A Twist of Fate

The blade slid across her husband’s throat, followed closely by the silencing of her three-year-old son. Thinking she was next, she tried to edge away, but was seen and grabbed by one of the closer men.

“No need for worry, it was not my plan to kill you yet. I have other uses for you first.” said the hooded man who seemed to be the leader of these brigands.

When he was done with her, he ordered his men to leave, and on the way out, he called for one to shoot her. The arrow missed its mark by a narrow margin, lodging into her shoulder. Suddenly the house was ablaze, and hooves echoed in the distance a brief time later. Then she was outside, lying alone in the dust of the road, the arrow still protruding from her wound. She did not know how or when she got there, but soon lost her battle with consciousness.


The dreams came more regularly now for Tahrein, memories from a life of which she was once part. Now that life served only as fuel for her anger, an anger that she hoped would soon be absolved. It had been seventeen years since she had lost her old life, seventeen years of weapon training and searching. She was now excellent at both the sword and the bow, and better yet, she had found someone who knew the name of this man who had taken everything from her.

At first she had tried to find some family of hers or her husbands that might take her in, but she had lost touch with all of her family, and her husband’s family was dead except for his brother. When Tahrein had tried to find him she was unable to, and was forced to live alone, nurturing herself back to health. Later, she had decided it was probably best that she was unable to find this man, because he had loved her and was very angry when she had married his brother.

She would soon know the name of the hooded man that had stolen her entire life in one single day, and when she found the name, she would finally be able to avenge her family. After seventeen years of waiting, a few more days did not seem any time at all. She filled those days practicing with her bow and her sword, so that she might be prepared when she and the hooded marauder finally met again. She hardly slept, for when she did, her dreams were filled with images of her son and husband, their corpses burning in the flames. In the background she would see the marauder laughing. It also became difficult to eat, to do anything where she had to sit down for a length time, because when she did, it allowed her to think, to reminisce, and when she did this, she would start weeping.

There came a knock at her door one day, and she knew before opening it that her long wait was over. When Tahrein opened it, she did not recognize the face of the man standing before her

“Are you Tahrein?” asked the man.

She could only nod.

“I was told to give you this.” The man smiled as he slid a dagger from his cloak and buried it to the hilt in Tahrein’s stomach. He strode away sniggering to himself.

As Tahrein looked down at the blade now partially covered with blood, she saw a name: Nathan, her husband’s brother. She then lay her head down as the life slipped from her.