The Prodigies: The Return of Equinox

Chapter Forty-Five - Ordered: Neglect

The group was nearing where The Six dwelled, but they needed to make one more stop before they would go to slay the beasts that lurked in the giant lake. They stopped at a trading town that had been going through one of their regular seasonal lulls. During that time of the year the storms that were just off of the coast would rage for weeks at a time with only a day or two of respite before they would take place again. Either way, the town was still a bit lively.

"I wonder what kind of goods they carry here that could prove useful." Seilan was thinking aloud then, but he still expected some kind of response. "Maybe there's some stuff that's come from Precitia." Precitia was a country from the far south that would make the trek north to trade by land and see. Aviagard had asked them for assistance a while back when the war had started, but no response came. It wasn't like they really needed it, considering how fond and well-versed Aviagard was at fighting, but the High Council wanted to test relations with their trading partner.

"That country has nothing good of note, been there a few times and all they have are pretty little gems that don't even make good talismans." Celesta spoke while looking at her fingernails, as though they may have gotten dirty the countless times she checked them before then. "Well, they have very pretty men there. Tall and strong too. So maybe not all that bad."

"Are you really as promiscuous as you lead on? Or are you trying to play cool?" asked Winter who, by this point, was very sick of Celesta's shit. "Do you talk just so you can hear yourself talk? Can't you cast a spell so you can hear your words on repeat in private?"

"What did you say to me? You failed, pathetic, miserable excuse for a queen! Don't you dare talk to me li-" Celesta had then just realized her mistake. Winter's, or Ellondra's, true identity was to be kept a secret by orders of the Northern Councilman Archus and the Central Councilman Aegon. They wanted the people of Hevania to accept annexation quietly, but if Ellondra knew about who she was there was no guarantee about what would happen about that.

"Queen?" Winter was struck by the word like it was a heavy blow. The sound of it describing her sounded so foreign and unreal that it made her feel a little dizzy. Surely that wasn't right. Celesta didn't mean that, but the expression on her face said otherwise. "Did y-"

"Ferah'est!" screamed Celesta but her magic did nothing. The Huven blood in Ellondra's veins resisted the magic like all Huven. The strength of the first bond between human and elf, the one that saved the war torn mountains, the one that ended years of bloodshed, the one that stopped nearly all curses brought down onto it, ran deep in the blood of her veins. She was, after all, a descendant of the first Huven, the child of the love that went beyond the hatred of different blood.

"Am I a queen? Is that who I am?" There was a certain weakness in Ellondra's voice. The kind of weakness that comes from a deep unraveling of unanswered questions that have finally found their missing piece. She felt a deep sadness that was unlike anything else. She had heard that the last ruling family had died a while ago, and that they were mourning a stillborn child throughout their last years, but it never occured to her that they mourned for her.

"Ferah'est." she spoke again. And this time, she could feel the magic disappear before it traveled even an inch from her lips. She had heard that Huvens were resistant to magic, but she hadn't known that they would outright repel it. Desperation filled her eyes. She looked at her left hand. Her body was now far more used to being eaten by magic than it should be, but that still only granted her a day of time before she would lose it forever. She couldn't even worldstep when she gives up her body, but it was a risk she would have to make. A rebellion, a war that might tear Aviagard apart, destoy the Witch Permagrounds, and endanger her people was something that she wouldn't dare be the cause of.

"Ferah'est!" This time, her voice sounded like the shout of a thousand people. Her magical prowess, that was already fourfold of your strongest Magus Supreme was then multiplied by twenty. The force of the spell was then visible and it was a ragged, erratic, nervous current of unchecked feelings that spanned between fear and regret. It hit Ellondra's skin, but only a small portion of it made its way into her. She only forgot that Celesta had tried to cast a spell, nothing more.

"What have I told you about doing that!" boomed a voice louder than the combined shouting of ten armies. And before they could react to the voice, the blood pouring out of Celesta's wrist, the intense pressure change in the air caused by powerful magic, they were all, once again sitting in the room they were in when they met the Druid.

"B-b-b-" stuttered Celesta.

"No buts! You could have torn all the land within fifty miles apart with the amount of energy that you just put into that forgetting spell. And for what? So Ellondra could forget after you told her she was royalty? That is the last straw queen!" With a wave of his arm he healed all of the 'scarring' that resulted from frequent eating of her arms from the magic she used. He even healed her last use of it.

"What have you done?" whispered Celesta. She could feel the fabric on her arms again. Something she hadn't felt for years.

"I've given your arms feeling again. Maybe you'll think twice before resorting to eating your own body again."

"How long do I have until I lose what I give up completely?"

"Why would y-"

"Just tell me!" she screamed.

"One minute." The sentence might as well have pierced her heart. This would not do one bit. She couldn't function with just one minute. This wouldn't do when fighting Equinox. This wouldn't even do when fighting The Six. This was as much a death sentence to her as anything could have been. 

She began to sob. And cry. And weep. And wail. She failed.

Before long they were back in the wagon, on their way to the trading town.