A single knock interrupted what the queen was writing in her logbook. Looking up at the opening door stood Harry. Her right hand. He looked as tired as a corpse… Clearly their last war had quite the effect on him… They had only one casualty and it had to be the one person who had chosen to ask him what to do… His choice had decided of his death…

Did that kid even have a choice in his own fate …? Fate is such a weird concept… She muttered the last sentence with a small sigh as she quickly placed the red gem into her pocket, motioning for Harry to get closer. She knew she had to get rid of this gem… No matter what… If fate was already chosen for her… Like Luke, then she would have to destroy it. There was this volcano not far from their queendom… Maybe she could purge the gem deep within its hot contained magma… She paused. What if the gem wasn’t destroyed by the magma and it was simply shot out after it erupted… Someone would find it… Definitely… One day… Would it be the cause of the black hole that she had seen?

Harry coughed gently to remind her that she had him waiting before her, which made her chuckle slightly in embarrassment. That chuckle made the boy before her twitch. She was acting way different than ever. What was going on? He probably thought to himself.

She quickly stood up and patted him on the shoulder, which was even more uncharacteristic of her.

‘We need to go to the volcano near Elvana village… The gem I found. I wish to destroy it… Permanently.’’ She stated as she tried to sound as cold as she always was… How her people saw her, how he saw her. The cold, unapologetic queen that she was chosen to be.

Harry let out a small sigh before nodding in agreement… He knew himself how powerful this gem was… He had seen the damage it had done to the other dominion… If this gem was put in the wrong hands, it could definitely ruin the very world… He was scared to even admit it but… No matter how good this gem could do for civilization… It was just TOO powerful. One wrong move and an entire race is gone… Just like that.

The queen stood silent for a moment… What if her fate was to do this… What if… Her breathing quickened at the implications running through her mind. What if this action broke the future… What if this was exactly what the gem wanted…? To break the very future… Harry quickly took notice of her breathing and approached her… reluctantly hugging her. He may not appreciate her… But he was her right hand…

Elaria gently slowed down her breathing… Her cold surface slowly coming back… She didn’t know whether to push him away… Cut his head off or hug him tightly… She felt off… She did for a while now… This feeling whenever Harry was near… That feeling of need—Not sexual nor romantic… A hierarchy and power-kind of need… Unlike before… Now she knew clearly what this feeling was… She quickly pushed him away, making him stumble back into the seat behind him in a small gasp.

“Who told you you could just make contact with your queen, boy? Remember your place.’’ She said with a small scowl that held no real threat… She just didn’t know how else to stop this damn hug.

‘‘Now… Are you ready for our trip…?’’ She muttered just loud enough for him to hear.

‘‘ Yeah… Do you mind if we pass by Luke’s grave… I feel like this little trip of ours is going to be quite dangerous… I wish to…say a few words… Just incase.’’ The words echoed softly against the walls of Elaria’s office… She had no reason to refuse… So why would she?

‘‘You may. I will be waiting by our horses.’’ She said, walking past him… The gem glowing into her pocket… Waiting.

——

Harry Gage

‘‘ … "

——

Harry let out a small sigh as he watched the queen walk right past him… the gem in her pocket waved with energy that was almost perceptible if someone focused enough on it… But Harry’s mind was somewhere else completely… He couldn’t focus anymore… It had only been… How long has it been since Luke’s death? He didn’t know anymore… It was an even worse feeling than the night his mother died because now he was the cause. If he simply reprimanded Luke, none of this would had happened… There would had been no casualties… But… Luke was the reason that everyone was aware of the whole mechanical doll thing… Damn it.

Harry didn’t even notice that he had already walked all the way from the office to the grave… He was too focused on his own mind… His torment. The ground shook as his knees landed onto its soft surface… His arms surrounded the headstone of the empty grave… A melted corpse couldn’t be recovered to be put into a casket after all… That damn kid couldn’t even get a proper burial… Harry had to fight to even have this kid a headstone… The head of the silver helmet division was clearly agaisnt it… What was her name again… Who cares… She kept saying that a male shouldn’t deserve a burial… That he should rot for abandoning the ranks… For betrayal… If he didn’t do what he did… None of us would had been there to even argue about this bullshit… A small ball of water rolled down onto the headstone… Was it raining?… Quite the opposite.

