Marcenou

The old King walked through the hallways quietly, having decided we would walk whilst he spoke. I followed in silence, watching the paintings we went passed with interest whilst trying to keep myself calm. He'd said the masters name. Said it as carefree as he had spoke any other and I couldn't hide my flinch. The name haunted those who heard it, even us as we survived the pain he caused.

"Years ago, when I was a young man our Kingdom was at war. The war had been going on for years, so many years that the fighting had been passed down from father to son." He reached a portrait of another old man, one who looked so similar and yet so different from the man in front of me.

He wore armour, shiny and sturdy as he posed for all eternity with a sword and shield at his side. He wasn't smiling, his eyes hard and cold. So different from the man who was watching me as I looked over the painting. Galen had a ever present smile, matching the gleam in his eye as he looked up at the man in the portrait again, the one with the same colour eyes, and same air of something older pressing down on them.

"I was nine years old when he had this portrait commissioned. That day he told me of the war he had tried so hard to hide from his family. His efforts, though noble were in vain. Even a child can see the fear that hangs over their home if it lingers long enough." He smiled again, a sadness washing over his features. "My father was a good man and a great King but he made many bad choices in his life… though I suppose we are all allowed to make mistakes sometimes."

He began walking again and I followed, Elise at my side and I saw she too was curious where this was going. Perhaps she had not heard the entire story either?

"The war was tearing both lands apart. Casualties on both sides were becoming catastrophic and so my father gathered together a group of his best advisers to come up with a solution that would end the war before it destroyed both people." The man sighed. "Perhaps that was the moment he made one of his greatest mistakes,"

We walked into another room, this one was large, covered in white marble with a round table in the centre. A map was in the centre of that table and I looked at it curiously.

"The war room?" Elise said quietly and I looked over at her as she watched her father, an eyebrow raised in confusion.

"It is best to speak of the past in the room it began in no?" His lip twitched with a smirk and she nodded, closing the door and taking a seat at the table in front of us. I stood to the side looking out of the window that covered the right-hand wall. From this angle I could see almost the entire city and just over the walls that surrounded it.

"In my father's court was a young man. Brilliant in his way but blinded I think by his hatred of the enemy we fought. We were both only in our twenties when my father once spoke of a solution, but he latched to it with a zeal the others did not. He disappeared for months at a time, never telling others where he went. Those months turned into years and his visits were sparse but each time he appeared he spoke of his solution… of a way to finally win the war."

I could feel a chill spreading through my body, a memory dredging itself up from a past I hardly remembered. It was so hard to remember my life at the beginning. Both Marcus and I had been lost to the darkness, never waking from its depths and it marred the world into a blur of blood and blackness.

"Years passed, my father grew older, I myself began to take up the mantle of military commander and then finally the solution was presented to us… perhaps it doesn't take much to figure out the young man's name."

"Marcenou." Elise whispered and I flinched my eyes flickering to the open window as though I expected the master to fly through it at any moment.

"Yes." My eyes snapped to Galen again, his face seeming older than it had before. "Marcenou came to us one night and spoke of his solution. He did not tell us much about this new weapon only that he would use it at the next battle, and he assured us it would change the course of the war. I was sceptical but we were desperate and so, when the battle came, we waited for this said solution… and then you came." His eyes felt like they were staring through me, deep brown burrowing into my own sapphire blue ones.

"You were the same as I see you now. You stood with another, a young boy, both wrapped in black runes from head to foot. They drifted across your skin constantly, but it was the blackness of your eyes, like holes, that stayed with us. Haunted us. You decimated the enemy, ripped through them with such speed and ferocity that the battle had scarcely begun before it was over. It was terrifying and entrancing." He didn't break my gaze and I wonder what he was looking for in my eyes. A soul perhaps?

"Marcenou had brought us our salvation. Weapons of mass destruction which could win us the war without the loss of life on our side… You must understand how desperate we were. The war had wiped out whole bloodlines and then here you were winning battles without a care in the world. A month after you had arrived the war was won. The other side surrendered and Marcenou was considered a hero by both my father and the people." He looked away, his eyes on the map in the centre of the table as he sighed again.

"We were blinded with grief for those we lost. Blinded by the hope of finally ending the bloodshed that we didn't realise just how high a cost our victory came at. Marcenou began to speak of expanding the Kingdom, of using the two of you as a way to bring down anyone who stood in our way. He became obsessed with it. My father refused of course. War was not something we wished to go back into but Marcenou was relentless." He touched the ring on his hand silently, his eyes distant. "When the aftermath of the end of the war had passed questions began to stir through those who had seen you. Who were these children? How had they come into the devastating power we had seen? Marcenou was confronted and he started to become erratic, screaming that we should bow to him for saving this Kingdom."

