‘Princess, focus!’ I felt Viex slumping down when the supply of magic that I was giving him was cut off. In that brief moment of weakness, a few rogues were able to catch on and started targeting us instead.
I got down from Viex as he was still trying to recover from the unstable magic. Custard and I managed to handle a few of them with our backs facing Viex to protect him.
‘Princess, behind you!’ Viex yelled as a warning. When I looked back, I saw a leopard pouncing at me. Custard blocked its path but the leopard didn’t fully reach us when a hood figured appeared, landed on the leopard’s back in midair, and plunge his blade to its neck.
As they both landed on the ground, Ace took his hood and pulled me until I was beside Viex. “What are you doing? We’re in the middle of a war.” He told me. His face scrunched up in anger until he saw the look on my face. His face softened. “What is it?” Javi lets out a soft roar at that point making Ace turn to him. “What’s that thing doing here?”
“Ace.” My voice was shaking as I said it. “Ferius...he’s in Thalia.” I told him.
“Where in Thalia?” Ace’s face hardened.
I looked at Javi since he wasn’t specific about his words earlier. ‘In the palace.’ He said dreadfully. ‘Please, you have to hurry. Prince Kellar, sent me to fetch some help. It was all too sudden that knights were immediately decapitated by his generals. They’re currently residing in the village.’ As Javi continued to talk, I diligently translated them to Ace.
Ace’s expression turned grin before he grabbed an ally beast-men’s attention. “My name is Prince Ace and I want you to go and find Prince Ren or Prince Dan.” He told him. “Tell them that King Ferius is in Thalia. Hurry up. It’s urgent!”
The Cougar beast-man looked troubled but nodded its head nonetheless as it ran to find the twins.
“Let’s just hope that they find them in time.” Ace mumbled and when he turned to me, he raised a brow. “What are you doing?” He demanded as soon as he saw me mounting Viex.
“Going back to Thalia.” I told him. “Custard, come here.” Custard hopped onto Viex back in his smaller form alongside Javi.
“It’ll take too long.”
“Not with Viex.” I told him.
“I’m going with you then.” He says and hopped on to Viex as well. “I faced those bastards before. You, on the other hand, have not.” He says.
“Right.” I nodded. “Let’s go, Viex.”
The ride felt like forever, especially with the growing anxiety of the safety of your family and loved ones. It was not easy to stop myself from telling Viex to move faster, not with all the weight that he’s been carrying. I could even feel that Viex was getting somewhat tired but he kept on pushing himself.
As we reached the village, the whole place was frozen in ice.
No, not frozen.
The whole village was surrounded by ice and protected the village from the rogues who were trying to crack it open.
“That amount of magic. It’s definitely the work of your sister and Chace.” Ace concluded.
Viex started running in a full circle around the ice dome. As we got to the other half of it, I saw that the palace itself was frozen solid.
‘They’re in the village, princess.’ Javi instructed me.
‘Javi, do you know of a way in?’ Viex asked him.
‘Princess Stella or Prince Chace should be in the village and looking out for our arrival.’
I watched a few of the rogues on standby all around the dome and frowned. “So, we have to fight our way in?” There weren’t that many of them, to be honest. I figured that majority of them were left behind in Tereau to keep the others busy.
‘No worries. I VOLUNTEER!’ Custard jumped and morphed himself in the air to turn into his darker form.
“Custard!”
Ace laughed and I heard him brandishing his blades. “Respect to him. He has the initiative.” He says before getting off of Viex and riding on Custard’s back instead as the both of them charged at the rogues.
“What the hell is wrong with those two!?” I watched as the two of them parted and started attacking the rogues on two sides. At Custard’s corner, you could hear their screams as he took away their essences, while in Ace’s corner you could hear their death wails as he aggressively forced his way through them. “Come on, Viex.”
The moment Viex and I joined them, the rogues scampered away when they saw a huge fox coming towards them. “It’s the princess. Run! She’ll take away your essence!”
Since Custard’s side was now cleared, I looked towards Ace just in time as he sheathed his blades. As he was coming over to us, he whipped away some blood that splashed over his cheek. “So, have you found the entrance? Or at least your sister or Chace?” He asked, then his eyes darted to the direction of Custard. “What’s he doing?”
‘Oh brother…’ I heard Viex let out an exasperated sigh. When I turned to see what he was looking at, I saw Custard whimpering while trying to pull his tongue free from the ice.
‘Master, help!’ He whimpered.
I got down from Viex and crossed my arms over my chest as I marched towards Custard, who was now whimpering while trying to pull his tongue away from the ice. “Custard, I know that you like the cold but...WHY?” I emphasized the question as I gestured at the area around us. “Buddy, we’re literally at war, why would you-”
“Amy?” I gasped when I turned and saw Stella standing at the other side of the dome.
“Stella?”
‘I found your sister?’ Custard replied in embarrassment.
“Hold on. I’ll open it, but you have to come in quickly.” She says.
I nodded and turned to both Ace and Viex and gestured them forward. I grabbed Javi from Viex’s back and demorphed Viex. Immediately, he slumped on the ground. Ace picked him up in his arms as he came to our side.
“Get some rest, Viex.” I told him before turning to Stella. “We’re ready.”
Stella stepped back and began dispersing the ice in front of her to create a hole big enough for us to get through. With the ice gone, Custard was free as he morphs himself back to his smaller form and was the first one to run inside. The rest of us followed.
When I looked back, Stella was already closing the entrance that we came through.
“Stella, what’s going on? Why are you in the village and not in the castle?” At my question, Stella placed a finger over her lips and gestured for us to follow her. Ace pulled his hood back over his head as we made our way through the village.
“Stay close to me. I can nullify the cold at a certain perimeter.” Stella says.
