I felt something soft brush my arm. I opened my eyes, and there was a girl there. She was pretty, with bright green eyes and freckles, but I had no idea who she was or what she was doing in my room.

"Wake up, Milnas."

I sat up and tried to get my bearings. It was dark outside, but a small sliver of moonlight pierced through the window, giving me just enough light to make out the form of the girl. She was clad in a long coat and trousers, with a pack on her back. She handed one to me.

"Take this, and we go." She turned away from me and made for the door. I stared at her, trying to figure out what was happening.

She turned back to me. "Now. We're going now!" she hissed. There was an urgency in her voice that made me begin to panic.

"Who are you?" I asked. The pack she had handed to me was heavy, and as I looked inside, I saw it was stuffed with travel gear. I caught the smoky scent of dried meat and cheese.

"Shay," she said, letting out an impatient breath. "Do you want to be stuck with the churchmen for the rest of your life?" She gestured around vaguely.

I shook my head, trying to look angry but I was just scared and confused. I didn’t want to leave with her unless I knew more.

She stared at me for a second and sighed. “Fine, you little turd. The red eyed man sent me. I couldn’t give a fuck as to why but I’m suppose to take you out of the city.”

Rebert. The man who had showed me just a small gesture of kindness. In a strange way, it might sense, so I followed her down the stairs. We were quiet, and something about the empty tavern downstairs put me on edge. The fireplace was burning only embers, and the tables were scarred and dirty. The smell of stale beer still filled the air, but there was no one to be seen.

We left the inn, and I followed the girl. It was raining, and a small mist fell around us. It was foggy too, and some part of me wondered if this strange excursion was just a dream. I sucked in the cool, damp air of the night and tried to force my heart to slow down.

I didn't know the girl, and I didn't know her plan. But I knew that I wanted to be away from Roth and his men.I didn’t know how Rebert could be part of that. But she seemed like she knew where we were going, and soon we entered a small barn.. We entered a small building overhang, and the girl quickly jumped onto a horse that was already saddled. She reached down a hand and helped me onto the back of the animal.

"Where are we going?" I asked as I clutched the girl's waist from behind. Her hair smelled like soap, faintly sweet, and the softness of a stray few hairs tickled my nose. I had never been this close to a girl before, and now one I didn't know was taking me somewhere I didn't know either. I wondered how old she was.

She didn't answer my question, and we rode out of the small stable past the inn. Then we rode past the inn. I couldn't help but stare at it as we rode past in the quiet night, but as we did so, a strange feeling entered my gut, and the hairs on my arm began to prickle.

We left the inn behind, and this time, on the back of a horse moving at a quick trot, we made it to the city gates much quicker than our journey through the city that morning. There was one guard on top of the stone wall above the gate, and he looked down at us as we drew closer.

He was an older fellow, and as he held up the lantern towards us, I could see that he didn't look friendly. A rusty skull cap sat on thin gray hair, and hard green eyes squinted at us in suspicion.

"The lad told me that someone would come. There's something odd about that one, mind you," the old guard said, shrugging. He casually took something from his pocket and brought it to his mouth, a sort of whistle that produced a harsh piercing note in the air.

"Shit!" the girl screamed. She pulled on the reins tight and I had to hold tight to her to avoid falling off the horse. The horse wheeled around, but we had nowhere to go. The churchmen appeared from the shadows. Not all of them, but enough. Roth stood at the front of his group, picking his teeth with a toothpick as if he had simply been on a nightly stroll. Perhaps he had.

His second, Rebert, was also present. He glanced at the girl but he kept his face placid. For a man who just betrayed his own, I was impressed. But then as I realized the situation I was in, I almost pissed myself.

"Really, Milnas? Running off with a girl so soon?" He spat out the toothpick onto the cobblestones and glared at me.

There was nothing to say, nothing I could say. The girl had taken me from the inn, and I had gone willingly. So, I said nothing. I was not ashamed; I had done nothing wrong. “She’s pretty”. And she was.

Some of the men chuckled, but Roth was not amused. "Get off the horse," Roth said.

Then he dug into a small pouch at his waist and picked out a coin. He threw it at the guard on the gatewall, but the coin missed the mark, hit the wall, and fell back to the ground.

