Kingdom of Life and Death (The Fifth Element Chronicles)

Chapter 19: Consequences [part 1]

Every decision we make, every path we choose, every action we take has a consequence. When we are fortunate, the consequences are pleasant, positive, good. But when we go against what we feel, when we ignore the voice in our head and in our heart, when we seek only to hurt and harm senselessly, the consequences are of course not good. They are the worst.

Brennus had made the decision to go against Julyana, and the consequence was before my very eyes. The faerie was screaming for vengeance from her gaze, and she would not stop until she got it.

Caelus leaned on my shoulder and I helped him out of the cell. A while back, what it felt like a lifetime ago, he had opened the door so I could escape, lifted me off the floor, out of the darkness, and led me straight into the life I was supposed to live.

We were both a mess. Not just by the way we looked, our clothes torn and completely ruined, but inside. He had had to face the worst of his nightmares, while his Kingdom suffered the loss of so many, and I had had to say goodbye to my friend and try to understand that more and more was in my hands. So much responsibility, so many lives that depended on me.

The only thing that kept me going, and I suspected him too, was the freedom of being able to love each other, no restrictions, no promises, no Gods.

'Can you go upstairs?' I asked in his ear, and he nodded silently.

One by one we climbed the steps, slowly and carefully, his body obviously weakened, his skin cold against the touch of my arm.

As we reached the top, with the castle hallway in front of us, Caelus let go of me.

'What changed?'

His voice sounded strong, unlike how he looked. There was assurance in his tone.

Julyana kept walking, ignoring us, lost in her own ideas of revenge.

'It's hard to explain,' I told him, intending to stop him from asking any more questions. It wasn't a good time, there was too much to say.

'Don't think I'm not glad to hear you say those three words, but I must say I don't understand you. I thought maybe it was shame, that you were ashamed to have feelings for someone like me and I understood that, I respected that, because even if I couldn't have you out here, I still had my dreams.'

I didn't dare interrupt him, he was making a huge effort to tell me how he felt, the least I could do was listen to him even if his every word hurt.

'Then you say you'll get married, you'll do it out of duty and I respected you. Even though I wanted to come running to stop this wedding, I didn't, I stayed away as you asked me to. But now you come back and say you love me, as if none of that ever happened, as if you never repeated to me again and again that my love meant nothing to you.'

'Caelus,' at last I dared to speak.

'Tell me, what changed? Because the last time you told me you loved me was before I threw myself off the cliff in the last tree test. After that, never again until now and...'

I didn't tell him in my mind, it was enough to read my eyes. As if all the pieces of the puzzle he had struggled so hard to put together finally came together, Caelus arrived at the answer he had long wondered about.

'The Tree didn't grant you two wishes, did it?'

'No,' I said, lowering my head and taking a long breath because I needed it, before looking back up at him and telling him what he wanted to hear. 'I had asked for the cure because I knew that was what I should do, even if it wasn't what I wanted to ask for, and the Tree simply offered to bring you back. The only condition was that I couldn't tell you... you couldn't know that I loved you, otherwise they would kill you again.'