Chapter 25: Shift in nature {24}

"H-how did you get here- I -god- I thought you were dead!" Aloysia blurted, walking back and forth. She hadn't done as he asked, instead, waited impatiently by a far away tree in anticipation to ask questions.

"How did you make it across?" She breathed, rubbing her palms together. Clearly she was trying to calm her nerves.

"Are you even real?" Aloysia carefully pressed a shaky hand to his cheek; Zelek shivered at the warming touch, but smiled and cupped her hand with his. It was engulfed.

"As real as can be"

"Oh my god!"

Without second thought Aloysia lunged at him, hugging him in an embrace she thought to never leave from.

The feeling of reassurance calmed her tense body.

"Its been a long time Aloysia, sister", he spoke softly. That voice was like a heavenly melody chirping in her ear that she could listen to endlessly.

"Brother, I'm-" she was lost for words. The hug becoming a tight squeeze more than anything.

"-What brings you here, why have you come here, you know it is too dangerous for us, don't you?" she proclaimed, edging towards him in a frightful manor. Panic for her brother clearly evident.

"What of Zillah? Where is she?" Her head spun so fast it would fall if not attached. "About her..."

He broke off from the embrace, voice draining.

"No" Aloysia cried, hands clasped to her mouth while her eyes... they glistened at his, looking for that cloud of doubt that maybe... maybe she was still alive.

He didn't even need to say it.

His expression grew grim, the plague of grief swiftly taking over. He only nodded, reaching for a pocket and brought out a scrunched note.

Aloysia took it silently, the paper a fragile age as was the hand written words in it. It was a corner piece torn from its whole.

Squinting, she could make out the words, "My dagger, I bestow to my eldest sister, Aloysia..."

Her will.

The note within her palms weighed heavily... the weight of her words... of where this note came from.

"I-is that why you came here?"

A heartbeat later. "Yes"

Aloysia thought she would throw up, but her stomach had no contents to do that- it's ravishingly painful hunger a lingering thought on her mind.

But not any more.

"Give me a moment to breathe please"

Was all she said as she wondered aimlessly, biting back the tears overwhelming her broken body.

How much more could she take?

Before she knew it, she had stumbled back to the cathedral ruins.

With her breathing shaky, she cautiously walked over to where the service would have taken place, crunching under stone and wood; overgrown wilderness climbing the half walls and gently placed the note to the floor.

She couldn't scream. Didn't have the voice too as she stood, lifeless and hunched over.

How much more did she have to endure?

"Aloysia-" her brothers voice was loud and clear behind her.

She turned, only briefly so see Zelek run to her. He grabbed her, holding her tightly.

"I'm so sorry" his voice was below a whisper... but it didn't sound genuine.

Her mind froze. His hand was moving.

Before she could release him and step back, Zelek swung his dagger directly into Aloysia's chest.

She couldn't catch it. Didn't have time until she felt it cut her open.

The searing pain brought her to her knees while he held the pommel firmly in place.

She swore through her teeth, choking as drips of blood emerged from her mouth, dripping down her lips.

Her body went pale as she stared at him, loathing, sadness, confusion in her eyes; entire body violently quivering at the brutalising anguish spreading through her chest.

Her top was drenched in her own blood, coating her own hands as she reached for the pommel, holding it to steady herself.

"W-why?" She spat, choking up more blood as she sank further to the floor.

"You stupid bitch" a voice... it was not Zeleks, and neither was the face as she looked up.

Disgusting shrivelled skin lined it's un-natural features, eyes so dark you would have thought they were dead...

A shape shifters.

Consciousness was leaving her.

It continued to speak, each syllable a slice to the skin.

"Do you really think your brother would come for you? And how naïve to trust others when your head is wanted by my master"

Aloysia couldn't breathe. Choosing to spit the blood on its face, a painful smirk lining her lips.

"Go... to... hell!" She spluttered through more blood. Her face a sight for sore eyes.

"Bitch!"

However, behind her, a voice she knew flew closer. Rough, and hoarse, but stead-fast and strong.

"Fight him Aloysia!"

Closer.

"Don't you dare die!"

Panic. So much panic.

Staggered breaths drew closer as the shifter turned, eyeing the vessel he had taken shape of.

Zelek.

And along side him...

Zillah.

Aloysia bit back a sob, her head screaming as she twisted to see them.

She was alive.

Even with their faces distraught, Aloysia knew in her crumbling heart that they were real.

She tried to call out for them, reach for them but her body was unresponsive- fighting a loosing battle to stay alive.

Aloysia could feel her life leaving her, emptying through the hole in her chest. She cried out in the agony, it pulsing through her constantly.

The shifter, now groaning in anger, lashed towards Zillah. She deflected its claws gnawing for her face with a dagger. Leaning backwards to brace for the impact.

Zelek, outstretched his hand for an arrow, swerving slightly so he faced its backside and, using it as a spear, dug it straight into the shifters spine.

It howled in pain, grabbing the arrow maliciously and snapping it. The wound merely a graze.

The twins looked over at Aloysia who was struggling for air, hands clenched over the blade.

She hadn't moved.

"So you two came after all" it hissed. "I thought I had dispatched you both, but obviously you're too stubborn!"

It tried lunging for them again, but was caught off guard as Aloysia's blade went plunging into the shifter.

Immediately, Zillah grabbed its arm, hauling it around her and hearing a crunch as she brought it to the ground.

Zelek, swiped the fallen blade and held it against the shifters neck.

