Chapter 29: Chapter Twenty-eight - Be careful

Jade, right after she realized she was alone in the magical ocean:

No, no, no! Where are they? Have I been zoned out for that long to not have realized I swam away from them? But why didn’t they alert me? Had Neil’s condition taken us too long to get out on time? But why am I not being a complete, unaware fish now then?

“Jade!” Echo’s voice yelled behind me. “Quick, we have to find the others!” He continued before I could ask him anything, and as I didn’t want to argue with him about his sudden arrival, I went right after his clicking sounds to follow his guidance.

“They can’t be far if you almost reached the end on your own, so let’s go back a little.” He said in a calm voice, even though I was worried to become a mindless creature anytime soon again.

But he was right, as after we turned around some rocks, anemones and vibrant coloured sea bedding, we found Trixie and Kallan to be around some swimming, bird-like creatures, admiring their movements and sounds. They were completely unaware of our presence and Echo had to shake their bodies to get them back to Earth, sort of speak.

And luckily, soon after finding them we also took Zeph along with us, but he was in a shape far worse than Kallan and Trixie, as his body was more transformed into a fish-like creature than theirs was.

Echo’s now transformed fingers and feet were guiding us quickly to where he had found me and then to the edge of the ‘wall’ which turned out to be only mere minutes away. This made me realise how much trouble I had brought us in by choosing to save Neil from living in this fish tank. If I hadn’t been selfish into wanting to help him, maybe we wouldn’t have needed Echo to come and rescue us back.

My self-awareness made me somewhat ashamed as I had always been the one to be strong and independent, and now I wasn’t that same person anymore. I was almost turning into a liability to be taken care of as if I was now the one needy of help. I hated this feeling and I didn’t want to linger on to it much longer, so I decided for myself that I had made the right decision by saving Neil. He is too important to me to not have at least tried, so I have to forget about the danger I had put myself and also the others into, even though I don’t like those thoughts at all either.

Once we reached the edge, which seemed really strange as I could see the dry air pushing against the salty ocean water, Echo blew out his bubbly air which made him descend to the ocean floor for him to step through the strange boundary and onto the dry land. He laid Zeph down on the floor and leaned into his chest, probably to check if he was alright.

Soon after, I pushed Kallan and Trixie through the same boundary and they started to cough and heel over in getting rid of the salty seawater from their lungs. They, in contradiction to Echo, as they were still hungover from being a half-fish, hadn’t exhaled their last bubbles of fish-air so they were having trouble getting used to these conditions again. I, however, was right by my senses so I copied Echo and exhaled for me to get through the wall safely.

Of course, my tail had taken a little time to change back into my legs and I had to cough a little too, but not as much as Trixie and Kallan had been.

“Where is Neil?” I asked Echo after clearing my throat.

“Jade, I’m going to say this once, and once only.” He stood up once he made sure for Zeph to start breathing normally and started this conversation seriously, which caught me off-guard. “You are to be the Queen, you are to be taking this wall down for Kyalthemar to flourish in its whole again. And due to this all, I am respecting your roots and trust your choices to a certain degree. But...” He took a few deep breaths. “if you decide to get yourself killed, please do so in my presence so I can stop you from being foolish! Neil is too old to have rescued over your own life! It’s not worth it!” He razed, giving me a few seconds to think and come up with a reply.

“His life isn’t worth it? Is that what you are saying?” I asked him rhetorically. “He has been by my side for about three-quarters of his life, and he has saved my life on multiple occasions! He is worth the lives of that of ten others, no, a hundred! And besides, what ruling title should belong to me if I wouldn’t have at least tried to save one life? What right should I have to take upon a title, which I don’t even want, if I would claim my own life more important than anyone else’s?” I fumed when stepping closer towards Echo, screaming in his face.

He had to take a step back in astonishment, baffled to have been spoken to like that by someone.

“You don’t want the title?” He asked incredulously.

“Is that what you took from this?” I asked angry and confused. “No! I don’t give one single flying fuck about becoming Queen! All I ever wanted is to get rid of criminals and live my life helping others. I hate injustice and cruelty and as long as I have the power to eradicate evil, I’ll be doing so. And I can’t do that when I’m in a silver castle, commanding for people to do my bidding and feed me grapes when I want to.” I babbled irritated.

But with each passing word I spewed out, Echo started to relax more and more, dropping his shoulders and sighing deeply when I was finished. And where I had expected him to reply now, he just turned around and went around the bushes that were standing a few yards away from us.

Only now did I have the time to see where we were, as a grassy field was covering most of the land on this side of the wall. There are no more challenges to get through other than travelling to where we were supposed to be going. No more magical walls of windy tempests or burning lava, just grass and a little further a dense forest.

It was strange though to experience this kind of nature on this side of the rift, but I guess the magic here is abundantly present for every creature and plant to live and flourish healthily. This also makes me wonder more why Kallan’s father doesn’t want to get the rift down.

But besides my inner questions, it was getting dark soon so I know we have to set up camp somewhere and I was hoping for Echo to have something ready. I looked down to Zeph and noticed for his body to have fully transformed back to Fae now, just as my legs had turned back upon getting through the water. But even though I was fully conscious again, he wasn’t. His breathing was laboured and his body was almost lying lifeless on the ground.

“Are you coming?” Echo suddenly asked me. “Here, eat these and you’ll be fine in no time.” He said while handing us some purplish looking berries. I was still angry at Echo and hadn’t considered myself to be hungry but ate them anyway, just like the others did. Immediately, I felt better upon letting them sink into my stomach and followed Echo as he dragged Zeph back to where he had taken the berries from.

