Kota breathed gently, recognizing the faint smell of flowers in the air. The cloudy sky above him moved slowly as he lay in the field. He could feel the emptiness and the peace that surrounded him.
"So, this is where you've been the whole time. I've been searching for you, Kota," a familiar female voice said.
"I feel like I haven't been gone for too long. Did you ever stop to watch the wind sway flowers and leaves? It is quite a peaceful thought. Not to mention the smell is intoxicating," Kota replied, keeping his eyes closed as he took in the sweet smell of the flowers.
Silence filled the air until he heard faint footsteps on the ground. Abruptly, the figure reached down and grabbed his hand before pulling him to his feet. The figure spoke in a familiar voice, a deeper feminine one he recognized. "We do not have time for your daydreaming. Get up now!"
His eyes quickly adjusted to the pitch-black world around him, and everything was void of color except for the red parchment flowers that filled a dozen feet of space in the middle of the darkness. He leaned down and touched one of the red flowers that stood flowing in the imaginary wind.
He glanced in every direction. Then he felt a presence behind him. Moving slowly, he twisted his body around to see a woman standing with her arms crossed. Her red hair hung in a ponytail with a braid on the left, above her ear, and her deep-brown eyes pierced his vision. She had on the white dress he remembered, but she seemed older than before. Taking a step toward her, he found that although he moved, he could not get any closer to her.
"Is this a dream?" Kota asked, noticing he was wearing his light armor from his time in Elida. "I do not feel like I am dreaming, Lucinda. What are you doing here?"
"Last time we spoke, you were being chased by a mystery woman and her friends. I promised someone I would rescue you, and here I am. I would never let you die after you saved me that night," Lucinda stated, smiling as she moved closer.
Kota watched as she gripped the chain holding his ring. Then he looked over his shoulder at something behind him as her smile turned. He twisted around as another figure shoved him onto the ground. They walked past him, grabbing Lucinda and spinning her around, holding her still against their chest.
Unsure of words, Kota stared at them both until a sudden pain shot through his head. Falling to the ground, he gripped the back of his head as a ringing resounded inside his head. In pain, he glanced up to find they were gone. Kota's eyes refocused, seeing Lucinda crouching in front of him. She helped him to his feet before she nodded at someone behind him.
He turned, slowly, to find a mysterious woman, her dark brown hair cascading to one side, reminiscent of Lucinda. Her forehead still bled from their previous encounter. The woman was wearing a strapped black-and-red dress that lay tight around her torso but a little more loosely around her legs. A type of leather brace around her waist cinched it tight. She stood with her arms at her sides, staring at him, her gray eyes fixed on his face.
Kota stood between them, uncertain of the outcome. Then he addressed the mysterious woman. "Dreamt something strange about you lately. You tried to kill me and even almost killed my friend, but I cannot remember what exactly happened or whether it was even real."
"I did not try to kill you. You have this all wrong, Prince," she answered, crossing her arms.
Smiling, she gazed down at the ground on her left. I save you from a worse fate that proves fatal to others on the same path."
Kota followed her eyes to the ground. With a knife in his back, Lukas, Kota's friend, lay lifeless - the very one Kota had thrown at the woman during their last encounter.
With fear for his friend's death, he stepped back as she confessed, "I did more than just attempt to kill him. You had the choice, and this was a simple consequence of those actions. All of your choices have consequences, Prince. You pushed; therefore, I pushed back. A little harder than you, it appears."
Unable to avert his gaze, he trembled with remorse for his actions towards his friend. His mind recalled that night, thinking of Alexis and how he had abandoned her with the woman. He was unsure whether she was dead or alive. His mind soon fell into a dark place, and he clutched his right shoulder, remembering that the woman had dislocated it before leaving the chapel.
Kota fell to his knees as he remembered that night, switching to his other shoulder and clutching it tight from the gash he had received. "Lukas, Alexis, I did not mean for this to happen. If only I had listened to you. I cannot believe..."
The darkness closed in around him, shrinking the field of parchment flowers with every passing moment. As much as he tried, his eyes were straining to focus. Lucinda moved a few feet in front of the approaching darkness and stood beside him. He heard the soft footsteps, and through his peripheral vision, he could see her toes peeking out from the flowers as they stood still, without the imaginary wind that had pushed them before.
The woman placed her hand on his right shoulder before crouching down to his level and told him, "You will have a chance to redeem yourself. The battle continues, but you saved a life that night. She is more important than you know."
His eyes darted as he struggled to recall details from that night, pondering the lives he might have saved amid the chaos. Tracing his actions in his mind, he stumbled on the image of his ring in the hands of a girl wearing a white dress. He looked up at Lucinda. "That's right. It was you. You were able to stay safe for the rest of the morning. I am relieved, as I was not sure whether you could hide after the fight."
