Kingdom of Life and Death (The Fifth Element Chronicles)

Chapter 12 "Fire and Water" [part 1]

Please.

It had become one of my favourite words.

Please give me a chance.

Please let me have all this power that I don't even know if I can control.

Please let me win.

And now, please give me the gift of water.

Let me have Fire and Water.

I didn't know if I should ask for something like this, I didn't know what it would entail.

I thought I could, I had to believe I could control that power.

The voice in my head still echoed.

You are the Queen of Creation.

That had to mean something.

It had to mean that no matter how much I told myself I wasn't going to be strong enough to withstand all the power, I would.

There was more at stake than I thought.

I was more powerful than I thought I was.

And maybe it was time for me to believe that.

That I wasn't afraid to test how far I could go. How far my power could go.

The Goddess watched me warily, perhaps wondering the same thing she wondered when she saw Crey all those years ago.

Can I really trust her?

'You are so... strange.'

It wasn't what I expected, but she hadn't finished speaking yet.

'I feel like I shouldn't trust you, but there's something about you. Something that screams at me to say... to say yes. Sometimes I feel like you're not even of this world, like you really are what everyone says you are.'

That feeling in my chest again.

You are the Queen.

It was a force of confidence that I didn't want to be dominated by, but desperately needed. I needed to trust that I would be what everyone expected and said about me.

That I would be much more even.

'And if you really are who they say you are, Life and Death, a seed... then I won't be the one to stand between you and your fate. There's a reason my brother keeps it hidden.'

'My fate?'

'Only he can see it. I know the fate of any human, even your beloved Caelus... but yours, yours I cannot see.'

I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

I hoped it was a sign that there really was something more to me.

'You made me remember that my responsibility is to all humans, not just my beautiful creations. I created the water in this world, I control it. I am the water that runs through the veins of every single person in this world. And just for that, just for the hope that they might have a better fate than the one that awaited them if I choose not to help you, then I will say yes.'

I could not hide my excitement.

Another Goddess was going to trust me.

Another sign.

More power.

Whispered the shadows inside me.

More power, that I couldn't let them get.

'But, all power comes with a responsibility.'

'You want me to create something for you? I will.'

I thought about Fiono's request. His dragons. I was to keep creating them as soon as I could. A dragon for Phoenix's help. And of course he hadn't helped here. What's more, he had complicated things for me with his unresolved affair with Muvina. A previous hatred of the Queen was threatening everything. I had survived it purely by chance.