Nothing Short of A Miracle

The leader of S.T.Y.X was surprised to hear of this as it was unheard of fairies to contract with familiars, but he quickly remembered the old general retelling him that the princess was the precious adopted human daughter of the elusive fairy kingdom's royal family. Loved by the queen and acknowledged by the king, she had the blood of a fairy and the blood of human running through her veins. Despite that, the queen's motherly love for her was just as unconditional as with her subjects, if not more so. The king himself also praises this daughter of his for her political and social skills displayed in quelling conflicts between fairies and, from the shadows, nations. She was in every rights worthy to hold the title of crown princess and direct heir to the throne, yet she refuses and adamantly wishes to hold the title of princess with no rights to the throne but for social status only second to the queen!

Can it be said that this girl was selfish or selfless?!

While most lower class civilians would be delighted for such a selfless act of their princess, the more noble civilians would be angered to death by her selfishness!

Her parents, as well, just wants to throw their crown to her and go on couples vacation elsewhere! As much as they love their people, they feel like parents trying to smooth out a childish quarrel that has been blown out of proportions on an almost monthly or weekly time! With their daughter taking on a role similar to eldest siblings, they just wanna take the chance to sneak away for a break only if their daughter could just stay in her place for more than five minutes...

"What is required to save Ortho?" The leader questioned with a frown.

"And that's where things could become difficult... For you." Peony pointed out with a frown, "Ortho needs to merge with the other half of his soul before he can reunite with his emotions back in his vessel and you've already guessed where that soul is. With your family being the ones in charge of S.T.Y.X, I can guess where that soul had gone to. Ortho needs to merge with the soul, but, to do that, he needs magic to support the strength of his soul against that curse. Then, he needs time where he is uninterrupted by his surroundings."

"That... that would be difficult." The leader frowned.

"But, it's not impossible." Peony responded, "With my bloodline, I can withstand blot and even force it at bay. If I want, I can burn it away even more violently than his curse. However, burning it is out of the option for me and Ortho's soul feeds on the blot his other half produces. If I use my ability, it'll build stress on both sides and harm the soul. So..."

She explained her plan to him which shocked him in disbelief as he responded, "You... You can really do that?!"

"It's not impossible for me." Peony responded bluntly, "I was told, even as a biological human with small traces of fairy, I'm anything but normal in this world's rules. However, let's not forget I'm no god. I can't revive a body that has died and I can't bring back a soul that has left the body. Ortho is a special case because he refused to leave his brother after the overblot incident. With his own power, he brought his own consciousness back in a non-living body, a vessel and survived by the tip of his pinky. This is nothing short of a miracle as most would've either become an evil spirit with one wrong move or a wandering ghost if they remained for too long. I've seen many that have disappeared without a chance of rebirth into a new identity. What we're doing now is something that only a handful have succeeded in doing. However, none of them are as strong or knowledgeable in this area as me. "

Hearing this, the leader was shocked. While she has every chance to be spoiled and relish in the spotlight, she chooses to remain as hidden as possible and devote herself to her studies. Since she has familiars, that means she can tame them. The only people who can tame so many are beast tamers and even those are hard to come by nowadays. If this was true, then the princess is much more amazing than the world believes her to be!

Blot. The trigger of overblot. The fear of this world for millions of years. The mystery and danger of this world. There was no true cure to this mystery. No true antidote and miracle to the hearts of the victims and their loved ones. Even he, too, and his ancestors all suffered under this ominous tragedy.

Yet here is someone capable of controlling the blot and destroying it.

"The blot cannot just simply vanish from this world." Peony interrupted their thoughts much to their surprise, "The blot is as natural as magic. When there's the sun, there is the moon. When there is light, there is shadow. If you want to eliminate blot, then you must do the impossible and eliminate magic from this world."

"That's..." The man frowned, "Do you know the secret of the overblot then?"

