How The Soothsaying Started

Closer

My eyes watch without moving as Rose annihilates the remaining men and wolves. I strain my muscles, trying to get free, but the magic was too strong. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Adam's shadow limbs moving, trying desperately to break the spell. I know it won't work.

Rose heals the others using vines. I don't care what Fendrel said about her, or what the others think. Rose is the same Rose she was before. We just know another side to her. Everyone has a different side, a hidden side.

Rose turns toward me, her eyes back in their normal dreamy state. She touches Adam's forehead, and vines grow up his frozen legs, dissolving the enchantment. He catches himself gracefully as he falls to the ground. I see him bend over to whisper in her ear. She nods curtly and turns to me. Finally.

Sadly, I am neither as graceful or as fast as Adam, and I don't get my hands up in time to stop my fall.

My head hits the cold stone floor with a crack, and my vision blurs. Sleep is welcome.

I am fourteen. I stand on a road, made of grey sand and white rock. A village surrounds me, its houses dark and cold. Ashes float by me on the wind. Empty. I kneel and cry, remembering how I could've saved them. They could've lived. He could've lived.

A thick fog envelopes me, changing the scene. I am twelve. A river flows past me, chunks of ice floating on its surface. A boy is draped across one of them, blood seeping from a wound in his back. I know him. I knew him.

The images around me change again.

I am eight, and I sit in an alleyway, hungry and alone. A man passes by me. I recognize him, but he looks away from my starved face, and rushes past. I gaze after him, my heart squeezing. He doesn't care about me.

I am five. A boy leans out of a window, looking down at me. "Kaherdin, come on! Don't you wanna see the party?" I remember grinning at him, and rushing up the stairs. "Papa," he said. "Its my future wife! I'm gonna marry her!" His father chuckles and pats my head.

"You better hang on to this one, Izaiah. She will grow to be a strong young lady." Izaiah nods and grabs my hand, pulling me to the party.

One last change. Let it be over. Let it be done.

It is last year. No. No no no.

Izaiah leans toward me, his arms outstretched, his green eyes getting closer. "Did you miss me, Kaherdin? I knew I'd find you!" He wraps his arms around me, and I cry, the tears falling past a gaping scar on his back.

"I couldn't go back, I wouldn't. He would've killed me.He will kill me." I say, my voice hoarse. He looks at me.

"I'll protect you, sweet. Remember how we used to play dragon, and I'd run up the stairs, intent on saving you? I still will. I'll kill a hundred dragons for you. Just don't leave me again." I remember his scent, on that last day. Pine and cinnamon. An odd smell for a boy, but it suited him.

He surprised me with his next words. "When we were children, we talked of marriage, and love, not knowing what it meant. I know what love is now, Kaherdin. I want to marry you." I was shocked, of course, but gleefully smiled. We talked late into the night, learning each other again.

I leave, a stupid smile plastered around my face. No sooner than I turned the corner, I hear a whooshing sound, and all the windows of Izaiah's inn break at once. I turn, and a billowing column of flames has engulfed half the building already.

He leans out of a window, looking down at me. The scene is similar, yet very different, to the night if the party, all those years ago. He smiles sadly, and I know he can't escape. I hear his last words, dragged from bleeding lips through the smoke and wind. "I love you, sweet. Move on."

The building collapses. I scream.

I sit up, my chest heaving. Snow leans over me, her face worried.

"Are you okay? You're covered in sweat.. and you're crying." I shake my head no, and fall into her waiting arms. She held me there and smoothed out my hair, I need to calm down. I took a few deep breaths and tried to regain my composure, I still looked like a mess. Rose stepped over and sat next to me, she looked at me as to say she understands.

"When we lose, we feel dead. But when one loses, one shall gain more. I suggest we remember that." Rose can be cryptic when she wants to. No one else understood why she said that...but I know. I gave her a sharp nod before she spoke again.

"I'm glad you're feeling better, I was afraid I'd have to use my powers again-" she stopped and realized that probably came out wrong. "I mean I don't think I could use them again for awhile." Snow looked at her in confusion "Why can't you use your powers?" She asked "Oh, it's just I haven't used them in...a long time. I'm a little rusty" Rose replied with a kind of awkward smile, all of the sudden she started looking around. "Hey is Charles watching the caravan? I noticed he isn't down here, I guess someone had to watch all the supplies." She looked deep in thought, I guess no one has told her yet, I don't want to be the one to tell her. Nicklaus was the one to speak up "Actually Rose, there's something you should know, Charles is..." he looked down, not sure how to find the right words. Rose knew what he was trying to say and her eyes turned dark. "I...I'm sorry...so sorry, I just...this is my fault." She spoke so quietly I could barely hear her, Admin caught on and looked angry "Rose don't you dare think for even a secon-" "I think we should head back up, we all need some rest." Rose cut him off and promptly stepped toward the exit.