Lady Of Lake And Arrow |A Swan Lake Retelling|: Book One

Chapter 25

Machineheart - Shelter

Even though it took me like 100 years to write this chapter with ZERO motivation, I forced myself through and now it is the longest one I've written in this book.

HOPE YOU LIKE IT.

- Ryn

One day, there will be more cruel kings and queens. Chaos is everlasting. It can be stifled, but it can never stop.

And I promise you, one day you'll realize that doing the right thing can be cruel itself sometimes. Not now, though. Not now. You are too single-minded to know that there can be multiple truths instead of one.

- The last words of North Queen Katarina Varova before her assassination -

–––

"Never knew you had an eye for pretty things," Jessa remarked as a bundle of flame wove through Terhen's fingers.

He shrugged. The flame writhed and contorted, and out formed a rose of fire, radiating heat between them. Jessa had begun to understand more and more of why he'd insisted on her making a weapon of ice.

Not to fight–but to test her concentration and willingness.

It hadn't been a magnificent sword, really. The blade was easy enough to make, clear as glass but simpler to form into a sharp point. It was the hilt itself that was hard, with all its ridges and the need to make it a comfortable hold. She had soon given up, realizing the ridiculousness. No one could hold a block of ice comfortably. Not to mention, she was no blacksmith.

Better that Terhen had burned it. If anyone else would've looked closely at it, they'd likely notice the ice sword looked more like a deformed pointy stick than a sword itself.

"I didn't expect you to do it. The deal." It was more a statement than a question, but Jessa chose to answer anyways.

"I didn't either." She smirked. "But I guess the fortress was starting to become too boring for me."

Terhen's green-flecked gaze bore into her. The fire rose snuffed out. "Boring enough that you jumped into the lake."

It was as if a large block of stone had hit her upside the head. Only he could make it sound not so accusatory, enough that it strangely didn't bother her. If it was anyone else that'd say that, Jessa might've not spared them as such. "There's a lot of things I haven't told you."

"I see." Terhen didn't ask what those "things" were.

Jessa tilted her head, brows furrowing. "I do wonder why you came with the princess to the lake clearing, though."

Fire erupted between them again, feeding off purely on air and magic. She refrained herself from scrambling backwards, and instead leaned back on her hands so as to not accidentally burn herself.

Through the dancing tendrils of flame, she heard him sigh. "For you. I came for you."

Jessa sucked on a tooth, studying him. She wasn't that surprised of the answer, though she hadn't expected it either at the same time.

"Why would you do anything for me?"

Rolling his shoulders back, Terhen commanded the fire to change into a series of shapes.

Sword and other such weapons, a feather, the sun–even mini outlines of humans standing side by side.

"It is in my utmost importance to keep you alive as long as Casrian's bargain holds," he at last answered.