In a million years I wouldn’t know what to do around them. I wouldn’t know how to control these god-forbidden powers, nothing. If I were given a choice on to which I would have to control, what power would be mine to distribute and to manipulate into which and every way possible in my very own mind, what would it be? And how would I get that power? As it turns out, I don’t have a choice onto which power is mine to manipulate. As it is known by all people but me that the only way someone can control a certain power is this way…you are born with it. I never wanted to have the power of invisibility under my own belt. But now that it is mine to command, in what way will I control and manipulate the gift of invisibility? How will I prove that I’m mature enough, that I’m smart enough, how will I prove that I’m good enough to be the heir of this line. Because if I’m not, the power of invisibility will forever be lost. How will I be strong enough to continue it? How?
Chapter One: Preparations
The sun was as bright as bright could ever be. But the feeling of peril all around me is something that I cannot shake. This feeling has been appearing more and more lately, I don’t know why and that’s the most disturbing thing of lately. My family is dead set against me staying home just for some priceless intuition. I am supposed to be the new Donna Inalli. So I have to go. If it were up to me though, I’d stay home and wouldn’t think twice about me leaving the safety of my kingdom.
“Princess, you need to get ready. The party is leaving for the conference in only 3 mere hours.” Micha my own personal body guard said.
“I don’t want to go Micha. I know that something is gonna happen. Why won’t anyone listen to me? No one believes me Micha. Not even you I bet.” I said.
“Princess I don’t know if you’re just trying to get out of this conference, but I will say something to the guard. If you’d like I’ll double your guard. And if that’s still not soothing your worries then we’ll find something else.” Micha said.
“I don’t want to endanger my people Micha. I know that there’s something out there! Why won’t you listen to me? Whenever I feel things they happen. You know this don’t you Micha? Don't you know how accurate my intuition is?” I asked.
“We all know Princess. That’s why the guard is making sure that you won’t be traveling on your own or anything like that. There will be countless of duplicates and look-a-likes. We will make sure that you don’t have anything to fear. I promise.” Micha said.
I grabbed his hand and looked straight up at him, I didn’t know what I was gonna say but whatever it was it should be partially important. “I know you will Micha. You, my best friend…the only true friend I have, you would never put me in danger. But I still fear. I know that you wouldn’t let me get hurt. But if you were to jump in front of me and take a hit I couldn’t handle it. So…I’m giving you the gift of invisibility. Because I don’t know what’s going to happen but I want to be prepared. So please take it.”
But when I offered the little silver orb to him he wouldn’t take it.
“I would accept this gift out of gratitude, but it is known that until you take the Donna Inalli oath, you will lose your own power. Without that you are even more vulnerable. I won’t do that to you my Princess.” Micha said.
“If you’d died then what would that do for me? I’d have nothing Micha. If I don’t have at least one form of normal interaction I’ll turn into a robot. I’d feel so bad if you were to die. There will be a life lost. I don’t know whose but there will be a death. What if it’s yours Micha? What would your princess do?” I asked.
“You will be strong and you will carry my sword with you forever more. You won’t cry for me, but you will honor me the way that every good soldier is honored upon his death. That is what you would do.” Micha said.
“No. I would cry. I would mourn your death. I would be lost. And I would seek revenge. I don’t know how I would react. And neither do you. How can you say such things about your princess? Do you trust me that much? Do you Micha?” I asked.
“If you were to ask me if I would take my own life in order to save yours, I would say yes. You are my life. And if I were to have to sacrifice my own just to save it I will.” Micha said. “I trust you as you trust me. I know you could do everything you’d want to. That includes surviving even after my own death.”
“But you won’t die. Not if you take this gift.” I said.
“And I won’t be killing you.” Micha said.
“Killing me? Didn’t you know that the invisibility I give you won’t kill me? As long as I don’t over exert myself and give it away in tiny proportions. And every time I give out the invisibility I get it back when I become the Donna Inalli. Didn’t you know that?” I asked.
“Don’t test it on me Princess. I don’t want to be the one that participates in your death. As long as you don’t even get winded I won’t agree to it.” Micha said.
“I won’t. I know how to give power without having myself killed in the process.” I said.
“Are you sure?” Micha asked.
“Close your eyes. I know what I’m doing.” I said as a little blue orb materialized just above my hands.
“I trust you.” Micha said. “I trust you not to kill yourself.”
“I won’t.” I said.
And with that I put the blue orb in his heart, where all power is best intensified.
. . .
As I was giving Micha the gift of invisibility my mother was on her way with the guard so that I would be prepared on my way to the conference. She was a good ways away when I pulled my hand away from Micha. As I looked at him I saw the transformation already taking form in his eyes. I saw as the power spread from his heart to his limbs. Every single nook and cranny of his body glowed as the invisibility administrated itself in his blood, bonding with his DNA.
