Destined Magic

A/N: sorry this took so long. i\'ve just been busy and stuff. i would really like more reviews ^.^ anyway, Enjoy!

After Evan had galloped off to his home, Anele had once again fainted. Eryk and Ania bent to carry her limp body into the dimly lit witchdoctor\'s hut. The small circular room held naught but a few small candles, shelves piled full of grotesque animal bones, a small pallet on the ground and a mortar bowl. The stooped, old man came and sat near the girl as she was laid down gently onto the pallet.

He knew little of the English language so did not bother with asking any questions. He instead began to inspect her for any lasting damage. The witchdoctor opened her eyelids with his thumbs and noticed that her eyes had not wholly rolled to the back of her head. He put his head on her chest and listened for some time to her soft breathing and the thump of her heartbeat. He then placed his thumbs on the outer edge of her eyes and rubbed up towards her temples, stopping there and placing a little pressure on both sides.

Anele\'s eyes opened and she was aware of three people surrounding her. She tried to sit up but the throbbing pain in her skull prevented her from getting very far. The witchdoctor motioned for her to stay still and as best he could, explained that she should rest for a while. Then he walked away, leaving Ania to care for Anele. She gently washed her arms and face with the cloth that still held a little water in it. The door had been left open and the sunlight from outside lay directly on Ania\'s back.

\"Eryk,\" Ania said, looking up into his eyes, \"why don\'t you go and see if Evan is returning yet. I\'ll stay to care for e whe while she recovers.\"

Eryk hesitated for a moment, but then did as she bade him. Eryk walked slowly from tut, ut, having to bend his head as he passed through.

Once out into the cobbled street, he glanced up to see that the sun had set quite a bit since Evan had left. He glanced one way and then the other and saw nothing but a few girls peddling their wares. Paying them no mind, he decided that he would wait outside for Evan to come back. One of the young girls glanced up to see Eryk leaning against the pole outside of the witchdoctor\'s hut. Seeing that he was alone, she sauntered over him and gave him one of her most inviting smirks. The other girls along the street saw her and, sensing competition, made their way over to him, vying for his attention.

\"Hello, Eryk,\" the lead girl whispered in a most sultry sort of way. \"I didn\'t think I would be seeing you this day.\" She raised her tiny, stick-like figure up against his warm body and settled a kiss on the outermost corner of his lips. Fortunately, he thought, her enormous nose keeps her from getting any closer and her sunken eyes, well, there was no hope for that. It\'s a shame I\'m too polite to ever tell thgirlgirls off.

Ania looked out into the sunlight, having finished settling Anele and making her comfortable. Just as she lifted her eyes to Eryk, she saw some little twit of a girl plant a twisted kiss on his luscious lips. Ugh, she thought, he didn\'t even make a move to push her away. Her sunken, misshapen eyes and her crooked teeth surely wouave ave driven any man away, but it seems like he cannot get enough of the attention. Look! There goes another little trollop groping his backside, while still others are surrounding him. He probably thinks himself quite the lady\'s man with his unmarred face, white-toothed smile, and exquisite eyes. I can\'t believe that all the while he looked so innocent and oblivious. He knows only too well what he means to achieve with the little harlots. Again, he makes fool of my feelings by grabbing the mannish-looking girl\'s hand and kissing it. She looked away from the doorway, trying to conceal the tears that were welling up within her eyes. No doubt he just wanted one of the jezebels to play his bed partner this night.

Eryk still stood amidst all of the young girls, laughing half-heartedly at their little jests. One girl was trailing a finger down his well-toned stomach and as soon as she arrived at the buckle of his pants, he snatched her hand up and kissed it instead. He did not look deep into her eyes, as he had with Ania. These were idle children still unsure of what they really wanted. After dropping her hand, Eryk glanced back into the hut to see Ania staring at him. In the minute instant that their eyes met, he could feel her wrath and her hurt at his being fondled by the girls. Oh, I would it was so easy to put them away, he thought. Yet, I wish she had not seen me surrounded by them. I know I care greatly for her, but would she see that after this showing?

