Sorry that I kept you all waiting for so long but I've been pretty unmotivated later, it was hard for me to even think of anything decent to write. Thank-you for your patience.
Taking a Risk and Getting a Welcome Surprise
With Rahl so preoccupied with this whole situation with the boxes of Orden, Shara was free to look up some pretty scary dark magic without anyone paying any attention. She was so intrigued by it all that she didn't so the horror and danger that most of the spells contained. Every so often she would feel as if someone was looming over her or hear laughing but when she turned, nothing was behind her. This made her feel more uneasy than any of the spells. She found one that interested her profusely and decided to try it.
She needed to do it at night so she waited for a night in which Rahl was too busy to come to bed. She snuck out of the palace and crept into the woods. She found a clearing that would let enough moonlight through for her to see. She hadn't noticed that it was yet again a full moon, it seemed like that last one had just been last night. The moon would help her read the spells at least. She set everything up and started to recite the words.
The words awoke in her a flame of anger that grew and grew. She wanted to roar and howl in rage but she kept her concentration on the words as hard as that was. She felt a sudden void as she finished the incantation. She had no control over herself as she fell to the ground. She looked around her, hoping that it worked at least. There was no way she could have done all of that for nothing. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she spin to look at who had touched her.
A cry of joy came from her lips as she saw her little boy standing right there. She slowly reached forward to bring him to her chest but stopped herself before she got him all the way there. Something felt wrong. It was as if something really really bad was going to happen. She grimaced and felt a shiver run down her back.
She grabbed her book and the hand of the child and ran away from the clearing. She thought that if she ran fast enough, they would get away and they would be safe. As they ran further away from the clearing, the boy slowly started to fade. She let out a gasping cry as the boy slowly disappeared right in front of her. Tears started to pour down her face.
"No," she said in a raspy voice.
She started to tremble and tried to jump forward to keep going but her legs would not have that. She fell to the ground and lay there for a bit. She listened to the silence of the woods and the panting of her breath. Each snap and crackle in the forest made her jump. She tried to prepare herself to be ready to jump up and fight if need be. Finally, the snapping stopped and she could hear a soft growl. She winced as she slowly forced herself to turn and face the evil that was behind her.
"It was silly of you to think that you could outrun my minion. After all, you were the one that summoned him," a mocking voice cooed at her. She winced and slowly made herself stand up.
She found herself looking at a huge.... thing. It was furry and bloody and smelled like a rotting corpse. In the darkness she could only really see the outline of it. She tried to stay as far away from it as possible.
"What...?"she said in a frightened little voice.
"Oh don't be afraid Shara; this is just one of my little creatures. I don't really know what to call it yet, maybe some human will give it a good name when they see it." He cackled mockingly.
"But-but-but.... what do I do with it?" she asked, not sure if that was really what she wanted to ask.
"I don't know dear," he cooed. "I am sure you will come up with something, seeing as you are becoming such a little good minion of mine yourself. You'll come up with some way to reap havoc on the world."
She winced as she realized that he was right. She was becoming quite a slave to dark magic and it was just so intriguing for her. She couldn't seem to stop. Maybe this was just how her life was supposed to go. Maybe she should just resign to her fate and embrace the darkness.
"Yes Master, I'll find a way to please you," she said, dropping her head to hide her face in the darkness of the night.
He let out a booming laugh and seemed pleased.
"How do you want me to serve you?"
"You already are. If you set this creature free on the world and continue your studies of my favourite sort of magic, you will be doing enough."
"If it pleases you Master."
There was a sudden burst of wind and she felt herself stumble back and she looked up to see where it came from. There was just the thing in front of her and no one else here. Maybe she had just imagined him after all. She had been asked to set this beast of his –or hers as he called it- free on the world but she hardly wanted to harm the her people. With a sigh she took a few steps away to think a bit. Well maybe if she told Rahl, she dismissed that quickly enough because then she would have to explain how she got it. Well maybe she could tell it just to fight their enemies; she had a feeling that that plan would backfire. She just looked at the colossus of a thing with was standing there waiting for her to tell it what to do.
"What am I going to do with you?" she said in a defeated voice.
She got a snort as a reply. The thing lifted its head and looked around itself. The thing seemed to sniff around a bit and pound the ground with whatever feet it had.
"What? You just want to run around in this forest? You can do that if you don't kill all the animals. You can kill any humans that are sneaking around though, if they aren't in armour, they aren't supposed to be here ok? "
The thing snorted twice and then was off. She really hoped that this thing wouldn't kill everyone who came near the forest, or that it decided it wanted to go ransack villages. She shrugged and started to find her way back to her room, figuring that if it didn't listen she would just send some guards to go kill it. If it wouldn't listen, it wasn't allowed to stay. It wasn't like she had summoned that thing, she had summoned her son. A wave of despair hit her as she realized that ultimately she had fail her spell. She had gotten a beast while she had only had her son for a matter of minutes.
She found that it really was easy to break into her palace at night, maybe she should fix that, but then again she shouldn't if she planned on practicing her magic. In only a few moments, she was back in her room. She put her book away and was in the middle of undressing when she heard a loud banging sound. She followed the sound until she found the source. She couldn't believe her eyes.
Right on the low table in the sitting room, there was a basket. It had not been there when she had come in, after all she had come in through this way to avoid the prying eyes of the guards. She slowly approached the basket to peek inside. A sudden burst of crying made her jump back a little bit before she realized what was in the basket.
At first she was overjoyed, and then she couldn't help but understand that this would take a whole lot of lying and bribing to cover up. She shrugged it off for the moment and reached into the basket to pick up her source of joy. She sat there and grinned like a mad hatter. She just couldn't believe that the Keeper had actually thought to give her this. She stood there smiling and cooing at the bundle in her arms, until she turned around and saw the look on Rahl's face. She hadn't heard him come in and the smile on her face faded slowly.
"What....Where......How?" he asked, his voice shaking slightly.
She wasn't sure if he was mad or happy.
"Well.... it's my sisters..... well hers and yours.... she said you should have it.... seeing as she isn't married," she said, through a plausible situation out there, hoping he would buy it.
"She told you this?"
"No, well, it was in a note. A servant delivered him earlier tonight. He came in through the back door so no one would know."
There was a long, awkward pause.
"Well then...."Rahl said, "we'll have to cover this all up."
She nodded and smiled at him.
Again, there was another little awkward pause.
"I guess we have a son."
"So we do."
