Once upon a time...

(She thinks this is a good start, since all fairy tales start out this way.)

There was a young fortune teller who travelled from city to city. She never remained in one place for more than a week at a time because such a thing was dangerous. She knew how to keep herself from being noticed. She’d been doing this for years, it wasn’t hard any more. So she wandered and she wandered, alone and solitary. She couldn’t rely on anyone. She couldn’t stay anywhere for very long. It was just how her life had to be. No need to complain.

She hadn’t expected to actually meet anyone while she journeyed.

The first time they met was in the Talrega region, in a small unremarkable village. She remembers thinking at the time that he was far too noticeable. Too easy to remember. That was dangerous, for people like them. But it wasn’t her concern. She only needed to worry about herself. And anyway, he could defend himself easily.

(She wants her fairy tale to be a little like reality, too.)

The second time they met was in a small village near the Daein-Crimea border. She had been sitting on a rock outside the inn, cards on her lap and book at her feet. For one whole day, he had stood directly across the square from her, never moving a muscle and never removing his gaze from her. She felt uncomfortable under his intense scrutiny, but she ignored it as much as possible. He was just a mercenary like any other mercenary. She wouldn’t ever see him again, she was sure of it.

All day, she avoided his gaze. She remembers wondering if she ought to cast her own fortune. She wouldn’t normally do that, but his uncomfortable presence set her on edge. No one else was paying attention to her. Night was falling now. It wouldn’t take very long.

She cast the cards. They seemed to mock her.

(Very little didn’t mock the life of a Branded, even one like her.)

In neither village had they actually spoken. And when she didn’t come across him for several months during her journeys after leaving the border town, she had begun to think less about him. She didn’t forget him (after all, he was far too easy to remember), but he no longer kept a permanent spot in her mind. It was almost as though she had returned to her old life, journeying and telling fortunes, alone and solitary.

They met again in Nevassa. Hunters had been on her trail since she left the swamplands. And not just any hunters: Branded Hunters—a special police-like force which specialized in finding and disposing of the Branded. She had done well at avoiding them for the most part, but now she realized it was foolish to enter Nevassa with them on her trail. It was their home turf. There was no part—not even a part of the slums—that they did not know like the back of their hands. Silently, she cursed her wretched planning. There were too many for her to take on alone. A lone mage was easy prey.

And then, when she was cornered, he saved her.

(Just like he had saved her from Jarod, when she had been cornered then.)

He swung his sword and protected her from the Hunters. She watched in fascination as he killed them, one by one, sword gleaming in the dying sunlight with their blood. He turned and he smiled at her. “Stay close to me, Maiden,” he said, “I will protect you.”

She had always been taught to accept nothing from strangers. He held out his hand.

“I will,” she murmured softly, “We’ve been alone for too long, haven’t we?”

He nodded, grasping her hand tightly, like she was his long-lost lover. And perhaps she was. If she hadn’t been before, she thought now that she was. He wasn’t a stranger to her any more. It may have been illogical, but who said the heart was logical? He was her prince, her knight in shining armour, and she when she took his hand, she knew it was right.

Even the Branded, she realized, could have a ‘happily ever after’.

She wouldn’t have it any other way.

But if only that were true! Micaiah stares across the sands of the desert, and she is only vaguely aware of her friends burning the bodies of the Disciples of Order all around her. He helped her again today. He saved her life again today. But that didn’t change anything. He was still her enemy (had they always been enemies?). She couldn’t go with him, it just wasn’t right to leave her friends behind.

She bends down to draw a heart in the sand and adds a zigzag line down the centre. They don’t live in a fairy tale, and she knows perfectly well that they won’t have a happy ending.

A/N: I don’t mean to keep writing mirror chapters like this, but I couldn’t help it. And really, is there any young girl who doesn’t want a fairy tale ending for her love? (Well, there probably are some girls like that, but for the majority, we all want a happy ending like that don’t we?).

And yes, I promise the next one will be happy! I’m already partway through it.