Reincarnation: Origins

Chapter 13: Choices

When the queen had said "follow me". One would expect her to actual go somewhere. Instead, she stood stock still, eyebrows pinched in concentration. For the first couple of seconds, nothing had happened, but slowly the soft light coming in from the windows began to shift and change color. 

No one knew how she did it, but she could control and bend light to her will. Ionia, who was usually modest, did her best to show off this one time. She waved well-kept hands, seeming to pull light from outside. They all streaked toward the middle of her outstretch palm, leaving dim darkness in their wake, before condensing into a fairly-large, bright ball.

Like a screen, photons of multicolored light arranged themselves into comprehensible structures that Lucien made out to be trees. Burning trees. Lucien snorted at that, feeling a strange familiarity with the image. Almost like he'd seen it somewhere before but couldn't quite place where he'd seen it last.

"What am i looking at?" Lucien broke the silence.

"Ah. This is divine punishment for an experiment gone wrong." Ionia gave a curt reply, distracted by the images of floating light.

"Ah yes, I completely understand it now. It's not like i just spawned 2 weeks a-"

"Okay, Okay. I get it." Ionia wrinkled her nose at Lucien's sarcastic comment. "Roughly 1600 years ago, the guild had attempted something reckless under covers: justifying a superstitious suspicion. They had strictly believed on the presence of a God-King that spoke and thought just like them. one that could be walking amongst them too."

"That makes no sense."

"What I'm trying to say is that they had tried to harness his power, claiming it was greater than the Demon king." Ionia shook her head "Many lives were lost"

"She would know cause she was around, expertly observing and learning from the sidelines." Needa was practically bursting with pride. Pride that Queen Ionia had soaked up like a persian cat.

"Because I had chosen to stay out of it, our coven were spared from his wrath. At around that time, some farm worker had discovered a large, solid, pure block of Adamantite in which a trident was carved on."

"Those are supposed to be one of the toughest and most expensive minerals around." Needa explained. "One that magic that we had access to couldn't easily cut into."

"Not to mention that a block that size doesn't naturally form this far south."

"So, you're saying all signs of the origin of the adamantite points to said higher being with the power the guild tried to harness?" Lucien concluded.

"yep." Ionia closed her palm and the auroral image dissipated.

"and you say the guild did all this?" Lucien couldn't help but be skeptical. He's met the people at the guild and they seemed relatively nice. If it's one thing Lucien knew, it would be that people can maintain façades for as long as they wanted if what they were hiding was important.

"Exactly."

"I don't know..."

"you've seen it for yourself. Stick with them, and you might as well end up in the crossfire."

"I guess i'll stay here for a bit, think a little." Lucien looked down at himself. Not much had changed physically--not that it had been long enough to anyways--but he got the feeling that the Queen and Needa knew more than they were letting on.

What was going on could be some sort of double deception. For all he knew, the Queen and Needa could be the evil ones. He could not trust evidence replayed by powers that looked like she could have easily fabricated the whole thing. 

"Needa, show him around and make sure he's comfortable and content. I regret that i've got some duties to work on and won't be able to do so myself." Ionia looked so genuinely distraught at how she wouldn't be able to show Lucien around herself.

At that, Needa ushered Lucien back out the door they came in. Once they had crossed the doorway, it was like Needa had been replaced by someone unfamiliar. Her eyes seemed to visibly dim as she looked at Lucien with worry.

"Lucien, I didn't want to say anything, but you should find a way out of here."

"What." confusion coated Lucien's face.

"What she said about the guild isn't a total lie, but this coven isn't a complete safe haven either. Anything has got to be better than here."

Needa shuddered. Lucien felt a pang of pity for her. Lucien nervously averted his gaze, taking in the hustle and bustle once they were away from the threshold of the palace. 

"I" Needa started suddenly, startling Lucien. "am her daughter, yet it doesn't feel like it. She's had many others before yet why should i be treated any different."

Lucien, of course, had no words. He was not familiar with such situations, and so he stood...awkwardly. 

Needa took a shaky breath. "Borderline personal, huh. But thanks for listening."

"uh. you're welcome?"

They rounded a corner, and then a few more, seeming to wander aimlessly before approaching a modest-looking lodge. 

"This is where you stay."

"The entire thing?" Lucien inquired, noting how tidy and untouched the yard was. He left Needa's side and entered. It's inside perfectly reflected its outside. Homely, cozy, and lke something out of Little Red Riding Hood.

"You are pretty special, you know. You may not understand it just yet." Needa stood at the doorway as Lucien lifted curtains and inspected chairs.

Snorting, Lucien straightened up after peeking beneath something that looked suspiciously like a stove. "I may not know a ton, but that much is obvious."

Needa chuckled and left without another word, leaving Lucien alone with his thoughts. Things were beginning to seem like he was the protagonist of some adventure story, only for him to snap back to the reality of the situation. He really had died, by truck. He really had gotten reincarnated. Everything that has happened...has happened. 

A loud earth-shaking boom resonated through the building, rattling panes and shifting furniture. It was followed by screams and shouts. Looking outside, Lucien could see people fleeing by all means from something. Squinting through the figures, Lucien could make out the cause behind it all.

Light orange hair, parasol in hand, pompon flitting around her head. There Masha stood in all her 5'1 glory

"Return him." Masha punctuated her sentence with a wave of her hand, which crumbled buildings. She didn't walk far before tripping and falling face flat.

Lucien rushed out to her. "What the hell do you think you're doing"

"Saving you. personally." Masha stood up with a fairly annoyed look on her face. 

"By wreaking havoc? No thanks."

"No lucien. you don't get it. These people aren't good for you. They're evil."

Lucien was not impressed. He had seen Ionia's light projections, he's seen what Masha and the guild had done.

"No no. I think i know enough to understand a little bit of your history." Lucien felt a hand on his shoulder, silencing him. Looking up, he saw Ionia. Her blue eyes bore down on Masha, who returned her cool gaze with a glare. 

"Lucien, you've seen what the Red Strings," Ionia sneered at the guild name, "have done. Choose now and choose wisely."

A/N: sorry about the late upload, having a bit of writer's block. eyo, so early in the book too. Pls have patience with me (struggling to maintain my gradesss too)