The cell door swung open, allowing blood to spread more throughout the room. Irik moaned in response as the guard walked in and grabbed his shoulders hoarsely. Four more guards strode up behind him as they all grabbed him and flung him into another cell. This one was different. It smelled of fresh air and horse shit, unlike the other cell which smelled of death and rotting blood.

Irik willed himself to open his eyes just enough to look at his surroundings. He was in a carriage. Of course the carriage had a cell in it, but he was out - out of those wretched cells at the bottom of the castle, yet he very quickly walked out of with the guards. It only took a few left turns before he was out of the cells. Irik just decided that he lost so much blood, he must have passed out somewhere throughout the journey to the carriage.

The doors opened again to let a tiny female into the cell. She had dark skin and gold eyes. Her eyes seemed to glow in the dark and hot carriage-cell. The brown cloak around her covered her hair and the rest of her body from him.

The girl closed the door silently behind and and came to sit down by Irik. His muscles would not allow him to move, would not allow him to even ask her who she was.

She gave him a sweet and caring smile while she removed the hood of her cloak from her black and flowing hair. Those golden eyes seemed to glow even brighter.

"I am Alina," she said softly, "I am here to help you and Ptolema escape. If you do not cooperate, then circumstances might change drastically. Now, drink this."

She hands him a bottle that has a dark blue liquid in it, making an image of the beautiful night sky cross over his mind. He misses the beautiful nights that he used to gawk over every night. The stars is what he misses the most. Oh, how that sparkled in the dark, how they radiated a happiness, something brighter than any sun could radiate.

As Irik struggled to grab it, the liquid turned to a shade of red - dark red. He popped the cork off the top of the weird container and chugged the unusual liquid into his body, gagging at the taste. It tasted like dirt and shit mixed together. Alina smiled at him. Why the hell was she smiling? Irik wanted to strangle her for smiling at his unliking at the liquid until he noticed what she was exactly smiling at.

His arms. The bruises, they were all gone. His legs, every scar healed into soft flesh. Irik quickly felt his back with his healed hands to find that all of his lashing scars were gone. Every last scar had faded.

He met her eyes with a face of confusion that made her chuckle in a way that had Irik laughing with her. For moments, they laughed and smiled and did not care that they were in a cell on a horse carriage. They were happy, even though they hardly even know eachother. Happiness is rare, and once you latch onto it, never let it go because a second later it could be stripped from you forever. And that is what happened to Irik and Alina.

She quickly removed her smile and looked into Irik's with an intimidating seriousness, "You are to help the Prince Droian, Captain Asher, and Assassin Prolema on their journey."

"What journey do you speak of?" Irik had never been more confused in his life.

"The king has ordered Ptolema to kill a few creatures in order to win back her's and your's freedom. And to keep her in check, the Captain was ordered by the King to accompany her. But Ptolema also made a deal with the Prince that you could only accompany them if he came as well," she only paused to catch herself as the carriage started to move, "I know it's a lot to grasp at this moment, but please understand that you must not mess up or your life will end sooner than it can start. Freedom is rare to com by if the king has you on a leash, trust me. Take this opportunity and do as they tell you."

He pitied her. Irik saw so much tragedy in her expressions and heard so many horrors in her voice.

"Then what are you doing here?" He kept his voice calm as steady, to make sure she was okay. More of a reassuring statement than a question. She glanced at him and he smiled, wanting to kiss her beautiful lips. He wanted to kiss her and make Alina feel his hopes instead of her horrors. Irik restrained himself onto the wall of the cell with his hands. They started to turn white as she stared at him, not answering his question or concern.

Finally, she cleared her throat and looked down at her hands, which were tangled along the fingers, "I'm supposed to be the healer that travels with the group if one of you happen to get badly injured."

Irik's face stayed emotionless as he smiled, "You're a healing witch."

"I am none of the sort!" She protested.

"Deny it. Hide it. Shadow it behind you. Nonetheless, you are a healing witch. I can smell it in your blood. It smells nice, actually."

Her throat bobbed as a tear slid down her cheek and onto her hand. Alina curled herself into a ball and cried. Her sobs echoed through Irik's ears and her hurried over to her side. His strong arm rapped around her fragile body as she leaned into him. Irik started to stroke her hair with his other  hand to calm her down.

After ten minutes of sobbing Alina wiped her tears away and thanked Irik for comforting her. He could tell that she had been truly sorry for crying in front of him like that. Though he did not care that she had cried in-front of him, he does care why she had cried in the first place. Was it something he said? Did he offend her?

The carriage hit a rock and both of them flung into a wall hard enough for them to groan in pain. Irik quickly shoved the pain in his arm away as he raced for Alina to make sure she was okay. She stood and thanked him once more for coming over a tiny cell to make sure she was alright.

"Next time, I save you," Alina smiled at Irik. There is that happiness. The happiness that never left them. It still lies here, the happiness, protecting them from the outside world.

Alina looked into his eyes and cupped his face in her hands. She moved it side to side, examining it.

"You have a bruise on your cheek, let me heal it," Alina told Irik. Before he could refuse her offer, she scurried over to her pack, which lied on the far side of the cell, and brought back another liquid. This time it looked winter green, as if the winter itself had fallen into it.

"Don't worry, it tastes better than the last one," she informed Irik as he did not take his eyes away from the liquid.

Slowly, he grabbed the bottle of liquid from her hand and popped the cork from the top. He sniffed the liquid first. It smelled of pine trees and snow. It smelt of freedom. The smell sank into his nostrils, burning his sensation of the thought of freedom. He longed to be free of this magic prone world. The world he has known since he has been an infant. He dreams of a world where he is not killed for being poi or tortured for having a power that he can not control.

Without another thought he chugged the liquid down his throat, savoring the taste of freedom on his tongue. Freedom exploded on his tongue  and he groaned at the taste. The longing for it. Irik knows that this might be the last taste of freedom he might ever get.

Unless . . .

He set that thought aside and thanked Alina for the liquid, already knowing that his cheek had healed up.

****

Hours passed as both Irik and Alina talked to eachother and about their history in the tiny cell of their's. Irik did not dare mention that he was Poi, though she may have already known, he did not want to risk it.

Night time fell over them and they slept near eachother, only to keep warmth  to their freezing bodies in the icy cell. Irik did not mind sleeping so close to Alina, but he feared that she does not think the same way as she always stiffened when he got close to her. Maybe she is just cold.

After many cold nights and many long talks about their life, the carriage halted forcefully. Irik fell face forward onto the floor, but quickly got up and stood, Alina did the same. They stared at eachother in confusion while they listened. Voices started to yell and a scream -a girl's scream - roared through the air. Irik knows that scream, he could recognize it anywhere. Footsteps started toward the carriage and a loud crank echoed through the cell. Irik knew that someone must be opening the door of the cell, so walks over to shield Alina from whatever was coming. As he watched at the cell's door swing open he saw her.

A beautiful face looking into his. A faint scare running down the left side of her face. Blue eyes with gold rimming the pupil stared into his. Blonde hair flowed in the wind as they held eachother's gaze. Ptolema. Her name is Ptolema the Assassin. She is his assassin. He is her magic.

At that moment the world had seemed to have stopped and let the two creatures stare into the other's infinite stare as if sentries had passed before saw eachother.