The guard stared at the gold coin shining in the moonlight and hurried down from the wall on a ladder and picked up the coin. The single coin was easily a year’s salary for the guard.

There was movement somewhere from the roof across from us, then a sharp twang. I watched as an arrow hit the old guard in the head, puncturing through the rusted skull cap with ease. The man fell back with a bloody hole in his head.

"That's on you, Milnas. Can't have the city watch gossiping about Chantrian business."

Shay dug her heels into the horse's ribs, and we catapulted forward. Roth's men scrambled out of the way as the huge horse tore through them. But then I heard the same twang again, followed by the sound of an arrow meeting flesh. The horse screamed and reared, and we both fell off.

By some miracle, neither of us fell under the weight of the horse and she pulled me up by the wrist and dragged me back the way we had come. She was fast, much faster than me, and I struggled to keep pace with her as we neared the docks once more.

Another arrow flew past my ear, and if Shay hadn't tripped, it would have skewered her in the back. I was pulled to the ground with her and we fell hard on the ground. And then they were upon us.

"Who is she?" he asked, as he walked up. Then he looked down at me, voice quiet and thick with betrayal.

I didn't know who she was, and even if I did, I wouldn't want to tell him. I looked at Shay, and she looked back at me. Terror filled her eyes, and then she began to rise off the ground.

Someone might use leverage and strangle someone against the ground as a point of resistance, or a man with significant height and strength might choke a child or someone of lesser weight against a wall. But Roth did none of that. He bent the reality of size and strength to his will and held Shay in the air with one arm above his head. The air itself held the girl in its grip, and Roth was its maker.

But such is the way of magic. It can do terrible yet godly things against humans who don't deserve it. Roth’s hand was encased in a soft yellow glow, a sort of magical gauntlet that made the air vibrate with power. The flesh on Shay's neck began to burn, and the smell of it made my stomach twist in revulsion.

"Stop it!" I screamed.

Roth looked at me, and for a tiny second, there was not an ounce of recognition on his face. It was as if I were a stranger, and he had no idea who I was.

I had seen magic before. Or at least I thought I had. Once my dad killed a squirrel. The moment of its death was a strange thing. I thought I saw some lighter glowing form of it that struggled to remain in the world, despite the fact an arrow had pierced its heart. The creature wasn’t intelligent enough to look at me, but all the same, I could sense it.

It looked at me, and I waved at it. Then it wheezed one final time, and seemed to release its hold upon the world. The glowing form began to fade, content to leave everything behind. I remember vividly the look my father gave me. He was confused, perhaps wondering who I was waving at, but then he smiled as if I had simply been being kind to the rabbit and given it a farewell.

It was strange then, and even stranger now to witness something that just did not seem to sit right with reality, with a glove that gave him the strength of a man when he was nothing more than a boy. The light of it dazzled in the dark.The moonlight shimmered and sparkled with the power of magic, and it was hard to believe that something so beautiful could be summoned by evil.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Witnessing magic manifest before your eyes is one thing, but being able to use it yourself is another. Suddenly, the laws of the world don't matter anymore. If you're stronger than other men, why should you listen to what they have to say? In the end, the strongest rule and make the law. One only needs to witness magic once to realize it's the key to all power in our world.

Roth stared at me for a long moment, his eyes still strange, as if he could see something else that no one else could. But then a sudden shiver went through his body, and he looked up at his hand and the choking girl.

He faltered for a moment as he looked around and saw his men watching him. Most of them had their hands on their weapons, as if they were ready for a fight. But what fight was to be had against two children? Several of them looked expectant, hungry almost, as if it was nothing but a minstrel's show and the best event had arrived. I wondered, not for the first time, if the men commanded Roth or if he commanded them.

He turned to look at me, at first looking scared. But then his eyes flicked to his men again, and a hardness came over him once more.

"You tell me who she is, or I'll kill her and make you take her," Roth snarled.

I hesitated for just the briefest moment. But it was enough. Roth smiled, as if that was the only answer he needed.

Shay continued to climb higher in the air until she was around 10 feet above us. Then Roth clenched his fist, and a pulse of light emanated from it, followed by a sickening crunch. He turned his fist sharply, and her neck twisted as if someone had turned it all the way around. Then he flattened his hand, and her broken body crashed down onto the docks.

