Chapter Twenty

Cyan had been trapped in Veiled Lake for almost three decades.

When she was first put there, she had been hurt. Confused. Then angry.

And it had taken her a little while to accept that she couldn't get herself out.

Then she had thought she had been turned into water. But water couldn't think. She could.

But her body had disappeared. Though she could still see. It was as if the surface of the lake was her eyes, she could see everything around. She could not smell, she could not feel, she could not taste. But she could see and she could hear. And of course, she could think.

Her mind of course, had not been at peace.

She felt so betrayed. After everything, how could he have done this to her?

She had visions, scenes she created in her head, imaginings of him running back to her, apologizing, freeing her...things going back to how they used to be.

Then she would have memories of their past times together. All the things they used to do so regularly. Splashing in the streams like children in the mornings. Sitting under the cherry tree in the clearing and watching the squirrels playing in the trees of the forest surrounding. Occasionally they would see other animals. Then he would go out hunting, and she would watch him process the animal afterward. They never ate their evening meals together, those meals were private, family activities, but Cyan would always escape from her family as quickly as she could to join him again by the cherry tree in the clearing every evening, and they would stay there on the grass and look at the stars.

Later on, they would do their magic studies together, spend their days gathering plants in the forest, practicing, reading, writing. But every evening they would go outside and watch the stars. And she would lean against him, and he would hold her tight...then Cyan remembered...those arms that held her tight.

They were the same arms that betrayed her.

He had betrayed her. There was no going back.

And once again she would feel the pain of his betrayal.

Then she would change the hurt to anger. Rage.

She let it devour her mind.

She didn't fight it and the hate consumed her in hungry gulps until only one word remained firmly planted in her mind. Revenge.

He never deserved her love. Never had, never would. What a fool she had been to trust him. Now she knew better. But wasn't it too late anyway?

Altair would bring her the next three symbols. Then she would be free. To hunt him down. To get her revenge. And to continue her quest.

She had time. As much time as she had had before her imprisonment, she hadn't aged even a bit during her stay at the lake. She was as young as she had been almost thirty years ago.

Then satisfying, ever-changing visions of revenge she would play in her head. Each different from the last, she remembered her favorites and daydreamed about them over and over again, changing up the details ever so slightly.

By now, her thoughts of the happy past were over. Or extremely rare at least.

Having no real body to move or a need or ability to sleep, her scenarios of sweet revenge kept her company at night.

Sometimes she killed him. Sometimes she hurt him. Usually, the latter was much worse for him. Sometimes she only pictured their first reunion in so many years, their reactions at seeing the other different every time. Sometimes she was a powerful ruler, long ago having freed herself from Veiled Lake and completed her quest. Other times she had only just begun after freeing herself with Altair's help, her revenge being the first thing on her mind.

There was no end to the horrors she could make him face in her head.

Naturally, when Altair had brought her the Symbol of Air and dropped it into the center of her lake, she had been able to rise from it in a liquidy human form, a water spirit of her human self.

Now she had more freedom. Freedom to see further. To have at least some kind of body.

It was amazing, really, how much that wizard was willing to do for her. He was young, just around her own age, and it was by an amazing stroke of luck that he had found her. For her, it was lucky, anyway.

She remembered it all, it had been on an especially imaginative day, and she was thinking, like she often did, about different acts of revenge she could carry out on him. Stampedes of unicorns chasing him off a cliff.

Cyan had a fascination with unicorns. Amazing, powerful creatures. Glistening, magical, electric horns. The pounding of their hooves as they ran together, stirring dust from the ground like smoke around their legs. Their sharp fangs, made to rip flesh, their fiery eyes.

When she freed herself from the lake, she planned to be the first to train the creatures. Her army would ride unicorns instead of horses.

In any case, that day, she had been imagining her army on unicorns, chasing him off a cliff...he was just about to plummet to his doom when Altair arrived at her lake. Cyan had been quite shocked to see an actual person there, standing at the edge of her waters.

And she desperately wanted to communicate with him. That was when she discovered she could control ripples in the water. She used them to write a short message, short and clear, enough to get the wizard's attention, though she hadn't known he was a wizard at the time. Look.

And he did. Well, first his eyes widened, and he took a step back. He muttered under his breath. He closed his eyes and re-opened them. Then he came closer.

Treasure.

Something to get his attention. She couldn't risk him leaving.

Bring Symbol of Air. Get reward.

She had watched his expression carefully, making sure he had read each message before she replaced it.

Treasure. Highest branch in tree on tallest cliff. Akeefa territory. Reward.

He'd turned around and ran in the other direction. And Cyan had been quite frustrated. But at least now she knew she could somewhat communicate to anyone who could read. So she spent her next few days coming up with some more convincing words for the next person to come.

Imagine her surprise when he returned and dropped a silver egg into the center of her lake two years later.

And so she had been freed from under the waters, able to rise up in a liquid version of her former self.

Altair's loyalty never wavered.

Though it didn't earn him her respect, and on the contrary, she viewed him as quite a fool. If she had been able to get her hands on the Symbol of Air, she wouldn't have thrown it into the middle of a large puddle.

Clearly, he didn't know the power of the Symbol. But he had enough wits to get his hands on it in the first place, and she was certain he would finish freeing her from the wretched lake and continue helping her conquer whatever she wanted until she was able to give him this reward he wanted so much.

In any case, she was stuck, but not for long. Cyan turned her attention to the sky, checking for any signs of rain that had been strangely absent for way too many days now. None.

Well, she thought, it would come soon enough...