BOOK TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY
Demetrius hung in the sky far above the birch tree, taking aim for his next attack. The group scattered to avoid the devastating explosion that followed, but the force of it knocked everyone down, the brunt of it hitting Cicero, knocking him out. Jove, unharmed, transported himself skyward just in time to misdirect another of Demetrius’ blasts. The two became locked in a mighty, mid-air wrestling match. The force of the assault had jolted the Star from Flori’s hand. She desperately scanned the area, and spotted it near a ruined buffet on the other side of the room. The Queen saw it, too, but Sasha tackled the Queen and pinned her down. The two sneered at each other with mutual hatred. Flori scooped up the diamond. The Prince, in the meantime, worked to revive Cicero.
“Flori, get outta here!” Sasha ordered. “All that matters is keeping the diamond away from the Queen.”
“Don’t let her leave!” the Queen ordered the Chrysanthians, who had recovered the use of their legs. They closed in on Flori, but as a peaceful people who knew nothing of combat, Flori easily overcame each one with little more than a shove. She made her way to the closest exit, but as she reached for the door, it opened from the outside revealing the Queen’s on-site army who had escaped their floral jail. When Sasha turned her attention to this new threat, the Queen took the opportunity to topple her and ran to the protection of her guards now flooding in through every doorway. Flori turned tail back into the room, unable to escape through any of the exits. She looked skyward for help from Jove, but he was busy keeping an increasing number of dragons at bay, one of whom had just crashed into the roof of the temple. Flori leapt up into the branches of the birch tree. Horrified Chrysanthians screamed for her to come down. She could hear snapping twigs as she moved through the leaves and hoped this didn’t injure the person within the bark. The roof that ringed the chamber stood too far from the tree on each side to jump, however one branch extended further than the others and with the help of an unreliable levitation spell she knew, one that had a tendency to harshly throw its object rather than gently float it, Flori could propel herself to the roof and escape from there. Guards tried to follow up the tree, but Sasha defended it on the ground below holding her own against each one who came her way, knowing their numbers would win in the end. She just prayed Flori could get the diamond to a safe place. The Prince shook Cicero, then smacked him in the face. One eye opened.
“Get Flori and fly away,” the Prince whispered as guards lifted him off his feet, dropping him face to face with his mother.
“Restrain him, and keep an eye on the dragon,” she said. “And don’t let her get away!!”
Flori made a run for it, but failed to account for the weight of her new, organ-filled insides, and the branch broke under her feet. The levitation spell propelled her upward but instead of landing on the roof with her feet, she had to grasp for its edge, losing the diamond in the process. She scrambled to save it, but it rolled off the roof and landed next to a semi-conscious Cicero. Sasha tried to run to it, but a swarm of guards overpowered her. Flori lost her grip and fell, only to be caught by a battered Jove who abandoned his aerial battle in order to save her. Dragons filled the sky above the tree. Cicero, still regaining his wits, picked up the North Star and ran to Jove and Flori who still hoped beyond hope they could all make a getaway, but when he reached his friends, instead of them all taking off, he placed a hand on each. Every cell in their respective bodies exploded with plant life. They screamed until leaves and petals filled their mouths, and their bodies crumbled into soft piles of flora.
The Queen had owned Cicero the instant he touched the Star, which he now handed over to her, bowing as he did. She patted him on the head.
The Prince couldn’t breathe. “Bring the girl to me,” said the Queen, victory in her voice. Guards forced Sasha into a kneeling position in front of their beloved sovereign and her ungrateful offspring. The Prince could sense the North Star as Sasha got close to it. If he wanted, he could restore Sasha now, but he hesitated and his mother, perceiving this seed of intention, had him moved a safe distance away. The Queen ran her fingers over the scar across Sasha’s face, then hit her with the back of her hand. Sasha shot back a look of hatred and rage. “It’s nice to meet the real you, Sasha dear, no longer hidden under all that forced joviality.” The Queen reached out her hand and a sword found its way to her grasp. “I’m sorry to break my promise, son, but you’ll forgive me soon.” The Queen lifted her arm, and everyone braced themselves for an execution. Instead, the sword dropped, and confusion clouded the Queen’s face. She tried again, swinging the sword with all her might, but its momentum stopped before it could strike. She seethed. She prepared to run the girl through, but the blade fell to the floor. A murmur went through the crowd. A guard with a crossbow raised his weapon to help kill the girl, but the Queen said, “No,” and stood between them. She looked at her son with blame, for she knew that wretched oath flippantly uttered so long ago now caused her inability to act. The Prince smiled.
