Courage Comes From Lies

Chapter 47: Tara

| 3:12 am, outside the wall of the palace |

I looked around the quiet docks of the empire as I walked along the outside of the wall with Riley and Amanda. I finally get the chance to try out this new power. We reached the sand below one of the piers before Amanda stopped us.
"Stop for a second Tara. I need to do something for you really quickly", she said in a soft voice.
I looked at her confused and asked, "What is it?" I watched her tie her hair up and hand me a spare band to tie mine up as well. I instinctively took it and began to follow her lead.
Then Riley said, "Princess Amanda came up with the idea to have your training below the surface."
"Below the surface?" I asked. "Like underwater?"
"Exactly that Tara." Amanda answered as she breathed out slowly. "And to do that, I'll have to set a charm on your physicality for you to be able to breathe underwater."
"Really? There are charms for that? The first time I ever spent time underwater was with this woman Devin and I were traveling with. She gave me this supplement to help me breathe underwater. I think it was a gummy."
"Oh?" Riley looked at me. "May we ask who this woman was?"
"Her name is Jasmine. Jasmine Myers. She's the first mate on this ship called the-"
"The Cherry Blossom. Mr. Patrick's ship." Riley finished for me. "I know the woman you're talking about."
"You do?" I looked at him. "How?"
"Well... she and I were set to be married before I became general of the Queen's empire and armies."
"What? No way. She never mentioned to neither me or Devin about once being engaged."
Amanda looked at him. "You never mentioned this to me Riley."
"Why didn't you guys go through with it?"
"The Queen gave me the option of either allowing Jasmine to walk free if I called off the wedding, or her taking Jasmine as a prisoner so that the only time I'd get to see her would be if I was bringing in a new prisoner."
"Wow." I said. "I'm really sorry Riley. She and Patrick were supposed to be bringing Devin and I here anyway. They're still coming. If they make it by the time all of this is over, we can get you two finally married." At this, I saw Riley's cheeks redden a bit as he glanced away sheepishly.
"You.. really don't have to, Miss Tara. If she hadn't mentioned me to neither you nor the little princess, chances are she's forgotten about me. So it's okay. For now, let's focus on getting you prepared to face the Queen."
"Right." I looked at Amanda who nodded and placed her hand at the center of my chest before closing her eyes. She then started to softly speak words in a language I'd never heard before. I watched as her hand began to glow a dim white light, it slowly engulfing me as she went on. She continued for two more verses before she finished, the white glow dying down from my being. I looked at myself then at her. She opened her eyes and looked back at me.
"There. Now you'll be able to breathe as we find a spot beyond the reef to practice in until we get back to land."
"Thank you Amanda." I waited as she repeated the same process on Riley then herself. After we all were charmed, we proceeded to walk into the water and swim down once we couldn't feel the sand under our feet anymore.
"So Tara." Riley said to me as we swam. "To start your training, we're going to focus on getting you a feel for the power of the Guardian. So you'll need to bear with me for what I have planned to bring it out. Okay?"
"Okay?" I replied looking at him. "Is it bad?" He looked at Amanda, who glanced away, before looking back at me.
"All I'll say is... you'll need to stay strong. Because this is all for you and Princess Devin."
I blinked looking at him as we continued swimming downward. What did he mean? What's gonna happen? Should I be worried? As I thought to myself, I didn't even noticed that we had found a spot by some kelp and an underwater cave and stopped there. Amanda looked at the cave then at Riley.
"I'm going to see if that leads to an air pocket. I'll be right back." She swam towards the cave, leaving me and Riley alone.
"Riley what do you mean I'll need to stay strong? I already know that. But what's the training going to be like? Will it be bad enough that I have to survive like I've been doing so far?"
"No. Not that bad. But what I have in store will leave you with choices to make."
As I was about to ask another question, Amanda came back and said, "It does. There's an air pocket up there. We can start her training there."
I looked at Riley who looked back at me before nodding to her. "Let's go then." They both swam to the cave. I sighed softly and followed behind quickly. Once we climbed into the air pocket that Amanda said was here, Riley looked at me again.
"Are you ready?"
"I don't know anymore. I want to take that monster down any way possible but.. whatever you have for my training is now starting to make me nervous."
"You told us once that your mother used to tell you something when you were a child." Amanda said to me. "Can you tell me what it was, again?"
I looked at her and smiled a bit. "Never let your fear nor judgment cloud your gut feeling."
"Exactly. You know in your gut you need to do this. So try not to think too much about how your training will go and focus on getting through it. Okay?"
"Yes ma'am." I shook my head a bit to gather myself and looked at Riley who took a deep breath and knelt down pressing his hand to the stone floor. Amanda stepped back as I prepared myself for whatever he was going to do. And then, in a split second, my eyes widened as I saw my mother, father, sister, friends and Devin all standing there smiling at me. I stood there absolutely disoriented, just staring at everyone. My eyes began to fill with tears as my mother walked towards me and smiled pressing her lips to my forehead, Riley still in the same position.
"M.. Mom..?" I barely got out as she chuckled. As I went to embrace her, suddenly, out of nowhere, she was shot down by an arrow, through her neck, her blood splattering onto my face. "Mom!" I watched her slump to her knees before falling over, revealing who had shot her. Yolaris. She looked at me with a malicious grin as she licked her lips looking around at who she'd kill next. I fell to my knees, my eyes pouring out tears as I looked at Amanda and Riley. So this is what he meant... fine. If this is what I have to go through.
I stood up. "I'll get through this. Just watch me."