Raising both arms up into the heavens, she murmured incantations and gestured with her hands and in a moment, the buffeting winds stilled as if nothing happened. “Are you two alright?” she shouted as she looked down over the railing but she didn’t see them and assumed that they made it safely inside the castle.
“Whose magic was that?” Marcus asked as soon as he caught sight of Rhianna still standing within the circle of moonbeam.
“Are you unharmed? The winds … it was so sudden it felt unnatural,” Ana added breathless as they both rushed forward and hugged her.
“It was hers. Pretty impressive don’t you think? I’m glad you both made it to safety. I wasn’t sure if I could dispel it. She was here awhile ago and she got me for a second there, made me falter and believe her lies,” Rhianna shook her head at her weakness.
“How did she get in? We have guards scattered throughout the castle and the kingdom and they’ve been told how to identify her,” Marcus asked almost in a rage.
“She projected herself here. I don’t exactly know how she did it but at first it was just a voice in my head then when I looked, there it was, a spirit slowly taking on solid form then before you both came out of the garden maze, it suddenly vanished without a trace of smoke or swirling dust as some are really prone to do,” Rhianna narrated her experience without further prompting from her dear friends.
“The winds … she tested the strength of your powers, didn’t she?” Ana gripped her arm in fear.
“I don’t think that was a test at all. I believe this is it,” Rhianna said slowly.
“You mean this is the start of the battle you’ve been preparing yourself for? You could die in this battle of powers Rhianna and I won’t let you,” Marcus stopped pacing and stared hard at the lady he had loved for so long and with just a blink of an eye, he could easily lose her to death.
“Marcus,” Ana whispered, shocked at the fierceness she saw in his eyes.
Rhianna threw him a look of unwavering determination and said, “Do you think I will let the innocent die in my place? No Marcus, neither you nor anyone else for that matter can stop me from facing it and this battle of will and power is going to happen whether you approve of it or not.” Shaking her head sadly, she blinked back tears and pleaded, “I need you both to be strong and true of heart for me. A hint of doubt and fear will be the end of me and all that we hold dear in this world.”
***
That first encounter with Rhianna’s powers shattered the illusion that she could beat the witch at her own game of wit and magic but instead, she realized that she still have a long way to go before she even reached the witch’s level of magic. She drew back, nursed her pride and continued her journey into the dark forbidden arts.
Beyond the walls of her desolate place, the excited shrieks and laughter of children above ground pierced the stillness of daybreak as they sloshed around their snow-covered yards and threw each other snow balls and made a million snow men. The joyful sounds penetrated through the darkness and she loathed it with every fiber of her being.
“Soon … the world as they know it will be forever changed,” she comforted herself by saying her thoughts out loud as she mixed potions and practiced her craft.
***
It was the coldest Christmas season they’ve ever witnessed and the days were spent in a blur of preparing presents, polishing the silver, and decorating the castle for the holidays. Although Rhianna was trained to be mentally and physically prepared for any magical attack, she couldn’t help but feel a certain anxiety as she hanged cookies and candy canes on the tree with Marcus & Ana while children laughed as they ran from room to room. Standing together near the fire as they surveyed their handiwork, each one of them lost in morose thoughts.
“Why can’t we do this together?” Marcus insisted, breaking the wall of comfortable silence between them.
“Maybe we could actually help if you’d let us,” Ana added quietly, still looking at the tree and thought it bare on top.
“Because this is my battle to fight … Marcus, you forget you have a kingdom to rule and people to support,” Rhianna lovingly touched a hand to his cheek, her eyes committing his face to memory. “And Ana, you have been most helpful and selfless but there are far more people here who need you more than I do at the moment,” she grasped both their hands in hers then after a moment, she joined the king’s and the princess’ hand together and lay hers over theirs in a gesture of blessing and finality.
“Whatever happens after this battle, promise me that you’d take care of each other,” she added quietly.
In a heart’s beat, the massive entrance door of the castle was thrown wide open by a strong gust of wind and swirling snowflakes brought her forth. Quickly moving away from her friends, Rhianna gestured with her hands as she murmured a protection spell for her friends and it was quickly followed by another series of gestures and incantations to counter the doppelganger’s dark magic.
“We don’t have to fight Rhianna and suffer all the innocent. Come, join me and let us end this before it even starts,” she said invitingly, tempting Rhianna to join her on the dark side of magic to spare the innocent.
“Why don’t you come back to me instead? Come back into the light,” Rhianna asked.
“The world is a harsh place Rhianna and I’ve seen the worst that you could’ve only imagined. It deserves to be destroyed,” she answered as she threw small energy balls at her.
Holding out her hands before her, palms facing her nemesis, she controlled the energy balls and reversed their path. “I’m sorry that you’ve seen nothing but negative in this world but I assure you there is a lot of good in it too. You just have to look at it from a different perspective. Come into the light and I will show you,” Rhianna coaxed as the energy balls hit the doppelganger, the pain reflecting back on her too.
Too late, Rhianna realized, that what ever pain she inflict on her double it would be inflicted on her too! So if she bind its powers the same will happen to her too. I must find a way to end it once and for all. If not to end it at least contain it where people, crops and properties won’t be harmed.
