Elmira Sielstone: The Empress

Twenty-Five

“Get them all.” Elmira was in front of a cell with thirty Hazzles inside, and beside her were her three Loyal Gemus, looking at her in disbelief.

“Are you serious? That’s mad!” Sinn was not so pleased to hear what Elmira had commanded them. Their eyebrows formed deep furrows. Sinn was shaking his head, no, and holding on to the gates of the cell to support him, Sid was glancing back and forth with the Hazzles inside the cell and to Elmira, and shaking his head after. While Savvy was just staring at Elmira and heaving a deep sigh from time to time.

“I am very serious right now Sinn.” Elmira didn’t even mind their reactions as she had already made her final decision. She’s decided to take all the Hazzles in front of her at once as they were already behind their Opponent.

“Nearly half of the population of Tarfelli had already died because of the disease there. But you know that it’s her way to get Qaraths.” She explained.

“Why don’t we just go and remove the Hazzles residing there so she can’t get another Qaraths again? We can do that, right?” Sinn was looking at her, trying to persuade her to change her mind as it was really an unacceptable decision, even though they wanted to catch up with Loisselle’s capabilities. They’re taking a lot of risk with her decision.

“We can’t. Savvy had already gone there beforehand. Even though he managed to open up a little part of their barrier once, it doesn’t mean that we can already get through Tarfelli. They have made a way to strengthen their barriers that day. And no one has been getting in and out of Tarfelli since that day, except for her, however they tried to escape as the disease has been spreading so fast.” They were all so frustrated as they couldn’t even find a way to stop her.

The Hazzles inside the cell were just listening on what they were talking about, while bracing themselves as it was already their time to remove from the cell. There were Hazzles crying and others just couldn’t already care as they had already accepted their fate. They know it very well, that it is already the exchange of their bad actions when they were still living freely in Harzenia.

“Don’t we really have another options left?” Sid, who only knows how to boast, was also trying to figure out another best possible option other than getting them at once.

“Yes. And even if we have another, it will be more dangerous than what we’ll be doing.” She said. “Savvy, how many Gemus do we still have there?”

“Around hundred and five.” He answered and Elmira nodded.

“Okay. Now let’s get to the fifteen mark. We haven’t reached that yet, right? So it’s time.” She said and stared at them, “I know this is not easy. And I’m very sorry for making you worried all the time…” She took a deep sigh and shut her eyes for a second and looked at them again before continuing. “But this is for the best. We need to take risks to get to where we want to be. And we all just wanted to bring back the peace in Harzenia and Emerald that we had before, so we need to fix the problem, whatever it costs us.”

Her Gemus couldn’t even look directly towards her eyes and meet her gaze as they hate it when Elmira’s becoming so serious, that they couldn’t even find the right words to disagree with her.

“And this is all my fault after all, so I need to take full responsibility.” She continued.

“Don’t blame yourself.” Savvy told her,a s she’s blaming herself again from what is happening in her beloved world.

“I am not blaming myself. It’s just that… it’s the truth.” She said, looking away as she knew that it is the truth, whatever her three Gemus say. It’s her fault, and no one knows about the reason behind it, except herself.

“Start the plan now. And take a two to three hours gap after you bring another set of Hazzles into the Gemus’ cells. I’ll just talk to Yves and the other two, but you can already start now.” She said, as she glanced at them before she disappeared.

Her three Gemus again, were left with no choice. They were all sighing, being frustrated about her decisions again, but however they're against her decision, they know that it's always her decision that will matter most.

After some time, they had started teleporting the Hazzles from the cell Elmira had chosen to go first.

***

Elmira arrived at the office of the Headmaster inside the main building of the Academy, where almost all of the offices were located.

His office was clean, every thing inside the office was complimenting each other.

The three were inside the office, seated at a long table, having their afternoon coffee. They look like they’re having fun taking their break from the things that are happening inside the Academy, as they have been so busy, looking after their students and provisioning them their needs as no one could leave the Academy yet.

Everyone of them had looked towards Elmira when she suddenly appeared inside the office, not even surprised at her sudden appearance as she has been doing that since she had been staying inside the Academy.

“What brings you here?” Liah asked, before sipping on her cup. No one didn’t even bother to stand up and give respect towards her even though they know who she is.

Elmira sat in front of her as the two didn’t even bother to sit there. They had left it vacant as they know that she doesn’t want anyone seating in front of her, but Elmira just did.

“Have you heard about the Black Smoke?” Before Elmira even arrived, she had already concealed her own pain to be prepared for the consequences of her chosen plan.

“Yeah. What about that?” The two men were just listening to them as when Liah was talking, they wouldn’t even want to intervene as they know her attitude. It became even worse than when they were all still Gemus.

Liah, Travis and Yves were the leaders of the second batch of Gemus that Elmira had made herself, after successfully making her first three Gemus that became her company in the lonely world of Emerald. The three were Savvy, Sid and Sinn, whom she was with even in the land.

The three Gemus, now a Hazzle, was already their fourth time being reincarnated, but the very first time to be a Hazzle, and her three original Gemus had only been reincarnated three times and had chosen to be a Gemus again, to stay beside Elmira.

They were the ones who had seen Elmira’s worst and best self. They have seen her being so violent, her outrage, and sudden exerting of her Qaraths as she couldn’t control her anger. They had seen how she changes over time, from being so uncontrolled up to how she managed to control her emotions. They wouldn’t want to get to her bad side, as they had experienced her range first hand, and they wouldn’t want to experience it all over again.

“Yes. We only heard about that through a lecture in Emerald. Why?”

“She’s already in that stage.” She said. She’s been worrying about that since they had arrived back from the South.

Everyone became silent as they knew whom she was talking about. They have been closely monitoring that woman ever since she had started attending classes inside the Academy.

“That’s… really bad.” Liah commented, bringing down her coffee on the table.

“How did she manage to be on that stage that fast?” Travis asked. He couldn’t even imagine how she became that strong. It was not too long ago since she was still inside the Academy and now, she’s already near the last stage of her greediness.

“She had already killed half of the population of Tarfelli now. And still killing the others.”

“How? How is she killing them?” Liah asked as she got more curious about her.

“She had spread a disease. But no one knows that the Qaraths of the people who were getting killed from that disease were getting inside her, as she managed to grab the opportunity of spreading a disease and getting their Qaraths at once." She explained.

"So, can you protect your people from her? She'll probably come for you first before she'll come to your people." She was just worried about them, who are now Hazzles and their Qaraths could be robbed easily because of that.

"We can protect them but We couldn't guarantee for how long." Liah said, staring at her cup of coffee. She's also getting worried about the possibilities that she would attack the Academy. They couldn't handle that much usage of Qarath.

"I'm not gonna say 'it's fine, don't be afraid as I am already here', because I myself couldn't handle her, not for this time." Elmira said. "But I will help you to keep this place safe to the best that I can." She guaranteed them.

"So now. I need to keep going. And you need to start putting back your barriers the soonest. Just call me if you need some help, I'll just be in the dormitory."

After talking her concerns, Elmira waved goodbye and flashed another half smile, and vanished in front of them, leaving the three hanging in the air as they couldn't still process through their minds what news she had just delivered.

Elmira teleported directly inside her room in the dormitory, and locked everything again, put her barriers up, and slowly removed the Qarath that she had used to conceal her pain. She was already lying on her bed as she prepared for herself to feel the unending saga of feeling the consequences of her decisions.

There will be another tough days ahead of her, while her 21st birthday is just around the corner.