Ten

Ash found herself standing at the dark cliffs of the island of Gloriana, dangerously close to the sea as the waves crashed violently on the rocks. All around her were the angry chants of people who she could only assume were mages. She could feel the magic energy in the air, if it wasn’t for the wind whipping around her it would be suffocating. She was standing behind a stone table of some kind. Behind her were the remains of an outdoor chapel surrounded by a large crowd.

She walked toward the crowd and pushed her way through finding that no one reacted to her presence. Once she made it to the chapel she took in the sight of a man with brown skin, wearing a ripped shirt and white pants wrapped in glowing white chains. He was kneeling looking at the crowd of witches and warlocks with a smirk on his face. A group of people were behind a long stone slab also covered in white chains. The mob and the group in chains were hurling insults at each other.

To the right was a woman with long braided brown hair wearing a white robe with gold accents and a gold pin in a shape of a star. One of the symbols used to mark a member of the Mage’s Union. As Ash stared at the woman she realized that it was Lucinda, but younger. She was staring intensely at the chained man. Her expression unreadable, finally she turned to the crowd.

“SILENCE!” she said in an amplified voice.

The crowd obeyed and Lucinda crossed the platform they were on to stand next to the chained man. He looked up at her with a snarl.

“Crona Nova over the course of fifty years you are accused of having committed acts of violence against non-magic users, inciting the Lonisterian Civil War, which you abandoned fleeing to the Realm of Ônore. While there you and your wife Serena Briar murdered the Royal Family of the Iotòn Kingdom. During your reign you murdered thousands of rebel fey. Prompting the banishment of humans from Ônore and Fey from Nitia. How do you plead?”

“Guilty.” He said with a leer.

The part of the crowd that was chained cheered, while the rest in the back booed. Lucinda’s face twisted in disgust as she raised her hand a white flame appearing in it.

“I said be silent!” Lucinda said. Not yelling like last time, but her tone was so cold that even Ash straightened.

The crowd drew back, and Lucinda turned her attention back to the chained man, Crona. She began circling him. “You have refused to repent for your actions, and you have failed in your divine duty as a Time Wielder. For too long your crimes in Nitia and in Ônore have gone unpunished, but now is the time to put you down.”

Crona slowly stood up and looked Lucinda dead in the eye. “Do what you have to do.” He challenged.

Lucinda’s strong stance visibly faltered, but it was recovered quickly. “Prepare your last words.”

Crona just smirked at her. “Lucy, you know you can’t kill me.”

“That’s not my goal.” Lucinda said.

At that Crona’s face fell. Lucinda lifted her hands and white flames appeared.

Ash watched in horror as Crona’s body writhed his eyes emitting multicolored light. He screamed in pain and the crowd screamed with him while Lucinda strained focusing on what seemed like a complicated spell.

Ash closed her eyes and the noise stopped as if answering her silent prayer for it all to end. She opened her eyes and saw that the scene she had been looking at was gone. It was no longer a windy night on Gloriana, but daytime in a desert.

Ash felt her chest get heavy and she took deep breaths trying to keep herself calm. “Get a hold of yourself. It’s just a crazy-ass dream. Gods I hope it’s just a crazy-ass dream.”

After a minute of deep breathing she started walking not knowing where it was she should go.

“So, is this a metaphor for something in my subconscious or is this supposed to be somewhere I’ve been?” she asked pulling up the skirt of the white nightgown she was now wearing. “Where did this come from? Gods! Where am I?” she yelled.

A howling wind answered her shifting the sand to reveal small footprints on the ground. She shrugged and followed the footprints until she saw something white in the distance. Was it those mirages she had heard of? Or was it real? Was anything about this real?

Seeing that the footprints were leading to the white speck Ash sprinted towards it the speck turning into what looked like a bundle of white fabric. There was a little brown arm waving at her from under the white cloth.

“Hello!” she yelled at it.

The figure started to make an urgent beckoning motion at her. She picked up her pace the little figure under the white cloth turned and disappeared on the other side of the dune.

“Wait!” Ash called.

Her breathing became labored as she made it to the top of the dune to see that a small child was at the bottom kneeling next to a dark hole. Ash slowly trekked down the dune, and slowly walked towards the child kneeling down. The child looked up at her and she saw that it was a little boy, who couldn’t have been older than three, with curly hair and chubby cheeks. He was wrapped in the white cloth as if it were a comforting blanket shading his face and hair. He smiled up at her then pointed down at the hole, looking at her expectantly.

“You want me to reach in there?” she asked raising an eyebrow.

