by Dani Hoots
I turned back to Wesley. “You are out of control, let Lance and Alan help you.”
He slammed his fist against his desk. “No! I will not be treated like I am crazy! I’m doing this for the good of all the people.”
I saw the look on Lance’s face. He knew as well as I that Wesley had overdone it this time but I knew Lance wouldn’t stand up against him. He would just follow Wesley even if it was into his own grave. Pretty soon it would be.
I turned and headed for the door. Lance followed. There wasn’t anything I could do to stop him, I had to just accept it. “Keeping telling yourself that, Rik. Lies become truth if you say them enough times.”
With that, I left him alone to ponder what I said and headed to my own quarters, chuckling to myself over the strange turn of events this time switcheroo had forced on us.
CHAPTER 3
I was quiet as I walked down the corridors with Lance. I knew whatever I would say, he would take Wes’s side of it. He always did. For some reason, he and Alan followed Wes’ commands blindly. They thought I was wrong for following Neil, but at least I had my reasons. At least I accepted why I did it—I did it to survive. But then I found out the only reason I survived was because Neil had used me for his own devices. To think if I wasn’t the daughter of legend, I would have been killed after I tried to assassinate the Emperor in the Kamps. Interesting how things played out.
So really I had nowhere to run to. I couldn’t stay here, not without killing my brother, not after knowing what was planning. If I ran to Anosira, I would probably find Neil and he would have me killed, as I had already lead him to Sanshli. Then again, I could be wrong. He might still need me to find the book he wanted so badly. I doubt he got to keep it when we were all thrown back in time. I didn’t know how to find that book since the planet had disappeared from where it was. Lance and I tried to find it again, so we could get the book before Neil did, but we never did find it. After a while Wes made us stop using resources to find it, as it was no use according to him. I didn’t really care what Wes said and wanted to keep looking, but Lance was stupid and followed Wes' orders. I was pretty much winging it on my own now.
Well, that wasn’t completely true.
Lance and I arrived to my quarters and entered. The room was bleak as always, I didn’t know what to do to make it feel more like home because, I never knew what it was like to be at home or even to have a home. I learned to always be on the run, ready to go at a moment’s notice. But now that I was stuck here under my brother’s close supervision, I started to notice these things about myself. I was definitely getting cabin fever and I hated it.
Heading over to my dresser, I pulled out the pocket-watch Father had given me the last time I had seen him alive many, many years ago. Well many years later from this perspective of time. It somehow journeyed through time with me, for which I was glad. It was something I could look at to remind myself of both my Father and of Jack. It kept on ticking, as if nothing had ever happened. I wished I could be like the watch, an unchanging thing, not worrying about change or progression through time. Maybe once I had thought of myself like it, but now I wasn’t too sure that the description fit.
“Still works,” Lance stated as he stepped up behind me. I didn’t pay him any attention even though he stood awfully close. I wasn’t sure if he was going to place his hand on my shoulder or not. He had tried to make a couple of advances, but I explained to him that I didn’t fall in love with my captors. I wasn’t that kind of girl.
That wasn’t entirely true. But Jack and I, well, that was something completely different.
“Just as always.” I snapped it closed and placed it in my pocket. “So did you come to see if I would hurt Rik after all.”
He ran his hands through his hair, as if ashamed he didn’t’t trust me still. I didn’t blame him, I didn’t trust me either. “You sounded like you two were going to kill each other again.”
I shrugged with a slight smile. “Just some harmless sibling squabbles. You know how those can be.”
He laughed. “Harmless is an interesting way to put it, last time I heard you two arguing like that I found you at his throat.”
Which instance he was referring to, I didn’t’t know. There had been so many before this.
“I didn’t attack him this time, I learned my lesson the first few times.”
“Which was?” he questioned slowly, as if I was a child that couldn’t quite learn her lesson.
“To not attack him or Alan will shoot me. Again. Took a few days to heal last time. He shot to kill, even though you both know I’m right.”
“Myra...” Lance began.
“What do you want me to say, Lance? He’s an idiot and you know it! He’s killing innocent lives in the name of justice. None of those people have done anything wrong!” I promised myself I wouldn’t get in this argument with him again, but alas I did anyways. Something about him made me want to talk everything out. I hated it, usually I left all my thoughts in my mind.
“You are one to talk,” he added. It was always their counter-response, as if I was some kind of monster. Maybe I was, maybe that is why I could see the monster inside my brother. I knew monsters all too well.
“Everyone I have ever killed has done something to deserve it. Rik is planting evidence against governments on planets for an excuse to strengthen the Republic’s hold. Who’s the monster now, eh?”
Lance grabbed my hand. “He is just trying to settle the score. You know he isn’t thinking clearly.”
I pulled my hand away and shook my head. “How long are we going to let him make the wrong choices? How long are we just going to sit here and do nothing?”
“Myra, settle down,” he calmly ordered, placing his hands on my shoulders.
I shoved him backwards, a little more violently than I meant to. “Don’t you dare tell me to settle down!”
