Chapter Eleven

Looking out at the Temple before me, it strikes me as unfamiliar. Yes, it is the same one I found myself waking up in as I was in a new world, but it seems so different now. Covered in snow, the Temple stands three stories tall, columns surrounding the large opening where stairs lead up to the entrance. It seems dark now, as if some sort of dark power has consumed it. Glancing to the King who looks to Duke Gravon, he seems on edge, nervous almost as he gives instructs and tells some of his men to guard the others that enter the Temple. For me, I know I will be entering that Temple once more, but rather than nervous like many of these men, I feel relieved. I should be scared through, worried that the King may be on to me or that the Temple may suddenly not hold the answers that I seek in the form of my father's journal. As I take in a deep breath and dismount my horse as I see the King and some of his trackers do so, it is then that I begin to feel a bit nervous, every step I take my legs feeling unreliable. "Lady Candice, do not be afraid to lead the way," King Kyril informs, meeting my gaze as he motions for me to head for the Temple. It is not, not just to how he words it, but because of the look he gives me, the glance he spares me. He is supposed to lead his men in, not me, I am not their leader on this quest nor their King, but I simple female from a pack that cannot shift.

"Right away, my King," I reply, trying not to sound worried or on edge as I take my first steps forward, my cloak heavy as it rests on my shoulders, dragging behind as I pull it close, not for warmth, but for comfort as my nerves begin to act up. Letting out a deep breath, I take my steps forward, heading for the Temple as the King and his men follow in pursuit, looking to the Temple not with awe, but in fear. I heard just earlier of the rumors and events that this Temple is surrounded by, how many find it a fearful place depending on your species or perhaps even beliefs. As we approach the Temple, my palms become sweaty as I take my first steps upon the stairs, looking up to the entrance before me as the King walks close behind me, as if breathing down my neck. My legs carry me up the set of stairs heading into the Temple, King Kyril taking from the leather sash around his torso a small stone, throwing it into the air as he hums a tune.

The stone levitates in the air, lighting up the whole entrance of the Temple, displaying the exact location where I woke up what feels like hours ago. A simple Temple, but unlike last time when this place struck me as some minimal stone structure, this time it holds so much more than I had perceived. The same marble slab where I woke up is in the center of the room, the white marble polished as the sides hold a certain carving on it. But unlike last time, this time there are pink roses laid across the top, some of the petals having fallen to the floor, but the stems of the roses are all gathered in a lace ribbon, tied into a bow. This is not some random set of roses, but they were placed here for a reason, and as my skin growls pale and my eyes widen, I realize something none of these men must ever realize.

"What kind of flowers are those?" Duke Gravon asks, walking ahead of me and to the roses as he touches one of the flowers, examining it. "I have never seen these before."

"Roses," a random voice answers, causing every head to turn back to see a young man standing in the entrance. Carrying the flag of Kyril's kingdom, he bows his head to all of us, eyes briefly meeting mine as he offers us his insight. "These are roses, they grow in the Southern Mountains where I grew up."

"The Southern Mountains?" Duke Gravon asks, as if in disbelief. "Where the sun never shines and the dragons roam? What an off location, not to mention a five days journey on horse. A long journey for this person to lay these flowers here."

The young man hands the flag to a tracker, taking off the hood covering his face with a shadow, his bright blue eyes revealed as he looks to the flowers. "These flowers are new to my village, not like they started growing yesterday, but Heka brought them with him. These are the flowers he planted everywhere over the mountain range."

My father has been here. It is no surprise to me, that this is him, because these are the exact flowers he would give my mother for any event, whether it be her birthday, a holiday, or their anniversary. Besides, the ribbon as well, the way it is tied, it is a knot my mother showed me that my father discovered for his magic tricks, how you overlay the strands and pull them at different angles. My father either visits here and places these flowers down sometime...or he knows that I am here. He would know I am here because of the lightning strikes that called the King and his men here. My father would not expect anyone else to show up here besides someone in his family due to the fact he probably made the first portal or something, the same spawning point meaning to him that whoever entered Iduna came through the same mirror he did. That mirror is kept in the old house he once purchased for his family, only his wife and child having access to it.