With hands moving swiftly, gracefully, in a complicated series of patterns and gestures, Rhianna murmured one of the forbidden spells and created an energy sphere and hurled it towards her double.
The doppelganger released her own sphere and it met Rhianna’s in a blast of pure white energy as it collided and fused into a very large energy sphere with both witches controlling its direction. Hanging in the balance, the doppelganger released more of her rapidly draining energy to push the sphere towards Rhianna but what she didn’t know was that it will only accumulate inside the sphere.
“Your world is mine!” she hissed as she steadily released all of her energy to fuel the sphere.
Larger and larger the sphere grew until suddenly a blast of blinding white light enveloped the two warring witches and everything became silent, neither light nor dark.
***
King Marcus shielded Princess Ana with his body as the sphere exploded in white blinding light. After a moment or two, they opened their eyes and found everything to be just as it was, the tree still standing near the fireplace, not seemingly disturbed nor harmed by the blast but the witches were no longer with them and in their place lay a lone, crystal globe so clear that they could see snowflakes eternally swirling at its core, never settling down at the bottom and the two shrunken witches inside it.
Princess Ana tenderly picked up the globe. Together with King Marcus, they placed the globe on the mantel knowing in their hearts that is exactly what Rhianna would have done.
As for the two witches, by chanting one of the forbidden spells, Rhianna knowingly created a place where neither good nor bad exists and one in which their magical powers will be useless and there inside the globe is where they will be until one joins or goes back to the other. By putting the globe on the mantel, the witches could see everything that goes o
n: both the good and the bad.
"What have you done?" the doppelgänger screeched.
"I created a neutral place for us so we can harm none," Rhianna smiled serenely at the other. "And the only way to get out of here is for you to come back to me. I don't care how long it takes. You have always been a part of me and without you, I will never be whole. Likewise, without me, you will never be whole as I am very much a part of you. We are one and the same, so I'm begging you, please come back so we can get out of here and live the rest of our lives the way it is meant to be lived," she added.
"It matters not to you how long we stay here in this globe? Don't you want to be with King Marcus? He will not wait for you, you know. He has a kingdom to rule and a Princess already promised to him," the doppelgänger said, staring at the two humans standing before them.
"He will wait for me because that is what it means to truly love someone. Having the patience to wait," Rhianna realized that now.
"Is that also why you are so willing to commit us both here and wait for me?" the doppelgänger softened.
"Yes, that is exactly why. I know I didn't give myself any chance to express my negative feelings in the past and now I realize that I should not have disregarded you like that. I am sorry. I have learned just how important it is to acknowledge and accept that I too have feelings of grief, anger and frustration, just like anybody else and that it is okay to express them as long as magic is not involved and that I don't wallow in it for far too long," Rhianna bowed her head.
The doppelgänger hugged Rhianna and said, "I'm sorry too for causing all this trouble." And when Rhianna hugged her back, the doppelgänger slowly dissolved into thin air until nothing of her was left and Rhianna found herself encircled in Marcus' and Ana's arms.
***
A year later, the small kingdom saw King Marcus married to Rhianna and Princess Ana married to a king from a neighboring kingdom and all the people were rejoicing and waving white linen handkerchiefs as Princess Ana and her king rode off into the sunset towards her new home.
King Marcus gathered Rhianna in his arms and together they walked back inside the castle to live out their lives in love, happiness and in a prosperous kingdom to rule.
A Mysterious Caller
After an exceptionally long and tiring day at the office, Alexandra, a marketing strategy analyst, mother of a lovely teenager and two precocious and hyperactive toddlers, and a wife and best friend to a criminal lawyer, came home to the sounds of children wailing like banshees, the house in chaos and with the incessant ringing of the telephone in the background. With a resigned slow shake of her head, she desperately whispered a silent prayer for help before answering the phone. “Hello?” she said into the receiver with all the calm and serenity she could muster.
She heard a muffled sob escaping from the caller before the sudden onslaught of anger and confusion that marred his bitterly spoken words, “Lady, you know what? Life is a big piece of shit!”
Disturbed, but increasingly intrigued, Alexandra asked tentatively, “Will you care to explain that?”
Silence. She was about to hang up when another sob escaped. “Ever since I could remember, my parents are constantly nagging me to be this and that, endlessly comparing me to their friend’s robot of a child, and forever pointing out my failings. I tried to be the good son they wished for but there’s absolutely no pleasing them! They don’t even acknowledge the little things I do for them — like getting high grades in school, keeping my room neat and other stuff children my age don’t do,” he lashed out over the phone. “Do you think they’ll change?” he asked as an afterthought.
“Have faith, young man. Have faith in God and in man,” was all Alexandra got out before she heard a dial tone.
Three days later, the same anguished guy dialed Alexandra’s number and poured out his frustrations on her. “The only peace I get is when I’m out with my friends and having a grand time in one of our pot sessions,” the young man was saying.
