Wake of Darkness [1]

Chapter Five

♕ Flicker of Night ♕

There was not a single drop of light anywhere. Not since they'd cross over the border from Goldcrest. He'd been saving his magic for a couple of days, knowing once he'd walked through it there was no guarantee he'd get to walk under the sun and use magic at his will.

He had not known where Taj was, but he knew the Blackstone guard hadn't known either by the taunting look of his eyes. It didn't occur to Asher, until he'd notice the way he'd wrapped his hands around his neck without enough strength to actually kill him, that the guard had only intended to keep him distracted.

So, he'd barely use a spark of light to get him away long enough to get out of his grasp. He knew it wasn't smart, using sun magic so far away from any place with decent sunlight was gambling with faith, but if the guard had only been trying to delay him, that meant the queen was probably hiding somewhere around the woods.

Wood Sorrow was much more silent than he had expected. Not even the wind made a sound as it blew between the trees. He had expected a lot of things that hadn't quite turned out that way tonight. The daughter of shadows being at the top of the list. She had come walking with a small tiara on top of her head, the clicking sound of her heels pressing against the marble floor in a constant rhythm, but none of that could've prepared him for her hair. White as snow.

In other circumstances, he would have felt sorry for her, but Asher knew he was staring at death disguised as an angel. Offspring of night and shadow they called her. Asher knew the second she'd walked into the throne room that all of the stories he'd heard as a child, about the daughter of two blessed, cursed in the night, all had been a way to hide the fact that the princess had the blood of sunlight in her veins. The mere blood that'd destroyed her family's reign.

He would have laughed if his father hadn't almost lost his mind, once he realized what it meant. After all, his whole war had come out of a desire of having a sun whisperer ruling the cities of sunlight. Why the queen had not yet used that to her advantage remained a mystery to him.

Even then, Asher couldn't help but think she looked rather normal, afraid even.

His eyes trailed up to the moon involuntarily. It was rare when he got to see such a clear moon, specially a crescent one. Somehow, wondering alone this late at night he couldn't help but lean into the moon's glimmer for reassurance. Studying the way its light resembled the sun's, and how maybe it wasn't so different after all.

Asher remained calm as he looked at the trees, the way they intertwined with each other at the top, barely allowing any sight of the sky to shine through them.

"Don't you wanna point me in the right direction?" He asked, smiling.

Asher sighed, parting his eyes from the trees, and looking around, wondering which way to go. Then he saw it, from the corner of his eye, the branches of one of the trees moving back to the direction he'd just come from. Asher frowned, rubbing his eyes, as the branches unraveled into the lake's direction.

He took a step forward, the faint sound of yelling reaching his ears.

"Okay then" He said, walking back to the lake, fighting to keep his body warm as the cold increased around him.

A chill traveled down his spine, but Asher continued moving forward consciously more careful than he'd previously been.

Finally, he stopped, the soft breeze of water brushing against his skin. At first, his eyes noticed the lake and nothing more. But as he stared down, he noticed the metal of his sword beneath his feet, the gold of the pommel covered in mud.