Chapter 26 & 27

CHAPTER 26

BROKEN, NOT HEALED

&

CHAPTER 27

CRY OF DESPAIR

I waited for words I would never hear.  I cried into the night for the love that would never return.  If you think I'm the man you once loved, you are blindly mistaken. --Alaire

Since the update for chapter 26 hasn't been posted yet, I decided to combine the update for chapter 26 and 27 into one post.  This will be a longer post than usual, but I'll split up the excerpts and whatnot from the chapters.

CHAPTER 26

BROKEN, NOT HEALED

It's ironic how quickly strangers can enter into one's life and become all too familiar.  For Celestria, though,  it is more bothersome that people she never knew before are now the ones who hold truths she must bear listening to.  What's more, now is the time she must fight for what she has believed in.  Either she fights against her enemies, or they overwhelm her and everything is lost.  Two choices but only one decision can be made.

EXCERPT:

What madness are you speaking? I thought to myself.

“Do you remember me? Jacquette, Alaire's partner? We once had been a team...” She stared off into the distance. I choked on my words, barely being able to believe it myself. The woman who Alaire had been engaged to was in Belsgar, standing in front of me?

“You... You're Jacquette? You worked with Alaire, and you were the one who called off the wedding?” I said.

CHAPTER 27
CRY OF DESPAIR
Darkness.  All her life, Celestria has been dependent on the darkness, whether she wants to admit it or no.  During the minutes when she needs to depend on it again, the shadows, the blackness, and the cold will become overwhelming.  The dark cannot physically hurt her, but it also gives an unexplainable advantage to someone else.
EXCERPT:

A gasp escaped from Aldemund's lips, but then Japhet ran from out of the audience. Once again he held a ghostly white knife. Though I did not know what his magic was, I cast a spell and he dropped and fell into the water. I grabbed him by his tunic as he chocked, yet even while he struggled he was tempted to stab me. I rapidly spoke words I knew would suffocate him. As I did so I felt a sharp pain in my arm. Glancing down, I saw he had cut me and was aiming the knife at my neck. The blood from my arm dripped down onto his tunic.

Aldemund?  Japhet?  How much more can Celestria take?  In the next chapter the heat is going to be intense, the fighting will be brutal, and the truth opens up old wounds.  It's not a matter of who to trust; now it's how to survive.  In all honesty, when you're out of the battle field there is only you, magic, and your opponent.

"There's a lot that I want." He said. He smirked as he said it like he knew he was pushing my patience.