To her own point of view, Evika thought that traveling through portals were not too convincing. It was hard to believe that right now, frozen in an about-to-take-a-step-forward stance, she was flying thousands of light-years away; well, if she did it right, at least. All around was plain white; no stars in the tunnel she found herself in. And even if it felt as if time had stopped, somehow she felt that indeed she was moving rather quickly despite her frozen limbs.
On top of that, all the magic was making her nose itchy.
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Hours seemed to fly past in a daze when out of the seemingly endless nothingness, a portal not too dissimilar from the one she had leapt into flashed into sight. It came closer, and closer, and…
Her body suddenly unfroze, the momentum of flying carrying her step forwards way too far, leaving her to fall face-forward on cold stone. Trying very hard not to cry out, she slowly struggled to her feet, looking around once again in the prison-like Servant's Wing.
Picking up her thankfully unbroken (and still invisible) bow, she strung an arrow onto it and walked outside into the smoky night. Listening carefully, she faintly heard rambunctious noises coming from the far-off dining hall; a sign that she was very lucky to have come during the only time the palace grounds were mostly devoid of life.
With this thought assuring that she wouldn't get caught within the next five seconds, Evika hastened out into the open night and slid against the palace walls, merging stealthily into its overcast shadow. She cursed silently as she spotted the tip of her still-visible shadow along the edge of the silhouette. Unable to cast the spell vanishing it too, she slid along the rough sandstone and lava rock to the back of the land, where, as usual, the ivy-ridded gate stood with a guard in front. But there was one slight difference. "Oh, great Natura," sighed Evika.
The guard was awake. Whenever she usually saw him, his half-collapsed form fast asleep in the starshine never had brought a sweat to her brow; but somehow, standing nine feet tall in half-armor and wielding a wrist blade shining coldly in the moonlight made her nearly think twice about her plan. But she had to move on.
Carefully aiming the drawn arrow at the bulky giant, she whispered, "Aumsicci nuriar sephe." Watching the tip sparkle, she let loose, watching its descent on the bare shoulder of her target.
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This is stupid, thought Zaviroa, and then cursed himself for saying so. Knights never used that word, much less the royal swords master. What would his father, Canaan, think of him from behind the Woodpast Gates? But then, the situation is one to be cursed forever and ever no matter who did it.
Earlier that day, Sicila, one of the previous keepers of the Naurasian palace (not to mention one of the better spellcasters of the area), had come across him cleaning the black steel weapons in the arsenal. After a desperate plea for assistance and having him agree to the task, she had changed him into an enemy Crog! Strangely enough, nobody seemed to notice that the real guard was fast asleep, stuffed into a closet somewhere in the basement, and that the young servant always working with weapons was missing.
While marching back and forth in the silver light shining from the fullness of the larger moon, he felt a very light prickling at the nape of his neck: a sure sign of someone practicing Naurasian magic nearby. Twisting around, he had a brief sight of sparks when he was knocked painfully on his back, a blue-tipped arrow suddenly appearing on his bare shoulder.
Breath knocked out of his lungs, he panicked for a second, and then started getting tired...a sedation charm? He instinctively cast a spell-slowing veil, then a water-sight spell enabling him to see past all mirages and invisibility enchantments. From his position on the ground, all he could see of the escapee was a head of long black and brown hair as the owner ran past, running for the gate, slicing the old vines away and running through, shutting the doors silently.
As his eyelids drooped down, all he could think about was of his assailant. He knew only one Naurasian-spells caster with black hair like that.
"No wonder you told me to come, Sicila. The Princess is back in Naurasia," he whispered, falling into a dreamless sleep.
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Making sure that the gate behind her was secure, Evika turned tail on the stone walls and sprinted into the moon-bathed trees of the Silver Forest. Quietly leaping from branch to branch, she headed deeper into the forest, finally stopping in a small clearing with a tributary of the nearby river running through as a crystal stream. As her father used to do, she shimmied up the nearby shield-leaf tree and pulled herself to the top, knapsack and all.
At first, she learned of the namesake of the forest as she gazed around the bright canopy of the moonlit trees around her, but off somewhat on her right was a distant structure of white. Evika smiled as she judged about a half tiere between her and the city walls; not too far, not too near, and not too deep in. At her back, on the other side of the forest, was the sprawling town of Dwol, supporting Dol with goods from all over.
Going back down to the large limbs around the middle of the shield-leaf she was perched on, Evika arranged the flat, broad leaves scattered around the outside of the tree into a tent she could hide in. Moonlight shone through the sparse openings of her work, enabling her to slowly work her way down to the forest floor, where she cut various stringy plants and wove them all into a malleable mat large enough for her to sleep on. Carrying the springy rectangle, Evika bounded back up the shield-leaf, using more vines to secure the four corners onto the limbs of the tree, finishing with a light green hammock hanging before her.
Slowly easing herself on, she smiled to see that it held her weight nicely. The limbs around her became the areas her possessions sat on. Uncurling the tightly rolled blanket she brought with her, she drew it across her tired form and instantly fell asleep; face speckled with the light of the quickly waning full moon.
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Author's Note: If you're confused with the "Naurasian" vocabulary that I decided to include:
...great Natura (Paragraph 6): One of the Naurasian goddesses
Starshine (Paragraph 7): Sunshine
Woodpast Gates (Paragraph 9): The "Gates of Death" Naurasians pass through to die, good or evil
Tiere (Paragraph 16): Rough equivalent of a mile
Yes, I made them up. The usual terms just seemed too...Earth-like to me. Honestly, what are the chances that Naurasia would call their star the "Sun"?
