When we eventually made it back to Esceutan, everything was gone. The whole city had been leveled with the ground, the whole capital - leveled with the ground. All the mountains, everything. Gone. When I first saw it I panicked, where was everyone? What had happened there? And why would Ahmya do something like that to so many innocent people? She wasn't supposed to have that much strength left already. And I couldn't even blame myself, fore if I had or hadn't shown up here when I did, Ahmya would still have been trying to take over all of Nostuynia.
"Don't blame yourself, Leila."
Hiroshi tried to calm me down, I knew that, the shock just had the impact that I couldn't answer him. I knew this was Ahmyas fault, not mine.
****
She walked down the dark hallway supporting herself by the wall. And right as she seemed to have lost all energy she had left, someone passed by her.
"Sir, do you know where I am?" she whispered, still not able to stand on her own.
"Are you alright dark empress? Do I need to find Lihn?" Niskhama asked concerned.
"What?" she then stopped talking, and clutched her head, "No, that will not be necessary Niskhama. If you'll excuse me I have a rather important matter to anttent to."
As she walked down the hallway, Niskhama stood there for a little while; just looking after her and thinking about what had just happened.
****
"Come on," he said and took my hand, "we should get going."
"Y-yeah." I nodded while looking back until I couldn't see over the top anymore.
I didn't know where we were going, so I just followed. All day every day, I thought 'maybe. the others didn't get there before it happened'. Anything to stop the thought that they got caught in the explosion. The first day we stopped at the nearest village, and asked people around there if they knew anything. No luck. No one had even heard an explosion throughout the last few days, it made no sense, why wouldn't anyone have heard an explosion of that magnitude? It made no sense, how could the whole capital disappear, and no one would notice? Even if it had been a spell doing it, someone should have noticed.
****
After disappointment after disappointment, we went back to the crater to figure out what had happened. First we just looked at it all, I just started walking down into the crater. Hiroshi tried to stop me, and throughout the last few days he just wanted to go back to Japan. He was being so weird, like he didn't care. Especially weird was it when the whole city suddenly appeared around me. No one had destroyed Esceutan, they cast an illusion spell. As fast as I could ran to the castle.
"Where the hell have you two been for the past few days?"Nephele shouted, as she ran towards us.
"Ahmya got an illusion planted on the city," I answered while hugging her, "we thought she had destroyed everything."
"But, who would have that kind of power?" Daichi interrupted, "I mean to cover the whole capital with an illusion, that's crazy!"
We looked at each other, we knew Ahmya wasn't capable of that after our fight. But who was? How many followers did she really have, and how should we ever find her if she could cover her tracks like that? While we were talking, the king walked in, and said,
"Shiloh of pacifism," he sat down with the rest of us, "that's the one who placed the spell. You'll want to find and get rid of him as soon as possible."
I looked inquiring at him, "How many of them is there, exactly?"
"Exactly?" He replied, "I don't know that, but she has three groups of commanders. The knights of dawn, the element four. And her commandments, which are the strongest of them all."
Over the past few months we had met so many of Ahmyas followers, but the only ones we really knew who were of her elite soldiers were the element four. We were completely in the dark, and Ahmya - she knew our every move.
****
"How are you feeling mistress?"
No answer.
"The boy told Shiloh to put up an illusion before they got there, but he couldn't convince her to leave Nystonia." Putali informed her emporess, "Do you want her killed?"
"Oh, how sweet." Ahmya turned her head towards Putali, and laughed at her "You think I'm just gonna kill her? Oh no, she's gonna want to die when I'm done with her."
****
That night I couldn't fall asleep. I just couldn't forget the fact of someone watching me at all times, as well as how Ahmya - if she wanted to - could probably just teleport in here and kill me at any time. After what felt like hours, I got out of bed and went for a walk. I didn't know where too, but when I had walked all over the castle grounds, I went into the city. Everything was so quiet at night and the night sky shined with stars like nothing i had ever seen. Nothing but the howling of owls in the distance; it was so different from Japan and America. But also still so much like it. Only when the sun started rising in the horizon did I go back to my room.
****
Days went by, but nothing happened. We all met with the king a few times to strategize; just so we would be ready for the attack we knew was coming, but there wasn't much to talk about anymore. Days became weeks, and we became even more sure that Ahmya was plotting something big. "Someday soon," we said to ourselves, "someday soon she's gonna make a move". But she didn't, and we couldn't do anything but wait.
YOU ARE READING
The star i saw that day
AdventureA few years after her mother's death Leilana moves from an orphanage in America to Japan to live with her uncle. What she doesn't know, is just that a whole different adventure than what she expected awaits her. This is the first story i've written...
