I was finally back at my room in the inn, and Dale was sitting at the table where he had been waiting for me. “I know we talked about this before, but I have to make sure.” I prefaced, “The first time I’ve used this body for… Well you know what I was doing. I.. Well, I seemed to know what I was doing too, actually.”
Dale’s smirk was unmissable. “You really think highly of yourself don’t you, Princess?”
A dark blush crossed my cheeks. “You know what I’m asking though right? It’s not like I had ever tried rolling in the sheets in the castle!”
Dale nodded, understanding on his feline features. “You should keep all of it. He shouldn’t be able to use any of it when he’s back in this body. Though you may end up with some of the sexual prowess the monster has gifted your old body with, if you’re asking about that too. In theory, if he’s the one holding the artifact when the change happens, you should be holding it when things eventually return to normal, though that’s not entirely needed, depending on how our plot plays out.” Dale’s words were calm and level, long before his smirk transitioned to a reassuring smile.
“The plan will work. We’ve been over all of the contingencies, Calistra. There’s nothing else we could possibly do to prepare. There’s no world in which anything he can do in this body would even compare to your magical power, after all you’ve learned and all the practice you’ve done to grow as a sorceress.” I thought he had to be right, but… I still worried.
I had spent several more nights with Deena from then on, to the dismay of poor Sarah. She had insisted on staying with me until I was back in my body, and I was as unwilling to refuse as much as I was unable. She hadn’t given me much of a choice in the matter, taking a second key from Sarah, who had given her a jealous stare down at the time. I had never had a suitor who wasn’t in it for the kingdom and money before. These two fighting over me as a nobody would have been hilarious and charming, if it wasn’t so anxiety inducing.
I think Dee worried Sarah would find her way to my room at night if she didn’t stay. Though Sarah made a show of telling me how good I must be, as she heard Deena’s moans through the walls two nights in a row. After hearing that, Deena only grew louder. Much louder, likely out of spite. I would have talked to her about the situation if I wasn’t checking out that morning. Sarah was sad to see me go, and when she asked me to come back soon, I realized not only that I couldn’t make any promises, but that I didn’t want to. My life was about to change drastically, very soon, and there was no guarantee that I would ever have this face again, let alone be staying in this inn for any reason. It was as much a relief as it was an anxiety.
And honestly, I felt like Deena being who she was, knowing who I was, and loving me enough to get into fights with other women over me when they simply tried to flirt.. I didn’t feel any urge to entertain anyone else. I was starting to feel like Dee and I would be a really cute couple, even when I was me again, if she was being honest about her wishes.
It was the anniversary of the night I was stolen. It was exactly 2 years since my life had collapsed around me. I was ready. And honestly, the plan was pretty well thought out. Revenge would be sweet, if not swift. And it should be physically safe, for all parties involved.
Deena had requested a part to play, but honestly her just being present for the spectacle I was about to pull at the castle, could have thrown enough of a wrench into things. I had asked her to meet me at her spot tomorrow morning when all was said and done. I would simply worry too much if she were to be caught in any crossfire. If it worked, I would be back and the town would be none the wiser. If it didn’t work… Well there were plenty of things that could happen, but most of them involved people getting hurt, so I was certainly not going to let that happen. To the best of my ability.
We marched out to the street in front of the inn. “Time to fly, Dale. You know where I need you.” He nodded and hopped on my shoulders, laying comfortable where he knew the flight would not pull him loose from me. I smiled and nuzzled my head into his. “Thank you for being here for me through all this. I know it wasn’t your responsibility. You’re the best friend a girl could ask for.”
His purr was all the recognition my words needed. We vanished from sight, and soared into the air. I spent time ensuring the wind I was carried on was silent as I landed at the portcullis. The gate was open, and two guards were standing on either side. They couldn’t see me though, and without being able to even hear me land, they simply stared forward while I quietly trudged into the castle. Once inside, I pressed a finger to Dale’s nose and cast a spell to keep him invisible to anyone but me and the king. He jumped from my shoulders and casually strutted towards the king’s throne room. My father was ready for the cat, and would send Regina to her place as soon as he saw him. I had talked to him and Regina this morning via the same tokens I had given Fiona and Derek.
