Magdeline

I found myself back in the strange room Magdeline and I discovered, but I was chained to the floor, surrounded by people in white cloaks, and encircled by a black flame. I screamed, the impact of the cold ground still lingering against my face. I thought I had fallen to my death, yet I found myself in a place completely foreign to me. Voices were passed to one another as I sat there helplessly, trying to figure out where I was.

"Has the twin soul awoketh?" One man asked.

"It seemeth so." A woman responded.

There was much murmuring amongst them while others seemed to be taking notes on the tables against the wall. I looked ahead, a figure in bronze armor with white cloth flowing through it, and a another in a long frilly white dress stood side by side just outside the circle. The black flame dimly lit their faces, but I had already figured out exactly who they were.

I quickly recoiled my hand back from the faded marks, shocked from the horrors of my past life. I was sweating profusely and tears began to run down my face. What is wrong with me? Why was this the life I lived previously? In the end, there was no mother for me to go back home to, nor was there a reason for me to go back to my old world. No, it is not that there is no reason, but it is that I do not deserve to go back. Perhaps I was brought to see Caelum's destruction as a sort of hell for my sins. Still, this place has to be my only way back home, but I nor Magdeline had the no means to know how to conduct whatever ritual took place, or even how to get what we would need. Even if I found a way to make my way home, surely only hell awaits me back there too, for that is what I deserve. The thoughts were hard to bear alone, so I turned to the one person who had always stuck with me.

I looked up at Magdeline, and there she was, close to the same spot where she stood next to Fesha when I was chained here, holding her rusted kitchen knife out toward me.

"It was thee... Ho-How could I have forgotten. The traitor and heretical dragon worshiper!" She said. "No wonder thee spoketh as if from a far away land. Thine soul wasn't even of this world."

"What?" Was all I could say in that moment.

"Ah, apologies to thee twin soul, for dragging thine soul from thy world. Perhaps being here is far too different." She paused. "Then again, souls drawn by the black flame are those whose lives were drenched in blood. Perhaps I shouldn't feel too sorry. It's only right thee witness hell firsthand." She said in an angry tone.

"It was you who brought me here?" I asked.

"Silence, I talk to the prince now." She said. "Heed my sorrows. To think thee would betrayeth the king, his own father. He had high hopes for thee, yet thou turnest to the dragons. By the gods, what was Fesha envious of? Why couldn't the king just give the throne to a woman more fit for the role?" She started talking to herself.

I stood from my spot, tears still streaming down my face, hoping I could reason with the only friend I felt I truly ever had. As I got on both feet, Magdeline finally broke down. She charged me with the knife. As its dull blade got close to me stomach, my arm was taken over. My hand swiped the knife out of her's, clattering against the wall and the blade breaking from the wooden handle. I caught her shoulders and shoved her back.

"What's wrong with you?" I yelled at her.

"Thou art what is wrong! Ever since thee cameth back on that pale dragon, the king went mad! How were we ever going to win the war against the motherland when our king was too worried about his good for nothing son! It was only a matter of time before they waged war, we've cut trade with them, or is thou too dense to know? Thou wast the hope of Caelum, yet thee cometh back playing dragon keeper, such a wretched title! No wonder the king had thee sent away, such a weak devotion to our sky god thee haveth!" She shouted. Her voice suddenly softened. "Is the prince still even in there?" She asked as if trying to hold back tears.

A strange, indescribable feeling filled my chest. I knew it was the man within me, but he seemed to have gotten weaker. I felt him trying to take control but all he could take now was my arm. Instead I answered for him.

"He's here, and he heard everything." I said as the feeling began to subside.

Magdeline began quietly sobbing to herself, muttering about how she should have remembered who I was and how she wished to killed me. I chose to ignore the harshness of what she was saying and began to walk back up the stairs. When I turned, she had not followed.

"Are you sticking with me or not?" I asked, somewhat aggravated.

She reluctantly followed and we were back in the ethereal light of the throne room. My eyes felt heavy and my sight was hazy, and with that, I knew it was time to sleep. I set up to sit against the wall, and Magdeline decided to sit a bit away from me. That night I could not sleep. My eyes were still heavy and it was getting somewhat hard to see, yet sleep would not catch me. Maybe it was the permanent light, or it was due to what had happened earlier, but Magdeline had also been talking in her sleep.

"Th-They're gone? Mother and father? But why?" There was a long pause. "I swear an oath to kill every last dragon and those who worship them." She whispered, though it was still loud enough for me to hear. 

After a long while of her sleep talking keeping me up, I finally fell unconscious. I woke up delirious and my vision still somewhat hazy, the bright light still upon me. I turned to see that Magdeline had disappeared. I looked around the room frantically, but she was nowhere in sight, though it was still hard for me to see. I stood up and decided to get my things together. There was a slight stinging on the side of my neck. I rubbed my finger over it to see the crust of dark dried blood smeared on my finger. I went to pick up my stuff and noticed that "L's" notes and the sword kept in my spear were gone.