Elmira Sielstone: The Empress

Chapter Eight

Elmira woke up the next day and found herself lying on the floor, not feeling any better. She stayed there, lying for another hour, staring at the golden ceiling of her room, before she had decided to stand up, and face another day full of unpredictable mess from the Gemus.

She walks through her veranda to inhale some fresh air and look out on her surroundings. The place is in peace. It was just a normal morning for everyone in the Palace, helpers were doing their own chores, cleaning, planting, sweeping and walking past each other, giving smiles and greetings.

After having some time of watching their people, and breathing the outside air, Elmira went inside of her room and closed the door of her veranda from inside.

She then cleaned herself, took a bath, dressed up, and just stayed in her room for the next two days, to have some rest, being undisturbed.

No one ever visited her, and gave her any food to eat for those two long days. And she didn't use any of her Qarath besides putting up a barrier in her room, so no one could ever enter her room while she’s resting.

For those two days, she regained not much of energy, as those who she had marked were constantly robbing someone’s Qarath, and everytime they’re doing it, She’ll puke out blood, draining her energy over and over, then she’ll clean herself, and the cycle continues.

She couldn't even get out of her room to stop them from getting someone's Qaraths and killing them. There were so many Gemus out there, getting Qaraths every single day, and it's just so much to handle.

There were so many cases of robbing that she had felt for the past few days, but others were tolerable. It stings a little, but after a minute it will be gone. Only a few had severely affected her, to the point that she could not stand up anymore and just fell on her knees, which means Gemus had robbed a Hazzle and ended up killing them.

As she lived in silence in her room for three days straight and didn’t use her Qarath for those days, she doesn’t have any news from outside, even in the Palace. The very last time she had gone out was even before she had closed the door of her veranda.

She finally decided to go out of her room on the fourth day as she had felt someone near the Palace Barriers, even though she didn't use her Qarath, she still can feel the existence of that person. She chooses to just walk naturally rather than to consume her energy by using her Qarath.

As soon as she opened the door of her room, she stopped. She was welcomed by Smith, standing in front of her doorway, holding her mirror in his right hand.

“I saw you... going out.” Smith is still hesitating to finish his words, but he was just so concerned.

Elmira smiled a little as she figured out that Smith was watching her the whole time. It's no news for her though, as she knows that the mirror always tries to show what it wanted.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it." He said, avoiding Elmira's eyes. "When we arrived here from Gairon, you were so pale... I wanted to look after you, but No one could get through your room. Everyone’s worried. But we can’t do anything.” He continued, in between pauses. He's really worried, and his face was showing his genuine concern, while he was talking.

“Have you told anyone what you’ve been seeing?” Elmira calmly asked. She knows that everyone's worried, but she also knows that their worriedness can't help her to feel better. And no one can help her to stop the crisis surrounding their place, other than herself.

“No. I can’t. And I know you don't want them to know. They're just worried because you haven't eaten anything yet, since... no one knows.”

“Thanks. But you should’ve just tried to ignore what it was trying to show.” She said, closing the door behind her, and started walking along the corridor with Smith beside her.

She hadn't eaten yet for the past few days, and she can do it all her life without being killed. She's just eating their food, as it is her body's needs, but she can survive without it in her life.

“Have you distributed the antidote?” Elmira wanted to be as silent as possible while striding the hallway, straight from her room, but she’s being bothered about how quiet he was, and as she couldn't stand the awkwardness of Smith beside her.

“Yes, the same day as you have instructed.” He answered.

They turned right on the next hallway at the end of the corridor and found their way to the highest balcony of the Palace using the spiral staircase at the corner of the Building.

Smith was just walking along with her beside her, answering her questions, straightforwardly as possible.

“How?”

“We mixed it with the drinking water in the Royal Kitchen, and made sure everyone would consume it.” He answered. They had planned how to distribute the antidote without Elmira's guidance, right after they had received her instruction of making the antidote. They had come up with a little lie, to explain to Redina why they had ended up needing the antidote, and where they had found what ingredient would be the best fit for the antidote, when they didn't even have any background on making one.

