King

CHAPTER XIII

After the incident, Al decided that we take all of our valuables to stay at the laboratory since it has higher security. Zyn and I didn’t complain. The next day came and Al went to the government and High Commission of Magic Regulation. So, Zyn and I were left alone.

“Nothing’s going well at the moment,” Zynrick commented and I just nodded. Though we wanted to train we couldn’t. What happened was bothering Zynrick too much while my mind was preoccupied with what I overheard last night.

“Let’s train,” Zynrick said and stood up. I looked up at him and he gave me a small smile. “What are you sitting there for? We have time until Al comes back so let’s not waste it.”

He offered his hand but I didn’t take it. I stood up and looked him straight in the eyes. “Is there something on my face?” He asked when all I did was staring at him.

“Nothing,” I said and walked a few meters away from him. “Okay, get ready,” I said and held my hand out.

“What are you going to-“ He started but he wasn’t able to finish his sentence because I blasted him.

He was thrown a few feet away from me. He stood up and moved his hand to the side. I felt a strong pressure that threw me to the ground. I then saw the ground moving upward which alarmed me. I immediately jumped and created a triangular platform below me.

“You’re improving,” I commented and he smiled but I was surprised when water spears surrounded me. I quickly blocked by encaging myself inside a magic box.

I squinted my eyes at him and I couldn’t help but smile at the improvement he was having. I released myself from the cube and landed on the ground but as I land it opened. Luckily, I was able to create a platform and floated.

“I didn’t know that you’d be this good,” I said but he didn’t answer. Instead, he manipulated the ground and it turned into sand.

I scoffed when I realized that it was just sand but as I try to move I realized that it wasn’t normal. It was quicksand. I was struggling to let myself free when Zynrick stood in front of me.

“Do you surrender?” He asked while looking at me with a victorious smile. I glared at him and shook my head.

He shrugged and said, “Okay,” He then proceeded to walk away.

I was struggling so hard to break free and when the sand was already around my neck I yelled, “I give up!”

I was waiting for Zynrick to arrive and set me free but a moment had passed and I was still in the sand. I was thinking maybe he didn’t hear it so I yelled it once again. The second time I yelled I was finally free. I was sitting on the ground once again.

“How did I do?” He asked with enthusiasm. The way his eyes sparkled made me scoff.

“You did well,” I said and I could see the evident joy in his face.

“Thanks,” He said and looked at the ground. I walked towards him and raised his chin.

“Why are you looking down?” I asked while looking straight at his eyes.

I noticed that his face started feeling hot and that his cheeks were tinted pink. I furrowed my eyebrows and moved my face closer to his. I noticed how his breathing hitched with what I did.

“What’s wrong? You’re turning red.” I said and he took a step back.

I was confused by the way he was acting. I’ve done this with Athaeas before and this isn’t how he acted.

“Nothing,” He said and shook his head. He then gently pushed me away from him.

He looked away and I saw that he took a deep breath. “Please, don’t do that,” He said making me furrow my eyebrows.

“What’s wrong with it?” I asked and he couldn’t answer.

I was about to ask more questions when I saw Al approaching us from the corner of my eye. “How was it?” I asked when he was already in front of us.

“We have to go back to Edengale.” He said seriously. The distress is obvious in his face.

“What’s going on?” Zynrick asked and Al looked at Zyn.

“We have to move fast. The Tyrone is quickly gaining supporters. It seems that almost half of the Senate is agreeing with a project proposal he presented.” Al answered.

“Let’s go then,” I said and snapped my fingers.

We were immediately teleported back to Edengale. The first person we saw was the chief and he didn’t seem surprised at all.

“It seems that you are back,” He said stating the obvious.

“Chief, we need to go to that cave,” Al said and the chief nodded. “It’s about time you finally told me that you want to go,”

We were taken aback by what he said. I guess he saw the confusion and surprise on our face because he said, “I was waiting for you to tell me that you want to go there. I know I warned you about entering the cave but when I went there the next night after you arrived the fox demon told me to allow you to enter.”

