A Life for a Life

She was on the hunt. Her next assignment was a prominent member of the royal family, and she shook with anticipation – this was going to bring in enough gold for a lifetime. Enough to feed her and the child for a long time.

Maybe long enough that she wouldn’t have to kill again.

As the carriages passed down the beaten pathway in the forest, she kept her eyes on the one close to the middle – six white horses marked it as the royal prince’s own. The horses started slowing down, the drugs finally affecting the large beasts. She let out her breath. The plan was working.

A brown mop of hair leaned out the window. She was close enough, just past the edge of trees, to hear the prince tell his envoy to go on ahead. What a fool, she thought to herself, grim-faced.

The carriage stopped, and out he came, straight into the open and completely vulnerable. The driver and two bodyguards who accompanied him were easily knocked out with sleeping darts. Leaving him all alone.

Lifting up her bow, arrow notched in place, she aimed it at his sternum, and walked out from behind the trees.

“I would like to apologize for this, Crown Prince,” she rasped out, her eyes hardening behind her mask.

His look of shock dissolved into one of thoughtfulness, and finally understanding. His eyes, deep green like the trees around them, closed, and he gulped loudly.

“Very well, then. I accept my fate.”

And suddenly, upon his utterance of those words, the snake bit.

Searing pain traveled up her legs, and with a hiss, she fell. A knife quickly thrown from the clearing severed the snake’s head, but the damage had already been done.

“It’s poison is one that kills,” he said quietly, kneeling beside the assassin and fingering the snake. Its tell-tale pattern of red, black, and yellow was too bright in the forest’s shade. “I need you to answer one question for me – why?”

Her eyes were shut tightly – she could feel the venom traveling up her leg, burning like hellfire. “To feed my son,” she managed to whisper, “I need to live!”

He quietly laid a hand on her calf, where the snake’s bite could be seen as an ugly rash. Green light erupted from his palm.

“You’ll live,” she heard him say as her world went black.

—

“Father, I saw a fairy in my dream last night.”

“Do tell.”

“Well, she told me a story. About a prince, just like me! She talked about a green light and how it could only be used to heal and… there was something else, but I forgot.” The child pouted as he tried to think back to the night before.

“I see… I guess it’s time for a little history lesson then.”

The child groaned, making the man laugh.

“No, I think you’ll rather like this lesson – you see, there was once magic rampant in the world. Every being could use it – it was as easy to pluck out of the air as berries from a bush.

But then, humans lost their ignorance – they became greedy and cruel. The beginning of what we call humanity was actually the end of peace. And so they learned to use magic for things best left undone. I believe that what happened next is that it was locked away by a powerful God. This God then allowed two people who proved themselves, through many trials, to have pure intentions, to access some of this magic.

And forevermore, there would always be two individuals with the old magic – powerful, but good.

There is another legend, more of a prophecy really… It says that whenever magic is used, it can only be used to save a life, and in doing so those two lives are linked.”

“Forever?”

“Forever until the gates of death themselves.”

“Well that seems a little too dramatic, doesn’t it?”

The man chuckled, ruffling the boy’s hair affectionately. “And you’re one to talk, Crown Prince Christopher.”