"You died?" Lewis asked as if to confirm. Aefia nodded and resumed her steps, but she was stopped again by his words. "Then how are you still alive?" And made her spin halfway around as the smile wiped out of her face. Like she had changed as a person, her expressions were making the surrounding atmosphere seem colder.
"I don't know how to explain, but I am not from this planet." She spoke with confidence. "Your mother knows, and this was the reason I fell into this chaos. I honestly didn't want to get into this royal family, until she threatened me in public. My relative, being the positively minded she was, forced me to come along and the duchess took that opportunity to force a contract against me."
With a much more careless and reckless speech, she shrugged as she spoke. "And I have no other option but to bind to her rules, otherwise she will seal my magic. That too will be the last punishment that I will receive, excluding how breaking even the smallest rule will be worth a beating."
"But mom isn't that sort of person to do such a harsh thing to an outsider." He raised a hand and summoned blue claws the same from two days ago, pointed directly and flew at her as it gripped the throat. Aefia's eyes dilated and stared at the height she was held up at, while gripping the claw and her eyes flashing a bright gradient red.
Meanwhile another claw turned into an awl shaped spear and punctured her organs with a sharp speed. So...he can turn moisture in the air to collected water? Not being able to grip the watery weapon, she couldn't defend it from making contact with her shoulder. It was broken, and this time it shattered that small crack a little bit more, leaving it mobile. "Unfortunately...I can't waste this life either..." She closed her eyes, and the air around them moved.
In a blink of an eye, they were back at the garden and Lewis let go of the grip the claws had against her throat, and she plummeted into the gravelled ground. Her health bar stated that she was reaching her death state, once again. Her knees hit the ground and used her hands to avoid further contact with the ground.
"What did you do?! We were in the palace just a few seconds ago!" He shouted while turning around. Meanwhile, Aefia was busy continuously coughing up blood, as her magic energy was being over consumed and threatened her lungs and heart's state a little further. A few seconds worth, of trying to heal herself with the extra healing magic energy she had stolen just in case of emergencies, was spent.
It wasn't enough to keep her health from failing, and the extra was just a buff she had. Due to frustration, she picked up a few stones on the ground next to her and slammed them onto the splatter of her blood on the ground. Using her remaining strength, stood up as her head tilted into many angles that blurred her vision.
Using her right hand, she wiped them off and stared at Lewis with a serious face, filled with anger and unwillingness. "Since I am already weak, you might as well kill me permenantly. I am bored of this life filled with surprises, now it's useless."
She held her shoulder, and forced herself to stay upright, but every movement and momment, her lungs gave up and forced her to cough out droplets of dark liquid. Lewis smiled, as he watched her suffer. Aefia, who realized that too, smiled as she let her hands fall to the either sides of her hand and surrendered. "Advantages are all in your side, because I am not allowed to defend myself in any cause...based on the duchess." She grinned as her hair worked to keep her eyes shadowed and covered.
"Frustration is something everyone faces, so I am a little symphathitic towards your situation." He replied as his smile wiped clean and glanced at the water fountain. By raising a hand, a small fraction of the water flew up and fell towards her with a splash. The blood stains form the ground lifted, and so did the person standing there.
With a leap backwards, she landed with her heels loudly clacking against the stone ground. Her hands were still surrendered, making it seem like there was no room for mercy. Her face lifted to look at Lewis with a shivering position. "Actually, this was no sort of killing. If I were to die, I have a wish to do so with a sword or a gun."
Using her right hand, that she extended outwards to her side, a red wave of magic surrounded an invisible body which slowly unveiled an intricately crafted black-bladed sword. As soon as it had fully appeared, Aefia rushed forward with a bluish-red trail along her footsteps, leaving flower buds on the ground she had stepped.
Lewis, unable to dogde that speed and attack, crouched with his hands covering his head and tightly shutting his eyes. The air shifted again and the sound of bushes rustling behind him were heard. Curiously, he reopened them and looked around to find himself at another side of the garden.
He was sitting on top of dry grass, in the corner of a cleanly cut bush and saw through the edge of the foliage to glance at where or what she had been really doing. The flower buds which were followed by the footsteps were slowly blooming, but the instance they bloomed, they exploded and turned into magic dust before settling in the rock ground.
Behind her, walking opposite to Aefia was a smaller child, around two or three years of age, innocently trying to collect the flowers as soon as they bloomed. But it was because of her finger interactions that exploded the flowers. It seemed, that it was a soul connected to her, and this happened only when someone merged their soul to come back alive.
Judging by the appearance, the child was Aefia, and she sacrificed herself to save her. A faint and fragile smile lingered on the toddler's face which faded after the last flower bursted. The sword being held was flipped along her wrist and suddenly thrown up into the air, and as it fell, she swiped her hand across the blade and made it dissapeared.
Did she just make the sword dissolve with the air? It seems she is a very strong elemental magic user. So she was telling the truth about dying, strange how it was true.
"Aefia?" A voice spoke to the child who was now upset. A bright expression lit up on the toddler's face as she ran into the girl's arms and was held up in the air. "Are you upset the flowers didn't stay?" A smile appeared on the taller girl's face and the child nodded her teary face as she snuggled against her broken shoulder.
Out of an instant, she stumbled to her knees as droplets of blood fell from her mouth and she let go of the child who leaped away and stood in front of her. Her surfaceless fingers tried to wipe off the blood stains from her face as Aefia left an arm on her shoulder, and the next second the child dissappeared.