"So Heka is closer than we thought," Kyril comments, looking around the entrance, and as he turns to the wall before the marble slab, his eyes catch his reflection in the mirror hanging from the wall. A mirror, one you would expect in Snow White, the shape it takes and the silver frame around it carved with precision. The King looks at his reflection, walking over to it as I find my throat running dry. That is the mirror that I came from and the mirror that I could possibly return home in. My eyes focus on the floor, looking around the floor for the journal, only, this is not the best timing. If my father got here before us, then he would have seen the journal, taking it with him. The journal is lost more than anything, in the hands of my father once more as I was a few days too late. Now what do I do? I expected to find that journal and it aid me in making these men trust me as well as for me to have an idea of where to search for my father. I check the floor for perhaps a journal that he left behind, as well as any sign to see where he has gone. "Lady Candice." My head perks up, looking to the King as he calls for me. He seems puzzled as he looks at his reflection in the mirror, head tilted as he lifts his hand up, meeting the solid mirror as his fingers press against the glass. A piece of me fears that his fingers will sink into the mirror and he will portal back to my house, but his fingers are not swallowed by the mirror. "Why would a Temple so sacred have a mirror? Why have an object that belongs in a bathroom hang in the main room of a Temple?"

I have no idea other than the mirror being the portal that brought me here. "My Lord?" I ask, walking around to where he stands, only to catch a glimpse at the engravings upon the sides of the marble slab, the once gibberish symbols translating right into a language I grew up reading. I stop walking, facing my entire attention upon the sides of the marble slab as the King and his men take notice.

"And so, the Lady can read ancient words lost in time," Duke Gravon comments, walking up to where I stand, examining the words on the slab as he cannot read what I am. They say these words are of some ancient language, but this is not ancient at all, but new. No, not days new, at least not all of it. This is a journal, some record book, English, and a signature at the end of each paragraph reading of the name of the man that my mother loved, and I called my father. They are dated too, all the way back to his first days here as he was trying to discover this realm and think of what all he would need. In the first entry he lists his fears of the creatures outside the Temple, how it was amazing to him the mountains surrounding the Temple, and how he was impressed his magic landed him in the exact spot he wanted to go. I carry on, falling to my knees as I read the lower paragraphs too, eyes scanning quickly over everything as I cannot believe what I have just discovered here. My eyes stop, focusing on one journal entry dating back to only three days ago. How do I know it was just a few days ago? My father enters dates using the exact year and months that my home realm uses. This entry from a few days ago explains how he traveled here after rumors of a spell over the Temple, meaning that someone had traveled here. He talks of his journal from the Eastern Islands where the mermaids have claimed their domain and elves allow him to live beside them in peace. He talks of his excitement for someone from his home to have ventured here, but there is one thing that throws me off. My dearest Katerina, be safe in a world of wolves who can sniff out a traitor from a mile away. He writes to my mother, believing that it is not his own daughter that has come to find him, but the wife he left to suffer.

But it is not the part of the journals being written to my mother that throw me off, no, but the part about wolves being able to find a traitor from a long distance. My skin pales as I become nervous, rising to my feet as I look up to see the King and his men watching me. As I meet the King's stare, this time things feel off, as if I am seeing that he is not as blind as he looks.

"Discover anything, Lady Candice?" King Kyril asks, motioning towards the entries as I think of what to say.

I take in a shaky breath. "It seems that every time Heka visits this Temple he leaves a journal on the walls of this marble slab," I explain, telling the truth. "This first one discusses his first visit to Iduna. This one (his newest one) tells of his long journey from a village in the North, by a lake." I have no idea what the geography of the North is here. The King looks to Duke Gravon, as if awaiting some motion from the noble that watches me right now. "As to why he has left flowers here, I cannot tell why."

"How much time does Heka have ahead of us?" Duke Gravon asks, looking around to the trackers also in the room, a few of them holding up magnifiers to the marble walls, looking for any other writings. "How many days? Hours?" One man approaches the marble slab, picking up one of the roses, inspecting the flower as he looks to the stems, feeling them as my body remains tense. I am treading on thin ice and am close to falling in if not careful where I place my next footsteps. King Kyril walks around the marble slab, standing beside me as he too looks at the writings. Fingers running along the carved words, he reaches into some pocket, pulling out what looks like a paintbrush, a gold handle, flaming red thin feathers on the end as it reminds me of some holiday-themed makeup brush. "Would a phoenix feather help? We have tired this before on older words, my King, but it rarely works on these."

