Bliath: Shattered

by Theresa Caligiuri

  “I think so, so what are these feels you’re feeling, sometimes you seem like I am a thorn in your side and others like I don’t know, and that confuses me?” Fera’s cheeks were also pink

  Vance apprehensively reached over and toughed Fera’s face very lightly, they both in took a quick breath as a slight hum of energy formed where their skin met. “Fera, I, I know you, everything in me knows you, and craves to be near you, but I-” Fera put her fingers over his lips to silence him and she finished what he was about to say, “But you can’t, because of the effects it might cause.” She finished sadly.

  “Fera,” He sighed her name, “The energy part is easy to get past, I mean this is a thing time can fix, but Fera, you are a Princess, the one prophesied to end all of this, and I am an orphaned nothing, the fact that you even let me touch you, look at you, talk to you means more than you will ever know.”

  Fera was frustrated, why would it matter what he was or wasn’t? Didn’t her feelings matter too? She quickly rolled over on her side knocking Vance back down on his back, she leaned down and gently pressed her lips against his. Vance froze, then all at once reacted, bring his hand up behind her head, tangling his fingers into her hair, pressing her lips more forcefully on his. Heat surged through them and sparks started to fly around them. After a few moments Fera pulled back, and gazed down at him trying to read his reaction. There was no visible reaction, he pulled her back down and her lips back to his. Fera let out a sigh as she could feel his magic and hers, and they met and intertwined around each other.

  Before Fera knew what happened blinding light shot out from where they laid. It was a blinding shield, Fera flew a few feet back from Vance, he had used his magic and pushed her. She stared at him a mix of emotions, Vance’s face mirrored hers, then turned to anger and frustration.

  Snapping under restraint, “Why, Fera, why did you have to do that! I told you it was not safe for us to touch! Now everyone knows something powerful is here and that is more than likely you! How the hell do you expect me to keep you safe if you can’t even use that brain in that pretty head of yours!?”

  “I, I just and I um...” Fera was shocked and hurt, confused and several other things too, tears were forming in her eyes.

  Vance now paced, “You just um yeah I know, you are the most impulsive creature I have ever met!” The venom in his tone was waning.

  Fera was now on her feet still so scared, she really had no clue what happened or why, Oren was up too, and moved in between her and Vance and glared at him. “Fera you cannot let anyone treat you like that, stand up for yourself. Get your wits about you, you did nothing wrong.” Oren’s thoughts were annoyed and felt heavy at the end.

  Fera took a deep breath and steadied herself, “Vance, I get it my magic is not controlled, but you felt it too, what was that, it felt like our magic knows each other? I get you are upset, but I umm I just, please explain it to me?” Now the tears were heavy on her eyelashes spilling down her cheeks, “Please, Vance if I just keep being kept in the dark, how ever will I find the light, and if I understand then maybe I will be the perfect version of me everyone is expecting.”

  Vance stopped and looked at her, really looked at her, he knew she was right, and needed to apologize for his knee jerk reaction, but he did feel it too, his magic does know her, and crave to be with her, but then there was his heart and his head, he knew he could never keep her, unless he really proved himself, and nothing short of a miracle would prove his worth to the most coveted future ruler of them all. “Fera,” He sighed losing some of his anger, he locked eyes with her, “I can’t lose you, and the thought of it, it hurts, and I don’t react well, please, Fera, I didn’t mean to, I just,” Now he was at a loss of words. Oren’s thoughts sounding even heavier and almost like he was in pain, he invaded Fera’s mind, “Fera try to really talk to him, I can see what is going on, I need a walk, I won’t be too far, but I just need to think.” And with that Oren turned, walking away, leaving nothing between Vance and Fera but cold air.

  Chapter 26

  They stood staring at each other for a long moment, the temperature much cooler now, they could see their breath hanging in the air. Vance closing the distance between them, tentatively reached up and touched her face, and felt a shock and a distant pull at the same time, his body was on the ground, but his mind was reliving a long erased memory.

