Ember Elliot Elysian

Before getting off of my horse, I made sure to lift Erin while standing on the stirrup and place her on the ground gently as she squealed with a high pitched tone and then I descended with a sigh.

I slumped my shoulders as I faced her. "Erin, I know you're not in your right state of mind, but-" I sighed when I realised she ignored me and began twirling my horse's tail.

"I've never had white noodles before, can I eat that?" she asked, tilting her head as I shook my head and left her like that.

I've bigger problems than granting you permission to eat my horse's tail.

Looking at Ira who also descended from his horse, he pulled off the hood of his white embroidered cape, his chin-length hair waving in the night breeze while glaring at me with an icy stare, ready to slice my head off and feed it to some kind of hungry animals anytime.

I sighed again.

"Elliot, you little bastard. . ."

Here we go again.

As expected from him, he marched towards me, gripped my collar, huffing and scowling with abhor and anger. "Do you have any idea what your daft stunt did to mother?" he gritted his teeth, clenching his jaw.

It took me two seconds to realize what he meant.

I was so busy these days with my own self and saving myself, that I'd completely forgotten about my step mother who was over possessive with her step children. I remember we'd have had to take her permission and endure her long lasting precautions about wherever we went and had to made sure we came in one piece- otherwise she'd throw a tantrum, saying people are after her sons, to take our lives, to take her children away- again.

She and I weren't the closest as I could never see her a mother but saw her as a woman who lost her children and was seeing them in me and my brothers. Often, I'd find myself question if she ever loved us or was just paranoid over the fact that father will lose his heirs again.

She and I may not have a strong bond with each other as I could never call someone my mother who didn't even know my real identity but Ira had a great bond with her, so I found it normal when he was practically giving me death threats.

"If anything happens to her because of you, I swear to any God that exists out there, that I will not hesitate to slit your throat this time," he lashed out, his veins early popping out of his forehead. "and I will break your shield."

"She's gone insane, she tried to use her renèi Possession, failed, begged some kind of God, mumbled prayers, cried and here you are, shamelessly being the disgrace that you are," he spat as he retreated back, letting go off my collar.

Guilt engulfed me.

Between the never-ending guilt for hurting my step mother, there was anger, too. Anger at Ira, anger at the world and how it worked and anger at the word disgrace.

What's so wrong with wanting to live?

I desperately wanted to ask this question to him, to father, to everyone who wants Ezèrian to be dead for being potent but I didn't. The words won't come out of my mouth- maybe because he was right, maybe I was a disgrace for wanting to live and for forgetting my mother and hurting her and maybe for being born as an Ezèrian.

I made sure to not let my feelings take over my poker face.

As much as I wanted to break Ira's nose and punch him a few times, I knew I'd terribly fail as it was more likely that I would be the one to be left with a broken nose and bone as Ira was better at it.

So, the very least thing I could do for vengeance was to use my brain and make him feel vulnerable.

Usually I'd get satisfaction just from provoking him as a slave or father's servant or sometimes as a guy who had no will of his own but this time he, himself showed me his weakness- unintentionally.

His renèi possession.

I recalled everything that had happened when Erin and I were in the balcony of Ira's chamber, looking at the awful condition of his wings and began connecting the dots.

Although I'd observed his wings only for a short amount of time, it didn't take me much time to realize that Ira had transferred renèi possession.

The way the feathers were falling off, the way the feathers were forcefully attached to his back as if he forcibly attached them, the way blood was smeared in the wings, the way he was hiding it for so long made it obvious he had transferred renèi possession even though his body wasn't compatible with the reception of the transmission.

And now he was facing the result.

His wings are about to fall.

He's actually a Naught.

The weakest of them all.

The weakest Power Holder.

I couldn't help but just smirk as I faced him, giving him a dark look before saying what I'd been dying to spit on his face.

"Disgrace? Me?" I snickered as I stepped towards him.

"I find it incredibly ironic how you've been calling me a disgrace my entire life when you are the actual disgrace here!" I nearly raised my voice.

He was taken aback as he cocked his right eyebrow, the small scar that was caused by me visible to the naked eye only when he raises it - but it only lasted for a few seconds before his expressionless face returned. "You've got some balls to say that I'm a disgrace when I'm the strongest among Wing Possessors,"

"I can't believe I've been fooled by you all this time," I scoffed. "Just how far are you willing to go just to not get called a disgrace?"

Stepping closer to his ears I whispered the words that made him scared.

"You are a Naught, Emerson."

He stepped back, his eyes wide, his hands already trembling.

He's that afraid?

I stifled a laugh.

Memories of him calling me a disgrace again and again came flashing through my eyes as I pressed my lips, watching my brother looking at me with horror.

"I'm not a Naught," he said quietly and repeated until I spoke.

I scoffed. "You are. You've transferred renèi possession and your body wasn't compatible with the transmission- so, as a result, your wings are falling apart,"

I continued. "You know that renèi transmission is forbidden if both bodies aren't compatible with reception and transmission?" I asked and laughed.

"But you still did it. Were you that afraid of being treated like me?"

"Now tell me, who is that unfortunate Power Holder who had to transfer their renèi possession to a waste like you?" I asked, smiling as he shot me a glare.

"How do you know?" he asked, his eyes darkening.

I smiled. "Let's just say I accidentally peeked through your room when I was escaping the Palace,"

"So what are you going to do now? Tell father about me?" I could see the fear in his eyes.

Fear of being called a disgrace by father.

"Father doesn't know about this?" he shook his head in response.

