The Vault: A Girl With Swords

 Okay, it's been a minute since I've posted something from the vault. This one is special for a very important reason.

This is my oldest work in my vault. This is part of the book I decided I was going to write when I was a child, the first work someone else read and told me showed real promise. This is what my old English teacher read in the margins of my assignments and pushed for after school computer lab access so I could write it somewhere with more permanence. 

I'm sure it goes without saying that this particular piece of work will always hold a special place in my heart.

At the time I wanted to make an epic series. Now I still want to turn this into an epic fantasy but differently. Then I wanted to show her life in book one, and her daughter's life in book two, make Nik a god in book three, it was really an insane progression.

To be honest, I'd just be happy with finishing the book I had the idea for in the first place. I never finished it. I did, however, compile everything I could find in my old notebooks and journals.

Please enjoy this chapter from my vault, straight from my head at 14 years old, the beginning of a story I call A Girl With Swords.

It was the perfect day for a marriage meeting. Bright, but cloudy enough to stunt the heat of the day. Nik had a beautiful yellow dress on that seemed to actually glow. Her prospective husband was also a vision, but dull. Very dull. The person Nik found interesting, although he didn't say a word, was the harpist in the corner. She kept making eye contact with him. His eyes were green, like the moss you get in water that's stood stagnant too long. Unlike most eyes, the color was solid. Nik found the expression in them to be enthralling. She spent less time pretending to pay attention to her marriage meeting, and more time getting lost in the green. It was so soft.

Before she knew it, the harpists eyes seemed to completely envelop her. She was walking through it. Everything was soft, calm, and happy. Slowly everything started going dark. Normally darkness didn't bother Nik but she couldn't stop panic from welling up inside her. Walking became more and more difficult. Suddenly she was incredibly aware of something in front of her. It looked human, but she knew it wasn't. This was the source of her panic. Unable to turn, Nik decided to run at it hoping to frighten it away. Instead it came at her matching her speed exactly. This made her more determined. As Nik and the creature came closer and closer the panic physically rose and coursed through her, thickening in palpability. The creature didn't slow down so neither did Nik. They were so close she could almost see it breathing when she hit an invisible wall.

The impact knocked her over. After taking a second to reorient herself Nik braced herself for the creature to hit her. It never happened. Looking up she saw it seemed to have been knocked down too. It looked at her with the same confusion and surprise she felt. Hesitantly she stood up. Just as hesitantly, the creature rose in tandem.

Careful not to show any aggression and set it off, Nik studied the creature. It had the shape of a normal person, but with shiny black skin, and pure white eyes. The hair was long, brown, and very familiar somehow. Really it was just like her own hair. She noticed that as she was studying the creature it was studying her. It's expression clearly showed it seemed to be feeling the same confused familiarity she did. Actually, upon closer examination she realized it's movements matched hers. Creepily exact in the matching.

Nik raised an arm. The creature mirrored it. She quickly dropped it and the creature matched the movement. Her other arm very slowly reached out towards the creature, and it's reached out just as slowly to her. Instead of feeling skin when their fingers touched, it was a cold, glassy surface. Placing her palm flat on the surface and moving it around Nik came to a very disturbing realization. It wasn't a creature. It was her reflection. She was the creature.

Shooting up in bed, Nik awoke with a gasp. What kind of dream was that? The dream felt so real she threw her tangled sheets away from her and stumbled as quickly as she could to her mirror. All that was there was the same girl that always stared back at her. Nik half expected to see her reflection smile or wink at her. Of course it didn't, as in the real world the mirror only shows the person looking into it. Seeing that everything was normal Nik peeked out of her curtains. Night time was still in progress on the outside.

Back to bed. The sheets and mattress were damp. Most likely this was from sweat with how frightening Nik's dream was. Not wanting to go back to sleep and risk another nightmare she just sat in bed. All of her focus was on her breathing. In, hold, out. The fear ebbed away and was replaced with relaxation. Each moment brought more peace. Nik closed her eyes.

Next thing she knew Nik was being woken up by her maid Naadia. "Miss," she heard, "miss, it's time to get ready for your meeting. The boy and his father will be here soon.”

Groggily Nik blinked a few times to clear her mind. The marriage meeting. Yes. She just hoped there wasn’t a yellow dress for her to wear. "Has Auntie said who they are yet?" Naadia shook her head no.

Auntie had been pretty insistent that no one know who the meeting was with. She was a very private woman, but normally not to this extreme. All questions about it were alternatively ignored, rebutted, and met with glares.

Unable to do anything about Naadia's and her own lack of knowledge on the subject, Nik shrugged it off and began getting ready. Naadia helped her put on a formal blue dress paired with a green head covering. Because there was not enough time before the prospective spouse was to arrive for the meeting, instead of putting her hair up before putting on the head cover it was just pinned so it covered the hair, looking traditional even though it indeed was not.

