by Mia Archer
Again, if she was going to have fun with this prophecy then she wanted to make sure it took as long as possible to fulfill itself. That meant not doing anything that might invite that prophecy to come knocking on her door any earlier than was absolutely necessary.
She had shit to do, and she didn’t need the headache of this child killing her too early.
Whatever it was, she found herself weaving the spell for memory loss rather than doing away with them entirely. They would wake up in the morning feeling like they'd been on one hell of a bender, but that was it.
No, she'd already complicated this child's future life enough as it was. It was bad business to go around killing a chosen one’s parents.
Maybe this moment of compassion would buy her another decade or so. It was difficult to tell with these things. Either way, her work here was done.
"Come Uinae," she said, stepping into the shadows and shifting out of this house forever with Uinae following close behind.
Jaska left behind what she considered to be one hell of a hilarious joke, though she doubted those stuck up assholes at the Academy would agree with her.
3
Two Days
Sarai paused in the village square and took in a deep breath. It was a reminder of everything this place had been to her throughout her life.
It was a reminder that soon all of it would be gone.
Wars raged. People died. All far from here, of course, but that merely meant people from her village had to travel somewhere else to die rather than waiting for death to come to them.
Waiting for the Dark Lady to come for them. As always Sarai shivered when she thought of that woman and went slightly lightheaded. Only slightly, but still, it was there.
Sarai shook her head to get rid of the thoughts clouding her mind. Images of a dark shadow looming over her. Threatening her. Of pushing against that shadow and feeling it press in on her regardless.
It was a nightmare that had been her constant companion for as long as she could remember. Something that never failed to fill her with dread. As though there was a darkness from her past that was barreling towards her and threatening her future.
“Sarai!”
Sarai smiled a thin smile and immediately all thoughts about the dangers of the past fled from her mind.
“Tiafa!” she said, turning to see her friend running through the village square towards her. Tiafa weaved around the stand the mayor used when addressing the village.
Sarai paused again and froze this moment in her memory. Tiafa running for her with a big smile was an experience that had played out hundreds, thousands of times before. It was something that might be nothing more than a memory in two more days when the officials came for the Choice.
Tiafa wrapped her in a hug. A hug that had Sarai’s cheeks heating as she felt her best friend pressing against her. There was a time when she would have thought such thoughts inappropriate.
She still did think them inappropriate on some level, but she wasn’t nearly as prim and uptight about that sort of thing as some of the people from this village.
She glanced to the ruined walls in the distance. They were distant, and yet they were so massive that their burnt out remains could still be seen clearly even from this village that had once supplied Choikal before it burned to the ground.
“Is something wrong?” Tiafa asked. “Are you worried about tonight?”
Tiafa took a step back and put her hands on her hips. It was a look that was meant to distract. Sarai allowed herself to be distracted as she looked her childhood friend up and down.
Sure Tiafa was in a simple dress. The sort of thing any village girl might wear to attract the attention of one of the village gentlemen. But of course it was different because it was Tiafa wearing that dress.
As always Sarai’s eyes looked her friend up and down. She was fast about it, of course. The last thing she wanted was to be caught doing what she was doing. Still, she couldn’t help but think about what her friend might look like under that dress, and at the same time she couldn’t help but feel some shame for those thoughts.
Tiafa was her friend, after all. Friends weren’t supposed to lust after friends.
Some elders in the village would say that girls weren’t supposed to lust after other girls, too. It hadn’t been that way in the city they came from, but for some reason Sarai’s parents had saw fit to leave that city and come to this burnt out remnant.
She’d never understand that choice, or the life that had been taken from her coming to this village that was so far from anything after Choikal burned, but it’s not like there was much she could do about it.
Tiafa seemed to take Sarai’s hesitation for reluctance rather than her taking a moment to check out her best friend. Which was probably for the best.
“You promised Sarai,” Tiafa said. “You can’t go back on our deal now.”
Her eyes moved to the wall off in the distance. More particularly her eyes came to rest on some of the towers that ran along the wall.
“Stop that,” Sarai said, wrapping an arm around her friend’s shoulders.
She tried not to concentrate on how good it felt having that hand wrapped around her friend’s shoulders. Or how she wanted nothing more than to lean in and press her lips against Tiafa’s.
It was a temptation that had been growing more and more powerful the closer they got to the Choice. The closer they got to Tiafa being taken away from her forever.
Sarai knew she wasn’t lucky enough in life that her friend would be sent to the same place as her.
“What are you talking about?” Tiafa asked, quickly moving her shoulder in a way that removed Sarai’s arm and had her pressing her back up against her friend in one of the damned holds Tiafa was always practicing.
It would’ve been a pleasant sensation were it not for the pain that went shooting up her arm. Choikal’s charred walls, it was still a pleasant sensation even with the pain shooting up her arm.
Any time she got to feel Tiafa against her was pleasure, even if it came with the pain that was Tiafa’s unique way of interacting with the world.
