Amber Erin Anderson

And here I was people, walking behind the Princes of the Elysian Kingdom and hoping I was just in a beautiful dream where I was dressed up as a royal maid, got to meet with three gorgeous guys, was living in a damn palace and was about to meet the King and the Queen.

A beautiful dream, indeed.

You and I, we both know you're not in a dream, Amber.

There's nothing wrong with hoping, right? So shut the hell up.

As three of us were on our way to the throne room, Ace looked around--noticing the absence of guards and said: "Where are the guards? Aren't they suppose to be here?"

Ember pretended like he didn't hear and I realized he didn't want to answer the question so I answered instead. "Ember told the guards to patrol somewhere else,"

We were still walking and Ace asked, "Why?" I shrugged; despite knowing the reason as he sighed through his nose.

As three of us were walking down the hallway in utter silence, Keith's words about this place rang in my ears, making me think about them continuously and then I finally decided to ask them, hoping I would get a rational answer out of them.

"By the way," I began, walking by Ember's side. "I saw two women having red wings." I confessed, still quite not being able to believe what in the God's name I'd witnessed just a while ago.

Ace was the first one to talk after me. "You mean, you saw a Red Wing Possessor of Wing Possessors?"

I stopped in my tracks, Ace's words dancing in my head and not making any sense. "What?"

Ember looked at me, frowning. "Keith didn't tell you anything?"

My cheeks flushed. "I mean, he did . . . ." I continued. "But I didn't want to listen 'cause I thought he'd lost his marbles or something," I looked at the walls which seemed a little bit too interesting at the moment, avoiding Ember's eyes.

He sighed. "How much did he tell you?"

I felt my cheeks growing more hot from mortification. "He was saying something about some sort of magic system,"

"And?"

"That's all,"

"That's all?" Ember made a face.

I looked away. "He just said the word and I left your room,"

Ember sighed. "Alright, I will explain everything as briefly as I can," he licked his lips. "Things in this place is a lot different from the place you're from. We have Power Holders,"

"Power Holders?"

"Every living creature is a Power Holder. You, me, Ira, Ace, Keith - everybody. There are three Power Holders out there - Ezèrian, renèi Possessors and lastly, Naughts. Ezèrian are those who can manipulate natural elements like air, fire, earth, water, you name it. There are two types of Ezèrian - Normal Ezèrian and Gifted Ezèrian. Normal Ezèrian can only manipulate natural forces while Gifted Ezèrian, are of course, gifted with some sort of special powers,"

My head is going to explode any second.

"Renèi Possessors on the hand, have magical possession or abilities that they can utilise however they want to, with limitations, of course. They have wings, the ability to manipulate humans minds, alter someone's facial or body structures, create dreams, erase memories and many more,"

My head hurts.

"And lastly, we have Naughts - nothings. They possess no powers or abilities - they're just simple human beings with no powers whatsoever." He sighed.

Finally.

"Well?" Ember raised an eyebrow.

I remained quiet, not knowing what to say.

To be honest, they sounded like madman to me, caged in their fantasy.

Ace broke the silence.

"I have a question before her," he raised his hand, furrowing his eyebrows. "How come she doesn't remember the Power Holders? It's been thirteen years, yes but she forgot about the Power Holders completely?"

"Her memories were erased," Ember finally spoke, his voice so low yet firm and hard like steel as I noticed him clenching his fist, his knuckles turning white.

Three of us stopped walking.

"Her/my memories were erased?" Him and I said at the same time, simultaneously and then looked at each other, our heads tilted, baffled.

Before Ace could say anything, I'd already started bombarding Ember with questions. "Hold on a second, is that even possible? Are you two mentally alright? There's no way you can just erase someone's memories and what the hell were you blabbering about just a while-" I stopped, ran a hand through my hair and scoffed.

"I'm in a fancy mental asylum, aren't I?" I laughed as I looked around the hallway, the gorgeous designs, the architecture, the huge chandeliers shining brighter than me and Nathan's future.

