Chapter Twenty-Four:

Faede’s Tour of Ragnarok; Secret Passages

 

          The trek to Castle Ragnarok was extremely uneventful and boring, in Marium’s opinion. But she was sure that things were about to get interesting.

          “Alright. There’s a secret door on the side of the castle, next to the east side of the moat. Once the soldier goes back to his post we’ll sneak in.” Faede whispered, then lead them into the castle. “There are five stories from here to Father’s sleeping chambers. We’ll hide in there until he comes in to sleep tonight. I’m sure he’ll be caught off guard, and tired from a long day.”

          “He won’t know what hit him, huh?” Jonah questioned as they darted toward the nearest stairway.

          Placid glanced at every shadow they passed. “Sounds too easy.”

          “It will be easy.” Faede assured him. “It’s a sure thing. We go in, and come out. The world’ll be a better place when we’re done. Right Priestess?”

          Marium almost jumped out of her skin when she heard Faede speak to here. “A much better place, from what I gather.”

          Faede’s frown was deep, and not intended for her to actually see. “Well, we’ll see in the end.”         

 

          They reached the Head Sorcerer’s chambers via a hidden passage behind an oil painting. Faede quickly closed the painting back onto the wall, hiding the hole. “See? Not one disturbance.”

          “Wow, you’re wonderful, Faede!” Marium stated, happily. She was relieved that none of her friends had been hurt on the way up there.

          Jonah, Placid and Cadillac chatted in a corner, while Altaire stood next to Marium. No one noticed Faede move to the main door and reach into his pocket. He produced a large, metal key and slipped it into the door’s lock. It unlocked with a click.

          “Faede?” Marium inquired, inquisitively. She didn’t know why in the world Faede would open the door once they were already in the room.

          His smile was wicked as he turned to face Altaire. “Since we were children… no, before then even, you’ve always gotten what ever you wanted.”

          “Faede. This is not the time to joke around.” Altaire spoke, eyes locked with Faede’s. “You know your place is to protect the Priestess, that’s your destiny…”

          Faede’s laugh cut the High Priest off. It was an evil, insane laugh, and it brought footsteps to the now unlocked door. “What if I say my destiny in this life is to get what I want? Finally, I’ll get the rewards I deserve.”

          His eyes rested on Marium, who was quite bewildered. “Faede? I don’t understand this.”

          “Explain it to her, you bastard!” Jonah erupted, having enough of Faede’s gloating smirk. Marium’s eyes widened surprised; Jonah never yelled! “Tell her how you’re betraying us and that you’re a piece of..!”

          Jonah stopped abruptly when he heard Marium take a step back. Her face was pale, and her hands and body were trembling badly. “B-betray? Faede, you’re… doing what…?”

          She spun around to face him, only to see the wooden door swing open and row after row of heavily armed magi-soldiers enter the room and surround them. Faede’s voice rang clearly in the room. “Take them all to the dungeon.”

          He stopped, thoughts running wildly through his mind in a brief moment. “Wait. Take the men to the dungeon. Bring the girl to my chambers. I wish to speak with her.”

          Altaire, who had remained quiet the whole time, had had enough. He raised his staff in the air and began to cast a destructive spell. But he was cut off when Marium screamed in protest. Faede had his arms wrapped around her from behind, his dagger poised to slit her throat in an instant.

“I’ve spilt her blood before, I do not have any problem with doing it again.” Faede commented, referring to when he and Marium had blood tied. Altaire’s lips stopped moving, and his staff lowered.

          But Marium wasn’t going to give up so easily. Swiftly she wrestled one arm free, and tried to grab the dagger from him. Faede jerked his hand up, which caused two things to happen at the same time. Marium accidentally got the blade of the dagger in her hand, slicing it open, and bit down on Faede’s hand as well, the one holding the dagger. This managed to draw out some of Faede’s blood also.

          In the end, Faede shouted and dropped the dagger, which Marium had been holding on to, resulting in Marium now having the dagger. She switched it around to face blade out, blood dripping aimlessly from her wound.

          The magi-soldiers in the room immediately charged forward, seeing the heir to the Head Sorcerer being assaulted by the girl, only to be stopped again. “NO! I said DON’T TOUCH THE GIRL! Under no circumstances are you to lay a hand on her!”