?
There was some fear at the back of my mind. I had pushed it aside long ago. I had guards. I had power. I had money and fame. I had it all. Who could really even get to me if I didn’t let them? Not some wanna be illusionist who couldn’t even secure a performance with the king. And he wouldn’t burn down everything… He couldn’t. How could a whole kingdom fall to one man? I have been here long enough that it was my kingdom now. I had nothing to worry about anymore. Not really. This was my home now. I was the princess after all.
Calistra they called me. Though my first name was Mirelle. Nobody in this kingdom knew me by that name though. Not for several thousand miles. Nobody here could know of me because, I found the trinket and then I found Sam. A wandering nobody, Sam was exactly what I wanted to be. As Mirelle I was always told where to be and what to do. I was a noble, sure, but I had to obey every whim of the men in my life. Sam, however, was one of the men. One of the in crowd. He had a free pass to go where he wanted, and do what he liked. He could be anything, do anything. He wasn’t limited by his sex. I was driven mad by the differences. How could a peasant’s life be so much better than mine, as a noble!?
One day, I managed to escape the watchful eye of my father, and found Sam about to leave the city on another of his wild trips into unknown lands. Unknown to me at least. I asked him to take me with him. He refused. That was when I held out the trinket. It was a fancy golden device. It had to be worth a hefty sum. A sum he likely had never had access to in his meager life as a traveling tradesman. He considered his options, and knew he would be damning himself never to come back to this place again if he did take me with him. But that’s when the wildest thing happened. As he took the trinket and examined it, I felt something happening. He tucked it into a pocket on the back of his tunic. Then I was looking at myself from a few inches taller. The magic, I realized the feeling had been, had moved my soul to Sam’s body.
It had originally been payment for the risks of running away with me. Now though? No, now I had no intention of taking Sam with me. Not when I was now a man with all the privileges and freedoms I had dreamed of. I would not be caught as Sam with Mirelle and relegated to prison for a journey I was much too invested in. I simply walked away. My father had found Sam quickly after she began to scream at me in horror. He dragged her back inside where she would forever play the part of Mirelle. I didn’t mind the spot I had put her in. I knew it well. She wouldn’t be harmed, but she may be reminded of who she was now meant to be, and what that would mean for her. Best of luck, Sam. If only you’d agreed to take me with you sooner, we may have been gone from here by the time anyone was even looking for us…
I finally had done it! I was traveling. It was uncomfortable and I was often too poor to afford basic commodities, but the places I could go were well worth the hardships. Food and shelter were almost always mutually exclusive, but I began to fill my role better as time went on. I was a trader. I simply needed to trade. I was a wanderer, I would never have to visit the same towns again. I would be as polite as I could muster for a bargain, I could lie, cheat and even steal if I really needed to, and then I was gone and never looked back. I just kept pushing forward. I had visited almost everywhere on the maps, except one place. One place that happened to stretch further than the borders of any other kingdoms.
I had heard of the mountain range that separated the world from the lands of Silverhold. It was secluded. It was hard to access, but it had some of the richest royalty of the known worlds. And I kept hearing stories of the King. He was kind, and accepting. He let people walk all over him from how I heard it. Sounded like a terrible king, when it came down to it, but his daughter? The Princess of Silverhold? She could do no wrong in his eyes.
She had the world in the palm of her hand, as long as she kept the king wrapped around her perfect finger. I know I was beginning to get used to my male parts, and the ladies I would attract with them, but to be honest with myself… I was a woman at heart. And I missed being able to wear dresses and dance around a ball room. I missed being pampered and showered with gifts. I missed getting laid by men, not as one. A princess would have all those things, AND the freedom I never had until recently.
