A girl in Need of Saving

  She left the city as the sun split the sky and earth with the start of day. A new day. Her horse Saturday, a normally timid creature, carried her away from the dark spires of her home with a terrible vigor. He would fly til muscle broke and lungs emptied. She was grateful for the creatures loyalty. Did it understand what she had done, why she ran? He must, why else would he try so hard? She worked to free herself from the ripped and bloodied duster she was once so proud of and threw it to the ground. She grunted and her vision went white for a second. Her hand flew instinctively to the wound on her shoulder. It would need treatment but that was for later. She grabbed for her bag and pulled out two silvery revolvers. They were marked with a Scorpion brand on the hilt. They were spent and broken besides. For one the cylinder no longer held its place and the other had backfired. She tossed them away. She threw clothes, bullets and anything else she could do without to the ground. She kept what little food she had and enough medical supplies to tend her wound.

They would chase after her. His loyal hunting dogs riding the best horses, but she had once been in their place, and Sat was faster. She would escape but could not say where. She spared one glance at the place that had always been her home. The City, a series of tall black towers, like Obsidian knives cutting the landscape and thrusting towards heaven. How could there have been a time when she didn't see them for the Oppressive symbol they were? He would be watching from the center Tower. She was to far away. He couldn't see her at this distance, and yet... she whipped her head back to the front. The Scorpions Nest, a vast uncharted desert. It was said that was where he was born. It was the one place his Dogs might not dare look. They said when he left the dessert to claim his birthright his brother stayed behind and built his Garden. They said if you reach him he will free you, he will save you. Well she needed saving.

She left two to die in the street and one to die in his bed cursing her name. Three crimes. She left with a horse that belonged to her benefactor. Another crime. She committed so many crimes that day but none of that mattered for she had committed the worst possible. She left. She left and he would chase her across the world to see what was his returned.

She road til the night came and hours after until she could push Saturday no long. She poured disinfectant on her shoulder, wincing at the sting and bandaged it up. She then lay down exhausted and slept without a thought. The second she woke up she gathered her things and did it again. She rode and rode and rode never stopping for anything if she could help it. Chewing bread and dried meat as she rode. A familiar pattern that lasted days. She didn't know how long Saturday lasted before collapsing never to rise again. She had lost count of time by then. She stayed with him for half the day. She thought it was least she could do. No one should die alone. Not even a horse.

When all was said and done she left the creatures remains and continued on foot. She walked and walked and walked till the days were all a blurry hot mess. She ran out of food. She walked. Her skin began to burn. She walked. She left her bag behind. She began to see things. Things that weren't there Water at first but they grew. Sometimes a giant house made of marble and covered in green red and blue. Plants, and flowers. Sometimes it was the Towers stretching out before her, confusing her. They weren’t really there. She knew that. She knew that. So she walked until the day came when she woke up and could not make her body stand. Where was her reward? She had done the right thing hadn't she? Hadn't she had done good? Good people didn't die abandoned in a hellish place place like this. They died surrounded by family and friends after a long life of doing good. Good people didn't die like this, it wasn't fair. No one should die alone. Not even her.

She closed her eyes and prepared for the inevitable. The quite darkness that awaited her. For a second she opened her eyes glanced one last picture of the world. Two figures in white approached her. Blasted mirages, just let me die! She thought as she passed out never expecting to wake up again. 

1st Story "The Secret"

The Secret

            As Eveya eased the heavy rattling front door to rest she let out a sigh and pondered the night before her.  The summer air granted a soft breeze, a small respite from the heat the day brought.  Even stripped to her night gown, as she was now, the breeze was mearly pleasant and not cold.  Stretched out in front of her was her fathers small farm.  The farmhouse, claimed when they and the other Wanderers moved south into the Wildlands, was unnaturally sturdy one of few building lefts left standing.  The old men in town spoke of them with a mix of awe and dread.  Mage-Forged, they said it was.   The Barn was made in the same.  It shot up from the ground 100 pace in front of the porch she stood on.  It was her destination.

            Stepping off the porch her feet touched the cool grass and she began walking.  The stars and moons provided a faint light to guide her.  She push the excitement she felt down, deep, she had to stay focused and be silent.  For at least two months her brother Ven had traveled in the darkness to barn just as she did now.  He was the sort of boy that was always up to something.  Not in a malicious way.  He always saw more than other people, always caught up in a book or else in the middle of grand project.  Surely, he was a child capable of anything.   So what was his game this time?  She had asked and he had denied or ignored her.  She snuck into the barn in the day, and found nothing more than the storage father charged the villagers for.  She had tried waiting, he eventually came clean, eventually requiring some of her expertise or the freedom that came from being older.  Yet this time he said nothing.  She had waited long enough.  She smiled mischievously, she would know tonight.

