Baeto

Chapter Nine

 ~~~Authors Note~~~

Hello readers! Before you read this chapter be aware that there is a map of this world available for reference.

Thank you for being awesome!

Alex Sands

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The dream I'm having is strange. I feel like I'm spinning out of in control, never in the moment long enough to comprehend what's happening.

Colors flash in front of my eyes, lilac, blue, bright orange, blood red. I can hear shouting but it's far. I can hear cries of laughter and pleads for help. I see a couple dancing in a candle-lit room, their shadows following their movement. I watch a mother cry over a grave and father drink till he can't feel the pain. I can see children working, their fingers gently holding needles and gliding them through fabric. They move in perfect unison and with each stitch into the fabric a piece of their childhood is thrown away.

I stand before a war. Cannons and balls of light firing at each other. I close my eyes and brace for impact, ready to feel the pain of every bone in my body shattered. The cannon goes right through me.

I blink and I'm in a room with Alti. He is crying and I want to ask him what's wrong but my voice won't come out. I give him a hug and when I open my eyes again its not Alti I'm hugging but a woman. I pull back to study her.

Everything slows for a minute. She is a beautiful goddess, no, a deity. She smiles at me her full lips never parting but instead curving up. She looks familiar, like a long lost friend, I feel as if I should know who she is.

Her eyes are closed, relaxed, her face almost a smile, despite the thick chains keeping her tied down.

"Child," my heart swells at the sound of her voice, it is soft and calm and beautiful, like the way Alti sang. She talks the way my mother did. "I'm proud of you, but you have a long way to go. Please hurry, I'm afraid time is running out." Then,  just like that, I'm whisked back into chaos. I stand in the middle of a battle. This time when the cannon hits me I'm thrown across the field and land in the vast ocean. There is no land I can see. Something grabs my legs and pulls me down. I kick and strain to reach the surface, fighting for air, my feet held down in the thick sand while Marx elves laugh around me. Their sharp teeth glinting in the darkness, their smiles unnerving. One flicks sand in my face with its tail. I close my eyes and concentrate on pulling something from within me. I don't notice anything happen besides the faint glow of the mark on my hand.

I finally loose air, my body limp in the sand, my vision black, the waves rocking me back and forth, the Marx elves jeering my name.

It isn't long until the collective shouting of my name morphs into a vaguely familiar voice.

"Hey, you've gotta wake up." The waves rock my body more. "Hey, girl." He says again.

I wake up and I'm sitting in a hospital bed. My foot is wrapped up and a mage sits working his magic.

The black-haired boy is next to me, in my groggy state I hear him laugh weakly. "Well, what do you know the princess is awake." I realize it was his voice in my dream.

I try to sit up but the boy puts a hand on my shoulder to keep me down, gesturing to the mage. I've never seen a mage work before. His hands twist and create a blue glow in the air, similar to the light from the godly promise I share with Venia. I look at my hand, studying what's written. I can't read it, the words appear to be Numinan, which makes sense. It is a godly promise.