"Psst! Hey! Hey, get up! Psst!" A sound called in the room. It was dark . Nira struggled to a sitting position then leaned her back against the wall. She heard someone calling her across the room but she could not see. Her special gifts were powerless at the moment so she could not have employed anyone of them.
Even though she was going insane, she knew someone or something was in the room. She struggled helplessly to get to her feet. She feared for her life. It had been weeks since she got captured by the mysterious Welter. Weeks that surely sealed a great deal of damage to her, one that had her heart scarred.
She heard footsteps approaching her.
" Don't move any closer, you will die!" She threatened. However, the mysterious person still hid in the dark walking towards her. She grew anxious. She had no weapon to defend herself. She tried to run but she could not even get up. She crawled onto the floor, moving far away from where she was. Her knees became sore but she persevered.
" Nira, you don't have to run!" A voice said.
She remained still, on her knees. She cried softly to herself. Neeka had become a nightmare to her, one that she would carry to the grave. She closed her eyes and awaited for the worst. The person seemed to see through the dark. The person walked to her and touched her back.
She whimpered as she bit her lower lip and tightly shut her eyes. Suddenly, there was light and she was on the floor. She was exactly where she had been ever since she got captured. She opened her eyes as she struggled to a sitting position. She searched through the room using her eyes. She was all alone. No sign of anything or anyone.
She was deep in thought when the door opened and Welter entered. She looked at him silently as he approached her. A guard placed a seat next to her and Welter sat on it.
" Hey, Nira!" He started
" What do you want from me? You could have forced yourself on me if you wanted!" She protested.
He laughed loudly as he got from the chair.
" I am afraid, your days of beauty are behind you!" He spoke amidst laughter.
She hated him with all her might. She had expected trouble to find her in midtown but not to this extent. It seemed she was powerless in the castle. She thought to herself severally.
She was sure it was Welter responsible for all that had happened to her, or even the fate of her family. Staring deep in his eyes she laughed back at him. He tried to stare away but this time he could not. Her bones were burning with fury, she was regaining strength. Every second that passed with her eyes fixed in his, she gained strength. She did not plan to escape, she just wanted to feel like herself once again and apparently, he proved to be of great help after all. She felt her spirits wake.
Welter threw his hands into the air and tried to cover his eyes. He finally managed after a short struggle and he got up immediately he was off her.
" What was that?" He asked angrily. Nira sat silently,looking at him without uttering a word. She had gotten stronger. A few minutes in his circle and she could have been much stronger. Her gifts were getting themselves together and ready at her service.
" You are so ungrateful. I saved your life!"
" You took away everything away from me! You are the reason I almost ended my life trying to defend my sister's! I won't rest until you pay for everything you have costed me!"
" It is not wise to threaten me!" He said as he walked away from her and out of the room. He instructed the guards to seal every light passage so that the room would darken, her spirits would not thrive in darkness. They feared it rather.
The guards did as instructed and Nira sat on the floor watching as the guards fulfilled the demands of their leader. She smiled to herself. If they thought the dark could intimidate her, then they thought wrong. Immediately the room was silent and dark and the guards out, she thought she heard footsteps again.
She leaned against the wall, her knees above her chest and her arms around her legs. She rested her chin between the knees as she awaited what was to come. In a flash, she saw a figure standing in front of her. She looked up, there was too much light, she could not see the face but, there was a person. This person's face was the source of extreme light.
" Hey, you need your strength back!" A voice said.
" Who are you?" She asked staring at the floor blankly.
" I am here to rescue you!"
" I don't need rescue, it is my fate to stay here!"
" What if it isn't?"
" It is my fate! I have had dreams of this place since I was two years old!" She said in a manner that was too dismissive. She did not need saving anyways. Not yet at least. She wanted to leave that place once her business was over and her business was very much alive, she wanted him dead.
" Here, give me your hand!" The person instructed. She did not react. She remained silent. The door opened and the person disappeared into the air. A guard walked towards her.
" You should eat!" He said then dropped a food tray on the floor a couple of metres away and kicked it to her. He turned and before he was out of the room she called him.
" My hands are sore, please feed me!" She stated.
" I am no fool!" The guard said reassuringly.
She smiled. " I have no intentions of harming you if that's what you are afraid of!" She assured him. " Come!" She called. The guard stood silent with his back still to her and his hands on the sword.
