My ears were ringing when I opened my eyes. The first thing that I noticed was Viex and Custard laying beside me. Viex was back to his smaller form. He and Custard were just waking up when I saw someone crouching down.
“Rose! Wakeup.” It was harder for me to identify the voice because of the ringing in my ears. And my vision was still trying to recover.
“Ren?” I wondered out loud when his features started to become clearer.
I saw him breathing out a sigh of relief when I responded. He helped push me back into a sitting position.
And then I saw them. In front of us was Queen Siera crying as she clutched the king’s lifeless body in her hands. Then my eyes switched to Eltur and Darem who were trying to shake Ace awake.
Seeing him unconscious shook my body to attention. “Ace!” I screamed and crawled hastily towards him. One of his hands, his left hand that clutched the orb was badly burned.
Ren placed a hand on my shoulder as my lips began to tremble at the sight of him. “He’s alive.”
Eltur and Darem even offered me smiles. “Don’t worry, Rose. Our brother is a tough guy. Tougher and braver than any of us.” Eltur says while Darem couldn’t help but tear up when his eyes darted to his father.
My eyebrows drew. It was for a very brief moment that I met the king, but I could already feel his kindness. Custard and Viex finally woke up and jumped on my lap.
‘I’m sorry, master. The king asked me to. He’s a seer who saw the future.’
I nodded and patted Custard’s head as I told Ace’s brother what Custard just told me. The two nodded and both of them began to cry openly.
“Well, it was expected. He must have figured out that in order to save our brother’s life, he has to give his own instead.” Darem tried to smile but ended up crying instead.
“Thank you.” Eltur looked down at Custard with a sad smile. “Thank you for granting our father’s last wish and saving our brother.”
Queen Siera kissed the king one last time before moving towards Ace. She kneeled in front of him, offered me a smile, before healing her son’s burned hand. Once she was done, she started crying again.
My gaze cast downward and I don’t know what made me say the words, but deep down, I have a feeling that I was partly at fault here. “I’m sorry. It’s because I’m here that they attacked Tordis.”
“Princess.” Queen Siera’s voice shook. “None of this is your fault.” She admitted. “My husband...he already foresaw the future that my son will one day revive the tree. It is the sole reason that this ancient magic has been revived in the first place.” She says and gripped her hands tightly on her lap. “For years he’s been trying to figure out a way to save our child.” She let out a pained laugh. “I guess he finally found a solution. And this is it.” She began to weep once again. Eltur and Darem came closer to her and embraced their mother.
We stayed there for a while until such a time that Nate, my aunt, the king, Nora, Stella, and Kellar joined us. When my aunt saw the body of the elf king, she gasped.
“Amy! Amy!” I blinked and looked at Stella who was running towards me.
“S-Stella?” I was nervous and confused. Did I hear her right? Did she just call me Amy?
Stella came and tackled me into a tight embrace. “Amy!” She cried out my name once more as she buried her face into my neck. “I’m sorry. I remember now. I remember you.”
She remembers me? How?
My gaze fell on the orb that the elf king still has in his hands, and then to the healed hand of Ace. Then I couldn’t help but cry. It has to be. It has to be him. He must have removed whatever spell Stella was on when he had the orb in his hands.
I cried gratefully as I returned my sister’s embrace. Thankful and guilty at the same time. Thankful because Stella now remembers me. Guilty because of the small happiness that it brought me even despite the situation that the Feradins were currently facing.
I watched as Nora cried hysterically in Elturs arms. “He’s fine, Nora. He will wake soon.” He says, trying to comfort his baby sister.
“No!” She screamed and cried even further.
Kellar moved towards me and Stella. His eyebrows were drawn together with worry. I could not help but notice how he was looking at Stella and then looking at Ace. And something about the way that he keeps on looking back and forth between them was worrying me.
“Nora, he will wake up soon. And when he gets better, you’ll be able to talk to him once more.” Darem says and offered her a comforting smile.
“No!” She screamed again and looked at Ace. “His auwa is different.”
When a kid who has the sight to see auras tells you that there is something wrong with a person, you can’t take that warning as a joke. And it appears that the Feradin family knows it too as they all stiffened up and gave Nora their full attention.
“Sweetie?” Queen Siera says with a gentle voice. “What do you mean when you say his aura is different?”
It took a while before Nora calm down a bit, enough for her to talk. “His Auwa is similar to Stewa before.”
As if on cue, Ace started to wake. It was a small movement of his head first and then followed by a painful groan.
All of us huddled around him, but enough to give him some space to breathe. “Ace? Ace!” It was Darem who assisted him in a sitting position as Eltur was still holding Nora, who was currently looking at Ace with worried eyes.
