Chapter 16.5
16.5
As she dragged me through the halls all I could think about was that book. What did she mean by the book never lies? And when reading the little captions I noticed it seemed to be updated recently but that doesn't make sense because of how much dust was on that book. What really stumped me was there is no Bavaria Kingdom in the world, if so I would have heard of it in one of my classes. Turns out this Bavaria Kingdom is very much real considering that I'm in their palace.
We stop at two large doors, which I assume lead to the queen's chambers. "You wait here, I'll be back in a few minutes," Elena slips through the doors, closing with a thud. I sigh and plop down onto the ground. Soon the doors burst open, both Ellen and Elena walkout, stony expressions on both of them. "What were you doing in the queen's chambers?" I ask Ellen. "We were discussing something," she says flatly. "Show me the book," Elena nods and starts back in the direction of the library. As soon as we enter Elena walks over to the couch we were sitting on, 'The Royal Family Tree' sprawled open to the same page that we left it on, Sargon Valoise. Ellen snatches the book to read the page.
"No, no, no, this cannot happen. He has to be dead," Elena puts a hand on Ellen's shoulder who had fallen to her knees, her hands covering her face. Whoever this Sargon Valoise is I can assume that he is not a good man at all. "This makes so much sense now," Ellen says suddenly, "All of the small raidings, and fights happening in the Kingdom, the immoral mutants suddenly appearing all around the world. It's all him, he's been behind this,". Ellen's weak and broken figure suddenly sits rigid and upright, slowly her fingers ball up into fists. Her jaw clenched, a fire ignites in her eyes, immense anger and fury fueling it, "He's going to pay, for what he's done to the royal family," Ellen fumes. I have never seen Ellen like this before, to be honest, it scared me.
The loud slam of the door shutting behind Ellen echoes around the room. Elena and I stare at one another, "Now are not the time to ask questions," she says, seeing the confusion in my eyes. "Can I bring this with me to my room?" I say, holding up 'The Royal Family Tree' book, she nods.
Our walk back to my room was silent, we stop at my door. Elena turns to go, "Wait, can you stay for a little while?" I ask. She nods, still silent, I plop down onto my bed, Elena right behind me. "How did you find the royal tree book?" Elena asks suddenly. "Um, I just saw it on the shelf and I grabbed it,". "But how?" she persists, "You haven't even gone through the Change yet and you managed to find the book, even some Master's have a hard time finding the book, and recently no one has been able to summon the book, but you did it without even trying," immediately after speaking she covers her mouth like she just spoke bad words. "What do you mean by going through the change, and who are Master's?" I ask slowly, narrowing my eyes at her. "I'm sorry, it's not my place to tell," she whispers. "Ugh! Why won't anyone tell me what's going on here! This place is fishy, somethings not right about it, and everyone I've talked to use these weird words, Master's, books never lie, the change. What's going on!" I shout. "Look," Elena says softly, "If I was allowed to tell you I would have answered your every question within seconds but since the queen, herself gave the orders for me not to say a word I have to obey her. Even with her command, I'm still having trouble keeping things from you. I don't want to keep things, Bianca, I hate having to keep secrets from you. But I will tell you everything I am allowed to say," Elena says, I can hear the truth in her words.
Annie, Julie, and the boys walk in, "There you are! You missed breakfast, where did you go, we couldn't fi-" Julie stops mid-sentence as her eyes land on Elena, confusion written all over her face. "Hey, Elena" she gives an awkward wave. "C'mon guys I need to talk to you about something," I say seriously. Everyone approaches me warily, Thomas pulls up a chair while everyone else gets on the bed. I place the book in the center of the circle and launch into what had happened, starting with Elena and I planning our meeting with each other and the library, the queen and Sargon too showing Ellen the book and all the way to now, at the end of my speech everyone stares at me open-mouthed. Let me see it, Annie snatches the book flipping it open, and reads aloud the captions of the two people to confirm my story true. My room falls into silence again, "I wonder why Elen was so upset about the book and just walking out without talking? That doesn't seem like her," Thomas says. I nervously give Elena a glance, I had left out all the gibberish Ellen was saying and the odd words Elena had accidentally slipped to me before.
