The Hundred First Generation: The Ancient Power Returns

Chapter Seventeen

I couldn't shake the feeling that Celina was hiding something. After seeing her chat with the Crenia figure, doubt and placed its seed in my mind. I looked down at my hands. What was I going to do? If she turned out to be a traitor, I couldn't fight her off. I hadn't even had my powers for a full two days. There was no way that I'd be able to pull this all off. 

Melody seemed to be able to sense that something was wrong. She'd cast me a look every few seconds, her eyes pleading answers as to why I was acting off, but I always looked away. I didn't want to talk about it. 

I had grown to really like Celina since we were sucked into this mess. She was the person that I was closest with. I just wanted to talk to her about all of this, but I knew that if I did, she might end up mad and begin to fight me. I didn't want that. 

I looked down at the floor a few seconds later. Celina took a seat on one of the couches in the living room. "I wonder when the others are going to be back," she said. "I didn't think that they would take this long."

"I guess that we'll just have to see when they show up," I mumbled with a small shrug. I wasn't in the mood to talk to her at that moment. While I wanted to work this out, I didn't want to die because she heard her chat either. 

"What's up with you?" Celina asked. "This is the gloomiest I've seen you, Renee."

"It's nothing," I answered, a bit of an edge to my voice. "Just forget about it."

"Can you tell me about it?" Celina questioned. She crossed the room to stand next to me. I looked down at the floor some more, finding it much more interesting than her. 

"I don't want to," I snapped. I whirled away. I heard Celina sigh to herself and sit back down. I guessed that she was a bit irritated that I wasn't talking to her about this. 

I walked for the stairs that led to the upper floor of the house. Perhaps I could hang out there for a little while. I could gather my thoughts in peace up there without worrying about Celina and her chat with Crenia. 

I ended up wandering into a room near the edge of the house. The door was wide open, which instantly piqued my interest. I walked through after opening it a bit further. The hinges creaked loudly. 

Glancing around the room, I walked over to the center of the room. There was a bed that had faded covers. A blanket of dust laid over the top of it. I told myself not to sit on it so that I didn't get dust all over the back of my kimono. 

I noticed that there was a table with an old lamp sitting next to the bed. I approached it next. The lamp was obviously busted from what I could tell. I shrugged it off and noticed that there was something sitting underneath the lamp. 

It was a photo of two girls. One of them had the same facial structure as Celina, but her hair was a bleach blonde color. The other one looked sort of like Crenia, but much younger and shorter. 

Both of the girls were smiling brightly at whoever was looking at the photo. I picked up the frame and dusted off the glass over the picture. 

The colors were still rather dull since the photo had obviously been here for quite some time, but I could see a bit better. Celina had a small flower in her hair and was holding a rose. Crenia also had a flower in her hair. Her arms were wrapped around Celina's shoulders tightly. 

I set down the photo when I saw something on the wall behind the bed. It was spray paint. Perhaps somebody had come in and vandalized this room a while ago. 

I read the words on the wall to myself. "Property of Celina and Crenia Nilsson..." I whispered. Maybe they had lived here at one point in time. That would explain quite a bit. 

I didn't understand why Celina was in a photo with Crenia, though. All of this evidence seemed to suggest that they had known each other for quite some time. I didn't understand how they had grown so close. Crenia was a Trelosa soldier. Celina was one of the Pure mages of the world. They were meant to be sworn enemies. 

Maybe this all meant nothing. Maybe the two of them had been friends at one point in time and still were. That would explain why they were talking. But I still didn't get it. Why would Crenia snitch to Celina? If the former was telling secrets, who knew if Celina was doing the same thing to the enemy? That would explain how we came across Finley... If Celina had been telling Crenia about where we were headed, she could have had soldiers sent our way to hinder our progress so that the rest of the Trelosa army and Hakate would be able to take care of us much more easily. 

I ended up sitting down on the bed despite all the dust to take this all in. I couldn't believe it. This had to be some sort of dream. It couldn't be real. I was back to thinking that Celina would never betray us, never betray me. At this point, it was either shock and denial or hatred and hostility. 

I stared down at the ground and clenched my fists. What in the world was going on? I had to figure this all out, but how? 

"What are you doing in here?"

A small shriek escaped my lips. I looked up to the doorway to see Celina standing there, hands on her hips and an unhappy frown on her face. 

"Well?" she asked. 

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oh man this is fun let's not trust Celina even though she's too good

-Digital