I sat him in the normal guard position and placed him in front of the door. Where anyone could see that he was making sure no one came in to injure me as I prepared myself for the conference.
I heard my mother and the guard approach my door even before it was opened. As I finished getting dressed I heard my mother address Micha. But I didn’t hear him answer back. As he seldom did when addressing my mother, as anyone did when addressing her. I stepped out of the changing room dressed in a powdered white dress that was sleeveless. The dress flowed to my ankles and then poured around me on the floor. My hair flowed gently down my back amplified a hundred times by the paleness of the dress. I had a pale almost invisible powdered blue sash on, that covered my waist and flowed down to the ends of the dress, and a royal band around my forehead.
“You look beautiful darling. I can’t believe that Ana Leigh did such a great job on this dress. I must thank her later.” My mother said.
“I agree Donna Inalli; we should thank her for such a beauty. I don’t think anyone could have made such a dress in so little time.” I said.
“You really want to go?” My mother asked.
“No, I still feel so passionately about not going, but since no one will listen to me, I will have to ask for everyone to be extra cautious. My intuition always leads me right. And I don’t want to lose someone just because no one would listen to me. Please, Donna Inalli, if you won’t listen to me, please, you must be wary for your guard. Don’t let this conference make you lose a life. Someone is going to die. I know it, I can feel it. It’s going to happen today. You have to believe me.” I said.
“I do, that is why you are going to ride in the guards’ carriage. More like my carriage. And I will ride in your current one. If there was an attack on you, I would be the one to take it and you would be the new Donna Inalli by my death. Do you understand?” My mother asked.
“Do you think it is us they’re after?” I asked. “Do you think it’s one of the royal family that I felt die? Is that why you think switching carriages will save me? I don’t know who’s going to die, but I do know that it’s someone. And it's going to be someone important to me. I know that because I can feel the death like none other. I don’t know who it is, but I don’t want anyone going to that convention. Please listen to me. Mother, please listen.” I said.
“I have.” My mother said. “And I, Donna Inalli, have decided that we are going. You must abide by what I say Princess. Even you cannot go differently by what I say.”
“By right I don’t, by law I do. And since they say your intuition is better then most tell me what you feel. Tell me that you don’t feel something that is just ill out there.” I said.
“I don’t let such things get in the way of my duty. It is up to me to go to the conference, and since you are about to be Donna Inalli in just a few short months, you will go to. Because by the next conference, you will be Donna Inalli, and I will just be your mother. Someone unimportant and you won’t have to heed my words. Not after the ceremony. Do you understand what I say Princess?” My mother asked.
“I understand clearly. But if I go, I ride in my carriage with my personal guard. No extra because I don’t want to hinder the horses.” I said.
“If you think this is how you solve your nervousness, by making it seem as if you aren’t scared then you are wrong. You need to take extra precautions. Do you understand?” My mother asked.
“I do.” I said. “Micha, we need to prepare to leave.”
“Yes Princess.” Micha said standing.
“What’s wrong with his eyes?” One of my mothers’ guards asked.
“What?” My mother asked looking at his eyes. “Lain please tell me you didn’t gift him with invisibility.”
“If I want to survive then my guards need to be as prepared as I am.” I said.
“Do you know what could have happened to you?” My mother asked.
“I could have died.” I said. “I know the effects of giving invisibility immaturely.” I said.
“Then why did you do it?” She asked.
“Because I had faith in myself, and I knew that Micha did.” I said. “Plus if he were going to risk his life, then he should have a gift to fight his hardest to live for me.”
“But you know the restrictions that the receiver will get. Does he?” She asked.
“No.” I said.
“Does he know the limit he has been given?” She asked.
“No.” I said.
“Does he know how much he can use before it kills him in turn?” She asked.
“No.” I said.
“So you haven’t told him a single thing have you?” She asked.
“No.” I said. “I haven’t and for good reason.”
“And the reason is?” She asked.
“I had to prepare myself for this stupid conference. I had to prepare myself to listen to the speech that was going to come with me giving him this power. And I had to gain my own trust before I told him the negatives of have a small bit of invisibility.” I said. “I was going to tell him, now I will.”
“I’m sure you will.” She said leaving with her guards.
“Micha-” I started turning to him.
“Take it out of me.” Micha said.
“You don’t understand.” I said.
“I understand that you didn’t tell me that I could die in a fight if I had only a small portion of the power or that I can’t protect you in a fight if I use it non-stop. And if I can’t protect you the right way, then forget it. I don’t want any of it.” Micha said.
“No.” I said. “If you want the rest of it then hold out your hands. I don’t know how much I can give you, but I will give you more.”
