“She’s awake!”

It was Ulius.

“I’m coming, just a moment.”

This was Sirinn.

“Thank you so much! I’ll be in your debt, forever.”

That was Ejlsa, and Vellantina, who opened her eyes, saw her caressing and kissing his cheek, near the corner of his mouth. And her voice was so soft and mellow… yet in Vella’s ears, it sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard.

What else to expect? A strumpet and a horny slime, the perfect match!

He approached her while Ulius left.

“Will you behave if I set you free?”

“Traitor!”

She spat on his face.

“Vella, we need you. Can you listen to me for a moment?”

“How can you do this to her? You just declared your love, and now you cheat on her with Ejlsa? The next morning? How long is this going on?”

“She’s twice my age, for Providence’s sake!” he protested. “True, she does look phenomenal, but still, I have limits! Every Festival, when she comes to the Rhits, I help her to organize her operas, and we talk a lot. If anything, she’s like a mother to me.”

“Yeah, like I’d believe you! Slime!”

“Vella!” he shook her by the shoulders. “Estella is sick!” That cooled her instantly.

“What?”

“She fell to the ground, after the fight, shivering, crying, and ranting: what have I done, what have I done! And Fits' name, she shouted that a lot, and I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. Then she passed out. She woke screaming a few minutes later, and Ejlsa put a sleep-spell on her to keep her calm. ”

He paused, seeing her distress.

“It was my fault...” said a voice.

Dharius was passing nearby, carrying things into the blimp.

“It was my fault he died,” he repeated. “I shot first; I panicked. At least we got to see each other once more…and in his last moments, I told him Alienor had escaped. I hope he went away happy… It was all my fault.”

He sighed and went on carrying things, looking at the same time sad but at peace.

“He looks quite resigned,” pondered Vella, looking after him.

“What do you expect? Fits disappeared from their life fifteen years ago and did pretty bad stuff before. But nevermind, we now understood shooting him was not your fault.”

“See?" Vella sighed. "I’m not a bloodthirsty monster!”

“All the fight occurred in a split-second, Vella. We couldn’t tell who shot first; it was too fast. We thought you started killing people, as you usually do.”

“That’s what you think about me? That I kill people for fun?... Goodness, Sirinn!”

“So if you let you free, you’ll not kill Alienor? She’s stable, but sleeping, Ejlsa’s keeping her sedated to heal faster.”

“I’ll let Alienor live as long she doesn’t try to fight or run.”

“Vella, I’m serious. If you harm her, you’ll destroy Estella. Killing the daughter of her parents’ friend will be too much. We’ve already lost two people today, Fits and…”

“Khit’s, poor little thing! I’m so sorry about him….”

“No, Khit’s alive, just unconscious and with a big bump on his head. Sem, on the other part… We think he protected the imp with his body … He was pulverized, we found his left hand almost one hundred yards farther, thrown away by the blast.”

“All right, I'll be a pacifist, just untie me…”

He obliged. She looked at him with a frown.

“What?” he asked.

“Not ever even think to tie me again, or else! Now, you’ve said you need me. What for?”

“To be near Estella, of course, to comfort her. She needs to eat; Ejlsa is waking her up as we speak.”

A pale and disheveled Estella appeared from a tent, following Ejlsa.

“Let’s eat; the table is set,” the woman said.

It was high noon, realized Vella. The table was waiting near the trees, protected from the sun by their shadows. They began eating in the most awkward silence. Vella was situated near Estella, who cried silently, watering the soup in her spoon with her tears. Putting her hand on her shoulders, Vella said the most comforting words she could think of.

“Think positive, Estella; it will help. Maybe two people died, but they saved two lives today, Dharius and Khit’s.”

“Don’t bother, Vella,” replied Estella, sobbing. “I’m a failure… a failure… I didn’t saw Alienor at all… neither Ejlsa, and they were so close… I’ve led Fits and Sem to their deaths… I’m a failure…”

“I was shielding the camp from magic detection, my dear. No wonder you couldn’t feel us.”

It was Ejlsa, again with that soothing voice, fingernails on a chalkboard for Vella.

“Miss Vellantina, could I say something?”

It was one of the big guards. Both and the soldier were at the table, and all three were avoiding her eyes. There was fear in their attitude and repressed resentment. She raised her shoulders.

“I want to say we are sorry to have attacked you and had no idea who you were please say hello to your father he trained us a while ago and our most respectful salutations to your mother will you?”

It was said in one breath and very fast.

She raised her shoulders again. She would have preferred to stare at them with the gaze her mother had: lifeless, cold, going through people like an arrow through a sheet of paper. But she had warm and lively eyes, and they were already scared.

“Why did you shoot, Vella?” asked Estella in her ear.

“They shot first; give me some credit!” she answered back. “Didn’t the others told you? All went down so fast... too fast.”

The princess’s head sunk in between her shoulders. She was whispering words to herself, and failure, stupid, and inept were the nicest of them. They sipped the soup for a while and took seconds; it was the main and only course, soup, and bread.

“How do you feel, sis?” asked Ulius.

It was an unusual question, one that quarreling siblings pose only in severe circumstances.

“Not much better,” she recognized. “I… messed up. I was so sure of myself… all that success at matching people or solving menial problems in a controlled environment… it was just an illusion… I’m a bad Seer, Ulius. I don’t want to ever See probabilities again.”

