*DISCONTINUED* The Thirteenth Empire

Chapter 11 - The Ultimate Vision

I flung open the door to the bee base and hurtled inside after the bees that were escaping with the vision. I made my way further into the bee base. I reached an open section of the bee base with a high ceiling. I looked up to see a number of bees swarming around all carrying shards of the vision just out of my reach. Perfect.

What was I going to do now? I took out some rockets. I blasted off into the air and tried to snatch a vision shard before I would inevitably collide with the wall of the bee base but I came up empty handed. I braced for impact and fell down to the ground.

I sat there on the ground staring up at the bees for a few minutes wondering how I was going to get back those vision shards. The only solution I could come up with was out of the question. Killing the bees just to get the shards would be unacceptable on all levels. Just then I heard a noise behind me. I jumped to my feet and spun around.

Gem had come through the entrance to the main room of the bee base. We both looked at each other for a long time. Then Gem started using her staff to attract the vision shards toward her. "No!" I squealed as I jumped up and tried to grab them before she could but she held them out of my reach. Once Gem collected all if the shards, she put them away in her inventory.

I sighed. "Care to explain?" asked Gem gently. "Do I need to?" I inquired honestly. "I guess not," sighed Gem. "Are you mad?" I asked.

"Mad?" said Gem. "Why would I be mad. We need to figure out what the vision means." Gem sat down on the ground next to me and dumped the vision shards on the ground between us. Together we pieced together the vision so that the side with Xornoth on it was facing up.

Gem waved her staff over the vision and magically cemented the shards together so that we could pick it up and flip it over. She took the vision in her hands and studied the side with me on it. She tilted the vision back and forth as I had done back at the castle. She furrowed her eyebrows. "It changes. Like there's no one answer, or no clear fate," said Gem.

Suddenly it seemed that Gem had a revelation, for her eyes widened and she sat back on her heels. "What's wrong?" I asked. Gem stared at the vision and slowly shook her head. "That's why Xornoth left all those years ago," said Gem. Then it dawned on me.

Everyone thought it was mere coincidence that Xornoth had this vision just before he left. It turns out he left because of the vision. It seemed that he had shattered the vision to get rid of the evidence. "No one was ever meant to see this vision, were they?" said Gem. "Xornoth left to protect me?" I asked.

"Protect you or protect himself?" said Gem, flipping over the vision once more to show the side with Xornoth. "Xornoth was my brother. I don't believe that he would run away for his own gain," I defended. Still staring at the vision, Gem nodded. "I think so, also."

After a few more moments looking at the vision, I broke the silence. "What now?" I asked. "Gem massaged her temples. "I just wish we could see more!" she fretted. I thought for a moment.

Then it came to me. "That's it!" I exclaimed. Gem looked up at me. "Gem, you can do all sorts of stuff with your magic. You said you wished you could see more so see more! You can have the vision!" I explained.

Gem looked anxious. "I don't know about this, y/n. I've never even tried before," said Gem. "Exactly," I replied. "How can you know you can't do it if you've never even tried?"

Gem thought for a moment as she looked at the vision again. Then she looked back at me. "Okay," she said. "I can try."

I stood up and clapped my hands. "Yay! Let's get started," I said. "Let's do this tomorrow, y/n. It's late and I'm tired," said Gem standing up.

I walked toward her and grabbed her shoulders. I stared her dead in the eyes. "GeminiTay," I began. I started shaking her by the shoulders and said "This-is-a-matter-of-upmost-importance. So wake up and get your head in the game!"

"O-o-o-kay-y-y," Gem said as I shook her by the shoulders. I let go of Gem and picked up the vision. I handed it to Gem. She took it and said "Let's go to my empire. I'm going to need a few things."

We left the Overgrown and flew North to the Crystal Cliffs. We touched down at the base of the Crystal Cliffs Academy of Wizardry and entered the school. I told Gem what she would need to have a vision since I had seen Xornoth do his rituals before when we were kids. She went into one of her classrooms and gathered the supplies she would need. We then set up in the main entrance hall because Gem would need a big empty space to perform the vision.

Gem and I sat across from each other inside the ring of sand on the floor of the main entrance hall. Gem ignited her staff and lit each of the four bowls of sage around the ring. She sat crisscross on the ground with her eyes closed and her hands perched on her knees in a meditation like position. I also closed my eyes. I knew that the vision had begun as I felt a wind pick up around us, whipping my hair around my face.

I opened my eyes to see a dome of sand swirling up around us. Purple sparks and flares flew around the dome weaving through the sand. I looked around at Gem. Her eyes were wide open and her irises were glowing a vivid purple. She was staring at the sand swirling behind me.

I turned around and backed away towards Gem. The purple flares were bending the sand and creating an image in the dome. "Look!" said Gem. The image was exactly like the one depicted in Xornoth's vision of me and the cracks. The image then morphed into another image just like the one on the opposite side of the vision of Xornoth.

"It's all the same thing," said Gem. "Keep looking. There has to be something else," I said. I started looking all around the dome for something else. "y/n, I have to stop, it's all the same!" Gem cried.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of yellow darting through the sand. I looked closer and saw that it was a bumblebee. "Look!" I exclaimed. Gem whipped around. When she caught sight of the bee she said "Bee! Follow the bee!"

Our eyes followed the bee as it flitted around the dome. It eventually came to land on a large fern. This image then morphed into a new one. Red tentacles from the ground receding back into the Earth. "It's the corruption. The corruption is retreating?" exclaimed Gem.

The image changed again to show me once more this time with someone else. "Who is that?" I asked. "It's another woman... and... you fight her! No! You hug her?" said Gem.

The image showed me hugging the other person. "An embrace!" shouted Gem. "To make the corruption retreat you have to embrace her!" said Gem. "Embrace who?!" I yelled. I had disappeared from the scene and the mysterious figure was now turning to reveal themself.

"Almost-," said Gem. The figure sassily flipped her hair over her shoulder and revealed herself to be... 

An

Wait i swear ill update tomorrow im sry