Elmira Sielstone: The Empress

Chapter Twenty

"How many Gemus are left in the dungeon?"

Elmira just regained her strength from what happened inside the Palace and is walking in the hallway of the dormitory with the three Gemus behind her.

"Approximately hundred and fifty." Savvy answered.

"We'll take ten to fifteen everyday."

"What?" They all stopped behind her, looking at her, brows formed furrows, eyes widening, as they couldn't believe what she had said.

Elmira stopped and turned around to face them, with her poker face, as if she didn't even say anything mad.

"You can't take that much in a day, are you crazy?" Sinn said, didn't even mind who he was talking with.

"That's a lot. We can't take them back to Emerald in a day." Savvy said, as they had a hard time when they transported the five Gemus back to Emerald, but Elmira even wanted to take fifteen Gemus now. How could that be possible?

"Seriously Savvy. You didn't even care about what she may feel? That's a lot! She won't handle that much pain." Sinn was really considering Elmira's feelings, as he couldn't even take how she was always having a hard time hearing Elmira shout in pain, how Elmira suffers from the past Gemus that had reached their limitations.

"And we couldn't transport that amount of Gemus back to Emerald in a day. We could teleport them just above the clouds, but not inside Emerald. The portal consumes a lot of energy, you know that." He said, explaining himself.

"That's not the problem here, Savvy."

"It is, Sinn." Savvy was just being his very normal self, talking in his very calm tone, while Sinn was already so frustrated, pulling his hair beside Savvy.

"I like that. So when do we start?"

"SID!" Both of them shouted towards him, both losing their patience. They both have different reasons, but they both were against Elmira's decision, while Sid just asked as if he doesn't have any reasons to oppose Elmira. Savvy couldn't even contain his calmness everytime Sid was talking nonsense.

"What? That would be cool! It's another challenge for us." He said, smiling from ear to ear, and enjoying his moment, as the two beside him were so displeased with what he was doing. Seeing him smile makes them want to rip his mouth so he could never smile again.

"Are you done?" Elmira was just watching them, almost not existing for them as they were too drawn on their issues, burning each other with their fired gazes. They only stopped when they heard Elmira speak again in front of them, directing their gaze towards her.

Elmira's crossing her arms in her chest, looking at them in her too bored stare.

"Hear me out now." She said, as the three stood straight, ready to listen to what she was going to say, but Savvy and Sinn had already decided not to do her decision, whatever they might hear from her.

"I understand your frustrations. But it is the best solution we have here."

"Here we go again with your best solutions." Sinn said, didn't even try to hide his irritation towards Elmira's decisions. "Is this the best solution you have in mind? Putting yourself in danger just to get the other Gemus back? You're suffering because of them, Era. Look at yourself, you can't even use your Qarath freely because of your selfless decisions!"

"Then tell me what should I do, Sinn." She was looking at him, maintaining her calmness. She was very pleased to have someone beside her that truly cares for her, but too much is sickening.

"My decisions were all selfless because I care, Sinn. It doesn't matter how it affects me, physically, mentally, and emotionally… I don't really care. Because in the first place, everything's all my fault. And you three know that very well. I had explained it all to you back when we're still in Emerald. And the reason that I never said any of my decisions to you beforehand, is because I know that you'll just try to stop me, just like what you're doing right now." She's explaining everything to them even though they know it very well. Over years of explaining everything, they still couldn't accept her decisions.

"And look what you have done in Crymph, because you're trying to get everything done the fastest way. If you still didn't know, all those Hazzles that got killed from that bombing… all their Qaraths came back to me, so I tried my best to decrease the number of people that will die from there, so I can still control the impact of that explosion. I was stopping time, making you three moves, and that's why I had collapsed. I had drained all my energy from there. You're saying that you care, but you still made the situation worse. I just want you to listen to me, do what I say and always stick to what is planned, but you still did what you think is the best. So see what happened."

The three Gemus in front of her were left speechless. They couldn't even look directly towards her eyes as they heard directly from her, what they have done to lessen her burden.

