Princess Triumvirate

by Catherine Banks

“I normally fight with two swords,” Marin told me.

  “That’s fine,” I replied and drew my sword and a dagger.

  “Don’t light me on fire,” she ordered me.

  I laughed. “I’ll only use a defense shield if I absolutely need to,” I offered.

  We stood in the center of the arena and I took a deep breath to center myself and focus on Marin. She raised her swords and nodded. I returned the nod and sprinted forward. She was fast and smart. Her strikes hit hard and I smiled at the first vibration I felt through my arms as our swords clashed.

  She liked to fight close and almost knocked my legs out from under me with a kick, but I dodged enough to stumble backwards and then roll out of the way of her strike. We circled each other and I saw her body began to softly glow.

  “Pulling out all the stops, huh?” I asked. “If you’re using magic, so will I.”

  “Ready?” she asked me.

  I put one hand behind my back and drew a symbol in the air. “I’m ready,” I told her.

  She ran at me and as soon as she was within five feet, I finished the symbol and dodged. She froze in place and struggled against the spell. She snarled at me. “Cheater.”

  “You used magic first,” I accused her and flipped my dagger up in the air before catching it again.

  “Can it be broken?” Favian asked from the fence.

  I nodded. “Once she learns to shield herself, this type of spell won’t work on her again. To escape now, she has to find the symbol and erase part of it.”

  “You drew it in the air,” King Cesar said. “How can you erase something drawn in the air with a dagger?”

  “A simple swipe of the hand will erase it,” I told them, “but she can’t move.”

  “So how does she escape?” Kato asked.

  “Can you feel where the symbol is?” I asked her. “It will feel like a hand holding your shirt if that makes sense.”

  “Yes,” she grunted.

  “Is your hair near it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is your hair moving by it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Picture your hair’s movement as if erasing the symbol,” I instructed.

  Marin fell forward a step and righted herself. “But I didn’t actually do it,” she told me.

  “Intent alone is what’s necessary,” I explained.

  “We’re going to work on a shield first,” she told me.

  “Okay,” I agreed.

  “You could have defeated her with teleportation too,” Finn said.

  “True, but that’s not very fair.”

  “Teleportation? How?” Kato asked.

  I teleported to Marin with a sword to her throat, but she had her sword raised and blocked it. “She anticipated my move so she blocked it, but others might not. I could also do this.” I teleported us both to Finn. “My partner could then kill the enemy for me.” I released Marin who put her swords away and leaned an arm on my shoulder.

  “How often can you teleport?” Favian asked me.

  I shrugged. “I haven’t tested it. Until my magic runs out, but that also depends on how much energy I’ve exerted as well.”

  “How many people can you teleport?” Marin asked.

  “It depends on distance. For example, teleporting from here to my Kingdom is much more difficult with four people than teleporting ten people from here to the front of the castle,” I explained.

  “We’re going to have to do a lot of testing,” Favian said.

  “And endurance building,” I added. Finn cleared his throat. “Except for you.”

  “Ready, Finn?” Favian asked him.

  Finn kissed my cheek and then appeared in the middle of the arena. “What’s taking you so long?” he teased Favian.

  “This should be interesting,” Marin commented.

  “Sorry about freezing you. I know it’s at terrible feeling,” I apologized. There had been a second where she had looked terrified.

  “It’s fine. I need to learn how to counter things like that so that it doesn’t happen from an enemy. I would rather you do it in training then someone else on the battlefield.” She looked at me a second and smirked, “If you hadn’t done that I would have won.”

  “I know,” I told her. “Your speed and stamina is definitely better than mine,” I admitted.

  She patted my back and said, “Now we know what to work with you on.”

  Favian handed me a fan.

  “What’s this for?” I asked.

  “To fan yourself after you see me defeat Finn,” he said and winked.

  Marin laughed loudly and Finn twirled his sword. “You mean to fan Marin to keep her from fainting,” he said with a smirk.

  “I think you’re the first human to insult me that I’ve actually looked forward to fighting, and not because I wanted to kill them,” Favian said.

  Finn bowed at the waist. “What a kind compliment.”

  “If this was a test of will alone, I think we would die of old age before a winner was announced,” Marin whispered.

  “I think a test of egos would never be determined and we would have to announce a tie,” I told her.

  “I’ll go half speed to keep things interesting,” Finn taunted Favian.

  “If you want to walk out with your pride, you should go full speed.”

  “But then the fight will end so quickly,” Finn said with a sigh.

  “How fast is he?” Kato asked as he and King Cesar walked to stand next to us.

  “He ran across the ocean,” I told them. “He ran from dry land to his ship while carrying me.”

  No one spoke again.

  Favian gripped his swords tightly and then I saw nothing, but flashes of color, heard the clang of their swords, and the grunts of pain when one landed a blow.

  I didn’t know if anyone else could see them or not, but there wasn’t a single noise from the spectators.

  Time past as they fought and we stood by tensely waiting for someone to claim the title of winner.

  Suddenly Favian and Finn appeared in the center of the arena with Finn holding Favian in a headlock. A few of the Elves gasped and Marin gripped the fence in front of us so hard her knuckles turned white.