His vision lay still blurry as he tried to focus on her face, but now a black cloak lay over her hair, covering her head in shadow. Attempting to extend his arms and legs, he was unable to reach out to her. He looked around one more time, noticing the red parchment flowers had changed to white. Then her hand cupped his chin, and her eyes moved to focus on her voice. He watched as the red of her lips moved as if to speak, but even as he watched them move, he heard nothing. She briefly glanced around, then moved nearer to his face, only inches from him.
"It's time to wake up, Kota. It's been a while, but I need you to move," she said, hastening her hands to the restraints that covered his wrists, releasing his right arm from the chains that bound him.
He watched as she looked around, seeing the dark and desolate area they kept him in, before she moved to release the other restraint wrapped around his left wrist. Seeing the chains hanging from the ceiling did nothing to ease his mind as she hastily removed the additional constraint. She caught him as he fell forward from being hung from the ceiling. He rested his head on her shoulder for a second, taking shallow breaths. He felt himself move as she sat him up against a crate in front of her.
"Kota, can you see me?" asked the woman as she snapped her fingers in front of his eyes.
He struggled to differentiate reality from illusions. Suddenly, she snapped her fingers an inch away from his face again. He tilted his head up in her direction to see the lower half of her face staring down at him, smiling. She reached her hand out to him.
As he reached back for her hand, he nodded in confirmation. "I can see you, but my head hurts."
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
She continued to smile at him with red lips before she pulled him up off the ground as he closed his eyes. Trying to refocus on his surroundings, he stood shakily, but did not regain his full balance. He fell forward onto a barrel that sat in front of him. He gripped the edge of the barrel, and a second later, he opened his eyes to see no one in front of him.
Looking down, he saw a bandage on his left hand that wrapped around the fingers and went beyond the wrist. He looked at his clothes and saw that he wore a torn brown tunic and simple black trousers with no footwear. He glanced around the room and spotted the chains hanging from the ceiling. The manacles were destroyed, as if someone had broken them off his wrists, and the metal lay scattered on the ground.
Clutching the back of his head, he surveyed the room. He saw crates stacked about and scattered chains hanging from the ceiling and walls throughout the area. He noticed the room was dimly lit by small torches, hiding unidentified objects in the shadows. Looking to his left, he noticed a metal door down a low archway.
Kota moved away from the barrel, gripping the edge to keep his balance, before finally walking closer to the door. "Lucinda? Where are you?" asked Kota, trying to regain composure as his vision blurred with the dirt and dust his sweating caused to seep into his eyes.
Gripping his head against some unknown pain, he finally noticed the foul taste of the air left in his mouth. Not knowing where he was, he started moving toward the metal door behind the archway into the short corridor. He shuffled his hands along the stone wall for balance as he approached the door. Without any other issues, he arrived at the door. Pausing, he touched his shoulders - a small scar on the left, no pain on the right.
Did those events even happen? Kota asked himself as he continued to move a step closer to the door, using the wall to brace himself.
He stopped just before grabbing the handle, then took another deep breath, only to see that the door was a touch open inward. Leaning forward, he placed his body against the metal door, shivering against the cold of the steel. With his remaining strength, he tugged at the door.
The metal door moved inch by inch before it stopped, and he put more weight into it. It continued to inch toward him until a body fell into the corridor, revealing a soldier blocking his path. Kota moved from the door and knelt beside the soldier, checking for signs of life. Placing his hand on the fallen soldier's chest, Kota felt that his heart was still, with no sign of breathing. Flipping him over, he saw the man had no marks on his brown armor or scratches on his exposed skin.
He looked at his helmet, and he saw something that had crushed the metal around his skull. The damage inflicted by his attacker showed no signs of blood or struggle. Touching the metal around his head, he discerned the indentations. Kota reached out for the man's belt, which held his weapon, and he saw that it was still sheathed.
After loosening the belt around the soldier's waist, he unsheathed the short sword, which appeared scarcely sharpened. Letting out a sigh of disappointment, Kota sheathed the sword and buckled the belt around his waist. He emerged from the door, surveying the cobblestone-covered area. Moving further away from the door that had held him captive, he noticed a vast, gaping hole in the middle.
His eyes soon adjusted to the difference in the lighting, and he noticed that cell doors littered the walls behind him. He approached the rope railing that hardly secured the edge of the chasm, and he peered over the ledge, seeing that it appeared to have no bottom, at least that he could see. Taking a step back, he looked around again and observed the dim torches that adorned the walls around the crescent-shaped floor.
So, this is Asana Prison. The stories didn't do justice to this place, Kota thought.
He looked around, taking in the crates and barrels stacked near the railing, where the cobblestone ground met the wall. What the hell am I doing here? The prison lies within Mara's kingdom.
