(Alice's POV)
The sounds of war were earsplitting even from several miles away, and jerked us from an uneasy sleep. I opened my heavy eyes, and gazed over my home. Somnium was in chaos, fires roared and arrows were more populous than the birds. Surrounding the city, now completely visible in the daylight, thousands if not hundreds of thousands of tents fashioned with the imperial insignia held their breath, as if waiting for the catalyst for them to release their mighty force.
I turned to Jack one last time and asked Are you sure that you want to do this?
He gazed out over the battle raging within stone walls of my city, If we don't the rebels will surely fail.
It's a good life Jack Sentan.
That it is Alice Springhaven. We silently donned and adjusted our chainmail. He handed me his dark iron sword and, before I could protest, he showed me his two wicked curved daggers. We sheathed our weapons, and started down the mountain.
It did not pass us by that to enter the city we would have to pass through the imperial camp. Our plan was simple; pose as a couple of refugees seeking a place to stay, and when we were in the city join the rebels in the fight against the empire.
We made it to the edge of the camp when a tall and too-thin soldier approached us. I ran through the story one last time, and pretended to be huddled and afraid. He took one look at us and said "Jonathan Ternac-" His throat was cut and his lifeless body fell to the floor before I even knew what had happened. Jack merely stepped over the corpse and called out. So much for the element of surprise.
Dozens of soldiers poured out of tents to see what the commotion was all about, they surrounded us quickly and had us at spear's length. I broke through the veil and allowed the magic to flow through me, the men all came into sharper focus. I grinned wildly exposing feral teeth.
A few of the men cast scared looks in each other's direction but none advanced. They all just tried to keep us from moving forward. I took a step forward and they all hastily moved back. I spun on my heel and at the same time allowed the magic coursing through me to take form. Blue flame nipped at my toes, and spread up around me building me a flesh of fire. Fire took me away, Alice vanished and was replaced with this impossible powerful duplicate: a vengeful god. Jack, my anchor, at my side felt the restraint it took to keep the fire bound and restricted. He nodded once, and my tongues of fire tasted the air.
Several of the frightened mortal men took off sprinting, the few that remained looked as if they desperately wanted to join their far-wiser friends. I grinned, they knew how impossibly outmatched they were. I drew the dark iron blade and pointed it at a random man's throat. Fire surrounded the blade as if it were a part of me, and threw the embers, thanks to the magic coursing through my veins, I saw the toy-soldier gulp.
Jack seemed to be waiting for some kind of signal to attack, ha I'll give him a signal. I thrust myself at a random soldier and pierced him quickly, and faster than even my enhanced eye could detect I leapt to another. Within the span of a second I was back at Jack's side, the guards just stood gaping at me, too stunned to realize that they were already dead. I allowed the magic to ebb away, and the bodies fell to the floor, blood finally realizing that it was time to escape. Jack only frowned like a toddler with a toy taken away, and silently took off to the city. Giggling, I followed him.
The remaining men in this section of the encampment watched from closed tent flaps as we strolled by, one was brave enough to openly stare without cover. I hissed in his direction, and he threw himself behind a barrel.
All the king's horses and all the kings men, are scared to death of an 18 year old girl. I said. Jack snorted.
Do you have any idea how frightening you were back there, I'd be frightened of you too if I didn't spend the last month teaching you how to do that. He retorted.
Yeah, how did you learn how to do that? I asked.
I had an idea, and it worked. He said simply.
No, you're gonna have to give me more than that. How did Jack Sentan, the magical genius, come to acquire his skills? I prodded.
He sighed. I haven't been sleeping much, or at all really. In those hours I just lay there and think, and sometimes ideas pop into my head and I remember to try them in training.
We walked in silence, another soldier saw us, shrieked, and then promptly dropped to the ground behind a crate.
Was I really that terrifying? I asked. Jack thought back to the fight, and there I was. I started off as a somewhat nervous looking girl, but it was obvious when the magic started flowing through me. I relaxed and became noticeably more confident. Blue fire started at my feet and flowed up my body engulfing me. I looked up to the sky with closed eyes, and then gazed back down at the soldiers. I-Jack, nodded and then I drew my sword, looking thirty years older I sent one final challenging look at the troops before slaughtering them. My face bore no resemblance to the girl I had been moments before, in that time I felt like a god, but here I truly looked like a god. There was no hint of remorse or fear on my perfectly aged face, just raw pleasure. Watching through someone else's eyes, I saw the monster I truly was and bit back the urge to vomit. There was the creature inside of me, the cruel vicious stalker of the night that takes pleasure in brutally slaughtering those that cannot resist. I saw truly who I was, and knew that I could never become queen. What may a demon do with control of a country? I didn't even want to consider.
I tore myself from his memories and focused on walking. A scrawny teenage with a helmet far to large for his head charged me and attempted to run me through. A sudden gust of wind threw him back, his sword only inches from my chest, and into a hole that hadn't been there a second ago. I glanced back at Jack with an outstretched hand. I would've made some snarky comment about him using a "crutch" as he had called it, but honestly I wasn't in the mood.
A thought occurred to me, I saw him coming and hadn't even tried to defend myself. His sword was less than a second from killing me and I hadn't so much as even raised my hands to stop him. Perhaps I had come to terms with my death, it certainly would save a lot of lives in the long-haul.
I completely detached from Jack for a moment, and allowed myself to picture a world where I didn't exist. My mother and father both would have survived that night, and they would both still be alive. My father probably would have been able to preserve the entire court of Spera, and they would lead the rebel forces to defeat Emperor Ternac. Perhaps by now they would have already succeeded and would be living in that big castle I can see over the walls of the city. Thousands would still be alive, and the Jack would be working for the assassin's guild doing what he was really good at. The world without me, seems like such a good place. I resolved that somehow in the upcoming battle, I would get myself killed, an unfortunate gust of wind directs an arrow my way. My chainmail wasn't put on correctly and a sword finds a weak spot, I didn't care. I just only knew that by this time tomorrow, Alice Springhaven would be among the list of bodies found in the wreckage of a great battle for Spera.
An unfortunate loss for someone to die so young, but my death would spur poor Jack Sentan into rushing to the capital and with my power all to himself he will easily tear the emperor from the throne, and peace will return to the world. I smiled grimly to myself, I'll finally be doing something right.
The gates to the city were opened by some guards who looked ready to soil themselves, and we stepped into hell.
Author's note- This was my first step away from another story I read about self-loathing and I feel like it's the right one. I really like what I did in this chapter because I made great use of juxtaposition and character development. (Normally I hate talking about stuff that I've done well but I'm doing a lot of stuff like I like in these stories.) Thank you for reading, the next few chapters are going to be quite intense..