CHAPTER THREE - POWER

I stretch out my hand, leaning on the side of the wooden frame of the chamber's door to check again if I am really locked inside.

When I do, I realize that I am trapped to no avail.

A whirling mass of air, spinning in a thin layer, like a lean strain of hair, pushes back my fingers forcefully, hurting them in the process.

A message which clearly I don't receive well enough to comprehend, as I punch it in frustration which causes an equal and opposite reaction, that instantly pushes me back in the air, my feet dangling up where my head should be, causing me to fall face first on to the ground.

Chaya covers her face as a wave of embarrassment knocks her along with a breeze I send her way, while my little brother grins and giggles as I pick myself up.

"You aren't that bright, are you?" asks Avi, the enemy who put me in that trap in the first place.

"No wonder you were born in Mrina of all places. Men here are dimwits who never understood the greater picture"

As his words reach my ears, and to the rest of those who are standing around, the enemy ranks stack up in formations, as they lock all possible ways one could exit from this situation.

Though only a few of them are dressed without protection, the rest of the small army which is almost one hundred to a thousand strong are covered in bronze armor, behind which their attire includes cotton clothing of red and white draped around their lean, and muscular bodies.

And they hold in their hands curved swords, sharp only on one side.

But a mask covers their face, the kind that I have never seen before grabs hold my attention.

Their masks, though in a first glance look completely normal, with the carvings of facial features one would expect on a face they are replacing, has all but lacks any sort of holes for the eyes behind to see through it.

All of these soldiers who have gathered here are fighting without the aid of their vision in battle. And the ones before are only mercenaries? I try to reason.

"A battlefield is a treacherous enigma" speaks Avi meanwhile, as he sits on the ground.

"But to be in the presence of a woman, no, that is even worse," he says, as he too, covers his eyes.

"All of you," he turns to the women locked in the chamber with me, "Are deemed worthy to be in the presence of my king. So, my eyes can't glance at your beauty even if it is for a second longer"

"So, I invite you to be his couturiers with my eyes blinded," he indulges in his beliefs, as he pulls out from the air, a scroll.

"Please his Majesty with your renowned art, most famous in all of Ahana to sate his boredom, and you shall be showered with gifts more valuables than you could ever dream you could lay your eyes on" 

"You would dare put a price on art?" asks my sister, wary of the ones who crowded around her, but holding back her anger.

She appears to be stalling for time, but what for I don't know yet. 

"The art we practice is an individual's life itself" she continues. "Are you saying that your vile king can place value on life?"

"Oh, yes he can," says he, "My king is simply that amazing," as he throws the scroll towards the chamber, which flies inside without any disturbance, and falls next to my feet.

"Even lives can have tags of value placed on them,"

"And I have already placed one on you, haven't I?"

"You, the one blessed by the letters of the goddess of liberty herself, for the lives of these fine specimens,"

Letters of liberty?

My mind spirals and races as more and more questions cloud my mind, with no answer that could cure me of the ailment that is curiosity.

Does he mean the letters that seemingly came out of nowhere in all of their hands when they snapped?

What does, blessed by liberty mean?

For now, I bend down to pick up the scroll that fell next to my feet in hopes that it'll have some answer.

"Specimen?" Chaya speaks enraged.

"You keep praising your king like he is a saint who loves art and her people, and yet you treat us like some object for sale" 

But the enemy commander chooses to simply ignore her, as he tilts his head towards me to say, "Oh, and that offer is just for those beauties behind you. As for you, how about you kill yourself and spare me my efforts?"

Just then, a flashing blue light spreads across the castle, and into the chamber and the hallway, as the enemy soldiers drop to the ground one after the other, as those who stand still start to panic and break their ranks.

And suddenly, in a glimmering rift that collapses in onto itself, a scene that oddly reminds me of something I've seen before opens up right next to Chaya as she loosens her guard, by lowering her squared shoulders

"Took you long enough," she says, as he pulls my little brother towards her, only to push him inside that rift as he disappears in an instant.

"It's been forever since I last saw you," says a handsome man, his bulking body standing out from the rest of those who stand behind him in a shadow as he walks out from the rift, "I wanted to look better than I do usually to please your lovely eyes," says he, as a snap of his fingers conceives a letter, and then a small blue blade.

As soon as he grips his dagger, Avi suddenly flies close to the new stranger and locks his long sword with equal footing.

But the man easily pushes him away, and I catch a glimpse of his being when the eerie black rift that covered him dissipates to clear up the area.

"I was told to be aware of you," speaks Avi as he picks himself up again, but doesn't do a thing to remove his mask to fight a fair fight.

"My reputation precedes me?" he says, the man almost confused.

"I mean, I know it does with the women, but what kind of a man would sit and think about other men all day?" he laughs, as in a swell swoop, he overpowers Avi, to force him on his knees.

"You landless men should stop playing soldiers," he says, pushing Avi apart, as he orders his soldiers to kill the enemy men who are still standing.

"At least try to make up your sigils and symbols so you don't look ridiculous in the armor of a kingdom long dead"

But Avi's figure quickly disperses in a fog, and he appears again behind the man, to strike him, but Chaya blocks him quickly as her dance resumes more ferociously.

