"We're here!"
They all looked around.
On close scrutiny, they could see hoof marks on the path. Trailing deeper away into the dense woods.
"This is where the chase began…where we spotted him at least".
Nymphadora recalled the impassive face, black long sleek hair and pale white skin.
And those eyes. Dark. Purple though, but still dark.
Like they held no warmth at all. All it gave was a chilly reminder of an abyss.
"Aunt Dora?"
Nymphadora tapped her head lightly.
"Old age…I'm already getting senile." She laughed to ease the tension. "Let's proceed."
They went on, Nymphadora in the lead now.
She could literally feel Elsa's eyes on her back. She had suspected something just as always.
They could see that the trees around were withered. A few birds lay dead on the dense undergrowth.
"Effects of the power escaping from the Prince", Nymphadora gestured as they trotted past.
'This Prince of a guy is really dangerous,' Elsa thought silently, looking around at the extent of the damage.
'To have so much killing intent seeping from him without his will…'
"And this was where we caught up with him", Nymphadora brought her horse to a stop, "then we had a brief duel…"
Here, there were serious signs of destructive essence.
Cracks on the ground splintered in radial patterns. Deep enough to be called craters.
Shards of broken armor and swords scattered all around.
Heavy splashes of blood lingered here and there.
"Are all blood from humans?!", Ilyana seemed dumbstruck.
Well, that's one way to put it. Beth literally shook in horror.
"Simma really had a point…" Savart mumbled to himself, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"He escaped. He was a very good sword fighter for a boy so young, " Nymphadora extolled slyly, "but he got injured."
Elsa noticed the serial drops of blood on the stony pathway. At once, she leapt down.
Cautiously, she bent and touched one of them.
It was frozen already.
"Scoop it up with your dagger ", Savart ordered, "We'll take it up to the castle, and perhaps find a witch to try the Murtias Torture."
"What does that mean?" Ilyana's brow furrowed in confusion.
"It's a Curse that enables a witch to use a person's blood to curse the person with excruciating pain. But it can be overridden by powerful magical boundaries, getting in the way," Nymphadora explained.
"Like the Sheath", Beth helped.
"But the Sheath may not be magically strong enough…I mean it can easily be weakened", Ilyana argued. "We can just try to neutralize the Sheath, then try the curse."
Elsa rolled her eyes.
"Do you even listen to yourself? Neutralize the Sheath? Has that ever happened?,"
"There's always a first time," Ilyana shot back.
"And what if it doesn't work?", Nymphadora asked mockingly.
"Then we'll find another way", Ilyana maintained her mulish resolve.
Nymphadora laughed for a while before she explained.
"The Sucias torture is a mortal one, Ilyana. It kills its caster, and uses his or her vital essence to feed the curse effect. Moreover it isn't something every average witch can do.
The number who can do that are limited and doesn't certainly guarantee us to keep trying and wasting more witches in the process."
Ilyana fell silent at once, and Beth picked up, interrupting with a question that had absolutely nothing to do with the present situation.
"So the lycans and vampires have been crossing the Sheath? How come we haven't noticed?"
"We did," Savart sighed heavily "but we ignored them."
Elsa, still staring at the frozen blood, had straightened up.
Something was oddly familiar here.
She closed her eyelids tight and opened them again.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew from the forest. It caressed her face, blowing her hair all around.
Instantly, memories assaulted her mind with a frightening frequency.
She had felt that wind before.
She had once been here, not physically, but subconsciously.
She couldn't explain that.
She hadn't been to this part of the forest before, but she easily remembered it.
Though back then it was all dark, as though it had been nightfall then.
Before she could fight it, nor even understand…she sort of drifted off.
When the wind stopped, she pulled her hair away from her face, where it had been obscuring her vision.
A shock shook her for a while.
She wasn't 'there' any longer.
She now stood alone in the dark forest. Quite a frightening experience.
Only the moon and static trees, as her only companions.
A full moon.
This easily resembled a scene straight out of a novel.
Normally, it goes like...
'Next moment, a lycan comes charging out of the Shadows to turn her.'
She shook that puny thought off. Firstly, she had to find out why she was sent here.
If she was sent though.
The forest seemed really unnaturally quiet.
No animal noises…no birds or even owls.
Not even a hint of the turbulent wind that heralded her coming here.
Suddenly, she began to hear approaching noises.
Shouts of men, coupled with neighs of horses and thuds of hooves.
Just then, a boy hurtled past her at superhuman speed.
She couldn't even see any of his features, save for his long hair that flailed around his head gracefully.
Every tendril catching a sliver of the moon light.
Unfortunately, making him easier to spot in the near darkness.
A soldier on horseback followed hotly, blade gleaming in hand.
The boy, after some quick analysis, turned around in apparent surrender.
But then, the horse bearing the soldier neighed in pain. Crashing into a nearby tree instead of hitting the boy.
With a shudder, Elsa realized that this was him.
The legendary Prince of Darkness.
She had just revisited yesternight's Princehunt.
The Prince drew a sword, and in that instant, she saw his eyes.
They had just put up with a bright hue of red.
Just put up?
Yes, she could swear that it'd just changed. Red wasn't the original eye color.
