A Heart of Darkness

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Maethyril slammed doors to Yridhrenors office shut. She had met Clarion on his was from the office and she knew that this was a safe place to come and calm down.

Yridhrenor was not in his office at the moment, but Mae knew that he would return soon. But for the time being she had a room she could relax in without worry of intrusion.

Mae leaned against the door and closed her eyes. She breathed deeply and tried to calm her temper.

Mili is a princess. She does have authority over you.

"But does she really?" A voice whispered from behind her on the right. "You are the Lady here. You have won the people's respect. What has she done?" A dark pool entered into the room taking a loose shape of a body. It moved closer to Mae's heavily breathing body.

I am Lady here. She cannot simply waltz in and pretend that she owns the place!

Mae opened her eyes sharply. What was she thinking? Mili was royalty. She may not have been here long enough to gain the people's respect, but it was important to respect her anyway.

The darkness extended and reached to caress her face. "But you and I both know your little secret! We both know..."

"NO!" Mae yelled. She pushed herself off of the door. "I am not going to let you control my mind."

The darkness receded quickly, like it had been stung.

Mae continued, raising her voice. "I want you to leave me alone! Get out of here!" She yelled. "I command you leave me!"

The darkness fled quickly from the room, leaving Mae back in the light. She never took her eyes off of it's escape path, not trusting it to remain gone.

It was just then that Yridhrenor strode through the doors.

"Oh! Mae. I was not aware that you were here."

Mae did not turn around, but continued staring out the window that the darkness had flew through.

"It is back."

Yridhrenor stopped in his path to his desk and turned to look at Mae.

"What?" Terror evident in his eyes, Yridhrenor grabbed onto the back of a chair to steady himself. "What did you say?"

Mae tore her gaze from the window and stared into Yridhrenor's eyes.

"The darkness has returned."

 Downstairs Mili quietly shut the front doors to the castle. She nodded, quite pleased with herself, and began to walk upstairs. Although she hadn't quite understood the scenario outside, it felt good to lash out after Yridhrenor's verbal beating earlier. How that man aggravated her!

"Mili! I must tell you something!" Clarion hollered across the hall, having spotted her.

Mili stopped and turned to look at him. "What?"

Clarion came up to stand next to her. "Yridhrenor asked me to tell you that you are to prepare to leave."

"What!?" Mili's jaw dropped.

"You and Mae and I are going on a journey." Clarion said flatly, obviously not undertanding Mili's fear.

Mili sighed in slight relief. "When do we leave?"

Clarion turned to walk away and responded by hollering over his shoulder. "Now."

"What? Now? We only just arrived? Why are we leaving now?" Mili yelled after Clarion, but he only continued walking. "Clarion?"