Nychta - The Bloodrose Kingdom

Chapter 14 - The Mask She Wore

! But how did he talk to me with the shadows? He was a master of illusions, steal and to fool during card games. But to become one with the shadows? That was beneath him. It was probably one of the Serpents, using their ability to allow Eman, their leader to talk with me.

“It suits you,” I lingered through every note of that voice, every memories that flashed back as I heard it. Nights of staying at the Gray Forest treehouse to tell stories, stealing through every store in the town, convincing him to read books to gain knowledge, for him to learn how to read and write. It all came to me, as the contestants from Salquine were the next to present themselves. Even though he talked through my mind, a private conversation, it still had a great impact on me.

Salquine was the land of the desert, where only few tribes of a great survival instincts being able to live. They were rich in knowledge of machineries, and certain settlements thrived off with supplying the rest of the town. They were only a few in size, and so it wasn’t such a surprise when only one of them was able to represent their town.

“What are you doing here?” I asked irritated, remembering how he left me back in Silverfang. How he instantly stopped when he heard what I became, when he saw the black gem in my forehead. I was always the weakling, and yet, this time, I became the one in power. The one feared. Was it because of that?

“Careful, Faeric’s gem may hear your voice if you furrow your brows too much.” He even manages to make a joke out of the situation, completely ignoring my obvious anger.

The girl from Salquine was wearing a jumper-inspired yellow gown, the ends collared with yellow steel. She was wearing thick eye goggles, framing her small eyes. Her hair was braided in two, giving her a childish appeal.

She walked the carpet timidly, her hands fidgeting at her sides.

Who is this boy?, the voice from the gem said in my head. s**t, now I had to explain everything. I supposed that the gem was now another entity, a sentient being for me to talk to.

“Now who is that nasty woman?” Eman replies, offended from the gem’s insulting tone.

“Don’t fight inside my head”, I said angrily.

There was a slight pause as the crowds cheered. The Salquine girl, who introduced herself as Matilda of the Machines, had a slightly different ball. Hers burst with electricity as she pressed a button on the top of it, rather than crash it as others did. Maybe she made it herself, knowing the capabilities of the people in her town.

I was expecting robots to come out, or an electricity-filled display.

But what happened instead was unexpected. The ball aimed at Matilda’s direction, zapping her, the sound of electricity vibrating through the crowd. A lot of them made sounds of disappointment, thinking that the invention backfired and killed the girl.

But what came after the zap was a completely different girl.

Half of her face became metal, a red eye replacing her right eye. Her hands became guns, capable of handling large bullets. Her feet turned into small rockets, her small frame levitating. Her twin braids became electrically-charged wires, swinging freely in the air.

She was a basically a cyborg now, half her body a robot, while half was still human. Like a death machine, she proudly displayed her abilities.

Some of the crowd stood in awe at the performance. In response, Matilda aimed her arms at them, shooting bullets at them in quick successions. They readily flung their bodies towards it, having no effect after being hit. It was all an illusion after all, but it meant that Matilda was really capable of doing such a thing in reality.

After that, she released some of the rockets in her back, which only replaced themselves. The rockets flew to the air at full force, with fire as their tail. It swirled in the air, chasing each other like playful birds, only this time, with metallic sounds and the threat of explosion at any time included in them. They finally collided, the metallic boom earning praises from the crowd. The fumes and fire that came off from it produced yellowish sparks and lightning, an extra effect.

She finally levitated in the middle of the air, her rockets at full work in her feet. I saw a grin-like image plastered on her face, which was impossible to see because half of her body was still and unfeeling. But I could’ve sworn I saw a bit of a spark or light in the cyborg part of her body, now in the air.

As her grand finale, she finally made the ticking bomb go off. Tubes and wires of all sizes now came from all over her body, the shape losing its former visibility, with only a spike-like deadly machine in the air to be seen. It felt like something that will instantly kill people. This was not an invention or machine of this age, this was something far more advanced, an impossible feat that can only be reached through the use of the Creator-given gems.

