CHAPTER 78:
Lyra's POV:
"is it true? Is it true? Is it?!" Mae who's usually calm began bugging me.
"can we see please?" Yura begged, tugging the ends of my skirt.
"how did you do it? How did it happen? Tell us!" Jaja whined and it was incredibly difficult to keep track of everything they were saying.
"calm down; relax" I laughed nervously trying to calm them but it didn't work as they bugged me even more.
They were begging to see my wings.
Cyrus told everyone yesterday I had finally cracked opened my shell and flew.
When the triplets heard of it, they managed to keep themselves in check but they haven't given me a breathing space since they opened their eyes.
We were on our way to the arena and no matter how much I had begged, they wouldn't stop, not even for a second.
"you say relax like it's something we can easily do when it's not!" Yura yelled hopelessly.
"just show us already? Please?!" Mae flashed a wide smile showing her upper teeth.
"I'll show you while we train" I opened the huge double doors and saw everyone there already.
"someone took her sweet time" Cyrus walked over and held my hands in his with a proud smile on his face.
"well it wasn't exactly easy to shake these three off" I glared at the triplets who were still closely behind me trying to be patient but failed woefully.
"so who's starting first?" Tamar asked, with an axe over his shoulder.
"honestly, I was thinking if we only did warm-ups and not particularly go hard-core today" Jackie spoke up, shocking everyone.
We all gawked at what she had just said.
It wasn't like her to miss a chance to beat us all up.
"I know it's pretty weird for me to say but we train basically every day and though doing warm-ups still count, it doesn't necessarily mean we're not training but we're not going as hard as we used to" she spoke calmly.
"I will admit; it would be nice just to do less than we normally do in a day-"
"we don't care what you decide to do today; all we want is to see Lyra's wings in action" Mae wailed and her siblings agreed enthusiastically.
"come to think of it; I do want to see them" Eri gently brushed my shoulders.
"me too!" Imogen smiled, pushing me to the end of the arena and stepping away; giving me space.
Well if you can't beat them, join them.
I told myself while taking deep breaths.
Everyone was silent and watched in anticipation.
The base of my back became heavier as I felt them come out and I let them stretch themselves.
I was immediately showered with compliments from everyone and the triplets didn't waste much time dashing toward me.
"c-can we touch them?" Yura nervously asked and I couldn't say no.
They were gently though my wings twitched like they had a mind of their own when the first contact was made.
"they're beautiful! I knew you could do it" Eri hugged me.
"I wish I could see them, but I'm sure they're amazing" Jackie said silently and it got my attention.
We had little time before the war and we needed to be at our best.
Since Jackie is an amazing fighter while blind won't she be better with her sight?
"you can see them. I know I can't permanently give you your sight back but I can temporarily let you see until after that day. After all we won't know who will make it out of there and who won't so it's best you enjoy it…what do you say?"
She looked stunned by my offer, everyone could see the look of shock on her face.
From what I had heard about her, she hadn't seen anything in quite a while.
"I-I'll think about it-"
"guess we walked in at the right time" Javan and Darya danced through the doors with smiles on their faces.
They have been spending a lot of time lately.
Well why wouldn't they?
Javan told us she was his long lost mate.
He had been searching for her everywhere and was almost giving up home and now they can't seem to stay away from each other.
"these two make me wish I couldn't hear through walls" Cyrus grumbled in my ears and I did my best to stifle a laugh.
There was no lie to what he said.
They weren't ashamed to do whatever they wanted in front of everyone.
"Mae, Yura, Jaja, could you please excuse us? It's quite urgent" Darya smiled and watch them leave with pouts on their cute little faces.
No sooner than the doors shut, the couple turned to us but the smiles on their once happy faces had vanished without a trace.
"what's the matter?" Rayhan said, seriousness laced in his voice.
"the King and Queen would like to see all of us in the throne room"
"I'll get us there" Eri saved us the stress of walking through the endless halls by opening a gate that went straight through.
They looked stress and tired beyond measure, indicating how serious the matter is at the moment.
"what's going on?" Imogen asked on behalf of the rest of us.
We were all itching to know.
"it's going to happen sooner than we thought…it's coming" King Nicolai spoke in riddles, making us more anxious.
"what's coming?" Tamar asked.
"the war" Merah said hopelessly.
"that's n-not possible we still have time"" I tried not to sound scared but failed woefully.
"how do you know about this?"
"we sent spies to monitor Hellen's movement and see if she was going to do anything before-hand. Apparently she did. Hellen had asked the dark witches to turn anyone or anything into her devoted follower. Send him in"
A gate suddenly opened and a table with a body was pushed through.
He looked too disturbing that I heard Eri gag silently.
I did my best to control myself and not throw up.
Beads of sweat rolled off my forehead.
"whatever this energy is, it's eating him from the inside out" Darya moved closer to examine the body.
The man looked like he was struggling and fighting for his life.
His lower body and the right side of his torso and shoulder looked like it was decaying.
There was an odd glow here and there.
Like little specs of dust and they had a golden glow though it wasn't much, it was still noticeable.
The disease looked to be spreading.
It truly was eating him up.
Everyone could see the discomfort and pain he was going through.
"he was a Bird of Prey. He was amongst those we sent to spy on her but he was lucky. He came back. We haven't heard from the others but I'm sure Hellen sent him to strike fear into us" Merah explained carefully, pity dancing in her eyes.
"he only got here today and with the little time we have left, it's not enough for me to even attempt curing this thing since we don't exactly know-"
Out of nowhere, he got up.
The man was totally covered with decay.
It had eaten him up totally.
When he opened his eyes, he growled and swiped clumsily at us, a failed attempt to try and kill any one of us.
To its credit, it wasn't exactly as slow as I thought.
It was all over in a matter of seconds as Merah put a sword through its chest and decapitated it.
Just when we were considering a break.
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