A Betrayal?

What was my Origin? What was my ancestry? I stared back at her blankly my mind decrypting the question she had just asked. I could account for my mother's side of the family because she had talked about it very much often as of my father I had no idea.

"Is there something I am supposed to know?" my thoughts now frantic.

"Nope, nothing really. I was just curious because it feels like we have met before" she said in a lighter tone.

"Do not mind her she barely ever makes sense. Can I take her home now?" Albert said standing right behind me.

"I have told you that she is fated for someone else, you know that right" she addressed Albert leaving me way perplexed than I had been before.

"What is she talking about?" feeling as if I was being left out of something again.

"Nothing Circe, I said we are leaving" Albert saying pushing and urging me towards the door as if he did not want me to hear what else Hilda had to say. Her little roguish giggles filled the room as we left.

"Can she see into the future too? What about me being fated to someone??" I asked way more curious about that issue than the one that came before and Albert did not answer and rather hurrying his steps. Then the only place I was getting answers was from Hilda. I'll pass by her room tomorrow I promised myself.

I followed Albert wordlessly, bumping into his bulky back quite often because my mind was still preoccupied with what Hilda had said. Curiosity was gnawing on me once again.

"Circe Einar if you are this desperate to sniff up my back then you could have just asked" Albert finally looking back at me to address the perpetual head butts. He only calls me by my maiden name when he is very much annoyed or angry. I barely noticed that we had arrived at home. We had left the girls and the old man behind. Albert had somehow convinced them that Hilda had insisted that I needed some rest, it was almost dawn and the sun had partly hidden behind scattered clouds painting the sky a majestic gold.

"If you were not walking that fast then I wouldn't have been running to keep up with you, now would I?" I snapped back. Big mistake.

"Want to share what has been taking so much of your awareness that you can't even walk right, what have I told you about pursuing your curiosity?" he said drawing closer to me, looking down at me. He was so close that his breath was now fanning my face. His jaw twitched, was he angry? I needed space my mind was already in enough turmoil this was the last thing I needed.

I moved away only for my back to hit a wall. I was cornered.

"That it would lead me to no good," I said, hoping to cut the conversation short but he towered over me once again this time drawing even closer his face only inches from mine, I could tippy-toe just a little and our lips would touch. Crap! My brain was hazy I was not thinking right. I stared up at him hoping he at least had the strength to stop this but he was staring down at my lips. Double crap! Why would he... At first, I was fully convinced that it was all in my head that's why I had brushed it off and why was I not pushing him off of me?

Just when I had thought he had made up his mind and he was closing in to kiss me, he rested his head on the bridge of my neck his nose grazing a sensitive spot. Heat pooled in between my legs.

"Do not do it Circe, don't go to battle, just let it go, please" he said his voice hoarse.

"You saw what they had done to Alcina. What they had probably done to mother I can't live with myself if I just sat back and did nothing, I can't even sleep at night" I said barely able to get those words out.

We stood like that for a while. His head nestled on the bridge of my neck, both our breaths frenzied, he made the first move wrapping a hand around my waist and drawing me closer until our bodies were touching. My face burned flustered by his erection pressing onto my stomach I was sure my face was probably cherry red. Thanks to the girls in our village that visited our house all so often pretending to come fit in some dresses so that they could somehow "accidentally" bump into Albert, I was well versed with what happened when a man took a woman to bed but I have been never amused by it until now.

He pulled his head back up to face me, his ocean green eyes piercing mine then his lips grazed mine slowly pressing, just then chatters sounded all so near, the old man and the girls. We had been so caught up in the moment that we had not heard them approaching. I pushed off Albert with all the strength I could master, before running into the house and burying myself in blankets, and only did I come out when my face had reacquired its normal color.

Trying to interpret what exactly I was feeling for Albert for the next following weeks was the least of my problems between running up Eos peak, Sarah beating me to a pulp, and flame manipulation training which had also been added to my training routine I barely had time to think about it. But the tension was still there each time our eyes would lock at the dinner table or when he would carry me to Hilda's room to get me fixed up after combat training with Sarah and each time we were walking home together. For some reason, after what had happened he never touched me thereafter even during moments when we were alone he kept his distance.

"Does wanting him to take me to his bed mean I love him?" I asked Hilda as she patched up only one broken rib this time. Albert was taking care of some business with the old man down at the village and I had Hilda all to myself this once. For some reason, I felt comfortable around her out of everyone I have met so far she was the only person I was warming up to.

"More unlikely than not lust and love are adjoined, a lustful connection could possibly flourish into love" she answered

"What does it mean to fall in love with someone," I asked fairly curious. I knew love differed, the love I beheld for my family, the love I beheld for Albert as a friend, and the weird yearning I had for him but I wasn't convinced that I was in love with him.

"Oh you will know in due time," she said smiling knowingly, that reminding me of what I had promised myself to ask her once I was able to converse with her when Albert was not around to stand guard.

"What did you mean when you said I was fated to someone," I asked. She stopped paging through a book that she had been reading and looked up at me.

"I saw you in a dream Circe, way before we had officially met and in that dream standing beside you at a wedding altar was a man cloaked by darkness I wish I could tell you more Circe but interfering with fate comes with a price I had quickly learned that a long time back" Hilda shuddered as if reliving that experience and I did not press her for more information.

The following days thereafter things started looking up, I barely broke a sweat climbing and descending Eos peak and I left Sarah's combat training sessions unscathed as a matter of fact I was able to land a few punches myself. Then I moved on to Miranda's flexibility training and meditation which had been less hellish than what I had been through, then sword training with Isaac and Cloe.

Why do I need to learn how to use a real sword when I can just forge one with my flames?" I asked Isaac as he ran me through the basics.

"The enemy we are going to face is formidable, granted that they can still have a mage strong enough to cast a spell that strips us of our magic we can still be able to defend ourselves, you not only going learn how to use a sword you will also learn how to precisely throw a dagger " he explained.

By the time Isaac and Cloe had drilled the art swordsmanship into my bones, I had been training for seven months.

The old man had finally agreed to let me in on the plan that they had been orchestrating now that I was fully trained. He had called me to one of the rooms drilled into the peak. There, the 7 people I had mentioned before who possessed the gift of the Gods at its fullest had already assembled.

"Before we can proceed, I think it's better if you told Circe who you really are, that would make explaining the plan much easier, Hilda said his gaze planted on Old man Barok. Who he really is?? The old man turned to me.

"Circe. Emily, Sarah, and I are of Fyn lineage, we are Fyn"