My name is Aldrik and I am the prince of fire.

I am the image of a man who has lost everything. I am the reflection of a broken soul and my flames are
my cries of anguish. My anger and hurt fuels the flames as they build wall around me, higher and higher.
Their warmth embraces and cuddles me, but despite the heat, I am cold. The chill inside of me has
frozen icicles along my broken soul. It has stolen the heat from my flames that gave me strength, and
the light that burned my eyes when she smiled. Her smile that awoken a hope in me and battled me to
be a better man. Or maybe that was just an illusion we had both hoped to see. Maybe I never did
change and let my dark past suck me into a whirlpool of solitude and confusion. Because Vhalla Yarl
wasn’t just the wind. She was the purest light that I had ever seen; the purest light to shine in my dark
life. Stronger than any flame and brighter than the moon. Vhalla Yarl was the wind but not my wind. Not
anymore. I was just a leaf passing through her breeze. I should have fought harder for her. I should’ve
never let her go...

My name is Vhalla Yarl and I am the daughter of wind.

I have been an apprentice, a student, a slave, a soldier, and now I am a freewoman. But at what cost?
My heart. I have bought my freedom in exchange for my heart. I am the windwalker, a warrior who has
fought battles at the front lines, but I was not able to save my own heart.
Aldrik, my prince, if I were able to send words along with the wind, I’d send the letters “I’m sorry” to
you. I’m sorry that I was not strong enough, and sorry that I provoked you when I knew that you were
also struggling. I should’ve known that you were protecting me, but I wanted you to fight for me. To
fight for us, for our future and what we could’ve had. I wanted you to fight for me and not with me.
Because now, you are no longer mine. You belong to your future queen, and despite the odds, I am still
madly in love with you. My love for you is bright as any flame. I would cross the ocean on wind for you;
I’d stop sandstorms and jump off cliffs to save you; because I love you so. I would crush mountains with
my bare hands and give up my last breath of air to protect you. But alas, my love was not strong enough
to save us. Maybe our love for each other just wasn’t enough. Maybe this thing blew up in our faces
because I was too busy loving someone you were not, and you were busy pretending that everything
was okay. I painted an image of you, of bravery and heroism, but I never learned to love all of your
flaws. Aldrik, I was so consumed in loving you that I forgot to love myself. I have this raw power in me
that awakens at my calls and rushes to answer. I can feel the wind play on my fingertips and dance on
my spine. I can feel it rush inside me and feel that strength of it. I can do beautiful things with this power
but I am not okay. I am tired and weary of the war. When I close my eyes, I am lost in my own lands of
nightmare. I have seen the lives of the people I have killed, the blood of our enemies dripping through
between my fingers and the imprints of my hands on their faces as I took their lives. I see the children
and their pain have been engraved in my soul. I have demons that I battle with every day, demons that
push me and I ask myself, what am I doing here? If I were to catch a raindrop of every time I think of
you, I’d be drowning in an ocean, and the memory of your smile would be my only salvation. I hope the
next time we meet; I will be fully healed and prepared for the future. But for now, I need to go on my
own way to find myself first.

By: Shahira Mahmood