Yuuki stumbled over her feet as she lurched her way to where Nic was kneeling next to Crystal. She dropped to her knees and took his place. Before her, Crystal was in the middle of coughing up blood. Yuuki tried to help but was waved away by the queen.

“Please, let me do something!” Yuuki’s voice was hoarse as she pleaded with Crystal. She would do anything to help her. “I’ll get Sarman! He can use a feather! Please!”

A hand reached up and patted her on the head. Her ears folded down as she struggled to keep herself remotely sane in this situation.

“Don’t-”

“Someone called?” A gruff voice cut Crystal off. Sarman grunted as he knelt down next to Yuuki. He reached into his shirt and pulled out a crimson-red feather from inside. “Salamander, mind helping me with this?”

“Don’t worry about-” Crystal tried to stop Sarman despite her incessant coughing. She had to resign herself to Sarmans plan as a flaming lizard jumped onto her chest.

Salamander sniffed around the wound.

“Salamander? What’s wrong?” Sarman noticed the lizard's stiffness first. The connection between the two was to thank for that.

“This… smell…” The lizard whipped its head around, looking for someone in the crowd. Spotting its target it fiercely jumped off of Crystal. It grew midair until it was the size of a proper human. It landed with a crash on top of the man who had stabbed Crystal. “Where?! Where did you get that poison!?”

“HehahehahahahaHAHAHA! I won’t tell you anything.” With a single hiss, the man bashed his head against the stone beneath him.

“No!” It wasn’t just Salamander that cried out in shock. Nic and Aria immediately moved to subdue the man as Cyril forced the flaming lizard off of the man.

Sarman ignored everything and tried to press the feather into Crystal’s wound. His face grew enraged as nothing happened.

“Why won’t this work? Salamander!” Sarman called out to the lizard. “Get over here, I need your power to make this work.” Sarman finally looked at the lizard when he didn’t get any response. “Salamander…?”

“It won’t work…” The lizard had grown crestfallen before responding. His apathetic, dejected voice for the one he was contracted with.

“What?!” Yuuki nearly screamed at the lizard. “You haven’t even tried! And you’ve already given up!” Why would Salamander refuse to heal Crystal? Was it because it wasn’t acquainted with her? What about Yuuki’s feelings? Was she just supposed to sit down and let Crystal die without doing anything?

“I have tried!” Salamander seethed as he responded. “Eighteen years ago, Ordwell and I tried everything to cure Lily! And nothing worked!” The flames surrounding the lizard slowly disappeared. Soon the body had disappeared as well, leaving only a faint sentence for those still listening. “This poison… it’s incurable.”

Yuuki was silenced in an instant. She shivered as she put one of her hands on Sarmans. As much as she was shivering, Sarman could be said to be in an uncontrollable shake. In a silent daze, he slowly backed away, muttering his mother’s name in confusion.

What could Yuuki do but let him go?

Crystal reached out her hand again. She cupped the side of Yuuki’s face, smothering the blood slowly trickling out of a hidden cut. The sting of skin touching the open wound was what let Yuuki even know that the cut was there.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Crys- Ah!” Yuuki gasped midsentence. Something cold had spread its way through her body, originating from the contact with Crystal. Her body temperature dropped considerably for a split second before returning to normal. “What… did you… just do?”

Plip. Plop.

As Yuuki struggled to speak again, some water droplets hit the ground next to Crystal’s body.

“I wanted,” More blood spilled from Crystal's mouth as she coughed in the middle of her response. “I wanted to give you… one last gift… When you need it the most… the gift will make… itself… known to you.”

Plop. Plip. Plop.

Crystal’s hand dropped to the ground. Her labored breathing became erratic. Yuuki’s vision blurred as she looked into the dimming eyes of the queen in front of her.

“Cyril…?” Crystal weakly called out for her attendant.

“Yes, my queen?” The man she called out for knelt next to Yuuki. His shaky voice failed to mask the tears he was holding back.

“Crystalia… it will need a new… leader. Please… support her just… as you have supported me.” Cyril’s fist tightened as he struggled to nod his head to the whisper that barely reached his ears.

Yuuki was still clinging onto Crystal’s body, stopping anyone else from reaching it. If she hadn’t, Cyril would’ve taken her place instead.

“Then… my last act… as queen: My successor… is… Yuuki… Ito…” With a single breath, Crystal named her successor. The Cat girl that she had only known for a little over a month. The girl that stared blankly at her body as tears streamed openly from her face.

Yuuki was silent as a chorus of wails rose into the air. In its path, the noise was met by a sheet of rain from the heavens.

The gray clouds in the sky let loose their waiting teardrops unto the crowds below.

“Ah. At least I got to give that final decree.”

I looked down at the girl holding the body I once occupied. Her body was glued in place like steel, tears silently streaming down her face. Had she even realized that the clouds had let loose their own tears for my death?

“I’m sorry, Yuuki. Don’t hate me too much for hoisting this weight on your shoulders.”

The Cat girl couldn’t hear me. Nor could she see me as I reached down and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead.

Standing up, I looked to the East. I have traveled across many different lands in my time alive on Kronul. At one point I even visited the lands that Yuuki hailed from. Kyoku, the land in the East, named for its western capital. While there I met two young fellows still in their prime. One was a Cat man named Nobu Ito. Yuuki’s father.

“I hope you don’t hate me either, young Nobu. I have sealed her future away from Kyoku after giving her the gift you so longed for. I’m sorry.”

I still remember his pleas for me to help him with his little “bloodline” issue. But it is not for me to willingly defy the will of Kronus simply because someone asked me to.

I only defied it now because of who she would eventually face.

“I wonder, where are you… daughter?”

The attack of Crystalia. It was her fault. The woman I call my daughter. The woman who was created as a mirror image of me. Ruby Serilo. Why did you want to kill me so badly? I guess I’ll never know the answers to those questions myself.

A beam of light cutting through the rain caught my attention. Standing at its base was another like me. He looked an awful lot like the kid I had just helped before my death. A smile as wide as my face formed. Even as I am now, I’m able to feel this happiness just because I saw him again.

I was a flower on the wind as I raced to him. Debris. Walls. None of them stopped me. I ran through each one and threw myself into his arms.

“It’s really you, isn’t it, Noah?” I could barely contain my excitement at seeing him again at last. It has been far too long since we last laid eyes on each other.

“It is. And it’s been far too long.” He stared deeply into my eyes. It felt like I was going to drown in his presence.

It only took a second for both of us to grin like madmen before bursting out into laughter.

“So, it’s two hundred years early, isn’t it? Do you think they’ll reverse the past?” Noah nodded behind me to the group still mourning over my body.

“I do,” I nodded as I said it. “After all, if they don’t… Kronul will never know the peace it once knew.”