Fan Fiction ❯ Mystify ❯ Freya ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3: Freya

 

By: Brynn Parker

 

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Medea looks into my eyes again as I start to panic, taking my hands in hers and squeezing them comfortingly.

 

You must escape, I hear in my head.

 

But how? I respond. The guard watching us is beginning to stare, and I can tell he's getting suspicious.

 

I don't know, but you must act soon, Medea thinks urgently, The High Priest comes to take you from the Temple tonight.

 

For what? What are they going to do to me?

 

Medea's eyes show sympathy, an uncommon thing for the calm and distant woman, which makes me even more worried.

 

Have you ever wondered why I'm like this? A mute, emotionless...this is the last part of your training. You must escape.

 

----

 

I sit up in bed, gasping in breaths. The cold air bits at my bare shoulders, sending a chill down my spine as I think back on my dream. Could it have been a premonition? Or maybe a message from Medea herself? Because I've never had independent training before, and my mind skills are not good, I can't really distinguish the two. Of course, Medea could be sending me a message, telling me to run...but it was probably only a dream.

 

I lie down again, my breathing still short and panicked. It seems as if something is telling me that this is true, that I'm in danger.

 

You must escape.

 

I jump out of bed and pull on my white overshirt and skirt, putting a hand out and willing the steel curtain rod into it. I may need protection, and this is the best I have, other than my possession powers, but I'm reluctant to use those.

 

I don't want to have to kill anyone tonight.

 

I stop for a minute. Why do I feel so desperate? It was only a dream, nothing to be so panicked about. Maybe this is just what will push me over the edge, and force me to run. I've never known how the fully trained magic users, like Medea, were made so docile. I remembered her from a few years ago, when she was taken from the Temple to be the High Priest's personal assistant. She was smart, beautiful, and rebellious. She'd disappeared several times, and rumor has it that she had been trying to escape. I'd never really thought of how much she'd changed; just mourned the loss of a good friend and mentor.

 

What had they done to her? What is destined for me, if I don't act now? I sit back down on the bed. If Medea, a much more powerful magic user than I, couldn't escape from the Temple, how am I supposed to?

 

The door clicks open and a young guard looks in at me sadly. The guards often become friends with the children here at the Temple, and I think I might recognize this one. “The High Priest is here,” he says, “He wants you to take anything of yours...leave the room as if you were never here.”

 

It's too late for me.

 

I get up and pick up the curtain rod, returning it to it's place in the window. The guard looks at me solemnly as I gather up my two changes of clothes and my necklace, something that I've had since I was a child. He touches my arm as I walk past him, whispering a farewell and good luck. I do recognize him; but I can't seem to remember his name at the moment. I remember that he's just a few years older than me, and has been a friend to me for as long as I've been here. Not knowing what else to do, I turn and throw my arms around him.

 

“Thank you for your kindness,” I say, and then lower my voice, “Please help me.”

 

“I wish I could,” I says, trying not to look at me.

 

The High Priest clears his throat to my right. “You should probably release the boy now,” he says, motioning for me to follow him. I let go of the guard and continue towards the High Priest, who's walking outside of the Temple.

 

It's been fourteen years since I was last outside of this building, and I've never seen the rest of Khrysse that I can remember. Other pale skinned people wander the lantern lit streets, few at this hour of the morning. The High Priest is silent, guarded by a few soldiers and nothing more.

 

“Where is Medea?” I ask respectfully.

 

The High Priest sighs, but continues walking. “My assistant died this morning,” he says simply, distantly. I cringe. Medea is dead?

 

“How?” I ask, unable to repress my shock.

 

He turns towards me a little, stopping his guards, “Her soul was injured...torn apart, it seems,” he says. I freeze. This reminds me of that little boy five years ago... “It's not unlike what you did to that boy five years ago.”

 

I frown. He couldn't think... “I had nothing to do with this, High Priest, Medea was like a sister-“

 

“Medea is dead,” he says dramatically, “And it seems that you are the culprit.”

 

Oh no...that dream...what if I had unconsciously possessed Medea's body and destroyed her soul? I don't know...it's possible, and if I'm not concentrating hard, I instinctively fight the real inhabitant's soul for dominance.

 

The High Priest continues his walk and, when I don't move, the guards continue along with him. I let out a sob, collapsing into the arms of one of the guards; it's the one I asked for help, I realize, and he's pulling me after the High Priest. “I killed Medea!” I scream. The guard tries to calm me down to no avail as the other Khryssans in the streets stare at me. I don't care. I am broken already, and the priests didn't have to do anything to me; I destroyed Medea, and in the process destroyed myself.