Fenrir may not seem like it, but he is a man with many connections. When I asked him how he knew about this immortal, Xiao, he said he met travelers of the northern mountains who met the man and shared his story. It seems he was not as famous as she thought for someone as old as Fossil because he chose to live in the mountains, peacefully isolated from the rest of the world. I knew he must have one fascinating story, but I kept my questions to myself until I personally met the man.It’s really not every day one would come to find a few centuries-old immortals in the mountains.This journey alone excites me which leads me to forget the reason why I was going on this adventure in the first place.While I packed with excited hands, one of my lady’s maids came inside with quick and urgent footsteps. She leans in to whisper, “It seems Princess Clara is also leaving today, Princess.”I shoot her a curious glance. “Truly? Do you know where she’s headed?”The woman nods. “I heard from one of
We trekked the mountain the whole day. Though we had to take a few stops to eat and for me to rest my legs, we eventually reached what Fenrir called Xiao’s territory in the mountain range. It was by a valley, with a frozen lake and a small cabin with a busy chimney. It was on the complete opposite path from our cabin.Nevertheless, the scenery almost looks the same. All the same white snow on top of the pine trees, the long frozen lake that runs along the mountain range’s valleys, and the never-ending fog due to the cold.“He must be awake, guessing his chimney is busy with all the smoke.”My companion shrugs and huffs out a large puff of air. His nose and cheeks are tinged with pink, the color all the more vivid with his pale face. I wanted to laugh at his appearance, but I knew I did not look any better. My fingers are numb and my nose is no longer functioning properly. I had been breathing through my mouth for quite a while.“Let’s see,” he says and trudges closer to the cabin. “I
The once dangerous rainforest, always busy with rainstorms and hurricanes, was solemn today. But nevertheless, the witches and warlocks of the coven looked as if they were struck by a hundred storms, with the way their frowns settle in their forests, their lips pursed in a tight line. The entire forest was gloomy today.Who wouldn’t? After burying six bodies just this month, fatally affecting their endangered population as an isolated civilization in the middle of the rainforest. The death happens only at night, and its victims are left to rot despite them only being killed overnight. The victims also had one similar trait: they were all widows.It was terrifyingly similar to the Plague of the Miserable that lurked in the woods of the werewolves.Imagine the horror it gave to Phaedra, who was also coincidentally returning from the pack when the plague took its first victim—Pantheia.Nobody could say it out loud, but they all had similar thoughts—she must’ve brought the plague to their
It had been days after we climbed down the northern mountain range.We left with a plan formulated with Xiao and it has since made me feel secure. However, the palace seems to be walking on eggshells around me. Has the rumor spread already? They must be afraid of me because they no longer know what I am. Humans are afraid of what they do not know. But this was better than before. I’d rather people avoid me out of fear than out of just. . .uninterest.Because I returned before Clara, I ought to talk with my Father freely without thinking of her eavesdropping on us. So I went out early and made my way to his throne hall without any time to waste. I curtsied while he observed me carefully.I know what I must say.I am confident. Xiao has advised me to be if I want to show my Father I can handle the pressure of eventually sitting on the throne.Before, it was among my wildest dreams. It was perfectly impossible and I was perfectly content not to even think about it being possible because
That night, my sisters came at the call of our father. We dined together for the first time since the uprising caught Father preoccupied and a strange feeling welled in my heart. Aesira and Eudora smiled meaningfully when I came into the dining hall, but my mind still wandered to Fenrir’s words. I vaguely shook my head to erase the unwanted thoughts and took up my seat to Father’s right.I checked up on Zemira and Jamira, our twin babes, and they giggled as I touched their heads. Our other sisters, Velora and Astraea, are preoccupied overseas with Velora’s scholarly ventures and Astraea’s cultivation. They have been gone for two years, but that does not matter, since they have been consistently sending us letters sharing their adventures.Father clears his throat, the attention of everyone at the table automatically falling on him—save for the twins, of course, who were in their own worlds.“I have great news,” he announces. He was not even bothered to slowly unravel the news to them
