Emerelda lay down as Emmett sat on the wood chair next to the book. He held the leather book in his hands, his reading spectacles low at the bridge of his nose as he narrowed down at the words. She was staring at him with her head turned waiting. His finger ran back and forth reading the page.
"I've read these books many times now," Emmett mumbles, "But it's better to rememorize just in case."
"I haven't gotten all day."
He looked up from his glasses and gave her a look, "Don't rush me." He continued rereading the page and finally he slammed the book shut, "Alright, let's get started."
Emerelda murmurs a "Finally," and turned her head to face the ceiling, "What do I have to do first?"
"Close your eyes," he instructs, she did. She taps her fingers on top of her hand that was on top of her stomach.
"Now, before we begin, you should understand you are against your subconscious, a part of you that is a block of your power. The book didn't state it as it's quite old, but I assume that part is from trauma and fear."
She nods, "I understand."
"To get to that part of your block, there's no spell or magic. It's all you. I assume you already know how to get there. When we try focusing, you mention your brother appearing. This time, you have to face your brother without opening your eyes up and complaining."
She opens her eyes and mouth but Emmett snapped, "Eyes closed!" she grumbles under her breath and returned to closing her eyes.
"We must focus, Emerelda. When I mean focus, I mean dig deep within you and find that block. That reason. That past person inside of you. You must…." His voice trailed off.
No, his voice grew quiet. She couldn't hear him anymore. She couldn't feel the bed underneath her, nor the pillows. Instead she was walking in darkness. She looked around, nothing but the dark. She started running, unsure where she was heading, though trying to escape. Anxiety started creeping in her, making her feel trapped.
Until she bumped into her brother.
He looked down at her with a smile and held her elbows, steadying her. She reached out and hugged him, his strong arms hugging her back. She smelt his familiar royal musk. She started crying, not believing he was standing here alive.
"Floyd," she gasps through sobs, "Floyd I'm so sorry. Please, please don't hate me!"
"Hate you? Emerelda how can I ever hate you?" Emerelda looked up, and he grins, blood pouring from his mouth, "You didn't kill me."
She screams. She stepped back, and it was the same person she would always see. The prince shirt wet and bloody, a large wound at the center of his chest as if he got pierce through, blood gushing from it. He was chocking on his own blood that rushed from his mouth with saliva.
Her hand went to her mouth and she kept backing away from him as she usually would do. He would smile and stand there, the ground becoming crimson from all the blood.
"Face your brother." Emmett's voice echoed around.
She stops and stood still. Her brother opened his arms for her. He was smiling wide, his blue eyes sprinkling.
She realized she was viewing him wrong.
He was fine. One part of her would make her look at him in this state, however underneath that all she now saw that he wasn't miserable, he wasn't angry at her. As she walked back to him, the blood started to disappear and his normal self appeared slowly as if it was erasing itself.
"Floyd…" she whispers standing in front of him again.
He smiled, all the blood gone from his smooth skin, "I told you, don't stop. Don't stop focusing on my true self." He wiped her tears from her cheeks and nodded behind her, "Go, someone is waiting for you."
She turned around and suddenly she was in her chamber. She turned to find Floyd gone, and a girl sitting on her bed. She wore a blue dress, flower designs on it making her seem fragile and sweet. Their skin was as pale as Vivian was, pale as the fresh snow that came after autumn.
She frowned, the girl was her. It was her thirteen years old self looking down at her hands. She didn't bother to look at her old chamber and went straight to the girl sitting alone with only three candles for light.
She stood looking down at the red head. Her hair was long here, braided down her back. A small crown sat on top, indicating her status. It was made from gold, green emeralds circling around the gold band with small diamonds circling each emerald.
She reached to touch her shoulder when the girl reached and held onto Emerelda's hand. She looked up, her green eye tinted red. Her cheeks dry from tears. She glared at Emerelda, her lips curling back.
"You!" she snarls.
Emerelda tried to remove her hand from her grasp though her thin hands held onto her strong around her wrist, "What-stop it, let go of me!" Emerelda yells.
"How can I let go of the very person who made me like this!" she screams.
Emerelda twisted her arm, but no luck, "I- I don't know what you're talking about!"
The girl stood up and pushed Emerelda. She flew back and bumped her head on her dresser. The back of her head started tingling until it started throbbing. She blinks the blurriness away trying to focus on the advancing girl that marched towards her.
"Stop," Emerelda said weakly, "Leave me alone."
"Leave you alone?" she arrived looking down at Emerelda with pure hate, "You wanted this for yourself!"
Emerelda frowns, "How…" she gulps down the pain that was screaming at the back of her head, "How can I help?"
The girl looked shock. She stumbles back hugging herself. She looked utterly confused, "Help? You…want to help me?"
Emerelda used her hands to help herself up. Once she was at full height, her head spinning, she raised her hands to show no harm, "You look in a need for help."
The girl hugged herself tighter looking down at her small blue heels, she kept walking backwards slowly, "But-but you did this? How can you fix me?"
Emerelda slowly approaches her, "What have I done?" she questions warily.
She looked up from her lashes, "You stopped using your gift. You stopped because Floyd is a non-gifter. He's the best then everyone in almost everything despite not having a gift. You wanted to be like him." Her head looked up, "You wanted to be just like him because he had it easy. Papa loves him more then you, the only gifted child he has. Floyd was always praised by everyone. He was always the light of everyone."
