The Elemental Sisters: Spirit

Seeing Akasha crumple to the ground sent me into a panic. I rushed towards her, kneeling beside her. I hoped her wounds looked worse than they were. She had the puncture wound on her leg from her sister and a deep gash across her

stomach. "Akasha, wake up."

Gia knelt beside me, putting her hand on my shoulder she stated, "She will be fine."

I looked at her as her eyes turned emerald and plants I didn't recognize popped up from the ground. She picked them and Ari walked over, handing Gia her bag.

"Thanks, luckily I carry this stuff with me." Gia stated as she pulled a mortar and pestle from the bag and put the plants into it and crushed them into a paste, adding water from her canteen. Once it was done, Gia cleaned the wounds with water and applied the paste and bandaged it. "She will probably be out for a bit. She lost a lot of blood."

"No, thanks to you." Ari spat angrily from her position behind her.

"I fixed her, didn't I. Geez so ungrateful." She muttered as she stood and walked over to Taoen, who was unconscious a few feet from her.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked her as she knelt beside him.

She looked him over and replied, "He exhausted too much of his magic."

"What do you mean? None of you have been hurt by yours." I inquired.

"Everything comes at a price, every time we use our abilities, we are risking ourselves. Akasha gets migraines and loses her vision, just like Huricana's mind becoming jumbled. Taoen would have a limit or side effect as well. If he overuses them and without using them properly, he drains his energy and collapses from exhaustion, which is what I believe happened."

"He really is unpredictable with his abilities and needs training before he kills someone." Ari added, annoyed.

"What about you, Sunama and Ari? What risks are you taking?" I asked, curious.

"Plenty. Ari can become consumed by fire like you saw, but if she stays in that form too long, she can become trapped and not be able to return to her normal form, or if she manages to return, she could have injuries from her own element. The same goes for Sunama with water and me with earth."

I nodded, digesting the information. "We should get Akasha out of here." I stated, noticing the people in the crowd had not dispersed yet." The King will have a feast later in the dining hall. Maybe she will wake up before then." Gia nodded as I picked up Akasha off the ground and two guards picked up Taoen, carrying him away.

Gia and Ari followed me as I headed into the castle towards their rooms. Sunama and Huricana headed to the courtyard after speaking with Ari.

I carried Akasha back to her room and put her on the bed, covering her with a blanket.

“I need to speak to the King." I told Gia, who was watching from the doorway.

"I'll stay with her; Ari went to hang out with Frey." She laughed, doing air quotes.

"They seem fond of each other."

"They do, but it will only end in tears." Gia stated.

"What do you mean?"

"Ari can't get close to anyone, if she does, she risks hurting them, so even though she is attracted to him, it will never work. It is, and has always been, her curse." "It doesn't seem to affect her any."

Gia smiled, "she has a mask she puts up, just like you."

"You don't know me; how do you know I wear a mask?"

"The King is your father and yet you don't seem close to him. You lead an army when you should be learning to rule a kingdom."

"A king needs to learn to lead an army to protect his people.'

""

"He does, but he also needs to know how to lead his people and govern them, not as a general but as a King."

"I won't be King; my half brother will be." My father had trained me when I was younger, but that was before his mistress messed everything up.

"And that would be a mistake."

"How do you know?"

"The earth speaks to me and this place," she gestured around her; "is made of marble, it speaks to me and tells me who I should protect myself and my sisters from."

"And who is it warning you against?"

"The King and your brother."

"Not my stepmother?"

"No, she will not be around for long."

"What do you mean?"

Gia shook her head, "Go see the King, I will watch Akasha."

"But..."

"It is not for me to tell."

"You know, I will find out." I stated as I headed out the door and towards the throne room. I passed by the dining hall and, as expected, my father was setting up the dining hall for a massive feast. Passing a guard, I continued further down the hall and came to the throne room.

The guards opened the door after announcing my arrival and I entered, approaching my father, who was sitting on his throne, looking unhappy. Probably disappointed that his plan had failed.

"Tyr, why are you here?" He asked me, annoyed as he drank wine from his cup.

"I came to speak with you." I replied as I bowed and approached the throne. He took another large swig of his wine. He wasn't usually a big drinker. I wonder what is going on with him.

In his mind I saw his queen she was on her deathbed.

"About what?"

"Where has the Queen been hiding?"

"None of your business." My father snapped. "Is that all you came here for?"

"No, I came here because the sisters have proven themselves to be who they say they are, what will you do now, father?" It really didn't matter to me where the queen was, I just knew my father did stupid things when it came to her. "It's King Halamar to you."

"My apologizes," I bowed.

"I will give them the aid they seek after they help me with the problem we are having."

"You mean the Drow that has been attacking our villages?" I asked, surprised that he wanted to do anything about it, until now, he has let them destroy anything they wanted and done nothing about it. "How did you know about that?"

"You made me a spy; the other spies are loyal to me."

He narrowed his gaze, "I don't know if I want them loyal to you."

I shrugged, "what do you want them to do?"

"I want them to stop the Drow from attacking our Kingdom."

"And what if we need to take out the Goblins to do so? They are working together, after all."

"You have no proof of that." He snapped, "We will have to question their leader, make sure they are captured alive. You and Taoen will help them."

"What? Why?" I tried to read my father's thoughts, but it was like hitting a wall, guess his guard is back up. He didn't know about my abilities, yet sometimes I felt like he did. He always seemed to know when I was trying to read his mind. Or maybe it was me his mind was trying to block out, and it also helped block my abilities.

"Just as they are the sisters of prophecy, Taoen has his role to play, too."

"What role would that be?"

"They'll figure it out, I was only told by his father that he had a role to play, not what role that would be."

"Very well."

"I want the sisters to attend the feast tonight."

"The ones that can will. Akasha is still unconscious."

"Very well, be gone. I have stuff to do."

"Yes fath..."

"Your majesty."

"Yes, sire." I nodded and headed out of the throne room, hating the man for his treatment of me. I was the eldest son and supposed to be heir to the throne, but because he hated my mother for abandoning him, he is planning to give it to my half brother.

Unfortunately for my father, the kingdom would not go to my brother but to me, as he has sent me to work with the army, I have been earning their respect and have a large portion of them on my side. The part of the army was loyal to me already have already sworn fealty to me and only me. My father had not realized the error he made by sending me on the suicide missions. It gave me a chance to prove myself to my people, and they resented the fact that Prince Uda had done nothing to better the kingdom.

As I walked out of the throne room, I clenched my fists in anger. First, he didn't believe the sisters and insulted them by calling them frauds and now that they had proved themselves; he wants to use them to fight against the Drow when we should concentrate on the Goblins as the Drow are under their command. It's bullshit another suicide mission meant to wipe both the sisters and me out.