Elmira Sielstone: The Empress

Chapter Nine

It's raining heavily. I wonder how's the Empress doing up there to cry this crazy amount of water."

Elmira stayed silent in her veranda when she came back to her room. The sky's still constantly crying, though Elmira had already finished pouring tears, her heart's still crying silently in pain.

Her veranda's now covered and she's not getting wet by the heavy rain. She's just looking outside, hearing what Hazzles are talking about.

"Right. It's been a while since it rained. I just hope the rain ends soon. I have a date later, so it must stop?" Elmira smiled bitterly, hearing them talking about such a topic.

"I just wish I had that same little problem with you. Wishing the rain would stop as I am having a date later and it shouldn't be postponed." Elmira sighed because of her thoughts going on around her head. "I'm being delusional." She laughs her thoughts off her head.

"So, why do you want to see me?" Elmira sighed before going back inside her room to face Redina who's been inside her room for a while now, sitting on a couch across her bed, waiting for her to start the business with her.

She walked past her, and got the hand mirror she had borrowed from Smith, which she had left on her bedside table. She gave it to her and walked back again, and sat across her, on the couch next to her bed.

She had stayed silent for minutes, staring blankly on the walls of her room, thinking deeply about her life.

"Mira." She shrugged when she heard Redina called her. "Are you alright?" She asked, worriedly. She had never seen her being like this, she's always smiling when they were in Glith, and every time she saw her, she was always smiling ear to ear, enjoying every single moment of her life. But she's different today. She's so gloomy, just like the current weather outside.

"Yes Ma. I'm fine." She smiled, but Redina knew that it was a fake one. "I need to show you something from that mirror." She diverted the topic as fast as she could, as she doesn't want to talk about anything, other than her business with her.

Redina furrows and looks at the hand mirror she's holding. She's only seeing her reflection through it, and nothing more.

"How? This is just a plain mirror." She said, wondering.

"It is. But it'll be not just a plain mirror if you'll place your thumb on the Emerald stone on the handle Ma. Try it." She said. She tried to smile as best she could, but failed to do so. She can feel that her tears will be pouring down again, so instead of pushing herself to smile, she just didn't. She's tired, physically, mentally, and emotionally, but she couldn't just tell everything to anyone, not even with her Family in Harzenia.

Redina hesitated to put her thumb on the stone Elmira was talking about, but she tried, even though she's so nervous about what she will be seeing.

"Like this?" She let Elmira see how she's holding it.

"Yes. Just like that." She nodded, and after a while, the mirror started playing a series of scenes that had happened recently.

"This. is me." Redina said, looking at the mirror.

While Redina's watching herself through the mirror, Elmira was just glaring back at the walls in front of her, sighing from time to time.

The rain's still heavily pouring outside, and she decided to watch it. She walks through her veranda, waiting for Redina to finish what she's watching.

She watches the rain, falling from the sky, and she's being comforted by it. Her heart must be too full and heavy to have this amount of Rain.

"It's thirty minutes before three. How can I have my date now? Tss." Elmira furrows as she hears again the voice of the woman outside the Palace, probably under her as she couldn't see her with her eyes, but she could see her with her mind.

"Please. If you can hear me. Please just stop the rain, and hear me just for once. I'll reconsider you as my Empress from up there, so please, hear me out just this once."

"Who are you to not consider me as your Empress Hazzle. How dare you." She thought. She should've been angry by now for what she had heard. Reconsidering her as the Empress only means that she's recognising her as one at the very moment. But she didn't feel anger, or anything else, as she's reading her mind.

Her name's Paula, a Hazzle. Grew up in a decent family, living her life to the fullest. But one tragedy suddenly changed her life. She was with her whole family, taking a vacation in the Southern part of Quoatilphus, when suddenly, a group of Gemus visited the place that time, taking the Qarath of everyone whom they met. They were there, exactly where they were. She was so terrified. She was just in her teenage years when that happened. As the youngest, and the only one who can teleport on her family, she had tried her best to teleport each one of them as fast as she could, but it was too late. She couldn't get all her family out of the place. It was only her two older sisters that she had saved, and eventually also got killed for the same reason. By the time she had known that her two sisters got killed, she was already inside the Palace working. And that's when she refuses to recognize their Empress. Life's been so cruel for her.

When Elmira had finished watching her memories, she let out a deep sigh.

"I'm sorry for your loss. As I am feeling guilty about your life, let me grant your one wish." She smiled, and let the rain stop. The Sun is slowly showing up behind the clouds.

"Oh? It really stopped? Oh. Thank you! Thank you. I love you Empress." She nearly laughed at how the Hazzle reacted. She's jumping in excitement like a child.

"I hope your date will work out well." She smiled, a genuine happiness. It's really the little things and events from her people that really give her the true meaning of happiness.

"Mira." She looks inside her room, seeing Redina staring blankly at the walls. She raises a brow, grinning. "I think I had done that just a while ago." She laughed internally at her lame joke for herself. She's fully recovered from her mini-emotional side, thanks to Paula, the Hazzle on the ground, just under her veranda.

"Ma." She walked through her room and sat again on the couch she had seated on, beside her bed.

"What have you seen?" She asked, carefully. She's very aware of what Redina had just watched, but she still wanted to hear it.

"I saw myself. On the first floor's veranda. And I saw you disappear, right in front of me. And then the scene changed from when you were young at Glith." She said, blankly, and was like being hypnotized.

"Ma. Are you okay?" She worriedly asked.

"No. How dare you." A furrow has formed on Elmira's brows as she couldn't figure out how to react from that.

"I raised you for almost fourteen years, but you never said anything about your Qarath. I thought I was just seeing things when I saw you disappear in the Garden, in front of Alexis." She's shouting, and slowly speaking as she's hitting her with a throw pillow she had picked up the nearest from her.

