Inheritance

Chapter 31: Butterfly

Before the sun came out, Kori left the king's side and slipped on a silver night gown made of fine silk. She padded out of the room on silent feet and grabbed a candle holder from her own quarters before heading down the stairs and outside onto the grassy inner bailey.

On the way out, she had nodded and greeted many of the guards who stood watch at night within the castle, but declined their company and protection when they asked if she wanted it.

Once she was outside, Kori blew out the candle and wrapped the shawl she had grabbed from her room closer about her shoulders.

It was snowing, and the chill night bit through her tiny ankles and wrists. She felt her teeth rattling in her head as she stood shivering in the night air. Her toes were the greatest victim of the chilly weather, as they were shoeless and buried in the snowy, wet grass.

She let her shawl and her deep breathing warm her.

Eventually, her breathing and body temperature evened out and she set her candle holder down and looked up at the clear and starry night sky with dreamy eyes.

She closed her eyes and concentrated intensely on summoning that other world.

She breathed deeply for many moments and listened to the rhythmic sound of her breathing until it felt like all she was was merely a heartbeat and a breath. When she accomplished this, she walked through the bailey with her eyes still closed—as if she were sleep-walking or in a trance.

At first, she saw nothing.

She stumbled through black nothingness with her arms outstretched and with her mind dictated by base impulses.

She stumbled like that for many minutes, although she did not realize it. Soon, she was no longer in the world as she knew it. A different world bloomed to life within her closed eyes; a world that only waif mages could see.

It was an ethereal world filled with black shapes and electric blue, wavering outlines encasing those shapes. Snow still gently drifted down from the sky, but it was not white; it was a blue that pulsed with a white, blinding brightness every other second.

She was no longer in the castle. She was in one of the Dark Woods spread throughout the waif homeland, Trella. Woods which, regardless of what hour in the day it was, were always dark. Waifs, being solitary and nocturnal creatures, made many homes in the mighty branches of the tall woods there and enjoyed the quietness and darkness of the shaggy forests.

The trees surrounding her had the same blue outlines as everything else, as did the black puddle of water which was encircled by the trees. Kori felt her mind disconnecting from her body as she went to the puddle and had only a vague remembrance of what she was looking for.

She approached the black puddle and was entranced by the electric blue lines rippling about in the otherwise black shape.

And then, on all-fours, she let herself gaze into it.

She saw herself, only, it was a distorted and glassy image of herself, which matched the strange world around her.

She looked at it with intensity for many silent moments.

Eventually, there was a change within the pool.

She gasped in terror as the king appeared behind her in the reflection. He placed a hand on her lower back, and it was such a cold and freezing hand that it chained Kori in place. His arm reached around to her stomach and pulled her into a sitting position onto his lap. "What are you doing, Kori? Have you chosen that sickly and corrupt boy over me? I thought I was your dream."

Kori gulped and her mouth trembled as it was pulled into a horrified grimace. She attempted to say something—her mouth moved--but no words came out. Only whimpers escaped her lips.

Across the pool, she saw a shining, turquoise butterfly appear—the type she needed to regain her magic and her energy.

Because she was silenced, she tried to struggle free from his grasp but he easily restrained her by the hips as she dug up dirt trying to claw her way away from him.

Her cheeks were covered in tears for a moment, and still she could not speak.

She was stuck in his embrace as he whispered cruel things in her long, pointed ears. "I am the only one who has showed you kindness in an otherwise unkind and cruel world. You had no other friends when you left, and that is still mostly true, isn't it? What will you do if you lose my love and company?"

And then, within the reflection, she saw her own mother ripple to life and stare her down with emotionless and cruel eyes. Those eyes were not colored in black like the rest of her surroundings; they were colored in a violent red.

"Such devious behavior must be reprimanded. I'm sorry, Kori. I must tell the Elder of your transgressions."

Suddenly, Kori found her voice. "Mother, no! Please don't make me go! What will I do? Where will I go?"

She looked down her nose at her daughter. "You should have thought of that before behaving so recklessly. It's people like you whose behavior corrupts our entire society and will make it as vile as the rest of the world."

And as terror shot through her body, she found the primal strength to wrestle her way out of the king's arms and jump into the pool--making the image of her mother fade away.

She gurgled for a moment, and then pumped her arms and legs as hard as she could as she swam toward the butterfly.

She heard two splashes behind her as she went which made her pump her arms and legs all the faster.

And suddenly, ahead of her, a hand materialized under the butterfly. It was a hand filled in with an ivory color. In a moment, the body attached to the hand materialized as well.

It was Eory—shining just as much as the butterfly was—and waiting for her on the other side.

Kori grinned with tears falling from her eyes.

She reached the other side of the pool and eagerly tried to embrace Eory, but he disappeared and all that was left was the butterfly.

She sniffled, and with a heavy heart, grabbed the butterfly and crushed it in her hands.

When she was brought back to reality, she was still sobbing. She felt energy fill her body, but she also felt cold and alone and like she had lost something very important.