Choices

'What the f***?'

She held up her hands. There was a blinding light before her, but it was blurry. She could not make out what it really is. When she felt her hand getting heavy, she placed it back to her side.

'Damn. I swear I sensed that I was dying back there.' Her black hair was spread on the stone slab. Wait… she is on a stone slab! She abruptly sat down. But whooooosh! The world went spinning in her mind. Tori felt her head became heavy on one side then… 'Oh…sh…t'

Blag!

Her whole body slammed on the forest floor. The hit cleared up her vision a little. She was surrounded by trees and bushes with dainty little flowers that she has never seen before. There were even pastel-colored butterflies floating above her. She could also hear the bees and birds on the pink and orange-leaf trees. Pink? Orange?

"Is this heaven?" she murmured to herself. 'It can't be. A witch? Going to heaven? Then does hell even exist?' she snickered at her own thought.

"Miss," she stopped removing the leaves tuck on her hair. 'Didn't Darion left her without any clothes on?' her teeth seethed with anger. Her knuckles went white in her tight grip on the grass.

"You're hurting the grass,"

That voice again! It wasn't that bastard Darion's. Then who owns it? She gazed around that small forest.

The brook was gone. But she could hear the faint sounds of water running. She couldn't find a shadow anywhere. 'Then who the hell did just spoke?' Tori's eyes landed on a tree. There was something before the tree. It was transparent and it kept moving in place. It was like… water? Yes, it looks like a body made of water!

"Water nymph… I thought you only existed in legends." She did not take her eyes off the waterfolk.

"Waterfolks…water nymphs…naiads, so many names for us."

"Why did you save me? Do you want something from me too?" She looked far away in the sky and scorned at herself. "There is nothing more left on me. I am merely a good-for-nothing beggar."

When she examined how the other would react, she did not find the disdain she was expecting from him. "Isn't it our duty to save others who need help whenever we can? Even the grass on your grip has the right to live." He was standing a few meters away from her. She could feel the calmness in his voice.

"Our people saw you with the South Kingdom's emperor in an…unfortunate situation. Forgive the insolence of our people for not offering help. But I need a favor from you." He walked near her. As he closed in on her, his watery figure slowly turned into human form. Inch by inch of his body turned into a solid state. Shoes on his feet, robes, gloves on his hands, until his face was visible to Tori.

When his yellow hair swayed with the breeze, Tori froze. "Nymphs…" she chuckled. They are masters and mistresses of seduction. "What's in it for me?"

"Salvation…" He gazed at her with his blue eyes. He was only a few feet away from her. When he reached out his hand to offer his help, she stared at his hand. "As I have said, all of us have the right to live."

She closed her eyes and rubbed the threatening tears out of the corner of her eyes. When she opened them, a young waterfolk, and she was sure it was a little girl because she had twin braids, was offering a little hand to her. She took both of their hands and they helped her stand up and sit back at the slab of stone. It was cold. Even the hands that held hers were cold too. But she felt incredibly warm and fuzzy inside. "What do you want?" She finally asked him.

"We want to know more about the Accursed One," his eyes twinkled at Tori's sudden decision.

With that one sentence, a pair of hidden eyes within that forest fumed with internal rage. Chains clanked and two waterfolk warriors held the captive in place within the shadows.

"Yllana Saber. That is her name. She saved the North Kingdom from the ambitious Grand Witch of the north. And she defeated the South Kingdom's half-blood demon emperor. She saved the South's Grand Witch, but she died sacrificing herself to save the cursed southerners. That's all I can say to you."

The little waterfolk girl's face beamed hearing what she said. She looked up at the man beside her, "See? She wasn't that bad as the queen said she is." She even tugged on his robe and grinned at him.

~~~~~~~~~~

Lucien grabbed Yllana's hand and showed it to Three. "Mine," he hissed through his teeth.

Thunk!

Yllana's fist still hung up in the air while Lucien rubbed the little bump on his head. "Maybe doing it once or twice is ok. But you still did not answer my question from last time."

"Sorry," It sounded almost like a mouse's squeak.

Yllana looked at him. The other knights raised their brows as they looked at Yllana. Is there something wrong in that guy saying 'sorry'?

"That's the first time I heard you say that," And then that was when they all looked at Lucien too.

"Then…sorry," Lucien kept his hand on Yllana's. But the next moment, he already pulled her up hugging her waist with his other hand. "She's mine." He grinned. Yllana couldn't see the expression in his face since her back was facing him.

"That's it!" Yllana curled her hand, her neck went rigid as she spun around and locked Lucien's face on her sight.

Lucien was about to catch her fist when somebody called out to them.

"Her Majesty requests the audience of the Holy One in the meeting room," the maidservant blinked twice before noticing that Yllana's face was only centimeters away from Lucien's. A blush crept up from her neck to her cheeks. And off she ran saying sorry for the interruption.

~~~~~~~~~~

"She is the North's Holy One! You can't simply ask her to leave us again! What if there would be another attack??"

"What would we do then? You are well-aware Your Majesty that our army has suffered grave damages. If only she arrived earlier. Hmph!"

"That's why to prevent another disaster, she must stay!"

"No! We need her as our ruler in the South Kingdom."

"You still have your empress!"

"And what? Yours is dead?!"

Of course, not everyone was enthusiastic about the victory over the Southern Kingdom. There are still skeptics who dislike the idea of a girl leading them.

Empress Larika and Empress Blanche both faced the elders of the North and South Kingdom. One after another, the elders got into the heated argument.

They sounded more like barking dogs than learned individuals. Yllana shook her head. "I'm going to the South."

When everyone realized that Yllana spoke, they all held their tongues.

"That is the decision of the Holy One," Larika gave them an empress' smile. One when she held her chin up and stared down at her subjects with the corners of her lips slightly raised. "South Kingdom's council is open for our hero's return, I hope?"

"Hero? I dare say, she is nothing but a little knight in this kingdom but you are going to make her your ruler? Fools!"

Du-duuum!

Everyone felt someone glaring at all of them at the same time. Larika and Blanche felt something heavy fell on their shoulders although there was nothing there. Someone's aura was pushing them down and damn its powerful as hell! They couldn't speak. They couldn't move a muscle.

An elder glanced at Yllana. She was relaxed and she even sighed! Is this power hers? The elder shivered at his thought. A High-Saint ranked knight shouldn't be this powerful. But everyone else except her was having trouble breathing inside that room. "You..." the elder tried to push out a word but he ended up choking on the next words.

Yllana peered at Lucien behind her. She gave him an amused smile and did not even give him a hint to stop. The elder who belittled her felt his blood boil by the sudden show of her powers.

"Indeed, I am just a knight. I have little power." She even sighed to add a little dramatic effect. "Since the North Kingdom needs more powerful soldiers for the army, I am willing to give up my post as the Number One Holy Knight." As soon as she finished speaking, Lucien lifted his aura. The north elders eyes' twitched. "Elder Makion seems to know how to measure how powerful should the needed soldiers be, so I assume he has the capability to do this and search for more powerful individuals. I do not need to say more Your Highness. These are the sword and the armor that the kingdom has bestowed upon me."

Elder Makion, the elder who kept on belittling her had a red face throughout the entire time. Who would have thought that such a young woman would possess such an intimidating force within her? If he could only find a hole, he would now likely to burrow his head deep in it.