Touch of Destiny
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Table of Contents
Prologue The Boy What Makes a Friend? Into the Calm The Tribunal Favor Worthy and Willing The Perfect Shape A Day at the River Finding Humor One Year Later Heart of Gumber Gentle Warning Answers Secret Errand Sacrificial Promise Winter Feast Blood and Snow Metal and Magic Solstice Moon Invitation Pieces of the Past The Raven's Perch Growing Spark Rude Awakening House Arrest Confrontation High Tide Caged Justified The Elder Tree The Raven's Den King's Call No Barrier Can Hold EpilogueHigh Tide
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"ASH!!"
Damien shouted her name while sprinting amongst a thicket of green. He didn't keep to the dirt road; too busy and crowded this time of day. Even so, he ran somewhat near the path so as not to get lost. He had expected her to turn up in the market district, or somewhere close by, but the girl was nowhere. She wasn't even at her house when he reached it. The place was unlit and empty.
Damien scratched his head, puzzling. How odd. She couldn't have traveled such a great distance in such a short amount of time. He had practically followed on her heels— or so he believed. Though it took a while for the answer to hit him, he was glad it did.
"Right. Druid portals. She must be able to use them for herself."
He leaned against the wooden finishing outside her house, crossed his arms as he looked up to the sky. "If I were Ash, where would I be? I've just been rejected, humiliated." He pressed his palms together and unfolded them to mimic the action of opening a book. "Ah."
***
Ashlyn laid at the base of her favorite waterfall, her body sprawled on the rock beneath her. Though its surface was hard and uncomfortable, she found solace in that it was steady. Unmoving despite the tides thrashing and beating around it.
It was a perfectly safe place to shed her tears. The roar of the river drowned out her sobs. Even the winds were heavy, blowing strands of her hair and garments about.
She had predicted this outcome all too accurately, but she couldn't bring herself to regret fighting for what she wanted. Though it amounted to nothing.
The pain in her heart had risen too high, and she allowed the tide to carry her sorrows downstream, the winds to wipe away her tears.
For a long while she knew she was secluded and alone, until she picked up the presence of another being. She sat up, staring toward where she sensed movement. A young man emerged from the line of trees, with tousled strands of dark hair and deep, solid eyes. The sleeves of his shirt bore many scrapes, his hands and fingernails were layered with soot. The lines of his handsome face were soft, but carried hints of turmoil. Despite his troubled appearance, his gaze was locked on her. Humble, yet bold.
His lips spread into an affectionate grin as he came forward and leapt onto the rock where Ashlyn now sat with her legs curled in.
"Ash?" Damien reached down and pulled her up. "I thought you'd be here."
Wiping a few more tears from her eyes, she clutched her blue cape around her shoulders before facing him. She reached out a hand to make sure he was real.
Her heartbeat was too quick, his breath was too shaky, but it all seemed to ebb as their palms touched.
"I hope— I hope it's not too late to change my mind," he said, lowering his head to meet hers. "Please take me away from these people. Promise be damned."
She yearned to believe him, but too many disappointments kept her from trusting his words. Attractive as he was, he was too fickle. Stubborn.
"How do I know you won't just change your mind again?" she asked. "My heart can't take this, Damien, how confusing you are! If you really mean it..."
"I do mean it," he said, taking her hand and placing it on his forehead. "Read me if you must. You're the one I want to be with, even if it's not here."
She hesitated a moment, doubted the truth of it. “You’re…not afraid?”
“Not of you.”
Her eyes and fingers glowed as she placed both hands at his temples, and she let out a calm breath while wading into his thoughts. It was striking how much anger he harbored; feelings of resentment and pains of the past. He was a storm of raging emotion that spiraled through a dark abyss of strife. He pulled her through this storm, tossed her about like a torn-up flag tied to the mast of a ship. But in the eye of his storms, there was a strong bond to her. A fierce tie of friendship.
Though his feelings were young and complicated, he yearned to keep her close. To be there in every season of life.
His heart was a rock— heavy and withered, but such a beautiful, smooth surface. Ashlyn felt her eyes leaking again. She palmed the pendent on his necklace, the stone that she had taken from the river.
"Wow." She gasped, placing her hands back down to her sides, letting her aura fade. "Your heart... You truly care about me."
His hands felt warm and sweaty once they came up and took the sides of her face. "Of course I care.”
Ashlyn welcomed his lips, felt his strong pull as he moved both hands to her waist and held her there.
She giggled, unable to stop smiling. "We will be great in Tauros." She could practically see it, Damien thriving amongst people who could relate to him better than Lor elves. A future where she could lay with him under real trees and still be near civilization. Where he could be shameless about his discolored veins.
"You still haven't told me the ending." His kisses tickled along her ear, her jaw. "To your book."
She giggled some more, rolled her eyes playfully. "You really can't let that go, can you? It's just a tale, Damien."
