EMBER ELLIOT ELYSIAN

"I don't even want to know what happened between you two," was the first thing that Erin's childhood best friend commented when we entered her miniscule home.

Erin rolled her eyes. "No one's also telling you,"

"It's one am, where the fuck were you guys?" Nathan asked, frowning, a hand on his hip with a spatula secured in his hold, and eyebrows raised.

"Now you're acting like a mom, oh, my God," Erin grumbled, while I stood in a side, trying to hide my laughter.

Nathan ignored her, and walked towards me, pointing the spatula at me. "You're not planning to take her again, are you?"

"Not if she doesn't want to go," I answered, meaning it.

I had been unfair to Erin ever since I took her to Elysia, that too without her consent. I gave her zero information about her surrounding and simply told her to go with the flow, only giving her vague explanation, while also, shamelessly lying to her. While there were reasons for what I did, none of it would ever justify how I had wronged her the entire time.

I didn't tell her the truth for so many reasons: the first being she'd push me away the moment she would know that she was orphaned because of me, that she lost her family because of me, that I was cause of her demise the entire time. I was scared she'd think I only needed her because her powers were sealed in me.

I was scared because my portal creations were unreliable, which was exactly the reason why this power of mine never reached Erin -- it was unreliable, and my body never recognised it as a true power to keep me safe from any sort of dangers. Hence, it was never trandferred to Erin. It barely worked, and the first time it did, my mother made sure to use that opportunity and sent Erin here. And that was it. My portals never opened, not until after thirteen years that it finally opened. And I still didn't know how it actually worked. That was how much unaware I was about my portal creations.

And now, it worked completely fine, as if I spend thirteen years of my life begging the gods to make it work.

"I might be all buddy-buddy with you--" he hit my chest with the edge of the spatula, watching me with a dark glare. "--But I still haven't forgotten about how you'd treated her."

"I apologise," I tipped my head down. "I was clearly not thinking with the right state of my consciousness, but I have taken an oath that I will never hide anything, and I will be only truthful."

Nathan scrunched up his nose and looked at Erin. "Does he always talk like he is in some of sort of a dramatic play?"

"This is literally nothing. He speaks the most normal out of every one of them." Erin sighed.

"Is my speech not meeting the standard of this world?" I asked, head tilted in a side.

Nathan only sighed in response, and walked away to the kitchen space, leaving me with only Erin.

"Are you going to sleep now?" She asked, looking at me.

"Do you want to?" I asked, with a small smile.

She rolled her eyes but I noticed the way a hint of redness crept its way to her cheeks, only staying for the faintest of seconds. "I didn't mean it like that,"

"Like what?" I smiled, watching how her face now actually reddened, and it stayed this time.

"Like the way you're thinking,"

"And how exactly am I thinking?"

"Ember!" she laughed.

"I mean, aren't we courting-"

"Ember!" she rushed to me and smacked my arm, making me laugh out loud as she peeked at the kitchen, making sure Nathan didn't hear us. "Can't let him know now. He's gonna freak out and shit. I also wanna say it together -- with my family and all."

"What does he think? Nathan?" I asked.

"He thinks we are gonna be done when you get your powers from me," she explained. "It's not like we're countries apart. We're freaking worlds apart. Literally. No one's gonna take it easy y'know? They might also think I'm crazy or something"

"We will figure out something," I said, not knowing how I would do this -- but I knew I would -- that was the only thing I knew I would do right.

"How is your brother like?" I knew I could handle her family, I had enough talking skills to impress people, but despite that, I was worried and nervous, even. Saying it all happened fast would be an understatement because just a few days ago, I was sure I had lost Erin forever due to my own stupidity, and now we were both discussing about her family's opinion on us courting.

Me and Erin. Courting.

MEANDERINCOURTINGANDKISSINGANDHOLDINGHANDS-

"He's cool. Can be a little protective at times, but it's nothing serious. He'll like you," she told me, and it still didn't calm my nerves. I was going to talk to her family, about us courting, and nothing could ever prepare for me that.

"Alright," I said, bobbing my head. "Alright." I repeated, thinking that would make things better.

She frowned at me, looking at my forehead. "You're kinda sweating--"

"It's pretty hot--"

"I have air condition on--"

"And I don't know what that is," she couldn't cut me off this time as she sighed.

"Makes the room chilly, but clearly it's not working for you," she stared up, looking at the ceiling, scrutinising the giant box attached to the wall.

"Let's--" I began, shaking my head. "Let's see what Nathan cooked."

***

"Well, what is your plan now?" Amber asked once three of us settled down in her living room, her facing me, Nathan sitting in the seat beside her. "You have pretty much wrecked up Elysia just by declaring your true identity."

"None of it was suppose to go this way," I explained, and she nodded in an understanding manner. "My plan was to cancel my wedding, tell you the truth about yourself and I, take my powers from you, master it, and then reveal my identity."

"And how wonderfully your plan has worked," Nathan smiled, head tilted.

"Indeed," I agreed. "Executed in the best way possible."

Erin didn't decide to join the sarcasm. "Even if you revealed your identity later, wouldn't this happen anyways?" She asked.

"Yes, but I would've been prepared. Because of my powers,"

"Aren't you protected anyways? Because of your Protection Spell?"