Ember threw me a look that clearly meant he wasn't joking around and that he was in no mood of laughing along with me. "What's got your goat?" I finally asked, rolling my eyes.

Ignoring my question he returned his attention to Ace who asked a question that sounded so absurd to me that I wanted to smash my head somewhere.

"Her memories were erased? By Memory Erasers?"

"This is what I think- but Keith said there's more to it," Ember ran a hand through his fake hair and continued. "The only thing I'm sure of right now is that her memories were erased then, not after she arrived here,"

"Uh, hello? You're talking about me so you should explain what you're saying?" I waved my hands, getting no response.

The next few minutes passed by Ace and Ember explaining that my memories were erased by a Memory Eraser- a kind of Memory Possessors and I just nodded my head, pretending I was comprehending everything while thinking these two poor souls have completely lost it and should be given the help that they deserved immediately, along with the other lunatic Keith, too.

I sighed and decided to play along with them.

"So, everyone is a Power Holder and renèi Possessors are one of the Power Holder and there are two more Power Holders, too," they nodded as I continued. "What kind of Power Holder are you, Ace?" I asked smilingly, like a mother questioning her child's so- called made up game just so he feels better about his creation.

"I'm a Possessor of two renèi - a Memory Writer of Memory Possessors and a Black Wing Possessor of Wing Possessors," he explained.

"Y'll need immediate help," I mumbled to myself as I returned my attention to him, my expression shocked. "For real? That's so cool!" I squealed.

"You aren't taking us seriously, are you?" Ember gave me a side look. "Don't you think we're telling you the truth after you saw a woman releasing her renèi Possession with your own eyes?"

"I don't know how am I suppose to believe that magic exists,"

"Do you want evidence, then?"

"An evidence of a human suddenly growing giant ass wings in their back? Or erasing someone's memories or writing them? If possible, yes, please," I smiled, closing my eyes and batting my eyelashes at them.

Now, I wasn't really expecting Ember to gesture Ace something with his eyes and Ace nodding at whatever Ember meant. I thought he'd told him that their lies have come to an end and they should put an end to this little imagination of magic of theirs but God, was I wrong.

I gave my full attention to Ace who just straightened his posture, closed his eyes and raised his chin while heaving his chest and making me confused, but I was excited of what kind of act they were going to pull so I watched him intently.

Something slowly tore off in Ace's back, making me furrow my eyebrows and make my way to his back and as I did, seeing little feathers protruding out from the torn place was the least thing I expected to see. The long black feathers grew and grew like a plant growing in front of your very own eyes and they grew until a miscellany of black feathers and black whirls of specks turned into a pair of high speed wings, flapping against the air.

"I. . ." I was speechless. What was I witnessing? Was this another hallucination of mine? This was real? That was real? When I saw a woman having a pair of dark crimson wings was real? And this was real too?

I went closer to touch his feathers, expecting him to move away, shriek away, jerk away, anything to make me believe that this was not real. But he didn't. And when I brushed my fingers against the feathers, it all felt authentic and I knew right then and there, I was somewhere far away from my home.

"Ember, where am I, really'?" I turned towards Ember, my eyes wide, not wanting to hear the real truth.

Ember was about to answer when Ace cut him off. "There's a lot to talk about, we can't do that here, in the hallway,"

He was right- there was too much to talk about - renèi Possessors, their kinds, branches, Ezèrian and their types, Naughts and lastly everything and when I say everything, I really mean everything as now that I think, Ember and others don't seem to have any kind of mental problems and were in perfect health. In fact, now, I sounded like an insane person for questioning things that were completely normalised here.

"Alright, let's get done with your father's announcement first, then you all are telling me how I ended up here," I sighed, walking as they nodded.

Ace terminated his renèi possession before I could even blink as a medley of the feathers vanished into thin air and his back returned to normal, the back of his vest torn a little. After the termination of his renèi Possession, some feathers flew, making me instantly catch them and observe them for a while.

It's real. He has wings. He can write memories.

It's a little terrifying, being able to write someone's memory, being able to erase it.

I shook my head, following the boys while wondering what else there's to witness today.