Chapter 4 - part 2: "Vision"

"Don't you dare insult my witch with your dirty mouth! "

His men prepared to intervene and so did the allies of the princess, but the emperor's guards blocked everyone before an armed conflict began.

"Order at the emperor's court! Stop! " the soldiers made their way through the crowd to the aid of the emperor and drove the angry people away, protecting the prince and princess.

"Father I offer my sincerest apologies for the situation, but I believe that Prince Yurik's behavior is unacceptable."

The princess knelt down lowering her head towards the emperor while I tried to ignore the murderous looks that the idiot prince was throwing at me. Yurik's appearance was worse than usual: hair and clothes disheveled, a haunted look and a red cheek from the slap he received. I found him perfect in those conditions, it mirrored the image I had of him!

"It is certainly not a behavior that I would expect from you Zeyana... having said that, I cannot deny that I am also furious with Yurik. Your attitude has cleared up many of my doubts. Now free the hall, I want to think in peace, without having to endure this confusion... this foolish theater! " impetuous the emperor ordered his soldiers to take care of those present. I was convinced it was the right choice, especially since Yurik could have tried to hurt Zeyana in the midst of the crowd if a real armed conflict had occurred.

However, it was evident that Zeyana had won once again. She had all the qualities necessary for the role of regent: she was strong, she had the army on her side, a witch with formidable abilities (me of course), the favor of the people and probably, after this ceremony, the nobles' too.

Who would trust a madman like Yurik?

The princess and I left as soon as possible, followed by her entourage of loyal allies; only then I became aware of Tynov's presence in the group and I couldn't miss the chance to have some fun with him: "Tynov! My friend!"

I tried to retreat towards him who was walking a few steps behind us, but the princess yanked me by the arm, getting closer to her: "We are vulnerable at this moment, there is no time, we must leave immediately... knowing Yurik he will have already planned something to take revenge" as she whispered, I looked at her face, clearly seeing how the stress of that time was weighing on her. She had dark circles that I hadn't noticed before; was it possible she wasn't getting enough sleep? I worried that she would go sour with me again because of her frustration, so I decided it was my turn to plan something for her.

"We have won by now, what reason is there to get depressed? Now we have to celebrate! And Yurik better keep away from me" I grabbed her hand and stepped up her pace, making sure she knew she had to follow me.

"Alex is not the time"! "

"Instead it is the right time! Guys, let's go back now, beware of the imbec"... I mean the prince! " and finished the sentence, I used the same spell that I had formulated days before in an alley of the capital Riviera. A few seconds later we found ourselves alone on one of the roofs of the huge building, in a small flat area that allowed us to have a wonderful view of the city and the night sky, with its bright stars.

I really needed to breathe clean air and escape the confusion. Me being the lone wolf, I didn't like masses of people, especially arrogant and superficial nobles.

"You're really impulsive sometimes… but right that's okay" the voice of the princess distracted me from my state of ecstasy, admiring the new landscape. She approached me, leaning on the sort of balustrade present at the top of the building: they had probably made the area passable, so that it could be used in an emergency, otherwise it could be a path that led to an entrance to the high tower of the imperial palace.

Who knows what was on the top floor of the tower.

"This is one of my best moves" I replied to Zeyana and watched her face become calmer, less tormented. The princess after a few moments of silence, stopped observing the landscape scene with me, spoke, giving voice to her doubts: "How do your powers really work...? Is there a way for other people to use magic too? "

I smiled at her: "Witches like me can communicate with nature and only with nature consent can we use its gifts. I can control natural phenomena, but if I suddenly broke contact with Nature itself or if I did something to cause this disruption, I would lose my abilities or worse, I would become corrupted, it would consume me physically and mentally. I know that there are many creatures in the world that are similar to us, that somehow manage to surpass human normality, whether they are inhabitants of the woods or the oceans, but I don't have enough information to answer your second question. There are some books that my ancestors wrote, perhaps lost, but all I know, I learned from the women of my family... my grandmother, my mother..."

