When Magic Speaks - NaNoWriMo 2020✔️

13

Time was deceiving. It had the capability to slow and race at any given moment. In fact, it seemed to pick and choose which moments would linger and which would seem to last forever. Time was truly magical. 

In this moment, Wiss had zero time to react. No time to process, to watch, to stammer a sound. All she could do was squint her eyes shut and hope that it wasn't true. Wiss wasn't one to pray but she did now. Please don't make this be true, please make this be a dream. Her ears continued to ring as the darkness enveloped her. And yet, Wiss still felt strong bursts of air shooting at her, brushing at her hair. The sensation was frightening, causing her to flinch and shrink. She had to open her eyes, she just had to. And as the hesitant Quilm opened her eyes, she saw him...and she couldn't believe it. Where Kitt had once been was now a shadowy, misty figure, adorned in a (now bullet-hole ridden) long black cloak and enormous (also hole-filled) black wings, its feathers detaching and drifting to the floor around her. The Knightengale.

Wiss felt numb. From her voice, to her joints to her shattering heart, she couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She couldn't breathe. And as he slowly turned his head, fog brushing off of him like flakes of snow, she met his glowing gaze. Her heart dropped.

"Kitt," she whispered, her voice trailing off. In a flash, this magical form brushed her into his arms and catapulted right up through the tent into the chilly night air. The sudden movement made Wiss gasp for her own breath. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around him although, she didn't feel anything when she did. In fact, Wiss was able to brush her hand right through his head, like a cloud. Wiss could practically feel the colour drain from her face as her vision began to blur. And then...she felt an odd warmth growing stronger in her left foot. The Knightengale err, Kitt, noticed her unease and followed her gaze to her foot. Despite his facial features fading in and out by the fog surrounding him, there was visible shock in his eyes and he quickly made a safe landing into the open meadow. 

He held her tight as they touched down, his battered wings protecting her from the snow. As Wiss pushed from his arms and sat back, she finally took this moment to look at him. This hated, haunted, eerie version of him. While his face and appearance overall seemed to have been overshadowed by this otherworldly form, his eyes stayed the same. They may have glowed now, but they were Kitt's eyes. He was insistent on tending to her oozing foot but as Wiss kept his gaze, he kept hers. Wiss could feel tears trickling from her eyes as her lips parted. She wanted to say something...but couldn't. She almost couldn't see through the tears now as she looked him up and down. Wiss could barely tell where his arms and legs were. 

"This was your secret," she whispered, barely audible. "This is what you didn't want to tell me."

"I couldn't," he whispered back. "I couldn't." His voice sounded altered, almost like an echo, but it was still his. Wiss had expected him to apologize, he always did. But now that all cards were out on the table...he had nothing else to hide. 

"How long...how long have you..."

The Knightengale paused as he looked back at her, the glow of his eyes weakening. "Always. Forever."

Wiss breathed from her mouth, her breaths soft but shaky. There was so much she wanted to say, to yell at him for. "That day in the village, in the alleyway...you could've told me it was you."

He lowered his head as his shadowy form reached out for her leg. She flinched at first but eventually allowed it as her foot disappeared under his cloudy limb. Wiss couldn't even tell that she was bleeding or that something was lodged in the ball of her foot. She couldn't feel...anything.

"I didn't speak because I knew it would only cause you further trouble. I was hoping my eyes would've given it away..."

"Kitt," she gasped sharply. "You're supposed to be the enemy! You--" Finally, Wiss felt that familiar warmth again. Tucked back inside her pocket was the glowing dagger, even warmer now than it was before. The tears continued to stream as The Knightengale released her foot and Wiss rose to her feet, gripping the dagger tightly...aiming the blade directly at his face. She trembled, not from the cold, but with anger and fear. The weapon rattled between her fingers, her vision once again clouded. "I'm supposed to hate you!!! I'm supposed to be on their side!! You're supposed to be the enemy!"