Kismet’s Tale

      She took a step in her chamber. Velia was walking towards her with concern. “Big Sis?”

She smiled sweetly. “Oh my, seeing you always does uplift my heart.” She placed her chin on Velia’s shoulder. She took a moment to rest her head on her shoulder before standing up.

“You shouldn’t push yourself, Big Sis.”

“Impossible, how could I not when Wendy might be in trouble?”

Velia swirled her fiery red hair. Years had passed and the proud little girl she found in Lazon had become humbled and refined. She had become beautiful and wise despite her years. She had started to worry about her lack of interest. Then again, she was rather obsessed with the spark ever since the Civil War.

“I understand, but please rest, Big Sis Natalya,” she placed her hands on her hips and lifted her chin, asserting herself. “You need to take a breather!”

She smiled and left for her chamber. Although there was gunfire and artillery sounding out all over the city. The place where they were hiding was not in the city and was neither outside it. She had pooled some of Lazon’s inflated resources, and with Velia being the Master of Lazon after her late parent’s death. You could say that they had enough to fund the skycarrier that her husband had planned to build.

It was ambitious. He had the concept to build it, but not the proper blueprints to it. Well, there was a blueprint, but half of it was unfinished. It took them years to uncover half of his secrets, but the rest of his secrets were either burned or written in a language that was far different from the Imperial Script. They also deduced that he wrote it while keeping it encrypted. So it means that not only that they will have to understand the self-made language, and solve the encryption he made.

Natalya rested on the chair next to the fireplace. She looked at her silver hand for a moment, before she whispered words that covered her silver hand with mimicry of flesh.

She pulled her bodysuit down, and freed her chest area. Though the bodysuit was comfortable to wear in any environment, she rather not tighten it around her chest. Letting her hair down, she rubbed her bare hand on the armrest while staring at the fire.

‘Fifty-seven years,’ she told herself. ‘Still fighting. Not that you left me a choice.’

She recalled that day. Where she saw him lifeless, burned, and melted. She couldn’t believe it at first, but the soldiers of Lazon, the Hounds were there to see how he held back a being that would turn the world upside down. The creatures that came with the one they called Exiled One was alien, parasitic, and if left alone would have devastated, weakened, and paralyzed the known continents.

It was said to her that he had prepared for this possibility. Where he might have to fight an impossible foe while knowing that he was outmatched. How they did it, and how they made her understand what he was aiming for.

Through that she understood.

That in order to prevent such an unholy event after the sealing of the sparks in the world. He had to defeat the enemy that had come and sensed this. In a way, it spared her of true death.

Sealing the sparks meant that the Exiled One would come. He knew what was going to happen, and yet he still forged on knowing that he was severely unmatched. Even right now, if he had prepared long enough, he would have been able to take care of her. She believed that. But he only chopped off her hand or was there something going to happen if she dies? She didn’t want to know, and despite how hollow it was.

She found out that despite it all.  She didn’t have the courage to end her life out of grief nor could she do that to him. It might have been years since then, but through those ‘visions’ she saw. Worlds where at least they were together until death finds him.

It always ends up with her standing before him dying.

And when death finally took him away from her, she did not hear his words as usual. The parting words of Mavin Tomas who somewhat soothed her heart.

She was used to him dying, and then waking up the next day to him looking at her wearily. She had hoped that would be the case when she saw his body. But the day comes, and another day comes.

She had attended his funeral. They placed him on that hill where he probably saw the same vision of tomorrow. The vision she saw was different, and though it did involve her, it was limited, and it did not matched.

Nonetheless, she saw that throughout the years, the vision was pointing out something that would cause trouble. The rise of the magiborne, and the resurrection of the Witches who would take them in.

Throughout the years she had used her visions to defend Lazon. No, she simply couldn’t allow her new family to be gone after he gave his life to protect it. It felt awful, weak, and pathetic, but truly he was the rock that she leaned on. Her light that made her somewhat unafraid of living on.

She might have not tried to live as fiercely however, if it wasn’t for the crying face of a little girl who wanted to keep her Father and Mother safe. Little Elia, doing her best, keeping a brave face while making sure that she was strong. She was proud of her like a mother would to her daughter. She had grown well, managed to tide through the troubles of the civil war, the chaos brought out by the magiborne, and the rise of the Witches who dares to fight her circle.

She does worry about her a lot lately. Thankfully, Velna was around to assist her. Still, there are times where she worries about the prospect of Velia’s marriage. Velna too was stubborn, making an oath that she would follow and protect Velia until the end of her days.