Right as the last pin was put in place Nik and Naadia heard Auntie calling for her niece. "They are here darling, come down please!" She must've been in earshot of the boy and his father for all the politeness, rather than Aunties usual gruff vocabulary. Even so, it wouldn't last if Nik didn't hurry so she ran down the stairs. Before she reached the bottom she received a death stare from Auntie, and slowed down to finish her descent more gracefully. At the primary floor was a wide entry way and the doorway to the formal morning room.

When Nik saw the two men in the morning room she could barely contain her excitement. There, sitting in what happened to be her favorite chair, was her hero. Gornum. The nation's leader, the man who was uniting all the desert peoples and creating peace between the oases. That meant that the meeting was with his son. She didn't know he had a son. More surprising than the fact that Gornum was actually there was the fact that while he was tall, thin, and had the dark skin, hair, and eyes native to the land, his son was broad, light skinned, blue eyed, and had yellow hair. Once Nik saw the blue eyes though, she didn't want to look away. Her brief observation of the differences between him and Gornum melted out of her teen mind in place of observations of how attractive this boy was.

The boy was not a boy however, but a veritable man. Broad shouldered, athletic, tall, definitely past the awkward part of puberty. His hair was curly and he had a defined jawline and attractive face. Physically, he was an incredible specimen, and had the additional advantage of having very expressive eyes. At that moment they were irritated and bored. It made sense, the trip from the capital to the oasis was a long one. Several days.

Interrupting her own train of thought Nik turned her mind instead to the possibilities opened with the opportunity to speak with Gornum, and sat on the couch across from him. "Gornum, I'd recognize you anywhere. I would love to speak with you about something."

Gornum seemed amused with how straightforward Nik was. "Oh yes? Well by all means." His smile revealed off-white, perfectly straight teeth. All of them were present, a sign of good grooming and health.

Although Auntie gave her a warning look Nik continued with her plan. "You have a school. For future soldiers. I would like to attend but the administration there refuses to admit me even though I've proven myself worthy."

"Ah, I thought you might bring that up. I've heard of the surprise duel you had with the combat professor."

Auntie cleared her throat. "We don't need to speak of that surely."

"Don't misunderstand," Gornum laughed, "I was impressed when I heard of it. That is the reason I requested this meeting." Nik was happy that he'd heard of her fighting, and beating, the school's own expert fighter in hand to hand combat. "With me I've brought the paperwork for official acceptance. Really it's a formality at this point, you've made a name for yourself at the school for your stubbornness and refusal to accept all their denials. Where did you learn those skills? He didn't see you coming, was completely taken off guard. We don't teach stealth in our school but may ask you to run a class on it if you do well this year. Seems more useful than I had thought."

The more he talked, the more pleased Nik was with herself, and the more annoyed and frustrated Auntie got. Also, the more bored Gornums son seemed to be. "If you like each other so much why don't you marry her and I can marry the girl we met with last month."

"Hush Daniel, you will marry someone based off of more than how she looks." Daniel rolled his beautiful eyes and crossed his arms. "Now, I need a guardian to fill out a form for me, assuming you're willing to have Nik attend my school?"

Auntie looked none too pleased at any of this, but gave a sigh, uncrossed her legs, and stood up. "We can discuss this another time and I believe this meeting is over."

"No!" All eyes went to Nik and her little outburst. "Auntie, I know we are presently in company, but we are not dismissing this because you believe a woman has no place outside of keeping house for her husband. In reality, women belong where their talents and passions carry them. I'm going to that school so you are going to fill out the paperwork, and then I'm going to pack my things. If you deny me a wagon I will take Selen alone."

No longer held back by the presence of Gornum and Daniel, Auntie became more like her usual self. "You will do as you are told and allow me to make the decisions. You are not yet an adult by any means. It is not your decision."

Having seen enough of Auntie's glares Nik recreated one of her worst. It was met with a sputter and a quiet agreement. Auntie invited Gornum to the office to fill out his form. Nik was going to have to use that newly found trick more often.

Nik felt as bored after the adults left as Daniel looked. "You don't want to be here, so why are you?" He just looked at her. Then he looked away, not answering Nik's question. "Well, let me at least show you around. Walking around pretending to get along beats sitting here and pretending to get along." He grunted and nodded. "Right this way."

The pair walked out. Indistinct conversation was coming out of the office as they passed it, and Nik knew it was Auntie vocalizing her dislike for Gornum's school.

Out the door they just walked around the property without doing a real tour as promised. It didn't take very long of them walking before Daniel broke the silence. "Did you have a choice in this meeting?"

"No." There was no reason to lie to the guy, especially since Nik was doubting they would have a follow up meeting. "I'm guessing neither did you, since you like the other girl."

"I didn't. Father usually allows me to choose for myself but this time he didn't."

"Father? You look so different though."