A few more months of travel, led me to the mountain range. They really weren’t kidding. There was NO way through. I spent another month and a half trying to walk my way around the damned thing, only to find the mountain almost seemed to be a wall of rock all the way around the perimeter of the kingdom. It was no wonder they were so wealthy, the gold stayed trapped inside! No war could make it’s way near. The only way for the kingdom to fall would be it’s own citizens revolting. This was perfect! I could be myself as the princess, and nobody would even be able to call for outside help! But… I did have to leave my wagon behind. And my horse. I didn’t care much for the horse anyways. It seemed to know I wasn’t Sam. It always gave me a side eye and refused to behave as it had when Sam was taking care of it.
I unhitched the horse and let it wander off, before following what looked like the shortest path over the mountains. I assumed it would be the shortest, because near the bottom of the trail was all the other caravan’s wagons from decades past. I had nothing on me but my magical trinket, and the clothes on my back. I had run out of food and coin long ago. Climbing the mountain was simple enough, though tiring and rather time consuming. Getting down the other side… That was the real problem. I was practically sliding on my butt the whole way down a mountain taller than all the trees I’d passed on the way here combined. The path was sheer, but just enough angle to slide instead of drop.
There was no way I would get back out this same way. I figure that’s why the caravans had never come back for their goods. Not that it would be much use to take them at this point. The rotten grain had mostly composted and become dirt for new life to spring forth from. Decades of time had passed, at the least. I probably could have searched for some coins, but I doubt anyone would be fool enough to leave them abandoned without a sure way back to their wagons.
Finally at the base of the mountain, I found plenty of food. Growing right off the now clear trail was berries and fruit and vegetables! I didn’t bother cooking most of it, just scarfed down what I could, then continued towards the castle. From the top of the mountain, it couldn’t have been clearer. From the base… Well I figured it was the same direction through the trees, So I marched and marched, finding food already grown and ready to eat, right when I needed it. I found rivers stretching endlessly, dissecting the trail, and always clean and perfect for drinking. Always right when I became thirsty. If I wasn’t tired beyond belief, I would have thought it too good to be true. Though my tired mind simply assumed I was lucky.
Finally I could see the castle ahead through a clearing. I began to run to it. That was when I heard a voice directly in front of me. A doorway was opened into a building. But the building was not there, only the empty doorway. “Hello weary traveler!” The voice had said. “Come in, and rest. The city is not as kind as the wilds here, and you’ll likely have a hard time finding food and drink there. Feel free to stop and fill your belly before you finish your journey.”
I didn’t question the impossibility of the situation. I had swapped bodies. I had found food and water when I needed it. What law of nature couldn’t be broken? I walked into the door and found myself at a table in the center of a very odd chamber. Food was ready at the table, and it was set for two. Though the owner of the voice I had heard was nowhere to be seen. His cat, was happily purring and rubbing against my legs though. I didn’t pet the thing, worried it might have fleas or ticks out here in the woods. I sat and ate until I was full though. I didn’t even stop to wait for this other person, though I did watch as his cat climbed to the seat across the table from me and began chewing on the man’s chicken. Still silent, I smirked at the cat who’s eyes watched my face with intrigue.
When I had finished, I was about ready to leave. “Th-thank you… I think?” I had said to the space around me and nowhere in particular, as I had finished my meal.
The cat who was now standing before me then replied with “You’re welcome!” and my leg flew out unceremoniously, kicking the being to the section of the room that dropped lower than the others.
I turned to where the door had been, but realized it was gone. Instead, to the left of that, I found the ladder up. I climbed, getting as far from the cat as I could. There was a bed there, but I was not tired anymore. “What the fuck are you?!”
“I’m Dale.” the cat’s deep and masculine voice was in no way fitting for it’s tiny feline appearance. Dale had hopped up to my level and stared at me, back arched and hair raised. He looked ready for a fight.
“Don’t come any closer, you animal!” I shouted, but then he did anyways. I swung an arm at him and clocked him in the side, just as his claw raked down my face. He hit the wall with a thud and I could see the dazed stars in his eyes. Then, I did what I felt I had to. I grabbed him while he was down, and threw him from the window.