Suddenly I felt cold water rush into my face. I gasped, coughing on the drops that I had breathed in. Damn Lance. I glared at him. An interesting thing happened when we were all thrown into the past, Will, David, and Rik not only changed physically, but also had gained the ancient powers of the Sanshlians. I already had the power of the Illusionists, which I didn’t have a good grasp on yet, but the other three had elemental powers, like most of the Sanshlians had before Nygard. Lance had the ability to control water. I must have left a glass out because he needed water from somewhere in order to use it. He wasn’t as powerful as the legends were, since most Sanshlians could create elements out of thin air whereas Lance and the others needed something concrete in order to work their powers. They could move the elements already existing around them, not create them from nothing.
I should have been more careful where I left things.
I wiped the water out of my eyes. “You ass.”
“You wouldn’t calm down,” he defended, probably a little scared I was going to retaliate against him. This wasn’t the first time he had splashed me with water. I remembered when the three of them realized they had powers. And, of course, Will used his against me for the better part of the day.
I rolled my eyes as I went to the restroom to dry myself off. Shutting the door behind me, knowing he would follow me in like a little puppy, I sighed. He was always such an overly conscientious person sometimes.
“He’s a pompous arrogant asshole. Why can’t I kill him?” I looked into the mirror. Some, well actually, a lot of people would have thought I was inside talking to my reflection in the mirror like this, only when I stared in the mirror long enough, I didn’t see my reflection. I saw my Mother’s. Violet’s. That’s right, one of her last spells connected to the sword dealt with me being able to see her until it was all finished. Talk about a buzz kill, having one’s Mother around constantly. It would be fine if she would actually train me on how to be an Illusionist, but of course that never happened.
I didn’t quite understand how she could do it, appear before me like this when she wasn’t alive any longer. All I knew wa
s that the first time I looked in a mirror after waking up in this era, she appeared and I almost screamed. Almost.
“Because it could bring disorder to everything. Your task is to bring order. Your task is to destroy the evil and restore the good,” she explained. I was the only one who could see and hear her, I was the only one who could talk to her. I didn’t’t necessarily need to speak out loud, speaking out loud just made me feel better. I didn’t speak out loud when people were near of course. Right now, I didn’t’t think Lance could hear me, or at least I hoped he was not eavesdropping on what might sound like a maniac talking to one’s self.
“It has been a year and I have gotten nowhere,” I explained. “Wes doesn’t let me out of anyone’s sight. I need a change of pace. I hate waiting like this.”
“Don’t worry, your task will come soon. You have to be ready.”
“I am ready,” I said with surprising sternness. I have had it with waiting, I wasn’t a patient person by nature, not when I knew I could end something now, and I had enough faith in myself to start bringing the end of this war.
“We will see about that. Have you been practicing shielding your mind?” She looked at me with those purple eyes of hers. They were lovely and her light hair only enhanced them even more.
The one and only thing she had taught me thus far was how to protect my mind from those who could read it. Only let someone read what I wanted them to read. It would come in handy. “I have. Just don’t know if it will work until I meet someone who can read minds,” I argued.
“Fair enough. Now, calm down. You’re our last hope Myra.”
I dropped my head, taking my eyes away from her to organize my thoughts before speaking. “I already told you I don’t like it when you put that kind of pressure on me.”
Especially since I wasn’t quite sure what I needed to do to end this curse, as I called it. I knew I needed to find Sanshli and the book that Nygard had, and then use it to destroy Nygard. Somehow, at least…
“I’m sorry but you need to be ready to face the facts. Only you can win this.”
“Win what?” I questioned. “I don’t even understand why we were brought back at this point in time in the first place. What is there to beat? The Empire? Rik, Wes, whoever he is, is doing a good job at that already. What else is there to do? I need to get to Sanshli and finish what you wanted me to finish.”
“Patience, daughter. The time will come when you will understand it all.”
“Can’t you just tell me? It would make my life a whole lot easier,” I countered.
She shook her head. “I’m sorry but I can’t.”
“Fine, just fine,” I mumbled.
A knock sounded at the door. “Myra, are you okay?” Lance’s voice came through the barrier.
“I’m fine,” I grabbed what I initially came into the room for. A towel to wipe up the water he had thrown at me. And something else… “Why do you ask?”
“It’s just that I can hear you talking to yourself.”
So he could hear me. Now I knew. “Just getting my frustration out. I will be out in just a minute.”
I grabbed the vial I hid under the sink and swallowed the liquid. It was an antidote to the narcotic I was about to place on my lips. I couldn’t go along with this any longer, even if Violet insisted I stay here. I was going to knock out Lance and run away. Honestly, I could easily knock Lance out by fighting him but this way I didn’t have to worry about hurting him too much. Sometimes I got carried away and though I didn’t care for him one way or another, I didn’t want to deal with that mess. I opened the tube of lipstick and gently put it on my lips, careful to keep it on the outside of my mouth.
There was one day I was able to leave my leash Wes gave me and venture out into the city for an hour or so. No one noticed, of course, but some reason after that, security got even tighter. Probably because that was when Wes started digging his own grave by attacking innocent people. While I was out, I found this tube of lipstick. Not in a good part of town, if I might add. I knew I would need it sooner or later to escape, I had to plan ahead after all. Years of training taught me that. Always plan for everything ahead of time. Premeditated attacks always work best.
