Tales of the Pearly Kingdom (Pearly Tales Vol. 2)

56. Qu3est Ac$cept&d

Cal growled at her.

Shayley growled back with smile on her face. "Don't threaten me with a good time, lover."

Cal had a sharp gleam in his eye. "I wonder if the Queen wouldn't be safer here on this island instead of on the front line when the army invades less than a month from now."

"You wouldn't!" Shayley blanched.

"It wouldn't take much to reinstall the blockade, for your safety, of course. I could even make it a dozen times stronger. Especially if I assigned the sky pirates to help."

"You can't!" Shayley whined, "I wanna fight, CAL~!" Shayley thumped her fists on her lap.

"If you are going to do something stupid to keep a stupidly vague promise, then I'll have to do something drastic to protect you from yourself. And you know how desperate I can get when it comes to my family." Cal smiled evilly.

Shayley looked like Cal had just threatened to crush her hopes and dreams. "Fi~ne." Her eyes glowed green for a second and Cal checked her stats in order to make sure it was gone.

Cal let his relief show. "Thank goodness, just make sure you talk to me in the future. I want to stress that Ophelia's prophecies aren't any less important. It's just that there are multiple ways to go about utilizing future knowledge. And I want to stress the safer options, after my experience with Ophelia, betting your soul on one prophecy is just unacceptable."

He rubbed Ophelia's head a little harder. "You officially know better now, Ophelia. If you are going to be involving other people you have to remember that you are an Oracle, you are responsible for revealing the future not commanding it."

Ophelia looked like she was about to cry. So Cal kissed her on the head. "You are going to make mistakes, Squirt. Your job is to learn from them, and my job as your papa is to help you."

Selene's entire body shivered anxiously. "So where does that leave me?"

Cal looked at her. "Hm? You're free of course. You are not soul promised to me anymore, in fact I expect you to discontinue your promise forthwith."

"NO!" Selene shouted loud enough to shock Cal.

Cal looked at Shayley, but she just shrugged.

"I finally have you back, I can't just let you g-go." Selene stared at the ground.

Shayley watched as a shadow passed over Cal's face, he looked at her with a gaze full of guilt and conflict. She tapped her left hand with her right and then nodded.

Cal moaned painfully.

"Selene I'm going to be frank. I don't have any memories of us together, but I think I remember you. Selene, if I remember correctly, you were my dream girl long before I met Shayley. But it didn't work out." He held up his left hand with the blue tattoo. "Last I remember, you chose another man over me. So what is this?"

"That's not true! I did choose you! You were always a free spirit like your parents, I couldn't trap you on this island with a weakling like me from a minor house." Selene protested. "I only ever loved you, Callow. I married Kenshin so that you could leave me behind with no regrets." She had tears in her eyes. "I did what I had to, for you Callow." She buried her face in her hands. "Everything I did was for you. I'm sorry I hurt you."

Shayley spoke up when Selene was lost to her apologies. "Kenshin died when he tried to cleanse the sea. She's been a widow almost as long as I waited for you."