“Have you monitored them after?”

“Yes. But we had a problem.”

Elmira remained silent, waiting for him to spill the trouble that they had encountered, voluntarily, without even being asked.

“That same person who had poisoned the water, has gone out of the Palace. And we still couldn’t find him.” Elmira didn’t react at all as she had already seen it coming, from the time she saw him accepting the poison. She had seen it, but she never talked about it with anyone, and she can't do anything to prevent it from happening. As things will happen, and need to happen no matter what it costs, for the greater good.

“And we found out that he took a sample of the antidote with him.” Elmira stopped as they reached the last step of the stairs, and faced him. Her expression couldn't be read, as she remained calm and unbothered.

“Let me borrow that for a moment.” She lent her hand in front of Smith and he almost couldn’t figure out what she was borrowing, so Elmira looked at the mirror he was holding ever since she saw him outside her room, and motioned to give her that.

“Oh, sorry.” He handed it over to her, and they moved across the balcony, near the window.

“Wait!” Elmira stopped looking at the mirror when Smith suddenly shouted, which made her flinch a little as she got surprised by how he had exclaimed that. Elmira looked at him with concern as she hadn't heard him shout like that before.

Smith is known for his calm nature as he hates it to show what he truly feels inside him. He will just show a little expression but other than that, he's face will always show seriousness. He rarely smiles, he rarely laughs, but with Elmira, he's not bothered to show her his real side, as he knows that Elmira can read minds and there's no use if he'll cover up what he truly feels. It's useless, so he always chooses to be himself when he's with Elmira Alone. Even with her wife, Redina, he rarely shows her true feelings. He's biased.

“Did I just really go up all the way here?” Elmira narrowed her eyes looking at him.

“ Ah… Yeah? Do you have any problem with that Pa?” Elmira questioned him as it was just an obvious answer.

“Absolutely Nothing. I just couldn’t believe that I ended up here without feeling any pain on my back.” Elmira chuckled as she thought he was caught in a bad deal. It was a cute problem though.

“Did you perhaps use your Qarath on me secretly?” He narrowed his eyes looking at her, doubting. Due to his age, he rarely walks up the stairs as he gets tired easily and his body pains are getting worse as days pass by.

“I haven’t used my Qarath for the past few days Pa. I’m just making sure that it’s still working.” She proudly said with a smile flushed on her face and brought back her gaze towards the mirror.

“Alright. But, can you see something there?” Smith peeks on what Elmira’s looking only to see Elmira's reflection on it.

“Yes. That man’s dead.” She said without looking at him, calmly, like she had already expected that to happen.

“You mean that man who poisoned the water? Since When?” Smith tried to look again in the mirror to see what Elmira’s saying but still couldn’t see anything. It’s still her reflection.

“Just the day after you had distributed the cure for that poison. He left with a water sample from the well, as well.” She sighed, as she attentively watched how the man got killed, by the same person who threatened the man's life.

“How? Who killed him?”He asked, intrigued by his death. And that concludes why they couldn't find him until now.

“I told you that he has a task to accomplish right? His task was to put the poison into the well. He succeeded."

Elmira sat on a sofa just near the window, prepared for that balcony alone and Smith followed her, and sat beside her, while listening attentively.

"But the person he had been working for, noticed that the poison didn’t work. He was called to bring a water sample from the well he has been poisoning, early that morning, even before I had cleansed the main source.” She added, still looking at the mirror.

"But we exchanged the poison he was holding for a liquidized flower, that midnight." She calmly said, without feeling guilty.

"So, he was killed because of us?" He said, like he had just connected a jigsaw puzzle, with guilt building up inside him

"Nah." She shrugged. "And don't be too guilty. It's not you who had exchanged it anyway. You were just there." She said, glancing at him.