"Ma. Aww. It hurts."

"Really? Then you should be hitted more." Elmira was just laughing, on how Redina's hitting her with pillows. Her hair's full of cottons from the pillows she had used. When Redina got tired, she sat on her bed, looking at her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She seriously asked.

"Because it wouldn't be too exciting if you knew earlier? OUCH!" She was hitted by her MaRed's own hands on her shoulders. "Now, that really hurts Ma." She said, making a face.

"You brat. I was so worried for nothing. I almost considered doing something illegal to just make us stay in Glith, because I really thought that you still don't have a Qarath. You enjoyed fooling around, didn't you?"

"A little?" She smiled playfully, distancing herself from her, as she's ready to hit her again with her palm.

Redina sighed.

"I just couldn't believe how you fooled me for so long. And that Smith played along really well." She shrugged her head, accepting her defeat.

"But how did you end up having a lot of Qarath? I saw you using a wide range of Qarath from there." She's obviously confused about how Elmira had used a lot of Qaraths.

"Because I am special." She casually said, with seriousness in her face, so Refina had thrown her a pillow from her bed that she had caught before it landed flatly on her face.

"Special your face." She said, rolling her eyes.

"That's the truth, Ma. Because I am the Empress." Redina had thrown her another pillow and she had caught it again, laughing at her expression. Redina's pissed, but she's extremely delighted to know that Elmira already has her Qarath. It was her wish, and now, it has come true.

"Your jokes aren't funny." She said, rolling her eyes again towards her, while Elmira's laughing so hard.

But for Elmira, Happiness has a tail. When she's so happy, it means that the next few minutes will be a mess.

Just like how she suddenly stopped from laughing and shut her eyes closed, controlling herself.

"Ma, I think you need to go. Sorry." She said, closed eyes.

"What? Why?" She's so confused as seconds ago, they were having fun and then in a blink of an eye, Elmira wanted her to go.

"I forgot to do something. Bye Ma." Without letting her speak, she teleported her towards their room and put up a barrier in her room to prevent anyone from entering.

"Paula." She muttered under her breath.

"I didn't know. I'm sorry." She said as tears freed from her eyes.

"I can't feel your Qarath. What the f**k. Is your Qarath that weak, woman? You're so useless." She's hearing a loud voice inside her mind, greeting his teeth as he's draining the Qarath of the Hazzle in front of her.

"Stop that, Nik." Elmira said. Trying to get up from the couch she was seated, as the pain started to sting inside her. She couldn't get up. She's twitching in pain on the couch, as the Gemus she called Nik is already nearly draining the Hazzle's Qarath.

"If I only knew Paula." She said, in between deep breathing, "I should've not just stopped the rain from falling." The Hazzle's dead, and she can see it in her mind, crystal clear. Her last smiles, last laughs, her last breath… she had seen her very last moment of her life.

It will be useless if she goes there now. She can bring her back to life, but she's not in a really good condition right now. She can't even stand on her feet, so what more to go there.

"GEMUS NIK!" She shouted in so much pain. She's crying, and the rain started pouring outside, giving another gloomy weather in Harzenia. "You have reached… your limit." She fell from her couch she was seated on and fell hard on the floor as she's twitching in so much pain, as Gemus Nik had reached the limit of the dust she had inputted them, all the Qarath that he had robbed was being transferred inside her body.

She knows very well that she will be hurt tenfold, but she doesn't have a choice. It's the best option out there to limit them from their greediness, and to stop them from their wickedness.

"Aww. B*llshit. What the f*ck is this?" Elmira can see Gemus Nik in his mind. He's holding his left wrist, kneeling on the ground, only one of his eyes open as the pain in his wrist lingers, and sending a strong current through his whole body that electrifies him like mad.

"Nik. What's happening to you?" A Gemus came for him and kneeled beside him, observing what was happening to him.

"I don't f*cking know!" He shouted in so much pain and frustration. "It's my first time to feel this. I feel like I'm burning"

"Stay here. I'll call Savvy." The Gemus runs towards where the other Gemus are, and calls out for Savvy who didn't even ask anything, and just followed him as silent as he could.

"Nik." Savvy's just standing, looking down on his comrade kneeling on the ground, still holding his wrist. But Savvy just watched him with a blank expression, and didn't do anything to help him.

"Aren't you gonna f*cking help me, dude? I'm dying here!" He said, shouting in annoyance as Gemus Savvy was just standing beside him, with his hands in his jeans' pocket.

"You won't die, don't worry. Call Sid and Sinn. We'll take him back to Emerald." He said, without getting his eyes off him, staring with no emotions in his eyes, just pure blankness.

"Why do I need to go back to that f*ckin' damn place?" He asked. His eyes widen, brows form a furrow, as he looks at him in disbelief and questioning his decision.

"Do you want to die here, then?" He asked, with no concern.

"You said, I won't fuckin' die!"

"Only if, You're in Emerald." Now, he grinned, as he likes how the other Gemus reacted in frustration, putting the 'F-word' in every sentence he's saying. Sid and Sinn came rushing towards them just minutes after they were called, and stopped when they had reached Savvy's location.

They looked at each other, had eye contact, and nodded once, before they held Nik on his shoulders and teleported him to Emerald.

As the three accompanied Gemus Nik, back to Emerald, they also vanished inside her head without a trace.

Elmira was silently shouting in pain. Her throat is so dry and there's no voice coming out her mouth even if she wanted to shout on top of her lungs. It was so painful for her to handle.

Her eyes had changed their colors to intense red, her highlighted hair glowing like mad, as she laid flat on the floor, motionless, facing her ceiling. It's not been a while since she had seen the ceiling of her room, at the exact same spot, just below her bed, but here she is again, facing it, without end.