Speaking With Her
Kristel couldn’t believe her eyes. The person impersonating Liona took a teacup and saucer with both hands and casually took a sip.
“You won’t believe who I am even if I tell you, Princess,” she said, finally.
“Why do you look like my friend?” Kristel demanded, struggling to control her voice.
“Because I have been trying to talk to you for ages and you kept ignoring me. Same as Lady Katherine. Frill listened for a bit, but then she lost her marks.” The Liona imposter took another sip of tea.
“You’re the voice we keep hearing…”
Liona nodded. “Since you’re here, mind joining me? I assure you, I only wish to talk.”
Kristel relaxed but not fully. She realized addressing the mysterious voice would happen at some point, she simply didn’t expect it to take her late retainer’s form. She approached with caution, utilizing an observation Meiyal Art while taking careful steps. Their surroundings were flat and clear. Springing an ambush here would be next to impossible. But she had seen a lot of impossible things lately…
Liona looked at her expectantly, but didn’t mention anything regarding her anxious approach. She leisurely took sips from her teacup while waiting.
Kristel reached the table and took a seat. Liona poured her tea. It was extremely reminiscent of the time when the retainer still lived and the memory aggravated the Princess’s temper.
“Would you mind changing appearance?” she asked, finally running out of patience.
“I suppose, but any other form I take wouldn’t be in your favor regardless.” Still, the stranger took upon her request. With a swift glow, Liona’s form vanished…no, not really.
The stranger still retained her retainer’s likeness, only she was taller now, more mature. Her hair had grown down to her waist and her proportions increased in favorable places. She looked like Liona, ten or twenty years older.
“Are you trying to pick a fight with me?” Kristel removed all malice from her voice, replacing it with a chilling threat that she would carry out in a heartbeat.
“I’m afraid not, Kristel. Not with you, at least,” said the adult-Liona. Either she was oblivious or uninterested didn’t seem to matter. “I haven’t been trying to reach you just to pick a fight. I’ve been looking for your help, or rather, I would like to help you so that you can help me in return.”
Kristel’s attention was stuck to the stranger’s form. It felt like a mockery of her deceased friend. Anything she said went into one ear and out the other.
Liona noticed and sighed. “Alright, Princess. I understand this form provokes you. I do not mean to mock you or your friend. However, this appearance specifically evokes the most emotion in your heart right now. The source of your guilt and worry.”
“That’s hardly surprising.”
“That’s why I’m using it to keep your attention and help you get over your guilt. You see there are two of us, and I can’t let the other one wake up and take you from me.”
“You don’t own me, neither does the other one,” Kristel retaliated.
The fake Liona simply smiled, an understanding gesture most parents gave their child when they speak more than what they know. Kristel had seen that irritating smile mostly from her father and from Lor as well.
“What if I told you that Liona isn’t dead yet, would you give me your attention, then?”
That gave Kristel pause. “You’re lying.”
“Well, to be fair, only one of the two Lionas are still alive. I can’t show you proof here, but if you think about it, it’s hardly surprising.”
“No, it is. There’s only one Liona, and that’s certainly not you.”
Liona gasped. “Oh, no, you’re mistaken. Of course, I’m not Liona. The remaining vestiges of her second life reside within the Vyndivalian her sister so valiantly saved.”
Kristel couldn’t find her words. Xiv did have Liona’s meiyal core, but that hardly meant she was still alive.
“I’m afraid that’s all I have to offer, Princess. If this doesn’t get you to listen, then I shall rest my case and find another. Maybe Katherine’s more willing to listen now. Why don’t you drink on it before giving me your answer?”
With a sigh, Princess Kristel took her teacup. It actually did not contain tea. The black sheen and the enticing smell of fresh coffee invited her.
“I have milk and sugar, if you prefer,” Liona offered.
Even in her Dream, Kristel felt the tinge of repulsion that always surfaced from looking at milk. She never really understood why, or how, but she had been working towards changing that. She poured some over her coffee and took two small scoops of sugar, mixing them well before taking a sip.
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The hot concoction was oddly relaxing. Not in some sort of underhanded trick to manipulate her, no. But she felt being in the moment. The past and future suddenly pulled away from her worries. She was here for this coffee, to savor it and enjoy it until it was finished.
Kristel took her time, and Liona drank tea with her in silence. Her royal retainer passed some biscuits that went well with coffee. She took in a few bites, and then a few more, washing them down with the warm bittersweet drink.
The silence dragged on, but it was warm and cozy. And then finally, they finished their break.
The magic of relaxation subsided and her worries and guilt began to creep in again. But now they were more under her control. She had expected them to return, and that anticipation made all the difference.
“Perspective is a wonderful thing, don’t you think, Kristel?” Liona asked.
Now with a clear mind, Kristel took a good look at the stranger. She indeed looked like a more mature Liona. A future of her retainer that could only exist now in her Dream. She was beautiful. The Princess felt regret, but the understanding smile from the stranger now seemed to ease her rather than mock her.
Kristel couldn’t help but agree.
“I’m glad,” Liona said, before standing. “Well, it seems at the very least, I managed to ease your pain. If you do not wish to hear what I have to tell you, then I will let you go. Your friends are worried and Frein has gone through leaps and bounds to get you out of your nightmare.”
