Thanks to Alice Mark's plan started coming together. Everyone in the village knew they could trust her, and the idea that the Outerlans were hiding something soon began to spread. He knew that once they were married, his plan could then further unfold. And so Mark waited for the next stage of his plan.
When the last week before his marriage day came, he began seeing less and less of Alice. She had to spend her last week with her family preparing for the wedding. This left him with extra time to do more studies on his body. He learned during his studies, using a similar process to the rocks but on the air, that he had several of what could be considered lungs. He breathed in the yellow and most of it traveled down into four areas in the lower part of his body and some of it went to his head. When he breathed out the yellow went up from the four areas and then went throughout his body through his blood.
After that experiment he was left with nothing else to do, so he glanced through his spellbook while eating rocks for the remainder of the time. But when the day before the wedding came he decided to go to the village to talk to some of his old friends. By the time the afternoon rolled around his friends had started talking about girls and particular traits they preferred. One of them made a comment about preferring long hair, to which Kurt replied jokingly, "Well, we all know Mark would disagree with you on that."
"What are you talking about Kurt?" asked Mark, with a slight sheepish laugh.
"Don't try and act like its not true Mark," he said, a sly grin on his face, "when you first started looking around you practically avoided any girl with long hair."
"Well, I mean..." said Mark with a nervous laugh, "it's not that I don't like them, I just think shorter hair is more practical." He started thinking back to that first week so many months ago. Had he really ignored a bunch of the young women simply because they had long hair? The thought weighed on him, and he began to feel bad.
His feelings must have started showing on his face, because one of the other guys soon had his arm around Mark's shoulders and said, "But Mark here is with Alice now, he'll be married to her tomorrow and he is so in love with her that she could have hair to her knees or no hair at all and he wouldn't care. Give him a break."
Eventually Mark left his friends and went off to the tree and view the landscape. While sitting in the tree he thought about when he fell, and how if he fell again he wouldn't be breaking any bones this time. He looked over at the mountains, noting that the leaves higher on the mountain were beginning to change color. Fall would be there soon, and then his birthday. It was late in the afternoon, almost evening, when he noticed Alice coming to the tree.
As Mark climbed down from the tree a sudden chill in the wind caused him to sneeze, giving him a bit of a headache. As Alice came closer he realized that her head was tilted down and that she was looking at the ground. "Is something wrong Alice?"
She then looked up, blushing ever so slightly, and said, "Oh, no, nothing is wrong. I was just thinking." She reached up and started fiddling with a strand of hair that hung in front of her face. "There was something I wanted to talk with you about."
"Ok, what is it?"
She blushed a little more, then turned around and took a deep breath. She looked really nervous, and it almost looked like she was shaking. "Have you wondered why I always wear this cloak with the hood up?" She looked like she was trying very hard to keep her composure.
"It was your grandma's right?"
"Yes, but that's only part of it." Her cloak shifted as she reached her hand inside her hood.
Is she hiding an injury? Thought Mark, She seems to be rubbing her neck.
"Before I left to take care of my grandma I kept my hair short. We were so busy while we were taking care of her that my parents and I forgot that I wanted it short." She reached up and pulled down her hood revealing her golden hair, which she then pulled out of the back of he cloak to let it cascade down until it reached her waist. "I would have cut it after she died, but she asked me not to. She told me that it made me look really pretty. I hope your not mad at me for hiding it from you."
He was going to answer, but another chill wind passed by causing his headache to worsen. He closed his eyes and placed his hands on his temples, hoping the pain would quickly subside. After a few moments he heard her say, "I'll see you tomorrow." and she began to walk away. When the pain finally let up he looked up to see Alice a decent distance away. He decided to head to his grandfather's house before he went home so he could get something warm to drink, as it would be bad if that happened again on the way home.
As he walked toward the village he thought about what had happened. Of course I'm not mad, he thought, like the others said, I love her and I wouldn't let something as silly as the length of her hair to change that. When he got to his grandfather's they had a warm meal, Then Mark was sent off with an extra coat. As he walked back he couldn't help but think about Alice. There definitely seemed to be something off about her during that short conversation but he wasn't quite sure what that was.
