"Trust the wait.
Embrace the uncertainty.
Enjoy the beauty of becoming.
When nothing is certain,
anything is possible."
-Mandy Hale
~

ARBOR

"And don't forget to stay hydrated," Mother continues.

I nod. Yet again.

"And be civilized, don't behave like those hooligans," she mutters, gesturing to Mikaello and his older brother who were jumping on each other for who knows what reason.

"Mother," I say in a warning tone.

"Oh hush, you know I'm right, and stay away from him too," she gestures to where Augustus is standing with a grown woman who he called 'Martha'. He has an arm around her shoulder and is whispering random things into the old woman's ear, making her laugh.

"Flirting with a woman ten times your age, good God," Mother fans herself.

It was so clear that he treated the lady like his mother what is wrong with my mother?

"Dress like a lady and behave like one," she continues while I purse my lips together, waiting for her monologue to end.

"You have the leadership qualities which all of the amateurs lack. Use it to your advantage-"

We are going on a deadly mission to save the people and what she cares about is me trying to control people?

"Don't let your mother down, honey, our hopes are all banked on you," she continues, before kissing my forehead softly.

Of course they are. Just five minutes ago she had been telling me about how the people of our town had come to give me tokens of good wishes for the quest. And how our family was nos known in the whole of Neraida

While the other's parents talked to their children about how it was complete chaos outside, mother told me how some people bought cheap gifts to give me while some bought expensive.

Is this all real? How can a person get so shallow and toxic?

I decide I'm going to listen to what Meena's parents are telling her.

Her mother was tearing up and touching her repeatedly, making sure she was in good shape. Her father was telling her how proud he is that she was getting a chance to do good in her life.

"Neraida is going through dark times, child. People are losing their income, we have food shortages, animals are getting sick, the healers have to use human ways of healing which are not as effective as we would like it to be. I don't know what will happen to us, but we will wait for you to return to us. And if you don't, you'll be immortal in our hearts. But please succeed," her father had said.

Why can't Mother be like that? My Father is just standing next to her, nodding along to whatever she is saying.

My eyes flit around to see the others. Lia is standing to one side talking to an old woman while Kaito is standing on the other side, talking to an old woman who definitely did not look like his mother. I could be wrong.

I couldn't see the people behind me but I bet they are having some better conversations than the one we are having right now.

"Oh dear Linda Morren is here," Mother mutters, nudging me to look at where Zarren is standing with his mother, talking in a low tone, "where is the promiscuous husband of hers?"

I roll my eyes and turn away from the boy and his mother to focus to where Coral is standing with her parents. And I'm not going to lie, they look loaded. Her mother is decked out in jewellery and his father is wearing some very expensive looking velvet robes.

My mother suddenly gasps and I turn around to see what she is looking at.

The Queen steps out of the doors of the Academy and walks into the front gardens where all of us are currently standing.

She stands a few feet away from Augustus and Martha, eyeing them, as if she wanted to start a conversation with them.

She had been behaving so weirdly around that boy. I mean I get it, he's a Soul User as well, but it hurts to see that he gets more attention than the rest of us.

"We should introduce ourselves to the Queen!" Mother says excitedly.

"Laura control yourself a little," Father finally speaks up, then turns to me, "You've strengthened your healing abilities, right? They are going to be very important to you when you go."

I just nod curtly.

I turn myself slightly to get Rey and her family into my vision. She is smiling at her mom, who is holding on to her pregnant belly. Damn she got a sibling on the way.

Having more than two children is pretty rare in Fae, yet Minakshi's family has a total of six. My God.

All of a sudden, a voice rings out, saying, "Gus!"

I turn to the source of the voice to see two middle aged people running towards the gardens from the main entrance.

I look around at Gus who is just looking at the people with a puzzled expression. Are they not related to him?

They pass my family and head straight towards Augustine, who is looking at them with shock, his face gone white like he had seen a ghost.

She grabs his face and starts planting kisses on his face as he stands frozen, and I watch as his fists clench together. He steps away, and doesn't make eye contact with anything other than the floor and he runs away into the Academy, but dropped his headphones on the ground.

What the hell happened here?

Why wouldn't he want to meet his parents?

Simba, who had been standing alone with Avalkyra at one side looked at everyone with wide eyes before running after the pink haired boy inside.

"So, stay away from that disrespectful pink-haired child as well," Mother added.

"Mother!"

