Chapter Ten: Arrangements and Engagements
By: nike13

   Waren had been kept out of Teresa’s room ever since David awoke so he could relax, but the peace simply gave him more things to worry about. Not only had another day passed without much improvement in Teresa’s condition, but there was also a question of how she got hurt in the first place. Since the would-be assassin was still being held at bay when they had arrived, that left Lorid, and Waren knew it wasn’t his style to wound Teresa. No, he was sure that if Lorid meant Teresa harm, she would be dead. These and several other things continued to nag at him and since David had basically shut him out, he felt totally alone.

   Today, he wandered around aimlessly in a fog, visiting the lush gardens that the three had been to before the hunt, the faint scent of the blossoms playing with his senses as he walked to the bench in the center. He sat there, totally unaware of the whispers of passing servants as they continued with their chores. He didn’t care what they were saying; he simply stayed where he was until the sun began to set. Watching the sky change the colors of fire, the clouds highlighting the burning heavens. We never have sunsets like this, he thought wistfully, I just wish there was some way we could stop that war from happening without destroying everything that humanity has accomplished afterwards. There must be some other way for humanity to survive, some other way we can survive without destroying others.

   "I’ll probably have to go back soon," Waren sighed aloud, "I’ll need to make arrangements soon, I just hope we can all go back. The others seem to be happy here, and it is nice to not have to think through protocols like I have to back home," he smiled to himself, remembering the many training sessions he was forced to attend in order to continue as prince after his father died. "I wonder if we could come back here, when the problems have passed."

   He stayed there, sitting amongst the many flowers and trees until the sun had fallen below the horizon and the air chilled before he went back to his room, skipping dinner. His chambers had been cleaned while he was gone. He walked across the dark room to the lamp on the small desk and lit it with the matches next to it and turned around, taking in the simplicity of the room with some comfort.

   It was a small, rectangular room, with a slit in the far wall for a window and a large bed draped with fine fabrics for the cold nights. There was a screen on the other side of the bed that was used to change behind and a small table that held a basin to use to wash up with. Most of the stone floor was covered with a large, red and gold rug. There was a rather large armoire to his right, made of a dark wood with bronze handles. He sat at his desk, writing (with the quill, ink, and paper provided on the desk) a list of the events that took place since he and his companions had reached the castle, just in case something else happened, like he was told to do. He would later put the letter inside a small compartment to be found in the future, if they didn’t return.

   He had been in his room for about an hour when someone knocked on his chamber doors. Once Waren granted access, a very flustered archer stormed into the room and began demanding to know what had really happened in the forest.

   "Is it true you were attacked by devils and that we hold one in the dungeons? I heard tell from the nobles before they left that his highness was killed and one even suggested that the king is not really the king but some sort of demon in disguise," Marcus continued on, telling Waren of all the rumors that have begun to spread, each more bizarre than the last, but some surprisingly accurate, that is if they removed the wings and change the devil to a mad scientist from the future. Once Marcus stopped, Waren let a small smile creep upon his face and looked directly into the archer’s keen eyes, sending a swift chill down his spine. When Waren spoke, Marcus could’ve sworn he had not heard with his ears, but they came to him as if from a dream.

   "What do you think happened?" Waren whispered, peering stealthily into the man’s mind to see just what he had seen from the castle, replaying that memory for Waren to see.

   Waren saw through Marcus’s eyes, the horses leave the castle gates towards the lush, green forest to the west of his guard tower. Marcus remembered looking over the forest and seeing a large flock of birds leaving the middle of the woods and wondering how the party could’ve possibly gotten that far in so short a time, but Waren’s mind caught what Marcus had missed, a soft glow had appeared in that area right before the birds had scattered, much like the light Waren had traveled in to collect David and Teresa. It must’ve been Lorid coming to this time, so we had actually arrived a few days before the distortion, well at least we know that much, Waren thought and then continued on until he saw a bright white light spread through the trees, that would be David. As the beam slowly faded, another light, this time bright green, gleamed from the place where Lorid had appeared. This pale green light flashed only briefly and as Waren watched, turned blood red. FIRE?! Waren’s mind exclaimed in surprise, causing Marcus to shrink back suddenly, both physically and mentally, breaking the connection between them.

