Naryssa's Choice (The Fate and Destiny Chronicles Vol. 3)

The Heir

The choice had been easier for me than it had been for my sister, Annabelle.

She felt both sides far more strongly than I and with far less guidance than I'd had, I knew what I was, who I was. Who I had always been even before the loss and the trauma. I chose the darkness, letting it chase away the light I had, taking me over in an icy rush extinguishing the fire within me, letting it take hold of me entirely. Suddenly everything was still and as I opened my eyes, I saw that nothing had been affected by the storm I had just been inside of, the storm that was gone as if it had never even been there. The house along with the rest of the meadow somehow went untouched...

It's funny... how such a large moment could happen in seconds...

There and over before you even realize it...

I half expected to be dead but much to my disappointment I was very much still alive somehow but I knew my end would come soon. I just had to tie up a few loose ends first. I was not even a bit surprised to see the sunset sky before me, bright beautiful pastel blends of yellow, orange, red, pink, and the faintest hue of violet filled the horizon and it was truly as breathtaking as it was heartbreaking. I watched the sun slowly set as I wiped the blood from my face as I took in the truth, I really had lost everything, everyone that I cared about was gone. This path was paved in broken shards of glass, full of tragedy, and the brilliant sunset at the end of it was nothing more than a painful reminder of every heartbreak. I wanted to hate Annabelle, to blame her, but I realized it was never her fault. This destiny we shared left us fated to shatter and I understood all too well how that could drive you to make a terrible mistake to make everyone feel as you did. How it could make you want to make everything end. Only I hadn't shared in her mistake because I knew it would not change it. It wouldn't take away the pain or rewrite the past. If I hadn't known about her story, her mistake. Had I walked this path blindly and alone, I would have done the same thing she had.

I continued my journey the next day after a long rest, traveling for a few more weeks to visit another meadow, I had one last stop to make. As I approached the final resting place of my sister and father though I was surprised to find someone had changed things since I had last been here. My sister's grave was still marked by the beautiful statue of a cloaked girl who mirrored her looks, down to the scar over her left eye and a tear ran down her right cheek. She faced the sunrise position, only now was a medium sized stone placed to its right, the top was smoothed and a name carved into it. It simply read his first name, Atticus. Only to the left of my sister's grave were two that were newer than hers and my father's but not brand new, a single plot space left between hers and theirs. They each had a stone of their own with smooth tops and names carved, one read Caspian and the other read the name Darren. Though there was not a third grave in the space between theirs and hers, someone had still placed a stone with another name carved into it, this one read Seth. I felt fresh tears running down my face as I fell to my knees beside Darren's headstone before placing a hand gently upon it, I wondered who could have done this touching gesture as I grieved. Who would've put these names here? Who could have known about Seth? Who else left could know which graves were which?

The tall, haunting willow tree, standing guard over each grave as I sat there alone and in tears over all who lie here. About the people I'd loved so much who were all fated to die in relation to this broken path coming to its long awaited and delayed ending. Before long I would also be gone, I would soon die and become yet another one of the many who had fallen into fate's cold embrace. Another person lost to this damned destiny. It was at that moment I became all too aware of someone behind me, I stood and turned to see the green-eyed soldier behind me with a sad look in his eyes. "I thought I might find you here" He said in explanation and I realized who must have done this "D-did you do this?" I questioned him as I wiped my tears away thankful, they were not bloody for once. "Darren had me bury Caspian here since you couldn't..." He said trailing off briefly into silence before speaking once more "I saw what happened, when you lost him. When you told me to bury him...I guess I felt they deserved to have their graves marked...they deserved to be remembered..." He confessed as he came closer to me. "Why?" I asked him as he walked closer, his gaze haunted by memories, "Darren became a friend of mine during the war" He told me, "And Caspian wasn't my father, but he might as well have been". "You might know his oldest brother died in the Siege on Darcy" He explained to me "But he had another brother, a twin, who had abdicated his title as prince and left after Caspian went searching for Annabelle".