The mirror shows what she wanted to see even without instructing it to do so, as she's the owner of the hand mirror she's holding. Others can see what it was trying to show when needed, and when it wanted, just like how it showed towards Smith how Elmira's condition was. It's mostly about her that Smith can see, nothing more, as what Elmira instructed it to do.

“He should’ve been killed from that moment, but that person behind had let him go." She stared blankly in front of her. "She had learned that the Palace would provide an antidote. It was his task again to get a sample of the antidote the Palace had prepared, promising him that his life will be spared if he can come back with what she wanted. She waited to have the antidote on her hands first before she killed him… mercilessly. Draining his Qaraths and Energy away. He had a choice not to see the person again, but he had chosen his destiny. It was his choice, so don't blame yourself."

Elmira exhaled loudly and set aside the mirror for a moment. She stood up, left the hand mirror on the sofa, and walked towards the glass window of the balcony, overseeing the whole back part of the Palace from there. The forest, not so far from the Palace can also be seen from where they are - that forest where she had seen the man accepting the poison.

“She. The person behind the circulating poison is a Female?” Smith remained sitting, glancing towards Elmira, wondering what she was thinking.

“Yes.”

“And you have seen her face? Do you know her?”

“Her name’s Loisselle. I have seen her from the day we came back here from Glith. And...I can see her now.” She casually said looking directly at her whereabouts. She was the real reason why she decided to go up to the highest balcony, to see her. But she nearly forgot.

“You can see her? Where?” Smith stood up and came closer to her, looking for where she’s staring, being curious on what Elmira had said.

“Somewhere in the woods.” She held the glass window and slid it to the left, opening it to let the fresh air enter the place. The balcony is covered with thick glasses as its roof to see the sky clearly.

“You can’t see her from here. So don’t waste your time looking for her.”

“Can she see us?”

“Maybe? I’m not sure, but she can feel someone’s staring at her.” She sat by the open window, overseeing the beauty of the place, and inhaling the fresh air coming from outside. She withdrew her gaze towards the person in the woods and just looked at the clouds from the window.

Elmira loves to inhale fresh air, as it calms her really well, and it's her way to cleanse her being.

“Did you encounter any other problems other than that man?” She closed her eyes, feeling the wind touching her skin.

“Do you remember Rebecca?” Smith asked while looking at the whole place from their view.

“Alexis’ Girlfriend. What’s with her?”

“It turns out that she’s also manipulated by someone that day.”

“Ah that.” Elmira seemed to know what he was saying as she remained calm and closed eyes.

“That’s how Loisselle knew about the Antidote. I forgot to say.” She casually said, leaving him in shock. She opened her eyes to see his reaction and she laughed a little when she saw his face, staring at her in disbelief.

“The mirror showed me everything Pa. Rebecca and Alexis were together when The Queen visited him in his dreams to relay my message, that he needed to be inside the forest with us." She returned her gaze towards the woods, secretly watching what Loisselle was doing.

"Rebecca had stopped manipulating him a long time ago Pa, but Loisselle had found a way to know what’s happening inside the Palace through her. And she started manipulating Rebecca everytime she and Alexis were together, because she can't just manipulate Alexis directly, as he's from a Royal Family, but, Rebecca as his girlfriend, she can just casually do it with Alexis, because they have a bond."

She has seen everything from the mirror. Starting from how the man got killed, how Loisselle commanded the man to give her a sample of the water as a proof that he had already completed his mission, to how she hid herself inside Rebecca's mind and left when Alexis had noticed that he's been manipulated inside the forbidden forest.

Alexis found her and confronted Rebecca, but Becca doesn't know what he was talking about. He left her there, and noticed that she was still following her, but he doesn't care at all as he's just so pissed off.

“Is she that powerful?”

“She is, right now… She had been getting a lot of Qaraths afterall.” Elmira said in a very sad tone.

"If she's collecting Qaraths from others… Does that mean she's a Gemus?"

Elmia stayed silent for a moment, wisely choosing what words she had to use to answer him.