“Did she tell you why?” I asked and the chief shook his head.

I looked at Al and it seems like he was relieved that things were going smoothly for once.

“Can you guide us there then?” Al asked and the chief nodded.

After arriving in front of the cave the chief told us that, “The barrier has been lifted for you to enter.”

I looked at the cave and he was right. The barrier was lifted. I walked ahead while they trailed behind me. I was sure of the direction I was taking so I confidently went ahead of them.

“Elle, have you been here?” Al asked and I answered honestly, “I have.”

Al didn’t say anything after that. I guess he wasn’t surprised by the fact that I have been here.

“Are you sure about the path you’re taking, young witch?” The chief asked and I nodded.

We were holding flashlights so I was sure that he saw my response. “Elle,” I heard Al call out so I looked behind me.

“You can take care of yourself, right?” He asked and I nodded before saying, “Of course,”

“Then will you be alright if we take a separate route?” He asked. I furrowed my eyebrows at what he said. “Why?” I asked.

“I don’t know why but I have a feeling that I should take a different path.” He answered. He looked confused which was rare but as I look at him I feel like something was calling him to take a different path.

“You can go,” I said and he nodded but before they can even leave Zynrick protested. “Why should we go with you?”

“I don’t have any magic in me nor did I bring any weapons so I need you,” Al said making Zynrick scowl.

“Can’t we go with Elle for now before doing whatever you want to do after?” Zynrick asked and Al shook his head.

“I know that as a scientist I need to act based on the facts and information I have gathered but my intuition is telling me that we should go somewhere else,” Al answered making Zynrick groan.

“I don’t want to go with you though,” He said honestly making Al hit the back of his head. Zyn scratched the back of his head and looked away.

“You should follow Al,” I said and walked ahead.

If I stayed there I’m sure the conversation would drag on.

I continued to walk when I saw that gleaming light. I ran towards it and saw nothing but carvings. There was a carving of a bow and a carving of a sword.

“These are beautiful,” I said and ran my fingers through it. As I ran my fingers through the bow I felt a strong pulse of magic.

I closed my eyes and felt it again. I was just making sure that the magic pulse I felt was real. I concentrated on the feeling I had before and as time went by I saw a woman.

The woman in front of me, she had her back on me but I can tell that she was fare. She had fox ears and a foxtail. That’s when I realized that she was the fox demon the chief and Annaliza were talking about.

I was admiring her when she turned and faced me. She gave me a warm smile and said, “Why are you crying, Elle?”

I was confused by what she said. I held my cheek and felt that there were indeed tears running down my cheeks. I looked at my hand before looking back at her.

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. She walked towards me and wiped my tears away with her clothes.

She was wearing a white long-sleeved off the shouldered flowy dress. “I’ve missed you, Elle,” She said and wrapped her arms around me.

“Who are you?” I asked and she broke the hug. She looked at me with a smile on her face as she said, “Don’t you remember?”

I shook my head as an answer. “Are you my familiar?” I asked and she nodded.

I didn’t know where the warm feeling was coming from but being with her made me want to stay with her for a long time.

“If you’re my familiar then can you tell me what happened during the great war?” I asked but she just smiled at me before shaking her head.

“Yuriko said that there’s a seal on my memories. Do you know anything about that?” I asked and she nodded.

“I was the one who put the seal on your memories.” She said.

“Undo it,” I commanded but when she was about to answer I was awakened with Al close to my face.

“What the f**k did you do?! I was finally with my familiar you dickhead!” I yelled in anger but Al didn’t mind.

“The ministry of defense is here along with Tyrone and the other members of the AMF. They have weapons and machinery with them so we need to go.” He said and frantically pulled me outside of the cave. I was letting him drag me until we got out. When we were finally outside that’s when I noticed that Zynrick and the chief weren’t with us.

“Where’s Zyn and the village chief?” I asked while looking around. “Did we leave them behind?”

