The King's Concubine

Chapter 16

Orphen found himself standing quite calmly outside of The Enchanter’s hut once more, contemplating the very sanity of this plan. Serena was wasting time by running to The Enchanter and Orphen could only predict she was hoping that the crazed sorcerer inside would be able to save her mother’s soul. Orphen wanted to leave the wilting visionary outside of The Enchanter’s door and allow him to do as he wished with her. They both deserved the harm of a thousand fireballs reigning upon them… which, happily, would most likely happen to them if the dragons emerged from River Forest.

“Open up!” Serena screamed. She screamed it, banging on his door, and still her face showed no emotion. Orphen was unsure if he would ever grow used to that. If he would ever be certain of anything she would ever feel again.

If they lived past the night.

The Enchanter opened the door to Serena and through the hood of his cloak tried to stare her down. Serena was not standing down. She stood tall, her back erect her shoulders back, and she stared back at him with none of the emotion she was feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“I won’t help you,” The Enchanter stated clearly and then slammed the door in Serena’s face.

Orphen, who could see the helplessness in the set of Serena’s shoulders, was tired of playing by the rules. It was time to be what he truly was, and though it would never compare to the man who had slammed the door in his beloved’s face, he was king for a reason. He lay Lena down upon the pavement of the roadways and stepped forward to the door. He reached out, ungloved his hand, and the door burst in splinters, revealing the spacious rooms that the concealment of magic denied room to. With the destruction of the barrier also came the destruction of the concealment spell and the small little sorcerer’s hut showed for the manor it truly was.

The Enchanter was less than thrilled inside.

“What she wants should not be done!” The Enchanter screamed at Orphen as he entered the manor, strutting like a man who had just been laid by a beauty instead of a man fighting for the honor of a lady. He never knew how wonderful it would feel to be in love and he hated himself that in the dying days of this world what made him bravest was Serena.

“Let me make this clear,” Orphen snarled through gritted teeth, “you will do whatever Serena asks of you.”

“You will regret it,” the Enchanter promised.

“If I live through this night I will not mind regrets,” Orphen snapped back.

Serena was dragging her tortured mother through the manor door’s remains. She was blinded in her determination for The Enchanter to see her mother. Orphen had never seen the girl so single-minded. Whatever she had planned it was important to her.

“Do it,” Serena demanded. She was having no visions, this was not a crisis of not being able to speak her mind, this was pure Serena. Serena’s personality still shone brightly form somewhere within her… Orphen could only hope it would not fade.

“It will kill her,” The Enchanter spoke with a sort of finality to his voice. Orphen raised a dark eyebrow. This man had earlier claimed there was no way to kill her, as had Serena, and now he was shrugging the words off and stating so flatly that it would kill her that Orphen wanted to throttle him.

There just was not enough time to do so.

“I care not for her body,” Serena said honestly. “My mother used me in her games, it is time we used her back.”

Orphen’s eyes widened. Perhaps that was not Serena’s personality shining through. Perhaps it was more of his own that he had forced upon her when he had taken her so violently.

“I won’t do it.” The Enchanter stuck by his earlier commitment to rue anything Serena or Orphen wished for at this sad point. He had been denied what he had lusted for now he would deny them.

“You really are in no position to deny us anything,” Orphen snapped and stepped forward.

The Enchanter rolled his eyes and crossed his arms against his chest. “Are you going to threaten me again with your sword?” he asked of the king in his haughty tone. “You know I have already taken precautions against that very action.”

“I’m sure you have used whatever enchantments suit your desires,” Orphen said with a smug laugh in his voice. “I will not threaten you with a sword; I will threaten you with truth. Serena,” he felt confident in seeking the advice of his little visionary, “what will happen to The Enchanter here if he does not do as our will presides?”