"We… didn't know." Sinn said, looking away as he was feeling so guilty about what they had done. Elmira doesn't usually talk about these kinds of topics, so when she tells them what she really feels and her reasons behind her actions, they will always feel guilty about everything that they have done. They never knew that she was already hurting from what they had planned to do without her consent, not until Elmira herself told them so.

"I was not planning to tell you. But here we are…" Elmira sighed. "Let's forget about that... Savvy, you have a problem with portals right? I will let you borrow my hand mirror to help you open the portal to Emerald. It will help you a lot, if that's only your concern." She said, looking at Savvy. She gave the mirror to him. Savvy was hesitant to receive it, but he still got it from her, as she's so adamant to proceed with her decision.

"Sinn." She directed her gaze towards Sinn after she had given him the mirror. "I told you not to overreact with things. I wouldn't tell you to proceed with my decision if I couldn't handle the consequences. You should know that by now. We've been through this for years. Just trust me."

"And Sid… It's not always good to be too proud of yourself." She said, looking at him. "But I like your spirit of taking on a challenge." She smiled and looked at them again one by one.

"And know that, I'm always proud of you three." She flashed a very genuine smile on her face before she turned her back on them and started walking down the hallway. Trailing the staircase, living them all behind.

"Come on. What are you still doing?" She said through their minds as they weren't moving from where they are. They were taken aback by what she had told them. It was not the first time to hear that from her, but from all of the things that had happened recently, it was just so refreshing to hear her say that she's proud of them.

They stormed towards her and walked quietly behind her, but now they were all in a very good mood, trying to hide their smiles when Elmira's looking back at them, still smiling.

***

Elmira arrived at the back part of the Academy, at the open grounds where all of the students are gathered there, setted up tents so they can have shelter, while the dormitory was unoccupied as Elmira had told them that it is best if they're in one place. Elmira was just staying there just by herself.

"Elmira." One instructor had seen her and walked towards her as she was walking in between tents, looking around for their condition there.

Now that Gemus are all inside the Academy, it is best for them to distance themselves as they can't still leave the Academy even if there are no classes.

"Mr. Yves." She stopped and smiled when she saw him walking towards her. He was in his late fifties and is an instructor for two decades now in the Academy.

"I haven't seen you for days. Are you alright?"

"I'm great, Professor. Is everything alright here? No one's sick? Do you still have supplies of food and other things that you need here?" Elmira didn't have the time to look for them ever since she came back from the explosion inside the Palace. She has become so busy, healing herself and gaining her energy back from all of the things that happened.

"Everything's alright here. The Palace delivered supplies yesterday so we're still fine. But… Can you look for this one person?" He leads their way as Elmira's just following her until they stop in the last two rows of the tents.

Mr. Yves opened up the tent for her, and a man in his mid-twenties was lying inside on his bed, with two healers beside him, giving him medication. They entered the tent as it was wide inside. The tent was a normal size, but inside was the size of their dorm room, their personal items in their dorm were there, well organised.

The Hazzle was already so thin, but the Healers couldn't get any diagnosis for him. It was the very first time that they had encountered a disease just like his.

"How is he doing Hannah?" He asked the healer beside him, who was checking his vitals.

"He's not doing great, Professor. He's vitals aren't stable and always dropping." He said, looking at him.

"This is Elmira. The one that I've mentioned to you. She's here to help you." Mr. Yves introduced her to the two of them. She smiled at them although she could hear what they're saying in their heads.

"How could she help us? Is she a healer?"

"She looks like an ordinary Hazzle which couldn't do basic healing." The two of them smiled and greeted her, even though they're talking bad about her in their heads. They're a great pretender, but Elmira could read them.

"I'm Hannah. And this is Julie. We've heard a lot about you." She said, faking a smile. "I thought he was talking about a woman his age, she looks like she's just in her early twenties." Hannah said in her mind, still smiling towards Elmira.

"Nice to meet you. Can I take a look at his condition, if you don't mind."

"Yeah, you can." They stood up from where they're seated in each side of his bed, but they stopped when they were held by the Hazzle's hands lying on his bed.

