"And what about the portal, do you know where it is?" I asked impatiently.
"Only the royals have access to that kind of information, they send the best of us to earth, to work towards way of destroying it." cilith said avoiding my eyes.
"I should go now, The king will be coming out any minute now.
"You're not safe here. You're not safe anywhere." she said locking eyes with me as she turned around to leave.
"Now what?" I said to kanth, wrapping everything cillith just said around my head. The queen had red eyes? I take out the photo from under my sleeve and stare at it, My mother does have burning eyes in it. Standing in the very room the kings throne was in.
Am I an oblivion, My head throbs as a memory comes rushing back to me.
"Seira! how many times must I tell you that you can't go around destroying things when your mad! My mother yelled at me as i sat on my bed in this very citadel. "I can't control it." I said to my mother. " That is exactly why you must learn to control your emotions." She said in a calmer voice.
Seira, Seira! I hear the whispers of kanth as I rush back to reality. "yeah" I said.
"Your eyes"... he trailed off, backing away from me. "
"What about them" I ask nervously.
They.... they're red.
"They can't be red, you must be hallucinating." I said trying to keep myself from thinking about what that means.
But I saw it in his face - the horror. The fear.
And I felt it.
I fed on it.
The more afraid he became, the stronger I felt.
I knew what he was thinking. I could read his mind like an open book.
I broke eye contact, just as I realized - I was inside his head.
Invading his thoughts.
Just like the king.
He stumbled back, terrified and shaking in disbelief and horror.
"I..I didn't mean to. I said, attempting to calm him down.
"Do you have any idea what this means?" He asked without so much so as looking in my direction.
"I... How is that possible, how did I do that? I am one of them? I questioned unable to process anything. A sharp ringing sound screeching in my ears.
"Not only that. he paused, finding the courage to look up at me again, You are the strongest one of them. You can put an end to their want for vengence you can free the thousands trapped in the darkness."
"No, Kanth I can't do this. I just wanna go home that's it. I'm not meant to save anyone, I'm not a hero, I never have been and I doubt I ever will be! I said exasperated
Kanth didn't speak. He just stood there, his breath shallow, his eyes refusing to meet mine. I could feel the silence between us - thick, suffocating, like the air itself was afraid of me.
I turned away, pacing. My footsteps echoed against the stone floor, each one louder than the last. "I didn't ask for this," I muttered. "I didn't ask to be the strongest. I didn't ask to be anything."
The photo slipped from my fingers and fluttered to the ground. My mother's burning eyes stared up at me from the floor, like they were watching. Waiting.
Kanth finally spoke, voice low. "You don't have to be a hero. But you are something. And if you don't choose what that means - someone else will."
I stopped. The ringing in my ears faded, replaced by a sound I hadn't heard in hours. Footsteps. Heavy. Measured. Not just one pair. Dozens.
"They're coming" kanth said, stating the obvious. " Tell me something new."
" You can challenge the king, take over his throne - kill him." kanth said as I peeped through the crack in the door. I backed away. They kicked open the door, surrounding me and kanth, they were the not the weak ones. They were angry - fuming.
"My eyes locked with one of them, I though about him bowing to me - He did just that. so I can control them, Like puppets on a string? I thought to myself. One of them grabbed me from behind.
Holding me hostage in the same unrelenting grip as before.
Kanth got up beside - He wasn't being held hostage. The one holding me hostage, wrapped a blind fold around my eyes, making me walk without sight.
After what felt like a never ending walk, The one behind me, kicked my legs pushing me down on my knees, My heart dropped as I felt him putting chains around my hands.
He removed the blind fold.
In front of me stood the king - just as he did before, ready to invade my mind, maybe even crush it this time.
Who I saw next, shook me to my utmost core. It was kanth standing right beside the king, his eyes silver, his skin pale - Like the oblivion's.
"Kanth?" I whispered, voice trembling. He didn't answer. Just stood beside the king, silver-eyed and silent.
"Please," I said, the word cracking in my throat. "I don't know what I am. I don't know how to stop this. I just want to go home."
The king stepped forward, his gaze slicing through me like glass. "There is no home for you. Only power. Or death."
I felt the chains tighten. My knees buckled. His mind reached for mine - clawing, ripping, trying to shatter me from the inside. I screamed. Not from pain. From fear.
And then - Something snapped.
The heat surged through my veins like wildfire. My skin burned, not with flame, but with light. Red light. Blinding. Radiant. Terrifying.
The chains melted off my wrists, dripping onto the floor like liquid metal. The guards stumbled back. Kanth shielded his face. The king flinched.
I rose to my feet, eyes glowing like lava. He tried again - his mind slamming into mine, trying to crush my bones, scatter my thoughts. And he did. For a moment. I broke. But not like he expected.
My thoughts scattered like ash in the wind - then reformed, sharper, louder, angrier. I stared at him. And he saw it. The truth. The bloodline. The power.
Boom.
The king exploded. Not with fire. Not with sound. But with force.
His body ruptured mid-air, blood gushing out in a shimmering cascade - Not silver. Not red. But obsidian gold. Dark, radiant, and ancient.
It splattered across the walls, across Kanth's face, across my arms. The guard beside me collapsed, eyes wide in disbelief. Kanth fell to his knees.
I stood there, glowing, trembling, burning. And for the first time - I wasn't afraid.
Someone from behind me shouted, "The king is dead, Long live the queen".
And as I turned around, Everyone bowed, before me. Everyone but kanth, he stood there in silence his gray eyes glistening with tears.
"She is a defect, She does not belong, She will corrupt the end of our world." He said in a pathetic attempt to manipulate my mind, I burned my eyes in to his, as I squeezed his throat, pouring my rage into it without even touching him, I let go just as he was on the verge of death. "Next time you talk about me like that, You won't be given the mercy of breath. I said, My voice calm, too calm.
"You are not the queen they want, You are the queen they fear"
A voice whispered in my ear. I turned around to find cilith.
I lean into her ear and whisper, "Then let fear lead them". I returned to my position and gave her a smile, one that didn't belong to me, one that screamed danger.
I could sense the fear creeping in on her, I sensed the dread trapped, I could see the way goosebumps rose on her arms as I said that. And something about that, made me feel - Satisfied maybe even Happy.