Choice

Ashley's Pov

Sitting in the woods, I gathered all the necessary tools for the spell. Laying down a bowl of clean spring water, I grabbed the needle I had and poked my finger, letting three drops of blood fall into the bowl. Next, I added tears of sorrow, my tears I might add. These tears were kept in a tiny flask with a cork. Tears from fairies are very powerful if you choose the right kind of tear, it may devastate. Taken independently, tears of sorrow can give you foresight. Whereas tears of anger bring about strength and tears of joy give you wishes. The rarest of tears are the tears of love. Most things that are known about these tears are rumors, but tears of love can bring a person back from the dead. Yet, only if you truly love them will the tears work. 

With all the materials ready, I composed myself and started the summoning ritual. Yet, as I began the ritual, I was cut off by screaming and yelling off in the distance. There were also a lot of explosions, I recognized the sound and began to worry. The Mages' army only makes that much commotion. If the Mages' army was attacking an innocent village filled with mortals, the humans stood no chance of beating her forces. All of them could die and I was not going to sit idly by. Their lives were more important than mine. The Mage was the most powerful entity known to all fairies. Even if the human army was trained skillfully, it would still not be enough to deter them. Waving my hand over the materials I prepared, I made them vanish, saving them in a magical storage compartment. Then I stood up and began to run toward the chaos. To protect the humans, I had to reveal myself to them, which meant I had to break my promise to my mother. But this was more important than my promise. Lives were at stake.

As I was running, I thought about the Mage and how she sought complete control of the planet. The Mage will stop at nothing, power was what the Mage sought and she took what she wanted with force. Ever since learning about the Mages' origins, I couldn't help but wonder where the black book came from. The Mage was trapped in that book and nobody knows for how long. The strange black magic in that book took over Serenity's body. She is still the vessel that the Mage is using. That is why the Mage can turn into human form, her first victim. Where the strange black magic came from and how it possesses a mind of its own, is not understood. I've researched everything that I could to try and figure out why, but all I could find was the tale of the Cloud Kingdom. Everyone knows the story by now. However, I can't help but feel like there are missing pieces. 

Though, as I approached the battle commencing, I pushed aside my curiosities and looked closely. All the humans were trying their very best to defend their kingdom but they couldn't stand the weight of the problem. I also noticed that the Mage was not present, which I thought was peculiar. The Mage was always present during a battle like this, she always watched as she conquered villages and towns. As I squinted my eyes trying to figure out why, I realized this was not a regular army. It was an army full of puppets, shadow puppets. I've read about them in my studies, they look like real fairies but they are not. They can harm living beings but they don't have minds of their own, they are all linked to one source. These shadows are called Galimors or fragments. Only two people can create Galimors, my evil sister, Hailey, and The Shadow Man, he goes by many names, Boogeyman or the Nightmare King as most people call him. Although the Nightmare King has been dormant for the past three hundred years, I think my sister is behind these puppets. There is only one way to slay these beasts, a magical being that can wield light. These humans were in luck because I had the power to wield light. I was blessed by the Sun Goddess herself and I'm the only light wielder that I know of.  

Summoning my courage, I stepped closer to the battle. But before I could run in, someone caught my eye. My heart clenched inside my chest, my breath hitched in my throat as tears threatened to spill. It couldn't be and yet he looked just like him. I clasped my hand over my mouth and laughed in amazement. It was him, I'm sure, my soulmate from my past life. He was standing right there, in the midst of it all. I released my hand from my mouth and placed it over my heart, "Thank the heavens, for you have brought him to me" My voice trembled with emotion, realizing I had finally found him. He was so handsome too. I never got to see him as an adult because our lives were cut short in our past lives. We never managed to get past our teenage years because of the White Orc attack on our village. 

Getting out of my trance I realized that I may lose him if I do not do something to counteract these evil puppets. Waving my hand, I put a spell on Mario's sword. This spell allowed his sword to contain remnants of light, which would dispel the shadows, killing them for good. After this, I slowly walked out of the woods and into the battlefield. 

Fires were burning every house in the village, creating smoke covering my path. Through the smoke, I noticed the evil army was focused on me. This caught the attention of all the human guards, who were staring in curiosity. Once the smoke cleared, I continued glaring at the army. I smirked and began to walk toward the army. Then clasping my sword, I charged at all the shadow puppets, this was going to be fun.