And the sword too was in no way normal. It's aura was dark and otherworldly.
Far more malevolent than her aunt's blade, Eldoria. She literally felt it's killing intent.
But she had no time to study it before it began swinging to kill.
The duel that followed was very quick and jumbled.
She only saw splashing blood, and blades glinting in the moonlight.
When that phalanx subsided their advance, the Prince stood victorious for a moment.
Then Nymphadora arrived with Simma, Ellipe's chief general.
The Prince engaged them in battle at once.
His long hair flailed around him with some arcane energy.
It'd somehow become longer. Like though, it elongated and shortened at intervals.
As she watched, it once wrapped around a soldier's hand, throwing him off his horse.
Elsa watched, mouth ajar, feeling growing admiration for the Prince's combat skills.
While he fought, his long hair continued to flail around erratically.
Strangling soldiers who came too close. Catching arrows and spears launched from afar.
After a short but eventful tussle, the Prince decapitated Simma's horse.
Then he faced Nymphadora fully.
In that split moment, Simma had reattacked and the Prince went on the defensive.
Thus providing Nymphadora with an opening for a neat offensive.
She must have been concentrating all these while, reserving her strength while Simma bought her more time.
At last, her grand spell was complete.
She cast it at once, but the Prince was already aware of such, and blocked it with his blade.
But the moment the two made contact, the blade shattered, the shards dissolving into the darkness.
In that same moment, the two duellers met gazes.
As a shard overturned in mid air, she caught a glimpse of Umbra's eyes on it.
Like a reflection.
It wasn't red this time. Rather, a bright deep shade of purple.
They'd changed color…again.
That very gaze disconcerted Elsa. She instinctively stumbled away, tripping over an overgrown tree root.
"Elsa?!"
That very gaze wasn't just evil, it was the height of anything that could be called malevolent.
Seeming like the very origin of all things called evil.
Nymphadora lunged at him, almost falling off her horse.
Subsequently, she missed her target.
At least, managing to slash the Prince's arm with her magic enhanced sword.
Disarmed, the Prince fled, and the others gave chase.
Elsa remained standing, trying to follow their progress, but it was futile.
She couldn't outrun their horses. But at least, she saw the Prince.
Black hair, pale skin and…finally the eyes.
Cold purple eyes.
And they weren't glowing this time.
"Elsa?!"
Beth lightly tapped her shoulder.
She was lying in the woods, her hair draped over her face as she lay unabashedly on the leafy undergrowth.
Everyone stared at her baffled.
Nymphadora's stare seemed more accusing than baffled though.
She had just a flashback.
And just like most things that had happened to her, she had no idea why.
A nagging voice in her head constantly berated her as she mounted her horse.
It kept on urging her to find out about the Curse of the Inferi.
The same voice that had questioned her hatred for the Incarnas.
This wasn't the first occurance of things like this.
But with so many other things happening too fast, she had every reason to be bewildered.
And scared too. What was happening to her?
It seemed that she was eventually losing grip of her sanity.
"We found the sword hilt", Ilyana informed, holding it out to show her.
Elsa glanced at it. It was the same she had glimpsed in the dream.
A sword hilt, embellished with runes throughout the whole length.
A glimpse of recognition flickered in her eyes. As though she'd seen that hilt somewhere.
Which shouldn't be possible.
And Nymphadora saw it, even though it was just a flicker.
"We have to talk", Nymphadora mumbled as Elsa passed her the sword hilt. "As soon as we get home at the castle…"
Elsa drew away.
No one had noticed their exchange. She wondered what her aunt wanted to talk to her about.
Maybe, her awkwardness was getting out of hand.
No…not maybe.
Surely.
She was already displaying too many strange behaviors nowadays.
As she kicked the flank of the horse to set it going, she realized that the image of the Prince still lingered in her mind.
To her disgust, she found herself highlighting his delicate almost feminine hair.
His calm demeanor in the face of possible capture and death… and his muscular but lean build…
'Stop it!!!', she berated herself, clapping her cheeks a little too viciously.
Attracting her sister's attention, who rode beside her
However, for the first time in their life, Ilyana didn't ask her anything.
Elsa knew she was strange, but now everything seemed to be spiraling out of control.
Elsa had never admired a boy to that extent before. Nor even thought about anyone other than family before.
She had several male friends and prospective suitors…but she had never fantasized over any of them.
"So the Prince escaped?" Bella looked down the path.
"He might have escaped, but I put him in a really fragile state. He won't use his powers for a long time unless he seeks death…" Nymphadora smiled grimly.
"That's if he does survive…" Beth cut in hopefully.
Inspite of herself, Elsa found herself wishing the opposite, and words came tumbling out of her mouth.
"He won't…he's the Prince of Darkness, isn't he?"
Ilyana's eyes narrowed in mock suspicion. "Are you rooting for him, Elsa?"
"Shut it…why should I?", Elsa turned away, slightly annoyed.
"Elsa…" Ilyana sounded very surprised and amused… "You're blushing!"
Elsa bent down, caressing her horse's neck to hide her rosy cheeks.
For the last time, she didn't know what was happening to her.