I felt like a layer of myself had been scrubbed clean off. The handmaidens made to pamper me had a fire of determination in them that I thought could only be found in some ancient storybook hero. It was terrifying, their strength. And afterwards they placed me in this gigantic room. Only thing in it was a gigantic bed. And a normal sized dresser.

I was so uncomfortable, I was used to my small quaint tents in the woods, with the entire sky above me. Or even before then, my small hut of a house with holes poking through the ceiling. I was able to hear the chickens and cattle rustle and move outside, but here, I couldn't hear a thing. Maybe the occasional footsteps outside my door. Or the squeaking of a night bird through the window.

I grew uneasy in my loneliness as it really settled in. I never felt alone in the forest, but now, this gigantic room made me feel small.

But through sheer luck I was saved. As I began to settle in, the doors slammed open and one of the twins walked in. The maids accompanying her shoved her further into the room and slammed the doors behind her with a quickness.

She wore a white gown that fell to the floor and slightly dragged as she walked.

"Selam?" I questioned.

She shook her head. She kept her gaze at her feet as she neared the bed.

"Shanti? Where's Selam?"

"She's supposed to be here instead of me. But no one here knows the difference. Selam and I switch places all the time. She's next door because I'm supposed to be kept away from men until my fiance comes to claim me."

"Fiance?"

She nodded. "This general or war lord or whatever that the king really likes."

"I see. So, how are we gonna get out of this?"

"We'll let them escort us out of Tetani, towards the palace. Once we're far enough we'll attack them. Make it seem like a group of bandits ambushed and kidnapped us. The king won't suspect a thing."

"That's stupid, there will be too many of them."

She scoffed, "You're an angel wielder aren't you? What are you scared for?"

"Huh? How did you know-"

"Angels know angels, wielders know wielders." She shrugged. "I can sense it."

"You can?"

"I'm surprised you can't. When we were in that forest, I thought you noticed and that's why you were so skeptical, but you didn't say anything."

"How do you-"

"Were you born with this angel? How did it get you?"

"I," I paused, "I don't really know.... it's a long story."

"So you weren't born with it, I take it. Can you control it?"

"No."

"Useless." She gave me the dirtiest side-eye I'd ever received and then turned to walk around to the other side of the bed. She started piling the pillows in the middle of the bed, creating a barrier between the left and right side.

"I may be playing Selam right now but you can leave me out of the fiance part."

"I wasn't planning on it."

I felt like a dumbass grabbing at the scraps of his ego. In fact, I was exactly that. I'd had that angel for over a year and I hadn't once been able to wield it.

Though, after I got over my soul-crushing embarrassment, I experienced the best sleep of my entire life up until that point. The bed felt like I was floating on clouds.

I slept so well that I was angry when we were awakened the next morning. We were again dragged away, cleaned, scrubbed and shoved in tight clothing. And before I knew it I was in the back of a carriage accompanied by two twin sisters and about 10 fully trained soldiers.

"I can't see the palace anymore, do you think now is a good time?" The twin who I think was Selam asked.

"No, give it an hour."

"Tuh, by then the real bandits will get us."

"Please, no amount of non-angel wielders are taking out ten fully trained soldiers and the both of us." Shanti, I think, responded.

What about me?

"What about Dante?"

"Yea, he can wave a stick around or something."

"You're so mean to him, Shanti." She cooed, "It's like you like him or something." She teased.

"As if-"

"Well you can't have him! He's my fiance." Selam playfully grabbed my arm.

"Selam!"

"Relax. I'm just playing." She let go of me, laughing. "Look at him! He looks petrified."

"You can't just play like that around men you don't know. What if-"

"Relax, he's traveled with us for like two days now and he hasn't tried anything. Look at him, I trust him."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Shanti sighed.

"Besides, he is kinda cute after letting the handmaidens pamper him." Selam continued. "Hey Dante."

"What?"

"Have you got a girlfriend from where you're from?"

