The Knight of Settadel

Chapter 34

"What is going on here, what are you doing here?"

"Isn't it already obvious, dear Mackenzie? I am the one that brought you here" Emilia rolled her eyes and stepped deeper into the room as the door shut behind her without her even touching it.

"I don't understand... Why?"

"Oh come one, Mackenzie. I am an all-powerful sorceress so why would I let myself be ordered around by a mere human such as yourself? I have all the needs to take control over the entire Kingdom" she spoke, her voice laced with such malevolent that, even though her voice still sounds familiar, it feels so different now.

"But your family has been with us for decades. You've been with us all your life, we have been together all our lives. What suddenly changed?"

I was desperate for answers. Emilia has been my best-friend, my go-to person, and I can even say that we know each other more than our parents. Or so I thought.

She has always been sweet, so caring that I am seeing her as an older sister, someone that I can run to for whatever, even for silly reasons, and I did. The first time that I was allowed to explore more of the castle and I decided to explore the garden and a butterfly had landed on my hand, I immediately looked for her and shared the encounter to her and it hadn't even crossed my mind then to share it to my parents.

"Nothing changed, Mackenzie. It's just that you and your parents are so naïve while my parents are so satisfied with their lives that they did not dare take the risk of overcoming the Kingdom. But, I'm not them and I dared take the risk"

She leaned back at the kitchen counter as she examined Elyse and me with a small smile playing on her lips.

"But, my family was a liability and they kept holding me back. So I had to do something, of course" She snickered menacingly.

"Then, there was also that silly man Ferdinand who had just to get in the way" she tsked with a shake of her head, her tone laced with disappoint but the smile on her face and the glimmer in her eyes says otherwise.

I can vaguely remember Ferdinand from Elyse's story from when she was living in the town. He was the man who lost both his wife and daughter during the tragedy and, due to deep sadness and pain, had taken his life as well. But something tells me that I'm about to learn a different truth.

"Ferdinand?" There was a weak voice that most definitely did not come from Emilia. I looked down and saw Elyse fighting to open her eyes; examining the room the best that she could and, through the small gap between her eyelids, I could see that there was a hint of brown in her eyes again.

"Yes, dear" Emilia dragged. "Ferdinand who, despite being in being in a deep well of depression, never lost hope. He just got lost in the wrong path, literally. For days he would beg me to bring back his family and even went as far as insulting me by offering his 'fortune' which is barely a fortune, mind you."

I kept Elyse close to me when I felt her trying to move out of my arms. When she realized that she barely have enough energy in her body, she stopped moving and instead opted to grabbing my arm lightly; squeezing it.

If Emilia had noticed that interaction, or cared about the interaction, she didn't show it, or maybe I just missed the way her eye barely twitched as she stared at us.

"Of course, I couldn't not have my fun with him first so I agreed. The man practically sold his soul to me but, when he caught on that I wasn't really planning to give him his family back, he stupidly decided to take matters into his own hands. He tried to look for a way to do the spell himself but instead he found something else"