Emelia and Rene leave the building to head off to the school across the town. I hope Lyra will be a good tutor for her.

Then I turn to Venus, who smirks. “A good bunch there for you to lead.”

I shake my head. “No, I’m not a fan of Ezekiel’s plan to revive the Keepers.”

The memories of the old Keepers bring back feelings I wish would stay buried.

“You need to give Ezekiel more credit, Alva. He is a good man who brought peace to this war-torn kingdom it has not seen in a millennium.” Venus says.

“Right, maybe it’s me,” I say, feeling my emotions from the battle with True Ending coming back up.

“I’m worried that I will fall back into my old ways. I was a major part of this kingdom’s strife for years. The blood the old Keepers spilled paved the way to the civil war, except I have more blood on my hands than most of the old Keepers.” My hands shake from the suppressed emotions I thought I tossed away years ago resurface.

“Oh, Alva, you are too hard on yourself. Not one man or woman in this world has spotless hands.” She puts out hers.

“I’m one thousand and fifty years old. I have more blood on these two hands than you have in your twenty-eight years.” She smiles, trying to comfort me.

Her words do not bring comfort, which I want more than anything.

“Yes, but I killed innocent men who stole food just to feed their families and women who tried not to pay their taxes because they just wanted to clothe their children,” I say, feeling my anger rising.

Venus shakes her head. “True, but you were also a teenager who had more magic and power than she knew what to do with.”

“A young girl who had free rein by the king to indulge herself how she pleased. Also, you had some of the worst friends that egged your destructive behavior on.” Venus sits on her throne, staring at me.

“Not an excuse. I had Lamden and.”

Unable to handle the mention of her name, my mind goes cold and forces out all thoughts. Tears I didn’t know I still had forced their way out of my dusty tear ducts.

Venus approaches me, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Rhea was an amazing woman who lived up to her lineage proudly. The Nightingales were an amazing group of battle mages.”

That day comes back to me like the rising tide. I can still feel how my sword plunged into my best friend’s heart and how it easily cut open a hole in her tiny chest. Her blood was warm and sticky, running down my arm and pooling below my feet. The smell of her blood haunts me; still, the tangy copper smell violates my nose.

“If she was a good woman, then why?!” The anger breaks free, and I can’t hold back the years of emotion I’ve held back since that dreadful day thirteen years ago. The table explodes into splinters from me, crushing it in my hand.

“Why did she make me kill her?”

My exterior always breaks down around Venus. Who has always been there for me, like the Mother I never had.

“Only she knew the answer, but you allowed her to back down. She chose to stand her ground and make her choice to murder hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens. She blew up Cazaran, not you.”

Venus waves over a couple of guards who remove the broken table and replace it just as quickly.

I sit with my face in my hands.

“Despite the pain that choice brings you, I’m glad it happened because it was the day you changed into the fantastic human you are today.” Her smile is broad and welcoming this time.

I will never forgive myself, no matter how good Venus makes me feel. My best friend’s blood, even though washed away years ago, still lingers.

“No matter how much good I do or how many lives I save, it will never make up for the atrocities I committed under The Mad King’s name.” I don’t shout that won’t make the feelings go away. I calmly let the words flow from me coherently.

Venus grabs both of my shoulders and shakes me roughly. “Back then, they gave you a choice to go with the old Keepers and join the mad king’s army against Ezekiel.”

“Alva, your decision to stay with Ezekiel saved millions of lives.”

I scoff." I also killed two point five million during the Civil War."

“You also saved two hundred and eighty million. But nobody is a hero when you’re at war. The Mad King killed eighty million himself.” Venus sighs.

“You’re not winning the Best Human Alive award, but you can be better than you were back then,” Venus says, smiling to soothe my aching heart.

“Maybe, but I doubt it. Now, what did you originally want to talk about? We got a bit sidetracked.” With a wave of her hands, Venus sits at a table by the door. She pulls out the chairs and waves me over to sit with her.

Venus pours two glasses of Ale into two large wooden cups and then slides one over to me. She takes a big swig from her glass and slams the mug on the table, rattling the plates. With a raised eyebrow, she looks at me.

“You know I’m not a big ale drinker. I prefer something a bit stronger.” Venus grins widely.

“This is exactly why we are friends, Alva.” She claps her hands, and a male Sylphan emerges from a door carrying a glass bottle with a domed stopper.

He sets it on the table, causing the dark yellow liquid to slosh around inside. “Venus?” I raise an eyebrow at her, and she smirks and pours me a glass of the liquid inside.

“Drink with me tonight. We have a very tough battle coming up.” She slides the glass to me.

“I’d be happy to, but this is Starkiller. It is the most concentrated liquor in Tharia. Plus, how did you afford this?”

Venus pours herself more, Ale. “I bought a couple of drums about two hundred and eighty years ago, during the alcohol industry crash. I’ve been saving it for a special occasion.” She looks up at me and smirks again.

