The Bell Tolls for Me

Isabella opened her eyes with a sense of wellbeing that had eluded her for quite a long while. When she tried to lift her head to look at herself, her muscles obeyed her. When she sat up, she was capable of doing so without assistance. She was wearing the same plain beige dress that she had begun the ceremony with. She was in a humble room with one bed, and Arthur sat by the door.

"You're up," Arthur said, and Isabella's head turned to look at him.

"I don't feel weighed down anymore," she said excitedly, moving to get off the bed that she'd been set down in. She flexed her hands in wonder, then shook her legs. The smile on her face widened as she came to another realization, far beyond her wildest expectations. "And Arthur… Arthur, my mana lock! It's expanded!"

"Yes. The ritual expanded your mana capacity to its fullest potential," Arthur agreed, watching her.

Her happy expression froze on her face when she saw how grim he looked. "What's wrong?"

Arthur rubbed his thumb against his palm and rose to his feet. "I almost didn't believe it myself, but your half-baked plan worked. Whatever power these people possess, it's capable of warding away the wasting illness. But there's been a complication." Arthur crossed his arms and went silent.

"Complication?" Isabella repeated. "Where's Valerio?"

"Outside," Arthur explained. "The moment that you surrendered your soul, all of the elves in the city reported a feeling of malaise. What they call the Crystal Lake of the Ithilian… they claim it's been polluted. And worse than that, they claim it's becoming more polluted as time passes." Arthur walked up to her, his features grim. "I think that you're smart enough to piece together what might be happening."

Isabella swallowed. "I… gave them the…?" she trailed off, unable to finish due to the dread that blossomed within her heart.

"In a manner of speaking, yes." Arthur nodded grimly, looking out the window. "It doesn't manifest in any individual as severely as it did in you. In effect, you've shared the burden of the illness with thousands of individuals. As you might imagine, people are still quite displeased. The only reason they haven't shattered your soul and killed you is because of Valerio's intercession."

Isabella's thoughts turned quickly. The Crystal Lake must be referring to what she had seen in that vision following her inhalation of the mist. Strangely, there was new knowledge in her head. She looked inward, searching for something new inside. She saw it, then. The Crystal Lake existed within herself just as much as it did all of the Ithilian. When last she'd seen it, it was pure and clean, but now there was a faint blackness swirling inside it, like the first drops of a different-colored liquid.

"What have I wrought?" Isabella exhaled in shock, touching her neck in fear.

"I'm going to say some things now, and I want you to listen," Arthur insisted. "If these elves do shatter your soul, that's it. It's the vessel through which you can travel in time. There will be no second chances, no redoes. Your soul will shatter. Your body will become empty. You will die, forever." He shook his head. "I knew I should have done more investigation before I allowed this to happen… but that's beside the point. There's still a way to get out of this."

"What?" Isabella asked.

"If you die in any other fashion, your soul will take its normal route and be freed of their Crystal Lake. I can't say how many years you'll travel back. Your power isn't as precisely documented as Edgar's. Assuming things remain the same, you'll travel back eight years. You'll be eleven, roundabout. You'll be capable of doing far more to prepare for what's coming at that age."

"But the wasting illness," Isabella said. "What if it manifests naturally?"

"…I honestly can't say," Arthur admitted despairingly. "You've used your power much less than Edgar, but yours is far more intense. Maybe it will appear. Maybe it won't. But you have infinitely more knowledge and insight about what is coming than you did ever before. And I can take measures to send my memories back once more—and this time, I could help you immediately."

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Isabella said nothing, thinking hard.

"Think of what we could do, working together," Arthur said. "The opportunities we could monopolize. We could leave Dovhain outright, build a powerbase beyond, and strike Edgar when he least expects it. We could save hundreds of thousands of lives."

"Or we could fail," Isabella said. "We could make things infinitely worse. I could fall into Edgar's hands, and you could be powerless to help me at your young age." Isabella shook her head decisively. "Death is an idea that every other person has to grapple with. I cannot walk through life with the idea that I can redo things to build a more perfect future. This is the consequence of my action. I will not be my father. I'll see this through to the end."

Arthur looked at her with a strange expression on his face—fear, panic, frustration, and guilt. His breathing was uneven. He raised a hand to his forehead, then turned his head away in shame. "I don't want you to die, Isabella."

Isabella exhaled in relief as she realized she was being unduly paranoid. "Perhaps you finally see why what you've done to yourself upsets me so," she said. "But fret not. I'm sure this can be worked out peacefully. These are a gracious, generous people, and they're not blind to reason."

***

"Even if she did do something, I swear upon all that I hold dear it wasn't deliberately," Valerio shouted before the elves.

"When ants steal upon your food and eat it, you don't ask the ants if they knew it was your food," one of the members of the Lómethar returned. "You remove them."

"Even if that's true, shattering her soul is no answer!" an elf that Valerio didn't even recognize shouted back. "There are gentler, kinder ways. There are countless ways to remove a Thalvassë without injuring them."

"She deserves punishment," the Lómethar member returned.

One of the Thalvassë grabbed his shirt. "We handle a mere fraction of her burden. The Crystal Lake has expanded far faster than can be conceived in the past years, and it will continue to do so. Will all of us so callously turn our backs on the Unorindómë of our savior? Do they both not deserve grace? This talk of removing her soul, of shattering her soul—these are both shameful propositions beyond compare! Will we truly be so ungracious to the love of our savior?"

The shouting and debating continued without an end. There were those that thought that Isabella was a deliberate parasite. There were those that simply wanted her to be removed from the situation so that Valerio might take an elven woman as his wife. There were those that advocated for a peaceful extraction of her soul, and there were those that argued that the burden that they now dealt with was sufficient compensation for all the Valerio had already done. They argued that the Crystal Lake would continue to expand dramatically, and thus the matter was ultimately of little concern.

"You're a narrow-minded ingrate!" a young man shouted, and then drew a dagger and pointed it at the old man in the Lómethar.

The old man stepped back in fear, and two of his relatives stepped forth with a sword and an axe. As the dagger-wielding young man looked between them nervously, a Thalvassë put his arm before him and took his place, holding a sword out as wind swirled around him ominously. Another Thalvassë came forward to oppose him, fire dancing from his fingers.

As most everyone backed away in fear of the coming clash, one person was walking forward. Isabella moved with renewed vigor to stand between their blades, looking at the both of them in turn with her arms outstretched to hold them back. Silence did not fall, but enough quieted that she could speak and be heard.

"I did not expect my point to be proven in this way, but I believe it has been." She looked between all of them. "Is this not precisely what I warned you against? Family killing family as the result of some dispute?"

The tension didn't dissipate, but many people took her point. Valerio joined her, casting hard eyes between both Thalvassë until they lowered their weapons and calmed their flaring power. Then, from Valerio's blind spot, someone lunged toward Isabella with blade pointed forth. Randolph stepped in at the perfect timing, catching the blade with his hilt and spinning it to disarm him. He kicked the man in the groin just after, and the man doubled over with wide eyes and open mouth.

"Glad to see that still hurts as much for you as it does for us," Randolph declared, looking around. "Bloody hell. Rumbustious lot. Things are the same, anywhere you go…"

Valerio wrapped one arm around Isabella, looking at all surrounding them as though they were enemies. Isabella gripped his arm, and whispered to him, "We must not let this descend into fighting. Once it begins, it can never end."

Valerio nodded. But how could a difference like this be reconciled peacefully? Isabella had promised to make a structure preventing one such disagreement like this from arising. Now, her ability to act was compromised by what had happened. Arthur had told him of the stakes. If need be… Valerio would do anything to keep her safe.