He put away the thought of her rejection of him and instead turned to look up the street. Evan galloped along, stopping just before where Eryk stood. Looking pale and worn, he jumped out of his saddle and motioned for Eryk to follow him into the hut. The girls seemed disappointed by Eryk\'s retreat into the thatch building, but he hardly noticed.

* * * * * * * * * *

The sun had set by now and inside the tiny hut the shaman was lighting candles for them to see by. The pair of men made their way over to the pallet where Ania was helping Anele to drink some tea, which would apparently give her strength back. Ania kept her face turned towards Anele\'s, not bearing to meet Eryk\'s eyes for fear that she just might cry. Evan fell to his knees and sat staring at the ground. He decided he would not question Anele. Not yet, for he did not know if she had all of her strength back. Evan looked at Ania, tears brimming his lower eyelids.

\"Do you have strength enough to talk with me Anele?\" Evan asked, his face a map of pain. \"I really wish to talk to you about…. about what happened earlier today.\"

\"Could we be left alone for a moment?\" Anele asked, looking at Ania and Eryk. She could see how Ania didn\'t wish to be in Eryk\'s company, but seeing as how it was such a personal issue, she needed them both out of earshot.

\"Yes, dear lady,\" Eryk consented. \"Should you have need of anything don\'t fear to call for us or for the doctor.\"

Ania stood up and walked out ahead of Eryk, all the while staring pointedly ahead of her and holding her chin high.

Anele watched them walk out, knowing that her conversation with Evan was going to be a very long and complicated one.

* * * * * * * * * *

Anele turned towards Evan and looked into his eyes before saying anything. She knew his heart must be in shreds at what he had been forced to see.

“Evan, please tell me did you make it on time?” Anele asked, panic could almost be heard threaded in her voice.

“No, they were gone. Just… gone. But I could see it. The horrible sight…” and at that Evan began weeping.

It was all Anele could do to resist the urge to throw her arms around his shoulders and just hold him this night. But they had more pressing matters. Evan had to be strong, for everyone, not just himself.

“Evan. Evan, look at me. You must be strong right now,” Anele soothed. “I know what it is to lose both parents to a horrible fate. I know what it is you saw, for I saw it also. More than that I saw and I also felt their pain and anguish. I could see the flames, feel the ash, and smell the burned flesh.”

“While riding, I heard a massive thundering sound rolling down the hill from the palace. It sounded as if an explosion had occurred and I saw a shadow lift into the sky and then it was gone. When I walked into the atrium, all of the palace guards were strewn about the floor, unconscious. I continuously tried to shake them awake but to no avail. I doubled my pace and sprinted to where my mother would have been getting ready for the feast. Then…” Evan took a moment to regain his composure and Anele could not press him for she knew that it took great strength for this. “What I saw was horrific. I could hardly tell which of the seared, mangled bodies was my stepmother, Asrea. The walls were covered in ash as black as a moon dark night. The bed was shredded and burned to bits. Even the vanity showed signs of being caught aflame. There were other bodies in the room and I assumed them to be a few of her ladies in waiting. There was nothing I could do there, but I did not have any inkling of what I might come upon next.”

After glancing to his hands, which were being wrung and twisted so much that they were being chaffed in the process, he looked to her for some indication that she was listening.

“Continue, Evan,” she whispered, watching with empathy at the gestures he made.

“I moved on to my father’s room, assuming that he would have been getting ready also. The moment I opened the door, I turned and wretched. I’m not sure I have anything at all in my stomach, I did so much. He was hanging by his feet from the four poster and underneath him, in a massive pool in the floor, was his blood…” he murmured. “His skin looked as if it had been sheared off of his body- every inch of him, even his scalp. Furthermore… His heart has been carved out of his chest.”

The surroundings of his eyes were red and inflamed now with the constant tears. Why did this have to happen to me, he thought. I loved my parents well and even though Asrea may not have been my real mother, she reared me and I loved her just the same.
“Do you have any knowledge as to who would have done this to my parents and how DID you know this was going to happen?” Evan asked.

Anele debated with whether she should tell him of her visions. People have always been a bit unnerved by my power, she thought. Why would Evan be any different? But she knew that she had to explain it to him- he had the right to know.