I had to get out of here, I couldn’t’t stand it anymore, even if Violet didn’t want me to. I needed to see if my suspicion about the Empire was correct, that the rest of the people on Sanshli were part of the soon-to-be Pandronan Empire faction. So today was the day I got to test out my lipstick.
I opened the door and smiled. “Better now.”
“Let out all of your frustration?” he questioned, glancing at the light shade of pink my lips were now. He didn’t say anything about it, but I did notice a little bit of a blush on his cheeks.
“Yup,” I looked at the clock. I didn’t want to do it here, I wanted to be closer to an exit. My quarters were far from any exit, Wes made sure of that. “I take it you will be watching me for a while. Mind if we hit the training room?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’m not going to be your dueling partner, I’m not that stupid.”
“No, I’ll just train using the bag. Going against you doesn’t help my fighting, only tests my patience.”
“Gee, thanks,” he remarked.
Shrugging, I added. “I can’t help it if you lack physical training, I tried to help you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he gestured to the door. “Let’s just go already.”
I was actually quite surprised that Lance let me go to the training room. I thought for sure he was smarter than that. Then again, he knew if I wanted to get away, nothing would stop me.
We entered the training room. Only a small group of men were in there.
“Leave us,” I ordered. They gave me one glance and left without a word. Good dogs always obeyed authority and luckily men like them were all the same throughout history.
“It surprises me that you can still order around whoever you want with such authority. People in this timeline fear you as much as they did in the future,” Lance commented.
“I really doubt that, but thanks.”
“That wasn’t a compliment,” he added.
I grinned as I kicked the bag hanging from the ceiling. I threw a few punches and stopped. I didn’t really need to train, all I needed was to get this far—closer to the exit. Turning to Lance, I tapped my finger on my chin.
“You know, I’m surprised Wes had just you guard me. He should know I can easily get past you if I wanted,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow with his folded arms. “Is that so?”
I walked up to him. He looked worried but tried his best not to show it. He knew I would never physically hurt him, at least not outside of sparring—hence why he wouldn’t fight me anymore. I placed my arms around his neck and smiled. “It is.”
I kissed him, letting the narcotic on my lips to enter his mouth. He didn’t resist. It was obvious he always wanted a kiss from me, though the only two times I had kissed him were for my own benefit, and ironically both on Valle. Realizing what I was really doing, he backed away, touching his lips and blinking. “Narcotics?”
I nodded. “Yup.”
“Knew I wouldn’t resist kissing you?” He leaned against the wall. It was already taking effect. I felt a little bad watching him as the drug worked its magic. He had been so nice, but hey, I didn’t kill him like I could have.
“Yup.”
He laughed. “Well played, Arcadia, well played.”
Collapsing to the ground, I poked him with my foot. He would be out for a good hour or so. I turned back to the door and started towards the exit of the palace.
As I entered the corridors, I found the walls weren’t lying. They warned me of another in the corridor, but I had hoped it was just a passerby. I was wrong. Wes was smart enough to have two guards watching me after the argument we had. Will, who was now lead general Alan Marc, stood in the corridor waiting for me. His dark hair was a contrast to his once blonde hair. His blue eyes pierced mine.
“So you were a backup,” I said. “Should have known.”
He stepped up to me. “We weren’t stupid enough to let you just be alone with Lance, if you really wanted to get away from him it would be too easy.”
I shrugged. “It was.”
“Well, getting past me won’t be.”
“Really? I will be the judge of that.”
He started to pull out his gun but he was too slow. I shoved him against the wall. I heard the crackle of metal breaking from the wall behind me. His elemental power, unfortunately, was the ability to control metal. As I felt a sliver of metal enter my back, I kissed him as well. It really was the easiest way to knock him out even though I would have to wash my mouth several times afterwards.
He jumped at the action, confused as to why I would kiss him, his eyes wide, but then he realized what was on my lips. He struggled for a second but the narcotic took over fast. His body slumped to the floor.
I let it drop as I heard pieces of metal fall to the ground behind me. I turned, glad to have knocked him out before the bigger shards he pulled out of the wall got to me. I pulled out the small shard out of my back, grabbed his Class Two gun and kept on towards the exit. There was no one to stop me now. No regular human had a chance, nor would Wes think to send more backup. I had won this round.
CHAPTER 4
As I stepped outside, I took a deep breath of the fresh city air. Sure, it wasn’t as refreshing as it was on Anosira, especially since there weren’t that many more people on this planet compared to Anosira. I missed Anosira a lot, as I was able to have alone time, to be able to walk outside and not see anyone for miles, to go out into the woods and peacefully sit and listen to the animals around me. But it was still nice not being locked away inside that building, but instead to be able to walk freely without worry and without anyone following me.
Well, that wasn’t completely honest. But I hadn’t detected them yet, so maybe I was wrong to think that the Pandronan Empire was keeping watch on us—that Neil still had interest in me after all this time. He knew I would be the only one to find Sanshli again, he had to have known for a while without me ever suspecting. I was the daughter of Nygard after all. What that meant, I still didn’t really have a clue. Probably that being a monster was genetic.
