Golden scars

Chapter 1

dedicated to rohxana

Celaena Sardothien, King's Champion, Adarlan's Assassin and protégée of Arobynn Hamel thought she has seen everything and even more for someone her age. What she clearly wasn't expecting was finding herself in front of a person who looked just like her, and who, most likely, was her. The moment she found that weird-looking Wyrdmark and drew it on the wall of her room, trying to understand what the description that came with it, 'teleport', actually meant, she knew something bad should be expected. But she wasn't prepared for this. Not at all. So when she saw herself, hair shorter, dyed red and a bloodied face, she was shocked. But not as shocked as the girl standing in front of her, a terrorizing mirror of a burning flame.

She knew it was not a dream. She knew very well the power of the Wyrdmarks and was sure she was going to assassinate herself later for drawing that Wyrdmark. And she also knew she should be running away from the girl in front of her. And she was planning on doing so, up until she heard footsteps coming from behind the girl, and a tall, well-built, fae male came into view, his silver-white hair covered in dark blood.

At that very moment, her blood ran cold.

A fae. In Rifthold. Wherever- whenever that portal brought her, it was not a peaceful time. No, there was some kind of war going on, she could see that from the feral figures of the strangers in front of her, but she was too scared to try to find out who lead this war. And why. And then the fae stopped running, staring at her. At the both versions of herself, his green eyes narrowing from one to the other, his face unreadable. Then he spoke in no more than a whisper carried by the wind 'Aelin, what's going on?'. And that's when her heart stopped beating. She could feel herself paling, and she could see the girl- Aelin whispering something to the stranger next to her, too low for her mortal ears to hear. But she didn't care anyway. The male's words hit her harder than any rock, the secret she's been keeping for such a long time, spoken with so much casualness. And the girl in front of her didn't even flinch- that was the scary thing.

"Celaena?" she heard the girl saying. She was looking at her with her turquoise eyes- her own eyes, a certain question engraved so deep inside them How the hell did you get here? She was tired, she could read that in her eyes, but also amazed and a little confused. The fae still had that grave look painted on his face, also mixed with confusion and tiredness.

"Who are you?" Celaena managed to say. Of course, of all the things she could've asked, this was the stupidest, as she already knew the answer. But she was determined to find out how she got there, and most importantly, why there. The girl looked her over again, a flicker of fear intertwined with the gold in her eyes.

"You" she simply said. "But I am really wondering how is it that I don't remember anything about this encounter". She was right, Celaena realized. If the girl in front of her really was, well, her, she must've remembered about this, after all, this was the future. At least that's what she supposed. She hadn't realized the girl was talking to her until she stopped, waiting for her answer. But Celaena didn't hear anything, no, she was too busy trying to figure out a way to go back.

"What did you say?" she asked, ashamed of not paying attention.

"Come with us" she said, and turned on her heels, the fae close behind her heading for the end of the tunnel, her steps a whisper carried by the soft wind.