Using her palms, she covered her eyes. Shortly after, struggled to stand up and seemed to enter a stealth form while hiding behind the fountain. Another group of people approached, the duchess and her army of guards. Realizing how they weren't supposed to be in the garden this late, Lewis retracted himself and covered his mouth with his hand.
She knew...that this was a wrong step. Then was she...trying to go and inform mom about her day and the incident? And in the palace...I would have been caught trying to murder her...so she moved the space to this place! So this was all just a calculation made in an instant!
"The garden seems to be somewhat slightly wet." The duchess spoke while glancing up at the slightly darker concrete colour which had been splotched with the water Lewis had controlled. Aefia's fire skill was used in the form of flowers to try and dry it up as early as possible, but it was a completely failed decision due to exhaustion.
The guards bent down to inspect it, without any order from the head of the house, and this caused a warning from her. "I didn't say find me the reason behind this, and learn the difference between statements and questions." She spoke with a scary pair of eyes which promised punishment if anything was messed up. They turned around to go towards the end of the garden, and a few footsteps echoed behind them.
The guards held out their weapons pointed at the person approaching. Aefia held her hands out with a confused and surrendering face, which alerted Lewis about her skills in acting. Immediately afterwards, she knealed with her hand hanging below. Her hatless head was only covered with redness which darkened with more density that flowed over it.
"You majesty, I am sorry for disturbing but I just returned from the mission I had been assigned...so I wanted to stop by and alert you about it before leaving for the doctor's chamber." Her voice sounded slightly tired by now, and it could be seen that she couldn't cover all of her actual expression with acting.
The duchess inspected her from her shoes all the way to her head. "You look severely injured. Did you lose the case? Or was it successful?" She spoke with anger in her eyes as she looked down at Aefia with a irritated face which was covered up by a grin.
"The case was successful, but I happened to fall from the third floor and gotten injured. I am alright, not a matter to give urgency to, the hostages have been sent to the police station. As for the estate, I burned it as you had instructed." A reply came back the instant she was asked and kept her face staring down. Her eyes seemed like they were going to fall into unconsciousness any time sooner, but she was pushing the boundaries of her health.
"Well done, that's all I can say. Get a visit to the doctor and then I will let you chose a reward if you are back alive. Before that, you did break a rule or two, are you aware of that?" The duchess spoke as her grin stretched across, a familiar face even Lewis constantly faced on a daily basis. The realization shocked him.
Aefia fiercely stood up, with her dark eyes and extended the palm of her left hand, hallway. The duchess took a knife that was handed by a guard with his head looking down. In a swift movement, the knife stabbed through her hand with intense pressure as the blood fell on the ground. While as if not having suffered enough blood draw, she stood there not even moving away from the blade.
"Go to the doctors, be quick unless you want to die." She handed the knife back to the guard and resumed her walk as Aefia wiped her stabbed hand against her right sleeve with closed eyes. The child behind her reappeared and stared with shocked eyes as the taller girl turned around with a smile. But the child didn't stand long, and vanished yet again.
As soon as the lady was out of reach in the far reach of hearing, she turned towards the palace with her sleeve hovering below her mouth as more blood spilled on it. Her heels clunked silently, but loudly against the graveled ground as she dissapeared from the distance of vision he was allowed.
Upon entering the palace gates, she heaved long and heavy breathes as each left a small amount of blood falling form the corners of her mouth. Just a few steps away from the door to the chamber, as she stopped to clear her expression and sensed the familiar scent of sea salt, which irritated her.
Knowing the circumstances, she spun around and looked towards the place Lewis was hiding, behind a wooden cabinet. "If you have any words left to say, save it for later. I am not going to be awake if I wait any longer, and it is around this time that the doctor leaves for the other to take over their shifts." She proclaimed while turning on her heels one last time to knock on the door.
"I had seen everything that happened at the garden." Lewis urgently spoke as he came out of his hiding spot. "I wanted to apologize for judging you before hand, and I noticed we both have the same place in front of mom's eyes." He looked down at the ground while seeming slightly concerned.
"What? The stab? I don't really care about that, it is just like the norm I had lived that was established against me since the age of eight." She didn't hesitate to hold a proper and more straight forward conversation. "Like I said, we will meet again after I have my doctor's visit."
Without allowing the next line of words, she knocked against the wooden door and pushed it open. Inside, the doctor was checking the prescriptions she had written out and didn't glance towards Aefia.
***
"If it's a bruise, just put ointment and a bandage if its a scratch." She spoke with a hand gesture showing a dismissive motion. Suspicious of the unfamiliar voice, the doctor had no choice but to look towards the door where a covered in blood young girl stood while closing the door.
"I apologize for coming in late, but it isn't a small bruise...nor a scratch." Aefia spoke with a neutral expression. It was clearly visible the way she was stabbed. The doctor too stared with shock how she was still alive and immediately rushed around with supplies. Upon completing her gatherings, a hand was wrapped around her arm as she was dragged towards a bed and water splashed against her face and hands.
A little reflection of her own face was shown on the doctor's similarly dark eyes and she noticed the way she had the entire half of her face bloodied. After a short while, she sighed and set down the water bowl. "I dont know if you are aware, but you will need a long entire shift worth of surgery alone, just for your shoulder if only I am working."