"life is your birthright, they hid that in the fine print, take the pen and rewrite it..."
Isadora McCarter, a woman from another planet, seeks refuge in a farmhouse after crash landing in a cornfield. Two people find her, and the three of them find...
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Psevra stayed behind after the meeting while the rest of the Council were dismissed. She stood at the door, not wanting to bother her ruler. Isadora sat at the cracked table, the crown from her head now staring her in her brown eyes on the table. The woman was still tense, and Psevra didn't need to be an empath to see that.
"You shouldn't be here," Psevra spoke up for the first time in five minutes. "This is the one day you get to spend with her." She stepped into the air pocket that was the meeting room, bright red hair dripping down her back. "My daughter's waiting for me as well."
"How am I supposed to spend time with her knowing it might be the last?" Isadora asked, shaking her head, tears in her eyes. Psevra was the only person on the planet who's ever seen Isadora vulnerable. They've been close since they were kids; sisters, pretty much.
Psevra sat down at the end of the table, in the seat diagonal to her ruler. She took Isadora's hand in her own. "Exactly like it will be," she told her. Isadora looked at the woman next to her. She was nothing like the reckless child she once was, one who had no regard for rules or consequences. She was older now, and much wiser.
The two pressed their foreheads together as Isadora chuckled softly. "Who made you so wise?"
"You know, I believe her name was Isadora," Psevra replied, placing Isadora's crown back on her head.
_________________________ "So, what are we doing today?" Teara asked, holding her mother's hand as they swam through their castle.
"No plan today," Isadora sighed, looking down at her daughter. "So you get to choose. I'm not going to stop you."
"I think I want to," the child trailed off as she thought of something she hadn't done with her mother before. Basket weaving? They already had enough of those. Collecting lava stones? Her collection was already starting to spill out of her room. Then her mind thought of the one thing Isadora would always turn down every time she would mention it. "I want to learn how to fight."
Isadora stopped swimming, ultimately making Teara stop, since their hands were still entangled. There was no way her daughter could have known about the dangers to come, and Isadora knew that. But, hearing that made her heart drop to her stomach.
"Mother?" Teara asked, starting to wonder if she upset her mother with her request. "Did I make the wrong choice? We can do something else—"
"Come with me," Isadora interrupted. "I have something to show you." She continued swimming, picking up the pace a little more. After a few minutes of swimming around the castle, the usual warm feeling of her home started to change. It was darker, colder, all of the usual coziness completely gone. Teara wasn't sure she was even still in the castle. It looked like it, but it didn't feel like it.
As the two continued, Teara's forehead and hands grew hot, and not the heat she was used to when venturing closer to the lava deposits and volcanoes. This heat was internal, a new feeling that had never been there. The foreign heat only grew stronger as the mother and daughter continued the way they were going. She felt as if her flesh would melt off of her bones, leaving nothing but ashes in the place of her body.
"Mother," Teara stopped swimming, letting her hand slip out of her mother's. "I don't feel good." The heat made its way behind her eyes, covering everything in a haze. She didn't know where she was anymore, but she was sure she wasn't in Phaeria. Her mother was nowhere to be found, no matter how much she called for her.
Looking around, she could tell she was in another kingdom. Everything was golden, warm, full of life. She walked around, looking for her mother. She walked the golden halls, going unseen by everyone. Was she invisible?
"You're not invisible, child," a voice told her. It was an oddly comforting voice Maybe she'd heard it before? But she couldn't remember hearing a voice that smooth, especially from any of the men in her kingdom.
Teara looked around the room she was in, seeing a multicolored bridge stretching across the waters. Turning around, she saw the source of the voice. A man holding a giant sword in some sort of chamber. Dark skin, yellow eyes, golden armor, and perfect posture.
"You're a knight," Teara assumed, taking in how he stood.
"Not quite," the man said, keeping his hands on the sword.
"Who are you? Where is my mother? What is this place?"
The man removed his hands from their place on the sword to kneel down in front of the girl. "I am Heimdall," he introduced. "Isadora is exactly where you left her." Teara's eyebrows furrowed at the mention of her mother's name. How did he know it? "You are in Asgard."
"How did I end up here?" the girl asked, watching as the tall man stood.
"Your mind sent you here," he answered. "To receive something. A gift of sorts."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I'm the one who is going to give it to you." Heimdall held his hand out for the child to take.
"How can I trust you?"
Before Heimdall could answer, the haze returned to Teara's eyes, and she was back in Phaeria. She looked around, finding Isadora exactly where she was when she left.
"How was it?" Isadora asked.
"What happened to me?" Teara asked.
"You just learned how to fight," her mother answered. "From one of the most skilled fighters I know." Isadora brought out a box with her family's crest on it. "This is yours. Your father and I had it made when you were born." Teara took the box in her hand, opening it. It was a dagger. On the handle, was another crest, but not her mother's. Part of it was her mother's crest, but the other was one she didn't recognize. It had to have been her father's.
"I don't understand. Why are you giving me this now?"
Isadora sighed. "Listen," she started. "There will come a time where I can't protect you." She held her daughter's shoulders. "You have to know how to protect yourself." She removed the dagger from the box. "This will help you do just that."
"My Lord!" Junius screamed from upstairs.
Isadora grabbed Teara, swimming back to the main part of the castle. Junius was frantically running through the castle, looking for her. "Junius," she called to him.
"It's time," he told her.
"Time for what?" Teara asked.
"Sweetheart, I need you to go with Junius, okay?" She held her child, longer than she normally would. "He'll protect you." She gave Teara a gentle push in Junius's direction. "You two get in a pod and get out of here."
"What will you do?" Junius asked.
"I'll hold him off as long as I can," Isadora swam as fast as she could to the armory, grabbing what she needed to protect herself.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
So, I'm trying to post weekly! Hopefully it doesn't give me burnout... anyway, next chapter, we're gonna see the grap— I mean, Thanos and his daughters!
