The Eyes of Queen Ara

[GORE]

*BOOM*

Cain stormed into the court room, throwing his black cape backwards as he rushed up the steps. In the high chair before him was a blond & beautiful woman with glowing red eyes. He had once platonically loved this face, but he felt nothing towards it now.

She held a halo above her head along with her glowing eyes, signifying that she was a Light Wielder. Light Wielders could take light from any area & turn it into magnificent power. She could turn a flickering light into a sword, or light in the air and use it to control said person.

Shadow Bearers could take darkness from the black night sky & turn it into a cloak for the coming day, or leap from one shadow to another. Cain was a Shadow Bearer, & it was easy to spot, even if he was the only Shadow Bearer currently still moving. His hands were almost clawlike with his shiny black obsidian nails. Black scars reached up his arms, moving slightly as it circled around his neck. His pupils were black and furious.

The only difference magic wise between Shadow Bearers & Light Wielders was how they came about. Light Wielders were born, almost always in high ranking families. Shadow Bearers came about through… well, sin.

Cain reached the top of the stairs, still looking up to see her in the court room. The last of his hope shriveled away when he saw her eyes. The woman's name was Ara, & not only was she the strongest Light Bearer alive, but she was also the Queen of The Shrewds. She was a protector of evil; the savior of her people! Best of all, she had done what the Shrewdions had sought to do for the last millennium. She had vanquished the Great Evil. Caught it, & brought it today to be judged in that very court. Cain looked at her eyes with disgust & fear. He clenched his fist as he made darkness trickle into the palm of his hands.

The Great Evil was said to be a monster who ate off suffering. It was rumored to attack good people first, then move on to the wicked. What wasn’t a rumor though, were the mass genocides that had happened weekly.

The audience grew back as Cain grew closer to Queen Ara. She smiled at the sight of him quietly raging.

“Lord Cain, why in the heavens are you interrupting this court gathering? If you need to speak to me, you'll wait until later.” Her voice was firm, but almost unconcerned.

“I’m not waiting, & I think you know why I’m here! I’m here to stop you from killing an innocent person!” He spat out the words as he leaned close to her face. Apparently now floating up to her level. He had meant to use any of his Shadow Bearer powers to push himself up, but it made him feel like he had something. Maybe once he had been a quiet child, but he had snapped. He couldn’t stand her anymore, & it made him want to lash out.

“Innocent?” She scoffed at the words. “That thing is as innocent as the devil! It may be a child, but it doesn’t get an excuse for mass murder.”

So it was true then? Cain’s stomach sank with him as his eyes widened in fear. Reporters had said in the morning newspaper today, that yesterday when Queen Ara had used her Light to capture the Great Evil, she had blasted it with a beam of power, peculiarly leaving a small girl on the ground. Cain had searched through the paper, but only found a picture of Queen Ara from after the events from the day before as any evidence that there was a child involved. He shook as Cain felt horrible Déjà vu when he had heard the people in the streets crying ki|| the child as he ran to the courts. He had prayed that the reporters were wrong, that things weren’t getting worse by the minute. But his last thread of hope died.

He shook his head in fear as he floated downwards.

An insane smile on her face.

“Bring the Great Evil out!” She turned her head to a guard as he nodded & left.

Knights in grey armor carried out a young girl. Her hair was pale, but turned perfect black as it reached the ground. She was whiter than snow, but obsidian black splotches covered her skin. They all moved a little like the tide. The girl was being dragged by the knights. She almost looked too… frail to be walking. Her hair covered her face, but it didn’t stop the noise from erupting from her mouth.

“MAMMY? MAMMY!”

Cain’s foot hit the ground as he fell to the ground on his knees. History repeated as his mind flashed back to ten years prior.

“DAD! I-I SWEAR, I DIDN’T MEAN TO! I-I DIDN’T WANT THIS-!” A sob broke out from the now twelve year old Cain. His Father stared cold daggers at his son, and turned in shame. Cain screamed as the highest trained knights yanked him into the court. He didn’t know it at the time, but that would be the last time he would ever see his Father.

Cain’s vision was black & white. It looked as if someone had made a canvas with a black background, & traced everything in his field of vision with white pencils. Time moved choppily as he now laid on the court ground. The only color other than black & white he could see was red. Red on his hands.

A muffled voice called out to him. He looked up high & saw a red crown. The King was ordering an imprisoning guard, but Cain didn’t care. He just wanted his parents back. He went limp as a man grabbed him by the wrist. What else was there to do?