Elmira almost laughed at what she was seeing, but she stayed calm as much as she could, looking towards him.

"Someone will check you out Gabby. We'll stay here, inside. Don't worry." Hannah said as she tried to remove his hands on her wrist, but she failed. Julie also tried, but she also failed. Though the Hazzle was sick, and barely moved, he still had the strength to hold them both with his two hands.

"Let go of their hands." Elmira commanded him, and once he heard her, he automatically removed her grip on their wrists. The two Healers both looked towards Elmira as they were amazed by what she had done.

The two couldn't even get out of the tent as the Hazzle doesn't want to let go of them ever since they had checked on him. They will take turns to look after him, but he never got better ever since.

"How did you do that?" They were now both on her side, looking at her. "We've never got the chance to leave this tent ever since we entered, because he doesn't want to let go."

"You'll see why. Stay here." She said looking directly towards the Hazzle lying on his bed.

"Is she a healer, Professor?" Hannah and Julie walked towards him, who's just looking at Elmira.

"No."

"A manipulator?" Julie asked.

"No."

"Then what is her Qarath, Professor? And why did you let her look for him if she's not a Healer?" Hannah asked as she was just really curious how Elmira had done that, just using her voice.

"Just think, she's very special, and one of a kind." He said, not even breaking her gaze towards Elmira.

"We've met again, Gabby." She was standing beside his bed, looking at him, and a grin was plastered into her face.

"Do you remember me?"

Gabby didn't even answer but he was looking directly into her eyes.

"You tried to get my Qarath, remember? I told you to just get it, but you let go." Everyone inside the tent was astounded, looking at her with a furrow in their brows.

"Do you remember me?" She was still grinning, until he forced himself to sit on his bed.

"It's… it's your-- fault." He was trying to speak clearly, but because of his condition, he couldn't even talk straight, as his energy was dropping fast.

"Why is it my fault?"

"You were getting my Qarath, so I had given you a gift. And it's cursed." She added through his mind so no one can hear it. She grinned like she's an evil trying to kill him any moment, pulling out a chair, and seated in front of him.

"She's giving me chills." Hannah said while watching her from the corner of the tent.

"So Gabby, how is it going with your two Healers, Hannah and Julie? How much of their Qaraths have you already collected?" She said, teasing him more.

"He was getting our Qaraths? How is that possible?" Hannah said, bracing herself.

"But if he's getting our Qaraths, how come we didn't even feel it?" Julie said, looking at Hannah.

"Because I have given him a curse." Elmira said, still looking at Gabby in front of her.

"So Gabby… It's just been almost two weeks, but look at you. You're already dying." She said, losing her grin. She became so serious as she was glaring at him.

"At this rate, you won't even last a day. " She said, not minding the people around her.

"At dusk you'll find peace." She added.

"Healers, it's time for you to go rounds for other Hazzles and students that need to be cured. You can now leave him. He will die any moment from now, as you had heard me… I cursed him as he was getting Qaraths. But don't worry about yours. He didn't have the chance to get it because of the curse he had received." She said, staring at them, in her still calm voice, as if she doesn't really care about the Hazzle's condition and how the two Healers would react.

Elmira just nodded towards Mr. Yves, before she stood up.

"Don't try to get another Qarath if you want to live until dusk Gabby. I hope you'll Take my advice seriously, because I am not kidding." She said before she turned her back on him.

"Let's leave him here, so he can look back on his mistakes." She said, directly staring at them, smiling.

The two Healers don't know what to react from what they have witnessed. Just like how Mr. Yves described her, she was really special, as it didn't seem to bother her how he would die.

"Get him at dusk, and give him to the Gemus." Elmira relayed a message through her mind to the three Gemus who were in the dungeon, looking out for the Gemus who had nearly reached their limit.

"Come on Professor. I'll be taking rounds before I go, and I want you there." She smiled genuinely.

Mr. Yves looked at her, smiling, before he stood up, and followed them out the tent of Hazzle Gabby.