The enormous forest stared into their wavering souls, silently judging as they kept on going forward. Forward in their fate. The forest seemed to silently know how this was all going to end—It was mere wood… It couldn’t warn the pair of what could possibly happen to them in the near future… It’s ever-rotting wood, just like society, it was. Life would always mirror itself with death, just like the right would always mirror itself with the corrupted. What did the forest see in Harry and Elaria? No one would ever know.

Harry took in the new surroundings… The forest had led them right to an immense village that stood right next to a large inactive volcano… They were right there. This was their last stop, and then they would be able to get rid of this damn gem before it caused more trouble. He glared at a few villagers who seemed to back away at the sight of the queen, the Leopard of the Blade. The ever-righteous, cold, and ruthless queen of the Grand Queendom of the Ignatius Continent. But no… They were backing away in fear… The men kneeled and so did the women… They were showing respect. Harry’s eyes widened at the sight of men actually respecting her… He and the other males that lived near her dominion lived in fear… However, here everyone seemed to show actual respect toward her? Why…?

Elaria took a small glance toward her right-hand man and let out a soft chuckle, clearly seeing his confusion.

‘I was born here. When I gained power I made sure that the citizens of this town would be free… Unlike the beings of my dominion, as for the one in my care, I did not have a choice… The power was given… Not rewarded. ‘‘She said softly… The cold edge of her tone seemingly melted off by the volcano’s heat.

Harry gave a small nod of understanding… Before pausing. The queen was forced to take the mantle of the dominion? She never chose this role?… Is that why she acts so weirdly and doesn’t always follow the rules that are established? He let out a small scoff… Perhaps he and her weren’t so different after all… Forced into positions… Forced to make choices they wouldn’t wish to ever make… The same side of the damn coin.

They both got off of their horses before attaching them to a nearby tree as they walked toward a old and yet modern-looking house for their time… It seemed like it had been unoccupied for a while now, from the exterior. But as Elaria pushed the door open… It was way cleaner than Harry could believe… Seems like the owner had quite a few maids, huh? —Oh. The sound left his mouth as his eyes locked onto a portrait that hung on the wall. One of Elaria’s family. This was her childhood home… No wonder it was so clean.

Elaria took off her gear letting it drop to the floor in a loud thud as she collapsed against the cold couch of her old living room… The warms memories of her life before all of this flooded her mind… She wished to cry… Show weakness for once… Show who she truly was… But she wouldn’t. Not in front of Harry and then a thought came to her mind that puzzled her… Did they even inform anyone of their trip?… Dammit they didn’t… They probably would be searching everywhere for her… Thinking she went missing and that Harry was most likely the reason of that… A lot of apologies would have to be done as soon as they came back…

If you do.

The eye had spoken once more… Out of the gem… Harry’s eyes widened as his gaze immediately locked onto her pocket… Analyzing. He knew the gem was a strange artifact… But it could speak? What the hell could it not do? That was at that same moment… That Elaria seemed to space out for a single second… But the look in her eyes… It was terrified. What the hell did she just see…? Did the eye make her see it?

——

Elaria Vaelwyn

‘' The Passenger of her own fate’’

——

The gem echoed into her mind… The same words going on and on… Without a stop until an image popped into her head… Not just an image… A vision… The eye staring at the mass of planets… Or a singular one and its moments in time… It was unclear. Her perception seemed to suddently shift as it got way closer to the eye… Its grandiose stature staring right trough her… The eye was large… Too large… A giant eyeball with multiple iris… All pointing in different directions… Large tentacles seemed to act as arms as its own body was connected to the eye by the optic nerve… A form of a shell seemed to protect the base of the nerve as the tip of it twisted into a sharp point where… Ink flowed into a giant book… The book was called “Ashes of the Forgotten Worlds.” The eye was… writing about events happening right on the planet…

Elaria leaned closer, observing the book more closely… Page…50? But the book was way more than 50 pages already… Did the eye write it in a weird order?… “Nathan woke up the next day still slightly dizzy from how powerful the tranquilizer…” The words on the page… being written as the eye kept staring right into her very soul with one of its giant iris… It could observe… Everything… Everywhere and all at once. It could even perceive her… While she was having a vision of being there?… Just how powerful was it? It was terrifying or maybe… Just maybe this wasn’t a vision… The eye could be showing her something cryptic… What could it mean…?

The eye seemed to stare at another book on its infinite bookshelf… As if telling her to grab one… There were millions… But one seemed to catch her eye… “The Convergence of Forgotten Worlds… The original Intended Story.’’ She quickly flipped through the first few pages… Reading the chapter names… Duel in the mist… The silence… The experiment—The Elvanian Village… The words… They were exactly what she was thinking in this very moment… She was truly fated to see this… But the next chapter was what took her attention more than most… It was called… “Fate”… Reading quickly incase the vision would stop… She read a single line that shook her to the very core. ‘‘ As she was destined to… She dropped it in the scourging heat… Kickstarting everything…’’

All this time… This journey. She thought she was going toward a change of her fate… But she was going right toward it. But this was the intended version… One that had already been written… But as she could see right now. The eye writes as it happens. So… What she was intended to do wasn’t written yet… But how could she change it?

——

Harry Gage

‘' The Cog in Forever Motion "

——

Harry approached his queen… A trembling and hesitant hand gently placing itself against her cold, scarred cheek… The scarred cheek reflecting how she truly was inside… Making a small gasp echo from her throat… One that had been buried deep in all these years… It was as if one of the hanging bodies of the halls had just dropped… It happened so rarely that it was almost…uncanny. A small tear rolled down her scarred skin… Just like the acid which once had been thrown at her from the coward… Could she truly open herself up to a man… One that she viewed as… Slightly less than equal… Or did she …? There was always this feeling deep within her… She knew it was merely hierarchical… But why was it so present… What did it mean…?

Her eyes softened as it roamed Harry’s face… She knew what it meant… She hated to be in power no matte how powerful it made her feel… This never was what she wished to live like ever before… As a kid she wished to simply be a hunter…or a lawyer… But not a queen. All of this had happened due to some distant royal blood in her veins… The need she felt… It was jealousy… She had given him choices… Choices to rule beside her and he had accepted… Sure the choices were quite drastic… But they were still choices. What she never had and which she might never have either… Unless…

Harry’s eyes glanced down at her soft, ragged fingers as they trailed up his armored arm… It was too soft for her… What was she doing? She suddently gripped the back of his head and forced her lips upon him… It wasn’t romantic at all… It was desperate. Desperate to have a choice. Harry stumbled back off the couch and fell onto his back, clearly not being into whatever had just happened… But she was the queen… He had no ground to protest no matter how wrong what she did was.

Elaria took notice of his panicked face; something seemed to stir deep within her… He was looking fucking pathetic… All these choices in his life and the one time he is forced to face something… He reacts agaisnt it… This… Amused her.

Harry stood up gently forcing himself to stay as composed as possible… Not even commenting on what had just happened… Even if he wanted to… What could he even possibly say to her… She held a higher rank than him… A small cough came out of his throat as he turned around and said a small, muttered good night as he walked up the stairs to another room… Not wanting to sleep in the same room as her…

They both fell asleep in different room… Preparing themselves mentally for their final stop on their small “adventure.”

Tomorrow would be a new beginning… For both of them.