Flames of Ember

46| Upcoming Catastrophe.

* EMBER ELLIOT ELYSIAN *

Everything was about to go wrong.

I'd been so miserable after Erin's departure, I forgot to think thoroughly about what was going on, about Ilayna being Ira's knight and the risks that contained it.

"It's honestly baffling how you don't have plan for Ilayna when she gets caught by princess Vivianne and her family. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO? THEY CAN ARRIVE ANYTIME NOW!" Zenix whisper-yelled, pacing around my chamber, grabbing the ends of his brown hair.

"WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME WHO PLANS EVERYTHING? WHY CAN'T YOU TWO DO ALSO DO SOMETHING USEFUL?" I yelled back, except my voice was as low as possible, my eyes wide with annoyance.

"BECAUSE YOU LIKE TO ACT LIKE A PRINCESS AND WANT TO PLAN EVERYTHING ON YOUR OWN PRINCESS WAYS!" Zenix whisper-yelled again, clenching his jaw.

"DO NOT CALL ME A PRINCESS-'

"If Ilayna gets caught by the princess or her family and something happens to her, I'm blowing up your whole palace, Ember," Keith said, his voice calm, and cold and unlike Keith at all.

"You will not be doing anything like that. Let me think about this—"

"How could you not think about this earlier? You are always the one planning and me and Zenix always did the background jobs that require you to achieve that plan. I thought you already had a plan so I didn't speak," Keith pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head.

"It's not like I didn't think about this. I did think about what to do when she gets caught -- by father. But I didn't think about Vivianne coming to the investiture ceremony with her esteemed family."

"There is no way that princess Vivianne won't know Ilayna is the very person who committed treason by flooding her father's chambers. Just changing her eye colour and hair isn't enough," Zenix pointed out, rubbing his forehead and pushing away his bangs. "What if princess Vivianne turns her back on us because Ilayna is a knight in this palace? I have seen how she is -- she is brutal. What if she reveals the fact that His Majesty is knighting an Ezèrian?"

Every words that Zenix spoke was true. Ilayna was the person who flooded half of the palace to escape, she was the person who rejected to not heal the emperor, she did commit a treason by doing that. Even if I were to explain the whole situation to Vivianne, by telling her that Ilayna was my friend and revealing her identity could break an uproar in the kingdom, there was her family as well, who could also reveal her identity to my father -- especially Vivianne's mother.

Revealing Ilayna's identity would bring a whole catastrophe: father would execute her in font of everyone using the very sword he was going to hand her, everyone would shame my father for being so incautious, he would lose his power, the Eirlys Empire would cut all ties with us for knighting someone who committed treason in their land, and worst of all, Keith wouldn't be able to handle any of it all.

"It's funny how Ilayna would be punished when she's the victim here. She was taken there forcefully. Whatever she did was for self defence," Zenix shook his head.

"How long, Ember? How long until we don't have to hide ourselves to survive? How long until I don't have to constantly blend in with people so that people don't call me a monster? How long until we are not always blamed for our ancestors?" Keith gave me long look, the one that he'd give me when we were little and he would question the discrimination that happened. And I remembered holding both Keith and Ilayna's hand, and telling them that I would change it all, that I would make a new world -- one that would be ours.