"Who is your master, shifter?"

It grumbled at them, growling in distaste while time fleeted by.

Time... that Aloysia did not have.

Zillah peered up at her sister, eyes teary. "We're too late" she pushed out.

But what happened next... they couldn't believe it.

Circling Aloysia's palms, a blackened twisted entity oozed; it jarred through the air like mist, and it's colour matching that of the blood gushing.

It steadily increased as around her, the wind began to pick up.

As if listening to her cries, Mother Nature responded with a surge of power that flooded the world around them.

Emptiness,

darkness,

void of colour,

was the only sight visible to the crimson eyes that belonged to Aloysia. Somehow her anger mixed with the sweet sounds of grief brought blindness upon her wretched soul.

It was scared. Scared to be snatched away; acting in self-defence.

To stay alive.

Imprinted, engraved, implanted, inscribed in her body, the only message that mattered. That has ever mattered.

Stay alive.

That power began to rise, causing the once gentle winds closing off her senses to grow even more.

Rapidly building up momentum.

The dark entity grew in size, its disturbing nature alighting Aloysia's eyes a barbaric red.

The twins faced each other as the sky continued to push gale force winds upon them, turning a dark colour as with each passing second, its bite grew stronger.

The trees, the leaves, the ground became unsteady as Aloysia remained stationary, completely unaffected as chaos occurred around her.

Her breathing became ragged as the wind continued to coax mother nature into bending to its will. This was unbalanced.

Still, Aloysia didn't mutter a single word, no cry of pain, no grunt to hold herself up against the brute force of the wind.

No.

She was its source.

A slumbering dead body described her silence as her emotions drifted from reality. The sharp wind growing at an immense pace trickled down Zelek's ears, causing him to hear nothing; to shiver and retract to crouching, discarding the shifter whose intentions were the same. Survival.

Where Zelek tightly gripped his ears, Zillah did the same.

The powerful wind, now visible and causing catastrophic damage to the building repelled a scream.

It was coming from Aloysia.

Veins as dark as night crept up her neck, digging into her face as she yelled louder and louder.

The vicious power around her unrelenting; latching onto the ruins they were surrounded by and tore it apart, stone by stone.

Zelek, powerless, remained crouching, only able to catch a glimpse of how Aloysia moved void of emotion, as if not human at all, but a mechanical piece of engineering, built to only serve one sole purpose.

Her power flooded the earth to the walls so swiftly they groaned. She tried to reel it back in- as if it were a ball of yarn that had tumbled from her hands- but it ignored her, spreading thicker, faster over the ground. Along the arch of the fastened door that once stood...

The powerful force hammering outside the castle walls was not unnoticed by the Prince, or the King, whose rage and fury only frightened the poor servants more.

It was as if the entirety of the south was shaking.

"What is happening?" The Prince shouted out into the main ball room where servants were scrambling to clutch onto something for fear of slamming into the ground. The wind was terrifyingly unforgiving and caused him to muster all possible strength just to remain on his feet, grunting as he did so.

The castle was shaking.

Actually shaking under the shuddering wrath of Mother Nature. Or so they thought...

Only moments earlier, he was peacefully reading a book on his bead that his mother left him when abruptly his window shattered, and the castle echoed the roaring wind that swept everything in its path.

It was all too sudden as the pristine, sharp glass had sent flying daggers across his room.

He gasped and reached for cover behind his bed, landing on the cold wooden floor with a thud. He tucked the book in his muscular chest, wrapped in his silky shirt and hugged himself to shield his shaking body until all shards were grounded.

That is when he peered out the window, breathing rate racing and noticed the strength that was lingering outside, something that looked like a hurricane...

"Someone answer me??" He screamed with his lungs and throat going hoarse, yet his words were drowned out by the unbalance in weather that caused all this chaos.

He gripped onto a pillar near the entrance of the hall staring into the room. The hall itself could not compete with its previous self, now dressed in her majesties favourite colour in mourning. White.

His eyes strained against the colour, bringing nothing but weight that did anything but keep him grounded...

But... the princess?

That's when it clicked, Elianna... what happened to her?

Until now she hadn't crossed his mind.

Where was she?

The incident. It happened In her room! Did that mean?

He faltered slightly at the thought. No. She was fine, she was alright- she had to be...

He felt the panic that consumed his body, as for all he knew, she could be badly injured, caught off guard by this wind.

Acting on instinct, his heart made up his mind.

Breathing became difficult as he began to trudge his way through the corridor to her room, falling and catching himself from flying away and slamming into a wall.

He glanced in every possible room that could house her.

Even with all this wind being pumped around his body, as if in opposition to his actions, he never felt so short of breath, almost choking.

Wall after wall he passed, dark, desolate as the wind blew out all forms of light until a rustic door came into view.

The pain of what happened early yesterday morning struck like a knife- but he ignored it. The handle no longer covered in blood.

He felt weak, muscles sore for having to claw his way to her room.

The handle was freezing in his grip as he swung the door open for it to smack into the wall it was hinged on.

The room was empty, except for glass scattered around the room, torn cloth on the bed by the shards impacts, and no trace of the princess.

His grip on the door loosened suddenly, when the rustic door smacked itself shut in mockery of the person trapped within.

The Prince's hair was a mess, as his emotions that could not comprehend what was happening. The castle was under some sort of siege by the Gods. But why? Why here? And why now?

He internally screamed to himself as fear took control of his limbs, and confusion, his brain.

What was happening????