“No.” Micha said. “I don’t want this gift in portions.”
“You don’t have a choice. I won’t take it back.” I said.
“Lain-” Micha started.
“No Micha, I want to do this. Please let me help you.” I said.
“I won’t take your gift.” Micha said taking the blue orb out of him and putting it back in me. “I won’t endanger you at all. I’ll protect you the way I’ve always protected you. And I’ll live. I promise.”
“How can you be so sure?” I asked.
“I'm sure because I love you.” Micha said hugging me. “I will survive my princess. Because I know that my love will guide me.”
Chapter Two: The Conference
As we walked out of the room to go meet the party I didn’t know what to say to Micha. He just told me that he loved me. I don’t know what to say. He’s been there for me since I was a child. I’ve known him since I was born. He’s always been my protector, my friend, my Micha. Now is he supposed to be something more? Now am I supposed to call him my lover? What am I supposed to do now? Things between us surely will change. But how much change will occur?
“Honestly Micha, I don’t know what to say to that. I don’t know if I love you or not. I can only be truthful to you. And I can tell you this, I don’t want to lose you, if that is love, then I don’t know if I’m sure I should feel love towards you. Since I will become Donna Inalli in only a few months that could put you in danger. If I were to lose someone on the day that they told me their honest feelings then I would be so upset. Don’t you know that?” I asked him.
“Yes.” Micha said.
“Then why won’t you take the powers? I know that it’ll make you even better and stronger then you are now.” I said.
“I won’t take the power because it could kill you. If you were the Donna Inalli right now, I would have taken it. But you aren’t. And that’s why I don’t want to take the power. Because it could kill you before you finished to give me the power. And I couldn’t…I wouldn’t want that to happen. I don’t know if I could even survive for that to happen, probably not.” Micha said.
“I wouldn’t die. I’m well gifted in the ways of distribution. I know how to give power. They teach you that just in case the young princess decides to become a fighter, which I am.” I said.
“And how many times have you actually given the power to someone?” Micha asked.
“I did just once when I gave your father the power. I know that he didn’t survive the fight, but it still helped him save your life.” I said.
“And just how did he die?” Micha asked.
“They say he died because the wounds were too fatal. That something made him force himself to go the extra mile.” I said.
“What was that one thing?” Micha asked.
“You,” I said.
“How do you know that?” Micha asked.
“Because what else would it be. You were the one that needed the help. I was always hiding when I needed to. But you were left in plain view. You were the one that needed the help. Not me.” I said.
“I didn’t need his help.” Micha said.
“You’re alive because of him.” I said. “You need to be grateful for it.”
“I don’t need to be grateful that I killed my own father.” Micha said.
“You didn’t kill him. He died protecting you. And since I was there, I say that.” I said. “Your father died by giving his life for yours. And my word stands more then yours.”
“Only because you’re a princess,” Micha said smiling.
“True.” I said smiling back. “But I say this as a friend, not as your princess.”
“Well we’re here.” Micha said. “Your carriage is ready I’m presuming.”
“I hope not.” I said cringing at the thought of leaving anytime soon.
“I swear Princess; you haven’t reacted this negatively about something since your past birthday.” Micha said.
“Well I think I’m allowed to don’tcha think?” I asked.
“Considering what exactly?” Micha asked.
“My intuition,” I exclaimed.
“You don’t really believe that just because you feel something that it’ll happen the exact same day do you?” My mother asked.
“Do you have a better explanation for earlier days?” I asked. “Do you have a better explanation for whenever I felt something it came true ?”
“No I don’t, but I also don’t believe that anything will happen today.” My mother said. “And neither should you.”
“You don’t? But you feel that uneasiness. I know you do because I feel it too. Donna Inalli you must heed my warning. Please.” I said.
“Enough!” My mother said. “My word has been spoken. You are coming and you will keep quiet about your feelings. No one needs to know that you feel that something is coming. No one will get injured. You must calm down.” Then more calmly she added. “Lain, I know that you have one of the best intuitions in our kingdom, but we cannot afford to miss this conference. Even your older brothers are coming.”
“Then have me and Micha ride with them.” I said.
“You know the rules.” My mother said.
“Yes mother.” I said and went to my carriage without another word.
As we took off nothing did happen. And nothing happened as we arrived at the conference many days later. Actually things seemed to calm down between my mother and me when we walked into No Man’s Land, a neutral territory lead by humans of every power.
While they were unpacking their carriages and all of their supplies for the long awaited conference by the different power kingdoms.
When everything was done and prepared for the conference that was going to happen later Micha escorted me to the garden.
“How did this happen?” I asked. “How did she become like this? When I was little Donna Inalli was a great woman, she listened to my intuition and she always would come to me and ask me if I wanted to be apart of what would be my future. What changed Micha? How did she change?”
