It was such a beautiful day.
Bright yellow skies with speckles of clouds whisking through the air like woven silk, sparkling bubbling streams that gurgled and splashed playfully around smooth grey pebbles, sweet smelling grass that filled the wind with heady happiness and prosperity.
Yes, it was a beautiful day to die.
LINE BREAK
"Under the ruling of our Lord Aspeth, the spawn of Mistress Tamal is hereby declared to be sentenced with banishment by means of the Void."
And that's what happens my friends, when your Mother, a Lady in her own right, is caught cheating on her Husband.
Why are the children being punished? Well, that is a good question. The answer is also quite simple, if a little unfair.
Anything associated with my Mother must either be burned or disposed of.
I suppose I should be grateful that Mother asked us to not be burnt to death, but after hearing that little bit of information I think I would have preferred the fire.
"All belongings and titles are to be stripped…"
Ah yes, the title of being an 'almost' Lady. How depressing.
Please forgive me of my sarcasm, but I think I should be allowed to be a bit sour, considering I'm about to be thrown into the center of a Mountain and all.
"…And the spawn will be escorted to the Void immediately."
Fucking perfect.
LINE BREAK
It takes around half a day to travel to the Void from the counsel grounds, but we somehow managed to get to the lip of the Mountain in almost two thirds of the time.
I could go into detail about the lush forest up the mountain, or the soft grass that we travelled over. But really, I didn't notice much of anything.
My brother and I were going to die.
It wasn't fair; I had a whole life ahead of me! I studied so fucking hard to learn the languages of our neighboring countries so I could take over from my Mother's position as head linguist.
But no.
She just had to spread her fucking legs to some sweet mouth Langat! And if that wasn't bad enough, she got caught! By Father!
Words cannot describe the rage I feel inside of me at the stupidity and selfishness at that woman.
But, I suppose it's an appropriate response from a man who married for political reasons. Dispose of the mother and children, find another wife and start again.
Can't have that bad blood running around demanding food and whatnot.
So here we are, me, seventeen year old 'almost Lady – but not now because she has no title', and my six year old 'not heir' brother Sekki, standing at the lip of a Mountain staring into the gaping hole of the center.
"Go now, and fulfill your sentence!"
I don't know why the hell we needed an announcement on the cusp of our death; they must get a sick kick out of it.
"…Tima?"
"Yeah Sekki?"
"Are we going to die now?"
I took a hold of his hand as we slowly started walking forward.
"Keep your eyes on mine Sekki."
Six more steps.
I picked him up and hugged him as I continued to walk forward.
Four more steps.
I looked into Sekki's eyes and tried to smile.
Two more..
"Eyes on mine Sekki, don't look away."
"Okay. I won't look away."
And then, we were falling.
LINE BREAK
"-up.."
What was that? Noise? Was there noise after death?
"-ma! … wake…!"
Someone is talking, to me I think. But I'm so tired! I'll answer them after my nap.
"Tima! Wake up! Please Tima, please!"
Oh god, oh god the Void, the sentence, Mother, Father… SEKKI!
"Sekki!" My body propelled itself forwards, located Sekki in under half a second and pulled him on to my lap.
"Umph! Tima!" The slightly whiny tone just made me laugh. We were alive!
I patted down Sekki's body, and apart from accidently tickling the back of his knee he was fine. No bumps, no scratches and no bruises.
I quickly glanced down at myself and- yep- all good there as well.
"The sky is blue."
"What?" I glanced up at the sky and lo, the normally yellow sky was no a light blue.
Blue?!
I quickly swiveled my head around to view our surroundings. We were in what appeared to be a field. A wide field, with no mountains in sight.
I wasn't stupid, I knew we were somewhere different. I had read stories about the Void. Some say it's just a long drop and a hard stop. Others say it has secret powers. I guess they'll never know, but boy am I glad the other person was right.
"Tima?" I looked down into matching red eyes. Come to think of it, the only real difference in the appearance between my brother and I are our age and sex. We both had dark red eyes and thick black hair, as straight as a pin.
A deep pain twisted in my gut. We take after Father.
But, I couldn't think about that now. We were safe for now, in a place were Father couldn't reach us, unless he threw himself after us. Which is highly doubtful.
I brushed Sekki's hair back from his eyes with my fingers. And I laughed.
I laughed and laughed, I fell onto my back and cuddled Sekki, and he started giggling too.
We laughed until it hurt, and then we laid there for a while why I explained to Sekki that we were no longer in our world. We were somewhere else.
"What does that mean?"
"It means we can start a new life here, wherever this is."
"But there is no-one here. Where are the shops? I want to get food, I'm hungry."
That… was a good question. One I would have spent ages worrying over if I hadn't heard the sound of thunder.
Thunder that was going for a considerably long time with no clouds in sight… and getting louder?
That can't be right.
I stood up and perched Sekki on my hip and turned around.
There, streaming down a great hill, fifty or so horseman were riding full speed towards us.
They were looking right at us, I could tell, even though they were at least half a bell chimes walk away.
But horses that fast will be here in a matter of minutes.
What to do, what to do? Run? No. where would I go? There is only grass as far as I can see. Hide? There is nothing to hide behind!
Nothing for it then.
I sat back down onto the grass with Sekki on my lap.
"Just stay still and quiet, okay?" Sekki nodded up at me and turned to half bury his head in my neck, whilst still having an eye on the riders, which were just about upon us.
I hope these guys aren't jerks.