"How did he make us?" I asked quietly and both royals looked to me.

"I'm afraid that is a question I do not know the answer too. Marcenou would never tell but soon people began to mistrust him… mistrust you." He looked at me again. A deep sadness radiating from him as he begged me to understand with eyes alone. "My father decided that the best course of action was to… dispose of the children in question."

Elise gasped but I wasn't shocked. I had plenty of people in the past who wanted to kill me, why should some old King be any different?

"Marcenou wouldn't hear of it but my father believed it to be the only way. So Marcenou fought back… perhaps it was my father's comeuppance for not intervening sooner, for not questioning where the young adviser was disappearing to but Marcenou used his solution again us that day. My father was killed and Marcenou left with you both in tow, vowing he would show everyone how powerful he could become."

I felt my instincts start to kick in. I had killed this man's father. Murdered him it seemed in cold blood because I had most likely been ordered to. I could vaguely remember the outcomes of the deaths me and my brother had taken part in and none of them had been clean. In battle we were quick and deadly. Making sure every wound would be fatal but swift as we moved through crowds of people. When it was one on one though, and the master was angry, then the death was slower, more painful. Splashes of red on white marble flashed across my eyelids and I jolted slightly, looking around the white room which seemed less inviting than before. Colder. Darker.

"I hold you no ill will for what occurred here." The King was speaking again, and I flickered my eyes to him, one eyebrow raising. "I told you that you were similar to how I remember you, but you are also so different. You fought the darkness earlier, I watched you as you protected yourself against your attackers. Before now I had wondered if you were simply mindless drones that he had created to fight for him but now I see you are so much more… you have fears, loves, you cared so much for your brother you entered a place you knew nothing of just because he asked you to."

His brown eyes were kind, so much like his daughters in that moment that I almost lost myself inside them. I knew the darkness made me a monster, an animal, but he wasn't looking at me like one. His eyes were kind but intrigued, like I was a puzzle he couldn't wait to solve.

"You are not the child I expected to return to this place. I expected a monster but I did not expect you. For that I am sorry my dear, fore I was trapped in my own past, a past I shall regret until my dying day. You have grown up very well."

I didn't know what to say. He said I had changed but he was wrong. The monster was still me, clawing to get out as I looked into his kind eyes. The darkness was what gave me my abilities, that made me the killing machine my master so desired but even without it I could kill him before he could scream for help.

"You are wrong." He quirked an eyebrow at me but I didn't take my eyes off him. "I am a monster."

"No, you aren't." I turned to Elise, her eyes boring into mine. She looked angry and I rethought my last statement, wondering where her anger could have come from. "You aren't a monster. You're a young woman who was used by some sick man to become some experiment… you aren't a monster Malia."

I blinked at her.

"I am." She growled and my eyes widened.

I had never heard humans growl. It was something I knew they did whilst speaking or yelling, a type of inflection in their voices that made them sound angry but I didn't know they growled at whim. I did and so did Marcus at times but we were animals and therefore, I had expected it from us. How… odd.

"You are a girl. You aren't a monster or an animal or anything else like that." Were those tears in her eyes? "You've just got… demons. But everyone does!" She frowned trying to think of what words she could use.

Demons. How poignant.

"Everyone has done things they aren't proud of. Everyone has made mistakes, but there is always something good in them, something kind. You came here to bury your brother. You have compassion for him." I cocked my head to the side. "You miss him?" I nodded and she smiled sadly. "That shows you have empathy and that proves you aren't a monster either… monster don't have empathy."

I didn��t believe her. I had done so many things that were terrible, hurt and killed so many people that the thought of me not being a monster was an impossible dream. But the belief in her voice, the fact she was so sure there was something good inside me made me smile anyway. I couldn't agree but I could appreciate how kind she was being. Maybe it was because I had been faced with such little kindness before. I decided instead that I would ask another question.

"You knew of the crystals. How?" Galen looked away and I immediately regretted the question.

"Marcenou showed us. He was bragging I believe, explaining your strength, your power. I do not recall it all but in his drunken explanation he… showed us one of your crystals."

"Showed you?"

There was only one way to show a crystal if the body itself wasn't rejecting it. The master had done it a few times, altering us to fit his will after he had spent months locked away. I don't know always what he changes but I remember the procedure. It's always excruciating, the pain ripping through our bodies as our chest are cut open, the crystals stuttering and glowing as we lay there screaming.

