Kingdom of Lies (The Fifth Element Chronicles)

Chapter 7 [part 1]

Days and days went by after meeting Syform, and Russell changed completely.

He stopped talking to me, avoided me if he could, left the Kingdom without me.

'Have you seen Russell?' I asked the twins one afternoon.

'He went hunting, he didn't tell you?' Answered Annette.

'No.'

'Maybe you can come with us to the gardens.' Aly was immediately excited.

Everyone had a different task in the house. The brothers worked the land, hunted or helped in the village, while the twins tended the crops in the gardens behind the yellow house. The wonderful thing was that they used magic to keep the vegetables and flowers that were spread over the land growing. 

'Come, come.' Aly wouldn't let go of my hand.  Annette was walking behind us, snorting. 

'You're going to take her arm off.' 

Aly asked me to sit down in front of empty land. 

'We want to grow roses, we never grew roses before, we have the book here and you can try it with us. This is so fun!'

'I'm sorry Aly, but I don't have any magic.' 

'We all have magic, only some use it more than others.' It was Annette who urged me to try it. 

'Yes! Let's do it. I'll look for the spell, I think it was on page... here, to grow roses, close your eyes, place your hand on the ground and think of roses. But we never saw a rose, Annette,' said Alyssa, disappointed. 

'I saw one in a book, would that work?' I asked, with curiosity. I didn't know anything about magic, or how it worked, so everything they taught me excited me.

'Of course, you see Annie? Milaia always solves our problems'.

With much skepticism, I let them take my hands and closed my eyes. I had seen the image of a rose in the book "Flora and Fauna of Tellus". A rose. Why only one? It could be a field full of them, many roses, beautiful red roses. Roses.

'Milaia', Annette said my name very slowly. 'Open your eyes'.

As I did so, many, many roses appeared in front of us. Their fragrance welcomed us and their color filled us with joy. 

'You did it, girls.' I said instantly. 

I was amazed at what magic could accomplish. It was just incredible that they could do something like this. 

'What are you doing?' Russell's voice surprised all three of us. 'What is that?' 

'It's roses Russell, real roses, Milaia...' 

'I told you not to bother Milaia.' 

They both bowed their heads and left without saying goodbye, ignoring the roses they had just grown. 

'You came back for me?' I asked him, confused by his attitude. 

'I forgot my arrows, I'm leaving now.' Before he left, he turned around and said: 'Try to stay in the house and please stay away from my sisters, magic is not a game.'

After that, I knew things were bad. I began to believe that perhaps Syform's unexpected encounter might have been the cause of his behavior. I was truly dismayed. I didn't know what was going on. Not getting any answers from him, I figured it was best to find them myself.

One day, when everyone had left and I was alone, I went to Syform's territory.

But, to my surprise, he wasn't there. I called his name a million times, screaming, whispering, but he didn't show up. I felt as if he was hiding from me.

I was angry, so upset that I couldn't think straight. Russell wasn't talking to me, Syform was gone, I felt alone, like I didn't matter.

I sat on the grass and closed my eyes. Breathing in and breathing out.

A voice came to me, jumped out of my mind as if demanding attention. It's almost time, be strong, it said. I heard it loud and clear, as if it were there with me. I opened my eyes but I was alone, the voice was in my head. It kept repeating itself over and over again.

I ran a bit, to see if it would evaporate with the wind. But it was getting stronger and stronger. I leaned against a tree. The voice did not go away, it was insistent and annoying, but at the same time welcoming. It seemed to want to give me courage, but it only gave me confusion. Go away.

Suddenly, the voice evaporated.

After that whole experience, I just wanted to go home. I was walking back home, when I saw Russell.

He wasn't hunting like he said he was.  He was in the village, talking to a woman in the middle of the street.

Her image struck me. Her dark skin was glowing in the sun, her hair was long and braided. She was dressed in silver, a long dress with boots. She was beautiful, simply stunning. I didn't let myself be seen, I covered myself with the cloak I had taken before leaving.

As far as I could see, they were arguing about something. I stayed close enough to listen, but not to let myself be seen.

'Are you absolutely sure? I don't want to do something stupid, Russell.'

'Sadly yes, I'm completely sure, everything fits. We have to do it; we can't wait any longer. It's been several days, we can't waist any more time Galaga.'

'If what you say is real, then this is exactly what we needed.'

'I assure you it is. I have never been so sure of anything in my life. I feel like I knew it from the beginning, and with what happened, it was confirmed.'

'Okay, we'll do it tomorrow morning, we'll take her there and see what happens to her.'

'It is the only way Galaga.'

'I know.'

A chill ran through my veins. They were talking about taking someone, a girl, to somewhere. Could that be me? If what I had heard was correct, where were they planning to take me? Back to Bieno? No, there was no way Russell was going to turn me in or anything like that. I trusted him, he was my... my partner, my friend, my companion.

He couldn't do this to me.

I thought about running away, but I realized I didn't have anywhere to go, I wouldn't get very far. Accepting my reality, I walked to the house.

I waited for him to come back, and as soon as he walked in, I questioned him to see if he would lie to me.

'You didn't hunt anything?'

'No, not today, I looked but didn't find anything.'

He was lying to me.

'Milaia, tomorrow morning I want to take you to a place I haven't shown you yet,' Russell told me. It hurt me to think that what I was hearing was perhaps the dagger he would stab me with.

'Okay,' I said without fear. If my guts didn't fail me, everything would be fine.

Everything would be all right.