The very next morning, before sunrise, Chevalier and Siegfried were ready to meet Lorelei at the gate. They wore cloaks over their heads, so no one would recognize them, and both carried their swords, sheathed in rags to avoid pesky pickpockets.
The Knight's sword, named the Lohengrin sword, was dark and sturdy. It had been passed down, knight to knight, for over a hundred years. For Chevalier it had been the only sword he had ever wielded, and it felt comfortable in his hands. He held onto the handle at all times.
The Prince's sword, on the other hand, was made of a brighter, much weaker metal. His parents had presented it to him after they had told him they were planning on turning themselves over to the Raven, and had told him that they hoped he'd never have need of it. It was still new, as the blade had never once been tarnished with blood, hardly different from the Prince himself. He rarely carried it, and as he walked it awkwardly disrupt his steps.
The sky was clear enough to see all the stars, and they could hear the early morning birds singing in the trees. "If I were anyone else, I would think that nothing could possibly go wrong today. It's so perfect." Siegfried said, mostly to himself.
"It's a bit ironic, I guess, considering what's coming." Chevalier looked at Siegfried from the corner of his eye. "Or it's a sign that nothing's going to happen, and the wizardess was lying to us."
"Lorelei wasn't lying. Look." He pointed to a gap in the trees.
"What?" It was hard to see, but Chevalier's eyes managed to pick out a small black bird with glowing red eyes leering over them.
"Crows." Siegfried sighed. "There hasn't been a single one of those ugly birds in this kingdom for 12 years."
Chevalier had to admit, the crows hadn't been seen since the Raven had gone into hiding, which probably meant Lorelei was telling the truth. Still, as the Prince's protector, he wasn't about to let Siegfried fall into a trap set by the wizardess.
"Where is she, anyway? The sun's starting to come up." Chevalier anxiously stroked the handle of his sword.
"She'll come, Chev, don't worry."
"That's not what I'm worried about. I'm starting to worry about what else might turn up."
"Well, stop worrying. She's coming now."
And sure enough, there was the young wizardess, dressed in black, coming towards them.
"You're late." Chevalier said as she approached the gate.
Lorelei glared at him without saying a word. Then she turned to the Prince. "My home is just off the main road, only a few minutes walk. But-" she tightened her hood. "-with these crows showing up, I'm glad to see you brought protection."
"I never said I was going to use the sword, you only said to bring it." Siegfried reminded her.
"Oh, sweet Prince, you can't escape fighting forever." Lorelei looked sympathetically at him.
"I will only fight the Raven. I will not draw my sword on anyone else. I would rather run my sword through my own chest."
The wizardess bit her lip. Chevalier looked at the ground.
"We'd better get going. We haven't much time." Lorelei opened the gate with a wave of her hand and said to the Prince: "This way."
Siegfried walked through the gate first, leaving the wizardess and Knight behind to follow.
They walked like this for a few minutes, the two always a few yards behind the Prince, both feeling uncomfortable by what he had said.
"Does he mean that?" Lorelei asked Chevalier quietly.
Clearly not wanting to speak to her, but yearning for some conversation, Chevalier answered. "Maybe. It wouldn't surprise me." He whispered back. He eyed her suspiciously, "Why, did you see something?"
"No, not really. But- nevermind. It's too complicated to explain."
"What is it with you? You're much different than the first time I talked to you."
"That's why you don't trust me, I take it."
"It's a factor."
Lorelei sighed. "I suppose I deserve that. But seeing things changes you." She slowed down a bit, and Chevalier fell back too. "I wish I had never gained the ability to see the future."
"Then why would you take it from your grandmother?" Then he remembered that he didn't believe her and added: "If that's really who she was."
"I didn't have a choice. She left it to me. I was only trying to get to her before she died to change her mind. But I was too late." It looked like her eyes we glazed over as she spoke, like she was deep in thought.
For some reason, the Knight suddenly felt as if he trusted her completely. He didn't like the feeling, but at that point there really was no point in fighting it.
"You said you saw my future, too. What was it?" He tried not to sound too eager, but on the inside he had many questions.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you. You'd only try to change it, and then who knows what could happen."
