Tapping on the shoulders of the people beside me, I indicated the people above us and they discreetly peered up at them. Startling, they spread the word to everyone else that the people above us looked like they were going to jump down and join us. An undercurrent of fear ran through our group. While we knew that they had told us that they weren’t going to hurt us, they could always go back on their word. Giving up on being careful about not letting them see us, we stared openly at them. Sensing our gazes, they looked right back at us. They didn’t freeze up this time. In fact, they did the opposite. Throwing ropes down to the ground they slid down them and ran around in coordinated chaos until they were all in a big circle around us. Staying where we were we waited for them to say what they wanted. It was obvious that they had something in mind for us. Once several seconds had passed and none of them looked like they were going to speak up first, I sighed. “Hello. Is there something we can do for you?” I kept my tone polite and unassuming. I hoped that they weren’t here for what I was thinking they were here for, but I should have known that I wouldn’t be that lucky.
One of them stepped forward a little and spoke for his group. “You know exactly why we are here. Now that we know Crown Prince Darius’s presence we will need to separate him from all of you. Only for a little while and we will return him to you when we are done with him. We won’t hurt him or do anything bad to him. All we will do is make sure that he can’t use his presence against us.” Grabbing Darius’s arm I whispered to him that it was his choice. If he didn’t want to take the risk of them actually succeeding in limiting his presence then we could attempt our escape right now. He immediately shook his head.
“Our chances of succeeding right now are very low. Even if they are able to limit my presence, they wouldn’t take it completely away from me. Or at least not for forever. They don’t seem like those people.” There was a trace of terror in his eyes, but I knew that wouldn’t stop him. I believed that they weren’t going to take his presence away for forever as well and I knew that if we tried to escape now that we would fail, but the unknown was always scary. Kissing him softly on the lips, I reluctantly let him go. As they led him away he looked back once to meet my eyes and give me a reassuring smile. Then they had left the building and were out of sight. Biting my lip in anxiety, I paced from one side of the room to the other. Darius’s guards didn’t try to calm me down since they were too busy pacing as well. The tension in the air got to be so thick I felt like I could cut it with a knife. Our plan wouldn’t work if the strangers limited Darius’s presence so that he couldn’t use it against them. I wasn’t sure how they were planning on accomplishing this feat, but they had seemed confident that they could do it when they took him away.
This made me wonder why they didn’t do it to me as well. Did their method of limiting people’s presences change with what the person’s presence is? I wished that one of them had stayed behind so that I could question them, but they had all left the room. Speeding up my pacing, I kept my eyes on the ground and prayed for Darius’s safe return. Glancing up for a moment to make sure that I wasn’t going to run into anyone, I saw that three of Darius’s four guards’ mouths were moving. Managing a little smile when I realized they were praying just like I had been a moment ago, I knew that we were doing all that we could to help Darius. It wasn’t much, but it was all that we could do. This continued on for several minutes while we waited for him to return. The wait was almost unbearable by the time we heard footsteps coming towards our house. All of us darted over to the door and waited for Darius to walk back in. We weren’t sure what would happen if we left the house, however since Darius was coming back we didn’t want to risk getting in trouble. We grabbed him once he was in our reach and pulled him into the house. When I saw his eyes I sucked in a silent breath. His eyes were different. Their violet color seemed a little faded.
“I am fine. Please don’t worry. They didn’t fully take away my presence. I can still summon fire whenever I want, they just put a limit on it. I can only summon smaller flames. Nothing that would damage people too badly other than small burns.” Though he kept saying that he was fine, his eyes showed that he wasn’t completely fine. He might still have most of his presence, but he hated the limits that were put on it. Wrapping my arms around him in a hug I attempted to comfort him. When his arms went around me he almost crushed all the breath out of my body with the strength of his hug.
I whispered in his ear, “What did they do to you to limit your presence?”
He peered over my shoulder to see that the strangers hadn’t left yet, and whispered back, “I will tell you as soon as they leave.” Nodding to show my understanding, I let go of him and let his guards all greet him. From the looks in their eyes, all of them knew that he wasn’t completely happy and were waiting to hear what he was going to say after the strangers left. Sending impatient looks towards the strangers to try and rush them from the room, it seemed to take forever before all of them had left. The instant they were out of the house we closed the door with a soft thud and whipped around to face Darius. Expecting this response, he started talking the instant we faced him. “They took me to the old man that you had talked about Ari. He told me that all I had to do was eat some plants that they had prepared. The only effect they would have on me would be to limit my presence. They were some of the nastiest things I have ever put into my mouth and I really hope I don’t have to eat them again. From the way they were talking however, it seems that they wear off after 24 hours so I will have to eat them again tomorrow around this time.”