“Common, sis’, you know better. Lots of people are happier because of you. And now, you’re not reading anything at all? ”

She raised her shoulders.

“Butterflies over meadows… All is well… Alienor is under control, we are safe.”

“And the fog?” persisted his brother.

“Gone. I had a dream before Ejlsa woke me up. We were all together, surrounded by the fog, on the top of this mountain. And suddenly, I could fly. I rose over the fog, and guess what? The fog was, in reality, the breath of a dragon. He was huge, covering the sky. Steam and smoke billowed from his nostrils, blown from so high that it covered all the mountain and well above. Suddenly he vanished away, dissolving into the air, and with him gone was the smoke, the fog. And all it remained was peacefulness. Butterflies over meadows… like now. I guess Alienor represented the Dragon, and the vanishing that she was captured… ”

“Do you know how she got her army, milady Ejlsa ?” asked Ulius politely.

“I do,” replied Ejlsa. “But let me check on her first.”

She and the soldier went into the wounded tent, which hosted both Alienor and the red engineer, but only Ejlsa returned. The soldier had remained near Alienor, watching her.

“She's doing better, thanks to Providence. The lung is saved. That boy rushed up on Sirinn's heels as soon he freed himself from that net, and they carried her back. I still don’t know where she got him, but he’s a good young man and loves her deeply. Now, the story. Two years ago, from desperation, she hypnotized Fits - Providence takes care of his soul - and learned a way to communicate with the Secret Archive of the Sentient Realms Society. She extracted from it that army, it was kept asleep and shrunk, in a tiny package. A stasis capsule. She told me that the device is called a stasis capsule.”

“And then, she started her plans to conquer the Realm!” smirked Vellantina.

“Not so, my child,” amiably yet viperishly retorted Ejlsa, profiting from their age difference. “She just wanted to have some leverage so that our nation could build a country in this far remote corner of the Continent. You see, going in the Islands is no better than going on that planet, but here, in time, roads can be built, exchange deals negotiated. Isolation does not suit our people; we need commerce, arts; we like to tell stories and see the children in the fairs with their eyes wide open in awe… We are Beauhemians, keepers of beauty and knowledge, masters of lights and shadows, and this is our way of life.”

“So you say she’s not evil?” asked Ulius.

“Not more than the usual nation leader. Leadership comes with tough choices. I know she was an enemy to you, but it was all a misunderstanding.”

“She did kidnap us from the Realm!” stated Estella.

“She most surely did not!” answered Ejlsa. “She told me you were spying on her with a powerful magical device, at first, and that you’ve attacked her, in that village, soon after. Your transportation must’ve been an accident. My daughter does not have the power to do tunnels. It is impossible for any magician, except for your father.”

“She did tunnel back here and brought the army too,” argued back Vellantina.

“Escape beads are old, powerful artifacts from before the change in the Magic field. For the army, it took her two years, planetary alignment, and technology from another Realm.”

“Let Miss Ejlsa finish her story, please!” asked Ulius. “We were clueless from the beginning; this can shed some light…”

“You are a most polite young gentleman,” she appreciated being called Miss, which in truth, suited her. “Once on the Realm, she came to see me but did not find what she expected. You see, a few years ago, I…I... had some problems in d’Ornia. Might have done a spell which did some harm and bad consequences, not that I was not unprovoked!”

Vella opened her mouth to say something, but Ulius shushed her first.

“Those events, and missing Alienor so much, were too much to bear. I've asked Istaìnn and Ernest for help, and they put a mind spell on me… one that silenced my pain. True, it made me a little too uninhibited, and I’ve changed from mezzo to soprano, but I was happy. Alienor did not know that. She thought the spell was a hostile act, intended to keep me out of the Royal Family way. And she decided to heal me. So instead of heading directly for the army, we came here. From Fits'... well, the Realm’s mind, she had found another secret. In the nearby of this place, a treasure was hidden. An artifact from the old times, an amulet left behind by Santiago Quevedo. As you might know, he was…”

“The most powerful wizard, magician, sorcerer, invoker, ever. We know, he was our ancestor.”

Estella was quite proud; her voice had caught a little more body.

“Indeed, love. So we came here, she went away on her own, found the amulet, and healed me. Then we talked… We were so happy, so happy! To find each other after all these years! We had a big party last night, celebrating my… return to a clearer self.”

“And where is that powerful amulet?” asked Ulius.

“I do not know. As you see, she gave me back my old amulet,” said Ejlsa, showing the gem at her neck, “and used the other amulet to restore its full power. But now that you’ve mentioned it, it was not on her when she was brought back. It was a crystal, shaped like a small pen, on a golden chain. Maybe it was lost up on the mountain.”

“Or it was blown away by the explosion,” proposed Vella. “She did not have it on her when… I looked at her.”

She wanted to say that she would have felt such a thing when she tried to strangle the former Scourge, but it was something better left unsaid. For a moment, all remained silent, the only noises being the wind in the wood and the birds.

“Hm...,” said Ulius, pondering things, grabbing his chin. “Miss Ejlsa story added to my own observations, completed the puzzle. I have a theory!”

“Providence, help us!” exclaimed Estella.