Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 52915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 265(@200wpm)___ 212(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 265(@200wpm)___ 212(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
“Bring her back. Now.”
“There is no way to bring anybody back from The End,” he says. “That’s what The End is.”
“You best hope with all your soul that is not true,” I reply. “I will go to The End and I will reclaim my bride. And I will marry her, Balthazar. I will marry her and we will live Happily Ever After.”
“Of course,” he sighs. “That is precisely the sort of idiot act you would attempt. Very well. Go. Go to the Far Far Away and journey all the way to The End. You know that when you arrive there you will be old and weak, and there will be no Ever After of any kind left to you. The journey to The End is precisely what makes it The End. If you had attended to your studies when I was your tutor, you would understand that.”
“You always had ideas above your station, Balthazar. You always imagined that you knew best, as if you could create the world in your image and then, only then would it finally function. My father tolerated you, and I believe it killed him.”
“Your father respected me, and the horror you have created in this world in his wake would appall him.”
I am not armed, and I know that no weapon would slay Balthazar. He would use his magic to defend himself, for he is indeed the most powerful magician in the land. That does not mean he is unkillable.
I do not believe that Emmaline would perish at The End. I do not think she would be so easy a victim. She is smarter than that, stronger than that. Dragonslayer chose her for a reason. She is protected, not just by the enchanted sword, but by the demands of the story itself.
Balthazar is smirking at me because he assumes that I will do nothing. He truly believes he is untouchable, quite literally. I disabuse him of this notion swiftly. The shock in his eyes when I put my hands on his neck and begin to squeeze is quite satisfying.
“Hard to cast a spell when you cannot breathe, isn’t it, Balthazar.”
“Brute,” he gasps.
My fingers tighten around his throat, and I leer as wisps of desperate magic start to flee his wretched old body. “Oh, Balthazar, you have no idea what a brute I have become.”
10
Emmaline
“I need to get to the Ever After. Any ideas?”
I am asking the question of a traveller I have met on my journey, and by journey, I mean I sat around outside the closed tavern at The End for a while before exploring the nearby terrain.
I was not alone for long. Quite a few people are arriving, some by carriage, and others on foot. They come down a golden path which winds between thick trees and is quickly lost to sight.
They come playing music and dancing, they come smiling and laughing. There is much merriment ere The End. They’re waiting for the tavern to open, and when it next opens they will go in and they will stay there when it closes, and then when it opens again, they will be gone. They are happy enough with this arrangement, it seems. They are ready for The End. Most, if not all of them are traveling with loved ones, and those who are alone have a particular peace about them that frankly I find more than a little unsettling, but perhaps that’s simply because I do not belong here. I am at the beginning of my journey, and to behold the finality of The End fills me with cold chills completely at odds with the vibes here. It is a comfort, I suppose, to know that one day I may be like these others and contemplate The End without horror, but for now it all feels wrong.
The traveler I asked for ideas gives me a look as if I am mad and then proceeds to ignore me. I get the notion that asking about the Ever After here is as welcome as a fart in an elevator. Then it occurs to me that these people, happy as they are in how things have gone for them, aren’t getting any kind of Ever After. They’re just getting a plain old end. The End seems to me to be the opposite of the Ever After. I wonder if they know about the Ever After, if there’s even a choice to be had between the two places. Is Ever After reserved for princesses and princes, kings and queens? Is it a kind of class thing? I don't know, and I’m not sure I’m going to find out even if I ask. These people aren’t interested in interacting with anybody new. They’re thrilled to be with each other, but me, I’m a complete irrelevance. Or maybe I’m something worse. Maybe I’m a disturbance. A little piece of chaos, tossed in right before The End. Ugh. People really hate that.