"Well that's comforting."
"The future hardly is. Especially what's coming in the next few weeks."
"Weeks? But you said that the Raven was coming tonight."
"Yes, I did. But the Prince will be thrust into years of bitter fighting."
"Years? But you said weeks before."
"I know, I know. I have a feeling, though, that it'll only finish after many years of struggle. I can only see for few hours ahead, for now. Like I said, after that the future is just big blank nothingness. I can only see the start of the battle."
"But you don't know how the battle will end? What's the point of fortunetelling then?" He couldn't explain it, but the longer he talked to her, he just wanted to hear her speak more and more. He hung on every word. What the hell am I doing? She's a witch, and possibly consorting with the Raven. And yet, I feel like I have no choice but to trust her.
"That's why I didn't want it. Nobody should ever know what their future holds. If they do, then they lose the ability to choose."
"I see. That's why you've changed so much. That is what the future decided for you."
She faltered a bit. "Not exactly. But I am the only one who can prepare the Prince for his battle with the Raven."
This bothered Chevalier. As the Prince's Knight, it was his duty to ensure his safety, and now, she was saying there was nothing he could do. For the rest of the walk, only a minute or so, they didn't speak. Then she once again waved her arm and parted a few trees. In a small clearing sat an even smaller hut.
"Here we are: home." She gestured at the sword the Prince was carrying. "Your sword, please."
"Why do you need my sword?"
"In it's present state, it purely ornamental, Prince. It couldn't hurt a fly, let alone what you need to do with it."
"What are you going to do to it?" Siegfried may not have cared for weaponry, and had it been any other sword, he would have handed it over immediately. But this was the last thing his parents had given to him, and though his relationship with them may have been strained, he liked having something that reminded him of them.
"It's just a simple incantation. It won't change it." She held her hand out for it again. "I promise."
Slowly, the Prince unsheathed his sword, and held it in his hands. "I used to spend hours looking at myself in the blade. Sometimes, if I held it just right, I could see flickers of my mother and father's faces next to mine." He shook his head, swallowed, then laid it across the wizardess's palms.
"Thank you." Lorelei bowed her head slightly and smiled, then she walked over to a small pond on the edge of the clearing. Chevalier and Siegfried followed. "I'll remind you, I only have a sense for what is coming. I'm not entirely sure what the outcome of the next few weeks, or years, will be." She said this to Siegfried, but it seemed directed at both of them, as if their destinies were tied, and would be even after the battle was long over.
"There's only one way to defeat the Raven, though, and this is where I fear your trust in me may waiver for a time."
The Prince and the Knight looked at each other. Chevalier's eyes seemed to say "Maybe this isn't such a good idea," whereas Siegfried's said "I have no choice." But they said nothing aloud, so Lorelei continued.
"The purest of hearts demands the purest of homes, and you are the only one capable of holding such a heart, Prince. I trust you realize this."
"I can't say I do."
She sighed. "You would rather take your own life than be forced to harm an innocent being. Even the crows you despise so much cannot make you draw your sword."
What is she trying to say? Chevalier was confused. "All this talk of his heart. We know what the Raven plans to do with it, but hearts are not weapons."
"This is where you are wrong. Shattered, the heart would create a prison capable of eternally holding the Raven inside." She took a step back, ready for both to respond angrily.
"Shattered?" The Knight cried, drawing his own sword. "You brought us out into the woods, away from all other people, so you could murder him!"
"No, that isn't what I was-"
"Again, your filthy lies. And you would even do it with his own sword, which he so willingly handed over?" Chevalier stood, ready to drive his sword into Lorelei's own heart.
"No!" She dropped the Prince's sword on the ground. "I never meant to harm him! At any rate, it wouldn't actually kill him."
Chevalier lowered his sword, looking at Siegfried as if he'd forgotten he was there. "Prince, do you understand what she is saying? I warned you not to trust her."
"But Chev, look at her."
Lorelei had sat down on the ground, and was starting to cry quietly, looking at grass. "I just- I just can't do this. I wish I could forget but I can't. My whole life, everything I have ever lived for, ever hoped for, is all gone now. I'm going to die. I just thought I could have done something right for once, but all I can do is this and- I just can't." She held her hands to her mouth to try and silent the sobs, but instead she made it worse.