  ******************************<3~*~<3*******************************

  Vance looked around he knew he was in a memory, but that was about all he was sure of, he knew Desree told him they would start coming back more and more and different things would trigger them. He heard something crash through the forest at a dead run, his instinct took over for a moment, ready to run of fight, but then remembered it was a memory as he saw his child like form crash through and out grove of trees. A feeling crossed over him like he remember what he was feeling, he had a pull that made him run off from Desree, he was searching for something. He followed his younger form and then stopped dead. He saw Fera, well the small form of her, but there was no mistake it was her, honey eyes that invited you in, and a wild mess of dark hair. She saw his younger form and got very excited. He watched as his younger form tried to walk up to her but was knocked back. The force field that her mother put up, was keeping them apart. The little Fera looked frustrated, he had seen that look a lot in the past few days. Little Fera pressed her palm on the invisible barrier, then she hit it, kicked it, it looked like she was having a temper tantrum, Vance couldn’t help but laugh. A man came running up behind Fera, and it was clear he was most Elven, so he knew it was not her father. He stopped short when he saw the younger Vance. He looked confused, but his hands started to glow, he reached one hand through invisible barrier and grabbed his small form and pulled him through. In that moment Vance was also pulled through now standing next to the man. Little Fera wrapped her arms around Vance’s little form and tackle hugged him to the ground.

  The man spoke, “Fera, control yourself, do you know this boy?”

  Her eyes got big, “ Yes Markus, he is the boy in my dreams,” She turned by at the younger Vance, “I knew you would find me.”

  His younger form could only stare at her, then a smile graced his lips and he whispered “You are real.” And he reached up and touched her face like he had just done in reality. “Desree said you were just a figment of my imagination, and then said I ate too many sweets before bed and stopped giving me honey for dessert, but you are real and I felt you.”

  The man cleared his throat, “Where is Desree now Vance?”

  Vance didn’t know who was more shocked, himself now, the younger form of him or the younger form of Fera. It was Fera’s tiny voice that interjected, “Markus, you’re a stranger and he is not supposed to talk to you.” Her voice had the tone of, clearly, like it more than obvious. Once again Vance laughed, she is and was still so much like this, down to her facial expressions. She turned toward Vance’s smaller form and a cleared her throat and in a very diplomatic way for a small child stated, “Vance, this is Markus, Markus this is Vance, but you seem to know him, Markus is my tutor, and in charge of making sure I do not get into too much trouble, Markus, Vance is the boy from my dreams, I told you I saw him coming to this point today.” She looked between then then said with a huff, “You are supposed to shake hands!”

  Markus laughed but extended his hand and shook Vance’s slightly dirty, slightly smaller hand.

  Fera’s voice broke in again, “See Markus, I am not, what was it you told Joslyna, completely devoid of manners.” She smiled seeming satisfied with herself.

  Markus ignoring her, “So where is Desree?”

  “She is, um she is back at the campsite, I left her there while she was asleep, I felt, I felt like I had to come here, and when I fought my magic to stay there it burned.” The small Vance lost his focus as he watched Fera, she just smiled at him, he reached out and touched her hand, and energy crackled in between.

  Their attention was pulled back
to Markus as he let out a rant in Elfish that clearly neither understood, but Fera leaned in and whispered in Vance’s ear, “I think I am in big trouble, the only time he does that is when I did something very bad.”

  Vance had a hard time believing what he was seeing, and even more so he could feel what his smaller form was feeling to, and that was to protect her, to not leave her.

  Markus cut off his rant and both children looked up, they could see a woman approaching where Vance had ran from. Markus had a look of relief cross his face and Vance saw and knew all too well the look that Desree wore, she was mad, beyond mad, vexed maybe.

