The Midnight Flare

Her Story

Blake starts by striking at the soldier's sword hand. He succeeds and knocks the sword out of the soldier's hand. The soldier makes another sword from ice and strikes back. Blake dodges out of the way and sends a fire ball at the soldier. It just dissipates as it touches the soldier's armor. The soldier starts jabbing forward, failing to even touch Blake. Blake jumps to the side, rolls behind the soldier, and takes the helmet off of him. The soldier tries to turn around, but Blake quickly hits him in the back of the head. The soldier falls to the floor. Blake kneels down and checks his pulse.

"Don't worry, he's not dead," He says, setting the helmet down next to the unconscious soldier. "Can I go now?" The queen nods. Blake walks out of the room, closing the doors behind him.

"Well, he would probably make an amazing knight," The queen says to the king. The king nods.

"I'll ask him about it later," The king says. "For now, we have a problem. This castle doesn't exactly have enough rooms for the amount of people we currently have staying here. We made need to make some arrangements." He turns to me. "Specifically, who occupies the guest rooms. Or rather, guest room, as Blake is already in the first one."

"Siphelia can take the other one," I say, shrugging. "I can sleep wherever. It doesn't matter."

The king nods. "Ok then. When she's healed, which should be soon, you can tell her Pyrre." I nod. "But, where will yo-"

"My room!" Demi quickly shouts. She covers her mouth immediately afterwards. Every looks to her, which makes her blush and cover her face.

"No," The king and queen say at the same time. I start to laugh, but cover my mouth. They both look at me.

"What?" I ask them. "What's wrong with it?"

"Everything!" The queen says. I just shrug. I can hear Demi laugh through her hands. The queen sighs. "Fine. But you know what I mean when I say no messing around." I can feel the blush on my face. The king chuckles. So does both Chris and Memphis.

"C'mon Pyrre," Demi says to me, grabbing my right hand. "Let's go before this gets worse."

"Yeah, I can agree to that."

She takes me out of the room just as they start laughing. She takes me down the middle hallway and to the last door on the right. She opens the door and walks in. I walk in and she shuts the door. The room itself is mostly dusty, though still unique to what I've seen before. The walls are painted a deep purple. There's a wooden dresser on the far wall from the door, with another dagger like the one Demi was carrying on top. In the far left corner is a queen sized bed (who named the sizes for beds? 'Cause they did a horrible job), which is colored white. The sheets are the same purple as the walls. In the corner on the far right is a door (probably to a bathroom or wardrobe). The corner on the near left is occupied by a wooden desk. The desk has a lot of random papers scattered across along with a desk lamp, some pens and pencils, and a box. The carpet is basic, light brown carpet, and there's a teal rug in the center of the room.

"Sorry about that," She says as she sits on the bed. She pats the bed next to her, so I sit down. "They've always been like that with all three of us actually. Overprotective, but kinda inappropriate when it comes to that."

"I wish I could sympathize, but I don't really remember much about my parents except that they're dead." I try to smile, but it just doesn't work.

"Well, let's change the subject. What do you want to talk about?" She pulls her dagger out and puts it with the other.

"What did you do when I was 'arrested'?"

She thinks for a second before responding. "I hid. I hid until the sirens disappeared. Then I started walking towards the prison. I don't know why. Something in my mind just compelled me to. I walked until night, then went to the nearest alley and slept. But I didn't dream. It was more of my soul leaving my body temporarily. I was visited by some ghost girl who had the same name as me. She told me the truth about the past. All of it. And then, she woke me up. When I woke up, these daggers were lying next to my head. So I took them and continued walking. Some gang tried to attack me, so I killed them with the daggers. Then I took some of their clothes. That's why they were covered in cuts. Ghost girl didn't visit me again, so I just walked until I got into the prison. Nobody noticed me, so sneaking in was easy. And you know the rest."

"Oh, she only visited you once?" I ask. She nods. "She came to visit me plenty of times. Then again, I slept a lot."

"What'd she say to you?"

"She showed me the past and told me I'm some kind of 'rebellious spirit' and that I needed to fix this hell hole. Otherwise, I, or at the the spirit inside me, will never be free. She also had this window in that place and I saw you through it. It was like a telescope or something. On another note, I recognized those daggers from the past. That's why they confused me."

"I never looked that closely at the little details of the past. I never even realized that."

"So, what's with the drawings and crap on that desk over there?" I ask.

"Oh. I was... drawing weapons."

"Mind if I look at them?"

"Go ahead. Just a warning, they're really bad."

I get up and walk to the desk. As I get a closer look, I see that the drawings are the exact opposite. The details are so amazing, it's as if I could peel them off the pages and use them. Some of the weapons have incredible designs that would work well on the battlefield. There are many different kinds of swords, plenty of daggers, a couple lances, an axe, and even a scythe which, as I look closer, has some kind of hourglass on the blade. Don't know why, but it still looks amazing. I dig through to look at the bottom drawing. It's face down, so I try to flip it up, but Demi grabs my hand.

"Please don't, that's the worst one," She says.

"Oh come on, the rest are all so amazing!" I say to her. "What's wrong with this one?"

"I just don't want you to see it."

I shrug. "Ok. Still, these drawings are amazing. How are they at all bad?"

"Because... Oh, I don't know! I just feel embarrassed to see someone else look at them."

"What's there to be embarrassed about? These are so detailed and beautiful. I don't know a single person who wouldn't say these look amazing."

She starts blushing. "Well, thank you."

"Y'know, I could actually use some of these."

"Wait, really?" She asks in an ecstatic voice.

"Yeah, watch." I pick up one of the short sword drawings. The guard is designed to look like flames growing off of it. The pommel looks like a group of icicles. The blade and hilt are just what you'd expect from a short sword. I create an exact replica from ice and light the guard on fire. Demi's face is one of pure joy.

"That's amazing!" She says.

"It's because it's an exact replica of your design," I tell her. She blushes. "Why haven't you told anyone about these?"

"I didn't think they would appreciate it," She says, looking down.

"It doesn't matter if they appreciate it or not. Besides, if they can't see the beauty of it, then shame on them. Now, wanna go test some of these out?" She nods with a huge smile on her face.

"Should we take these with us?" She says pointing to the many drawings.

"Nope," I say.

"What? Why?"

"I've got photographic memory. I've already memorized every picture."

"Well ok then. Let's go spar then."