Meant To Part

Malcolm's voice lowered, there was a strange softness to his words as he calmly continued.

"Your soul is tainted in countless sins," he said, "Her highness' death had already been written, and it's same for you. Sinners never live long, why don't you give up your futile efforts and surrender?"

Izekiel said nothing but a small smile curled over his lips.

"There is only death for you," Malcolm's voice insisted, a small hesitation appeared in his eyes when he saw Izekiel smile.

"I will kill her...you say that as if it's supposed to scare me. What a pathetic attempt," Izekiel remarked in amusement.

"You don't know what you are dealing with, Izekiel," Malcolm's gaze hardened but he still smiled.

"Oh, I know you very well," Izekiel returned the smile, "Your holiness..."

The faint golden light flickered in Malcolm's eyes as he sighed and scratched the back of his neck.

"We shall meet soon,"

The light disappeared from Malcolm's eyes as they turned back to brown, he looked at Izekiel in confusion.

~~~

The warm light of noon faded into gentle coldness of evening, and Nesrin's eyes frequently glanced towards the door.

Izekiel had left the house earlier by saying he needs to attend to some urgent matters, he left without even looking at Nesrin once, and he left leaving so many questions churning in her heart.

Malcolm and Izekiel had inexplicable expressions when the spiritual element was mentioned, the way Izekiel glanced at Nesrin and the way he dismissed rest of interrogation made Nesrin even more confused.

-System, what is spiritual element?

[The information is locked. Character level is not enough to access the requested information.]

"Lady Hanbel?" Nesrin looked at her from the reflection of mirror, "Do you know about the spiritual element?"

She was busy braiding Nesrin's hair when Nesrin asked the question. Hanbel thought for a while before shaking her head.

"There are only four magical elements, I do not know spiritual element," she paused, "Maybe it's one of the lost elements?"

"Lost elements?"

"In the beginning of time, different forms of elements were used. As humans evolved, time changed and circumstances changed, the elements also changed,"

"I see...do you know anything more about spiritual element?"

"I am afraid not," Hanbel watched her with worry, "But I am sure you can find something in the palace library, it is said one can find answers to almost everything known to human in the imperial library,"

"Thanks for your help..." Nesrin smiled and then she noticed her reflection properly.

Lady Hanbel have insisted she dresses up in less plain clothes, Nesrin could not recall the reason for she was too indulged in her thoughts at that time.

She was wearing a red dress that had a neck a bit too deep, a belt of cloth was secure on her waist, the skirt flowed down and stopped a little above her ankles. The soft red fabric was patterned with flowers and silver linings.

"What do you think?"

"It's...beautiful," 

"As I said, a queen should always dress her best," Hanbel nodded in approval.

"I am not a queen though,"

"Every strong woman is a queen," Hanbel smiled sadly, "His majesty and I have a talk, I learned about the changes you brought,"

Nesrin was genuinely confused, the only major thing she did was the implementation of civil exam policy and even that idea came from the history books she had read.

"In recent years, there have been changes that brought women to an equal position to men, yet they were seldom present in high administrative positions. You changed that,"

Nesrin returned a hesitant smile, she had only done that for selfish reasons. She was taught to always place herself before anyone else, that made her life peerless...but Nesrin, in her previous life,  had achieved feats that many can't even imagine.

Looking back, they seemed like nothing at all.

"Well, today is a special occasion as well. We are freed,"

Nesrin glanced at Lady Hanbel.

"I...I don't understand?"

"It's a long story," Hanbel sat on the armchair, "Long, long ago there was an increasing terror of the pirates, however, not everyone opposed them. One of the merchants of Merah was involved with the pirates and even gave them shelter in his house when council begin to hunt for them...

"When Merah was found out to have harbored those pirates, council started an investigation of the village. It used to be a highly commercial land, and when money is involved, greed draws men to do many crimes,"

Hanbel sighed.

"In the end, the village was exiled from the empire and they were placed under the law of confinement which severed all ties we had with the outer world. The wealth and property of the village were confiscated and we were imprisoned like this..."

Nesrin was not sure on how to respond.

"We simply paid for our sins, there is no need to be sad-"

"Is everyone in this village sinful then?" Nesrin asked.

"No..." Hanbel averted her gaze, "To protect innocents and purge evil doers at the same time is often hard, sacrifices have to be made,"

Nesrin stared down at her hands.

When she thought about Lady Hanbel, her heart only became heavy and heavier. 

"And when they found no one to blame, they claimed you cursed and a bringer of misfortune..." she realized and her voice trailed off.

Nesrin regretted voicing her thoughts out loud and looked at Hanbel with wide eyes, but the lady only softly chuckled.

"It's all in past, it does not bothers me," she inhaled deeply, then sighed, "I must say, I have great expectations from her highness. You can bring positive change,"

There was a knowing smile in her eyes that made Nesrin's shoulder feel heavy. She commented nothing on that, her ultimate goal was to survive past new year...Nesrin was no savior, her own life was in danger from two of the biggest forces of empire. 

How can someone like her do anything for others?

"Thanks for all this," Nesrin said without meeting Hanbel's eyes and left the room.

Her heart beats were racing, it was like the air was heavy when she saw Izekiel in the living room. 

He didn't looked well, his gaze was chilling in a way that silenced any words Nesrin might have said.

Izekiel's eyes met with her, then he left indifferently.