Chapter 17 Ana and Astra’s Choice

Sylvain had just left to test out his new spells. He may or not have realized it, but he seemed very excited. It seems like he really liked creating new spells. I personally couldn't find the appeal. We didn't even need to use spells. All we needed to do is instinctively use our mana. However if he likes it so much, who am I to take away his fun.

"Now that sylvi is gone, what should we do Astra." Ana asks me while I'm thinking.

"I think we should continue working on making the room. We are almost done with it. Let's finish it by the end of the day."

"Okay then that seems like the best thing to do."

As such we then continued our digging. Using only our claws like we had been doing for the last couple of days. The soil is really hard and compact. While it is a bad thing for digging, it is a great thing for keeping out other demonic beasts. Then all of a sudden, I feel an immense amount of mana being drained from me. I think at least 75% of my total mana had vanished.

"I guess Sylvain has started testing his spells." I muttered out.

"What makes you say that sister?" Ana says.

"A lot of my mana has just been taken. I'm guessing yours will be taken soon as well."

A couple of minutes had passed, but my mana hadn't recovered. It seemed like he still needed more mana to activate his spell. After a couple more minutes of waiting my mana began to rise again.

"I'm going to take a break while I wait for my mana to come back." I said to Ana as I headed to the kitchen.

Ana soon follows me into the kitchen as well. Apparently her mana is also being drained. This kind of surprised me. He had just finished using a spell that utilized a lot of my mana, yet he was ready for another. He should be mentally exhausted from controlling that amount of mana. A couple of minutes passed again and Ana said that her mana had stopped being drained.

"I guess that means Sylvain will be coming back soon."

"Yeah. I wonder what sylvi's spells did."

"Knowing him, they probably did something ridiculous."

"Your right sister. He is the one that helped us control our mana. It feels like nothing is impossible for sylvi."

"Then I must certainly meet this man you both speak so fondly off."

I felt a chill go down my spine as I heard that voice. It was a voice that we should have never heard again for the rest of my life. I slowly turned my head not wanting to believe that he was here. However reality wasn't so kind. My father, the king, was right before my gaze. Why was he here was the only thought running through my mind.

"Why are you here?" My sister asked the question that was on my mind.

"Do I need to have a reason to visit?" He answered back in a playful tone, as if knowing what our reaction to that question would be.

"You always have a reason. If you don't have a reason then you wouldn't move." My sisters words had brought me strength so I responded with some words of my own.

"Yes, there is indeed a reason for my visit. However this sylvi person you speak of has really piqued my interest. I would wish to talk to him before continuing my business with you."

"He is out at the moment. This has really been some bad timing. You could always try again another day." I say with a tone implying he is not welcome.

He however shrugs it off and says, "that is okay I can wait."

As such all we can do is wait for Sylvain to come back. He should come back relatively quick since he had probably finished testing his spells. He hadn't been absorbing any mana from me so he should be done. This awkward silence continued between us for a little bit of time before the king ended it.

"I can sense you there so come out already."

I couldn't sense anyone, but the only person who would be there would be Sylvain. As if to prove me right Sylvain suddenly appeared before my eyes. He seemed to be unfazed and asked what he was doing there. They continued to talk for a couple of minutes. I could tell that they were both testing each other. I just couldn't believe someone would be courageous and rough to do so. They soon got into the main topic though.

The king asked about the disappearance of Watson. I was completely shocked when I heard Watson had died. He was annoying, sure, and he constantly bullied both me and Ana, but I didn't ever feel he needed to die. However I was even more shocked when I realized someone was trying to pin the blame on me and Ana. We had never done anything that would suggest we would harm our fellow foxes. Luckily after listening to Sylvain the king decided to believe us, but the bad news came after that.

"Be that as it may, the foxes wish for the death of Ana and Astra. In fact those children should have died once they were born. I don't know how they were able to control their elements till now, but they will one day lose control. When they do it would be horrible, and the longer we wait the bigger the calamity. However since you are my daughters I will give you a chance. Leave the Forest of Calamity completely. If you do, I will not chase."

