By now you should have already read Turkish Legend. You can find it in my stories ^^

Chapter 3

We continue on our way until a corridor springs to life, full of traps.

"Oh, for the love of— Aysun?" I look around for her. Her head pops out from behind a dark curtain.

"I think I've found something, Prince!" she disappears again. I hastily follow her.

"What is it?" I ask, jumping after her, but she doesn't answer.

After a moment, we arrive at a fountain, but a different one from the last ones we have encountered. I step towards it and drink.

In a flash of light, I am at yet another corridor full of traps. I look behind me. Nothing. An empty wall.

"Aysun?" I call out. No one answers. I move forward, avoiding the traps, until, at the end of the corridor, another light engulfs me and I am back next to Aysun, the fountain from which I drank now broken.

"Prince, are you alright?" She kneels next to me.

Kneels?

I realize I am on the floor, and a pounding headache makes itself known.

"I'm fine." I say and let her support my back as I sit up. "My head…" I raise my hand to it. When I feel something wet on it, I look at my hand and see blood.

"You hit your head on the fountain when you passed out. I tasted the water, it's not poisoned. Quite the contrary, it strengthened me quite a lot." She said, eying me carefully.

I realize, that aside from the headache, I too feel strengthened. I watch her put her hand on my forehead and whisper something in that strange language of hers. I feel the wound close and that soft cooling touch linger on my skin.

"Thank you." I touch my forehead and feel a small scar. "What is that language that you speak?"

She looks at me.

"Let's keep going." She tries to stand, but I hold her down.

"If I am to travel with you, I think I should know more about you."

"I think the same, Price, but I realize you like keeping secrets, so I have not asked anything of you. At the beginning of our journey I suggested that if you are bothered by this that we should separate ways. Now you—"

"Alright, alright, I get it!" I stand up. "Gods, woman…" I go back to the trap infested hallway, hearing her footsteps echoing behind me.

'Quite the feisty one, is she not?'

I stumble and almost fall off a banister I was balancing on. I wave Aysun's helping hand away and continue.

'Don't startle me.' I answer the voice.

'My apologies. But you must admit, her behavior is most appealing…' the voice hums as if agreeing to its own statement.

I ignore the voice and continue until we are outside. I take a deep breath and look to my side where Aysun has her eyes on the heavens once more.

"Why do you always—" she looks sharply at me. "Never mind." I sigh and climb a ladder. We are much farther away than I thought.

"Babylon, it's so far away. As a child, Father would tell me stories abou—"

'Pay attention! Something's happening down there.' The voice interrupts me. I frown and look down, noticing Aysun also following my lead.

There is a sand gate on the floor below. The chief guard puts his sword on the center and something comes through it.

"Is that...? It's the Vizier! He's been completely transformed!" I watch the strange golden wing-like…things…flap around the Vizier's deformed body.

'Interesting…he's used the power of the sands to transform his army…and his artifacts will allow him to transport them across the city with ease. He appears to be in complete control. Things do not look too good for you at the moment.'

We watch as the Vizier vanishes through the Sand Gate.

"I will not let the Vizier have Babylon! My city! My throne!" I pound my fist on the railing before me. "He has used that beam as a gate. We will follow him through it."

Aysun nods and follows me down a chute. While she takes on the skinnier looking guard, I kill the faintly glowing one.

'Wonderful. Do we not have enough to deal with already?'

I ignore him and stab my dagger into the sand portal.

"I wonder how many more there are…" I say absent mindedly.

"There are nine in total." Aysun says, looking up at the darkening sky.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

"Alright. I'll answer you some questions if you answer some of mine." I say, looking irritably at her.

"I'm afraid we do not have the time." She says coldly and starts walking away.

"Oh, I think we have enough time. We'll be resting here for the night." I hold her arm. "I don't want to risk overseeing an enemy in the dark."

She sighs and looks up, as if blaming the skies.

"That's the first thing I want to ask. Why do you constantly look up?"

"Now wait just a moment." She turns to me. "Let's get these bodies out of the way, hmm?"

I help her throw the bodies down the pit and look around. There are some run-down cabinets in the corner of the ledge. I inspect them and gladly find out they are filled with food and blankets.

"Probably for the night guards, when they were human." Aysun was looking over my shoulder.

"I'm afraid we're not going to be able to start a fire, so it's just bread and cheese for us…" I say, looking longingly at the salted meat.

We stretched out all the blankets in two makeshift beds, except for two to cover ourselves with. Sitting down and using my dagger to cut pieces of the bread and cheese, I nod to the spot beside me. Aysun sits on her own bed, facing me, instead of the spot I offered next to me.

"Well, then. About the sky-gazing…" I hand her a piece of bread with another piece of cheese on it. I chew on my own meal as she tilts her head back and looks up. The first stars can already be seen.

"Have you ever heard of the Turkish Legend?" she asks.

"Yes. If I'm not mistaken you have the same name as the girl that was sent to earth. What about it?" I cut another piece of bread and cheese for me. Gods, only now I realized I was so hungry. I look up at her lack of answer. She's staring at me.