He nodded eagerly.

“Why, did you lose something?” she asked playing along.

He shook his head and pointed at her.

“I lost something?” she asked.

He nodded smiling a few baby teeth missing.

“Okay if you say so.” Ash said suspiciously.

The little boy just smiled covering his mouth with his blanket. Ash looked down the hole and saw that something was glinting at the bottom. Taking a deep breath, she slowly reached her hand inside the hole. She felt her hand touch the cool ground her fingers brushed something made of metal. Securing it in her hand, she picked it up and brought it out to the light.

In her hand was a bronze key with a round handle with a single small ruby in the center. The little boy began clapping happily. She looked down at him confused.

“This is mine?”

He nodded and began fading away. Ash watched horrified. “What’s happening, where are you going?”

The wind picked up and the little boy disappeared in a pillar of sand blowing in the breeze. Ash stared into the open air around her as the wind howled. She examined the key still confused. She stared at the ruby, she could tell it was one of her fathers, it was an Emerald Cut, a silly joke shared between family members. She turned the key overlooking for a clue to what it could’ve gone to, but it was unmarked.

“Ash!” a voice called from a distance.

She lifted her head in alert searching for the voice.

“Ash!”

That time it was a chorus of voices, familiar voices. She stood and tried to look in the direction the voices were coming from but she was in the bottom of a bowl. She began panicking.

“I’m here! I’m here!” she began shouting, finding that she couldn’t move from her spot.

She closed her eyes. “I’m here! I’m here! I’M HERE!”

Suddenly she was falling and felt arms wrapped around her. “Ash it’s okay, you’re okay.” A familiar voice said in her ear.

She opened her eyes and looked around confused. “Where? What happened?” she asked.

The arms released her and she saw that it had been Snow and Alan who were looking at her with worry. “Are you okay?” they asked.

“I…what?” She looked around to see she was in the forest. “How did I get here? Is this real? Are you real?” she asked holding her hands up to their faces.

“This is the real world.” Snow confirmed.

“We’re near Dryad Field.” Alan said.

“So I’m still in Centruna?”

“Yeah.”

“How did you find me?”

“With his help.” Snow said turning her head.

Ash followed her gaze and saw that Charlie was emerging from the bushes buttoning up a shirt. He smiled at her. “Hey.”

“Hey…”

“Charlie went into wolf mode to find you, and it was awesome!” Alan said.

“Oh.” She tried to move, but realized her hands were being held by Snow. “Snow, you can let me go now.”

“Ash, um...I’ll let you go, but you need to remain calm.” Snow said.

“Why?” she looked around and saw that they were next to a tree with a hole at its base.

She looked down to see that her pajamas and hands were covered in soil. She was holding the key from her dream. “Where did I…?” She walked towards the tree.

“Ash.” Charlie called, but Ash ignored him and looked down at the hole then gasped.

Inside was a dirt covered sheet with a small human skull peeking out from under it. Ash looked from the hole to her hands.

She turned back to the group. “What did I do?”

Charlie brought out a jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Come on we’re taking you back to the castle.”

She looked at their worried expressions then back at the disturbed grave then reached down to put the surrounding mounds of dirt back into the hole. Once she was done she stood back up and properly put on the jacket. She turned to face her friends.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Alan asked incredulously.

“Making you worry. I don’t know what happened. I was dreaming and sleep walking I guess.” She said looking down at the key and the unmarked grave again.

Charlie placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We’re just glad we found you. We thought that Morgana had you.”

“Why would Morgana have me?” Ash asked confused.

Alan and Snow looked down at the ground. Ash looked up at Charlie with confusion.

“Morgana disappeared from her trial.” Snow explained.

“We…disappeared at the same time?” Ash asked.

“Yeah, she vanished after giving a prophecy. When I went to check on you, you were gone, but the guards that were stationed at your door thought you had been inside the whole time.” Charlie explained.

“Oh.” Ash said quietly.

“Ash your feet are bleeding.” Snow commented.

Looking down she saw that her bare feet were covered in dirt and blood. Before she could say anything she felt herself being swept up by Charlie. Reluctantly she wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Let’s get out of here.” He said.

She nodded and rested her head on Charlie’s shoulder.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked quietly.

“I don’t know. I’m confused, about a lot of things. How long were you all searching?” she asked.

“About half an hour, and that’s after we found out you weren’t in the castle.” He said settling her on a red ATV.

He got on in front of her and she wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned on him feeling exhausted. As they drove back towards the castle Ash’s mind raced.

