“I am tired now, Emily, and I will talk to you again,” Elora said. Emily nodded, understanding, as she took the plate from Elora. “I think I’ll be going to sleep.”
“Good bye, and have a good rest.” Emily smiled as Elora walked off towards the tent. Elora’s mind though, was a menace. She couldn’t believe all that she had heard. To think that Kieran and Chaiya had gone through so much, so much that they were still moving on like this? She didn’t know how bad Prince Italus might have treated Chaiya, but Chaiya was such a sweet girl. She shouldn’t be treated badly, she was so beautiful and so intense, so caring that Elora couldn’t believe all that she was hearing.
Just...what sort of a man is Prince Italus to cause so much pain? Why is he so bad? Elora thought, slowly removing her yucky clothes to wear the only set of night-clothes that she had. She could have slept in the gown that Chaiya gave her, but her pajamas were better. She slowly laid down on her own bed, and switched off the oil lamp, holding her key close to her heart. Save me from nightmares, lock my mind from them.
She kissed her key once, and went to sleep, holding the key right close to her heart. As she did, though, the key glowed fiery red. It was sensing someone trying to get close, to look at the owner, and it knew what it had to do and who it had to protect. It wasn’t going to let this magical presence get close to Elora, no it was not.
* * *
The surprising burst of power that knocked her sight out of vision wasn’t something that she was used to. No matter how much she concentrated, she couldn’t see the traitor camp, or the inhabitants, and for Lady Sinara, the personal Seer of Prince Italus, it was really, really shocking. Not many had the magical power to do this.
They are for sure arranging an attack. I wonder how they blocked me, Sinara thought, her face scrunched up as she concentrated and tried again. There was nothing that she got. She was being blocked. This was starting to get worrying. She couldn’t let this stop her, this wouldn’t do at all. She had to know her enemies whereabouts, or she wouldn’t be a seer for Prince Italus.
At that name, she looked up and at the prince himself, sleeping right on the bed where she had just gotten up from. She had been sleeping behind his naked, tall form. He dwarfed almost everyone that lived in this country, no matter who or what he was. His tall frame, strong hands and powerful face only attracted those that wanted power, and they would leave broken without any means of escape of the infernal prison that they had found themselves in.
It was him that always, always made sure that the power would be with him, and it was him that made sure that in the end Claw Worth would be on top. His entire life revolved around power and as the Prince of Claw Worth, he was the one that would command all the power in the world. But even then, as powerful, dominant and authoritative Italus was, he was looking too innocent as he slept. His eyes, when open, would be the purest green that could penetrate the deepest and the darkest of the blackened souls. His hair was curled, and he had a mustache on his tanned, caramel looking skin, making him the most handsome man that there was, and his full lips could show her pleasure beyond words, any words that she could have hoped to see.
And right now, she had just woken up from performing her nightly duty, and heal him from a simple injury that he had gotten when he was practicing his archery. A simple bruise, yet she, Lady Sinara, the lady of sex magic had been called. Her Sex magic was a very, very forbidden art of magic that not many knew about, and was the reason why her sisters were banished from this world, and sent to the other universes far away. But no matter what he looked like, Italus would be the king soon, the KING of Claw Worth, and only through the secret treasures of the King could she make sure that Italus would win against all of their enemies.
Getting out of the bed, she walked over to the covers, where she could get dressed in her usual, blue corset dress. People would be envious of her, and her looks, mostly females that were trying to get their clawing and needy hands into the men of the world. But she was a different kind of a beauty. Her beauty was endless, and only one had the choice of touching it. Her dress properly hugged her curves, the same curves of her body that had been called as a farce, as an illusion to hide the enchantress that she was. Mainly because of their jealousy as she was with the prince all the time, but none knew what she did when she wasn’t with Italus. She would gather her ingredients, the magical items needed for her to pray to her dark-lord, and gain more power. And while she did that, the Prince would do his own thing.
Prince Italus had a habit, a bad habit as some claimed. But it was a habit. He would be in the playroom in the dungeons of the castle, his own playroom where he had his fun with the various men and women of the Kingdom who wanted to side with those of Feather Grove. He would take his time showing the traitors and would-be-traitors who was in charge, and he was the one who was in charge. His hands would strike down upon those that dared to defy him and not acknowledge him as powerful, and his various tools would then move along their bodies, making them scream in utter pain and agony, further satisfying the most despicable and perverted wretched needs of Prince Italus. He would endlessly have sex and even rape them, to show his dominance, as he loved power, and the only way he could truly show it upon people was through dominating them, and when they got desperate enough to taste him again and again, would he dispose of them knowing that they could never betray him again.
But for now, Lady Sinara had other plans. She needed to know more about the Kingdom, and the sun shining harshly upon her didn’t help. She despised the sun, it drained her abilities and she couldn’t see into the various people of the kingdoms. Her powers delved onto mind-reading, and Sinara took pleasure into knowing every single secret of every single resident of Claw Worth. She was not arrogant enough to go outside without reason, but she knew that Claw Worth was the largest, and nothing was going to stop her from doing what she wanted, even if meant to stretch the mind of the person that she wanted to read to its limit to accommodate her. And so, her room was in the deepest, darkest part of the castle, where no light would penetrate except for the one, single, dim candle that she would use. Her eyes were powerful enough to read and see in the darkness, and as soon as she entered, she only had one goad. To find out what was going on, and once again she couldn’t see the Rebel Camp. But she did see something. Something that worried her greatly, something that she needed to tell the prince as fast as she could.