All of the sudden, Cain fell to the ground as a girl his age whacked the imprisoning guard with her small fists. The guard had dropped him not because of the girl’s force, but because he didn’t know what else to do. Cain struggled to push himself up on his elbows to see what had happened.

In front of him stood a girl looking up to the King with her arms stretched out. Was she defending him? No, that was a rather stupid idea. Shadow Bearers, what he apparently was now, didn’t get protection. They didn’t even get killed, they couldn’t be. Instead they got a fate much worse. Imprisoned for all eternity as a statue, never to awake again.

He watched her, & observed the tiny crown & floating disk above her head. He couldn’t even bring himself to care.

The crowned people exchanged heated conversation until the girl stopped. He blinked, & the girl was kneeling beside him. He watched her deep, glowing, & void of color eyes.

“Hello. I-I’m Princess Ara. And you’re-” her hands trembled as she placed them on his shoulder. “Your name’s Cain, right?” She waited for a response, so he gave the smallest nod he could manage. He had never felt so depleted before.

“Cain, you need to… be honest with me. Did you purposely… kill your Mother?”

Cain’s eyes widened as more tears weld up inside him. “No! No I-I didn’t want to! I just- I went to sleep, but a monster-! Then I was standing next to Mom but-! And I didn’t want to but-! I- I just- I just-!!!”

“I understand, thank you Cain.”

Ara turned to face back upwards to the stand & fought again with the man high up. Cain brought his red hands to his face, and buried himself.

The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by therapists, Light Wielders, Doctor, chains, & Ara. Many words were passed back & forth through that night, but he remembered one.

Possessed

Years later all of these people would still be trying to fix him, & some would stay, but most would go. Except for Ara, she was there every step of the way.

But Cain knew the only way for Shadow Bearers to be born. Blood & possession. It was the only way, and he would fight her till his dying breath if she forgot that. He would fight her till the end of time if she forgot what had possessed the child & him.

Cain snapped back to the present when the child started calling again for her mother. He felt pity, for the girls mother had been dead by hundreds of years.

“Queen Ara, I know that me & you both know what happened to her.” He turned to the jury. “She was possessed by the-!”

“Silence!” Queen Ara whisked her hand over the audience. Cain’s very voice was caught mid air, & sealed right in front of him.

“Jury of the Shrewds, I know this thing may look like a child, may scream like a child, but let me be the first to tell you, this thing is not a child.” The Queen stood as her golden locks fell to her side. “I am your Queen! I am the strongest, & most powerful Light Wielder in the four corners of this world! Believe me when I say, when I stood near the Great Evil, I surrounded it & caught it. I crushed it until it was forced to return to this pathetic small form. It wants us to believe it’s helpless, but I have proof it is not!”

Cain wanted to yell, or say anything, but his voice was still locked up.

“Guards, drop her to the ground!” The knights in grey armor tossed the child to the ground. She curled up like a cat, her hair swirling around her. The Queen flicked her finger, and a soldier stepped forward & yanked the girl's hair back.

Cain caught a glimpse of the nothingness that was inside the suit of armor. Not only was she holding everyone's speech in her hand, but she was moving bodies of metal so well they were thought to be human. Ara hadn’t been able to do that before.

Quietly Cain unclenched his fist and slowly brought wisps of shadow to his hand.

The Queen loosened her grip just in time for the entire court to gasp. Somehow, they could all make out the child's eyes. One had a black pupil, like Cain’s, & one had a glowing pupil, like Ara.

Cain grew tense. He knew that a child possessed for so long would be infinitely powered, but this? Never before had anyone been strong enough to carry both traits. It was like being on fire while drowning. Eventually one would overpower the other. Except for this child, who managed to be in all places of he||.

The girl looked frightened as she stared at the people looking at her. She grabbed the edges of her thick hair & covered her face with it.

Cain was strong enough to break from the Queens spell, so he talked.

“Queen Ara, you say you are the most powerful one of the four corners, but just by looking at this child, we know this is not true. How could- No. How dare you claim to understand something you clearly don’t know, let alone say you are above it.”

The Queen stared daggers at him as he felt the light around him try to take his voice again. He flicked his finger down, forcing her grip away.

