯s dad the way he kept pleading with her by calling her ¡°sweetie¡± and ¡°my beloved¡±.


    One question that Jani¡¯s mom kept asking over and over was ¡°Who?¡± I didn¡¯t know what it meant and I was starting to think I never would the way Jani¡¯s dad kept dodging the question. The thing that made the issue bigger than it would have normally been was the threatening steel in her hands, firmly gripped in her palms with most of her fingers curled around the handle except for the one that cradled the trigger. The barrel trained was on the man who was on hands and knees begging for her not to shoot.


    Jani¡¯s mom asked one more time and I could see the fear play out in her dad¡¯s pupils, even from several feet away. The panic finally over took him and he turned his eyes away from the gun pointed at his forehead long enough to scan the crowd, thrust out an accusing finger towards Jezebel, and called out ¡°her!¡± More looks came to swarm all over us. Hushed whispers filled the uncomfortable silence. The woman turned the gun on Jezebel, ready to believe the accusation. ¡°You,¡± she said in a shakey voice. ¡°It was you!¡±


    Jani¡¯s parents were on the village council and were one of the select few allowed to have guns. They were restricted to everyone else in Sonata from the very moment they arrived from the mainland. Some didn¡¯t want them to be brought in at all but paranoia won out over reason. The few considered ¡°responsible¡± gave themselves permission to keep them. this is what responsibility looked like, apparently.


    Jezebel spoke up, maintaining that incredible calm only she could wear. ¡°I do not know what you think I have done but I am innocent.¡± The scowl on Jani¡¯s mom¡¯s face showed her lack of belief.


    ¡°You foreign whore!¡± she spat out in a voice choked with anger. ¡°You tried to steal my husband away from me!¡± I¡¯m sure Jezebel was just as confused as I was. Name calling was not the best way to start a conversation, especially one involving a gun but it takes a special kind of crazy to solely blame the mistress (assuming the accusation was true) for the infidelity of your significant other.


    Jezebel opened her palms and stretched out her arms in a gesture of surrender. She bent at the hip to a respectful bow while never taking her eyes off the other woman. She was going to try reasoning with the unreasonable. ¡°I have done no such thing. Your husband is trying to use me as the obvious scapegoat. Its seems you have quite the case against him that would lead you to believe that someone here has been with your husband. However, I am not that someone and knowing who it was should not be grounds to forgive him for his transgressions. He was responsible for his own actions. No one woman could have forced him into their bed.¡± No woman from Sonata could anyway.


    The husband took the opportunity to slink back towards the crowd while his wife began stalking closer and closer towards Jezebel. ¡°You lie,¡± she hissed. The grip she had on that pistol become more anxious. ¡°You destroyed the love we had with your evil.¡± Jezebel took in a slow breath, closed her eyes, and as she opened them again, she stepped forward almost too fast to be seen. One hand came up and turned out to grab a hold of the other woman¡¯s wrist, shifting the sight of the gun out of harm¡¯s way while holding it tightly. Her other palm came swinging around just as Jezebel pivoted on her foot and slammed her palm into that woman¡¯s elbow with all the force that she had hit me with the first time we sparred. A sickening crack followed by a scream made a morbid opera of the joint giving way. She forced Jani¡¯s mom¡¯s arm to bend in the wrong direction. I don¡¯t know if it was broken but had been damaged enough to force Jani¡¯s mom to drop the gun.


    Jezebel scooped up the firearm as soon as she changed direction and turned once more to face the woman. She pressed the hard steel of the firearm into the woman¡¯s head and I saw something dark work its way behind Jezebel¡¯s eyes. The woman looked up in tears that I was certain hadn¡¯t been shed for her shattered elbow. She was mourning everything she had lost control of. Jani¡¯s mom reached behind her for something. With hate filled eyes, the woman went on, ¡°you evil succubus. I will make you suffer for what you did. You will never be forgiven. I will make you feel pain until you beg-¡°. A loud bang silenced the grieving wife. ¡°Break,¡± I heard Jezebel whisper.


    Jezebel¡¯s arms jerked back and I saw her almost lose her balance completely. Like many of the small people in the small village, she didn¡¯t know how to use a gun. All she knew was that squeezing the trigger made a permanent solution to a temporary problem. She let her arms drop to her sides and the gun fall from her grip, making a hard thud onto the ground where the heated end made a short stream of smoke to rise into the air.


    She was mobbed instantly. I felt someone violently pull me away and hold on to me even as I struggled to get free. Whomever it was tried their best to contain the might of a teenage titanian while I kicked and screamed to be set free. Jezebel was forced to the ground, a large man on her digging his knee into her back and shoving her face into the dirt like he had managed to wrestle some boar that had been eating his crops. He spat curses at her just as everyone else did and I heard cries for justice in the form of torture and death. ¡°Kill her!¡± one cried. ¡°Shoot her!¡± cried another. ¡°Hang her!¡± cried a third.


    Jani¡¯s dad scooped up his wife into his arms, staring unbelieving at the bloody hole driven into her head by the bullet and trying to jostle her body as if it was going to wake up. I could see the gears working in his head like a tiny music box most likely playing a tune that sounded like ¡°this is your fault¡±. Denial must have silenced it because he spoke up over the chaos that was all around Jezebel. ¡°There will be no trial,¡± he said first, taking control as the town official he was. ¡°All have witnessed this woman¡¯s guilt. She has murdered my wife and she will be executed for her crime.¡±


    I fought to break free from the hold they had on me and it took a strong few hands to hold me. ¡°Let go of me,¡± I shouted as they pulled Jezebel to her feet and began to lead her towards the edge of the town. I saw someone out of the corner of my eye run to catch up with the head of the mob carrying a rope in his hands. Some were arguing about what to do with me, insisting on taking me away so I didn¡¯t have to see what they were going to do to her, but then a voice came to convince them otherwise.