Hurrying back to the room she came from, she opened the door to find Prince Italus luring his new chamber maid into bed with promises of power and money, of a better position, but before she could even reply or before Italus could open his golden tongued serpent mouth, Sinara had something else in plan.
“Leave,” Sinara commanded the Chamber Maid. The Maid, looking at the expression that Lady Sinara had on her face, instantly ran off, leaving the two alone. Sinara put on her stern face, and glared at Italus who was rubbing his eyes.
“Always taking away my fun, Sinara,” Italus muttered, stretching and slowly getting up. But she knew if he wanted to he could simply force himself upon her and nothing would stop him. “What is it this time?”
“If you had been more listening to the cries of the women where you put your royal manhood in, then perhaps there was a chance you would know that your loyal lap-rat A’Wout Phong had been murdered by the rebels.” Sinara said sternly. Italus instantly stood up from the bed, his eyes wide and his expression carrying his pure shock.
“What?!” Italus shouted his surprise and shock rising as his earlier complaints died a brutal, horrible death. “How?! Who?! He was the best that he had! The very best that had ever come to us!”
Italus quickly looked around for his clothes, which were scattered around all over the floor. Sinara was reminded of a giant Man-child as she watched him scurry around naked trying to find all of his clothes so he could get dressed. This was surely not what he wanted to hear early in the morning. He would have loved to hear moans, screamed and cries of pleasure demanding for more of his
manhood and his body, or the cries of pain and torture, to stop inflicting pain, to satisfy his soul. But this, this was simple above what he wanted to hear.
“A’Wout was not only a spy, he was an assassin, Sinara!” Italus cried out, harshly at that, as he got dressed. “And he was as good as they came. I need to know who the hell killed him and how did he die?! There was no one in the Rebels camp that I know could have killed him, and Chaiya is to slow to catch him.”
“I do not know, but we do need to find out.” Sinara agreed, remembering her troubles to spy upon them. “They have had some new allies, it would seem. Something blocked me from seeing them, something powerful.”
“And if it is powerful enough to stop you then it is truly powerful.” Italus sighed and got serious. “What is our next plan of attack? We have a lot of things to do.”
“I cannot do more than I already do, Italus, until you become king. I need the access to all the pretty things in the king’s little vault to do more.” Sinara said, her tone bitter. “Or I wouldn’t have been stopped by whatever stopped me. I would have known what was inside, and would have already sent out our warriors to get it. Such power doesn’t belong to anyone but you, after all.”
“Indeed.” Italus preened, like a peacock. Sinara hid a smile. She knew how to play his flute in the figurative and literal way. “And it is not that I can take the throne right now, we will have a lot of things to do when I do eventually though.”
Sinara nodded, knowing what he was talking about. There were a couple of problems with the throne, at the moment. The first was the father, who was a tricky task. And even if Italus held no love for him now, he was planning to retire only when he died, and that wasn’t going to be anytime soon it seemed. So he had to wait, only wait until his father died, before he became the King. And for that he would need his father to die, and he would need his mother to die as well. And only then would he take the throne. But he couldn’t orchestrate the deaths either.
No, he needed his older sister to be married to his friend, Sebu, the Prince of Sacan. He needed the eldest daughter out of the way before she could make ridiculous claims on the throne before their parents died before he could kill off their parents, and only then could he become the king. It was a mad long wait, but as they had said, good things came to those that had patience and for now, he, Italus, was willing to be patient and look at how things went.
But simply remembering of the Rebellion made him remember about Chaiya, and the pain he had caused her. Oh how much he loved looking at that crushed, destroyed face, at the pure agony and suffering that she had when he took the biggest gift she had been given. Oh how much he wanted to see her again to show her the dominance that he still held over her, and how much he wanted to crush Kieran’s pride again and again until nothing remained. Feather Grove had been a project, a very, very nice project which he enjoyed doing, and he wasn’t going to stop now. He was going to crush this little rebellion that dared to go up against him and show his power to the world. After all, he was Italus, and he would reign supreme.
“Come, Sinara.” Italus said, as he got completely ready in really pristine clothes. “We have a kingdom to rule, and as much I want to stay here, we do have to keep face.”
8
It seemed like it had been weeks, months even since she last woke up, but Elora knew that it had only been hours. She had fallen asleep so badly, so badly that it was getting really, really strange how fast she could sleep here.
Is it because of all the exercise that I am doing? All this extra activity is making me more and more tired? Elora thought as she stretched, grabbing her bag and removing a small mouth-strip. It was like a mouth-was, but considering she had very, very limited of that with her, she just had to use a single stripe that would keep her mouth fresh for now, and brush her teeth tomorrow morning.
