Dark Fire By: Fox Cutter Chapter 3 I've been told to start at the beginning, so I think I shall. My name is Jadith, I'm an elf. Sixth daughter of the King of Calidan, Twelfth Kingdom of the Galike Empire. I am a Princess in title only. Being sixth daughter meant I received nothing for my name. No land, no money, just my title. My father always believed that the only way I would ever marry would be for political reasons. I believed that, too. I was raised in the castle and taught how to be a proper Princess. One of the things I learned was that I would not be courted, nor would anyone come seeking my hand; I would only be wed if it was arranged. Living in the castle, I was never in a position to meet anyone that I could love. Being sixth daughter meant none of the Princes talked to me as anything other than the sister of the one they wanted to be with. I couldn't find love outside of the castle walls. I was a Princess; I did not mingle with the commoners, I did not talk with them, I was above them. It would never do to make friends with them, or even be seen with them. To marry one, just the thought would make me laugh, I could never wed so far below my station in life. I always found living at the castle rather boring. The only people to talk to were my three brothers and five sisters. The help avoided me, with good reason. I was rude to them, expecting them to bend to my every whim. That lasted until I was sixteen years old. It began with two of my brothers fighting; nothing new, they had fought many times. It wasn't even a real fight, they were practicing their sword work. I was never quite sure exactly how it happened, but my older brother, Haldith, was stabbed in the chest. My other brother panicked, running to get help. I went to Haldith's side, holding his hand as his blood pooled under him. I prayed help would arrive in time, and I wished I could help him somehow. I did. When help finally arrived they found Haldith healed, in perfect health. I, on the other hand, was lying in the grass, my face covered in blood. I was unconscious, having slipped into a state of sleeping death. I stayed like that for three years. I was just barely alive, my face pale, my skin cold, almost icy. My father, bless him, brought in every healer in the Kingdom and many from other Kingdoms. They all tried to help, and some did, but it never lasted, and I never awoke. All the while my mother keep a vigil by my bedside, feeding me and cleaning me. The day came, just over three years from when I had first entered this deathly sleep, that someone finally understood what had happened. Lady Shaledin, when she came to try and heal me, watched Haldith fall off his horse when he was going at full gallop. He hit the ground hard, rolling in his chain mail for a dozen yards. He was not even bruised by the experience. Shaledin started to understand what had happened. I had not just healed my brother, I had done much more. I had created a healing link between us; all my life force was being used to make sure my brother was always in perfect health. The worse his emergencies, the more I would give and the weaker I would become. It was only the parade of healers that had prevented me from dying. It look Lady Shaledin a month to prepare to sever the link. The healing she performed on me lasted two full days, but once it was finished I fell into a real sleep, my body and skin returning to their normal feel and color. Three more days passed before I finally awoke. My mother burst into tears and held me for hours as the news spread. During that time she explained to me what had happened. That I had lost three years of my life, and what my father had done to try and heal me. Then she told me that I was to go with Lady Shaledin, to learn how to control my healing power so nothing like this would ever happened again. I had three years before I was an adult, and could strike out on life alone, so I would be learning under Shaledin for those three years. After that I could do whatever I would wish. So I went with her, to her home nearly a month's ride from the castle. It was in a muddy little village miles from anyplace suited for a Princess of my standing. I did learn though, not just about healing, but about life in general. It didn't take long to understand that I was not going to get the treatment I had expected from everyone there. I had to pull my own weight and do my own work, cooking and cleaning just like everyone else. I started to see people as people; they were not lower than me, nor was I better than them. Without even knowing it I stopped being a Princess and started being a person. The world does look a lot different when you look at it, and not your nose. When I turned twenty-two I decided I would rather stay at the village than return to the castle. I apprenticed under Shaledin and spent two more years learning to be a true healer. During those same two years I also married the man I had come to love, and who was sadly taken from me after only three years together. After that I decided to move on, so I returned home. In the seven years I had been gone nothing much had changed. All my sisters had been married off, as were all my brothers but Haldith. My family never knew that I had been married, or was a widow until I told them the day I came home. They were all aghast. I was a Princess! I had no right to be acting like a commoner, or marrying one. It was a gulf between us that would never be filled. I moved into the village around the castle and started being a healer. My family just treated me as I wanted to be treated, never even talking to me, though