"But it's your tale," he said, his eyes staring into hers as though he could see the answer in them. "I want to know the ending. The lesson told through lies."
"Alright, if you must know, the lovers run away together. Make new rules for themselves. Are you satisfied?"
"Hmm..."
She saw how it turned in his thoughts, spread his face into a smile.
"Yes," Damien nodded. "I'm satisfied."
A stir from the underbrush drew them both. The sky was covered, making it more difficult to see the one who approached. But Ashlyn did not need to see who had followed them, she sensed it in every way; the light footfall, the tormented soul.
Kallus emerged from the line of trees and planted himself on the riverbank, facing the boulder where Ashlyn and Damien stood in each other's embrace.
"Come away from the girl," he demanded, lifting the runed sword he had armed himself with. "Or I shall use force."
Damien stepped in front of Ashlyn to shield her, lowered his center of gravity. "This is ridiculous, Kallus! Leave us alone!"
"Can you not see how she manipulates you? She's marked you as her target! You will be her victim within the year if you do not sever your ties to her now!"
"Manipulate me?" Damien scoffed. "The only one who's done that is you. I choose this, and not because I feel forced."
"I think we both understand you feel nothing. Your bond to her is a lie, an illusion she's weaved in front of you."
"What the hell do you know about it!? Talking to me like you even have a heart to understand? Let it go, Kallus! Let me be."
"You have an oath to keep, boy, you will not toss it away."
"Watch me! Your worst won't stop this."
Kallus lined the sword up with his jaw, pointing it outward. "Then I regret causing the pain you will feel, but rest assured, it is better than a lifetime of being bound to a Sorceress."
Ashlyn saw the destruction rune lighting up within Kallus' sword and wrenched herself in front of Damien. Her staff rested near her feet, and she scrambled to retrieve it as the invisible magic shot forward, but not before she felt several little bones snapping inside her hand and wrist.
"Ah!" She screamed at the pain and dropped her staff, holding her fractured arm. Amidst all the shock, she was appalled that a mature Lor elf like Kallus would deign to cast a destruction rune at his son. What was the elf thinking?
Ashlyn barreled forward, rushing into Kallus and yanking the sword out of his grip, but the elf refused to let go, pulling the sword and Ashlyn along with it. Her wounded arm dangled uselessly as she fought with him. She realized her reckless mistake when he seized her by the good arm, tore away her sleeve, and carved a rune into her shoulder. Once the carving was sealed upon her skin, she saw the binding symbol and screamed, "No!"
A new wave of shock shot through her, though it was not as brutal as the first. She collapsed on her knees, felt the strength of her power draining away. Like a pool shriveling and drying in a desert.
Nothing was left.
She had never been without mana before, had never understood what it was like to be a true mortal. Mundane. Powerless. She didn't trust herself to move— or even struggle.
Kallus took her lack of resistance as a sign of surrender and pulled out a pair of thin shackles, locked her wrists inside them.
From the side, Damien yelled out a curse that echoed more like a scream. He angrily rushed Kallus, but there was little he could do. The Lor elf was ready for a countermeasure; he immediately spun on Damien, seized him by the wrist as well, and carved a sleep rune into the skin.
"Rah!" Damien fought against it, landing a punch into Kallus' rib with his free arm. Kallus groaned at the blow but did not go down, did not suffer any crippling damage. Within moments, it was Damien who faded to the ground. He held up his arm to see a bright orange rune clinging to him. His eyes fluttered closed.
Ashlyn cried out as he collapsed forward, striking his head and landing in a terribly uncomfortable pose. She looked up at Kallus, seething.
"You will answer for this," she swore.
“It is you who will answer, child,” Kallus said, pulling her up from the ground. “You have broken a law, I have not.”
“You’re delusional if you think your fellow lords will agree with you.”
“Regardless, you cannot continue to defy me.”
As he said this, Ashlyn noticed the raven resting on a low branch and cried, “No! You have to grant me my powers, I have to protect him!”
But Kallus ignored her protests and forced her to move in step with him toward the east.
“You have done quite enough, Ashlyn. No more.”
The Ferion building was in sight now, ancient and empty-looking as ever. Kallus opened the heavy stone doors and brought Ashlyn to the center of the Tribunal courtroom. The large, runed circle on the floor lit up at Kallus' touch. Its power pulled Ashlyn to her knees, locked her inside an invisible ring of glass. On her best day, she could outwit a Lorish cage, but not with the binding rune etched into her arm. Not without mana.
She shed another wave of tears while hunching over, connecting her forehead to the floor. She hated this, hated being so powerless. So ordinary.
“Please…you cannot leave him out there. He needs me.”
Kallus stood over her. "Unfortunately, you are the least of his needs.” Then he exited the building and left the girl alone in the dark.
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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.043 © 2017-2024 [en] | Anvil Time: 18:57, Dec 22 2024