Why did it have to be Luke… Why couldn’t their role be changed… He himself should had been the one melted with the monster… Not this kid… A sudden warm hand settled down onto Harry’s shoulder but when he turned around, there stood no one… Were his senses messing with him… He definitely felt something or someone touch him… Perhaps the air pressure suddently felt heavy in this specific area?… This definitely made more sense than the idea that had just run through Harry’s mind.

‘‘ Ghosts… Yeah, right.’’ He scoffed.

There was no such things as spirits… Those were made-up folklore stories made to scare kids to bed… Sure… There is always a form of “truth” in every lie… But the full aspect of them? Definitely not. This had to be something else… But honestly… Harry couldn’t care what it had been… If it didn’t hurt him, why should he pay attention to it? It might just have been a bug for all he knew.

Letting out a small sigh he stood up from the grave glancing around at all the decorated and well-taken-care-of graves compared to the one of Luke… It was quite the contrast, shall we say… No one cared about his death other than him, it seemed… Harry turned to leave but froze as a spark of light flashed across his face… Something metallic just reflected light at his face? He glanced at the object and his whole body froze… Right next to the headstone… The guard of Elaria’s sword laid on the ground… She…paid her respects? He bent down to remove the guard… Why would this damn ruthless queen even show her respect to a man that her rules say isn’t even considered a human being? But something stopped him from even reaching for the guard… Perhaps she wasn’t as ruthless as he thought… Was it just all a mask? She seemed to allow herself to express emotions when they were only the two around… Perhaps her character isn’t as simple as he thought… He thought as he turned to leave the graveyard and headed for where Elaria was waiting for him…

Elaria had already mounted her royal steed… Her sword at her hip which was fact missing its guard… Why would she give up the one piece of her sword that could protect her hand from an attack? Was this some metaphor for her…? Whatever, none of it mattered anymore anyways… Harry had to move on, or else this mentality would come back to harm him.

With a small sigh he straddled his horse without any trouble… This noble steed had grown quite a liking to him… Harry had named it after his late mother, Desmona… It was an altered version of that Greek name about fate, Desdemona.

His mother had told him the story behind her name… Desdemona was used as a greek female name that meant someone was miserable or was truly unlucky with fate… Her parent had chosen to alter the name as a way to change the meaning of it… Desmona… Harry never really understood how it even worked when they kept the “bad” of Desdemona in the name. It was also retold in a Shakespeare play as a wife killed by her own husband… but whatever.

Elaria took a glance toward him as they both started to ride their horse toward the first stop on their path; this would be quite a long ride after all.

‘‘Hey Harry… Why do you think I did not order your death even if you killed the intruders of your home? ‘Harry froze as he was retaken back to that night… Right… Why didn’t she kill him? She had every right… What did her guards see in his mother’s house so that they wouldn’t kill him?

‘' I don’t know… Was it not just because you saw something in me?’’ He said gently, keeping his eyes around the road in case of an ambush or whatever could happen while riding a horse.

“Well, at first yes… But my guards told me something they found in your mother’s room—’’ Wait… Did he not know about his… Elaria sighed.

‘You know what. Whatever, that doesn’t matter anymore… The past is just the past.’’ She said, trying to brush what she was trying to say under the carpet.

Harry tilted his head to the side… What did her guards find in his mother’s room? Probably nothing important… He could go check it out when they come back from the volcano. His house was abandoned in the middle of nowhere now after all. Well, there was always the chance that someone could had moved there while no one checked on it… He would deal with them if they were hostile…

The road before them suddently split into two different ways… Which path would they take? The left one led toward a fishing village led by men who were proudly against the rule of the queen, while the other road was covered in deep, dangerous forests… No matter where they were going, they were fated to face a form of hostility.

Elaria glanced at Harry asking him for a choice to this conflictual puzzle… On one side of this spectrum of choices… The forest would be safer for both the queen and Harry… No one would be actively chasing them down while they passed through… It would all be left to luck compared to the fishing village, where they would definitely be chased down by the citizens of said village.

Harry plucked a dagger out of his satchet and gently threw it off his horse…The last time he had chosen someone fate it had led to a terrible event that he would never forgive himself for…Never again would that happen…The dagger spun widly in the air before suddently hitting the ground…The blade facing the forest.