A phoenix feather helps translate. How would it do that? "Duke Gravon, phoenix feathers translate an Idunian language dating back to creation when their first forms roamed the land. If this is an Idunian language, it will translate." But this language is not Idunian. This language is nothing from this realm, but my own. Due to only reading Idunian for the past so many days as well as speaking it, looking to a language I grew up studying took a little to adjust to, but as I look at it now, I can see it is Arabic. The phoenix wand that the King holds will be unable to translate this because it is not Idunian, meaning that these men will want an explanation for how I was able to read it.

"My King," I state, looking to the King who holds the tip of the feathers over the first few letters. "The feathers will not work because the language is not from Iduna, but from Heka's world," I inform, knowing I need to step up and make sure I do not fall through the ice and face my death today. "When Heka came to my pack, this is a language that he taught me as well as other children how to read."

Kyril puts his want away, shaking his head as he grabs a handful of the roses, his hand opening as a fire ignites and the roses turn to ashes in a blue flame. As the eyes of the King meet mine, I am met with a color of eyes that mirror those of the phoenix feathers, bright red with streaking of orange and gold that flicker just as flames would. The King does not look pleased, setting his hand upon the marble slab as flames engulf the top, swallowing whole the flowers in high and dangerous flames you would expect from a bonfire. This is not a man I want to upset more than I have already. Looking to the roses that have become nothing but part of the fire now, the slab I woke up on is not something I wish to touch again.

"Enough is enough, my King," Duke Gravon shouts, throwing out his hands into the air as the flames vanish with a gust of cold air, only smoke emerging from the slab as the white marble is stained in a black layer from the past fire. "Throwing a small fit will not get us closer to this savage." Small fit? That was nothing close to some small fit you would throw. "What we need is a set plan to find this male. Going about only looking for sightings or signs and giving up when we seem to have approached a dead end will get us nowhere."

"And what would you suggest, Duke?" Kyril asks, his voice deep, as if some animistic growl. "Tear the surface of Iduna apart until we find this traitor?"

The Duke shakes his head, looking to me as my skin pales. "We trace back to Heka's first movements. Lady Candice was taught by Heka as well as several children from her pack when Heka first arrived. We should go back to Lady Candice's pack and see if those children like Lady Candice would be able to help us."

No. King Kyril will be the one to decapitate me before the sun could even set when he finds out what I am and who I am the daughter of. There are no others like me and there is no pack from which I am from. These men cannot know it. I have an idea of where my father is but venturing there without proper transportation or even a sense of direction or defense means I would be dead before I would get close to my father. I had hoped that I would split with the King and his men after this day, to get a horse and money for the voyage I would take back to some made up pack. I would be gone by the end of the day towards my father had things gone planned.

"Lady Candice, how would your pack feel about a visit from their King?" Kyril asks, meeting my gaze as I try not to look like a deer in the headlights. "We leave in the morning for Lady Candice's pack and to trace this savage down." I want to shake my head and say no, but that would me walking to the sword to cut off my head. Taking in a deep breath, I nod my head, only, as I look to the trackers realizing a long journey than expected is underway, I look to the mirror. Unlike the King or anyone before who had looked into this mirror, I do not see a reflection of myself to reflect on and question my ways, but I see a portal right back into my father's office. And there, standing before the mirror as she sits at my father's desk, my mother has a bottle of vodka at her side, a pen in her hand, and her hair a mess as she works frantically.

So close. So close yet so far away. My eyes become drawn into the portal as I see in one of her hands a compass, one with Arabic on the sides, my mother screaming at the top of her lungs as she throws the alcohol at the other side of the room, crashing as I want to go back to her, reach out, comfort her and tell her that father thinks she is here now and that he wants her to come and find him.

"Lady Candice?" I snap back to the reality I am now faced with, meeting the stare of the King of his men begin to exit the Temple, the Duke about to leave as King Kyril and I are left alone in the Temple. "Are you coming?" I nod, looking back to the mirror as the King begins to walk for the entrance. My mother is on her feet now, pacing around the room as tears stream down her face. Is it selfish of me to stay here while she can barely keep herself sane back home? If I left Iduna and went home, to mend the relationship I have with my mother, to tell her of the world of Iduna and that father is alive, we could come back here one day together to find my father, to find the missing puzzle of our family. It could work, but that would mean I would have to give up right now and go back home to the mess my mother has become. But I must face the harsh truth that if I follow the King out of the Temple he will expect me to show him and his men my pack which I have no idea where to even start with that. I could die in the next few hours or days, but if I return home with my mother right now, I could live another day, be with my mother, and one day return with her back here to find the man that left our lives and we still have hope will return.

