Nothing But Ashes #LWC2015

Chapter One

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I sat under the cherry blossom tree, surrounded by their beauty. Craving it, hating it, cursing it. How many times had I watched her turn to ash, and yet... 

The pain always came. There were times it came much more slowly than others; seeping into my heart and crawling deep into my soul, twisting deeper and deeper until it tore me open from the inside out. Other times it slammed into me quickly all at once in great waves, as if I was being stabbed with a sword. 

I sat quietly, unmoving and unblinking, watching as the blossoms fell around me. I would leave Japan the next morning. Where I would go, at the moment, I had no idea. It was how I'd been for years, mindlessly traveling until I came to a place where I hoped to find peace. 

It would be at least another sixteen years before I would see her again, only to lose her once more. For decades this had gone on, and now, I could not stand a second more of it. Sitting under the blossoms, I hoped and prayed that if I left Japan, the mage could not follow, and the torture I had endured for so long would stop.

We first met in Egypt around 200 B.C. At the time I'd been sold as a slave from my homeland and had been brought across Asia and sold to various owners until I had ended up in an Egyptian noble house. 

The owner was not particularly cruel, but even as I sat under the cherry blossom tree, almost 700 years later, I could not recall anything else about him. The work was hard, and my once light complexion was stained dark from long hours of working under the hot Egyptian sun. 

Misaki, called Eshe by birth, was my owner's niece. Her dark hair hung down her back in black waves. Her skin was a dark caramel-color; sun-kissed. She was a vision of beauty. I despised the Egyptians and all they stood for, but the more I grew to know her, the more I saw her compassion, her strength and determination. She despised slavery as much as I, although there was nothing either of us could do. I was bitter and rude toward her, and wanted nothing to do with her. She respected the way I felt, but did not wish to see me so alone, when I needed someone in my life. She saw straight through the harsh exterior and into the deeper parts of myself. It took time, but she broke down every wall I had and eventually I came to see her for who she really was. It was the only time I ever allowed myself to feel that way for another human being. Once I fell for her, there was no going back... for either of us. 

She spent what time she could ordering me around the household, which kept me from working outside at times, and enabled us to spend more time together. We never once touched, but I found my heart drawing closer and closer to her. She was just as beautiful inside as she was out. 

"Nasan," she called, using my birth name. 

I briefly paused where I was digging a trench in the new gardens. I glanced at her. "Yes, Mistress?"

She glanced around, looking for anyone from the household. She waved a hand to dismiss two of her handmaids. "I spoke with my father and met with the man he wishes to marry me off to." She spoke fluent Egyptian, and used simple words, making it easier for me to understand. Egyptian was difficult, but in my years as a slave I had picked up on it enough to understand it, and to hold smaller conversations. 

I ignored the way my chest tightened at the news. "And?"

Her eyes sparkled in a manner they usually did before she would smile. "I told him exactly what I thought of the idea."

I creased my eyebrows. "And what is that, Mistress?"

"That I cannot marry him. He is a priest of Set and they are meant to be feared, not respected. And... that I cannot marry him when my heart is with another."

My eyes shifted to meet hers. We shared a moment together, in that gaze. It was just her and I, nothing else.

"Get back to work!!" The overseer of the construction of the gardens was a rough man, and he had little tolerance for disobedience. He was as cruel as he was sly. He flicked a whip and I jerked as I felt it rake across my bare back. 

Eshe winced. 

I turned away from her and continued digging in the ground. The work was hard on my back and neck, but I continued working as much as I was ordered. 

That night was when the priest of Set made us both suffer his wrath. I was sleeping in the slave rooms, which was away from the main house. There was a loud explosion and the door to the clay room was torn off its hinges. I shot awake, glancing around. No one else woke up except for me. "What..?"

The priest of Set was standing at the doorway glaring at me.

I tried to move, but nothing would work. His hands extended out and I was pulled toward him. 

"You... have taken... something from me....!" 

Energy poured from his hands and took control of my movements. He threw me out of the room and onto the sand outside. 

"I haven't... taken... anything," I replied through gritted teeth. 

The priest laughed. He held out a staff, pointing at my neck. I was on the ground on my hands and knees. He used the staff to jerk my head up, forcing me to look at him. He turned my head, so that my eyes landed on Eshe. She was on the ground a few feet across from me. 

"Mistress...?" I started, but the priest hit my jaw, cutting me off.

I gritted my teeth, but the energy came from his hands and surrounded me again. It was heavy, so heavy it stopped me from getting up off the ground. 

"Nasan!"

It took all the strength I had just to force my head up enough to meet her gaze. 

She glanced at the priest. "Tarik! please, stop this!"

The priest, Tarik, smiled and walked over to her. 

"Leave her—"

He jerked a hand in my direction, intensifying the energy around me. I grunted, and gritted my teeth. 

"I will make sure the both of you never have happiness. I will strip every ounce of joy out of your blood. I will engrain misery and suffering into you until it is all that you know. The spell I will cast will ensure that you both will live a long life full of pain and agony!" Tarik laughed, and it was an unnatural sound that made me wince. 

Tarik laughed and pointed his staff at me once again. "And you. I will alter the time within your body so that time for you will freeze. You will not age a day after today; you will never get sick or grow old. Time around you will continue on as normal, but you... you will stay like this... living decades, centuries.... Never to be with Eshe again."

He chanted words underneath his breath for a few seconds before he extended his hands out, toward Eshe. Dark energy, mixture of black and blue and gold extended from his hands and came around her, engulfing her inside it. She screamed and I called out to her, but she could not hear me. 

When the energy disappeared, there was nothing left of her but ashes on the ground. He had cast the spell that would change my life for the rest of eternity.