"Sassy this is Ignis, Ignis this is Sassy. The friend I was talking about." I introduced them to each other after arriving in Hailec's place.
"Hi! It's nice to meet you Ignis!" Sassy greeted cheerfully.
"Hi, it's nice meeting you too, Señorita," Ignis responded shyly.
"Woah there! I'm no royalty, okay? Sassy is fine." Sassy corrected.
"Okay, Sassy," Ignis said still a little awkward with Sassy's enthusiasm.
"I've prepared your rooms," Hailec said after appearing all of the sudden.
"Kimean!" Sassy called out as he followed Hailec inside the house.
"I thought his name was Hailec?" I asked Ignis after realizing that Sassy was talking about the baylan.
"Only a few one's knew that the real name of the Punong Baylan is Kimean Hailec Ledesma. And very few are given the privilege to call him with that name. I think your friend holds a special spot in his life now." She said and gestured me to follow the two first.
"Sassy," Hailec's warning tone welcomed us, as we enter his living room.
"But I want to stay with them!" Sassy said pouting.
"It's dangerous for a mundane to stay in a room with the Fantasians." He said not looking at my friend.
"I've slept with Fhyra a thousand times before!" Sassy insisted.
Ignis and I exchange glances. It's been a while since we came here, and yet they were too busy to notice us.
"Fhyra is a special case!"
"Hello? I'm here!" I interrupted after hearing them mentioning my name. They both turned around to face us.
Sassy glared at him before she ran towards us and clings her arms around mine and Ignis'.
"I'll be staying with them tonight. It's girls night!" she said not minding Hailec's disapproving look.
"Don't worry. My persona is as weak as a muranda." Ignis guaranteed him with a smile.
I just learned about that from my lessons too. Staying with Fantasians for a long time was critical for normal people. Especially the Flamias and Glacias, it's because our personas use their body temperature to gain more energy.
Now that I've thought of this. Why does mom and dad allow her to stay over and sleep with me? Is it somehow connected to her being a guardian? Or were they aware of Sassy being one of my guardians as well?
"I told you it's a girl's night tonight!" Sassy whined when she opened the door.
We were busy listening to Igris' stories about the various 'types' of Fantasians, when we heard a knock on the door.
"Oh! You're here?" I heard Sassy said with a hint of surprise.
I tilted my head a little to see who was at the door since I don't feel any presence aside from Hailec, Sassy, and Ignis.
My eyes bulged and I stood up almost immediately and headed towards the door.
I heard Sassy gasped when she saw me rushing towards Cool. I buried my face on his broad chest.
I felt him circled his arms around me and gently massage the back of my head. I started sobbing immediately, I felt like all my pent up emotions came rushing out of my eyes.
He swept my feet off the ground and carried me inside the room, he sat on the sofa bed and place me on his lap, then I heard the door close later on.
I also felt the presence of the three people left the room as well.
"Shhh... I'm sorry." He kept on whispering while he continued gently caressing my hair.
"You-you l-left m-me." I was struggling in completing the words I wanted to say.
"I didn't. I was always around you." He said.
"No. L-liar." I stubbornly said and buried my face in the crook of his neck.
"Am not." He whispered gently.
"I just needed to stay out of everyone's eyes for your safety." He clarified. I put a small distance between us, enough for me to look at his face.
"Why?" I asked.
"One of the members of the Royalties is a darkess. I needed to be out of the picture to investigate about that." He said while wiping the tears that stained my face.
He then stared directly at my eyes.
"I also found out about the telepathy thing." My interest was piqued after hearing his words.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I needed to contact the Glaciers' librarian for help though." He said and put the stubborn hair strands of mine behind my ears.
"We also have the book of prophecy in our library, it turned out that the book the Flamis had isn't complete." He continued, I was just listening to him attentively.
"There's another page after the part we had read. And it specifies that there are four guardians, one for each tribe of flamis, glaciers, baylans and mundanes."
"So Sassy was really a guardian?" He nodded, confirming.
"I also looked into that, Sassy came from the line of the few people who were aware of the Narte Fantasia." My mouth gaped when I heard about my friends' ancestral history.
"That's one of the reasons why her mother and your parents allowed you two to hang out."
"But isn't it dangerous for her to be around fantasians for a long time? She's still a mundane, after all." I asked him.
"Since they were the only mundanes who were aware of our existence, they were given a gift. In able to help us, they were immune to our personas, meaning our presence isn't crucial for them unlike for normal people." He explained.
I nodded when I finally caught on the idea.
"So going back, there are four guardians for the fated savior and one of them is the fated shield. The one with the strongest connection to the savior."
"And you are that fated shield?" I concluded.
"That's my and our librarian's conclusion." He honestly answered.
He remained silent after that. He just let me absorbed the informations. I already returned on my original position which was sitting on his lap, my hand around his shoulders, and my face on the crook of his neck.
I felt comfortable.
I felt home.
"Ignis said the guardias took you that night. Where did they take you?" I asked when I remembered what happened the night before he disappeared.
"Blaze took me." I immediately distanced myself to face him.
"What? Did he hurt you—" I was cut off when he started chuckling.
"What's funny?" I asked a little bit irritated by his reaction.
"You've been barking on the wrong tree, Princess." He said which brought me more confusion.
"All of this was Blaze's idea." He said which made my jaw drop.
