“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
-William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, or What You Will
I ran through the rolling hills, trampling flowers underfoot with each light step. Tears stung my eyes and fell down my face. I wouldn’t look back. I couldn’t look back.
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I sat on that fence as my waiting grew impatient. I kicked out my legs over the wooden barricade, making the knocking and creaking sounds of my heel banging on wood. That noise slowly merged itself with a mass of heavy footsteps beating into the ground from nearby.
They were close.
I shielded my eyes from the bright glint of the sun against metal as a crowd of dusty, half-armored men approached.
Shortly after seeing me, one of the men collapsed. ‘Is he sick? What happened?’
I made no move to help him, though. He was surrounded by others who could get him to help. To my surprise, nobody made a move to pick him up. I couldn’t clearly make out any of their faces, but even I could read an atmosphere this heavy.
“How dare you!” My eyes widened. The shiniest of the figures spat his words at me as he stepped forward. ‘What, is his sickness my fault now? What did I ever do to them?’ I was flummoxed. Did they think I had somehow knocked the guy over from all the way over here? Ridiculous.
“If your goal here was to inflict pain, you…” I stopped listening before he was done speaking. Now, I understood. I was no longer me, I was an imposter in my own body. I had killed me, and left me to die and disappear from memory before coming back to open the wounds of the past.
‘So that’s it, huh?’ I sighed to myself, ‘I’ve been erased.’ I was surprised to find that I didn’t feel any sort of sadness or longing anymore. Perhaps that man on the ground who I mistakenly called my father did.
I made a mistake, thinking I could return here. They did not miss me, long for me, or mourn for my loss. They felt the pain of losing Estera - some small, reserved child who they wanted to think I was.
I was not welcome here.
“--!!” I opened my mouth to speak, but before I was able to say anything, the leader of their band of buffoons seemed to ignite. Bright arches of fire rose up from his body and collided with the Sun, casting a bright burning light before me and a shadow of pure blackness behind me.
The muscular, imposing figure charged at me, a huge bladed weapon pointed straight at my chest.
The man’s bright aura had stunned me for just a moment, but with my guard down, I was bound to be impaled. I inhaled sharply as I forced myself to concentrate, locking as much energy as I could muster into my finger, and braced myself.
It forced itself forward, just hardly reaching my hand as it went, its sharp edge cutting a paper-thin line across the tip of my index finger before slipping past.
When he was finally close enough for me to discern his face, I nearly broke out in laughter. He was shocked and confused as he flew forward, his glaive shooting past my side. The magnetic fields I had made pushed his weapon away, and within an instant he had thrown himself to the ground uncontrollably.
“Y-you monster!” He shouted, his face so red that it seemed to glow through his poorly-managed goatee. “What did you do?!”
“I was almost impressed when you pulled off that ridiculous light show. But let me show you…” I paused momentarily and stretched my hand out towards the man. He backed up on his hands and knees, somewhere between terrified and furious. I didn’t need to bring my hand up to activate anything, but I didn’t want to get hit or stabbed in the face. Stepping away from my normal methods, I used a new magnetic field to pull the weapon towards me, grasping its haft. “Magic is not an accessory.”
‘Heavy…’ The spear was far heavier than my body could handle, but I couldn’t stand to just drop it, that’d look un-cool. Instead, I walked slowly towards the head man of the Ironclad Idiots, and tossed the spear toward him haphazardly. “I return this with faith that you won’t level it at me again.” I raised my chin as I looked down on his pathetic figure, his beard seeming to crawl back into his face. I felt like I was about to break.
I turned to the man who was on the brink of collapsing, my chest burning as the words left my lips. “Being born to you was a mistake.”
Just bringing my mind back to it was agonizing. I hated it, I hated them.
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‘Five heroes…’ I mumbled to myself as I scrutinized the thick vellum. In my hand I held a dusty book as I sat in the shadow of a massive bookcase. “Legend” the section was titled in large, bold black lettering. If anything, this was an act of pure escapism. I needed to know the world I was in, after all.
Five heroes will rise when the veil of evil shadow threatens to once again obscure the sky. The throne room shall adorn itself with the visage of a brave responding to its summons from beyond the veil of reality. Warriors three shall scale the jagged cliffs of strength, and fight to keep their people free. Raised within darkness itself will the final hero be, realized only in the depths of catastrophe.
Cryptic and poorly written. That was the impression I got from this document, it was as if someone was trying and failing to be edgy and cryptic. I sighed and put it down, and picked up another similarly titled book, hoping to find something a little bit more well-written.
Much to my dismay, though, the exact same prophecy was scrawled upon the page, word for word. I tore through the shelf, scrutinizing every single word, looking for something else.
Every single document had the exact same pattern on it.
