»Stupid decisions
are often followed
by stupid choices«

AUGUST
MAGNIKAI
OUTLAWED WOODS, BORDER OF
THE THIRD KINGDOM

HE COULDN'T believe he was doing this, taking off, once again, without any kind of backup or even informing a single soul, just as he had done earlier this evening, only that before he went into the city, had a drink or two before returning on his terms but now he strolled into the foremost place that wasn't just dangerous during the day but said to be the outlawed area of the nation at night. The dark forest. The whole name already said it. It was no place to sneak around in.

The day this alternate universe became their new home, the forest appeared, just like that and with it, so did the residues of the ruins of the ancient demon palace. It was a blemish to most folks, a massive theme within the Royal council, and a real panic to every citizen of all nations.

Demons were presumed to become a thing of the past and as it seemed, it did...since there was barely a trace of gloom or wicked nature sensed within these timbers, though still plenty of darkness for people to be able to deteriorate their own minds. The forest had particularly become the beloved place of the outlaws, those who lived with no regulations, those who stole and victimized, some assumably even got away with slaughter and worse. They dwelled in these woods somewhere and that was the very explanation as to why infiltrating them was awfully dangerous, let alone foolish.

Marcus couldn't hear anything though, feel nothing except for the ice-cold gust brushing against his skin which was bizarre for the one reason that it was mid-summer and the climates were boiling, even at night and they were just before he reached these woods. He swallowed greedily as he sauntered, until out of a very sudden, he heard a twig snap.

He froze, sensing something sinister crawling up his back and neck. His hand deliberately strode into his pocket, clenching onto one of his silver knives. He took a breath, then he swiveled, and quick as a flash, with no hesitancy, he threw the projectile with mastery, it glid from his fingers with excellent aviation towards the prey that was hiding somewhere in the wildernesses behind him. He heard a silent gasp, dipping his head to the side, he carefully and unhurriedly approached, however kept his hand on the blade that was resting in the holster of his belt.

His head went down, making sure he would not trip over any branches or roots.

He heard the rustling of the layered and dried leaves behind him again and promptly turned his head around but the moment he did, he only saw a bird gliding away. The simple reality he could be frightened by a bird should likely be reason enough to turn back. A prince afraid of a raven gliding through murky woods.

That would be a story to tell, particularly if leaving aside the aspect of the environment of a gloomy and unnerving outlawed forest that should not even be of presence.

Deep sigh left his mouth and he shook his head in disbelief, turning his body away from the previous spot, he went to walk on towards where he was heading but once he did. A wave of adrenaline rushed through him, though it was more like a punch or hit of lightning than it was a wave. There she stood. A figure, clothed in dark cloth. A blade in hand. A sudden gasp left his mouth when he packed away. The good of the figure fell by a breeze of wind, revealing a set of long shiny hair, familiar eyes, familiar features.

It was Sara.

"Jesus Christ, Sara. What the hell are you doing here?" He asked out loud, resting a hand over his chest, calming his racing heart, and calming down his rapid breathing.

Sara herself was stunned for just a second.

"I could ask you the same." She spoke, striding over the large root of an old oak tree, following after Marcus who had fended off and away again to wander back to the sandy path that directed one through the shady forest. Everything around them seemed so opaque.

It wasn't the usual type of darkness of a room with no lights. It was different. Somehow more pressuring. The same way the sleep of a nightmare was, like a force, a heavy and brutal force trying to hammer down on you to pull one deeper into oblivion. He shook his head softly again.

"No. I mean it. Were you following me?" He asked her.

"No. Your Royal High-" She stopped.

"Marcus. No. I wasn't following you. I was just going for a walk..." She recited softly.

Marcus raised an eyebrow in question as he sauntered. He could sense a lie when there was one. Something he was always capable of doing and additionally, Sara was the poorest liar. Lucas and he used to always make fun of it, in the past, when he was still a child, capable of gagging around and having pleasure in life, with no fear on his psyche. Sara promptly caught up with his stride.

