Chapter Thirty-Nine - Final Delusion

“I’ve won!” The leader declares, “You can’t stop me.”

“The dream isn’t over yet.” Gina announces.

As the woman is bound in chains and cast down. The army that swept over the Earth is shattered into a million individual pieces. Just when the army is poised for its final victory, the remaining kingdoms of the Earth band together and field a large army of its own. These two armies fight and when the dust clears, the great army that swept over the world is gone and there is no one left to replace it.

The leader is captured and before he can be executed, he uses his magic to escape. The woman who opposed him, breaks free of her chains.

They all wake up from their dream.

“Now that you know the end of the dream, let me show you your final fate.” Gina announces. She grabs the hand of the young man and the great one and disappears, leaving the leader alone to contemplate his fate.

When they reappear, they are in a cave far away. The former leader is there. Having lived out the dream, he knew they would come. He just didn’t know when.

“Look at yourself.” Gina says to the young man, “Is this the fate you want?” The young man looks at himself, old and broken. He turns away in disgust.

“No.” he says quietly.

“Are you ready to give up your magic?” Gina asks.

“I am” the young man declares, “Will this hurt?”

“It will not” Gina assures. Gina waves her hands and says something that sounds like nonsense. The spark leaves the young man. Gina grabs both their hands and they disappear. When they reappear, they are back to where they started from in the past.

“You can be happy now with people who care about you.” Gina says, “I have one final thing for you.” Gina causes the young man to forget everything he had seen and heard about the possible future.

“Great one is it an honor to see you. “The young man says to the great one, “Miss” he says to Gina. “Is there something I can do for you?”

“No, I was just passing by you may go about your business.” The great one said.

“Thank you” The young man says as he goes on his way.

“I owe you a great debt.” The great one says to Gina, “You have kept me from making a terrible mistake. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“No. Just be more careful.” Gina replies and with that she disappears and the great one never sees her again.

When Gina appears again, it is in her own time. She is in a small chamber and an old man is sitting there. He notices that she had the spark.

“I didn’t know you were a magician.” The old man says, “You certainly were not one when I saw you earlier today.”

“True” Gina answers, “I was given the ability to perform magic.”

“And who would give that ability to you.” The old man asks.

“You did.” Gina declares.

“I did, and why would I do something stupid like that.” The old man asks, amused.

“Because you are the wisest, smartest person I know.” Gina answers, “Thank you for believing in me.”

“You’re welcome, I think. What are you going to do, we can’t have two princesses running around.” The old man asks.

“You know I’m not the princess anymore. I think I’m going to travel, see the world.” Gina replies.

“Well, you be careful then.” The old man warns.

“I will” Gina assures. She then disappears again. When she appears, she is in another small chamber. There is no one there so she waits. She waits for what seems like a long time until suddenly Carla walks in. When she sees Gina, she is frightened and can’t speak.

“I’ve been waiting for you.” Gina declares.

“You have?” Carla can barely get out.

“Of course, I’m going to travel the world and I can’t do that without my best friend.” Gina says. Carla isn’t sure what is going on. The princess is never nice, and she is pretty sure the princess doesn’t know she exists. Gina takes both her hands in her own. “I will always have your back.” Gina assures. Carla is really confused. One moment they are in her room, the next moment they are somewhere else.

The somewhere else they are, is outside Mark’s quarters. Gina puts one finger over her mouth and tries to calm Carla down. Within a few minutes, Mark comes out of his quarters.

“Princess, what are you doing here?” Mark asks.

“I am going on a trip, and I need your protection.” Gina declares.

“Does the King know? Why don’t you have a real knight escort you?” Mark asks.

“Are you questioning me!?” Gina says, “You will change into some normal clothes right away and come with me.” This was highly unusual. Mark had bad feelings about this, but he couldn’t refuse the princess. If she wanted to make his life miserable, she could easily do it.

“Yes, princess.” Mark replied. Mark went and changed as quickly as he could.

“That’s better, do you know Carla?” Gina asked. When Mark saw Carla, he felt something he had never felt before.

“My name isn’t…” Carla was about to say but Gina stopped her from finishing her sentence.

“Your name is what I say it is.” Gina rebuked sternly, “We have one more stop before we leave.” Gina took them both by the hand and disappeared again. This time she reappeared in front of Toby’s modest shack.

“You two wait here.” Gina ordered. Gina entered the small shack. Toby had gone to sleep because it was late, but Gina woke him up.

“Princess, what are you doing here?” Toby asked. Toby couldn’t believe the princess was in his small shack. It was as if he were still dreaming. Toby got to his feet. When he did, Gina wrapped her arms around him and gave him a kiss on the lips. It was at this moment that Toby was sure he was dreaming. The princess didn’t even know he was alive, yet there she was.

“Are you ready?” Gina asked when she was done kissing Toby.

“Ready for what?” Toby asked.

“Ready to run away with me.” Gina continued. Toby didn’t know what to say. He had dreamed of this moment his entire life and it was happening.

“Yes” He affirmed.

“Then come with me” Gina ordered. Toby and Gina went outside where Mark and Carla were waiting for them. Gina had them all hold hands. Once they did, they all disappeared. When they reappeared, they were all in the future.

“Where are we?” Carla asked. She looked around and nothing looked familiar. They were on the side of a road and a car passed. “What was that?”

“We are in the future.” Gina declares, “A future where we can all be our best selves.”

“What will we do here?” Mark asked.

“Anything we want!” Gina replied, “I just have one final thing to do.” Gina let go of the spark. She was no longer a great sorcerous, now she was just herself, with the people she cared about.

THE END