  Vance watched as Markus’s hands glowed again as he pulled Desree though just as he did with his younger self. Markus stepped in front of both Fera and Vance, and put his hands on Desree’s shoulders. “They can feel each other’s magic, she dreams of him, and I think he can feel her, we have to keep calm, and fix this. We need more time, and I was a fool for bringing her this close to the edge I know.” Markus was staring her down, willing her to calm down.

  Desree sat down, she was out of breath and a bit defeated at this point. The younger Vance spoke up, “You are going to take me away aren’t you? Will I ever see Fera again?” Before Desree could answer Fera was in between them, “You can’t take him away from me, please, he can stay in the castle, we have lots of room, he won’t be trouble, tell her Vance, you don’t want to go, Markus, please, please Markus, they can stay right?” Her voice was growing in desperation. Desree touched Fera’s cheek, and gasped and looked at Markus, “She fights the binding, she is a greater force than what we thought, and has the sight too, it is choosing to show it in her dreams, because I didn’t feel the need to bind her subconscious mind, I will have to fix that now.”

  Markus paled, “Will it hurt her?”

  At that the younger Vance started to pull Fera back, in his mind he could tell he was going to run with her if Desree said yes to causing her pain.

  “First I make her sleep, she will feel nothing and remember nothing until the bonds are broken and she ascends. Vance will have this memory blocked as well, so he won’t come back here looking for her.”

  At that point when Vance was brought into to conversation, Fera grabbed his hand and the spark crackle of energy that shot forth brought everyone’s attention back to them. Fera’s eyes flared the honey turning almost an amber color. “You will not make him forget me, you will not hurt him!” Her voice was sharp and sound once again beyond her years.

  Vance could tell it caught both Markus and Desree off guard.

  Markus kneeled down in front of Fera, she shook with what Vance could only assume anger and fear. Markus took her free hand as her other still clung to his younger self, “Fera it will all be ok, you will see, and I promise little one you will see this boy again. Trust us please Fera, please.” She turned to face his younger form, she had tears in her eyes, and both his younger heart and his heart now felt as if they were being torn from his chest. She let out a sniffle and dropped Vance’s hand, only to hold it out to him again, “Pinky promise me, you have to you can’t break, it is special, promise you will see me again?” Her eyes were huge pleading with him, he saw himself glance at Desree, she nodded at him, and he gave her his pinky. After he had locked it she let go of Markus’s hand and threw herself at him in an intense bear hug. Vance remembered she was also strong for someone her size but now that made sense it had to be the Dwarf in her.

  Desree was on her feet and reached in and touched Fera’s forehead and she fell into a sleep, Markus caught her and gently put her on the ground. Vance’s small form had tears running down his face. He wanted to yell at Desree, demand that she tell him what was going on, and then beg to stay with Fera, but before he could she was reaching for his forehead and all was dark.

  ******************************<3~*~<3*******************************

  Vance was coming to as Fera was shaking him yelling his name, pleading for him to wake up.

  Fera let out a sound of relief, she and brushed his hair out of his face, “Are you ok, you scared me, what happened?

  “I... I am getting my memories back.” He said with a ragged breath.

  She was helping him stand back up and he felt the manic magic crackle and stepped back. His thoughts were so mixed up and didn’t know if he should tell her or show her or leave it alone. He wished Desree was here, he want to yell at her and ask her a million questions and maybe yell at her some more.

  Fera could tell that Vance was fighting some kind of internal battle, and desperately wanted to help him, “What did you remember?”

  “Fera, I just need a moment, I need to sort it out. It is confusing.” He was tired physical and mentally.

  Fera gave him space, she knew she couldn’t touch him, her magic was all over the place, she felt broken and helpless watching him, part of her wanted to protect him. She watched as he went to his bedroll and laid back down and covered up. She went over and sat next to him, he looked almost ill. “Can I get you some water, or food?” She had to help in some way, anyway that he might let her.

  “So the Princess helps the servant.” He half joked, but he didn’t mean it to come out sounding as bitter as it did.

