The Throne of the Four Realms ✔

CHAPTER 6 - Of a Thousand Questions

Note: First things first, I am overwhelmed with your response. 1K reads! It's a daunting figure. I hope I don't let down your rising expectations. Saying that, I thank all my fellow writers of Wattpad and my lovely readers, who vote and don't vote alike, you are everything to me.
Second thing, about this chapter, there's an image of the Zodiacs and their Signs attached at the end. Uh-uh guys, don't scroll down now. You'll know when you need to. :)
If you have doubts or if you think there's some serious infodump, do bring it to my notice, but gently. Refer to the Map whenever you need; well, I do all the time. :)
(My notes will be shorter, from now on, pardon me this time!)

~Happy Reading❤✨~

***

"Mother, why don't you use the spade?" The little girl asked with curious eyes.

The mother smiled gently, "Because, the soil loves your touch, my dear. Why do you want to hurt it?"

The girl nodded and dug a small hole, imitating her mother. She sowed the seeds of a floral plant into it, and covered the hole back with her tiny hands.

If only she had waited before running away to chase a squirrel, she would have seen, that a shoot had already started sprouting out of it.

***

As I slept fitfully, the bizarre incident of the day still reeled in my flimsy dreams. I woke up for the third time in the dead of the night and decided to check my body in the lavatory of our chamber. Maybe, finally, I had acquired the Mark.

The elementees are all born with the Mark, that indicates their Houses. A child is born with no Mark to begin with, but later develops it, as and when it uses its Elementation. By the time the child reaches the age of eighteen, the Mark is at its prime too, dark and glowing. But being a Vacant, I had never gotten one. I had come of age the year ago and therefore had lost the final hope of ever getting it.

I had always stayed in the shadows, as my school-mates had all talked about their faint marks. A girl had showed me hers, the Scales of Libra House, which she had acquired to the left of her lower waist, and I had examined my whole body thoroughly after coming home. It wasn't there. It was never there. The boys had kept tormenting me to show them my Mark; I shuddered involuntarily at the memory, their menacing laughter still fresh somewhere in my ears. The Mark would reveal itself anywhere on the body, abiding no laws, and therefore, it was very uncouth to ask someone to show them their Mark. Even my childhood brain understood their implication.

I was suddenly frozen, struck by a thought which should have been the first thing to enter my mind. The kids had acquired the Scales because they belonged to the House of Libra. But my Mark, if and when I would get it, would not be shaped as the Scales, that I had always looked out for. It would be something entirely different.

And I knew the three options that I had; the Three Houses of the Earth Realm.

I pulled off my nightdress and camisole and stood facing the huge mirror on the lavatory wall. It was freezing cold, but a little bearable due to the heat-spinners. The light of the lamp was dim, but I felt the fire burn stronger as I placed the lamp gently on the rim of the sink.

Staring into the pitch-black eyes of my reflection, I let it sink in-

I have magic. I have magic. I have magic.

But it wasn't enough. It felt like I was awoken from a deep slumber, the dream left incomplete. It had vanished the moment I had opened my eyes. And now I was trying to grasp the last threads of one such dream, that felt distant with every pull of my will to remember it.