The Fate Weaver

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I awoke, stimuaneously remembering what had transpired seemingly a second ago, the boy called Miles driving his fist into Jack's abdomen, a knife from him missing Jack's head by a few inches, plunging into a tree bark, the two talking in a strangely familiar ailen language...

"Athena."

At my name pronounced, I awoke with a start, releasing an involuntary gasp as I backed away, to take in Jack's face. It was dark, about night, and I was lying on a forest bed, Jack crouching next to me with a fire glowing steadily. This forest was unfamiliar; it seemed somehow dark, sinister, and cold. 

"Where is this place?" I murmured, as he plopped down his jacket around my shoulders.

"Somewhere that is quite clandestine enough that Miles won't find us...for now."

"Thanks for saving my life and all, but who on earth is Miles, who are you, and what had just happened? I think you owe me an explanation," I said, glaring at him steadily as I shivered, despite the warmth.

"My name is Magnus Eltö. Your name is Athena Bersanà. I am your servant, your bodyguard."

He spoke so solemnly, that I couldn't deem it to be a joke, but I couldn't help but to laugh away his silly remark. "Be serious."

"You mean be specific," he said, as he bent, and before I could stop him, put his finger into the fire's dark flames.

I let out a strangled choke, but he only put his hand further in, as if he were playing with an old friend, shaking his hand. The fire didn't burn him, nor did it seem to hurt him in any way. Jack didn't seem any surprised about that, as he stroked the flames gingerly. "Good boy." Then he began, his hands still on the fire- in the fire. "This world is earth. We are from Senalia, an underwater world. Senalians are almost like humans. We speak, we talk, we laugh, we breathe, we have emotions, everything a human has. We look like humans- mostly, except our hair. Athena, don't be shocked."

He held up a ball of flame in his hand, getting it close to his face so that I could see his face entirely, and I watched, my insides twisting. His brown hair with silver streaks was slowly whitening, and I could see the roots of the hair, gradually getting paler, paler, and alabaster, until all were white.

His hair, which I thought to be a natural brown with silver streaks, white, white as snow.

Sub-consciously I drew back, and he put back the fire, sighing as if he had expected my response. "This is my original hair colour. I dyed it brown with silver, to match my 'grandmother's hair'."

"What-"

"I'm two hundred and fifty-one years old. You are two hundred and fifty years old. Once upon a time in Senalia, I was your servant, your bodyguard. You were Senalia's beloved princess. You still are a princess, and I'm still your bodyguard. Senalians never age. When we hit the age seventeen, we stop ageging in appearance. But we do age. Our organs don't break down and age like humans. Disease? What's that? We don't get sick either. We are part of the nature."

"I don't believe you at all. I just think you're lying to me," I said, rolling my eyes and trying to laugh but in vain, only a squeak coming out from my mouth.

"Anna. Terrence," he said, with an accent that was certainly not English, nor American, nor any language I was aware that existed on earth.

Jack's parents, Mrs. Anna Magnus and Mr. Terrence Magnus emerged slowly from the sides of the forest, gracefully.  Anna? Terrence? Jack called his parents mum and dad.

"They're not my parents," Jack said as if reading my thoughts. "They are Anna and Terrence, one of the civil servants of Senalia."

Mrs. and Mr. Magnus' - or the two Senalians' hair have also turned snow-white, and somehow their motions were more graceful than before, like how Jack had walked and acted when he fought Miles. There was no unnecessary step or motion, as if they had calculated it all, and they moved like dancers.

"Athena, I'm sure you are very bewildered, but I assure you, this is no joke we play on anybody," said Terrence. 

I was doubtful that Terrence knew how to even joke in the first place.

"Long time ago, I made a mistake," said Jack softly, fingering a fallen leaf, the flame still there, but unscathing anybody. 

"A mistake," scoffed Anna, glaring at Jack as if she wanted to kill him with her glare.

For the thousandth time in the day, cold shock settled hard in my heart, as I saw that. Anna and Terrence, whom I thought to be Jack's parents, have been such loving parents- they were kind, generous and gentle to Jack, and everyone around. But now, Anna looked like she wanted to murder Jack with her two hands, and so did Terrence.

It was all a play?

Jack winced at Anna's response, clenching his jaw, overwhelmed by an emotion I didn't know. 

"Let him speak of his crime," said Terrence, just as Anna was about to pour out curse words out of her mouth.

"I...made an unforgivable mistake- to you," Jack said, so quietly that I could barely catch his words. "I was your bodyguard. It was your birthday, and there was a festival all over the country. You went to be with your own friends after the big celebration at about midnight. You were midst of drinking and talking, and everything seemed so peaceful, so happy."

His head was hung, like he couldn't bear to match my gaze. "I lost you. In Senalia, there are monsters called chimeras. Chimeras have been tormenting Senalians from generations and generations. A chimera killed you, after I lost you, running into the forest with your friends. Your friends were all killed as well. You all were reborn- but with washed memories. Your friends, somewhere in Senalia as other people, but you, we didn't know."

"It was the bastard's fault. He couldn't even do his small job properly," said Anna, scoffing. "Call him a bodyguard. I think a nine-year-old can guard the princess better than he did."

I was running into a big shadow- I could hear screaming, Magnus calling out my name, my friends' choked screams that were inhumane. I could see the claws of the chimera, almost imagining it tearing me apart into two, blood splattering-

I held my head in my hands, gasping for breath, reeling from the shock of the short memory.

"I remember. The part. He killed me. So you are all real, aren't you? And I'm real. Real. Real."

I mouthed the words, and then whispered to Jack.

"So. Magnus. Your name is Magnus. I remember you calling my name when I was killed," I said, gently so that it didn't sound like I was chastising him.

"Yes, princess," he said in a small voice, still not meeting my eyes, a groan escaping his lips.

"It's not your fault."

I remembered how we were in starbucks, and he stood, while I sat, his hands at his back. I remembered how he flinched in starbucks when I told him I commanded him to take me to the park as joke. I couldn't bear the guilt ridden in his dark eyes, cast down on the floor like he was a sinner.

"It is," he whispered, "it is."

"My lady, that is not the point, though it is something that he should be punished of," said Terrence quickly, breaking the silence. "People of Senalia are in danger. The queen has passed away several years before due to a group of chimeras. The king awaits for you. Chimeras flood Senalia, and people are dying. We need you to come and save us, princess."

"Save you? I just remembered very little of my past life, and I'm in extreme shock right now," I said, clutching my head. "And I'm powerless. All I know is how to breathe, eat, write, play, and study. I don't have magical powers or-"

"You do, and I will tell you of it."