The King's Gamma (#Wattys2024)

Thirty Four

Gaelik - Present Day

"What the hell do you mean by 'Marcenia allowed her soul to leave her body and merge with another'?!" Sébastien King stared in disbelief at the mural depicting a ball of energy colored black, red and gold merging with a white energy as a portal appeared above them. Below those mentioned in the story were depicted staring up, the body at their feet sinking into the ground.

"I mean exactly what I say. Your daughter chose to rather live as someone else than to play to the will of others. Little did we know where exactly her soul would end up. Tell me, how much do you know of alternate worlds?" Gem asked as he continued to tell them the tale of their beloved Marcenia.

"Alternate... Worlds?"

"Never mind that! Do you mean to tell me that Marcenia may be my great great great great great grandmother?!" Felix asked with exasperation for the tenth time.

"No, you idiot. If you had any relation, however far back, to Marcenia then you would still retain some semblance to draconians." Gem huffed in irritation. "And yes, alternate worlds. There is one world in particular where humans hunt all manner of beasts and the more capable you are as a slayer, the better. The soul who asked of Marcenia to take over her body was that of Celeste Morningstar, the only child of Master Frederick Morningstar and his only wife Rietta Sol. They were both from the soldier factions of the world, neither noble nor common. They lived with the entirity of the Morningstar family, Derrick and Katrina Morningstar, their sons Frederick, Hector and Samuel Morningstar along with their wives and sons. Out of the three sons of Derrick Morningstar, Frederick was the only one who was childless until both he and his wife were well into their thirties. Once their first child was on the way, they rejoiced. But their child was the first girl born in generations to the Morningstar name. And though they rejoiced, they soon found out that she was weak. Shortly after her tenth birthday the child caught a virus and passed. However, instead of dying, her body went into a comatose while the soul searched for a replacement so that her parents may have their precious daughter.

"This is how Celeste found Marcenia, and voiced her desire to Marcenia. And Marcenia, disliking the fact that we were attempting to have her marry the Demon King's son, saw this as a chance at getting freedom."

***××××***

Marcenia

I opened my eyes slowly, the dark in the room allowing me to more easily adjust to my surroundings. The flicker of a candle could be seen in the corner of the dim room. I turned my head slightly, catching sight of two figures slumped by the bed.

'Are these your parents?' I asked of the small child now merged into me.

'Yes.' she confirmed, sounding disheartened as we eyed her parents.

'They seem to have watched over you the entire night.'

'It's been a month.' she said. 'Mother has made sure of nourishment and father has transferred his energy to keep my body alive the entire time. I could hear your words across the threshold barrier. I had hoped at most that you may be able to speak to them for me, bacause they could not hear me. But when I heard what you could do after seeing that you did not want to do as those men said...'

'Thank you child. I will live as you now. You may go rest now.'

"Momma..."

My voice was soft, almost a whisper, but they reacted almost instantly. Frederick Morningstar shot up and stared at me as though he was seeing a ghost. Immediately after his hand went to his wife's shoulder, shaking her.

"She's awake..." he said as though he could not believe it himself.

Rietta immediately reacted, her eyes landing on me before they turned blurry with tears. She threw herself at me, holding my body to hers as tears spilled.