Hidden Heirs and Fallen Crowns (Complete)

Epilogue

A/N: Not to ruin your ending, but this chapter is unedited so it will have a little more mistakes than the others. But enjoy anyway!! :D

And of course, dedication @cymro69 for voting all the way through.

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I lay on my back, arms loosely at my sides. A strange smell similar to that of crushed pinecones and new leather flooded my nostrils as I slowly inhaled. I wrinkled my nose at the unfamiliar smell. Slowly I reached out to touch the fabric I was laid on, runnng it through my fingers in small circles. I was soft and reminded me of cotton, if more slippery. It was strangely quiet for a moment, until I caught a low, almost inaudible hum in the air.

My eyes slowly opened. At first everything was pitch black, and it took me a couple of moments to adjust to the dimness. As my surrounding came into focus I frowned; this place was like nowhere I'd ever been. A curved, black ceiling stood a few meters above my head. My eyes followed its smooth slope until it touched the floor, which was also black. It was like a dome.

My eyes widened at the thought. A dome. Memories of the battle between me and Blade flashed back, and I could almost feel the electric lashes cutting through my skin again. I started to panic, trying to push myself up and run, but I still didn't have any control over my body. A strangled yell escape my lips as I desperately thrashed my half-dead arms.

Suddenly Jasmine rushed into the room, kneeling next to me and holding my arms down.

"Suzanne, it's OK," she said soothingly. "Blade's dead. And all his men are, too. You're safe."

My thrashing subdided as her words sank in. My mouth opened to speak, but only a faint rasp came out. Seeing this she picked up a bowl of water nearby and raised it to my lips. I had a few gulps of the cool water, and then turned my head to the side slightly to indicate that I had finished. Jasmine set the bowl down again.

When I spoke my voice still came out as a hoase whisper. "Blade's dead?"

She nodded. "You killed him with the lightning, rememeber?" she reminded me gently.

The memory of the crashing lightning resurfaced in my mind. "I killed him," I repeated slowly. Small snatches of the battle were still flitting around in my mind. "Wait," I said, "aren't I meant to be dead? The poison ..."

Her smiling face gave way to one with a small frown on her brow. "Yes, well ... don't worry about it."

"No, wait," I said, struggling to understand what was happening, "the poison made me pass out again, and I should be dead. What happened this time?" She didn't answer, but intead looked like she was about to cry. I panicked again at her reaction. "Jasmine, tell me!" The another thought struck me. "Where's Zed? Jasmine, where's Zed?"

"Don't worry, he's driving the ship." She nodded towards a small passageway off the side of the room.

"We're in a ship?" I said. I brushed the thought aside and focused on the matter at hand. "Then tell me, what's happening?

She took a deep breath, and then smiled shakily at me. "The truth? At this moment the poison is still circulating inside your body. Zed said that as soon as it takes complete control, it ... it freezes for a few minutes, right before it kills the victim."

I listened to her in shock, my eyes widening a little more after every word. "So I'm going to die. Right now."

"Yes," she choked, tears running freely down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry we couldn't get you there in time, Suz. I'm honestly sorry."

"OK, OK," I said, trying to calm down. "Before I go, tell everyone on Sayrene that if they touch a hair on Zed's head I'm going to haunt them for the rest of their lives, alright?" I smile broke on her tear-strained face as she nodded. "And tell them that, er, thanks for sending you two for me, I guess. And thanks so much, Jasmine, for everything. Same goes to Zed. OK?"

"OK," she whispered.

I leaned back on the soft pillow they had placed under my head. An empty silence took hold of us as I thought my final thoughts, silently saying goodbye to everyone back home and to both Zed and Jasmine. Jasmine stroked my knotty hair for a minute as we both waited for the poison to kill me.

Then a shout interrupted us. Zed came running down the small passageway, cheeks flushed, and pointed at something right next to me. He came and knelt down by my bed, but couldn't look at me in the eye. My head slowly turned to Jasmine. She was pivoting a circular piece of the wall, it seemed, out of the way. As Zed lifted my pillow for me to be able to look properly, I realized that it was a window. A window into the universe.

The first thing that struck me was the black. There was so much of it, surrounding everything like an inky blanket. It was littered with flashing dots, some so far away that they were only faint smudges. The second thing thing I noticed were the planets surrounding us. They hung in the black almost proudly, brightening up the universe with their clashing colours. Massive grey clouds swirled around them, carrying with them rocks of all different sizes. One passed so close I could have reached out of the window and brushed it with my fingertips, but I was frozen in place with awe.

My mouth was open as I tried to take in everything at once.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Jasmine breathed. "I could never get used to this."

"Guys, look!" Zed said excitedly, pointing to our very right. We both craned our necks to look at what it was that had excited him so much. At first I didn't register what I was looking at. Jasmine stopped breathing as she saw it. Then she jumped up into the air, whooping and laughing and crying at the same time. After another moment I realized that we were looking at Sayrene. Zed rushed back to the control room to prepare the landing.

It took another second for it to come completely into view. I didn't move as I took it in. The perfect sandy sphere, with light blue mist coiling around it in swirls and its fine atmosphere somehow all seemed like a dream.

"We made it!" Jasmine was laughing, "we actually made it!"

Somewhere inside me thin blades of ice started shooting up and down my arms. After a moment my legs followed, slowly becoming more and more numb. I looked up in horror at Jasmine, who hadn't realized what was happening yet. "Jasmine," I croaked.

She finally realized what was happening and rushed to my bed as I fell back down. My chest felt strangely icy, and I struggled to breathe. Waves of black started washing up on the edge of my vision, and then slowly spread until most of my vision was just deep, empty black. The only section that wasn't drowned in black was Jasmine's face. Her lips were moving rapidly, but the sound she made took a long time to be translated into words.

"Hang on, Suzanne. Just hang on."

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A/N:  

And with these tragic words I conclude Hidden Heirs and Fallen Crowns.

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