Day Two of the October One-shots Challenge!


He's been in love with her for centuries now, only she never remembers. She always forgets about him, and she's always different. Of course, that might be because she keeps dying on him and the next incarnation of her is someone brand new who doesn't recognize him. As he's cursed to keep living and waiting, she's been cursed never to have any memories of him consciously pour over into her next life. She's also cursed to keep dying – over and over and over again – despite that not being part of the spell.

He just wants it to stop now, after six centuries of watching her live and die.


When he'd first met her, she was a young woman. She had lived a prosperous life. Her family was one of recognition and Jay was of nobility. Lara had belonged to a line of sorcerers and sorceresses that had worked for Jay's family in exchange for status and boarding. In truth, Jay had secretly been trying to gain her hand in marriage, but neither of their fathers would accept that. According to his own father, Jay was slated to wed a noble from a neighboring kingdom; Lara's father was insistent that Lara could marry anyone, just not him. Mason was never fond of Jay's eager observation of the mystical arts that the sorceress practiced, and Vincent felt it was a waste of his son's time to lollygag around with the magic-users in the castle.

"A prince has no place meddling with magicks," his father would always snap. "You'll taint what potential you have to be a ruler if you waste your effort on them."

Jay had never agreed – and so he always continued to seek Lara out while she was busy with her spell craft.

Lara had been working on brewing a potion that she'd diligently been studying. According to what little Jay had paid attention to (in hindsight, he curses himself for not listening better to her explanation), the potion was said to grant all forms of healing to whomever ingested it. Jay hadn't thought anything of it. If this potion could heal people, then his country would never suffer illness. It was a wonderful thing.

For a fortnight, she worked on it and Jay kept close, eager to see for himself the end product. He slept in a chamber close to the sorcery-quarters; he had meals and objects of his studies brought to him so he wouldn't have to leave her side. Everything was going so smoothly. Jay couldn't wait to see the eyes of his people light up and hear the praise for his sorceress when the news spread of her work.

And news did spread, though not for the better.

On the night Lara was finishing the potion, the castle was attacked. Skeletons had risen from their earthly resting places and swarmed the castle gates. A dragon made of fire itself overpowered the guards and destroyed the walls, allowing the foot-soldiers to rush inside. The castle was filled with screams as a slaughter took place above the sorcery-quarters, and the castle seemed to tremble with every quaking step the dragon above took.

Jay remembers in vivid detail getting thrown up against a wall before he could warn Lara when a stranger had entered the quarters. He had no followers behind him, but he was clearly of magical descent. Until then, Jay had never experienced a darker side of magicks. The force against his ribs, though, was in no way kind as it threatened to crush his insides with every breath he attempted.

He was forced to watch as Lara was approached by the stranger. He was older than her, and he was stronger in every way possible, leaving her visibly helpless. All the stranger had to do was move a finger and the sorceress' body would react, like a puppeteer playing the strings of its creation. Although Lara made attempts to resist, she was taken over to the cauldron she was using for her spell, wrists forcibly raised despite her struggles. A dagger was drawn across her wrists and they were promptly suspended over the cauldron as though she was willingly offering her life to the spell. If Jay hadn't known her, or hadn't seen her trying desperately to break the stranger's odd control over her limbs, he might've thought she was.

But Jay knew better. Jay knew Lara would never give up any blood to a spell. Only dark magicks ever required a sacrifice like that. As Jay watched the blood slip over her arms and into the potion, his stomach knotted. The stranger was making no attempts to allow her free from the bloodletting, and Jay realized in horror that his plan was to kill her. Why else would he control her limbs, if not to make certain she wouldn't slip from her feet when her consciousness fled?

Jay struggled harder against his invisible bonds, listening as the man began to speak:

"When I heard that someone was foolishly attempting a spell such as this, I thought it nothing more than rumor. Of course, I am nothing if not curious. This kingdom was filled with talk of your spell, little sorceress. A shame you won't live to know what it will now do. Ah, but perhaps I can be kind. Would you like to know? Certainly you would.

