ONE

… Cahti

The question caught me by surprise. “You don’t know?” Taelynn shook her head. I’d assumed she already knew. The Pythos religion was the most common in Juniac, and it summed things up pretty well. I looked at Taelynn and decided something- I would tell her everything. Maybe it was just my last life making me act irrationally.

“I was given a thousand lives by the old Council of Magicians,” I started. My hold on her emotions was strong enough that she wouldn’t betray me. And besides, I could always kill her later.

“I thought you were immortal?” Taelynn said.

“Theoretically, yes. A Magician can’t die of old age or sickness. So for each of my lives, I could live forever. But Aeshen always killed me before then.”

“Aeshen?” Taelynn sounded alarmed. “Who is that?”

“Aeshen is the Chaos Magician. She uses Magic from Chaos instead of Order. I was given my lives to defeat her.” I took a deep breath. “And now I only have one life left.”

“So?” Taelynn shrugged. “I only have one life too. And so does everyone else. It’s not a big deal.” She paused. “Does Aeshen have a thousand lives?”

“No.” I was angry at myself. Aeshen only had one life, and yet she’d managed to take so many of mine. She’d always been better than me.

“Why do you fight her?” Taelynn asked.

“She uses Chaos Magic,” I said simply.

“But, is she evil?”

“Of course! You’ve heard the legends of the forest- no one comes back out once they go in.”

“You said they weren’t true.”

“I said it wasn’t the insects that killed people.” I let that sink in for a while.

“How many?” Taelynn whispered.

“I don’t know. Too many.”

“Then let’s fight her.”

I laughed. “You can’t even do Magic!”

“Just because I can’t do Magic, doesn’t mean I’m useless,” Taelynn said with determination. “Besides, if you’re the Honored ONE, isn’t there a prophecy or something proclaiming your victory?”

I thought about it for a moment. “Yes. A prophecy from the Stars.” The Stars never lied. They could see the future, and their prophecies always came true. “They said, ‘ONE shall triumph over evil.”

“Then you have nothing to fear,” Taelynn said.

I nodded. But why was some part of me still afraid? I was the Chosen ONE, not Aeshen. I had been given a thousand lives, not Aeshen. And Aeshen was evil- she’d killed me over and over again without mercy. 

But then, why did I still feel scared as I spoke? “Very well, then. We will leave tomorrow morning.”

I handed Taelynn a bundle containing some weapons. I still thought she was crazy for wanting to fight Aeshen without Magic. But then again, those with Magic often died too. I made sure my hold on Taelynn’s emotions was strong- I couldn’t risk her slipping away during a fight.

“Do I get any armor?” she asked.

I shook my head. “You’ll be too slow with it. Just don’t get hit.” She probably wouldn’t, anyways. Aeshen always attacked me, and only me, first. She ignored my apprentices, but sometimes I was forced to use an apprentice to shield myself. Whatever it takes to survive. I repeated the thought aloud.

“What?” Taelynn asked.

“That’s my only rule. Survive.”

Taelynn nodded. “It’s similar in the Outskirts.”

“Let’s go,” I said, and opened a door. Behind it was the transportation pectahlz to Aeshen’s battlegrounds. I’d traveled there so many times that I finally decided to carve the permanent pectahlz into my floor.

I stepped onto the pectahlz with Taelynn and activated it. The walls came and faded. I was in the familiar scenery of Aeshen’s home. She had created giant stone spikes and pillars protruding above the treetops and lived somewhere among them. I’d never actually found her house.

I heard a quiet thump as Aeshen landed on the spike in front of me. 

“So it ends.” She said softly, drawing two long blades from her back.

“You will not win, Aeshen!” I shouted. “The stars prophesied I would defeat you. The stars cannot lie.”

“But you did,” Aeshen said. 

My face flushed and I wasted no time drawing pectahlz. I leaped to her stone tower and attacked.