“Brother, are you alright?” Eltur asked. When Ace didn’t respond, he called for his name. “Ace?”
Ace was rubbing his temples and turned towards the direction of his voice. Very slowly, his eyes opened as if he just woke up with a severe headache. “Ace? Who the hell is that?” He said in an annoyed tone.
All of us were stunned. Nora cried harder while the rest of us tried to process if what we heard from him was real. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Nate whispered as we all watch Ace carefully studying all of us with his gaze.
“Why are you all staring at me?” He wondered out loud and flinched when he tried to move. “Why does my body hurt? Who are you guys?” And then he paused as he looked at himself and then at his hands. “Who...what am I?”
“To hell with this.” Eltur gave Nora to his mother as he grabbed Ace by the collar of his shirt. “Are you shitting me right now, little brother? You’re not one to joke, but this isn’t how you make one. This isn’t even funny. Our father just died and we are all devastated. Sure, you saved all of Tordis and revived the tree. Congratulations!” Eltur said through gritted teeth. “But if this is some kind of prank then I swear that for the first time in my life, I will hit you!”
At that point, Ren and Nate ran and grabbed the older elf prince away from Ace as he kept screaming at him. Darem placed himself between Eltur and Ace as he tried to console the older one.
Meanwhile, Ace looked shocked and shaken as he stared at the ground seemingly confused.
“He…” I heard Kellar started to speak beside me. Stella and I looked at him and saw that he was looking at Ace as he talked. “He’s not kidding about not remembering anything.”
“What are you saying?” It was Darem’s turn to speak as he looked at Kellar.
“The prince...he must have taken whatever spell the king-” Kellar flinched as he swallowed the lump forming in his throat. “- no - my father put into Stella.” He says.
“You’re...you’re his son?” Darem’s face was shocked at first before it turned murderous as he looked at Kellar. “You’re that crazy bastard’s son!?” He yelled and tried to grab Kellar. Fortunately, Ren grabbed Kellar and hid him behind his back.
“He’s a kid! What do you think you’re doing?!” Ren bared his fangs at him warningly.
“A kid!?” Darem was outraged. “You’re hiding an enemy’s child in our place!”
“He’s done nothing wrong!” Ren yelled back.
“Why...why are you all yelling? Could you all please stop yelling? It’s making my head hurt.” Ace says.
“Look at him!” Darem hissed as tears filled up his eyes as he gestured towards his confused younger brother. “Fucking look at him!”
“Darem, enough!” It wasn’t Eltur who spoke. It wasn’t even Ren or Nate. It was me. “We’re all upset. Leave the child alone. Ace saved him knowing who he is. He’s a good kid if Ace trusts him enough to leave him alone to protect Nora and Stella. So please, can’t we just focus on Ace?”
It felt like an eternity as we waited for what they were about to do next. Darem dropped down and punched the ground in his frustration. Meanwhile, I stood up and headed for Ace. I kneeled in front of him.
“Hey.” I said to catch his attention.
Ace looked at me with a raised brow. “Hello.” He responded.
Something about the polite way that he talks made me catch my breath. “You really don’t remember anything?”
“I…I’m sorry. I really don’t. Should I know about you? Were we….friends?”
I let out a pained laugh. “More like...frenemies.” I said.
“What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” He asked gently and tried to grab me. But I shook my head and got up on my feet.
“It’s nothing.” I told him and forced a reassuring smile his way. Then, looking at the others, I said. “I’ll take a walk for a while. I want to be alone.” I said as I wandered aimlessly in the forest. Thankfully, they all respected my privacy and it was only Custard and Viex who followed me.
‘Master?’ Custard tried to speak up but Viex nudged him to be quiet.
I was very deep in the forest when started to look up. The temperature in Tordis seemed to be cooler now thanks to the ancient tree being revived, giving us a good shade. It was a pretty weird tree where it was hollow at the center allowing sunlight to enter the kingdom.
I started remembering Ace’s words. “Constantly watching over me he says.” I chuckled darkly. “He doesn’t even remember who he is!” I started laughing all on my own for a while. Then, in just a few minutes, my laughter turned to tears as I dropped to the ground and cried.
‘Princess.’ Viex and Custard tried to console me by placing their heads on my lap.
“Why can’t he just care about himself for once? Why is he always trying to act like a hero!?”
‘He is a prideful and respectable elf, princess.’ Viex says.
‘Master, if your sister can recover her memories, then perhaps he can recover his as well.’ Custard suggested.
‘Indeed.’ Viex says. ‘After all, curses and spells can be broken.’
Curses ans spells.
I stopped crying for a bit when an idea formed in my head. “Custard, I’m sorry. But can you go back to the spirit realm and ask Serena something for me?” I said.
At my request, Custard seemed delighted. ‘Of course, I can!’ He says happily.
