Kaelum realized everything around him was dark, he was no longer in the middle of the city.
Before he could form any more thoughts, a pair of hands grabbed him from the darkness behind him
“LET ME GO!” Shouted the voice of a woman, reverberating off of his eardrums painfully.
“Wait, wha-” Started Kaelum before he was interrupted.
“Let me go you bastard!” Said the voice, while shaking him back and forth.
Wiggling his shoulders, he was able to slip out of the grip of his assailant. He had years of training evading the city guards, after all. Kaelum then lunged away and spun around to get a look at who the voice belonged to.
It was a woman draped in gold light… The princess? No, although her hair and face looked similar, the princess was only sixteen… or maybe seventeen, Kaelum didn’t really know her exact age. But the woman in front of him was in her twenties at least, maybe slightly older. The princess’s mother the queen maybe?
“Who are-” Kaelum tried to speak, but he was rudely interrupted again as she chose that moment to lunge at him. He tried to dodge, but for some reason, she was unnaturally fast. She grabbed hold of his neck and started shouting again.
“LET ME GO!”
“Let… Go… Of… ME!” Yelled back Kaelum. This time, however, the entire area of darkness trembled with his voice. The woman was forced back, letting go of Kaelum in the process.
“You… You bastard! Let me go!” Said the woman again, as she tried to make her way back to Kaelum
“I have no idea what you’re even talking about!” Kaelum said as he backed up “I don’t even know who you are!”
This seemed to stop the woman, she stopped trying to make her way to Kaelum and just took a deep breath. After calming down, she decided to take a diplomatic approach.
“Listen, I’m in quite a hurry right now, and I need to leave.” She said, her voice trembling. She hadn’t calmed down as much as she previously thought. “I need you to stop holding on to my soul.”
“What? What does that even mean?” Kaelum replied, none of this making any sense to him.
This seemed to set the woman off again, but she didn’t lunge at him this time. “Just let go of my soul so I can leave!” Said the woman, barely containing the seething rage in her voice.
“Listen, lady, I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about, or even where we are.” Started Kaelum “Look, I’m not even holding on to you right now, so just leave.” He finished.
“I’m not talking about your hands! Your soul has attached to mine and it won’t release it.” Replied the woman, her eye twitching.
“How can I ‘let go’ of your soul?” Asked Kaelum, making air quotes.
“I don’t know!” Answered the woman “You did it, so undo it!”
“I’d love to help you… Really, but I don’t know how I can do that.” Said Kaelum “How did this even happen?”
This caused the woman to hesitate for a moment, before deciding to talk.
“I… I was flying through the street, trying to get to my body when we crashed into each other.” Said the woman “Now I’m stuck in here and can’t get back out.”
“Wait… So then it was your fault?” Asked Kaelum.
“No! I tried to get back out but your soul latched on to mine and won’t let go!” Replied the woman indignantly.
“So this is… my soul we’re in?” Kaelum thought aloud.
“No, this is your soul space. The ‘body’ you’re in right now is your soul.” Answered the woman. That would explain how he was able to force the woman back with only his voice earlier.
The woman then continued “But that’s not what's important, I need to leave right now!”
Upon saying that, the woman rocketed upwards, or whatever counted as upwards in the endless expanse of darkness. She flew extremely far at a fast pace, Kaelum could just barely make out the gold light radiating off of her on the horizon.
“What are you doing?!” Yelled Kaelum, to no response. After shouting out a couple of times, she didn’t pay him attention. Fine thought Kaelum I’ll ignore you too
Kaelum started inspecting the ‘ground’ of his soul space. It was pure darkness like everything else around him, he couldn’t feel it when he tried to touch it, but he didn’t feel like he was falling either. Was he floating?
Looking back up, it seemed as if the woman was trying to escape his soul space with brute force by heading to the horizon at full speed. Though after several minutes of trying her damndest to escape, she finally gave up.
Coming back down, she set down near where Kaelum was curiously inspecting the ‘ground’. It appears she’s given up after failing to escape the endless darkness.
After a while, she seemingly decided to break the ice.
“I’m… My name is Tiela.” Said Tiela.
Kaelum looked up from the ground, responding awkwardly “Oh, uh… Hi Tiela.”
After waiting several moments, Tiela said in exasperation “Are you going to introduce yourself?”
