Reaching deep within and drawing all I am into my Gift, and for once in my life, I forget my fear. Forget my doubts. Or, more accurately, shove them where the sun don't shine and put them where they belong--in the past.

I am done being the victim and everyone around me being hurt because I’m not strong enough. I am done.

I am done believing I'm not enough. I'm done thinking that my mistakes can break this world. I am done thinking that my best is not good enough... for it is.

I am enough. I am who The King put here, in this place, to serve his people. To help his people. To protect his people.

You were always enough, daughter of my heart. Have I not provided for your needs? Have I not prepared you for this now? It's time for you to be free of the doubt and step into the light of peace.

How can I trust you? I whisper. I had wanted it to be me. For the power to be mine which could either topple this world or save it. Because then, I would be in control. It would be by my might that I saved the world.

The King is terrifying. There are times he chooses what I would not for reasons beyond what I can ever comprehend. And that hurts. It breaks something in my heart each time evil conquers, each time someone good leaves, each time terrible things come. But that is where trust comes to play with each and every small thing along the way.

The way he lead me to Jenny and Hans right before my family was taken, providing a home in the midst of my troubles. I would have lived on the streets if not for them. For the gentle guidance of his hand during the times when I almost lost all hope of ever finding then again.

And how he brought me Silver. Gave me a shoulder to lean on, a man capable of bearing my load with me, and supporting me in both word and battle.

I have never left you, dear one.

Even when I tried to do it all alone?

A slight chuckle, a gentle breeze in this place where there is no breeze. Especially then, child.

Alright, let's do this.

And with those words, I release the fate of the world from my shoulders, placing them back where they belong, on shoulders broad and strong enough to bear such a weight.

And with that simple choice, peace envelopes me. A peace I had not felt in a very long time. A peace which warms my inner soul and brightens all I am. Hope comes for the first time, for I know. I know that no matter what comes, he will never leave. And if I am not enough, then he is.

And that knowledge stops the decay within my soul garden in it's tracks.

A smile crosses my face as I step into my soul pool, breathing it in, feeling the threads all around me, accepting the pain and the sorrow and the joy and everything in between, and I feel a hand set on my shoulder, but when I look down, there is nothing there. But I smile as I forgive myself and my Gift for all I had to do, even as I feel the sorrow of what I did.

Forgiveness does not mean you forget. It means you release the anger and the guilt and allow Empathy to be greater than any pain and love to eclipse any sorrow so you aren’t caught in a terrible cycle of shame.

And that is what makes life worth living. For those who love and love you in return. For those you would fight tooth and nail for, and for those who fight for you. Family with or without blood and a King and Queen who stand above all and guide us.

Life is worth it, even through the sorrow and the trials and the guilt and pain.

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I set myself free to be. To feel. To stop holding back the tides of what I fear and instead give myself the freedom to make mistakes. To not be perfect.

I will strive for excellence and not to hurt anyone I love, but if I do… if I do it will be an accident and I will do what I can to make it up. But I am not perfect, never will be, and I need to have the freedom to try without the indescribable fear of failure.

I set myself and my Gift free of my fear.

It floods through me, and the vibrations I feel as it skips past the cold heat trying to worm its way between me and my Gift are paltry sensations I cut off at the source.

It feels almost as if a limb I had been missing and didn’t realize I was missing had regrown and suddenly… I was alive again. Whole.

And when my eyes open in the physical realm, a cloak rests about my shoulders, one that leaves my head bare and covers my lips and nose. And I feel something on my eyes, something odd and tingly, but which I can’t quite describe.

The witch is staring at me as if I were a being of Sixth come to life. Her eyes are wide and she reaches out a trembling hand. “A bond. A true bond, between a Mindonyx and a Visulus,” she whispers, lips moving strangely as if they were numb. “I will have all the power the worlds deem fit to give. The Master has seen fit to bless me beyond what I deserve.” Her lips tremble, her words strangely echo-y.

She bends down on a knee, putting a hand on my forehead, closing her eyes. “It will soon be over, love. Fear not, this world will have peace beyond your wildest dreams and all will be equal, from king to pauper. Thank you for your sacrifice.”

“Unhand me,” I whisper. She doesn’t move, and I don’t take my eyes from her even as my Gift flares and I scream into her mind, taking her will and forcing her to my own. “Unhand me!”

Ran convulses behind her, my entire world needing one thing and one thing only. To reach my bond and save her life. To give her mine if that’s the cost.

A form bursts from behind the witch and shoves her. The witch tumbles away from me and into one of the creatures chanting around us.

I barely take note as the form slices through the ropes on my hands and feet, my Gift letting me realize the depth of the person's awe. She won’t harm me.

“It is too late,” the witch whispers from where she’s crumpled beneath an unmoving black scaled creature.

It is never too late for hope, the voice of my grandma and my King whispers together, warmth flooding through me.

I reach out through my Gift, even as I hop-skip-crawl to my bond as blood tries to make it's way into my numb feet and hands. I follow the golden thread as it is overcome with a sickly green-ish yellow. I reach past the flailing thread near to unraveling and past the brokenness and pain that becomes my own. I touch her with my hand just as I reach the end of the thread.

Ran’s convulsions stop, foam flecked with red coming from her jaws.

But I sense her, she’s there. But her form in my mind is fading as she tries to run to me, to remain with me, but the thread tethering her here is unraveling.

I collapse on her fur, stitching her thread back together and taking the sickly puke green into myself. It takes longer than I’d wish to steal the green and push it into a ball in my hands. Then… oh heck. Now what? I have this roiling ball of death that pulses with a darkness I can’t quite fathom in my soul.

This is worse than being caught in dragon infested waters, and I hate that.

But at least Ran is no longer fading, her form coming closer to her typical self within me. She leans her forehead against my back, whimpering.

Give it to me, the voice that sounds like Grandma says.

I glance up to find a hunched form before me, her eyes golden beneath a cloak.

How do I know I can trust you?

A flash of white teeth beneath the hood. Do you have a choice?

Nope.

But it also scares me that it will hurt her. What must she give in order to take such a thing?

You are too kind for your own good, child. But fear not. Taking burdens you cannot bear is what I am here for.

I watch her for another moment as the orb roils in my hands, nearly casting itself free of the net I’ve placed around it.

She holds out a hand, gesturing impatiently.

I hand it over. She and it disappears, and I breathe a sigh of relief, my shoulders drooping as my Gift swirls around me, somehow not invading and bombarding me with emotion but just… there, as if I could reach out and touch it should I have need of it. She trails warmth through my soul, feeling more alive and happy than I’d ever known.

I grasp what is the part of me that lives, the joy and love and hope I contain deep within, and send it to my bond, helping heal her unraveling thread.

I turn, and she bowls me over with her shoulder, licking my face. And even in my mental world, giant wolf slobber still feels slimy as slugs.

I laugh, uncaring of anything other than my bond here, safe and sound, as I wrap my arms around her neck and sob into her mane. She whimpers, folding herself around me like a fox would her kits.

She shakes beneath me, her body quavering with each whimper.

You’re safe, beauty. You’re safe.