The Gem and its Curse

Right in front of my eyes, the image of my father disappeared in the form of a mist... My sword passed right through his body and, at first, I thought that nothing bad had happened, it was just my monsters finally leaving me alone... But under the mist, I suddenly as the fur... The fur of a fox.

"Beech?! Are you okay?", I desperately asked... It was all my fault... I just slashed right through the monster and Beech was right there... I should've been more careful. "Beech, come on, stay with me... I am sorry, I didn't want to hit you... I can't lose you too, I already lost a friend..."

Its body was weak, however... bleeding severely with a deep wound. I tried to rip a part of my shirt and stop the blood from getting out and I held the animal close to my chest, hugging it... And not letting it go. "Come on, Beech... We already faced so much together through this journey... You can endure this..."

Words are meaningless in the face of the truth, however... And I knew that... I just gave it a fatal blow, the blood loss was already too huge... Its body was weak... Getting colder as the seconds passed...

"In the end... Who's the monster, Dagger? Isn't you?", a voice whispered to me while I stared at the fox and my bloody red hands... "Perhaps the world would be better if you stayed just like you stayed those last two years. You stopped. Doing nothing and living your own life..."

"Perhaps...", I answered... Wasn't that true, after all? The princess might not like me anymore... Jeffrey and Beech are now dead. The world would maybe be better without me.

That's when Beech coughed a little of blood and looked at me... With the last of its strength, it pointed to a light... The light in the darkness... The star, the key. Then... There was nothing more to do... Its paws fell lifeless... The soul of it now joined Jeffrey to rest in peace. To be honest... I didn't want to continue anymore... My desire was to return to my old life, in which nothing bad will happen and no one will care.

"O-O... Okay... I... For you, and just for you, I will reach the end...", I said to the corpse and then looked at the light of the star. The voices tried to distract me, speaking ill of me again in whispers. But whatever they were saying, did it really matter now? No, it didn't, I just lost another friend now... So I ignored them and continued my path forward.

After following the stars for a few minutes, I saw myself in another large square room, in the light of torches instead of the darkness... This room was identical to the first one, but it didn't have a ladder to get outside... The problem, however, was that the crystal was nowhere to be seen and I couldn't see any hiding spots for it in this room.

"And so the knightess has finished her journey... Congratulations, Dagger", a voice said and when I turned to look at this person, it was Water herself, in her frozen dress.

"We are all very proud of you, congratulations...", Air said next, appearing in front of me at the same time that Fire and Earth appeared beside me.

"It's a shame that Whired... I mean, Beech died along the way, but I am happy for you Dagger...", Earth said and then I looked at Fire. He seemed calm, despite not having received any calming stones recently.

"Yes... Congratulations, Dagger...", he simply said... But that didn't solve the problem at hand, however...

"Where's the gem?", I asked them and they looked at each other, tilting their heads.

"We thought you had realized that by now... But the gem doesn't exist, Dagger", they said... And I simply entered in a state of shock, and anger as well.

"The gem... The gem doesn't exist? You... You mean that all I have been through, that the death of the only two friends that accompanied me through the journey... It was all for nothing?!", I asked them, unable to believe the words they have said. But they shook their heads.

"It wasn't all for nothing, Dagger...", Air started to say. "The important it this journey wasn't the end, but the means. You weren't the first to have actually reached this far... But the ones before you did very little in their journey, their frustration was justified. Yours, however, was fruitful, your frustration is baseless..."

"Baseless? I have traveled the whole world in the search of this gem, I have lost two friends, and now I have to deal with the possibility that the love that we once had died in her heart... It's not baseless..."

"Come on, Dagger... Don't tell me you haven't realized, you're famous now, you are spoken about in the conversation of many cities and kingdoms. She who has ventured in the fire to save a person...", Water said, and then the other entities continued...

"She who has reconciled the dragon and the people of the mountains..."

"She who has protected the convoy from the criminals..."

"She who has defended against the criminals' warships..."

"She who has taken down the symbol of tyranny in the Roseblood Empire..."

"And she who has invaded the criminals' fortress"

"Well... I guess those things were good... But what about it? What about the princess's stained reputation and her refusal of accepting suitors? It doesn't solve anything...", I stated and they sighed a little. It seemed like the answer was obvious for them, but it wasn't for me...

"Dagger... Let me rephrase what we've said before...", Water started to say. "The gem is not here. The gem was created not by a wizard, not by us... It's a value that is deep in the roots of society, a long-built value that we've always disapproved of, but the humans have turned their ears deaf to us..."

"But after all you've done, the humans have basically divided themselves into two...", Air started to explain. "The ones who think you have changed into a better person and the ones who believe that you must be punished regardless of your changes... Do you realize what's happening?"

"No... I... I can't see the logic of that...", I honestly answered them, trying to think.

"They no longer have a problem with you loving another woman, Dagger... They might have some issues with it still, but after all you have done of good, this seems so minor... And so not a problem...", Earth explained to me and then smiled. "Which means that..."

"If they know the truth of me and the princess now... They will accept it...", I completed what he was going to say in the sudden realization. That was... That was exactly what I wanted all along... The gem was going to be shattered not by my sword... But by my actions... There was still a problem, however...

"It means nothing... If her love for me has died...", I said... Suddenly, then, fire almost slapped me in the face.

"Come on, has this darkness consumed all the fire you had in the test of will I put you through? You have gone through so much and you haven't given up, your will hasn't gotten weaker until then... You're going to give up on her now? Even if she doesn't love you anymore, isn't it worth taking a shot? Isn't it worth trying, at the very least?!", he asked me...

The memories of all the adventures I had, with Beech and Jeffrey by my side, went through my mind after he said that... Abandon this journey now is like giving up on everything I have fought for... It's like making their deaths go all in vain... I need to fight for this love in my heart, even if it's one-sided now...

"It's worth trying... It's worth fighting for... I have to go back to Coventry...", I said while looking back to the room of darkness... But instead, a staircase appeared on a near wall, leading outside of here.

"Hurry up, Dagger... Your princess might not be available anymore very soon...", Air said while the four entities disappeared in the room. I wonder what she meant by that, but there was no time to lose... Coventry awaited.