The Understudy of an Alchemist

79. Living On Stolen Time

I'd had Varian gently pull me back out of a memory rock before, and even that had given me the shock of my life.

Yet I had certainly never before in any of the years I had lived, been dragged out of a memory rock, by the torso, by a 480 centimetre tall demon goat creature with tentacles. Letting out a gasp of panic, I continued to squirm in its grasp, as it held me up to its face. "So kind of you to join us, you highness." She sneered, at which my heart seized up in my chest, instantly recognising her voice. "Zhan Tiri." I hissed between my teeth, as my gaze flicked between the darkened red sky, and the brunette Rapunzel and no longer cyan haired Cassandra staring up at me from where they were imprisoned in cages of yellow rocks down below; the realisation hitting me more painfully than I ever could have imagined.

The Eclipse.....the MoonDrop, the SunDrop!!!

I had been too late.

Rapunzel stared up at both the mutated former wielder and I, looking both confused and horrified. "Your highness??" She gasped, at which Zhan Tiri made an expression of pretend concern. "Oh, oopsie!! I didn't spoil the surprise, did I??" She sneered back down at me once more. "Those rotten Asaki's were trying to wait until the right time." I shook my head slowly, forcing myself to grin. "Actually, I'd already just figured it out. And unfortunately, your reign of terror ends today-"

I went to summon a rock to sink into her shin, dismissing any of my previous, pacifist related points of attack, yet to my surprise, and complete horror, nothing happened.

Letting out a gasp of horror, I withdrew my hand and held it back up to my face, trying to comprehend why it wasn't working, at which Zhan Tiri began to laugh at my display, holding up her free forearm to demonstrate, showing off the palm sized SunDrop embedded in her wrist, at which I moved my attention down towards the arm holding me, confirming that the MoonDrop was inserted in her other wrist. "I'm sorry little one, but unless a wielder develops full control over their powers, the stones determine the fate of your abilities." She moved her face even closer towards me, grinning maniacally. "And I control the stones now."

Tugging desperately at the bars of her cage, Rapunzel gasped breathlessly across the room, "Leave.......leave her alone, Zhan Tiri. Your fight......is with......me." The demon creature laughed at this statement, and loomed over the weakened princess, who fearfully shifted closer towards an equally drained Cassandra. "Oh my dear girl, you flatter yourself far too much. Perhaps you were a useful host to the SunDrop in the past, but now, now that power is mine. And what do you have now that it's gone??"

Rapunzel simply scowled at Zhan Tiri, as she continued. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Because at the end of the day, you weren't chosen. You and your abilities are the result of a rash mistake made by a foolish, selfish man who only preferred you to his other inbred child because he deemed you more useful to him. No matter what notion you were force fed from birth, you're not a god, or a chosen one. You're a worthless mistake without that stone." Rapunzel said nothing, and simply bowed her head in response.

Her attention then moved back down to Cassandra, and her grin stretched even wider. "And you, you lost even before you began, girl. Just like your pathetic mother." Cassandra winced at the sheer mention of her parent. "Failed by your own ego." Moving away from the two, she then looked back down at me, tightening her grip, sighing as she did so. "You know, you had the most potential out of all of them. I couldn't kill you that day at the cliffs despite my best efforts, and I think that I understand why now. You're stubborn. Like a cockroach, you refuse to just die. You just steal time to stay alive when you don't have any left to be given. You were meant to die ten years ago, but instead you've been living on stolen time. Such potential. Oh, but then you had to let me down as well. You may be stubborn, but that doesn't erase that fact that you're also weak."