"It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he'll look for his own answers."

Patrick Rothfuss

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The curious young Cithara witnessed everything strange that happened that day. After meeting up with her aunt, they went back to their kingdom with her mind filled with questions.

At the time they went back to their own place, she laid down her sleepy head and waited for the moons to once again come out.

After hours of slumber, the sound of laughter and shouts woke her spirit up. As she headed towards the palace's window, she witnessed the kingdom quickly coming alive.

"I'm home," she whispered with a smile. She changed her clothes and wore a cloak.

With the scene she saw in the mirror, she remembered the mysterious man that she had met that day.

Hoping that it was just a normal man from another kingdom, she dashed towards the castle grounds after grabbing a small blue book from the drawer of her bedroom.

"It's time!" she beamed.

The cold night welcomed her back as the knights opened the castle's door for her. "Where are you going, my lady?" The head of the knights, Sir Clevor, asked curiously.

"I... I'm just—" the young lady spoke, trying to hide her book away from the man in front of her.

"You are going to the competition at the city, aren't you?" Clevor asked, "Where are you really going?"

"Clevor, look, I'm just taking myself for a walk downtown," she answered, trying to hide her real intentions.

Clevor, who was a trusted friend of Cithara, seemed to be just like her own older brother. He began to ponder about the strange actions that the young girl was doing.

"Wait, aren't you... aren't you going?" he spoke in a concerned voice.

Cithara sighed and turned to her friend with her eyes full of confusement.

"Wasn't your new discovery amazing? Your aunt said that your little experiment worked," he added.

"It did worked but it was an accident and... and because of that, someone got harmed," Cithara spoke.

Clevor was speechless, trying to find the right way to calm his friend up. He leaned closer towards Cithara's shoulder, patting her back gently.

"Lio (Brother)," Cithara called, "do the Liberians hate me?"

Once again, Clevor prevented himself from saying abhorrent things that can make the situation even more chaotic. "Why did you think of that silly thing?" he asked, followed by a chuckle.

"Well, everytime I do something new, there's always someone getting harmed," Cithara responded, "Everytime I walk around the kingdom, there's a part of me that can sense that they're talking about me... talking about my mistakes. I'm certain of that because several people did bad things to me, saying that I am different."

"Lia (Sister), don't listen to them! They're just creatures who don't understand your unique talent," Clevor spoke, giving Cithara a radiant smile. "You should be proud of yourself even though they don't appreciate you!"

Cithara grinned, and her heart was filled with courage.

"Sire, the Sandre wants to see you," one of the knights reported.

"I shall go now, my lady," Clevor spoke, letting go of his hold from Cithara.

The young princess felt calmness deep inside of her as she watched the bright light of the moon, Celestria, on its first quarter. Looking at her book, she reached for a thing in her pocket that made her smile.

"Graxien, Lio (Thank you, Brother)," she whispered, then continued to walk. She headed towards the hill located near the castle to add the finishing touches to her new invention.

Up towards the hills of Liberia, she went. The night was dark, but there were some things that made this kingdom very different from the other immortals. At night, the glow from the gems that scattered around the area enveloped the land, giving light to every corner of Liberia.

Liberia has three tribes — the Celies who crafts nightmares, the Meres who crafts sweet dreams like the tribe where Aja and Cithara belong, and the Velves which were the ones who distribute the crafted gems to the creatures of both the Immortal and Mortal Realm.

Each tribe was an expert in certain types of gems, which allowed them to craft the dream completely. That was why different types of glowing gems can be found at the kingdom.

Without the use of a magical glove, the magic of most of the gems are very perilous for the Liberians, especially to other creatures who don't have their bloodline.

Being half-Liberian, Cithara was able to do what their tribes could do. However, the pure-bloods do greater things than her. Being the only half-blood in the tribe of Meres and without knowing what she really was, the question of what she did wrong always bothered her innocent mind.

As the princess of the kingdom of Liberia, she was expected to do great things for the people.

Since then, she tried to discover new things that'll prove that she was one of the Liberians, and that was where she belonged. However, every time she makes an invention or even an experiment, someone gets hurt.

Being bullied by her classmates was somehow unexpected that night at the mountain. Cithara planned to place herself near a rare nightmare gem, which is an ovule of a Liberian flower.

Because she knew that the bullies would do bad things to her again that night, she decided to plot the scene. All was plotted, but one of the nightmares she saw was unexpected. It also seemed so realistic.

After accidentally breaking a gem into pieces, she discovered the gem dust. With her brilliant mind, she carefully crafted the gem like an arrow's tip.

With her arrows, there's no need to do enchantments to certain gems before someone uses it. At the time the arrow tip hit the target, it would turn to dust, and the magic of the gems would be directly applied towards that thing.

"And... done!" she grinned after gathering different gemstones for her experiment later.

She quickly went back to the city with the use of teleportation gem dust.

"It worked!" she grinned in amazement, "It really worked!"

With her strange attitude, the eyes of the people around her were fixed towards her.

"Here she goes again," one of the Liberians whispered to the person beside him.

"I think she's here for another tragedy to happen," the other uttered.

Cithara, with her sense of hearing being stronger than the others, heard every single thing they said. Those words nearly wounded her heart several times, but the caring voice of Clevor came into her mind.

She wore her hood up and then went towards the host of the competition.

•○GLOSSARY○•

⚔️Graxien
- Enchantrian word: Thank you

⚔️Lia
- Elven word: Sister

⚔️Lio
- Elven word: Brother

⚔️Sandre
- Liberian word: Future Queen