◆●◆●◆

KAITO

"Just look out for the boy," Meredith whispers to me, "I think he is in desperate need of a friend."

I nod quietly at Meredith instead of pointing out that Simba already went after him, looking at Augustine's parents who are holding his headphones together.

"I am sorry to interrupt the meetings, but I need all of them in the palace at once," the Queen says out loud, her eyes still fixed on Augustus.

Meredith kisses me on the forehead, "Make this old woman proud my child, I'll be waiting here for you with Ran the turtle."

~

We were gathered in the Queen's study, where the Queen sat on one of the many couches and Atticus was pacing back and forth. The man is ruthless.

He made us practice till we had no energy left to even crawl into bed. I have made countless shields in the past three days, mastered the use of a staff, read books with Rachelle, lifted weights I never thought I would be able to lift, and learnt the most unusual yet useful secret techniques of the Fae taught by Atticus.

I've never felt more connected to my powers. Maybe there is chance we can succeed. Maybe the mission is not as doomed as everyone is presuming.

Augustine is sitting on one of the couches, his head in his hands, with Simba and Mikaello sitting on either side of him. Rey, Augustus, Lia and Rachelle are sharing another couch. The third couch is occupied by Arbor, Zarren, Avalkyra and Minakshi. Valerie is sitting alone on one of the chairs and so is Coralline.

We were a little dysfunctional though. Zarren does not get along with anyone except for maybe Augustus. Valerie doesn't get along with anyone except Coral and Avalkyra. Rachelle feels left out of everything, Arbor doesn't bother to talk to anyone other than Minakshi.

They are so petty sometimes.

Who lights someone's hair on fire for a nickname?

"Okay so we need to discuss where all of you will be going," the Queen began.

"Your Majesty, the Foreseer told us not to help them!" General Atticus cut her.

"I don't give a damn about the consequences Atticus. I can't leave them so clueless."

"But Your Highness-"

"Be quiet, General. And that's an order."

"First of all, the skies is definitely the Land of the Aurae, as Rachelle figured out," Simba said and my eyes shifted to Rachelle and I could make out the gleam in her eyes on being appreciated.

"What were the rest of the places?"

"The land of darkness," Rey said.

"The land of the dead," Coralline spoke up with her quiet voice.

"The land of lies," Zarren joined in.

"The land of rocks," Meenakshi said.

"The land without magic,"
Lia added.

"The land of the dried," Avalkyra said finally.

"The land of darkness..." The Queen pondered, "There could be so many such places. We'll come back to that, now the land of the dead..."

"A...graveyard?" Mikaello said with a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

"Well the Underworld is the ultimate graveyard," Rachelle said nonchalantly.

"But the Underworld is a myth," Zarren spat at her.

"We are myths to the humans as well, the Prophecy was a myth to us a week ago as well, Morren," The Queen snapped back at him, "we don't know what's real and what's imaginary anymore."

"We have zero to no knowledge about the other realms," Atticus said, shaking his head, "how will they know where to go?"

"Well we have a lot of archives about the land of the Aurae," Simba said, "why not other realms?"

"We know about the human realm and the land of Aurae because our own realm is connected to both. The realms are connected in their own ways, we have portals, maybe other realms have other ways of connection. But we have never been permitted to learn about other realms for our own as well as their safety. The uncertainty is what makes this journey so dangerous," the librarian said from a corner of the office, "Its simply useless to try and figure out the clues because the Prophecy is designed to unravel them one step after the other. We can't tell where they will have to journey, because we don't know."

Everyone stared at her in complete silence filled with shock and awe.

"That...was not helpful at all, Mildred," Queen Aurora said after a few long moments.

"It's the truth Your Majesty. It's your choice to believe it or try some vain attempts to decipher the Prophecy."

I've always like Mildred more than the Foreseer.

"Then what do we do?" The Queen asks, irritation evident in her voice.

"We trust the heroes to find their way" was all the librarian said.

I had the urge to laugh at that comment. Trust us? A dysfunctional group of teenagers, struggling to work together let alone save the Fae. Good joke.

Atticus just shook his head and walked out of the office.

The Queen followed him, a few moments later.

What do we do now?

~

Please compliment my chapter. Thank you.

I missed y'all, and yes I'm still on hiatus but I had a very strong urge to post this chapter.

I hope you enjoyed it, the next chapter is in third person involving the Queen, Aurelius, Atticus and... Lia!