Chapter 10 – Seeing is Believing
Jane sat at the table outside the kitchen, and was retelling the story to her friends. Rake, Pepper, and Jester were all listening intently. Smithy was still busy in his forge. He rarely left, these days.
Gunther scowled. It wasn't fair. Chloe had tricked him somehow. He expressed this thought to the group.
"That's not unique Gunther, all girls can do that." Jester replied.
"Yes, you just had another 'Male Moment', where your better judgement was temporarily ignored in favour of something…more primitive." Sasha added.
Gunther blushed. Even though he was on excellent terms with these people, even going as far as to call them friends, they still would pick on him from time to time.
"Oh hush you. We shouldn't pick on him. It could've happened to anyone. Well, Jester at least." Pepper scolded.
"Hey! Why just me? Why not Rake, or Smithy?" Jester exclaimed
Everyone laughed. "Oh Jester, don't be silly. Rake is too in love with Pepper and Smithy is too much of a gentleman." Jane replied.
Rake blushed and Pepper squeezed his hand.
Jester scowled.
Pepper realised something. "Who's guarding her now?"
"No one." replied Jane.
"I am not going back there." Gunther said, firmly.
"I'll go. It was going to be my turn next anyway." Jester offered.
"You sure you can resist her feminine whims?" Pepper teased.
"Ha, Funny." Jester replied sarcastically. "I'll show you resistance." he muttered.
Jester made his way across the courtyard and into the castle, down into the dungeons. He hated going there. It was always eerily cold. He opened up the door, but was startled at what he found. The door to Chloe's cell was wide open, the keys swinging from the lock. And her cell was empty.
"Oh no, she's escaped!" Jester ran back to the others.
He told them of his discovery. Jane was the first to respond. "We must find her. Pepper, Rake, you check the courtyards and the garden. Gunther, go with Sasha and check the cell for any clues to where she could've gone. Jester and I will search the castle. We must act quickly. She can't have gone far."
And so everyone set out to look for the missing Chloe.
When Sasha and Gunther reached the dungeon, they found that it was Jester had described; Chloe was gone.
Gunther saw the keys in the lock and felt his belt, realising that they were his. He smacked his forehead in frustration. "I must have dropped the keys."
Sasha frowned. There was something wrong with this picture. Suddenly, the cell shimmered. It happened so quickly, that Gunther missed it, blinking.
"Hold on there, Gunther." Sasha told him, moving towards the cell. She came up to the door. It looked like a door, solid and metal. Experimenting, she reached out to touch it. Her hand fell right though.
"As I suspected. She isn't gone at all, Gunther, it's an illusion." she announced.
She heard someone swear profusely. Sasha put her hands to the real bars and heated them with her Fire magic. The illusion shimmered again and disappeared, revealing the cell as it had been before Gunther left, Chloe sitting scowling in the corner.
"How did you do that?" Gunther asked Sasha.
"Simple illusions can be cancelled out with other magic." she shrugged.
"And how did she do that?" he asked
"My guess is that she's an Illusionist. It's funny; you wouldn't expect a street urchin to be able to wield magic."
Chloe hissed; there was no need to be insulting.
"Do you think she could be one of the Spellcasters of the prophesy?" Gunther quested.
"No, of course not. How could a street urchin be a mighty magic-user from the prophesy. It's impossible." Sasha quickly dismissed.
Gunther wasn't sure if she was right. Could a prophecy really determine between social classes? But Sasha seemed pretty sure.
"Well, we'll have to tell the others about it anyway."
"Alright. I'll watch her while you go to make sure she doesn't try any other tricks." Sasha replied, taking a seat on the vacant stool. Gunther nodded and left, leaving Sasha and a scowling Chloe, alone.
They sat in tense silence for a while.
"That was really clever, seducing Gunther. Would've worked." Sasha commented.
Chloe softened her expression. "Ah, thanks."
"You do that often?"
"You learn things, living on the streets. I've been seducing men since I was twelve."
"Wow, that's young."
Chloe shrugged. "I suppose. But it's what you have to do to survive. Especially if you want meat. Some shop owners are nice and give hand-outs, but the butcher only ever gave to the girls."