  “I believe this would be a draw,” Favian said.

  I looked closer and saw Favian’s sword pressed against Finn’s side, ready to plunge it in and kill him. I opened the fan and Marin put her face next to mine so that I could fan us both.

  The boys saw us and released each other to laugh.

  “You were still holding back,” Favian accused.

  “I was holding back my speed, but nothing else. If I had been in a fight previous to this one, I would likely move at that pace,” he explained.

  “You could have frozen him too,” I reminded Finn.

  “Yes, but that’s not nearly as much fun as putting him in a headlock,” he teased Favian.

  “I’m going to learn how to freeze you and then I’ll make sure you can’t escape,” Favian threatened.

  “You have to catch me to freeze me,” Finn taunted.

  “Are there many people like you in your Realm?” Kato asked.

  “Not that I know of. Crilan is pretty unusual for our Realm. There are other mages there, but I think only about one third of the Realm’s population are mages and of those not many have the amount of magic that Faxon and Queen Esmeralda have.”

  “And yourself,” Finn added.

  “Well…” I didn’t want to brag about myself.

  “How much magic do you have?” Marin asked.

  “She turned an entire ship and its crew into ash,” Finn told her. “Twice.”

  “To ash?” Favian asked.

  “It’s a fast burn that is so hot, they turn instantly to ash,” I explained.

  “When you see it, you’ll understand,” Finn insisted.

  “Can you do it to anything?” Marin asked.

  I nodded.

  “What about that tree?” she asked and pointed at a large tree a
cross the field.

  “I don’t want to kill your tree,” I told her.

  “We’ll plant a new one,” she assured me.

  “You sure?” I asked and looked at King Cesar.

  “I would like to see it,” he agreed.

  “Okay,” I gave in.

  “Do we need to move?” Favian asked.

  “No, I’ll just burn the tree,” I promised.

  “Do it like you did with the ship,” Finn instructed. “It doesn’t have the same effect if it doesn’t go up in a poof.”

  “Fine,” I grumbled.

  “Let me check to see if there’s anyone near it first,” Finn said. He disappeared, appeared beside the tree, disappeared again, and then appeared beside me. “It’s clear.”

  “That’s creepy,” Marin told him.

  “Do it, Tilia,” Finn told me.

  I focused on the tree and then it exploded into ash and rained down to the ground.

  “I didn’t think she could actually do it,” one of the Elves in the crowd said.

  “They could kill anyone.”

  “Could you do that to an entire army?” Favian asked me.

  “I’m not sure. The ship I destroyed had more than fifty men on it,” I said, “but I just focused on the ship as a whole, not the people too. It might not make sense, but focusing on multiple things is harder than focusing on one large thing.”

  “Why don’t you just use this all the time?” Kato asked.

  “I’ve never used it in a battle situation against individual people,” I admitted. “And I haven’t had the power for very long.”

  “You have this ability and yet they still think that you all need to train?” Kato asked softly. “What kinds of monsters are coming?”

  That was exactly what I had wondered myself.

  “The Little Death Bringer!” a male Elf said as he walked through the crowd towards us.

  “Jovian,” Marin said with a smirk. “It’s been a long time.”

  He looked her over and asked, “Have you improved with your twin blades yet?”

  “A bit,” she said cryptically.

  “Care for a match?” he asked her. He noticed me and Finn and his smile disappeared.

  “Jovian, this is Princess Tilia of Crilan and her fiancé Finn,” Marin introduced.

  “Nice to meet you,” I said and bowed my head.

  “Little Death Bringer?” Finn asked Favian.

  “That’s Marin’s nickname here,” he explained.

  Finn looked at me and said, “So we’ve got the Little Death Bringer and the Pirate Princess becoming best friends. I can’t imagine how that could go wrong.”

  Favian laughed and Jovian looked at me harder. “You’re human?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Your aura is odd for a human,” he muttered.

  “Jovian!” Marin chastised. “She’s a guest and my friend.”

  I set my hand on her arm. “It’s alright. He is actually correct. My aura looks different than your humans here because of my magic.”

  “Magic?” Jovian asked. He moved a step closer and suddenly Finn was between us. Jovian’s eyes widened in shock and he took a step back. “Where’d you come from?”

  “Finn’s faster than most,” Favian explained and thumped his hand against Finn’s back. “And you should reconsider touching someone without asking first or you might lose a hand next time.”

  Finn sheathed his sword and stepped aside.

  “He’s so jumpy,” Marin muttered to me.

  “Says the one who has a dagger in her right hand,” I whispered back to her.

  “I apologize,” Jovian said and bowed low. “I wouldn’t dare harm a guest of the Princess’.”

  “Apology accepted,” I said with a smile.

  “May I?” he asked and held up his hand.

  I held out my hand and he held his palm above mine. I watched as his aura touched mine and sparked suddenly.

  Many gasped in shock and Finn, Favian, and Marin had blades drawn.

  “You okay?” I asked Jovian.

  “That’s some odd magic,” he whispered and rubbed his hand on his jeans.

  “Magic is magic,” I told him. “Except for the dark kind.”