Galen was looking at me, pain filled eyes staring and I felt something in the back of my mind snap into place. He'd looked at me this way before. So long ago when we were sat in a darkened room, the hall loud, men drinking and laughing and my master digging into my chest with his free hand. The darkness flickered, the pain flared and a soft glow in front of horrified eyes as my master's laughter echoed through my mind.

"What I would like to know is why he didn't take over the kingdom before, or has not tried to since?" We both looked to Elise her eyes confused. "You described a man who was all powerful father, yet he hasn't attacked the city once, though he has attacked those around us."

"Ah now that is the question my dear." Galen's slight smile was back again. "It is unknown why he waited. Though we can theorise of course. My best theory is that he is biding his time. Showing us he can take the power he wants before he attacks, or perhaps he is gathering an army in order to attack. Even with both you and your brother it would have been difficult to destroy our entire army before we got close to him." He looked out the window, as though he was looking for the nearing attack now.

"Marcenou was a smart man when I knew him and though he has done terrible things I doubt his intelligence has lowered. I can not say what his final goal is, nor what he plans to do with us when he finally enters this city, but I do know that one day he will come and violence shall follow him."

"Power." They turned to me, but I kept my eyes on the map on the table, my finger trailing across the expanse of land I could see around the city. "He seeks power."

"Power? Through conquest?" Elise asked, her voice showing the confusion I couldn't see.

"The master wants power for himself. To… use. As I do, as my brother did." I touched the rise where a mountain resided on the board.

"He destroys everyone he fights, how can he gain power from this?" Galen asked quietly.

"Through death comes power. Fear. Using the right tools power can be dragged from any of these things. The master wishes to have the abilities of his creations but… the creation of said power needs… sacrifice."

"That's why he destroys so much. Why he kills all those people? For power!?" I didn't want to see the look of horror on the Princess's face. I knew that look by heart.

"Sometimes he keeps a few alive… to help him in his experiments. They do not last. The master does not show mercy for long."

"Not even for his own creations?" I glanced at Galen then, no question in his voice as he looked at me, as though he knew my answer already.

"The master does not show mercy." I restated and he nodded, a pain I did not recognise in his eyes as he looked at me.

I looked outside again as it went quiet, my eyes on the horizon. The fear I had felt came back like a wave, crashing through my body as I thought of the anger my master would now have. He would know I was gone by now and I was aware of just how painful my punishment would be. He wouldn't kill me, my body was something he could not afford to lose but even so the thought of the pain he would inflict sent shivers done my spine. I was going to be in so much trouble.

"Are you afraid of him?" Galen asked and I nodded. "He will not enter here. He is powerless without you at his side."

"My master is many things. Powerless is not one of them." I stood up. "I must leave now. If he comes, if he finds me, he will destroy you… I-I need to bury my brother's crystal and leave." I gripped the crystal again.

I wanted nothing more than to run away now, to get as far from here as I could and beg my master's forgiveness. I wanted to succumb to the darkness that was swirling inside me, clawing for a way out… but I couldn't. I had made a promise and just like when I had thought about running when I had approached the gate I couldn't run now. Marcus deserved to be buried where he wanted to. I had to make sure that happened.

"There's a tree in our gardens. It's beautiful this time of year… would you like to bury it there?" Elise's voice was hesitant, but my silent agreement brought a sad smile to her lips.

The tree could be seen from outside the wall. Marcus had loved to watch it change over time, watch the leaves fall over the winter and become bright green during the summer before the golden colour bloomed in between. I remembered his smile, soft and subtle as he watched the leaves drop slowly in the distance.

"I wish I could go see it one day." He'd said, his voice cutting through our silence.

"You can't see it now?" He laughed at my confusion a smirk on his face.

"No, I mean really see it. Touch it. See the changed colours up close." I looked at the tree in the distance, its leaves a shimmering gold.

"Perhaps you shall?" He didn't answer and I didn't expect him to.

His wish was just that, a wish, nothing more. But now I had the chance for at least his crystal to touch it and that would have to be enough.

I nodded my head and Elise smiled before rising, beckoning me to follow. Her father came behind us as we walked through the many hallways we had before. We didn't go towards the door we had entered the palace in though, instead heading down a different corridor as we walked.

"The gardens are at the back of the palace. They are my favourite place during the summer times." She smiled softly and then her brow creased as she frowned. "This time of year there won't be too many flowers yet but I still think it's beautiful."

I didn't know what to say so I said nothing. I had no experience with beautiful things.

"May I ask you something?" Brown eyes flickered to my own.

"Yes."

"Where will you go when you have buried your brother?" I looked away, keeping my eyes on the door we were nearing.