“Stop playing at soldier,” she said, trying to force a giggle and not doing a very good job of it.
“Give me one good reason why,” Tiafa said.
Sarai looked around the village square. They were playing as they had when they were little girls, but they were getting disapproving stares now. Roughhousing wasn’t the way for young ladies who were on the verge of coming of age.
Especially this close to the Choice. Some shook their heads as they no doubt remembered their own unique responses to the Choice, but of course the disapproving stares were by far the majority.
“You’re making a scene, fighter,” Sarai said.
“So?” Tiafa said. “If you’d join me for sparring more often this wouldn’t be an issue. You’d have no trouble getting out of this hold.”
Sarai bit back a couple of curses that came to mind. Tiafa still seemed to take it as a personal affront that she’d never been much for sparring.
Tiafa had always assumed it was because Sarai was too gentle for it or something. She grumbled under her breath about the girl from the big city being too good to spar with the rest of them.
When that couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s just that the truth Sarai knew in her heart, in between her legs, every time they sparred, every time she found an excuse to get close to Tiafa wasn’t exactly a truth she wanted to share with her friend.
The truth was she enjoyed the sparring, being up close and personal with her best friend, a bit more than was appropriate.
“Let go of me,” Sarai said, not really meaning it.
A sniff to the side brought both of their attentions away from their impromptu sparring match. Sarai turned and blinked a couple of times before she realized who she was looking at.
Asana stood there looking down her nose at them. Not that it was all that strange that she would look down her nose at them. The daughte
r of the Town Lord tended to look at everyone from her favorite perch atop her nose.
The girl was pretty, for all that she was full of herself and who her parents were. Delicate features with striking blue eyes and golden hair that was done up in a braid that ran down her back. She wore a dress that was the latest fashion, or at least it was the latest fashion to reach their sleepy town which meant it was probably months, if not years, out of date in the more cosmopolitan reaches of the kingdom.
But she wore it well. Sarai licked her lips and tried not to think the sorts of thoughts that always entered her mind when she saw Asana. Thoughts that weren’t appropriate to think about the Town Lord’s daughter. Thoughts she didn’t want because she couldn’t stand the girl.
“I see the rabble are dealing with the Choice in the only way they know how,” she said with another dismissive sniff.
Tiafa released Sarai’s arm. She felt at it and moved it experimentally a few times to make sure there wasn’t anything broken. She was going to be sore for the next couple of hours, but at least there didn’t seem to be any real damage.
Not that she thought Tiafa would ever do something to really hurt her. At least she didn’t think her friend would get carried away like that, though she couldn’t be sure.
“What do you want Asana?” Tiafa asked, a challenge in her voice that was unbecoming of someone addressing the Town Lord’s daughter.
Asana’s eyes narrowed. Apparently she agreed with Sarai’s assessment.
“I would remind you who you are talking to,” she said.
“And I’d remind you who you’re talking to,” Tiafa said, a boldness to her voice that had always been there.
It’s just that the boldness had never been there when addressing a noble. No, Tiafa was walking a sword’s edge, and from the manic grin on her face she seemed to love every moment of it.
“How dare you!” Asana huffed.
“No, how dare you,” Tiafa said, stepping forward and poking Asana in the chest. “How dare you look down on me when we’ve provided bread for your family for years. How dare you act like you’re above me when the Choice is coming in two days. You’re not the Town Lord’s daughter then. You’re just more grist for the war machine.”
Asana’s eyes went wide, and she sniffed. Of course there was some truth to what Tiafa said. An unpleasant truth Sarai tried not to think about, but it was difficult not to think about it when Tiafa said it plain like that.
Asana turned and stormed off, and Sarai tried not to concentrate too much on how she looked as she departed. The Town Lord’s daughter might be full of herself, but she certainly had good reason to be full of herself. She was a beauty, and even when she was leaving she was something to behold with the way her back side moved in that dress.
“Did you have to do that?” Sarai asked when Asana was far enough off that the show was over.
“Of course I did,” Tiafa said. “She doesn’t get to talk to us when we’re all facing the Choice. She knows the rules as well as her father.”
“But you could cause trouble for your parents,” Sarai said, trying to patiently explain to Tiafa exactly what she’d just done.
“How could I possibly do that?”
“Because we are all going to be gone soon enough, but that doesn’t mean Asana can’t go complain to her father. They’ll still be around to make trouble for your family after she’s gone,” Sarai said. “Not to mention she’ll probably get work as an officer.”
“Funny how that always works for the nobles,” Tiafa said, spitting onto the ground to let the world know exactly what she thought of that.
Tiafa turned her attention to Sarai, and she found herself wishing for a time when Tiafa had been paying attention to the Town Lord’s daughter instead. There was something unsettling about the way Tiafa looked at her. Something that sent a shiver running down Sarai’s spine.
