In Medias Res

Priscilla hurtled through the air toward me like an angry dragon descending upon an unwalled village. I managed to fire off the Mocles Saber’s emergency time dilation just in time. When the dilation took full effect, Priscilla was suspended in the air only five meters from where I stood, the sharp, needle-like feathers of her wing pointed at my heart like a knight’s lance. The tip of her wing had already pierced my shirt. Had I released my dilation any later, the lance would have completely pierced my heart.

I collapsed onto the staircase, not quite believing that Priscilla had almost actually killed me. I stared at her face frozen in time. The Seraph looked just like Priscilla. Yet all I could see in her glowing eyes was murderous intent.

My good friend of ten years.

Something was horribly wrong.

What's going on? I thought sharply. Iris!

Before I could think things through, I remembered that the time dilation would only last thirty seconds. I climbed back onto my feet and scrambled as fast as I could to the top of the staircase, tripping over myself as I went. I had to get as far away from her as possible.

As I raced up the staircase, I tried contacting my benefactor again.

Iris, don't you dare ignore me! I shouted. You filthy liar! There’s no way that is the real Priscilla. There is no way she would try to kill me like this! Not without a darn good reason. I know her!

And yet here she is trying to skewer you like the miserable dog you are, she chuckled. I don’t know what to say, Titus. This is actually her.

What did you do to her? I cried.

A pause.

People do strange things when they don’t remember who they are.

But she clearly remembers who I am.

Certainly.

I climbed the steps two at a time now. I found it hard to believe that Priscilla would turn to violence given that she seemed to remember knew who I was. Something wasn’t adding up.

If you messed with her memories so that she would kill me, our deal is off! I growled.

Fifteen seconds, Iris replied coolly.

I heard the sound of a metal spoon clinking against a teacup.

I-is that tea?

Nectar, she replied, taking a sip from her cup. Ack, still hot!

I gulped. My heart was racing so quickly that as I gazed down the staircase, I found it difficult to think of what to do next now that I realized that Iris may have led me into a trap from the very beginning. I forced myself to take deep breaths to calm myself down. It wasn't helping.

The time dilation was my ace, I said. I won’t be able to stop her if she tries to kill me now, alright?

Don’t you have a kinetic shield? she responded.

I can’t.

I gave you your magic back! Some of it, anyway.

I can’t use my shield without seriously hurting her!

Iris scoffed in disbelief.

You really are a loyal dog, she sighed. Well, at this rate, she will actually kill you.

The time dilation was coming to end. I could feel the passage of time inching toward its normal gait.

Look, I said. I die here, your prisoner's gone.

Iris was silent for a moment. I counted down the last seconds of the waning time dilation.

Five...

Four...

Three...

I raised the Mocles Saber.

Running away from Priscilla seemed to be the only sensible thing left to do. If I could lose her in the rain, I may have a second chance to speak with her when she was not as angry.

As I turned to find a way down the mountain cliff, however, Iris spoke up.

I’ve got your back, O faithless one! she said. Just-try talking to her.

Easier said than done!

When the time dilation came to an end, there was a loud explosion followed by a small tremor that seized the entire temple as Priscilla’s wing destroyed part of the staircase where I was standing thirty seconds ago. Her face was bleeding from the debris from the explosion, but that only seemed to further her bloodlust. She scanned the area around her like a lioness who had just lost track of her prey. She had yet to spot me standing at the top of the staircase.

I took the Mocles Saber and after a moment of hesitation, I tossed it down the staircase. When the blade hit the ground, Priscilla spun her head toward my direction like a lioness disturbed from her sleep.

I immediately raised both of my hands high in the air, signaling that I did not want to fight her.

“Before you try to kill me again,” I called out as the Mocles Saber continued to clatter down the staircase, “can you at least make sure I am who I say I am? I’ve already used my time dilation, and I did not use it to try and kill you. Nor did I run away as far as I could have. I just want to talk.”

Priscilla took a running start and lunged toward me from the first flight of stairs. She cleared the second flight of stairs with that first jump and the final flight of stairs with her second. As she landed in front of me, her wing transformed from a spear into a massive hand.

Oh, thank heavens, I thought as the hand lunged toward me like a freight truck. At least I won't be stabbed to death.

She slammed me onto the ground with her wing, knocking all of the air out of my lungs. I was able to save my skull from being smashed by cushioning it with some kinetic magic, but the rest of my body wasn’t so lucky. If some of the bones in my arms and legs weren’t broken, they definitely were bruised.

I couldn’t understand why she was being so violent. Even for her, this was unusual. If I couldn’t convince her I was who I said I was, there was a good chance she would kill me on the spot.

Just as I caught my breath and opened my mouth to make my appeal, Priscilla shocked me with a healthy dose of lightning magic. Every thought fled from my mind as I lay helpless on the ground, fighting to stay conscious.

“Titus Ko,” she said as I writhed in pain. “Do you know how long I’ve been stuck in this dream?”

She remembered who I was. I felt a small surge of hope despite the excruciating pain I was in.

“Two minutes?” I croaked. “No more than three.”

Another shock of lighting, this time even more painful.

“Seven years!” she swore. “Do you know what I’ve been through?”

A shiver ran down my spine.

“Wait, seven years, that's impossible-

I gagged as the wing hand tightened its grip around my neck.

“Please, no more lightning!” I gagged. “I-I’m about to pass out.”

Priscilla lowered the hood of her cloak. Her now pink hair was ragged and unruly. Her eyes were wild and restless. Her mouth was curled back into a vicious snarl. She really did look like she had been stuck in the dream for seven years. But she hadn’t aged a day thanks to negligible senescence granted to her by being a Seraph.

“Not to mention that you nearly killed me three years ago,” she said, preparing to shock me for the third time.

“Whoa, wait, when?” I cried.

One of her wing strands lifted a portion of her hair away, revealing a gruesome scar that stretched from the back of her ear down the entire side of her neck. The scar looked like it had cut deep, quite possibly into her jugular.

“Oh,” I said.

“Yeah,” she said. “Oh, is right.”

That’s why she’s been trying to kill me. She thought I, or someone posing as me, had tried to kill her. I had a bad feeling that the scar was the result of a fight between her and the imposter. And she hated scars.

Priscilla’s expression softened after she examined my face for a moment.

“Maybe it was you,” she said. “Maybe it was a phantasm that looked like you. But as of now, I really have no way to tell.”

Priscilla lifted me off the ground and raised me with her wing so I was staring at her, eye to eye. She tightened the grip around my body, so much so that my right arm felt like it was on the verge of snapping.

“Is there any way to verify that I am who I say I am?” I screamed.

Priscilla paused. Then she raised a gold-rimmed monocle hung around her neck to her right eye. Thin fractals of golden light traced the lens as magic flowed through its construct. She examined me for a moment through the lens before releasing the monocle.

“Archie says you’re human,” she said dryly.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m so glad you still have that,” I said.

“But Archie’s lied to me before.”

The remaining strands of her wings immediately pointed toward me as if someone had flipped a switch. Small orbs of light gathered around the tip of each of these strands, each growing in intensity with every passing second. They hummed quietly with destructive power.

“T-the Ray of Annihilation,” I whispered.

She raised me higher into the air with her wing until I was almost looking directly down at her. I had never been so terrified in my life before since up until then, I had only known Priscilla as a friend. Meeting her now as an angry Seraph who wanted me dead made me realize that only the friends of a Seraph were oblivious of her true power.

“Last chance,” she said. “Prove to me you're the real Titus. I wouldn't want to kill the real one by accident.”