(Jack's POV)
I was carried to the basement where the white haired man tightly tied to me to a chair. It seemed as if he restrained himself from tightening it to the point of physical pain. The man went to stand in the corner, and Alice strode in flanked by her mother.
Even in the dusty room the difference was becoming easier to notice. The way Alice walked was heavy, as if she were trying to take up as little space as possible. The old queen walked as royalty should, a head held high, but in no way superior. Despite myself I felt the urge to bow.
It was impossible to read Alice's face as she looked at me. I couldn't tell if she felt relieved, betrayed, or just indifferent. I may have made no impact on her whatsoever.
I had been interrogated before, it was one of the first things done to me at the assassin's keep. They tied me to a chair and I underwent the most painful tortures imaginable, and only after I had survived each and every one was I allowed in. I didn't get much choice in the matter though. If I failed, then I died.
"You don't need to torture me, I'll talk." I promised. The white haired man in the back started laughing.
"You're too used to your imperial prisons. We don't torture people in Spera. The ropes are just to protect the queen until we derive your true intentions." He said. I was slightly shocked at his word choice, it seemed that the soldiers in Spera were educated. They weren't bred to be ferocious brutes.
"What is your true name?" The old queen asked. I could have sworn that Alice winced at this question, but when I looked further I could see nothing. Maybe I had imagined it.
"Around the world I am known as Jack Sentan, but to my father I am known as Jonathan Ternac."
"Why were you following my queen?" The man in the back asked.
"Emperor Ternac ordered that she be followed but not approached. I didn't know why, but now I do. He knows who you are Aliendra."
She winced again before quietly saying "My name is Alice."
"What allegiance do you owe the Emperor?" The man asked again.
"He told me that if I failed any task he set to me, then he would kill my mother and sister."
"He would kill his own family to keep you in line. That is just sick." The man replied.
The old queen responded to him. "But not out of character. He refused to speak to me whenever I would hold court. He believes women to be lesser than men in all regards. He may be begging for the excuse to rid his family tree of them."
"What kind of woman would marry such a man?" Alice asked.
"A woman with no choice!" I snapped back. My mother used to tell stories, when she thought that my father couldn't hear, of how he rode into her village and handpicked her. They were married that evening and she was pregnant the next morning. He had hardly even spoken to her.
Everyone in the dusty destroyed basement was silent for another moment.
"Can I ask a question?" I asked to nobody in particular.
"Of course." The old queen replied.
"Can I talk to Alice, alone for a moment?" Alice looked up, and at the white haired man. He nodded. The old queen and the white haired man got up to leave, and white haired man pausing to slip something into Alice's hands before exiting.
Alice and I stood in silence before about a minute before she quietly said.
"I missed you. I really thought it was my fault that you, well when I thought that you were dead."
"I missed you too, and I thought that you died because you didn't want to fight back with magic."
She laughed. "I agree that I should cut back on the ruthless killings, but I will still do everything to stay alive."
"I'm glad… I have something to show you." I fought with my arm until my palm was facing out towards her, the rope cutting into my wrist. I stared at my palm and focused as hard as I could possibly manage. Deep within me a power shifted, and I stretched it out to my palm, and lit a small ball of fire. It wasn't very bright, but it hung suspended there like a little sun. Keeping it lit was wearing on me, and I soon found that keeping the magic focused was difficult. It began to expand and contract unpredictably. I stretched it towards her begging her to take it, she stretched out a finger to touch it. As her finger neared closer the ball became more sporadic
It opened. It closed. It threatened to burn the world. It threatened to pop out of existence. As she grew closer the .little sun grew golden bright. Then she touched it.
The world popped out of existence, replaced by a blinding light that burned through my closed eyes. I imagined that there was a terrible heat, but the world felt cool. Then a splitting headache tore through my skull. It felt like the boundaries of my mind were being forcibly torn away. I screamed in agony, and another voice joined in. A female voice shouted the chorus of suffering.
Our pain became a harmony as our voices mingled with each other and created the voice of hell. A perfection of torture. Finally after what may have been seconds, or may have been days the light ceased. I was able to open my eyes to the destruction in the room.