Relief showed on all of our faces. “Thank goodness they wear off. I had feared that they knew of a way to permanently take away presences.” Dustin seemed to voice what all of the guards had been thinking. “Is the reason that you look more depressed now than before you left because your presence is limited? Does it feel any different?”
Darius shrugged. “It feels the same right now. When I use it however, I can feel something stopping me from creating larger flames. It is like an invisible wall in my brain that I can’t push past.” Seeing the confused looks on our faces, he elaborated. “They had me try out my presence while with them to see if the plants had worked properly.” Comprehending, at least partially, how upsetting it might be to have your presence not work correctly, I grabbed his hand. After only a few moments, he pulled away. Getting the message, all of us moved away to give him some space. His mind was trying to process what had happened to him still and it would be better if he did that on his own. This was his problem and there was no way we could help him. Gathering close to the opposite wall we debated quietly what to do next. Our original plan would never work now. A huge part of it was Darius using his presence to its full potential and that wasn’t possible now unless we somehow kept him off the plants for more than a day. For some reason I didn’t think that the strangers would allow us to do that without putting up a fight. And there were way more of them than there were of us.
Time passed and we were no closer to an answer then we were when we first started. Deciding to give our brains a break for a little while, we all lay down on the ground and tried to find a comfortable enough place to sleep. The second that we laid down, the exhaustion that we had been keeping at bay welled up and overwhelmed us. As we slumped into a deep sleep, my brain finally allowed itself to turn off and rest. Several hours had passed when my eyes finally drifted open. Light from lit torches above me bathed the house in a reddish glow. Seeing shadowy forms in a slightly smokish haze near the roof of the house, I remembered the predicament that we were in. Silently groaning, I lifted myself up to my feet and began walking around. I knew that no matter what was happening around me that I needed to stay in shape so that when an opportunity to fight free occurred then I would be ready. Forcing myself into a run, I started doing back and forth sprints from one end of the house to the other. The pounding of my feet caused Darius’s guards to startle awake, but they settled right back down after seeing that it was just me. Two of them went back to sleep, one sat up and watched me, and the last one pushed himself to his feet and he fell into a rhythm beside me.
Sparing a glance to see which one it was, I gave a little wave to Dustin. He nodded back at me, but other than that we basically ignored each other. Falling into our own mental zones, we moved at our own paces and I fell behind Dustin. Not worrying about that, I challenged myself to go as fast and far as I could. Focusing only on moving my feet, I breathed as evenly as I could and kept going. All sounds faded away other than the sounds of my breaths and of my feet hitting the ground. I kept going like this for quite a while. It felt good to let go and just run. It seemed like forever passed before everyone else climbed out of their beds and I allowed myself to stop running. All the exhaustion that I had been holding at bay and not thinking about flooded into my body and I slumped into a sitting position. Putting my head in between my knees to try to stop the world from spinning, I took as deep of breaths as I could. Wrapping my arms around my knees I attempted to get my breathing back to normal.
Footsteps sounded around me as the others stretched and walked around to wake themselves up completely. Groans of pleasure sounded from someone and I glanced up to see who it was. Spotting Joshua with his arms above his head and his back slightly arched in a stretch, I grinned and climbed to my feet. “That stretch feel good?” He grunted in reply and I took it as a yes. Copying his movement, I groaned in pleasure as well and he turned his head to grin at me. Our levity lasted for only a moment before the gravity of our situation re-established itself by the sound of footsteps above us. It appeared that the strangers were switching who was watching us. Gazing around at everyone I hoped that I would find the spark of an idea in someone’s eyes, but everyone looked slightly hopeless. Like they had already given up on us getting away. I knew that we still had a chance however. The strangers weren’t going to keep us locked up in here forever. Or at least I was hoping that they wouldn’t. The creak of the door to the house opening caught my attention and I faced it with curiosity.
