Hello here! Look at me, updating again. I'm so proud of myself. That was sarcasm, fyi. I got a fave and an alert, and two reviews, so I figured I might as well not let down those two people. And I've been having fun writing! And that is most important. A story fails miserably if the author doesn't want to be writing. (E.g. my last fanfic) So, read on, and please enjoyyy!
The Darkest Side
Chapter 4; Discovery
Lizzy was angry. Not just a little angry. REALLY angry. It was only her second day at the palace, and already she was being harassed! She had had trouble with men before, but not this much! This was almost unbearable!
She had been walking through the halls, minding her own business, when out of nowhere, she was assaulted by some vile boy, a few years older than her. Her first impression would normally be good, he was quite handsome after all. He had lovely white-blonde hair, and striking blue eyes. But, a good look in them and you could tell he was a mean person. He had that look, deep down inside that told you he was an angry person. Lizzy was quite good at reading people.
She thought back on the incident.
Lizzy walked down the halls of the palace, her beautifuly crafted noblewomen's lacey shoes making loud noises on the stone floor. She walked briskly, determined to get back to her rooms after a morning stroll through the palace gardens. It was her second day at the palace, and not too many people had discovered she was there yet, so she could wander without being bothered by nosy maids and matchmaking noble mothers.
Suddenly this teenage boy comes up to her, with a cocky smirk on his face.
"Well, well. What do we have here? A pretty new court lady? What's your name?" He grinned as he said this, inappropriately incasing her in his arms, trapping her against a wall.
Lizzy suddenly became quite upset.
"What business is it to you?" She angrily countered. He just grabbed her arms, holding her harder. She squeaked, his grip on her arms hurting her.
"Don't touch me, you foul swine of a man!" She gripped his arms right back, and hooked his leg with her ankle, and pulled, knocking him on his backside.
She clenched her fists so hard it turned her knuckles white. She backed him up against the same wall he had her against, with him still on his arse.
She began to scream at him, yelling so loudly without caring who heard. With each shout, he seemed to shrink even smaller.
Then, only fanning the flames of Lizzys rage, two of the blonde boy's friends came up, a tall, stocky girl, and a handsome sandy haired boy.
The girl had the balls to push Lizzy aside, which only made her explode!
"YOU STUPID FRIEND OF THIS FRICKIN PERVERT DON'T TOUCH ME EITHER!" Lizzy screamed at the girl, unleashing all of her fury on her.
Somehow, the girl stayed calm. Her face was placid, like a calm lake in one of the forests of fief Eldyra.
Lizzy had a quick moment of inner turmoil, before deciding to flee before someone got hurt. She spun on her heels, and stomped off to her rooms.
Suddenly, Lizzy was brought back to the present by a big hand on her shoulder.
She spun around quickly, her hands curling into fists, ready for a fight.
"Whoa! Calm down! I'm not gonna hurt you!"
It was the blonde boy's friends, the handsome boy and the tall girl.
Lizzy glared at them suspicously. "What do you want?"
"We uh, just wanted to, uh, tell you that we're umm... Not friends with Joren." Neal stammered, looking nervous. Kel sighed, frustrated with her friend's silly crush. She stepped in front of him.
"Hi. I'm Kel, and this is Neal. I just wanted to apologize for pushing you like that. It was very rude of me." Kel apologized to her, her yamani calm working it's magic.
"I'm Elizabeth, or just Lizzy. Ane that's okay. I guess you just didn't want me hurting your little friend." Lizzy let a little venom slip into her voice.
"Oh my gosh, we are so not his friends! Joren is a foul, loathsome little-" Kel cut herself off, and took a deep breath, bringing back the yamani calm.
"I just wanted to make sure you didn't murder him, or anything." She gave a tentative smile as she said this, and in return, Lizzy grinned a dazzling smile.
"Oh, good. I was starting to worry that I would be some outcast, with everyone best friends with this Joren kid!" Kel giggled, and Lizzy's grin widened, stretching from ear to ear. Neal was still standing behind Kel, staring at Lizzy like an idiot.
They stood like that for a moment, until Kel broke the silence, asking the question on her and Neal's mind.
"So. What happened with Joren? Or, more importantly, how did you make him so scared?!"
