Reality and Royals

Raven felt a rumble beneath her feet, startling her. She looked at Kira, seeing that she was just as befuddled. They were the only ones amongst the other pedestrians. It became all too clear how out of place she was.

“Richard? Can you hear me?” she called out, glancing about with narrowed eyes. “What’s going on?”

His silence was troublesome.

"That’s impossible,” Kira whispered. Raven whipped her head to her to see her gaze pointed at the sky. Looking up, she watched as voluminous gray-black clouds billowed together. Her heart thumped against her chest at the shadow they cast.

She tried to call for Richard again, adding a dire note to her voice.

He didn’t answer.

Turning to Kira, to apologize for having to cut their conversation short, she jolted seeing she was only one left on the bench. Her head whipped around and the park was empty.

For a moment, it felt like someone was suffocating her. With a sharp reminder she was only in someone else’s mind, she prepared herself to leave. She closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, and imagined she was leaving through a door. Her breathing and heart rate were returning to normal.

After two to three minutes, she realized she was still in the park. She couldn’t feel Kira’s hand under hers or the warmth of the sun on her back—only cold. She couldn’t hear the sounds of the other patients in the institution, only silence.

She opened her eyes and tried not to panic. Perhaps she had done it wrong? It was her first time that she had managed this without the intent to hurt anyone. Not having much practice, she would fail until she mastered it.

Poising herself to try again, a loud voice calling her name interrupted her. Startled, she looked to see—to see something impossible; someone impossible.

Yet, how could she not recognize the slender male figure running towards her? She stared, her body stuck to the bench.

He sighed once he reached her. “For a moment, I thought I wouldn’t make it in time. It’s a lot harder to find someone when they’re surfing someone else’s mind.”

Raven continued to stare at him, wide-eyed and rigid. She managed to say, “T-Theodore?”

His smile was apologetic and fond. “It’s been a while, Vena.”

She stared. Then her arms wrapped around his torso. He cradled her until she settled down enough to step back, but not enough that she couldn’t touch his face. “How is this even possible?”

There was that apologetic smile again. “I’ll explain later.” Raven let go of his face with a deep-set frown. He held up his hands. “I know you might not believe me but your life is in danger.” Her frown lessened and her eyebrows furrowed. “The ominous scene is magic’s way of warning you. I can conjure an exit for you, so you can wake up. Then, we need to go find William and his friends.”

A door materialized behind Raven and, when she turned about around, Theodore wasn’t there. She looked about for a moment, then went for the door.

Seconds later, she was sitting in Kira’s room and sporting a mild headache. Opening her eyes, her gaze fell on Theodore, who was standing opposite of her. Seeing him shattered any shred of disbelief she held.

She stood up, then remembered Richard and whipped her head over to where sat—where he should have been. Frowning, she noticed that Kira was missing too. Only her wheelchair remained.

It was quiet.

“What’s going on, Theo?” Raven tried to keep her voice steady. “Where is everyone?”

The skin around his eyes was tight and his brows were low. “I’m not sure,” he admitted, not meeting her eyes. “All I know is that they took them to make it easier to get to you. I’ve never seen what happens up close, though. When I got here, the institute was already empty.” He looked at her. “We’ll figure it out, but we need to get to William and the others. They could be in the same situation.”

Raven could only nod.

.000.

“Damn it,” Theodore muttered, staring across the fence at the house across the way. He needed to see how much danger they were in before he could go inside. Assuming his and Raven’s presence would trigger some chaotic discussion, it was unlikely he could get them all out as soon as he wanted to.

Raven asked him why. Since he had teleported them to the area, why not teleport into the house?

“It would get worse if they know that I’m here,” he explained once they had arrived at the front entrance. She didn’t understand what he was talking about, but now she understood.

There were two figures standing near the cottage. They were both wearing greyish-black knight armor. Theodore said the armor wasn’t just for show, but made of Xeshian, a metal that, if used correctly, could siphon magic if touched. Considering their level of expertise, only he could handle them because of his own training.

