SWNOVELS Chapter 9: Harsh truth
(Me)
Reverting back to human, I look back watching as the Estate is engulfed in light. Tears having never stopped flowing down my face as my heart soon breaks more as it vanishes from sight.
I can’t believe that I’ve lost my home, my family, my mother, all over again. This…this can’t be real. I have to be dreaming. There’s simply no way that this is happening. Velhemina, Silvi, the combat maids, Xiphos, everyone…Mom. All now gone.
I turn and sob bitterly into Orga’s back, clinging tightly to him. We have no heading, no direction; we just continue to fly around. I don’t even hear the wind as it passes over the canopy.
“We have incoming,” announces Orga.
I look up to see that we are surrounded by a pair of fighter jets. Somehow they must’ve been on patrol when the sight of the Estate going up attracted them. Normally my home is undetectable to even satellite imagery due to the barrier.
I look over to my right, watching as the pilot stares at us, his eyes wide with shock at seeing us flying through the air.
“Are they more enemies, Your Highness?” asks Orga.
I don’t listen to him. Not even caring at this point. I stare at the pilot as he points his thumb down.
“I believe he is telling us to land, Your Highness,” adds my knight.
When the pilot see that we aren’t complying, he veers off and moves away. My head then turns top the rear, seeing that they’re right behind us. “Orga…they’re going to shoot at us.”
“Why?” he asks.
“Too long to explain, get us out of here.”
My knight nods. I watch as a flash of blue light engulfs the pilots, disorienting them for a moment. Unfortunately, one of the pilots managed to fire off a missile. I could actually hear it screaming towards us.
The wave-rider then fires something akin to a flare, distracting the missile, causing it to veer off and explode. The force of the explosion however impacts one of the engines, causing it to lose power and shatters the canopy.
“Hold on tightly, Your Highness,” calls out Orga.
The nose then dips as we begin to fall towards the ground, unable to maintain flight. Wind rushes painfully against my face as we careen towards the forest below, watching as the trees become ever closer to us.
I pan over to see Kateryna slowly inching towards us. She flies under us, trying to stabilize our descent by emitting what I can only describe as a repulsion barrier.
But it’s not enough. Our craft begins to crash into the trees below. The branches scrape along the wings, which are soon shorn off. The top of one tree actually destroys the engines. The impact flings me from his back, sending me flying.
I land hard some distance away in a clearing, bouncing and rolling until I come to stop on the soft grass. I lay there, burying my face into the grass. My body aches from the crash, feeling bruised and battered, but felt nothing broken.
The memories come flooding back into me. I replay watching my mother getting stabbed, holding her up, and to have to flee from her. The image of seeing Silvi getting shot and falling to the ground flashes across my mind like a searing hot blade. I watched the greenhouse as it exploded, with my aunt possibly having still been inside. I don’t even have a clue if anyone made it out when Mom issued the evacuation command.
I let out a deep and loud cry; my tears slowly soak into the earth beneath me. In the span on a couple of hours, nearly my entire world has been destroyed. My heart lies in tatters.
Fenris emerges from my shadow. “Aria, you must rise. You cannot stay there,” he says.
I shake head, crying even harder.
Mom. Mom, why did you have to send me away? Even if it was a fleeting or false hope, I wanted to stay with you. You’ve always said that I’m the other half of your heart, well you’re mine. I feel incomplete, broken. I just can’t accept that any of this is really happening to me.
Fenris places his nose under my face and bats it up to where my chin is now resting on the top of his muzzle. His ice-blue eyes glare deeply into mine.
“Your mother sacrificed herself in order that you might have a chance to escape and survive,” he says angrily. “You must not squander this chance. If you do, then our enemies have already achieved yet another victory.”
I stare into his eyes. Tears, having never stopped flowing, mix with the dirt on my face. “Fenris,” I said chokingly, “I don’t…I don’t know what to do.”
His gaze softens. “You do know, my little Aria,” he says, his voice sounding gentle, reassuring. “You must first rise. Dry your tears, little one. Gather your courage for what comes next will be harder still.”
I get up, now sitting on my knees. My bonded then presses the top of his head into mine. “My little Aria,” he continues, “I am still with you. You are still my little girl, and I your father. Lean on me, for I am your pillar.”
My hands reach up and cling to his fur. My face buries into his, tears soaking his fur. “Please don’t leave me.”
“I shall never leave you,” he says gently. “You are not alone either, my little Aria. You still have others to turn to. We must go to them.”
I sniff, wiping my tears from my raw cheeks. A soft smile rises on my lips, “Thank you, Papa Wolf.” I nuzzle his face. The wolf smiles, grumbling happily at my touch.
Once more I feel like darkness is gripping my heart, but yet again, Fenris is here to help me out of it. Without him here…I don’t know what I’d do.
The sounds of twigs snapping fill my ears. “Your Highness,” I hear being called out. “Where are you?”
I pan around to see Orga and Kateryna stepping out from the tree. I get up and dash over to them, throwing myself into their waiting arms. With them doing the same, holding me tightly to their chests.