          “Sir, we should take all this scum down to the dungeon and…” one of the sergeants spoke up.

          “Scum? HAH!” Faede laughed, glaring at the magi. “You get your powers from this ‘scum’. She is the High Priestess Yin.”

          There were no more incidents. Faede grabbed Marium’s arm and twisted it, making her drop the dagger. A regiment of soldiers led the men toward to dungeon. Marium cried out for Altaire, to no avail. “Please!!! I can’t fight alone! Altaire, Cadillac! Jonah! Placid!!! Don’t leave me alone!”

          “Marium!!” Cadillac’s small hand reached out as he was dragged passed her. Her eyes were flooding with tears, and her hand still bled profusely. “Don’t worry, Marium! You’ll be alright! We’ll see you soon, okay?!”

          “Cad…!” she screamed as one of the soldiers hit the poor guru hard on his head to get him to walk on. “No…”

 

          Marium was put in another room, all by herself until a group of women came in and attended to her needs. They were firm, but gentle, which confused Marium, since she was supposed to be a prisoner. “Please, just take me to the dungeon…”

          “The dungeon? No no, Priestess!” one of them said, smiling. “The dungeon is not a place for a young woman such as yourself to be.”

          “She looks so beautiful. I’m so proud of my liege for finally finding a bride suitable of his elegance!” another proclaimed. Marium knew it would be hopeless to ask anything else, so she just let them undress and redress her in a strange outfit. It was black, and a dress/robe… that much she could tell, but she couldn’t tell what it was made out of.

          A male soldier knocked on the door. One of the women opened it, and he whispered something to her. “I see.”

          The women suddenly filed out, and all was silent. A few minutes later, Faede came in. He shut the door behind himself and locked it.

          “…” Marium stared at him, eyes empty of any kind of emotion besides distrust and  contempt. It seemed to have an effect on him.

          “I don’t expect you to understand, Marium.” He started, coming toward her. Reaching out a hand to her arm, he tenderly folded away the sleeve of the dress robe to reveal her bandaged hand. “That was quite the sacrifice you made. I suppose it hurts a great deal right about now.”

          Out of no where, he untied the cloth and began to lift her hand to his lips. Before he could kiss her wound, she slapped him with her other hand, hard across his cheek. He looked at her, tears springing in his eyes from the sting to his face and pride. She stared back into his beautiful violet eyes surrounded by soft, black lashes sprinkled with droplets of tears. She knew her own red irises must have been devoid of the usual flame that had resided there. Empty, she felt completely empty, except that he was there. And right then, all she could feel for Faede was silent, livid anger that was storming like an emotional thunderstorm inside her.

          “You have no right to judge me, you don’t know why I’ve done this.” He snapped, defensively at an unspoken question. Marium blinked, taken back.

          “Nothing can justify handing your friends over to evil. Not even in exchange for someone you love. Understand that, Faede? I have something I want to tell you. Right now.” Marium stated, sitting down on the  near by bed. “While I was unconscious from whatever Cadillac did to us when he teleported us here, I saw a memory. From my past life as the goddess, Yin.”

          Faede stared at her, slightly interested. She took a breath, and continued. “You were in it, Faede. The you from then. You didn’t want her to leave, the goddess. The quest to reunite her with Yang was too dangerous, right? You loved her.”

          “You.” He suddenly spoke, voice quivering. His eyes met hers once more. “You, not her. You ARE her. That was then, when I was … the knight of Yin, Warrior of the Snake. You wouldn’t listen to me then, and you still won’t now. I’m doing this to protect you…”

          “DON’T you understand yet, Faede?!” Marium reprimanded, blushing from hearing such selfish things coming from someone she cared so deeply for. He flinched slightly. “The Goddess… I mean… I, wasn’t doing it to BE with Yang. Not entirely. I mostly wanted to be equal in power to him. I loved him, yes. As I love Altaire now. And I loved you then as I love you now.”

          “But that won’t allow me to forgive you for hurting my friends like this.” She finished, coldly, turning her back on him as she sat on the bed.

          “My father will be returning soon.” He said, quietly. “I’ve made my decision. This is my destiny, I’ve come to realize that, Marium. You should too.”

 

tifmonk@chichiri.com