  “Vance, I would help anyone who was in need of help, I …I am not like that, I” her voice filled with a little panic, she couldn’t tell if he was joking or not and it hurt to think he saw her above him, she was above no one, and that was a thought that always worried her, how could she rule over anyone if she saw herself as an equal?

  Vance saw he was causing her more stress and gave in, “water would be good, please.’

  Fera jumped up a little too eager to help, but help nonetheless. She noticed it was now a lot colder, in fact this was the coldest she had ever felt the air.

  She had the water in her hand and was looking down at the now sleeping Vance, he was shivering, and looked so small and sweet, unlike the overpowering wild aura he normally gave off. She set his water skin down and grabbed her blanket to cover him up. She wished she could start a fire, but knew they didn’t need to make it even easier to find them.

  Fera paced around for a little bit, she was waiting for Oren to come back, he had been gone a while and she was starting to worry. She called out for him in her mind, and felt him brush back against hers and she knew that he would be back shortly.

  Chapter 27

  Oren strolled back into camp, he looked around and Fera seemed even more like a wreck then she was before he left, and then he saw Vance passed out, “Awe Fera, what did you do to him? Not that I am complaining, unconscious suits him.”

  “I didn’t do anything, he was going to apologize, at least I think he was going to and then he touched my face, fell to the ground and I thought he was...” Fera trailed off for a second, “Then he came to and said he was getting memories back, and that he was confused and pretty much fell asleep, and now I am not sure what is going on.” She threw her hands in the air as if to punctuate her nonverbal words, but quickly wrapped them around herself with a shiver.

  “A'mael, he cares deeply for you, you have to know that, I can see it, but there is so much going on I think he is trying to let you deal with it. Markus, I remember used to tell you not to have such tunnel vision, time everything will happen how it was meant to, in time.“ Oren was frustrated, and he knew things would change soon and Fera had been hurt enough, he was going to cause her more pain, but he prayed she could forgive him.

  “Oren, you’re not sounding too confident, are you ok?” Fera was trying to tease him, but he just hung his head, Fera knew they all were feeling pretty defeated, but she knew they just had to keep carrying on, things were bound to change.

  She watched Oren settle down more the night, he asked if she was coming to bed, but she was not tired, she looked over at Vance, he seemed to be in a deep sleep and no longer shivering, she wished she could say the same for herself. She when over to the saddle bags and dug through the clothes, she found gloves and hats that she saw De
sree knitting, she happily put them on followed by a jacket Markus or her father packed for her. She saw the book, the book that started all of this, but she knew it was silly to blame a book. She picked it up and traced the outside with a small amount of reverence. She opened the book, looking at words scrolled on the page, and then she turned to a page with pictures. Her mother looked up at her, she was beautiful, perfect and flawless, Fera let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in. She mentally started to compare herself to the image of her mother, and in her mind she kept coming up short. She gave up, going to put the book away three letters fell out. She picked them up, she recognized her father’s and Markus’s penmanship on two of the letters, but the third she could not place, and the paper felt brittle and looked older than the other two. Her mind began to race - did she want to read them? What would they tell her?

  Her thoughts were intruded on, “Come curl up and read them, you might as well get it over with all at once and move on.” Oren still sounded defeated but he laughed in their shared connection at the fact she jumped when he talked to her, she after all did not put her wall back up.

  Fera conceded and went over snuggling into Oren’s warm side.

  “A'mael I am going to miss this.”

  “Oren miss what?” Fera could feel his thoughts were so heavy she could tell he was in some state of heartbreak.

  Oren sighed in her mind, “A'mael, it is time for me to rest, it has been a long day, quel undome, Amin mela lle”

  “Oren” Fera groaned in frustration, “You know I don’t understand Elven... Good night.”

  With Oren falling asleep, Vance now snoring, and Fera left in a river of her own thoughts she turned her attention back to the letters.