Daughter of Darkness

Chapter 15

Sal stood in an odd prism like room. On all sides of her was opaque glass, and when Sal went to the glass, she touched the hard surface. A blurry reflection stared back at her. She expected to see herself looking back at her, but instead a face of a beautiful teen girl smiled at her. Something about her looked familiar, but Sal knew she had never seen the girl.

Spinning to stare at another wall, Sal looked to see the same girl, only she was older. She looked to be in her 40's, a bit of wrinkles were at the corners of her eyes, and a gleam was in her eyes that showed a loving life. Even with a bit of grey in her hair and laugh lines on her face she was still stunning in Sal's eyes.

Going to another side she saw a baby with big brown eyes and wisps of brown hair. The baby waved her chubby hairs and giggled as if she saw Sal looking at her.

She kept going to different walls seeing the same girl at different stages in her life, and then finally, she reached the last wall and looked in to finally see her reflection. That's when it hit her, all the faces she saw, was her at different ages of her.

Wanting to see her others self's again she went to the other walls, but she was greeted with her true reflection again. "No!" She said pounding on the glass, but no matter how hard she wished for the images to come back, all that stared back at her was a pale faced 11 year old Sal.

******

"She's been out for a long time." Jed remarked as he preened Gardenia's feathers as the griffin laid next to her Magi. She had been near motionless ever since she was placed with Sal. Jed wasn't sure if it was because she was drained like her master or she was sad her master almost died.

Master Fae stood off to the side and took a bottle from Copper who was bringing her supplies for some sort of poultice for Sal's wounds. "She used nearly all her magical energy, and those stab wounds she received weren't small, they went right through her. It will take some time for her to heal." The old Master replied grinding up some herbs.

Jed went silent and and rested his head on Sal's cot. Looking over and seeing his distraught face, Master Fae grabbed her medicinal healing book. "Jedrek, come here." She ordered. The boy looked up and with a sigh trudged over to the empathic healer and took a seat next to her. "Now, if you plan on staying at the castle to learn more about your magic, than there is no time like the present." She started to explain some rudimentary skills of healing herbs, already knowing he had the basics.

Once the poultice was done, Master Fae ushered the boy out of the room so that she could apply it. Because this required taking off Sal's tunic, Jed left the room. Not sure how long it would take, Jed decided to visit the Prince who had just woken up the day before.

Walking over to the next room in the medical wing of the castle, he peeked inside to see Master Pyles, the King and Queen and some other officials standing by the side of the room discussing something with Alex sitting on the bed with a blank expression on his face. Master Pyles saw Jed in the door and walked over. "I'm surprised to see you away from Salinda." He remarked.

"Master Fae is reapplying her poultice." Jed said not taking his eyes off the Prince. "What's going on in here?"

Master Pyles glanced back at the group of arguing adults. "Something that should not be happening in front of the Prince." He said. "You should talk to Alexander, I think he needs someone like you right now." And with that he went back to the adults in hopes to calm them down.

Jed cautiously walked into the room and over to the cot that held Alex. The Prince finally torn his eyes away from his hands and looked to Jed who had taken a seat by his bed. "How are you feeling, your Highness?" Jed asked after a long pause.