The Emperor's Concubine

B.2 Chapter Eight

I open the doors of the arena.
Petunia and Riddle waiting for me, after changing into my training uniform.

"What now?" I ask, fixing my cuffs.
"We train, duh." Riddle's hands emits a silver fog.
"What?"
"Yeah, we're training."
"W-What? You have powers?" I exclaim, surprised as I look at the shining silver haze.
"Yeah, it just never came up." He shrugs, unbothered.
I stare amazed at the beautiful colour of blue coming off of his hand.
"So what kind of powers do you have?" I ask, curious.
"I can control wind. I think I'm a bit more powerful than ordinary wind holders."
"Really?"
"Yeah, it's fun to use them." He lifts his hand.
The dust in the arena spins and dances around as the wind gathers underneath him.
It lifts him up, hovering him over the ground.
He leans back, lounging as the wind picks him up.
"Oh my god, that's amazing!" I exclaim, surprised.
"Yeah, but it doesn't do much other than this."
"But all types of powers people have, can be used as attacks, right?"
"Yeah, but some people can be powerful and can kill. Anyone with above 'ordinary' power skills can use it for attacks, like this."
He shoots his hands at Petunia and I.
Before I can react, a strong gust of wind hits me, almost enveloping around me.
My feet lift off the ground as the wind twists around me until supporting my back and bottom.
I look up excitedly at Petunia as she sits in the air, sighing.
"Do you have to use me as an example too?" She scoffs.
"It's more fun this way, don't be a downer." Riddle snickers, pointing with his index finger to spin Petunia.
I can't help but laugh as she gets spun around, yet quietly puts up with it.
"So does this mean you can fly?" I ask Riddle.
"Hm, yeah I guess. A lot of people with powers can fly though, depending on their strengths and what kind of powers they have, they can manipulate it into making them fly essentially." Riddle begins flying around the arena.
Petunia and I are dragged behind him as he pulls the wind we sit on, along with him.
"Woah!" I exclaim, excited as I watch the ground far below us.
Riddle slows down, stopping as he sits down on the wind again.
"Like his highness for example, he shouldn't be able to fly, but he tricked the system essentially."
"Tricked?"
"Yeah, he's a shadow manipulator, but he can 'fly' by creating platforms to move under him."
"I suppose that's true."
"But this kind of flying is more fun, don't you think?" Riddle begins doing somersaults in the air, grinning largely.
"It is pretty fun." I giggle as Riddle begins spinning me around.
"Learning about powers is complicated though."
"Why?" I ask, as he sets all three of us back on the ground.
"Well, there's so many different kinds, maybe more than a hundred. But each type depends on the strengths of the powers." Riddle shrugs.
"Powers have a lot of different layers to them. Like you, there's other beings who can heal, but you're the only one who can change someone's lifeline, or could take a life if you want but it'd be damaging to you." Petunia explains kindly.
"I've been told that before too, but it's just confusing why I'm able to absorb another life when it damages me... Oh, Cabel uses his powers to take lives, does this mean there's people who can kill someone with powers?"
Riddle snickers, petting my head.
"Don't worry too much, Kid. Cabel's powers kill people by physically hurting them, and some other people can do that too. Yours are different though."
"Why?"
"Well, you're a healer. Sure, your powers can be used to attack in battle, but all we know is that you can only kill by absorbing someone's life force. You can't physically kill someone with your powers like his highness, but instead, it absorbs."
"This is too difficult to understand." I sigh, confused.
"You're powers can physically harm someone, but if they killed someone, instead of their soul leaving their body, the soul would return to you. His highness's powers kill someone and their soul is thrown out, leaving him untouched. For you, your powers would absorb it, and call the soul to be absorbed by you." Petunia slowly and kindly explains.
"Oh, I see... If I killed someone without my powers... Could there be a chance I'd die?"
"Kid, what's with all these questions about killing?" Riddle laughs, rolling his eyes.
"Well... At the field there was a dying flower. I extended it's life force, and wanted to try to take it's life force after..."
"You gave life to something just to kill it? Sadistic." Riddle scoffs.
"No!" I shake my head quickly, "I returned it's life back, but it hurt so much to take it's life force. I was just curious if it'd be the same if I killed someone with or without my powers."
"Luna, your powers are stronger than any known healer or priest. The repercussion you'd take is unknown. You could absorb their soul after you kill them, even if you used a knife, and it could kill you too. Or you'd have no affect if you didn't use your powers, but that's unknown. It'll be best if you don't try to kill someone." Petunia shrugs.
I nod my head.
"I see. Anyways it was just a thought, it's not like I'm itching to get my hands soaked in blood."
"If you do, let us know. I've been dying for that fix- Ow!" Riddle's interrupted as Petunia slaps his head.
"Don't talk like that." Petunia scolds.
"Yes, ma'am..." Riddle sighs, rubbing the back of his head.
"Enough talk, let's start training." Petunia walks over to the weapons room, unlocking the doors.
"Wait, do you have any powers too?" I ask.
Petunia pauses.
"An ability... But we should be training."
I tilt my head as she grabs training mats, evading my question.
Riddle shrugs giving a cheerful smile as he goes along with her.