   Marcus rushed backwards, confused and frightened by what he had just seen. "What did you do?!" he demanded after he gained some of his composure. Waren was still recovering from the sudden separation. He stood where he was, next to the large wooden door, holding his temples and looking through sore eyes at the man before him.

   "I’m sorry," Waren muttered, his mind reeling with unknown, confused images. "I didn’t mean any harm."

   "What are you? What did you do to me?" Marcus demanded again, holding his own head to stop the throbbing he felt behind his eyes.

   "I just needed to know what you saw before we got back from the hunt."

   "You are a demon, you and that woman Teresa."

   "Actually, no we’re not. I know this sounds strange and I doubt I can clarify things but I’m trying to help."

   "Help whom?" Marcus asked suspiciously as he began to watch Waren and ignore the pain in his head, ready for an attack of any kind.

   "Help you! Everyone! I’m here to stop the change," Waren yelled, loosing his calm. "If I don’t find out what happened to Teresa, the same thing could happen to me and David. I don’t think you want to see him hurt now do you?"

   "No, I pledged my life to protect him," Marcus said warily, "but I still don’t know what you mean, what change are you afraid of?"

   "I don’t know," Waren confessed, "the king knows all about this. He was injured in the forest but I can guarantee that he is the real king."

   "And how can I believe you?"

   David continued to wait in Teresa's room, trying to stay calm as the girl battled her demons. She had begun to dream again in the middle of the night, yelling out for help. Although that subsided quickly and it was now well past noon, David refused to allow himself to sleep until she woke up. He watched in silence as Teresa's face contorted with silent pain and started to thrash about, as if someone was holding her down. She let out a weak gasp before her struggling ceased.

   "...help me..." she whispered.

   "I wish I could, Teresa," David whispered back, rubbing her hair gently with one hand while the other grasped her hand, "but you are the only one who can defeat your demons."

   "...make it stop..."

   "I can't," David said softly.

   "...David..." she struggled out, startling him.

   Can she hear me? he wondered Is she somehow conscious?

   "...it hurts...I can't watch again..."

   "Watch what? Teresa, you have to wake up."

   "David," she muttered again, slightly louder than before, her mind leaving its drug-like state just enough for her to realize she wasn't imagining David's voice at all, that she really wasn't alone. But when she tried to fight, tried to make it all stop, tried to wake up, all she felt was pain. "I can't," she whimpered, her body going slightly limp as she let the fog enter her mind again.

   "Stop it! Fight, damn it!"

   "...I can't..." Teresa whispered, fog clouding her thoughts.

   "Don't give up!"

   "...I'm...not...giving...up..." she argued quietly. David was taken aback, he watched as her face changed slightly, from the defeat he had seen to a quiet defiance. So you still have some fight in you after all, he let a small grin grace his features, Thank God you're so stubborn. Now to make you fight back! With a new plan formed, he jumped into action.

   "Fine!" he grunted at Teresa's sleeping form, "Give up! That'll just prove that I was right all along. You're just a pathetic, weak, good-for-nothing, commoner."

   "I am...not weak," she struggled out, her defiance growing.

   "Of course you are," David yelled back as his smile grew. "A few scratches and you just die on me?! That is weak, even for a girl."

   "...die?...on you?...I won't...die," her face skewed in the effort it took to speak.

   "Why don't you tell that to my face then?"

   "...I...can't..."

   "Why?" he demanded.

   "...because...I was wrong..."

   "Take this to the Duke," King Charles V ordered as he handed over a sealed letter to a messenger, "and be sure to hurry. I plan to make the announcement as soon as things settle down."

   The young man bowed deeply before retreating out of the hall to deliver the message.

   "Are you sure about this, your highness?" an advisor asked once the messenger left. During the few days after David's recovery, the King had busied himself putting together plans of what to do if he did die, most plans being against the many advisors' suggestions. Today, his highness had decided to send out a notice to the father of the girl Prince David had been betrothed to since birth, making every advisor extremely nervous as to what the message had been about and exactly what the king had in store for them. Now they all stood around the throne the King occupied, each dressed in their finest attire, five men in all.

   "Of course I'm sure," the King bellowed, making the group of advisors cower slightly. "I almost died out there and if I had one of you," he waved his large hand around the hall to indicate the many advisors that stood around him, "would have taken control and I think that David is more than ready to be permitted kingship upon my demise."