"Home." She didn't speak again but she frowned, her eyes holding an emotion I couldn't place. Worry maybe.

She opened the doors and my breath stopped. The garden was beautiful. Rows of flowers just starting to bloom, every colour shining through the dense greenery of the bushes that rose from the ground. Some of the smaller trees were cut into shapes, animal I had never seen before. They reminded of the sea creatures in one of my brothers old books. There was a stone pathway through the middle of the grass, heading towards the tree that was so much larger than I had expected it to be. I could hear the birds that nestled in its branches, leaves falling around us as we neared it. The garden was surrounded by a wall, much lower than the one outside but made of the same stone. Vines rose up it and I could almost feel the life that hummed through the ground. I had never seen a place like this. The forest was amazing, but this garden was something else, something special, as though the contrast from the bustling city and the quiet of the garden somehow made it even more beautiful.

"Wow." I breathed and Elise smiled.

"I told you it was beautiful." She sounded smug and I rolled my eyes earning a soft giggle from the Princess.

I had never heard that sort of noise before. I liked it.

We got closer to the base of the tree and I realised that, even if I stretched as far as I could, I would need at least four of me to put my arms all the way around it.

"Large no?" I turned to Galen, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "This is the oldest tree in our city, perhaps even the kingdom. My great-great-great grandfather planted it here over a century ago. It has survived every natural disaster since. It is said that many years ago the city was set aflame and when the flames died down the only thing left standing was this tree. Remarkable no?" I nodded and he smiled. "Come."

He motioned me forwards towards his daughter who now stood right at the base of the trunk. I felt my crystal heart constrict as I clutched my brothers one for a final time. This was it. This was what I had came for.

"I swear to you he will be safe here." Galen's voice held a promise I had not expected.

"Thank you." He bowed slightly and Elise took his hand as they stepped back allowing me to kneel on the dirt alone.

"We made it brother." I whispered and I imagined the smile he would have given me if he knew where we were. "It is beautiful here… I wish you had seen it."

The darkness twitched but I pushed it away.

"You told me once you wanted to be free… I hope you have found the freedom you sought…" I dug into the ground creating a small hole and slowly took off the necklace I had carried with me since he left.

I knew I was speaking to the air. Talking to a ghost. I would never see my brother again. Never hear him laugh or smile or fight by his side. He wouldn't tell me stories of the humans and their land, wouldn't speak of the elves who lived in far off mountains or the monsters that were believed to live below. He wouldn't hold me after a punishment, wiping my tears and whispering that he would never let me go. Because he had let me go. I had let him go. And now he was gone.

"I kept my promise brother." I placed the crystal in the hole before covering it up and placing my hand on the now covered ground. "Goodbye Marcus..."

I wanted to say more. To scream and cry and beg for him to come back. But there was no use in living in false hope. Marcus was gone. I had watched his body burn and no amount of begging could change that. The darkness flared again and for a moment I thought of how easy giving into it would be, giving in to my numbness and allowing it to control me as I had before. And then Elise shifted slightly behind me and I remembered why I couldn't.

I was dangerous. The darkness was dangerous. Giving in now, in this city would get someone killed and I was not going to do that here.

These people had been kind to me, and I would not pay them back by slaughtering them.

"Your majesty!" I stood turning to see the guard rushing towards us, one I didn't recognise. "There's a man at the gate. He… he said he wants to speak to you."

Galen raised an eyebrow at the flustered guard but nodded following the man. Elise turned to me, but I was staring after the King, fear gripping me because I knew who was here. I could sense it, the power pulsing so close. Sense it inside the walls.

"Malia are you alright?" Elise was coming closer, her silver hair shifting in the wind but I couldn't hear her over the ringing in my ears.

My master was here.

He had come for me.

I rushed past her, sprinting after the King who had disappeared from view. How long had I been frozen? Was he already with the master now? Why would the master come inside the walls? I burst through the doors and wasted no time in running through the halls, only half aware of the slapping of the footsteps behind me, a clear indication that Elise was trying to catch up.

I could hear voices, raised and loud from outside the main doors as I sprinted down the wooden floor, my bare feet barely making a sound. Someone was laughing. Cold, cruel and I shivered involuntarily before using my shoulder to ram open the door in front of me. The scene I was met with was not one I expected. There were no bodies. No blood or scent of death anywhere in the vicinity. Galen was still stood on the steps and he turned to me as I came out but only one man held my attention.

