When the moon had risen on the sky Jonas was curled in on himself against a tree, and Robert had slumped to the side laying on the ground. Anna had been wrapped close against him when she awoke. It had taken some maneuvering to avoid stirring him from his sleep, but she managed. She had gone to the end of the forest and sat cross-legged and close-eyed for almost an hour before Jonas had hobbled up next to her.
"Have you managed to come up with a safe plan yet?" he asked groggy.
"Not really, how about you?" she asked still with her eyes closed.
"Amazingly, no. I usually don't come up empty-handed, but I also used to have both of my legs. Making plans that takes my new predicament into account have proved difficult."
"Tell me about it," she raised her icy hand to the moonlight, making it scatter the light like a crystal ball, "I know I said it wasn't a big deal, but the more I use it the more weird it is to me. It works exactly the same way as my original hand, and at first I thought it was a little awesome. But I'm afraid that it has some major downsides, it feels like it's doing something bad to me." She lowered the ice to her lap, "I feel disconnected, from my emotions. And I know that emotion is a large part of the magic in our world." She said while poking the frozen fingers with her other hand.
"You're right about that, and I think you're right. It does interfere with your own powers. I can feel the change in your aura."
"Why do you think that is?" she asked, thinking he maybe had some answers.
"Hmm, it's still just a theory and I might be wrong. But so far you haven't really been allowed to be a carefree child. You've been held captive for so long and from such a young age. You never really showed any emotion since the others turned on you, and before that you were probably too young to even understand the impact it would have on your future. So between 'Athena' and now you have bottled everything up, you have taken on the hatred of many people without ever really knowing why they hated you. You've been tortured and experimented on. You've been treated poorly, like you weren't worth anything more than the broken table in your room. You have been exposed to negative emotions all you life. And then someone comes by and opens up to you, gets you to feel hope, a positive, something your magic is unfamiliar with." he paused for a moment to find the right words, "I'll explain it simply. You emotions and your magic goes hand in hand, when you're angry, so is your magic. When you're sad, so is your magic. When you're happy... You get the point. But what if your emotions and your magics emotions weren't on the same wavelength?"
"So if I'm not in balance with it, I have no control or what? Is magic like my soul then?" Anna asked in confusion.
"No, not like a soul, more like a 'something' that lives inside you and works on another plane of existence. The theory is that the magic inside us are living entities, and it goes through the same changes we do. Throughout the years you've always had a rather unique quality to your magic, making it easy to pinpoint. At the mansion when I saw you lying on the ground behind it, I felt another source of magic deep within you, at first I chalked it up to some latent power you had. But as the days went on I felt them merge. Until I couldn't feel either of them, they became one, something new. As to why or how this happened, I'm at a loss, but I'm certain my clan will know more." His expression during it all had changed from indifference, to sadness, and ending in determination.
Throughout Jonas' explanation Anna felt some warm, calm stirring in her heart, as if this 'something' heard Jonas and soothed her, perhaps agreed with his words. Even if Anna's mind couldn't really comprehend every bit of it, she understood. When she had nothing and was forced to fight the other children her magic was strong and controlled. When that magic had been disturbed by this new force it had gone to shit. She had noticed the change but didn't know what it was, only Jonas' observation gave any semblance of answer. Even if none of them knew if he was right or wrong, the magic reacted positively to the words. And it showed physically on Anna, around the small strand of white in her hair more of it started fading from red to snow-white, and the sight made Jonas' eyes widen and his jaw hung slack. When it stopped at the tips he managed to rid himself of his dazed state.
"Anna, your hair." was all he said as he pointed to the top of Anna's head.
"What about it? Are you gonna make fun of my unrul..." her words caught on her throat as she pulled it into her field of vision, only to see that more of her red locks had switched over to this new color that didn't clash as much against her pale skin.
"Hmm, I actually kind of like it" she said with a bit of red covering her cheeks. Annas reaction to her innocent confession made Jonas chuckle and broke the seriousness of the topic.
"Is that so? Maybe when you're older you can find a sweet boy with the same color then?"