After finishing my speech, I lay down on the ground, on the cold and hard surface, and I saw the princess do the same: we found ourselves looking at the stars, close to each other, without really touching each other, but her only presence was really enjoyable; it was the first time I had felt such a thing, I usually felt uncomfortable with anyone around me. Thinking back to the nights of passion spent with some of my old lovers, I realized that things were different with Princess Zeyana, I felt different: every time we kissed or touched, I always wanted more and the tension that had characterized us since from the beginning had never faded, indeed it had grown.

I sighed, narrowing my eyes, listening to the light wind of that night to avoid thinking too much about my feelings. In that moment of peace for everyone, I felt more tormented than ever: an outside observer would have thought that I was a simple woman, always focused on superficial things.

They would have thought I was a serene person in the midst of luxury, but it wasn't like that.

I was crazy, I didn't want to deny it: who would have the courage to smile, have fun, joke with a past like mine? And it was perhaps my tragic past that made me like this. All those scars, those parts of me that had been crushed, destroyed, dismembered, would never come back and even if my body was cleaned every time of the wounds, of the blood, they did not really go away.

I felt them present in my soul, in my head, constantly, like the tolling of a clock, they tormented me at night and even during the day, small memories devouring vital energy. They were a demon that was consuming me and it was just a short time away, there was little time left before I'd die.

"Alex what happened to your family? "

Still with this question.

It irritated me, it infuriated the idea of ​​having to talk about my past and not because she had ordered me or anything, simply because I hated bringing back those horrible, lousy, grotesque memories.

"Is it so important for you to know ? " I asked her angrily, getting up and going against the balustrade, leaning my body and looking at the ground, which seemed very far from where I was.

If I fall now...

"No ... I was just trying to"! "

"Were you trying to do what exactly? I hate all this, I hate it! " I blurted out, staring at her angrily. Zeyana seemed genuinely concerned about the way I was reacting and she quickly approached me, perhaps thinking I was leaning over to throw myself over the edge.

" I don't want to kill myself. " Not yet at least.

I turned back to the landscape, breathing deeply and trying to calm my anger that must have seemed incomprehensible and unmotivated. It wasn't my fault that I couldn't control all my emotions, especially when it came to my past. That's why I lied all the time, there was no need to retrieve layers of nightmares and horrors. Besides, it was of no use.

"If you listened to me for a moment, you would understand that I don't mind forcing you to talk about something that hurts you. I want to make sure that at this moment there are no obstacles in our path... if you have something you want to do, if you want to take revenge... I'd like to be able to help you in order to repay you for your support."

She held my waist in her arms and whispered these words in my ear, with a soothing voice that reminded me of the sound of the flowing water of the stream where I played as a child, when I went with my mother in the woods to look for the "special" herbs, as I called them many years ago.

I leaned against her back, finding our contact strangely comforting, even though it wasn't sexual, not even too intimate.

"I exaggerated."

"Don't worry."

I sighed again and returned my eyes to the vegetation of the imperial palace, lingering on the large tree that inhabited the vast and elegant courtyard. It must have been an oak tree, it also looked very old... who knows what its story was.

Suddenly a strong pain hit my temples, my vision blurred: I closed my eyelids and when I opened them again, I saw blue flames envelop the oak. I held my breath frightened by that vision: a shiver ran through my entire body and I felt a visceral fear, so deep that it made me tremble. The fire quickly climbed up the trunk and also devoured the branches, leaving no room for the poor tree to breathe.

"What's going on? Zey are you seeing it too?" I pointed to the burning tree, my voice trembled and a tear ran down my face as the oak began to fall apart.

"Alex what's wrong with you? " The princess pulled me away from that terrifying vision, turned me towards her, grabbing my face to look me in the eye and realized that something was wrong, just as my body perceived that things had changed, but I couldn't explain how.

That night I amazed myself by throwing my body into the arms of the princess and seeking the security I had lost: it was the first time in a very long time that I had done something like that with someone.

When I looked back at the Imperial Garden after calming down, the oak was back to normal, as if that blue fire had never been there. The hardest thing to forget about that vision was the obvious resemblance of those flames, to the same flames that witches feared most: the flammae sanctae.