"Before your arrival here in Narte Fantasia, Blaze already had a hunch that there's a mole within the Royalties and he was right. The moment you came, the suspected mole acted more suspicious." Cool stabilized my position on his lap and he rounded his arms around the small of my back to my waist before he continued."Remember Duchness Ardor?" He asked and looked at me questioningly.I tried to recall who he was referring to but nothing came into mind, so I just shook my head to tell him that I don't."Remember the lady who suggested to send me back to the glaciers? You burned her clothes." He said and it was with his last sentence that I remember the middle-aged lady who screamed like a banshee after having her dress set on fire."Oh, yeah. I remember. Wait. Don't tell me she was the mole?" I inquired in which he responded with a nod."Yeah. She is.""Wow! The darkess did a great job sending an idiot as a mole." I said both a little disappointed and amused."After being taken by the Gu
"Wow!" I heard Sassy gasped as soon as we step foot on the opening of the Kabisera."Don't go too far away from us." Hailec reminded her."Yes, sir," Sassy answered together with a playful salute."Ignis, are you okay? Are you comfortable?" I asked her when I realized how quiet she is."Yeah. Don't worry. I just missed walking around here." She answered with a smile."Why? You haven't been here for a while?" I asked, my forehead creasing from curiosity."As soon as I entered the palace, it was too hard to go outside. It was a rule made by the queen since she found out that an insider helped Princess Blare escaped before." I wanted to feel pity for her, being unable to go to places she used to go to, but I knew that's the last thing she wanted right now."That's fine with me though. Don't worry." She said with a smile."I'll just look around for a while," she said and started to blend in with the crowd."Sassy!" we heard Hailec called out and immediately followed my friend who looks lik
I can still hear the screams and shrieks of the fantasians behind the wall where we are currently hiding.'Would the others be alright?' I worriedly asked him with my mind.He tilted his head to face me.'Don't worry. They'll be fine.' He said and gave me an assuring smile before peeking once again on whatever was happening behind the wall.I was pinned against the wall, Cool's body against mine, I can feel his hands on my waist.I didn't know how long it takes before the disturbing screams of terror started to die down until there was nothing left but silence.A dreading and eerie silence.'Stay here.' He ordered as he tried to check the area before he came back to get me.I felt my stomach turned upside-down, I instantly felt the urge to vomit.The lively and crowded Kabisera was now filled with dead fantasians on the ground. The disgusting scent of blood lingers on the air.I immediately thought of my friends and hurriedly scanned the place for any sign of life.My eyes glowed when
The very next day, Queen Feu immediately sent Blaze and a few guardias to come and fetch Ignis and me at Hailec's house."The Queen is worried about Princess Fhyra's safety, since your home is quite near in the Kabisera. I hope the punong baylan won't take it negatively if we ask the Princess and her muranda to come back to the palace?" Blaze respectfully told Hailec who was seated on the couch on the receiving area of his house.It's a good thing that his house was huge. We were quite startled to see Blaze and the guardias early this morning.Seeing Cool here would be a little understandable but seeing a mundane like Sassy here?So we needed to mask her presence in case the others would notice and Hailec hid her somewhere inside the house.Ignis, on the other hand finally gained consciousness this morning as well and Hailec assured me that she was fine.So here we are, facing Blaze and the five guardias sent by Queen Feu."It's not that I held it against the Queen, since I do understa
"No! I'll be draining you if I do. No, I wouldn't do it." I said in a firm and determined voice."No, you won't. You won't let yourself drain me. You can do it." Cool said encouraging me.I tried to focus once again but every time I started to feel his energy creeping into my body, I immediately
I don't know if a one week stay at the punong baylan's house was too long, but stepping inside the Flamis Palace once again feels foreign now."Good morning, Princess Fhyra!" The murandas that lined up by the gate of the palace greeted in unison.I throw a glance at Ignis who was standing behind me and gave her a meaningful look. She suddenly nodded, curtly bowed, and left the place in a hurry to do what I ask her to do before we left Hailec's home.I faced the people confidently and made my way towards the Queen's quarters to give my greetings and let her know about my return.Although we're not in good terms she's still the queen and my grandmother, just like what Cool said.'Cool?' I called out in mind.It took him a few more minutes to respond.'I'm here.' I almost sigh in relief when I heard him talkback on my mind.'Just go to my room. He'll be there soon.' I told him pertaining to Blaze.Before we left Hailec's house, I asked Ignis to immediately find the count and told him to g
"Cool!" I called out in irritation. He just couldn't take that smirk off on his face."Stop it!" I hissed and the lava flowing inside the fountain suddenly overflowed."Shit! Okay! Okay! I'll stop!" He said when he saw what happened.I willed myself to relax, a few moments later the lava stopped boiling and Cool's anxious face faded.I heard him gave out a sigh of relief before I felt the other side of my bed move a little."You know, we should do something about that temper of yours." He said as he lies beside me.I snorted and scolded him for teasing me about the count."Maybe he genuinely likes you?" I creased my head with his words."I don't think so. Maybe he just likes the idea of having a princess as his future wife.""But what if he really likes you?" I rolled my eyes with his persistence."That would be impossible. We barely knew each other, I've been nothing but rude to him so, no. Impossible."I thought he will have another set of his witty comebacks but I receive silence in
"We need to divert the attention of the whole kingdom." Cool answered with a very serious expression on his face."And how are we supposed to do that?" I asked eagerly."Kidnap the princess." He said nonchalantly.I was rendered speechless, I had to blink a lot of times to check if I heard him right.I was still in dazed when my eyes landed on Ignis' stunned expression.She cleared her throat for a while before she faced Cool with a serious face as well."You can't do that. The whole palace would be in chaos." She said."And that's the result we're actually aiming for. If the princess is missing all the trials at court would be halted. This would give the punong baylan enough time to look for more evidence." Cool explained.Ignis still looked hesitant about the plan. But I trust Cool, I know he wouldn't have this risky plan unless there is no other choice.I grasped Ignis' hands to assure her."I would be alright. If this would be the only way to save Sassy. We must do it." I said dete