Warsong | Celeste Academy Series Book #4

Chapter Five ⚜ A World Within

Valeriana squeezed the daylights out of her father, afraid he would disappear into thin air. Her hands were shaking and so were her legs. Her heart felt like it was breaking all over again and piecing together at the same time. She squeezed her eyes close and felt the tears gushing like a fountain.

His warm hands gently wound around her, his deep and comforting voice reverberating with a chuckle. Janus' fingers massaged her scalp, mussing her blond hair. He didn't change one bit from the last she saw him—his tuft of brown hair and the gentle grass-green eyes.

"Dad . . . dad," she cried. For minutes, she stayed like that. "Dad, I missed you so much. I missed you. You don't how hard it was this past two years." She sobbed. "I'm sorry. If I can turn back time, I'll treasure every moment I had with you." She sniffled and looked up at his gentle face. "Please don't go, don't leave me again. I love you so much."

"Valery, baby, I'm so sorry," he said, his thumb brushing away her tears. "Calm yourself now, it's alright. I've never left you alone."

She brushed away her tears and snivelled. Using the sleeves of her shirt, she wiped her face dry and reached for her father's hand. She was afraid that if she let him go, he would disappear again. "How come you're here? What's this place?"

"I'm guessing you opened the box I left behind for you?" He smiled gently. "You actually needed two prerequisites," he told her. "One is that you need to reach your eighteenth birthday. The other is that you have to be in Valemnia."

Valeriana blinked up at him. "So it's true. You're really a Valemnian?"

"I'm assuming you already know who I am?"

After remembering what happened, she glared up at him. "Garvyn Vernados Elgar?"

He chuckled. "Yes."

"Ahhh!" She screamed and punched his guts. "Just how many secrets are you keeping?!"

Janus—or Garvyn—howled in pain and hopped back as he doubled over. "Damn son!"

"I'm your daughter!" she exclaimed.

He started laughing in between bouts of gasps of pain. "Ah, where'd you learn to punch like that?" he asked with a strain on his voice. "That packed a lot of power and you've shifted into a good stance too."

"I've entered the academy," she said. "A lot has happened the past few months. I met with Lady Seraphina after encountering a demon in an alley. I also met with Lord Aeron and the court. They made me go to Celeste Academy. I started training as a knight."

His eyes widened. "I see. The gates have opened again?"

"Lots of issues and stuffs," she told him. "I'm not dreaming, right?"

Janus pulled Valeriana over and asked her to sit on the grass. "I knew it would be like this. The white jade is, in a way, sleep-inducing as it calms the mind. However, it also carries the ability to bring you to the deepest recesses of your soul and conjure a world within yourself."

Which explained the room back there. She remembered seeing it back in Arlandia with Avaro.

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I left behind a stream of consciousness into the white jade, just in case something bad happens to me. It will invoke a meditative state and will allow me to appear here. My life was never safe, Valery."

"So, you're really . . ." The sadness bubbled up in her heart. Her head hang and she stared at her twisting fingers—they were still trembling.

Janus' eyes flickered with concern as he watched his daughter. "Sweetheart, I am so very sorry. I didn't mean for it to be hard on you. You training as a knight was something I never expected, but I suppose this is the work of fate. You . . . even as a child, your power was so potent that I had to help you seal it with the bracelet. Even if Earth lacked the power pressure of Valemnia, there are various energy fluctuations that may invoke an imbalance. I didn't want to risk it."