"Although I'd have loved to expose you and your lies but that isn't my current concern right now," I rubbed my chin, thinking if I could use Ira's big secret as an advantage and after giving it some thought, I could, actually.

"Here's my deal, Ira," I began as he sighed "I'll stay quiet about your secret while you'll lie to father about my negotiation,"

"What's there to lie about? Father already knows you negotiated with the empress," he pointed out.

I smirked. "I assumed that you two would think I'll negotiate with the empress because you knew it'd be futile as the empress wants this amalgamation more than anyone so I changed my bait to Princess Vivianne," I explained.

Truth be told, I actually was about to negotiate with the empress about cancelling the amalgamation but after thinking for a while, I realised that if an empire as great as the Eirlys Empire wants their princess to amalgamate the prince of a kingdom that they once thought to take control of, I realised father must have something that the empress is desperate to have.

And after knowing the agreement between the empress and my father, I realised how well my father was playing.

He knew the emperor's sickness can only be healed by Gifted Ezèrian so he came up with the contract first. He knew the empress would be greedy the moment she saw what the Ezèrian were capable of as their empire lacked Ezèrian. He knew there was a possibility to lift my curse by an amalgamation so he offered an agreement of trafficking Ezèrian in exchange of Vivianne while also making sure to make it look like as if the empress is desperate for the amalgamation, not him.

And he did all of these by his mere intuition and less than a week of planning.

"Princess Vivianne?" he raised an eyebrow, disbelieved. "How could you have a negotiation with someone as. . . ." he paused, trying to find the right word to describe her. "Uncompromising as her?" he finally said.

"It cost me my life but it was worth it," I sighed.

"She agreed?"

"She did,"

"How can she agree to her own doom?"

"The amalgamation would've bought her doom anyway,"

"What did you tell her, Elliot? I know her, she wouldn't agree to cancel the amalgamation - she knows the emperor can only be healed by the Ezèrian and-"

"So you know about the contract." I threw him a disgusted look as I turned on my heels, facing an Erin who surprisingly, still wasn't kicked by my horse and was playing with his tail.

I sighed.

"Erin, hop on," I said, nudging her. "We're heading back," why was I still talking to her?

She whipped her head around, looking at me with curious eyes when her eyes landed on Ira who'd ignored my statement and was mounting on his horse.

"That's Ira!" Erin exclaimed happily, already making her way to him when I gripped her wrist and twirled her.

"You can't call him that! He's already suspicious of you!" I warned her.

She ignored me.

"At least let me say hi!" she protested.

"Erin," I took her hands in mine. "Let's head back, I'm tired."

After sighing a few times and saying how bossy I was towards her, eventually, with a lot of difficulties, I lifted her, she put her foot in the stirrup and finally, finally she settled down in the saddle while saying something that made me scoff.

"C'mon, what are you waiting for? We don't have the whole night,"

Ignoring her, I also hopped on my horse, making sure to leave enough space in the saddle for Erin as she had the tendency to use more space and have it all by herself.

After settling down, before burying her face in my back, with muffled voice she said, "You're so slow, Ember."

Ignore her, she's drunk. She doesn't know what she's saying. She'll regret it all.

After chanting this one sentence over and over, I gripped the reins and started following Ira who was waiting for us impatiently.

When I was in the same pace as him, he said, "Is your Special Maid giving you a hard time?"

"No, not at all," I said immediately. "In fact, she's made my life more easier," I smiled, tilting my head.

He craned his head to take a look at her sleeping position and snoring in my back before saying: "Yes, I can see that very clearly,"

I forced a smile as we rode in silence with Erin's snores and our horse's trappings until Ira talked when we were near the capital of Elysia.

"I accept your deal," he said. "I'll tell father you actually negotiated with the empress and it was futile while you-" he craned his head, eyeing me while also handling the horse. "-Will stay quiet about my condition,"

"I knew you wouldn't say no," I said, smirking.

He remained quiet and I did, too until a sudden question came to my mind and without thinking I blurted out.

"How long has it been? You know, when did you realise your wings are-"

He cut me off and answered immediately. "Ten months,"

My eyes went wide. "You've been suffering like that for ten months?"

He shrugged. "At first only the feathers were falling off- I didn't pay attention to it and thought it was happening because I've been using my wings too much but then it all began," he explained, and it was odd seeing Ira, the one who despises me confiding in.

"I couldn't terminate my renèi without feeling like my back is going to tear apart, I couldn't release it without feathers forcibly falling off, I couldn't fly without feeling like someone is pulling my feathers off," he said, his voice quiet with shame and disappointment.

"I tried to stick the feathers like a fool, hoping that'd do anything, it didn't, it just made things worse." He finished, sighing momentarily.

"What are you going to do now?" I asked, for some reasons, feeling concerned?

As if realisation hit him hard on his face, he faced me, scowled and said, "That's none of your concern!"

Chuckling a little bit to myself, I faced my surroundings, realising we'd arrived at the capital, Edyn as the familiar faces of royal soldiers waiting for us greeted us with bows.

Looking at Ira who was thinking something deeply, I realised something:

Him and I are the disgrace of Elysia.

****

ember is kinda manipulative-

and ira is finally opening up a little bit uwu he's such a cute cinnamon roll 😭😭😭
and we also got to know about his secret! who do you think transferred their renèi to him so he can turn into a naught to renèi possessor? would love to know!!

hope you enjoyed this chapter? if you've any questions, don't forget to ask. thank you so much for reading!!!