“No, Zynrick is looking for a way out of the village. The village chief, on the other hand, is stalling for us to have time to escape.” Al said while looking at his wristwatch.

I could see a moving red dot. He then pulled me with him but I shook my wrist from his grip.

“I’m not leaving this place,” I said and walked towards the opposite.

I could still remember the path we took so it was easy for me to follow. I was busy walking towards the village when I felt Al’s hand on my arm.

“Elle now isn’t the time to be a hard head.” He said through gritted teeth.

I pushed his hand away and scoffed. “Are you seriously just going to leave these people behind?” I asked. He took a deep breath and looked at me straight in the eyes.

“We’re leaving here because if we stay here then they’re going to be in danger.” He said slowly.

“What do you mean?” I asked because I couldn’t understand how staying here could cause harm.

“They’re looking for something, Elle. I suspect that they’re the ones who stole all of the documents in the chateau. Since your documents were missing I’m sure they finally know that you have familiars. So, now, here they are looking for your familiars as well.” He explained. I could feel my blood boil at what he said.

I was ready to teleport and fight them but when I snapped my fingers I wasn’t teleported. “Al, please don’t tell me there’s a magic canceling barrier erected in this place.”

“There is. Do you think that I’d command Zynrick to look for an escape route if you can just teleport us to a safe place?” He asked. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself.

I looked at Al and I could see the concern on his face. “Look, Elle, we don’t have forever.” He said while looking at his watch.

“We need to leave now. If the AMF finds us here then they will create a scene. They could start a fight here and kill all of us. After that, they would twist the story and blame everything on us. So, if you want the village to be safe then let’s go.” He said and walked towards the direction the red dot is heading.

I didn’t argue with him anymore. Instead, I followed him. We were through a forest and then we saw Zynrick.

“Did you find one?” Al asked and Zynrick answered, “Yeah, but we need to hurry.”

“Okay,” Al said and we followed Zynrick.

After about almost an hour we saw a car that was parked not far from where we were. “Is that for us?” Zynrick asked and Al nodded.

We ran towards it and got in. “Did you do what I told you?” Al asked the driver and the driver nodded.

“Yes, sir, I have briefed Sir Ethan about the situation.” He said and looked at Al.

“Okay, that’s good. Now, both of you don’t worry. I’m sure that Ethan had already sent his people to monitor the Ministry of Defense and AMF’s movements.” Al said making me look at him. Zyn seemed like he trusted Zynrick but I wanted an explanation.

“How would you know that nothing would happen in the village?” I asked and Al answered by saying, “Ethan is the son of the President. No one would dare to disobey his orders. They’re all scared to go against him because the president would order their deaths if they did.”

I nodded after Al’s explanation. In this era, I need to trust Al. “Let’s go back to the lab.” He said and the driver said, “Understood, sir.”

After we arrived at the lab, Al told us to stay while he goes to the White Palace. I wanted to tell him what happened but I didn’t even get the chance. He was too busy talking to someone on the phone and he didn’t even get out when we arrived. He just waited for us to go out of the car so he leaves and got to Ethan.

“Zyn,” I called out. I decided to just tell ZYnrick what happened.

I’ll just probably wait for Al to come back before I tell him what had happened.

Zynrick looked at me and said, “What is it?”

“I met my familiar inside the cave,” I said and his eyes grew wide.

“What happened next?” He asked and I told him everything that happened.

“That’s good. At least, returning there had its benefits.” He said after listening to my story.

“Yeah, you’re right. But I want to go back. I still have a lot of things I need to ask her.” I said and he nodded.

After that, there was nothing but silence. I was slowly feeling awkward the more we stayed there in silence so I asked, “Why does Al keep on going to the government for help when they’re slowly siding with the AMF?”

“Well, Al knows the President’s son. Ethan always has Al’s back because his family is in debt to them somehow.” He answered casually. It looks like he knows a lot about Al’s family. Come to think of it, I remember Erin telling me that Zynrick was adopted into Al’s family.

“What do you mean Ethan’s family is in debt?” I asked and Zynrick looked at me.

