Fate and Destiny (The Fated Series, #2)

Chapter 32 - Rohana - Lost

I knew my duty was to my King and Queen, but I wasn't just about to leave Branka broken in the training room.

Branka held the power of void manipulation. She could make something out of nothing. A weapon, an animal – you name it, and she'd have it popping into existence with a single thought. Never have I been so afraid at the depth of her power then I did when the air around her began turning into the most pitch-black spikes as big as a seven-foot hugely muscled man that I've ever seen. They jutted out in every direction, tearing through the ground and the ceiling, making the whole castle shake as they kept spreading and spreading, uprooting from the floors or sprouting from the walls.

I had to mist to where the others got the King and Queen safely to the courtyard to avoid being impaled. I tried dodging them as they multiplied, but the random stagger turned into a crowded nest I quickly couldn't even slip a hand between. They swarmed around Branka first, closing me off from her, and I couldn't mist in without risking the possibility of impaling myself on one of the spikes. It hurt to leave her, but I knew that if they were her doing then they wouldn't harm her. Or so I told myself when my feet landed on grass and sunlight blinded me.

We watched as the whole western side of the castle became overrun with Branka's power. I knew very well that if it went any further, my sisters and I would have to go to her and stop the spread. I remember feeling each of them silently stepped behind me, ready to mist into the castle and possibly kill one of our own. Even looking back at it, I couldn't imagine having to drive my blade into the heart of any of them - especially Branka. I was an only child, raised as such until I went to Camp Daleka and was placed in a room with nine other girls, some older, some younger. Not only would it haunt me, but the pain of having to live with their blood on my hands would surely cause me to go mad myself.

We all were greatly relieved when the nest stopped growing, even more so when they retreated and the castle fell back into its original and sturdy form. As before, relief didn't last long. Within the minute Branka threw the massive double doors to the castle aside and marched right for us. The Branka that walked towards me wasn't the Branka I knew. Her red hair turned black, and her lips, nails, and veins were all tinted in the same night stark color. Even her training clothes were leached of color, torn in places that were likely due to her power.

One would think she had gone mad had Willa not been there by her side, looking just as angry and determined to kill someone, and just as equally void of color. They looked like death incarnate, and they didn't pay us a single glance as they left the castle grounds.

Since Thralia's first elemental rulers, there has always been a Resolute Protector standing right beside them, holding council, guarding their lives, and ensuring the succession of the rulers went uninterrupted. Willa's eight powers represent all eight of her ancestors who held the title before her, and with each of their deaths, their power passed down to their children who would succeed them. Eight powers for eight passed Resolute Protectors, and only one legend has been told to warn those who would consider crossing them.

The Legend tells of the Resolute Protector Aloïs, the third of his title, who could remove or overwhelm the five senses. He had previously already seen one succession passed down & watched over three generations of elementals in his lifetime. Upon the birth of his third Mater Natura, he had long since mastered the manner of setting apart his feelings from his duty. He held no lovers during his reign of the title, bore no children, and kept his relationship with all four of his previous elemental rulers strictly professional. His next Queen, Nyra, was the same. Nothing more than a ruler he'd serve and advise.

Known as The Great Warrior, able to take on the entire force of the two factions of Ginerva who served beside him in his time with ease, he trained Nyra since she was able to hold a wooden sword. Years passed, and Nyra lived twenty-one years before her parents both agreed that their time of ruling had come to an end and that she was ready. The ceremony was done, Nyra's parents taking their deaths willingly and with pride in the woman their daughter had become. At the hands of Aloïs who had already done the ceremony once, their hearts were pierced and the elements were passed.