The boys continued to stare, completely speechless.

My immediate reaction was to cover my face. Everything else was hidden in over-sized baggy clothes, just like I liked it. Gone was the slinky, sexy revealing dress that I had generously filled. Gone was the queen’s comb I had just been gifted, pinned in beautiful, purple flowing hair I no longer possessed. I was me again, a short and unimpressive girl who felt most at home in baggy clothes and in front of a screen.

Embarrassed, I whipped my hood over my head in a practiced motion and drew the draw strings tight to enclose the hood around my face. As Obarith had rightly accused me of doing my whole life, I cowered like a turtle in my comfortable cotton shell.

“Don’t look at me!”

I huddled down on the floor, in as tight a ball as I could manage, wishing something, anything, would go ahead and finish the job. Just whisk me back home, where the only person I could disappoint would be my dad.

Instead, two fingers poked through my tightly closed hoodie hole, held fast by drawstrings pulled taught in my clinched fists. They pulled and pried to stretch my hood back out, and eventually I relented and released.

Ash’s beautiful, soft blue eyes stared back at me.

“Amelia? What happened?”

Ashamed, I whimpered at him and attempted to look away. Instead, he reached for me gently, wrapped his hands around my face, and forced me to look back at his worried expression. I felt his hands start to warm, and my headache started to slowly ebb away. A smile started to creep onto my face, and tears started to stream down my cheeks.

Ash Magos.

Despite not knowing what had happened and what I was going through, physically or emotionally, he wanted to help in any way possible. He wouldn’t judge me. He’d never be disappointed in me. I nervously tugged at the edge of my hoodie and tried to smile.

Relieved, he smiled back. “Are you ok?”

I shook my head slowly, “I don’t know.”

He wiped away my tears with his warm, soft hands and then helped me stand.

Dorian, Chad, and Max had also walked over and surrounded me. I looked at them all.

Some of my tears had collected on my glasses, so I took them off to dry them and my face before putting them back on.

“Hi, guys,” I whispered.

None of them seemed to know what to say. Mouths would start to form words, only for their brains to short circuit and not finish whatever thoughts they were having. Ash was the only one who seemed to be able to carry a conversation.

“What happened, Amelia? We all saw you envelope in flames for a moment, and then…” he trailed off and gestured to my new form.

I was still fidgeting with my hoodie and sweatpants but realized I had also absentmindedly stuck the end of a drawstring in my mouth and was chewing on it. I let it fall from my mouth and looked at the floor.

“So, what exactly are we looking at here?” Max asked.

Guess the cat was well out of the bag.

I stammered through some sort of an explanation.

“You all know the Goddess summoned me here, right? She didn’t create me, not from scratch anyway. I’m from another world. A world unlike this one in so many ways. She pulled my essence, my mind, here to help with the unrest brewing in Eitania. Everything else about me was a blessing she provided me.”

I gestured at myself, “What you see now? It’s the real me. My name is Amelia, but only my mother called me that back home. Everyone else called me Amy.”

Chad chose this moment to sweep in and take control, “Fine, Amy, it seems the Goddess has played us for fools once again!” He spun to face the boys instead of continuing to talk to me, “She chose this,” and he waved loosely at me, “to be our savior in our time of need?” He looked back at me and scoffed. “I’ve never been so insulted.”

I scowled at him, “I’m still the same up here, Chad.” I pointed at my head. “I can still insult you plenty!”

Without a word, he whirled around and backhanded me hard in the face.

My glasses whipped off my face and I fell to the floor, clutching my stinging cheek with a look of shock on my face.

Ash leapt at Chad angrily, only to have Dorian restrain him. I heard Dorian hissing quietly in his ear, “Not now. It’s not worth it.”

Max came to my defense in Ash’s stead and got in his brothers face, “What the hell is wrong with you!”

Chad, broken nose, and all, still managed to sound proud and smug as he answered his brother.

