Summary: Everything the Prince worked to avoid is happening again. Now he has paired up with Farah and the Vizier to try to save the world… again.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, all is God's.


Fate
Chapter Six: Magic

The Prince scowled and tugged at the curved, eagle beak that served as the hilt of the Sand Kings sword. It was stuck. The Prince gripped the beak, and used his legs to push against the Sand King while he tugged.

"Leggo!" he muttered. The sword budged slightly, but remained in the Sand Kings firm grip. The Prince paused, breathing deeply and cursing.

"Having trouble?" the Vizier inquired amusedly. The Prince ignored him and tugged even more. The sword gave way and he landed on his butt. Farah and the Vizier chuckled behind him. The Prince stayed on the floor a few minutes and caught his breath, his cheeks burning. He stood up and slid the eagle sword into his back hilt with a familiar comfort. 'We should be safer now that I have this sword.'

"Oh, you may want to kill those sand creatures before they…" a horrific groan ripped through the silence. "…revive," the Vizier finished, giving the Prince a bored stare.

The Prince whipped around. Every single last sand creature resumed as if nothing had happened. He instinctively ducked to avoid the Sand King's sword before remembering he held it now. Even so, the Sand King swung a mighty punch over his head that he was glad to avoid.

"I saw you control these monstrosities before, why don't you now?" the Prince demanded as he swiped one guard creature through the waist. It howled and dissipated.

"I don't have the strength anymore," the Vizier complained melodramatically.

"Great," the Prince said. He held his swords up for defense. There were too many of them and they were too tightly packed on this narrow rampart for him to risk anything fancy. 'I don't want to jump over one and get speared while in the air, or miss the ground.' He slashed at the sand creatures closest to him, dissolving five of them at once. 'I've missed this sword.' Their sand flew through the air past him.

"Help me!" Farah shrieked. The Prince glanced at her and cursed as a sand creature's sword slashed his stomach. Blood seeped through the shallow cut and stained his white pants. He stumbled back a few steps before he could get a firm footing again. He slashed the eagle sword sideways dissipating three sand creatures at once and turned to look again.

Sand ruffled through his hair in a strong wind. He whirled around, expecting more sand creatures to appear behind him. Farah stood facing him with her bow.

"Don't shoot!" the Prince yelled.

"Just for that, I should," Farah muttered. 'I can't believe he thinks I would shoot the sand. As if he thinks I don't have the intelligence to wait until the sand creatures form.' Farah waited. Her palms were sweaty, and she hastily wiped them on her skirt. 'I can handle this.' The sand flew towards her and any moment it would stop and gather to form the creatures. But it hadn't. It was getting closer. 'Why isn't it stopping?'

Farah tried sidestepping the sand, but it followed her. 'It's going to consume me!' Farah only had time to duck and cover her face before the sand was upon her.

"Farah!" the Prince yelled. He knocked back sand creatures with his sword and sprinted towards her. A cyclone of sand surrounded her silent form. 'I can't tell where she is… if I strike, I might hit her!'

"Farah!" he shouted. "Can you hear me?"

A rushing wind flung her hair around and rustled her clothes. 'Why isn't it attacking?' Something tickled her neck. She grabbed at her throat and felt sand pouring into her amulet. She peered between her fingers. A tornado of sand spun in front of her, the tail end connecting to her glowing amulet. 'The sand… is it… disappearing?'

"Farah!" the Prince yelled. She could hear him clearly.

"Prince?" she yelled.

"Farah! Are you all right?"

"I… I think so…" Farah said. The cyclone shrank quickly and disappeared. She looked up and saw the Prince fighting off another sand creature ferociously. The Prince grunted and screamed angrily with every attack.

"I'm all right, now," she told him.

He glanced at her and relaxed. He sliced the sand creature from the shoulder to its leg and it disappeared.

"What… happened?" he asked between deep breaths.

"Are you all right?"

"Of course I am. I'm always out of breath after a rush like that."