I had always known that we were supposed to be killed at birth. We were a dangerous existence that could threaten the safety of those around us. If our elements really did get out of our control the damage would be immeasurable. I also didn't want to inconvenience Sylvain any more. He had already helped us out plenty. These last 12 years have been some of the best of my life. I look over at Ana and she seems to have the same conviction in her eyes.

With a heavy heart I try to get the king to allow Sylvain to stay in the forest. Luckily it is only Ana and I that are going to be forcibly driven out. Sylvain would be allowed to stay within the forest. He did try to challenge the decision, but the king instantly shut that down. Ana and I also encouraged him to stay in the forest. Telling him to forget about us and live his own life.

Sylvain seemed to have accepted the decision and we began packing our stuff to leave. There wasn't really much that needed to be packed, though. We didn't really have a lot of items. We even decided to leave the magic bag with Sylvain. He would definitely get more use out of it than us. Even though we said goodbye to Sylvain he seems to be too deep in thought to hear us. Maybe he was thinking of all the good times we had.

Once we were outside Ana asked, "are we really doing this sister?"

"It is the best thing we can do. I believe this is the best way we can pay him back for all the help he has given us."

"Yeah, but can we walk slowly. I want to have as much time to remember all of this as well as I can."

"Yeah. I would like that as well Ana. We won't be coming back here again so make sure to commit it to memory."

"Yes Astra, I definitely will. After all this is the first place in which we were both genuinely happy."

With that short conversation out of the way we began to walk slowly through the woods. This part of the forest really did bring back a lot of memories. This was where we did most of the training to control our elements. There were still some faint traces of destruction from when we lost control. We walked further and new memories started to come back. The time we played some leisure games together, the hunt we had, the grilling after the hunt, and many more. However as we continued walking there was this nagging feeling in my mind. I didn't know how to describe it, but I felt uneasy. It was a familiar sensation, but one I was not used to feeling.

Unable to bear it I asked Ana, "do you feel anything weird?"

"Oh I am glad I am not the only one." She immediately replied. "Do you have any ideas as to what this feeling is?"

"No, I don't, but it is familiar."

"Yeah it definitely is. I just can't place my finger in it though."

"Well I'm sure it will go away soon. Let's just continue walking."

"Okay then."

With that we continued our journey. However that feeling just wouldn't go away. It only intensified as we continued walking. I could tell the same was happening to Ana even though she didn't explicitly state it. Just as I was wondering what was happening it all stopped. It was as if it had all been just a figment of my imagination.

"Is it gone, for you too?" Ana asked me almost immediately after the feeling had stopped.

"Yes it just stopped. See I told you it would go away soon. Are you ready to seriously leave the forest then?"

"No not yet."

"Okay then we will stay for a little longer then. We must leave quickly afterwards though. We wouldn't want the king to renege in his decision because we stayed too long."

"Yes Astra, but just a little longer."

"Thank you sister."

As such we stayed in place for a little while. Then Ana started to walk away. She was done and so I followed after her. I could tell that she was really reluctant to leave. I was as well, but this would be for the best. We weren't even supposed to live for this long. The reason we could was all because of Sylvain. We just couldn't be the reason he was forced out of the forest. Although he doesn't talk about it, we both knew he didn't want to leave. No one, from any of the races, would want to live in a forest filled with demonic beasts. While I was thinking all of this we had made it to the edge of the Forest of Calamity.

"Well it's time to leave." I said trying to drag it out as long as possible. This had been our home for so long after all.

"Yeah."

However before she could say anything else I felt a huge portion of my mana leave me. With this it hit me. That familiar feeling we felt was actually Sylvain draining using our mana. I guess I couldn't recognize it since he only did it once. Plus directly after he did it the king had shown up. That overshadowed his success in spells, but I digress. If he was using our mana, then he would be in a situation where he needed it. While his past is unknown, he has shown that he is an excellent fighter, especially with his spells. The only person who could push him this far would have to be the king. Taking this to its logical conclusion meant that he was fighting the king.

I looked over at Ana and it seemed like she had come to the same conclusion as me. I wanted to rush over and make sure that he was alright, but I couldn't. The amount of mana he had taken from me was too great. I would need to at least recover some of it before I moved. I'm glad he didn't take all of our mana. If he did we would have fallen unconscious from mana deprivation. It's something that has happened to us when Sylvain needed to remove all of the out of control mana from us.

