The sun was already setting and it was almost time for that training with Tevessa. The last thing I wanted to do was embarrass myself in front of him so I took advantage of the empty house and did a lot of practice. I'd long stopped trying to reach Mum or the second Scother family. Rowan had been right. Perhaps they wanted Nora to forget all about her previous life, the one where she had two messed-up siblings who didn't deserve her.

I missed Nora. I missed everything about her: blue eyes, her smile, her innocence. No, I was envious. I envied her innocence. She did not have to care about the world and its problems. She had an amazing stepbrother, almost her age, who she could relate well to. She was happy.

I hated how life was always so complicated. I hated how things weren't always perfect. I hated how it wasn't even any different with Neba!

I groaned and aimed the fire at one of the bushes and watched as it burned. Dealing with pyrokinesis had to be the hardest thing ever, physically, emotionally, and mentally. It only proved the more how this training with Tevessa was important. Hopefully, one day of training would be enough because I could not see myself doing this constantly with Tevessa.

He would be teaching me to harness a power that would be used to defeat his people. Already, it was bad enough that I had grown so attached to Tujan and Nilsa, to Crypta, to the Royals, and the Zadios. It was bad enough that I cared about Neba when I shouldn't have.

What was it my business that some magical place in the world existed and was currently having some governorship problem? There were a lot of problems in the world, real problems that affected real humans like me. I could have just told Crypta where the Zadios were hiding and then left him to fight his battle.

Giving up on the practice, I decided to head back into the kitchen. I shut the door, grabbed a bottle of water, went up to my room, and slumped to the bed. We had agreed on Saturday night but I had no idea if Tevessa was ready because if he was underground, then Mehjazgeu wouldn't be able to transport me there. Honestly, the underground idea had to be the most intelligent idea a person had ever come up with. They were there but yet they weren't.

The purple Ametrine necklace around my neck suddenly began to glow. Confused, I rubbed my thumb over it, remembering what Tevessa had said about Ametrine stone being able to manifest one's visions. What did that even mean?

"Emery." I thought I heard my name being mentioned. Strangely, it sounded like Tevessa. I turned around, wondering if somehow he'd equally laid his hands on Merwinian stones. Realising that I was the only one in the room, I stood up, my active being now on the alert.

"Emery."

What? Was I dreaming? The voice was unmistakable. It was Tevessa.

"Emery. Can you hear me?"

My mind drew back to the pendant that I still had within my thumb and index finger. Somehow, it felt like the sound came from the stone.

"Tevessa?"

"You can hear me!?" It sounded more like he was surprised. "Come over, I'm free now. I'm just by the banks of Nesylone Waters."

"What? How are you doing this?" I asked, staring at the purple stone attached to the string around my neck.

"Just come. We don't have much time, Emery." And then the stone stopped glowing, just like that.

I'd gotten so used to carrying the bottle everywhere I went that I always wore outfits that had pockets big enough to hold Mehjazgeu in place. Changing from my slippers to a pair of trainers, I sprayed the bottle and jumped in, thinking of Tevessa and his annoying garnet-crystal eyes.

Crystal of love and health, he'd said.

When I got out of the portal, Tevessa was right where he'd said he would be. He had a big black bag and long sticks and wooden planks were preventing the bag from being properly zipped. The moment our eyes locked, a huge smile formed on his face. "Did you like my surprise?"

"What was that?"

"Well, I don't think I'm quite sure either. But, remember when I told you about how I stole a little girl's dorawk to do some research on nes-hi quartz?" I nodded, gesturing for him to go. "Well, I had also come across Segika-hi Ametrine, and figured out you could use it to communicate."

"So? How did you. . .?"

"Well, when I made that necklace, I'd chunked off a small piece of it and made a ring." He showed me his left hand where a golden ring was on his index finger. It was a signet ring and had a T-shaped design cut into it, and the stone was carved to fit perfectly into the cutout design. "You know since we're both wearing accessories containing the same stone, that makes us married, Emery Valimenati."

