“Master, may I?” Jade’s voice echoed from the other side of the door, like a gentle, subtle lullaby, causing me to wake up from the growing doubt within.


    “You may.” I turned, facing his figure who sneaked past the door. His body, hidden away by some rather shabby clothing, had grown stronger in so little time, making me wonder if magic was truly mythical. “What did you find?”


    Reactively, the slave kneeled on the ground, head hanging lowly like a well-trained dog. “It is as you suspected. Gilbert is wandering the mansion, leaving his post whenever he’s alone... it seems it will happen tonight.”


    “Rise.” When he caught a glimpse of my hand waving in the air, signaling him to return to a more comfortable position, his figure rapidly rose, back straightened like a sharp sword. “The Duke must be awfully impatient, pressuring him like that... surely my survival didn’t bring him much joy.”


    Alvin wanted my rotten corpse at his door and that, for better or for worse, was an undeniable truth that had already rooted its essence in my soul. Even then, he had the strange ability to surprise me, as if my heart kept on clinging to foolish hopes - hidden prayers that he would regain some sort of humanity, that he would actually regret murdering his own flesh and blood. Yet, such reality would never come to be as a monster like him could only find peace in misery, in the middle of the flames of Blasphemy, alongside his kin.


    “Jade...” I rose from the chair and approached his body, head looking up, right into his eyes before his skin flushed slightly, feeling the coldness of my hands cupping his cheeks. His beautiful chocolate eyes connected with mine displaying a strange emotion, an unknown affection that seemed to yearn more than it should. “You are my wildcard, my joker... and you must only think of me until I die; nothing else, no one else, must matter.”


    “Master, I owe you my freedom and my life and I’ve sworn both to you. It is a vow I won’t break.” His warm hands covered my own, allowing the once icy skin to slowly gain some sense of hope. “This time, I promise you, I won’t let you die, not until your hair turns gray and your body grows weak.”


    His eyes had become filled with a resolution one would only see within the strongest feelings human possessed, the two opposite sides of the coins: love and hatred. But, be as it may, such emotions were shallow, faked by the ones who enjoyed to gain cheap thrills from deceiving the ones born in lower wombs. Jade’s expectations and hopes were as stupid as a kid, who at one point in time, truly believed that catching a glimpse of a comet would grant any wish - something I’d cut out from my own mind long ago.


    “I won’t die because you will protect me? I did not take you for a fool.” My hands slithered off his face, causing his expression to soften, pitifully. “I told you once, didn’t I? Don’t cling yourself to false hopes.”


    “Master, I’m strong, stronger than you might think. If you just give me a chance, I’m sure I can...”


    Before he was able to complete his sentence, my head turned back, facing him with what surely was a pained expression drawn in the darkest shades a human can have. “And then what? You’ll burn to death with me if you try. I want you to have your freedom, the days in the sun I could never have.”


    “At least grant me the power of choice, please.” His words took a while to leave him, as if they weren’t exactly what his heart wanted to say.


    Understanding he wouldn’t back down so easily, my figure kneeled next to the bed frame, removing a small locked wooden chest from beneath it. The wood was already rather old, yet its lock was sturdy and strong, clearly still in its prime for some years to come. It was only when the loud sound of the object falling onto the desk echoed that the key entered the hole, revealing a golden necklace hidden beneath a pile of loose sheets - all from the notebook which had, by now, lost its form.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Slowly taking a handful of papers from the chest, my fingers shifted between sheets, eyes gazing at the clean writing, all messed up from its correct order. “These are my lives, at least everything I can remember.”


    Hesitantly, he approached me, however, his eyes widened the moment he saw the foreigner language written in them. “This is...”


    “Lacen, yes.”


    “But I thought you’d never left the kingdom, master?”


    Of course, Jade was bound to be confused - how could someone like me, a shut-in girl without any power, be able to learn so fluently the language of Lacen’s Kingdom? Being the sole realm with connecting terrains with our own yet, lacking any type of cordial relationship with Ashen, lacen, their home language, was extremely hard to learn... unless you lived on the borders or in their own territory.


    “I successfully escaped to Lacen but an entertainment troop caught me...” He slowly read the pages, one after another and I merely watched. His expression twisted and his face paled, as if mere words were capable of giving him such a fright. “They beat me again and I couldn’t move. The inn was caught on fire and the flames burned me alive...”


    Knowing exactly, he was about to read something far more personal, my hands snatched the paper away, eyes cold as a Frosting night. “Do you think I’m dumb enough to believe I won’t burn? It has always happened, and it always will. It’s a reality I cannot change.”


    “Master...”


    “Kids that try to play with fate end up sinking into a despair they cannot crawl out of Jade, but if your resolve rungs true, then be my guest. Let’s see how you counter God.” The paper sheets in my hands rapidly crumbled as a trembling frustration darted through me, knowing exactly how futile trying to escape this destiny was.


    “Gods can’t...” Jade swallowed down his own words once he noticed a psychotic grin flourish on my lips. He had stepped through a boundary that was far more dangerous than he thought.


    “God’s can’t what? Decide a Man’s fate? Then are you perhaps saying that my deaths were merely bad luck? Or maybe... that I didn’t fight hard enough to prevent them?”


    As my body approached him, his figure stiffened allowing only thick chunks of saliva to be swallowed in mechanical movements. He slowly backed away until his being reached the door, expression horrified by this side he’d never seen, by a wickedness I’d never shown. Words kept trying to escape his pressed lips, yet not a single peep left him.


    “Then by all means... show me the true power that controls fate!” My voice was obnoxiously loud as the papers once in my hands were thrown into the air, falling swiftly like leaves from the trees in the middle of the Hunting.


    “That’s... I... I can’t...” Reactively, he averted his eyes, focusing on one of the potted plants on the side of the room.


    There was no way to prove there was no higher power interfering with my life as such a thought was but irrational, being our King, Julius II, the one chosen by such entity to guide us through our darkest times - the flame in the night, they called him.


    “Jade, if you ever try to fill my mind with such disgusting ideals I swear on my blood and honor, I’ll stab your heart myself.” Noticing the confusion from the papers, all scattered around the floor of the room, my figure headed to the door, hand surrounding the handle. “This better be clean by the time I return.”


    After meeting the reaper so many times, one thing was certain: such events don’t harbor any logical nor rational explanation, being far too unrealistic and void of humanity. No matter who greeted me in my path, where my body laid to rest or how eager my life was to end itself before that day, nothing changed and no one, absolutely no one, was like me - a human cursed by the gift of time.


    Soon, this reality would come to an end and so would everything else; Jade would forget me, Alvin would misjudge me, Terrel would want me. Like a perfectly board of chess, every piece was bound to rest in its rightful place, eager for the Gods to begin their mischief once more. Because that was all that I had - the blame on something bigger than myself, on those whose sole existence couldn’t be proven without solid belief. Gods, demons or angels, none of it mattered as they all shared some guilt, some weight on the reality that had been bestowed upon me.