The human army that once was about to retreat, took up arms and hurled themselves into battle. My soulmate amongst them took an interest in me. I noticed that he was confused about my intentions. He must have been taught his whole life that fairies were bad people. However as I fought in battle to defend the innocent, my mask that hid my face fell when an enemy struck me. When this happened, everything seemed to change. I felt my soulmate staring at me and as I looked at him, I saw in his eyes that his heart was taken. He felt no more hate toward fairies and all he could focus on was me. As he concentrated on me, however, an evil being sneaked up behind him to strike. I wouldn't let my soulmate come to any harm, so I raised my bow and knocked down the evil creature. My soulmate was shocked by this, not knowing why I protected him. But even so, he joined in by my side as thanks. We fought together, side by side in battle. As a team, we were stronger and our enemies could not stand against us. The evil puppets began to reduce, their forces weakened and when the last enemy was presented to us, we defeated them together. I knew that humans did not like magical beings such as myself but it felt as if he was different from the rest of them. Maybe, with a little bit of luck, he and I could become something more than acquaintances and partners on a battlefield. 

After all the commotion subsided, he and I stood in front of each other, staring into each other's eyes. I could sense he was amazed by our efforts. As we continued staring, I couldn't help but get lost in his beautiful chocolate eyes. My heart hammered inside my chest and this weird feeling began to overtake me, almost as if a warm blanket cascaded across my body. I couldn't look away from him, he was so enchanting. 

But as I was taken aback by his beauty, all of a sudden a force from behind me tackled me down to the ground. The wind from my lungs escaped me as I plummeted. I tried fighting back but it was no use. Even my soulmate protested, trying to stop the person who was restraining me but their efforts were in vain. The soldier kept on dragging me towards the castle, I do not know why they were going to hold me, hostage, they could have decided to kill me if they wanted. Perhaps they wanted to keep one magical being alive to question them and see why they were here in the first place. They have chosen the wrong person to question, I wasn't even fighting the human knights, even if they say they did not see me fighting with them. 

The humans may not know that there is both an evil side and a good side to magic, so they see every magical creature as a threat to their race. Explaining it to them will not help my case because they will think that I am trying to trick them but I would rather tell the truth because I know one person will believe me and that is enough. Once we reached the doors of the castle, they were opened by the castle's guards, letting us inside. Bracing myself for the worst, I was ready to object to any quarrels that shot at me. The person who was holding me placed me in the middle of the room and released their grip. I did not run or proceed to show any violence toward the knights as they surrounded me in a circle.

The King, who was sitting on his throne in front of me, stood from his seat and slowly walked towards me with a malicious look on his face, "Why were you attacking our border for unjust reasons? If I wasn't so inclined to keep the peace with you pests, I would kill you right now!" He yelled with authority as he leaned in towards my direction but kept a safe distance. Fearful of what he may do next, the emotions that I was experiencing such as dread and sadness began to turn me back into my original state. I could not focus on which emotion I should use to keep my dark cloak, disguise, over me. My eyes began to flicker between gold and gray, tears threatened to spill from my eyes as I shook my head trying to say that he was wrong about my intentions. The King stiffened and unsheathed his sword and slashed it down at me. 

All of a sudden the Duke stepped forward and yelled, trying to stop the King, "No, wait!" He ran towards the King, joining him by his side, "I know you are upset but why don't we let her speak for herself, there may be more to the story then..." He was cut off by the King's glare, who was still holding his sword at me, "Sorry my Lord." The Duke bowed his head, apologizing. I was surprised by the Duke's actions, he stopped the King from releasing his anger on me. My heart was filled with joy and I could not help but feel thankful for his actions to protect me.

Though, the happiness that I was feeling dissipated as the King yelled at the Duke, "Sir Mario, do you have feelings for this wretched witch? If you feel so inclined to protect her why don't you deal with her yourself?" He then held out the sword to the Duke, or Mario now that I know his name. Mario looked at the King, surprised that he was handing the sword over to him and he shook his head not wanting to do the job that the King was asking him to do. He remained still with his hands by his sides, still flabbergasted that the King wanted him to execute me. Although, he rejected the King's wishes and looked at me in a way that told me he would never lay a finger on that sword.