Natalea suddenly bursts the door open, breathing heavily, "Megins awake," she manages to squeeze out. Then she hurries out the door, everyone right on her heels. After endless turns we end up in what I assume is the hospital wing, Megan sits upright in one of the cots lining the walls sipping some tea. She looks a lot better than the last time I saw her. The gash on her forehead had turned into a scab, all the bruises had faded and her ankle looked brand new. "Are you okay? How is your back doing?" I ask worriedly, she gives me a confused look. I shy away, remembering that it's been years since the last time I had shown my concern towards her. "I'm okay, I still have a small scratch on my back but it doesn't hurt bad," she says finally, "Thanks,". I nod, and take a glance over at Natalea, she beams at me. "Right I'll leave you all to catch up," Natalea walks out leaving us in the room alone. "Soo," Megan says slowly, "What did I miss,".
We give her a full detailed description of what had happened since she had gotten nocked out till where we stand now, each of us pitching in when something was forgotten. Once finished with our story, Megan meets each of our eyes for a second before talking "Let me get this straight, we are in a palace that belongs to a queen whose husband passed away twelve years ago, killed by his brother. The queen has two daughters both eighteen, and we are in a palace in a place called the Bavaria Kingdom that does not exist anywhere in the world", we pause before responding realizing just now how stupid that it sounded, "Yep, pretty much," James says. "Oh," Megan says, no emotion in her voice. "So you believe us?" I ask, "Of course I do, what reason do I have to not trust you," Megan says, but the way she kept her eyes on me I could tell she was talking about the day I had messed up the friendship. I hang my head low in shame, how I wish I could go back in time to change that day.
Ellen walks in, a grim expression on her face, "I have something to tell you all, I think it is best we all sit down for this. Follow me, we are going to the lounge," with that she walks out the door. Megan gets up from the bed, she sways from side to side, "Do you need some help?" I ask. "No, I'm fine." she says gruffly, "Ok," I say a little dissapointed.
We all sit down on the couch, all of us facing Ellen, who had sat down on the couch opposite us. "So," she starts out, "You all know that I have control over the wind, but what you don't know is why I have these powers, or where we are, or why I have brought you to this palace. Well, I think it is time for me to tell you. The first thing you need to know is that the people have an option of each of the elements to control, Water, Wind, Earth or Fire".
"Are you saying that everyone in this palace has control of one of those elements?" Annie asks. "Yes, but it is not that simple, it's more like your body chooses for you, it's not what element you like best,". "Oh, so how do you pick an element?" Thomas asks. "When you turn eighteen, not long after you get symptoms, like for example, you accidentally use your power or you can't stop thinking about that element, you might also have a dream about your element as well. Just depends on the person" Ellen says. "Oh, also, this is what we call the Change". Something of the word tickles my mind, I remember Elena using that term earlier today,
"You haven't even gone through the Change yet and you managed to find the book, even some Master's have a hard time finding the book, and recently no one has been able to summon the book, but you did it without even trying,"
"What are Masters?" I ask suddenly. Ellen looks surprised, "Masters are the ones that look after each element. One Master for Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water. Masters are the ones that train the people who had just gone through the Change, they are what you would call the leader or representative of your town or city,".
"How would someone look after an element? It is not like it needs guarding, nothing can take it away from Earth," Megan says. "Um, that story is for another time," Ellen says. "Was that all you wanted to tell us?" I ask sensing Ellen's nervousness.
"Er, no. As I am sure you all have noticed that there is no Bavaria Kingdom that you know of in the world," Ellen says hesitantly. "Yes, in fact, I am positive that there is not one, is it some made-up name?" Thomas asks.
"You are right Thomas, there is no Bavaria Kingdom in the world but it is not a made-up name either," "So then where are we?" Thomas asks. "We are not on Earth, but on another planet a few solar systems away,".