“I will not have her speak to me that way any longer. I tolerated her insolence before as she was useful and could serve a purpose to the Crown. Now, she is just another burden I must bear, as she is still the fallen star.”

He was obviously frustrated with this turn of events.

“But without the Goddess’ intervention, she is just another woman.” He glared at me, “A liability with a mouth.”

Max grit his teeth, grabbed him by the shirt and shook him furiously. “You idiot! You make it sound like this outcome is somehow her fault! She didn’t choose this! Any of this! If I didn’t know better, I could swear it was Father’s words spewing from your mouth just then!”

Chad wrestled with this brother and forced him to release his grip.

Max backed away but still stood between us, “For once, can you pretend to be a human being?”

Chad pointed at me, and I could hear the anger and frustration boiling over in him, “I am still being very generous! I could slap her in irons for the way she just spoke to me!” He then pointed at his face, “The way she continues to strike me!”

He looked directly at me for but a moment, “But instead, I will be gracious and allow her to continue to accompany me, despite her now being borderline useless.” He then swept past each of us on his way out of the temple and back down to the castle grounds.

The boys all watched him with various levels of venom in their eyes. They were clearly not pleased with how he was processing this new development. While I wasn’t happy that he had struck me, nothing he had said wasn’t without a ring of truth. They didn’t know the capabilities, or lack thereof, of this form, but I did.

And Chad wasn’t far off from the truth with his accusations. I at least retained my knowledge of how to fight, but now lacked the strength to do anything with it. Ash could probably beat me in a match now. And no matter how hard I trained from here to Blackwall, I wasn’t going to drastically increase my usefulness in a week.

He was right. I was now a liability.

Once Chad was out of sight, Dorian released Ash and he again rushed to my side on the floor. Dorian and Max looked at each other, having some sort of silent conversation. Ash and Max then helped me up as Dorian located my glasses and handed them to me, and we silently made our way out of the accursed temple and down the winding path to the castle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chad was nowhere to be seen when we arrived back down at the courtyard. Duncan stood where we had left him, next to the guards in attendance. He immediately rushed to greet us on our arrival.

“Prince, gentlemen, Amelia. What happened up there? Prince Chadwick stormed by without a word, and I knew something foreboding had occurred.”

I looked up at Duncan from underneath my hood and he looked back at me, his expression not changing.

“I don’t understand Duncan. How were you able to recognize me?”

He simply smiled warmly, “Remember what I told you, lass. I know a fighter when I see one.”

I nervously smiled, “Thanks, Duncan, but I’m pretty sure I’m not a fighter anymore.”

He chuckled, “I’ve also been around long enough to know that size isn’t everything.”

Dorian and Max filled Duncan in on the events at the temple, his expression never changing, despite how increasingly absurd the retelling became.

When they were done, he merely looked back at me and said, “Prince Chadwick’s assumptions about your usefulness aside, he is right about one thing. This does change our approach considerably for the journey ahead.”

He put a hand on my shoulder, “Don’t worry. As you have seen, the prince has had a bit of a rough day. While that doesn’t excuse him, I am sure none of his words or actions truly reflect how he feels on the matter. I’ll talk to him. He’ll come around.”

I smiled at him again.

“Thank you again, Duncan. Your kindness really means a lot right now.”

As we walked to the castle, Dorian addressed me for the first time.

“I know I’m a little late to the party, but you looked really good in the dress! Shame it left when Obarith snapped his fingers! What a waste!”

I blushed and shrunk my head back into my hoodie, as I appreciated Dorian’s sweet attempt to take my mind off my traumatic experience.

Duncan immediately rushed me to the armory in the castle and proceeded to go over new weapons to defend myself with. I wasn’t in the best of moods, but Duncan advised me better sooner than later, to which i agreed.

I decided on a dagger in the end, and I declined offers for some armor. I was comfortable in what I was wearing, and armor would only weigh me down. I no longer had my blessed endurance and strength and would wear down quickly if we had to leave horseback. I spent what remained of the afternoon and evening learning how to wield my new weapon before calling it a night.

