CHAPTER 8

Trinity closed the book as she walked over to a mirror.

‘It's time I actually learn how to control my emotions.’ she thought to herself. She remembered the directions Luxei told her. She put her right finger on her left hand, and left hand on her right finger, and slowly moved them up her arms. The insides of her arms felt strange, she felt like she could feel almost every vein and blood cell in them. She stopped at her collarbone, and the feeling went down her body, down her chest, reaching her waist, her legs, and then her feet. It was an unpleasant feeling, but she had to feel it for the spell to work. When the feeling was in her whole body, she moved her fingers up her jaw, to the corners of her mouth. She waited until the feeling moved up her body, up her neck, and through her mouth. She looked in the mirror as tons of dark blue particles came out of her mouth. She didn't take her fingers off until the feeling moved up, away from the bottom of her body, going up, and through her mouth and all of it was gone.

Trinity went back to her book and opened it up again, and wrote down, “Lastly, I shouldn't be needing a spell to fix my behavior. I should be the one to do it” she wrote down. She closed the book for the last time that night.

~

When she woke up, Trinity found a note on her nightstand:

Meet me at the ignipici cage, I need your help again

- Asteria

P.S. If you don't know what it looks like, it's the glass

cage with flying fish on fire. It doesn’t hurt them.

Trinity mentally rolled her eyes, she just wanted an uneventful day to herself, but she wanted to prove to herself (and all the people in her childhood) that she could actually be nice to other people.

She loudly exhaled and went over to the teleportation circle and put in the code and stepped on it like usual.

What wasn't normal was that when the bright light was gone and the wind had stopped, Trinity wasn't in Asteria’s garden. She wasn't even standing on a different teleportation circle. There weren't any walls with vines like the halfway to the garden, and when she looked in other archways, none of them had viney walls.

Trinity put her face in her hands and muttered to herself, “Can I please just get a day as royal where nothing happens? Why does everything happen to me?”

She remembered that the overlords told her there were small rooms in the castle with only teleportation circles, so she ran down the hallways looking for them.

When she had spent a few minutes looking for one of those rooms, she finally found one and was ready to put in the code when suddenly, she realized next to her was another hallway, and something green was glowing from it.

Trinity carefully looked around the corner and saw something that immediately made her turn away, but she couldn't help to take another peak.

The overlords were standing around a large green glowing stone, the same color of the royals’ rings. They held something in their hands, and were muttering stuff Trinity couldn't make out, that released a spark of lighting from the stone, making her feel like the ground was moving everytime a spark was released.

“They really need to enhance their security levels.” Was the first thought that crossed Trinity’s mind. She looked away and tried to listen to what they were saying.

“Say the right words, dumbass!”

“It's not my fault I can't remember a 10 word spell in a dead language!”

“Well you should be remembering, dumbass!”

“Everyone, shut up! The more negative energy you give off with your annoying voices fighting, it's gonna do more damage!”

“Yeah, Yaromir, shut up!”

“At least I have a good memory!”

Trinity couldn't bear to listen, she immediately put in the code on the teleportation circle, and closed her eyes after stepping on it, and then when the sound of the air died down, she opened her eyes once more to see the beautiful garden Asteria did all her work in, but she couldn't see any them anywhere.

She walked around the garden looking for zem, passing by a divergent cast of plants and animals all around her, looking for any speck of wavy orange hair, metallic flash, or anything that looked like a light colored fabric.

“I know we don't have the best relationship, but rant all about it to me. I've known you for a very long time.”

Trinity turned at the sound of Lux's voice. He was standing next to Asteria, whose face was red, blotchy, and shiny. They were sitting on a bench that was surrounded by bushes of bright colored lotus flowers.

“I just feel so stressed and scared, i have a bunch of duties to cover and your better at my job than i am, and there was that terrible earthquake a few minutes ago, thank Hefin that it was a few miles away from us, and for some reason i've just started feeling less and less like a real woman, i feel like now matter how much i feel and look like one i’ll always be a boy and i just hate it, and that if i reveal it, everyones gonna hate me.”

“Look, Asteria. Nothing bad will happen to us, just be glad we’re okay and not too many people are hurt. It's fine that you feel stressed, practice spells with Royal Aohina, I can tell she has potential. And get that nonsense out of your head telling you you're not a real girl, you are and always have and will be. The palace and the people love you very much, there's tons of people who also are like you, and even if they don't like that, it doesn't matter, you still have me and your dads.”

“Thank you, I guess. I also just wish I could see my dads again. It's been 3 and a half years, I hope they are doing well. I also miss your moms, they were so supportive of me. Remember when they bought me all those dresses? Gosh, I hate to admit it but they were so ugly. But I still miss their support. At least your moms and my dads all love each other, they're like therapists for each other.”