"In the middle of the night?" He asked.
Sara snickered nervously....

"I- yes. I was I admiring the full moon..." She muttered and Marcus chuckled.

This woman came up with a decent answer for anything though, despite it being a blatant lie, it still made him laugh. It wasn't difficult to work out that she had been pursuing him.

"Did Lucas send you?" He asked and Sara quieted down, taking a deep breath.

She nodded and Marcus' expression showed that he wasn't astounded at all and what surprised him even less was that Lucas had rather sent somebody else, rather than going after him himself but in all truth, right now that was what Marcus yearned.

He was in no mood for any of Lucas' lectures or the hostile phrasing of his hypocritical beliefs. His fatherly attitude. It was irritating. It felt disgraceful. Each time. His voice sounded so disregarding, so disgruntled, like a father who hated his son.

For one, Lucas wasn't his father and for second, Lucas wasn't anyone who should be frantic at all. He had a promising life, a lover, a child. But he seemed to concentrate on everything that went awry, not in his life but the one of Marcus.

"Marcus. We should go back." Sara said after moments of stillness but Marcus just kept walking deeper into the woods until Sara pulled his arm to hold him back.

"Please. We shouldn't be here. You...shouldn't be here. It's too risky..." She said and for a moment Marcus very much did consider her words, that was until he felt the chain around his neck heating up and upon looking down to the pendant, it was gleaming again. Just as it had before.

"Whoa...what the-"

Sara didn't even manage to assert what she felt about it in full phrases. But anyone could tell that she hadn't ever seen anything like this ever before.

It freaked her out and Sara was never someone who freaked out easily at all. The last time Marcus had seen her freak out was when the mansion was attacked by arrows on fire and angry troopers just a few weeks ago because of some very stupid misunderstanding between the kingdoms but anyone would have freaked out about the fact of flying knives and swords and of course the very obvious element of the house being on fire. It wasn't very fun and Marcus had to spend most of the time trying to understand Lucas' commands, since they were more cryptic than crypto itself.

He took off the chain and moved in one direction. Nothing happened. He whirled in the opposing direction and nothing happened, though as he headed to his right, the soft pull just as earlier in the night, told him which way to go.

He dismissed Sara's questions wholly, even the part where she asked if they hadn't formally agreed to walk away and leading the way further into the woods wasn't very much what she meant. It certainly wasn't and she didn't like the idea of the dark woods at night, combined with the glow of a necklace that wasn't even supposed to glow.

It surely wasn't only the glow that was mysterious, after all in a world of magic, glowing objects weren't unique but luminous objects that weren't supposed to glow should be a suspicion.

At some point, he curtailed and swiveled to the right again, which revealed a series of bushes and he bent his head to the side, stepping closer until his arm was grabbed and he was yanked back again.

"Marcus! Wait. No this way!" Sara clamored, pulling him back further, relatively harshly but before she could give him a description for the harsh pull, the bushes in front of them ostensibly were lost to sight into nothingness, almost as if they hadn't been there before.

Marcus raised an eyebrow in question but then what was revealed made his eyes widen.

There it was.

Something he hadn't seen in months, in years, in weeks. The old demon palace, in ravages and crumbles. He pulled his arm from Sara's grasp and strode closer, resting a hand on the circular dome that surrounded the ruins. A guarding spell to keep inside what shall not escape and when he touched it, waves of magic, surged through the dome, causing it to glow brighter but when he hoisted the chain closer to the dome, the electricity like surges started crackling and flickering light began to twinkle, once again, Sara clasped his arm to pull him back more.

"Marcus. Don't." She uttered warningly but he shoved her arm away from another time before focusing on the necklace, he put it around his neck and walked through the dome, easily, with no drawback, it was essentially as if it had opened a door only for him but when Sara tried to enter, she was stopped, more or less shoved back by a dozy wave of jinx.

"Marcus!" She mumbled louder, her tone still quiet but the panic in her tone was very evident.

Marcus felt no fear. The glowing of the necklace only intensified and then WHAM. It happened.

A blinding light.

