[THIS STORY WILL BECOME FREE ON THE 5th OCTOBER 2023]
Fara's husband, the Prince of Azura, is murdered and she's enslaved by his killer, Theodan, a warrior fighting a war he doesn't believe in - until her.
...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Beyond the panelled door, the Leothine voices in the chamber rose to an angry pitch. She did not understand the words, but the passion in them was evident. She picked Theodan's voice out clearly from the rabble, deeper and more commanding than the others, and she heard it rise with indignation. Vala stood, quietly observing things unfold, unable to take her eyes from the viewing panel in the Visier's small chamber.
She had not yet tried to stand for she did not trust her legs to hold her upright, could barely feel them. Could barely feel anything beyond the lazy, deafening cadence of her heart. It could not be long now. Once Theodan revealed the true name of his slave to his council they would come. So she would sit and wait. There was no use in fighting.
She had never gained anything from fighting that which would inevitably come for her.
What would Leoth decree should happen to the Calate whore? Perhaps they would execute her. Perhaps they'd ship her back to King Torrik of Zybar. She would request the former: a merciful death owed to those of royal blood. She was certain there was a law guiding such a thing; some law which guaranteed an honourable death to those of noble birth during war. She could not recall its detail, for her head was far too chaotic and loud, but she knew it existed and so she would demand this Leoth council carry it out as Ethis had decreed.
And if they refused then she would find some other way to end things - something she should have done long before. She would take her vengeance with her to the Gods and deliver it to them instead. For all of this was their fault.
She wished that Vala had not stopped her by the platform outside. She wished harder that she had thrown herself from the Everwood cliff when she first had a mind to. Please do not leave me... please... not now when I need you so... you are the only one who can tame the darkness inside me... I do not dare think what I would become without you, Fara.
She had awoken here in this small, dusty room made of stone, feeling as though she had returned from some perilous journey. A journey to another world, a mirror world, her body reeling from the effects of the Visier's hideous magic. She felt not quite whole, her head a dense wood of impossible terrible truths, and she could only hope that the Visier's sorcery would wear off soon. And with it the memory of what she had been shown. Though, in truth, she knew that her mind would never quite be the same again.
Could it really be so? Was such a thing possible? An alternate existence: another life. A mirror life which had not been lived but could so easily have been. That was the 'The Gift' the Visier had given her, a glimpse of another life. Or rather, another death.
Galyn's death.
Not the death she had witnessed in Azura, not the death delivered at the end of Theodan's blade, but another death entirely.
A savage and treacherous death.
She recalled it now with vivid clarity, as though she had witnessed it too with her own eyes six moons ago. The colours just as vibrant and the sounds equally as sharp as they had been in the throne room.
