Their Promised Queen

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

            “Elora! NO!” Zeke yelled. But Elora had vanished and all that was left in her wake was a shimmery outline of her. Zeke looked over at Ruby. “Where did she go?”

            “I have no clue…maybe back to get more? But why? She is only putting herself in danger and just a little bit ago she didn’t know she even had this power…” Ruby hung her head, about ready to pass out. She did not feel good and as soon as Elora left, she felt even worse. Not having El near her in this moment made her feel weaker and helpless. “I need to sit down Zeke.”

            “Ok. Let’s get you to the chair over here.” He told her.

            “What’s going on?” Claire asked, coming down the hallway. She looked over, noticing Ruby. She continued looking around, probably for Elora. “Ruby? How did you get here? Where is Elora?”

            “El can beam…she saved me and I think she went back for more people.” Just as those words left Ruby’s mouth. The shimmering started back up in the spot Elora had left just moments before but was growing to the size of a large box. 

            All of a sudden, a cart was sitting in the entrance of the castle. Elora standing right on the outside of it, blood coming out of one of her arms. She fell into the cart and was getting ready to fall on the floor when Zeke rushed over and picked her up. He ordered the guards to let those in the cart out and move the cart out of the castle and brought Elora over to where Claire and Ruby were sitting. 

            “Oh, Elora…” Claire said as she moved some hair out of Elora’s face. “Let’s get Ruby and Elora to the infirmary.” She told Zeke. Then looked at those leaving the cart. “If any of you also need the infirmary, please follow us. We will get the doctors to you quickly.” 

            Claire helped Ruby up and they all walked down to the infirmary. Zeke laid Elora on a bed at the far end and Ruby sat down on the next bed over. The few doctors that were awake and already in the infirmary started checking on the others who came in. “Why isn’t anyone checking on Elora?” Ruby asked to no one in particular. 

            “We’re waiting on Lark. He is the best doctor. I sent a maid after him as we walked in the infirmary. He should be here shortly.” Zeke told her, laying his hand on her shoulder. “She will be fine Ruby. She’s the queen and she’s powerful.”

            “What happened?” Claire finally asked. “You said she beamed? How is that possible? I thought that power wasn’t given often if at all?”

            “It usually isn’t. It is one of those powers that we know isn’t given often and even if it is given, isn’t usually realized unless in dire situations. I’ve not heard of anyone being able to do it back to back like our Queen just did,” Jyr said, walking up to us. “the Queen will be fine after her arm is looked at. She used too much power bringing such a huge object and lots of people through a beam.”

            Lark had walked in with Jyr and was looking at Elora’s arm while Jyr was explaining. “She wanted to save just me, but I told her to pick someone else, anyone else. She said she couldn’t and that she felt bad for our capture. There are still others back at the campsite, but she saved over half of us just by bringing the cart over. She said she was going to try and go back a third time to get the others. But I could tell she wasn’t going to be able to. Her energy is drained but will rebuild soon which should wake her up. One of the guards came after her just as she was getting ready to beam and cut her with his sword. As he was getting ready to do it again, we had already left that place and arrived back here.” Jyr finished explaining what had happened. 

            “My goodness, I wonder what other powers she has…” Ruby gasped. “We have to protect her! Chara will not stop coming after her! Especially after finding this out.”

            “You are the only one who can protect the castle Ruby. You need to heal first and then go and put a barrier shield up. That will give us enough time to get Elora back on her feet.” Zeke firmly told Ruby. Ruby hung her head, agreeing. “Take the night, get some rest. I think you will be fine in the morning.”

            With that, Zeke looked at Elora, kissed her hand, and left the infirmary. Claire brushed Elora’s hair away from her face again, kissed her forehead, and left as well. Slowly everyone else did as well, including those who came from the caged cart. The only ones left were Jyr, Lark, Ruby, and of course, Elora. 

            “The Queen should wake up sometime tomorrow. As Jyr said, her power has diminished a lot. But otherwise she is fine. I will leave you to get some rest Miss Rumaliza. Good night.” Then it was just Jyr, Ruby, and Elora left. 

            “Ruby, your bond with the Queen is very…strong. I think this is what opened her power to go to you in that way and not simply as a projection. I have a feeling that her powers are more vast than we can confirm now. We need to help her figure the others out and harness them. You and Zeke need to help her. You all also need to discuss your bonds to one another. You and Zeke are not bonded, but you are closer than you were before. Your strength will only help the Queen. Better together than separate. You can help each other heal.” With that, Jyr left them alone as well.

            “Better together than separate. We can help each other heal?” Ruby whispered to herself. A thought dawned on her and she left her hospital bed for El’s bed. She cuddled under the blanket with her, pulling El’s hands up to her face. She kissed them and then held them close to her chest, quickly falling asleep with the breathing in and out of the love of her life. 

            When she woke up the next morning, El was still asleep with her head nestled in the crook of Ruby’s arm. Ruby didn’t want to leave but really had to pee. She slowly and gently pulled her arm out from under El’s head, which only stirred her a little from her slumber. She flipped over in the bed, still snoring. 