She began to gesture but Kristel found herself standing in protest.
“I’ll listen,” she said. “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”
Liona’s smile was full, gentle and heartwarming, a grin so full of joy it broke Kristel’s heart.
“Thank you, Kristel.” She offered a hand. “Now let me show you the past.”
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Recollection: Kristel Irista
Subject: The Vanishing of The Sky Islands
Timeframe: Day 544 of the 4th Year of Monarch Kristella
Thunder barraged Kristel’s ears relentlessly as the wind swept past her. She could hear nothing else. The sudden light and ear-shattering noise, combined with the fact that she was falling, gave her little time to consider where she was or what she was doing before this.
She looked around in panic, trying to find something to grab on. The flashing lights made it hard to see, almost blindingly so. Hence, Kristel plummeted as she covered her ears and eyes, unable to hear even her own scream. Even with her eyelids pressed hard to protect herself, the assault of light made her see glaring reds through her skin.
It hurt to see, it hurt to hear. She spun out of control until an unknown force oriented her in place. The flashes of red dimmed and the clashing thunder muffled. She could hear her scream again, fighting against the ringing in her ears.
Kristel abruptly stopped, surprised by the sudden calmness of the situation. She opened her eyes to a blur. The oppressive, shimmering light was still present, but it was now manageable, same as the thunder.
Beside her was the mature Liona, carrying her with both arms. “Sorry about that.”
She placed her down and it took Kristel a second to realize she was standing on air. No, a barrier of some sort that was fixed in the air. It was almost transparent, with only a thin film giving it away through a slight sheen.
“Thank you,” said the Princess, unable to distance herself from Liona. Her heart still raced and it was taking her all to calm her burdened breathing. “Where are we?”
“This is The Sky Islands,” Liona introduced. “Or at least what’s left of it now. We’re in the time of its destruction. You remember your history lessons, right?”
“This was Kristella Irista’s greatest achievement. The Slaying of Su’karix.”
Liona nodded. “Whether it was great or not, I will leave up to you. What I want you to witness primarily is the long lost Art carried by your bloodline. And Kristella was the last person to use it. Are you ready? You’re here to witness what it was like before your world lost the power of the gods.”
Kristel didn’t get a chance to calm down. As soon as she caught her breath, anticipation whelmed inside her. She had read the accounts of this battle, how it devastated an entire country, how it brought a powerful enemy to ruin.
All by one small girl.
She gulped down her nervousness and gave a stern nod.
“Good,” Liona said, smiling.
The barrier that contained them both moved through the clouds, towards the source of the relentless lightning strikes. It didn’t take long for them to reach an opening.
The sky above was clear and a shade of purple, riddled by the stars of the cosmos. The Shinemoon was but a quarter filled while the Darkmoon had just passed its third phase.
Underneath them, the clouds roared and rained. Lightning surged from one end to another, creating a complicated web of electrical storms. Kristel could spot moving creatures made out of pure lightning. The distance made it difficult to gauge their size, but she surmised they were about twice or thrice larger than she was.
They continued to move, following the lightning elementals.
“Brace yourself, Kristel,” Liona warned. “The sky itself would shake and tear in a few seconds. The barrier will protect you, but do not, in any given circumstance, jump off it.”
“I understand,” Kristel replied. Soon after, she felt the impact as a colossal thunderclap blasted off the dark clouds below them. The barrier shook, and the force pushed against her. Siffera helped her remain where she was, but it was mostly because of Liona casually buttressing her with one hand that she was able to stay.
“Thank you,” she said timidly. This time, she admitted, even Frein wouldn’t be able to withstand that force.
Liona smiled.
“Don’t assume the Visitor’s limits, Kristel. You’d be surprised.” Her smile disappeared, replaced by a firm, determined look as she turned towards their direction. “Then again, as far as this case is concerned, you do have a point.”
The dark clouds, instead of dispersing from the impact, shifted their way above them, covering the cosmic skies above. And the shift revealed the destruction below.
Kristel observed Su’karix, the Thousand-Year Storm coiled around entire islands that had been ruined by the battle. Multiple lightning bolts surged from one length of its ghostly white scale to another, causing the blinding light and the deafening thunderclap.
Multiple limbed wings made out of lightning and storm clouds fixed themselves at certain intervals of its serpentine form. Claws reaching the size of larger islands gripped at floating rocks and mountains as if they were mere hand holds of a climber.
Its enormous draconic face shimmered with electricity, lightning affixed in the shape of horns, fangs surging with electrical energy. Its maw alight with fulgur meiyal as with its eyes, crackling with so much power that it caused space itself to bend.
Despite this colossal, godlike creature’s power, for some reason, it remained still. Kristel didn’t know how, but she could feel its fear. She tried to look for its source, but failed, until Liona pointed at a small, pink speck floating at a distance away from the storm dragon.
For how little the speck was, it took Kristel a moment to realize who it was. She looked back at Liona with a questioning look and she was met with nothing but a shrug.
Compared to Su’karix, an ancient dragon tantamount to an ocean that could embrace an entire country or two, Kristella was like a quarter of a grain of sand.
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