Carmine

We ran up the stairs. I found the courage to stare across the mangled debris scattered on the once beautiful landscape. The walls around it held their aggressors.

One group of people fired beams of light from their side of the wall into the opposing arrow-carrying folk.

One person, alone walked along the wall without pause. Her determined walk indicated to me she was on a mission and I was that mission.

Corona looked up and I bent my knees into a crouch. Killing myself sounded sweet to my sanity right now. “Five, any bright ideas?”

“None in particular.”

Janilla looked around weirdly then she said, “Can't we use this corridor to get to Valor?”

I looked up. Not at her, in space, I think we were a floor above them right now. “Okay, let us test that.” I stood up. “We need out of this hellhole.”

I ran forward, they followed and soon found ourselves navigating my handiwork. The floor sunk in at one side, while the wall tilted downward, ripping at the top seam.

Little time remained for this keep. We came into a clearing, Five picked a room and said, “We are over them.”

In the corner, the floor and wall corroded away without its pillar holding it up. Over that, a room that bawled agonizingly about its fragile plight.

Janilla went close to it and looked down. “Oy!” She said. Five went behind her.

I heard a familiar voice. “I could use a lift!” Valor's voice was a Godsent in those times.

Janilla slipped when the floor sunk, but Five grabbed her. I steadied myself, but the roof collapsed in huge chunks crushing into the floor. It broke in many places and Jimella jumped onto Five while he climbed a pillar rolling to the root of it.

I swerved away from the downfall and crouched up in the corner.

A cough escaped me. We needed to hurry out of here.

I heard Valor. “You guys alright!?”

“Yes!” I answered.

I got to the ledge and looked down. Janilla gripped onto Five very tightly, her hair filled with white dust. Five held the pillar with one hand and stared up.

He saw what I did, for the pillar had big cracks. Five ripped Janilla's claws off him and let himself down slowly and dropped a few feet under Janilla.

His hands reached up, while his eyes asked for her trust.

Janilla’s face morphed into dense dread. Five was about to speak when Janilla’s head turned from his. She closed her eyes and pushed herself off into Five's grasp.

Her feet reached ground, she muttered something when she opened her eyes. She shook herself out of Five's grasp then began the process of brushing off all the dust of her robe and hair.

Janilla breathed in, waved her hands slowly and nodded with a raised chin as if proud of something.

With one blank stare at Five, she said, “Thank you.” She turned and walked off quite stiffly.

Five looked at me. I shrugged, saying, "I'm supposed to say something witty here, but I'm out of ideas. You?”

"I was never good at commentary."

"Fair."

I fired the thicker thread and used it as an anchor. They slowly climbed up to our level. I hugged Marideth and drew Adu close to me. “Listen to me, do not trust Hion, do you understand me?” I said.

Adu shook his head. “He, is, my adviser?”

I snapped the thread. His voice came clearly and loud. All that he and me talked about was heard before Adu and his mother.

Marideth said, “This can’t be.”

I replied. “What you hear is truer than blood. Trust his advice as much as you trust your future murderer. Do you understand me, do not trust him, he has grander designs beyond your feeble life. Live. I expect to see you soon enough.”

Adu sighed and looked distressed, but he nodded his head. “Where will you go?”

“Not sure. Go.”

Five would get them out of the keep. I lowered myself back into my destroyed bedroom and stepped over chunks of stone to where Valor and Sandream were.

Valor and Janilla were hunched over her shivering body. Debris surrounded her like a fortress wall with her blood flowing out like a gully expelling her distraught. He waved his hand and the crystal became cloudy.

Sandream opened her eyes and looked up at me. “I cannot come with you.” Her voice was weak and barely a whisper.

I stooped and laid my hand on the back of hers. “I need nothing more than you getting back into your body free of shackles. I release you. You are free, li—”

“Like hell you will,” she replied.

“I will only result in your death if you stay with me.”

“Then so be it.” She clenched her eyes shut. “Till death do we part.”

“I never married you,” I said.

She chuckled then coughed.

Valor said, “It’s ready.” He moved back and directed his attention to the crystal ball.

She coughed. I said, “Good to see you laughing, I did not think myself much of a jester.”

Sandream replied, “Canus enjoyed laughing. He always said there was not enough laughter in the world. You dreamed of it, do you not?”

“I did. I dreamed of many good things happening to me.”

“So did I.”

“I am sorry.”

She averted her eyes. “It is unsightly for a Princess to apologize to her servant.”

“I told you, you are free. You are not a servant anymore, you are a friend. I speak to you any way I feel like.”

She laughed, “As you will.”

Her body slumped and she was gone.

I turned to Valor and he nodded with soft resolve at me. We were going to meet her again but only if we escaped this place.

We got out of there and found our way back into that hall.

Now empty, it was devoid of Hion's lies and anyone else for that matter.

It was filled with a pool of water biting at my ankles with its cold temper.

The water annoyed me as I waded through it. I saw that the roof fell on the makeshift garden bursting the walls and liberating a deluge of water into this hall.