The window I realized that was MUCH higher up than the ladder I had climbed. The damned thing was eye level with the highest room of the castle! I made my way back down and looked out another window. I had to have been a hundred and fifty feet up! How I had gotten here… That was very confusing to me. “I had… I had just come in from ground level…” I touched the stone wall where I thought had been the entrance, and it indeed opened up for me. It opened directly to the outdoors. No stairs. I looked back over my shoulder and confirmed I was very much not at ground level through the open window, but as I stepped out, I very much was. I looked around and where I had seen nothing before, the tower now stood stretching into the sky like a stone needle, ready to pierce the heavens. A single gust of air looked like it would rip this thing apart with ease, but it also looked as if it had been standing for centuries.
Searching the ground for the demon cat resulted in nothing but a waste of time. I checked inside again, but it appeared he was gone. Gone to where, I didn’t know… But I wasn’t about to stick around to find out. I was going to capture a princess. I found a small hut outside of the castle with a donkey and a carriage full of hay. I simply walked the ass through the gates and the guards said nothing, as I bypassed the line of foreigners. “They’re the real asses” I smirked to the donkey who looked entirely unmoved by my quip. I walked towards the castle, and finally I was where I needed to be. I stowed my donkey at a small paddock near the castle walls. Then I set to work. I wanted to spy on the guards to see an easy way in, though I doubted it would be very easy at all, once in. I needed a plan to get near the princess. A way to get her away from prying eyes. I shouldn’t be seen in this body at all, if I wanted her to stay gone, so I had to figure out a way to get her away from the castle before I swapped with her, AND remain unseen. I had to say, my plan was falling apart before it even began, now that I thought about all of the details I still hadn’t accounted for.
found a spot where the wall had slightly crumbled and I could get over with ease, as it was lower than most areas. And I figured I might even be able to drag a body over the wall with me. Unconscious of course. She would be of no use to me if she died before I could switch with her. The city on this side of the castle was VERY quiet. It seemed like it was mostly housing for the people who must have worked elsewhere in the city at this time. I climbed over the castle gate with ease. Then I saw her. Too good to be true seemed to be my motto as of late. I hid in a bush and and the princess herself walked right around a path that ran past my hiding spot. A decent sized branch in one hand, and the princess walking down the trail. It seemed like the world simply wanted me to do this. It wanted my life to be easy as that of a princess. I hadn’t gotten more than 10 minutes in the city, and I was about to steal her spot in the line of succession. I would be the queen. I would BE THE QUEEN!
My anxiety brimmed as my hand swung the branch. She hit the ground as if she had been killed. I feared she might have been, until I felt her breath and mine finally returned to me. Scooping her up proved easy, though the guards that were tracing her path were not far behind at this point. I tossed her over the wall, and then followed myself just as the guards got close enough to hear the bushes moving. I heard one of them say “Must have been the wind.” and then they were off again. Simply two sets of crunching footsteps disappearing into the evening.
With the princess buried under hay in my cart, getting her out of the city seemed twice as easy as getting into the city, and that was saying something. I wondered where to take her. I worried she might be given the body that’s awake and I would be given the concussion. I thought of the tower, and thought it would be perfect. I could close the door and if I did take the concussion from her body, I would wake up before she would have any chance at figuring out how that damned door worked. I would figure out what to do with her next when the time came. Hell, if she was the one who was asleep, I could just walk out and leave her there to die in due time!
It would be slightly unfortunate not to have my way with myself once before I left, but it would be better for everyone if I just went back to the castle as the princess, and the old princess died in the woods, hidden and away from everyone. There was nothing in that tower but books and some dummies anyways. She would have a bed to rot away in, but without food or water, she wouldn’t be there long. And there was no way she would find the door, as long as that damned talking cat didn’t show her.
