Kingdom of Valeria (Book 2)

Chapter 11 Final Plan

April and Livian returned to Valeria later that day and immediately headed to find Catherine.

Thankfully, they found her on the balcony as they expected.

"Welcome back. Did you find anything? How was it?" Catherine inquired.

"We couldn't find him," April replied.

"Oh? I was sure you would," Catherine said.

"We tried everything, but the ritual didn't work. It looked like I made a mistake," April lamented.

"No, April, you didn't. Aaron and I discovered something," Catherine revealed.

"You found a memory?" April asked.

"Yes."

"Is it related to Ember, though?"

"Absolutely."

"Go ahead, then. Tell me. What did you see?" April asked impatiently.

"I was able to see Idrail's memory. They were here, on the balcony, himself, Ariana and Ember," Catherine explained.

"And?"

"They were arguing. I couldn't understand why and what it was about. They were all very upset. Ariana was very angry... I couldn't believe my own eyes." Catherine continued.

"It doesn't reveal much," April said.

"Maybe not for now, but if you're right about this, and I hope you are, Tanya is yet to bring us the crucial memory."

April was intrigued by the memory Catherine told her, but she was also disappointed that they couldn't find anything by the lake.

Livian and April parted ways for the night and decided to rest. But April couldn't sleep; she was too distracted by the failed ritual.

Catherine found something, but she couldn't. She was sure that the lake had a memory, but they found nothing.

April went down to the small, secret garden to be alone and away from the chaos of the main town. She paced by the fountain, and picked up a twig to draw the symbols they had used earlier.

She wanted to make sure she had done everything right.

She focused on the circle with her palms stretched towards it, and felt electricity spiralling around her.

When she opened her eyes, the circle was glowing, just as Catherine had promised.

But it sucked out all the magic in her palm, leaving her feeling drained.

The large circle started opening up and pushing her inside. She was scared, but only for a second until she remembered that Catherine had told her this was part of the memory.

April found herself inside the circle and started searching around. She saw Ember and an unfamiliar elf sitting on the swing in front of her.

She soon recognized him to be Idrail.

They were both laughing, and Idrail was telling Ember about something that had happened in the woods.

Ember looked happy, and her face was glowing.

April looked into Ember's eyes and saw something familiar.

She had seen it in her mirror before.

But then she decided to ignore that detail and focus on Ember's body language toward Idrail.

That was when she knew.

Ember was in love with him.

When April returned to the secret garden, she was slightly bewildered.