The spike now released every possible bullet and rocket, the air and the ground now vibrating from the intense release of power. It was like fireworks, but deadly and scary at the same time. It flew in all directions, to the audiences, to the arena, and even outside it. It lasted for quite a while, the barrage seeming to be never-ending.

As it finally stopped, the spike finally exploded on its own, having the same yellow spark coming off from the missile earlier. But this time, even if it all ended in black fumes and metallic glitter now at the arena’s floor, the arena wasn’t fazed, for they knew that this wasn’t the sign of an error.

And true to that, the glitter now started to gather. Eventually, they formed to create a figure of a small girl with twinbraids. It was Matilda of the Machines once again, back to her yellow jumper-inspired yellow gown, now bowing proud and smiling.

Gone was her image of shyness.

Eman’s voice flashed me back to our conversation.

“I-I’m here to get you back again,” his voice quavered, guilt present in it. He should be, for he failed me when he did not rescue me.

But it was that tone of guilt that made me want to meet him again. Personally.

“But you left me! You tried to save me and then in a second, you became scared of me. You left me all alone,” I say bitterly. It was all true. He left me when he saw me.

There was a hurt tone down the conversation in my mind.

“I-I was afraid, that is true. But if I was to save you back then, a greater purpose wouldn’t have been fulfilled. You need to trust me on this one,” he says.

Get off here! The gem says in my mind, a repulsion present in her voice.

“Y-you should get out. Quickly. Silverfang will be called nearly,” I say, even though I wanted to hear his voice. Hear more of why he didn’t save me.

“Please listen to me! Please, let’s just leave!” he begs through my mind, as the town of Cel was called.

Cel was the town of enlightenment. The town where people meditated frequently, and mixed with the magic of the nature. They forbid extremities, and lied on the perfect balance of things. They lived in the plains and valleys, their soul-searching eternal.

Cel’s first representative was a fair-skinned woman wearing a light blue gown. It had sharp edges at the skirt. She was wearing a jagged circlet on her head, signifying the use of thunder. She walked briskly, an obvious lack of comfort in such appearances bothering her. I saw myself in her, or rather, my former self. I saw how she dropped her back, how she lacked the poise as she walked through the carpet. If only she had been trained in etiquette like me, she would have looked grand. Her face looked hardened too, but it was a different type. She held a lot of stories in her mature gray eyes.

As she takes the stage, she announces in a hardened voice, “I am Thea of the Lightning. My masters from Cel have found me capable of running the queendom, and I will make sure that I will do it wisely,” she says. She was looking down the whole moment, her gaze avoid the crowd. Poor creature.

I felt Eman lightly rubbing my shoulders, giving me hints that he was still up for the offer.

Thea called out an illusion of the heaviest lightning I have ever seen in my whole life. It shone through the crowd, making everyone gasp in shock. Power, pure and uncontained.

“What would I get if I do this?” I say quietly. I was to know what he planned to do, of what would happen if I agree.

“Then you will get salvation, and fulfill a greater role,” he said. This was the moments where his optimism faded, his usual tone at the days before my capture. He had become a man of secrets by time, and the man’s voice rang through my head this time.

I wore my mask of indifference stronger this time, my eyes refusing to show even the barest emotion.

“I will not join you, Eman. Not this time,” I say as my final answer. But he refused to leave, for his presence still lingered at my shadow, and had even grown in influence now. It used to be only his voice behind me, but I felt something physical behind me, yet didn’t see anything. It was as if he just became more intent in convincing me.

But as the contestants of Catquoise was finally called, our mind debate was paused. Because walking the red carpet by my right, was none other than the white haired girl. The girl that I saw three weeks earlier. The girl of light. And she was here to fight me, to test herself as a queen.

Light against dark, dark against light. The first sign of emotion flared through my face.

The raven’s eyes pierced through the crowd

As she saw her enemy, dressed in white

For none faced the darkness greater

Than the light, it’s ever-opposite twin