Serena’s lips twitched, her whole being wanting to smile with the same smugness that Orphen was feeling. Her mouth opened and the sound of The Enchanter’s very death flitted from her lips like purple butterflies caught on the sea air. Beautiful in sound and vision, but there was poison to their very touch. “Orphen will strike you down, faster than your spell can counteract him,” she said perfectly emotionless though her emotions were running high and her own desire for revenge and darkness were coming to a head in these final moments of her world. “Orphen will not kill you, though you will wish he did. He will leave you for the dragons, the dragons that… Well, you will die by their talons.”

Orphen could hear in the sound of Serena’s voice that she was enjoying the misery that she was raining down upon The Enchanter’s head. She was enjoying the corruption a little too much until Lena screamed on the side, her voice scraping across the eardrums of the three others gathered in the manor. Even Serena could not stop herself from reaching her hands to her ears and blocking out the sounds of her mother’s voice.

“The dragons are truly coming?” The Enchanter asked, his voice shaking with a fear that was unparalleled. “They have come to destroy us all?”

“And only the strong will survive,” Orphen amended. “And those who do as I say and do not fool around with idle threats and childish behavior when there is such a risk barreling down on them!”

“I… it is hard to extract a soul from a living being,” The Enchanter stuttered. At the evil glares from the other two visitors that were entirely unwelcome in his household he threw up his hands, a white glimpse of skin before he covered them again with the black cloak, “I did not say I could not do it. I just want you two to be prepared for a hard battle with her soul.”

“Do it now,” Serena demanded. She began to drag her wailing mother to the table in the center. Orphen rushed to help her and the two of them lifted her body onto the wood. Serena climbed up beside her mother and looked over at The Enchanter with her violet-red eyes. “I want her soul inside of my body as well as my own.”

“That is dangerous,” The Enchanter insisted.

“You are not being consulted for your professional opinion,” Orphen sneered, “You are being asked to do what you do best: magic. Advice and opinion I leave up to the therapist I murdered for giving me an answer I did not like once before.”

Just the tone of Orphen’s voice had The Enchanter believing him and fearing the both of them more than was natural.

The Enchanter did what he did best, magic. He found his own magic convoluted in the presence of these two. They had no idea the powers that were rippling between the two of them like electric currents riding waves of water. It charged the entire room. The Enchanter’s magic needed very little boost thanks to these two. If they lived beyond that day they would be two of the greatest powers on this planet.

The magic filled the room and lifted Lena’s spirit from her body. Lena did her best to grapple with it, her strength suddenly back with the realization her life force was to be stolen straight from her. She held onto her soul like it was a piece of gossamer fabric that would have befitted any priestess, and Serena, looking harried yet beautiful, was the priestess to dress in that fabric. She reached out her hands and encompassed her mother’s hands. Lena’s eyes met her daughter’s and for a moment there was the love that must have been there all along, the love of a mother and daughter, no matter the manipulations each of them faced.

“Why?” Lena asked, her voice strong even as she was dying.

“I need to live now,” Serena explained to her. “Your soul will help me be a real person, not some marionette that you created.” The loving moment ended with Serena’s final words to her mother. Serena slipped her hands away from her mother’s, her face for one moment haggard from anger, the soul giving way already to Serena’s will. Serena gripped the soul with all of her might and wrenched it out of Lena’s hands. Lena fell limp and tumbled off of the table. Lena’s soul was not the strength that Lena had been and it went to Serena like a dog on a leash. It turned into her, cohabiting with the soul that already existed in Serena, and Orphen noticed the instant change in her face.

Orphen had no time to ask questions, to thank, or to even threaten, as he was best at the last. The sounds of war were becoming deafening already and they had yet to warn those who inhabited the kingdom. He would not be a true king if he allowed his village to fall into ruins as countless had before by the dragons. Today they would win, somehow.

“If you want to do anything good,” Orphen said, pulling his beloved from the table and setting her on the floor. Serena did not even glance at her mother; she was already fleeing with Orphen to the door. Orphen looked to The Enchanter and finished his thought, “you may want to help these villagers from the kingdom.”

Out the couple ran into the heart of a burgeoning war.