I didn’t scream--but not because I didn’t want to. It was because I couldn't. It was as if the horror before my eyes strangled my throat and clenched it shut, never to open again.

"There now Lad, it's done and over. Should we find you another girl to fuck?" Some of the men around Roth chuckled but most looked away. It takes hard men to kill and rape a woman, but it takes a different kind of man to laugh at a dead child.

Perhaps the men had thought it a game--one that wouldn’t truly end, not one that would go this far.

I didn't answer Roth—I couldn't answer. All I could do was look into her eyes. They were still open, wide with fear and bulged by the affixation.

It was moments like these that Roth revealed his true self. Most of the time he just seemed like a boy with something to prove to the world, but this monster was what lurked beneath. There was no remorse in his eyes, no pity. It was his sadistic desire to cause pain that was at the root of him. But I was no longer scared of him, no longer scared to see the root of evil. My despair had wrapped me like a cloak, and all I could feel was empty at seeing the devil and living to tell of it.

“Now fuck her.” Roth pointed at her corpse, not wanting the game to end, but angry at sensing its closure.

Rebert stepped from behind Roth and put a hand on his shoulder. It was a firm grip and I saw Roth wince from the pressure. “Enough, child.”

"Take your hand off me before I snap it off." Roth whispered the words slowly, and quietly--and he didn’t even turn to look at Rebert, but the words were not hollow things. I could see that he meant it. He would kill even one of his own if they questioned him at that moment. Rebert took back his hand, but I saw that he now gripped the hilt of his sword, as if he might draw it at any moment.

The cruelty of his words and the wrongness of her death made something inside me break. But it no longer felt like something inside me. There was a strange jolt or some sort of movement, as if the air itself cracked and divided — and then the brightness of the moon became dull, and the air seemed to thicken.

I wasn't sure how long I stood there before I realized the change. The wet smell of the city and the sound of the waves against the dock were gone. But then, in front of me, I saw Shay on the ground. She lay there with her neck crooked, but her eyes were open and watching me, tears streaming down her face. Just like the bird, she glowed slightly as if she was an outline of her body, but not truly inside it.

A sudden pang of revulsion coursed through my stomach, and I stepped back. But then I looked into her eyes, and what I saw there crushed me. She was scared. I moved towards her and kneeled, placing her crooked neck in my lap, and she looked up at me as tears moved down her face. "I'm sorry," I choked, not knowing what else to say. "I'm sorry."

"Why didn't you save me?" she asked. She tried to move her head, but the bone of her vertebrae and neck was twisted, and nothing happened. She looked confused and then panicked as she reached up her arms to find that her head was twisted the wrong way.

"What did he do to my neck? Why didn't you stop him?" She was crying now, and the tears filled her eyes. But I could not feel them. Her eyes were now gray, washed out, and dim. I didn't have an answer for her. There was no answer to be given, none that could be given.

The silence was more than just in my head; it was everywhere. And down below, in my lap where Shay was, I felt a gentle tug. "I don't want to go, Milnas. Don't make me go." Shay's voice was frightened now as she pulled at me. Her fingernails dug painfully into my arm.

I reached down and took her hand. It was terribly cold, colder than anything I had ever touched, colder than snow, and colder than ice. My instincts told me to take back my hand, but I couldn't. It is one thing to watch someone die, and it's quite another to watch their very soul perish. Few would say they know what that is like, but I can. I squeezed her hand, trying to comfort her — horrified at what I was seeing. Where would she go? Would she just simply stop existing? I wasn't ready for these questions, perhaps I still am not, but I watched the answers unfold before my eyes.

I began to panic as the coldness from her hands spread from her fingers to my forearm. And then, the color began to return to her. Her eyes became that sea-bright blue again, and the redness returned to her cheeks.

I held onto her hand, willing her not to go as the coldness spread from the tips of my fingers up into my shoulder. Some part of me knew what was happening — the part that lives and breathes and somehow does it all without thinking. And that part was giving itself to Shay.

The cold began to creep into my chest, and Shay's neck began to twist and turn, and then it snapped back into place. She turned around, looking back and forth. "Where are we?" As she said the words, she dropped my hand, and I clutched it to my chest, willing it to be warm, willing everything to be warm and for the cold to go away.