   "But your highness, he has yet to become of age," one advisor spoke quietly, hoping not to enrage the strong king.

   "He is not even married," another chimed in and the others began to nod in agreement.

   "Ah, but he will be," the king said smugly.

   "But, sire," the first man spoke again, "you just sent out an engagement cancellation to Baron Dussert. How is the prince to be married if you cancelled his engagement?"

   "I cancelled his engagement to Lady Jeanne, do you think I would do that if I hadn't already chosen another bride for my son?"

   "But who?" the man urged, gaining a mumble from the others gathered.

   "You shall have to wait and see."

   "This is madness," Marcus muttered as he sat down on Waren's bed. Waren had just told Marcus everything he could, cursing himself and swearing that if this changed anything in the future, he would work with Lorid willingly rather than face what his home would be like, changed. "How can you expect me to believe this?" Marcus asked after an awkward silence.

   "Well," Waren started reluctantly, "if I was going to lie to you, don’t you think I would’ve thought something up that was a little more normal?"

   "I suppose I should agree with you on that," the archer admitted, and then turned to face Waren directly, "So what really happened to the King, Prince David, and Lady Teresa? Were you really attacked by a demon or was it this Lorid person?"

   "Lorid, although I suppose you could consider him a demon," Waren joked, "As for what happened? The man who is being held in the dungeons shot the king; David healed the king, which wore him down to the point of exhaustion; and I still have no idea what happened to Teresa." Waren sighed and waited while Marcus digested what he had just heard.

   "So what you did," Marcus began, trying to gather his racing thoughts, "what you did to me, did that help any?"

   "Actually, it just confused me even more," Waren said, and then walked over and sat next to the older man; sighing heavily, somehow pleased to be able to finally speak his mind to someone, even if it was a seventeenth century archer. "From what you saw, Lorid had arrived right before all the problems, then there was the white light which signaled when David healed the king. That green light that followed was from Teresa when she went after the assassin, but the red means that Teresa used her fire powers."

   "How is that odd compared to everything else?"

   "I don’t remember seeing any scorch marks in the clearing."

   "Could the light have meant something else?" Marcus suggested, "Maybe there was someone else with a power as well or perhaps it was this Lorid devil."

   "Or," Waren said gravely, "Maybe I was too concerned about Teresa that I simply didn’t see anything."

   "Well, the only way to be certain is to go back there and look," Marcus said as if it were the only obvious solution and then stood and began to walk to the door. He stopped when he realized Waren was only staring at him. "Aren’t you coming? I doubt I’d know what to look for alone."

   Waren just watched Marcus for a few more seconds before following after him, Maybe I should’ve told him about all this before, he seems to be taking this all very well.

   The two left immediately towards the forest, ignoring the demands of the stable workers. They rode quickly and in silence towards the center of the woods, Waren noticing the dramatic change in the forest as they went. It all seems back to normal, everything’s so alive now. And it’s not nearly as dark as it was before.

   Once they reached the clearing where Waren had found Teresa and the assassin, the two men tied their horses’ rains to a nearby branch and proceeded to the center on foot. At first glance, nothing had changed; there were two rings of dead thorn branches on the ground and a bit to their left was where Teresa had been, the ground slightly off-color from the dried blood that had seeped into the grass. At the sight of the rust colored grass, Waren felt a familiar pang of guilt, the same feeling he had been grappling with since they had seen her there, several days before. He walked slowly, almost automatically to the dark patch, vaguely noticing Marcus move towards the opposite end of the field, near one of the thorn rings. The young leader knelt down and slowly brought his hand to touch the darkened foliage, the image of his fallen comrade as clear to him as if she were still laying there, blood seeping out of unseen wounds into the once crisp green grass. Then Waren realized something both horrible and terrifying, he wasn’t remembering Teresa like that, but actually seeing her.

   "Prince Waren?" Marcus called out to him, barely audible compared to the thundering of his heart. He couldn’t move, he was paralyzed as the image before him began to move.

Go to Chapter Eleven
Go Back to Chapter Nine
Back to Chapters List
Back to Completed Stories List
Go To nike13's Author Page