“I probably sound like a child right now, but i miss them too” he replied, “even if we had five more minutes, i would apologize for any trouble i've caused them.”

Asteria wiped away their tears before they looked away from each other and sat in silence for a minute before Trinity came out of her sort-of hiding spot .

“Hey, I got your note, I was looking for you.”

“Great, there's not much you need to do. Before I tell you, I'm just gonna give you a little information dump about why you need to do this.

“The ignipici are immune to fire, but they are still able to feel the heat, and while they can withstand high temperatures, sometimes they can overheat from the fire on them, which can affect the water around them, making them even more hot, killing them. About once every week I have to go inside the cage, and make the water cooler. It can dial down the fire and make it less hot. This may be similar to last time you were here, but the water is too hot for the average person like you to handle. However, since I have elemental powers, I'm immune to high and low temperatures, so I am able to dive in. The only reason I need you is so that you can make sure i dont stay too long in the water. It can affect both me and the ignipici negatively, so you have to make sure I'm in there for exactly a minute. They’re able to make teleportation circles and people have powers but yet the timers I’m allowed to use aren't waterproof, and a certain someone-'' she turned to look at Luxei and then looked away a second later “-refused to help me.”

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“I'm probably never going to use more than 90% of that information ever again, but I'll do it, I don't want you or these fish to die.”

“Great. Take this timer and set it to one minute and start it when I first get in the water, and also take this megaphone, it has been spelled so that when I'm in the water, I'm able to hear what the speaker is saying. Once the timer is up, say something in it so I come out of the water.”

“Sounds easy enough, I guess.” Trinity said to Asteria, who nodded excitedly. They then proceeded to pull a ladder out from the side of the cage, making Trinity wonder where it came from. She then climbed up it, all the way to the top, while Trinity set the timer to one minute.

“Remember, when my full body is in the water, start the timer!” They yelled from the top of the cage.

“I got it! You can dive in now!” Trinity yelled back to her.

Asteria then jumped in the water, Trinity immediately starting the timer. Asteria opened her eyes and made a pattern with her fingers on the edge of the cage, not using anything, just her fingers and the cage. She continued to repeat that pattern, and everytime she finished one loop, the water looked like it began to glow a light cerulean shade for one second, then disappeared, each time getting brighter and brighter.

Soon enough the timer started beeping, the one minute being up.

“Your one minute is up, come out now!: Trinity spoke into the microphone. Asteria got the signal and swam up to the surface, taking tons of deep breaths. She pulled herself out of the cage and climbed back down the ladder.

“Thank you so much, Royal Aohina.”

“I didn't really do much, but-”

“Do you not know what would have happened if you weren't here just now? The fires would have died out, making the ignipici die from hypothermia since it's their only heat source, and if i wasn't in there long enough, then they would have died from overheating since the fire can get too hot for them!”

“I'm truly sorry, Lady Asteria, please calm down.”

“You're right, i'm more sorry, i don't know why i said that, your a royal and i'm just a-”

“Lady Asteria, really. It's fine, please be quiet! I'm not mad at you, really!”

“Please dont keep on apologizing, Royal Aohina. I'm 18 already, I don't know why I act like this, and I know I sound dramatic. You can leave now, but once again, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, and you don't have to worry about forgiveness, Lady Asteria.”

Trinity walked away, going back to the teleportation circle, being proud of herself for being nice, but still anxious about the crystal she saw the overlords fighting around.

~

Chloe had a schedule for practice every day. On the first, second and fourth day of the week, she would practice sword fighting, which was her main skill. On the third and sixth day she would do archery, on the fifth day she would practice knife throwing, and on the seventh day she would have a fight for all weapons against one of the other knights.

Today was knife throwing day. She stood 12 feet from her target and was holding a knife in her dominant hand, gripping it like a modern-day hammer, her arm over her shoulder, wrist slightly bent, her right foot in front of her left. Getting ready to throw, she shifted her body weight forward, getting her arm ready to throw. It started to straighten, and she only let go when her wrist was about to be straight too. letting the knife slip out her hand. She watched as the knife spun through the air, and then saw as the blade was enlodged in the target, but not in the center. She let a breath out and walked to the target, pulling it out.

“What are you doing?” A voice said out of nowhere, startling Chloe. She turned around and Gulistan was standing there.

“Practicing knife throwing.” She replied.

“How do you do it? Is it like an arrow?” the young girl said, curiosity in her dark eyes.

