BLACK HALO

CHOICES

CHAPTER 11

~CHOICES~

“Are you crazy? You're going to kill a lot of innocent people to achieve this absurd goal of yours. I can't even help you because there's no way I'd be able to fill the entire world with plants again. I don't know how I did it before; I have none of my memories,” Aurelia said.

“You don't have to worry about that. I figured out a way to use you to achieve my goal when I saw you at Seth-Healm,” Imande said, her voice carrying no emotion whatsoever.

“You saw me at Seth-Healm?” Aurelia asked.

“I saw you through the eyes of the monster I sent to attack the city. It caused some major destruction, but it was instantly defeated by you. I thought you were just going to kill it, so the people of the city would cut it up and use it for food, but you didn't. Instead, you took out it's life force, temporarily causing it's body to dissipate, and you let it go,” Imande explained, staring at Aurelia with a blank expression on her face.

“And what does that have to do with everything else?” Aurelia asked.

Imande's smile grew again. Then she said, “Follow me. Let me show you something.” She got back on her feet and walked past Aurelia toward the door behind her. As she walked out of the room they were in, Aurelia quickly followed behind her. The other male goblins who stood in the room just watched silently as they both left.

“For years, the Goblin race struggled to create the perfect kingdom. One that flourished with water and freshly farmed food. Once we were freed from the elves, we sought out a place with the most moisture to set up our home. Even with all the water we found, farming was still very hard because of the harsh weather conditions. Most of our crops were bad and inedible, but we still worked hard to deliver food to all the other kingdoms around the world so no one would starve to death.” Imande spoke as both she and Aurelia walked through a light green passage with golden flower designs on the walls.

The floors and walls looked like polished marble, and candle-lit chandeliers hung from the ceiling.

“Is that why everyone thinks the goblin race is so distant and unwilling to mingle with the other races? Because you don't want anyone coming to steal your precious land from you.” Aurelia asked.

Imande giggled softly, then replied, “Something like that. We, the goblins, are what you would call introverts. We like to do things ourselves and feel like any outside help will only cause us more trouble than we already have to deal with. Plus, these muscle-bound workaholic soldiers of mine have no idea how to relate to people from the outside world.”

“But if you like to do all your work yourself, why ask me for help?” Aurelia asked again, sounding a little confused.

“You’ll see,” Imande said with a smirk.

She led Aurelia to a large brown door at the end of the passageway, then stopped. The large door was covered in vines that created different beautiful patterns on it. It had golden hinges and two golden handles. Imande stretched her arms forward, placed her palms on the two handles, and gently pulled. The door made a loud sound and opened slowly, releasing bright light into the passage.

Aurelia shielded her eyes from the light as Imande continued to pull the door open. She finally stopped pulling as the gap was now large enough for the both of them to go through, then walked back toward Aurelia.