I look up each of them, cheeks stinging raw. “Are…are you guys alright?” I ask.
They each nod. “We are, Your Highness,” replies Kateryna.
“Agreed,” adds Orga. “Were you injured after you were flung from us?”
I shake my head, “Nothing too serious.” I smile softly as they hold me even tighter to them.
I feel Orga’s hand stroking the back of my hair. “Sadly,” he laments, “my wave-rider was severely damaged in the crash. While it is salvageable, I have no possible means of repairing it.”
I pan up at Kateryna. The elf smiles gently, “Mine is in fairly working order, Your Highness. But I regret that I can only carry one person on it.”
I nod softly. While not the most ideal of circumstances, if worse came to worse, Orga can still ride with his wife while I rode on Fenris’ back. But given our condition, it wouldn’t be the best of ideas.
Kateryna then pulls out something from behind her. “Her Ladyship gave this to me shortly after Lady Sil’vari was shot down.” My gaze turns down to see that it’s my backpack purse.
I slowly take it from her and open it. I stare into it; discovering that it’s nothing but a deep dark pit. I reach my hand inside, smirking as my mother had enchanted like the travel case she first sent me nearly three years ago, meaning that it really is a bottomless pit.
My hand searches around, feeling all sorts of things hidden within it. I feel suitcases, books, even my swords, but real and wooden. Guess I’ll have to use a summoning spell to pull everything I need. I even feel little cubes, no doubt Mom added even more to the bag than I thought.
My eyes then grow wide as my fingers strum over something, something very important. I grab hold of the item and pull it out, revealing the Xur’canah. Both of my knights look at it stunned.
I roll it in my hand. “Oh Mom,” I say quietly.
I look up and walk a bit, seeing another clearing that overlooks the forest below. I stand there at the edge towards the direction of my home. I feel the wind catching my hair from behind. My tattered jacket flutters around me. I put my hand over my chest.
Mom, please know that I will live on. Please watch over me and my party. I am forever your daughter and you my mother. Silvi, I wish I could’ve done more with you. Velhemina, auntie, I miss you. To everyone else, please, please let there be some of you that made it out.
I look down at the lantern. After my fight with Diana, there were times when I thought about destroying it, that way no one could take it. But I never could bring myself to do it. Something just told me that I should hold onto it.
Right now I know I have to protect it, keeping it out of the hands of Regulus and Selene. Heh…guess apart from simply staying alive, Mom gave me the mission to keep this thing safe.
I tap on a few of the crystal panels, making it collapse into its disc form. I turn and toss it back into the bag, and walk back towards my party, once more having the wind catch my hair.
I walk past Fenris and my knights, who start walking with me.
“What is our course of action, Your Highness?” asks Orga.
I reopen my bag, wondering what else Mom dumped into it. “Well it goes without saying that we can’t stay here. With us down a wave-rider and I highly doubt Fenris is in any shape to carry me pretty far, I say our options are limited.”
I dig through my bag until I find a small cube with something in it. I grin as it’s my Sportage. “Heh, Mom really thought of everything.”
I pull out the cube and place it onto the ground, tapping on it three times to release the spell. I take a few steps back as my car grows back to its original size. I walk over to it, pulling out my keys from my bag.
I open the door and look inside. Mom even enchanted my car as the interior was now three times as spacious, now being a lot more comfortable with better seats and a brand new interior. It looks more like the inside of one of her TARDIS cars.
I look to my party, “Let’s hop in.”
Orga walks over to me, “Are you sure you are up to driving us, Your Highness? Maybe I should take over while you get some rest.”
“You know how to drive a car?” I ask, tilting my head and looking to him with disbelief.
He hesitates for a moment before backing down, “I do not, Your Highness. Please forgive my presumptuousness.”
I place my hand onto his arm, “No need to apologize. I know you’re worried about me and I really do appreciate it.”
“You are welcome, Your Highness,” he says smiling.
“So where shall be our destination, Your Highness?” asks Kateryna, as she stands next to her husband.
I walk back to the driver’s seat. “First things first, we need to get moving,” I tell her.
I know I’m putting on a brave face for them, or I’m just trying to hold down the pain over losing Mom and the Estate. Lord knows I’m just about to topple over.
My knights look at each other and nod, walking to the other doors and climb in. Fenris hops into the back, resting onto the floor. I look at everyone; we’re all pretty banged up, and could use some friends right about now. My knights look to me, smiling. They too are trying to put on a brave face for me. I give them a tearful smile as I turn to slide into the car.
I feel something tugging on my pinkie. I look down to see a thin red ethereal thread attached to it. I peer off into the distance. Where are you? I really hope you’ll come back. I need you, now more than ever.
Marron.
I slide into my seat and start the car. I pan over to the central console, which apparently Marie had tinkered with again. I strum my fingers over the touchscreen, hitting a few panels. Outside, the car seems to turn invisible, handy. I then bring the GPS and plot in our heading. With it set, I put the car into Drive and push on through the forest and onto the road.