(Alice's POV)
I was falling, falling. The pain in my chest disintegrated and I was left empty, in complete darkness, alone. I opened my eyes and nothing less than oblivion greeted me. Darkness and silence extended in all directions. I looked down hoping to see some open pit of fire that I was hurtling towards, but just empty darkness.
If this is hell I'm disappointed. I joked to alleviate the pressure of silence building around me. I expected giant pillars of stone and some fiery god punishing me for all of eternity. It's nothing less than I deserve so where is he. If my punishment is falling forever then I feel robbed, where's the creativity?
A voice that wasn't my own shot through the void. A voice I only ever heard in my head but now reverberated through my entire being. Alice I know you can hear me, pull through. Your people need you. I need you. Come back. A blood soaked hand pushed through the darkness as if it were nothing less than water and gripped mine. I yanked against it, but it refused to budge.
Let go! I shouted begging to be left to my own demise, but the hand wouldn't budge. I gave one final tug and the hand slipped slightly. Grimly satisfied I proceeded to push and pull until finally the hand released me, and Jack could just let me die.
The hand retracted from the void and I was greeted again by the infinity of nothing. I finally understood how silence could be deafening. Fate resolved itself to me and I continued to fall. or fly or whatever was going on here.
Jack's voice still nagged at the corner of my consciousness. Your people need you, I need you. I replayed those words in my mind, each time Jack's voice sounded a little less like his own. I was losing him.
I pictured him hanging over my corpse, the weight of my death pulling him down too. The grief on his face would be unbearable. He would be inconsolable for days, never eating or sleeping just living in his own pain.
I choked back a sob and the sudden noise broke the silence. No, no his pain was good this is what you were trying to accomplish. I thought to myself He'll go and kill off Emperor Ternac. The world will be free and be better without you in it.
My vision blurred and a tear broke and fell across my face. Despite whatever direction I was falling the tear fell like it would if I were standing up. My head fell forward and my hand shot out to steady myself. I caught something cool and hard and used that as I sobbed loudly in my emptiness.
I used my tunic to wipe the snot off of my face, then went ahead and wiped the tears from my eye. I sat down on something cold and hard and just stared at a darkness that seemed much brighter than it had a moment ago.
I opened my eyes and blinding light attacked me. No I wasn't alive again, I panicked. I wasn't, the light I saw was candlelight bouncing off of thousands of crystals compressed to form a giant room. To my left was a crystalline pillar that I had braced myself on. When did I get here? Was my punishment finally ready? The god of the underworld probably needed more time to find something cruel enough for the Witch of the Eastern Kingdom.
I stepped to my feet and walked out to meet whatever I deserved. A fat old man with black hair sat casually upon a golden throne. At his feet was his much younger much thinner mirror image. The boy raised a familiar looking sword and held it aimed at the fat old man's throat.
It took a second to register, but when I did, my heart fell from my chest. Jack ran to strike down his father, but faster than any old man ought to be a blade of similar dark iron caught Jack's in the air. Jack's sword went high and the opening was clear. I moved to run and save him but my feet were ground in place, this is my punishment I am only an observer at events to come.
The Emperor didn't take the opening, but instead caught Jack's sword at the hilt and threw it across the room. Jack looked shocked at the sudden turn of events, but quickly formed fire in his left hand and lightning in his right. He leaped backwards and threw them both at the throne. It exploded sending sharp clumps of gold everywhere, smoke filled the chamber and Jack relaxed.
A shadow crossed the smoke and emerged unharmed from the darkness. Jack tensed but couldn't move. He jerked against some unseen force, but remained planted in place. His rose up to his toes and hung suspended. The emperor walked over to his son and rested a hand on his cheek.
"I only ever wanted to keep my people safe. Magicians have too much power, it would be so easy for them to overwhelm everyone. I rose to power and started hunting those with power before they could be corrupted. The ancients already looked down on the humans as slaves, and only took those will magical blood to be taught the nature of the world. Is that fair? I asked you a question boy! Is that fair?"
"No." He spat.
"No What?"
"No sir."