Opening the flaps, she peeked out to see if anyone was awake. And no one was. It was very dark outside, and the only one that was awake was the night’s watchmen, taking a patrol around the entire camp with a simple lamp on his hand, and then sit back down by the fire. Elora thought she could go out and sit beside him, but she didn’t even know him so that was useless, and would seem strange. So she just got back inside of the tent.
She didn’t want to switch on the night-lamp, it would be disturbing for everyone if she did so. It wouldn’t end up good for him, or for anyone, if they woke up so early in the night. But she did need something. Like for example water so she could finally wash the torn jacket she had from the tapestry. Perhaps she could ask for a torn or destroyed piece of upper-body from someone at the camp and take the sleeve and sew it up on here if needed, so the jacket could be useable at least. But she needed to wash it first. It was blood-stained and she properly wash it. So she grabbed a bowl that she had and went to the well that there was in the middle of the camp. She felt the eyes of the night watchman on her, but he didn’t move. She just took the water and filled the entire bowl with it, and walked back.
As she placed her torn jacket inside of the bowl, though, the water started swirling around the bowl. Suddenly, the water became smoky, as if liquid smoke was running inside of the water, and then it was becoming pure white, like a trajectory screen. As the change was occurring, Elora was taking a step back in fright.
Great, now what, she thought, extremely frightened. Crap, I hope it isn’t something too bad!
And that was when she heard the noises from the bowl. At first, she thought that she was hallucinating, that it was another ‘gift’ that A’Wout’s attack had left her. But it was not. No, she could clearly see the faces now, and it was clearly recognizable. She gasped and grabbed the bowl, looking inside of it, her eyes wide and watery.
“Bram? Marine?!” Elora cried out, her voice soft yet holding all of her desperation. “How?! What are you...? Oh my god!”
Marine was shaking Bram in excitement. She couldn’t believe that their little spell had worked, even she didn’t know what Kameron was doing when he had started this strange ritual, but he had said that Elora would have to be near some water when she was bleeding or something, and it was simply bound to happen because Kameron said that the world she was in was by no means a normal world, or so he hoped.
But the fact that it had actually worked was blowing her mind away.
“Elora? Where are you Elora?!” Bram’s face looked ready to break out into sobs and tears of worry and joy. “Are you Okay? Are you fine? Are you...are you—?”
“Oh hush up you big softy.” Marine pushed her emotional boyfriend in the side and looked back in the bowl where an openly crying Elora was.” How did this happen Elora? Where are you? What are you doing?”
“I miss you guys so much!” Elora cried. “It’s been so long here, and the time is not normal, one hour is one day here, and the things that happened to me, I can’t even begin where to start. I am okay, I am just fine, a bit scratched up but I can handle that, and yes, I am figuring out how to get back but I promise I’ll be back soon.”
Her tears were now flowing steadily as emotion poured out of her frame and into the sky, her sobs now being very, very noticeable. Finally, after all this time she finally found her friend! Looking at Bram and Marine who looked ready to cry, Elora was going to start saying things, but then Kameron’s face came into view.
“I told you if you did things like I said, you wouldn’t be in trouble,” the Guide snarled. “How did you get there, and how did you get into the other world?”
“I...” Kameron’s question caught off guard. “I think it was the tapestry in the temple that is how I got transported to another world. I don’t know how, but I did.”
Kameron was really, really silent and contemplative for a while, whereas Bram and Marine quickly got their composure back. Finally, Kameron spoke in a very silent and soft voice that shot shivers down her spine.
“How did you activate the tapestry?” Kameron asked. An itch started to go up her hands, near the lines. She could feel the itch increasing as
Kameron asked the question again. “And what was the exact thing you did?”
Now Elora knew the answer. It was something about her blood being in touch with the missing piece of the Tapestry, but the fact that she was getting this dangerous omen meant only one thing. And she believed in these omens quite well now, anything that gave you an off feeling was not good for her, and her safety, and the safety of her friends.
“I...I don’t know,” Elora said. She knew that it had something to do with the blood, but she wasn’t going to tell it to Kameron. It all felt off, and she didn’t want any more danger. “I have no clue, but I am intending to find out. I was not alone and I have made some friends, and we are going to come up together to find me a way back home. Sure, some are strange, but they’re good friends.”
She saw some light from the outside, and looked as she saw the sun coming up. As the sun did come up, the water was slowly starting to clear. With a gasp, she started to cover the sun’s rays with her body, but the water was already clearing up till then.
“No! Wait! No! Please come back! No!” But it was too late, and the image of her friends disappeared. Elora collapsed on the ground, wanting to cry, but she knew that crying would only make things worse. So instead of crying, she was going to be strong. She had made contact with her world, and she had spoken to her friends and now she knew they were alright. But was she alright? Elora had no illusions of the fact that this world was going to go to war, and she was in a foreign land on the side that held the least chances of winning but the most of getting her home. She was in another world, where magic and monsters existed, where things could go wrong to right and right to wrong in a snap of a second, where death was a daily ritual. But as scared as she was, she was excited as well.
On the other hand, Bram and Marine looked at one another and at Kameron. Kameron sighed as the bowl cleared away.
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