So bright, so brutal, it hit the ground from above, the cracking of electricity was sounding through the silence of the woods.

He ducked, he moved away, his arms covering his face. Sara's panic increased and her voice loud and shrill screened the prince's name. But then another wave, a tidal wave, like the force of an explosion it emerged from the dome that locked her away from what she ought to protect.

The wave hit her, mid chest, catapulting back her body, shock was rushing through her body when she hit the side of a large tree, some birk broke off, so violently was the shock wave. Her vision blurred, her eye lids heavy, her body pressed down to the ground and limbs felt weak and numb. Her back was aching and her head filled with a throbbing pain.

Darkness began to consume the poor woman. Her eyes looming towards the dome but she could see nothing. She could only hear, soft echoes, quite echoes, ever repeating sounds of explosion and bang. Her eyes fell shut. The light was gone.

But then.

Silence.

To Marcus, it was a very different feeling. It was just loud. Not louder than the bang of thunder or the sound of exploding dynamite but it was definitely louder than the usual volume of music someone listen to, through big headphones. The sound was so clashing and loud that it began to bother him more than the blinding white light that made him see nothing else but pure whiteness, at some point, it was sickening him so much, that nausea started to wash over him, followed by tiredness, combined with the still pressuring pull of darkness.

It ultimately sent him to his knees, he held the side of his head with one hand before both of his arms fell to the moist soil underneath. He whispered something. A few words, quiet utters of phrases he learned from young age. His eyes squinted. Then they shot open. The glow in his eyes was almost equally bright than the glow of the whiteness but it was blue. Bright blue.

He the absence of light, drawing away what whiteness was blinding him, slowly it was fading, more and more, a mist glowing of glittery dust was surrounding him for a short moment and he rose from the ground, his arms pushing away from his body and the fog shot away from his body in a circle, another violently wave and when his eyes lost the bluish glow. There was no light. The darkness returned. Coldness laid on his skin again and soft drops of rain that began falling from the sky was slowly dripping down on his body. His head turned, just to spot Sara.

"Sara!" He exclaimed because in the end, Marcus was no careless fool.

He was gracious and guarding when it came to the people he cherished, those he wanted to protect and keep close. He took a breath and walked hastily towards the body that laid on the soil when out of a sudden, a glint of blazing luminous purplish glimmer shot from the pendant around his neck. Once again, it was dazzling for mere instants but it was far away from as nasty as the prior whiteness had been.

He gazed towards where the glint led him, with stupefaction and dread he glanced as from the light grew a figurine. One of polished silver, sparkling in the radiant light of the full moon above their heads. He shifted away from the rim of the dome and closer to where he saw the figurine. The leaves were crunching underneath his heavy boots but his eyes were intriguingly directed to the event before him. The light vanished and the figurine stood restful.

He reached out his hand but before he could, cracks formed on the body of the shimmery membrane. He backed up a notch, taking ahold of his blade again, yet not drawing it.

Tear after crack, the membrane fell apart, the way a breaking mirror would. The pieces scattered to the ground and uncovered was a woman.

Young, but not his age. Maybe Sara's or his mothers.

Her hair was pitch black, like a Raven and her eyes shone in a faint purple before the glow disappeared from them. Her skin came off as smooth from only the view of it. It was pale and fair. Tarnished by nothing. Her glamour was unfathomable and her smile small, yet existing. Her arms laid by her sides and the dark robe she wore, seemed to be made of black sparkle, or so it seemed.

Royal and fine linens.

Silk.

His eyes widened, upon recognizing what he saw, the resemblance, the hue, the tenderness that reached him within all this dispassion and gloom he felt.

"Mia?" His voice was modest, soft, civil but also wracked with uncertainty and confusion.

The head of the woman lifted further. Her body seemed virtually imperceptible, not in a way that she wasn't there but in the way her body was see-through, it was evaporating. It was like looking through a projection or a hologram.

"No, dear." The soothing voice of the woman before him spoke.

