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QOTD (submitted by ClaryAdele66): Who is your favorite character? 

A: JADE BECAUSE SHE IS MY MAIN BITCH *coughs* I mean erm because I based her off a real person

~Belle

Word Count: 2148

(There is a word that I changed because it can't be anything else which is 'deterraley'. All it means is the word 'humanely' but they aren't humans so....) 

Chapter Sixteen:

"Guards!" 

 Panic filled my chest, my lungs, my heart, my head. It consumed me whole and it wasn't ready to get rid of me, it wasn't ready to spit me out or swallow me. I was drowning in my own anxiety, like water was filling my lungs, or a plastic bag was being thrown over my head and suffocating me. 

I pulled at King Favians grip, struggling to get out of the trouble I had just been thrust into. 

Did he not know that his son was unmarked as well? 

Surely he did, he must have. The King and his guardsmen were the ones who rescued Adrian. Adrian had even said that the king wanted to kill him because of his lack of a mark. So what was happening? Why was King Favian suddenly after me? 

"My lord, I-I've done nothing wrong," I pleaded with The King, trying to pull my arm away from his rough grasp, "Your son does not bear a mark either." I reasoned. 

The King gave me a cold, ice-like glare, his eyes setting in my own, dark and unwelcoming. Could this truly be the man Adrian grew up with? Called his father? 

The way he glared at me added more anxiety to my already panic-stricken state. He reminded me of my own father. 

The cold, dead set eyes.  The twisted aggravation that was always worn as a mask to hide the truer feelings of hatred that laid behind. The grey stubble that decorated the bottom of the kings chin. Wrinkles creasing on his face, all except near the corners of his mouth - a result of rarely smiling. 

Almost an exact copy of my father.

"You'll have to take that matter up with the elders," guards started circling around us, in perfect formation, their uniforms dyed a blue tauntingly like the sea that was a mere miles away. Like the ocean had gifted the dye to the soldiers and they had worn the color with pride. "And as for my son," The King hissed, gripping my arm even tighter - if that was deterraley possible, "You are no good for him." I gulped as he spat at my feet, the color a dark brown from chewing tobacco. 

With a sudden anger that filled my veins, rushing through me like a river, I remembered my powers. I looked up into the icy brown eyes of the king and watched my eyes turn purple in the reflection of his now glassy ones. 

"Let me go." I demanded. King Favian's grip loosened but my arm was not totally released, "Let me go. " I ordered once again, watching the king sway in a daze. He let go. I raised my arms, ready to shove all of the guards away with the wind, when I heard a piercing shout:

"Drug her!" 

Before I could react there was I sharp prick in my neck, and I suddenly felt so dizzy I could barely stand. I fell to my knees. Panting, I shook my head trying to use my powers once again but the drug they had put into me made it difficult to see anything, let alone control the wind. 

I began crying, pleading quietly as I felt the rush of guards on top of me, "Pl-Please, si-" 

The King cut me off, his eyes an evil darker than that of my fathers, "Guards, shut the thing up, gag it, and tie it up as uncomfortably as you want, do whatever you want with it and then toss it in the dungeons. I'll deal with it later." 

Guards swamped me, moving in so close every claustrophobic would be panicking. "Woah buddies, if you're gonna be this close, maybe you should buy me a drink first." I winked at a younger guard praying maybe I could be somebody's weakness, but instead was hit in the head hard with a club. Sharp, agonizing pain shot through me like a bullet, forcing my head to fly backwards.

I whimpered struggling weakly against each of the guards calloused hands, simultaneously blinking away stars dancing across my vision. They were dragging me backwards and I was dragging all of them forwards trying to get them to let go - a tug of war with my body.

What am I supposed to do? The king should know of his sons predicament. Fate, Adam and Eve, lords, bless me. 

"Let me go!" I screamed, praying perhaps Adrian or Felix - if he was feeling better, or perhaps Sebastian if he wasn't so against me, could hear my pleas. "Let me go please, please!" I shoved at a guard sending him flying across the courtyard of the garden, his body landing on a rose bush. 

Where the hell did that strength come from? 

The other guards started getting at me, throttling me with their intense holds. "She's too strong!" A young guard cried, his voice overcome by fear. He had dark brown hair and light eyes like me, the pure look of terror painting his every move. The other guards remained stoic, throwing me onto the ground - causing immense pain in my lower back if I do say so myself - trying to hold me down however they could. 

What would happen when I was presented to the Elders? Would I be sent to a Fyrian Prison Camp, in the shivering cold? Would they kill me because I didn't have a mark? Would they kill Adrian because he didn't have one either? The thought brought pain to my heart. But surely, since he is the future king, perhaps they would be more lenient upon his punishment.

As I struggled, I slowly felt my limbs become heavier, like pieces of solidified led. My movements started slowing down, allowing the guards to take hold of me. Almost at once they were tying me up, making sure my hands were behind my back and my legs were tied in front of me. 

"Kinky," I joked, in a daze, simply to be rejected. 

With one last surge of energy I struggled. "Hit her!" A guard shouted. 

The void of black welcomed me into its arms once again, caressing me with its dark tresses. 

Unconsciousness. 