It wouldn’t be time for them to take Darius away for another dose of whatever plants they had given him yet. A stranger stood there and curled his finger at me. Recognizing that he was telling me to come with him, I walked towards him without hesitation. Sending a quick glance at Darius to see that he was watching me, a spot of concern in his eyes, I sent a small smile. Following directly behind the stranger I saw that we were heading towards where I had last met with the old man. Praying that this meant I would finally learn what the plans were towards me and everyone else who had lived in this village before it had been taken over, I walked a little faster until I was right in line with my guide. He looked at me out of the corner of his eye and seemed to understand why I was so eager to get to where we were going. “You can go ahead and enter the house without me. The guards will let you in since they are expecting you. That way you won’t have to wait for me anymore.” Sending him a grateful smile, I ran to the house and nodded thanks to the two guards at the door when they let me in. Stepping into the house I gave myself a second to let my eyes adjust to the dimmer light in here and then concentrated my focus on the bed in the center of the room.
Strolling to it, I looked down upon the old man. Thankfully his eyes opened when I stood over him so I didn’t have to wake him up. “You sent for me?” I kept my tone polite and hid my impatience. He saw through my act immediately however.
Letting out a wheezing laugh he replied, “Yes I did send for you. I bet you have been waiting for me to do just that since I last dismissed you.” Choosing to hold onto a shred of my dignity I didn’t answer him. “You are probably eager to know what my plans are for you and the rest of the people that I am holding prisoner.” Nodding I bit my lip a little in apprehension. “There is no need to worry. This is the very reason that I brought you here.” He paused and then shrugged. “Alright, it is part of the reason that I brought you here. The second reason is that I need to know what your presence is. I don’t want you to be able to use it against my people.” Eyeing him suspiciously, was what he going to say that he was going to do to us that bad, I shook my head slowly. “I know that you don’t want to tell me, but I can’t risk my people’s lives by leaving your presence unchecked.”
“My presence is not like Darius’s. I can’t directly hurt anyone with it.” I chose my words carefully so that I didn’t lie, but I also didn’t give too much away.
A smile creased his wrinkled face. “I don’t doubt that. However, that doesn’t mean that you still can’t use it to hurt my people.” He studied my face and saw that I had no intention of telling him anything else about my presence. “Please Ariana.”
“You can just call me Ari if you want to.” Seeing a small glimpse of hope flash across his face, I sadly shook my head. “I am still not going to tell you about my presence. Not when it could be the original people who lived here’s hope to escape from this place.” He sighed.
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“I was afraid of this possibility. Just remember that you forced my hand on this Ari. I didn’t want it to come to this. It shouldn’t hurt physically, but it may mess with your feelings and cause you distress that we could have prevented if you had just told me about your presence.” Staying firm to my silence, I waited for what would come next. There were only two things that I could think of that could possibly make me talk. Someone with a presence that could read my mind or something like that or a combination of herbs that I had never heard of before. The second one seemed more likely since they had already proven that they could do things with herbs that no one had thought possible before this. When a younger girl walked in carrying a bundle of herbs my fears were confirmed. I was a little surprised by the youth of the girl, but didn’t let that give me hope. She wouldn’t be in here unless she was the best person in the stranger’s group with herbs.
“Are you the one who figured out how to limit peoples’ presences with herbs?” My voice seemed to surprise the girl. Apparently she hadn’t thought I would talk to her.
Stammering a little in her answer she said, “Yes. That was me.”
“Can you explain to me what the herbs you are going to give me are going to do? That way I can at least prepare myself a little for them.” My tone was conversational and it threw her off more and more as I kept talking. Holding back a little laugh at her expression I watched as she looked to the old man to see if she was allowed to answer my question. He nodded with amusement in his eyes.
“I don’t see any harm in letting her know what is going to happen.”
She turned back to me and her tone got professional. It was clear that she knew what she was talking about. “The herbs that I am going to give you are going to help you want to tell your secrets. It is not selective in what it forces you to say however so you could end up telling us more than what we want to know. It would be better if you just told us what we want to know.”
I shook my head. “I think I will take my chances with the herbs.” Holding my hands out for them, I stared as the girl hurriedly placed the leaves on a table before separating a few into a mortar and crushed them up into a powder. After adding some water to it it became a paste and she held the mortar out to me.
“You don’t need to eat all of it. Just around a spoonful. In fact, wait one second.” I raised an eyebrow at the old man as the girl rushed out of the house abruptly. He chuckled and said that was just how she was.
“Sometimes she can get a great idea, but then won’t tell us until she tests it or until she finds proof or something.” About to reply to him, I was cut off by the sudden reappearance of the girl. She handed me the spoon she had rushed out to get and I understood how her leaving had to do with what she had been talking about at the time. Placing the spoon into the paste I scooped some onto it and met her eyes to make sure that I had enough. I had a feeling that it was going to taste nasty and I didn’t want to have to eat more later when she told me I hadn’t eaten enough. Getting a nod of confirmation I didn’t hesitate any longer. Putting the spoon into my mouth I swallowed it down as fast as I could. I had been right. It was extremely nasty. Gagging from the taste I barely held it down. The young girl winced a little.