Unable to determine if there were others in the area, he took the chance of getting rid of them. Just to be on the safe side, there was a ward he could embed into the cottage that’ll keep them out—temporarily. With enough force, it would break.

Raven watched, fascinated and confused, as an elegant crossbow materialized into his hands. With practiced ease, he shot a single arrow towards the knights. They watched as it pierced through both of them. They fell to the ground with a clamor, then dissolved into the air like a dark mist.

Looking around again and determining there were no other knights approaching, Raven held onto Theodore’s hand as he teleported them into the cottage. Everyone was sitting in the living room, staring at them in surprise.

Marina was the first to speak up, standing to her feet. “What the fuck? Who are you and what the hell is she doing here?”

Theodore pressed his hand against a bare piece of the wall. “I’m the guy who’s saving you,” he calmly explained. “The quest you’re on to find and kill the Wraith is all an orchestrated distraction to get you to the right place, at the right time, to kill you.” He slowly walked over to where William was sitting and briefly glanced at his concerningly ashen face. He was staring unblinkingly at him. Theodore whispered for him to be still for a minute, giving him little time to speak, before he pressed his finger to his forehead.

William immediately slumped over. Everyone except Theodore started shouting. He waited. After two minutes, the noise settled down.

“William is fine,” he assured them. “There is certain information he needs to know before anything else happens. He’ll wake up soon.” He took a contemplative pause. “So, I’ll explain why I’m here and what’s going on.” He held up one finger. “One, the puppet master of this whole Wraith quest charade is Christian Neol. He is Pridrairrian, but got banished after trying to start a revolution to overthrow Pridrairre’s monarchies.” He held up two fingers. “They banished him to Earth, where he got married and had the Herold siblings. He raised them to help him get back to Pridrairrian, by any means necessary. Only Martin and Tabitha saw his dream come to fruition.” He held up three fingers. “He had Tabitha find the clock to undo any mistakes he made. While she was away, Martin attempted to free himself of Neol. He failed and, using his anger, Neol locked away access to his subconscious and called on a spirit to possess him and Martin became the Wraith.” He held up four fingers. “Skipping forward…”

A groan interrupted him and their gazes turned to William, who was holding his head. His body was just shy of noticeable shivering.

“William, are you all right?!” shouted Candice, standing as though she were about to move.

Theodore gently reached down and took the place of William’s hands. “You’ll be okay,” he murmured. “Listen to the sound of my voice. Imagine you’re in a hallway and you can’t turn around. My voice is distant now, but it’ll get louder if you walk forward.” He hummed a tune, keeping his eyes on him.

The corners of Raven’s eyes wrinkled, a small smile playing on her lips. She looked at the others, observing their reactions. She thought they would have, though she didn’t know them well, put up more of a fuss. They all looked intrigued but were otherwise quiet.

Turning away, she wondered.

“You may see a set of doors or a set of staircases, but not both,” Theodore continued. “One staircase and one door will erase what you’ve seen if you want it. The others will let you keep them. You’ll know which is which by the signs given to you. There isn’t a time limit or consequences to either. It’s nobody’s choice but yours, William. Either or will bring your conscience back to us.”

The room was tensely quiet as they waited for the verdict. Raven was chewing on her bottom lip and Candice was twisting her hands. Marina and Nathan were staring with narrowed eyes. Charlie was the only one with a pensive face, his eyes flickering between Theodore and William.

It startled everyone but Theodore when William jerked up to a sitting position, breathing a little heavily. Theodore placed his hands on his lap. When he had finally gathered himself, William turned his head to see him sitting there.

A small, uncertain smile crossed Theodore’s face. “Hi,” he said.

William blinked twice. He observed him from head to toe, then back up to his face. “H-Hi,” he replied and winced. He looked away. “Sorry… I’m just trying to make sense of everything. I don’t really know what to say.”