"Well... He kind of, I don't know, 'forced himself' on me. It was very obnoxious. So, I yelled a little, and I swear to god he just crumpled like a piece of paper! It was wierd!"
Kel and Neal stood silently, taking in the information. How could this girl scare Joren so bad? He was never scared!
Lizzy suddenly spoke up.
"Well, I better get going. It's getting kind of late, I have to get back to my rooms. Are you guys pages here?"
Kel and Neal nodded. Lizzy looked mildly shocked.
"Wait a second... That must mean you are Keladry of Mindelan, second female page ever! Oh my, you and the Lioness are like, my idols!" Kel grinned sheepishly in response to Lizzy's enthusiasm. She was flattered, and embarassed.
"Wow... Well, I'll come eat with the pages tomorrow, so I'll be seeing you two." Lizzy bid them farewell, and shot Neal smile that made him go all soft. That hurt Kel more than she wanted to let on.
She had to work extra hard to keep her yamani calm in place.
Lizzy made it to her rooms, and plopped down on her bed, smiling contentedly.
Two new friends... And it's only my second day here! Although, the boy seemed a little strange. She thought to herself, giggling a little.
She kicked off her shoes, and put on a more comfortable dress. It was a pretty rosey pink, made out of the softest velvet. It had quarter sleeves, with a square neck and cute lace trim.
She sat down in a wooden chair, and looked around, appreciating her lovely chambers.
The main color scheme was green, with flowing green drapes hanging over big, sunny westward facing windows. They would let lovely afternoon light in. The bedspread was a gorgeous emerald green, made out of shiny silk. The pillows matched the light green of the drapes. There was also a dresser, and a desk which Lizzy currently sat at.
The room was quite spacious, despite the modest amount of furniture. The floor was covered with a soft rug, seemingly depicting a forest.
Suddenly, a knock at the door startled Lizzy, as she quickly stood up, slipped on some shoes, and answered the door.
She opened it to find a tall, black haired man, with light brown skin in his early thirties.
"Hello. You must be Elizabeth. Jonathan told me about you. My name is Numair Salmalin." He greeted her.
Lizzy stifled a gasp. Numair Salmalin is the most powerful mage in the Eastern Lands! She quickly ushered him in, afraid of angering him. He could easily turn her into a tree, like he had already done.
She tried to be extra careful. "Hello, my Lord. Yes, my name is Elizabeth, but you can call me Lizzy."
Numair grinned, his eyes sparkling.
"My Lord? I think Numair is just fine. I am certaintly not a royal enough for that!" He joked with her, trying to loosen her up. He could tell she was uncomfortable.
"Don't worry Lizzy. It's not like I'm a mass murderer. You don't need to be so anxious!" He smiled again, his eyes crinkling up. He waved his hand, and a strange, blue shimmering dust settled over her, and she instantly felt herself relax.
"Better?"
She nodded, grateful for the much-needed magic.
"So, let's get down to business. You arrived here two days ago, late at night, correct?"
Lizzy nodded again, curious, and thankfully no longer nervous.
"Two nights ago, I felt a strange presence arrive at the palace. It was, you could say, raw power. An extremely strong gift. It woke me, too." He chuckled.
"It weighed down the air, making everything feel heavy and sleepy almost. No one else felt it, really. I have just trained myself to sense these things. So, when Jonathan told me the following morning that he found an urchin in the street who may or may not have the gift, I decided to check things out."
Lizzy was confused, to say the least. Could the source of power be her? Impossible! She wasn't that powerful!
"Lizzy, I believe you have an incredibly powerful gift. More powerful than anything I've ever seen. Maybe even more than me!" He chuckled again.
"Have you ever had any training? Did you even know you had the gift?" Numair questioned her. She spoke up, excited to hear that she might be even more powerful than the most powerful mage in the world!
"I haven't had any training, but I did know I have the gift. I use it quite often, actually."
"What do you use it for?" Numair eagerly asked her, surprisingly excited about new, fresh talent.
"Well... I do all the normal things. Lighting candles, and such. I can heal a little too, but I'm not very good. As I said before, I haven't had any training. But, the most useful thing I do is shapeshifting. I can't change into other creatures, but I can change into different humans really easily. It only takes a second."