"The blot is new to me as well." Peony responded as she sipped her tea with ease, "Because my biological lineage far away existed long before the birth of the gods."

"Your biological lineage?" The leader raised a brow in bewilderment.

Peony smiled softly, "Would you like to know the secrets of the overblot I have uncovered?"

"What do you want?" The leader frowned.

She raised a finger to her lips and responded with a smirk and two fingers, "Your vow of secrecy... And..."

Seeing her soft demeanor suddenly display sharp eyes and a villainous smirk caught the four off guard as they shook in bewilderment. She continued to state her second wish to which the leader's eyes widen in disbelief, "That's it?"

"Of course." Peony smiled softly once more as she sipped her tea with a calm aura once more making the previous danger seem to be a mere illusion, "However, the vow isn't all that simple."

"What form of vow is it?" The man frowned with suspicions from hearing this.

"The vow requires magic to be bound. In my birthplace, this vow is powerful. Breaking it can result in death by heavenly lightning no matter where you are. For my kind, breaking it makes you lose your ability to use magic forever, which is no different to death just more slowly and painful."

"Is the information that important?" The man frowned.

"Should this information be leaked carelessly or handled recklessly without permission, anarchy and chaos will descend on the world. Wars and hate will run more rampant across the world once again." Peony responded calmly, "If I do not use this vow to accompany the information at this age, this world will not know their sliver of peace for another decade. That's how important the information of this blot is."

"But, isn't this too risky?" One of the fates spoke up hesitantly.

"Of course," Peony responded, "However, I know how to best utilize it because my bloodline have used it for millions of years. Naturally, I have also been able to use it to its fullest capabilities for many years. The vow I want you to swear will last for a couple decades. By the two decades, the world will finally be ready for this information."

"So..." She put her tea cup back down and responded solemnly, "The question is, for this information and for Ortho... will you swear a vow with me?"

.....

Upon returning to her room, her teacher looked to her with a hesitant expression, "Will you really go there, Peony?"

"Yes."

Peony was already determined to do this from the beginning, so she decided to see it through especially as the child was simply too pitiful to be left to roam the earth as a soul in a puppet.

Her teacher sighed in dismay, "Your parents will kick up a fuss again."

Peony smiled wide, "Father knows."

"The king?" Her teacher raised a brow, "Even so, it would be a problem if your mother knew this dangerous thing that you are doing."

"Ah... So Senior sister is aware." Peony wore a bright smile on her face when she heard this.

"Hmph! Obviously. I've known you since our youngest child was nine years old. Raising the two of you was no easy task." Her teacher frowned and folded her arms, "Lucky for us, the rulers of the hidden fairy kingdom proved to be decent parents themselves."

Peony laughed, "There you go again. Can't you be honest and just say that you're grateful you weren't the only one raising me? Aside from that, didn't I do decently well in western etiquette for an eastern royalty?"

"Hmph."

Maisey flew out of her ring and sighed, "And, this is why I can never leave the two of you alone with the queen. It's so easy to misunderstand your tone of speech."

"All right, all right." Peony turned to her teacher and responded, "I'll be staying the night here. Will you help me purchase sweets and souvenirs with me? I would also like to offer spiritual fruits and herbs to her majesty for her kindness in aiding me today. Sadly, I was unprepared and did not prepare any proper gifts to her majesty upon arrival. However, I heard she enjoyed the spiritual herbal tea leaves I prepared for her. It's also been a while since we had an official meeting."

Maisey shook his head in dismay, "You're going overboard again, Princess. The queen, your mother, will become jealous."

Peony chuckled, "Haha! Don't worry so much, Maisey. If mother does know of this, tell her that I've been working on her gift for many years now. I'm sure she will be overjoyed with it when she lays eyes on them. It was unfortunate that it took so long, but I've finally finished it and will await for the fairy gala to present it to her."

Maisey cried in despair, "Ugh... You know I would rather not risk provoking her majesty. Why must you always give me this role, your highness?!"