The Shadow Rule

Chapter 1 - The Beginning

     She was drowning. Again. Her secrets, heavy and impressing, were dragging her down, down, down into the depths, and all Relyne could do was watch helplessly as her fears dragged her away from the light.
     Relyne had been caught. She had taken such measures, such precautions, that she had thought, rather arrogantly, that she couldn't be caught. But she had. And now she was paying the price for her arrogance. The light was fading by the second, causing Relyne to stare at it hazily, her lungs constricting.
     Light-headed, she released her last bubble of air mistakenly and watched in horror as the light, silvery orb floated upwards, heading where she couldn't-the light. Because she was anything but pure. And she didn't belong anywhere where the light was. The faint glow of the surface faded out completely and Relyne closed her eyes with a sinking-yet oddly buoyant-finality, her blue lips curving up in her last smile.

     She had been in an entirely different place, just a few years ago. Silk swished softly against her eight-year old face as she stumbled through the drying laundry, giggling to herself as a teasing voice spread throughout the courtyard.
     "Now where is our little troublemaker? I could have sworn I saw her heading over here." Stifling her giggles, Relyne watched her sister stalk over from behind a crimson silk sheet. Despite her mock-threatening words, Alessandria had a wide smile on her face as she abruptly drew back a stretch of yellow fabric to her right. Her smile turned impossibly wider when she heard a muffled squeal come to her left, whipping her head around in dramatic fashion. "Oh? Did I hear a little piggy over here?"
     Holding her breath, Relyne crept behind Alessandria, pouncing on her back at the first chance she got. Shrieking, Alessandria shook her off, ending with a laughing eight-year old on her back.

     "Oh, you little trickster. If I catch you again, expect to be doing hemming for three hours tonight!" Gaping in horror, Relyne ran as fast as she could to the door of their house; she hated hemming and frankly found it pointless in her situation, given that her hemming was - as very often referred to by her family - atrocious. She was snatched up on her way, however, by her maid, who looked perplexed at the excess dirt on her sleeves and hem.

      "Little Missus, you really shouldn't be dirtying your sleeves like that; the laundrymen are having a hard enough time as it is keeping up with the amount of laundry you sent out, especially with your recent growth spurts." The maid scolded, ensuring Relyne looked properly abashed before letting her go.
      "Sorry, Martha!" Relyne yelled as she flitted to her room, launching herself on the bed. She took care to not let her dirtied sleeves touch the bedsheets, heeding her maid's words.

       Looking out the window, she was startled to see what seemed like a cloud of dust approaching her mansion. From the cloud emerged a few distinct figures, riding horses and decked out in suits of armor. All bearing the royal crest. Scrambling off her perch, Relyne rushed downstairs to inform someone, only to find her parents already downstairs, staring at the approaching riders with pinched, grim faces. Expectant faces. Uneasy, Relyne tugged on her mother's hem, only for her to spare her a cursory glance before gesturing for the maid. Martha gently pried Relyne's fingers off of the Lady's hem, leading her into a smaller alcove above the foyer so that she could see what was happening.