"Chev, please. I don't know why, but I trust her earnestly with my whole heart." He looked down at Lorelei, who hadn't stopped crying. "I want to know what I need to do. Please tell me."
She wiped her tears away, and looked up into the Prince's kind eyes. "I can't, I just can't let you do this. You have no idea what it would do to you."
"You said it wouldn't kill me. So I'm fine with that."
"You don't understand. You wouldn't be you anymore. You'd be nothing more than an emotionless doll, wthout memoryof anything. In a sense, the you you are now would die."
Siegfried looked at Chevalier, who had put his sword away. "Sacrifices." The Knight said under his breath.
He turned back to Lorelei, and knelt down next to her. Slowly, she lifted up her face. Then, in a very kind voice, he said to her, "I'm still fine with it. It isn't just a duty to my people, it's also something that I want to do for them. I want them to be safe. And I want to make sure the Raven never harms another innocent soul again."
Chevalier listened to every word the Prince had said, then he understood why he had to trust Lorelei so much. Siegfried did, and their destinies had been and would be tied forever. Even if the Knight were to die, he would still remain loyal and at the Prince's side.
"And I want to help the Prince to do so. I will do whatever I need to, to see his wishes fulfilled. Not because I'm honor bound to do so, but because I wish the same as you do, Sig." With that, he did something he hadn't done in years: the Knight took out his sword, and stuck it into the ground at his feet, then he stepped back and knelt behind it, bowing his head before the Prince. "I promised to serve and protect, and to do whatever was necessary to ensure the safety of the Prince. My vow hasn't changed."
"Chev, stand up." Chevalier did so, and Siegfried placed a hand on his shoulder. "I have never looked upon you as merely a servant. You have been and will always be my closest, if only, true friend. I do, however, respect your oaths, and if the time should come when I must use this sword, I will be in no state to rule over this kingdom."
"Prince?"
"If that time should come, then I want you to take my place on the throne."
Chevalier said nothing. He did nothing. There was nothing for him to do. He stood there, not breathing, his mouth only the tiniest bit open. Sure, he basically ran the Kingdom anyway, but at least the Prince was still there, his face the front of every decision Chevalier made for him. But if the Prince were to leave, then he would be... alone. Serving the Prince, but without anyone by his side. Prophecies couldn't be manipulated for everyone, it would seem.
"And don't even think of turning me down, Chev. Even if I should die in battle, and the Raven should live, you must stay with my people, never fighting, but peacefully ruling over them, as I would-"
"No."
The Prince and the Knight looked over at the wizardess who had spoken so quickly and certainly.
"He must fight. There isn't another way." Lorelei had risen from her kneeling position on the grass, retrieved the sword, and was now standing on the opposite side of the small pond.
"Why should he fight? You have already said that only I can defeat the Raven, why put anyone else in harms way?"
"You will choose to fight, Knight. And you will never set foot in the castle again. But this will not be the last you see of the Prince." She didn't wait for them to ask questions. "We must hurry, we have already wasted enough time. Come, Knight."
Chevalier stepped over to where she stood. "What are you going to do?"
"Forbidden magic. This is how I know I am going to die. Any wizardess who conducts magical spells that have been written as forbidden will die when the - well, when the sun sets." She held back a few tears. "But it is a necessary sacrifice that I must make, for the Prince, and for all the people that live in this world. And in a world I can never see. Not even with my sight."
"What other world?"
"Somewhere only the Prince and Raven may go. The battle will end there. That's why I can't see the outcome."
"I can't follow him." Chevalier looked up at the sky. The vibrant morning colors had faded into a clear, light blue. "I'm going to die too. Aren't I?"
Lorelei looked at the ground, but said nothing.
"But it won't be the last time I see the Prince." Chevalier watched her nod. He breathed deeply. "Let there be no more stalling, then. Let's prepare the Prince for battle."
"Yes. We should hurry." Lorelei held the sword over the pond in front of Chevalier. "Only the blood of someone brave and knowledgeable of fighting skills can empower the sword. My words will do the rest. If you would."