"Eww, no! Boys are gross!" Anna quickly defended, crossing her arms and pouting while looking away from Jonas. This turn of events brought Jonas' chuckle into a full-blown laughter.
"Am I - gross too - then?" He got out between laughs.
"Yes! You are the grossest of all the boys in the world. And stop laughing at me" she said as she stood up and walked back to Robert. It would only take a minute or two to get to their little campsite, and during the walk Anna was deep in thought.
'It makes sense though' she thought and looked down at the palm of her crystalline hand. "Do you have any answers for me?" she asked out loud, and immediately felt stupid for talking to her own hand. 'You haven't really been allowed to be a carefree child, he says. I guess so. But that's a bit to late now isn't it. I can't go back to ignorance. Ignorance, the simple fact of not knowing. Well I do know. They cut, burned, poked, dribble acid, weaved runes onto me, they depraved me from sleep, water and food for days at a time, and for what? For power? More land? Simply because they could?! Whatever the reason, I will find out why, and then destroy that reason.' Anna thought grimly, feeling the older her bring forth some dark images, it was consuming her thoughts. knowing how much power she had hidden underneath her skin, coursing through her veins, and yet still have it so far out of reach. She didn't even notice that she had arrived at their campsite until she tripped over a sleeping Robert, face first into the ground, followed by a loud groan.
His sleep riddled mind quickly made him bolt up and grab for the nearest sword. Or stick in this case. The sword was laying at the other side of him.
"Who's there!" He exclaimed, still in the limbo-esqe state between asleep and awake, "Oh, it's just you" he said when Anna became focused enough for him to recognize her, why she was laying face first in the dirt with her legs on top of him was not even questioned as he closed his eyes again and got comfortable.
"Yeah, sorry. I kind of spaced out for a while and tripped over you, heh" suddenly embarrassed by her clumsiness. Robert opened a single eye to look at her after she had scrambled to her feet.
"What were you thinking about?" he asked just before he yawned.
"Just stuff you know... I'll tell you when I find some answers" she sighed.
"That's all I'm asking. Don't keep everything to yourself, it's not good for you."
Robert sat up and blinked before turning his eyes to the sky, the moon was up, and the forest was silent. A howl was heard in the distance. Very soon the forest would become cloaked in perpetual shadow due to the density of the trees. But for now the sky was clear to gaze at, even from within the forest. The older priest enjoyed the cool breeze against his skin. It reminded him of his wedding, held in the fall where the color of nature transitioned from green to red. Although this time it was from white to green, the breeze felt very much the same. Oh, how he missed his kids, and the warm skin of his wife. This trip was dragging out, and his worry for his family was reaching a peak. With the way the plan worked, they would be at the deadly pass between Sasmain and the lower parts of the northern kingdoms. It wasn't that the pass was dangerous that had him worried, it was the amount of bandits and outlaws living in the unclaimed lands that filled his mind.
"How are you, considering everything?" Robert asked to think about something he could actually do something about, Anna's situation.
"I believe I'll be fine.. It's just going to take some time." She forced a tiny smile, still not sure what to feel.
"Okay, good. that's good." he rubbed his eyes and stretched, making his spine pop in multiple places, "Urgh, I'm getting to old for sleeping on the forest floor. I really could use a warm bed and some clean clothes. And soap." he huffed when he smelled his armpits.
Anna nodded but didn't comment on his smell, she did however voice her concerns about their situation, "How about we just do what Jonas told us? I mean, nothing is risk free, and right now all we're doing is waiting.. Waiting doesn't get us anywhere. And I just want to not worry, I want to not walk around scared, just waiting for the guards to show up and toss me in a hole again. I just want to relax and be able to close my eyes."
Robert got to his feet and started packing, "I'm afraid you're right. I can't shake this feeling that something is wrong. I mean, we've been on the run for what, three or four weeks now? And we're supposed to believe that they haven't found us by now? It just doesn't sit right with me, it's too good to be true. Either we're the luckiest fugitives in history, or.. I don't even know. Perhaps there really is a god somewhere out there." the priest said, while packing up the camp and sighing wistfully.