I am a sister and a daughter. I am a lady in mourning. That was all I was...but some voices that kept whispering things in my ears. That I am a monarch—a Queen.It was ridiculous.I am anything but.I lost track of time as I let the veil of misery blind me and engulf me in my own grief, completely blocking out any outside intervention. How does the world expect me to survive such a painful life? Why must they make me suffer and slowly take my family?Hundreds of questions lingered in my mind, my heart swelling after feeling so many heavy emotions for hours—or has it been days?Father. . come back, please. Come home to us. Wake me from this long, frightening dream.—My gaze was fixed on a spot in the courtyard.I did not know where else to look, thanks to the thousand or more townspeople crowding the courtyard. I ought to meet their eyes from the palace’s grand balcony, but I could not. I could not yet grasp the thought of being the ruler of such a kingdom. My memory was hazy on how t
“What are we waiting for?! This golden chance has appeared before us!” His ridiculous tone echoed in the meeting hall, his gaze running over everyone at the table. “If we wait any further, we will just be giving them time to recuperate!”This man stood before Lords, as a lowly Baron of the House of Men, as he stared at them with endless grit and shamelessness. At the center of the table sat Soren with a blank face, looking out the window. Despite his nonchalance, those at the table that was familiar enough with him knew that he was at his limit. Understandably so, since this baron had been spewing foolish ideas and tearing their ears out since the meeting started.“I wouldn’t underestimate the royal family if I were you, Baron,” someone spoke from the House of Sorcery, glancing nervously at his Lord.The Baron scoffs. “As someone from the House of Men, we are very familiar with the royal family. And believe me when I say, this new crown princess is a sham. That poor thing’s only talen
“Very good. The enemy has bitten the bait,” Xiao muttered beside me.We observed the fight on the borders in one of the watchtowers, our hands on our backs as the fight turned completely in our favor the moment Fenrir joined the battle. I eyed the carriage at the back of the rebels’ army, thinking the one in charge must be inside, and how flustered he must be seeing the current state of the army he led to their deaths. As Fenrir swooped the battlefield clean of the trolls, a human soldier on horseback ran to the carriage. It was too far to see, but they were talking to the person inside.A few moments later, the soldier runs to the front and screams one word. The word we knew we’d hear soon enough.“Retreat!”Xiao and I turned to each other.“They’re leaving,” I say meaningfully, before turning to the other Generals in the watchtower. They were filed in a line behind me, awaiting my orders. “Tail them.”One of the three Generals was quick to curtsy and leave the watchtower. I turned ba
Well, you've flipped to the last page of this book. Thank you for seeing it to the end with me. I'm sorry for the errors. I will edit it diligently now that I've completed it. Please leave your thoughts in the reviews! I'd really appreciate it, constructive or negative! I'll read it all. ^^ Love, zav
Spring has arrived. Its breeze welcomed the new blooming flowers in the flower shops, the redolence of the Capital’s symbolic flower, a daisy, circulating down the streets of the city. It was the perfect weather for a festival, a rather young festival only celebrated for three years.Amid the bustling townspeople, a young girl wandered around, her simple straw slippers softly hitting the cobblestone as she glanced around seemingly lost, eventually stopping in front of the flower shop to admire the daisies. Her wide, curious eyes neared the daisy and sniffed it, sighing at its alluring scent.The old man running the shop spots the young girl, wearing nothing but a humble dress and straw slippers, visibly a farm girl. He smiles, plucking a daisy from its bunch. He hands it to the girl who looks up at him, surprised.“Happy cleansing day, lassie.”“Eh?”He chuckles at the girl’s tilted head with confusion spelled out on her face.“Don’t ‘ya know what day is today?”“Uh-uh.” She shakes he
“She’s taking too long, is she not?” Flavian wonders aloud as they look up at the sky, violent and storming with frequent flashes of lightning and thunder. It had been thirty minutes since they took to the sky. The vampires and trolls are all absorbed and rotting in the clearing, ending the battle. But they were still yet to see even the two’s silhouettes in the sky.Beside him, Fenrir was frowning quietly. He could not feel her. Something… or someone, was intercepting the bond.“What if the purification failed? Will she be alright?” Phaedra worriedly asks and turns to her mother. “Does it really take this long, Mother?”Priscilla crossed her arms, a similar frown on her face. “Let us wait a while longer. It is no easy feat, but I believe in her. What do you say, Fauntleroy?”Two ears perked in her direction. She clears her throat and clarifies, “The older one.”“What?”“Do you still feel your mate?”Only the rustling leaves of the trees answered her. All heads sharply turned to him a
My mind drifted back into the discussion we shared between the advisors, before everything.“Thank you. I’m feeling well enough to hunt down the plague again.” She meets everyone’s eyes. “But I doubt I’ll get lucky and find it at the first forest I go to. Do you have any ideas where it would likely be?”And just like that, the table was open for discussion.The hunt for the plague continues.“How about this?” I pitch in. Expectant eyes meet mine as I continue, “We take a different approach. If I absorb any more, I’m afraid I will explode.”“That is realistically possible,” Priscilla confirms, and my face blanches.“Then, what approach do you have in mind, Your Majesty?” The generals ask after darting a narrowed glance at the retired priestess.I shrug. “Anything that would not include me having to ingest any more power is preferable.”It’s true. I felt like puking the day after I absorbed the plague. It was like eating a dirty cloth, with all the corrupted souls it absorbed. It was no
