Some people survive chaos and that is how they grow. And some people thrive in chaos, because chaos is all they know.
- Unknown

-----❅-----

- Victorine -

-----❅-----

My parents looked just as I remembered them. My mother with her warm eyes and straight, proud posture. My father with a tired looking posture and hard facial expressions.

My heart ached at the sight of them both. I never expected to see my parents ever again. I would have loved to reach out and fall into their arms, but this was just a memory of Nicolas.

With effort, I tried to push all my own feelings aside and focus on the importance of this situation.

Nicolas was negotiating with my parents. He wanted their support to build an alliance.

According to his memory, this was a year after his coronation. And he was already looking for allies to win a war against Cephas.

"King Nicolas," I now heard my mother's voice. The queen was standing in front of one of the wide windows, so that the sunlight illuminated her hair and gave even more power to her appearance.

"As much as we can understand your anger and concerns, we must first think of our own people and family first," she spoke.

"An alliance with Sanguis could possibly provoke Tenebris into an attack," interjected my father, who was sitting in a chair a little further away.

Nicolas had already feared these arguments. "With all due respect," he began cautiously. "Every kingdom is already exposed to the danger of his attack. Of course, so far he only attacks those he considers a threat. Anything else would be a waste of his time." His voice sounded bitter, but also confident. He had probably spent a lot of time worrying about his enemy.

"But the slightest mistake, the most trivial statement, one wrong military move and he could kill hundreds of people here. If all the kingdoms banded together, then we would have the opportunity to end his reign."

My parents were silent and seemed to think carefully about his words. But it was already evident from their faces that they would reject his proposal.

"Your anger is perfectly understandable, King Nicolas," the queen then spoke. "And you are right that Cephas is already a danger. But with an alliance between us, he would be an even greater danger."

Nicolas clenched his hands to fists in anger. In all the other kingdoms, he had never received any other reaction. All were too cowardly to confront him.

"You must understand," my mother began after making brief eye contact with him. "That this decision has nothing to do with fear."

She had read his mind, but how could Nicolas have known this at the time? This ability was extremely rare and we had always hidden it. Now my mother was already standing at the window, looking out. "It's all about protecting our kingdom. Our people. We can't risk their lives, not for the chance of toppling Cephas from the throne someday."

Her dark eyes still stared at a point outside the castle walls. Curious, Nicolas stepped closer and looked out the window beside her.

With a slight shock in my heart, I realized they were watching me.

I was training with my father's cousin in the huge castle courtyard. My movements were quick and precise. I shot out, retreated, twirled, spun. I did my best to bring my opponent to his knees. It was a long, hard fight. Still, neither of us wanted to weaken and give up.

"We are not only protecting our people, but also our children. Our family," my mother spoke.

Icy pain shot through Nicolas' heart, but he tried not to let it show. His eyes followed our movements in the castle courtyard. At some point I was overwhelmed and had lost the battle. As I took off my helmet and my long, dark hair fell over my shoulders, I realized that I looked almost like my mother. Only the hard features and bitter, angry expression didn't match her.

Nicolas turned his head and looked once again into Mother's gentle eyes.

Then I was thrown out of memory again and stood in the dungeon lit by fire. Witches were holding me. No, wrong. I was holding onto the witches.

Cold tears ran down my cheeks as I cried silently. I missed my parents so much. All I wanted was to know myself in the safety of my family.

But my ability left me little time for my grief and I was thrown into another of his memories.

Nicolas wondered why the spy was such a young woman. Her movements had seemed experienced and extremely careful.

He watched boredly as I laid down my weapons, wondering how best to force me to reveal my information. Wondered what my weakness was.

"Everyone," he ordered out of nowhere.

I watched myself. How I tried to hide my despair behind a stony facade and my anger towards Blondie, while I also had to lay down my last weapons.

Finally, I heard my firm voice proclaiming to be Victorine Zuleika of Arphaxad from the Kingdom of Spero and daughter of Almeric Mortimer Ulric of Alphaxad.

The king looked at me closely, then it seemed to occur to him. He had seen me once before, two years ago. In the castle courtyard in Spero during a sword fight. Nicolas' gaze shot to my blade, which lay with my other weapons. In fact, he recognized that it had been the same sword as then.

The sword was not the best that could be forged. Yet I had gone into every battle with it for years. Within seconds, he had thus figured out one of my character traits. My loyalty.

"The first daughter of the king, interesting," he remarked.

"I offer you my support in the fight against Cephas," I saw myself finally speaking, looking deadly serious.

"The support of Spero?" inquired Nicolas.

"No, mine," I repeated.