“You used to drink Starkiller by the drum fulls in your teens,” Venus says with a smirk.

I shake my head, remembering.

“Yes, and I slowed down after waking up in alleys and strange men’s beds too many times,” I say, remembering those days.

“I don’t remember it just being men’s beds?” Venus says, raising an eyebrow.

“No comment,” I say, smirking at her.

“You were such a wild one back then. I remember when Lamden asked me to come and fetch you during one of your many drunken stupors.” Venus laughs.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Oh, boy, which one? I had several.” I ask.

“Remember at Lady Sophia’s bachelorette party when her husband, Lord Mathias, started that drinking match with you, betting he could drink you under the table?” Venus asks.

“Shit, that day was not one of my most treasured memories. I think he caved after ten mugs of Ale. I finished twenty shots of Starkiller before he passed out.”

Venus smacks the table, roaring with laughter." Then that one boy challenged you to a duel."

“You mean Thomas? Yeah, he was as drunk if not drunker than me.” I said, finally taking a drink.

“Then you beat him with one slap to the jaw, and he sicked his goons on you, right?” She asks with a smile still on her face.

I take another sip." Jager, Quentin, Xavier, the mighty quartet, and Thomas, their fearless leader, were the most robust mercenary band back then. Paid by the highest people in court to protect them." Another sip and a warm feeling comes over me.

“You took that as a challenge to up the tempo and sent all three through the castle roof, then jumped after them yourself.” Venus pours more ale while chuckling.

“Yeah, I thought they ran away from me, and I would not let that stand,” I say with a chuckle, taking another sip.

“Then, when you got outside, you found one of them crawling away from you and sent him through five buildings?” Venus chugs her ale.

“Six, actually, and that pissed me off more because he went through my favorite tavern. I think that was when you swooped in.”

Venus nods." Yep, you had another of the boys in your hands, holding him above the ground." Her Ale sloshes out of her cup as she talks.

“When you showed up, I was excited, thinking finally, someone could hold their own against me in a fight.” I smile at this specific memory.

Venus sighs." You were such a pain in my ass. I’m over a thousand years old and one of the damn Elemental Titans, and you still could give me a rough challenge. You were just nothing but raw, unfiltered power back then. You would hit me so hard you’d send me flying hundreds of meters." Venus says, rubbing her jaw.

“Sorry, back then. I wanted a challenge all the time. I was so much stronger than anyone my age or even older than me. I was so bored. You were one of the few three I could hit with my full strength, and you wouldn’t break or die. That was better than any high I experienced back then.” I shake my head.

“True, I’d say you still crave that challenge today. You’ve tamed your power and could take on just about anyone today.” Venus leans back and stares at the ceiling.

“Like how you just beat that Godling Triss and Unending.” She says, setting her mug down.

“They’re True Ending now,” I say, head leaned back, staring at the ceiling.

She sighs. “Battle Dysfunction, right?”

“Yes, they fell too deep into the thrill of the fight,” I say.

“I wish I could have come to help, but right now, I can’t leave,” Venus says.

“It’s fine. It was rough, but I got through.” I remember the faces of those voidlings.

Venus covers her face and rubs them down her face, smooshing her tiny nose.

“Venus?” I ask, setting my drink down.

“During the fight, promise me you will not interfere during my battle with Zara, no matter what?” She leans her head down and stares into my eyes.

Without wavering myself, I glare back into her old jade eyes and see the unwavering determination in their depths. “Why Venus?”

She takes another swig of her Ale and looks back at me." Because Alva, this is my fight. I must take down Zara for what he has done to my people." Her eyes glisten with tears.

“Venus, you haven’t left this mountain since the end of the Civil War thirteen years ago. Why?” She wipes her eyes and sighs.

“To protect my people’s future, I have been working on something since my last battle with Zara.” She says her eyes are downcast.

“Venus, can you tell me what you’ve been working on?”

Venus bites her nails. “I can’t say until it’s finished, but it will be a new beginning for the Sylphans, a second chance for us to live,” she says.

“Venus, what does that mean, a second chance?” I ask her, trying to make eye contact, but she won’t look at me anymore.

“You’ll find out when Zara arrives,” Venus says, looking away from me into the outside window.

“I may show confidence in my ability to deny my Fate, but what if I can’t?” She asks, her voice cracking.

I tap on the table to get her to look back at me." Venus, what did Fate tell you all those years ago?"

She doesn’t look back at me. “You told me they gave you your Fate three hundred years ago?”

She takes a deep breath. “I will fight to save my people from extinction and fail.”

“T-that I will fall to Zara, and the Sylphans will die off.”

“Venus, you won’t fail; you can’t. You are way too powerful for that.” Venus looks at me with anger in her eyes.

“You haven’t fought that monster.” Venus says this with an icy anger in her voice.

“With that grey skin stretched too tight, no eyes or nose.” Her lip trembles slightly.

