Elowyn looked at the Sovereign in front of her, her brow furrowed.
"Why are you asking about the tale of the Rain King?"
The Sovereign smiled and said,
"It is ti to collect so debt."
Elowyn did not understand what the Sovereign was saying, nor did the Sovereign intend to explain.
The Sovereign’s crimson eyes glead with quiet satisfaction.
The Sovereign added, saying,
"Though I did not expect him to succeed this fast, let’s go."
...
Deep within the forbidden land of Aranya Varsha, Luke stood frozen before the small pond.
Lysa followed close behind, her boots sinking into the damp earth.
The canopy above blocked most of the light, leaving the forest in a perpetual twilight that seed to press down on them from all sides.
Lysa noticed that Luke had finally stopped running. Within a second, she also saw it: the small, red-colored plant growing on the tiny island at the center of the pond.
The mont her eyes fell upon it, sothing strange happened.
Every instinct in her body scread at her to kneel. To worship. To bow before the small crimson leaves as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
The urge was overwhelming, primal, like hunger, thirst, or the need to breathe.
Before her knees could hit the ground, Luke placed a hand on her shoulder. The eerie feeling vanished instantly, as if it had never existed.
"What was that?"
Lysa asked, the words leaving her mouth before she even knew she was speaking.
Luke smiled as he answered,
"This plant... was the sa plant that absorbed the blood of a celestial."
Lysa’s eyes widened. She did not know what to say anymore.
The fairy tale had been a story, a bedti story for children.
But standing here, looking at the crimson leaves that seed to pulse with a heartbeat of their own, she could not deny what she was seeing.
Then she recalled sothing, and she imdiately asked,
"If it is true, then this place should be raining, right? According to the tale, the deity cursed this land with endless rain."
Luke shook his head, still smiling.
"Have you forgotten? It was just a fairy tale. But one that happened in the past."
"Of course, there might be inaccuracies. Details lost to ti. Embellishnts added by storytellers."
He took a step into the pond. The water was cold, rising to his ankles, but he did not slow.
Lysa called after him.
"But how did you know about it? The location? The fact that the tale was true?"
Luke paused. His back was to her, his silver hair catching the faint light that filtered through the canopy.
"Well, let’s just say I got very lucky."
Lysa did not press further. She understood that Luke did not want to answer.
She could only sigh. She did not even know what she was getting herself into anymore.
Luke had promised to protect her from the vampire high-bloods. He had promised to crown her as Vampire Queen in the future.
That was the sole reason she had agreed to beco his wing.
But as she spent more ti with him, her curiosity only grew. He always seed to know things that most people did not.
But now he was entering the domain of deities. And that thought terrified her.
For vampires to kill her, they needed to find her first. They needed to send assassins. They needed to catch her off guard.
But deities? Was a single thought enough to erase her from existence?
Just thinking about it sent shivers through her entire body.
She truly regretted her decision now.
What if Luke accidentally annoyed a deity and was struck down? Would the deity kill her as well?
She was his wing, after all. His servant. His subordinate. Would a celestial even bother to distinguish between them?
Her mind spiraled with such thoughts as Luke waded deeper into the pond.
...
The water was colder than it looked, seeping through Luke’s boots and chilling his feet. Mud squelched beneath each step.
The air slled of wet earth and decaying leaves, heavy and ancient.
Luke finally arrived before the plant. Its crimson leaves seed to glow faintly in the dim light, and the air around it was warr than the rest of the forest.
The stem was dark as dried blood, and the roots curled into the soil like veins.
With a small smile, he extended his hand to reach for the plant. Just as his fingers were about to touch the leaves, the world froze.
The falling leaves paused mid-air. The ripples on the pond’s surface stopped spreading.
The distant calls of birds vanished into absolute silence.
A single droplet of water hung suspended in the air, caught between falling and falling. Luke’s breath had stopped mid-exhale.
Even the faint hum of mana in the air had gone mute.
Luke’s hand remained outstretched, motionless, caught in the mont before contact.
Before him, water rose from the pond and condensed into a form. It was Elowyn, or rather, a manifestation of her will, her blue eyes glowing faintly.
Seeing Luke’s frozen posture and the plant just inches from his grasp, Elowyn understood what the Sovereign intended to do.
She had said she wanted to collect a debt.
"Was that plant the debt you ntioned earlier?"
Elowyn asked softly.
The reflection of the Sovereign in the water answered.
"Indeed. Take it."
Elowyn nodded. She did not feel sorry for Luke.
She took a step forward and plucked the red-colored plant from the soil, roots and all.
A wave of unknown will assaulted Elowyn’s mind imdiately.
A pressure, a presence, sothing ancient and angry that did not want to be taken. For a brief second, Elowyn’s blue eyes glowed red.
Then the Sovereign’s will obliterated the intruder. The pressure vanished.
Elowyn’s eyes returned to blue. The plant was hers.
Then she dissolved into starlight, fragnting into specks of silver and blue that scattered into the air.
The plant vanished along with her.
...
Only a few seconds later, the world returned to normal.
Luke’s eyes widened as he saw that the red-colored plant was gone.
The soil where it had grown was bare, disturbed, as if sothing had been pulled from the ground.
"What the—"
Lysa, still standing at the edge of the pond, was equally bewildered.
"What happened?"
She was watching it as well, and then the plant just... vanished.
Luke stepped back, his jaw tight. He carefully observed the place where the plant had been.
The soil was fresh. It looked like soone had reached down and pulled it out.
But no one was there. No one had been there.
Luke did not give up. Not after all the trouble he had been through. Not after all the planning, the searching, the hoping.
"Maybe the plant developed consciousness."
He said, his voice low.
"Maybe it can move on its own."
Lysa did not believe that. But she did not say anything.
The forest seed darker now, the shadows between the trees deeper and more nacing.
A cold wind passed through the clearing, rustling the leaves that had been frozen monts ago.
Sowhere in the distance, a branch snapped. Lysa pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders.
She simply followed as Luke began searching the surrounding area, his eyes scanning every shadow, every thicket, every hiding spot.
The plant was gone. And Luke did not know why.
...
Elowyn opened her eyes in her dorm room. The ceiling was white.
She sighed and muttered to herself,
"What a long day."
Today, she had spoken with the Sovereign. She had wielded power beyond human capabilities.
She had stolen Luke’s hard-earned prize. Not to ntion, she now had a [Marshal] rank wraith as a spy and subordinate.
It had been a long, exhausting day.
Ti passed as the evening light filtering through her window cast long shadows across the floor.
Dust motes drifted lazily in the golden beam, stirred by the faint breeze from the open balcony.
Sowhere in the distance, students laughed and called to one another, their voices distant and carefree, unaware of the weight pressing down on the girl in the quiet room.
She turned her head toward the mirror and asked,
"How will the red-colored plant get here?"
She did not understand. The one who had plucked the plant was her will manifestation, a projection of her power.
The plant was in a forbidden land, thousands of miles away. How could it possibly reach her room?
The Sovereign did not answer the question directly. Instead, she said,
"You will know in due ti. You should focus on becoming stronger."
Elowyn nodded and said,
"I understand."
Outside her window, the first stars began to appear. They were faint at first, barely visible against the fading twilight, but they grew brighter as the darkness deepened.
Sowhere out there, in a forbidden land, a regressor was still searching for a plant that would never be found.
She closed her eyes and let sleep take her.
And just like that... she forgot to et Cael before he left for Golden Scale Academy.
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