บท 86: RATHER DEAD THAN WEAK.

***On Planet Gieă, In Continent Eclipse of the Oceans..

***The Imperial Castle, The Empress's Palace or the Dark flood Dragon's Palace..

***True Imperial Princess Noverlia's Wing..

True Imperial Princess Noverlia is finally back to safety after four long months of what could only be described as torture.

Luxury, safety and royalty were painted everywhere she looks and although she knows very well that she's back home, she still feels completely lost and her silent shadow can feel every bit of what she's feeling as they both eat in silence.

Both master and shadow are seated on a moderate sixed white-round table with a central layered-tray filled up with delicacies slowly rotating for the convenience of the eating duo.

Noverlia seems to have abandoned all her Princess manners and cultures as she eats in a manner befitting for any thirteen years old kid that she is..

Neither messy nor elegant.

Her bites weren't restrainef and the sounds from her mouth weren't concealed as she eats in an almost exaggerated manner with her facial expression being a lenient show of casual.

Her eyebrow would absent-mindedly raise when she tastes something she likes, she would sharply lick her lips when she has got something on them and her hands moved fast to fill her plate with her mouth always constantly working on something.

Anybody who sees this scene wouldn't be able to tell that the princess that's presently speed eating had just come out of months of emotional and physical torture. Any possible watching eyes would also be unable to tell that the casual Princess almost had a complete breakdown with her mother just hours ago.

For those that know what she had been through, they would see this casual scene in the light that the Princess is trying to fill the deep void in her heart with as much food as she could hold.

Silent as ever, princess Noverlia's shadow slowly eats as she watches how her master mask these void emotions with a show of casual. The shadow and master have been bonded for as long as they can both remember and their fate bonds are tight enough that they could feel a very good amount of each others emotions.

Lyra -(Noverlia's Shadow)- can feel a very intense state of emptiness from her master in this moment and in all honesty, wacthing her master completely casual just breaks the shadow's heart. This is not the first time in her lifetime of thirteen years that Noverlia has been broken down by a sort of pain or another but this is by far the most brutal of them all.

The Empress really did go all out this time.

Using the help of one of the Rarest Pathways in all of Cultivation, the Empress had created the perfect training ground and torture grounds for Noverlia's developing mind.

The Emotive Mages are a extra rare pathway in Cultivation – meaning very few people can pursue this path –. They're super rare, super useful and yet super useless. Emotive mages are just like they sound, they influence emotions and the mind but in the beginner rank(Rank One) and Intermediate Ranks(Rank 2 & 3) they are known to be completely useless in battle and ninety-nine percent of other situations.

This useless value of Emotive mages however multiplies by a thousand fold if by some miracle they are able to break into the High Ranks(Rank 4). Imagine a single person being able to boost the morale of an army of a thousand men while reducing the morale and willpower of the other side!.

Emotive mages transform at the high Ranks and they are able to influence certain courses of events while playing people's emotions like puppets on a string. Unfortunately, the emotions being played by the Emotive Mage under the orders of the Empress was that of Noverlia's.

Suddenly dumping her without resource in a cold and danger filled part of the Continent, the Emotive Mage employed planted genuine feelings and emotions in Noverlia's mind. These strong feelings planted were those of loyalty, trust, love and bonds with tens of other people she doesn't even know in reality; though the storyline planted in her brain tells her that these people she feels attached to have been through heaven smd hell with her.

This ruthless emotive Mage planted a detailed responsibility that tells her that after an enconter with a beast, they have all forgotten who she is though being the strongest and considering their relationship, - it's still her responsibility to lead them out of this dangerous area!.

The exact feelings of struggles and pain she had to endure due to implanted emotions and memories cannot exactly be recalled though the constant memories of these dark times did more than an handful to Noverlia's mind.

She had to fight false from real both in mind and person. A battle against herself.

Having to fight between feelings and memories of an obvious fake that feels so real while trying to desperately hold-on to who you really are.

Having to feel pain as you watch people you were made to love die one-after-the other due to your inability to protect them and being grief-stricken as you realise the memories and emotions planted in your head of times they had protected you.

Noverlia's mind was so messed up halfway through the journey that she couldn't exactly tell real from fake. The number of people she was meant to protect had halved and the dead ones left her haunted with fake memories of friendship, trust and mentors.