The streets were empty and everything was dark save for what little glow the magical lamps provide. I know that the dome was created to protect the people, but its atmosphere was just eerie.
Stella leads us to one of the oldest public and isolated stables in the place. Outside was Chace and Kellar guarding the outside. As soon as we spotted them, Javi jumped out from my arms and ran straight towards Kellar.
When the two noticed Javi, they finally looked in our direction. Chase smiled widely while Kellar looked relieved. “You guys are here.” Chace smiled.
“What happened? How did you get to this place?” Ace gave the fairy prince a scrutinizing gaze, which baffled the young lad as he still expected him to be nice.
“Please, come inside first. Then you all can talk.” Kellar proceeded to open the stable door for us to enter. I noticed how lifeless he seemed as he talked and could not help but spot a few blood stains on his shirt and sleeves.
Stella must have noticed where I was looking because she suddenly grabbed my hand with a shake of her head.
Something big happened here and I intend to find that out myself.
And why Kellar looked lifeless.
Inside the old and abandoned stables, we found our uncle laying his head on our aunt’s lap. The both of them were occupying a blanket placed on the ground. I noticed that the king had a blindfold over his eyes and his ears was frozen. My aunt was holding his hand the whole time, even when she looked at us. “Hello, dear. Glad to see that you’re safe.” She tried to sound cheerful but failed.
I looked to my sister with a disapproving look. “Stella, what did you do to him?”
“We….we didn’t have a choice.” She said with a hard look on her face. “You two should take a seat. I’ll explain the rest.” She says and gestured to a couple of crates in the room where Ace and I sat together as we looked expectantly at her. Custard nestled in my lap while Viex was sleeping in Ace’s arms.
“We want to hear all of it. Start from the very beginning.” Ace told her.
Stella nodded. “After you left, King Luke has been restless lately and kept on tapping the table at a certain pattern. At first, I did not think that it was relevant because whenever I asked him, he would just smile and act like there was nothing wrong. But then, before I went to my room, I noticed that uncle was still tapping the same pattern on the dinner table. While constantly reminding me to look up fluorine, erbium, iodine, uranium, and sulfur.”
Stella cast a worried glance at our uncle before she continued. “That night, I did some studying and looked up the same elements that he asked me to look for. And guess what I found? Fluorine starts with F, erbium is Er, iodine is I, uranium for U, and finally S for sulfur.”
“Fungus? Why would he spell out fungus? ” I wondered out loud.
“It’s Ferius!” Ace yelled and then gritted his teeth as he massaged his temples. “We’re dating. I love her. We’re dating. I shouldn’t scold her. We’re dating. I should have patience.” Ace repeated it over and over as if he was saying a healing mantra.
I pursed my lips and gestured for Stella to continue. I feel like I just broke the PRINCE’s sanity just now.
“When I realized his message, I began to remember and notice that all that tapping is a morse code. When I deciphered it, it translated to midnight and Thalia. Putting the two words together spells out ‘Ferius. Midnight. Thalia.’ It was a warning that the King of rogues was coming.” She paused. “I did not understand why uncle was trying to pass on that message, but when I asked him about it, he stopped and told me that whatever our plan is, he shouldn’t hear them since Ferius can hear and see what he’s doing.”
I blinked and exchanged a look with Ace just to make sure that we were still hearing the same story. Judging by the look on his face, I wasn’t hearing things.
“Uncle handed me a letter and said that it would explain everything. Then he asked us to knock him out and make our escape. I already alerted the attendants and knights in the palace but we were a little late. By the time that we had an evacuation, they managed to take down some of the knights and infiltrated the palace. I don’t know how many of those who lived in the castle managed to escape. We were all too busy escaping ourselves.” Stella closed her eyes at the memory. “We knocked uncle down as per his wishes, but we refused to leave him behind. When we managed to escape, we met….we met one of Kellar’s brothers. The second prince. One thing led to another and…” At this moment, both Stella and Chace glanced at Kellar, who was still moping outside while hugging Javi.
“It was my fault, I got too complacent the moment we got to the village that I did not notice the guy coming. And I was supposed to be the lookout.” Chase says while looking at Kellar. “That guy decapitated his brother to save us. If he didn’t step up, we wouldn’t have made it this far.”
I noticed how Kellar shivered the moment that Chace mentioned the decapitating part. No wonder he looked like a wreck.
I felt sorry for him. It must have been his first time taking a life. And of his brother for that matter. If only things were a bit different in this realm then maybe that kid won’t have to suffer like this.
“Then, we got to the village and created this….barrier to protect ourselves and the villagers. It’s cold but it is better than all of us getting massacred.” The fact that the word ‘massacre’ came from my sister’s lips hit me differently.
“Stella, about Luke. You told us that he gave you a letter. What is it about?”
Stella looked towards our aunt. The look on my aunt’s face seemed like she lost her husband to a comma again as she nodded painfully for Stella to continue.
My sister nodded and addressed Ace and I. “Amy, don’t you notice how….diabolical and heartless King Ferius is? I mean, from the history alone you can tell that the man has no empathy when it is supposed to be a common thing to all living beings.”
“Um...doesn’t that just mean that he is a power-hungry psycho?”
“No, your sister is right.” Ace replied. “It is weird. Ferius was a loyal knight to your family once before he began to betray his king. It is odd that he could turn his back on his liege so easily.”
I wanted to speak and point out that he’s just a SUPER psycho, but I am afraid of getting scolded again.
“He’s right. To be the man that he is right now, he has to get rid of his humanity. His human side. And with the help of the same witches who created the chimera at a much later time, he was able to split his personality into two living beings. One for the good and one for the bad. As you all can tell, King Ferius is the bad one, while the good one just happens to be...” Stella trailed off as she glanced at our unconscious uncle on our aunt’s lap.
“...our uncle Luke.” I continued.