Breaking Free (Part 4 WoE)

Part 4 of War of the Elements (read other parts first :D)

Dedicated to my new friends Celeste and Priya! Check them out when you have a chance...

Celeste’s POV 

I WILL GET OUT OF THIS GODAMN PLACE 

Alright, so that’s been a goal of mine for wayyyy too long. Five years, three months, and twenty-two days, to be exact (and probably three hours, seventeen minutes... nah I'm just kidding). Every year that’s my main goal, but I’ve never been able to accomplish it. Well, then again, if you’re in MY circumstances, it would be pretty hard to.  

~ ~ ~ 

I twirl around the empty room watching my black robe float out as I spin. That’s about all I do in here. I read, write, draw, scream, dye my hair, and wander around this little room. You would think a princess would get better treatment than this. Hah. Not if you’re my kind of princess.  

CHICKENNNNNNN 

Sorry. I think I’m going crazy in this solitude. All royalty have the powers of the elements. In the Air Kingdom, everybody with royal blood is supposed to have the powers of air. That means, we can control air, wind, and even better, we can fly. Well, everybody can do that except for me.  

BUMBLEBEE BUMBLEBEE BUMBLEB BEESTHATBUMBLE 

As usual, it takes you until around you’re ten for your powers to fully nurture. Up until the age of ten, I lived a normal, fulfilling life as one of the princesses. Well, maybe I wasn’t that normal. My maids and nurses always said I had too much energy for my own good, and when I was crazy, I could be cah-raaaazyyy. I was always my father’s favorite child, since he always expected I would have the most dramatic powers of all my siblings.  

Sorry to disappoint, old dad.  

PINK FLUFFY UNICORNS DANCING ON RAINBOWS 

 All my other siblings got their powers when they were ten, and believe me, they knew how to rub salt in the wound. The first few days after my tenth birthday, while my father waited anxiously for a sign; any sign, of my powers. He even tried dropping me out a first story window to see if that would induce flying powers. All that came of it was a broken elbow and dislocated leg.  

But the worst part about it is even my twin sister got her powers! I don’t remember much about her, but her name was Priya. We stuck together through thick and thin, but when she got her powers, and I didn’t we were separated. I bet she’s forgotten me by now. She’s probably married to some snivelling prince at this point. She was always the wiser, more rational (and not to mention prettier) one whilst I could be brilliant (thus excelling at studies) but rowdy and tended to be rather crazy. Oh, Priya, if only you were here with me! 

When it became apparent that I didn’t have powers, he had me locked up in a tower. It would never do for anybody to find out that one of the royalty didn’t have powers. In fact, if word got out to enemy empires, they would assume that we were weak and attack us. Not only was I locked up, all my siblings were told that my powers had come, of course, but I had been sent away to nurture them in a faraway cave. Some of the younger ones were told I had never existed. I had so many siblings from my father’s ten wives, none of them even really noticed or cared.  

BANG BANG BANG. LET’S GO OUT WITH A BANG. BANG BANG BANG.  

I knock my head against the wall in agony. I have been having earsplitting headaches lately. The only thing that helps it impact, since my father refuses to send any medication. Every day, a nurse is sent up to my tower to send food, drink, clothes, and some other necessities I need. The food consists of leftovers from the actual meals the royalty eat. Drink can vary from just water, or whiskey and juice. The clothes were plain, made of cheap material. They gave me old clothes that had been discarded.   Sometimes, the nurse is kind and gives me a bottle of hair dye to dye my hair (purple at the moment). Other times, a different nurse comes and she refuses to give me anything. I’ve asked each nurse for migraine medicine, but apparently all the nurses are mean these days.  

The tower is bare except a table, four chairs and a bed. I’m glad they didn’t skimp on the bed. It’s my old bed, a four poster with drapes surrounding it. Indeed, I spend most of my time in it cuddling under the thick blankets since it’s the coziest and most comfortable place in the room. There’s a bookcase in the room as well, but there’s only one-hundred and fifty-two books. All of which I’ve read to the umpteenth times. The only thing to look forward to is the food the servants bring. Life is dreary like this, and who knows when I shall get out.  

~ ~ ~ 

Priya’s POV 

I know I have a sister. I know I have a sister. I know I have a sister. No matter what they say, I know I have a twin sister named Celeste. She was crazy, hectic, and unbelievably funny, but one day she disappeared. For some reason, she didn’t get her powers when she turned ten. I did, but she didn’t. For some time, I tried to console her by telling her that her powers may have been delayed, but surely, she would get them. But she just became moody and stayed away from all of us (us being her siblings). To be quite honest, I gave up trying to console her.  

“My gosh, Celeste. Quit moping already and play tag with us.” 

“Priya, I don’t want to. All of you are going to fly away and since I can’t fly, I’m going to lose.” 

“Well, geez. We don’t even want you to play with us. You don’t have any powers, and that makes you a weirdo.” 

Yep. That’s the last thing I ever said to my twin sister, because the next day she disappeared. Our nurses said that she had never existed at all. That convinced many of my dim-witted siblings who evidently didn’t care, but it sure is hard to forget your twin sister. I was even fed weird smelling ‘medicines’ that would ‘cure my delusions’ but all they did was remove actual memories of me with my sister but enhance my sensation that my sister was missing. I would do whatever I could to find her, and find her, I will.  