"You people have to be reminded," Avi says, as he proceeds to take a stance, seemingly to fight both of them still with his eyes closed.

"The realm of Krit never died or decayed. My king was only in a slumber, and now he is awake again to take reign of this dying world"

The man, dumbfounded by what he just heard, stuns himself in a clumsy stand as he goes on to say, "He must be a beauty, your king? A thousand years is one hell of a beauty sleep for anyone,"

But no words come out in response, as Avi promptly proceeds to fight frantically swinging his blade left, right, up and down, in ferocious moves my eyes just can't keep up with as Chaya and the man still easily overpower each one of his reaching sway, even when he sneaks up behind them using his sly skill set.

Just in moments, the enemy army is killed by soldiers that came from a rift, and now as I phrase it the way it happened in my head, I feel dizzy and almost nauseous because of my blissful ignorance until now.

I realize I do not understand the gravity of my situation, and it is simply astounding that whatever I have done till now, either doesn't make sense for someone in my position to do, so it is quite creepy that I am not on my last few hair strands, because I am supposed to be pulling every one of them off by now, as I go insane.

I don't quite get what's happening with me. 

And I think it is catching up to me. 

But for now, the conclusion to their fight forces my gaze towards it, as I quickly forget everything else.

"How about this?" says the man of the rift, "Take all the gold, silver, and diamond you can find here, and leave so I don't have to ever see you again?"

"What?" snaps Chaya almost immediately as she goes in for a killing strike, but misses. "I am not letting this bastard walk away after all that he's said" she growls at the both of them.

"Well, you didn't let me finish," says the man forcing a smile. And then turning towards him, trying to think hard of something cool, and once his process is over, he says, "You can take all of that, but you would have to leave your head behind before you leave the door?"

"Huh?" Chaya stares sharper blades at the man, but doesn't give it another thought, as she pushes the man aside to engage Avi, one on one.

"Hey, common"! speaks the man, but gives up as he sighs as he smiles.

"It's the thought of me trying that counts," he says, as he continues to join her, but Chaya, my sister doesn't let him in, forcing the man to try his best to at least hope to land a decent strike.

"I am done with your wretched insolence," speaks Avi, as he puts up a distance.

"I have given you the best of deals my liege would offer, but you have only insulted his leniency and feigned your arrogance"

"If I cannot take you to my king, then your existence is no longer justified in this world" he says, as a snap of his finger calls more than one letter from the collapsing air, and just like that a sharp tipped arrow, silver in color, glowing in the color of a storm takes shape in his palm.

"An Astra?" speaks Chaya as her foot moves back to take the space behind reflexively to safety.

"Are you a fool? You will end up killing yourself, and all of your men too" she says. 

Just then, the man, almost flexing the same aura calls upon a similar weapon in his hand, which reeks of an utter darkness, glimmering blue like the deepest shades of strange, magical caves that is said to lead to other worlds.

"No one else has to die" says he, as he aims the arrow in his hand, ready to shoot it at the flick of his finger.

"Only one of us has to, if you have the stomach to face me"

"Do it then," says Avi unmoved.

"Death is never the end," he readies himself. "My king himself has told me that"

As those words reach my ear, an echoing darkness forces itself out of me, taking control of my body, as I start to levitate off of the ground.

In a single, swift movement, I break out of the cage of air, forcing the two men to hit the nearest wall, to seize their actions at once.

I can see my body moving, and as the dust settles, and it reveals only Chaya barely standing on her feet, I realize that whatever will happen next, I have no control over it.

I try my best to make my body behave, but my eyes light on purple streaks of light, as my fingers snap in a thundering sound, as letters take shape, they engulf the color around me, and even ferocity to take form in my hands. 

Only their mere existence crumbles the foundations of the massive castle everyone is in right now.

Chaya looks worried when she looks at me, confused but more concerned.

"Ishaan," she speaks my name, only for me to lose more control as my gaze falls prey to a clouding vision.

"What's happening?" she tries to speak words of reason to bring me back to my senses, and just then, an erupting energy forces itself out of me yet again, bringing down the castle ceiling on everyone's head, a moment prior which the man uses what's left of his strength to snap and trap my sister in one of his rifts.

Chaya resists its pull, as she almost breaks out of it. But the debris from the structure sends her deep inside, while Avi tries to reach for the women in the chamber.

His eyes still covered, it is only the cage of air that he must have created again that had protected a dozen or so women, but just before he could reach them, the man opens up a rift inside the whirling prison of air to free all of them too at that moment before impact.

More energy builds in me, as anger, sadness or sheer hatred asks of me to continue this brutal rampage, as streaks of flashing light cause more damage to everything around me.

Then, my almost shut-down eyes lay sight on a shrine deep underground, a scene that is only in view because of my unexplained and uncontrolled outburst.

The man sees it too, as he takes the chance to open a portal piercing through my skin which in a brief second, teleports me into a dark space.

"Mercy,"

"Death!"

"Revenge!" speaks a ghastly voice, but before I can even think of what it could be, I erupt in utter desolation as a bleak light from my own body puts me to sleep.