The Mystery Man - Mefan

Chapter 1

Note: This is a darker fantasy, not following the "typical" dragon plots.

Be aware of described violence, k*dnapping, loss of loved one, and death.

-Mefan-

“I like your eyes,” she remarks. “I have never seen eyes like that.”

She can see me? But no one can see me. I don’t really exist, and yet there she is by the edge of the river. I have seen her visit time after time, but always just at dawn when the sun is about to appear. It chases me away, but I must catch a glimpse of her. No one else is out here but me... There is just me, and now... her.

“You don’t always have to hide,” she says, looking right at me.

Her eyes are these extreme blue ones, shining when the sun hits them. Her skin is so pale, and she has pure white hair. I have never seen a color like hers.

“But I guess you have to leave now, don’t you? The sun is on its way up. You always disappear right before it appears,” she mentioned, her voice sounding almost sad. “I will see you tomorrow then.”

“Tomorrow,” I finally say, the first word I ever spoke...

To anyone.

I had seen her reincarnated a thousand times, with only small differences here and there, like the hair color and the eye color, but I always knew it was her. She had always beckoned to me, but none of them were her. Not even the beautiful Laelia, who reminded me of both her kindness and strength... No, none of them were her, so why had I kept him?

Carter was strolling around in the big garden, reaching for one of the branches sticking out from a small bush. His skin had always been quite pale, but it had acquired a stronger golden glow now, yet it didn’t conceal the dark lines running in his skin or the fact that one of his eyes had a completely black color now instead of a soft green.

He was still adjusting. He was still finding a way to live like this. I had brought him back from the dead, but that always had consequences. He wasn’t the same...

Maybe I should send him home, send him back to the North, where Laelia and Ashes now ruled. They often ventured back to the South. I could send him there. Instead, I had not uttered a word about my whereabouts or Carter’s.

No, I had been silent. At first, I told myself I would disclose the truth when I was certain he would survive, and then I told myself I would inform the beautiful Laelia once he had acclimated to being this way, and then... then I ran out of excuses, yet it was not like Carter had inquired to go home.

He was unusually quiet, but that was expected. Dying and coming back to life, that was never easy, and then, as I disclosed his brother’s death—Will’s death—he grew even quieter. More family was gone, and now he stayed hidden as well, hidden in my kingdom and getting used to being a part of the shadows, like the rest of my assassins, yet his roots in the darkness ran deeper than the others. He was reborn from it.

“You can stop staring. I am not going to ruin your beautiful garden,” he remarked, turning to me.

I was standing in the shadows, resting my shoulder against a column.

“Good, I cherish my garden more than that stupid room you trashed,” I told him, smiling a little.

He just nodded slowly and then reached for one of the red flowers, which I especially loved. It was a Fire Lily that only grew here in The Red Desert, yet as soon as he touched it, it turned black and died. He sighed, leaning his head back and looking at the sky. The sun heated his skin. He was wearing the assassins’ dark clothes that covered most of his body, yet the material was very thin, ensuring he wasn’t overheated in them.

“You could have let me die,” he remarked.

“I could have.”

“Why didn’t you?” he inquired, turning to me.

“You’ve already posed that question thirty times now,” I remarked, pushing away from the column and walking over to him.

“And you still haven’t given me an answer,” he noted.

He was right. I hadn’t, but that was because... I had no answer. I wished I did. I wanted to tell him a specific reason why I had taken him from that battlefield after he had been run through with Criseus’s sword and brought him here. I wished I had a way to tell him that I was doing it for some reason, but I had no answer.

“You still don’t want to tell me,” he observed, looking at the flower he had killed.

I turned to the dead Fire Lily, raised my hand, and then turned it halfway to the left. The black color started receding, and the flower revived, now suddenly all red and alive. Carter looked at it for a long time before looking at me.

“How did you do that?” he queried.

“Took me a long time to figure out,” was all I replied before turning around.

I could hear him following me. I walked inside, hearing him gain on me.

“I still want to know why you brought me back to life,” he stated.

“You are alive,” I remarked. “Just be grateful.”

“But in a way, I am not.”

I stopped and turned around, looking at him, one of his eyes just like mine, while the other was still this soft green. I liked that color. The black one didn’t suit him, nor did the dark lines in his golden skin. I remembered the way he had looked when he had first seen them, like he didn’t understand why they were there or if he was even seeing them. They even ran up his neck and along the side of his jaw and along his cheeks. One line going across his black eye like a scar and then stopping there.

“You are alive," I stated.

“I don’t feel it...” he remarked.

“What?”

“Anything.”

My eyes ran over him for a little while, waiting for him to continue.

“The sun... the air... the flower... I don’t feel it,” he stated. “How can I be alive if I don’t feel anything?”

“You are breathing, aren’t you?” I posed. “Your heart is still beating.”

“But I am no longer me.”

“Is that why you are hiding here, Prince?” I inquired.

“I don’t know what I am doing... there is peace now. Ashes and Laelia ruling... they even have a second child on the way.”

“Did you get another one of my assassins to bring you this information?” I inquired.

He nodded, not even trying to deny it.

“I did,” he admitted.

“Well, congratulations to them.”

“Henry is having a child as well, Sivanna had Will’s, and I hear Samuel is going to be a father too. The only one still not having a child on the way is Liam,” he remarked.

“And that is wrong?” I inquired.

He shook his head. “At least he is married, probably working hard on it.”

“Most likely.”

“Tylon should be having a kid on the way as well. You see where I am going with this?” he questioned.

I shook my head, trying to walk away, done with this conversation about kids and such.

“I can’t leave,” he asserted.

“You are free to go whenever you want, Prince. Nothing holds you here,” I replied.

“You are.”

I stopped and turned around, looking at him, confused.

“Me?” I responded. “I don’t keep the gate closed.”

“No, but the further I get from you, the worse I get...”

I walked a little closer, only a few steps, narrowing my eyes slightly.

“How do you know this?” I inquired.

“Because I tried to leave. Several nights ago,” he disclosed.

For some reason, this made me angry, and I felt my hands tighten into fists as I looked at the prince in front of me, not understanding why such words provoked anger. I never felt much. I hadn’t for a long time, but this angered me.

“Did you now?” was all that came out of my mouth.

“You said I was free to leave.”

“You are,” I affirmed.

“Then yes, I tried to leave. I had gotten quite far when I started to feel it. The pain... from where the sword ran me through. I couldn’t breathe... I somehow knew I had to turn around, and so I did, and once I just got a little closer to you, suddenly I could breathe and the pain was gone,” he recounted.

I knew there would be consequences for bringing him back. I had never before brought anyone back from the dead. No one I thought deserved it. So, I didn’t know what would happen if I did, but I had never expected this. I had never believed I would somehow link him to me, but was it that surprising? He had been reborn from the same darkness that I came from.

“Well, I guess you are staying here then,” I stated, feeling a twisted and pleasing sensation from saying the words.

“It seems that way,” he responded coldly.

“Well, I will see you a little later,” I said, turning around and leaving him there.