“Don’t tell him I told you these, okay?” He said and I nodded. He looked around to make sure that people aren’t around before resuming his story.

“Al’s family is highly influential. Since his mom and dad are top students when they were studying to become doctors people who they were. They were the talk of the town. But their family’s fame rose, even more, when his parents started to practice medicine. They were kind as doctors so people loved them. I don’t know how they got in this institution though but when they got in their population rose even more. They were in the newspapers, magazines and talk shows. And when the time of the campaign to become a president came the Smiths asked Flynn’s supports. I have no idea why they agreed, I guess they were just being nice, but they helped.” Zynrick said. He had his lips curved into a smile as he talked about Al’s family.

I started to wonder why. I remember Erin telling me that Al’s family was abusive toward him but he was still smiling as he told the story about Al’s family.

“As I was saying, they feel like they have the responsibility to support Al because they had supported their family during the campaign. That’s why they’re in debt to the Flynns.” He said and shrugged after finishing the story.

It confused me that he was acting this way while talking about Al’s family. “Hey, Zyn,” I called out because I couldn’t handle wondering what is Zyn and Al’s relationship with each other.

“What is it?” He asked and I bit my bottom lip.

“What’s your relationship with Al?” I asked and it was evident that he didn’t like my question.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He said and looked away.

I wanted to risk pushing the topic but Al came back.

I swear his timing is impeccable. Whenever I have something important to ask or do he always comes barging it to ruin the moment.

“How did things go?” Zynrick asked while looking at Al.

“We can go back. Ethan’s people were able to make the AMF and the Ministry of Defense leave so we can go back but we need to make sure that they aren’t in the village anymore by the time we go back there. We don’t want to stir an unnecessary fight.” Al answered and we nodded.

“So, we’ll go back next week then?” I asked and Al nodded.

“We’ll have Ethan’s security come with us for safety measures.” He added before alternately looking at us.

“By the way,” Al said and looked at me. “I remember you telling me that you met your familiar back then.”

“Yeah,” I said and he told me to tell him everything that happened.

After telling him about everything that happened he told me that we desperately needed to go back.

“We need to go back then,” He said and massaged his temple. “Alright, pack all of you things so we can leave early.” He reminded before leaving us.

After Al had left Zyn and I stayed there. “Let’s go pack,” I said when all we did was stay there in silence.

Zynrick looked at me and gave me a small smile before following me inside. I went to the room Al gave me in the lab and started to pack. Once I was done I laid on my bed and attempted to sleep but I couldn’t. When hours passed and I still couldn’t sleep I decided to go out.

“What are you doing here?” I asked when I saw Zynrick in the garden outside the lab.

He turned his gaze towards me before smiling at me. “I can’t sleep.” He said and I nodded.

“What about you?” He asked while looking up at the sky.

“Same reason as you,” I answered and he just nodded.

We were both silent for a while after that. “How are you with all of the things that are happening?” Zynrick asked so I looked at him.

“Everything’s happening so fast,” I answered honestly.

He nodded and scoffed making me furrow my eyebrows. He looked at me and noticed the confusion on my face so he said, “I agree with you. Sometimes I don’t even know what’s happening anymore. Everything that’s been happening seems to flash by so quickly.”

“Yeah,” I said and sat on the grass. “You can sit beside me if you want.”

“Sure,” He said and sat beside me.

We both sat in silence. It wasn’t anything awkward if not, it felt comforting.

“What are you doing?” He asked when I laid my head on his shoulder.

“I don’t know,” I answered and closed my eyes.

To be honest, I have no clue why I’m doing this. All I know is that it’s comfortable being with him.

“Okay?” I heard him whisper.

“Am I making you feel uncomfortable?” I asked and stood up straight.

He looked at me and immediately shook his head, “No, it’s fine if you lay on my shoulder.” He said.

I smiled and returned to laying my head on his shoulder. “I have no idea why being beside you makes me feel relaxed.” I murmured before drifting off to sleep.