“Ah, young girl!” A grey man speed-walked over the squeaking wooden floor towards me. “Do you know the significance of this shelf?”
I sheepishly slipped the scroll in my hands back into place. “I must admit I do not. Could you explain?”
“But of course. If anyone seeks knowledge, I must do my utmost to assist in that endeavor.” He smiled, deep wrinkles defining themselves behind his eyes. “These are all replicas of different documents, all found at around the same time in very different places. Nobody knows their origin, but all of them have not only the same wording, but the exact same handwriting.” He explained, a glint appearing in his dim green eyes.
“What do you think they mean?” I asked.
“In a world where there are no stupid questions, you still managed to find one.” He chuckled as he pulled down a random book from the shelf and recited its contents. “It means exactly what it says it means.”
“...Huh.”
In the end, I left the library with more questions than answers. This wasn’t due to the books, of course - those were not subtle at all. This was because I found a very questionable poster. It had a picture of me in menacing dark robes, light shining behind me in a strange orthographic circle. It read:
“WANTED
Young female, looks around 12 years of age.
DO NOT LET APPEARANCES FOOL YOU!
This is a demon taking the form of a child that it murdered in cold blood. Take maximum caution when confronting. If you are not cautious, YOU WILL BE HER NEXT VICTIM! Reward will be prepared for whoever presents proof of her defeat to any town hall in the Demesus Province.”
I sighed. Were they really doing this to me?
The plains of wheat and pale blue sky, the squat buildings of wood and logs, the people treading the streets, the stone walkway below me - all that surrounded me ran red as my rage threatened my rational mind.
In the back of my mind, though, I sensed something odd, and turned to see what it was. Two men, wearing only rags and leather, crouched on the rooftop above. One man, with unkempt dirty blond hair falling down to his neck, took aim through a wooden crossbow. The other, with jet-black hair and a cold, analytical gaze, periodically mumbled at the man.
Within moments, I heard the snapping sound of the bowstring releasing, and the bolt almost reached me before falling to the ground, harmless.
Cancelling that much kinetic energy was child’s play.
There was no way they could get down except through the stairwell, that building was far too tall. Firmly believing in the score I had to settle, I stormed into the building, going straight up the narrow staircase.
On the entrance to the third floor, I encountered the two, who seemed to be rushing down the stairs in an effort to get away from me after being spotted.
“Geh-!” The blonde one grunted, and attempted to shove me out of the way. I didn’t budge, of course, I was far too heavy for him to move while I was increasing the gravitational pull on my own body.
A light grew over the palm of my hand as I looked directly into his eyes. “Greetings. They call me Estera, but you can address me with your last words.”
Jeez, I needed to work on that. I wasn’t nearly as clever as I gave myself credit for.
“N...gh...a-ah... “ He stumbled over his ability to speak. As entertaining as it was, I was at my wit’s end. “R-RUN!” He exclaimed, and he and his friend dashed back towards the roof.
It took a few moments to cancel my own magic, and I ran after them. ‘My legs are too short for this…’ I bemoaned my own weakness as I stumbled my way up the stairs, only to watch them cannonball into the ground below.
“A-AAAAAAGH!” Those two really weren’t good at talking. Looking down over the ledge, I saw the source of the cries of agony. The black-haired one had used the body of his compatriot to break his fall, and it left some bones visible. He dashed away, stumbling as he tried to get his footing. ‘Disgusting coward.’ I grumpily derided him in my mind. I looked over the side of the building, and found a torn awning that framed the body of a filthy man with ribs fractured and sticking through his chest. I nearly threw up at the sight. Had I killed him? As I walked down the stairs, the image haunted my mind.
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Not even five minutes later, I walked by the town square, where a densely packed crowd had gathered. What they were listening to was outrageous.
“My good friend Chrysus and I saw the poster warning of a dangerous beast residing in a human body. We both felt a strong sense of duty to you! The people of this town!”
The crowd cheered as he thrust his fist into the air.
“And so, we set out to hunt this monster, and we found it. It was admiring its own poster! Exploiting its vile self-absorbedness, we attacked. But alas, it was not enough! The monster flew toward us, and threw Chrysus from roof! His crushed body is enough to tell of this wicked devil’s powers.” The captivated audience recoiled as they imagined the poor betrayed man’s body.
“So we must unite if we wish to stop this plague upon our town. It must- “Over there!” Someone interrupted him. “Who dares to- “Shut up and look! That one fits the description, it must be the demon!”
The man gave a slimy grin at me as I looked on in shock and horror. All around me, people were turning towards me, each face another hateful glare. Men moved between me and their women, as if to protect them from some horrible beast.
“There! Stop that monster before it can bring us any more destruction or misfortune!” He made no move to follow the crowd as they ran after me.
All I hoped was that my light footsteps could carry me away from this mob fast enough to make it out of sight.