"I am not married to you. Never will be."

"Don't make such definite conclusions about the future, Mrs Valimenati."

"Stop calling me that!"

"No? Would you prefer darling? I hear a lot of people on earth like that. Or maybe Amir Egharo. That's Cirile for My Love. Do you prefer that?"

"For the last time, Tevessa, I am not. . ." My thoughts interrupted my speech. I'd heard that word before. My thoughts immediately travelled to one particular occasion where I'd heard that word before. It had been Crypta.

"I could've been killed, Crypta!" I'd yelled when he flung a knife at me and I caught it. "What if somehow I didn't get it?"

"But you did."

"You're not getting the point."

"See the point is you did get it and you weren't killed. I wouldn't throw it if I didn't think you'd learned so much and so well from me. I trust you. Isn't that what you want me to do?" I couldn't have ignored how suddenly Crypta's training room had gotten hotter and how his voice had gone one tone lower.

"What if I missed? What would happen then?"

He'd held my waist and pulled me close to him, tighter than I had ever been with anyone, until King. "I'd never kill you or let you die, Emerald. When we'd be fighting and somehow a Zadio has you cornered, I'll know that all I have to do is to throw you an object, and I'll trust you to catch it and aim it right at your opponent, killing him. Then I'll tell you that I'm proud of you. Ami tahon am'el tart-egharo tun."

I couldn't have ignored how my body had reacted to how he'd touched me.

"Ami tahon am'el tart-egharo tun."

I couldn't have ignored the weight of his words, even after he said that it meant that I needed to be going.

"Ami tahon am'el tart-egharo tun."

I couldn't shake off the feeling that I knew he lied about its translation.

"Ami tahon am'el tart-egharo tun," I blurted out subconsciously.

"What?" Tevessa chuckled, dragging me back to the present. "You think? Ah! Well, it's about time you spoke up about your feelings. So I won that challenge, didn't I?"

"My feelings?" I rested my forehead on my open palm, shut my eyes, and gave a long sigh. "No, no, I wasn't referring to you, Tevessa. No, wait, what does it mean?"

"You said something you didn't know its meaning?" Tevessa asked, looked confused. "You see, I knew those Royals would confuse you."

"Are you telling me or not?"

Tevessa turned around and opened the black bag. Then, he began to bring out the sticks. "Ami tahon am'el tart-egharo tun. I think I love you. Or, I think I'm falling for you. Eghari and egharo both mean to love someone." Next, he began to bring out the planks from the bag. "The former is like, you know, how a sister could love a brother. Or a mother, her daughter. The latter is more like romantic or erotic love."

He threw the sticks, the planks, some ropes, gloves, and a bunch of other things to the floor. As he dusted his hands, he looked at me with a smirk. "Let me guess, Crypta said that to you. You seemed to always talk about him since I met you. And he was the one who gave you Mehjazgeu in the first instance. The one who granted you all those privileges."

"No. Crypta didn't tell me that."

"It was who, then? The king himself?"

"Does it matter?" I crossed my arms and leaned back.

"It does matter, Emery. . .Look, we all know I was joking about you marrying me. I like to joke a lot. Maybe it's my crystal." He chuckled. He grabbed a stick and began to play with it, throwing it up in the air catching it, and making it twirl with his fingers. "So forget what I said about it. Tell me, would you marry the Royals, any of them? Would you give up Earth for the title of Kyelera? No offense, Emery, but you remind me of Yvelcha so much."

"I just told you that I had absolutely no idea what it meant. Why would you assume that I love any of them? I have a boyfriend on earth, Tevessa."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Ah! So you're not attracted to the Royals?"

"No." Lies.

"You're not attracted to the Zadios?"

"No." More lies.

"You're not attracted to us as individuals, Crypta, me, my family, his family. Even an eghari kind of attraction at the very least."

