Avoid The Lead!

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The wedding night was as enchanting as Celia had imagined, as Taze carried her into their room, gently laying her on the bed.

He kissed her forehead and whispered, "Happy Birthday, my Love."

Celia blushed as he tenderly kissed her lips, his hands reaching up to untie her corset laces...

Teenage Celia gasped and turned away, grateful for her invisibility!

But mind Taze chuckled, patting her head. "I wouldn't have let you watch much further! You're still sixteen!"

With a snap of his fingers, the scene changed, but not by much.

The older Celia now lay in a sheer white nightgown, sleeping in the warmth of Taze's arms, but sometime close to midnight, she rose from the bed, trance-like, and made her way out of the room.

'What am I doing?!' Teenage Celia wondered, watching herself move through the dark palace, her green necklace softly glowing.

'Where are the guards?!' Teenage Celia glanced around, but much like in all her lives, no guards were in sight as her older self walked out of the palace and into the snowy landscape she would come to detest in later lives...

Just beyond was a clearing which spanned for miles and miles, and she usually died somewhere around there!

The older Celia's bare feet sank into biting snow with each step, but she didn't seem to notice, walking right through the trees, and into the dreaded clearing...

Celia watched anxiously, as the winter winds whistled, and as the older Celia approached a hooded figure, who stood within a red magic circle.

The figure pulled back his hood to reveal fair blonde hair, which lightly fluttered in the wind and blue eyes which gleamed in the moonlight.

And this was when the older Celia snapped out of the trance-like state, and she drew in a sharp breath of freezing air.

"Wh- what is happening here?" She wondered, glancing around.

"My Queen." Vitav gave a taunting bow. "I'm glad you could join me."

"Y- You!" She hastily waved a hand, and her white nightgown was covered by a thick white cloak. "Shouldn't you be exiled?!"

An annoyed look crossed Vitav's face. "Why bother?" He calmly asked. "You, the one who harmed my mother and I... I wouldn't touch you, even if you had no clothes on." He directed a spell at her, but she evaded, and then retaliated with a spell, which sent him flying backwards.

But as he lay on his back, Vitav laughed. "Go ahead and kill me." The calm in his voice sent a chill down Celia's spine, and she had the unsettling feeling that something was wrong.

"This life is over, anyway." Vitav continued. "But before you kill me..." He snapped his fingers and a cold sensation washed over her, making her feel like she was frozen in place.

No... This was far worse.

Her mind was alert and wide awake, but she had no control of her body, and she felt herself falling to her knees against her will!

'The Mind Puppet spell!' Both Celias thought at the same time.

The Mind Puppet spell was a dark spell which granted the caster power over the spell's target. The Caster could make the target do their bidding, exactly like controlling a puppet.

"Father never bothered with me... And nor did my dear little brother." Vitav was saying as he rose from the snow, dusting flakes off himself. "So no one ever knew my core magic had been corrupted. I can use dark spells at will."

He waved a hand downward, and Celia felt her arms raise in a salute, and felt her head bend and bow to Vitav!

"You should bow before me." He said. "After all, I'm the one true King. Right, my Love?"

"Too true, my Love!" A light familiar voice replied, as someone glided down to stand beside Vitav, and both teenage and older Celia glanced up to see a face that was only familiar to one of them.

'Novia!' Teenage Celia gasped in shock.

It was at this moment that she realized she hadn't seen Novia at all in her first life, and this was the first time the older Celia was meeting Novia!

Novia cast a flame spell, which lit up the cardinal points of the circle with a reddish flame, then she knelt in a salute.

"The magic circle is complete, my King. You can give her your orders!"

Celia watched in horror as Vitav brought out an ancient tome. He opened it and read a few spells, and the wind picked up, blowing dark shadows around them, but Novia suddenly clawed at her own throat, as if choked by an unseen entity.

"My King!" She cried out, as she began rising into the air. "Something is happening!"

"Oh dear, didn't I tell you?" Vitav remained calm. "To control one so powerful, and to even attempt this spell, a sacrifice must be made."

"No!!" Novia screeched, desperately struggling against the unseen entity.

"You've been loyal to me... Don't worry, I'll write a better life for you." Vitav gave a dismissive wave, as Novia held a hand out to him.

"Nooo! Help me! My King...!" But she disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, and blood-curdling screams followed, before a heavy silence.

Celia was barely able to lift her head from the kneeling position, but she knew the strange woman was no more. It was the sacrifice of a life.

The price of powerful Dark Magic.... The type that could wreak serious havoc!

"No!" Celia choked out, but Vitav appeared right in front of her.

"You can still talk, despite my puppet spell... You're indeed strong. Sit." He commanded, and her body moved to obey.

Vitav placed an open page of the book before her. "You don't even know what power you hold, so I'll help you use it... Did you know ancient ice mages could even freeze and control time?"

Celia didn't like where he was going, but he continued. "Once an ice mage reaches Peer level, they can begin to unlock the skill, and once they are approaching Grand Mage level, they can execute it.

"But it was banned centuries ago for being too dangerous... Can you imagine?" He shrugged light-heartedly, as if they were discussing fine teas. "But they couldn't bury it completely! Mother found a dark magic book buried within this very Palace!

"You're practically at Grand Mage level, so be a dear and help me." He pointed at the open book. "Read and perform that spell."

Celia's body moved on its own once more, forcing her to read out the complex spell and draw smaller magic circles in the air before her. The large magic circle drawn by Novia began to glow, its red matching the flames, and the winds picked up speed, swirling around them.

"Let's begin!" Vitav coldly spat as he sat opposite Celia. "It's time you paid for harming my mother! Being next to you grew my brother's will by leaps and bounds, and he never paid attention to us anymore! It's also your prediction that saved his life and claimed my mother's!

"So I'll tear you both apart!

"You'll never be happy together! You can only be mine in the next life! Until I become King!"

'It was his voice!' Teenage Celia identified these same words she had heard in the dream before entering Elfsworth, and as she watched, a scroll appeared in Vitav's hand, and he began reading aloud...

In the hum of magic and winter winds, Celia barely heard anything he said, but a few significant words and phrases flew into her ears.

"The flower field... Foresight... Elfsworth Academy... Sixteenth Birthday... Eighteenth Birthday... Nineteenth Birthday..."

"He's indeed re-writing my life!" Teenage Celia protested, realizing that all those words were somehow tied to her and Taze's lives together.

She attempted to approach, but the Mind Taze stopped her.

"If you try anything, you might hurt yourself! Don't forget this is your mind! And besides..." He pointed to his left, as the spell rose in energy levels.

Just at the edge of the tree line, stood Taze with clear shock and disbelief on his face, and that was the last thing the past Celia saw, before she and Vitav were shrouded in the spell, and everything around them was frozen in crystal ice, trapped in time and place.

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