---

Black eyes watched over the scene as it unfolded. They held the essence of great power, a force never to be touched by anything on the earth. 

The figure had finally found her.

The one he'd been looking for. 

And yet his struggle to find one of the most powerful things on the planet, was faltered by a stupid, idiotic, icy king. 

"Guards!" The king shouted grabbing at Jade's arm. 

It was too late for the figure to help, to late for him to cast magic upon the girl who was now in the hands of unfately men. So he stayed silent, and watched her struggle, admiring her obvious strength from afar.

He knew she'd get out of wherever she was going, Fate had told him that much, but the rest, the figure sighed, was unknown. 

"Being best-friends with Fate has it's perks," the figure mumbled in despair, twiddling the knife he kept in his sleeve between his fingers. 

The girl, Jade, was now unconscious in  the guards arms, and was being carried off, - not before being gagged and tied. Her dark brown chocolatey hair cascaded in front of her face, swaying back and forth with the guards movements. 

He had to get her.

 That was all he knew, that was all Fate had told him, and it was all the figure needed. As he watched the girl be carried off, he remembered what Fate had told him all those years ago. 

"By dark of night, 

And heat by sun, 

Our greatest war,

Has just begun. 

Golden bowls of blood, 

Shan't heal our beaten sons, 

But find the girl without the mark, 

And the war will already been won."

---

A sharp, agonizing pain throbbed through my body making me groan out.  My chest jerked forward as another sharp kick pummeled into my stomach. 

"Get up, and shut up." The voice was male. Deep, dark, scruffy. Like someone who had been drinking several bottles of scotch and woken up from a long nap. 

I squinted my eyes open, to find the small boots of an obese forty-something man. He glared at me. "Get up and shut up you idiot girl, your screams are annoying as hell." He snapped, heading towards the door, but not before stepping on my hand. 

I winced. 

Was I screaming? Where the hell was I? It was dark, hot, humid, and the ground was covered in filth. There were pieces of some sort of straw like material, dirt and what I prayed not to be fecal matter.

As I sat up from my position on the disgusting floor, I accidentally took in a whiff of the air. "O-Oh Fate." I bent over and wretched onto the floor. 

Ew.

I felt dizzy and sick, my head was pounding with this loud, obnoxious thump, thump, thump, which made it difficult to think. 

The walls of the room were a grey brick, with blood splattered on them. I covered my mouth to keep from throwing up again, the taste of bile burning up my throat. I couldn't remember what had happened last very well, there was the king, the guards..I furrowed my eyebrows in annoyance, unable to come up with a solution to the gaps in my memory. 

As I continued focusing on regaining my memory, and not throwing up again, I heard the sounds.

Clangs, screams, groans, cries for help, it was chaos and for a moment it sounded like a zoo. It was like my ears had been deaf, only the sharp piercing scream brought my hearing back. They were faint, but angry, looking for blood, for pity. But then the noises slowly started to become clear, haunting voices, crying out for mercy and sobbing in agony. 

"Save my baby!" Someone cried from somewhere outside of where I was, "have mercy on my soul!" Others shouted, "Fate will rescue us from out despair," another preached. From the sounds, it seemed people were clanging metal on metal, fighting, yelling at each other, yelling at the guards. I was absolutely terrified, backing up against the corner I sat in. 

Each corner of the cell - or whatever it was - was dark, shadowed from the center, which made it easy for creepy crawlies to hide and sneak up on anyone who sat in my position. The front of the cell bars were of some sort of metal, which were rusted and covered in absolute filth. 

"What the hell is this place?" I sighed, pressing my head against the wall and sighing through my mouth to avoid anymore of those awful smells. I was talking to myself of course, I never expected someone to reply back. 

"I like to call it Hell, Dearie." 

I tensed, looking all over the cell for the source of the voice, there was no one. At least, not someone the I could see properly. "Wh-Who's there?" I stuttered defensively, trying to keep my wits about me. 

There was movement in the corner, and an old man crawled out from the sheaths of darkness, clad in rags for clothes. He was absolutely filthy, as if one-hundred baths would not make him any cleaner. He had a Sallion accent, and through the cracks of accumulated mud, I could see pale, wrinkled skin. 

Who was this mysterious stranger? I thought I was alone. Were they a thug? A ruffian? A murderer? ...worse?

"Just an old Bastard," the man sighed, staring at the cell bars, and then glanced back at where I was hiding in the shadows. "Quit hiding in there, come into the light, it's not like I could hurt you anyways. I'm crippled." The man slowly raises one of his arms to reveal a stub, in replace of where his hand should've been. 

I gasped, as my eyes widened in shock. "Wh-What happened to-" 

"It was blown off by a bomb in the war." He interrupted me, already knowing my question. "Now, come out into the light, I want to see who my cell buddy is."  There was a hint of loneliness in his voice, as if he hadn't spoken to another De Terra in years. 

"Okay," I said warily, looking down and slowly inching forward on my palms, "but if you hurt me, I will haunt you forever." 

Once I was fully in the light, I took a deep breath and looked up, making eye contact with the older man. His eyes widened. There was a long, silent and uncomfortable pause, before he uttered one, small word. 

"Eve?"