I was reluctant. Nilsa was the most caring woman I had ever met. She was everything my mother wasn't. Tujan was that sister and that friend that Sandra wasn't. Tevessa was the brother that Rowan wasn't, always there to listen to my problems, to cheer me up, to swim in the Waters with me. Tevessa's and Tujan's Rika wasn't the most jovial person, but at least he had only one family, and I knew he loved his one family. The Valimenati family was everything that my family wasn't.

But I could not tell Tevessa that. I could not give him the satisfaction of knowing he was right.

"No, Tevessa. Not even an eghari kind of love."

"Then why are you here?" He pointed the stick at me.

"What do you mean why am I here?"

"Why are you here, in Neba, with the Royals, with us? To the human world, we don't exist. To the common arthurhen, we're a fantasy. Why do you choose to live in this fantasy. . .to let it define who you are. . .to let it affect your emotions and the people on earth that you've hurt because of it? Why do you let it cloud your judgement, your studies, your social life, the boyfriend that you choose? Why did you choose to let me in? Why haven't you exposed us, knowing exactly what our intentions are, and how we aren't going to back down on it?"

And then he threw the stick. And spat out.

I wasn't going to let Tevessa think he had the upper hand. If there was anything Crypta had taught me and taught me right, it was to own my feelings. I decided to blame my calmness on the Nesylone Waters and for once throw back the same energy to Tevessa.

I spat out too. I smirked. And then I chuckled. "So many questions. Which one do you want me to answer first? I should be mad that instead of training me like you'd promised, you're questioning me like you're my elder brother. But it's okay. Before I start, Tevessa, why are you helping me master a power that will still be used against you?"

Tevessa's fists clenched. I picked up the stick and weighed it in my arms. "I'm assuming you brought these for the training. Let's get started if you can't answer my question."

"I'm helping you so you stop hurting your people on earth, Emery. Unlike the Royals, we help genuinely. We don't use people. However, thank you for letting me know exactly where you stand in this battle."

"Oh shut it, Tevessa. You're helping me so I'd give you Mehjazgeu so you can buy food and supplies. Before your people die of lack of basic amenities. But it's okay, I'll give it to you. You're welcome."

His garnet eyes deepened and the veins of his neck were protruding, like that day he'd barked at Tujan for giving away that they were Asterions. Except this time I wasn't scared of him or what he had to say. Having the Asterions wiped out was the last thing I wanted, but letting Tevessa know about it would only lead him to use that against me, and I didn't like being used.

"Why I'm here? I'm here because this little community down here is a threat to Neba's peace and Crypta wants to put an end to that. You people have killed his family, generations after generations, heartlessly, cruelly! Have you been to other parts of Neba? They're happy, at peace. Things aren't perfect but they're going well. You want to ruin that and I was summoned to make sure those plans don't work. I didn't choose to live in any fantasy. It's real as could be.

"My judgement may have been clouded, but yours isn't any different. You're so blinded by this fight for liberty and freedom that you don't even care what you have to sacrifice for it. Your father could be killed, Tujan, Nilsa. I have a feeling that's why Bihak's father is dead in the first place.

"Zadio was a long time ago. Battle never worked in the favour of the Zadios so why do you think it would be any different now? And your people? What if they're giving you away in the same way Zadio's people did? Demeanor died trying, and if you don't think about what I said, the same would be your fate, Tevessa."

"Who's going to make it my fate? You?"

"Crypta has been training for this for as long as he can remember," I whispered. "All he wants is peace. He's not backing down until he's achieved that."

"So why should I, too?"

"History is only going to repeat itself and you know it. The Zadios lose. They always lose."

As I stared at Tevessa's garnet eyes, I saw it. The light that went out of his eyes. The golden liquid that ran down his left eye.

"Come on, Tevessa. Let's get started. I don't have much time anymore." I went to pick up the gloves and I asked him what they were for.

.
.
.
.
.
Thoughts? ------>

Don't forget to leave a vote!