Jack struggled at his binding but remained suspended. The emperor resumed his story. " I saw how those without magic were treated. They were animals, slaves to be used for all the hard labor. If a family was born with the gift of supreme power they were sent to be trained, and those born without it had to do everything for those that did. My older brother had to serve me like a dog because I had a little affinity for water. Can you see how our world now is better than that world?"
Jack seemed unwittingly interested. "Yes, but how does killing them make you any better than the ancients?"
"Magic is a curse, it claws at you and tells you that you are more powerful than everyone else so why shouldn't you be treated better than everyone else. Only I have been able to withstand the lulls of magical power because I have suffered among those that didn't. I look now to the revolution you began and I only see the ignorance of someone who has only known the world I created. Your revolution was only going to restore us to the dark times I fought so hard to get away from. You have convinced me of two things. The first is that I am going to instruct the kingdoms on the horrors of the world I pulled them from, and the second is that I want you to serve under me."
"You'll have to kill me." Jack responded, but there was no determination in his voice. It fell soft.
"The people trust you Jack, you led them here. If you tell them that the revolution was a success and that I bowed to your demands, then they will believe you. By my side you can decide which magicians live, and which ones are obviously too corrupt to be returned to the natural world. You can save a lot of lives... Jonathan."
Jack bowed his head, I hoped that he was just preparing to strike at the Emperor but when he raised his head, a smile was on his face.
"After I lost Alice, I wondered if the revolution was truly worth it. All I did was kill people who didn't want to fight me. If I can truly make the world better, than I am proud to call you my father and Emperor. By my name Jonathan Ternac, I swear to serve you until the day I die!"
The Emperor released Jack and he fell to the floor, Jack stood up straight, an open line of attack present, and he bowed. He was lost.
The world blurred and I could finally move again. The ground underneath my dissipated and infinite darkness greeted me again. I tried to tell myself that what I saw could never happen, but couldn't. Would my death fuel or extinguish his fire? I pictured that he would go into a rampage and tear the Emperor's castle down with his bare hands, but what if he just couldn't take the senseless death anymore. I closed my eyes, and felt new ground hit my feet.
I was in a familiar town square, the center of Spera. Crowds gather around me to see some attraction in the center, every face I saw looked stricken with grief. I pushed past my people until the crowd parted and I could see what was so interesting. A dozen hanging ropes were fitted to a grand stage. The victims: Nobles of Spera. The executioner: Jonathan.
Ten were dead and hanging, but two remained to be executed. The first was a bear of a man with a specially thick rope tied around his neck. Captain Xavier looked down at disgust at Jack, Jack met his gaze with rivalling fury.
"You are charged with conspiracy to overthrow the Emperor, and successfully assassinating Aliendra ex-queen of Spera. How do you plead?" His anger shook every word he spoke. What changed him was obvious. With no emperor to blame, his unending search for vengeance led him to the people that sent me to my death. It made sense until I stopped to consider… no he couldn't have. He did. A special noose directly beside Xavier's held the only other person I couldn't stand to see hanged: Mom.
Alena stood on her stool, the rope fighting to claim her before she was even sentenced. She started down with incomprehensible greif. Everything she ever stood for was gone, but she still fought on. Were it I. I would have just kicked the stool out of the way and died already, but Alena waited her turn. She wanted her people to know that she didn't give up even when it was surely her turn to go. So she hardened her face and turned to stare at Jack, she didn't blink once.
"I plead guilty ya' rudding coward, but I didn't kill Alice, she done killed herself off. I would'a too if I had ta share a mind with your sick twisted fantasies."
"Then by the laws of the Empire I pronounce you guilty. Any last words?" Jack asked, excitement building on his face.
"I may die today, but Spera will rise again greater than ever. I only wish that I could see the day when your head gets well and truly shoved on a stick."
Jack stepped forward to kick the stool out from under him, but Xavier shouted out. "I'll do it myself you ruddy bastard. If I have to go out I'm doing it on my terms." Xavier kicked his legs forward, and then when they fell back they knocked the stool out from under him. He fell slightly and the rope caught him. He made a terrible sound as the rope squeeze the life out of him, but he didn't reach out once. He just hung suspended until the noise fell off, and he was still.