“Now let’s get back to where we were,” she said, putting an arm around Sarai’s shoulder in a mirror of the gesture Sarai had used with her earlier. “Specifically I think we need to talk about what we’re doing this evening. You might be terrified of upsetting the Town Lord’s family, but that’s nothing compared to what I’m going to do to you if you back out on our trip to the wall tonight.”
Sarai smiled as she allowed herself to be led away. Sure Tiafa might be a little crazy, but she was going to miss that craziness. She was going to miss everything about this town that had been her home, for all that it seemed hopelessly rural compared to where she’d spent her first few years.
“I’ll be there,” she said. “Don’t you worry about that.”
She thought avoiding the local nobility was simply good sense, but that didn’t mean she didn’t lack sense in other areas. She looked up to the burned walls and thought about the fun they might have this night.
Some of that fun probably wasn’t the kind Tiafa had in mind, but what Tiafa didn’t know wasn’t going to hurt her.
4
Two Nights
Sarai paused at the edge of the village and looked around one final time to make sure she hadn’t been followed.
There were no wisps out. That was good. Sure they didn’t typically come out until Ramaya had bathed the world in her purple light, but that didn’t mean Sarai was taking any chances.
She stole into the night. Not that it was much of a night. The stars overhead shone brightly, providing plenty of light for her to see by even before any of the moons came up.
She took a deep breath. The Night Flowers were in bloom and they were sending their scent out into the world. Welcoming the night as they always did.
That was another thing she was going to miss. Especially if she was sent to one of the places where things had been so twisted by the magic that they didn’t grow properly.
Sarai shivered and tried not to think about those places. Tried not to think about how it might not be long before she was forced to travel to those twisted wilds and destroy the nightmare creatures Jaska had sent to try and take over the world.
Something she’d never quite managed, despite trying and trying and trying.
Sarai felt a darkness come over her as she thought of the Dark Lady. She stumbled and put a hand to her head. Tried to think of something other than Jaska, but of course trying not to think of someone never helped.
It certainly didn’t help with the lightheadedness that came upon her every time she thought of the woman.
She swayed back and forth and let the lightheadedness take her. It was something she was almost used to. As much as someone could get used to something like that. Something that had left her thinking she was dying when she was younger.
Finally it passed. She took a deep breath. Looked up at the stars and tried to draw comfort from the familiar sight. Though she found herself wondering if those same stars would shine down from the Twisted Lands, and that ruined any good mood she might have otherwise drawn from that view.
“Idiot,” she muttered to herself. “You’re an idiot for even coming out here this night.”
She looked at the ruins of Choikal in the distance. Particularly at the dark line that was the wall that hadn’t kept the city safe in its hour of greatest need.
Sarai almost thought she could see a steady glow coming off of those walls. It was something she almost thought she saw whenever she looked at those walls in the night. As always she wrote it off as a passing fancy.
It couldn’t be. Certainly some of the older folks in the village thought they could see that glow as well, but that had to be their imagination.
Sarai sighed and moved off to the spot where she was supposed to meet Tiafa. Near the stables on the outskirts of town.
Stables that were much larger than any business they did. Choikal’s downfall had hit every part of the village, but nowhere had it hit more than some the businesses that were dedicated to helping travelers.
She waited outside the stable and listened to the Kwarks inside shuffling their feathers in the night. She suppresse
d a smile as she thought of the creatures.
Tiafa was terrified of them. One of the few things that terrified her in this world or the next. The woman would walk into the nine hells themselves or confront the…
Sarai stopped herself just on the verge of thinking of you-know-who and skirted around the thought. It was something she’d perfected long ago. It was as though her thoughts slid over something that was pulsing deep inside her mind. The something that caused the dizziness whenever…
Again she stopped. Forced herself to think of watching her friend on the Kwarks. Tiafa was always so brave, but that didn’t extend to riding the creatures. She talked about how she was going to go into the military and save the world, but something told Sarai that illustrious career wouldn’t involve mounted cavalry.
“What are you smiling about?” a voice hissed from the darkness.
Sarai jumped and turned to see a dark figure staring out at her. Though of course that dark figure was only Tiafa come to meet her.
“Nothing,” she said.
“I don’t understand why you had to have our meeting at this place,” Tiafa said, wrapping her arms around herself and shivering.
She glanced at the stable and frowned at the sounds from the birds. Gentle snoring or the occasional flap of their massive flightless feathers. Shuffling as the creatures moved in the night.
“It seemed the most reasonable place for a meeting,” Sarai said, her eyes wide as she tried to maintain a look of innocence.
From the way Tiafa regarded her she didn’t think her friend was buying that innocence. Oh well. With the way her arm had been hurting because of Tiafa literally strong arming her in the village square she figured a touch of discomfort was the least she deserved.
“Well come on,” Sarai said. “I promised you I would take you to the wall and that’s what we’re going to do.”
