Pablo Camp

The Empress finally arrived at the Orenöbale. Her concern for her son’s safety intensified as she flew over the green and rocky landscape. The trip had seemed eternal, even though it hadn’t taken her long. Fear was pressuring Ysará. She knew deep inside her husband didn’t have the heart to kill the Prince nor to leave him entirely unprotected from the savage beasts that roamed these mountains. Her fear had a different reason of being. She could feel it. There was something wrong with Sefiren; strange and unnatural. Something she had only felt once, eighteen years ago at his birth.

She quickly dashed through the vast forests of the Orenöbale, sensing the situation was worsening. It was becoming more and more difficult to track Sefiren’s spiritual pattern. One instant it was everywhere and the next, nowhere. It had grown erratic and unpredictable. Even some animals had taken notice; she had seen over a handful of them running, as if fleeing from something terrible.

Hours passed by with no results whatsoever. The Empress’ heart was beating at twice its normal speed. Then it struck her. Night had already fallen and there were no visible stars because of the dense clouds. That meant that the night was at its darkest moment. If her fears were correct, she would be able to spot the Prince from the air. She took flight and did not even have to look around for long. Gazing down at the mountains, a great light emanated from the distance: a tiny but unmistakable point amongst the trees. Her suspicions were instantly confirmed.

She hurried to the spot, so nervous she had even lost the capacity to form coherent thoughts. She only wanted to see her son; caring about nothing else; about no one else.

Shortly after that, she reached the spot where the light was at its brightest. Even though the light was blinding, she managed to gaze down. There, Prince Sefiren lay on the ground, unconscious. The Empress quickly identified him as the source of the penetrating light. Amidst the shock, she vehemently refused to accept what she was seeing; but as she slowly approached her eldest son, her legs trembling with every step, it was evident she couldn’t. If she managed to resolve this problem, her husband would have to be told immediately.

It had become really hard for her to move. The Prince’s body was releasing humongous amounts of raw, uncontrolled energy. The amount was such that even the Empress, who was believed to have power on par with Lord Regelial, thuss considered to be one of the strongest persons alive, had to crawl with great effort in order to each her son’s body. Her breathing became heavier, almost impossible, as she advanced towards her first-born; every further step becoming a more demanding struggle.
The Empress finally reached Sefiren after an arduous battle, placing her hand on his forehead. His body temperature was so high that it burned her palm, so she quickly withdrew her hand with a cry of pain.

“Sefiren! Sefiren wake up!” shouted the Empress. Tears fell down her cheeks and unto the prince’s face. StrValcary enough, they did not evaporate, as should’ve happened due to the high temperature. “You have to control it! Please wake up!” but her pleas were not heard. Prince Sefiren did not even budge. His chestnut hair had now become a shiny white.

I have to do something thought Ysará, if he continues like this, then the seal will break and he … but she did not even want to consider that outcome as a possibility. The Empress tried to come up with an idea. Her mind was blurry and the desperation impeded her from thinking straight. Eventually though, she was able to conceive an idea. She knew there was a great risk to it, but it looked like the Empress had no true alternative. She brought her right index finger into her mouth and bit it, drawing small drops of blood from the wound.

She quickly drew two circles on her sons’ neck. The small one was drawn inside the big one, and then, in between the two, she drew a normal triangle and an inverse triangle. Lastly, she drew the sigils representing Esmäna, Essential Spirit of Light, and Æ̈s̆nivral, Essential Spirit of Darkness, and linked them with a line. It would have to make do in the meantime.

Normally, if someone wanted to extract energy from a person’s body, they would simply touch their chests with their right hand. They would then focus on absorbing energy into their bodies and expulse it through their other hand unto the earth and wind. This method, however, was only used with healing purposes, as only very few people had managed to perfect that complex technique. The Absorption Circle, on the other hand, allowed the user to draw the energy directly into their bodies by consuming the blood of the other person, placing him on a near-death state. It was a riskier method. If the user consumes more energy than can be handled, the heart will stop in an instant; and if too much blood is consumed, the other person has the risk of dying out of lack of blood and energy. Unfortunately, it was also the fastest one, and the Empress had no time to waste.

She brought what little blood remained on her finger to her mouth. When the crimson liquid touched her canines, they grew and became sharper. She lowered her head to her son’s neck, placing her newly grown fangs on the circle that had been drawn on it and slowly sank them, piercing her son’s soft flesh.

Her eyes changed colour, as the Empress began sucking the blood, now turning into a deep crimson. Tears kept falling down her face, their taste mixing with that of the blood. Her lips were being burnt by the direct contact with her son’s skin, and her body was begging her to stop. Ysará had already consumed too much energy, far more than her body could resist, but she didn’t care. She only wanted to help her son, even at the cost of her own life.

After a couple of seconds, Prince Sefiren awoke shouting and crying. He was in excruciating pain. His eyes widened and he began to violently convulse. His mother noticed this, but she knew there was still a little bit more to go. She held the prince down with one hand and knocked him over with the other. Eventually, his hair returned to its normal curvy state and colour. His skin’s temperature descended and there was no longer any light. At the sight of this, the Empress withdrew her fangs, which immediately returned to normal size, her eyes went back to their normal carmine colour, and took a deep breath.

Lady Ysará knew her job wasn’t finished though. Yes, she was also in extreme pain. She had probably consumed twice the amount of energy that her body could hold, pushing her to the limit. Most humans would have died by now, since their bodies weren’t built to endure that amount of spiritual energy. She could feel she was about to faint. Gathering what strength she could muster, she stood up, placed the Prince on her shoulders, and began flying towards Elyrdir. She could barely stay awake, and had to use a lot of concentration to keep herself afloat. She could feel how the energy burned her from the inside. The desire to protect her son was now the only thing that gave the Empress her strength. She wasn’t going to lose him.

Night, which had helped her earlier to find her son, now seemed to be against her. She could barely see and a heavy storm was falling, hampering her even more. No longer was she sure of going in the right direction. What if she was unable to find the way? What if she didn’t make it back in time? For a brief moment, Ysará had lost all hope of success. She then gazed down at Sefiren. His eyes tightly shut. His hair was gently caressing his face, which now showed a great tranquillity. That image rekindled the Empress’ desire to bring back both of them safely. The thoughts of seeing her whole family reunited and happy had given her the boost she needed to maintain her stability and keep on flying.

After a while, Ysará finally visualised Asaia-Laégel and the Imperial Palace lit as a great spear of light that pierced even the great sky. Unfortunately, the Empress was now losing altitude, and she was slowly descending unto the Sasol Barrier. “Jus-Just a little… a little more. Please.” She said to herself as she lost the ability to remain floating. “I-I have to do something. I have to protect… Sef…iren”. She quickly embraced her son.

“Élytale Rasiá!” shouted the Empress and they were enveloped into a shield formed by light seconds before violently crashing into the Sasol Barrier with a booming noise.

“Empress Ysará? Prince Sefiren? Someone quick! Call a medical unit! Call Lord Ilorsil at once! The Empress and the Prince are wounded!” was the last thing that Ysará heard. “Sef…Sefiren… R-R-Reg…Regelial”, were her last words before everything became dark. Tears were still visible on her delicate face, yet she also had a beautiful and relaxed smile of accomplishment across her face.

Ignorant of the situation, Lord Regelial was still discussing the plan to overthrow the Senate with the High Imperial Counci but the course of history had yet to be defined.

Hope you enjoyed it! Any comments are more than welcome