I take a deep breath stretching as Petunia continues to arrange the mats on the ground.
She arranges the practice dummies, and targets all around the arena.
Riddle stretches alongside with me.
"Finished?" Petunia asks, walking up to us.
"Depends if the little princess here, is done taking her sweet time." Riddle scoffs, stretching his neck one last time.
"Hey! You guys are always on my case about stretching properly, let me take my time or stop complaining!" I rolls my eyes, finishing up.
"Yeah, yeah, anyways I hope you're good with controlling your powers." Riddle walks to stand on the mats.
I tilt my head as I think to myself.
"I mean, I know how to control a majority of my powers to heal or send soul remnants... Oh also to bother Cabel with." I shrug, snickering lightly.
"To bother the great emperor?" Riddle dramatically stares, shocked.
"Yeah, I usually do this." I giggle, lightly tapping Riddle's nose.
Instantly, his eyes widen as he sniffles, sneezing loudly.
"Jesus, that's annoying. So other than the stuff your powers are meant to do, and the sneeze command, nothing else?"
"Nope, that's about it. Cethin tried teaching me how to levitate objects if I let my powers carry it, but it ended up with broken weapons, sticks, and books." I sigh, shrugging.
"Alright, I'll do my best to teach you."
"Teach me what exactly?"
"Teach you how to bend the laws of abilities." Riddle lifts his hand, a gentle wind instantly hits the back of my foot.
It pushes my right foot forward quickly, causing me to fall back onto a cushioned mat.
"H-Hey!" I exclaim, sitting up to glare back at him.
"Look, being a wind holder seems boring, but I have strong enough abilities to bend the laws of powers. I shouldn't be able to technically fly or let others fly, but I do. There's always ways to break rules or laws."
I scoff, standing up to brush the dust off my clothes.
"You know you're talking to a palace consultant? You know, someone who works with passing laws, and creating new ones."
"You also broke the laws to hold off a noble marriage that legally should happen within five months of engagement. Sent assassins to illegally investigate a long chain of corrupt nobles for personal reasons, and then ran away to the duke's after leaving your position as a concubine. You sure are a real stickler for rules." Riddle snickers, smiling amused.
I roll my eyes, unable to stop a smile from spreading on my face.
"You got me. That is true, but an assassin on the run from ruining and murdering countless of nobles, shouldn't be one to speak."
I can't help but giggle as I shake my head.
"Touché, alright you got me. Anyways, enough talk about rules. You can break these rules if you find loopholes."
"Loopholes? How do I even find those firstly?"
"Same way anyone finds anything. An artist finding out 'Oh shit, I can paint with my feet', or 'Oh damn, I can play the piano upside down, but with my feet'."
"Riddle... You make it sound like you're a foot pervert." Petunia cringes slightly, rolling her eyes.
"That's not what I meant! It's just you find talents or things you never thought would be true. You just play around and realize 'Oh I didn't know this was something I could do, but hey I'm great at it'. You know?"
"I guess. I feel like abilities and powers are more complicated, when there's not really examples of how far powers can go." I sigh, letting my hands ignite in the gold glow.
"That's why this is called training." Petunia speaks up.
"Yeah, you dummy." Riddle flicks my forehead suddenly, sticking his tongue out.
"I'll play around then..." I rub the spot that he flicked, slightly pouting.
"Well, your senses and reflexes are heightened, so we're gonna try something different now." Petunia smiles, pushing out a rack of silver spears.
"What do you mean?"
"Riddle." Petunia nods.
Riddle nods back, instantly the spears lift in the air, carried by his wind.
My eyes widen as the spears swiftly aim at me.
"W-What the heck!" I shout, jumping out of the way from a spear flying at me.
"C'mon! Use your powers to do something!" Riddle shouts, lifting more spears from the rack to fly after me.
"What do you mean 'use them'? I have no idea what that means! Ah!" I scream, jumping out of the way.
I roll as I dodge another spear, jumping up to run again.
"Riddle, you suck!" I shout, doing my best to dodge the spears that fly at me.

I begin growing tired as I continuously avoid the spears.
Getting the hang of it, I send my powers into the spears to blast them away.
My powers still feeling shaky but working to keep the spears away from me.
"Riddle, isn't this enough? I need a break!" I shout, blasting three more spears away.
The spears eventually fly back at me, no matter how much I send them back.
"Try to destroy them! You said you used to blow up sticks and stuff so do that now! I won't stop till you break at least three!" Riddle shouts.
"Ah, you suck so much!" I shout back, blasting my powers into a spear.
The spear freezes in the air as I try my best to blow it up, yet Riddle's wind picks it up, sending it in my direction again.

"Luna!"
The arena doors slam open.
We turn to see Cethin standing there, out of breath.
"Riddle!" Petunia shouts.
Riddle and I snap back to our senses.
The spears all heavily flying towards me.
Once Riddle lost his concentration, the wind seemed to disappear.
My eyes widen as I stare at the multiple silver spears heading for me, leaving no room for me to jump out of the way.