Two-Faced Princess

wn the wizard’s face, puckered in concentration.
Uriel could hardly breathe as he watched him.
When the complex form of numerous curves and straight lines was completed, he beckoned Uriel to stand in it.
He didn’t stop reciting the spell, though.
He reached out and poked Uriel’s tattoo with the tip of his cane.

“Ugh…!”

The instant the tip touched his flesh, blood-red light burst from his neck in a blaze of fire.
Uriel shreaked, and fell forward to one knee.
He frantically tried to cover the tattoo with his hand, but the wizard knocked his hand aside with the cane.

“We need the key.” The wizard turned to Apollonia.
Sid offered her a silver dagger.
He’d been watching the situation from the sidelines, unfazed.
She picked it up and slowly approached Uriel, who still knelt shaking on the ground.
She gently patted his shoulder.

“Hang in there.”

He flinched at her touch, and gritted his teeth.
He was trying, but it was nearly too much for him to bear.
His senses had been amplified a thousandfold.
Even her simple touch felt like a sledgehammer.

Shuk! Apollonia stood next to Uriel and sliced her finger with the dagger.
Blood welled out of the cut, and began to drip down to the floor.

“Libertem Vitam Semper.
Eternal freedom to you.”

The wizard recited the ancient spell, explaining its meaning.
Apollonia was able to copy him easily.

“Libertem Vitam Semper.”

At the direction of the wizard, Apollonia placed her blood-stained hand on Uriel’s neck.
The two of them chanted the spell in unison.

“Libertem Vitam Semper.”

Uriel trembled in pain.
It seemed like all his senses were awakening.

“Libertem Vitam Semper.”

Apollonia’s touch on the back of his neck was burning hot.
He could almost feel his flesh sizzling from the heat.
Yet beneath the pain, her touch was soft.

“Libertem Vitam Semper.”

He heard no doubt in her words.
She was fully confident that the spell would work.
He began to feel a strange sensation; an intense itch crawling across his neck.
Beneath it all, he could still feel the softness of her hand.
It was his anchor.

“Libertem Vitam Semper.”

And in the span of a single moment, the spell shattered.
Shocks reverberated through his body.
He was free.

Yet in the same moment the spell broke, he began to feel the start of another kind of bondage – one he’d never felt before.

“Libertem Vitam Semper.”

His new master.

“Libertem Vitam Semper.”

It was Apollonia.