"I'm grateful of my Protection Spell more than anything. If it wasn't for it, I would've been killed right after the death of my mother. But my Protection Spell is also the reason why I can never be myself. An Ezèrian. It stops me from being who I am. It hides myself more than my fake hair and eyes,"

Realisation dawned upon the two friends' faces, as they nodded. "So, now you wanna take back your powers from Amber, and break that Spell of yours?" Nathan asked.

I nodded.

"And then what?" They both asked simultaneously.

I released a breath. "And then I start my reign."

It sounded more stupid when I said it out loud. There was no guarantee of me even surviving my father's wrath, and here I was thinking of starting my own reign. I waited for both of them to burst out laughing, or exclaim how much of a dumb thing this was to say, but their eyes glinted with genuine curiosity and fascination.

"Your reign as an Ezerian? That's gonna be absolutely revolutionary!" Nathan exclaimed, exchanging looks with Amber.

She looked at me, her eyes gentle. "You'll do it. I know it."

Even my own mother would have scolded me had she heard this from me, would've told me to never say those words again, would have told me to be grateful for what she'd given me but Erin, and this friend of hers, were actually telling me to do what I had only seen as a dream too far to hold.

"It's been my dream to reveal my true identity, and now that I have done it, I feel both relieved and scared to death because now it means there's no going back. Either I recreate Elysia or die while doing it," I said, hoping I didn't sound like a coward.

"It's alright if you feel scared. I'd have been shitting my pants right now as well, if I were you," Nathan assured, making me laugh.

Erin grew quiet. "Don't go around talking about your death like that," she looked at me sternly now, eyes cold. "your father might be the greatest asshole I have ever seen and the whole world might be against you and want you dead, but you're the cleverest person I ever know. They should be scared of you. They should be trembling in their feet because Ember Elliot Elysian is coming at them."

Nathan's mouth gaped open. "that was quite the speech, y'know? Pretty sure he's ready to go on a war now,"

I chuckled. "Your words uplift me,"

"They better make you win as well," she retorted.

"They sure will," I confirmed. Just a while ago, I was terrified to death, thinking this all was happening too fast for me, even though I had wanted this all my life. But after hearing Erin, it all doesn't seem so scary anymore. It'll be difficult, yes, but in the back of my mind, a voice told me that I could go through this, and even win.

"You have to take back your powers first, right?" Erin asked, looking at me deeply.

"Yes," I replied, and continued. "But it doesn't just end there. It will take me a while to master it as well. After that I will get to the serious stuff."

"Alright," she clasped her hand. "Let's do it. Let's transfer your powers back to you."

My eye widened. "You want to do it now?"

"Well, the quicker, the better," she shrugged. "And I also wanna be done with this as quick as possible. I don't like the fact that I have to worry about you suddenly dying or something. I want you to win this. And I want to help you with that."

My eyes softened. "Don't worry about me. I have survived all these years--"

"Because of your mother's protection. That spell is gonna vanish away with the air the moment your powers are transferred back to you,"

"I will be alright," I said. "My friends are going to be with me. Keith and Ilayna are beyond powerful. With them by my side, I can achieve anything. And most importantly, I have you,"

Erin wasn't convinced, a hard frown stuck in her expression, as she barely nodded. "But I still want to transfer your powers back to you as soon as possible,"

"We have to go back to Elysia for that. It's a whole different process, and you need certain type of people to do that."

The room fell silent for a few seconds, and Nathan almost spoke, when Erin interrupted him. "Fine. Let's do it. Let's leave tomorrow--"

"What are you gonna do about your life here? Everyone you know is gonna go bonkers if you keep disappearing like that again and again," Nathan argued, and he was right about it as well.

"I will make up something. I'm gonna leave for a short while," Erin spoke with a rush of urgency in her tone.

"For how long?" Nathan's voice sounded desperate. "It's not safe--"

"Ember's life is in danger, and I want to help him. I can't stay here in peace while knowing Ember is very much likely to get killed the moment he enters Elysia,"

"And he has his mother's protection spell for that!" Nathan argued once more.

"And his father is a beast who can break that thing with his bare hands if he tries! Even Ember thinks he is capable of breaking it!"

As much as I would like to deny that statement of Erin, it might be true as well. No one was truly able to break my Protection spell because they were just not strong enough. But I had seen my father that day, how he was the first person to cause a triple force shield, something no person had ever done. My father might not be able to eradicate the spell completely, but even a fool from that day could tell that he was capable of breaking the force shields if he just tried enough.

Father's prior goal was to eradicate the spell completely, to make sure there was no trace of the Protection Spell inside me at all but if he realised that breaking the force shields may as well do his work, which was turning me into a renèi Possessor the moment he would get a hold of my body, he wouldn't hesitate to change his plans. I was sure he knew that by now. I was sure he had changed his plans. I was sure that he had already sat with Ira, using that meticulous brain of his and making all sorts of traps alongside his favorite son. I was sure he was sharpening the strongest weapon of his to use on me. I was so sure of it all.

And I was also sure of the fact that the next time I set a foot in front of him, he might even split the earth apart while breaking the force shields.

Nathan looked defeated, his eyes softened, and I opened my mouth to say that we should just leave it, that we could talk about this topic later when they were both cool-headed, but Erin interjected.

"We're leaving for Elysia. Tomorrow."