Suddenly, a lightning bolt hit the birch tree, its deafening crack startling the surrounding crowd. Everyone watched as the tree started its transformation. Zeus would arrive soon. The Queen grabbed Sasha by the chin. “A foolish misstep has deprived me of the unparalleled joy I was to have at killing you, but no matter, I can settle for the next best thing. Be gone, Sasha the Merry Maker, Sasha the Crimson, whoever you are, be gone.” The North Star glowed bright and as it dimmed, so did Sasha’s eyes. She fell to the ground. Her heart still pumped and her lungs still filled, but nothing else of her remained.
The Prince’s heart crumbled into a fine dust that escaped his body with one glottal exhale. He lunged at his mother with fury, screaming at her, but the guards held him fast. The dragons all scattered as did the remaining guards. The Chrysanthians did everything they could to clean up the room for the approaching visitor. They threw Sasha’s body into the hallway for the soldiers to handle. They swept the remnants of Flori and Jove to the side. They desperately tried to salvage destroyed buffets and decorations. The Prince’s shouting slowly subsided as despair replaced anger. The Queen moved herself and her son into a shadowy area of the room and waited.
“Flori, get outta here!” Sasha ordered. “All that matters is keeping the diamond away from the Queen.”
“Don’t let her leave!” the Queen ordered the Chrysanthians, who had recovered the use of their legs. They closed in on Flori, but as a peaceful people who knew nothing of combat, Flori easily overcame each one with little more than a shove. She made her way to the closest exit, but as she reached for the door, it opened from the outside revealing the Queen’s on-site army who had escaped their floral jail. When Sasha turned her attention to this new threat, the Queen took the opportunity to topple her and ran to the protection of her guards now flooding in through every doorway. Flori turned tail back into the room, unable to escape through any of the exits. She looked skyward for help from Jove, but he was busy keeping an increasing number of dragons at bay, one of whom had just crashed into the roof of the temple. Flori leapt up into the branches of the birch tree. Horrified Chrysanthians screamed for her to come down. She could hear snapping twigs as she moved through the leaves and hoped this didn’t injure the person within the bark. The roof that ringed the chamber stood too far from the tree on each side to jump, however one branch extended further than the others and with the help of an unreliable levitation spell she knew, one that had a tendency to harshly throw its object rather than gently float it, Flori could propel herself to the roof and escape from there. Guards tried to follow up the tree, but Sasha defended it on the ground below holding her own against each one who came her way, knowing their numbers would win in the end. She just prayed Flori could get the diamond to a safe place. The Prince shook Cicero, then smacked him in the face. One eye opened.
“Get Flori and fly away,” the Prince whispered as guards lifted him off his feet, dropping him face to face with his mother.
“Restrain him, and keep an eye on the dragon,” she said. “And don’t let her get away!!”
Flori made a run for it, but failed to account for the weight of her new, organ-filled insides, and the branch broke under her feet. The levitation spell propelled her upward but instead of landing on the roof with her feet, she had to grasp for its edge, losing the diamond in the process. She scrambled to save it, but it rolled off the roof and landed next to a semi-conscious Cicero. Sasha tried to run to it, but a swarm of guards overpowered her. Flori lost her grip and fell, only to be caught by a battered Jove who abandoned his aerial battle in order to save her. Dragons filled the sky above the tree. Cicero, still regaining his wits, picked up the North Star and ran to Jove and Flori who still hoped beyond hope they could all make a getaway, but when he reached his friends, instead of them all taking off, he placed a hand on each. Every cell in their respective bodies exploded with plant life. They screamed until leaves and petals filled their mouths, and their bodies crumbled into soft piles of flora.
The Queen had owned Cicero the instant he touched the Star, which he now handed over to her, bowing as he did. She patted him on the head.
The Prince couldn’t breathe. “Bring the girl to me,” said the Queen, victory in her voice. Guards forced Sasha into a kneeling position in front of their beloved sovereign and her ungrateful offspring. The Prince could sense the North Star as Sasha got close to it. If he wanted, he could restore Sasha now, but he hesitated and his mother, perceiving this seed of intention, had him moved a safe distance away. The Queen ran her fingers over the scar across Sasha’s face, then hit her with the back of her hand. Sasha shot back a look of hatred and rage. “It’s nice to meet the real you, Sasha dear, no longer hidden under all that forced joviality.” The Queen reached out her hand and a sword found its way to her grasp. “I’m sorry to break my promise, son, but you’ll forgive me soon.” The Queen lifted her arm, and everyone braced themselves for an execution. Instead, the sword dropped, and confusion clouded the Queen’s face. She tried again, swinging the sword with all her might, but its momentum stopped before it could strike. She seethed. She prepared to run the girl through, but the blade fell to the floor. A murmur went through the crowd. A guard with a crossbow raised his weapon to help kill the girl, but the Queen said, “No,” and stood between them. She looked at her son with blame, for she knew that wretched oath flippantly uttered so long ago now caused her inability to act. The Prince smiled.