Looking over my shoulder to see the King gone, I take in a shaky breath, throwing the fur cloak off my shoulders as I stand in the Temple with a dress and dagger in my hands as I know my mother will think my attire very odd. Undoing the braids my hair is pinned up in, I take a step towards the mirror, closing my eyes as I accept the plan I shall now follow through with. My father has lived this long without his family, he can live another day or month without us. Just as I reach out my hand and feel the liquid mirror, a force runs into my body, knocking me down as the dagger in my hand skids across the floor.

My eyes shoot open to see the King holding me down, one of his hands holding mine over my head as I try and push him off, unable to as he looks closer at me, face close to mine as his lips brush my cheek. "Another human to enter Iduna, how peculiar," he comments, a sly tone to his voice as my heart pounds in my chest. "Another human I would have no trouble killing right now, but the gods must have some sick sense of humor, do you not agree."

"Get off me you monster," I snap, raising my head up as I bite into the King's neck, trying to do him and form of harm. The King only growls, straddling me as he pulls his face away, his free hand reaching up to his neck. Pulling his hand back and looking to the blood present, his darkening eyes move to mine.

"The moment you walked into my palace I knew what you were, but your angelic face and the fact that we are somehow mates got the best of me and I allowed instinct to take charge. I cannot simply disregard the fact that you are human, but that fact that you are my mate, Candice, is the sole reason for why you will never go near this mirror again."

I get one hand free, my fist colliding with his jaw as I am loose, springing for the dagger Duke Gravon gifted me just hours ago. The hilt in my hand as my fingers wrap around the cold metal and I take a large swing, pointing the dagger right at the King as he is crocheted over still where I left him, hand feeling around the location of his jaw that I hit. "Let me go and I will never give you harm again," I inform, rising to my feet as the King does the same. "I do not intent to harm you, but if that is what I must do to return to my home, then you bet I will harm you."

"I would not dare allow a day to go by without you by my side, Candice, and I would destroy the heavens to do so," Kyril growls, standing before the mirror and me as my heartbeat runs faster than ever before. "Why are you trying to find Heka? Was your journey here unplanned? Was finding me unplanned? Or are you not just some random human that happens to be from his world?" I hold my head high, looking to the mirror to see my mother once again, inspecting a piece of my father's collections upon a bookshelf.

My jaw is clenched as I try and think of how to respond. "He is nothing to me but a fellow human," I snap, taking a step forward as I recall my footing from my years of fencing back home. My dagger raised, and my knees bent, I look my opponent in the eye, taking in a steady breath as I am ready to fight this werewolf and god knows what else. "Now pick up your sword and let us settle this." I know he will not fight me, I am not foolish. He will not harm me because he believes us to be soulmates. I on the other hand...that word means nothing to me. The King draws his sword like I expected, acting all high and mighty as he drops his cloak to the floor and raises his sword. His sword may be longer than mine, but I know I was a goddamn good fencer back when I did it. Just as I take my first step towards him in attack mode, the King turns around, facing the mirror as he raises his sword.

"No," I scream, dropping my dagger as I jump onto his back, grabbing his sword as I fling it from his hands, my arms around his neck as I hook my legs around his waist, using my momentum to bring us both crashing into the floor. My shoulder takes the fall, pain erupting in my shoulder and back as the King turns around, pinning me down once more, his fingers running through my hair as he cocks his head to the side and offers me a sly smile. "Please do not break it," I plead, knowing he will not give me mercy, but I use my phrase as a chance to stretch out the time, raising my head as I land it hard against his own. As he releases me, I run for the mirror, my fingertips just brushing the fabrication of the portal back to my home, only for my body to be thrown across the hall.

My body collides with the opposite wall from the mirror, my screams filling the air as I fall to my knees, watching as Kyril's fist collide with the mirror, the glass shattering into millions of tiny pieces, unable to ever be put back together. Tears stream down my face as Kyril looks over his shoulder to me, his eyes black as he stands in the shadows of the room, blood on his fists, and a darkness drawn to him.

I can never go home...and he could not be happier.