"A priest, questioning the presence of god? Isn't that illegal?" Anna asked seriously, she had read about god and the holy words, and she knew that a man of god wasn't allowed to question the words. To that, Robert inhaled a deep breath and exhaled quickly, almost as if he didn't want to say the next words out of his mouth.
"To be honest. I've been losing faith since magic evolved into this chaos it is today. I mean, some people out there can shape the landscape, others can destroy eco-systems. The church has been losing followers for a while now, and it's getting harder and harder to convince myself that there is a god even out there at all. Maybe he's now obsolete and it's time for humans to care of the earth." He looked to the ground in shame, never in his life would he think that he would admit it out loud to anyone but his wife.
Anna furrowed her brows in thought, perhaps she would have to relearn how to interact with people. The guards didn't flinch at her aggressiveness, and Robert had shown nothing but kindness towards her, despite her changing moods and outbursts of anger. Jonas was the only constant, he wasn't liked, nor disliked. He was easy to be around, he even told them the reason for keeping a lot of secrets. Anna and Robert had always assumed his clan was filled with bloodmages like him. But the fact was that he was a part of a clan that tried to figure out how to use magic to advance medicine and construction, how to use magic for good and not bad. The fact that bloodmages is renowned for being 'bad' is because of the stigma that follows using humans as the source instead of the nature.
"I don't know if he's out there or not. But something sent you to me, without you I wouldn't be here right now. And I'm really happy that you took the risk of getting me out." Anna said, it was the realest thing she had felt for a long while. Gratitude. Mostly towards the one who got her out. Jonas too, got the same treatment. He didn't reply with more than a quick nod that was immediately followed by his new plan.
"I know what we'll do now, I've seen them switch out a couple of soldiers twice now. Once a day four new border-guards arrive, and takes over the watch for the day. Just now, four new arrived and yesterday I saw the four that got substituted leave about an hour later. That gives you two a little over twenty minutes to get Anna under control and ambush the four who's going to leave." He ran through his plan a little fast, but Anna was relieved about not having to use the ice on Jonas' body. Using them on the southern soldiers wasn't a problem, Athena's influence was still fresh in her thoughts. And she could feel the familiar surge of anger and the need to release that anger on something.
With her thoughts straightened and a single goal in mind, Anna stood and nodded, "Yes, let's go, I want to test something anyway, and this way we can keep moving. Where do you think is the best spot for the ambush?"
Jonas picked up a stick from the ground and drew in the ground.
"About 350 yards southwest is a fork in the road, that would be an obvious point, there is also a spot next to a small hill about a mile further than that, it's a better spot. But I'm not sure if you can make it there in time." His drawing on the ground wasn't good, but it showed the fork in the road, and the general direction Anna and Robert would have to go.
"Alright, let's move right away Anna. I hate to do this again, using your powers, but I don't see any other way." Robert apologized.
"Don't worry about it, after all this is what I do best." She solemnly added.
"Hey, when all of this is done and we're safe we can start training you to become the best Queen this world has seen. We just need to get to a safe place first." Robert assured her.
"Yeah, let's think about that when it becomes relevant." she deflected, the fact of the matter was that she wasn't certain that it was the best decision. If there was one thing she had learned during her practice at night, it was that she was best at fighting without holding back, but it often had some serious affects on her surroundings. The mansion, the forest she turned into a barren waste, the various spots they had stopped at, and the animals that had suffered around her. The thing she had learned, her powers was destruction incarnate, everywhere she let them go it ruined the nature around her.
'Maybe it's a curse they put on me back there.' she thought before they set out to the fork first.
AN: Alright, as I've said before this story will not "die", but the updates don't have a schedule. This whole writing-deal is still new to me, and I've spent about a month now trying to create some red thread that will tie all the events together without making it seem "unrealistic" and ruining a flow.. I re-read my first 8 chapters a couple of times and I really feel like I could change a lot of things about my writing, but I don't want to rush it and have the writing style change too much in this story.. That being said, I've had loads of ideas for a modern story, mostly smutty to test the waters with that kind of thing before putting it in this one. I plan to use sex as a sort of connection between our favorite girls, because, I'm a closeted pervert and think it's incredibly hot. No shame tho.
Love Mr. Turtle