“Jury, I beg you to listen to me,” Cain turned to the side of him, looking up into the crowd above him. “I know I am not to be here, but when you look at that child, do you see the Great Evil that haunted our ever waking lives? Or do you see what she really is? A child. The Great Evil would never allow itself to be seen as a lowly creature. Yes the child does have signs of both a Shadow Bearer & a Light Wielder, but wouldn’t you think a possess*d child would keep the magic? Before I was twelve, I was a normal child, but after I was possessed I could do things I had never done before. I believe it is the same with this child.

And for your Queen, have none of you seen it yet? I do.” He waited for any sort of acknowledgement, but the jury stared at him. They were following their Queen, even if it meant to ignore the truth. Cain hoped that the Queen was using some sort of magic to fog their brains, because it scared him more if they really had always been sheep.

Cain looked up towards her, and he could see that the knights she was controlling had all grabbed the handle of their swords. It was now or never.

“People of the jury, on this fine day, I accuse Queen Ara of helping the Great Evil!”

The jury erupted in disgust, & boos as they became restless.

“How very dare you.”

Cain looked up.

“The day after I ki||ed the Great Evil, you come here and saw such nasty things. Why can’t you accept that thing down there is evil!? You have no proof! You shall be imprisoned with the child! GUARDS!”

Cain pushed himself into the air and floated as he yelled.

“That’s where you're wrong again. I have proof, for you see,” Cain came right next to her face, “Ara’s eyes were never red.”

For a single moment, he could see fear on her face. He used that moment.

He unclenched both of his fist, grabbing the rest of the darkness in the room & formed a spear that he thrust at her. An ungodly shriek came out of her as the spear went through. Her eyes became so bright and red that you couldn’t see her face. Its teeth sharpened as she whisked her hand towards herself. In an instant, the hole shrank up, & she was completely healed.

When it looked up, he was gone.

She looked down at the crowd below her & groaned. The jury was scrambling and running amuck. She snapped her fingers & everyone in the room froze. She would need to wipe all of their memories.

She looked to the ground where the child it had picked out a thousand years ago should have been, but she wasn’t there. It cursed loudly, throwing a ball of light and destroying an archway.

“If only he hadn’t interrupted-!” It stopped itself. “No no, you can use this. Yes, I can make it so that the Shadow Bearer takes the blame for the kidnaping and helping the child escape. Such a shame that this body is so weak compared to that child though. Oh well, I have an entire kingdom on my side now.”

She floated towards a mirror that was hanging on the wall. “He wasn’t joking that my eyes were red. Ha! I must have forgotten to make them amber. It’s not like anyone will remember.”

It whisked its hand, changing its glowing eyes from red, to golden brown. She turned around and started working on their memories. Erasing that day, Lord Cain, & her red, red eyes.

Cain clutched the child near him as he jumped from shadow to shadow. The second that morning he had read the newspaper, he knew something bad happened. Ara had always been insecure about her eyes, that’s why he remembered them so well. Hers, not the Great Evils red eyes. He didn’t know why no one else remembered them, and it scared him.

Six months ago, he & Ara had made a discovery. They had gotten the very first glimpse of the Great Evil. All it was were floating red eyes with a dark mist surrounding it. They had realized too that Cain had once been possessed by the Great Evil. The black, white and red were the only things he was able to see that day because that’s all the Great Evil saw. They learned it needed to let its main body take naps every ten years, and without its body it was so unstable that it had to find some weak animal to occupy for a period of time.

As they did more research, they found they could track down to the day of every instance of it leaving the girl. Every ten years. A new one was to happen soon, and Ara was going to do something. Cain had begged Ara to let him help, but she had refused. She had told him that if something went wrong, he’d need to stay to save them all. Cain had stayed.

Last night Ara had left to attack the Great Evil while it was weakest, but she hadn’t come back. That was when he saw the newspaper drawing an artist had made that depicted Queen Ara with red eyes.

Cain reached the edge of the city, and neared the treeline. With the shadows long he could quickly travel hundreds of miles to his secret bunker.

He looked at the child. She was clutching him tightly. She knew the red eyes all too well too, and would do anything to be away from them. A tear fell from his cheek as he looked to the far away castle. Ara was being tossed like a puppet. It was up to him and him alone to save her. He looked back at the child.

Black tears fell from her shivering body. It would be up to him to save her too.

In the end, it would frame him as the villain, and hunt them down until their last battle.

In his mind that wasn’t even the insane part. The insane part was how he knew he’d do it. He wouldn’t rest until the Great Evil was forever slain. For Queen Ara, & the kingdom.

For Ara, the child, and the world, he would never give up.

The End