I don't know how to react to this, I am very surprised but also not at the same time. How am I going to be able to get back to school? I'm not too worried about it though, there wasn't much there for me anyway, I don't have any real friends there, no pet to miss, just my books. My parents never loved me either, they cared for me as a babysitter would, but nothing more than that.
"I still don't understand why you brought us here," I say.
She takes a deep breath and begins her story. "Once, a long time ago, before your planet became itself, there was a period of time that we like to call the beginning. A light was born, in the cold blank space, blackness and loneliness are what it has ever known. This light brought warmth to the world, and soon it grew, planets formed under its touch, water sprouting from the little globe of light, creating rivers in the earth and rock. Then life grew, plants and animals roamed happily together, depending on this globe of light for its life and freedom. Over time this globe soon began to shift, turning from its current form to any animal, walking the planet she had created. The animals called her Bavaria, she was their ruler, they loved and adored her.
But soon her creation began to grow jealous of her they wanted that power, the ability to control the elements, to bring others from death, lift objects without touching them. That's when things began to go downhill, some began to plot against her, they attacked her one day. They got destroyed because of this, she erased most of her creation's memories, took their ability to talk to one another, only their own kind. Then blessed those who had loved her with some of her very own power, each individual either got a tiny proportion of her Earth, Wind, Fire, or Water.
For a few billion years it was peace, those who had been blessed passed their power down the generations. Then one day Bavaria elected one family as the leader for each of her planets. Then told them that she would be gone for a little to go to one of her abandoned planets, this was one of all rock, cold and dark. There she found something, those who she had cursed were here, they had grown into one living nightmare. They wreaked power, she jumped into battle. This went on for days, those who had been blessed could tell what was going on with Bavaria at that moment. One night, right as the three moons that surrounded that planet became full, the monster struck one final blow. A dagger embedded in her stomach, she looked down at her belly, she watched as the light poured from her body, she knew this was the end. Gathering the bits of magic she had left she made a barrier around one of the planets containing her people, sending a message to that planet, allowing them to look through her eyes in the last bit of her life. As her last breath leaves her, she shatters into eight pieces, each one containing one of her powers. The beast quickly picks up the shard of resurrection and death. The other pieces disappear before his eyes.
At Bavaria's death, the elements scramble, causing chaos, it was like a bomb went off. Each planet turned into a dead version of one of the elements, the last of her people on the other planets who had not been protected turned to monsters. For example, the Elexsiah was one of those groups, they could control the Wind but now with her gone all they can do is throw things very accurately or jump far with the very little bit of Wind still inside their bodies". Ellen takes a quick breather before continuing, "This planet is the very one that was protected before she had died, leaving the chosen leader family in control of the planet and the people in it".
"Wait, wait, wait. If this is true how come there are two planets that aren't corrupted? This planet and Earths?" James asks. "Well, the leaders used their power to make their own barrier around what you know as Earth. Although their minds were wiped of Bavaria and how to communicate to one another, as well as their powers were taken from them when she had punished those who had turned against her".
"Oh," Annie says dully. "But that still doesn't answer our question, why are WE here?" Thomas asks. "I was just getting to that," Ellen says. "So, as years went by not a single one of us knew where those other pieces went, millions of years passed not one of us or another mutant had a clue. That was until about a decade ago, I myself had found one of the pieces, I was on Earth at the time, one young girl seemed to catch my attention. She smelt like power, control and magic seemed to pulse from her. Then she looked at a small beam of light on the ground, bent over, and picked it up with her hand, she shaped it into a ball, throwing it up into the air and catching it. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, the ability to shape light was one of Bavaria's most common and well-known power for that was how she was born, how she was able to create life, because without it non of her other powers existed, some might say that this was the strongest and best piece of her out of them all. What was I most awed about is all the years we have been searching for the shards it had never crossed our mind that they would hide in a body".
"I still don't get how we are involved in all of this," Julie says looking confused. "The name of this girl is why you are all here today," Ellen says softly. "What's her name then?" I ask.
"Her name, was Megan Alex Bailey,"