At bedtime, Max escorted me to a room. None of us had seen Chad since he had stomped off from the temple. Honestly, that was fine with me. I didn’t think he was in the right head space to interact with any of us anyway. Ash was still stewing over his treatment of me earlier and Dorian probably had some choice words for him if he ever got him behind closed doors. Max had already said his piece and was still pretty upset about it all as well.

I slipped out of my clothes and slid under the cool bedsheets. I grabbed one of the pillows and clung to it tightly, wishing more than ever before that I had someone to talk to. Noelle would know just what to say. She always did when I was feeling lonely. My mind started to play through what our conversation would have been like as we discussed my day. Then my imagination betrayed me, and I started to worry what she would think of me if she saw me like this.

I didn’t want to cry anymore, but loneliness was the only emotion I had left, and I stained the pillow with my tears until I fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Persistent knocking on my chamber door awoke me the next morning. It had me recalling my first morning on Eitania, and as I buried my head underneath pillows to drown out the wake-up call, I wasn’t sure which I preferred: the rooster or the servants. I ignored their attempts to coax me out of bed and answer the door until I was good and ready. The events of yesterday still had me in a melancholy mood, so I was in no rush to greet the day. Unfortunately, they were persistent on getting my attention and called to me endlessly from the other side of the thick door. I missed not having snooze buttons in the morning.

Eventually, I relented and rose from the bed, wrapping the soft blankets around my nakedness and dragged them with me to answer the door. Normally, I wouldn’t even think of answering a door for strangers dressed in nothing but bedsheets, but I was just not in the mood to be bothered with modesty.

I was greeted by several females at the door ready to get me going for the day. They assisted with dressing me back into my clothes and brushing my hair and escorted me to the dining hall where breakfast had been served. The boys and Duncan were already there finishing up their meals and awaiting my arrival. Chad was still nowhere to be seen.

The dining hall was cleared of any others present and I also didn’t see any trays or tables filled with food. My insistence on sleeping in had cost me whatever royal breakfast buffet had been available. As I approached the group, Dorian whipped a napkin off a covered plate in front of an empty chair next to him. It was filled with bacon, eggs, sausage links and some breakfast tarts. He then poured me a fresh glass of orange juice and patted the seat next to him. I felt a small smile form on my face and nodded my appreciation as I sat down to eat.

Duncan rose from his chair and approached. “Good morning, Amelia. I hope you slept well.”

I hadn’t. I was sure I looked like hell. Even the maids had flinched or hesitated a moment when I had first opened my door. My eyes burned from the tears that had dried in them and it had taken the maids longer than I wanted to admit in assisting me in looking presentable.

“I hate to rush your morning along, but we are expecting the arrival of the rest of our party this morning. They should be arriving at our castle gates shortly and protocol dictates we must greet their arrival. They will then be quickly briefed on our objective, and we will be making our final preparations to leave for Blackwall, post haste.”

The boys were each almost done eating, and I was forced to quickly down some of the delicious smelling food on my plate. I stuffed some eggs and sausage in my mouth and washed it down with juice, then grabbed a couple of strips of bacon and shoved some tarts in my hoodie pocket before we rushed on to the courtyard entrance at the drawbridge to await our new arrivals.

Chad was already standing there, apathetic and disconnected from it all. He was standing underneath the castle gate at the drawbridge and leaning against the right-hand frame, staring out into nothing. The royal healers had been hard at work on his injuries from yesterday. Other than his nose looking a little off, you could barely tell he’d had his face smashed in only yesterday afternoon.

He didn’t even seem to register our presence as we came up behind him. The boys and I crowded next to the other side of the gate, attempting to give him a wide berth. Duncan, not caring about the obvious tension in the air, took up a spot in the middle of it all and stood at attention.

And thus, we waited for the sons of Zannister and Alustan to make their arrivals.

We didn’t have to wait long.