Nicolas had believed that he would forever stand alone in the fight against Cephas. No kingdom had wanted to join him. Of course, it was ridiculous that such a puny human as I even thought I could make it anywhere near Cephas.

Still, Nicolas looked into my dark, flashing eyes and recognized himself. Recognized anger towards the man who had killed his parents. And the man who had also murdered the royal couple of Spero.

Nicolas had believed that he was the only one who wanted to take on Cephas. Who seriously intended to cut off his head. And suddenly there was a woman in front of him, whose eyes spoke exactly the same thing.

And then the eyes were gone.

Or were they?

It was so dark that Nicolas could barely make out anything. Sharp pain shot through his temple, clouding his senses.

"King Nicolas?"

This time he perceived his name clearly. And also understood that the pair of eyes and the face behind the bars were not imaginary.

Holy Lord in heaven, was he pissed. Nicolas was so pissed that I almost voluntarily fled from his mind. He hated and cursed me and thought I was the stupidest, riskiest person he had ever met.

It took me a great deal of concentration to extract anything useful from all the tangle.

Warmth. Because she had returned. Victorine had returned.

And at the end of my journey, I found my answer.

I could not estimate how much time had passed. I quickly broke away from Nicolas' eyes and looked at the witches around me. I noticed how I was still clutching two arms for support and quickly let go.

I had seen terrible things. I had seen my loss brought before my eyes once again. Actually, my thoughts should be racing unimaginably wild and fast, getting lost in the most different dead ends of a labyrinth. And yet my head was frighteningly clear.

With a steady gaze I looked into the eyes of the leader and into her all-sucking, never-ending darkness.

"I will tell you Cephas' plan," I then spoke.

"Vindicta!"

The leader, who held my eye contact for a few more seconds, turned to face the person calling out. A witch in black, sodden robes stormed into the dungeon and made her way through the other witches. Her black eyes gave nothing away, but everything else about her face radiated complete horror.

Something shone in her face. At first I suspected it was the rainwater with which her clothes were also soaked. But when she stepped into the light of the torch, I discovered the red glow. Her whole face was covered with blood. Just like the other witches, this one also had wounds on her face. But hers were fresh.

Hers had just been brought into her skin.

"They're blowing up the mountains, Vindicta," came out of her mouth, in a voice so full of terror that it echoed off the walls and sent an icy shiver down my spine.

The witch took two more heavy breaths, then fell to her knees. "He wants the heart of the mountains."

-----❅-----

- Cephas -

-----❅-----

The crashing of the stony rock formation was deafening. My footsteps crunched on the ground. My boot soles crushed last small rock and didn't care about walking over body parts.

With a fixed gaze forward, I walked toward the exposed entrance. Dust and dirt swirled in the air. I pulled my helmet off my head. Rainwater whipped in my face. Keeping some distance, I stopped and waited for the visibility to improve.

"Fire," I spoke.

A wave of magical beings lined up in front of me and fired toward the entrance. A veritable spectacle of colorful and glowing deadly beams struck every creature still trying to defend the heart of the mountains.

When the attacks were over, the wave in front of me parted, giving me complete visibility again. Up to this point, everything had gone easily.

"Send in the dragons," I gave the new order.

The dragon riders behind me signaled the dragons. A dozen flying creatures took off and made their way in through the entrance. Anything that got in my way had to be slaughtered.

"Situation report?", I inquired.

"About fifty percent of our soldiers are dead. Thirty percent of the magical beings, ten of the snipers. Our first protective ring is undamaged, our second ninety percent intact," they reported to me.

Nothing and no one would be able to attack us. Not even the lower witches who were hiding somewhere in the mountains.

You could hear the dragons raging in the cave. The glow of their fire breathing glowed and warmed the air all the way until here.

"Back," was my new command after a while.

The dragon riders called their dragons back. When the last creature was behind us again, I looked at the entrance for some time. I could sense that the target was not far away. And there it had to be, the heart of the mountains.

"Send the soldiers inside," I ordered.

The sound of the footsteps of the dozens of soldiers dragging themselves with their metal armor to the cave entrance made the air tremble.

Although it took a long time, I stood patiently in the lashing rain. Finally, a silhouette could be made out approaching me. My bodyguards instantly stepped in front of me, but I sent them back to their places when the silhouette turned out to be that of the head soldier.

"Only she is still alive, holy King Cephas," he groaned out of breath as he stood before me.

Head held high, I strode forward, my bodyguards with their man-sized shields in formation around me.

We strode along the entrance to the cave. The smell of burning flesh covered everything else inside. A few more meters we stepped over corpses. Then a large room opened up in front of us.

This must have once looked majestic.