Every thing that could have been burned was, and the building was only barely standing. Alice and I were sprawled out on the ground, the pain too much for us to bear standing up.
I got up and thought We need to get out of here before this place crumbles.
A voice joined me and I heard Alice say Agreed
That's funny, I don't remember talking aloud. We quickly sprinted up the stairs that practically crumbled beneath our feet. At the top, a pile of rubble separated us from the main room.
Allow me I said to Alice. I stepped up to the conjoinment of burnt logs, and reached deep inside of myself. Somehow I knew exactly where the power was and how to use it. I focused on the logs, and imagined them burning to cinders. No sooner had I thought it than the logs unanimous exploded into pieces too small for the eye to see. A bang immediately followed this so loud that I reached up to cover my ears. I didn't know I had that much power. I just had trouble creating a ball of light.
I turned to Alice who looked equally surprised, but gave me a short round of applause. We looked through the dust to see the queen standing back holding her hands up menacingly. The white haired man was standing close to the doorway with an axe, as if he was trying to break through the rubble. Everyone else was standing in the back looking nervous, not for themselves. Not one of them had left the building when it had been burning. This was a truly loyal court.
The white haired man looked at us and asked "Are you okay?"
Yeah, I heard Alice say. A little shaken up but fine.
I don't know how much you care, but same here I said. I don't know what happened.
The white haired man, His name is Ashryver Alice said to me. I didn't know how she knew what I was thinking, it must be a girl thing. Ashryver looked at both of us waiting for a response.
"Dear lord they must be in shock!" An old woman shouted from the back of the room.
I'm not in shock I- I had turned to look at Alice and I realized. Her lips weren't moving. She was talking, and I could hear her, but she wasn't moving her lips.
Oh no, I am not okay with this. I thought Alice! Can you hear me!
She winced as if in pain and shouted back You don't need to shout! Oh. You can hear me right now?
Every word. I responded
I hope he doesn't see, oh no. A brief series of images I was never meant to see flashed through my head, and color rose to my cheeks. I tried to stop images of my own from reaching her, but hair pale skin turned a bright shade of scarlet.
Well I suppose privacy is out of the window until we fix this.
She finally spoke aloud "I am not okay with this." Everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief, each one wondering what had happened in that room.
The old queen stepped forward and wrapped Alice in a tight embrace. Although she leapt back as if burned."Oh." She simply said. "Oh." She stepped back and surveyed her daughter, and then she looked at me, and just looked contemplative for a moment. After a few seconds her face became a mask of acceptance, and she turned to face her court.
"I suggest all of you turn away, to preserve my daughter's modesty."
Wait What? I heard Alice ask in my head.
I have no idea what's going on, I responded.
After the court had turned away, I made to do the same thing but Alena stopped me. "Jack, you'll want to see this."
Like hell he will, Alice snapped. She then turned to look at me Sorry, well this whole no privacy thing starts now I guess. I cannot wait until we fix this.
"Aliendra, could you please turn around and remove your shirt." Alice complied and I caught myself admiring her back back which earned a short mental grown from her. It looked completely normal until a glowing mark appeared directly below her right shoulder. It looked like a cross with two diagonal intersections cutting through it, and seemed to be burned into the skin.
"You may put your shirt back on. Jack would you please do the same." I heard a contented purr from Alice and I sent her a sharp snap which sent her giggling.
I peeled off my tunic and held it high above my head. Alice sent me an image of my back and in had the same mark in the same place. A flaming cross with two diagonal intersections.
I turned around to a thoughtful Alena. "Well this just got complicated."
Author's note- This was not supposed to happen, but it worked and can provide a framework for the rest of the story to build off of. I hope you enjoyed, thank you for reading. Side-note I have to manually go in and italicize everything that Alice and Jack say to each other, after I upload the story. So if the chapters grow to be a little shorter it is just to cut down on the amount of editing that goes into the story before it is finally published. (Yes, the chapters full of spelling errors are the edited versions).