Though she does understand that they were long-lived. They would certainly outlive anyone with the pact of theirs. There might be a magi who had the qualifications, but it seemed like the two had quite awfully high standards. Not to mention that they were not as juvenile as she’d like them to be.

She was proud of her girls. Proud that they were accomplished. They might have lost a lot of good people in the past years, but even then her fight never really does end.

‘Wendy, where are you? Are you safe? Did they get their hands on you?’ she thought. Wendy Otto, she was the daughter of Randy and Cindy Otto. Randy Otto was the son of Kohl Otto and Maria Otto.

Four weeks after he died. There was an invitation meant for Mavin. She went to Sudugar, and told Kohl Otto about her husband’s passing. Kohl Otto, although shaken by the news, asked something.

“Did he die protecting?”

She was confused for a moment, and answered. “Yes, he did.”

Kohl Otto smiled thinly. “I know he would. You...were her missus...so I think you would know that he was quite strange. Well, I wouldn’t be marrying anyone if he didn’t save me from a shell hole. It’s strange you know, he just dragged me back to Mariah because I was being a wuss about her. I mean it was seven years and I didn’t write a damn letter. I admit that if it wasn’t for him watching my back. I wouldn’t have the courage. He saved my life and also made me reunite with Maria. I...was hoping he would come and become my best man. Ma’am, he was quite a crazy one, although he liked to put on a stony mask on his face, his heart’s soft as pudding. He helped people during the war and even was the bearer of the bad news. I don’t know if it would help, but he was a good friend of mine, and I would ask you to please join my ceremony in his stead.”

She didn’t know why she agreed. And yet seeing the two be wedded, and Kohl recounting how they’d ended up together. It was a wonderful wedding that she was envious of. How she wished she could have the same wedding, made her rather bitter. In the end, she found a strange understanding.

But it didn’t truly come to her until she saw Little Elia trying to hide herself alongside Elna from one of the booths in the train station. Worried about her, wondering why she would leave Lazon. How Elia convinced Elna to follow her, and the two shamefully told her that they couldn’t leave her alone.

Even if he was gone. She still had them. She even got the courage to return back to Wilde, hoping to reconcile with her mother. Although her husband had passed, she wished to dedicate herself in protecting those who he left behind.

She remained close with the Otto Family, and had become fond of them. The Otto Family had a strange way of hospitality.  Maria was a kind woman, and her presence somewhat made her life easier. It also helped that the former Matriarch of the Tomas Family was someone who had helped her through her pains.

She had indeed lost her light. But the embers left behind made her find a way. Throughout the years, she had tried her best to maintain the embers.  Applying what she learned from the ‘visions’ of those worlds. Although she hated the idea of letting them do what they want, she also understood that there was a need for Wendy to grow.

‘Our position with the Holmian masses is difficult. Outright sabotaging their beliefs only led to resistance. Their outright refusal of what we spew is dangerous. Then again, the war against the demikins has gone too long.’

But Natalya couldn’t understand why Minerva would try and stop this conflict. She tried to turn the table over, and inspect from her view, but found nothing. Or was she truly hoping to end a long war?

‘No, I should rest,’ Natalya told herself. ‘My output has grown larger, and even now I shouldn’t lose to some feeble magiborne in physical combat as well. Then again, the Imperator’s Crest is strange.’

‘Wendy,’ she thought of her again, ‘I promised your Pa and Ma that I’ll faithfully look after you, and I don’t even know where you are.’

Colonel Vito was a talented and resourceful man. Throughout the years, he was one of the few that she could trust among them. Although she had blamed him, she believed that wasn’t necessarily his fault.

Something was out of equation. Not all plans are foolproof, and there are deviations when it comes to planning. It was how you adapt to such changes, making contingencies, that would succeed a plan.

A third-party was involved. She knew that by now. Who this party was, and how they will get anything from this troubled her. They had no clue who this other party was, and they couldn’t do anything with the antiwar movements and Minerva’s Witches right in the corner.

‘Find Ryne, listen to what he had to say, and then figure out how to get back home safely. I hope she listens to me now. She’s not ready to face these Witches and their schemes.’

Natalya studied her crest for a moment. She conjured a flower, and squished away. She truly wanted to rest, but ever since the sparks were sealed. She held no dreams other than the repetitive nightmare of what she had done or nothing at all.

But time was constantly moving, and she had grown to get used to it. Time heals wounds, and in a way she had grown to live only by relying on the embers she found around her. Her mind drifted away, and she saw the empty world once more.

She felt thankful that she wouldn't have a nightmare after doing that to the base.