7 The Celestial Healer

The thunder rumbled the sky a couple of times as the stone walls of the livestock quarters shook. The lightning strokes beamed her mother's face showing how terrified she is. Helena couldn't understand why her mother is suddenly acting different. She saw fear in Beatrice's eyes, and anguish in her trembling hands.

Beatrice opened the floor door where there is a couple of wooden plight of stairs down. The dark hatch is cozy enough for one person, and it's covered with dusts and hay. Beatrice led Helena down the underground bunker as quiet as possible.

Unsure of what's happening, Helena hesitated and squeezed her mother's hand. "What is going on?", Helena asked in panic at her mother's fearfulness. "Did Celeste threatened you?", she asked again.

Beatrice held her daughter's face with assurance and certainty. "Everything is fine. Just, stay quiet and Don't come out until I call you. Do you understand, Helena", Beatrice whispered then she restlessly laid down a blanket and let her daughter sit down on the ground as she handed over her daughter's carry on bag.

"Mother, at least tell me what's going on", Helena said. Despite the dark made her hardly see anything, she could tell that her mother is sobbing. And with the sound of her mother's voice, they could be in a serious and life-threatening situation.

"It's better for you to sleep here. Away from the noises outside. ", Beatrice tried to curve her lips as she squeezed Helena's hands tightly.

With the heavy rains clouding Helena's senses, she couldn't tell any bad auras nearby. 'Is Celeste one of the King's? Did she made Argus' sick??', she wondered. "Has the King found us? Why don't we tell Father?", Helena asked as she cling onto her mother.

Beatrice nodded sideways and took out the hilt from Helena's carry on bag. She handed it over to her daughter putting it close to her heart. "Helena, soul travel away", Beatrice whispered. "This hilt is your destiny. I will summon you when it's time", she added as she wrapped her arms around her daughter tightly like it is the last time. Then, Beatrice made her way upstairs and waved goodbye to her daughter before closing the hatch.

"But! ", Helena was cut off when Beatrice gently closed the floor door. This is the first time her mother allowed her to soul travel. 'Something is going on', she thought.

Helena kept wondering why she's hidden in the bunker in silence, and apparently away from his father unknowingly. Through a peephole, she watched her mother cast a light with her palm directed towards the floor door. The sounds disappeared slowly at the motion of her mother's hand. Helena tried to push it to open, yet it's tightly locked. She couldn't hear anything from outside. "I'm locked in", she whispered.

Looking furtively through the narrow opening, she watched her mother open the window widely, before moving away beyond the tall stacks of hay. Helena sighed with lack of enthusiasm to argue, she stayed back in the bunker. Holding the hilt close to her heart, she laid down and decided to soul travel.

"Where's Helena?", Gaius asked as soon as he entered the livestock quarters.

"She ran out. She'll come back like she always does". Beatrice answered as she glance at the open window implying that Helena went out through there. She sat down on the bed of hay and rubbed her contracting pregnant belly.

"But, it's still heavily pouring outside", Gaius peeked out the window trying to see if he could catch of glimpse of his runaway daughter.

"She's going to be fine. You know how ladies of her age act. They act rashly and they are very sensitive", Beatrice said as she collect herself from her pending tears.

Gaius sat down on a stack of crates. "Why don't we just let her do what she wants, Beatrice?", he said.

"She does exactly what she wants", Beatrice answered as she squinted her moist eyes.

"You know what I mean, Beatrice. Helena has done so many amazing things! Things that us typical healers cannot do. She could travel without the crest, can even go anywhere she wants.. nature answers to her calls, and she could sense energies! Who knows she might have learned to transport things with her when she travels? And what would be next?", Gaius widened his eyes at Beatrice as he stood up. "She could hold a blade and do the forbidden that us simple healers don't. Beatrice, there's no doubt she's the chosen one", Gaius stepped closer to Beatrice as he make a point.

"I think, she can possess the power of the stone. In that case, we can go back to our lives in Caluso and leave this gods forsaken place", Gaius kept talking as Beatrice stood slowly. Helena never heard about the stone in her parent's teachings or read anything related to it on the books. However, she have always wondered why she gained unique abilities compared to her parents who could only do less.

"Gauis", Beatrice hardened her jaw as she place her hand on her hip. "Have you seen her wounds each time she heals someone? We even have to summon her back when she soul travels. What more could happen to her if she does.. more? Without her crest, her mind and body will slowly perish every time she uses her powers. How selfish can you be that you linger in the past and push your daughter to reach your expectations, while your daughter suffers?", Beatrice exhaled softly as she pursed her lips. "Helena is not the chosen one, and she will not take part of whatever your plans are… You know that is the very reason why we left Caluso!", she said as the lightning beamed her blazing eyes.

"My daughter will be, whether she likes it or not. When she finds her crest, she'll be fine. She will be the best", Gaius met his wife's gaze.

"Your daughter?", Beatrice lifted her brows in heightening anger. "I don't want MY daughter to carry the burden and retaliate the ghosts of the past. She will never touch the stone, or use her powers for anything apart for healing. My daughter is not a Celestial Healer, and won't ever be a bitter soulless mystic healer", Beatrice reiterated that her daughter won't turn to healer who heals nor kills.

"I have accepted her as mine ever since she was born, Beatrice. I've been a father. In all ways.", Gaius gritted his teeth at his wife. "Don't you want to be great again? I'm sorry, Beatrice. But, Helena is not only the one tired of this miserable life!", Gaius' voice echoed like thunder reverberating in the clouds.

"What did you just say?", Beatrice dropped her shoulders as she gape at her husband.

"What a pleasure to see you again, Beatrice. ", a voice of a man interrupted the pair's argument that caught Beatrice off guard. Before she could make a move, Celeste, who standing beside the man, gathered energy with her hands in a ball and pushed it towards Beatrice as it massively bursted and hit her chest. A strong flash of light with a certain heat surrounded the quarters and later Beatrice was thrown against the stacks of hay, and violently dropped down the floor.

"Noooo!!! What did you do?!", Gaius shouted as he run to Beatrice who's knocked down from the strong blow. "Why??", Gaius shouted in tears as he cradle his pregnant wife splurging blood from her mouth.