“I probably should have warned you about the taste. I am glad that you didn’t throw it up.” I let out a shaky laugh.
“It was a close thing, but I still have a terrible taste in my mouth. The after taste is almost as bad as the first taste.” As the girl ran out of the room again I turned to the old man.
“How long will it take for the herbs to take effect? I don’t feel any different right now other than the taste in my mouth.” The old man shrugged.
“I have no idea. You will have to ask Holly when she comes back.”
“Her name is Holly? That is a very pretty name and it fits her very well.” The old man wheezed out a laugh. He was interrupted by Holly this time before he could reply though.
“Thank you. I have always thought of my name as a sign that I am studying and doing what I was destined to do.” Startling a little at her abrupt entrance I smiled at her. She smiled back. “Here you go. I got something from the kitchen for you to help get the taste out of your mouth.”
I was touched by her thoughtfulness. “Thank you so much. That was very kind of you to do.” She shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. Grabbing the bowl with porridge from her I ate it eagerly and was pleased when it banished the horrible taste out of my mouth. Soon after handing the bowl back to Holly my head got fuzzy. I staggered a little from the odd sensation and Holly quickly grabbed me. Peering intensely into my eyes she seemed resigned from what she saw. “What is happening? Why does my head feel so weird?”
Gently pulling me to a chair she sat me down. “It is the herbs. They are beginning to take effect. You may feel nauseous or dizzy, but that is only temporary.”
My words slurred a little as I replied. “That is good. It would be unfortunate if this was permanent. How would I fight like this?”
“Good thing you don’t have to fight right now. Otherwise you would be in a bit of trouble. Now we have to focus on your secret though. We need to know what your presence is.” The old man sounded sad that he was forcing me to reveal something I didn’t want to, but his voice was steady with determination.
My brow furrowed in concentration. “I am fighting right now though. Maybe not with a sword, but with my words and mind. I know that I shouldn’t say what my presence is so my mind is attempting to fight the plants you gave me and it is really hard. I wish that I was fighting someone with a sword instead. Maybe that would be easier.” I fell silent as I contemplated this. Would it actually be easier? Holly stared at me shocked. “What Holly? Is something wrong?” Genuine concern was in my voice. In the short time that I knew Holly I had come to like her. In some ways she reminded me of myself. A girl in a men’s world making her own mark.
Her head shook in complete disbelief. “How are you resisting the herbs? I have used them on people who are stronger than you are and they told us everything we wanted to know without any difficulty. I don’t understand. What makes you different?”
“Were they all boys?” There had been no hesitation before I answered. It was a pretty obvious answer. At least to me it was.
“They were all boys. I guess that could have something to do with it. Since female and male bodies are different, maybe the herbs aren’t effective on girls. This is something that I will have to test out.” She got so lost in her head that she started muttering and pacing. It was clear she had forgotten all about the old man and me. I turned to the old man.
“Do you think that is why I can fight the plants? Because I am a girl?” Curiosity was in my voice. Even though I didn’t understand plants really at all, it was interesting to me that they might affect different genders differently. The old man just shrugged.
“I have no idea why you are able to fight the plants and the others weren’t. However, in my own opinion, I don’t think it has anything to do with your gender. I think it has to do with your mental resilience.”
I frowned. “What do you mean? Were the others not strong mentally?”
His head moved side to side on his pillow slowly. “Not really. They were all strong physically sure, but they didn’t seem to be the smartest of people. In fact, some of them made some mistakes that made me wonder if they were thinking at all.” I laughed and he smiled. “It may sound mean, but it is the truth. I will have to tell you about their mistakes some other time when you are not on a bunch of herbs. Plus I am not sure if you will remember this conversation when the herbs leave your system.”
“Did all the others forget?” I didn’t like the thought of forgetting. It might make me vulnerable somehow. Maybe they would say something important in this conversation. If I then forgot about it, then it could hinder our escape.