  “What was that?” Faxon asked angrily, appearing behind me.

  “Dammit, Faxon,” Finn yelled. “Stop doing that!”

  “Tilia,” he said to get me to answer.

  “Jovian here was just inspecting me and our auras sparked,” I explained.

  Faxon looked at Jovian and Jovian began twitching. He stopped and then Faxon used his sight on me which made me want to rub my arms. “You both seem fine. It could be a defense mechanism your power has that you made subconsciously,” he told me.

  “I shocked him?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Remember when we got shocked when I touched you after you thought that you had lost your powers?” I nodded. “I think that was when it came into place.”

  “But it didn’t do it again,” I reminded him.

  “You must have finished sealing it up then without realizing it,” he said.

  “How did you know something had happened to her?” Finn asked Faxon with folded arms across his chest.

  “I always monitor her when she’s away,” Faxon told him. He looked at me and something sad crossed his face before he teleported away.

  “I’m going for a run,” Finn told me angrily and disappeared.

  “I’d go after him, but he’s moving pretty fast,” Favian told me.

  “Let him be. He’s just blowing off steam. He and Faxon haven’t been getting along lately,” I explained.

  “Makes sense,” he said with a nod.

  “How? How does that make sense?” I asked angrily. “Nothing happened and yet Finn and Faxon are acting like they suddenly can’t stand each other.”

  “Faxon did tell you to reconsider the binding,” Marin reminded me.

  “That might be part of it,” I conceded, “but I doubt that’s all of it. There’s something else that neither will tell me about.” It had to do with why Faxon looked sad. I was certain of it.

  “Well, now that you’ve caused more drama, would you like to fight now?” Marin asked Jovian.

  “Sorry,” he apologized to me.

  I waved my hand. “It’s fine. They’re just on edge from me almost dying like four times last year.”

  “Wow, I think you beat Marin’s record,” Favian teased me.

  “If we work together,” Marin whispered, “we could take him and leave him frozen someplace.”

  “We could tie him up and eat cake in front of him,” I suggested.

  “You are cruel women,” he teased us.

  Marin went into the arena to fight and Favian grabbed my arm as soon as her back was turned and pulled me away. He led me away from the crowd and into grass that was taller than I was. “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “You need to take Finn somewhere away from Faxon for your wedding trip,” he told me.

  “The plan was to get away from everyone,” I reminded him.

  “Finn’s close to exploding and if he does, it won’t end well for anyone,” he said.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “Something happened between Faxon and Finn, something that made him so mad that he almost lost his mind the other night when we were talking,” Favian told me.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “I can’t tell you. It’s Finn’s choice whether to tell you or not.”

  “Favian,” I growled.

  “Tilia, just listen to me. Finn feels like you’re going to leave him. When he saw Alex holding you, he had started to draw a weapon. If I hadn’t known that he was in a bad mood, I might not have stopped him in time. He won’t tell me everything, but despite your reassurances that you aren’t going to leave him, he thinks that you will.”

  “How can I fix it if he won’t listen to me when I tell him that I won’t?” I asked in exasperation.

/>   “You need to be bound,” he said.

  “We are going to at the wedding ceremony,” I reminded him.

  He shook his head. “You need to do it before then.”

  “But…”

  Favian grabbed my shoulders and stared into my eyes. “Someone is going to die. He is letting this eat at him like a disease.”

  “Are you sure that will fix it?” I asked.

  He dropped his hands and sighed. “No, but it’s the only thing that I can think of. Unless…” he paused and looked at me. “Have you guys, you know, slept together?”

  “Favian,” I blushed.

  “You don’t need to be embarrassed. Marin and I have already.”

  “We did last night,” I admitted. And this morning, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.

  “That explains why he was calm until Faxon showed up.”

  “This is stupid,” I told him as I grew angry.

  “The death of your mate is harder on you than I hope you will ever know. Having a mate that is sought after by so many others makes your rage barely containable,” he admitted. “Even now, I still want to pulverize Jovian when he looks at Marin like that despite knowing that she has no interest in him and that she’s mine.”

  “Why are you men so jealous?” I asked.

  “My Father said it’s common for males of all species to be very protective of their mates, especially within the first few months,” he told me. “It’s like a claiming time. I know you’re not an item to be claimed, but you know what I mean.”

  “You’ve been with Marin for so long,” I commented. “How do you know that it won’t take Finn years to get over this?”

  “I don’t, but I think this will greatly help.”

  “Who can perform the binding?” I asked.

  “The Gods or Goddess,” he answered.

  “So, I need to take Finn to the ocean and ask his dad to do it?”

  “Yes, or Marin’s Dad.”

  I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “I hope this works. He’s been such a wreck emotionally lately and I don’t know how to fix it.”

  “The wedding trip will help,” he assured me. “And hopefully he’ll be over whatever happened with him and Faxon when we get to the island. If not, you might need to ask Faxon to wait and we’ll focus on our fighting first.”

  “Okay,” I agreed.

  Favian pushed my shoulder with his fist. “It’ll get better. I will help him. I think our talks are helping him process the emotions and figure out what he is feeling and how to deal with it or what to talk to you about, so he can deal with it.”