Janilla led the way as our splashing steps echoed through the silent devastation we waged on this kingdom.

I was not going to be loved in Tiam after this. Hell, I might have started a war between Ascus and Tiam by coming here.

Another day in my life I supposed.

“Carmine!” My heart dropped when I heard her voice. Janilla stepped back. Corona moved forward out of nowhere, but behind her I glimpsed a fizzling light.

She wore this blank stare along with a rather exquisite long flowing dress.

Valor stood before me and Janilla flanked to my side.

Five.

On my way. Five's voice mused.

Corona made a flick of her hand. A burst of light shot forward, Valor shifted to the left avoiding it.

Valor took out his axe. “Stand down Corona, we have no quarrel with you!”

“Valor run,” I said.

Valor replied without looking back at me. “You crazy? No.”

“She’ll kill you,” I said.

“She’ll kill you!” he exclaimed.

“Valor listen to me, save yourself.”

“Carmine.” He looked back at me. His glare was dangerously serious. “Never do you tell me that, ever.”

I stepped back. Corona slowed her steps as she approached. Valor shifted to the side and kept his eyes on her.

I shouted, “Corona, you don’t have to do this you know! You can do as you please! You can choose your own path! It—“

“Shut up!”

We drifted back in shock to hear Corona roar like that. Corona’s eyes squinted menacingly at me. “You, you sicken me. Your death is what I seek. I do not care what you are to Mother, you will die today! I will drag your mishappen ugly body across this pond and drench it red! That is my choice!”

A fight was inevitable, no way around it, so I inhaled and stared her down, for losing was not an option. “Okay.”

Corona moved to the side. I armed my gun and fired. Corona ducked, so I tried to load a new arrow.

She lifted her hand and I saw Valor float above me. I barely mumbled his name before he was thrown into the wall, hard.

“Valor!” I called. Corona ambled towards me, so I moved back.

“Janilla run!”

“Bu—”

“Ruuuuun!”

Janilla looked pained, but ran away. I lifted the gun, but Corona closed the distance and threw me off my feet. My head ached as I heard Valor's call.

Corona spun away as the axe swung up at her. I shook off the pain and reached for the gun.

After dodging a few astute swings of Valor's axe, Corona waved her hand and Valor got pushed back by some unseen force.

Valor clutched his stomach, but raised. Corona flicked her hand forward. Valor became still, she shifted her fingers inward and his body twirled inward.

His screams shaking the roof as much as the crumbling foundation.

I fired, she twirled and avoided it, her next fist she clenched it and now I could not move. The hell was this intense sensation on my skin?

It held my body still, I fought it, but it just hurt more. Valor's screams chipped away at my strong facade. Releasing tears, I shouted, “Stop, stop, okay stop, please!”

Corona glanced at me, then, a look of annoyance riddled on her face. Her fist loosened and Valor stopped screaming, but was still held within her power.

Corona flicked her other hand and I fell forward. My face got drenched and the water pulled on my clothes. Corona kicked the gun and took me up by the collar. Her mouth pouted close to kissing me if it could. She waved her hand outward. A knife slid out from the inside the wrist of the dress arm. Her eyes burned with hatred, even I could see that.

“Corona.” My mother’s voice echoed across the room. “That is enough.” Corona fidgeted, then she closed her eyes. I fell into the water as I was released from that unseen force.

My mother stepped up to us. A broken mix of colors, she was flanked by two large armed men.

Mother shook her head. “Corona, step away.”

Corona opened her eyes. Calmness rested within them. I watched as Corona turned and threw her hand forward. A light came out, slicing through one of the men.

Corona blasted the light through her image cracking it into pieces. “I am killing Carmine. She cannot live. She has to die, she needs to die!”

I spat out water and wiped my face free of the water droplets streaming from my hair. My eyes shifted to Valor. He mouthed for me to run. My legs just sparked up alive and I ran.

Horrid sounds and the angry scream of Corona chased me in faint echoes as I ran off.

Light burst forth in front of me.

I twirled and blocked the light off my shield, but my back met the ground as I fell from the force. Corona cried out as she retracted her burnt arm and flicked it in distraught.

I skated onto the bridge and off the edge of it was a long drop into the orchid gardens.

Corona neared, so I spun up with my dagger.

She flourished her hand in that instant and slapped my arm back. I winced at the sharp pain in my wrist as the knife flew from my grasp.

I fell back and Corona moved forward with her dagger, screaming, “You!”

My shield arm blocked the blade, while my other arm grabbed the first thing that was close to a weapon, the container of Exodine.

Sore me.

I threw it, hitting her in the eye. Corona flinched, crying out. An arrow was taken out of my quiver.

Guide my hand true Five!

My hand shifted, it was like my vision became clearer. Only one spot manifested in my vision and my arm twisted towards the target.

I bashed it into Corona and stabbed her on her thigh with the arrow releasing metallic fluid onto my fingers. Just where Five envisioned it was.

Corona hammered her fist into my back, yet I wrapped my hands under her knees and pushed forward throwing us over the precipice.

We descended from the top of the keep and into the dark depths of the apples and oranges.