Celestia | A fantasy romance

Chapter Five

Breathe. I have to keep breathing. I can do it. Inhale. exhale. I can do it. That's right. One step. One step at a time. Don't overthink. You're fine. Everything everything is going to be fine.

No says a voice in my head. It won't be fine, i realise. Everything won't be fine. Because I messed up. Real bad this time.
"Lessie"
I jerk out of my thoughts. We're backstage. Both me and Alessia.
"Are you okay? You look so pale." She moves forwards and grabs my face in her hands. She's searching my face for something and i don't know what it is that she wants.

"I'm fine, Ellie."
I step back and smile at her. She looks unconvinced but let's it go.

"I think." She starts. "I think i have the Aqua Sihra." Alessia is beaming. God she looks so happy. And im so so proud of her.

I smile more widely. This time it's out of pure glee. "I know. I can see it in your eyes." I tell her.

"What?" Her eyes widen. "Wait- Really? What's happened to my eye—OHMYGODF" Realisation hits her. "ARE THEY BLUE NOW?" She's literally jumping up and down in excitement.

"Yes, Alessia. They're now the most beautiful shade of blue ever."
She claps her hand and squeaks. She actually squeaked. I have to glue my lips together to stop from laughing.

But then she stops abruptly. And looks at me with her eyebrows pinched together. I stiffen up. I think i know what's coming next.

"But what about you? What is your power?"

Oh no.
I'm lost. I have no idea how to explain things to her. I have no idea how to explain that i may not have gotten a Sihra. I don't know what happened myself. But whatever happened, it was not supposed to happen. The Elders had educated us on every possible outcome of today.

When you acquire the power of the ocean, you hear the ocean calling out to you when your hands are on the rock. When it's fire, you will sense the flames around you and you will feel the fire inside you. There are more than 300 recorded Sihra powers and we learned about all of them but. But. What i felt was something no one told me about. It felt wrong. And scary.

Everything had went dark. And i heard someone cackling. I heard something whish in the air and i heard a roar. A roar. Not of a lion. Because I've heard a lion's roar and this? This was something way more powerful. But this was all there was. I could hear things but see nothing. At first i thought it was because i closed my eyes. But after opening them, it got even darker, the sounds more clear. Scared, i closed them again.

The next thing I know is that I'm shivering, scared out of my mind, still standing infront of the king, hands off the Yazilla. I didn't feel anything. No power, no magic. Just my heartbeat which is so loud that i can actually hear it. The prince is looking at me with strange eyes. Accusing eyes. He knows.

It's fine, i told myself. He's the prince, he couldn't care less about whether i have a power or not. I hate how even though i know this, I was terrified. I defied him earlier, he could have easily made a spectacle out of this for revenge.

"Lessie? We have to go, Ma must be waiting." Alessia pulls me out of my thoughts.
"Oh" i say. "Yes. Yes, let's go."

We both start looking for Ma. She's kinda short for her age so it isn't easy to spot her in a crowd. But something feels off to me. I feel someones presence. i know that sounds absurd but i get the feeling someone's following us. I want to turn back and check. But just in case someone really is following us, i decide to act natural and keep doing what I was doing.

Aware of my surroundings and hand on my dagger, i continue looking for our mother.
"Alessia!"
It's Ma. She found us.
And so did someone else. 
Because i saw someone's shadow.
I was right.

I try to lead the stalker away from my loved ones. Im terrified, but I'm going to act natural. Once I've rounded a corner to a place where there isn't anyone near us, i turn around. And the figure slams me against the wall. GODAMMIT, MY HEAD. My eyes are dropping close, but i refuse to die this way.

I take a good look at the attacker.  Common clothes. Is wearing a mask to hide identity. He's holding a regular sword, similar to ones i have back home. Nothing too expensive so it can't be anyone from the royal guard. Just a nobody trying to make trouble. And I will not allow such a peasant to be the death of me.

But right now, I'm at a disadvantage. He has full control. We're gonna have to change that. So i pretend. I pretend to be weak. Like i was always told to.

"W-why?" My lips trembling as i speak.
"Oh!" he says. "So she speaks?" this voice is familiar. But i don't know who it is.
"Please." I cringe internally as i say the rest. "I beg of you. Please don't kill me." Fake tears filled my eyes.

This guy flinches. Wait didn't i just think of tha-
"I'm so disappointed" He backs off.
What?
"I should take the blame i guess. I shouldn't have expected so mu-"
I don't let him finish. I swipe my legs on the floor and knock him off his feet. He falls but recovers quick. Not before i get my dagger out.

"There it is." He laughs. "You wicked little fox. You really had me there."

"What the hell are you babbling on about?" i ask, annoyed. He's practically talking to himself.
"I don't have time for such silly brawls. Leave now and I'll let you live." i spit out. Ma must be furious. I have to end thi quick.

He's still laughing. Now he's slapping his knee and coughing.
"Man. You really are something, aren't you?" He steps close, smirking.
This bastard. I run towards him. He stabs near my ribs, and i dodge. I take a swing to his arm and he defends himself with his sword. Next i swing at his side. The movement gives him an opening to hit my shoulder. And so, he takes the bait i gave him intentionally.

While he's swinging at my arm, i kick him in the ribs. He stumbles back. And that's enough time for me to slice his forearm. It's not that deep but still impactful enough to weaken his hold on the sword which I then disarm him of.
"You" he says. But something's off about his tone. He sounds almost— amused. He's panting too hard but he gets up anyways. It's like the wound doesn't even hurt him because he traps me against the wall using his arms.

What the hell is wrong with him? Does he not fear for his life at all? I have a sword in hand and he has nothing to defend himself with. His actions were so bold that I'm literally frozen in place. I can't even attack him because this just feels wrong.

"Who exactly are you?" He asks. "Who do you work for?" That's an odd question to ask. I pinch my eyebrows together. Now I'm curious. Who the hell is he? Why would he ask me something like that? Curiosity gets the better of me and i remove his mask quickly. This time it's him that's frozen in place. That's right, i can be bold too you idiot. My eyes adjust to the lighting and focus on his face. My eyeballs almost pop out of their sockets when i realise who the person infront of me is.

He blows out a breath.
"Oh god." he smiles and says. "You've caught me." And it's all i can do to not choke him to death right here, right now.

☁️🌄⛰️🌙🌌🐉

Thank you so much
for reading! I'll be
posting a new chapter
within the week. I
really hope that you'll
read the other chapters
and follow Celestia
through her great journey!<3