Page 25 of Celestia, Year Four

"Some time passed, and many anticipated a new Heir to be chosen, but it never happened. We waited and waited, until a temporary Council that included me was voted in. Many of the older shifters who approved of the King-Queen system wereoutraged by the Council formation but would give it a chance due to my presence. We all assumed this was the punishment Mother Nature had brought down upon us due to Sia's passing, which was labeled as a murder of royalty. Even though we'd gathered as much evidence as we could, we didn't have enough to point the finger directly at the individuals who'd plotted everything. In the end, they got exactly what they wished for; the same individuals who'd conspired for the death of my daughter sat around the roundtable of power and I couldn't do anything."

"Nothing? But you knew it was them," I argued.

"I knew it was them because they openly declared it within our meeting room. The problem was, a new rule was created that nothing could be repeated outside of the meeting room walls. Someone could admit to murdering my daughter, and I could not tell a soul back then, or I'd be exiled from the Council. I was the only one with the good intentions of trying to bring back peace to our lands and the remaining Council members knew it. They decided to do everything they could to try to make me voluntarily drop out, including the admission of plotting the events that lead to Sia's death."

She was quiet for a moment, looking like she needed time to gather the next part of the story.

"I couldn't let Sia's death go to waste. Even when I felt like giving up, I'd see her in my dreams and she'd tell me it was okay for me to let go. Every time she did that, I worked harder to not be brought down by their attempts. They realized after a few years that I wasn't going to back down. During that period, Forsaken had grown at an alarming rate, and the people of Darkness were sought out and killed endlessly. No matter what the other Princes said or did to stop the targeting and slaying, the High Council had final say, and I always lost when it came down to voting. Everyone knew I was doing my best, but one against six others left me at a huge disadvantage. I had to watchthem continue to do everything Sia had tried to prevent, and it was becoming too much for me."

She took a deep breath and lifted her gaze to meet ours.

"I decided it was time for me to drop out, but the Council members had other plans. I'd spent the night with my husbands, all seven of them, and had left early to give my resignation, but I'd felt a bit off. Like something was wrong. It was still very early in the morning and I decided to return home to talk with my men about the weird feeling in my gut. I returned to my home engulfed in flames… and heard the last screams of my husbands who were trapped in the building."

I forgot to breathe as I gawked at her, unable to get one word out. "What… they killed… your men?! Your husbands!”

Odion squeezed my hand hard, and I turned to see the anger in his light lilac eyes that were slowly shifting to pure white.

"How dare they..." Odion seethed and Esme gave us a sad smile.

"They tried everything. Mocked me, belittled me, tried multiple times to ruin my reputation. What better way to get to me than by destroying the little bit of happiness I had left?" Her tears fell down her cheeks again and she shook her head.

"They didn't deserve to die. They were completely innocent and hadn't interfered at all. We lived happilytogether and were all just waiting for death. They weren't supposed to die that way. Mother Nature wouldn't reward her Princes' struggles with a horrible death like that. That pushed me to the edge, and I was ready to expose them for the scum they were, but they figured that would happen. Before I could leave the scene, they ambushed me and took me away. They tortured me for days, spreading word around that I'd died in the fire with my men. After they had enough of me… beating me, abusing me, everything they could think of to make me feel utterly hopeless,they threw me into the tainted forest to be food for the Forsaken."

I had to hold back a sob, and Momo pulled back from Esme to look my way. "BiBo!"

Wiggling out of Esme's hold, Momo hopped onto the bed and waddled all the way over to me. She crawled into my lap and lifted her hands up. "BiBo!"

I smiled and whimpered, using my free arm to wrap around Momo and lifted her up into a one arm hug. "Thank you, Momo."

"BiBiBiBi." She began her calming singing and I looked back to Esme who wiped away her tears.

"You can guess what happened next. My death was evident, but my resolve to survive was far too strong for me to be judged. I arrived here and was one of the first beings of the Dark World. After some time of mourning my husbands and daughter and getting through the thoughts of being a failure, I decided to make it my duty to protect those who arrived here. I built this home with magic and created a little city in the many years that passed. No one came for a long time until a young male arrived. He's out patrolling, but you'll get to meet Aaron later. Soon after him came Momo, and then Odion. We haven't had anyone enter this section of the vast world since then, but there is another city not too far from us. That is where it seems more souls are entering into the Dark World. My intention was to travel and locate them, maybe get an estimate of how many there were, but I've stayed here to make sure Aaron, Odion, and Momo are okay and to protect the land. It's not like Forsaken, or anything else for that matter, can do wrong or destruction in this World, but I can't ignore my duty. I feel if I leave..."

"You'll lose this place?" I finished.

She smiled and nodded. "Yup."

"Then… wait. What happened to the other Princes?" I asked.

"Ah..." She looked even sadder than before. "After Sia had died, the six Princes made an oath, begging Mother Nature to grant them a chance to be with Sia one day. They each used their magic to strengthen the oath and went their separate ways. It wasn’t long after Sia's death that the other Princes were found dead."

"Dead?!" I exclaimed.

"They… didn't..." Odion trailed off when Esme sighed.

"Sia was the connector of elements. Without her, the elements were lost. One by one, the Princes died. Whether it was in their bedroom, at the bottom of a cliff, their remains found in an abandoned forest, or their body washed up on shore. The Moon and Sun Princes were found dead after an eclipse, and the Princes of Light and Dark were the last ones left. Some say Light went to see Dark one last time, but no one knows what was discussed between them. Even with the world trying to separate them, they were still close, and the Prince of Light still defended Dark, even before his death. His body was found lying next to the Sia's grave. Lucian was the last one, but the problem was, he couldn't die."

"Why not?" Odion and I asked in unison.

"After the discovery of the Prince of Light's death, the Council feared Dark would be next. They assumed if he died, his people would go on a rampage and send thousands of Forsaken across the lands. They sent a peacemaker to the Kingdom of Darkness to see Lucian, expressing their desire to make peace. Lucian accepted the guest, but later found out that the Fae had cast a strong spell on him, one that very few shifters in existence could accomplish."

"Eternal life?" Odion gasped in shock and I glanced to Esme who nodded.

"Once a spell like that is cast, in exchange, it takes the remaining years of the individual who cast the spell. By the timeLucian realized this and sent his people to capture the Fae, it was too late. She was found dead halfway back to the Kingdom of Nature," Esme concluded.

"There's no way of breaking it?" I questioned. "There has to be an antidote."

"To break the curse of Eternal Life requires the affected individual to either find new love or to receive a kiss from their current or previous lover."

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