            She had to be quite.   Quit like a ghost floating in the wind.  Just mouse or less.  Whatever he consorted with in there was surely small or easily hidden as she had yet to find it.  This was her best chance.  Any future attempt taint and complicated by his awareness.  Miraculously she reached the barns side.  A smaller opening could be found on the wall.  One easier to enter from quietly then the large doors once used to move animals in and out.  She crept around blindly, feeling for the door which was hidden from sight by the roof over head.  Finally her finger found the crack and she gingerly opened the door.  It slid quietly out of place and she stepped inside.

            The barn was comprised of one large room and a small walled off area, the purpose of which seemed to have been storing tack.  The storage was set against the back wall and in the middle of the remaining space sat her brother.  His back was to her and he sat on his knee holding something.  A dim light shone from whatever he held.  She crept around to get a look at what he held.  This was it.  What mad project had her concocted?  What was it he held in his hand? 

            Her eyes went wide, a bemused half-smile formed on her face and a pit grew deep in her stomach.  Fear clutched at her heart like it aimed to rip it right out of her chest.  What was this?  How could this happen?  How could he be so stupid?  So insane?  So short sighted?  So brilliant?

            He held nothing.  His palms were out stretched open in-front of him.  A glowing sphere floated not a foot away.  It was transparent with an odd tower of energy cascading from bottom to top.  It glowed cleanly, the light uninhibited by the sphere. 

Magick.  By the three, he wove magic! 

            His senses were transfixed, his eyes blank.  Suddenly she felt very silly worrying that he might hear her coming.  He saw nothing and heard nothing save the tiny glowing ball of his own creation.  The elders spoke of magic in hushed tones.  As if afraid that even speaking of it might bring forth the wrath of ancient mages.  Magic could destroy, ravage, and kill as easy as snapping ones fingers.  Mages could hurl massive balls of heat and force summon demons to fight on their behalf, call forth storms and lightning, call forth the former dead to make a mockery of the living and a million other terrifying images.  All of which ran through her mind as she stared at the small familiar boy.  She stared at that peculiar sight for what seemed like ages.  The time came that she could look no more.  She closed her eyes and spoke.

“Ven”

Even with her eyes closed she could see the light dim to nothing.  After a moment she opened her eyes. He now stood staring at her in the darkness.  He bore an unreadable expression neutral in all respects.  She knew that look.  He had already disided what we was going to do.  He had prepared for this scenario and was resolute.  She knew what he had decided too.  It was said that giving up magic very quickly became as easy as cutting off your own arm.  He would keep learning and experimenting no matter what.  Even if he knew for certain it would lead to the nuse.  So the only question was would she join him? 

“What were you thinking?  Do you know what the village, what Father, will do if you’re discovered?”

She began.  A fateful conversation, one both knew the ending of.

“The practice of magic is forbidden to all men, who walk the lands and breath the air.  Let all hear this proclamations and know its meaning.  That none shall suffer the Witch to walk the land and breath the air.  Or to live.  Yes I know the Proclamations”

He spoke in an even voice, but then he was never afraid of the consequences his actions brought.  The ones he expected anyway.

“Then why?” she questioned

“because I was able.  I wanted to understand it.  To know how it worked” he replied

“Now you understand though?  You can stop now.  Put it behind you before things get dangerous for you” 

“no”

“For us?” for a moment Ven looked ponderous, a glimmer of doubt crossed his face.  Well, if she had to lose she meant to get in a few good punches.  His eyes came back to match hers. His expression was resolute, but a hair less calm than before.

“No”

“You’ll damn us all for knowledge?” she spat “what a thoughtful brother my mother gifted me, to raise in her sted lest you forget”.  Her face was as calm as his.  He was brilliant but she was smart.  She knew people, she knew him most of all.

“Its more tha-“ he began

“Than what?”

“You know”

The moonlight caught his face in its glow.  The face of the young brother she loved.  He didn’t have to answer that question.  She knew, the only answer she needed was in his eyes.  The ones that had watched good people die of hunger or disease and been thoughtful for days.   Much was said of The Touch of Magic.  Most of it bad but in those same hushed voices they spoke of healing anything less than death, warding off storms or bring rain, and even the bad things could be turned against bandits or murderers.

“Well, if were to do this something’s will have to change.  We must be very careful”  She stuck one finger up taking a lecturing posture.

“We?” he replied

“Yes, I’ve have no choice after you dragged me into this”

“I DRAGGED you? I did my best to be as secretive as I could” he said flatly

“That’s where you went wrong, secretiveness is irresistible”

                They argued and negotiated for hours until the sun began to rise and they hurried off to bed.  Only one decision was made that night.  It was hers alone.  No matter who threatened them she would make sure no one and nothing threatened Ven.  Not the village, not  a Proclaimer, and not her father.