"And now the main attraction. Queen Alena, you created the rebel group known as the band of Spera, and sent Alice into battle untrained. You killed her with that. killed the only woman I ever loved and I cannot forgive you for that." Where anger had been on his face, guilt soon replaced it. He hated himself for not being there, and blaming others was the only way to alleviate it. "How do you plead?"
Alena looked out at her people, and said "Guilty of all charges."
"Then by the laws of the Empire I sentence you to death. Any last words?"
"I'm sorry," She looked down and stared at me as if she could see me. "I've failed you." Jack kicked her stool and her scream as she fell sent shivers through my entire being. The woman who held me when I was afraid, murdered by the boy who understood me better than anyone else.
The world blurred again, and I fell into the void. I wanted to make a joke to myself to make this more bearable but I just couldn't. Nothing in the scene I just witnessed would be improbable. If Jack was bent to serve Ternac that's exactly what he would do. That's what he could be doing right now, and I could've have him. I could've saved them all.
A final torture session materialized in front of my eyes. The same square as before, but some time had obviously passed. The gallows had been replaced by a massive hole that took up a majority of the square. A line of citizens stretched around the hole, each move being ordered by soldiers. At the head of the soldiers and the front of the line, was a very haggard looking Jack. He appeared no older, but stress had claimed his forehead, and his clothes clung to his skin. He hadn't been eating. He raised his hand and called for the line to move. As one the citizens of Spera took a step forward so the head of the line could get run through by Jack, and tossed in the hole. He raised a bloody hand again and called for the line to move. I threw my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. He was executing innocents now? Another body, that of an old woman, found its way into the pit. I looked up at the sky, and crimson surrounded me. There would be no light today.
A boy wearing chainmail far too large for him waved in my direction. I turned and looked behind me at whoever he was waving at, but there was nobody even close. I looked back and his eyes were firmly on me, he narrowed his gaze and waved again. I pointed to myself and he nodded. I walked over to him, wondering how he was able to see me. I reached him and he just looked at me with disappointment in his eyes.
"You could've saved them you know. Your people, your mom, Jack, they all relied on you to lead and protect them." He was only a boy, but spoke like a man.
"I just didn't want to hurt anyone else." I pleaded, trying to display the case that all made sense so long ago.
He snorted. "Yeah, with you gone nobody is getting hurt. Everyone just decided to hold hands and share and love each other. Grow up Aliendra."
"My name is not-" I started.
"Yes it is. The longer you run from your past, the more your people suffer. They depend on you and you keep letting them down, now more than ever. You're powerful and strong but you keep telling yourself that you don't deserve power and that you aren't strong enough to wield it. The fact that you were strong enough to relinquish power is enough of a sign that you are ready. It is time for you to lead your people, and save them from this." He gestured over to Jack as he cut down another civilian.
"I'm dead, I can't help you." I said.
"You can do more than you ever thought you could. Jack saved you, you have a duty to go back. If it's any help, your chainmail helped me to survive. A stray arrow would have killed me in the battle, but I survived. Now go save the rest." The world blurred and I was falling once more through the void. A blood soaked hand reached through the veil and instead of gripping me, it merely opened a palm. I reached out and grabbed it. It gave a ferocious pull and jerked me with it. We fell through the veil, and pain greeted me.
A dull ache in my chest, and mild stinging across my head and arms. Wet cobblestone poked into my back, and several hands were gripping me. I didn't have a tunic on.
"See the wound is gone, why won't she just come back?" A familiar male voice shouted.
"She has lost too much blood, it may be time that we just add her to the long list of fallen in this battle. She did her duty, let her rest."
Aliendra the Queen of Spera, opened her eyes.
Author's note- In this chapter I tried messing around with changing scenes quickly, I hope it was comprehensible. Thank you for reading, and have a happy holidays. (If you are reading this days/ weeks/ months after it was posted, then have a happy tuesday.