Emerelda understood what she was trying to say, "I was…jealous."
The girl froze, "Yes, that's it. You were. You stopped using your gift because no one treated you the way they did toward Floyd. That's why you kept your gift silent until now….until Mama died."
Emerelda stopped walking. Warm fresh tears rolled down her cheeks, "No one wanted to believe me. Even when I told them I could hear all their voices."
The girl was crying too, "They negated you. Ignored you."
They were standing at the center of the chamber, inches away from one another, both hugging themselves crying. They were a mirror of one another, both past Emerelda and future Emerelda standing right in front of another in their chamber, the place where they kept to themselves away from the other's eyes.
"They thought I was lying, until they tested me…" she murmurs remembering, "They tested me and thought it was too late for me, they didn't bother to train me as they thought I wasn't capable on doing so. They thought of me as a child stuck in a place of fiction. They couldn't see that I was trapped in a place of sorrow."
The girl took a shaky breath, "Can you help me?"
Emerelda nods. She understood what was to be done. She went to her dresser and searched in the drawers. Finally she found what she was looking for and paused. She looked at herself in the mirror and the chamber that reflected in it. She saw her true self, the person she was right now. The person she had become. She was the person who understood her past feelings, her past sadness, and her past thoughts.
She turned back and walked without hesitation towards the girl who stood waiting. She placed a hand on her small shoulders and took a deep breath. The girl nods gently and Emerelda stabs her in her chest with the dagger she found from her drawers.
The girl gasps and smiles, "Thank you. Thank you for freeing me."
She started to dissolve. She watched herself disappear into nonexistence. Just like what she saw in the mirror. She saw the whole chamber in the reflection, but the girl who was standing behind her waiting.
And finally, her past self was gone.
Emerelda glanced down at her hands, and at the dagger in her hand. Oddly it had no blood on it, it was clean, and she could see her reflection in it. When Emerelda looked up, she was in the secret room again, except the piano that was from upstairs was downstairs in the center of the room. Playing the piano was the one and only Emmett Jackson. He was playing with his head raised, without looking down.
He looked freshen up. His tangle hair was combed back revealing more of his face, though a single black strand fell between his eyebrows. He wore his normal uniform, a white shirt, the first half of the buttons open. Except his light skin had more color to it, his cheeks slightly pink, so was his lips.
Emerelda strides over to him slowly, and his gold large eyes followed every movement. His eyes, the color brighter than a lion, held an actual emotion. They touched his smile on his lips. They seemed human, he seemed human.
"Emerelda," he murmurs her name sweetly.
She arrived next to him, watching his fingers glide effortlessly on the keys. They were long and touching the keys softly. She wanted to sit on the velvet chair however, she hesitates.
"Emmett?" she asks.
He tilts his head, "Yes?"
"What are you playing?"
For once he looked down at his fingers, his brows furrowed a little. "Hmm," he looked back at her, "I'm not sure."
She frowned, "Why are you here?"
"I guess…I'm your only hope." He laughs gently. He nods to the spot next him, "Listen."
She sat down, "Listen to…?"
He leaned close to her, "To the power."
Before she could as what he meant, she heard a worried voice at the back. She was jerked back; everything blurry, and abruptly she felt hands shaking her. She opened her eyes with a start, sitting on a bed. She was trying hard to grasp for air. She even coughed a few times.
Someone sighed next to her, and she turned her head to find Emmett right next to her. He had his knee on the bed, his hands on her shoulders. "Oh thank goodness." He said in relief.
She blinks looking around her and finding that she was sitting in a dark bedroom. "Where-where am I?" It was silent, except a voice that seemed to come near her.
Emmett froze, "Do you remember?"
She saw that outside the window was dark into night. She tried hard to remember where she was, and what had happened. All she could remember was her brother, herself, and Emmett… the pianist.
She quickly looks back at him. The voice was loud and clear, she could hear it in her head.
"If she forgot the past events, what the bloody hell am I supposed to do? Start over?" he regards her, "No, no, that wouldn't be the case. She remembers who I am…does she? Why is she staring at me like that? Perhaps she only remembers everything but today. Yes, yes that might be the case."
"No," she shook her head, "I remember everything now." She confirms.
Emmett froze again, staring at her as if she grew a head. "Jesus Christ, did…did she hear me?"
Emerelda frowns, "I could hear you."
Until she realized he wasn't moving his lips.
She yells, and he did as well right at the same time.
He jumped back, pointing at her with a frightened look on his face, "You-you can fully hear my thoughts!"
Emerelda was on her knees, "I-I can! I can hear everything you had just thought!"
Emmett eyes grew large, gasping really loud, "Oh my sweet lord, it worked!"
She stood on top of the bed, "It did!" she grins.
His hand went to his mouth, "You were suffocating for air. I thought perhaps you couldn't do it and that was a side effect. That was why I shook you to wake up before…well…before you died."
Emerelda had her own hands on her mouth, "Wasn't it the afternoon we did this? What time is it?"
Emmett looked at the window, then back at her, "Perhaps almost nine."
"Nine!" she exclaimed.
"Please, get down from the bed. You're intimidating me."
She did, and Emmett nods, still a little startled, "Good."
"Now, what's next?" she questioned excited.
Emmett grins, "Now, you must move into the next step of your training, mind and swords dancing in one song."