Strangely Familiar - The Stolen Fate | On Hold

Chapter 11 (I)

"Keep your friends close; keep your enemies closer."- Sun Tzu

***

Dear Mr. Kazmi,

The communication link we had intended to use to convey information is broken, and there is no time to blend magic and technology again. Hence why I am writing you the letter. Worry not, it's well protected, and no one else will read this apart from you.

I need your help. Yesterday, something happened, something bad, and I have no idea who to turn to or how to deal with it. Please don't ask, because if I try to answer, you might not want to hear the truth - the truth so hard that it cuts like a knife but bruises like a baton - but it's the truth all the same.

Even the Royalty looks concerned, and frankly, it's bad news!

While I'm fine now, I've currently locked myself in a room refusing to talk, much like a petulant child, but my reasons aren't childish. It depends on whether or not the thing staring me in the face is real or imagined.

Either way, you can count on me tomorrow at seven, when the first light of the Moon falls across the Glowing Fields right across the Mansion. You know where it is.

Bring Sammy while you are at it. He can be a bit overbearing.

Yours truly,

N

***

Naina lay on her bed, unable to sleep. The memory of the Void surfaced every time she tried to relax. She replayed the memory over in her mind, of standing still as a strong magnetic force pulled at her from several directions. The force had swayed her body to one side, swinging it through space as if she were suspended by an invisible string. It wasn't a memory she wanted to experience again yet here she was fighting to keep it from coming back.

She had murdered someone. An Immortal. A princess, and Shaurya's potential companion. Everyone assumed she was just envious of the Forest Princess. However, Naina knew that this woman's unfortunate demise had nothing to do with envy. Tia continued to spread the rumor that their Savior had become a murderer. Naina couldn't comprehend what transpired between them to make her so antagonistic towards her. Nevertheless, she wasn't wrong. Naina thought.

She knew she had made an irreversible choice. She was a killer now, and there was no going back. To make things worse, she felt her senses relax after exterminating Immortal's existence. It was unsettling to think why would her magic relax after committing such a horrific deed? Her magic had never betrayed her like this before.

She summoned the tendril of magic, letting it wrap around her outstretched fingers. Nothing happened. Her heart sank in her chest and she stared at nothing with tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes. She closed her hand into a fist, squeezing hard enough that she knew it would hurt later. Her magic was being moody. Again!

"What is wrong with me?"  She mumbled and snapped her fingers. Instantly, a dazzling kaleidoscope of color - a brilliant show of art burst from the air. "Whoa!"

As Naina sat up in bed, her sight was filled with a picturesque scene. She could instantly tell that it was a small farming village. Her mind had made it out to be a simple place; however, this land and her own world looked one and the same. They were identical, yet opposite. Something was different - off. The sky wasn't a mix of red and blue like that of spectral bi-verse. It was plain like the dimension she once lived in.

In the distant horizon, she could make out a figure playing on the fields; although they were too far away to see clearly, all that she heard was joyful laughter.