I paused. I thought about Mesi, how I'd yearned for her and wished for her for the better half of my childhood. But then I shook my head. "Nah."

"Hm. I wonder if it was a bad breakup." She muttered to her sister.

"Let's do it. Now." Shanti stated.

"Do what...?" She thought about it for a second.

"OH!" She exclaimed, following her sister as she jumped out the wagon.

"Dante, you take out the driver. Try your best to keep the horses." Shanti ordered.

I nodded. Creeping towards the curtains that separated me from the driver.

"What wrong, my ladies?" The wagon slowly came to a halt as the twins' left the wagon.

"Apologies in advance." One of them responded.

Through the curtains I saw a flash of lights. The horses screeched, and started to run, pulling the wagon back into motion. I needed to act.

I continued my creep onto the driver till I was in reach. He was frantically trying to calm the horses. I grabbed him and held my dagger to his throat.

He pleaded, "Please sir, I'll do whatever you want."

I paused. I'd killed before. Now, it was no different.

"Please! I have kids, a wife!"

"That means nothing."

I tensed my hand, ready to kill him.

"Stop the wagon!" One of the twins called.

I glanced ahead, we were heading towards a cliff.

"Idiot! Stop them!" I released the driver and promptly, he pulled on the horses' reins.

We were lucky, they stopped just in time, probably only seconds to spare. I made him turn back, towards where the twins were waiting.

When we came to a stop, I dragged the driver off the carriage and threw him in front of the twins.

"Why didn't you kill him?"

"He made good use of himself." I shrugged.

"Yea and he almost got you killed."

"Shanti, are you worried about him? I thought he was deadweight." Selam grew a mischievous grin on her face.

"It's not about him. That wagon has all our money." Shanti scoffed.

"Okay." She responded, sarcastically.

"And what are we gonna do with the driver?" Shanti continued, gesturing at him.

I looked at the man, he laid there, trembling, murmuring prayers, bowing at Shanti's feet. My gaze shifted to the scene around me. There, all of the soldiers laid bloody and limp. They'd spared not a single soul.

They had done nothing wrong, except get in the way of our scam.

"Either we take him with us, or we kill him." I said.

"Well. I think we all know the answer." Shanti said. "Dante, you do the honors."

"Why me?"

"Selam and I have already killed our fair share. You want your cut of the money, don't you? Prove you have the conviction."

I scoffed. "Fine." I grabbed my dagger from where it sat on the wagon and neared the man.

"No- WAIT- PLEA-"

I ended him. Hearing his pleads would've just made me hesitate even further.

Shanti sighed, "Finally, now-"

"Guys! We have a problem!" Selam announced.

"What?"

She hauled a sack down from the wagon, dropping it at our feet. She removed the bag and my heart dropped to my feet.

One giant, solid piece of gold. Not one coin.

"Oh shit."

"How are we gonna split this?" Selam asked.

"Relax. We'll just take it to a bank and then split it into three bank accounts." Shanti explained.

"Shanti we're women! They're not gonna let us open an account! Under an alias at that."

"Wow, Selam, for once you can think!" She nipped. "That doesn't matter, we can just pose as men. We've don't it before."

Selam sighed, "Fine, I'll start braiding my hair now." She climbed into the wagon.

"Useless, you're driving."

"Where to?" I asked.

They froze. "Oh." Selam started, "My guess is that way!" She pointed toward the East.

"No, that'll be too close to the palace. Let's go west."

"No! West is where we found him, we've already been there!"

"So what?"

"Forget it, we're going south." I stated.

"Who gave you the authority?" Shanti asked, she sized me up, stepping to me, "Your manhood means nothing here. Don't ever forget that we could take you out quicker than you could even look at that raggedy dagger of yours."

"Then why haven't you done it yet? You could take the gold and run off." I tried my best to calm the nerves building up in my stomach, to not let it pierce through and show in my voice.

Shanti looked at the corpse of the driver, and pointed to it. "We need a new one."

