Chapter 29:
Never Yours
The sky paints the second courtyard red. My body is distant. I’m walking, but my legs feel like they aren’t my own. My connection forms and breaks with different people as I pass through the castle. Crossbowmen line the walls, but they’re too busy battling the siege outside to notice my return.
I arrive back in the first courtyard. A crowd of Mephian soldiers hold the outer wooden gate shut. A loud rhythmic banging emanates from the other side as the Versillians try to break in.
The soldiers begin to take notice of me, pointing and calling to one another. “Her eyes!” one shouts.
I approach the gate. My connection extends to every one of them.
They scatter left and right, abandoning their shields and spears. The gate is torn open and Versillian soldiers storm inside, all heading for me. I don’t stop walking.
The front man raises his axe to strike. I vowed to never connect to anyone after Mehlia’s death, but now my connection reaches far and wide regardless of what I do. There’s a keen awareness that accompanies my connection, a fine control I’ve never held before. I don’t need to touch this man’s heart to protect my own. At my will, his arms tire, and the weapon falls from his hands. I pass right by him. He watches in shock.
The men stream into the castle, rushing past my left and right. Another swings at me, but his hands tire, and his sword goes flying to the cobblestone floor. I don’t stop. A brutish man charges with the intent to tackle, and I sense a second man launching a dagger at my back. The dagger slips from his exhausted fingers, and the legs of the brutish one grow fatigued. I step aside, and they crash into each other.
I exit the castle and cross the narrow bridge. My connection to Trevus weakens as the distance between us grows, and soon it’s completely gone. Hundreds of men clash around the castle. Spears clank off armor, swords bang against shields, and their victims cry out in anguish.
I reach the end of the bridge. A bow and arrow aims at my heart, though I don’t know from where. The bowman’s arm tires at my will, and the arrow lands by my feet. I spot his figure hidden in the bushes. He turns and flees.
The column of black smoke invites me closer. It’s just behind the castle to the left, through the heart of the fray. I embrace the smoke’s pull, letting it seep into every corner of my mind as I try to forget what I’ve done.
I move through the Versillian backlines with the column as my beacon. Some men distance themselves while others are too occupied firing arrows to realize I’m not one of them.
“’Tis our witch!” a familiar voice shouts. My eyes soon find him – Kerius, the guard from Antiock who took every opportunity to beat me with a staff. His nicer companion, Oscus, stands beside him. They’re both armed with swords, and they block my path.
I continue towards them.
Their witch
– a title I once hated. Now, their words seem meaningless, hollow. I don’t care what they think. The only person whose opinion mattered now loathes me.
Two tall spearmen join them. “End her!” Kerius shouts. The four men charge, first the spearmen, followed by Kerius and Oscus. They still believe they hold authority.
Dry leaves crunch under my boots, a sound I’ve become acquainted to over the last two weeks. I recall walking behind Trevus through the forest, and how he’d turned to check I was keeping up, but never tried to hurry me along. He was concerned for my wellbeing. That was before he knew my horrible deed.
The pointed tips of the soldier’s halberds race towards my stomach. I let their legs tire, and they’re both thrown off balance. The halberds split off on either side, and the spearmen fall to the ground.
Kerius and Oscus scramble to stop. Their eyes are wide with fright.
“I’m not yours.” They pushed me around for years, and they’re still under the impression that I’m at their mercy. Now I’m connected to both of them, and I’m marching forward. They are no barrier. “I was
never
yours.”
Kerius drops his sword and takes off. Oscus stills like a board, his blade pointed down, his fingers hanging on only out of habit.
I pass him by. Our shoulders brush. I don’t care. I’m connected to so many people, but not Trevus. I miss his warmth.
A long line of spearmen forms the Versillian front. They’re packed close together, facing their enemy with their backs to me. I don’t stop. The Versillian men in my path tire and their bodies grow weary. The frontline parts as the exhausted men fallback. I step into the void they left, catching the attention of the opposite Mephian soldiers.
A Versillian swings an axe at my back, but his fingers tire and the weapon hits the dirt.
The Mephian spearmen fight in unison. At the same moment, they draw back their spears and strike the entire Versillian line. Every pointed halberd hurling forward at the same time makes them difficult to dodge, and many Versillian men fall. The Mephian soldiers strike again with even more strength, and the simultaneous crash of metal on metal is deafening. Their movements are inhumanly rigid, like they’re all one organism.
I will the Mephian soldiers blocking my path to tire, but they seem unaffected. I move in closer. Two Versillians prepare to hurl spears at my back, but their legs fatigue and they lose their balance. Trevus never used a spear. He wasn’t afraid to get close.
