The Alyta Trilogy: Handmaids, Heroes, and Hierarchy

She gets up and, with tears welling up in her eyes, she darts off down the stairs, out of the castle, and into the woods.  She runs and runs, not paying attention to where she is going, but tearing through the forest in a blind fury.  She stops to collect herself, sure now that no one could be following her, and sits down on a stump.  She looks around at the surrounding trees, and finds herself at the exact place that she and Jason had stopped and cared for her wound.  She cautiously gets up, thinking that this may be a mirage of her mind, wanting for all the world to be happy, and with Jason.  She steps forward, and the ground feels stronger under her feet with each step.  Confident that it�s not a mirage, she continues onward until she is twirling in the field of lilies.  She falls and is caught by the soft foliage.  She laughs despite herself, wondering how this place could remind her so much of the cause of her pain but bring her only joy.  She lets herself go in the moment, and simply breathes in the flower-filled air and smiles.  She hears the rushing water of the stream and goes towards it.  She touches the water and feels the power coming from it.  She laughs a little and then dives right into it.  Underwater, the stream is deeper than she expected, being over her height.  She looks with wonder at the life here.  It reminds her of the hours she used to spend underwater in the ocean surrounding Atlantis.  She used to just stare as schools of glimmering fish swam by her and race with the dolphins that were so friendly.  Here, she finds larger fish, which sometimes on journeys she must eat.  In their niche, they each have their own personality and are playfully trying to beat the current.  She down at the stream bed, and sees Jason chained to the bottom, seemingly calling out to her.  He fades, and she swims nearer, quickly trying to save him.  As she nears, his image gets lighter and lighter.  She stops when she reaches the place she saw him chained.  Nothing.  Jason�s at home, about to be crowned.  Why did I see him down here?  She surfaces and sits on the bank, shivering from the shock of the air around her.  She looks at the water.  For a moment, she thinks she sees Jason�s face in the water, but then she blinks and it too disappears.  She glances over to the end of the stream, where it seemingly disappears.  She feels an inexplicable urge to go there.  She must.  It�s as if she�s being forced to head into that unknown water.  She cannot resist it any longer.  Whatever it is telling her to go, it is as mentally strong as she is.  Alyta dives straight into the area where the stream exits the grove.  She is amazed as the stream continues on, as strong as ever.  The current pulls her through the intricate passageways of this underground system.  She sees tributaries leave the main stream, and as the reach the surface, a little lights is let into her passage.  She floats along, feeling that she herself isn�t in control of where she is being led by the stream.

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A figure hunches in the sill of the huge stone windows.  She looks down, out of the secrecy of her cloak, onto the scene of Jason arguing with Iolaus. 
�Jason, buddy: what are you doing?  You�re not yourself today.�
�Sure I am, Iol!� Strife says, as Iolaus winces at the nickname, �Princes want to be crowned, they order around servants, and I�m a prince.  I�m doing just fine on that account.�
Iolaus shakes his head, unwilling to try to talk to him any more now.  He steps out of the room and leaves Jason on his own to settle his stress problems.  Iolaus leaves and Strife thinks to himself, �What can I be doing wrong?  I studied Jason�s actions and his friends all last week.  And everybody knows what a prince about to be crowned is like.  Nah, that can�t be it��

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The hooded figure leaps from one window to the next soundlessly.  She stops at one room and finds Sytifa folding laundry.  She halts on that sill and watches Sytifa work.  Sytifa finishes and the girl is left looking at the empty room.  Looking around, she knows that it�s Alyta�s. 
A figure appears beside her.  Ares stares hypnotically into her eyes.  She doesn�t even notice him.  He looks her up and down, and laughs his evil laugh.  �There is much anger in this one.  She will be useful around here in the next day.�

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