"I was brought to this country by slavers. He rescued me I guess." His eyes met the ground, but even so Nik was able to see them, and noticed dark specks mixed in the icy blue. He was so tall in comparison to her. Plus he was revealing a sweeter side than she had thought he possessed. "I apologize, you don't need to know all that." Those enchanting eyes met hers for a prolonged moment. “It’s just different for someone to actually come out and say it. Most people just ignore it out of politeness. No one is that bold to just ask.”

A smile crept onto Nik's face when after a split second of looking away Daniel met her eyes again. "We can talk about something else. Do you have any questions?"

His smile turned from soft to calculating. Seemingly deciding on what question he wanted to ask, Daniel said nothing for a little bit. "Well, do you normally let your hair slip out of your head covering?" Nik looked at him confusedly. A lock of her hair was shown to her by her handsome companion. It was no use even wearing the thing now that he'd seen her hair anyway, so Nik pulled off the covering and asked for help removing the pins. "How scandalous my lady, what will the servants say?"

"Whatever they like. It's no one's job to control how they gossip, just so long as they do what they're paid to do. Actually they're quite efficient at it. Best gossipers really."

"Surely not, as there are wives of rich men who spend all their time sitting with friends and gossiping."

"That's amateurish. Bored housewives have nothing to do but gossip, and they still have less to say than servants whose work never ceases.”

"Ah, fair point," Daniel laughed. They had walked a fair way by this point. Almost to the river at the far end of the property. Nik redirected them back towards the house. "You know," Daniel softly caught a small chunk of her hair and rubbed his thumb on it, "you're going to become a beautiful woman. I can tell."

Shocked by this, Nik stopped walking and just stared up at this young man. A compliment was the last thing she thought she would hear from him. Earlier he'd seemed like the last thing he wanted was to even be there. There was that other girl he’d met with and liked. Maybe he wasn't just being nice because they were both forced into the meeting...and then she decided something.

"Come with me." She grabbed his hand and started running. Even though she wasn't big or strong enough to force him to go with her he followed at her speed. In a few moments they were at the stables. "Okay, now, I know she's a little small, but she is full grown and just as strong as a normal horse.”

Eyebrows raised in curiosity, Daniel watched as Nik opened the door to a stall. It revealed a tiny horse, a paint that was almost a full foot shorter than any horse Daniel had ever seen. She was beautiful though, her coat healthy and shiny.

Seeing his favorable reaction Nik introduced them. "Daniel, this is Selen, my best friend. Selen, he's a friend too okay?" The horse whinnied and nuzzled Nik. "Well she's not trying to bite you so she likes you." Both Nik and Daniel chuckled a little. "She's a great judge of character. Plus I trust her with my life because she's saved it before, so her liking you is a really good indicator that I should like you too."

"I love horses. Father even lets me run my own stable so I can go riding anytime I want, and get to spend as much time as I want around them."

Interrupting him was a yell. It was Auntie. The paperwork for the school must be filled out already. Looking at the sun while she led Daniel back to the house, Nik realized that it was later than it felt like it should be. Time had passed fairly quickly with Daniel. She was going to request a second meeting with Auntie, and hoped he would request a second meeting as well. If they both didn't want to meet again they wouldn't be able to. Either way, Nik was determined to see him again and get to know him better.

Auntie let out a big sigh of relief once farewells had passed and their visitors had pulled away. "Finally they are gone. If anyone asks we can just say we mutually decided not to do anything with this and we'll just move on with our lives. Never have to see either of those two in my house again."

Not believing her ears Nik turned to Auntie. "What do you mean, never see them again? Not doing anything? We are going to set up a second meeting. And I'm going to see Gornum at the school which gives a stronger chance of everything I want in life including not having you there to interfere."

"Don't. Don't go there. You aren't leaving for that school, I didn't sign anything or fill anything out."

"I'm going anyway. He said it was a formality. Even if I have to walk I'm going. Even if I have to ride Selen with no water or supplies, I will go to the Capital and meet them again. I've been on the streets before, don't think I can't do it again."

"Child, stop being so hard headed, always wanting to do the things I tell you not to. That man is dangerous. His child is likely not very pleasant either. I'm trying to protect you from unnecessary evils."

Unable to control herself Nik yelled, "You're trying to control me and give me a life as boring as yours!" Auntie started saying something but Nik wasn't done. "You don't make my decisions. You don't get to decide what I do with my life. With or without your support and help I'm leaving for that school next week."

Clearly realizing she wasn't going to get anywhere at that time Auntie conceded. "Fine. Don't think you've won though. You won't listen to me so I'm going to let you learn the hard way that Gornum and that boy are dangerous, and that the school will only teach you to do things that put your soul at risk. " With an eye roll Nik walked off with her head held high. Despite Auntie's warning she knew she had everything she wanted, and was following her destiny.