“It’s going to be a long journey Custard.” I gave him a warning.
‘Malduk and I can run fast. And he knows a shortcut.’ He boasted. At his words, Viex and I exchanged a look.
One of these days, I really have to talk to Custard about his obsession with shortcuts and how it can be dangerous to some of us.
“Be very careful about your...shortcut.” I told him instead.
‘I will! I will!’ He said. ‘Master, will you be able to stop crying when I do your task? Can you smile?’
At this innocent request, I smiled. “Of course.” I said while pulling him into a hug. And then I whispered the task that I wanted him to do before setting him back down on the ground and kissed his forehead. “Stay safe out there.” I told him.
‘Will do!’ He says as he backed up, rubbed his head on my palm, before bolting morphing into a black wolf, and running away as quickly as he can.
I looked at Viex and offered him my hand. “Guess it’s you and me for a while, Viex.”
Viex scoffed. ‘At least I only need to deal with one child.’
“Hey. That’s not-” I was cut off midsentence when I was dragged back and a knife was placed at my throat.
“Stand back, fox! Or I will cut your master.” I tried to look up to see my opponent, but he was holding me pretty tightly with a bloodied arm.
Viex hissed at the man, and for a brief moment, I looked into his eyes to find out that an elf soldier was holding me captive.
“What’s going on!?” I demanded. “Aren’t you an elf? Why are you doing this?” I dared to ask and the elf choked me instead.
Viex tried to take a step forward but stopped when the elf dug the blade closer to my neck and drawing out a bit of blood. “I told you to stand back!” The elf snapped at him. “I lost my chance to escape along with the others. Maybe, if I have you as a hostage, I could escape. With you, King Ferius will reward me!” He laughed.
‘Princess, that man is a-’
‘A traitor. I know.’ I finished for him. My hands started clasped my whip on my arm and undid the magic that I used to stabilize it. I used the tip of my sword and stabbed it to the hand holding the knife.
Once I was free I pulled my sword out gave him a back kick like what Sir Terrence had taught me. The elf hit a tree and I used the whip to hold his neck and the tree together. I pulled at my whip and he started to scream out loud as the whip was starting to cut through and choke him at the same time.
I could feel Viex looking at me. ‘Princess…?’
“You’re supposed to protect Tordis. Not attack it. You’re a traitor!” Just imagining this guy working for Ferius made my blood boil. If it weren’t for people like him, Stella wouldn’t have lost her memories. The Elf King would still be alive.
And Ace...Ace would still be back to his usual self!
I started pulling at my whip and it started cutting deeper into the elf’s neck.
“Rose? Rose! What are you doing!?” Nate gasped as he and Ren appeared from the forest. They probably heard this man screaming and came to check things out.
Nate took one good look at the man’s neck and my tightening grip to fully grasp what I was planning to do. He came towards me. “Are you really going for it? Are you really going to kill?”
“What?!” Ren sounded concerned and was about to say something more when Nate raised a hand to shut him up.
“Are you?” He asked again while looking at me.
“He’s a traitor, Nate. Because of him-”
“I am not asking whether he deserves to live or die. I am asking if you are ready to bear the responsibility of having blood in your hands.”
“If...If I won’t then he’ll just keep bullying me. He’ll just keep on harassing me, thinking that I wouldn’t fight back!”
“But this is not you!” Nate told me.
“I can’t keep having you guys do the job for me. Look at Ace! He-”
“He what?” Nate challenged me, something that he rarely does. Even Ren was silently watching our exchange. “I am pretty sure that he knows what he’s doing. But do you? He fought so hard just to prevent you from committing such an act. Are you going to throw all of his efforts in the garbage?”
I didn’t answer.
“Rose, answer me.”
“NO!” I screamed and loosened my grip on the whip. “I...can’t. I don’t want to.” I admitted as I pulled the whip back to me. But then, I started channeling magic to Viex - morphing him. Ren and Nate gasped as Viex suddenly charged at the elf, crushed his knee, and took away his essence. Just like I asked him to.
“No.” The elf, who’s now technically human, started feeling his now rounded ears and started crying hysterically. I don’t know if it was from his knee or for his lost essence. Maybe both.
Nate and Ren gasped as they looked at me. “Rose, did you-” Nate couldn’t finish the sentence.
“I did.” I confirmed. “I may not be able to kill him but I never said anything about making his life miserable.” I said as Viex came back to my side. He lowered his chin down to comfort me as he probably felt my pain at the moment.
As the man continued to scream, I closed my eyes and hugged Viex.
I won’t kill.
Yet.
I sent a silent apology towards Ace as I have to decline his request for me and Stella to go back to our realm.
That’s because there is still a King that I need to kill.