Had that been the grave of the little boy in her dream? If so, then who was he? Her getting the key was not by chance. Just like the dream she had about Lucinda and that man Crona Nova. He was executed by Lucinda. It must’ve happened before she was born. She couldn’t go based on Lucinda’s youth in the dream.

Witches like Lucinda didn’t age physically when they used their powers in a virtuous manner. Lucinda was a hundred and thirty something years old. Currently she looked like she was in her late thirties if those events in Ash’s dreams did happen then she was going to have to ask.

Then there was the fact that she somehow left the castle without anyone seeing her. What was that about? She wasn’t a sleepwalker. There was no way she managed to travel that distance without being a sweating mess. She was a fast runner, but she couldn’t free run with her eyes closed.

Was that why her feet were bleeding?

Another thought occurred to her.

Morgana was gone.

What would that mean for her? Her family?

“Ash, your squeezing too tight.”

She let go of Charlie, looking around she saw that they were already back at the castle driveway. Charlie turned to face her.

“Sorry, I was thinking too hard.”

“Oh, I thought you just liked being big spoon.” He joked.

“Shut up.” Ash said with a laugh that turned into a cough. After managing to calm down she stood up and pulled out the bronze key she had put in her jacket pocket.

The little boy said that it was hers, but she was sure she had never seen it before. Although, after the events of the past day, she couldn’t be sure of anything.

“Charlie?”

“Hmm?” He answered.

“You said Morgana vanished after giving a prophecy, what did she say?”

“She talked about the Black Witch returning for her husband the Crown of Light. Crona Nova. She said to look for the ‘Dark Dreamer’. It all happened so fast, but whoever this Dark Dreamer is, she’s supposed to be able to stop them.” Charlie said.

“Her?”

“She said the Dark Dreamer is the latest Time Wielder, the sixth. Time Wielders follow a pattern of succession male, female, et cetera. Since the last Time Wielder was male, his successor would be female.”

“Imteresting. But…he said he couldn’t be killed, maybe he doesn’t have to be dead.” Ash pondered.

“What are you talking about?”

“Crona Nova. I saw his trial. Lucinda was the judge and the executioner. Crona said no one could kill him, so Lucinda did something, but I didn’t get to see it. They were on Gloriana.”

Charlie looked down at Ash. “That was the one thing about him that wasn’t put into textbooks. How did you…”

Ash shook her head. “Saw it in a dream. What about the Black Witch.”

“A dream?”

“Yeah, before the dream with the little boy, I dreamed about Crona’s execution, well, I saw the trial leading up to it.”

“Have you been having strange dreams lately?” Charlie asked.

At that Alan and Snow appeared on either side of them listening in.

“I guess. This is the first time I’ve remembered my dreams.” She admitted.

“The Dark Dreamer.” Alan mused.

“The Dark Dreamer and the Crown of Light will make history right.” Snow stated.

They turned to Ash, who looked at them confused. She noticed that Charlie was staring at her too.

“What, guys no, why would Morgana give a prophecy about me, five years after she met me? Why now? Come on!”

“You just told me you dreamed about Crona Nova’s trial, and accurately revealed his final resting place even though that information isn’t public knowledge. The fact that you already knew all that about him, but not about Serena Briar must mean something.” Charlie stated.

“But, if that’s true why is this happening now? If I’m a demigod then shouldn’t I have been born with my powers?”

“It’s not like we know how demigods work. Neither of your parents were deities.” Snow said.

“It sounds like you need to have an incredibly long talk with Lucinda,” Charlie stated, “but first you need medical attention. How are your feet doing?”

“Umm, the numbness means they’re healing, right?” she asked coyly.

“No, absolutely not. How are you standing right now?” Charlie said immediately scooping her up in his arms.

“Not again!”

“It’s going to keep happening. By order of the Prince.”

“I want a lawyer.”

“Will you settle for a doctor?”

“Get a room!” Snow said turning around.

The others laughed as they went into a sitting area and Charlie set Ash down on a couch. He knelt down next to her with an apologetic expression.

“I’m sorry we lost Morgana, but I promise you, she won’t be able to hurt you or your siblings ever again.”

“Whether you catch her or not, I’m not going to be afraid of her anymore. I’m so tired of being afraid to speak up for myself. I’m done taking shit from people.”

“That’s my girl. Let’s go get you a wheelchair.” Snow said grabbing Alan.

“Since when is that a two-person job?” Alan whined as Snow dragged him out of the room.

“I’ll need you to find some stuff for me.”

Ash and Charlie watched Alan and Snow leave the room with amused faces.