"What happened to you?" the Prince asked.

"I think… I think my amulet absorbed the sand."

The Prince blinked at her. He muttered something incomprehensive and hacked the head off another sand creature before asking, "Is your amulet related to the Dagger… and the Hourglass?"

Farah shrugged and fingered said amulet. "Not as far as I know."

Another sand creature approached. "We'll figure it out later. Watch your back!"

Farah stumbled behind the Prince as he attacked two more sand creatures.

"Help us!" Farah barked at the Vizier who was leaning casually on his staff.

"Why should I?"

"What! Do you really think you can survive without us?"

"I suppose not…" the Vizier drawled. "Very well, then." He reluctantly lifted and wiggled the fingers of his right hand towards the Prince as he mumbled a small chant under his breath. Glowing red wisps shot out of his hand and hit the Prince.

"Tell me what you are doing!" Farah demanded. The Prince's agonized screams tore her attention from the Vizier. She looked over to see the Prince sinking to the ground. Before she could even lift her bow the Vizier finished a second chant, sending blue wisps that exploded on her back.

A strange calmness settled over Farah. Her bow slipped out of her hand and she sprinted towards the collapsed Prince. She grabbed the Prince's forgotten swords. Farah whirled around, remembering the brief sword-fighting lessons her father had given her. 'Hold your sword firmly… Ignore all doubts…' her father's voice whispered in her ear. She parried a spear, but was knocked down by the force of the blow.

Farah looked up and gasped, "Raman." One of her father's personal guards stood over her. 'No, not Raman, a monster with his face.' Farah convinced herself. Paper-thin skin covered his body, just like all the others. But the others she did not know, had not grown up knowing and trusting. The monster brought down its sword. Farah rolled away and the sword struck the stone floor with a loud clang. "Raman," Farah pleaded. It roared in her face.

Farah backed away. Another monster roared behind her and she whirled around to find the Sand King looming over her. She thrust at it, but the Sand King knocked the sword out of her feeble hands. Behind her, other sand creatures roared.

The Prince screamed again, and Farah glanced at him. He was in the fetal position, clutching his sides and writhing in agony as metal appeared in his sides. 'Injuries! Wait… What in the world?' She did a double take. Four swords, two under each arm, were slowly coming out of his sides. Sand creatures approached him, their weapons raised.

She felt something small and light hit her back. Everything around her slowed to a halt. Farah examined the Sand King before her. The sword it wielded was above her head, descending an inch every second. She looked around to find the closest sand creatures in the same state. The rest of the sand creatures were normal, as were the Prince and, from what she could hear, the Vizier. The other sand creatures could not get past the ring of their slowed fellows.

The Prince groaned and Farah crouched next to him, carefully avoiding the swords, which were at the hilts now. 'Surely the pain is almost over…'

"Sword…" the Prince muttered.

"Oh!" Farah said. She looked around for her fallen sword and caught sight of it beneath a sand creatures legs. She rushed to it, but hesitated when she got there. 'How long will this enchantment last? I suppose the longer I wait…' Farah dropped to the ground and snatched the sword out from under the sand creature's legs. The sand creatures sped up instantly.

A yellow wisp hit her in the back and her arms and legs rippled with newly acquired muscles. She stood up and parried numerous blows sent her way. Eventually she moved from a defensive stance to an offensive one, hacking and slashing at the sand creatures around her, finding undeniable pleasure at her own power and strength. Sand creatures dissipated at a single slash of one sword, while the other sword knocked them down.

The Sand King was there again. Farah wove around its attacks and struck. It did not fall, like the others, but was knocked back. She struck again, but this time Raman jumped in the way. Farah stared at Raman for one horrified moment before he-it dissipated. 'He gave his life for the enemy king…' Farah corrected herself. 'Existence. Every single one is already dead.' The irony of her father's most trusted guard protecting a rival King was not lost on her. 'There are no rival kingdoms anymore.' Farah realized. 'This is much bigger than that.'