Haldith would stop by occasionally. As for the villagers, they knew me as Jadith the healer, not their long forgotten Princess. I preferred it that way. I was happy with my life, and at times I would find quiet places to just reflect on it. Once such place was up the side of a mountain. The events following which have been documented enough, even if poorly, that I need not go over them once more. Ah, but to get to the point of why I am writing this at all. I had come along with Fox on this trip for quite selfish reasons. I wanted to see space, to be in a place that was so far from anywhere that the distance was measured in time, not miles. Just the thought that even the longest distance I'd ever known was, as Fox said 'peanuts to space' was some how amazing, and humbling. This seemed to me proof that the universes, how ever many they are, could not be something to happen in any form of accident. More proof of this simple truth was facing me as well. I was situated on the roof of the _Falcon_, sitting next to the round door leading inside. Above me was a wall of glass as large as a lake, being held by a form of metal I had never seen before. On the far side of it, a great distance away from me, hung a world. It shone as a quarter crescent, the greater portion in shadow. It was lit by thousands of lights that covered the land like rivers moving from one vast city to another. It was a form of beauty unto itself. I wondered how many of the people that lived on that world knew what was above it. How many had ever left it, to step foot on not just another Kingdom, or even land, but a whole different world. Smiling at the thought, I lay back and pulled an apple from my always present bag (a gift from Lady Shaledin when I left her company). I started to eat, watching the world spin above me. I was not allotted much time for reflection, though. The pilot of the craft, a young squirrel lady named Milgrove, climbed up next to me. She looked down at me and I looked back with a smile. "What are you doing here?" she asked, seeming slightly concerned. The large flaps of loose skin under her arms rippled slightly in the air rising up from inside the craft (I've been told they are wings, but they look nothing like Sora's). I finished a bite of my apple. "I'm sorry. I was talking to Fox, and came along by accident. He said he was going to tell you." She sighed slightly, sitting down on the edge of the door. "He didn't bother with it." I took another bite of the apple and sat up. "Where did you get that?" she asked, pointing at the apple. I swallowed the last bite, "From the garden inside the other ship." She smiled, "I didn't know there was fruit there." "Would you like one?" She twitched her ears, "If you have anymore." Taking the last bite from the fleshy part of the apple, I reached behind my back and into my bag. Digging around, I found another fruit and pulled it out. It was some round orange ball, called just that, an orange. I gave it to the pilot. She took it from me, then leaned over just enough to look behind me. "Where did you pull this from?" "My bag," I said, trying to hide my smile by biting the core of the apple in half. She looked again, then looked back at me. "What bag?" "It's magic," I explained with a smile. The confusion fell from her face. "Ah, a bag of many things." That shook me, that was not the way the conversation was meant to go. People were normally amazed, or asked for me to show them. Normally they did not understand what I was talking about. "I've never seen one invisible like that before," she continued, peeling the orange. I finished the last bit of the apple, not sure what response she was expecting. "How much can you put in it?" A question that I was expecting. "A fair amount of food, my staff, and a supply of the herbs I need for my healing." She nodded, "Is it only keyed to you?" It took a moment for me to understand that this was another question I had been asked before, though not in quite this way. "Yes, I'm the only one who can use it." She began to speak again, but stopped when a new voice filtered up from under her. I couldn't understand what was said, and from the look on the squirrel's face she did not either. Moving backwards she looked down the door she was still half out of. She hopped out of the hatch and stood up, a look of panic crossing her face. Someone new came out of the door after her. He was dressed in some strange form of armor and was holding some kind of thick cannon-like thing. From the way he was holding it, and from Milgrove's reaction, I realized that it must be some kind of weapon. The man smiled, stepping up from the door and pointing his device at the pair of us, "Both of you are to come with us. Stand up." The last part was directed at me. I carefully stood so as not to fall against the slickness of the ship's hull. Once standing I could see others like this man standing around the ship. "We have permission to be here, and how did you get on board the ship?" Milgrove demanded. He started to move, slowly and carefully so that his weapon never wavered from us. "You didn't close the door." Her face fell as he said this, knowing that it was something she should have done, but had not. The man had moved, Milgrove and I moving to face him, so that we both stood with out backs to the door into the ship. He gave us a coldly satisfied smile. "Go down, you'll be met inside the ship." Reluctantly we both did as we were instructed. ----- This story is (c) 1997 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed. 'Milgrove' is (C) 1997 by J. 'Packrat' McCoy, and is used with permission.