Magnus Academy: The Cursed Blood Continuance

Redemption: Act I

The Tremors Of Eternal Happiness

I yawned, watching the view of fast-moving trees along with random people outside the window, the sound of horses' hooves almost pounding against the dirt road beneath this carriage. I feel tired, weeks of sleepless nights probably coming to me now. I had to finish a lot of paperwork just so I could have this small time off to visit this small place on the corner most of a small country here in the eastern regions of the Empire.

Again, I just suddenly bring myself back to that day, when my chest was heaving violently up and down. The anger and desperation blending in perfectly together that made my entire body tremble. I remember being so furious that if it wasn't for my overly weakened state, I could have had killed Celeztie while beating her up like that. I wanted to scream, to curse the world, to wish for something else to happen. But I couldn't even scream, fearing like I would just break down there and then if I had.

I swore to myself that I save her as long as she asks--she did, but even after everything, I could only watch as her own daughter stab her with a dagger. We had been fighting for so long that it already got stuck in my mind that she was a powerful woman, that nobody was ever capable of bringing her down to her knees, that she could give the most evil methods and do twisted actions if those were what it would take to defeat her enemies.

Yet she was looking so somber when I met her reaction, her gaze conveying complete shock, her face eventually blanking out as she began feeling numb, then she slowly fell in acceptance... closing her eyes like it was the most easiest thing to do at that moment. She had fought enough battles. She had been in too much wars. She had accepted burdens and responsibilities when she always had that option to just run away. She was tired. She was exhausted both mentally and emotionally. She had done enough.

I understand, but I still wanted to save her because when the way she looked back then...she didn't want that kind of ending. She wanted to escape from it all but she only had dying as the solution that when presented the opportunity to give up, she had taken it without thinking of anything else, thinking she that could finally rest. And she is, in a way, resting her life somewhere we wouldn't know.

"You're only making this hard on yourself, Iyana!" Andrea yelled angrily, I even remember how her fist connected to the side of my face.

"Did you just really barge in here to punch me?"

"It's been a month since she died, and you've been coping yourself in this lab of yours this whole time!"

"Just leave me be for now, Andrea. Don't I get to have my own space--"

"Look, I get it. You're sad. We all freaking do! But you have an empire to rule out there, people who expects a lot from the "hero" that saved the world. You have mountains of work waiting for you!" She gritted her teeth in irritation. "You can mourn all you want but you cannot ignore those who need you, Iyana. Because that's your responsibility to bear as someone led this world to a new era."

It was that time several months back, I was so distraught by her death that it made me feel like a ridiculous joke how seemingly uncaring had I been before things became like that. I believe myself as a capable woman. I've conquered nations, amassed a million of army, and have gained people's respect and trust. But in those difficult times, I've never felt so incapable and weak. I mourned her in a way I've never mourned somebody--not even the death of my mother when I was a child--in my entire life.

I see death as something that was inevitable if one has no power to defy it, but I've never really applied that kind of thinking towards her because she's Ke'ala Feyree for goddamn's sake, she had defied death for countless of times already just because she believed those weren't the time to die yet. And what's next? The idiot had the audacity to make us promise to watch this era end together when she had to leave right before it actually did?