Soon after leaving the road on his route to his tower, he began looking around as he never paid much attention to his surroundings on his way home. As he continued walking the cliffs that dropped off into the nearby ravine started closing in on his left, though he was going in a straight line. As he walked by a cluster of bushes, the wind picked up and chilled him. He quickly wrapped his coat around him tighter as he sneezed again. Perhaps it's dust in the air that's making me sneeze, he thought as the pain from his headache came back.
He looked up and thought he saw someone sitting on the cliff, but before he could get a clear look the wind picked up, causing his headache to worsen again. He quickly clutched at his temples waiting for the pain to leave. Soon it subsided, but his head still throbbed. He looked up, to try and see the person on the cliff, but they were gone. I must have imagined it, he thought, but at any rate, I need to just go back to my tower now and get to sleep. With that he opened a portal to his tower and went to bed.
Mark awoke the next morning with all signs of his headache gone and the day being much warmer. He looked outside to find everything wet. That explains it, it rained last night. I've heard some people tend to sneeze more when it's about to rain. With that out of his mind he prepared to head to the village to be married.
By the time Mark arrived at the village people were already arriving and waiting in the village square. The people of the village welcomed him and some even gave him early congratulations. But the joy of the occasion quickly turned to worry as Alice's mother came rushing with the news that Alice was missing. The people divided into groups and began searching as far as they could around the village. Mark rushed off to the tree, only to find that she wasn't there. He quickly went back to his tower to see if she was there, but she wasn't. He even asked the wolves if they had seen her, but they hadn't. By afternoon he still hadn't found any sign of her.
As he walked back to the village he came to the spot near the edge of the ravine that he had passed the previous night. He walked over to where he thought he had seen the person and looked around, only to find nothing. He carefully leaned over the edge of the ravine to look down. All he could see though was lots of large rocks and the old dry riverbed that was now used as a trade path. He even went down to the bottom of the ravine with a portal and searched for a few hours, to no avail. Finally he went back to the village in defeat.
As he neared the village for the second time that day he once again saw people gathered in the square. He ran to the village in the hopes of someone having found her. As he came closer however, he found they all had their heads hanging low and those that were talking looked be speaking in hushed tones. He slowed his pace realizing that they probably hadn't found her. When he was close enough for them to hear him he called out, "Any luck?" which caused glances to start shooting back and forth through the group.
Finally a woman from the group came walking up to him. She tried to speak, but seemed as if she were unable. Finally she turned and beckoned for him to follow. As they drew near the crowd Mark noticed that they were all standing around a tradesman's cart. On the back of the cart was a large bundled up blanket, and a knot started to form in his stomach. The middle aged man that owned the cart looked at him, cap in his hands, and said, "I found her early this morning as I was coming down the ravine. I rushed here as soon as I could, assuming she was from this village."
He slowly stepped over to the cart and stood there for a moment. Then fighting against what seemed to be invisible ropes holding his arm, he reached out and grabbed the blanket. He slowly lifted it, to find Alice lying there, with short golden hair spilling over her bruised and battered face and her cloak soaked in blood. He heard gasps behind him as he felt tears welling up in his eyes. He let both his head and the blanket drop, and he brought his hand to his face. As he and several of the others in the group began to cry, Mark felt a hand on his shoulder as the tradesman said, "I'm sorry for your loss." to which Mark fully broke down and fell to his knees in tears.
Soon the other search parties returned and were given the news. A few men and women took Alice's body to be prepared for burial, and Mark's grandfather took him inside his house. An hour later, Mark was asked where she should be buried, and he took the group of men to the base of their tree. After the grave was dug, Alice was soon placed inside and her grave was closed and marked. A few of the women soon approached him and handed him her cloak, which had almost all of the blood washed out of the blue fabric. With that memento in hand, he slowly walked back to his tower. The sky was clear and the air was warm as the sun began to set, and Mark wished the sky would cover itself with the clouds from the night before rather than mocking him with its beauty.