“Not very much, you don't have as much control with the knife when you do with an arrow. An arrow goes straight, but a knife can go in almost any direction.”

“Can I try throwing the knife?”

“Of course, just use another one, this one has been used too many times.”

Chloe pulled a similar knife out of her pocket and gave it to Gulistan, who looked at it like it was pure gold. She observed it with her hands, slowly moving her fingers up and down the blade.

“Alright, once you're done with looking at it, I'll show you how to put yourself in the best position, it's very important to be in the right one.” Chloe told her.

Guilstan walked right over in front of the target.

“Look at the ground, there are markings, how far do you want to throw it?”

“15 feet, I don't really feel too comfortable or uncomfortable with it.”

“Alright, put the knife in your dominant hand, and put that arm over your shoulder, if you want to use more force, straighten your elbow.

“Since you've put the knife in your right hand, put your left foot in front of you, no weight on it, but put your right foot behind you, all your body weight on it. When you throw, you'll shift that body weight forward on your left foot.

“Now, when you throw it, shift your body weight like i just said, and when you throw it, don't throw it like a ball. Just straighten your arm in front of you and let the knife slip out of your hand. Force doesn't really matter too much, just keep your body movements fluid.”

“That was a lot of information, but I've faced way worse!” Gulistan said, slightly yelling. She then threw the knife. Both of them watched as the knife flew through the air. It then hit the target, enlodged in the wood.

“Woo! Yes, I did it!” Gulistan yelled.

“You've got good hands, girl! No wonder you're so good at archery!” Chloe laughed. The young girl continued to yell out victory chants. It reminded Chloe so much of themself when they were younger, all happy and cheerful.

“Hey guys.” An annoying voice said. Or at least it was annoying to Chloe. They turned around and there stood Eldritch Charneldevil.

“What do you want, stupid bitch?”

“Calm down, look at this.” He pulled out a fresh newspaper. Chloe looked at it and was surprised.

There had been a severe earthquake not far from where the castle was, in fact outside of it. It had harmed tons of people and sent lots of people into a panic.

“That's awful!” Gulistan said while she was looking at the picture.

“Yeah of course it is, Sherlock.” Ber said. He was standing next to Eldritch, his eyes puffy. It was safe to assume he had another panic attack.

“So um… What happened with you two?” Chloe said, changing the subject. They hated talking about stuff like that.

“Well he struggled again, but that's no big deal!” Eldritch said, trying to look as happy as possible

“I look like a fool compared to Gulistan.” Ber said sadly.

“You're not a fool, okay? It's fine if you're uncomfortable with it, you can stop and choose something else.” the slightly taller boy put his hands on the other boy's shoulders.

“N-no it's fine. Isn't patience key?”

Meanwhile, Chloe looked at the newspaper more. There are articles about some dumb bullsht the overlords were saying, but then they saw something else.

“Trinity has done something else for Lady Asteria?”

“Yeah, she's a royal, people will want help from her,” Eldritch said to them. “Almost everything she does is in the newspaper and why are you pulling a knife out of your pocket?”

“I'm throwing it, obviously.” They threw the knife, not doing any preparations and threw it at the target.

“Why does Lady Asteria, a beautiful woman who can do her job properly, need help from some stupid jackass like Trinity?” The whole time she was speaking, she pulled knives out of her pockets and threw them at the target, not caring where they ended up.

“Why can't you calm down about her? You care so much about what she's doing, what, have you got a crush on her? Are you her biggest fan? If only your skill was equal to temper, all good, no caring about others?”

“Shut up, at least I still say ‘I don't bite’ to people.”

“At least I don't curse unnecessarily.”

Chloe threw their last knife. By now, they were sweating and out of breath.

“If you don't mind, I'll go drink some water.” They then walked away, Eldritch with a disgusted look on his face.

“I don't like calling people dramatic but holy shit.” Ber said.

“Well kids, here's a life lesson for you. Don't be like that, and if you're gonna curse, at least use it at an appropriate amount of times.” He said to Ber and Gulistan.

The siblings looked at him dumbfounded, looked at each other, and then back at the idiot in front of them.

“We will take that in mind, thank you. Come on Ber, don't you like the skipping stones?” Gulistan said, walking away with Ber.

“No, I don't like them, and I am older than you. Stop treating me like I'm your baby brother.”

“What are you, going through an emo phase?”

“No, now be quiet!”

~

When Trinity was back in the royal bedrooms, Apurva and Arkanos were once again sleeping on top of each other despite the fact it wasn't even 6pm yet.

She sat down on the bed next to them. She really envied both of them, how they were all cheerful and bright, and how they had each other to lean on.

She missed and loved Chloe very much.