"Well?" I refer to my previous question. "What of the Turkish Legend?"

She keeps looking at me, as if waiting for me to answer myself.

"…"

"…"

I slowly stop chewing. She raises an eyebrow at me.

"Are you telling me…that you…" I point upwards to the now almost completely dark skies.

She nods.

"I don't believe you." I narrow my eyes accusingly at her.

"Would you have believed in an Empress of Time ten years ago?" she retorts.

'She has a point…'

'Shut up.'

"Well," I start. "I…I really don't know what to say…"

"That's fine." She looks at her untouched food. Ignoring it, she lies down and gazes at the now visible stars.

"Why do you look up so much?" I ask, taking her food for myself.

"I look at the stars…"

"But…" I turn my bed diagonally so that our heads are closer. Lying down, I search for my next words. "There are no stars during daylight."

"That's what you think." She says. "Only because you cannot see something, doesn't mean it's not there, just as much as seeing something does not mean it really is there."

'Like her face.'

'Oh, give it a rest, will you?'

"Yes, like my face." She chuckles. I raise myself on my elbows and look at her.

"You hear him? Since when?"

"Since you started hearing him." She says simply. "I was hoping you wouldn't, but…"

"Is that why you were telling me to control my anger? Is that what he is?"

She pauses.

"He is complicated. I can't see what exactly he is, but you must be careful."

"How do you know all this?" I lay back down.

"The stars tell me many things…"

We lay for a while in silence.

"Can you teach me?" I ask. "To read the stars?"

"There is no such thing as reading the stars." She says. "All those alchemists, and seers, and whatnot, they are all just frauds. Guessers. You have to listen to them. You have to will them to talk to you. All stars wish to help humanity, that is why they make themselves visible." She turned her head to look at me. "Do you understand what I say?"

"I…think so…" I focus on one star "So I just have to concentrate on the little dot?"

She didn't answer. I crane my neck back to look at her. She's supporting herself on her elbow, turning to look at me.

"What?" She has a really annoyed look on her face.

'You're pathetic.'

"Stars are more than only little dots." She says, hurt in her voice. "If you were so far up, all humans would also look like little dots to you. They're individual beings. That is why this world is falling apart."

"This world?"

"There are thousands of other worlds out there."

"I…don't understand." I heard the voice sigh exasperated.

"Well, what do you suggest?" I yell. Aysun jumps a little at my outburst. "Oh…no, I didn't…I was…" she fell back, laughing.

"I know Prince, I know." She wiped her eyes. "Look." She scooted her head closer to mine and pointed. I followed her finger to the biggest and brightest star. "That is Ender Elmas. He is—"

'The leader of the Yldiz, yes, yes, we kno—'

"Then maybe you want to continue the lesson?" Aysun snapped.

'…'

"I thought so." She continued as I chuckled. "Anyway, Prince, open your mind. Let Ender Elmas speak to you. Call out to him…Invite him…"

I focused on the star. I seemed as if an hour had gone by, but I didn't feel any different.

'This is stupid.'

'I understand when Aysun says that you are obnoxious.'

'Whoa! Hey, who are you, old man?'

'Manners…' Aysun's voice echoed inside my head.

'What are you doing in my head?' I startle and look at her. Her eyes are closed and she seems sleeping.

'When you looked into her eyes, you have established a connection between your souls.'

'The eyes are the window to the soul…' I recited a phase my father always used to say.

'Or so they say.'

'So you are intelligent!' the voice of the old man ignored my other part's comment. 'I was under the impression our beloved Aysun was traveling with just another stupid human…'

'Don't be like that…' Aysun said (thought?) sleepily.

'I shall leave you now. Prince, Aysun has given us her opinion of your cause and behavior. You have the protection of the Yldiz.'

'G'night…' Aysun was sounding more and more tired.

'Sleep well, child.' The presence of the old man was fading. Instead, I started feeling as if hundreds of thousands others were pressing down on me.

'Rest assured that we watch over you, until our child deems it unworthy…' there were so many voices, and yet only one, their words were like the most subtle breath against my conscience. 'We are the Yldiz. Protect our child and you will be rewarded…' suddenly, all those presences lifted from me, and I noisily gasped. Aysun shot up and grabbed her swords.

"What? What happened?" she was looking around frantically.

'What's wrong with you?'

"You just…made that weird noise…and I thought…" I was looked concerned at her. "I thought something was happening…" she relaxed and lay back down.

"Didn't you just hear that?" I pointed upwards. Immediately I felt those presences again, shushing me.

'I think you should shut up…'

"Shut up about what?" she frowned at me.

'Oh, that's right, she can hear me now!' he said in mock concern.

"I…um…I…they…" the voices were shushing me.

"They told you to not let me die, right?" she crossed her arms and glared at me.

"S-sort of…"

She huffed and threw herself back down on the blankets.

I waited for her to say something, but she just closed her eyes and laid still. I covered myself against the chilly night and sighed, letting the twinkling of the sta—the Yldiz—lull me to sleep.