“Well, I hope not.” William’s eyes snapped back to him. “That would mean you’ve been spending too much time thinking about what happened, which you promised you wouldn’t do. And,” Theodore’s smile widened, “you wouldn’t break a promise to me, would you, Gilly?”

William glared at him and was continued to be smiled at. His eyes met Raven’s for a split second before she looked away.

“Gilly?” Charlie spoke up, raising a finger. He gestured between Raven and William. “However, I’m more curious to know how you two,” he pointed at Theodore, “know him.” His brows furrowed seeing William tense up and Raven avert her eyes. Theodore looked between the two, a hint of guilt behind his expression. “Sensitive subject?”

“They were and still are my closest friends,” Theodore said carefully. “We’ve all known each other since we were children.” He put a hand over his mouth, wrinkle lines forming on his forehead.

“I was 21 and Raven was 23 when…” William trailed and audibly swallowed. He didn’t hesitate to take the hand that Theodore offered him. He squeezed it tight, “when he died. He and I were walking across the street and a… a truck driver was speeding to go somewhere, I don’t know… but they weren’t paying attention to the road.” He took a deep breath. “I didn’t see the truck because it was out of my peripheral, but Theodore did. He pushed me out of the way shortly before the truck would have hit me. He had… he had slipped into a coma before he got to the hospital.” He blinked a few times in succession. “Traumatic brain damage, bruised spine, tissue damage, 4 broken ribs, 2 cracked ribs, 1 punctured lung, broken arm, and leg.” He covered his face with his hands, breathing heavily. Theodore gently pulled him into an embrace, murmuring something to him.

Raven watched them, glassy-eyed. Sniffing, she added, “The doctors said that even if he woke up, he would have trouble doing basic functions. There was a good possibility that he might have amnesia or worse because his head took a lot of damage. The odds, either way, weren’t in his favor. It was his parents’ idea to take him off life support.”

“Well, shit,” Marina breathed.

“That’s an understatement,” Charlie said, wide-eyed.

Candice said nothing. She just stared quietly and somberly at William and Theodore.

Nathan didn’t speak up either and looked pensive rather than sad. William was the guy who couldn’t stop thinking, which made him want to throw the boy out the window. He still wasn’t entirely good at keeping his thoughts on mute, but he was trying. Knowing what he knew now, he thought it was odd that he’d never picked up Theodore’s name.

Though also given what he knew now, he supposed he couldn’t blame him for not thinking about the guy.

“After Neol achieved his first two plans, he killed the Cambolton family,” Theodore continued, still holding onto William. “With their resources, he could expand his army and attempted to take over the other four kingdoms. Fortunately, magic dictates that any threat to the royal families can’t enter their land. Rather than be safe than sorry, they sent away the heirs. Magic also dictates that as long as there is a single heir alive to inherit the throne, the protection over the land remains.”

“So, you’re one heir?” Candice inquired.

William shifted to take a better look at him, his brows furrowed.

Theodore smiled a little at him. “Yes,” he admitted. “I am the heir to the Kingdom of Niriria and…” he pulled in his lips, “and the last in the line of the Cahemore family. After they sent the heirs away, the other kingdoms tried to overthrow Neol and take back Cambolton. It worked for a while until he made a deal with a rather vengeful deity. In exchange for taking care of his enemies, he would help him destroy his own. There were a lot of casualties, as expected, but the deity couldn’t pass into the other kingdoms. He could only harm those outside of them, so he tried to lure people out. There were a few incidents, but the people knew better.”

“So, this is where the timeline mess comes in,” he continued and looked at everyone. “You all know about the different timelines, right?” Everyone but Raven nodded their heads. “Well, long story short, there are 40 timelines that revolve around us. Janice…” he frowned, “oh, wait… no, you all know her as Tabitha. That’s right.”

“Janice is Tabitha Herold?!” William gaped.