And then the world exploded around me. The harsh brown color of the wood beneath my feet felt jagged and rough, and the smells of the sea around us and the sour smell of the city made me want to gag. The bright blue light of the moon seemed to burn my eyes, and as I looked down at my arm, I saw that it was blackened and wilted with rot.

I tried to move my fingers, but they wouldn't budge. I tried to move my shoulder, but it was too stiff, and the pain from trying to move it spasmed through my body, and I fell to my knees.

Nausea filled my gut, and I retched, but nothing came out. I tried to scream, but my throat was hoarse and raw — as if I had been screaming for hours — and no sound came out. I coughed, and then I splattered the ground with blood. Then Roth's shoe thudded into my stomach and lifted me onto my back. The air fled my lungs, and I felt a crack in my ribs as I flew away to hit the hard cobblestones that led up to the wooden deck.

"Stop," Rebert said quietly, but there was an edge to his voice.

I looked up to see Roth's boots turn as he looked at Rebert for a small moment.

"What did you say?"

I looked up to see Rebert's hand still on the hilt of his sword. It was a strange hilt, and it was the first time that I truly looked at it. The pommel had a strange purple jewel, and the hilt — covered in strips of red leather — seemed thicker somehow than the other swords that I had seen.

"I won't stand by while you kill another child, especially one such as this," Rebert declared.

Roth looked from Rebert to the other men with a look of confusion on his face. "Such as this?" He threw up his arms in exasperation. "The child is nothing. He has been tested twice now. Three times if you count this," he waved his hand in Shay's general direction.

"Only God can deem one worthy. You are not God," Rebert said, making a strange sign on his chest.

"Remember your place, Shinarin. It is the church that decides God's word, not you," Roth spat the words out with fury in his eyes, and Rebert flinched as spit from Roth's mouth hit his face.

For a long moment, the two stared at each other. Rebert's strange red eyes held no anger, but in the briefest of moments, I saw them flit to my own. He seemed to register my pain, and he looked at my arm. Then his eyes widened. For a moment he just stared, then almost without acknowledgement, he turned and smashed his forehead into Roth's nose. I heard the crunch of cartilage, and Rebert drew his sword before Roth even fell to the ground.

The sword was thicker than any I had ever seen, curved at the edge with a wicked point. I noticed it was also etched from the hilt to the tip in flowing scripts. I stared in wonder as Roth's own second man now stared down his entire company.

Roth spat out blood on the ground and got to his feet with a bloody hand held to his nose. "Kill him!" he screamed through blood and snot.

The men looked at Roth and then at Rebert, but none seemed in a rush to confront him. In the short time I had spent with them, I knew they respected the man.

One man, an older fellow whose name I had not yet learned, stared at the blade in wonder. "First time in the last five years he drew it. Beautiful." It was as if they were all stunned by the beauty of the blade, or maybe the menace of it.

In my pain, suffering, and confusion, I wondered about Rebert. The man seemed to have blades all over his body, tucked away in his bandolier, and I imagined he could hide some in his boots too. Some underlying hidden form of the present began to form in my mind. Shay told me that it was Rebert who had sent her. But why?

Roth looked at his men, and when none of them could meet his eyes, he flung blood on the ground and spat red. "Cowards. Dirty fucking cowards."

He reached up his hand towards Rebert, and light encircled it once more. But before the light could fully coalesce into a glove, Rebert's eyes narrowed, and there was a flash of steel. I was so close that blood splattered against my face as Roth's arm fell to the ground. The magical fist diminished into the air like yellow smoke.

It was then that all hell broke loose. Three of the men went at Rebert, and I scrambled away from the fighting as best as I could.

My arm was still aflame with pain, and I refused to look at it, afraid to see what had already scarred my mind. Flesh wasn't supposed to look like that. But as I tried to crawl away, my mind began to dissociate amidst the pain and chaos around me. Someone grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me away from the melee.

I screamed until my throat felt like it was going to burst, but a hand clamped over my mouth. I was dragged further and further away from the fight, but I had no interest in the victor. My rotted arm flashed bright pain in my mind as it bumped over and over on the hard cobblestones.

Then something flew through the air, and something heavy crashed into us. My head hit the cobblestones, and the last thing I saw was Rebert getting to his feet. It was Rebert; he had been thrown at us.