Settled on my direction, the donkey and I found our way at the tower. When we arrived, it clearly did not see the tower, as it kept walking as if it would run straight into it. But then it walked right around it, as if by magic, before I stopped it from moving forward. Then pulled the princess out of the cart and made my way inside. I clicked the door closed with a tap, and then checked everywhere for the cat. No cat. No other voices. So instead, I placed the trinket into her hand, and then I used her hand to slip it into her sleeve so the mark I had found on me from the last time would be hidden under her dresses. A moment later, the same magic overtook me. I was in a new place, a new perspective. On the ground this time. And my body collapsed face first on the stone. I patted myself down, as the magic seemed to fill me out where my hands landed. I watched Sam’s chest rise and fall, and then I smiled and left. I made my way back to the castle gates and walked right through. The guards did stop me this time.
But they did question my reappearance. “Princess! How did you get out of the castle walls?!”
“I have my ways.” was all I needed to say. They dared not question royalty. I knew as much from my time not questioning royalty as a noble.
I had almost two good years here, before my past caught up to me. Two good years of thinking the real princess was dead and gone. Two good years of pampering and being the girl of any hour. I was happy. Thrilled actually, to be so well off, worshiped and praised. It was a dream come true. But only a few days before that two year mark, it turned into a nightmare. A living nightmare that I couldn’t escape.
It started off simply. The tower I had watched from my room every morning, has vanished. It was just GONE. Just like it had been when I first found it… I was worried to say the least. Nobody else, including my maid, was able to see the structure before, so now joining their ranks, felt so… threatening. But it was minor. The princess was dead! Who should I fear really? It wasn’t like my new father would cause me any problems. And he was the only person who could. Worst he did was keep that rotten maid around after I told him how terrible she was to me. Always questioning my power. Who did she think she was to say such things in the face of royalty.
Then the next sign that my time was running short appeared in spectacular fashion, on the same day. I had seen the blank papers all around the castle, but there was nothing there. Why would I care about such a silly thing. The guards all seemed enamored by them though. I had finally decided to work up the courage to ask my father about happenings in the forest where the tower vanished from, but… There wasn’t much to it. Nobody had seen a tower to begin with, so what really changed? No talk about town. No nothing.
When I asked though, he brought up the mage. The mage who claimed my name… He was The Great Mage Cali so he said, and his power was universally renown from what the magical slips of paper had told others. My father confirmed then that this slip of paper that I could not read showed his name and had a detailed sketch of his person. I was certainly worried. Who was this man? It couldn’t be Sam… And even less likely could it be the princess in Sam’s body, right? She was dead. She was dead dead dead! She could NOT be alive. I left her in a tower, locked up and alone! Not even a creepy fucking cat to talk to. She had to have gone crazy, if she even did survive by some blight, but survive with what food? What water? It had been two years. I did not go to the shows performed around the city. My father rather preferred I not leave the castle grounds, which put quite the damper on the extents of my freedom, but still I was a princess, bound by duty to be queen. And when I was queen I would have no limits.
Then several days later, the showman came to the castle. Not flashy. Not powerful. Just a simple boy with a familiar face. I had been talking to my father and my maid about when was appropriate to come into my room, and then he was there. I mean, it looked like Sam, but he was an illusionist. What was to be expected? I wondered if his magic made him look like the person you least wanted to see, but my father and the maid took him in stride, which meant that idea was unlikely at best.
I watched him approach. I watched him come so close to letting them know what was happening. To ruining my whole life. And my father said something so obscene, I couldn’t hold my emotions in. I had to step out. I was ready to scream, and that was not very princess like. I had to keep up some appearances. After an hour or so, the guards were called to the throne room. I had since wandered to my own room, wondering if this would be the last I saw of it. But when the guards went rushing down the hall, I rushed to see what was happening. I caught them just in time.
“Stop!” I had shouted. “Give me a moment with this ‘mage’. I want to know if my father is right, and I should add him to my collection.” I demanded. But when neither of them reacted, I pushed my luck. “No? I could always use another guard to break. The last one behaves too well after so much time in my service.” and then they were running. If my father knew of my pet, then so did the rest of the castle. Use the power you have, was what Mirelle’s father would have said.
“You recognize my face, don’t you?” the boy had asked me. “I recognize yours.”
