Duty and Destiny

He felt his body being pulled, but he didn’t know where to. He felt like he was in a daze and not completely in touch with his body. Archer opened his eyes, and the sudden bright light was blinding, but all he could see were green leaves.

His eyes weren’t doing him that much good, so Archer relied on his ears. He couldn’t hear any voice that he recognized. But what made him even more scared was that he couldn’t hear Adalia’s voice. The last thing he heard was her begging him to breathe and at the time he couldn’t. But now he seemed to be able to. He didn’t understand. Was he dead?

It would explain the bright lights, the leafy green trees around him. But this couldn’t be heaven, his heaven was with Adalia. Archer tried to sit up, but a hand forced him down. He saw something like a cloth cover his face. He tried to fight against it, but the darkness claimed him once more.

***

Adalia stood at her bedroom window. She hadn’t left her room ever since she had returned. She wouldn’t see anyone, and she wouldn’t let anyone in. Her room had gone weeks without seeing a single ray of sunlight or breathing in a single breath of air. She was just as dead as her heart was, just as dead as Archer was.

She looked out the window; the dark clouds had covered the moon. Just as it should have, she was in no mood for light, or anything that reminded her of Archer’s silver eyes. Adalia was angry at herself, at the gods and at him. He left her when he promised never to leave her side. Now she was alone in her grief, in her darkness and in her bottomless pit of heart ache. The air was cold, the mountains dark and the long blanket of fog seemed to cover more than just the ground. It had seeped into her soul, covering everything in a thick cloud of darkness.

Randi and Novia had stayed in the North as per the earlier agreement. But Adalia wasn’t going to hold up to her end when the time came. According to her, she only had one husband and when he died, she died.

“Go away!” was her usual response to a knock on the door.

Xander walked in anyway. He expected her to be wrapped up in her grief for a couple of days, but he never expected it to spill into a month.

“It’s just me,” he announced.

“I said go away,” she half growled.

“But it’s me Xander,” he said again, certain that she hadn’t identified him the first time he announced himself.

“It is you, Xander,” she chuckled. The cold sound of her laughter was like the tip of an ice pick, piercing through the air between them. “The same Xander who was supposed to scout the forest and make sure there were no rebels waiting for the carriage. The same Xander who wasn’t there when we were fighting to survive to live,” she grabbed his shirt and shook him. “The same Xander who wasn’t there when my Archer was being killed. Where were you?” she screamed the last part as her heart shuttered into a thousand pieces the millionth time that day.

“You need to move on with your life,” he was almost begging her.

Adalia moved away from him and went back to the window.

Xander moved to her table and saw that everything had been untouched. Her make up case, jeweler box and diary had not been opened. He flipped the pages of her diary open hoping to come across a happy memory that they had shared. He was holding on to the chance that he would somehow be able to pull her out of her suicidal depression.

But when he opened the last page, his hopes were squashed. “I love him. I love Archer,” he closed the diary and sent it flying into a wall across from him. “Is he all that you think about?”

“Think about?” The words left her lips as if they were the most idiotically arranged words she had ever heard. What else could be on her mind? “I think about him, I live him, I breathe him. My world ended when he died. I died with him on that field. The only thing keeping me here-,” she pounded on her chest. “In this body, is my family?”

She walked back to the window. “I stare out this window thinking how easy it would be for me to just jump. I wouldn’t let my wings out. I would just fall and in an instant Archer and I would be back together.”

***

Xander snarled and marched out the room. He had heard enough of Archer, in death he had been more of an obstacle than he ever was in death. He took in a couple of quick breaths.

“She’s going to get over this,” he repeated to himself over and over again.

A ghost couldn’t stop him from marrying Adalia. One day she would come out of her depression, and he would be there waiting. But it was a ghost that he had created. Xander could remember the night he found out that Adalia and Archer were pushing through with their vows. He felt left out and cast out. He was angry and he wanted revenge. He went to the forest that night and he found his group of rebels waiting for him.

What Xander had failed to tell Gabrielle was that all the former leaders had been captured and killed, and out of fear the rest followed him. That night they agreed to a plan that he had set for Archer. The next day as he led the carriage into the woods, he knew of the ambush. He waited aside so as not to be caught in the cross hairs. But he also wanted to see Archer arrive. He wanted to get ready for the most opportune time to kill him.

He watched as Archer fought like the true warrior that he was. Once the fight was over, he knew that this was his chance. The guards would be busy trying to sift through the rebels and the royal guards, through the living and the dead. He almost didn’t do it when he saw Adalia. But when he saw the looks, they exchanged, that of love, he couldn’t take it. He through the hood of his cape over his face, charging sword first he was able to bury his blade deep into Archer’s side.

Looking into his eyes he could see the shock. He could see the life draining out of his body and it gave him a rush. Xander drew his blade out and disappeared back into the forest. He went round, as the guards ran in the direction, he disappeared in. He revealed himself knowing very well that they wouldn’t suspect him. They were looking for a rebel and not King Gabrielle’s trusted foot soldier.

He had this sadistic feeling of pleasure when he pulled Adalia away from Archer’s lifeless body. He had won, he had finally won.