“First, I had knowledge that it was to happen because I am what people call a Seer. Seers watch the flow of time, usually the future, and are able to decipher the meaning from the visions. And amidst the events overturned in your home, I was able to come to a conclusion as to whom it was. Your father, Memnah, was a wizard and was murdered by Ethrel, a wizard who is vying for ultimate magical power. In killing your father and taking his heart from him, he was able to transfer what magical power your father had, and absorb it unto himself. Wizards must be ‘bled out’ meaning that while their blood is drained from their body, so too is their magical power. Eating the heart would transfer the stagnant power to Memnah, allowing him to get even more power.”

“But that would mean… that… that I’m a… wizard too, wouldn’t it?” Evan struggled to ask.

“Yes it does. In fact, from the fact that Memnah killed your father for his power, you must be one of the most powerful in millennia. What you also don’t about your real mother is that she had a father who was a wizard also. So you have the gift from two sides of your family.”

“This is all too much to handle right now… I think I just need to sort this out and figure out how to deal with this…” and with that, Evan walked to a distant corner of the room out of the lamplight and sat in the dark.

Meanwhile, outside things were getting just as intense…

* * * * * * * * * *

Standing in the aura of light emitting from a torch bracketed to the hut, Ania and Eryk waited as Anele and Evan had their “personal time”. Now Ania and Eryk would have time alone again to talk. Eryk moved toward her to whisper in her ear.

“Hello, my dear lady. You look very beautiful with the light reflecting from your eyes like that,” he whispered with a hint of seductiveness tainting it.

“Don’t play games with me dear sir. I’m not one of your little lovesick wenches,” Ania muttered in backlash.

“What do you mean by that?” he asked, concern creasing his brow.

“Don’t think I was not able to see you earlier with your little harem of trollops. I saw them fawning over you…” she cut off, not trusting her voice to stay steady.

“They may have seemed like they were fawning but they were just young girls, they don’t know what they want in life,” he explained, hoping she would understand.

“Oh, but obviously YOU do. I saw you grab that girl’s hand and kiss it just the same way you did mine. Do you think I am as simpleminded as they are?”

Truly not understanding her reasoning for getting mad, all he could do was explain his intentions. He didn’t want her to be mad at him, that was the last thing on his mind.

“She was trying to seduce me so I grabbed her hand and kissed it instead of letting it go farther. What was I supposed to do?”

“YOU SAW HER BLUSH! SHE STILL THINKS YOU WANT HER! No doubt that you revel in the attention and take pleasure if your breath taking looks and well-toned body! You think that you can run around and throw girls’ hearts around without thought to any of their feelings! You act as if these are trivial matters! They may be so to you, but to others the hope of love is all that they have!” she screamed, angry at how he could stay so calm when this meant so much.

“Do you think that love means so little to me? Just because I do not want to hurt a child’s feelings, that does not mean that I intend to throw their hearts around and play games with them. I have it not in me to so blatantly tell them that I abhor their actions,” he stated as if the reason was obvious.

“Then do you abhor my actions also? You did much the same with me! You must tell people honestly what you feel for them! Otherwise, how they are to know that your actions are true if you act the coward constantly!” she screamed, not relenting in her position. Tears glistened in her eyes and her jaw shook with the passion that she released the words.

“YOU HAVE NO HOLD OVER ME TO TELL ME WHAT I MUST AND MUST NOT DO!” he yelled, finally fuming at her false accusations.

“WELL, THEN YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE LED ME TO BELIEVE THAT YOU CARED FOR ME AS IF I AM ONE OF YOUR LITTLE STRUMPETS, YOU… YOU… BASTARD!” she spat the word at him and he felt as if his heart had just been stabbed with a hundred white-hot daggers.

A single tear found it’s way down Ania’s rosy cheeks before she turned and fled into they moon-dark night. Eryk stared at the tiny wet spot in the dirt, wondering how they had engaged in this argument. It had never been his intention to hurt Ania. In fact, he had felt more for her than any other woman he’d ever met. She challenged his mind, moved his heart, and stirred his soul. In the little amount of time that they had together, they had grown so much and how he could ever do without her, he never knew.