“Too bad for you, that father will never recognize your face.” I said with a chuckle. I leaned down to the body I once inhabited, and smirked. “I’ll be honest, you had me worried for a few minutes, with how long you held his attention after I left.” I couldn’t help myself now. The excitement of getting away with it all hit me and I twirled in a circle, spinning my skirts as I went. I had won after all. She was being dragged out by the guards. “But who could deny their own beautiful daughter? He’s always spoiling me rotten.” I lowered my voice to emphasize my victory. Then I looked at the body I once lived in take a deep breath. But I had questions for this person still. “And you… What did you do to the tower?” A wicked smile broke my thoughts and held my glare, but the princess wasn’t done.
The face I knew so well began to rot from the inside out. The teeth turned a dark rotten red while the skin on his face simply began to melt. As the skin from his forehead traveled past his eyes, the whites were gone. Only black remained in those inky orbs. Black with a green reminiscent of toxic clouds that swirled within the blackness. His skeletal mouth seemed to still smile through the gruesome self-destruction.
“I learned from it, princess.” The dead thing spoke in that voice I knew all too well. “I gathered more knowledge than you could ever hope to embody. I read every book. I read every scroll. I practiced every spell until it was perfect, destructive, explosive, and DEADLY.” That dead thing slowly made its way towards me.
I couldn’t help the fear in my eyes, as the dead princess began to rise towards me from the ground without so much as pushing off the stone floors. “Just so I could get payback… On you.” The smile somehow stretched wider, the cheek bones projected upwards towards those eyes, and pinched them in what one could only describe as a grin.
“Oh you’ll die alright. You’ll die excruciatingly. Slowly. Miserably.” the words themselves became lower pitched as it turned from dead thing to demon. I tried to run. I tried to turn away, and flee. I tried to simply pull my face back from this undead monstrosity! But I was stuck firmly in place.
“But you will first watch as I burn the whole kingdom down around you. Slit the king’s throat. pull the entrails from your maid… Just so you can watch everything you stole from me die, and when you’re begging for anyone, or anything to save you…” Whatever held me released, and though I didn’t feel when it did, I was able to pull away and began to run. I was not looking back at the demon. I was fleeing for my life.
But as I ran through the halls, the voice followed me. It echoed off the walls and it struck fear into my heart. “I’ll be there to put a dagger through your left leg. Then a sword to slice your right. And an axe to chop off your arm, but your other arm will BURN! Then your skin will be-” The voice finally faded from my hearing when I slammed my door behind me. Sitting down on the bed, I cried. I cried and felt alone. I felt like it mattered so little that I was surrounded by guards and maids and a king, when this creature had come for me. I was alone in this. I was alone and I would never be safe.
I found the trinket in my closet, next to my pet guard. I turned it in my hands as he rambled about pleasing me. On any other day, I might have listened. I might have cared. Today I was too worried to play with my pet. Setting it back down in a box in the corner of the closet, I sighed. Alone, Afraid.. These were things a princess should never be. And it was only dawning on me that I wasn’t the princess. If she lived, she was in Sam’s body, not this one.
I wasn’t ready to give up this life though.
A few days later, and I was hearing nothing but raving reviews of the mage from all the castle staff. Even my maid was saying how amazing the shows were. She had been to the first, and apparently a few after that. She seemed to enjoy Sam quite a bit. Not surprising, as she seemed to have liked me too, sometime before 2 years ago. The mage who was a demon, and the whole kingdom was falling for his corruption. How could they not see his power? How could they not fear him, when he meant all of our deaths.
I would talk to the king about his banishment. Maybe if he threw the demon from our castle, he could throw him from our lands? Though with his magic, I was starting to doubt it would do much good. I walked to the kitchen, hungry for an early dinner. The kitchen staff were working on a large assortment of food, but they knew none of it was anything I would like. I pouted at the door. Finally someone noticed me and pointed. The head chef made her way to me. “Can we help you, princess?”
“You can help by maybe making something decent for once. Why don’t you ever make lasagna? Spaghetti? Why is it always this, green stuff. Hardly any cheese on it at all!” I couldn’t help the petty anger. My world was falling apart. The least they could do was make a decent meal for me.
