1 The Nothing

"Again." Her nails were nervously scratching her moldy skin.

"Mum please...I am tired." Murmured the girl. She was feeling so desperately cold, her lips and throat were dry, her skin almost purple. There were no walls here to protect them from the freezing air of the north woods, or the non stop snowing. She could barely feel her limbs, her skin was hurting as if it was getting burned from the ice. The trembling was also unbearable. For whole days she hadn't eaten anything, she was that hungry she would swear her stomach had started eating itself. She was not scared though. No, she had forgotten what being scared felt like long time ago. Now, a horrendous numb essence was following her wherever she and her mother would go. A dark state of mind, a void and her soul carried such heaviness. A child living with the dead.

"Again!" Her mother screamed. Something yellow, mixed with saliva got out of her mouth. So disgusting, the girl chose to look away. Her mother was always so dirty, infected. A walking dead body, decaying.

"Anna, 12, elf of the north, no parents, no powers, the nothing." The girl was forced to repeat that lie. She was sick of saying it again and again. She despised lies, but her mother would force her to only lie.

"Good gir." It seemed as if her mother was finally satisfied. She could not help but roll her eyes. Her life was definitely a bad written parody. Her mother started laughing, with that paranoid look in her face again.

"Such a good girl." Her bony pale hand made a move to gently touch Anna's face, but she slapped her mother's hand away just in time. She did not wish to be touched.

"I told you to not touch me." Her despise was obvious in her tone.

"My little girl. My child and only mine. Yes, my child!" The woman kept talking, a mist in her eyes. Her mind was long gone.

Anna could not bare looking at her anymore. This woman, no matter the things she would do to her, was all she got in this world, all she ever loved. It pained her to see her like this, in this state of insanity, paranoia and mourning.

"This is where you should bury me my little thing." The woman said quietly. Anna could see it in her eyes, she did not want to die. So many things she dreamed of living, enjoying, experiencing. So many things she never got to do.

"I am sorry mum...I am so sorry." She heard herself saying. It was her fault after all. Her existence was the upcoming of her mother's doom.

"Do not use your powers ever again. Remember, they are not yours to use." The woman told her.

"How will I get back then?" She wondered.

"Walk."

The girl looked around her. They were in the middle of nowhere. She could already hear the noises coming from the wild animals of these woods. She could not just walk her way back, that would be a suicide mission.

"At this rate I will end up dead before I find my way to the next city or village." The girl stated.

"Oh! What a blessing that would be!" The woman cried with excitement. "But a god cannot die that easily." Her gazing darkened while staring at her daughter.

Anna thought it would be for the best to hold her composure. With a wave of her hand, a hole, almost as big as her mother's body, opened on the ground. Right under the ancient oak tree.

It was starting to get dangerously dark. She never liked the dark. It unsettled her.

"I am leaving mum." That was all she could say, afraid of her own feelings. She could not dare to look back, for she knew her mother was gone. So she walked, without the comfort of a pair of shoes, her feet red and struggling to pass through the thick snow. She walked for hours, days, even weeks. Such a weird concept immortality can be, a thin thread that won't allow you to rest, won't let you bring your existence in peace.

Never again has she ever felt so tired to the point of passing out, but it seems that even her body had a limit. And now she was finding herself laying on a warm mattress, with tons of blankets covering her bony body. She could hear voices around her and she truly wanted to open her eyes, to see who had taken care of her, but it seemed almost impossible. Her eyes were still so heavy, her body so stiff, as if she was under the influence of drugs, as if she could not control her own physical actions.

She started panicking. Was this one these type of dreams where demons would visit her and all she could do was watch? But hell, at the moment she couldn't even open her eyes to observe her surroundings!

"Where did you exactly find her?" This voice cut her breath.

"Close to the castle my Lord. She was unconscious when we found her. We thought it would be for the best to bring her in. Her body...her body was frozen." A woman answered. Who were these people? Were they people? Castle? Which castle? Of which Lord?