“Alexandra couldn’t help but gasp at his confession. “Young man, God gave us life not to waste it on drugs and vices but to help and inspire others to do good and feel good about themselves. It is meant to make the world a better, happier place to live in not the opposite —,” Alexandra tried to influence the young man to turn away from drugs but was suddenly cut off by a dial tone — again.
“What’s all that about God and life?” Alexandra’s husband, Carl asked, planting a kiss on his wife’s pert nose.
“It’s nothing. Well actually, three days ago, a confused and angry young man called here and vented,” Alexandra explained.
“Was he abusive?” was the concerned reply of her husband. “Did he threaten you in any way, implied or otherwise?” he added with growing concern for his family’s safety.
“Honey, I’m fine. But I think that guy needs guidance and a loving home,” Alexandra confided her thoughts.
“But I heard drugs. Don’t you think it would be safer for everyone involved if he’s put behind bars or under the care of professionals?” Carl scratched his chin thoughtfully.
“Wouldn’t that be harsh? He’s just a kid, Carl. What he needs is someone to guide him. Someone who will believe that he can do great things, someone who has enough faith for two,” Alexandra said in his defense.
“And you intend to be all that,” Carl said skeptically, raising an eyebrow at his wife’s passionate monologue.
“He needs patience, understanding and love, Carl so yes, I just don’t intend but I will be all that and more with God’s help,” Alexandra said with a determined gaze as hard as granite, unflinchingly focused on her husband’s impassive face.
After a moment’s deliberation on Carl’s part, he answered, “Suit yourself as long as you don’t come complaining to me about how hopeless that boy is as long as you don’t forget that you have a family of your own to look after,” and with that, he took himself off and climbed up the stairs to their bedroom.
Feeling disheartened by her husband’s lack of interest, if not support, Alexandra sadly gazed out the kitchen window and saw not bleak, towering, gray buildings but the beauty of world as God made it through the fading rainbow across the clouds, giving her hope, lending her strength. As the days turned into weeks and weeks into months, the mysterious caller almost always calls after three days that it became a comfortable habit which brought Alexandra joy and comfort to him and so in time, their conversations no longer held traces of anger and confusion but that of trust and friendship. By this time, they had exchanged confidences but never about their own personal and family information including names and Alexandra was saying to her young friend, “Enjoy your time in school because the real world is so much harsher than you realize.”
“Did something happen today at work?” he mildly inquired.
Alexandra then launched into a detailed account of her work worries which, quite left her breathless and a bit flushed from irritation due to work related frustrations.
“You know, God will not throw problems your way if He thinks you can’t surpass it. It is actually God’s way of reminding you that He’s just around the corner waiting for you to call and ask for His divine intervention,” the young man advised with a slight chuckle at the irony of their situation.
Alexandra smiled at her end of the line and marveled at the irony that she was supposed to be the one giving advice to this young man and yet in this instance, she was the one receiving such good advice from him.
“I’m starting college tomorrow and I’m awfully glad I won’t be living with my parents anymore. I know I’m not supposed to feel this way but I do. And still, there’s this heavy feeling in my heart that I can’t put a name to,” the young man shared wit his older friend, taking on a serious tone.
“I guess what you’re looking for is forgiveness. You have to forgive your parents for whatever it is they did to you or the lack of it. And you should also forgive yourself for whatever you think you must have or shouldn’t have done to be a b
etter son to them. Embrace God and let His infinite love and mercy transform and inspire you to be the person He meant you to be,” Alexandra gave him her final advice.
“Ma’am?” he said slowly, as if not knowing how to say what’s in his heart. “I’m going to miss you terribly but I feel that the time for us to go on our separate ways has come and I would like you to know that these past few months spent over the phone and with you has been truly a blessing for I am no longer lost and I’m grateful for all the wonderful words of wisdom that you’ve shared with me. I won’t forget you for you have been the mother I longed for and a true friend I wished for. Maybe someday, our paths will cross again,” the young man continued his well-rehearsed farewell.
“I know in my heart that you are meant to be a great man someday. So, go out there, do good in college and do me proud, you hear?” Alexandra sobbed into the receiver. “I will dearly miss you. ‘Till we meet again but in the meantime, do as I tell you,” she added.
It was sometime later when Alexandra’s eldest daughter came into the house and found her mother wiping at her eyes. Quelling her own excitement of going to high school, she hugged her mother saying, “He will be just fine, mom. You rescued him just in time,” even though she knew not a single information about the mysterious caller, she knew instinctively that he just called to say goodbye for he always calls precisely at the same time.
“I know dear, it’s just that I feel like I’m losing a son!” Alexandra smiled through her tears.
***
It has been fifteen years since Alexandra last talked to that mysterious caller and she often wondered what became of the lost and confused young man. With her three kids all grown up and her retired days spent writing a novel beside Carl in the comfort of their garden, she smiled at the memory and found comfort in the hope that one day, their paths would cross yet again. One warm afternoon, Alexandra’s eldest daughter came home with an invitation to an all-expense-paid retreat, courtesy of her fiancé, John. Delighted at the prospect of self discovery and warmed by their future son-in-law’s generosity, they gladly accepted.