~ ~ ~  

My room was right above the king’s throne room. By pressing my ear to the floor, I could hear everything going on. When my father abruptly stopped dinner saying he had ‘important matters to attend to’. Naturally I grew curious, and decided to eavesdrop (hey, what?). I heard a muffled noise. I pressed myself closer to the ground for better clarity.  

“We have been attacked by the Darkness Empire due to our allegiance with the Aqua Kingdom. As you may know, King Nobelius was kidnapped by Prince Jean Valerie of the Darkness empire. Yesterday, hundreds of soldiers from the darkness empire entered our kingdom by traveling through shadows. While we have been at peace for hundreds of years, now we must attack. Seventeen battalions will be sent out to retaliate. Meanwhile, alert the royal children and send them into hiding.” 

“Your majesty. What about... her... you know. In the high east tower...?” 

“Oh. I don’t care about Celeste anymore. Let her be killed. Worthless child with no powers. Tsk. Oh, don’t forget to activate our cloud wall engine.” 

“Yes, your majesty. The army will be alerted and the children shall be notified. ” 

I stifled a gasp. Celeste! She was still alive, and I knew where she was. I must act now. I closed my eyes tight, and wished myself to a dark, dusty, shadowy corner in the high east tower.  

~ ~ ~  

“Ow!” I banged my head heavily on the top of something hard and wooden. I blinked a few times and saw that I was under some sort of platform. I crawled out from underneath it, sneezing at the dust.  

“Who the hell are you?” I stared at the bare feet in front of me (forget about that dramatic entrance). Slowly looking up, I saw a tall slender girl will bright purple hair. Her skin was pale with the lack of sunlight, but I knew from a glance it was Celeste.  

“Hi. Um... your twin sister is here to save you.” Her eyes widened as she stared at me.  

“Holy cow! It’s Priya! Didn’t they like wipe me from your memory? How did you find me? What were you doing under my bed? What took you so long? I can’t believe it’s you!” We wrapped each other in a hug. And you have no idea how good a hug feels when you haven’t hugged a certain person in five years.  

“Yeah, it’s me. Happy late birthday. Yes, they tried to say you never existed, they even gave me pills and stuff. But hey, we’re literally twin sisters. And, oh, yeah. How I got here.” I grinned sheepishly. Oops, sorry guys, I haven’t even told you.  

“I have a second power. The power of darkness. No questions, because I don’t-” 

“How the hell do you get two powers and I get none?!” Celeste looked infuriated for a second before she punched me lightheartedly.  

“So, basically I was thirteen years old and I realized that I could think of a place I wanted to go and travel there as long as there was a shadow. You know how in tutoring when we learned about the different kingdoms with their elements and the things they can do? Well you know how the Water Kingdom travels by rivers, the Fire Kingdom travels through fires and fireplaces, and the Air Kingdom can travel through flying? Well, basically the Darkness Kingdom travels through shadows, so I realized that I somehow have darkness powers.” Celeste stared at me in shock.  

“Well. Wow. I guess you were always the better student. Haha, and I was busy blowing up toilets. But tell me how you found me! Like, I didn’t even know the high east tower existed! Plus it’s a floating, invisible tower on top of a cloud.” Then I remembered the rest of the King’s conversation.  

“Oh my gosh. We’re under attack! The darkness kingdom is attacking us!” I smacked my head. So wrapped up in finding Celeste, I’d forgotten that there could literally be soldiers from the darkness kingdom ready to pop into the shadows of our room right now. That was a scary thought.  

“Okay. Priya, but what am I going to do? You can go into a safe hiding spot with the rest of the royal family, but apparently, I don’t exist.” Celeste massaged her head in a worried state.  

“That’s the thing: our dad said he would let you be killed. But I won’t let that happen. I say we hide-” 

“How about we escape! You literally have access to EVERY place in this world! Just think of a forest or something and we can go there!” Suddenly, she clutched her head and sank to the ground.  

“Celeste! Celeste? You hear me?” I shake her violently as she begins to glow.  

Celeste’s POV 

All I see is light. It absorbs me, or I absorb it. The shimmering glaze of light, bright white glaring into my eyes. My headache is gone, and I feel light. But in my blood, churning, is power. Two powers. I feel that I could fly, but I feel that I can go anywhere with light. I can bust through this wall, as long as there is light outsider.  

Strange. But powerful.  

“Celeste!” I open my eyes. Priya is shaking me hard.  

“I think-” 

“Have your powers come?”  

“Yes! They have! Finally! What took them so long?” Although I had no clue why they were so late, I was more than relieved that I did in fact have powers. Not only that, I had two powers! Well, that waiting was worth it even though Priya got hers at the regular times.  

“I CAN DO EVERYTHING!” I ran across the room, and did a celebratory leap. Sure enough, I floated into the air. I felt the wind pulsing across my forearms. I moved my hands back and forth and I shot forward. I closed my eyes and let the light envelope me. I felt my particles of skin reform and appear in another patch of light across the room.  

“Wow. Celeste... You have the powers of light and I have the powers of darkness. Do you know why-” But I was giddy with excitement and of course, as you know, that makes you do some rather crazy and irrational things. I grabbed my sister by the arm. Without thinking, I imagined a patch of light somewhere in the sky outsider. Within seconds I reappeared in the middle of the wide expanse of blue sky shimmering under the rays of the sun. By moving the wind currents to propell me forward, I began to fly.  

I was free.  

________

love y'all for reading! Celeste and Priya are my besties as well as kind, funny people! byeee