He stood in the centre of a circle of people, a large gap between him and the others and he smiled when he looked up at me. He was tall, at least a couple feet taller than I was, and deathly pale on the verge of looking sickly. His silver eyes glinted with a hint of madness as his white hair fell down past his shoulders. It didn't shimmer like Elise's silver one did and looked dead even as the wind made it wisp around lightly. He was wearing a white shirt with his deep red overcoat. Black trousers and black shoes. He didn't seem threatening in the slightest, I presumed he probably looked like any man would if they had been plagued by illness, but his features were perfect, a charm I had seen him use on some. To everyone else he was a frail, handsome man. To me he was a monster.

"Malia." The way my name rolled off his tongue, as though it was made of poison made me flinch as I watched him. "What are you doing here?" He looked quizzically at me, but I knew he knew.

He was always one to notice things and I saw his eyes flicker to my chest before shooting back to my own. He knew the crystal was gone.

"You should leave Marcenou." I winced at the name and I saw my master's eyes flare, turning his gaze to the old King who stared him down. "You have no place in this city."

"Not until I have got what is mine old friend." Friend. The way he said that word made sure everyone knew they were anything but.

"You have no power here."

My master laughed at that, no joy or kind emotions in the sound. His hands crackled and I saw the light come off him, stepping backwards out of instinct.

"I have power everywhere." He sneered and the light came as he raised his hand, aiming at the marble statue that sat on the rail of the steps.

It exploded, dust flying everywhere and someone in the crowd screamed. The guards raised their weapons but didn't come forwards. I saw the cracks appear across his outstretched hand, like shattered marble itself as he lowered it to his side. He smiled, all malice as he rubbed his fingers together, the other hand in his pocket now.

"I have tamed the lightening from the sky itself. Do not tell me where I can or cannot go old man. I am a God!" He growled the last part, his voice rough and coarse for a moment.

"Gods do not burn villages." My master growled at Galen again.

"Gods do what they wish." He spat and his eyes snapped to me instead. I shifted, my own gaze lowering to the ground. "You preach to me about how much you wish I would leave, but you seem to be holding one of my creations here." I felt a hand touch my arm, softly brushing across my bare skin.

"She is welcome. You are not." Elise's voice held no emotion. It was calm, controlled and cold, like ice cut from every word.

I had never heard her voice like this, didn't realise it could sound so different. Even when we first met and her voice had cut into the men who wanted to carve me in two she had never sounded so… so… I couldn't even place the way she sounded. No emotion. No passion. Everything perfectly controlled as though a single slip and she would explode. Her fingers left my arm and she stepped to be next to me, her entire body screaming with authority.

The master smiled. Only now did I notice how sadistic he looked when he did so.

"You should be careful when letting animals passed your walls."

Animal.

"She is no animal." Galen said softly, his voice holding more emotion than his daughters.

"Do you forget old friend that I made her?" The master chuckled his eyes on me once more. "Come Malia we have work to do."

I came forwards obediently and no one stopped me. I felt Elise twitch, but she made no move to halt my progress as I came to a stop in front of my master. He raised his hand and I froze as he trailed a long finger down my cheek.

"My dear." His voice was lower now, speaking directly to me. "Why did you run?" I knew better than not to answer.

"I-I had to bury Marcus master." He frowned and I could see the storm beginning in his eyes.

"Why come here? These people are the reason your brother is dead. They killed him."

Dead.

"We did no such thing!" Elise growled and I was almost grateful for the anger in her words, so much better than the void her earlier statement had left in the air.

"Humans created the weapons that poisoned him. Killed him."

An image flashed before me. His sapphire eyes were fading as he lay on the bed, the illness wracking through his body as I made my promise. Black blood trickling down his lips. The battle a forgotten memory as I watched him die.

"I… I-it…" I couldn't speak.

"They killed your brother and then, not even before he is cold you come here and befriend them." His silver eyes were boring into me, his voice laced with anger. Disappointment. "I thought you were more loyal than that." I flinched.

Was he right?

We had fought humans and Marcus had died. We had slaughtered thousands and they were just fighting back but it was their swords that had cut him, poisoned him. Marcus had been the one to make me promise to come here but in coming here was I bringing shame to his legacy?

"I can't imagine how disappointed he would be in you." Master muttered and I felt pain flare through my chest.

No. No! I hadn't done anything wrong! Marcus had asked me to come here. I hadn't done anything wrong! It was what he wanted… wasn't it?

"Master I-" He placed a finger on my lips and I felt my voice die.

"Humans are the enemy Malia. They murdered your brother. They are the reason you are alone."

Alone.

I was alone.

The darkness was burning, clawing, tearing.

A wave crashed over me, the runes spread, my eyes burned black and I fell, without warning, into the darkness.