4. Stolen
"Oh my gods." Valor exclaimed, touching a medium sized lantern with a broken glass in the center of a small lighthouse like room.
"The Hearth stone!" Brey, a fairy house keeper cried, standing by the door frozen.
"But.... How? How can a simple fair person find Black valley? It even has a strong shield casted by the mistress herself!" Zach, a wizard janitor growled, kneeling down the floor investigating a shattered glass.
"Without the Hearth stone... Black valley is done for." Tony a nereid hotelier said, glancing from the broken medium sized lantern to his co-workers looking hopeless.
Valor glanced around, her heart sank, glass windows broken, pieces shattered on the floor. Looking out the window, Black valley grew darker than usual, colder, lanterns growing darker from the trees to the cottages. Faces of the fair people frightened, they didn't know what happened, was there a shortage of light? Or electricity? If there is any problem occurring in Black Valley, the mistress will handle it. That's what they thought.
The group immediately stopped and stood up to their feet when Shina arrived. She lift the hood of her cloak, then stared at the lantern horrified, her lips parted, gasping for air, blinking to check is she was daydreaming. But it's not, what she saw is real, her nightmare came.
"No."Shina whispered, eyes misty, she leaned at the lantern, slowly bent down on her knees and shook her head. Shina promised to the elder elementalist to never lose the Hearth stone. It is the only light and the life force of Black Valley, it powers up everything, from the hanging lanterns, to the club music. Everything! The trees, the flowers, the river, everything in Black valley, the Hearth stone is the life force. Without the Hearth stone...
Shina and her workers home, will be an empty void.
Now Shina lost the Hearth stone to a mere thief. And it's because of one worker, who left his post, only to flirt for mere vampires!
Quietly, Caesar arrived at the light room, eyebrows furrowed, he glanced at his co-workers standing in line looking back at him with downcast faces. His heart in his throat, conscience filled with regret as he looked down to his mistress, kneeling, exhaling heavily.
If only he went back to his post after he gave the vamps a quick tour of the place, if only he listened to Valor, he is truly an irresponsible vampire.
Shina rose slowly, gripping her scythe, her eyes scanned the faces of her workers. She turned to her back and saw Caesar, standing by the door, hands by his side.
Heat rising inside, she gritted her teeth, the gem on her forehead glowed to bright red, which lifted Caesar to mid air and hit the wall hard making him grunt in pain.
The workers stood there frozen. Shina approached Caesar, her eyes glowing red, choking his throat, his pale skin now tainted with black stain, following the path of his veins.
"Mistress!" Valor called, she and her
co-workers sprint towards Shina to stop her from choking Caesar, who is now gasping for air. Shina made a force field surrounding her and Caesar, that made Valor and her coworkers bump to it and fell.
"Mistress please stop! We'll figure something out! You don't have to choke him!" Dimitri pleaded, looking up at Shina still choking Caesar.
Shina heard them, pleading not to hurt their coworker. Her eyes still on Caesar, now he's looking at her too, his ocean blue eyes misty. Staring at his eyes, a memory flashed in her, she once had those sparkling blue eyes, those beautiful and innocent eyes that made look like a very proper god, until a tragic incident happened, flashes of her mother dying, her father abusing her, and the laughter of the young gods at school, because of that laughter her powers changed, because of that she's been hiding all her life, because of that she is banished from the galactic palace, the god's temple and her kingdom, and because of that, she would have never found such beautiful haven, she would have never found a home, where she really belong.
Shina's eyes turned to normal silver, a single tear ran down to her cheek, her heart skipped a beat as she pulls her hand off of Cesar's throat and took a step back. He breathed weakly as the black stain slowly disappeared, his hands trembling, and his knees barely carried him.
Suddenly, his eyes slowly closed as he fell into his mistress' arms, unconscious. Shina's eyes grew wide, while eyebrows furrowed, her scythe dropped to the floor. The force field disappeared, she then glanced at her workers. All the expressions in their faces are all frantic, they never saw their mistress choke someone, until now.
"Brey, go make a soft bed at my tree house." Shina commands in a cold but calm voice. Brey bowed to Shina then flies to the tree house with her pixie wings.
