Regius (27 page)

"And what exactly should I
think of you?" I asked, my eyes fixed on her golden
ones.

"That is not for me to
say." Her smile was watery and she was obviously overjoyed to meet
me. "I hope you will see that I only have your best interests at
heart."

“You made me follow you,
with the connection that Seers share.” I murmured, clenching my
other hand. “You knew I’d trust it and that I’d let it guide me.” I
stopped myself from leaning into her touch. “Why?”

She bit her bottom lip,
retrieving her hand and tucking it behind her back. “Because I knew
you would not had I asked you to follow me.” That was probably very
true. “Although Sage has many flaws, she has made sure to keep me
away from Xania. I have not been in the same room with that man
since I started having visions."

“If you’re trying to tell
me you don’t side with the Regius, then-”

“That is what I’m telling
you.” She interrupted.

I crossed my arms. “How
will I know you’re speaking the truth? What do you want from me?” I
tried to keep my voice calm as so far, she hadn’t really done
anything to put my life in peril or truly destroy the mission I was
on. She’d just steered me away from the castle.

“Xania doesn’t want Galax
to return to the Regius so that he can be king. He wishes to obtain
the royal mark and then use the Keeper of the Dead to rid Zinc of
its population.” At least she didn't beat around the bush. “Datura
Lovelace is a fragile creature. His power is a very unstable one,
much like the Seers. Like any form of magic, it is neither good nor
bad; it all truly depends on how you wish to use it. What you do
with it is what will define whether it is evil or not. Datura has
many dark sides and he must battle them every day to hold onto the
faith and vision the Altors carry. To this day, you, Cali, are the
one that makes this easy for him. If Xania gets his hands on you,
Datura will do whatever it takes to get you back, even go as far as
giving into the temptation the ghosts haunt him with ever since
their voices became clear in his mind.” Not what I was expecting,
and far from what I’d imagined my first talk with my sister to go
like.

“How-”

She cut me off again,
grinning. “Is Digitalis present? Can you spot Rhamnus or Brean?
Maybe Sage, Maitre or Xania are lurking behind some trees." She
waved at our surroundings. "Be my guest, if you need it; make sure
they are not here. But you will find that I am not a traitor. My
loyalty lies with you and Vervaine, so ultimately, it lies with the
Altors." She raised an eyebrow. "If I had wanted to rat you out, I
wouldn't have guided you here. I would have let you keep on
walking." She gulped. "Straight into the hands of the Steward.
Instead-"

“You brought me to this
place.” I nodded. “Away from them.”

"I believe in peace. I know
that by following a certain amount of visions, I can achieve the
end of the war with the help of several people. You are one of
them." She took my hands in hers and this time I was less reluctant
to let her. "You are the one that can keep Datura from handing
Zinc's faith over to Xania." She kissed both my palms quickly. “I
know I stopped you from doing what it is you came to do, but I have
no intention of keeping Solenum out of your reach. I’m just…" She
shrugged, smiling as she took a step closer towards me. “Changing
your route a teensy bit.” That poked my interest.

“You’ll bring me to
Solenum?” I asked.

“No.” Her fingers tightened
around mine. “But I’m making sure she’s being brought to you.”
Exhaling slowly, I sponged up the feeling of home she was letting
wash over me. “Once you’ve been reunited, you must run, Cali. It
won’t be long before Xania finds out she’s gone and sends his men
into the forest to find you.” She looked so worried.

“Solenum and I will be
fine, alright?” I had no idea if we would be, but I felt the need
to reassure her nonetheless.

She grinned. "So far my
visions tell me you will be, but love is irrational. Not even my
gift can stop me from worrying about you. You will not find your
car, and you shall get lost.” She predicted. “I would show you the
way back to Altor territory, but I can’t leave. If my mother finds
me gone, she will know I was implicated in Solenum’s escape and
many more wrong doings will be triggered from that point onwards.”
I let out a noise of surprise as she suddenly wrapped her arms
around my neck, hugging me tightly against her. “Someone will come
for you. I wouldn't allow you to get lost if I didn't know that.
You must trust and allow them to guide you out of
Immortalis Silva
when
the time is right.”

If I had the luxury of
options, I'd allow myself to second guess the trust I was feeling
towards her. Although I'd just met her, I
knew
she was telling me the truth.
And, even if I did take the time to second guess my trust placed in
her, I wouldn't be able to leave the forest now. I was trapped in
its labyrinth.

"Wait for that person. They
will find you when the time is right. If you return to Altor
territory before that time, peace may never be a possibility for
Zinc."

I carefully hugged her
back. "Is everything truly that fragile?"

"If only you knew." She
breathed. "When you are reunited with Solenum, find the flower in
one of her pockets. Use it to heal her hands. She is too
preoccupied to remember it now." My sister said. “You and Solenum
will be fine, Calycanthus. I’m making sure of it.”

“What about you?” Pulling
away from her far enough to be able to look in her face, I smiled
back uncertainly. This situation was so incredibly strange, but so
far my instincts had not let me down. Why would it now?

“Take this.” Reaching down,
she pulled out a small vial from her dress and then tucked it into
my breast pocket. “Maybe I foretold wrong and it will help
me.”

“Okay...” I frowned at her
in confusion, but realized I didn’t need to bother asking for an
elaboration as she clearly wasn’t going to give it. Patting my
cheek, she stepped out of my arms, giving me a small wave before
she turned around to leave.

"Wait!" I called out,
feeling panicked. When she did, I chuckled weakly at the situation.
"What's your name?"

"Mallow." Her smile was
brilliant. “Everything will turn out fine.” She assured, looking at
me over her shoulder before pointing at the large hole in the
ground. “Wait for her, she will be here soon.” As Mallow faded
between the trees, I could only think of how I would never be able
to live my life without her from here on forward. In Lithium
Village I had not believed in pre-defined events. But in this
moment, meeting my sister, I somehow knew it had been foretold to
happen.