Right when my mana recovered slightly, I started to sprint back to the cave. I wished I was able to reinforce myself like Sylvain. However I didn't have the mana necessary to do that. Even if I did I wouldn't dare since it would need Sylvain's mana to activate. With him being in the middle of a fight with the king then he would need every drop of mana possible. Ana was probably thinking the same thing as me. She took a little longer to start running, but I'm sure she did so the second she could. I just hoped we would be able to make it back in time. After a couple of minutes of running the entrance to the cave came into view. I was scared since Sylvain wasn't taking any of my mana. I didn't want to even entertain the notion of his death.

"If we go in there we are probably dead." I said to Ana.

Ana looked at me and said, "if it wasn't for sylvi, we would have been dead already."

"Yeah. Let's do this." I said as I mustered up all of my courage. The king was the strongest person in this forest. I doubt that Sylvain, Ana, and I would be able to hurt him if he was serious. We would probably have a hard time getting close to him, but I wouldn't let that stop me now. With our resolve set we both headed into the cave.

The sight that was presented to us was something I'm sure we both expected. The king was standing upright. It looked like he wasn't even hurt in the slightest. As opposed to him Sylvain was on the floor. He looked extremely hurt with blood flowing from his ears and nose. I thought I could even see some coming from his mouth, but I'm not too sure. I didn't even wait for the king to explain. It was pretty obvious what happened here. As such I just began to shoot spell after spell at him. Ana was doing the same as I. The king tried to talk to us, but I just wouldn't listen. I'm sure Ana didn't either.

I wanted to continue shooting spell after spell at him. However my mana pool had run dry after 10 spells. Ana was able to do a little better than me and fired off 15 spells. We had been drained of our mana by Sylvain earlier and we didn't even give ourselves time to recover. Of course we would be stopped after a couple of spells. I stubbornly kept dying even though nothing would happen. Even as the symptoms of mana deprivation started to show, I didn't stop. Even though I knew this was a stubborn and futile act, I kept doing it until I lost consciousness.

When I woke up I found myself in the same place where I fell unconscious. Well not exactly the same place, but it was pretty close to it. Ana was also right next to me suggesting that we aren't moved from our spots. I looked around desperately trying to find Sylvain or the king. However, I couldn't find either no matter where I looked. I was still suffering from the effects of man deprivation, but I forced myself to move. I then started to look for clues, anything that could help me find Sylvain.

Soon I found traces of blood, probably Sylvain's, that showed someone had been dragged to the dismantling area. While I was inspecting the blood Ana had also awoken. I filled her in on everything I knew. We then decided that we should head to the dismantling room. There we would probably once again confront the king. I don't know why he didn't kill us, but in this next fight he probably would. We both climbed down the steps to the dismantling room regardless.

"I have been waiting for you two to wake up," is what greeted us when we made it down.

I immediately shot a spell at the direction the voice was from, but that was only blocked by a wall of water.

"I'm not looking for a fight now."

Ana cut him off before he could say anything by firing her own spell at him. He blocked it with a stone wall.

"Just listen to me."

"Why should we listen to you when you killed Sylvain?" I couldn't take it anymore. Even though he was the king, why did he have to kill Sylvain? He didn't deserve to die.

"Sylvain isn't dead."

When the king said that we Ana and I both looked at each other. From the gaze in our eyes I could tell we both thought the same thing. We should at least hear him out. It's been proven that fighting against him is useless. When we expressed our willingness to listen the king began to explain everything that happened after we had left the cave. He even proceeded to show us Sylvain, who was still unconscious, but looking much better. It was probably thanks to the king bringing him down here to clean the blood off of him. After he had finished explaining everything to us, he left Sylvain to us.

"Let him get some rest. I'm sure he will come around in a week or two. Tell him he has passed my challenges and you three are allowed to stay within the Forest of Calamity. Now I must head back to the rainbow fox clan."

Saying those as parting words to us he left. After he was gone Ana and I transformed into our humanoid forms. This was to carry Sylvain up to his room, which would be much harder as foxes. When we got there we gently laid him into the bed. I had many things I wanted to say to him at the moment like why did you fight the king, or why didn't you go with our decision. However there is one thing that I wanted to say above all else.

"Thank you."