    A man told them to escort me with the rest of the mob and make me watch so I could witness what would happen if I kept going down the same path that Jezebel was leading me. He wanted me to learn the hard way what a life of ¡°evil¡± and ¡°debauchery¡± resulted in. There was no logic left in these people anymore and in their irrational state, the villagers holding me hostage agreed. They began walking me down to the edge of the village, too.


    Just outside the village of Sonata, beyond the crops to the south and in the opposite direction of the Hollows, an assortment of trees grew into a small forest. At the edge of the small forest, the trees were more sparse and scattered. The townsfolk searched for one that could serve their needs with a thick trunk and strong branches that reached out above the heights of most. They wound the rope into knots while leaving a circle at the end large enough to fit a head through before tossing it over the strongest looking branch. I watched as they tied a noose for my only friend.


    I heard someone call over the crowd and I tried to turn my head to see who it was but they had me by the back of my skull and were forcing me to watch them test the noose around Jezebel¡¯s neck. I couldn¡¯t see who exactly the voice was coming from but I knew who it was, recognizing it as the same voice that told me she was proud of me when I did good and scolded me when I made a selfish decision.


    June was pushing through the crowd to get at me. ¡°Let her go! Let Melody go!¡± she shouted again and again.


    The man who had spoken before came forward, getting between me and June as soon as she came into view. ¡°Get back, June. She has to see this. She has to learn what fate befalls those who try to live hedonistic lifestyles. This is for her own good. If she is allowed to go on thinking that this is the way to act, she will have no place in this village. We tolerated this harlot long enough but I will not allow her to corrupt our youth any further.¡± As the man spoke, I could only see the back of him, still not able to find out what he looked like, much less who he was.


    I could barely see June on the other side of him but I knew by her tone that she had her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed. ¡°This is too much. This will scar her and leave her broken. She will think that the only way to deal with a problem is to murder it.¡±


    The man disagreed. ¡°She will think that problematic people will have no place in functioning society and it is the moral duty of the good people to cut out the infected flesh before it spreads.¡±


    I heard June spit out her disgust. ¡°People are not inflected flesh, Gabriel. They feel pain and fear and love and are capable of amazing things if you know how to nurture them without taking away their freedom. This is not some cold medical procedure. This is murder.¡± I figured it out then. It was Chris¡¯ dad standing in front of me. As the assistant to his wife, who was the village doctor, he had a hard and clinical way of looking at things.


    I saw Mr. Gabriel ball his fists while his posture remained still, putting all his tension into his hands. ¡°Murder was what this harpy did to Cherise. Murder is taking a gun, pointing it at someone¡¯s head, and pulling the trigger. What about Cherise¡¯s pain? What about her fear? What about her potential to do great things? It¡¯s splattered over the ground in the center of town, lost forever and that is the thing that did it.¡±


    I was starting to not like the way he kept referring to Jezebel as a thing. He was trying to dehumanize her so that he wouldn¡¯t feel guilty when they strung her up from the tree and watched her lungs desperately struggle for air. I began kicking and shouting again, pulling at the people during with all their might to keep me detained. ¡°Let me go! This isn¡¯t right!¡±


    They didn¡¯t care about what I thought was right or wrong. They were sure that Mrs. Cherise was an innocent victim in the whole event. No one ever knew what she was trying to pull from behind her back when she had lost her gun. Everyone seemed to have forgotten the threats she was spouting as she became more and more unstable. Everyone ignored the fact that moments before, she had a gun pointed at her husband and was ready and willing to execute him. Defending herself was a death sentence for Jezebel.


    I tried to pull away again and they pulled the opposite way, pushing their feet into the ground and bracing themselves against my struggling. Then, I felt everyone stop. I took advantage of whatever was distracting them and broke free, moving past Mr. Gabriel and throwing my arms open, locking them around June as if she was my salvation.


    When I embraced her, I was surprised to find out she wasn¡¯t facing me or Mr. Gabriel anymore. She was looking the same direction everyone else was. They had all gone silent and stiff, only seldom blinks and subtle breathing giving any hint that they were not statues. I followed their gaze and saw the end of my life in Sonata.


    Jezebel swayed from beneath the tree, rope caught around her neck and holding her up as a display of the cruelty of the world. There was no dance of fire behind her eyes anymore. It had been snuffed out, frozen in sorrow. Her beautiful hair spilt around her equally beautiful face and that beauty would never grace the world again. I would have given anything to see that limp body dance again, to hear that heavenly voice call the colors of the world to mix together in a symphony of joy and wonder, to feel the warmth of her smile as she looked past what I was to what I could be.


    I knew why it was silent now. There was no more music. Everyone had taken it for granted, never noticing how much it was a part of their lives. They feared so much what could happen if they opened their hearts to the rest of the world that they kept their hands over their ears and tried to ignore it. They had become the monsters they were afraid might someday charge their gates. I couldn¡¯t stay among them anymore. I couldn¡¯t stay in Sonata. There was no music left. The only thing left was despair.