The head chef began to reply, and stopped in her tracks. Her throat began to bleed in a line straight across. Her head slumped back and the blood poured forth as she slumped to the ground. My eyes widened. My heart stopped beating and I forgot to scream as the two other kitchen staff experienced similar decapitations. Blood was everywhere. Then he was there. His back was to me, in that black robe it could have been anyone. But I knew who he was. The skeleton face. The demon with black eyes and rotten teeth. It was a face that hadn’t left my nightmares since I’d seen it. I tried to scream, but it didn’t come out.
“You didn’t think I forgot about you, did you?” The demon’s hollow, rumbling voice questioned. “About my promise to you?” I was stuck again as he walked towards me. I couldn’t move, and not just from fear. He moved close enough that he could easily slide the long knife in his hand across my throat, but instead, gave a terror inducing smile. Then he calmly said “Boo.” I turned and ran.
Into the hallway, I screamed at the top of my lungs and begged for help. I looked out the window to my left where the city stretched out below the castle, and it was ALL on fire. Everything burned, from the walls to the castle grounds. I ran and ran, but the hallway seemed to stretch on forever. As I turned, he was only steps behind me. Even as he walked slowly, he closed the gap. Two guards came running towards my screams and the faces they made when they saw this monster were enough to know I was not hallucinating. My nightmare had come to kill me and everyone else in the palace. I turned towards the throne room and began to run as fast as my legs could take me. It seemed so much farther away this time. I looked back to the silent guards and found them disemboweled on the ground. One of their heads was simply rolling towards me as he stalked past it, gaining on me once again with slow and steady movements.
My screams only intensified. I managed to get quite a bit of the guard prepared for holding this demon back by the time I made it to the throne room. I was crying profusely as I ran behind the king and hid.
“What’s wrong Calistra?!” He asked, worry evident in his voice.
“It… It’s here to kill me!” I screamed, pointing to the door. The guards were yelling too now. One by one, they fell. Their own weapons redirected back at them to leave gashes to throats, clean cuts through libs, stabs to their hearts. They fell like dominoes. One even set his sword down, as he saw the rest dying. He had given me a side eye first as if deciding I wasn’t worth dying for. Then his loose sword had flown from the ground and stuck him under his chest armor, and protruding out just barely through the top of his skull. His body collapsed much more rigidly than the rest. Seeing they were in a battle to the death the rest of the guards formed between us and the demon, fighting with all they had to hold him back from us.
“What is that thing?!” The king cried out to me. “What does it want with you?!”
“I don’t know!” I lied.
“Tell him the truth, now princess. Don’t lie to daddy dearest.” The demon’s voice casually called over the sounds of death and mayhem of fighting soldiers being slain with their own weapons.
“I… I killed the princess. I took her body and left her for dead!” I admitted. My honesty took even me by surprise. Though it seemed to have startled the demon too. He paused his rampage. Only long enough for a guard to try to spear him and somehow ended up with the spear through his skull.
“Who?.. what are you?!” The king cried out in fury and confusion, as the fear became a background character in his mind.
“I’m sorry.” Was the only thing I could get out. “I thought I could be happy.” I whimpered.
“You didn’t kill the princess.” The demon was not ready to be left out of the conversation just yet. “You may have left me for dead, but I did not succumb to your plot. I’m right here, in the leftover body you ditched me in. And since I cannot have my body back, I’ll take your life instead, you fraud!” A blade passed through the body armor of two guards and stuck into the stone wall on the far side of them. There was at least twice as many bodies as living guards left.
“Trade back. You can trade back bodies, right? Just give it back!” The king was seriously panicked now. Begging for his own life, more than mine.
“I might be able, but it won’t stop it from killing us!” I cried. “The magic is too much!”
“It will though!” The king promised, assuredly. “Magic is from a connection to your body! If you tr-” he grasped his throat. The last of the guards had fallen. The king had been hit with a dagger in the throat. He gasped, reached a hand to me, and then collapsed forward, fear still the dominant feature in his now lifeless eyes. I wanted to run, but the demon was beside me, stepping up to the king’s corpse.