“Six out of the eight that we gave these herbs to forgot everything that happened while the herbs were in their systems. The two who didn’t forget felt like their experience was a dream and later forgot all about it.” Promising to myself that I wouldn’t forget, I worried that wasn’t a promise that I would be able to keep. Afterall, it wasn’t like I had much control over my mind. Sometimes I felt like I did, but the truth was that our minds controlled us. Not the other way around. Trying to burn this memory into my mind, I knew that was all I could do. The old man started talking again and I refocused on him. “I still need to know what your presence is, Ari. It would really help me out. Don’t you want to help out a friend?” He knew he was unfair. In my current situation I was way more likely to not understand exactly what giving away what my presence would mean. I was more forgetful in this state. I also couldn’t think as well with my mind in the state that it was in.
My eyes grew wide when I heard what he said. “Of course I want to help out a friend. I feel like something bad will happen if I tell you what my presence is though. Something that I really don’t want to happen. Right now I can’t think of what exactly would happen however.” The old man pouted which was a strange sight. It made his face look a little younger which made his face look odd attached to his old body. I sighed. “Alright old man. I will tell you what my presence is. First I want you to do something for me though. It is a simple thing don’t worry.”
“What do you want me to do?” His voice sounded so eager that it solidified my decision to tell him what my presence was. How could telling him be bad if it made him so happy?
“All I want you to do is tell me what to call you. Up to now I have just been calling you old man.”
He seemed relieved that I had asked for such a simple thing. “You can continue to call me old man. It is what I am after all. My name isn’t really important.”
“All names are important. If you are alright with me calling you old man though, then that is what I will continue to do.” The old man looked at me expectantly and I cocked my head to the side with a puzzled expression. “What?”
“Don’t you remember? You told me that if I told you what to call me then you would tell me what your presence is.”
“Right. I don’t know how I could have forgotten that so quickly. My presence is that I can go through any object. I basically become a ghost. Do you want to see it?” I was so excited to show him my presence that I didn’t wait for him to answer. Getting up from my chair unsteadily I ran over to a table and began using my presence right before I hit it. Once I was through the table I triumphantly faced the old man and Holly again. “What do you think?”
Both of their mouths were wide open. “It is a very interesting and unique presence. I can honestly say that I have never seen someone else with that presence before. And I have been around for a long time and seen a lot of presences.” He sounded impressed, but also a little worried. Taking Holly’s hand he began speaking quietly to her. I wondered what they were talking about. Not wanting to be nosy though, I didn’t ask. Holly left the room immediately after being done talking with the old man.
“Where is she going? Off on another secret errand?” The old man shook his head, but didn’t elaborate. Not sure what to do now, I went back to my chair and collapsed into it. “Old man, my head seems to be becoming more and more unclear. Is that supposed to be happening?”
Instead of answering my question, he asked me his own question. “Ari, can you call for my guards to come in here? I have a feeling that you will need help getting back to your house.” I quickly jumped to my feet. That was a mistake. My legs collapsed and I fell to the floor with a thud. Turns out that was all the guards needed to hear. They rushed into the room with their weapons drawn. Spotting me on the floor they rushed to put their weapons away and help me to my feet. “Ari is on the secret revealing herbs. We found out her presence and now the herbs are starting to wear off. She won’t be able to even stand on her own in a few moments.” As if on cue, my legs gave out on me again the instant he stopped talking. Luckily a guard managed to grab me before I hit the floor again. Hauling me back to my feet, he and another guard dragged me over to my chair and gently placed me in it.
“Maybe you should stay sitting until you feel better.” I nodded in agreement with the guard.
“Maybe I should.” Sinking lower into the chair I felt my eyes slowly closing. I suddenly felt so tired and all I wanted to do was fall asleep. Before I could, Holly burst back into the room.
She ran over to me and sank down to her knees so she was on my level. “You can’t go to sleep yet, Ari. I need you to eat something first.” Holly ordered the guards on either side of me to help me lift my head up and open my mouth. I went along with it easily and forced my eyes open so that I could see what she wanted me to eat. It looked a lot like the herb paste she had given me earlier and my nose crinkled in disgust. Nonetheless, I willingly took the spoon out of Holly’s hand and placed a spoonful of it in my mouth. Swallowing as quickly as possible, I was grateful when it turned out to not taste as bad as the secret revealing herbs had been. It was still pretty bad though. “Good job Ari. Now you can sleep. These two nice guards will carry you back to your house.” Sending a grateful smile at her I drifted off to sleep and felt my body being lifted off the chair. Raised voices woke me up a couple of minutes later when the guards carried me into the guest house. Blearily opening my eyes to see who was yelling, I was startled when I was lifted out of the guard’s arms and into a new set of arms. Seeing the face of the person carrying me I relaxed. Feeling safe, I easily went back to sleep.