Chevalier reached out and gripped the sword tightly. It cut into his fingers and palm, allowing a few drops to fall into the muddy water.
Lorelei took a deep breath, and then began. "Erteilen Sie diese Schwert der Macht, die reine Prinzen Herz zerbrechen." As Lorelei spoke the German spell, the water turned black. She nodded, and Chevalier released the sword, which she then dipped into the water. The black water climbed up the blade. "Erteilen wer übt sie die Macht, das Böse zu besiegen Raven." Lorelei lifted the sword from the water, and held it in front of her. As she said the last words, the black liquid shattered, and revealed the Prince's sword, glowing white, and sharper than even the Knight's own sword. "There. It is ready."
Siegfried, who could not speak German, wasn't sure what had happened. "What did you say?"
Chevalier, though, did understand, "She said 'Grant this sword the power to shatter the pure Prince's heart. Grant he who weilds it the power to vanquish the evil Raven.' Now when you fight, Prince, you will have no trouble using the sword." He wiped his hand on his cloak.
"The sword will carry that power for as long as someone is weilding it. But if a long period of time passes before you use it again, as I'm sure it will, the incantation would need to be performed again, to reawaken the power." She walked towards him. "Remember, you needn't shatter your heart unless you are unable to kill the Raven. Though I worry that it is inevitable. Like I said, where you will go, my vision and the Knight cannot follow."
"I know." Siegfried took the sword. "I don't understand something though. I'm destined to kill the Raven, not trap him for an eternity. One day, he will have to be set free. But at that point, I would only be a doll, as you said. I would be unable to fight."
"If that time should come, you would need someone to return your heart to you." Lorelei shook her head. "But if that happened, you would be locked in the same battle you had tried so hard to put to an end. Eventually, you would probably need to shatter your heart again. And the battle would last like this forever."
"Sig, if that were to happen, you would have to undergo much pain and suffering." Chevalier questioned the idea of ever rereleasing the Raven. "And in this other world, there is no saying whether you would survive or not. Wouldn't it be better to live without feeling or memory, than to force yourself in to such hardship?"
"I must kill the Raven, Chev. As long as he lives, he will cause even greater pain and suffering for the people of this world and of the world I will go to." The Prince placed his hand on his chest. "I must ensure that someday my heart will be returned."
"But if the Raven is ever released-"
"I have to kill him, there is no avoiding it. And I will be fine, as long as someone is there to assist me. That is why I will see Tutu again."
Chevalier and Lorelei looked at each other. The Prince had been listening to their entire conversation in the dungeon, then.
"I will see her today. At sunset. Because when you die, you will grant her, whatever form she is in, your powers."
"I... Yes. You're right. But how did you figure that out?"
"You said that when you die, your powers get passed on to someone. So you could do that."
She took a deep breath. "I will try to, anyway."
The Prince smiled. "Thank you." He turned to Chevalier. "I need your help too, Chev."
The Knight looked down at the water. "I will do my best to help fight the Raven. But there is nothing I can do should you ever need to restore your heart."
Siegfried sighed. "I guess there isn't."
"Prince, look." Lorelei was stepping backwards, her face was pale.
"Crows!" The three hadn't noticed that hundreds of black birds with piercing red eyes had surrounded the clearing. When they started cawing and moving closer, Chevalier drew his sword again. "Get inside, I'll hold them off!"
"Chevalier, stop! You can't fight them yet!"
"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" The Knight swung his sword at the crows, as they pelted him relentlessly. "Just get the Prince inside! Hurry!"
Lorelei pulled the Prince inside her small hut. "You can't do anything! He'll be fine!" She slammed the door. Then the yelling from outside suddenly stopped.
"It's fine. They're gone. Let me in."
They slowly opened the door. Outside Chevalier stood, covered in feathers and ripped clothes.
"Chev, what happened?"
"They just flew away." He looked at Lorelei. "They know what we're planning now."
...
Note from the Author: and here comes another long chapter. this one was a pain to edit, but i hope you enjoy!
Thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed the story so far!