Finally catching on, Kaelum responded, “Oh, my name’s Kaelum!” Without letting the silence set back in, he asked: “Isn’t the princess’s name Tiela?”
This caused the woman to hesitate again as she chewed her lip, before finally responding.
“Yes… Tiela is the name of Kassivir’s princess.”
Seemingly not picking up on Tiela’s hesitation, Kaelum then asked.
“Oh, so are you her mother the queen?”
The woman coughed, looking at Kaelum in shock, responding.
“No, I’m not her mother! How old do you think I am?!” On her face was a look of exasperation. She continued “No, I am Princess Tiela of Kassivir.”
It was Kaelum’s turn to have a spit take.
“Liar! I just saw the princess a little while ago, you’re way too old to be her!” He replied incredulously.
“I am her!” Yelled back the aggrieved princess.
“Liar!”
Deciding that she was beyond a childish exchange such as this, Tiela straightened her dress and patted down her hair.
“I am the princess of Kassivir, however, I have somehow travelled back in time from the future.” Said Tiela, with a regal look. The child in front of her should be in awe seeing such a wise-looking woman.
Though Kaelum’s only response was a quizzical look “The future?” he asked in bafflement. He decided this ‘Tiela’ in front of him was some kind of crazy lady.
“I am from the future!” Shouted Tiela, seemingly losing her regal atmosphere.
“Really? If you’re from the future, then what will I have for dinner tomorrow?” Asked Kaelum with hunger in his eyes.
“Why would I know that?!” Asked the princess indignantly.
“You said you’re from the future…” replied Kaelum meekly at her sudden outburst.
“Why would I know what some unimportant kid had for dinner years ago?” Asked the princess.
That makes sense, I guess thought Kaelum. But being called unimportant does hurt.
Tiela started “Although I’m from the future, I’ve come back to the past.” She paused in a moment of hesitation, eventually deciding to share her knowledge. She looks Kaelum in the eye and says “Because I’ve come back to the past, I’ve decided to change the future. I’m going to stop the end of the world, I’m going to save everyone.”
“Or, at least I was before I got stuck here.” Said the princess glumly.
“Wait, wait. Did you just say the end of the world?” Asked Kaelum.
“Yes, I’m trying to prevent that from happening.” Replied the princess.
“How does the world end? When does it end? I feel like you’re leaving out quite a few details!” Kaelum said.
“How it ends isn’t important, and it’s not for quite a while… But since I’m stuck here now, I need your help so I can return to my body.” Said the princess.
“Hold on, you’re leaving out a lot of details!" Responded Kaelum, obviously concerned as to how the world is going to end.
“That doesn’t matter right now! As I said before, I need your help to prevent it.” Tiela said once again.
Deciding to put aside his curiosity and just deal with her, Kaelum asked: “How can I help you?”
“Well, since I’m stuck in here, I need you to get into contact with the princess. That is, the princess of the past.” Said the princess, that is, the princess of the future.
“I thought you said you were the princess?” Asked Kaelum.
“I already said, I’m the princess from the future, the princess from the past is who you need to meet with.” Explained Tiela irritatedly.
“This is kind of confusing, how do I differentiate between the two of you?” Thought Kaelum aloud.
“That’s not important, just call me the future princess or something.” Said Tiela in annoyance.
“I guess I’ll just use Tiela with you, and call her ‘the princess’ then.” Said Kaelum, ignoring Tiela’s look of annoyance at him deciding to address her, a member of royalty by her first name.
Deciding to just brush this aside in favour of quickly proceeding to make contact with the princess. She explained to Kaelum that he’d need to find where the princess was staying and make contact with her. After making contact, he would need to relay everything that Tiela said exactly so that the princess would believe him.
After being in close contact with the princess’s body, the pull from her body should overpower the pull of Kaelum’s soul on Tiela’s soul and let her leave. The princess should believe Kaelum's words and not resist Tiela's soul merging with her own. After merging with the princess's soul and body she could then prepare to prevent the disasters in the future from occurring.
Glad that their exchange had turned from him nearly being murdered, to amicable. Kaelum assured the princess that he knew what he had to do and that he would do his utmost to help her out. If only to get rid of the unwanted roommate in his head.
But Kaelum was left with one last question.
“How do I get out of here?”
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