“You can’t take this power. I won’t LET YOU!” The scream was like that of a banshee. Then almost entirely calm and emotionless, the voice continued, “It is all I have left.” He grabbed the king by the bloody throat and threw him to the floor at my feet. I watched him tear off the kings arm, then the other. All with just his bare hands. The king was gone long before his legs and head were torn off as well. But I was only able to move again when the beast was fully invested in the regicide he committed with his talon-like fingernails. I got to the door past the carnage and couldn’t help but vomit at the sight before me as I turned. That proved to be a bad idea. He heard me spill my guts and met my gaze, slowly standing from the puddle of viscera that once was someone we both called father.
I streaked for my bedroom. I tore up the stairs, through the halls, I pointed every guard I passed behind to defend me, though I knew each of them would only buy me one more moment before he caught up. A few moments. That’s all I needed. The princess didn’t know how the magic transfer worked. I would hand her the trinket!
I burst through the door as the last to guards still at my door both fell lifeless in the hall behind me. Blood streaked across the stone in every direction. I slammed the door and ran for the closet. The maid was standing near the bed. She looked to be tidying the room. I screamed “help” as I ducked into the closet, but I was too late. The door to the room had splintered open with a single kick.
She held up the noose in her hands and smiled “I am helping!” Then slipped it over her head. It was already tied to the top rail of my bed where the curtains hung. Her legs gleefully kicked off the mattress. And then she hung lifeless as the drapes. I turned back to the open closet to find the chained man was long dead. His body carved and cleaved and his face a sickening smile as his eyes stared piercingly into mine while he hung rigid and lifeless, arms still chained over his head. I grabbed the trinket and hid in the closet next to the corpse.
Then he was there. He smiled that sickening twisted smile. And he growled. “Give me the artifact. I will not have you use such trickery on me again.”
I nodded, fear was the only thing keeping my hope and cheer about this sudden turn around from showing on my face. I had tears running down my face in every direction. Blood sprayed all over me and my dress. But he might just lose his power when she’s back in her body. The change was a momentary flip. I was standing over the princess who was now in a ball in the corner of her closet. I was Sam again.
I didn’t feel the magic though. Nothing like the stuff she had been wielding only moments ago. I almost began to scream in fear as she stood, but then I noticed where the corpse had just been… The guard who had been in chains… He was released from his bonds, and standing in shock at the scene playing out. And he was fully living on top of all that.
“Did it work?” a voice asked, hopefully. I turned to the maid who was standing on the bed still. No noose even near her. Not even a rope…
I stumbled backwards from the princess. My mind was a jumble and I didn’t know up from down. Then… The king walked in? This… Didn’t make any sense.
“I… I know what I saw. It.. it was real. You killed everyone! YOU BURNED THE CITY!”
The princess flicked her hair over her shoulder and shrugged, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. But… I will take that.” A gust of wind blew the trinket from my grasp and it landed back in the box I had been keeping it.
She.. had her magic still… And I wasn’t dead. And the king wasn’t dead… “You lied to me?!” I shouted at the king, who simply laughed at me coldly.
“I don’t even know who you are. You lied to me for two years straight. Don’t pretend to be upset now. You were beat at your own game.”
I had no answer. Had no idea what I could even do. I simply flopped to the floor and began to sob. Then another familiar face appeared out of thin air. A cat I thought I’d killed. My tears didn’t stop flowing. I was done. Though at this point, being put to death like all those soldiers had been almost seemed an okay idea in my grief addled mind.
That’s when I realized there was NO blood. Not on me or the princess. The blood that had sprayed us both from the soldiers should still be here unless… The maid clicked a set of manacles around my wrists and began to push me for the door where I saw two very sleepy guards. Their bodies clearly unharmed, and their chests rising and falling as they breathed. Alive.
It had all been a setup. All from the beginning. I fell right into their trap. I really was alone here. No artifact. No Magic. And I wasn’t even in my own body after all was said and done. I even started to think I might deserve whatever comes next.
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