" It is not you I am afraid of..." He said before she cut him short.
" Welter! That's who you are afraid of?" She asked as she nodded. " Yes, you should be afraid of him!" She added. The guard stood still, confused on what he was to do. Was he to walk away or turn back and feed a monster? He started sweating and his heart raced.
" You can go then!" She said, this time, she sounded so polite. The man stood still for a minute then walked out of the room. The door was shut behind him. Nira laughed softly to herself.
"Poor man!" She said to herself as she extended her hands and grabbed the tray. She was growing fond of being fed like a dog. At times, she would devour the meal as a dog would, on all her fours and only mouth to eat with.
***
Caleb and the spies were halfway through in their journey to Merria. It had gotten dark and so they camped at an abandoned village. He sat in his tent as the others lit a fire. He sat on his camp bed his palms all over his cheeks. He was angry at everything. All these happened to him because of this family, the very family that his father was so dedicated to see it thrive. The family that he once saw as his own, they had taken everything from them.
It was not enough he was alive. He felt better of dead. Arvin had saved him after the wilds attack but to what end? How exactly had he known when and where they would be and what was to happen? He felt that all these was too perfect to be a mere coincidence.
The day of the attack when he was stabbed just a few centimeters from the spine replayed in his mind.
A wild man stabbed him such that he vomited blood before Nira sent an arrow into his skull. Usually, the tribe of wilds feared death of their leader. Since the man who stabbed him died, they decided to retreat and there was when Arvin and some healers and several warriors came across him.
Blood was all over in his mouth as well as the sword wound. He felt unconscious but before his eyes shut, he saw some people around him. It took weeks for him to regain conscious. The healer had to bring him back using the dark magic way. He could still regain his full consciousness but he was to be different.
The prophetess in the forest also had a say in his recovery. He was the first and the only option the healer had suggested. She gave him back his life but he was to be a bit different from his usual self. And that is how he was back on his feet, after years and years of spells and rehabilitation. What happened was he died then reincarnated into his own body, but they still were not sure if it was exactly him.
He was important though, to Arvin, since he was the only one who could tame Nira and her brother knew. As long as she was alive, she would find out he was the king and would dare challenge him. If it got to that point, only Caleb could stop her and so that is why he was so concerned to bring him back, in as much as he hated him with his life.
The new life, however, did not please Caleb. In his first month, he would fail between balancing his forced gift and his true self. There was a rule on the use of his power. He could travel through dreams, light and spiritual world but he was not to die inside the portal he was in nor over extend his stay in another. For instance, were he to appear to someone as a dream, he was to leave before a minute or he would be stuck inside the dream forever. If he had travelled to the after life, and he got attacked and killed, then he would remain there forever.
He had to rush back in his first months, escaping being trapped in a very close margin. He once appeared in the after life to meet King Edmond but before he could, he was attacked by some men around the late king and he almost died. Immediately he was back to his real life form, he was bedridden for two months.
He decided to visit Nira. She deserved to have someone. He had thought. As usual, he locked his tent up and lay on the bed on his back. He closed his eyes and using his mind control, he left and through, he was in front of Nira for the third time. All those visions Nira was having, it was him all along.
This time he decided to show his face. He arrived into the room. It was dark but since he came as a spirit, he could see.
" Nira!" He called. Nira was deep asleep, though she was shaking from the cold. It was winter in midtown yet she lay on the floor with nothing to cover her body apart from her tattered clothes. He walked to her and stroke her hair gently. He decided to bring her something to cover herself so he went back into his normal self, took a blanket and travelled back with it. He could do many things with his power , he had learnt a lot of skills for his power.
When he came back, she was awake. She stared into his eyes,
" You are alive, as a spirit!" She said softly and slowly.
" I brought you a blanket!" He said ignoring her.
" You are not real, leave me alone!" She asked him, this time firmly.
" I won't, not before we defeat this monster!"
" Then stay here with me, if you are real! Stay!" She whispered.
" I can't. If I do, I will die!"
" You died already!" She said staring away from him. When she tried to stare back, he was gone and what was left to her was the blanket and scars of her heart. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She took the blanket and covered herself, though she could not sleep, not after seeing the face of Caleb. She was restless. She could not torment him yet she could see a thousand things wrong about him, whoever he was, he was not hers and she was careful not to scar her heart even more.