It was dark when Mark finally made it back to his tower, which seemed to comfort him only slightly. He climbed the stairs of his main tower and found, adorning a chair in the middle of the room facing away from the fireplace, Alice's mother with a glare like iron. "What are you doing here?" he asked, more than a little bewildered, "my door was locked." It had also been protected with magic.
"You aren't the only one who can use magic boy." Her words were dripping with venom and hate, and upon saying "boy" a fire jumped to life in the fireplace leaving a thick dark shadow to trail from where she sat to where Mark stood.
Her statement was news to him, slightly troubling news at that, and Mark became concerned. "Whatever you want make it quick, I need to spend some time alone."
"Oh you'll have more than enough time to be alone when I'm through with you." Her last word was accentuated with a sudden surge in the flames, causing her shadow to dance across the room. "Alice is dead because of you, all because of your own pride." Again there was a burst in the flame, but the color changed from its usual orange to a deep crimson.
"What are you talking about, she fell into the ravine. I don't know what this is about, but I had about as much to do with her death as you did."
"Silence!" Crimson flames erupted from the fireplace, though everything was untouched. "The universe had your destiny laid out for you. You were following it to the letter, then you allowed your feelings to overcome you and fill you with pride."
"What destiny? There is no such thing."
"The Outerlans!" She stood as she screamed the word and green flames erupted behind her, singing several items near the fire. "You were supposed to relinquish their hold on this world and leave so you could accomplish what another universe desired your creation to fulfill. But you allowed Alice to distract you not once but twice. You befriended her rather than growing your powers, so the universe sent us away from you, then you fell in love with her and allowed that love to distract you from your goals. Now as punishment the universe took her away leaving me to further turn you back to your correct course."
Tendrils of darkness shot out from her shadow and latched onto Mark, bringing him to his knees and pinning him in place. "Originally I was only meant to be a contingency plan, but you forced the universe. Now you have the most powerful sorceress in any existence backed by the will of the universe to set you straight." She walked forward and held her hand out in front of her, and a ball of flame leapt onto it from the fireplace. When it made contact with her it turned from green to a black deeper and darker than the shadows that bound him. "If you had spent your time more wisely the universe would have let you keep her, but now you have to pay the price."
The tendrils then forced Mark to look up, as she slammed the ball of black fire into his face. The pain was excruciating, and he tried to scream but the fire absorbed the sound. After what felt like an eternity, the black fire and the tendrils of shadow disappeared leaving him to collapse on the floor. "It's a shame that part of this was Alice's fault, though not directly. She was born with only half of a soul, so she naturally latched onto you seeking completion. Her hair was supposed to be a deterrent, given your strange hatred for long hair, but her fear caused her to hide it from you. She always hated keeping secrets from you. Now that fear has been repurposed to shield you from distraction. Think of it as a curse that won't go away until you complete your job."
She walked over and lifted his face off the ground. "Ooh, terrifying." she said, placing him back on the ground. "I also took the liberty of adding another stipulation to breaking the curse as a form of incentive." Mark tried to question her, but he was left so weak that all he could manage was a grunt. "What is this stipulation? You'll know your job is done when you can find a woman who can face her fears square in the face, see you as you truly are, and still love you without any reservation. Basically, when you find another Alice." She then began to walk down the stairs, but stopped and came back up. "By the way," she said, snapping her fingers and causing a wave of energy to flow over him, "pride is not very becoming, so I went ahead and attached the thing you hate most to the curse to help humble you and get rid of your bigotry."
With a "goodnight" she turned and continued down the stairs. Her shoes clicked down the stone steps and grew faint as she eventually left the tower. The sickly green flames faded away from the fireplace leaving him alone in the dark. He tried to get up, but his body was too weak to respond. All his body seemed able to do was cry, so he cried. Whether his tears came from emotion, loss, exhaustion or some combination, he would never know. But what he did know, and what he would always know, was that he was tired. As he slowly cried himself to sleep re realized that he was more tired than he had ever been in his life, and he would later come to know that the only time he would ever feel more tired is when he finally finished his job. Then with nothing but his tears to keep him company, he faded into unconsciousness.