Suddenly, a lightning bolt hit the birch tree, its deafening crack startling the surrounding crowd. Everyone watched as the tree started its transformation. Zeus would arrive soon. The Queen grabbed Sasha by the chin. “A foolish misstep has deprived me of the unparalleled joy I was to have at killing you, but no matter, I can settle for the next best thing. Be gone, Sasha the Merry Maker, Sasha the Crimson, whoever you are, be gone.” The North Star glowed bright and as it dimmed, so did Sasha’s eyes. She fell to the ground. Her heart still pumped and her lungs still filled, but nothing else of her remained.
The Prince’s heart crumbled into a fine dust that escaped his body with one glottal exhale. He lunged at his mother with fury, screaming at her, but the guards held him fast. The dragons all scattered as did the remaining guards. The Chrysanthians did everything they could to clean up the room for the approaching visitor. They threw Sasha’s body into the hallway for the soldiers to handle. They swept the remnants of Flori and Jove to the side. They desperately tried to salvage destroyed buffets and decorations. The Prince’s shouting slowly subsided as despair replaced anger. The Queen moved herself and her son into a shadowy area of the room and waited.
Sasha stood in a strange field facing a translucent version of herself. They eyeballed each other, when all of a sudden, the other her jumped into the air and flew like a spear into Sasha’s heart, knocking her over. When she got up, she felt whole again, reunited with all those parts of her she had been missing for the last two years. She laughed out loud, thinking of how ardently she had believed all that time that nothing had been wrong with her. She took in the field, recognizing it as the place she had visited briefly with the Prince so long ago, but now it felt different, like the field was merely an extension of herself. Her body no longer consisted of blood and muscles, but of energy, or rather, of nothing. She contemplated getting scared by all this, but strangeness on this level went beyond fear.
“Hello?” she shouted.
“Hello,” a voice replied.
“Um, hello.” Sasha didn’t know what to say, she hadn’t expected a response. “Show yourself. Please.” A head and shoulders, arms and torso formed in front of her, androgynous and somewhat featureless with skin that swirled with color like oil on water reflecting light - a twinkling suggestion of personhood. “Who are you?”
“I am North Star.”
“That’s what you call yourself?”
“That is what you call me.”
“What do you call yourself.”
“I don’t.”
“You’re alive.”
“Sentient is a more appropriate word.”
“You are not alive?”
“My body does not observe any functions that maintain life. It has neither senses nor vitality. It does not age. It merely houses me.”
“Am I dead?”
“No.”
“I mean, my body…is this my body? I don’t feel the same.” Sasha asked, bringing her hands to her face and feeling for her now absent scar.
“Your body is in the physical world. The parts of you that control breathing, heartbeat and the like still inhabit it. The rest of you is here.”
“Where are we?”
“Within me.”
“Oh my Gods. What are you, exactly?”
“I am similar to a mind…like yours, but bigger, much bigger and with more, much more.”
“More what?”
“Everything.”
“What am I doing here?”
“Master One sent you. You merged with the part of you here already.”
“I was already here? I hope I could entertain you.”
“You could not. Before, you were like the others, incapable of communication or thought.”
“Others?” In a blink, the field filled up with a million frozen ghosts.
“Hello?” she shouted.
“Hello,” a voice replied.
“Um, hello.” Sasha didn’t know what to say, she hadn’t expected a response. “Show yourself. Please.” A head and shoulders, arms and torso formed in front of her, androgynous and somewhat featureless with skin that swirled with color like oil on water reflecting light - a twinkling suggestion of personhood. “Who are you?”
“I am North Star.”
“That’s what you call yourself?”
“That is what you call me.”
“What do you call yourself.”
“I don’t.”
“You’re alive.”
“Sentient is a more appropriate word.”
“You are not alive?”
“My body does not observe any functions that maintain life. It has neither senses nor vitality. It does not age. It merely houses me.”
“Am I dead?”
“No.”
“I mean, my body…is this my body? I don’t feel the same.” Sasha asked, bringing her hands to her face and feeling for her now absent scar.
“Your body is in the physical world. The parts of you that control breathing, heartbeat and the like still inhabit it. The rest of you is here.”
“Where are we?”
“Within me.”
“Oh my Gods. What are you, exactly?”
“I am similar to a mind…like yours, but bigger, much bigger and with more, much more.”
“More what?”
“Everything.”
“What am I doing here?”
“Master One sent you. You merged with the part of you here already.”
“I was already here? I hope I could entertain you.”
“You could not. Before, you were like the others, incapable of communication or thought.”
“Others?” In a blink, the field filled up with a million frozen ghosts.
To Chapter Twenty-One...