"Miandra was my darling daughter. My name is Clementine. I was her mother." She spoke to him and for a moment Marcus felt as if his heart was going to jump from his chest, quite literally. This seemed surreal. This was absurd and even if it was logical, why? and how?

He understood zero. He knew nothing of what was happening, except that he had to believe it because he saw it and it was right in front of him and his eyes did not lie.

"How is that possible?" He asked.

The woman reached out her hand towards the necklace around his neck.

"It carried the little light that persisted within her heart...over the years...."Clementine answered him and Marcus took another step away, shaking his head quickly.

His heart was hurting, his mind was washed over with all the sorrow, all the despair.

"Do not fear, my dear boy. I know of what Miandra did and I know...the love she felt for you. You both made a sacrifice, one no else would have been willing to do but believe my words, dear, if I say I know...the drought heart in your chest, the heaviness of your soul, I felt it too before. I reckon, you had no clue of what you would find tonight...but you can tell me, what is it that you seek, little prince?"

Marcus was silent, speechless almost. He managed to say nothing at all, except to express his emotions through his facial expression.

"Mia..." he whispered the name of the girl he loved once again.

"Is she here?" He asked, somehow hope sounding in his voice and building within his mind.

"I'm afraid, her soul was carried away too far to reach...I am sorry, Marcus but my daughter has perished from this earth...but...remember that, truly in your heart she still lives. The promises you make with the dying breath of the people you love, they are true and they carry more magic than what you know...." She said.

Marcus wished to say something, say anything, speak, breathe, just ask so many more things of which he did not understand but then the rustling of leaves tore him away from the matter before him. His head turned and then SISH a small blade zipped past his head from the dusk and out of nowhere. His eyes went back towards Clementine but she was gone in a haze of purple dust. His eyes widened in alarm and he turned around, he drew his sword and rushed towards the edge of the dome, lunging outside, to finally reach Sara's body but once he was outside, he ducked, to avoid a slash from another blade.

His eyes went to examine the other man, whom he only now recognized.

"Lucas?!!?" He exclaimed, tremor and surprise in his tone.

"What the hell were you thinking?" The guarded man spoke and dropped his sword.

"What the hell were you doing?" Marcus snapped back at him aggressively as he watched Lucas lean down to examine Sara's body, carefully, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. He sighed in relaxation, knowing she was fine. Despite his evident devotion to spreading quite a lot of anger and opposition, he certainly cared about his family. It was just harder for him to show that, than it was for Sara.

Marcus pinched the bridge of his nose and turned back towards the dome.

"I was fine. Everything was fine!" He then said, his tone filled with frustration and Lucas raised from the ground, promptly trudging towards him before he shoved his chest harshly. "You were NOT fine. NOTHING was fine. You left Sara lying on the ground like that, while going after a mystic power that you have NO clue about! Do you have any idea what could have happened?" He asked.

"This! ALL of this is darkness. It's not the absence of light! It's NOT your power! It's darkness of demonic nature! You could have gotten both of you killed and you could have jeopardized the safety of all our nations. Damn it, Marcus! I'm trying to protect you!" He exclaimed loudly, poking his chest aggressively with each point he stated but anger was also boiling with Marcus and he slapped away Lucas' hand.

"You know nothing, Lucas. Not of what I was doing or the things I've been through. You say you need to keep me safe but you're wrong! Because when I was standing on the battlefield with destruction all around us, you fell, you died. I saw you. I saw your blood. I saw the blade. I saw fire and I saw fear! You saved no one, Lucas. You fell, you were weak. And you were nothing!" He said, his voice very clearly communicating his frustration but also a lot of trauma, coming with the remembrances of what happened during the last hours of the war.

"You are no protector. You are not my family or my savior and you'll never be. No matter what father says, no matter what Sara wants. You're nothing to me." Marcus spoke, not even recognizing or caring of the weight his words carried when he pushed past the now speechless man and rushed away from him, back onto the sand paths, he pulled the hood of his coat over his head as he ran away.

Disappearing soon in the twilight of the outlawed forest.

This night was odd.