"Her body...looks like a skeleton and her skin is so broken. It is a wonder really how she survived all alone. Especially around this area with all these wild animals as well." A third voice stated. That one belonged to a woman, younger than the first one.

"Indeed my Lady. The doctor said that she must not have eaten for whole days, maybe weeks. It is a miracle really she is still alive." The older woman acknowledged.

"Lyudmila, leave us alone please." The deep voice of that man was heard again. Something about him made Anna feel quite nervous.

A heavy wooden door was opened and closed again soon later. The woman, Lyudmila, was gone.

"Her ears." Said the voice who belonged to the so-called Lady. "They are pointed yes, but they do not look like the ones the elves have." She continued.

"That is because she is not an elf, though something tells me that when she will wake up she will support otherwise." She felt the man coming closer.

She was angry with herself, why couldn't she just wake up and get the hell out of there?

"Do you reckon she might be-"

"Keep that mouth of yours shut Lyla." The man said in a deeply cold tone. "She is probably nothing more than just an orphan child, hungry, alone, who ended up outside the castle walls while seeking for help." Anna could tell that he did not believe a word of what he had just said, but the Lady Lyla had no other option but to agree to his sayings.

"You are right as always my Lord." Said the woman quietly. "It would be for the best we let her rest and when the time comes, she will be ready to share her story with us." Anna heard soft steps and the same door opening and closing once again. A fact that made her even more nervous, since that weird cold man was now left alone in the room, with her still unable to move. She could tell he was silently counting each of her breaths, waiting for the her slightest movement. He was so similar to her demons, or at least she thought they were demons. She never had the chance to take a proper good look on them, in her dreams they would always look like a tall shadowy figures. Ones who loved watching her while she would be hopeless and unable to move. They would whisper dark things in her ears, things of hatred and madness. Yes, this mad was pretty similar to them. But was he also a dream?

"Tomorrow you will wake up and for own benefit, you should prepared a good lie to share." She was not aware that he was actually that close to her. He would whisper these words to her ear, causing a chilling tremble all over her body. Just like the shadows. But no, he was real.

The door suddenly opened again, the tension of his gaze was now focused on someone else.

"Forgive me my Lord, I did not know you where here. I was told to come and stay with her for the night." She sounded young and slightly nervous, but not scared. She was not afraid of the man in front of her, only intimidated.

"Do not worry about it. I was about to leave in any case." His tone was so dramatically different. So much softer.

Some moments of silence followed after that. Anna was unaware of what was happening, but she thanked the gods for the appearance of that girl. The same girl who stayed by her side the whole night and the first face whose she got to see the next day when she finally opened her eyes. It was still difficult for her move, but at least now she could be more aware of what was happening around her.

"Anna, 12 years old, elf of the north, no parents, no powers, the nothing." She repeated that well-known, of hers, poem.

The woman, the Lady, as she was called from last night, stared at her in annoyance.

"And you expect me to believe that?" She said after some good seconds of analysing her from head to toe.

"That is my truth right now." Anna's face was unfazed, she would not break.

"He said you would say something like this." The woman murmured. "In any case, since you are an orphan, as you state, and you have nowhere to go, you may as well stay here and serve the master who saved you. You can start working with the rest of the maids, if you desire to stay off course." Lyla looked extremely bored. Talking with low class was never her cup of tea.

"You will let me stay with you? Just like that?" Asked Anna curiously.

"Would you have preferred for us to kick you out? Well if it was up to me that would have been the case trust me, but this castle does not belong to me and I do not make the rules here." She said, that annoyed look never leaving her beautiful face.

"Here...where is the here?" Anna dared to question. Lady Lyla looked at her the same she would if she had a mad woman in front of her.

"Where do think we are?" She asked her instead.

"Last time I checked I was somewhere between the borders of Valencia and Selin." Anna answered truthfully.

"And how did you travel Anna?" Lady Lyla did not look pleased at all.

"I walked." She said innocently.

"Then you must have had quite the long journey for we are in Laliblela, almost two countries away since the last time you so checked." Her emerald eyes were burning Anna alive.