"You traded sex for food? How awful" Sasha was shocked.
"Oh no, it never came to that, well not for me. Others did, but I always managed to get around it."
"With illusions?"
"Sometimes." Chloe inspected her fingernails.
Moments later, Jane, Gunther and the others all came in.
"Is it true? Did she really use magic?" Jane asked.
"Well, it was only an illusion, but yes –" Sasha started.
"So, is she a Spellcaster?"
"No, but – "
"But she can do magic? What else is there?" Jane argued.
"Look, there's more to the prophecy than just being able to do magic."
"But she does fit prophecy!" Jester interrupted.
Everyone turned to Jester.
"What do you mean?" Sasha asked.
Jester cleared his throat and recited, "The Spellcaster the third has a nature opposing her femininity. She is strong and valiant and will prove her place among men. Skilled in the devious arts, she will prove hard to determine at first, but will become a powerful ally in time."
"How did you remember all that?" Pepper asked, speaking up for the first time.
"I'm a minstrel; it's my job to commit to memory many poems, stories and songs." he replied
"I still don't see where she fits in." Sasha remarked.
"Well, it takes some adaptation and interpretation, but look at her. When we first took her in it was hard to tell if she was a girl or boy. Sure, now she looks more girly since she's bathed and made her hair all curly and shiny, but before, well, that's the whole 'opposing her femininity' thing. And then there's the whole illusions thing, you know, 'Devious arts'? And right now, we're arguing. 'Hard to determine at first'. It's all there. "
"What about the proving her place among men?" Sasha argued.
"That's obviously something that will happen in the future. I think she's pretty much a shoe-in for this while 'Spellcaster' position. We should hire her right away." Jester insisted.
All the others started to agree.
"Hang on, there's something else in the prophesy I haven't told you about yet." Sasha interrupted. "The Spellcasters three, will be distinguishable by a token. With it they will save the land from the never-ending nightmare."
"A token? Why didn't you tell us that earlier? It would've made the search much easier." Jane exclaimed.
"It wouldn't have made a difference. It doesn't say anything else about this token, let alone what it looks like, and I doubt the bearer would know what it is anyway." Sasha replied.
"Never-ending nightmare? How charming." Jester commented.
"What's your token, then?" Gunther asked Sasha.
Sasha rolled her eyes. Why didn't they all just listen to her? She reached into her shirt and pulled out a necklace. On the necklace was a strange medallion. It was made of polished iron and painted with a thin layer of gold. It was circular and had an indented image of a flame on the middle. Small rubies were studded all along the outside edge. It glittered and shimmered in the torch-light.
"Wow, that's really pretty." Rake remarked.
"It's a family heirloom. I have a lot of them. But this one is defiantly relating to this prophecy." she replied.
"How do you know that?" Gunther asked.
"Because whatever I do, I can't take it off until the prophecy is fulfilled. It's literally magically stuck to me. Tokens like this do that. That's how I know."
Chloe pipped up with interest. "You know, that sounds a lot like mine."
Everyone turned to face her. Chloe reached into her shirt and pulled out a similar looking medallion, but hers was bronze with emeralds studding the rim, and the image was a crescent moon.
"Need any more proof, Sasha?" Jane asked sarcastically.
Sasha sighed, but didn't argue. It didn't shimmer, and she couldn't detect magic, so it wasn't another illusion. Chloe was indeed a Spellcaster.
"Well, what are we waiting for? She shouldn't be in a cell, like a common criminal. She's one of the saviours of our land, after all." Gunther spoke up.
So Jane let her out and they all explained the prophecy. Chloe, glad to be out of jail, agreed to join them, but Sasha was still unsure if she could be trusted. But they ignored her protests and set about to take Chloe to the King to inform him of the new development.
And there it is, two spellcasters down, one to go. Sorry it took so long. I've been really busy (i know thats everyones excuse), but i did go away to America for a month, and now school's started again, and it's Yr 12. So, i doubt there will be any updates for anything of mine anytime soon. I assure you, i'm more upset at it than you are.
Well, i hope you guys enjoyed it, and please review.
All the best
Tiger-Cub684