     Three sharp raps on the door. The entire atmosphere of the house stilled, suffocating the inhabitants inside. As usual, the butler opened the door, but what was not usual was the blade that pierced his torso, staining the pristine white shirt with crimson. Relyne gasped, hands flying to her mouth as Martha failed to shield her in time, she too frozen in horror.
The man behind the first, emblazoned in several more medals, clapped a hand on the first man's shoulder.
     "Easy, John. There doesn't need to be any more bloodshed," here he looked at Relyne's parents. "Given that everyone cooperates." He nodded towards the silent duo, sweeping into a respectful bow.
     "The honorable Mister and Missus Armidi. I trust you are aware of the reason we are here?" Looking up, his gaze was steely and indicated he had full awareness of what they did or did not know. Relyne's mother gave a stiff nod, bowing away to reveal Alessandria behind her. "Ah, excellent. Please, Lady Alessandria." He swept his arm towards the door, where his guards opened an elaborately-shaped carriage. Alessandria looked like she was making a valiant effort not to cry, her chin wobbling as she gave her mother a hug, then her father. Finally, with reddened eyes, she glanced at where Relyne was hiding, disguised as a cursory glance around the house.
     When she stepped out, her hair seemed to glow, her long blond hair catching the strong mid-day sunlight. The door was swung shut, and suddenly everything was moving. Martha's ashen face, telling her that they had to "go, go, go!". Her parents, watching her get ushered out the back door with sad smiles on their faces. They burst out into the courtyard, where Relyne was pulled along by Martha towards the woods behind their house. Stumbling at the fast pace, Relyne kept looking behind her at her house, which was being surrounded with guards, who seemed to be golden silhouettes at this distance. One of the guards eventually noticed the fleeing figures, however, shouts arising as some of them mounted their horses, heading towards them. Martha pursed her lips, turning to grip Relyne by the shoulders.
     "Listen to me, love. I'm gonna need you to run towards the forest, then go as far as you can, okay? I'm going to be in the forest too, but I'm going to be going a different way. I'll see you at the end, yeah?" Relyne nodded, too frightened to argue. Martha's face softened in one of her rare smiles, and she pulled Relyne into a hug before pushing her towards the forest. Relyne raced towards the tree cover, seeing Martha running another way out of the corner of her eye. The riders split up, half of them peeling away towards Martha.
     Relyne plunged into a sea of green, rushing through ferns up to her shoulder and twisting around tree trunks that would comfortably be twice her entire height in width. She heard the rustling of foliage behind her and ran faster, only halting once she realized that she was nearing the end of the forest. Startled into action by the neigh of a horse not far behind, she rushed out onto the plateau and immediately regretted it as she realized that she was now at the cliffs that her town was so known for.
     The general on his horse stalked out onto the plateau, followed by three of his soldiers. Gulping,  Relyne glanced over her shoulder at the giant drop behind her. Realizing the precarious situation she was in, she grabbed a rock from next to her and held it out threateningly, belatedly realizing that she probably didn't present much of a threat at all. The soldiers advanced, forcing her to retreat until the very edge of the cliff.

     "Sir! We found the maid." Another group of soldiers trotted up on their horses, Martha forced to walk between them at swordpoint. Her angry expression quickly morphed into one of terror as she spotted Relyne, standing at the edge of the cliff. "NO!" Following the mighty exclamation, Martha threw herself out of her bonds and fought to get to Relyne, held back by three soldiers.           "Martha!" cried Relyne, her tinny voice almost lost in the noise of the armor clanking and horses neighing. Martha's struggles increased, until the general clearly decided that he had had enough. He pulled out his blade. 
      Swoosh. The blade sank deep into Martha's chest, rivulets of blood spurting out as he withdrew his blade. Relyne cried out, eyes wide in shock as she watched Martha gradually fall to the ground, clutching her chest. She whipped her head back around to face the general, and that's when she saw it.
     A trail of smoke, rising above the treetops. Exactly where her house would be.
     "No." she muttered, and the general glanced behind him before shaking his head.
     "I'm afraid so."
     "No, no, no." Relyne wobbled, the shock belatedly sinking into her. Her knees buckled, and she felt herself tip backwards, only to be met with thin air. She plummeted towards the bottom, the image of the general's face and his blade still dripping with blood burned in her mind.
     "Should we send men to search for her, sir?" A soldier asked, and the general glanced at the rapids below him and shook his head.
     "She either died from the impact of the fall or will be cut to ribbons on the rocks. We'll retreat for now." The group returned to the burning house, beginning to move towards the home of the Royal Family, Amaranth Castle. Alessandria stared out the window of the carriage, tears slipping down her face as she watched her home burn to the ground. 

     It was cold. When she had plunged into the freezing depths of the river, Relyne had immediately felt a shiver go up her spine as she was immersed into this liquid ice. Flailing, she somehow managed to surface, gasping in air and choking on water as the currents drew her down again. It was through pure luck that she crashed into a branch, her hands desperately clawing around it as her arms locked into a death grip on the improvised floatation device. However, her plan was foiled when the branch came to an abrupt stop, stuck on the rocks, and the current ripped her away and under. Relyne felt her head hit something hard, and her consciousness gave out, making way to nothing but darkness.