She remembers holding a blade to her neck and yelling to the sky while shaking in anger and grief as the bloody body of another one of her 'closest friends' lays in the snow.

"MOTHER!!!,.. Take me!. Please get them out and leave me here instead!. I can't do this anymore. If you don't help me then I would kill myself!!!, you would lose your daughter. I WOULD KILL MYSELF!!!.".

She yelled, she wailed, she begged but she knew it wouldn't end. Atleast not until she had finished her mission.

The funniest part in that memory is that through her yells at the sky, she found out certain things she had been subconsciously denying about herself and her mother.

One, no matter how bad it hurt or how much she grieves she just didn't have the courage to kill herself to save others.

Two, she was scared. She was actually scared that her mother wouldn't have saved her if she had slit her neck. She was actually scared that maybe, just maybe.. her mother would truly rather see her dead than weak!.

Swallowing another piece of meat, Noverlia's thought are completely masked as she picks up a crystalline wine jug before trying to pour herself a drink but the, all of a sudden her mood does an intense 360 swing as she stands up and throws the Crystalline wine jug away while standin up as she pants heavily.

Much to fuel her sudden anger, Noverlia can only watch as the expensive jug bounces off the distant wall without shattering. The wine in it wasn't even spilled!.

Still panting heavily, Noverlia suddenly seems to have lost strength as she slowly sits back down while cutting off the voice of the head maid that's ringing in her head. The head maid was politely asking if she needs stress relieving 'throwing objects'.

With her eyelids suddenly droopy and her chest still heaving, Noverlia slowly stands back up.

"I'm going to bed.", She declares to her ever silent shadow before walking off.

Not attempting to question or stop her, Lyra calmly watches as the seemingly insane Noverlia goes out of this space. By now the shadow is already used to Noverlia's acts and sudden explosions.

After feeling too much, Noverlia always seems to shut off a lot of her feelings. She would act as if everything is perfectly fine. She would smile, she would dance, she would eat and she would even laugh in joy.

She would seem like a normal person on the outside but those who knew what she is truly feeling or have been through would see her 'normal' as pure insanity.

As long as Noverlia keeps up her act, she slowly shelves all dark emotions to a corner but if she feels seen through or just can't contain her act anymore, she would completely explode. She would release a bit of all that hidden frustration then go slowly back into her act of normal.

By now, Lyra has come to accept her master's behaviour as a method of 'Acting insane in order to prevent one from actually going insane.'

It's all fine as long as it helps Noverlia deal with every series of hell thrown at her face.

...

***On Planet Gieă, In the Outskirts of the Continent 'Eclipse of the Oceans', Chingford's Academy's Dormitory..

It's early morning in the Academy's grounds and as usual, Navi is up early. Infact, he's up an entire hour earlier than his usual early.

Getting down his bunk bed's ladder, Navi picks up a very familiar bag before quietly exiting the room.

The skies were still dark and the hallways through the building was even darker. The silence of the early hour was oddly comforting as Navi's footstep were the only sound present as he makes his way down with absolutely nobody in sight.

Finally making a turn and stepping into the bathroom, Navi is pleased to find the space steamy but empty. Nobody is indoors.

With a small nod, Navi starts taking off his robes. One of the main reasons he had gotten up this early is to make sure that last nights bathing incident does not happen again. He is definitely not a fan of being checked out in bathrooms.

*SPLASH*..*RUNNING SHOWER*.

Cold drizzles of water runs down Navi's pale frame and trickles down to the floor as he begins to lather his skin with soap. The process of bathing comes naturally to him and at the end of washing up, he checks himself out in the mirror.

Due to the last few days in the Academy of not sleeping, his dark eye circles were returning with a light shade. His hair needs a cut and his body is being rightfully sculptured under his everyday martial exercise routines.

*CREAK*..

A light wind blows in while interrupting Navi's mild staring contest with his own reflection. Through the reflections in the mirror, Navi sees a new comer entering into the public bathroom with a towel around his waist.

He observes for a few seconds and then ignores the other party as he starts clothing himself in a new set of light blue martial robes. Arranging the layered collars of his robes, Navi gives himself one last glance in the mirror as he casually sweeps his still slightly moist ink-black hair back before calmly exiting the bathroom space.