ESTELLA’S POV
I was back in my chambers after going for a walk when a visitor was announced to. I told the guard to let them come in and shortly, to my surprise, Malia walked into the living room.
The guard refused to let her come in with her staff at first, but she was adamant, classic Malia.
I waved to him that it was okay and he reluctantly let her in and left us alone.
“I’ve come to talk, Estella.” She said, without much expression on her face.
“How long has it been since you last visited, old friend? Twenty five, twenty seven years.”
“I believe it’s been about thirty years. You have set up the place quite nicely.” She commented, looking around.
“I see you still wear your bracelet all the same and…”
“I have come to talk, Estella.” She said cutting me short.
“Not small talk, but real talk.”
“Oh Malia. Always so uptight. When was the last time. you did anything fun, like a party or even sex?”
She stared at me with a strange expression and continued;
“What happened in Southern Paw was the work of your hands, Estella. How could you do that to so many people?”
I eyed her.
“How could I do that to so many people? Have you forgotten so soon what those people did to us? How they slaughtered people with magic like we didn’t matter. Have you forgotten so soon, Malia? Or has your mind been polluted from living with them for this long?” I banged my fist on the armchair.
“You can’t judge the princes based on the actions of their father. They are different and nothing like him.” Malia said, with her voice calm.
“They are his biological sons. An offspring of my worst enemy is still my worst enemy. The same blood runs through their veins. I will destroy them. I only needed more power and now I have that.”
“You got more power but at what cost? What had to be lost to achieve your goal. This is not right. So many people lost their lives because of that earthquake. It was not right at all”
“I knew you would say something like this, Malia. You always ran away from more power. That has been you right from when we were little. I’m not surprised at all. Southern Paw is flowing with natural power from the land itself. All I did was cause a little distraction and absorb a fraction of that power.”
Malia shot me a look at those words.
“Your distraction took a lot of lives. Are you not seeing what I am saying, Estella.” Her pitch had risen now.
“The end justifies the means, my friend. The goal is to be more powerful. There is energy in the pack, it can be harnessed but only by people like us. You could do so much more with more power”
“More powerful for what? Why do you need power so much?”
“So I can take my revenge!” I had lost my cool.
I continued, “All those years ago when every single person with magic in their blood was slaughtered, seen as unclean. Seen as a threat. They only left you so you could be the link to their moon goddess. That is the only reason you are not as dead as my sister!”
She stared at me.
“Estella, she was my friend too. This is not the best option. There will just be more and more deaths.”
“We could take all of this back, Malia. We could take back what is ours, make them suffer, take back our land.”
“I just want peace, Estella. I have seen bloodshed, I have seen carnage and it is not the best way. Innocent people will just keep on dying. There will be a lot of collateral damage just like there was in this past incident.”
“You want peace, but I want blood and only blood. They took everything I loved and cared about and I will do the very same to them. I will not stop until the hearts of your beloved princes beat no more. I will never stop.”
“Estella you…”
“You were there when they killed my sister. My only family and they took her away from me. They turned me into an outcast in my own home, I had to run to stay alive. I’m not running anymore as you can see, I’m here to stay and I will not stop until I win.”
I could sense her aura, it was imposing and powerful. Stronger than I had ever felt. It was as though her power had been magnified ten times. That was impossible but I could feel it
“You were absorbing the core energy of the land. That is dangerous, Estella. You could harm yourself. These spells cannot be reversed.
“What you sense is power. But power frightens you, it always has.”
“You took Bastien. What has he got to do with this? He’s just an innocent child getting treatment. I expected better from you”
“Malia, Malia. Bastien is an asset. Everything I cared about was taken from me. I’m sure you can’t handle just one person.”
HIGH PRIESTESS MALIA’S POV
“What does Rosalind’s sick brother have to do with any of this?” I didn’t understand her way of reasoning sometimes.
“It’s not Rosalind’s brother, but Rosalind herself. There’s nothing she cares about more in this world than her brother and there is nothing the princes care about more than Rosalind. Someone is going to have to make a move.”
“And if they don’t, you will kill an innocent child?”
Estella chuckled manically at this.
“I’m not sure you understand, Malia. If I don’t see something encouraging soon I’m going to ship parts of that boy back to them in a box till they understand that I do not bluff.”
“You would do that just to get what you want?”
“I would do absolutely anything just to get what I want. You fail to understand that simple thing. You are a coward in every sense, despite all of the power you possess but I will grab every opportunity I have to get to my goal no matter what.”
“Bastien has nothing to do with this.”
“Neither did my sister! but I watched her execution. I saw the life leave from her eyes that day. You do not understand what that feels like.”
“I cannot let you do that.”
“You really do not know the extent of my powers just yet, do you?”
Estella, flicked her hands and something appeared on the other side of the room. I turned to see an ancient looking rock glowing blue light from that side of the room. The bleached rock. That was impossible, it must be a very powerful illusion.
I stood up and struck my staff on the ground. This shook the room and the illusion failed. Then I saw the true form of the chambers where we sat.
It was darker than it was, there were a lot of pictures plastered on the wall. Some were frames, some pinned, some hanging, some floating by magic and they were all pictures of the Kylian and Cillian. Right from their childhood till last week, a very large sea of memories. It was totally abnormal.
The illusion spell was so strong that I didn’t notice it at all. That was scary, to encounter magic that I couldn’t sense right away.
“What is all this?” I was still looking at the endless rows of photographs.
“Years of nurturing my plans. I needed visual motivation.”
“You are insane Estella.”
“Oh I’ve been insane for thirty years, dear friend. You help me deliver the message or I might have to send you people a delivery.” She laughed hysterically.
I turned my eyes away from the pictures for the first time and faced her.
“What?”
“I meant everything I said, Malia. Every word of it.”
I caught a glimpse of light by my side and turned. The stone was still there laying by the corner. It was still glowing but a little brighter now since the room was darker. It was not an illusion, it was there.
“How did you get this here?” I asked, dumbfounded.
“This isn’t actually what I wanted you to see. That rock you see has already been used.”
She took my hand and we appeared in a garden somewhere else.
I looked around, the whole place looked so different from inside, there were trees and birds and flowers and streams. It was probably another illusion but I didn’t check.
“Does that look familiar?” She asked, pointing to some towards the stream.
I saw the rock of surrender or at least something shaped like it. The only difference was that. It was totally bleached. It was pure white now.
“How is that possible?” I was bewildered by what I saw.
“Oh I never touched that rock. That was all the work of Rosalind.”
“What are you talking about?”
“She touched it, and all its colour vanished.”