* * * *

My eyes were heavy and my
mind was nearly as numb as my muscles. My belly was grumbling, my
mouth dry as I drank only small amounts at a time. I was shivering.
When I looked around the room, my vision seemed to go fast, then
jump back and redo the route in slow motion. Sometimes things were
blurry before I could focus on them properly. My shoes were
starting to become uncomfortable around my feet, but I didn't want
to take them off as there wouldn't be any space to put them. The
things inside my pockets dug into my skin, but I wasn't throwing
anything down into the darkness, however tempting it may
be.

"Sol?" Robinia's voice came
through the loud speaker. I tilted my head slowly towards the
camera, giving him a slow wave.

"Did you sleep?" I slurred
out.

"You look
terrible."

“
Thanks, any girl loves to hear that
.”

"And yes, I slept for about
an hour."

I frowned. "You should have
slept longer." And then I yawned, stretching my legs so I could put
my feet onto the cables.

"Drink some more water. Put
some on that handkerchief again to dab it on your eyes." I did as
he instructed.

"It felt like you were gone
longer than an hour." I stated, kneeling down on the rock to change
my position. At this point the skin on my legs was red and
bruising; I'd checked a while before.

"I had to take care of
something." He replied vaguely. I'd ask him to elaborate, but I was
too tired and my eyes were drooping closed. I really just wanted to
sleep. "Mallow came to see me." He paused. "She told me things of
the future."

"Well," I shrugged. "She is
Seer."

"I'm not trying to strike
up a conversation with you, Solenum, I'm trying to explain
something." Alright, that was a relatively stiff and polite way of
telling me to shut up. "Quite a bit of things aren't going as they
are supposed to, and in order to help righten the wrongs that have
been committed, Mallow suggested I do something to help her with
this task." I closed my eyes as I tuned in on his words, a certain
calm washing over me.

"She asked me for a favor,
but said that if I didn't want to do it, then I didn't have
to."

That meant that whatever
she asked of him was pretty high up on the favor scale. It's good
she didn't force him or use his feelings to her
advantage.

"Sacrifices need to be
made. I told her I would help." He sighed. "The line between right
and wrong is starting to become more focused in my head. I haven't
done any good deeds in my life. Although, I take pride when it
comes to helping you through this dungeon."

"I wouldn't have survived
without you, Robinia." Sitting up, I looked at the camera, hoping I
could convey my gratitude and honesty to him across the virtual
imagery. "And not just because you acted as my guide, but because I
consider you to be my friend. Although the situation was most
definitely tense and sometimes bordering death, you made this hell
hole a lot less scary." A beat of silence followed my declaration,
leading me to feel as if I'd said something wrong, but before I
could ask if he was still there, he spoke.

"I'm getting you out of
here."

I frowned.
"But-"

"I always knew the way out
of the dungeon, Solenum. If I didn't tell you, it's because Xania's
hold over me is strong enough to make me a coward and thus making
me incapable of doing what is right. I should have given you this
sooner, but I couldn't." There was so much sadness in his voice; it
felt unnatural to hear.

"Robinia." I gave him a
smile. "I understand. You're forgiven. It wasn't even your fault to
begin with. It took me a while, but I realized that you are as much
Xania's captive as I am. We-" I laughed softly, shrugging, "We're
in this together."

"I can't leave with you. I
must remain here and help Mallow."

"I am not leaving without
you." I clipped out, crouching up onto the island, feeling a lot
less tired all of a sudden.

"Yes, you are. Let me be
the hero for once, please?"

Frowning deeply, I tried to
tone down the internal battle that was taking place within me. How
could I just leave without Robinia? Or Mallow for that matter?
Whether Cali knew of his sister or not, I was certain that once he
learned of her existence, he wouldn't stand the idea of her being
stuck here with the Regius. He wouldn't care about her nature, he
wouldn't question whether she saw the difference between right and
wrong. Even if she turned out to be tainted by the Blue Bloods, he
would want to give her a chance at redeeming herself.

"But!" Gritting my teeth, I
pushed the angry bubble back inside of me. Although I certainly
didn't know Robinia as well as I did Cali, I had learned enough of
the wise ass extraordinaire to know that once he made a decision,
nobody could make him change his mind.

"I will be
okay."

"You promise?" The
exhaustion I was feeling was not only heavy on my body, but my
emotions as well. While I did not like to cry, I felt like I wanted
to.

"I promise you that I will
end up where I wish to be."

Gulping, I nodded my head
unwillingly. "And Mallow?"

"She always gets her
way."

Letting out a weak chuckle,
I smiled up at the camera. "Okay." I breathed in deeply. "Set me
free." I should argue more, refuse to leave without them. But I
wanted to get out of here. If I remained, I wouldn’t last much
longer.

"Stand in the middle and
you won't fall down." He'd said that exact same thing when I'd
first entered this room. "Jump, and the world will turn upside
down." He added for a finish. Goosebumps erupted; covering my skin
as I peeked past the edge of the island that had been my sanctuary
for so many hours.

"Jump?" I asked
uncertainly.

"Yes. I allowed you to
believe the black pit of nothingness led to, well, nothing. That is
in fact not true. Jump and-"

I cut him off. "I trust
you, Robinia. If you say that jumping will get me out of here, then
I'll do it."

"Just like that?" His
sounded dumbfounded.

I grinned. "Yes." While I
needed to show him I trusted him fully one last time, I also
strongly believed it was best if I just didn't know what was down
there. I was better at taking action under pressure rather than
thinking things over. I was going to 'blurt' my way out of
here.