“Sort of? She's a Gemus, and a Hazzle at the same time. It's complicated. So what else have you encountered?” She changes the topic to avoid being questioned deeper about that person. It's not as if she doesn't want to tell him, but it's just too complicated for her to say it.

"Sorry for asking too many questions. I hadn't had the chance to know what happened the past few days." She said, still looking at Loisselle. She doesn't seem to feel that Elmira's been staring at her.

“The Palace had received news that two of the Instructors in the Academy were killed.” He casually said, while Elmira almost lost her balance due to the news that she had heard.

She knows who've been killed for the past few days as she had been in pain due to all the Gemus, killing and getting Qaraths from others, and it's the first time she has learned about the news.

“Eliza said that it was not new for them. Last month, she said that they had received a report that five of the students there were killed, draining Qaraths was the cause of their death.”

“And they didn’t do anything about it?”

“They have. They have investigated. But they can’t just get the Gemus into their custody to pay for their sins.”

She frowned in disbelief as Smith gave the news. She jumped out from the mirror and moved to the sofa where she had left the mirror and picked it up again.

“All this time they were all into Gemus.” Elmira got silent for a while, watching what happened at the Academy. “But not everything was because of them."

"What do you mean? They're the only ones who can rob and drain someone's Qarath here." Smith walked towards her and looked at what she was looking at. "Here." Elmira gave him the mirror and let him watch it by himself as Elmira made sure that he could watch it through the mirror.

"Wait. Aren't they Gemus? I can't figure it out as they were just the same from Hazzles."

"Yes, Hazzles and Gemus were just the same in terms of physical features. But Gemus can only get other Qaraths through their palm and nothing more. But Hazzles are developing ways to rob others. It can be through mouth, eye contact, and many more that they have discovered through time."

"So you mean…"

"Yes. Hazzles were killing Hazzles but they are all blaming it to Gemus. And that two Instructors were killed by Hazzles, as you can see from there."

Elmira couldn't hide her disappointment towards Hazzles and Gemus. They have all gone so far, and are still going against her rule.

She's already having a hard time controlling her Gemus, and then Hazzles also added to her frustrations.

She sat on the sofa again and stared blankly in front of her, the way she just did a while ago. It was as if things were repeating itself, and making her realize many things through her life.

"This whole place is a mirror of my past. And everything is a reflection of me." She thought. She blinked fast and shrugged off her thoughts.

"Call for a meeting."

Smith stared at her, looking for answers in her expression, but only saw a different Elmira in front of her. Disappointment, Sadness, seriousness and a blank expression was all written in her face at the same time. It's as if she was being bothered by so many things, that is, however, her reality.

"With Alexis and Redina." Smith was taken aback as it was the very first time she heard her call her MaRed through her name alone.

"With your Mama Red?" He whispered, repeating what Elmira had said.

"Yes. But let me talk to her before we hold the meeting. And…" She looked at the mirror he was holding and then to Smith. "Let me borrow that for a day."

"Let's proceed for the meeting tomorrow. And inform Alexis beforehand."

"Are you sure you'll be telling the truth to her already?" He gave the mirror to her, doubting Elmira's decision.

"Yes. I think it's time. And I think you need to go back now. I'll just stay here for a little while to unwind." She half-smiled, feeling so down and held him on his shoulder before he disappeared from her sight.

Elmira stayed at the balcony for a moment, watching the whole place from the glass windows.

Observing the person inside the woods from time to time, making sure she doesn't do any unlawful act, and waiting for her to leave the place.

"Things were all out of hand." She uttered.

"So this is how you'll show me how ruthless I am." She looks at the sky. It was a very fine day in Harzenia. The sun is brightly shining, and only a few clouds can be seen above.

She smiled bittersweet, and tears went falling down her cheeks, crying her heart out.

The weather changed suddenly and the clouds had formed in the sky, pouring a sudden rain.

The sky was really crying with her, comforting her. It has been a while since it rained in Harzenia, and it is the heaviest rain in History