The ceiling above us went up several meters. Stalactites jutted down from its stone formations. Everywhere it shone and glittered in isolated places, as if it were worth some time to dig and find valuable materials.

In the center of the cave was a stone slab surrounded by dark water all around. We walked along the stone bridge that led to the slab over the waters. I led the way.

With closer inspection, I discovered eggs of various sizes floating in the water. Some shimmered, others seemed to glow from within. In the luminous ones, one could see figures in the embryo stage.

I turned my gaze forward again and concentrated. Truly, there she knelt. In the very center of the stone slab knelt a woman.

The black hair hung over her face. Her gaze was tilted downward.

My footsteps echoed throughout the hall as I approached her. Then I stood in front of her and looked down at her.

I stuck out my hand, grabbed her by the hair, and forced her to look me in the face. Pitch black eyes, devoid of any soul, any color, stared at me. A godless creature, like any witch.

My gaze wandered down her. She was wearing a white robe. Between her breasts I made out a green glow.

There it was. The heart of the mountains.

"So long we have been thinking of you as a legend," I spoke then, savoring the moment. Her black eyes stared at me, lifeless. Though, after all, this witch was responsible for life itself.

The heart will do you no good.

I almost flinched. Had flinched, from a witch!

It had been unexpected to hear her voice not from her mouth, but in my head.

"In fact, this heart will be of great use to me," I replied with a smile, slowly drawing my sword from its scabbard.

You have no idea what you are doing. It will throw the entire world off its balance.

"So I do have an idea what it can do," I replied dryly. "But I'm not here to argue with you."

Her eyes seemed to pierce me. She remained motionless as I placed the blade against her chest and cut my way to her heart.

"I'm here to tell you something," I whispered, setting the bloodied sword aside. Slowly, I pushed aside the shredded fabric of her robe and guided my hand into the open wound.

"I won't tolerate anyone playing God."

-----❅-----

- Vane -

-----❅-----

When the first bomb hit the ship, it knocked us all off balance.

It had been hopeless. Still, we had stretched the sails to the highest and furthest and had taken advantage of the strong wind to glide across the water as fast as possible. But the fleets behind us had been faster. When they had come close enough, they had cleared the bombs. And not much later, the first one had hit our ship.

I jerked the steering wheel around, with the tiny hope of dodging more gunfire.

"Take all the lifeboats! Everyone off the ship!", I yelled over the thunderous noise.

"But Captain!" shouted back Varius Krum, clinging to the railing beside me.

"That was an order!" I retorted, giving him a quick, penetrating look, then refocusing on what was happening.

Someone had to keep steering. I had to buy more time for my crew.

I clutched the wheel with my fingers as bombs hit the sides of the ship. The fleets with the dark flags of Tenebris had surrounded us from both sides. And Celera wasn't fast enough to run from them.

"Hold on a little longer, baby," I brought out between clenched teeth as I heard wood shattering and splinters of wood flying around me. Our main mast was hit and fell, taking the remaining sails with it. Where the huge wooden mast hit, it nearly tore the ship in two.

I could hear my men screaming. Most of them probably had not made it to the lifeboats in time.

A bomb hit the deck on the other side, starting a fire that spread farther and farther in my direction.

I closed my eyes. For one last time, I tried to listen to the waves. To enjoy the wind in my face. To feel the smooth wood of the wheel under my fingers.

My ship was sinking. I clung tighter to the wheel. A captain was going down with his ship. I would go down with Celera.

More bombs shattered the rest of the ship. One hit so close beside me that all I heard was a muffled beep. My eyes were still shut tight. I did not want this to be the last image of my life. In the last moment of my life, I wanted to feel the freedom of my inner spirit.

My feet sank into the water. Not later, the rest of my body too. I floated, stretched out my arms and flew. In my last moment, I flew.

And then, my lungs began to burn and I started to demand oxygen. I tore open my eyes. In front of me, Celera was sinking. Deeper and deeper she sank, while I kept swimming upward.

I hit the surface of the water and gasped for air. Coughing and gasping, I tried to stay afloat.

Then something grabbed my feet and pulled me back down.

I kicked my legs and flailed, but the mermaid was too strong. Her fin pushed hard against me as she pulled me further through the water by my foot. Until the intense burning in my lungs subsided and my vision went black.

But before I lost consciousness, I was back in the air, gasping for oxygen once again. Someone dragged my body forward, put me down, and let me breathe gasping for a few seconds.

Coughing, I straightened up on the sandy ground and looked at the bloody, motionless body of the mermaid beside me.

With shaky legs, I stood up and looked into the faces of the troop I had brought over Fluxus Profundum a few days ago.