“Aren’t you tired?” I ask, my eyes warily scanning him from head to toe. He really is here. Right in front of me. In the flesh.That same tall, slender, build with a ghastly white complexion and gravity-defying black hair.The same man in my dreams—nightmares, rather.He looked as if he was swallowed by darkness, with the smoke all around him. He was a terrifying opponent. But I was not one to back down. I bared my fangs and summoned Celeste’s eyes, making mine slit and glowing a brighter purple. If I could, I would’ve sneered and tested the firmness of his will, just to see if I could do to him what I did to my past enemies.Hearing my question, a slow grin spreads out on his face, sending goosebumps down my spine. I felt Flavian flinch from my left.He spoke, his voice thick and yet silky smooth as if he hadn’t been around for centuries.“The pursuit to a peaceful world is a tedious task, thus one must not feel lethargic.”I narrow my eyes at him. “Pursuit to a peaceful world? You m
Expert bodies move out of the way with a smooth tilt of their body, easily evading a lethal charge to the shoulder. Xiao’s murderous glare pinned on the vampire that dared to charge at him.“How foolish,” he remarks and brutally stabs its chest with his wooden staff’s pointy end.Despite the chaos that ensues around him, he keeps his cool demeanor and composure as he breezes through the swarm of enemies that outnumbered them. Realizing a stab to the heart that was long done pumping would not kill the vampire off, he calls for the attention of the wicked witch on his back.“Do finish off this one, Priscilla.” He flings the vampire overhead, using the poor soul’s attempt to charge on him another time as momentum to take him flying.She scoffs from behind and he could already imagine a scowl on her face.“You cannot even finish a mindless vampire? Tsk. This is why I do not desire to live too long,” she says just as the ground that the vampire landed on was scorched. There was no need to
The crisp leaves of the Witches’ Forest greeted us as we arrived, the rich, wide forest being the place we theorized would house the world’s oldest living plague. It made sense. This forest was rich with the energy of the witches, and the coven was temporarily abandoned for the sole reason that the plague was strongest in the forest.Priscilla told me during our meeting that the number of victims in the coven never decreased when the rest of the world did. When I absorbed a fraction of the plague’s strength and weakened it, I thought it gave the world a few weeks of respite. But it never reached the coven.After learning about it, guilt gnawed at my stomach. I immediately ordered the witches and their families to seek refuge in the palace, where the rest of the witches I took to war were. Now, we arrive at a barren coven in the middle of a dark, ominous forest pulsing with energy.I could feel the earth’s power in my veins. Pulsing. Throbbing. Like a streak of power terrorizing my blo
It was a quiet, sunny day for the palace.It was on that quiet and sunny day that the Queen’s advisors were summoned into the meeting hall. They quietly shuffled inside, Priscilla meeting Xiao’s eyes. She observes him. They had not crossed paths in the castle for weeks. She, preoccupied in the witches’ tower and he, cooped up in the archives. The two places were almost on opposite ends of the palace. And yet he looked no different.Xiao feels her gaze and turns her way. He raises an inquisitive brow and she shuts him off with a roll of her eyes. The man, confused, tilts his head. Quietly, they occupy their spots on the right and left of the end of the table, where the Queen’s seat was. That was and had always been their position—they are the left and right hand of the monarch.Two of the most unique hands, at that.All advisors rose at the arrival of the Queen.She wore a modest gilded purple gown with simple gown shoulder caps that drape to her back. Her humble tiara sat atop her bra
“Don’t you look pathetic down there?”Her sarcasm was spot on, her voice crystal clear.Perhaps he truly is nearing his demise. He yearned a little more of her tonight than usual.He waited for the pain of Rognac’s vicious bite, but it never came. It must’ve tripped or something because Flavian heard rustling and struggling. However, when Rognac growled and his heavy claws fumbled on the wooden floor as if lunging, the pain still did not come. And he heard her voice again.“Will you continue to pathetically lay there?”Puzzled, Flavian flutters his eyes open. And the scene before him just felt… impossible. As if he was hallucinating. He gaped at the situation for a while, belatedly registering to him that they were in the middle of a life-or-death situation.Against Rognac was Phaedra, in all her petite glory. She looked at an ant next to Rognac’s giant form. Yet she could still hold her ground as specks of dust of magic floated around her, her hair floating, and her hand up against R