“Nothing but a mouth filled with hundreds of razor-sharp teeth!” She slams her mug down on the table.

She looks over at me, her words slurring slightly. “He countered every single attack of mine. Alva, I couldn’t hit him with anything.”

She reaches over to her left arm, and it pops off. Then, with a twist, she pulls her leg off.

I only nod. “When did that happen? “Quickly, she puts them back on.”

“Few know Zara downed me in Greyfell cave. He had this blood-curdling scream that paralyzed me. I fell from the sky.” She covers her face with both hands, trying to hide her tears me.

She looks back up at me, her eyes glassy from the drink. “H-he caught me, then pinned me to a wall with these blood needles in my wrists. Then smiles with those teeth of his.” She shakes as her voice grows weak.

“Venus, you don’t need to keep going.” She shakes her head.

“Then he says this,” Venus tells me, mimicking what I guess is the creature’s slithery tone.

“Venus, my sweet, you’re not ripe enough yet, so I will not kill you today, but I just want a taste of your sweet blood.”

“His mouth was watering, Alva, like he was hungry for me!” Her voice raises as she relives the traumatic experience.

“He then cuts off my arm and just.” Venus pauses.

“Then he just fucking eats it in front of me.” I shake my head as her tears flow out now.

“Then he growls, looks at me, and smiles again, my blood staining his teeth.” She grips the pitcher of ale.

“You are exquisite, my dear Venus. Sylphan blood is the sweetest nectar I have ever had.”

“But yours, oh yours, is so much more. It will drive me mad not to devour all of you. It may be selfish, but let me indulge myself more, will you?”

“He just smiled at me again as he cut off my leg, and I had to watch as he ate that too.” Then she slams her fist on the table, shattering it into splinters.

Then she stands up, throwing the chair into the wall behind her. She goes to sit on her throne. She takes a few deep breaths to calm her erratic breathing.

Venus is visibly shaking now. I walk over to her and hug her until she stops.

“I prayed I would die from the blood loss. I listened as it ate my leg. The crunching of the bone made me vomit. But in the end, he cauterized my stumps after it finished with my leg.”

“How did you escape?” I ask her.

“He let me go. The needles in my arm disappeared, and I fell into a heap on the ground below me. He turned to leave, and then Lamden appeared from the stone below and grabbed him by the neck.”

“Then Lamden’s free hand glowed, and he encased me in a stone orb and sent me flying.”

“Father saved you?” I feel a sense of excitement knowing how he saved my friend.

“Yes, he then took me to get the prosthetics,” she says, clenching and unclenching her fists.

“I sort of knew something happened to you because you walked with a heavy limp the last time we met at the Capitol during Ezekiel’s inauguration. But then you isolated yourself here, so I am sorry, Venus.” I place a hand on her shoulder, and she smiles.

“It’s fine, so Alva, you see, I can’t beat him, and I’ve been so afraid all this time trying my best to deny my Fate, but it seems it’s catching up to me. I have lived for one thousand and fifty years and so, of course, I am afraid to die. What long living species would not be.” She walks back over to the table and chugs the rest of the Ale in the pitcher.

“I swear, Venus, if Zara comes, I will stop him myself.” She sighs loudly.

“No, make sure my people go free if I fail. I want them saved, at least.” She leans back against the wall.

“Venus, Emelia, and the team can save your people. We can kill Zara together.” I say.

“Maybe, but if he could die so easily, don’t you think your father would have killed him?” My mind goes blank.

“What, is he immortal?” I ask curiously.

“No, but it seems like he could be. He has a resistance to most physical attacks, most magic he can just absorb. If you do enough damage to him, he goes inside a cocoon of blood that is almost impossible to damage. Then he comes out stronger than he was before.” Venus says as she plays with her antennas.

“Allowing you to go off and die is simply out of the question!“ I will not let another friend die while I can save them!"”

The room begins to shake as I feel Venus release her aura, and I finally understand her resolve.

“You will, Alva. Promise me. Swear to me on Rhea’s grave.” I feel a swell of anger at Venus for making me do this. I try to push down on her aura, but it’s almost futile. It’s like pushing against a mountain.

“Be mad, Alva, but this is for the best. You have a Fate worse than mine, but you have to reach that day, or everything will die. You have billions of lives to save.” She gives me that hard, motherly stare she always gave me.

“Swear to me.” Her eyes meet mine, and no matter how hard I try to beat her stare down, she wins out in the end.

“I swear on Rhea’s grave I will not interfere.” Venus smiles.

“Good, now, go get some rest. We have a lot to do tomorrow.” Then, with a wave, Venus stumbles to a door and leaves me behind.

“You’re going to leave me behind, huh Venus? Just like Rhea and the other keepers?”

I walk outside and stare up into the big blue sky. “Am I just cursed to watch as all my friends die around me?”

“If that is what must happen to save this kingdom, then so be it.” .