Theodore nodded. “Yeah, she had to watch over everyone to determine the best outcome for Neol.” William didn’t look any less confused. “But, in the first timeline, William, Raven, and I still became close friends. Neol figured one heir would be on Earth and sent some of his army here to find… well… me. Even though we were all Enchanters then, we likely wouldn’t have won. Thankfully, Maharani, heir to the Blackbird Kingdom, and Lorete, heir to the Tricrest Kingdom, could find us and bring us to Pridrairre. At some point Gilli, the heir to the Ether Kingdom, joined us. We trained and then the war began.” He shook his head. “We nearly won, but Neol had Janice reset the timeline. We didn’t know it, but he had made it so they could remember what had happened before. Using that knowledge, he got to us before anyone could stop him.”

“So… he just killed off all the royals for, what, 39 years?” Nathan looked incredulous.

“I know it sounds insane,” Theodore admitted, “but there’s a plus side to it. He was so caught up in his own glory, that he didn’t realize that we were also remembering bits and pieces of the other timelines. We were his targets outside of William and Raven, who were only there because of me. He didn’t bother with them other than having Janice watch them a few times. Thanks to his negligence, our families could get us away again, but they added extra protections as safeguards.” He gestured to everyone but Raven and William. “The funny thing about time is that there has to be a balance. With the royal families out of the way, there had to be someone to take our place. Not someone with our abilities, but people who could win by working together. That’s where the rest of you come in.” He chuckled. “Neol realized what was happening and tried to stop it, but it never worked that way. No matter what he did, there were always people to take our place. We would always be a threat to him and he couldn’t allow that. Janice had to get rid of you, but figured if she just couldn’t interfere.”

He paused for a moment, then stood to his feet. “All right! That’s the story. I’ll answer questions once we’re out of here, so…”

“Wait!” William stood up. He narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “What aren’t you saying?”

Theodore tilted his head. “What makes you think I’m hiding anything?”

William didn’t look amused. “Because I know you. We’re not leaving until you talk.”

They engaged in a staring contest.

At some point, Raven had to intervene. “Theo, just tell him what you’re not saying! You’ll just end up caving in!”

“Hey!” Theodore glared at her and at William, who was smirking now. “Fine, I’ll tell you. I didn’t want to say because I know how you both will react.”

"We can handle it,” Raven reassured him.

He looked disbelieving, but still said, “Janice is the reason I died…. she cast a spell on the driver of the truck and timed it so it would hit either William or me.”

William and Raven stared at him, unblinking.

“There’s a plot twist,” Charlie remarked. He shrunk back, raising his hands when they both glared at him.

William turned back to Theodore. His jaw was tensed and his fingers were lightly scratching at his pants. “Okay,” he said, “thank you for telling us that.”

Raven remained quiet, but she focused on the windows.

“So…” said Nathan after a beat, “how are we all supposed to get to Pridrairre?”

“We have a button,” Candice added, “but based on what you’ve told us, it’s probably not a good idea to use it.”

Theodore nodded. “Yeah, that’ll take you to the Cambolton Kingdom,” he explained. “I’m certain that Neol has guards to look out for all of you. And, with the Kingdoms being separated by large stretches of land, it’d be difficult to get to another one undetected.” He looked at Nathan. “As for how we’ll get there, I can teleport all of you to Nirira Castle. I can travel between worlds I’ve been to so long as they’re open to me.”

Marina stood to her feet. “Well, I don’t know what the fuck is about to happen. But, I say let’s go for it.” She raised a brow at Theodore. “So, are we supposed to hold hands or what?”

Theodore shook his head. “Not at all,” he gestured for them to stand to their feet, “but you might feel a little dizzy.”

Before anyone else could speak, he swiped his hand as though he were waving something away. The room twirled and the colors of the living room spun into shades of grey. When the spinning stopped, they stood on the marble floor of a ballroom.

The words slipped from Charlie’s lips, “Holy mother of shit.”

Marina shook her head. “That’s an understatement.”