Chương 52: Siblings

Days passed by while the four of them were being nursed back to health by Mariek and Kareem. "My sister used to be the South Kingdom's oracle. There was this just one foresight that got her into trouble, so we decided to get out of the South Kingdom."

"The others who are now living in this village were forced to move out by their own grandparents. At first, we did not know why, but when we discovered the talents of each one of us, we knew that our grandparents know that the emperor was planning something evil for the whole kingdom," Mariek explained.

The old woman came into the room holding a bowl with a green slimy liquid. She pushed it into Yllana and told her just one word, "Drink." The old woman smirked and looked down on her, challenging her.

Kareem scratched his head. "I did not know he would be using it against you. He even had the poison rubbed into the swords of Garron and his men. Good thing that we were trying to catch some food and saw the lot of you,"

"We made good money by selling the poison that Kareem can make but we really do not have any control over whom it would be administered to. We are sorry." Mariek bowed in front of Yllana showing her sincerity.

"N-no need to say sorry. As you said, you were just doing business with the emperor." Yllana tried to pull Mariek up and bit her lip. "At least you have the antidote. Did you make that poison all by yourself?" she turned to Kareem.

With a nod, Kareem told her what the ingredients were and how he managed to cook up the deadly poison without prior knowledge. Midel and Larika were both stunned at what they heard from him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yllana stared at the door where Kareem and Mariek left. She was still holding the bowl of medicine that the old woman gave her. She swallowed hard before facing the bowl. After staring at it for a minute, she pushed all its content inside her mouth. The bitter and gamy liquid smelled like rotten fish with sweaty socks. There was a gritty texture to it that made Yllana winced more than one while consuming all of it in one swig.

When she was done, her face was paler than before. But aside from feeling nauseous due to the medicine, she could feel the cuts and wounds on her were cooling off bit by bit. The stinging pain was not that too agonizing anymore.

"When those bunch of elders ordered a witch to transform their grandchildren's faces, didn't they feel guilty about it?" Midel interrupted her thoughts.

"If you were to learn that the emperor will be taking away your child because of his/her talent, would you really give in just for the sake of letting them stay inside the kingdom?" Yllana answered back. "In the North, when a knight pledges his duty, we only pledge for the people. Without its people, the kingdom is just a piece of land."

Larika's eyes sparkled as she gazed at Yllana. Her silver eyes were twinkling as she thought of how this girl just answered bravely.

When Yllana put down the bowl by her bedside, it clinked against the pendant hanging by her neck. Its teardrop shape shows simple elegance while its blue color somewhat gives off a sad feeling once you gaze too long at it.

"Where did you get this pendant?" Yllana was playing with the blue gemstone hanging around her neck. She fastened a more secure silver necklace to it rather than the ordinary rope it used to dangle on.

"I picked it up somewhere."

Lucien had his back turned to her not noticing the peculiar look on Yllana's face. Midel's eyes traveled to the moon teardrop on Yllana's chest. "Is something peculiar about the pendant?" he asked.

"No, it's nothing." Yllana squinted her eyes at Lucien's back. 'He's got a wide back,' she never noticed it before because he was always walking behind her or by her side. Now that she can see his back, she smiled at her own thoughts. Lucien's shoulders are also perfectly shaped but not too bulgy like a trained warrior. She shook her head and dismissed her own thoughts. Since when did she care about other people's backs?

Even when she was training within the imperial grounds of the North Kingdom, all she had ever thought about was how to be stronger, faster, and smarter than her enemies. But a man's back? Come on. Would that even bother her?

When Lucien noticed that Yllana and Midel went silent, he bent his neck to the side to look at them. When his eyes met Yllana's, he cocked an eyebrow at her.

Yllana felt her whole face go red and quickly turned around. Her bed was just opposite Larika's so she walked to her side. "You said that only you can open this." Yllana pulled out the book of spells from her space ring. "Can you open the book now?"

Larika observed Yllana's red face and then looked at Lucien. She gave a polite smile to Yllana before reaching out to the book that the red-haired girl was offering. She placed her palm over the lock of the book and let out a sliver of her life force fall on the diamond-shaped lock.

Click!

The book made a clinging sound and then hissed. It opened under the two girls' eyes. When Yllana saw the pages, she frowned.

"The owner is the only one who could also read the content," Larika said while flipping the pages. "If…if I teach you what the book contains, would you take me in as your disciple?" There was a serious tone about her she spoke. Her eyes were expectant as she stared at the book on her lap.

"I…am not fit to be your master."

"You are! Please…just take me in. I will be diligent enough to be your disciple."

Yllana looked at her helplessly and sighed. "For the sake of my sister, I will."

Larika beamed and opened a page in the book. "This is for the sight spell. You will need the following ingredients to make it. A dragon's eye, a petal from the nightfall flower, dewdrop from a spirit grass which was formed after a rain, and…" her voice went quiet on the last ingredient but Yllana picked up the word.

"Are you sure that is all? How about the enchantment? Would a Saint rank be enough?" Yllana rubbed her chin as she remembered how far she still had to go before reaching her peak status again.

"You need a…witch."

Upon hearing the word, Lucien and Midel glowered at Larika. "Your Highness," Midel started to complain. "Having a witch by her side is like having a snake inside your own garden. That is too much of a requirement for the spell. Wouldn't a Holy-ranked mage be enough?"

Larika slowly closed the book and pursed her lips before speaking. "You know the law of the life forces on this mainland. Attacks and simple spells were granted by nature. But if we are going to try to change nature itself, then it is a deal that has to be made with someone who relates to the dark side."

Midel's eyes traveled to Lucien. There was a knowing gaze on his face as he clicked his tongue. Then, he looked at Larika. "You said that the elders from your kingdom managed to contact a witch to grant them the physical curses for their grandchildren. Do you think we can get information about that witch?"

"The elders are being held captives by the emperor. He will not let them go unless they tell him what he wanted to know." She clenched her dress tightly and lowered her head.

"And that is?" Lucien butted in.

"The location of the Banished Village." Her creaky old voice resounded in the room. Her face was sagging that they could not even see her eyes. She was holding a cane to support her while walking. The old woman looked too old.

"You were one of the elders," Yllana revealed. "If you were placed in the Banished Village but was not cursed by the witch, then, by all means, you are an elder who also knew the witch…right?"

A smile crept into the lips of the old woman as she slowly walked inside their room. That same room was the one that Garron had placed them. Only now has beds for the four of them and it was not dimly lit anymore. The other villagers lived just around that cabin in almost the same kind of structure as they were in.

"I still remember her smile then. She had sea-green eyes and lovely yellow hair. But within her was a darkness that you could not fathom. She was ambitious. But what was great about her was she honor her words. I could not remember her name. I do not think she ever mentioned it to us." She told them the story of how the witch came into the South Kingdom secretly with the help of the previous elders. "The emperor is not what he seems to be. He is strong and intelligent for a ten-year-old. But his ambition to build an army to conquer other kingdoms is a different story. We do not wish to participate in his lunacy since we had peace for years within the kingdom. There was no need to wage war or build an army, but he insisted."

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