Celeste's life is far from the enchanting fairy tale one might expect from a princess. Her father, a ruthless and self-absorbed king, leaves a trail of death and destruction in his wake. To seal alliances and maintain his power, he arranges for Cele...
Watching Celeste climb up the rocks is the scariest thing I've ever witnessed, and I've seen that woman kill a hundred people, stand on a pyre, give up her dragon, and come out of a trauma.
This is different.
In those other situations, there was always a chance she would solve it herself, a trust that she could.
Now, she's at the mercy of gods and nature. If she doesn't come down that mountain, it's not her choice, not her failure, and nothing either of us could have done. I can do nothing to help her, and she can do nothing to change the outcome.
All I can do is wait, so that's exactly what Elien and I do. In complete silence, we stare at the plateau, hoping at any moment that Celeste will appear at the edge.
We say not a word for hours, not even as the sun slowly sets behind the mountain peaks, increasing the likelihood that Celeste may never return. Both of us refuse to say it, hear it, or think it.
I start to lose hope until nature moves.
In total confusion, I stand up as everything around us dies. Elien and I shoot up from the rock where we've been sitting silently for hours. The little green that surrounded us, the green that outlined the mountains around us, dies. As if life is being sucked out of the plants, they turn brown, gray, and black. Nothing is spared; everything dies.
In any other situation, I would be worried, but now, now it gives me hope.
Celeste
The white and light green light dances around me. Peace has taken over my body as I feel nothing but tranquility.
Whether I will ever wake up again, I don't know, but I do know that it doesn't matter to me anymore. If this is where I will end up, I would be at peace with it. Living in a haze of white and green, calm and peace, is something I will never fear.
However, it's not how the world works, what I wanted, or what my intention was.
'You have a choice. Choose the white or the green side,' whispers the world around me. It's a choice so vague that a normal soul could never make it with reason, and yet I understand what the female voice means.
It's a choice for life or death. A choice for a fight or peace.
If I've learned anything in the past 22 years, it's that fighting brings you more than peace. Peace is a reward, a privilege, something you get at the end or a resting point. Fighting is where you make progress, earn emotions, or come where you want to be. Peace is only there when you are where you want to be.
And I, I am not yet where I want to be.
I want to experience more than I have, see Elien grow up, kill my father, see Christiaan suffer, love Novak.
I want more than peace, so I choose green.
In total shock, I look around, confused about where I am, who I am, or what happened.
I am alive, I am still alive. That realization I can barely grasp as I look at my unharmed hands. No cut, no black veins, no blood. Just my white skin as I always had.
As I look around and see the sun slowly appearing in the sky, I truly begin to realize where I am and what has happened. In shock, my head shoots over the dead nature around the Astri.
The Astri, the spell.
Only then do I realize that it worked. Only then do I realize where I am, why the nature around me is dead, and what happened.
It worked.
In shock, I slowly push myself up from the Astri, where I've been lying all this time, until I stand. My gaze focused on my exposed forearms with no scratch, blood, or black vein to be seen.
Wobbling on my legs, as if my body is new, I take a few steps towards the edge. Everything feels new: my skin, my senses, my taste, my sight, but above all, my magic. Everything is enhanced tens of times and doesn't seem to stop.
For a moment, I give myself time to get used to standing and moving my body parts before I move my fingers through the air. Magic tingles against my skin like never before.
The amount of magic I thought was a lot is nothing compared to what is now flowing through my lifelines. The feeling that anything is possible, that everything can. A feeling of total power, yet that with every wrong move, you could destroy the world.
It's a power I want to test.
Wobbling, I walk to the end of the Astri, step off, and let my feet end up on the dark, obscured ground. No sign of the beautiful magical nature is left of what it used to be. Everything the eye reaches is dead. All the magic that was here, I possess.
Slowly, I stretch my hand above the withered grass, let my fingers hover above it, and feel the new magic shoot through my lifelines. The black withered grass regains its color, rises, and comes back to life under my fingers.
With wide eyes, I watch the nature I give back life to as I barely feel anything. How my new magic does its job. How the world around me comes back to life while I hardly feel anything. How I can use my magic without getting tired for a second.
How I can breathe without pain, how my skin is no longer marked by black veins, how I am alive.
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