A Crown and A Curse

Chapter 34: And The Warden

Zora

I pushed myself to sit up, though my head was still pounding. I felt like I could collapse again at any time. But that didn't matter, he was here.

"Kian?" 

He had gone to his knees beside me. "Please come back to me," He whispered, looking right through me. Tears pooled in his eyes as his voice cracked, "I'm so afraid. You were the only thing keeping me brave. Please, Zora." 

I reached out to touch his arm, to tell him that he was the bravest person I'd ever met. That he was clever and cunning and so much more than enough. But my hand slipped right through him as if he was a ghost. I turned my head to the other man, who had been watching in disdain from afar. 

"Why can't I touch him?" I asked, glancing back to Kian. He was still looking at the floor where I had been lying. It was as if he was in a different place entirely. 

"The subconscious is an unpredictable thing," The man shrugged, but for the first time, he looked uncertain of what he was saying. Suspicion coursed through me as I glanced back to Kian.

"Zora, you have to snap out of it. Come on, wake up." He reached out to me in desperation, but once again his hands moved right through me. 

I looked back slowly back to the other man, finally understanding, "He's not just part of my subconscious... Kian found me."

The man snorted, his beautifully sharp features drawn in a sneer, "Nonsense, even if he had tried the others would've stopped him from reaching you by now,"  he replied, sounding as if he was trying to reassure himself. I bit my lip. What exactly had I gotten myself into? What had I gotten Kian into? 

"Others?" I asked, finally having the revelation that there was some kind of creature in my head, not a manifestation of my power, "What are you really? I know my subconscious didn't create you. How are you inside my head? How do I wake up?" 

Suddenly the creature's regal features began to shift into something sinister. The facade slipped away until a man no longer stood before me, but a black wisp with glowing red eyes. 

"We tried to make death easy and peaceful. But your friend has ruined any chance of that. Time has run out, I must kill you now." It rasped, it's voice nothing like the velvety one it had spoken with before. Before I could process what had happened, the creature lunged at me, the powerful blow sent me sprawling. My head was spinning. 

"Fight Zora!" Kian's voice called out. I felt a sudden surge of energy come back to me, I wiped the blood from my lip. Had I been bleeding this whole time? Nevermind that, I focused back on the wispy monster in front of me.

I realized that the creature was my power. I hadn't been caging in myself all these years, I had been the prison holding this monster. That was why I couldn't control it. And now I had to fight to put it back in its cage until I could learn to destroy it. 

"I don't know what you are but, if you've been inside me all this time, you already know I won't go down that easily."

The creature grinned, It's black form shifting to show a mouth full of the same glowing red light as its eyes, "You shall break eventually girl, and when you do we will be free." 

I stood before it, weaponless and magicless. But this was my subconscious, my perfect battleground. Here I could create anything I wanted, I willed a dagger into my hand and charged.

The beast cackled, dancing around my strike. "A dagger? You wish to fight me with a simple dagger?"

After a few more minutes of tiring myself out to no avail, I realized that it was right. I couldn't fight this thing, I had to cage it. To trap it back behind my walls, so far behind them that it would never come back forward. 

I pictured Cayra's face, smiling shyly, as I threw up the first wall. I couldn't die, I had to make sure she could open her own apothecary shop one day, somewhere in a quiet city corner, away from the memories of war and death. 

The creature hissed, it's red eyes flaring. "Stop that!" I spun to avoid its strike, which came slower than the first one had. It was growing weaker.

I sighed a breath of relief, my strategy was working. Next, I thought of Tyri, who had already sacrificed so much. She would fight for her freedom until her final breath, I had to live so I could save her when she was trying to save everyone else. I pushed the creature back further. Its dark swirling form seemed to grow more opaque. It lunged at me, screeching. I swiped my dagger out, keeping it at distance. 

You don't know what forces you reckon with, mortal.

Though my hands shook and blood ran down my chin, I forced myself to be brave, I could do this. I could force this thing down so deep inside me that it would never return to the surface. I thought of Areis, grinning from ear to ear as he teased me. I had to live so that he would never have to lose his humor- so that even in the darkest times he could be counted on to represent the brighter side. The monster before me retreated into the dark corner, where I could barely see it. It was losing its form rapidly. I knew it would take one final blow to defeat it. 

I remembered how the cold had reddened Kian's cheeks as we kissed in the snow. How hopeful and naive he had looked hanging from my snare in the woods. How clever and cunning he had been when he outwitted his opposers time and time again. He made me want to live. 

The shadowy demon shrieked as it was brought to nothing more than wisps of smoke. I pulled the wisps towards me and pushed them back, out of my head and deep into the darkness where they had come from. 

      I woke slowly, my eyes fluttering open to the dim light of the cavern. My head was killing me. 

"Zora?" A familiar voice asked from above me. I couldn't make out who it was, but I had a vague memory of Kian crying out my name on his knees. 

I tried to speak, "I...I'm-I'm okay." I was able to croak out. But the words took all my energy. My eyes snapped closed as the pain and fatigue consumed my consciousness again.