ENCHANTED Book 1: Witch's Dawn

CHAPTER TWELVE

MORTAL REALM: POLONIA

"We are almost at your village, perhaps you will deal truthfully with me now?" He probed.

"I think not, sire. Why, I do not even know your name!" She said evasively.

He stopped walking which made her stop as well and forced her to look back at him. "Do not try my patience any more, child," he warned her dangerously. "For a fortnight, you have traveled with me. I have not hurt you or mistreated you in any way. And though it is the truth that I have withheld my name from you, it is only because I know the power in one's name. I am a very powerful sorcerer and I could have gotten what I wanted from you without your permission, but I chose not to."

Jacinth began to move away from him after his words. "You are a sorcerer?" Oh gods! What will I do now? She looked around for an escape but found none. Her anxiety grew as she realized she was trapped.

He studied her for a moment and reined in his temper when he saw her fear. He stepped towards her carefully. "Do not worry, child. I mean you no harm," he soothed, "you possess a rare gift and I suspect that you have been hurt because of it." He offered her his hand and motioned to a nearby rock. "Come. Let us talk."

The surprising insight of his words both frightened and reassured her. How does he know about what I went through?  She took his hand hesitantly and looked into his eyes. Those golden depths compelled her to trust him with her life and for a moment she wondered if it was the power of his magic essence glowing brightly within him that made it so, but she quickly shook her head to dispel the thought.

Whether she chose to tell him or not made no difference at this point. She knew now that he could obtain the truth from her without even breaking a sweat. So sighing deeply she broke away from him and moved towards the rock he had pointed.

Enceladus was disappointed when he saw her shake her head and break away. He had wanted her trust with an intensity that surprised him. He was not a man who was given easily to emotions due to his type of magic. Soul magic, while more powerful as his emotions intensified, was harder to control in that state.

 "I was born some years before the time of Chaos. The dark lord had just begun to lay siege on Polonia and my father was called out to join the war. I was not like any child born to the Kalien family. I had deep purple hair and lavender coloured eyes; and I was born with the power to move between realms."

So that was why I sensed a strange aura from her even though she's mortal, he mused contemplatively.

Realm walkers were very rare in every realm. In fact, each realm produced only two realm walkers per century. If Delterzard got a hold of the news that one existed in Polonia, things would surely take a turn for the worst.

"My father was seriously injured and sent back to the village to recover as he was our village head, but he took it as a sign of dishonor and became obsessed with looking for a way to redeem himself to the King.

"He finally decided to send me to the King so he could make use of my power in the war, but my mother disagreed with him." Her eyes began to water and she felt her throat tighten as she remembered her mother. "I was eight summers then, and my mother begged that I was too young to be exposed to the savagery of war."

"She was right," he comforted, "you were too young to experience such things. And I am sure the King would have thought so too." Unless he had become very desperate. He knew his king very well and knew that like any other man he would have accepted the unwise offer if the situation had become too pressing - and regretted it later.

"It did not matter if she was right, he saw me as a means to an end and she was barring that by going against him." She got a faraway look in her eyes. "It reached the point where he almost killed her after beating her mercilessly one night. So I went to her that same night, and use my powers to move us to another realm. We ended up in Ariël."

"You have been to the realm of the fairfolk?" He asked surprised.

She smiled slightly. "Yes. We lived in Athelia -the city of elves- with the royal family for a while and I received training when they became aware of my gift. However, my mother never fully recovered and passed away a few years later.

"After we left my father went mad with rage and my clansmen believed I had cursed him and fled with my mother, so they had no qualms about revealing my secret to the Dark lord to save themselves when his men came to pillage the village.

"I had no knowledge of this, however, and returned to my village a moon ago after being convinced to return by the elves. When I arrived I noticed that everything had changed. The head family had no connections to the Kalien and my relatives despised me. It was when I overheard them planning to turn me over to the King that I fled." She brought her focus back to him. "And met you."

He stared at her for a while, slightly dazed by her tale. His magic said that every word she had spoken was the truth. To think that one so young would have experienced pain so deep. At least she was not a green lass, untrained in using her abilities.

He sighed and stood up. "I am sorry for what you have been through," he said solemnly. "You have nothing to fear from me. Instead I offer you my protection. If the dark lord finds you, your life and the lives of many others would be in jeopardy. Do you accept?"

Jacinth considered him shrewdly and decided to accept his offer. "Yes. I accept your protection. But I would also like to know your name as well."

He weighed his options silently and finally relented. "I am called Enceladus, my lady."

Jacinth smiled at new level of respect he had awarded her. He no longer saw her as a child. Enceladus. She decided to trust him. After all, if the worse case scenario happened she would move realms to escape from him.

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