            Ruby headed back to her own room, feeling much better than she did yesterday. Her wings were moveable again and her legs and arms didn’t feel like jell-o anymore. “I need to find Zeke.” Ruby thought to herself. After showering, she opened the joint door between her room and Elora’s room, finding Zeke sitting at the edge of her bed, staring out the balcony doors. 

            “Hey, can we talk?” Ruby asked him, trying not to startle him, yet he still jumped a little. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” She didn’t realize she could have scared him. He is supposed to have enhanced senses…

            “No, you’re good. Having Elora back and forth in this mess hasn’t only thrown you off your game but me as well.” He looked down at his hands and then up at Ruby. “What do you want to talk about?”

            “Our pulls with El. How do you want to handle it. It isn’t often that someone gets more than one, so the usual understanding on how to move forward with this is unusual and uncommon ground.” Zeke nodded, agreeing with what we already knew. “We both obviously love her and I can’t see either of us giving her up. So…what are we supposed to do?”

            “I do love her. Very much. Even though I haven’t known her as much as you have, or been around her as much as you have. I can’t imagine my life without her.” Zeke told Ruby, looking back out the balcony window. Ruby walked over to him and sat down next to him, putting her hand in his. 

            “Then, what do we do? We both want to be with her. How do we share her?” she asked him.

            “Do we have to?” he asked her. 

            “What do you mean?” she asked, a little confused. 

            “I mean, do we have to actually share? Or can we enjoy being with her together? Instead of separating our time with her, we could just do everything evenly.” He explained. It seemed like a good idea, but would Elora go for it? Ruby had seen Elora in a relationship before, even though it killed her every day. But he wasn’t good for El. He was awful. Ruby and Zeke were different though, they were her soul mates. Things would be different with them. 

            “We could talk it over with her…explain it to her.” Ruby said, looking at Zeke. He was definitely handsome. Would it be so bad to be with him as well as with Elora?

            “Explain what to me?” Elora said from the doorway. Glancing at Ruby and Zeke’s interlocked hands. “Are you two together?” Their hands quickly separated and Zeke jumped up and quickly walked over to her. 

            “No, I mean, not exactly. We will always be mixed because of our bond, our connection, to you.” Zeke explained to her, lifting her hand to his lips. “You should really still be in the infirmary. You couldn’t be completely healed after everything that happened last night.”

            “The doctor and Jyr came in to look at me and said I got back to normal rather quickly. Jyr mentioned it might have something to do with what he told Ruby last night. So I came up here to take a shower and change so I could talk to her.” Elora glance at Ruby, who still hadn’t looked up from the floor. “How did you help me Ruby?”

            “Umm…Jyr said that we’re better together, all of us. That we help each other heal. So, all I did was lay next to you all night. Our powers work on each other which I guess heals us faster than usual.” Ruby mumbled out. 

            “Ruby? Why won’t you look at me?” Elora asked, pulling her hands from Zeke and walking over to her. She kneeled down in front of Ruby, looking up from where she was at, she could see Ruby’s face, but not her eyes. “What is wrong? Talk to me.” Ruby looked up at her, finally.

“We were talking about how we were going to be with you. We don’t really want to share you in the sense that others have done in these situations before. And because this is uncommon ground, we are unsure of what to do or how to feel about the situation.” She told Elora. 

“We wanted to see if you would be fine being with both of us being with you.” Zeke offered up. 

“In what way?” Elora asked, curiosity lacing her words. 

“In every way?” Ruby asked. She looked at Elora and then at Zeke. The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. “I used to know this one fairy, she had two husbands. They did everything together and made equal choices in everything together. They loved each other the same even though two of them didn’t have a pull to one another. Their relationship was considered one of the best in the realm.”

“I remember hearing about them. One of them died a few years back and they haven’t been the same since. They really are amazing.” Zeke confirmed. 

“How would that work…” Elora started and paused. “How would that work here...?” Zeke and Ruby looked at her odd, like they didn’t understand the meaning of the question. Ugh…she had to clarify. “How would that work here in the bedroom?”

“Oh…” Ruby said, looking at Zeke. “We hadn’t thought of that. But I would assume it would act the same as everything else would. Together…” Ruby shrugged, Zeke nodded. 

“What about…children?” Elora asked again, a nervous flush becoming brighter in her cheeks. 

“Well, I mean, I am the only guy in this situation. So that I would assume would be an obvious thought.” Zeke laughed. 

“What about Ruby though? Would you be with her as well? Would she be able to have children as well?” Elora asked. 

“She could have whatever she wanted Elora. We are all in this together.” Zeke looked at Elora and then at Ruby, both fondly. “I’ve kind of become fond of her annoying self anyways.”

“Thanks.” Ruby gave him a playful punch in the arm. Then looking at Elora “We both love you and we will make this work for you. We can learn to love each other in the same way we love you. As long as we navigate this together, we can figure it out together.” 

“Okay…” Elora said, still seemingly unsure. “Sure. We can give it a try. I know it has only been a short time here, but I can already tell that we are good for each other.”