Right around some bushes, there was an open spot with a small simmering fire and boxes and sacks filled with supplies. And also Neil was sleeping there on the ground, covered in a blanket. I sat right next to him, realizing that getting through the rift must have cost him a lot of energy, especially since he is an old man already.

“We’ll rest here for a little while and then we will get ready for our next journey.” Echo said.

Kallan, sitting himself down at a fallen tree, exhausted and confused:

“I don’t want to rest, I just need to know where we are going and why you left before we entered the rift.” Jade asked Echo while yawning.

“I know you have a lot of questions but you must get some sleep now.” Echo replied.

I had these questions myself too, as well as I was wondering about the well-being of my brother. Even though I don’t like him very much he is still my family and he guided us this far. Echo, on the other hand, had left us, came back from I don’t know where and then just commanded for us to rest, even though we are in unexplored and unknown territory.

Echo walked over to Jade and started whispering to her, I was curious what they were talking about, but it seemed Jade was agreeing to what he was suggesting and laid herself down next to Neil. Soon she closed her eyes and pulled a blanket over herself to sleep. She looked so serene when she relaxed, even though her facial scars still made her look fierce. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself if we don’t find out soon if she is truly my cousin or not.

My emotions split my mind between wanting to care for her as my Queen or that of my lover, not knowing if I should be professionally distancing myself or am allowed to get close to her intimately.

Deciding I had to wait a little longer and have patience until an answer showed itself, I checked Zeph to have steady breathing again and sat back on the fallen tree, not daring to fall asleep while any danger could come and attack us.

“I know what your feeling.” Echo suddenly said when he sat himself down next to me.

“I doubt that.”

“I once had the same problem, being torn in a difficult decision wondering what I should or shouldn’t do. But the decision to choose either way will become perfectly clear in a moment of desperate need.” Echo cryptically said.

What could he be knowing about my problem? Or even the fact I had to decide something? And desperate need? What is that supposed to mean? And what about her? What will happen to her, whether I choose one or the other? I dropped my head, tired of my own thoughts.

“Between her tough and vigilant character, she is also a beautiful and caring creature. And even though she might be thoroughly certain about making tough decisions, she is also torn in between emotions as well. She might not show it, but she doesn’t know what to do either.” Echo said.

I understood what he was saying, even though I still doubted if it was the truth about her. Besides... “How would you know her to be-

“Beautiful?” Echo interrupted and I nodded, even though I’m sure he didn’t know I made that movement. “There are more ways to ‘see’ someone’s beauty, Kallan.”

“Right, their inner beauty.” I said, knowing what he meant.

“No.” He said, confusing me. “I see what you are willing to do for her, I see that you will never want to leave her. You wouldn’t have been here if you didn’t want to protect her with your life. That’s why I know you are drawn to her, and why I know her to be beautiful. You feel something else for her, other than being loyal to the rightful heir, right?” Echo explained and I sighed deeply.

“No matter what I feel, I can’t act upon it. She is my cousin, it wouldn’t be right.” I said annoyed.

Echo smiled lightly and put his hand on my shoulder. “Just get some sleep and tomorrow we will be leaving. I had to send out the guards that normally are stationed here for us to get some supplies and a way to bring us to our destination.”

“Why the rush? Couldn’t you have asked the guards to go now? You could have come along with us and prevented the danger we were in!” I angrily said, shaking off his hand from my shoulder.

He looked in front of him with his glazed eyes, not even slightly fazed of why I became so angry suddenly. Just like he had done with Jade. I might have been coughing and recuperating from leaving the floating ocean while being halfway into a state between dreaming and hysteria, but I did notice their conversation and him acting so damn rational towards her as well.

Is he still testing us for what we are worth? For what we can do in helpless situations, what our motives could be and how we are going to respond to difficult situations?

“Is that what this is? You are testing to see what we are made of?” I asked him.

“Yes, and you all failed.”

“What!?”

“You all failed. Jade chose wrong to save Neil, Trixie didn’t even last that long to keep the water’s magic at bay, Zeph couldn’t keep you all from acting stupid and got caught by the magic himself as well and you, Prince of E’ne Belanore, you failed to protect your Queen.” Echo elaborated.

I wanted to interrupt his speech, but there was no point for me to argue. He was right, as much as I didn’t want to agree to it. But even so, I still wanted to defend myself in some sort of way, as I didn’t want to hear anything like this either.

“But,” He continued, lifting his hand to interrupt my moment of trying to say anything. “even though you all have failed, you have also shown something else. Something that is not always preferable in every situation, but is very valuable for the role you all might be playing in the future.” He continued.

“Which is?”

“Loyalty and friendship. Two things that are rare to find these days… especially here.” He replied almost anxiously.

The words he spoke held a much deeper meaning than I’m supposed to be thinking about right now, I can feel it. I can almost understand why he is saying it like this, but I can’t really pinpoint the exact reason. It’s on the tip of my tongue why I should know or fear what he is saying but there is no way I should be able to know it at all. I mean, I haven’t been on this side of Kyalthemar ever, so how should I be able to know what the double meaning behind his words is, right? But somehow, I know that something is wrong, that I should keep those words ‘loyalty and friendship’ really close to me and never waiver from my thoughts about the people that are with me right now.

“Exactly Kallan, stay with them. But most importantly, stay with her.” Echo interrupted my thoughts before he stood up and asked for me to go lie down. “I’ll keep the first watch, I’ll wake you up in a few hours.”