Miraric

07| End of the Elysian Reign.

"Well," Miranda's father began, his eyes busy going through papers after papers, a hint of annoyance written over his frown, meaning he couldn't find what he was looking for. "What kind of intel do you have after spending time with your lover boy?"

Miranda swallowed. Before she could make up a lie, her father spoke. "If you are going to feed me another lie, do not waste our time,"

She adjusted her position, straightening her spine. "I did not learn anything new. The king is still sick, and his health has worsened. If we want to invade, we can do it — there are no risks other than the soldiers, guards and their weapons,"

Her father only bobbed his head, no longer searching for anything now and facing his daughter. "Everything is in our favour and yet," he grabbed a few locks of his white hair in frustration, gritting his teeth, his jaw clenching. "Yet we can not do anything until our followers have completely mastered their Elemental Powers,"

"How are they doing? The Followers?" Miranda asked.

"There are seven hundred of us. But only two hundreds of them have mastered their ability to the point that they are basically omnipotent now. Nothing can stand against them," he explained.

"The soldiers are not a problem but the weapons are. We all know Elysians are infamous for their sustainable weapons and their high quality. I would have had invaded Elysia by now, even with my two hundred soldiers but I can not take risk. I can trust the experts to eliminate all the soldiers but their weapons?" Her father raised his eyebrows.

"Their weapons are unpredictable. No matter how experienced they are, there is still a chance the weapons might be faster than us. The soldiers are like ants to them but the weapons? I do not think only two hundreds of Ezèrian can handle them while also eliminating the soldiers," he carried on.

"The Elysians are weak to me but their weapons are certainly not. I can not underestimate their weapons."

Miranda was surprised by how much her father had thought about this whole invading Elysia. She thought her father was a lunatic, and had completely underestimated the Elysians but clearly, he hadn't. He had thought about everything thoroughly and there were so many other things that she was unaware of and this was only the beginning.

Miranda herself didn't think about this approach, about this predicament that could take place if they had been careless. She realised that yes, the Elysians were exceptionally good when it came to harbouring weapons — it was almost like they were made to make weapons because their weapons were everything a war needed to win. The kingdom of Elysia might be a small one and might be also falling but no one could ever deny the fact of them making the best weapon in history.

"So," she began. "Are we going to just wait for the followers to catch up and then attack the Elysians?"

"No, of course not," her father suddenly beamed, clasping his full-of-rings fingers. "That will consume much much time," he then stepped forward. "Instead, we are going to do something else."

Miranda felt her throat getting dry, her breath already quickening. "Wh-what?"

Her father grinned widely. "We are going to take help from your lover boy."

"Edric doesn't know anything about weapons!" She spat, her voice raised and trembling.

"He is the prince! There has to be something he knows!" he yelled back. "Anything is fine! A sample of their weapons, a prototype, a document where they record the process of their weapons, a place where they keep their weapon, where they make the weapons or anything that will let us know how exactly their weapons work!" Her father lashed out, breathing heavily, the veins in his forehead almost popping out.

"And what if he doesn't know?" She still asked the same question.

"Then seduce him like you do, make him find out about the weapons and then get words out of his mouth," he said slowly, clenching his jaw, gritting his teeth.

Miranda was about to protest when her father raised a hand. "Speak another word and Mière is going to starve for the next four days."

That was all it took for Miranda to turn around, leave the room, and close the door behind her.

***

"Why are you suddenly asking that?" Edric asked, laughing lightly, sitting across the meadow, the wildflowers surrounding him and swaying upon hearing Edric's laughter, as if even they were happy after hearing his small laugh. Miranda couldn't understand where to bore her eyes — on the countless wildflowers that were demanding her attention or the boy being kissed by the sun, being relaxed and magic swirling in his earthly eyes.

"Asking what?" Miranda asked, suddenly forgetting what she was doing, why she was here, what she wanted to ask — she forget it all suddenly and could only focus on him. Focus on how the rays of sunlight was falling on his chin-length hair, a few locks of hair falling on his forehead, how the sunlight was making his eyes look like they were almost golden, how warm he was looking just by sitting there and it took everything in her to not just jump into his arms, tell him everything that was going on and stay there until he had no strength left in him to hold her, until the moon and the stars were tired of looking at them.

"Asking how our weapons work," And then reality hit her.

She shook her head, bringing herself into reality as she shifted her position. "Yes," she cleared her throat. "I was just wondering. . . . " she started again. "How the royal soldiers did nothing to stop the Ezèrian from taking over the lands and all. If they had used their weapons — your weapons, they could have stopped the Ezèrian from overtaking and terrorising over the lands,"

Edric suddenly felt bad for doubting Miranda. Miranda was asking way too many questions nowadays and Edric noticed that. Her questions were always very . . . private and demanding?

He thought while preparing himself to answer her question. "We are not making any weapons at the moment," Edric said, a hint of shame covering his face.

Miranda raised her eye brows in shock. "You don't make any weapons anymore?"

"We don't have any materials at the moment. And no one is willing to give us in any ways. Almost all kingdoms have given up on us. It's like they know there's nothing else we can do. They have left us and abandoned us. It's like. . . .we are waiting for our doom now," he sighed. "I am still surprised why the Ezèrian haven't attacked us yet."

Miranda couldn't catch her breath. Her whole body suddenly went limp as she sat there, blood rushing in her neck quickly as she breathed heavily. "What. . . " she calmed herself. "What are you going to do?"

Edric thought if he should say it or not. "We are going to fight," he nodded firmly. "With everything we have."

So stupid. So stupid. It's so so stupid. Miranda thought, guilt consuming her.

"It's stupid, I know," Edric said, running a hand through his hair, messing it up. "There is no way we stand a chance against Ezèrian. I mean, one experienced Ezèrian can literally destroy a town if they utilise their power correctly," he laughed.

"Everything is against us. But we will not escape. Father is against it and I'm against it, too," Edric said proudly. "This may be the end of the Elysian reign and we will make sure we die fighting."