Chapter one
I stand here looking at this woman and I know that her intention is to kill me in the name of Lord Vadam. He doesn’t like that I have been interfering in his business. He doesn’t want things to change and I have made it my mission to give women a voice that they didn’t have before. I sensed that there are others out there that felt the same way, but were unwilling or unable to speak up for themselves. They needed a hero, somebody that was willing to risk just about everything to make their voices heard. They needed a woman to stand strong and show them the way.
I was in the process of hunting down an Offus, when I came across this woman that now had me in her cross hairs. That energy whip would no doubt kill me if I didn’t act quickly. I fired the arrow and she smiled cockily, as she sliced it out of the air and destroyed it. She did it, so easily that it was amazing to see. Had it been any time else, I might have thought that she could be an ally.
I had 4 arrows left and I had no interest in wasting them, but I really didn’t want to die. I fired two in succession and she moved to the side like she knew they were coming. She slashed out with that tendril of energy and once again destroyed the only means of protection that I had at hand.
The tendril came towards me and I barely got out of its way, but I stumbled over a rock and landed heavily on my ass. I looked up at her and she now had that tendril snapped back behind her and about to take the final blow.
“Gemini, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” That was Braden’s voice and I could see him standing behind this girl with the cowl over her black armor. “I know that’s you and you can’t fool me. We were together a long time and I would know your figure anywhere.” That cocky smile that she had on her face had all, but disappeared. She turned away from me and I was tempted to attack, but I thought it better to see how this was going to play out.
“Braden, this is none of your business. You and I haven’t been together in some time. We weren’t right together. Even though you professed your love, you never heard me say the same thing. I thought deep down that I did love you, but there was something that was missing and Lord Vadam was able to give me that.” This was sounding oddly like they had a connection. Maybe she was the one that tried to mend his broken heart after his wife perished.
“Gemini, this is not the place or the time to air dirty laundry. Our grievances are our own and we don’t have to share them with any one.” He was obviously directing his comments towards me, but he had yet to even make eye contact. That meant that he had something to hide and didn’t want either myself or Gemini to figure out what it was. I was starting to put pieces together and then it dawned on me that Gemini was his…wife.
“I’ve noticed in the last three years that you’ve changed and maybe if you had taken that initiative when we were together things could’ve been different. You had no courage and no strength and you were more than happy to wile away your time on a farm. I wanted more than that and I told you that several times, but you didn’t even listen to me.” She had pulled the cloak off and I saw that her hair was white on one side and black on the other. It was a jarring effect, but definitely something that I would not have seen, unless she had taken the cowl and helmet off. The hood had exposed her uniqueness and now I was seeing that Braden was not very happy to see her.
“Gemini, you said that you would never don the hood again. You said that those days were behind you and that you were willing to look at a simpler way of life. I should’ve known from the moment that I met you that you were trouble. I tried to save you, but I don’t think that you really wanted to be saved. You liked who you were, but something told you that what you were doing was wrong. I gave you a way out and instead of grabbing onto it; you let it slip through your fingers. Now I catch you trying to kill Shana. This is not you and you’re not some hired wannabe. You have your own mind. I don’t know how many times you told me that.”
I hadn’t said a word and I didn’t think it was right for me to interfere in whatever personal business they had between them. I was just glad that Braden had come to my rescue, even if it was only because his wife had come back from the grave. Come to think of it, he never really did say that she was dead. He mentioned her memory and I had only assumed that she had passed on. In all the time that we had been together, he never actually said that she was 6 feet under. I think in his mind she was dead to him. She was a painful reminder of what he had tried to have.
“I think that had we met right now and at this time, we might have been able to make things work, Braden. You were never about confrontation and it was only after I put the fire underneath you that you began to see that life didn’t have to revolve around your pet Rankin. You didn’t have to languish as a farmhand. I gave you the courage to rise above your upbringing. I gave you the tools to strengthen your psyche and make you ready for battles ahead.” She was taking a lot of credit for who he was, but I think that he had it in him all the time.
“I didn’t need you to show me anything. From the moment that you left me, I began to take stock in my life and I came to some painful conclusions. I know that you’ve tried to tell me what to do, but you found out in a hurry that I was just as stubborn as you are.” While they were having this little meeting of the minds, others were right now hunting down the Offus and bringing it back to Lord Vadam. We were wasting time, but I didn’t see any way around it.
“We’ve been through this to death, Braden. This is the same argument that we’ve been having, until I finally had enough and decided to find out if there was something else better than you. I found that with Lord Vadam and he allowed me to be who I was.”
“No, he allowed you to be what he wanted you to be. He didn’t give you an open forum and he certainly didn’t let everybody know that you were the rising star. He has kept you underneath that black armor and black cowl for a reason. Every body knows you, as the hood and you think that is by accident? Do you really think he made you this myth and legend, just because he wanted to? He doesn’t want people to know that you’ve been responsible for a lot of his actions. He can’t have women seeing you, as a role model and decide to emulate you.”
“I don’t need to hear this right now, Braden and we can talk about this later, but not until I’m done with what I came here to do.” Apparently, this little talk of theirs did not change her opinion on what she had to do in Lord Vadam’s name. She turned away from him and I could see in his eyes that he didn’t have it in him to kill her. He was going to allow her to strike against me. There must’ve been a small part of his heart that still belonged to her and it was that small part that was ruling his better judgment.
“You know that Braden is right. Lord Vadam has been hiding you, because he doesn’t want people to know that a woman is doing his dirty work. He gave you this persona, as a way to kill me, but I think that you can use that to cement your role within the guardsmen. You can decide to let this be and compete in a more honorable way. You don’t have to kill.” She was smiling and that tendril of energy was snapped back.
“I wish that I could say that this was going to hurt me more than it is you. Unfortunately, we both know that that’s not true.” Her eyes told me everything that I needed to know and more. She was not going to back down and even though I saw doubt in her eyes, didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to follow through.
I was standing there like a deer in the headlights, unable to move and continually staring at this bright white energy beam that was consisting of one short tendril. She would need to take a few steps closer, but I could see that that was not a problem.
“I implore you, Gemini not to do this. You need to finally see the truth. You can’t do this and she means more to me than you can ever know.” I think that was her wakeup call and her eyes opened at the realization that I was more than just a partner in crime. “I couldn’t love another after you were gone. I know how pathetic that might sound, but you had a hold on me. When Shana came into my life, I thought that those feeling could never be rekindled. With her, it was different and she allowed me to be the man that I was supposed to be. I’ve never told her what to do and if I tried, she would always make up her own mind.” I liked that he was praising my virtues, but that wasn’t going to stop Lord Vadam’s assassin from killing me in his name.
Her eyes were wide and then she fell to the ground on her knees with the tendril slipping back within her finger. Her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and I could only see the whites for a second, before she fell face forward at my feet.