In the dim light, his body turned towards the archway at the far end of the chasm. Stairs led up and down, split by torches casting shadows. "Why would that woman bring me here? Is she working for the king of Mara?" he asked calmly, saying his thoughts out loud to think more clearly.
Hearing the faint sound of footsteps against the stone floor, Kota looked around, trying to figure out where they were approaching from. Intuitively, he moved to one of the wooden crates alongside the chasm, and he crouched behind it. He tightened his grip on the hilt of his blade, but could feel the weakened grip he was forming.
Kota closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He glanced at the crate's side, observing the pathway next to the chasm. Not seeing anything and no longer hearing footsteps, he sighed with relief and turned his head to look behind him. His focus fixed on the curved ax blade inches from his face.
"Guess I am not as quiet as I thought. Interesting, you do not appear to be a guard here. State your name and business here, and we will see whether I kill you," said the ax holder in a deep tone.
Kota dropped the sword onto the ground and quietly raised his hands, keeping his eyes fixed on the sharp tip just inches from his face.
"Did you hear me, boy? Answer me," the voice said through the black-painted bone headpiece, moving the ax closer to Kota's throat.
"My name is Kota. I do not know why I am here. I woke up to find the guard at the door dead. Honest," explained Kota, looking into the eyeholes of the bone structure. He studied the shadows obscuring their eyes, unable to discern their eye color.
The figure loosened their grip on the ax's handle and took a step back. Eyeing Kota, the figure moved closer again, making the blade of the ax sit under Kota's chin. Moving the ax upward, the figure lifted his head to get a better sight of Kota's face. "Did you say Kota? As in Winters, the Prince of Damira who disappeared?"
Kota lowered his hands while positioning himself, nodding in agreement. The figure wore a mixture of skintight cloth and some dark steel knight's armor for mobility and protection. The bone headpiece looked like a giant bird with brown and gray feathers down the back of its head. The hawk-like bone mask covered their face from sight, providing protection, and it appeared to be some makeshift armor that gave a fearful appearance.
Kota glanced at the figure's bare hand gripping the ax, then looked back at their eyes and answered the question. "Yes, I am a prince of Damira. It's only been a few days, and the kingdom knows of my disappearance. That is a good sign."
The figure lowered the ax as they stared into Kota's eyes. The stranger moved the weapon aside and reached out their other hand for him. Kota grabbed the figure's hand, and the figure lifted him to a standing position and stabilized him. The figure moved him to the crates that he had been hiding behind so he could brace himself against them.
"You do appear to have his features... what happened to you?" The figure spoke as they examined Kota from head to toe.
"I was captured and brought here. That brown-haired lightning woman brought me here to be a prisoner for some ransom or information. She didn't exactly tell me why when she was breaking my arm..." Kota stopped mid-sentence, leaving grief on his face, and looked down at his sword, which he had put down earlier.
The figure moved their helm in reaction to the look on Kota's face. "A brown-haired lightning woman attacked you? Are you sure you are all right?"
"She called upon lightning with ease during our quick encounter. She laid a trap for me, and I fell for it, leaving my family and friends at risk. It was a rash decision that I now regret," explained Kota, trying to remember whether Alexis and Lukas were alive.
The figure stood sharply, and Kota questioned their movements as he reached for his sword. Then they responded to his comments. "Lightning caller? Interesting. You might not know what has happened since your capture, if you are him."
Kota watched as the figure moved away from him, as if to hide something. "What do you mean? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's only been a few days, right?"
He watched as the stranger breathed lightly through their helmet, unsure of what to say. Staying silent, they tightened their grip on the ax as the sound of footsteps and metal filled the air. Behind the figure, three guards turned the corner of the darkened wall by the chasm. The guards paused for a second, noticing the two of them, before one of them looked around the figure to see Kota. Turning his attention, the guard sought where Kota had been imprisoned, and saw the guard on the floor, dead.
"Trying to break out, Prince? "Looks like you've made a friend as well," said the guard on the left, drawing his blade.
"We've only just met, but we had nothing to do with that guard," Kota replied, gesturing over toward the stranger.
"Whatever. It doesn't matter what that woman wants from you. I am going to enjoy killing both of you where you stand," said the guard, standing on the right side, smacking his speared mace onto the ground with a loud clang.
The figure next to Kota gestured to where he had dropped the sword on the floor earlier. As the figure turned, Kota went to pick it up, and their eyes met. "I will answer any questions you want if you help me deal with these pests."
Standing to face his opponents, Kota held the sword hilt up with the blade running along the inside of his forearm. He looked around at his surroundings, knowing he would not win a fair fight, and he noticed the boxes and chains around the area.
The two were waiting for the guards to move closer when the figure spoke to Kota, raising their ax toward the guards. "I can tell you are not at full strength yet, so stay close. I will keep you alive."