Lux Et Tenebrae

The empress didn't belong.

It was Jace's free period and the weather outside was so peaceful and calm so he figured that he would go out to relax in the courtyard. He strolled across the lime green grass that glistened under the gaze of the sun. Jace looked up at the beautiful blue sky; white fluffy clouds drifted away from the sun. He took a deep breath and let it all out, relaxing as he did this.

Jace stopped walking abruptly as he saw Annabella on the grass.he then noticed that her hair was glowing. Her long curls were no longer strawberry blonde, instead they were golden and shining brightly. There was some kind of majestic aura surrounding her and it seemed to beckon Jace towards her. He sat down quietly beside her whispered "Wow..." He stroked her cheek softly. She somehow looked even more beautiful when she was unconscious thought Jace and he realised how creepy that was of him. Then he felt the need to run his hand through her hair, but as soon as the tip of his finger touched a strand of her hair his vision became white. Then he saw a flash of gold and he was standing in front of an enormous castle.

The building loomed over him and towered over the trees nearby. He looked around realised that he was really high up. The castle seemed to be atop a mountain that was surrounded by hundreds of trees and there was a multi-coloured stream running through them. The castles was mostly white with grey rooftops and tall towers, he noticed a crest on the flags that fluttered in the wind. It had a yellow sun white lion in the middle.

Jace turned his back on the castle and saw what looked like people miles away.  He could see some sort of very large district full of buildings and there was a lot of greenery in some areas. He could also make out a huge fountain in the centre but it didn't look like it was spouting water, infact it looked remotely like glitter. Jace looked up and saw that the sky wasn't blue; it was violet and weird-looking creatures were zooming across the abnormally coloured sky. They were too far away for him to know exactly what they were, but they definitely weren't birds.

"Oh joy, you again." someone said sarcastically. Jace jumped and turned to find Annabella standing next to him.

"How did you get here? Wait. How did I get here?" asked Jace, finally realising that he should be freaking out since he didn't think he was still on earth.

"This is my empire," she gestured towards the land in front of them, "or my kindom, or land, whatever you want to call it."

"I've figured it out."

"You've figured what out?"

"I'm unconscious and you somehow got into my mind because you're too damn pretty."

"Be quiet." She deadpanned and rolled her eyes at him. "I wasn't sleeping by the way, I was contacting my hair which is why my hair was glowing because I was using my powers. We're still on earth and all you're seeing is a bit like a hollagram. I missed my homeland so I created the image in my mind and you ,being the curious idiot that you are, decided to touch my hair whilst I was doing this. So somehow you were able to see the image, however, not a lot of people can do that-"

She was interrupted by an ear-splitting screech that belonged to a black, scaly creature that had just flown over Jace's head. This ,of course, frightened him as he believed that he almost died in that moment since the beast's claws were so close to ripping his head off.

"What the heck was that?" yelled Jace, pointing at the creature that was heading beyond the mountains.

"Oh, calm down it can't even see you." she rolled her eyes again and laughed at him; her eyes turned yellow. "But I didn't imagine a Volecrum Obscura..."

"A Vole-what?"

"A dark, scary monster." She said said condescendingly as though he was  a little kid that was incapable of understanding the simplest things.

"So, let me get this straight, you're a an empress and this is your empire?"

"This is only a region of my empire, I rule much more."

"Ok, so you're some powerful empress, we're inside your imagination and a dark, scary monster just flew over my head."

"Yes, pretty much."

"Well, this all makes perfect sense." he muttered in a sarcastic tone. "Are you sure I'm still conscious?" he questioned. Annabella sighed exasperatedly and suddenly grabbed his hands and held them together. Then she closed her eyes and whispered words in that weird language that Jace somehow understood and he once again saw white before seeing a flash of gold. Jace blinked a couple times and he was back in the school's courtyard. The boy lookef around for the beautiful empress but she had disappeard just like the world he was just in.