"Dimitri, go fetch a moon flower by the silver river and make a cup of tea for Caesar to drink." she continued
"Yes, mistress." said Dimitri, then bows before going away.
"Valor, attend to the guests and calm them down."
"Yes mistress."
"The rest of you, go with Valor."
"Yes mistress." they said in chorus then followed Valor towards the small cottages, leaving the mistress and Caesar behind.
Shina's gem glowed light blue, which made Caesar floating on air beside her. She studied his face, his snow white layered locks of hair made him look like a sleeping frost prince, finely curved eyebrows, thick eyelashes and perfect lips.
It's funny that Caesar had been her personal servant for almost 200 years, and this is his first mistake that he made. It's disappointing.
Shina sighed then darted her eyes to the stone path, rode on her scythe, flying towards her tree house with Caesar floating behind her.
When Shina reached the tree house, she immediately placed Caesar on a bed. She glanced at Brey who is pouring a warm tea on a cup.
"Take care of him." Shina said in a quiet voice, walking to the living room.
"Yes mistress."
The living room is now darker without the Hearth stone, the air is denser, and a lot colder.
Shina strolled to the living room, looking around the corners. She glanced to Dimitri at the porch, who is looking down over the cottages.
Shina walked slowly towards him, her face emotionless, she then stopped when she's right beside him.
Dimitri was looking down at a cottage where Valor was convincing some fair people and calming them. His eyebrows furrowed, Valor seems to be doing fine, no strange things.
His eyes peeked at the side to take a glance of the mistress, she is looking down at Valor too.
Her presence is a little different that before, her aura is even different. She used to be cold, bold and blunt, but now, she seemed to be soft, with that downcast face.
Dimitri let out a heavy sigh, he had a thought that he wanted to tell the mistress, for a second he hesitated, he clasped his hands and parted his lips.
"I tried to warn him." Dimitri said in a small voice, the mistress turned to him, ready to listen.
"I told him to go back to his post, and I told him that a legendary thief is after the Hearth stone, and he seemed to be relaxed." He continued voice bending, not looking at the mistress.
"It's also my fault. If only I have told you mistress about my vision, I could just tell you by telepathy, but I was pretty busy..." Dimitri blamed himself, he dropped himself to the floor with a heavy heart and kneeled in front of the mistress, Shina's eyes widened.
Shina sensed Dimitri's regret, down hearted and his sincere apology.
Nymphs are such emotional creatures, they are the type to blame themselves if they don't warn anyone about their visions, and are very sincere too.
Feeling a weight on her shoulder, Shina lifted her hand, causing Dimitri to slowly rise to his feet, head still shook.
"Dimitri, it is also my fault, I should have checked on the Hearth stone first." Shina said, sharing Dimitri's mournful action.
"Besides, we can't turn back time. What's done is done, let's move forward and think of a solution to get the Hearth stone back, okay?" Shina said sincerely, she patted his shoulder and glanced outside then back.
Suddenly, a light glowed on her hand, forming a circular motion growing bigger, Dimitri took a step back as he looked at the light hysterically, now forming a vertical oval shaped cloud.
A face appeared in that cloud, it's the great priest, wearing a blue robe with gold patterns on the side.
"Shina, dear... There is a meeting here in the galactic school, right now, we will be discussing about the Hearth stone incident..."
The priest said then the cloud disappeared, getting smaller and smaller, until is disappeared on her hand.
Shina knew this would happen. They always make a sudden meeting and just invite her if they wanted to or if she is a part of their meeting.
Shina turned abruptly and stomped her way out of the living room.
She stood there outside, raising her hand to call her scythe, and it swooped right to her. She now sat on her scythe and was ready to go, but Dimitri teleported in front of her with a face alarmed.
"Mistress! Hurry back." He called.
Shina gave him a short nod and swooped in the air.
Her heart started racing, her hands wet while gripping the scythe, It's been a very long time since she been to the galactic school, and it's the place where she felt very terrified.
As a portal glowed over a giant tree, she heard a quiet whisper in in her ear, her frown turned into a slight smile.
"Be careful mistress."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone