Chapter 31

Part 31

After spying on King Grail and those below him voicing their discontent to him, Livia had stepped away into a shadowed corner to briskly come up with the perfect formula of runes and incantations for the binding ritual unique to this particular situation. It would have to be solid, with no loopholes. It would also have to be bound by her blood and magical signature, so only she could lift it, which she would not.

After muttering to herself and staring blankly ahead as she descends into her own mind to gather the necessary information amongst an unending sea, Livia draws back to the present world. Her gaze sharpens, and she moves instantly the moment she decides on what to do.

Livia could not waste a second. She had only thirty minutes at the most to get it done before she needs to meet up with King Grail. By now, her parents would be aware that she had left their home without their explicit consent and will be headed to White Castle to retrieve her and smooth over anything she had done while they were not present. Now that her status had been returned, anything she does now reflects directly back on her family.

They will not be pleased that she left on her own and that she went to such an important meeting with the king without one of them nearby to dominate the conversation. Livia easily pictures her parents' furious and perplexed expression once they had heard that she left. No doubt they never could have thought that she would ever do such a thing. Livia was almost looking forward to her father's familiar cold antipathy and her mother's thinly veiled wrath. It’s as close to nostalgia she would ever feel for her parents after being away from them for so long.

Livia smiles bitterly to herself and leaves her shadowed corner to find a remote and quiet area to do her ritual.

Finding a small, private nook in the White Castle was not a difficult task, but it takes her much further out than she would have wished. On the west side of White Castle, Livia finds herself high up in a lonesome tower riddled with spiders and overtaken by dust and dirt. There were no windows so it was dark, but she feels carefully around the slightly damp walls and finds candles to light. The weather was still warm out so it was not too drafty, but she did have to move things around with her magic until she had a nice clear space in the middle of the room.

Livia rummages through her sack and pulls out a small glass bottle of black salt, four red candles she had commissioned on her journey back to Wisteria, black chalk, and all of the stolen items of the Silvan Royal family. She set these items down carefully, leaving only the black salt. Livia pulls off the small stopper and pours out the salt in the shape of a perfectly symmetrical circle on the floor before closing it and returning it to her sack. Next, she grabs the chalk and draws another circle inside the black salt one. Then she does it again, and a third time, thickening the line while now drawing out of it.

She squints down at it for a second then shrugs, and goes for a fourth trace of the inner circle. It was overkill, but that was kind of the point. Livia then draws a line cutting the circle in half but stops short of touching the edges of the inner circle, making the ritual unbreakable. She then goes on to draw a big open triangle, with two short lines on each leg before closing the said triangle at the top, leaving the legs open with the black chalk. After inspecting it, Livia nods in satisfaction and puts the chalk away while absently dusting it off the residue from her hands.

Next, her hand lands on the blood-red candles. She places two on the top and bottom of the black salt circle and the other two on the sides. She rotates them a bit so they will better sit in the black salt circle. Livia then grabs her royal loot last. These items she lines on the inner black chalk circle.

The only princess of Wisteria's favorite teacup, Orin’s fountain pen, Rodale’s dried up flower, Kolton’s hairpin, and lastly a single piece of hair from Phineas was placed down, Wisteria’s ‘lost’ first crown prince. Livia could have been lenient and left her past savior out of the ritual, but then that would leave a loose end. A possible way to break her curse spell, and she could not have that now, could she? So, Phineas was still included, despite Livia being in debt to him. She would find some other way to repay him for saving not only her life but the life of her child. That will come later though.

Finally, she grabs the small cloth smeared with a small amount of blood. Royal blood. Taking the blood of any royal without being gifted it was the highest offense in most kingdoms around the world. Blood was a powerful tool in the works of magic, and should never be readily given. If anyone was to discover what she had done, Livia was sure she would be hunted down until the ends of the planet until she was killed ruthlessly for her transgression.

Livia sneers.

Let them come. I will slaughter them all without hesitation.

But then her son turns over in her belly and kicks out softly, pulling her out of her dark thoughts. Almost as to remind her why exactly she couldn’t do that. Yet. It was her pregnancy that depleted her of energy and magic, funneling it to her growing baby boy. Beth had told her it was somewhat normal and expected.

Beth had concluded because Livia was so...gifted (She had paused, put such emphases on the word and had a strange look in her hazel eyes) magically, as well as Elias (Livia had not gone into detail, just told Beth that the other parent was abnormally powerful) that the child inside of her was developing a large core of magic, and therefore relied on his mother heavily until his own formed near the very end of her pregnancy. Livia will progressively lose her magic as her pregnancy progress, with Beth predicting the last trimester being the heaviest burden on her.

Beth had never assisted in the pregnancy and birth of any noblewoman that had magic above average, but her experience as a midwife was still very helpful, and Livia only trusted her with the care of her unborn child.

Which reminds her, she was on a rather tight schedule today and her focus is dragged back to the ritual. Livia places the soiled cloth inside the inner chalk circle without any preamble. She rummages a bit in her sack and finds a clean pin and holds up a finger on her own hand. It's a small sting of pain when the sharp point of the pin sinks into her thumb, and Livia turns it over so a single drop of her blood lands on the small black chalk triangle. She licks at the small wound as she takes in the finished circle before her.

It was no magical circle that anyone in this current world would ever recognize. It did not have the pretty glowing symbols condensed practically on top of each other, nor was it overly large like that teleportation circle she used to return to her home continent. It was utterly plain in comparison, but Livia knew just how powerful and unbreakable it truly was, and that’s all that matters.

With a snap of her finger, the candles spring to life. This time, she does not chant her incantation out loud. Livia no longer needs to. As time treks on, her memories become less like a catalog of information that she sifts through and more like an extension of her like her arm or leg. Livia just knows and with that, comes a certain amount of confidence, surety, and hyper-focus that is needed to be nonverbal.

The magical core power you are born with had little to do with the skill. And it was just that, a skill. It could be taught. It could be learned. But it was a tricky thing with Old One’s art of magic, which was much more sensitive and attuned than this world standard one.

But Livia could do it.

She sits down and is perfectly still, her eyes close, her head tilted back slightly.

Livia does not say a single word, but her hair begins to blow in a chilly breeze. The candle's flame spikes up abnormally high and doesn’t flicker, even the ones on the wall. It is from them, that she draws the power from. Fire was always potent energy. This way, she cannot strain herself. This way, she is gifted a small token of nature's chaotic energy. Respects it.

Livia is not greedy and only takes what she needs.

But even so, nature is a powerful source. Fire, even more so.

It does not take long for her hair to start whipping around her face. For the crates, and old rotten furniture around her to start shaking as a few things begin to fall as the whole tower trembles in the wake of the power suddenly amassed inside of it.

Livia does not see, but the blood of King Grail seeps from the cloth and splits off in five separate ways, making a thin red trail until it slowly reaches each of his children's things, drawn to them as they hold the magical signature of one from his bloodline. It creates a haunting little flower in the circle, spidery.

The moment all items are touched by the blood the candle's flame rises high up and the warm glow of them turn orange, red, purple, blue, and then black before they extinguish themselves and Livia opens her eyes as she feels her binding ritual finish and her curse settle heavily onto those she tethered it too.

Her choice of bond had been simple in the end.

It centered around King Grail.

He was the father, and therefore shared one half of all his children's essence. If she bound him, she bonded them all.

But it was one rock. And two stones.

So along with the binding spell almost similar to the one she made with Sen, she tied their lives directly to hers. So, if she were to find herself in any sort of final death situation, one of them will be killed and not her.

It was simplistic and yet, so very complicated.

Livia smiles to herself and at the circle before her, very pleased with the end result.

Now, to finalize it all with a meeting with the oh so Great King of Wisteria.

Livia hopes he enjoys the few moments of peaceful oblivion that he had left. She really did, genuinely. Right now, in his mind, King Grail was an imposable force. The backbone of Wisteria that would never be shaken. The one who made a deal with her mother at the expense of Livia. The one who dared to gloss over the things his sons did to save face while turning a blind eye to the clues she had so heavily hinted at.

King Grail was not a stupid or foolish king.

He had no excuses.

Livia knows now he will protect his own, even while pretending he is doing the exact opposite.

She will use this to her advantage.

And that fucked up re-engagement...

She could use that as well.

Livia rises gracefully to her feet despite her six-month pregnant belly. She blinks and the magic circle before her starts to clean itself up. She dusts idly at her dress and two pats later, it’s back to being spotless.

She turns, and the room around her moves back to how she finds it. By the time Livia leaves the tower completely, it’s as if she had never stepped foot inside.

Livia takes a moment outside and just breathes. She basks in the sunny beaming happily above her, the musical chirps of the birds in the trees, and smiles. What a beautiful day. It was almost disgustingly perfect. A calming sight.

She thought it was fitting.

Because on this lovely day, King Grail will be held accountable. His desolation was inevitable. Set in stone.

Livia hums happily to herself as she walks back to Grail's office leisurely, a pretty smile on her face.

She couldn't wait to begin.