Numair stifled a gasp. Of all the things that mages could do, this was incredibly rare! The closest he had ever witnessed, was Daine shifting into different animals. And even that was very rare, and only possible because she had so much wild magic.
"Lizzy, that is amazing! No wonder I could feel your gift when you first got here! Are you good with animals?" He asked here, curious to see if she had wild magic. The palace could always use a second wild mage.
"No, unfortunately not. Animals have always disliked me. Especially cats." She internally shuddered, remembering an old friend's three cats, who would always hiss and scratch at her.
"Well, I guess that rules out wild magic. Do you mind if I assess your different powers? I recently figured out how to do that, and I would very much like to test it out on someone. Well?"
She eagerly nodded, and he stepped out of his chair and walked towards her. He raised his arms, and mumbled a few incoherent words, and then placed both of his hands on her temples.
Suddenly she felt very dizzy, but not uncomfortably. She just felt as if the room was spinning. She closed her eyes, and when she did she saw a bright red light. It flooded her mind, leaving room for no other thoughts. It penetrated every memory, every thought, and every secret. She struggled for control over her own mind, but something kept her from herself. She couldn't even open her eyes!
Suddenly, she was jolted back to reality, as Numair shook her, rather violently.
"Wake up, dammit! WAKE UP!"
She slowly pried her eyes open. She felt like throwing up. The room was till spinning, and this time it was not pleasant.
She surprised a panicked Numair by dashing up, and ran to the latrine just in time, before spewing out the contents of her supper.
She coughed three times, and then rinsed her hands and mouth and walked back into her room.
Numair immediately rushed over to her, and helped sit down. She grimaced.
"Oh my god Lizzy, are you alright?!" He gushed, obviously worried. She just wondered why (apart from her so suddenly throwing up, all she had done was close her eyes for a moment.)
"Yes, I'm fine. I guess I just don't react very well spells." She let out a little nervous giggle.
"Lizzy, it's not okay. That spell I wanted to try out... I guess I should've tested it on an animal or something first. You were out for an hour! I was worried that I killed you!"
Lizzy was caught off guard by that.
An hour?! I just closed my eyes for a few moments! She thought, with a confused and dazed look on her face, as Numair went to get her a glass of cold water to help fully wake her up and counter the effects of the botched spell.
"I am so sorry! I had no idea that would happen! I really need to stop testing these things on real people." Numair profusely apologized to her.
"It's okay, no big deal. At least I didn't miss any meals. So, did you at least get the information you wanted?" Lizzy wondered, hoping the unpleasant experience was not in vain.
"Luckily, yes. Would you like to know what powers I found in you? It's quite fascinating, actually."
"Of course!" Lizzy furiously nodded.
"So, no surprise, I found the shapeshifting. I also found all the usual, just having the capacity to do most spells. You have a huge amount of raw power in you, you'll be very powerful."
Lizzy gave him a meaningful look, telling him to keep going!
"And the most unexpected thing is your control over men." He was cut off by Lizzy snorting.
"You have got to be kidding! Control over men? Please tell me you are not serious."
"No, I am, honest! It is the kind of power that is more subconscious, you are not really controlling it. Many of the world's most influential people have had things like this. I believe our King has a trace of something similar to you, but not nearly as powerful."
Lizzy was too shocked to say anything in response, she just gaped at him.
"I'm sure at some point in your life, you have noticed men more susceptible to persuasion by you, or men have followed you around or easily fallen in love?"
Lizzy got a strange look of recognition on her face and she began to realize he might be telling the truth.
He explained to her that he could get her a charm to get rid of the effects the following day, so she wouldn't end up accidentally stealing people's husbands. They talked about that for a few minutes, before he stood up, and walked to the door.
"Well, Lizzy, it is getting quite late, so I'd best get on to my rooms. I'll see you around sometime."
She smiled and waved at him.
As he was walking out the door, he quickly turned and peeped his head through.
"You know, it's not just your gift. Your beauty certaintly doesn't hurt the men chasing you." He told her playfully. He winked at her and shot her a dazzling grin, and then left the room, closing the door quietly behind him
She sighed.
He had better get that amulet soon... She thought to herself as she got ready for bed.
Phew! That took all day to write! I hope it was good! PLEASE REVIEW, FAVE, OR FOLLOW! I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER!
Toodles!
-Josiane Rittevon