Agartha

Chapter twelve

A tickle in my chest woke me. Sun light was still outside so I wasn’t out for too long. My necklace was shining white, there was blood dripping from my head and my dress was soaked. I did my best to stand but didn’t make it so instead I lifted my hand and made a calling bubble. It took a lot of my energy, I whispered on it “grandma, my room, help”. It went through the wall and a couple of minutes later my grandma, grandpa, the queen and Kiryat were there. I passed out again.

I woke up on my bed, it was dark outside. Something smelled odd and I tried to touch my swollen head.

“Don’t, my dear” said grandma holding a rag with some odd smelling oil on my head. “Your bones and scalp are still healing”

“It was quite a beating!” Grandpa was amused and grandma gave him an angry look. We looked at each other and laughed. The king entered to check on me before coming back to his duties.

“My dear! What an honor! The queen gave you the lily necklace, congratulations. Try to live a little longer to enjoy it. No more vanishing, OK?”

“Yes, uncle. Trust me, I don’t want another headache like this ever again” They all laughed.

Grandma was a little cranky “This time you hit your head, thanks to the queen’s necklace you didn’t die, there’s nothing funny about it!”

“Calm down grandma. I’ll be fine and I'll be more careful, promise”

Hari walked in, in her regular good mood “So, now you are a former human/witch/elf?”

We all burst in laughter but the pain in my head made me stop.

Hari left saying with a huge grin “I’ll go downstairs to tell prince Etan you are just fine. He hasn’t left to his land waiting for news about you...”

Grandpa and his brother cleared their throats. They are undoubtedly brothers…

“Galia, prince Etan seems very interested in you… Aren´t you a little too young for such kind of friendships?” Grandpa cleared his throat again.

The king added “And isn´t he too old for you…?”

“Listen to me very carefully the two of you” My eyes glowed blue and my voice started to echo around the room “My relationships are of nobody´s business. I will decide who and when I get close to someone”

The king´s voice echoed much stronger than mine, it was truly intimidating “No, you listen to me child, we are your family and we certainly have a saying; besides, you have duties. Your relationships are an important matter, we already accepted your separation from Erik, no more concessions for you! And you better start using your wand, look at your nails! They are completely crystalized!”

“Great uncle, do-not-push. I am the only one with a saying on my life, if tomorrow I decide to go back home, I will. If any day I decide to marry a human, I will. And all of you, specially you, will stay out of it” I could hear everybody gasping at the word human. “I am trying my best to collaborate with the family, but I will not tolerate any more intromissions. Last warning, keep pushing and I will vanish away for good”

My cousins looked about to pee on their pants, pale like a piece of paper. By the end of my warning I was floating above the ground and so was the king, we were facing each other, everybody looked panicked and my head started to bleed again. His wand was glowing blue and so were my eyes and nails.

“Enough!” The queen intervened “Galia needs to recover and you, my dear husband, need to calm down before you two kill each other. You both have the same temperament, unbelievable!”

The queen grabbed the king´s arm, pushed him back to the ground and pulled him outside, most of my relatives had already left. If all this commotion is about a wizard, I can only imagine their reaction about an elf… Grandma and grandpa stayed, grandma was taking care of my wound again.

“Oh, my dear child, this is not your fault. You were raised by humans…”

“Luckily!” I interrupted her “There´s a reason why I’m stronger than my cousins, I was raised to be determined and free. I am proud of my human parents and my human upbringing, it made me this person you see in front of you and I like her”

Grandpa didn´t say a word, he left my room thoughtful after kissing my forehead and grandma stayed until I felt asleep.