The stubborn Mephian soldiers stand frozen in place with their weapons in hand. I will their arms to tire, to drop their spears, and for their legs to give out from exhaustion. The weapons slip from their fingers, and they struggle to keep their balance, but they don’t retreat like sane men would. They stay in position, though they have fallen out of lockstep with the others. Connecting to these soldiers feels different. Their muscles are tense and rigid. Peering deeper into their body’s feelings, a second presence becomes apparent. Someone else is connected to these men – someone like me.
All at once as if commanded, the Mephian men part ahead of me. They drag their bodies on tired feet, some to the left and others right.
Beyond the soldiers stands a man with curly black hair in purple and maroon robes. His face is painted like mine, and his eyes have inky shadows. He mimes a fight with an invisible enemy, and the soldier’s bodies move with his. He’s one of the Six, the rulers of Mephia, and his gaze is on me.
I’m dressed like him, and I can connect like him, but I wish more than anything that I couldn’t. I wish I had been born normal. I wish I hadn’t taken Mehlia’s life. I’d give anything to undo it.
I step through the Mephian line. The source of the column of smoke is revealed – a bonfire. At the heart of the fire is a round white stone glowing with pink flame. They’re burning rahlite. My hands prickle upon laying eyes on it, and my body yearns to get closer.
Two Mephian soldiers lunge at me, but I will their legs to tire beneath them. They fall like the others. The sorcerer shouts a command to the soldiers behind him. They scramble and rush off out of sight.
I approach the fire and the curly black-haired sorcerer before it. Our connection is far stronger than I’ve felt with anyone else. He commands the bodies of his soldiers, but he’s yet to try commanding mine. Maybe he’s worried I’ll retaliate.
His attention is split between the battle and me, but he doesn’t move from his spot. “Go no further!” he shouts.
His words don’t matter. The fire is just yards away now. My hands feel like they’re vibrating. I pass him.
“Girl, you’re endangering yourself,” he says.
What does it matter? The fire’s calling is the only thing that rings louder than my guilt. I reach out to the pink flame.
A feminine hand catches mine. I pause. My eyes follow the hand to a small frame only an inch taller than me. She’s a brunette woman dressed in a gadin identical to my own. Her face is painted, and her eyes have the same shadow from my own reflection. She’s older than me, around thirty, and she wears a warm smile.
Her connection flows into me, and all my muscles relax. My screaming guilt doesn’t cease its torment, but the soreness in my shoulders from Reger’s rough men disappears. My body feels like I’ve just woken up from a long rest in a warm feather bed.
Her hands guide mine away from the fire. “It would kill you,” she says. I let her lead me deeper into their backlines and away from the fighting.
It’s odd to see a small woman like her on a battlefield filled with burley men. Is this how they see me, how Trevus saw me? My eyes don’t leave her features, and I have little regard for our path. The tingling in my hands fades as our distance from the fire grows.
“Don’t fear,” she says. “It’s the burning rahlite that allows you to peer into so many minds.”
“Who are you?” I ask.
She pauses, her eyes traversing my frame before settling on mine. “I’m Ametha, the Fifth of Six.”
Author’s Note:
Ten years ago, Jade vowed to never use her connection on people after accidentally taking Mehlia’s life. Today she broke that vow to save Mehlia’s son. What do you think of everything – all the reveals and changes?
Hi momy
While I feel bad for Jade, I can’t help but to sympathize with Trevus more. First, his emotions were rejected, then he found out that his mother is dead, AND the person who killed her is the girl he loves. This is just too much. Poor man 😔
THANK YOU!!
treats and jade belong together. that’s it,😭
But ,, she left him by himself. what if they attacked him again 😧
@rileysing I meant if the mephians woke up or they overpowered the versilians and then… yeah
WOW
Oh hey! we were just impersonating you!
Just walk past them lol
Girl who wishes for no death is not caring for the lives lost?
You continue to fill your own head with self pitying corruption
Property and power, not a person
You just abandoned Trevus with tired legs, and all those unconscious guards… killer queen Jade
How does she intend on getting out of this?
OH HEY
how many chapters are there going to be in total??
I LOVE YOU
I LOVE this story! Love love love love love. ❤️
I want Trevus and Jade to be happy and together🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺
😲🫣
😌
She struggled so much😔
Ooohhhhhh
🥺🥺🥺🥺
Trevus😭😭
Although these two chapters were amazing, I’m very worried about Trevus
QUEEN JADE
I love it! it was such a cool and intense scene…
The one she was impersonating lol
Oh I see, the magic enhanced too much in her body
How so?
And that’s why she can use her powers despite not touching anyone, burning the stone allows those with powers to get a pwerup essentially
Though it’s not selective so if someone has the power it effects them too regardless of allegiance
Jeepers, it would be scary enough having your body controlled by one sorceress but to have another trying to control you too…
THANK YOU