"Blood is powerful, child, especially when it comes to magicks. To let blood is to be willing to risk everything for something, and the gods will reward such sacrifice. They are hungry creatures, but they respect power. And a spell like yours, if given with this offering, is strong enough to grant immortality. Unfortunately, the brewer will never live to see the spoils of their work. It is only their blood that is an acceptable gift to the gods. I must thank you for you participation. You have been incredibly useful to me."

Immortality? This stranger was seeking immortality, and such could only be gained with the loss of Lara's life? Jay's heart dropped into his feet as he came to notice that Lara was already visibly pale and looking weakened. He didn't want her to die. He didn't want to feel as helpless as he was, left only to watch as she died in front of him and this stranger reaped the benefits of her work.

He doubled his efforts against the stranger's spell and managed to free himself, dropping to his knees as the force holding him went lax. He charged forward. As soon as he made contact with the man, Lara was freed from the grip holding her, leaving her to collapse to the stone flooring without a sound. The stranger, seeing what Jay had caused, began to struggle with him for hand-holds. Jay tripped over his feet and he fell backward into the cauldron.

Out of instinct, Jay went to take in a breath of surprise. The liquid was hot and burnt him even as it raced down his throat, into his lungs and stomach. He scrambled out of the cauldron hurriedly, choking on what was in his body. The force of his coughing fit dropped him to his knees next to Lara, his hands landing in sticky blood that had slowed considerably from its escape of her wrists.

"Little pest," the stranger had hissed, before chuckling at him. "But, I must stay, you were quite loyal to stay with her and attempt to defend her. Usually, though, it's the pet that defends her master, not the other way around. Never fear, the spell requires constant rejuvenating. In a few decades, she'll return to appease it."

Jay couldn't move. His eyes were locked on Lara. She was so pale, and when he went to try to shake her awake, her body was cooler. It wasn't cold, but warmth was already beginning to leave her. He had no time to find her a healing potion or seek other help, if help could even be found any longer in the castle.

"Unfortunate that I'll have to deal with you for eternity," the stranger added. "You'll be meddlesome."

Jay shook himself from his frozen state and turned his gaze in the stranger's direction, noticing that the man was scooping a vial of the potion out of the cauldron. Knowing he could no longer save the woman he loved, he launched himself toward the stranger, just too late. The stranger swallowed what was in the vial, assuring his continued life, but it no longer mattered to him. Jay knocked the stranger from his feet and back into the cauldron's side, causing the potion to be emptied onto the floor.

He grunted at he fell to the floor, thrown aside by the stranger. He looked up, aware that his limbs were once again bound by invisible chains meant to keep him still. The stranger, meanwhile, was drenched in the immortality potion. Fiery red hair stuck up in places and clung to his face in others. The long coat he was wearing was now a darker shade of maroon and a dingy yellow-brown as opposed to red and gold as it had been when he entered the chamber. Jay could only imagine he looked a similar state of disarray.

"Pest," the stranger barked. "You're nothing but a pest! Let's see how you'd like to actually be one!"

Jay sent him a confused glance before he loosed a howl of pain. His limbs shrunk and snapped, bones breaking and grinding against one another as they shifted unnaturally. His spine and skull lit up in pain as his ears moved and his tailbone extended into a tail. Everything hurt. Every single nerve-ending was on fire, and his vision swam in black for a moment.

When his vision cleared, the ground was closer and the stranger was collecting Lara's notes about her potion. Jay knew that every ingredient was written on her notes. Lara always kept expertly documented care of her potions so that they could be replicated without worry. Part of Jay wished she had never written down how to accomplish this potion, though.

The stranger turned to him and huffed. "A cat? I was aiming to make you a little rat, but I suppose a cat is fitting, too," he laughed, "you'll only get nine lives, little kitty. Use them wisely."

The bounds around Jay released when the stranger vanished. Jay rolled onto his feet, clumsily stumbling over to Lara. He wasn't very coordinated on four legs, but he managed to get to her without falling over his paws. He sat next to the sorceress' body, ears flicking back, tail curling around himself.

In a matter of an hour, his kingdom was gone. His father and mother were dead. Lara's father, and all of the others who worked in the castle were dead. Lara, the woman he loved, was dead. It was going to be torture to go on, but he had no choice. Jay would live on to avenge her, and to save one version of her. Someday, he would be able to see her alive again.