It wasn't until then that my reality hit me. We'd been traveling with eleven men, all of them, except for the driver, were adults- in their prime, soldiers. Some of them had scars from previous battles and every single one of them had a sword. They'd all died within seconds. I'd barely heard the unsheathing of their swords. I wasn't just dealing with two rebellious princesses, I was dealing with two monsters.

And they'd kept me out of convenience, but really, I was replaceable like the rest of these guys.

I kept my mouth shut and sighed.

"Good." She turned to climb on the wagon again. "To the south." She announced.

I just got my life threatened over a good idea.

◇◇◇◇

I'd only ever driven a wagon once or twice. Sometimes my dad would take me out of the village to deliver the harvest to some big city. The trip always took a few days so he taught me how to drive so that he could take naps without losing time. It didn't mean much to the other kids, but back then it was such an honor to me. I looked up to my dad so much, and getting to spend that time with him, it was great.

I'd come back home and rave about it to Davu. And just when I thought Davu would be jealous of me for once, he'd tell me how Auntie let him drive all the time and how he was so good at it. I'd get so disappointed, grow a slouch in my shoulders. And then I'd start planning on a new way to one up him again.

A shiver ran down my spine as the moon rose higher in the sky. The girls had stopped talking, probably fallen asleep hours ago.

It was nice actually, being essentially alone, just under the moon, it created a sense of clarity for me. The moon's light made the air blue, it felt so calm. Created a lot of room for introspection.

A cold hand grabbed my bicep making me flinch as I turned to examine who it was.

Well, it was one of the twins of course, I wasn't sure which one.

"Did I scare you?" She asked. Her other sister laid beside her, still asleep and lightly snoring.

"Uh, your hand is cold."

"Ah, sorry." She moved her hand back.

"What do you want?"

"To ask you a question."

"What?"

"Once you get the gold... where are you going?"

I turned my gaze back to the road ahead of me.

"Who knows." I shrugged, "maybe I'll buy some land."

"What about your family?"

I shook my head. "I'll probably never see them again."

We both stayed silent for a while. I thought she'd fallen asleep again but I couldn't look back. My eyes were burning like I was on the verge of tears and I was fighting them back. I hadn't cried about it since it happened, but I hadn't talked about it either.

"Um, do you mind if I ask why?"

"Why what?" I said.

"Why won't you ever see them again?"

It was at this point that I wondered which sister she was. She didn't talk like either of them, like she was purposely changing her voice so as to not give a clue.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Hm?"

"I mean which one... are you?"

"Does that matter?"

We stayed silent again.

I sighed, "I was banished. From my village."

"Why? What did you do?"

"I don't remember much. It's got something to do with this angel, though."

"Wow, that's..." She trailed off.

Every few words an awkward silence would grow between us yet, even though they grew longer and longer, they felt shorter and shorter.

"You guys weren't banished, why are you running from the palace?"

"Royal families don't love the same way you guys do. To the king, two angel-wielding daughters like us just means two new sacrifices for the glory of the country. He's been frantically trying to sell us off to some rich generals or noblemen since we were ten, just the bidding wasn't high enough. And when we turned 15 this year, the king finally found Shanti's suitor. So she and Selam got angry and we left." She sighed. "And then I get here and there's grandma trying to rattle Selam off as a gift. While treating Shanti like she's some goddess."

"Are you Shanti?"

"Does it really matter? Shanti and Selam are names only to describe the angel we hold. Whenever they introduced us it was 'Shanti's the fighter! Selam's the healer!' They'd never say a thing about me other than that. Selam and Shanti are the same so you can call me either."

"You guys are nowhere near the same." I said. "Shanti's all stoic and grumpy. And Selam is excited and really blunt."

She scoffed.

"And you're Shanti."

"Why do you think that?"

"Selam wouldn't have changed her voice trying to conceal her identity. She would've just asked me boldly. "

"Maybe you don't know Selam or Shanti very well."

"Or maybe I'm right."

She chuckled, "I'm going back to sleep."

"Night." I remained confused, second-guessing myself for the rest of the night.