“I think it was around the time your father died.” Micha said.
“So much pain went through her.” I said. “But she must realize that the world has not ended and that a conference isn’t all there is to life. She’s trying to merely exist for others, Micha when will she learn that it’s just not enough?”
“Some people never do.” Micha said.
“Will I become like that?” I asked. “Merely existing until my daughter carries on the tradition? Will I be like her? Am I doomed to be like that when I really want to fight? Am I gonna be like her?”
“No.” Micha said. “You’ll never be like that, you’re gonna stay the same way you are now, a strong fighter.”
“You really think that?” I asked.
“You’re Lain you are who you are and hopefully, you won’t ever change.” Micha said.
“As you know, everyone changes.” I said.
“You say that now Lain, but you know that you don’t believe that.” Micha said.
“How do you know that?” I asked. “I might just believe that.”
“I highly doubt that.” Micha said.
“But I don’t.” I said.
“And I know that how?” He said.
“You don’t.” I said smiling. “You’ll just have to trust me.”
“I already do, you know that.” He said.
“Yeah, I know.” I said.
“So please then Princess Lain, listen to me.” He said.
“I am.” I said.
“You are the future Donna Inalli so you must know what the guard has in mind for your safety.” He said.
“I already know that.” I said. “I already know what you plan to do for my safety.”
“Then why must you worry?” He asked. “You know that there is nothing that you need to fear.”
“But I still do.” I said.
“You pay us not enough gratitude Princess.” He said.
“I pay you with my life.” I said. “I do not know what you want me to give to you.”
“Your heart,” He said.
“I cannot give to you what you wish me to.” I said. “I am sorry.”
“You can, but you fear it.” He said looking away.
“If I fear it then why did you say it?” I asked.
“Because I had to try,” He said.
“Well you did try,” I said.
“Yes I did,” He said. “And I will always try for you my princess.”
“I have to go to my carriage now.” I said turning. “Be careful what you say to me Micha, if my mother hears of your feelings she will replace you.”
“I know.” He said grabbing my hand. “But I don’t care.”
“Well I do.” I said squeezing his hand. “I don’t want to lose you. Now go. I need to think.”
“Yes Princess.” He said before bowing and leaving.
But I couldn’t think. I wanted to, I needed to, but I couldn’t. I just wanted everyone to be safe, because I am the next Donna Inalli. What good would I do if I was dead? None, so then what do I do now? Should I just say good-bye to him so that way I don’t hurt him, what should I do? I don’t even know.
“Princess Lain!” My mother exclaimed as I almost walked into my carriage door.
I gasped and looked up; I had not realized I was in a daze, though I wonder if anyone did when they were in one. “D- Donna Inalli! I beg your pardon, but is this not my carriage?”
“Child, please, get your head out of the clouds. Do you not realize that we have switched carriages already?” My mother asked.
“WH-what,” I exclaimed. “But I thought you weren’t serious about it. Since my feelings upon the matter are not important.”
“You’re feelings are important my dear child,” She said smiling. “Now please go to my carriage, and don’t hit yourself on the door.”
Blushing I nodded because I couldn’t form the words on my mouth. When I sat in my carriage I waited. I waited for them to give the order to leave, I waited for my mother to leave first, I waited for them to send out the 2 diversions, I waited for Micha to climb into my carriage and wait with my mother as he usually did with me. As I sat there I did nothing but wait. But Micha did not go with her; he came to sit with me. My mother didn’t leave first as she normally did, I left first. The diversions were sent last instead of first. Everything seemed out of order, but that was to be expected because I was not in my carriage, in fact I wasn’t in the normal spot that even the Donna Inalli would be in.
“Are you ready?” Micha asked turning to me.
“Yes.” I replied looking straight ahead.
“Okay.” He said before turning towards the window. “The Donna Inalli is ready to depart.”
What? I thought to myself, I am not the Donna Inalli just yet, why would he say that?
But I did not speak loudly. Because I knew as they knew, he was saying that just in case there was others who were not on our side that heard of our departure today.
“You do not seem fazed by the change of status before time.” He said.
“Because I’m not.” I replied my voice not nearly as cool as I thought it would sound.
“I’m sure you aren’t.” He said smiling. “But the Lain I know would be shocked and confused by now.”
“Maybe I’m the new Lain.” I said.
“No, you’re still the Lain I know.” He said laughing.
“I know I am, but that still doesn’t mean that I can’t be this way, calm, cool and reserved.” I said.
“I’m not saying that, what I ma saying is that truly you aren’t as cool as you seem by being called Donna Inalli.” He said.
“You may be right.” I said.
“I know I am.” He said.
Laughing I said, “I’m sure you are.”
